Interim Village of Dering Harbor trustee appointed

Village Mayor Tim Hogue opened the December 21 Board of Trustees meeting in Dering Harbor’s Village Hall with the announcement that long-time trustee Linda Adams had resigned, effective immediately, due to a “serious family health issue.”

In her letter of resignation, she also wrote that “a trustee has an obligation to be present at meetings to participate in the affairs of village governance,” and she said she knew she would be unable to attend meetings between now and the end of her two-year term in June 2014.

Although Ms. Adams’s position could be left open until the June elections, “it was important to have a full board going forward,” Mr. Hogue said, and he announced his intention to appoint village resident Brandon Rose to serve as interim trustee for the remainder of Ms. Adams’s term.

The board voted unanimously in favor of the appointment and Mr. Rose was sworn into office by village attorney, Joseph Prokop.

Mr. Hogue said he had consulted individually with the trustees about the appointment, and in a telephone interview following the meeting, he said that naming Mr. Rose represented “the next generation of village residents.” A year-round resident, Mr. Rose, his wife and two children have lived in the village for about five years. He is familiar with village board meetings and was a member of a village road safety committee last year.

In other business in the brief, 30-minute meeting, Mayor Hogue updated trustees on the following.

• Water works: The installation of the new “second” well is ahead of schedule. The Suffolk County Department of Health Services has raised in writing some water-related issues, including the proposed new water tank, that the mayor said “are not doable”; he said he was reluctant to sign off on them and referred the document to the village attorney for review.
• Roads: Approximately $60,000 in CHIPS money available for road resurfacing and dry well installation will be rolled over to later in 2014.
• Bulk heading: Federal money has been applied for in order to replace the bulk heading that extends from the Julia Dodd culvert to the Hunt property.
• Contact information: Residents have received written requests from the village clerk for owner or caretaker contact information in case there are any problems at residences vacant over the winter.
• Hedges: The mayor will contact homeowners along Shore Road about voluntarily limiting the height of their hedges so that water views are not obstructed.
• Meeting schedule: A list of proposed dates for board meetings in 2014, approved by the trustees, was circulated. There was no meeting scheduled for January 2014.