Letters to the Editor: 06.15.17

Double High in Springs

Hampton Bays

June 3, 2017

Dear David, 

Sunday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend, I hit the jackpot. First, I helped host a reception at the East Hampton Town shellfish hatchery, which has just completed its first year as a public oyster “garden” for citizens. We are tripling the number of residents going forward, and interest is on the rise. Holding hundreds of tiny oysters in my palm made me squeal. Clam seeds were smaller still. The project on Three Mile Harbor is following the lead of undersea farms for these champion filter-feeders up in neighboring waters and bays in Peconic, Tiana, and Shinnecock. Growers get to keep and eat 500 and help seed another 500 back in the nearby waters of Accabonac. Win-win for the bays and the people. 

Right after, I drove a block to the Pollock-Krasner House on Fireplace Road a few minutes away. Many times I had walked there with my students from Springs School. This was a reception for the current show by the iconic photographer Tony Vaccaro. Dressed in a sharp gray suit, silver-haired Tony, age 94, greeted visitors. The contact sheets and many thousands of negatives were “found” when he recently moved; many had never been printed before! A true treasure trove of art history. There, hanging on the walls: new images of Lee and Jackson, Elaine and Bill, Costantino Nivola, all of whom lived and worked — and danced — in the Springs.

Two of of de Kooning’s grandchild­ren were in my class years ago, and so when I shook hands with Tony, I told him I was going to contact them so they could see their grandfather in the photos. He nodded and agreed that they should. 

Guests, all smiling, sat and stood and listened to Helen Harrison tell how when she was called by Tony’s son, Frank, and his wife, Maria, with the news of the find, she drove in the very next day to identify persons in the pictures. Tony told stories of parties with the artists dancing and Larry Rivers playing music. When Tony told of the time he answered his door clad only in a towel, post-shower, only to find Sophia Loren, the laughs were loud. He admitted how odd it was not to have a camera around his neck. 

I scanned the dining room, taking in the large round table that Krasner and friends sat around over 60 years ago. We were gathered here in a time machine of sorts, a place where art history had some key chapters. Lee Krasner’s legacy was to leave this for the public, now part of Stony Brook University. What a gift to art lovers everywhere. I saw smiles on the faces of the lucky folks who joined in. Helen and the Vaccaros seemed eager to share their knowledge, the work, and Tony Vaccaro. 

It was a double high yesterday in the Springs, and on the 25-mile drive home I coasted and listened to the oldie goldie station and sang along with every verse. 

IRENE TULLY

Both Retiring

Springs

June 10, 2017

Dear Editor,

I had the pleasure of working with both Mark and Karen McKee at Springs School. Since they are both retiring, I would like to share a few of my thoughts about them. 

Mark McKee always had the students’ interest at heart, and most important he kept his high standards for student conduct while they fell in many other areas of education. He was secure in himself and a talented athlete, so he was able to let the students succeed rather than glorify himself with their success.

Karen Verderosa McKee was in the first fifth-grade class I taught at Springs School in 1965. She was mature beyond her years, and was a no-nonsense student, which translated into her outstanding teaching career. How proud I am that she became a teacher. 

And I am lucky to be able to live long enough to see one of my former students retire! 

HUGH R. KING

Overbearing Noise

East Hampton

June 6, 2017

Dear Editor,

With the return of the summer season (if not the summer weather) we also return to the season of overbearing noise associated with yard work. The village has done a good job so far in implementing the noise ordinances of three years ago. But it’s largely thanks to uncaring yard and lawn-care companies that the police have been often run ragged trying to track down offenders. I think they may have gone back to considering noise complaints to being a nuisance rather than a priority, and I can’t blame them. The real blame should be placed on the companies themselves. They need to understand that the noise they are making is actually harming people. 

I recognize that gardeners and arborists have work to do and that they need to make money. Still, I wish it were not at the expense of my nerves. Like most people, I find leaf blowers and wood chippers to be particularly disturbing. Even when the noise is distant and might not bother other people, I find it difficult to bear. The problem, essentially, is that even with the cutoff times, the duration is a bit much, since between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. the noise is pretty much nonstop on a daily basis. Full disclosure, I actually have asked my gardener when he comes please not to use leaf blowers for more than 30 minutes. If he goes past this limit, I make sure he stops. The rest of the time he uses a rake. 

My principal instigation for writing this letter was an experience I had on Saturday. I had been looking forward to June 1, because that’s the day the noise ordinance kicks in. This should not be a surprise to anyone in the yard-work business, since the law has been on the books for three or four years now. I was looking forward to enjoying a nice, quiet Saturday afternoon. The morning was relatively quiet and before noon there was little or no yard-work noise. 

Then, at 2 p.m., the noise began behind my pool, on my neighbor’s property. It should have stopped at 3, but it kept on. I called the police twice, but the noise continued until almost 5. I tried calling the police a few more times but all circuits were busy. Again, if the police have gone back to considering noise complaints a nuisance, I don’t blame them. From the sound of the sirens on the highway, I assume they were dealing with some crisis or other.

  As far as I can see, the problem lies with the yard-work companies. While we homeowners need to remember that they need to work, they should also be aware that the noise they make is not just disturbing, but can be extremely painful and infuriating, especially from leaf blowers and yard vacuums. I’m told that there are electric models which are actually much quieter — why can’t they use those? 

For myself, the problem is that the noise begins at 8 a.m. and continues almost nonstop until 6 p.m. In fact, most of the time, the work begins at 7 a.m. (which I don’t bother to call in) and continues well after 6 p.m. We should not have to ask the police to make them stop at the proper hour. Unfortunately, the police are reluctant to issue tickets in these situations, because it’s the workers who have to pay the fines rather than the companies. Personally, all I care about is having a certain amount of peace and quiet in the late afternoon around dinnertime and on the weekends. Maybe if the workers have to sacrifice enough money they’ll refuse to do the work. Fat chance, I know. 

My plea in this letter is to the yard-work companies. Please remember that there are people trying to live and work in the neighborhoods where you work as well. Some of us find it very difficult to do our work while you make so much noise with yours. I personally have been subjected not only to yard-work noise over the past 10 years but constant construction noise as well. I would like to have at least one summer when I don’t have to take my late-afternoon swim and prepare and eat dinner while listening to any yard noise. Is this too much to ask?

MATT HARNICK

Incomplete and Biased

East Hampton

June 12, 2017

Dear Editor,

It is shocking that the East Hampton School Board is still considering, in the face of incontrovertible evidence, an industrial bus depot to be located on Cedar Street. It is shocking that the board did not deem a detailed environmental report including water, traffic, and noise studies provided by concerned residents and professionals as worthy of consideration. The information provided by concerned residents contradicted the board’s findings under the State Environmental Quality Review Act. 

Let’s start with traffic. The district chose to rely on the traffic report its engineering company provided. This report included information about traffic that was collected on a day when one of our three schools was not in session. Further data was gathered on a December snow day. Obviously the impact on traffic was underestimated in the district’s engineering report. Remember, thousands of drivers use Cedar Street, Hand’s Creek Road, North Main Street, and side streets such as Gould Street and Cooper Lane in their daily travels. Let’s not forget that the East Hampton Village emergency services station is located at Number One Cedar Street.

And then there is our water. We all rely on clean groundwater. The official hydrogeology report provided to the board by concerned citizens stated that the water that flows from the proposed industrial bus depot is within a deep water-recharge aquifer zone. One spill or runoff of toxic materials used in bus maintenance could affect thousands of townspeople’s water supply. We all depend on safe and clean water. Water is our most valuable resource. Most governmental agencies are working to protect our water supply. But the East Hampton School Board instead chooses to gamble on what we value most. 

We ask you, wouldn’t this kind of information get your attention? Isn’t it alarming that the East Hampton School Board ignored the facts provided to them stating the calamitous impacts to our way of life and our health in East Hampton? Instead, the board voted 6-1 to approve the Cedar Street industrial bus depot site. The only board member to vote against the Cedar Street site was Jackie Lowey. Ms. Lowey is to be commended; by voting no, she stood up to protect the environment and the safety of hundreds of neighbors and generations of children. 

CHARLES COLLINS

Cedar Street Committee

Georgica Pond

East Hampton

June 12, 2017

Dear Editor,

Your editorial on Georgica Pond reveals how out of touch you are on what has been happening at Georgica Pond in the last two years.

For a variety of reasons, including the early nesting of the piping plovers, Georgica Pond was not opened during the traditional spring window this year. Because of this, and the abundant rain, the pond is abnormally high (one foot over last year). High water with no tidal flushing and resulting low salinity would predict a toxic blue-green algae bloom, and indeed that is exactly what happened. On Friday, June 9, the D.E.C. announced that the amount of microcystin (one of the toxins produced by blue-green algae) in the pond exceeds the D.E.C. threshold. The pond is now closed to swimming, wading, and fishing. People are warned to keep their children and pets away. 

Low salinity levels might also predict a blue crab die-off, whose larvae need high salinity. During a winter survey in March, no adult crabs were found.

All management actions at Georgica Pond are science-based, led by Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. Until the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus entering the pond from the 2,000 homes in the watershed can be reduced through septic upgrades and reduction of the use of fertilizer in farms and gardens, Dr. Gobler has recommended opening the pond more than the two traditional openings to increase tidal flushing. Several pond-front homeowners have started to upgrade their septic systems to the new low-nitrogen waste treatment technology.

To dredge up these old stories about people who haven’t served as trustees since 1990 does a real disservice to the people from both parties who are serving today and making a genuine effort to collaborate with other levels of government and all the stakeholders in Georgica Pond.

The Town of East Hampton, the Village of East Hampton, and the Perfect Earth Project have worked successfully to enforce and encourage greater setbacks from the pond. There are now only a handful of properties whose lawns go right to the pond edge. Those with natural vegetated buffers instead of lawns observed firsthand how much better the buffer vegetation absorbed the flood waters we are now encountering.

Mr. Rattray, you’ve got it wrong. This is not about flooded lawns and basements. It is about the health of one of the town’s most precious assets.

Sincerely,

SARA DAVISON

Executive Director

Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation

Land in Montauk

Fort Pierce, Fla.

June 12, 2017

Dear David,

Around 1956, as a real estate broker, I sold the Arthur Benson Estate in Montauk. It approximated 2,200 acres of land with 20,000 feet of water frontage on Block Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean. Sometime thereafter, I resold the Benson Estate to the Curtiss Wright Corporation. So my two sales totaled 4,400 acres of land and over 40,000 feet of water frontage.

Over 60 years, I have sold tens of thousands of acres of land, and over one million feet of oceanfront and bayfront properties on the eastern end of Long Island. During that time, I have sold more land in Montauk than all the real estate brokers and agents combined.

In the 1950s I sold hundreds of acres of land adjoining the Montauk Point Lighthouse to the State of New York. My great-grandfather, Captain Scott, was the Lighthouse keeper for years.

My great-grandfather would never have imagined that his great-grandson would create the Montauk Point State Park to what it is today.

Teddy Roosevelt arrived in Montauk years ago with the Rough Riders to train for a war. They brought along with them the Rocky Mountain-spotted tick.

It had been said that once bitten by the tick, it could affect the brain.

That might explain why Dick Cavett has announced the value of Tick Hall is now $62 million dollars. The East Hampton Town Assessors Office will have a field day reassessing Tick Hall.  It is going to cost Dick Cavett, and any purchaser of Tick Hall, a major tax increase that will be due and payable to the Town of East Hampton.

JOHN C. STRONG

Closer to God

Sag Harbor

June 12, 2017

To the Editor: 

I swore I would never attend another funeral after serving as a point man in the canine corps in Vietnam. I saw too many stone-cold soldiers lying in fields of stone. Their skin and flesh had tuned to bone. They never thought they’d be alone, lying there so far from home.

However, I changed my mind and attended a funeral in Montauk. Amongst all the tears and sadness, I realized that this person’s untimely death had helped bring me closer to God. Instead of mourning his death, I began to celebrate one of God’s most perfect creations — the woods and forests, beaches, and waters, including the lakes and oceans of Montauk. The cool air is both wonderfully refreshing and exhilarating.

By bringing me closer to God, Montauk’s natural surroundings had helped heal me of the sadness and emptiness I was feeling from losing a friend and child of God.

I never fully appreciated what Montauk had to offer until I felt the pain of loss. By losing a friend, I realized that Montauk is one of God’s most perfect creations, offering the feeling of freedom and openness to everyone.

RICHARD SAWYER

Stand-Up People

Amagansett

June 3, 2017

Dear David, 

Not since Della Lester stood up for her mom, Cathy — when she felt her then-East Hampton Town supervisor mom was unfairly maligned — have I seen a public figure, let alone a candidate for public office, stand up for a running mate. 

I admired Della, and I admire Chief Larsen for standing up for Manny Vilar when the chief knew his running mate was being treated unfairly by a political operative from the opposing party. I admired Della back then, and I admire Mr. Larsen. I have so much respect for stand-up kind of people. 

To know someone is covering your back is rare these days, but it can, thank goodness, still happen in our town.

Kind regards, 

LONA RUBENSTEIN

 

Need to Preserve

May 30, 2017

Northwest Woods

Dear David,

I am writing to thank the Working Families Party and its committee for endorsing my candidacy for town board. 

The Working Families Party committee focused on my commitment to our community. We discussed my long record of legal action to protect East Hampton from damaging overdevelopment. Whether it’s increasingly larger houses, the destruction of our defining natural landscape, or other inappropriate development, I have worked hard to maintain our quality of life.

I believe in protecting the town because it is my home. We are a real community. We are all neighbors. We need to build a future that preserves what we have for the next generations. I am eager to share my experience to help get it done.   

JEFF BRAGMAN

 

Working Together

East Hampton

June 12, 2017

To the Editor:

Protecting the water quality and beauty of the East End is not a partisan issue.

That we need a diversified approach to energy is undeniable. While there may be problems with wind turbines, can we keep an open mind as we explore our options as a community? Let’s do it the old-fashioned way, known as working together, instead of looking to be divisive.

Educating ourselves and making informed decisions, instead of digging in our heels and saying “no way” before people even understand what they’re saying no to, is the responsibility of each member of our community.

CAROL DEISTLER

Climate Crisis

Springs

June 6, 2017

To the Editor,

In an editorial published last week, The Star urged that our community treat climate change and the resultant sea level rise with the urgency the crisis demanded. This entreaty issued to our government leaders and all those capable to contribute.

Last Thursday, on a beautiful spring day in Washington, Mr. Trump took to a podium in the Rose Garden and announced the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris climate-change accord, an agreement among all but two countries. In so doing and without any scientific rationale, Mr. Trump scoffed at the magnitude of the climate crisis. Through his cynical “decision,” he abdicated forever America’s leadership role on the environmental stage and, rather than accepting a role on the global stage, he instead indicated a commitment to an “America alone” posture.

Ever a Trump cheerleader and straining credulity, our congressman, Lee Zeldin, spun the rejection of the Paris climate-change agreement as a “renewed commitment” to the environment.

Here in East Hampton, our local G.O.P. too scoffs at the reality of the climate crisis. In a recent letter, its co-chair, Reg Cornelia, viciously criticized the Deepwater Wind project. Regardless of the merits of that proposal and to no one’s surprise, Mr. Cornelia’s diatribe hewed to the G.O.P. orthodoxy that rejects any and all energy proposals offering alternatives to the consumption of fossil fuels. In so doing, the party (and its East Hampton cohort) baldly pays fealty to the oil and gas interests that call the shots.

In his letter, Mr. Cornelia would have us believe that the use of natural gas is cleaner than wind generation. Nothing could be further from the truth. Leakage of methane into the atmosphere during extraction poses severe environmental risks. In its natural state, methane, which makes up 92 percent of natural gas, is a significantly potent greenhouse gas, 84 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Natural gas also contains chemicals that can harm human health, such as hydrogen sulfide, toluene, xylene, benzene, and formaldehyde, which increase the chance of cancer, respiratory, neurological, reproductive, developmental, and other serious health problems. Even Scott Pruitt, the head of the E.P.A., branded methane as “deadly.” When burned, it releases significant levels of carbon dioxide, leading experts to label its use as merely “better than worst.” 

Apparently these are small concerns to the East Hampton G.O.P., which in its “Deploraball” last November pledged its sycophancy to Mr. Trump. One can only assume that Mr. Cornelia’s environmental outlook is embraced by the party’s candidates for town board.

More worrisome, the East Hampton G.O.P. has candidly promised to deliver the same “progress” as its Washington cronies, Mr. Trump and the House G.O.P. There is no pro-environmental agenda to be found anywhere in the Trump agenda. And there is none to be found among the screeds posted on the East Hampton G.O.P.’s Facebook page. 

In stark contrast, our standing town board has committed the town to a policy of 100 percent renewable energy and has undertaken meaningful steps to achieve this goal, hopefully reached in the foreseeable future. This is the leadership we should expect, not the fossilized ideas promised by both Mr. Zeldin and the East Hampton G.O.P.

LARRY S. SMITH

Climate Alliance

Springs

June 11, 2017

Dear David:

June 1 may be a day for the history books.

Almost 250 years ago, the colonists rebelled against the English king and dumped tons of tea into Boston Harbor, in what is now famous as the Boston Tea Party.

Fast-forward 250 years. Nearly 70 percent of Americans, including a majority of people in all 50 states, support the Paris agreement on climate change. In utter disregard for the views of those he took an oath to represent, on June 1, 2017, Mr. Trump cynically withdrew the United States from the Paris climate- change accord. 

That same day, and not unlike the colonists, our forward-thinking governors rebelled against our backward-thinking president and his sycophants, and formed the U.S. Climate Alliance. Initially formed by three states (New York among them) with similar policies regarding climate change, they committed to achieving the U.S. goal of emissions reductions pledged in the Paris Agreement.  

By the evening of June 2, the governors of six more states had agreed to maintain their states’ support for the Paris Agreement. On June 5, three more states and Puerto Rico joined the alliance. And the list continues to grow. As of June 9, 10 more state governors and the mayor of Washington, D.C., had pledged their states’ and city’s support for the Paris accord.

In addition, more than a thousand U.S. municipalities, educational institutions, and industrial leaders formed an alliance pledging agreement with the Paris accord.

In contrast to Mr. Trump’s fatalistic vision of his country, this reaction is America moving forward. Our town board is on board — committing to a goal of total reliance on renewable energy. Where is our congressman, Lee Zeldin? In lockstep with Mr. Trump. The Republican candidates for town board? They want to bring Washington to East Hampton. 

I urge everyone to work together to support those who are looking forward and anticipating a better future. We must oppose those who want to stagnate our growth and harm the future. The Trump administration, Representative Lee Zeldin, and our local G.O.P. town board candidates are reminiscent of the rulers the colonists rebelled against years ago. Now is the time to recognize that we, the people, must take progress into our own hands if we are to move forward. 

BRUCE COLBATH

Opting Out of Paris

East Hampton

June 11, 2017

To the Editor:

The 20th century was the bloodiest in the history of mankind. The capacity to kill large masses of people in a single gesture had no historical precedent. Combined with the advent of communism, which enslaved millions of people for the so-called common good, and capitalism, which did the same for greed and avarice, the world looked more dangerous, ominous, on the precipice of destroying itself. From this perilous state rose the belief that the only way to ward off disaster was to collectively ascribe to a world order with codes, organizations, and standards.

When the Paris climate agreement was reached it was the first time in the history of the world that 195 nations agreed on something that they would work on collectively. It was an extraordinary agreement around a problem that is threatening the well-being of the entire world. It was a sign that our world might be evolving into a logical, rational humanity. Unbelievable?

Into this world order steps Donald Trump. America first, or America alone, or some strange garble about America uber allas. Opting out of the Paris accord and telling the rest of the world to get lost.

The U.S. withdrawal will not change the problem or the commitment of the other 194 countries. It’s probably a good thing. Who wants a government that denies climate change and supports fossil fuel growth leading the effort to fight climate change?

It was less important that Trump’s reasoning was all fabricated than the fact that he removed the U.S. from a position of leadership of the world’s most pressing problem. Leaving a nonbinding treaty is about animus and arrogance toward the idea of a collective consciousness; that we are only out there for ourselves and that our true nature is fascist and greedy.

He did the same with the issue of trade and with terrorism by bending over for Saudi Arabia. The three actions stand on their own for their mindless, senseless nature, but also strike at his program of making America great again. Each action has significantly negative connotations for U.S. workers and Trump’s fantasy of job creation.

For U.S. workers, the question to pose is not what happened to their status in the economy, but how they had attained that status in the first place? The mind-set that developed our middle class after World War II and the Depression was the country’s desire to suppress its natural inclination toward greed and profit-making and to reward a people who had long suffered and sacrificed.

Thirty-five years went by without the intense corporate greed mechanism controlling the economy before it said enough sharing, and went back to a philosophy of greed and avarice. Enough sharing, enough collective consciousness, bring back the slaves.

So, when Trump pulls us out of Paris he is telling the world that all this cooperation has got to stop. We got the bombs, we got the army, and we got the money. For the middle class who want a little more of the pie and want healthcare security and peace, the answer is simple: Go to France.

The 194 countries will survive without our participation in the Paris accord, but the U.S. middle class will not easily survive the continued onslaught of corporate America, which will leave them poorer and angrier while they wallow in the greatness that will always seem just out of reach.

NEIL HAUSIG

Great to Be Home

Hampton Bays

June 1, 2017

To the Editor, 

My wife and I are just back from beautiful France (no, the French don’t hate us). We spend the month of May every year; this was our 28th trip to France. For that I thank God we are able to do so.

We rent a car (no GPS, no cell, just like at home, no toys) when we stay at wherever. We try to avoid looking at the news, and we’re on vacation. However, this trip, we did watch CNN, which we never watch. We always watch Fox News (channel 26). Boy, oh boy, does CNN bash President Trump.

We have made many friends all around France (even Paris) in our years of travel. They have such a different take on the president. Needless to say, we had many discussions on “fake news.” They in most part got a different impression.

Anyone who has read my letters in the past knows of my dislike for Barack Hussein Obama and my approval of President Trump. This man has gotten beaten up more than other presidents. Thank God, he throws it right back.

How great to be home to happy-go-lucky America. The sick craziness of Ms. Griffin of CNN. She should be arrested and thrown into Guantanamo. That, followed by Mrs. Clinton, crying again about her loss. I think in time, she and her phony husband will fade away to phonyland along with bucktooth Chelsea. 

Now, the latest end-time news, President Trump getting out of the Hussein Obama give-away climate change. The only climate change I see happens on March 21, June 21, Sept. 21, and Dec. 21. I maintain a calendar each year chronicling my perennials, and true to form they’re out days apart, each year. What change?

Oh well, that’s it for now for my diatribe. God bless President Trump and his beautiful family.

Yours truly, 

JOHN PAGAC

Continue to Attack

Springs

June 10, 2017

Dear David,

In November 2016, an election taking place, and in charge of this country were Obama, Rice, Kerry, Brennan, and Clapper, etc. During their watch the Russian cyberattack occurred — but we will continue to investigate Trump. 

Comey has admitted no collusion found, also admitted no investigation into Trump, yet the Democrats continue to attack. Problem with understanding? 

At this point the special investigator should be removed and the witch hunt should be abolished. It’s time to protect America and work together. Both parties are obnoxious, and I pray term elections will come to be real.

In God and country

BEA DERRICO