Letters

Whoever said “irony is dead” had obviously never met the leadership of the Southampton History Museum. 

In May, the taxpayers of the Southampton School District approved a tax levy of $290,000 to help underwrite the activities of the museum. One would think that a reasonable — if not a required — response to such generosity would be a “thank you” from museum leadership. Nope, not with this group.

We now learn that the museum is suing the Town of Southampton [“Southampton History Museum Will Sue Town Over Conscience Point Ownership ‘Conspiracy,’” 27east.com, May 28]. That’s right — the very same taxpayers who were willing to support the museum will now have some portion of their town tax payments diverted to defend the town against this ill-advised assault on a reasonable position taken by the town, rooted in solid research, regarding the ownership of land at Conscience Point. 

By the way, it is quite possible, since I believe the museum commingles funds, that town taxpayers will be paying some portion of the museum’s legal bills as well. Pretty ironic, huh?

Is there no one on the museum’s board who is willing to stand up and say, “Stop this madness”? The taxpayers of this town deserve museum leadership that is willing to sit down and negotiate a reasonable way out of this reckless, destructive escalation of a dispute that should never have reached this point.

Tim Bishop

Southampton

Bishop was the 1st District representative in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2003 to 2015 — Ed.