Government

The East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday discussed a plan to amend the town code to tighten restrictions on the use of leaf blowers, with a divided board debating even greater constraints than were proposed at a public hearing in December.

As East End residents face an ongoing lack of access to the Covid-19 vaccine, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and other local officials vented their frustration this week with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's handling of the state's vaccination program, and offered recommendations for fixing it.

Charging "bad faith, authoritarian motives, and irrationality," Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott filed a lawsuit on Tuesday in State Supreme Court, Riverhead, against the East Hampton Town Board, Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc, and South Fork Wind. The action follows the town board's Jan. 21 approval of an easement allowing the developers of the proposed South Fork Wind farm to land an export cable on a Wainscott beach and then bury it under town-owned roads on its way to a Long Island Power Authority substation in East Hampton.

Data released Monday by New York State shows the seven-day average rate of positive Covid-19 cases in Suffolk County has been ticking downward now for nearly a month. The rate reflects the number of cases that are positive as a percentage of the total tests administered.

The New York State Department of Transportation issued a stop work order to the Shinnecock Nation last Thursday, demanding an end to the recent construction of the second of two controversial billboards on either side of Sunrise Highway in Hampton Bays

East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc will hold a hearing on the petition for the incorporation of Wainscott on Friday, Feb. 5. Signed by more than 200 people, the petition is the first step toward the creation of a new village of Wainscott. If it is deemed legally sufficient, the question of incorporation will be put to a vote by residents of the proposed village.

Both Southampton Town and New York State have taken steps toward enacting new legislation on monitoring sand mines aimed at ensuring the safety of the underlying aquifer from contamination.

After several years of discussion, debate, and public comment, the proposed South Fork Wind farm has come closer to reality. Both the East Hampton Town Board and the town trustees have voted to execute agreements with the developers allowing the wind farm's export cable to make landfall in the town and travel below ground, along town roads, to a Long Island Power Authority substation in East Hampton.

With the Town of East Hampton and the town trustees' votes to execute agreements with the developers of the proposed South Fork Wind farm, and the state Public Service Commission's review of the project nearing conclusion, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has issued a draft environmental impact statement, a requirement of the National Environmental Policy Act.

Proposals to charge for prime parking spaces in East Hampton and Sag Harbor Village are receiving mixed reactions from the villages’ business owners. Some think it's "dreadful," others foresee minimal impacts.

Following his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, 22 active and retired lawyers, most of them Representative Lee Zeldin's constituents, filed a complaint with the Attorney Grievance Committee for the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, in Albany, charging violation of "the most fundamental ethics rules."

East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc and Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez both announced their intention to run for third terms this week.