Government

Self-determination at nominal cost, or a transparent attempt to thwart an offshore wind farm’s planned cable landing? Both viewpoints were put forth at a Dec. 5 meeting of the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee, where advocates for the hamlet’s incorporation, and their consultants, made a case for the Village of Wainscott. 

Governor Cuomo’s announcement on Friday that indoor dining in New York City would be curtailed as of Monday is the latest manifestation of a worsening Covid-19 crisis in the state, which now has an overall positive infection rate of 4.9 percent, but he emphasized that “living room spread” represents the majority of new infections.

The East Hampton Town Board has hired Harris Miller Miller and Hanson, an environmental and transportation consultant, to review operations at East Hampton Airport and aircraft noise complaints from July 27 through Sept. 30 of this year.

The Suffolk County Legislature will hold a public hearing on revisions to the county's Shellfish Aquaculture Lease Program on Tuesday at 2 p.m. The hearing follows the Dec. 1 introduction of a proposed resolution amending the county code pertaining to the program, under which parcels in Peconic and Gardiner's Bays have been leased for private commercial shellfish farming since 2010.

Representative Lee Zeldin will serve a fourth term, his re-election in New York's First Congressional District having been certified by the Suffolk County Board of Elections last Thursday.

The developer of a proposed Amazon distribution facility at Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach, a depot that will enable the online retail giant to more quickly deliver packages to East End residents, won $2.3 million in tax breaks from the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency last month.

Long Island is typically second only to Hawaii in the cost of electricity, but only 5 percent of that electricity is derived from renewable sources, Suffolk Legislator Bridget Fleming, who chairs the county's community choice aggregation task force, told the Legislature's Public Works, Transportation, and Energy Committee on Monday.

The New York State Liquor Authority voted unanimously on Tuesday to deny a liquor license application from the Marram Montauk resort, a victory for the Town of East Hampton and neighbors of the former Atlantic Terrace motel, located in a residential area of the easternmost hamlet.

An ongoing surge in home sales has produced a record-setting $102.61 million in revenues for the Peconic Bay Community Preservation Fund in the first 10 months of the year, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. announced on Friday.

Nancy Goroff, a Democrat who challenged Representative Lee Zeldin in New York's First Congressional District race this year, and Laura Ahearn, who ran for the State Senate seat being vacated by a retiring Kenneth P. LaValle, formally conceded their races this week after the absentee ballot counts were complete.

The Town of East Hampton has finalized an agreement with Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind and Eversource, the developers of the proposed 15-turbine South Fork Wind project, that grants the companies easements to land the installation's export cable and bury it on a path to the Long Island Power Authority substation in East Hampton in exchange for a nearly $29 million community benefits package.

The New York State Department of Transportation will begin repairing and resurfacing Route 114, from where it intersects with Stephen Hand's Path in East Hampton Village to the South Ferry terminal on North Haven, in the fall.