Trustees: New Challenges

    Issues involving the beaches, harbors, and shoreline have gotten more contentious and difficult to navigate, and the sitting East Hampton Town Trustees have risen to meet the new and increasing challenges. With a fresh outlook on the town board beginning in January, there is hope that the trustees will find eager partners.

    Our endorsements for returning sitting trustees to the post go to Diane McNally, Stephanie Talmage Forsberg, Nat Miller, Stephen Lester, Sean McCaffrey, and Tim Bock — whose experience, dedication, and collective record speak volumes. Among the first-time candidates, we support Mike Bottini, Brian Pardini, and Cate Rogers.

    Mr. Bottini is a consummate outdoorsman and an environmental expert. He has credentials as a wildlife biologist, author, as a planner for the Group for the South Fork for 13 years, and he leads excursions on local waters and trails for the South Fork Natural History Museum, among other organizations. His résumé includes five years as a commercial oyster grower. His education, life experience, dedication, and backbone would make him an important addition to the trustees.

    Organized, focused, and smart, Ms. Rogers impressed us with her stated commitment to water quality protection, asserting trustee jurisdiction, assuring public access to beaches and waterways, and opposing “hard” solutions to erosion. As a former town zoning board member, her firsthand knowledge of the other side of local government would be an asset, equally so her support for working more closely with the Planning Department.

    Mr. Pardini has been a professional surveyor for 16 years and is a bayman on the side. He has made a good point about improving outreach to Latino residents who use the bays and beaches alongside long-time residents. As someone with his hand in two of East Hampton’s most time-honored and essential trades, his perspective, as well as his relative youth and energy, would be an asset to the board.