JAY HAROLD JAKOVIC

Magee Farm500 Feura Bush RoadGlenmont, New York 12077Telephone: (518) 465-6537E-Mail: inlandabstract@verizon.net

September 23, 2009

A SHOCKING TRUTH: DO NOT PUT A PUBLIC SIDEWALK NEXT TO ANELECTRIC FARM FENCE. SUPERVISOR CUNNINGHAM PUTS YOU AND YOURCHILDREN AT RISK

Dear Neighbor:I am writing you because Supervisor Cunningham and his staff are in theprocess of installing a public sidewalk on the north side of Feura Bush Roadat or near its intersection with the Wemple Road. This sidewalk will run alongor near my pre-existing electric farm fence that carries a pulsing 2,400 voltelectric charge. The purpose of the electric charge is to contain my livestockwithin the fence by means of an electric shock which discourages them fromtouching or testing the fence so that they remain in their pasture and do notwander into your neighborhood.A sidewalk invites and encourages substantial foot traffic and being installedin an area in close proximity to this fence risks you or your children touchingthe electric wire, and receiving a very unpleasant shock. An electric farmfence is an approved installation when it is placed on a farm in anagricultural district as it is here, and as you can see, the fence is notinherently dangerous, rather its shock occurs only when someone leaves thesidewalk and touches it, or standing on or near the sidewalk touches thefence with a metal object or some other such conductor of electricity that willtransfer the electric charge from the fence to the person in contact with it.Some of your backyards may abut my fence, but you knew or should haveknown that there was a farm behind you when you bought your homes,knowingly made a choice to buy, and can erect whatever barriers you wish,depending on your own needs. No one expects such a risk along a publicsidewalk installed by the municipality without having the municipalityprovide reasonable safeguards.Of course, I have posted warning signs on the fence as required by law, butsigns will give no notice or information about the electric fence to a personsuch as a small child who cannot read. I do not know what, if any, plans

Supervisor Cunningham and his staff may have made to safeguard you fromtouching my fence, but I feel it is the height of irresponsibility for them toinstall their sidewalk along my electric farm fence without also installingsome impenetrable buffer such as a chain link fence to prevent or at leastmake it difficult to intentionally or inadvertently come into contact with thiselectric farm fence. You can just imagine how easy it is for your small childto break away from you and reach through the fence only to receive a verynasty shock.I want you to know that the farm has been in existence since the 1700’s, thatits pastures have been fenced for generations; that I have an active fencerehabilitation and maintenance program that spans many years, and thatthere has been electrified farm fences around my pastures since the 1980’s.I have written town officials many times to tell them of my electrified farmfence and my concerns about their sidewalk and I have copies of my lettersto prove it. Nonetheless, this Spring, Supervisor Cunningham’s staff abruptlyterminated our correspondence on the subject without replying to my lastletter and without us having reached any mutually agreeable resolution tomy concerns. Supervisor Cunningham was fully aware of thecorrespondence and its termination because he was being copied on all mycorrespondence and that of his staff member, Erik T. Deyoe, P.E., DeputyCommissioner and Town Engineer. I have had no further communicationfrom Supervisor Cunningham or his staff and until I saw the bulldozers atwork was unaware that the sidewalk installation project was proceeding inspite of the current economic climate and the town’s much publicizedbudgetary woes. Furthermore, I did not even receive a form letter telling methat the town’s bulldozers would be at work along my farm fence, informingme to move my cows away to another pasture so that they would notwander into your neighborhood if the fence were inadvertently broken duringthe construction work.It is one thing, and not altogether unexpected, for Supervisor Cunninghamand his staff to treat me in a high handed manner with such arrogance andcontempt, but is quite something else to treat you in this way. As you cansee, their actions toward me will impact you and your children as you usetheir sidewalk. If Supervisor Cunningham cares about safeguarding you andyour children, it is only reasonable for him to install a chain link fence alongthe new sidewalk to separate it from my pre-existing electric farm fence. Ihave done all I can to work with Supervisor Cunningham and his staff and ampowerless to make them install such a fence. You can, however. If youagree with me, I would ask you to call Supervisor John H. Cunningham at439-4955 Ext. 1164, or e-mail him atsupervisor@townofbethlehem.org,or write him at Hon. John H. Cunningham, Supervisor, Town of Bethlehem,445 Delaware Avenue, Delmar, New York 12054, to ask him to safeguardyou and your children by installing a chain link fence along his new sidewalk