The communitywide debate about the South Fork Wind Farm, a proposed 15-turbine installation approximately 36 miles from Montauk, continued on Oct. 4 when the East Hampton Town Trustees’ harbor management committee and the town’s energy sustainability advisory committee hosted a forum that featured speakers both in favor of and opposed to the project. 

Deepwater Wind, the Rhode Island company that plans to build the wind farm, is engaged in survey work and community outreach. It plans to submit permit applications to some 26 federal, state, and local entities in the first quarter of 2018. If all goes according to its plan, construction would begin in 2021, with the wind farm operational late in 2022. 

Clint Plummer, Deepwater Wind’s vice president of development, told the gathering that the feedback his company has solicited from residents is helping to shape the project. He pointed to the company’s reconsideration of the transmission cable’s route from the wind farm to the shore, in response to concern from commercial fishermen that a route through Gardiner’s Bay would damage habitat and disrupt their livelihood, as an example. 

“We’re now considering three potential South Shore landing locations based on consultations with a wide variety of groups right here in East Hampton,” he said, “and are working to gather the data necessary to make a decision on what the most appropriate of those locations is.” Under consideration are landings at Hither Hills State Park in Montauk, the end of Napeague Lane in Amagansett, and around Beach Lane in Wainscott. “We’re changing the design of the project to make it work best for this community,” he said, “and we will continue to do so.”

Once it reaches land, the cable will be laid at least 10 feet underground, he said, via horizontal directional drilling. “I want to reassure the community that we understand the importance of beaches,” he said, hence a drilling methodology that will preclude construction on the beach. Should the project proceed, construction will happen in the off-season, he said, primarily between November and March. 

Permit applications will be subject to “a long public review process,” he said. “It will make the project better.” 

Deepwater Wind built the Block Island Wind Farm, a five-turbine installation that went online in December. For that project, the company undertook multiple environmental surveys. “When we have comparable science for the South Fork Wind Farm, we’ll come back and present those findings as well,” Mr. Plummer said. Initial findings in post-construction surveys of the Block Island installation indicate no detrimental effects on fish habitat or commercial fishing activities, he said. 

The Block Island project created around 300 jobs in Rhode Island, he said. “We’re evaluating the potential for basing our operations and maintenance — permanent jobs in connection with the project — right here in East Hampton.”

Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, was unmoved. A vocal critic of the proposal, she said that “an industrial project does not belong on fishing grounds” because of “the environmental harm they create from the construction phase through to operation.” The sound pressure produced by pile-driving the turbines’ bases deep into the ocean floor can kill and maim marine life, she said, causing permanent damage that renders fish unable to navigate and communicate. “When that pile-driving occurs,” she said, “it occurs for days on end.”

Jet-plowing the sea floor to create a liquefied trench, into which the transmission cable is laid, will annihilate fish and larvae, Ms. Brady said. Buildup of silt behind turbines’ foundations will “choke out the species that live there,” such as crabs and lobsters. Studies have shown that the electromagnetic field emanating from the transmission cable attracts sharks, she said, altering the existing habitat. 

“By putting these things in areas where fish live or migrate through, we’re taking chances on our own food supply,” Ms. Brady said. “Please reconsider this project.”

But Adrienne Esposito of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment noted that some of the fossil-fuel plants providing energy for Long Island have been killing fish and larvae for decades, and two transmission cables have long connected the Island with the mainland. Those concerned about fish should know that the Northport Power Station and the E.F. Barrett Power Station, in Island Park, use a “once-through” cooling system. “That means they are sucking water out of our estuaries, putting it through the power plant, cooling it down, and discharging it into our estuaries.”

The E.F. Barrett plant draws 294 million gallons of South Shore estuary water every day, Ms. Esposito said, killing some 906 million larvae or finfish each year in the process. “But that’s not the worst one on Long Island,” she said. “Northport is considered the fish killer in the Northeast,” drawing 939 million gallons of water each day and killing 8.4 billion fish larvae or shellfish annually. “These plants have been doing this for 50 years,” she said.

Wind power is not perfect, Ms. Esposito said. “All large-scale energy infrastructure has some impact to the environment and the society.” But “when you say no to wind, you’re saying yes to what we’re currently using.”

Brad Loewen, chairman of the town’s fisheries advisory committee, asked that Deepwater Wind establish a fund “that will be used to benefit the fishing industry in East Hampton.” The trustees and a committee of fishermen would administer the fund, which he said would further scientific and socioeconomic research of the fishing community and fund legal opinions and decisions about existing and future wind farms and other issues. If Deepwater Wind sincerely wants to benefit that community, “they will put their money where their mouth is,” Mr. Loewen said. 

Gordian Raacke, the executive director of Renewable Energy Long Island and a member of the energy sustainability committee, summarized the views of the wind farm’s proponents. “The oceans have been absorbing the carbon dioxide we’ve been pushing into the atmosphere” since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, and they are 30 percent more acidic as a consequence. If we continue on this course, the climate will reach “a point of no return” characterized by “dramatic and catastrophic effects . . . that we could never undo.” To return to a safe level, “we have to immediately reduce carbon emission from all sectors,” he said, “starting with energy production.”

A recent appeals court ruling in a case that grew out of PSEG Long Island’s expansion of an electrical substation on Old Stone Highway in Amagansett, represents a mixed decision for East Hampton Town, which had sought to hold the utility provider to local zoning laws that would have required planning board review of the project.

In 2016, a lower court said PSEG was exempt from those laws, leading the town to appeal; last week, in a win for the town, a State Supreme Appellate Court panel vacated the lower court’s ruling, “thereby returning local site plan and permitting control over to East Hampton Town,” according to a press release from Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell.  

But the town will still have no say over the Amagansett site, as the court also ruled that, since construction at the substation had been completed during the appeal, it could remain without review. That portion of the appeal was dismissed as academic.

In April 2014, the town issued a stop-work order for the expansion of the substation in Amagansett until PSEG obtained a building permit and complied with the town zoning code. PSEG sued, claiming exemption from local laws. In a decision the next spring, a county Supreme Court judge agreed, and allowed the work to proceed, even though the town appealed and asked for a stay.

Had the planning board reviewed the project, PSEG may have been held to zoning code and design standards regarding such things as setbacks from the road, fencing, and vegetative screening.

As a result of discussions with PSEG representatives, largely by Town Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, the company did eventually install some plantings around the site, but the effort, for some community residents, fell short. 

“East Hampton continues to move forward with our goal of achieving 100 percent of our electricity from renewable sources by 2020,” said East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell in a press release. As a result of the decision, he said, “the infrastructure improvements that are being planned to achieve such a goal will now be subject to local regulatory control so that not only are the sustainable energy goals achieved, but the natural beauty and character of our neighborhoods are preserved and protected,” he said.

As the electrical service provider for the Long Island Power Authority, PSEG Long Island began work in 2013 to upgrade power transmission lines between its East Hampton Village and Amagansett substations. The installation of new, taller poles and high-voltage lines on residential streets along the six-mile route caused an outcry from residents concerned about safety and aesthetics and prompted a discussion about installing buried rather than overhead lines.  

In conversations with elected officials, PSEG representatives said they would bury the lines, but only if the town and local ratepayers shouldered the cost, which was estimated at $20 million or more. The overhead lines went up while those talks took place, and they have been left as installed. 

East Hampton Town

Hamlet Studies

First-draft plans for the future of the commercial centers of each of East Hampton’s hamlets are being revised by consultants engaged by East Hampton Town, and those who would like to make a suggestion or comment have been advised to do so now, before the process is completed.

Messages to the consultants, Dodson and Flinker with RKG Associates, L.K. McLean Associates, and Fine Arts and Sciences, can be sent by email to [email protected].

The drafted plans for East Hampton, Amagansett, Wainscott, Montauk, and Springs, along with a business and economic study report, can be viewed on the town’s website, ehamptonny.gov, by searching for “hamlet study.” 

Final drafts are expected to be presented to the town board and the public by the end of next month or in December.   J.P. 

New York State

Legislation to Outlaw Bump Stocks

In the wake of the Oct. 1 mass shooting in Las Vegas in which 58 people were killed and more than 500 wounded at an outdoor music festival, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. is cosponsoring legislation that would outlaw a trigger crank, a bump-fire device, or any part, combination of parts, component, device, attachment, or accessory designed to accelerate a semiautomatic rifle’s rate of fire to approximate the operation of a machine gun.

A “bump stock” replaces a rifle’s standard stock, the part held against the shoulder. It frees the weapon to slide back and forth rapidly, harnessing the energy from the kickback shooters feel when the weapon fires. The stock “bumps” back and forth between the shooter’s shoulder and trigger finger, causing the rifle to fire rapidly and repeatedly. 

The bump stock is not banned under federal law. It is illegal for private citizens to possess fully automatic firearms manufactured after May 19, 1986; ownership of earlier models requires a federal license.

“The tragedy in Las Vegas clearly points to a flaw in both state and federal firearms laws,” Mr. Thiele said in a statement. “The possession of a machine gun by a civilian has been prohibited in the United States for nearly 100 years. There is no valid reason that any citizen needs to possess the functional equivalent of a machine gun or automatic weapon. I urge both Albany and Washington to correct this flaw immediately.”

Town Trustee Candidate Forums

Voters in East Hampton Town will have at least three chances in the coming week to hear from the candidates for East Hampton Town trustee. 

The Long Island Fishing Association and the Montauk Boatmen and Captains Association will host the candidates for a question-and-answer session at the Montauk Firehouse on Tuesday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. 

On Wednesday and next Thursday, the East Hampton Historical Society will offer an overview of the Dongan Patent, which set the format for East Hampton Town’s oldest governing body, established in 1686. Candidates will introduce themselves briefly and then answer questions. In East Hampton Town, voters select all nine members of the board of trustees every two years. Republican candidates will be on hand on Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Clinton Academy on East Hampton’s Main Street; Democrats will be there the same time next Thursday. 

Questions can be submitted in advance by calling the historical society at 631-324-6850 or emailing [email protected]. Reservations are not required, but seating is limited. 

Forum Today

Concerned Citizens of Montauk and the New York League of Conservation Voters Education Fund will co-host a candidates forum focusing on the environment today at Scoville Hall in Amagansett from 5 to 7 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc and Manny Vilar, the Democratic and Republican candidates for East Hampton Town supervisor, are scheduled to attend, as are their running mates, the Democrats Jeffrey Bragman and Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, and the Republicans Paul Giardina and Jerry Larsen. 

East Hampton Candidates Debate

The League of Women Voters of the Hamptons will sponsor a debate featuring candidates for East Hampton Town Board on Monday at 7 p.m. at the Emergency Services Building in East Hampton Village. Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc and Manny Vilar, the Democratic and Republican candidates for East Hampton Town supervisor, respectively, are scheduled to attend, as are their running mates, the Democrats Jeffrey Bragman and Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, and the Republicans Paul Giardina and Jerry Larsen. 

Susan Wilson, the League’s co-president, will moderate the debate. The candidates will make timed opening and closing statements and answer questions submitted by a panel of journalists and the League, as well as by the audience. Candidates for other offices on the November ballot have been invited to introduce themselves by name and the office for which they are running.

Southampton Town Debates

The Press News Group will host a debate between candidates for Southampton Town Board and supervisor tonight at the Southampton Arts Center. The program will be split into two sections, one for the candidates for the town board — Tommy John Schiavoni and Julie Lofstad on the Democratic ticket and Thea Dombrowski-Fry and Stan Glinka on the Republican ticket — and one for the supervisor candidates, Ray Overton, the Republican, and Jay Schneiderman, the current supervisor and an Independence Party member, who is making his first re-election bid on the Independence and Democratic tickets. The program is to be held between 7 and 9 p.m. 

Other upcoming debates include one sponsored by the Hampton Bays Civic Association at the Hampton Bays Senior Center on Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. and a League of Women Voters debate on Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton. The latter will be moderated by Cathy Peacock, the league’s government committee co-chairwoman.

Meet the Southampton Candidates

The Southampton Business Alliance will sponsor a meet the candidates’ forum at the Southampton Inn on Hill Street on Wednesday from 5:30 to 7 p.m. All of the town candidates have been invited to meet members of the alliance and discuss the future of business in the Town of Southampton. Wine and cheese, beer, and soft drinks will be served. Admission is $25. Tickets were to have been reserved by today. 

Horowitz Fund-Raiser

A fund-raiser for the re-election campaign for Scott Horowitz, a Southampton Town trustee, will be held on Wednesday at the V.F.W. building on Old Riverhead Road in Westhampton Beach. Tickets start at $60 per person or $100 per couple. The event will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Checks can be made payable to the Friends of Scott Horowitz, P.O. Box 543, East Quogue 11942. 

Thiele Staying Seated

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. will not seek the nomination to represent New York’s First Congressional District. 

In an email to The Star last week, Mr. Thiele said that Democratic Party leaders and community activists had approached him about the seat held by Lee Zeldin, a Republican serving his second term. “I gave careful consideration to leaving my seat in the State Assembly to run for Congress,” he said. “It is humbling that so many would think I would be a good congressman. After careful deliberation, I have decided to not seek the congressional nomination and will be running for re-election to the State Assembly in 2018.”

“First and foremost, I believe I can accomplish more for eastern Long Island as a senior member and leader in Albany than as a freshman congressman,” said Mr. Thiele, who is chairman of the Small Business Committee and a member of the Ways and Means Committee. He also has assignments on the Education, Environmental Conservation, and Transportation Committees. “There is much unfinished business with water quality issues, improved public transit for the South Fork, the renaissance of the Southampton campus, and advocacy for the commercial fishing industry, among the many issues that will continue to be my priorities.”

“From a political perspective,” Mr. Thiele continued, “it has been my belief from the outset that the key to providing new progressive leadership for the First Congressional District was early consensus around a single candidate to oppose the incumbent. Such a consensus does not exist at this time. I look forward to working as a running mate with whoever is the Democratic nominee to oppose the incumbent.” C.W.

East Hamptoner to Challenge Zeldin

Perry Gershon, an East Hampton resident and potential Democratic candidate for New York’s First Congressional District, raised more than $500,000 in the period between filing his candidacy paperwork on July 15 and Sept. 30, his campaign announced last week. 

“Since I entered this race, I’ve spoken with hundreds of residents and listened to their concerns about the extremist positions Lee Zeldin has taken,” Mr. Gershon said in a statement. “Long Islanders are hungry for new leadership and today’s filing reflects an encouraging vote of confidence in our campaign. We need to make sure that Long Islanders have a representative who understands their needs and who will fight for their interests.” Mr. Zeldin, a Republican, is in his second term in Congress. 

“Over the coming months, I’ll continue to speak with people in communities across Suffolk County to let them know they can count on me to fight for high paying jobs, affordable health care, and a clean environment,” he said.

State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. has decided not to seek the Democratic nomination to run for election to New York's First Congressional District, a move he had considered for several months.

In an email to The Star on Wednesday, Mr. Thiele said Democratic Party leaders and community activists had approached him about the seat held by Lee Zeldin, a Republican serving a second term.

"I gave careful consideration to leaving my seat in the State Assembly to run for Congress. It is humbling that so many would think I would be a good congressman," Mr. Thiele said.

"From a political perspective, it has been my belief from the outset that the key to providing new progressive leadership for the First Congressional District was early consensus around a single candidate to oppose the incumbent. Such a consensus does not exist at this time."

Mr. Thiele, who is chairman of the Assembly's Small Business Committee and a member of the Ways and Means Committee, said he believed he could accomplish more for eastern Long Island as a senior member and leader in Albany than as a freshman congressman. He also has assignments on the Education, Environmental Conservation, and Transportation Committees.



"There is much unfinished business with water quality issues, improved public transit for the South Fork, the renaissance of the Southampton campus, and advocacy for the commercial fishing industry, among the many issues that will continue to be my priorities."

"I look forward to working as a running mate with whomever is the Democratic nominee to oppose the incumbent," he added.

The Hampton Hopper shuttle bus service in Montauk, underwritten by East Hampton Town with a $100,000 state grant, was successful in attracting riders last summer, but the company lost money providing the service, Derek Kleinow, Hampton Hopper’s owner, reported to the town board on Tuesday.

The service ran daily from June 28 through Labor Day, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., with two buses making 15 stops along a route from the campground at Hither Hills into downtown Montauk and to and from the dock area. Buses made two scheduled stops per hour at 10 designated bus stops; there were five additional locations at which riders could flag buses down. 

Mr. Kleinow said that during the pilot summer, the Hopper provided 20,715 rides, “a number that we’re really happy about.” 

The average number of rides provided daily throughout the whole season was just over 300; however, ridership grew as the summer wore on, Mr. Kleinow said, reaching a maximum in mid-August, when there were 370 rides provided on an average day. 

Local employees as well as visitors to Montauk used the service, he said, and the feedback from passengers was “extremely positive.”

The largest number of riders used the downtown Montauk stop at the Chamber of Commerce building; pickups and drop-offs at the docks were the next most frequent, and passengers getting on and off at the Montauk Yacht Club were the third largest group. 

A Hampton Hopper app was downloaded 3,600 times during the Montauk Hampton Hopper season, said Mr. Kleinow, in addition to 10,000 previous downloads. The app allowed riders to see the location of buses in real time, reassuring workers, Mr. Kleinow surmised, that they could rely on the buses to get them to work at a designated time.

While Hampton Hopper had projected a loss of $10,250 for the season, the loss in fact was $51,000, Mr. Kleinow said. Costs were higher than anticipated for vehicle maintenance and insurance as well as labor, he said, and anticipated income from ads on the shuttle buses did not materialize. 

Should the town seek to continue the service, he asked the board to consider increasing the budget for it, and to issue a request for proposals for the service earlier in the year, providing companies like his, who would like to submit proposals, with more time to develop an adequate business plan. In addition, he said, a longer-term contract, perhaps for three to five years rather than just a season, would be helpful. Rides should remain free, he said.

Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell congratulated Mr. Kleinow and Rob Dunn, Hampton Hopper’s operations and charter manager, who was also at this week’s meeting, on their commitment to making the shuttle bus service successful. “We’ve proven there’s a tremendous demand for this,” Mr. Cantwell said. “It’s clearly a model that worked, and has potential to be expanded in the future.”

He said that New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. was “optimistic” that state money would be provided for the service next year, and that there is “likely to be a recurring source of funding” for the shuttle. The board will work on issuing a call for proposals for next summer’s service by the end of 2017, Mr. Cantwell said. 

Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, who is the board’s representative on the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee, said members of the group erupted in applause when he reported that more than 20,000 trips had been taken by Hampton Hopper riders, likely avoiding a similar number of trips by individual vehicles and reducing traffic. 

“They totally supported it and want to see it continue,” said Mr. Van Scoyoc of the committee’s stance toward the bus shuttle. 

Hoping to turn the site of the long-defunct Star Room nightclub in Wainscott into open space or perhaps a park, the East Hampton Town Board has scheduled a hearing for next Thursday on the $2.1 million purchase of the property, just over an acre on the north side of Montauk Highway.

The Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation has offered to contribute $300,000 to the cost, with the town using the community preservation fund for the rest. 

The property had been targeted for a proposed car wash that engendered community opposition. The foundation had pointed out that the site was part of the Georgica Pond watershed. The area also had been discussed during recent public meetings on Wainscott’s future as a place that could become a natural and aesthetic gateway to the hamlet.

The proposed purchase is complicated by the fact that there is a $2.5 million mortgage lien on the site, which is owned by the estate of Isha Kaushik. It was slated for sale at auction on Monday; town officials had not learned as of press time whether the auction took place. The purchase would have to be approved by the bank holding the mortgage.

To prove serious interest in the purchase, town officials voted last week to sign a contract with Mr. Kaushik’s estate even before holding a hearing. The hearing was scheduled at the same time and will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.

In an exception to a policy of requiring sellers of developed property to remove structures before land purchases go through, the town would acquire the Star Room site unchanged and bear the responsibility of taking down the buildings. 

The town board’s interest in acquiring land for open space and other community purposes has been in high gear this month, as it also voted to issue a $2 million bond to buy 12 acres at 359 Pantigo Road and scheduled or held hearings on the purchase of properties on Old Stone Highway in Springs and on West Lake Drive in Montauk.

The potential acquisition of the acreage on Pantigo Road, which is being eyed as a potential location for affordable housing and recreation, is another complex deal. The land is owned by a group of family members. One, a man in his 90s, lives in a house there and reportedly is negotiating to live in it for the remainder of his life. 

  It was set to be auctioned last week, but the auction was called off. The board had authorized Scott Wilson, the town’s director of land management and acquisition, to attend the auction and to bid up to $2 million. The money was to come from the general town budget rather than the community preservation fund in order to allow the property to be used for more than open space or passive recreation.

Another hearing next Thursday will focus on the board’s proposal to buy a .62-acre vacant lot at 20 Squaw Road at Three Mile Harbor, which is owned by Joseph Dragotta and would cost $455,000. Its former public purchase had divided neighbors and prompted a lawsuit, which has now been dismissed. Some feared that if the parcel were public, it would draw unwanted or disruptive visitors, while others supported more open space along the harbor. 

Meanwhile, after a hearing last Thursday, the town board authorized the purchase of two acres at 400 Old Stone Highway in Springs for $775,000 from Claire Nivola. It is to use the preservation fund and the land will be added to adjacent public property, extending preserved woodland and open space.

Also after a hearing last Thursday, the board voted to buy an almost half-acre parcel at 54 West Lake Drive in Montauk from Lillian Hauben and Irene Petrillo for $320,000, also using the community preservation fund.

Due to an editing error, the story above indicates that the purchase of land at 20 Squaw Road in East Hampton had been previously proposed by the town and was opposed by neighbors, prompting a lawsuit. In fact, it was the town's proposed purchase of another lot on Squaw Road, which has since gone through, that prompted some neighbors to object and one to file a lawsuit, which has been dismissed. 

A Fund-Raiser for Fleming

A cocktail party and fund-raiser for the re-election campaign of Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming will be held next Thursday at Christy’s Art Center in Sag Harbor. Tickets are $175, $75 for those under 30. Those planning to attend have been asked to R.S.V.P. by sending an email to [email protected]. 

Ms. Fleming, a former member of the Southampton Town Board, was elected to the Legislature in 2015. She is running on the Democratic Party ticket and is also supported by the Independence, Working Families, and Women’s Equality Parties. Her district, the Second Legislative District, comprises the South Fork from Montauk to Moriches and Shelter Island. 

She serves on the Legislature’s environment, planning and agriculture, health, public safety, public works, transportation and energy, and ways and means committees. She is the chairwoman of the latter committee. 

Ms. Fleming, who lives in Noyac, will face a Republican candidate, Heather Collins, who ran for State Assembly in 2014 and 2016. Election Day is Nov. 7.

Bellone Pushes Action on Algae

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone has urged members of the county’s congressional delegation to help secure federal funding to implement projects designed to combat harmful algal blooms and improve water quality. The Senate has recently introduced legislation that would appropriate up to $100 million to eliminate toxic algae in communities across the nation.

Mr. Bellone sent a letter to the congressional delegation on Tuesday, one day after announcing the completion of the first comprehensive integrated strategy to guide the work of multiple levels of government, academia, and scientists to address increasingly frequent algal blooms that have plagued marine waters on Long Island, threatening the environment and economy. The Suffolk Harmful Algal Bloom Action Plan was developed by the county’s Department of Health Services’ Division of Environmental Quality in partnership with scientists and academics, drawing on the knowledge of experts nationwide. A copy of the plan can be found at reclaimourwater.info.

Last week, Senator Charles Schumer announced that he would work to ensure that Long Island received its fair share of federal funding that may become available through legislation that would provide up to $100 million to communities across the country to combat toxic algae. “We appreciate his leadership on this vital issue,” Mr. Bellone wrote, “and respectfully urge you to join him in helping to ensure that Suffolk County and its partners in these efforts are able to secure these important financial resources.”

East Hampton Town

Wind Farm Meeting Wednesday

The next meeting of the East Hampton Town Trustees’ harbor management committee will be dedicated to the proposed South Fork Wind Farm, a 15-turbine installation that would be constructed approximately 30 miles from Montauk. The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday from 6 to 9 p.m. at Scoville Hall in Amagansett. Rick Drew, who heads the committee, told his colleagues on Monday that the meeting will be devoted to a discussion of the project’s benefits to the town, including construction of a resilient, sustainable energy infrastructure. Officials of Deepwater Wind, the Rhode Island company that plans to build the wind farm, will attend, he said, along with members of the town’s energy sustainability advisory committee and the East End Resilience Network. He asked that members of the commercial and recreational fishing industries attend as well. C.W. 

Training Center Named for Franzone

The firefighters training center in Wainscott will be renamed the Larry Franzone Fire Training Center in honor of the longtime member of the Montauk Fire Department. The late Mr. Franzone, who joined the department in 1969, served two terms as its chief, from 1977 to 1979, and again in 2007, when he was the oldest active fire chief in the State of New York. He also served as a Montauk Fire District commissioner for 15 years. Mr. Franzone, a former president of the East Hampton Town Fire District Officers Association who had been chairman of the East Hampton Town fire advisory committee for more than a quarter-century, was elected to serve as the first chairman of the committee that oversaw the planning and construction of the fire training center, which is on Industrial Road. 

Bill King Sculpture Donation

A sculpture by the late Bill King, “Nureyev and Fontaine,” will be donated to East Hampton Town by Laura Cutler and placed on the Town Hall property. The town board voted last week to accept the donation. Mr. King, a recipient of an International Sculpture Center Lifetime Achievement Award and of Guild Hall’s Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as of four honorary doctorates and numerous fellowships, lived in East Hampton for more than 40 years. His work is included in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.

Preservation Fund Income Declines

East Hampton Town lagged behind the rest of the East End in income from the Peconic Bay Community Preservation Fund through the first eight months of the year. 

State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. said in a release yesterday that revenue from the 2-percent tax on most real estate sales had declined 13.7 percent in East Hampton from the same period last year. Regionally, community preservation fund income for 2017 was up nearly 4 percent. Southold Town led the pack, with a spike of 27.4 percent. Shelter Island followed with a 12-percent increase. Southampton’s figure jumped by 11.3 percent, and Riverhead’s by 3.4 percent. Through August, East Hampton Town’s preservation fund income was just under $17.3 million; it was $20 million for the same months in 2016. Southampton took in $38.4 million between Jan. 1 and Aug. 31. Since the preservation fund was established in 1999, it has taken in more than $1.2 billion for land purchases and historic preservation.

The scarcity of affordable housing, drug abuse and mental health, and preservation of the town’s character dominated discussion when the Democratic candidates for East Hampton Town Supervisor and town board held an informational meeting on Monday night at the East Hampton Presbyterian Church’s Session House.

For two hours, Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, who is running to succeed Supervisor Larry Cantwell, Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, who is seeking re-election, and Jeff Bragman took questions from approximately 40 residents. The candidates plan future informational meetings in Springs and Montauk.

East Hampton is at a crossroads, said Prudence Carabine, an attendee who told the candidates that she is a 13th-generation Bonacker. Land is so valuable that longtime residents are selling and leaving, she said, leaving a critical shortage of affordable housing and scant opportunity for younger residents to own property.

In the latest solicitation from the town’s office of housing, more than 300 applications were received. A home ownership lottery drawing was held at Town Hall on May 31.

Mr. Van Scoyoc pointed to the 12-unit condominium project the town is in the process of developing at 181 Accabonac Highway in East Hampton. It is the first affordable housing project to get underway in “far too many years,” he said, and, while acknowledging that it falls far short of the need, it is a start. Another 38 units are planned in Amagansett through the East Hampton Housing Authority, a nongovernmental group, he said, and the town is “looking at additional properties to purchase.”

Mr. Bragman referred to his 29-year-old son and recalled once advising him that remaining in East Hampton would be impossible. Later, “I realized how pessimistic and wrong that is,” he said. Preservation, he said, is “not just about protecting beaches and water. It’s a question of protecting a real community.” East Hampton, he said, should not be “just a playground or film set.”

He also suggested that by connecting teens and young adults with entrepreneurs, younger residents could develop their own careers, allowing them to continue to live in the town while encouraging civic and government engagement. Current demographic trends are “a recipe for no future.” The youth of East Hampton, he said, have “energy, vision, excitement, and enthusiasm. I’d like to bring them to government younger. And we’re going to need them.”

Mr. Van Scoyoc seconded that observation. Of voter turnout among those under 35, “it’s scary how few in that demographic actually vote,” he said. “It’s not just keeping them here, but it’s involving the people already here.”

Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said that the town has made great strides in implementing mental health services, pointing to its participation in creation of the South Fork Behavioral Health Initiative, under which schools, hospitals and clinics, and other organizations unite to prevent mental health crises and suicide among youth. More social workers, some of them bilingual, and tele-psychiatry capability at East Hampton High School and the Family Service League now allow young people to be seen by a professional immediately.

The town provides an annual grant to Phoenix House, an outpatient rehabilitation facility, she said, and has held forums on substance abuse. “I’m proud of our track record,” she said, “but there’s always more we can do.”

Strict and neutral enforcement of the town’s zoning code is essential to protecting its character, the candidates said. The present town board “has really ramped up” that enforcement, Mr. Bragman said, working to restore Montauk “as a real community.” He advocated a “quieter, calmer, slower” town with smaller events and fewer mass gathering permits.

A prior town board, under then-Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, “simply ignored the rules that people have chosen for this town,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said. What is needed, Mr. Bragman said, are “people committed to protecting the community that can say ‘no’ ” to greater development. “You have to re-fight the battles constantly,” he said. “Today, the power of money seems more forceful,” and brings with it “a cultural pressure that anything that can be done should be done.”

The candidates were united in support for the South Fork Wind Farm, a proposed 15-turbine installation approximately 30 miles off Montauk that could be operational late in 2022. Mr. Van Scoyoc criticized the Republican candidates for supervisor and town board, who he said “started very early opposing the wind farm” and are “trying to drive a wedge” between residents over the project’s potential to impact the commercial fishing industry, members of which fear that the wind farm’s construction and operation will destroy critically important habitat.

The federal government, he said, has lifted a ban on offshore drilling and oil and gas exploration along the Eastern Seaboard. “What would you prefer, windmills or oil spills?” he asked. “We put ourselves and our children’s future at risk” should oil and gas exploration resume. He and his colleagues, he said, “are science believers, not deniers.”

The South Fork’s electricity supply will reach a critical shortage in 2019, he said. “We have a choice of receiving overhead transmission lines from farther west” that would deliver fossil fuel-derived electricity, “or we choose to signal our approval of a clean, renewable source.”

Renewable energy and decentralized systems allowed by solar panels and battery storage may also mean a new industry “that could be sources of jobs and new careers for kids who want to stay here,” Mr. Bragman said.