Recent Stories: Montauk

    The town beach at Ditch Plain in Montauk will remain closed to swimmers, with no lifeguards on duty, for the foreseeable future. Erosion has stripped away the sand on shore and underwater, leaving dangerous rocks as well as concrete building remnants.

    Montaukers will proudly wave the American flag this weekend in honor of Memorial Day. The hamlet’s three-day event is in its third year. The services begin at 5 p.m. on Saturday at the Montauk Coast Guard Station, where a fish-and-chips dinner honoring veterans will be held on the grounds overlooking Lake Montauk. Veterans eat free. Guests will be asked for a $20 donation, $10 for children 10 and under.

    Two candidates are running for one five-year term on the Montauk School Board. The open seat is being vacated by Therese Watson after 29 years. The candidates, Lee White and Honora Herlihy, both have children in the school.

    The Montauk Playhouse Community Center will have a generator by summer. The Village of East Hampton is to donate a used one that will be delivered within the month, Bruce Bates, the director of East Hampton Town’s emergency preparedness program, told the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee on Monday.

    Some were wrapped in blankets and others in woolly hats and gloves, but the chilly weather on Sunday did nothing to keep an estimated crowd of some 25,000 to 30,000 people from attending the Montauk Friends of Erin’s 51st annual St. Patrick’s Day parade, with Jack Perna, the district superintendent of the Montauk School, leading the way as grand marshal.

    The Montauk School Board had its first peek Tuesday at the 2013-14 district budget, an $18.6 million spending plan that reflects an increase of $106,594 and remains under the New York State-imposed 2-percent cap on tax levy increases. That amount, however, is subject to change as the board combs through the budget line by line in the coming weeks.

    Changes in the permitted catch of cod from the Georges Bank, the stock that the local charter and party boat fleet depends upon during the winter months, are to take effect on May 1, but whether local fishermen will feel a pinch, and if so, what form the changes will take — whether minimum size limits, daily bag limits, closed seasons, or closed areas — has not been decided.

    The Montauk Lake Club and Marina on East Lake Drive in Montauk and the club’s contractor, Seacoast Marine Construction of Sayville, have been fined $50,000 by the State Department of Environmental Conservation for exceeding the permitted limits of the dredging project earlier this year.

    A celebration of life service for two men who were presumed lost at sea aboard the Foxy Lady II, a commercial fishing vessel that frequently packed out in Montauk, will be held on Deer Isle, Me., on Feb. 24.

    A briefing for Congressional staffers on the H-2B visa program, which allows employers to hire a temporary foreign work staff, will be held in Washington, D.C., on Monday at 3 p.m. Members of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce are urging business owners to attend the meeting and lend support.
    “As you know, this program is very important to the seasonal employees in Montauk,” wrote Laraine Creegan, the chamber’s executive director.

    Members of the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee had an emotional exchange on Monday night about their hamlet’s future amid global warming and recent climate change, wondering what would happen if Montauk became an island and lost its beaches and economy.
    Some members wondered if anything could be done right now to stave off disaster and save the beaches, motels, Ditch Plain area, and the entire downtown.

    John Jilnicki, the East Hampton Town attorney, told the members of the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee and quite a few guests on Tuesday evening that the town is in the process of overhauling several provisions of the town code to make them specific to the hamlet, including the law on mass gathering permits and noise violations. “The legislation we have now is difficult for most people to understand,” he said. The committee, concerned about whether summonses have been issued for code violations, had been trying for some time to get Mr.