Government Briefs 08.17.17

Southampton Town

Work Session Canceled

The Southampton Town Board’s work session this morning at 10 was canceled. The next regularly scheduled work session will be next Thursday at 10 a.m. in the town board meeting room in Town Hall.

New in Code Enforcement

Steven Troyd, a 28-year law enforcement veteran, has been hired as the new head of code enforcement for Southampton Town. He will start in September.

The town is taking a new approach in addressing overcrowded housing and quality of life issues with this new full-time position. Supervisor Jay Schneiderman has said that the ordinance enforcement division suffered from a lack of daily supervision and oversight.

As announced earlier this year, Mr. Schneiderman put Diana Weir in the position of director of housing and community development to address the lack of affordable housing. The town also recently launched Southampton Online Solutions, an online complaint portal that residents can use to log and track concerns.

At the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mr. Troyd supervised the New York Metro gang task force and oversaw investigations on child exploitation and narcotics. He has experience in emergency management, gained during Sept. 11 and Superstorm Sandy.

Suit Over PSEG Poles

Southampton Town is joining the Town of Brookhaven in a lawsuit against PSEG-Long Island for erecting 79-foot poles along County Road 51, a 10-mile stretch of road that runs between a rural area of East Moriches in Brookhaven and Riverside in Southampton, in the spring. In a statement this week, Southampton officials said the road has the highest elevation on the East End with “breathtaking vistas of the North Fork.”

Brookhaven Town claimed PSEG failed to adequately follow the State Environmental Quality Review Act. County Road 51 is home to Long Island’s largest white cedar swamp and sits on the edge of 50,000 acres of preserved pinelands.

Southampton Town filed a motion to intervene in New York State Supreme Court to join Brookhaven’s action. The goal is to have PSEG remove the poles and bury the lines underground. The suit claims there is a precedent to bury the lines, as that was done on an 18-mile stretch south of County Road 51 between Riverhead and Shinnecock Hills in the 1990s.