Government

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. announced last Thursday that legislation he co-sponsored that would strengthen oversight of mining to protect water quality unanimously passed both houses of the State Legislature. The legislation was based on recommendations of a grand jury empaneled in the county in 2018 and 2019 regarding illegal dumping and sand mining regulation.

The question of whether Wainscott should be carved out of East Hampton Town as its own village has divided residents of the hamlet. One group has gathered more than 200 signatures on a petition to draw a line of incorporation, and on the other, a new collective called Wainscott United has begun a campaign of its own in opposition to that idea.

With the release of a new report on Plum Island and its future, environmental groups and elected officials have renewed the call for the federal General Services Administration to call off the island's sale and preserve it instead.

The East Hampton Town Trustees and the Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation have applied to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the town board for emergency authorization to use an aquatic weed harvester in the Georgica Cove section of Georgica Pond.

The clerk of the East Hampton Town Trustees told his counterparts on the town board Tuesday that the town's baymen "are having a difficult time making a living," and that opposition to the Suffolk County Aquaculture Lease Program by recreational users of waterways poses a real threat to their livelihoods.

Francis Bock spoke during a discussion of the program, under which 10-acre parcels in Peconic and Gardiner's Bays have been leased for private commercial shellfish farming since 2010. The program, known as SCALP, is currently undergoing its first 10-year review.

Nancy Goroff, the Democratic Party's nominee to challenge Representative Lee Zeldin in New York's First Congressional District, was the top vote-getter in the Democrats' June 23 primary election where it mattered most.

Nancy Goroff, the Democratic Party's nominee to challenge Representative Lee Zeldin in New York's First Congressional District, was the focus of an online "unity party" attended by hundreds on Saturday that included her two leading competitors for the nomination and the actor Alec Baldwin.

The East Hampton Town Board held its most substantive discussion to date about rezoning a narrow 14.2-acre undeveloped site off Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton on Tuesday. As many as 60 units of affordable housing could be built there.

Three and a half years after East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo told the town board that the town's emergency communications system had reached the end of its useful life and was in need of a major overhaul, "we're slowly but surely getting there," he said on Tuesday. 

The Police Benevolent Association of the New York State Troopers has endorsed the re-election campaign of Representative Lee Zeldin in New York's First Congressional District. The endorsement represents Mr. Zeldin's ninth union endorsement in the 2020 election cycle.

AT&T will not be permitted to build a freestanding, 50-foot-high bell tower to house cellphone antennas at St. Peter's Chapel in Springs, the East Hampton Town Planning Board made clear at a meeting on July 8. 

The most recently available operations and complaint data associated with East Hampton Airport, as presented by a consultant to the East Hampton Town Board, show "not only an ongoing problem, but a growing problem," Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said on Tuesday. 

The proposal would essentially prohibit seaplane operations anywhere but at the airports and on Gardiner's Island, with a penalty for a first offense a fine of between $1,500 and $5,000. Subsequent violations within 18 months would be subject to a fine of $5,000 to $10,000. 

A free swimming program at Maidstone Park in Springs has been modified, offering only intermediate and advanced instruction because of the degree of hands-on instruction required for beginners.

International Union of Operating Engineers Local becomes the eighth union endorsement for his congressional campaign.

An $863,500 proposal to dredge Town Pond led to a heated discussion about budget priorities at last Thursday's virtual meeting of the East Hampton Village Board.

Nancy Goroff, a political newcomer who declared her candidacy for the Democratic nomination to challenge Representative Lee Zeldin in New York’s First Congressional District one year ago, is the official winner of the June 23 primary election.

In the continuing saga of the “manor house” condominium development on Accabonac Road in East Hampton, which remains vacant because of lingering elevated levels of volatile organic compounds in the units’ basements, the East Hampton Town Board voted last Thursday to retain a law firm that focuses on environmental matters.

The vast majority of businesses adhered to Covid protocols, but there were also "large gatherings and flagrant flaunting of the safety protocols we've all been trying to live by," Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said. Town police fielded "call after call after call."

The Peconic Bay Community Preservation Fund reported $45.43 million in revenues through May of this year, the highest five-month total in the fund's 22-year history. The money comes from a 2-percent transfer tax on real estate sales and provides money for land preservation, water quality improvement, and the protection of maritime heritage.

Wainscott residents angry at what they consider unequal treatment by the East Hampton Town Board are using the July 4 holiday to launch a petition to establish an incorporated village.

In another milestone as Long Island emerges from the coronavirus pandemic, East Hampton Town employees returned to their offices on Monday. The move came as the region progresses through the third of a four-phase reopening following the March shutdown of activity at municipal and commercial sites.

In New York's First Congressional District, an unofficial count of votes cast in person on June 23 or during the early voting period has Perry Gershon, the Democrats' 2018 nominee leading the four-person primary race with 5,166 votes.

New York airports are being asked to alert passengers to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's executive order requiring a 14-day quarantine for people arriving from states with high Covid-19 rates.

The New York League of Conservation Voters has launched an advertising campaign that paints the nascent offshore wind industry as integral to economic recovery in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The commercial, which is appearing on CNN, MSNBC, and the Fox News channel in the Long Island area as well as on News12 and online, specifically refers to the proposed South Fork Wind Farm, a 15-turbine, 130-megawatt installation that has been rebranded South Fork Wind and would be situated approximately 35 miles off Montauk.

The first installation on East Hampton Town property of an innovative alternative septic system was completed on Friday at the public restroom at the rear of Amagansett’s municipal parking lot. I/A septic systems, as they are known for short, are designed to reduce the amount of nitrogen discharged into the environment.

The town has filed court papers against the New York State Department of Environmental Conservaiton and Sand Highway L.L.C. over the D.E.C.'s issuance of an amended permit allowing excavation below the groundwater table and creation of an approximately six-acre lake at the Middle Highway, East Hampton, site. 

On Sunday, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said Covid-19 data are still looking good as Long Island continues the first full week of phase three of N.Y. Forward, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's economic reopening plan.

Tuesday’s Democratic primary election was unlike any in memory: Instead of a result before midnight, voters will likely wait weeks to know who will challenge Representative Lee Zeldin in New York’s First Congressional District and Assemblyman Anthony Palumbo in the State Senate’s First District.

Kyle Vorpahl, the secretary of the East Hampton Town Republican Committee, resigned from that position last Thursday, and will focus on the East Hampton Historical Farm Museum, of which he is vice president, responsibilities as deacon of the Amagansett Presbyterian Church, and family, he said.