Government Briefs 06.26.14
East Hampton Town
Stop-work Order Upheld
The East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals has upheld a stop-work order issued in January by Tom Preiato, the town’s chief building inspector, rejecting an appeal from the owners of Cyril’s, the bar and restaurant on Napeague. The board concluded on June 17 that Mr. Preiato was correct in finding that “the applicant did not have the proper permits and approvals to remove two 2,000- gallon underground fuel tanks from the subject premises.”
The town and the restaurant’s ownership group, led by Michael Dioguardi, are engaged in lawsuits against each other in New York State Supreme Court in Riverhead which could determine the future of the establishment. The next hearing date in court is July 7. T.E.M.
Interim Tax Receiver
The East Hampton Town Board appointed Rebecca Rahn as interim tax receiver last Thursday night, at an annual salary of $62,000. An East Hampton resident since 2008, Ms. Rahn, who is married and has two children who attend the East Hampton Middle School, worked most recently as the manager of finances and human resources for Naturopathica in East Hampton. She has a degree in finance and accounting from Westwood College and a degree in biology from Middlebury College.
Ms. Rahn replaces Monica Rottach, whose management of the tax receiver’s office came into question early this year when it was discovered that nearly a quarter of the annual town tax bills had not been mailed out, and that payments that had been made were not being deposited in a timely manner.
Gansett Committee Remade
The town board made new appointments to the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee last Thursday night. The new members are Tina Piette, Marc Shultz, Jeffrey Reich, John Jaxheimer, Beverly DiSunno, and former Councilman Dominick Stanzione. Wendy Dellapolla, Jeannette Schwagerl, and Ed Gifford were removed from the committee.
Ms. Piette owns property in both Amagansett and Springs, and is a member of the Springs Citizens Advisory Committee. She was appointed after a short discussion among board members about allowing a volunteer to serve on more than one hamlet advisory group. While Ms. Piette offered to resign from the Springs group in order to join the committee in Amagansett, where she resides, the majority of the board found that unnecessary.
About Appearance Tickets
Next Thursday, the town board will hold a hearing on a town code amendment expanding the list of town officials authorized to issue appearance tickets for violations of state or local laws. According to the proposal, the list would be expanded to include the directors of public safety and code enforcement, ordinance enforcement officers and the chief town investigator, all of the building inspectors and fire marshals, harbormasters and bay constables, and the animal control officers and animal shelter supervisor.
J.P.
New York State
Region’s C.P.F. Takes in $38 Mil
The 2-percent real estate transfer tax adopted by the five East End towns produced more than $38 million in the first five months of 2014, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. reported in a release this week. The amount is up slightly, by just over 5 percent, from that raised during the same period last year. The money is used by the towns to buy land for open space, recreation, farmland, and historic preservation.
Over the last year, the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund, which receives the money from the tax, has provided more than $97 million to the towns; $923 million has been generated since its inception in 1999.
In East Hampton, the transfer tax raised $11.6 million from January through May this year. The highest revenue from the tax flowed into Southampton Town, at $22.5 million, while Riverhead and Southold received $1.5 million and $1.7 million, respectively, and Shelter Island received $820,000.