Oorah summer camp planning to increase capacity

According to the Mountain Eagle, the on-going dispute between the Jefferson Town Board and Oorah's Jewish BoyZone summer camp got another airing at last week's Jefferson town meeting.

The paper reports that the camp is planning to expand its capacity by 100 beds, and that town Supervisor Dan Singletary argues that doing so would violate a Department of Environmental Protection permit for the camp:

[Singletary] referred to an April 15 letter from Young stating DEC had confirmed Oorah does not need DEC’s approval to change the sleeping capacity at the facility. Singletary in his response contends it would violate the SPDES permit and Oorah has modified the description of the action reviewed by SEQRA that limits the camp to 500 people. If this is true, Singletary stated the town needs to be notified by DEC.

Young’s letter indicates the sleeping capacity of the bunkhouses and lodge will be altered from five bunkhouses with 48 campers per bunkhouse to four bunkhouses with 96 campers per bunkhouse and one shul, reducing the number of campers in the two lodges from four to six campers/staff per room to three campers/staff per room. Sleeping capacity will be increased by 100 to 120 beds. During the six weeks of camp is the only time capacity may be reached.

Singletary is awaiting a response to his letter to Young.

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