Southampton Town Trustee incumbent Ed Warner Jr. (R)

Editor's Note: Seven candidates are seeking seats on the five-member Southampton Town Board of Trustees this year. The five incumbents—Republicans Jon Semlear, Ed Warner Jr., Brian Tymann, Eric Shultz and Fred Havemeyer—are all seeking reelection to another two-year term on the board. They are being challenged by Democratic candidates Bill Pell and Chris Garvey. The Trustees seats are considered part-time and come with an annual $23,900 per year salary for the regular Trustees seats and $30,300 for the president’s seat, which Mr. Semlear has held since 2007. All seven candidate answered a few questions from The Press on topics relevant to the Trustees’ work.

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Age: 50

Hometown: Hampton Bays

Occupation: commercial fisherman

Political Affiliation: Republican

Political Experience: Southampton Town Trustee since 2005

Do you think stormwater runoff is a problem the Trustees should be involved in trying to fix? Why or how?

We are involved in it. Fish Cove, one of the first stormwater projects, was closed to shellfishing and is now open as a conditional area. You had 30 to 40 guys clamming down there this year. We also need to educate the public about hard impervious surfaces on their properties. Any new houses, the roof should have gutter systems that are piped directly into dry wells so the water is contained on the property instead of running onto a roadway. I’ve done it at my house. It’s all about education. I spent my last two weekends meeting with homeowners and explaining how they can put stones and sand and natural indigenous plants behind their bulkheads. Each permit that I’ve issued on my watch I’ve been meeting with the homeowners personally.

Do you think the Trustees can or should be doing more to help the local commercial fishing industry? Why?

Just today myself and Eddie White put 900,000 seed hard clams in Noyac, 35,000 oysters in North Sea. A couple weeks from now we’re receiving another 100,000 scallops that are going into the bays in areas where there are not many juvenile scallops. I went to Albany and met with the commissioner of the DEC and they’re going to implement a weekly fluke quota as of the day after Thanksgiving, which makes the fishery more effective, cuts down on discard and makes it a greener fishery.

How should the Trustees be involved in improving water quality in the town’s freshwater ponds?

That’s an education thing also. We’ve sent out a mailer educating people on the problems with certain fertilizers and lawn chemicals. It’s going to be a very hard thing to enforce. Its just a matter of teaching people that what they put on their property ends up in the groundwater. We’ve put bubblers in some of our ponds, to help with oxygen. We’re restocking fish. Maybe cut down on phosphates. With the problems we’ve had in Mill Pond, Deerfield Road needs so much more runoff prevention.