Government

East Hampton Town

Eye on Burying Power Lines

    East Hampton Town will look into the possibility of obtaining state funding to cover 75 percent of the cost of having utility lines from East Hampton to Montauk placed underground, as part of a New York State Office of Emergency Management program designed to mitigate the risks and impacts of future storms.

    Keith Grimes, a Montauk contractor, unleashed a torrent of frustration about the East Hampton Town Board and other town officials at a board meeting on June 11, saying they owed him “a ton of money.” The dispute now appears to have been resolved, but not before Mr. Grimes had spoken his piece.

Sag Harbor Village Mayor Brian Gilbride won re-election by 11 votes on Tuesday night after a tense contest among four candidates.

East Hampton Town will receive a $536,425 state grant to renovate its former town hall building, town and New York State officials announced yesterday.

    The Montauk Beach House, a motel and club in downtown Montauk, received a certificate of occupancy from the East Hampton Town Building Department on Tuesday, after the head building inspector agreed that the key issue — whether it was operating two different businesses — was a matter for the town’s Ordinance Enforcement Department.

Meet a Lot of Candidates

    The East Hampton Group for Good Government will host a meet-the-candidates lawn party on Saturday at 4 p.m. at Laurie and Arthur Malman’s house in East Hampton.

    The nonpartisan group sponsors a number of forums on topics of interest to local voters as well as private get-togethers for members with a variety of leaders in local government.

    The owners of two neighboring properties facing Gardiner’s Bay in Springs, part of the Clearwater Beach Association, would like to install a revetment that would span both sites, but must first obtain a variance from the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals. Their application for a natural resources special permit, the latest in a series related to beach erosion caused by Hurricane Sandy, came before the board on June 4.

    Sagaponack Village has two seats on its board up for grabs, and residents can cast their votes tomorrow at Village Hall between noon and 9 p.m. According to Rhodi Cary-Winchell, the village clerk, the only petitions filed for the two-year terms were from two incumbents.

    It will be Joy Sieger’s fourth term if re-elected. One of the first members of the village board, she has served since December 2006. William Barbour won his seat in 2011 in a write-in campaign.

East Hampton Town

North Main Traffic Circle?

    Members of the East Hampton-Sag Harbor Citizens Advisory Committee have asked town officials to revisit an idea for a traffic circle at the foot of Three Mile Harbor and Springs-Fireplace Roads, where they hit North Main Street in East Hampton.

    Potential actions to alleviate traffic back-ups in the area were originally addressed in a 2003 “North Main Street Corridor Study,” which became a part of the 2005 updated town comprehensive plan.

    After a hearing last Thursday, the East Hampton Town Board formally adopted new traffic rules limiting access to the parking lot at Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett.

    On busy days during the summer season, large vehicles and nonresidents would be stopped by town workers staffing a booth at the entry to the parking lot and asked to turn around.

     The East Hampton Town Board will hold a hearing next Thursday on revisions to the town noise ordinance.

    The changes are aimed at identifying potential violations according to how much they vary from an average ambient noise level in a particular area.

    Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. is sponsoring state legislation that would restore the right of local governments on Long Island to establish their own public utilities.

    A plan to limit access to the parking lot at Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett on busy days during the season, by staffing a checkpoint at the entrance where large vehicles and nonresidents would be stopped and asked to turn around, will be the subject of a hearing before the East Hampton Town Board next Thursday. The checkpoint booth has already been installed.

The nomination of Zachary Cohen for East Hampton Town councilman from the floor at the Democrats’ nominating convention on May 15 made for some tense moments for Job Potter and Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, the candidates favored by the party’s screening committee. In the end, Mr. Potter and Ms. Burke-Gonzalez prevailed.

    They will share the top of the ticket with Larry Cantwell, the outgoing East Hampton Village administrator, who is also running on the Independence Party line.

    With summer approaching, the Division of Vector Control in Suffolk County’s Department of Public Works will soon resume its battle against mosquitoes.

    “We’ll basically be conducting surveillance for mosquitoes and primarily treating breeding sites,” said Dominick Ninivaggi, superintendent of the county’s Division of Vector Control. It’s an approach similar to previous years and conforms to a long-term plan passed by the County Legislature in 2007, over objections of environmentalists and the county’s Council on Environmental Quality.

    A plan devised by a task force to “spread the pain” of helicopter noise over three routes into and out of East Hampton Airport was supported by a majority of the East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday, although officials acknowledged it would make no one happy.

    In a split vote on Tuesday, the East Hampton Town Board decided not to grant a zone change request by the owners of the Napeague property that houses Cyril’s bar and restaurant.

    Bonnie and Michael Dioguardi, who own the site as well as an adjacent parcel, had asked that the properties, now zoned for residential use, be placed instead in a neighborhood business zone.

    Southampton Councilman Chris Nuzzi was nominated by the Suffolk County Republican Committee last week to challenge the five-term incumbent Jay Schneiderman for Suffolk County legislator. Mr. Schneiderman, a member of the Independence Party, is seeking his sixth and final two-year term.

    Mr. Nuzzi is serving his second and final term as a member of the Southampton Town Board.

East Hampton Town

Seek Food Truck and Pool Bids

    East Hampton Town is soliciting bids from food truck vendors interested in leasing the exclusive right to sell at Gin Beach in Montauk. Bids must be received by 3 p.m. on Wednesday by the town’s Purchasing Department, which can provide specifications.

    Bids are also being sought for a rehabilitation — by marble dusting — of the pools at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter. They are due by next Thursday.

    Dick Cavett’s Tick Hall, one of seven McKim, Mead, and White houses on the Montauk ocean bluffs, and two houses on the waterfront on the other side of the Montauk peninsula, have made for interesting agendas at recent East Hampton Town Zoning Board meetings. The latter, an  application for erosion-control work on Soundview Drive, was approved on Tuesday. A hearing on Mr. Cavett’s application met with favorable response on April 23, although a decision is pending.

    Suffolk County’s public health clinic on Accabonac Road in East Hampton is slated for consolidation with a Southampton clinic, with both to be housed near Southampton Hospital, according to a plan being promoted by Suffolk County Executive Steven Bellone.

    As expected, the East Hampton Democratic Committee’s screening committee has recommended that Larry Cantwell, the retiring East Hampton Village administrator, should be the party’s nominee to run for town supervisor in the November election. The choices are in advance of an official nomination convention on Wednesday.

    Both houses of the New York State Legislature have passed a measure that would allow the municipalities of East Hampton, Southampton, and Southold to transfer land, at little or no cost, to the trustees of those townships.

    The measure, which awaits Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s signature, was championed by Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. of Sag Harbor and Senator Kenneth P. LaValle of Port Jefferson.

    Two proposed houses, in two different neighborhoods, had neighbors seeing red at public hearings during a marathon East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals meeting at Town Hall on April 16.

    In both cases, the board concluded that the wisest path for the property owners might be to break bread with their neighbors, to see if a compromise could be worked out. And in both cases, the applicants offered compromises on Tuesday, although whether they would satisfy the opposition remains to be seen.

    Three members of the East Hampton Town Board agreed at a work session on Tuesday to move forward on “parallel tracks” to implement both long-term and short-term recommendations made by a town committee on coastal erosion. Town Councilwoman Sylvia Overby and Councilmen Dominick Stanzione and Peter Van Scoyoc outlined the steps to be taken in the absence of Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson and Councilwoman Theresa Quigley, who did not attend.

East Hampton Town

Barn at Duck Creek Farm

    The condition of the barn at the East Hampton Town-owned historic Duck Creek Farm, which is the former studio of the painter John Little, will be evaluated to see if it can be used for a temporary art installation proposed by the Parrish Art Museum for the month of August.

    Landing fees at East Hampton Airport could rise this year by more than 100 percent for some types of helicopters, according to a proposal discussed Tuesday by the East Hampton Town Board.

    The fees, said Jim Brundige, the airport manager, have not been increased since 2008, but the airport has had “a clearly steady increase” in expenses.

    Mr. Brundige told the board he structured the fees so that, with the traffic expected based on last year’s, they would rise enough to cover operating expenses this year.

    East Hampton’s representatives in the State and County Legislatures came out this week in support of creating a town comprehensive wastewater management strategy and plan, an initiative that has drawn strong opposition from East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson and Councilwoman Theresa Quigley.

East Hampton Town

Town Hall’s New Phone System

    A new phone system at East Hampton Town Hall allows callers to use a central number, 324-4141, for transfer to most town departments and employees. It also provides access to citizens’ complaint lines for housing and litter issues.

   After approving a three-year capital spending plan last Thursday, which includes projects totaling $12.4 million, the East Hampton Town Board decided to issue $2.7 million in bonds to kick-start a number of projects.