Put The Brakes On Shoe Sale

When the owners of Shoe-Inn, a women's shoe store chain, approached Bridgehampton School's interim Superintendent and later its School Board about holding a sale on the school lawn this month, the Superintendent and the board agreed it sounded like a "win-win" deal.

The sale was to start next week, but, until the plan was approved Monday night, nobody had thought to obtain a special events permit from Southampton Town.

By Tuesday morning, it seemed that the town had nixed the event. Special event permit applications must be submitted 30 days prior to an event. This sale and fund-raiser was to have started this week.

Lots Of Shoes

Billy and Melissa Lawson, the owners of the chain, planned to truck in 10,000 to 15,000 pairs of shoes from their shops in East Hampton, Westchester County, New Jersey, and Connecticut, set up a tent on the school's front lawn, and hold the sale over the course of two weeks.

The school would have charged them nothing, but in exchange for the space Bridgehampton would have received $1 for every pair of shoes sold - money that could go toward an outdoor learning laboratory the district is planning with the help of Cornell Cooperative Extension, the Peconic Teachers Center, and the Board of Cooperative Educational Services.

Even if Shoe-Inn only sold 300 or 3,000 pairs of shoes, its owners promised a $5,000 contribution to the school. That, Charles Ebetino, the interim Superintendent, said, could go a long way to creating the formal gardens, apiary, aviary, tiny corral area, and family garden the school wants to put on its grounds.

Bigger Venue

Shoe-Inn offers designer women's shoes that generally sell for between $100 and $250 on retail shelves. The business held a similar clearance sale in East Hampton last summer in rented space near East Hampton Bowl. This year, said Mr. Lawson, "we wanted a bigger venue so we could sell more shoes."

Mr. Lawson did not tell Mr. Ebetino how much Shoe-Inn expected to make at the sale.

Now the Lawsons plan to move the sale to the American Legion in Amagansett, a venue Mr. Lawson said was arranged even before his wife approached Mr. Ebetino about using the Bridgehampton School lawn.

"Caught His Enthusiasm"

"My wife fell in love with the idea of raising money for Bridgehampton High School," he said. When speaking to Mr. Ebetino about using the school lawn, he added, she "caught his enthusiasm" for the outdoor learning center.

The school was invited to pass out literature on the project during the sale and to set up a table where customers could find information about the school and contribute to the project if they chose.

"It would have brought money to the school, put the school in the public limelight," Mr. Lawson said. "There's nothing better than when a situation is a win-win."

The Superintendent and the Lawsons tried to get the Town of Southampton to waive its 30-day lead time on special events permit applications, but had not succeeded as of press time.

Similar Snarls

Southampton College ran into similar snarls recently over a home furnishings sale run by the Maslow group in May and a J. Crew factory sale in June, both held in the college gymnasium.

The college provost, Timothy Bishop, was cited on June 26 for allowing the gym to be used for the retail sales, a use not included in the gymnasium's certificate of occupancy, without first obtaining permission from town officials.

Asked on Tuesday how much the gym had been rented out for, Mr. Bishop declined to specify, but said he had considered the rate to be fair. "We consider the revenue we realize to be a significant benefit to our students," he said.

The money the college makes from renting the gym, he explained, offsets expenses that the collegewould otherwise have to bill students for. The college has rented the gym to J. Crew several times over the past two years, but was only cited for the sale in May. Mr. Bishop will go to the court on the matter in September.

At the time of the two sales, some Southampton retailers worried that outside vendors like J. Crew would take business away from local merchants.

These same concerns were the rallying cry for East Hampton Town merchants in 1996 when ABC Carpet and Home planned a 30,000-square-foot tent sale on the Dune Alpin Farm in East Hampton.

In that case, the company planned to donate $20,000 of its expected $1 million-plus revenue and $5,000 worth of furniture to an agency that runs Podell Haven, a town shelter for homeless and troubled teenagers. The outcry over the event prompted the East Hampton Town Board to revoke the gathering permit and rework the rules governing mass gatherings and fund-raisers in East Hampton Town.

CARISSA KATZ