Credit Where It’s Due

Credit must be given for a new East Hampton Town Board initiative to deal with persistent quality-of-life violations and business owners who act as if laws do not apply to them. It is about time and should send a message that the rules matter and will be enforced.

Acting on complaints made by neighbors, officials have cited two Montauk property owners for allegedly turning their houses into hot-mattress hotels with a different set of guests every weekend. As difficult as these cases may be to prosecute, enforcement of existing law is not optional.

Notable, too, has been the effort to restrain the daytime bar crowd at Cyril’s Fish House on Napeague that spills onto the Montauk Highway right-of-way and snarls traffic. Acting on information provided by East Hampton Town, the New York State Liquor Authority voted last week to cancel Cyril’s license to sell alcohol. The move may have alarmed some in the bar and restaurant sector here, but was long overdue.

Farther to the east, the town has decided to get tough about the Memory Motel, which cordoned off most of its parking lot as an outdoor bar. The town’s response to this blatant affront to its zoning code has the parties headed to court to fight it out.

Looking to the upcoming town budget season, it is clear that more money must be provided for code enforcement and legal confrontations. Making sure the laws already on the books are efficiently applied has to be a central goal as the town looks ahead to next year.