Residents in a Sullivan County town are dealing with what they say is a strong smell of manure and they say it's coming from one farm. Time Warner Cable News reporter Jackson Wang has the details.

BETHEL, N.Y. -- In a heavy farming town like Bethel, the smell of manure is often in the air.

But business owners near the Hofstee Dairy Farm on Route 17B say over the summer the smell got a lot worse.

“There’s times where it’s just overwhelming," said Holly Jacobs, a manager at Carriage House Mill. "You have to shut your windows.”

"The smell was horrendous and, more importantly, it was high heat and no rain," said Stacy Cohen, owner of Catskill Distilling Company and Dancing Cat Saloon.

Cohen opened the Catskill Distilling Company and Dancing Cat Saloon back in 2010, knowing the smell came with the territory.

“We understand manure smell and they have to support their crops,” Cohen said.  

But Cohen says back in July, the farm's owner began spreading manure on his field several times a week.

She says the stench of eggshells and duck manure became overwhelming and also started attracting flies, driving away her customers.

"We had not one person on the deck. We couldn’t serve on either one of our decks," Cohen said. "And the flies get inside because you open the doors. It’s horrible.” 

Jacobs works and lives next to the farm, and says she has to set up fly-catchers.

"I set them up at about eight o’clock this morning, there’s five or six of them now and pretty much all of them are covered with flies,” Jacobs said.

Now business owners and residents are hoping the town can step in.

But according to the Bethel Town Supervisor Daniel Sturm, the farmer isn't breaking the law.

"In our town law, we have a right to farm law, which allows a farmer to do the fertilizing and the spreading like they do,” Sturm said. 

According to Sturm, the farm owner told the town he hasn't changed his farming practices at all this year.

We reached out to the owner of the farm, but so far have not heard back.

Meanwhile, Sturm says town can offer one option to help solve the problem.

“We’ve offered dispute resolution process, which is allow under the town of Bethel code, which would give them an opportunity to be heard in front of an impartial group appointed by the town board,” Sturm said. 

The catch is, both sides would have to agree to come to the table.

But whatever happens, Cohen says the damage to her summer season is done.

“We’ve been losing customers who don’t know the story on a daily basisand this goes on," Cohen said. "This is going to last.”