Community News, February 13 - 27 East

Community News, February 13

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Jeremy Dennis presents a 2024 Preservation Award certificate to April Gornik, Lee Skolnick, Eric Fischl for The Church in Sag Harbor, one of the Long Island sites recognized for preservation excellence by Preservation Long Island. The January 25 event honored individuals and organizations that have exemplified excellence in their efforts to preserve their community’s valuable historic resources. COURTESY LEN MARKS PHOTOGRAPHY

Jeremy Dennis presents a 2024 Preservation Award certificate to April Gornik, Lee Skolnick, Eric Fischl for The Church in Sag Harbor, one of the Long Island sites recognized for preservation excellence by Preservation Long Island. The January 25 event honored individuals and organizations that have exemplified excellence in their efforts to preserve their community’s valuable historic resources. COURTESY LEN MARKS PHOTOGRAPHY

Westhampton American Legion Arthur Ellis Hamm Post #834 collected donations outside the Lidl Supermarket for the local food pantry. In just a few hours, roughly $2,000 worth of food was donated for those in need. Volunteers included, from left, Paul Haines, Alora Atkins helping her dad Matt, Tom Quinn, Post Commander Lisha Terry,  with Lidl manager Deric Windus. COURTESY GEORGE MOTZ

Westhampton American Legion Arthur Ellis Hamm Post #834 collected donations outside the Lidl Supermarket for the local food pantry. In just a few hours, roughly $2,000 worth of food was donated for those in need. Volunteers included, from left, Paul Haines, Alora Atkins helping her dad Matt, Tom Quinn, Post Commander Lisha Terry, with Lidl manager Deric Windus. COURTESY GEORGE MOTZ

authorStaff Writer on Feb 10, 2025
YOUTH CORNER Circle of Fun East Hampton Library, 159 Main Street in East Hampton, will host Circle of Fun, a rhythmic class for infants to preschoolers, on Thursday, at 9:30... more

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Education, Transportation Are East End Priorities

Last month, Governor Kathy Hochul proposed a $252 billion New York State budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year. As is the case with any state budget, her proposal contains thousands of appropriations and hundreds of proposals for the operation of the state. Her proposal will be reviewed by the State Legislature, leading to a state budget around April 1. While all of it is important, two areas of particular importance for the East End in 2025 are education and transportation. State Aid to Education is always a top priority. However, in 2025, a major overhaul to the Foundation Aid formula ... by Fred W. Thiele Jr.

Cancer in Their Bones

Andrew Hull, the late senior health physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory, told me almost 50 years ago, when I was reporting about high levels of radioactivity in the Peconic River, that the cause was fallout from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests at the federal government’s Nevada test site. Many nuclear weapons were exploded, and the fallout spread widely, carried by winds, including to the east of the United States and Suffolk County. I was exploring the situation because the York State Health Department had just issued a report saying that the Peconic River, which flows through Riverhead, had the second-highest level ... by Karl Grossman

VIEWPOINT A Step Forward for Southampton Town

Last week, the Town of Southampton set up half a dozen garbage bins at the Hampton Bays Transfer Station so that residents can separately dispose of their food scraps, instead of throwing them away with the rest of the household trash. This may not sound like a big deal, but it marks an important step forward on the path to building a more sustainable future for our community. It’s a win-win-win proposition for all of us. Any resident who self-hauls their trash to the Hampton Bays Transfer Station can immediately save some money by reducing the amount of trash they ... by Joe Lamport

Becoming a Fan

One of my friends owns the Green Bay Packers. Back in November, the topic of conversation at the mahjong table was Thanksgiving plans. Sally Belfi announced that she was going to the Packers game in Green Bay, Wisconsin. She added a green battery-operated heated vest to wear with her thermals, down coat, her warmest hat, socks and boots. I asked her: Why Green Bay? That’s when she told me that she and family members were owners of the Packers. I gasped in surprise. She laughed and said, “Not like Jimmy Jones, Rob Walton or Steve Tisch. Green Bay is publicly ... 4 Feb 2025 by Denise Gray Meehan

Digital Detox

Sympathetically, I told my students last week that the use of cellphones wasn’t allowed in my classes. When I became a professor (of journalism) in 1978, cellphones were certainly not an issue. But, these days, youngsters are, I’d say, more attached to their cellphones than any other object (exceeded only perhaps, for those of driving age, by their cars). And there is obsessive use of them. I expressed sympathy as classes started for the 2025 semester, because cellphones have in recent years become a necessity in functioning in what has been dubbed the “digital society.” It’s not the students’ fault ... by Karl Grossman

Sounds of Winter

Now that most leaf blowers have gone into hibernation, we have the real quiet of midwinter to relish. Contrary to description, quiet is not actually quiet, but it is largely left alone, undisturbed, and so in the empty, cold air you can hear the small but cumulative sounds. Things like beach pebbles, miles away, drawing back with a wave. The predation begins before dawn. The woman fills her feeders. The sparrows move in, and doves, lazy from the cold night, flap down from high branches to huddle on the ground. One small movement begets another — and the hawk sifts ... 28 Jan 2025 by Marilee Foster

Two Whoppers

Governor Kathy Hochul recently issued two whoppers of vetoes of measures passed by the New York State Legislature. One was of a bill that recognizes the Montaukett Indian Nation. As East Hampton Town declared in a proclamation in November, “the Montaukett remain resilient.” But don’t tell that to Governor Hochul. The Montaukett were the victims of a land grab in a 1910 court case, Pharaoh v. Benson. “The New York State courts removed recognition from the Montaukett in a racist decision based on the legal fiction that the Montaukett were extinct to justify what could only be described as a ... by Karl Grossman

Community News, January 30

YOUTH CORNER OFVS Bring a Friend Week Our Fabulous Variety Show at Project Most, 44 ... 27 Jan 2025 by Staff Writer

Shredding It

I picked up the phone because I needed answers about the cardboard shredder. Packaging used to be simple for my farm. Baskets, then burlap, paper then plastic, but ultimately, from us, the manufacturer, little packaging was required. We still send potatoes in paper sacks, but we can also now send it in bottles, as Vodka, to martini makers all over the Empire State. With this fragile opportunity, comes packaging. The cardboard shredder I am after doesn’t shred cardboard to reduce and destroy it, but rather it handily perforates three-ply boxes, turning pieces into packing material hassle free. Packing material is ... 21 Jan 2025 by Marilee Foster

In the Year 2025

2025 has already mugged me, repeatedly. I look forward to years that end in a zero or a five. They feel auspicious. One of my life’s numerical highlights was to have my high school graduation land on an ’0 year. Many of us partied extra hard at the turn of the millennium. After all, it was a ’000. I associate auspicious with superlatives like “great!” And so, despite all the signs, I was feeling hopeful, looking forward to 2025. I should have been looking backward for the kick in the butt. Let’s start with the fires ravaging my native Southern ... 20 Jan 2025 by Carlos Sandoval