Come January, the East Hampton Town Department of Human Services will lose two part-time social workers who work with senior citizens, along with a part-time homemaker and a “community relations assistant.”

    At a meeting on Dec. 8, the town board voted to abolish the positions, and the 2012 Human Services Department budget does not contain salaries for the posts.

    Yvette M. Morouney, one of the two social workers, expressed concern recently about what would happen after the termination. “I’m concerned about the seniors,” she said, “who really are conveying to me how they need these services.” She said she and her colleague each took care of 19 clients, and made $23,000 a year. The employees were notified about their termination at a meeting on Dec. 5 with Diane Patrizio, the head of the Human Services Department.

    A full-time case manager will remain on staff, Ms. Patrizio said last week. “A lot of their work was taken up with data entry,” she said of the two social workers who are leaving.

    The addition of clerical staff who will take up that task will enable the case manager to take care of more clients, she said. “We will still be servicing the same amount of people we did before, just in a different fashion,” Ms. Patrizio said.

    “Our numbers have gone down a bit; this is just a response to that,” she said. “Services will continue, just in a more efficient fashion.”

    In addition, she said, the department also has a full-time Spanish-speaking case manager who will be assigned to work in tandem with the other manager. However, the town board also last week approved a leave of absence for a Spanish-speaking case manager with the department.

    Cuts to the Human Services Department staff have been ongoing. Last year, a free after-school program was cut, and staff were trimmed from the senior nutrition and counseling programs. An agreement with the Family Service League was fostered to have that organization provide some services to town residents in exchange for a low-cost lease on a town building for league offices.

    Eleven positions in the department were vacated last fall when staffers, including the longtime department head, Edna Steck, took advantage of a retirement incentive program.

    After an outside firm hired by the town issued a report criticizing recordkeeping and other procedures followed by the department, Councilman Dominick Stanzione, the board liaison to Human Services, asserted that there was room for improvement at the department, and that, with increased efficiency, it could operate with les

    Pete Hammerle, who began service to the public in 1986 and has served on the East Hampton Town Board for the last 16 years, had a lot to say this week as the year and his official responsibilities were winding down and after being presented with a proclamation for service by Supervisor Bill Wilkinson at a town board meeting last Thursday night.

    “My first campaign, I won by 10 votes, and it took two weeks to find out,” Mr. Hammerle told the supervisor, who had come out ahead by 15 votes in his recent bid for re-election and also had a long wait before the outcome became clear.

    Mr. Hammerle is one of two Democratic town board members who did not run for re-election this year. Julia Prince is the other. In January, they will be replaced by two other Democrats, Peter Van Scoyoc and Sylvia Overby.

    “Open, honest, and fair” was his mantra during his time as a public servant, Mr. Hammerle said at last week’s meeting. “I really feel I lived up to that.”

    Mr. Hammerle served on the East Hampton Town Planning Board, for several years as chairman, before being appointed a town councilman for one year to serve out the term of Tony Bullock, who had been elected to the County Legislature. In the next decade, Mr. Hammerle won four bids for re-election.

    “When I started, I really thought my presence on the board could make a difference in what East Hampton could be, as opposed to what it might have been,” Mr. Hammerle said.

    In the mid-’80s, he explained during a chat at the Star office on Tuesday, the town was in the midst of creating a long-term comprehensive plan, which included rezoning areas to prevent rampant development.

    Mr. Hammerle lived in Montauk and had a landscaping business, Pete Hammerle Gardens. At a contentious public hearing in that hamlet, he said, “I just decided to get up and say how important it was to see wildlife in its natural habitat. I think my quote was, ‘It’s better to see a fox in a field than in a zoo.’ ”

    The next morning, he got a call asking if he would consider running for office as a Democrat. “At first I laughed it off,” he said, but reconsidered. He lost that bid in the 1985 election, but accepted the one-year appointment for Mr. Bullock’s post the following January.

    In the election the next fall he tried but failed to keep that seat, losing to Leroy DeBoard, a Republican.

    “Through the planning board I had to kind of prove myself,” Mr. Hammerle said. After four years on that board, three of them as its head, he became a town board member.

    “I think a lot of it had to do with being an everyday person in the community — raising my kid here, getting to know people. You kind of grow into it, just by being out there, having a sense of community, knowing what your community is, and what it needs,” he said this week.

    Among Mr. Hammerle’s efforts as a councilman was the successful completion of a number of capital projects, such as Lions Field and the Montauk Playhouse Community Center in Montauk, the Springs youth building, the Amagansett indoor roller hockey rink, and the recreational facility at Stephen Hand’s Path in East Hampton. He has also shepherded affordable housing projects, such as the Springs-Fireplace Road apartments and the Green Hollow subdivision in East Hampton.

    “I was really lucky that the board entrusted me with those things. A lot of it was community-driven,” he said, with his role being to weigh “the benefit to the community as a whole . . . being able to get a sense of how it was going to go — and convincing them to support it.”

    Environmental issues, Mr. Hammerle said, have also been a top concern over the years. He described himself as “a mover” who helped to get the town’s first open space plan adopted in the late ’90s, leading to the vote to establish the community preservation land acquisition fund. Other environmental protection initiatives, such as establishing groundwater protection zones, also drew his support.

    However, he said, “What you see after a while is the issues you thought you resolved for the town 10 years ago just constantly come back around for consideration. It grates on me because nothing in this town is ever settled.”

    With his long tenure on the board, he said he had seen issues that were thoroughly vetted through community and legislative procedures — with decisions, in some instances, standing up to challenges, including in court — coming back again into play. Other board members, he said, “didn’t last long enough to have a cumulative historical perspective on these things.”

    The councilman — at least for a few more days — said he is “too young to completely retire,” but has no immediate plans except “not to panic.” He said he has offered to be available to the new and sitting board members, to provide background or other information.

    For some years, he maintained his gardening business, but he gave it up several years ago after being hauled out of Town Hall by emergency medical technicians and undergoing heart surgery for a new aortic valve.

    Over the years, he said, he had “become known for keeping things,” with the help of his longtime secretary, Barbara Claflin. Besides “keeping excellent files,” Ms. Claflin has been by his side as communications have evolved from memos to e-mails, with Mr. Hammerle remaining something of a holdout.

    “There are a few buggy issues that I just hope the new board will be able to resolve,” he said, “such as the problems Montauk residents have encountered as clubs there draw bigger crowds, as well as helicopter noise and “seriously objectionable lighting.”

    When Supervisor Wilkinson presented Mr. Hammerle’s proclamation last Thursday, he said Ms. Prince, who has served one term, also deserved recognition, but that Mr. Hammerle “has spent a considerable amount of time in service to our community.”

    Hy Brodsky, a Montauk resident,  praised both Mr. Hammerle and Ms. Prince during recent town board meetings. “I have been involved in civic affairs for 25 years, and a major portion of those years, Pete has been there, with his shoulder and his hands and his head to help me with some of my wars,” Mr. Brodsky said at a work session in Montauk earlier this month. “He’s been a person who has made a lot of good things happen.”

    Ms. Prince spent a part of the board’s work session on Tuesday summarizing the status of several projects she has been working on. Some final steps, such as landscaping around public toilets in Montauk and completion of a Montauk skate park, are set to go, but must wait until spring. She said she would continue to work on ideas to improve parking in downtown Montauk, and has some new recommendations.

    “Julia, it’s been a delight working with you, and having your voice raised for many, many important issues in Montauk and East Hampton,” Mr. Brodsky told her that day. “I just wanted to go on public record and thank you.”

    Ground has finally been broken for an affordable housing complex for senior citizens at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Amagansett.

    The 40 apartment units, each 600 square feet, will be built adjacent to the church on Montauk Highway, along with a superintendent’s apartment, and a community center room. Residents will be 62 years and older, and will have to have an annual income of $30,000 or less.

    The plan received approval from the East Hampton Town Planning Board in November of 2010, but the housing project has been years in the making. After securing a $5.9 million federal grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, along with a federal rent subsidiary of $891,000, the application began winding its way through the planning process in November 2009.

    The East Hampton Town Board approved a transfer of development rights from a vacant parcel in Springs to the Amagansett property in 2010, which was necessary so that septic system requirements for the housing project could be met.

    According to Tom Preiato, the town’s senior building inspector, the project needed to receive a building permit before Dec. 5 of this year or the HUD grant would expire. A permit was issued on Nov. 30, and work began on Monday.

    Michael DeSario, president of St. Michael’s Windmill housing board, has been an instrumental part of the group that handled this project. In a phone interview Tuesday, he discussed the final pieces of the plan.

    “They started construction yesterday. We took down the parsonage and put up site perimeter fencing. It was a little bit before we were fully ready to go, but we were confident and we were right,” said Mr. DeSario. An official groundbreaking ceremony will take place in mid-January. “Three days ago there were very real possibilities that this wasn’t going to happen.  It did take a lot of people’s cooperation,” he added.

    “Right now I’m at the very end of a two-day closing, with all sorts of people here, including HUD people, state people, and county people. We’re ready to go full speed at this point,” said Mr. DeSario.

    “This is where everything goes official. Approvals, conditions, we spent years getting all of those, and it accumulates right now. Within an hour everything will be signed, sealed, and ready to go forward,” he said, “The actual funds have been transferred as opposed to pieces of paper promising us money. It’s a very exciting time.”

    Mr. DeSario works in the real estate business, and spoke about how there are usually two opposing sides when it comes down to negotiating in this industry. This was not the case with this project.

    “At the closing here, we have a wonderful experience with people working here to make this happen. When it came to the final building approvals and determining how the funds were going to be distributed, we did it in record time. Normally it takes six to eight months; we did it in six to eight weeks. The people at HUD were terrific with us,” he said.

    Mr. DeSario expressed gratitude to the many different groups that played a role in making this project possible. “This was something very needed in our community. We had four different supervisors, each of the councilmen was terrific, and the East Hampton Planning Department was great. They put us through their paces, but they worked to help us, not to stop us,” he added. 

    “I’d like to thank the church for being very receptive and engaged in this project. They were very much a part of this, and cooperative in transferring the land at a good rate. This is a project for the entire community and when it comes down to it, all elderly people. I’m the chairman of four or five corporations involved in this, and I would thank everyone at Windmill II [a senior citizens apartment complex in East Hampton] for working hard to make this happen,” Mr. DeSario said.

    He was optimistic that the housing project would be be completed in approximately 12 months. “It’ll be nice to have 40 apartments ready for Christmas for next year,” Mr. DeSario said. “That’s what we hope.” 

    Neighbors upset about the reconstruction of an allegedly pre-existing, nonconforming woodworking shop on Abrahams Path in Amagansett have appealed an East Hampton Town building inspector’s decision to reissue a building permit for the property.

    Mark Ryan III, who owns the property, wants to demolish his 1,500-square-foot woodworking shop and build a new 1,500-square-foot shop in its place, with a 1,246-square-foot residence above it. It is to have a 260-square-foot second-floor deck and a 600-square-foot one-story detached garage.

    In an affidavit written on Oct. 20 of this year to Tom Preiato, the town’s senior building inspector, Ronald Webb Jr. claimed that the property “has been in continuous use as a wood shop and wood storage area by me and my employees” since Donald Sharkey, the former chief building inspector, issued a certificate of occupancy for it in October 2008.

    Mr. Ryan received a building permit for the new shop and residence from Mr. Preiato on Nov. 22, 2010, that was set to expire on Nov. 22 of this year.

    When Marion P. Suter, Paul Diamond, and Marc Matthew, all neighbors of the property, discovered that a commercial use was planned in their residential zone — something town code prohibits — they contested the impending construction. In affidavits submitted in May, they claimed that to the best of their knowledge there had never been a woodworking shop or any other similar commercial use on that property. Based on these affidavits, and the fact that town code does not permit two uses on this property, unless they predate rules prohibiting them, Mr. Preiato rescinded the building permit on Aug. 31.

    But after receiving the affidavit from Mr. Webb, he reinstated the building permit three months later. The neighbors are appealing Mr. Preiato’s decision, and requesting that the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals review the situation as soon as possible.

    In a Dec. 16 letter to Mr. Preiato and the East Hampton Town Board, John L. Ciarelli of Ciarelli and Dempsey P.C., the neighbors’ attorney, asked the board to enforce town code and revoke the permit. “The senior building inspector renewed the improperly issued building permit on Nov. 15, 2011, without notice and without sufficient basis,” Mr. Ciarelli wrote. Mr. Ryan has already begun excavating at his property.

    Neighbors have demanded an immediate stop-work order, “but no action has been taken,” Mr. Ciarelli said. If the town fails to respond or act on the neighbors’ request within 10 days, New York State law allows the neighbors to take the matter to court, he said.

    A meeting of the East Hampton Town Board tonight will include several hearings during which the public can weigh in: on two proposed changes to the town code, on the removal from the list of town nature preserves of three properties that were supposed to have been deeded to the town but apparently were not, and on the town’s updated franchise agreement with Cablevision.

    Supervisor Bill Wilkinson and Councilwoman Theresa Quigley, in conjunction with business owners, have revamped the town code section regarding licensing for home improvement contractors.

    According to the proposal, “the present town licensing system for home improvement contractors is inadequate in the protection it affords to town homeowners against shoddy, incompetent work or deceptive practices involving improvement work.”

    The revised code, the proposal says, is intended “to more fully protect homeowners and responsible home improvement contractors alike.”

    The license requirement for home improvement contractors doing business in East Hampton has been on the books since 1977 and was amended in 2005 and 2006. In order to obtain a license, contractors must show proof of adequate liability insurance and provide information about any previous business names, liens, bankruptcies, criminal convictions, and litigation arising out of home improvement work, as well as pay a fee set by the town board.

    A law now on the books exempts from the license requirement landscapers doing “grounds maintenance” or gardening, those doing simple repair or maintenance jobs, and those earning less than $500 for a job.

    The law, if adopted, would apply to those doing any kind of “home maintenance” work, including gardening, but would exclude those whose gross income from their home maintenance business does not exceed $10,000 annually.

    The proposal under discussion would eliminate a 2006 addition that required contractors to attend at least five hours of applicable continuing education courses each year. Instead, only first-time licensees would be required to show proof of the five classroom hours.

    All subcontractors on a job, not just the general contractor, would be required to have and display a town license, under the amended code, on their vehicles.

Fueling at the Docks

    A second hearing will center on proposed regulations pertaining to town docks and the fueling of boats that are tied up to them. The town does not have fueling facilities at its docks, and, rather than go to private marinas to fuel up, the operators of some vessels have fuel trucks come to the town docks to fill them up.

    If adopted, the law would ban that practice at all town recreational docks and at commercial docks in Montauk, while allowing fueling from trucks at the town’s commercial dock in Three Mile Harbor. In Montauk, the town board reasoned, there are numerous private alternatives for boat fueling, but in Three Mile Harbor, larger boats that require deeper water cannot reach private marinas to fuel up.

    Growing out of concerns about the liability and potential environmental damage should a fuel spill occur, enacting a regulation regarding fueling over docks has been discussed by town officials for a number of years, during the current administration and a previous one.

    The town board drafted the current proposal some months ago but decided to hear public comment on it during the winter, when those affected, primarily fishermen, might be less busy and more available to voice their opinions.

Beach Plum Park

    The third hearing centers on three lots in the oceanfront Beach Plum Park subdivision on Napeague, totaling about 16 acres, that were to have been deeded to the town, according to the terms of the subdivision approval.

    When the eight-lot subdivision was approved in the late 1980s, the planning board found it important to preserve public beach access and required the reserved areas to be conveyed to the town and preserved in a natural state. The town recently learned that, because of a mortgage default and foreclosure, title to the properties was uncertain. A title search commissioned in the spring showed that the properties were never deeded to the town. In response, the town board has proposed deleting them from the nature preserve list.

    John Jilnicki, the town attorney, said Tuesday that the town could pursue a “quiet title action” to recover its rights to the properties. The property owners “have the benefit of the approval,” he said, and the approval required that the town receive the reserved lands.

Cablevision Contract

    Also tonight, the board will hear public comments regarding a new 10-year franchise agreement with Cablevision that allows the cable television company to have its communications system equipment, such as cables, within public rights of way.

    In return, the agreement calls for Cablevision to pay the town 5 percent of its annual local gross revenue, and to provide service within the town for residents and, without charge, connections to cable at municipal, school, and library buildings.

    The company must also provide a full-time public access channel and a governmental-educational access channel (now provided on Channels 20 and 22). The agreement calls for a one-time grant from Cablevision to the town of $25,000 to support the town’s cable or telecommunications-related needs, and to provide annual payments of $40,000 to support the governmental-educational (PEG) channel for each of the contract’s 10 years. It also provides for a mandatory 10-percent discount off the monthly Cablevision service charge for senior citizens, under certain conditions.

    East Hampton Town has been dedicating the entirety of its annual franchise fee from Cablevision to LTV, the public access provider here, but may change the terms of the town’s agreement with LTV when a contract with that entity comes up for renewal next year. The town board discussed the parameters of that contract during a recent work session when the results of an audit of LTV were presented.

    The hearings will begin at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.

    A four-foot-wide mahogany boardwalk running through the Atlantic Double Dunes in Amagansett brought the Nature Conservancy before the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals on Tuesday night.

    The conservancy, which owns the property off Further Lane that the boardwalk passes through, has applied for a natural resources special permit to sanction the 620-foot walkway, which has already been built. However, there are lingering questions about whether the boardwalk should be allowed at all on the property, which contains primary dunes, freshwater wetlands, and beach vegetation and extends all the way to the beach.

    The boardwalk serves two adjoining parcels — one to the north, owned by Windsor Digital Studio, and one to the east, owned by the art dealer Larry Gagosian, according to Richard Whalen, the Nature Conservancy’s attorney. The Nature Conservancy gave permission for its neighbors to reconstruct the boardwalk, but did not secure the building permit.

    According to Mr. Whalen, there was a boardwalk and some semblance of a pathway to the ocean in the same location for more than 70 years. Aerial photographs from 1938 onward “show the same path, however it is not possible to say with absolute certainty from any of these photographs whether the bare area shown is (a) just sand without a boardwalk; (b) a boardwalk; or (c) sand covering the boardwalk,” Mr. Whalen wrote in his submission to the zoning board.

    There are five separate lots in the vicinity, he said, and between them, there could be three legal access-ways to the beach. As it stands, all of them  share the boardwalk over Nature Conservancy property.

    Mr. Whalen characterized the reconstructed boardwalk as an “in-kind” replacement of what had been there previously, with “new wooden boards that are the same width as the boards that were replaced.”

    There was controversy over the deeds to the Nature Conservancy parcels, and whether or not they allowed for building on the land. Also, Larry Penny, the town’s director of natural resources, disagreed with Mr. Whalen, saying that aerial photographs he examined from before construction of the current mahogany walkway did not show a boardwalk.

    At the hearing Tuesday night, Mr. Penny said, “I went through the photos, dating back to 1983, and only one photo showed a part of a boardwalk, the others didn’t show anything.” In 2009, Mr. Penny inspected the property for invasive species; he did not see a boardwalk at that time, only a “sandy path,” he said. When he noticed the mahogany boardwalk, he alerted town authorities of an illegal structure, as he could not locate a permit for the reconstruction, he said.

    Jonathan Sobel, the owner of a parcel west of the property in question, said that deeds granting the land to the Nature Conservancy state that the parcels should “be kept forever in their natural state without any disturbance of habitat or plant whatsoever.” There is an easement for the northern property owner, Windsor, for beach access; however, Mr. Sobel said it is only over the first of the parcels donated to the conservancy, which is not part of this application and allows for a boardwalk “only within its easternmost 10 feet.”

    Under town code, a coastal structure may be placed at any location on a lot if the structure and its associated uses are not detrimental to any natural resource. Mr. Sobel asserted that the boardwalk is ineligible for a natural resources permit, as it passes through a protected area of beach vegetation. Additionally, he said that if this application is approved, more boardwalks will be built, and the cumulative results will be devastating to the dunes.

    Brain Frank, a town planner, evaluated the boardwalk in question and did not find any negative impact to the dunes. “I’ve been to the property, looking for signs of degradation that would affect the Planning Department’s recommendation, and there aren’t any visible now,” he said. While Mr. Frank agreed with some of the speakers that “a proliferation of boardwalks would be a concern,” he said this one was not problematic.

    The board closed the hearing, but will continue its discussion of the application at an upcoming work session.

    The East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals considered an application on Nov. 29 to construct stairs and a walkway to the ocean beach from a house at 241 Marine Boulevard in Amagansett. The applicant, Brian Maher, is appealing a decision by Tom Preiato, the senior building inspector for East Hampton Town, denying the project. In addition to a reversal of the decision, Mr. Maher is seeking a natural resources permit, but argues that he does not need a variance for the construction.

    Brian Matthews, counsel for Mr. Maher, spoke on his behalf. His client had initially applied in May 2010 for an elevated walkway two feet above ground as well as stairs from his oceanfront house. At the time, according to Mr. Matthews, the East Hampton Town Planning Department would not review the application because a similar application, involving an easement, had been denied in 2000.

    A neighbor subsequently received a certificate of occupancy for similar construction, which prompted Mr. Maher to resubmit his application, Mr. Matthews said. Following correspondence in March, the applicant was informed that he would need a variance because stairs and walkways are not exempt from prohibitions on coastal structures.

    “The Planning Department and my office went to the building inspector to discuss the stairs with him. All they do is access the walkway,” Mr. Matthews said. He said they were told the stairs needed to meet zoning setbacks and if the stairs were connected to a deck on the house, a natural resources permit would not be needed.

    The result would have been a 12-foot-high walkway. His client opted instead to apply for a variance.

    “The application for the stairs meets the relevant variance criteria,” Mr. Matthews said, adding that the application had already received State Department of Environmental Conservation approval. “It’s less than four feet wide, and we eliminated the platform at the southern end,” he said. There is a public walkway nearby, but Mr. Matthews said, “You purchase oceanfront property, you have the right to access the ocean.” He also said connecting to the public walkway would cause a greater disturbance.

    Mr. Matthews said there would be no negative environmental impacts and that it would not affect adjacent properties, which all have similar walkways.

    Tyler Borsack, an environmental technician for the Planning Department, told the board that reversing Mr. Preiato’s decision would set a precedent. “The stairs are not part of coastal structures” as identified in the town code, he said. Connecting to the public walkway was a reasonable alternative as would be connecting a new walkway to the deck, added Mr. Borsack.

    The board will come to a decision in the next few weeks.

    Part of a story about the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee’s Nov. 14 meeting was inadvertently omitted from last week’s Star.

    Before the arrival of Councilman Dominic Stanzione, the advisory committee’s town board liaison, Bill Di Scipio (William J. Di Scipio, Ph.D.), the group’s secretary, launched into a presentation of what he called “a system to enhance the workings and prestige of the committee.”

    Dr. Di Scipio had clearly put a lot of time and toil into his speech, which was accompanied by slides and charts. He was hoping for the committee to adopt a long list of procedures he had drawn up, along the lines of Robert’s Rules of Order, dealing with and defining “ordinary motions” (to adjourn, to recess, to amend, etc.) and “special motions” (point of order, to appeal, to rescind, etc.). His 20-minute discourse had a few in the audience of about 30 muttering, though most listened politely.

    “We are not just advisers,” Dr. Di Scipio maintained at one point. “We are a professional committee.”

    After Mr. Stanzione spoke, as reported last week, about more parking in the hamlet and deer fencing at East Hampton Airport, Dr. Di Scipio stood up to continue his spiel, though this time there was scattered vocal opposition.

    “We don’t need these hard-and-fast rules,” said Tom Field. “They limit discussion. The chairman takes care of it.”

    “We have 34 [committee members] with different ideas,” Dr. Di Scipio responded. “I don’t want to put all the power in the chairman’s position.”

    “No one does this,” protested Sheila Okin. “If we have all these rules we’ll never get anything done. We’re all here for the same reasons — we’re here for Amagansett.”

    Dr. Di Scipio pressed valiantly on. “There has to be a quorum,” he said. “And this brings in the issue of proxies. The federal government and the state government —” But here, the muted groans became more audible.

    “Part of your right to vote is your punishment to be here,” said Joan Tulp. “I am absolutely against proxies.”

    “I’d like to make a motion that everyone in favor of proxies raise their hand,” said Elaine Miller.

    “I move to rescind that motion,” said Dr. Di Scipio.

    “He hasn’t got a second for that,” Mr. Field observed, and Kent Miller, the chairman of the committee, declared the meeting over.

    “Okay,” said Dr. Di Scipio. “I’ll still be your secretary.”

East Hampton Town

Town to Sell Condos

    With a vote last Thursday night, the East Hampton Town Board formalized its intent to sell seven town-owned office condominium units at Pantigo Place, close to Town Hall, in order to raise money to build new offices at the Town Hall campus to accommodate all town departments on site. A potential buyer has indicated interest in the units, which have been appraised at $3 million, based on an immediate closing, and town officials moved to issue a notice to bidders who might wish to counter that minimum price. The terms include a closing within 60 days of the town’s acceptance of the bid, and the right for the town to maintain occupancy of the units for a year from the closing date, at no cost to the town.

Poxy Discount to Continue

    A resolution passed by the town board at last week’s meeting approved an intermunicipal agreement with the Town of Southampton, with which East Hampton jointly owns the Poxabogue Golf Center in Sagaponack. The town board has authorized the sale of its 50-percent interest in the center to Southampton for $2.2 million. The towns bought the course for a total of $3.25 million in 2004. Members of the public speaking at a hearing on the proposal had questioned whether the sale would result in higher charges for East Hampton residents golfing at Poxabogue. The new agreement between the towns would guarantee East Hamptoners the same discounted rate charged to Southampton Town residents for an initial term of five years, with options to extend the agreement upon the towns’ mutual consent.

Deer Permits

    Hunters may obtain applications for the Town of East Hampton’s lottery for deer hunting permits on town land from the town clerk’s office beginning on Dec. 5. They must be returned before 4 p.m. on Dec. 21 to be included in the lottery drawing. The 2012 shotgun deer hunting season opens at sunrise on Jan. 9 and runs through Jan. 31, on weekdays only. Hunting is not allowed on Saturdays and Sundays.

Boys Harbor Access

    Also last Thursday night, the town board awarded Keith Grimes of Montauk a bid for the creation of an access road into the recently purchased former Boys Harbor camp property. Mr. Grimes was the lowest responsible bidder for the job, according to the town board resolution. The 26-acre property is jointly owned with Suffolk County, and will be open for public use. East Hampton used its community preservation fund to pay its half of the $7.3 million purchase price.

C.P.F. Management Plan

    The town board will hold a hearing at Town Hall next Thursday night at 7 on a management and stewardship plan for properties purchased by East Hampton’s community preservation fund. Under the law creating the fund, which receives the proceeds of a 2-percent transfer tax on most real estate transfers, up to 10 percent of the money collected may be used for costs related to management and stewardship of the properties.

    Among the expenditures in the draft plan are a proposal to use just over $250,000 to restore the historic farmhouse at the Lester-Labrozzi property at North Main and Cedar Streets in East Hampton in order to create a farm museum; one to spend $200,000 to demolish derelict buildings at the former Boys Harbor camp; spending $4,000 to revegetate areas or place informational kiosks at open space parcels, and allocating $35,800 to provide access to shoreline properties, including working with New York State and Suffolk County at the Amsterdam Beach property in Montauk to create a parking area, trails, and a boardwalk and/or bridges over small streams or wetlands areas of the property. The full text of the management and stewardship plan is on the land acquisition section of the town Web site, at ehampton.ny.gov, and is available at the town clerk’s office.

Snow Removal Bids

    The East Hampton Town Purchasing Department will accept bids through Friday, Dec. 2, at 3 p.m. on snow and ice removal at various town parking lots and sidewalks. Specifications are available at the Purchasing Department office.

West Drive Road District

    A resolution passed by the town board at its meeting last week establishes a road improvement district along the northerly portion of West Drive and a portion of Pennsylvania Avenue, roads in an industrial area off Springs-Fireplace Road in East Hampton.

    Ten deed holders of property along those roads will pay jointly for improvements to be made to approximately 1,770 feet of the roadway to bring it up to town highway specifications, an estimated maximum cost of $945,000. It will then become a public road. Once that occurs, the Snyder family of East Hampton can proceed with a long-delayed commercial subdivision on land between Springs-Fireplace and Three Mile Harbor Roads, the access to which will be over the new public road.

    The planning board had required access to the subdivision over the northerly section of West Drive, contingent upon creation of a public road, but the town had been unable for some years to obtain title to areas needed for road shoulders. Earlier this year, when the Snyders proposed taking access to the new subdivision over a southerly portion of West Drive, through a residential area, residents of the area protested, just as they had after an initial proposal to have commercial traffic use that road.

    The establishment of the road improvement district is subject to a permissive referendum; it can be challenged if a certain percentage of voters petition to do so.

Community Development Grants

    A budget for next year’s community development block grant, federal money earmarked for particular types of projects in the town, such as those benefiting lower-income residents, was adopted by the town board at its recent meeting. The $116,783 expected will be apportioned as follows: $40,000 for replacement of windows at the Accabonac Apartments, a complex run by the East Hampton Housing Authority; $10,000 for air-conditioning at the Windmill Village senior citizens housing complex in East Hampton; $36,500 for work in kitchens at the Whalebone Apartments in East Hampton; $15,000 for a sun shade and foul ball protection at Lions Field in Montauk; $7,500 to Maureen’s Haven, an organization that provides shelter for the homeless, and $7,783 to Project MOST, an after-school program. The block grant is administered by the town’s Office of Housing and Community Development.

New Phones at Town Hall

    A new phone system at Town Hall will provide updated options, such as the ability to call a central number to reach various town offices and access to town office voice mail from outside lines, and will add video conferencing to the mix. The system is also expected to save money.

    After hearing proposals, the town board last Thursday approved one from MAC Source. Needed hardware will cost $39,647, and annual equipment leases and maintenance will cost $16,711 for the first year and $24,511 for years two through five. The town will also purchase equipment for an emergency off-site backup system at a cost not to exceed $11,600, and pay up to $11,000 for the video conferencing equipment.       

    A close look at the financial operations at LTV, East Hampton Town’s public-access cable television provider, showed shortcomings in record keeping on purchases of equipment that would belong to the town should LTV cease to exist, Len Bernard, the town’s budget officer, reported Tuesday. LTV receives the lion’s share of its annual budget from the town, $712,000 last year.

    The budget office spent the last few months conducting an “internal audit” of LTV, said Mr. Bernard in a report to the town board. Under a long-term contract that will expire next year, the town funnels 80 percent of the money it receives from Cablevision for operations in the town to LTV. In addition, the town provides $40,000 a year for equipment.

    LTV tapes and airs meetings of town government bodies, including the town board and the planning, zoning, and architectural review boards, on channel 22, which also airs school and educational programs. It also provides an opportunity for community members to create and air programs on its other channel, 20.

    The financial review, Mr. Bernard said, examined whether LTV spent its money from the town on providing public TV access, as required; on whether expenditures were properly approved and documented, and on whether the equipment bought with town funds was properly used and controlled.

    Money is being properly spent at LTV, he reported, but the procurement process does not necessarily ensure that purchases are made at the best possible prices. At least, he said, there is no documentation to prove it.

    One problem, Mr. Bernard said, is that LTV’s records do not distinguish which pieces of equipment were purchased with town money versus other funds. In addition, he said, while LTV requires employees to sign equipment out and back in, control over how and where it is used is lacking.

    “Could LTV employees use equipment for their own business?” Supervisor Bill Wilkinson asked. “That’s something that needs to be looked at,” Mr. Bernard said. “At a minimum, you certainly can go back and determine which fixed assets were bought with town funds,” he told the town board.

    In preparing a new contract with LTV next year, he said, those types of record keeping procedures should be specified.

    Mr. Bernard suggested the organization should follow the purchasing procedures outlined in municipal law, which the town employs. That may be proper, Mr. Wilkinson said, but if so, then the town should hold other organizations for which it provides funding to the same standards.

    Councilman Dominick Stanzione questioned the nature of the agreement with LTV, which guarantees an annual grant regardless of whether that much is needed.

    Although LTV is regularly funded by the town, akin to a town department, he said, the arrangement is unlike the budgeting process for departments, wherein a department head tells the board how much money will be needed in a coming year and board members allocate that specific amount.

    The town first contracted with LTV in 1999, when it was just getting off the ground, Councilman Pete Hammerle explained. Federal Communications Commission rules requiring cable companies to provide public access stations were in place, and Frazier Dougherty, an East Hampton resident, started LTV to fill that requirement. “Everybody wanted LTV to be hugely successful, and we agreed to dedicate the entire franchise fee,” Mr. Hammerle said.

    That scenario could now be revisited as a new contract is prepared, board members suggested. Other towns do not allocate their franchise fees to public access providers, as East Hampton has, Mr. Wilkinson noted.

    The budget office reviewed annual audits of LTV performed by an outside auditor, Mr. Bernard said. The overall revenue at LTV last year was $806,000, he said, including the town’s contribution. Fund-raising, and a grant from East Hampton Village, helped make up the difference.

    LTV’s board of directors has ultimate control over expenditures, including salaries for seven employees, among them a director who makes $75,000 a year.