Town Board – R&R – Reachout and Rebuild

Is the East End ‘Open for Business’ as Usual?

David Posnett — Tue, 12 May 2020 13:57:01 +0000

Gurney’s Inn, long an iconic resort on Long Island’s eastern tip at Montauk (June 5, 2013) Credit: Doug Kuntz

Some East End resorts are planning to open soon. Contrary to some assertions that misinterpret Governor Cuomo’s Executive Orders, resorts are NOT ‘essential businesses’.

Governor Cuomo’s economic recovery policy defines ‘essential infrastructure’ accommodation. This is distinct from seasonal resorts. Please see the following PDF link from the governor’s Empire State Development office, which explains in greater detail what the executive order means in terms of ‘essential business’ and gives guidelines about how essential businesses must operate: https://esd.ny.gov/sites/default/files/ESD_EssentialEmployerFAQ_033120.pdf

Item #6 of the document defines an essential business:

“6. An Essential Business is any business providing products or services that are required to maintain the health, welfare, and safety of the citizens of New York State.” That could include accommodations that provide housing to healthcare workers, COVID-positive individuals who are quarantined, and other vital services.

Our East End resorts are not contributing to the “health, welfare and safety” of New Yorkers. In fact, our local resorts, while critical to our local economy, actually put a substantial burden on our local healthcare systems, even without the added stress of a pandemic, and clearly (and logically) fall squarely within the governor’s phased reopening approach. Hotels and restaurants are in Phase 3 of his plan.

According to Suffolk County’s website (5/10/2020) we are not yet even ready to start Phase 1, as we fulfill only 4 out of 7 reopening requirements.

https://dashboards.suffolkcountyny.gov/app/main#dashboards/5eb5950d3ab83817803ffe49?h=false&t=false&l=false&r=true&volatile=true

Here is some more information from Governor Cuomo:

On 4/28, Governor Cuomo was asked whether Saratoga Race Course could reopen. He referred to it as “an attractive nuisance” and stated that it would bring people into the region, hampering local COVID-19 mitigation efforts. According to CBS Channel 2, ‘The governor explained the concept of “attractive nuisance,” saying regions cannot begin opening up businesses that draw hundreds of people from other areas.’ A video of his statements appear in CBS’s link: https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2020/04/28/coronavirus-covid-19-new-york-state-reopening-andrew-cuomo/

In order to open our resort economy in a responsible manner, what sorts of health and safety plans will be required to be implemented (following federal, state, county & town protocols) to protect staff, guests, first responders, and the community at large? Who has input in developing and vetting local plans? Will proposed and adopted plans be made public? Some considerations should include the following:

When resorts do open, how will management know if a guest is positive? What sort of guest screening will the resort employ? Will temperatures be taken upon check-in, at the very least?(What happens if a guest tests positive at a resort? Will they be quarantined at that resort?)
Frequently, seasonal resort staff live in dormitory-style housing (either on- or off-site) with multiple employees per bedroom, with no opportunity to isolate. Will staff be tested regularly? What happens when an employee tests positive? How and where will they be quarantined in that instance? Will there be a ‘duty to report’ for employees and employers?

Local resorts should not be allowed to reopen before a plan is in place that includes testing, contact tracing, and quarantine, especially for businesses that attract large numbers of people from outside our area, be they, guests or employees.

Good policy is driven by good data, and here we face another challenge. The way that COVID cases are reported out by our local hospital, for instance, uses a person’s permanent address as a reporting data point. If a resort guest or employee is hospitalized, it is not shown as a Montauk, or East Hampton statistic, but rather is added to the tally of whatever state and municipality is listed on the patient’s i.d. This makes it difficult to quantify the burden that is placed on local healthcare resources.

We cannot value our economic interests above the safety of our community. I know that our town officials are well-aware of the dedication of our local volunteer first responders. I don’t know if they are aware that a large number of those volunteers are high-risk for COVID disease; often, the most active members of our ambulance corps, for instance, are retirees. To put this group – and the rest of our community – at added risk due to a precipitous opening of our seasonal businesses would be unfortunate.

Jessica James (Montauk)

Those Bothersome Facts

David Posnett — Sat, 04 Nov 2017 21:16:04 +0000

In the age of “alternative facts”, Breitbart and Fox faux news,
we can all make an effort to point out BS when we recognize it! Bravo Nigel, an R&R regular, for his Letter to the Editor of the East Hampton Star Nov. 2nd, titled “Their Facts”:

Last week I attended the presentation of 8 of the Republican candidates for the East Hampton Town trustees. Each one spoke against the offshore wind farm, over which their jurisdiction has no control. In conversation after the event, I was told by one of the candidates, a previous member of the trustees, that the turbines only operated at winds from 10 m.p.h. to 30 m.p.h. This is incorrect. If you think about it, there would be little motivation to build a wind farm with such a small opportunity for success. The turbines rated wind tolerances are 3 to 25 milliseconds, which is 6.7 m.p.h. to 56 m.p.h. I really wish candidates would get their facts correct before they speak.

NIGEL NOBILE

Participate in Our Democracy

David Posnett — Sat, 04 Nov 2017 14:55:40 +0000

Tuesday November 7th is Election Day. Please go out and vote!

In East Hampton, we will be voting for Town Supervisor, Town Board, Town Trustees and county wide offices including Suffolk County District Attorney and Suffolk County Legislator. If you are feeling frustrated with your elected representatives, exercise your right to vote and make changes. If you are happy with your elected representatives, exercise your right to vote and keep those representatives in office. Every vote will have an impact this year. I personally support Peter Van Scoyoc, Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, Jeff Bragman, Tim Sini and the other Democratic candidates.

Historically, voter turnout is very low in odd numbered election years, and this can have real consequences on who wins. Four years ago in the election for East Hampton Town Board, a losing candidate Job Potter, lost by only 291 votes. That year, there were 9,538 registered voters in East Hampton who did not turn out to vote (and plenty more East Hampton residents who are eligible but not registered to vote). In an election decided by such a small margin, the residents who did not come out to the polls could have changed the election’s outcome.

And this impact in congressional elections is just as pronounced. In 2012, a presidential election year with 63% turnout, Tim Bishop won our district with 53% of the vote. In 2014, without a presidential election on the ballot, turnout fell to 39%, and Bishop’s vote share fell to 46%, as many of his 2012 voters did not show up for the midterm election. The 2016 Democratic Primary for CD-1 makes this point even more strikingly because only 9% of eligible Democratic Primary voters turned out to vote.

Our community needs you to vote on Nov. 7. In local elections, your individual vote can make a big difference. Our representation and our democracy depend on your participation, and your vote matters! If you are not registered, please register so you can vote next year. Only you can make changes in our government leadership.

Make your voice heard. Cast your vote on November 7th.

Sincerely, Perry Gershon

Let’s Vote

David Posnett — Mon, 30 Oct 2017 10:10:13 +0000

Letter to the Editor in the East Hampton Star Oct. 26, 2017

“Self-Defeating”

With two weeks to go, anecdotal evidence suggests that many potential voters in our region: 1. don’t know much, if anything, about individual candidates; 2. are unaware of arguments pro and con about the ballot question on a proposed state constitutional convention, and 3. are indifferent to local elections, citing them as a Sisyphus-like expense of energy and a waste of time. In Springs, where I serve as an elections inspector, the turnout at the last (primary) election was pitiable.

While it has been argued that increased numbers of voters in many areas on the East End would likely benefit Democrats over Republicans, especially if more newly enfranchised people turned out to vote, that view has not translated into action. For Democrats, some of whom are still fighting the Sanders-Clinton rift, the results have been self-defeating.

Cynicism is not only a cliché, it is impractical. Numbers count, psychologically as well as demographically, and attract money. Off-year elections presage larger contests, and none is more important for Democrats than capturing the congressional seat for Congressional District 1 held by Trump mini-me Lee Zeldin. Surely every registered Democrat in our region knows someone who is eligible to vote. Sending a so-called message by not voting discourages candidates who have civil and constructive contributions to make to the growth of our region and the fate of our country.

Let it be noted that, as mandated by the board of elections, inspectors with Democratic affiliation serve alongside Republican colleagues and respect the nonpartisan rules of service at the polls.

JOAN BAUM

Schizophrenia in the East Hampton GOP

David Posnett — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 21:26:46 +0000

Published in The East End Beacon, June 8, 2017

To the Editor:

Reg Cornelia’s recent outbursts lay bare the schizophrenia afflicting the East Hampton GOP. Most recently, on behalf of the EH GOP, he viciously and misleadingly denounced the Deepwater wind farm proposed for erection in the Atlantic. Regardless of the merits of that proposal and to no one’s surprise, Mr. Cornelia’s diatribe hewed to the GOP orthodoxy that rejects any and all energy proposals offering alternatives to the consumption of fossil fuels. In so doing, the Party (and its East Hampton cohort) baldly pays fealty to the oil and gas interests that call the shots, and line their pockets.

Mr. Cornelia would have us believe that the use of natural gas as an energy source is cleaner than wind generation. Nothing could be further from the truth. Methane, which makes up 92 percent of natural gas, is a significantly potent greenhouse gas. It is 84 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Natural gas also contains chemicals that can harm human health, such as hydrogen sulfide, toluene, xylene, benzene and formaldehyde. These toxic air pollutants increase the chance of cancer, respiratory, neurological, reproductive, developmental and other serious health problems. Small concerns to the EH GOP when compared to the importance of being a sycophant to the oil and gas industries, undoubtedly in search of campaign dollars.

The EH GOP has candidly promised to deliver the same “progress” as its Washington cronies, Mr. Trump and the House GOP. There is no pro-environmental agenda to be found anywhere in the Trump agenda. And there is none to be found among the screeds posted on the EH GOP’s Facebook page.

So, while the EH GOP candidates for the Town Board candidates try to talk the environmental talk, their Party sponsors are preaching the exact opposite. Who are voters to believe? None of them. The Democratic slate has an already proven track record so voters need leave nothing to chance this November.

Sincerely,

Bruce Colbath

Starving Our Children?

David Posnett — Thu, 25 May 2017 17:46:09 +0000

By Bruce Colbath, published as a letter to the editor “Backward we will go” in the East Hampton Star May 25th, 2017.

We have already seen the amazing callousness that Mr. Trump and his Republican cronies have shown towards the American people in celebrating their punitive healthcare plan and their budget proposal. Sadly for us, they aren’t through. Another Trump proposal will cut $200 million from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). When you cut that much money from something, fewer people are going to be protected – and the losers will be those in the title of the program: women, infants and children.

More than 7.8 million women and children participated in the WIC program in the first three months of the 2016 fiscal year. Children and infants usually make up three-quarters of WIC recipients. Trump’s budget cuts mean that hundreds of thousands of mothers, their children and infants would be unable to receive the food vouchers they qualify for. The reason they “qualify” for them? They do not have enough income to afford enough food to feed those young children and infants.

And backwards we will go. Studies by the Center for Disease Control indicate that the WIC program contributed to a decrease in childhood obesity, which means healthier children. A recent study showed that 34 of 56 WIC State Agencies saw modest decreases in obesity among young children from 2010-2014. The percentage of low-income children (ages 2-4) with obesity enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) decreased from 15.9% in 2010 to 14.5% in 2014.

So in order to give the rich a tax break, build a useless wall and pay for more authoritarian deportation agents, the Washington Republicans will starve little children and their mothers.

The East Hampton Republican Party has promised to bring this same kind of “progress” to our town. Seriously?

Our Town Board knows better than to turn its back on our most vulnerable residents. Earlier this year, it gave the East Hampton Food Pantry a new home — located on the grounds of Town Hall. And, in 2017, the Town awarded a grant to the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center for $90,000, an increase of $10,000 over last year.

The Democratic slate for the Town Board will continue to deliver socially responsible governance instead of punishing the more vulnerable among us. It is they who deserve your vote this November.

Offshore Drilling on the Horizon?

David Posnett — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 17:59:41 +0000

Letter to the Editor

Published in The East Hampton Star, April 27, 2017

On Sunday, Guild Hall hosted a program concerned with the preservation of the waters surrounding the East End. Flanked by scientists supporting their efforts, Deputy Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc and County Legislator Bridget Fleming spoke of their accomplishments in and plans for protecting our marine environment. These efforts have been effective and, at this very moment, the work of our dedicated government could not be more important.

This week, after weeks of publicity, Mr. Trump will sign an executive order designed to rescind regulations adopted by the Obama administration banning offshore oil and gas drilling in dozens of canyons off the East Coast in an area extending from New England to Virginia. Mr. Trump’s order does the bidding of the fossil fuel interests by potentially making these areas open to offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling. The devastating spill in the Gulf of Mexico, caused by the negligence of the oil industry, offers a stark picture of the potential catastrophe posed by drilling off our coast.

Where are our congressmen? In the pockets of the fossil fuel interests. In February, both Lee Zeldin (our Congressman) and Peter King (from neighboring Nassau County) voted to allow coal mining companies to dump toxic coal residue in neighboring waterways. This is despite Mr. Zeldin’s empty boast to “work tirelessly … to protect our national treasures.” And, despite a promise to “protect Long Island’s waterways,” Mr. Zeldin has sat stone-faced in the face of Trump’s highly publicized intentions. And, this is despite his crowing about the need to protect the fishing industry. Yet to stand up to Mr. Trump, we should all expect Mr. Zeldin to cave to the fossil fuel industry (read donation dollars) and put our shoreline, and fishing industry, in peril.

The new GOP team that would like to govern our town also has failed to voice any opposition to Mr. Trump’s proposal, despite cloaking themselves in the garb of environmentalists. So, one can only assume by their silence they, too, are sycophants to the dictates of oil and gas interests. By their silence, we should also assume that their professed interest in environmental issues and the fishing industry is nothing more than political posturing.

I can think of no greater threat to our tourism and fishing industries, not to mention real estate values, than the sight of oil rigs on the horizon from our beaches or the devastation to the fishing grounds from an oil spill of any size.

Thankfully, there already is a group protecting our beautiful communities – It is the current Town Board (and Ms. Fleming). Trust what they have done as opposed to what the wannabes say. Actions do speak louder than words – or silence.

Sincerely.

Bruce Colbath