Letters

Anyone with a lick of sense can see putting a playing field in a depression in the land — or building anything there — is a bad idea from the get-go.

It’s the reason that the land at Marsden Street has stood vacant and unbuilt for decades. Depressions collect runoff water from the adjacent land. Build up that land, and the nearby structures are likely to flood. It happened when houses on Division Street put in swimming pools; houses on Rogers Street on the other side of the block suddenly found their basements flooded.

Is the plan to fill the land and raise it so that it’s flat enough for a playing field for field hockey and soccer? Since the road there lowers to follow the curve of the land, it’s going to need either a substantial wall to hold the dirt back — or is the plan also to raise the road? Is that also figured into the budget, already at $6 million-plus, or will that simply fall to village taxpayers, adding substantially to the cost?

And since building costs for projects go up as time passes, whatever is projected is likely off by a surprising percentage. You know, a couple of million.

After turning down Community Preservation Fund money because the town would not go along with such folly, the Sag Harbor School Board is bypassing a necessary environmental review to push this to a vote on a Tuesday in May when second-home owners are likely not to be around. This is absurd.

What is also absurd is that all this will not accommodate baseball or track. Kids in those sports will still be “burdened” with the mile-plus walk to Mashashimuet Park, which they have been doing for generations. Now, do we need buses to transport these kids? Ca-ching, ca-ching.

This is not about a small group of nearby residents who are against having that land turned into a playing field with synthetic grass, a grandstand and other facilities. My husband and I do not live near Marsden, but I well know the area. Every single important civic group is against this plan. Residents, including the families of school-age children, should wake up and walk away from this plan with their vote.

Money should go to Mashashimuet Park to upgrade the fields and facilities there for all sports teams that play outside. The Marsden plot could be turned into a passive park for biology field studies and for the casual enjoyment of all residents. It could be a place to walk your dog — with signs to pick up after your pup.

The vote is May 16. Put it on your calendar. Vote for the environment. Vote no on the Marsden madness.

Lorraine Dusky

Sag Harbor

Dusky is a former chair of the Sag Harbor Village Zoning Board of Appeals — Ed.