Government

Just about six years after East Hampton Town faced down a fiscal crisis caused by mismanagement that left the town with a $27 million deficit, Moody’s Investors Service has upgraded the town’s credit rating to the Aa1 level — a positive stamp of approval only one level below Moody’s top Aaa rating.

Southampton Town officials are taking action to clean up a blighted south-of-the-highway property in Bridgehampton that neighbors claim has been abandoned for eight years and left to attract mosquitos, rats, raccoons, and squatters.

Concerned about the national rise of hate-motivated rhetoric, East Hampton Town’s anti-bias task force, in a statement sent to the media, has reminded residents of its mission and invited visitors or prospective members to attend its monthly meetings.

Search for a new Southampton Town Police Chief is down to two candidates and accused highway employee quits.

In an effort to find ways to reduce the town’s energy load, an initiative set forth in the town’s comprehensive and sustainability plans, the board is considering changes that would relax property clearing restrictions to allow more area for solar energy systems as an accessory use.

About a dozen Montauk residents showed up for a hearing before the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals Tuesday night when a proposed new house at 6 Prentice Place in the Ditch Plain neighborhood of the hamlet was on the agenda.

They will be raising the rafters for a barn on Long Lane soon, if the East Hampton Town Planning Board gives its stamp of approval for a site plan regarding the former Damiecki farm at the corner of Stephen Hand’s Path.

Southampton Town officials are looking to hire an outside engineer to start developing a plan for improving pedestrian safety and traffic problems in the area around downtown Bridgehampton.

Tom Neeley, the town’s transportation and traffic safety director, said he has been considering various pedestrian traffic safety measures and looking at traffic and accident data but has not put an overall recommendation together just yet.

The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday renewed its mandate that helicopters flying between points west and the East End, many of which use East Hampton Airport, follow a route along the North Shore until turning south toward their destinations. The rule, which was to have expired on Aug. 6, has been extended through August 2020.

Big game hunters who live in East Hampton and have town and state hunting licenses will now be able to get a guest license for a nonresident hunter, following a vote of the town board last Thursday.

East Hampton Town

Lighted Crosswalks Coming

The East Hampton Town Planning Board looked askance at a site plan application for a 50-foot tall tower at St. Peter’s Episcopal Chapel on Old Stone Highway in Springs at its meeting Tuesday night.

An East Hampton Town-appointed committee on airport planning and its noise subcommittee have reconvened as an independent advisory group that hopes to engage the public in debate about the airport.

Auditors who have completed a review of East Hampton Town’s financial status and practices for 2015 strongly complimented town officials when presenting their report on Tuesday.

East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky imposed maximum fines on two corporations Monday, one in connection with the controversial Napeague bar and restaurant called Cyril’s Fish House, and the other in a default judgment against the Hampton Land Corp., which owns the Inn at East Hampton on Montauk Highway.

Thirty years after Dennis D'Andrea first joined the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee he is still an active, dedicated member.

East Hampton Town

Airport Parking

With the institution in the coming days of paid parking at East Hampton Airport, Hertz and Enterprise, the car rental companies based at the airport, have agreed to lease the spaces they need.

The public will be charged $10 a day to park there once the installation of meters is complete. A free, short-term lot will be available for stops of up to half an hour.

The Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee is not meeting in the Amagansett Library anymore.

With 1,800 absentee ballots counted, Anna Throne-Holst leads David Calone by 319 votes in Democratic primary race.

The Fourth of July weekend in East Hampton Town was “major, very busy,” Supervisor Larry Cantwell said at a board meeting on Tuesday, but “there were no calamities, no serious crimes. Overall I think we managed to get through the weekend reasonably well.”

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. announced last week that New York State has awarded $150,000 for improved hiking trails and expanded vehicle access in Napeague State Park.

Following a storm of protest over the installation last year of new overhead high-voltage electric lines in East Hampton by PSEG Long Island, the state has passed legislation that could pave the way for future utility lines to be installed underground instead.

Eight days after Democratic Party voters went to the polls to nominate a candidate to represent New York’s First Congressional District in the House of Representatives, the contest between Anna Throne-Holst and Dave Calone was still undecided, with almost 2,000 absentee ballots yet to be counted.

Moody’s Investors Service, which evaluates municipalities, schools, businesses, and other entities on their ability to repay short-term debt, has upgraded the Town of Southampton’s credit rating to the highest level possible, AAA.

A deck, shed, and brick patio at 12 Deerfield Lane in the Beach Hampton area of Amagansett, all of which allegedly were built without permits next to, or even in, wetlands, received critical scrutiny Tuesday night at a meeting of the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals.

The winner of Tuesday's Democratic primary between Anna-Throne Holst and David Calone will come down to the absentee ballots.

The East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals has made several decisions this month upholding the town’s head building inspector’s interpretation of the zoning code.

Cultivation of edible seaweed is coming to Gardiner’s and Peconic Bays.

Last week, the New York State Assembly and Senate passed legislation authorizing Suffolk County to allow bottomlands in those bays to be used for a pilot program to research and assess the feasibility of cultivating seaweed. Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle sponsored the legislation, which will be delivered to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo for his signature.

Democratic voters are getting primed for Tuesday's primary, in which they will choose a candidate to face Lee Zeldin, the first-term Republican incumbent in the House of Representatives from the First Congressional District.

East Hampton Town

Eye C.D.C.H. Building