Editorials

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.