North Haven To Move Forward With Plans To Resurface Village Tennis Court

The North Haven Village Board on November 20 voted, 4-1, over the objection of Trustee Terie Diat, to accept the bid of $183,400 from South Fork Asphalt to resurface the tennis court next to Village Hall.

Diat said her concern was that the village only has $78,000 on hand to cover the work, and that the remaining $105,000 would have to come from the village’s general fund. That fund, which has been as high as $1.5 million, has been depleted, she said, because last year the village used $551,000 of fund proceeds for one-time budget items.

Other board members noted that the $78,000 is a COVID-19 grant that will expire if the village does not use it by the end of the year.

Mayor Chris Fiore said that the $105,000 balance for the tennis court work would come from a $200,000 payment Jeffrey Greene agreed to pay as part of the subdivision process for his property at Tyndal Point.

“I think it’s a pretty risky thing to do for a tennis court,” Diat said.

Fiore countered, “I’m not worried Mr. Greene is going to stiff us.”

Fiore added that the surplus fund would likely be replenished because the village typically spends less than what it budgets for.

The mayor did acknowledge that the tennis court rebuilding project came in much higher than the approximately $100,000 he was expecting. Stasi General Contracting submitted a $195,000 bid for the job.

Fiore noted that the project “is a prevailing wage” job, which “prevents you from getting some of the best quotes that you could get. And I’m afraid it prevents you from getting some of the best work you could get, but that’s the way we live.”

Other Business

• The board also agreed to use $68,000 from the general fund to pay Cardo Site Development for the work it has done to install a modern, nitrogen-removing sanitary system next to Village Hall. That money will be reimbursed by Southampton Town, which gave the village a Community Preservation Fund water quality grant for the project.

• The proliferation of political campaign signs has spurred the board to consider tightening its zoning code to outlaw the placement of temporary signs for everything from political campaigns to benefit performances on village-owned property.

Residents would still be allowed to post the signs on their own properties, Fiore said, but they would be only allowed to display political signs starting a month before an election and would be required to remove them two days after the election.

Diat said the current code appeared to show that all temporary signs, including political ones, were illegal in the village. Fiore questioned whether that would be a violation of a property owner’s First Amendment rights, which could also apply to limits placed on the length of time those signs can be displayed.

The board agreed to discuss the matter at its December 3 work session.

• Trustee Claas Abraham, who oversees traffic-calming measures for the village, said he had been in contact with Sag Harbor and state officials about getting permission from the state to reduce the speed limit on some roads in the village to 20 mph.

Abraham said he expected it would take some time for the State Legislature to act on the request, and he said the village did not have to reduce the speed limit on all roads, but he said some streets, like Fresh Pond Road, would be much safer if the speed limit was reduced.

• Abraham also told the board that a recent survey showed the number of ticks to be greatly reduced in the woods near where four-poster feeder stations are placed for deer. The devices coat the deer’s shoulders with insecticide when they feed on corn that is left for them.

Abraham said he thought the recent drought may have played a role in the reduction of ticks, but he said anecdotal evidence led him to believe the four-posters were proving to highly effective.