Corish, Plumb Will Run Again in Sag Harbor Village

Two long-serving incumbents on the Sag Harbor Village Board, Aidan Corish and Bob Plumb, have said they plan to run again in the June election.

Plumb said he would seek his fourth term back in February when incumbent Mayor Tom Gardella announced he would seek a second term, but Corish said at that time he was still on the fence.

This week, Corish, who serves as the board’s liaison to the sewer treatment plant and its grant-writing efforts, said he would seek a fifth term.

The village is just getting started on a multimillion-dollar effort to expand the reach of the sewer treatment plant, starting with extending lines up Rysam Street on the East Hampton side of the village and the Bridge Street area on the Southampton side.

“I want to see the sewer project through,” said Corish. “I feel I’m well placed to serve the village with a large amount of institutional knowledge. We are about to dig holes after eight years, and I don’t think it would be fair to walk away.”

Corish said he was also looking forward to working on new parking regulations that are being introduced this year and will allow residents to apply for parking permits for certain lots in the village. The permits will be free for village residents and $15 for residents of the Sag Harbor school and fire districts.

He added that he would like to see the village restart an effort begun last year to do long-term capital planning.

“Maintaining the character of the village is my primary, major concern,” said Plumb. “Of course, there’s going to be development, but we have to make sure it fits the confines of the village.”

Plumb said a major change that has occurred in recent years is the increase in the number of speculative houses being constructed in the village. “Developers come in and they want to build the largest house they can on a lot. It changes the whole dynamic of the village.”

He said he thought an initiative he had put forward, to have an architectural consultant appointed to the Board of Historic Preservation and Architectural Review, was beginning to pay dividends in how that board approaches applications.

Plumb said he also looked forward to working on a comprehensive plan, which the village plans to begin in the coming months. He said he would ask that the village base long-term planning with an estimated 2-foot rise in sea level, “so if it comes to pass, we’ll know how to deal with it.”

For the short term, Plumb said it was essential that the village provide more employee parking this season after promising it would do so a year ago. The village has been talking with the Sag Harbor School District about using some of its parking lots for that purpose when school is out of session, but said he thought the village might be able to put in diagonal parking along Bay Street near Cor Maria to provide some extra spaces as well.