Government

East Hampton Town’s essential services are functioning, despite mandates to reduce staffing and implement the social distancing practices critical to controlling the now-explosive growth in COVID-19 infections in the tristate area. 

“We need to support those on the front lines of crisis, particularly the health care workers,” Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman said. “None of us have direct experience with this, even in my 27 years of government experience I’ve never faced anything like it.”

Survey work for the proposed South Fork Wind Farm’s transmission cable route in Wainscott, which was to begin on Monday, has been put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Perry Gershon, who is seeking a Democratic Party primary win to challenge Representative Lee Zeldin in New York’s First Congressional District, has announced the suspension of his petition gathering and public events.

Arthur Graham, an East Hampton Village trustee since 2017, declared his candidacy for mayor in June’s election on Monday. He joins Barbara Borsack, the deputy mayor, and Jerry Larsen, a former East Hampton Village police chief, in the village’s first contested mayoral election since 1992.

The airport itself has not closed and flights can still come in and out.

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Town of East Hampton on Friday declared a state of emergency, canceled most meetings, and announced initiatives to allow essential government functions to continue while minimizing face-to-face contact and residents’ need to visit Town Hall and other town facilities. 

East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said that advisories related to COVID-19 will be posted to the town’s website, ehamptonny.gov, and reminded residents that they can sign up for alerts via text message.

The public has been invited to vote on student-made bumper stickers submitted to a contest sponsored by the Town of East Hampton Anti-Bias Task Force. They are on display in the foyer of Town Hall.     

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has asked the East Hampton Town Board to halt the planned demolition of the Springs house and studios of the Abstract Expressionist artists James Brooks and Charlotte Park.     

Despite a massive die-off of bay scallops in the Peconic Estuary last fall, many waters under East Hampton Town Trustee jurisdiction, though by no means all, were of a high quality in 2019.     

A group of Springs property owners sued the Town of East Hampton last week over a plan to relocate the town’s shellfish hatchery from Fort Pond Bay in Montauk to 36 Gann Road.