Government

As part of an effort to create more affordable housing, the director of East Hampton Town’s Planning Department issued a slew of recommendations to the town board on Tuesday aimed at expanding incentives for residents to offer affordable accessory apartments for rent.

Advertising of the construction contract for long-planned improvements to the navigational channel in Montauk Harbor is expected to happen early in the summer of 2023 and the deepening is expected to be completed by the end of that year.

At the Long Island Power Authority’s quarterly board of trustees meeting last week, Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt handed the board a petition with over 3,000 signatures in opposition to a plan to drill through the greenbelt to lay a transmission line between Sag Harbor and East Hampton. “In the process, they’d destroy something you can’t put a price on," said Dai Dayton, the group's president.

The Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association has endorsed County Legislator Bridget Fleming in her campaign to represent New York’s First Congressional District.

East End lawmakers and the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons are urging Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign a bill to end the so-called “puppy-mill pipeline” that has sent untold numbers of unhealthy and abused cats, dogs, and rabbits to New York State retail pet shops.

An East Hampton Town Planning Board hearing for a proposed 185-foot cell tower that would be installed by American Tower at Camp Blue Bay in Springs has been scheduled for Oct. 19.

The ongoing malware crisis that has afflicted Suffolk County computer systems for three weeks should not impact elections here, according to Betty Manzella, the Republican commissioner with the Suffolk County Board of Elections in Yaphank. Nevertheless, the cyber intrusion presents challenges for the board of elections.

Gov. Kathy Hochul agreed on Sept. 21 to participate in a single debate with her challenger, Representative Lee Zeldin of New York’s First Congressional District, but Mr. Zeldin responded by calling the proposed Oct. 25 debate “a nonstarter,” and as of Wednesday the candidates had not mutually agreed to debate.  

The Cookery, a grocery store, bakery, and prepared-food shop that is operating where Simply Sublime stood for 10 years at 85 Springs-Fireplace Road, has worked out some of the issues with its site plan application and is now ready for a public hearing. An application for National Grid's East Hampton generating station still needs work before a hearing can be scheduled.

Breezin’ Up, a store at 37 Newtown Lane, is “looking to possibly make some changes of use in the building," according to the East Hampton Village building inspector, and an upgrade to its septic system would allow that. “They’ll be able to have retail wet uses, but not restaurants,” said Mayor Jerry Larsen, noting that similar easements were granted to Starbucks and a building housing multiple businesses at 55 Main Street.

“My focus has been on really addressing wages within the town to invest in our human resources, our staff, to bring them up to a more competitive level," East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said of the 2023 budget, which the town board will focus on during work sessions on Oct. 4 and 11. The town, he said, “has fallen a bit behind other municipalities” in employee salaries.

After last week’s meeting of the East Hampton Town Planning Board, a public hearing on a proposal to raise a 185-foot cellphone tower at the 172-acre Camp Blue Bay in Springs seemed likely by October. Other than lingering questions about a diesel-fueled generator, the board appeared satisfied that the application was ready to hear the public’s comments, for better or worse.