Government

East Hampton Town's water quality technical advisory committee issued recommendations to a supportive town board on Tuesday to fund six projects using money from the portion of the community preservation fund allocated to water quality improvements.

The news on Monday of a "major reopening" of New York State came not a moment too soon for the South Fork's caterers and restaurateurs, for whom the pandemic represented an unprecedented disruption of business but who now must move swiftly to book and prepare for summer events while keeping an eye on state guidance that remains fluid.

An East Hampton Town advisory committee convened last year to address beach matters has recommended a cautious approach to the looming summer season and the continuation of protocols established last year, affecting entrance, egress, and activity on beaches, as well as parking and comfort stations.

The Town of East Hampton has won a $5.6 million award from New York State for a planned affordable housing project on a 14.2-acre parcel on Three Mile Harbor Road. 

The East Hampton Town Board voted on Tuesday to appoint Kevin Cooper, a 32-year veteran of the New York Police Department and New York City Transit Police, as director of code enforcement.

Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming, flanked by Democratic and labor leaders, announced her candidacy for the Democratic Party’s nomination for New York’s First Congressional District on Monday.

Citing continuing downward trends in New York State’s Covid-19 infection and hospitalization rates and seven million of its residents being fully vaccinated, an upbeat Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Monday “a major reopening of the state” on May 19. 

Sag Harbor Village residents weighed in on Bay Street Theater's plan for a new theater, the departure of the 7-Eleven, and proposed restrictions on waterfront development at a public hearing held in John Steinbeck Waterfront Park last week. "We cannot control who can buy what, we can't control who can sell what, but what we can do is control the use, the size, the scale, and most importantly, the character of what is put on any property," said Mayor Kathleen Mulcahy.

President Biden's announcement on Earth Day that the United States will cut greenhouse gas emissions to 50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels by the end of this decade was hailed by South Fork activists this week as commensurate with the urgency of the climate crisis.

Following C.D.C. guidance, New Yorkers who are fully vaccinated will no longer be required to wear masks outdoors, "except in certain crowded settings and venues," and to make it easier to get the vaccine, the state is opening all of its mass vaccination sites to walk-ins. 

As downtown Montauk continues to wait for a long-promised federal government effort to protect its eroded ocean beaches, the Army Corps of Engineers has delayed the project to 2023. This has spurred Concerned Citizens of Montauk to gather almost 1,200 signatures on a petition demanding the project start this year, as the Army Corps had previously signaled it would.

The solar array is to be situated at the North Sea Transfer Station, a former landfill. The town announced the request last Thursday, Earth Day.

A multiyear effort to save the Springs house and studios of the Abstract Expressionist artists James Brooks and Charlotte Park may yet have a happy ending, despite a demolition permit, approved by the architectural review board in January 2020, that is "still on the table," according to a co-chairman of the East Hampton Arts Council.

A renewed push to seek a not-for-profit entity to manage the property follows Preservation Long Island's issue of an "alert" status as to the structures' potential demolition, and the organization has asked the town to rescind the demolition permit.

The developers of the South Fork Wind farm filed an Environmental Management and Construction Plan for the proposed installation with the New York State Public Service Commission on Tuesday.

A proposal that will allow East Hampton Village restaurants, including those at its historic inns, to operate outdoor dining areas, and one that will allow the village to sell monthlong nonresident beach parking permits, were approved in party-line votes at a village board meeting on Friday.

Two areas off the South Shore of Long Island that had been identified as potential federal lease areas for development of offshore wind will not be considered for leases, an official of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said last week.

A request from State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele and environmental advocates that East Hampton Town allocate 2 percent of funds it receives from the Peconic Bay Region's Community Preservation Fund to the Peconic Estuary Partnership was endorsed by the town board on Tuesday.

Seeking a site for the construction of a sewage treatment facility, the East Hampton Village Board narrowed the options down to two village-owned properties at a meeting on Friday. In the running are a vacant lot just north of the railroad trestle on North Main Street, and the Accabonac Road parcel that is home to the Department of Public Works.

A seven-acre property at 403 Abraham’s Path in Amagansett is the site for a proposed new East Hampton Town senior citizens center.

East Hampton Town is seeking additional volunteers to help staff a first-dose vaccination clinic on Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. at its Center for Humanities on Stephen Hand's Path. Those interested have been asked to call Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc's office on Friday.

For elderly residents still in need of a Covid-19 vaccination, including the homebound and those lacking the computer skills needed to schedule an appointment, East Hampton Town is offering help through the Human Services Department, and other organizations are also looking to help.

Summer water temperatures are rising in East Hampton, stressing organisms including bivalves and seagrasses. Meanwhile, the water quality in Wainscott Pond is rapidly worsening, with 2020 measurements of a toxin "unlike anything we'd ever seen," the town trustees were told on Monday.

Bay Street Theater’s plans for a new theater complex adjacent to Steinbeck Park in Sag Harbor may be too ambitious for the good of the village, Mayor Kathleen Mulcahy said. “We want to keep Bay Street in Sag Harbor, but we don’t want to be a local theater surrounded by a village.”

The East Hampton Town Board took a step closer to adopting a more stringent building code at its work session on Tuesday. Among other things, the new law would require new construction and major renovations to achieve maximum efficiency through technology and design, in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The removal of a mulberry tree, native beach plums and roses, and other plants in late March was one outcome of Southampton Town maintenance workers coming to "scrape" the parking lot at Long Beach to prevent vegetation from encroaching. But not only did the plants serve as habitats for many native animals, environmental advocates say, they also anchored the beach against erosion.

CSEA members ratified the agreement in an April 7 vote, with 74 percent in favor. The ratification, announced in a statement issued from Town Hall on Tuesday, comes more than two years after the previous contract expired. Negotiations commenced in 2018, prior to its expiration, but a mediator was called in when the parties reached an impasse.

This year, high school seniors can expect graduation ceremonies that inch closer to the traditional norms of past years, thanks to new guidelines announced by New York's governor on Monday which expand capacity over 2020's limitations.

Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott, whose petition to force a vote to incorporate a 4.4-square-mile expanse of the hamlet was rejected by East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc last month, will prepare a new petition to present later this year. 

East Hampton Town's water quality technical advisory committee has issued recommendations to the town board to fund four projects using money from the portion of the community preservation fund allocated to water quality improvements.

Existing armor stones weighing 5 to 10 tons will be removed from about 1,000 linear feet of the sea wall in front of the Lighthouse, to be reused elsewhere. In their place, contractors will install 10-to-15-ton stones.