It’s Green on the Green, for Some
A petition asking the East Hampton Town Board to deny permits for large events on Montauk’s downtown green has gathered over 200 signatures since Memorial Day weekend.
Drawn up by Ken Walles, the owner of the Oceanside Beach Resort, the petition states that “the most recent event taking place on the village green this Memorial Day weekend has displayed an abuse of our town property. The large village green venue, in combination with the various club activities, has resulted in total chaos throughout the town, adversely affecting many of our tax-paying businesses and town residents. In addition, the poor planning and approval of such events cause an overflow of other problems with other town services such as parking, trash, and public safety.”
Mr. Walles said he started the petition after hearing a number of complaints about the fairs and their accompanying traffic woes. Once word of its existence got out, he said, people started asking him where to sign it. “If I sat at the post office with it I’d probably get 500 signatures,” he said.
The Montauk Artists Association held its annual art show on the green from Friday through Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. Its first show, in 2006, was held on the Hank Zebrowski Memorial field off Edgemere Street, just north of the hamlet, and was “a complete disaster; a total bust,” said Anne Weissmann, a fair organizer and the treasurer of the artists’ group. She said that no one realized the show was going on because of its hidden location.
Once it was moved to the green, sales and vendor fees increased substantially, she said, noting that vendors pay $350 per space and the proceeds help to maintain the artists’ Depot Gallery at the train station — a requirement under the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which leases them the gallery. August’s annual fair on the green also brings in revenue, Ms. Weissman said, and the money allows the association to offer free programs for children. “We’re financially sound, but that’s only because of those two fairs.”
East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said on Tuesday that 45 permits have been issued for events on the Montauk green from May through October, 30 of them submitted by the Montauk Chamber of Commerce. Those events include the chamber’s weekly farmers market, the free summer concert series, which is held on Mondays through Labor Day, the annual two-day fall festival, and a Lions Club crafts fair.
Mr. Cantwell said that when he took office he created a group to go over the applications. It includes two town board members, Kathee Burke-Gonzalez and Fred Overton; the town police chief; the director of the Parks Department, and the chief fire marshal. While those five officials have the authority to approve permits, they usually bring the bigger ones before the entire town board, said Mr. Cantwell. “The process worksbetter when there is a coordination of town officials,” he said.
Regarding the petition, the supervisor said it would be up to Montauk residents if a change is made. “We would need a significant amount of public opinion before we would make a decision to change it,” he said.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” Laraine Creegan, executive director of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce, said of the petition. Only not-for-profit groups are allowed to hold events on the green, she pointed out. When the art show, and, previously, the Lions Club crafts fairs were held on Lions Field it was “dead, dead, dead” for shoppers, she said — out of sight, out of mind.
In the past few years since the events have been held on the green, business has increased and the groups are doing very well, Ms. Creegan said. She suggested that no better site could be found anywhere in Montauk: Second House Museum has its own arts and crafts fairs and limited parking, while the soccer and baseball fields have irrigation systems that could be harmed by heavy foot traffic and by tent stakes being pounded into the ground. Mr. Cantwell made similar observations.
“Fairs held on greens across America is something that has always been done,” Ms. Creegan said.