There are salient arguments to be made both for and against the proposed Marsden Street land acquisition by the Sag Harbor School District. But that debate is turning quarrelsome —... more
There’s a certain irony to the fact that local elections have the biggest direct impact on people’s lives — yet they regularly have the lowest turnout, much lower than, say, a presidential election, where every single vote is a tiny drop in an ocean of democratic decision-making. Your vote in the November 4 town elections — early voting begins October 25, which makes it even more convenient to get to the polls, compared to scrambling to cast a ballot on a single Tuesday — will determine how your property tax bill is spent, how your town will develop (or not), ...
22 Oct 2025 by Editorial Board
Nothing happens in a vacuum, and the timing of Southampton Town’s proposed purchase of a $400,000 Lenco BearCat armored truck, coming as federal troops are on the streets in some cities and masked ICE officers appear to operate outside normal law enforcement norms, was bound to raise some concerns about the ongoing militarization of local police forces. But Southampton Town Police Chief James Kiernan has made a compelling case for the purchase: It’s a piece of equipment that might appear excessive — until the moment it’s needed. And at that moment it’s not just necessary, it likely will save lives. ...
by Editorial Board
Last week’s Express Sessions event in Southampton Village, part of a five-part series called “Local Matters” — upcoming events will turn to Sag Harbor, East Hampton, Hampton Bays and Westhampton Beach — was largely dominated by a trio of interconnected issues: traffic, most significantly, but also affordable housing and the need for septic solutions. As it turns out, the three are so intertwined that you simply can’t discuss them individually, and no “solution” will slay this three-headed dragon alone. Still, there was a great deal to take away from this first conversation, and it impacts the entire South Fork, because ...
15 Oct 2025 by Editorial Board
The three-day weekend just past is generally known as Columbus Day weekend, but in recent years the holiday has an alternate identity, Indigenous Peoples’ Day. More than four decades after the idea was first suggested in 1977 at a United Nations conference, former President Joe Biden issued a proclamation in 2021, making it a federal holiday alongside Columbus Day. President Donald Trump countered that proclamation with one of his own last week, restoring Columbus Day as the lone federal holiday, bringing it “back from the ashes,” in his estimation. This matters only symbolically, except for the federal holiday designation — ...
by Editorial Board
Sometime in November, it appears that some new traffic patterns will appear along County Road 39. They won’t be brand new — they are the result of a great deal of testing and trial-and-error this year, led by Southampton Town Highway Superintendent Charles McArdle. For the first time, though, they will become the full-time rules of the road. Generally, that could be beneficial. The ad hoc changes along the busy highway, particularly in the afternoon to try to deal with the outflowing westbound traffic, create confusion and probably add to slowdowns, at least at first. This way, drivers who regularly ...
8 Oct 2025 by Editorial Board
Anyone who believes every local issue is cut-and-dried, and simple to resolve, should take a closer look at Poxabogue Field in Sagaponack, and at least acknowledge just how thorny a choice the Southampton Town Board faces. On the surface, it should be simple. The eight-plus-acre farm field would have become just another high-end subdivision, but the late Geri Bauer bought it in 1987 — a time before the Community Preservation Fund and other farmland preservation efforts had been born — to keep it in agriculture. In 2021, with the CPF firmly in place, she completed the task by selling it ...
by Editorial Board
The price tag will create the first response among Sag Harbor School District residents — $35 million to $40 million is a hefty figure, even though any substantial renovation of a school building can be expected to come in at that price — but here’s hoping they take a moment to look beyond the bottom line. Pierson High School is already an outstanding institution of learning: The quality of young people who are graduating and going on to bigger and better things is truly remarkable, and their accomplishments while in high school are head-turning. The district regularly gives students with ...
1 Oct 2025 by Editorial Board
Governor Kathy Hochul deserves credit for giving New York State residents a shot in the arm, figuratively and literally. The mess that is the federal Health Department has effectively muddied the waters on COVID vaccines. This is to be expected: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long been a vaccine critic and skeptic; he has stacked the department with like-minded pseudo-experts who are eager to look past most vaccines’ proven benefits to try to find hidden, lurking dangers. The damage is being done: Many people now are wary of vaccines, for themselves and their children, after trying to wade through the ...
by Editorial Board
Visionary and groundbreaking legislation designed to protect commercial enterprises operating along the waterfront was signed into law, with deserved pomp and circumstance, by Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine earlier this week along the commercial docks in Greenport. The legislation sets aside an initial $9.5 million to purchase conservation easements on so-called “working waterfront” businesses, including commercial fisheries and marinas, protecting them form encroaching residential development. The easements would give the current business owners some breathing room in the face of eager developers who would turn the properties into sprawling waterfront McMansions. In an era of political divisiveness, it was refreshing ...
by Editorial Board
Southampton Town Highway Superintendent Charlie McArdle isn’t wrong when he says that his department shouldn’t bear the cost of emptying the sidewalk trash cans along the main street business districts in Hampton Bays, Bridgehampton, East Quogue and Water Mill. Quietly and abruptly removing those garbage cans on Tumbleweed Tuesday, however, resulting in piles of trash accumulating on the concrete pads where they used to stand, in an effort to draw attention to his complaint, lacked finesse on the highway superintendent’s part. For decades — longer than many can remember — the Highway Department has maintained the sidewalks along Montauk Highway ...
24 Sep 2025 by Editorial Board
