Letters to the Editor: Amagansett Housing 04.14.16

Wallet Worries

Amagansett

April 8, 2016

Dear David, 

I applaud the East Hampton Housing Authority and the East Hampton Town Board (Supervisor Larry Cantwell in his 2016 State of the Town address re affordable housing: “Don’t say no, say how?”) for enabling the planned work-force housing complex in Amagansett.

I am saddened by the wallet worries of misguided shepherds of apprehension that somehow have turned the fact of “children” into a personal tax liability. I like other people’s children. My local police chief was one, as was my lawyer, doctor, architect, et al. My local school tax, in my view, is a good investment. Amagansett can well afford to educate more children (the school is too small as it is). 

We will. We most certainly, properly, and responsibly, will.

All good things, 

DIANA WALKER

In a Consolidated World

Springs

April 11, 2016

Dear David,

In a perfect world, East Hampton would have a single consolidated school district. A single district would equalize disproportionate taxpayer obligations and offer equal educational opportunities for our children. While consolidation is not going to happen anytime soon, taxpayers can save a great deal of money by acting as if.

Last summer I sat on the Springs School Facilities Committee. The school needs to expand its aging patchwork facility (for the fourth or fifth time) to relieve its overcrowded student population. This drive for additional space primarily addresses the unmet needs of its middle school students. The cost of expansion is an estimated $20 million and climbing.

When the school was first built, no one envisioned a student body of 700 K-8 students. The impact of this large student body has already strained our quiet hamlet. In the meantime, Montauk’s seventh and eighth-grade student body has dwindled, with a total of 65 students, compared to 142 at Springs. The East Hampton Middle School houses seventh and eighth graders from Wainscott and Amagansett in addition to their own students, for a total of 261 seventh and eighth graders. (These numbers were taken from the New York State Education Department’s School Preliminary Report 2014-2015.)

A common-sense approach — in a perfect, consolidated world — would be to build a new state-of-the-art, energy-efficient middle school. This would create savings for all school districts and provide more educational and extra-curricular options for the approximately 470 students. Several school districts own valuable excess land that might no longer be necessary to keep, and money from those sales could contribute to the purchase of land in a location convenient to all the districts.

As an architect and planner with a background in public buildings, I know that a single new middle school can be built to the highest current standards and cost less than the expenses incurred by having each district pursue its own projects for mandated renovations, expansions, and infrastructure improvements. It is perfectly ridiculous to be replicating the exact same facilities in up to three different schools.

A second possibility is to keep Wainscott and East Hampton district students at the current East Hampton Middle School, and build a second middle school to accommodate students from Springs, Montauk, and Amagansett. Each middle school would then house approximately 250 students.

Thus, even without consolidation, our school districts can achieve savings for all by constructing a single (or second) middle school. To reach the best solution will require that our districts come together to explore the educational benefits and savings, acting as if they were a consolidated district working toward the best possible outcome. 

Now is the time for discussion, as these projects take a minimum of five years to pass through the pipeline to completion. It will be a missed opportunity — and a costly one — if this idea is not studied now.

Respectfully submitted,

PAMELA BICKET

Rights of the Residents

Wainscott

April 11, 2016

Dear David,

After reading the letters about the Amagansett School Board’s informational meeting, I wonder where and how the rights of the residents regarding possible increases in taxes drew such anger. Mr. Hausig condemns the accredited consultant’s findings, without presenting one single fact, that the study results were in fact “faked.” What qualifications does he possess to validate his claim?

Then as usual, in the blatant absence of anything to contradict the findings, deflection enters, by slipping in terms such as “a tinge of racism and inequality.” Where have we heard this interjected? Divert, and hope something thrown sticks to the wall will work? Sounds like the ready, shoot, aim syndrome.

Is there no concern for rights of the residents, who may be on fixed incomes and a huge increase may cause a terrible impact on their ability to stay in their homes? Not everyone who lives out here is wealthy. The mere beauty, the fragrance of sweet ocean air, farms and the rural character, make this place special.

When the 555 project was proposed to build high-end condos for an over-55 community, where the only impact was a considerable amount added to the tax base with zero impact of additional students, where were the cries of fake studies, inequality, a tinge of racism, or any other politically correct code word? A decrease in taxes surely would have taken place. This was an issue to preserve pen space.

It seems the opposition’s concern is based upon who pays a fair share. Strictly an economic worry that is a major concern throughout the entire country. 

Mr. Hausig is apparently an educated man, yet he resorts to a classless, vulgar term, which is misdirected. Who, exactly, is he referring to? Whoever disagrees with his agenda?

ARTHUR J. FRENCH

Objection Is Financial

Amagansett

April 11, 2016 

Dear Editor:

I guess it’s fair to say the dialogue over the subsidized, affordable, low income, work-force housing is starting to take off. I’d like to address the letters of Katy Casey, Neil Hausig, and Zach Cohen.

It seems like Ms. Casey was so impressed that only 2 of the 100 people in attendance at the meeting in March by the Amagansett School Board were critical of the housing project. She neglected to state that the audience was told that this was an informational meeting and it was not to be used as a forum for or against the project. In spite of this, a few from both sides got up to spout off on the topic. Ms. Casey fails to mention that the Star article on the Thursday after the meeting mentioned that the school board had received 51 phone calls: 44 against and 7 for the project. That’s an 86-percent disapproval count. If we want to get a true idea of where the town’s opinion stands, why don’t we put the project to a referendum vote on the ballot with the school budget vote? My guess is at least 3 to 1 against it. 

Neil Hausig makes a comment about “fake studies aside” in referring to the study commissioned by the Amagansett School Board; I guess he’s now become an educational consultant. Where are the facts backing up his “fake” charge? Facts, facts? We don’t need no stinking facts. And, as usual, in the absence of facts, the name-calling begins: There was a “tinge of racism” in opposition to the project. The name-calling by all the supporters of these social engineering projects has become both meaningless and laughable. Crying wolf just won’t cut it anymore. 

And finally, we have Zach Cohen, who would build a two-unit apartment on every available piece of land, including pulling some from the community preservation fund. He laments the fact that accessory apartments are not permitted in outbuildings and the owners of any accessory apartment would see their tax assessments rise. So, where is the money supposed to come from to educate all the new children housed in these apartments, and shouldn’t homeowners making rental income every month pay their share of higher taxes? With more ideas like this we can turn Amagansett into Levittown.

My objection to this low-income housing project is all financial. Over the last eight years, the real spendable income of the middle class has dropped 5 percent. Now we’re being asked to shoulder higher school taxes for a project that can’t pay its fair share. This will be a burden for some residents of Amagansett, including many on fixed incomes. 

Here’s a unique idea: You live in one town and work in another. It even has a name: commuting to work. I did it my entire adult life because I couldn’t afford to live in the relatively affluent community where I worked. Unfair? No, that’s life. You can’t always live where you want, you live where you can. 

BOB ELDI