It never ends well when arrogant men draw lines on a map deciding “who belongs where” — the Levant in 1916, India’s partition creating Pakistan in 1947, Wainscott in 2021. The map proposed by Citizens for the Preservation (Privatization) of Wainscott of a “new” Wainscott Incorporated appears to remove those north of the highway on the east side of Hedges Lane, north side of Merchants Path, Georgica Woods, and various other easterly regions, disenfranchising roughly 80 homes. The right to Wainscott beach access that these homeowners currently have increases their property values. So arrogant men with a Sharpie decided they must now pay a fee to go to the beach they most likely have used in the past or venture all the way to Amagansett. And they will not even be allowed to vote on incorporation!

The C.P.W. seems hell-bent on rushing through incorporating Wainscott when very few people who it will actually affect know much about any of these finer points. Why the rush? We have been a hamlet for the last 350 years I think we should wait until the Covid crisis is over to better inform those most impacted and least likely to attend Zoom “meetings.”

Oh, but it is not really about what is best for all Wainscott residents, just the chosen few who formed a political action committee of private/secret donors who can afford to hire lawyers, expensive consultants, engineers, advertising agencies to run slick P.R. campaigns and PowerPoint presentations at Zoom meetings.

The C.P.W. performance at the December citizens advisory committee was a sham. Their proposed budget was a skeleton of what a proper budget would cover. Not to mention one of their slick tag lines is “Independence from East Hampton Town,” when what they proposed was just renting back at a higher cost to taxpayers the exact same boards: planning, zoning, and architectural review. Perhaps their real ad should read: “We really just plan to use the same government but rent it back at a higher rate to the taxpayers. Why pay less!”

Seems to me the working folks who live here have been overlooked and not even consulted about their higher taxes coming. The arrogance is appalling and shameful. This issue needs more time and a lot more consideration before it gets rushed ahead and put to a vote by the chosen few with more money than…

Best,

DOREEN A. NIGGLES
Wainscott, NY

December 13, 2020

A letter to the editor to The East Hampton Star…