The Bloomingburg Village Board opened a public hearing Monday night on a request by four property owners to shift their lots from the R1 residential zone to the Neighborhood Business District, a move that would permit denser housing and commercial use of the properties. No action was taken because the village had not yet heard back from Sullivan County on the matter. But in similar instances, the county often leaves the decision up to the municipality, Mayor Russell Wood, Jr., said.

The properties are all on North Road, north of and on the same side of the street as Village Hall. One of the lots, which includes a single-family house, is owned by village Trustee Chaim Freidman, and he recused himself from any participation in the matter. A two-family house sits on another of the lots and a third lot, where the Community Church once stood, is vacant. The fourth property is a long, narrow strip of land used as a road to reach the houses on two lots. It’s a weird piece of property, Wood said, that’s been “like that for a hundred years.”

Only one person spoke at the hearing, asking if the board has made any progress on updating the village’s master plan. That plan could include amending the code for the R1 zone to permit multi-unit housing but not commercial enterprises. Wood said the update has stalled because revising the R1 zone brought up other issues that could lead to overhauling the entire master plan, last done in 2005, and that would cost tens of thousands of dollars.

The board kept the hearing open and the public will get another chance to comment on the zoning change at the July 11 village board meeting. The village should also have a reply from Sullivan County by then, Wood said.

The board held a second public hearing, actually a do-over of one addressing the contract with Spectrum, which provides cable service in the village. The state Public Service Commission ruled that the first hearing was held a day shy of the required timing between the public notice of the hearing and the hearing itself. No one spoke at the Spectrum hearing. The new agreement is for 15 years. The village receives about $8,800 a year from Spectrum for allowing the company to serve the village, Wood said.

During the mayor’s report, Wood said the new five-year contract with JCO Environmental Services, Inc., the company that runs the municipal sewer system, has been completed. The new contract gradually raises the monthly fee from the current $5,800 to $8,500. Freidman had objected to the company’s right to terminate the agreement with a 60-day notice. The revised agreement requires JCO to give notice 120 days before ending the deal. The extra time is valuable, Wood said, because not many companies do the work, and the more time to find an alternate operator the better.

New bank in town

At 9 a.m. Monday, NorthEast Community Bank opened a new branch at the corner of Main Street and Winterton Road. The building had been vacated by Citizens Bank, one of three banks to abandon the village over a handful of years. NorthEast extensively renovated the building before moving in.

Ken Martinek, chairman and CEO of the bank’s parent, Northeast Community Bancorp, said the doors opened without any fanfare. “We’re not into ribbon cutting,” he said in a phone conversation. He said the first morning was slow but by the afternoon more people stopped by, some of whom opened accounts. The branch has six employees, including the manager, banking veteran Ralph Capella, who is also a vice president. Three of the employees are from the immediate area, Martinek said. For now the bank is open every day except Saturday. Martinek said some of NorthEast’s 11 branches are open seven days a week, and Bloomingburg’s could eventually open on Saturday.

NorthEast, now headquartered in White Plains, was founded in Manhattan and still has branches in the city, along with Rockland, Orange and now Sullivan counties, in addition to three branches in the Boston region. The bank has $1.3 billion in deposits, and has never closed a branch, Martinek said. People like the personal touch, he said, explaining why the bank maintains a strong brick-and-mortar network.