Government

East Hampton Town is moving toward modifications to its rebate program for septic system replacements in an effort to spur residents to replace aging or failing sanitary systems with new, low-nitrogen models and improve ecologically degraded waterways in the process.

East Hampton Town Hall will be the site of two upcoming forums on community choice aggregation, a model that replaces the utility as the default, monopolistic supplier of electricity or natural gas and gives municipalities the opportunity to seek lower prices from alternative suppliers.

Given a recent spike in cyberattacks on municipal governments and school districts across the country, local officials are on high alert about the security of their computer systems.

The East Hampton Town Board, having authorized a payout last month of $188,375.40 to Marguerite Wolffsohn, the planning director who retired at the end of July, voted to amend that resolution on Tuesday, citing an adjustment of her accrued vacation time based on the town’s department head employment policy.

On Aug. 28, Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio brought his long-shot bid for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president to East Hampton, where for around two hours he spoke on topics both conventional and esoteric.

Disappointed but determined after the East Hampton Town Board’s cool reception to the East Hampton Group for Wildlife’s request for a one-weekend-day ban on hunting, a member of the group is planning to communicate support for animal rights by recording a song.

Anger over the East Hampton Town Board’s plan to relocate the town’s shellfish hatchery to a residential area in Springs spilled over to the town trustees’ meeting on Monday.

The East Hampton Town Trustees, having determined that they should catalog their holdings and related properties in the area of Northwest Harbor, will engage two professionals with extensive experience in title research and historical records to do the job.

A majority of the East Hampton Town Board told members of the East Hampton Group for Wildlife last week that it was disinclined to entertain a one-weekend-day ban on hunting, for which the group has been agitating.

On Aug. 13, the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals voted 4-to-0, with one recusal, to revoke the certificate of occupancy issued in February for Duryea’s Lobster Deck, the latest turn in a long-running controversy over the Montauk property that was purchased by the billionaire investor Marc Rowan in 2014.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who leads a large group of hopefuls for the Democratic Party’s nomination to challenge President Trump next year, and Andrew Yang, who also seeks the party’s nomination, will benefit from fund-raisers scheduled for Saturday on the South Fork.

Hope gave way to disappointment on Tuesday when members of the East Hampton Group for Wildlife, having successfully lobbied the town board to talk about banning hunting on one weekend day during the hunting season, listened as just one of five members expressed support.

The East Hampton Town Board voted last Thursday to authorize a bond resolution for repair and other improvements to a building off Stephen Hand’s Path in East Hampton that housed the former Child Development Center of the Hamptons.

The owner of an agricultural reserve in Bridgehampton, who had been seeking permission from the Southampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals to construct agricultural housing on the property, filed legal notice in State Supreme Court last Thursday of his intent to sue the town.

Members of the EH Fusion Party, a group of Republican, Independence Party, and Democratic candidates seeking to appear on a unified ticket on the Nov. 5 ballot, experienced another setback last week when a United States District judge for the Eastern District of New York dismissed the lawsuit it had brought against the Suffolk County Board of Elections and its Democratic and Republican commissioners.

The East Hampton Town Board voted unanimously last Thursday to designate the Art Barge and the D’Amico Studio and Archive in Amagansett as local historical landmarks.

Is the Trump administration attempting to halt the proliferation of offshore wind farms?

“Don’t shoot the messenger,” was the plea from Jim Brundige, manager of East Hampton Airport, as he told the town board on Tuesday that air traffic so far this year was up 7.5 percent over 2018.

A review and potential changes to the New York State marine fisheries licensing system will be the subject of a meeting at East Hampton Town Hall on Wednesday at 6 p.m.

The Southampton Town Board has authorized Supervisor Jay Schneiderman to execute a contract with Joule Assets, a Katonah, N.Y., energy company, to serve as administrator of the town’s new “community choice aggregation” program.

The East Hampton Town Board’s plan to consolidate the town’s shellfish hatchery at a site on Three Mile Harbor continues to be a target of pushback by neighbors and others who are alarmed by what they predict will dramatically intensify activity in an already active and residential area.

The owner of a high-end rental house in Springs that East Hampton Town officials are trying to shut down appeared before an East Hampton Town justice this week along with the alleged house manager.

Perry Gershon, an East Hampton resident who narrowly lost a bid to unseat Representative Lee Zeldin last year and plans to challenge him again next year, made pointed remarks about recent mass shootings in the country to supporters on Saturday.

The exposure of bony fish including bluefish and striped bass to electromagnetic fields emanating from an offshore wind farm’s export cable would be rare and of negligible consequence, according to an evaluation by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Ronna McDaniel, co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, who was to attend on Friday, tweeted that the two events had raised $12 million.

The East Hampton Town Board adopted a resolution last Thursday supporting the New York State Drinking Water Quality Council’s recommendation of a maximum level of 10 parts per trillion for perfluorooctane sulfonate, or PFOS, and perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA. The move follows the 2017 and 2018 detection of the perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs, in more than 150 residential wells south of East Hampton Airport.     

To spur East Hampton Town residents to replace aging or failing sanitary systems to improve ecologically degraded waterways, the town’s Water Quality Technical Advisory Committee has recommended several modifications to the town’s rebate program.

Campaign reporting data compiled from the Federal Election Commission’s website had some surprising statistics this week. Since December, Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., has received more individual donations from Southampton to Shelter Island than any other presidential candidate, Democrat or Republican — ahead of President Trump by a double-digit margin.     

Demolition of the old East Hampton Town Hall building on the Town Hall campus at 159 Pantigo Road began on Monday.     

The building has been unoccupied since 2010, when the main Town Hall  offices were moved into the complex built from donated 18th and 19th-century buildings. The old building, constructed in the early 1960s, was already in disrepair and left to deteriorate.     

A resolution supports legislation that would require notification to certified apiarists to attempt to relocate a “nuisance” bee colony or hanging swarm before pesticides are applied or other action taken that would damage or exterminate it.