The Road to Highway Supe Paved with Money, Leaves and More

The race for Superintendent has been somewhat overshadowed by of harassment and discrimination made against the current superintendent Scott King.

It's a stark difference to when King and , the Republican and Independence candidate who wants to unseat the two term incumbent, ran against each other for the position more than four years ago; Lynch lost by 236 votes, he said. They've also known each other for a good part of their lives, having grown up in the same East Hampton Village neighborhood.

The owner of an excavating business for 28 years, Lynch comes from a family of contractors that goes back 100 years and calls the highway superintendent position "the perfect job" for him.

Of the allegations, Lynch said "Really it has nothing to do with me." He simply promises respect and to give the workers recognition to encourage them.

King has maintained his innocence against accusations. "Judge me on what I've done," he said. "I've run this department in the biggest fiscal fiasco this town has ever seen," he said. "I've returned $1 million in surplus with a 30 percent reduction in the workforce and bought equipment to boot and held other things together with bubblegum and duct tape."

ROADS

Lynch thinks King "should be blacktopping with that money" instead. "In this economy, people understand the cost of being a penny late and a dollar short," he said.

He contends that the majority of the 310 miles of town-owned roads are need of repair. "You don't have to take my word for it, go look at the roads. They are full of cracks from water damage, that's how pot holes start."

King said he has made good use of Micropave, which he said if used correctly is a great tool. "If you catch a road when it's in its life span of 12 to 15 years, just when its showing signs of ware, if you Micropave it then, you can extend the life of the pavement up to six years," he aid. "What you're doing is you're buying yourself an insurance policy."

He also said he saved the taxpayers money on repairing the salt barn, which Lynch has brought up as having gone into disrepair, at the East Hampton location in-house. "We pulled out the wall in East Hampton and it didn't cost me anything other than labor," he said. "These are the things I do, which in my estimation are clever."

More long term repairs for the salt barns are in his three year projections from the 2010 budget cycle, King said.

King also touts that he has fostered a good working relationship without ouside agencies, like the Suffolk County Department of Public Works and the Suffolk County Water Authority. His department supplied the man-power to repair the rock revetment at Gosman's parking lot after the Nor'easter last winter. He said he pushed to have drainage installed at various locations and for both shoulders to be .

LEAF PICK-UP

When it comes to contentious topic of the leaf pick-up program that the town board abolished in 2010, Lynch would like to see a referendum take place and leave it up to the voters to decide, instead of the town board, while King said he saved everyone's right to a choice.

He said he refused to sell equipment necessary for leaf pick-up, because he said the town would never be able to afford to buy them again.

"I am for leaf pick-up, I just think there's a more efficient way," King said, adding that he has always been a proponent for bagging leaves for pick up.

MORE IDEAS FOR THE FUTURE

If re-elected, King said he would like to have a truck route established to take pressure off certain residential roads. He would also like to contract with the state to do pothole repair on state roads in East Hampton. "I already have a snow and ice control agreement with them," King said.

Lynch would like to institute an equipment buying schedule so that trucks aren't falling apart, he said.