Government

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.

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. 

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.

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.”

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.

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 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.

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system is failing, but the restaurant will no longer benefit from town money now that the East Hampton Town Board has withdrawn a resolution that would have approved a $100,500 grant for its replacement.

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.

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.

A man charged last year with violating East Hampton Town’s rental registry law has succeeded in having evidence from Airbnb suppressed, with Town Justice Lisa R. Rana ruling that it was improperly obtained.

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.

As East Hampton Town officials labor to alleviate the scarcity of affordable housing, the president of a nonprofit community development organization pitched its assistance to property owners in financing the creation of accessory dwelling units.

Following the recently retired judge Paul Baisley’s referral of Daniel Rodgers for disciplinary consideration to the Grievance Committee for the Tenth Judicial District — which Mr. Baisley made on the day of his retirement, Aug. 31 — Mr. Rodgers has filed suit, alleging “significant personal and professional harm.”

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.

A proposed law in Sag Harbor would allow a village resident to remove any tree with a diameter at breast height of 18 inches or less, without a permit. But the audience was firmly against the 18-inch limit, instead pressing the village board to require a permit before trees more than 12 inches in diameter can be removed.

East Hampton Town Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, who won the race for town supervisor last week, announced an initial transition plan for 2024 on Monday. She stressed the importance of identifying residents to serve on appointed boards, citizens committees, and the open seat on the town board, her election to supervisor having created a vacancy.

Five people spoke during the East Hampton Town Trustees’ public hearing on Monday regarding whether the body will permanently prohibit new docks in Three Mile Harbor, where docks are not prohibited now on its eastern shore, and enact other changes to its dock policy.

East Hampton Town and its union workers had ratified a new contract. Under it, C.S.E.A. members will see a $2,000 across-the-board increase to their base wages in 2024, on top of a $3,000 base wage hike implemented in 2023. In addition, the union members’ new base wages will increase by 4 percent annually in the first three years of the contract, and by 5 percent in 2027, its final year.

In Southampton Town, Maria Moore, the Democratic mayor of the Village of Westhampton Beach, won the race for Southampton Town supervisor, and two Democratic town board candidates, Bill Pell and Michael Iasilli, also appear to have emerged victorious.

East Hampton Town’s preliminary budget for the 2024 fiscal year includes new expenditures and a 5.3-percent increase over 2023. The town’s budget officer detailed final modifications to a $95.46 million document last Thursday.

The East Hampton Town Board will hold a public hearing next Thursday on a management plan that calls for the use of goats as well as machinery to remove invasive species at the Benson reserve, a roughly 40-acre stretch of land between Old Montauk Highway and the Atlantic Ocean beach in Montauk.

After an anonymous phone call tipped off the town's director of ordinance enforcement that the façade at Rowdy Hall's new location in Amagansett had been painted black on Wednesday, just weeks after East Hampton Town's architectural review board had turned down a request to do so, the business was issued a stop-work order and a violation for not having a building permit. "They said it was primer. Doesn't matter. They got a ticket for no A.R.B. approval and another for having no building permit."

A resolution at a Sag Harbor Village Board meeting last month to appoint members to the Sag Harbor Open Space Advisory Group was approved without discussion, but the group’s ideas could have a visible impact on the village, including at the intersection of Main Street and Jermain Avenue, where it will revisit plans for a traffic circle.

All seven of the incumbent East Hampton Town trustees were re-elected on Tuesday, and two new Democratic candidates, Patrice Dalton and Celia Josephson, will join them on the board, according to unofficial results posted by the Suffolk County Board of Elections. 

In a big night for East Hampton Town Democrats, Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez was elected supervisor Tuesday and will become the fourth woman to hold that post in the town’s history. With all 19 election districts reporting, the Suffolk County Board of Elections’ unofficial tally had Ms. Burke-Gonzalez and her running mates, Councilman David Lys and Tom Flight, cruising to victory over their Republican opponents.

Tuesday night's unofficial results for Suffolk County races show Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine, a Republican from Center Moriches, prevailing in his bid for the county executive's seat, while Ann Welker, a Democrat and a sitting Southampton Town trustee, appears to have won the county legislator race in the second district.

Five Democrats and five Republicans are facing off for the five Southampton Town Trustee seats, while Theresa Kiernan, the incumbent, and David Glazer are the candidates for tax receiver.

Tuesday’s general election ballot includes two proposals, so be sure to flip your ballot over to weigh in.

The East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals lost another Article 78 lawsuit last week, this time against 175 Atlantic L.L.C., controlled by Farrell Builders. It is the fourth time this year the Z.B.A. has been taken to court and has lost.