The current friction on the Sag Harbor Village Board may provide one small benefit: It’s going to put any idea through a wringer to see if it can hold up... more
Observed in mid-March, Sunshine Week is a vital annual reminder of the importance of open government and the public’s right to know — and the critical role of local media outlets like The Express News Group in helping to disseminate that information to the public. New York State joined the nationwide initiative this year, from March 16 to 22 — as it does every year — in an effort to emphasize transparency and accountability in all levels of government. The New York News Publishers Association continues to work toward those goals, focusing on them not only during Sunshine Week but ...
26 Mar 2025 by Editorial Board
For those who aren’t paying attention — and, honestly, that’s not an acceptable way to live right now — we have not yet hit 60 days of the Donald Trump presidency, and the obsession with deportation is already not just toeing a constitutional line, it’s leapt fully across, into deeply troubling territory. There is the case of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student who was arrested by federal authorities and detained at a facility in Louisiana. He is a green card holder, which means he is a permanent resident of the United States, according to federal law. He is ...
19 Mar 2025 by Editorial Board
For decades, the water quality at Havens Beach, Sag Harbor Village’s lone bathing beach, has been questionable at best, with stormwater runoff from the 2-square-mile village, largely filtering through a drainage ditch leading directly into the bay. In such a beautiful village, it’s a decidedly less-than-idyllic spot. Stormwater runoff is often cited as one of the major sources of dangerous bacteria levels in our bays, and the impact of stormwater runoff at Havens Beach has been an issue that administrations in Sag Harbor Village have been discussing for well over 30 years, with no real resolution. Two weeks ago, Dr. ...
by Editorial Board
March 18 is such an odd date for a Southampton Town vote, and timing could be everything as voters go to the polls to temporarily fill a vacant seat on the Town Council, created by Tommy John Schiavoni’s election to the State Assembly in the fall. Snowbirds are away, people are heavily distracted by so many other things going on in the world, and the race could just as easily pass many town residents’ notice. But it would be unfair to both Republican Rick Martel and Democrat John Leonard not to pay attention and, more importantly, not to show up ...
12 Mar 2025 by Editorial Board
It goes without saying — but let’s not let it. The weekend’s sudden drama was a spectacular reminder of a couple of things: how delicate our balance with nature is, how devastating human activity can be without ill intention, how risky the new extreme weather and resulting conditions are, and, once again, how much in debt the entire region is to the men and women who run toward danger instead of away. The weekend’s wildfires near Gabreski Airport made for stunning visuals, with walls of flame and columns of smoke, and the entire situation brought back memories of past conflagrations ...
by Editorial Board
The death of a river otter on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike last month — the victim of nearby traffic — should serve as a wakeup call to drivers on the East End. The loss of the otter, a species that disappeared from Long Island years ago and only now making a slow comeback, highlights a growing problem: Our roads are a deadly barrier for wildlife of all kinds. Add to that the propensity for drivers to speed through the area to make up for lost time in the ever-growing congestion of South Fork commuter traffic, and it’s a disaster for ...
5 Mar 2025 by Editorial Board
First, it was the Cranberry Hole Road Bridge in Amagansett, which was closed to all traffic in May 2023, then again a few weeks later, after the road over the Long Island Rail Road tracks was deemed unsafe. The bridge, built in 1895 and renovated as recently as 2007, remains closed and likely will have to be replaced. Now, it’s the Ponquogue Bridge, a much larger 38-year-old span that was closed on February 21 after concerns about “deterioration” of the concrete girders supporting its road deck. It’s back open again, but with weight limits that will keep some important commercial ...
by Editorial Board
Among the many ideas that have evolved in the past few decades is the notion of a “gathering.” For centuries, it meant getting together in person, face to face. In the latter half of the 20th century, telephones and even video began to unite the globe for conversations (credit where due: the first such gathering by telephone actually took place in 1916 and involved more than 5,000 engineers in eight American cities). But there was nothing to rival the “virtual meeting” that became part of most people’s lives in the last quarter century, and an essential part of many people’s ...
26 Feb 2025 by Editorial Board
It feels like a classic “family dispute”: The Southampton History Museum, as respected and beloved a local organization as there is, and the Conscience Point Shellfish Hatchery, which in its brief life has done plenty to spread goodwill even as it bolsters the local shellfish populations, supports the baymen who rely on them for a living and, as a bonus, helps clean the waters. Plus, the hatchery provides a much-needed link between the storied past and present of aquaculture on the South Fork, and its future, by bringing in a whole new generation of shellfish enthusiasts through educational programs. As ...
19 Feb 2025 by Editorial Board
Esly Escobar found a passion for the visual arts quite by accident, he says. The LTV studios technician and Westhampton Beach resident describes one winter when he literally threw colorful paints on cardboard, and he fell in love. Before long, he had cleaned up a spot in his basement to serve as a studio and “got lost in it” for years. “I’d forget about everything. I would just go to work, come back, go buy materials,” he said. The driving passion resulted in him producing over 70 paintings. He soon found himself with a solo show at the Remsenburg Academy, ...
by Editorial Board
