Peter's Pond Lane is virtually impassible.  And residents are mad. It is the access road to Peter's Pond Beach, predominately a mellow, local beach. No share house crowds like Sagg Main; just people enjoying the beach.  You currently need a 4-wheel drive to pass, and for most of the summer, there has been no access at all. This road is controlled by the Southampton Trustees—an elected board charged, under the Dongan Patent, with protecting our waters and maintaining access for all. It appears that the Trustees are so busy protecting the 'picnic area' in Southampton that they couldn't be bothered with Peter's Pond Beach.

Every winter the road floods...thus Peter's Pond. There is generally some repair, such as fill-in sand, before the summer season. Unfortunately there appears to have been no attempt to fix the road this year and the damage is worse than usual. There are two large craters, which would benefit greatly from just a truckload of dirt. We understand that the Trustees have limited budgets, but this is deeply unfortunate to residents who can't get to the local beach. We are all familiar with the lengthy lines that prevent us from entering Sagg Main Beach.

We inquired with the Town Trustees office about repairs. Little information is available, but the office did say that they are currently getting bids for repair—that probably means we are out of luck for this summer. Why can't they just dump dirt to make the road passable for now? The office did not have information about the rumors that much of the damage was inflicted by a unnamed local construction company.  If this is true, why have the Trustees not forced them to make amends immediately. We we do know that there are two property owners on the east side of the street who have been engaged in legal wrangling. A fence has gone up. Between the fence and the craters, residents are all but prevented from accessing the beach.  Call the Trustees office and ask them to fix the problems 287-5717.

Parking at Peter's Pond has been in jeopardy in the past. Two years ago, at the beginning of the summer,  'No Parking' signs mysteriously appeared that prevented parking on the top third of the street. There was not enough parking and the police ticketed. No one in town government, not even the Trustees seemed to care. Councilwoman Linda Kabot saved the day. Kabot, who was revamping beach parking throughout the town, listened to the logic and restored the parking. There had been no reason to eliminate the parking.  It seems that a nearby homeowner had protested parking near their home and somehow, without anyone knowing it, got parking eliminated on a significant portion of the street. It is scary that the signs could have gotten changed so quietly, without anyone knowing about it. A third of the parking was lost that entire summer. And many of us received tickets.