BLOOMINGBURG – In the months since independent contractor and private developer Duane Roe first proposed a service station and contractors' yards for property he owns by Exit 115 off the Quickway, he's retooled the idea that would have taken some zoning shifts to fit what's allowable. He's got a multi-home development of senior citizen housing in the works, ready to enter review processes. With the spot originally planned for that service station left empty (see images on page 11).

Roe's also cooled down from the anger he felt when a local protest movement against cronyism in the Town of Mamakating shifted from talk about the zoning along highway exits to an already-started mega-development going up on property he had once spent time planning for high end estates and a golf club.

The former planning board member and town supervisor is quick to speak about the way issues get confused in local politics, and people can get provoked into public action by innate fears, as occurred with the Shalom Lamm development that many said was designed to draw Orthodox Jewish settlers to the area. And his own histories having gotten muddled into people's reactions to what he labels as pure zoning issues... as well as a deeply flawed Mamakating Master Plan, designed at the end of the booming 1990s, that he feels is now out of date.

Roe pointed out some in the community for stirring up animosity, but expressed particular disappointment with fellow Republicans on the town and village board for getting swayed by public opinion... and not always doing "what's best for the town in the long run." "Maybe it's time the town just takes a fresh look at things like its master plan, and who's in charge," Roe said, seated in his pickup on the edge of his yet-to-be-developed Exit 115 property. "Hopefully, we can get a well-balanced candidate or three who don't just want to put a chain around the town and lock it up."

Could it be that the next round of village and town political races have gotten their first fires lit?

(Part 2 of a Two Part series)