Government

A controversial proposal for Duryea’s Dock in Montauk — to remove all the structures on the site and replace them with a restaurant and an open deck with a total capacity of 353 patrons — was tabled on April 22 before the East Hampton Town Planning Board could consider it.

A group largely consisting of young Latino adults who are determined to both live on the South Fork and participate in the political process have organized a monthly meeting at which they can discuss the issues important to them and their peers.

Find out what's happening on the political front.

A Native American burial site, which was discovered in 1917 off Springs Close Highway in East Hampton, has split the town planning board down the middle in connection with a subdivision application for property across the street.

When the East Hampton Town Planning Board met on April 22, all the stars seemed — at first, anyway — to be aligned for the approval of a proposed 40-acre subdivision of mostly open Wainscott farmland into seven buildable lots and a large agricultural reserve.

Residents of a Napeague neighborhood along the Atlantic beach are facing down Memorial Day without the no-parking signs that stood for years along the west side of Dolphin Drive, and are predicting traffic and problems caused by people seeking a spot to park so they can go to the ocean beach.

The East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals, by a vote of 4 to 1, rejected a request from four homeowners to build a revetment on Gardiner’s Bay toward the end of Louse Point Road.

The East Hampton Town Republican Committee will hold screenings on Tuesday for the positions of town supervisor and town councilperson.

East Hampton Town

A Place to Meditate in Eddie Ecker Park

A 50-foot-wide stone path in the shape of a labyrinth will be constructed in a section of the Eddie Ecker Park, on Fort Pond Bay in Montauk.

With a vote last Thursday night, the East Hampton Town Board agreed to accept a donation from Twelve Women, a local group, to fund the installation and maintenance of the labyrinth, a cobblestone path leading in concentric circles. Walking a labyrinth is a traditional spiritual and meditative practice.

A second round of bids by mobile food purveyors for the exclusive right to set up at prime East Hampton Town-owned sites, including the ocean beaches, will soon be considered.

A carry-in, carry-out policy aimed at keeping trash from piling up at East Hampton Town beaches could begin on a trial basis this summer, at a beach yet to be chosen.

At a town board discussion on Tuesday, members approved of the idea but said it would require extensive public education and a shift in the mindset of beachgoers accustomed to leaving their trash in the cans at beach road ends, or, worse, on the beach. The cans often overflow despite frequent pickups.

A weekend ban on helicopters at the East Hampton Airport will not be among the restrictions designed to reduce aircraft noise over East Hampton and the East End.

Changes to the East Hampton Town Code were on the town board’s agenda this week, and hearings will be scheduled soon to gauge public opinion on some of them.

In the face of widespread unhappiness with a plan to open some town launching ramps to use by personal watercraft such as Jet Skis, board members agreed it should not move forward.

A state Supreme Court judge ruled last Thursday that PSEG Long Island, an electrical energy provider, and the Long Island Power Authority, for which PSEG is a contractor, are not subject to local zoning and other laws.

Two controversial applications for subdivisions moved a step closer to a vote by the East Hampton Town Planning Board on April 1 after clearing a procedural hurdle.

The board concluded, after some contentious debate, that neither proposal, at 55 Wainscott Hollow Road in Wainscott and 38 Indian Wells Highway in Amagansett, required a lengthy evaluation under the State Environmental Quality Review Act.

The water quality in bodies overseen by the East Hampton Town Trustees is generally excellent, according to a presentation at Town Hall on Monday, but algal blooms that can be harmful to shellfish, finfish, and humans remain a concern.

While the East Hampton Town Trustees, who manage many of the town’s beaches and waterways on behalf of the public, have signaled grudging acceptance of the town board’s intention to ban alcohol at Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett during lifeguard-protected hours on weekends and holidays during the summer, they expressed greater enthusiasm at their meeting on March 25 for a pilot program aimed at reducing litter by removing trash receptacles and instituting a carry-in, carry-out policy there.

The future and dangers of former electrical generators and abandoned fuel tanks on Fort Pond on Industrial Road in Montauk were taken up by the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals Tuesday night.

Management goals, maintenance plans, and operating and capital budgets for the many historic properties and buildings owned by East Hampton Town are being developed for needed restoration and plans for public use.

At Louse Point in Springs four neighbors want to build a rock revetment that will connect to the two already in front of properties to the north, creating more than 900 continuous feet of armored shoreline.

A dozen new members were appointed to the Springs Citizens Advisory Committee by the East Hampton Town Board on March 19.

Councilman Fred Overton, who is the board’s liaison to the committee, declined to offer the resolution and voted against it; it was offered instead by Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, who, like Mr. Overton, is a resident of Springs.

The sense of place and time evoked by the Springs General Store, which sits along Accabonac Harbor and across from Pussy’s Pond in the Springs Historic District, will be further protected with the recently approved purchase by East Hampton Town of a facade easement that will assure that the property will continue to look as it has since the building was constructed in 1884.

East Hampton Town

C.P.F. on the Upswing

Opponents say Army Corps plan violates law.

Concerned Citizens of Montauk is arguing that the Army Corps of Engineers plan to build a seawall along the ocean beach in downtown Montauk, for which bids have now been awarded, is not “shovel ready.”

“There’s a long list of items that need to be addressed,” Jeremy Samuelson, the executive director of C.C.O.M., said at an East Hampton Town Board meeting last Thursday. Mr. Samuelson is also quoted in a separate story on C.C.O.M.’s stand on a lawsuit challenging the project.

The remainder of a $31 million bond issued by East Hampton Town in 2006 will be refinanced, enabling the town to save $1.76 million in interest while paying off the debt over the next 12 years.

The money was borrowed for land acquisitions ($25 million), for construction of the town justice court ($2 million), and for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Montauk Playhouse Community Center ($4 million).

Almost 10 years later, the town has paid off almost $10 million of that debt, with $22.12 million remaining.

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., who has been critical of PSEG-Long Island, the utility company that operates the Long Island Power Authority grid, for a number of its practices, is calling for a review of payments, including executive pay and fees to consultants and contractors, made by PSEG under its contract with LIPA.

A plan to build a 3,100-foot-long artificial dune along the downtown Montauk ocean beach will be challenged in court.

Repeated snowstorms this winter almost certainly have exacerbated the problem, but residents of East Hampton in the so-called urban renewal areas, many of which are in Springs, have been complaining for years about the state of their streets and the lack of town highway services for them, such as snow removal.

The roads in the urban renewal subdivisions are not part of the town’s public road system, and so tax money cannot be spent to repair, pave, or plow them, except in an emergency.

A lawsuit that challenged the adoption of a master plan for East Hampton Airport in 2010 has been dismissed by a federal appeals court. Brought by the Committee to Stop Airport Expansion, the suit centered on aircraft noise, which was the impetus for the four proposed airport use restrictions that drew a crowd to a town board hearing at LTV Studios in Wainscott last Thursday. The hearing is reported on separately.