Government

“We ask you to do the right thing,” Minerva Perez, the executive director of Organizacion Latino Americana, pleaded through tears to the East Hampton Town Board last week, as she pushed the board to discuss what’s become known as the East End Public Safety and Accountability Law.

A proposed addition to the East Hampton Village Code says that village personnel “shall not use village resources, equipment, property, databases, or funds to investigate, detain, question, arrest, or transport any individual solely for purposes of federal civil immigration enforcement, except pursuant to a judicial warrant or as otherwise required by law.”

Rising temperature and chlorophyll, decreasing salinity, high nitrogen levels, dense blooms of Alexandrium and Dinophysis, blue-green algal blooms, and some fecal contamination characterized town water bodies in 2025, according to Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University.

“There is no single solution to the housing challenges we face, which is why we continue to explore a range of options,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez said at the start of a town board work session with an agenda heavy on housing matters.

In the last few years, e-bikes have exploded in popularity, and the surge has caused some safety issues. Many municipalities, East Hampton Town among them, intend to implement new laws to keep up.

In the Democratic primary race for town supervisor, the incumbent, Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, touted a series of endorsements from party figures this week, while her opponent, Village Mayor Jerry Larsen, said the only endorsements that matter will be those made by voters.

The East Hampton Town Planning Board scheduled a public hearing on the Hamptons Pride memorial planned for the Wainscott Green for April 8 at 6:30 p.m.

The East Hampton Town Trustees responded to intense criticism over their disposal of Canada geese suspected to have died of highly pathogenic avian flu, also known as bird flu.

Three months after Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed a bill that would have provided for reinstatement and acknowledgement of the Montaukett Indian Nation, the New York State Assembly unanimously passed a new bill to that end.

Those walking bay beaches on the South Fork may find debris from oyster farms, bulkheads, docks, boats, or moorings that were damaged or destroyed by this winter’s deep freeze, and there’s a concerted effort underway to recover at least some of it.

Enticing private investors and employers to build housing units was a focus at a recent East Hampton Town Board work session, when the board discussed how best to build affordable housing in the town.

As in past years, the East Hampton Town Trustees voted last week to permit the use of an aquatic weed harvester in Georgica Pond this year and through 2030, in what is seen as an effective means to discourage the harmful algal blooms that have beset the pond starting almost 15 years ago.

As summer traffic season nears, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council is asking the question that everyone else is thinking: Is there any way to ease some of the congestion on the most traveled routes on the East End? As it turns out, the council has some ideas, and they include expanding ferry service.

Adam Potter’s frequently derided plan to build an 81,257-square-foot mixed-use building on Bridge Street in Sag Harbor found its way to the village zoning board of appeals this week, where several residents spoke out against the proposed redevelopment of the lots.

Sag Harbor Village Mayor Thomas Gardella has taken heat over a social media post called insensitive to the L.G.B.T.Q. community.

East Hampton Town collected more than $11.7 million for the community housing fund last year, for a total of almost $25.19 million since the program was implemented in 2023.

It’s official, Sag Harbor residents of the East Hampton Town side of the village will have to pay the full nonresident price to park at Southampton Town beaches come summer. The Southampton Town Board decided on March 3 to eliminate a special parking accommodation that has been on the books since 2021.

Two members of the East Hampton Town Police Department, Lt. Kenneth Alversa and Officer Daniel Munoz, attended the town’s Latino advisory committee meeting in an attempt to assuage concern and to discuss the role local police may or may not play in easing tensions created by potential ICE actions.

As East Hampton Village works to update its comprehensive plan for the first time since 2002, focus seems to have shifted to the eventual development of the area known as the Gingerbread District along Gingerbread Lane, King Street, Race Lane, and Railroad Avenue, which has been identified as a potential area for housing and business expansion.

Attorneys for the Jewish Center of the Hamptons plan to sue after the East Hampton Village Zoning Board denied an application appealing a building inspector's determination relating to the center's driveway and lot coverage.

The town board unanimously supported a conceptual drawing of a new 35-spot permeable parking lot in Springs that would be accessed from Springs-Fireplace Road and connected by a concrete path to a brick walkway at the Springs Library.

The waters of Sag Harbor were literally under a microscope at a Sag Harbor Village Board meeting on Tuesday night, when Stony Brook University released the latest on water quality in the village.

Mammalian meat. Barbed mouthparts. Sloughing skin. Six thousand larvae seeking blood meal. Concrete-like saliva. These were just some of the words and terms bandied about during a presentation about tick-borne diseases by the East Hampton Town Board’s tick action committee.

In a surprise move the East Hampton Town Board temporarily paused implementation of a portion of the town code that would require updated certificates of occupancy upon the sale of property. The “stay of enforcement” approved Tuesday extends until Dec. 31, 2026.

Grass or brick? Those were the options on the table during a town board discussion about “beautification” to the south side of Amagansett Main Street from Hedges Lane to the west entrance to Amagansett Square.

A public workshop for the East Hampton Village comprehensive plan, which was last updated in 2002, will happen Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the East Hampton Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street.

Minerva Perez, the executive director of Organizacion Latino Americana, has been pushing local governments to adopt an East End Public Safety and Accountability Law, drafted by OLA, that would clarify how local police would respond to Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids here.

Sag Harbor residents were the first on the East End to try out new, all-digital voting machines unveiled by the Suffolk County Board of Elections last week in anticipation of the June 23 primaries.

Plans are in the works to revegetate an acre at Springs Park, cleared last year of invasive autumn olive trees.

Marc Rowan, the billionaire investor, chief executive officer of Apollo Global Management, and owner of Duryea’s Lobster Deck on Fort Pond Bay in Montauk, is an appointed member of the executive boards of the Trump administration-led Board of Peace and the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza.