DAN'S PAPERS, April 2, 2010 Page 20 www.danshamptons.com
Law Hijinks
(continued from page 17)
go out to Jobs Lane in Southampton, sit on the sidewalk and panhandle for money with a sign and a cup. After dark, he was told to curl up and go to sleep there. The next day, the reporter would write up what happened and that would be the story. There were laws against panhandling in the city. Southampton at that time did not have either a panhandling law or sleep overnight on the street law. A cop approached, told the reporter to move along, and when the reporter didn’t, the cop threatened to arrest him for resisting an officer. You just don’t panhandle on Jobs Lane. The reporter got up and left. In the 1980s, a new mayor in that community sent his highway department people down to Cooper’s Beach during the night to build an outdoor restaurant café onto the side of the ©Ronald J. Krowne Photography 2008
the courts give the villages far more latitude in what to do than they give the federal government, the state, the county or even the towns. I think it’s just more nit-picky down on the village level, and the courts just let the mayors skirt the law and on occasion even win in court when they shouldn’t just because they don’t want to have to deal with it all and they think different villages have different personalities so just leave them be. I can recall several occasions, particularly in Southampton, where things went on that should not have, but the mayors were forgiven because it was in the community’s “best interest” which was sometimes good, sometimes bad. For example, years ago, a reporter from a New York City newspaper got an assignment to
Beautiful Custom Drapery!
Check us Out on:
WWW .FLICKR .COM /PHOTOS / WINDOWSANDWALLSUNLIMITED
Call Linda & Paul • 631-287-1515
375 County Road 39, Southampton • www.wwunlimited.com
Sat. April 24th • 12-4pm View w Ourr Beautifull New w Showroom @ 1074 Pulaski St. in Riverhead Meett Topp Weddingg andd Eventt Professionals Complimentary Food, Wine Beverages and a DJ for Your Entertainment
Do you want to get engaged? Are you willing you do it at our grand opening?
E- mail us why we should pick you to receive a 50% off wedding pkg.
americanevent@gmail.com m or visitt americaneventco.com
submission deadline April 16th! featuring American Event Company, Martha Clara Vineyards, Christopher Michael Catering, LRT Event & Floral Design, Mark Kopko Photography, Make Some Noise DJ, Robert James Salon & Day Spa, East End Limousine, Sugar Sugar.
PERFECTING THE Art OF EVENTS
on n the e Eastt End d off Long g Island
and the Hamptons
Complete Rentals For Weddings, Parties and Special Events 1074 Pulaski Street Riverhead, NY 11901
631.369.1080
1196272
1196074
SEE SOME PICTURES OF OUR BEAUTIFUL WORK ON:
Spring Specials
Gift Certificates Available
Angel Tips Nail Spa
631-537-0100
Bridgehampton Commons, 2102 Montauk Hwy. Bridgehampton NY (Next Door To T.J. Maxx)
Manicure & Pedicure $35 Mon - Wed
ANGEL’S RELAXER
Super Spa Manicure + Pedicure + 15 min. Massage
$75
BE A KING OR A QUEEN FOR A DAY
Super Pedicure with a 30 min. Ref lexolo gy & 1 hour Facial
$155 * Not to be Combined
Walk-Ins
1316558
Grand OpeningParty
ATING CELEBR RS! 2 5 YEA
Cooper’s Beach pavilion. No building permit was issued. No nothing. Because he knew if he asked the Village Board during the day they would vote that he not do that. It’s still there. In the late 1990s, a Mayor of Southampton sent his ordinance official down to a private residence in the Village each day to write an expensive summons for that resident because he had goats. There’s no law against goats. But the Mayor’s father lived next door to the goats. And they smelled. There’s no anti-smell ordinance either. I got involved with this because the resident with the goats complained to Dan’s Papers saying that the house he lived in had originally been the farmhouse to a farm, now out of business with the farmland sold off into other residences. He was allowed goats. Others also got involved, including an attorney but, in spite of complaints filed in Albany with a state board that oversaw mayors, nothing came of it. That is where it was learned that mayors are allowed wide latitude. They can run things almost like kingdoms because of local opinion. The citizen packed up and left because of this harassment. Then there was the matter of what now is the East Hampton Golf Club in Amagansett. In the late 1970s, a man in the construction business named Bistrian owned 60 acres of woods in that community and decided he’d like to build a golf course there. On occasional weekends, he’d bring his bulldozers and construction men over there and in a few years time had cleared fairways for the full 18 holes. There were no laws then about clearing land, but there were some passed soon after he finished this, largely as a result of environmentalists complaining about the activities going on there. The Town then stopped further land clearing on the property, then went a step further and said that the land had been cleared for the creation of a golf course, but Bistrian had no building permit to construct a golf course. For the next 15 years, construction was at a standstill on the property. The fairways became overgrown. It was a real eyesore. Again and again Bistrian was defeated in court when he tried to get permission to build a clubhouse and caddy shop and complete the project. But then, a very bright lawyer named Bill Esseks from Riverhead read the rules more carefully and told Bistrian to just re-grass his fairways, put in greens and start playing golf. There were no laws against mowing your lawn. As for the clubhouse? He suggested they just pull in a trailer on wheels and use that. A trailer on wheels is considered a motor vehicle. Get it registered. Bistrian did that, the course opened, it was oversubscribed with golfers and it went into business. Five years later, the Town caved in and gave them permission to build an actual clubhouse building. The trailer was just such an eyesore that people were complaining about THAT. As our President said, a majority of the members in both houses of Congress have voted, after all sorts of hocus pocus, in favor of a bill to make a new health care law. His job was to just sign it to make it official, and he did. Interesting how things work, no?