Letters

In February, Sagaponack Village approved a 100-foot cell tower to be erected on its half-acre parcel, and right behind Village Hall. It’s about to be constructed — an ugly poke in the eye for anyone who has a vision of Sagaponack as beautiful. The cell tower is a symbol of aesthetic depletion, a prominent example of “who the hell cares about the look or the proximity of people and businesses that are too close.” Shameful.

The cell tower will loom over the building, once a cow barn and stable, which, before the stakes went into the ground, was essential Sagaponack. The village was established in 2005 as beautiful enough to be itself. However, the contract that was signed in February is so embedded with federal government dictates that an ordinary citizen is without recourse.

For 55 years, beginning now, according to Homeland Towers, Sagaponack also will be a place where you will get a cellphone signal.

In July, the Village Board was presented with an option for another location. One member of the board reacted, calling for an executive session. But it seems that midway between a “discussion” and the regular board meeting scheduled for August 21, survey stakes were pounded into the ground behind the Village Hall. This appears to make moot the discussion, doing so with a mallet, not a gavel.

The fact that the Village Board refuses to fight for a different location is turning the adage “Where there is no vision, the people perish” into a parody. Grotesque.

Lee Foster

Sagaponack