Government

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.

The large lift boat that is conducting geotechnical survey work off the ocean beach at the end of Beach Lane in Wainscott is to move closer to shore on Wednesday evening, a spokeswoman for the developers of the proposed South Fork Wind farm said.

People visiting ocean beaches from East Hampton to Sagaponack on Sunday were surprised to behold the Loredo Brazos, a massive barge standing out of the water just offshore at the end of Beach Lane in Wainscott. The barge and a second vessel are conducting survey work for a transmission cable for the proposed South Fork Wind farm, to be situated approximately 35 miles off Montauk.

Adopting a building construction code that would mandate greater energy efficiency and solar and electric vehicle-charging readiness would move East Hampton closer to the goal of achieving its energy needs from renewable sources and help New York State realize the steep emissions cuts mandated by the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, the town board was told on Tuesday.

As soon as Monday, Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind and Eversource Energy will conduct geotechnical assessments that will involve soil borings and measurements of the sea floor off the ocean beach at the end of Beach Lane in Wainscott.