Government

“Even in the grave, all is not lost,” wrote Edgar Allen Poe, but Poe never encountered the all-powerful New York developer and real estate lobby that ultimately helped persuade Gov. Kathy Hochul to veto a popular gravesite-protection bill on Dec. 30.

The East Hampton Village Ambulance Association has hired a lawyer to fight what it says was an illegal transfer of its ambulance service certificate from the association to the village government without its agreement, notification, or use of administrative protocols required by state law. The transfer could lead to billing for ambulance services.

The latest report from Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr.’s office shows that year-to-year community preservation fund revenues in the five East End towns have fallen more than 17 percent over all.

The Peconic Land Trust is hoping to transfer just over 13 acres of property in a preserve north of Town Lane in Amagansett to a private estate adjoining it off Abraham’s Path, but to do so it first needs the East Hampton Town Planning Board’s approval of a modification of the parcel’s lot line and — because Suffolk County owns the development rights to the property — approval from the county’s farmland committee.

In a far-reaching, $1.65 trillion package of federal legislation signed by President Biden last Thursday, the campaign to permanently preserve Plum Island took another step forward: Congress has officially invited stakeholder agencies to come to the table for a joint briefing on the island’s future.

Dozens showed up for a New Year's Day hike in Hither Woods, many with signs, to send a message to the East Hampton Town Board: They do not support a sewage treatment plant in the parkland there, even one that is near the old, capped landfill.

The bright blue slashes of paint stand out like neon under a black light, marking the trunks in a stand of healthy pine trees along both sides of Cranberry Hole Road on Napeague that will be sacrificed to protect the overall health of the region’s forests as the southern pine beetle continues its destructive eastward march.

Year-round tennis in Amagansett: That’s the goal of the plan pitched by Claude Okin, who owns the Sportime facility and camp off Town Lane and Abraham’s Path, to the East Hampton Town Trustees in December.

Off-premises catering companies on the South Fork are welcoming Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signing, on Dec. 20, of legislation to close a loophole that previously restricted them from obtaining liquor licenses. Now, they will be able to apply for permanent catering permits that will ultimately enable them to add liquor, and sales of alcohol in general, to the “approved” list.

Nicholas LaLota, newly elected in the First District, said in a statement Tuesday that while he, like other House Republicans, is “eager to be sworn in and focus on our commitment to America and our respective districts,” he had heard from countless Long Islanders expressing “how deeply troubled they are by the headlines surrounding George Santos.” Mr. LaLota added that as a Navy veteran “who campaigned on restoring accountability and integrity to our government,” he believed a full investigation by the House Ethics Committee, “and, if necessary, law enforcement, is required.”

East Hampton Town Councilwoman Cate Rogers has a legislative “bucket list” item for 2023 that would see the creation of a pilot program to ramp up composting efforts in the town. Her vision would flip the script on the well-worn “farm-to-table” concept to a so-called table-to-farm program where residents — and eventually, restaurants — would collect food scraps that would then be composted instead of being sent off to landfills, where some 40 percent of all waste is residential food waste.

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. told The Star that he had some optimism that the bill might ultimately be met with her signature, noting that Gov. Kathy Hochul and her staff had been engaged in discussions over the bill with stakeholders that include New York’s powerful real estate lobby, which leans Democratic in its campaign-funding largess and is one of the reasons Governor Hochul prevailed in her race against Lee Zeldin this year.

Chief lifeguard John Ryan Jr. this week recapped what he called a “great summer,” in which lifeguards performed 137 rescues — including 15 on unprotected beaches.

As it strives to make good on President Biden’s goal of adding 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by decade’s end, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced last week that it had issued two draft environmental impact statements for proposed wind projects in waters off Virginia Beach and New York.

Following in her predecessor’s footsteps, Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday vetoed a bipartisan and widely supported bill passed by the State Legislature this year that would have granted state recognition to the Montaukett Indian Nation. It was the fourth time in nine years that a Montaukett recognition bill was shot down by the state’s executive branch after passing in the Legislature.

Jim Brundige, manager of East Hampton Airport, told the East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday that five capital projects there, with a combined cost estimate of more than $600,000, are either underway or circling in for a landing.

Pending approval from the D.E.C. to place a wastewater treatment plant under the long-term parking lot off Gingerbread Lane, the East Hampton Village Board heard a presentation on alternate locations including at the village's Department of Public Works property at 172 Accabonac Road, outside the village, and at 29 King Street, which is not owned by the village but is within its boundaries.

After earmarking $1.2 million in its 2022 capital plan for repairs at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter, the East Hampton Town Board will be putting the job out to bid again after “the bids came back much higher than anticipated,” Deputy Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez said last week.

The East Hampton Town Planning Board did last week what it has taken nearly five years to do: agreed that the draft environmental impact statement for the Wainscott Commercial Center was complete. The vote closes a chapter in the saga of the 70.4-acre former sand mine, located just north of the Speedway Station in Wainscott, and opens another, as a public comment period has now begun.

After being named one of the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in the United States earlier this year, the Springs property of the late artists James Brooks and Charlotte Park will now be the beneficiary of a full-on historical architectural assessment by Michael Devonshire of Jan Hird Pokorny Associates, a New York City firm “with a strong focus in historic preservation work,” according to its website.

The East Hampton Town Board debated the merits of four design proposals from R2 Architecture for a new senior center in Amagansett, rejected two, and has asked the board to fine tune the other two — one with "windmill" layout, the other with a linear layout.

The Town of East Hampton was awarded a $350,000 federal grant earlier this month to explore “living shoreline” projects on Fort Pond and Lake Montauk.

Following a rippling cyberattack on Suffolk County in September, the East Hampton Town Board announced Tuesday that it is fast-tracking upgrades to its own computer systems.

Suffolk County has unveiled a revamped system of bus routes aimed at strengthening people’s ability to take the bus to work, with longer operating hours, service seven days a week, and more stops at train stations and employment hubs across the county.

The East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals held a heated public hearing last week on an application by Farrell Builders to demolish a beach cottage, unchanged since the early 1970s, and construct a new house at 175 Atlantic Avenue in Amagansett.

The site restoration and stormwater abatement project at the end of Louse Point Road in Springs has been completed as of mid-November — well in advance of the projected time frame when work began early that month. 

The Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee would like to see streetlights added to the hamlet's commercial district from Indian Wells Highway to Atlantic Avenue, but it's a pricy proposition and one the East Hampton Town Board has yet to endorse.

The East Hampton Town Board this week revealed some details and a prospective timeline for a contentious plan to build an estimated $75 million sewage treatment plant in Hither Woods to serve parts of Montauk.

The South Fork’s L.G.B.T.Q.+ community is celebrating President Biden’s signing on Tuesday of the Respect for Marriage Act, a new, bipartisan law that protects the marriages of same-sex couples across the country.

Environmental consultants from the firm AKRF gave a detailed accounting of the environmental review process now taking off at East Hampton Airport at the town board’s work session on Tuesday.