Praise for the Garden Club

    The East Hampton Village Board rolled out some recognition on Friday, starting with a certificate of appreciation for the Garden Club of East Hampton. There to accept the acknowledgment were Diane Paton, Calista Washburn, and Mary Clarke.

    “The Garden Club does a magnificent job at certain public areas in the village,” Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said. People can see club members during the flowering season “studiously clipping the rose bushes” by the village train station, he said. The award was to recognize the work the Garden Club has undertaken on the village park in front of what is traditionally known as the Old Barn bookshop on Main Street, a space occupied by a Ralph Lauren store.

“The ladies give of their time so unselfishly, and we are the beneficiaries of all your good works,” the mayor said.

A public hearing on a proposed law banning empty or papered-over windows from the village’s commercial district met with no opposition. Ann Roberts of the Ladies Village Improvement Society’s landmarks and community awareness committee offered a request that the existing real estate signs be of uniform size and limited to one of the lower corners of the windows, rather than “dead center in the window,” she said.

     Upcoming hearings include one on the village budget, to be held on June 7, and then multiple hearings on June 15 related to public access for those with disabilities, and new parking configurations and hours on Main Street, Newtown Lane, and Pantigo Road.