Letters

Serious omissions and a lack of context undermined your article on the trustees’ meeting January 9 [“Southampton Village Board Looks at Options for Mitigating Cut-Through Traffic on Somerset Avenue After Accident There,” 27east.com, January 14].

Some examples: Your reporter lumped everyone who spoke against a new “one-way north” Somerset Avenue proposal as just the same group as last time, saying the same thing. We said a lot more. We spoke of the history of an “all-or-nothing” Somerset approach, the lack of transparency, the need to enforce the “no-right-turn rules,” the dozens of safety measures that would make Somerset safer, the fact that this accident could have happened anywhere (dark night, dark clothes, straight part of Somerset). No one was quoted.

Chief Suzanne Hurteau was quoted extensively. The reporter omitted the fact that, two years earlier, Hurteau erected an emergency “temporary” barricade for almost a year on Somerset (in the absence of any pedestrian accident) that was ultimately found to be unfair, if not illegal. The barricade was based on a then five-year-old police report of a truck overturned during the day, without casualties. This report was never made public but was the basis of the “emergency.” This was a shocking breach of public trust, and here it is again resurrected in the form of a hybrid one-way blocking traffic heading south on Somerset Avenue toward Hill Street.

Hurteau is again advocating a traffic fix only for Somerset, one that may make her staffing job easier but will make life harder for all who live on adjacent streets. At its core, closure, not enforcement, is her answer. A new traffic engineer was hired to back her up. Is this a conflict of interest?

The required “no right turn” rules were not enforced the day of the Somerset accident. Hurteau is on record admitting this. She cited a lack of officers and funds. If the village cannot afford to pay three police officers to write tickets for “no-right-turn” violations at these critical traffic arteries, as required by law, then perhaps that is the starting point for fixing this problem, at least until cameras can take over?

The article failed to mention that the accident report hasn’t been released, the accident reconstruction isn’t complete, many residents aren’t here this time of year, but nonetheless it appears a taxpayer-paid “privatization” of Somerset is imminent. What about transparency?

The consultant, Ryan Winter of VHB, said his plans, “would not have a substantial impact on Bishops or Corrigan.” Huh? Your article failed to report that his uninformed opinion was not substantiated by any data.

We heard lots of numbers for Somerset, tickets issued and traffic incidents, but none for Bishops and Corrigan. Also missing was the total number of pedestrian accidents on Somerset: one.

Amanda Grove Holmen

Southampton