Government

    An article in the July 21 issue of The Star about Anthony Petrello’s plans to demolish a cottage on Sagaponack land he purchased from the White family and build a larger guest house in its place contained several errors.

    While the article said that Mr. Petrello’s right of first refusal to purchase most of the remaining acreage of White farm was “in fine print,” both of Mr. Petrello’s legal counsels said that that portion of the contract was in 12-point print, as was everything else in the contract.

    Is it wrong for members of appointed boards, such as the planning or zoning boards, to remain on those boards while running for office? The question may prompt a town board discussion of East Hampton’s ethics code.

    “I believe the situation is rife with conflict,” said Beverly Bond, an East Hampton resident, at the board’s work session on Saturday. She also questioned whether candidates should be required to step down from citizens advisory committees.

    The Democratic candidates for East Hampton Town Board seats — Zachary Cohen for supervisor and Sylvia Overby and Peter Van Scoyoc for town board — announced this week that if elected they will reinstate the Highway Department’s fall leaf pickup.

    The program was suspended in 2010 by the sitting Republican administration headed by Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, who is running for re-election this year. It was done away with entirely in the 2011 budget.

East Hampton Town

Fort Pond Suit Will Proceed

    A lawsuit against East Hampton Town challenging the proposed sale of the Fort Pond House property in Montauk is scheduled to proceed after State Supreme Court Justice William B. Rebolini struck down a motion by the town to dismiss the case for the second time.

As Congress bickers over raising the debt ceiling, the prospect of the United States defaulting on its obligations for the first time in its history looms.

East Hampton Town

Public-Place Recycling

    Though the East Hampton Town Code calls for separate disposal of recyclables at the town’s beaches, parks, landing ramps and other recreational areas, few of those places have bins specifically marked for recycling, Debbie Klughers told the town board recently.

    Ms. Klughers, who is a Democratic candidate for town trustee, said a survey of a number of sites revealed no recycling bins, and trash cans that were largely full of recyclable items, such as water bottles.

Three East Hampton Town Highway Department workers have filed complaints with the New York State Division of Human Rights alleging discrimination.

For only $500 and a red tie, you too can see Ira Rennert’s own private Xanadu in Sagaponack. Mr. Rennert, his wife, Ingeborg, and his family, along with Rep. Peter King, are hosting a fund-raiser on Sunday to benefit Randy Altschuler’s planned 2012 rematch against Rep. Tim Bishop of the First Congressional District.

Mr. Altschuler lost to Mr. Bishop, a Democrat, in 2010.

    Democratic candidates for East Hampton Town supervisor and town board outlined a proposal to expedite planning board approval for non-permanent farm structures such as hoop buildings and cold frames at a press conference on July 13 at the Amagansett Farmers Market.

    The law would apply only to structures used for the production of food crops, as opposed for tree farms or nurseries.

East Hampton Town

License Hearing Rescheduled

    A hearing on proposed amendments to East Hampton Town’s home improvement contractors licensing requirements that had been scheduled for tonight has been canceled. It will be rescheduled for another date.

    A public notice for the hearing was faulty, Town Councilwoman Theresa Quigley said, and in addition, East Hampton Village, which had adopted a contractor licensing law that mirrored the town’s, had asked for time to review the proposal.

Zachary Cohen has been replaced by Bill Wilkinson as the Independence Party candidate for East Hampton Town supervisor.

    John Jilnicki, the East Hampton Town attorney, has assigned his deputy, Carl Irace, to research the town’s code of ethics as well as legal decisions and opinions regarding conflicts of interest or the appearance of impropriety.

    The action came in response to a letter Mr. Jilnicki received regarding an apparent relationship between Mr. Irace, who is the attorney for the town zoning board, and an attorney who represented a client before that board.

The East Hampton Town Planning Board revisited a contentious discussion of a commercial subdivision behind the Round Swamp Farm in East Hampton.

    On Monday morning, the day after New York State’s Marriage Equality Act goes into effect, the East Hampton town clerk’s office will be ready to accept license applications for same-sex marriages.

There will be a 24-hour waiting period after a license is issued before a ceremony can take place, except for couples seeking second ceremonies — a marriage in New York after having been legally married in another state.

Advocate wants to know about obstacles facing the handicapped.

In a four-to-one vote last night, the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals quashed the Broadview Property Owners Association’s application to remove and replace a crumbling dock.

East Hampton Town

MTK Festival Ponies Up

    East Hampton Town has received a $100,000 check from the MTK: Music to Know Festival, which promised to make a donation of that amount for distribution to local charities in exchange for receiving a mass-gathering permit for the event. The two-day concert and “lifestyle” festival will take place at East Hampton Airport on Aug. 13 and 14.

At an East Hampton Town Board meeting last Thursday night, Debra Foster, a former Democratic town councilwoman, questioned the veracity of some of the data included in a report on housing in East Hampton Town.

East Hampton Town has been paying for health insurance for ex-employees who are not entitled to it, according to an in-house audit by the town’s budget office.

    From virtually the moment it was proposed back in December, the MTK: Music to Know festival, scheduled for Aug. 13 and 14 at East Hampton Airport, has attracted attention, some of it negative, from residents who said, among other things, that staging an event for 9,500 ticketholders in the height of the summer was just too much.

    Now the event seems to have attracted something else: a 13-foot giant rat that could be inflated near the airport, on Industrial Road, to call attention to the wrath of union workers over the hiring of non-union labor to stage the show.

East Hampton Town

Councilman Swings His Vote

    Grasses, not grapes, will be grown on town-owned farmland at Robert’s Lane and Cedar Street in East Hampton, according to a majority vote of the town board on Tuesday. The decision must still be formalized with a resolution.

    Board members have been weighing two proposals from potential lessees — one from a nurseryman who wants to grow native grasses and the other from members of the Principi family who proposed growing wine grapes there.

Extended Suffolk Transit service on the S92 and the 10C bus lines has now become available on Sundays and holidays.

An application for a four-lot commercial subdivision in East Hampton that has been stalled for the past six years over road access issues was the subject of heated controversy at an East Hampton Town Planning Board meeting on June 22.

Legislation was passed by the New York State Legislature last week placing a 2-percent cap on real property tax increases or limiting them to the rate of inflation, whichever is smaller. Intended to relieve taxpayers’ burdens.

    With the stroke of a pen on June 9, the Town of East Hampton endorsed the right of a Montauk mechanic to ply his trade on the otherwise gentrified shores of Fort Pond Bay.

Wind at Iacono Farm

    The owners of the seven-acre Iacono Farm on Long Lane in East Hampton want to put up a wind turbine like the one that was erected this year on the nearby Mahoney farm. The East Hampton Town Board recently received a letter from an attorney for the Iaconos apprising the town of the idea. Although the town code requires that the town board issue a permit for wind turbines, New York State Agriculture and Markets law, which supercedes town law, gives farmers the right to put wind turbines on their land.

    An application for the Hula Hut, a new bar on the horizon at the Montauk Marine Basin on West Lake Drive, was set in motion at the East Hampton Town Planning Board meeting on June 15.

    Proposed by Linda Calvo, the Hula Hut is to be in a 224-square-foot converted office trailer. It would have eight or nine bar stools, a railing where people could set their drinks, benches, and three picnic tables.

A grievance against East Hampton Town filed on behalf of union members who work in the town Highway Department alleges that the highway superintendent’s hiring of two temporary workers is a contract violation.

At a work session on Tuesday night, the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals reached a compromise with a family that wanted to keep a deck and pergola.