Letters

I read with interest the article “Tupper Boathouse Work Goes Out To Bid For a Second Time” [Eastern Edition, July 11]. Southampton Town officials, by requesting an additional and acceptable bid from a contractor to stabilize, lift and reconstruct portions of the historic Tupper Boathouse in North Sea, are initiating Phase 1 of the Tupper Boathouse restoration.

As earlier reported in The Press article of January 25, 2017, “Residents Push for Tupper Boathouse In North Sea To Become A Maritime Center And Museum,” the North Sea Maritime Center, a nonprofit 501c3 corporation, was founded by a committee of North Sea neighbors to plan educational and recreational programs for town residents to increase awareness of historical and contemporary maritime activities and, working with the town, to act as stewards of the restored Tupper Boathouse.

We would like the reader to know how the structure will be used once it has been fully restored by the town. The building will serve as an educational and interpretive facility that will honor the structure’s history and celebrate the area’s maritime heritage and environmental significance: for example, wooden boatbuilding, sailing, navigation, boating safety, North Sea history, etc.

To develop and carry out these activities, the center’s board of directors plans to partner with the Southampton History Museum (the property owner of adjacent historic Conscience Point), the East End wooden boatbuilding community, and other nonprofit and local educational institutions that will all be able to take advantage of the Maritime Center’s convenient access to North Sea Harbor and Peconic Bay.

The NSMC Board of Directors looks forward to the initiation of the restoration project by the town, and to working with the town to develop this project to its full potential to serve the community.

Ann ReismanPresident

North Sea Maritime Center Inc.