Sagaponack: Overwhelmingly Okays Village, Voters approve incorporation 285 to 11

Sagaponack village only needed a simple majority of voters to approve its incorporation on Friday. What it got was a landslide.

A turnout of more than 60 percent of 479 people registered to vote in the Sagaponack School District overwhelmingly approved the measure. Only 11 people voted against incorporation, while 285 voted for it.

Marietta Seaman, the Southampton Town clerk and one of the election inspectors, said it was "an amazing voter turnout. People saw their destination" and came out to support it, some even voting for the first time. She said the flow of people in and out of the schoolhouse, where the vote was held from noon until 9 p.m., was steady all day.

None of those who had initially opposed the incorporation came to monitor the voting for a potential challenge. Without such a challenge, Ms. Seaman will be required to prepare and deliver a report of incorporation with the New York secretary of state, comptroller, and board of real property services, as well as the Suffolk County clerk and treasurer.

The report must be sent between 10 and 15 days after the filing of the election certification, which occurred on Friday night, and must include a map of the village boundaries, the certificate of election, a declaration of population based on the petition to incorporate, and a statement that the time to file a review of the election results has expired. The village boundaries are the school district lines, roughly from Sagg Pond to Town Line Road, bordered by the railroad tracks to the north. The petition states that the official regular population is 534.

The secretary of state will then issue a certificate of incorporation. Once that is filed in the Southampton Town clerk's office, Ms. Seaman has five days to designate an interim village clerk, who must run a special election for a mayor and four trustees within 60 days.

Finding such a person may be difficult. Ms. Seaman said it was the town's intention to designate whomever the residents of the new village propose. "I asked them to give me one name" and not a list, she said.

So far, no one who is willing to take on the role has stepped forward. Lee Foster, who has been an unofficial spokeswoman for the village incorporation effort, said that rumors that she would take the helm are only that. An organizational meeting is being scheduled for the end of the week, when potential candidates for all positions will be discussed.

William Tillotson, who in addition to his position as co-chairman of the Sagaponack Citizens Advisory Committee is also serving as a spokesman for the incorporation effort, said that "by the end of this week there will be a slate of people to run Sagaponack as an independent, bare-bones village."

Mr. Tillotson stressed the "bare-bones" aspect of the government because, he said, a "majority of voters are not unhappy with the town." He said only a minority wanted more independence.

This is the second time the hamlet tried to incorporate. The first effort followed the town's approval of Ira Rennert's 66,375-square-foot house on Sagaponack farmland, and it was not successful. This time the village movement grew out of concerns that Dunehampton, another proposed village, would claim the hamlet's coastline as part of its territory.

Residents decided that it was important to protect the hamlet's historical boundaries and that forming a village was the best way to do so.

Mr. Tillotson said he did not believe that Sagaponack's residents wanted to become more involved in beach parking or zoning issues. "We're not looking to throw the town out," he said, adding that Sagaponack will turn "as much of the village services over to the town as possible."

Even with a bare-bones government, the new village will need a village hall in which to store records and make them accessible to the public, as well as to provide an official mailing address. To help them get started on the necessary steps, residents are using a pamphlet on incorporation that the state provided.

Mr. Tillotson said those who have been performing the tasks necessary for incorporation, including Ms. Foster, William F. McCoy Jr., Alfred Kelman, Patrick Guarino, Peter Wadsworth, Donald Louchheim, and Ana Daniel, would continue those efforts now that the vote has been cast. Someday they may be candidates for elected office in the new village.