Susan Vorpahl is looking for a second term as a trustee to ensure the board remembers its true purpose, she said. A Republican, she is in the minority on the board, but that has not stopped her from “standing up against some of those very issues that I find the trustees are losing sight of.”
She was one of two to vote against giving 35-year leases for parcels at trustee-owned land at Lazy Point. She said she felt the lease extensions provided no benefit to the trustees or the public. Another example she pointed to was a discussion that came up on Monday, when a resident proposed building a dock in Three Mile Harbor. One trustee suggested the D.E.C. should have the final say. “That’s what’s going to be their downfall — giving up [jurisdiction] to those authorities.”
Ms. Vorpahl is a daughter of Stuart Vorpahl, a legendary bayman and longtime trustee who died in 2016. She grew up fishing with him and learned to respect Mother Nature from him. Serving in the same role her father did has been a humbling experience, she said.
“I learned a lot,” she said of the past two years. “I think it’s been more challenging than what I anticipated,” owing to Republicans’ minority status on the board.
She serves on the roads committee, keeping up with the trustee roads and unmarked trails. She said she has spent a lot of time going through records and reading easements to ensure trustee land is not being encroached upon.
Ms. Vorpahl worked for Riverhead Building Supply for 27 years and has been a dispatcher with the East Hampton Town Police Department for the last six years. She is also a volunteer emergency medical technician in East Hampton.
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