Government

Both the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals and Design Review Board, at times appearing frustrated by questions of overlapping or insufficient jurisdiction, signed off unanimously last week on improvements sought by Guild Hall to its exterior. Both boards made it clear that they had no control over the more controversial future of the John Drew Theater and its iconic "circus tent" roof, leaving all the drama inside the building.

New York's First Congressional District would grow slightly under a proposed map by a neutral expert tasked with redrawing the state's congressional and State Senate district boundaries. The map appears likely to encourage Republican gains in Washington, D.C., in November, possibly resulting in a G.O.P. majority in the House of Representatives as well as the Senate.

Having beaten back a plan to site a 180-foot tower to house emergency and personal wireless communications equipment in the woodlands of their neighborhood, a group of Springs residents is now asking East Hampton Town to make the approximately seven wooded acres a nature preserve.

At the end of March, in an ambitious effort to eradicate ticks on North Haven, the village relaunched its campaign to install "four-poster" feeding stations for deer. The stations bait deer with corn. While they feed, a tickicide is applied directly to their necks.

“As a result of the actions already taken and processes in place, the F.A.A. has significant concern that the court and the parties have introduced a major safety issue into this complex airspace system,” an F.A.A. official wrote in a letter to East Hampton Town after a judge on Monday blocked the scheduled closure of the airport as a public facility and its reopening as a private one with new restrictions.

"It's important to start now," Laura Tooman of Concerned Citizens of Montauk told the East Hampton Town Board, in urging it to adopt a plan that recommends a range of strategies to address risks to coastal areas as a result of climate-change-induced sea level rise, coastal erosion, and extreme weather. Among the plan's most controversial elements is a call for managed retreat in downtown Montauk.

A New York State Supreme Court Justice issued a temporary restraining order on Monday blocking East Hampton Town from temporarily closing its airport on Tuesday at 11:59 p.m. as it had planned.

If voters approve a .5-percent real estate transfer tax in a referendum on the ballot in November, East Hampton Town will have what Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc on Tuesday called "perhaps the most important tool" to address the scarcity of affordable housing. 

Eversource, the Boston and Hartford-based energy company that is a partner with the Danish energy company Orsted in the South Fork Wind farm and other projects, may sell all or part of its offshore wind assets.

Clearing the way for the Peconic Jitney's planned Greenport-to-Sag Harbor service, the Sag Harbor Village Board voted on Tuesday to amend the village code allowing for limited seasonal passenger ferry use at the end of Long Wharf.

On Friday, May 20, town officials will meet at the existing senior citizens center with current users of the building and staff as well as representatives of the town's Human Services Department and the architectural firms designing the new facility. The public has also been invited to a listening session in the main meeting room at Town Hall on May 21 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The East Hampton Town Board is moving forward with its plan to close East Hampton Airport on Tuesday at 11:59 p.m. and reopen it 33 hours later as the private-use East Hampton Town Airport.

A group working on implementation of the Wainscott hamlet study took a close look at the possibility of burying the power lines on Montauk Highway when it met last week. 

The East Hampton Town Trustees voted on Monday to accept the proposal from Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University's School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences for his lab's 2022 water quality monitoring program, and also accepted his proposal for a sediment survey of Accabonac Harbor.

While the East Hampton Town Board is preparing for a hearing next Thursday on written procedures to make "hybrid" meetings permanent, the East Hampton Town Trustees held a hearing on Monday and afterward unanimously adopted their own written procedures for the use of video conferencing to conduct their meetings.

The East Hampton Town Board voted on Tuesday to adopt an amendment to the town code that expands the definition of litter to include soil, loam, dirt, gravel, and sand; prohibits drag-out of such materials onto public roadways, and requires that the contents of any vehicle containing yard waste be covered and secured. The vote followed an April 7 public hearing on the proposed amendment.

The East Hampton Town Board will hold a hearing next Thursday at 11 a.m. on banning smoking of all types within 500 feet of lifeguarded areas while lifeguards are on duty.

The currently projected range of sea level rise “will transform East Hampton into a series of islands with permanent submergence of low-lying areas as early as 2070.” That is the ominous conclusion that leads a draft of the town’s Coastal Assessment and Resiliency Plan, issued last week.

The effort to preserve the Springs house and studios of the late Abstract Expressionist artists James Brooks and Charlotte Park had another boost yesterday with the announcement that the National Trust for Historic Preservation has included the site on its annual list of the 11 most endangered historic places in the United States.

East Hampton Town’s Water Quality Technical Advisory Committee recommended to the town board on Tuesday the funding of five projects with $545,543 from the portion of the community preservation fund allocated to water quality improvements.

Following the New York State Court of Appeals ruling last week that the Democratic-controlled State Legislature’s redrawing of congressional and State Senate districts violated the State Constitution, New York’s primary elections will be postponed from June to August 23 as a neutral expert draws new district maps.

The installation of the temporary “cell on wheels” that is to be sited on Gann Road in Springs until a permanent emergency communications tower is designed and constructed elsewhere in the hamlet has been delayed because of “supply chain issues,” the East Hampton Town Board was told on Tuesday.

Fishermen on the South Fork are angered by the placement in August of several dozen 500-pound concrete blocks on the ocean floor off Wainscott, moorings for the telemetry devices in use for the South Fork Wind Fisheries Study Work Plan that was a condition for the East Hampton Town Trustees’ lease agreement allowing the South Fork Wind farm’s transmission cable to make landfall on a beach under their jurisdiction.

A last-minute addendum to the East Hampton Village Board meeting, a resolution to amend the concession agreement to allow the Beach Hut at Main Beach to serve alcohol on the premises, providing it secures a New York State wine and beer license, sparked more debate than a $6.8 million bond appropriation bill, and it wasn’t even listed on the official agenda.

The Federal Aviation Administration has approved East Hampton Town’s application to provide “special procedures” for instrument landings at the private-use East Hampton Town Airport that is to open on May 19 on the site of the existing East Hampton Airport.

Three entities continue to seek a preliminary injunction to prevent the planned May 17 closure of the East Hampton Airport and its reopening two days later under strict new rules.

The East Hampton Village Board approved a $6.8 million bond appropriation bill on Friday, with the bulk of the money — roughly $4.6 million — going to new fire trucks to replace an aging fleet, with some trucks approaching their 30th year.

Forgivable loans, income tax credits, and property tax exemptions are among the carrots that two bills introduced by Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. would dangle before property owners in an effort to encourage them to create accessory dwelling units to help ease the region's afforable housing crisis.

The East Hampton Town Board voted to amend the town code to create a pilot program for outdoor dining, a move that could permanently relax outdoor dining rules for restaurants.

The East Hampton Town Trustees are considering renaming their Captain William J. Rysam Scholarship Fund, which presents awards to high school graduating seniors each year, following the revelation that the scholarship’s namesake both owned and traded slaves.