Government

After an uneventful public hearing at the Jan. 12 East Hampton Town Planning Board meeting, approval of Wainscott Chapel’s first bathroom in over 100 years looked to be a foregone conclusion. When the construction of the bathroom is complete, East Hampton Town will say goodbye to its last fully functioning outhouse.

The C.P.F. coffers here keep growing, and Governor Hochul signs a bill allowing open, public meetings to continue virtually.

The Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Planning will hold an informational meeting for prospective applicants interested in applying for a lease under the county’s Shellfish Aquaculture Lease Program in Peconic Bay and Gardiner’s Bay on Feb. 3 at 6 p.m.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved the South Fork Wind farm's Construction and Operations Plan on Wednesday, the final federal approval needed for the project's construction to commence.

“I think this is a really important step that we’re making today, where we finally, as a town, will assert control over an airport that we own but had no ability to regulate,” East Hampton Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said after the town board’s vote on Thursday to file the appropriate forms with the F.A.A. to deactivate the airport.

The East Hampton Town Board discussed on Tuesday a change to the town code that would allow up to four single-family residences per acre in affordable housing overlay districts.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has announced a Feb. 23 auction for six lease areas totaling 488,000 acres in the New York Bight, a portion of the Atlantic Ocean off New York and New Jersey, for wind development.

East Hampton Town announced on Tuesday that it expects to temporarily "deactivate" East Hampton Airport at the end of February and then reopen it four days later as "a new, publicly owned private-use" facility. 

The developers of the South Fork Wind farm have announced that Haugland Energy Group of Melville will install the underground ducts for the onshore transmission line and head up the project’s connection facility here, leading to more than 100 union jobs, they said.

Wi-Fi connectivity at East Hampton Town’s public beaches and new informational signs using QR codes that beachgoers could scan with their smartphones to be directed to the town’s website were among the recommendations issued by the town’s Beach, Parks, and Recreation Recovery and Advisory Group on Tuesday.

Heavy machinery appearing this week at the parking lot of the ocean beach at the end of Beach Lane in Wainscott is for the East Hampton Town Trustees’ annual dredging of sand at the mouth of Georgica Pond.

The Sag Harbor Village Board launched an affordable housing initiative this week that will focus on "zoning, collaboration, and program administration."

Building along the Sag Harbor waterfront can begin again, now with a new code in place. In a unanimous vote, the village board adopted two new resolutions, one ending the moratorium and the other creating a new waterfront zoning overlay district.

The executive board of the Brookhaven Town Democratic Committee has endorsed Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming in her bid for the Democratic Party’s nomination to represent New York’s First Congressional District.

A bill to enable municipalities, school districts, and other public entities to continue meeting virtually during the Covid-19 pandemic has passed both the New York State Assembly and Senate.

The East Hampton Town Board’s plan to enact restrictions on operations at East Hampton Airport, announced in Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc’s State of the Town address last week, appears to have done little to alleviate the concerns of residents on the South and North Forks.

The temporary communications tower, or "cell on wheels" that the East Hampton Town Board agreed last month should be placed at Maidstone Park in Springs until a permanent emergency communications tower is constructed elsewhere in the hamlet now appears headed to Gann Road.

With onshore construction of the South Fork Wind farm's underground cable set to begin this month, survey and construction preparation work are to commence on Thursday.

Tensions ran high last month as the East Hampton Town Planning Board discussed a proposal that would see the 70.4-acre reclaimed sand and gravel mine in Wainscott divided into 50 commercial parcels. Known as the Wainscott Commercial Center, it is the largest development proposal to have come before the planning board for quite some time and one that the board believes could have significant environmental impacts.

Anthony Figliola, a former deputy supervisor of Brookhaven Town, has announced his candidacy for the Republican Party’s nomination to represent New York’s First Congressional District.

East Hampton Airport will transition to a model that would require aircraft operators to obtain permission in advance to “have full operational use of a runway, taxiway, apron, or airport facility/service," Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc announced this week.

Continuity was on the agenda when the East Hampton Town Trustees selected officers and staff during their organizational meeting on Monday night.

East Hampton Town’s purchase of a parcel adjacent to Herrick Park in East Hampton Village using community preservation fund money has hit a snag over the future use of the property.

In his State of the Town address on Tuesday, East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc spoke about the acute shortage of affordable housing here, renewable energy and sustainability, planning, the town’s finances, and building projects. On housing, which he said is “threatening to unravel the fabric of our community,” he announced an “All Hands on Housing” initiative.

Ed Michels, East Hampton Town’s senior harbormaster, will shift to part-time service in 2022.

A deteriorating bulkhead on Lake Montauk and lingering questions about a large yoga pavilion are the main sticking points for a proposed “artists’ retreat” that would involve the complete reconstruction of 17 cottages and a large single-family house at 31 East Lake Drive in Montauk.

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation on Dec. 22 that is intended to clear a path for community choice aggregation programs in the Long Island Power Authority’s service territory. The new law is to go into effect 90 days after the bill’s signing.

East Hampton Town’s governing bodies will hold organizational meetings for 2022 next week, and some new elected officials will be sworn in on Friday.

As Covid-19 cases have risen, demand for testing has too, with long lines reported at East Hampton Town’s test site at its Center for Humanity on Stephen Hand’s Path, run by CareOne Concierge, and the town warning that results may be slower in coming — and that testing materials are in short supply. The facility was closed Thursday to patients seeking tests for that reason.

Consultants to the town who have spent the last few months fact-finding on the future of East Hampton Airport reported to the town board on Tuesday about community support and opposition, and the economic implications of closing the airport or, alternatively, imposing certain restrictions.