Letters

Regarding “Business Owner Racks Up Nearly $40,000 in Sag Harbor Parking Fines” [27east.com, April 24]: My first impression upon reading the headline was, is this a joke? After reading the article, I was not only disturbed but aghast in disbelief.

Why this was not negotiated or dealt with amicably and earlier is beyond suspect. So much for small-town living.

As the article points out, the shop is literally next to the police station and village offices. Did anyone ever contemplate walking over and asking the simple question, “What’s going on here, and what might we do to resolve this or help?” How many tickets the “scofflaw” amassed (120) over six years (2017 to 2023) misses the point.

Our Main Street shops are the lifeblood of our village, yet they suffer under ever-increasing rent and cost issues, and not the least they suffer more than anyone due to the village’s parking issues. Witness the loss of six shops on Main Street out of some 60 stores in the last year. A 10 percent loss of any community’s downtown shops should be cause for alarm for everyone but certainly officials charged with our village’s well-being.

Additional context on this topic is provided by the announcement of a new chief of police [“Sag Harbor Will Appoint Drake as New Police Chief,” 27east.com, April 23]. How? Because the prior one was “allowed to retire” after being charged with 32 counts of misconduct, incompetence and insubordination among other less stellar performance issues [“Sag Harbor Reaches Settlement Allowing Police Chief To Retire,” 27east.com, March 15].

And for this we reward him with back pay of $260,000 and roughly $190,000 a year in pension, for a $7 million lifetime cost to our village tax bill! The same person who would have been responsible for issuing said parking tickets and simultaneously recording them as revenue for the village.

In the end, a shop owner is being charged $245 per ticket, issued largely during the pandemic, when parking spots were available, or serve 250 hours of community service.

My best guess, given the economics of small stores: Sag Harbor just might lose another Main Street shop.

What happened to “government of the people, by the people, for the people”?

Lawrence Haag

Sag Harbor