Recent Stories: Sag Harbor

    Sag Harbor Village’s police chief, Tom Fabiano, pleaded yet again with Mayor Brian Gilbride on Tuesday evening to reconsider eliminating one officer from the force. The proposed village budget does away with the job. Should that in fact happen, said the chief, it would affect not only his department but “people that live, visit, go to school here, boat or drive here, have an event here, have a medical issue, fire, or criminal matter.”

    Almost a year after Provisions Market’s application to expand first came before the Sag Harbor Village Planning Board, the market moved a step closer to its goal of taking over a neighboring space formerly occupied by Style Bar.
    The village zoning board of appeals approved an area variance that will allow Provisions to grow from 2,450 square feet to around 3,000 square feet. Some of the former spa’s square footage will be market space and some will be used for storage.

    Bill Jones, a former Sag Harbor Village trustee who is now a Suffolk County legislator, will speak about the village’s police union contract negotiations at a public forum on Saturday morning.
Mayor Brian Gilbride has proposed to disband the force and have police services provided by another entity, or to eliminate several full-time positions in the department. In a recent press release, Mr. Jones said the “system is rigged in favor of police unions.”

    Sag Harbor’s mayor, Brian Gilbride, and the village trustees Edward Gregory and Kevin Duchemin discussed a dilemma over repairs to the floating docks off Long Wharf that were damaged during Hurricane Sandy and the storm that followed.
    With time of the essence as the boating season approaches, Mayor Gilbride wondered at a special meeting on Friday if the village board should “bite the bullet” and accept the one bid received, in the amount of $201,000 from Keith Grimes, or readvertise in hopes of getting a lower bid.

    A vision of Sag Harbor 10 years from now was imagined on Saturday afternoon by more than two dozen residents — lifers, newcomers, year-rounders, and weekenders — at a Sag Harbor Active Transport workshop held in the parish hall of St. Andrew’s Catholic Church. Asked for one word describing how Sag Harbor could be, responses included safe, progressive, quiet, athletic, peaceful, visual, innovative, healthy, green, enlightened, accessible, slow, and sociable.

    The Sag Harbor Village Board has held a few “special” meetings recently in addition to its monthly session, with regard to village employees, committee members, and volunteers. One such meeting, held on Dec. 28 at 8 a.m., included a discussion of the village police force, which the board has talked of cutting or even disbanding.

    “It looks like it’s actually happening,” County Legislator Jay Schneiderman said of the county’s transfer of Long Wharf to Sag Harbor Village after the unanimous County Legislature vote Tuesday to do so. “It has been a couple of years in the works,” he said, “historically, a couple of hundred years,” he said.

    David Kronman and Curtis Sachs, representing Cape Advisors, which has acquired the Baron’s Cove property on Water Street, moved closer at Tuesday night’s meeting of the Sag Harbor Village Planning Board to special exception approval of a plan to construct an 87-seat restaurant and 8-seat bar as an “accessory use to a resort motel.” The men were prepared and assisted by Richard Warren of InterScience Associates in responding  to a letter from Timothy Platt, the village’s building inspector.

    Budgets for the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton and the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor passed by comfortable margins on Sept. 29.
The Hampton Library’s 2013 budget of just over $1.5 million passed with 56 for and 7 against. Residents of the Bridgehampton and Sagaponack School Districts cast ballots in the library vote.
Harvey Loomis, who ran unopposed, was elected to represent the residents of Sagaponack on the library board.
In Sag Harbor, the budget of just over $2.2 million was approved 163 to 24.

    The Sag Harbor Village Planning Board may hand down a decision involving Harbor Heights, the Hampton road service station that wants to add a convenience store, on Tuesday at its 5:30 meeting, after evaluating the project through State Environmental Quality Review Act guidelines. The board may be ready to declare a negative SEQRA evaluation, having in hand a new traffic study and modified lighting and landscaping plans.

Fill this very vintage-looking piece with favorite stones or marbles (so you don’t lose them). Great for beach houses. $35. Annyx, 150 Main Street, Sag Harbor.
Photo by Durell Godfrey

    Saturday morning is when most of the action will begin on Long Wharf for Sag Harbor’s annual HarborFest weekend, and a lot of it will involve food.
    The Sag Harbor Farmers Market will relocate there at 9 a.m., joined by local artisans and craft vendors, and food vendors, including local restaurants and wineries, will offer their treats on Saturday and Sunday. Main Street shops will get in on the action with sidewalk sales throughout the weekend.