Editorials

    At the doctor’s office the other day filling out a questionnaire, I hesitated when asked anent religious preference if I were an atheist.

    I put a couple of question marks after the word, and was thinking how to elaborate, when Mary scratched out “atheist” and put in “agnostic.”

    Now, today, I find in looking at Newsday that I have some company: “For the first time in its history the United States does not have a Protestant majority. . . . About 20 percent of Americans say they have no religious affiliation.”

    At the urging of residents of Soundview Drive and Captain Kidd’s Path in Montauk, the Town of East Hampton has agreed to a Montauk Inlet dredging project that is expected to provide some relief to the chronic erosion there. But in backing the Army Corps of Engineers’ $26 million plan, the town and affected homeowners may, in the long run, be leaving the waterfront neighborhood in harm’s way.

    With the support of the East Hampton Town Planning Board, the Montauk Highway in Wainscott is fast on its way to being further commercialized. Already, this “gateway” to our beautiful town is a visual hodgepodge of ill-thought buildings — and an increasing four-season traffic nightmare.

    In the last year the board approved a major expansion of the use of the former Plitt Ford property, without taking time for a clear-eyed and honest review of its implications. Now, the board is sounding satisfied with the conversion of the onetime Star Room nightclub to a car wash.

   Like long-suffering residents of many parts of the South Fork, people who live in a section of East Hampton centered on Miller Lanes East and West have experienced mounting frustration with drivers using the streets in their neighborhood to skirt traffic. In this case, cars and trucks wend their way through the narrow lanes as an alternative to the North Main and Cedar Street intersection. Residents have turned to the East Hampton Town Board for a solution, citing safety concerns.

   Aside from the Hamptons International Film Festival, which drew crowds to East Hampton Village last weekend, the South Fork has had plenty of other events in the last few weeks — and their popularity is raising questions about official oversight, or really the lack thereof.

   East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson released his 2013 budget last week, which contains a pay raise for elected and appointed officials, including himself, and more money for water safety. Also going up is money for ordinance enforcement, but only somewhat: The $338,000 budgeted is still below what was spent in 2010. This is too little for a chronically short-staffed department, one that is critically important for assuring that town rules are followed.

   We were puzzled last week at the news that the Town of East Hampton was putting off even temporary or conditional approval of a request from the Viking Fleet to berth a seasonal party-fishing vessel at the Commercial Dock on Three Mile Harbor.

   Sag Harbor Village officials have embarked on a poorly-explained effort to evaluate whether to disband or sharply reduce the village’s police department. Just why they are undertaking this is open to question, as is why they have for the most part chosen to pursue the goal behind closed doors.

   It is a story we dreaded. An East Hampton High School student apparently committed suicide late last week, and some of those who knew him have drawn a direct connection from what is being described as a deliberate, tragic act to his being bullied because he was gay or perceived by others as gay.

   As Russell Drumm reported this week in the fishing news, the fall striped bass run has begun and fanatics from near and far are heading to Montauk Point to get in on the action. At the same time, late summer and fall can produce the best waves of the year, drawing surfers and sightseers as well to the Point, where the town is responsible for a small parking lot reached by a bumpy gravel road, from which one can quickly step onto the beach at Turtle Cove.

   An article in The Wall Street Journal last week pointed out parallels between the race for the presidency and that for New York’s First Congressional District. The core of its observation was that in both contests centrist incumbents are pitted against wildly wealthy challengers.

   About a month ago, East Hampton Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. issued a reminder to groups of bicyclists who might take to his village’s roads. Objecting to thick knots of organized recreational pedalists who fail to yield to motorists or force pedestrians to jump aside, Mr. Rickenbach reminded them that they, too, are obliged to follow traffic laws, just like the drivers of cars and trucks, “in such a manner as to prevent undue interference with the flow of traffic.”

   Building on the success this summer of the checkpoints aimed at motorists who may have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol, local police would do well to take on another high-risk factor on the roads — distracted drivers.

   Mitt Romney seems like a nice-enough guy, which is why the secretly recorded statement in which he insulted and belittled nearly half of American voters while speaking to a group of big-dollar donors in Florida in May is shocking. At the same time, his full-throated embrace of the worst of class and ethnicity-baiting ideas — and wrong ones, to boot — could be seen as a predictable outcome of an election cycle that favors attacks rather than matters of substance.

   Tomorrow will be the 74th anniversary of the 1938 Hurricane, the horrific standard by which Long Island and New England storms are still measured. A show of amateur photographs taken in and around East Hampton Village in the days following Sept. 21, 1938, give a sense of the devastation — but they tell only a small part of the story and cannot be considered a prediction of what this place would look like if and when a hurricane of equal strength strikes. Hundreds of people were killed as the 1938 Hurricane raged ashore on Long Island and in coastal Connecticut and Rhode Island.

   Hard numbers are difficult to come by, but our hunch is that the police checkpoints intended to curb drunken driving this summer were a success. Word filtered out that even a couple of drinks could land someone behind bars for the night and result in fines or the loss of driving privileges for months, even on a first offense. This is good news for those who prefer safer roads, and it merits a tip of the hat for the many local officers, as well those from other departments, who put in long nights here to make this happen.

   Rarely does a federal policy have as direct a potentially positive impact on the South Fork as does one put in place earlier this year by President Obama to allow some children of undocumented migrants a way to avoid deportation and work here legally. Called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, it allows immigrants 30 and younger who have lived in the United States for five or more years to apply for a Social Security number and a two-year, renewable work permit.

   “No comment” was more or less how a top official responded this week when asked why the Town of East Hampton had not lodged a single charge against a man facing 160 counts in Southampton Town, where he is alleged to have run illegal, for-profit party houses similar to those he is said to have organized here.

   At a time when the East Hampton School Board has been cutting back on services outside of the classroom, notably scaling back adult continuing education and trying to eliminate the continued free use of facilities for non-school sports associations, it is unfortunate that it would find the money to fund a part-time public relations position.

   Peering out of an office window that overlooks Main Street and the East Hampton Library late on Labor Day, idly contemplating the relentless line of traffic headed west, we noticed a car trying to get out of the library’s driveway that looked as if might be stuck there forever.

   The news about the climate is bad. Even if you are among those who have tried to disparage global warming,  the overwhelming scientific consensus about its causes and the numbers are indisputable: the Earth is getting warmer — and fast. Long Island must prepare for the worst. But it appears that most of the region’s public officials have not gotten the message.

   As the traditional end of the high season approaches, it is worth taking stock of how things went and whether the South Fork is on the right path.

    Think of Montauk with its jam-packed bars affecting nearby residences. Think of Indian Wells Beach that became so popular with 20-something beer bashers that some of its regulars no longer found it attractive. Think of the racket from the airport, the dread of a trip to the grocery store. Think of massive, illegal parties in rented houses whose hosts East Hampton Town officials failed to prosecute.

   In an important and well-researched report, the East Hampton Town Budget and Financial Advisory Committee has recommended closing the town waste-treatment plant on Springs-Fireplace Road immediately while a long-term management plan is drafted. This is sound advice, and the East Hampton Town Board should act on it without delay.

   Allegations first reported by Politico.com that Representative Tim Bishop’s campaign acted improperly in seeking a cash donation from a constituent for whom the Democratic congressman did a favor have been seized upon by his political opponents. Randy Altschuler, running with Republican and Conservative endorsements, has sought to make the affair the subject of the week, with frequent e-mails to supporters and the news media.

   As with the Havens Beach stormwater logjam described on this page, officials have long wondered what to do about pollution from the privately owned Three Mile Harbor Trailer Park near Soak Hides Road. In this case, it is the Town of East Hampton grappling with potential septic contamination of groundwater that can reach a harbor. Over the years, the town, recognizing that the trailers provide low-cost housing, has pumped out the septic tanks at taxpayer expense, although there have been unproven allegations about oddities in the way this was conducted.

   Another summer season has just about come and gone and nothing has been done to stop potentially harmful bacteria from floating through Havens Beach in Sag Harbor.