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New Bridgehampton Target location unlikely to open for this summer
President Donald Trump released a flurry of executive actions over the past month that could lead to increased school taxes in New York, raise the cost of goods from construction materials to gas prices, cut federal funding for transportation and separate immigrant families. Keshia Clukey reports in NEWSDAY that New York and other states don’t necessarily need to follow all of the directives, according to constitutional and public policy scholars and attorneys. But some of the orders carry a threat of billions of dollars in reduced federal aid for not complying.
“An executive order, just as a piece of paper, doesn’t do anything. It has to be implemented,” said Julie Novkov, dean of the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at the state University at Albany. “So the real question lies in how federal officials are going to implement executive orders in ways that might have an impact on what the states are doing.”
Generally executive orders are directed at federal government officials and agencies, but those agencies can try to enforce Trump’s policies on states even if they conflict with state-level policies and laws, constitutional scholars and attorneys said.
State officials already have said they plan to resist federal orders that clash with NYS law. If the courts rule in favor of Trump or Congress backs the order, New York risks losing federal funding dollars for not complying — funding the state would likely have to make up for in tax increases, including school taxes.
Several legal challenges have already been brought by state attorneys general, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, against Trump’s directives, setting up constitutional battles on several fronts.
“We need to remember that it is the United States of America, that means 50 co-equal states and we have a government that is built on the consent of the governed,” said Susan Lerner, executive director of the Common Cause/NY good-government group. “We believe in the Constitution, we believe in checks and balances, and therefore we believe the states need to step up and assert their sovereignty in the federalist system and protect state residents.”
***
Some Long Islanders plan to participate in a nationwide "economic blackout" today, as a form of protest against what organizers view as corruption among corporations and politicians. Brianne Ledda reports in NEWSDAY that the boycott is one of several protests planned by activists in the coming weeks against large corporations, especially those that have scaled back on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
People's Union USA, a group focused on economic resistance, has taken credit for today’s protest, which was organized primarily on social media. It is a midnight to midnight Friday only boycott, with participants instructed not to make purchases online or in-person — not even food or gas today.
If protesters must purchase something, they should use cash and shop small, the group’s website says.
Long Island experts expressed skepticism at how effective a one-day boycott might be at bringing about policy change, especially without a clear target or goal. Members of progressive coalitions on Long Island, however, still plan to join.
***
First National Bank of Long Island, which has several branches on the east end, will merge with ConnectOne Bank, as announced by the two financial institutions this month. Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that shareholders of the parent companies of both banks voted in separate special meetings to approve the merger, the companies announced in a press release Feb. 14.
The companies expect the transaction to close in the second quarter of this year, subject to receipt of regulatory approvals.
Upon completion of the transaction, the combined company will operate under the ConnectOne brand. It will have approximately $14 billion in total assets, $11 billion in total deposits, and $11 billion in total loans, according to the announcement.
“The combination will establish ConnectOne as one of the top 5 banks on Long Island, in terms of deposit market share,” the press release said.
ConnectOne currently operates 25 branches: 14 in New Jersey, nine in New York and one in Florida. It has Long Island branches in East Hampton and Melville.
***
The new Target department store planned to take over the former Kmart space in Bridgehampton Commons shopping center seems unlikely to be opened by this summer.
Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that Target has begun working with the Southampton Town Planning Board on its plans to remake the store space, and while it has asked for part of its application to be expedited so that work can begin on the transformation of the building, the plans still face some time-consuming regulatory hurdles before the store can open. A spokesperson for the store said the company has no updated forecast of when it expects, or hopes, to be open. When it does open, the new store will have a Starbucks coffee kiosk inside it, as all Target stores now do, which will require upgrades to the interior plumbing system to install a grease trap. The store will be considerably smaller than a typical Target store. Target’s attorney Brian Kennedy told the Planning Board that the 91,000-square-foot former Kmart space is 35,000 to 55,000 square feet smaller than most of the other Target stores on Long Island. In order to install new cart corrals for its larger carts and to create waiting stalls for cars picking up drive-up purchase orders, the store has said it needs to eliminate six parking spots from the property lot, which will require a three-phase variance process involving both the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals. The parking lot spanning the former Kmart and current Walgreens and TJ Maxx sections on the eastern side of Bridgehampton Commons currently has 543 parking stalls. The preliminary application for parking changes alone must be considered by the Southampton Town Planning Board, then Target will have to apply for a variance by the ZBA before it can come back to the Planning Board for its final approval of the overall site plans. Chances of getting all that done by summer 2025 do appear dim.
***
As the future of the offshore wind industry is very much in flux under a new administration that has put a halt on new federal leases to wind farms, Long Island is situated to be one of the few areas in the country where offshore wind projects already completed or under construction may power our communities in the years ahead. Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON reports that New York State has bet heavily on wind over the past several years, encouraged by the Biden administration’s commitment to the technology’s use to decarbonize our energy grid. But on his first day in office Jan. 20, President Donald Trump issued an executive order for a “temporary withdrawal of all areas on the outer continental shelf (OCS) from offshore wind leasing” and a review of the federal government’s leasing and permitting practices for wind projects. On Eastern Long Island, the biggest player in this space is the Danish energy firm Ørsted, which has signed several dacades-long leases with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in recent years. Ørsted recently did a cut and run from its Ocean Wind 1 & 2 projects in New Jersey, but remains committed to projects on Long Island, according to the company’s Feb. 6 earnings call with new CEO Rasmus Errboe, who said the company has “a good feeling” about two projects — Sunrise Wind — where work is underway to tie an undersea transmission cable, coming ashore at Smith Point Park, with a transmission line currently being installed up William Floyd Parkway to a substation in Holbrook — and Revolution Wind, a project off the coast of Rhode Island. The Sunrise Wind Farm, has seen “adverse developments, with higher costs and schedule delays,” said Mr. Errboe. “That has been factored into our business case, and we’ve seen good progress in terms of onshore construction work.” As of the week of Feb. 24, 2025, onshore work was continuing on the transmission route and on the expansion of the Holbrook substation, while at Smith Point County Park, the company was mobilizing its equipment and continuing horizontal directional drilling. When completed, Sunrise Wind is expected to include 84 turbines, with a capacity of 924 megawatts, on a site about 30 miles off the coast of Montauk. The site is adjacent to the 132-megawatt South Fork Wind Farm, Ørsted’s 12-turbine wind farm that began operation in early 2024, providing power to the East End via a substation in East Hampton. Sunrise Wind was initially slated to begin providing power to Long Island this year, but Ørsted announced in January that it is now on target to begin providing power in the second half of 2027.
***
Long Islanders will soon no longer need to listen for the familiar jingle of a Mister Softee truck rolling down the street to get some of its signature soft serve ice cream: a Mister Softee sign has gone up in East Islip in the former Pam’s Ice Cream Shoppe. Melissa Azofeifa reports in NEWSDAY that new owner Jimmy Ilya said the store will open tomorrow. Ilya has operated Mister Softee trucks in the Hamptons since 2007. He was inspired to open Long Island’s first brick-and-mortar Mister Softee franchise after visiting one in Westchester two years ago.
Guests will be able to choose from around 40 flavors of hard ice cream. As for their soft serve, the options will be pistachio, strawberry, vanilla and chocolate. Ilya will also serve crêpes with fruit on the side.
No mention in NEWSDAY’s story about whether Ilya’s Mister Softee truck will still be serving the streets of Southampton this summer.
***
President Donald Trump has launched a campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, putting policies adopted by the Riverhead Central School District, which receives millions of dollars in federal funding, potentially at odds with the administration’s views. Trump signed executive orders at the start of his second term calling the initiatives, known shorthand as DEI, illegal, and banning them at federal agencies and businesses that contract with the federal government. And his administration has targeted DEI in education too. President Trump has threatened to pull federal funding from schools that don’t comply with his directives to push back on what an executive order called “radical indoctrination” — raising questions for educators across the country. Alek Lewis reports on Riverheadlocal.com that the Riverhead Central School District gets millions of federal dollars every year to improve the academic standing of its low-income and special education students, and to provide free meals to students. It is also an ethnically and economically diverse school district — a majority of its students are Latino. The district’s administration has embraced the growth of DEI efforts over the last few years. The district has a DEI plan, called the “Equity in Education Plan,” which it adopted in June 2022. It has a DEI committee made up primarily of volunteers; the committee has five subcommittees that target different issues in the district, including policy, advocacy and curriculum.
The Riverhead Central School District also employs two administrators who oversee district DEI initiatives, along with English as a New Language services and community outreach programs. And it gives a stipend to a high school teacher, Jamaal Boyce, to be the district’s “DEI specialist.”
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By WLIW-FMPresident Donald Trump released a flurry of executive actions over the past month that could lead to increased school taxes in New York, raise the cost of goods from construction materials to gas prices, cut federal funding for transportation and separate immigrant families. Keshia Clukey reports in NEWSDAY that New York and other states don’t necessarily need to follow all of the directives, according to constitutional and public policy scholars and attorneys. But some of the orders carry a threat of billions of dollars in reduced federal aid for not complying.
“An executive order, just as a piece of paper, doesn’t do anything. It has to be implemented,” said Julie Novkov, dean of the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at the state University at Albany. “So the real question lies in how federal officials are going to implement executive orders in ways that might have an impact on what the states are doing.”
Generally executive orders are directed at federal government officials and agencies, but those agencies can try to enforce Trump’s policies on states even if they conflict with state-level policies and laws, constitutional scholars and attorneys said.
State officials already have said they plan to resist federal orders that clash with NYS law. If the courts rule in favor of Trump or Congress backs the order, New York risks losing federal funding dollars for not complying — funding the state would likely have to make up for in tax increases, including school taxes.
Several legal challenges have already been brought by state attorneys general, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, against Trump’s directives, setting up constitutional battles on several fronts.
“We need to remember that it is the United States of America, that means 50 co-equal states and we have a government that is built on the consent of the governed,” said Susan Lerner, executive director of the Common Cause/NY good-government group. “We believe in the Constitution, we believe in checks and balances, and therefore we believe the states need to step up and assert their sovereignty in the federalist system and protect state residents.”
***
Some Long Islanders plan to participate in a nationwide "economic blackout" today, as a form of protest against what organizers view as corruption among corporations and politicians. Brianne Ledda reports in NEWSDAY that the boycott is one of several protests planned by activists in the coming weeks against large corporations, especially those that have scaled back on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
People's Union USA, a group focused on economic resistance, has taken credit for today’s protest, which was organized primarily on social media. It is a midnight to midnight Friday only boycott, with participants instructed not to make purchases online or in-person — not even food or gas today.
If protesters must purchase something, they should use cash and shop small, the group’s website says.
Long Island experts expressed skepticism at how effective a one-day boycott might be at bringing about policy change, especially without a clear target or goal. Members of progressive coalitions on Long Island, however, still plan to join.
***
First National Bank of Long Island, which has several branches on the east end, will merge with ConnectOne Bank, as announced by the two financial institutions this month. Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that shareholders of the parent companies of both banks voted in separate special meetings to approve the merger, the companies announced in a press release Feb. 14.
The companies expect the transaction to close in the second quarter of this year, subject to receipt of regulatory approvals.
Upon completion of the transaction, the combined company will operate under the ConnectOne brand. It will have approximately $14 billion in total assets, $11 billion in total deposits, and $11 billion in total loans, according to the announcement.
“The combination will establish ConnectOne as one of the top 5 banks on Long Island, in terms of deposit market share,” the press release said.
ConnectOne currently operates 25 branches: 14 in New Jersey, nine in New York and one in Florida. It has Long Island branches in East Hampton and Melville.
***
The new Target department store planned to take over the former Kmart space in Bridgehampton Commons shopping center seems unlikely to be opened by this summer.
Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that Target has begun working with the Southampton Town Planning Board on its plans to remake the store space, and while it has asked for part of its application to be expedited so that work can begin on the transformation of the building, the plans still face some time-consuming regulatory hurdles before the store can open. A spokesperson for the store said the company has no updated forecast of when it expects, or hopes, to be open. When it does open, the new store will have a Starbucks coffee kiosk inside it, as all Target stores now do, which will require upgrades to the interior plumbing system to install a grease trap. The store will be considerably smaller than a typical Target store. Target’s attorney Brian Kennedy told the Planning Board that the 91,000-square-foot former Kmart space is 35,000 to 55,000 square feet smaller than most of the other Target stores on Long Island. In order to install new cart corrals for its larger carts and to create waiting stalls for cars picking up drive-up purchase orders, the store has said it needs to eliminate six parking spots from the property lot, which will require a three-phase variance process involving both the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals. The parking lot spanning the former Kmart and current Walgreens and TJ Maxx sections on the eastern side of Bridgehampton Commons currently has 543 parking stalls. The preliminary application for parking changes alone must be considered by the Southampton Town Planning Board, then Target will have to apply for a variance by the ZBA before it can come back to the Planning Board for its final approval of the overall site plans. Chances of getting all that done by summer 2025 do appear dim.
***
As the future of the offshore wind industry is very much in flux under a new administration that has put a halt on new federal leases to wind farms, Long Island is situated to be one of the few areas in the country where offshore wind projects already completed or under construction may power our communities in the years ahead. Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON reports that New York State has bet heavily on wind over the past several years, encouraged by the Biden administration’s commitment to the technology’s use to decarbonize our energy grid. But on his first day in office Jan. 20, President Donald Trump issued an executive order for a “temporary withdrawal of all areas on the outer continental shelf (OCS) from offshore wind leasing” and a review of the federal government’s leasing and permitting practices for wind projects. On Eastern Long Island, the biggest player in this space is the Danish energy firm Ørsted, which has signed several dacades-long leases with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in recent years. Ørsted recently did a cut and run from its Ocean Wind 1 & 2 projects in New Jersey, but remains committed to projects on Long Island, according to the company’s Feb. 6 earnings call with new CEO Rasmus Errboe, who said the company has “a good feeling” about two projects — Sunrise Wind — where work is underway to tie an undersea transmission cable, coming ashore at Smith Point Park, with a transmission line currently being installed up William Floyd Parkway to a substation in Holbrook — and Revolution Wind, a project off the coast of Rhode Island. The Sunrise Wind Farm, has seen “adverse developments, with higher costs and schedule delays,” said Mr. Errboe. “That has been factored into our business case, and we’ve seen good progress in terms of onshore construction work.” As of the week of Feb. 24, 2025, onshore work was continuing on the transmission route and on the expansion of the Holbrook substation, while at Smith Point County Park, the company was mobilizing its equipment and continuing horizontal directional drilling. When completed, Sunrise Wind is expected to include 84 turbines, with a capacity of 924 megawatts, on a site about 30 miles off the coast of Montauk. The site is adjacent to the 132-megawatt South Fork Wind Farm, Ørsted’s 12-turbine wind farm that began operation in early 2024, providing power to the East End via a substation in East Hampton. Sunrise Wind was initially slated to begin providing power to Long Island this year, but Ørsted announced in January that it is now on target to begin providing power in the second half of 2027.
***
Long Islanders will soon no longer need to listen for the familiar jingle of a Mister Softee truck rolling down the street to get some of its signature soft serve ice cream: a Mister Softee sign has gone up in East Islip in the former Pam’s Ice Cream Shoppe. Melissa Azofeifa reports in NEWSDAY that new owner Jimmy Ilya said the store will open tomorrow. Ilya has operated Mister Softee trucks in the Hamptons since 2007. He was inspired to open Long Island’s first brick-and-mortar Mister Softee franchise after visiting one in Westchester two years ago.
Guests will be able to choose from around 40 flavors of hard ice cream. As for their soft serve, the options will be pistachio, strawberry, vanilla and chocolate. Ilya will also serve crêpes with fruit on the side.
No mention in NEWSDAY’s story about whether Ilya’s Mister Softee truck will still be serving the streets of Southampton this summer.
***
President Donald Trump has launched a campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, putting policies adopted by the Riverhead Central School District, which receives millions of dollars in federal funding, potentially at odds with the administration’s views. Trump signed executive orders at the start of his second term calling the initiatives, known shorthand as DEI, illegal, and banning them at federal agencies and businesses that contract with the federal government. And his administration has targeted DEI in education too. President Trump has threatened to pull federal funding from schools that don’t comply with his directives to push back on what an executive order called “radical indoctrination” — raising questions for educators across the country. Alek Lewis reports on Riverheadlocal.com that the Riverhead Central School District gets millions of federal dollars every year to improve the academic standing of its low-income and special education students, and to provide free meals to students. It is also an ethnically and economically diverse school district — a majority of its students are Latino. The district’s administration has embraced the growth of DEI efforts over the last few years. The district has a DEI plan, called the “Equity in Education Plan,” which it adopted in June 2022. It has a DEI committee made up primarily of volunteers; the committee has five subcommittees that target different issues in the district, including policy, advocacy and curriculum.
The Riverhead Central School District also employs two administrators who oversee district DEI initiatives, along with English as a New Language services and community outreach programs. And it gives a stipend to a high school teacher, Jamaal Boyce, to be the district’s “DEI specialist.”