E. Hampton man fights to keep giant hot dog

BY MITCHELL FREEDMAN |mitchell.freedman@newsday.com

8:33 PM EST, January 22, 2009

Rian White, who has a 6-foot-tall smiling hot dog in his backyard, became convinced the Town of East Hampton was after him last year, after he was served with a half dozen summonses for littering, failing to have a certificate of occupancy for his makeshift shed and having an illegal sign.

His belief turned to certainty in October, he said, when the town sent a work crew to his yard in Springs, which was filled with years of accumulated collectibles. The crew came complete with a garbage truck and a big Dumpster, and gave him a letter saying the clean-up costs would be added to his tax bill. "They had hazmat suits on," he said. Town law gave the town the authority to clean up his property, although workers left his stuff alone.

But what really pushed him over the edge was what happened when a jury was being picked a week ago to hear his littering case. "The supervisor's wife and daughter were in the jury pool," White said.

Lynn Ryan, deputy to East Hampton supervisor William McGintee, confirmed that the supervisor's wife and daughter were indeed in the jury pool, but said it was a complete coincidence. "They were dismissed. It was an obvious conflict of interest," she said.