Southampton Village officials have reversed a controversial decision to shut down a free-food program for the flood of day laborers who pour into the tony area each morning.
A building inspector halted the program at Southampton Tire on April 1 because it violated a zoning law that prohibits food provision at the site.
Local nuns used the premises to provide meals to day laborers for several hours beginning at 10:30 a.m.
Mayor Mark Epley, who has received death threats from illegal-immigration foes over his handling of day laborers, said that a senior inspector reversed that decision Tuesday.
Epley said that the Building Department decided to allow for the food program because it was not commercial in nature.
“This is a quality-of-life issue,” he said. “The way to handle this is organization.”
The owners of Southampton Tire, Albert Whitby and his wife, Carol, had been working with the Sisters of Mercy to provide the service.
“I’m not going to comment until I see it [the approval] in black and white,” Albert Whitby said of the reversal.
Day laborers gather each morning across the street from Southampton Tire in a 7-Eleven parking lot for the chance to be picked up by local contractors for a day’s work.