Government

Both houses of the New York State legislature have passed bills pushed by Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. of Sag Harbor with the help of Senator Kenneth P. LaValle of Port Jefferson to allow the five East End towns to establish community housing funds to support affordable housing. The bill has yet to be signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Southampton Town Board members approved a ban on the intentional outdoor release of all balloons on Tuesday, an effort to reduce pollution and protect...

With its almost austere simplicity, its unusual 12-over-12 sash windows, its peeling gray paint, rotting white trim and weedy growth along its picket fence, the old house just south of the Sag Harbor’s  business district at 156 Main Street has stood empty and forlorn for years, its front door padlocked from the outside.

Two plans to put solar panels on the roofs of Sag Harbor houses, one on Howard Street and the other on Columbia Street, were either approved or seemed headed for approval by the Historic Preservation & Architectural Review Board when it met on Thursday, June 13.

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has urged the National Park Service to place the SANS neighborhoods of Sag Harbor on the National Register of Historic Places as rare post-World War II African-American beach communities.

A state supreme court judge in Albany last week declined to issue a temporary restraining order barring the implementation of new permit authorized by the state Department of Environmental Conservation on June 5, allowing the Sand Land mine in Noyac to expand into a three-acre area called the “stump dump” and dig 40 feet deeper than the limit set by its last permit.

Against all expectations, the amount of sand six-mile stretch of ocean beach between Town Line Road and Flying Point Road has continued to increase over the years since a $26-million beach nourishment project was undertaken in 2013.

Plans to renovate the L’Hommedieu House drew concern from two neighboring property owners at Tuesday night’s Sag Harbor Village Zoning Board of Appeals meeting.

The North Haven Village Board voted Tuesday to move an historic schoolhouse that dates back to 1847 to its village hall property on Ferry Road, where a committee of community members hopes to see it transformed into a museum to showcase the evolution of education over the past two centuries.

The first public hearings on the South Fork Wind Farm project brought residents from across Long Island to East Hampton on Tuesday to plead with the State Public Service Commission to make the smart choice when it comes to the Deepwater Wind proposal.

The Town of Southampton on Tuesday donated a 2004 25-foot Steigercraft patrol boat to the Sag Harbor Fire Department, a gift that Fire Chief Steve Miller announced at the Sag Harbor Village Board’s meeting on Tuesday to a round of applause just before the board voted to accept it.

In a unanimous roll-call vote, the Sag Harbor Village Board authorized a $4-million bond to pay for the rehabilitation of Long Wharf at its monthly meeting on Tuesday, June 11, without discussion, debate or comment.

Aware there has been talk of opposition to a water quality improvement project the Town of Southampton is planning for Round Pond at Middle Line Highway, Town Councilman Tommy John Schiavoni appeared in person before the Sag Harbor Village Board on Tuesday to ask it to postpone making any decision to approve or oppose the plan.

For the first time in memory if not ever, the Harbor Committee of Sag Harbor expressed its intention to deny a wetlands permit this week, deciding in a 4-1 poll on Monday to tell its environmental consultant to prepare a draft decision that would bar a wetlands setback waiver for a proposed pool in the rear yard of a house at 36 Fordham Street.

The Town of East Hampton announced last week it will be issuing a Request for Applications for interested persons to award grant funding for water quality improvement projects.