Montauk No-Brainer

Want to get nearly every citizen of a small hamlet loaded for bear in the middle of the hibernating season? Tell them they can't use their village green as they see fit. Try to boot the library's biggest fund-raiser from the premises, and the garden club's, and that of the chamber of commerce. Make everyone wonder whether art exhibits, dance performances, Santa sittings, tree-lightings, raffle sales, and concerts, all traditionally held on the green, will be prohibited. Quietly enlist support from a municipal official to get the necessary law in motion.

That's what the Montauk Gazebo Committee did last month, saying its members were worried about "wear and tear" on the green and gazebo, which they guard with zeal. The committee proposes to prohibit two and three-day fairs - like the Chamber of Commerce's fall festival and the library's book fair - ban cars and a lot of other things, and put curbing around the swathe of green.

All of which incited a pretty large protest on the green Monday afternoon - presumably not one of the "passive" uses the committee would endorse.

"The Green-Gazebo," the committee argues, is an "aesthetic center . . . in the heart of the hamlet" just as "the village flagpole green area and windmill green area are in East Hampton." It adds that the latter properties are "rarely, if ever" used for gatherings or events. (They apparently missed the muskets going off at the East Hampton Village flagpole a few weeks ago at the opening of the town's 350th anniversary celebration.)

The situation in Montauk is a no-brainer. The heart of a hamlet - or anything else for that matter - doesn't do much good if it isn't put to use, let alone if it's shut off to the body as a whole.