Government

Suffolk County officials have unveiled a $4 billion, 50-year wastewater plan to rid the county of environmentally unfriendly cesspools and outmoded septic systems.

The environmental and traffic impacts of a proposed 27,000-square-foot fitness center across from Bridgehampton Commons on Montauk Highway were discussed last Thursday at a Southampton Town Planning Board public hearing.

Carol Konner, the principal owner of an eight-acre parcel, is seeking to subdivide the land into three lots. One lot, adjacent to Kellis Pond, would be in a residential zoning district, the other two  zoned for highway businesses.

For years, drivers with handicapped placards have favored a space for easy access to the library and Guild Hall across the street. Now, suddenly, the Handicapped Parking sign was no longer there.

East Hampton Town announced that officials obtained a temporary restraining order to stop promoters' parties, photo shoots, product launches, and other commercial activities at a 10,000-square-foot house at 145 Neck Path in Springs.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, PSEG Long Island, and the Long Island Power Authority have announced a partnership that will be included in the county’s 2020 shared services plan to assist local governments with energy efficiency projects, reduce carbon emissions, and reduce electricity bills.

Susan McGraw Keber, an East Hampton Town Trustee, urged the Suffolk County Legislature at its July 16 general meeting to pass legislation that would prohibit the intentional release of balloons, a move intended to protect wildlife and the environment.

Gordian Raacke, the executive director of the East Hampton advocacy organization Renewable Energy Long Island, has been appointed to Suffolk County’s Community Choice Aggregation Task Force.

Farmers, shocked that proposed legislation requiring the planting of a cover crop on agricultural fields includes jail time as a potential punishment for failing to do so, pushed back at a public hearing during the East Hampton Town Board’s meeting last Thursday.

Eighty acres of Lake Montauk will see a seasonal shellfishing closure extended by 60 days, and 21 acres in Sag Harbor’s Little Northwest Creek will be permanently closed to shellfishing, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation announced last week.

Members of the East Hampton Group for Wildlife renewed a push for the town board to ban hunting on one weekend day during hunting season at the board’s meeting last Thursday, with the submission of a petition bearing 601 signatures, nearly all of them residents.

A practical move to consolidate the East Hampton Town Shellfish Hatchery, or an ill-advised and unseemly rush to do the wrong thing? The town board debated the question anew last Thursday, much of its four-hour meeting devoted to a heated debate pitting the board’s majority against one member and two residents.

It now appears that the Springs General Store is not covered after all by a facade easement, which, according to a 2015 report in The Star, would have precluded the addition of new structures to the site, protected the store, the gas pumps, and existing outbuildings from external change, and preserved the view of the property.

New York State Health Department Commissioner Howard Zucker has accepted the State Drinking Water Quality Council’s recommendations for maximum contaminant levels in drinking water for PFOA, PFOS, and 1,4-dioxane, which have been found in water deemed potable.

The Danish energy company Orsted, which acquired Deepwater Wind last year, announced on Tuesday that Jeffrey Grybowski is stepping down as co-chief executive officer of Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind.

Perry Gershon of East Hampton, who narrowly lost a challenge to Representative Lee Zeldin last year and hopes to be the Democratic Party’s nominee to challenge him in the 2020 race for New York’s First Congressional District, said that he had raised more than $400,000 in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, a rival for the Democrats’ nomination, Nancy Goroff, announced last Thursday that she had raised more than $200,000 in the 72 hours following the July 9 announcement of her candidacy.

A three-year study of tick infections in Suffolk County's 10 townships showed them to be consistent with ranges of infection rates in New York State, county officials announced Monday.

“Airports, in particular, are very important refuges because of their continued grassland maintenance, and their exclusion of people and deer,” said Marguerite Wolffsohn, East Hampton Town’s planning director, and the town’s airport, “is a refuge for native plants.”

The agency has identified several "deficiencies" — primarily regarding the effect on a variety of fish species — in the South Fork Wind Farm transmission cable plan.

The Town of Southampton is making significant progress on a range of sustainability initiatives to protect the environment, members of the town’s sustainability advisory committee told the town board last Thursday.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Thursday that Sunrise Wind, a joint venture of the Danish energy company Orsted and the Connecticut company Eversource, and Empire Wind, proposed by the Norwegian company Equinor, have each been awarded contracts to develop offshore wind farms — one of them some 30 miles east of Montauk.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on July 3 announced $55 million for commercial and residential energy storage projects on Long Island. 

The East Hampton Town Board will hold a public hearing next Thursday on proposed legislation that would require the planting of a cover crop on agricultural fields. 

The East Hampton Town Board moved forward Tuesday on a plan to relocate the town’s shellfish hatchery from Fort Pond Bay in Montauk to a property at the corner of Gann Road and Babe’s Lane in Springs that was acquired for $2.1 million last year.

The East Hampton Town Republican Committee re-elected the group’s executive board to two-year terms at its 2019 organizational meeting on Friday. 

At the request of the East Hampton Town Trustees, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has engaged consultants to evaluate existing studies of potential effects of electromagnetic fields on fish species as part of its environmental studies program. That evaluation could lead to a field study, a trustee reported to his colleagues on Monday. 

Nancy Goroff, chairwoman of the university's chemistry department, aims to face Representative Lee Zeldin next year on the Democratic ticket.

Access to Little Albert's and Fresh Pond beaches will be closed Saturday night to protect nesting piping plovers.

Work to prepare for the demolition of East Hampton’s former Town Hall, which has stood empty for years, is expected to be completed in the next three weeks.

East Hampton Town's emergency generators will be used to offset high demand for electricity on the South Fork. Officials agreed to a deal with PSEG-Long Island on Tuesday.

Barbara Borsack, a member of the East Hampton Village Board who is running for village mayor in 2020, held a kickoff party for her campaign on Sunday at the home of Ina Garten, the celebrity chef and cookbook author.