New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced during a visit to Montauk this past Friday that the State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation has awarded a $2.2 million contract to combat southern pine beetle devastation at Hither Hills and Napeague state parks.

Jack Motz reports on 27east.com that the state’s three-year contract will start in November 2025, according to a press release, and run until October 2028. The funds will go toward addressing the damage brought on by the pine beetle, and it will focus on areas located near homes, trails and Montauk Highway. The State of New York also plans to create additional access for fire departments, in the case of a wildfire, like the one that broke out in Napeague on July 16.

Governor Hochul was speaking at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday for the Montauk Playhouse when she made the announcement.

The pine beetle, which was first detected in the state in 2014, has caused extensive devastation in Napeague’s pitch pine forests. Fallen trees can block access for firefighters responding to an emergency in the forest.

For the duration of the new contract, tree-cutting will happen between December and February, when the northern long-eared bat, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service classed as endangered in 2022, is hibernating offsite.

Since 2022, the state has cut 16,000 hazardous trees, installed 2.2 miles of fuel breaks and spent over $2 million on forest management work.

The state will continue to cut and pile dead trees, the press release said. Later, the trees will be chipped, removed or burned in a prescribed fire.

This summer, the state will also workshop a hazard and risk analysis and a fire management plan for the area.

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Hurricane Erin re-intensified to a Category 4 storm today, growing in size as it makes a vast right turn in the Atlantic that will bring high surf, rip currents and possible beach erosion from the Carolinas to Long Island this week, forecasters say.

Although forecasters expect Erin will remain hundreds of miles out to sea, its churning winds will bring life-threatening surf and rip currents to Atlantic Ocean beaches, including Long Island's, as the week goes on. The threat will steadily increase Tuesday through Thursday night, gradually decreasing heading into the weekend, forecasters said.

The National Hurricane Center predicted Erin will begin its northward turn over the next 24 hours and then turn northeastward between the U.S. East Coast and Bermuda, remaining a large and powerful hurricane during the mid to late week period.

As reported in NEWSDAY and the Associated Press, the oceanfront impacts could be significant: The threat for dune erosion, beach flooding and even escarpment along the shoreline will become more widespread with each successive high tide Tuesday evening into Thursday evening, the Hurricane Center said.

Widespread areas of dune erosion are likely during the Thursday evening and possibly Friday morning high tides. The surf could reach 10-15 feet in height and bring an elevated storm tide, experts said.

Ocean seas are likely to build to 12 to 15-plus feet Thursday into Friday morning off Suffolk County, with the highest south and east of Moriches Inlet, and then subside into the weekend, experts said.

Dangerous conditions are expected around inlets and the entrance to eastern Long Island Sound. There is a low potential for gale wind gusts Thursday into Thursday Night (particularly south and east of Moriches Inlet).

Localized minor coastal flooding is also possible, forecasters said.

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Alongside state and local leaders, Montauk Playhouse Community Center Foundation President Jennifer Iacono cut the ribbon this past Friday for the playhouse’s new Aquatic Center and multiuse Cultural Center. At the event, which had some 200 people in attendance, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, Town Councilman David Lys and Iacono spoke. Jack Motz reports on 27east.com that Carl Fisher opened the building in 1929. At the start, it was the largest indoor tennis center in the country. In the years that followed, the building suffered, having been damaged by a hurricane. In August 2023, the foundation held a groundbreaking ceremony for the current planned renovations: a new aquatic center on the first floor and a multiuse cultural center on the second. The construction project cost $14 million, but the state provided a $1.7 million grant for the second floor, which houses the cultural center. As of the end of July, the foundation was raising money for fixtures, furniture and equipment. “This building, once nearly lost, now stands as a symbol of what's possible when Montauk and all who love it come together,” Iacono said.

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Most Long Island districts will require middle and high school students to leave their cellphones in their lockers when they return to school this fall to comply with a state ban that prohibits use of the devices during the school day, a Newsday analysis found.

More than 94 districts said they will use lockers for storage and at least 19 said they will use lockable pouches as another option, including some of Long Island’s largest districts such as Brentwood and Smithtown, according to a Newsday review of policies from Long Island's 124 districts.

Dandan Zou and Michael R. Ebert report in NEWSDAY that school districts were required to adopt plans to enforce the state cellphone ban by Aug. 1.

A Newsday review of district policies found widespread similarities regarding where students can keep their devices during the school day or how parents can contact their children. The new policies were implemented after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposal to ban smartphones in school was approved as part of the state budget in May. The prohibition aims to minimize distraction and improve students’ mental health, the governor has said. The so-called “bell-to-bell” ban takes effect this school term when Nassau and Suffolk’s 420,000 public school students return to the classroom through the coming weeks. The new rule does not apply to private schools.

The ban prohibits students from having access to all personal internet-enabled devices from the first bell until the last. That includes free periods, recess, time students spend in the cafeteria or passing in school hallways.

The state ban only restricts access during the school day, but the most recent state guidance said districts may expand it to limit phone use on school property beyond the instructional day.

The state set aside $13.5 million and public schools statewide have received grants to help them implement the ban.

Long Island's public schools, including school districts, charter schools and BOCES, received more than $2.3 million, according to data from the NYS Education Department. The allocation was based on enrollment in grades 7-12 in the 2023-24 school year, with each student accounting for $10.90.

Exemptions will be granted for educational, medical or family circumstances, which school officials anticipate could lead to some initial difficulties due to student privacy concerns.

Dandan Zou and Michael R. Ebert report in NEWSDAY that school districts were required to adopt plans to enforce the state cellphone ban by Aug. 1.

Officials from districts that purchased pouches said the tool offered more flexibility for students, especially those who leave the campus during lunch.

Beth Doyle, superintendent of Greenport schools, said using pouches is easier than having students travel to their lockers multiple times a day if they were to have the devices stored there.

“We also wanted to allow them to have their property on their person,” she said.

Several districts, including Sag Harbor have used the pouches in the past.

East Hampton purchased about 1,000 Yondr pouches for about $50,000, a decision schools Superintendent Adam Fine said was driven by student input. Fine said his administrators heard from high schoolers who acknowledged they needed help to keep the devices away.

“The pouches presented the easiest and the most effective and efficient way to comply with the ban,” he said.

Fine said the district is paying for the initial purchase of the pouches. His district has not determined who will pay for the replacement cost, but Fine said he anticipated they would be guided by whether the loss was accidental or if there was vandalism.

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Dr. David John Helfand, former president of Quest University Canada and past chair of Columbia University’s astronomy department, will give a free, in-person lecture tomorrow at the East Hampton Library. Tuesday evening’s event, hosted by the Hamptons Observatory, begins at 7 p.m.

Helfand will discuss his latest book, The Universal Timekeepers: Reconstructing History Atom by Atom, which explores how science can uncover the histories of distant times and places once thought unreachable. A book signing will follow the talk, and copies will be available for purchase.

For more information or to register, visit

HamptonsObservatory.org.

That’s tomorrow at 7 p.m. in the East Hampton Library.

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A group of cannabis dispensary owners sued New York State regulators this past Friday claiming they could be forced out of business because their storefronts were too close to schools after state officials admitted recently that they had been incorrectly measuring the required distance.

Investors poured millions of dollars into dozens of cannabis shops that could now be forced to relocate or be barred from opening their doors because of the mistake by state regulators, the lawsuit claimed.

Taylor Robinson reports in THE NY TIMES that the suit, filed by about a dozen organizations and companies that have received licenses to open dispensaries in New York, petitioned the State Supreme Court in Albany to block the proposed correction to the proximity rule and find the businesses in compliance under the previous interpretation of the regulation.

“This lawsuit seeks to prevent the state from rewriting the rules midstream, stripping licensees of their rights and investments and derailing New York’s promise of an equitable cannabis industry,” according to the suit.

Last month, the state’s Office of Cannabis Management said that because of its own measuring error, more than 152 licensed dispensaries were too close to schools. State officials said that the businesses might have to relocate unless lawmakers carved out an exception allowing them to stay in place.

State law dictates that dispensaries cannot be located within 500 feet of a school, a distance that should have been calculated from the entrance of the storefront to the school’s property line, state officials have said.

But following a review of the cannabis agency’s practices, ordered by the interim executive director, Felicia Reid, officials discovered that previous regulators had been measuring the 500 feet to the school’s entrance, not its property line. In Southampton, there is a proposal to put a cannabis dispensary in the former Hampton Car Club building on County Road 39, which shares a property line with the Tuckahoe School playground.

Ms. Reid apologized to the affected businesses, but cannabis regulators now say they will need legislative intervention in order to allow the dispensaries to stay in place.

The lawsuit was filed against Ms. Reid, the Office of Cannabis Management and the state’s Cannabis Control Board, among others.