Southampton Village Mayor Says He Wants A Ban On Mylar Balloons

New Southampton Village Mayor Michael Irving hinted last week that the village might consider banning Mylar balloons, concerned about the environmental impact of the metallic balloons when they get loose or are improperly discarded.“If you take a look at any of our beaches, you can just tie them together and you’ll have a great big long strand by the time you get back to your car. They are just all over the place,” Mr. Irving said at a Village Board meeting on Thursday, July 13.Referring to a local group, Southampton Advocates for the Village Environment, which earlier had helped the village enact a ban on plastic grocery bags, and singling out one of its key members, the mayor added, “I’ve always felt that we should take the initiative with Roger Blaugh and the SAVE group and outlaw Mylar balloons in the village, at least.”The discussion came just nine days after a Fourth of July incident when a loose helium-filled Mylar balloon floated into the power lines and caused a short that blew out a transformer on Jobs Lane during the holiday parade, causing a power outage that encompassed a large portion of the village.At last week’s Village Board meeting, Trustee Nancy McGann noted that she saw many vendors with huge bouquets of Mylar balloons along the Fourth of July parade route, noting that it disturbed her. The vendors come into the Southampton Village community without permits to sell the balloons, she said, and think “they own the community and they can make money off it.”“Clearly, Mylar is not anything we want floating around in our village,” Ms. McGann said. “I don’t want to see those guys next year, selling those balloons.”Though there is no proof that one of the vendors sold the balloon that floated into the transformer, Mr. Irving pointed out that there also is the concern that the balloons are destructive to the environment.“When you go offshore in a boat, you’ll find dozens of them,” he said. “They are pretty destructive, not only to the electricity but to the environment.”Mr. Blaugh said SAVE has been asked many times over the past 10 years to ban the balloons. He said lost or discarded balloons have been seen in dunes, caught in fishing lines and in gear used by workers dredging the bottoms of the bays, and tangled around all sorts of wildlife.Mr. Blaugh also noted that it’s not just Mylar balloons that are the problem but also typical rubber balloons that are released at weddings and other parties, which also are found all over the place.“While the village is concerned for the practical aspect of containing them, residents are very concerned about the environmental aspects,” Mr. Blaugh said. “From a human viewpoint, we all love balloons, so this isn’t a task we relish taking on for that reason. I wish there was an alternative, but for the moment at least, I haven’t thought of one.”After a strong push by SAVE, Southampton Village became the first community on the East End to ban plastic bags in April 2011. East Hampton Village followed suit in September 2011 and Sag Harbor also put a ban on plastic bags in place during the winter of 2015.The Village Board took no action, but Mayor Irving has asked SAVE to look into a possible ban.