Government

The East Hampton Town Board delivered broad outlines of its goals for 2021 at its organizational meeting on Tuesday. The year that may see an end to the coronavirus pandemic that has now upended life in the town for almost one year.

An effort by some residents of Wainscott to create an incorporated village in a 4.4-acre expanse of that hamlet moved forward on Dec. 30 with the submission to East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc of a petition with over 200 signatures.

The East Hampton Town Trustees will devote their meeting on Monday to hearing public comment on draft agreements with developers of the proposed South Fork Wind farm, to be constructed approximately 35 miles off Montauk Point. The meeting, which will be held virtually and broadcast live on LTV, will start at 6 p.m.

U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin of New York’s First Congressional district voted late on Wednesday against certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.

A drive-through Covid-19 testing site is scheduled to open at East Hampton Town Hall on Wednesday. The outdoor site, which will be open seven days per week from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., has been established in response to the surge in coronavirus transmission across Long Island and in New York State. 

Representatives from Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind and Eversource Energy will take part in a virtual meeting to address questions and concerns about the turbine installation's onshore and near-shore footprint.

By year's end, East Hampton Town's Human Services Department was on track to have provided around 57,300 meals, more than in the prior three years combined. It also makes thousands of wellness calls, coordinates with the Family Service League to provide free mental health counseling, provides virtual activities, and offers a support group via teleconference for those caring for a loved one, all in the service of keeping the town's senior citizens safe, nourished, and healthy. 

The East Hampton Town Board concluded its 2020 meeting schedule with public hearings on curbing the use of gas and diesel-powered leaf blowers, opponents of which decry the ubiquitous landscaping equipment's noise and environmental pollution.

With many parts of the Town of East Hampton at moderate, high, or extreme risk of flooding, the planned October start of the project's implementation was prominent in "Montauk's Coastal Resiliency and the Future of Our Beaches," a Dec. 16 webinar hosted by Concerned Citizens of Montauk.

The developers of the South Fork Wind farm will conduct site assessments and soil borings as part of survey work having to do with the wind farm's onshore transmission cable installation starting as soon as Jan. 4.

Federal lawmakers on Monday passed a $1.4 trillion general appropriations bill that includes a provision to halt the public auction of Plum Island, the pristine 840-acre island that is officially part of Southold Town but is owned by the federal Department of Homeland Security.

An agreement that would see the Town of East Hampton reap an almost $29 million payment from the developers of the South Fork Wind farm in exchange for allowing a 138-kilovolt cable to be buried under town highway rights of way, from Beach Lane in Wainscott to the Long Island Power Authority substation in East Hampton, was unveiled this week. 

Significant changes are in store in Wainscott, the "gateway" to the Town of East Hampton. One already visible manifestation of change is the Wainscott Green, the 1.1-acre park that was dedicated in a Dec. 6 ceremony to the late Rick Del Mastro, a former chairman of the hamlet's citizens advisory committee who died in April.

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced last week that the state's $226 billion Common Retirement Fund will transition its portfolio to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. A review of investments in energy sector companies is to be completed within four years, using minimum standards to assess transition readiness and climate-related investment risk.

Representative Lee Zeldin, who as a member of Congress swore to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and 125 of his Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives filed an amicus brief last week supporting a lawsuit that asked the Supreme Court to disenfranchise some 20 million voters in four states.

While the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act signed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo last year provides a roadmap to a New York free of greenhouse gas emissions by midcentury, the window of opportunity to avert “dramatic and irreversible effects of climate change” is closing fast, the East Hampton Town Board was told on Tuesday. 

Self-determination at nominal cost, or a transparent attempt to thwart an offshore wind farm’s planned cable landing? Both viewpoints were put forth at a Dec. 5 meeting of the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee, where advocates for the hamlet’s incorporation, and their consultants, made a case for the Village of Wainscott. 

Governor Cuomo’s announcement on Friday that indoor dining in New York City would be curtailed as of Monday is the latest manifestation of a worsening Covid-19 crisis in the state, which now has an overall positive infection rate of 4.9 percent, but he emphasized that “living room spread” represents the majority of new infections.

The East Hampton Village Board provided more details last Thursday about a proposal to charge for additional hours of parking in the commercial district, and approved the hiring of ParkMobile, a company that will provide the app-based system to collect the payments. 

After beach season is over, raccoons, as well as feral cats from a nearby colony, access the beach pavilion. Mayor Jerry Larsen said he visited the building recently, and before entering, “You have to make a lot of noise to make sure the raccoons aren’t in the same room as you.” 

The East Hampton Town Board has hired Harris Miller Miller and Hanson, an environmental and transportation consultant, to review operations at East Hampton Airport and aircraft noise complaints from July 27 through Sept. 30 of this year.

An ongoing surge in home sales has produced a record-setting $102.61 million in revenues for the Peconic Bay Community Preservation Fund in the first 10 months of the year, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. announced on Friday.

The Suffolk County Legislature will hold a public hearing on revisions to the county's Shellfish Aquaculture Lease Program on Tuesday at 2 p.m. The hearing follows the Dec. 1 introduction of a proposed resolution amending the county code pertaining to the program, under which parcels in Peconic and Gardiner's Bays have been leased for private commercial shellfish farming since 2010.

Long Island is typically second only to Hawaii in the cost of electricity, but only 5 percent of that electricity is derived from renewable sources, Suffolk Legislator Bridget Fleming, who chairs the county's community choice aggregation task force, told the Legislature's Public Works, Transportation, and Energy Committee on Monday.

The New York State Liquor Authority voted unanimously on Tuesday to deny a liquor license application from the Marram Montauk resort, a victory for the Town of East Hampton and neighbors of the former Atlantic Terrace motel, located in a residential area of the easternmost hamlet.

Representative Lee Zeldin will serve a fourth term, his re-election in New York's First Congressional District having been certified by the Suffolk County Board of Elections last Thursday.

The developer of a proposed Amazon distribution facility at Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach, a depot that will enable the online retail giant to more quickly deliver packages to East End residents, won $2.3 million in tax breaks from the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency last month.

Nancy Goroff, a Democrat who challenged Representative Lee Zeldin in New York's First Congressional District race this year, and Laura Ahearn, who ran for the State Senate seat being vacated by a retiring Kenneth P. LaValle, formally conceded their races this week after the absentee ballot counts were complete.

The New York State Department of Transportation will begin repairing and resurfacing Route 114, from where it intersects with Stephen Hand's Path in East Hampton Village to the South Ferry terminal on North Haven, in the fall.

The Town of East Hampton has finalized an agreement with Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind and Eversource, the developers of the proposed 15-turbine South Fork Wind project, that grants the companies easements to land the installation's export cable and bury it on a path to the Long Island Power Authority substation in East Hampton in exchange for a nearly $29 million community benefits package.