Dear Quogue Residents,
With the passage of Labor Day weekend, the unofficial summer of 2021 is in the books. We have been pretty fortunate so far, as Henri took a late detour to the right and delivered only a glancing blow to Quogue, and in our region Ida dumped its prodigious amounts of rain mainly on the New York City area and New Jersey. Meanwhile, our beach has built nicely, and we were able to do six days of beach scraping through September 1 in order to fortify our dunes. Do not despair with the end of summer, however. We locals know that in Quogue the best weather of the year occurs in September and October. That is when we make up for the annual spring that seems never to arrive, and so stand by for a gorgeous fall.
As you know, the twentieth anniversary of 9-11 occurs this Saturday. The Quogue Fire Department has planned a commemorative ceremony for that day starting at 10:00 a.m. near the location by the Fire Department building where a portion of a girder from one of the Twin Towers is displayed and a memorial garden has been planted. Please try to attend if you can.
Many of you have inquired about the patchwork appearance of some of our streets. They are a work in process. We perform heavy maintenance on some of our streets every year, and it is a two-step process. First, a thin asphalt-like material is placed on the street to level it (that is what has been done so far), and then blue stone is put on the road with a liquid emulsion to bind it. (That will occur this week, weather permitting.) After about a week any loose blue stone is swept and removed from the road. That is what gives most of our roads a rural look.
On the subject of roads, you may have noticed early signs of the forthcoming work on Jessup Avenue from Quogue Street to the Police Station. It is scheduled to start on September 13. The west side of Jessup Avenue will be done first, and traffic will be one way heading north. All the work that is being done this fall should be completed before Thanksgiving, and a final coat of asphalt will be added in the spring. It may be a little messy. Please be patient.
The Delta variant of Covid-19 has cases rising all over. Quogue is no exception. Anecdotally, I have heard of fully-vaccinated people getting breakthrough cases, and the overall number of confirmed cases in Quogue during the pandemic has risen to 84 (from about 70), according to the Suffolk County website. Please be cautious—wear a mask and do your best to limit your close contact with others, particularly indoors.
We are all aware of the horrific accident that occurred earlier this summer on Montauk Highway and killed five people and seriously injured another. Our hearts go out to the family and friends of the victims. Many comments have been made about the intersection of Montauk Highway and the eastern end of Quogue Street. My understanding is that Suffolk County is studying it, although the recent lawsuit filed against the County may have an effect on that. More information on the accident investigation will be released soon.
At his well-received State of the Town talk last Saturday morning on the Village Green sponsored by the Quogue Association, Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman mentioned that the population of Quogue increased from 967 in the 2010 Census to 1,662 in 2020. I asked Jay after the talk where he got his information, and he said that Newsday had furnished it. I am a little skeptical; that would be a huge increase. The figure I am seeing is 1,020. We’ll find out eventually.
In my last email, I asked people to be observant of blue flashing lights that signify firefighters responding to fire calls in their own vehicles and to pull over and let them pass. One of our local residents who volunteers as a paramedic with the Westhampton War Memorial Ambulance (which will come to your house in Quogue if you need an ambulance) pointed out that responding ambulance workers display a green flashing light. Obviously, those calls can be extremely time-sensitive as well, and so please get out of the way if you can do so safely and let the car with the green flashing light pass by. Sorry about the omission.
Enjoy the fall season!
Peter Sartorius Mayor