Government

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.

The two westbound lanes of Sunrise Highway over the Shinnecock Canal Bridge reopened in time for evening rush hour Tuesday, according to a statement released by a spokesman for the New York State Department of Transportation. Additional work will continue Wednesday.

Polling places will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Election Day, and some voters in East Hampton will cast ballots in a new location — at the East Hampton Library.

Proposal 1 has to do with new ski and biathlon trails in upstate forestland. Proposal 2 addresses Suffolk County term limits vis-a-vis the state’s even-year election law.

Democratic incumbents and Republican challengers ponder East Hampton’s waterways and environment.

To paraphrase James Carville’s famous advice to then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton, when it comes to discussing the application for Toilsome Farm Restaurant and Brewery in East Hampton Village, “It’s the noise, stupid.” 

The East Hampton Town Planning Board reviewed and applauded a “substantially revised site plan” for Project Most’s headquarters that saves the historic Neighborhood House on Three Mile Harbor Road rather than demolishing it, as previously planned. 

A swearing-in, two promotions, one retirement, and a cautionary tale of the hazards of transportation via e-bike occupied the East Hampton Village Board when it met last week. 

It’s big, it’s controversial, it’s before the town planning powers that be.

The East Hampton Town Board authorized an emergency appropriation of $30,000 to local food pantries, due to the continued shutdown of the federal government and the impending loss of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.

“We want folks to know that we’re listening, and we want to work with the community to improve the system,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez said at a town board work session last week, in a discussion about ways to efficiently process building permits. 

The opening of scallop season in state waters is Nov. 3. In town trustee waters the date is Nov. 9. But the harvest may not be very good.

Monday’s Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee meeting saw an appeal for support from a resident of Further Lane whose new neighbor at number 370 has planted a double hedge along the lane, blocking a cherished vista. ACAC members were sympathetic.

The East Hampton Town Board reported that work was imminent on two long-awaited projects in Montauk: the Ditch Plain dune reconstruction and the dredging of the Lake Montauk Inlet.

It’s been nearly a year since East Hampton Town asked builders to submit proposals to design and build houses for the affordable housing subdivision called Cantwell Court. All the estimates they got back were too expensive.

From the Building Department to the senior center, contrasts were drawn between the town board’s Cate Rogers and Ian Calder-Piedmonte, incumbent Democrats, and J.P. Foster, their Republican challenger.