Former Highway Superintendent Blasts Town For 'Poor Management'

SOUTHOLD, NY —Former Southold Town Highway Superintendent Pete Harris came to Town Hall Tuesday night with a list of grievances, blasting the current highway department and alleging "poor management."

Harris asked the board how much has been spent to date for repaving; Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said a little more than $800,000 has been expended, with approximately $700,000 left.

Having "been in the business for 43 years" and serving Southold Town for 12, Harris questioned why paving was being done at the intersection of Pine Neck Road and Oaklawn Avenue. "There was absolutely nothing wrong with this road. There are still roads in desperate need of resurfacing. This is mind boggling. That's poor management," he said, adding that the east side of the Goose Creek bridge to the intersection of North Bayview Road did need resurfacing.

In an email after the meeting, Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said the reason the work was done was due to a collaboration with the Suffolk County Water Authority, which agreed to pay part of the cost because the patch was failing. "I learned a long time ago that you don't turn money down," Russell said.

Next, Harris asked why Highway Superintendent Vincent Orlando would send highway crews out to repaint center lines, only to have them recovered with asphalt only days later.

"Who's minding the shop here?" he asked. "Poor management."

Russell said he has gotten a number of questions from the public on the same issue and he concurred it's something that needs to be looked into.

Also on the subject of striping, Harris asked why Sound Avenue, "the single busiest town-owned road in Southold," was left without center lines or striping all summer long. "That's a dark area, when you drive up and down that hill," he said.

The highway department has since done the center lines, but the white lines still need to be striped; all striping should have been done within a couple weeks, as it's a main thoroughfare, Harris said.

Russell said, in an email, that while he does not know why there is a delay in striping the roads, Orlando requested that the town board allocate funds to purchase a new striping machine so he can put down new reflective paint, which is "much safer than the traditional" paint used.

"However, the striping machine he has is not equipped to put down the new paint. It is only suitable for the the traditional paint," Russell said, adding the new machine has not yet been purchased, despite Orlando's several requests. "The delay is on our part, not his," Russell said.

Near tragedy

Reflecting on Orlando's recent heroic save of man who'd driven into a sump on Bray Avenue during driving rain that flooded the road, Harris said in the past, the sump had been used as a drainage field, with multiple buried drainage structures. Eventually, the decision was made to remove those structures to increase the sump's size and allow it to handle more water.

While Harris said that it may have been a great idea, he questioned why no fence had been erected around the sump to prevent tragedy.

"Thank God," he said, Orlando "just happened to be going through that day. But more importantly, what if a little child got into the sump and drowned? This town would be facing one heck of a lawsuit."

Russell said the swale was designed by engineers who also oversaw the project; the swale was designed so it did not need a fence, he said.

The supervisor said, based on a neighbor's complaints, he'd had the engineers out to the site a few times. "They vehemently opposed the fence, saying it was designed to not need" a fence, Russell said.

However, the town board discussed the fence on Tuesday and agreed to have a fence erected, Russell said.

Another issue spotlighted by Harris involved a barn the town has leased in the past for storage, but no longer does; he surmised that might be because the fee may have been raised.

The end result, Harris maintained, was that the town's equipment has been left to sit out in the elements, facing "Mother Nature's wrath."

Regarding the lease of the Glover barn in Cutchogue, Russell said the plan was to move out of that barn and into a new building, but the building was cancelled due to costs. "The owner of the barn had already rented it to someone else. We can't force him to cancel a lease with a new tenant because we need it now," Russell said.

Finally, Harris said he's been criticized for micro-surfacing the roads with a polymer, and not using asphalt. "We did the best we could with what I had," Harris said.

The board agreed that the cost of asphalt was high in past years and perhaps not enough funding was allocated for road repairs.

"We didn't give him all the resources he needed," Russell said in an email. "We did the best we could given the economic circumstances."

Councilman Jim Dinizio said the town board voted last year to allocate a large amount of money to the highway department, which led to an increase in taxes. But Dinizio said, despite the fact that he normally would not vote for such a large expenditure, it was "time to bite that bullet", with interest rates low, and "start spending money on roads."

Dinizio added that Orlando had come before the board Tuesday morning with a list of roads that have been paved, something he's been asking for. "It wasn't as detailed as I would have liked, but it's a start," Dinizio said.

In Orlando's defense, Dinizio said there had been no records for the new highway superintendent to look back upon, with an eye toward noting what had been done in previous years. "I just don't think he got the proper help he probably needed," Dinizio said.

Harris said the position of highway superintendent was an elected one; Orlando, he said, was not a "highway person" before he won the post. Harris said perhaps a consultant might be hired that could grade and prioritize the roads. He said he also offered his assistance to Orlando.

"I was turned down," Harris said.

Patch file photo.