Government

On Tuesday, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone pledged to work with local municipalities and nonprofit organizations on the East End to get Covid-19 vaccines to a region that is widely considered underserved.

A new Covid-19 testing site in Montauk is expected to begin operation next week and will be open every day. “Knowing that we’re trending in a positive way toward summer, the state will be looking for negative tests” in order for weddings and other large gatherings to be held safely, East Hampton Councilman David Lys said.

Twenty-five members of the New York and New Jersey delegations to the House of Representatives wrote to Amanda Lefton, the new director of the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, on Friday to urge her to "jump-start the offshore wind leasing process" by issuing final Wind Energy Areas and subsequent lease auctions in the New York Bight. 

At its nominating convention Wednesday night, the East Hampton Democratic Committee snubbed Councilman Jeff Bragman, a Democratic incumbent who has frequently clashed with his colleagues, and instead endorsed Cate Rogers, the committee’s chairwoman, for his seat on the town board. 

As hopes for a return to normalcy in 2021 gather strength, the East Hampton Town Board is considering the costs and quantity of beach parking and beach driving permits the town will issue to nonresidents, resorts, and co-ops this year. 

At its work session on Tuesday, the board collectively predicted "pent-up energy to get out and do things," as Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc put it, "and beaches are a relatively safe way to enjoy oneself," as demonstrated in 2020.

The third of three public hearings on the South Fork Wind farm's construction and operations plan, jointly held by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Army Corps of Engineers, happened this week. The public has until Monday to send additional comments on the project.

People who commit minor violations of the town code, as well as the code enforcement and marine patrol officers who catch them doing it, would no longer have to appear in court under a new plan being considered by the East Hampton Town Board.

In an initial effort to oversee local Covid-19 vaccinations, East Hampton Town opened a vaccination clinic at the former Child Development Center of the Hamptons Building on Saturday and provided shots to 332 residents, including first responders, teachers, and people who work in food and grocery stores.

East Hampton Town will receive 300 Covid-19 vaccine doses from Suffolk County on Friday, and on Saturday will use them to vaccinate firefighters, teachers, and other members of the b eligibility group at the town's new mass vaccination site at the former Child Development of the Hamptons building.

The East Hampton Village Board discussed what looks to be its final plan to charge for parking in the commercial district at a meeting last Thursday, along with allowing the ongoing use of public property for outdoor dining and the use of Herrick Park for movie showings and theater performances.

After a change that went into effect last year, the Independence Party and other third parties now have to meet a higher threshold to keep their spots on the ballot in New York State. The move has frustrated members of third parties, but there may be some upsides, East Hampton's Independence Party chairwoman said.

The Suffolk County Legislature closed a public hearing on the county's Shellfish Aquaculture Lease Program, with some legislators expressing weariness and irritation at residents pressing for tighter restrictions on the program, and sympathy for oyster farmers who described their nascent industry as under attack from recreational users of Peconic and Gardiner's Bays. 

The momentum building for meaningful action on climate change on the national level was reflected in East Hampton on Tuesday, when the town board heard, and responded enthusiastically to, a recommendation from its energy sustainability committee to declare a climate emergency, something 1,874 jurisdictions in 33 countries have already done.

During Friday's Town Hall hearing on a petition to incorporate Wainscott, more people than not called in to support a referendum on the proposal.

Len Bernard, East Hampton Town's budget officer, had no shortage of news when he addressed the town board on Tuesday. He presented a draft three-year capital plan, spoke of next month's final payment on deficit financing related to budget mismanagement between 2005 and 2008, and announced his retirement, set for July.

Representative Lee Zeldin often touts the fact that an index determined by the Lugar Center and McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University ranks him as the 12th most bipartisan member of the House. This week, 259 of his constituents asked the center to exclude him and others who voted against certification of the electoral votes from its next Bipartisan Index.

The Suffolk County Water Authority has proposed the construction of a two-million-gallon tank in Wainscott adjacent to East Hampton Airport to supply water and provide additional capacity during times of peak demand, the town board was told on Tuesday.

Two days after being released from Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, where he had spent nine days fighting Covid-19, Village Mayor Jerry Larsen discussed the status of proposals for paid parking and the construction of a wastewater treatment plant, the recent increase in fees for beach parking and several other permits, the tensions that have arisen at village board meetings, and more.

Appellate judges reversed much of a 2016 State Supreme Court decision on Wednesday, ruling that property owners along a stretch of ocean beach on Napeague known as Truck Beach do, in fact, own the beach. On Friday, the town said it would appeal or move to condemn that stretch.

As East End residents face an ongoing lack of access to the Covid-19 vaccine, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and other local officials vented their frustration this week with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's handling of the state's vaccination program, and offered recommendations for fixing it.

Motivated by opposition to a plan to land the proposed South Fork Wind farm's export cable at the ocean end of Beach Lane, a group called Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott is leading an effort to create an incorporated village in a 4.4-square-mile expanse of that hamlet. A petition supporting that move was submitted to the supervisor, as required by state law, on Dec. 30.

To prevent oversized buildings along the waterfront, the code would set a maximum height of 25 feet and two stories, unless the developer provided public waterfront access and at least three other benefits, such as installing environmentally-friendly building systems and sustainable landscapes, producing renewable energy, conserving water, or preserving historic resources.

"Montauk's skate park could become a destination," said John Britton, the father of an 11-year-old skateboarder who is working with Councilman David Lys to advocate for a renovation and expansion. 

The East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday discussed a plan to amend the town code to tighten restrictions on the use of leaf blowers, with a divided board debating even greater constraints than were proposed at a public hearing in December.

After receiving feedback from Sag Harbor Village residents and business owners on a proposal to charge for parking on Main Street and in the Long Wharf lot between Memorial Day and Columbus Day weekends, the village board decided to hold off on including the Main Street spaces, Mayor Kathleen Mulcahy announced on Monday.

Charging "bad faith, authoritarian motives, and irrationality," Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott filed a lawsuit on Tuesday in State Supreme Court, Riverhead, against the East Hampton Town Board, Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc, and South Fork Wind. The action follows the town board's Jan. 21 approval of an easement allowing the developers of the proposed South Fork Wind farm to land an export cable on a Wainscott beach and then bury it under town-owned roads on its way to a Long Island Power Authority substation in East Hampton.

The New York State Department of Transportation issued a stop work order to the Shinnecock Nation last Thursday, demanding an end to the recent construction of the second of two controversial billboards on either side of Sunrise Highway in Hampton Bays

Data released Monday by New York State shows the seven-day average rate of positive Covid-19 cases in Suffolk County has been ticking downward now for nearly a month. The rate reflects the number of cases that are positive as a percentage of the total tests administered.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc will hold a hearing on the petition for the incorporation of Wainscott on Friday, Feb. 5. Signed by more than 200 people, the petition is the first step toward the creation of a new village of Wainscott. If it is deemed legally sufficient, the question of incorporation will be put to a vote by residents of the proposed village.

Following his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, 22 active and retired lawyers, most of them Representative Lee Zeldin's constituents, filed a complaint with the Attorney Grievance Committee for the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, in Albany, charging violation of "the most fundamental ethics rules."