Dan's Papers - March 7, 2008 -

Last week, LIPA trustees voted unanimously to proceed with their plan to put in a nine-mile transmission line route including four miles of large aboveground poles, at a meeting held at their headquarters in Uniondale. This above ground stretch goes from David White's Lane through Lower Seven Ponds Road, Head of Pond Road and ends at Scuttlehole Road. The vote was on LIPA's final environmental impact statement on the transmission power line route from Southampton to Bridgehampton.

The LIPA Trustees voted to accept this proposed route, and scheduled to start construction by the end of March, with bids going out immediately. But LIPA President Kevin Law gave his personal commitment to also bid out a 100% underground system.

The vote followed a public hearing, which was held for about 120 East End residents who attended. They traveled on two Hampton Jitney buses that were chartered by the Committee for a Green South Fork and sponsored by both Corcoran and Prudential.

At the meeting, prior to the vote, both Southampton Councilman Chris Nuzzi and Councilwoman Anna Throne-Holst objected to the aboveground power lines and poles, and asked that they be buried. In addition, a letter from NYS Assemblyman Fred Thiele of Sag Harbor was read, stating that the only acceptable way to do this project is 100% underground, in order to maintain the character of the area. All the Southampton villages and hamlets had also voted to have the lines buried.

Steve Abramson, co-chairman of the Water Mill Citizens Advisory Committee and Committee for a Green South Fork, said later that his committees urged LIPA officials to hold off and give the Town of Southampton a chance to work out the indemnification issue. That involves LIPA getting protection in the event that homeowners refuse to pay a proposed surcharge of $44 a year, based on average consumption, if LIPA puts through a capital improvement program.

Matthew Cacace, 24, of Ridge, was sentenced to 4-12 years in prison on February 28 for killing Thomas Heftler, a Southampton lawyer, in a hit and run accident that took place last June.

Heftler, a prominent partner in the Southampton law firm, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan Llp, and a Southampton Village resident, was riding his bicycle at 6 a.m. on the eastbound shoulder of Montauk Highway last June, when Cacace's work van crossed the double yellow line and hit him. Heftler died from the impact, according to police.

Last month, Cacace pled guilty to second-degree manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, and driving while intoxicated. He admitted that the night before the alleged accident, he was drinking at a beach party in Mastic Beach.