Letters

It has been my privilege to have served as your village trustee. I am proud of all I have helped accomplish, starting with upgrading our volunteer fire and ambulance department’s outdated and aging equipment and restoring the morale of these two most important organizations.

I advocated for hiring additional police officers to focus on traffic. Our increased enforcement efforts have significantly reduced commuter cut-through traffic on Somerset, Bishops and Corrigan. Going forward, we must resolve the same issues south of Hill Street. And we must increase our vigilance to stop speeding and other violations on all our village streets.

Keeping our village safe must be government’s top priority. Our first responders — police, fire, ambulance and ocean rescue — are the best in the country, fully prepared for any emergency and dedicated to assisting you.

We’ve continued to focus on protecting our environment, creating many bioswales to catch runoff and soon installing an underground permeable reactive barrier at the north end of Lake Agawam to neutralize the nitrogen percolating into the lake from the business district. Of course, a sewer is key, and I continue my commitment to seeing this essential project realized, but unfortunately the multi-node system some are advocating is clearly not the answer.

We’ve followed through on the village’s green energy program to become net carbon neutral and reduce your government’s energy consumption, saving taxpayers thousands in energy costs.

And we’ve done long deferred maintenance: new roofs on the Southampton Arts Center and Veterans Memorial Hall, helped fund renovating the Southampton History Museum, and repaving more than 20 village streets, the most in recent years.

Significantly, even doing all this, we’ve watched your tax dollars wisely and required no village tax increase in 2025.

Let me close by addressing two election campaign misrepresentations. First, Pond Lane is not going to be closed. Period. Pond Lane should be re-engineered to be safer for pedestrians, bicycles and cars and then repaved. It will not be closed.

Second, lack of transparency. Anyone who’s attended a board meeting or contacted me knows that I listen. That I have an open mind. I tell you my reasoning, not what might make you like me more. I weigh our residents’ input along with my nearly 70 years of living in and loving Southampton to make the decision that I believe is in the best long-term interests of the village.

Southampton is in a better place than two years ago — safer, greener, financially sounder. We’ve done a lot. There is more to do.

I humbly request you enable me to continue this good work by trusting me to represent you and honoring me with your vote on June 20.

Roy Stevenson

Trustee

Southampton Village