Government

The East Hampton Town Board voted last Thursday to authorize a law firm to file a petition with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation commissioner to settle its lead agency dispute with the planning board with regard to the proposed new senior citizens center in Amagansett.

While most waters in East Hampton Town were often of a high quality in 2023, what happens on the land affects what happens to surface waters, and more people and more land use mean more nitrogen loading, leading to more harmful algal blooms, according to an annual report on the waterways from Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences.

Have you ever considered working for town government? If so, East Hampton and Southampton Towns would like to hear from you.

The East Hampton Town attorney signed a stipulation of settlement with the owners of Rowdy Hall in Amagansett on Friday that will allow the much-disputed exterior of the restaurant to remain black. 

“We’re going to be putting speed bumps everywhere,” Sarah Amaden, an East Hampton Village trustee, said at Friday’s village board meeting, as the board considered three new speed humps on La Forest Lane. “We’re going to open a can of worms.” 

Emily’s List, which works to elect Democratic pro-choice women, has endorsed the candidacy of Nancy Goroff in New York’s First Congressional District. 

Antennae of the personal wireless carriers AT&T and T-Mobile are now active on the 185-foot monopole at Camp Blue Bay in Springs, bringing a long-awaited upgrade to cellular service in the hamlet. 

“Right now, there is no sense of entrance,” the landscape architect Michael Derrig told the East Hampton Village Board as he presented a conceptual design for the Newtown Lane-facing portion of Herrick Park. Central to the design is an allée of trees leading to a lawn formed into an oval by the contours of the walkway.

“The roof repair work at 1 Cedar Street is largely complete, and the building should be open again by the July organizational meeting,” Dave Collins, the East Hampton Village superintendent of public works said at Friday’s village board meeting. 

Some residents of Montauk fear their hamlet will see an explosion in air traffic if aircraft operations are restricted at East Hampton Town Airport in Wainscott, while some residents of Wainscott say the town should simply close East Hampton Town Airport, which is destroying their quality of life. 

Consultants to the East Hampton Town Board issued a draft report on a Springs-Fireplace Road Corridor study, an ongoing initiative to evaluate traffic, land use, and environmental issues and offer recommendations to improve the functionality and character of the area surrounding the county road while reducing potential environmental threats. 

Three weeks after announcing his candidacy to represent New York’s First Congressional District, the author, columnist, and former CNN anchor John Avlon formally launched his campaign at the World War II memorial in Sag Harbor’s Marine Park on Saturday, promising supporters that the race to unseat Representative Nick LaLota is winnable. 

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., who recently announced he will not be seeking re-election for the New York State Assembly seat he has held for more than 28 years, has endorsed Tommy John Schiavoni, the Southampton Town councilman from North Haven, to fill that seat.

As it had signaled earlier last week, the East Hampton Town Board formally adopted the Pro Housing Communities pledge, a New York State program established last year and designed to reward local governments that are working to address the state’s housing crisis, at its meeting last Thursday.

A beach and dune remediation project at Ditch Plain in Montauk, where a critical dune system was lost to winter storms, will cost an estimated $3 million to $5 million.

“The first time as tragedy, the second time as farce” may be an apt description of a recent development in the race to represent New York’s First Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives, where former Representative George Santos of New York, who was expelled from the House in December, has announced that he will challenge first-term Representative Nick LaLota for the Republican nomination.

New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. has endorsed the candidacy of John Avlon in New York’s First Congressional District, adding to Mr. Avlon’s tally of endorsements since entering the race to challenge Representative Nick LaLota three weeks ago.

East Hampton Town’s 2024 draft capital plan — a wish list of 85 construction, upgrade, or acquisition initiatives with an estimated total cost of just over $15 million, much of it allocated to the Highway, Police, and Parks and Building Maintenance Departments — was presented to the town board on Tuesday.

After months of adjournments, representatives of the Huntting Inn returned to the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals last week, continuing its quest to add a pool and hot tub behind its timber-frame guest house.

Nancy Goroff and John Avlon, candidates for the Democratic Party’s nomination to challenge Representative Nick LaLota in New York’s First Congressional District, signaled unity in their belief that Mr. LaLota can be defeated in the Nov. 5 election during a candidates forum hosted by the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee.

The village board has the authority to set the number of moorings in the waterways it manages but has never done so. Now, it aims to change that. “We want to limit unchecked expansion,” said Chris Duryea, a village harbormaster.

“Today, at long last, we flip the switch and turn on the future,” New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul announced at Stony Brook Southampton College on Thursday morning, as federal, state, county, and local officials celebrated completion of the nation’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm. 

Sag Harbor Village has agreed to sublease the so-called "gas ball lot" from the developer Adam Potter, who controls 5 Bridge Street Limited Liability Company, which was awarded the lease by National Grid at the end of last year.

Monday night’s lengthy meeting of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee was devoted almost entirely to the increasingly contentious question of the new East Hampton Town Senior Center. A subcommittee appointed last month to consider the details of the proposed building submitted the following recommendations, which were unanimously applauded by ACAC members and some 17 residents in attendance. 

1. The town should look into a smaller, less costly facility or two-story design. Use gifted plans by a local architectural firm.

A nine-foot wall of geocubes at the end of Bay View Avenue on Napeague has prevented access to the beach from neighboring houses since it was installed in 2018, but without the geocubes, the owner of the property said, his house would be inundated during storms and made unlivable. He wants to replace them with a 108-foot-long, 10-foot-high rock revetment.

John Avlon, the author, columnist, and former CNN anchor who announced his candidacy in New York's First Congression District on Feb. 21, will appear at LTV in Wainscott Monday with Nancy Goroff, the Democrats’ 2020 nominee, who is running again this year.

The League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island, and the North Fork will lead an educational program highlighting a new equal rights amendment to the New York State Constitution on Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. at LTV Studios in Wainscott. The amendment will appear on the ballot in November.

East Hampton Town will seek New York State Pro-Housing Community designation as part of a program established last year by executive order of Gov. Kathy Hochul to reward local governments that are working to address the state’s housing crisis. Municipalities with Pro-Housing Community status that apply for grant funding are given priority by certain state agencies.

After its site plan was unanimously approved by the East Hampton Town Planning Board in November, work has begun on the expansion of Gardiner’s Marina on Three Mile Harbor.

The East Hampton Town Planning Board voted at its Feb. 28 meeting to advise the town board of its intent to declare itself lead agency for the proposed new senior citizens center, opposing the town board's plan to take the lead on reviewing the application.