Government

“Everything is on track to go from public to private use,” Bill O’Connor told the East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday.

An engineering project to alleviate chronic flooding on Stephen Hand’s Path near its intersection with Route 114 in East Hampton is projected to begin this fall and be completed in the spring of 2023.

The existing fields will be displaced by Stony Brook Southampton Hospital’s freestanding emergency department and imaging and diagnostic center, for which the town board previously approved a lease with the Southampton Hospital Association.

Neighbors of a potential two-story brewery and restaurant at 17 Toilsome Lane had argued that the village had misinterpreted the zoning code. Their appeal was denied.

Covid-19 pandemic-era exceptions to New York State’s Open Meetings Law, which allowed meetings to be held, and the public to participate, via video conference, can be made permanent, thanks to changes adopted with the state’s 2022-2023 budget.

Proposed changes to the East Hampton Town code would expand the definition of litter to include “gravel, loam, dirt, and other debris,” as well as prohibit “drag-out” of such materials onto public roadways and require that the contents of any vehicle containing yard waste be covered and secured. The motivation for the proposed changes includes complaints about drag-out of debris from commercial industrial sites such as sand and gravel mines.

The findings were mixed at the East Hampton Town Trustees meeting on Monday, when Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences delivered an annual report that emphasized how human activity on land influences the health of the waters around it.

The wrecking ball is swinging, and the $1.4 million renovation and expansion project for the Lars Simenson Skatepark in Montauk is underway. The hope is that it can be finished by mid to late-summer.

In a move that could still alter the upcoming campaign for New York's First Congressional District, a Supreme Court Justice in Steuben County declared all of the state's recently redrawn legislative district maps unconstitutional. On Monday, however, an Appellate Division of State Supreme Court issued a stay at least temporarily keeping in place the district maps that had been prepared by the Democratic-dominated State Legislature, for the upcoming primary and general elections.

Admonishing the owner of the Rita Cantina property at Maidstone Park in Springs to "be a good neighbor," the East Hampton Town Planning Board took a careful look at a site plan application for the property last month and found it "very deficient," in the words of the board's chairman, Samuel Kramer.

The East Hampton Town Board held an in-person meeting on Tuesday, its first since last summer, when the Delta variant of the Covid-19 halted what proved to be a short-lived resumption of pre-pandemic life.

Inlet Seafood, the popular seafood restaurant off East Lake Drive in Montauk, has asked the East Hampton Town Planning Board for what would appear to be a straightforward request — the addition of an 1,800-square-foot vinyl awning to accommodate some seasonal outdoor seating — but has run up against other issues that cast a proverbial shadow over the application.

A statement issued from East Hampton Town Hall last week indicated that the plan to deactivate East Hampton Airport on May 17 and reopen it as the private-use “East Hampton Town Airport” two days later is proceeding on schedule, but aviation interests continue to insist that the plan is unworkable if not illegal, while opponents of the airport say plans to restrict airport operations do not go far enough.

Water quality remediation was once again the primary topic on as the East Hampton Town Trustees looked favorably on several proposals aimed at improving impaired water bodies under their jurisdiction.  

The East Hampton Town Board and all appointed boards that have not already done so will resume meeting in person as of next week.

The first blow to Long Beach's vegetation was struck long ago by Man, when a parking lot was laid a few hundred feet parallel to the shoreline, downwind of the prevailing wintertime northwesterlies — meaning it would always compete with blowing sand. Nature reclaimed some of that lot, and Man struck back, cleaning it up but also removing many native plants.

East Hampton Town's Covid-19 testing site at the former Child Development Center of the Hamptons on Stephen Hand's Path will continue operating at least through April 15, as concerns about the BA.2 subvariant and the upcoming April school break spark renewed interest in tests.

The East Hampton Town Board voted last Thursday to adopt an affordable housing overlay district off Route 114 in the Wainscott School District, just outside of Sag Harbor. It also set hearing dates for a pilot outdoor dining program, and on amending the town code with respect to the “new” publicly owned, private-use airport planned to open on May 19 after the town deactivates East Hampton Airport in its current form.

With plans in the works for bathrooms at the beach, the East Hampton Village Board is mulling where to put them and hammering out the fine details.

After years of planning and fund-raising, the East Hampton Village Board finally voted to approve the first phase of the renovation of Herrick Park. It will incorporate the southern portion of the park and includes the playing fields area.

The East Hampton Town Trustees and 12 fishermen filed a class-action lawsuit last Thursday on behalf of themselves and all residents of the town, asserting that the five homeowners associations whose members’ deeds were determined to extend to the mean high water mark on a stretch of Napeague beach are unlawfully depriving them of access.

Mindful of what some have called a creeping commercialization of the town’s beaches, the East Hampton Town Board is likely to amend the town code pertaining to peddling ahead of the 2022 summer season to get a handle on businesses that rent beach chairs, umbrellas, and watersport equipment and set up and maintain beach fires.

Friday at 4 p.m. is the deadline for public comment on the scope of a draft environmental impact statement associated with the May 17 deactivation of East Hampton Airport and the opening, 33 hours later, of a “new” private-use airport on the same site.

Drivers in New York State may soon be paying around 46 to 50 cents less per gallon for gasoline. A bill making its way through the State Legislature as part of the state’s budget could provide that relief in the form of a temporary gas-tax holiday through the end of 2022.

The East Hampton Town Trustees have authorized the Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation to once again use an aquatic weed harvester this summer as part of the ongoing effort to alleviate conditions that have promoted the growth of harmful algal blooms, particularly that of toxic cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, in the pond.

A relaxation of outdoor dining rules for restaurants, put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic, could become permanent. East Hampton Town officials have been working on changes that would allow most restaurants to double their seating capacity, but with one catch: the total numbers of patrons would have to remain the same. A three-year trial period is planned.

Two years and two days after East Hampton Town declared a state of emergency because of a surging Covid-19 pandemic, Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc announced on Tuesday the rescinding of that declaration and of its accompanying executive orders, saying that he was "really excited that things are looking up, finally, after two very long years."

“It’s not just buildings we’re preserving here, it’s heritage, it’s who we are.” said Irwin Levy, a member of the town’s nature preserve committee who recently led a hike at the town-owned property in Springs that belonged the late Abstract Expressionists James Brooks and Charlotte Park. He urged the town to "seize this moment now” by preserving and restoring the structures on the property.

When East Hampton Airport reopens on May 19 with a new, private status, landing fees may at least double for most types of aircraft, according to a proposal unveiled this week during a town board work session.

Remarks from the public during two East Hampton Town Board hearings relating to affordable housing provided stark illustrations of the far-reaching impacts of the ever-spiraling cost of real estate on the South Fork.