Candy Canes And Lumps Of Coal

And Lumps Of Coal

Periodically, we hand out “Gold Stars and Dunce Caps” in this space. This time of year, it seems more appropriate to make them “Candy Canes and Lumps of Coal”:

Lump of Coal: To Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, and other facilities that have a patient-unfriendly billing policy. As documented last week, a trip to the local ER can bring a surprise: though the hospital itself takes your medical insurance, the group of doctors subcontracted to provide ER services might not. That’s not something most patients or families find out until much later. It’s a terrible practice, and other states have taken steps to ban it. Stony Brook Southampton Hospital is a community hospital and should act as such, addressing this sleight-of-hand billing practice before a state mandates giving patients a fair shake.

Candy Cane: To planners and community leaders throughout the South Fork, for a continued focus on the downtown villages and hamlets. The needs of businesses in these community centers are many, and increasing in urgency, along with most brick-and-mortar shops in an economy headed more and more online. Shopping malls, in other parts of the country, have faced a similar dilemma; some have survived, and even thrived, with a focus on experiential offerings — not just goods but a good time. That’s been a key part of the conversation locally as well; the next step is finding real, useful tools to make it happen. Our businesses depend on it.

Candy Cane: To Southampton Village Board member Mark Parash, a local restaurant owner, who spearheaded a window decorating contest in the village this holiday season. The village’s wonderful crews always make the downtown look splendid, but the shining windows this year have ramped up the holiday cheer by many, many watts. Mr. Parash ran for office on a platform of helping the downtown business district — this holiday season, he delivered like Santa Claus.

Candy Cane: To the East Hampton Town Board, for its ongoing efforts to make it easier for property owners to replace aging or ineffective septic systems. The town plans to make the payments up front for replacements, instead of offering rebates after the property owner has already shelled out the money, and it has also voted to raise the maximum rebate from $16,000 to $20,000, which will apply retroactively to people who’ve already made replacements. Even with rebates from the county and town, it can be a heavy lift for property owners to upgrade their septics, and everything the town can do to make it easier constitutes a positive step toward reducing nitrogen pollution of the bays and ponds that South Fork residents enjoy and depend upon.

Lump of Coal: To Southampton Village Mayor Jesse Warren, for continued poor communication with his Village Board colleagues and worrisome behavior at the helm, most recently at a meeting last week. Patience is needed for a first-year mayor to find his footing, but any evidence of a learning curve is fading. The mayor will succeed only by building consensus, and that’s where his focus should be in early 2020.

Lump of Coal: To East Hampton Village, for ticketing drivers who overstay the two-hour limit in public parking lots that are virtually empty this time of year. It’s true that, historically, merchants have asked the village not to lengthen the parking time limit, because the shopkeepers don’t want employees to use spaces that could go to customers; with a more generous time limit, workers might simply move their cars once during the workday to avoid being ticketed, clogging up many prime spaces. There is no reason, however, to discourage the public from actually visiting the village by ticketing cars in an empty parking lot on a weekday in December. Finding ways for government to help local businesses can be tricky, but it’s simple to find ways not to hurt them. This is one.

Candy Cane: To the Sag Harbor Cinema, for pulling together and getting the cinema close to completion exactly three years from the devastating fire on December 16, 2016. That seemed to be a dark day for the village, and it would have been ambitious, to say the least, to talk about a new cinema returning three years later. To think that it will be bigger and better is even more remarkable. The cherry on top: On the anniversary of the fire, the cinema offered a special showing of “Cinema Paradiso,” a classic film about a theater that catches fire — but not before inspiring a deep love of movies in its main character.

Lump of Coal: To the State Department of Transportation, for its failure to repave the full stretch of Route 114 between Stephen Hands Path and the South Ferry terminal in North Haven. Though some sections of the roadway have been repaired in the last year and a half, overall, it remains in terrible shape, particularly the stretch heading south out of Sag Harbor. It’s a veritable minefield. Maybe the DOT can use some of its coal to fill those potholes …

Candy Cane: To the warm-hearted human beings who helped save a pair of brown pelicans found in Montauk — and a nice piece of fish for the pelicans themselves. Concerned onlookers took action, Dr. Jonathan Turetsky in East Hampton stepped in, and the Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center in Hampton Bays is helping to nurse them back to full health. The birds, which will be transported to Florida when they are well enough to travel, had overstayed their time here and had trouble trying to fly south. It’s a happy ending for the chilly birds, and a nice, warm feeling for everyone else.

Candy Cane: To U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin, for joining Democrats and fellow Republicans alike in passing a bill earlier this month to protect phone users from unwanted robocalls. In a rare piece of bipartisanship, the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act, or TRACED Act, will require carriers to offer free robocall blocking, authorize the Federal Communications Commission to impose higher fines, push the Department of Justice to bring more criminal prosecutions, help the FCC cut off phone companies that send large numbers of robocalls, and protect patients, doctors and hospitals from unlawful robocalls, among other measures. An estimated 54 billion illegal robocalls have been placed nationwide so far this year, and more than 330 million robocalls were made in New York State in November alone — and consumers of all political stripes deserve some substantial relief as soon as possible. Rep. Zeldin deserves credit for taking action.

Candy Cane: To the Sag Harbor Lions Club, for committing to fundraise for a second year to support Sag Harbor students with meaningful college scholarships. The reality is, obtaining a higher education comes with a hefty price tag these days. Many undergraduates leave college with tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Offering three deserving students scholarships of $10,000 to $20,000 is significant, and in its inaugural year of fundraising, the Lions Club proved it is a number that is not out of reach, and a cause that businesses and residents were more than happy to rally around. 

Lump of Coal: To property owners in Sag Harbor Village who continue to ignore the rules, build outside of what is approved by the regulatory boards, and, in general, pursue projects with no regard for the community or its character. While there are a number of property owners in Sag Harbor who are responsible and offer reasonable plans for the redevelopment and modernization of homes often found on very small lots in the village, there continues to be a parade of applications before the village regulatory boards to legalize construction done without a permit or outside of what a building permit allows — the end result often being something that would have never been approved in the first place. The most glaring example, as of late, is Tal Litvin’s decision not to incorporate a 19th century residence into a much larger home planned for his property on Grand Street, despite its preservation being the reason the ARB approved his project in the first place. Historic preservation is what has helped Sag Harbor retain its character, and casting that aside should not be an option in order to achieve greater square-footage. Meanwhile …

Candy Cane: To the Sag Harbor Zoning Board of Appeals, which appears ready to turn down requests for variances that are not rooted in actual hardship. Property owners have a right to build on their lots based on the zoning code. A variance seeks to expand what is allowed based on a hardship. Needing a swimming pool is not a hardship. Needing a large home on a small lot can be a hardship, but when property owners show a complete unwillingness to scale back plans to better conform to a neighborhood, it’s just pure greed. It seems we finally have a ZBA that understands that — and given the sheer number of applications to the ZBA, the timing could not be better.

Candy Cane: To Sag Harbor Elementary School fifth-grader Calogero Sferrazza, for showing civic leadership with the design of his traffic safety plan for streets near the elementary school and Pierson Middle-High School. Understanding that children are healthier and happier when they can walk to and from school, Calogero walked Sag Harbor Village Mayor Kathleen Mulcahy and Police Chief Austin J. McGuire through his plan last week, which involves expanding sidewalks near the school and introducing new crosswalks to ensure student safety. His plan is a good one — and it appears that Mayor Mulcahy has taken notice. 

Candy Cane: To U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, for pushing hard on the issue of PFAS chemicals and their impact on the environment — an issue that directly affects so many South Fork communities. In fact, it’s likely that the issues raised locally helped capture Sen. Gillibrand’s attention on the matter, though the region is far from alone in battling the dangerous “forever chemicals” that are found in firefighting foam and other substances. Her legislation toughens the rules and includes a measure ending the use of firefighting foam containing PFAS at military installations — likely the direct result of the contamination found surrounding Gabreski Airport in Westhampton. It was a hazard we knew very little about even just five years ago. It’s reassuring to see quick and decisive legislative action to try to clean up the mess.

Candy Cane: To everyone who took the plunge on Saturday — the Polar Bear Plunge at Coopers Beach in Southampton Village, that is. It takes real courage, and it’s all for a wonderful cause: helping Heart of the Hamptons provide for needy families in our midst. It’s fun, but it’s serious fun, for anyone who plunged, and anyone who supported a plunger. It’s one of our region’s great holiday traditions.