Government

Language is being finalized for a Nov. 8 referendum that will ask voters whether to approve a .5-percent real estate transfer tax to be allocated to a community housing fund, which would be in addition to the 2-percent transfer tax for the community preservation fund.

A New York State Supreme Court justice has ordered that more than 6,000 East Hampton beach-driving permits be revoked. The decision came in a legal battle over a section of ocean shoreline on Napeague known as Truck Beach. 

Following a Supreme Court ruling that lets states set their own abortion laws, the world's richest and most powerful democracy joined one of the poorest countries in the continental Americas (Nicaragua), the smallest country in Central America (El Salvador), and an ultranationalist Poland to become only the fourth country in the Western world where abortion care is widely banned.

Eight months after the East Hampton Town Trustees narrowly voted to approve construction of a dock on Three Mile Harbor — the first such approval in more than three decades — the town’s zoning board of appeals denied an application for the permit needed for the dock’s construction to proceed.

A Montauk property owner accused by East Hampton Town of renting his house more than 50 times over nine months could be facing over $200,000 in fines after being issued dozens of appearance tickets for alleged violations of the town's rental registry law. His attorney says "there are lots of reasons why the town's case is not going to be acceptable to an East Hampton Town jury."

Last year, the contest pit clams dug from Three Mile, Accabonac, and Napeague Harbors against one another, with previous contests including those harvested from Lake Montauk. This year's contest, the trustees' 32nd, will be on Oct. 9.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, who became New York State’s first female governor in August following the resignation of Gov. Andrew Cuomo amid accusations of sexual harassment, easily defeated two challengers in Tuesday’s Democratic Party primary election. On the Republican side, Representative Lee Zeldin of New York’s First Congressional District is the winner in a four-way race for the party’s nominee for governor.

The Supreme Court of the United States overturned a 1913 New York State statute that sharply restricted the carrying of concealed firearms in public by requiring applicants for concealed-carry permits to demonstrate proper cause. Reaction was swift on both sides of the issue.

The Coalition for Hither Woods, an organization of conservation groups that formed in 1982 to oppose proposals to develop that area of Montauk, has reformed as an incorporated not-for-profit to oppose the potential siting there of a sewage treatment plant to serve the hamlet.

Not a single person at Tuesday night’s public hearing on PSEG-Long Island’s plan to run an underground transmission line through the Long Pond Greenbelt supported the idea. Many forcefully opposed the cable, which would run beneath existing high wires, which slice the greenbelt in two and currently connect two substations, one off the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike in Sag Harbor, the other off Buell Lane in East Hampton.

Orsted and Eversource, joint developers of the South Fork Wind farm, have announced an agreement with environmental groups to further enhance measures aimed at protecting the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale during construction and operation of the wind farm.

During Monday's meeting of the East Hampton Town Trustees, John Aldred briefed his colleagues on a June 14 count of mosquito larvae in Accabonac Harbor, where a pilot program to sample larvae has led to a reduction in the use of methoprene, a larvicide, by the Suffolk County Department of Public Works’ Division of Vector Control.

Interested parties and others waiting for the East Hampton Town Planning Board to accept or turn down the Wainscott Commercial Center’s draft environmental impact statement were left disappointed last week, as no vote was held. But progress was made.

The East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday discussed measures that would clarify the code with respect to outdoor seating for delicatessens and takeout restaurants. Outdoor string lighting also got a look.

The day after the Sag Harbor Village Board passed a long-anticipated measure allowing for affordable work-force housing developments in the office district of the village, a 79-unit whopper was proposed. The project seeks to combine five parcels owned by several limited liability companies of which Adam Potter, the founder of the nonprofit Friends of Bay Street, is the principal.

Early voting for the Tuesday primary started on Saturday and continues through Sunday at the Windmill Village 2 housing complex at 219 Accabonac Road East Hampton. In Southampton Town, early voting is at the Stony Brook Southampton campus at 70 Tuckahoe Road.

The Aug. 23 Republican primary for the nomination to represent New York’s First Congressional District may have a third candidate following last week’s campaign announcement by Michelle Bond, who is the chief executive officer of the Association for Digital Asset Markets.

A site near the former landfill in Montauk is promising as a potential location for a wastewater treatment plant to serve several locations in that hamlet, East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said last week.

New wastewater management measures would make great strides toward reducing nitrogen in Hog Creek in Springs, Molly Graffam and Ron Paulsen of Cornell Cooperative Extension told the East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday.

Piping plover posts and fencing at Maidstone Park in Springs were ripped out of the ground on June 15, perhaps resulting in the deaths of two plover chicks that had recently hatched there.

On Tuesday, PSEG will present plans to install a five-mile-long underground transmission line between that substation and the Buell substation on Cove Hollow Road in East Hampton starting in 2024. For three to five months, during the proposed construction period, a portion of the Long Pond Greenbelt would be closed.

John Bennett, the owner of the Springs General Store, wants a license for on-site consumption of alcohol. The East Hampton Town Planning Board knew he was looking to sell wine from a building on the property, but not that he hoped to serve it there. “You’re trying to get an approval for one thing, but it’s morphing into something that we didn’t think was being applied for,” one member said.

East Hampton Town has filed an appeal of the May 16 temporary restraining order granted to plaintiffs who sued to prevent the planned May 17 closure of East Hampton Airport and its reopening 33 hours later as a private airport with new restrictions.

Voters handed East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen and his NewTown Party a big victory at the polls Tuesday, electing two political neophytes, Sarah Amaden and Carrie Doyle, who he handpicked, to four-year terms as village trustees over the incumbent Arthur Graham, who ran on the Fish Hooks Party. 

Even as municipalities have done their part by opting in or out to recreational marijuana sales and on-site cafes or lounges, legalization is in a state of flux in New York while the Office of Cannabis Management acts to put regulatory muscle on the bones of the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act.

Blade Air Mobility and East End Hangars, which are among the plaintiffs that successfully sought a temporary restraining order preventing closure of East Hampton Airport on May 16, claim that the town is violating the terms of that order and have petitioned the New York State Supreme Court to hold it in contempt and impose daily fines to bring the town into compliance.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and Representative Lee Zeldin are comfortably ahead of their respective challengers in the June 28 primary election for governor of New York, according to a poll conducted last Thursday and Friday and released on Monday.

One-quarter of households in East Hampton Town are spending at least half of their income on housing, and more than 70 percent of renters and more than 33 percent of mortgage holders are spending at least 35 percent of their income on housing. With that in mind, the town is drafting a community housing fund project plan to detail how proceeds from a new .5-percent transfer tax could be spent if voters approve the tax in November.

The Biden-Harris administration has announced that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is initiating a process to designate Hudson Canyon, America's deepest Atlantic Ocean canyon, as a new national marine sanctuary.

Every one of East Hampton Town’s 729 streetlights will be replaced with energy-efficient LED lights within the next year or so, and the town has asked residents to weigh in on what type of light they’d prefer.