Amagansett residents weary of the long delay in repairing the impassable Cranberry Hole Road bridge were urged Monday night to take a few minutes at the computer and email someone who might actually help to speed the process along.
The holdup isn’t so much a question of money, Vicki Littman, vice chairwoman of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee, told members at their monthly meeting. According to State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., she said, New York has plenty of that in its bridge repair budget. The problem, he told her in a recent letter, is that the funds are “lumped together” in a package targeting four bridges at a time, “and one of them is holding up all the others.” The issue with the problematic bridge, Town Councilman Tom Flight explained, was its designation as “historic,” which requires a “more arduous” approval process than the rest.
Speaking on Tuesday, Mr. Thiele named the bridges: One is on Sagg Road in Sagaponack, one is in Cutchogue, and the third, the one causing the delay, is in Eastport. Since his letter to Ms. Littman last month, Mr. Thiele continued, he and East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, have had a Zoom session with Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials and asked them to “just eliminate that bridge and move the rest along.”
And indeed, he said, the matter now “seems to have been satisfied. The design for the new Cranberry Hole bridge should be finalized by the end of the year.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Thiele suggested, the more hurry-it-up comments they hear from the public, the more the politicians listen. To that end, Ms. Littman urged ACAC members and residents of the hamlet to let Nick Fasano, director of government and community relations for the Long Island Rail Road, know their thoughts. His email is [email protected].
The greater part of Monday’s meeting was devoted to a discussion of proposed bylaws covering the citizen committee’s purpose and duties. There are five such advisory committees altogether among the town’s hamlets, some more proactive than others, each marching to its own drummer, but all of their members appointed by the town board. None, it seems, has ever operated under a set of formal bylaws before, and the chance of this one’s becoming a model for the rest is at least a possibility.
The impetus for it was an ACAC discussion last month about the limits on what the committee can and cannot do. For example, members can vote on something and “advise” the town board of the result, but cannot advise or in any way address the town’s appointed boards — the planning board, the zoning board of appeals, the architectural and design review board — except as individuals.
As for the proposed bylaws, there was general agreement on all the usual suspects: name of committee, qualifications of members, term of office, etc., until it came to attendance, where the document states that “members shall not be excused from more than six meetings in a 12-month period” except for medical reasons, with a doctor’s note.
That proviso roused the ire of Britton Bistrian, a member, who said she was “completely against it,” on the grounds,
she said, that the average age of those in the room was over 55, and “This is not the Amagansett demographic.”
“You are eliminating the people who have value,” she said, citing younger residents of the hamlet — teachers, police, fire and ambulance personnel, farmers, land use consultants (she is one), and the like — who want their voices heard but whose working demands may make it hard for them to attend meetings. “I want the minutes to reflect my comments,” Ms. Bistrian declared before walking out.
The definition of “quorum” also caused some comment. A vote by the committee “shall require at least seven members present,” it says, adding that “a majority of the committee members present shall constitute a quorum.” David Hillman took exception to that provision: “I think we only need a quorum for the election of officers,” he said.
“If you haven’t got seven people, you shouldn’t vote at all,” said Dan Mongan. The Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee has 32 members, said its chairwoman, Rona Klopman. “Today we have 13.” Three had left by then. “Usually, it is 12 to 15. This is the way to say how our meetings will be run, so two years from now we’ll know, so we’re all
on the same page.”
It remains for the final court of opinion, the town board, to decide whether to accept the proposed bylaws. Councilman Flight, the board’s liaison to the committee, promised to bring the question before his colleagues and the town attorney, and suggested that a decision might be made by next month. Assuming it is favorable, ACAC itself will either accept the bylaws or not at its next meeting, at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 18 at the Amagansett School.
