WAWARSING – A concrete foundation — er, a patio, rather — was the basis of a brouhaha that erupted at last Thursday's town board meeting when Geiger Road resident Connie Wright asked about new construction activity on the site of a proposed shul at Camp Kasho at 99 Geiger Road.

A town planning board meeting on May 21 got heated over plans by DSG Holdings to build a 40-foot-by-88-foot shul there, to the point where one Camp Kasho official threatened that the town would "suffer" should their proposal not be approved. And when DSG Holdings asked for a decision within ten days, board members said they would not discuss the issue again until their next meeting June 18.

At the town board meeting Thursday, however, Wright, a neighbor of Camp Kasho, said that construction activity had begun on the site. Another neighbor, Nicole Bell, held up a stack of photos she took showing a large concrete slab. It appeared that metal forms for concrete pillars lined the perimeter of the slab, with a large crane poised above it. Other photos show workers chest-deep in the ground, working underneath the level of the slab.

Carlsen explained that a building permit was issued to DSG Holdings, but only for a patio.

Bell wasn't buying it.

"They're pouring the foundation for their shul," she told the board. "You guys told them they could do it because they'd sue you if you didn't. They couldn't wait three weeks for the next planning board meeting? Now they get a three-week head start on their synagogue."

She said this is just one example of the power that Orthodox Jewish-owned summer camps have over the town.

"There are camps around here that have a hundred outstanding building permits," accused Bell, who is the daughter of highway superintendent Tony Paes and of Barbara Paes, who is the secretary to the planning board and to the building department. "If you're letting all these Jewish people do it, I might as well become Jewish so I can do it. They should be shot down and stop work until they have the appropriate permits. If I have to be accountable to the town, they should be, too."

Carlsen said he would look into the issue.

The following day, town planning board members visited the site and agreed that what they saw appeared to be foundation footings and concrete pillars. But building inspector Bryant Arms said that was not the case.

"An agent of DSG Holdings asked if a permit would be required to install a patio at 99 Geiger Road on the location where the proposed shul would be located," Arms told this newspaper. "A patio, like sidewalks or similar landscaping, usually did not require a building permit. But the applicant explained that it was their intention to construct the patio according to the specifications for the foundation to the shul. The idea was to have a foundation ready for the shul when that becomes approved.

"I explained that an unpermitted patio cannot be used as a foundation because I could not be sure that it met proper specifications," Arms continued. "So of course I was invited to inspect the various stages of the patio's construction to verify that it would be built to certain specifications. I would not agree to do that unless a permit for the patio was obtained. That way my inspections would be official. So on May 31st I approved an application for a permit to construct the patio."

Arms said the "patio" is above footings and underground foundation walls. What appeared to be columns are in fact transportation racks for eight-foot-long modular concrete form panels, he added.

"Despite appearances from the road, the patio was being formed as expected using standard construction methods; therefore, I did not issue a stop work order for the patio as a result of those mistaken reports," Arms concluded. "The worst case scenario would be that the applicant would end up with a very expensive patio."