DAN'S PAPERS, May 23, 2008 Page 64 www.danshamptons.com (continued from page 49)
south, many so close together that someone driving down the road would have difficulty catching glimpses of the ocean between one and another. There is no parking for the general public on either side of Dune Road for its entire length, from the rather imposing sign announcing you are entering the Village to the parking lot of the Cupsogue County Beach at the very end. Beyond the County Beach is the Moriches Inlet and on the other side Fire Island. If you had come here in 1960, which I did, you would have seen an entirely different scene, which is a testament to the good and the bad that Vegliante has done. In 1960, there were 360 homes on this stretch of beach, but they were not these houses, they were other houses, and they were much, much smaller. Some of them were little more than bungalows, maybe 1,000 square feet in size, little summer places owned by people in Nassau and western Suffolk County. The general public could park on the road. The general public could walk on boardwalks to the beach between some of these little houses. Everybody got along. As for the municipality governing this stretch of beach, it was simply an unincorporated stretch of the Town of Southampton. In the ’70s, the County built 17 stone jetties sticking out into the ocean in front of Westhampton Beach and some communities to the east. The intended effect was to trap millions of tons of sand in the teeth of these jetties as the sand drifted westward, and thus strengthen those beaches. Soon, it was doing that very well. And very little sand was left for the beaches in front of the summer homes just to the west. Soon, the ocean moved toward them, and it was sending waves into them. Beginning in the ’80s, one after another, these houses were abandoned, splintered and then, succumbing to the waves, carried away into the sea. Nobody lost their lives, but some people lost everything. Soon there were nearly 200 homes
washed away and the County did nothing to help them. Nor did the Town or the Federal Government. In 1990, the ocean broke through to the bay just to the west of the last of the jetties, ripping out the road, the water lines and the telephone poles. What had been a peninsula was now an uninhabitable island, with 200 underwater lots and 160 other homes uninhabitable. Of course, 200 homeowners — now underwater landowners — filed 200 different lawsuits. The lawyers said it would take ten years to get sorted out. In fact, it might NEVER get sorted out. Many people put their underwater lots up for sale for $4,000 or so. Wanna buy the Brooklyn Bridge? And then came Vegliante, a lawyer from Belle Terre who was one of these underwater landowners. Using the Southampton Town tax maps, he tracked down each and every one of these landowners, and asked them to sign a petition creating the Village of West Hampton Dunes. After that was done, he incorporated the Village, and then, on Village stationery, he, now the Mayor, wrote a letter to Washington declaring that this Village was a disaster area and needed help immediately. Of course, the Feds responded without hesitation. Within two years, the breach was healed, the road restored, the power, water and phone service restored and rebuilding begun. In the end, a virtually private compound was created with public tax money for a few lucky homeowners who now live in mini-mansions worth a million dollars or more, shoulder to shoulder and side by side. According to Lanny Lambert, Gary Vegliante is owed a great debt for what he did. But in the last few years, things have gotten lax. And he thinks it’s time for a change. “Gary makes $75,000 a year for what is essentially a part-time job,” he said. “Many of us live here year-round now. He does not. He does own a house, but he rents it out.
“He runs the Village from his law office. The residents get only a very sketchy view of how the Village tax money is spent. Recently the DEC came in and cited 17 homeowners, mostly for building too close to the dunes. These 17 had gotten variances to do this. Others tried and were turned down. If you were a friend of Gary’s, you got one, it seemed. If you were not, you didn’t. “There have been no capital improvements in the last ten years. Residents have urged that the municipal building where the police are also be used for Village records and Village meetings. He hasn’t done it. Dune Road needs repaving and he hasn’t done it. There was a promise of a walking path and he hasn’t done it. Recently, the police asked that he buy a generator for the building so they can operate when the LIPA power is out, but he hasn’t done it. And of course, the police should have the training classes they do not have. On the other hand, the Village buys him a new car and pays for other perks.” Lambert wants to improve the poor relations the Village has with the Mayors of nearby villages, Town Superintendents and the County Supervisor. (Indeed, Vegliante has been all but belligerent toward any authority other than his own. It’s how he created this very exclusive enclave.) There are only two other Villages in the Hamptons that are about the size of the Village of West Hampton Dunes and have mayors who work part time. The Quogue Mayor makes $12,000 a year. The Mayor of Sagaponack works without any salary whatsoever. Lambert has two running mates, who are running to become Village Trustees in this three-man Village government. They are Dr. Arnold Perlman, a dentist with an office in Centereach who has lived in the Village since 2001 and Jack Clancy, a 32-year New York City Police Officer who has received 14 commenda(continued on page 67)
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