East Hampton Town

Heating Oil Assistance

East Hampton Town residents who wish to apply to the federal Home Energy Assistance Program for help in paying winter heating bills can get some one-on-one assistance with the application through the town’s Department of Human Services. Also available are emergency benefits, to pay for heating costs when fuel is running low or heat is scheduled to be shut off, and grants to low-income homeowners to cover heating equipment repair or replacement.

Eligibility for HEAP benefits are based on income, household size, the primary heating source, and the presence of a household member who is disabled, under age 6, or 60 or older. Maximum monthly income for eligibility is $2,194 for a single-person household; $2,869 for a two-person household, and $4,219 for a household of four.

Additional information and applications are available online at otda.ny.gov/programs/heap, or by phone through the HEAP hotline at 853-8825. Those who wish personal assistance may call Liliana Rodriguez at the town Human Services Department.

Kiln Proposed

The members of the Clay Art Guild of the Hamptons would like to put up a kiln on a former Bistrian property off Fresh Pond Road in Amagansett that now belongs to the town. The group has 90 members, said Jim Zajac, who presented the proposal to the town board on Tuesday, but the kiln would be open for use by the public as well as members. Mr. Zajac said the kiln, which would be fired by wood, was chosen for its low carbon footprint. He added that wood firing can be done safely and without excessive smoke.

Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell asked that the group submit a plan showing public access. Town Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, who is the board’s liaison to the East Hampton Arts Council, and Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, who works with a committee assigned to develop use and management plans for public properties, said they would work with the guild on the proposal.

Septic Plant Shuttered

East Hampton Town is no longer accepting septic waste at its shuttered scavenger waste plant for transfer to treatment facilities elsewhere, a move that town officials expect will eventually save $800,000 a year. The treatment plant has been inoperative for several years while its future has been debated, but the town continued to accept septic waste from private carters and arranged to have it trucked away.

The town board voted to stop that practice earlier this year, based on the recommendation of a consultant who is preparing a comprehensive wastewater management plan. Only two businesses had reportedly been using the service.

The future of the plant, which would require costly repairs and upgrades to be reactivated, is to be determined in the context of the overall wastewater plan.

Jet Skis at Town Ramps?

Personal watercraft such as Jet Skis could take off from East Hampton Town launching ramps under a proposed change to the town code, discussed by the town board at a work session on Tuesday.

The Springs Citizens Advisory Committee, which had been asked by Martin Drew, a resident of the hamlet, to consider the idea, endorsed it in a split but majority vote, Ed Michels, who heads the town’s Marine Patrol, told the board.

Mr. Michels said he would not object to allowing the craft to be launched from town ramps, but suggested that only certain ramps be designated — those in close proximity to open waters, where their use is allowed. They are prohibited from use in harbors.

Jet Skis and the like are quieter and more stable now than they used to be, Mr. Michels said, posing less of a noise nuisance or safety issue. Allowing use of the ramps could curb a growing trend for personal watercraft owners to launch from various bay beaches, he added, which he said was becoming a problem.

Supervisor Larry Cantwell asked if anyone was seeing an “overwhelming demand” to open up town ramps for use by personal watercraft, and both Mr. Michels and Diane McNally, the clerk of the town trustees, said adequate parking could be an issue at the town dock site at Gann Road. Fishermen using the dock also use the parking lot there, they said, as do out-of-towners. That lot is not limited to resident-parking only.

Call for New Center

Calling the building on Springs-Fireplace Road in East Hampton now used as a senior citizens center inadequate, a committee appointed by the town board has asked that the town come up with a new one.

A report presented to the board at a work session on Tuesday by Mary Ella Moeller said that in the coming years residents of East Hampton aged 65 and up will be more than double the number of school-age children.

The town also should study ways to increase transportation services for senior citizens, Ms. Moeller said, and create a committee to work with Southampton Town representatives and Southampton Hospital on improving access to medical services. In the short term, Ms. Moeller said, a committee should be created to develop new programs for older adults and an information campaign, including an online and printed calendar, should be launched.

An Oct. 8 letter from the Wainscott School Board to the district’s taxpayers about a proposed affordable housing development was called “inflammatory” and “a blindside” from “a very small but very vocal group” at a meeting on Friday at the senior citizens housing complex at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Amagansett.

Speakers included Michael DeSario, chairman of the Windmill Village I and II senior citizens developments and the St. Michael’s Housing Association; the Rev. Katrina Foster, pastor of St. Michael’s and Incarnation Lutheran Church in Bridgehampton; Neil Hausig, chairman of the board of the Whalebone Village apartments in East Hampton, and Gerry Mooney, co-manager of the St. Michael’s and Windmill Village complexes. They decried both the tone of the letter and the dearth of affordable housing for working people, their children, and senior citizens.

A proposed 49-unit development, on 31 acres owned by the town between Stephen Hand’s Path and Daniel’s Hole Road in the Wainscott School District, would include 20 one-bedroom, 20 two-bedroom, and 8 three-bedroom apartments, plus an apartment for a superintendent. Speakers at Friday’s meeting called the Wainscott board’s predictions of the increase in enrollment and taxes that would result wildly off-base.

David Eagan, president of the Wainscott School Board, and Kelly Anderson and William A. Babinski Jr., board members, had said a realistic estimate was 110 new students as a result of the project. Mr. DeSario called that figure, devised by a consulting firm the school board had hired, a “wild claim.”

The board also predicted an additional $1.6 million in tuition that would have to be paid to the East Hampton School District, $500,000 for additional staffing at the Wainscott School, which serves kindergarten through third-grade students, and a tax-rate increase of up to 169 percent.

Mr. DeSario argued that a truly realistic projection, based on the demographics of the town’s existing affordable housing developments, was an increase of approximately 29 students, fewer than 9 of whom would attend the Wainscott School. Citing a study by Tom Ruhle, the town’s director of housing, he said the a tax-rate increase would be $48.47 per $1,000 of assessed value. And he said that the school tax rate was far lower in Wainscott than in the town’s other hamlets. “We need to get back on track and get town support again,” he said. Although the project would take at least five to six years for completion, 50 people had already asked to be put on a waiting list.

The construction cost, estimated at $15 million, would be funded entirely through grants and tax credits, Mr. DeSario said, calling it “a win-win for the community.”

Ms. Foster said she received calls “almost every day from people desperate for affordable housing.” Some residents of the St. Michael’s complex had been living in their cars or “couch-surfing,” she said, mentioning a pregnant woman who had been living in a tent.

The waiting list for an apartment at St. Michael’s, she said, has more than 100 names. “This is an existential reality for our neighbors.” The entire community, she said, benefits “when our families are secure in a home.”

The need for affordable housing for all age groups has become more acute, Mr. Mooney said. After the mid-1990s, he said, soaring real estate costs made homeownership impossible for many. Consequently, people did not move out of affordable housing units, with the result that waiting lists are essentially frozen. “People come from as far away as Manorville to work here,” Mr. Mooney said. “The majority of people from East Hampton High School are not going to be able to live here. That shouldn’t be.” The trend is evident, he said, in the rising median age of volunteer firefighters throughout town. “They’re losing all the young people.”

Mr. DeSario urged those in attendance to call or write East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell to express support for the Wainscott development. “Because this angry letter went out, there’s been all this negative criticism,” he said. “We feel a little stalled, and we need support from the town.”

The town board voted last Thursday to move ahead with three property purchases using the community preservation fund, following hearings on the deals.

Three lots on Cranberry Hole Road in Amagansett totaling 2.6 acres will be purchased for $2.2 million. They are owned by Helen S. Rattray, the Star’s publisher, the Sky and Ray Family Trust, and Indian Pot L.L.C.

According to Scott Wilson, the town’s director of land acquisition and management, the area has “pristine secondary duneland” that is a good example of a maritime dune community.

A .44-acre lot owned by the late Eileen Roaman, at the juncture of Accabonac Road, Neck Path, and Old Stone Highway in Springs, will be purchased for $220,000 to maintain open space. The property at 817 Accabonac Road is adjacent to the former Roaman residence. The land contains wetlands, is in the Accabonac Harbor watershed, and borders harbor protection and water recharge areas.

Ms. Roaman, who had purchased the lot and removed a decrepit house there, restoring it to an open, meadow-like environment, wanted to see it preserved, said a friend, Zachary Cohen, at the hearing. The open space will “set the tone,” he said, for a stretch of Accabonac Road between the juncture of the three roads and the Green River Cemetery that retains a sense of the hamlet’s historic flavor. He suggested involving local schoolchildren in restoring a meadow there and perhaps using the land for traditional pursuits, such as beekeeping.

A joint purchase with the Peconic Land Trust of prime farmland on Beach Lane in Wainscott could cost the town more than planned. The private nonprofit organization, which was to split the $7 million cost equally with the town, has so far raised $2.5 million in a fund-raising campaign launched in April. Grants from 84 different contributors ranged from $100 to $200,000, said Rebecca Chapman of the land trust at last week’s hearing. The contributors included Ronald Lauder, the businessman and philanthropist who has a house not far from the site. Ms. Chapman thanked him not only for contributing himself (the exact amounts pledged by different donors were not disclosed), but for enlisting other donors.

The farmland, now owned by Jane Weigley, has been in production since at least 1962, Mr. Wilson said, according to the town’s first aerial maps, and has been farmed by members of the same family for more than seven generations.

The town board approved the purchase with a maximum contribution by the town of $4.45 million, although the Peconic Land Trust’s fund-raising will continue until the real estate closing.

The process of gaining town approval to put up an agricultural building on farmland would be simplified under a proposed revision to the East Hampton Town code that will be the subject of a hearing before the town board next Thursday.

At present, the law requires review by the town planning and agricultural review boards, as well as approval of the town board for buildings or other structures on farmland over which the town holds development rights.

Under the proposed change, town board approval would not be required.

According to a resolution describing the proposal, “additional approval by the town board serves no significant benefit for the town but results in additional costs and delay to farmers. . . .”

Another hearing at next week’s town board meeting will solicit comment from the public on banning bow hunting for deer on town lands where shotgun hunting is taking place during the January shotgun season.

The state, which sets the hunting seasons, has proposed an extension to the bow-hunting season for deer, which could cause that season to overlap with the shotgun season.

The hearings will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.

East Hampton Town

Accolades for Financial Reporting

East Hampton Town has received an award from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada for the quality of its annual financial report.

Just a few years — and two town administrations — after the town accumulated a $27 million deficit due to financial mismanagement, the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada has issued to East Hampton a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting, described in a press release from the organization as “the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting.”

The award recognizes the town’s “spirit of full disclosure” in its comprehensive annual financial report, and names Charlene Kagel, the town’s chief auditor, and Len Bernard, the budget officer, as recipients of “financial reporting achievement” awards for their preparation of the annual report.

Budget Adopted

The East Hampton Town Board unanimously adopted a $71.5 million operating budget for 2015 at a meeting last Thursday night. The budget will increase spending over last year by $2.1 million. Tax rates for each $100 of assessed value will be $28.90 for properties in the town, up 1.9 percent over last year, and $11.63 per $100 of assessed value for properties within incorporated villages, a 2.8-percent increase.

Salaries and employee benefits account for 58 percent of next year’s spending, debt payments, just over 18 percent, and other expenditures account for 23.5 percent of the budget.

Hunting Lottery

The town clerk’s office, which issues permits for deer hunting on town land, will accept applications for a lottery that will allot the permits for particular properties beginning on Dec. 8. Applications may be submitted until 4 p.m. on Dec. 19.

The 2015 season for deer hunting with shotguns opens at sunrise on Jan. 5 and runs through sunset on Jan. 31. At present, hunting is allowed on weekdays only, although weekend hunting is under discussion.

Town properties where hunting is allowed will be posted.   

The East Hampton Town Comprehensive Plan, which was adopted in 2005, does not call for an end to commercial flights at the East Hampton Airport, as stated in a story that appeared last week.

The authors of a letter asking for strict restrictions at the airport drew that conclusion from a 2002 document in which Lee Koppelman, a planner working on an early version of an update of the town’s comprehensive plan, characterized residents as believing that “scheduled commercial operations should be prohibited.”

The East Hampton Town Trustees continued a discussion last week about the relocation of an erosion-threatened house on trustee-owned property at Lazy Point in Amagansett, agreeing in principle to support its relocation but insisting on a further exploration of alternative sites.

As they concluded the latest of several debates on the topic, the trustees authorized Susan Knobel to obtain a survey, at her expense, of the lot to which she proposes to move her house, to make sure it can accommodate both the house and a septic system. Should any portion of the house fall within required setbacks, she would have to seek variance relief from the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals, said John Courtney, the trustees’ attorney.

The beach in front of Ms. Knobel’s Shore Road house is severely eroded. Last month she asked the trustees’ permission to move it to a lot that is farther from the water and at considerably higher elevation than the lot she presently leases.

In addition to accommodating the house and a septic system, the new lot would also have to be accessible. Ms. Knobel told the trustees that the narrow Shore Road limited her options. “I called the house mover and he said, ‘It simply won’t go down the road very far,’ ” she said. “The closer, the better.”

The trustees remain wary of setting a precedent. “We’ve already had three, four other requests that we have denied for raising or moving to another lot in order to accommodate a septic,” Diane McNally, the trustees’ clerk, said. “I just don’t want to be unfair to them, but also know that if we do this, can we be fair to everybody else, too?”

Bill Taylor, a trustee and the town’s waterways management supervisor, saw the prospective move as beneficial. Ms. Knobel’s is “probably the house that’s most imperiled right now,” he said. “Also, we’ll be taking a fairly antiquated septic system out of the water and replacing it. . . . Susan is asking to move her waterfront house to another waterfront location, which is a fairly even swap. If there’s another house or a whole bunch of houses that are imperiled, we should do what we can with what we have at the time.”

Mr. Courtney would craft a new lease agreement “in such a way that this isn’t a precedent being set,” said Deborah Klughers, a trustee, and that “future boards’ hands won’t be tied to go along this path.”

Acknowledging that some of the nine trustees still wanted to consider other, landward lots, Brian Byrnes told Ms. Knobel that “the survey would be a crapshoot for you. . . . Go ahead and do the survey; beware that that is not an indication that we’ll okay it.”

Mr. Courtney addressed the trustees on another matter that occupied much of their attention last year, that of a property owner who constructed a rock revetment, over the trustees’ strong objection, on the ocean beach in front of her house on West End Road in East Hampton.

Mollie Zweig was granted necessary permits from the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals despite trustee claims of jurisdiction. The trustees filed an article 78 proceeding seeking to annul the Z.B.A.’s October 2013 determination, but construction of the revetment commenced shortly after, on Nov. 11.

On Nov. 3 of this year, State Supreme Court Justice Andrew Tarantino found that the Z.B.A.’s characterization of the revetment as having no significant adverse environmental impact was “incorrect and wrongly exempted the application from State Environmental Quality Review Act analysis,” Mr. Courtney said.

David Eagan, an attorney representing the trustees in their lawsuit against Ms. Zweig, the village, and the town, told The Star that Justice Tarantino’s determination effectively meant that the Z.B.A. “issued permits without any environmental review required by the state law.” Although the revetment has been built, “the permits that were granted have been revoked,” he said. “It puts the Z.B.A. in a difficult position going forward.”

Frank Newbold, that board’s chairman, did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Plans to move a 1,000-square-foot outbuilding from one spot to another on a Pantigo Road property that straddles neighborhood business and residential zones have residential neighbors crying foul.

The nearly one-acre property at 458 Pantigo Road, which backs up onto Skimhampton Road, has space for four businesses. Two are vacant, and the others are occupied by Calvo’s Deli and Wilson Express Cargo.

According to Daniel Michels, representative for the owner, Gary Seff, moving the outbuilding would provide better access to it for the businesses on site. The move requires no variances, but does require site plan approval from the East Hampton Town Planning Board.

A planning board hearing on Nov. 5 drew three neighbors who question the plan, six letters in opposition, and an attorney for another neighbor, who is also opposed. Richard Lynn, a Skim?hampton Road resident, warned the board that previous owners of the property had tried to open a second access to the site from Skimhampton Road without planning board approval. “It’s called a shed,” Mr. Lynn said. “It’s 1,000 square feet. They are pretty much making a new building.”

The outbuilding was constructed before the code was written. The proposed location, closer to Skimhampton Road, is the residential side of the property, Jonathon Milioti, also of Skimhampton Road, said. “It doesn’t make any sense,” he said. 

Neighbors will get another chance to weigh in on the proposal. Mr. Seff was required to mail notices to neighbors 10 days in advance of the Nov. 5 hearing, but those notices did not go out until Oct. 29, according to John Jilnicki, the planning board’s attorney. Mr. Jilnicki instructed the board to move forward with the public hearing last week, but said that Mr. Seff’s representatives must re-notice the neighbors, who will have another chance to be heard at the planning board’s Dec. 10 meeting.

Montauk residents concerned about hunting on Fort Pond in proximity to the houses ringing its shores, as well as downtown Montauk, appealed to the East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday to restrict hunting on the pond. A petition with over 100 signatures supporting a hunting ban was submitted to the previous board in 2012, Jane Bimson said at a board work session, but no action was taken. She urged the current board to consider the matter.

The expansion of the dates and areas where hunting may take place on land concerned other speakers at Tuesday’s meeting who opposed the changes recently adopted by New York State, which sets hunting seasons and other rules. Revised regulations on town-owned lands will be the subject of an upcoming town board hearing.

An open meeting about proposed affordable housing developments in the Wainscott School District is scheduled for tomorrow at 9 a.m. at the St. Michael’s senior citizens housing complex on Montauk Highway in Amagansett.

Kathy Byrnes, a co-manager of the Windmill Village and Windmill II senior citizens housing developments in East Hampton as well as the St. Michael’s apartments, attended Tuesday’s meeting of the Amagansett School Board to ask for its support. The proposal has met with “some defiance” from the Wainscott School Board, she said, and asked the Amagansett board to send a representative to the meeting.

Ms. Byrnes said that every district’s school board and hamlet’s citizens advisory committee has been asked to send a representative as well.