Government

In 2019, the East Hampton Town Board approved a management plan for the Wainscott Green, where the Swamp nightclub once stood. That was before Hamptons Pride asked it to consider a memorial dance floor, sculptures, and pathways to and from the dance floor that would commemorate its unique place in local history.

The effort to remove trees killed by the southern pine beetle from Napeague and Hither Hills State Parks and other areas in East Hampton Town is underway, with trees being marked now for cutting that is scheduled to begin next month.

Last week, the Trump administration moved to weaken one of the most popular and successful laws passed in the United States in the last 50 years: the Endangered Species Act of 1973. If successful, the proposed changes could harm some iconic species on the East End, including the piping plover, the eastern tiger salamander, and even the monarch butterfly.

Playing on the name of his East Hampton Village NewTown Party, Mayor Jerry Larsen has launched a website to promote the “East Hampton Town Democrats for a New Town,” as he sets off in a probable primary battle against Democratic Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez.

Amid a squabble about East Hampton Village charging the town building permit fees for the addition of pickleball courts at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter and renovations at the Peach Farm House, at the Town Hall campus, both within village boundaries, comes the discovery that the town has no certificate of occupancy for Town Hall on file with the village.

The nascent offshore wind industry has proven its economic benefit — to union workers, businesses comprising every link in the supply chain, all the way down to the delis, gas stations, and restaurants surrounding such projects, a panel of professionals agreed during a round-table discussion last week.

New York State Assemblyman Tommy John Schiavoni came out firmly against the Nov. 5 federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Hampton Bays and Westhampton when he spoke at the inaugural East End LIVE, a conversation on issues impacting the East End of Long Island held last Thursday at LTV Studios in Wainscott.

A nearly 10-year effort to upgrade a play area at Maidstone Park in Springs came closer to completion earlier this month. The town has budgeted $190,000 for a renovation meant to be especially useful to younger children and those with disabilities.

The East Hampton Town Trustees have taken an initial step toward potentially opening the east channel of Napeague Harbor, which began to close early in this century and has been completely closed since 2012.

Because of changes to the draft legislation made in the wake of public comment at a hearing on legislation that would allow parcels as small as half an acre to be designated affordable housing overlay districts, the proposed legislation has been adjusted and will require a new hearing.

With the enthusiastic urging of members of the Surfrider Foundation, the Sag Harbor Village Board unanimously voted to adopt “Skip the Stuff” legislation regulating single-use plastics.

Scott Wilson, East Hampton Town’s director of land acquisition and management, was so happy with the three farmers who responded to a request in May for proposals to farm the old Sherrill Dairy property between Springs-Fireplace and Accabonac Roads that he decided to recommend all three to the town board.

The East Hampton Town Board approved a resolution to pay $14,300 to its wireless consultant CityScape to develop a design guide for “small-cell” wireless facilities within the town’s right of way.

A not-for-profit licensee in one or both of the historic buildings at the John Osborn homestead at 66 Main Street in Wainscott was only one aspect of a draft management plan contemplated by the East Hampton Town Board last week for the 30-acre parcel the town preserved last year.

The East Hampton Town attorney has concluded that a complaint by neighbors of 370 and 372 Further Lane in Amagansett, where the properties’ new owners have planted a hedge and trees in an easement, is without merit as the plantings do not violate easements created in 1989 and respected until recently. 

The East Hampton Town Building Department, which cut its hours in August, closing to the public on Wednesdays to attack a backlog of applications, announced another change. Building inspectors are now available at the counter and by phone from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Monday through Friday, including Wednesdays.

New in the scandal that won’t go away: President Trump knew about the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of girls, according to email exchanges between Epstein and Michael Wolff, the Amagansett author and journalist profiled in The Star last week.

In 2022, Mary Mackey applied through the East Hampton Town Home Improvement Program to fix some issues at her house. The town-selected contractor still hasn’t finished the work, what has been done has been deemed “shoddy” by the town’s licensing review board, and the cost to fix what’s been done has ballooned.

With the 2025 election in the rearview mirror, East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen has officially announced plans to challenge newly re-elected Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez for the Democratic nomination in 2026.

The plan calls for 46 to 50 “historical style” light fixtures such as those installed in Sag Harbor, spaced approximately 100 feet apart on either side of Main Street from Windmill Lane to Meeting House Lane. The existing “cobra head” lights affixed to metal poles would be removed. 

The East Hampton Town Board held two public hearings on its 2026 preliminary budget last week: one to allow it to pierce the state-mandated 2-percent cap on tax levy increases, and the other on the details of the budget itself. 

Cornell Cooperative Extension will conduct a bottom trawl survey from Smith Point Inlet, in Brookhaven Town, to Montauk Point. It is scheduled to begin on Monday and continue through Nov. 23. 

“With this new, even-year election law, I am going to start campaigning for 2026, starting tomorrow,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez told her supporters on election night, after winning an uncontested race.

Now a locally designated historic landmark owned by East Hampton Town, the Carl Fisher House will celebrate its centennial next year with a massive facelift, courtesy of about $3.7 million in community preservation funds.

The Army Corps of Engineers’ dredging project in Lake Montauk to restore safe navigation to the inlet there starts this week. The Oyster Bay, a mechanical dredge and barge, and supporting equipment have arrived, marking the start of mobilization.

The uncertainty surrounding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits — whether beneficiaries would receive half of their monthly benefit in November, the full amount, or none at all — has volunteers at East Hampton Town’s food pantries “tamping down the panic.”

Interior renovations have begun at the Bridgehampton Commons Target store, which is taking over the space occupied by Kmart for 25 years. Construction workers were digging rectangular pits into the ground last week, with work lights mounted to metal framework above them. The store is expected to open next fall.

The turmoil of President Trump’s second term has reached even East Hampton Town, where the author and journalist Michael Wolff is proving to be more of a gadfly than ever.

Both incumbent Democrats on the East Hampton Town Board, Cate Rogers and Ian Calder-Piedmonte, held onto their seats Tuesday night, warding off a challenge from J.P. Foster on the Republican line. Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez ran unopposed for her second term.

The East Hampton Town Board has appointed Russell Young, an ordinance enforcement officer in the Code Enforcement Department since 2022, to be the department's new director.