Today is annual Election Day at Westhampton Beach but there is no notice of this on WHB’s website or on its calendar.

Lots of other events are listed but not the election. It’s as though officials were not really interested in encouraging the most votes possible.

Key issues on the line include whether WHB will agree to demands by Verizon and the East End Eruv Assn. that it permanently agree not to oppose a Jewish religious boundary called an eruv; whether trustees should have lifetime medical benefits after ten years of service, and whether $15-$25 million should be spent on a sewer for Main st. in WHB.

Trustee Hank Tucker, who has served eight years, will get lifetime health benefits if he is elected to another two-year term today.

He and trustee Patricia DiBenedetto are being opposed by local businesspeople Rob Rubio of Rubio Premier Motors and Brian Tymann of BGT Consulting and the Hampton Cigar Co.

Rubio and Tymann, noting that hospital and medical insurance costs are budgeted at $1.22 million of a $9.8M budget, are against lifetime benefits after ten years.

Said Tymann: “If all five trustees took medical benefits, the packages would total $150,000. We would eliminate $100,000 of that and adjust salaries to total $100,000 among the five trustees.”

He sees a net savings of $50,000 a year.

Tymann/Rubio Back Sewer

Tymann and Rubio are backing a new sewer to serve Main st., saying it would help bring back major restaurants and other businesses. New businesses are not now allowed to open because of inadequate sewer capability.

However, former Mayor Conrad Teller, who lost his post last year to Marie Moore, said Main st. was a hotbed of activity in the 1960s and 70’s because WHB allowed “group rentals.”

Among businesses on Main st. was Club Marakesh, which was called the “hottest” night spot in the Hamptons. It featured nightly entertainment including a 10-piece orchestra on Thursday nights.

Teller said the singles took up many of the parking spaces and caused “noise, crime and many arrests.” Strict laws against unrelated people renting houses chased the singles to other places in the Hamptons and the Jersey shore.

He doubts that residents would allow a return of “groupie” houses. Nearly a dozen WHB restaurants and nightclubs closed when the singles left.

Teller feels that New York State and other local governments should share in the cost of a sewer system. He had won election in 2008 on a platform that opposed the system.

WHB Comments on Lack of Election Notice

Rosey Towers, Moore’s secretary, said WHB has never posted election information on its website and neither do other villages.

Such details are in the Western Edition of The Southampton Press, she noted.

Asked if we could visit with Mayor Moore, she said there is no time for dealing with reporters today because of the election.

Tomlinson Eruv Conference Is Published

The 6,000-word transcript of the conference Feb. 24 hosted by Judge Kathleen Tomlinson was posted on the District Court website June 16. Up until now, it has only been available for public inspection via a PDF of the transcript that was obtained by this website by hand-copying it.

Moore told a recent meeting of the trustees that more documents related to the eruv dispute would be put on WHB’s website. However, the site today shows the last entry to be Dec. 22, 2014.