Government

Faithful followers of government and school board meetings on LTV’s government and education channel in East Hampton Town or fans of LTV’s public access shows like “Hello Hello,” “Two Jews Making Food,” or “Meet the Mayor” may have been bewildered this week to find the programming suddenly gone from Altice/Optimum’s Channels 20 and 22.

The East Hampton Village Board intends to extend the hours in which parking at two of its beaches is limited to residents and nonresidents who buy a beach parking permit.

Two competing narratives have emerged from the East Hampton Town Tax Receiver’s Office after four of its five employees abruptly left the department a month ago.

A group of six neighbors who own properties adjacent to and near 370 and 372 Further Lane in Amagansett have had their eyes on a new hedge that blocks views of those properties. In June they sent a letter to the town board and the town attorney letting them know that if they didn’t do something, they would be held liable.

A paramedic who was employed by East Hampton Village has sued the village along with the village’s fire and emergency medical services administrator, Suffolk County, the medical director of the county’s emergency medical services division, and the Montauk Fire District’s medical director following his suspension in the wake of a 2024 call for medical assistance in East Hampton’s Northwest Woods.

Jeff Miller, the Republican candidate for East Hampton Town clerk, on Friday retired from his position as heavy-equipment operator at the East Hampton Village Department of Public Works, where he spent 36 years.

Last week, a notice on the East Hampton Town website alerted visitors that “To better serve our residents, the Building Department office will be closed to the public on Wednesdays.” Department employees will still be at work behind the closed doors, however, reviewing and processing applications to attack a growing backlog.

An East Hampton Town Board whose motto has been “All hands on housing” was divided 3-to-2 over two aspects of draft legislation that would create a new affordable multiple-residence housing use. Councilmen Ian Calder-Piedmonte and Tom Flight balked at the inclusion of what they characterized as “environmental restrictions” in the legislation, continuing a disagreement that began the previous week.

Last week, mere minutes before the East Hampton Town Planning Board was to discuss the proposed Springs Brewery, an elephant squeezed into the room, in the form of a determination from Dawn Green, a town building inspector, turning what could have been a routine review of minor site plan inaccuracies into a snafu.

There will be a horse trough, but no horse, at a Further Lane estate that sold this winter for $70 million in one of the East End’s priciest real estate transactions of 2025.

Two years after a groundbreaking for the Montauk Playhouse Community Center’s new aquatic and cultural centers, Gov. Kathy Hochul led a jubilant gathering including East Hampton Town and New York State officials past and present in a ceremonial ribbon-cutting for the expansive new facilities on Friday.

As the 2026 midterm elections draw closer, a second candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination to challenge Representative Nick LaLota in New York’s First Congressional District has emerged, Lukas Ventouras, who is 24 and attending St. John’s School of Law.

The East Hampton Town Architectural Review Board offered only anticlimactic comments to the planning board at its Aug. 14 meeting on an over 10-year-old application by the Springs Fire Department to erect a communications tower on its property at 179 Fort Pond Boulevard.

Wireless service in Sag Harbor Village would see a significant upgrade with the addition of two macro cell sites, which are typically found on towers, and at least four micro towers, or small wireless facilities, a consultant told the village board earlier this month.

Dangerous surf, rip currents, and the potential for dune erosion from Hurricane Erin are anticipated here, with the most significant impacts expected on Thursday and Friday, East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzlez said on Tuesday. 

Cedar Point State Park, the marshes in Napeague State Park, and Beach Hampton will all undergo aerial mosquito larvae treatment sometime between Monday at 7 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon.

A $2.2 million forest management contract for Napeague and Hither Hills State Parks, where the invasive southern pine beetle has killed thousands of trees and sparked concern about wildfires, will focus on areas adjacent to Montauk Highway and nearby residences and trails while creating additional access for fire departments to help reduce the risk to human life or property in the event of a wildfire, the governor said during a visit to Montauk Friday.

A 1940s-era fisherman’s shack that overlooks Fort Pond Bay in Montauk will remain standing after the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals approved a nearly 50-percent expansion of the structure last week, despite its proximity to wetlands. 

Amid continuing frustration over uncleared piles of dead pitch pines along the Napeague stretch left in the wake of the southern pine beetle infestation, the East Hampton Town Board approved millions of dollars in new fire protection contracts at last Thursday’s meeting. 

A proposal to build a 4,373-square-foot house with about 3,000 square feet of decking, a pool, and attached garage at 20 Bendigo Road, the last parcel in a four-lot subdivision created in 1975 in the Devon area of Amagansett, was approved by the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals on Aug. 5, despite concerns about the extent of temporary clearing necessary for the construction.

“If you’re hit by a car at 30 miles an hour, you will live. If you’re hit by a car at 45 miles per hour, you will die,” Barry Liebowitz, M.D., a resident of Long Lane, said at the Aug. 5 East Hampton Town Board meeting. 

Worried residents of Napeague, who live in a part of East Hampton Town that’s next door to a vast state park littered with miles of dead trees, turned out in force to hear Chris Beckert, chief of the Amagansett Fire Department, address the hamlet’s citizens advisory committee about a recent fire in the park, which came scarily close to some of their homes. 

Gabrielle McKay, who was sworn in as the East Hampton Village clerk at the end of July, is among the youngest of municipal clerks.

The East Hampton Town Board again discussed draft legislation that would allow affordable multi-unit residences on lots as small as a half-acre.

“Our season has been an amazing season,” John Ryan Jr., the town’s chief lifeguard, said of East Hampton Town’s junior lifeguard program, which teaches children ages 9 to 15 the importance of water safety and ocean awareness.

The East Hampton Town Trustees heard a pitch for the construction of a fifth and sixth oyster reef in Three Mile Harbor on Monday, a plan they quickly approved. 

Nothing belongs in the public right of way, except maybe a mailbox, a utility pole, or a fire hydrant. That was the message in a joint presentation from Councilman David Lys and Kevin Cobb, a highway project inspector from the Highway Department, at the Aug. 5 East Hampton Town Board meeting. 

Representative Nick LaLota of New York’s First Congressional District has a potential challenger, Chris Gallant, a veteran, air traffic controller, union leader, and volunteer firefighter.

Blade Air Mobility, a name that became synonymous with many South and North Fork residents’ frustration over helicopter traffic and its attendant noise, has announced the sale of its passenger division to Joby Aviation.

While CNN reports that the federal government’s credit rating with Moody’s Investors Service fell this year, East Hampton Town’s own rating remains steady. According to its latest credit report, released on Friday, East Hampton has maintained its top rating of Aaa for the ninth consecutive year.