The East Hampton Town Board accepted a bid of $791,875 Tuesday for renovations to be made to the town’s dispatch center.
“Ronald Webb builder is the apparent low bidder,” Jeanne Carroza, the town’s senior purchasing agent, told the board. The board is expected to officially approve the bid at tonight’s meeting.
In July, the board approved a $1.5 million bond issue for improvements to the dispatch center.
According to his website, Mr. Webb is a “fourth-generation builder” located in East Hampton who also offers construction and pre-construction construction management and home maintenance repairs. Projects highlighted were all residential.
“There are other technology and furniture costs as part of the total renovation budget, some of which are not related to fire and ambulance dispatching,” Chief Michael Sarlo of the town police said yesterday morning.
He indicated that software and training specifically for dispatch would add another $377,803, bringing the total cost to $1.1 million, well under the bonded amount.
East Hampton Village and Town continue to trade barbs over the dispatch center after acrimonious negotiations this spring resulted in the town agreeing to take the bulk of 911 calls from across the township for the first time ever.
Brad Pinsky, who serves as a special counsel to the village, wrote Jake Turner, the town attorney, on Sept. 5, warning of “a likely taxpayer lawsuit over the improper taxation of village residents for 911 services.”
Because the village has its own dispatch center, he argued that the town couldn’t fund dispatch improvements using its “A fund” as indicated when it noticed the $1.5 million bond. Taxes paid by village residents land in the A fund, while the B fund consists of money from town residents residing outside of the villages of Sag Harbor and East Hampton. He argued that using the A fund would impose a double taxation on village residents.
“Instead, the town must utilize its ‘B fund’ to exclude the villages and to ensure that only the town’s residents who utilize such services pay for such services,” he wrote. “If we cannot convince you to avoid taxing village residents for this unwarranted charge, we will be forced to seek a court order prohibiting such taxation.”
Mr. Turner, in a letter dated Sept. 8, seemed to indicate it was a misunderstanding, because of a typo. The renovations were designated as a B-fund project in the adopted 2024 capital plan, he wrote.
“Thank you, specifically, for notification of the typographical error in the town’s Aug. 19, 2025, resolution which mistakenly referenced the ‘town’s general fund townwide’ [the A fund] as the payment source for debt obligations associated with bonding for the town’s dispatch center,” he wrote.
On Sept. 9, the town board adopted a resolution correcting the error, listing the payment source as the B fund.
“Again, thank you very much for bringing this to our attention,” wrote Mr. Turner, perhaps with a touch of sarcasm.
“I trust that in the future if something of this nature occurs again, then you, or somebody from the Village of East Hampton, would communicate with the town in a less formal manner as this is simply a typographical error as evidenced by the adopted capital plan. Threats of litigation over something of this nature are well outside the town’s intention to maintain a strong working relationship with a fellow municipality.”
In the past, Mayor Jerry Larsen indicated that if the town were to attempt to charge fire districts, such as Springs, Amagansett, or Montauk, that the same “double taxation” principle would apply because they’re already paying taxes for police services, which include dispatch.
He said the village was able to charge the districts for the service because the village doesn’t tax town residents.