Government

Due to concerns about the economic impact the Covid-19 pandemic may have on East Hampton Village’s finances, village board members made it clear last Thursday that they will adopt a budget for the next fiscal year that will prohibit spending on any major capital improvements, public works projects, or equipment upgrades.

Owners of the former Atlantic Terrace, a 96-room oceanfront resort situated in a residential neighborhood in Montauk, applied in early March for a liquor license from the State Liquor Authority, a move that quickly drew opposition from East Hampton Town government.

The East Hampton Town Board voted unanimously last Thursday to add business district hamlet studies to the town's comprehensive plan, leaving out a controversial long-range plan to relocate Montauk's oceanfront motels and other businesses.

The New York State Department of Transportation has proposed allocating $13.1 million of state money to repave nearly eight miles of Route 114 next year, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle announced on Thursday. 

The long wait that buyers of the 12 “manor house” condominium units on Accabonac Road in East Hampton have experienced because of the discovery of elevated levels of volatile organic compounds in the units’ cellars may be nearing an end, but the director of East Hampton Town’s Office of Housing and Community Development is taking a cautious approach to the contractor’s assertion that the issue has been resolved.

Several local officials were among those urging the Long Island Power Authority on Monday to authorize municipalities to enact community choice aggregation, which would allow them, singly or together, to issue competitive bids to choose suppliers of electricity.

The committee agreed at its first meeting last week to “make sure we don’t have a second wave” of Covid-19 infection “by opening too soon, by being careless when we open, by not looking at social distancing,” said Deputy Town Supervisor Sylvia Overby.

The Nassau/Suffolk Joint Summer Operations Task Force was established to offer hope for the summer, albeit one unlike what Long Island’s residents and visitors are accustomed to.

A timeline that would make the 130-megawatt wind farm off Montauk operational by late 2022 will now not be met.

The East Hampton Town Trustees have an important role in balancing the summer popularity of the beaches under their jurisdiction with the protection of those most at risk of Covid-19 infection, a public health expert said.

Barbara Borsack, who is seeking to become the village’s first female mayor in the June 16 election, and her Elms Party running mates, Mayor Richard Lawler and Ray Harden, discussed their policy priorities and plans to help the village emerge from the Covid-19 shutdown. 

Members of the Village Preservation Society have asked the three candidates for East Hampton Village mayor and the five vying for two open trustee seats in the June 16 election to fill out a questionnaire explaining their positions.