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

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. T...