Government

The East Hampton Town Board is expected to vote tonight on a resolution to support four recommendations made last month by its Energy Sustainability and Resiliency Committee. The goal is to achieve 100 percent of the town's energy needs from renewable sources. 

The East Hampton Town Trustees have retained an attorney to begin a civil investigation into the apparent electronic eavesdropping in the conference room at their Amagansett offices that began at least eight months ago.

Simon Kinsella, a resident of Wainscott, a candidate for East Hampton Town Trustee, and a persistent critic of the proposed South Fork Wind Farm, spoke during a press conference Tuesday about his lawsuit against New York State, which seeks to compel the Long Island Power Authority to disclose the cost to ratepayers represented by the proposed wind farm.

A divide among neighbors and generations was apparent on Tuesday as the New York State Public Service Commission hosted its first information sessions and public hearings on the proposed South Fork Wind Farm, a 15-turbine installation that would be constructed in a federal lease area some 35 miles east of Montauk.

The East Hampton Town Board voted to accept an anonymous donation of a BearCat tactical response vehicle at its meeting last Thursday.

A proposal to allow food trucks to operate at farm stands in Southampton Town was embraced by farmers and denounced by restaurant owners at a public hearing at the town board meeting on Tuesday.

Anyone interested in obtaining a grant from the Town of East Hampton for water quality improvement projects can now request an application through the Natural Resources Department’s website or by email. Up to $1.25 million is available for the first round of awards.

Lower gas prices, on par with those found in other areas of Long Island and New York State, may be on the horizon for the South Fork.

After a member of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee complained at last month’s meeting that the Amagansett School had not allowed “holiday decorations” to be placed on the lawn in front of the school building in April, the committee wrote to the school principal, Maria Dorr, requesting clarification.

The fashion designer Stella McCartney, who is a daughter of the musician Paul McCartney, and her husband, Alasdhair Willis, are seeking a long-term extension of an expired emergency permit to allow a 100-foot double-tier sandbag revetment on Gardiner’s Bay to remain in place until they can build a new house at the site.

The East Hampton Town Trustees will grant a special commercial permit to up to 10 residents to harvest soft-shell clams via a technique known as powering, or churning, between July 1 and Sept. 6 this year.

A coalition of local civic groups, neighbors, nonprofit organizations, and government officials was successful Friday in obtaining a preliminary injunction against the Sand Land mine in Noyac that puts expanded mining on hold.

The Town of East Hampton’s financial condition is sound, its budget officer told the town board on Tuesday.

“This is about us,” the speaker told a gathering in East Hampton last Thursday. “There’s a global issue, which we’re all aware of, but East Hampton is going to change dramatically if we don’t turn this around and start doing the right thing.”

Missed deadline knocks candidates off ballot.

Concerned Citizens of Montauk has made an urgent request for money to help pay for a trial project to improve water quality in Fort Pond.

Twelve candidates, one of them a Republican, will square off for the nine positions on the Democratic ticket in the primary election on June 25 to choose the Democratic slate for East Hampton Town Trustee.

The New York State Department of Public Service will hold informational forums and public statement hearings on a component of the proposed South Fork Wind Farm on Tuesday at the Emergency Services Building in East Hampton.

Portions of East Hampton Airport and the surrounding area have been named to a state Superfund list in an ongoing crisis caused by chemical contamination of groundwater.

The Eco Fair scheduled for Saturday on the grounds of East Hampton Town Hall, the town’s first-ever such event, will happen amid a steady drumbeat of dire predictions of climate-related threats to coastal communities, including sea level rise and more extreme weather.

In solidarity with Friday’s Global Climate Strike, in which citizens of more than 100 countries demanded action on the looming climate crisis, around 45 people gathered outside Southampton Town Hall, where members of the group Drawdown East End and others urged adoption of policies outlined in “Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming,” commonly referred to as Project Drawdown.

Weeks after the baseball field at Maidstone Park in Springs was severely damaged by a vandal, rendering it unusable and disrupting the East Hampton Little League season, the field has been repaired.

As offshore wind moves toward reality along the Mid-Atlantic and New England coastline, its critics have stepped up the effort to prevent or at least alter its implementation.

With the first public statement hearing on the proposed South Fork Wind Farm’s Article VII application approaching, Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind and National Grid have been ordered to reinstall the transmission cables serving Orsted’s Block Island Wind Farm at their landfall site, Block Island’s Town Beach, after they became exposed.

Barbara Borsack, who became the first woman elected to the East Hampton Village Board in 2000, is hoping to be the first woman elected village mayor in 2020.

In April, for the fourth month in a row, revenues for the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund were down from last year. Thus far in 2019, $23.94 million has been collected, over 24 percent less than in 2018, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. announced on Tuesday.

As it had indicated earlier this month, the East Hampton Town Board resolved last Thursday to support the goals of proposed New York State legislation that would allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses.

Attorneys for Marc Rowan, the billionaire investor who bought Duryea’s Lobster Deck in Montauk in 2014, and his neighbors in the Tuthill Road Association disagree sharply over jurisdiction.

In an effort to provide more affordable housing for year-round residents, the East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday introduced a proposal to change minimum lot area requirements for detached affordable accessory structures.

The Public Integrity Bureau of the Suffolk County district attorney's office has been notified of apparent electronic eavesdropping at the East Hampton Town Trustees' office in Amagansett, after The Star questioned the trustees on Monday about an audio recording that was apparently made surreptitiously.