Suffolk County will issue a request for proposals this week to solicit “innovative traffic solutions” for a notorious seven-mile stretch of County Road 39 from Hampton Bays to Water Mill. Tom Gogola reports on 27east.com that Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone announced the pending request for proposal {RFP} at a press conference at the Southampton Village Long Island Rail Road station last Thursday. He described “significant issues and challenges” relating to the longstanding traffic problems that plague commuters going to and from the South Fork each day. Bellone pledged to find solutions that would “vastly improve” the traffic flow at the bottleneck. Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman and Southampton Village Mayor Bill Manger joined Bellone for the announcement, along with numerous law enforcement officials and a representative from Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming’s office. Schneiderman described a “system of roads never meant for this volume of traffic, of people,” and further noted that a growing year-round population, coupled with a workforce that has been priced out of the community, had come to a head in recent years with a congestion problem that continues to worsen. The Town of Southampton has experimented with changing over to blinking red lights along County Road 39 in Water Mill and also tried out a “cops and cones” program at the spot where Sunrise Highway ends and County Road 39 begins, a popular but temporary fix that created an extra lane for vehicles transitioning from Sunrise Highway. Once the traffic study is complete, Bellone said the county might seek to leverage federal dollars under the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to help pay for whatever may come next.

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Southampton Public School students started classes today as are students in NYC public schools meaning from Manhattan to Montauk the kids are now back in the building…one ideally with functioning AC.

The majority of Long Island's 124 school districts opened this week — smack in the middle of a heat wave in which temperatures have soared into the 90s, leading to sweltering classrooms in districts that are not air-conditioned. New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), an organization representing more than 600,000 working and retired educators, said on its website that it has pushed for standards for safe temperatures in buildings. Joie Tyrrell reports on Newsday.com that a bill on the issue is expected to be reintroduced in the 2024 state legislative session.

That bill would require districts to come up with plans to alleviate extreme heat conditions when temperatures hit 82 degrees and require the school to evacuate if the temperature inside hits 88 degrees, according to the teacher's union.

“When schools are too hot, students can’t learn and teachers can’t teach. Even animal shelters have maximum heat limits. Our schools do not, and it is disrespectful to both our students and educators," NYSUT president Melinda Person said.

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After pushing off a long-scheduled auction of 14 acres of former U.S. Coast Guard property in Westhampton from August 21 to September 6, the auction has now been “suspended until further notice,” the General Services Administration said this week. Tom Gogola reports on 27east.com that the auction had been rescheduled to this month to give the GSA and Town of Southampton time to hammer out a possible deal that would see the property transferred to the town via a public-private partnership with workforce housing developer Georgica Green Ventures. Southampton Town was banking on state and county support, too, to try to arrive at an agreeable price point for the property. The GSA is asking $15 million for the property, according to NYS Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. That asking price would, he said, “preclude town participation” in acquiring the tract.

Local residents in the adjacent Hampton West residential community have bristled at any mention of affordable housing rising on the spot. The town says any possible development would be targeted at those of moderate means.

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The Shinnecock Indian Nation announced a new development partner for its Little Beach Harvest on-reservation cannabis dispensary, after the former partner, TILT Holdings, expressed concerns about the New York market and “substantial doubt” about its own ability to remain an ongoing business. Mark Harrington reports on Newsday.com that TILT Holdings, which starting in 2021 helped fund the groundbreaking and construction of the nearly complete dispensary on sovereign tribal land in Southampton, this week announced it had sold its interest for $1.4 million to a subsidiary of PowerFund Holdings. Another Shinnecock development partner, Conor Green Consulting, continues to hold a minority stake, the companies said.

Tribal leaders and PowerFund said they expect Little Beach Harvest to open in the fall.

In a statement released Tuesday, the Shinnecock council of trustees thanked TILT for the year of progress since the 2022 groundbreaking and for “leading us through this journey.” They also said the PowerFund group would “bring us to the point of completion and official opening as the first tribally owned cannabis dispensary in Eastern Long Island on our sovereign land.”

PowerFund chief executive Sean Power, in a statement, said that the goals of the Shinnecock Nation and PowerFund are “perfectly aligned,” and that he’d work with subsidiaries to “support an ecosystem of Shinnecock-based cultivators and manufacturers.”

During a conference call with financial analysts earlier this year, TILT Holdings' newly named interim chief executive, Tim Conder, noted “challenges” in the New York market, including “unlicensed operators selling cannabis on Shinnecock land. The regulated adult-use cannabis market in New York state has experienced a number of hurdles during its delayed rollout.”

Bryan Polite, chairman of the Shinnecock council of trustees, said the tribe has been working to reign in unlicensed shops selling cannabis on the reservation, and has instituted a five-point plan to bring them into compliance. Doing so would benefit the tribe as it would require the shops to pay an approximately 4% tribal fee on sales. Polite also said that it’s not just the Shinnecock nation that is dealing with unlicensed shops. “It’s an issue for the entirety of New York State,” he noted.

Shinnecock Tribal leaders and their new cannabis partner PowerFund said they expect Little Beach Harvest to open in the fall.

Little Beach Harvest, a 100% tribally owned entity, was among the first tribal operations to be issued a license for adult-use cannabis sales.

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A Suffolk County Supreme Court justice has recommended that a judicial disciplinary committee review the actions of a Southampton attorney who encouraged East Hampton residents to ignore a court order barring vehicles from using a particular stretch of Amagansett beach. Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that the judge, Justice Paul Baisley Jr., said that the attorney, Dan Rodgers, has “demonstrated a continuing brazen pattern of misinforming and misleading his clients as to the status of this matter, [and] demonstrated disrespect to the Supreme Court and the Appellate Division” for ignoring Baisley’s restraining order against 4x4s driving onto the beach traditionally known as “Truck Beach.” Rodgers was the attorney for 14 East Hampton fishermen who were issued trespassing summonses by East Hampton Town Police after they drove 4x4 vehicles onto Truck Beach during a pair of preplanned protests that Rodgers helped organize in 2021, in the wake of a court ruling that the beach was privately owned. Following dismissal of the charges, Rodgers encouraged the fishermen, and others, to return to Truck Beach and drive vehicles onto the sand, which he said the appellate court had never specifically prohibited.

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East Hampton Town officials said that they hope to start clearing land on Pantigo Road for a new 16-home subsidized housing development by late November, and to see construction of infrastructure begin in January. The town is currently drafting the requests for proposals that will be put out to building companies and hopes to have at least a dozen different designs at varying price points available for prospective buyers to choose from. Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that the Town of East Hampton will select the 16 buyers by lottery, each of whom will have to qualify for the mortgages and will work with the building contractors on the development of the lots. The town will retain ownership of the underlying land and constraints will be put on the size of house and amenities to ensure that they remain “affordable” in perpetuity — rather than soaring in value and out of reach of moderate income buyers as some previous subsidized housing developments have. Housing Director Eric Schantz said that the town wants to have two different building firms under contract for the project, with each expected to have a package of different designs and price points available to the buyers. Schantz said the Housing Department expects to request that each builder present at least six different designs for the buyers to choose from — a total of a dozen different options across the 16 homes. Councilwoman Cate Rogers said that the Pantigo Road project is being modeled after the Green Hollow Woods development in Wainscott, which she lived near when it was built and is now a “seamless” part of the neighborhood it was built amid. Schantz said the town hopes to have the RFP put out to builders by next month, with a three-week window for submissions and builders chosen in short order afterward so that construction can begin as soon as possible…”at least in a physical sense, in January,” said the East Hampton Town Housing Director.