Government

A public hearing on East Hampton Town’s 2023 preliminary budget drew few comments during the town board’s meeting last Thursday, but one from a labor union representative conveyed appreciation for a key feature of the document, the salary increases that close to 200 of its members would see.

Unofficial results have Gov. Kathy Hochul defeating Republican Representative Lee Zeldin with 52.7 percent of the vote in a contest that became tighter than expected in the final lead-up to the election. Mr. Zeldin conceded on Wednesday afternoon.

A community housing fund proposition that would authorize a .5-percent tax on some real estate transfers passed in East Hampton, Southampton, Southold, and Shelter Island Towns. “The funds raised will be a significant part of the town board’s ‘All Hands on Housing’ effort to address the housing crisis here in East Hampton,” East Hampton's supervisor said.

Nicholas LaLota, the Republican and Conservative Party nominee to represent New York’s First Congressional District, is the winner of the race to succeed Representative Lee Zeldin, the four-term congressman who ran for governor of New York on the Republican and Conservative Party lines. Mr. LaLota defeated Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming with 55.81 percent of the vote.

Despite the approach of winter, the East Hampton Village Board turned its attention to Main Beach and summer recreation issues at its Nov. 4 work session.

The East Hampton Village Board is considering making Mill Road one way. Traffic could continue to head from James Lane to Route 27, but drivers heading on Route 27 would no longer be able to turn onto the short street.

The East Hampton Town Board voted at its meeting last Thursday to acquire 18.8 acres of vacant land at 66 East Lake Drive in Montauk, but will do so with general municipal funds and not community preservation fund money, as initially intended. The change in funding source spurred an accusation, during a public hearing earlier in the meeting, of a “secretive town board plan” to construct a sewage treatment plant for the hamlet at the property.

Residents of Sag Harbor’s historically Black neighborhoods, Azurest, Ninevah, and Sag Harbor Hills, showed up in force at a village board meeting Tuesday night for a public hearing on whether to create an overlay district for those neighborhoods, as a means of preserving their character in the face of recent development trends.

In a procedural, but consequential, step, the Sag Harbor Village Board issued a “positive declaration” Tuesday on the mixed retail and housing development proposed by Adam Potter and Conifer Realty. When a positive declaration is made, it means a project could have a significant environmental impact and must undergo a lengthy public review.

A new 185-foot emergency communications tower at Camp Blue Bay in Springs, including antennas for the four main personal wireless carriers, could be operational by Memorial Day. And there appears to be movement on a tower at the Springs Firehouse, where an attorney for the fire district said it was reviewing a shorter pole. “Until September, we thought we still needed a 180-foot pole. . . We didn’t have reason to prioritize review of a shorter pole. We do now."

Members of the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee are claiming that the Maidstone Gun Club, a private group that leases close to 100 acres of town-owned land in that hamlet, has violated multiple clauses of its lease.

The East Hampton Town Board will address the situation at the airport — what has transpired to date and the town’s options after its latest legal setback — at its work session on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee is shifting its short-term focus to flight routes, hoping to impact air traffic by next summer.

As New Yorkers went to bed on election night the ABC and NBC news networks were projecting that Gov. Kathy Hochul had won her race against Representative Lee Zeldin of New York's First Congressional District, although only 1 percent of votes from Suffolk County, a stronghold for the Republican and Conservative Party challenger, had been counted. 

Unofficial results posted after midnight on election night gave the Republican Nick LaLota the win over Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming in the First Congressional District. Republican State Senator Anthony Palumbo won over Skyler Johnson, and Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., a Democrat, was returned to Albany. A community housing fund proposition passed in East Hampton, Southampton, and Southold Towns.

The John Behan Memorial Park will be established in Montauk to honor the longtime state assemblyman and Marine Corps veteran who died last year. A ceremonial groundbreaking is planned for Veterans Day, which was also his birthday.

Months after the East Hampton Town Board approved a resolution to revoke all beach driving permits previously issued by the town clerk’s office, in compliance with a court order, the clerk is again issuing beach driving permits to eligible applicants.

“There’s trouble in paradise,” Gail Pellett of ChangeHampton said outside East Hampton Town Hall last Thursday, where a group of elected officials and residents had gathered for a ceremonial groundbreaking for a community pollinator garden that will extend a pollinator pathway that includes another garden and a wildflower meadow in progress on the campus.

Five days before Election Day, the results of Tuesday’s midterm elections were anyone’s guess, with dueling polls showing Gov. Kathy Hochul comfortably ahead of Representative Lee Zeldin and Mr. Zeldin with a slight lead over the governor.

Mobilization was to begin this week for the commencement of a stormwater abatement and control project at the Louse Point Road parking area and beach access in Springs.

East Hampton Town is developing “Green East Hampton,” a new page on its website highlighting accomplishments in environmental protection and sustainability.

Voters in East Hampton Town can vote on three ballot propositions on Election Day, Nov. 8, as well as during early voting, which started on Saturday and continues through this coming Sunday. 

In light of multiple incidents of poaching in East Hampton Town waters, the town board and town trustees are united in supporting amending the town code to sharply increase the fines for harvesting shellfish without a town permit, for harvesting undersize shellfish, or for taking quantities in excess of the legal limit. They also agree on establishing an “aggravated" level of violation for persons acting in concert or possessing at least 25 percent more than the legal limit.

After viewing historical photos of Town Pond, East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen and the village board invited Ed Hollander, a landscape architect, to talk to them about improving both the pond’s appearance and its water quality.

The East Hampton Town Board will hold a public hearing on the town's 2023 preliminary budget — a roughly $90.36 million spending plan — during its meeting next Thursday at 2 p.m.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and Representative Lee Zeldin came out swinging on  Tuesday in what is likely to be their only debate before the Nov. 8 election, and the intensity had hardly flagged when it ended an hour later. 

Many of the public comments during the East Hampton Town Planning Board’s Oct. 19 public hearing on a 185-foot-tall communications tower at Camp Blue Bay in Springs were not about that tower, but about an unused tower at the Springs Fire Department. That said, all agreed that additional cell and emergency communications service was needed in Springs, and quickly

The East Hampton Town Trustees set Nov. 13 at sunrise as the opening of waters under their jurisdiction to the harvesting of bay scallops.

Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming and Nick LaLota, vying to succeed Representative Lee Zeldin in New York’s First Congressional District, clashed over the economy, abortion, gun policy, and crime in a debate at Newsday’s studio in Melville on Oct. 19. They also disagreed about aiding Ukraine, which included a gaffe by Mr. LaLota that Ms. Fleming seized on. 

East Hampton Village is seeking to formalize its relationship with the East Hampton Ambulance Association with code changes that could be implemented by January. It's unclear whether that would alter operation of the associaton, which has been run by its own bylaws for decades.

The East Hampton Town Trustees' 32nd annual Largest Clam Contest officially ended on Friday, almost two weeks after the event that drew hundreds to the Lamb Building in Amagansett. At their meeting on Monday, the trustees announced both a new venue and a date for next year's contest.