In the Dec. 14, 1917, edition of The East Hampton Star, there’s a small column toward the bottom of page seven that partially reads, “Childe Hassam, of New York City, announces the completion of several handsome etchings and dry points of East Hampton scenery.” 

Given that information, one wonders if the image presented here, “East Hampton Sidewalk,” dated 1917, was at one time on view at Hassam’s studio at 4 East 39th Street in Manhattan.

Frederick Childe Hassam (1859-1935) was an American Impressionist painter known for his depictions of coastal and urban scenes in a variety of mediums, ranging from oils and watercolors to etchings and lithographs. He was quite prolific, producing more than 3,000 pieces of artwork during his lifetime. His most well-known works come from his “Flag” series. One of which, “The Avenue in the Rain,” is in the White House’s permanent art collection and hangs in the Oval Office.

At first an occasional visitor to East Hampton, Childe Hassam eventually bought a summer house (which he also used as a studio) on Egypt Lane in 1920 from Matilda Ackley Donoho, the widow of Gaines Ruger Donoho (1857-1916), a fellow American Impressionist painter. The house still stands today, near the Nature Trail in the village. Much like Thomas Moran and Mary Nimmo Moran before him, Hassam depicted familiar scenes around town, including Main Street, Home, Sweet Home, Mulford Farm, and the Woodhouse family Japanese water garden (now part of the Nature Trail).

The etching seen here was donated to the Long Island Collection in 1958 by Mrs. W.L. Lockwood. The view along Main Street evokes a summer stroll, with light filtering in through the treetops. Small figures can be seen walking across the street and ahead of the viewer, past what has been labeled the 1770 House, though it has been suggested that it could possibly be the Gardiner Brown house (the present home of the Ladies Village Improvement Society) before it was moved back from the street in 1925.

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Gina Piastuck is the department head of the East Hampton Library’s Long Island Collection.

While stemming the opioid use epidemic has dominated the fight against substance abuse in Suffolk County in recent years, the concurrent, ongoing push to legalize recreational marijuana in New York State has created a different challenge for parents and children, who are getting mixed messages about the use of pot. 

The contention that opioid use can be lethal goes largely unchallenged. But whether marijuana is harmful can depend on factors such as the age of the person using it, according to Kym Laube, program director for SAFE in Sag Harbor, a coalition of parents, educators, businesspeople, and other professionals from various sectors of the village, Noyac, and North Haven.

“What I worry about regarding marijuana is there is this perceived low risk if it’s legal — as in, ‘If it’s legal, what’s the harm?’ ” Ms. Laube said. “But one point we always talk to people about, as an organization, is there is no safe use for alcohol or marijuana or nicotine in young, developing brains. The brain in adolescents grows the fastest it grows in a person’s lifetime. We also know the brain doesn’t fully finish growing and hardwiring until the average age of 25 for men and women.” 

“When you add the use of a chemical [like marijuana] that has the potential to change brain chemistry in an ongoing fashion, what you really have is a recipe for disaster. Yet many parents still look at marijuana use casually, same as they do alcohol.”

SAFE in Sag Harbor, SAFE referring to Substance Abuse-Free Environment, is a nonprofit that works in conjunction with Human Understanding and Growth Services, or HUGS, a provider of recreational and educational programs for young people. A federal grant funds SAFE’s activities.

Part of SAFE in Sag Harbor’s mission is to challenge the idea of “What’s the harm? What’s the big deal?” said Danielle Laibowitz, the group’s project coordinator and the mother of three children.

“We don’t take a formal position on the legalization of marijuana,” Ms. Laibowitz said, stressing that her group is not a political organization. “But we do want people to be informed.”

According to Sag Harbor School District survey data, 51 percent of the students in grades 11 and 12 reported that they have tried marijuana (as do 29 percent of ninth and 10th graders). Over all, alcohol use ranks number one among Sag Harbor teens, marijuana use is number two, and vaping is third.

Sixty percent of the high schoolers also said there is no perceived risk to marijuana. SAFE in Sag Harbor says some research tells a different story.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse, for example, has found that marijuana’s negative effects on memory, attention, and learning can last for days or weeks, and impair focus, concentration, and the ability to execute complex tasks. 

The institute’s teen website, teens.drugabuse.gov, has reported that a study following people from age 13 to 38 found that those who used marijuana in their teens had up to an eight-point drop in I.Q.

To help people make educated decisions, SAFE in Sag Harbor has sponsored various community education efforts. It holds parent workshops and teen leadership gatherings at which alcohol, drug, and nicotine use is discussed. The group has produced public service announcements that recently began running on local cable television stations. Volunteers have staffed tables at events such as Sag Harbor’s HarborFrost celebration and the recent Stories From Suffolk opioids forum in Southampton that was organized by Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone. During the four-hour forum, marijuana was barely mentioned.

SAFE in Sag Harbor is also conducting a direct mailing campaign to all 6,000-plus residents in the 11963 Sag Harbor ZIP code. It features a series of postcards with information and tips on how parents and kids can talk to each other about marijuana use. Five mailings have been done so far, and there are more to come, Ms. Laibowitz said.

Some of the messaging is aimed at parents. They are reminded that today’s marijuana is significantly more potent than it was a generation ago, and far more likely to be laced with a range of other substances such as PCP, heroin, or fentanyl. 

They are also shown how a Columbia University study found that teens who do choose to remain drug-free said their parents were the number-one factor in the decision — something many parents might not know.

“What I sometimes hear from my friends is they’re scared their teenage kids won’t communicate with them” if they engage them about drug use, said Tanya Rulon-Miller, a vice president of SAFE in Sag Harbor who has two children under 14. “It gets very complicated the older the children get. Everything I’ve learned is it’s important to start these conversations with kids early, while they’re still kids.” 

SAFE in Sag Harbor also gives parents tips about how to discuss drug or alcohol use with their children, such as avoiding polarizing words and actions, being a good listener, setting clear expectations and including real consequences, and helping children deal with peer pressure.

Ms. Laube said an interesting thing that surfaces in the HUGS/SAFE in Sag Harbor workshops is how parents who don’t approve of under-age drinking or drug use often report feeling peer pressure themselves — from other parents.

“It comes up in every parent workshop I run,” Ms. Laube said. “Those parents say they feel they’re in the minority. And they have a hard time being ‘that’ parent. The other parents challenge me on it all the time, too. They’ll say, ‘Kids are going to do it anyway. Better to let them drink in our basement, where I can keep an eye on them.’ ”

But Ms. Laube insists that retort misses some important points. Research has shown that people who start with alcohol or marijuana are indeed more likely to try other drugs.

“One of the biggest misses we are having right now as a culture is we continue to form task groups around the drug of the day,” she said, “and we’re not talking enough about the disease of addiction itself — we’re talking about substances instead.” 

If New York does legalize recreational marijuana, communities do have some choice in the matter. The bill being proposed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo permits cities and counties with more than 100,000 residents to opt out of allowing retail sales.

East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. is among the public officials who have urged Mr. Bellone to have Suffolk County exercise that option. As the bill reads now, East Hampton, like Sag Harbor, could not opt out unilaterally.

In 1747, Daniel, “son of Jane, Indian Squaw, formerly a servant of Mr. David Gardiner of the Isle of Wight” — Gardiner’s Island — signed the indenture seen here to Nathaniel Huntting (1730-1801) for 15 years’ service. An indenture is a legal contract that reflects or covers a debt or purchase obligation. In this context, it refers to an indentured servant’s status. While indentures were fairly commonplace in colonial America, this particular one was a bit unusual because it involved Native Americans and specified expectations for Daniel’s conduct during his contract.

Gardiner’s Island, like other Long Island manors, relied on Native Americans and enslaved labor to operate. It’s unclear whether Daniel’s mother was a free indigenous person who worked for the Gardiner family or if her servitude was also indentured or even enslaved. On March 4, 1747/8 (the date so written because of the 18th-century Gregorian calendar change), when this indenture was signed, Jane received 40 shillings, and in 1754/5, when Daniel’s indenture began, she received an additional 40 shillings. 

Although Daniel’s indenture didn’t begin for almost seven years after the signing, and payment was given to his mother, Daniel was probably still fairly young at the time. At the end of his indenture, Daniel himself received 4 pounds or equal value of crops and the clothes he wore during this service period.

His indenture stipulated he “do no damage to his [said] master nor permit it to be done by others without preventing or giving notice of it to [said] master, he shall not waste his master’s goods . . . he shall not absent himself day or night from his master’s service, without his [master’s] leave, nor haunt alehouses or taverns, but in all things behave himself. . . .” While these were not unusual expectations for an indenture, seeing them detailed in this way makes them real to us today. 

Isaac Mulford Huntting, Nathaniel’s first cousin, and William Conkling Jr. witnessed the agreement, and while Daniel and Jane could not sign their names, both made marks for their signatures. What became of Daniel after his indenture remains unknown.

Andrea Meyer is a librarian and archivist in the East Hampton Library’s Long Island Collection.

Alana Leland of East Hampton is one of three finalists in a “Today” show recipe contest, Joy’s Wine Country Cook-Off. During a taping of the show yesterday she was to find out if she won. The segment will air at 10 a.m. tomorrow.

“It’s all been very exciting,” said Ms. Leland, an office manager at Bates Masi Architects who decided to enter the competition because of the prize on offer: a trip for two to a Napa Valley food and music festival. Home chefs were asked to submit recipes for healthy dishes. Ms. Leland’s is for sweet potato and quinoa tacos. “It’s a recipe I’ve made about a dozen times over the past two years,” she said. 

Joy’s Wine Country Cook-Off is presented by Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb, “Today” hosts, and Joy Bauer, a nutritionist and frequent contributor to the program.  

It was while browsing through Ms. Bauer’s Instagram account recently that Ms. Leland began to suspect her submission was faring well in the competition. “I saw Joy making the tacos,” she said.  

Later, a “Today” staffer called and confirmed she was a finalist. The three contenders for the prize will appear together in the studio, and, while the cameras are rolling, a winner will be announced.  

Should she win, Ms. Leland will be asked to prepare the dish on camera. She is not nervous about that possibility, she said, because “it’s a simple recipe and I’m used to making it with two kids chasing me around the kitchen.” 

Whatever the outcome, Ms. Leland said that her main goal — to have fun — has been accomplished. 

Still, she said, “I hope you writing a story doesn’t jinx me.”

A law requiring low-nitrogen wastewater treatment systems for all new residences and for existing ones that expand by 25 percent or have an increase in the number of bedrooms was adopted by the East Hampton Village Board of Trustees at a meeting on Feb. 7. The law will take effect in about two weeks, after it is filed with New York’s secretary of state. The board also discussed a ban on balloons, and Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. declared “strong opposition” to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s proposal to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in the state.

The vote on the septic system law followed a public hearing at which members of environmental groups encouraged the board to enact the measure quickly to prevent further surface and groundwater pollution caused by nitrogen from traditional septic systems. No one voiced opposition.

Addressing another environmental issue, the board discussed the introduction of a law that would ban the intentional release of balloons. Discarded balloons have proven detrimental to marine life.

East Hampton Town adopted such a law at a meeting held later that day. 

Calling for a village law that would mirror the town’s, Barbara Borsack, a village trustee, called it sensible legislation to outlaw the organized release of balloons. Her colleagues agreed, and Arthur Graham also wanted to make sure that Mylar balloons were included in the prohibition. A proposed law will be drafted and discussed at a future meeting.

Mayor Rickenbach announced his opposition to a proposal from Governor Cuomo in December that would make the recreational use of marijuana legal in New York State. The governor said that legalizing and taxing marijuana could eventually generate annual revenue of $300 million. 

Following the meeting, Mr. Rickenbach distributed a letter he wrote to Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, urging him to “opt out” of any program that would make the use of marijuana other than for medicinal purposes legal in the county. 

“We must put the health and safety of our residents first,” the mayor’s letter states. “Recreational use of marijuana has no health benefit, and the potential impacts to society are largely unknown and deserve more study before governments move ahead with any legalization efforts.” 

During the work session, Mr. Rickenbach said, “It’s a bad move should the county decide to move in that direction. There’s got to be better ways to raise money.” 

Taking inspiration from legislation enacted by the Town of North Hempstead, the board discussed drafting a law that would prevent utility companies from excavating roads that the village has recently repaired. “Once our roads are repaved, unless there’s a dire need, by statement of emergency permit, there should be a window of at least five years where they can’t come in and open up the road,” Mayor Rickenbach said. 

Becky Molinaro Hansen, the village administrator, said that the Department of Public Works has a long-term plan for its road repairs, and it routinely informs the utility companies of that plan, but finds that they are frequently unreceptive to coordinating schedules. 

The result is ongoing construction and disruption on the same stretches of road, said Mayor Rickenbach, who cited Egypt Lane, where the Suffolk County Water Authority recently dug up a newly paved road to install a water main. 

“We’re putting the utilities on notice,” said Richard Lawler, a trustee. “We want them to make an effort to adopt a schedule that coordinates with ours.”

Scott Fithian, the superintendent of public works, said such a law was much needed. He reminded the board that more road disruptions would soon be underway: The Suffolk County Water Authority wants to replace the water mains “right away” on Cooper Lane, Race Lane, and Church Street, he said. The latter road, he said, “we just repaved two years ago.”

In other business, the board adopted a resolution to settle an ongoing legal dispute with Molly Zweig, a resident of 11 West End Road who constructed a revetment in front of her house in 2013 after receiving required permitting from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the village’s zoning board of appeals. 

The East Hampton Town Trustees, who own many of the town’s common lands, including beaches, on behalf of the public, objected to the construction, and claimed jurisdiction over the land. Construction of the revetment had already begun when the trustees filed a court challenge to the Z.B.A.’s decision; two days later, the trustees won a temporary restraining order to stop the project.

The restraining order was lifted the following month, and the project was completed, but the legal battle continued. In April 2016, a State Supreme Court justice denied the East Hampton Town Trustees’ petition to annul the Z.B.A.’s determination, but in April 2017 another State Supreme Court justice denied Ms. Zweig’s request for summary judgment.

At a meeting last month, the trustees, none of whom were part of that body when it sued Ms. Zweig, said they were looking forward to putting the lengthy and costly legal battle behind them. The village board’s resolution will do just that. 

Plans for the third annual spring street fair in the village were announced by Steven Ringel, the executive director of the East Hampton Chamber of Commerce. The street fair will take place on May 11 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Newtown Lane, he said, and there will be a few changes. Last year, food booths were set up along the entrance to the municipal parking lot, next to the Capital One bank. To avoid overcrowding, he said, the food booths will be moved to an area near the main stage, closer to the traffic lights on Newtown Lane. The total number of general booths, showcasing the work of East End artisans and nonprofit groups, will be reduced, down from approximately 50 last year. The changes, he said, will keep the event “streamlined and looking nice.”

Valentine’s Day comes only once a year, but for senior citizens — or anyone who’s homebound, living alone, and without family — there’s something important, even potentially lifesaving, about knowing the phone is going to ring every day, regular as clockwork, because someone who might have started out as a total stranger is kind enough to check in on you. Neighbor to neighbor. Friend to friend.

“It’s not exactly spreading random acts of kindness because this is a program that’s been around for 46 years, but we would like to spread more random acts of kindness by getting more people to get involved,” said Pegi Orsino, executive director of RSVP (Retired Senior Volunteer Program), which runs its Telephone Reassurance Project from two phone banks, one on Bluff Road in Amagansett and another in Smithtown.

“The program is basically to check on their well-being as well as create an opportunity to socialize a little bit,” Ms. Orsino added. “Sometimes we’re the only voice they hear in the morning. And we hear back all kinds of things.”

Like what? Ms. Orsino laughed and said the program has one man who just answers, “ ‘Good morning. Yes, I know, I’m still breathing.’ His kids enrolled him and he wants no part of it, but he answers every day. And we have other people who are very chatty and tell you all kinds of things, like, ‘Oh, my favorite Valentine? That was Harold. I dated him in high school. But don’t tell my husband!’ ”

Anyone can enroll to get a call from the RVSP program. Phone bank volunteers are also needed, especially in the Amagansett location, said Joan Butera, an RSVP liaison who organizes the staff there and helps make the daily calls to the 55 clients her office currently contacts each day. 

“We call people who live from Montauk to Riverhead,” Ms. Butera said. “I normally have around 10 volunteers. Right now, I’m down to only four. We need more.”

Ms. Butera said most volunteers find the program as rewarding as the clients who are receiving the calls. Volunteers are usually asked to spend about an hour and a half per day on the phones, and engage in as much or little conversation as they or the client may like. Some of the Amagansett volunteers pull double shifts.

“My volunteers are wonderful people,” Ms. Butera said.

Ms. Orsino said the fact that the program often features senior citizens talking to one another creates two-way benefits. She says some retirees tell her they volunteer for RSVP because they want to help people, and because they can identify with what the clients are going through. 

“We have a lot of folks who say ‘This isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be — this retirement thing. There’s nothing to do. Every day feels like Saturday.’ This kind of program is a way for them to stay lively and vibrant and engaged too. That can be very important emotionally, and cognitively too, because if you’re not expressing ideas and opinions, you’re going to get muddied in the water.”

“I mean, I’ve seen some daytime TV — it makes me want to be here at work too,” Ms. Orsino joked.

The daily calls are also important because RSVP will send help to clients’ homes for wellness checks when they don’t pick up. The first call RSVP makes is to a family member or friend, if there are any. The next call is often to emergency services or police. “You just get a feel for each person after a while, like who answers religiously on time, who might not,” Ms. Butera said. Sure enough, some folks have indeed taken a spill or fallen ill and are grateful for the help. 

“There are many people who should not be alone at this point, but they are,” Ms. Orsino said. “We try to do what we can.” 

Those interested in volunteering to make calls and those who would like to enroll to receive daily calls can contact RSVP’s Amagansett office at 631-267-8371.

When someone is really sick — facing down cancer or debilitating chronic illness or maybe addiction — the morass of medical bills and insurance forms, the challenges of getting to appointments and the cost of overnight stays during treatment add extra layers of stress that can take a toll on even the healthiest people. 

With that in mind, the Island Gift of Life Foundation aims to “help relieve that pressure” so people “can focus on getting well,” explained Gina Krauss, a board member who also teaches at the John M. Marshall Elementary School. The Shelter Island nonprofit provides financial assistance and other services to people with life-threatening and catastrophic illnesses on the island and in East Hampton, Southampton, and Southold Towns. 

The $10,000 a year it spends to support bone marrow drives and the $40,000 or so spent on direct, tangible aid to individuals comes primarily through a single annual fund-raiser, which will be held on Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Ram’s Head Inn on Shelter Island. Tickets cost $50 and will be available at the door. 

The Cheryl Hannabury Memorial Celebration of Life community cocktail party is named for the Shelter Island woman whose battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma gave rise to Island Gift of Life in 2001. “Her hope was to develop an organization that would assist families with the uninsured expenses incurred while treating the disease, as well as . . . the collateral expenses . . . such as travel, lodging, etc., of the family and support team,” according to the group’s website. 

Eighteen years later, Island Gift of Life does that and more, offering direct monetary grants and help with travel, prescription, and insurance deductible costs and assistance with the insurance process and with negotiating bill reductions. Volunteers sort out mountains of insurance paperwork, haggle with medical billing offices, and help people find solutions to complicated problems as well as the myriad little ones that can seem overwhelming in the midst of a health crisis. 

“How can a person who’s sick manage just the paperwork that comes in?” Ms. Kraus asked. She recently negotiated a reduction in a $15,000 anesthesiology bill for one patient, for example. In another case, she said, Island Gift of Life paid for a portion of costs for reconstructive surgery for a breast cancer survivor.

“Everything is on an individual basis,” Ms. Kraus said Monday, because each person’s needs are different. 

Among the other recent recipients of the organization’s aid are a 7-year-old from Southampton with lymphoma and a 15-year-old lymphoma survivor from Sag Harbor whose checkups aren’t entirely covered by insurance. 

“Most of our patients are from East Hampton,” Ms. Kraus said. The organization is working with more than two dozen people at the moment.

The all-volunteer group offers its services free of charge to those who need them, and encourages those in need of assistance to reach out to its board by email at [email protected] or by mail to P.O. Box 532, Shelter Island Heights 11965. 

Saturday’s cocktail party will include live music by Points East, an open bar, and light bites. There will be a 50-50 raffle and a paper auction offering a chance to win a variety of gift baskets. Among the items offered in a live auction will be a weeklong stay at a villa in Tuscany; a four-day, three-night stay for 12, with a private chef and captain, at a restored lighthouse in Maine’s Penobscot Bay, and three different water excursions for four — by sail, power, and paddle — including a meal, in local waters.

The Hedges Inn, a historic James Lane establishment popular for weddings, has sued the East Hampton Village Board of Trustees, the Zoning Board of Appeals, and Kenneth Collum, the building inspector, seeking to reverse a decision that it cannot hold outdoor events, as well as financial damages and the reimbursement of legal fees. The lawsuit was filed in State Supreme Court on Jan. 25.

The suit alleges that the inn, a pre-existing business in a residential district, was illegally targeted by a law the village passed last April that prevents such properties from having mass gatherings outdoors or in tents. It also accuses the village of “arbitrary and capricious” enforcement of the zoning code.

Providing a venue for outdoor events was a critical part of the Hedges Inn’s business, the suit claims, calling the law a “de facto taking of the property.”

The suit also makes the village decision personal, by claiming officials, including Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr., had been “recruited” by Peter and Patricia Handal, neighbors and longtime critics of events at the inn, to ban parties there. The suit alleges village trustees or other government officials improperly influenced members of the Z.B.A., who ruled in November that the inn should not be allowed to hold outdoor events.

“The village will defend itself in any lawsuit that seeks to invalidate or make inconsistent any provisions of the zoning code,” Becky Molinaro Hansen, the village administrator, said in response to the suit.

The suit is the latest development in a nearly yearlong battle between the inn and the village, which previously had approved permits for special events there but reversed course last March, denying tent permits for four weddings scheduled for 2018. The reversal came one month after the village introduced a special events law, which went into effect on Oct. 1. 

The suit claims the law violates the state constitution because, among other failings, it exceeds the village’s power to regulate land use. “The enactment constituted an illegal spot zoning not in accordance with a comprehensive plan and designed to benefit a single property owner,” the suit states, referring to Mr. and Mrs. Handal. 

The owners of the inn, the suit claims, were selectively mistreated by the law, which allows outdoor gatherings at other properties in the district, including “semi-commercial” ones, such as the village-owned Mulford Farm, where the historical society, among others, holds events. 

According to the suit, the initial basis for denying special event permits for the inn was due to an inaccurate determination by Mr. Collum that it was ineligible based on a Z.B.A. ruling in 2004 that annulled the use of its patio for outdoor dining because the owner of the inn at the time failed to demonstrate it was a pre-existing use. The decision was later upheld in State Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals.

In September, Christopher Kelley, the Hedges Inn’s attorney, sought to have Mr. Collum’s decision overturned by the Z.B.A. He argued that the 2004 ruling only prohibited nightly dining on the patio and did not outlaw catering or parties in tents. The Z.B.A., however, did not agree. The suit alleges its ruling was discriminatory because the board determined a “different level of scrutiny” was needed based on the inn’s pre-existing, nonconforming status.

The suit also claims that at least one Z.B.A. member had referred to a memo written by Linda Riley, an attorney for both the Z.B.A. and the village board, with regard to how officials intended to vote on the inn’s application, but the memo was not included in the written record, and a Freedom of Information Act request for the document filed by the inn’s attorneys had been denied. 

The suit claims the board’s decision was flawed because it was based in part on information received outside the scope of the public hearing on its application. It also alleges that village trustees and Z.B.A. members had engaged in a “concerted effort” to prevent the inn from having outdoor events at the behest of Mr. and Mrs. Handal. 

Jennifer Lilja, the general manager of the inn, released a statement on Monday in which she cited Mrs. Handal, who has been outspoken about noise and traffic at the inn, as the driving force behind its battle with the village. “It is absolutely clear to us, that the special treatment she has received is a gross misuse of power that should not be tolerated,” she said.

For the past 13 months, the East Hampton Library has been engaged in an all-out effort to complete a searchable online archive of every issue of The East Hampton Star since its debut on Dec. 26, 1885, up to the 1980s. “We embraced how important this database would be to the community and to the history of the town,” said Dennis Fabiszak, the library’s director. “We wanted to get it online as soon as possible, so we decided to put a lot of time and money behind getting it done.” 

The archive can be found at nyhistoricnewspapers.org or via a link on the library’s own website. It now spans (save for a few issues that are still missing) from 1885 to mid-1979, and includes  a special issue from 1985 that celebrated the paper’s 100th anniversary. 

The project, which is part of a state initiative to provide free online access to New York’s historical newspapers, involves locating each issue (not an easy task for The Star’s first 20 years), scanning every page, editing the resulting image to maximize the legibility of the text, and then uploading the file to an upstate server. 

Mr. Fabiszak assigned the bulk of those tasks to Scott Raynor and Hunter King, who work in the library’s information technology department. They have been spending 40 hours a week, he said, first going page by brittle page through the late-19th and early-20th-century issues, piecing together stories that had been torn, and then working their way to more recent, better preserved issues. 

“Since last January, they’ve scanned 25,000 pages,” said Mr. Fabiszak. 

Since its early years, The Star provided bound copies of the newspaper to the library, but the archive “brings an accessibility to The Star that never existed,” said Mr. Fabiszak. “People used to sit here for hours and hours looking through microfilm and reading every page to try to find something that they remember happening in 1978 or 1955. Now you can type in a couple of words and it takes you to the right page.”

Even as he has been scanning pages, Mr. Raynor said he has stopped to read historical accounts, such as about a Marconi wireless telegraph station in Sagaponack, the Amagansett Life-Saving Station, and the troubles of Big and Little Edie Beale with East Hampton Village. 

Mr. Fabiszak said that in addition to the hard news stories of the past, he has been fascinated by The Star’s coverage of the personal lives of members of the community, from tales of family trips to reports about which residents had relatives from out of state visiting them for the week. “That will be really interesting to people who are looking back to see what their parents or grandparents were doing,” he said. 

“The most valuable thing about the archive is that it provides a sense of continuity in a region experiencing continual change,” said David E. Rattray, the owner and editor of The Star. 

“The collection illustrates that East Hampton is not just vacation homes and high life; it is a place with an identity all its own, made interesting by the friction between old and new, which has been chronicled in The Star’s pages since 1885. It is a remarkable achievement by the library, and it is important for us to recognize the effort that Dennis has made to get it done,” he said.

As the library staff continues to add pages to the database, Mr. Fabiszak said he hopes that East End residents might help by searching their homes for missing issues. “If they happen to find a copy in an attic or a closet somewhere, we would love to have it. We think that over time, the ones we’re missing will probably appear,” he said.

Two Latino graduates of South Fork schools — one at law school, the other taking a gap semester — are lending a hand to Organizacion Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island, the group announced this week.

Thalia Olaya, an East Hampton High School graduate who is in her final year of law school at Hofstra University, is assisting OLA’s general counsel, Andrew Strong, with legal research and support at the organization’s new East Hampton office. Jonathan Lopez, a graduate of Pierson High School in Sag Harbor who is on a gap semester from Georgetown University, is serving as administrative support staff to “help shape the office systems and protocol as OLA expands to offer direct legal representation on specific cases,” according to a release. 

OLA’s executive director, Minerva Perez, spoke glowingly about both Ms. Olaya and Mr. Lopez. Mr. Lopez had first contacted her when in high school, looking for suggestions about starting a Latino Teen Leadership League at Pierson. 

“Jon was so organized and passionate about helping fellow middle and high schoolers,” Ms. Perez said in the release. “What I found most admirable is that he saw this leadership league as a way to address challenges felt by all teens, regardless of ethnic background.” 

Ms. Perez first met Ms. Olaya when she was a high school volunteer at the Retreat, an East Hampton agency that serves victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. She described her as “a rare combination of empathetic and driven.”