Government

During Monday's meeting of the East Hampton Town Trustees, John Aldred briefed his colleagues on a June 14 count of mosquito larvae in Accabonac Harbor, where a pilot program to sample larvae has led to a reduction in the use of methoprene, a larvicide, by the Suffolk County Department of Public Works’ Division of Vector Control.

Interested parties and others waiting for the East Hampton Town Planning Board to accept or turn down the Wainscott Commercial Center’s draft environmental impact statement were left disappointed last week, as no vote was held. But progress was made.

The East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday discussed measures that would clarify the code with respect to outdoor seating for delicatessens and takeout restaurants. Outdoor string lighting also got a look.

The day after the Sag Harbor Village Board passed a long-anticipated measure allowing for affordable work-force housing developments in the office district of the village, a 79-unit whopper was proposed. The project seeks to combine five parcels owned by several limited liability companies of which Adam Potter, the founder of the nonprofit Friends of Bay Street, is the principal.

Early voting for the Tuesday primary started on Saturday and continues through Sunday at the Windmill Village 2 housing complex at 219 Accabonac Road East Hampton. In Southampton Town, early voting is at the Stony Brook Southampton campus at 70 Tuckahoe Road.

The Aug. 23 Republican primary for the nomination to represent New York’s First Congressional District may have a third candidate following last week’s campaign announcement by Michelle Bond, who is the chief executive officer of the Association for Digital Asset Markets.

A site near the former landfill in Montauk is promising as a potential location for a wastewater treatment plant to serve several locations in that hamlet, East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said last week.

New wastewater management measures would make great strides toward reducing nitrogen in Hog Creek in Springs, Molly Graffam and Ron Paulsen of Cornell Cooperative Extension told the East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday.

Piping plover posts and fencing at Maidstone Park in Springs were ripped out of the ground on June 15, perhaps resulting in the deaths of two plover chicks that had recently hatched there.

On Tuesday, PSEG will present plans to install a five-mile-long underground transmission line between that substation and the Buell substation on Cove Hollow Road in East Hampton starting in 2024. For three to five months, during the proposed construction period, a portion of the Long Pond Greenbelt would be closed.

John Bennett, the owner of the Springs General Store, wants a license for on-site consumption of alcohol. The East Hampton Town Planning Board knew he was looking to sell wine from a building on the property, but not that he hoped to serve it there. “You’re trying to get an approval for one thing, but it’s morphing into something that we didn’t think was being applied for,” one member said.

East Hampton Town has filed an appeal of the May 16 temporary restraining order granted to plaintiffs who sued to prevent the planned May 17 closure of East Hampton Airport and its reopening 33 hours later as a private airport with new restrictions.

Voters handed East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen and his NewTown Party a big victory at the polls Tuesday, electing two political neophytes, Sarah Amaden and Carrie Doyle, who he handpicked, to four-year terms as village trustees over the incumbent Arthur Graham, who ran on the Fish Hooks Party. 

Even as municipalities have done their part by opting in or out to recreational marijuana sales and on-site cafes or lounges, legalization is in a state of flux in New York while the Office of Cannabis Management acts to put regulatory muscle on the bones of the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act.

Blade Air Mobility and East End Hangars, which are among the plaintiffs that successfully sought a temporary restraining order preventing closure of East Hampton Airport on May 16, claim that the town is violating the terms of that order and have petitioned the New York State Supreme Court to hold it in contempt and impose daily fines to bring the town into compliance.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and Representative Lee Zeldin are comfortably ahead of their respective challengers in the June 28 primary election for governor of New York, according to a poll conducted last Thursday and Friday and released on Monday.

One-quarter of households in East Hampton Town are spending at least half of their income on housing, and more than 70 percent of renters and more than 33 percent of mortgage holders are spending at least 35 percent of their income on housing. With that in mind, the town is drafting a community housing fund project plan to detail how proceeds from a new .5-percent transfer tax could be spent if voters approve the tax in November.

The Biden-Harris administration has announced that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is initiating a process to designate Hudson Canyon, America's deepest Atlantic Ocean canyon, as a new national marine sanctuary.

Every one of East Hampton Town’s 729 streetlights will be replaced with energy-efficient LED lights within the next year or so, and the town has asked residents to weigh in on what type of light they’d prefer.

The League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island, and North Fork has announced that the New York State League’s online voters guide, at vote411.org, is live with nonpartisan information on the Democratic and Republican candidates for the June 28 state primary election for governor and lieutenant governor.

“A helicopter banned in East Hampton could become a seaplane landing in Sag Harbor,” Aidan Corish, a Sag Harbor Village trustee, said at a packed village board meeting Tuesday night, as he urged the village to gain more control over seaplane operations in waters it oversees.

East Hampton Village’s proposed 2022-23 budget — at just over $25 million — will be the subject of a public hearing Friday at 11 a.m.

Jack and Fran Levy, who own the circa-1895 G.A. Strong House on Georgica Road, an early East Hampton “summer colony” residence that is on the National Register of Historic Places, brought an unusual proposal before the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals on Friday.

After months of discussion and planning, the Sag Harbor Village Board on Tuesday approved affordable housing legislation, including three amendments to the existing housing rules, which was met with applause from some 50 people in attendance at the meeting.

Voters in East Hampton Village will go to the polls to fill two open seats on the village board on June 21, as the incumbent, Arthur Graham, seeks to hold his spot against Carrie Doyle and Sarah Amaden, who are running together on the NewTown Party line.

The East Hampton Town Board voted to allow for adjudication of code violations by an administrative bureau established last year to expedite the processing of minor violations. The town is seeking a director for the bureau, a prerequisite for putting it into effect.

There were 533 takeoffs and landings at East Hampton Town Airport — and 1,265 complaints about them made to just one of the two systems to register such complaints — between May 26 and May 30.

After putting its seaplane service from New York City to Sag Harbor on hold last week, the helicopter and seaplane company Blade Air Mobility resumed service to Sag Harbor on Tuesday.

New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a package of 10 bills aimed at reducing gun violence on Monday. Her key challenger, Representative Lee Zeldin of New York’s First Congressional District, said at a campaign event last month that a raft of laws regulating possession of guns should be overturned.

What was once unthinkable now looks increasingly possible, as the airport that many residents say has vastly exceeded its historical function and is destroying their quality of life may finally be grounded, perhaps permanently.