You’d be hard-pressed to throw a stone in Port Washington without hitting a “Stop 145” sign on the lawn of a resident who is concerned about the development of the Port Washington waterfront on Hempstead Harbor.
This being an election year, I thought that it would be interesting to see if the developer for the proposed 145 Shore Road project, the Southern Land Company, had given any campaign contributions to candidates up for election this year.
A quick search of the state Board of Elections public website reveals that this year the Southern Land Company, LLC has given only one contribution to any politician in New York State, and that politician is Jack Martins, a Republican running for state senator.
On Sept. 21 of this year, Jack Martins accepted a $5,800 contribution from Southern Land Company LLC. Moreover, as a community member, it appears to me that this contribution is above the legal limit of what an LLC can give to a candidate for the state Senate.
At a time when decisions on this project are being made that will dramatically impact the Port Washington community, one can’t help but wonder why Southern Land chose to invest in one political candidate.
With the intense controversy surrounding the development located at 145 Shore Road, I think it is important for Port residents to learn that Jack Martins has taken a considerable sum of money from the project’s developer.
Bill Keller
Port Washington
