Government

A new 16-foot-tall Ditch Plain dune now stands impudently, or perhaps daringly, maybe both, before the Atlantic, extending from just east of what’s known as the “dirt lot” parking area to a few hundred feet west of the Seaside Avenue parking lot.

Christopher Gallant, a non-politician from Amity Harbor who announced his bid last summer after John Avlon said he wouldn’t run again in 2026, seems to be emerging as the candidate to face Nick LaLota, and he has Mr. Avlon’s support.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez will once again be the Democratic candidate for supervisor come November, after placing first in votes at the Democratic Committee nominating convention Wednesday night.

The latest round in the struggle between offshore wind farm developers and the Trump administration went to the developers, as a federal judge ruled on Monday that construction of Revolution Wind can resume.

A majority of the 273 respondents to a survey about personal wireless communication in Sag Harbor Village support replacing two existing towers — that do not host commercial wireless service providers — with towers that can support them. Publicly owned properties and properties with nonresidential land uses are the preferred locations.

The East Hampton Town Trustees voted to re-elect Francis Bock as clerk, or presiding officer, and Jim Grimes and John Aldred as the deputy clerks. They also voted to maintain Christopher Carillo as their attorney.

The Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee emphatically endorsed a plan to mitigate noise from aircraft flying to and from East Hampton Town Airport, noting that “years of litigation and more than $9 million in legal fees” have brought no relief to beleaguered residents in the form of restrictions on aircraft operations.

East Hampton Village Hall will be closed to the public next week, starting on Monday and continuing through Jan. 19, when Martin Luther King’s Birthday is observed. Village Hall will reopen to the public on Jan. 20.

Republican Representative Nick LaLota of the First Congressional District cast a critical vote on Dec. 18 to remove Endangered Species Act protections for the gray wolf outside of Alaska. The gray wolf was first listed as endangered under the act in 1974.

Days after Gov. Kathy Hochul and the governors of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts demanded that the federal government rescind the Trump administration’s pause of leases for five offshore wind farms under construction, developers of four of them sued the government in hope of reversing the latest move to kill the nascent industry.

Denise Savarese, the secretary for the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals for many years before being appointed to serve on the board in 2021, has been promoted from vice chairwoman to chairwoman.

Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez delivered the annual State of the Town address at Tuesday’s East Hampton Town Board meeting, focusing on successes from 2025 and the direction the town will take in 2026, and announcing the creation of a new Latino advisory committee.

Jeff Bragman, former councilman, will screen Saturday with the Democratic Committee as a candidate for town supervisor, potentially setting up a three-way primary with Kathee Burke-Gonzalez and Jerry Larsen.

Councilman David Lys, who has served on the East Hampton Town Board since being appointed in 2018 before winning election in his own right, will now serve as deputy town supervisor. He is to be appointed at Tuesday’s town board organizational meeting.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and the governors of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts have written to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to demand rescission of the Trump administration’s Dec. 22 pause of leases for five wind farms under construction off the Northeast coast.

A new petition started by a group calling itself Springs Residents Against Elite Towers seeks to stop a long-planned cell tower at the Springs Fire Department on Fort Pond Boulevard.

Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency Friday ahead of a storm expected to dump snow across the Long Island, New York City, and mid-Hudson regions starting Friday evening. 

One year after vetoing similar legislation, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the Horseshoe Crab Protection Act, which will phase out the harvesting of the ancient species for bait.

For the seventh time, a governor of New York State has vetoed a bill that would have provided for reinstatement and acknowledgement of the Montaukett Indian Nation, a recognition lost 115 years ago in a ruling that former Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. has called one of the most racist decisions ever issued by a New York court.

“It’s been a wonderful time,” Ms. Brennan said of her 32 years in the East Hampton Town clerk's office, the last 12 in the top post. “It’s been part of my life, and I enjoyed every minute of it and most of the dealings that I went through.”

The East Hampton Fire Department has had “astronomical” success in recruitment in 2025, the Fire and Emergency Medical Services administrator told the East Hampton Village Board last week, with 19 new recruits representing a near-quadrupling of what is seen in a typical year.

East Hampton Town appears to have stepped down in a fight against a Further Lane homeowner who neighbors say is violating a decades-old scenic easement on their lands.

The Dredge Oyster Bay was permanently damaged after encountering a "really big rock" in the channel, and a new dredge, the Scrod II, has been called in to relieve it. The Army Corps of Engineers’ project is still on schedule, despite the many delays since it began just over a month ago.

A proposal by owners of the former Rick’s Crabby Cowboy Cafe in Montauk to double the occupancy of an outdoor bar area on the East Lake Drive property got some pushback at a recent East Hampton Town Planning Board meeting.

A proposal by members of East Hampton Town’s agricultural advisory committee to create a new way to review building projects at farms gained traction last week when it was presented to the town board and town planning director.

The bad news is the numbers of piping plover fledglings in East Hampton Town was down in 2025. The good news is the number is still better than in 2023.

Days after Mayor Jerry Larsen was sent a “cease and desist” letter from state, county, and town Democratic officials who asserted that his East Hampton Town Democrats for a New Town group constituted a “misuse of the Democratic Party name,” he and the chairwoman of the town’s Democratic Committee met and agreed to “lower the temperature.”

Following East Hampton Town Planning Board enthusiasm for renewed plans for an extension and renovation of the Neighborhood House, now used by Project Most, the architectural review board also welcomed the new plans, which aim to save the historic structure.

Amid all the condo controversy, the town board made time for a presentation on the town’s C.P.F.-funded water quality improvement program so it could be heard by the maximum number of people.

The back-and-forth story of the 79 condominium units proposed for 152 Three Mile Harbor Road and 33 West Drive now appears to be dead and buried.