Villages

The village plans to develop an affordable housing program that will be overseen by East Hampton Housing Authority, the village board announced at a meeting last Thursday.

Padma Borrego and her son, Mateo, started a new life in California in 2018 after leaving the East End, where Ms. Borrego had been a yoga teacher and bodywork practitioner and Mateo was a student at the Hayground School. Just as they were getting on their feet in a new home, life threw a wrench in their plans in the form of a raging wildfire that claimed their home and their possessions.

"We're okay. It's up and down," Ms. Borrego said in an interview last week. "It's challenging. We're safe; we have good friends. But it's definitely intense."

This has been a summer of consternation and intense debate for Jewish communities worldwide. How to bring people together for the High Holy Days, which begin on the evening of Friday, Sept. 18, while keeping them safely apart in the midst of a pandemic? On the South Fork, with a single exception, the answer, in the main, was Zoom.

After discovering their employees had tested positive for Covid-19, a handful of restaurants in Montauk temporarily closed up shop late last month and early this month to deep clean and retest employees before reopening for business.

I hope that if any of you know anyone who may be struggling with addiction during the pandemic, you might find a quiet moment to offer encouragement, to ask if there's anything you can do to help. Sometimes that's all it takes to get someone headed in the right direction.

With an influx of vacationers, migrant Manhattanites, and day trippers who ventured east this summer, restaurateurs worked tirelessly to apply the state's health guidelines in ways that could fit their new business models, but even the most prepared in the restaurant industry sometimes struggled to keep up.

The course of true love never did run smooth: Book lovers with devoted book clubs are doing everything in their power, even mastering new technology, to keep up with meetings in the age of coronavirus. What Zoom lacks in dimension, dimensional conversation makes up for.

East Hampton Library item of the week: On July 12, 1765, Thomas Dering (1720-1785) created this inventory of his personal effects, along with their value, listed as £700.48.

The Montauk Fire Department has been awarded $106,371 in Federal Emergency Management Agency Assistance to Firefighters grants that will be used for power-assisted stretchers.

Fifty years ago this month, the Free Life balloon took off from George Sid Miller's field in Springs to attempt the first trans-Atlantic balloon voyage. The balloon appears in the photograph seen here, from the collection of the Springs Library. Pamela Brown and her husband, Rodney Anderson, hired a balloon pilot, Malcolm Brighton, to navigate the 52-foot-diameter balloon.

Kilian Ruckriegel, 12, and Sophia Cosmina Ruckriegel, 14, brother and sister surfers from Springs, made waves as organizers of a paddle-out held on Aug. 26 at from the beach at Napeague Lane in Amagansett in support of inclusion and solidarity in surfing and the Black Lives Matter movement. "Bring your voice! Bring positive vibes. Spread the word," an Instagram post said. "Let's come together as a community."

The Y.M.C.A. of Long Island has announced that it will open the doors of the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter on Tuesday.

In 1923, more than 100 donors, including such notables as Childe Hassam, P.G. Wodehouse, and Lion Gardiner, contributed to a fund to buy a portrait of the actor John Drew to be presented to East Hampton Village. Days after it was presented, the painting was loaned to the artist, never to be seen again. At least so far as anyone can tell.

Supporters of law enforcement and the armed forces will gather in Southampton on Saturday for a Back the Blue rally at 11 a.m., and later in the day racial justice activists will march in a rally of their own, also in Southampton.

Five candidates are vying for two open East Hampton Village Board seats in the Sept. 15 election: Richard Lawler, the appointed mayor, and Ray Harden an appointed trustee, on the Elms Party line; David Driscoll on the Fish Hooks line, and Chris Minardi of the villages zoning board of appeals and Sandra Melendez on the NewTown line.

Arthur Graham, an East Hampton Village trustee who is running for mayor in the Sept. 15 election, has questioned the authenticity of 200 voter registrations, and is formally challenging them with the Suffolk County Board of Elections.  

We tend to ask just about everyone we think could even possibly have some sort of serious event requiring CPR or intubation what their wishes are. The reason for that? Because experience has taught me, over and over again, to tackle these questions at the beginning.

For the second time in a week, the New York State Liquor Authority has suspended the license of a Southampton Village restaurant and bar after numerous violations of coronavirus-related regulations were observed.

After having been excluded from all four phases of the state's economic reopening plan, East End gyms and fitness centers finally began welcoming clients back on Monday with a slew of new safety protocols in place. But for those who might still be wary about returning to fitness centers, virtual and outdoor workouts continue.

The East Hampton Town Trustees set Sept. 20 as the date for their 30th Largest Clam Contest on Monday, following a debate as to how the event could be conducted amid the coronavirus pandemic, and as with so many other events in the town this year, the event will be virtual.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo did not mince words Thursday while speaking about the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recent modification of coronavirus testing guidelines, calling the recommendation that people without Covid-19 symptoms not get tested even if they have been exposed to the virus “dumbfounding” and “really bad advice.”

East Hampton Library item of the week: One of the more recent additions to the Long Island Collection is a group of letters written to Capt. Shamgar Slate by his wife, Maria Folger Eldredge Slate (1824-1889).

As parents or caregivers, it can be easy to feel like we're protecting our children somehow by being vague or even avoiding world events, but that negates the simple truth that children, while being inexperienced, are generally not dumb. They have eyes to see and ears to hear, and if your kids are like mine, they know something big is going on.

Several East End scientists are working to dispel the persistent public perception of white sharks, which prevents understanding their importance in the ocean, and their increasing vulnerability.

Earlier this month, East Hampton Town intervened to stop an extravagant outdoor entertainment concept called Etiquette at the establishment; it featured music, aerial performances, burlesque dancers, and other acts, and nightclub-style lighting.

David Cataletto will give a virtual presentation on the U.S. Life-Saving Service on Sunday from 3 to 4 p.m.

Even as Suffolk County reached a grim milestone, surpassing 2,000 deaths from Covid-19 last weekend, the spread of the virus seems to be holding steady at approximately a 1-percent daily infection rate.

The Southampton Village restaurant 75 Main had its liquor license suspended by the New York State Liquor Authority on Sunday, following a Saturday night visit by S.L.A. investigators and officers from the village, the Suffolk County Police Department, and the County Sheriff’s Office that revealed numerous violations of coronavirus-related regulations, according to a release from the state.

Weeks after some venues on the South Fork resumed offering live music, the New York State Liquor Authority clarified language on its website and contacted all bars and restaurants to ensure they were aware of the restrictions that have remained in place in mid-March. Word spread quickly among musicians, some of whom consider it another nail in the coffin for live music.

When the company declared its support for the Black Lives Matter movement on a chalkboard outside its tasting room and on its Instagram account in June, initial reactions were largely positive. But a delayed backlash in the form of a new Facebook group that emerged last week called Defund Montauk Brewing Company is dragging the small business onto the battlefield of a social media war of words.