Route 114 Roundabout Ahead for East Hampton

The long-held plan to improve traffic safety at the intersection of Buell Lane, Route 114, and Toilsome Lane in East Hampton Village took a large step closer to fruition on Monday when State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle joined village and town officials to formally announce a $700,000 New York State Community Capital Assistance Program grant for construction of a roundabout there. The village will match the state legislators' contribution to the project, which will likely begin next year.

The roundabout will feature a raised, mountable and landscaped center island. Improved drainage structures, traffic calming, and enhanced pedestrian safety measures will also be part of the project.

The legislators were joined at the site by village officials including Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr., Deputy Mayor Barbara Borsack, Richard Lawler of the East Hampton Village Board, and Scott Fithian, the village's superintendent of public works, as well as East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, who previously served for many years as the village's administrator.

"Anytime you can get community consensus for a project in dealing with a controversial and complicated intersection . . . that's where the hard work really is," Mr. Thiele said in congratulating village officials. The state's Department of Transportation, he said, "is fond of saying, 'We'll give you the permit but we don't have any money to pay for it.' We wanted to try to eliminate that particular problem, and that's why the senator and I were able to get $700,000 toward the cost of this, which is not the entire cost."

Calling it a "much-needed improvement for all the right reasons, Mayor Rickenbach thanked the legislators for their involvement. "This is one of those rare occasions when all levels of government have worked together," he said. "We applaud so very much the monies that you two at the state level have been able to come up with."