The question of whether Wainscott should be carved out of East Hampton Town as its own village has divided residents of the hamlet. One group has gathered more than 200 signatures on a petition to draw a line of incorporation, and on the other, a new collective called Wainscott United has begun a campaign of its own in opposition to that idea.
Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. announced last Thursday that legislation he co-sponsored that would strengthen oversight of mining to protect water quality unanimously passed both houses of the State Legislature. The legislation was based on recommendations of a grand jury empaneled in the county in 2018 and 2019 regarding illegal dumping and sand mining regulation.
With the release of a new report on Plum Island and its future, environmental groups and elected officials have renewed the call for the federal General Services Administration to call off the island's sale and preserve it instead.
A series of recent humpback whale strandings on the East End are evidence of another year of high mortality rates for the species along the Atlantic Coast and particularly in New York, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries.
