Government

The East Hampton Town Board voted last Thursday to schedule a July 18 public hearing for consideration of a code amendment to prohibit parking on portions of Queens Lane and Sherrill Foster’s Path in East Hampton.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities announced on Friday that it has selected Ocean Wind, an offshore wind energy project proposed by Orsted in partnership with Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), to develop a 1.1-gigawatt wind farm 15 miles off the coast of Atlantic City. Upon its expected completion in 2024, Ocean Wind is projected to provide electricity sufficient to power some 500,000 residences in New Jersey.

The selection followed the state’s first solicitation for offshore wind power. Construction is expected to begin early in the next decade.

The State Department of Environmental Conservation has awarded a new permit to the Sand Land mine in Noyac after a State Supreme Court judge declined to grant a temporary restraining order that would have stopped the department from doing so.

A discussion prior to the East Hampton Town Board’s unanimous vote last Thursday to authorize a $175,000 bond issue for design plans and specifications for a new shellfish hatchery on Gann Road in Springs quickly became heated when Councilman Jeff Bragman questioned the resolution.

Democratic voters pushed back against East Hampton Reform Democrats' efforts to upend the Democratic Committee's picks for town justice and town trustee in Tuesday's primary, with Andrew Strong winning the justice nomination and Reform Democrats' choices trailing in the trustee race.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc announced on Tuesday that PSEG Long Island will abandon a proposed site in Hither Woods for a new electrical substation and instead build it on a Long Island Power Authority-owned parcel on Shore Road in Montauk, near the site of the present facility.

East Hampton School District officials have reached a compromise with the Suffolk County Board of Elections that will allow the school's fifth-grade moving-up ceremony to proceed as planned on Tuesday, by moving primary voting out of the John M. Marshall Elementary School's all-purpose room for this election only.

In what environmental advocacy organizations are calling a victory for wildlife and the ecosystem, both the State Senate and the Assembly approved bills Friday setting up a marine mammal and protection area around Plum Island, Great Gull Island, and Little Gull Island.

In a rare political occurrence, a sitting Republican justice is seeking the Democratic nomination to remain on the East Hampton Town bench.

Lisa R. Rana, who has Republican, Independence, and new EH Fusion Party support, will face Andrew Strong in a Democratic Primary on Tuesday. Whatever the outcome in the primary, Ms. Rana’s place on the ballot for the November general election is secure.

In an interview last week, she said that she decided to try to force the primary to give Democrats a choice for town justice.

A primary election to choose the Democratic slate for East Hampton Town Trustee and the party’s nominee for town justice happens on Tuesday. 

Polling stations will be the same as those in every political election. Residents can vote in their election district’s polling location from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. 

The State Senate voted narrowly on Monday night to approve a bill that will afford undocumented immigrants an opportunity to obtain a driver’s license. The vote closely followed the bill’s passage in the Assembly, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed it into law soon after the Senate’s action. 

Howard Schultz, the former chairman and chief executive of the Starbucks chain who is considering a run for president as an independent candidate, has put that deliberation on hold following three separate surgeries, he recently told supporters. 

“Without affordable housing, we’re going to lose the communities we’ve grown to love,” said Tom Ruhle, the director of East Hampton Town’s office of housing and community development, at a forum on affordable housing hosted by the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons on Monday. 

The event at the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton saw Mr. Ruhle and three other housing officials from East Hampton and Southampton defend and extoll the virtues of government-assisted housing projects.

Almost three years after promising East Hampton Town officials they would tackle overcrowding, excessive noise, and environmental concerns at the Surf Lodge in Montauk, the owners have launched a full-scale effort to address the problems. 

A traffic circle is being considered for the intersection of Stephen Hand’s Path, Long Lane, and Two Holes of Water Road in East Hampton, a particularly dangerous spot in the summer season.

The East Hampton Trails Preservation Society has come out against PSEG Long Island’s proposal to construct a substation on Suffolk County parkland in Montauk’s Hither Woods, saying that the facility would be constructed directly beside, if not atop, the 125-mile-long Paumanok Path.

The East Hampton Town Board is expected to vote tonight on a resolution to support four recommendations made last month by its Energy Sustainability and Resiliency Committee. The goal is to achieve 100 percent of the town's energy needs from renewable sources. 

The East Hampton Town Trustees have retained an attorney to begin a civil investigation into the apparent electronic eavesdropping in the conference room at their Amagansett offices that began at least eight months ago.

Simon Kinsella, a resident of Wainscott, a candidate for East Hampton Town Trustee, and a persistent critic of the proposed South Fork Wind Farm, spoke during a press conference Tuesday about his lawsuit against New York State, which seeks to compel the Long Island Power Authority to disclose the cost to ratepayers represented by the proposed wind farm.

A divide among neighbors and generations was apparent on Tuesday as the New York State Public Service Commission hosted its first information sessions and public hearings on the proposed South Fork Wind Farm, a 15-turbine installation that would be constructed in a federal lease area some 35 miles east of Montauk.

The East Hampton Town Board voted to accept an anonymous donation of a BearCat tactical response vehicle at its meeting last Thursday.

A proposal to allow food trucks to operate at farm stands in Southampton Town was embraced by farmers and denounced by restaurant owners at a public hearing at the town board meeting on Tuesday.

Anyone interested in obtaining a grant from the Town of East Hampton for water quality improvement projects can now request an application through the Natural Resources Department’s website or by email. Up to $1.25 million is available for the first round of awards.

Lower gas prices, on par with those found in other areas of Long Island and New York State, may be on the horizon for the South Fork.

After a member of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee complained at last month’s meeting that the Amagansett School had not allowed “holiday decorations” to be placed on the lawn in front of the school building in April, the committee wrote to the school principal, Maria Dorr, requesting clarification.

The fashion designer Stella McCartney, who is a daughter of the musician Paul McCartney, and her husband, Alasdhair Willis, are seeking a long-term extension of an expired emergency permit to allow a 100-foot double-tier sandbag revetment on Gardiner’s Bay to remain in place until they can build a new house at the site.

The East Hampton Town Trustees will grant a special commercial permit to up to 10 residents to harvest soft-shell clams via a technique known as powering, or churning, between July 1 and Sept. 6 this year.

A coalition of local civic groups, neighbors, nonprofit organizations, and government officials was successful Friday in obtaining a preliminary injunction against the Sand Land mine in Noyac that puts expanded mining on hold.

The Town of East Hampton’s financial condition is sound, its budget officer told the town board on Tuesday.

“This is about us,” the speaker told a gathering in East Hampton last Thursday. “There’s a global issue, which we’re all aware of, but East Hampton is going to change dramatically if we don’t turn this around and start doing the right thing.”