Water Main Work Begins

Just as the two-hour limits in the Reutershan and Barns Schenck municipal parking lots in East Hampton Village were lifted from Monday through Thursday, available parking on Newtown Lane became a little less abundant as the Suffolk County Water Authority began a water main replacement project. 

A notice issued by Village Hall to businesses on Newtown Lane last week said that the work, which started on Monday, “will be extensive and require the encumbrance of the parking shoulders on Newtown Lane while the work is being performed for approximately two weeks.” 

The project is to be completed in sections. As the water authority moves west, parking spaces will once again become available. The project is scheduled to be completed on or before April 15. 

“The work is necessary to improve reliability, firefighting capacity, and can improve certain water quality and pressure,” the notice said.

Tim Motz, the water authority’s director of communications, said on Tuesday that the contractor would apply temporary patches to the affected areas, with a full repaving to happen after the project’s completion in the spring. 

Parking spaces should be easy to find in the municipal lots, however. In April 2014, the village board voted to amend parking regulations in the business district. Under regulations that went into effect last year, a two-hour parking limit is applied to the Reutershan and Barns Schenck lots only on Fridays, Saturdays, and federal holidays between Jan. 1 and April 30. The ticket-dispensing machines at the lots’ entrances are covered and out of service on other days. 

The two-hour limit is in effect every day from May 1 through Dec. 31.