Government

Ahead of dropping temperatures expected to freeze the rain and slush left by Tuesday's inclement weather, a majority of schools in East Hampton and Southampton Towns have announced delayed openings for Wednesday. East Hampton Town government offices will open two hours later on Wednesday.

Construction began this week on broken roof trusses at the Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street, where East Hampton Village has held its public meetings for decades.

The East Hampton Town Board came under sharp questioning from residents during last Thursday’s public hearing on the possible exemption of the new senior citizens center from the town’s zoning code and land-use procedures.

The East Hampton Town Board’s liaison assignments for 2024 were announced on Tuesday, with the supervisor and four councilmembers assigned to each of the hamlets and their citizens advisory committees as well as town departments. Other assignments were to the All Hands on Housing initiative to create affordable housing for residents, key projects, various boards, and citizens and internal committees. 

The founder of a group that promotes fitness and the outdoors urged the Sag Harbor Village Board on Tuesday to improve the community’s access to its surrounding waterways.

In papers filed with Suffolk County Supreme Court on Jan. 2, the East Hampton Village attorney said a petition filed by the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association claiming that the village had improperly transferred an ambulance service certificate away from the association, an independent nonprofit, and taken over its bank account, was a “slapdash effort” and a “frivolous filing” that shouldn’t be heard by the court.

Tuesday, Jan. 23, will be the day for East Hampton Town residents to purchase village beach parking permits, a week before they go on sale to the general public.

Clearing and other site activity for Cantwell Court, the planned affordable-housing subdivision at 395 Pantigo Road in East Hampton, is to begin as soon as next week.

Mobilization for the Montauk portion of the 83-mile-long Fire Island to Montauk Point beach renourishment project is to begin Thursday, with temporary road closures to allow mobilization of very large equipment including bulldozers and 35-foot lengths of piping. Beach infill is to begin next month, when an offshore dredge will pump 80,000 cubic yards of sand a day onto the downtown beach.

The trustees re-elected Francis Bock to the position of clerk, or presiding officer, and Jim Grimes and Bill Taylor as deputy clerks. They also honored Susan McGraw Keber, who served three terms as a trustee until her retirement at the end of 2023.

Ian Calder-Piedmonte, vice chairman of the East Hampton Town Planning Board, liaison to the town’s agricultural advisory committee, and a co-owner of Balsam Farms in East Hampton and Amagansett, has been appointed to fill the seat on the town board that was vacated by Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez when she became supervisor at the start of this year.

In a move that has the potential to change how Town Hall operates for years to come, the East Hampton Town Board has appointed the first town administrator, whose responsibilities will range from overseeing staff in the supervisor’s office to preparing the annual operating budget.