Government

Organizacion Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island will receive $600,000 from Suffolk County over the next three years for opioid abuse prevention work among young people, the group announced Friday.

At the recommendation of its project engineer, D.B. Bennett, the East Hampton Town Board has rejected the latest bids to complete Phase III restoration work at Montauk’s historic Second House and museum.

As a proposed plan to build a wastewater treatment plant in Montauk’s Hither Woods moves forward into what is sure to be a headline-grabbing 2023 of ongoing rancor and debate among a growing cadre of opponents, one tidbit has emerged from the flurry of meetings, emails, and presentations that have been associated with the proposal put forth by the East Hampton Town Board: To date, no detailed design specs of the proposed facility have been put into the public record by the town, even as a proposed conceptual diagram by the engineering firm that created it has become a key document motivating sewage plant detractors.

Those interested in preserving John Steinbeck’s Sag Harbor home as a writing center must have been buoyed on Tuesday afternoon as the proposal coasted through a public hearing during a Southampton Town Board meeting, with nary a single comment against it.

Ongoing litigation in federal court between East Hampton Town and East Hampton Village over the use and storage of controversial firefighting foam at the town airport by the village’s Fire Department remains in limbo even as the State Department of Environmental Conservation “continues to oversee the town’s remedial investigation” at the site, the agency said this week.

The East Hampton Town Board approved a suite of fee increases last Thursday that will affect about 60 services provided through the architectural review board, the zoning board of appeals, and the planning board.

Having rejected a bid to replace the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system and roof at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter last month after the lowest bid, at $2.32 million, came in well over an anticipated $1.2 million price tag, the East Hampton Town Board split the proposed job in two parts.

A New York State Department of Transportation plan to install a traffic circle or stop lights at the intersection of Route 114 and Main Street/Route 27 in East Hampton Village has been halted, and the mayor says that's good news.

A forum on the Peconic Bay Region Community Housing Act will bring together State Senator Anthony Palumbo, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., and Matt Cohen of the Long Island Association for a look at what the new act means for the East End.

The East Hampton Town Board has selected a design for a new $25 million-plus senior citizens center in Amagansett.

The East Hampton Town Planning Board has set Feb. 8 as the date for a public hearing on the draft environmental impact statement for the Wainscott Commercial Center subdivision. The hearing will be held in two parts at LTV Studios in Wainscott due to the considerable interest in the proposal for the former sand mine.

Two incumbents, East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc and Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, announced this week that they will not run again, while Councilman David Lys confirmed that he will run to keep his seat and Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez said she will seek the Democratic nomination for supervisor.

The East Hampton Town Board took up the matter at Tuesday’s work session in a discussion led by Councilman David Lys, who wants to see free public Wi-Fi hotspots at numerous town beaches — including Gin Beach in Montauk, Maidstone Park in Springs, and Atlantic Avenue Beach in Amagansett — among other proposed locations.

Freshman Representative Nick LaLota of the First Congressional District said he was “happily notified” on Monday that Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had named him to two plum committees — Armed Services and Homeland Security.

Consultants for East Hampton Town gave a brief presentation at Tuesday’s town board work session spelling out the latest steps in the town’s march toward some resolution at East Hampton Airport. Several Montauk residents expressed concern about what changes at the airport might mean for the small privately owned airport in a far-flung part of the hamlet.

The new 874-foot stone revetment at Montauk Point will be completed six months ahead of schedule but with many more boulders than originally budgeted for.

“It’s been the longstanding policy of the village, when you’re starting out from scratch, and you have a cleared lot, to comply with all codes,” Philip O’Connell, an East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals member, told a representative of Gianfranco D’Attis and his wife, Surbhi, on Friday. Mr. D’Attis was recently named the C.E.O. of Prada.

In their ongoing inventory of docks throughout their jurisdiction, the East Hampton Town Trustees have discovered a number of waterfront structures, such as docks and staircases, that lack permits. In an effort to ensure that those comply with local regulations, the trustees voted on Dec. 12 to establish a new, voluntary process — the “application to legalize” — to remedy the issue.

East Hampton Town Democrats and Republicans have put out the call for people interested in running for public office this year.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc announced Friday that he will retire from public service at the end of this year, opting not to seek re-election to a fourth term. His deputy supervisor, Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, will seek the Democrats' nomination for supervisor.

Bamboo bans, beach party limits, and the proposed $25-million-plus new senior center on town-owned land were all on Tuesday’s East Hampton Town Board agenda.

The entity behind the recent series of blistering print and social media advertisements targeting members of the East Hampton Town Board relative to the proposed privatization of the town airport, has been identified as a recently formed not-for-profit organization calling itself Political Transparency, Inc., but in charging the board with a lack of transparency, the group has raised numerous unanswered questions about its own transparency.

After months of discussion at Sag Harbor Village Board meetings, members of the public will have their say in front of the Southampton Town Board at 1 p.m. on Jan. 24 regarding a potential use of community preservation fund money on the John Steinbeck house on Bluff Point Lane in the village. Residents can also submit written comments to the board before the 24th.

“Degraded, inadequate, and poorly maintained.” That’s how East Hampton Town Police detectives characterized the safety management systems at the Maidstone Gun Club’s 200-yard rifle range during an investigation into a bullet, allegedly originating from the club, that struck a Merchants Path house on Aug. 5, 2022.

Freshly minted Representative Nicholas LaLota says the Republican Party’s dramatic and dayslong effort to elect a speaker of the House last week didn’t have much of an impact on his ability to hit the ground running as the new representative for New York’s First Congressional District.

A year and four months after learning the truth about Capt. William J. Rysam’s role in slave trading in the founding days of this community, the East Hampton Town Trustees on Monday voted unanimously to drop his name from the scholarship they award annually to a graduating senior from East Hampton High School.

Everybody must get zoned: That was the message coming out of a Southampton Town Board meeting last Thursday as the town continues to work its way toward rules to guide the new world of marijuana legalization in New York State.

The powerful storm that hit the East End just before Christmas left Accabonac Harbor in need of help: A particularly pronounced sand spit emerged, causing boaters and fishermen difficulty in navigating the area off Louse Point.

In his State of the Town address last Thursday, East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc highlighted areas of concern, conflict, and possibility that East Hampton will encounter this year.

“Even in the grave, all is not lost,” wrote Edgar Allen Poe, but Poe never encountered the all-powerful New York developer and real estate lobby that ultimately helped persuade Gov. Kathy Hochul to veto a popular gravesite-protection bill on Dec. 30.