Drivers should expect slowdowns around Hill Street today during Tim Walz visit

Long Island Morning Edition

Seven Suffolk County residents have sued the county over its school bus camera program, arguing there was insufficient evidence to cite them for allegedly passing a stopped school bus.

Payton Guion reports in NEWSDAY that the lawsuit, filed last month in Suffolk Supreme Court, leans on a state court decision from last year that for months held up prosecutions of school bus camera tickets in Suffolk and eventually led to more than 8,000 tickets being dismissed.

That decision, by an appellate judicial panel, caused the State Legislature to amend the law that permitted local governments across the state to use bus-mounted cameras to catch and ticket drivers who pass stopped school buses.

The recent lawsuit against the county is the latest legal challenge to Long Island’s school bus camera programs, including a similar lawsuit against the Town of Hempstead and a federal suit against BusPatrol America, the company that operates the programs. "We’re alleging that they issued these notices of violation without evidence that a violation had occurred," said Martin Bienstock, a Washington, D.C., attorney representing the plaintiffs in Suffolk. "This huge population of people getting tickets wouldn’t be if Suffolk was following the law."

The plaintiffs claim numerous problems with the evidence provided against them by the county and BusPatrol, and say the violations issued weren’t valid. Suffolk has until Sept. 10 to respond to the lawsuit.

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During her whirlwind visit to East Hampton Town last Friday, Governor Kathy Hochul visited The Retreat’s Stephanie House Shelter to announce that the state will allocate $575,000 to the nonprofit, which provides safety, shelter and support for victims of domestic abuse. Christopher Walsh reports on 27east.com that the money will be used for building improvements and technological upgrades to the shelter and the organization’s East Hampton administrative office.

“There’s not a lot of capital-project funding grants out there,” said Loretta Davis, The Retreat’s executive director. “Now we can do some improvements there and really try to maintain it better.”

The Retreat’s offices are in a donated beach house that was moved to its present location on Goodfriend Drive in East Hampton.

“We’re thrilled, because we’re pretty busy,” Davis said, “and you have to make these improvements, so clients are comfortable and safe.”

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The federal government is arguing that a Montauk commercial fisherman owes $725,000 in restitution after his conviction on illegal fishing charges — but his lawyers are arguing for no restitution at all. Mark Harrington reports in NEWSDAY that in a letter recently filed in federal court in Central Islip, federal prosecutors in the case against Montauk commercial fisherman, Christopher Winkler, 64, asked fisheries regulators from New York whether they would accept the money if a judge rules in favor of full restitution.

"Does the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation {NYSDEC} want that money…?" wrote Christopher Hale, of the Department of Justice’s environmental crimes unit, in an Aug. 5 email to the DEC, asking for a "prompt response."

Three days later, Julia Socrates, assistant director for the DEC’s Marine Resources division, writes, "I can confirm that NYSDEC will accept the restitution funds," earmarking the potential gain for the Marine Resources Account of the DEC’s Conservation Fund.

Federal District Court Judge Joan Azrack in Central Islip is expected to make a decision on restitution soon, after delaying the matter at Winkler’s sentencing last month. Winkler in October was found guilty of all five counts of conspiracy, mail fraud and obstruction against him. He’s sentenced to 30 months in prison with two years of supervised release and a $500 "special

Hale in his email to the DEC noted the restitution matter is "hotly contested," as Winkler’s lawyers are arguing for no restitution at all. His filing points out that in cases in which the federal government is a victim, "the court shall ensure that all other victims receive full restitution before the United States receives any restitution." Federal regulators who brought the case at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration "declined restitution," lawyers for Winkler wrote in their filing.

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Motorists should expect some slowdowns when driving on or around Hill Street in Southampton Village today as vice presidential candidate Tim Walz will be arriving in the area after flying into Gabreski Airport in Westhampton. As reported on 27east.com, there will be no road closures but just intermittent delays, according to Southampton Village Police Chief Suzanne Hurteau. Those delays are expected to start this afternoon, around 3:15 p.m., and last until around 4 p.m.

Digital signs on Hill Street in Southampton this morning indicate motorists should expect delays between 12 noon – 7pm.

Once again V.P. candidate Tim Walz is scheduled to attend a fundraiser in Southampton Village this afternoon.

Meanwhile, Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that last week the Southampton Town Board appeared poised to impose new rules to limit the use of public property and town roadsides for displaying political candidate yard signs, which many people say leave some areas “trashed” during the campaign season — until three board members this week apparently changed their minds and left the proposal legislatively dead in the water.

On Tuesday afternoon, when Republican Councilwoman Cyndi McNamara read out the resolution on the Town Board’s agenda that would formally introduce the law and schedule a public hearing on it, other board members…all Democrats…were silent when asked for a second to advance the measure to a vote.

Without a second, procedurally the bill was stalled and could not even be discussed further. Councilwoman McNamara had introduced the idea of adopting similar restrictions on the displaying of political signs to those most local villages impose — barring them from municipal properties, preserved lands and the municipally owned roadside right-of-ways that are off limits to other signs but left open to political signs in Southampton Town code.

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East End Food is currently a ship without a harbor — but, if all goes as planned, it won’t be for much longer. Michelle Trauring reports on 27east.com that the nonprofit, which seeks to support the local food system and agricultural viability on Long Island, is about two months away from moving into its newly expanded East End Food Hub on Route 58 in Riverhead, home to a communal commercial kitchen, year-round farmers market, an education space and local food storefront.

But construction delays have held up the project, explained East End Food Executive Director Marci Moreau, and paired with an expired lease at their former home on the Stony Brook Southampton campus, the organization has nowhere yet to land.

With kitchen operations halted, it also pushed the opening of the farmers market to the fall, she said, impacting growers, sellers and the surrounding community alike.

Last year alone, East End Food purchased 28,896 pounds of surplus fruits and vegetables from local farms to support and sustain regional food production, diverting nearly 4,300 pounds of composted scraps from landfills during processing in partnership with another local nonprofit.

To support their effort to come back stronger than ever this autumn, the organization has launched a Power of Food campaign, which aims to raise $2 million to support capital projects, kitchen facilities and staff salaries. The need is urgent, Moreau said, and the funds are pivotal.

For more information about the Power of Food fundraising campaign, or to donate, call 631-209-7383 or visit eastendfood.org.

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A proposal for Southampton Town to purchase a workforce housing easement on a multifamily house in Sag Harbor with money from the Community Housing Fund received overwhelming support at a hearing before the Town Board this week. Stephen J. Kotz reports on 27east.com that the Town of Southampton would pay Sag Housing LLC, which is a spinoff of the Sag Harbor Cinema, $1.3 million to ensure that the six apartments in the house would remain in workforce housing stock for perpetuity. Kara Bak, the town’s housing director, told the board to be eligible, tenants would have to work a minimum of 30 hours per week at a business located in town, live in the apartment year-round, and make no more than 130 percent of the median income in the region as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Currently, that is $162,000 for a family of two, she said. Tenants would have to sign one-year leases, and if their income grew to the point where they were no longer eligible, their lease would not be renewed. Sag Housing purchased the house at 11 Suffolk Street in 2021 for $2,995,000 as a way to provide affordable housing for its employees as well as others in the region as the local housing market spiraled ever higher. Susan Mead, the manager of Sag Housing and treasurer of the Sag Harbor Cinema, said they understood that the housing had to be made available to all town residents, “not just cinema people and not just Sag Harbor people.” Ellen Dioguardi, the president of the Sag Harbor Chamber of Commerce, called the proposal “the kind of innovative idea that business people hoped the town would start looking at” after establishing the housing fund to attack the widespread shortage of affordable housing. The board closed the hearing Tuesday but did not vote on the matter. That will be put off until later this month or early in September.