Government

The East Hampton Town Board is expected to make it clear that town personnel, including police, will not aid federal agents in immigration enforcement, while Fred Thiele, an OLA board member, weighs in on the draft law.

Out of 13 hearings in a single day, only one drew comment: an amendment to the town code that would prohibit driving on the town-owned part of Gin Beach in Montauk from Memorial Day weekend to Sept. 15 during daytime hours.

On Tuesday, in response to President Trump’s profanity-laden social media threats to destroy Iran, a small group of East Hampton Town residents gathered at the Hook Mill for a hastily organized “no more war” vigil.

Closed since 2023, at least the Cranberry Hole Road bridge in Amagansett now has a timetable for repair — it could begin in about a year.

It was a struggle of the sexes Tuesday as the East Hampton Town Board debated details of the draft management plan for the John Osborn Homestead at 66 Main Street in Wainscott.

The prospect of a nightclub-type establishment on Montauk’s Main Street had members of the hamlet’s citizens advisory committee concerned and sharply questioning its liaison to the town board.

With the soaring cost of diesel fuel amid the American-Israeli war against Iran, Assemblyman Tommy John Schiavoni has introduced legislation that would provide fuel tax exemptions for operators of commercial fishing vessels.

After the Suffolk County district attorney’s office announced last Thursday that two people had been indicted following an investigation into alleged bribery and official misconduct at the East Hampton Town Building Department, the town and the department’s former chief, who was the whistleblower, responded.

The Long Island Rail Road began work this week to extend the siding at the Southampton station in order to provide additional space for crews to stage trains, manage train movements, and reduce delays.

Local environmental and civic organizations have joined together to sign a letter signaling their opposition to proposed changes to the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act that would make certain projects exempt from review. 

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s intention to delay implementation of the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act has dismayed local officials and activists who decry the move at a time when the federal government is hostile to renewable energy and barely acknowledges climate change. 

Este, a two-story restaurant under construction in downtown Montauk, has approval for a roof deck and a modest seating plan, but a purported investment packet describes something much different.

The March 28 No Kings rally at East Hampton Town Hall was not the largest of the three such events held there in the last year, but as one of some 3,300 actions across the United States and around the world, it was part of what may be the largest single-day protest in the nation’s history. 

A suspended East Hampton Town Building Department office assistant and a former building inspector who resigned earlier this year were indicted on multiple counts of bribe receiving and official misconduct for allegedly accepting bribes in exchange for expediting building permits and certificates of occupancy in 2024.

A five-year plan launched by former County Legislator Bridget Fleming to renovate the exterior of the historic Cedar Island Lighthouse at Cedar Point Park is inching closer to its anticipated completion in 2028.

According to numbers provided by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the majority of the almost 700 geese found dead in and around Georgica Pond over the last couple of weeks, the victims of avian flu, were buried on the East Hampton Village Department of Public Works property on Accabonac Road.

In a tele-town hall last week, Representative Nick LaLota defended the war in Iran amid the Trump administration’s shifting rationales and objectives, said he had no role in a no-bid contract awarded to his brother, and broke with the president on Obamacare and offshore wind, with qualifiers.

Construction is “well underway” at the long-term parking area at the end of Lumber Lane in East Hampton Village, and a barn for the Fire Department’s antique trucks and equipment has quickly arisen adjacent to the construction site.

Familiar faces showed up at a public hearing last week in front of the East Hampton Town Board regarding the John Osborn Homestead on Main Street in Wainscott. Their message? “It’s the view, stupid.”

A new petition to ban gas-powered leaf blowers in the Town of East Hampton is circulating, at potentially the right time to gain real traction.

“We ask you to do the right thing,” Minerva Perez, the executive director of Organizacion Latino Americana, pleaded through tears to the East Hampton Town Board last week, as she pushed the board to discuss what’s become known as the East End Public Safety and Accountability Law.

A proposed addition to the East Hampton Village Code says that village personnel “shall not use village resources, equipment, property, databases, or funds to investigate, detain, question, arrest, or transport any individual solely for purposes of federal civil immigration enforcement, except pursuant to a judicial warrant or as otherwise required by law.”

Rising temperature and chlorophyll, decreasing salinity, high nitrogen levels, dense blooms of Alexandrium and Dinophysis, blue-green algal blooms, and some fecal contamination characterized town water bodies in 2025, according to Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University.

“There is no single solution to the housing challenges we face, which is why we continue to explore a range of options,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez said at the start of a town board work session with an agenda heavy on housing matters.

In the last few years, e-bikes have exploded in popularity, and the surge has caused some safety issues. Many municipalities, East Hampton Town among them, intend to implement new laws to keep up.

In the Democratic primary race for town supervisor, the incumbent, Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, touted a series of endorsements from party figures this week, while her opponent, Village Mayor Jerry Larsen, said the only endorsements that matter will be those made by voters.

The East Hampton Town Planning Board scheduled a public hearing on the Hamptons Pride memorial planned for the Wainscott Green for April 8 at 6:30 p.m.

The East Hampton Town Trustees responded to intense criticism over their disposal of Canada geese suspected to have died of highly pathogenic avian flu, also known as bird flu.

Three months after Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed a bill that would have provided for reinstatement and acknowledgement of the Montaukett Indian Nation, the New York State Assembly unanimously passed a new bill to that end.

Those walking bay beaches on the South Fork may find debris from oyster farms, bulkheads, docks, boats, or moorings that were damaged or destroyed by this winter’s deep freeze, and there’s a concerted effort underway to recover at least some of it.