East Hampton store window plan on hold

A proposed law requiring store owners in East Hampton Village to fill vacant display windows with merchandise, artworks or screens if the store is empty for more than two weeks has been tabled by the village board even though it had community support.

The problem with the original solution started with the mullions.

The village board's goal was to get rid of the dreary look that empty stores bring to the business district in the winter, when the seasonal crowds are long gone.

But at a public hearing last week on the proposed law, a woman speaking for the Ladies Village Improvement Society said "for rent" signs sitting in the middle of an empty window also looked bad, and she asked whether the village couldn't require those signs be put in the lower right corner instead.

That's when the mullions, decorative wood strips used in some windows, became a problem, because they might block a sign in the corner.

Then Ruth Nasca, an East Hampton artist, said putting artworks in windows would be fine but should come with a small, tasteful sign of their own, giving the name of the artist and a contact number. "No sale price," she added.

To which Mayor Paul Rickenbach Jr. responded: "That's a little outside the scope of our hearing today."

After Nasca spoke, a local industrial designer suggested the board take advantage of a project he worked on two years ago, an illuminated display stand that would highlight the objects on display at night, when empty windows are dark. But, he added, that would require getting someone to dust off the art and occasionally change lightbulbs. And that would require someone getting all the keys to the empty stores.

The village board tabled its resolution for further study.