STAR Pool Push Continues, With Major Donor Named

Their identity kept secret since their initial pledge, the family that offered a $5 million matching grant to Southampton Town Aquatics and Recreation, the organization looking to build a public pool facility in Southampton, was revealed during a “Breakfast for Champions” event in Southampton on Friday, June 24.

Family representative Maureen Sherry-Klinsky took the podium at the Dormition of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church of the Hamptons community room, recalling “magical” childhood trips camping in Montauk.

On the way home upstate, her father would detour into Southampton and drive through the estate section. “He’d always say, ‘Who are the people who get to live here?’” she related.

“Now we are those lucky people, and I believe it is our duty as part of that to make what is an amazing town and place even stronger,” she said.

She and her husband, Steven, founder of the investment firm New Mountain Capital, try to get behind causes that bring community together, and “this checks all the boxes,” she said.

With the gift, the aqua center is destined to be named after the Klinsky family.

The event last week introduced the benefactors and sought additional donors to help build the center, estimated to cost approximately $20 million.

Pledge cards distributed to the 150 or so attendees looked for pledges starting at “Sea Star” level — $1,000 per year for three years. STAR board member Jimmy Mack quipped that there’s no “Mermaid Level” listed; a community activist and volunteer, he traditionally dons a mermaid costume during the annual Heart of the Hamptons Polar Bear Plunge.

“This mermaid needs a pool,” he declared.

Spurred by the drowning of local students back in the 1980s, Dr. Josephine DeVincenzi, a one-time area school administrator, began the push for a public pool. Interviewed in 2020, she spoke of losing about a dozen students during her tenure as principal of Southampton High School.

STAR was formed in 1989, and in 1998, a referendum for a pool at then-Southampton College failed. The project sat idle for close to a decade.

Back in 2018, the Town Board voted to dedicate land at Red Creek Park in Hampton Bays for the construction of a community pool facility. At the time, organizers envisioned a 43,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility that would include a 25-meter competition pool, a second recreational pool with elements of a water park, and a warm water physical therapy pool.

Two years ago, however, STAR pivoted and proposed a scaled-down center, with two pools and fitness areas in a 26,000-square-feet facility on a Magee Street property, located about 100 yards off County Road 39. The organization had earlier approached Southampton Village officials looking for a suitable site, and asked the Town Board to hold the Red Creek agreement in abeyance.

The move to Magee Street, to property that was once home to an Independent Group Home Living day school, received the green light from the Town Board, and the proposal went before the Town Planning Board just about a year ago. It’s still under site plan analysis by planners.

The 7-acre parcel at 344 Magee Street would be home to a facility with two indoor pools — one competitive and other multi-use — as well as a fitness room with community and flex space.

So far, DeVincenzi said Friday, pledges are approaching the $6 million mark, with the $5 million from the Klimsky family, plus another million in hand. The original $1 million donor, who asked to remain anonymous, offered another five-figure gift this year, and STAR is in conversation with a number of potential seven-figure donors, she said.

The Klinsky donation is a “challenge gift,” DeVincenzi explained. “So we’re looking to get someone else of that ilk to match it.”

She added, “It’s not a question of whether, it’s a question of when.”

Also speaking during the breakfast last week was longtime Southampton Town Chief Lifeguard Sean Crowley. He talked about of the need to take action to prevent drowning. Building a public pool is a preventative action that will resonate for years, he said.

Andrea Dozier Nartey, the executive director of the Southampton Youth Association, spoke of her late father’s commitment to building a public pool. The Reverend Dr. Marvin Dozier, who died in 2018, was an advocate for children, she said, adding, “While he is not here, the work still continues.”

The racial and economic gap between who wades in the shallow end of a pool and who jumps off the diving board must be closed, she said.

“A community that says ‘Nobody Drowns” is one I want to be part of,” Dozier Nartey said.