A Country Justice, By Kevin Denton

 It must be almost forty years now–and it still hurts. I know because I had just moved into my new Pawling  offices in the building on Main Street and Memorial Avenue .

I got a call from an Arizona businessman referred to me by someone–probably a realtor? He knew that at the time I wasn’t a town official, but that I would know who to contact.

   He was only going to be in the area for a day or two and wanted to know if I could set up a meeting for him.

     He

    He had found a large property in the West Dover Road area which  could be ideal for his purposes.  He was not interested in “going where he wasn’t wanted” so he  asked me to arrange a meeting with the Town’s key planning and zoning officials so he could lay out his plans  and get their reactions prior to any formal application.  Unless he got a “green light” there would be no application.      I liked his approach.

  So I lined up some appropriate officials–the Town Supervisor, a councilman, the  Engineer, the Zoning Board of Appeals Chairman, and a couple of Planning Board members for an early morning meeting.  I even sprang for a coffee urn from McKinney’s and a pile of their breakfast treats.

After the introductions the Arizona gentleman explained that  his business was a luxury spa and why the pawling site was perfect for it.  In addition to health and beauty treatments and exercise, they gave courses in  nutrition and healthful food preparation yoga, meditation for which the water features would be a perfect setting.

     He explained that a real “plus” was Pawling’s rail access to Manhattan.  Many of his  patrons were women–

often in groups for ” girlfriend weekends and would often prefer not to drive.  In fact, he had already been in contact with a  local local  stable  to arrange horse drawn carriages to shuttle guests  to and from the Village station.

     There were not a lot of questions or comments from  our officials except for the ZBA Chairman who seemed intent on directing the project to another part of Town.  In responding to each activity he would say:  ” Well, if you’re going to serve  food we’ve got a lot of area down Route 22 that’s zoned for fast-food  restaurants and we have areas there zoned for schools schools  and gyms too..   (I don’t think he had  had  a lot of “spa time.”

So the meeting ended cordially enough, but we all knew this project was not coming to pawling.  The gentleman thanked me for  my help and reminded me to send my bill  (There would be no bill.)   Then he said he would continue his search for a site “up  the line.”

      And that is why, Friends,  Canyon Ranch East, the world-famous spa-resort is in  Lenox, Mass. and not in Pawling, N.Y.

For many years Kevin Denton was an attorney and Judge in the Town of Pawling.  He now lives in France

and welcomes your comments and questions  addressed to The Harlim Valley News