Gasoline prices on Long Island and in the metropolitan area climbed 46.8% last month overall compared with a year ago, the third double-digit increase since March and the highest so far. James T. Madore reports in NEWSDAY that skyrocketing pump prices led to higher inflation overall in both the New York area and nationwide in May with the consumer price index rising at its quickest pace in three years. The index was released yesterday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The ongoing war in Iran, which has disrupted oil production and transportation for more than 100 days, is behind the high cost of gasoline, experts said. In the New York area, gasoline prices rose in May at their fastest rate in nearly four years. However, they've moderated this month. The average price of a gallon of unleaded in our region was $4.25 yesterday, down from $4.41 on June 1, according to AAA. The price of gasoline on the south fork east of Southampton Village is currently closer to 4.50 or more per gallon. Economists predicted pump prices would remain elevated as long as the Iran war rages — and consumers burdened by the higher cost of living would continue to alter their shopping habits as a result. Gasoline was a driving force in the price index for the 25-county region that includes Long Island rising 5.1% last month compared with May 2025. That rate of growth is the fastest since February 2023. “Over 5% starts to get people concerned because [increases in the index] should really be in the 2% to 3% range,” said Steven Kent, chief economist for the Long Island Association business group. “Getting to over 5% is difficult for people.” Pump prices were up 40.5% nationwide year over year, or 6.3 percentage points lower than locally. *** A Suffolk County judge yesterday issued an order in related lawsuits over U.S. Open Golf parking at Enterprise Park at Calverton (EPCAL). The order bars tournament-related vehicles from parking on 400 David Court LLC’s property. Shuttle buses may pass through the easement area, and concrete blocks obstructing bus movement may be moved. The court said the order does not decide whether the planned use is permitted under the easement. Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that a Calverton property owner has sued the Town of Riverhead, the Riverhead Community Development Agency and the United States Golf Association over use of part of its property for U.S. Open parking and shuttle operations at EPCAL, but a court order issued Wednesday appears to preserve the town’s planned parking operation while barring vehicles from parking on the company’s property. Riverhead Town Attorney Erik Howard told Riverheadlocal last night that the parties appeared in Suffolk County Supreme Court and conferenced the matter. “At this time, there appears to be agreement resolving the immediate disputes relative to the parking of vehicles at the Town’s Calverton property,” Howard said. “I do not anticipate that parking for the US Open at Calverton Enterprise Park will be negatively impacted.” The court order expressly states that it does not resolve whether the use of the easement contemplated by the license agreement, or by the order itself, is a permitted use under the easement. The underlying lawsuits remain pending. The USGA’s proposal, attached to the town’s license agreement, estimated peak parking demand at about 3,750 vehicles on Friday and Saturday of championship week, with about 8,625 people using the Calverton parking and shuttle operation on those peak days. USGA officials said they expected to use about 130 to 145 coach buses on peak days to move spectators between Calverton and Shinnecock Hills. *** In just 4 days the U.S. Open returns to Shinnecock Hills Golf Club for its 126th playing, and the fifth time it has been held in Southampton. As reported on 27east.com, the annual tournament is the United States Golf Association’s premier showcase, of the 14 national championships it puts on, and its largest production by far. Each year’s championship takes four years to prepare for and organize. With more than 100,000 spectators, volunteers, vendors and media passing through the gates, the logistics require creating, and then dismantling, a small city in just a matter of months — at a cost of more than $80 million. Tournament week begins this coming Monday with championship play Thursday, June 18 through Sunday, June 21st. Opens at Shinnecock Hills are always in the national spotlight. Indeed, it is an international sporting event right here in our own hometown...for better or worse. *** When James Abdul-Lateef Poulos started to study Islam in the mid-1980s, he had a hard time finding a mosque on Long Island, he said. There were only four. Today, there are 40, underscoring the steady growth of the Muslim community in Nassau and Suffolk, he said. Now, several new ones are going up, including two that will be the largest on Long Island. Bart Jones reports in NEWSDAY that groundbreaking is set for Sunday on a 34,000-square-foot mosque on William Floyd Parkway in Shirley that is being spearheaded in part by a new, younger generation of Muslims. It will be the second-largest in the region. The largest, the Islamic Center of Melville, at 45,000 square feet, had a "soft opening" a year ago, leaders said. It should have its final touches done by the end of this year, followed by a grand opening. In Suffolk County alone, new mosques also have been built recently or are nearing completion in Dix Hills, Wyandanch, Mount Sinai and Medford-Coram, Poulus said. Poulus, who converted to Islam, became a founder of the Shirley mosque and an imam, or spiritual leader, there. Long Island is now home to at least 100,000 Muslims, community leaders said. The Islamic Center of Shirley-Mastic mosque has grown from 40 families when it was founded in 2002 to about 400 today, said Poulos, who also is a chaplain with the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department. They come from neighboring communities as far as Ridge and Manorville, said Imam Mehdad Islam, another leader of the mosque. The groundbreaking ceremony is expected to attract political local officials, including Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico. The Muslim community is growing partly because many Muslims, like other immigrant groups before them, are moving out of New York City for the suburban life with more space and good schools, Imam said. The project will end up costing about $6 million, some of it raised from Muslims in Shirley but the bulk coming from members of other mosques on Long Island, Islam said. He has visited many of them to make appeals during their Friday prayers services. *** A defiant — and at times emotional — East Hampton Town Board trudged forward this week on buying a large vacant property on Wainscott Northwest Road for $4 million, which would be used to bolster the town’s fledgling housing landbank amid the ongoing housing crisis. Jack Motz reports on 27east.com that with a unanimous vote, the East Hampton Town Board authorized town personnel to close on the deal, using Community Housing Fund revenue, at a work session on Tuesday. “I will guarantee you: I will do everything moving forward to try to fix this problem as long as I'm here — and this is a potential sliver of a solution here to try to target and acquire property to try to make sure that this community survives well past me not being here anymore,” said Councilman David Lys. Outside a simmering housing crisis, the backdrop to Lys’s impassioned remarks was stern opposition from neighbors and a courtroom battle over the funding source, which played out as the clock ticked on a 90-day, seller-imposed deadline to close, set to lapse on June 25. The resolution came just days after Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice James F. Quinn cleared the way for East Hampton Town officials to move forward on the buy by coming down on the side of the town in the brief but intensive bout of litigation between the town and a neighbor of the Wainscott Northwest parcel. Filed just a few weeks ago, the court case began after town officials made public, via resolution and subsequent public hearing, their hope to purchase the 13.5-acre vacant property in Wainscott, not far from Route 114, for use as a future affordable housing development. But there was — and is — no plan in place as to the nature and scale of the affordable housing development, and a neighbor quickly filed suit to block the purchase, setting in motion the burst of legal wrangling between the Town of East Hampton and the neighbor, Elise McKenna. Those in favor argued that landbanking with CHF money is made necessary by the aggressive nature of the East End real estate market and that vacant land is getting sparser and sparser around town as the pace of development continues unrelentingly. *** The Bridgehampton Child Care & Recreational Center will honor a group of East End educators during its 2026 Center Honors event this coming Saturday, June 13, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon at the center on Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike. The event celebrates what organizers describe as the “unsung heroes” of the East End — individuals whose contributions often go unrecognized but have made a lasting impact on local communities. This year’s ceremony will specifically recognize educators of color whose work has shaped the lives of generations of students throughout the East End. Honorees from the Bridgehampton School District include Grace Reynolds Victor, Helen Giles Smith, Aleta Parker, Jackie Poole, Daisy Bowe and Mandel Perodin. Poole, Bowe and Perodin will be honored in...
