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DUANESBURG
Hillcrest Mobile Home Park residents facing eviction
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

   Every time Ray Bergen steps out his front door, he gets a sense of how bad the septic problem is in Duanesburg’s Hillcrest Mobile Home Park.
   No matter the season, the smell of sewage wafts by the trailer he shares with his fiancee and three children. Even on sunny days, he said, the ground around his trailer remains moist with sewage leaching from the park’s septic system.
   “You can smell the septic daily,” he said Tuesday. “Sometimes it’s so strong you don’t even open your windows.”
   Conditions at the park have deteriorated enough that the state Department of Environmental Conservation has ordered Hillcrest and its more than 50 mobile homes vacated. Now, more than 100 residents are being ordered to move their homes or face eviction by April 2008, when the state has mandated the park stop its discharge of wastewater.
   Tests by the state Department of Health at the Western Turnpike property revealed the park’s wastewater treatment system is releasing effluent with a fecal coliform level more than four times the permitted level. These same tests, administered in November 2005, found the effluent contained more than eight times the permitted level of ammonia.
   Residents were offered up to $4,000 to move their trailers. But, Bergen said, the offer only stands if the homes are moved to parks owned by the Hillcrest owners in Saratoga County, nearly 30 miles away.
   “If we don’t choose from one of them, they won’t give us any help,” he said.
   Bergen said the amount of assistance being offered by the company would cover only about half of the cost to move the mobile homes, many which have been in the park for decades. He said some of the Hillcrest trailers have porch additions and driveways, which would have to be abandoned in a move.
   “That’s what kind of makes it tough,” he said.
   Duanesburg Town Code Enforcer Dale Warner said about 53 homes will be affected by the DEC consent order. He said Hillcrest — Duanesburg’s only mobile home park — provides an affordable place to live for lower-income residents, including senior citizens.
   “It’s going to displace so many families,” he said.
   The Hillcrest waste water treatment system consists of multiple septic tanks that precede a buried sand filter, which is permitted to receive up to 9,750 gallons of waste per day, according to the DEC. The park’s treatment center gradually discharges this into the Normanskill Creek, which feeds the Watervliet Reservoir, which supplies drinking water to thousands of homes across the Capital Region,
   Because of its proximity to the Normanskill, the park disinfected the effluent with chlorine and then used additional chemicals to dechlorinate any discharge. The system was supposed to be overseen by a certified waste water operator, according to the DEC.
   State officials were first alerted to problems at the park in October 2002, when untreated sewage was observed surfacing on the sand filter. Upon further investigation, officials from the Schenectady County Department of Health determined the park’s manager hadn’t kept any records of the treatment facility’s monitoring.
   Nearly three years later, the department conducted a follow-up inspection and observed “an accumulation of grey bacterial matter” at the final discharge pipe to the Normanskill. Further investigation revealed a system “in a state of failure” and still lacking any maintenance logs or records, according to the DEC consent order issued in April 2007.
   The former owners of the park, Pittsford Capital LLC., were fi ned $40,000, with $30,000 deferred to allow the company to correct the situation. However, Pittsford Capital had all of its assets seized in July 2006, after the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission charged its principal owners with running a fraudulent promissory note scheme and raising more than $15 million from up to 275 investors, according to the SEC.
   In August, Edward “Ted” Tackaberry and Mark Palazzo were ordered to pay $11.7 million in addition to $75,000 in civil penalties for their role in a real estate defrauding scheme, which mainly targeted senior citizens and retirees, the SEC reported. The company’s Duanesburg property was subsequently sold to Morgan Management, another Rochester area company that operates dozens of mobile home parks in fi ve states.
   Calls placed to Kevin Morgan of Morgan Management were not returned Tuesday.
   DEC spokesman Rick Georgeson said the property owners decided to empty the park after deciding the sewage problem was too costly to fix. He said the park’s management can request a 60-day extension to vacate the park.
   “It was a business decision to close the place down essentially,” he said. “We gave them every opportunity to upgrade the system to meet standards, but they made a financial decision that it wouldn’t be cost effective for them to meet the regulations and come into compliance.”
   Georgeson said the park doesn’t appear to be posing any immediate problems for the Normanskill or the Watervliet Reservoir. However, he said the longer the problem continues, the greater chance it could pose a threat.
   “Over a period of time it isn’t good to have these levels in the discharge,” he said.
   Likewise, state Health Department spokesman Jeffrey Hammond said the effluent from Hillcrest isn’t posing any immediate danger for the 12-billion-gallon reservoir. He said the length the Normanskill travels before reaching the reservoir acts to naturally dilute any harmful matter in the discharge.
   “There is no public health concern,” he said.

PETER R. BARBER/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER
Malik Myers, 10, his mother, Amanda Myers, Raymond Burgen, Caitlin Howarth, 9, and Tatiana Myers, 8, enjoy dinner in their home at the Hillcrest Trailer Park in Duanesburg on Tuesday.

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DUANESBURG
Canadian trucker in fatal I-88 collision arrested
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

   State police investigators arrested a Canadian trucker on a felony charge of criminally negligent homicide more than three months after he was involved in a fiery crash on Interstate 88 that killed a Schoharie mother.
   Richard Lafond, 55, of St. Jerome, Quebec, was taken into custody Monday as he attempted to cross into the United States from Canada. Investigators said U.S. Border Patrol agents were conducting a routine identity check when they noticed he was wanted on an outstanding arrest warrant resulting from the fatal crash. Lafond was driving a 2006 Peterbilt in the westbound lane of the highway around 5:15 p.m. Aug. 15 when his truck struck the rear of a 1993 Jeep Cherokee belonging to Margaret E. Woodman, 53, of Schoharie.
   Woodman apparently pulled to the shoulder for an undetermined reason just west of Exit 24, but was prevented from moving completely off the highway by a guardrail. She was en route home from work at Sherman Specialty Co. in Guilderland.
   Shortly after the collision, Woodman’s Jeep burst into flames that quickly consumed the vehicle. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Woodman was alone in the vehicle.
   State police initially cited Lafond for two misdemeanor log book violations for having a false entry and for violating the 14-hour work rule.
   State police spokeswoman Maureen Tuffey said a warrant for his arrest was issued in September, after investigators from the U.S. Department of Transportation determined he had been working for more than 22 continuous hours at the time of the crash.
   Tuffey said one of the log entries was written in after the fatal crash occurred. She said the entry should probably should have been written hours before.
   “It’s extremely negligent and reckless to drive 22 hours without sleep, especially driving one of these rigs,” she said. “There’s no such thing as a property damage accident without injury when one of those things hits you.”
   The truck Lafond was driving belonged to Papineau International SEC, a trucking company in St. Laurent, Quebec.
   He was hauling rolls of paper and had a half payload at the time of the crash.
   Lafond was arraigned in Duanesburg Town Court and released on $25,000 bail Tuesday. He is scheduled to reappear in January. Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney said the case will be reviewed by a grand jury in the coming months. If convicted, Lafond could face up to four years in prison,
   Tuffey said toxicology tests performed on Lafond after the crash indicated neither alcohol nor drugs were a factor. But she said his mental state must have been impaired to not see Woodman’s Jeep on a clear day and along a straight stretch of the highway.
   “Because he had a clear view and it was a long straightaway, you would think he would have seen her and moved out of the lane,” she said.

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Every time Ray Bergen steps out his front door, he gets a sense of how bad the septic problem is in Duanesburg’s Hillcrest Mobile Home Park.
   No matter the season, the smell of sewage wafts by the trailer he shares with his fiancee and three children. Even on sunny days, he said, the ground around his trailer remains moist with sewage leaching from the park’s septic system.

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Duanesburg trailer park situation an outrage

   I am a resident of the Hillcrest Trailer Park on Western Turnpike. I am in complete disgust that the problems with the land were never fixed. They [the owners] had the money to fix it at one time, and they [still] continue to put it off. Therefore, they are penalizing the park community. Not everyone has money to move, and not everyone is willing to move counties away. This is ridiculous; Morgan Management should fix the problem.
   Really, what is the difference between a local tragedy, with a tornado or a fire, and everyone being told they have to leave the park? Who has the money to cover these expenses? They are potentially throwing people out on the street.
   MELISSA BRADT
   Duanesburg  

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Incident reported
at county line
    DUANESBURG — The state police Bureau of Criminal Investigations responded to an incident at a Creek Road residence on the border of Schenectady and Schoharie counties Tuesday.
    Troopers blocked the driveway of 1164 Creek Rd. between the towns of Esperance and Duanesburg with a lone cruiser and crime tape, but declined to comment on what had occurred. All questions were referred to a BCI investigator, who had nothing to release late Tuesday evening.
    State police and ambulance crews were dispatched to the residence shortly after 8 p.m., according to radio traffi c.
    Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney declined to comment on a police investigation.

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DUANESBURG — A Duanesburg man attempted to kill his wife and then killed himself Tuesday evening, state police confirmed this morning.

Raymond H. Lees, 50, of 1164 Creek Road, used a baseball bat to hit his wife in the head, then used carbon monoxide to kill himself, state police spokeswoman Maureen Tuffey said.

Lees’ wife Debra survived the attack and is being treated at Albany Medical Center.

“He attempted to kill his wife,” Tuffey said, “but she is alive with a head wound.”

The attack happened at about 5 p.m., but authorities were not notified until later. That’s when a friend of the family became suspicious about Raymond Lees’ actions earlier.

Raymond Lee made several calls to ensure the couple’s five children, who ranged in age from 7 to 15 years, were picked up at school by others and did not return home, Tuffey said. They are now staying with a relative, police said this morning.

“Raymond made phone calls to make sure the kids were picked up,” she said.

Police this morning said the couple had been having martial problems for a year.

After attacking his wife with a baseball bat in a downstairs bathroom, Raymond Lees then used a bag and carbon monoxide to kill himself, Tuffey said. He was found in his car in the driveway of the home.

Schoharie County Sheriff’s deputies were the first on scene. The property is just inside Schenectady County and state police soon took over the investigation.

The Lees have lived in the town for eight years, police said this morning.

Debra Lees, 49, is licensed as a registered nurse, and works at St. Mary's Hospital in Amsterdam. Raymond Lees was employed with Ellis Hospital as a respiratory therapist.

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DUANESBURG
Man attacks wife, kills himself
Victim beaten with baseball bat
BY JILL BRYCE AND STEVEN COOK
Gazette Reporters

    In an attack that was planned carefully, a medical specialist bludgeoned his wife with a baseball bat and then killed himself, police said Wednesday.
    Raymond Lees, 50, made calls to ensure the couple’s five children would not be home. He even left a note on the door of the couple’s home at 1164 Creek Road: “Don’t come in. Call police.”
    Authorities responded after one of the people Raymond Lees called became suspicious.
    Despite the planning, the target of his rage survived. Debra Lees was found unconscious, lying in a pool of blood on her bathroom floor.
    “There was clearly premeditation on the part of Raymond Lees,” state police Lt. Scott Coburn said at a Wednesday news conference. The couple had been having martial difficulties for about a year, he said, and police had been called to the home just last month.
    The problems exploded sometime late Tuesday afternoon when Raymond Lees hit his wife, a nurse at St. Mary’s Hospital in Amsterdam, several times in the head with a baseball bat. She suffered a skull fracture and brain trauma in the attack and is being treated at Albany Medical Center Hospital. Police speculated the fracture relieved swelling of her brain, keeping her alive long enough for help to come.
    “She’s still alive,” state police spokeswoman Trooper Maureen Tuffey said late Wednesday afternoon. “We are hopeful she will make it.” Debra Lees was listed in critical condition, Tuffey said.
    On Wednesday, police were trying to piece together a timeline of events and said they were not sure if the couple had a fight immediately before Lees carried out the brutal attack.
    But, police said, Raymond Lees’ plan apparently began to show itself at about 3:40 p.m. Tuesday, when he called Duanesburg schools to notify them to not put his children on the school bus home. They had a ride with a family friend, he told the school. He also asked his next-door neighbor to pick up the children, who are ages 7 to 15, at school.
    The children on Wednesday were staying with their mother’s brother, Tuffey said. He is the only family member living in the area.
    Police speculated Raymond Lees made the calls and wrote the note because he didn’t want his children coming into the house and finding their mother after the attack.
NEIGHBOR SUSPICIOUS
    They said it was the wife of the neighbor who Raymond Lees called who became suspicious when Lees didn’t want his children to go home. She called her husband, who called 911, and state police in Princetown were dispatched to the residence at 4:59 p.m. Tuesday to answer a report of an attempted suicide.
    When police arrived, they discovered Raymond Lees unresponsive in his running vehicle parked behind his residence. He had run a hose from the exhaust pipe into the vehicle and had placed a bag over his head.
    Paramedics tried to resuscitate him and he was taken by Esperance Ambulance to Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, where he was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. Tuesday.
    Inside the house, police discovered Debra Lees on the floor of the downstairs bathroom. Police said it appeared she had begun decorating for Christmas.
    Police said it wasn’t clear if Raymond Lees had a prior criminal record. There was no indication the couple’s children were physically abused, Coburn said.
    Police described the couple as having “standard marital type problems” for about a year. On Nov. 14, state police were called to the home for a domestic complaint, but no physical violence was reported and the case was closed.
    A neighbor, however, described the couple’s problems as dating back further. Joan Hyland said she didn’t know either very well. They had lived on the road about five or six years.
    She quoted another neighbor as describing an incident where Debra Lees came outside screaming for help. However, Hyland said, she didn’t witness that herself.
    “It was a known fact that they did a fair amount of fighting,” Hyland said. “But I didn’t think it would lead to this.”
    Hyland said she invited the family over once, but didn’t do so again.
    She also recalled one time, about two years after the Lees family moved in, that Raymond leaped in front of her husband’s car.
    “He said ‘We’ve lived here for two years and we’re not friends, so I thought I’d meet you,’ ” Hyland said. “My husband said, ‘The way to meet me is not to fly in front of my car.’ ”
    Police said Raymond and Debra met in New Jersey. They lived in Jackson, N.J., for several years and moved to Duanesburg about eight years ago.
    Raymond Lees worked at Ellis Hospital as a respiratory therapist. He had been licensed by the state in that field since December 2001, state records show. Donna Evans, spokeswoman at Ellis Hospital, said Lees worked part time at the hospital for a year and a half and worked mostly weekends.
    Debra Lees has been licensed as a registered nurse since 1979, state records show.
    Both had previously been registered in New Jersey; their licenses expired there in 2002.
    Debra Lees has worked at St. Mary’s for five years as a maternity nurse, hospital officials confi rmed in a statement.
    “The staff of St. Mary’s Hospital at Amsterdam is saddened by the news of the recent tragedy involving Debra Lees and her family,” the statement read. “Debra has been an RN in our Maternity Services Department and has befriended many in her five-year tenure. Our thoughts and prayers are with Debra and her family at this most difficult time.”
PETER R. BARBER/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER A state trooper keeps watch over the house at 1164 Creek Road in Esperance, where an attempted murder-suicide took place early Wednesday.