Hint of Hypocrisy - 27 East

Letters

Southampton Press / Opinion / Letters / 2080825
Feb 28, 2023

Hint of Hypocrisy

Assemblyman Fred Thiele has long been one of the strongest and most effective advocates for change and improvement of life on the East End, but his condemnation last week of Stony Brook Southampton as the greatest slumlord in Suffolk County comes with more than a hint of hypocrisy [“Thiele Decries Dilapidated State of Stony Brook Southampton Facilities,” 27east.com, February 23].

Fred Thiele was very much aware of the dreadful condition of Stony Brook Southampton dorms and administrative buildings last year, when he used his influence in Albany to provide Stony Brook with $500,000 to replace missing blades on the 300-year-old windmill — which Southampton Village was attempting to return to its original home on Windmill Lane.

Assemblyman Thiele, like others who attended the short-lived Southampton College, remembers that windmill as a highlight of his college days. He knew he would deprive Southampton Village, the only village on the East End without a windmill, but instead suggested that the village build a replica instead of moving the historic windmill back to Windmill Lane, where it would be officially designated a national historic monument and confirmed as the oldest windmill in the United States.

Porter Bibb

Southampton