Letters

On several occasions over the past couple of years, I have heard Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman say that Hampton Bays should be a tourist destination. I agree but would go further and say that Supervisor Schneiderman doesn’t realize that Hampton Bays is already a tourist destination.

There are two exits off Sunrise Highway that give tourists access to Hampton Bays. Let’s talk about one of them, Exit 66.

The immediate area around Exit 66 contains superior accommodations for tourists, such as the Hampton Maid, the Canoe Place Inn and Cottages, the Ocean View Terrace Inn and the Canoe Place Boathouses.

The immediate area around Exit 66 contains excellent restaurants such as Edgewater, Out of the Blue, Cowfish, Tiki Joe’s, the Canal Cafe, R.Aire, the Good Ground Tavern and Manna, to name just a few.

The immediate area around Exit 66 contains several marinas, including Shinnecock, Modern Yachts, Mariner’s Cove, Spellman’s and Shagwong, a county beach at Meschutt Park, a canal, and two bays, the Peconic and the Shinnecock, for water activities.

Whitewater Outfitters is in the immediate area of Exit 66 and is ready to supply such activities, as are the many other businesses along East Montauk Highway. (Exit 66 is also a route to Ponquogue Beach and the Atlantic Ocean.)

If the proposed battery energy storage station facility is constructed at 26 North Shore Road, the view that tourists will see as they approach Exit 66 is a very large field of 30 industrial containers and their support structures.

Can you imagine a guest at the Hampton Maid asking the desk clerk where to jog and being told: “Turn right, follow the road around the bend, past the BESS installation, then take any one of the charming streets on the left to the bay”? Is a BESS what Hampton Bays wants tourists to use as their landmark?

Exit 66 is the gateway to a lovely residential and recreational area. An industrial BESS facility does not belong here. Can you imagine if Conde Nast or Travel and Leisure or The New York Times travel section seeks to profile Hampton Bays for their readership, and their first view of the area is the BESS at Exit 66? What a delightful photo that would be on the cover of a travel brochure!

I apologize for slighting the wonderful Hampton Bays Exit 65 businesses and attractions, which are also very attractive to tourists. They most certainly are, and I will list them when the Town of Southampton seeks to build a BESS in that part of Hampton Bays.

Joyce Metzger

Hampton Bays