Villages

Two hundred and thirty-eight years ago, on April 25, 1783, the Rev. Samuel Buell (1716-1798) reflected on the popular demand for his recent publication, which was actually a funeral sermon he preached for his daughter Jerusha Buell Gardiner Conkling.

Pandemic-related restrictions on restaurants, gyms, offices, casinos, and catered events, will be relaxed the coming weeks in New York, a direct result of improving Covid rates in the state, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Wednesday.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, which oversees parishes across Long Island, has released a list of over 100 clergy accused of sexual abuse while serving in the diocese, including some who had not previously been identified. Eleven of the clergy on the list served on the South Fork from the late 1950s through as recently as 2000.

The shutdowns that came with Covid-19 were especially challenging for Debajo de las Palmas, an organization founded by Meaghan Guzman of East Hampton that provides nutrition and breastfeeding education, birth support, clothing, shoes, toys, education supplies, diapers, infant and toddler formula, mosquito nets, and much more to women and families in the Dominican Republic.

The idea behind the new 2/3 for the Birds campaign is simple: By planting two-thirds of one's property with native greenery and abstaining from the use of pesticides, homeowners can help local bird species make a comeback. Experts say it's a critical way to restore avian populations that have been dying off since the 1970s.

This photograph from the Carleton Kelsey Collection shows Dr. Morley Brown Lewis (1869-1955) and his wife, Mary Robina Law Ettershank Lewis (1870-1958). A notation on the reverse indicates this image was captured in 1947 while the couple enjoyed Thanksgiving in Westhampton Beach. Kelsey saved a letter with this image, which he received from their son Arnold Meredith Lewis (1904-1994), sharing details about Arnold's parents.

"This doesn't mean that it's going to be out on the streets for everyone; in fact, it'll be off the streets," Nicole Ricci, a board member of New York Small Farma told the crowd at a Tuesday rally in Sag Harbor in support of the state's marijuana legalization. The event addressed details of the law, and encouraged people to take an active role in developing local regulations for the use and sale of marijuana.

Last week, the news broke that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Federal Drug Administration here in the United States had called for a pause in administration of the single-dose Johnson and Johnson Covid-19 vaccine following reports of blood clots after administration of this vaccine.

Customers and locals had plenty to say this week about the loss of the only spot in the village where one can grab lunch on a budget of $5 or less. The popular all-day, everyday convenience store is set to close on Friday, April 30, in a move stemming from a major Sag Harbor real estate shake-up involving Friends of Bay Street, the organization formed to help Bay Street Theater acquire, develop, and finance its new facility.

In the trial of Derek Chauvin, a guilty verdict read in a courtroom halfway across the country on Tuesday night was heard loud and clear here on the East End and across the nation.

The board of directors of the Ladies Village Improvement Society of East Hampton kicked out at least two members for publicly disagreeing with the organization’s recent decision to hire a man as executive director, and warned several others that their memberships may also be terminated if they continue to publicly express dissent. 

In this dramatic photograph, the East Hampton artist Thomas Moran (1837-1926) appears sketching while seated on the edge of the Grand Canyon in an area known as Bright Angel Cove. Today, it's hard to imagine working in the hot sun of the Grand Canyon in the long dark clothes Moran wears here.

A desire to know something for certain is particularly evident in medicine. However, there is always that small opportunity for rainy days and tornadoes, in medicine as in everything else. Nothing is absolute.

After a fatigue-laden winterlong game of avoiding Covid and basically just staying home (and perhaps listening to too much Pink Floyd), it felt much as if a heavy block of cement had fallen off my shoulders when I finally got back on my boat for the first time since November. It was cathartic and energizing.

Following the New York State Legislature's vote to legalize recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older, the Shinnecock Indian Nation issued a statement celebrating the initiative.

Before there was the Covid-19 pandemic, there was the drug epidemic — a health and social battle that was ongoing when the virus arrived — and experts say that Covid-19 has worsened the problem of substance abuse.

Social justice advocates are hoping to turn a case of racist vandalism in Montauk into a conversation starter toward positive change.

This photograph shows farm buildings at Dune Alpin Farm in East Hampton sometime after 1934 and before 1960. The date is estimated based on the appearance of the farm's owner, Abraham Katz, at the right side of the image.

The property was originally owned by Blanche B. and George L. McAlpin, who bought it in 1906. The name was inspired by a sand dune on the land along with the family surname. The McAlpins owned the Hotel McAlpin on Broadway and 34th Street in Manhattan, which was the largest hotel in the world at the time it opened in 1912. The family sold it in 1938.

Several medical studies have shown the power of gratitude. I am grateful for every single nurse, certified nursing assistant, technician, sanitary worker, cafeteria worker, and staff member in the hospitals where I work who did not give an inch in this fight, who offered me weary smiles and kind words after long shifts.

"The effects of climate change are obvious and go beyond scallops," Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University's School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences said in a lecture last week. "Locally, things are collapsing." Excessive nitrogen loading, too, poses a threat to both coastal ecosystems and human health.

Single moms, who are among those hit hard by the pandemic, have a lot on their plates. To help them out, the organization There's Some Good News is donating wholesome meals from Honest Plate and providing individualized support to mothers under stress. 

Was it life as we knew it upended by a pandemic, or a rediscovery of the joys of the printed page that accounted for last year's eye-popping statistical changes at the Amagansett Library? Probably both, Lauren Nichols, the library's director, said this week

In unusual times, mothers, nurses, midwives, and doulas are facing preganancy and birth under circumstances that sometime demand the exact opposite of the intimacy that is part and parcel of the experience.

A yearlong study of Sag Harbor Bay has found its water quality to be good over all, but also has detected high nitrogen or bacteria levels at several trouble spots, among them Havens Beach. The level of fecal coliform bacteria in water emanating from a drainage ditch there was 100 times higher than the state's standard for safe shellfishing, and the level of enterococcus bacteria was 10 times higher than the standard for safe swimming.

Local catering companies are walking a dangerous edge. Another season like last year and some say they are sure to go out of business. That is the main point that they are trying to drive home with state lawmakers. And time is running out for them to take on work in the summer of 2021.

This Map of the Village Green is from the Ladies Village Improvement Society's archives. The map was drawn by Wallace H. Halsey, using a survey completed in September 1928. The plan includes the roads, light posts, cemetery, and Town Pond. Town Pond is currently undergoing an extensive project to excavate sediment and dredge it, in part due to the pollutants that drain from Town Pond into Hook Pond.

New Yorkers 30 and older will be able to get the Covid-19 vaccine starting on Tuesday, and everyone 16 and older will be eligible on April 6, the state announced Monday. At the same time, the number of East End vaccination sites seems to be keeping pace with increased eligibility.

Para quienes desean vacunarse contra Covid-19, el primer desafío -no menor, por cierto- es el de cumplir con los requisitos establecidos por el Estado de Nueva York. Después, hay que conseguir una cita, un proceso que puede ser complejo y lento, sobre todo si uno tiene acceso limitado a internet. A continuación presentamos algunas recomendaciones y links, fruto de nuestra investigación, que pueden ayudar.

As St. Michael's Lutheran Church in Amagansett prepared to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its building this week, longtime members spoke about the "small congregation with a big heart," a tight-knit group that has weathered the Covid-19 pandemic through virtual worship while continuing a mission to help the less fortunate and welcome all.

Many people who are now vaccinated are curious as to how it changes their lives in terms of day-to-day activities. What can you do once you are vaccinated that you couldn't do before?