Letters

The loss of the National Grid gas ball lot on Bridge Street to the private account of the chairman of Friends of Bay Street Theater is a vital blow to the residents and visitors of Sag Harbor, especially the men and women who work downtown who depend on it.

This should not have happened.

Dating to my first year as a trustee, I worked to save the former National Grid/KeySpan/LILCO gas ball lot on Bridge Street from development, in favor of public parking. KeySpan had agreed to a multi-year lease based on a nominal $10 a year rent.

After the London-based utility National Grid took over, the story began to change. The company insisted it had to offer the property for sale to the highest bidder, and the public interest be damned. I pushed back as hard as I could, including throughout my term as mayor.

But things then got even worse. Somehow, toward the end of the process, both the village and the theater lost out, because the applicant for the property turned out not to be Friends of Bay Street, as publicly announced, but instead a private, for-profit LLC, under the personal control of the chairman of Friends of Bay Street Theater.

That’s right — the award of a 99-year lease validated by the Public Service Commission last week gives the property not to the Village of Sag Harbor, nor to Friends of Bay Street for parking, but rather to 10 Bridge Street, a for-profit LLC, for who knows what.

It is not too late to let the New York State Public Service Commission know how the public interest has been so badly served in these interconnected events. The case should be immediately reopened and the interests of the people of Sag Harbor should be served.

I urge everyone to call or write the New York State Public Service Commission, Albany, NY 12223-1350.

James Larocca

Sag Harbor

Larocca is the former mayor of Sag Harbor — Ed.