Government

People have often been moved to paint or photograph the 30-acre property at 66 Main Street in Wainscott. At a public hearing last Thursday on East Hampton Town’s plan to purchase it for $56 million, some people were moved to near tears and others to poetry. 

The size of a dune that East Hampton Town is considering building at Ditch Plain may ultimately be dictated by a Federal Emergency Management Agency calculation that would make it nearly 20 feet high.

Work began late last month on a New York State Department of Transportation drainage project on Route 27 at Fort Pond that could ease flooding but add contaminants to the struggling water body. In fact, Concerned Citizens of Montauk says that if the project continues, and the group expects it will, the D.O.T. will be breaking state and federal law by sending unfiltered stormwater directly into the pond. 

While Election Day is still nearly three weeks away, there are several important deadlines coming up in New York. 

As has been generally expected, the East Hampton Town Board indicated this week that the town’s new senior center will not need to undergo a lengthy environmental review per the State Department of Environmental Conservation.

ChangeHampton, a community organization that promotes biodiverse and sustainable landscaping practices, was in front of the East Hampton Town Board last week presenting updated plans for a grassland pollinator meadow at Town Hall and Justice Court.

In the First Assembly District, a key difference between the candidates — Southampton Town Councilman Tommy John Schiavoni, a Democrat, and his Republican opponent, Stephen Kiely, the Shelter Island Town attorney — came into focus about halfway through a debate sponsored by the local chapter of the League of Women’s Voters on Oct. 7.

The Coalition to Transform East Hampton Airport has submitted a bid to the East Hampton Town clerk to lease the 97-acre town parcel in Wainscott used by the Maidstone Gun Club since 1983. However, at the town board work session Tuesday, Rob Connelly, the town attorney, made it clear the bid would not get far. 

East Hampton Village wants to buy the five inns in its Main Street Historic District using its $22.4 million portion of the town’s community preservation fund. 

An excavator removed the first loads of soil where a new lap pool will be located, and a second floor where events will be held is on its way to completion. Construction is on schedule to be completed by summer 2025.

The case of the removal of two trees on Meadowlark Lane in Sag Harbor Village was back in Justice Court Tuesday morning. Alex Kriegsman, an attorney appearing virtually in representing the defendant, Augusta Ramsay Folks, made a motion for dismissal based on comments made by Bob Plumb of the village board at a meeting in August.

Sag Harbor Village’s paid parking policy has been a boon for revenue, but it has left many residents and employees in the village aggravated. Their frustrations, in particular having to do with the village’s failure to follow through with accommodations for residents, came to a head at the Sag Harbor Village Board meeting. 

Voters across the South Fork will have two ballot propositions to consider on Election Day that could have an impact here: Proposition 1, on the Equal Rights Amendment to the New York State Constitution, and Proposition 2, on the Suffolk County Water Quality Restoration Act. 

Mellissa McCarron, a senior environmental analyst for East Hampton Town, recommended that the town board consider funding four water quality projects, together costing nearly $1 million. More than half the money would go to a single project benefiting Georgica Pond.

The race for the East End’s State Senate seat is heating up between Anthony Palumbo, the Republican and Conservative incumbent, and Sarah Anker, a Democratic and Common Sense Suffolk candidate and former county legislator.

Given a chance to make comments on recent legislative suggestions about the zoning code in East Hampton Town, the planning board, at its Sept. 25 meeting, chose to focus instead on a suggestion that wasn’t made: changing the least flashy but perhaps most consequential zoning tool at the town’s disposal, the table of dimensional regulations.

The just over $103.72 million preliminary budget that Rebecca Hansen, the town administrator, presented to the board this week brings the town’s projected expenses above $100 million for the first time, because of an over $8 million spending increase.

At the beginning of each Sag Harbor Village Board meeting, the trustees do a rundown of committee reports that paint a picture of what goes on in the municipality to keep it running. The numbers tell the story of the village, from the tally of parking infractions to the millions of gallons of sewage that move beneath the streets.

With just over a month before Election Day, the race in Congressional District 1 between Representative Nick LaLota, the Republican incumbent, and John Avlon, a former CNN anchor, is set to get interesting.

East Hampton Town officials are encouraging Springs residents to visit the town’s website by Wednesday to take a nine-question survey that will assist them in applying for $4.5 million in state money for the hamlet.

"Because of the weather, the only day we could go out clamming was Friday. We were out there for five hours," said Michael Fromm of Amagansett, whose efforts paid off when he emerged the overall winner of the East Hampton Town Trustees' 33rd Largest Clam Contest on Sunday.

East Hampton Town will hold a hearing on Oct. 17 on what would be the largest community preservation fund purchase in its history, $56 million for 30 acres south of Wainscott Main Street. 

Endorsements have been rolling in for both sides in the race for New York State’s First Assembly District seat, in which Stephen Kiely, a Republican and Conservative candidate, and Tommy John Schiavoni, a Democratic and Working Families candidate, are vying to succeed Fred W. Thiele Jr.

Legislation signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul last week expands what ambulance services can charge for, and recoup, from patients. No fire department on the East End has ever billed patients, and the new tweak to the law doesn’t seem to be influencing any to change that policy.

Gibson Lane beachgoers erupted in applause last week when the Sagaponack Village Board announced that Southampton Town parking permits will continue to be valid when the village takes over maintenance of the beach next summer.

The Sagaponack Village Board pushed back at perceived misinformation surrounding the proposed 100-foot cellphone tower set to be built behind Village Hall at a board meeting last week.

Draft legislation that would move the start of the scallop season here from the third Monday in October to the Sunday after the first Monday in November was floated by Nicholas Coritsidis, an assistant town attorney, at last week’s town board work session. It would take effect in both East Hampton Town and town trustee waters. A public hearing on the proposal will be held at the board’s meeting next Thursday.

Eventually, a major hurricane is coming, and Montauk — whose lifeblood is the ocean — is not ready. If the hamlet is hit by a truly big hurricane, it won’t be able to just get back to its feet and walk on. To make even a dent in the task of full recovery will require an army of dedicated experts, officials, and residents — and a yacht-load of money.

Solar energy on a first-come-first-served basis? It may sound unusual, but that’s what’s on the table for residents and small-business owners in Southampton’s half of Sag Harbor Village and other nearby parts of the township, through a solar project being constructed at the North Sea Transfer Station.

Artificial intelligence and deep-fake internet content have become huge talking points in this year’s race to the White House, and the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island, and the North Fork is doing its part to counter them.