Suffolk County is moving closer to a government-backed seafood processing facility, officials said, as it explores potential sites and the type of work to be done before putting a proposal out to public bid.

At the New York Seafood Summit in Riverhead on Friday, County Executive Edward P. Romaine spoke in support of the idea and a separate panel led by the Cornell Cooperative Extension discussed the services it could offer from a list of potential locations, from Babylon to Montauk.

Mark Harrington reports in NEWSDAY that a processing facility able to fillet fish, shuck and can shellfish, and process kelp could help create new markets for fish that are not economically viable to sell now, experts said. Mechanical fillet machines could help process and market more porgies, a highly abundant species. The market for bait would also get a boost. And processing could help a burgeoning market for sugar kelp, while creating new markets for shucked shellfish, including canned and frozen foods.

"We’re working on that," Romaine said at the summit, which presented findings from a survey of fishing interests across the county. A request for proposals is being drawn up by the county’s economic development team. Romaine also said Suffolk County is moving ahead with a planned Seafood Festival at Smith Point County Park in August.

It is unclear how much a processing facility would cost and who would own and operate it.

"The feasibility study will present options for construction as well as future management configurations for the county’s consideration," Romaine spokesman Michael Martino said.

"What we found is that because there are so many things that are needed, such as filleting and ice, that you can’t just do it all in one building and say Yaphank," said Amanda Dauman, fisheries specialist at Cornell, who led a presentation that surveyed fishing interests about the plan. "You need to have it where the people who need it are."

In addition to processing, most survey respondents emphasized the need for basic services at fishing ports, including more reliable electricity and fresh water, ice machines and proper lighting. Most commercial fishing docks are in need of repairs.

Amanda Jones, director of operations at Montauk Inlet Seafood, said there’s a need for more ice houses and dockside fish processing. Right now the only icehouse is in Montauk, the state’s biggest fishing port, but could vanish after a recent sale of Gosman’s, which owns the ice facility. In addition, she said, the lack of dockside processing for squid, among other species, drives fishing boats to Connecticut and Rhode Island to land fish and fuel up.

"Without dockside processing we lose that business during squid season," she said. Inlet has requested permits for an icehouse in Montauk.

***

Felicia Thomas-Williams, a retired Brentwood educator, is Long Island's first new NYS Board of Regents representative in 20 years. Thomas-Williams, 56, of Wheatley Heights, starts in her new role today, replacing Roger Tilles, who will serve out the remaining year of a vacant, at-large position on the board. Darwin Yanes reports in NEWSDAY that those who have worked with Thomas-Williams say they have been impressed by her commitment to her students and her ability to advocate, on the state and federal levels, for funding and initiatives that will benefit them.

Tilles, 78, said his move to an at-large position allows him to serve a shorter term, while giving Long Islanders a second voice who can commit to a five-year term. He called Thomas-Williams a "dedicated educator" and said “our mission as Regents is both excellence and equity, and as long as we keep that in mind — that both need to be fulfilled — that's going to be important." Thomas-Williams, who grew up in Suffolk County, is joining the board at a time when President Donald Trump's administration has vowed to shut...

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Long Island health care providers say they are bracing for the financial impact of anticipated cuts to Medicaid as the Republican majority in Congress works on sweeping legislation to make 2017 tax cuts permanent. A cut to the federal share of Medicaid funding to New York would have a ripple effect across Long Island, where some 680,000 Nassau and Suffolk County residents with limited income rely on it to help cover medical costs. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives last month passed a budget resolution to extend the tax cuts…and to offset the cost cuts…they instructed a House committee with jurisdiction over Medicaid to cut spending by $880 billion over the next decade.

Tom Brune reports in NEWSDAY that Medicaid is a joint federal and state program that helps people with limited income and resources pay for medical costs, including medical and nursing home care, and personal care services. Recipients usually don't pay for their care, except for small co-payments.

New York State has one of the most generous programs — each state sets eligibility requirements and benefits — which is mostly paid for by the federal government.

The federal government paid $57.1 billion for Medicaid in New York State in fiscal year 2024, with the state putting up $35.9 billion and localities such as New York City paying $8.5 billion, according to the New York's Office of State Comptroller.

***

By the time the danger had passed the Sunday morning after fire ripped through 600 acres of the Central Pine Barrens in Westhampton three weeks ago, those who protect the health of these woodlands already knew the long-term environmental impact of the fire would be a healthy one.

“The pine barrens is a fire dependent ecosystem. We will actually see a rebound in the ecosystem long-term,” said New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Acting Director Amanda Lefton at the March 9 press conference with first responders at Gabreski Airport. She added that forest rangers expect to see new trees growing in these woodlands in the weeks and months ahead. Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON that the 2025 Westhampton Pines Fire burned through an especially rare section of the pine barrens, the Dwarf Pine Plains, so-called because of the stunted pitch pines that grow in this area of nutrient-poor soils and high winds.

In the days after the fire, staff of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, an environmental non-profit, reported seeing “hundreds of seeds fluttering in the air as the closed or serotinous cones of the dwarf pines opened up, due to the fire melting the resin that helps to keep the cones closed, and shed their seeds.”

While wildfires may be a natural part of the ecosystem, their impact on human communities can be devastating, and the Central Pine Barrens Commission has been working for the past several years on a comprehensive plan to guide the health of these woodlands for the long-term, using controlled burning to protect both human communities and ecosystems, mostly in the Rocky Point, Ridge and Manorville areas, but also in the David Sarnoff Preserve, just north of the site of the Westhampton Pines Fire, which backs up to several densely populated communities in Riverside.

The Central Pine Barrens Commission is embarking this year on a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) for nearly 30,000 acres of publicly owned lands just north of the dwarf pine area that burned in March. This area includes parts of Hampton Bays, Westhampton, Flanders, East Quogue and Quogue.

This plan has been in the works since well before the fire, which...

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A humble bungalow bulldozed for a dream beach house. Quaint cottages cleared away for luxury living. It’s a familiar scene that plays out in the Town of East Hampton, but officials are hoping to discourage the trend of oversized houses with a new regulation set to take effect in July. Tara Smith reports in NEWSDAY that the code change sets a new formula for calculating a home's maximum square footage, reducing what can be built by a range of 13% to 27%, according to estimates provided by the town.

Deputy Supervisor Cate Rogers said she spearheaded the policy change in response to building trends across East Hampton Town.

“We had people buying quite a few properties up in town and knocking down the older houses, the traditional houses on the smaller lots,” said Rogers.

Larger, multimillion dollar homes were rebuilt on those lots, causing year-round residents who grew up in East Hampton to be priced out of the neighborhood, she said. “For me, that’s the loss of the heart and soul of our community and a big change in our community character,” Rogers said.

The new formula is the latest in a series of zoning changes intended to deter overdevelopment in East Hampton Town. Proponents of the bill say the measure still allows for spacious — though not supersized — homes to be built that retain a rural charm. Smaller homes use less energy and are better for the environment, backers of the bill point out. But opponents say the legislation isn't targeted enough. The restrictions could limit owners of modest-sized homes, including less affluent town residents, from expanding.

So, to summarize, the Town of East Hampton’s new house size law reads as follows:

Effective July 1, the formula for maximum house sizes in East Hampton will change. The home can be 7% of the lot area, plus 1,500 square feet.

That's down from the prior formula of 10% of the lot size plus 1,600 square feet.

East Hampton Town will exempt property owners if their permits for work were approved before July 1.

***

Beginning this coming Monday, March 31, the Southampton Town Police Department, in conjunction with the Southampton Town Highway Department, will again launch the Canoe Place Traffic Reduction Program in Hampton Bays, aimed at addressing the ongoing seasonal traffic congestion.

The program will be implemented on weekdays between the hours of 5:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. Beth Young in EAST END BEACON reports that the traffic light at the intersection of Montauk Highway and Canoe Place Road will be set to flash, and no left turns will be permitted at that intersection. Other traffic lane modifications will also be deployed to facilitate traffic flow through that intersection in Hampton Bays.

The program schedule will be put on hold during the spring school break week of April 14 – 18. Weather considerations that impact traffic volume may also affect the schedule.

The Police Department will communicate this information through its website (www.southamptontownny.gov/1805/police), and by the use of roadside message boards.

Southampton Town Police officers will be posted to assure motorists’ safety, and Highway Department staff will be posted as well to deploy traffic cones, signage, and electronic message boards to alert and inform motorists traveling through the intersection.

The town is encouraging motorists to support these efforts by adhering to traffic laws, practicing defensive driving, and being mindful of pedestrians and other road users.

Southampton Town Supervisor Maria Moore emphasized that the Town Board is committed to maintaining this program as...

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County health departments in Nassau, Suffolk and across the state will be affected by a $300 million funding cut from the federal government, putting mental health and addiction programs at risk, as well as those that help battle infectious disease, Gov. Kathy Hochul said last night. Hochul vowed to "fight them tooth and nail" to hold onto the funding. Lisa L. Colangelo and Nicholas Grasso report in NEWSDAY that in a statement, the governor said the Department of Health and Human Services informed her office on Tuesday that it will cut more than $300 million from the state Health Department, Office of Addiction Supports and Services and the Office of Mental Health. "These include funds that county health departments across New York are planning to use to fight disease and keep people safe," Hochul said. "At a time when New York is facing an ongoing opioid epidemic, multiple confirmed cases of measles and an ongoing mental health crisis, these cuts will be devastating." The funding being cut — $11.4 billion overall nationally — was first allocated by Congress to help state and local health departments battle the COVID-19 pandemic. As the pandemic slowed, the funds were used for other health-related programming. "The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a nonexistent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago," the agency said in a statement.

Hochul said no state will be able to restore the "massive federal funding cuts" proposed by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency and the Republican-controlled Congress.

"They are trying to rip apart the social safety net that lifts families out of poverty and gives everyone a shot at a middle-class life," Hochul said. "These cuts aren't just numbers on a page — they're going to hurt real people in every corner of New York."

***

Attorneys for the Shinnecock Nation have asked the judge who ordered a halt to construction of a gas station in Hampton Bays to modify her injunction to allow contractors to complete some steps of the work already begun to secure the site in anticipation of an extended pause to the work.

Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that employees of the contractors who were constructing the 10 acre gas station and travel plaza told the judge in affidavits submitted to the court on Monday that without completing some steps of the construction — including pouring concrete over fuel sumps, completing the canopy over the gas pumps and installing the outer shell of the travel plaza building — a long work pause at the property could result in environmental issues, damage to the structures erected already and public safety concerns should people trespass on the property. “The abrupt work stoppage prevented contractors from taking customary precautions to secure the site, primarily for protecting public safety, but also to protect the assets of the incomplete project,” Harold Wingert, the owner of Eastern Woodlands Petroleum, one of the Shinnecock’s contractors on the project, wrote to Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Maureen Liccione. “The fuel sump pumps are currently exposed at the Project site. In order to adequately protect the exposed fuel pump pits as well as the metal fasteners and fixtures within those sump pits from exposure to moisture, the full canopy must/should be installed.” The injunction ordered all work at the site halted on March 18, after Liccione ruled that the Shinnecock cannot treat the land they own in Hampton Bays as sovereign tribal territory exempt from town zoning rules — which would prohibit the

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This past Sunday the Nature Conservancy’s stewardship team at Mashomack Preserve on Shelter Island performed the first prescribed burn there in more than a decade. A prescribed burn crew applied fire to 100 acres of oak forest, a fire-adapted ecosystem that benefits from periodic fire to promote its health. Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON that the plumes of smoke could be seen from Sag Harbor and other areas surrounding the Peconic Bay, causing a stir amongst the public in the wake of a massive wildfire in Westhampton two weeks ago. Mashomack reported Monday that “the burn was executed safely and successfully with the assistance of partners from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation.”

“It’s a lot of hard work returning fire to a landscape, but seeing partners come together, work cooperatively, and execute the plan perfectly is a beautiful thing,” said Mashomack Conservation and Stewardship Manager Cody-Marie Miller. “The fire behaved exactly how we planned and resulted in a great mosaic of fire effects.”   

Forest managers say prescribed fire, properly implemented, is important for the health of oak forests, suppressing invasive species, prompting biodiversity, and promoting oak regeneration. Controlled burning also reduces tick populations and habitat, a major public health concern due to the numerous diseases they carry. Prescribed burning also abates wildfire risk by reducing a buildup of fuels — dead material that can easily ignite. Prescribed fire was first used at Mashomack in 1980, until the program was stopped in 2011.

Land managers are required to prepare a detailed prescribed burn plan well in advance of having a prescribed fire. The plan defines suitable weather and fuel conditions, safety measures, desired fire behavior and the impact on the landscape that they hope to create by the burn.  

***

While federal officials are clashing with New York over congestion pricing, the tolling program that President Trump has vowed to kill, there is another transit fight underway between Albany and Washington. Stefanos Chen and Benjamin Oreskes report in THE NY TIMES that the $68 billion capital plan, a five-year budget proposal that includes a slew of critical upgrades for the subway, buses and commuter railroads…including the LIRR…is the biggest such request the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has ever made. The plan, which would run from 2025 to 2029, comes as the Trump administration is not only trying to kill the toll but is also threatening to defund an untold number of other transit priorities. So far, the M.T.A. has identified funding for only about half of the plan and is expecting the federal government to contribute $14 billion, a sum that was optimistic even before its tolling dispute with Washington, budget analysts said.

The State of New York is relying on congestion pricing to fund transit upgrades that were part of the last five-year capital plan, and its termination could throw the new budget into disarray, as overdue projects pile up. The capital plan is separate from the M.T.A.’s annual operating budget, which largely pays for expenses like worker salaries, energy expenses and some financing costs and is partly funded by fare revenue.

The transit authority’s scramble for funding is emblematic of the many possible shortfalls facing state officials as they attempt to negotiate a budget by April 1. It’s not uncommon for the state budget to arrive several weeks late.

Congestion pricing began in January and charges most drivers $9 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street during peak traffic hours. The...

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Southampton Town Supervisor Maria Moore announced this past Friday that New York State Supreme Court Justice Thomas F. Whelan had dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Sand Land Corporation, the owner of a sand mine on Middle Highway and Millstone Road in Noyac that has been involved in a legal battle with the town for more than a decade. Stephen J. Kotz reports on 27east.com that Moore said Whelan had granted the town’s motion to dismiss Sand Land’s petition, affirming the town’s position that the company, owned by John Tintle, must adhere to the rulings of the New York State Court of Appeals. The supervisor noted that Sand Land had been seeking $50 million in damages from the Town of Southampton. The lawsuit stemmed from the town’s efforts to ensure that the mining company followed the procedures outlined by the Court of Appeals, which requires the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to ascertain from the town whether Sand Land’s proposed mining activities fall within the scope of any prior nonconforming use. The court determined that Sand Land filed suit in an effort to bypass this crucial step by petitioning the court to declare the scope of their nonconforming use rights instead of engaging with the town’s zoning authorities, Moore said. The court, in its decision, explicitly stated that Sand Land's failure to apply to Southampton Town's zoning authorities regarding the scope of the prior nonconforming use of the property required the dismissal of the action, she added.

***

A 140-year-old state law is playing a role in spiking the cost of new construction statewide, according to some local contractors and builders, who cited the soaring cost of commercial insurance. The so-called Scaffold Law holds commercial property owners and contractors completely responsible for falls at construction sites, even in cases when the worker was negligent. Critics argue the law is being exploited by those who stage fake accidents for hefty payouts, while supporters contend it holds contractors accountable for unsafe work conditions. The law gives contractors and commercial property owners virtually no legal defense in the event of an accident, even in cases of worker negligence, so each fall can quickly blossom into expensive legal fees, medical bills and cash payouts to the alleged victim. "It impacts whether you're building a school, a hospital, a commercial building," Michael Florio, chief executive of Long Island Builders Institute, a nonprofit trade association, said of the “Scaffold Law.”

While many of the expenses are incurred by private construction firms and their clients, New York taxpayers also are paying an estimated $785 million annually in costs that trickle down from publicly funded projects, including school construction, bridge and rail projects, according to the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, an Albany think tank.

Robert Brodsky reports in NEWSDAY that the precise numbers of allegedly staged accidents are hard to pinpoint, but critics point to a significant increase in lawsuits in recent years involving people accused of staging accidents as part of what they say are vast criminal rings. A key problem, critics say, is that anyone allegedly caught staging an accident is faced with an A misdemeanor, an offense that at most leads to a year in jail.

Now legislators in Albany are pushing multiple proposals that would allow prosecutors to charge people who allegedly stage an accident with a felony.

But there is significant resistance to the changes from influential groups who say this is a ploy by contractors to leave...

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The USDA has lifted one of two quarantines around Long Island's last commercial duck farm, according to the North Fork farmer impacted by the order, as the nation's top health official ponders an unorthodox approach to eradicating the disease. Mark Harrington and Lisa L. Colangelo report in NEWSDAY that Doug Corwin, president of Crescent Duck Farm in Aquebogue, said yesterday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently notified him it had lifted one quarantine on live poultry in a 10-kilometer range around his operation. But a second quarantine specific to his farm remained in place, he said, and could remain into the spring.

Corwin, who was forced to euthanize more than 99,000 of his ducks after a bird-flu outbreak at his farm in January, said he has worked methodically in the weeks since to sanitize his farm in the hopes of returning about 3,700 young ducks salvaged remotely from eggs to restart operations. That could happen in around two months, he said, pending lifting of the second quarantine.

"Barns are being disinfected and fumigated over and over again," he said, describing the work as "slow but steady." Crescent was forced to lay off nearly 48 workers after the outbreak, but 20 remain for the cleanup.

Corwin's hopes for a restart come as U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been quoted in national media as suggesting that bird flu can be eradicated by developing resistant flocks.

Kennedy said, flocks identified as infected should be isolated and "let the disease go through them and identify the birds that survive, which are the birds that probably have a genetic inclination for immunity. And those should be the birds that we breed ..."

Experts have criticized the idea, and Corwin said he shared their concern.

Corwin, a Cornell University graduate who sits on Cornell’s Avian Advisory committee and has been president of the Cornell Duck Research Laboratory on Long Island since 1986, said Kennedy’s idea might sound good theoretically, but had the potential to be "devastating" if it got out of control.

Corwin has been vocal in his support for a vaccine to immunize flocks.

But Kennedy told Fox News that "all of my agencies have advised against vaccination," despite the USDA’s recent conditional approval of a vaccine against a certain strain of the disease. That vaccine is not commercially available and the agency has no schedule to release it.

***

The suspended principal of the Amagansett School — who had faced disciplinary charges alleging she stole a gift card from a co-worker — was found not guilty, according to a decision issued yesterday by a state-designated hearing officer. Dandan Zou reports in NEWSDAY that Timothy Taylor, who heard testimony from 15 witnesses over the course of seven hearings spanning months last year, sided with Maria Dorr, who was accused of taking the $25 Amazon card after it went missing in December 2023.

In his decision, Taylor ruled that Dorr be “immediately reinstated” as the school principal and required the district to expunge the disciplinary charges from her personnel files.

“The District shall make Dorr whole in all pertinent ways,” his ruling stated.

Wayne Gauger, the Amagansett school board president, said in a statement that the board accepts Taylor’s determination and believes “it is time to put this matter behind us.” Without naming Dorr, the statement said the principal was expected to return to her position in the coming days.

The alleged theft has rocked the small Amagansett School community, where the one-building school district houses 120...

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Former Republican Southampton Town Councilman Rick Martel defeated Democrat John Leonard yesterday in a special election for an open Town Board seat, 3,092-2,738, with Martel receiving 53 percent of the vote to Leonard’s 47 percent.

Stephen J. Kotz reports on 27east.com that Martel will serve on the Southampton Town Board through the end of the year, completing the term of former Councilman Tommy John Schiavoni, who resigned in December after being elected to the New York State Assembly. Both candidates said they planned to run again in November. “I’m happy to be back and be able to serve the people of the Town of Southampton,” Martel said. “I hope to get a lot done in nine months, and I’m hoping to be able to put in nine months, plus four years, if we are lucky enough in November.” Martel had previously served one term, but lost his bid for reelection in 2023 by a narrow margin. Gordon Herr, the Southampton Democratic Party chairman, said, “We go home, we regroup and we move on to November.” His candidate John Leonard responded, “Today, it’s a loss, but it is not a loss for the long term. We are in this to win this.”

***

Work at the Shinnecock Indian Nation’s travel plaza/gas station went quiet yesterday, a day after a state Supreme Court judge ordered all construction to stop at the Hampton Bays site while Southampton Town’s case against it advances in court.

But Lisa Goree, chairwoman of the Shinnecock Nation’s council of trustees, called the judge’s ruling a "bump in the road" as the tribe seeks to move the case to federal court and continue to build the economically important project. She declined to say what impact, if any, Monday’s ruling would have on construction, but said, "We will take whatever necessary steps that we have to see that project is completed."

At the same time, she said, "Our ultimate goal is to get [the case] to federal court where it does belong. We know that the local courts, the state courts, don’t understand Indian law."

Mark Harrington reports in NEWSDAY that the tribe has filed a motion to dismiss the state court case brought by Southampton Town in December, arguing that the nation and the United States are necessary parties to the action. Only tribal leaders are named as defendants.

For now, however, the focus is in State Supreme Court in Riverhead where Judge Maureen Liccione on Monday issued a 27-page decision that ordered all construction activity to cease immediately. Goree said the nation intends to work to establish the long-held belief, some of it using Town of Southampton maps and other documents, that the tribe’s Westwoods property in Hampton Bays is aboriginal, sovereign land, not subject to local zoning.

"We know what it is," she said. "This is our aboriginal territory, this is Shinnecock land that has never gone from our ownership and we have a letter from U.S. Department of the Interior attesting to that."

"We’re used to bumps in the road," she said, but "we’ve always completed what we’ve set out to do."

***

The Shinnecock Nation halted construction of a gas station on land they own in Hampton Bays yesterday, the day after a NYS Suffolk County Supreme Court justice granted a preliminary injunction to the Town of Southampton ordering that work stop at the site.

Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that tribal leaders said the case would be immediately appealed, but that they had instructed their construction contractor to stop work at the site while the nation explores its legal options and acknowledged that it may mean the project could be left dormant for weeks or months. While tribal officials...