Comments for The Sag Harbor Express

Comment on Sinead Fitzgibbon by Richard Smith

Richard Smith — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:47:42 +0000

I am pleased to see this story and hear about Spokes People. I didn’t know there were others out there like me. For years I’ve complained to the mayor’s office and the young police men and women who enforce the no bikes law on Main St. that, as a taxpayer, I feel discriminated against on Main St. by laws that give motorists priority over bikers for no reason other than longstanding predjudice. This needs to change. We need to get people out of their cars, off their duffs, encourage kids to ride bikes to school instead of being chauffered by their parents. I don’t see this as an issue requiring significant expense. Painting bike lanes can’t cost that much. God knows the village wastes much more money on unnecessary trifles like that ridiculous clock at one intersection, paving crosswalks with faux cobblestone, and so on. Frankly, I don’t see the need to paint a separate lane down mainstreet for bikes. Just post signs telling drivers to share the street equally with bikes. We’re only talking about a strip of street perhaps 3 blocks long. No one should be driving faster than 15 miles per hour there anyway. And people do back out of diagonal parking extremely slowly already. So why can’t bikes share the same street equally? Why need we be shunted off to some separate lane on Main St. We need that on Route 114 but on Main St.? Please sign me up for your email listserve and I will be there Jan. 23rd. Good luck!

Comment on Teachers Protest in Sag Harbor by Kristin Ferrante

Kristin Ferrante — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:48:19 +0000

The Sag Harbor School District teachers should not be getting an increase in their salaries now.
The district should look into how unorganized the programs are in the district. There is terrible waste of money internally. Teachers in the “inner circle” get whatever they want. Money is no object. Also, the district gives tenure to incompetent teachers. They support these incompetent teachers who should be let go. Now that they have tenure, there is nothing that can be done about it. Two of them are in the music department. Now TASH wants to give them more money? How ridiculous? The district protects these people too! What’s going on?

Comment on Bridge Graffiti Art Will Stay by artist

artist — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 20:13:41 +0000

i agree it will stay for long time.

Comment on Teachers Protest in Sag Harbor by Barbara Wolfram

Barbara Wolfram — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 17:53:05 +0000

NOBODY should be receiving an increase in salary at this time. There are people in our town who aren’t getting enough to eat — who can’t afford needed surgeries because they no longer HAVE a job and don’t have ANY health insurance.

Comment on Teachers Protest in Sag Harbor by Fed Up With It

Fed Up With It — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 19:06:11 +0000

The real time state of our economy should be reflected in the salaries and benefits of our teachers. Yes, they work very hard - - but so do I. And I work all 12 months of the year. My earnings are down 50% today from a year ago. I know it would be almost impossible to take back anything from any union people, but to grant ANY increases when the town and residents are living with less isn’t justifiable. Most of us in the Harbor struggle just to put food on the table and pay the mortgage.

To our wonderful teachers I say “Stop whining and be glad that you have a job and benefits that don’t fluctuate with the East End economics. It’s not that you’re any smarter than others - you just selected a profession years ago that no one thought would turn into the lucrative income machine it is today”.
Consider yourself lucky; yet I’m sure your response will be that “you feel that you deserve everything you can get”. How self serving that line of thinking is!

Comment on McGintee Says Time is Right for East Hampton Town’s First Full Assessment by CalebTutwiler

CalebTutwiler — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 19:05:05 +0000

I guess Wild Bill McGintee need not worry about “political fall out.” He has about as much chance at being re-elected (if he even chooses to run again) as Blagojevich does.
And why should “funding worries” get in the way of anything? This is East Hampton Town we’re talking about. If they look hard enough, they can find money anywhere.

Comment on Teachers Protest in Sag Harbor by Proud Mom

Proud Mom — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:02:44 +0000

Why on earth are sag harbor teachers allowed to behave with gang like tactics.Wearing all black to school!!Threatning”Don’t Dismantle a Decade’s Progress in One Year”??? idont get that one.Thats THUG thats GANG thats UNION!!!PRINT THEIR SALARIES IN THE PAPER “FOIL!FOIL!” The teachers do not make that school its the students and the community Mrs kuchonnazz should know that.Im surprised I thougt students were not allowed to dress thug like,but teachers by dressing all black you bring your union into the classroom.Wrong..A great community member once told me STOP USING THE CHILDREN(during the addition days)hes right the teachers(mostly elementary)use the students and their PARENTS to fight the Money fight all the time every year!!(But you do not want the community to know the specifics)protesting in front of the school before school,Lets be honest,is a circus enviorment,before classes start,good for the entire school or just the teachers.And last,hiring Dr.Gratto without input from teachers was the Best way to start righting all those Holden Shnieder wrongs.KEEP UP THE GOOD FIGHT SAG HARBOR COMMUNITY AND TAXPAYERS.BOE REPRESENT THE TAXPAYER(NOT TEACHERS MR.TICE) p.s.if test scores decline because the teachers do not get what they want…..FIRE THEM!!!!

Comment on Teachers Protest in Sag Harbor by CalebTutwiler

CalebTutwiler — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:54:17 +0000

“…the teachers were noticeably absent.”
The only time teachers show up at any board meeting is when the board is doing something dispicable, i.e. sneaking in a “yes man” to “run” the district under the public’s nose, or when they are getting tenured, or when they have to begrudgingly deliver a powerpoint presenation.

Something has to give.
These negotiations have been a joke since day one, when both sides predicted they would be worse than the last go-around. If they both knew that, and they did, then why haven’t they gotten creative instead of letting the process drag out and turn into a stalemate.
One session with a mediator… and that’s it? Really? Then you go to “fact finding.”

Here’s the facts:
1. Our country is in a recession.
2. Sag Harbor teachers screamed for and received “parity” last time around.
3. The board is still to blame for not including the teachers in the superintendent search, thus reducing any good-faith, bargaining capital they might have once had.

Teachers, please acknowledge the fact that you’ve got it pretty good; there are a lot of people in Sag Harbor who don’t have the option to “negotiate” their salaries and who don’t have a built-in raise. Be grateful and let the public know what you’ve “given” in the “give and take” excercise you say the board refuses to be party to. Or is your list of demands exactly the same as it was back in May? Surely the students’ test scores will not suffer if you have to, God forbid, contribute to your retirement.
And board, if you truly believe you’re running a business, then acknowledge the fact that you’re not the ones working the plant and turning out your “product,” i.e. our country’s future, a.k.a. the students. That would be the teachers. They’re the workers in this scenario.
And, even in these tough economic times when pressure is sure to mount from retirees who have never had a child in your district but sure do love the view off Long Beach, you must remember the “product” is not the tax rate, but the students.
And to continue the metaphor… don’t hope for a bailout come budget time if you can’t get creative. And that means more than “shared spending” (”Look at us. We’re buying computer paper in bulk. We’re sooooo creative.) or purchasing a 12-seater van to appease a parent who’s angry because their child is five-minutes late to Stella Maris every morning. I have a feeling the voters in Sag Harbor will be a little stingier with their money than our federal government.

Comment on Businesses See “Green” Opportunities by Jim Costello

Jim Costello — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:11:31 +0000

Bryan, another great solution for the number of flat roofs in Sag Harbor would be green roofs. Green roofs would cohabitate nicely with a solar set up nice would provide the community and building owner with some great energy savings as well tremendous environmental benefits. The product we grow and supply from our wholesale nursery in Lebanon, CT is the newest modular system on the market today. It is grown in a 1′ x 2′ module at Prides Corner Farms and shipped to the roof pre-grown and ready to start working immediately after installation. There are not many better ways to show ‘green’ than by greening your rooftops!

I found you article interesting and just wanted to give another option for those flat roofs.

Happy New Year,

Jim Costello

Comment on The Freedom Trail: Memoir recalls a movement by Elizabeth Laytin

Elizabeth Laytin — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 03:33:01 +0000

I met Bob at a party tonight and he is a fascinating guy. Can’t wait to read the book. It’s wonderful to find out how people of conscience stood up for what they believed in.