A change in leadership in the Village of Sharon Springs Code Enforcement Office has one businessman seeing red.
Jerry Weis, longtime CEO for the Town of Sharon, was named to replace Gene DiMarco in July.
Ron Ketelson, who owns and has been restoring the Roseboro Hotel since last summer, told Mayor Doug Plummer and trustees Thursday that his problem isn't with Mr. Weis, but rather with files and paperwork that he filed with Mr. DiMarco that have gone missing.
Mr. Ketelsen said he's now being asked to do things that were either done by the previous owners or that he's done-and provided the paperwork for-and has been told his certificate of occupancy might not be valid.
"The things I'm being asked for were in the file," Mr. Ketelsen said, "but no one can find them. I'm being asked to go back to square one. It's your responsibility. You had the files, you lost them."
Mr. Ketelsen said Mr. Weis has told him he can't accept copies of things like architectural plans-only the stamped originals-something he said will cost him time and money he's not willing to spend.
Mr. Ketelsen, Mr. Weis, and Joint Planning Board member Mary Ann Larkin have all combed the Codes office looking for the files, he said, but with no luck.
"If I have a CO, it should be valid," Mr. Ketelsen said, adding, "If my file is missing, I question what else is gone. This is a big problem for me."
Mr. Ketelsen said he was told by Mr. DiMarco that much of the work done by the previous owners would be grandfathered in, but now, he's being told that because the building was empty for more than a year after the Orchard Rose moved out in April 2014, that's not the case.
""I'm at a complete standstill and I'm losing time and money," he said. "I'll have a big, gross negligence suit against you."
Trustee Jeff White suggested they do another search for the missing files and sit down with Mr. Weis and Mayor Plummer, but Mr. Ketelsen isn't the only one with Codes concerns.
Ray Parsons, chair of the Joint Planning Board, said they've just realized they're using a copy of the village code dated 2007 when there was one rewritten in 2012 that they knew nothing about.
JPB members questioned whether the 2012 code was even valid or adopted and asked why they weren't involved in the rewrite.
Mayor Plummer characterized the changes as "tweaks," but JPB members said that doesn't really matter.
"There needs to be a process," said Ann Adams. "We don't know what the changes are...We may be working with a document that doesn't exist."
Mr. Parsons said again that the JPB should have been involved in the process-and a lot more involved in work by Mr. Ketelsen at the Roseboro and Sharon Springs Inc.
"We, the Planning Board, feel the Planning Board is not being a Planning Board for the village," he said.