Government

Looking back on his first year in office, East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen, who was elected last September, cited the introduction of paid parking, improving the village's infrastructure, creating more community events, and shoring up the village's finances as accomplishments, and the lack of progress on developing a sewer system as a major disappointment. 

A town board discussion about amending the town code governing ethics turned into a furious argument among members on Tuesday, largely over a May 7 event that honored pandemic frontline workers and food pantry staff but drew criticism from the town's board of ethics.

East Hampton Town has asked a state judge for permission to re-argue its case against digging at a local sand mine, after the State Department of Environmental Conservation allowed the mine to create an artificial lake by digging deeper into groundwater.

A panel of three federal appellate judges last week reaffirmed a 2019 decision by United States District Judge Joanna Seybert dismissing all claims against the town and the federal government in connection with erosion caused by the jetties at Montauk Harbor.

Is Lake Montauk a "holdover" habitat for striped bass, an otherwise migratory species? The question was explored at a meeting of the East Hampton Town Trustees in July, and on Monday the trustees agreed to consider a donation toward the estimated $225,000 cost of a two-year study. While Lake Montauk is not under trustee jurisdiction, said Jim Grimes, "our interest in fisheries very much is."

The southern pine beetle infestation that has killed thousands of pitch pines in East Hampton Town since 2017 is continuing its destructive march, with thousands more dead and dying trees identified this year.

Two years after East Hampton Town banned the intentional release of balloons, the town board will hold a public hearing on amending the town code to ban the sale or distribution of gas or helium-filled balloons.

Upon expiration of Federal Aviation Administration grant assurances this month, the town will regain control over the airport. It could allow its operation to continue as-is, enact restrictions or curfews on air traffic such as the elimination of commercial flights, close the airport and reopen it with new restrictions in place, or close the airport permanently and put the site to a new use. 

The yearslong court battle pitting East Hampton Town and the town trustees against property owners along a 4,000-foot stretch of ocean beach on Napeague popularly known as Truck Beach ended on Tuesday, as the homeowners' associations prevailed in their quest to claim ownership of the beach adjacent to their properties.

"We all want this to be over," New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Wednesday as she announced a mask mandate for child care centers, residential health programs, and other state-run health facilities as well as a vaccination initiative that will enable emergency medical technicians to administer Covid-19 shots.

Three months after several residents of a southern portion of Accabonac Road in East Hampton complained of a surge in truck traffic since the Long Island Rail Road trestle was raised there, the town board voted last Thursday to prohibit commercial vehicles weighing more than nine tons between Collins Avenue and Floyd Street.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries division has announced new regulations for the lobster and Jonah crab trap and pot fisheries in the Northeast to help save endangered North Atlantic right whales by reducing their risk of entanglement in fishing gear.