Government

Two lawsuits involving local sand mines, one in Noyac and one in East Hampton, are making their way through the state court system, with two recent rulings appearing to conflict with each other.

"Make no mistake, East Hampton Town Board, we will not take this sitting down," Jacki Esposito said on Monday evening, as around 50 of her Springs neighbors murmured in agreement during a backyard meeting on Crandall Street, where a campaign to thwart the town board's proposal to site a 185-foot monopole for emergency and wireless communications equipment in an adjacent wooded area was gathering strength.

Sag Harbor Village Mayor James Larocca announced an initiative to develop affordable housing on Tuesday. "Preserving, protecting, and nourishing the community requires making it possible for our young to be able to afford to live and prosper here," he said in a statement. 

Anna Throne-Holst, a former Southampton Town supervisor and the Democratic Party's 2016 candidate to represent New York's First Congressional District, has endorsed Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn in a bid for the Democratic nomination in 2022.

The long-running dispute between East Hampton Town and the owner of Duryea's Lobster Deck on Fort Pond Bay in Montauk continues, with the most recent focus an effort to expand a dock and a contract with a boat share company.

It seemed that few, if any, were happy when the East Hampton Town Board finally concluded a six-hour meeting that saw scathing criticism from residents on a proposal to erect a 185-foot emergency and cellphone communication tower on a wooded parcel in a residential area in Springs.

Following a public hearing last month, the board voted to acquire three parcels on Gardiner's Bay near Albert's Landing in Amagansett, together comprising about five acres of vacant waterfront property. Two were bought with community preservation fund money; the third was donated by its owner, who has also pledged a sizable amount toward the purchase of the other two. 

Nighttime paving of Springs-Fireplace Road in East Hampton and Springs will begin next week, the Suffolk County Department of Public Works announced this week. 

Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee members discussed real estates advertising with "extensive computer-generated imaging of very oversized houses and landscapes," suggesting to prospective buyers that plans and permits are already in hand when they are not. 

By a split 3-2 vote, Riverhead became the first East End town to pave the way for retail sales of adult-use recreational marijuana and cafes for on site consumption. "If we don't regulate this, the black market is going to thrive, and the black market is not where we want people to buy it; that's where you start having issues," a town councilman said.

The site plan for a 50-unit affordable housing complex the East Hampton Housing Authority will build off Three Mile Harbor Road received a positive initial review from the East Hampton Town Planning Board.

A tagging study could explain where juvenile bass are coming from.