“As everybody knows, it was an extremely busy weekend,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez commented at Tuesday’s town board work session. “From Friday, July 5, at 6 a.m., until Monday, July 8, at 6 a.m., there were 348 [police-related] events.”
They included, she said, “six commercial noise complaints, resulting in two summonses issued; 21 residential noise complaints, with three summons issued; 23 motor vehicle accidents; 58 medical-aided cases; 25 traffic citations issued and five arrests; 14 town ordinance summonses, primarily Montauk Main Street and Amagansett Main Street for open alcohol, public urination, and littering; 581 parking summonses, and 52 town code summonses.”
Further, there were two overturned vessels on the water: one in Three Mile Harbor and one off Culloden Point in Montauk. The Coast Guard and Marine Patrol responded. No one was injured.
Because July 4 fell on a Thursday, she said, the Montauk fireworks display led to “one of the busiest four-day periods on record.” Between July 4 and July 5, East Hampton Town police handled 281 events, “roughly eight per hour. There was unprecedented traffic, with numerous backups throughout town, and numerous complaints to email and the Police Department desk regarding traffic issues.”
Councilman David Lys, who attended the Montauk fireworks show, said there were “thousands of people on the beach.” He intends to work on adding a law to protect the dunes, he said, “that will allow us to enforce someone walking over a dune when they’re not supposed to. People were like ants on the dunes.”
“In case folks don’t know why that’s a problem,” said Councilwoman Cate Rogers, “it causes considerable erosion to the dune and loss of vegetation. It’s not just keeping people from a place because we don’t want them there.”
She also relayed a message to the community from Code Enforcement, reminding residents to call the department about gas-powered leaf blowers — which are not permitted during the summer season — “as soon as they see them, and not wait. It would greatly help the response time. The number is 631-324-3858. If no answer at code enforcement, please call the Police Department non-emergency number at 631-537-7575, and they will dispatch code enforcement.”