Village Board Joins PSEG Pole Fray

The new, taller utility poles through some residential neighborhoods erected by PSEG Long Island this year led the East Hampton Village Board at a meeting on Friday to approve a proposal from the FPM Group, an engineering and environmental science firm, to sample groundwater at the Emergency Services Building.

The utility poles have been treated with pentachlorophenol, a wood preservative that is restricted to use in utility poles and railroad ties in the United States although it is banned in other countries and classified as a probable human carcinogen by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Earlier this year water from a basement sump in the Emergency Services Building, which is along the transmission route, was found to contain the chemical.

With Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. on medical leave following knee surgery, Barbara Borsack, the deputy mayor, conducted the meeting during which the board adopted one amendment to the village code with regard to utility poles and postponed consideration of a related amendment.

The approved amendment requires utility companies to remove old or damaged poles, from which cables and other fixtures have been removed, if they are attached to or in close proximity of new ones. Adoption of a second amendment, which would require a public hearing prior to the issuance of a permit for the erection of new poles, was postponed so that Linda Riley, the village attorney, could reword it. Richard Lawler, a board member, had expressed concern that, as written, the law might require a public hearing any time a utility pole was struck by a vehicle or damaged in a storm, for example. The amendment will be revisited next month.

The board also adopted an amendment intended to allow use variances for nonconforming structures rather than special permits under certain circumstances. The amendment authorizes the zoning board to grant variances if changes render such a structure more conforming. That was apparently the Z.B.A. intent when it recently approved the conversion of a restaurant at 103 Montauk Highway to an office for a landscaping firm.

The board also amended the zoning code to clarify that “only one single-family residence is permitted on a lot.” The zoning board has heard several applications in recent years in which property owners have sought the continued existence of accessory buildings that contained cooking equipment and/or sleeping facilities. The village previously exempted a small number of properties that were designated as timber-frame landmarks from this regulation.

The board also scheduled public hearings on two proposed code amendments for Dec. 19. One would reduce the speed limit from 30 to 25 miles per hour on Dayton Lane. The board codified the same reduction for Mill Hill Lane and Meadow Way last month.

The other proposed amendment would update the code to reflect technological improvements in exterior lighting and reduce lighting deemed nonessential. The amendment would add to the law’s intent the preservation of the village’s rural character, wise energy use, conservation of natural resources, and a reduction of excessive illumination “which has been demonstrated to have a detrimental effect on the local flora and fauna that depend on the natural cycle of day and night.”

At the conclusion of the meeting, Ms. Borsack expressed irritation over complaints about the planned roundabout at the intersection of Route 114, Buell Lane, and Toilsome Lane. The village recently received a $700,000 state grant to help fund the construction.

Citing some 14 years of discussion and planning,  and other proposals by the State Department of Transportation to which village officials were opposed, as well as what she called scant cooperation and assistance from the D.O.T., Ms. Borsack said that neither she nor her colleagues had heard objections to any proposals since 2008.

“We’re here to do the bidding of the public. If the public doesn’t let us know what they’re thinking, it’s very difficult to do that.” The process has always been open and public, she said, “so it’s disheartening for us as elected officials to then get feedback from the public that ‘it’s a horrible idea and what are we thinking?’ ” She encouraged residents to follow reports in The Star and on LTV. “We want to do the job that you want us to do,” she said, “but it’s hard if we don’t know what you’re thinking.”