Letters

With regard to the Bel-Aire Cove Motel, I would like to mention a few things that are either not fair or make no sense.

Bel-Aire was bought about seven years ago. The supervisor at that time said, “Now that we own it, the building will come down and the property will be cleaned up.” What about the asbestos? Can’t it leach into the groundwater? Shouldn’t the new supervisor and board honor the previous supervisor’s statement?

Southampton Town spent millions of dollars on refurbishing Agawam Park and in making John Steinbeck Park. Turning Bel-Aire into Penny Pond Park (a pocket park) might cost only a small fraction of the amount spent on Agawam and Steinbeck parks. It seems like Sag Harbor and Southampton are favored over Hampton Bays?

The eyesore former Bel-Aire Cove Motel is not a credit to Hampton Bays or Southampton Town. It is not fair to its neighbors who must look at it every day. Of course, the rest of us can drive a different route so as to not look at it, but that’s not fair to The Station. They would lose customers.

Main Street in Riverhead has a new pocket park across the street from Suffolk Theater. It’s beautiful — just a big, green lawn that overlooks the Peconic River. I hate this term, “no-brainer,” but that’s what it was. An old building came down, and the town put in a lawn. It is used during street fairs, but it’s mostly a vacant piece of property kept “forever wild.” If you stand in the middle of that lawn, looking south, you see the beautiful river; looking north, you see the historic Suffolk Theater all lit up.

Southampton Town is a wealthy community. It can afford to have pocket parks that serve no purpose other than to look beautiful, especially looking at the water from the park, and to be kept wild.

I am not a lawyer, accountant or financial person, but I keep reading that “It’s CPF money” or “It’s town money.” It’s all Southampton Town money, and I heard there’s lots in reserve.

Please spend some and do Bel-Aire, finally.

Jim Dreeben

Hampton Bays