Grind

After surveying many of their families and realizing there are financial hardships among them, officials at the Ross School in East Hampton have made a pitch to the school's wider community for donations.

The Southampton Arts Center will host a Unity Fest for the first time Sunday, inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. The center’s grounds will be the scene of an array of multiculturally owned and run businesses and organizations, as well as musicians, motivational speakers, food, and art. 

The festival will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and that night at 8:40 the documentary "Killer Bees," featuring the Bridgehampton High School boys basketball team, will be screened, dedicated to the late Bobby Hopson, the team’s career scoring leader.

The Suffolk County Department of Public Works announced Wednesday that it will treat sections of East Hampton and Fire Island in an effort to control mosquitos.

On Wednesday, the streets and boardwalks will be sprayed in Ocean Bay Park, Ocean Beach, and Seaview on Fire Island between 5 and 10 p.m. On Thursday, the county will be doing ground spraying in the Fire Island Pines, Water Island, Summer Club, and Atlantique on Fire Island between 5 and 10 p.m.

Main Street Tavern, a new restaurant in the space previously occupied by Indian Wells Tavern in Amagansett, will open for outdoor dining and takeout starting Thursday.

Local organizations are helping communities here grapple with race and identity through film screenings and conversations.

Racial Justice East End, Canio's Cultural Cafe, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the South Fork, and the Eastville Community Historical Society have come together for the Confronting Racism virtual film series. The movies will be shown on Zoom, followed by small group dialogues that create "space for honest, heartfelt conversation."

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone has announced an online job board for both employers and job-seekers, with employment fairs, hiring events, and career exploration -- a virtual employment center that he called a one-stop shop.

Four poets will pay a virtual visit to the Shelter Island Library for a mini poetry festival on Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. Reading from their work via Zoom will be Fran Castan, Carole Stone, George Held, and Gladys Henderson.

For Saturday night only, the Maidstone Hotel in East Hampton Village is offering a contactless takeout or picnic paella dinner prepared in-house by Fernando Saralegui of The New York Times-starred restaurants Alva and L-Ray.

After hitting a low of 45 new cases per day in mid-June, confirmed Covid-19 numbers have moved slowly upward in Suffolk County.

There have been about 60 new coronavirus cases reported each day in July, with a high of 102 cases on July 13. Case counts reflect the date on which they were provided to New York State by reporting laboratories.

Visitors have been given the green light to return to nursing homes and long-term care facilities on a limited basis.

The East Hampton Library is planning a virtual art exhibit to showcase the work of local teens, and has put out a call for entrants.

Eleven of the 39 South Fork water bodies regularly tested by the Concerned Citizens of Montauk were found to have had medium to high levels of harmful bacteria, it said in its most recent reporting.

Hamptons Film Drive-In, in partnership with the Hayground School, will show Tina Fey's "Mean Girls," from 2004, as the Monday retrospective film, and Jordan Peele's "Get Out" as the Scary Wednesday film. 

East Hampton Town's Junior and Nipper Lifeguard programs for kids will begin this week with reduced capacity and new safety protocols in place.

Upcoming events and news in Montauk.

The Sag Harbor Chamber of Commerce has canceled the village’s annual HarborFest fair, scheduled for Sept. 12 and 13, because of the ongoing pandemic.

Wondering where to see fireworks this Fourth of July weekend? It's a pretty short list, as displays all across Long Island have been canceled to keep crowds from gathering during the pandemic.

The first installation on East Hampton Town property of an innovative alternative septic system was completed on Friday at the public restroom at the rear of Amagansett’s municipal parking lot. I/A septic systems, as they are known for short, are designed to reduce the amount of nitrogen discharged into the environment.

After months of limiting or prohibiting visitors to prevent the spread of Covid-19, Stony Brook Southampton Hospital announced on Monday that it will allow hospital visits by family and friends for up to three hours a day, with strict rules.

The weekend of June 27 and 28 is "free fishing weekend" in New York, when all residents are encouraged by the State Department of Environmental Conservation to try their hand at some local fishing. This is the second of six free fishing events in the year.

Saturday is STOP day, for Stop Throwing Out Pollutants, in East Hampton. From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., residents can take hazardous household materials to the town's recycling center at 260 Springs-Fireplace Road for proper disposal.

I-Tri, a fitness and empowerment program for sixth-grade girls usually held during the school year, announced Monday it would for the first time hold a summer program this year, dubbed I-Tri Girls Nights.

Two prominent advocates for equality and justice on the East End on Monday night will join Rabbi Dan Geffen of Sag Harbor’s Temple Adas Israel for an online talk titled “Racial Injustice: a Dialogue on Responding With Change and Healing.”

Although the high school theater season was cut short by the school closures caused by Covid-19, East End Arts is once again honoring a crop of talented student thespians for outstanding performances.

After three months of virtual programming, the Southampton Arts Center opened its doors Thursday after receiving authorization from the Village of Southampton, the Town of Southampton, and Suffolk County. The center is celebrating with something old and something new.

Southampton Town reopened its playgrounds and skate parks on Thursday after months of closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The reopening was made possible after an adjustment to the state's phase two guidelines.

The town will follow the Center for Disease Control's safety protocols and visitors must wear face coverings and adhere to the six-feet social distance requirements.  

Two more events this week will continue discussions of the civil rights narrative on the East End, a Juneteenth celebration in Southampton and a Black Lives Matter protest in Montauk.

A group of alumni and current students of Southampton High School has launched a petition on the website Change.org urging the Southampton School District administration, school board, faculty, and staff to make changes to the curriculum and policies in light of what they believe are "overt and covert forms of racism" in the district.

The petition, which garnered more than 700 signatures as of 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, says that "it is simply not enough to decry racism."

On Wednesday, Skarstedt Gallery will launch an East Hampton branch of its New York and London operations at a 1,500-square-foot space in the same cluster of storefronts once occupied by the Drawing Room at 66 Newtown Lane.

"Did You Know?" is Project Most's first-ever television show, with lessons, activities, entertainment, and children sharing their knowledge.