Jean and John Cowen of Sag Harbor have announced the engagement of Mrs. Cowen’s daughter, Jenna K. Brill, to Gary Cadwell. Mr. Cadwell’s parents are Floyd Cadwell and Mary and George Adams of New Mexico. Ms. Brill is the daughter of the late Jeffrey Brill of East Hampton.
The couple live in Colorado, where an autumn 2013 wedding is planned.
The wait is finally over.
Last Thursday, a certificate of occupancy was issued and senior citizens, selected via lottery for the 40 newly constructed apartments on the grounds of St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Amagansett, began to move in.
As of Tuesday morning, the new residents of seven apartments had taken occupancy, with at least three more due to sign a lease, collect a key, and move in that day, said Gerry Mooney, co-manager of the Amagansett complex and of the Windmill Village apartments in East Hampton, which also provide affordable housing for senior citizens.
“The average person has been pushed out [of the Hamptons] by insane real estate prices,” Mr. Mooney said. “We all realized we’d be changing lives on a personal level” at St. Michael’s. “There’s a high number of single people and couples in need.”
The new apartments are designated for those 62 and older. An individual applicant’s income could not exceed $36,000, or $42,000 for a couple, said the Rev. Katrina Foster, the pastor of St. Michael’s Church. Residents will pay 30 percent of their income in rent.
The project was a long time in the making. Kathy Byrnes, co-manager with Mr. Mooney of both complexes, applied for a grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2006. The application was accepted and a $5.9 million grant awarded the following year, she said, but the planning process, involving both the East Hampton Town Architectural Review Board and the planning board, made for an unexpectedly long delay. The planning board approved the project in November 2010. A building permit was granted late in 2011, just days before the HUD grant was to expire, and ground was broken soon after.
“One-plus year ago, everybody was saying, ‘This is not going to happen,’ ” Ms. Byrnes recalled. “But thanks to all the dedicated people, it has.” She and Mr. Mooney cited Michael DeSario, president of the housing board of St. Michael’s and Windmill Village; Drew Bennett, a consulting engineer for the town; Tom Ruhle, the town’s director of housing; Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and Representative Tim Bishop among those who shepherded the project to completion. “People should never say it’s not going to happen,” said Ms. Byrnes.
The project’s inception long predated Ms. Byrne’s application to HUD, said the church’s pastor. Thirteen years ago, Ms. Foster said, one of her predecessors issued a challenge to the church council. “They had a good, small but active church and all this land, and he challenged them: How can we be better stewards of all these blessings, and serve our community? They started looking at turning the parsonage, which we had to tear down, into a home for adult mentally disabled persons. They went to the town, and the town said that’s not what we need; what we need is low-income senior citizen housing.”
Ms. Foster’s immediate predecessor, the Rev. Yvette Schock, began working with Mr. Mooney, who is a parishioner at St. Michael’s, and Ms. Byrne. “Finally all the pieces came together, and today we’re ready. Not even 13 months from closing to completion,” Ms. Foster said.
The one-bedroom apartments are identical, with the addition of a balcony on second-floor units. Each has individual heating and air-conditioning control. An additional building houses a great room, offices, laundry facilities, and, upstairs, an apartment for the superintendent and his family.
“People are very happy,” said Kenny Moran, who recently signed a lease and collected a key to his new apartment. “I got lucky, I’m upstairs in the back row facing the ocean, with a little deck. This saves a bunch of people a lot of money, or from having to leave the East End. It’s a good thing for everybody.”
Mr. Mooney agreed. “This is yours for life. There’s security in knowing that you have a place for the rest of your life.”
“This really was a vision for how do we serve our neighbors,” said Ms. Foster. “The congregation had a clear desire to do stewardship, and had enough courage. That’s a rare combination to find in a congregation.”
“It looks like it’s actually happening,” County Legislator Jay Schneiderman said of the county’s transfer of Long Wharf to Sag Harbor Village after the unanimous County Legislature vote Tuesday to do so. “It has been a couple of years in the works,” he said, “historically, a couple of hundred years,” he said.
Though the transfer still needs County Executive Steve Bellone’s signature, Mr. Schneiderman said he doesn’t expect a veto. The next steps would then be the Sag Harbor Village Board’s approval and legal documents to transfer the deed.
Mr. Schneiderman said that he feels the timing is perfect, with a mayor, Brian Gilbride, who “understands its importance” and who is willing to take on the responsibility. Mayor Gilbride was present at the vote, which for $1 authorized “the conveyance of county-owned right-of-way. . . .”
On his way home from Hauppauge on Tuesday, Mayor Gilbride said that Long Wharf has always been a vital part of the community, and that he looks forward to getting it repaired, a job for which he will set up a reserve fund.
With an engineer’s report from a few years ago detailing needed repairs not including recent damage from Hurricane Sandy, the mayor said he will get an updated evaluation and then “start a program to pick away at it. . . . We’ll start at it right away,” he said.
The windmill that sits at the entrance to the wharf, as well as the beach that extends to the Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter Veterans Memorial Bridge, was transferred to the village in July. Thanks to donations from the community, the windmill was recently reshingled and severe damage to the windmill’s blades was repaired.
“The future of the Long Wharf has been in limbo for several years,” said State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. in a message on Tuesday. “The transfer will permit the village to maximize the potential of this iconic landmark to the benefit of all residents and taxpayers consistent with its maritime heritage,” he said.
The Greek Orthodox Church of the Hamptons will celebrate the completion of the Johnides Family Cultural Center on Sunday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and blessing by Bishop Andonios Paropoulos, chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
The cultural center, funded by a gift from Coula Johnides, who ran the Old Stove Pub in Sagaponack for many years with her siblings, is one of three new buildings that the congregation has finished or is in the process of completing to house church programs and serve the broader community. Also under construction are the Dormition of the Virgin Mary Sanctuary and the Nicholas S. Zoullas Hellenic Center.
Ms. Johnides committed $1 million to the center and also established the Johnides Family Foundation to fund educational programs, provide scholarships, develop cultural and religious programs, and “advance Hellenism and Orthodoxy on the East End,” as well as to aid in the upkeep and maintenance of the cultural center named for her family.
“With the Johnides Family Cultural Center, we will be able to improve these ministries and we will be able to offer exciting new ministries for the enrichment of our members and for the enrichment of the broader East End community,” the Rev. Alex Karloutsos said in a release. “Coula, along with all of our supporters, has opened up a new horizon of possibility for us.”
The center has seven classrooms, a recreation room for youth, a conference room, administrative offices, a library, and a kitchen. With the additional space, the church plans to expand its language and cultural institute to offer instruction in Russian and Romanian in addition to Greek, and to offer a summer Bible camp as well as additional adult programming.
The ribbon-cutting on Sunday will follow 10 a.m. services at about 11:30 and is open to the public. The church is on St. Andrew’s Road in Southampton.
The Sag Harbor Village Board has held a few “special” meetings recently in addition to its monthly session, with regard to village employees, committee members, and volunteers. One such meeting, held on Dec. 28 at 8 a.m., included a discussion of the village police force, which the board has talked of cutting or even disbanding.
Mayor Brian Gilbride said on Friday that negotiations between the village and the Police Benevolent Association are currently at arbitration level. “I am keeping my eye on the situation,” he said, mentioning overtime in particular. In view of vacations, leaves of absence, and the like, the mayor said layoffs were not imminent. The specter of layoffs was put on the table after no member of the force accepted the village’s offer of early retirement incentives.
Police Chief Thomas Fabiano reported at Tuesday’s regular meeting that 172 arrests had been made during 2012, including 36 for driving while intoxicated. A total of 1,568 summonses were issued. There were 263 requests for aid, he reported, and 169 motor vehicle accidents. In December, the chief said, the department responded to 259 calls for service, 21 requests for aid, and 7 motor vehicle accidents. There were 5 arrests for aggravated unlicensed driving, 4 D.W.I. arrests, and 2 arrests on charges of harassment.
During December’s special meeting, the board appointed new members to fill unexpired terms. Steven Clarke was named to the Harbor Committee, Tim McGuire to the Zoning Board of Appeals, and Penny Ludwig to the Historic Preservation and Architectural Review Board.
Mia Grosjean of Save Sag Harbor questioned the board on Tuesday about its own open seat, asking if it would be filled before June 18, the date of the next scheduled election. Mayor Gilbride responded that there are “no plans on filling it right now.”
Also on Tuesday, the village accepted the resignation of three of its Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps members, Richard Ryder, Andrew Fallia, and Alexandra Sidor, and removed them from the insurance rolls. Edmund Downes, president of the corps, wrote in his year-end recap that members had 744 emergency calls in 2012, 52 worknights, 24 meetings, 86 training sessions, 2 drills, 16 work details, and 2 parades.
The board set a date for residents to complain about their taxes — the so-called Grievance Day — on Feb. 19 from 1 to 5 p.m. It also okayed the use of Long Wharf and the village streets for the Sag Harbor Chamber of Commerce’s third annual Harborfrost festival, to be held on Feb. 9 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., the day after in case of rain. The event will feature a polar bear plunge at Windmill Beach and an ice-carving demonstration on Long Wharf, followed by fireworks.
Ms. Grosjean and another Howard Street resident expressed serious concern about an abandoned house on their block, which she said has an abandoned car in the driveway with animals living in it. In her 15 years of residence, she said, she has never seen the owner. Another neighbor said he’d taken it upon himself to turn off the house’s electric and water.
Mayor Gilbride promised to have Timothy Platt, the building inspector, and/or code enforcement have a look at the situation.
Elayna Martin, a daughter of Diane and Tom Martin of East Hampton, and Eban Ball, the son of Kammy and Donny Ball of Amagansett, were married on Sept. 28 at Martha Clara Vineyards on the North Fork.
The bride works for the C.D.C.H. preschool. Her husband is an East Hampton Village police officer. They live in Amagansett.
The bride’s attendants were her sisters, Bethanie Theriault and Katy Martin, her cousin, Caroline McGowan, and the bridegroom’s sister, Brittney Ball, all of East Hampton, Tricia Olszewski of Alaska, a childhood friend, and two of her college roommates, Casey McDonald of Alabama and Abbey Neuman of Albany. She wore a Tara Keely mermaid gown. Her attendants wore raspberry strapless cocktail dresses.
Colleen Gale, the bride’s grandmother, read during the ceremony.
The groomsmen were Shaun Jones of Montauk, Gregory Martin, the bride’s brother, and Wesley Peterson, Christopher Jack, Robby Stone, Steven Niggles, and Craig Theriault, the bride’s brother-in-law, all of East Hampton.
The couple are planning a wedding trip to Hawaii in February.
“Where is winter?” Richard G. Hendrickson, the United States Cooperative weather observer in Bridgehampton, wondered in his monthly weather report for December. Last month was a mild one, with temperatures reaching 50 degrees or higher on 11 days and hitting 61 on the 11th. The low for the month was 20 degrees on Dec. 7.
“I do not know how high or how long those mild winter temperatures can go, but I do know that so far it is a very poor winter to fill the ice house or go skating,” Mr. Hendrickson wrote. There was rain on 15 days for a total of 4.17 inches, the heaviest — .68 inch — falling on Dec. 8. Winter’s northwest winds tend to blow 40 to 50 miles per hour on many days, and in the past there was often sleighing or skating by Christmas vacation. “Not this year,” Mr. Hendrickson said. For those who crave winter sports, “Will Mother Nature give us what is needed in January and February?”
Church bells will ring villagewide on Saturday in Southampton in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on Jan. 1, 1863. Sponsored by many village organizations and businesses, events will include a public reading of the document, a round-table discussion of its meaning, and a party with poetry, jazz, and food.
The celebration will kick off at 1 p.m. in front of the Southampton Presbyterian Church on the corner of Job’s Lane and Main Street, where the public has been invited to bring bells to ring, joining all of the village’s church bells, which will ring in unison for one minute.
Next, the church’s Bell Choir will perform, and there will be gospel music sung by Showers of Blessings. A public reading of the proclamation will then be led by the Rev. Richard Boyer.
Put into effect by Lincoln’s executive order during the Civil War, the document was “not clean,” according to Tom Edmonds, the Southampton Historical Museum’s executive director. A panel of historians and authors will explore with “new eyes,” he said, the pluses and minuses of the document during a discussion led by Carol T. Spencer at 2:30 p.m. at the Rogers Mansion.
“It was the beginning of the process,” Mr. Edmonds said in a recent conversation, “but it only freed slaves in occupied territories.” The proclamation did not outlaw slavery, he said, and did not make ex-slaves citizens, but it made the destruction of slavery an explicit goal of the war. The proclamation outraged most white Southerners, angered some Northern Democrats, energized antislavery forces, and weakened those in Europe who wanted to intervene to help the Confederacy, a release from the museum said.
After the honors, Brenda Simmons, director of the African American Museum of the East End, will lead a festival featuring local jazz musicians and poets and offering a variety of appetizers and refreshments provided by East End businesses
All will be welcomed at the next community soup dinner at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church, on Wednesday from 5 to 7 p.m. There is no cost for the meal, which is sponsored by the East Hampton Clericus, an interdenominational organization of local religious leaders, and organized by Joe Realmuto of East Hampton’s Honest Man Restaurant Group.
Donations of soup to feed up to 300 people comes from South Fork restaurants, said Doreen Quaranto, the director of parish outreach at Most Holy Trinity. Typically there are three or four different soups, including a vegetarian selection. Information for those with food allergies will be available.
Volunteers serve the soup, clean up, and provide home-baked desserts. Bread is supplied by Gurney’s Inn’s Beach Bakery. St. Luke’s Episcopal Church is responsible for fresh fruit.
The goal of the monthly gathering, Ms. Quaranto said, was to “build community and for people to have a sense of their neighbors and those with whom they share this beautiful landscape.” All walks of life are welcome, and reservations are not required.
The event is held during the winter months. The next one will be on Feb. 6.
Jacqueline Beh and Charles Brian Clark were married on Oct. 6 in the Church of St. Lawrence the Martyr in Sayville. They are Suffolk County case managers who met on the job. A party for the families of the bride and bridegroom was held at Casa Luis in Smithtown, the site of the newlyweds’ first date.
Mrs. Clark is a longtime contributor of “Guestwords” to The Star. Her family bought land on Napeague near the White Sands Motel in 1960 and built an early A-frame there. It was “one block from the ocean, two lots, for $3,000, in a deal which was confirmed with a $10 check,” she wrote in an e-mail. They kept the house until 1980.
“I spent summers in Montauk in the early ’70s, hanging with the dog-in-the-bed-of-the-truck-with-a-bandanna group. We chambermaided, clerked, waitressed by night and played at the beach by day. I lived everywhere from Olsen’s Cabins to the Lakeside Inn.”
The couple went to the White Sands for their honeymoon. They live in Sayville.