On June 10 Marlboro resident Peter Floor began serving a 15 day jail sentence for repeated violations of the Town Code for having multiple unregistered vehicles on his property and for a violation of the Environmental Conservation Law for burning a mobile home at his residence at 141 Reservoir Road.

Building Inspector Tom Corcoran said the town usually gives residents who are in violation of the code, the necessary time to correct the problem. Once rectified the situation becomes a resolution to his issued violation and the problem usually is then resolved. Corcoran said Floor has repeatedly run afoul of the code, forcing him to issue additional violations that again brought Floor before Judge Dan Jackson in early June.

In the first go around in 2018, Floor was ordered by Judge Jackson to pay a $100 fine and under a Conditional Discharge arrangement, dated June 17, 2018, Floor agreed that he would stop bringing unregistered cars onto his property. At that time Judge Jackson warned Floor that if he were to violate the terms of the agreement within a year that he would be facing a $4,000 fine, coupled with jail time. Floor failed to meet the terms of the agreement.

Corcoran said the town is always fair with its residents but it got to the point with Floor when, “enough is enough. I’m tired of writing him the violations, then going to resolution and have him do it again in three months. [Then] I don’t give him time, I take it straight to court. The Town was fair, the Judge was fair but when you shun your finger at us and say I’m not going to listen to you and I don’t care what you say, then it comes to a point where the Judge has no choice.”

Corcoran said he takes no satisfaction in sending a resident to jail.

“The town doesn’t enjoy doing this, the judge doesn’t enjoy doing this, we don’t want to put residents in jail but when we beg you not to do something and you do it, what am I going to do?” Corcoran asked.

Attorney Dan Rusk prosecuted the case of the People of the State of New York vs Peter Floor in the Marlborough Town Court.

“It was four counts of the Town Code violation with 15 days each and an almost $4,000 fine for the Environmental Conservation Law violation for burning the mobile home on his property,” Rusk said.

Rusk said after Corcoran discovered that Floor had brought more unregistered cars onto his property within the year, “I filed what’s called a Declaration of Delinquency to say he is in violation of his Conditional Discharge. When he [Floor] came back in, he admitted to it and he was given 15 days in the Ulster County Jail and had to pay a fine of just under $4,000.

Rusk said there were 4 counts with each carrying 15 days in jail, but Floor was given just a 15 day sentence.

“Because they were all related to the same complaint they had to be concurrent, they couldn’t be consecutive,” he explained.

Rusk said if Floor violates the Town Code yet again, “we have to start over, with Corcoran issuing violations; with 15 days for a Town Code violation you would hope it would get through to him.”

The Southern Ulster Times tried to reach Floor by phone for a comment but his number was not in service.