Surf Lodge's Trail of Tears
McKinley's Montauk Tepee Snafu 'Really a Bummer'
By Kate Maier
(May 18, 2009) The Surf Lodge in Montauk was slapped with some bad vibes and a $1,000 fine from the East Hampton Town Fire Marshal's office on Monday after six tepees were erected there over the weekend.
 David E. Rattray
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The hotel and restaurant kicked off the 2009 season on Saturday with a jovial, low-key tepee-building contest that was to benefit the Montauk Skate Park. Rob McKinley, one of the owners, said he was surprised to encounter a perturbed fire marshal on Monday morning who demanded the canvas-and-bamboo tents be taken down.
The contest -- among Mr. McKinley, Rogan Gregory and Tracy Feith, who are fashion designers; Bob Melet of Melet Mercantile, who is opening a shop in Montauk this season, and Mike Diamond of the Beastie Boys -- was to benefit the town skate park on Essex Street, which is badly in need of a face-lift, he said.
In an interview later in the day, Mr. McKinley said that he had "misunderstood the permit process" and had stopped by the Surf Lodge on the way to East Hampton Town Hall to pick up a permit for the tepees when the fire marshal "really gave it to me."
"He says, 'Rob, what are you doing to me?'" said Mr. McKinley. Overall, the "fire marshals have treated us really well," he said, "but when they get a complaint they have to do something about it."
Although the tepees can be folded up and won't have to be destroyed, Mr. McKinley was disheartened that they would have to be taken down. "A lot of people put a lot of energy and time into them. These guys are all so talented, it was just really unbelievable to watch," he said.
 David E. Rattray
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Mr. McKinley had made a few calls to the Building Department and fire marshal prior to the event and admitted, "I was unclear, I thought [the permit] was just granted at any time. It was really my own ignorance."
He also said the fire marshal was doubtful that the permit snafu would be resolved. One of the tepees, which was built on a cedar deck, constituted a permanent structure, according to town zoning law, for which extensive permits would have been required. The others should have been built after the Surf Lodge secured a mass-gathering permit that would have allowed for tents on the property for a short time.
"Apparently people drove by and they complained. Now it's a much different animal, because they have all the complaints," said Mr. McKinley. "It's really a bummer for us, actually."
Curious Montauk residents passing by in cars observed the transformation of bamboo skeletons into realistically rendered Plains Indian dwellings throughout the day on Saturday. Mr. McKinley said the "eco-friendly" tepees were made of dead bamboo stalks procured from the Bayberry Nursery in Amagansett, and the canvas was treated with a flame-retardant coating.
Each of the tents, which are about 10 feet in circumference, would have been auctioned off at a benefit later in the summer, and until then, they would have provided a cool place for hotel and restaurant guests to have a drink or read a book. Mr. McKinley said he was ordered to take them down by Wednesday, or suffer another $1,000 fine.
"It's a shame because we wanted to give the money to the town," he said. "We wanted to get them up to get a buzz going to raise as much money as we possibly could."
Although the Surf Lodge has experienced some friction with residents, Mr. McKinley said that the tepee project was part of an ongoing effort to "give back to the community." Last year, he and his employees organized and participated in a beach clean-up at the end of the season.
"We want to do something every year to give back to the community. We understand that it's a small town, and we want to help it, not take it over," he said.