Government

    The East Hampton Zoning Board of Appeals had a busy session Tuesday night at Town Hall, holding three hearings for variance and special-permit applications  and handing down two decisions.

     In a release issued Tuesday, Representative Tim Bishop vowed to protect the mortgage interest and charitable contribution tax deductions that are slated to end next year.

Mr. Bishop said that curtailing or eliminating the mortgage interest deduction would reduce the value of housing nationwide, put more homeowners under water, and take the wind out of the recovery.

    With a unanimous vote last Thursday night, the East Hampton Town Board approved the $1.1 million purchase of a 1.2-acre parcel of land at 427 Cranberry Hole Road in Amagansett, which officials envision as a public access to the beach along Gardiner’s Bay.

    The vote came after a hearing at which a number of neighbors voiced concerns about the ultimate use of the land, particularly whether vehicles would drive onto the beach.

    East Hampton Town Councilwoman Theresa Quigley will ask for a vote tonight on a resolution directing the town’s airport manager and consultants to begin compiling the data that could help the town gain Federal Aviation Administration approval to restrict helicopter use of the airport.

    A third Montauk nightspot that has been cited for several noise violations this summer will be the subject of an East Hampton Town Board hearing to determine if its town music permit should be suspended. Ruschmeyer’s on Second House Road has received five citations for noise violations, two more than the number that triggers a permit hearing, according to the town code. The hearing will be scheduled for an upcoming town board work session.

East Hampton Town

Space for Cell Towers

    Using maps of the cellular communications equipment sites that the various cell companies have throughout East Hampton Town, Councilwoman Theresa Quigley has suggested the town board seek to pinpoint gaps in coverage areas and identify town lands where cell towers could be erected.

    The county-funded scallop restoration project now in its eighth year has been successful at beginning to bring the East End scallop population to the robust density seen before the mid-1980s.

    This year, those monitoring scallops within the greater Peconic Estuary are seeing a dramatic increase in the population. They are seeing vast sets of bug (juvenile) scallops, and adult scallops in numbers that rival pre-brown tide populations in some places.

    The East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals made a public determination on the night of July 24 on a second request to build a pool on a Beach Hampton property.

    On May 8, a month after a contentious hearing during which several neighbors spoke in opposition, the board denied Andrew and Dana Stern’s application for a 512-square-foot pool on their 12,628-square-foot property at 8 Treasure Island Drive. The vote was 4 to 1, with only Don Cirillo voting in favor.    

    East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson raised the idea of “sponsorship of town assets” at a town board meeting on Tuesday, after receiving an inquiry from someone who wanted to make a donation to have a town nature preserve named after themselves.

    Mr. Wilkinson suggested that the town could also offer, for money, opportunities to name public streets.

East Hampton Town

Human Services Grants

    Nonprofit organizations hoping to get grants next year from East Hampton Town for human services projects have until tomorrow to submit an application to the town Human Services Department. The application calls for the submission of a project description and budget, financial data on the organization, and other details. Among the nonprofits given grants in the town’s 2012 budget are the East Hampton Food Pantry, Montauk Youth Association, and Project MOST.

    With 2012 a major year for the politically inclined, the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons has announced that details about local and national races and candidates, as well as registration information, can be found at vote411.org.

    Oct. 12 is the last day eligible residents can sign up to vote in the Nov. 6 general election. League members have been setting up tables at many South Fork supermarkets, libraries, and farmers markets at which registration materials and change-of-address forms can be obtained.

    A seminar on hurricane preparedness will be held next Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton.

    Sponsored by the Long Island Power Authority along with the town supervisors of East Hampton, Southampton, and Shelter Island, as well as New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., the session will provide residents with information about how to prepare for and manage a power outage caused by an extreme weather event.

    Councilwoman Theresa Quigley has been thinking about the problem of illegally overcrowded residences and the possibility of adding to the town code a list of conditions — things like multiple mailboxes or electric meters, or numerous cars registered to persons with different surnames — that would become “presumptive evidence” that too many people are living in a single-family residence.    

    Ronald Webb’s proposal to divide a piece of undeveloped land on Oakview Highway, East  Hampton, into eight lots with houses, with one being for affordable income candidates, appears near final approval, with a site plan ready for a vote, despite the protests of neighbors, who wanted to see the land purchased by the town and preserved as a park.

    The East Hampton Town Planning Board held preliminary discussion about the proposal during a work session on July 11,

    The East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals had a busy work session on July 10, approving variances for several applicants. None of the applications was considered controversial, as evidenced by the fact that no one spoke against them at the public hearings, although the East Hampton Town Trustees had sent the Z.B.A. a letter saying they intended to turn down one of the applications, from the Devon Yacht Club.

    The Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee was pretty much talked out Monday night after a long discussion about crowds at Indian Wells Beach, but not so much so that the perennial subject of public bathrooms in the parking lot behind Main Street did not come up for an airing.

    Bathrooms were promised there as long as 12 years ago, and a $225,000 bond was floated, but nothing has come of it; and now the necessary County Health Department permits have expired and the application process must start all over.

East Hampton Town

Lifeline for Life Saving Station

    Exterior repairs and restoration of the historic Amagansett Life Saving Station will be done gratis by Ben Krupinski, an East Hampton resident and contractor.

    After attending a recent re-enactment of the Nazi landing on nearby Atlantic Avenue beach during World War II, Mr. Krupinski offered to do the work, which will include installing authentic window replacements.

    The creation, at the state comptroller’s recommendation, of an East Hampton Town audit committee to oversee the town’s financial reporting and controls has the endorsement of the town’s budget and finance advisory committee, although not in the form in which it has been proposed.

    The Cornell Cooperative Extension’s marine program has received two grants, one to further its work to bring back this area’s scallop industry, the other to determine if there is more than a single monkfish population along the East Coast.

    In 2005, in cooperation with Long Island University, Cornell Cooperative Extension’s marine program created protected areas that have helped to increase the success of bay scallops’ spawning seasons.

    The former chairman of an East Hampton Town computer committee spoke to the town board on Tuesday about upgrading some of the town’s information technology services, regardless of a recent board deadlock over a plan to seek proposals from outside companies to take over some of the town I.T. Department’s duties.

    “All I want to see . . . is some progress on something that I think is achievable,” Paul Fiondella told the board. “The public doesn’t care if you get along or not. We just want you to move forward,” he said.

    Paper lanterns made of rice paper and bamboo, which float gracefully skyward when lit on fire until burning themselves out, are becoming popular amusements, but they are dangerous and are prohibited under state law, the East Hampton Town Fire Marshal’s office advised this week.

     David Browne, the chief fire marshal, said in a release that numerous complaints about the lanterns have been received, and that several fires related to them have been reported.

The new control tower at East Hampton Airport will begin operating Friday morning at 7. Air traffic controllers will direct planes coming into and flying out of the airport till 11 p.m. daily, through October.

    On Monday, the United States Senate passed an amendment to the 2012 Farm Bill that will help commercial fishermen obtain disaster relief loans.

    Kirsten Gillibrand, a senator from New York, announced passage of the measure yesterday. Ms. Gillibrand, a Democratic member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said the amendment had bipartisan support. The amendment adds commercial fishermen to a bill that otherwise provides a safety net to farmers in the event of a natural disaster.

East Hampton Town

Beach Business

    The East Hampton Town Board has put on hold a number of requests from surf camps and others seeking permission to give classes or tours to paying customers on public beaches. Under current town law, a commercial mass gathering permit is needed to do so.

     Catherine Casey, who has served for approximately 10 years as the assistant director of East Hampton Town’s Office of Housing and Community Development, has been appointed head of the East Hampton Housing Authority, an autonomous agency that often works with the town to provide affordable housing. She replaces Maureen Murphy, the authority’s longtime director, who has retired.

    The Sagaponack Village Board is considering a law that would seek to rein in development in the village by addressing lot coverage, gross square floor area, and accessory structures in backyards.

    The board discussed a draft of the law at a meeting on Monday, but agreed that much work remained before the changes could be brought to a public hearing.

    A building permit for a property on Abraham’s Path in Amagansett that was rescinded, then reinstated, was again rescinded, this time by the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals. The board voted 5 to 0 on Tuesday night to make the permit issued by the town’s acting chief building inspector, Tom Preiato, null and void, at least for now.

    After holding scheduled public hearings on June 12, the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals went into a work session and debated the proposed development of three contiguous lots located on the border of the Montauk Downs golf course on South Fairview Avenue, Montauk.

    Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson placed 14 items on the agenda for an East Hampton Town Board work session on Tuesday, all of which, he told the board, “We have to take action on or kick aside.”

    All had been previously discussed. Some were left hanging because of issues that arose during initial talks, or board members’ questions or requests for more information.

    Following a failed attempt to gain town board approval to issue a request for proposals to outsource East Hampton Town’s information technology services, the town’s internal audit division has distributed a survey to all town employees to assess the performance of the Information Technology Department.