The Village of East Hampton has punctuated its year-end official business with yet another development in the Harry Macklowe-Martha Stewart melee.

At its regular monthly meeting Friday, the Village Board hired the law firm of Pachman, Pachman, Brown & Farneti of Commack to represent the municipality in a not-unexpected lawsuit involving a Zoning Board of Appeals determination in the long-term dispute between Harry and Linda Macklowe and their neighbor, Ms. Stewart.

The Macklowes filed an Article 78 lawsuit on Dec. 9 against the Z.B.A. seeking to overturn its decision allowing Ms. Stewart to clear a grove of trees and some electrical fixtures from the border of their Georgica Close Road properties.

The Macklowes also filed a show-cause order on Dec. 12, seeking to prohibit any further clearing at Ms. Stewart's property. The court had issued a temporary restraining order to Ms. Stewart minutes after the Z.B.A. voted on Nov. 8 to allow her to clear the land.

Congratulations

The board also tied up some year-end business, though not before taking time out for a little nostalgia and recognizing two longtime volunteers.

Board members were treated to a presentation by Hugh King, the town crier, about "another December," a quarter-century ago, notable for the reopening after a fire at Dreesen's Market, where steak was selling for 38 cents a pound, and when local merchants were giving away holiday coupons "for all purchases over 25 cents."

Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. then congratulated Mae Bushman and Ralph George for their 20 years of service with the East Hampton Ambulance Association. Mrs. Bushman was one of the first women to serve with the association.

Mr. George will be its captain next year. Other incoming officers, elected last month, are Richard Mamay, chief; Mary Mott, assistant chief; Daniel Reichl, lieutenant; Peter Hillick, secretary, and James McCourt, treasurer.

The Village Board accepted two new association members, Robert L. Schider and Paul J. DePalma, and the Mayor thanked all the volunteers for the "tremendous job" they do.

Resignations

Board members then held a public hearing and approved an addition to the Village Code allowing electrical inspectors besides the New York Board of Fire Underwriters to inspect installations in the village's commercial and residential buildings.

The board accepted the resignation of James H. Loper Jr. from the Highway Department, effective Jan. 31. Villagers will remember Mr. Loper riding atop the street sweeper in the early mornings.

The resignations of Bruce Collins as Superintendent of Public Works and John R. Cataletto from the Design Review Board will be effective as of Tuesday. Mayor Rickenbach said the village was "deeply in debt to Mr. Collins for his years of service," and he thanked Mr. Cataletto for his "ability and wisdom."

Bruce Fithian, now the acting Superintendent of Public Works, will be formally appointed in January to a newly created civil service position of Village Superintendent of Public Works. Stuyvesant Wainwright Jr. has taken over for Mr. Cataletto on the D.R.B.

The board acknowledged receipt of a letter of credit from Hedgerow Associates, owners of the former Christie Estate subdivision between David's and Pondview Lanes, but tabled acceptance of it, as a lawsuit is under way concerning that property as well. The village is constrained from taking any action until a judgment has been made.

End-Of-Year Business

In other action, the board:

Approved a request from the Long Island Lighting Company to erect a new pole in the Schenck parking lot.

Adopted a bond resolution of $575,000 for improvements to Lily Pond Lane.

Created a new sergeant's position in the Village Police Department in anticipation of a promotion. The action brings to six the number of sergeants on the force, but does not increase its total personnel.

Hired Dawn M. Mahanna as a part-time dispatcher at the Emergency Services Center, at $9.75 per hour.

Agreed to refund $921.05 in 1994-95 taxes to Palm Management Corporation, as stipulated by the East Hampton Town Board of Assessment Review.

Phone Upgrade

The board also:

Agreed to pay Lucent Technologies $15,089 to upgrade the telephone system at the Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street.

Approved several personnel changes and one new hire at the Department of Public Works.

Finally, the Mayor wished for the people of East Hampton Village and its neighbors that "1997 be everything you want it to be."

Hard to imagine, but white sharks, the fearsome nemesis of Peter Benchley's fictional seaside town of Amity, may be made subject to the catch-and-release rules of sportfishing, and hunted only by participating in a Federal tagging program.

Just how one is supposed to release Carcharodon carcharias is not discussed in the no-kill policy being contemplated by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

However, it will be against the law for anyone to play out the bloody ending of "Jaws" if the Federal Government succeeds in its effort to reduce what it considers to be the "indiscriminate killing" of certain shark species off the Atlantic Coast.

No Longer A Target

Whites would no longer be among the targeted species during shark tournaments. Neither could the creatures be targeted by commercial fishermen.

While whites are now caught incidentally by licensed longline fishermen in pursuit of other sharks, the Fisheries Service has expressed concern that a fishery directed at whites could develop.

With a ban on white-shark fishing, an era that effectively ended in 1990, when Frank Mundus of Montauk retired from a renowned 40-year shark-fishing career, would be brought to a formal conclusion. Not many were brought ashore during those four decades, but not many had to be.

Monster Mash

The ones that were - a 4,500-pound monster in 1964, several 1,000-pounders in the early '70s, and a 3,450-pounder in 1986, created a fearsome reputation for Captain Mundus and inspired Mr. Benchley to write "Jaws."

In the book, Amity stands in for Montauk as a place to the east of East Hampton and Amagansett. Amity was an island in the movie.

Captain Mundus pioneered the white shark fishery after discovering that the big predators could be found stalking pods of pilot whales and schools of tuna, much like lions dog herds of antelope to prey on the young and infirm.

In the early 1970s, before it became illegal to hunt whales, the fisherman used what he called "monster mash" - chum made of pilot whale - to lure the sharks. After the whaling ban, he occasionally used basking shark, which also has an oily flesh.

Put The Blame On "Jaws"

Before he retired and moved to Hawaii, the Montauk Monster Man bemoaned the gathering popularity of the shark fishery. He blamed "Jaws" for spiraling it out of control.

The Federal Government's proposed rule would also put basking sharks and whale sharks off limits. The latter two species are considered especially vulnerable because they swim at or near the surface of the water.

The Fisheries Service is also recommending that recreational bag limits be reduced for "large coastal," "small coastal," and pelagic species of sharks. If approved, the law would dramatically reduce the number of sharks allowed sport fishermen.

Quota Is Too High

The proposed bag limit is two sharks per vessel, per trip, for any combination of species. The law now allows five small coastal sharks per person, and four per trip for large coastal and pelagic species.

White sharks are a large coastal species, as are whale and basking sharks. All three would be removed from the list of large coastal species and placed on a list of prohibited ones.

Recent studies have determined that the quota for large coastal sharks is too big, and should be reduced by at least 50 percent.

Studies completed last year have determined that shark fisheries, both commercial and recreational, are over-capitalized, and that fishing pressure does not square with the slow reproductive cycles of sharks.

Ovoviviporous

Sibling cannibalism slows the survival rate in some species, the sand tiger shark and the white shark included. Both are ovoviviporous; that is, they produce eggs with enclosing membranes that hatch within the mother, so that the young are born alive. But the young do battle before birth, and only the strong survive to enter the world.

The blue shark, a popular sport fish, is now listed as a pelagic species. It would benefit, managers say, from a special "precautionary" quota. Fishery managers are seeking to prevent the filleting of sharks at sea. In order to verify species, fishermen would be required to land sharks "in the round."

The Government will accept comments on the proposed changes until Jan. 21. Letters should be directed to William Hogarth, Chief, Highly Migratory Species Division, N.M.F.S., 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, Md. 20910.

Bluefin Tuna Limited

Information about the Federal shark tagging program can be obtained by writing the APEX Predator Investigation Cooperative Shark Tagging Program, 28 Tarzwell Drive, Narragansett, R.I. 02882.

Sharks are not the only fish that may benefit from quota reductions. The Fisheries Service announced last week that anglers fishing for bluefin tuna of the school, large school, or "small-medium" size classes, will be limited to a total of one per vessel per day as of 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, New Year's Day. The rule will stay in effect until the 1997 quotas are announced.

The measure is an effort to extend the fishing season for bluefin of these sizes. It is a response to heavy catches off the Carolinas last winter that caused the coastwide quota to be closed prematurely.



After Mary D. Killoran retired as president of the Eastern Long Island Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People last month, the group tapped a longtime member, Lucius Ware of Southampton, to succeed her.

Mr. Ware, a teacher and vocal advocate for African Americans on the East End, served as second vice president and chairman of the branch's education committee for the past two years. He is the first new president the branch has had in 10 years.

Like his predecessor, he is interested in increasing the group's presence in Suffolk County courts. Among the goals he has helped develop for the coming year is the formation of a trained group of court monitors.

Focus On Courts

"We believe the courts are one place we should look to for justice," he said Monday. A regular presence of N.A.A.C.P. members in the courts will show that "there are people who are interested and are available" for jury duty. The organization wants court officials to know that they're watching what happens and "also to give notice to the lack of African Americans on juries," he said.

The group will continue to focus on the lack of minority representation in education, an area of particular interest to Mr. Ware. He has been teaching for 40 years, and now teaches special education for the Westhampton Beach School District.

"We have been striving for this [more representation] for a long time. Overall, we're not getting very far," he said, pointing to the low percentage of minorities on staff at East End schools. He believes it is long past time for change on this front. "We have fewer and fewer minority staff people than we did a few years ago and we will not take the tired, worn-out excuses anymore."

Promoting Teaching

East End schools have not done enough to encourage young minority students to become teachers, he said. "I firmly believe that if the effort were made, if we really got down to business and began . . . letting these students know they are potential teachers, we wouldn't have an excuse. The problem would begin to solve itself."

One of the ways the N.A.A.C.P. hopes to help move this process along is by reaching out to young African Americans on the East End. The establishment of a youth branch has been a goal of the local group and part of the organization's national program.

Reflecting this greater focus on youths, at its January meeting several lawyers will be on hand to discuss young African Americans' needs in the courts.

Future programs planned include a presention by Kathy Tucker of Sag Harbor on the history of the Eastville community in February, a celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation in March, a discussion of education in April, and a look at health issues specific to African Americans in May.

Kendall Madison's mother has filed a civil lawsuit against the man who stabbed her 21-year-old son, a popular student-athlete at East Hampton High School and the University of Connecticut.

Sharon Bacon has sued Willie Davender of Mattituck, who was sentenced in October 1995 to a prison term of one-and-a-third to four years, after pleading guilty to criminally negligent homicide. In court that day, Ms. Bacon criticized the penalty as too lenient.

Mr. Madison died at Southampton Hospital nine days after the Jan. 14, 1995, stabbing in the parking lot of the former Kristie's nightclub in East Hampton. His unexpected death, the result of a blood clot, came as he was about to be released from the hospital.

More Suits To Follow

Ms. Bacon, the president of the East Hampton School Board, charged that Mr. Davender committed an intentional assault. She is asking the State Supreme Court to award $5 million in damages. Her suit does not allege that Mr. Davender was responsible for her son's death.

Her lawyer, Stephen A. Grossman of Sag Harbor, has indicated the suit would be followed by another against the hospital, and Ms. Bacon said she intends to sue the nightclub and its owners as well.

Mr. Grossman confirmed this week that the civil suit had been filed, but said it was "on hold until [Mr. Davender] gets out of prison."

Community Grief

Mr. Madison's death stunned the community. A memorial service held at the East Hampton Presbyterian Church drew an extraordinary number of mourners, including football teammates from the University of Connecticut coaches.

A three-sport star in football, basketball, and track at East Hampton High School, Mr. Madison was also active in the black community and with youth groups. He had put together a dance at Kristie's while on the winter break of his senior year of college.

Things turned ugly later that night, county homicide detectives said. A scuffle inside the club started up again in the parking lot. In a group of perhaps two dozen people, Mr. Davender stabbed Mr. Madison, who was unaware of the wound until he went back inside and a friend spotted blood.

As it turned out, the blade had pierced a kidney.

Detectives at first charged a Riverhead man, James Riddick, with the crime, but withdrew that accusation five days later, after additional witnesses allegedly came forward.

Hospital's Role

In June 1995, Mr. Grossman said Mr. Madison's family was targeting Southampton Hospital, questioning whether the treatment given the young man contributed to his death.

"The manner in which he died raises serious questions," Mr. Grossman said.

Mr. Madison had been on the way to recovery but died less than a day after he was removed from the intensive care unit - and a day after hospital officials told family members he might be released within a day or two, they said.

A blood clot that had formed in his leg moved into a lung, said Dr. John J. Ferry, the president of the hospital.

The cause of death was listed as pulmonary thromboembolism. Dr. Ferry said then that the hospital had tended to the young man properly but that "unfortunately, complications can occur at any time."

Mr. Grossman said medical professionals must review the case as a prelude to any malpractice suit, and that the process had begun.

Steven Losquadro of Smithtown, Mr. Davender's attorney, also questioned the hospital's role, and, according to sources, used the information that Mr. Madison was recovering to work out a more favorable plea and sentencing for his client.

Scholarship Fund Growing

A scholarship fund for Mr. Madison, administered by the Community Trust in Manhattan, was established soon after his death, with his mother, Peter Goodson, the Rev. Carlyle Turner, Chris Hatch, Debra Lobel, an attorney, the high school's athletic director, and the East Hampton Community Council's president as members of the fund's commission.

Ms. Bacon said this week that the fund, whose original goal was $25,000, has grown to more than $35,000.

John Griesmer, a freshman at the University of Rochester, and Nicole Messinger, a freshman at Duke University, were the fund's first recipients, at East Hampton High School's athletic awards dinner last June. Each received $1,200.

The Madison scholarship is a mentoring one, charging recipients with the responsibility of working with those East Hampton, Bridgehampton, and Pierson high school sophomore applicants who come after them.

"The goal," Mr. Goodson said, when the fund was set up in March, "is to establish a network of training, assistance, and coaching to develop the best of everyone touched by this process."

Applicants are required to play two sports, to be conscientious students, and to be active in community service, as the late Mr. Madison was.

Hate was spilling out of the Suffolk Legislature's meeting room into the lobby in Riverhead last week. Many white residents of Farmingville were there to push for a bill introduced by Legislator Joseph Caracappa to have Suffolk County sue the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service because of what he claims has been a "spate" of crimes by undocumented Latino immigrants in Farmingville.

In recent years, these Latino day laborers have been gathering in groups on Farmingville street corners waiting for contractors to drive up and hire them for day construction jobs.

Mr. Caracappa's bill was ultimately defeated.

Police Statistics

Contradicting Mr. Caracappa's claim about crime, Suffolk Police Commissioner John Gallagher and Philip Robilotto, the chief of the department, appeared before the Legislature with arrest figures.

"We do not have," said Mr. Gallagher, "a crime wave in Farmingville." Further, the vast majority of those arrested, he said, were United States citizens.

But that information didn't matter to the white Farmingville residents or Mr. Caracappa. Some of the residents in the lobby held U.S. flags and signs like "Illegal Aliens Are Ruining Our Nation." Angrily, they said the Latino workers were raping women, committing burglaries and other crimes, and that they should all be deported to where they came from.

"Should Be Applauded"

Three Latinos, meanwhile, were holding up a banner on the other side of the lobby: "We Are Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses Yearning to Breathe Free. Let Us Work!"

The Rev. Allan Byron Ramirez, pastor of the Brookville Reformed Church, observing the scene in the lobby, commented, "You can sense the atmosphere of hate."

"This immigrant community is looking for the essence of what this country is about," said Mr. Ramirez. "They should be applauded for going out on to the streets at 6 in the morning to look to work all day for $60 or $70. That's the ideal held up for all of us in this country - to work hard, to work to succeed."

Mr. Ramirez, in clerical garb, told of his family coming to the United States from Ecuador in 1966 when he was 11.

American Dreams

"My parents held two factory jobs, worked 16 hours a day, to support my eight brothers and sisters and me," he said. The graduate of Western Theological Seminary and pastor of the Brookville Reformed Church for 18 years said that is what these Latino day laborers also want - to work hard and "see their children educated," to create a "better life."

But on Thursday in Riverhead, hate was what they were receiving. "It's the same kind of hate that was directed against African-Americans a few decades ago and Jews before that," said Mr. Ramirez. "This is no different."

With Mr. Ramirez, I walked over to talk to one of the day laborers, Rogelio, 28, from Hidalgo, Mexico. He was fearful about giving his last name.

Nation Of Hope

"I feel discrimination and I ask why, why? Why are they spreading this hate?" asked Rogelio. "Why do they accuse us of criminal behavior when all we do is work, work, work? I don't have the time to commit crimes."

"The United States of America," said Mr. Ramirez, "is more than just a geographical place. This is a nation that gives people hope. You can't build walls and stop people from going to a place of hope."

I had not seen Ken Lederer for years. He's very much a Suffolk person, growing up in Huntington and graduating from Huntington High School with my wife. He is now executive director of the Central American Refugee Center in Brentwood.

Called "Extremist"

Mr. Caracappa's bill is "basically about people not recognizing the changing face of Long Island and Suffolk County," said Mr. Lederer. Moreover, it's a measure "encouraging vigilantism," he said, looking at a clutch of white Farmingville residents, fury in their eyes, acting out across the lobby.

More and more minority group members now live in Suffolk and the white Farmingville residents at the meeting "just won't come to grips" with this, said Mr. Lederer. It's a "very extremist" group that refuses "to sit down and develop an accord. It does not want to see an alternative to the workers having to be out in the open. This way, they can continue to point fingers at them, continue to attack them."

Attack Pressed

Inside the legislative hearing room, the attack was being pressed. Mr. Caracappa was holding up photocopies of two Suffolk Police Department wanted posters for Latino workers and then reading them out loud. This was indicative of how these "illegal aliens commit crimes," he said.

"STOP THE HATE," said the little signs lifted by immigrant workers in the audience as Mr. Caracappa, of Selden, spoke.

Legislator George O. Guldi of Westhampton Beach spoke against the Caracappa bill. Besides being "ridiculous" legally, said Mr. Guldi, an attorney, it is just more "ignorance leading to fear leading to hatred. The reality is that we have one community and we all live in it together regardless of when we got here - whether we are immigrants of one week or three generations. We have to learn to live together." Amen.

David R. Slattery, a longtime Amagansett resident who taught social studies at East Hampton High School for more than 30 years, died on Sunday at Southampton Hospital. He was 64, and had had emphysema for some time, said his wife, Sally Slattery.

"He was one of the best," said Larry Cantwell, a former student. "Getting into his class was very important. He had a knack of educating students, but making it fun."

Mr. Slattery was born in Philadelphia on May 13, 1932, a son of Daniel Bobb Slattery and the former Phoebe Atkinson. He spent his early years in Montpelier, Vt., and later attended Kimball Union Academy, a preparatory school in Meriden, N.H. He earned his bachelor's degree in sociology and history and a master's in education, both from St. Lawrence University, where he met his wife, the former Sally Stone. The couple married on Feb. 9, 1957.

"He was a hail-fellow-well-met," said his wife, "very affable."

His first teaching job was at Alexander Central High School in western New York State near Batavia. His next was in East Hampton, where he succeeded the veteran teacher Laura Ebell, who was retiring.

Mr. Slattery taught a variety of social studies and history classes at East Hampton High School from 1959 until his retirement in 1990. A sports fan, he also coached several school teams. "He was never anything less than everyone's favorite teacher," his wife said, "and he influenced many students to pursue higher education."

Since retiring, he had worked for several years at Henry Uihlein's marina in Montauk, "to keep busy," Mrs. Slattery said.

"As a father, he was a symbol of everything good," said his daughter, Karen Vetrano of Amagansett.

Mr. Slattery was a member of the Kiwanis Club, the East Hampton Republican Party, and the New York State Teachers Retirement Association.

Besides his wife and daughter Karen, he leaves a son, Thomas Slattery of East Hampton, and two other daughters, Kathleen Kennedy of East Hampton and Carol Slattery of Springs. Two grandchildren survive as well, as does a brother, Bobb Slattery of Charlotte, N.C.

The family will receive friends tomorrow from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. at the Williams Funeral Home in East Hampton. A funeral will be held on Saturday at 11 a.m. at the East Hampton Presbyterian Church, the Rev. John Ames officiating. Mr. Slattery will be cremated.

The family has suggested memorial donations to the Kiwanis Club.

What happens when an old favorite like the Laundry gets a new chef? Very little, loyal patrons will be happy to know. That isn't to say the new chef, Rob Rawleigh, doesn't have ideas of his own, but, having filled just about every role from dishwasher to sous chef at the restaurant, he also knows that longtime customers expect consistency.

"I subtly include my own influences," he said, noting that big changes to the familiar menu could equal a few unhappy customers. Some regulars, for example, know the menu so well, they'll call in the afternoon before coming to dinner to ask if there's liver meatloaf that evening.

Dennis MacNeil, the former executive chef at the restaurant and Mr. Rawleigh's first culinary mentor, made sure everyone in the kitchen understood they were there to give the customers what they want.

"I think we're going to have fun building on the reputation the Laundry already has," said Mr. Rawleigh.

The sous chef before taking the reins from Mr. MacNeil, he admits that settling into the new position isn't without its rough spots. First, the 1990 graduate of East Hampton High School is probably the youngest person in the kitchen, and second, he works with some of the same crew members who've been there since he was a prep cook or busboy.

The crew has a different rapport with each other than with the chef. "It's tough to work with a chef on the line," he explained, and he's a very hands-on part of the kitchen, working on the line five nights a week.

But now he's wearing the chef's hat and calling the shots. "I'm maturing into it," he said of his new role.

"I don't consider myself executive chef, I'm chef du cuisine," he said modestly. "I think the higher position I achieve the more humble I become about it."

Mr. Rawleigh has been at the restaurant on and off since he was 17, but even when he first came to the Laundry, he had already worked in kitchens for almost three years. It was sort of an early calling.

In his first two-and-half-year stint there, he helped with grounds work, washed dishes, bused tables, made pies, "just about everything short of bartending and waiting because I was too young." After Mr. MacNeil became the executive chef, he took note of Mr. Rawleigh's talent and sent him to train under Matthew Tivy at the newly renovated Maidstone Arms.

"Dennis knew it was more upscale, had a little more finesse. He wanted to help me learn from other people and Matthew was very highly regarded."

Plans for culinary school were put on the back burner when he got the opportunity to spend a month in a Michelin star French restaurant in Amsterdam. He was in the kitchen constantly, one of the few there who didn't speak French. He'd go home at night and study everything on the menu so he could understand when orders were called out.

At the end of an intense month, which he "almost regrets" wasn't longer, he returned to the Maidstone Arms and made his way from garde mangier to sous chef under Jim Litman. "I chose life experience over schooling," Mr. Rawleigh said. His choice seems to have served him well.

After a brief stay at the famed Aureole in Manhattan, under Charlie Palmer, he came back to the Maidstone Arms. The city got him down. "Six days a week, 14 hours a day underground. I wasn't happy."

He took his first vacation ever. "I had just worked, worked, worked," he said, laughing about all the parties he probably missed in high school. With time away from the kitchen, however, he decided he just wasn't happy doing anything else. "I knew this was where I was supposed to be."

He returned to the Laundry in part because he knew he could learn a lot about the business side of the restaurant from Mr. MacNeil.

There is something well-tuned about the Laundry that he is proud to be a part of, too. "The entire crew is working together. . .they have a personal investment in the place, they want to make it better all the time."

As for his part in that, Mr. Rawleigh encourages everyone to taste everything, to know what's wrong and how to fix it. He, the general manager, or the manager will often sit down and eat at the end of the night, "so I know my crew is putting it out the way I designed it."

"Taste is everything, and it's important to me that my crew like it. I always ask them that. Do you like it? I want them to educate their own palate."

Pear Salad With Saga Blue Cheese

And Toasted Walnut Halves

Ingredients:

4 very ripe Comice pears

1 bunch baby arugula

1 bunch upland cress

1 head Belgian endive

1 cup walnut halves

4 oz. Saga Blue cheese

1 oz. sherry vinegar

3 oz. walnut oil

Remove stems from the baby arugula and upland cress. Wash them well twice, then dry. Remove the core from the endive and fine julienne the leaves.

Place the walnuts on a sheet pan in the oven at 375 for about five minutes.

Cut Saga cheese into bite-size squares. Set aside.

Whisk walnut oil into sherry vinegar, season with salt and pepper. Mix cress, arugula, and endive strips in a bowl with the vinaigrette.

Place a bed of greens in the center of each plate and put a hollowed-out pear in the middle of them. Fill the pear with the remaining greens. Sprinkle the cheese squares and toasted walnuts decoratively around the plate.

Serve with cracked black pepper, if desired.

Serves four.

Not-For-Profit

East Hampton

December 21, 1996

Dear Helen,

I am writing in response to Jean K. Hoffmann's letter, "Commercial Venture," that appeared in the Dec. 19 issue of The Star. Ms. Hoffmann, unfortunately, is misguided and apparently misinformed in her response to quotes from Toni Ross that appeared in William Grimes's New York Times article on Oct. 16.

First, let me state categorically that the Hamptons International Film Festival is a recognized not-for-profit corporation under both Federal and state law. Part of our mission is to provide opportunities for artists to further their careers.

Ms. Hoffmann seems to conclude that the mission of fostering business relations between filmmakers and purchasers of this product makes the festival a commercial venture. Festivals and markets provide filmmakers, who have taken the commercial risk, with a venue in which to show their product to distributors who will bring these movies to theaters around the world. The festival does not benefit financially from any deals consummated through the festival.

We join with Ms. Hoffmann in bemoaning the reduced public funds supporting the necessities of life. Most great civilizations are remembered for their arts and the nonfinancial contribution they have made to the future.

We decry the current attitude that suggests that it is improper to spend government funds on something as intangible as the arts. Shrewd public servants know that a small amount of economic stimulus to the arts yields a disproportionate financial and cultural return.

We are very grateful for the support we receive from public funding bodies such as the Town of East Hampton. The monies we receive aid us directly in enlarging the scope of cultural and artistic voices presented in the community. These funds also provide an indirect financial boost to the community.

The festival spends over $500,000 annually in the Town of East Hampton to operate. These expenses are direct payment to merchants, craftspeople, and service suppliers in the community. This is more than a 100-fold return on the financial investment the town makes.

In addition, residents have benefited during the year from free outdoor summer screenings (attended by over 4,000 this past summer), screenings of silent pictures with live orchestra, and the current documentary program addressing racism and discrimination.

Finally, Ms. Hoffmann's attempt to equate us with a celebrated fiasco from last summer is a simplistic and malformed analysis. The only potential financial benefit that the festival and the filmmakers who show here can reap is a chance to present their wares again in the future.

I am sorry that Ms. Hoffmann does not think this is a fair deal for the citizens of East Hampton. The Hamptons International Film Festival serves this community and filmmakers. It is completely appropriate and worthwhile for the Town of East Hampton to spend public funds on a venture that yields economic benefits for the residents, raises the level of cultural activity here, and enriches the lives of many people.

Sincerely,

KEN TABACHNICK

Executive Director

Please address correspondence to [email protected]

A steady downpour fittingly worked its way to a roaring deluge and pounded on the roof of the Ark House on Millstone Road in Bridgehampton as Novanoah (once known as Mihai Popa) expounded on his philosophy and the art that springs from it.

Nova, as he calls himself, is convinced humanity, ready or not, is embarking on the second and "most formidable step in our evolution" - "a long and mysterious trip into the future" that will take it into space and make it one with the cosmos.

"We must evolve to save the planet; and get into space," Novanoah said. "We must get ready and we can't stop."

But time is short. "We're playing our last cards," he said. "If the population bomb is not stopped . . . it might be too late." Noting that the earth has been poisoned by humans, Novanoah noted, "The planet will survive the shock. We won't."

Art And Nature

Considering that the first major evolutionary step occurred, according to Novanoah, when life "came out of the ocean and inhabited land," it became abundantly clear he is thinking about the big picture here. "The new hope is one species, one race, one brain united," he said.

Like his Biblical namesake, Novanoah has been preparing. As an artist, he believes his job is to help "direct the human species into the next century."

To do that, he works at a frenetic pace, painting, sculpting, practicing architecture and design, and perfecting his vision of "integral art," which aims to fuse "the old with the new, the spiritual with the technological, the abstract with the realistic."

At his Bridgehampton home - dubbed the Ark House when it was under construction in 1989 because its beams resembled the ribs of a boat - and at the former Tiska farm next door, Novanoah is busy putting his philosophy into practice by integrating his art with nature.

Ark Project

The house, studios, work spaces, and sculpture gardens make up the Ark Project, which Novanoah and his companion, Tundra Wolf, see as a future center for the arts, where artists can come to discuss their work, and, possibly in the future, display it in galleries as well.

"Art is the mirror of the time in which you live," he said. "You have to make the art credible and useful."

A native of Rumania - who escaped in the mid-1960s under harrowing circumstances, according to Ms. Wolf - Novanoah began to form his world view as a child. "I saw the bitter consequences of World War II," he said. "I couldn't believe it."

The horrors of the war left a deep impression on Novanoah and "how to counter this destructive time" became an "obsession," he said. "This species can't fight. We have to get together. If we are united, we can expand into the cosmos."

Huge Spheres

In Rumania, Novanoah studied art and served as a cultural ambassador to Russia and China before escaping to the west. He settled for a time in New Orleans before moving to New York, where, he said, he worked in "isolation" on his integral art.

With the future of the species in mind, Novanoah has painted his vision of the city of the future, which could exist on earth or in space.

Of his earthly version, Novanoah said, "I want to build a city like nature builds a tree." Activities like education, art, and celebration would take place in huge spheres. "Sports and entertainment would be the biggest," he said with a chuckle. People would live in apartments in ring-like structures surrounding the spheres. Factories and mechanical systems would be buried in root-like spheres.

House With Soul

To help relieve the earth of overcrowding, he has also proposed futuristic skyscraper-like buildings, also based on spheres, that would hold a variety of "subsidiary buildings."

Although Novanoah's cities and buildings are conceptual, his contacts in architecture and engineering tell him "everything is constructible," he said. "If I won't be able to construct it physically, I'd like to put it in people's minds."

While his vision of the future is toward the heavens, Novanoah's own home is well grounded. His barrel-shaped house is designed "to give back the terrain" with a minimal footprint, while providing maximum interior space within its bulging walls.

The house began as "a garage-shack with girlie calendars and two potato trucks," said Ms. Wolf. Novanoah and a number of helpers used mostly old wood, "noble wood because it has a history," Novanoah said. "I wanted to make this house have a soul."

Traffic Lighting

It has been furnished with rough-hewn tables, chairs, and counters. Bedrooms, work rooms, and storage areas arrayed along the outer walls have the feel of ship's cabins with the exposed ribs and porthole windows.

Novanoah has sculpted wood dinosaurs on one wall, like prehistoric caves. A Japanese gate of rough timbers and enormous welded steel hinges closes off the kitchen. "Hinges are such beautiful things, and they are always hidden," said Novanoah. Other uses of metal include an awning over a bank vault-like door and the sharply angled stairway banister that is suspended from the ceiling.

Traffic lights, which Novanoah favors because when the red, amber, and green lights are turned on at once they give a warm light "like the sun," provide much of the lighting.

"Whoever lives in such a house is lucky man," he said. "You never get bored."

Concrete Sculpture

An adjoining potato barn has been converted into a studio, with sculptures and paintings on display.

The Species, a series of 15 brightly painted, concrete sculptures of a futuristic Noah, his wife, a tree of life, and an assortment of creatures, meant to reflect a reconciliation between man and nature, is on display in the side yard.

At the former Tiska farm, which Novanoah and Ms. Wolf recently acquired, a 30-foot-tall steel abstract sculpture, Orion, looms over nearby Millstone Road from the front lawn. "Orion is the closest constellation," Novanoah said. "It's in the same village in the cosmos."

The main barn, once white, has been repainted black. Surrounding sheds and outbuildings have been painted red, green, yellow, and purple.

Like Stonehenge

Inside, the barn has been transformed into galleries, studios, and workspace. A team of assistants, Min Lee, Adam Brent, Gil McManus, John Bayley, and Joe Imbriano, work on Novanoah's projects and their own art. Another assistant, John Sherman, works on the farm, which is planted with corn and beans and includes horses, sheep, ducks, and sections set aside for wildlife.

The main body of the barn itself looks like a medieval banquet hall with a huge table and heavy timber benches serving as a centerpiece. The barn door has been replaced with large sliding glass doors, which look out over a field.

A steel A-frame abstract sculpture frames the vista. Arrayed in a meadow are five abstract steel sculptures, "The Astronauts." The figures look as if they are in prayer in Novanoah's "natural temple." The artist wants the installation to remind the viewer of Easter Island or Stonehenge. It does.

Retrospective Planned

Novanoah is currently preparing a retrospective of his art, with over 120 pieces, which he wants to display at the Ark Project this summer.

Work is under way on a series of pieces that combine painting and soft and steel sculpture to depict some of the wonders of nature that have been endangered by man. Serengeti will be of lions under a brilliant sun; The Shore will depict swimmers, muscle men, and bathing beauties in an abstract melding of the ocean and beach. The Amazon and Mount Kilimanjaro will be other subjects.

"Remember humans, remember the beauty that you have," said Novanoah.

"The human species is the consciousness of the universe," he said. "The universe sees itself through us. It is a species that deserves to survive."

They say that when New Year's Day falls midweek, as it will on Wednesday, it portends 12 propitious months, replete with many good and pleasant things.

One of them, perhaps, will be better weather. An early spring would be nice, of course, and a long spring would be even nicer, but in light of Mother Nature's paltry showing this past year, any spring that sticks around for more than three weeks would be gratifying.

Ditto for summer. No two ways about it, 1996 was a bummer summer. Too much rain, too little sun, lots of chilly days, never enough warm ones. The summer no one, not even the most determined sun-worshiper, managed to acquire a decent tan, the summer the mildew came to visit and never went away.

Come to think of it, autumn, the time of year most eagerly awaited by year-round residents, was nothing to write home about either. Snow fell early, in the second week of November, after a cloudy, on-again off-again fall that did little for anybody or anything, with the possible exception of root vegetables. Flu arrived ahead of schedule, too.

Well, good riddance to out-of-season seasons. Here's to a resounding turnaround in 1997. Happy New Year!