— Nicole Fay Barr

ALTAMONT — The village’s search for water, Michael and Nancy Trumpler’s agreement to provide it, and developer Jeff Thomas’s desire to tap into the supply has resulted in a lawsuit triangle.

Paul Wein, Thomas’s lawyer, told The Enterprise yesterday that, since the Trumplers haven’t dropped their lawsuit against the village of Altamont by the June 1 deadline he set, Thomas will likely file a multi-million dollar suit against them.
"The village is free to sell water to anyone they want to," Wein said. "If I sell you my car, should I care who uses it" It’s silly and just plain wrong."

The Trumplers do not plan on dropping their suit. Their lawyer, Michael Englert, said it’s their right to use the judicial system.
"Apparently Mr. Wein believes my clients are not entitled to use the judicial system to obtain a clarification on the validity of a document," Englert told The Enterprise Wednesday.

The couple owns land on rural Brandle Road outside the village where Altamont drilled and found water. The Trumplers signed a contract last year, agreeing to sell about five acres, with the wells, to the village.

A few months later, the Guilderland Town Board re-zoned land on Brandle Road, just outside the village, for Thomas to build a senior housing complex; the village promised Thomas water then, even though it had a moratorium on granting water outside village limits.

The Trumplers were upset because earlier they had to scale back plans for a place for Nancy Trumpler’s elderly mother to live because of town zoning. They also said they had been told that their well would be used only for water in the village.

In March, the Trumplers filed papers in Albany County Supreme Court to have a judge decide whether the village’s contract for the five-acre site is legal and binding; they sought no money from the village.

The village responded by filing counterclaims, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars, against the Trumplers. The Enterprise reported on this on April 28.

In a letter dated May 24, Wein wrote to Englert that he had read Nancy Trumpler’s comments, in the April 28 Enterprise, about her discontent with Thomas’s re-zone and the village agreeing to provide Thomas water.
"I...believe that your client’s actions constituted a tortuous interference with contract intending to prevent the construction of this senior housing project proposed for Brandle Meadows. It is therefore our intention, that unless this lawsuit is discontinued on or before June 1, 2005, that Mr. Thomas will commence an action against the Trumplers seeking damages....in the multi-million dollar range..."

Wednesday morning, Englert and the village’s attorney, E. Guy Roemer, were to meet with Judge Cathryn Doyle to discuss the litigation. They met with the judge’s law clerk instead, and both Englert and Roemer said that no decisions were made.
"It was not my intent to reach a resolution this morning," Roemer told The Enterprise Wednesday afternoon. He would not comment on Thomas’s threat to sue the Trumplers.
"The litigation is proceeding," Roemer said. "I’m not going to litigate this in The Enterprise."

The village’s mayor, James Gaughan, told The Enterprise Wednesday that he doesn’t know anything about Thomas’s plans to sue the Trumplers.
"Mr. Thomas has to do what he had to do," Gaughan said. "I have no control over actions that he takes. I just take note of it."

The village is moving forward, Gaughan said, trying to get water from the Trumplers. According to the village, the capacity of its current system, and the reliability of the system do not meet state Department of Health standards.

Contract dispute

The Trumplers problems with Altamont center on the village’s promising water to developer Thomas, who plans to build a senior-housing complex on Brandle Road, in Guilderland outside the village line. Thomas, as Brandle Meadows LLC, purchased the 15 acres from the Altamont Fair for $250,000.

In March of 2004, then-mayor Paul DeSarbo signed a contract with the Trumplers, who own 75 acres. The contract, with a 21-month option, states the village can buy a piece of land, not to exceed five acres, at $25,000 per acre.
Papers filed in Supreme Court state that the Trumplers were willing to allow the village to drill wells. This was based on the representation of the village, it states, and at no time did "officials indicate or suggest that the village was contemplating entering into an entrepreneurial enterprise to obtain additional supplies of water and then to sell surplus water to new developments located outside village boundaries."
The court papers also state that "the alleged option is null, void, and unenforceable," because it was never authorized by formal resolution of the village board of trustees. The papers also state there is no constitutional or statutory provision that authorizes a village to obtain or purchase water outside its territorial boundaries for sale.

Wein told The Enterprise that the Trumplers’ not wanting Thomas to have water is like saying, "Don’t sell water to people of color or Italian people. Either they want the village to sell water or they don’t. Why do they care who gets the water""
Asked if he thought the Trumplers’ not wanting Thomas to get water was personal, Wein said, "I can’t get inside the Trumplers’ minds. All I can go by is what I read in your paper."

Meanwhile, the village has been to Guilderland planning and zoning board meetings for a permit to drill the well. Questions were raised on whether the property is landlocked, however, and the village is scheduled to appear again at the June 8 planning board meeting.

The Trumplers this week revealed that water from their well — drilled as part of the village’s option to buy the five-acre well site — is polluted. (See related story.)

Rezone conflict

At a July 6 hearing packed with Thomas’s supporters, he presented plans to the Guilderland Town Board to develop 15 acres on Brandle Road with 80 housing units for seniors — increasing the density tenfold over what was allowed in an agricultural district.

Altamont had a moratorium on water going outside the village.
At the July 6 town board hearing, Thomas read a letter signed by DeSarbo stating, "The developer seeks village water and sewer services, a necessity to the project. The village can handle this, but will need to lift the moratorium on water service."

The village board had never voted on the matter. At the close of the hearing, the Guilderland Town Board approved re-zoning the Thomas parcel, circumventing its own moratorium on building in rural western Guilderland.

The town supervisor said at the time that the board’s decision was based, in part, on the DeSarbo letter indicating village water would be available.

In January, the Altamont village board voted unanimously to give Thomas water for his project over the objections of its engineer and its superintendent of public works, who urged waiting until the new water supply was secured. Thomas said his project would be dead unless he received approval that night.

The Enterprise wrote a Jan. 13 editorial pointing out the flaws in the process, and Thomas responded in a letter to the editor, publishing Jan. 20, stating, "...I will not allow this project to in any way jeopardize the village water supply. If, by the time I am ready to break ground, it cannot be substantiated that our project will not put at risk the village’s water supply, I will delay the groundbreaking until such time that it can."

The Trumplers were upset, they said at the time, because they had gone through planning and zoning meetings in Guilderland, trying to get permission to convert a barn on their property into a two-family home to accommodate Mrs. Trumpler’s elderly mother. Since this was not allowed in an agricultural district, they scaled back their plans to create an in-law apartment.

While Michael Trumpler made it clear in July he wasn’t against a senior-housing complex, he was against agricultural land in Guilderland being re-zoned.

The Trumplers hired a lawyer, Michael Englert, who said that Thomas’s re-zone may be challengable on several grounds. Town Supervisor Kenneth Runion disputed those grounds.

New suit"

Tuesday afternoon, Wein told The Enterprise that he had hoped the Trumplers would withdraw their lawsuit against the village.
"He’s concerned and disappointed for all the seniors," Wein said of Thomas. "A lot of people are counting on this development and now it’s being held up."

Wein consulted with Thomas after reading the April 28 Enterprise article about the Trumplers’ suing the village.
"The Trumplers were upset that Jeff Thomas got the re-zone and they didn’t," Wein said. "So, they didn’t want to sell him water...It’s very spiteful."

Wein recommended that Thomas think about suing the Trumplers, he said. They are interfering with a legally-binding contract, he said.
"He’d be suing for damages," Wein said of Thomas on Tuesday. "That’s millions of dollars...multi-millions of dollars, if the deal for the water falls through."
He went on, "I can’t believe they brought the lawsuit. They’re saying, ‘We don’t want to sell you water.’ That’s illegal."

Wednesday, Wein said that, although he must first talk to Thomas and Roemer, the village’s attorney, a suit against the Trumplers will likely be filed in the next few days.

In March’s village election, James Gaughan ousted DeSarbo and the Trumplers were hopeful that a resolution could be reached. Gaughan had talked with them, Nancy Trumpler said, and she felt he was reasonable and progress was being made.

On April 13, the Trumplers and their lawyer met with Gaughan and Roemer.

Last month, sources described the meeting this way: The village asked if the Trumplers would proceed in granting water to Altamont if the offer to give village water to Thomas were rescinded; the Trumplers said they would. Then Gaughan and Roemer adjourned to another room and, when they came back, Roemer said that, since Thomas had deep pockets and could afford court appeals, Roemer would rather take the chance of having the Trumplers sue.