Author Information

Janis Hewitt
Senior Writer

Articles by this author:

  • The Party Down the Block in Montauk
    A house on South Federal Street in Montauk has drawn the ire of year-round neighbors who say it is a party house disrupting their summer, and one neighbor has started a Facebook page, Montauk Rental Madness, showing video of what goes on.
    By: Janis Hewitt
  • Veterans Get Days at Sea
    Freedom Fighter Outdoors was started by Vinnie LaSorsa, the mate on the singer Jimmy Buffett’s sportfishing boat, and his wife, Sarah LaSorsa. It provides wounded veterans fishing, hunting, and other outdoor opportunities.
    By: Janis Hewitt
  • Relay: Heaven Can Wait

    Taking into consideration the way our visitors are driving this summer and the pedestrians darting in front of cars outside of marked crosswalks, it has given me ample opportunity to think about heaven, if I should be so lucky to land there someday.

    By: Janis Hewitt
  • A Sea of Local Faces

    Visitors to Aubrey Roemer’s cool, sizable studio, in a rented basement apartment in Montauk, are greeted with a sea of local faces painted on linen and strung from the rafters of the room. The work was originally called “The Montauk Portrait Project,” but she has since decided to call it “Leviathan,” to represent a large vessel of the sea.

    Her goal was to capture at least 10 percent of the hamlet’s year-round community, roughly 400 people. At last count, on June 19, she had completed 100 pieces, and has now decided to shoot for 500.

    By: Janis Hewitt
  • Juice Factory Keeps It Pure

    The folks at the Montauk Juice Factory are so in love with Montauk and its people that they’ve opened a place where customers can get healthy just by drinking one of their concoctions. And there are many to choose from.

    By: Janis Hewitt
  • Studying the Life of a Pond

    Interns studying water quality in Montauk’s Big Reed Pond for the Third House Nature Center presented their findings to a small group at the Montauk Library on Friday.

    Conrad Kabbaz, Daisy Kelly, and Serrana Mattiauda explained that a contaminant called cyanobacteria, otherwise known as a blue-green algae bloom, has choked the freshwater pond of its oxygen, killing off plant life and several species of fish, including large-mouthed bass and whitefish. The bacteria can be toxic to people and to animals, who may sip from the water or as they walk around its edge.

    By: Janis Hewitt
  • A Teacher Bikes for Katy’s

    Will Collins, a Montauk School physical education teacher, took part in the Ride to Montauk on May 31 and exceeded his $500 goal, raising $1,400 for Katy’s Courage.

    Mr. Collins said he was working at the Lobster Roll restaurant on Napeague the night after he was hired by the school on May 31 of last year and learned about the Ride to Montauk from a group of bicyclists he was waiting on.

    “I quickly tried to decide how I could tie the event to the kids at the Montauk School,” he said by email.

    By: Janis Hewitt
  • Big Reed Bacteria Warning

    The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has warn?ed that cyanobacteria, which is informally known as blue-green algae, has been found in Big Reed Pond off East Lake Drive in Montauk and could be hazardous to people and animals, especially dogs that take a dip in the pond or even walk too close to its edge. Big Reed Pond, as well as Lake Agawam in Southampton and Marratooka Lake in Mattituck, has been declared off-limits for people and dogs by the D.E.C.

    By: Janis Hewitt
  • Just Don’t Call Them Old

    The brothers Richie and Jacob Nessel are probably the most reluctant oldtimers to be honored tonight at the annual Old Timers dinner hosted by the Montauk Chamber of Commerce.

    “I’m not old,” said Jake Nessel.

    “It’s wonderful. Can I leave now and go home for dinner?” asked Richie Nessel when the two met with a visitor for a photograph on the docks near the Ebb Tide, the boat Captain Jake runs.

    By: Janis Hewitt
  • On the Beach and in the Lake

    The East Hampton Town Board will form three committees to grapple with erosion in the downtown Montauk beach area, Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc told the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee Monday night.

    One committee will deal with the Army Corps of Engineers, the second will work on creating a tax district to fund beach-restoration projects, and the third will help devise a post-storm recovery plan.

    “If we have a catastrophic storm, we’ll have a plan and make ourselves more resilient,” he said.

    By: Janis Hewitt