Government

Throughout New York State, "people are talking about their safety, their freedoms, and their economy," Alison Esposito, the Republican Party's nominee for lieutenant governor of New York State, said last Thursday at the Clubhouse in East Hampton. 

Affordable housing is a problem not just here, but nationwide, so it makes sense, especially given its size, that a 79-unit complex with housing above and retail space below proposed for downtown Sag Harbor is generating spirited conversation and debate. Some see it as welcome housing, others say its more of a "shopping mall with an affordable housing component."

The effort to preserve and restore the Springs house and studios of the Abstract Expressionist artists James Brooks and Charlotte Park took on new urgency this week when a consultant told the East Hampton Town Board that the 1,318-square-foot Brooks studio, called by one advocate of its preservation "a cathedral to midcentury abstract art," was beginning to collapse.

The Suffolk County Legislature is considering a bill introduced on July 26 that aims to address a chronic concern for parents, educators, and others in the wake of New York's landmark cannabis legalization law that passed in March of 2021: the packaging of pot products, and especially edibles.

East Hampton Village has given the owner of one of the few agricultural parcels in the village 10 days to clean up its Egypt Close property before the village cleans it up instead, at the owner's expense. The move, which came after a hearing on Friday before the village board, marks the first time that a property owner has been called to task under the village's new property maintenance and nuisance abatement law, added to the code in October.

The League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island, and the North Fork will hold a debate among candidates for the Republican Party's nomination to represent New York's First Congressional District on Monday from 7 to 8 p.m. over Zoom. 

The Nov. 8 midterm elections may be a tough one for Democrats, but three months before Election Day, Gov. Kathy Hochul, the Democratic incumbent, is comfortably ahead of her challenger, Representative Lee Zeldin, in the race for governor of New York State. 

Having achieved listing on the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places for Sag Harbor's historically Black communities of the Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest, and Ninevah subdivisions in 2019, advocates came to the East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday to discuss town-level designation.

As part of a long-range plan to convert all streetlights in East Hampton Town to energy-efficient LEDs, a consultant proposed to the town board on Tuesday the replacement of 682 fixtures, all but 41 of them of the "cobra head" design, an initiative that will save money while reducing impacts to the environment and providing better lighting,

The Suffolk County health commissioner has announced the first mosquito samples to test positive for West Nile virus this year, 12 of them from samples collected late last month. 

The double-yellow stripes running up and down Town Line Road make up the official dividing line between the hamlet of Wainscott and the Village of Sagaponack, in East Hampton and Southampton Towns respectively. But where it divides, it will also now unite — albeit in the wake of a tragedy.

The East Hampton Town Board will hold a public hearing next Thursday at 2 p.m. on the adoption of the draft Coastal Assessment Resiliency Plan, which was issued in April. The plan is described as a first step to reduce the town’s vulnerability as a coastal community and adapt to a changing climate.

The East Hampton Town Democratic Committee elected Anna Skrenta as its new chairwoman and Michael Koegler as its vice chairman on July 20. Frederick Brooks, representing the town’s Election District 18, in Montauk, was elected secretary of the committee.

A new affordable housing fund, to be paid for by a .5-percent real estate transfer tax, is headed for the November ballot in East Hampton Town.

East Hampton Town’s Nature Preserve Committee has recommended to the town board that the 6.9-acre wooded area bordered by Crandall Street, Lincoln Avenue, Norfolk Street, and Fort Pond Boulevard in Springs be made part of the town’s nature preserve. Not everyone agrees.

“It’s not a glamorous job,” Savannah Van Der Walt observed one day last week as the East Hampton Town Trustee pumpout boat she was piloting glided toward a dense array of houseboats at Snug Harbor Marina on Lake Montauk. “But you see the thousands of gallons that we pump every week. If people dumped it here, we would have a disgusting mess."

Since July 4, ordinance enforcement officers have observed numerous instances of overcrowding at tt’s, at 466 West Lake Drive, and Sel Rrose, at 4 South Elmwood Avenue, according to a town attorney. East Hampton wants to compel both establishments to comply immediately with the town code.

The draft environmental impact statement for the 50-lot Wainscott Commercial Center is still not ready for public comment, the East Hampton Town Planning Board agreed earlier this month.

After National Grid closed off the Reutershan parking lot for half the day on Friday to complete the tie-in of a new gas main, East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen, who had not been contacted in advance, was incensed. Disrupting traffic at the busiest time of the year is something local officials do not take lightly.

Vice President Kamala Harris is expected for a fund-raiser Thursday and Representative Adam Schiff on Saturday. Also Thursday, Alison Esposito, Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, will be here.

A Fairport, N.Y., man is facing felony assault charges after police said he attempted to stab Congressman Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for governor of New York, during a campaign event on Thursday evening. Mr. Zeldin was not injured in the incident.

The East Hampton Town Board will schedule a public hearing for early next month on proposed amendments to the town code to reflect the changed status of the 4,000-foot stretch of Napeague ocean beach commonly known as Truck Beach, in part codifying that beach driving permits only allow driving on publicly owned sands.

Dave Calone, a former federal and New York State prosecutor, has announced his candidacy to be the next Suffolk County executive, replacing Steve Bellone, who is term-limited.

A Wainscott moving company wants to convert its warehouse into a self-storage facility with 433 units, but questions about parking on the site and the traffic it will create, not to mention concerns about the size of the building, persist for the East Hampton Town Planning Board.

With the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center predicting an above-normal Atlantic hurricane season, Bruce Bates, East Hampton Town’s emergency preparedness coordinator, briefed the town board on preparations for extreme storms.

In a charge amplified in a New York City tabloid on Friday, attorneys for plaintiffs who have so far thwarted the East Hampton Town Board’s plan to privatize East Hampton Airport have claimed that the town deliberately altered documents that were submitted to New York State Supreme Court, allegations the town’s outside attorneys say are “unfounded” and show a lack of due diligence.

The Hero Beach Club, which sports the iconic winking smiley face on its facade, is the first commercial property drivers see as they’re headed into Montauk. Since 2017 it has been attempting to provide on-premises food service. On May 18, the planning board finally deemed the application ready for a public hearing.

An attorney for the Napeague property owners suing East Hampton Town and its trustees over the stretch known as Truck Beach has told attorneys for the town and the trustees that if the elected officials do not engage in settlement discussions with his clients, they could be subject to removal from office and be held personally liable for attorneys' fees and a fine imposed by a New York State Supreme Court justice.

With a target date of next Thursday to adopt a resolution to send a ballot proposition to the Suffolk County Board of Elections that, if passed in the Nov. 8 election, would activate a fund dedicated to the creation of affordable housing, the East Hampton Town Board and a town attorney worked to finalize the wording of the proposition and an accompanying abstract on Tuesday.

There’s good and not-so-good news for commercial and recreational shellfishermen in the updated rules governing shellfish-season openings and closures in East Hampton Town waters.