The first regular meeting of the Westhampton Beach board is Thursday at 7 p.m. but it’s competing with a 25-piece "Swingtime" band that will perform on the Village green at 7:30 p.m.
The board of trustees will probably take up the June 30 decision by the Suffolk Supreme Court that said Southampton’s ban on lechi Jewish symbols was improper.
WHB was mentioned in the decision of Justice Joseph Farneti that the markers proposed for 15 utility poles in SH would not be "signs" because they would not be "visible" to passing motorists or others.
The decision was called "outrageous" in a letter to the July 30 Southampton Press by Arnold Sheiffer, chairman of Jewish People for the Betterment of Westhampton Beach."
The SH Press editorially supported the decision of Farneti, also calling the lechis "invisible."
Sheiffer attacked such reasoning by pointing out the eruv boundaries are highly visible on the websites of synagogues.
WHB employees were asked why the Trustees did not re-schedule the meeting to tonight or Friday night so that citizens could attend both said there was no chance of that because schedules had already been set.
This conflict could easily have been avoided since it has been long known that the "Swingtime Big Band" was going to perform on the same night as the first regular meeting of the Trustees. Longtime WHB residents said the conflict has been apparent and has been tolerated and perhaps even planned for many years. A change is in order, they say.
WHB policy has been to minimize citizen awareness and knowledge of the eruv controversy. WHB today posted the agenda for the Thursday meeting showing 16 items. None of them involve discussion of the eruv situation although WHB was mentioned in the latest court ruling which was given June 30. Residents say they will ask Mayor Moore and the other trustees about the status of all legal actions involving the eruv and WHB. Residents say that the majority of WHB citizens are opposed to any religious symbols on public property, as evidenced by the election June 19 of Rob Rubio and Brian Tymann, who said they were opposed to religious symbols on public property. Residents wonder why the Moore Administration is not joining Southampton and Quogue in opposing lechi signs on public property since WHB has a law restricting such uses.
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Trustees are Ron Rubio, Charles Palmer, Mayor Marie Moore, Ralph Urban and Brian Tymann. Anthony Pasca is counsel.
The last item on the WHB website under the heading "Eruv Litigation" was Dec. 22, 2014 until earlier this week when links were put up to court decisions Jan. 6, 2015 and June 30, 2015. Links to numerous other eruv documents should be on the WHB website including the 6,000-word conference with Justice Kathleen Tomlinson Feb. 26, 2015.
Big Swingtime Band listed more than 15 performance dates this summer including Port Washington, Brooklyn, Glen Cove, Long Beach, Greenport, Manhasset, Manhattan, Freeport, and Rocky Point. It will appear Aug. 9 in West Hempstead.
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