Government

An amended town zoning code that would reduce allowable house size, clearing of vegetation, and lot coverage will get a public hearing on Oct. 5.

After two years of silence, the Springs Fire Department has filed updated plans to build a cell tower at its headquarters at 179 Fort Pond Boulevard. It marks the beginning of a new chapter in what has been, at times, an acrimonious battle over the tower. A lot has changed since July 2020, when it was ordered that the previous application for a 185-foot tower, which required 30 variances, needed to undergo an extensive environmental review.

More than 600 “cobra-head” streetlights and around 10 historical streetlight fixtures will soon be converted to light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, reducing both costs and energy consumption in East Hampton Town by around 60 percent, the town board was told on Tuesday.

After opening its Sept. 13 meeting with a quote from a Grateful Dead song, the East Hampton Town Planning Board revisited three applications that they’ve discussed multiple times, making sure they were ready for a vote.

The Sag Harbor Village Board will hold a public hearing on Oct. 10 to consider a new local law that would allow the 93-space “gas ball” parking lot to remain open to the public. The proposed law, if passed, would allow a parking lot as a principal use on a property, providing the lot always remains open to the public and is free.

Hurricane Lee was unlikely, as of Tuesday morning, to have a significant impact in East Hampton Town, but residents should remain diligent in monitoring the storm’s path and expect rip tides and high surf over the weekend, the town's emergency preparedness coordinator said.

The potential for American Cruise Lines, a newcomer to East End waters, to visit the village has created a buzz on social media louder than late-summer cicadas, leaving Mayor Thomas Gardella with more questions than answers. “Obviously they didn’t come to the board or make any applications, and the harbormaster didn’t know anything about it. Something of that magnitude will need permission. I don’t know how a 240-foot-long boat is going to dock on Long Wharf in May."

Long Island Rail Road officials have determined that the bridge over its railroad track at the western end of Cranberry Hole Road in Amagansett, which has been closed to all vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists since July 1, cannot be repaired and must be replaced.

Tucked improbably between two yacht clubs in Sag Harbor is a wastewater treatment plant, its sizzling open-air pools of excrement a thing of beauty if you’re looking at them in the right way. Without the plant, which an treat 250,000 gallons of wastewater daily, Sag Harbor couldn’t support the diversity of restaurants and cafes that add to the village’s popularity and character.

The League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island, and the North Fork will hold a public information program on East Hampton and Southampton Towns’ energy issues on Monday at 7 p.m. at the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton.

The finishing work has been done on a management plan for what is to be called the Brooks-Park Historic Site, the 11-acre property on Neck Path in Springs that belonged to the Abstract Expressionist artists James Brooks and Charlotte Park.

East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo made a case for the continued existence of the Maidstone Gun Club to the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee on Saturday, saying that his officers rely on it for training and that the training has never caused an incident such as bullets fired from the club hitting houses, an allegation that led to the club’s being shuttered by order of a New York State Supreme Court judge in December.