Government

Turnout was light last weekend at Windmill Village on Accabonac Road in East Hampton, the site of early voting ahead of Tuesday's Democratic Party primary, in which there are races for the nomination for town supervisor, town board, and town trustee.

James Larocca, a Sag Harbor Village trustee mounting his first bid for mayor, pulled off an upset on Tuesday, unseating the first-term incumbent, Kathleen Mulcahy, with 379 votes to Ms. Mulcahy's 357. Aidan Corish and Robert Plumb, the incumbents running for the two open seats on the village board, were re-elected.

As throngs of people in East Hampton Village's commercial district pass the time shopping, dining, and doing errands, the village's high-tech parking enforcement vehicle scans the streets to make sure they haven't overstayed their welcome. Since the village started charging for parking in the Reutershan and Schenck lots last month, humans have been confused about the regulations, but the computer is programmed to know all.

On Tuesday, exactly one year, three months, and one week since the day that Suffolk County's first Covid-19 patient was admitted to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced that more than 70 percent of adult New Yorkers have received at least one vaccine shot and lifted most of the remaining pandemic restrictions on retail stores, restaurants, offices, gyms and fitness centers, amusement and family entertainment centers, hair salons and barber shops, and personal care businesses.

The three candidates running for two open Sag Harbor Village Board seats on Tuesday shared their visions for the new Bay Street Theater complex and offered plans to improve water quality, rein in development, increase access to parking, and reduce traffic congestion in a debate on June 4. 

East Hampton Town officials are enforcing a prohibition of vehicles on a 4,000-foot stretch of ocean beach on Napeague popularly known as Truck Beach, following Friday's injunction issued by the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division reiterating its February affirmation that the property owners do, in fact, own the beach and that residents have no inherent right to drive or park vehicles there. 

"Don't fix what's not broken" was the message from several dog owners calling in to Tuesday's town board meeting about a 42-acre town property on Three Mile Harbor Road in Springs that is heavily used as a dog park.

Several members of the public called in last Thursday to support a plan to change the zoning classification of a Pantigo Road, East Hampton, parcel to allow an affordable housing development. Two other callers to the virtual town board meeting, however, voiced concerns about its impact on neighboring properties. 

Legislation to facilitate the development of a community choice aggregation program in the Long Island Power Authority's service territory has passed the New York State Assembly and Senate, and will be sent to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo for his signature. Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., who sponsored the legislation, announced its passage in the Assembly last Thursday and in the Senate on Monday.

Sag Harbor Village Mayor Kathleen Mulcahy, who is running for a second term in Tuesday's election, and James Larocca, a trustee making his first mayoral bid, offered starkly different opinions on paid parking, a proposed waterfront zoning code, and the most suitable location for Bay Street Theater's new home in a contentious debate on Friday.

Unlike the Democratic candidates for East Hampton Town supervisor, the three Democratic candidates vying for two seats on the East Hampton Town Board offered nary a contrary word during two debates last week. Rather, they professed a raft of similar goals and philosophies and offered only positive messages in their respective pitches to Democratic voters. 

The Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council formally concluded on June 2 that plans for the South Fork Wind farm, including its 12 turbines and a $12 million fisheries compensation package, are consistent with the state's Ocean Special Area Management Plan.