Government

East Hampton Town appears likely to ban the sale of balloons filled with helium or other lighter-than-air gas, following a public hearing last Thursday. The ban would take effect on Jan. 1, 2022.

Baymen are planning a second act of civil disobedience on Sunday morning at a stretch on Napeague known as Truck Beach, protesting a State Supreme Court Appellate Division decision that it is privately owned and that residents have no inherent right to drive on it.

By a margin of 80 percent to 5 percent, commenters said the status quo at East Hampton Airport is unacceptable.

Word of the Peconic Bay Community Housing Fund Act’s passage was cheered by East Hampton Town officials this week. Next, a referendum.

The East Hampton Town Board passed three resolutions to name preserves and parks for deceased prominent residents last Thursday.

The League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island, and the North Fork will host a debate between the candidates for East Hampton Town supervisor and, separately, one among candidates for town board on Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. via Zoom.

As of last Thursday, landlords seeking to recoup up to 12 months of unpaid rent incurred during the Covid-19 pandemic can apply for aid from the State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.

Twice on LTV this week, East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc and Councilman Jeff Bragman, his opponent in the Nov. 2 vote, sharply criticized each other on several topics as both described a town in a near-existential crisis.

A week after Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc presented East Hampton Town’s tentative 2022 budget, he has proposed a modification that would see a regrading of almost 100 town employees and commensurate wage increases averaging 5 percent.

Residents who use the long-term lot off Lumber Lane are finding the daily charge too costly, Mayor Jerry Larsen said.

A boom in East End real estate sales has generated nearly $145 million in revenues for the Peconic Bay Community Preservation Fund in the first eight months of 2021, more than double the amount collected during the same time last year.

Residents of East Hampton, across the East End, and from as far away as Queens have long pleaded with the board to close or at least enact curfews and other restrictions on flights, citing the incessant noise of jet and helicopter traffic, particularly in the summer.

A significant expansion of electric vehicle charging stations at the East Hampton Town Hall campus, to be powered by solar energy, was one of three proposals brought to the town board on Tuesday, each aimed at moving the town toward its goal of achieving its energy needs entirely from renewable sources, thereby reducing the greenhouse gas emissions fueling climate change.

Burdened with outdated fire trucks for more than a decade, the East Hampton Village Fire Department will soon have the most state-of-the-art equipment on the East End now that the village board has approved the $4.5 million purchase of five new vehicles.

Perfect weather greeted the large crowd attending the East Hampton Town Trustees' 31st annual Largest Clam Contest on Sunday, a sharp rebound to the early-autumn tradition from last year's pared-down, pandemic-afflicted event. 

East Hampton Town scored a victory in State Supreme Court on Monday when its request for a temporary injunction against a local sand mine was granted.

Two residents of Toilsome Lane in East Hampton Village are trying to prevent a brewery from being built next door to their house by contesting a determination by the village's chief building inspector that such a use is permitted on the property.

The town's tentative 2022 budget was unveiled this week. The $85.33 million plan would bring a spending increase of around $2.64 million, or 3.2 percent, over this year's adopted budget and a tax levy that stays below the New York State-mandated tax cap by about $5,000.

Residents of Montauk spoke enthusiastically last Thursday as the East Hampton Town Board held a public hearing on acquiring the Dutch colonial manor house that once belonged to Carl Fisher, who purchased 10,000 acres in the hamlet in 1925 with the intention of making Montauk the "Miami Beach of the north."

The League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island, and the North Fork has confirmed three candidates debates next month, all via Zoom.

In the primary race for the Democratic nomination for the First Congressional District seat, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. has endorsed Bridget Fleming, one of two Suffolk County legislators in the running.

Sag Harbor Village Mayor James Larocca has a vision for the waterfront that includes expanding John Steinbeck Waterfront Park, creating an affordable housing district in the commercial core to the west of Main Street, and maintaining control of a municipal parking lot that Bay Street Theater hopes to use for a new theater.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James has opted not to apply to the Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, to challenge a decision involving the State Department of Environmental Conservation and an embattled Noyac mine, Sand Land.

A proposal to build a 50-unit affordable housing complex off Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton received a mixed response at an East Hampton Town Planning Board public hearing on Sept. 22, as neighbors of the site expressed concern about traffic congestion and environmental impacts, as others lauded the effort to make more lower-cost apartments available.

Flood insurance rates are about to rise for many policyholders — in some cases, dramatically — while falling for others, when the Federal Emergency Management Agency's new system for setting premiums takes effect tomorrow.

A New York State law that prohibits advance rent payments greater than one month's rent was amended to exclude seasonal rentals, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. announced on Sept. 21.

Proposals to create property maintenance requirements for East Hampton Village landowners, to allow the construction of cellars that extend beyond the exterior wall of a residence, and to establish the position of "village constable" will receive public hearings before the village board on Oct. 15.

More than 75 percent of people who responded to a wireless infrastructure poll conducted in East Hampton Town last month described network coverage where they live as poor or nonexistent. 

Representative Lee Zeldin of New York's First Congressional District, who is seeking the Republican Party's nomination for governor of New York, disclosed on Saturday that has been treated for chronic myeloid leukemia. 

A plan to revitalize the southern part of Lake Montauk and the beach at the end of South Lake Drive was presented to the East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday.