DAN'S PAPERS, April 25, 2008 Page 19 www.danshamptons.com
Two Summers Future Vacationing in the Hamptons Will Be in the Spring & Fall By Dan Rattiner I am sitting on the beach this afternoon in the middle of April and it is a summer’s day. The temperature is almost 70, the surfers are out and the birds are circling happily overhead. This has been going on for a week, and Friday it is expected to be 80. This sort of thing has happened before, but never like this. It’s been 50 degrees in April, Dan Rattiner is the founder of Dan’s Papers. His memoir, In the Hamptons: Fifty Years With Farmers, Fishermen, Artists, Billionaires and Celebrities will be published by Harmony Books this May.
which is fine, and on a particular day it has shot up to 70 or 80 but it’s always been one day and it’s always gone back down to normal the next day. So much for normal. The nice thing about a week in April in the Hamptons at 70 degrees is that the authorities haven’t really picked up on where this is all going. There are no beach stickers required. There are no restrictions on dogs on the beach or cars on the beach. There are no lifeguards or beach boys either. It’s April, after all. Well, yes it is and no it isn’t. I foresee a day in the not too distant future when the “season” in the Hamptons will actually be two seasons. The first will happen from
April 15 to June 15. People will come out to go swimming, golfing and sailing during these months. And then they will come out again between September 15 and December 15 for more of the same. As for the summertime, we will all be indoors with the air conditioning on. It will be too hot to go out for any length of time. It will be like Arizona or Florida in the summer. The only time spent outdoors is between the house and the air-conditioned car and then back the other way. Nobody goes to those places in those months. There is a precedent for this. And it is called Bermuda. This island, which is 600 miles off (continued on the next page)
THREATS TO CLOSE POPULAR MONTAUK BEACH By T.J. Clemente As it stands now, according to Mac Waters, Bureau Marine Resources Supervisor of the Suffolk County Department of Health, Nick’s Beach in Montauk is in violation of New York State Sanitary Code sub part 6.2 pertaining to “bathing beaches and bathrooms” and will not be issued a permit to operate this summer unless an acceptable plan for permanent bathrooms is approved before June 1. Waters, who approves all 138 County beach permits, personally sent a “heads up” letter to East Hampton Town officials a few weeks ago. He has had no official response.
The problem is centered on the DEC’s rejection of the Town’s plan to build permanent bathrooms in a “coastal erosion zone.” The state law mandates permanent bathrooms with running water for hand washing to be located at least 500 feet from the edge of the swimming zone. After the first warning in 2003, the Town put in portable toilets without running water. Waters has deemed that solution no longer acceptable due to the “disgusting nature in which the toilets were maintained.” He said the Town of East Hampton has had five years to do something, but has done nothing.
At present, the nearest permanent public bathroom to Nick’s Beach is 2,400-square-feet away from the swimming area — a distance state code and Waters deem unacceptable and intolerable enough to deny a permit to one of Montauk’s most popular ocean beaches, located at the intersection of South Edison Street and South Edison Avenue. Waters explained that all Town-sponsored beaches must have a permit issued by his office within the Suffolk County Health Department. At the moment, only Nick’s Beach was at risk for not getting a permit due to violation of the bathroom code. (continued on page 33)