East End Report: Building OK'd After Strange Odor Hospitalizes 4

Happenings across the East End during the week of  Feb. 27.

RIVERHEAD

Four people were hospitalized, and later released, on Tuesday night after complaining about a strange odor in the former Riverhead Post Office building on West Second Street. On Wednesday, employees who work in the building were cleared to go back into the building. Though the cause of the incident still remains unknown.

EAST HAMPTON

While the Democrats are up in arms, Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson says he still holds the agendas close to his vest. Accusations are flying amongst East Hampton's political parties after an email from the Republican committee secretary surfaced that insituates the committee may have had access to, or influence over, the town board's agenda while the Democrats did not. In a Feb. 13 email to core members of the East Hampton Republican committee, Carole Campolo listed agenda items, including the controversial and the, one day before the work session.

NORTH FORK

Helmars and Jocelyn Ozolins and their two young children had to evacuate their two-story home on Major Pond Road in Orient when a garage fire that started just before 1 p.m. on Feb. 27 spread through the basement into the main house. By 2:30 p.m., the garage fire appeared to be under control but smoke could still be seen in the main house. Firefighters from the entire 8th Division including, and fire departments responded to the scene. They worked to get the fire under control despite windy conditions, and a tanker shuttle was later in place to combat water pressure problems. After investigation, authorities determined that the cause of the fire was accidental and related to an electrical malfunction in a garage light fixture.

SOUTHAMPTON

Two separate lawsuits filed against Southampton Village and village officials by the same ex-cop were the subject of state and federal appeals courts' decisions this month. A state appeals court agreed with a lower court that had tossed out former Sgt. Christopher Broich's $1 million defamation lawsuit against three Village Board members. But a federal appeals court, ruling the same week on a separate case, said that a District Court erred in determining that Broich did not provide sufficient evidence that he was discriminated against based on race when he was passed over for a promotion.

WESTHAMPTON-HAMPTON BAYS

Just a few days after Bruce King, president of the Hampton Bays Civic Association, wrote a complaining of the MTA's failure to clean-up debris left over from projects of past at the Hampton Bays Train Station, the MTA started a clean-up effort. However, walking along the track on a rainy Wednesday afternoon, it was clear that was a lot more to be done.