Government

With the sobering realization that another summer could come and go before the coronavirus pandemic is fully relegated to history, the East Hampton Town Board looked back at the 2020 season at the town's beaches and considered improvements that might be made for 2021.

Alanah Johnson, Tiffany Gilliam, Sharon Gilliam, and Betty Gilliam are all graduates of the Bridgehampton School. They can share stories of cheerleading for the Killer Bees at different points in history, and now they have a new story to tell in a history-making election year.

The East Hampton Town Trustees opened Georgica Pond to the Atlantic Ocean on Oct. 19, a biannual event that allows spawning fish to enter and exit and flushes the pond. Unlike in the last two years, though, the pond closed naturally just six days later.

Federal permitting delays will continue into next year, representing a significant setback for the developers of South Fork Wind, the proposed 15-turbine wind farm to be constructed approximately 35 miles east of Montauk Point.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of voters lined up and cast ballots on Saturday and Sunday on the South Fork as New York State's early voting period opened up. Long lines -- starting well before polling sites were to open their doors -- were common in East Hampton at Windmill Village on Accabonac Road and in Southampton at the Stony Brook Southampton college campus, the only two sites for early voting on the South Fork. 

Polling stations during the early voting period and on Election Day will be populated only by staff, poll inspectors, and, of course, voters, an official at the Suffolk Board of Elections said this week. "You cannot interfere" with voting, a Suffolk County Board of Elections official said, and the county will "have police cars with a bipartisan team of board of elections employees in every town if there's a problem."

Suffolk County completed a dredging of Accabonac Harbor near Louse Point in Springs early this week, removing a spit of beach that had narrowed a channel and made it difficult for boats to navigate through the water, according to Francis Bock and Susan McGraw Keber of the town trustees.

Representative Lee Zeldin and his Democratic challenger, Nancy Goroff, clashed in a 90-minute debate on Monday, each accusing the other of lying about their records and demanding they remove negative campaign advertisements. 

The town trustees voted unanimously to authorize the purchase of a third pumpout boat at their meeting on Friday. The move followed an especially busy summer in Lake Montauk and Three Mile Harbor and what one trustee described last month as "an effluent crisis" in Montauk over Labor Day weekend. 

The southern pine beetle, an invasive pest now considered by the D.E.C. to be an established species on the South Fork, has made a comeback in East Hampton Town and regions of the Central Pine Barrens, town and state officials said this week.

An altercation between a Town Lane resident and a man attempting to take her lawn signs that was caught on video on Friday provides an apt jumping off point for a look at the rules governing political signs.

The distribution of money that the developers of the South Fork Wind farm will allocate to East Hampton Town in exchange for easements allowing the landing of the installation's export cable was the subject of a long discussion by the town trustees on Friday, with several of them expressing acute disappointment with their counterparts on the town board.

As a campaign season characterized by mudslinging and often outright mendacity draws to a close, it was unusual to see the two candidates vying to represent the New York State Senate's First District engaged in a civilized discussion of the issues.

A plan to remove and relocate Little League fields from Pantigo Place in East Hampton to the former Child Development Center of the Hamptons property on Stephen Hand's Path in Wainscott took a step forward on Tuesday, with a majority of the town board agreeing on a plan to construct two state-of-the-art baseball fields with synthetic turf and multiple amenities at the site.

Every major bay and estuary on Long Island was afflicted this summer by toxic algae blooms, oxygen-starved waters, or fish kills, all caused primarily by high levels of nitrogen from household sewage, according to a recent water quality report by Stony Brook University scientists.

Nancy Goroff, the Democratic candidate to represent New York’s First Congressional District, has picked up the endorsement of two prominent Democrats in the state, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. 

East Hampton Village's nonresident beach permits and the cost of daily parking at Main Beach and Two Mile Hollow Beach will both increase for the 2021 summer season — permits by 25 percent and daily passes by nearly 70 percent.

Jerry Larsen started putting his stamp on village government last week by hiring a new village administrator, choosing new chairs for appointed boards, and laying the groundwork to create a new office of business and tourism, and to bring the code enforcement office under the oversight of the Police Department.

New York State has set Nov. 2 as the opening of scallop season in state waters. But the trustees have traditionally opened waterways under their jurisdiction for scalloping shortly after the opening of state waters to allow additional time for scallops to spawn.

Democrats on the East End are turnign to a new voter base: second-home owners. According to the Suffolk County Board of Elections, 876 people with mailing addresses in New York City were registered to vote in East Hampton Town as of August 2020; 672 were Democrats.

Representative Lee Zeldin and his challenger, Nancy Goroff, answered questions posed by climate and environmental activists in an online forum on Tuesday night, three weeks before Election Day and 11 days before the start of New York State's early voting period. 

After demolishing a house, garage, and sewage systems on a property on Hook Pond in East Hampton Village that was purchased last year with community preservation money, the town and village may restore it to natural meadow and use it, in part, to show waterfront homeowners how wetland buffers can be used to stop nitrogen from running into water.

The 314 Action Fund, which works to elect scientists, doctors, and professionals in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), issued results of a poll on Tuesday showing a tight race between Representative Lee Zeldin and Nancy Goroff, who is on leave from her position as chairwoman of Stony Brook University's chemistry department. 

Voters in Suffolk County can weigh in on two propositions on the ballot this year, one to change the term of office for county legislators from two to four years, and the other to transfer excess money in the county's sewer assessment stabilization reserve fund to the taxpayer trust fund.

South Fork Wind proposal gets prominent backing, dealing a blow to opponents in Wainscott, who complain of environmental impact and counter with an alternative.

After detecting a spike in coronavirus infections in Suffolk County during the first week of October, when more than 100 new cases were reported in a single day for the first time since mid-July, the county reported far fewer new cases this week, but noted an increase in Covid-related hospitalizations.

The New York State Health Department has charged In the Know Experiences, the concert promoter involved in the Chainsmokers concert held in Water Mill in July, with violating public health law. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced last week that the state will seek $20,000 in fines for holding a "nonessential gathering" and failing to enforce the wearing of face coverings.

The New York League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, and Students for Climate Action will co-host a virtual town hall event with the candidates for New York’s First and Second Congressional Districts on Tuesday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. 

Friday, Oct. 9, is the deadline to register to vote in the November general election. Here is how to make sure you can do so, be it in person or by absentee ballot.

Wainscott United, a group of residents who oppose village incorporation efforts, on Saturday questioned the validity of a petition to incorporate being circulated by a citizens group.