Reject Kirk Park Fees

The Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee voted to recommend against reinstating a fee for the Kirk Park parking lot on Monday after a discussion elicited differing opinions. East Hampton Town Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, the town board’s liaison to the committee, had raised the Kirk Park question at the meeting, which was attended by 37 residents in addition to committee members.

The committee also discussed banning alcohol on the downtown beaches between Memorial Day and Labor Day from midnight to 6 a.m. but did not come to a conclusion. Some members said that partying on the beaches begins before people head to the clubs and a ban might curb the drunken rowdiness that residents saw this summer.

There had been a $10 fee to park at Kirk Park, but when the hamlet’s popularity surged several years ago, town officials eliminated it. The lot was  barely used, and the goal was to move some vehicles there from the Ditch Plain Beach and the beach at South Edison near the Sloppy Tuna and the Royal Atlantic Motel. Downtown business owners had complained about beachgoers taking up parking spots in the business district.

Many people were not aware that they could park at Kirk Park for free, without a town parking permit, however, and the lot remained partially empty until the town posted a large free-parking sign at its entrance and opened another access. As a result on most days this summer the lot was full.

 “It alleviated a longstanding problem,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said. He added that the town’s lifeguards said the free lot helped break up the clusters of beachgoers.

Steve Kalimnios of the Royal Atlantic Beach Motel praised the free parking lot. He said if the town reverted to charging there it would shift the burden east back toward his motel and Sloppy Tuna.

But some at the meeting said it was a bad idea to offer free parking there. Because the hamlet is so popular now, visitors would be willing to pay to park, which they suggested would be additional revenue for the town. Peter Lowenstein, a committee member, then suggested the fee be increased to $20 a day.

Paul Monte, the president of the board of directors of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce, and Laraine Creegan, the executive director of the chamber, did not agree on reinstating a fee, with Ms. Creegan calling $20 “ridiculous.” She said the chamber had been working on getting a shuttle bus similar to the Hampton Hopper to operate in the hamlet to alleviate parking woes.

If the fee was reinstated the town would also have to get the state to postno-parking signs on Montauk Highway north of the lot because that is where cars would park to avoid paying the fee, Ms. Creegan said. She later noted that the town had easily agreed to eliminate the parking fee because it did not bring in enough money to pay for an attendant to collect it.

“I think it’s misguided. The people who are parking there are not the people who are partying. Those people do not use that lot,” she said.

Finally, a resolution expressing the committee’s opinion against reinstituting the fee was made by John Chimples. It was passed 13-to-8, with a few abstentions.

As for a proposal for another municipal parking lot on a vacant lot at the corner of South Euclid and South Edison near the Montauk Post Office, members didn’t have much to say except for one who said doubling parking would only double the amount of people in the downtown area. That idea remains under consideration, with a recommendation awaited from a consulting firm hired by the town to study traffic and pedestrian safety in the area. Mr. Van Scoyoc told the committee that the engineering firm’s initial findings indicated that parking in the downtown area is “intolerable.”

 Tom Baker, a town fire marshal, also spoke at the meeting, reporting that the clubs’ managers now realize they will be cited for violations if occupancy levels are found to be higher than permitted. His office conducted 519 unannounced spot checks since the Fourth of July, he said. He added that the fine was to be increased for such violations. Though some are still flouting the law, he believes they will soon be in compliance.