Letters

It has taken the U.S. Coast Guard approximately two hours to undo about 20 years of efforts on the part of the residents of Hampton West in improving the quality of life in our neighborhood.

Simply drive down Stewart Avenue into the development, and on your right is the old U.S. Coast Guard housing site. You will notice that all of the windows have now been boarded up with plywood — it looks horrible. Like what you would see after a fire. The reason why is since the Coast Guard has pulled out of the neighborhood, there have been break-ins and some vandalism.

I would like to point out to everyone reading this that the association that I am president of had urged the Coast Guard to put up some real security, like 24-hour security and not fake signs about cameras. It wasn’t hard to figure what was going to happen when you leave 26 units standing empty, and it has been advertised that they are empty, and you provide no security. And it is equally frustrating to hear that standard line that “we don’t have money in the budget to hire 24-hour security.”

From the very first day, some of us at Hampton West had concerns that vandalism and break-ins would happen. Now that they have, the Coast Guard solution is to simply board up the lower windows of the structures with total disregard as to the appearance that it makes.

People in the neighborhood are outraged — I hear it all the time, I could hardly step out my door without someone coming over and asking what is going on and why are they doing this. The more cynical of us say to me that it’s another example of how government has held us down. I hate to say it, but I’m coming around to that position.

In the meantime, our association will be holding meetings, and we will come up with a strategy to change this truly horrific situation. I will only point out that whatever happens to the Coast Guard housing site will have an effect on the Village of Westhampton Beach.

Wish us success.

Forest Markowitz

Westhampton Beach