Government

A New York State mandate that people wear masks or show proof of vaccination at restaurants, gyms, theaters, offices, and stores was lifted last Thursday. The decision, Gov. Kathy Hochul said at the time, was motivated by improving Covid-19 measurements, including the percentage of tests coming back positive, hospitalizations, the number of cases per 100,000 people, and vaccinations.

Fishermen and other residents of East Hampton Town who have been prevented from accessing a 4,000-foot stretch of Napeague ocean beach commonly known as Truck Beach have a new ally in an outside attorney for the town trustees.

With the looming closure of East Hampton Airport and a plan to open a new one as a private-use facility with restrictions on flight activity, a provider of medical helicopters and fixed-wing air ambulance services has written to Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc to express its "extreme concern" about the plan.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and federal Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland were among the dignitaries on hand at LTV Studios in Wainscott on Friday for the ceremonial groundbreaking on the South Fork Wind farm, New York's first offshore wind farm, to be situated approximately 35 miles off Montauk Point.

The districts of New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and Senator Anthony Palumbo will both grow smaller following the State Legislature’s vote last week to redraw state legislative and congressional district boundaries.

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.

In the race for the Democratic Party’s nomination to represent New York’s First Congressional District, Suffolk County Legislators Bridget Fleming and Kara Hahn have each picked up new endorsements.

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.

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

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.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?”

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.

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

“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 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.