Letters

Recently, in these pages, the departing highway superintendent offered a dubious proposition to his successor candidates: effectively, to carry on his legacy of picking fights, grandstanding, obstructing town operations, wasting taxpayer money, and missing opportunities to improve our traffic problems [“Pleasure To Serve,” Letters, October 28].

Charles McArdle and Tom Neely don’t need me to tell them how much Alex Gregor’s free advice is worth.

Specifically, Mr. Gregor prodded the candidates to sign their own good names onto his contrived lawsuit against our club that has already torched $50,000 of taxpayer money, and promises to flush multiples more into the pockets of Mr. Gregor’s crony lawyers long after he’s gone and unaccountable.

This is the same lawsuit that the highly respected town attorney has agreed, on the public record, is totally unsupported by the clear historical facts and documents, invites dire consequences for the town’s highway system, and that he hopes gets quickly dismissed. Both Suffolk County and New York State officials have said that our town attorney is 100 percent correct. The lawsuit has been ridiculed as “frivolous” and a “wild goose chase” by the Town Board in recent meetings. And The Press editors have called Mr. Gregor’s claims “wishful thinking, at best, and a downright land grab at its worst.”

Unfortunately, people of integrity couldn’t penetrate Mr. Gregor’s thirst for headlines in his final year. As his encore, he wants to taint the next administration with his personal vendetta, audaciously claiming that he’s documented his concocted theories. In fact, not only has he produced zero evidence whatsoever, he continues to brazenly ignore abundant, indisputable proof that he’s dead wrong.

Please don’t take my word for it — ask our town attorney, or the Suffolk County Department of Public Works, or State Department of Transportation. I’m confident that Mr. McArdle, as the winner, will do exactly that, rather than spend a penny based on lame-duck goading from Mr. Gregor.

Southampton residents will benefit greatly from a new highway superintendent bringing dignity to that office and focus on the job for which he is elected. Mr. McArdle appears to be an immense upgrade: an ethical, longstanding public servant, ready to work constructively with Town Hall to find solutions to our transportation problems, and ready to work hard for our town residents, not pick fights with them.

Our club stands ready to work with Mr. McArdle to make his tenure successful in so many promising ways that Mr. Gregor ignored in favor of roguish antics like fake signs, taunting “selfies” and harassment.

We welcome Mr. McArdle with a spirit and pledge of cooperation and partnership in finding public-private solutions to the unsustainable traffic problems in the County Road 39 corridor, or wherever we might help.

B.N. Pickett

President

Shinnecock Hills Golf Club