Government Briefs 07.28.16

East Hampton Town

Lighted Crosswalks Coming

To improve pedestrian safety, East Hampton Town will install lighted crosswalks at four locations along Montauk Highway. They are yet to be finally determined, but East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said last week that there will be two in Amagansett — one at the hamlet’s eastern edge near the I.G.A. store and the St. Michael’s senior citizen housing complex, and the other likely at Hedges Lane. The other two will be in Montauk, with one likely to be located near the 7-Eleven store and that hamlet’s I.G.A. and the other near the circle at the center of town. With a vote last Thursday, the town board hired L.K. McLean Associates to design and oversee the installation of the crosswalks, for a $42,000 fee, and authorized a $375,000 bond to pay for the project.

New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, who helped secure state grant money for the project, will join town officials on Monday at 11 a.m. at the Main Street and Hedges Lane intersection in Amagansett for a formal joint announcement of the pedestrian safety effort.

Open Space Purchases

The town board approved a number of land purchases to be made with the community preservation fund after hearings on the proposed buys at Town Hall last Thursday. Kelly Reardon and Sundaram Tagore will sell 3.7 acres at 68 Hog Creek Road in Springs to the town for $625,000. A shy half-acre at 28 South Faber Street in Montauk, owned by Matthew Jewett, will be purchased for $295,000, and a .2-acre lot at 81 Gerard Drive in Springs will be acquired from UYM Charities for $35,000. William Flynn will sell .92 acres of land at 28 Folkstone Road in Springs to the town for $875,000.

The $550,000 purchase of a scenic and conservation easement over a .6-acre lot at 29 Isle of Wight Road, also in Springs and owned by Robert Kold and Catherine Bopp, was approved, but not unanimously. The easement protects the parcel from development, but leaves the land in private hands. Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez said that she felt the price was too much to pay for a site that the public will have no right to access, and Councilman Fred Overton said that he sees no public benefit to the deal. But Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc likened the arrangement to the purchase of development rights on agricultural land, a common occurrence that also leaves land privately owned, but protects it using public funds. Protecting the Springs site, he said, will reduce density in the neighborhood and protect Hog Creek by eliminating the possibility of another septic system in the area, as well as maintain a wildlife habitat. The easement purchase price is about half the price of buying the land outright, Supervisor Larry Cantwell said.