Government

As this "summer like no other" neared its unofficial close, the East Hampton Town Board announced new phases of a communications campaign aimed at maintaining the suppression of Covid-19 transmission.

In Suffolk County, eligible voters have three options for voting: absentee ballot, in person during early voting from Oct. 24 to Nov. 1, and at their polling places on Nov. 3.

Representative Lee Zeldin of New York’s First Congressional District was a speaker at last week’s Republican National Convention, during which he described President Trump’s efforts for New York State during the coronavirus pandemic as “phenomenal.”

With a nearly two-year fund-raising jump on the competition for East Hampton Village mayor, Jerry Larsen’s NewTown Party held the lead with contributions of more than $100,000 since July 2019.

The plan to build an emergency room annex in East Hampton, which has wended its way through multiple regulatory boards over the last four years, was the subject of several angry exchanges when it returned to the town board on Tuesday. 

In an effort to manage development and protect water views and character, the Sag Harbor Village Board has proposed a law that would suspend until March 1, 2021, the planning board’s authority to grant approval of site plans, special permits, and subdivisions.

Five candidates are vying for two open East Hampton Village Board seats in the Sept. 15 election: Richard Lawler, the appointed mayor, and Ray Harden an appointed trustee, on the Elms Party line; David Driscoll on the Fish Hooks line, and Chris Minardi of the villages zoning board of appeals and Sandra Melendez on the NewTown line.

Arthur Graham, an East Hampton Village trustee who is running for mayor in the Sept. 15 election, has questioned the authenticity of 200 voter registrations, and is formally challenging them with the Suffolk County Board of Elections.  

"If we do not receive federal funding, there is no way that the state and local governments can cover the deficit," the governor said Monday, citing "catastrophic budget shortfalls" that could impact thousands of workers.

An annual mosquito-sampling program in Accabonac Harbor concluded for the season on Friday, and while the coronavirus pandemic meant a loss of some interns and volunteers, this year's reduced program was deemed a success by the East Hampton town trustees and the director of the Suffolk County Public Works Department's division of vector control.

A plan to relocate two Little League playing fields to make room for Stony Brook Southampton Hospital's planned annex in East Hampton has at least one persistent critic, and last Thursday Charlie Whitmore delivered a withering assessment of that plan to the town board.

In the latest of a series of debates, the three candidates running for mayor of East Hampton Village in the Sept. 15 election offered contrasting, often contentious visions for the village.

At their meeting on Monday, the East Hampton Town Trustees discussed a surge in boating activity this year, which they agreed is a consequence of the pandemic. That, they said, means that the two pump-out boats the trustees own and operate are in particularly heavy use this year, especially the one based at the Star Island municipal marina in Lake Montauk. The other boat serves Three Mile Harbor.

A State Supreme Court judge signed an order on Monday prohibiting the Marram Montauk resort, the former Atlantic Terrace, from serving food or alcoholic beverages to patrons of the restaurant it has been operating, Il Buco at Mostrador Marram, on site or on the adjacent ocean beach.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo issued an executive order intended to bolster the right to vote on Monday, as anxiety mounts amid congressional scrutiny of the United States Postal Service and President Trump's repeated assertions that voting by mail will result in electoral fraud.

Due to a booming real estate market, the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund collected $61.1 million in revenues so far this year, the most for the first seven months of a year in the program's history, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. announced last week. 

The preservation fund, which provides money for land preservation, water quality improvement, and the protection of maritime heritage, receives the proceeds of a 2-percent real estate transfer tax. The money goes to the five East End towns: East Hampton, Southampton, Shelter Island, Southold, and Riverhead.

Earlier this month, East Hampton Town intervened to stop an extravagant outdoor entertainment concept called Etiquette at the establishment; it featured music, aerial performances, burlesque dancers, and other acts, and nightclub-style lighting.

A proposed law that increases the number of littering offenses in East Hampton Village and makes it easier to prosecute those who improperly dispose of garbage in public receptacles was passed by the village board at a meeting on Friday.

Representative Lee Zeldin of New York’s First Congressional District will be a featured speaker at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night, delivering his speech from Long Island.

Around 70 people rallied to draw attention to the United States postmaster general and the Trump administration on Saturday morning in East Hampton Village, demanding Louis DeJoy’s dismissal, the return of mailboxes and mail sorting equipment that were removed, and the universal right to cast ballots by mail.  

An East Hampton Village part-time resident, Robert Wood Johnson IV, the American ambassador to Britain, is under fire over allegations that, at President Trump's direction, he solicited the British government's help in having the British Open golf tournament held at a Trump-owned course in Scotland.

The Town of East Hampton appears to be following the lead of other municipalities on the South Fork in moving to enact restrictions on the use of gas or diesel-powered leaf blowers.

Last week, the Cook Political Report announced that its rating of New York's First Congressional District — where Nancy Goroff, the Democratic Party nominee, is challenging Representative Lee Zeldin — had moved its rating for the district from "likely Republican" to "lean Republican." 

The three candidates running for mayor of East Hampton Village on Sept. 15 Barbara Borsack, the deputy mayor, Arthur Graham, a village trustee, and Jerry Larsen, the village's former chief of police discussed their priorities and visions for the village's future in interviews last week.

"We broke up the existing town structure in order to better communicate and effectively deal with the crisis during this emergency," Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said. Now, with the state and county's infection rate under control, "I'm confident we can go back to our existing town structure" and return to a semblance of normal operations at Town Hall."

East Hampton can take a large step toward deriving its energy needs from renewable sources by joining 61 other municipalities in New York State with an active community choice aggregation program, speakers said during a webinar on the topic on Monday.

"We've historically had certain areas within town where there were dead zones and poor coverage," East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said. That condition worsens with the influx of summer residents and visitors, he said, and has deteriorated further since the Covid-19 pandemic brought second-home owners to town months earlier than usual, many of them working remotely.

Poll workers are needed more than ever before as the threat of the pandemic looms over older populations afraid to work on Election Day because they may be at increased risk for Covid-19.

The most recent test of the air quality at the Manor House complex, a new affordable housing development on Accabonac Road in East Hampton, once again found elevated levels of volatile organic compounds in the units' basements, according to Tom Ruhle, director of the town's office of housing and community development. 

Laura Ahearn, the Port Jefferson attorney and social worker who won New York’s First Senate District primary in June, announced that she has been endorsed by the 2.5-million-member state A.F.L.-C.I.O.