Government

A New York State Department of Environmental Conservation conditional shellfish harvest program that was to open the northern section of Accabonac Harbor yesterday has been postponed at least until Tuesday because of the recent rainfall.     

With New York State’s sweeping criminal justice reform law about to go into effect, the chief of the East Hampton Town Police Department and an assistant town attorney briefed the town board about impacts they predicted would be commensurately broad.

Following last month’s vote to increase incentives for property owners to replace conventional septic systems with new low-nitrogen systems approved by the Suffolk County Health Department, the East Hampton Town Board voted on Tuesday to streamline the process, further encouraging replacement of the old systems.

The East Hampton Town Board voted to purchase land on Pantigo Road here for $2.5 million for housing, recreation, or a preserve.

Suffolk Legislator Bridget Fleming, who recently announced her intention to seek the Democratic Party’s nomination to challenge Representative Lee Zeldin in New York’s First Congressional District, rebuked President Trump for his criticism of F.B.I. agents yesterday.

The leasing of bottomlands has pro­ven controversial in East Hampton, leading to a lawsuit by the Devon Yacht Club in Amagansett claiming that floating oyster cages interfered with boating activities.

The “four horsemen of the ocean climate change apocalypse” have arrived, a scientist told those attending a symposium Friday on the bay scallop die-off of 2019, and they pose a serious threat to the embattled species. 

The day after voting to acquire 12 acres of land and designate a majority of it for "municipal and housing purposes," the East Hampton Town Board marked the completion of the 12-unit "manor house" condominium development in East Hampton, the first of its kind in the town's affordable housing program.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo asked the U.S. Commerce Department on Friday for federal action to help New York's scallop fishery following the massive die-off in Peconic Bay scallops. 

East Hampton Town officials will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the newly completed Manor House condominium apartments on Accabonac Road in East Hampton at noon tomorrow. The town oversaw construction of the 12-unit complex to create affordable housing opportunities for residents.

An apparent effort by the billionaire investor Michael Novogratz to enlarge one of his Amagansett properties by adding an unopened road to it was stymied last week by a stop-work order.

East Hampton Town is hoping to finalize the purchase of 12 acres of land off Pantigo Road, on which it plans to develop affordable housing, by the end of this week, Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said on Tuesday.

Less than two weeks after voting to award nearly $400,000 in grant funding for four water quality improvement projects, the East Hampton Town Board heard recommendations from its water quality technical advisory committee to fund upgrades to sanitary systems on municipal properties.

Native pines will rise once again on town lands where the trees had been devastated by the southern pine beetle, a pest that is having less and less of an impact in East Hampton each year since it first began wreaking havoc on the trees in the fall of 2017.

Suffolk County Health Department officials detected nitrates and manganese above water quality standards in some of the 102 private wells it had tested in an area surrounding the closed landfill and at least two commercial composting or mulching operations along the Springs-Fireplace Road corridor in East Hampton and Springs as of Nov. 15.

“We are in a deep hole, and we are still digging,” United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Monday. “Soon it will be too deep to escape.”

Several years after a movement took shape to preserve and restore the house and two studios at the 11-acre Springs property once belonging to the Abstract Expressionist artists James Brooks and Charlotte Park, the East Hampton Town Board voted to authorize the town’s Department of Land Acquisition and Management to seek bids for their demolition.

As it was expected to do, the East Hampton Town Board awarded grant funding for four water quality improvement projects last Thursday, following a recommendation made last month by the Water Quality Technical Advisory Committee.

According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Accabonac Harbor is listed as “impaired” for shellfishing and as “stressed” for public bathing. As part of a local effort to boost the health of the harbor, the Accabonac Protection Committee, Concerned Citizens of Montauk, and East Hampton Town are teaming up to host a question-and-answer session for homeowners next Thursday about septic system and cesspool replacement.

Laura Ahearn, an attorney and social worker from Port Jefferson, has announced that she is a candidate for the State Senate seat held by Kenneth P. LaValle, a Republican also from Port Jefferson.

When Christine P. Scalera retires from the Southampton Town Board at the end of December, she will not be leaving Town Hall. She has been hired as a deputy town attorney, a position she held previously.

Frank Cilione, an owner of 44 Three Mile Harbor Road, the site of several former nightclubs and at present the East Hampton branch of the Spur co-working space, wants to demolish the building and replace it with a 21,000-square-foot structure with a retail store, office space, and work force housing.

Subject to congressional approval, the Town of East Hampton will allocate a total of $125,000 in community development block grants for 2020, the town board agreed last Thursday.

Time is short to send feedback to Suffolk County as to where best to position lease sites for its Aquaculture Lease Program in Peconic Bay and Gardiner’s Bay, several residents told the East Hampton Town Trustees on Monday.

The East Hampton Town Planning Board made it clear last week that it will approve an application from the Peconic Land Trust to build a 4,000-plus-square-foot barn at Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett.

The East Hampton Town Board voted last Thursday to increase incentives for property owners to replace conventional septic systems with new, low-nitrogen systems approved by the Suffolk County Health Department.

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. announced on Friday that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed legislation to identify lands at risk from sea level rise or flooding as eligible sending districts.

Weeks after a re-election campaign that saw her win 60 percent of the vote over her Republican challenger, Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming announced on Tuesday morning her intention to challenge Representative Lee Zeldin in New York's First Congressional District next year.

The East Hampton Town Board will vote tonight on a resolution to request that the Long Island Rail Road reduce by $1 the South Fork Commuter Connection fare for passengers traveling between Speonk and Montauk.

With little discussion, the East Hampton Town Board voted on Tuesday to approve the town’s 2020 operating budget.