Oorah Sues Town of Jefferson to Open New Gym to Campers

JEFFERSON - In a press release issued late Thursday afternoon, representatives of the New Jersey based Jewish charity Oorah announced that the organization has filed a lawsuit against the Town of Jefferson in order to secure the issuance of certificates of occupancy from the town's Building Inspector Keith Brooks. 

Oorah, which has summer camps in both the southern Schoharie County Towns of Gilboa and Jefferson, have alleged that Mr. Brooks has illegally withheld the certificates of occupancy for the recently built state of the art gymnasium on the property to deny the organization its rightful tax exemption. Campers wont be able to use the gym until the certificates are issued. 

Avraham Krawiec, Director of Oorah's TheZone camps, said that he believes, "It is unfortunate that we have been forced to the courts to resolve this issue," but he would later go on to add that, "At this point however, we have been stonewalled and mistreated for far too long. Time is of the essence in order to have this brand-new gym available for our campers who need it this summer."

The organization, which houses Jewish camp-age children from across the region in their two Schoharie County facilities, maintain that they have attempted to rectify the issue outside of the court system for years, but that both the town under former Supervisor Daniel Singletary and Mr. Brooks have actively resisted their efforts at every step of the process. 

Lamenting that, "It is truly a pity that we are being compelled to spend a charity's resources - time, money, and energy - on a matter which should have been simple," Krawiec viewed the situation positively that with a friendlier administration in place that, "we only hope that we can give our campers in Jefferson the same experience," as their counterparts in Gilboa.