Villages

More than a year after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic caused a boom in East End real estate sales and rentals, industry professionals said the market is still going strong even as the end of the pandemic may be drawing near.

The Hamptons Neighborhood Group's goal seems simple: amicably help the Shinnecock Indian Nation find a different location for its casino, one the group deems "more suitable" than the tribe's territory on Montauk Highway. But it's fair to say the surrounding issues are more complex, when set against a backdrop of centuries of persecution of Indigenous people. 

Anthony Daunt of Springs barely got any sleep for four and a half days straight not long ago, but it wasn't his infant daughter, Mila, who was keeping him up, but rather the Moab 240, an ultra race in Utah.

Dell Cullum, the founder of Wildlife Rescue of East Hampton, and a team of volunteers recovered nine turtles, dozens of fish including two koi, and a large bullfrog from Town Pond in East Hampton during a two-week effort to extricate wildlife from the pond prior to the completion of a planned dredging.

The rate of Covid-19 vaccinations among New York State's Black and Latino residents continues to lag far behind that of their white counterparts, according to data from the state. South Fork community leaders say the discrepancy is due primarily to a lack of access to the vaccine. 

A new, ad-hoc committee called the Hamptons Neighborhood Group — consisting of more than 140 property owners and "interested parties" — will hold a Zoom meeting on Tuesday at 6 p.m. to discuss the Shinnecock Indian Nation's proposed casino.

"Right now, our plans are all systems go, but we recognize that anything could still change," said Marty Bauman, the show's communications director.

Joseph Hand writes to Nathaniel Huntting (1793-1863) on April 3, 1813, describing the sighting of British ships off Montauk Point.

LTV's Channel 20 public access content will soon begin broadcasting to Southampton, via that town's new channel, SunTV. In the future, the plan is for SunTV to add content of its own and handle most of Southampton Town's programming.

As federal supplies of Covid-19 vaccines begin to tick upward, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has once again expanded eligibility for the vaccines, announcing on Tuesday that people ages 60 and over will be able to get shots starting Wednesday morning.

After much lobbying by local officials, a state-run site for Covid vaccinations will soon be opening on the campus of Stony Brook Southampton.

It was one of those things you think could happen anywhere but in your own town, but Covid-19 proved it would not discriminate, starting with its official arrival here in March 2020, when the county's first Covid-19 patient was admitted to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital.

East Hampton Town and Stony Brook Medicine are offering Covid vaccines today, Friday, March 5, for those 65 years or older at the East Hampton Town clinic on Stephen Hand's Path. Several hundred appointments were still available as of Friday morning.

It's hard to find any sector of society that wasn't impacted by Covid-19 in the year since the county's first virus case was reported, and first-person experiences and expert opinions, documented here, suggest that the pandemic may leave its mark for years to come.

Armed with a computer, an internet connection, and a humanitarian streak, East End residents who have become adept at using New York State's website for booking Covid-19 vaccine appointments are helping others get their shots.

This is the second year the Ellen Hermanson Foundation is holding a benefit virtually, because of the pandemic. This year's event, at 6 p.m. on Saturday, will feature a knockout lineup of female comedians, singers, and other performers. As always, the foundation will honor women in the community who have made a difference.

From the parking lot in the mall to the emergency room in the hospital, community members are showing how kindness — any time, any place, to anyone — can be a real shot in the arm during the pandemic.

Not many people can say they have been to Antarctica, but can you imagine sailing there on a wooden ship with cloth sails, navigating by compass and stars?

There are few, if any, absolutes in medicine. For example, the medical establishment spent years telling people that low-fat diets would lower their risk of dying, particularly by lowering high cholesterol and decreasing the risk of cardiovascular disease.

All too often, it seems, the story of Covid-19 is told through statistics and trends. Beyond those numbers are hundreds of thousands of human beings — real people — who lost their lives to the pandemic across the world. As told to The Star by their families, here are some of their stories from the East End.

Several longtime members of the East Hampton Ladies Village Improvement Society, including former presidents, have resigned from the society in recent weeks, following the announcement of the 125-year-old women's group that it had hired a man to be its first executive director.

For those who need help coping with pandemic-related losses and other issues, a number of organizations and medical facilities continue to offer resources. Here are a few.

The Turtle Rescue of the Hamptons organization informed Mayor Jerry Larsen on Saturday that the group had recently spotted turtles in the pond. They asked to have the dredging delayed so that other turtles, including hatchlings, could be safely removed.

This postcard shows the residence of Samuel A. Beardsley (1856-1932), a prominent New York lawyer. Designed by William Strom, it stood on Lee Avenue in East Hampton.

A senior Stony Brook Southampton Hospital official said this week that the post-holiday surge of Covid-19 patients is over, and now it's a matter of public vigilance until vaccinations yield widespread immunity to the virus.

Despite the frustrating nature of wearing a mask, multiple studies have shown over the past year that doing so can significantly decrease the transmission of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 by more than 70 percent.

More than 250 people from communities of color received Covid-19 vaccinations at a pop-up clinic in East Hampton organized by the Organizacion Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island, part of a state effort to make sure minority communities receive access to the vaccine.

Covid-19 continues to disrupt local tradition, with the Montauk Friends of Erin's St. Patrick's Day parade, gala, and grand marshal's lunch the latest victims of the pandemic. The Friends had announced plans to hold the parade on March 28, a Sunday, but yesterday, about five weeks out, word came of its cancellation. The 2020 parade had met the same fate.

A public hearing on a petition for the incorporation of Wainscott will resume on Thursday at 11 a.m., following its initial airing on Feb. 5. The hearing’s purpose is to determine the legality of the petition, which was submitted to East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc on Dec. 30, and to present comments on it, for or against.

People have rushed and raided shelves for the obvious during Covid — hand sanitizer, disinfectant, paper towels, yeast for all those burgeoning home bakers — but they've also rushed to buy up unexpected things like dumbbells, balloons, Krud Kutter, tiki torches, and zinc.