East Hampton - Hamptons.com sat down with East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach, Jr. to discuss the various issues facing the Village of East Hampton now, and into the future. With the summer season almost upon us, the Village is still littered with empty storefronts, as it makes slow progress on the long road to economic recovery.

How would you rate the economic growth and potential growth for East Hampton for 2010, and into 2011?

Paul Rickenbach: The overriding economy is extremely sluggish and I feel that that mirrors exactly what is going on in the Village of East Hampton.

What do you consider to be the top three most pressing issues facing the Village of East Hampton as of now?

PR: One would be maintaining the quality of life for the constituency and the residents of the Village. Two would be being very sensitive to the environment around us, including the water and the air that we breathe, and thirdly would be to have a consensus with respect to the folks that we represent in government to make sure that we are as transparent as possible, and to make sure that we offer the best possible exercise of good government.

Are there any future projects planned for the Village of East Hampton that will directly effect business owners?

PR: We try to maintain a very work friendly business corridor and it is the intent of the Village to make certain that that continues to manifest itself, while at the same time having a good liaison as it relates to government and the local commercial sector.

The Superintendent of Schools in East Hampton Raymond Gualtieri has been criticized recently for claims he has made that massive budget cuts will be proposed for the school district. What is your stance on this issue? If correct, how could those budget cuts affect the district schools?

PR: You know I think that especially because the leaders of the state government have achieved a tentative budget which for the first time in years will happen prior to the April 1 deadline that that is reassuring. I also think that with the state proposed budget that there is going to be hurt in every area of the ability of the state budget to provide services. First and foremost, school budgets, and secondly, money that might be coming to local governments such as our Village. Unless there is some relief from unfunded mandates, which is relative to the two percent, cap that has been proposed.

Are there any plans in place to increase visitor and tourist dollars to the Village of East Hampton which have not been attempted in the past?

PR: The Village does not give any money up front with respect to tourism or transient use of the community. The focus is on those who are here all year round.

There are a lot of empty storefronts in the town of East Hampton. What is the Village doing to attract new business to the area?

PR: We're trying to work with the merchants as is applicable. There was a blight a year ago with respect to many of the vacant storefronts within the Village commercial district proper and to safeguard the projection of emptiness we reached out to many of the store owners and asked that they somehow make more calming the presence of unoccupied stores. Last year was just a blight but this year is much better. A lot of it quite frankly deals with the per square foot rental and that's determined by free enterprise and I would not want to see government step into that area and start mandating what you can and cannot charge.

While there are many issues facing the Village of East Hampton recently as a result of a poor economy, lingering recession, and decimated housing market, both politicians and residents alike are confident in the strong, productive future of the beautiful Village of East Hampton.