Southampton Village permits right turns only onto Hill Street during rush hour

Long Island Morning Edition

With Election Day less than 11 weeks away, Republican U.S. Representative Nick LaLota and John Avlon, his Democratic challenger for New York’s 1st Congressional District seat, continue to needle one another over their residency and, by extension, their fitness to represent the district. Christopher Walsh reports on 27east.com that LaLota, a first-term Republican, has relentlessly portrayed his Democratic challenger as a wealthy Manhattanite who is out of touch with the district. Avlon, an author, columnist and former CNN anchor who lives in Sag Harbor and Manhattan, counters that LaLota himself does not live in the 1st Congressional District. The congressman, born and raised on Long Island, lives in Amityville Village, outside of the district boundaries, but emphasizes his lifelong ties to Long Island. While members of the House of Representatives typically live in the districts they represent, they are not required to do so. They are required to be an inhabitant of the state they represent at the time of their election. Last week, LaLota publicized an August 13 New York Post article that asserted that Avlon was “apparently netting more than $2,000 per year in abatements by claiming his primary residence is in Manhattan.” The Post article said that the tax abatements are eligible only to units designated as a primary residence. Avlon cited “numerous fundamental inaccuracies” in the Post article. “The co-op in which I have an apartment filed for that abatement without consulting any of us individually,” he said this week. He said that he had been unaware that the abatement had been filed, but since he entered the 1st Congressional race this year, “the key point is whether the abatement will be filed in this calendar year, which it will not.” The Cook Political Report puts the 1st District race in its “likely Republican” column.

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Southampton Village announced a new measure intended to mitigate the traffic nightmare that has plagued the area. Effective Wednesday, August 21, only right turns will be permitted from Lee Avenue and Captains Neck Lane onto Hill Street from 4 to 7 p.m. during that dreadful westbound trade parade traffic. Cones will be placed down the center of Hill Street to prevent U-turns. As reported on 27east.com, Hill Street residents will be able to access their residences, a village alert noted. The Southampton Village Police Department will be monitoring the pilot program, using daily motor patrols and drones. The pilot program will run through September 13.

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Elementary school and pre-kindergarten playground expansion projects are in the works in the Hampton Bays School District. Desirée Keegan reports on 27east.com that Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations Larry Luce said during Tuesday night’s Board of Education meeting that plans for both have been approved by the state Education Department, with purchase orders going out this week or next. “We will start to see actual construction happening on both of those playgrounds in the next month or so,” he said of the projects, both of which are on state contract. “We don’t even need to bid them because of this, so that helps move things along a little quicker.” Also at the Hampton Bays Elementary school is a plan to upgrade the south-facing windows along the 1998 wing, and replacing the toilets in the 1957 and 1968 wings.

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For Stony Brook Southampton Hospital’s new chief administrator, Emily Mastaler, the shift from working in a rural, remote hospital system near the Canadian border, to the South Fork of Long Island, with its mind boggling array of diversities, personalities and logistical challenges is a learning experience that she is still just beginning to get her arms around eight weeks into the job.

Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that Mastaler, 43, who grew up in Vermont and spent most of her career there working as a clinical psychologist, came to Southampton earlier this summer from River Hospital, a tiny 25-bed critical care hospital that served as the only health care center for a broad and remote region along the St. Lawrence Seaway north of Syracuse.

She has spent much of her first months on the job embedding with various units at the facility and attending “listening sessions” with a broad range of community groups and organizations to help build her understanding of the complex diversity in the communities that the hospital serves.

“It’s a huge footprint — which is awesome,” Mastaler said. “There’s a lot to get acquainted with. The needs in Hampton Bays are not the same as out in Montauk, and I want to make sure I get a chance to connect with all of it so that as we decide our next phase of our health care strategy, it is really inclusive.”

Mastaler calls the health care “ecosystem,” the cornerstone of her vision for how she will advance Stony Brook Southampton Hospital and its satellites’ role in health care on the South Fork in the coming years.

“The top priority has to be access — making sure that people can get the services that they need. There are many barriers … transportation, child care, access to health insurance, and we have to look at the whole health experience of our patients. Can they get to us, do we have service hours that allow people to get to appointments beyond their daily work hours. Child care and family dynamics can be a barrier. Sometimes we have to bring health care closer to our patients to make sure people can get the services they need.”

Mastaler tells 27east.com that decision by the hospital to construct a new standalone emergency room in East Hampton is illustrative of the types of things hospital systems like Stony Brook Southampton Hospital and the broader Stony Brook Medicine network need to do to improve the “ecosystem” of health care for their communities and patients.

Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that the East Hampton satellite emergency department is on track to be completed by the end of October. After jumping through the hoops of numerous medical certifications, the hospital expects to have the facility up and running by April 2025.

“It’s all about access to care and making sure our services are where they need to be, and the East Hampton ED is going to be a huge part of that,” Mastaler said. “It’s going to be so important to people in that community.”

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Mayor Tom Gardella has made the restoration of the currently abandoned Sag Harbor Fire Museum a priority.

Elaborating on the still-preliminary proposal in an interview with Stephen J. Kotz of 27east.com this week, the former Sag Harbor Village trustee who became mayor in 2023, said, “This has been a project I’ve been wanting to do for five years.”

He said he would like to tap into a $1.3 million village capital repairs fund to undertake a preliminary assessment of what needs to be done to protect the building until a more complete restoration plan that would continue to use the space primarily as a museum, perhaps with a public meeting room on the second floor, can be put together.

He stressed, however, that he did not envision using anywhere near the total amount in that fund and would seek other funding sources for the Sag Harbor Fire Museum.

He added that he also wants to see much needed work done on the Murray Hill Firehouse on Elizabeth Street.

The Sag Harbor Fire Museum occupies a historic building at the intersection of Church and Sage streets, which was built in 1833 and served as the one-time home of the First Presbyterian Church.

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A sharp rise in Long Island driving deaths has prompted Brookhaven officials to start planning a townwide traffic safety program. Carl MacGowan reports in NEWSDAY that Brookhaven joins Suffolk County and a handful of Long Island towns developing so-called Vision Zero initiatives aimed at nudging drivers to slow down by narrowing streets, adding bicycle lanes and upgrading traffic signals.

Statewide traffic deaths rose by nearly 26% from 2019 to 2022, led by Long Island, which had 245 traffic fatalities in 2022, including 164 in Suffolk and 81 in Nassau, according to a June report released by NYS Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico said the town is considering myriad solutions, including crackdowns on distracted and impaired driving.

“Every neighborhood I talk to has speeding issues,” he said. “Everybody needs to put down their phone ... and slow down in residential communities.”

The Brookhaven Town board voted 6-0 on Aug. 8 to hire a Florida-based consultant, NV5, to draft traffic safety recommendations. The company will be paid $475,000, 80% of which is covered by a $380,000 grant from the federal Safe Streets and Roads for All program, Brookhaven Highway Superintendent Dan Losquadro announced last year.

NV5 also will create a list of at least 55 intersections where safety improvements are most needed, Panico said, adding that the draft safety plan will make Brookhaven eligible for millions more in federal grants to implement the program.

Alec Slatky, AAA Northeast's managing director of public and government affairs, said reducing speed is key to improving safety, adding that fewer crashes would mean fewer injuries and deaths.

“If you live on Long Island, you know someone who’s been seriously impacted by a crash,” he said. “What worked in the city is not necessarily going to work in Medford and Port Jefferson … but let’s do everything we can to get these numbers down.”