•September 2, 2015•

By Derek Pope
Reporting from Bethany

In an unprecedented event last June, representatives of the Sullivan Area Landlord’s Association, along with numerous property owners, brought a petition to Bethany’s board of trustees requesting revisions to a long established ordinance on the village’s books.

The document’s signers—31 in total—were all individuals who lease properties within Bethany’s village limits. The decades old ordinance they are seeking to change currently holds these landlords liable for any delinquent utility bills owed by their tenants.

Although it has largely gone unenforced over the years, the ordinance came to the notice of the landlords after the village began notifying individuals that the regulation would be used to reclaim a number of unpaid accounts amounting to thousands of dollars of lost revenue for the town’s utilities.      Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.