East Hampton Town

151 Signs

Signs illegally placed on the public rights-of-way have been removed by East Hampton ordinance enforcement officers and other personnel, Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell reported last week. Mr. Cantwell said that to date, 151 signs have been removed.

Leber on A.R.B.

Patti Leber was appointed to the town’s architectural review board by a unanimous vote of the town board on July 17. Ms. Leber, a Montauk resident and one-time candidate for town board, will fill the term vacated by Ruth Vered, who resigned. It extends through 2016.

Plastic Bags Survey

The East Hampton Town Litter Committee is asking residents and business owners to complete a survey regarding the use of disposable plastic bags. Bans on the thin bags, designed for a single use, have been proposed or enacted in other communities, including East Hampton Village.

The survey, which can be completed online at surveymonkey.com/s/CHMQVY7, inquires about one’s use of plastic bags, and seeks opinions regarding a plastic bag ban, a fee on single-use bags of plastic and paper, and a possible credit for bringing one’s own reusable bag to a store.

Plastics do not biodegrade and never completely disappear from the environment, the survey says. The number of plastic bags used annually by Americans has been estimated at 100 billion.

The results of the survey will be discussed by the committee on Aug. 14. The group is hoping that more business owners will provide input between now and then.

Airport Matters

The East Hampton Town Board met on Tuesday in executive session with the town’s outside counsel on airport and aviation matters, Peter Kirsch, to discuss a legal matter, according to Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell.

The board’s steps toward enacting airport use restrictions to reduce aircraft noise — particularly that of helicopters — after agreements with the Federal Aviation Administration expire in January have recently prompted a campaign by the aviation industry, including the Eastern Region Helicopter Council and its executive director, Jeff Smith, to raise concerns about the airport’s future. In interviews in several publications, he has questioned the town’s strategy, implying that the ultimate goal is to close the airport, and asserting that it will have a devastating economic impact.

Town officials have said that the goal is not closing the facility, but rather the autonomy to make decisions about operating the airport, in order to assist residents beleaguered by noise.

At a hearing next Thursday night, the East Hampton Town Board will take comments on a change to the town code that would clarify restrictions on the expansion of commercial buildings in limited-business zones.

The zoning district is designed to allow low-intensity uses in places where business areas give way to residential zones. Restrictions on the types of businesses and their size are designed to protect the residential character of the designated areas.

However, when the legislation was updated in 2006 to limit new construction for a limited-business use to a maximum of 2,000 square feet, it did not clearly state that the 2,000-square-foot maximum was to also apply to existing buildings in the limited-business zone, the town board said in a hearing notice. That would have precluded their expansion if they were already at the limit. “This oversight permitted structures in the [limited-business overlay] district to expand with no limitation of size,” the hearing notice says.

The issue came to light during a recent planning board review of an application regarding an East Hampton building.

In addition to clarifying the size restriction, the town board has proposed revising the law to allow for affordable apartments in the zone.

Under the proposed law, a combined maximum of 2,000 square feet of total gross floor area, for all existing structures on a parcel of land in a limited-business zone, could be devoted to a commercial use. Additional space could be used for storage or for an affordable apartment. New construction could not be more than 2,000 square feet.

Also next Thursday, the board will hold a second hearing on the acquisition of the Brooks-Park property in Springs, a site formerly owned by James Brooks and Charlotte Park, who were Abstract Expressionist artists. The property was acquired last spring and recently given town historic landmark status. However, because the original hearing on the land buy described the purchase as being made to preserve open space, a new hearing is being held to revise the objective to include historic preservation. 

Hearings will also be held at next week’s meeting on a number of land buys, all using the community preservation fund. They include the acquisition of a lot just shy of one acre at 54 Fenmarsh Road in Springs owned by Stanley Dalene, for $775,000; 6.3 acres at 577 Lazy Point Road in Amagansett from Dominick D’Alleva, for $805,000; several lots totaling 1.2 acres on South Fairview Avenue in Montauk from Thomas Milne and 70th Street Trading Corporation, for $670,000; a .41-acre lot at 26 South Fairview Avenue, for $145,000, from Maurice Martell and Debra Martell Murray; a .17-acre lot at 23 Flagg Avenue in Montauk from the Eileen Jeanne Karl Revocable Trust, for $270,000; a .92-acre lot at 26 Seaside Avenue, also in Montauk, owned by Thomas Jefferson University, for $350,000; a half-acre at 6 Bowling Green Place in Springs, for $181,500 from Patrick Fallon, Cecelia Pinto, Monica Kortmann, and Lorelle Fallon, and the purchase, for open space, agricultural land preservation, and historic preservation, of 3.7 acres on James Lane in East Hampton Village, which is a portion of the 1648 Lion Gardiner home lot adjacent to the village green, from Olney Mairs Gardiner for $9.6 million.

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

Residents who wish to make a complaint to the town ordinance enforcement department may now do so online, and the complaint will be immediately received electronically by officials and officers on the job, who will call officers on the job via cellphone.

Betsy Bambrick, the head of the department, described the procedure at a town board meeting on Tuesday.

A complainant must provide a valid email address and other information, or the system will not accept the complaint. Once an investigation begins, case files are kept confidential, she said.

Allowing officers to investigate a situation immediately, in “real time,” Ms. Bambrick said, is enormously effective in gathering the evidence needed to take code-breakers to court. In addition to regular hours, officers are on duty during night hours on weekends.

Noise complaints are directed to the Police Department, she said, although a code enforcement officer will respond as well if a complaint involves an overcrowded house or one being illegally rented for short-term stays.

Most of the summonses issued so far this summer, Ms. Bambrick said, have been for “excessive turnover” — renting, for under two weeks, more than three times in a year – rather than for share houses, rentals being shared by more people than allowed.

The online complaint form can be accessed by going to the town website and clicking on the ordinance enforcement department page, or it may be accessed directly by clicking here.

East Hampton Town

Seeking a Truck Law Compromise

A committee comprising homeowners and local contractors who could be affected by proposed limits on the parking of commercial vehicles at one’s house will meet to seek a compromise after both sides spoke passionately at a July 17 hearing on a possible new law.

Homeowners have been complaining to the town board about the proliferation of businesses operating in residential zones, which is largely prohibited, while contractors told the board that the ability to keep at least some of their work equipment or trucks at their residences is key to their economic survival.

Supervisor Larry Cantwell and Councilman Fred Overton will meet with the new group and attempt to broker a consensus.

New York State

State Money Sought for Montauk Beaches

Additional state funding for the Montauk downtown beach rebuilding project, for which the Army Corps of Engineers has proposed spending $6.3 million on dune reconstruction and beach fill, is key for “a project that would substantially increase the level of flood and erosion protection” for the area, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. wrote in a July 23 letter to the governor.

He requested $3.1 million in state money so that the Army Corps could “create a larger project with a longer life expectancy that would significantly increase the protection of the vulnerable downtown Montauk area.”

State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle also wrote to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and to the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation to ask for supplemental money. “I have great concerns that without an additional contribution from the State of New York, the success of this project will be limited,” Mr. LaValle wrote. The Army Corps’s proposed solution “is going to have limited results,” he said.

The East Hampton Town Trustees will likely extend the closure of Georgica Pond in East Hampton to the harvesting of crabs and fish, as microcystin toxin, a product of the blue-green algal bloom known as cyanobacteria that can cause liver damage in humans and animals, has now been measured in the water body. Georgica is closed to the taking of shellfish other than crabs year round.

At the same time, algal blooms known as cochlodinium, or rust tide, have been detected in isolated sections of Three Mile Harbor, Accabonac Harbor, and waterways around Sag Harbor, a trustee said.

Microcystin, produced during algal blooms such as the cyanobacteria detected in Georgica Pond two weeks ago, is present at low levels, Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences wrote in an email. Dr. Gobler has been monitoring water quality, in conjunction with the trustees, in waterways the trustees oversee on behalf of the public, since last year. The measurement of heightened levels of cyanobacteria prompted the trustees to hold a special meeting on July 24 at which they passed a resolution prohibiting the taking of crabs and other shellfish and marine life from Georgica Pond.

Cyanobacterial blooms can deplete oxygen in waterways, threatening marine life and drinking and irrigation water supplies. Such blooms can form in waterways during warm weather, particularly when elevated levels of nitrogen or phosphorus are present.

“The levels of blue-green algae in the pond have remained at a moderate level during the past 10 days,” Dr. Gobler wrote. At .5 micrograms per liter, the level of microcystin measured is low, representing one-half the drinking-water standard set by the World Health Organization.

The same algal bloom growing in Lake Erie and detected at a water treatment plant serving Toledo, Ohio, is behind the recent loss of drinking water for half a million people. Georgica Pond is not used for drinking water, Dr. Gobler wrote, “and thus these levels are not a serious threat, even for recreational use.”

However, “winds can create surface scums of algae, concentrating them and potentially creating a ‘high probability threat.’ ” According to the World Health Organization, scums can represent thousandfold concentrations of microcystin. People and pets, Dr. Gobler wrote, “should always avoid dense aggregations of thick, green material on the shoreline.”

“Our board will likely have to extend the resolution to keep Georgica Pond closed to crabbing until these levels of toxins subside,” Stephanie Forsberg, the trustees’ assistant clerk, wrote in an email, “since the chance for these toxins to reside in marine life is possible, but we do not know for certain.” The trustees will discuss the matter when they meet on Tuesday, Dr. Forsberg wrote.

Dr. Forsberg said that rust tide is not toxic to humans but in high densities can be toxic to fish and shellfish. “The good thing about rust tide is that it tends to be patchy and could leave as quickly as it appeared, so we are hoping for the best case scenario and for that to occur,” she wrote of the blooms in Accabonac and Three Mile Harbors, “but unfortunately only time will tell.”

East Hampton Town

Helicopter Traffic Soars

Traffic at the East Hampton Airport has increased this year, Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez reported recently. In particular, the number of helicopters landing and taking off from the airport went up sharply, according to end-of-July figures — a 40-percent increase over year-to-date figures last year. The airport had logged 12,677 “operations” overall — takeoffs or landings — in 2014 as of two weeks ago, the councilwoman reported, versus a total of 10,577 during the same period last year. Both the town and airport noise abatement groups have been urging residents affected by aircraft noise to make reports to an airport noise hotline, particularly important this summer as consultants are compiling noise data the town could use to seek airport use restrictions. Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said an online noise complaint form can now be found on the home page of the town’s website, town.east-hampton.ny.us. Noise complaints this year totaled 10,158 at the end of July, compared to 2,798 last year. They came from 373 diffent households, while last year 174 households called in complaints.

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Long-Range PSEG Plan to Be Aired Here

An information session and hearing on PSEG Long Island’s long-range plan to meet energy needs, called Utility 2.0, will be held at East Hampton Village’s Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street on Aug. 26. It will begin with a presentation at 5 p.m., followed by an opportunity for the public to comment beginning at 6. East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell and East Hampton Village Mayor Paul Rickenbach had asked the utility, which held its required public session on the future plan in Stony Brook, to schedule a local session. A negative public response to PSEG’s installation of high-voltage lines along a six-mile route from the village to a substation in Amagansett has led to concern over what other projects the company may have planned. Mr. Cantwell, along with New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., has criticized the Utility 2.0 plan for a lack of specifics.

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Affordable Apartments Rule Expanded

In response to comments at a public hearing last week, the town board agreed Tuesday that the town code should allow two affordable apartments in buildings located in the town’s limited business districts rather than one, provided other criteria are met. A proposed change to the existing law, providing the ability to create an apartment in that zoning district, had limited it to one.

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Taxi Drivers Cited for Violations

Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell announced this week that enforcement of East Hampton’s taxi regulations, which require all drivers to be fingerprinted and undergo a background check, has resulted so far in the issuance of 115 summonses. Fifty-five of those were for violations of the town code, and 60 were for Vehicle and Traffic Law violations.

East Hampton Town’s bond rating has again been upgraded by Moody’s Investors Service, which assesses the town’s financial position and outlook before issuing a rating prior to a town bond sale.

The rating went up one level from Aa3, assigned last year, to Aa2. The ratings range from a low of C to a top rating of Aaa. Numeric modifiers of 1, 2, or 3 are added to all but the top designation, with 1 indicating a top rating within the alphabetical category. The Aa2 rating is two steps from the top rating of Aaa.

East Hampton’s rating was dropped to A2 after the extent of financial mismanagement under the McGintee administration came to light.

According to Moody’s, “the Aa2 rating reflects the town’s stable financial position, which has improved over the past several years as a result of deficit financing, improved budgeting and strengthened financial management practices. The rating also incorporates a moderate debt burden and sizeable tax base characterized by strong wealth and income levels.”

Moody’s also cited “strong management with demonstrated ability to restore financial flexibility.”

Len Bernard, the town budget officer, said in an official statement that Moody’s had “recognized the many improvements and advancements in financial operations made during the Wilkinson Administration and the resulting positive performance, and felt very comfortable with the direction and leadership of current Supervisor [Larry] Cantwell with his 30-plus years of proven experience in municipal finance and budgeting.”

Mr. Cantwell said in the release that he was “pleased Moody’s has recognized the Town’s improved financial condition as well as our preliminary results in the current year and expressed confidence in our outlook going forward.” 

“The improved rating should generate more market interest in the bonds and bond anticipation notes being sold later this month by the town and should result in lower interest costs,” according to the release.

Mr. Bernard predicted that the town could save up to $100,000 in interest over the life of the bonds.

Moody’s also assigned a “stable outlook” to the town, saying that “the town is expected to maintain a solid financial position due to its conservative budgeting and strong financial management practices with limited future borrowing planned.”

The East Hampton Town Trustees own and manage the town’s waterways on behalf of the public, as set forth in the Dongan Patent of 1686. They have debated the proposed ban on alcohol in several of their meetings, and have split on whether to support any ban, with a majority opposed.

At the trustees’ meeting on Tuesday, Diane McNally, the trustees’ clerk, proposed a further compromise, should her colleagues agree. “We’re looking at 1,000 feet east or west of the road end at Indian Wells only, weekends and holidays only, during lifeguarded hours only,” she said. In addition, “We’ll verbalize the fact that it’s going to be difficult to enforce a new law without enforcement on site.”

She also said the trustees would insist on a provision that the ban expires upon the summer season’s conclusion.

Six trustees voted in favor, with two, Stephen Lester and Tim Bock, opposed. With a majority vote, Ms. McNally said, “We’ll send a letter to the town board.”

• RELATED: Town Hall Debate on Alcohol Ban at Beach

Frustration boiled over as a group of commercial shellfishermen confronted the East Hampton Town Trustees Tuesday about the efficacy of the town shellfish hatchery’s annual seeding program, which the trustees help fund. The meeting was marked by multiple angry exchanges and those in the small room in the town’s Lamb Building on Bluff Road, Amagansett, talking over one another. When the shouting was over, all agreed that a survey after the seeding was completed would be in everyone’s interest.

The hatchery, on the shore of Fort Pond Bay in Montauk, was established in 1989, four years after algal blooms began sweeping through local waterways and decimating shellfish. Its staff of five, two of whom work part time, oversee the spawning of millions of clams, oysters, and scallops, which are then put in Northwest, Three Mile, Accabonac, and Napeague Harbors as well as Hog Creek and Lake Montauk.

“There are large amounts of clams that are being put out in these places, millions of seeds,” Greg Verity, one of the angry baymen, said. “They’re simply not there, they haven’t been there for five years.”  He added that the seeded clams that are found look noticeably different from those that grow naturally.

Deborah Klughers, a trustee, said there were many reasons why the seeded clams would be hard to find, such as recreational clammers, those harvesting without a license, natural die-off, predators, and the spraying of insecticides to reduce mosquitoes. “Our aquaculture program is, I’d say, the finest on Long Island,” she said.

“The finest on Long Island?” Mr. Verity responded angrily. “Where are all our clams? Where are all our commercial shellfishermen?” He said he had asked John Dunne, the hatchery’s director, if a survey had been done, but the answer was no. “Millions of clam seed, all this money spent. Where is it? Because I can’t find it. . . . It should be a top priority to find out whether this stuff is living or not before they continue to put the stuff in the same places.”

 Anthony Sciffedi, another fisherman among the half-dozen who sat in the room or crowded into its entryway, agreed that a survey was needed. “It’s nice that we’re trying, but it’s getting less and less and worse and worse,” he said.

Stephanie Forsberg, a trustee who has a doctorate in marine science, reviewed the reasons for the decline of shellfish. “I’ve worked specifically on climate change and how that was affecting our local bay scallop, oyster, and clam population. . . . I’ve written several papers on this and have to say it’s scary, what we as society are doing, not just locally but globally. It has to do with ocean acidification, with pollution, with spraying.” Dr. Forsberg detailed the water-quality monitoring implemented last year with Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University. “The thought is, if we can get this data, we can go back and work with our constituents, our other levels of government — the town board, and higher; go to the county, go to the state, and start being part of the solution. I hear you, but you can’t just point at the hatchery.” But she was frequently interrupted, prompting the ire of Diane McNally, the trustees’ presiding officer.

“Don’t interrupt the clerk when she’s speaking,” Ms. Forsberg later told Mr. Verityas he spoke over Ms. McNally. “What would you like us to do?” Ms. McNally asked. “Ask the town to remove the support of the aquaculture facility?” Mr. Verity repeated that, at the least, he wanted a survey.

Order deteriorated as others spoke over one another. “Hey!” Ms. McNally yelled, banging a gavel hard on the table. “Enough! What I am going to ask is if you have a concern, put it in writing so I know specifically what your concern is, how you’d like us to address it.”

Mr. Dunne said the hatchery distributes maps that indicate the quantity of shellfish seeded in particular waterways. “I’m not sure what other proof you need other than a nursery and field full of clams, numbers in our annual report, on our maps,” he said. “I have no incentive to make this stuff up.” Because his staff is minimal, Mr. Dunne said the hatchery must rely on anecdotal information from commercial and recreational fishermen. He had recently heard positive reports, he said, “but it also concerns me that there’s six, seven of you here that are having problems finding clams. . . . I’d be more than happy to do surveys, but honestly, the time to do surveys is the fall when everything is seeded.”

Mr. Verity continued to interrupt until Brian Byrnes, a trustee, told him, “This can’t continue like this. Otherwise, we will have to ask you to leave. I don’t want to do that, but I will.” Mr. Verity said he didn’t want the aquaculture program to be disbanded, but “I want there to be somebody to show me that this stuff is there.” 

“We will all try to work together,” Ms McNally said. “We can at least modify our policies and procedures, but you have to realize, the number of recreational shellfishers are increasing exponentially.” The trustees are concerned, Mr. Byrnes said, “and frankly a little alarmed, and will get to the bottom of it one way or another, because that’s what we do.”

Suffolk County

Credit vs. Cash

Legislator Jay Schneiderman is cosponsoring a bill that would require gasoline retailers in Suffolk to display credit card prices as prominently as cash prices.

Luring drivers in with a cash price, when gas may be much higher per gallon for credit purchases “is deceptive and inconveniences drivers who will either pay the additional fee or have to get back on the highway to find another more affordable station,” Mr. Schneiderman said in a release. This is not the legislator’s first attempt to address thd practice. Earlier this year he attempted to force retailers to have an electronic prompt give consumers warning. Retailers protested and the measure was tabled.

Legislator Kara Hahn, a member of the Legislature’s Consumer Protection Committee, and Legislator William Lindsay III are also sponsoring the bill. “The purpose of this law is not to dictate pricing to the market but only to require gasoline retailers to honestly present their prices,” Mr. Lindsay said in a release.

The bill will come before the Government Operations, Personnel, Housing, and Consumer Protection Committee on July 23. 

Mosquito Spraying

The Suffolk County Department of Public Works’ Division of Vector Control this week began using a helicopter to spray salt marshes in East Hampton and Southampton Towns with an larvicide in an effort to control mosquitoes. On the list to be treated in East Hampton Town were marshes on Napeague and around Beach Hampton and Accabonac Harbor. In Southampton Town, the county is to spray near Meadow Lane, in North Sea, and at Jagger Lane, among other locations. According to the Health Department, it is unlikely that residents will be exposed to the spray, which is not significantly toxic to humans. More information can be obtained from the Division of Vector Control at 852-4270 or the spraying hotline, 852-4939.