Villages

If a legally pre-existing structure that does not conform to current zoning is moved and expanded, is it still legal? The East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals spent some time on this question Friday despite the fact that the village code says such structures cannot be expanded.

The Village of Sag Harbor is in the midst of a building boom. Houses in its historic district are being knocked down or added on to, their character altered. Residents have taken notice and are asking for changes in the village code.

The applicants sought additions and renovations to their house, as well as the demolition of an existing swimming pool and pool house and construction of a new swimming pool and accessory building to be used as a garage, storage area, and pool house.

The metropolitan New York region will experience a broad-based acceleration of climate change in the coming decades, marked by coastal flooding, heat waves, and extreme precipitation, according to panelists at a discussion held at the East Hampton Library.

Registration is open for National Public Gardens Day, which will be noted locally by Bridge Gardens Trust, as well as the Madoo Conservancy in Sagaponack and LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton, on Friday, May 8. Free, one-hour guided tours will be given, beginning at LongHouse at 10:30 a.m., to be followed by a tour at Madoo at 1 p.m. and one at Bridge Gardens at 3.

Sag Harbor Mayor Brian Gilbride’s last budget before he leaves the village board in two months would increase spending by under 1 percent.

The East Hampton Village Board will hold public hearings on May 15 on proposed amendments aimed at reining in outsized houses, accessory structures, and lot coverage, as well as basement living areas.

Petitions are circulating in Sag Harbor Village once again, ahead of the June election for mayor and two village board positions.

After being without a permanent pastor for nearly two years, Calvary Baptist Church in East Hampton officially welcomed its new pastor, the Rev. Walter Silva Thompson Jr., with three days of special events culminating with an installation service on Saturday.

In an effort to improve the water quality of Hook Pond, which the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation has listed as impaired, the Village of East Hampton is planning projects to reduce stormwater runoff and contamination from aging or malfunctioning septic systems.

The pond, in which concentrations of nitrogen typically exceed Environmental Protection Agency criteria, is a collection basin for the 2,369-acre watershed that includes the Main Street and North Main Street commercial districts, the 207-acre Maidstone Club, and residential areas.

Thomas A. Twomey’s sudden death in November came just five months after the grand-opening ceremony commemorating the East Hampton Library’s $6.5 million expansion and renovation. Mr. Twomey, a lawyer, civic leader, and chairman of the library’s board of managers, had played an integral part in the yearslong project, which added 6,800 square feet and houses the new children’s reading room and the Baldwin Family Lecture Room.

The East End Disabilities Group will host a discussion of mental health services on Tuesday, from 7 to 9 p.m. in the community room at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Amagansett. The event will be free and open to the public.

Art Flescher, director of the Suffolk County Department of Mental Hygiene, will speak about mental health services on the South Fork including preventive services, psychiatric care, accessing services, emergency services, financial issues, and social and recreational services.

Armed with evidence of sleeping accommodations in a finished storage space over a garage and pool house on Cove Hollow Road — something prohibited under East Hampton Village Code — the village’s zoning board of appeals appeared ready Friday to deny a request to keep the storage space, which includes a full bathroom.

“They’re not using the upstairs portion for any kind of sleeping or habitable space,” Karen Hoeg, an attorney representing Lawrence and Lisa Cohen, told the board. “The bathroom is used very infrequently.”

After a winter hiatus, a $13.8 million project to repave and repair 15 miles of Montauk Highway between East Hampton and Montauk is under way again.

The New York State Department of Transportation’s project, stretching between Buell Lane in East Hampton and South Etna Avenue in Montauk, started up again this week. In the fall, state contractors had repaved some of the worst sections between East Hampton and Amagansett, with the exception of both downtown areas. They are now working west to east on the remaining sections ane expect the project to be complete by May.

East Hampton Village is soliciting bids from farmers interested in growing crops on the Gardiner home lot at 36 James Lane. The request for proposals, on two acres of the lot reserved for agriculture, stipulates a five-year commitment.

Proposals should be submitted to Robert Hefner, the village’s director of historic services, at Village Hall, 86 Main Street, East Hampton 11937, no later than April 28. Specifications can be obtained there from the village administrator’s office, between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Montaukers will soon have a new doctor to call their own. Southampton Hospital has announced that Michael Genereux, a doctor of osteopathy, will work out of the Meeting House Lane Medical Practice’s offices on Montauk Main Street this summer, filling the vacancy left by the departure of Dr. Anthony Knott late last year.

The second annual Shoreline Sweep, a cleanup of ocean beaches from Montauk Point to Wainscott, is set for Saturday. Dell Cullum, a wildlife removal specialist and nature photographer who serves on East Hampton Town’s recycling and litter committee, has once again called for volunteers to help in the effort.

Amid a building boom, East Hampton Village is moving quickly toward further limiting the size of houses and additional structures it will allow on residential property.

Several weeks ago, when Elke Grimm, 85, slipped and fell on a hardwood floor at her home overlooking Fort Pond in Montauk, her major concern was not to frighten her great-granddaughter, Parker, who is 4. Parker was the only one with her that day.

The little girl told Mrs. Grimm, “I will help you, Oma,” (German for Grandma). She tried as hard as she could to help her great-grandmother up, but couldn’t. She then brought Mrs. Grimm her walker, both of them hoping she could hoist herself up with it, but she wasn’t able to.

The Maidstone Club, which last year was granted special and freshwater wetlands permits and area variances to upgrade the irrigation systems on its 18 and 9-hole golf courses, was back before the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals on Friday.

The club now seeks to build a 1,102-square-foot structure with a 214-square-foot patio, to be used for golf instruction in conjunction with an existing practice facility. The project would require a special permit as well as variance relief to allow an accessory building on a lot that does not have a main-use structure.

The East Hampton Village Board is expected to grant Starbucks an easement so that the sanitary system at its Main Street location can be upgraded. A resolution to grant the easement may be voted on at the board’s meeting on April 17 and the work is likely to be done in the fall.

Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. noted, as the East Hampton Village Board gathered on Friday, that spring would officially begin that evening. With yet another snowstorm looming, however, the few members present read through a quick agenda.

An unfinished new house on the Gardiner home lot, at 36 James Lane, drew attention as the board agreed to advertise for bids on its relocation or demolition. The house is behind the timber-frame house that was built in 1750. Bids will be opened on April 13 at 2 p.m. at Village Hall.

On behalf of the East Hampton Village Board, Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. sent a letter to East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell last week in which he commended the town board’s effort to address what he called “a long-standing and difficult issue,” that of the noise of air traffic on routes to and from the East Hampton Airport.

Terry Watson will be the grand marshal leading Montauk’s 52nd St. Patrick’s Day parade on Sunday. The festivities will begin tomorrow, when she will be honored at the annual grand marshal lunch from noon to 3 p.m. at Gurney’s Inn. This year’s host is Joan Lycke, the 2011 grand marshal, who is taking over for John Behan, who had hosted the lunch for many years.

The Amagansett branch of Capital One, at 100 Montauk Highway just west of the hamlet’s retail district, will close on April 24.     The bank’s customers were informed of the closing in a letter dated Jan. 21. The letter explained that accounts will be transferred to the Capital One branch at 40 Newtown Lane in East Hampton, with no change to accounts or account numbers.

Andy and Jane Graiser won a reprieve of sorts when the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals reopened the hearing on their application to add an eyebrow window to the roof of their house at 42 Mill Hill Lane, which is under construction. As indicated at prior meetings, however, there was no change of heart: The window cannot be installed.

The Sag Harbor Village Board voted on Tuesday evening to extend a temporary moratorium on reviews of wetland variances as it prepares for a hearing on April 14 to consider revisions to its wetlands permit regulations.

Mayor Brian Gilbride said that a draft of the proposed changes is ready, but that the board wanted just a bit more time to review it. In the meantime, a six-month moratorium on consideration of wetland variance requests for single-family lots has been extended another three months, until June 1.

Which East Hampton Village Board member founded the Guild Hall Players in 1931? (Hint: He also acted and built the sets.) This and many other facts will be revealed Friday at 7 p.m. at Clinton Academy when the East Hampton Historical Society presents “Stagestruck: We’ve Got a Barn, Let’s Put On a Show.”

Long-awaited improvement in the water at 27 houses at Montauk’s Camp Hero will be in sight at a public hearing at  East HamptonTown Hall tonight on the reconstruction of the water system there at a cost of $200,000.

Residents of Camp Hero, a former Air Force Base transferred to the town in 1984, have coped with brownish, undrinkable water and stained clothing for years. At one point, the water was found to be contaminated and daily deliveries became necessary. Even now, homeowners are advised to run cold water for at least three minutes each morning before using it.

Laura Michele Mastandrea and Paul Jason Novack, both of Sag Harbor, were married on Oct. 4 at the Oceanside Beach Resort in Montauk. Southampton Town Justice Edward Burke Sr. officiated. A reception followed the ceremony under a tent.

The wedding took place on the 50th anniversary of the bride’s parents, Vincent and Rosemary Mastandrea of East Meadow. The groom’s mother, Jeannette Novack of Montauk, and the bride’s grandmother, Irene Ambrosino of Rockville Centre, helped them all to celebrate.