Homeowners Request: Bridge Across Hook?

A bridge that doesn't reach the other side ought to be called, by definition, a dock. That's how Gordon Vorpahl, an East Hampton Town Trustee, summed up a proposal before the panel last week.

The Trustees, having decided years ago against the construction of any new docks in the waters they manage for the public, agreed that the partial reconstruction of the historic Gardiner bridge across Hook Pond, proposed by the East Hampton Village Board and several pond-front property owners, will not, for the moment, fly.

Mr. Vorpahl and other Trustees posed the philosophical question of what to call a bridge when it's to nowhere, after hearing from Richard Shilowich, whose construction company would do the work.

Maidstone Objects

Mr. Shilowich, who also is a member of the Village Design Review Board, came to the meeting in support of an application submitted by Robert O'Block of Jefferys Lane, one of several homeowners who reportedly have agreed to help finance the reconstruction.

The Gardiner bridge once spanned the pond and linked two lots owned by Samuel Buell Gardiner. The land on the James Lane side is now owned by Melville Straus. The land on the opposite side is part of the Maidstone Club's golf course.

According to the plan, the bridge would leave the Straus property and reach almost to the other side - almost, because the Maidstone Club reportedly does not want a bridge there.

Used For Cattle

Robert Hefner, East Hampton Village's historic preservation consultant, told The Star on Monday that the Trustees should realize that it was their 1844 counterparts who permitted the bridge to be built in the first place.

Samuel B. Gardiner owned 80 acres of pastureland, now part of the Maidstone golf course. The 44-foot bridge he built on pilings was the centerpiece of a causeway used to drive cattle from one side of Hook Pond to the other.

The bridge is depicted in Thomas Moran's painting "The Old Bridge Over Hook Pond, East Hampton, Long Island, New York, 1907."

The bridge would be reconstructed using the same "rough-sawn and naturally durable wood," said Mr. Hefner, but would be smaller than the original cattle bridge, more like a footbridge. It was last reconstructed in 1956.

Mayor Cites History

A reconstructed bridge would "make some connection to East Hampton's agrarian past. The Maidstone golf course was a pasture," Mr. Hefner said this week.

East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. is another supporter of the project, "especially on the town's 350th birthday," he said this week. "Even if for aesthetics alone, it's valid," he added.

Although neither the Mayor nor Mr. Hefner was at last week's Trustee session, both said they would be there on Tuesday when the Trustees next meet. In the meantime, Trustees agreed to postpone a final decision to give the bridge proponents a chance to present their case more thoroughly.

At last week's meeting, Mr. Shilowich reasoned that, while the bridge itself was long gone, the pilings that once supported it were still intact, so the proposed work should be thought of as a replacement. He said the plan did not involve Trustees directly - although he thought they should be aware of it - because the bridge passed above Trustee-managed Hook Pond.

Trustees informed Mr. Shilowich that the bridge involved them a great deal, as the pilings were resting in Trustee-owned bottom. A bridge without support would not be a bridge, they argued.

But the board also wondered how anyone could use the bridge as a bridge if it didn't make it to the other side.

Dock By Default

John Courtney, the Trustees' attorney, said the structure under consideration had no legal standing as it failed to fit the definition of a bridge, and was, by default, a dock.

But Diane Mamay, presiding officer of the board, said there was more to it than that. "Is there a reason to restore it? Will it benefit the public?" Those, she told Mr. Shilowich last week, were the key questions that needed to be addressed.

Trustee Harold Bennett invoked some Bonac language to appraise the situation. "The way I see it, the Upstreeters want it and the Downstreeters don't," he said, laughing.

Paumanok On Napeague

Richard Lupoletti, president of the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society, came to the meeting to fight for the society's plan to blaze a hiking trail along the south shore of Napeague Harbor, part of the 110-mile Paumanok Path from Rocky Point to Montauk Point, which is due to be completed in October.

Trustees, who were reticent when the idea was presented in December, repeated their main concern: that hikers would eventually complain about the duck hunting that goes on in season along the south shore of the harbor.

"Ducks, dogs, shotguns, and hikers. Sooner or later there's going to be a conflict. I'd like to avoid the problem going in," said Mr. Vorpahl.

Span Soak Hides

Trustees had less trouble with the society's plan to span Soak Hides Dreen (Tanbark Creek) near Springy Banks in East Hampton with a bridge, in order to continue the trail in the Three Mile Harbor area.

Mr. Lupoletti vowed cooperation as to the trail on Napeague. "We're sensitive to the problem. . . . I think we could exist without a problem with hunters. We'll work at it."

He acknowledged that Paumanok trailblazers UpIsland were warring with other users, specifically trail-bikers, but said that was not the East Hampton society's style.

Trustees argued that while current society members might take the traditional gunning in stride, future ones might not. Mr. Lupoletti was asked if the society would be amenable to a time limit.

"Yes, we're not looking for an easement," he said.

L.I.R.R. Route?

Ms. Mamay suggested an alternative route be found, the Long Island Rail Road right-of-way perhaps. Mr. Lupoletti said he feared the Rail Road would feel legally exposed, would see a hiking trail as a liability.

But Trustee Mary Gardiner said she thought the L.I.R.R. would be willing to extend a waiver, that other groups had gotten them. Mr. Courtney agreed, and Mr. Lupoletti said he would investigate.

He said the only other, and least acceptable, possibility was for the trail to go out onto Montauk Highway.

Leonard Specter, who lives on Louse Point Road. came to the Trustee meeting to resubmit his application for a "knee wall," a small bulkhead.

He first applied in 1993, but let his application lapse when he and Dieter Hach, a neighbor, submitted a joint application to the Town Zoning Board of Appeals for the knee wall.

"We've lost about two feet of sand in front of the house and a little of the bluff," Mr. Specter said. "We are more endangered now. Two good northeasters would put the house in danger."

The Trustees accepted his new application and agreed to inspect the property and take the matter up at Tuesday's work session.