Government

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.

Kathleen Mulcahy was sworn in as mayor of Sag Harbor Village at the village board’s organizational meeting on Monday following an upset in the June 18 election when she defeated Sandra Schroeder, the two-term incumbent.

The United States Supreme Court delivered a setback to the Trump administration last Thursday when it rejected the administration’s contention that adding a question about citizenship to the 2020 census was solely intended to help the Justice Department enforce the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

A coalition of elected officials, civic organizations, and neighbors opposing the expansion of mining at Sand Land in Noyac celebrated another victory when the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court on Friday put a hold on the mine’s ability to dig deeper.

The East Hampton Town Board voted unanimously last Thursday to adopt measures aimed at moving the town closer to its goal of deriving 100 percent of its energy needs from renewable sources.

In an effort to increase the inventory of affordable housing, the East Hampton Town Board voted unanimously to reduce the minimum required lot size for detached affordable accessory structures on a residential parcel from 40,000 to 30,000 square feet.

A pair of companion bills passed in the New York State Assembly and Senate last week would allow the five East End towns to add .5 percent to the existing 2-percent real estate transfer tax to set up a pot of money for affordable housing programs. The Town Community Housing Fund legislation awaits a signature by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and would then be subject to a voter referendum.

Democratic voters pushed back against East Hampton Reform Demo­crats’ efforts to upend the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee’s picks for town justice and town trustee in Tuesday’s primary.

The East Hampton Town Board voted last Thursday to schedule a July 18 public hearing for consideration of a code amendment to prohibit parking on portions of Queens Lane and Sherrill Foster’s Path in East Hampton.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities announced on Friday that it has selected Ocean Wind, an offshore wind energy project proposed by Orsted in partnership with Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), to develop a 1.1-gigawatt wind farm 15 miles off the coast of Atlantic City. Upon its expected completion in 2024, Ocean Wind is projected to provide electricity sufficient to power some 500,000 residences in New Jersey.

The selection followed the state’s first solicitation for offshore wind power. Construction is expected to begin early in the next decade.

The State Department of Environmental Conservation has awarded a new permit to the Sand Land mine in Noyac after a State Supreme Court judge declined to grant a temporary restraining order that would have stopped the department from doing so.

A discussion prior to the East Hampton Town Board’s unanimous vote last Thursday to authorize a $175,000 bond issue for design plans and specifications for a new shellfish hatchery on Gann Road in Springs quickly became heated when Councilman Jeff Bragman questioned the resolution.

Democratic voters pushed back against East Hampton Reform Democrats' efforts to upend the Democratic Committee's picks for town justice and town trustee in Tuesday's primary, with Andrew Strong winning the justice nomination and Reform Democrats' choices trailing in the trustee race.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc announced on Tuesday that PSEG Long Island will abandon a proposed site in Hither Woods for a new electrical substation and instead build it on a Long Island Power Authority-owned parcel on Shore Road in Montauk, near the site of the present facility.

East Hampton School District officials have reached a compromise with the Suffolk County Board of Elections that will allow the school's fifth-grade moving-up ceremony to proceed as planned on Tuesday, by moving primary voting out of the John M. Marshall Elementary School's all-purpose room for this election only.

In what environmental advocacy organizations are calling a victory for wildlife and the ecosystem, both the State Senate and the Assembly approved bills Friday setting up a marine mammal and protection area around Plum Island, Great Gull Island, and Little Gull Island.

In a rare political occurrence, a sitting Republican justice is seeking the Democratic nomination to remain on the East Hampton Town bench.

Lisa R. Rana, who has Republican, Independence, and new EH Fusion Party support, will face Andrew Strong in a Democratic Primary on Tuesday. Whatever the outcome in the primary, Ms. Rana’s place on the ballot for the November general election is secure.

In an interview last week, she said that she decided to try to force the primary to give Democrats a choice for town justice.

A primary election to choose the Democratic slate for East Hampton Town Trustee and the party’s nominee for town justice happens on Tuesday. 

Polling stations will be the same as those in every political election. Residents can vote in their election district’s polling location from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. 

The State Senate voted narrowly on Monday night to approve a bill that will afford undocumented immigrants an opportunity to obtain a driver’s license. The vote closely followed the bill’s passage in the Assembly, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed it into law soon after the Senate’s action.