By Kathryn G. Menu

Incumbent Sag Harbor Village Mayor Brian Gilbride will seek a second term at the helm, along with incumbent trustees Ed Gregory and Tim Culver and appointed Sag Harbor Village Justice Andrea Schiavoni. All four will vie to keep their seats under the Sag Harbor Party, which has dominated village government throughout several administrations.

With the deadline to submit petitions to run for village office just a month away, no contenders have yet to pick up a packet from the Municipal Building, according to village administrator Beth Kamper. Interested parties have until May 5 to collect 50 resident signatures to run in the election, which will be held June 21.

For Gilbride, the decision to run for a second term — something the mayor said he would not likely do when elected two years ago — comes from a desire to see several projects, and a lawsuit, to the end before he takes his leave of public service.

The lawsuit is a $30 million one filed by East End Ventures that claimed the village intentionally re-zoned the firm’s Ferry Road parcels in order to prevent a condominium project to move forward.

While the case was dismissed earlier this winter, a judge has allowed East End Ventures attorney to re-plead one aspect of the case — that the condominium project proposed was similar to the village-approved condominium project at the former Bulova Watchcase Factory. The case is still pending.

“I would also like to see as much of the Havens Beach remediation completed,” said Gilbride.

The village recently received a proposal by its environmental planning consultant Rich Warren to remediate the drainage ditch at the popular bathing beach, which has shown unsafe levels of bacterial contamination.

Gilbride said if re-elected, he would also like to see drainage improvements on Latham, Rogers and Henry streets completed in his next term. That neighborhood bore the brunt of flooding as a result of massive rain storms last March.

Gilbride said he was thrilled the incumbent slate was running together as a team, and praised appointed village justice Andrea Schiavoni for running the village’s newly installed justice court throughout the winter.

“I have heard nothing but good responses about Andrea’s leadership and the convenience of having a court in Sag Harbor,” said Gilbride.

Incumbent trustee Ed Gregory, who brings over 20 years of experience to the board, having served as a member for close to 15 years in the 1980s and returning to the board in 2003, said like Gilbride there are projects he would like to see finished during his tenure on the board.

“We have been talking about Havens Beach for so many years now, and a plan is finally coming to fruition,” said Gregory, who added he would like to see the village through its purchase of Long Wharf from Suffolk County as well.

“I would also like to see what is going to become of Bulova,” he said. “It has been sitting there for so long and I would like the building inspector to investigate the condition of the building after this very harsh winter and see if it can still be renovated. It’s a safety concern. I am worried about bricks falling off that building.”

Culver, who for weeks now has said he would not seek a second term citing his bustling law practice and family commitments, changed his mind this week.

He said his goal is to ensure the village continues to keep its spending under control, and that the current board is on the right track, tackling issues like Havens Beach and the creation of the justice court.

“I want to continue what we have done, which is keep costs down, but address important issues like Havens Beach and preserving access to our waterfront,” said Culver.

Former mayor Pierce Hance, who was rumored to be seeking office this year, said on Monday that while anything is possible his candidacy “is not probable.”

Music Festival & Radio Station Announce Partnership

The MTK: Music to Know Festival announced a partnership this week with WEHM-FM 92.9 and 96.9, which will have exclusive broadcast rights to the summer music festival, scheduled for August 12 through August 14.

The location of the festival has yet to be finalized, as Sag Harbor residents Chris Jones and Bill Collage attempt to secure a commercial mass gathering permit to use land at the East Hampton Airport for the festival, which is expected to draw 9,500 concert goers and feature 20 bands over the two-day period.

The promoters already have approval to host the concert at Ocean View Farm in Amagansett, although a group of residents recently filed suit against the town to prevent the concert from moving forward at that location.

According to a release issued this week by public relations coordinator Michelle Fox, WEHM-FM will broadcast live during the two-day event, interviewing bands and spotlighting local charities. As a part of their permit application, Jones and Collage have agreed to make a $100,000 donation to local charities and food pantries.

In addition, WEHM-FM will promote the festival, offering a series of contests for VIP and General Admission tickets.

“We are very excited about our collaboration with MTK for the music festival this August,” said station manager Harry Wareing. “Our focus has always been ‘about the music’ and this is fantastic opportunity to share ‘EHM’s great sound with a partner who is equally enthusiastic.”

While the promoters have remained mum on who will headline the festival and what additional acts will perform, Fox said the line-up will be announced in coming weeks. Tickets are also expected to go one sale in mid-April.

Thiele Fights to Keep Saltwater Fishing License Enjoined

In a letter to Governor Andrew Cuomo last week, New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. requested the state drop its appeal of a December 2010 decision to enjoin the implementation of the State Saltwater Fishing License in the waters of seven Long Island Towns including all town waters on the East End.

Last week the State Legislature included Thiele’s proposal to repeal the license and fee and replaced it with a free registry to meet the requirements of federal law as part of the 2011 State Budget.

“I strongly opposed this law from the outset as an unwarranted infringement of the right to fish and the local home rule powers of our towns under the colonial patents,” said Thiele in a release issued last week. “A State Supreme Court Judge issued an injunction and now the State Legislature has repealed the law and enacted a free registry which is consistent with federal law, the Judge’s decision and the right to fish bestowed by the colonial patents. It would be silly for the state to now appeal this decision. First, it is moot. Second it would be a waste of state and local tax dollars to continue to litigate the legality of a repealed law. The Governor should direct the DEC and the Attorney-General to drop the appeal.”

By Claire Walla

On Wednesday, November 17 SUNY Trustees voted to ratify the decision made by SUNY Stony Brook President Dr. Samuel Stanley last April to shutter residential buildings at the university’s Southampton location and relocate undergraduate programs to the main campus.

This decision comes nearly three months after the New York State Supreme Court on August 30 effectively annulled Stanley’s decision last April, ruling that he did not act in compliance with state education laws, which require all “big decisions” to be presented to and receive recommendations from the university council. Even though the council eventually voted on October 4 to support Stanley’s decision, and even though the SUNY trustees recently voted the same, State Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr. and State Senator Ken LaValle maintain that the university continues to defy the law.

“Stony Brook is consistently acting illegally,” Thiele said, adding that “[The trustees] ratified something that the court has already annulled.”
He and Senator LaValle will continue to challenge the university’s court case, which Thiele said he expects to see a final decision on by Christmas.

“A key pressure point for us is that, come January, Senator LaValle will probably become Chairman of the [state’s] Higher Education Commission,” Thiele explained. This is possible, he added, because the Republicans have taken control of the Senate, giving LaValle—a republican who lost his seat on this commission under the democratic majority—a leg up.

However, Thiele added, the court case is not the main issue at hand. “The ultimate goal is to get the campus reopened,” he said.

Though he and LaValle have already drafted legislation to turn the campus into a separate branch of the SUNY system, this is move is not likely to take place overnight. In the meantime, SBU has laid-out tentative plans for the space, like creating an arts campus or partnering with Southampton Hospital. These are plans Thiele said he and LaValle are willing to work with in order to get the campus functioning again.
“It’s still not going to be a fully operating campus by September—we’re not going to be able to attract new students in sizable numbers,” Thiele noted.

However, he added that “Senator LaValle and my goal is to put the next pieces in place by the next budget process.”

The environmental sustainability program was moved to the main Stony Brook campus at the beginning of this academic year, leaving only graduate programs in marine science and creative writing in Southampton.

By Claire Walla

Last week, the battle to keep higher education alive in Southampton raged on.

Responding to SUNY Stony Brook’s decision in early April to end its residential and undergraduate programs at its Southampton campus, State Assemblyman Fred Thiele and State Senator Ken LaValle introduced legislation to create a task force that would explore the option of turning the 82-acre, seaside property into an independent branch of the SUNY system. If all goes according to plan, this would allow the Southampton campus to function, for the first time since its founding in 1963, without the oversight of a parent institution.

“It doesn’t work to have Southampton as a satellite campus,” Mr. Thiele said. “My bottom line is to provide people in the East End with access to a real college. Stony Brook just wanted to use the campus to benefit Stony Brook.

“The ultimate goal has to be an independent SUNY campus,” Thiele continued. “It’s the best use of [the State’s] investment.”

Since 2005, when SUNY Stony Brook acquired the Southampton facilities from Long Island University, the state has spent nearly $75 million to improve the buildings and accommodate programs in environmental sustainability and marine biology. The campus grew to include about 400 students this past year and would have had twice that amount in the fall, but Stony Brook was forced to shift gears.

According to Lauren Sheprow, a spokesperson for SUNY Stony Brook, the university has suffered a 20 percent cut in state funding over the past two years. “With no relief in sight, and facing such an enormous deficit, Stony Brook was forced to streamline operations, including those at Southampton where the cost of educating a student is 2.5 times great than on Stony Brook University Main Campus,” she wrote in an email.

The university estimates it will save about $6.7 million annually by relocating most of Southampton’s academic programs to the main campus, a decision fully backed by the SUNY system. According to an email from a spokesperson for SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher, the whole SUNY system has lost $424 million in funding over the last two years, and “the chancellor supports Stanley’s decision to live within the means available to him.”

With many Southampton buildings no longer in use, Stony Brook recently established an Advisory Committee to explore options for future use of the campus, such as developing a center for the creative arts and expanding graduate programs. Members of the Committee consist of university officials, others from the SUNY system, business and planning delegates, and two community members (including Laura Baudo Sillerman, whose husband served as Dean of the Southampton campus when it was still owned by LIU).

 Thiele, however, insists that Stony Brook hasn’t done enough to bolster undergraduate education, an oversight he sees as a fundamental shift in priorities at the university. Stony Brook, he said, is now focusing on more lucrative programs in the sciences and mostly at the graduate level.

 “One of the reasons why I’m so passionate about this campus is because of my own experience,” Thiele said. “I went to high school in Sag Harbor and then I went to Cornell. But, my family fell on some tough times—the economy was pretty bad then and both of my parents were out of work, so I had to come home. If that college hadn’t been there, then I wouldn’t have gotten my diploma.”

He continued, “But it’s not just about individual dreams and individual students. Higher education creates several hundred jobs and trained employees.”

No proceedings are yet underway—the plan is still very much in the gestation phase. But, Mr. Thiele said that he hopes discussions will pick-up quickly so that the campus will be up and running again as a four-year institution by next year. 

By Kathryn G. Menu

On June 15, New York State Governor David Patterson signed into law legislation that allows residents of the Village of Sag Harbor the right to elect a village justice from outside the village – specifically from the towns of East Hampton and Southampton –without opening the race to the whole of Suffolk County.

The bill was introduced in January – sponsored by New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr., a lifelong resident of Sag Harbor and the village trustees’ own legal counsel.

While the village was entitled to create its own justice court, which Sag Harbor officials have embarked upon for the second time in five years, its justices must legally reside in Sag Harbor Village or candidacy must be opened up to residents throughout Suffolk County.

Sag Harbor’s population is below 2500 residents, according to 2000 census data. The same census estimates the county’s population at closer to 1.4 million.

“This law presents some geographical issues in that the village of Sag Harbor is only two square miles and Suffolk County consists of 1,000 square miles,” argues Thiele in the bill. “Accordingly, this presents problems for Sag Harbor Village in that the candidate pool for qualified individuals seeking a position as a village justice is either too small or too large. Further, the village of Sag Harbor is located within the Town of Southampton and the Town of East Hampton.”

 “I used the ‘Three Bears’ analogy on this one,” said Thiele on Monday. “Sag Harbor is too small, the county is too large and using the two towns is just right.”

Thiele explained the new state law would enable the village to expand the pool of candidates for village justice in a reasonable way.

According to Thiele, the change in law will have no impact on a suit filed by Sag Harbor attorney Patricia Weiss earlier this month over the village trustees passage of law creating the office of village justice, the first step in a second try at creating a justice court for Sag Harbor residents. The court is proposed to only hear cases involving traffic infractions and violations as well as misdemeanor crimes and would boast one elected justice and another acting justice. Facilities would be located in the village Municipal Building where court would take place in the second floor meeting room often home to village board meetings, with justice chambers in the mayor’s or trustees’ offices.

Weiss’s suit is the second she has filed in relation to a village justice court. In 2006, she halted similar efforts by the village, with the New York State Supreme Court ruling in her favor after finding trustees had not officially passed a paper resolution creating the court.

While trustees were more careful in this last effort, filing a unanimous resolution in support of the village justice law after keeping a public hearing open on the legislation for six months, in mid-June Weiss filed suit with the United States District Court charging the creation of village justice positions violates her rights under the Constitution for a number of reasons, namely that village law does not demand the elected and acting justices be legally trained.

“Those provisions are state wide provisions, not just within the Village of Sag Harbor,” said Thiele on Monday, adding there have been unsuccessful attempts at changing some of the issues Weiss raises in her suit.

“The village will send a copy of this litigation to the attorney general because the state has a stake in this,” he said. “This is nothing the village, specifically, has proposed or done.” 

By Bryan Boyhan

While local officials would like to see the Southampton campus of Stony Brook University become an independent college of the state university system, the Stony Brook University administration appears unwilling to give up the school they acquired four years ago. A meeting set for  Thursday between the two parties may lead to a resolution.

At least, said State Assemblyman Fred Thiele yesterday, he hopes they can find a way to keep the campus operating as a full time, four-year residential school.

Three weeks ago, Stony Brook University’s president Dr. Samuel L. Stanley announced he would be closing most of the campus, including the dormitories and recently renovated library, and move all programs except marine sciences classes and the masters writing program, to the main campus. The move, he said, was an effort to close a budget gap that has resulted from a dramatic cut of $54 million in state aid. The closure would result in an estimated savings of about $7 million.

Local officials, including Thiele, State Senator Ken Lavalle and Congressman Tim Bishop — all who helped shepherd the deal for the state to acquire the campus from Long Island University in 2006 — argue the plan disrupts the college careers of the nearly 400 students currently on campus, and the roughly 400 more who were expected there this fall. In addition, it removes from the East End the only local four-year school, and one with a much heralded progressive program in the sustainable sciences.

Two weeks ago Thiele and Lavalle were on campus with officials from the Town of Southampton to announce the town would be interested in buying the development rights for the 82 acres on campus, the revenues of which, they said, would more than satisfy the financial needs of the university. In addition, the officials proposed the school become independent of Stony Brook and requested a meeting with university officials.

Dr. Stanley agreed, and in a letter last week proposed today’s meeting, although he gave no indication they were willing to surrender the campus.

In the letter, Dr. Stanley and State University Chancellor Nancy Zimpher wrote: “We too are concerned about the future of Southampton and remain committed to its students. Most importantly, despite repeated claims to the contrary, the Southampton campus will remain open. To this end, we will maintain the Southampton location as a vital and vibrant site for teaching and research, most notably at the pioneering Marine Station, home of Stony Brook’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, and through the renowned Southampton Writers Workshop. Currently, plans are in the works for several other SUNY campuses to make productive and expanded use of Southampton’s facilities.”

This week Thiele questioned the possibility of other state schools using the local campus.

“That’s been part of the party line for a while,” said Thiele. “But when you look at it, nothing has materialized.”

The letter also observes it costs about $30,000 annually to educate one student at the college.

“With SUNY’s tuition set at $4,970, and average State support for all campuses (excluding community colleges) of $5,500 per student, we are left with an unfunded balance of $19,530 per student,” the administrators write.

They further argue that Long Island University had a similar problem and were unsuccessful in balancing their budget.

Thiele dismissed the comparison between a private and public school, and said the underlying issue is political.

“Southampton is being used by SUNY,” the assemblyman asserted. “It’s all about their attempt to get control of their campuses’ tuitions.”

Thiele said the state university system has made a proposal for determining their own tuition rates for all the campuses, and in the last budget cycle did not even ask for more money, instead asking the state to pass legislation giving SUNY autonomy.

“That failed, and now they’re just going to hold their breath,” said Thiele.

Asked about his hope for today’s meeting’s outcome, Thiele said: “We want to talk about what we’ve proposed; but I’m willing to discuss any proposal that will keep the campus open as a full time, four-year school.”

By Bryan Boyhan

Last year, Katie Osiecki took the money her parents had saved for her college education and bought a house in Southampton. Instead of spending money on a private school education, she decided she wanted to go to the Southampton Campus of Stony Brook University, the state school that last week announced it was about to shut down almost all of the local campus to help meet a $55 million shortfall, which university officials say is largely due to state funding cuts.

Osiecki, a 2009 Pierson High School graduate, in a letter to the university’s president this week, said “Not only have I spent my savings on a house because I thought I would be spending the next three years going to school across the street, I also fell in love with a school that has acted like a second home for me for almost two semesters.”

The campus, she raved, had small class sizes, had teachers that were easily accessible and was where she felt her contributions were meaningful. She now feels betrayed.

“Within one night and an hour-and-a-half talk I felt like my dreams were crushed,” said Osiecki, a freshman in the school’s pioneering environmental design policy and planning program. “My life was going in a direction that couldn’t have been better for me and with one decision that was completely out of my control it was changed.”

Osiecki’s sentiments are similar to those of many on campus this week — including staff and faculty — who were stunned to learn of the sudden decision to shut all but a couple of buildings on campus by the end of this summer. The only programs that will be left are classes in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences and the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, plus the summer’s Southampton Writers Workshop. The recently renovated dorms, library and fine arts center will all be closed.

In response to the closing, State Assemblyman Fred Thiele, a graduate of the campus when it was owned by Long Island University, and State Senator Ken LaValle have asked state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to investigate fraud on the part of Stony Brook University, alleging that university officials deceived incoming students.

Thiele and LaValle were instrumental in having the state purchase the campus when LIU was preparing to sell it to a real estate developer four years ago and have been heralded as heroes for saving it as an educational facility.

Both men say their offices have been flooded with complaints from parents and students regarding what they are calling “deceptive acts and practices” on the part of the university.

In particular, they say complaints have charged that parents and students were told prior to enrollment the campus and its programs were in no danger of being closed or eliminated because of the state’s fiscal problems.

“Without exception, Stony Brook made representations to these students and parents that SBS would not be closed or its unique environmental sustainability program eliminated,” they said in letters to DiNapoli and Cuomo. “In some cases, these representations were made just days before the closure announcement.”

For his part university president Stanley, who issued an op-ed piece to local media on Tuesday, said the school was forced to make difficult choices in face of a 20 percent cut in help from the state, and is working to make the best of a bad situation, including offering Southampton campus students the opportunity to transfer to the main campus in Stony Brook, including priority housing in dormitories. Failing that, the university will offer a refund to those students who choose to leave.

Ultimately though, it appears that Osiecki and the others are caught in a political battle between the state’s university system and the state legislature.

“Our hands were tied by the massive cuts in state funding and the restrictions we face in controlling our own finances,” said Dr. Stanley, who argued the state university system should be able to dictate its own tuition rates, rather than having them overseen by the state legislature. Stanley said other public universities in the nation, such as the University of Michigan and Penn State, set their own rates. But the New York State legislature will not allow this. When the state finally raised rates in 2009 after six years, contends Stanley, the state kept most of the money for itself to alleviate its own budget problems.

Thiele said the battle is not limited to investigations, but will also likely include a lawsuit on behalf of students, their families and alumni.

“I just finished interviewing a lawfirm for possible action,” said Thiele this week.

“We won’t go down without a fight,” concluded Osiecki in her letter.

State Assemblyman Fred Thiele, Jr. announced on Friday that he will leave the Republican Party to become a member of the state’s Independence Party. In July, Thiele eyed a switch to the Democratic camp but has remained mum about the issue for the last several months. However, it would seem the state of affairs in Albany has finally pushed Thiele to change his political allegiances.

“Today, I am convinced State legislative leaders are too invested in the status quo and business as usual to bring genuine reform to Albany,” said Thiele in a statement released last Friday.

During a later interview, Thiele said the Republican Party had adopted a “go along to get along,” lackadaisical approach to politics in the State Assembly. He added that although several Republican assemblymen and women would be more than willing to object to certain pieces of legislation, they rarely proposed viable alternatives to a bill.

In the past, Thiele has received criticism from members of his party for voting in ways that differed with the common Republican political stance.

“Most recently, I voted for the marriage equality bill and some in the party were opposed to that position,” said Thiele, citing the bill circulated through the Assembly in May which sought to legalize civil unions between gay and lesbian couples. As a member of the Independence Party, Thiele believes he won’t be as beholden to party leaders or be expected to “toe the line” on certain issues.

Thiele has been a member of the Assembly since 1995. A ranking Republican assemblyman, Thiele has participated on several committees. Yet when Thiele first secured the position of Southampton Town Supervisor in 1991 he ran as a member of the independent Southampton Party, which he helped to form.

“In 1991, I was convinced that the only way to bring change and reform to Southampton Town was to run as an independent … and the Southampton Party did bring real change. Why enroll as a [member of the Independence Party] now? It is my belief that the State Independence Party represents the best chance to fight for the changes and reforms that I think average New Yorkers long to see from their state government,” said Thiele in the statement.

“This was the most frustrating year [of all my years] in Albany. The Senate shut down for five weeks,” added Thiele during an interview. “There is excessive partisanship. People are more concerned with power than those they represent. It didn’t seem to me that things were going to change by doing business as usual.”

In his released statement, Thiele asserted that the Republican Party was once in a position to effect change but has recently seen a drop in support.

“The number of Republican Assembly members has dwindled from 58 to 40 in little more than a decade. Every month, registered voters are abandoning the Republican Party in droves,” noted Thiele.

He attributes these decreases to the party’s apparent inability to protect the economic interests of their constituents, which he notes is ironic, as fiscal responsibility has always been a cornerstone of the Republican philosophy.

“The Republican Party in the Assembly no longer speaks to the pocketbook issues everyday people care about. Here’s just one example. This year … the Legislature passed an MTA bailout plan with a crippling new payroll,” stated Thiele in the release. “My decision today allows me to continue to be that independent voice to change an unacceptable status quo without fear of being called disloyal by party leaders.”

After years of research and study, this week New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. presented the East End towns with a final study on the feasibility and improvement of a public transit system on the North and South forks of Long Island.

On Wednesday, September 23 the study was unveiled during a forum at Suffolk Community College in Riverhead. Conducted by the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, a Massachusetts-based transportation research firm, the study was prepared on behalf of the Towns of East Hampton, Riverhead, Shelter Island, Southampton and Southold and funded by a New York Department of State Shared Municipal Services Incentive Grant for the “Creation of a Coordinated Rail and Bus Network on Eastern Long Island.”

Looking at existing transportation on the East End and whether a combination of a light rail and bus system is feasible or cost effective, the Volpe Center presented its initial recommendations – to overhaul the East End railway system and create a shuttle train service with bus support to transport passengers into village centers.

While there was support for the proposal at the April forum, it was suggested that one unified transit system would not be appropriate for both the North and South Forks as the communities differ in population density, travel patterns and local priorities. While towns on the South Fork generally preferred a coordinated rail-bus network, similar to an expanded version of the South Fork Commuter Connection used to alleviate traffic concerns two years ago during the renovation of County Road 39 in Southampton, towns on the North Fork expressed a preference for the Flexible Transit Network. That plan is largely focused on increasing bus services. 

In response, the Volpe Center’s new proposal is called a “Dual Concept” approach.

On the South Fork, the study recommends replacing the existing Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and Suffolk County Transit bus service with a coordinated rail-bus network with small shuttle trains used on a line from Montauk to Speonk with four now-defunct stations – Quogue, Southampton College, Watermill and Wainscott – re-opened.

According to the study, the trains would run every 30 minutes during peak periods of the day and every 60 minutes at other times, with 12 bus routes on coordinated timetables to bring passengers into community centers and areas not connected to the existing rail line. Additionally, the Center recommends seven smaller “demand-response” vehicles, which could serve a range of services including door-to-door service by reservation to defined pick-up routes.

Service on the South Fork would run 18-hours a day in-season and 14-hours a day off-season.

The North Fork’s existing transit routes and services would largely remain the same, according to the study, although there “would be significant improvements to the frequency of service and expanded hours of operation, including Sunday/holiday service on all routes.” Bus service would be expanded to run as often as every 15 minutes during peak periods and as late as 12:30 a.m. during the summer. In addition to routes traversing the whole of the North Fork, from Greenport west, one new route would be added connecting Greenport to Riverhead and to the Tanger Outlet Center. An express bus service would also run roughly every two hours from Riverhead, or further east, to the Ronkonkoma train station and Islip-MacArthur airport.

Minimal improvements to the North Fork rail system are also outlined in the study as are links between the North and South Fork systems.

The Volpe Center report states this kind of transit system is feasible on the East End provided a significant investment is made in upgrading and adding to the current transit system. Upfront capital costs are estimated between $117 million and $148 million with an estimated $44 million per year needed to run the system as proposed.

While the study does discuss the creation of a new East End transit authority, on Tuesday Thiele said his preference would be to get the LIRR and the MTA on board to provide this service for both forks.

“That would be the easiest and the fastest way to get this done,” he said. “We certainly have paid our fair share towards transportation.”

The alternative is the creation of a transit authority similar to one created on Cape Cod, which separated itself from a larger Boston-based transit authority in order to create transportation services better tailored for its needs.

“There was really a lot of initial research into what was done in Cape Cod because we have a lot of similarities as far as demographics, population trends and even geography,” said Thiele.

The next step, said Thiele, is determining whether the LIRR and the Suffolk County Transit authority are interested in helping the East End implement this final plan.

“I think certainly the LIRR interest in providing improved service to the region has grown,” said Thiele. “Five years ago, I couldn’t get them to return a telephone call on this, but the new president, Helena Williams was very cooperative during the County Road 39 re-constriction and has been following the Volpe Study.”

Also crucial to the creation of the transit system is federal funding.

“I think both federal and state funding is critical for this to move forward,” said Thiele. “If you look at everything, in New York, whenever they buy a new subway car it is heavily subsidized.”

Noting mass transit systems never support themselves fully, Thiele said there are a number of funding options for the plan.

“This was never envisioned as something the towns and villages would subsidize,” said Thiele. “They may provide support in terms of parking and the existing bus services through human services departments, but we are not looking to put the burden on the towns.”

State Assemblyman Fred Thiele remained cagey on Monday night about his presumed leap from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party, but the Sag Harbor native did not mince words about the state of the state’s government.

“I’ve never had a more frustrating or less satisfying year,” Thiele told the members of the Noyac Civic Council, where he was guest speaker at the organization’s monthly meeting.

Thiele was at the meeting to fill in his constituents on business in Albany, and quickly qualified his remarks saying he was not a member of the senate, which had thrown government into chaos for more than a month.

“The power in state government is far too concentrated,” said Thiele. “This year was so egregious that for five weeks nothing got done. You had two senators basically leveraging for power.”

“You’ve described a terrible year and it looks like only two or three people are running the state government,” observed NCC member Jim Marquardt. “It seems like Albany is dysfunctional, and it’s a bit embarrassing. What can we do to make it better?”

“You finally say this is dysfunctional,” Thiele told Marquardt. “My hope is that the public demands a greater spreading of power.”

Thiele said there was some good news from the capitol this year, including a bill that would toughen laws governing the price of gasoline to consumers. The assemblyman noted that the East End, which had a history of being gouged by prices at the pump, was seeing prices more consistent with the West End of Long Island.

Also, Thiele said the state passed a law enabling the consolidation of special districts — like sewer districts — making it easier for residents to force a vote trough initiative and referendum.

The law, he said, does not include school districts, “although it should,” he opined.

NCC member Carmine Martino, who was an administrator in the New York City school system, said it would not be unusual to have 30,000 to 40,000 students per superintendent.

“In the city, 10,000 students was drop in the bucket,” said Martino. “Why doesn’t the state education department do something about this?”

Thiele agreed, and noted in some states there are county-wide school districts, although he conceded that would not work in Suffolk where there are about 1.5 million people.

“There are over 20 school districts in my assembly district,” said Thiele, “and nobody wants to give up their local district. Schools are the center of life in these communities.”

He added, however, “there is something to be said about centralizing administration.”

As an example, he said East Hampton has several feeder districts, each with its own administration. This overall expense could be reduced, if the districts centralized. There are financial hurdles however, and he said Amagansett, which has a tremendous amount of assessment and few kids, would likely balk at consolidation since their tax rates would likely increase, as opposed to Springs, whose property assessment is not that great, but has a lot of school-aged children.

“The state hasn’t been providing incentives,” said Thiele. “We need to get districts to do initial feasibility studies.”

“If you leave it to the districts to do it themselves, they have too much of a vested interest in maintaining the status quo,” he said. “You need government to allow people to get it on the ballot through initiative and referendum.”

Thiele went so far as to suggest the state consider a constitutional convention to rethink its governing document.

“The last time it was rewritten in any meaningful way was in 1938,” he said. “We need to change the way things are.”

NCC member Elena Loreto raised concerns about Noyac Road, and how it is becoming increasingly dangerous with high traffic and trucks. She noted a jogger was injured last week after being clipped by a small garbage truck, and needed to be airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital.

“Has there been any movement in getting traffic calming on Noyac Road,” asked Loreto. “Is there any federal stimulus money available?”

“There’s got to be some consensus locally for a particular project,” Thiele told Loreto. “Money goes where there is a popular project.”

He said the job really falls to the town to have a project planned and “shovel ready.”

“The feds are going to ask, ‘do you have something that’s ready to go?’”

Thiele added that local government has the ability to designate truck routes and set weight limits.

NCC president Chuck Neuman added hos organization is planning a meeting wit the North Sea Citizens Advisory Committee to discuss Southampton Town taking over Noyac and North Sea roads from the county, which the town is poised to do.

Finally, Thiele was asked by Loreto about his interest in the Democratic Party.

“How do you see yourself fitting in with Rangel, Pelossi and that group,” asked Loreto.

“I don’t,” said Thiele. “I see myself as an independent and work with people on both sides of the aisle. “There are people who are highly partisan on both sides; but most people just want to know how you’re going to represent them.”

Asked if he had decided to make the jump, Thiele said: “I’ve had the opportunity to talk to a lot of people in both parties, and I’m going to continue to do that for the next week or so.”