Suffolk County's interagency East End Drug Task Force is investigating last week's death of swimsuit designer Martha Nolan-O’Slatarra on a boat docked at the Montauk Yacht Club, a source familiar with the inquiry confirmed to Newsday.

The investigation, which draws the first public link between drugs and Nolan-O’Slatarra's death, is moving forward on dual tracks, the source said yesterday.

While Suffolk law enforcement await toxicology results from the Suffolk County Medical Examiner's Office — which are expected to take several months to complete — the task force is investigating the role drugs may have played in the death of Nolan-O’Slatarra, 33, of Manhattan.

Robert Brodsky and Grant Parpan report in NEWSDAY that details about what drugs may have been involved, why they are suspected in the case or their potential origin were not available Tuesday. While it looks "very likely" Nolan-O’Slatarra died of a drug overdose, investigators have not ruled out that the fashion designer’s death was a homicide or that she died of natural causes, according to the source.

"Until you start ruling stuff out, everything is in play," the law enforcement source said.

The Suffolk County District Attorney’s East End Drug Task Force is comprised of DA Investigators, the East Hampton Town Police Department, the Suffolk County Police Department, New York State Police, Riverhead Police Department, Southold Police Department, Southampton Town Police Department and Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office.

Suffolk police said last week that an autopsy conducted on Nolan-O’Slatarra, who was found dead Aug. 5 on the Ripple, a 32-foot pleasure boat docked at a Montauk marina, showed no evidence of violence. The cause of death is still pending, according to Suffolk police, who said Tuesday there was no update to the investigation.

Public records and sources show the 22-year-old Ripple is owned by Christopher P. Durnan, 60, of Long Beach.

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The Town of Southampton held a public hearing yesterday on a plan to use $2.4 million to purchase land for a new mixed-use affordable housing complex in Riverside that officials said could “set the scene” for revitalization plans there. Alek Lewis reports on Riverheadlocal.com that Southampton Town plans to partner with Georgica Green Ventures (GGV) to create a 40-unit rental apartment complex with ground-floor retail space on an acre of land on 47 Flanders Road, near the Riverside traffic circle. The apartments would be a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom units priced for low- and middle-income tenants.

The Town of Southampton would use money from its Community Housing Fund — which generates its revenue from a half-percent sales tax on most real estate transactions in the town — to purchase the land for the project. The property currently contains unsafe structures, and demolishing them is a priority, town officials said.

Janice Scherer, Southampton Town’s planning administrator, said during Tuesday’s hearing that the project would “set the scene for the look and feel” of Riverside’s redevelopment. She said the town’s acquisition of the property would give officials more control over the project’s appearance.

GGV, a Jericho-based development firm, has constructed housing projects across the East End, including in Riverhead and Southampton towns. The firm specializes at tapping into the state-managed tax credit system for affordable housing.

The property would not be developed until the Riverside sewage treatment plant is completed. Scherer said the town expects to secure funding for the plant in September and to begin construction soon afterward. (Southampton is currently being sued by Riverhead Town over the plant because its design does not allow the county center and criminal court building — currently connected to Riverhead’s wastewater treatment plant — to hook up to it.)

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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 next Tuesday, Aug. 19, at the East Hampton Library. The 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 next Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the East Hampton Library.

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The Shinnecock Indian Nation has initiated legal action to lay claim to a residential property adjacent to its Southampton reservation after the $1.2 million waterfront parcel was listed for sale and considered for purchase by Southampton Town.

The property, at 4 Landing Lane in Southampton, is beside the property at 2 Landing Lane on the northwest boundary of the Shinnecock Nation’s ancestral land which had been the subject of a 1997 court case won by the tribe. Mark Harrington reports in NEWSDAY that the Shinnecock’s claim to the property stems from that 1997 court case in which William Pell, a local marina owner, bought a half-acre parcel from a developer five years before for $65,000. When he began clearing the land adjacent to the Shinnecock reservation, tribal members protested and the case went to court. Judge John J. Jones Jr. of Suffolk County Court in Riverhead ruled that ''most, if not all'' of the contested parcel belonged to the Shinnecocks, according to media reports at the time. The NYS Appellate Division upheld the ruling in 1998. Tela Troge, an attorney and Shinnecock member, said the 1997 decision on the 2 Landing Lane property raised questions about not just that property, which is now held by the tribe, but others on that street as well, leaving it up to the tribe to litigate each in the future.

"It's clearly on Shinnecock territory," said Troge, noting that the 1997 case did not settle the broader issue of tribal boundaries.

But Naomi Kleinhandler, the executor of the family that is the recorded owner of the parcel in Suffolk County’s system and the listed real estate agent for the property, denied the legitimacy of any Shinnecock claim for the parcel.

"That is not their property," she told NEWSDAY on Monday. "It’s a mistake and they can’t decide they’re going to say this is their property. This area was deeded many, many years ago" to the residents who own homes there.

Kleinhandler acknowledged there was a "piece of property that was carved out for the Indians" as a result of the 1997 lawsuit against purchaser William Pell. "That was it.

4 Landing Lane is not part of that piece."

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The mysterious death of Manhattan swimwear designer Martha Nolan-O’Slatarra at the Montauk Yacht Club is being eyed as a possible accidental overdose, sources said yesterday. The 33 year old Irish native was found unconscious at Montauk Yacht Club just after midnight Aug. 5 aboard a boat named Ripple — one of at least two Grateful Dead-themed crafts owned by insurance mogul Christopher Durnan. Alex Mitchell, Shane Galvin and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon report in THE NY POST that an autopsy is pending to determine Nolan-O’Slatarra’s official cause of death — although sources said it was a suspected drug overdose. Questions have been swirling since the tragic night when Nolan-O’Slatarra was discovered on the Ripple, which was docked at the yacht club. Members reported hearing screams and called 911, before trying to resuscitate the young designer — who was later pronounced dead. Durnan, 60, a familiar figure at the club, owns the Durnan Group in Rockville Centre, which manages the “largest, most successful Workers Compensation Safety Group for Real Estate” per the company’s website. Suffolk County Police have not filed charges or identified any suspects in the case. But authorities have also not publicly ruled out foul play, despite revealing that there was no evidence of violence to the body. Nolan-O’Slatarra’s death is also being investigated by Suffolk County’s East End Drug Task Force, according to a Tuesday report by NEWSDAY. “Until you start ruling stuff out, everything is in play,” a source familiar with the investigation told NEWSDAY.

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Many Long Islanders rate the region poorly for traffic congestion, traffic safety and public transportation, according to Newsday’s recent survey with the Siena Research Institute.

A majority of residents (62%) believe traffic congestion is worse here than other places they are familiar with, the survey found.

Peter Gill reports in NEWSDAY that Suffolk County residents are particularly dissatisfied with public transit and traffic safety — rating them "worse" rather than "better" by double-digit margins.

The survey polled 802 respondents between May 27 and June 16 on questions about their quality of life on Long Island. It had a margin of error of 4.3 points.

Roger Fluhr, 77, a lifelong Long Island resident from Wading River, said roadway aggression has contributed to a decline in the quality of life.

"What I'm seeing is ... a lot of people trying to bully people on the road," said Fluhr, a retired high school biology teacher. "On the expressway and the highways, people [are] using it as a slalom course, and you don't see police picking these people up."

Sam Schwartz, a traffic engineer and former New York City traffic commissioner, said traffic congestion is not easy to fix in a place like Long Island.

"You're constrained by water on two sides, and you're adjacent to the busiest metropolitan area in the United States," he said. "Long Island has pretty much the same road infrastructure it's had for 25 years, and except for very few cases, it isn't much improved from the 1970s."

Schwartz said new development that is oriented around public transit is needed.

"The prospect for relief is not there unless Long Island decides to do something different, and that would include a lot of transit-oriented development near train stations, so people don't have to rely on their cars, and to improve the transit services that they have," he said.

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Businesses and lawmakers in Greenport Village are not happy with potential changes to the areas just outside the village boundaries proposed in Southold Town’s Zoning Update. The Village of Greenport’s Business Improvement District is particularly concerned about the town’s recent change of heart allowing restaurants and retail uses in a new Corridor Business Zoning District, and many in village government want the Zoning Update to do more to enable affordable housing near the village.

Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON that Greenport Village board members, and chairs of the village’s Planning and Zoning boards and Affordable & Workforce Housing Committee and the Greenport Business Improvement District laid out their concerns bluntly in an hour-long special meeting at the village’s Old Schoolhouse this past Monday.

Southold Town unveiled a first draft of its Zoning Update in April and has been holding workshops and soliciting feedback throughout town in recent months.

Greenport Village Board members agreed to draft a letter to the town airing the concerns they discussed at Monday’s meeting.

The public comment period on the first draft of the Zoning Update is now officially closed. In an email last Thursday to people who signed up for information on the Zoning Update process, Southold Town’s Planning Department said it had “received hundreds of comments on the proposed draft of the zoning update and are compiling all of them now.”

“Our next step is for the Town Board to review the comments and make revisions. A revised draft code and map will then be made public,” according to the email. “There will be at least one public meeting to review the changes made. There will be public hearings on the revised draft, as well as an environmental review. We are currently working on the timing for all of this and will keep you posted as we know more.”