Letters

It’s a sunny Sunday; my friends are at Sagg Main Beach. I’d love to join them. Instead, I’m debating whether to spend the $30 to park there. Or if I should bite the Schneiderman bullet: $350 for a seasonal pass.

Alas, we live in Sag Harbor Village, on the wrong side of the road — the East Hampton side of Division Street. Sagg Main is in Southampton Town. Live on the “right” (west) side of the road, and you’re in Southampton, where a seasonal beach pass is $50.

For most of the four-plus decades we have lived here, it was on the East Hampton side of the road. Until three years ago, all village residents paid the same nominal fee for Sagg Main and Fosters/Long Beach access.

That was the custom of the centuries, going back to whenever Sagg Main was developed as a public beach. The division line goes back to when the village was incorporated, and dueling supervisors got into a snit over in which town Sag Harbor would lie. The solution: Bisect the village with a new road leading from Long Wharf. But the shifty Southampton surveyors pushed the road 50 yards from where it was supposed to be.

Yet all was peaceful until three years ago, when Supervisor Jay Schneiderman decided to impose a hefty fee on the East Hampton side of the village, which covers two-fifths of the homes. A great many of those homes are in the three historically Black neighborhoods. Yes, they have their own bay beach, but we can chalk that up to centuries-old bias that kept them apart by choice and culture. Now they are subject to a tax if they want to use the nearby ocean beach. Let’s call it unconscious racism on the Southampton supervisors and the Town Board that approved the plan.

The first year, the village coughed up $10,000 to Southampton to satisfy Schneiderman. We all could use the nearby beaches as before. Since that seemed like extortion, the village passed on this the last two years.

And here we are today: Live on the wrong side of Division Street, no exceptions, and you are stuck with the $350 fee. Kinda like a poll tax.

One last note: Sag Harbor owns the land — in Southampton Town — on which the local dump on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike sits. Everyone in Sag Harbor/Noyac/North Haven can use it. Legally, the village could charge Southampton Town residents who live outside the village a fee beyond the green bag charge for using it.

In fact, there is a fee. Southampton Town pays $10 annually.

Here’s hoping Schneiderman and the new mayor, Tom Gardella, have a conversation, soon. Summer has weeks to go.

Lorraine Dusky

Sag Harbor