Meadowlark Lane—a Bridgehampton road that has been newly adopted into the Southampton Town Highway system—will soon be receiving nearly $900,000 in repairs and upgrades to bring it up to current safety standards.
After a series of debates among the nearly 30 homeowners on the block, the formerly private road—which was part of a network of 577 unimproved private roads in the town—was brought into the town’s highway system in October 2017. By becoming part of the town’s highway system, the nearly 3,000-foot-long Meadowlark Lane will benefit from services from the Southampton Town Highway Department, including snow plowing and other routine maintenance—plus the town footing the bill for bringing the stretch of road up to code.
It was not clear as of earlier this week what exactly the “road reconstruction” would entail and when the work would begin.
The secondary road was in poor condition when the town brought it into its system, according to officials. The road has not been fully maintained since its creation in 1967, as no homeowners’ association was ever established to manage Meadowlark Lane.
To finally finance the road project, the Town Board approved a pair of walk-on resolutions during its January 3 organizational meeting to pay for the work with an $898,000 bond and add the Meadowlark Lane road improvements to the capital projects portion of the budget.
Before the road was brought into the town’s highway system, some homeowners were concerned that joining the town would ruin the country-feel of the road. Being a private road meant no random cars parked on it and no traffic would cut through besides those who live on the street.
But as the town adopted the road in the fall, Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman vowed to work with homeowners to keep the country feel of the road, while also bringing it up to current safety standards. He also said at the time that he intends to put it in the town code that there shall be no public parking on Meadowlark Lane, even though it is a public street.
on Jan 8, 2018