Letters

On August 5, this paper published my purported Letter to the Editor [“Seeds Of Development”] about the Southampton Town Board manipulating Hampton Bays property in the defunct overlay district to pave the way for development. But The Press omitted a key concept by removing some of my words in the letter, then putting my name as author.

My letter showed the history of the former Chamber of Commerce building in Hampton Bays to illustrate how the Town Board is violating the terms of sale that the town agreed to when the town bought the property — that (1) the building would be preserved forever, and (2) its tenancy would be a social service group.

The Press omitted from my letter the restriction that the structure be preserved forever. The preservation restriction is key to demonstrate how manipulative it is that the town, in 2019, (1) refused to rent the property to a group for special needs adults, because it wanted to swap it for another property or use it as a second entry to a park, (2) then failed to maintain the property in a rentable condition, and (3) is now saying it needs work and may be demolished.

My letter’s point was to show that Southampton Town has and will violate its promise to use and preserve a building and property it instead wants to demolish and swap (sell to a developer?) or use other than promised.

The town is ignoring its promise to preserve the building that is the seed of development in the defunct overlay.

Carol McCarville, Esq.

Hampton Bays