Government

    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.

The East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals was able to hold one of three scheduled hearings under the bright fluorescent lights of Town Hall.

East Hampton Town

Bonding Approved

     Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed legislation that will allow East Hampton Town to borrow money, by issuing bonds repayable over 10 years, to fund an employee separation program, offering town workers an incentive to step down.

    Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson has said implementing the program is part of a package of cost-saving initiatives designed to return the town to sound financial status. He noted that it could help avoid layoffs.

    The terms of an agreement between the Springs School District and East Hampton Town, allowing the school to use a town youth building on the school campus for several classes this school year, will be the subject of a special meeting of the town board tomorrow morning at 10 at Town Hall.

    In recent discussions of the lease, Town Councilwoman Theresa Quigley, who is an attorney, had questioned whether it adequately spelled out the terms — in particular, who has dibs on use of the building after school hours.

    “As a result of complaints . . . I thought we should pursue shutting the airport down from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson said at a town board meeting on Tuesday. “We’re running into — no pun intended — some headwinds on that.”

    Because the town is limited by the Federal Aviation Administration as to what restrictions it can place on the use of the airport, the board sought advice from the law firm of Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell, the specialties of which include transportation and aviation law.

    Arnold Leo, secretary of the East Hampton Town Baymen’s Association and former town fisheries consultant, returned from an Aug. 1 Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission meeting in Virginia with some good news — striped bass and lobster fishermen might have dodged a bullet — and some bad — East Hampton Town was not represented at the important meeting.

East Hampton Town

Wainscott Land Preserved

    After a hearing last Thursday night, the East Hampton Town Board approved the purchase of 26 acres on Six Pole Highway in Wainscott. The land will be bought with $3.2 million from the community preservation fund.

    Speaking at the hearing, Nancy LaGarenne of Tryworks, East Hampton, said she was not opposed to the purchase, but questioned why the town had not bought the Webb property as well, acreage in her Middle Highway neighborhood that residents have asked the board to preserve.

    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.