Amagansett Fire District land buy OKd

Voters in the Amagansett Fire District have approved spending $2.8 million to purchase 2-acre property next to the firehouse on Montauk Highway, which fire officials say will be used for training and eventually to expand the district's ambulance service.

The referendum passed Tuesday by a 140-102 vote.

The property, formerly the Pacific East restaurant and nightclub, which closed in 2007, contains a deteriorating building that must be demolished, fire officials say.

District commissioners agreed in September to the price with the property owner, and were given only 85 days to make the purchase. That caused some people in the community to question why the vote came so quickly, and to complain that future construction plans -- which will require another referendum before any money can be spent -- were not available.

Fire officials did not return calls Wednesday for comment on the complaints.

Amagansett, which now operates two ambulances, has seen an increase in emergency calls over the past few years. Its emergency medical technicians went out on 338 calls in 2005 and 539 in 2010. Through August, they had logged 403 emergency calls, with 278 coming between May and August, months that are typically busy with vacationers and tourists.

Fire officials have said they want to eventually operate three ambulances, to deal with the community's aging population as well as the many summer accidents on the road to Montauk, which runs through Amagansett.

The cost of homes in Amagansett varies widely, with on-line listings ranging from $300,000 to $5 million.Fire officials estimated that a house worth $1 million would pay less than $100 a year in additional taxes for the land purchase.

The most recent census shows Amagansett has a population of just under 1,200 residents living in 513 households.