This Morning’s Bulletin — 3.10.15

Good morning!

East End town government bigwigs will be earning their paychecks today, with packed agendas at town board meetings throughout the five towns:

• The Southold Town Board will discuss the upcoming Tall Ships event in Greenport July 4 weekend, pickleball at Cochran Park (Google says this is a cross between tennis, badminton and ping-pong), Glynis Berry’s wastewater study (which will be the subject of a meeting of the East Marion Community Association Saturday morning) and adaptive reuses of churches at their 9 a.m. work session this morning. They’re holding a public hearing on potential reuse of churches at their 4:30 p.m. meeting. The agenda for both meetings is online here.

• Southampton Town rescheduled their town board meeting last week due to snow, and will now be holding two public meetings today. The first, at 1 p.m., includes public hearings on updates to the town’s Community Preservation Fund management plan and on changes to the waste management code. The agenda for that meeting is online here.

• Southampton’s evening meeting, at 6 p.m., will include public hearings on zoning changes that could pave the way for a new King Kullen in Tuckahoe, on proposed special rules for buildings between 5,000 and 15,000 square feet and on a residential planned development district for new townhouses in Water Mill. The full agenda for that meeting is online here.

• East Hampton Town Board members will discuss the police department’s annual report, urban renewal maps and personal watercraft legislation at their 10 a.m. work session this morning at the Montauk Firehouse. Their full agenda is online here.

• Shelter Island’s work session agenda for this afternoon is very zen: http://www.shelterislandtown.us/townboardworksessionagenda?ref=51

• U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer held a press conference in Manhansett yesterday urging the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the use of pentachlorophenol, a wood preservative, on utility poles throughout Long Island. Opponents of PSEG-Long Island’s installation of new, treated, utility poles in East Hampton last year have been calling on the government to address the potential for public health threats due to the chemical treatment of the poles. Mr. Schumer said treating the poles with a toxic chemical could cause health risks to children and utility workers, and toxins could leach into groundwater.The treatment, commonly known as “penta,” has been used on at least 95,000 wooden utility poles on Long Island, and PSEG plans to continue to use them in future installations. The Beacon’s full story is online here.

• LoveSphere could be on your calendar for the spring equinox. Some collectors of early electronic devices, art rock ensembles masquerading as country western bands, shamanic leaders and improvising orchestras are taking over the Vail-Leavitt Music Hall in Riverhead the weekend of March 21. The Beacon’s full story is online here.

• The Cupsogue Beach Hut was destroyed in a fire last September, and Suffolk County has just approved $750,000 in this year’s capital budget to replace the facilities destroyed in the fire, according to County Legislator Jay Schneiderman. The work is expected to take two-and-a-half years. In the meantime, the county will install a temporary concession and restroom building.

• New East End Congressman Lee Zeldin weighed in on the helicopter noise debate in a press conference in Southold Sunday afternoon. The nut of what he said is he doesn’t like helicopter noise either and he wants the FAA to do something about it. The Beacon’s full story is online here. East Hampton’s big public hearing on airport noise is this Thursday, March 12 at 4:30 p.m. at LTV Studios in Wainscott.

• New birdsong is greeting the dawn, and scallopers have just begun heading out in the newly ice-free waters for the last three weeks of the season. There are now less than 11 full days until spring. Enjoy!

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