From: Bob DeLuca <bdeluca@eastendenvironment.org>
Date: January 8, 2019 at 11:37:25 AM EST
To: clerk@sagharborny.gov, kodonnell@sagharborny.gov, Jlarocca@sagharborny.gov, acorish@sagharborny.gov, tgardella@sagharborny.gov
Cc: pbb@sagharborexpress.com, csampson@sagharborexpress.com, boe@sagharborschools.org, “daidayton@netscape.net” <daidayton@aol.com>
Subject: Impound Yard : URGENT REQUEST FOR RECONSIDERATION

https://www.groupfortheeastend.org/

 

January 8, 2019

 

Dear Mayor Schroeder and Members of the Village Board,

 

I write today with urgency and hope that you will suspend your scheduled vote on the proposed Sag Harbor Village impound yard this evening and seriously consider the recent  proposal offered by the Sag Harbor School District Board of Education, as reported in the Sag Harbor Express (https://sagharborexpress.com/sag-harbor-village-board-vote-tuesday-impound-lot-funding/).

 

As outlined, it appears that the School Board has identified a viable and reasonable solution to the Village’s impound yard location challenge. Notably, the proposed lot is within the Village limits, located on already developed property, and is readily accessible to routine police surveillance. Moreover, and perhaps most importantly, the proposal offered would allow the Village to invest its scarce resources directly back into the school system instead of the construction of an asphalt parking lot, two miles outside the village, in the immediate vicinity of a unique and complex ecosystem that has been the subject of decades of conservation planning and investment. 

 

From the outset of this proposal, we have urged the Village to seriously consider alternatives exactly like the one now offered by the School Board. We have also noted that the East End is defined by its ability to protect the environment and resolve complex land use issues through the use of innovative and creative problem solving, and the School Board has now presented just such an opportunity.    

 

Should this alternative be seriously considered and ultimately prove viable, I hope each of you will also consider the lesson it will teach every student about the critical importance of natural resource protection, creative problem solving, shared decision-making, productive civic discourse and most importantly, cooperation among elected decision-makers charged with promoting the public good.

 

In the absence of such consideration, the message sent will also be clear, and unfortunately serve  to reinforce the worst stereotypes of a “tone deaf” government committed only to expediency, individual interests and a general disregard for the public it is sworn to represent. 

 

We continue to believe that there is a better outcome to be had, and the first step toward that outcome requires the Village Board to suspend this evening’s scheduled vote, and take the time needed to carefully explore the tangible opportunity that has now been presented.

 

As always we greatly appreciate your time and consideration of our comments. We remain available to assist where we can in supporting any alternative effort that meets the Village’s defined needs and supports the highest level of conservation for the Long Pond Greenbelt. 

 

Sincerely,

 

Robert S. DeLuca

President

 

Robert S. DeLuca

President | Group for the East End

Office:  631-765-6450 x 213 | Cell:  631-495-0601

Email: bdeluca@eastendenvironment.org | Web: www.GroupfortheEastEnd.org

 

“Protecting the nature of the place you love”

________________________________________

Hello,

My name is Lisa Prowant and I am a conservation ecologist completing my doctoral studies in the Ecology and Evolution department at Stony Brook University and I urge you to reconsider your decision to place an impound yard in the Long Pond Greenbelt.

I study the conservation of animals on Long Island. When I first began my research, I was struck by the lack of green areas. It seemed as though strip malls and suburbs had taken over, leaving few areas where our island’s native species could persist. At the locations I could find to do my research, most did not resemble Northeastern deciduous forest, but rather had shockingly high levels of plants like poison ivy and greenbrier that are typically associated with habitat disturbance and human encroachment.

The Long Pond Greenbelt was one of the very few areas I visited that was pristine Northeastern deciduous forest. In fact, the Long Pond Greenbelt has one of the highest concentrations of rare species in New York State according to the Nature Conservancy. The coastal plain pond species found in the greenbelt are one of the rarest species groups in the northeast. The chemical runoff, smog, and noise pollution from an impound yard would cause irreversible damage to this fragile ecosystem. So, aside from poisoning your own water supply, you would be poisoning the water for thousands of native species.  

This decision may seem like a small, insignificant, convenient choice, but I would like you to bear in mind that this is one of thousands of similar decisions that are made every day. When the results of these decisions always favor the further destruction of our planet, those choices add up quickly. As Rachel Carson once wrote: “We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost’s familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road — the one less traveled by — offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth.”

Please reconsider your decision to pollute the greenbelt with an impound yard. The Long Pond Greenbelt is a rare, unaltered, beautiful stretch of forest that deserves our protection.

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