Government

A popular annual event celebrating East Hampton’s maritime heritage might be another casualty of the coronavirus pandemic, but may also happen in modified form this year.

Wearing stars-and-stripes polos and red caps, supporters of Donald Trump gathered for a TrumpStock boat parade on Friday. An estimated 1,500 boats were expected to join the event, which began in Noyac and stopped around the Orient Point Lighthouse before motoring east to the Montauk to eventually tie up as a flotilla in Fort Pond Bay in Montauk.

Citing “multiple ongoing violations,” East Hampton Town has taken legal action against the Marram Montauk resort, alleging the creation and use of multiple unapproved bar areas and the unauthorized conversion of a retail snack bar to a full-service restaurant with an expanded outdoor cooking area. The town is seeking an injunction to prohibit the resort from using them.

Three candidates have officially qualified to compete in East Hampton Village's Sept. 15 mayoral election, and five will vie for two open trustee seats.

The Federal Aviation Administration has found that the Town of East Hampton complied with federal regulations in connection with its use of airport revenue, in responding to lawsuits challenging restrictions on operations at East Hampton Airport.

In a final report issued on July 23, the F.A.A. said the town "is permitted to use airport revenue to pay for legal fees when such fees are incurred in connection with airport-related litigation." The town issued a statement reporting the finding on Monday.

Nancy Goroff, the Democratic Party's candidate to challenge Mr. Zeldin, announced that her campaign had raised more than $620,000 in the three weeks since winning the nomination.

Representatives from Verizon Wireless have proposed to install a temporary cellular tower on town-owned property off Stephen Hand's Path in East Hampton. The tower, they told the East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday, would alleviate "substantial dead zones" in the area and would also accommodate a substantial uptick in wireless traffic in the town.

Local officials and community advocates are asking residents of East Hampton Town to complete their census forms. Only 29.8 percent of East Hampton households had filled out their forms as of July 24.

The East Hampton Village Board is pondering new legislation that would increase the number of littering offenses, and make it easier to prosecute people who put their personal garbage into public receptacles.

The future of the South Fork Commuter Connection train and bus service, two east and two westbound Long Island Rail Road trains and the “last mile” shuttle bus service that took commuters to commercial centers on weekdays during its year of operation, remains uncertain.

The United States Chamber of Commerce has endorsed Representative Lee Zeldin's re-election campaign. The organization represents more than three million business interests.

Representative Lee Zeldin decried “a slippery slope” in explaining his “no” vote on a House resolution that would see the removal of statues of Confederate soldiers and the bust of the Supreme Court justice principally known for writing the majority opinion in the 1857 Dred Scott case, which said that people of African descent were not United States citizens.

Legislation introduced by Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr. to restore state recognition of the Montaukett Indians was unanimously passed by the State Assembly last Thursday in a vote of 142-0. In 2013, 2017, and 2018, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo vetoed similar legislation.

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. announced last Thursday that legislation he co-sponsored that would strengthen oversight of mining to protect water quality unanimously passed both houses of the State Legislature. The legislation was based on recommendations of a grand jury empaneled in the county in 2018 and 2019 regarding illegal dumping and sand mining regulation.

The question of whether Wainscott should be carved out of East Hampton Town as its own village has divided residents of the hamlet. One group has gathered more than 200 signatures on a petition to draw a line of incorporation, and on the other, a new collective called Wainscott United has begun a campaign of its own in opposition to that idea.

With the release of a new report on Plum Island and its future, environmental groups and elected officials have renewed the call for the federal General Services Administration to call off the island's sale and preserve it instead.

The East Hampton Town Trustees and the Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation have applied to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the town board for emergency authorization to use an aquatic weed harvester in the Georgica Cove section of Georgica Pond.

The clerk of the East Hampton Town Trustees told his counterparts on the town board Tuesday that the town's baymen "are having a difficult time making a living," and that opposition to the Suffolk County Aquaculture Lease Program by recreational users of waterways poses a real threat to their livelihoods.

Francis Bock spoke during a discussion of the program, under which 10-acre parcels in Peconic and Gardiner's Bays have been leased for private commercial shellfish farming since 2010. The program, known as SCALP, is currently undergoing its first 10-year review.

Nancy Goroff, the Democratic Party's nominee to challenge Representative Lee Zeldin in New York's First Congressional District, was the top vote-getter in the Democrats' June 23 primary election where it mattered most.

Nancy Goroff, the Democratic Party's nominee to challenge Representative Lee Zeldin in New York's First Congressional District, was the focus of an online "unity party" attended by hundreds on Saturday that included her two leading competitors for the nomination and the actor Alec Baldwin.

The East Hampton Town Board held its most substantive discussion to date about rezoning a narrow 14.2-acre undeveloped site off Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton on Tuesday. As many as 60 units of affordable housing could be built there.

Three and a half years after East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo told the town board that the town's emergency communications system had reached the end of its useful life and was in need of a major overhaul, "we're slowly but surely getting there," he said on Tuesday. 

The Police Benevolent Association of the New York State Troopers has endorsed the re-election campaign of Representative Lee Zeldin in New York's First Congressional District. The endorsement represents Mr. Zeldin's ninth union endorsement in the 2020 election cycle.

AT&T will not be permitted to build a freestanding, 50-foot-high bell tower to house cellphone antennas at St. Peter's Chapel in Springs, the East Hampton Town Planning Board made clear at a meeting on July 8. 

The most recently available operations and complaint data associated with East Hampton Airport, as presented by a consultant to the East Hampton Town Board, show "not only an ongoing problem, but a growing problem," Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said on Tuesday. 

The proposal would essentially prohibit seaplane operations anywhere but at the airports and on Gardiner's Island, with a penalty for a first offense a fine of between $1,500 and $5,000. Subsequent violations within 18 months would be subject to a fine of $5,000 to $10,000. 

A free swimming program at Maidstone Park in Springs has been modified, offering only intermediate and advanced instruction because of the degree of hands-on instruction required for beginners.

International Union of Operating Engineers Local becomes the eighth union endorsement for his congressional campaign.

An $863,500 proposal to dredge Town Pond led to a heated discussion about budget priorities at last Thursday's virtual meeting of the East Hampton Village Board.

Nancy Goroff, a political newcomer who declared her candidacy for the Democratic nomination to challenge Representative Lee Zeldin in New York’s First Congressional District one year ago, is the official winner of the June 23 primary election.