Government

Months after the East Hampton Town Board approved a resolution to revoke all beach driving permits previously issued by the town clerk’s office, in compliance with a court order, the clerk is again issuing beach driving permits to eligible applicants.

Five days before Election Day, the results of Tuesday’s midterm elections were anyone’s guess, with dueling polls showing Gov. Kathy Hochul comfortably ahead of Representative Lee Zeldin and Mr. Zeldin with a slight lead over the governor.

East Hampton Town is developing “Green East Hampton,” a new page on its website highlighting accomplishments in environmental protection and sustainability.

Mobilization was to begin this week for the commencement of a stormwater abatement and control project at the Louse Point Road parking area and beach access in Springs.

Voters in East Hampton Town can vote on three ballot propositions on Election Day, Nov. 8, as well as during early voting, which started on Saturday and continues through this coming Sunday. 

Many of the public comments during the East Hampton Town Planning Board’s Oct. 19 public hearing on a 185-foot-tall communications tower at Camp Blue Bay in Springs were not about that tower, but about an unused tower at the Springs Fire Department. That said, all agreed that additional cell and emergency communications service was needed in Springs, and quickly

In light of multiple incidents of poaching in East Hampton Town waters, the town board and town trustees are united in supporting amending the town code to sharply increase the fines for harvesting shellfish without a town permit, for harvesting undersize shellfish, or for taking quantities in excess of the legal limit. They also agree on establishing an “aggravated" level of violation for persons acting in concert or possessing at least 25 percent more than the legal limit.

After viewing historical photos of Town Pond, East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen and the village board invited Ed Hollander, a landscape architect, to talk to them about improving both the pond’s appearance and its water quality.

The East Hampton Town Board will hold a public hearing on the town's 2023 preliminary budget — a roughly $90.36 million spending plan — during its meeting next Thursday at 2 p.m.

The East Hampton Town Trustees set Nov. 13 at sunrise as the opening of waters under their jurisdiction to the harvesting of bay scallops.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and Representative Lee Zeldin came out swinging on  Tuesday in what is likely to be their only debate before the Nov. 8 election, and the intensity had hardly flagged when it ended an hour later. 

Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming and Nick LaLota, vying to succeed Representative Lee Zeldin in New York’s First Congressional District, clashed over the economy, abortion, gun policy, and crime in a debate at Newsday’s studio in Melville on Oct. 19. They also disagreed about aiding Ukraine, which included a gaffe by Mr. LaLota that Ms. Fleming seized on. 

East Hampton Village is seeking to formalize its relationship with the East Hampton Ambulance Association with code changes that could be implemented by January. It's unclear whether that would alter operation of the associaton, which has been run by its own bylaws for decades.

The East Hampton Town Trustees' 32nd annual Largest Clam Contest officially ended on Friday, almost two weeks after the event that drew hundreds to the Lamb Building in Amagansett. At their meeting on Monday, the trustees announced both a new venue and a date for next year's contest. 

Many agree that preserving John Steinbeck's house in Sag Harbor for use as a writers retreat is a good idea, but there are tensions over the specifics of the plan.

A New York State Supreme Court justice has prohibited East Hampton Town from closing and reopening East Hampton Airport as a private facility with restrictions on aircraft operations in place pending an environmental review, dealing another blow to the town board's plan to address what many residents complain is a ruined quality of life.

The Huntting Inn, originally built in 1699 but purchased in 2020 by Landry’s of Houston, owner of the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino, is once again before the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals and Design Review Board, asking for approval of a pool and hot tub behind the inn. Their original application was withdrawn in June 2021, after strong neighborhood opposition.

The search for the largest clam in Three Mile Harbor, Hog Creek, and Accabonac Harbor has resumed after heavy rains kept those water bodies closed in advance of the East Hampton Trustees Largest Clam Contest on Oct. 9. Weigh-ins for mammoth specimens from those spots happens Friday at the trustee offices in Amagansett.

On Friday, Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Carmen Victoria St. George said Michael and Christine Aaron’s attempt to stop a brewery from being built on Toilsome Lane in East Hampton Village was “not ripe,” agreeing with the village’s zoning board of appeals that an official determination on whether the brewery is compatible with the village’s code has yet to be made.

The East Hampton Town Trustees approved the construction next year of two oyster reefs in Accabonac Harbor, and an East Hampton High School student will be the primary caretaker of one of them.

The candidates challenging incumbents in District 1 of New York State’s Assembly and Senate, one a Republican, one a Democrat, and both in their 20s, were aggressive in attacking their opponents in back-to-back debates on Monday night, but the incumbents were largely if not entirely successful in fending off those attacks while portraying themselves as experienced and capable public servants.

It’s been nearly six weeks since a malware infestation crippled Suffolk County’s computer systems, and while the county has adopted numerous workarounds to address the ransomware attack since Sept. 8 — there’s a long way to go before it’s business as usual, especially when it comes to real estate transactions.

“The goal here can be narrowed down to ‘we need to get carriers to provide complete cell coverage throughout the town and local waters,’ ” said Eric Schantz, the assistant planning director, who called cellular service “substandard and unacceptable,” with poor coverage and poor capacity not just in the summer months but throughout the year.

As Representative Lee Zeldin of New York’s First Congressional District touts the website RealClearPolitics’ status change of his campaign for governor of New York from “leans Democratic” to “tossup,” his opponent, Gov. Kathy Hochul, is emphasizing Mr. Zeldin’s role in attempting to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election.

Rita Cantina, a popular Mexican restaurant in Springs, was dealt a blow last week by the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals, whose members agreed with a determination by Ann Glennon, the town’s chief building inspector, that catering businesses on the restaurant premises are operating illegally.

Fourteen East Hampton Town residents who were issued summonses for trespassing during a protest at what is popularly known as Truck Beach on Napeague last October had their case summarily dismissed in Southampton Town Justice Court in Hampton Bays on Tuesday, in what their attorney called a victory for all residents of the town.

Spurred by opposition to a large-scale development proposed for downtown Sag Harbor, Save Sag Harbor and a group of residents filed suit against the village on Friday in an effort to annul parts of its affordable housing legislation passed by the village board in June. 

Wireless communication in Springs will be the hot topic at three meetings this week. There's an East Hampton Town Planning Board hearing on an application for a 185-foot-tall tower at Camp Blue Bay; the town board will discuss the subject at its work session on Tuesday, and the lobbying group Accabonac Strategies will update people that evening on its advocacy for activation of the 150-foot-tall tower on Springs Firehouse grounds.

Two teenagers were shot on Sunday near the Shirley residence of Representative Lee Zeldin of New York’s First Congressional District while he was campaigning in the Bronx. His teenage daughters were home, and he said later that a bullet was found about 30 feet from where they had been sitting.

The League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island, and North Fork will host virtual debates between candidates for the New York State Assembly and State Senate’s First Districts on Monday from 7 to 8:30 p.m.