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Is Used Cooking Oil the 'New Copper'?

Blue-claw crabs, copper catalytic converters, and . . . used cooking oil? Opportunistic thieves have gotten creative in their pursuit of ill-gotten gains in these inflationary times, but used cooking oil does not immediately spring to mind as a high-ticket product worthy of theft. It is a big problem on Long Island and one that visited the East End in recent weeks in a crime wave that hit numerous local and regional restaurants, including Harvest on Fort Pond in Montauk and the Lobster Roll on Napeague.

A Sea Change on Amagansett Main Street?

“My initial reaction is, it’s too much," the chairman of the East Hampton Town Planning Board said of a plan to redevelop the parcel at 136 Main Street in Amagansett, where the owners want to renovate the historic building that fronts the long, narrow lot and add a new 7,200-square-foot building with six storefronts on the lower level and four affordable-housing units upstairs behind it.

Upgrades Near, Less So in Springs

An upgrade of the town’s emergency services communications infrastructure that began in 2017 is mostly complete, but still outstanding is the node in the system that would cover Springs. And at a meeting on Tuesday residents loudly vented about poor to nonexistent personal wireless coverage and a gap in emergency communications coverage in the hamlet.