Letters

As I was stopped at the traffic light at the corner of Hampton Road and Nugent Street and North Main Street, I looked diagonally across the street and saw what I thought was an electrical box from PSEG, and thought, how ugly. When driving through the village, I saw several more on Main Street — 10 more, to be exact.

I learned they are the new solar garbage cans that the present administration ordered for our beautiful historic village.

As a former trustee of the Village of Southampton, I know that the solar garbage can company came to us to see if we wanted to buy them for our village. We thought, we are a village that loves our shade trees, so how could this possibly work? We decided to try it out at Coopers Beach, on loan from the company, and found it to be OK there (full sun), but we didn’t order them.

When I was voted into office in 2005, we had 35 garbage cans distributed throughout our village. They were old, and at the time we really needed so many more than 35. We met with the Department of Public Works, asking, if they could design a garbage can, what would it be like?

They wanted it to open on the roadside, with an inner can that would slide out, an opening large enough for a 2-liter soda bottle but not large enough for household garbage, and a top that would protect the rain from entering the can.

We designed it, and it was made. We ordered 75 to replace the 35 falling-apart cans.

The idea of a solar garbage can sounds wonderful, and I know that company sells it as requiring less labor. My concern is, first, it is aesthetically unfitting for our community — and if you still had the Beautification Committee, they would have told you that. Second, because we have shade on Main Street, I doubt they will work. Third, having 10 on Main Street, spaced so far apart, people will have to hunt for a garbage can — and, believe me, if it isn’t close by, we’ll find garbage in all sorts of places, such as our flower boxes, etc.

Why don’t current administrations look to the history? We put a lot of thought into everything we did. This garbage can investment is so disturbing. They cost a fortune, and they are a blight on our beautiful historic village.

I believe you made a costly mistake.

Nancy McGann

Southampton Village