County Tries To Sell Beach They Don't Own
The County of Suffolk is about to sell Long Wharf and the adjacent beach to the Village of Sag Harbor. You might have thought these Village treasures already belonged to the Village, and from the beginning of time through to the Great Depression, they did. At that time, the Village ran out of money and could not continue to afford to keep it repaired. So they sold the properties to the County. The County had the money.
Now it’s the County that is in financial trouble. The Village says it will take the properties back. Last week the County voted 17 to 1 to approve the sale of Windmill Beach and the land where the windmill sits.
And so the bureaucrats are combing the records in both the county and the village to make the sale of Long Wharf happen. Guess what? In 1982, the County sold the beach back to the village for $4,000. The deed was transferred. Sag Harbor owns it. How many times can the County sell it? What a surprise.
A lot has gone on down at the beach since 1982. Any tickets or violations issued at the beach by the County should be immediately voided and the money returned to the transgressor.
Also, armed with this new information, the Village should demand that the price of the sale be halved. Beaches are as valuable as wharves. The sale price for both is agreed at $1. The Village shouldn’t pay a dime over than 50 cents.