Builders would have to install automatic fire sprinkler systems in new single-family and two-family homes in New York if a key state regulator adopts the policy at a meeting later this month. Long Island’s largest group of homebuilders opposes the change, which it says will add tens of thousands of dollars to home construction costs and worsen housing affordability in the region. Builders could absorb these costs and keep prices the same, but the shortage of available homes for sale gives them greater power to pass costs on to consumers. “Our concern is you’re adding to the already expensive cost of a home,” said Mike Florio, CEO of the Long Island Builders Institute. Jonathan LaMantia reports in NEWSDAY that the measure is backed by the Firefighters Association of the State of New York, which represents volunteer firefighters, as necessary to protect people caught in house fires and contain blazes until firefighters can arrive. “It’s a worthwhile investment,” said John D'Alessandro, the association’s board secretary and a volunteer firefighter in Halfmoon, New York, in Saratoga County. “When it comes down to it, what price for a life?” Local builders and the state firefighters association expect the State Fire Prevention and Building Code Council to consider a requirement at its Feb. 28 meeting. There were 126 home fire fatalities in New York last year, according to U.S. Fire Administration data for 2024. Ten Long Islanders had died in home or apartment fires last year as of late November. New York builders estimate the addition of fire sprinklers to new homes would cost $20,000 to $30,000 based on a report published last year by Churchville, New York-based Asterhill Research Company for the New York State Builders Association. ***There has been talk of converting the difficult intersection of Noyac Road and Long Beach Road in Noyac into a roundabout for years. But while that plan may or may not ever come to fruition, Southampton Town Highway Superintendent Charles McArdle offered members of the Noyac Civic Council last week a cheaper and easier fix — in the form of a stop sign. Peter Boody reports on 27east.com that McArdle said the sign would be placed on an island alongside the westbound lane of Noyac Road. It would allow eastbound traffic to turn left onto Long Beach Road, while still enabling westbound traffic to turn right onto Long Beach Road without stopping. McArdle said Suffolk County, which would share at least some of the cost of the project because Long Beach Road is a county road, is resistant to the idea of a roundabout, because it would be expensive, but that it had signed off on the addition of a stop sign. “It’s a quick answer, and it could solve the problem,” he said. Several members of the small audience initially objected to the idea, pointing out that traffic is bad in all directions at the intersection and that a more comprehensive solution is needed. McArdle urged patience. He said the town believes that eastbound traffic on Noyac Road is heavier than westbound traffic, though he conceded that the stop sign might cause westbound traffic to back up in the afternoon, as workers head home. “This is something we can try,” he said. “If I come back in a year and you say, ‘Charlie, you blew it,’ we can yank it out.”***Southampton Town Highway Superintendent Charles McArdle told the Noyac Civic Council last week that the Town Board had approved a $9 million, three-year plan to repave Noyac Road. Peter Boody reports on 27east.com that this spring, the section from North Sea Road to Deerfield Road will be done, and next year, a second section, from Sag Harbor Village westward, will be completed. That project will extend south along a portion of Stony Hill Road near the Serene Green farmstand and west to the Long Beach intersection, if not farther, but McArdle said he did not know exactly where that phase would end. The final...

Army Corps of Engineers began emergency dredging of Montauk Inlet