Monday night’s monthly meeting of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee was shorter than usual, with only 9 or 10 members in attendance and one of them, John Broderick — a volunteer firefighter who is spearheading the group’s campaign for more Main Street lighting poles in better locations — having to leave in a hurry for an ambulance call.
East Hampton Town is closing in on a statewide project, funded in large part by the New York Power Authority, to replace the bulbs in more than 700 streetlights from Wainscott to Montauk, with pedestrian safety cited as the guiding principle. Both Mr. Broderick and Susan Harder of Springs, who are experienced lighting designers, have questioned the plan, though for different reasons; she for illumination (light color temperature) and he for positioning and distance.
“It’s odd to me,” Mr. Broderick wrote in a recent letter to the town board, “that ‘safety’. . . only deals with changing bulbs on existing poles. This is just lamp-counting.”
Instead, he wrote, what Amagansett needs in the business district and, especially, the entry to the parking lot behind it, is new poles, “which will require excavation and power cable runs.”
“How many poles are we talking about?” wondered Jaine Mehring. A lot, according to David Hillman. “The issue is from Brent’s to the I.G.A.,” he said.
Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc, the board’s liaison to the committee, appeared sympathetic but unmoved. The bulb swap is set to happen in the next 30 to 60 days, he said. “This NYPA project is just changing lightbulbs. It’s a townwide project. It’s not what you want.”
“It’s not what Amagansett wants, it’s what it needs,” Mr. Broderick shot back as his pager went off.
The supervisor promised to tell his fellow town board members that “there seems to be serious interest in changing the lighting in the historic district on Main Street,” but — he paused — “each pole is $10,000, and this project, to put wires underground, could be tens of millions of dollars.”
The lighting discussion followed an informative presentation by Bruce Bates, who, as head of the town’s emergency preparedness office, coordinates various departments from the town, the county, and two tribal nations in planning for and reacting to a major storm. East Hampton High School, he reminded the group, is the primary shelter here; during Superstorm Sandy, 88 people found safety there. Next comes the Montauk Playhouse, provided the Red Cross is able to staff it, though in extremis, said Mr. Bates, town employees could be there. Several people asked whether pets are allowed in the shelters. No, said Mr. Bates, citing among other reasons “allergies and ‘confrontations.’ “
Most town residents, unless they’re in very low-lying areas, shelter in place during storms, he said, though officials urge anyone who has someplace else to go, such as second-home owners, to go there, and to leave well in advance of storm warnings — “so they don’t get stuck on the road in Brookhaven or Nassau,” he said.
