Southampton Town proposed a six-month moratorium on battery storage systems to give officials more time to review the nascent technology’s potential risks while also freezing a pending application. Joe Werkmeister reports on Newsday.com that the storage batteries complement renewable energy sources such as wind and solar by storing power generated for future use. Town officials said they viewed the facilities as essential infrastructure to expand clean energy initiatives designed to combat climate change.

Officials said a town code adopted in 2021 to regulate the facilities may be inadequate.

At a special meeting on July 20, the town board voted to schedule an Aug. 8 public hearing on the moratorium.

Southampton Supervisor Jay Schneiderman said there’s been a “learning curve” for town officials since the code was adopted. He said officials initially believed the facilities posed little risk and were a “benign” use.

“I think our base of understanding has modified over time and I understand why the public is concerned here,” he said. “We want to make sure that whatever code is on our books is adequate to fully protect them.”

The current code requires facilities with a capacity of greater than 600 kWh to obtain site plan or special exception approval from the planning board and set certain safety requirements.

Southampton Town’s Planning Board is currently reviewing an application for a battery storage facility in Hampton Bays that has generated concerns among community members for potential hazards such as a fire to the lithium-ion batteries. The applicant, Canal Southampton Battery Storage LLC, has proposed a 100-megawatt facility on a 4.9-acre site just east of the Shinnecock Canal and south of Sunrise Highway.

A recent fire at a similar facility in East Hampton heightened community concerns.

Water quality across the East End and much of Long Island cratered over the last two weeks as soaring temperatures and torrential downpours combined to spark algae blooms, bacterial loads and oxygen-starved waters in local bays. Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that the destructive algae blooms that have been dubbed the “rust tide,” for the color the blooms stain the water in long, tiger-like stripes, have exploded in Shinnecock Bay at densities that are deadly to any sea creatures unable to escape. Fecal coliform bacteria levels have spiked in bays where groundwater laced with human waste feeds into bays. Water in reaches of bays far from inlets and tidal flushing are a dingy brown or green, and are starved of oxygen. Marine scientists from Stony Brook University closely monitor water quality at more than 30 sites across Long Island and reported this past week that only six sites met the criteria of “good” water quality, and only one, directly adjacent to Shinnecock Inlet, met state and federal water quality standards. At locations from central Great South Bay to western Shinnecock Bay, and in the headwaters of Three Mile Harbor in East Hampton, the water failed all four of the main parameters used to measure water quality: algae densities, bacteria counts, water clarity and levels of dissolved oxygen. Water temperatures in the Peconic have already topped the 80 degree mark — a temperature that is known to kill bay scallops and has been seen as one of the driving factors of massive die-offs the last four summers.

Stop & Shop in Southampton Village is projected to re-open tomorrow.

Following a fire last Friday, Stop & Shop in Southampton has been closed. The supermarket was expected to reopen on Tuesday, but remained closed and security stationed in front of the entrance told 27east.com that the reopening is planned for Friday…tomorrow.

The Southampton Fire Department was dispatched to Stop & Shop supermarket on Jagger Lane in Southampton for a reported structure fire at 11:26 p.m. on Friday, July 21.

While responding, the chiefs were advised that there were flames visible. The chiefs had Southampton Village Police dispatchers reactivate as a working commercial fire.

A fire in the rear of the building was extinguished quickly, but there was heavy smoke throughout the store. Fans were used to remove the smoke.

When the pandemic fueled a boom in Long Island real estate, prices increased faster in The Hamptons than the rest of Long Island. Now that rising interest rates have cooled the market, the south fork is seeing a larger pullback. Jonathan LaMantia reports on Newsday.com that the median price among Hamptons homes that sold in the second quarter was $1.45 million, or 9.4% lower than it was during the April-to-June period a year ago, according to a new report released today by real estate brokerage Douglas Elliman and appraisal firm Miller Samuel.

Across Long Island, excluding the East End, the median sale went for $600,000 in the second quarter, which was down 0.8% from $605,000 a year ago.

While prices are lower in some areas compared with last year, the pullback hasn’t erased the gains made since the pandemic started and led to a surge in demand for Long Island homes.

The median price for Long Island, excluding the East End, has increased 34.8% since the second quarter of 2019. The median in the Hamptons rose 70.6% during those four years.

“We saw during the pandemic a much higher trajectory of prices in the Hamptons than we did on [the rest of] Long Island,” said Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel. “ … There’s more distortion in the [Hamptons] market because it’s a smaller market with less transactions and more volatility because of the extremes of the pricing.”

A greater drop in the number of sales at the high end of the market also contributed to the decline in the Hamptons, Miller said.

The North Fork was the outlier, with the median price rising 8.3% to $980,000 on 101 sales during the quarter.

Painting crews are putting the last finishing brush strokes on the three-year restoration of the 227 year old Montauk Lighthouse, returning its brilliant red and white navigational daymark atop the brownstone blocks that comprise the tower and the newly restored facade of the former U.S. Coast Guard station that now is home to the Montauk Lighthouse Museum.

Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that the Montauk Historical Society will celebrate the restoration of the lighthouse at its annual Lighthouse Weekend on August 5 and 6, and with a ceremonial ribbon cutting on August 16 for supporters of the lighthouse and the renovation project.

In parallel with the historical society’s renovations of the lighthouse, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently completed a $38 million expansion of the stone revetment that protects the bluff below the lighthouse from the relentless pounding of the ocean surf.

When the lighthouse was built in 1796, during the Washington administration, it stood some 300 feet from the ocean. But erosion ate away most of the promontory it sat behind, known as Turtle Hill, over the ensuing century.

Now the extended and bolstered revetment is forecast to stave off the need for further erosion prevention measures at the Montauk Lighthouse for at least 50 more years.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney will make a rare move and prosecute accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann himself, his office said yesterday.

“Tierney will be the lead prosecutor in the case against Rex Heuermann. He intends to prosecute this case fully and bring justice to the victims of this alleged serial killer,” spokeswoman Tania Lopez said in a statement. Natalie O'Neill in THE NY POST reports that it’s the first time Tierney has prosecuted a crime since he took office last January — and he has already taken an unusually hands-on role in this high-profile case.

The county’s top prosecutor presented evidence to a grand jury that led to the indictment of the 59-year-old architect, then took a lead role at the the accused killer’s arraignment on July 14.

Heuermann is being held at the Suffolk County Jail in Riverhead.

For the first time in history, the minimum wage across New York State will increase automatically every year to keep pace with inflation, starting in 2027. James T. Madore reports on Newsday.com that the change, tucked into the state budget that was adopted in May, is meant to help low-wage workers cope with the rising cost of groceries, gasoline and other basic necessities. But it also will boost the expenses of employers, some of whom may not be able to recoup the higher payroll costs by raising prices or trimming their workforce.

On Long Island, the minimum wage has been $15 per hour since the end of 2021 — higher than in all but two states and the District of Columbia, according to a Newsday analysis. The rate will go to $16 on Jan. 1 and increase 50 cents in both 2025 and 2026, under the provision adopted with the budget this spring. The rate will hit $17 per hour on Jan. 1, 2026.

Each year after that, the minimum wage will be adjusted based on an inflation index that tracks spending by working families in the Northeast: the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers. The only factors that would prevent the minimum from rising each year are high unemployment, significant job losses or a big drop in consumer prices. The rate would never decrease, state officials said.

“This will mean a lot to both workers and employers,” said Roberta Reardon, New York’s labor commissioner since 2015. “Workers will know that if inflation goes up, so do their wages," she said

Matt Cohen, CEO and president of the Long Island Association business group doesn’t look so favorably at the minimum wage mandate, telling Newsday, “Recurring increases in the minimum wage present yet another challenge to our economic competitiveness” as a region.