Villages

Environmental problems on the East End, from lobster die-offs in the Sound to pesticides to overdevelopment, come to a head in the year 2000. And much more from our past coverage.

One of the first executive orders of the new Trump administration rescinded Biden administration policies that forbid Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from conducting raids in “sensitive areas” such as schools and places of worship. With this dramatic policy change, local school officials and religious leaders are banding together in a call to protect the immigrant community.

A painting by the late Ralph Carpentier, a well-known landscape painter here who died in 2016, is back in the hamlet where he created it and on display at the Springs Library.

“What’s happening in California is something that can happen every day here in New York,” said Chuck Hamilton, the founder of the New York Wildfire Incident Management Academy. The East End has what he called an “urban interface” — also present in Southern California — which means that houses touch right up against forested areas ripe with fuel.

Calvary Baptist Church and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church welcomed faith leaders and parishioners from Bridghampton to Montauk on Sunday for this year’s interfaith celebration of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — his life, his teachings, his message.

Keen-eyed observers may have noticed an intriguing “available retail space” sign placed over the holidays at the Long Island Rail Road Station in East Hampton Village. The space, 613 square feet total, is divided between 488 square feet that will be shared with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, including a bathroom, and 125 feet of exclusive retail space.

In 1822 Henry Packer Dering, the Sag Harbor customs collector, issued this “acknowledgement” that Benjamin Lord, “an American seaman,” had paid “into this office six months Hospital Money.”

The Hedges Inn, now owned by John Cumming, is in contract to be sold to Andrew and Sarah Wetenhall, marking an end to a year of drama that saw the 1873 inn, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, actively courted by Scott Sartiano and his celebrity hangout, Zero Bond.

A chance to relive the time at the turn of the last century when the then-new internet wiped out a once reliable and interesting field of employment — the nation’s travel agencies. Plus a hundred years’ worth of other Star nuggets.

Joe Bloecker, a member of the Montauk Friends of Erin for over 30 years and its president for 10, has been chosen to lead the group’s 2025 St. Patrick’s Day Parade as grand marshal. Mr. Bloecker’s “involvement with the club and his contributions to the Montauk community run deep,” the group said in its announcement.

The Crook Family Bible at the Hampton Library paints a picture of the life of Cato Crook, a formerly enslaved Bridgehampton man who in 1819 wrote to Elias Smith of Smithtown to free his “runaway” niece.

What’s old is still new: Back in 1950, the farmers of Suffolk County sought legislation to curb marauding deer and receive compensation for crop damage caused by the herds.

The East Hampton Library receives upward of thousands of books each week through donations. How they are handled, for fun and profit, for collectors and other libraries, has been a revelation.

The Rev. Benjamin (Chaps) Shambaugh, who serves in the Coast Guard’s Auxiliary Chaplain Support program, became the branch chief of the Coast Guard’s Atlantic Area East on Jan. 1. In that role, he will oversee chaplains who care for Coast Guard members and their families from Canada to the Caribbean and in Europe and other areas abroad. 

A water main break that occurred on Mitchell Lane in Bridgehampton on Saturday may be the culprit behind the discolored water coming out of taps in Bridgehampton, according to the Suffolk County Water Authority. But residents seeking answers have been frustrated with a lack of them.

While Captain Beebee’s headstone now sits pristine atop the hill next to the Old Whalers Church, the rest of the family’s six plots sit in disrepair. Recently, however, the museum received a $10,000 grant from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation, which will allow for the restoration of the remaining headstones.

It was almost balmy on New Year’s Day when around 500 intrepid people plunged into the ocean at East Hampton Village’s Main Beach, with at least twice as many fellow citizens cheering them on.

Seen here is a still image from “Creating the Lost at Sea Memorial,” a video produced in 1997 by LTV, about how the striking Montauk monument came to be.

Stevie Ruiz of Montauk said he first hit his stride on “Jeopardy!” in early December, an experience that netted him $38,987 over three days, when the category Artists by Album popped up on the board.

How was the economy here in 1975? “This thing is frightening,” one businessman said. “It’s a mess,” according to another. And much more of relevance and curiosity from our past coverage.

Looking ahead to the problem of summer traffic, David and Stacey Brodsky of Wainscott have a plan that they believe will alleviate the burden created by cars using some of the hamlet’s back roads to bypass Montauk Highway.

The assistant secretary of the United States Department of the Interior on Thursday affirmed the Shinnecock Nation's sovereignty over the Westwoods land parcel, the site of a planned gas station and travel plaza on Sunrise Highway, the Nation announced Friday.

David Brandman and the Artists and Writers Softball Game’s impresario, Leif Hope, recently handed out $10,000 checks to four beneficiaries — the Eleanor Whitmore Center, the Retreat, Phoenix House, and East End Hospice.

This still image from a 1988 video from the LTV Archive features a spoof by the artist Robert Janz, as he tries to draw a clock face on a timepiece in motion.

The Sag Harbor Village Zoning Board of Appeals voted on Dec. 17 to close a public hearing on the planned expansion of the restaurant Page at 63 Main Street, plans that involve the use of the second floor. The village attorney will draft a decision to be voted on.

The developer Jeremy Morton’s proposed renovations for the K Pasa and former 7-Eleven buildings in Sag Harbor took another step forward last month, with more review ahead.

After 35 years as a mainstay on Sag Harbor’s Main Street, Sylvester & Co. will close its doors for the last time next week.

“There’s been some pretty significant glimmers of hope — only to have our hopes dashed again,” Peconic Baykeeper’s executive director, Pete Topping, said at the start of a panel discussion the group hosted in December on this year's scallop season and prospects for the future.

A 38-foot adult female humpback whale washed up on the shore at Napeague State Park in Amagansett on Dec. 17, but according to Joanne Biegert, a representative of the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society, because of the whale's advanced state of decomposition the organization cannot determine a cause of death. 

In October, Craig Berkoski and Andrew Drake ran a legendary Grand Canyon route known as a "rite of passage" for ultra runners. The so-called Rim to Rim to Rim trail involves descending 4,500 feet down the South Rim, crossing the canyon floor and the Colorado River, and then running up the nearly 8,000-foot North Rim, and back.