Letters

A recent Letter to the Editor praised the Town Board Democrats for adopting the 2016 Coastal Resources and Water Protection Plan. Unfortunately, this plan was completely ignored by the Town Board Democrats when they decided that the waterfront site at the Bel-Aire Cove Motel in Hampton Bays should be developed into luxury condominiums.

The Democratic-led board is poised to give Hampton Bays not one but two sites for battery storage systems, even though these systems pose fire and other threats to neighboring residents and the water supply; an “opportunity” to turn a Good Ground Park parking area into a major public thoroughfare; a proposed sewage treatment plant next to the cemetery and the park; and, for the fifth summer season, the pleasure of seeing the boarded-up, falling down Bel-Aire Cove Motel. Government is notoriously slow, but five years to demolish the Bel-Aire Cove Motel is absurd.

The Democratic-led board doesn’t read the contracts it approves, publicly insults those who disagree with it, ignores its own comprehensive plans and has become the prime lobbyist for a developer.

The rumor mill says that a new Democratic-led board would create a new position of town manager, and that this new position would be filled by the current supervisor.

This is not to say the current board has not done some good things. As the supervisor noted, it has dumped 6 inches of asphalt on Dune Road and abandoned plans for a white tablecloth restaurant at Ponquogue pavilion.

I am a registered Democrat, but party affiliation seems irrelevant in Southampton Town politics. I’m looking for a candidate who articulates positions on current specific issues, not one who relies on the past. I’m looking for an independent candidate, not one who needs to hire termed-out board members.

Democrat, Republican, Working Party, Green Party, a write-in candidate? I’ll see how election season goes.

Mary Pazan

Hampton Bays