Sewers

By: Progress for Westhampton Beach

It’s a big issue.  Residents are already burdened with high property taxes, and can not be called upon to fund massive public works, but that does not mean we stop looking for solutions and fail to seek funding.  The trustees just authorized the Mayor to employ a a grant writer; that is a good start.

We need to go after and be ready for funding that is becoming available:   federal, state, and local.  If the preliminary work is not done grant opportunities will pass us by like we’re standing still.

ostrich-head-in-sand

The problem of nitrogen loading our waterways and drinking water should not be ignored.  Without a solution the restrictions on our Main Street businesses will strangle this part of our tax base.

We must accept the problem as our own, and begin sorting through the possible solutions.  There will be many people who can add to the pool of information as we wrestle with this problem.  See Suffolk County’s Comprehensive Water Resource Management Planand Stony Brook University’s LICCRA and  Suffolk Closeup by Karl Grossman,  Are Sewers the Way to Go? Southampton Press, Western Edition,  May 1, 2014 page A9.

It will probably require the combination of many solutions with all of us working together at the Village, Town, County, State and Federal levels to address the problem we have had for years.

The current estimation of sewage production in the Main Street business district is approximately 30,000 gallons per day.  We all know where sea level is, just look at the Moniebogue Canal, and you know the 30,000 gallons gets mixed right into our bay.  This is not about adding housing density, it is about addressing an existing problem that can not simply be flushed away.  This requires a narrowly targeted solution to this problem.

We need to be our own best advocate.  We must be fully informed, and be an active partner in finding the solutions that will work for Westhampton Beach.

An Honorable Breach…

By:  Progress for Westhampton Beach

Mayor Moore is again departing from the protocols of the past to make our village government more transparent.

In recent years the mayor did not hold a public Board of Trustees’ meeting in March for the Board to consider the tentative budget, ask questions and make changes.  Instead, the first public meeting about the budget had been at a public hearing in April.

New York State Village Law provides:

On or before March 20th of each year the budget officer (the Mayor) shall file a tentative budget.

The village clerk shall present the tentative budget to the board of trustees at a regular or special meeting to be held on or before the thirty-first day of March.  At such meeting the board of trustees shall review the tentative budget and make such changes, alterations and revisions as it shall consider advisable.

A public hearing shall be held upon the tentative budget, as changed, altered or revised, on or before the fifteenth day of April.

After completion of the public hearing, the board of trustees may further change, alter and revise the tentative budget…

Such budget, as so revised, shall be adopted by resolution not later than the first day of May

* * *

This year Mayor Moore filed her tentative budget with the Clerk on March 19, 2015, and the Clerk provided copies to the Trustees on March 20, 2015.  The Mayor has scheduled a public meeting for March 31, 2015 at 5:30 pm for the discussion by the Board.

At the March public meeting residents will be able to hear the presentation of the tentative budget and observe the trustees as they work their way through the budget and make such changes as the Board sees fit.

In April there will be a public hearing where residents can be heard about a budget that our residents will have already had an opportunity to consider.  The Board of Trustees can then evaluate public comments, and adopt a final budget on or before May 1st.

This is an honorable breach of past village protocol.  The final budget will now be one in which the Mayor, the Board of Trustees and residents have had a fair opportunity to fully consider.

Stopping for a Moment…

edmund-burke-quote-society-is-indeed-a-contract-it-is-a-partnership
We should take a moment to think about the legacy bequeathed to us by those who came before us; and consider the legacy we intend to leave the next generation.   Then return to the work in front of us with cautious humility and a sense of duty to the greater inter-generational partnership we share.
From Progress for Westhampton Beach