Government

People at a well-attended virtual meeting of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee Monday night cheered and applauded East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc as he relayed encouraging news about the numbers of town residents vaccinated locally over the weekend.

After repeated assurances that downtown Montauk would be the first component of the long-awaited Fire Island to Montauk Point Reformulation Project, East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said last week that the Army Corps of Engineers had announced that the town is not slated to see renourishment of the ocean beach this fall, when the project is scheduled to begin, but rather in 2023.

With six women so far coming forward to accuse Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of sexual harassment or inappropriate behavior and alleged cover-ups of nursing home deaths during the earlier days of the pandemic and safety concerns about the newly opened Mario Cuomo Bridge, support for an impeachment inquiry is growing among Albany lawmakers. 

Following the lead of 1,903 jurisdictions in 34 countries, the East Hampton Town Board unanimously approved a climate emergency declaration committing the board to making climate mitigation and the elimination of greenhouse gas emissions "a guiding principle of . . . all aspects of town business for the foreseeable future."

A proposal to offer monthlong nonresident parking permits at East Hampton Village beaches garnered broad support at a village board meeting on Thursday. A permit would cost $300, and expire at the end of each month.

The East Hampton Town Trustees are throwing their support behind a proposal from the town's shellfish hatchery director to fund a pilot kelp-farming program in Three Mile Harbor. 

As eligibility for the Covid-19 vaccines expands in New York, so too are the locations closer to home where people can get their shots. Last week, East Hampton Town administered first or second doses to nearly 2,000 people at its site, and still more were able to get vaccinated at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Hamptons in Southampton. In addition, the state is opening a mass vaccination site at the Stony Brook Southampton college campus.

"We need a more diverse police force," Sandra Dunn of East Hampton Town's Police Reform and Reinvention Committee told the town board on Tuesday. Just four of 65 officers are Latino, she said, and the department has just one African-American member, a detective. Nine officers are women.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc has found the petition for a vote to form an incorporated village of Wainscott legally insufficient.

The Suffolk County Shellfish Aquaculture Lease Program, SCALP, in which up to six 10-acre parcels are leased per year, has proven controversial on the East End, with shellfish farmers and yacht clubs at odds over the use of Peconic and Gardiner's Bays.

Equipment installed at each of three hubs — possibly LTV's headquarters in Wainscott, the Montauk Firehouse, and the Windmill Village housing complex in East Hampton — could allow residents to gather in smaller numbers without crowding into Town Hall, where social distancing protocols may limit occupancy into the foreseeable future.

Recognizing that more people have been living here since last March, and that many people spend more time at home, representatives of East Hampton Town's water quality committee recommended an expansion of the town's water protection districts.

Because of an ongoing surge in home sales, the Peconic Bay Community Preservation Fund collected $21.07 million in revenues in January, the second-largest monthly amount in the program’s 22-year history.

A proposed district would include the Long Wharf shopping plaza, the Breakwater Yacht Club, and properties on Bay and West Water Streets including the Beacon restaurant and the West Water Street Shops, a more than 15,000-square-foot building that will be the future home of the Bay Street Theater.

A public hearing on a petition to incorporate Wainscott as a village closed last Thursday, and now a deadline looms for East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc to make a decision on its legal sufficiency. Mr. Van Scoyoc is bound by state law to do so within 10 days after the hearing is closed.

Developers of the South Fork Wind farm began performing property boundary surveys on Long Island Rail Road rights of way this week.

Representative Lee Zeldin is exploring a run for governor of New York, he said on Tuesday amid mounting trouble for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, whose actions with respect to deaths from Covid-19 infection in nursing homes was recently compounded by multiple accusations of sexual harassment.

The governor spoke at length about three women's allegations of inappropriate behavior in remarks to the press during a regular update on the coronavirus pandemic.

East Hampton Town on Tuesday formally launched a vaccine "hub" website for town residents to sign up to receive Covid-19 vaccine appointments. It is accessible at ehtownvaccine.org.

An East Hampton Village parking enforcement vehicle outfitted with cameras, lasers, and other license plate-reading technology, which Mayor Jerry Larsen described to the village board as a "monster car" and "something from a sci-fi movie," will be replaced by one with more aesthetically pleasing equipment, the board decided in a special meeting on Tuesday.

Before moving ahead with its plan to require beachgoers to use a smartphone app to pay for daily parking at village beaches, the East Hampton Village Board has eliminated the Main Beach office staff that managed parking payments and performed other administrative duties.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is facing mounting criticism amid calls to curtail his emergency authority and even for his impeachment over an alleged cover-up of deaths from Covid-19 in New York State's nursing homes. The governor has been accused of deliberately underreporting the number of deaths from Covid-19 in nursing homes and of trying to conceal that information, fearing a federal investigation.

More than a year after elevated levels of volatile organic compounds were first detected at the Manor House, a 12-unit affordable condominium complex the development has been deemed safe.

Community efforts are underway to lobby State Department of Transportation officials for more safety improvements to Route 114. Among the requests is a turning lane for vehicles entering the Ross School.

East Hampton Town's nonresident beach parking permits will cost $500 this year, mirroring the fee in East Hampton Village.

The East Hampton Town Board voted unanimously last Thursday to create and appoint a Springs Park Committee to address concerns at the most frequented park in the town, which is heavily used as a dog park.

The East Hampton Town Board will hold a second public hearing next Thursday on code amendments that would add restrictions to the use of leaf blowers. The hearing will happen during the board's meeting, which will start at 2 p.m.

The East Hampton Democratic Committee did not endorse two incumbent Democrats, Councilman Jeff Bragman of the town board and Rick Drew of the town trustees, at its Feb. 17 nominating convention, instead backing Cate Rogers for town board and David Cataletto for trustee.

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.