Town ‘Worked Hard to Buy’
After a brief ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday evening to inaugurate Amagansett’s new privy in the parking lot behind Main Street, members of the hamlet’s citizens advisory committee repaired to the American Legion Hall for their monthly meeting. The meeting began after a moment of silence in memory of Herb Field, a longtime committee member who died recently.
The main topic of discussion was the former 555 property just east of the hamlet, 19 acres that the town bought with $10.1 million from the community preservation fund in 2014. East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, the town board’s liaison to the committee, asked the members how they might like to see the site used in the future.
The property has an existing barn on six separate acres in the middle of the larger parcel. The question was whether the barn would be torn down or leased for some use — horses, perhaps. The committee’s consensus was to take it away, though Tom Field said he hated to see it go. Mr. Cantwell remarked that while the town board has the final say, it does try to find out what residents want.
A motion was made to leave the acreage as open space, with a passive use such as walking. The property has a long circular driveway where cars could park. The motion passed with two abstentions.
Mr. Cantwell reminded the members that a portion of the property will remain available for emergency helicopters to land, and that the Wounded Warrior Project will still have use of it for its annual benefit.
The crosswalks at Hedges Lane, the Amagansett School, and St. Michael’s Lutheran Church are to be lighted, and the project is close to going out for bids, Mr. Cantwell said. A camera on a not-too-tall pole will automatically turn the lights on when someone is about to cross and turn them off afterward. The work will be done with money from a state grant.
The hamlet studies that began last year are still in progress, and the consultants are meeting with community members in the coming weeks. Amagansett’s progress will be discussed on June 3, a Saturday, at 1 p.m. at the Legion Hall, the supervisor said.
Also at Scoville Hall, on Tuesday from 5 to 7 p.m., there will be a public forum, the first of several, on the coastal assessment resiliency plan, to review the possible impacts of sea level rise and coastal storms on the town, and suggest ways to prevent or mitigate damage. Residents of the hamlet and others will be welcomed to attend.
There was talk that the westbound Jitney stop, where the grass slopes down to the road, becomes flooded in heavy rains, making it hard to get on the bus. Mr. Cantwell said that the Jitney stop and others in the town were being looked at in the hamlet studies.
The evening’s other topics included the new parking regulations in the municipal parking lot, garbage at the train station, and the landscaping, or lack thereof, at the PSEG substation.