Southampton Gadflies Absolutely Giddy Over Online Complaint Registry

Local gadflies and rabblerousers couldn’t be happier about Southampton Town’s newly announced online complaint registry. Officially known as Southampton Online Solutions, or SOS, the new application (according to a 27east.com report) allows area residents to use their cellphone or computer to lodge complaints digitally about all sorts of quality of life issues, including downed trees, overcrowded homes, excessive noise and the like.

“I’m absolutely chuffed about this wonderful new app,” one outspoken year round resident, Miggy Jones, said over the weekend. “It’s quite obvious to me the Town has deliberately lost some of my complaints and suggestions over the years, and this new system will ensure that I’m heard—whether it’s my call for affordable apartments in the newly renovated Sag Harbor Library [Editor’s Note: This is an issue for Sag Harbor Village], turning off stoplights to protect our dark skies after 9 p.m. or getting my neighbors to repaint their unsightly blue house white!”

Bridgehampton resident Baron VonCartier III said he’s pleased that his efforts to stop summer school busses from driving on his street between Memorial Day and Labor Day will finally be heard. “I’m not able to attend these local board meetings from my home in Manhattan, so it’s comforting to know I can complain about issues in Southampton from my duplex in New York,” VonCartier said. “For ages now, I and several of my neighbors have wanted to propose that year round residents only be allowed to shop for groceries from Monday to Friday in the summer,” he added. “It gets quite crowded at King Kullen on Saturdays and Sundays, and it would go a long way to reduce lines and open up parking if these people would just shop during the five weekdays they have all to themselves—is it too much to be granted two of the week’s seven days?”

Southampton Town explains that residents can file a complain or problem with an address or simply point it out on a map. They can also upload photos and provide details in the comments section. The complaint will then be sent to the proper department, where it will remain until it’s addressed. Town Board members will be updated vis weekly emails about the progress of each complaint.

So, when a resident reports an urgent case of too much goose poop on the sidewalk, an ugly vehicle parked outside their home or a neighbor leaving Christmas lights up too far past January 1, they can be sure the problems won’t be ignored.

“This is a huge win for the people in this town,” Jones said. “SOS will be made available on Southampton Town’s website, southamptontownny.gov, in a matter of weeks, and I, for one, can’t wait.”