SCWA may soon prohibit non-essential water use in Southold

The Long Island Daily

Leaders on the East End agree that more affordable housing could prop up a year-round economy, legacy industries are worth preserving and infrastructure investments will strengthen the region. Tara Smith reports in NEWSDAY that though they differ on specific tactics, the five East End town supervisors emphasized unity during a panel discussion yesterday the Long Island Association moderated at East Wind Long Island in Wading River.

"We are all very different towns ... but we have a lot of the same issues," Riverhead Supervisor Tim Hubbard said. "Democrat or Republican ... at this level, it means the least. A good idea is a good idea."

Hubbard was joined by Amber Brach-Williams of Shelter Island, a fellow Republican, and Democratic Supervisors Al Krupski of Southold, Maria Moore of Southampton and Kathee Burke-Gonzalez from East Hampton for the "State of the East End" forum. All five are first-term supervisors who took office in 2024. Wednesday’s forum was the first to focus specifically on the East End, building on an effort by the Long Island Association to better support the region.

"You might just think Hamptons and mansions and millionaires, but the truth is, there are people that are bussing your table or working at the dry cleaner or a lifeguard at the beach and they can’t afford that million-dollar house," Matt Cohen, the president of the Long Island Association, said. "We really have to try to work together to fix these challenges." Some east end towns are eyeing ways to revamp zoning codes to accommodate more businesses and affordable housing on the twin forks.

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The Southampton Town Board unanimously approved a sweeping rezoning of a swath of Montauk Highway on the edge of downtown Hampton Bays this week.

Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that the move came barely a month after the legislation proposing the change was first introduced, and over the vociferous objections of a businessman - Joseph Lustberg, one of the owners of the cannabis company Mottz Green Grocer, which had designs on opening in the former North Fork Bank building in Hampton Bays. Lustberg had planned to open a cannabis dispensary that will now be forestalled by the new zoning rules. The vote this past Tuesday will rezone two dozen properties along Montauk Highway, all to the east of downtown Hampton Bays, which are currently in a highway business zone, to hamlet commercial, and two more from highway business to village business. The uses allowed in the hamlet commercial and village business zones encourage smaller-scale development of properties suitable for the transition areas surrounding downtown areas. Under Southampton Town code, cannabis dispensaries are only allowed in highway business zones. After a single public hearing session and a two-week comment period, which ended on Tuesday, the board added approval of the rezoning legislation to its agenda for this week’s meeting.

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Islip’s Long Island MacArthur Airport is slated to receive $3 million worth of security upgrades within the next eight months, according to town Aviation Commissioner Rob Schneider.

Sam Kmack reports in NEWSDAY that the Town of Islip announced yesterday that it was awarded a federal grant to cover the cost of the upgrades. They will include roughly 7 miles of improved fencing around the airport, and new security cameras around the perimeter.

Town Councilman John Lorenzo, the district representative for the airport, said the project, which has been in the works for about five years, is needed to “keep our airfields safe and secure for the future.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation funding will be used to replace the airport’s existing 6-foot fence with a new 8-foot fence topped with barbed wire.

The grant also will fund a “state of the art” security camera system along the airport’s boundaries.

The taller fence will help the airport remain compliant with federal rules that require it to “prevent wildlife from entering onto the airfield,” in addition to bolstering security, said Commissioner Schneider.

In a news release Wednesday, Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter thanked Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) for helping facilitate the grant. “They both understand and appreciate the importance of Long Island MacArthur Airport to the region, and fully support our public safety priorities,” she wrote.

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Luis Gonzalo Barrionuevo Fuertes, the 18-year-old authorities said had been drinking when he crashed his car last month in East Hampton, injuring six friends from East Hampton High School and killing one, was indicted on charges of second-degree manslaughter and aggravated vehicular homicide, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.

Nicholas Spangler reports in NEWSDAY that yesterday Suffolk D.A. Ray Tierney said Barrionuevo Fuertes' "alleged dangerous and deadly actions" on June 15 — Father’s Day — caused the death of Scarleth Samaniego-Urgiles, a 19-year-old backseat passenger from East Hampton, and seriously injured another backseat passenger. All were in Barrionuevo Fuertes’ 2009 Toyota Camry when it flipped and crashed into a tree on Old Stone Highway in Springs.

According to prosecutors, the friends, whose ages ranged from 15 to 19, had visited a beach and were driving on Old Stone Highway in Barrionuevo Fuertes' car — with six passengers in the backseat — when he "allegedly approached a curve in the road at a high rate of speed and ended up driving into the opposite lane where he nearly struck an oncoming vehicle" before leaving the road. Samaniego-Urgiles died at the crash scene. The other passengers were taken to hospitals, one with a spinal fracture and cuts to her hand that prosecutors described as disfiguring.

Barrionuevo Fuertes, of Moriches, an East Hampton High graduate, faces a 19-count indictment with 8⅓ to 25 years in prison on the top charge of aggravated vehicular homicide, a B felony. Acting state Supreme Court Justice Steven A. Pilewski ordered him held on $500,000 cash, $1,000,000 bond or $5,000,000 partially secured bond.

Barrionuevo Fuertes' is in the Suffolk County jail in Yaphank.

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The Suffolk County Water Authority, in correspondence to Southold Town this week, stated a Stage 1 Water Alert may soon be declared for Southold. Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON that if enacted, this alert would prohibit all non-essential water use within the Town of Southold, including lawn irrigation, to ensure water is available for emergencies and other priority uses.

“We’ve known for some time that the activity with the biggest impact on water pressure and quantity during the summer months is residential lawn irrigation, particularly in the early morning hours,” said Supervisor Al Krupski in a press release yesterday. “As the town works on refining an irrigation code that will help conserve and protect water quantity, as well as quality, I ask all home owners and businesses to take it upon themselves to irrigate their lawns responsibly. Lawn irrigational professionals have been supportive of proper irrigation techniques, and are an important resource to consult on timing irrigation, and use of water saving devises and strategies.”

Most people irrigate their lawns between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m., but the best practice is to irrigate between 9 p.m. and 12 a.m., according to the Suffolk County Water Authority. Other steps to conserve water include turning off irrigation during rain events, prevent over watering, and investing in smart devices for your irrigation system.

Additionally, SCWA’s website states, “non-essential uses include the washing of vehicles, streets, sidewalks, driveways, or other outdoor areas, in addition to filling up inflatable pools, and using water for ornamental purposes such as fountains, artificial waterfalls or reflecting pools.”

For more information on the products and rebates, visit scwa.com/waterwise.

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They’re in uncharted waters.

Alex Mitchell reports in THE NY POST that in a rare move, businesses and environmentalists have joined forces in court to furiously fight New York’s Empire Wind One offshore project, saying that it will devastate both the commercial fishing industry and marine life in local waters.

“A decade ago, we said it would affect fishermen, fisheries, and guess what? The state didn’t care,” said Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association.

“We are collateral damage — even though we feed people.”

The decade-long planned energy initiative, which began construction last April off the coasts of New York and New Jersey, faces a growing lawsuit from stakeholders in the tri-state area. The Bronx’s massive Fulton Fish Market Cooperative, which employs around 1,200, and Nassau County’s Point Lookout Fishing Club, and the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association are some of the groups joining a legal action brought by environmentalists in the area.

On Long Island, Brady explained that in Point Lookout and nearby Long Beach — a mere 14 miles from the Empire project in the New York Bight — boats must dramatically divert around the massive windmill poles to reach canyons for fishing. “Think of cruising on the Long Island Expressway and suddenly there’s a bunch of telephone poles in the road.”

Equinor, the company in charge of Empire Wind, did not immediately return a NY POST request for comment.

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From New York City to Los Angeles, images of immigrants being handcuffed by armed federal agents who are clad in plainclothes and balaclavas have become an indelible symbol of President Donald Trump’s deportation crackdown.

Now, Democratic elected officials throughout the nation are coalescing around an effort to disrupt the arrests by prohibiting law enforcement officials from concealing their identity in public.

Ana Ley in THE NY TIMES reports that in California, lawmakers introduced a measure in June that would prevent such officials at all levels from covering their faces on the job and require them to wear uniforms with clear identification. State and city officials in New York yesterday said that they would pursue a similar initiative, with the clear target being federal immigration authorities, especially those who occupy the hallways of courthouses waiting to take immigrants into custody.

“We’re in the midst of an autocracy, and we will not stand for it,” said Tony Simone, a state assemblyman and a Manhattan Democrat who drafted the proposal in New York.

Republican leaders seem certain to challenge the plan in court, setting up jurisdictional battles as liberal cities and states endeavor to protect immigrants from the president’s widening dragnet.

In a statement, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said that the effort to unmask federal agents who work for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has undermined their safety.

“The men and women of ICE put their lives on the line every day to arrest violent criminal illegal aliens to protect and defend the lives of American citizens,” Ms. McLaughlin said in an emailed statement. “Make no mistake, this type of rhetoric is contributing to the surge in assaults of ICE officers through their repeated vilification and demonization of ICE.”

On Wednesday, Mr. Simone, who represents a West Side district, gathered with city and state leaders on the steps of an immigration courthouse in Lower Manhattan to announce that he had drafted legislation banning law enforcement officers from wearing masks in many circumstances.

The legislation would apply in public spaces across the state.

It makes exceptions for medical grade masks, or for N95 respirators designed to prevent the transmission of airborne diseases. It would also allow masks designed to protect against exposure to smoke from fires. Police officials could also wear masks to protect against biological or chemical agents and against exposure to cold during a weather emergency. SWAT teams would be allowed to use gear to protect their faces from physical harm.

Violating the law would be a misdemeanor offense.