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Town to state: Southold doesn’t need ‘I ♥ NY’ signs

I Love NY signs

Add Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell to the growing list of East End elected officials who don’t like New York State’s new tourism signs.

The four signs — which display the “I Heart NY” logo — were installed in Orient near the Cross Sound Ferry last month without notice, Mr. Russell said. Similar signs on the South Fork had already drawn controversy.

Now, like his counterparts in East Hampton Town, Mr. Russell wants them out.

“We never got communication from New York State that this was going in,” he said during Tuesday’s Town Board work session. “It seems pointless to me.”

Mr. Russell said the signs are “inappropriately placed” and make no mention of specific destinations in Southold Town. Mr. Russell added that the signs wouldn’t make much of a difference for tourism, since people visiting Long Island from the ferry were already intending to come here.

“They don’t focus on anything,” he said. “This just doesn’t work for Southold. The people who drive through Southold don’t need signs to know how great New York is.”

Mr. Russell said he’s speaking to representatives from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office about the signs, joking that the town’s Department of Public Works “does own a saw” to tear down the signs themselves.

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Photo credit: Paul Squire