001East Hampton Town Board, we are live. My apologies for the delay. We had a technical difficulty. >> Thank you, Jason. We greatly appreciate you working out the technical difficulty. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the East Hampton Town Board work session of Tuesday, April 21st, 2026. Michael, if you could please read the roll call. >> [clears throat] >> Council member Flight. >> Present. >> Deputy Supervisor Leese. >> Present. >> Council member Rogers. >> Present. >> Council member Coller-Pietchmann. >> Present. >> Supervisor Burke-Gonzalez. >> Present. If we could all please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So, today we open our meeting with public portion.
002We ask you to kindly keep your comments to 3 minutes, and that will be followed by three work session topics. The first is going to be presentations from department heads. We grouped this the town infrastructure. They're going to be presenting their 2025 accomplishments and 2026 goals. We've got Jim Brundage from the East Hampton Town Airport, Steve O'Brien, Parks and Building Maintenance, Heath Lederman, Information technology, and Becky Hanson will be presenting on human resources. That'll be followed by an airport operations and complaints analysis for the years 2021 through 2025 by our the team from HMMH and our airport council Katie Van Houwen. And that'll be followed by a discussion of follow-up from a recommendation we had on the ADU construction loan program. And that'll be presented by Mark Morgan Perez. That'll be followed by liaison reports
003and then resolutions. So, first we're going to open with public comment, and is there anyone here that would like to address the board? Okay. >> [laughter] >> All right, John. I figured you'd be up. Welcome, John. >> Good morning. Good morning, all. John Cullen. Uh I live over in Northville over on the other side, the North Fork. Uh I haven't heard much about the airport and the litigation going on. Has that been finalized as far as the town trying to get more control of the airport? >> is public comment. We don't get into, you know, ask the town questions, but the we're it's still being litigated. >> That's okay. That's all I need That's all I need to >> an active case. >> Good enough. Uh >> [gasps] >> I've I've had problems with seaplane,
004you know, as Supervisor Gonzalez and Casman and Louise over the years I've been coming here, but I haven't really slowed it down quite a bit by cause I was having problems with the helicopters back yonder. And things have gotten a lot better with the team ERHC and Jim working together, having the helicopters reroute instead of coming right over my area 100 times a weekend. But now I've got a problem with the seaplanes, and it's really Tropic Air who is the big offender, and they come up from Florida with about five five seaplanes, and they were running back and forth to New York City, and for some reason I've got a bull's-eye on my house. I'm not sure if they found out where I live because they know who I am, and I come up to
005the microphone and complain. Uh they're In other words, they are not friendly flyers. They are not neighborly flyers. And I'm hoping somewhere along the way if anybody could give them a call, and maybe they can bring it up a little bit instead of 1,200 ft to get up to 2,500 ft or 3,000 ft, maybe distributed along the North Shore a little bit. Like I said, I'm 22 mi away from here. There's plenty of crossovers, but they seem to have one line, all of them, unfortunately, and uh it's irritating. As as a lot of people, you know, have said that deal with the airport here or that are against it. And I I have no problem with the airport. I just wanted to mention that. I thank you for your time. I hope you have a
006nice summer. I hope you enjoyed putting your winter coat on this morning. [laughter] I was up in Vermont in a blizzard 2 weeks ago. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, John. It's good to see you. >> Thank you. >> Would anyone else like to address the board? All right. Jason, we'll go to the phones. Is there anyone on the line? >> Uh yes, we have three callers currently on the line. I'll I'll unmute the first one. >> Thank you. >> One second. >> Hello. >> You're on the air. >> Oh, this is Am I on now? >> Yes, you are. >> This is Bill Crain. Yeah, hi. Bill Crain, East Hampton Group for Wildlife. I'd like to say a few more words about turkey hunting. People have thought of turkeys and animals and
007other animals as physical objects usually or as statistics, and such views have made it easy to kill and eat them. >> [snorts] >> Uh but they're really much like us. They have rich emotional lives and recognize our personal qualities, sometimes to an amazing degree. I would like you to tell you a story about one of our turkeys at our Farm Animal Sanctuary. Her name was Ducky. She came to us from a factory farm along with three others when she was a baby. We saw that each had their own personality. Ducky was the most aggressive and didn't care much for humans. When our caretaker cleaned the barn in which they slept at night, the caretaker performed the tasks in a strictly business-like manner. She showed no particular affection for the turkeys. She wasn't mean to them,
008just indifferent. The turkeys hated this caretaker. Ducky in particular pecked her when she came near. Over the years, Ducky had many adventures. The most surprising occurred when she was very old. She had bad arthritis, so bad she didn't want to move. We brought her food directly to her under her head so she could eat without moving in pain. Then one day a group of 50 Buddhists visited our farm. They were all from China, having moved to the US, and none of them spoke English. Yet, several were monks, others were adherents. They brought an interpreter who told us that the head monk was highly revered. He seemed like an ordinary person to me, but the interpreter said we were just so fortunate to have him visit us. The monks led a ceremony. They took some leaves
009from an evergreen tree and put it in water. They called it compassion water. Then they walked through the farm chanting, sprinkling the water, and giving blessings to the animals. When the ceremony was over, the group stood around informally chatting when I saw Ducky slowly making her way out of the barn. I was amazed. I hadn't seen her walk in weeks. It must have caused her a great pain. She left the barn, hobbled about 40 ft until she stood in front of the head monk. She simply looked at him and he looked at her. I would have liked to know what would happen next, but the Buddhists were so excited they threw a metal around Ducky and snapped pictures of her. They disrupted the interaction. So, what did happen? I asked the head Buddhist, but he
010only said through an interpreter that it was an honor to meet Ducky and the other animals. Other Buddhist monks have often visited our farm and I've asked them about Ducky's behavior. They said they could only speculate, maybe the head monk gave out especially calm vibes, maybe he and Ducky knew each other from a past life. They really didn't know. What seems most likely is that Ducky somehow recognized this man as a wise spiritual leader and she wanted to pay her respects to him. It's like [clears throat] meeting the Dalai Lama Dalai Lama. Dalai Lama. She recognized this on an intuitive emotional level that surpassed anything I could observe and she wanted to pay homage to him. My final thought. How many Duckys are out there in the woods and fields frightened by the hunt? Thank
011you. >> Thank you, Bill. Jason, if you could please put the next caller through. >> [snorts] >> Hello, caller ending 614 1641. You're on the air. >> Good morning, everyone. Um my name is uh Mark Franz. I'm a resident of Wainscott. Uh thank you for the opportunity to comment. Uh I want to thank in advance, I suppose, Dr. Simon and uh HMMH for the analysis they're about to present today. I've read it. Uh the work of compiling and presenting 5 years of complaint and operations data is generally valuable and the geographic concentration shown in the appendix heat maps validates what many of us living along the flight path have been saying for years. I want to raise one question for the board's consideration going forward. HMMH is among the nation's leading designers of permanent airport
012noise monitoring systems. They've installed them at Beijing, BWI, Denver, Centennial, and many other airports. The FAA's own guidance and nearly every comparable airport's practice treat physical noise monitoring as the foundation with complaints used to corroborate measurements rather than substitute for them. At JPX, the town has been working solely with complaint data. Uh so as we move toward these decisions, any future regulatory proceedings, the evidentiary record will benefit enormously from actual noise measurement, the kind of ground truth data HMMH provides to its other clients. I respectfully ask the board to request a scope and cost estimate from HMMH for a proper noise monitoring program at JPX. This is a question that should be on the public record regardless of where the board ultimately lands on other airport issues. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mark. Jason, if
013you could please put the next caller through. >> Hello, caller ending 4270. You're on the air. >> Uh good morning, Kathy and members of the town board. Uh this is Hershey Egginton. I'm a resident of Wainscott as well, and I live on Hedges Lane, which is on one of the approaches to the airport. Um for a time, we were very uh you know, careful about uh you know, calling in to report uh you know, low approaching aircraft. You know, there was a tremendous sort of difficulty in doing that, finding the right phone, you know, reporting the time, etc. So, fatigue has been a significant factor over time. Um in anticipation of the presentation from HMMA, I would urge the town board to consider installing actual noise monitors around the airport, so it you're you're not
014so reliant on complaints from ourselves. That is people in the in the various flight paths. So, that would be my recommendation and I thank you for your consideration. >> Thank you, Hersey. If you could please put the next caller through, Jason. >> Well, there are no other callers on the line. >> Okay. All right. Then we're going to move on to our first topic, which is town infrastructure 2025 accomplishments and 2026 goals. First up is our airport director, Jim Brundage. Welcome, Jim. Patrick, did Nancy fix the screen? >> Yes. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> Good morning. >> Morning, Jim. [clears throat] >> Starting with the airport mission statement. Our mission statement is to Is that okay? Can you hear that? >> Uh just one second, let me know. >> Sorry. >> We're just pulling
015the PowerPoint up. >> Oh, that's okay. I got it right here. Okay. The mission statement of the airport is to operate and maintain the airport in accordance with town code and federal and New York state regulations in a manner that promotes safety and efficiency. It's also to operate the airport in a manner consistent with the needs of the community while being mindful of the environmental impact of operations on the community and its surrounding neighbors. To manage the business of the airport to include leases, fuel sales, landing fees, and annual budget. And as far as uh other than normal operations, uh accomplishments last year 2025, uh we upgraded uh ramp safety by installing eight ramp lights to provide illumination for passengers and ramp personnel after dark. The LED lights are controlled by a sensor that turns
016them on at dusk and off at 10:00 p.m. when the airport is closed. We entered into a contract with outside fueling specialist to perform federal and state mandated maintenance items on the aviation fueling facility that are beyond the ability of the town to perform. We worked with the town engineer to have the aviation fueling facility tanks painted in compliance with New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Regulations. And we worked with the town airport engineer to have runways and taxiways repainted in compliance with FAA regulations. Further accomplishments, we took measures to cease using the services of Mobile Smart City for airport paid parking and establish relationship with ParkMobile to manage paid parking. Park uh Mobile uh Mobile Smart City levied a charge to to the airport uh for services while ParkMobile does not charge. So,
017that was a uh improvement on revenue. We provided support to the [clears throat] US Secret Service and White House staff for presidential visit uh 20 uh 26 to 29 June. Uh honored to have the President of the United States with us. Uh we helped negotiate terms for Hawkeye Elknor Group to lease airport property, which also increased revenue to the airport. And for 2026, uh uh I will continue to maintain and operate the airport in a safe and efficient manner. I will ensure that the airport remains financially self-sustaining. I intend to maximize the opportunities to make the airport environmentally sustainable and compatible with neighboring communities, and I will implement implement three capital projects. Repave and repaint runway 1634. Repair and repaint runway 10 28. And replace temporary control tower with a permanent structure providing updated equipment
018and better visibility for controllers during the busy summer season. >> Jim, I think there was the last time we had a presentation in February that some of the folks had [clears throat] the wrong takeaway about the control tower. >> Yes. >> When they heard permanent structure, they assumed it was going to be, you know, 12 months. >> Year-round. >> But that's not the plan. >> No, the plan is to improve the control tower facility during the season. Um It's still going to operate before just before Memorial Day and still the week after Labor Day. >> Have the controllers showed up yet or are they >> Close though, right? >> they come in May. >> All right. Anybody have questions for Jim? >> Jim, I just understand that also we're we're going to offer at some
019point a sustainable fuels. >> Yeah, that's the goal. So far it's very difficult to acquire, but the goal is to There's a room for an additional tank at the fuel farm, which I think the town board, as far as I know, is keen on installing a new tank to to if we can find the fuel, purchase it, and distribute it. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> That may be more of a 2027 plan, you know, because of the we've got a lot on our plate right now for 2026. >> Jim Jim you know, local users of aircraft because we we hear a lot about commercial enterprises kind of operating in and out of the airport, but can you just give some us some insight in the public some insight about, you know, local people with
020their planes using the airport and how how much that kind of contributes to the the business of the airport not business but operations of the airport. >> Operations. Well, the there's I mean I actually have a chart if you excuse me I'll go back and get it I can tell you give you exact numbers. >> do anecdotal I mean as you wish yeah. >> [snorts] >> So last year let's see last year 2025 2024 2023 um I should know I didn't print last year's but I have 2024 which is similar to 2025. Total operations were 25,556. Of that the light piston single engine multi-engine uh were almost 9,000. So 9,000 of >> Just under 50% roughly maybe yeah. >> Yeah so it's a lot. Uh we we we you know, the airport uh supports local
021um uh recreational flying to a great deal. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions for Jim? >> No. >> All right. Jim thank you. >> Thank you. >> And I know you're going to stick around for the HMH presentation and we appreciate that. Thank you. >> All right, next department head I mean victim I mean here you go Steve. You're up. >> Good morning Madam Supervisor, members of the board. Steve O'Brien town maintenance supervisor. I'm here to talk about buildings, grounds, and parks. Our mission statement is huge but to sum it up we are responsible for the maintenance, repair, and service of almost all of the town owned properties uh from landscaping, garbage pickup, custodial to general maintenance. In 2025 it was a great year. We were able to reduce our part-time staffing especially in
022the custodial department by bringing on more full-time staff and giving local people permanent jobs here with the town. Um that has improved morale and improved the work ethic that we get from them which has been a huge bonus for us. We've also implemented a more robust maintenance schedule for the parks and ball fields. Uh personally my daughter being in softball I don't think the fields have ever looked so good. Um I remember shoveling clay for my daughter when she first started from Maidstone Woods into the ball field. We now routinely grade them, sweep them. Uh still more to do to get them perfect but we've made huge strides in that. Uh we've also done a huge project of cleaning, organizing the town properties to remove clutter, um garbage, things that have been stored for years
023to improve the aesthetics of the town uh as as as make our department overall more efficient and more fiscally responsible so we're not double ordering things we already have in in stock. Uh as always we assist local groups with events and fundraisers all over the town. Um we just did the Montauk Easter egg hunt and coming up next is the Montauk Music Festival. >> [snorts] >> Uh both great events. Uh like I mentioned earlier we were able to improve staff um morale [clears throat] and motivation by creating new positions as well as allowing the even the newest person to give feedback and um suggestions on how we operate, what equipment we use. They the guys and girls they have a sense of ownership of the job they do and it seems to be working out
024fairly well. Um and then we also worked extensively with our engineering partners to implement new green projects and ADA improvements throughout the town. We're working on a HVAC SYA HVAC improvement at SYA to make it green and to get us off the reliant fossil fuels that it currently uses. We've completed that project at East Hampton Sanitation. Um and we are also working on one this fall for the Wainscott Police Headquarters. In addition to that we're doing as we come across them oil tank testing to make sure that we're not leaking any diesel fuel into the environment and working on replacing tanks with more structurally sound so that we eliminate any possibility of a of a leak. Moving forward to 2026 we have some work to do to purchase new equipment in order to improve our
025fleet and some of our landscaping equipment. Uh it hinders us during the summer when we're at our busiest point uh when we have to have a machine down or a piece of a vehicle down for weeks in the mechanic shop. >> [snorts] >> Um we're trying to restructure the landscaping crew and grounds maintenance crew to make each individual a little more responsibility for their areas, but also to be able to cover more ground in the same amount of time. Uh there's a lot of lawns that we cover in in the town and also trash pickup. Uh as we get more and more users of the parks and the facilities, we tend to have an increase in litter and people just leaving their garbage. Uh we're working together I'm working together with the custodial crew leader
026>> [snorts] >> to help increase the cleanliness of the buildings to get a better quality of job done from the the staff that we have now. We's going to start this year with a kind of like a department head review where I'll send out a little survey, ask them of areas that need improvement, areas that the ladies and men have excelled at so that we can give positive feedback as well as gentle suggestions on how to make things a little bit better. Uh one of the other things that I want to work on is we tend to start projects, but there's little follow-up, which is understandable because of the scope of the job. We have a lot to go through and a lot to keep track of. Uh by better working with our subcontractors, the
027goal is to complete these projects in a more timely fashion and therefore the town benefits because things aren't waiting so long. That's my speech. >> Anybody have any questions or comments for Steve? First I'm just surprised you had enough time to come here and do this presentation, Steve, with all that you do. >> I make it I'll make time for you anytime. >> Thank you. Yeah, now look my comment is I think you've hit the nail there. It's like the scope of the work you cover is immense and I feel that if we give you more resources, it's only going to benefit the community as a whole, be that people or equipment. Um you know, my my key question to be you've talked about machinery a bit, but where would you like to see us
028kind of giving you funds to invest in your department and what would the end result be? >> Uh we we need to purchase several vehicles um and landscape equipment. Uh that's where our real issues are at the moment. In the last month we've lost two custodial vehicles. Um luckily we had capital funding to purchase another one which I'm working on currently. Um >> [snorts] >> During the summer and and I always say people don't know what I do unless I don't do it, right? [laughter] Um in the summer this department operates from 5:00 in the morning until midnight. Uh that's 5 days a week. The weekends we're operating from 6:00 a.m. till midnight. If I lose a custodial vehicle, I lose a shift uh which means comfort stations don't get cleaned or buildings don't get
029cleaned. So that's where I need the most. I mean the board has been unbelievably supportive and I'm very grateful for all of your help. Um that's our biggest you know, weakness at this point. >> how many people do you have in your department total covering all maintenance for the town? >> Year-round, it's approximately 40 employees. Uh in the summer we get closer to 60 65. >> Okay. So Steve, sorry. No good. Your department was and yourself were the unsung heroes of some of the blizzards that we have at this year. Working with the highway department also to be able to get the pathways clear in some of our central business district and all the facilities open on there was a tremendous amount of effort with 30 inches of snow on the ground. No matter the
030equipment that is there to help, your staff were tremendous on that and the flexibility that you had to be able to direct those staffs to the right place on your priority listing on there was a tremendous accomplishment. >> Thank you. >> On there. Don't get me wrong. I don't want to happen again next year with all the snow, but when when it when it happened, we were happy to have you there and your staff there then too. So I agree with Tom and the rest of the board. If there's things you need on there to make sure if we get stuck with those type of mother nature events that we're not used to that you have, we're ready behind you. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. >> I remember I recall one summer we had
031folks complaining that you know, the lawns weren't getting mowed as quickly, but we had like record rain, right? So when it rains the grass grows and it makes it more challenging. >> And it's harder to mow. >> Yeah. >> It's harder to mow. So yeah, hopefully it's a beautiful summer, lots of sunshine. But the guys are out mowing today. It's one of the first full days that they'll be out there mowing. But as you can all see, it's body, you know. It's body, but thank you. >> Yeah. >> If I just may for a second Ian, I'm sorry. I also wanted to mention to you and to ask you to thank you and ask you you to thank your crew for all the work that you do in this this quick line assists local groups
032to successfully host host community events. Tom and I are on the special events committee and we know the large amount of nonprofits and local community groups that put on events all all year long, particularly in the summer season. And while you're doing everything else that you do, the help that you give to them by providing garbage cans, police horses, fencing when it's needed, so that their events can be safe and successful is greatly appreciated by the committee and by the board. So, I just wanted to mention that and ask you to bring that back to your crews as well. >> lightened the picnic tables, right? >> Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. Yeah. We've switched and to right place. We Last year we tried a new idea, which was the plastic fencing because of ease of set up,
033breakdown, storage. This year I think we're going to switch back to the wood fencing for aesthetics, for safety, and a lot of groups like to hang things on the fence, especially the Christmas events and stuff. I know in Montauk when they do their fair, they like decorate the fence, and it really looks beautiful. It's an amazing community, and what they do, you know, to support it and the fundraising, we're happy to be part of it. We really are. So, thank you. I will let them know. >> Yeah, I would just reiterate Steve, thank you to you and your crew. You you do have a huge job. The scope is is immense, and it's important. It's what makes the town look look nice. I I really appreciate your approach. You know, you've been very helpful to
034me anytime I've ever asked. And when you say things like, you know, improving the pride and workmanship and and giving your your staff, I know you have high expectations, but giving them them them them the pride and and wanting them to care, it's a win for everybody. And so, uh I know how hard it is to manage a staff the size of yours and and cover all the grounds that you need to, but I think your approach is fantastic. And Cathy just mentioned the picnic tables. Small things like that that make a very big difference. I know how thoughtful you are about the work, and and I appreciate it, and I think the whole town does. But thank you. And again, thank you all for your support. >> Thank you. >> All right. Okay, now
035next we're going to have up Heath Lederman, uh our networking systems coordinator to talk about IT. Welcome, Heath. >> Thank you for inviting me. Um I'm supervisor, town board. Good to be here. Uh I see our department's mission statement is on the wall. Uh and yes, IT is always challenged every year with uh trying to do almost the impossible with within the confines of what we're limited with with regards to our budget and our resources of staff. So, while we're doing that, our mission statement holds true. We are committed to delivering the most focused, strategic, leadership, and innovative solution we can possibly give to the town and its residents. Um we do so with professionalism, our integrity, our responsiveness, and I believe that the results tend to speak for themselves with how we are, with
036how we respond, how things are done, and how things are properly tracked. Um we try to empower all of the staff to be completely involved in the ownership of every aspect of requests they >> [laughter] >> they may have for us. Uh we try to help them meet their goals, give them the tools they need to be successful, and of course, help strengthen their digital presence and security with IT in focus. Thanks. Now, for 2025, we had a few things on on target, which uh And I I will definitely say I love uh Steve's point with uh empowering your staff. It's true. When um most of our accomplishments are because we are able to diversify throughout our staff. Our database, our GIS, our network, all seem to be different elements of the same greater whole.
037And by doing so, we're able to get more out of each person because they take ownership, they feel a sense of accomplishment by completing each each major project, which may not seem like it's a big thing, but to each of us, when we accomplish these small goals and bring to completion each one of these accomplishments, it it makes the employee feel that sense of ownership and accomplishment onto themselves, knowing they were able to drive that project from start to finish. And it gives them their sense of professionalism, where they're taking now ownership and enlisting it as a personal accomplishment for themselves. We, of course, assist all the departments with any digitization, specifically in most cases is the naming. Naming your digital files tends to be a very complex problem because most of the time we're
038thinking about it as how we file physically with paper. When that paper gets moved to digital, we have to keep in mind file name does have a restriction on how long a name can actually be and where it's stored. We work with the multiple departments with Open Gov, and it is a constant evolving process where when we do have a record type that is working, that seems to get very little tweaking as the year goes on. However, there are departments that have discovered that there's more information they'd like to glean from the applications. >> [laughter] >> So, that requires further development onto each one of those applications as we go. >> [sighs and gasps] >> Our GIS has upgraded the enterprise version of the software and has migrated from old systems to new systems, and
039doing so often times we do so off hours, so no one ever knows when a system is being migrated or upgraded, and it just seamlessly works the next day when the user double-clicks on that icon. With our cybersecurity adjustments, we keep taking industry recommendations, analyzing the important effectiveness it's going to have in our environment, and implement it. Additionally, we also get our annual reports and weekly reports from the CISA, as well as our other external analyzing organizations, and we address those deficiencies as quickly as possible. Our Open Gov, I know we're um we've done multiple department deployments. We've interviewed other departments for their needs, and we will continue expanding upon those needs and bringing those records into an online form as of course each department brings us their materials that they want to convert from
040a paper form to an electronic form. We've upgraded and deployed a new email message archiver. Uh Again, something that doesn't seem like much, but from the back end, if you're searching for email and foil, having this archiver makes your job so much easier, which of course the attorneys have full access to to query, so no one has to be involved beyond the attorneys. We've configured new AV for the 300 suite 111. And that I believe will probably be moved out. That was last year's. We replaced three low-end firewalls in areas which required them. They were small remote sites which needed their end-of-life units replaced. We deployed zero touch network access system as well as a filtering system for web-based resources so we can catch things that shouldn't be released before they get released as well
041as protect our internal people from going to places that could be malicious. We are working with the town clerk to migrate to Granicus and Legistar. That process as IT will always be a supportive role, it is a clerk project which we've gone through a bit of the design phase already and it's coming along pretty well. Looks pretty good. Um What else have we done? We've upgraded Paper Vision. A lot of users who are using our Paper Vision product are very impressed with the new version. The new Paper Vision client has a lot more robust features than the previous version. And I think that's on the networking side. For GIS, we've gone and done a public launch for a public GIS app back in February. Uh Bob Mason I believe did a presentation on that um
042this February, I think. Of course, we are currently working with an OpenGov integration with GIS. >> [snorts] >> Uh where the OpenGov product you can actually find your properties using the GIS data which we provided to OpenGov. So there is a a visual component right there. Our enterprise upgrade was migrated from its old version to version 11.5 which is the most current version in Esri. Um the ArcGIS migration is from desktop to Pro which is again the most current version so we are not lagging behind on the resources for the users, for our staff. Uh GIS has done employee training when they did migration from ArcMap to uh GIS uh ArcGIS Pro. They updated the imagery which we update as soon as we get the updated imagery files and 2025 was no different. Uh migration
043of configurable apps to instant apps. They upgraded, integrated, and distributed to the sub-county water authority the 2023 and 2025 data sets. Uh they did some trail map updates and redesigns, updated our weather-resistant paper so the trail maps now won't fade as quickly cuz it's weather-resistant not impervious. We have an update on the IT GNSS which is the GIS equipment so if you ever see our guys out in the field wearing the yellow backpacks with the little Ghostbuster uh stem on the back, that's an antenna. It is not a proton pack. So. [laughter] So, yes, the uh the antenna >> for that one. >> [laughter] >> It's all good. >> [clears throat] >> And of course, they've updated the equipment for the planning department in order for them to effectively collect wetland and other environmental features,
044as well as the fire hydrant, Suffolk County Water Authority bill processing method for finance. 25 accomplishments. So, some of our goals we're looking at for 2026. Uh we are working at getting our offsite backup replica in place. I'm not going to state where that's going to be because uh security-wise, that's not a good idea. However, uh we are anxiously awaiting. We'll get that going as soon as I think next month. >> I think next month. >> uh done. We are still retraining offices again on digital file maintenance, how to name files. So, again, if a file is properly named, no matter where it falls, if you know the name of the file, you can find it. Uh we're developing additional procedural manuals, collaborating with departments with new OpenGov online apps. Uh again, we are currently
045collaborating with town clerk for the migration of Minute Traq to Granicus, the Legislator product. We have uh an immutable backup system, which we are I have the quotes on my desk, which should be submitted soon, uh probably this week. That'll get implemented within the next month. Uh we are planning an anti-ransomware and cyber resilience with uh another vendor, which is actually another product which should be fairly economical for what they promised to to provide. Uh, we'll be replacing the rest of the end-of-life firewalls this year which I'm anticipating on happening in 2 months. We have our GIS server storage which we've uh, done capital project for. Unfortunately, we're probably going to have to scale back on the size of the space and that is due to the fact of hard drive and memory has tripled
046in price over the last year. When we had our quotes, it was a different cost and now yeah. We have DocuSign coming in which we'll be working with HR and anyone else who needs assistance in our implementation of that. We are going to complete the transition from ArcMap to Arc Pro town-wide. Again, more sophisticated software requiring a little bit of understanding of the new features. We're intending on implementing and distributing Access GIS. Now, this is a one-stop shop for GIS assessor information, land management into one server that'll be publicly available. >> Dave, could you just expand on that a little bit cuz I that's such a huge thing. I really want to make sure the public's aware of that cuz we get a lot of feedback about that program. >> It will not be available
047uh, probably until the end of the year, but what we're looking at providing is pulling out the the property information of each parcel, tying to it the GIS references, the submitted uh, records that they have had requested. Anything that should be publicly available should be available to this server. So, we're we're still working out all of the details and getting that information as up to date as possible. There's going to be uh, right now we still have one person in our staff full-time entering data to make sure the assessor's data is going to be as accurate as possible. So, they're taking data from paper files which are not OCR recognized and unable to be gleaned electronically. Even if they were, they would still have to be checked by a human to verify their accuracy of
048the data. And they're taking that and putting it into the system that's going to present this to that server. Um, >> And just to be clear, that's 28,000 records. Each one they go through the property card, create a new property card and open gov for that property with the correct information. >> Well, it's not an open gov. It's actually within our govern system. And that's actually open forms which we are going to have presented to the new server. So, we are trying to make sure all of the accuracy of data that we have will be available. And we will keep adding to it as soon as we get more of the paper data and put it back into the systems. And unfortunately, it's a grueling, slow process because as my team has understood, it is
049more important to be accurate than fast. Um, I know once we are getting close to ready, Bob Mason will present the access server and we'll probably do a full demonstration as well. We are implementing new governmental enterprise licenses for enterprise GIS. >> [cough] >> We're getting the planning department up and running with their new GPS equipment. Uh semi-quincentennial tall mapping app. I think that was something that um Bob did for David. >> Mhm. >> Um There It was at the Plex uh >> Yeah, so we have an initiative that will uh that we're working with IT and will bring to the board in early May about the town's initiative for the semi-quincentennial for America and how East Hampton's place in that semi-quincentennial has a lot of history to it. So, I I appreciate that and
050it's almost like almost like a geo binding aspect of it. >> Right. And actually, I I absolutely agree. Um years ago, I used to do scouting and was a an assistant scoutmaster. Doing the geocaching would be an excellent uh idea for that because that is in and of itself it's history, it's a discovery of technology, and integrating the two together really is something spectacular. And I've seen a couple of the uh things that Bob was working on. It is very impressive, but I wouldn't be able to fully give him justification for what he's actually produced. >> Yeah, it's also a discovery of place out here, too. So, you put that all together in this historical year in in America. Uh thank you. But more to come on that, Ethan. >> Oh, that it's your direction.
051We wouldn't have done it otherwise. >> Appreciate you. >> Uh we have GIS web app rebuilds and redevelopment, launching of a new map mapping app tailored per department, which some departments may know when they move to different computers, you might have seen the planning GIS versus the town boards GIS. And these are just separate layering which Bob sets up for everyone. He's got further public web app development which he's again increasing the leveraging of what we already pay for. So we have the enterprise licensing and the RTS online. So we are trying to maximize the value of what we've actually paid for. We are hoping to increase our staff focusing on our data side skill set. And that would be working with our database administrator, Christine Adams. She's database coordinator. We are also automating database
052maintenance tasks, configuring notification systems. We build out redundant fall over environments to support govern and BAS for their live databases. We review and harden our security to our live databases. So we are not going to fall victim to an early vulnerability discovered. And we also automate additional open gov database processes as well as building new custom SQL server reporting services. And these reports. So this is what we're looking for for the 2026 goals and of course anything ad hoc as they come up. I want to thank you all for your time. >> Thank you, Heath. Does anyone have questions, comments for Heath? >> Yeah, no, just comments. I mean, I think look, one thing that's very important for everybody to understand with IT is that, you know, you're the glue that holds a lot together.
053You know, in terms of data integrity, that actually spots the specific department levels, be it the assessor's office, the building department's office. You know, that data being correct comes from those offices. So as we build tools, you know, it's important to kind of coordinate with those departments to make sure that data is correct. Same with the architecture, you know, things like open gov when we build that for the marine patrol office or any other department, you know, they know how it is that their department functions. So, they dictate what they want to want the process flow of that that application to be. Um and it's a learning process. I mean, look at your iPhone. I mean, how many iterations of that software on there? It's something that you learn from as you kind of move
054forward and you evolve that that program as it goes forward. I I think, you know, what your department is really effectively doing is that as we see challenges of hiring people out here because of geography and other reasons, finding ways to leverage IT to facilitate and kind of increase our department's productivity is something that's huge. So, thank you to you and your department. I know you guys go above and beyond and it's uh it's greatly appreciated. >> Thank you very much. >> Uh I'll add the appreciation that I have and actually have much I thought I knew, but I didn't know uh about uh cyber awareness through your training programs for everyone from through Arctic Wolf. Um they've been really informative on a on a very deep level um and really are keeping me up
055to date on the new scams coming along um which are intense. It's amazing how quickly um bad actors take old framework and are able to infiltrate when it was latest and greatest and it seems like it's monthly uh that you have to keep up with these attacks. Um and informing all of us through that system has uh greatly improved my own awareness as a user. Um and also in my family's because I spread the word um to to older folks that I know, other seniors like myself, and uh everyone um to be aware. Um and that information, which is really up-to-date, um is very helpful to keep us safe. So, while uh other departments you we can see the work that they do, um we can't see uh physically your work, but it's all it's
056as important, uh, for keeping us safe. It's incredibly important. And I want to thank you and extend my thanks to your staff. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. It is, bar anything else, I I agree 100%. The security awareness is our biggest asset in the fight in cybersecurity. Just everyone's help is is appreciated, and understanding is the first step, and that's that's really what we do we're hoping to get. >> Thank you very much. >> And we spoke about that at the department heads meeting, how sophisticated, you know, with AI, these phishing emails and cyberattacks have been. And you know, you know, we're making the investment, and it's just that you don't see it, right? >> And Yeah, I really appreciate the acknowledgement. It really does make the biggest impact in cybersecurity. You don't
057see it until it goes wrong. You know, I I was able to attend the East End Supervisor Mayors meeting, and they had, uh, Southold there, who had a very large-scale cybersecurity attack, and it was the one in Southampton County recently also, and they were going through those processes on there then, too. Uh, and the investment that we're doing here to protect what could happen on in their information and education training to your staff it it protects not just the residents taxpayer money because the ransom or whatever we have to do to repair, but also their modernization, which is one of the effects that the supervisor is doing in her administration, is to modernize town government. How we do that right now is how Tom's working also, is through the IT department. So, that was something
058that is extremely important to myself, as I know Kathy wants to continue moving that forward, so I appreciate that. >> Well, we're protecting their data, too. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah, thanks, Ethan, and thanks to your staff, of course. Um, you know, as everybody has mentioned, it's a really important job that you do because we all use technology, you know, throughout every department in the town, and it often goes unnoticed until as Dave said it doesn't work. And I thankfully haven't had that experience of it not working too often. Um I'm particularly excited about the project that you mentioned of making data publicly available. Um I think that that's as Tom says, leveraging IT to to make the whole town more efficient. You'll save the public time, save our staff time, and just make things easier
059and easier to deal with town with with information that's already publicly available. So, rather than FOILing things where it involves a number of people, it'll just be at their fingertips. So, that's very exciting and something I hear requested quite frequently from the public. So, >> I'm I'm glad you brought that up, cuz that came up in our express sessions that we had last Thursday when we talked about the building department and how Southampton has a system where folks can pay a fee to be able to get online. And I think we were just talking internally, uh and I know part of it is hard because there's personal data in there. If we were FOILed, we have the ability to redact phone numbers or, you know, or anything else um that's uh should not be distributed.
060But, we were thinking could the property card, could the CEO, and could the survey, if those three things were able to be made accessible to folks so that they weren't coming to the counter and, you know, trying to get research at the building department. I think that would be a a first big step towards um having those three things available. >> Right. Who are um during our planning phase, we've been discussing what must not be visible on the public end. So, we we are absolutely aware of this and we are trying to uh again provide the best possible solution using the tools we have at our our disposal. And again, this will be as as I will say our glamour project of the year. That's the one that's going to have the biggest ooh factor.
061And and it and should. Um a lot of the other stuff we do, there's no there's no glamour, there's no fame. It's it's necessary because of the uh having strong pillars to hold up the organization is really what we are working on fortifying. But when it comes to an occasional uh product which really actually does wow, that's I I feel David's project is going to be one of those projects with the uh the plux, the uh database that Bob's working on, it's it's really I'm very excited even from the little bit we've got right now in the framework of it as is. So, I think it's going to truly hit the mark when uh when it's ready. >> Great. >> of a lot of pressure right there for me. >> [laughter] >> That's nice. >>
062I'm ready for it. One other thing I want to mention, you mentioned the clerk's office, but I know that that Michael, that the town clerk, Michael Hanson, and you yourself worked on getting the beach the resident beach permits online, the online form. Um and that's been a huge um you know, a huge improvement, I think. It's it's one of the 5 years where everybody has to get a new beach parking permit. There's a lot of traffic, and I think having that available online's a really great step towards, you know, bringing the clerk's office into a more technologically advanced era. So, I know I know Michael has a lot of other good ideas, too. So, just just wanted to throw that out there. Again, I know a lot of your office has been very busy receiving
063those. Um and that's a big help. >> Yeah, I actually used it this I used your online and I have I'm going to mention in my liaison report I used the online portal to renew my beach sticker this morning, and it was uh really really helpful and a smooth operation from beginning to end. It it went so quickly. So, [snorts] thank you all for that as well. >> I think, you know, just closing, I mean, not this year, obviously, perhaps not next year, but, you know, as more and more of people's interface with government comes online, you know, I do think we want to kind of just put at the back of our minds too as a as a board, a refresh of the town website. You know, I think, you know, it functions well
064and I think you guys do a good job managing it, but actually putting aside some some money to improve that interface experience and, you know, just exploring what other towns are doing with their town websites. I think it's something that, you know, we should all be cognizant of this. It's it's something we're going to need to address at some point. >> So, we refreshed it in '24. And we're on a contract, right? So, I'm not sure when the next refresh is. That's like built into the into the contract we have with Civic Plus. >> I'm sorry? >> I believe it's every 3 years. We refresh. >> So, next year. All right, beautiful. Thank you, Heath. >> Thank you, all. >> Okay. And now we have the Human Resources presentation and our Town Administrator, Becky Hanson,
065is here to present. Welcome, Becky. >> Good Just afternoon. >> Yeah. >> [laughter] >> 12:03. >> Uh Becky Hanson, Town Administrator and Budget Officer, and I'm here today to talk about the Human Resources Department. And the reason that I'm presenting today is that uh Human Resources is within the Finance um division that I oversee. So, the mission statement of the Human Resources Department. The Town of East Hampton believes that our employees are our most valuable resource. The Human Resources Department's mission is to focus on human capital management by recruiting, training, managing, and retaining employees. The responsibilities of the department are to provide employees with information on benefits, career tracks, navigating civil service, and training opportunities. The goal of the department is to create an environment in which employees growth and experience contribute to the success
066of town operations and provide excellent service to its citizens. The department is responsible for all aspects as they relate to full-time, part-time, including our seasonals, uh employees and retirees. And I think one of the most important things that you're actually acting on a resolution today, is to appoint a new department head for human resources, Emily. Come on up. Emily Bono Fisher. >> [applause] >> Smile and wave for everybody. Now she's going to kill me. So, fun facts about Emily Bono Fisher. Um Emily first started with the town in 2009 as a part-time TCO. She worked her way up working in the justice court, the building department. In 2018, she moved to HR and purchasing where she split her time 50/50 between both departments. In 2022, she went over to payroll where she received a promotion
067to principal account clerk. And in November of 2025, the town temporarily appointed her personnel assistant to oversee the HR department. And we are thrilled that she has agreed to take over and become our newest department head. Uh for Emily, working at the town is also a family affair. She's going to kill me again. Her husband, CJ, has worked for the town since 2007, her sister with the police department 2008, and her mom also with the police department since 2023. So, congratulations. I feel like she's all grown up. Uh very proud of you and we are welcome to have you as our newest department head. >> We are extremely thankful. [applause] >> Now you can sit. Unless you want to present. >> [laughter] >> Unless you want to present. >> All right. >> She's already gone.
068Um so, we're very, very happy for Emily. Uh 2025 accomplishments for the Department of Human Resources. We continue to coordinate with town department heads to identify staffing needs, fill vacancies, and add new to new titles to departments as requested and approved in the town budget. This is something that we continually do. This is, you know, obviously also a 2026 goal as well. Um as of last Friday with your um meeting Thursday evening, we now have a total of 335 full-time employees um on the town roster. We have 108 part-time employees, which includes year-round um uh part-time employees and also your appointed boards and your town trustees. They're lumped in together also as part-time. Um uh we've worked with the uh county Department of Civil Service to update minimum qualifications for certain civil service job titles.
069We continually submit duty statements and receive approvals for new titles that have been and we also request and canvas lists and schedule interviews. We have worked with, whether through onboarding as new personnel, current, or returning part-time seasonal personnel, a total at our peak and which was the August 15th, 2025 payroll, a total of 581 employees. So, that is a lot of back and forth paperwork, monitoring, tracking of um through the Human Resources Department. Uh we have worked with department heads on personnel-related issues to make sure that we are maintaining healthy and respectful work environments. Also in 2025, the town board adopted a paid parental leave policy for up to eight calendar weeks of a paid leave. The town also adopted a remote work policy. You hired an employee benefits supervisor, which has allowed the Human
070Resources Department staff to focus on more human resource priorities, and this provides employees and retirees with a singular staff person for retirement, insurance, and other benefit-related inquiries in order to streamline uh communication through the department. We also now administer uh program and reporting requirements for the Affordable Care Act for employees and retirees. This was a function previously um administered through the Accounting Department, but we uh realized last year that at the request of accounting, it really is more of an HR related function. So, that responsibility was shifted away from accounting to HR. 2026 goals. We to approve a contract with DocuSign, which you just approved recently, to create a more efficient employee onboarding process, thereby reducing delays in paperwork submission and hiring employees. So, ideally a new employee or returning employee when you have a
071new hire packet, instead of having everyone come in or giving them a packet, they have to return it signed. They don't always have everything signed or the paperwork. They they will be able to do all of it online and return the the documents through the DocuSign process. Our hope by the end of the year will be to re- relocate the human resources department to the Peach Farmhouse, which will create a dedicated more private space for operations, meetings, and trainings for employees and members of the public. We will continue to provide our New York State mandated training opportunities, which also includes a new state mandated cybersecurity awareness training, and that does apply apply to employees who use computers in their in their everyday duties. So, that doesn't necessarily apply to all employees, but we are obviously
072going to be requiring the employees that have to take it. We also are looking to add Spanish language classes for some of our employees who are native Spanish language speakers, and to continue to provide additional training opportunities for department heads and department specific training. Um, the supervisor conducts monthly department head meetings where we have created small training opportunities through videos or discussions or having speakers come to the department head meetings. HR also recently conducted a defensive driver training class for employees who operate town vehicles, and so that include highway, sanitation, parks. So, there actually was a really good response to that training. The town will work to negotiate and settle upcoming union contracts that expire in 2026 and also work on negotiations negotiations for those that expire in 2027. And as needed, we will continue
073to update town policies whether through our own internal review or any mandates that come from local, state, or the federal government. And we will look to complete the introduction of the Rave app, which is a safety security app for town buildings and locations that a lot of school districts, college campuses, Suffolk County is also using the Rave app for security measures. And just real quick in talking about you know recruiting and retaining employees. So out of So we currently have 15 open positions. Seven of those are currently under the county canvas process and eight of those are open to the public. So if we take our 335, add the 15, so our goal is 350. So that shows that we are just about at a 96% capacity rate for the the number of positions that
074we hope to have at the town. So Do you have any questions or comments? Anyone have >> The 350, just out of interest, I mean how does that compare to where we were 10, 15 years ago? And And how many of the kind of roles that we did used to have have been outsourced to external agencies, Chief Feeney? >> I don't believe very much has been outsourced except in in recent with outsourcing of certain to outside consultants for things such as in the building department. The town has always outsourced certain legal contracts depending on the specificity or area of legal necessity for the type of thing that that needs a separate outside counsel on. But other than that, as far as outsourcing, I'm not aware. I mean you have unions, so that's always a very
075fine line of outsourcing certain work. >> To the planning as well, right? We did a bit there. >> That was 2 years ago, perhaps. Yeah. >> It's not continued anymore. We've >> Um, for certain applications, yes. Like you have Cityscape, but again, those are not things that are unusual. Uh, oh, let me back up. You also outed contract out certain mowing, and that was with the agreement of the union. But again, it's not anything that's not, um, highly unusual. >> Two things here. I think the doc you signed is a very simple thing, but it's something that goes back to the IT and the modernization. Makes it just simpler and easier, uh, uh, you know, for the the employee that's being on-boarded also. And I'm really looking forward to for the staff to have a
076dedicated facility in the Peach House when that's complete. I think that's going to be a tremendous effort as the first blush to what town on-boarding process is or interviews. Uh, I think that's going to be extremely helpful. >> Yeah. And again, just to provide a more private location for employees or retirees coming in for whatever reason. Um, and sometimes, unfortunately, when they are disciplinary or, um, counseling memos, you know, again, it provides a more private, um, space for those things to happen. In addition to anything related to health insurance or benefits or retirement, um, even people coming in for, you know, um, let's say, you know, I'm not getting along with my co-worker. So again, it's just to provide a more comfortable environment for for the town employees. >> 24 years coming. >> It's my
077baby project. >> [laughter] >> Exciting. >> Any other comments or questions for Becky? >> No, I just, uh, want to thank the department again. Um, this is another department, uh, that, uh, is not forward facing to the public. So it's, uh, not always seen, uh, the volume of work that is done, uh, not only taking care of the existing employees, but particularly for reaching out for, uh, recruitment for, uh, positions. And these are not easy times as we have, you know, cost of living factors, etc. that that we're up against as we're geographically isolated. So, the work here again is very important and not seen by the public. I know the amount of interviews. I know myself for when we were interviewing for a chief building inspector that the volume of of folks that we
078interview, that all goes through the the human resources department managing all the applications, folks that come in, um and also setting up the interviews are are incredibly helpful to us as we uh fill spaces as well. So, it's not only just I just want to point out it's not only work taking care of and recording all all of the documents for the employees that we have. It's the outreach and the amount of volume of interviews, etc. that we do as well. >> So, to put that in perspective a little bit, um not every uh title that the town canvases for are we canvasing a local list, which are town residents. Some of these lists are um you're canvasing our county list. We have some titles where the town is sending out, and this is the
079HR department that handles it, 5 to 600 canvas letters to people across the county that are on these lists. Um so, that takes time to print the letters. We act we have to fold them. I mean, they have to get postage and it and it might not sound like a lot, you know, oh, stuffing envelopes, but um when you have 5 to 600 letters that you need to get out on a deadline um to make sure that people that we're following the um the timeline for them to respond, and then also scheduling those interviews. We had a a position um last week that uh there were 29 responses and 29 interviews were scheduled, you know, for one single day, and 19 of those candidates showed up. So, it is a very long day sometimes, but
080again, our HR staff is part of that interview process from the beginning to the end. >> And we've split responsibilities now. Right now, we have a uh employee benefits supervisor, which taking it makes more sense and and let's we'll let Emily be more focused on her job and you know, staff in her department have just recently got promoted. So, you know, and now with the summer season hiring of lifeguards and part-time rec aids, TCOs, it's full on and we're we're grateful for all the work HR does for us. Thank you, Becky. >> Yeah, I would just say thanks. Thank you, Becky, and I agree with with Kathy and everybody that the the benefits coordinator is an important position because it's it's a an important department for just one person to run everything. And I especially
081want to thank Emily. Emily's been incredibly helpful and I'm I'm grateful for her to accept formally the the department head position. I think she's going to do great. >> Great. Thank you, Matt. All right. Now, we are going to switch gears and we're going to get a presentation on the airport operations and complaints analysis. This is over a 5-year period, 2021 to 2025. I think Katie, you're going to you're going to start us off. Matt, if you could queue up the PowerPoint and Katie, you could introduce the team from HMMAH. Folks, we're expecting this presentation to take about an hour, so everybody you knows and you know, I think we'll ask questions throughout. I think it'll just be easier to if a slide comes up and we have a a question about it or a
082comment to do it in real time. Everybody's good with that. >> Sounds good. Take it away, Katie. >> Good afternoon, Madam Supervisor, members of the board. My name's Katie Van Hueven. I am a partner with the law firm of Kaplan Kirsch and we provide outside legal counsel to the town on federal aviation issues. Um and I'm extremely uh pleased to present uh the HMMAH team that's here to present the noise complaint analysis. So, uh and we've already heard today about the qualifications of HMMH as an international and nationally recognized um noise consultant firm. But with us today, and I'll ask you to briefly stand, are Ria Henrahan, who's the director of HMMH's aviation environmental and sustainability group. Welcome, Ria. Good to see you. We only ever see each other Also, Matthew Simon, who's a principal
083consultant with the same group. Matthew will be making the today's presentation. And third, Dave Marcillo, an associate consultant with HMMH, who I think did a lot of the legwork going into today's presentation. So, the behind-the-scenes talent. Um I wanted to set the stage for today's presentation. So, HMMH has been working with the town of East Hampton for more than a decade. Um and for years, HMMH came and made annual presentations to the town on where are the complaints coming from? What does the data look like? Um and that really got derailed during and after COVID. And so, today's presentation, the town has asked HMMH to take a comprehensive five-year look back of what's been happening since we've had these regular updates from the town. And we're going to start with a problem statement. And the
084reason we're doing that is in 2014, when the town was looking at what its options were to deal with noise and the effects on the community, the town really wanted to get a better understanding of what was it exactly that was really driving people's frustration with aviation noise. And as a result, working with HMMH, the town undertook the first sort of set of comprehensive analysis of the aviation data and tying that to the actual complaints that were being received in order to to identify and define what was the actual problem that this town is facing. Uh and as you'll see on the slide in front of us right now, in 2014, when the town really last looked at defining the problem, it came up with a series of bullets. Um and let me just reiterate
085them. The basic problem statement, now more than a decade ago, was that noise from aircraft operating at the airport disturbs many residents of the East End of Long Island, which should be apparent by now. Um the data showed that helicopters were among the most disturbing category of uh uh and more disturbing than fixed-wing aircraft. And the data also showed that the most annoying operations were occurring during evening and night hours, um and when operations were most frequent. And that was the information that really informed the town's sort of strategic imperative going forward of you know, what it was trying to regulate to address the actual concerns in this community. But that was 10 more than 10 years ago. Um and a lot has changed since then. The town has implemented uh voluntary flight paths. It's
086implemented a voluntary curfew. And one of the things uh that the supervisor specifically asked that HMM look into was what do the data show now? And do we see any shifts in how the problem is being perceived by the community? So, this is the point at which my expertise ends, and I'm going to turn it over to Matt to actually talk to you about the data. >> Okay, great. Thank you, Katie. Uh and thank you again for the invitation. >> bring the mic a little closer to you, Matt, that'd be great. Thank you. >> Yes. Hopefully, that's a little bit better. >> Perfect. >> Oh, well, thank you for the invitation to come and present the data to you today and so we're going to go through a journey of both operations and complaints data
087over the last 5 years. But before we do that, we're going to talk about what the project aims and the approach that we took with the data are. And so that's just to evaluate the operations and complaints associated with aircraft activity at East Hampton Town Airport, which is now identified as JPX. Previously it was identified as HTO. And we're going to compare those operations and complaints across the same time frame 2021 to 2025 calendar year. So this is full year, not just the peak season. So this is winter, fall, spring and summer. And then we're going to summarize those findings as many different ways as we can possibly define. So we'll be looking at different years, seasons, day of the week, hour of the day and aircraft type. Um so Our approach here was to
088pull data from two different systems. One was the Vector Noise and Operations Management Systems or V Noms. This is for the operations data at the airport. Again, 2021 through 2025 time frame. For the complaint data set, we're pulling from plane noise management system over the same time frame. And then we did pull a public registry database from FAA in order to link the operations unique aircraft identifier or N number when it was available to additional information about the aircraft to try to gain more insights into engine type and and things like that. Just for some definitions here real quick. When we talk about seasonal analysis, we are talking about four seasons but could be defined differently. For this analysis, we're defining winter as all of January, February and March. Spring would be April, May, June
089and then so on and and so forth through the seasons. Also, just want to highlight different aircraft type that we are referring to, just so um kind of folks are on the same leveling field here. Um helicopters uh really just one category, so helicopter, rotorcraft. Uh folks should know that there are two different engine types that um for the helicopters primarily, so uh piston aircraft, which is represented by the aircraft on the top. They don't always look like that, but that is one representation. Or uh turboshaft uh helicopters, which are represented by the the bottom one. Uh in the next category to the right, we have fixed-wing piston aircraft. So, these are aircraft with piston engines and typically are smaller uh in size. I have shown here both a version that lands on the land
090and a version that is outfitted with floats to land on the water. These are actually the same aircraft model and the same engine, and I highlight that just because uh uh someone mentioned earlier um about seaplanes specifically. Um So, as far as noise goes, uh there really isn't much of a difference. It's more about the engine and the engine size, um other than the fact that it can land on the water is a separate um issue. So, I just want to highlight that. The next category fixed-wing aircraft are turboprops. So, these will still have a propeller and uh just a larger engine. These are turbine engines, and again, I have a uh representation of one that lands on land and also one that is shown to be on land, but is able to land on
091the water as well. The last category is a fixed-wing jet. Typically, you'll see something more like the figure on the right, uh which is a a twin-engine jet engine uh jet aircraft, but there are is one uh single-engine jet aircraft on the market today, and there are some data to support that in uh presentation today. So, want to highlight that. Um one last slide on definitions. So, when we're referring to the different aircraft, we're not going to spell out everything about the aircraft in terms of is it is it a helicopter with a piston or turbo shaft engine? We're just going to refer to them as a category of of heli for helicopter. The piston, turbo, and jet are all fixed-wing aircraft uh by engine type though. So, piston um turboprop and jet. And then
092other those are aircraft that did not fit within the one of the categories above or typically with the complaints data set, um there were multiple aircraft in the complaint and no one aircraft could be identified. And then unidentified is uh those aircraft that are not identifiable in the data sets that we had access to. So, first we're going to talk about the operations at the airport, then we'll talk about the complaints at the airport, and then we will look at them together. Uh as I mentioned earlier, our data set for the operations came from VINOMS. This is a a web portal application that we had access to. It has this flight tracking um data. Uh it is a radar and camera-based system, and this is a snapshot of of what that looks like when we
093log into the system and and pull the data. It does have information such as aircraft number uh or the N number, so we can link that to the FA registry. It has other details as far as um is it a departure or an arrival uh and some detail on engine type. But, we use the FA registry for that. So, let's jump into the data. First, we're looking again at operations. This is total annual flight operations for the entire 5-year period, and we have it broken out by aircraft type as we identified earlier. You can see 2021 has the highest uh operations count, and then we drop off, but then we continue to slowly increase after that. For some context, um 2018 numbers were 17,700 operations at the airport. Then in 2019 was 19,200 operations. So,
094you can see uh we went the airport went up in 2021 quite a bit. Uh you know, we don't have the data to support this, but likely due to COVID impacts. Um and then we drop back off in 2022, and that is more in line with the the growth pattern that we saw pre-COVID. >> in 2021 we had because we were coming out of COVID, there was a lot of folks that weren't doing international travel, and we had a very busy season here uh with seasonal rentals and whatnot. So, there was a lot of operations in '21. >> Um we will have a slide later on to show a better view of the breakout, but you can see um fairly consistent across the years in terms of aircraft type um with maybe a slight decrease
095in the helicopters as the years go on. And a slight increase in um piston and turboprops. If we break this out by season, so again, this is the full 5-year data set. Uh should be no surprise, the summer period has the most operations, um but spring as well. So, people might be starting to come here later on in the spring, and you can see um fewer operations in winter and fall. And again, uh similar type of breakout as we saw across the four year. So, we look at the total annual flight operations as a percentage of the fleet mix. So, this is the point of this slide is really to look at is there a difference in the years in terms of the aircraft fleet that are um making up those total operations. So, what
096we see is that uh as I mentioned earlier, the helicopter category is slightly decreasing over time as a percentage of the operations. And I do have the operations shown here as a a blue diamond just for for context. Um and then we see that the jets are increasing as a percentage, whereas we have the turboprops and the piston kind of holding steady at at the same percentage. If we do the same kind of analysis across seasons, um we see kind of a an even split within each of the seasons. Uh sorry, within summer season. Um within winter and fall, we see primarily those are driven by the smaller piston aircraft making up the majority of the flights. Although, remember that those seasons have fewer operations overall. We also broke out the data by average uh
097weekly operations by hour of the day. And so, what I'm showing here are the different years represented by different colors. So, 2021 is blue and is um the highest uh shown here on the graph. And then uh the following the 2022 through 2025 as the other colors. Similar patterns across the day, so we see we have a little bit of a morning peak and then we have more of an afternoon peak. And then trailing off on both the morning and evening hours. And as you can see in the figure, um it seems like there is uh large compliance with the night time curfew uh the voluntary night time curfew uh between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. If we look at the operations across seasons, again the shaded gray region is the voluntary night time curfew.
098It's a similar type of of trend. Uh one thing that is interesting here is that for 2021, again those were the um maybe COVID post-COVID time frame. We see a lot of the flights that make up that year might have been more in the winter spring periods as opposed to summer. As you can see in summer, um the different years are more closely aligned. So, uh just a small note there. We also broke this out by day of the week. And just to note, you know, these are annual averages. So, uh sorry, this is a 5-year average in this case. Um we do have slides towards the end that that break this out a little bit easier to see, but here's a picture of the full 5-year period. You can see um similar trends across
099the days, but um of interest is that we see Monday, which is the the darker blue color, has more of a morning peak. And and then you see um Thursday, Friday, and Sunday, which are the red and I don't know if the mouse actually shows up on the screen. Uh maybe it does. So, the uh red line is Thursday. The lighter blue is Sunday, and purple is Friday. You can see there is more of a an evening peak there. So, um that is one thing of interest, and we'll be able to show that a little bit clearer in some of the slides later on. Again, um voluntary night time curfew in gray, and um it seems that uh pilots are abiding by that mostly. We break this out by season. Um we can see relatively
100consistent between winter and fall. And in the summertime is where you see that difference across the different weekdays. So, um that's really where you start to see that Thursday, Friday, and Sunday evening peak um relative to the other days of the week, and then also that Monday morning peak in blue. Just to highlight the top 10 operations by count, uh and this is by aircraft model. Uh the most was a helicopter, and this is across the 5-year period. Um, 16,000 almost 500 operations. Uh, and then we have a kind of a mix after that with pistons, uh, turboprops, um, some more helicopters. So, just just give you a snapshot of of the top 10 uh, by aircraft model. If we look at top 10 operations by individual aircraft, so this is a unique N number,
101so you'll see that the same model is up here multiple times, it's because it's a a physically a different aircraft. Um, so you can see there's a Cessna C172, piston aircraft had the most operations over the 5-year period. And and so on. Next, we're going to turn and look at just the noise complaints by themselves. And then as I said, we will, uh, come back and combine all the data together. For the complaints data, we're using PlaneNoise, and there's been a contract in place with the town since 2012. It's a commercial product, and the complaints are address-based and, uh, linked to the operations at the airport. One thing that is different this time around with this analysis than, uh, in past analyses that HMH has participated in is that in 2021, PlaneNoise started integrating an
102ADS-B transponder, uh, data from the tower with the complaints, and this has the is a powerful addition in that it's able to identify, or at least attempt to identify, the specific aircraft that is leading to the complaint. Um, so it's not it's not a guarantee. Uh, the methodology that they tend to use is, uh, the complaint comes in, they they know the address of that complaint, they use the transponder data to identify the nearest aircraft to that complaint, and, uh, can link the two that way. Uh, so like I said, it identifies the likely aircraft. It's not a guarantee. Um, but what's powerful about this is it now includes a data set that has an N number, which we can then link to the FA registry and get a lot more information about that particular
103aircraft. Um, another data set that was used in the past was air noise report, but this data set was not available for this analysis. Um, that um, became not operational uh, before 2021. So, here are the annual uh, results for the complaints by year. For context, I have included the operation counts in the blue diamond. So, as you can see in 2021, uh, at least within this 5-year time frame, had the most complaints of all the 5 years and they're decreasing over time. Uh, you can see that now we are starting to show unidentified aircraft in this mix. And again, that's just um, with the noise complaint data set, sometimes it's not possible to identify the aircraft uh, as we could with the VINAM system. Uh, but you can see that the complaints are decreasing
104while operations are slightly leveling off or slightly increasing. If we look at complaints by year as a percentage of the fleet mix, so within each year, which aircraft type are resulting in the most complaints, uh, you can see that helicopters are driving that. So, uh, especially in 2023, you can see that very clearly, almost 50% of the complaints were related to helicopters that we could identify. Um, and then still the majority uh, across the different uh, fleet um, in each of the years. This is just an overall summary by aircraft type as well as looking at the overall data set. Um, the comparison here is between 2025 and 2022. It's not 2021 because the ADSB system came into place midway through 2021. So, we didn't want to skew the data by using a a partial
105year data set. So, 2020 year year 2022 is the comparison year here. So, in the aircraft type, if we look at everything together, changing complaints between 2025 and 2022 decreased by 48% while similarly, the change in operations went up 5%. And this is similar across all categories except for helicopters. So, helicopter complaints did go down between the two years by 32%, but you can also see that the change in operations for helicopters went down by 21%. So, you know, you can read into that as as you wish. The other aircraft type increased and complaints decreased. For other aircraft, again, these were ones that we could not identify with the data set provided and also unidentified aircraft, there are a lot in that category from the complaints data set. We don't have any in the operations
106data set. So, we didn't want to do a comparison there. This is a similar view as we looked at with the operations and you can see that the pattern is very similar. So, when operations increase, we see increased in complaints. So, this is the annual average complaints by hour of the day broken out by the different years. So, 2021 had the most operations and we see that that had the most complaints as well. And then we look at the other four years and you know, we're decreasing in overall complaints as we saw in the previous slide. I don't have operations plotted here, but again, remember operations are holding steady or slightly increasing. But you can see though that the complaints generally are occurring with the same peaks that uh are occurring with the operations. So,
107morning and evening afternoon. With very few complaints overnight. If we look at the annual average, but break it out by season, again, similar pattern as we saw with the operations. When operations are higher, complaints are higher. Uh when operations are lower, complaints are lower. And it's the similar type of pattern that we saw with the operations. So, when winter, for example, there was no real peak in terms of time of day for operations, and we see that same sort of pattern with the complaints. In the summer, we see uh largely in the evening hours, and then there's uh a second peak in the morning. Okay, day of the week complaints by hour of the day. Um so again, complaints are really following the operations. So, as before, we have uh here's a Sunday peak in
108the afternoon and evening. Friday and Thursday. So, those are the the key days of the week peak in terms of when the complaints are coming in. And then also, there's a morning peak uh primarily on Monday. >> So, folks are coming out Thursday Friday night and going back Sunday night and Monday morning. And that's when it's most frequent, and that's when we're getting the most complaints, right? There's a correlation. >> And then again, just looking at this by uh season, if there to see if there's any differences here, and we largely see the same pattern as we saw with the operations. Uh again, want to point out, for example, in winter, pretty flat in terms of when the complaints are coming in. Versus the summer season, uh we see we really have that Monday morning
109uh peak for complaints and then same with Sunday evening complaints as well. But then also followed closely by Thursday and Friday. So another way we can split the data are to understand, you know, are the complaints being driven by a few households or is it widespread? And so there is a good slide coming up that will highlight that but this is just trying to filter out households that are um complaining more than than once within a a time frame. And so for this one we're looking at unique households filing complaints by year. So it is possible that a household is included in each of the five years cuz we didn't want to make a decision about which year should they count towards. So just keep that in mind for two slides later. But you can
110see that we have pretty even even split between within East Hampton and outside East Hampton as far as where the complaints are originating. Other than 2022 we have more within East Hampton but you can see largely consistent. Largely split evenly. We look at total complaints by year though. So now we're we're allowing multiple complaints per household within a year. You can see that the shift tends to be a little bit outside of East Hampton. There are is the majority of the complaints coming in as far as by year. Again other than 2022 where we had more of an even split. Although overall complaints are decreasing over time. Just a spatial map here to highlight where those complaints are and and the density of those complaints. The airport is highlighted here in gray. The blue line
111is just for context. This is the 2025 helicopter noise abatement route. And um the colors highlighted here represent the density of complaints. So, one complaint per square mile would be more [clears throat] yellow up to 1,000 complaints per square mile would be something in the darker red shaded color. So, you can see many of the darker colors tend to be closer to the airport. Shouldn't be too surprising there, but we do have a few others scattered about as well. And again, this is for all all complaints across the 5-year time frame. We do have in the appendix broken out by season if if people are interested in that. Now, if we look at complaints by season by aircraft type, so again trying to see if there's anything we can understand about which aircraft are driving
112complaints. Um first we see again that operations and complaints go hand in hand. So, summer season, most operations, most complaints, and we see that dropping off with the with the other seasons. One thing to note here is that we have operations are in the summer, for example, are lower than the total complaints, whereas in the winter I guess it's even and the fall we have slightly fewer operations than complaints. Oh, sorry, slightly fewer complaints than operations. But we see the breakout here. Again, we have the unidentified aircraft, but the helicopters are the majority of the complaints. And here this shows us a little bit better. In the peak season, we see that again the helicopters are driving those complaints. In the non-peak season, it tends to be more piston helicopters, sorry, piston aircraft than the
113helicopters, although it's more evenly split in the fall. >> [clears throat] >> So, here again, we look at unique households filing complaints by season. Uh we see when we look at unique households, it is a as before an even split or close to that between within East Hampton and outside of East Hampton. And largely in line with the uh pattern of operations. When we look at total complaints, uh so that's again allowing households to have more than one complaint within the data set that we're looking at, then uh we see that uh most of them tend to be a little bit more East Hampton uh sorry, outside of East Hampton than within East Hampton. >> [snorts] >> But to really drive home the impact that a few households can have on the average, this is
114a cumulative distribution plot and the power of this really shows um so these are each data point along the x-axis represents a unique household across the 5-year data set filing a complaint. The y-axis shows the number of complaints that those households provided. So, very few house- very uh there are a lot of households that provided very few complaints. And it's really just a a small subset that had several thousand complaints over the 5-year period. So, just want to keep that in mind when you're looking at the complaint data set cuz that will drive the average up. And then just looking at uh snapshot here, so the top three aircraft types with the most complaints, um the first two are helicopters. Um uh this does Sikorsky S-76 led to the most complaints, 21,500 of any aircraft
115type, followed by the Bell 407. Um although this had the fifth largest set of operations, um the third most complaints was a Cessna Caravan C208. And then expanding out to the top 10, if you look at complaint counts by aircraft model, it is pretty split out in terms of aircraft type. So, just keep that in mind. But, when we look at individual aircraft, so these again are aircraft with unique N numbers. So, you'll see models in here more than once. Helicopters are driving the complaints. So, your very specific helicopters are driving the complaints. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, now we're going to take a look at the data together. So, this is first looking at complaints per operation by hour of the day, again for the 5-year period. And if we I know you're probably
116focused in on this peak here, but uh wait 1 second, we'll come back to that. Uh, if you come down to this bottom plot, we have complaints in orange versus operations in blue. And as we've kind of talked about, they follow very similar patterns. Other than you see that in the evening hours, we have slightly more complaints than we do operations. And you see that a little bit in the morning as well. Now, one thing we did was to try to understand you know, what is the level of annoyance for an aircraft at a certain time. And this is not an official metric. This is just one that we decided might show the data in an interesting way. We looked at the number of complaints per operation, and that's what we have plotted here on
117the top. So, if we look at you know, say, you know, 9 to 9 to 10 p.m., largely flat. So, as operations increased, complaints increase at a similar rate. Where we see divergence or where we see more complaints per operation, we start to see that in the evening hours and certainly in the morning hours. Now, of note is that in this 3:00 a.m. uh data point here, there were only four operations at this time between 2021 and 2025, but those four operations led to many complaints versus how many operations there were. So, you can see that we're at about 35 complaints per operation at 3:00 a.m. So, that is a really annoying time as far as the metric we're using for for our people. And similarly with with other times overnight. All right. So, I
118kind of highlighted what's over here on the left. So, side-by-side total operations, total complaints across the 5-year data set. Highlighted here in the shaded gray is the voluntary nighttime curfew. So, we see again um large compliance with that voluntary curfew and we can see that um fewer complaints as well during that time frame. Although, as we saw in the previous slide, there tend to be more complaints than operations during that time frame. So, it's still an annoying time for people, uh but it seems like there are are fewer flights occurring during that time. And just to summarize between daytime operations, so 7:00 to 10:00 p.m., 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. versus the voluntary nighttime curfew time, 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., we can see in the daytime across the seasons, on average, we're looking at
119about one complaint per operation. Overnight, that increases to about three and a half complaints per operation. So, again, using this metric that we came up with for annoyance, the night time is much more annoying to to people than during the day. Even across season. Another way that we split this out is by aircraft type just to try to understand which aircraft type are more annoying to people than others. And again, this is using the number of complaints per operation metric that that we came up with. Helicopters are the most annoying using this metric. And as you can see here, about 1.8 or well, 1.5 to 1.8 complaints per helicopter operation versus any fixed-wing aircraft is fewer than one complaint per operation. So, there's, you know, two to slightly more times the number of complaints per
120helicopter operation than a fixed-wing aircraft. And you can see across the fixed-wing aircraft type, largely similar. It just tends to be the you know, that one single-engine single engine jet aircraft, which I said there's only one on the market, so there's limited data to analyze this. But that and also smaller piston aircraft um substantially fewer complaints per operation. If we break this out by season, and just I know I realize it's a lot of bars here, but all data are the darker blue bar, which is on the left. So, these are basically the numbers that were on the previous slide. And now we've broken them out by season, so winter's in red, summer's in a a lighter blue color. Um, still, even within the seasons, helicopters tend to be more annoying than other aircraft. I
121did want to point out that the ones with the square the red squares around them, there are fewer than 30 total operations, so the data could be a little skewed when looking at that number. Okay. Um, for this last part, we're looking at hour of the day analysis and we're we're changing how we're splitting the data for this last section. So, we're now looking at peak season. So, by season now we're talking May 1st to September 30th. So, we're spanning summer a little bit into spring. And uh, we have both non-peak and peak seasons represented on the plots. Each plot is a day of the week. And we're looking at 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. And we have the black lines and and um, uh, markers here are for the non-peak season. The blue is
122for peak season. And we're plotting both operations and complaints together. So, operations are the dash line open diamond. Complaints are the solid circle and that's true for both peak and non-peak. So, for Monday, we see that we have our morning uh, peak in operations and also peak in complaints. Tuesday, we kind of we still have kind of a little bit of a morning and a little bit of afternoon, but not as much as we do Monday morning. Same thing for Wednesday. And then just look for comparison, non-peak season relatively flat across the board. When we look at Thursday and Friday, here's where you really start to see uh, that that Thursday peak. And that's really um, complaints are really driving up as operations are are driving up. Same thing with Friday. And then when we
123look at Saturday and Sunday, Sunday is a very similar pattern that we saw with Thursday and Friday. Sunday is a little bit leveled off, but still there are a lot of operations occurring Saturday. So, in summary, uh, spring and summer operations generally more annoying than fall and winter. There could be several reasons for this. Um, so all we did was look at the data. We're not trying to make claims as to why something is a certain way, but some likely reasons are, you know, in the summer we do see more uh, higher frequency of flights. There's also a greater population in the area. And there's also more people outside. So, if you're outside a building, uh, you're not going to have you you know, the sound is going to be louder. The seem louder than
124if you're inside a building. So, all these factors could come into play and there probably several others not listed here. >> [clears throat] >> Um, we did notice that the number of complaints is trending down year-over-year, despite the total operations being relatively stable or slightly increasing after 2022. Helicopters, um, on average uh, result in approximately twice as many complaints as a fixed-wing aircraft. Overnight flights, uh, midnight to 6:00 a.m. are by far the most annoying to residents based on the metric that we're using of complaints per operation. And then we do see a noticeable increase in complaints per operation during the summer season during peak arrival and departure windows. So, uh, we just looked at that. Weekend evenings, Thursdays, Fridays, Sundays, and Monday mornings. So, to kind of circle back to where we started, 2024
125or sorry, 2014 problem statement, we had noise from aircraft operating at East Hampton Airport disturb many residents in the East end of Long Island. So, that's that's still the case. Um but the airport has a new name, uh one difference. But the the data do show broad compliance with the voluntary curfew, 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. Uh and overall number of complaints appears to be decreasing despite um operations increasing. Uh in 2014, residents found helicopters to be more disturbing than any other category of fixed-wing aircraft. This is still true today. And third, residents most disturbed by um operations during evening and night hours, uh particularly at the time Monday and Friday, I believe. Um when operations were more frequent. We are see that still similarly today, but we now start to see a bit more
126of a spread out across the days of the week where we're um witnessing that. So, now Thursdays, Fridays, and Sunday evenings, we're seeing that peak operation and also peak complaints. That is the last slide that we have. Uh open to questions or discussion. Thank you all for your time. >> Thank you, Matt. This is the way you've, you know, you looked at the data, I think is very helpful, and I'm hoping people will find it easy to to review. Uh do board members have comments, questions for for Matt and the team from HMMH? >> It's great analysis. Um very, very helpful. Uh I I think you know, there's a few things that really stand out for me is um you know, one, the complaints occurring outside of the town of East Hampton make up a
127large proportion, and like what control the town actually has over that. Um and and two, you know, the the fact that like very few households are driving a significant number of complaints. Does that correlate or is there a way to understand it? Does that directly correlate to those specific areas? Do we have a geographic area where those specific houses are really having a challenge? Is this, you know, I couldn't quite pull that from the data. So, is there a way to speak to that? >> So, we could identify that and and try to pull that information out. We didn't do that within this scope, but that is something that we do have access to that we could try to analyze further. >> Okay. Not too much of this is surprising to me. You know, at
128night time, trust me, I want to sleep also. I got that. When you're outside during the summer time, I understand that. I've sat on this board long enough. It's interesting that there's only two time slots, the 1:00 and the 2:00 time slot in which the operations are greater than the complaints on there. So, I don't know if that's the sweet spot there where our people are at work or are they busy on there? Was it the only time that that doesn't manage that doesn't work out? But, you know, if it's 1. whatever it is per operation to complain in three times in the in the evening times, that that just completely makes sense to me. So, I appreciate you putting in the graphs and the bar graphs. So, not just myself the data, but others
129can see, too. >> Yeah, I'm I I think that the data supports what we've always heard. The weekends are horrendous and the the particular hours, the evening hours, times of day really correlate with what we've been anecdotally told by the community in general. So, I think that's good to see that. I am surprised at the amount of piston airplane complaints. That that did surprise me. I thought there would be less. So, So was a new to me. But also just confirming that it's and also I think over time my experience with this is it was the jets. It was the jets. But we really clearly see that that the helicopters have way taken over. Is it private jets, corporate jets? I guess we don't know. If there are the jets used I don't know if
130you can take this data away. Are the jets used the same way helicopters are? Are they Ubers in in layman's terms? For now that industry specifically gone helicopter. >> A great question. I I don't know the answer to that with the data that we analyzed. Um we might be able to disentangle that within the data set. Um but that's not something that we analyzed to see, you know, who are the operators in the sense of are they driving the complaints or not? Um but one note I did want to say about the pistons um actually two notes. One is in the wintertime and the fall, we saw that the there just happened to be more piston aircraft I think flying. And so we're going to have, you know, they're going to be the majority of
131the complaints then. The other point I want to make is that all we analyzed were whether the aircraft landed or took off from the airport. We did not analyze flight tracks. So you know, we can't it's possible that an aircraft could fly a certain way and maybe the piston aircraft are flying a certain way that's different than a different aircraft. Um that's not something we analyzed but could address the question you're >> I'm kind of thinking it may correlate with the sensitivity when you have the large amount of helicopters coming in. You would be more sensitive then. You're keyed in now and you perhaps would be more sensitive to all the different types of aircraft flying overhead because you've your attention's been called to it by the loudest um and and the most frequent flights.
132>> Mhm. >> So I was thinking that's something that can be an assumption as well. Since the complaints during the higher piston times are down in the spring and the summer. Uh the I'm sorry, the spring and the the winter and the fall. >> Yeah. >> Can I just go back to that one if you don't mind? So the with the flight tracks on there, so we we're not correlating that to anything that might be going out to Montauk, Block Island, or anything to that effect. It's just total complaints within the regional area. Is that correct? >> Yeah, we're not we're not looking at where the aircraft are going, where they came from. We're not looking at how they're flying, what altitude, we're not looking at any of that data. >> Okay. So then could
133you just explain to me then if we're collecting data here on flights uh that are land taking off and landing correlating with that, how how do we categorize that with the outside of the town complaints? How does that explain the volume of complaints coming from the outside when aircraft conceivably can be going to many regional um aircraft? Do we have data for the other uh airports? I mean, you wouldn't have it, but um I'm just interested to see it's by flight I I mean I want to understand this clearly. It's by we're looking at tail numbers, right? Identifiers, and we know that they're the flight path that they've taken by the complaints that come from outside of the town. >> Those data do exist. Those are not data that we pulled and looked at. So,
134that's not I I guess I'm not able to answer the question at the moment, but the flight tracks is another data set out there. Um but it's just not one that we looked at. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> But we we can pull uh cuz Jake Jim's got the maps. He he can have a a graph of the the the flights, right? And it's usually following the noise abatement routes. And then when you look at the complaints, you can use there's a correlation between the flights and you know um where are the complaints are coming from. >> That's really answer you know more of what I was looking for how we know that the complaints coming from outside the the town are related to what's landing and I think you just explained that to
135me. >> We are just we we only have responsibility for five nautical miles around our airport. And >> plane noise when when we when the town contracted with them in 2012, they set it up. The the the board at the time set it up to measure or look at inside the town and outside the town. So that's something that's carried over since they were first contracted. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Yeah, thanks for the very detailed presentation and and data analysis. Um I mean look, the airport's been a contentious subject for for a long time and I think that in reality there's always going to be differences of opinion about how it should operate if it should not operate at all. But I'm encouraged. I appreciate the speaker who spoke earlier that there has
136been some improvement and and I also appreciate that it seems like there's a lot of voluntary compliance and maybe still some bad actors out there. And so I just hope that we can cuz the speaker also spoke about one operator who may be you know, not flying in a in a friendly way. And so I just hope that we can continue to work with with operators and I think Jim has done a good job of this. I know Kathy has as well to encourage voluntary compliance and just to be as neighborly as possible as long as the the airport is operating like it is. So Thank you. >> I'm having a little deja vu, right? Cuz I was the airport liaison from 2014 to and we dug into the data quite a bit cuz we
137tried to get some local laws passed and I will tell the community we're not going to wait five years again to do the analysis. This is something we're going to be doing again on an annual basis. We'll contract with HMH, so every year you can update operations and complaints, so the community is well aware. This presentation is posted on the town website under our work session materials. Maybe what we could do, Jim, is also get it on the airport page. We'll send you the PowerPoint so that we can get it up there, so it makes it very easy for community members to find. But, I'm grateful for how you drilled down and and gave it to us so that we can you know, really understand it. The graphs are great, Matt. I really appreciate that
138the work that went into this. And I'm sure, you know, I did send the presentation around to some folks that are involved in the airport on both the the noise affected and airport operators, and I would imagine I'm going to be getting more comment back once they've seen your presentation and had a chance to digest it. So, you know, we may have more questions coming back to you after we hear from our community. >> Yeah, I know a couple of speakers spoke of noise monitoring. I I have no information about how that could properly work, and and where you put things and why you put things where they are. So, maybe in the future we can talk about that as well. >> We can look into that. >> Yeah. I'm interested in looking into that.
139>> Great. >> All right. Well, thank you for making the trip down, and we we appreciate the work you've done today. >> Thank you, everybody. >> If you could just take a zip Oh, it's already down. Never mind, PowerPoint's down. All right, so we are up towards our last topic. Mark, I see you just walked in the room. You're on. Talk about the ADU construction loan program. You had made a recommendation a couple of weeks ago, and they were board had comments, and you were back with a a modification to that. >> All right. Yes, thanks. I'm glad to be back and to present this program. Uh there are some small changes from the last iteration. One thing I do want to clarify that's important which uh which needs to be corrected from the memo
140is that um this program adheres to CHF tenant income guidelines, not town income guidelines. Town income guidelines are 130% AMI. The CHF income guidelines are different and equate to approximately 140 to 150% of AMI depending on household size. So, that's an important clarification. Um but otherwise, many of the um features of the program are similar. Uh the loans are going to be This is again a CHF construction loan program for ADUs. Loans are going to be uh in the amount of $100,000 each. Um no interest loans. They can be combined with uh other loans or grants. They're interest-free. They're repayable upon the future sale of the property and they're secured by a lien in favor of the town of Easthampton Community Housing Fund. Uh one important distinction and for this program is a proposed income
141cap on the recipients of the CHF funds, which is proposed at 300% of AMI, which is based on the AMI for a household size of four. Uh so, that equates to um four Excuse me, just had it. $494,700. So, that would be the cap on the recipient of the ADU loan. Um tenants must live or work in the town of Easthampton or have lived in the town within the past five years or be a family member of the owner owner. As I mentioned, the income limits are income limits that are defined by the Community Housing Fund Law, not Town of East Hampton Moderate Income uh Code. Uh rent limits are set at 130% of FMR, which is the same as other ADU programs throughout the town. Leases are for year-round tenants only, so there are
142no seasonal rentals, uh no short-term leases. And of course, permits are required from the Office of Housing and Community Development. That's pretty much the nuts and bolts of it. I'm happy to answer any specific questions you may have. >> Okay. So, what changed since you were here last is cuz I had brought out during discussion that it should be somebody's um should be a year-round resident, right? So, there's different ways to define that, and here the recommendation is primary residence, which means they somebody could own a second home, right? That which would be different than somebody's sole residence, where they would only have the one house here in East Hampton. I just want to understand We should all like know, you know, what the terminology means. >> If you don't mind, I'll I'll I'll chime
143in there. There there was a lot of discussion between Mark, myself, and Joan Pilgrim from Office of uh Housing Community Development. I understood the board's discussion to mean primary residence, but this was going to be a topic of conversation. That means that this is where they're supposed to be most of the time, but you could still own an apartment, a home, someplace else. To me, that's what I think about as year-round. Um there was debate about that, and so I think it's a it's a board decision of whether they want to make it a sole legal residence, which would restrict it, so you could not have a play in a house anyplace else that you rented, owned. Um I didn't think that was the intent, but that's the question for the board. So, just in
144fairness, I was the one who asked for primary residence, so that was my intent. >> It's you know, it's a conversation we can have. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> No, no, go ahead. >> It's a pretty s- simple distinction. It's sort of like whether something is your main residence or sole residence. So, if it's your sole residence, you can't have any other residences. If it's your primary residence, you can have others, but it has to be where you mainly operate from. >> Got it. >> Okay. Board members? >> Yeah, I I I personally I'm not supportive of I think it should be any residence should be allowed to have this um you know, I I think the goal here is to deliver affordable housing um and and you know, saying that it's not your primary
145residence, you can't build an ADU, you can't build this affordable unit, I think defeats the purpose. >> Well, we're not saying you can't build it. We're saying you can't get $100,000 from the community housing fund where in 2026 right now, we've only if everybody took the maximum, we're only giving out 10 awards. >> Right. >> Okay. David? >> I see your argument completely on there then, too, cuz this is an incentive program and it's just like an incentive program that we do for the the CPF water quality and many of the houses that as an incentive program for the CPF water quality aren't either a primary or sole residence. The incentive is to get better water quality. The incentive here for financing is to get more accessory dwellings on there. So, right now I'll sort
146of be leading to what Tom was saying is to open this up to all property owners on there as long as they're in compliance with everything else that's in the program. And also, the question is now that there's there's a payback on there which initially thought there might not be a payback after 10 years if they were in compliance for 10 years on there. Um but I I'd be I'd be more to any property owner right now being available. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> All right. >> Um I support the recommendations that you made, Mark. Um, and uh, with any First of all, this is a limited resource for folks, so I think we have to be just to to make some decisions on on the qualifications to be able to receive this resource.
147And I think that um, I personally would like to see these loans go to people with lesser means than more means. Um, since it is uh, a limited um, thing. So, if anyone uh, as far as uh, the primary residence discussion, I think that that is the guardrail that I was looking for um, in terms of you can own as many houses in the world as you like, but uh, it the since we have to make a decision on the limited resource, the making uh, a determination that your primary residence is in the town of East Hampton benefits folks that live here. And that I think is the intent. Another uh, factor for me is always guardrails because we know that folks exploit the loopholes anytime we leave a big enough one for someone to
148to dive into. For example, I'm I'm looking at uh, discussions and and um, promotions that are on social media by folks that are uh, buying houses, renovating houses here in the town of East Hampton specifically they don't live here, they don't have any residence here, but specifically for an income uh, through uh, short-term rentals. It's becoming a very big market. Now I see postings that are promoting those types of investors to use our um, septic rebate program, which is taxpayer funded rebate program from the state, the county, and and the um, uh, and the town that basically you can get uh, your septic upgrade to an IA system free. Which the costs the amount of money available is up to 45,000 plus. So, to see that program, which again is a priority based program, being
149exploited for strictly profit making is not something I want to see for the creation of affordable housing in the town. It's such an incredible need here, and I think we have to be very careful to ensure that any funding that we provide goes to those in need. Uh, with the greatest need. So, since it's a limited program, we can't offer it to everybody. We don't have unlimited funds. As Kathy was saying, it's 10 are available. I think that defining putting these definitions in place is very important for the success of the program and to ensure that the guardrails are proper. So, I agree with your recommendations. >> Yeah, well, for me when it comes to primary residence, I totally understand where Tom is coming from and and David. Um, and and frankly the the the,
150you know, program I brought to the table the last conversation didn't have that, but based on the discussion, um, and I also want to be be clear that that Community Housing Advisory Board unanimously, I believe, or certainly a majority, also did not want to have a residence restriction. Based on our previous conversation and the limited resources, I'm okay to put it at primary residence, but as I said in the last discussion, if we don't see adoption, that's only because if there are people who are primary residents who would take advantage of these 10, you know, annual loans, then I would want to prioritize them. If only two or five, then I would want to open this up. So, I'm okay with doing primary residence for now, but, you know, I'm very, yes. I want to
151I think I think Tom hit the nail on the head that ultimately what this is about is affordable housing and ADU is an affordable unit of housing. And so I want to see them get constructed. I want to see people use this program. If primary residence take advantage, great. If not, I want to shift. >> I I completely agree with you and I I don't know didn't give you the this fair warning. Um we had the CD1 applications, right? And that was there was an income cap for CD1 applications. >> Yes. >> There were a lot of people that applied that didn't meet the the ink that were over the income threshold. So I think we have a a sense that there are folks out there that are interested in these loans in order to
152be able to put in an ADU. So um I I would want to start and then like like Ian said, and I think I said it last time, that if we're not if those 10 don't go like this, then we, you know, then we adjust. >> Do you mind if I just sort of go down the changes just cuz my goal here is that we've talked about this, you know, going way back and then recently and I just want to get consensus. I think this could be sort of putting the bow on it. Um in terms of the maximum income eligibility, that is tied to 300% of the area median income and that would be $494,700. We had talked about the STAR exemption, which is still 500,000. I don't I don't have a strong opinion
153about this. Is everybody okay with that metric that's proposed? >> rather use the STAR exemption because the STAR exemption um you could be a one you could be one person, right? But if if this household is two people, that number goes down. >> Well, it's it's it's it's tied to the four-person. It's just a way to it's a >> But that number fluc- fluctuates. >> Yeah. I'm fine with the STAR as well, if that's what you prefer. >> that's what we did for water quality initially and I think it's it's a higher number and doesn't depend on how many people are in your house. >> Well, so what I was going to say is we could change the different percentage. I have no strong opinion about this. It's just it's it's fairly it's tying it
154to some other figures so we don't have to write a number in the code that >> So I mean look, I'm going to give a different perspective on this. Median household median home price in the town's two million. To qualify for a mortgage, you know, 20% down on a two million house, you need to be earning about $600,000 a year. So we're effectively saying to your average person who's coming in buying a house, you can't you're not eligible for this. I think that's a mistake. I again, it's it's that same thing of like I I appreciate the concept that if someone is wealthy, perhaps they don't deserve this as much, but I think you have to remember like look, we are taking $100,000 to create an affordable housing unit. That is by far and away
155one of the most economical ways for us to deliver affordable housing in this town. Yes, we have only currently committed a million dollars 10 at a hundred thousand, but that's we've created ourselves a board. I mean, if this is a way of delivering affordable housing, we could very easily allocate more of CHF funds to ADUs. So I I just think like look, I I appreciate you know, the the concept of not wanting wealthier people to have more money, but to me the bigger need is the affordable housing. >> And and I I understand that, Tom, but for me it's not that we don't want wealthy people to have anything or have this, but I think again, if we're 10, we have to establish a criteria and I would like to see people with less ability
156to self-fund be at the front of the list than people who can clearly self-fund. So again, it comes down to the fact that we only have a certain amount and in establishing criteria, I would think it's important for me to see that someone who's making half a a dollars receive a grant over somebody that's making a billion dollars or you know, a million dollars a year or or 10 million dollars a year in this community. I agree with the the the 600,000 approximately is what you need. In fact, we just saw our house prices go up 18% according to Newsday to the medium house price is now 2.4 million dollars. I don't know how many people make 600,000 a year to be able to afford to live in this town now. So again, I think
157we have to prioritize as much as we can the people that aren't able to afford to purchase a house here. Or or are below an income level that's that high. >> I mean I think I I understand where you're coming with that. I think the other challenge this is like look if if you're on the lower income scale an ADU is going to cost you about 500,000 to build. I mean, typically speaking. So who has that kind of disposable >> I've heard. >> I mean, depending on the size like if you're talking about you know, 500 to a thousand dollars square foot. >> be converting a garage and you don't need that much money? >> could do a very small thing but I'm saying for like a two bedroom, you know, attached ADU, you know,
158you you you could potentially be at 500. Who has that money to spend to build an ADU? And and look, I mean >> Someone making a substantial money amount of money a year like you know, if you're I mean, we have folks in this town that are billionaires. You certainly could afford that. >> Right. So that that 400,000 though, that the balance let's call it. Like not a lot of families necessary have 400,000 in the bank to build an ADU. Are we ruling out those that do? >> I'm not sure I understand the concept. >> If Joe and I were to build an ADU, we you know, and we would apply for this, right? The difference would be probably a home equity line of credit or we're refinancing our house because we don't have we're
159not looking to lay out cash to make up the difference, right? We're leveraging the equity in our home in order to add an ADU, which is going to add equity to our home. >> Sure. You know, I I I I agree with you on that. I mean, that this definitely an avenue to go, but like again, not everyone can afford to get that home equity line of credit. Like it's so it's just a question of like, look, are we looking to deliver affordable housing here or are we using this as a tool to do something else, which is to equalize income inequality in the town, which I think is a, you know, a totally valid kind of concept, but >> I'm looking to add uh affordable housing to the town, but I from what I
160learned when we opened up the CD1 applications and there was a income was it a $125,000 income cap? >> Yes, on CD1. >> that there were a lot of people that were over the $125,000 income cap that wanted to build an a ADU for a family member. This is going This is for those people, right? That those the the hardworking folks in our community that want to add an ADU because they want their mother-in-law to move in or they want their adult child to live there or they want a little extra income and they're going to rent to a teacher at a local school. Um so, I'm looking at this loan program is the bridge between somebody that's making over $125,000 a and somebody that's making a half a million dollars a year. And and
161I would start with that to see if, you know, you know, the phone starts ringing off the hook it at the office of community and housing development and if it doesn't, then I'm willing to come back and say, "Hey guys, you know what? We miscalculated. We we got to change the parameters of the program." But, I want to give it to the people that need it the most that are looking to you know that are ready to go. >> And agreed. And I do see your point, Tom. I I do. I I think the idea of even building affordable housing has something to do with income equality to to take to to take away some of the the disparity in income that we see here. I understand the idea you you know if you need
162to have 600,000 to purchase a house right now. We have a lot of people that have lived here for a long time. And they don't have that kind of income. And I also don't want to clear them out by people by not having any guard any income cap whatsoever and anyone can can apply. I I do want to help the like Kathy said, there is there is people here that I want to specifically uh first offer this to. And then as Ian said, if if that category doesn't bite on on this and it's not something that helps them, then I'm in favor of raising it as well. If that's >> I see your issue. >> I 100% understand where you're coming from. I just think for me, the need for affordable housing is so extreme.
163Let's not put roadblocks in the way. Let's get everybody building it. >> But, if I'm making a certain amount of income, I have no problem spending that kind of money to put something in my backyard. I don't need the loan. >> But, it's >> I just can do it. >> Right, but it's the same way I mean I think they made the salient point about you know the septic systems. Like people can afford to do it, but we want to incentivize everybody to do it. >> I'm not sure I want to incentivize folks that are strictly using the residents for profit making for their own profit portfolio who have no connection to the town whatsoever. I'm not thinking that's where I would to see our funding go. >> So on the on the s- on
164the on the septic incentive program, there was an income cap initially and we found out that many of the individuals that were in the priority water zones are of high net worth. So we changed it at that time. So as we move >> county changed it, too. It wasn't we followed the county's lead at the time. >> I think long enough. >> E- either way as we homes are more expensive near water. >> Right. >> And water is what we're trying to protect. Uh I'm comfortable with income cap in this situation here, which one of is the star or the one that's recommended here. I don't I don't have a hard book to that, but I think there should be an income gap that we can gear ourselves towards right now. And again, as this
165all come back, we can all come back and look at and and responsibly change it to whatever we see come in or the use of the program or to increase the amount of money available to the program, also. You know, if this thing is wildly successful as I think we all want, right? If it's a flop, well, let's see how we can make it better. >> Yeah, so I I think that I'm okay with the Well, and again, I want to be clear that the community housing advisory board did not think there should be an income cap for all the reasons that Tom mentioned that this is about the affordable housing unit and that's the goal. But in the interest of making sure we're using that that, you know, the 10 loans efficiently, I'm okay
166to, you know, start off with the income cap. I'm happy to tie it to the stars. >> Kate and Kathy, I think, [clears throat] want to do. >> I think it's cleaner. I think it's easier to communicate to people when you're putting out material that it's there's it's a flat number as opposed to have to do a calculation on how many people are in your household to get to the number. >> Well, yeah, and but we'll monitor it very closely and I think um you know, by if this is when this is launched, we'll you know, a few months down the road, we'll monitor how it's going and may make changes. I also want to bring your attention to a couple of other changes that family members of the property owner can live. That was
167not part of the original. I think just was left out in error. That's part of the ADU program generally. So, want to make sure everybody knows that that was added. You good with that? >> Yes. >> Um they would still have to income qualify, by the way. So, it you know, that doesn't change. Um and then we clarified there was a public comment about the 10-year um basically we're now saying and it was vague about what that meant. Now we're saying, this is a loan, right? So, you have to as long as you that loan is outstanding, you have to operate under the affordable standards. You can pay it back early and then it just falls back into the ADU regulations generally. Because of course you could build an ADU and then sell your house
168in 5 years. How can we make them keep the ADU after they sell the house? So, I think this just clarifies that. >> Mhm. >> And then uh there's a definition of sole legal residence, which would apply to the tenant of the ADU. So, I think we would leave that in there. Um and the last thing is the the the maximum income, which we're going to go with staff. So, with that I think that you know, with those simple changes um this will be ready to adopt without another work session, you think? >> Yes. Do So, does this need a public hearing? Or is this just >> No, just a program. >> So, and we've already said we've done a public hearing for the million dollars for the >> We'll need to do a public
169hearing for the budget. >> dollars. Okay. >> Um and we'll schedule that and and to Tom's point, I think to time it with the when the ADU code changes are finalized, you know, and then implemented. We recently made, you know, code changes to time it so that those people could take advantage as well. >> Awesome. >> Can I just my comments on that? I'm I'm good with going with a loan program now, but if we see this not necessarily being used, I think we should look at the grant program. They are to expire after 10 years. If you kept it up for 10 years, it becomes a grant instead of a loan that's repayable. Um but again, let's see how the program works and get it rolled out first. And I think that's my main
170initiative. There's there I'm more than willing to listen to changes to this program based on what the uh how it tracks over the next year or two. >> That's a good point and one of the reasons just we one of the reasons we made this originally was a forgivable loan, but there's potential tax implications, IRS implications, um unless we have a more aggressive income cap. So there's moving parts. David, I totally agree with you that we should be open to that. Um but we made it a loan because it just it just makes it cleaner and easier to get the program launched. Um I And by the way, I think the CDLI program that we've referred to a few times was a grant. And so I think that this is a different I mean frankly,
171I think the income cap is going to be self-regulating. I think if you truly don't need the loan, you wouldn't want to deal with the hassle. Um it's different if you're someone's giving you money versus something you have to pay back, but you know, I support the program as is. >> Great. Okay. Thank you, Mark. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mark. All right, we're moving on to liaison reports. Tom? >> Yes, ma'am. So if you give me one moment. Okay. All right, I will start off with uh human services. Um the senior nutrition center um unduplicated clients served in the congregate meal program for last week was 93 and the grab and go meal program was 76. Uh Jason, if you could just bring up the next flyer if possible. Um we
172are going to be starting a technology talks flyer. Um it's going to be on this on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month at 10:00 a.m. beginning May 6th. Um this is being done just not only to educate our seniors on like some of the tricks and tips of how to kind of effectively use tech in their lives, but also as we're seeing across the public there's increasing cyber scams happening. Um we're just looking to kind of increase our education for seniors on how to avoid those types of um situations. Um also the 2025-2026 HEAP cooling assistance uh benefit. Uh this is uh scheduled to open on April 15th. Um just want to encourage our senior residents to apply early. Uh funding levels for the heat cooling system component are the same as for
173last year. Uh and last year they did get exhausted by the end of June. For those parties interested, please contact Liliana at the Human Services Department. Her phone number is 631-329-6939. Uh and finally for Human Services, we have intergenerational games taking place on Tuesday, May 19th at 9:30 a.m. This is in um being done with the Spring School Diversity Club who will be visiting the Senior Center for morning games with seniors. Um Eastern Fire Chiefs, we met last Tuesday at the Springs Fire Department uh following up discussion um on the future of EMS on the East End. Um looking to potentially do a work session uh in the summer months uh to discuss what the future of EMS may look like and how we as a town can prepare for that. Disabilities Advisory Board, uh
174I wanted to thank John Rooney who's continued to do research on the concept of rough terrain wheelchairs for our um residents who have access issues um to allow them to access our trail systems. Um Additionally, want to report on May 29th at 11:00 a.m. uh I'm meeting with the East End Disabilities Network uh who have invited Suffolk County Emergency Management Fres to facilitate a presentation on being prepared for various emergencies virtually or on site. This will be taking place at The Point in Southampton. Um Youth Task Force, uh this is just a reminder for the public. All are welcome this Thursday at 6:00 p.m. There is the Science Symposium uh taking place. Some fascinating projects being done there. Um ocean wave growth measurements in hurricane force winds, comparisons of minerals across uh the European beech
175leaves uh which we're seeing infected locally, uh cost-effective solar powered desalination for real world implementation. A great way for our residents to see um how impressive our science program at the school is. >> Well, my daughter's in it. >> Your daughter is in it. I did mention our program cuz I thought I was going to leave that for you. That was a cute Oh, good. What's hers on? >> Oh, gosh, Tom. >> Oh, sorry, dude. >> [laughter] >> Something very important. >> Yeah, we can track those complaints tonight when I get home. >> [laughter] >> Right. And then lastly, wildlife management advisory committee, we're meeting this Thursday at 2:00 p.m. That's it. >> gosh, I should have been better on that one. >> about that. >> Something with aquaponics and and providing food for the
176world. A lot lot better than I was doing at 16 or 17. Anyway, uh everyone in our recreation department, we want to remind everyone to sign up for the alert me now option to find out what our recreation department offers and also sign up for any of our lifeguarding program. Again, uh we want to make sure that people are aware that we are still looking for town lifeguards and also recreational aids and uh seasonal laborers and all of our departments, please contact our human resource department. Part of that about that, we'll be convening the beach advisory committee and we did receive our beach operating permits for calendar year 2026. I'd like to bring that report back to the town board prior to Memorial Day, maybe in early May. Madam Supervisor, we'll look at that schedule
177for you. >> We're doing public safety at the May 5th work session. We're getting the annual report from PD and all the public safety folks are doing their presentations and I think Buzzy's doing a presentation on knock boxes and PD is doing a presentation on e-bikes. >> Let me see what I can do. Okay. >> They'll all be there. >> The West Lake boat ramp water quality project, they should be paving that area starting tomorrow with a completion wrapped up ETA to be this Friday. Letting all the users know. If you have any questions on that, please contact our senior harbormaster Tim Treadwell. Uh, continuing the work over Stephen Hands Path with a lot of our parking. Hopefully, we'll be paving that by month's end, getting that moving forward, and start looking forward to our
178pickleball courts going in there. I want to let the town board know that, um, I don't know if you remember that at Maidstone Park, we had, um, uh, someone illegally drive on the fields. Those fields have been fixed, and actually saw a little league is playing on those fields starting starting this week, also. Um, just quickly, there's two letters of support that, uh, the town board is going to be, um, moving to their appropriate uh, representatives. I know the supervisor has moved on one of these letters of support, uh, through other means, but we're also signing on to a letter for the whole entire town board, including the supervisor. One of them is, uh, supporting, um, uh, let Assemblyman Tommy John Schiavoni support for legislating eliminate diesel fuel tax on commercial fishermen within New York
179State, knowing that this affects our, uh, our commercial fishing fleet. That we wish him best of luck there, and let us know how we can help. And the second letter of support will be going to, uh, honorable, uh, um, Congressman Andrew Garb, uh, Garb, Arbino, Garbarbino, excuse me. We're working We are writing to express our strong support for keeping the United States Army Corps of Engineers New York District offices in Manhattan, and we urge, uh, our our federal electeds to do everything possible to prevent the relocation to New Jersey. The Army Corps is critical federal partner for communities across Long Island, including the Town of East Hampton. That is work, uh, its work has a direct impact on our coastal, uh, coastal protection, environmental stewardship, infrastructure planning, long-term safety, and sustainability of our shoreline. Given
180the breadth and importance of the Corps's work in East Hampton and throughout Long Island, and extension, uh, essential that the New York District remains based in New York. For East Hampton proximity matters and the course ability to work closely with local officials and project partners is not simply a matter of convenience and it's an important part of how major projects move forward at a time when coastal communities are facing increasing pressure. I e. We had two meetings with the Army Corps of Engineers just today. Uh and uh I urge I urge the response to try to keep the Army Corps of Engineers uh within New York State. With that, that's all I have. >> Yeah, and we're going to send that letter to uh Congressman LaLota as well. There's going to be two letters going
181out. >> Just on the um the diesel tax, just so people kind of have some context that that diesel tax is not charged in other states. For example, Connecticut, Massachusetts. So, what you see happening is that these boats have to go there to refuel and save some significant money. They may unload there. That that loses money from our economy. This is a good long-term economic move for us to have that diesel tax removed. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, Kathy. Uh first I'd like to start off with a note of gratitude uh for to the clerical staff in the our building department. So, uh on behalf of the uh entire town board, um I want to extend our deepest and most sincere thanks to the clerical staff of the building department for their unwavering dedication
182throughout what has been an extraordinary and unprecedented challenging time period. Um I'd like to specifically call out Dawn Tuthill, Shu Chen, and Allison McDou- Allison Bennett McDougall. There you go for you, David. >> [gasps] >> For your commitment, professionalism, and resilience. And you have been a source of stability and strength for this department and for the community it serves. Day after day, you showed up with grace and determination, ensuring that the work of the office continued. Your dedication has not gone unnoticed and it will not be forgotten. We also want to extend a warm and heartfelt welcome to the new team members, Mariana Barrios and Jennifer Lappin, and let you know that you are joining a team of remarkable people and we are so glad to have you with us. We look forward to the
183energy, talent, and perspective you bring to this department. So, I just want to again emphasize the work of the clerical staff of the building department during this very, very difficult time period and the dedication to those staff members throughout the entire time period. The way that they came in day after day to do their work under incredibly incredible amount of pressure. Some of the pressure we weren't able to articulate, so now that we can, I just again want to thank them for their dedication to their jobs. Um, next I have a report from the Wainscott CAC. I wasn't here um, last Tuesday, so my report's a little late. Um, the CAC had a very robust discussion on 66 Main Street and the management plan. Um, we also had heard from folks who were again still
184concerned about traffic. We had a report on some data. Lieutenant Pete Powers joined the meeting on some of the traffic data and speeding data. You had we had lowered the speed limits through the new state program. They were the first roads to be lowered was Wainscott Main Street and Wainscott Wainscott Northwest Road. Um, we had a presentation on how the lowering speed impacted speeders and unfortunately there's still speeding going on, so they are looking to bring back the stop sign recommendation for gosh, Northwest Road Stone Road and Northwest Road that intersection there which they had done in the past. Uh at the end of that discussion, when they had first presented that, we had thought we wanted to see what the impacts of those lowering of the speed limits would be on those roads. So,
185now that we have that data, they'd like to bring uh that recommendation back. Um and we also had a discussion uh again about the airport, um and um the impacts that it has on the noise affected there. Um so, I know that that they will be very receptive to the presentation we saw today. Um in the discussion on 66 Main Street, a member of the uh um property management committee did come and speak to everyone. This was a meeting uh over Zoom, one of the few that we have uh that are not in person. Um We I also uh the town uh hosted or co-hosted or um uh gathered uh stakeholders and uh the uh Deputy County Executive of Suffolk County, uh Jennifer Youngst, uh County Legislator Anne Welker and her staff for a discussion
186on wastewater in Montauk. Um it was very well attended by many groups at Montauk who have been part of this discussion in the past, Trails Preservation Society, um Heather Hills Coalition, Group for the East End, the Montauk Chamber of Commerce. There were representatives from all of the stakeholders on and beginning discussion on wastewater once again, uh uh for uh Montauk downtown Montauk specifically in the business area, and what we can do to um get the wastewater uh from flowing out into the ocean, down into our drinking water. What are the options? Uh there were a number of basic tenants agreed upon at that meeting. Uh one was that there would be no parkland alienation. One that uh there would be a consensus on agreeing on the data collection and any creative ideas on how to
187manage wastewater moving forward was brought to the table. So >> the last one was there would be an agreement to the map. >> And and also agreement to the map. Kathy attended as well as we had representatives from the natural resources department and the planning department at the meeting as well. It was a really nice meeting. I want to thank Montauk Library for providing that beautiful space that brings everybody. It was the history room upstairs. It kind of brings you right into a great collaborative headspace just by being there and I want to thank everybody for their cooperation and for their input. And so that's a beginning discussion there. The Montauk Resiliency Grant is moving along. We sent out invitations to prospective project advisory committees which is another task. So we're about up the third
188task for the state grant for the $600,000 grant on resiliency and we are moving towards our vent contractor that we hired for the engagement purposes will be coming to the town board soon to kick off that project. Um the litter action committee is um chomping at the bit kind of to unveil their newest volunteer and that will be happening soon as well. I'm not letting the cat out of the bag there. Um and then the energy the sustainability committee met yesterday. We saw a first swipe at a new resource for the public on native landscaping. What you can plant with we have a a native plant list now that is more geared towards the landscaping professional. It talks about genus. What we are creating is a resource that has pictures and can help you pick
189native landscaping which of course we all know saves you money as long as as well as saving our natural resources and that resource is being developed right now and we're going to get it that up on our town website along with social media development posting to let folks know how how how much money they can save by planting native landscaping that is used to being here doesn't need the irrigation the fertilization the chemicals etc. to exist. So that resource is developing nicely and I want to thank Megan folks from the natural resources department for getting that kicked off. And that's all I have. Great. Thank you Kate. Ian. >> The Springs Citizens Advisory Committee will meet tonight at 6:30 at Ashawagh Hall. There's a guest speaker Mike Bottini who's a biologist who will be speaking
190on about a study he's done on otters in the area which I'm looking forward to myself. >> That's a great little study. >> It is yeah yeah no I I know a little bit about it but I'm looking looking forward to an update. There also be an update from the Litter Action Committee about their their new plan so I look forward to that. I think I might know who the >> The new members? >> The new member is. Um and it's not the cat in the bag. >> [laughter] >> I was I was you know throwing people off the scent. >> Yeah you were. >> So to speak. >> The the Maidstone playgrounds the construction is scheduled to start next Monday on April 27th or thereabouts. We'll put a sign up to explain the project
191and tie back into the presentation that was made a while back but looking forward to that and it commencing and it should be completed by Memorial Day. >> Great. That's good news Ian. >> Yeah I don't want to don't want to jinx it these are all scheduled you know dates but I'm optimistic. Community Housing Advisory Board will meet tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. at 300 Pantigo Place in the Planning Department's conference room. The public is welcome to join us 5:00 to 6:30. Um, also want to thank the Long Island Conservancy. I have a resolution on today to accept a donation of $10,000 to help with a mugwort remediation project at Springs Park. Um, this is a relatively small area of the park, but mugwort's a big problem there, and this is a proof of concept of
192how we might be able to remediate the mugwort and turn it into native meadow or uh wildflower area. So, uh thank you, Long Island Conservancy, for that. We'll accept the donation today, and I'll keep the board and the public updated about the timing of that project, but I I I think it'll be this spring or or early summer. Um, they're also bringing a lot of volunteers and I think public awareness to it, so I'm I'm I'm grateful for all of their support. Uh lastly, I just want to sort of um I was having a conversation with Ed Reale, our housing attorney, the other day, and we were talking about ADUs, and I just want to highlight that we have a a fairly um nice package of ADU incentives and permissions that we're doing. I I
193want to thank Tom for the code changes that he led with the ADU committee. We now discussed, you know, the the the opportunity to to of a loan program that we're we're ready to launch, and then we've also recently talked about the tax relief, and I think that you know, this is not going to be the solution to our all of our affordable housing projects uh or problems, but um I think it's a real we're we're it's all the steps we can take sort of on that front. Um and I just want to make sure that we get awareness out there, that people know that and and these these are all still in the works, but very soon there's going to be tax uh relief if you decide to construct an ADU because that, frankly,
194is something I've heard from the public, concern about what it would do to their tax bill. And so, as as we unroll these these sort of three changes or new programs, um I just want to promote it through the town, to the public. I'll ask my friends at the newspapers to help out with that. Um anyway, I just wanted to highlight that in the conversation today because these things have all been talked about recently, and I I think it's exciting, and hopefully it'll start to make a dent in the problem. >> Great. Thank you, Ian. So, uh Thursday night we did a resolution to accept a gift from the East Hampton Healthcare Foundation of EpiPens, and on Friday, Lieutenant Alversa and I picked up the 26 sets. We're getting our marine patrol and police officers
195trained, and so that they will be ready to go for the start of the season. Uh next up, we have the 2025 audit is we're at full gear right now. We're closing out the fiscal year, and our auditors are going to be on site. They're going to be, you know, parked here for a couple of weeks. So, if you see folks walking around you don't recognize and they look like they're comfortable here in town hall, it's because they're the auditors, and they have to have it completed by June 30th. Um other thing I wanted to announce is that we for the fourth year in a row we earned the certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting, and we were deemed proficient in all categories reflecting the continued strength of our reporting's accuracy, transparency, and
196this is all under the leadership of our town administrator and budget officer Becky Hansen. So, that is a great kudos to Becky and the entire team. Uh next up, I wanted to mention that the spring quarterly newsletter is out. It's should be in mailboxes this week, and Ian, as you were speaking about ADUs, we could put us you know, we could write up ADUs and the programs that we're working on in the summer >> Great. >> newsletter. So, we should coordinate on that. Uh this Saturday is drug take back day. We do this twice a year. It's from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. here at East Hampton Town Hall. We're accepting prescription medications, over-the-counter meds, and medications for household pets. And, you know, we typically get a good strong turnout, and we're hoping folks will
197come on down, but if not, we have in uh the quarterly newsletter other drop-off locations that are available year-round. So, folks hopefully have no excuse. Please do not flush them down the toilet or throw them in the garbage into our landfill. Uh next up we, you know, as I said, the summer season is almost upon us. I do a quarterly meeting with the East Hampton Chamber of Commerce, and this time we're going to do a public safety panel. It is on Wednesday, April 29th at 3:00 p.m. here at Town Hall. I know uh Deputy Supervisor David Lys has one going in Montauk for the Montauk Chamber, and that is on Thursday, May 7th at 1:00 p.m., I believe, right, David? >> At the Montauk Library, yes. >> Montauk Library. And lastly, I just want to
198mention that our town uh planning staff have been reviewing the draft uh comprehensive plan for the Village of East Hampton, and are going to be forwarding comments before the uh April 30th deadline. I believe board members should have received those comments maybe yesterday or today um so that we can get them in in a timely fashion. I ask you to get back to Tina and her team if you have any questions. Um so, that's my report for today, and so um I do want to say what I should have said um when HMCH was presenting and we were talking, and I I know Steve Tuma from Sound Aircraft Services was here, and you know, in the past we had a voluntary curfew of 11:00 p.m. to to 7:00 a.m. We moved it to 10:00 p.m.
199to 7:00 a.m. And Steve, who is the fixed-base operator there uh at Sound Aircraft, honored that curfew. They don't provide services after 7:00, I mean, after 10:00, and I think that's also part part of why we saw compliance here in the data. Um so um I should have said that when Steve was in the room because he is he is a good partner with the town. Okay, we have a couple of resolutions. Tom, you're the first one up. >> Thank you, Madam Supervisor. I'll start with 2026 698. This is to amend resolution 2026 631 to amend the bid name uh to be correct title should be EH26011 food service and kitchen wear items March 2026. >> Second. >> All in favor. Aye. >> 699 is to amend resolution 2026 605. This is to employ uh
200employ sorry, authorize employee uh travel for sanitation department. Uh it's just a change of name to the conference title. >> Second. >> All in favor. Aye. >> It's my privilege to offer resolution 2026 700. This is to authorize the John Osborne uh Homestead Management Plan. Uh we had a public hearing on this on March 19th, 2026 and this will be for the management plan that is dated 12926. >> Second. >> Can I get a roll call, please? Council member Flight. >> Aye. >> Deputy Supervisor Lease. >> Aye. >> Council member Rogers. >> No. >> Council member Colleran Beeman. >> Aye. >> Supervisor Burke-Gonzalez. >> No. >> I'd like to offer resolution 701. This is the SEPA proposal from Premier Mechanical Services for duct modifications at the event space at the Montauk Playhouse Community Center. These
201two uh uh for the fan and installation not to exceed $222,400 based on proposal and statement of work from April 14th, 2026. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> Aye. >> I have resolution 2026 657. First, I'd like to make make a motion to untable this resolution. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> Aye. Um I have offering resolution 2026-657, which is to approve additional funding for the town charging station project. Uh, this is where the town of East Hampton has approved funding pursuant to resolution 2022- 455 for the installation of charging stations at town hall. Whereas the town is also a recipient of a grant from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to offset the total cost of the project. Whereas additional funding is needed in the amount of $47,619. Resolve that
202the board hereby approves additional funding uh, in that amount to uh, complete said project and the funding shall be designated from the energy sustainable funding account codes as the town board has determined this project meets the goals set forth by the use of funding. Um, the account codes, uh, there's two account codes, one in the amount of $6,204.30 and another account code in the amount of $41,414.70. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> Aye. >> Resolution 702 is to accept a grant of scenic and conservation easement for 22 Shore Drive East in Amagansett. The grantor is Dan Resnick and Julie Resnick. Uh, we held a public hearing on April 16th uh, for this proposed grant and the reviewing agency is the Zoning Board of Appeals. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> Aye. >> Resolution
203uh, 703 is to accept a grant of scenic and conservation easement for 70 Cliff Road, Amagansett. This [clears throat] public hearing was also held on April 16th. The grantor is Ken Aucoin uh, and the reviewing agency is the Zoning Board of Appeals. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> Aye. >> Resolution 704 is to accept grant of scenic and conservation easement at 24 Washington Drive in Montauk. This public hearing was on April 16th, 2026. The grantor is Jonathan and Karen Wesson, and the reviewing agency is the Zoning Board of Appeals. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> Aye. >> Resolution 705 is accept a grant of scenic and conservation easement from uh Martin at uh 16 South Genesee Court, Montauk. The Grantor is Robert Martin and Margaret Martin. The reviewing agency is the Zoning Board
204of Appeals. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> Aye. >> Resolution 706 is accept a grant of a scenic easement urban renewal map UR parcel 69B in urban renewal part MN-2. It's also with the public hearing was also held on April 16th. The Grantors are Asa Gosman and Lisa Gosman, and uh the reviewing agency again is the Zoning Board of Appeals. >> Second. >> I'm sorry. The reviewing agency, as I'm reading different words, is the Town Board. >> Second. [laughter] >> All in favor. >> Aye. >> Resolution 707 is the approval of various special events for May and June uh for uh 2026. Um the first two events which are held at the Montauk Yacht Club are not on uh public properties we usually do the resolutions. It's we're putting them on for the amount
205of folks that are attending. The third event is the Montauk School seventh grade beach trip at Maidstone Park, Friday 6/5 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. Next is Montauk Sports Inc. 45th annual RJA Memorial Mighty Montauk Triathlon. This is at West Lake Drive and Star Island, Montauk, Saturday, uh June 13th from 6:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Next is uh the next four 1 2 3 4 5 events are sponsored by the Springs School, and they're their Springs School beach days. Um one is taking place uh for sixth grade in Atlantic Avenue on Monday, June 15th, 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The next one is for grades three to five at Maidstone Beach and Pavilion on June 15th, 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The next one is for grade seven at Atlantic Avenue Beach, uh June
20616th, 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The next one is for grades K through two at Big Albert's Beach and picnic area, June 16th, 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and finally Springs School Beach Day for grade eight at Atlantic Avenue Beach on Monday, uh June 22nd, 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> Aye. >> Resolution 708. This is to accept a donation of services and materials from Long Island Conservancy Foundation, Inc. And this is for the uh restoration of hap natural habitat um at Springs Park in the amount of $10,000. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> Aye. >> 709. Uh this to amend resolution 2026-546 to change the effective date of Scott Cisco's promotion retroactive to March 25th, 2026. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> Aye. >> I have
207710, which is amending a bond resolution for the Montauk uh playoffs project. Initially, it's for $14,162,400. We're amending the bond specifically that was for 500 uh 5.5 million to uh have it read and to to encapsulate the change order that we just did. And let me just get that total number here. I'm so sorry. Uh to 5,732,400. >> Second. >> Roll call, please, Michael. >> Council member Flight. >> Aye. >> Deputy Supervisor Lees. >> Aye. >> Council member Rogers. >> Aye. >> Council member Coller-Beamon. >> Aye. >> Supervisor Burke-Gonzalez. >> Aye. >> I have uh resolution 7 711. Uh approve change order number nine for the Montauk Playhouse community center that for EH23-036 for MRJ Industries LTD. This is for the electrical work work. Change order number nine is for $7,400. We're going to use
208the amounts for the unused portion of allowance in the amount of $4,760 of the change order would be direct cost to the town for $2,640. >> Second. All in favor. >> Aye. >> I have resolution 712, which is the approval of Corey's Wave LLC seasonal special event permit for 2026. This is for commercial surf instruction on Ditch Plains. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> Aye. >> I have resolution 713. It's to authorize the payment for 2025 to Gemstar invoice for the airport in the amount of $3,529.45. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> Aye. >> 714 is the list appointment and promotion to personnel assistant for Emily Fisher. Resolved that Emily Fisher is hereby appointed to the full-time department head position of personnel assistant with the HR department at an annual salary of $130,000
209for a 40-hour work week effective retroactive to April 20th. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> Aye. >> 715 is to amend resolution 2026-693 for payment of fees. We need to correct the account code. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> Aye. >> 716 is a refund for a CP CPF tax for a first-time home buyer, Roy Quigley. This is uh had to be amended. The correct amount is $21,875. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> Aye. >> 717 is to amend resolution 2026-667 for workman's compensation. We're decreasing full-time salaries in the amount of $2,300 and increasing workers' comp in the same amount. Second. All favor. All right. >> 718 is to authorize attendance for police officer Nicole Fierro to attend the 2026 New York State Law Enforcement Recognition Event in Albany. The financial impact
210is not to exceed $800. Second, all in favor. >> I. >> Do I have a motion to go into exec session? >> I can make a motion to go into executive session for CPF, personnel, leases, and potential litigation. >> Okay, so we don't need to do CPF cuz Scott is out sick. >> So we'll take that out. So personnel, leases, and litigation. >> Second, all in favor. >> I. >> Thank you everybody for joining us and thank you LTV. All right. >> Okay, everybody. Thank you very much and have a great great rest of your day.