Government

A new, online portal through which East Hampton Town residents could interface with town staff in departments like planning, code enforcement, animal control, and the town clerk is among the projects in a first draft of the town’s 2022 capital plan, the budget officer told the town board on Tuesday.

“We want to get this right, rather than get it fast,” said Sag Harbor Mayor James Larocca, speaking at Tuesday night’s village board meeting of the village’s new affordable housing initiative.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has announced a virtual public information session next Thursday from 2 to 4 p.m. about a new water quality study of Long Island Sound embayments.

“Why are they putting a tower in a hole?” Dai Dayton, president of the friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt, asked when reached over the phone about a Verizon Wireless plan to place a communications tower between the Sag Harbor Village impound lot and Southampton Town-leased transfer station to the north along the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike.

There will be no temporary cell tower in the Redwood area of Sag Harbor, at least not for now.

One hundred and sixty-five rooftop solar systems have been installed in East Hampton Town since the Solarize East Hampton program was started in 2018, with 63 completed in 2021, the town announced last week.

With control of the United States House of Representatives potentially hanging in the balance, the New York State Legislature voted last week to redraw the state’s congressional districts in a way that makes a Democratic gain of three seats more likely.

Effective Thursday, a New York State mandate that people wear masks or show proof of vaccination at restaurants, gyms, theaters, offices and stores will be lifted, but individual businesses and municipal governments will be able to set their own policies.

The East Hampton Town Board has hit turbulence on its plan to briefly close East Hampton Airport and reopen it four days later as a private-use facility with restrictions on flight activity, following its receipt of a letter from the Federal Aviation Administration warning that “it may take approximately two years to restore the current capability to the airport if it is deactivated” depending on potential environmental analyses.

East Hampton Town has been awarded a $250,000 grant for the installation of 20 Level-2 electric vehicle charging ports from New York State’s Drive Clean Rebate program.

East Hampton Town’s beach advisory committee has recommended that the town board ban smoking of all types, including vaping and the smoking of tobacco and cannabis, for a specified distance to be determined from lifeguard-protected areas during hours that lifeguards are on duty.

Because of a significant decline in demand for Covid-19 testing, East Hampton Town’s test site at the former Child Development Center of the Hamptons on Stephen Hand’s Path, operated by CareONE Concierge, has reduced its hours of operation.

The last 15 years have seen an almost 300-percent increase in the linear feet of bulkheads in East Hampton Town, a 600-percent increase in the linear feet of docks, and a significant increase in rock revetments in the same span, the town trustees were told last week.

When a group established to work on implementation of the Wainscott hamlet study met for the first time last Thursday, some members expressed disappointment at the pace of progress, with one asking, “Is there a point where we’re going to start implementing something?”

The bathrooms at Herrick Park are about to get a much-needed overhaul, with new siding, impact-rated glass, and new lighting, among other things.

Amid winter’s icy grip, the East Hampton Town Board spent much of Tuesday’s work session thinking about summer, specifically how the board might better manage large gatherings and commercial activity on public property.

In a contempt hearing last week, lawyers for Napeague oceanfront property owners who have been battling the town for years over an area popularly known as Truck Beach grilled East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc and other town officials about their handling of a June 2021 court order demanding the town prohibit all driving and parking on that beach.

In a survey conducted by East Hampton Village in October, village residents who responded were overwhelmingly against permanently closing the East Hampton airport, a town property, but most respondents who want it open favor limitations on noise and landing times. And some who want it closed still want it open for emergency use or could tolerate it with no helicopter traffic. In fact, only roughly a third of respondents wanted “no limits” on the airport.

Beginning within six months of the South Fork Wind farm’s commercial operation, the developers are to make 25 annual payments, starting at $870,000 with subsequent payments increasing by 2 percent annually.

The town board voted unanimously last Thursday to file the appropriate forms with the Federal Aviation Administration to deactivate East Hampton Airport. It will be permanently “closed” in its current model on Feb. 28, but will be opened anew as of March 4 as a private-use airport.

“It’s a popular beach, a beautiful beach, and there’s no reason we should have an unprotected stretch of beach in the village,” East Hampton Village's deputy mayor, Chris Minardi, announced on Friday.

The legislation continues to allow New Yorkers to request an absentee ballot during the pandemic when there is a risk of contracting or spreading disease that may cause illness to the voter or other members of the public. This legislation first became law in July 2020; the law expired on Dec. 31, 2021.

The politicization of masks and mask mandates to protect public health against the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic was manifested on Long Island this week, with a New York State Supreme Court judge in Nassau County ruling on Monday that Gov. Kathy Hochul’s mandate that masks must be worn in public places when social distancing cannot be maintained is unconstitutional.

The East Hampton Village Board has approved a lease agreement with the East Hampton Historical Society for the Dominy Shops at 73 North Main Street, effective Feb. 1, 2023. A museum is the goal.

Members of the East Hampton Town Board agreed last week that the Little League fields that are to be relocated from 400 Pantigo Place in East Hampton to 110 Stephen Hand’s Path should be state-of-the-art, comparable to those in larger municipalities to the west.

The water level at Town Pond remains low, to the consternation of East Hampton Village officials. The new pump installed in early January is right now unable to pump properly, David Collins, superintendent of public works, told the village board at its meeting on Friday. Somehow, air is getting into the pump, preventing it from “holding the prime,” he said.

The Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Planning will hold an informational meeting for prospective applicants interested in applying for a lease under the county’s Shellfish Aquaculture Lease Program in Peconic Bay and Gardiner’s Bay on Feb. 3 at 6 p.m.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has announced a Feb. 23 auction for six lease areas totaling 488,000 acres in the New York Bight, a portion of the Atlantic Ocean off New York and New Jersey, for wind development.

After an uneventful public hearing at the Jan. 12 East Hampton Town Planning Board meeting, approval of Wainscott Chapel’s first bathroom in over 100 years looked to be a foregone conclusion. When the construction of the bathroom is complete, East Hampton Town will say goodbye to its last fully functioning outhouse.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved the South Fork Wind farm's Construction and Operations Plan on Wednesday, the final federal approval needed for the project's construction to commence.