Boys Harbor attorneys urge board to expedite sale
(02/04/2010) “Put an artist studio in there, and keep it passive,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson said Tuesday, speaking of
the former Boys and Girls Harbor camp which the town is in contract to buy, along with Suffolk County.
The $7.3 million purchase, arranged in 2007, has been delayed in the face of objections by neighbors, who filed an Article 78 lawsuit alleging the legal procedures followed by the county regarding the purchase were improper.
In order to move forward, Scott Wilson, the town’s director of land acquisitions, told the town board at a meeting on Saturday, the county needs East Hampton to submit a management plan detailing the future uses of the 28-acre site. Such plans are normally prepared after a land purchase. The previous town board had already agreed to limits demanded by neighbors, which were spelled out in a resolution approving the purchase. But a refusal to ban amplified music, which would have outlawed use of a radio, for instance, kept neighbors’ objections alive.
“Use language that gets us out of the lawsuit and into the acquisition of the property as soon as possible,” Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione said Tuesday.
Dilapidated buildings on the property are slated for demolition, except for one, a former bunkhouse that Mr. Wilkinson has suggested could provide painting space for artists. An independent organization would be chosen to administer and oversee its use.
In light of the town’s fiscal crisis, the town can afford to do little else with the property, Mr. Wilkinson pointed out on Tuesday. He said that he has been saying “no” to any and all spending requests and will continue to do so until the exact status of the town’s financial situation has been determined.
Besides the buildings’ demolition, the management plan will call for installing a new access road, both of which may be paid for with money from the community preservation fund, which will also provide the town’s half of the purchase price. The fields there will remain unmown.
For the first time since the beginning of the long process, representatives of Boys and Girls Harbor spoke publicly and urged the town board to expedite the sale.
At the town board meeting on Saturday, Brian A. Waldbaum, an attorney at the Manhattan firm of Weil, Gotshal and Manges, which represents Boys and Girls Harbor, pro bono, along with Alan I. Sosne, a Bridgehampton attorney, stressed how Anthony Drexel Duke, the organization’s founder and a longtime East Hampton resident, and the Boys and Girls Harbor organization had worked to achieve the goal of having the land end up in public ownership, and decried the delay.
The organization chose to sell the property, they said, in order to direct funds to other parts of the nonprofit, and, Mr. Sosne said, had turned down offers of $9 million and $11 million in favor of the town and county.
“I stand before you today to express a degree of frustration on the part of the Harbor, its board, and the more than 2,000 children that it serves in East Harlem, Harlem, and the South Bronx,” Mr. Waldbaum said. “More than two years now have passed since the Harbor signed a contract to sell the property to the town and county. What should have amounted to a straightforward, win-win real estate transaction for all parties involved unfortunately has been met with repeated delays.”
“In choosing a buyer, the Harbor ultimately was guided by its philanthropic beliefs, its desire to serve the public good, and desire to give back to the Hamptons community that so generously embraced it for more than 70 years,” he said.
Mr. Duke, who established what was then called Boys Harbor in 1937 and later started the camp on its Three Mile Harbor site, next to his family house, is still active in the organization. “This is a gift Tony Duke has given,” Mr. Sosne said. “Now is the time. Tony’s 92 years old; he’s been waiting for this acquisition for years now.”
“We have been sitting on the sidelines. . . patiently waiting to sell the property,” he said. Mr. Waldbaum added that, “for whatever reason, since 2007 there have been letters to the editor, news articles, and lawsuits filed by neighboring landowners, which have impeded the closing process.”
Past objections to the purchase by neighbors have centered on a description by Suffolk County of its future use as for “active” purposes. The decision to include a center for artists in the management plan may also constitute an “active” use in the county’s eyes, Councilwoman Julia Prince said Tuesday, perhaps continuing the controversy.