Government

In discussing the devastation wrought by the invasive southern pine beetle on pine trees in Hither Hills and Napeague State Parks, state officials sent a message of resilience and the promise that “we are going to make a new forest, and it’s going to be great.” That effort starts Friday with a controlled burn.

With dangerous cold and high winds expected Saturday, East Hampton Town and Village will have a number of warming centers open, from libraries to the Emergency Services Building.

The town’s Building Department will be moving to a new suite at 300 Pantigo Place. “This will allow for scalability if more staffing is potentially requested,” Councilman David Lys said. This comes as the department works to solve ongoing staffing issues and process a backlog of hundreds of permit applications that is frustrating building professionals.

Some Sag Harbor residents could find themselves having to purchase nonresident beach parking passes if a proposed amendment to the Southampton Town code passes. The passes would cost $500.

A United States District Court has granted a preliminary injunction allowing construction of the 924-megawatt Sunrise Wind farm in federal waters east of Montauk Point to continue. It will generate electricity sufficient to power nearly 600,000 residences.

How the public will use the town’s $56 million C.P.F. purchase at 66 Main Street in Wainscott came into slightly clearer focus as Scott Wilson, the land acquisition director, presented final edits on a draft management plan for the property, which will be the topic of a public hearing on March 19.

Jerry Larsen’s campaign touted $132,000 raised between Sept. 9 and Dec. 16 last year, calling it “the largest fund-raising total ever recorded” in a race for the East Hampton Town supervisor seat. Some donors gave as much as $5,000, which the Suffolk County Democratic Committee alleges violated state election law. 

A much-photographed house on stilts that was surrounded by water since around 2004 fell into Gardiner’s Bay last weekend when the pilings holding the abandoned house, perched off the end of Mulford Lane on Napeague, snapped. On Friday, it slipped further into the frozen water.

The East Hampton Town Board intends to modify parking restrictions on Edgemere Street in Montauk, possibly in time for Memorial Day weekend, to improve public safety on a stretch of road where the Surf Lodge has tied up traffic and created dangerous conditions for motorists and pedestrians alike.

East Hampton Town Airport would get a permanent control tower, ultimately costing $6.5 million, if Jim Brundige, its director, has his wish.

State officials will hold a public meeting Tuesday evening at Montauk Downs to discuss a habitat restoration project in response to southern pine beetle impacts at Napeague State Park and Hither Hills State Park.

The East Hampton Town Trustees took another step forward in their long-discussed plan to reopen the east channel of Napeague Harbor, which began to close early in this century and has been completely closed since 2012.

When big storms hit, Steve Lynch oversees an operation that straddles both the public and private worlds and needs to be manned nonstop, sometimes for days. The town bolsters its 32 trucks with outside contractors and personnel to form an army of 50 plows.

In the wake of the deaths of two American citizens in Minneapolis at the hands of federal officers involved in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown in the city, hundreds of people here have signed up to be part of a Rapid Response team organized by Organizacion Latino Americana of Eastern Long Island.

Sag Harbor Village is the recipient of a $34,091 New York State grant to develop an engineering study to replace failing septic systems in the Redwood neighborhood with a decentralized wastewater collection and treatment system to reduce nitrogen and pathogen loading in Sag Harbor Cove.

The East Hampton Town Trustees voted to increase the amount of the annual scholarship awarded an East Hampton High School senior from $1,500 to $3,000 this year, but how to finance it was a subject of discussion Monday.

The East Hampton Town Trustees were of two minds about a proposed East Hampton Village law to extend the prohibition of dogs and trucks on village beaches from Sept. 15 to Columbus Day.

The offshore wind industry, despite a sustained campaign against it by the Trump administration, won another round on Jan. 15 when a United States District Court granted the developer of the Empire Wind 1 farm a preliminary injunction that allows construction of the 54-turbine, 810-megawatt project to resume.

East Hampton Town and Village along with Sag Harbor Village and Southampton Town all declared states of emergency ahead of Sunday’s snow and ice storm, mirroring actions by Suffolk County and New York State. Government offices and facilities will be closed on Monday, as will local schools.

“The recent actions from Jerry Larsen — encouraging voters to change their party enrollment solely to influence the outcome of a Democratic primary and sway the results in his direction — are deeply troubling,” the county chairman said. Mr. Larsen countered that it’s just democracy in action.

A popular beach access point to a surf spot known as the Ranch, used by generations of Montauk surfers and fishermen, could be jeopardized if a subdivision application introduced to the East Hampton Town Planning Board earlier this month is approved.

Because of the extreme weather forecast for the coming days, the sale of 2026 permits to park at East Hampton Village beaches has been postponed from Tuesday to Thursday, Jan. 29. The one-day, in-person sale for town residents will be held at the Emergency Services Building.

n a hearing that could have implications for multiple properties, the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals considered the Jewish Center of the Hamptons’ appeal of the building inspector’s interpretation of “residential property.” The center hopes to see driveways exempted a parcel’s coverage calculation.

The Sag Harbor Village Board held a public hearing on a proposed law that would require vacant storefront windows to feature a window display and, hearing no comment from the public, closed the hearing and quickly adopted the law.

There has been more movement in the East Hampton Town Building Department in recent weeks, though not in the direction the town had hoped for.

A public hearing on a proposed law that would extend the prohibition of dogs and trucks on East Hampton Village beaches from the current date of Sept. 15 to Columbus Day drew no comment from the public but sparked a debate among village board members.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez has named 15 inaugural members of a new Latino Advisory Committee. They represent a cross-section of skills, based on their professions, and many already have ties to town government.

East Hampton Village received an unmodified, or clean, opinion from its auditor, the annual audit demonstrating no material misstatements, significant deficiencies, or noncompliance, according to an official from the Satty & Partners accounting firm.

A new 16-foot-tall Ditch Plain dune now stands impudently, or perhaps daringly, maybe both, before the Atlantic, extending from just east of what’s known as the “dirt lot” parking area to a few hundred feet west of the Seaside Avenue parking lot.

Christopher Gallant, a non-politician from Amity Harbor who announced his bid last summer after John Avlon said he wouldn’t run again in 2026, seems to be emerging as the candidate to face Nick LaLota, and he has Mr. Avlon’s support.