Government

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.

East Hampton Village has settled on a preferred location for a new underground wastewater treatment facility — under the long-term parking lot off Gingerbread Lane — but it could be years from completion, a consultant told the village board last week.

There were 859 takeoffs and landings at East Hampton Airport over Independence Day weekend, the highest total since 2019.

Changehampton, which describes itself as a group of alarmed East Hampton residents who “can no longer stand idle while global warming, climate change, and species collapse are escalating around us,” took its message to the town trustees on Monday.

The Icahns solved a yellowjacket problem by putting up a collapsible gazebo, then a permanent breakfast nook with a deck, and then a permanent gazebo. Now, some 15 years later, they're seeking retroactive approval for the replacement. Unfortunately, the spot where they like to have breakfast is in a coastal erosion hazard area and within the dune setback.

A multiuse path in the Buckskill Meadow Trunzo Preserve in Wainscott will be named to honor the late Lewis Zachary Cohen, a longtime member of East Hampton Town’s Nature Preserve Committee, during a ceremony on Monday at 11 a.m.

The Southampton Town Board is working to amend the town code to accommodate the possible arrival of cannabis dispensaries and on-site pot lounges in town. Turns out it’s a pretty contentious issue even after the town voted along with more than 600 other towns across the state to participate in New York’s newly legalized cannabis economy. 

Historical problems with both traffic safety and flooding at a multi-street intersection in Montauk may be alleviated by a redesign and installation of a roundabout.

East Hampton Town is asking residents to weigh in on the new senior citizens center to be constructed at 403 Abraham’s Path in Amagansett, with results to inform the design of the center and the programs offered there.

An East Hampton Town Trustees-commissioned study of fish migration in the vicinity of the landing site of the South Fork Wind farm’s export cable is to begin today and last approximately one week.