Government

After considering East Hampton Village’s request to use $22 million from the town community preservation fund to purchase five historic inns, if or when they become available, East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez responded last week with some hesitation and a lot of questions.

The motel, squeezed between two resorts on the north side of Old Montauk Highway, will have only a single unit.

Voting takes place Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Find a list here of polling places in East Hampton Town and eastern Southampton Town along with instructions for how to look up your polling place if you don't know it.

A day at the beach just got a little cleaner in Montauk. Last week, the installation of two new I/A (innovative alternative) low-nitrogen septic systems began at the Gin Beach and South Edison Beach comfort stations. Work is expected to be completed by Friday.

Election Day is Tuesday and regular polling stations will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., but those who want to cast their ballots early have until Sunday to do so at any Suffolk County early voting site, including one in East Hampton and one in Southampton.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is running for her third full term in New York against Mike Sapraicone, a retired N.Y.P.D. detective. 

Amagansett residents weary of the long delay in repairing the impassable Cranberry Hole Road bridge were urged to take a few minutes at the computer and email someone who might actually help to speed the process along. 

In the best-case scenario, it will take many years, but the East Hampton Village Board pressed ahead last week with plans to build a sewage treatment plant outside village limits on Accabonac Road to serve the village business district. 

Construction of a 100-foot cellphone tower behind Sagaponack Village Hall has begun, but residents of the tiny village continued to oppose it at an Oct. 16 meeting of the village board.

People have often been moved to paint or photograph the 30-acre property at 66 Main Street in Wainscott. At a public hearing last Thursday on East Hampton Town’s plan to purchase it for $56 million, some people were moved to near tears and others to poetry. 

Bipartisanship and civility erode as the incumbent Republican congressman and his Democratic challenger in a dead-heat race meet face to face.

Four charging stations for electric vehicles, courtesy of Electrify America, are to be installed in the 24-hour Lumber Lane parking lot, replacing six regular spots. The East Hampton Village Board agreed to the location last week.

East Hampton Town residents casting ballots this year will find one proposition pertaining specifically to the town. Proposition 3 asks voters for approval to remove a triangle of land where North Main Street intersects with Three Mile Harbor and Springs-Fireplace Roads from the town’s nature preserve properties so that the area can be available for future road improvements.

Plans for 2 Main Street and 22 Long Island Avenue, which the developer Jeremy Morton is set to purchase, include additional second-story space and new facades for both buildings

The Suffolk County Public Works Department’s study of traffic on County Road 39 in Southampton, presented at a public meeting last week at Southampton High School, reached an unsurprising conclusion: Traffic is bad, and it’s getting worse each year. But what can be done about it?

Residents of LaForest Lane, citing traffic and a serious summertime accident involving two e-bikes, urged the East Hampton Village Board last winter to consider turning their two-way road into a one-way street. The board then commissioned a traffic study, the results of which were presented on Friday.

The Sagaponack Village Board jettisoned a proposed amendment to its composting laws at a public hearing on Oct. 16 after input from the Long Island Farm Bureau, the Cornell Cooperative Extension, and local farmers.

Early voting begins on Saturday, and there are locations in East Hampton and Southampton where registered voters can cast ballots through Nov. 3.

The size of a dune that East Hampton Town is considering building at Ditch Plain may ultimately be dictated by a Federal Emergency Management Agency calculation that would make it nearly 20 feet high.

While Election Day is still nearly three weeks away, there are several important deadlines coming up in New York. 

Work began late last month on a New York State Department of Transportation drainage project on Route 27 at Fort Pond that could ease flooding but add contaminants to the struggling water body. In fact, Concerned Citizens of Montauk says that if the project continues, and the group expects it will, the D.O.T. will be breaking state and federal law by sending unfiltered stormwater directly into the pond. 

As has been generally expected, the East Hampton Town Board indicated this week that the town’s new senior center will not need to undergo a lengthy environmental review per the State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Mellissa McCarron, a senior environmental analyst for East Hampton Town, recommended that the town board consider funding four water quality projects, together costing nearly $1 million. More than half the money would go to a single project benefiting Georgica Pond.

An excavator removed the first loads of soil where a new lap pool will be located, and a second floor where events will be held is on its way to completion. Construction is on schedule to be completed by summer 2025.

The case of the removal of two trees on Meadowlark Lane in Sag Harbor Village was back in Justice Court Tuesday morning. Alex Kriegsman, an attorney appearing virtually in representing the defendant, Augusta Ramsay Folks, made a motion for dismissal based on comments made by Bob Plumb of the village board at a meeting in August.

ChangeHampton, a community organization that promotes biodiverse and sustainable landscaping practices, was in front of the East Hampton Town Board last week presenting updated plans for a grassland pollinator meadow at Town Hall and Justice Court.

The Coalition to Transform East Hampton Airport has submitted a bid to the East Hampton Town clerk to lease the 97-acre town parcel in Wainscott used by the Maidstone Gun Club since 1983. However, at the town board work session Tuesday, Rob Connelly, the town attorney, made it clear the bid would not get far. 

Voters across the South Fork will have two ballot propositions to consider on Election Day that could have an impact here: Proposition 1, on the Equal Rights Amendment to the New York State Constitution, and Proposition 2, on the Suffolk County Water Quality Restoration Act. 

Sag Harbor Village’s paid parking policy has been a boon for revenue, but it has left many residents and employees in the village aggravated. Their frustrations, in particular having to do with the village’s failure to follow through with accommodations for residents, came to a head at the Sag Harbor Village Board meeting. 

East Hampton Village wants to buy the five inns in its Main Street Historic District using its $22.4 million portion of the town’s community preservation fund.