51 Photos
August 1 - The East Hampton Fire Department celebrated its 125th anniversary on July 28. RICHARD LEWIN
June 20 - Seniors at Pierson High School continue a tradition as they jump off the end of Long Wharf on June 13, as part of Senior Day. The Class of 2024 will receive diplomas at Commencement on June 29. MARIANNE BARNET
October 17 - East End residents were treated to a rare sight on Thursday, October 10, as the northern lights, aka aurora borealis, were visible and brilliant in Sag Harbor and elsewhere. STEVE SOBEY
November 7 - Chairman of the Suffolk County Republican Party Jesse Garcia and U.S. Representative Nick LaLota after Lalota's victory on Election Night. BRENDAN O'REILLY
April 25 - Crowds gathered outside Meigan Madden Rocco’s home in Flanders, eager to catch a glimpse of the rare Lazuli bunting that has been showing up to her bird feeder the last few days. MACK CHITULESCU
April 11 - A sliver of the sun pokes out from behind the moon at the peak of the eclipse on April 8. MARIANNE BARNETT
August 29 - A paddle-out for Andrew Blauschild was held on August 26 at Ditch Plains Beach. Mourners surrounded Blauschild’s vacant yellow surfboard in tribute.
February 22 - A bald eagle lands near a deer carcass in East Hampton on February 17. The carcass attracted several juvenile bald eagles as well. DOUG KUNTZ
January 11 -- A three-part series in the Express News Group papers examined the history of the Shinnecock Hills campus, its current status as the Southampton campus of Stony Brook University, and its future. Part II this week focuses on the present, as the university invests in the existing programs that have succeeded at the Southampton campus and considers a future that could include a new state-of-the-art hospital. on the property.
April 25 -- A full-scale mass casualty incident drill involving a train mishap was held on April 21 in Amagansett. The drill was organized in conjunction with the East Hampton Town Chiefs Association, Stony Brook Southampton Hospital and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority/Long Island Rail Road. All emergency services that serve East Hampton Town were invited to participate, including fire, EMS and police. Actors played patients, some of whom were transported by ambulances to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. DOUG KUNTZ
June 20 - The singer and actor Justin Timberlake was arraigned in Sag Harbor Village Justice Court on June 18 after being charged with DWI by Village Police. He was released and left the courthouse with his attorney, Edward Burke Jr., before getting into a waiting limousine. DOUG KUNTZ
January 11- The calm before the storm: Georgica Beach on January 8. DOUG KUNTZ
October 24 - Gosman’s Dock, which grew from a modest chowder house on Montauk Harbor to a sprawling and celebrated complex of restaurants, shops, and a wholesale and retail seafood business that over more than 80 years remained a family-run enterprise, was sold October 21. DOUG KUNTZ
August 29 - A drummer performs at the welcoming ceremony held for the replica of the Amistad on August 22 at Culloden Point in Montauk. KYRIL BROMLEY
October 10 - The Shinnecock Nation welcomed and hosted a delegation of horseback riders and supporters from various tribes across the country on the Trail of Truth, a 90-day journey across the United States that began in early August and is scheduled to conclude when the group arrives in Washington, D.C., on October 14, Indigenous Peoples’ Day. MARIANNE BARNETT
February 8 - The $11 million restoration of downtown Montauk’s beaches by contractors working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers commenced on Monday, February 5, the culmination of a yearslong push by the town to have the Army Corps roll back the clock on decades of erosion along the Montauk waterfront. Confirmation of the start of the much anticipated project came suddenly, less than 12 hours before work crews fired up bulldozers and the nearly 433-foot red hull of the suction hopper dredge Ellis Island appeared on the horizon off Hither Hills to start vacuuming up sand from the sea floor. DOUG KUNTZ
October 17 - Firefighters from the East Quogue Fire Department and the Hampton Bays Fire Department were able to snuff out a rapidly spreading brush fire that ignited along the side of Sunrise Highway during the Monday evening rush hour — in what a fire chief said could have been a much worse situation. The fire broke out Monday, October 14, between exits 65 and 66, where the highway runs through Sears Bellows County Park and the eastern reaches of the Pine Barrens — just a few miles east of where the infamous August 1995 Sunrise Wildfire scorched more than 5,500 acres of woodlands on either side of the highway.
February 15 - The Shinnecock Nation began clearing 10 acres of tribe-owned land on its Westwoods property in Hampton Bays, off the northern side of Sunrise Highway in early February , as the first step in construction of a gas station and travel plaza, questions continue to swirl about the details of the economic development project, and the degree of involvement it will entail from both the state and Southampton Town.
June 13 - Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney announced at a press conference that the Gilgo Beach murders suspect, Rex Heuermann, was now believed to have been responsible for the murder of a woman whose body was found near Fish Cove in North Sea in 1993, according to documents released by the Suffolk County district attorney’s office last Thursday morning. The body of Sandra Costilla was found in a wooded area off Old Fish Cove Road by two hunters on the morning of November 20, 1993. She had been stabbed multiple times and detectives at the time said they suspected she had been raped. BRENDAN O'REILLY
November 21 - The Southampton History Museum informed the Conscience Point Shellfish Hatchery in late October that the museum’s Board of Trustees had voted to terminate the hatchery’s lease and order the tiny hatchery operation to vacate the waterfront property at Conscience Point, which the history museum has owned since 1910. MICHAEL WRIGHT
January 25 - Temperatures dropped down enough to allow for a small game of hockey on Town Pond in East Hampton on January 21. KYRIL BROMLEY
August 8 - Supporters of former President Donald Trump lined a portion of Old Riverhead Road near Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach on August 2, waiting for hours to catch a glimpse of the passing motorcade on its way to a Bridgehampton campaign fundraiser. The visit snarled traffic in to the late evening. DANA SHAW
September 23 - The Bridgehampton Commons Kmart announced it would close it's doors on October 20. It was the last standing large Kmart in the United States. DANA SHAW
May 23 - Despite declining numbers, men and women are still answering the call to become volunteer firefighters — and tackling the difficult, sometimes dangerous training that is required. A new group of “probies” — probationary firefighters — recently arrived at the Suffolk County Fire Academy, coming from a variety of different backgrounds. TOM GOGOLA
April 11 - Lisa Goree was sworn in on Tuesday night as the new chair of the Shinnecock Nation Council of Trustees. Goree became the first woman to serve in that role. REBEKAH PHOENIX WISE
May 30 - Members of the First Baptist Church of Bridgehampton marched on Montauk Highway on May 19 from their original home on Corwith Avenue to their current church on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike to celebrate the congregation’s centennial. STEPHEN J. KOTZ
May 23 - Despite declining numbers, men and women are still answering the call to become volunteer firefighters — and tackling the difficult, sometimes dangerous training that is required. A new group of “probies” — probationary firefighters — recently arrived at the Suffolk County Fire Academy, coming from a variety of different backgrounds. TOM GOGOLA
January 18 - A trio of storms that all brought tropical storm force winds to the South Fork in December 2023 have washed away the last remnants of dunes that separated some homes from the ocean at Ditch Plains. Town officials are appealing to federal and state agencies to help bolster the area against further loss of land in severe storms. DOUG KUNTZ
August 8 - Members of the Shinnecock Nation and their supporters held a rally outside Southampton Town Hall on August 5, calling on Southampton Town to dedicate more money from the Community Preservation Fund to preserving the tribe’s ancestral lands in Shinnecock Hills. MICHAEL WRIGHT
October 31 - Firefighters battled a blaze that destroyed a Main Street building in downtown Westhampton Beach on October 25, as tenants, including several children, were asleep in apartments on the second and third floors of the building. WESTHAMPTON BEACH FIRE DEPARTMENT
September 5 - The Sag Harbor Community Band ended its 66th summer season with a bang on August 27 in Marine Park with the help of the 3rd NY Regiment, who provided the musket fire during Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.” DANA SHAW
October 31 - Southampton Town Police and Suffolk County Police homicide detectives at the Shou Sugi Ban House, a Water Mill wellness spa, where the body of Sabina Rosas was discovered on October 28. DANA SHAW
August 15 - The New York Marine Rescue Center released a total of six sea turtles — four Kemp’s ridleys and two green sea turtles — on August 8 at Tiana Beach in Hampton Bays. Despite the chilly, foggy weather, the turtles were anxious to get back home. DANA SHAW
November 7 - Tommy John Schiavoni celebrates with his wife, Andrea, and daughter, Anna Francesca, after winning the 1st District Assembly race against Republican Stephen Kiely at Page in Sag Harbor on election Night. DANA SHAW
January 4 - Members of the Shinnecock Nation and the general public gathered at the large, old beech tree at the corner of East Gate Road and Hill Street on January 1 in attempts to preserve it from harm. DANA SHAW
November 21 - Rescuer Kelly Gang and Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center hospital workers Rose Lynch and Amanda Ellis release a juvenile bald eagle at Scallop Pond Preserve on November 13. DANA SHAW
August 22 - Members of the Southampton Town Police — officer Anthony Vecchio, Chief James Kiernan, officer Chris Floria, officer Craig Slovensky, Lieutenant William Kiernan and Detective Don Metcalf — took the ice bucket challenge on August 18 at a benefit for Blythe Fickenwirth, far right, in Westhampton Beach. DANA SHAW
November 28 - A lone fisherman on a calm Shinnecock Bay last week. DANA SHAW
August 29 - Marilee and Lee Foster at the home used as employee housing next to Sagaponack Village Hall. DANA SHAW
June 27 - Newly elected Southampton Village Trustee Ed Simioni hugs Kimberly Allan as former Southampton Village Mayor Michael Irving looks on after election results were announced on June 21. DANA SHAW
August 29 - Frequenters of the Southampton Village beach known as the Picnic Area rallied outside Southampton Town Hall on August 20. DANA SHAW
June 27 - Palm Tree Festival-goers arrive at the Southampton train station on June 22 to a line of shuttle buses to take them to the venue. DANA SHAW
July 4 - Keith Phillips and Andrew Hurley with the Nowedonah at the Southampton Historical Museum. DANA SHAW
February 8 - Fire dancer Anna Archaic performs with Keith Leaf and His Flaming Friends at HarborFrost on February 3. DANA SHAW
July 4 - President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden arrive at Francis S. Gabreski Airport in Westhampton on Air Force One en route to a couple of fundraisers in East Hampton on June 29. DANA SHAW
May 2 - A rainbow appeared as two seals were released at Tiana Beach on April 24.DANA SHAW
May 9 - Rebeca Olender in “Wonder Woman,” by Paulette Phillippe at the last Reconstructed Bra Fashion Show to benefit the Lucia's Angels on May 3. DANA SHAW
May 9 - American Cruise Line docked for the first time in Sag harbor on May 7. DANA SHAW
October 3 - The Canio’s Books sign on the front of the Sag Harbor mainstay came down on September 30 , marking the end of an era for the storefront and the community. DANA SHAW
May 16 - Volunteers answered a call for help from Carolyn Munaco to help move stranded horseshoe crabs over a rock and metal barrier at the Tiana Bayside Facility in Hampton Bays on May 10. DANA SHAW
August 1 - Aby and Charlie Rosen at the cinema in Southampton. DANA SHAW
Staff Writer on Dec 31, 2024