Government

An upgrade of the town’s emergency services communications infrastructure that began in 2017 is mostly complete, but still outstanding is the node in the system that would cover Springs. And at a meeting on Tuesday residents loudly vented about poor to nonexistent personal wireless coverage and a gap in emergency communications coverage in the hamlet.

The Suffolk County Water Authority's Stage 1 Water Emergency for the East End, declared early last month, was extended to the entirety of its customer base, stretching from Montauk to the Nassau County border, on Thursday, with the agency reiterating a call for customers to cease nonessential water uses and stop watering lawns between midnight and 7 a.m.

Hero Beach has always been eager to serve food on premises. At first, the resort sought to convert an entire building to a restaurant. The East Hampton Town Planning Board was against that, but eventually came around to a revised version of the plans — the conversion of two basement units to a kitchen for food service to overnight visitors and their guests — although the board's decision was not unanimous.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency proposed on Friday the designation of two widely used perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, also known as CERCLA or Superfund.

An informational meeting about emergency and personal wireless communications in Springs is scheduled for Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Springs Firehouse.

Former President Donald Trump will appear at a fund-raiser for Representative Lee Zeldin, the Republican and Conservative Parties’ nominee for governor of New York, on Sunday in Deal, N.J.

The subcontractor that will perform the onshore cable installation for the South Fork Wind farm plans to use an approximately one-acre area at the end of an abandoned East Hampton Airport runway, adjacent to Industrial Road in Wainscott, as a laydown area. 

Equity was a big talking point last Saturday at the second annual Hamptons Cannabis Expo held at the Clubhouse in East Hampton, where the frequent roar of private jets at East Hampton Airport combined with the aroma of roasting blunts provided a handy metaphor for an event top heavy with accounting firms, insurance representatives, cannabis investors, and multistate operators — large cannabis companies poised to enter a New York pot market that's off and running in a big way.

The new Three Mile Harbor development, expected to be completed within 18 months, will feature 10 one-bedroom, 29 two-bedroom, and 10 three-bedroom apartments across five two-story residential buildings. Officials broke ground on Aug. 17.

"Right now, our village code, and our zoning code specifically, lacks any regulations pertaining to wireless facilities," Billy Hajek, the East Hampton Village planner, told the trustees. "We've been able to get by without it, but as the population increases there's going to be more demand for wireless facilities."

The expiration of its 30-year lease of town-owned land is still more than a year away, but the Maidstone Gun Club, which leases some 97 acres of town land off Wainscott Northwest Road at an annual rent of $100, has informed the town it intends to negotiate its renewal.

The Lars Simenson Skatepark, on South Essex Street in Montauk, will reopen Friday after an extensive renovation made possible through a public-private partnership.

The East Hampton Town Board, citing rising instances of overclearing of parcels during building construction, voted last Thursday to increase the fees for vegetation compliance reviews. The vote followed an Aug. 16 discussion during which an assistant town attorney and Natural Resources Department official relayed numerous examples of overclearing.

The East Hampton Town Trustees voted on Monday to conduct an aerial drone survey of approximately 50 miles of shoreline, a companion to the recently commenced on-the-ground survey of docks in waterways under their jurisdiction.

East Hampton Village will soon be home to an enormous platinum bull, in the form of an art installation by the sculptor Enrique Cabrera that will graze for a time in Herrick Park.

Nicholas LaLota, the chief of staff to the Republican majority in the Suffolk County Legislature, is now the Republican Party nominee to represent New York's First Congressional District. He will face the Democrat Bridget Fleming, a county legislator, in the general election.

The East Hampton Town Board, citing inflation and its potential impact on employee recruitment and retention efforts, announced a one-time supplemental payment to employees on Thursday. The payments will total an estimated $660,000 and will come from surplus funds. 

A coalition has formed to stop the proposed redevelopment of the former Wainscott sand and gravel pit into a 50-lot commercial and industrial subdivision and to advocate instead for East Hampton Town to purchase the property for open space and municipal purposes.

The East Hampton Town Trustees have commenced a survey of docks in waterways under their jurisdiction, a plan agreed upon shortly after the nine-member body approved construction of an 80-foot dock in Three Mile Harbor in October and subsequently enacted a 12-month moratorium on new docks catwalks, floating docks, floating structures, and floating platforms.

Tuesday’s primary election will determine the Republican Party’s nominee for New York’s First Congressional District. Nicholas LaLota, Anthony Figliola, and Michelle Bond are vying for the nomination

Gardiner’s Marina, on Three Mile Harbor in Springs, hasn’t changed much since 1962. It's owners want to expand not by adding slips, but enlarging the boat basin so that roughly 10 slips can accommodate larger vessels and renovating the existing bulkhead.

After yet another hour in front of the town planning board last week, all that stood between Hero Beach, Montauk’s westernmost resort, and its application to convert two units into a kitchen was a handful of words and two lawyers.

“Dark sky” advocates are concerned about East Hampton Town’s plan to convert all streetlights in the town to LEDs, worrying that a "color temperature" of 2700 kelvin is not dark-sky-friendly enough.

A community survey revealed a desire for offerings including exercise, workshops and classes, lectures, a dining room and coffee bar, outdoor gardens, arts, games, social clubs, and outdoor games. People want a “community not ‘senior’ center,” “a happy place,” “croquet plus shuffleboard,” "bigger tables, bigger kitchen, more help, a lanai so we can sit out even in the rain.”

A March 2018 lawsuit filed against East Hampton Town on behalf of Wainscott residents whose wells were discovered to be contaminated with perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) is treading water as hundreds of similar lawsuits make their way through the court system.

Christopher Clapp, who chaired East Hampton Town’s Water Quality Technical Advisory Committee since its inception, has left the committee as he takes on the role of executive director of the Ocean Sewage Alliance.

Informed that cumulative 2022 air traffic at East Hampton Airport was down by about 28 percent through July, members of the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee found themselves on Saturday asking, “Really?”

East Hampton Town's Coastal Assessment Resiliency Plan, which highlights a spate of ominous predictions as to how climate change will impact the town, is "a nation-leading effort to prepare this town for the future with a lot more water, one where residents will adapt to live with all that water rather than fighting a losing battle against it," one speaker said during a public hearing last week.

Moody’s Investors Service has assigned its highest bond rating, Aaa, to East Hampton Town. The town’s finances have earned the top-tier rating continuously since 2017.

Anthony Figliola and Nick LaLota, who are vying with Michelle Bond, for the Republican nomination for New York's First Congressional District, debated the issues with the League of Women Voters this week in advance of the primary on Aug. 23.