All Ulster County Department of Social Services clients relocated from Rodeway Inn, town of Ulster officials say

TOWN OF ULSTER, N.Y. — The Ulster County Department of Social Services has relocated all of its clients from the Rodeway Inn, which town officials say will undergo persistent inspections until all 14 problems related to a faulty sewage treatment plant are resolved.

Ulster town Code Enforcement Officer Warren Tutt said during a Town Board meeting Thursday, May 18, that 30 county clients were moved out of the motel over a two-week period. Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger on Tuesday, May 2, ordered the Department of Social Services to remove its clients from the motel.

"At this time (county officials) have no indication of putting any future families or individuals there," he said.

Tutt had set a May 15 deadline for the site to discontinue renting rooms and to close a restaurant that also uses the treatment plant.

"I met with the owner of the hotel and informed him that if I do not receive communications from the (state Department of Environmental Conservation) clearing all violations on the sewage treatment system that, effectively, the hotel will be closed," he said.

In March, town officials responded to an odor complaint at Rodeway Inn. They turned the matter over to the county Health Department and the state after determining that the treatment plant was malfunctioning for the second time in 18 months. The state investigated the site on March 21, with the county waiting to take action until those findings were released five weeks later.

State officials found that a required water supply to the treatment plant was not working properly, a punctured screen was allowing objects to get into an aeration tank, and a screen on the system was not designed to standards. In addition, they found that a thick mat of grease and rags was on a secondary clarifier, there was green biological growth on the secondary clarifier, a scum arm was in poor condition, and there was grease in a sand filter while another sand filter had failed.

State officials also found that the chlorine feeder was in a hole and covered with plywood, and the final effluent was going through a channel where slime has formed and is turbid and odorous when discharged.

Tutt said there was also concern because untreated effluent has apparently overflowed from a retention pond. He said further expansion of overflow could send it down Forest Hill Drive.

Rodeway Inn is owned by Everest Hospitality. During a telephone interview Friday, site operator Mukesh Patel told the Freeman that work to correct the problems has been completed but added that engineers have told him more work may be necessary.

"Now the system is working properly," he said.

Patel added that "we need to fix some rooms so maybe it takes more time," but was not specific about the repairs that need to be done.

Tutt said monitoring of the site, which has not had a valid state sewage discharge permit since 2018, will begin next week.

"Starting Monday at 9 a.m. we will do a thorough inspection of every room and every outbuilding on the site to clear up any and all outstanding violations that may exist," Tutt said.

Sign up for email newsletters