Byrnes, Taylor Win Town Trustees Seats

    Following the counting of absentee ballots, the Suffolk County Board of Elections has confirmed that Brian Byrnes, who was endorsed by the Democratic and Independence Parties, and William Taylor, who ran as a Democrat, were elected to the East Hampton Town Trustees. The trustees plan a swearing-in ceremony at their first meeting of 2014, on Jan. 14.

    Mr. Byrnes, a longtime East Hampton resident, is the foreman superintendent for the Windmill I, Windmill II, and St. Michael’s affordable senior citizens housing developments. He is also a member of the East Hampton Disabilities Advisory Board and a volunteer at the East Hampton Food Pantry.

    Mr. Taylor, at present the town’s waterways management supervisor, moved to East Hampton in 1989, when he was hired as a harbormaster for the town. He worked on the town’s Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan and was active in the implementation of beach-driving regulations and the effort to have local waters designated no-discharge zones by the federal government.

    “I’m looking forward to it,” Mr. Taylor said of his new position. “I hope we can make some progress.” He cited erosion as a complex but vitally important issue for the trustees to address.

    Referring to the construction of a rock revetment on the ocean beach in front of a West End Road residence in East Hampton, a project the trustees recently halted after winning a temporary restraining order in State Supreme Court, Mr. Taylor said that “the Freeholders of the Commonalty of East Hampton have to be able to go to the beach without sitting on rocks.”