Government

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.

The East Hampton Village Board voted unanimously on Nov. 19 to relax rules limiting the size of cellars in houses, and at the same meeting voted against allowing cannabis dispensaries and consumption establishments within the village.

The South Fork Wind farm took another step toward fruition on Monday when the New York State Public Service Commission approved its developers’ environmental management and construction plan.

In a split vote last Thursday, the East Hampton Town Board authorized a $6.845 million purchase of three parcels, comprising 1.92 acres on Green Hollow Road in East Hampton, using $4.2 million from the community preservation fund and a $2.645 million donation from several neighbors whose identities were not disclosed.

The South Fork Wind farm, which would be New York State’s first offshore wind farm, took another major step forward on Wednesday when the federal Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued a favorable Record of Decision, a move that concludes the project’s federal environmental review. 

The East Hampton Town Board is expected to opt out of allowing cannabis retail dispensaries or on-site consumption licenses.

The owner of Sunset Cove Marina, on Folkstone Creek off Three Mile Harbor in Springs, plans to convert a portion of the marina to a commercial oyster growing operation.

Attorneys for East Hampton Town are opposing a motion by plaintiffs in the long-running Truck Beach conflict to move the Oct. 17 trespassing violations of 14 protesters from the town justice court to Suffolk County Supreme Court, which would consolidate those violations with the plaintiffs’ pending motion asking that the court hold the town in contempt for not actively prohibiting the public from accessing the beach.

The East Hampton Town Trustees voted unanimously on Monday to enact a one-year moratorium on construction of docks, catwalks, floating docks, floating structures, and floating platforms in trustee waters.

East Hampton Town is set to proceed with the creation of an administrative adjudication bureau to expedite processing minor code violations, allowing people to pay fines for them by mail or online, rather than having to appear in town justice court.

A Nov. 9 announcement that the Long Island Power Authority and the New York State Department of Public Service had agreed on a new management contract with PSEG Long Island came with reassuring words from LIPA officials but also continued criticism from government officials and activists.

The tanks holding effluent from the pump-out boats operated by the East Hampton Town Trustees in Three Mile Harbor and Lake Montauk are undersized and in need of replacement, representatives of the town’s water quality technical advisory committee told the town board.

Two weeks after a tense debate and vote to allow an 80-foot dock in Three Mile Harbor, the East Hampton Town Trustees moved toward enacting a moratorium on the construction of docks and floating structures in all waters under their jurisdiction while they develop a policy on them.

Current operations at East Hampton Airport and spending by passengers to and from it generate between $19 million and $25 million in economic output and account for 170 to 260 full-time equivalent jobs for the town, but passenger spending represents just 2 to 3 percent of taxable sales in the town, consultants told the East Hampton Town Board.

Following the introduction of paid parking this summer at Long Wharf in Sag Harbor, the Sag Harbor Village Board presented an elaborate report on the somewhat controversial initiative at Tuesday's board meeting.

A proposal to use nearly $2.6 million of community preservation fund money to purchase a .2-acre parcel on Muchmore Lane, a small lot adjacent to Herrick Park in East Hampton Village, drew questions and skepticism from two residents during a public hearing last Thursday.

East Hampton Town’s preliminary 2022 budget is $85.49 million, a slight increase over the tentative budget unveiled last month that reflects Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc’s proposal to regrade 115 town employees, with commensurate wage increases averaging 5 percent.

Attorneys for oceanfront property owners along what is popularly known as Truck Beach on Napeague have convinced a New York State Supreme Court judge to move the trespassing violations of 14 East Hampton Town residents from the town justice court to the Suffolk County Supreme Court.

The rate of Covid-19 infection has slowly declined at testing sites in East Hampton Town in recent weeks, Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said on Tuesday.

The positive infection rate among those tested between Oct. 16 and Oct. 23 was 5.88 percent, Mr. Van Scoyoc said. The rate between Oct. 24 and Oct. 30 was 4.94 percent, and between Nov. 1 and Nov. 7 it was 3.85 percent.

Democrats in East Hampton Town bucked the wider trend on Long Island and beyond on Election Day, maintaining a lock on elected offices by winning large majorities in an election marked by light turnout.

Consultants to East Hampton Town have proposed a two-phase plan for implementation of the recommendations contained in the Wainscott hamlet study that was approved and adopted in East Hampton Town’s comprehensive plan in May 2020.

"I was guardedly optimistic," East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said Wednesday after an apparent landslide victory for the Democratic Party. He pointed to a record of sound financial management, guiding the town through the Covid-19 pandemic while maintaining a functioning government, and forward movement on renewable energy and said, "I think the public responded resoundingly." 

Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming, an incumbent candidate, was one of only a few Democrats re-elected to their posts on Tuesday as Republicans earned victories in key races in county government.

Voters across Suffolk County flunked three of the five statewide propositions on Tuesday's ballot. The only successful measure that will impact the East End was an amendment to the state constitution to establish the "right to clean air, clean water, and a healthful environment for all."

The polls had been closed for more than two hours when word was conveyed that there would be no further update to the Suffolk County Board of Elections' vote tally of East Hampton Town's 19 election districts, but the early vote totals indicated a clean sweep for Democrats. At nearly 1 a.m., when the board of elections website finally populated with all of East Hampton Town's unofficial numbers, those results held: The Democrats' candidates had won every contested town race from supervisor to town trustee.

There will be one new face among the East Hampton Town Trustees, who manage many of the town's beaches, waterways, and bottomlands on behalf of the public, when the nine-member body is sworn in in January. All nine candidates running on the Democratic ticket were elected.

With less than two weeks before the 2021 election was to be settled, the East Hampton Town Democrats had outspent their opponents by almost double and still had plenty left for a final push.

The East End was well represented when New York State Assembly committees considered testimony during a hearing on the Covid-19 pandemic's impact on the Open Meetings Law on Monday.