LAKEWOOD – For four years, Kenneth Wray Jr. has been fighting an uphill battle with the New York State Department of Conservation.

Now the proverbial hill is about to get more difficult to climb.

Wray’s DEC application has been suspended, and he is going to court over the matter.

Wray, of 271 E. Terrace Ave. gave an update Monday to the Lakewood Board of Trustees.

Wray has been trying to stay in compliance with the DEC, and at his Chautauqua Lake residence, Wray has a vertical breakwall, and the DEC wants something different – a slanted riprap stonewall – which it said will help with erosion.

“The DEC suspended my application after four years,” Wray said. “They’re not going to do anything for me now, I just have to fight it in court.”

The DEC said the vertical breakwall, at 271 E. Terrace Ave., is in violation of Article 15 Part 608 which focuses on the use and protection of waters, encompassing regulations for disturbances to protected streams, dams docks, moorings, and excavation/fill in navigable waters.

The DEC fined Wray $2,500 for not having the proper permit.

Wray told the DEC that he did have the correct permit, and in a letter dated Feb. 21, 2025, the DEC said that on April 12, 2022, it conducted a site inspection at his property and claimed he deposited fill and installed a vertical breakwall below the mean high water elevation within the lake.

Wray constructed a breakwall because he said he received a permit from Army Corps of Engineers, but DEC officials said that the Army permit was not valid because it wasn’t issued by the DEC. The DEC told him that he needed to take down the breakwall at his own cost.

And to add insult to the wound, Wray’s property has been assessed at $325,000, by the town of Busti, with Wray asking for a reduction of $125,000 to $200,000. The property was purchased in October 2020 for $147,000, while Wray said in court documents that two neighboring properties sold for $200,000 in 2022 and $249,000 in 2022. The $200,000 property has roof issues and no foundation while the $249,000 sale is a smaller property that has better quality lakefront. The Wrays’ documentation is also the only one of the Lakewood assessment challenges that mentions new wetland restrictions from the state DEC.