Sag Harbor was well represented Thanksgiving Day at the East Hampton Town Parks & Recreation Department’s 33^rd annual “Run for Fun” in Montauk. Running before the weekend’s whipping winds blew in, the getting-ready-to-feast competitors had seasonably cool temperatures and a light breeze.

Leading the three-mile finishers was Sag Harbor’s Craig Gaites, who came in at 15 minutes, 38 seconds, a pace of five minutes, thirteen seconds per mile. With many local runners turning out, along with a good number of holiday visitors, the results for the 368 participants were peppered with hometowns both near and far.

Those close to Sag Harbor amongst the leaders included Wainscott’s Liam McGovern, age 12, the son of Pierson social studies teacher and boys’ varsity soccer coach Donnelly McGovern. The younger McGovern completed the three-mile run in 21:06, a 7:02 pace, to place 35^th overall.

Brendan Mott, at 21:50, Domingo Perez, at 22:19, Sean Crowley, at 22:38, and Aidan Crowley, age 11, at 27:42, topped the other Sag Harbor finishers.

Theo Santo, 18, of West Islip, prevailed as the leader on the six-mile course, coming in at 33:50, a 5:38 pace. Not far behind was Sag Harbor’s John Broich, finishing in 38:20, a 6:23 pace. Coach McGovern ran a respectable 43:42 on the longer course, but found his son posted a faster pace; the coach’s 7:17 not quite up to Liam’s sparkling 7:02.

Popularity: 1% [?]

The Sag Harbor resident, former owner of the health food store Provisions, member of Slow Food Long Island and organizer of the East Hampton Farmers’ Market talks about why she thinks the East End is poised to return to its sustainable roots.

Where was your interest in local farming and food culture born?

I was thinking about that and I actually think my first experience with health food was in 1968. I was living in Vermont in an unheated log cabin near Goddard and one of the fellows would buy buckwheat groats, cashews, almonds and such for the commune we were living in. It was the first time in my life I distinctly remember eating that way. I came from baloney sandwiches and fish sticks. My parents both worked with five kids in the city and would have our monthly delivery of frozen meats, so that was what we ate –that and fish sticks. But in Vermont we ate this other way, eating rice, buckwheat, nuts, dates and things like that. One day someone brought a chocolate cake in and I had not had sugar in my system for so long I got violently ill. I think that awakened my interest in eating and how important food is. Since then, I have always been interested in food, which I think is healing. It really landed full square in 1982 when I lived in Sag Harbor in a rented room with Linda Sherry and Linley Pennebaker (Whelan) asked me to join her in buying Provisions, which was where D.J. Hart is now … In those days, health food was nothing. Don Katz said to me years later that he bet his wife $100 we would not make it. The oatmeal craze, to lower cholesterol was the first big hit we had and it just sort of took off. People came in looking to buy one item and bought more. It was effective, and that was that.

Farmers’ markets on the East End have grown in popularity in the last five years. When did you see this trend take hold and why is it so popular to eat locally?

In 2004, Brian Halweil got onto the village Harbor Committee after he and his wife Sara bought their home in Sag Harbor after summering here for a number of years. As trends move from west to east, he suggested we have a Farmer’s Market in Sag Harbor as a part of HarborFest and the girls at Dockside allowed us to use their lawn. It was suppose to be a one-day event, but we finished out the month of September and went through October. I was involved with that market as a founding member of the EECO [East End Community Organic] Farm, which I was on the board of and whose farm stand I helped run for a number of years. There were about six of us that Brian got together to compose the first Sag Harbor’s Farmer’s Market.

Elise Collins had already started a market in Westhampton Beach, but there were not many before 2004. Certainly since then it has grown. Montauk just started its market on Thursdays and Southampton Village has opened theirs. We have another at Hayground in Bridgehampton on Fridays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. that is just wrapping up and Friday mornings we have the East Hampton market at Nick and Toni’s, and of course, there is Sag Harbor on Saturdays.

I think they are popular for a number of reasons, perhaps the most overarching one being what happens to you when you shop at a local farmer’s market – the emotional quotient of seeing your neighbors, talking to the person who is producing your food – it becomes a fun place to shop. There is that side, and of course, the taste of the food because it was just harvested that morning, not shipped over the last week from California or Florida. But most importantly, the farmers’ market has become a community center, which is how it traditionally has been in Europe and Central America. They are the center of a village. They also enable young farmers to sell to their customers and get the most return. This will in the long run help local farmers like the Wesnofske Brothers in East Hampton, a third generation Polish farming family, that will be able to continue farming because of opportunities like this. It is a way of making a living as a farmer once more.

What is your hope for the future for local farmer’s markets?

I think there should be one in every village and hamlet. I hope they get bigger. I encourage more people to produce, catch and make their own products. It would be great to find a building year round for the markets. It would help farmers’ grow year round, which is possible. We need a building – that would be the wave of the future.

Amagansett does not have a traditional farmers’ market, although the Peconic Land Trust did purchase the Main Street farmers’ market and has leased it to Eli Zabar of Manhattan. Would that kind of space suit a year round farmers’ market?

I think that would be fine, although the space is not heated so whether it could be used year round would require some investigation. Someone has suggested the Polish Hall in Southampton and I do not know what Southampton Town has planned for the old Marders Building once the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton has completed construction [and moves out of the Marders Building]. It would be great to have a year round farmers’ market with a commercial kitchen in it, opening the space up to allowing people to make prepared foods and teach classes.

As a member of the local chapter of Slow Foods, what are some of the initiatives you would like that organization to tackle locally?

I am so happy that Josh Viertel is now the president of Slow Food USA. They have taken on this whole real food in schools initiative because Congress is getting ready to re-authorize the Child Nutrition Act in the fall and the money government reimburses to our schools mostly is for transportation, hard costs, not for food. Slow Foods strongly wants to ask Congress, and Labor Day is a national day of action, to up the ante and add one dollar in reimbursements per child so schools can have local foods in their cafeterias. We will locally host an Eat In at the Bridgehampton School from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Labor Day. There will be 250 of these events nationwide.

What are some of your favorite local farm stands?

I go to the farmers’ markets a lot, but when I go to farm stands it is usually what is on the way. I go to Marilee Foster and Pike Farms because that is on my way to Sagg Main Beach. When the apples come into season, I will go to the Milk Pail.

What chefs on the East End do you think embrace sustainable food culture?

Ted Conklin of The American Hotel was a pioneer because he was a farmer before he was a restaurateur. Also, Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton has been on the forefront. Like Ted, they have a garden at their restaurant. When [former owner] Jeff Salaway was alive he and Joe Realmuto and Mark Smith showed a deep commitment to local food, which Joe and Mark continue today. It’s a very special place. Talking to Balsam Farms is a good way to see what chefs are using local products because they know who is buying it. I know James Carpenter at The Living Room at The Maidstone Arms is focused on it and I hear Rugosa is as well, although I have yet to eat there. When I worked with the EECO Farm I delivered to Della Femina, and I know Yama-Q is very conscientious. Our farmers’ markets have a lot of chefs placing orders with the vendors.

Given the wealth of local food products at the end of the summer, what is your ideal Labor Day menu at home?

Eric Braun of East Hampton Farmers’ Market, one of the last of the dying breed of bay men, his fish and his scallops are divine. He also smokes his own bluefish. I would get corn from Balsam Farm and tomatoes from Marilee. I would get peaches from Wesnofske Brothers and blueberries from Pikes. Melons are just delicious right now. Balsam also has some wonderful fingerling potatoes and Sang Lee Farms has wonderful greens for a salad. And then there are pickles … I could just go on and on. I can’t think of anything better than all these different foods. The fruit pies are heaven right now. We are really so blessed with everything that is available to us right now. I feel very grateful.

Popularity: 2% [?]

By Benito Vila

Well-meaning people will tell you, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” On the East End, there is a special lot that live knowing, “When you get a swell, you go surf.”

Nothing stokes the surfing community here more than an off-shore hurricane or nor’easter. A wave forecast on Swellinfo, Surfline or Magicseaweed describing head-high surf is enough to make everyday commitments disappear and leave loved ones alone, waiting, wondering what might come next.

For those that surf, last weekend’s Hurricane Bill brought back the joy, mischief and thrill missing in two weeks of ankle-high waves. The storm surge that on Saturday closed beaches to swimming and gouged away the shoreline, came ashore Sunday in fast-moving walls of ride-able waves with 10-to-15-foot faces. Those quick-shifting conditions caused even the most experienced surfers to pause a bit before going in, checking equipment and confidence, and then setting off.

Sunday Morning Coming Down

With talk of the surf having been best in Montauk on Saturday, Sag Harbor’s Mike Semkus and James Cassone woke up at 4:30 a.m. Sunday and headed east. Arriving at the popular spot called “Turtles”, just west of the lighthouse, the pair found a crowd of 30-some already anxiously assembled.

First light brought disappointment, the in-coming swells not quite setting up with the “clean” faces everyone expected in the off-shore wind. Still some surfers went in, but Semkus and Cassone came west checking other surf spots on their way before pulling into Sagg Main Beach around 8:30 a.m.

There, at their home beach break, the two found exactly what they wanted, sizeable, reachable, ride-able waves breaking 50-yards off-shore, without the rocks or the crowds they’d found out in Montauk. Walking into the surf just before 9 a.m., Semkus and Cassone encountered a slight westward sweep in the water along with a powerful three-to-four-foot white-water churn produced by the crashing waves.

A Sweet Day

Those gifts from Hurricane Bill made getting out to where the surf was breaking difficult, but the pair paddled their way through and soon found themselves out beyond the inside break and close to being in position to take off. When Cassone came down the face of a 10-foot-high face, white water exploding even higher beside him, applause broke out from the ten or fifteen people standing at the opening in the dune.

Meanwhile, those few standing on the steps to the bathhouse were watching Semkus drift west ahead of an even bigger set building on the far outside. With Semkus riding up and punching through, then coming in to set himself for his first ride, and Cassone coming about in the water and heading out again, it was only a matter of time before others would come down and get in on what proved to be a “sweet” day at Sagg Main.

Before the day was through there was talk on the beach of tow-in surfing in Montauk, of surf breaking on the north side of the lighthouse and of surfers taking boats to Gardiner’s Island and planes to Block Island and Fishers Island to get the best of the swell there. All day though the break at Sagg Main continued to be ride-able for those that could, the evening session somewhat smaller and less intense than the morning, but “good fun” all the same.

Semkus and Cassone were still at Sagg Main at sunset on Sunday, their first session keeping them in the water until 1 p.m., and their second session starting at 5 p.m. When asked what the surfing was like, Semkus answered, “It was like two different days. The morning was wild. We’d been up for four hours before we got in and then we had to work for everything we could get. The water was fast and once we found [what we could and could not do], we were off.”

Stories about Bill

The buzz about Bill started on the beach at Sagg Main last Tuesday, Surfline’s wave models calling for 30-foot off-shore swells and 20-foot near-shore swells. By Friday afternoon, a south-west wind brought in a building, but choppy, and inconsistent swell, head-high outside sets often closing out on longboarders and slightly smaller inside sets crashing down quickly on the shortboarders.

Saturday saw a massive off-shore break and online buoy data whet the appetites of nearly every surfer on the East End. In the morning at Sagg Main, Luke Washburn reported seeing buoy heights of seven-to-eight feet with 14-second intervals, excitedly adding, “I haven’t seen that in years.” At Georgica Beach in the afternoon, Mike Solomon reported 10-foot swells on the buoys with a similar interval, and pointed at the horizon, saying, “That means 20-foot waves out there.”

Meanwhile at Main Beach (East Hampton), three lifeguards went out to see if what they were seeing–and keeping swimmers out of–might at all be ride-able. Two made it out to the large outside break, with Scott McGuiness successfully catching what fellow East Hampton village lifeguard and Sag Harbor resident Bob Bori called “an absolute bomb.”

McGuiness’ supervisor, Ed McDonald said on Sunday morning the scene Saturday “looked absolutely Hawaiian, like those pictures you see with the little guy in the big wave”, adding that when McGuiness came in, he said, “It’s bigger than it looks.” That one “bomb” was enough, word spreading of McGuiness’ solo ride so that it was already legendary by Sunday afternoon.

What Surfers Hope For

Saturday night’s buoys reported 13.8-foot swells 23 miles south of Montauk and 24.9-foot swells 54 miles southeast of Nantucket, the biggest part of the storm passing by in the dark. As is the norm, the National Data Buoy Center cautioned, “Individual wave heights can be more than twice the [given] wave height.”

The truth be told, Bill’s path was not the ultimate ideal for many of the local surfers. “What we need is something like Gabrielle in 1989,” explained Sag Harbor’s Butch Kunzeman early in the week. “She stayed around for a week and just pumped.” Having a hurricane “stall” several hundred miles out, much as Bertha did last July, yields a more consistent and lingering groundswell than fast-moving, more erratic storms, like Bill, bring.

The ideal track is one that sees storms stay further off-shore than Bill’s 250-mile brush-by. Rick Musnicki, who grew up in Bridgehampton, learned to surf at Georgica and now awaits good surf in Sag Harbor, said Saturday, “Bill’s too close. Once it’s out a bit, things will get better.”

Proved correct on Sunday and still happily surfing Sagg Main on Tuesday evening, Musnicki was asked what he liked most about Bill. With the weekend’s groundswell gone and a windswell making sunset more interesting, Musnicki answered, “There weren’t any people,” acknowledging the open playground created by the absence of swimmers on the inside and inexperienced surfers on the outside.

Sagg Main 2009

This summer, like last summer, has seen the return of a sand bar to Sagg Main. That has attracted swimmers and surfers to the same area, often creating conflicts for the beach’s lifeguards, who set out flags every morning clearly indicating where each group should be.

The two-week flat spell Bill ended was not too unusual for a typical June or July, but those months this year saw the surf break regularly at Sagg Main both inside and outside. That unexpected but welcome abundance of surf, and last month’s biting bluefish, has led the lifeguards to become more watchful and protective of the bathing area.

Sag Harbor’s Lester Ware, who grew up surfing in Southampton and often longboards the outside break at Sagg Main, calls the surf this summer, “The best in years. It’s been there day in and day out, except for the first two weeks of August. With what we usually have coming in the fall, this could be one year we talk about for a long time.”

In describing his experience with Bill’s waves, Ware said, “I usually don’t say ‘Whoa’ too often [when I get to the water], but when I came over the dune [at Sagg Main] on Sunday morning, all I could say was ‘Whoa’.”

Did you surf last weekend? Leave a post and share your experiences.

Popularity: 4% [?]

By Richard Gambino

 

I recently celebrated a landmark birthday. As a character in the musical, Chicago, says, “I’m much older than I ever intended to be.” So it’s no surprise, I guess, that I’m seeking to understand who I am now that I am a long-term “senior citizen” in 2009. I don’t mean self-obsession or even self-absorption, which I don’t need, and of which there is already too much in the world. Instead I’ve turned out from myself. For me, experience of nature pulls me out of myself even as it connects me with my own deepest internal nature. So I’ve turned to it. It’s a long-time practice of mine.

Luckily, in my lifetime there’s been a spirit at work on the East End preserving nature against the relentless push for overdevelopment. I first saw the coast of Montauk in 1953, and since 1970 have lived in two places on the South Fork and one on the North, and I’ve seen much change. Some of it not good. (As I write this, a deer is about twenty feet from me, outside my window, a stubborn holdout against encroaching suburbia.)

I remember the fight in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, led by people like Carol Morrison, today a vibrant 89 year-old,  to preserve land from Napeague to Montauk against the developers and some politicians  who wanted to turn it into yet another mass of McMansions, plus condominiums.  (Today, multi-story condo complexes hang by threads like so many Swords of Damocles about to drop on Sag Harbor.) Thus sixty-five percent of the land between Napeague and Montauk Point is now preserved, mostly as town, county, state and federal preserves and parks. I treasure the time I spend in these natural areas.

In the past weeks, I’ve spent the start of  a new age of my life taking walks along the jagged cliffs above the ocean just west of Montauk Point, at Camp Hero State Park, a state preserve since 2002,  and Shadmoor State Park, a state preserve since 2000. My mind goes back to the G.I.s of World War II who looked out to the sea when these were military installations. Dull duty manning massive coastal guns never fired at the enemy. But all that is left as nature has reclaimed the land are some squat buildings and circular slabs of concrete on which the heavy artillery rested. Still, I can almost hear the soldiers whistling, “Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree,” “The G.I. Jive,” and other tunes popular then.

I imagine too that I see the generations of Montaukett Indians who gazed at the sea from these cliffs in the more distant past. The ocean was a great bounty to them, providing them with much food, and no doubt instilling in them the same awe I feel in looking at it. I wish I knew their songs, and could contemplate their minds. What would they make of us? How would their elders appraise the lives we lead? And I imagine someday my grandchildren when they are adults standing on the cliffs and wondering what I thought about while there.

It is in this  mind that I look out, awestruck, on a day with a strong south wind. The white water surges in from the blue sea against the weathered bluffs and beaten beaches. The waves follow each other so closely that at low tide they send an almost constant hiss to my ears. Strength and energy without measure. Yet they are not conscious. It’s human consciousness, my consciousness, that illuminates them, and in so doing lights my soul. I hope I don’t sound like a pedant when I relate that in reflection on these walks high above the ever-moving sea, I’m reminded of a favorite quotation I’ve used in the classroom. Some fifteen centuries ago, Boethius, a statesman and thinker who lived very much engaged with  the extremely turbulent late ancient Roman world,  said, “In other creatures ignorance of self is natural; in humans, it is vice.” These Montauk moments help keep me at least sometimes from this vice. These times illuminate the harmony of nature out there and nature within me as I engage a world very different from the one in which I was young.

Recently I stood on one of the cliffs, leaning into a strong wind flapping my clothes like uncontrolled sails, holding my tripod and camera hard against it. If anyone had seen me, they would have seen a lunatic. But thank God for such lunacy. The photos I took of the cliffs and the white water: Life’s cycles — and it is a wonder-full adventure to live mine. Back in 1950, a great psychologist, Erik Erikson, said the good life is to be had in a full-souled embrace of the truth that the meaning of life for  a person depends on the integrity he establishes for himself in the context of his time.  In the end, the best integrity I come to starts with the harmony of nature within and without, and then engagement with the world.

Another great psychologist, William James, in 1902 characterized a “healthy soul,” as one  insofar as  he relates to reality with enthusiastic connection and freedom. On the other hand one is a “sick soul” insofar as he relates to the world solely from his self-centeredness, and its mates, fear and all the other self-centered emotions. James tells a story of a person walking on a narrow ledge on a completely dark night. He slips, and for a long time hangs onto a tree branch in terror. Finally, exhausted, he falls. Six inches. James cites the moral of the story as the urging of, “giving your private convulsive self a rest, and finding that a greater Self is there.”

I come home from my immersions in nature more able to love those I love with all  my being, which is at the same time so ephemerally fragile, yet  powerful. And better to recognize the pettiness of “chasing the dog tail of my little self.” Also more committed to the justice of fighting against those whose love of themselves, power or money would have the rest of us chase theirs.

We lose too much of ourselves when we become alienated from nature, and so suffer a great handicap in living in an ever-challenging world.  Fortunately, the preserved lands nearby also can help preserve us from the vice of ignorance about who we really are. But being only human, it’s good to keep a sense of humor about ourselves. We should remember that even if there’s a 50-50 chance of getting something right, being human there’s a 60% probability  we’ll get it wrong. The good life comes from caring and trying. So my spirit encourages me on, with Walt Whitman’s injunction:

 

      Dear camerado! I confess I have urged you onward with me,

      and still urge you, without the least idea of what is our destination,

      Or whether we shall be victorious, or utterly quell’d and defeated.

 

RICHARD GAMBINO loves the “fish’s tail” (a.k.a. the East End), and the waters in which it swims.    

 

Popularity: 11% [?]

Southampton Hospital: Honored Employee

(Left to Right) Paul Davin, Vice President of Human Resources, Robert S. Chaloner, Anna Capozello, Sheryl Bahamondes, Robin Pfennig and Matthew Cicillini at a ceremony honoring Capozello as employee of the quarter at Southampton Hospital.

Capozello, a cashier/dietary worker in the Nutritional Services department at the hospital, has been chosen as the Hospital’s Employee of the Quarter for the second quarter of 2008. Her selection was celebrated at a brunch in her honor last week, where Hospital President and CEO Robert S. Chaloner presented her with a trophy and various gifts recognizing her achievement. 

Montauk: 77-Acre Preservation

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill McGintee and The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation today announced they have reached an agreement in principle to purchase a 77-acre oceanfront parcel of land in Montauk. Negotiations for the agreement were spearheaded by The Nature Conservancy.

The $18 million acquisition of the property owned by television talk show personality Dick Cavett will be shared equally between the three parties, and adds to the vast amount of publicly held, environmentally significant lands in Montauk  – which includes the 125-acre Amsterdam Beach, the Sanctuary State Preserve (the former Andy Warhol Estate now owned by The Nature Conservancy), Camp Hero State Park, Montauk Point State Park and Theodore Roosevelt County Park.

“Partnerships such as these, among three levels of government, are exactly what are needed right now to ensure that vital tracts of open space and farmland in Suffolk County are protected,” said Levy. “The Cavett property was one of the first parcels to be included in my comprehensive inventory of environmentally sensitive lands. Through the hard work and diligence of The Nature Conservancy, and with the cooperation of the town and the state, we will ensure this unique property will remain as it is today.”

“We are thrilled that Mr. Cavett has accepted the offer,” said Nancy Kelley, executive director of The Nature Conservancy on Long Island, which negotiated the deal with Mr. Cavett.  “It is not an exaggeration to say that we have worked toward this outcome for 20 years.” 

 “We greatly appreciate the financial support from Suffolk County and New York State,” said McGintee.  East Hampton will fund its $6 million share of the acquisition from the Community Preservation Fund, a 2% transfer tax on real estate sales. 

“This is a key parcel for us to protect,” said McGintee, “One that demonstrates exceedingly well the importance of having the CPF.”  

Erik Kulleseid, deputy director for land acquisition of the State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, said the State has long recognized the importance the Cavett parcel. 

“The entire 265 acres of the Montauk Moorlands has been a state conservation priority for years, and we are pleased to support the Town and County in their efforts to protect this unique part of the State,” he said.  

The property consists of scenic bluffs along the Atlantic Ocean, as well as freshwater wetlands that support several state rare species. The deal is subject to execution of contracts and governmental approvals over the next few months.

Since Levy’s inauguration in 2004, Suffolk has preserved nearly 5,500 acres – which is six and one-half times the size of New York’s Central Park – including 49 farms. The program continues to aggressively pursue the purchase of environmentally significant parcels and farmlands.

Southampton: Strides For Life

The third annual Strides for Life fundraising race will take place at 9 a.m. on Sunday, August 24 in Southampton. The three-mile fun run/walk around Lake Agawam is a cornerstone event of the Lung Cancer Research Foundation (LCRF), which funds innovative lung cancer research grants at leading cancer centers across the country. Co-Anchor of FOX 5 news Rosanna Scotto is Honorary Chairman of the race and will be at the start and finish line to cheer participants on.  Following the race at 9:45 a.m., there will be a 50-yard dash for children, and a medal presentation ceremony.

One hundred percent of proceeds from last year’s Strides for Life went directly towards ten lung cancer research grants of the highest scientific merit. In two years, LCRF has awarded grants totaling over $700,000 to expedite research and possible cures for the disease that will claim an estimated 160,000 lives this year in the U.S. 

“The money raised from this year’s race will allow LCRF to fund additional scientific research grants at leading cancer centers across the country,” said Deborah Walsh, Executive Director of LCRF. “It is incredible how many people from the surrounding community and all over New York turn out to help give this deadly disease a stronger voice, and positively impact research funding,” she adds.

For more information about Strides for Life, including registration instructions, or to make an online pledge for lung cancer research, go to www.lungcancerresearchfoundation.org.

Suffolk Legislature: Public Safety For EH

The Suffolk Legislature this week voted to give East Hampton Town $1.1 million for public safety purposes—funds that the financially-pressed and, according to critics, financially inept town, would have otherwise lost because of its failure to file the proper paperwork.

“See we have a big heart!” declared William Lindsay, presiding officer of the legislature after the vote Tuesday in Hauppauge.

Not only East Hampton Town but the Town of Shelter Island, the Village of Westhampton Beach and several villages in western Suffolk that are not part of the Suffolk County Police District also received funds—all due to them but for which they, too, failed to properly apply, Deputy Suffolk County Executive Ben Zwirn told the legislature.

“Even though they didn’t meet the requirements, we want to give them the money,” said Mr. Zwirn speaking on behalf of the administration of County Executive Steve Levy.

The money derives from the quarter-percent of the sales tax earmarked for public safety.  Most of this money goes to the Suffolk County Police Department. Indeed representatives of towns (all five East End towns) and villages outside the police district have long complained that far too much of it goes to the county police. This alleged inequity was the subject of a recent lawsuit, later dropped, brought by the East End representatives on the legislature joined by several municipalities outside the police district.

However, some of the sales tax money—even if not what the towns and villages think is enough—does go to the towns and villages outside the police district.

But they must properly apply for the funds.

Legislator Jay Schneiderman of Montauk, whose district includes East Hampton Town, told his fellow legislators that the failure of East Hampton Town and the other municipalities to do that was “embarrassing.” He and Legislator Edward Romaine of Center Moriches, the other legislator who represents the East End, were lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit brought earlier this year.

Zwirn detailed to the legislature the amounts of money involved. East Hampton Town would get the lion’s share: $533,767 in monies due to it in 2006 and $586,217 for monies due for last year. He said that because the town failed to make proper application for the 2006 dollars, the 2007 funds were “held up.”

The Town of Shelter Island is to receive $95,561 and the Village of Westhampton Beach $66,501.        

Zwirn said that the “money was isolated” in the county’s books by its financial officers — so the county knew how much the towns and villages were due, even though they did not do the proper paperwork to get the funds.

Schneiderman asked whether there was a “legal requirement” for the municipalities to now receive the dollars.

Zwirn said there was no such requirement, prompting Mr. Lindsay to make his comment about having “a heart.”

The resolution to provide the otherwise lost dollars was sent to the legislature under a “certificate of necessity” signed by Levy, which allowed for immediate action by the panel on the measure, and was approved by a vote of 18-to-0.

-Karl Grossman

 

 

 

Popularity: 9% [?]