Sag Harbor Planners Set Hearing on John Jermain Memorial Library's Heating System

Despite disagreement over where new heating and ventilation equipment should be placed, the Sag Harbor Village Planning Board agreed on Tuesday to schedule a June 25 public hearing on the John Jermain Memorial Library’s application for site-plan approval for the work.

The library’s director, Kelly Harris, first appeared before the board to inform it that the library had a failing geothermal heating and cooling system that it needed to replace on an emergency basis. At that time, the library planned to place more conventional heating and ventilation equipment on a concrete pad on the north side of its building.

Board member Ronald Reed called that placement “unacceptable,” given that the library is a historic landmark in a historic district, despite the promise of the library’s architect, Robert Dructor, that the equipment would be well screened from view. Even if planners were to approve it, Reed said, he doubted it would pass muster before the Board of Historic Preservation and Architectural Review.

Reed quizzed Harris on whether the library had studied all the options for replacing the current system. “We are librarians. We do our due diligence,” she responded.

Board Chairman John Shaka asked if new equipment could be mounted on the roof of the library addition, but Harris said there would not be enough space for workers to access the equipment for servicing, plus the roof would have to be reinforced, increasing the cost of the project.

Reed asked if the equipment could be buried in a vault, so it would be invisible, but Dructor said the manufacturer had said that would not be feasible.

Reed then suggested that the equipment be placed on the southeastern side of the building next to the library’s main meeting room and courtyard. Harris and Dructor said they had avoided that area because they did not want to disrupt the programming that is held there.

Time is of the essence, Harris added, because the library will need six months of lead time to order the equipment and have it delivered on site. In the meantime, she said, there was a chance the system could fail completely, leaving the building without heat or air conditioning and jeopardizing historic documents that are kept in a climate-controlled archive.

The board agreed to schedule the hearing, and library officials agreed to consider the alternate location for the equipment.

The board also discussed the application of Page restaurant, which has proposed eliminating a second-floor apartment and replacing it with 39 additional seats. The issue has been whether the expansion would require a variance for the lack of on-site parking.

A decade ago, the village eased parking requirements for restaurants, requiring only one space for four seats, where it had formerly required one space for three seats. Around that same time, Page opened Back Page, a lounge area that fronted on Division Street. Board members and Tiffany Scarlato, Page’s attorney, have differed over whether the seating provided for Back Page should constitute the restaurant’s allowance for additional seating.

On Tuesday, Scarlato requested that the village consult with Denise Schoen, who was the village attorney at the time, and Tom Prieato, the former building inspector.

Shaka also stated that he had been asked to recuse himself from the application by Joseph Traina, the restaurant’s owner, for being biased against the application. Shaka read a statement, declining that request, stating, “I harbor no bias against this applicant. I seek to follow the laws of this village as enumerated in the village code.”