Government

Governor Cuomo and Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone both said they expect another surge in Covid-19 infections in the 10 days following the holiday, and looked ahead to what they each said they hope will be a more normal Thanksgiving next year.

A city planner hired by Sag Harbor Village to help develop a new zoning code for the village's waterfront area described its existing zoning regulations as "troubling," "puzzling," and "not up to the task" of guiding sensible development, and offered several suggestions for improvements at a board meeting on Monday.

As it was expected to do, the East Hampton Town Board adopted the town's 2021 budget last Thursday, along with a number of resolutions aimed at projects to improve water quality in Montauk. The board also appointed members to new committees and an advisory group and scheduled a public hearing on outdoor dining legislation for next Thursday. 

Orsted, the parent company of Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind, has announced a partnership with North America's Building Trades Union, which represents more than three million craft professionals. The partnership will create a national agreement designed to transition American union construction workers into the offshore wind industry in collaboration with the leadership of the 14 NABTU affiliates and the A.F.L.-C.I.O.

With approximately 100,000 paper ballots remaining to be counted, work came to a halt at the Suffolk County Board of Elections on Saturday after a worker tested positive for Covid-19.

The count of absentee, affidavit, and unscanned ballots began last Thursday. Newsday reported on Saturday that the part-time employee had shown symptoms of the virus before the positive test, and that the County Health Department had ordered seven other employees into quarantine.

The East Hampton Village Board approved large increases in the cost of several permit fees, and discussed a plan to charge for additional hours of parking in the commercial district. Drivers could pay for the extra time via a smartphone app, and the fees collected could be used to help cover the cost of a centralize sewer system.

The encampment site was chosen because of its proximity to two Shinnecock billboards, one unfinished, that have become symbols of contention between tribespeople and the town and state governments. The Shinnecocks say that the tribal land the billboards sit on is exempt from local, county, and state regulation, but the town and state have argued otherwise. 

President-elect Joseph Biden is expected to nominate Antony Blinken, who has a connection to East Hampton, to the cabinet position of secretary of state. Mr. Blinken's father is Donald Blinken of Lily Pond Lane in East Hampton Village, who is a former United States Ambassador to Hungary.

The count of absentee ballots sent by voters in New York's First Congressional District is expected to begin Thursday, an official at the Suffolk County Board of Elections said on Tuesday. 

Plans to create a wastewater management district for downtown Montauk took another step forward on Tuesday when an official from the East Hampton Town Natural Resources Department offered recommendations for the hiring of consulting and engineering services for the project. 

The activist group Progressive East End Reformers has set Dec. 1 at 3 p.m. as a tentative date to mobilize to support President-elect Joe Biden's apparent Electoral College victory. The group's gathering would take place at the Bridgehampton Community House.

Ideas for addressing and mitigating climate change came fast at Monday's meeting of East Hampton Town's energy sustainability committee, with with Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, the town board's liaison, listing potential capital projects, including more solar arrays, pollinator gardens underneath them, and closed-loop geothermal heating and cooling systems for town buildings.