LIRR union reaches agreement; School budget votes being held today; and more Eastern Long Island news

A deal to end the historic Long Island Rail Road union strike was reached late last night, with riders expected to see a resumption of rail service by noon today, Gov. Kathy Hochul said.As reported by Newsday Staff, the agreement reached shortly before 9 p.m. Monday, provides relief to the tens of thousands of harried and frustrated Long Islanders who saw their commutes double or even triple during the first workday of the dispute."I want to thank New Yorkers, Long Islanders, particularly, who made all the accommodations; who had to work from home; who sacrificed; who had to put up with inconveniences," Hochul said at a news conference last night.Hochul declined to answer questions about the terms of the deal, including about wages and work rules, but said MTA negotiators reached the deal without having to raise fares or taxes.LIRR president Rob Free said service will resume on the four electrified branches — Port Washington, Huntington, Ronkonkoma and Babylon — at noon today. All other branches will resume service at 4 o'clock this afternoon using normal weekday schedules, he said.The deal was reached on the third day of the strike, which brought service on the nation's busiest commuter rail system to a grinding halt and after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the leaders of the five LIRR unions representing about half the railroad's 7,000-member workforce restarted talks early yesterday.An MTA spokesman said there will be no morning service today on the LIRR given how long negotiations had continued."We're looking forward to our members getting back to work and doing what they do best, which is serving the region," said Kevin Sexton, vice president of the locomotive engineers union.MTA chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said shuttle buses will operate in the morning, just as they did Monday."We had to find a deal that gave people fair raises, but didn't put the hit on the riders; the taxpayers; that didn't blow up the MTA budget, which would have bad consequences for everybody," Lieber said.***Long Island voters today will decide whether to approve the budget proposals of 124 school districts, with seven taking the risky move of attempting to pierce their tax cap.Dandan Zou reports in NEWSDAY that if all budgets pass, spending across Nassau and Suffolk public schools would total nearly $16.9 billion in the 2026-27 academic year, a 3.26% increase over the current year. Local property taxes would rise 2.5%, to $10 billion Long Islandwide. The spending increase is on par with the latest Consumer Price Index of 3.8%, as of April.This year’s budget season was marked by widespread cuts.A Newsday analysis found a third of Long Island districts have adopted budgets calling for reductions in staffing or programs. Only a few said they would add staff or programs. School officials across the region have cited skyrocketing costs, driven in part by inflation, among reasons for the cuts.“Inflation impacts us as homeowners, but it also impacts school districts and to some extent to a greater degree because of the size of our budgets,” said Tim Eagen, president of the Suffolk County School Superintendents Association.Another challenge districts faced this year was the uncertainty posed by the delay of the state budget, which was due April 1 but had yet to be finalized as of yesterday. Without an approved state budget, districts did not know exactly how much state aid their schools would receive next school year.Most were anticipating a minimum 2% increase in their foundation aid, as opposed to the 1% laid out in the budget plan unveiled by Gov. Kathy Hochul in January, said Eagen, also superintendent of the Kings Park district.“We have the most unusual and bizarre task of putting together a budget not fully knowing what our revenue is,” he said. “Albany's got to do better.”***Greenport’s East End Seaport Museum is holding a reopening celebration for the season this coming Friday, May 22 with revamped gallery space and a new major installation by nationally recognized Shinnecock artist Courtney M. Leonard. Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON that the museum’s other gallery spaces have also been refreshed for the new season, with the main gallery featuring “Stories from Our Working Waterfront,” curated by Paul Kreiling.The museum has also revamped its Children’s Discovery Area with a new experience, All Hands on Deck, where young visitors can explore the sea through microscopes, interactive touchscreens, a restored boat helm, and a rope and knot station. The museum’s gift shop has also been fully renovated and restocked with all-new merchandise for the season.Friday’s festivities start with an exclusive first look for museum members from 5 to 6 p.m., and the galleries will open up to the public at large from 6 to 8 p.m.East End Seaport Museum is at 100 Third Street in Greenport, New York.***Cantwell Court has received a $7 million boost from the State of New York, which establishes and plots out a clear course for the future of the long-awaited 16-unit affordable housing development set to pop up in the coming months between East Hampton Village and Amagansett.Jack Motz reports on 27east.com that initial bids for development at Cantwell Court came in high, at around $600,000 per unit from Habitat for Humanity, which prompted the move toward more affordable, alternate options — ultimately leading town officials to lean on the state for a helping hand.The $7 million, which is part of a $19 million package spread out throughout the state, will support the installation of 16 CrossMod homes, which are so-called because they are essentially a cross between a traditional site-built house and a manufactured home, at Cantwell Court.The idea behind the CrossMod homes, which will be installed via the state’s MOVE-IN NY program, is to provide the benefits of a prefab house — speed of installation at a fraction of the cost — while still resembling a more traditional single-family house.Spokesman Patrick Derenze said East Hampton Town officials plan to meet with officials from Housing and Community Renewal later this week to iron out the details, like how much the houses will cost and when move-in is expected to occur.Installation, however, is on track to take place on a speedy timeline, with the expectation being that the homes will be sited on the 7-acre property by this summer.Cantwell Court is on Montauk Highway between East Hampton Village and Amagansett.“All these programs, we should remember ourselves, are taxpayer supported and paid for, so it’s great to see our tax dollars coming back to East Hampton,” said Councilwoman Cate Rogers.But the bottom line is that East Hampton Town officials, with a helping hand from the state, will be moving forward, at a reduced cost, on an affordable housing development that is years in the making and that will provide homes to 16 individuals or families — despite the wait time.***Residents in Long Island's more than 120 school districts can decide on board candidates, budgets and propositions by voting today at their local school district polls.Meanwhile, Stefanos Chen and Ashley Southall report in THE NY TIMES that transit officials and unions representing Long Island Rail Road workers agreed to a new contract last night, ending a three-day strike that shut down the nation’s busiest passenger rail service and wreaked havoc on commutes between Long Island and New York City.Details of the new contract were not immediately clear, but Gov. Kathy Hochul said the deal would not lead to an increase on fares or state taxes.Even with a deal reached yesterday, this morning’s commute was disrupted as the M.T.A. moved trains into place to restart regular service. Rob Free, the president of the L.I.R.R., said hourly train service would begin at 12 noon today on the four main electrified branches — Port Washington, Huntington, Ronkonkoma and Babylon — and full service would return to all lines by 4 o’clock this afternoon, in time for the evening rush.Workers for the five striking unions, which represent about half the railroad’s work force, had not received a raise since 2022. They had been seeking a raise of up to 5 percent in 2026, in addition to three years of retroactive raises.The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state transit agency that runs the railroad, had balked at the workers’ demands, arguing that the wage increases could jeopardize their negotiations with dozens of other unions and force them to raise fares or cut service.This strike shut down the entire service for 3 days, which carries an average of more than 270,000 passengers a day between Long Island and New York City. It was the first strike on the railroad since 1994, when a similar...