Mashashimuet Park could be getting a new entrance, Sag Harbor Village’s deputy mayor, Ed Haye, announced at Tuesday night’s village board meeting. It would be moved south of its current location, he said, onto the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike, and could be folded into Suffolk County’s planned renovation to that road.
The village’s parks and open spaces committee has been in touch with County Legislator Ann Welker and the county’s Department of Public Works about adding the entrance construction to the road renovation, Mr. Haye said. “At each conversation, they have shown more interest,” he told his board colleagues. The road project, he said, “gives us the opportunity to say, ‘Hey, would the county consider funding and contracting in part a new entrance?’ “
Notably, any work would not disturb the park’s classic arch and pillars. “That would become a pedestrian and bicycle entrance and exit,” Mr. Haye said, adding that while the county would build the new entrance, it would not build the new road necessary to connect it through the park.
The county’s draft plan is focused on improving vehicle and pedestrian safety at the park’s entrance, he explained. Mr. Haye also mentioned “crafting a bike lane right through the intersection of Jermain onto Main Street.”
The county plan was first laid out at a contentious public meeting in June, where Public Works representatives also described transforming the turnpike to include, on both sides, a five-foot sidewalk, a three-foot utility strip, a one-foot traversable curb, and a five-foot shoulder that would double as a bike lane. The presentation received heavy criticism, mostly from environmental groups, among them Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt.
Bob Plumb, a trustee, echoed those objections on Tuesday, saying that he was against the “suburbanization of the village.”
“Road infrastructure, the lights, the changed entrance, the rest of it is further suburbanization,” he said.
But Aidan Corish, another board member, voiced support. “Having this opportunity is probably a once-in-a-generation opportunity to do something there,” he said.
John Shaka, chairman of the village’s planning board, who had consulted on the county’s current proposal, noted that these were “early drawings” and “not anywhere near finished.” Mr. Shaka explained why the changed entrance might be necessary. For one thing, the current county plan includes “raising” parts of Jermain Avenue to make it more pedestrian-friendly. “By raising intersections so you can walk across safely,” Mr. Shaka said, “they effectively cut off the ability of cars to turn off the road,”
Mayor Thomas Gardella said he’d like to have public input on the topic before anything is decided, which ended the discussion. According to Mr. Haye, the earliest that the project could go out to bid would be sometime in 2026.
