Dan's Papers - April 17, 2009

Growing up in Springs, quite possibly one of the greatest memories and pleasures of my childhood was spending summers at Indian Wells and Atlantic Beach. I would literally get up at 8 a.m. and ride my bicycle with my boogie-board strapped to my back to Indian Wells or Atlantic Beach (depending on what year it was) and would boogie board until 5 p.m. To this day, I still have scars on my feet from the fins digging into my ankles. Until this day, armed with my resident permit, I am able to go and park at all of the Town's beaches. It is a big part of why I enjoy living out here.

The Town Board has just approved a $25 parking permit fee, required to be paid by all tax-paying residents of the Town. It is a new fee. Being able to go to the beach for free was one of the benefits of owning property in the Town and was included in your large property tax bill.

This new $25 parking permit fee is complete and utter !%*!*$! What bothers so many about this fee is not the cost of it, but the principle of having to go and pay for a sticker when you are a resident and pay taxes to the Town. To make this fee a separate thing that "allows" me to go to the beach with my car feels un-American and should be fought tooth and nail. It costs money to run the beach, agreed, but charging $25 per resident is not the answer, and it is ridiculously clear that the Town is overestimating what it costs to run a beach. Charging money to tax-paying residents is a step completely in the wrong direction. Maybe we should charge residents to walk down the street on Main Street in East Hampton because it's in the red? Maybe the Town should set up a toll booth when entering East Hampton and charge all residents $5 every time they cross a railroad track? Perhaps charge $3 every time a resident goes to have breakfast in the $15/per minute parking lot while checking out the ocean. All of these sound just as reasonable as a $25 fee if you ask me. Seriously, are you kidding me?

I went to high school with East Hampton Town Trustee Stephanie Talmage and spent a lot of time with her growing up. The two of us shared many friends together. Stephanie is an adamant opponent of this $25 fee. I can tell you with great and serious certainty that Stephanie is one very smart cookie. She received straight As in high school, won one of the most competitive science competitions on the planet (she discovered a new molecule) and was well known throughout school for being one of the smartest kids in the class. On top of this, she is getting her PhD at Stony Brook University in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, attended Cornell as an undergrad, has her French and U.S. Coast Guard boating license and cares a lot about this town. She is not just some girl who is a Trustee because her last name is Talmage. There are few people who care as much about the environment and the Town as Stephanie. She's right on the money when it comes to this fee.

This $25 fee is only going to go up, you can bet your beach sticker on it and there are many reasons that justify not having it and many other ways to increase revenue that make sense and are fair.

Or perhaps it is time to bust out the bicycle again and the boogie-board backpack? Hopefully we won't have to buy a permit to ride a bike any time soon. Although with this new fee on the table, it wouldn't shock me.