Fifty Years Ago 3

Town of Rockland residents were concerned with unrestricted development in the town in which when problems arose, it was after the fact, and then hard to rectify. And rightly so. Just within the past year, the Swiss Forest development on Shandelee, consisting of 43 home sites on seven acres, had been experiencing septic system failures at many of the residences which allowed raw sewage to seep into the waters of Sand Pond. Homeowners in that development had little recourse except petition the town officials and bring suit against the developer. The Department of Environmental Conservation, only a year into its creation after being reorganized from the Conservation Department, had yet to become the steward of New York State water quality. As with its predecessor, the word conservation in that agency’s title still meant little more than managing wildlife and game. Concerned Rockland residents, at the June 17, 1971 town board meeting, initiated legal actions against the town as well as the developers.