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Age: 68
Hometown: Bridgehampton
Occupation: private investor
Political Affiliation: Republican
Political Experience: Southampton Town Trustee since 2001
Do you think stormwater runoff is a problem the Trustees should be involved in trying to fix? Why or how?
It’s one of the most important things we deal with. The whole effort we’re doing with buffers right now, whether it’s sheet runoff or road runoff, we’re working with it all the time. We’re constantly encouraging the highway department to clean storm basins. There’s been so many new driveways put in and roads opened up and places that were heavily vegetated that are now sparsely vegetated, it’s so much more extreme now. I started the Lakes and Ponds Association because I wanted to see people take the bull by the horns, so to speak, and start planting buffers along the freshwater and saltwater edges.
2. Do you think the Trustees can or should be doing more to help the local commercial fishing industry? Why?
The Trustees are very involved in the shellfishing industry. We’re always striving for the purity and productiveness of the waters. Just this moment I opened Mecox Bay. And Scallop Pond and Wooley Pond, the baitfish that they produce go on up the food chain and bring the migratory finfish back to our waters each year. We do breeder sanctuaries for clams and scallops and oysters. And we redistribute clams around the town so that they will enhance our wild stock.
3. How should the Trustees be involved in improving water quality in the town’s freshwater ponds?
We’re in a very extensive study of Mill Pond in Water Mill. We’re about two-thirds through the study and we’ve learned that the phosphorus level in the pond is five times higher than it should be. We’ll use this study as the template for how we work with other ponds that have problems. A great part of the problem is from runoff. We need homeowners and farmers to use much less fertilizer and herbicide. People have to start viewing their water bodies as something much more special. We’ve put Wickapogue Pond on the front burner, in Southampton Village. The vast majority of the lakes and ponds in Southampton don’t have any severe problems.
on Oct 30, 2009