In the land of $100-a-pound lobster salad, the price of this Hamptons ice-cream cone takes the cake.
The village of Westhampton Beach has spent nearly $18,000 in legal fees fighting a local merchant over a giant ice-cream cone sculpture.
The village started down this rocky road in August 2010 when Elyse Richman placed the 6-foot-tall fiberglass sculpture of a cone outside her Shock Ice Cream store on Main Street.
The cone was stolen in a matter of days. But just before the theft, Richman was slapped with a $350 violation of the village sign ordinance.
Richman refused to pay, claiming the cone wasn’t a sign but rather a piece of art.
A judge dismissed the case in 2012 since the cone was long gone, but the village appealed, hiring outside counsel at $190 an hour.
Mayor Conrad Teller admits it’s a costly fight but said nothing less than the integrity of the village code was at stake.
“We don’t go for pennants and stuff that’s outrageous,” Teller said. “We’re a seashore resort community and we have a pretty strict sign ordinance.”
Last month, the Appellate Division ruled in the village’s favor. It found that the local judge acted “improvidently” in dismissing the case and sent it back to the village court to be heard by a new judge.
Richman, who’s been a merchant in the village for nearly 30 years, hoped cooler heads would prevail.
“They want $350 and they need to spend thousands to collect it?” she said. “You have to ask how much more they’re willing to spend of taxpayer money to continue this.”