This Morning’s Bulletin — 1.13.15

Good Morning!

• The Southampton Town Board is expected to vote today on whether or not to approve a Planned Development District to allow for the redevelopment of the Canoe Place Inn and a townhouse development across the Shinnecock Canal at the location of the former Tiderunners restaurant in Hampton Bays, a project that has generated a lot of controversy in the community. In an unrelated resolution, the board is also expected to vote on whether to accept riot gear for the town police department from Suffolk County, which received the gear through a U.S. Department Homeland Security Grant. The full agenda for the 1 p.m. meeting is online here.

• The SUNY board of directors is expected to vote today on an arrangement that would formally allow Southampton Hospital to operate under Stony Brook University Medical Center’s license, potentially paving the way for Southampton Hospital to build a new campus at Stony Brook Southampton’s campus. The proposed resolution is online here.

• If you’re thinking of venturing out for a hike this month, be sure to where a blaze orange hat and check to make sure you aren’t hiking through a hunting area. The state DEC is allowing shotgun hunting on weekends for the first time this January, and has extended the December bowhunting season through this month. The Beacon’s full story is online here.

• Longtime Riverhead Town Planning Board member and farmer Lyle Wells wasn’t reappointed at the town’s organizational meeting last week, setting off a week of outrage at the town’s review process for appointed boards. The Riverhead Neighborhood Preservation Coalition weighed in on the controversy on their Facebook page yesterday: “It’s not fair what the Town has done to Lyle Wells, a long-serving and dedicated member of the Planning Board. But isn’t it time we began a serious discussion about the minimum qualifications for and the public review process for appointments to our town Planning Board and our town Zoning Board of Appeals? These two appointed boards make decisions twice monthly which affect all of us and which determine the future of our town. Yet the appointment to these boards remains a back room type deal for which the public has no input.”

• Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone announced yesterday that the county will be working to raise awareness about the use of extended release naltrexone, or Vivitrol, which has proven effective in treating opioid addiction. According to the County Executive, “the use of Vivitrol in treating substance abuse is our latest defense in a multi-pronged approach to combating the rising use of heroin and opiates in our community. We have also trained all of our first responders and over 1,500 civilians in the administering of the opioid overdose reversal drug Narcan; partnered with Rocky Point Schools to create a PSA to alert parents of the warning signs of drug use and offer them support and direction; and are partnering with Sachem Schools on a peer-to-peer pilot program where students have an opportunity to discuss the dangers of substance abuse with their fellow classmates.” More information on the county’s efforts and upcoming Narcan training sessions is online here.

And that’s the way things look at dawn’s light here today.