Builders would have to install automatic fire sprinkler systems in new single-family and two-family homes in New York if a key state regulator adopts the policy at a meeting later this month. Long Island’s largest group of homebuilders opposes the change, which it says will add tens of thousands of dollars to home construction costs and worsen housing affordability in the region. Builders could absorb these costs and keep prices the same, but the shortage of available homes for sale gives them greater power to pass costs on to consumers. “Our concern is you’re adding to the already expensive cost of a home,” said Mike Florio, CEO of the Long Island Builders Institute. Jonathan LaMantia reports in NEWSDAY that the measure is backed by the Firefighters Association of the State of New York, which represents volunteer firefighters, as necessary to protect people caught in house fires and contain blazes until firefighters can arrive. “It’s a worthwhile investment,” said John D'Alessandro, the association’s board secretary and a volunteer firefighter in Halfmoon, New York, in Saratoga County. “When it comes down to it, what price for a life?” Local builders and the state firefighters association expect the State Fire Prevention and Building Code Council to consider a requirement at its Feb. 28 meeting. There were 126 home fire fatalities in New York last year, according to U.S. Fire Administration data for 2024. Ten Long Islanders had died in home or apartment fires last year as of late November. New York builders estimate the addition of fire sprinklers to new homes would cost $20,000 to $30,000 based on a report published last year by Churchville, New York-based Asterhill Research Company for the New York State Builders Association.

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There has been talk of converting the difficult intersection of Noyac Road and Long Beach Road in Noyac into a roundabout for years. But while that plan may or may not ever come to fruition, Southampton Town Highway Superintendent Charles McArdle offered members of the Noyac Civic Council last week a cheaper and easier fix — in the form of a stop sign. Peter Boody reports on 27east.com that McArdle said the sign would be placed on an island alongside the westbound lane of Noyac Road. It would allow eastbound traffic to turn left onto Long Beach Road, while still enabling westbound traffic to turn right onto Long Beach Road without stopping. McArdle said Suffolk County, which would share at least some of the cost of the project because Long Beach Road is a county road, is resistant to the idea of a roundabout, because it would be expensive, but that it had signed off on the addition of a stop sign. “It’s a quick answer, and it could solve the problem,” he said. Several members of the small audience initially objected to the idea, pointing out that traffic is bad in all directions at the intersection and that a more comprehensive solution is needed. McArdle urged patience. He said the town believes that eastbound traffic on Noyac Road is heavier than westbound traffic, though he conceded that the stop sign might cause westbound traffic to back up in the afternoon, as workers head home. “This is something we can try,” he said. “If I come back in a year and you say, ‘Charlie, you blew it,’ we can yank it out.”

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Southampton Town Highway Superintendent Charles McArdle told the Noyac Civic Council last week that the Town Board had approved a $9 million, three-year plan to repave Noyac Road. Peter Boody reports on 27east.com that this spring, the section from North Sea Road to Deerfield Road will be done, and next year, a second section, from Sag Harbor Village westward, will be completed. That project will extend south along a portion of Stony Hill Road near the Serene Green farmstand and west to the Long Beach intersection, if not farther, but McArdle said he did not know exactly where that phase would end. The final portion of the Noyac Road paving project will be completed in 2026, he said.

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After four weeks of communication with local, state, and federal officials, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers deployed a dredge for an emergency 12-foot deepening operation at Montauk Inlet this past Saturday, a project intended to ensure safe passage for the 500 fishing ships that use the waterway. As of yesterday, the project was halfway done, Colonel Alex Young announced during a Tuesday morning press conference with officials at Inlet Seafood in Montauk, and he expects the project to be completed this week. Jack Motz reports on 27east.com that since the last dredging operation, shoaling has reduced the channel’s depth, often stranding fishermen at sea while they wait for an opportunity to dock, sometimes in dangerous conditions. In some areas, according to a press release from East Hampton Town, the passage had been as shallow as 3 feet. After approval from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Army Corps deployed the Murden, a 156-foot, 550-ton vessel, for the operation, having given 10-day public notice of the project the previous week. The operation will see about 10,500 cubic yards of sand placed along the western shoreline of the inlet. Four weeks ago, when this problem was first brought to Colonel Young, the Army Corps began surveying and planning. Once complete, they had to permit and fund the operation, before ultimately deploying the dredge: “There’s a lot that has to go into it both before and after to restore the depth here to 12 feet,” he said. The current dredging operation will not interfere with another planned operation, which will deepen the Montauk Channel further to 17 feet, set to occur in the fall of 2025.

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Reduction and mitigation of threats to public safety, protection and promotion of rare and vulnerable species and natural communities, and strengthening of ecosystem resiliency to pests and disease are the goals for management of the invasive southern pine beetle in East Hampton Town, which has caused devastation to woodlands including Napeague and Hither Hills State Parks. These goals were enumerated during a public meeting hosted by New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation officials at Montauk Downs State Park last week. Christopher Walsh reports on 27east.com that the invasive species was discovered in the Town of East Hampton in the autumn of 2021 and “crashed over our parks like a tidal wave in this area,” said Ron Rausch, the Parks Department’s deputy commissioner of environmental stewardship. An estimated 40,000 trees were killed “within just a couple years,” said Becky Sibner, the department’s forest health specialist. The Parks Department and other agencies including the Department of Environmental Conservation “jumped on top of it as quickly as we possibly could to squelch southern pine beetle spread,” added Lynn Bogan, the Parks Department’s assistant division director for environmental stewardship and planning. “That didn’t work. And then we moved into response: protect public health and safety, and then protect the natural system and ecological health, and we are going to continue to do that.” The infestation is a manifestation of climate change, Sibner said, the southern pine beetle having dramatically expanded its geographic range due to warmer winters. “We just don’t know if it’s going to kill every last standing tree or not. I tend to doubt that it will,” Rausch said, suggesting that the beetle infestation “may have burned out already” or that this winter’s cold temperatures may impact it. “The short answer is we just don’t know,” he said.

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The Hampton Bays Civic Association will host a debate/forum for candidates running in the special election for the open seat on the Southampton Town Board. The debate/forum will be held this coming Monday, February 24, at Hampton Bays Middle School, 70 Ponquogue Avenue in Hampton Bays, from 7 to 8:45 p.m. Former Southampton Town Councilman Rick Martel will face John Leonard in the March 18 special election for the open seat on the Southampton Town Board. The winner will serve until the end of this year, completing the term vacated by Tommy John Schiavoni, who was elected to the New York State Assembly in November.

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A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers vessel began emergency dredging of the Montauk Inlet channel Saturday after weeks of pleas from fishermen, though windy weather paused the work for part of yesterday.

The vessel, Murden, arrived at the inlet over the weekend and began the weeklong work of clearing the channel of dangerous shoaling which has kept some of the region's largest commercial fishing boats out of the state’s largest fishing port. Mark Harrington reports in NEWSDAY that a gale warning was in place through last night, leading to a temporary pause on the work. Officials said the Murden would continue to clear the channel to a depth of 12 feet through Friday or Saturday to finish the work before returning to work in Cape May, New Jersey and moving on to Galveston, Texas.

The price tag for the work is $75,000 a day, Army Corps officials said at a briefing in Montauk Tuesday morning, or $525,000 for the week. The dredging will remove about 10,000 cubic feet of sand from the channel, before a more extensive dredging of the inlet will take place in the fall to a depth of 17 feet, said Col. Alex Young, commander of the Army Corps' New York district.

U.S. Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville), who has worked with fishermen, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Republican Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine, NYS Sen. Anthony Palumbo (R-New Suffolk) and Democratic East Hampton Town Councilman David Lys to expedite the emergency work over the past four weeks. said he would make sure federal funding remains in place for the full dredging in the fall, regardless of cost-cutting efforts by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency.

The Montauk inlet hadn't been dredged since 2018, said Bonnie Brady, of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, an industry group that pushed for the emergency dredging. Maintenance dredging is supposed to be done every three years, she said. She pointed to the dangers of fishing boats potentially running aground and said, "It matters to everyone who enjoys a seafood meal."