The parade, the tree lighting and the Santa line all fall on the blocks the downtown sewer plan has marked out.

The busiest public day of Southampton Village’s holiday season is Saturday, November 28. Most of it takes place on Windmill Lane, around Agawam Park and along Jobs Lane, a few minutes’ walk end to end. Those are the same addresses where the village has proposed a pump station, a treatment plant, leaching pools and a relocated dog park. That makes this year’s Thanksgiving weekend a walk past the village’s next round of public works.

I’m Matt Breitenbach. I’ve spent my life on the East End, and I like the village most on the evening the tree goes on. Below is the schedule for that Saturday and the weeks that follow. Alongside it is what’s planned for each spot on the route, based on the village’s own documents.

Saturday, November 28, by the Clock

The Southampton Christmas Committee has set the evening program, and Rogers Memorial Library fills the middle of the day. In order:

1. Noon to 3 p.m. Santa visits the Children’s Program Room at Rogers Memorial Library.
2. Before the parade. The village holds a ceremony for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the “new” police building on Windmill Lane, which also houses the Village Court. In his Fall 2026 newsletter, Mayor William Manger asks residents to “mark your calendars for both events.”
3. 4:30 p.m., at dusk. The Parade of Lights, led by decorated vehicles from the volunteer Fire and EMS departments.
4. 5:30 p.m. The tree lighting in Agawam Park, with holiday songs from Southampton High School’s Voices of Southampton.
5. After the lighting. Fireworks, then a walk through the village to see the decorated holiday windows.

The weekend runs longer than Saturday. The Southampton History Museum’s Carriage Thrift Shop is open for holiday shopping November 27 through 29, according to the village’s Fall 2026 newsletter.

The anniversary ceremony is new this year, and it makes a point about Windmill Lane. The police once worked from the upper floors of Village Hall. They moved to Windmill Lane twenty-five years ago, and the space they left has sat empty ever since. The mayor and Trustee Rob Coburn are now working with the architecture firm Garnett DePasquale on a plan to renovate the gutted third floor and add a new interior fire stair at the back of the building. The same Saturday celebrates the building the village put up a generation ago and the one it’s about to start fixing.

Windmill Lane Carries Both Calendars

Most of the proposed sewer facilities sit on Windmill Lane, a short walk from the library and the police building. The village’s draft scoping document, adopted September 10, 2026, proposes a downtown sewer system serving about 254 parcels. Set the proposed facilities next to the holiday stops and the overlap is easy to see:

The dog park is the piece people will notice first. The Town bought the Southampton Press site on Windmill Lane with Community Preservation Fund money. In his newsletter, the mayor writes that the village, as co-owner, “will soon be demolishing” the office building there so a new dog park can go in right next to the library. The move works as a swap. The ground under the current dog park would then be used to leach treated water from the wastewater system, which would sit on village land behind the ambulance barn. Manger writes that “there will be no odors with the contained system proposed.” He presents the whole project as the best step the village can take to cut nitrogen in the groundwater and clean up Lake Agawam.

The plan is still under review, and the formal steps are on record. On August 26, 2026, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation published the village’s positive declaration, which found the proposal may have significant environmental impacts and requires a draft generic environmental impact statement. The scoping document set a public hearing for October 8 and a comment period from September 10 to October 22. The review will look at construction phasing and timing, but the document doesn’t give a start date. For this Thanksgiving, the Windmill Lane parcels look the way they always have.

Agawam Park and Main Street, Between the Lights

The tree goes up in a park the village plans to run cable beneath. Electrical lines will be laid under Agawam Park for the proposed algae harvester and solar array, the newsletter says. The park’s World War I Monument is also scheduled for repair and restoration, after a Request for Proposals process to find the right contractor at the right price. The village hasn’t announced a date for either job.

The window walk after the fireworks heads up Main Street, where another planned change sits midway along the block. The pedestrian passage just north of Hildreth’s Department Store is to get brick paving in place of its uneven asphalt. The new walkway will line up with the crosswalk to the Chase Bank on the east side of the street. The newsletter ties the project to the Comprehensive Plan’s goal of better connections between the parking lots and the shops. No completion date has been given, so the old surface may still be there on November 28.

Look around the edges of the route, too. After the trees lost in the storm on the night of July 4, the village is planting 200 new trees this fall and spring. That brings the total planted since Manger became mayor to 800.

December Moves Indoors

After Thanksgiving, most of the calendar shifts from the park to the buildings along the same route: Rogers Memorial Library, the Southampton Arts Center at 25 Jobs Lane and the Southampton History Museum. One library outing heads into the city.

• December 1, 4 to 5 p.m. Cookie decorating with South Fork Bakery at the library, for grades 1 through 5.
• December 7, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The library’s Holiday Wrapping Social for adults.
• December 9, 8:30 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. A library holiday bus trip into Manhattan, stopping at Bryant Park and Rockefeller Center.
• December 19. The History Museum’s Hearthside Cheer.
• Through December 27. “East End Collected 9” at the Southampton Arts Center, showing work by Suffolk County artists. It opened October 3.

Two Arts Center events come before the holidays. Paint + Sip with Deborah Acquino is on November 5, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., and “Honoring Veterans by Sharing Their Stories” is on November 8, from 3 to 5 p.m. Both are at 25 Jobs Lane. The mayor credits Alina and John Paulson with turning the village-owned Arts Center property into the Paulson Family Gardens, with fountains and an amphitheater, and calls the new garden “a tremendous hit.” A December walk from the library to the Arts Center now passes through those gardens and close to 88 Jobs Lane, the proposed pump station site.

A Quieter Thanksgiving Weekend Is Still a Draft

One more proposal would affect Thanksgiving weekend directly. Right now, construction isn’t allowed in the village on Sundays or federal holidays. The draft local law on the Board of Trustees’ October 8 agenda would add a ban on construction work and related deliveries on Saturdays from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day. It would also treat the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving as holidays. The draft would allow “practically silent work” on those days only while the homeowner is present. That definition leaves out powered tools and covers some hand work, indoor work and quiet gardening.

The board didn’t adopt it on October 8. It kept the hearing open, took written comments through October 22 and said it would decide at a later meeting. The October 20 work session agenda didn’t include the item. The draft says it would take effect once filed with the New York Secretary of State, so a vote before Thanksgiving could still apply to November 27 and 28.

The trustees disagree over who should be responsible for quiet work. 27east reported that Trustee Ed Simioni argued against requiring the homeowner to be present. Coburn defended the requirement, warning that without it the rule would be an “enforcement nightmare.” At an earlier session, also covered by 27east, Manger gave his reasoning:

“I think it’s right to treat everyone in the village the same way and not divide people up by how large their lot is or how small their lot is.”

At that same meeting, Coburn said he had heard from year-round residents with full-time jobs who “rely fairly significantly on Saturdays” to supervise contractor work at their homes. Anyone with work scheduled for the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving should keep an eye on the board’s next agendas. This is general information, not legal advice. If you have a project underway, confirm with your contractor and the village what applies to your property.

Here’s how I’d spend the day. Get to the library early for Santa, stay on Windmill Lane for the anniversary ceremony, and find a spot near Agawam Park before the parade lights come around at 4:30. The Breitenbach Advisory Team follows the Board of Trustees’ agendas on the sewer plan and the construction-hours vote, and we’re glad to share each update as it comes out. Request Private Access, and we’ll keep you posted.

Matt Breitenbach Breitenbach Advisory Team at Compass