Leash Requirement Proposed

    At an otherwise uneventful meeting of the East Hampton Village Board, a public hearing date on a proposed amendment to a local law concerning dogs on village beaches was set for April 19 at 11 a.m. at the Emergency Services Building.

    With Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr., Larry Cantwell, the village administrator, and Richard Lawler, a trustee, all absent, Barbara Borsack, a trustee and the deputy mayor, presided.

    After months of spirited debate and public comment by numerous village and town residents fearful of added restrictions for dogs on village beaches, the changes proposed are minimal. Presently, dogs and other animals are prohibited from village beaches between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. from the second Sunday in May through Sept. 30. At all other times, the suggested change would have them “manually restrained on a leash not more than six feet in length within areas that are within 500 feet of any road end along the Atlantic Ocean beaches.” For the moment, at least, additional restrictions, such as lengthening the summer prohibition beyond 6 p.m., as the mayor had suggested, will not be included.

    “For the public’s benefit, this matches the town code, which is the same: 500 feet from the road opening,” Ms. Borsack said. “I think that will make things a little easier for everybody to remember.”