On The Town Board Agenda for February 5

Hello Fellow East Hampton Residents:

Tomorrow, Tuesday, February 5, 2013, the Town Board will hold its first work session of the month. The meeting will be in Town Hall, 159 Pantigo Road, in East Hampton, in the meeting room, beginning at 10:00.  As always, your input, whether in person or in an email or by phone is appreciated.  If you cannot make the meeting in person, it will air live on LTV channel 22. 

PUBLIC COMMENT:  The meeting will begin with comments from the public on any issue any member of the community wishes to bring to the Town Board. 

Bids After the public comment section, Jeanne Carroza, the head of purchasing will recommend awards to the highest responsible bidders for any bids received and vetted since the last meeting.

Town Phone SystemTwo years ago, the Town Board approved the acquisition and installation of a new phone system.  The new system was to allow for all calls to Town Hall to be made to one centralized number, so that constituents could access any department through one central routing system.  In addition, the system was to save staff time and constituent money in the servicing, the monthly service charges, and the ability to both leave and retrieve voice mail for any individual.  In the meantime, however, while the system was promised to be up and running last July, it is still not operational.  In an effort to get clarity on what needs to be done and how to coordinate the efforts to ensure launching of the system before too much more time goes by, we have asked all the parties involved to be in attendance tomorrow.  In that way we can walk through what needs to be done and by whom, and maybe have a standard and schedule to which we can hold all accountable.  

Tax BillsSome constituents raised the issue that tax bills were not timely received by them.  The tax becomes a lien on December 1, but the bills are typically not received until the latter part of December.  The bill is then payable by January 10, or a penalty will be imposed.  We are advised that there are some whose bills arrived beyond the January 10th date, and we need to ascertain why.  Again, we are asking all involved to be present at the meeting so we can both educate all about the process and perhaps ascertain what if any issues need to be addressed.

Airport UpdateThe Town Board retained experts to assist it in laying the groundwork to try get control over the noise of helicopters at the airport.  The attorney retained is to give an update on the process of that work and report in general on the airport.

Deer Fence LegislationThere is a proposal to codify the deer fence.  The Town Board has had the proposal for a while now and I am asking that the other board members give their feedback to the proposal.

AppointmentsThe Town Board has vacancies in various boards which it has not filled because of a failure of consensus. 

RFP Cell TowersThe Town Board has asked that a request for proposals be sent out requesting qualified entities to give us proposals on how to set up the Town for the communication needs of the 21st century.  This would include addressing data lines and cell towers.  

Thank you for your continued support of and interest in your town's government.