Tom Gardella will be sworn in as Sag Harbor’s next mayor on July 3, giving the village an opportunity for a fresh start under established leadership, with someone who has... more
As Southampton Town considers aggressive action on sand mines, with plans to use amortization — a tool last used effectively to rid the town of nightclubs and bars the town considered nuisances — to finally end the practice, it’s important to cut through the rhetoric and state some facts. Sand mines serve a clear purpose and have economic value in a region where construction is a primary driver. But the town quite simply does not allow sand mining — that decision was made years ago, and what mines exist today are preexisting and nonconforming. Amortizing the properties is the last ...
11 Dec 2024 by Editorial Board
Talk is not a solution, but solutions won’t be found without a great deal of interplay between the officials making the decisions and the public that will be affected by them. So The Express Sessions event last week in Sag Harbor, which focused on the village’s parking woes, was, along with future public hearings before the Village Board, necessary for there to be any traction on the subject. In fact, one clear message at Thursday’s session, delivered by those in attendance: Communication is absolutely crucial. And it has been one area where the village can improve. Restaurateur Jesse Matsuoka, who ...
by Editorial Board
There’s an irony that Southampton Town officials might have the least power when it comes to the travel plaza featuring tax-free gasoline that is going up on Shinnecock Nation property in Hampton Bays — but also might be most at fault for the current situation. Neighbors are incensed that the nation is building the gas station off Sunrise Highway with seemingly little oversight. The Environmental Protection Agency has stepped forward to provide a framework for the sovereign Shinnecock Nation’s project, but also has allowed the nation to proceed mostly on pledges to follow EPA rules. A new development with thousands ...
4 Dec 2024 by Editorial Board
Stop digging. That’s the best advice we can offer the Southampton History Museum. When you’re in a hole, recognize it and, if you do nothing else, don’t make it deeper. And there’s a hole, and it’s deep, and it’s time to think about climbing out of it. It was foolhardy to think evicting the Conscience Point Shellfish Hatchery from the North Sea site owned by the museum, near where English settlers first landed in 1640, wasn’t going to land with a thud. Perhaps the hatchery could be a better tenant — there is fair concern about the sometimes disheveled state ...
by Editorial Board
We are thankful for the ocean, so near to us here on the South Fork, and the serenity of nature surrounding us. Every year, people make the voyage to the East End, often from more urban dwellings, precisely because even as the human population encroaches more and more, there is a stubborn stillness surrounding us that is rejuvenating. The towns’ willingness to preserve open space and to prioritize environmental conservation shines through, even as the crush of development soldiers on. We give thanks that, to quote Van Morrison, this is a place where you can still “become enraptured by the ...
26 Nov 2024 by Editorial Board
Starting a new job is always stressful. But Leydy Renteria-Merced might deserve a spa day after accepting the role of executive director of Centro Corazón de Maria, a Hampton Bays-based immigrant advocacy group. Timing is everything, and Renteria-Merced arrives just as Donald Trump is preparing for a January 20 swearing-in that will be followed quickly by what might be a maelstrom for the community she serves. The Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary founded the organization in 2002 as “a place of welcome and hope for underserved immigrants living on the East End of Long Island.” In taking up ...
20 Nov 2024 by Editorial Board
Budgeting is the most important task town officials have, and the brand new $134 million budget for 2025 will face a great deal of scrutiny. Taxpayers will note not only that it will pierce the state’s cap on tax levy increases and raise overall spending by 8.7 percent, and require 11 percent more in property tax revenues, but it adds 14 employees and hikes the salaries of those already on the payroll by $1 million. Compensation packages for the town’s 500 employees and retirees already make up more than $93 million of spending. It’s an acknowledgment that the town has ...
by Editorial Board
The Southampton Arts Center was filled with incredible talent, energy and generosity last Thursday — both on stage and in the audience, it was an all-star lineup of the men and (mostly) women who run the region’s nonprofit organizations. Having gathered for an Express Sessions conversation, it turned into a clarion call: Arts organizations, charities helping to feed families, groups focusing on aiding children, or animals, or historic preservation, or community health, or victims of domestic violence — they all had a unified message for the community — “we need help.” It must be said, the South Fork is a ...
13 Nov 2024 by Editorial Board
It’s refreshing: Bill Hillman doesn’t mince words. And Suffolk County’s top engineer, who officially retired last week, will be missed, if only for his candor. Speaking recently at a presentation on traffic challenges on the South Fork, the start of what is meant to be a comprehensive effort to find some solutions, Hillman came carrying a bucket of cold water. He not only splashed it in faces, he doused any smoldering hope for a moonshot solution to the gridlock that ails South Fork motorists and residents, in the summer and nowadays throughout the calendar. “We will tell you what works ...
6 Nov 2024 by Editorial Board
For the House Every single national election is important, but it’s not hyperbolic to say that this is an election like no other, and it requires a level of participation and engagement far beyond a typical November vote. It’s always important to have a healthy turnout, but in 2024 the nation’s future is on the ballot to a degree that we haven’t seen in recent history. This one will truly matter, for years to come. The bald truth is that Donald Trump is uniquely unfit to serve as president, considering character, demeanor and personal history. His four years in the ...
30 Oct 2024 by Editorial Board
