Letters

I want to take issue with the graph depicting the spending increase in Southampton Village in an advertisement published in the Eastern Edition of The Southampton Press last week. The sponsors of the ad sought to discredit the Epley family in doing so, but that is just a smoke screen.

The truth is that one group absolutely has been controlling the direction of Southampton Village all these years — that group is the Southampton Association.

Everyone knows that whoever controls the money also controls the way things are run. The Southampton Association has been extremely successful. Do you remember the Tuckahoe merger? The Southampton Association did not want that merger to happen, and they had the money and power to make sure it didn’t — twice. That merger would have been great for our kids right about now, because it would have allowed the schools to spread out and maybe even have the high school kids in school full time. Make sure you give them all a big fat “thank you” for ruining that one for all of us!

In truth, the only reason our taxes have gone up every year is because the Southampton Association has allowed it. They have proven quite successfully that if they don’t like something, they have the power to stop it. Most of them don’t even live out here full time, preferring to leave town after Labor Day and head for a winter in Palm Beach. As long as they have their cocktail party circuit and private clubs, they really don’t care what happens to the rest of us the rest of the year.

In order to exert this control, they need “their people” on the various village boards — and by “their people” I mean people they control with power and money and the promise of reelection. Should one of “their people” disagree with any of the special interests they try to push through, they simply pull their support and move on to a more malleable candidate willing to do their bidding.

Ask around and see which former mayors and trustees fell out of favor with this highly influential group, and you will quickly see a very obvious pattern.

So, thank you, Southampton Association, for publishing that chart so we can all see just exactly how far you have pushed this village in the wrong direction.

And thank you for letting us all know that Joe McLoughlin and Gina Arresta are your new lackeys ready to do your bidding!

Poppy Ellison

Southampton