East Hampton Town

Consider C.P.F. Buys

    Two properties being eyed for preservation through a town purchase with the community preservation fund will be the subject of an East Hampton Town Board hearing next Thursday at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.

    The board will take comments from the public on the proposed purchase of 1.1 acres at 8 Deer Path in Springs, owned by Barry McCallion and JoAnne Canary. The cost is $385,000.

    A second hearing will center on the addition of a property just shy of five acres, at 889 Fireplace Road in Springs, owned by Charles Miller, Valerie Meyer, Denis Gates, and Debra Gates to the preservation fund list, which includes all properties that could be purchased with the preservation fund.    J.P.

New York State

Thiele’s Enviro Endorsements

    Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. of Sag Harbor has announced three endorsements from New York State environmental organizations: the Sierra Club’s Atlantic chapter, the New York League of Conservation Voters, and the Long Island Environmental Voters Forum. Mr. Thiele is running unopposed for re-election in the Second Assembly District on the Indepen

    The Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor has invited the public to watch the presidential debates between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on Wednesday, on Oct. 16 from Hofstra University in Hempstead, and on Oct. 22. They will be shown on a large projection-screen television. The Joe Biden-Paul Ryan vice presidential debate on Oct. 11 will also be shown, as will election night coverage. Doors open at 8 p.m., and the debates begin an hour later.

Admission is free. Drinks and snacks will be available for purchase at the bar in the theater’s lobby.

    A preliminary plan to tear down the old Star Room, before that the Swamp nightclub, at East Gate Road and Montauk Highway in Wainscott, and replace it with a 5,400-square foot car wash, came before the East Hampton Town Planning Board on Sep. 12.

    The former discotheque, on a roughly 50,000 square-foot parcel, has been closed for over 10 years. “It’s an eyesore,” said Dianna Weir, the board’s vice chairwoman.

    According to the plan, presented by Laurie Wiltshire of Land Planning Services, drivers would enter from the highway, go east to join a two-lane queue that narrows into one lane, exit the car and wait west of the building. There are four garage doors in front of the building where cars could be detailed, and a proposed second entrance from East Gate Road.

    Jefffrey Schneider, a partner in the planned business, estimated that it would handle about 150 cars a day. It would be state-of-the-art, according to Daniel Bell, whom Ms. Wiltshire introduced to the board as an expert on the industry. Mr. Bell works for a company called Ziposhine, which is a car wash consulting firm.

    “The car wash process will probably be one of the most automated on the island,” he told the board. According to Mr. Bell, the facility would be “self-sustaining,” with a minimal impact on the water table. “I have equipment here that will recycle 160 gallons a minute,” he said. “No car wash I have ever done actually uses that much water.”

    “We treat the water as if we were a sewer company,” he continued. “We treat it down to five microbes. I wouldn’t drink it, but it does give us a quality wash for customers who are paying what they have to pay for a car wash today.” He said the plan used 1,500-gallon underground tanks, “no non-biodegradable chemicals,” and “centrifugal separators,” which stay in operation 24 hours a day to keep the water free of particles.

    “The car wash itself would be normal business hours, not open at night,” said Mr. Schneider. “There is a need for a car wash. Everybody I talk to in the community, they have to go to Southampton  or Amagansett. That is one of the reasons that Tom [Barton, his partner in the venture] and I decided. We’re trying to make a car wash that people in all these communities can use.”

    Some elements of the plan might provide a bit of controversy. The building is set toward the rear of the lot, with the required parking spaces in the front. Parking is normally located to the side or rear of a business. Mr. Schneider pointed out, however, that the 30-plus spaces, while required for a business this size by town code, would seldom if ever be used, since most car washing is an in-and-out process.

    Patrick Schutte expressed some concern about possible noise from the business, but Ms. Wiltshire said on Monday that the building was designed to address noise. All the machinery is inside, she said, including vacuums and blow-dryers.

    “I don’t think there is a noise issue,” Ms. Weir said during the hearing. “As long as screening is good, I see this as a good use of the property.”

    The Wainscott Retail project, where Whole Foods was this summer, is just east of the proposed car wash, and Reed Jones, the board chairman, reminded members that in May, when the board approved that project, the biggest concern was over traffic. He said an independent analysis would be needed to study the impact of the car wash proposal.

    The future of the retail project is uncertain following the death of its owner, Gregg Saunders, in a traffic accident this summer.

    Another bone of contention for the car wash could be the entrance proposed for East Gate Road, which is a residential street.

    “Think of the alternative,” Mr. Jones said on Tuesday, pointing out that the site is approved for use as a nightclub or late-night bar.

    Also at the meeting, the planning board gave preliminary approval to a subdivision off Further Lane in East Hampton. The proposed subdivision, submitted under the corporate name of Estates at Further Lane for land owned by Ron Baron, would divide a 37-acre parcel of beachfront land into three lots, ranging from about 129,000 square feet to 171,000 square feet. Because at least five houses are proposed, a special clause of the Long Island Workforce Housing Program was triggered, and the East Hampton Town Board decided recently to allow the developers to pay into the Nassau-Suffolk Affordable Housing Fund rather than provide affordable housing on Further Lane.

    The board also had a preliminary discussion about a possible letter to be prepared for the town board concerning possible changes to the town code, based on feedback from planners, lawyers, and the public.

    Southampton Town Councilwoman Bridget Fleming defeated Jennifer Maertz by a wide margin in a Democratic primary on Thursday to determine who will represent the party in a bid to unseat Republican State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle in the Nov. 6 general election.

    “The voters have spoken loud and clear,” Ms. Fleming said after the announcement of preliminary results last Thursday, which showed 79 percent of votes in her favor. “They no longer want to allow their tax dollars to be distributed to the rest of the state,” she said.

    Unofficial results posted by the Suffolk County Board of Elections on Friday had 2,031 votes for Ms. Fleming and 531 for Ms. Maertz.

    Mr. LaValle’s office issued a statement Friday saying, “No matter who the opponent, I have always run on my record. I am proud of my exceptionally strong record of economic development, job creation, and real property tax relief and proud of the support I have received in the form of endorsements thus far.”

    Mr. LaValle has been endorsed by the Long Island Environmental Voters Forum, Sierra Club, the New York State League of Conservation Voters, the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, New York State United Teachers, and the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association of New York.

    “I am proud to have had the ability to deliver legislative and fiscal relief for every part of the district,” his statement said.

    Ms. Fleming and about 30 supporters watched the results last Thursday night at the Water’s Edge restaurant in East Moriches, a somewhat central location in the First Senate District, which stretches 70 miles from Middle Island to Fishers Island and Montauk Point.

    “We did it,” said Ms. Fleming, upon the concession from Ms. Maertz. She thanked many people including her staff and volunteers, who went door to door with her, and made the calls that she credited for her victory. Also essential to her win, she said, was an endorsement from Senator Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat, and her No Bad Apples PAC; Gordon Herr, the chairman of the Southampton Democratic Committee, and Lisa Tyson, director of the Long Island Progressive Coalition. “Senator Bridget Fleming has a nice ring to it,” said Mr. Herr.

    “It was an easy choice,” said Ms. Tyson of the coalition’s endorsement, which gave Ms. Fleming additional staff to use for her campaign. “We really believe in her,” she said.

    “We have had nine Republican male senators,” Ms. Tyson said. “We need another voice to represent progressives, a community that has not been heard from. She listens to people, and has been able to negotiate, that is a rare thing.”

    Ms. Fleming has also been endorsed by the nonpartisan Women’s Campaign Fund, Emily’s List, a Democratic organization, the New York State Public Employees Federation, Communication Workers of American Local 1108, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the Working Families Party.

    Across the bay in Miller Place, Ms. Maertz received the results that she said were “disappointing, of course.” In an interview Friday morning, she said she was also disappointed that “the Democratic turnout was just horrible.” The low voter turnout, that she said she heard was around 4 percent, was a “combination of the date and that people seemed to not know there was a primary. We have to find a way to increase people’s understanding and importance of voter participation,” she said.

    “I don’t know right now if I will run again,” said Ms. Maertz, who ran as a last-minute replacement against Senator LaValle in 2010. Her immediate goal, she said, is to “take a rest,” and then volunteer to support candidates who show dedication and “are running for the right reasons.” She will also help to get Representative Tim Bishop re-elected to Congress, and continue her work as chairwoman of the East End Dem Women, a group whose goals include the increased political involvement of women on the East End and in Brookhaven.

    Ms. Fleming will now focus on gathering resources and support to oust Mr. LaValle, who has represented the First Senate District for 36 years.

    “It is no longer okay to take this district for granted,” she said. “Voters of eastern Suffolk County care deeply about where their tax dollars go. . . . They are not for special interests; they are for us, our families, our education, and our local economy and education.”

    If elected, Ms. Fleming would become the first woman from Suffolk County to serve as state senator.

    A four-year battle that began in the spring of 2008 with the construction of  a gate at 17 Beverly Road in Springs may finally be drawing to a close, as the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals began preliminary deliberations on the drawn-out affair on Sept. 11.

    The saga began when Lee David Auerbach, the owner of the Beverly Road property, decided to erect two stone columns and a six-foot metal gate at the end of the private road leading to his house. Because of the height of the gate, he needed and obtained approval from the town’s architectural review board May 15, 2008.

    The town’s chief building inspector at the time, the late Don Sharkey, issued a building permit for the gate and in July 2008 issued a new certificate of occupancy for the property.

    Mr. Auerbach and Eric Pearl, a neighbor who opposes the gate, agree on these points, but not much else.

    According to Jeffrey Bragman, Mr. Pearl’s attorney, the A.R.B. approval was improperly obtained because Mr. Auerbach had not contacted Mr. Pearl about the meeting, despite the fact that Mr. Pearl was in negotiation with Mr. Auerbach about the gate. Mr. Auerbach had told his client that A.R.B. approval was not required, Mr. Bragman claimed, then went before that board. “He snuck into the A.R.B. with a fence that would need approval,” Mr. Bragman told the board on Aug. 14, during the continuation of a November 2011 hearing.

    “This case began in deception, and the deception continues today,” Mr. Bragman said.

    “Mr. Bragman’s conduct is discourteous and unacceptable,” Mr. Auerbach’s attorney, Theodore Sklar of Esseks, Hefter, and Angel, wrote to the zoning board on Sept. 11.

    Robert Connelly, the attorney for both the Z.B.A. and the A.R.B., would not comment on the case directly, but did say that the architectural review board, unlike the other town boards, does not notify potentially affected neighbors when an applicant comes before it.

    In fact, Mr. Connolly added, it is only recently that the A.R.B. even began to post its agenda as a public notice in The East Hampton Star.

    After learning of the A.R.B.’S approval of the gate in May 2008, Mr. Bragman contacted the board, telling it that there was opposition to the project that had not been heard.

    The A.R.B. held another hearing in June 2008, at which the neighbors were invited to weigh in. Mr. Bragman argued before A.R.B. at the time that the gate required approval by the planning board because it would be on a private road, and would be covered by a town law governing turnarounds on private roads.

    “The planning board was asked, ‘Do you have any comments?’ ” Mr. Sklar said at the Aug. 14 Z.B.A. meeting. “There was no response.”

    In Mr. Bragman’s eyes, that second 2008 A.R.B. meeting, as well as a phone conversation he had at the time with the board’s attorney at the time, Maddie Narvalis, is proof that the A.R.B. had reversed its approval of the gate.

    However, according to Mr. Connolly, once an application is voted upon, approved, and signed by any of the town boards, including the A.R.B., the decision can only be reversed and reopened by a unanimous vote of the board. Such a vote does not appear to have occurred in this case.

    “The whole A.R.B. thing,” Mr. Sklar said. “What a canard. There is no resolution rescinding anything.”

    “They were reopening the hearing,” Mr. Bragman said of the June 2008 meeting. He contends that the board simply dropped the ball, bringing the opposition in, and then failing to follow up on what it had heard.

    One of the reasons Mr. Pearl gave in 2008 for opposing the gate was that it prevented access to the turnaround at the end of the private road. According to Mr. Sklar, in July 2008, Mr. Auerbach agreed to make the gate inoperable, locked in an open position, so that access to the turnaround could never be denied. Mr. Sharkey issued the building permit shortly after that and issued a certificate of occupancy in February 2009.

    Since then, Mr. Pearl has continued to oppose the gate. Mr. Bragman cited a 2008 memo opposing the construction from Tom Talmage, the town engineer, stating that the gate is on a road which could eventually become a public road, and that it eliminates the possibility of a shoulder, creating a safety hazard.

    In 2011, Tom Preiato, the town’s new head building inspector, took up the case, making an appeal to the zoning board to reverse Mr. Sharkey’s certificate of occupancy. In the appeal, Mr. Preiato wrote that he “believed” the certificate should be revoked.

    Mr. Sklar argued that Mr. Preiato could either revoke the permit or not, but it was not in the board’s purview to act on a statement of belief from Mr. Preiato, and that Mr. Preiato had not presented any findings to support revocation.

    Mr. Preiato’s failure to actually revoke the certificate was merely a “ministerial” error, Mr. Bragman told the Z.B.A., and could be corrected by the board stepping in and revoking it itself.

    The Z.B.A. began to discuss the case during its Sept. 11 meeting without getting into specifics, but it did talk briefly about Mr. Preiato’s failure to revoke the certificate of occupancy.

    “Keep that process in mind,” the board’s chairman, Alex Walter, told fellow board members. “What it should be as opposed to the way it was.”

    The board, which has a very busy schedule of hearings in the next few weeks, could reach a decision on the matter at its next work session on Oct. 9.

    A meeting on the regional impact of helicopter noise and traffic out of East Hampton Airport took place in Southampton on Monday, hosted by Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst, Southampton Councilwoman Christine Scalera, and Congressman Tim Bishop. No representative of East Hampton Town, which owns the airport, was present.

    A recent change in helicopter routing, taking more of them over Bridgehampton, Sag Harbor, and Noyac, prompted the meeting. Representatives of civic groups, some formed specifically for the purpose, attended Monday’s meeting. The goal was to ease the noise burden on any one area.

    A multitown helicopter noise committee will meet on Monday in Brookhaven. That meeting is expected to include East Hampton Town Board members, advisers from the Federal Aviation Administration, and representatives of the Eastern Region Helicopter Council. According to a release issued by Ms. Throne-Holst on Tuesday, the Southampton group intends to bring up for discussion flight curfews, restricting aircraft takeoffs and arrivals, altitude guidelines, and clarifications regarding East Hampton Town’s obligations to the F.A.A. under grant assurances, which are agreements as to airport operation put in place when federal money is accepted.

    Supervisor Throne-Holst said the Southampton group would also review East Hampton Airport flight data, and plans to present a “multipronged proposal” for consideration. She called the meeting in Southampton “a productive first step towards achieving measurable relief” for affected residents of the town. “I call on those who can make this a reality to join us on the 24th with that positive and productive mindset in place,” she said.

    “Ultimately, the goal of this ongoing process is to reduce the overall burden of aircraft noise on all residents of the East End, and all options should be put on the table for evaluation,” said Mr. Bishop. “While the East Hampton Airport is under local control, I am committed to working with all stakeholders including the F.A.A. to negotiate and implement a long-term solution to this serious quality-of-life issue.”

    Kathleen Cunningham, the chairwoman of the Quiet Skies Coalition, which participated in this week’s discussion, said in her own press release that it was unfortunate that neither East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson nor Councilman Dominick Stanzione, the town board’s airport liaison, was at the meeting. Neither was Jim Brundige, the airport manager.

    “Longtime airport noise abatement advocates are frustrated by the lack of coherence in East Hampton’s approach to airport noise mitigation as there is no plan or obvious relationship between decisions affecting residents and their peaceful enjoyment of their homes and properties, and airport assets, such as the recently installed seasonal air traffic control tower, long touted as a noise abatement tool,” she said.

    At an East Hampton Town Board work session on Tuesday, Mr. Wilkinson said that he would be at next week’s meeting.

    In the First Congressional District rematch, Representive Tim Bishop has 52 percent of the likely vote, a 13-point edge over Randy Altschuler, his Republican opponent, according to a Siena Research Institute press release issued last Thursday.

    In 2010, Mr. Bishop won by a margin of 593 votes, and the Siena poll taken three weeks before that year’s election had Mr. Bishop with a double-digit lead over Mr. Altschuler.

    “I fully stand by the 2010 Siena poll,” said Steven Greenberg, a Siena College pollster and public relations consultant, who wrote the poll press release. “It was accurate at the time, just as this year’s poll is accurate in the period it was conducted.”

    “Voters suffer from amnesia,” he said, explaining that early polls tend to favor incumbents. “Most voters don’t keep up with politics when an election isn’t coming up.” Mr. Greenberg said a lot can change between now and Election Day, as voters will see a barrage of ads and attacks that may influence their choice. “Voters educate themselves up until they submit their ballots,” he said.

    Mr. Greenberg called Altschuler campaign accusations that Siena polls are liberal-leaning, “silliness,” and he explained that New York is two-to-one Democratic, “so obviously Democrats will win most elections.”

    The current poll was taken on Sept. 5 through 10 via phone calls to 624 likely voters, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percent. It is the first independent polling for this district. Eighty-seven percent of Democrats said they support the congressman while 67 percent of Republicans back Mr. Altschuler. Ten percent of unaffiliated voters are undecided.

    The two candidates will appear together on Sunday at 4 p.m. at the First Baptist Church in Riverhead for a meet-the-candidates gathering hosted by various civic organizations. They will meet voters again on Monday at the Hampton Bays Senior Center at 7 p.m.

    Team Bishop is on the offensive, reacting to a Tuesday Wall Street Journal article, “Presidential Race Mirrors L.I. Election,” which reported Mr. Altschuler’s outsourcing company, OfficeTiger, was incorporated in the Netherlands while he was C.E.O. in the early 2000s. “It should come as no surprise that a guy who made millions outsourcing American jobs also outsourced his own company to a tax haven,” Robert Pierce, the Bishop campaign’s communications director, said in a press release.

    “That’s the same campaign he ran two years ago,” Diana Weir, a spokeswoman for the Altschuler campaign said. “What they won’t tell you is that Randy has since founded a new company, which President Obama praised last year.” The new company, CloudBlue, is an electronics recycling firm that “created 400 American jobs.”

    The Siena poll reported 51 percent of likely voters think Mr. Bishop would best represent their community’s interests on the most important issue of jobs, compared to 35 percent for Altschuler.

    “This poll speaks for itself,” Mr. Pierce said in an e-mail. “We’re fewer than seven weeks away from Election Day, and we’ll continue to work hard through Election Day.”

    “Altschuler’s extreme Tea Party allies, fellow outsourcing pioneers, and their shadowy Super PACs have already poured a million dollars into this race in outside spending, and that is surely just the beginning,” Mr. Pierce wrote. “Make no mistake, this will be a close race.”

    “We have the endorsement of Republicans, Conservatives, and Independents this time around,” said Ms. Weir, who noted that around 7,000 voters registered with the Independence Party cast ballots for Mr. Bishop in 2010. “We have the momentum, now.”

    “More Democrats show up in presidential elections,” Mr. Greenberg said, reiterating Mr. Pierce’s statement. “With swing voters making up nearly 30 percent of the electorate, this could be anybody’s race.”

    The Siena poll’s favorability ratings reveal a statistical tie between President Obama and Mitt Romney at 49 and 46 percent. Most voters side with the president on taxing the wealthy and women’s reproductive health, but by a margin of 49 to 44, they would like to see Obamacare repealed.

    Siena plans to conduct a subsequent poll closer to Election Day.

    The United States Department of Commerce issued a disaster declaration last Thursday for New York State’s fishing communities, one that could pave the way for financial relief for hard-pressed commercial fishermen.

    Reacting to the possibility of severe quota reductions in the Northeast and Southern New England groundfish fisheries, the state’s Congressional delegation joined last spring with the governors of four New England states to ask Washington for the declaration. Lawmakers requested $100 million in federal relief for fishing communities.

    In April, the National Marine Fisheries Service reduced the allowable catch of cod, perhaps the most important of 13 groundfish species, by 21.6 percent and indicated that even more drastic reductions would be required in 2013.

    Quota reductions for yellowtail flounder and winter flounder were also promised, for a total cut in production of about 70 percent, a level that the governors of Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire said would devastate their fishing communities.

    New York Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, and Congressman Tim Bishop joined in the request for federal disaster relief.

    The governors’ letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi stated that potential harvest reductions added to already restrictive quotas “will be damaging to our fleet at a time when many businesses are already struggling to remain viable. Consequently, conditions are now overwhelmingly in favor of a disaster declaration, and we are hopeful the Department of Commerce will act swiftly on all pending requests.”

    In addition to “targeted economic assistance,” the disaster funds would also be used for cooperative research “focused on improving stock assessments and the systems of data collection for the fishery. The severity of the potential consequences of inaccurate or uncertain science demand that all steps are taken to ensure that the data used is as robust and accurate as possible,” the governors’ letter stated.

    “There are so many problems with the data they have. They are projecting fish stocks based on data from three years ago. Stocks are rebuilding, but not fast enough according to a human model,” Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Montauk-based Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, said on Tuesday. She called the timelines for rebuilding depressed stocks unrealistic, and joined other critics of the government’s plan in saying that the government’s low stock assessments were occurring even though fishermen had kept to the catch limits.

    Senator Schumer has asked that the fisheries service extend its recovery timelines in order, said Ms. Brady, “to allow the regional [Fishery Management] councils more flexibility.”

    It has not been determined how the disaster funds might be best spent. “We don’t want retraining,” said Ms. Brady. “This is a momentary blip. You don’t have to sell the farm. According to models, stocks are rebuilt, but we can only catch 30 percent because the science is not funded. So they throw caution upon caution.”

    The Army Corps of Engineers is seeking a decision from East Hampton Town about what tack to take for future dredging of Montauk Harbor and erosion control along the nearby western shore.

    At a town board meeting on Tuesday, Brian Frank, an environmental analyst at the Planning Department, laid out the options and their costs, estimates developed in 2010. Three alternatives had been presented by the Army Corps to the town board and to the public at two forums in June.

    The first, to maintain existing conditions at the Montauk inlet, would be fully paid for with federal funds. That plan would call for periodic dredging to maintain a 12-foot depth and 150-foot width in the channel, with a 50-foot wide “deposition basin,” which is an additional dug-out area to collect sand that would otherwise cause shoaling.    

    Under an “enhanced navigation” option, the channel would be deepened to 17 feet below sea level, and the deposition basin widened to 100 feet. A new area of dredging at the southeast end of the inlet would be included, and the spoil would be deposited on the West Lake Drive beach to the west of the inlet.

    Of a total projected cost of $26 million for that work, the town would be expected to pay $801,000.

    The third option would combine the “enhanced navigation” scenario with shoreline stabilization work to address the chronic erosion problems to the west of the channel, along the Soundview Drive beaches. Additional sand from Gin Beach would be deposited there, and three low-profile groins constructed to maintain it, perpendicular to the shore.

    That would create what qualifies under federal definitions as an “engineered beach,” meaning that, should a storm occur and an emergency be declared, the town would qualify for federal money to restore it.

    To complete that work would cost the town $1.5 million, out of a $41 million total. The state would pay $3.6 million, and federal money would cover the rest.

    However, to proceed with option three would also require the town to obtain access to beach and groin construction areas by purchasing land or easements, and to fulfill other federal requirements regarding public access to the area, which would become a public beach.

    “Construction of these groins requires access to these beaches, which we do not have,” Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson pointed out.

    To achieve the required land access, he said, “would require nearly 100 percent participation [of] the property owners along that stretch,” Mr. Frank said. However, during a public comment period that ended in August, residents in the area said they were not only uninterested in participating, but objected to the idea. They expressed concerns about their property values, particularly the effect of establishing a public beach where the beach is now run privately by a property owners’ association.

    “I think we would be held up a long, long time, for a bunch of reasons, if we exercise option three,” Mr. Wilkinson said.

    Mr. Frank said that the three groins proposed would initially be made of geotextile tubes, and left in place for a trial period of 10 years so that their effect, down drift, could be observed. The groins’ size, height, orientation, and so on could be adapted before they would be permanently constructed out of stone or steel.

    Mr. Frank said both the Planning Department and the Natural Resources Department recommended the second option, which would “provide the best benefit to the town with the greatest flexibility.” Although the town’s staff is not opposed to the more comprehensive plan, “there are too many unanswered questions associated with that,” he said.

    “If there were a viable option for restoring a sandy beach west of the inlet, that’s obviously in everybody’s best interest,” Mr. Frank said, “for the property owners, for the public, for the environment.”

    “The fact of the matter is that Soundview, to Culloden Point, is 80 percent wrapped; it’s already been fortified on 80 percent of it,” Mr. Wilkinson said. Eventually, he said, “I think we need to wrap the other 20 percent of it — and plan for it.”

    Mr. Frank said that both the town code and the town’s local waterfront revitalization program plan “recognize that that’s an area where shore-hardening may be unavoidable.” But, said Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, “It’s also a section of beach where the L.W.R.P. says there shouldn’t be any perpendicular structures.” Should the town want to proceed with option three, “that would have to be reconciled,” he said.

    “That’s part of the unknown with option three,” Mr. Frank acknowledged.

    Mr. Wilkinson suggested modifying the second, “enhanced navigation” option to include a project the town would carry out, removing sand from the east side of the inlet, at Gin Beach, and adding it to the dredged material that would be deposited to the west. That would also address the buildup of sand at the inlet’s east side, which contributes to shoaling in the navigational channel.

    Mr. Frank was asked to research whether the Army Corps would accept such a hybrid.

    One potential downside of choosing that option, Councilman Dominick Stanzione pointed out, is that “we lose our insurance” if the built-up beach is not designated an “engineered beach” by the Army Corps, thus qualifying it for federal funds should it be eroded by a storm. “If we rebuild  this beach, and we lose this beach, we’re back to square one,” he said.

    But, pointed out Councilwoman Theresa Quigley, if the effort entails only dumping sand, and not building groins, the town wouldn’t be wagering much, nor would it be responsible for rebuilding a huge project after a storm.

    Mr. Halsey said that in his opinion, the rebuilt beach under option two should qualify as an engineered beach, but said he would research that as well.

    Board members also said their decision should take into account a lawsuit that has been filed by Soundview Drive and Captain Kidd’s Path property owners against the town and the Army Corps over the impact of the existing groins marking the channel on their eroding shores.

Southampton Town

Southampton Town Grants

    Applications are now available for certified 501(c)3 organizations to apply for annual grants from the Town of Southampton. Human services grants assist organizations that help people obtain employment, counseling, psychotherapy, health care, child care, and educational services. Cultural arts and recreational grants mainly assist organizations that encourage visual or performing arts and recreational programs.

     Applications are available at Town Hall or online at southamptontownny.gov/communityservices. Completed  applications must be submitted by 4 p.m. on Nov. 9; electronic applications cannot be accepted.

Culvert Repairs

    Members of the Southampton Town Board unanimously authorized emergency drainage repairs, in the amount of $4,250, earlier this month when drains at the Sagg Beach culvert on Sagg Road in Sagaponack unexpectedly collapsed. The emergency had to be addressed immediately as the water level was in danger of dropping dangerously low. The Highway Department contracted with Terra Tech Site Development Inc. to perform the necessary repairs.

Sagg Bars Weekend Construction

    Sagaponack Village amended a local law on Tuesday, following a public hearing, to prohibit construction on weekends from 3 p.m. on Saturday through 7 a.m. on Monday, from May 15 through Sept. 15.

    Mayor Don Louchheim told David and Suzanne Reynolds, who brought the issue to the board as a quality-of-life issue citing constant noise, to contact the building inspector if any construction should occur during prohibited times.

    Trustees also appointed two new members to the zoning board. John N. White, formerly an alternate member, will become permanent, replacing Linda Louchheim when her term expires in July, and Lauren Thayer will fill Mr. White’s alternate position.