A special section, Main Street, produced by The Sag Harbor Express in February 2012, earned a number of awards at last weekend’s New York Press Association Better Newspaper Contest, including a first place prize for business coverage and a second place award for in-depth reporting. 

It’s official. The Sag Harbor Express earned the most total contest points for a single flag newspaper in The New York Press Association 2012 Better Newspaper Contest, held this past weekend in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

As a single newspaper, The Express placed second in the contest for editorial awards, and third for advertising awards.

In its division, The Express took a first place award in coverage of local government, a first place for best special section holiday edition for The Holiday Book and a first place award overall in coverage of business, financial and economic news, in part, for the special Main Street business section published in February 2012.

“The writing is thorough and demonstrates keen knowledge of the community,” wrote the judges. “For depth and breadth, this entry is a clear winner.”

Claire Walla also earned a first place feature award for her cover story on The Sag Harbor Variety Store which appeared in the Main Street section.

“This reporter can write,” said the judges. “She took a profile about an ordinary store, albeit an old one and turned it into both an entertaining and well researched story about the community that flowed nicely from lede to conclusion,” wrote the judges.

Advertising director/sports editor Gavin Menu earned an honorable mention nod as Sportswriter of the Year.

“Gavin is great with ledes on routine game stories,” the judges said. “He takes the time to make game stories individual, varying from the same old coverage.”

Editorial cartoonist Peter Waldner also took a first place award.

“Great job of tying in the season in the community with a national issue,” writes the judges of Waldner’s pumpkin-themed political cartoon. “Not a partisan sniping going on here, just a thought on many people’s minds.”

The Express also earned a second place award for in-depth reporting for its special section on Main Street, a second place award for best special section for the E magazine publication, Voyeur, third place recognition for best historical, anniversary or progress editions for the Main Street special section and a third place award for best editorials.

“Well argued positions tackle important local and national issues at the level of the community,” said the judges.

In the design categories, The Express took a first place award overall for Best Use of Color.

“Perhaps it is a prejudice for size, but when you combine the quality of printing here with good photography, well designed and wonderful touches throughout — on a sheet the size of Manhattan — it really comes across in a spectacular way,” wrote the judges.

The paper also earned a second place best special section cover for E magazine’s The Summer Book and a second place award for best real estate/home section.

Photographer Michael Heller earned a number of honors at the convention, including first and second place awards for best sports action photo, a third place finish for best spot news photo, a third place award for best feature photo, a first and second place award for best art photo and a second place award for best picture story.

“The enthusiasm shines through,” said one of the judges of Heller’s sports action photography.

In advertising, The Express took top honors throughout all divisions of the competition, earning a first place award for Advertising Excellence.

“Front page ads are eye catching, elegant and mesh with editorial content,” writes the judges. “The Summer and Holiday Book are full of useful information.”

Other advertising awards included a second place finish in best large space ad, a second place award for best small space ad, an honorable mention for best multi-advertiser pages and an honorable mention for best special section advertising.

The contest was judged by members of the North Carolina Press Association and awards were presented during the New York Press Association’s annual spring conference at the Gideon Putnam Hotel and Resort in Saratoga Springs, NY.

A total of 150 newspapers from across the state competed in the contest, submitting 2,351 entries.

Photo by Bryan Boyhan; Sag Harbor Village Police and officers from Suffolk County Bomb Squad responded to Long Wharf on Tuesday night after a small amount of explosives were discovered in the truck of a man repairing the finger docks on the wharf.

By Kathryn G. Menu

On Tuesday night around 5:45 p.m., Sag Harbor’s Long Wharf was cordoned off after village police said a man working on repairs to the village’s finger docks approached police and said he found explosive material in North Haven. Police said the man brought the material to Long Wharf where he was working and flagged down a police officer.

By Amanda Wyatt

For many teens, the prom isn’t just a school dance; it’s a nightlong party. But members of the Sag Harbor Coalition concerned about the use of alcohol and drugs on prom night are trying to change this.

Pierson High School has held a voluntary pre-prom presentation on safety and making healthy choices for years, offering a discount on prom tickets to those who attend. However, at the coalition’s April 3 meeting, it was proposed that the event be mandatory for the parents of all prom-goers.

The idea was brought to the board of education (BOE) during their Monday night meeting.

“The members of the coalition felt pretty strongly about this and I certainly support it,” said Theresa Samot, BOE president and a coalition member.

“It’s a program that we’ve had in place for some time, but it’s been optional. And I think if we’re going to take some positive steps as a coalition, I think this would be a very good place to start,” she told the board.

“For the first time, I feel like we really took some action and really came up with some concrete recommendations that could be implemented,” she added.

Chris Tice, the board’s vice president who also sits on the coalition, agreed.

“At the coalition meeting, there was a consensus around the table that perhaps it should be required if you go to the prom. And many districts actually require students and their parents to attend that,” she said.

As Jeff Nichols, Pierson’s principal, pointed out, “The focus of the presentation in the past has been not only the event, but most importantly, what comes prior to the prom and what comes after. And that’s the community side that I’m concerned about.”

“The prom goes from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. Most kids show up at 8 p.m. and they’re out by 10:15 p.m. And yet it’s a 12 hour evening,” he said.

While Nichols said had never made the meeting mandatory because he “wanted to entice students to come,” he was still amenable to either option.

At the same time, Mary Anne Miller, a BOE and coalition member, said she had heard “mixed reviews” about the effectiveness of the meeting.

“I’m a little hesitant to mandate it until we make sure that we’re making a very good choice,” she said.

Both Miller and Nichols pointed out that there were other details of making the prom presentation mandatory which would also need to be worked out. For example, an “appeal process” must be put in place for students whose parents cannot attend the presentation at the scheduled time.

In related news, the coalition is hoping to implement a new alcohol and drug curriculum for the next school year. Dr. Lisa Scheffer, a coalition co-chair and the director of the school’s pupil personnel services (PPS), said she had been looking into academically sound, comprehensive programs.

“Our next step is to choose one and to commit to using a curriculum that conveys [a] no-use message consistently and extend it through the entire pre-k through 12 sequence,” she said at the coalition meeting.

“We’re looking at a September start, so that would require that we get moving pretty soon and start identifying what the curriculum is, purchasing into the materials and start training our staff,” she added.

Coalition members also agreed that parent education and community outreach were integral aspects of any program.

“What we need to do is make sure whatever we’re doing as a school, we do in unison with the community so that we can move forward; otherwise, it’s a dissipated effort,” said Dr. Carl Bonuso, interim superintendent.

A total of $25,000 was proposed for the creation of such a program, according to 2013-2014 budget figures released at Monday’s BOE meeting.

Also at the last coalition meeting, co-chairs Dr. Scheffer and Dr. John Oppenheimer decided to partner with Sag Harbor Village Police Chief Tom Fabiano to draft a letter regarding law enforcement and underage drinking.

As Fabiano pointed out, there are laws that many people may not be aware of, such as the county’s zero-tolerance stance on drinking and driving underage.

The letter will be reviewed at the next meeting — which is scheduled for Monday, May 6 at 6 p.m. — and will be widely dispersed to the community, said coalition members.

By Kathryn G. Menu

Last Wednesday, March 20, the Sag Harbor Village Board presented its tentative budget of $8,263,381 — a spending plan that falls under the state mandated two percent tax cap, but reduces the police force by eliminating one officer through attrition and another through layoffs.

The budget also proposes not replacing a laborer position in the department of public works.

The tentative 2013-2014 budget represents a 2.57 percent increase over this year’s $8.06 million budget. Treasurer Eileen Tuohy said state mandated tax levy cap for Sag Harbor is 4.1 percent.

According to Mayor Brian Gilbride, the village will use $65,000 of $1 million in reserves to offset the tax increase.

According to a budget worksheet, a house assessed at $795,000 would pay $2,220.44 in village property taxes, compared with $2,165.58 last year.

Gilbride and trustee Ed Gregory both noted a majority of the spending increases are directly linked to rises in health care costs and retirement benefits.

On Wednesday, Sag Harbor Village Police Chief Tom Fabiano sharply criticized cuts to his department via a letter read by trustee Kevin Duchemin, the board’s liaison to the department.

Chief Fabiano said he was only informed of the decision to layoff one of his officers at the last budget work session.

“I would like you all to know this officer will be David Driscoll,” said Fabiano, noting the two-year member of the department was named its officer of the year due to his work with the East End DWI Task Force and commitment to child safety programming.

Driscoll would be the second member of the force the chief would lose in the last year. Officer Michael Gigante left the force last year to work with another department amid what has become a contentious contract negotiation between the village and the police benevolent association (PBA).

If Driscoll’s position on the force is removed, that will leave the Sag Harbor Village Police Department with 10 officers and a chief.

“I am asking the board to keep this position in the budget as it is vital to the department’s staffing and scheduling needs,” writes the chief, noting two state studies have shown the department is already understaffed.

PBA President Patrick Milazzo said he would like to see if a committee could come up with alternatives to a flat layoff.

Gregory said before they can talk about saving the position they have to know what it will ultimately cost and that figure won’t be available until arbitration was settled.

Gilbride asked if the PBA would agree to a zero percent salary increase for three years in order to save the position.

“We are not going to talk about the contract publicly,” said Milazzo.

“Am I interested in saving Dave’s job? I would love to save Dave’s job,” said board member Robby Stein, but he added with the department taking 40 percent of the budget, retirement is increasing each year and there are other projects residents want funded outside of police services.

A public hearing on the budget will be held on April 3 at 4 p.m.

By Kathryn G. Menu

The revived 21 West Water Street condominium project was given a tentative green light for amendments to its original plan, approved in 2006, on Tuesday night.

It was the second month the applicants, East End Ventures, were before the planning board to alter plans slightly from the original approval.

In January, after years of the building sitting partially completed, it was announced developers hoped to have the halfway finished condo project completed by the fall of 2013.

The project stalled in 2009, with reports of financial turmoil reported mid-way through its completion including millions of dollars in liens filed against the property by subcontractors. East End Ventures is currently in the midst of Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings and its original lender, Amalgamated Bank, has given the project debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing through its Longview ULTRA Portfolio in an effort to allow work to continue at the property, which will lead to a better return when the property is ultimately sold.

In January, revisions to the design of the building and grounds were received favorably by the village’s Historic Preservation and Architectural Review Board (ARB), and those plans were reviewed by the planning board later that month.

The density of the project is being scaled back, from 19 to 15 units, allowing for six three-bedroom and nine two-bedroom units. Outdoor rooms were also created for the first floor apartments, evergreen screening is proposed along the west side of the property line, as is an access ramp from the southwest corner of the building onto the adjacent property, the Baron’s Cove Inn. Pedestrian access to the property has also been limited to an access point off Long Island Avenue.

In the wake of concerns that the outdoor dining rooms, created over gravel, would increase the lot coverage of the project, on Tuesday Jon Reddington, landscape architect for the project, said the plan had been scaled back to remove that proposal.

However, while project sponsors agreed to a Dark Skies compliant lighting plan for the north side of the parking lot, they asked the board to allow them to move forward with the original 2006 plan for lighting on the southern side of the lot, citing safety concerns. The Sag Harbor Village code was amended in 2009, after the lighting plan’s approval, to require Dark Skies compliance.

Planning board chairman Neil Slevin wondered if the neighboring Baron’s Cove Inn renovation and expansion coupled with this lighting plan could have a negative impact on the neighborhood. Sag Harbor Environmental Planning Consultant Rich Warren said with the street lights on Long Island Avenue, close to where lighting on the West Water Street parcel would not be Dark Skies compliant, that he questioned if the lighting would actually impact neighbors.

He added that given East End Ventures is seeking an application to modify the project so it is actually Dark Skies compliant on one side of the property — where it was not before — the board should have reservations.

It is expected the plan will be approved at the board’s next meeting on April 23.

By Amanda Wyatt

Bridgehampton residents took to the polls last Wednesday, March 20, voting 49 to 21 to approve the creation of a $1.5 million capital reserve fund to finance repairs and maintenance to school facilities over the next five years.

The fund, which comes from unexpected savings and revenues received by Bridgehampton School, will be put towards the repairs outlined in the district’s five-year plan. Some items in the plan include repairing fire escapes and making other safety updates, as well as modernizing outdated heating systems and making the school more energy efficient.

While $1.5 million was approved by voters on March 20, school administrators currently estimate that only $1.35 million is needed to make these repairs.

This year, Bridgehampton has a fund balance of $604,000. Much of this fund comes from transportation savings realized after last year’s budget vote; savings from repairing instead of replacing its gym floor; collecting past-due payments from other districts; overestimating health insurance based on state numbers and planning for out-of-district student placements that did not come to pass.

In related news, Bridgehampton was recently awarded a Virtual Advanced Placement (AP) grant from the New York State Department of Education.

At a board of education meeting following last Wednesday’s vote, Dr. Favre said the school was “fortunate” to be a part of the grant, which is meant to provide students from low-income families greater access to online AP courses.

The school is one of 13 districts on Long Island that will benefit from the roughly two million dollar grant spearheaded by Nassau BOCES, in conjunction with Eastern and Western Suffolk BOCES. Southampton was the only other local district that received the grant.

Bridgehampton is expected to receive 20 licenses for their students to access online courses, 20 mobile learning devices and 16 laptops. The school will also receive a wireless access point and printer, online training for teachers and registration fees for ninth grade students to take the PSATs.

By Kathryn G. Menu

This week, Sag Harbor Village Police arrested Daniel L. Gonzalez, 32, of Ozone Park in connection with a case involving counterfeit $100 bills police said he tried to use at village businesses this January.

On January 7, around 11 a.m. police said Gonzalez went to Cavaniola’s Gourmet Cheese Shop on Division Street and intentionally used a $100 counterfeit bill, which the clerk at that store accepted. Police said Gonzalez then went to the neighboring Sag Harbor Beverage Store where he also attempted to use what police believe was another counterfeit $100 bill before he was rebuffed by a store employee.

An employee of Cavaniola’s Gourmet Cheese Shop contacted police immediately and provided a detailed description of the suspect. Detective Jeffrey Proctor took charge of the investigation, which culminated in Gonzalez’s arrest by Sag Harbor Village Police on Wednesday morning at LaGuardia Airport.

During the course of his investigation, Detective Proctor made contact with different individuals connected to Gonzalez, and over time the detective was able to obtain a photo of his suspect. He used it in a photo lineup where victims identified Gonzalez as the man responsible for using the counterfeit money.

Gonzalez has no prior convictions, noted Detective Proctor, which made the case more difficult to crack in terms of finding an image for victims to positively identify him and also in tracking down Gonzalez west of the East End.

However, a source contacted Detective Proctor with information that Gonzalez intended to fly from New York to Ft. Lauderdale out of LaGuardia Airport, setting the stage for the Port Authority Police Department to pick up Gonzalez and read him his Miranda rights.

“This was just a case of some good, old fashioned police work yielding results,” said Detective Proctor following the arrest.

Gonzalez was transferred personally from LaGuardia Airport to the Sag Harbor Village Police Department headquarters by Detective Proctor and officer John Natuzzi, where he was charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument and attempted criminal possession of a forged instrument — both felonies – and held for arraignment.

By Kathryn G. Menu

Save Sag Harbor attorney Jeffrey Bragman not only made a case against the re-development and expansion of the Harbor Heights Service Station on Hampton Street during a public hearing on Tuesday night, he also made a case against the project’s legality.

The East Hampton attorney, who attended the Sag Harbor Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) meeting representing Save Sag Harbor, also charged he believes Leonard should be seeking use variances, in addition to the area variances he already needs.

In Leonard’s case, the standards required for the ZBA to grant a use variance for his project, would likely be “fatal,” noted board member Michael Bromberg, who appeared to agree with Bragman on this point.

Tuesday night’s meeting was the third formal public hearing in front of the ZBA on the Harbor Height’s expansion.

Leonard is proposing a 1,842 square-foot building to replace the existing Harbor Heights Service Station building, with a 972 square foot convenience store within it. Several areas, where goods are not visible, including the bathroom, have not been counted towards the total square footage of the store. Expanded pumps and fuel positions are proposed under a canopy, as are two new curb cuts into the property, 32 parking spaces and new landscaping.

The building will be pushed back into the property although will still sit perpendicular to the road. Unlike its current layout —with four fueling positions almost sitting in the right-of-way on Hampton Street — the canopy and fueling island will also be placed inward on the property, and will also be perpendicular to the roadway.

Leonard needs a number of variances from the ZBA to make this plan a reality, including one for the 23.75 foot height of the canopy; a variance for a freestanding sign two feet from Hampton Street where 20 feet is required; and a variance for the size of the convenience store, which is capped under the code at 600 square feet, among several others.

On Tuesday, Bragman said the sheer number of variances as well as the amount of relief Leonard is seeking from the code is something that should concern the board.

“One of the requirements you have to follow when you decide a case is you have to grant the minimum number of variances necessary,” he added, saying that if Leonard is going to seek this much relief, he should provide a detailed explanation on the need for these “extreme” variances.

Bragman said the addition of two new pumps is an expansion of a pre-existing, non-conforming use, noting that a pump area that takes up about 72 square feet now will expand into an area that he said will be 2,700 square feet.

“If we agree four to eight is an expansion of a non-conforming use they would need a use variance,” said Bromberg, adding it would be unlikely they could get a use variance if Leonard purchased the property while this code provision was in place.

Bragman agreed it would be very difficult for Leonard to prove he should be granted a use variance.

“One of the legal issues here is whether there is an expansion of a non-conforming use that would require a use variance,” said village attorney Denise Schoen, noting Leonard’s attorney, Dennis Downes does not believe this is an expansion of a non-conforming use. “You as a board have to make that determination.”

Bragman also noted a section of village code prohibits the expansion of a pre-existing, non-conforming use beyond 50-percent of the size of the use when it originally no longer met village code.

Looking at the chronology of the Harbor Heights, Bragman argued his research shows expansions made to the gas station use since 1956, including one undocumented expansion and another allowed by the ZBA in 1988 where he believes the board purposefully went beyond the 50 percent expansion limit, show a use that was likely 800 square feet in the 1950s. If that number holds true, Bragman said the building built at the Harbor Heights Service Station would not under code be allowed to be more than 1,204 square feet.

“We believe he should not be able to expand anything at all,” he said, adding Leonard should provide an explanation of the growth of the use at Harbor Heights and whether it meets code.

Bragman added his interpretation of the code is that if you have a pre-existing, non-conforming use in a pre-existing non-conforming building, once you demolish and move that building — as Leonard proposes — you lose your vested rights.

“It’s a different building, a different footprint and we think it has actually expanded,” said Bragman.

“You have another gas station in town,” he added, “And if you don’t think they are looking over this applicant’s shoulder you would be well advised to keep that in mind.”

In addition to setting a precedent for the other gas station in Sag Harbor — the closed Getty station at the intersection of Main Street and Jermain Avenue — Bragman argued if the board allowed these variances to be approved, it would also set a precedent for all pre-existing, non-conforming uses in the village.

Bragman then presented a plan with a 600 square-foot store, a 673 square foot gas station office that meet all village codes, including buffers — a real protection for the residential neighborhood surrounding the station, he added.

“He is cutting out every bit of buffer he can possibly squeeze out on all sides so he can fit his oversized building,” said Bragman.

Bragman added that despite Leonard’s engineer’s belief the code, as he reads it, would allow more than a total of 600 square feet in space for the store — only counting areas where retail sales space physically exists — he believes the code is quite clear in this limitation.

While the interior of the store is over 1,600 square feet, including bathroom and freezer space, Leonard is only asking for a variance for 972 square feet, arguing areas like the bathroom, freezer and cooler space inaccessible by patrons and the space the attendant stands should not be counted in overall square footage.

Gross floor area, noted Bragman, is defined in the village code as interior wall to interior wall space, and under special exception use standards for a convenience store it is noted that anything over 600 square feet should be considered a impermissible intensification of use. Lastly, the definition of a convenience store in the code also limits its size to 600 square feet.

“This is not where the village board wanted to go and it is not where you should go,” said Bragman.

Bragman added traffic data was skewed to present smaller numbers than what actually exists. Traffic engineers talking about 24 cars increasing on the site, in-season and on weekdays, Bragman said they meant by the hour — a substantial increase.

“They can argue till the cows come home that it will not affect the level of service on Route 114, but it will certainly affect the quality of life for people living next door and the church,” he said.

Resident John Shaka also presented the board with three petitions — two with 265 signatures — half from residents directly around the Harbor Heights Service Station and the rest from the Village of Sag Harbor — asking the ZBA demand the project be in compliance with the village code.

A third petition was also submitted by Shaka representing 249 signatures collected on line was also given to the board.

By Kathryn G. Menu

In a 3-2 vote, the Sag Harbor Zoning Board of Appeals approved a front yard setback variance for William Egan to construct front steps to a proposed renovation at his 59 Garden Street property on Tuesday night. However, according to neighbors, the overall project planned for the Egan property — dating back to 2005 — will create an even larger drainage problem for neighboring residents in a portion of the village already plagued with flooding.

After close to an hour of testimony from Egan’s attorney, Dennis Downes, and neighboring residents — as well as Noyac resident and former East Hampton Town Natural Resources Director Larry Penny — ZBA members Michael Bromberg, Brendan Skislock and Benedetta Duebel approved a variance that will allow Egan to construct steps to the house seven feet from the front property line where 35 feet is required under the village code.

The variance is needed to accomplish a larger project, a four-bedroom addition that involves raising the house to comply with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood regulations and was the subject of a ZBA application several years ago for a pyramid variance. Because the house will be moved 10 feet from its original location, it will not need that variance but still does need the variance for the steps.

At that time, a pool was also proposed for the property, which is off the table right now, said Downes, but could be proposed in the future.

Tuesday night’s decision came after the board was repeatedly reminded, by Downes and village attorney Denise Schoen, that the only aspect of Egan’s plan it could base its decision on was the steps — not the fact he intends to raise the residence, re-grade the property and install a retaining wall, aspects of the plan neighbors believe will destroy the historic character of the neighborhood and increase flooding.

Duebel hesitated with her vote, faced with a 2-2 decision with board chairman Anton Hagen and board member Tim McGuire against granting the variance, but when reminded by Schoen she could not consider the whole of the project, just the steps, ultimately sided in favor of the variance.

The project will still need approval from the Sag Harbor Historic Preservation and Architectural Review Board (ARB), as well as from the village’s Harbor Committee.

“The affect of putting in the stairs will greatly increase flooding in their neighborhood,” said McGuire during the hearing. “The ultimate impact, including why the stairs are being put in, is this water has to go somewhere.”

Downes charged McGuire had no data on which he could make that determination.

“I was hoping we would be able to approach the village in an effort to ameliorate the drainage problems down there,” said McGuire referring to the village board of trustees, the only board with the legislative power to tackle drainage issues.

“The village has done nothing to address drainage in this area since John Ward, God bless his soul, raised West Water Street and created a lake in this neighborhood,” said Downes.

During the meeting, resident Angela Scott presented a photograph of Egan’s property after a typical rainfall. Egan’s backyard is a virtual lake.

Scott read a letter from architect and Spring Street resident Mazair Behrooz, who has spent the past year studying the architectural and environmental conditions of this neighborhood while designing a new house.

Behrooz noted after Superstorm Sandy, he literally had to put on waders to walk in and around his house.

“The water had no place to go,” he writes, noting climate change is a reality that will only make this neighborhood’s situation worse.

Behrooz argues as a low lying neighborhood susceptible to flooding, it should be treated differently than other neighborhoods, with retaining walls, swimming pools or anything that makes flooding a larger problem throughout the neighborhood avoided.

“The less contact between buildings and the ground, the better the neighborhood can handle storm surge,” writes Behrooz, adding this application, with its retaining walls, removes the property from handling its fair share of water damage.

“This is a bigger issue than just the steps and it is a ripple effect,” said Scott, noting the extensive addition requires an above ground septic system which requires the topography of the home to be raised “significantly.” Building up that property, she added, will push all of the drainage issues from that property into the neighborhood.

“This is a condition we cannot live with,” she said, asking who has jurisdiction to deal with this in a comprehensive fashion.

Bromberg noted the trustees are the legislative body, with Schoen adding the Harbor Committee and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation could also have jurisdiction.

Downes said the Egan property has been the collection site for runoff from Howard and Garden Street for years and that when Egan completes the residence, he plans to talk to trustees about drainage in the neighborhood.

Chris Hegedus, a Garden Street resident, brought in Penny to discuss the wetland aspect of this application.

Penny said the sea level rise coincides with a rise in the freshwater aquifer. Penny said he considers the area commonly flooded on the Egan property as a wetland area. Ducks, he noted, are regularly seen enjoying a swim on the property.

“No matter what you do here you are going to affect the entire shape of the aquifer if anyone puts fill in there,” said Penny.

“This board is not looking at wetlands,” said Skislock. “That is the Harbor Committee.”

Penny countered the ZBA should have the ability to take into account any major changes that would change the hydraulic nature of a neighborhood.

“The variance they are asking for is in regards to the number of feet from the steps to the street,” said Schoen. “We cannot change the elevation of the house.”

In other ZBA news, the board approved a variance requested by Sag Harbor Naturally, otherwise known as Provisions Natural Foods Market & Organic Café, on Main Street. The variance allows the store to expand into the full 700 square-foot adjacent, former Style Bar space on Bay Street without having to complete a market study or comply with affordable housing provisions in the village code.

The store was originally approved by the village planning board to expand into 500 square-feet of the space, but prohibited from using an additional 200 square-feet without triggering those extra requirements under the village code (which kick in for stores over 3,000 square feet). In 2009, the village implemented this requirement for larger stores in an effort to maintain a diversity of uses on Main and Bay streets in Sag Harbor.

A proposed new residence on Terry Drive was also granted a variance to construct a new residence which will protrude 5,846 cubic feet above the skyplane with the provision that an outdoor deck would be screened on one side to protect neighbor’s privacy.

Hagen and Bromberg voted against the application.

Lastly, the ZBA approved a side yard and front yard setback variances to allow for the construction of a residence on Amity Street.

By Amanda Wyatt

Elizabeth Cady-Stanton and Lucretia Mott. Susan B. Anthony and Alice Paul. May Groot Manson and Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage.

While the last two may not be household names around the country, Mrs. Thomas L. Manson and Mrs. Russell Sage — as they were better known in their time — led the fight for women’s suffrage on the East End a century ago.

“The Suffragist Movement: Women Work for the Right to Vote” was a lecture presented by Arlene Hinkemeyer last Friday at Clinton Academy in East Hampton, in honor of March being Women’s History Month.

Donning an old-fashioned suffragist costume for the occasion, Hinkemeyer outlined the history of the suffrage movement in the United States and locally, including “amazing women suffragists right here in East Hampton, Sag Harbor and Southampton.”

While the movement started in the mid-19^th century, the 1910s saw a flurry of political activity regarding women’s voting rights. And as rallies, parades and marches were taking place in cities like New York and Washington, D.C., local suffragists were also hard at work.

In Sag Harbor, the first major suffrage meeting took place in July of 1912. Sage, the benefactress of John Jermain Memorial Library and Pierson High School, paved the way in the village for the suffrage movement.

Ironically, The Sag Harbor Express was not particularly progressive when it came to women’s voting rights. Between 1915 and 1917, Hinkemeyer said, “the paper was filled with many anti-suffrage articles.”

Just a few miles away, Manson — a Manhattan socialite who owned a home in East Hampton — was also championing the cause. The chairman of the Women’s Suffrage League of East Hampton, she spearheaded a large outdoor rally in August 1913.

The list of attendees was “a veritable ‘who’s who’ of East Hampton and New York City society,” said Hinkemeyer. There were also 20 representatives from the Sag Harbor branch of the Women’s Political Union (WPU) who joined in the march.

Another major moment on the East End came in June 1915. As The New York Times reported, “relays of women carrying a suffrage torch to enlighten the state of NY upon the needs of its women will ride by automobile from Montauk Point, L.I., to Buffalo.”

“Mrs. Manson motored across Long Island with the torch, holding open air meetings along the way, and then handed over the torch to another woman…who took it New York City, and others in the relay who carried it up to Buffalo,” said Hinkemeyer.

Major suffrage rallies also took place in Southampton between 1913 and 1915, with women like Lizbeth Halsey White, the chair of the town’s branch of the WPU, leading the charge.

At the same time, the anti-suffrage movement was heating up. As Mrs. William A. Putnam, president of the statewide League Opposed to Women Suffrage, said at a 1913 rally in Southampton, the present position of women was “a much higher one as the queen of the home than it could possibly be when dragged from her high estate to the mire of political turmoil and politics.”

Still, suffragists eventually claimed victory in November 1917, when New York State gave women the right to vote. Two years later, the U.S. Congress passed the 19^th amendment, which provided suffrage on a national level. The amendment was formally adopted after Tennessee became the 36^th state to ratify it in August 1920.

While New York had been the fifth state to ratify the 19^th amendment, some states were a bit late to the party. Mississippi, for example, didn’t get around to ratifying it until 1984.

Sadly, Hinkemeyer noted, some leading suffragists never lived to see their dreams realized. Sage died in 1918, before the 19^th amendment was ratified, although she did see the passage of women’s suffrage in New York. But Manson, who died at a relatively young age, missed the passage in New York by merely two months.

“We in East Hampton can all be proud of the meaningful life [Manson] led, and of all she accomplished for the good of our community,” said Hinkemeyer. “We owe a great debt to her for working — and now we know how much work it was — to give women the right to vote.”