An ad hoc meeting of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee on Monday night, called to discuss the possibility of bringing home mail delivery to Amagansett, started off with questions about how many of the hamlet's 2,000 or so mailbox owners would actually want it, and ended an hour later with few answers.
How best to reach the 2,000? Bulk mailing, which requires a special permit? Fliers? Postcards? A petition? All of them, it was noted, cost money. One thousand dollars "would be nice to have," said Michael Cinque, an organizer of the campaign whose wine and liquor store on Main Street has been accepting donations since November. It has collected $450 so far.
Should a petition be the way to go, would the United States Postal Service accept electronic signatures, or would volunteers need to go door to door? It was pointed out that petitions require the signer's physical address. "I would love to get the petition signed," said Deborah Wick, who supports the campaign for home delivery, but, she added, "I don't feel comfortable asking for people's address."
Would home delivery mean the end of post office mailboxes? No, said Mr. Cinque. "You can keep your box. You can have your daily routine uninterrupted."
Would every house need to have its own mailbox? What would they look like? "If there were beige or aluminum boxes grouped at the end of my cul-de-sac it would be horrible," said Michael Diesenhaus.
The question of individual boxes was one of the few that produced an answer of sorts. It came from East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc, who has taken over as the committee's town board liaison from Councilman David Lys.
Postmasters he's talked to, locally and UpIsland, "didn't think [the Postal Service] would agree to home delivery, but if they did, it would be clusters," Mr. Van Scoyoc said. And that, he warned, would come with its own questions. "The condition of the road shoulders," for example. "There could be mud holes," said the supervisor. "See what's possible before you go to the community," he advised.
By that point, 45 minutes into the virtual meeting, not a few faces on the screen were beginning to droop. "Do we really want to go through with this?" Dawn Brophy wondered.
"I think people want more information," Rona Klopman, the chairwoman, said, suggesting that the discussion continue at the advisory committee's next meeting, at 7 p.m. on Feb. 8.
That would have ended the evening, but Mr. Van Scoyoc was not finished. As he apparently has done before, he entreated the members to appoint or elect a secretary to take notes. No one, it seems, has been eager to take the job, leaving it to Anne Bell from his office at Town Hall to keep the minutes, using a recording. "This is the last meeting that I will dedicate my secretary's time to this," the supervisor said.
An irascible back-and-forth between Mr. Diesenhaus and the chairwoman ensued. "Why are you at each other's throats?" Ms. Brophy asked. "I don't like it."
Mr. Van Scoyoc repeated his request. Finally, Seth Turner, superintendent of the Amagansett School District, who had not said a word until then, spoke up. "I'll take the minutes for February 8," he said, "but not after." With that, the meeting was adjourned.
