Don't Park on the Grass- Village vows to do something about work trucks

Landscapers, construction workers, and other contractors who do business in East Hampton Village may soon be subject to new rules about where they can park while they are working.

Complaints about large trucks parked in the street or damaging the grassy road shoulders owned by the village had the village board talking last Thursday with the building inspector, superintendent of public works, and police chief about regulations that might keep those trucks on the properties they are servicing.

"We've all about had it with the degradation of village property," Tom Lawrence, the building inspector, said at last Thursday's village board meeting.

Among the solutions the board discussed were better enforcement of no-parking rules, where they are designated, and advising contractors to park in the driveways of the houses they are working at or to use safety cones if they must park on the street. A village permit for service companies doing work in the village was also debated.

"There are a lot of places that are not going to have room on the property" for the trucks, Barbara Borsack, a village board member, said.

"There are a fair amount of properties where more than two vehicles showing up would max out the parking," Mr. Lawrence said. One problem, as he sees it, is that landscapers "are not running around in vehicles that are appropriately sized to the properties they service."

The trucks left on the road while workers tend to a property can create a "serious problem," said David H. Brown, another board member, "especially if we've got to get an ambulance through." If a driveway is not big enough to accommodate all the trucks servicing a property, the village could tell contractors and landscapers that they can unload only, then require them to park elsewhere, Mr. Brown suggested.

"Where are they going to take their vehicles if they can't park them in the driveway or on the street?" Ms. Borsack asked.

"They have to be on the property or off the roadway, and that's what my guys enforce," said East Hampton Village Police Chief Gerard Larsen.

Often the trucks park on the grassy shoulder of the road to avoid parking in the street, but such heavy vehicles tear up the ground and destroy the grass. "Irrigation is a big culprit also," Scott Fithian, the superintendent of public works, said. When the ground is overly wet, truck tires can do more damage.

"We can tell them you can't park it in the right of way or the roadway," Chief Larsen suggested. If the village were to issue a permit to contractors and service people working in the village, even if it were free, it would give the village the opportunity to explain its rules and expectations, he said.

"I wonder how difficult we're going to make it for people to have work done on their property," Ms. Borsack said. She asked whether the village could make the contractors responsible for maintaining and/or reseeding damaged village right of ways.

"Some places there just is no answer," she said. "It would be nice if someone had a solution."

"Get goats," said Edwin L. Sherrill Jr., another board member.

If the village comes up with a reasonable solution, Larry Cantwell, the village administrator, said, he is sure contractors will comply.

Also at last Thursday's meeting, the board discussed estimated costs to construct a bathroom and provide lifeguards and supplies at Two Mile Hollow Beach.

A consent order the village signed with the Suffolk County Health Department mandates that the village provide lifeguard protection and bathroom facilities and obtain a bathing beach permit for Two Mile Hollow by next May.

Based on the cost of lifeguard protection, supplies, and maintenance at Georgica Beach, Mr. Cantwell said it could cost the village about $50,000 to operate a bathing beach at Two Mile Hollow.

He guessed that construction, site work, and fees for the bathrooms could run about $400,000. Capitalizing the expense over 15 years, the village would pay about $26,700 annually.

"It's not just a question of putting up a single bathroom," Mr. Cantwell said Friday when asked about the price tag. "We're not sure where on the site it's going to be located."

The village will have to pay to extend public water and electrical service to the bathrooms and to build a septic system for it. The bathroom facility, which has not been designed yet, will be handicapped-accessible and have two men's and two women's toilets and storage for the lifeguards' equipment.

A design could be finalized by December, but in the meantime, the village needs to have a ballpark figure so that those expenses can be factored in to the cost of non-resident beach parking permits for 2006.

Ms. Borsack recalled a village board meeting in August at which the board told Two Mile Hollow regulars that taxpayers would share the burden of the expanded beach facilities with nonresidents who buy stickers. "I'm trying to figure out how to keep the sticker price the same, or not raise it as much," she said.

This year, the village issued 2,500 permits, at $225 each, and earned $562,500. If it increases the permit price by $25 and sells 100 more permits in 2006, it could earn an additional $87,500 next year, which would fully cover the cost of operating an additional bathing beach.

The board agreed to those numbers, but has yet to pass a resolution on the matter.

In other news, full-time East Hampton Village employees with college-aged children will soon be getting a bit of a break on college expenses. A private donor has pledged to give the village $25,000 a year for the next three years to help it establish a scholarship program for the children of village employees.

Employees' children under 24 years old who are attending college full time for an associate's or bachelor's degree will qualify for a scholarship of $500 per academic year toward tuition or books. Students will have to apply for the grant, but until the money runs out, no qualified student will be denied.

Based on the current number of village employees and their eligible children, Mr. Cantwell said, he believes the program could be sustained for at least 10 years. The first grants will probably be handed out in January.

The board will meet again on Friday, Oct. 21, at 11 a.m. at the Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street.