The founder of a group that promotes fitness and the outdoors urged the Sag Harbor Village board on Tuesday to improve the community’s access to its surrounding waterways.
There are now seven places in the village where a public right of way meets the water, according to Drew Harvey, founder of the group, Dawgpatch Bandits. Ed Haye of the board’s parks and open space committee had asked him to speak during his report to the board.
In nearby municipalities like Shelter Island and Block Island, said Mr. Harvey, the towns prioritize these areas, preserve them, and make access to the water easy and obvious. “Some of our locations have not been kept up to the standard they may have been previously,” he said, “and other public access points have been lost over the decades.”
“We’d like to formalize them with a marker and standardized signage, to let people know they can access the water there,” Mr. Harvey added. He suggested building “hitching posts” at the site. The signage might also educate the public about the village’s maritime history, he said, and the accesses should be made A.D.A.-accessible.
“I’m all for getting signage,” said Mayor Gardella. “What’s disturbing to me is the runoff, and the way it’s not mitigated at many of these spots.” The board might take the opportunity to explore ways to improve water quality at the access points as well, the mayor said.
“I think it’s great,” said Aidan Corish, a trustee, and proposed raising money for the hitching posts by offering naming rights. “We could have people fund the posts far in excess of the cost of the posts, and the excess could go to mitigating stormwater runoff,” he half-joked.
While the board was supportive, John Parker, a member of the harbor committee, was less so. “I find myself being the old guy here, remembering things from the past,” he said, recalling that a similar proposal had been shot down specifically because of fears that raising the visibility of the access spots would bring in people from away and create parking and traffic problems. Some of the locations are in residential neighborhoods.
Despite Mr. Parker’s reservations, the board agreed to Mr. Harvey’s suggestion that signage costs at water accesses be included in a Request for Proposal approved by the board last month. That R.F.P. involves hiring engineering and traffic consultants to study several other village properties.
In his report on the village’s sewer system, Mr. Corish said that its proposed expansion, which the village hopes will add 85 to 90 houses to the wastewater treatment plant, “is going to be one of the single biggest projects the village has ever undertaken.” To put it into perspective, he talked dollars. “Our last annual village budget was just over $15 million — the grants received to date for the sewer expansion are just over $10 million. A further $7 million in grants is pending.”
To complete funding, he said, the board needed to consider a different process, perhaps hiring a full-time village manager to assist. “We can’t expect existing village personnel to just absorb this into their regular work schedule and carry on.”
Mayor Gardella supported the idea, especially in light of another large pending project for the new Emergency Services Building.
After the committee reports were read, Susan Mead of the Sag Harbor Partnership presented to the trustees “the last check for the fireboat,” for $17,285. The partnership raised over $100,000 for the boat over the last three years.
Two proposed laws, one to increase the height of permitted gates and the other on tree preservation, both the subjects of multiple public hearings, are still in the works. Public hearings on both remain open until next month’s board meeting, when the board plans to vote on them.
Lisa Stenson Desamours, president of the Sag Harbor Hills Improvement Association, has written to the board, asking to hold the association’s 75th anniversary party on July 12, a Saturday, at Havens Beach.
