Editorials

It is movie time again in East Hampton. Next Thursday at Guild Hall, the Hamptons International Film Festival officially opens with the screening of “Just Mercy.” From then until the afternoon of Oct. 14, it will be a cinephile’s delight, with dozens of features and short films, as well as talks and parties, from all over the world and homegrown directors, writers, and producers, famous and not so famous. With this much to choose from in a short few days, just choosing what to see can seem daunting. Tickets have gone on sale, and while some of the biggest titles might be sold out, there are always plenty of other choices.

As a legal standoff between East Hampton Town and the Springs Fire District over a disputed radio and cellphone tower drags on toward a fourth year, emergency communications — as well as mobile phone service — in the populous hamlet remains poor to nonexistent.

It has often been said that if you weren’t for impeachment already, you were not paying attention, but nothing has been quite enough.

For some time, we have observed that the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals operates in what seems to be a universe unto itself.

On Saturday, voters in the East Hampton, Wainscott, and Springs School Districts will have a chance to support an institution that is a cultural and educational hub for the community. The East Hampton Library, on Main Street overlooking the Village Green, is asking residents to approve a modest tax increase to help pay for its growing services.

Thousands of young people are expected to rally around the world tomorrow in a students’ day of action to call attention more aggressively to the need to combat the looming crisis of human-caused global warming. New York City leaders are taking climate change seriously, to the point that they are allowing the 1.1-million public school students to leave classrooms and take part in the protests without penalty. Closer to home, some students are expected to walk out on their own; others are likely to be among those headed to the city on rented buses.

While the White House either is or is not hurtling toward war with Iran, the Democratic primary, and, not to overlook it, the beginning steps of a presidential impeachment, we should not forget that thousands of residents of the Abacos Islands in the Bahamas remain in dire need of assistance.

Members of the Springs Fire Department were upset that a town planning board hearing on a controversial radio and cellular telephone monopole behind the firehouse was scheduled for last night — that is, Sept. 11, the same evening that the somber annual memorial ceremony is held at Hook Mill.

For East Hampton voters who have not followed the bumpy and bruising run up to the November town election, the lack of choices will be surprising. Notably, there will be no Republican candidates for supervisor or town board because the county party would not sign off on the local party’s choice of nominees, a requirement since none of them are registered Republicans.

A recent little-noticed report about East Hampton Town’s wastewater system upgrade program deserves wider attention. Produced by the town’s water quality advisory committee, the report offered five ways to increase the rate at which property owners are signing on.

It seems only right to offer a tip of the cap to the professionals and volunteers who answer the call at any time of day or night even as the population of residents and day-trippers doubles and then doubles again then returns to normal after Labor Day.

And just like that, the tropical Atlantic came alive. After an August with minimal swell and no hurricanes, two named storms popped up, one as we went to press Wednesday threatening to make a first landfall in already battered Puerto Rico and projected to arrive as Hurricane Dorian in northern Florida on Monday. At the same time, but less of a threat to shore, another storm developed off the Carolina coast but was to move away into the open ocean by the end of the week.

A proposal to force New York private schools to report more than their local boards of education now require is circulating in Albany and has some educators and parents worried.

Term limits are great talking points during political campaigns, but after getting elected, most officials lose interest in them. National Democratic strategists looking to push Representative Lee Zeldin out of office have seized on his 2014 victory over the incumbent, Tim Bishop, as evidence of just such a flip-flop.

The big field on Montauk Highway east of the Amagansett I.G.A. is quiet again following two large benefit events — the Soldier Ride fund-raiser and the East Hampton Library Authors Night book fair.

The Village of Sag Harbor gets it. In a ceremony marking its new Steinbeck Park, Southampton Town and Sag Harbor elected officials celebrated the creation of a public waterfront asset. Officials in other towns and villages should be watching this closely. This park might never have been a reality had the village, over many years, failed to resist pressure from developers.

Recently and almost in passing, an East Hampton Town Board member observed that it might be necessary to seek outside help for the Ordinance Enforcement Department. At the moment, the town lists eight field employees and one clerk in the department directory, but three work only part time. This small group is supposed to provide seven-day-a-week coverage, taking on everything and anything not otherwise in the purview of town police.

All agreed new helping hands are harder than ever to recruit. This has led to a graying of the volunteer work force, in which a 50-year-old can feel that he or she is the springyist chicken in the coop.

It seems somehow crazy that Donald Trump is to arrive on the East End tomorrow for a fund-raiser, after two mass shootings within hours of each other, as if nothing were wrong.

Two sides are circling each other in regard to a new, consolidated town shellfish hatchery off Gann Road at Three Mile Harbor. Untangling this will help guide what has been an excessively contentious debate toward an amicable resolution.

Town and county officials are going to have a difficult time convincing anyone that the cause of a rash of earaches and other infections among people who surf and swim at Ditch Plain has been caused by anything other than wastewater effluent from the adjacent mobile home park.

The Montauk Lighthouse will undergo repair beginning this summer and major restoration of its protective seawall is to begin in the fall. These are costly endeavors — more than $1 million for the tower and $24 million for the stonework — but in the minds of many, well worth it.

The Trump re-election campaign recently began selling 10-pack plastic drinking straws after the president seized on the paper versions as a sign of liberal overreach. This followed media outrage from the right earlier this year after plastic ones were banned for takeout drinks in Washington, D.C.

The lack of an efficient customer service response to the Optimum internet outage Monday night was remarkable in itself and for what it said about the overtaxed infrastructure on the East End in general.

What is it, really, about wind that pushes otherwise reasonable people over the edge? Certainly, there is no equivalent outcry when gas lines or water mains are installed or replaced. And if those vigorous in their opposition to the Orsted Deepwater South Fork Wind Farm far out in the ocean truly wanted to do something about the cost of electricity, they could advocate for the various “demand-reduction” programs that have had some success and have room to grow. No, for all the position papers and public statements, the intense opposition cannot truly be explained.

From our vantage point overlooking Main Street, electric bicycles seem to have arrived, along with an increase in the number of traditional, pedal-powered bikes. We’ve seen a couple of electric scooters, too, which look like fun, but we are not sure that any of these belong on the sidewalk.

The humpback whale that became temporarily stuck in a commercial fishing net on Monday moved away before officials could determine if it may have remained tangled in a portion of the mesh and be at possible risk of greater harm, even death.

Vote suppression and voting roll purges have been a hallmark of the Trump era. The census fight needs to be understood in that context.  

While the court cases develop, let’s not forget about the emergency personnel who responded to both scenes. The effects of tragedies like these ripple beyond the victims and their families.

Before you grab that beef burger or toss some packages of hot dogs and buns into your shopping cart, think about going local this Fourth of July. East End baymen and baywomen provide heavenly and healthy seafood year round. Rounding out your holiday eating with fresh seafood from nearby waters seems to us a fine way to celebrate.