The East Hampton Town Board is poised to spend $27.6 million via a 30-year agreement with New York State and the federal government to fortify Montauk against coastal storms. Jack Motz reports 27east.com that this agreement, if approved today, would be part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ larger Fire Island to Montauk Point Coastal Storm Risk Management Project, or FIMP — a plan that dates to the 1960s but, owing to bureaucratic hurdles only got moving in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Moving forward, the agreement would place the Town of East Hampton on the hook for 15 percent of the total cost of the Army Corps’s nourishment plan. A beach nourishment will likely take place every four years under the arrangement. For Montauk, this builds on the installation of geotextile sandbags in 2016, which were intended as a stopgap, pending a longer-term solution. The artificial dune the Army Corps initially constructed over the wall of sandbags was washed away the first winter the project was in place, and the revetment has intermittently been exposed, owing to erosion. Nonetheless, it has weathered the years and seemingly established a barrier between Montauk businesses and the ocean. Since FIMP got moving in the early 2020s, the Army Corps has provided full funding for one beach nourishment along 6,000 feet of shoreline in downtown Montauk. This, long awaited, came in early 2024. What the town’s new partnership agreement would do is ensure the beach nourishment projects happen in downtown Montauk every four years for the next 30 years. But this time the funding will break down differently. The federal government will cover 50 percent of the cost of the work, while New York State and East Hampton Town will split the remaining 50 percent — 70 percent to 30 percent, respectively. East Hampton Town officials anticipate the town’s share will even out to about $27.6 million over the course of the 30 years. At its meeting starting at 6 this evening, the East Hampton Town Board will have a resolution on its agenda whether or not to approve the Montauk beach nourishment agreement with the state.

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New funding for a program that last winter provided $370 million to help elderly and low-income New Yorkers keep their homes warm — with nearly $25 million going to Long Islanders — is in limbo this year because of the U.S. government shutdown. Billy House reports in NEWSDAY that this uncertainty comes as seniors and other vulnerable New Yorkers already face an energy affordability crisis, with over 1.2 million households statewide at least 60 days behind on their gas and electric utility bills, owing close to $2 billion.

But with the federal government locked in its shutdown, no federal funds for New York’s Home Energy Assistance Program have yet been allocated for its 2025-26 year.

"This federal funding is especially important at a time when rising energy costs continue to threaten the household budgets of many New Yorkers — and as temperatures begin to drop across the state," Anthony Farmer, a spokesman for New York’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, said in a statement yesterday.

Last year, about $20 million in heating help went to Suffolk County households.

Typically, it’s early November when OTDA opens the application process for the heating help, ahead of the coming winter, and it continues until the funds are exhausted. But with just two weeks to go, OTDA is still awaiting guidance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families on how to proceed.

The federal program, LIHEAP, usually releases funding to states multiple times a year based on complex calculations. Right now, there are no carry-over funds in the New York program that are unused and available.

LIHEAP overall has been under ongoing threat from President Donald Trump and his administration. Trump fired LIHEAP staff in the

The issue of illegal short-term rental properties in East Hampton has grown so acute — with out-of-town investors buying up homes and flipping them for vacation rentals — that town officials are looking to beef up enforcement, they said. Alek Lewis reports in NEWSDAY that East Hampton Town officials said they will consider purchasing software to aid enforcement of their rental property registry law, which was established in 2015. Only about half the 1,874 properties listed online as short-term rentals are registered with the town, which has a $200 application fee, according to data presented by Deputy Supervisor Cate Rogers. Rogers used AirDNA, a vacation rental industry market analytics company.

Having more homes used by seasonal vacationers risks diminishing the area's housing stock for full-time residents and damaging the local hotel industry, Rogers said during a recent presentation before the town board.

Short-term rentals in East Hampton are limited to 14 days and can occur only twice in a six-month period, Rogers said.

Monitoring multiple online platforms for illegal or unregistered rentals through traditional methods is difficult, she said, recommending the town seek proposals for monitoring software.

Out-of-town investors — who she said are now supported by specialized lenders, marketing businesses and property management companies — have changed the game.

Town officials acknowledged that short-term rentals are a vital part of the town’s economy. East Hampton is a seasonal tourist destination, and even some full-time and part-time residents rely on being able to rent property to vacationers for supplemental income, they said.

“It's a balance. We live in a very beautiful place. A lot of people want to come here. We want to support that; that helps our economy,” said Councilman Ian Calder-Piedmonte. “But we need to make sure that we don't become purely seasonal, and that we have a healthy, vibrant year-round community that we've always had.”

Councilman David Lys said his family has rented out homes and used it to “put kids through school, buy cars and other things.” The board needs to make sure new regulations don’t “affect that traditional form of revenue resources for our community members out here," he added.

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Two south fork communities ranked among the top five most expensive ZIP codes to buy a home in the United States this year, according to the latest annual ranking from a national real estate data company.

Sagaponack - 11962 - ranked third, with a median home sale price of $5.9 million, and Water Mill – 11976 - ranked fifth, at $5.5 million based on sales that closed from January to September, according to the list from PropertyShark. The data include sales of houses, condos and co-ops but exclude multi-parcel transactions.

Sagaponack’s ranking fell from No. 2 last year, while Water Mill dropped from No. 3.

Jonathan LaMantia reports in NEWSDAY that the top spot for 2025 went to Miami’s Fisher Island, where the median sale fetched $9.5 million, and the cheapest home sold for $1.4 million, according to PropertyShark.

Overall, there were nine East End ZIP codes that cracked the top 100 most expensive in the country, up from eight last year. The others were Wainscott – 11975 - at $4.5 million (No. 12), Amagansett – 11930 - at nearly $3 million (No. 36), Bridgehampton – 11932 - at $2.9 million (No. 39), Quogue -11959 - at $2.7 million (No. 46), Fishers Island in Southold Town at $2.2 million (No. 85), Sag Harbor – 11963 - at nearly $2.2 million (No. 90) and Southampton – 11968 - at nearly $2.2 million (No. 91).

The report misses the difference in prices between homes in Southampton and East Hampton villages and the surrounding areas because of its reliance on ZIP code-level data.

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OLA (Organización Latino Americana) of Eastern Long Island is partnering with the North...

The New York State Department of Health continued to evacuate all residents of a Greenport skilled-nursing facility late yesterday after Suffolk fire marshals determined the building's fire suppression and alarm systems were not working. The fire marshals' investigation came after a smoke condition was reported in a 911 call about 4:30 a.m. Monday at San Simeon by the Sound Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation on County Road 48 in Greenport. Suffolk County Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services coordinated the county transit buses and ambulances from across Long Island that arrived last night to pick up the residents, according to Fire Commissioner Rudy Sunderman. Nicholas Grasso and John Valenti report in NEWSDAY that the residents, some of whom could be seen being wheeled out of the San Simeon lobby on stretchers, were transported to other facilities throughout Nassau and Suffolk counties. Southold Town police told Newsday that 110 residents were being evacuated and taken to other facilities.

"All patients within this facility are safe," Sunderman said outside San Simeon on Monday evening. Behind him, a handful of patients waited in Suffolk County Transit buses parked in front of the facility. Ambulances from agencies in Brentwood, Mastic, Moriches, Port Jefferson, Shirley and other communities were also on standby for patients.

Suffolk fire marshals determined Monday afternoon that the nursing home's "fire suppression system as well as the fire alarms were not functioning properly," Southold Town Police Chief Steven Grattan told Newsday about 6 p.m. yesterday.

"They decided that it wasn't safe to keep the residence there until all of this is fixed," Grattan said.

The smoke condition reported at San Simeon remains under investigation, Sunderman said late Monday. That incident lead to responders and nursing home staff evacuating residents to the lobby area as a precautionary measure. Seven residents requiring oxygen were transported to local hospitals — four to Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport and three to Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead, he said.

Officials with Suffolk County's Emergency Management and the Southold Town police at the scene Monday evening did not know how long the evacuation of the facility would take.

Suffolk fire officials said firefighters from Greenport, Southold and Mattituck responded to the smoke condition call.

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The Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center has been awarded $4 million from Southampton Town’s Community Preservation Fund, providing funds to support the historic theater that will be used for “major capital projects and enhancements.”

“Years in the making, this investment marks a transformative moment for the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center,” says Julienne Penza-Boone, the theater’s executive director. “With these funds, we will be able to make long-term improvements that not only enhance the patron and artist experience but also elevate our capacity to bring in world-class talent to our stage.”

Penza-Boone began work in 2019 with then Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman and the town’s historian, Julie Greene, to put together a complete history of The Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center.

It opened as a movie theater, then called Prudential’s Westhampton Theatre, in 1932, with former New York Governor Alfred E. Smith on hand. The building was later bought by United Artists, but by the 1990s and the rise of Blockbuster Video and the multiplex phenomenon, the 425-seat single-screen movie theater wasn’t a viable business model, and the building was set for demolition.

As reported on 27east.com, in 1996, a group of concerned citizens worked to revive the art deco theater, raising money from the community for the effort. The theater reopened as the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on July 4, 1998, and about 45,000 patrons...