Government

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo issued an executive order intended to bolster the right to vote on Monday, as anxiety mounts amid congressional scrutiny of the United States Postal Service and President Trump's repeated assertions that voting by mail will result in electoral fraud.

At their meeting on Monday, the East Hampton Town Trustees discussed a surge in boating activity this year, which they agreed is a consequence of the pandemic. That, they said, means that the two pump-out boats the trustees own and operate are in particularly heavy use this year, especially the one based at the Star Island municipal marina in Lake Montauk. The other boat serves Three Mile Harbor.

Representative Lee Zeldin of New York’s First Congressional District will be a featured speaker at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night, delivering his speech from Long Island.

Around 70 people rallied to draw attention to the United States postmaster general and the Trump administration on Saturday morning in East Hampton Village, demanding Louis DeJoy’s dismissal, the return of mailboxes and mail sorting equipment that were removed, and the universal right to cast ballots by mail.  

Poll workers are needed more than ever before as the threat of the pandemic looms over older populations afraid to work on Election Day because they may be at increased risk for Covid-19.

Last week, the Cook Political Report announced that its rating of New York's First Congressional District — where Nancy Goroff, the Democratic Party nominee, is challenging Representative Lee Zeldin — had moved its rating for the district from "likely Republican" to "lean Republican." 

"We broke up the existing town structure in order to better communicate and effectively deal with the crisis during this emergency," Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said. Now, with the state and county's infection rate under control, "I'm confident we can go back to our existing town structure" and return to a semblance of normal operations at Town Hall."

East Hampton can take a large step toward deriving its energy needs from renewable sources by joining 61 other municipalities in New York State with an active community choice aggregation program, speakers said during a webinar on the topic on Monday.

The three candidates running for mayor of East Hampton Village on Sept. 15 Barbara Borsack, the deputy mayor, Arthur Graham, a village trustee, and Jerry Larsen, the village's former chief of police discussed their priorities and visions for the village's future in interviews last week.

"We've historically had certain areas within town where there were dead zones and poor coverage," East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said. That condition worsens with the influx of summer residents and visitors, he said, and has deteriorated further since the Covid-19 pandemic brought second-home owners to town months earlier than usual, many of them working remotely.

The Town of East Hampton appears to be following the lead of other municipalities on the South Fork in moving to enact restrictions on the use of gas or diesel-powered leaf blowers.

An East Hampton Village part-time resident, Robert Wood Johnson IV, the American ambassador to Britain, is under fire over allegations that, at President Trump's direction, he solicited the British government's help in having the British Open golf tournament held at a Trump-owned course in Scotland.