Tony Southampton officials claim they accidentally voted to scrap trash cans — after locals threaten to dump garbage on town hall

They opened a trash can full of worms.

Backpedaling Southampton town officials claimed they accidentally voted to remove trash cans from the ritzy coastal community’s downtown – a move they reversed after fed-up locals threatened to dump garbage on Town Hall.

The trash cans were back on the sidewalks this week, overflowing with garbage, as baffled residents groused about their town board’s supposed bone-headed excuses.

“They probably saw all the backlash they were getting and scrambled to come up with an excuse — and that’s the best they could do I guess,” said Shakir Phillippe, a Southamptonite, on Thursday.

The rubbish ruckus unfolded after Labor Day, when residents and shop owners woke up to find town workers removing all of the trash bins along main streets across each hamlet.

Trash quickly littered the street, turning hoity-toity Hamptonites into apoplectic agitators.

The swells threatened to protest the scrapped trash cans by piling up garbage on the steps of Town Hall.

Facing a massive outcry and potential mound of garbage, Town Board members entered full damage-control mode and last week rescinded the June measure that took trash cans away.

They also started pointing fingers, contending they believed the measure — pushed by Town Highway Superintendent Charles McArdle — only applied to sidewalk repairs, and didn’t realize that “maintenance” included cleaning the streets.

Town Supervisor Maria Moore called the trash bin removals a “miscommunication” and insisted the resolution did not actually contain any mentions of garbage removal in any way.

“The resolution said that it’s up to the state to maintain the sidewalks — I thought that meant repairing sidewalks,” town Supervisor Maria Moore told local paper 27East.

But the damage was already done as infuriated residents found the board’s excuses more insulting than the actual removal of the garbage cans.  

“I guess we’ve elected the wrong people,” said Eugene Smith, who splits his time between Southampton and Florida.

“It seems like there’s a lot of s–t that gets passed these days that it seems like people don’t read into what they’re passing. I mean, it’s happening all the way to the top.”

“If the Town Board didn’t even know that was going to be done, that’s a problem,” Pamela Harwood, the chairwoman Bridgehampton Civic Association, blasted at board members during a Tuesday meeting.

“In the future, I hope there is more transparency from the government.”

McArdle, for his part, doubled-down on his stance regarding the measure. He called the Town Board members’ claims of ignorance “politics at its best.” 

“I didn’t realize I had to explain to the Town Board that ‘maintenance’ included picking up trash on the sidewalk,” McArdle told The Post. 

McArdle, who is running unopposed for reelection this year, stressed the financial burden to pick up the trash in his department is heavy, and revealed that garbage collection in the four hamlet downtowns cost roughly $110,000 last year.

He argued his department’s $12.5 million budget is meant for town roads, not trash collection and maintenance on state and county streets. If the town wants its crews handling garbage — the funding should come from either Suffolk or Albany — not Southampton, he said. 

But after the backlash Councilman Bill Pell promised residents that the town would “find the funding” to continue garbage pick ups at their board meeting last week.

Though garbage collection is now back on track, residents said they fear a repeat in the winter.

The resolution explicitly included halting snow removal along state and county sidewalks unless the town secured reimbursement.

But one resident who asked not to be named cut the board some slack.

“They came back and they made good on it,” he said.

“They realized it was a mistake, maybe, people make mistakes, I guess. It’s about how you deal with the mistakes.”