Editorials

In the absence of budget controversies and with a state cap on tax increases, the lead-up to this year’s school district voting, on Tuesday, has been uncommonly quiet. That is not to say that the balloting is insignificant; spending plans await approval, and two districts have contests for board seats.

A little more than two weeks from today, it will once again be Memorial Day. The East End will get an early look at the coming summer, eager crowds, lines, headaches, but also a sense that we are all in it together, lifelong local and visitor alike.

Several weeks ago the idea was floated that at least one of the often-packed ocean beach parking lots at Ditch Plain in Montauk be made residents-only. This came in response to complaints that the number of people had overwhelmed the lots, making it almost impossible on sunny summer days for East Hampton Town taxpayers to find a spot unless they arrived shortly after dawn.

With the summer season approaching at long last, PSEG-Long Island hopes that homeowners with central air-conditioning take up its offer of free, remotely programmable thermostats that will cut electric bills and help the utility deal with high demand. It is a program very much worth considering.

The million dollars it cost the Town of East Hampton to pile new sand on a row of massive sandbags on the Montauk ocean shoreline is perhaps the most immediate reason why officials are eager to find another way to respond to ongoing erosion there.

As enticing as glistening waters may be to kayakers, paddleboarders, and the like, it is still dangerous out there.

New York City could soon ban the sale of plastic water bottles in parks, beaches, and public golf courses to cut down on trash.

Every April since 1970, many Americans have celebrated Earth Day. While the holiday does not have the buildup of Christmas or the whoop-de-doo of the Fourth of July, it has become tradition in many places to take a hike, clean up roadsides and wrack lines, or take part in other outdoor activities. Numerous local organizations have laid on events this year, among them the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton and the Nature Conservancy’s Mashomack Preserve on Shelter Island.

A massive water cistern planned for the Amagansett woods has the potential neighbors upset. This is understandable, as the 900,000-gallon reservoir would be built above ground on a Suffolk County Water Authority well site only a short distance from the road.

Luis Marin-Castro’s arrest by federal agents while he was working in Wainscott on April 9 highlights the need for a rational immigration policy. Mr. Marin, 31, came to East Hampton from Ecuador as a child, attended high school here, graduated from Suffolk Community College, and was a valued employee, working his way up from bus boy to sommelier at Nick and Toni’s restaurant in East Hampton.

The Earth is getting warmer and fossil fuel-burning power plants have a lot to do with it. That is why those who study climate and government policies say alternative energy sources are essential in order to avoid massive upheavals. Given present technology, wind power, either from land-based or offshore windmills, is considered the best, fastest way to make a difference.

At a time when young people have taken leadership roles in the fight for sensible gun control, led the Black Lives Matter movement, and generally found new political activism, allowing them to have a voice at the local level is a logical next step. Guild Hall, for example, recently created a teen council, in which high school students receive a stipend for attending meetings to help shape cultural programs and build audiences of the future. That would be most obviously valuable in some form on school boards and perhaps in Town Hall.

Public access and amenities at Boys and Girls Harbor in East Hampton could be improved soon. This is a good thing, but a word of caution is necessary first.

It is forgivable that Americans might be distracted by all the scandals and dramatic missteps of the Trump presidency and miss the less-noticed efforts to dismantle existing policy, in particular, clean air and water protections.

East Hampton Town needs a summer plan. Relatively recently, officials presented a set of hamlet-specific vision documents intended to guide redevelopment and new projects in the commercial centers with an eye toward a mix of business and residential needs and an emphasis on affordable living for workers. These studies were quite nice and contained some exciting ideas. What the hamlet plan authors did not do was look at the reality of East Hampton’s resort, day-trip, and short-term rental economy in a coherent way.

Remember those giant “Welcome to New York” signs that appeared in Montauk two summers ago — only to be taken down after the public pointed out that they were not just ugly but totally pointless? They were part of a campaign funded by the state that was supposed to boost tourism by informing tourists who’d already arrived that, yes, you could eat and drink in New York, and visit unspecified “attractions,” and fill your days with delight by accessing an I ♥ NY app.

A proposal to pave the eastern parking area at Ditch Plain in Montauk brought an outpouring of emotion to East Hampton’s Town Hall on Tuesday. Surfers and others who enjoy the ambience of the rutted, gravel-and-sand patch known as Dirt Lot were vigorous in opposition. But officials are in a bind: Conditions there at peak times are unacceptable.

Enthusiasm among many on the left on eastern Long Island about taking the congressional seat now held by Representative Lee Zeldin notwithstanding, Democrats in the First Congressional District remain underdogs. Both CNN and the Cook Political Report recently rated his seat likely to remain Republican, considering the candidates’ fund-raising, election history, and registration data. This means the Democratic opposition must take swift action if it hopes to oust an incumbent whose position appears secure.

A new, recently released study of Georgica Pond’s water quality contains a big surprise. Bacteria tests conducted by the Surfrider Foundation and Chris Gobler’s Stony Brook Southampton laboratory, paid for by the Friends of Georgica Pond, have for some time shown elevated fecal bacteria levels, especially after heavy rain. Now, thanks to further work by Dr. Gobler and several colleagues, a culprit, if not the source, has been identified: dogs.

The National Aeronautic and Space Administration reports that all but one of the 16 hottest years in its 134-year-long record have occurred since 2000. The data underscore the truth about global warming, and that some of the world’s most vulnerable populations already are suffering.

Visitors to the East End often giggle when someone mentions the Ladies Village Improvement Society in casual conversation. Sounds like a flashback to prewar Britain: Do the ladies specialize in marmalade boiling, bootie knitting, and the singing of patriotic songs? Of course you, dear reader, know better: East Hampton’s L.V.I.S. is a mighty institution that has for 123 years and counting represented the best of what a volunteer civic organization can be.

In the run-up to Tuesday’s vote on the Springs School expansion bond, one statement was repeated frequently that needs examination — the question of overcrowding, the sense that Springs has many more than its fair share of students. The numbers, it turns out, do not support this.

Time was Montauk was only really crazy one day a year, as thousands of green-bedecked revelers descended looking to get loose. Now, and by comparison to just about any weekend night between June and September, the St. Patrick’s Day events are tame.

hose who have handled a semiautomatic rifle of the sort used in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shootings on Feb. 14 know that these are not ordinary weapons. Their power is unmistakable; an errant shot striking a small tree will go through that tree and the one behind that, and so on. A shot striking a human body will result in a cascading wave of force, crushing tissue and making recovery difficult for anyone who manages to survive the instant, massive bleeding or organ damage.

Ethnic animosity has, unfortunately, turned up in an ugly way in advance of Tuesday’s vote on the proposed renovation of the overcrowded Springs School.

The red-winged blackbirds returned to Cranberry Hole Road this week, announcing themselves by their rusty, spring-sounding calls from hiding places among the scrub. It seems far too soon.

The East Hampton Town senior citizens center on Springs-Fireplace Road is in need of an upgrade. However, a plan revealed last week may not be the solution.

The East Hampton Town Trustees have come dangerously close in recent months to becoming entirely co-opted by the anti-wind power crowd. This has led them to inappropriately take on a role on the South Fork Wind Farm project over which they have minimal say and which runs the risk of their otherwise looking past their specific responsibilities.

There is no question that the Springs School needs more space. The question is whether voters will approve a nearly $17 million bond to pay for expansion. They should.

Central to the new East Hampton Town hamlet studies are recommendations about one of the greatest challenges: how to increase the supply of houses and apartments that the town’s working people and other residents can afford. Meanwhile, a proposal to pay for other answers to the housing shortage via an additional real-estate transfer tax has been put forward at the state level by Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr.