Dear Quogue Residents,

The work on the Jessup Avenue reconstruction is going well and is on schedule or even a little bit ahead. People have adapted fairly well to the one-way traffic on Jessup—I would give an overall grade of B+. Then there are the very few who seemingly see an empty lane in front of them and decide to make a quick break for it. Please do not do that. It’s dangerous.

Most of the work to date had been on the west side of the street. Soon that will flip. The west side will be paved with a base course of asphalt, and the traffic flow will reverse so that it is one way travelling south (toward the beach) on the west side of the road. The concrete on the east side of the road and the sidewalk will be torn up and will be replaced with asphalt on the street and a new sidewalk. All the work for this fall should be completed before Thanksgiving. The final coat of asphalt and lines on the street will be placed in the early spring.

Obviously, all of this work has been disruptive to the merchants on the street. Please do your very best to patronize them. It may be a little inconvenient for you to do so, but it is very important to them. Unfortunately, the Pancake Breakfast traditionally hosted by the Fire Department on the Sunday after Thanksgiving has had to be cancelled again this year because of concern over Covid-19. Many attendees are children under 12, naturally, and at this point at least they are not eligible for vaccinations. Hopefully this is the

last year for that! Also, the Fire Department-sponsored Halloween Ghost Parade along Jessup Avenue will not be held this year for the obvious reason that the road is not really conducive to parading. Kids will have the opportunity to show off their costumes on Friday, October 29 in a parade organized in conjunction with the Quogue School, with further details to be announced.

In this off year for Federal elections, there are still local races on tap this year. Jay Schneiderman is unopposed for another term as Supervisor of the Town of Southampton, but there are two Democrats and two Republicans vying for two seats on the Southampton Town Council. There is also a slew of other elections. You will want to check out the Southampton Press and www.27East.com for information on the races and the candidates. Election day is Tuesday, November 2, and the local polling place will be the Quogue Fire Department, as usual. Early voting starts on Saturday, October 23 and runs through Sunday, October 31. The closest early voting sites to Quogue are at the Stony Brook University Southampton Campus at 60 Tuckahoe Road and at the Riverhead Senior Center at 60 Shade Tree Road. The hours are 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. on weekends and vary during the week. See www.suffolkcountyny.gov/Departments/BOE/Early-VotingSites-11-2-2021 if you need specifics.

The 2021-22 season of Hampton Theatre Company kicks off on Thursday night this week with the production of Native Gardens, a comedy with some “heavier threads woven through,” according to the Theatre Company’s website. While I have not seen the rehearsals, I can say that the set is quite elaborate and foreshadows a very fine overall production. Tickets can be purchased at www.hamptontheatre.org. Give yourself some extra time when coming to the play because of the Jessup Avenue construction. Patrons will enter the Community Hall through the courtroom entrance on the north side of the building. You may find that it is most convenient to park in the parking lot next to Village Hall and behind the Fire Department, which you can access via Midland Street by crossing Jessup Avenue or by turning into the back side of the lot from Willow Lane.

The Village Highway Department will begin picking up leaves on November 1st. Leaves must be on the shoulder of the street by December 15th in order to be picked up. Do not pile leaves around fire hydrants or utility equipment. DO NOT USE PLASTIC BAGS. They will not be picked up, and you will have to remove them. No brush, such as twigs and branches, or lawn cuttings will be taken away, and mixing this debris with leaves will result in the leaves not being removed. Brush with branches up to 3” in diameter may be taken to the Westhampton recycling facility free of charge from November 15 through December 31. For more information, go to www.southamptontownny.gov. In addition to the foregoing, property owners and landscapers who take leaves (only) from a Quogue property may make arrangements with the Quogue Highway Department to dump them at the highway yard. That will avoid having piles in front of your property waiting to be picked up and blowing back onto your lawn.

Here’s hoping for continuing good fall weather. Enjoy it.

Peter Sartorius Mayor

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

Dear Quogue Residents,

As I mentioned in my email to you on May 24, the Village sought bids for the reconstruction of Jessup Avenue and some of the sidewalks from Quogue Street to the Police Station, with work to be done in the Fall. We have had a meeting with the low bidder, South Fork Asphalt, which has done work for the Village in the past, and are awaiting a proposed plan for staging the project so as to keep Jessup Avenue at least partially open at all times. Some inconvenience is inevitable, however, but we will do our best to make it as bearable as possible. Work is projected to start on September 13. It is necessary to start then to assure that asphalt can be laid before the cold weather sets in.

Here is a tip for your outside grilling that is prompted by a recent fire in the Village: make sure that you check the innards of your outside barbecue setup to make sure that they are free of grease buildup. Also check the hose from the propane tank to the grill to make sure that it is not cracked and is in good shape. Finally, make sure that there is separation of at least several feet between an operating grill and your house. A hot grill close to the house will heat the shingles, and a fire in the grill can easily spread to the house.

Staying in the realm of the Fire Department, we have had a few instances recently of oblivious drivers not observing or ignoring the flashing blue (in civilian vehicles) or red (in official vehicles) lights of firefighters responding to alarms. The correct thing to do is to pull over as soon as you can do so safely in order to let the firefighter pass.

The annual Fire Department Open House will resume this year and be held on Sunday, August 1 from 4:00 to 6:00 pm. The Department has an added event this year—there will be a concert on the Village Green immediately afterwards featuring the band Urban Acoustics, which plays “Party Rock” spanning six decades of modern, classic and alternative hits. There has to be something in there that you like! Bring your own blanket or lawn chair and hang out for a while on our Green. The Quogue Junior Theater Troupe’s production of the musical Pippin is coming to the stage in the Quogue Community Hall on August 3-6. I have been listening to these talented young people, ages 14 to 19, hard at work in rehearsals, and I am sure that the show will be a good one. Tickets are now on sale.

Plan to allocate some of your day on Saturday, August 14 to attend the Quogue Historical Society’s Art Show on the Village Green. Many of our talented local artists as well as others from farther away will have exhibits. Stop by and purchase a conversation piece for your Quogue house that will intrigue your guests.

There seem to be more people than ever walking, running and biking on the Village streets. It is great that people are getting exercise, but for your own safety remember the rules of the road: walk and run on the left (against the traffic) and ride on the right. And no matter how sleek you think your body may be, if you are in Quogue, you have to wear a shirt (as Olympians do).

Electric-assisted bikes and electric scooters are newish forms of transportation occasionally seen in Quogue. Although they are not required to be registered as motor vehicles in New York, they are regulated by the State. An individual has to be at least 16 years old to operate an electric-assisted bike or an electric scooter. Helmets are required on scooters for people age 16 or 17. These devices can only be operated on streets that have a speed limit of 30 mph or less and therefore have to stay off Montauk Highway and the Quogue-Riverhead Road. The maximum speed at which electric scooters may operate is 15 mph. Pedestrians have the right of way, but I would watch out for these two wheelers just the same.

Homeowners should remember that the Village-owned rights of way for the Village streets are wider than the actual pavement. While the width of the rights of way do vary, as a rule of thumb they extend from the edge of the pavement past the utility poles and fire hydrants, which are within the rights of way. Gateposts, stakes and the like should not be placed in the right of way. Belgian blocks and other driveway borders should not extend all the way to the street lest they be wiped out by a snow plow or damage the plow. Planting trees in the right of way requires permission of the Village, and objects placed in the right of way are subject to being removed.

Lastly, while I have not heard of any new Covid-19 cases in Quogue recently, we have all read about the highly contagious Delta variant and the indoor mask mandate being reinstated in Los Angeles. There has been no such action in New York, but it is time to be aware of your surroundings and be cautious, particularly when indoors. If you know of anyone who is not fully vaccinated, keep urging them to get vaccinated. We have all seen stories of people who hesitated too long.

There is a lot going on. Enjoy the summer.

Peter Sartorius Mayor

Dear Quogue Residents,

If you have driven along Quogue Street lately (and what Quogue resident hasn’t?), you have undoubtedly noticed the renovated and expanded Library building rapidly taking shape. The Grand Opening will be next Saturday, June 26th, and everyone is invited. Get there at 1:00 pm to witness the formal flag raising, a moving rendition of America the Beautiful and the opening ceremonies. They will be followed by tours of the building (which has received rave reviews in early, unauthorized leaks) conducted by the Library Trustees and Staff, lots of activities inside and out, music and refreshments throughout the afternoon until 5:00 pm. If you want to exercise the right side of your brain and make a lasting impression, you are invited to come dressed as your favorite book character. You will also have a chance to place a note in a time capsule to be opened in 50 years. Normal operations at the new Library building will commence next Sunday.

Mark your calendars for the first Quogue Association event of the summer, the annual beach party on July 17th at the Village Beach. (The duck race, the timing of which is tide dependent, will return this year in August along with the concert at the Village dock.) If you are not a person who supports this organization by being a member (for the modest sum of $40 per year plus any additional contribution you would like to make), you should. Among other things, It maintains the landscaping at the Village Dock, the west entrance to Quogue from Montauk Highway, Post Lane Circle, and the intersection of Post Lane and Dune Road. Recent projects that it fully or partially funded include the restoration of the Nachum Chapin Anchor at the Quogue Library, replacement of the Village Clock at the Village Pond, installation of the beautiful serpentine bench on the Village Green, and placement of a resting bench at the intersection of Old Depot and Scrub Oak Roads. It also emails a useful monthly newsletter to members.

Joining the Quogue Association is not difficult. Go to its website at https://quogueassociation.org/ and follow the directions. If you are technologically challenged or just prefer the traditional means of making payments, send your name and email address with your check to the Quogue Association at PO Box 671 in Quogue.

Most of you have observed the renovations going on at the Village-owned building at 121 Jessup Avenue over the last nine months or so. The Building Department and Code Enforcement are now located in that building, and Bill Nowak, Tom Snodgrass, Stephanie Wagner and Chris Osborne have their offices there. You can go there directly if you have business with those Departments and reach them directly at 631-653-4555. Great thanks are due to former Trustee Jeanette Obser, who handled many of the building and furnishing details even after she left the Board of Trustees. Thank you, Jeanette!

As many of you know, there have been several incidents of vandalism on the boardwalk across the marshlands on the east end of Dune Road. I am happy to report that over the weekend the Quoque Police charged a suspect in the most recent incident. Good work by the police!

We very much want you to come to town to patronize our local merchants, play on the Village Green with your kids or grandkids or simply hang out there with your coffee and newspaper. Here is a traffic ticket alert when you do, however: Village Lane is still a one-way road (heading west), and U-turns are still illegal on Jessup Avenue. The Village is not looking to fill its coffers with revenue from traffic fines, but we are interested in avoiding accidents. The extra time to go around the block won’t kill you. The alternative, who knows?

With bicycle season in full swing, a few things are worth noting. Suffolk County recently enacted a new law that requires motorists to give bicycles at least three feet of space when passing. Fines are up to $225. On the other hand, bicyclists should recognize their own responsibilities. They are required by law to ride near the right-hand edge of the road and to ride single file when a motor vehicle is approaching. Generally, laws applicable to motorists apply to bicyclists as well. Distracted driving laws might apply, for example, and so put away the cell phone and don’t send or read texts when you’re riding. Kids under age 14 are required to wear a bike helmet, but it’s good practice for the rest of us as well. We do not have a spare head.

At the last Board of Trustees meeting, we held public hearings on the laws mentioned in my email dated May 24, 2021  and at the end of the meeting enacted the proposed laws. They relate to limiting the hours for use of gas-powered leaf blowers, eliminating nuisance lighting and overnight lighting (other than minimalist security lighting), and prohibiting smoking on certain Village-owned properties. The text of these laws is attached to the agenda for the June 18, 2021 Board of Trustees meeting (here).

Thank you to all those who turned out last Friday for the uncontested election for two Trustee positions. Over 100 people voted, and Randy Cardo and Ted Necarsulmer were re-elected.

Lastly, Village tax bills were mailed about three weeks ago, and payment is due by July 1. If you did not get your bill, there is likely a problem with your address, and so call the Village Office at 631-653-4498.

Enjoy the summer, everyone.

Peter Sartorius
Mayor

It has been a while since I last wrote, I know. Things have been pretty busy around Village Hall lately as we get ready for our fiscal year end on May 31 and the beginning of the summer—lots of building, real estate changing hands, budgets being finalized, beach stickers being issued, Covid releases being digested and so on.

On the property taxes front, the second-half Town of Southampton taxes are due by May 31. Time to get focused, if you did not pay them already. Village of Quogue tax bills are scheduled to be mailed at the end of this week and are payable between June 1 and July 1. This year you will have new ways to pay them on-line, either by a direct payment from your bank account (with a fee of $1.75) or via a credit card (with payment of a 2.50% fee with a $1.95 minimum). There will be a button on the home page of the Village website ( www.villageofquogueny.gov ) where you will be able to access the electronic payment methods. You will also be able to pay by check, of course.

The Village tax rate for fiscal year 2021-2022 is $1.8385 per $1,000 of assessed value vs. $1.8068 in the current year. Although there was an article in the Southampton Press earlier this year quoting me as saying that I anticipated that the NY State tax cap would be pierced, that statement proved to be incorrect. A carryover credit from the preceding year kept the Village below the cap.

Incidentally, some of you may have noticed an article in the Southampton Press setting out the comparative tax rates for local school districts. Quogue School District had the lowest rate at $1.88 per $1,000 of assessed value. Westhampton Beach School District was the next lowest at $5.9494 per $1,000—another benefit of living in Quogue.

The Village election is back to its usual schedule this year and will be held on Friday, June 18. Randy Cardo and Ted Necarsulmer, the incumbents, are running for two-year terms as Trustees and will only be opposed by any write-in candidates. If people doubt the importance of voting, they should consider the Quogue School Board election earlier this month, which ended in a dead heat between Debbie Disston and Holly Degnan and will be decided by a runoff.

The Village Beach will open next weekend. It will be staffed with lifeguards only on weekends until near the end of June, but the locker rooms and the bathrooms will also be open during the week. Parking will not be limited to 50% capacity this year, but we will still plan to space people out using flags placed by the lifeguards. Since they need time in the morning to set up the beach, the gates to the parking lot will be closed until 10:00 a.m., as they were last year. Your 2020 beach sticker is good through May 31. After that, you must have a valid 2021 beach sticker. Rules will be posted on the Announcements page on the Village website and at the Beach. Please follow them for the safety of everyone.

There were several new laws introduced at the Board of Trustees meeting last week in which you might have some interest. If you are looking to enjoy a newly-legalized marijuana cigarette on a Village-owned property, you won’t be able to do it on most of them if one of these laws is enacted. The same law will apply these non-smoking areas to tobacco smoking and e-cigarettes. Another proposed law will shorten the hours for gas-powered leaf blowers on weekdays and prohibit their use on Saturdays between May 15 and October 15. On May 15, 2022, all gas powered leaf blowers used between May 15 and October 15 would have to be rated 65dB(A) or less. A third proposed law would put some more meat behind the concept of nuisance lighting and require all outdoor lighting other than minimalist security lighting to be off at Midnight. All these laws are attached to the agenda for the May 21 Board of Trustees meeting,

which is on the Board of Trustees page on the Village website. Public hearings on them will be held at the June 18, 2021 meeting of the Board of Trustees. Comments are welcome.

This week we will be soliciting bids for the reconstruction of Jessup Avenue and some of the sidewalks between Quogue Street and the Police Station. Work would be done in the Fall. The trees on the west side of Jessup Avenue would not be affected.

Many of you may have noticed that the Post Office may now be accessed 24 hours per day to get your mail or packages from one of the new metal boxes in the lobby. Just use a bank credit card or debit card in the card reader to get in. On an unfortunate note involving the Post Office, you will observe that the convenient hamper into which we all deposited our junk mail for recycling has been removed. Why is this, you may ask. Despite signage that was plainly visible admonishing us to deposit paper only, Tom, our Postmaster, reported to me that all manner of refuse was thrown in the hamper ranging from plastic to household trash to the ubiquitous dog poop. Really, people! Let’s all be responsible and respectful of others and dispose of our own waste properly.

Hampton Theatre Company returns to the Quogue Community Hall stage this week (starting on Thursday) with its production of Sylvia, by A.R. Gurney, which was supposed to have run last year. The audience will be at approximately one-third of capacity and socially distanced, and tickets must be purchased at least 24 hours in advance. Go to http://www.hamptontheatre.org/ and support our local theater group.

Lastly, remember that there will be a Memorial Day ceremony in front of the firehouse on Monday, May 31 at 10:00 a.m. Hope to see you there.

Peter Sartorius
Mayor

Last July 29th I sent an email informing you of a study commissioned by New York State of ways to improve the water quality in western Shinnecock Bay and described the findings by Dewberry, an engineering firm. The email and Dewberry’s summary findings (posted on July 28th) are available here. Some alternatives involved allowing an exchange of water between the ocean and the bay.

Subsequently, the State and the Town of Southampton commissioned a relook at one of the previously rejected alternatives, which consists of an underground pipe and pump station beneath Beach Lane in the vicinity of the Surf Club. The pipe would run between the Quogue Canal and a terminus about 2000 feet into the ocean.

There is a presentation on Friday, April 9 at 10:00 am by Dewberry on its study of this alternative. If you are interested in tuning in, the link is the following: meetny.webex.com

Peter Sartorius
Mayor

Dear Quogue Residents,

With beach stickers now for sale and the 2021 version of the stairs at the Village Beach now in place, I thought that people might be interested in the status of the long-running Fire Island to Montauk Point Project as it pertains to Quogue, and so here is my current understanding:

General. New York State, acting through the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), has negotiated but not executed a Project Partnership Agreement with the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) calling for the initial construction of the coastal risk management features from Fire Island Inlet east to Montauk Point. New York State has produced draft Local Project Partnership Agreements between it and Suffolk County and each of the Towns involved (Babylon, Islip, Brookhaven, Southampton and East Hampton). The State wants those executed before it signs with the USACE. The Town of Southampton may wish to execute an intermunicipal agreement with each of the three villages in the Town that are involved.

The State wants the agreements executed with the County and the Towns by the end of April. Otherwise the project will be delayed.

Contracts. The first contract to be entered into by the USACE and a contractor will be for the dredging of Fire Island Inlet and placing the sand from that at Gilgo Beach and Robert Moses Park. It is slated for September 2021.

The next contracts are 2 and 5 and involve sand bypassing around Shinnecock and Moriches Inlets. September 2022 is the projected start date.

The next contract, which directly affects Quogue, is Contract 3, and it is anticipated to commence in September 2023. The basic project spec is for a beach height of 9.5 feet and a dune height of 13 feet. Steve Couch of the USACE did a field inspection in Quogue and East Quogue on March 25th with a team from the engineering, real estate and planning divisions of the USACE as well DEC representatives. The team reportedly found no significant impediments to doing the work, observed that the erosion at the Quogue Village Beach placed that area below project specification and identified that obtaining required real estate easements (described below) is the obstacle to be overcome in order to advance the project construction to 2022 instead of 2023. While the details of exactly how much of Quogue’s beachfront will be included in the FIMP plan are not clear, we are confident that the Village Beach will be covered and that sand will be placed westward of that as well.

Funding. Initial construction of this project is 100% funded by the Federal government. It is the only project covered by the agreements between the USACE and the State and between the State and the public entities referred to above. One-hundred percent of the annual operating and maintenance cost (such as monitoring, beach clean-up and repairs) of the initial construction would be locally borne. For all of Southampton Town (including Quogue) this is estimated by the DEC at $171,000 annually.

Future nourishments every four years or so would be 50-50 cost split between the Federal government and State/Local entities, with the State/Local share split 35%/15% and prorated by shoreline length. There is no contract for those future nourishments now, however.

Required Easements. The USACE requires a perpetual storm damage reduction easement from the owner of each property where it will be doing work. An easement is a right of use over limited and specific defined areas of a property. Easements allow the temporary construction activities necessary to build and, if necessary, repair the beach by placing beach compatible sand and will guarantee the public will be able to use the publicly-funded beach in a reasonable and lawful manner. Public use is necessary because Federal law requires that public funds only be spent on beaches that are usable by the public. The easement area is only in the beach and dune area, not the

property as a whole. The public would not be permitted to traverse the property in order to get to the beach, for example. Of course, in the Town of Southampton already “there is an easement in favor of the public between the high-water mark of the Atlantic Ocean and the southerly top of the sand dunes ….” Dolphin Lane Assocs. v. Town of Southampton, 37 N.Y.2d 292, 297 (1975).

The USACE recommends getting perpetual beach storm damage repair easements across all of the project beachfront (even if work is not being done in that area now) because the Federal government will reimburse 100% of the cost of doing that. If we do not get them now but then have to get those easements later on for a beach nourishment, the Federal government would not pay for them.

Obtaining easements is a local responsibility, but the costs of doing so are reimbursable if included in the initial project construction. The Town of Southampton intends to hire a contractor that has worked with the USACE in the past to accomplish this work. There are about 100 oceanfront parcels in Quogue.

Public Access. General public access will have to be provided at the Quogue Village Beach. Specifics remain to be finalized, but it appears that there will be some general access, daily rate parking at the parcel adjacent to the Village Beach parking lot that is jointly owned by the Town of Southampton and the Village of Quogue.

Peter Sartorius
Mayor