East End police to take part in "No Empty Chair" statewide campaign for safe teen driving

Southampton Town police said yesterday that they rescued a kayaker marooned on a sandbar due to rough seas in the Great Peconic Bay.Janon Fisher reports in NEWSDAY that police responded to a 911 call around 4:30 p.m. Sunday from the boater who said that she was stranded about 500 feet northeast of the Shinnecock Canal, in Hampton Bays, according to a news release.Before help arrived, the kayaker jumped into the water, but was found and pulled from the water by the Southampton Town Marine Patrol.During the rescue, an officer suffered a leg injury “due to the sea conditions,” according to the release.Marine Patrol took the woman to the Meschutt County Park where Hampton Bays Volunteer Ambulance workers treated her for hypothermia.The injured officer was taken to a hospital for treatment.The U.S. Coast Guard, which also responded, recovered the woman’s kayak.***Long Island's homeless population rose 32% between 2022 and 2024, according to a report from the New York State Comptroller’s Office. According to the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless, as of 2024, there were approximately 500 families with children in shelter and over 1,100 single adults in shelter. Mike Giuffrida, the coalition's associate director, told NEWSDAY that homelessness and displacements are on the rise due to lack of affordable housing in Nassau and Suffolk.***Island Water Park Corp., which owns the Calverton amusement park, has filed a new application to amend its site plan to allow drifting events, the use of battery-powered bumper boats on the site’s manmade lake, a floating dock for the boats, a fire-suppression well drawing water from the lake and a zip line over a portion of the water.Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that approval of the application would require the Riverhead Town Board to amend a covenant imposed as part of the June 17, 2025, site plan approval prohibiting use of the track by any vehicles other than go-karts. It would also require amendment of an earlier recorded covenant restricting the lake to nonmotorized watercraft.That go-kart-only restriction was not incidental. It was one of the conditions the Riverhead Town Board relied on in March 2025 when it issued a conditional negative declaration under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, finding that no further environmental review was required for the then-pending site plan application.Island Water Park’s new application came before the Town Board at its work session this past Thursday, where Senior Planner Greg Bergman outlined the proposal and cautioned that the track restriction was tied directly to the 2025 SEQRA determination because go-karts were viewed as having more limited impacts than other vehicles.Riverhead Town Supervisor Jerry Halpin, who acknowledged meeting with company representatives some time before the work session, expressed support for the application, and support for following procedures.“Like every other business in town, you’re here. We want you to be successful. You have a CO. We want to make sure we’re going through every step…and how we can assist them…So thank you for presenting, “said Supervisor Halpin.***East End police officers will take part in the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee’s “No Empty Chair” campaign beginning today through Friday, with enforcement and education efforts focused on teen driving safety. School resource officers and patrol officers will participate in outreach and enforcement aimed at reducing dangerous driving during prom and graduation season.The traffic safety committee’s message to teens is simple.“Be buckled up. Be a cell-free motorist. Be a sober driver. Be in your chair on graduation day.”The statewide campaign runs today through Friday, April 24.The campaign includes daily enforcement themes this week.Monday, April 20: underage drinking and impaired drivingTuesday, April 21: seat belts and child restraintsWednesday, April 22: cell phone use and textingThursday, April 23: Operation Safe StopFriday, April 24: speeding in school zonesThe campaign is intended to raise awareness of highway dangers and promote safe driving habits among young motorists, police said. State and local law enforcement agencies are expected to increase patrols near high schools and focus on violations of the Graduated Driver Licensing law and other traffic offenses.For more information, visit trafficsafety.ny.gov.***East Hampton Town officials are poised to block driving on town-owned portions of Gin Beach in Montauk, a popular destination for bathing, during the summer season between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Jack Motz reports on 27east.com that this change comes because town officials, at the behest of Marine Patrol, say the beach is a lifeguarded one, popular among families with small children, which means beach driving should be blocked during the times when there is a lifeguard on duty. The change would take effect the Thursday before Memorial Day and run until September 15.But the move drew pushback at an East Hampton Town Board public hearing earlier this month, with William Jakob from the Montauk Surfcasters Association saying that imposing beach driving restrictions is a slippery slope. Gin Beach, he said, is one with a long history of fishing. Others echoed Jakob’s thoughts, saying that the Town Board should appreciate longstanding local traditions. “The town has been fundamentally available for beach driving for generations,” Jakob said. “This was a fishing town. It still is a fishing town.”Jakob called for the Town Board to leave beach driving on Gin Beach open to the public and not block that to make way for sunbathing, saying the latter is a new phenomenon that started in the 1900s.The East Hampton Town Board, though, put itself in a position to move forward with the restrictions, which would only apply to the town-owned portions just north of the parking lot, at a work session last week. A unanimous Town Board backed the changes.Other beaches in the area that are lifeguarded — like Hither Hills, Indian Wells and Atlantic Avenue — also have seasonal driving restrictions.Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez spoke supportively for the measure, like her colleagues on the Town Board and Chief Harbormaster Tim Treadwell. With majority support, the measure is ready for adoption when a resolution appears.“This beach is used by a lot of families with small kids,” Burke-Gonzalez said. “They're not ready to take them to the ocean yet — and we want to protect public safety, so I'm supportive as well.”***New York State has receded as a key battleground in the contest for control of the U.S. House, with independent analysts pointing to Texas, North Carolina, Maine and Ohio as better opportunities for Republicans. Billy House reports in NEWSDAY that Long Island and other areas of New York State had been projected to be among the nation's pivotal battlegrounds heading into this fall’s midterm elections. Instead, Republicans have struggled to recruit or keep top-tier candidates in the Hudson Valley, central New York and this past week in Nassau County, where former Rep. Anthony D’Esposito decided not to run.Nationwide, Democrats need a net pickup of just three districts in the 435-member chamber to wrest the majority from Republicans. That means Republicans need to defend the seats they have and counter any losses with gains elsewhere.New York had been seen as a key focus of that aim."New York is less central to the battle for control of the House because the national environment for Democrats has improved," said Erin Covey, a nonpartisan handicapper with the Cook Political Report.On Long Island, 3 congressional races in Nassau County seem competitive. Republican Nick LaLota’s 1st Congressional District in eastern Suffolk County is not seen as very competitive.***Brookhaven National Laboratory physicist William Morse is part of a team of scientists honored Saturday night with a Breakthrough Prize, one of science's top honors.Morse and his fellow researchers were honored for their studies of an obscure subatomic particle known as a muon. Scientists believe the muon's unstable nature helps to explain cosmic anomalies such as Mercury's erratic orbit around the sun.The Breakthrough Prize comes with a $3 million award split among dozens of scientists involved in the research, officials said.Carl MacGowan reports in NEWSDAY that the 78 year old Morse of East Patchogue and the others are credited with significant scientific advances in a quest begun in Europe six decades ago to fine-tune physicists’ understanding of the enigmatic muon.The research led Morse and the Brookhaven lab at one point to shut down William Floyd Parkway to carry a 17-ton superconducting magnet more than 3,000 miles by truck and barge to Illinois.And yet in spite of the award, more work remains, added Morse.“The theorists say they need another two or three years of calculations,” he said.***Allowing a Westhampton property owner to clear brush and trees in the pine barrens to protect against wildfires would set a dangerous precedent for the forest’s ecosystem, the Long Island Central Pine Barrens Commission has ruled. Alek Lewis reports in NEWSDAY that commissioners voted unanimously last Wednesday to deny the application made by Joseph Gazza, a commercial property owner who sought to clear up to 100 feet around six properties he owns...