Government

The Supreme Court is expected to rule imminently on the legality of the Trump administration’s effort to restrict voting by mail, a plan that as of yesterday remained in limbo due to lower court rulings. Should the Supreme Court side with the administration, critics say, massive voter disenfranchisement is the likely outcome. 

“We’re saying, ‘All right, no more bamboo,’ ” the East Hampton Town attorney said as the town board discussed draft legislation that would prohibit planting of the fast-growing invasive.

David Browne, who served as the chief fire marshal for East Hampton Town from December 2010 until this year, has been appointed East Hampton Village’s chief fire marshal. 

Brinkmann’s Hardware, which owns six locations across Long Island, is in contract to purchase a building on Pantigo Road in East Hampton, where it hopes to open its next store adjacent to Domaine Franey Wines and Spirits. 

Last week, Representative Nick LaLota joined his Republican colleagues in a mostly party-line vote to extend the postponement of protections for the North Atlantic right whale until 2035. 

With Election Day fewer than eight weeks away, the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island, and the North Fork will cover the East End with voter information tables this month and has issued a schedule of debates. 

Rooming houses, containing a maximum of 16 beds and a minimum room size of 70 feet, with shared cooking and bathroom facilities (one bathroom per six occupants), are now legal in East Hampton Town, following a unanimous vote of the town board last Thursday to change the zoning code and create a new use for “accessory staff housing.” 

A renewed effort to protect trees located in town-owned rights of way was before the East Hampton Town Board this week, and all agreed the proposal needed a little “finessing” ahead of a second discussion, which could happen “in a couple of weeks.” 

What if the problem at the future Este restaurant in downtown Montauk was the fact that it is being built on property that was meant to remain undeveloped? A new petition asserts just that and asks East Hampton Town to impose a stop-work order. Attorneys for the developers say the questions are moot.

East Hampton Town legislation is on the table that would give the Building Department 90 days to issue a building permit after receipt of a complete application that includes approvals by any outside agencies. Otherwise, “the application shall be deemed denied and the applicant may apply to the zoning board of appeals for review or to the Supreme Court of the State of New York to compel such review.”

The East Hampton Town Board is expected to pass a new law this evening changing the allocation of accessory dwelling units across the town from 40 per school district to a number tied to each hamlet’s buildable lots. The plan found unanimous support when the board met on Tuesday.

When the Suffolk County Democratic Committee holds its 2026 convention this month, committee members will vote on who will lead the committee going forward: its longstanding chairman, or a challenger who pledges to end what she calls a culture of patronage and corruption. 

In the touchy matter of chemical contamination of drinking water wells, the town board’s Cate Rogers asked that Simon Kinsella be disinvited from Saturday’s Wainscott C.A.C. meeting, citing a need for sound information.

A long-contaminated tract of land behind the business district in Sag Harbor could become the site of new mixed-use development, but the plan is facing pushback from residents who fear the project could not only change the character of the village itself but disturb contaminants and threaten public health.

When it comes to the proposed Maycroft Club, an offshoot of the Sag Harbor Yacht Club seeking to convert an existing Bay Street house into a place for offices and meetings, neighbors say nay, but neighboring yacht club members are all in.  

Beach driving drove public comment at a recent East Hampton Town Board meeting, when seven residents from the White Sands neighborhood asked the board to do something about the amount of truck traffic on their stretch of beach in Amagansett.

The East Hampton Village Board voted to accept a $12,000 donation from the East Hampton Village Foundation for the installation of yet another Flock Safety automated license plate reader, with some pushback from residents, and also voted to appoint a Flock advisory task force.

“This is the second application we’re discussing this evening from the same applicant where plans submitted to the Planning Department showed one thing and then the Building Department plans showed something else,” said Tina Vavilis LaGarenne, the town’s planning director, as the planning board looked at two projects in Montauk by the team behind Este restaurant.

Representative Nick LaLota won’t be “unwinding a promise” made earlier this year to provide federal money to municipalities like East Hampton Town and Village, but on a visit to Sag Harbor he again made it clear that as long as they have versions of an East End Public Safety and Accountability Law limiting participation with civil immigration enforcement on the books he will not fight to get them more federal dollars.

In the coming years, the Long Island Rail Road’s Montauk branch will see upgrades aimed at improving service and reliability, including an extension of additional track at the Amagansett station, that will allow more trains to run on the branch.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has forecast a below-normal Atlantic hurricane season, but one member of the East Hampton Town Board had a very long list of questions for the town’s emergency preparedness coordinator this month, appearing skeptical as to the town’s readiness for a crisis.

The environmental impact statement prepared by Adam Potter for his proposed three-story mixed-use building on Bridge Street was rejected by the Sag Harbor Village Planning Board Tuesday after parts of it were called “insufficient” by the board’s engineer.

New York’s statewide ban on partnerships between federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement and local law enforcement that allow designated officers to perform immigration enforcement functions — known as 287(g) agreements — took effect on Tuesday. Nassau County had been one of two counties in the state that refused to comply, until yesterday.

A plan that could yield up to 60 housing units on six acres owned by Calvary Baptist Church drew strong opposition even before it was submitted to the East Hampton Town Planning Department. 

The East Hampton Town supervisor has given NextEra 30 days to revise its emergency action and safety plan for the battery energy storage facility on North Shore Road in Montauk, and 60 days to “design and install engineering controls that capture and hold all fire water and all fire-related runoff,” among other demands.

The East Hampton Town Trustees have assessed fees for five docks that had been modified without trustee approval. 

East Hampton Town’s financial statements were given an unmodified opinion by its auditor, meaning its financial records are fair and correct.

An application before the village Z.B.A. that would see the installation of a detached arbor and sign featuring a clock resembling a Rolex watch face at the Odd Fellows Hall building on Newtown Lane was again received skeptically.

The Springs Brewery has been in front of the East Hampton Town planning, zoning, and architectural review boards for five years, trying to get the nod for a proposed brewery at 847 Springs-Fireplace Road. Last week it got a final approval from the A.R.B.

Ahead of a scheduled East Hampton Town Planning Board meeting Wednesday night, after The Star went to press, the Planning Department issued a memo hammering home that proposed septic and parking were insufficient and could not be approved for the restaurant in downtown Montauk.