Seek To 'Save' Lily Hill

A "For Sale" sign went up in front of a five-acre parcel south of Accabonac Highway and Town Lane, Easy Hampton, and it took just two days for residents to organize an effort to preserve the land.

Owned by the Dominy family, descendants of the expert clock and furniture makers of East Hampton, the acreage includes a small cemetery with about 20 graves, including that of Felix Dominy, a Montauk Lighthouse keeper who died in 1936, of at least three persons named Nathaniel Dominy, and a Mary Dominy, whose grave is surrounded by those of her young children. It is being offered at $250,000.

When he saw the sign from the Amaden-Gay Agency go up, Jona than Yuska, who lives on Accabonac Highway and played on the land as a child, called Randall Parsons, a private land planner who lives nearby, and asked whether there was any chance of saving the land from development.

Mr. Parsons, in turn, got in touch with Richard Lupoletti of the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society, helped start a petition drive, and asked for a six-month option - long enough, the men hoped, to find some money to acquire it. The petition calls the property Lily Hill Park and Cemetery.

Mr. Lupoletti said his group was interested in preserving a part of a trail used by hikers and horseback riders that runs eastward through the property to Spring Close Highway along the railroad tracks. He also has solicited the support of the Town Open Space Committee and plan, with others, to ask the Town Board on Sept. 18 about public acquisition.