Government

The East Hampton Village Board spent last Thursday’s work session making small adjustments to sections of the village code, most involving beach regulations, and some pertaining to the code of ethics involving East Hampton Village ambulance volunteers. Rounding out the discussion was a measure allowing “dead spaces” over garages or pool houses to be insulated.

The East Hampton Town Trustees codified new policies on docks and other floating structures in waters under their jurisdiction, including a prohibition on construction of any new residential piers or fixed or floating docks in the entirety of Three Mile Harbor.

Small house, small addition, small parcel, big problem. That was the sense at the meeting last month of the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals as it discussed a 707-square-foot house on Mulford Lane on Napeague, built before the adoption of zoning, that needs a natural resources special permit and variances before it can add a small addition and outdoor shower and rebuild a deck.

When East Hampton Town Supervisor-elect Kathee Burke-Gonzalez is sworn in next month, one of the first changes that will be seen at Town Hall is a resumption of the town board’s Thursday evening meetings. 

The East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals was busy making up for lost time at its December meeting Friday, its November session having been canceled. Its first discussion peripherally involved a property on West End Road owned by Harry Macklowe.

A plan to alleviate chronic flooding and improve safety by constructing a traffic circle at the five-way intersection between Fort Pond and Fort Pond Bay in Montauk was hashed out at Tuesday’s meeting of the East Hampton Town Board.

Town, county, and state officials were in a celebratory mood last week at Town Hall, toasting the electricity that began flowing from the South Fork Wind farm through 78 miles of underwater cable to a LIPA substation here.

East Hampton Town’s senior purchasing agent recommended to the town board on Tuesday that the town become a Green Purchasing Community, a New York State program that confers buying guidance through state-approved specifications.

The East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals granted both a special permit and variances, with conditions, to the Jewish Center of the Hamptons to construct a pavilion for outdoor services and to install security planters along their front property line.

As the town prepares to start clearing next month at the Amagansett site where the new center will be built, the two people who spoke at a public hearing on the project both said the town may be moving too fast and that there are questions that should be answered first.

After months of discussion prompted by a fatal fire in Noyac last summer, the Sag Harbor Village Board has amended its seasonal-use dwelling-unit law, resolving Tuesday night to require the addition of a rental registry permit. The intent of the new law, which takes effect on Jan. 1, is to ensure the safety of rented properties, in accordance with New York State Code.

History was made in the United States House of Representatives on Friday when Representative George Santos of New York’s Third Congressional District, following the issuance of a damning Nov. 16 report by the House Committee on Ethics, was expelled by his colleagues less than halfway through his first term.

The Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee held its last meeting of 2023 in person at the Wainscott Chapel on Saturday, taking the opportunity to thank three officials who are retiring.

A $600,000 grant from the New York State Regional Economic Development Councils “to plan for the sustainable future” of Montauk’s downtown will help East Hampton Town develop strategies for dealing with the nuts and bolts of climate adaptation.

Two years after enacting a moratorium on construction of new residential docks and other structures on waters under their jurisdiction, a committee of the East Hampton Town Trustees shared its recommendations for a new policy with the full board. 

In the last year, speed bumps have appeared with increasing frequency across the East End, and if recent village board meetings in Sag Harbor and East Hampton are any indication, more are on the way.

The East Hampton Village Ambulance Association, an independent nonprofit, petitioned the Suffolk County Supreme Court on Nov. 15 to ignore a statute of limitations that would prevent it from suing East Hampton Village for what the association alleges was a takeover of its ambulance service certificate and its bank account. 

The East Hampton Town Board heard recommendations for allocating an expected $120,000 for community development for projects ranging from solar panels to an outdoor table for chess.

East Hampton Town Democrats’ lopsided victories in the Nov. 7 election are official, according to the Suffolk County Board of Elections’ results issued this week. 

The design development phase of East Hampton Town’s new 22,000-square-foot senior citizens center is all but complete, leaving the town board to decide on a few remaining details as it seeks to balance up-front costs for the $31.6 million project with its goals for a net-zero facility and minimal maintenance of its components. 

Salt marsh areas of Accabonac Harbor could see a restoration effort beginning next fall, if the Nature Conservancy’s proposal to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the funding of five such projects on Long Island is accepted. 

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Monday the completed installation of the first of 12 turbines for the South Fork Wind farm, which will be the first completed utility-scale wind farm in the United States in federal waters.

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the Clean Slate Act into law last Thursday, saying that “the best crime-fighting tool is a good-paying job. That’s why I support giving New Yorkers a clean slate after they’ve paid their debt to society and gone years without an additional offense.”

A sidewalk to nowhere and an asphalt berm blocking access to a parking lot are only the two biggest problems with the recently built Beckmann Commercial Building at 94 South Euclid Avenue in Montauk, an East Hampton Town planner told planning board members at their Nov. 15 meeting, where the construction was the main topic of discussion.

More than two dozen residents of Montauk spoke at a hearing last Thursday on a management plan for Arthur Benson reserve, more of them in favor of a plan to use goats and machinery to remove invasive species at the roughly 40-acre strip between Montauk Highway and the ocean but also many others who said the plan was for aesthetic and not environmental reasons.

The $95.46 million budget, a 5.3-percent increase over the adopted 2023 budget, was the subject of a Nov. 2 public hearing that drew no comment. Changes from the tentative to the preliminary budget that the board agreed to had a minimal impact on tax rates.

Rowdy Hall's septic system is failing, but the restaurant will no longer benefit from town money now that the East Hampton Town Board has withdrawn a resolution that would have approved a $100,500 grant for its replacement.

The Montaukett Indian Nation has again been denied official recognition, with Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoing a bill that would have restored the tribe’s status as a sovereign Indigenous nation. “To do it during Native American History Month? It’s inhumane and cruel and racist,” said Sandi Brewster-walker, the executive director and government affairs officer of the Montaukett Indian Nation.

The five original sites making up East Hampton Town’s emergency communications infrastructure have been upgraded and are operational, as is an additional site off East Lake Drive in Montauk and a temporary installation on Gann Road in Springs, the latter pending a permanent tower at Camp Blue Bay in that hamlet.

Rowdy Hall opened in Amagansett on Tuesday night, its facade painted black in defiance of the East Hampton Town Architectural Review Board, which had turned down the business’s request for black paint last month. It is scheduled to answer for doing the work without approval in town justice court on Dec. 4.