Government Briefs 1.19.12

East Hampton Town

Route 114 Recharge Basin

    After delaying capital projects for several years while efforts were under way to get the town’s financial affairs in order, including identifying and borrowing enough money to cover a $27 million deficit, the East Hampton Town Board will develop a capital plan this year.

    Capital plans typically cover a multi-year period and serve as a wish list of sorts for large infrastructure or construction projects that are planned, and for which bonds would be issued.

    One project, however, has already gone out to bid, and the cost, as per the lowest bidder, is three times what had been expected. Construction of a water recharge basin on land along Route 114 in East Hampton will cost about $300,000, rather than the $100,000 anticipated. The land for the recharge basin was donated to the town by Elizabeth Fonseca in order to help solve a flooding problem in a nearby neighborhood caused by rain runoff from farm fields.

    Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson asked board members on Tuesday if, given the ability to accomplish a limited number of capital projects, the recharge basin would make the priority list.

    Town Councilwoman Theresa Quigley, who has been overseeing the effort to help residents coping with continued flooding, urged the board to move forward regardless. The accepted bid will expire if the board doesn’t act, she said, and Ms. Fonseca’s one request of the town was that the basin be constructed — and the flooding problem solved — by spring. No decision was made.

Kudos for Town Hall

    The design of the new East Hampton Town Hall, created by Robert A.M. Stern Architects using historic 18th and 19th-century structures, has earned a 2011 Citation for Design from the American Institute of Architects of New York State.

    The jury praised the design as “a clear and concise solution that seamlessly integrates old and the new, resulting in perhaps one of the finest town halls in America.”

    The buildings were donated to the town by Adelaide de Menil and her husband, the late Edmund Carpenter, and had been on their Further Lane, Amagansett, property.    J.P.

Southampton Town

    Southampton Town has acquired a two-acre parcel at 365 Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike. The $450,000 property is part of the Long Pond Greenbelt target area and was targeted for preservation because of its collection of coastal plain ponds and numerous vulnerable species.

    The purchase will add to four acres on Sag Harbor’s Round Pound area, purchased in November for $1.1 million. The money for both acquisitions came from the town’s community preservation fund.