Government

    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.

    The East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals approved the construction of a rock revetment on the Montauk bluffs Tuesday night, apparently setting a precedent on coastal erosion structures.

    As discussion of the East Hampton Airport continues — with aircraft noise reduction and whether or not to take Federal Aviation Administration grants shaping up as a key campaign issue in the upcoming town election — Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione last week distributed a 2010 report by the State Department of Transportation and the F.A.A. on the economic impacts of aviation in the state.

    The East Hampton Town Board will hold a hearing tonight on a proposal to hand the oversight of buildings on active farmland, such as temporary greenhouses or “hoop houses,” and farmstands, to the town architectural review board, eliminating the need to go through town planning board site plan review before a building permit is issued. The hearing begins at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.

    According to the proposed legislation, “typical zoning regulations are for residential uses” and result in the “unintended regulation of farm operations.”

Passed by five votes, the Stony Hill Stables subdivision was approved at the East Hampton Town Planning Board meeting on Sept. 28. Passed by five votes,

    Marked by a humble demeanor, a passion for Montauk’s wild beauty, and a local lineage that dates back to the 1700s, Peter Van Scoyoc is making his first serious bid for elected office as a town board candidate on the Democratic ticket.

    Hoping to offer East Hampton voters the opportunity to get to know the candidates for town supervisor and town board in a non-partisan setting, the East Hampton Chamber of Commerce held a mixer at the Hedges Inn on Sept. 13, but despite an attempt to achieve neutral ground, the evening managed to highlight some of the polarization between Democratic and Republican candidates.

    That sharp contrast in perspective represents the overarching atmosphere of the entire election, Sylvia Overby, a Democratic candidate for town board, said at the mixer.

East Hampton Town

A First for Northwest Roads

    The East Hampton Town Board will propose the creation of a special tax district to pay for road repairs in an area of Northwest that includes Wheelock Walk, Barnes Avenue, and Mulford Avenue, enabling the roads, now private subdivision roads, to be brought into the town highway system.

    Nicole Kopf, an East Hampton resident who died in March at 81 and bequeathed $375,000 to the Town of East Hampton for its services for senior citizens, enjoyed visiting the town’s senior center on Springs-Fireplace Road, her sister, Eileen Berets of Stamford, Conn., said this week. “I’m sure she felt that she wanted to support it for the future,” Ms. Berets said.

The East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals heard an application on Tuesday evening that challenged a certificate of occupancy granted for a convenience store at 148 North Main Street, East Hampton, adjacent to an Empire gas station.

    As the wife of former East Hampton Town Republican Committee chairman and former State Assemblyman John Behan, Marilyn Behan of Montauk has been in the political sphere for more than 20 years, at her husband’s side at countless fund-raisers, state dinners, and other events. Now, she is entering the political fray on her own as one of the Indepenence Party’s candidates for East Hampton Town Board.

    The Civil Services Employees Association has announced its endorsement of several Democratic candidates including Zach Cohen for East Hampton Town supervisor and Sylvia Overby and Peter Van Scoyoc for town board, but also for the Republican candidate for highway superintendent, Stephen Lynch.

Eileen Raffo’s cottage at 252 Shore Road in Amagansett’s Lazy Point community squats low in the dunes, a zig-zag array of sand-catching fences its only defense against eroding storm surge.

Steven Gaines, who is running for East Hampton Town Board on the Republican line, announced the creation of a new local political party this week.

The East Hampton Zoning Board of Appeals reached a unanimous decision on Tuesday night to deny the construction of a large dock in Lake Montauk.

The East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals will hear an application on Tuesday night at 7 to challenge a decision that will allow a convenience store at 148 North Main Street, East Hampton.

With conditional approval by the FAA, the installation of an air traffic control tower for East Hampton Airport can proceed

With the autumnal wind comes the season of politics, and the weeks ahead will be filled with know-your-candidates fund-raising parties.

After 10 years of reflective silence, Peter Buchman has come forward to claim responsibility for the commemorative Sept. 11 artwork along Route 114 in East Hampton.

    The Federal Emergency Management Agency will make federal disaster assistance available to residents and small businesses in Suffolk County following Tropical Storm Irene, County Executive Steve Levy announced on Friday.

    The declaration will give homeowners and businesses access to individual assistance for documented non-insured losses up to $30,200. According to Representative Tim Bishop’s office, grants are available for home repairs and replacement of essential household items necessary to make a house safe, sanitary, and functional.

East Hampton Town

Wind Turbine a Go

    The Iacono family received East Hampton Town Board approval last week to put up a wind-energy system on 7.7 acres of farmland on Long Lane in East Hampton. The turbine, which is to be 131 feet high, will be the second to go up on Long Lane, following another that was put up on the Mahoney farm there.

Eyeing Phone System Savings

    In the wake of Tropical Storm Irene, more than 400,000 people were left without power, struggling with flickering candles, sputtering flashlights, and refrigerator contents in varying states of troubling thaw. Just how long will all your victuals last? The United States Department of Agriculture says be prepared: After eight hours above 50 degrees Fahrenheit, you can’t keep much, and for many of us on the East End, power went out four days ago.