Follow Progress For Westhampton Beach

By:  Progress for Westhampton Beach

The meeting was called to order shortly after 7:00 p.m. and the Board of Trustees promptly proceeded to three hearings on local laws that were on the agenda.¹⁾the Mayor has continued her practice of not only providing the agenda, but also the resolutions as well.  Paper copies are handed out at meetings and pdf files are posted on the village website.  This has proved a convenience to those who follow and comment on village government.  

The Board of Trustees authorized the Mayor to sign a grant application for Main Street Revitalization.  This application is for a grant made annually by Suffolk County.  It is the first occasion in recent memory that our village has sought this grant, its about time.

There are restrictions on the grant,  the funds can not be used for maintenance or repair.  The village application proposes to use the County funds to the reconfigure the intersection of Mill Road, Main Street and Library Avenue which is often a summer snarl during busier parts of the day.

One resident was exasperated by the cost of public works projects. All public works are pricey.  This is a consequence of state Labor Law that sets the price for labor on public works.  It is well beyond the control of village government, we agree the resulting costs are maddening.

If the village is successful in obtaining the grant this will take a lot of the financial sting out of an improvement to this intersection that has proved daunting to motorists and pedestrians alike.

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The Board of Trustees awarded a bid for a new street sweeper that had been included in 2015-16 budget.  It will replace the ten-year-old sweeper that has seen better days.

 

In the comment portion of the meeting Debbie Giammarco spoke (read a letter) about the litigation surrounding the eruv.  This lawsuit began on January 18, 2011 and remains unresolved.

The village has posted many of the litigation documents on its website here.  This federal case and related federal cases against the Village of Quogue and the Town of Southampton have resulted in a mountain of documents which are are accessible for intrepid souls through the Federal Courts’ Pacer system.  There was not much to discuss at this point.

Litigation matters are properly the subject of executive session.²⁾See Public Officer’s Law 105(1)(d)   For village officials to publicly comment on open litigation would defeat that attorney-client privilege which lawyers, as a matter of good practice, advise their clients (in this instance the Board of Trustees) against waiving.

The meeting was completed at about 7:45.

On Friday morning the annual sprouting of campaign signs for the village election continued with Tucker – DiBenedetto signs now beginning to appear.

Challengers Rob Rubio and Brian Tymann have already been busy planting signs of their own for the Election which is on Friday, June 19th.  Between now and then we can be sure there will be lots of fictioneering to accompany the sounds of door knockers, buzzers and bells.