Hampton Bays people: Brenda Berntson

Throughout this week's Town Focus series in Hampton Bays, we are profiling people we meet, from community leaders to residents we bump into around town.

There are a lot more city people, less community, even though I still think its strong. There is more development, things like that.

In the last 15 to 20 years, there are a lot of illegal workers here and that affects the community, it's a fact.The population of the schools went crazy, we needed more Spanish speaking teachers.

There are more services and the cost of living has gone up. Who pays for that? My son once had a friend who was living with 21 of his closest family members in a three bedroom home. I don't begrudge anybody for coming here but it does impact your neighbors when all those people are only paying enough school tax for one family.

That brings me to the next question, what challenges does the community face?
The tax base. Taxes keep going up and up, it's getting expensive to live here. A lot of people -- in this downturn economy with lower prices -- can afford a house but they can't afford the taxes because they are absurd. The school is hit really hard. They have to serve more free lunches, more special services, more cost to educating a child.