Historic Life-Saving Station Use Is Still a Question for Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee

The future of the former US Coast Guard Life-Saving Station is still very much on the minds of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee.

Sheila Okin, a member of ACAC, reported at its meeting on Monday at the  that she had made some recommendations, on the committees behalf to the East Hampton Town Board on Nov. 18. Several groups had been vying for use of the Life-Saving Station. 

The suggestion included that the site needs to managed by the East Hampton Historical Society as it already has the not-for-profit status, the ability and track record for fund-raising. Everyone on the committee who spoke about the future of the station supported the historical society managing the site. 

East Hampton Town Councilman, Dominick Stanzione who also serves as a liaison to ACAC said of other groups who have expressed an interest in controlling the site, "I think that they have an opportunity to use the building but not necessarily manage it."

Okin said that Isabel Carmichael whose family bought the building after World War II and owned it until 2007 when it was donated to the town, "strongly favors" the society being the overseer. Last year, the society had leased the building, which was moved in recent years back to its original location near Atlantic Beach, but it did not renew the lease this year in the midst of the debacle.   

She told them the plans should include a permanent museum, which would acknowledge the historic World War II event where four German saboteurs, detached from a Nazi U-boat were spotted on the beach next to the station. In her address she also called for an investigation into securing landmark status for the site.

Referring to one suggestion earlier this year that the Life-Saving Station be used as a café, she had told the board the committee thought commercial uses of the building should be prohibited. 

Stanzione also spoke to the committee about the "Open Vista" project, an effort to clear water views that are now obstructed by certain reeds and shrubs that Stanzione called invasive species. Stanzione said that he has been working alongside Larry Penny who is the Environmental Protection Director in the East Hampton Town Natural Resources Department.

Penny has advanced the project by identifying and cataloguing the invasive species Stanzione said. He said that they have identified about 30 properties, primarily along Bluff Road and Fresh Pond.

However, clearing some of the properties may be quite a substantial process because of the necessary involvement of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Stanzione said, "most are town owned, some are owned in conjunction with the county. Some are town, county and state owned are require a DEC permit in order to clear."