LI's first offshore wind array provides steady power for the Hamptons

Long Island Morning Edition

Former New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo clashed with members of a Republican-led subcommittee yesterday over his handling of policy for nursing homes and coronavirus patients in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Tom Brune reports in NEWSDAY that Cuomo, sitting alone at a long witness table before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, repeatedly rejected subcommittee findings that faulted his mandate to nursing homes to take in coronavirus patients and his report minimizing the number of deaths.

But Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), the subcommittee chairman, told Cuomo in a hearing room that included people who lost relatives in the pandemic, "Governor, you own this. It’s your name on the letterhead. This is your directive. You were the leader. The buck stops with you."

The hearing focused on effects of the Cuomo administration’s March 25, 2020, directive to nursing homes that required them to admit patients with COVID-19 and barred testing for coronavirus, and its July 6, 2020, report on the number of coronavirus nursing home deaths that excluded patients who died outside those facilities. Nursing homes admitted more than 9,000 recovering coronavirus patients released from hospitals under the directive, more than the 6,000 reported on July 6.

Overall, about 15,000 long term care residents with COVID-19 in New York have died, according to The Associated Press.

Wenstrup said New York changed the guidance issued by the federal government from allowing nursing homes to decline to accept patients with coronavirus to requiring those facilities to accept the ill patients and barring tests of them.

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The League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Shelter Island and the North Fork will host voter information tables from Westhampton to Montauk and on Shelter Island from Saturday, September 14, to Tuesday, September 17, in observance of National Voter Registration Day, which is September 17. The league will also host a forum on confronting misinformation and building trust in the 2024 election on September 24 at LTV Studios in Wainscott and three candidate debates in October. Christopher Walsh reports on 27east.com that the group will distribute voter registration forms and absentee ballot applications, information on ballot referendums, flyers with the Suffolk County early voting dates, sites and times, and information including the directory of public officials during Sag Harbor’s HarborFest this coming weekend September 14 and 15, and at the Southampton Town Anti-Bias Task Force’s annual Great East End Community Picnic in the Park, on Sunday September 15, from 1 to 5 p.m. at Red Creek Park in Hampton Bays. Voter registration forms are available at the State Board of Elections website, elections.ny.gov. Those with questions can contact the Suffolk County Board of Elections at 631-852-4500 or suffolkvotes.com. Election Day 2024 is on Tuesday November 5.

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Eddie Kranepool, an original member of the New York Mets and key contributor to their 1969 World Championship team…who played 18 seasons for the organization…died at the age of 79 after suffering a cardiac arrest in Boca Raton, Florida, this past Monday. Joe Pantorno reports in DAN’s PAPERS that for more than two decades, Ed Kranepool and his wife were fixtures on the East End, living on their 68-foot boat on Three Mile Harbor. “We are incredibly heartbroken to learn of Ed Kranepool’s passing,” Mets owners Steve and Alex Cohen said in a statement. “We cherished the time we spent with Ed. We extend our thoughts and prayers to his family and friends.” A New York City native who attended James Monroe High School in the Bronx, Kranepool signed an $80,000 bonus to join the Mets and debuted as a 17-year-old for the “Amazins" in 1962. He went on to play 1,853 games with the team — a record that still stands to this day.

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With two months of full operation under its belt, Long Island’s first offshore wind array has been a steady producer for the power-starved South Fork, LIPA said, reducing power needs from larger fossil-fueled plants, though not yet enough to eliminate temporary summer gas generators in the Hamptons.

The array, located in ocean waters 35 miles northeast of Montauk, exceeded its July forecast by around 17%, LIPA said, while August operation came in at 3% below projections. Mark Harrington reports in NEWSDAY that the figures are generally in line with projections for the project as LIPA and contractor PSEG Long Island work to integrate intermittent wind power for the first time into a grid that relies chiefly on steadily producing fossil-fuel plants and always-available undersea cables for its power.

LIPA commissioned the South Fork Wind Farm originally with Deepwater Wind in 2017 and worked with Denmark-based Orsted and its partner Eversource to see it through to completion in March. The first power from some of the nearly 1,000-foot turbines off the coast of New England reached Long Island in December. The entire project was completed in March, but testing continued through the spring. South Fork Wind is the nation’s first utility-scale wind farm in federal waters, part of a project by LIPA to make sure the power-starved Hamptons had enough power as energy use increased there. The plan included two large battery storage units in Montauk and East Hampton and demand-reduction efforts that fell somewhat short of goals, observers have said.

Gary Stephenson, LIPA’s senior vice president for power supply, said the mercurial nature of wind power has required the utility to manage the grid’s demand and production curves more closely to make sure there’s enough power, particularly during peak summer loads. PSEG monitors the power source as part of its larger contract to manage the LIPA grid.

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The East Hampton Town Board did not vote on a resolution, as it was expected to do, at its meeting last Thursday, September 5, that if passed would remove a triangular patch of land between the southern terminus of Three Mile Harbor Road and Springs-Fireplace Road in East Hampton from the town’s nature preserve holdings. Christopher Walsh reports on 27east.com that the parkland alienation would allow a referendum on the November 5 ballot as to whether to convey the approximately 2-acre parcel to Suffolk County in order to improve safety and traffic delays at the intersection through the possible incorporation of a roundabout into upgrades to County Road 40, as Three Mile Harbor Road and the portion of North Main Street north of Collins Avenue are officially known. That work is scheduled to commence in spring 2027. East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez had said at the Town Board’s September 3 meeting that it was the board’s intention to vote on a local law disposing of the Sherrill Triangle from the town’s nature preserve holdings on September 5. “However, while drafting the resolution,” she said last Thursday, “the town attorney realized that the town has not yet received a determination back from the Suffolk County Planning Commission indicating that it is a matter for local determination.” Once that correspondence is received, a vote will be scheduled, she said. At the September 5 meeting, two members of the public spoke about the proposed parkland alienation and conveyance to the county, both suggesting that it be reconsidered.

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The World Trade Center Health Program faces a projected $2.7 billion shortfall that would start at the end of 2027. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Andrew Garbarino are sponsoring legislation to close the gap and say they see a pathway to passage this year. The program provides care for more than 132,000 firefighters, police and other responders, as well as residents and others in Lower Manhattan with ailments related to the 9/11 attacks. Tom Brune reports in NEWSDAY that the World Trade Center Health Program provides care for more than 132,000 firefighters, police and other responders, as well as residents and others in Lower Manhattan, with ailments caused by toxins that spread when al Qaida Islamist terrorists crashed planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 11, 2001. The program faces a shortfall because of increased participation by injured first responders and survivors with diagnosed cancers, respiratory ailments and other illnesses from 9/11 which, along with inflation, has driven up the cost of care.

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“Jacqueline’s Field” would be the name of the workforce housing development proposed at 350 Pantigo Road in East Hampton by the property’s owners, the principal of Whalebone Workplace Housing revealed this week. Christopher Walsh reports on 27east.com that Kirby Marcantonio, the publisher of Montauk Life and Hamptons Life magazines, and a group of investors own the former Stern’s department store property. They propose the private development of up to 48 one-, two- and three-bedroom units that would be sold to qualified employers based on a minimum number of people they employ in the town.

Jacqueline’s Field, Marcantonio said, is a nod to the site’s former status as part of the Riding Club of East Hampton, where a young Jacqueline Lee Bouvier learned to ride horses, long before her marriage to President John F. Kennedy.

Last month, he proposed a 50-percent set-aside for health care professionals, which would likely go to the Stony Brook Medicine healthcare system. An additional 10 percent each would be set aside for the local school systems, town employees and local police departments.

The East Hampton Town Planning Board looked favorably, with some caveats, on the proposal at a June meeting. Eric Schantz, director of the town’s Office of Housing and Community Development, is planning a follow-up to the Town Board’s July discussion of employer-sponsored affordable housing at its work session on Tuesday, September 17.

In correspondence to business owners in the town, Marcantonio said that units will range from 600 to 1,200 square feet, each featuring full kitchens and baths and “built to residential standards.” He estimated their cost to range from $400,000 to $750,000 with an additional monthly maintenance fee of $600 to $900.

In order to build 48 units on the 4-acre site, the Town of East Hampton would have to amend the code to increase allowable density on affordable housing overlay districts from eight to 12 units per acre.