Richard Amper

After backlash from environmental advocates and opposition among legislators, the county executive today withdrew his bill to put a referendum on the November ballot that would have changed the distribution of quarter-percent sales tax revenues.

Should sales tax revenues set aside for Suffolk’s environmental protection programs be diverted to help plug a huge — and growing — hole...

County Executive Steve Bellone is proposing to use Suffolk County drinking water protection program funds over the next three years to help plug a "catastrophic" gap in the county budget and stabilize county property taxes. If the measures gain legislative approval, they will be on the ballot in November for voters to decide.

Corn mazes and agritainment, greenhouses, processing facilities and commercial horse boarding operations are among uses 'sufficiently related to agricultural production' and therefore permitted on preserved farmland, an Appellate Division panel ruled yesterday.

Pending legislation in Albany would allow on preserved farmland any development or activity included in the definition of "farm operation" under the state Ag & Markets Law.

A coalition of more than 50 environmental and civic groups has formed to get the word out that voters need to flip the ballot over and vote “yes” to extend the transfer tax this year, with a measure that will allow the East End towns to spend 20 percent of the revenues on water quality improvement projects.

Kent Animal Shelter outgrew its cramped, deteriorating facilities at the edge of the Pine Barrens many years ago, but its plans for expansion are no closer to approval today than they were in 2012, when Kent first proposed them.

I’ve been working for more than 25 years to protect water quality and preserve open space. I’ve rarely experienced the kind and degree of...

Op-ed by George Goode: Richard Amper's hyperbole about the Kent Animal Shelter is the kind of spectacle that's made people lose respect for our political system, where a special interest group can tie our government in knots. Here's why he's wrong, point by point.

The Calverton animal shelter's application drew support from dozens of speakers and only a few detractors at yesterday's public hearing before the pine barrens commission — but one opponent, L.I. Pine Barrens Society executive director Richard Amper, has complained to the attorney general and is threatening a lawsuit if the commission approves the shelter's plans for a new facility.