Dan's Papers - June 20, 2008 - Skimhampton Scandal

Authorities are looking into complaints filed by some residents of Skimhampton Road in East Hampton about the meandering white line that was recently painted down the center of that road.

"It's a disgrace to the neighborhood," said one resident who asked that we not use his name.

"I think it is a dangerous line," said Priscilla Ann Harrisburg of 32 Skimhampton Road. "The road is straight here. We used to have a straight line. Now it is just all over the place. Does the town have insurance to cover what might happen if someone were to get hurt because of this disgraceful white line?"

"It is lowering property values," said Frank Hartwig of 47 Skimhampton Road. "I have my house up for sale. Before this new line was painted, I had lots of people in to have a look. Since the line was painted, which was last Thursday, there hasn't been anybody. They make the turn off Montauk Highway, then they turn around and drive away."

There is little doubt that this white line was painted wrong. There are parts of it that come within 12 feet of the south side of the road, and other parts of it that come within 11 feet of the north side.

A few residents of the street wonder if whoever painted it was perhaps physically impaired at the time he or she did the painting.

But one older resident said they were all a bunch of babies, and he remembered the time when all the roads in the Hamptons were painted like this, and nobody complained. He, too, asked not to be identified. "The local guys would be given a six-pack of beer, a bucket of paint and a brush, and told to just get the job done before sundown. That's the way we did things back then, with good old American labor, which, by the way, there doesn't seem to be much of these days."

This reporter spent an afternoon on the one-and-a half-block-long Skimhampton Road, and did get a chance to talk to several kids in the neighborhood who, at one point, came out to play stickball on the street.

Billy Collins, age 12, said he remembered the two guys who were on the street on last Thursday doing the painting. One of them was fat, he remembered, and the other one had a shaved head and a moustache. They had a pickup truck that was covered with paint, and it had ladders on the back.

A call was put in to Supervisor Bill McGintee about the controversy, which he did not return. His assistant, however, did return our third call and said that the Supervisor was out that day and would not be in until tomorrow, but the reporter would be free to call Highway Superintendent Barnstable, and talk to him about the matter.

Barnstable was out when we called, however, according to the person at the highway barn who said he was out with a crew painting more lines. But the person who answered the phone did say that Superintendent Barnstable was neither fat nor bald with a moustache.

"He wears horn-rimmed glasses," the man said.

Several cars coming down the street slowed as they reached a particular spot where the narrowness of the lane was at its most extreme going eastbound. One car coming eastbound veered over the line at that point for a moment, but the driver, a blond woman, was on her cell phone, and that might have been the reason.

The kids playing stickball said that even though there was now this wiggly line, they didn't see much difference in the speed of the cars coming down the street compared to before. They still had to stop the game temporarily and stand by the side of the road when a car came. One boy said that with the road being straight and all, it was pretty easy to see the cars coming, and it was certainly easier for the cars to see them. It would be a lot different if Skimhampton Road had a curve in it, and they were glad that it didn't. They weren't too worried about the line.

The older man we interviewed before was still around, watching the stickball game, and he now said that he thought the new equipment that is used to paint lines down the center of the street, which automatically measures the distance between the two sides and keeps the lines perfectly straight, is a crime against nature.

"This kind of automation is totally unnecessary and an insult to humans. Also, the paint goes on so thick you can trip over it," he said. "People walk along and they stumble and fall. It's a crime. And it's a waste of money."

Late in the day the Superintendent of the Highway Department called back to say that the town does use the new modern equipment and is proud of the straight lines they put down on the roads. He said that not long ago these machines, which attach to the backs of trucks, were only affordable to the state and county people, but that in more recent times, the prices had come down. He also said he would look into who was on duty to paint that errant line last Thursday, which, because they have the new equipment, puzzled him, and he said he would call back. And he did call back, just before 4 p.m., which is the end of the highway department's work day - because the sun gets low on the horizon after that, and if the work day continued after 4 p.m. with the sun blinding the motorists, it could be a danger to the highway department workers - and said that last Thursday, there were indeed two men who had been assigned to paint Skimhampton Road. He also said that on that day, the line-painting machine was out of service, and they were waiting for a part, and so the decision had to be made to either go ahead and paint the street the old-fashioned way, or wait for another day. The Assistant Highway Department Supervisor Ben Harris had therefore made the decision, considering that rain was expected for the following two days, the old line was all worn out, and they would have to move on to Further Lane as their next project, that the work should proceed by hand.

Mr. Harris, the Supervisor said, had been suspended with pay because of the debacle painting this line, and would have to appear before a hearing judge next week to determine what to do. Apparently, Mr. Harris had not been able to find one of the old timers who could have painted the line fine and proper, and instead had two of the younger fellows who had never done this before do it.

"I don't intend to give you the names of the two men who did this. They did the best they could under the circumstances. I am responsible for this. The buck stops here. The buck doesn't stop with Willie Hartzman and, oops."

As we go to press, we have learned that a group of Skimhampton Road residents have created a group called FIX SKIMHAMPTON NOW, and has plans to file a lawsuit against the town.

"We have been told by the authorities that the white line will be fixed the next time it is scheduled to be painted, which is expected to be in five years," said Audrey Gladstone of 55 Skimhampton Road. "This is plainly unacceptable. It is also unacceptable when they tell us that the paint cannot be taken off, that it is a special roadbed paint that cannot be taken off, only worn off, and so there is nothing they can do. We have been told on good authority that this paint CAN be taken off, by men in Hazmat suits using a special arsenic, sulphuric acid and powdered asbestos product that is readily available and can be mixed with hot water and blown down onto the road with a water cannon. It can be done. It must be done. We cannot be expected to live like this. We expect action. Or we will see this town in court."