EDITORIALS

How About A Fund For Schools?

The 2 percent transfer tax approved by the five East End towns in 1998 couldn't have come at a more felicitous time - just when the real estate market was beginning to soar.

Assessed when houses over $250,000 and land over $100,000 are sold, the tax has so far poured money into each town's Community Preservation Fund, allowing public purchases of historic properties, agricultural land, and open space. It's been marvelous.

(East Hampton had received $12,339,517 by the end of November and Southampton $25,517,339. The figures for the three other towns were not available at press time.)

Since 1998, however, something beyond the need to preserve the landscape, heritage, and groundwater has arisen across the East End. Every district, with the possible exception of Shelter Island, has had to expand its schools, or consider doing so, at a time when the costs of construction are troubling.

Take Sag Harbor, for instance. In 1999, voters approved a $13.92 million renovation of Pierson High School. Unfortunately, the construction market became white hot and the Pierson bids came in wildly over budget. Now the district has been forced to begin a scaled-back version with the hope that voters, who have opened their wallets once, will be willing to contribute another $4.39 million to complete the job.

Like Sag Harbor, over on the North Fork, the Southold School District found itself facing a $17 million project rather than the $14.7 million approved by voters. Unlike Sag Harbor, however, the former superintendent and other officials took it upon themselves to pay for the cost overruns without approval by transferring money from the general and lunch funds. It's caused a nasty stir.

The Bridgehampton District has been struggling with inadequate space for a long time. In 1998, voters turned down a $6 million expansion proposal twice. A recent plan to spend $2.9 million has been discussed, using $1.8 million the district has accumulated in an undesignated fund, but it has not taken action. Westhampton Beach, like Bridgehampton, has had building proposals turned down twice, while Hampton Bays completed a $13 million project only to find it filled to capacity by the time it opened.

Riverhead is said to be bursting at the seams. A $15 million project is under way, but it does not include any expansion at the high school. Voters can expect to be asked for more money before long.

In Montauk, a $3.6 million addition with six new classrooms opened in September, and another $350,000 will have to be spent to finish basement space to provide another four classrooms by next year. Amagansett has completed a $2.7 million building program. Springs has undertaken a $1.7 million expansion that will add four classrooms, a junior-high science lab, and a commons room. Officials say it will provide barely enough room for current programs.

The East Hampton and Southampton districts seem to be in somewhat better shape. Both expect enrollment to grow but have taken a wait-and-see attitude.

The evidence is clear: While the state has provided some aid specifically for construction, its funds more commonly are earmarked for general expenses or special programs. A new, dedicated property tax could help provide some bricks and mortar.

Any such tax would have to be set up with different standards from the 2 percent transfer tax to assure that it was not onerous for property owners of modest to moderate means. But adding 1 or 2 percent to the cost of buying, say, a house of $750,000 or more or land worth almost as much would be hardly noticeable to the exceedingly wealthy and would help redeem the inequities between the haves and the have-nots here.

Death On Main Street

The news that John H. Jiras was struck and killed while crossing East Hampton's Main Street on Jan. 3 is a terrible reminder that safety often takes a back seat to expedience on the main streets of eastern Long Island.

In New York State, cars, not people, have the right of way. Marked crosswalks are the only exception to the rule; drivers must yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. Crossing outside of crosswalks is jaywalking and against the law. It can be a fatal mistake for pedestrians to assume that cars will brake for them, especially at night when a driver's vision is compromised. In any event, stopping for people who are jaywalking, as some drivers try to do, is dangerous because it is unpredictable.

But even crossing at the crosswalk at Main Street and Huntting Lane in East Hampton, across four lanes, is an accident waiting to happen. Who has not witnessed a near miss when a vehicle in the right-hand lane, closest to the sidewalk, stopped for a pedestrian, while the one in the left, or passing, lane did not?

East Hampton's Main Street may have four lanes but it is a mistake to allow drivers or government to treat it, or light it, as a highway. The speed limit is 30 miles per hour and it should be obeyed and enforced more frequently. Rumble strips, such as installed on the roadway near the Amagansett and Bridgehampton Schools, might be tried as a reminder. A traffic light at the Huntting Lane intersection, if coordinated with the one at Newtown Lane, would be even more effective.

While most efforts to promote safety and "calm" traffic are focused on vehicles, common sense does not absolve pedestrians from responsibility. There is no winning a one-on-one contest with a few tons of steel.

Waste Of Money

In response to neighbors who have complained about noise from the Terry King ball field and town roller hockey rinks in Amagansett, the East Hampton Town Board has decided to muffle the sounds. Engineers suggested erecting over 700 feet of stockade fence on the park's north border and planting trees and shrubs along its length at a cost of nearly $90,000. Nonetheless, in a show of good faith to the neighbors, the board agreed to put the project out to bid after scaling it back slightly.

While the roar of fans lustily cheering a game-winning home run at a night softball game could be annoying and the shrill cries of kids competing in morning roller hockey games might be downright irritating, we agree with Town Councilman Job Potter, who called the proposal a waste of money. The sounds of people having fun is what you hear when you move in next to a park.