Government

A local law that would give East Hampton Town regulatory powers over mining, mulching, and composting operations and require the monitoring and reporting of any impacts to groundwater drew strong support from environmental advocates at a public hearing last Thursday. Representatives of a local business engaged in such operations, however, vigorously criticized the proposal.

With water levels at Town Pond noticeably low, and residents beginning to wonder whether the situation is related to a recent dredging, the village board voted last week to ask the town for $163,985 more from the community preservation fund to rectify matters.

After hearing a report from Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences on the impact of wastewater on the village’s drinking water and water quality in Georgica and Hook Ponds, the East Hampton Village Board voted on Friday to create a central sewer committee with Mayor Jerry Larsen as its chairman.

By an 8-to-1 vote on Dec. 15, the Long Island Power Authority’s board of trustees approved a new contract with PSEG Long Island, which operates and maintains the electrical grid on its behalf.

Supporters and critics alike called the new Operation Service Agreement an improvement over the previous contract, though the critics say it falls short, particularly in setting the utility on a path to becoming a fully public power authority operated and managed directly by LIPA.

The new owner of the former Rick’s Crabby Cowboy Cafe in Montauk has big plans for the property, but they are far too big, the East Hampton Town Planning Board told his attorney last week.

With a Sag Harbor moratorium on waterfront building set to expire in February, the village board said last week that it intends to vote on a proposed waterfront zoning overlay district at its Jan. 11 meeting.

With the East Hampton Town Board’s unanimous vote on Tuesday to approve an agreement to put an emergency communications tower at the Camp Blue Bay property on Flaggy Hole Road in Springs, a collective sigh of relief could be heard elsewhere in the hamlet as residents’ five-month struggle to prevent the tower from being erected in a wooded area in their neighborhood had officially succeeded.

Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott asked the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division on Monday to block the installation of a transmission cable connecting the South Fork Wind Farm to the electric grid until the court ruled on the group’s appeal of what it calls the state’s improper approval of its route through the hamlet.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has completed its environmental review of potential impacts from offshore wind energy leasing activities in the New York Bight, off New York and New Jersey, and has issued a finding of no significant impact.

Starting Monday, Dec. 20, East Hampton Town's Covid-19 testing will move to the East Hampton Center for Humanity, the former Child Development Center of the Hamptons, at 110 Stephen Hand's Path.

Suffolk County

Commuting, Vector Bills Introduced

Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming introduced and co-sponsored several pieces of legislation during the Dec. 7 general meeting of the Legislature. Of particular interest for East Hampton among the bills awaiting County Executive Steve Bellone’s signature are those concerning vector control and the South Fork Commuter Connection.

As it had signaled following a public hearing in October, the East Hampton Town Board voted on Tuesday to ban the sale of balloons filled with helium or any other type of lighter-than-air gas. The prohibition will take effect on Jan. 1.

State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and State Senator James Gaughran have introduced joint legislation to restructure the Long Island Power Authority as a fully public power authority, operated and managed directly by LIPA.

The East Hampton Town Board voted unanimously to opt out of allowing cannabis retail dispensaries or on-site consumption licenses on Dec. 2.

Neighbors, members of the public, and members of the Long Pond Greenbelt made their voices heard last Thursday as the Southampton Town Planning Board reviewed a Verizon application to locate a 153-foot communications monopole on land owned by the Village of Sag Harbor off the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike.

The Sag Harbor Village Board heard the pros and cons of allowing cannabis sales within village limits, and despite the vocal support of many callers who favored “opting-in,” the board unanimously voted against dispensaries and lounges, for now.

The Suffolk County Board of Elections issued the official results of the Nov. 3 election on Monday, adding the count of absentee ballots to the certified totals. The nearly six-week delay between the elections and their certification was due to a hand count of ballots in Southampton, Southold, and Shelter Island Towns, officials said last week.

Officials of East Hampton Town’s land acquisition and management department had warned in September of the likelihood of an expansion of the southern pine beetle infestation that impacted western parts of the town, and now the beetles have been detected in New York State parkland at Napeague.

The East Hampton Town Board has settled on an architecture and engineering group to design a new senior citizens center on Abraham's Path in Amagansett. R2 Architecture and the town will next look to the community for ideas about how the facility can best meet the needs of older residents.

The East Hampton Town Board voted last Thursday to appoint Jeremy Samuelson as director of the Planning Department. Mr. Samuelson will succeed JoAnne Pahwul, who retired in June.

Mr. Samuelson’s appointment is effective tomorrow, at which time he will be placed on an unpaid leave of absence through Jan. 2, with a start date of Jan. 3, according to the board’s resolution.

A private gallery operating in an East Hampton Village museum within a district on the National Register of Historic Places may test the limits of preservation rules.

The East Hampton Town Board’s 3-to-2 vote last month to acquire three parcels totaling 1.92 acres on Green Hollow Road in East Hampton, using $4.2 million from the community preservation fund plus a $2.645-million donation from several unidentified neighbors, was again criticized by members of the public at the board’s meeting last Thursday.

The longstanding question of how to complete the upgrade of East Hampton Town’s emergency communications system moved forward on separate fronts on Tuesday when the town board agreed that the best spot to put temporary communications equipment appeared to be Maidstone Park.

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation on Tuesday permitting Suffolk County to lease underwater lands previously ceded to it by New York State for the purpose of kelp and other seaweed cultivation.

The East Hampton Town Board held two public hearings last Thursday, one involving two amendments to the town’s code of ethics and the other to create a Bureau of Administrative Adjudication that would make it easier to pay fines for minor violations of the town code.

The stretch of Route 114 from the South Ferry in North Haven to Stephen Hand’s Path in East Hampton “has been the full-employment act for front-end alignment mechanics on the East End for too long,” Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. said, but that’s about to change, as the road is set to be repaved in the spring for the first time since 2005.

The East Hampton Town Board is revisiting a plan to revitalize the southern part of Lake Montauk and the beach at the end of South Lake Drive with an eye to making better use of the space, maximizing parking, capturing and treating stormwater runoff by promoting infiltration and natural treatment, and removing invasive species.

Energize East Hampton, a town campaign to boost environmentally friendly technology initiatives in houses and businesses, will hold a virtual talk on “green heating and cooling” methods on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.

East Hampton School District officials wanted their affordable housing forum on Tuesday to be a brainstorming session focused on solutions and proposals, and from innovative financing and land use ideas to promises of partnership from elected officials to participation by community members, that’s just what they got.

The evolution of the village property at 8 Osborne Lane in East Hampton, wedged between the railroad tracks, the middle school, and another village property on the corner of Newtown Lane, entered a new phase recently as Tesla Motors Corporation completed the physical installation of 12 supercharging stations.