ACTION ALERT…Proposed Sag Harbor Vehicle Impound Lot

February 10, 2019
ACTION UPDATE 
 
Dear Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt, 
 
We have learned the Suffolk County Water Authority decided that its property on Division Street should not be used as a vehicle impound yard because of the threat of polluting our aquifer, the very reason the proposed location in the Long Pond Greenbelt is not suitable. 
 
In order to protect this fragile nature preserve, Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt has looked into a suggestion that the village’s property on Columbia Street be reconfigured to allow impounded vehicles to continue to be stored there. Sag Harbor architect Maxine Liao has graciously drawn up some ideas on how unused space on the site can be adapted, and she has offered to discuss this proposal with the village board.  
 
If the existing site continues to be used, not only will the greenbelt be protected but tens of thousands of dollars can be redirected for other important village projects such as updating septic systems, cleaning up Havens Beach, rehabilitating Long Wharf, or funding the John Steinbeck Park. 
 
We will be presenting Maxine’s proposal at the next meeting, Tuesday, February 12, 6 PM at Sag Harbor Village Hall on Main Street and we again ask you to attend to help us protect our beautiful and amazing Long Pond Greenbelt!   
 
Thank you for your continued support! 
Dai's signature
Dai Dayton
President, FLPG
631-745-0689
greenbeltnews@aol.com

January 8, 2019

THANK YOU!
 
To the more than 60 people who were able to join us today as we demonstrated in front of the Sag Harbor Village Town Hall in opposition of the vehicle impound yard and also to those of you who replied and were with us in spirit.  It was a great show of support.    
 
Unfortunately the vote is still pending and will be decided at the Board of Trustees meeting.  Please join us tomorrow (Tuesday, January 8) so that we may continue to show the Mayor and the Trustees that there is strong opposition to their plan. Join us at 5:30pm at the Village Hall for the 6pm meeting.
 
We need to pack the meeting room!  
Thank you for continuing to support the Long Pond Greenbelt!
January 7, 2019
 
DEAR FRIENDS OF THE LONG POND GREENBELT: 
 
This Tuesday at 6pm the trustees of Sag Harbor village are going to vote on whether to spend $99,797.00 – of Sag Harbor residents’ tax dollars – to pave a 20-car impound yard in the Long Pond Greenbelt Nature Preserve.   
 
Many of you have voiced your opposition to this unnecessary and ill-conceived project. There have been scores of letters pleading for an alternative site, hundreds of signatures on a petition opposing the project, a Sag Harbor Express editorial urging an alternative solution, and many village residents voicing their opposition in person at board of trustee meetings.  
 
So you can imagine our amazement when today we were told by one trustee that residents are not concerned. Not concerned!! We know he’s wrong, but the trustees are simply not getting the message.  
 
Time is running short, so to make opposition to the project loud and clear, there will be a street demonstration on Monday at 1:00 PM in front of Village Hall to show the mayor and trustees that we do not want tax dollars spent on a project that will endanger the Long Pond Greenbelt. Please come. Our numbers must be convincing, so please let me know in advance if you are able attend.   
 
Please be back in touch right away. 
 
Thank you,
Dai's signature
Dai Dayton
631-745-0689
greenbeltnews@aol.com

October 12, 2018

Dear Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt,
 
By now you have learned that the Sag Harbor Village Board (with only Trustee Aidan Corish voting no) has voted to proceed with drawing up final plans for and putting out to bid the proposed impound yard.
 
What does one do when four officials – Mayor Sandra Schroeder, Trustee James Larocca, Trustee Ken O’Donnell, Trustee Tom Gardella – insist on proceeding with a project that will adversely affect both the Long Pond Greenbelt, a state protected Nature Preserve, and its precious water table?  And this against the strong objections of the preserve’s three major landowners – The Nature Conservancy, Southampton Town and Suffolk County – as well as the environmental community, the local newspaper, our state assemblyman and former Sag Harbor Village lawyer, and a majority of the community they represent?
 
WHAT WE DO IS MAKE OUR VOICES HEARD! AGAIN AND AGAIN! 
 
The proposed impound yard is a reckless idea.  Not only will it introduce chemicals into the Greenbelt’s water system from the asphalt paving itself, but also from fluids leaking from vehicles stored there.  Water from the property flows directly into Long Pond and Little Long Pond and, ultimately, our sole-source aquifer. This should not be allowed to happen.
 
And what about parking impounded vehicles in a secluded area where there is no on-going police presence (in fact barely any presence at all)?  Isn’t Sag Harbor Village responsible for the protection of these vehicles? Further, New York State is advocating for shared municipal services and Sag Harbor sits in both Southampton and East Hampton Towns.  Both already have unfilled impound yards situated (wisely) near police facilities.  If the argument is that these neighboring impound yards are too far for the village police to travel to catalog the vehicle contents (4-5 miles!), this can surely be accomplished at the village fire department (where it is done now) and then the vehicle can be towed to the other yard.
 
A slight inconvenience? An extra tow fee?  Wouldn’t you say that’s a small price to pay to protect our aquifer and the Long Pond Greenbelt?
 
This ill-advised project does not have to happen. Inter-municipal solutions exist. They always have. I can’t stress enough the importance of making our voices heard right now. Please write to the Express and send copies to the Sag Harbor Village Board (email addresses provided below).
 
Sincerely,
 Dai's signature
Dai Dayton

President

 
Please tell your friends and family and send your letters before Monday (10/15) to:
 
Sag Harbor Express, letters@sagharborexpress.com
 
CC:Sag Harbor Village Mayor Sandra Schroeder,  clerk@sagharborny.gov, 631-725-0222
Deputy Mayor Kenneth O’Donnell,  kodonnell@sagharborny.gov
Trustee Thomas Gardella, tgardella@sagharborny.gov
Trustee Aidan Corish, acorish@sagharborny.gov
Trustee James Larocca, jlarocca@sagharborny.gov
And if you would like your letter posted on our website to inspire others:greenbeltnews@aol.com
 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

July 15, 2018

Dear Friend of the Long Pond Greenbelt,
I apologize for sending yet another FLPG email but the Long Pond Greenbelt still needs your help! And right away!
 
Thank you to everyone who signed our petition against the paved impound yard and PSEG using Long Pond Greenbelt property as a staging area. Over 500 names were presented to the Sag Harbor Village Board of Trustees at their last meeting along with our statement. The statement and the Sag Harbor Express article covering the meeting can be read on our website.
 
The Southampton Community Preservation Fund is willing to talk with Sag Harbor Village about purchasing the Village property where the vehicle impound yard has been proposed and to preserve the land as part of the Long Pond Greenbelt.
 
Fantastic news except the Sag Harbor Village Board must be a willing seller.
 
The sale needs a majority vote from the board and therefore our community needs to make its voice heard. I am asking you to write to Mayor Schroeder and the Trustees once again, as well as the Southampton Town Board and Community Preservation Fund, to tell them how important protecting the Greenbelt is to you and that selling the property to the Town for preservation is crucial.
 
See below a sample letter and email and mailing addresses to Sag Harbor Village, Southampton Town officials as well as our local papers.  For a Word version of the letter, click here.
 
Thank you again for your help!
Dai's signature
Dai Dayton
President
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
 
July 15, 2018
 
Mayor Schroeder and Sag Harbor Village Trustees
Village of Sag Harbor
55 Main Street
PO Box 660
Sag Harbor, NY 1963
Dear Mayor Schroeder, Deputy Mayor O’Donnell, Trustee Corish, Trustee Larocca and Trustee Gardella,
 
I support the sale of the Sag Harbor Village property at 1310 Bridgehampton/Sag Harbor Turnpike to the Southampton Town Community Preservation Fund for preservation as part of the Long Pond Greenbelt Nature Preserve. This property is crucial to the well-being of the Greenbelt, a unique coastal plain pond community and valuable aquifer recharge area. The Greenbelt, widely recognized as one of the most ecologically significant areas in all of New York State, is a local treasure that deserves our protection.
 
Sincerely,
 
__________________________________________________________
Email Addresses:
To:
 
CC:

vgarrison@pressnewsgroup.com

 
Mailing Addresses:
Mayor Schroeder and Sag Harbor Village Trustees
Village of Sag Harbor
55 Main Street
PO Box 660
Sag Harbor, NY 1963
Supervisor Jay Schneiderman and Southampton Town Council
Town of Southampton
116 Hampton Road
Southampton, NY 11968
Mary Wilson, CPF Manager
Community Preservation Fund
24 W. Montauk Highway
Hampton Bays, NY 11946
Sag Harbor Express
22 Division Street
P.O. Box 1620
Sag Harbor, NY 11963
 
The East Hampton Star
153 Main Street
P.O. Box 5002
East Hampton, NY 11937
 
Southampton Press
135 Windmill Lane
Southampton, NY 11968
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tuesday, July 10, 2018
Statement to the Sag Harbor Village Mayor and Board of Trustees
Hello. I’m Dai Dayton, President of Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt, and I and many of our board and members are here tonight to ask you to reconsider building a vehicle impound yard in the Long Pond Greenbelt. We know that Sag Harbor has received site plan approval for the project, but that does not change the fact that this project poses a threat to the fragile groundwater systems of the Greenbelt. We urge you to look for another more appropriate site.
To give you some of the background and reasoning for our conviction that this is the wrong location for the project, we are providing each of you with letters from local environmental and conservation organizations that spell out so powerfully why it is harmful to proceed with this project. You will be familiar with these organizations and individuals: Group for the East End, the Nature Conservancy, Assemblyman Fred Thiele and the Town Conservation Board among them. We urge you to read this information to understand why opposition to using this site as a vehicle impound yard is so strong.
And as complicated as finding an alternative location might be, we would like to believe there exists among the elected officials of Sag Harbor enough concern for our environment to find another location and to protect the Greenbelt by preserving this parcel. We call upon you, the leaders of the Village, to find somewhere else for an impound yard and to have the PSEG trucks, treated poles and equipment removed from this site.
Joining us are the over 500 people who have signed petitions in person or online, in just the past week. Every signature is a plea directed to you to do the right thing.
And that right thing is to protect our aquifer and this rare and unique chain of coastal plains ponds and wetlands, the Long Pond Greenbelt.
Thank you.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

July 2, 2018
Dear Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt,
We regret to report that the Sag Harbor Mayor and Trustees are continuing to pursue their plan to pave a vehicle impound yard in the Long Pond Greenbelt, and they have bamboozled the Southampton Town Planning Board into approving their application. This wrongheaded approval comes after receiving scores of letters from FLPG, The Nature Conservancy, Group for the East End, local civic groups, environmental groups, Sag Harbor Village residents and local citizens alerting them to the detrimental impact the project will have on the fragile Long Pond Greenbelt ecosystem. Also, as you probably know, the Village board has allowed PSEG to park its trucks and to store treated poles, materials and equipment on the property.  This is shocking, especially when the same board touts its protection of the environment!
Now our most viable option is to pressure the Village to rethink the location of the impound yard and to vote to preserve the property, so no future board will suggest inappropriate and environmentally destructive uses ever again. The Board of Trustees and the Mayor need to understand how vitally important the Long Pond Greenbelt is to our community.
To this end we have started a petition you may sign at https://chn.ge/2KItmPH. For a printable petition, click here.
Also, this coming Saturday, July 7, we will be gathering signatures and handing out information to explain the danger the Greenbelt is facing. Please join us at noon in front of the Sag Harbor Post Office, 21 Long Island Avenue, after our We Love Vineyard Field event.
If you can join us on Saturday and/or you would like to carry a petition, please email us at greenbeltnews@aol.com. Our goal is to have the petitions tallied by Monday, July 9, so we can present them to the Sag Harbor Village Board at their regular monthly meeting on the 10th. Please send petitions to FLPG, P.O. Box 1130, Bridgehampton, NY 11932 or contact us at 631-745-0689 and we will arrange to pick them up.
Thank you for your support of the Long Pond Greenbelt.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

June 5, 2018
FLPG Board Members, Members and fellow supporters of the Long Pond Greenbelt were out in force on May 24th at the Southampton Town Planning Board meeting where the public hearing for the site plan application for a municipal impound yard located at 1310 Bridgehampton Sag Harbor Turnpike was presented.  To view the video of the meeting visit this link and fast forward to 1:22:50: http://southamptonny.iqm2.com/Citizens/SplitView.aspx?Mode=Video&MeetingID=4439&Format=Agenda
As reported in the Sag Harbor Express May 30th article, Residents Decry Impound Yard in Long Pond Greenbelt:
Dennis Finnerty closed the hearing noting that originally the application was “intended to be an administrative walk-on to be rubber stamped without any public input.” He credited Ms. Dayton for reaching out and prompting the planning department to take a second look and call for a public hearing.
“I must say, Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt, your efforts are well-organized,” Mr. Finnerty said. “Some of your voices we have heard for decades and we regularly turn to your group along with the trails advisory board to assist us in environmental matters and I can assure you your message has been received.
“I would caution that the rights of one municipality over the land use of another municipality is in question,” he continued. “It is certainly open to debate. Our efforts may in fact be limited but you have certainly brought an important matter to this board.”
While the hearing was closed, the board will accept public comment through June 24.
We still need your help!  Send your comment letters to the Planning Board Chairman Finnerty and to the Village of Sag Harbor Mayor Schroeder by mail or by emailing:  pboudreau-sullivan@southamptontownny.gov and clerk@sagharborny.gov.

ACTION ALERT!
The Long Pond Greenbelt is being threatened by development!

May 22, 2018
Dear Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt,
Thank you for your letters, phone calls, and for attending the Sag Harbor Village meeting to oppose the proposed impound yard in the Long Pond Greenbelt!
Unfortunately, despite our efforts to warn the village of the grave consequences this project will have on the Long Pond Greenbelt, they are continuing to pursue permission for their proposed impound yard from the Southampton Planning Board. This includes paving, fencing and lighting!
The public meeting is this Thursday at 6PM (we are #7 on the agenda) at Southampton Town Hall, 116 Hampton Road in the 2nd floor meeting room.  Please come and bring friends!  We need to fill the room!!
We need speakers and we need supporters to applaud the speakers.  This may be our last chance to stop the project.
Feel free to call me if you have any questions.
Thank you again for protecting the Long Pond Greenbelt.

 
 
Dai Dayton
President FLPG

May 3, 2018

Dear Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt,

As you may have read in the local papers this week, Sag Harbor Village is proposing an impound yard on their property located in the Long Pond Greenbelt on 1310 Bridgehampton Turnpike. They have also allowed PSEG to park their trucks and store equipment and treated telephone poles at the site for an indefinite amount of time. This property is surrounded by the nature preserve lands Suffolk County, Southampton Town and The Nature Conservancy have spent millions of dollars to preserve and protect due to the fragile coastal plain pond ecosystem which supports one of the highest concentrations of rare species and natural communities anywhere in New York State. This property is also home to a state endangered Eastern Tiger Salamander breeding pond.

Frankly, we are shocked that anyone would consider anything other than preservation for this land.

Please help us protect our beautiful and amazing Long Pond Greenbelt!
• Ask that the current use and the treated poles be removed immediately!
• Find another location for an impound yard if needed or share one in East Hampton or Southampton.
• Insist that the property be preserved forever as part of the Long Pond Greenbelt nature preserve!

Letters, emails, phone calls and/or attend the Southampton Town Planning Board meeting on May 24 (more information will be on our site, longpondgreenbelt.org)

Whatever you feel comfortable with, everything helps.

Sag Harbor Village Mayor Sandra Schroeder, clerk@sagharborny.gov, 631-725-0222
Deputy Mayor Kenneth O’Donnell, kodonnell@sagharborny.gov
Trustee Robert Stein, rstein@sagharborny.gov
Trustee Aidan Corish, acorish@sagharborny.gov
Trustee James Larocca, jlarocca@sagharbony.gov
Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman and Town Board, jschneiderman@southamptontownny.gov,
631-283-6055
Southampton Town Planning Board Chairman Dennis Finnerty and Board, pboudreau-sullivan@southamptontownny.gov,
631-702-1776
Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming, bridget.fleming@suffolkcountyny.com, 631-852-8402
New York State Assemblyman Fred Thiele, thielef@assembly.state.ny.us, 631-537-2583
Thank you for your help,

 
 
Dai Dayton
President
Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt
631-745-0689
Letters of Support for Preservation
Articles
Photos of the Site