Government

A $65.6 million East Hampton Town budget for 2012, up from almost $64 million last year, was the subject of a hearing before the town board last Thursday night.

A close look at the financial operations at LTV, East Hampton Town’s public-access cable television provider, showed shortcomings in record keeping

Plans for the immediate future of East Hampton Town’s septic waste treatment plant were outlined at a public board meeting on Tuesday.

The East Hampton Town Board agreed Tuesday to put the word out publicly that seven town-owned office condominium units at the Pantigo Place complex in East Hampton are for sale.

East Hampton Town

Drawing for Duck Blinds

    The East Hampton Town Trustees will hold a drawing at noon on Friday, Nov. 18, for those hunters who would like to use new public duck-hunting blinds at Fresh Pond, Amagansett, and Scoy’s Pond in Northwest. A daily fee of $25 will be charged. The blinds will be available four days a week from Nov. 24 to Nov. 27 and from Dec. 6 to Jan. 29.

After several years of postponements, the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals heard an application on Nov. 1 to revoke a certificate of occupancy for a non-operating gate flanked by two stone columns, located on a cul-de-sac at 17 Beverly Road in Springs.

At Astro’s Pizza around 8:15 on Election night, Marilyn Behan, an East Hampton Independence Party candidate for town board, was “holding down the fort,” flanked by her family.

Concerned citizens and members of the Quiet Skies Coalition gathered at LTV Studios on Oct. 26 to hear from a panel led by Sheila Jones, an attorney specializing in environmental litigation.

At the close of Tuesday’s East Hampton Town Board work session, Patrick Gunn, an assistant town attorney who is in charge of East Hampton Town code enforcement, spoke even though he was not on the agenda.

Three East Hampton Town Highway Department workers have reportedly agreed to withdraw complaints they filed with the New York Division of Human Rights against the department’s superintendent

East Hampton Town Democrats have called upon the Town Ethics Committee to investigate Len Bernard, the town’s budget officer, charging that he has engaged in political campaigning from his Town Hall office, using his phone, computer, and taxpayers’ time to conduct political business.

he immediate issue before the East Hampton Town Board at its work session on Tuesday was a suggested $4,000 “quick fix” for the smell emanating from the East Hampton Town scavenger waste treatment plant

    This election year, Bill Mott is trying to ascend the political ladder he’s been poised on for a long time.

    A 28-year volunteer fireman with the Bridgehampton Fire Department, Mr. Mott has served for 12 years as an East Hampton Town trustee and made a go at the Republican nomination for town board once before.

    He was drawn into local government 14 years ago by the late Jim McCaffrey, a town trustee who became his “political stepping stone.”

East Hampton Town

C.S.E.A. Approves Contract

    Members of East Hampton Town’s Civil Service Employees Association union voted last Thursday to ratify a four-year contract with the town, retroactive to the start of 2011.

Team Wilkinson

    The last fund-raising event for “Team Wilkinson” — the incumbent Republican supervisor, Bill Wilkinson, and his town board running mates, Steven Gaines and Richard Haeg — is being held tonight from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Palm restaurant in East Hampton. Tickets are $75.

Happy Democrats

    Tomorrow, Zach Cohen, Democratic town supervisor hopeful, and Democratic town board candidates, Sylvia Overby and Peter Van Scoyoc, will host a free happy hour at the Shagwong restaurant in Montauk beginning at 5 p.m.

Clams and Candidates

    Political candidates all across the board appeared on Monday at Ashawagh Hall under the auspices of the Springs Citizens Advisory Committee. They discussed their backgrounds and platforms, but dealt with a series of Springs-centric questions as well.

The East Hampton Environmental Coalition, comprised of 11 nonprofit groups, has released responses from East Hampton Town Board and supervisor candidates.

    For East Hampton voters who want to educate themselves about their choices next month, three big candidate forums are scheduled in the coming week and another that already happened can be seen on LTV or online.

    The Concerned Citizens of Montauk will host its annual meet-the-candidates event on Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Montauk Firehouse.

    Campaign disclosure reports for mid-July through early October from the East Hampton Independence Party and the East Hampton Conservators, both of which were not posted to the New York State Board of Elections Web site last week, showed modest fund-raising for both groups during the period.

    The East Hampton Conservators, a political action committee that raised nearly $60,000 in the first half of 2011, reported only $300 in contributions since then.

        The political controversy about public access to oceanfront beaches on Napeague seems to have lost some of its heat in the last week.

    The East Hampton Conservators, a political action committee that supports pro-environment candidates and issues, has announced its endorsement of the Democratic candidates for town supervisor and town board, support that will give the Democrats an extra boost of money, as well.

    Despite an exhausting campaigning schedule and the recent “nerve-racking” public debates, Sylvia Overby, a Democratic candidate for East Hampton Town Board, remains buoyant, meeting every election challenge with a smile and the determination to fight for East Hampton’s quality of life.

    While Ms. Overby’s community involvement dates back to 1994, she admits she was surprised by the intensity of the campaign process.

    The owners of the Surf Lodge in Montauk, who have accrued more than 640 alleged town code violations over the past four months, submitted site plans to the East Hampton Town Planning Board on Sept. 21. The board will discuss them at its meeting on Wednesday.

    Should the inlet to Amagansett’s Napeague Harbor be to the west of Hicks Island, a small island at its mouth, as it is now? Should it be to the east, where one existed previously? Or should there be inlets on both sides of the island?

    Land Use Ecological Services, a Riverhead firm, has signed a $20,000 contract with the Peconic Estuary Program to find answers to these persistent questions as they relate to the best way to improve the eelgrass, shellfish, and other life in the harbor.

    East Hampton Town’s come-hither Web site, with information for media production companies that town officials hope will come here for movie, commercial, or still-photography shoots, is online at filmthehamptons.org.

    The site was developed by members of the town’s media advisory committee, which was convened by the town board in order to develop media business here. Councilwoman Theresa Quigley has been working closely with the group.

    Although Steven Gaines, an author who is navigating his first campaign for political office, has spent a large portion of his adult life in the public eye and describes himself as “outgoing and warm,” he said this week that the public scrutiny in the political realm is decidedly different than what he has experienced as an author. In that gap lies the daunting demand of being a candidate.

    A proposed amendment to East Hampton Town’s zoning code, designed to simplify the procedure for farmers looking to add greenhouses, farm stands, or other buildings to their land is the right idea, most speakers at a town board hearing last week on the legislation agreed, but the devil is in the details.

East Hampton Town

A.R.B. on LTV

    Meetings of the East Hampton Town Architectural Review Board have been added to the lineup of programs on LTV,  channel 22. The meetings, at 7 p.m. on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month, will be covered live and will be re-aired on Fridays at 4 p.m. and Saturdays at midnight and 10 p.m. They can also be seen online at the LTV Web site, at ltveh.org.

    As ducks begin to fly south from their northern summertime habitats, the East Hampton Town Trustees are planning to set aside at least one and perhaps two blinds for hunters from the general public to shoot from. 

A majority of the town board voted last Thursday to sell East Hampton’s 50-percent share of the Poxabogue Golf Center to Southampton Town.