Genuine Togetherness
East Hampton
August 31, 2024
To the Editor,
Enormous thanks for your having on your cover page the astonishing and moving photo by Paul Brooke Jr. of the paddle-out at Ditch Plain in memory of the passing of Andrew Blauschild. One hopes that somehow this image will live on in Montauk. I wonder if the in-construction Montauk Playhouse facility might have a large empty wall which could support a blown-up version as a permanent memorial to Blauschild and a testament to the entire Montauk surfing community. One also hopes that there will follow an extensive showing of Blauschild’s own photographs. Perhaps the Montauk Historical Society will step forward. These are, after all, what community is all about.
This is an example of a genuine togetherness that can rarely be seen, frankly probably anywhere in our entire country during this particularly fractured time.
Again, many thanks,
FRED KOLOUCH
Shakespeare and Co.
Montauk
September 1, 2024
Dear Editor,
I am sure you will receive numerous letters seeking to amend Jim Vrettos’s incomplete information about Shakespeare and Co. (in last week’s Star). If so, please disregard mine: I only wish to set the record straight. While I concur with his suggestion that the downstairs office of The Star might become a gathering place for writers and artists, like the one in Paris “opened by George Whitman in 1951,” I would be remiss if I didn’t give credit to the originator of Shakespeare and Co., Miss Sylvia Beach, an American who, after a short trial elsewhere, opened her fabled shop in the Odéon quarter of Paris (not on the Ile de la Cité, where Nôtre-Dame is located).
There is no need for me to reCité the extraordinary accomplishments of this frail native of Baltimore, who through her lesbian lover, Adrienne Monnier, proprietor of an earlier bookshop on Rue de l’Odéon, was supported and encouraged to create an establishment where many now-renowned French and expat American writers found an intellectual home. Perhaps her greatest fame derives from the fact that she first published James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” in 1922, though the male chauvinist never gave her the credit that she deserved for this courageous and financially disadvantageous act.
I shan’t go on — this information can be found readily online and, for those of us who still read books, in several spellbinding biographies of this fascinating woman. And, yes, wouldn’t it be wonderful to have such a place in East Hampton, not fueled by the crass and greedy parasites who increasingly populate the East End?
Sincerely,
HELEN SEARING
Tax Relief Needed
[The] Springs
August 31, 2024
Dear David,
Property taxpayers in Springs closely watched the annual school district budget-approval process that concluded in May. However, a very crucial element of that process will not occur until after the year-end financial audit report is received. That is when final decisions will be made concerning what to do with the unappropriated and unrestricted school district money that was “left over” at the end of the school fiscal year that ended on June 30.
The approved budget already provides that $1,067,727 of the money unspent as of June 30 is to be appropriated as revenue for the 2024-25 school year. This appropriation reduces the amount required to be raised from property taxes.
But what happens when the actual amount of money available at the end of the school year exceeds the amount that has already been committed to be used to reduce 2024-25 school taxes? A maximum of 4 percent of the annual school budget amount may be retained as “unappropriated and unrestricted fund balance” (the so-called “rainy-day fund”), which is available to use for any unexpected contingencies that may arise during the school year. The 2024-25 school budget is $37,814,314, so up to a maximum of $1,512,572 may be so designated. It is of, course, prudent to maintain a reasonable amount of money in the rainy-day fund.
However, it now appears that the school district is expecting the annual audit to disclose a substantially higher year-end balance and must decide how much to use to augment the already existing restricted reserve funds and how much could be used instead to provide additional tax relief.
On July 2, the school board adopted a resolution to deposit a total of up to $1,750,000 into three of the existing reserve funds (including up to $1.5 million to be deposited into the repair reserve fund). However, that repair reserve fund will already contain at least $500,000, even after deducting the full cost of the significant capital and equipment-repair expenditures that were approved on April 30 and August 27.
In my opinion, it was misguided for the school board to prematurely vote to so significantly increase the repair reserve fund, rather than to wait and take a close look at devoting a substantial portion of the available money to providing additional tax relief.
As of the July 1 town assessment roll, there was $25,188,219 of taxable assessment value in Springs. With the approved 2024-25 budget setting $33,900,488 as the school tax levy, we can at this time expect a school tax rate of $1,345.89 per $1,000 of assessed value. This would be an 11.1-percent increase in the annual school-tax rate! Additional tax relief is urgently needed, rather than an exorbitant amount being deposited into the repair reserve fund.
Very truly yours,
DAVID BUDA
Take It Back
Springs
August 30, 2024
Dear Mr. Editor,
Nice to hear the repower is moving along. I don’t think you have missed much; not much wind lately. The late summer and early fall should be good.
You got my attention in the Aug. 22 edition. The “Mixed Views on Roundabout” article got me going. You have to commend the Democrats, they have really perfected the art of stealing from the public. That’s exactly what that land grab/reclassification is: stealing! My thoughts are, why doesn’t the Foster/Sherrill family simply take it back? I am sure, somewhere or somehow, it was given to be used as open space. Now the government wants to make that null and void, and even the State Legislature is on board. Would you expect anything else from the Democrats that rule us?
The proposed traffic circle will do nothing to speed up traffic on North Main Street. The gridlock comes from Cedar Street, North Main Street, Collins Avenue, and as far back as Montauk Highway. Once you pass that quagmire it’s clear sailing north or south. How about the backup headed north from the turn onto North Main from Montauk Highway? How does the traffic circle help reduce the 20 minutes it takes me to get onto Three Mile Harbor Road?
Sorry to say the Democrats don’t care about the history of the area, they just want to urbanize. Jonathan Foster, Jeffrey Bragman, and David Buda are all correct. And as far as the nitwit proponents go, when was the last time a pedestrian tried to cross through a traffic circle and made it to the other side? As I have said in the past, the only answer is to curb development. As always, best regards.
America and Americans first,
JEFFREY PLITT
A Company Town
Amagansett
August 29, 2024
To the Editor:
The idea of trying to solve East Hampton’s affordable-housing problem by creating employer-owned housing for workers has been in your news and letters columns lately. Some good arguments against this have been advanced, but what I regard as being the most important point has not been mentioned, so far as I’ve seen: Create a company town? Really? Will the workers be paid in scrip redeemable only at a company store with excessive prices? Isn’t the inequality between bosses and blue-collar employees already severe enough, without the boss doubling as landlord? Unemployment sometimes leads to a loss of shelter; in company-owned housing it always will. Instead of the town itself building residences the workers can afford, what possible benefit is there in abdicating the responsibility to employers? In so many ways we already have, for years, been actively turning back to a world of barons and serfs, a trend accelerating very rapidly since 2016. This putatively Democratic town should not lean in.
For democracy in East Hampton,
JONATHAN WALLACE
Happy to Answer
East Hampton
August 28, 2024
Dear Editor,
Every new project comes with questions. Last week, Paul Fiondella asked some regarding our proposed work force-housing project at the old Stern’s site in East Hampton. Questions I am happy to answer. His concerns broke down into three areas: use/occupancy, density, traffic.
Units will be sold to qualified East Hampton businesses for the sole occupancy/use of their workers. That will be certified by the businesses, confirmed by the town’s office of housing, and ensured by the project’s internal covenants and restrictions. Abusing these rules will result in forfeiture of the unit.
As one of only two zoned affordable-housing plots in East Hampton Town, density is currently set at the 1984 limit of eight units per acre. We ask for 12, because the current septic systems are more than capable of handling 12. That is the same standard the neighboring Town of Southampton employs. That is the same standard the Suffolk County Department of Health approves with the proper septic. That’s why the town is willing to go to 12 for senior housing. Not doing the same for any other affordable-housing project is a waste of precious, limited, almost- impossible-to-source land for these projects.
To comply with this density, we will install a 10,000-gallon-a-day packaged septic system at a cost of $2.5 million. It will need approval from both the Suffolk County Department of Health and town planning guidelines.
As for traffic, we will of course have to submit a rigorous traffic analysis as part of our approval process. Based on preliminary data, there should be no need for a traffic light. We will of course comply with whatever access and egress restrictions are required. As for increased road traffic in general, the workers who live here will either be town residents already or part of the trade parade. The first adds no added overall traffic to local roads, the second decreases the number of cars in the daily trade parade.
As for senior-citizen housing, that is not a part of our plan. Nor does it seem to be a part of the town’s plan. This parcel was rezoned over 20 years ago for affordable housing, including senior, and neither the town nor any other private developer was willing to buy it and proceed on those lines.
The town itself was urged by the planning board in 2023 (which at the time included current town board member Ian Calder-Piedmonte) to buy this land for some form of affordable housing. The then-owner offered it to them. They declined. There should then be no reasonable expectation that we should deviate from our plans to provide much-needed essential workers and local businesses with a chance to house their workers.
Last, we all know this project is a small drop in a very large bucket of needed affordable housing of all kinds in the town. Still, if it can provide space for health care workers, teachers, police, town employees, and general business it will make a significant, even lifesaving difference in the lives of every local resident. If so, we expect it to be the template for future work force housing projects.
KIRBY MARCANTONIO
General Partner
Whalebone Workforce Housing
Altruistic Proposal
East Hampton Village
August 15, 2024
Dear David,
I have not had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Kirby Marcantonio, but based on the article I read in The Star the other week, I would like to meet him and commend him in person for his foresightful and, in many respects, altruistic proposal he has made to the town to construct a new work force-housing facility on the site of the 25-year-old abandoned Stern’s Department Store. I, in fact, made the exact recommendation in a letter to this newspaper several months ago, to use this land constructively, but without suggesting how to accomplish the objective. But Mr. Marcantonio has come up with an imaginative, constructive proposal before the town, after purchasing the site with a group of investors with the intention to build affordable housing for qualified workers who want to live and work in the community. And the form of his proposal is unique, suggesting that local employers buy the 48 units proposed and then rent them at reasonable rates to employees. This will enable people who serve this town in a multitude of roles to also live here at affordable rents, which creates a vibrancy that is lost when people have to drive hours and miles to work and then bring their families up elsewhere. And he is suggesting that it all be done with private investors without subsidy from the government. How can any local resident not stand up and applaud and support this effort? Bravo, Mr. Marcantonio! And let’s all of us raise our voices in support of his proposal!
Sincerely,
ALAN PATRICOF
To Humiliate Her
East Hampton
September 2, 2024
Dear David,
As a member of this otherwise incredible community in East Hampton, I am horrified at the defamatory, no-holds-barred articles about an individual who lives in Springs, that took place a few days ago online and in print at a local newspaper.
My friend Barbara Feldman is a local professional. She also is a passionate advocate of keeping our beautiful dog park in Springs as it is, which would preclude incorporating a small dog running area within the existing property, and she has been an outspoken representative of more than 200 people who feel the same way. Barbara always speaks her mind in a manner that would otherwise be fine for an “assertive” male. She also can’t help but speak the truth.
Aside from this heated dog-park issue, however, the larger issue is that someone elected to post, repost, and repeatedly comment on multiple social-media sites (one being the Nextdoor app) a gigantic photo of Barbara in handcuffs, with incorrect information about the questionable grounds for her arrest as well as a targeted attempt to humiliate and assassinate her character.
Have we devolved into a society in which we take pleasure in the psychological assault of another human being? The choice of saying nothing when one has nothing good to say at all takes a lot of moral courage and it is an act of kindness, something we need more of right here in East Hampton.
TRUDY CRANEY
At Wiborg’s Beach
East Hampton
September 1, 2024
Dear Editor,
On the Saturday evening of Labor Day weekend, my family decided to have a beach bonfire at Wiborg’s Beach, a place that we consider almost sacred. This is not a usual activity for us and we consider it quite special. Provisions were made, the fire was lighted and built, and we were safely tucked into our little corner with our two dogs. There were a few groups nearby enjoying dinner and the surrounding beauty, seemingly respectful and harmless. All of a sudden, all hell broke loose when a neighboring party decided to launch some pretty extravagant (Grucci-like) fireworks, causing both dogs to be completely traumatized and shaking uncontrollably. As fast as we could get it together, my husband took both dogs into the car and home. The fireworks eventually subsided. These people had absolutely no consideration or concern for other people around them nor their animals, thinking only of themselves as if it were their own backyard. We are lucky the dogs were leashed. Otherwise they would have headed for the dunes in the dark. I know this is a champagne problem, considering what is going on in the world today, but just a little consideration for others goes a long way and the lack thereof seems to be an epidemic here during the summer months.
Thank you for your consideration,
NANCY BRODY
Bad Dog Owners
Springs
August 29, 2024
To the Editor,
As I have said for many years, why should the responsible dog owners who take their pups to the beach be punished because of the few who don’t control or pick up after them? (And I say “dog owners” as there are no bad dogs — only bad dog owners.) I remind your readers that a dog is the most loyal animal! I beg you to not change the present rules but simply enforce those already in place. I also don’t think it’s the lifeguards’ responsibility to enforce the rules as they have more important things to do. Perhaps a dog rule enforcer on the beach would be a better solution. Please don’t take my right to bring my puppy to the beach.
PATRICIA ANHOLT HABR
She’s Not Playing
Springs
August 30, 2024
To the Editor,
I’m usually critical, or at best ambivalent, about “Guestwords” pieces, even if they’re good and relevant, namely because they’re not penned by me. But having read last week’s piece by Rachel Abrams, “Tomatoes: A Marriage,” I thought: This is a direct hit, a home run of a “Guestwords” piece for The Star, especially for Labor Day and summer.
To be honest, it had all the cadence, insight, and intelligence of the “Shipwreck Rose” column and other witty editorials from The Star. It fit in easily. Not only is the piece pithy, and fun, and about local produce, tomatoes, but big subjects like patriarchy versus matriarchy are broached quickly, all through a vegetable and the painstaking nurturing of it . . . in 1,100 words! Rachel is not playing. More, please.
JEFF NICHOLS
Please Don’t Lie
Springs
September 2, 2024
To the Editor:
Nick LaLota, representative for CD-1, recently tweeted, “The Biden-Harris Administration’s policies have driven inflation to soar in recent years. This is not a temporary problem but a direct consequence of misguided policy choices.”
He could not be more wrong. In fact, the Biden-Harris administration steered the American economy out of the post-pandemic mess to an economy that even The Wall Street Journal acknowledged “is the envy of the world”: currently the lowest sustained unemployment rate in 50 years, the highest stock market ever, and an inflation rate that has been tamped down below 3 percent.
All this despite months of headlines warning about the inevitability of an impending recession; the recession that never was because Biden and Harris implemented bold policies like the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act that not only put our economy back on track, but resulted in a record decline in child poverty, created thousands of clean energy jobs, and helped rebuild the country’s aging infrastructure.
So, Nick LaLota, please don’t lie. Give credit where credit is due. But he can’t — or won’t — because he’s a Trump supporter who will never admit when the other team is successful.
John Avlon is running against Mr. LaLota. Mr. Avlon is a smart, savvy, can-do candidate who advocates for common-sense solutions. Democrat Avlon says, Enough with MAGA extremism, let’s focus on the important issues that face us, like building more affordable housing on Long Island, expanding critical infrastructure, and addressing climate change so that there is hope for a sustainable future.
Sincerely,
CAROL DEISTLER
Not the Place
East Hampton
September 2, 2024
Dear David,
In The Star’s Aug. 29 Letters to the Editor section, Messrs. Saxe and Agoos have added an interesting dimension to their political identification as founders of East End Jews for Israel — a group that, among other things, has argued strenuously against a cease-fire deal in Gaza that would bring home the dozens of captives believed to be still alive in the enclave.
As news that six bodies of hostages were found on Sunday in the tunnels of Gaza brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists a short time before they were reached by Israeli soldiers, waves of grief and anger erupted in Israel as tens of thousands took to the streets to protest and plan for a general shutdown of the country on Labor Day, Sept. 1. Most blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not making a cease-fire deal that would bring the hostages back. As The Times put it in their Sept. 2 lead front-page article: “Israeli Hostages Are Found Dead, and Anger Rises — A Growing Split Between Backers of Vengeance and a Cease-Fire.”
It shows the extreme polarization in the country between those who are intent on dismantling Hamas through the pursuit and killing of its fighters and those calling for a truce and a negotiated settlement.
In their Star letter (“Guard or Watchman”), Saxe and Agoos now consider themselves to be “shomers,” which in Hebrew is a guard or watchman -– a reference to mounted guards at Jewish settlements in “Palestine” before the British Mandate.
If one looks up the meaning (there are a few) of being a shomer in biblical times, you would find them mainly concerned and committed to the enforcement of religious laws from the Torah.
Two points for Saxe and Agoos: We’re not living in a British Mandate state nor one controlled by an ideologically religious clerical sect or group, whether it’s Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or whatever. It sounds like what you’re advocating could be better satisfied and more appreciated by becoming shomers at one of the religious settlements in Israel. That would also mean reckoning with a great majority of the Israeli population who do not want to be controlled or live in a state dominated by a religious hierarchy.
Sag Harbor is not the place to have that weekly confrontation. Eretz Israel seems more appropriate — especially now.
Very best,
JIM VRETTOS
Messy, Messy, Messy
Amagansett
August 31, 2024
To the Editor,
Michael Rodgers, the now-superintendent of Amagansett School who seems to be on every day of the hearings, is also the individual that Richard Loeschner named, who had given him the timestamps of the Maria Dorr video. Loeschner also, when questioned if Rodgers was an individual who would have had no authority to view the school cameras, said it would be “inappropriate.” This was day three of the hearing.
Where are any of those alleged school disciplinary actions? The town police discontinued an investigation into the alleged theft by Jan. 16.
Read the text messages to Amagansett School’s attorney, Neil Block, whom Loeschner is familiar with from his time in the Brentwood School District: “I really need to accomplish something in the next few weeks. The board is also getting itchy. Any help would be appreciated.”
Who’s getting itchy? The board is getting itchy. We only have one board. That would be the school board. To quote Professor Hinkle, this situation is “messy, messy, messy.”
Still here,
JOE KARPINSKI
He’s Shy
East Hampton
September 2, 2024
To the Editor,
I feel for Congressman LaLota; he’s shy. Being that way myself, I wouldn’t do Town Hall meetings, either. Like him, I would create the impression of busyness by sending ever-increasing numbers of emails.
I salute the congressman for fighting the elites. He can read the playbook well. His opponent, John Avlon, did go to elite schools but most unpardonably he writes history books — and we know how Republicans feel about books.
But the congressman went to the Naval Academy, which the world considers elite. If it’s his Hofstra diplomas he’s bummed about, now, that would hurt my feelings as I graduated from there.
So, buck up, congressman — we await your last email.
TOM MACKEY
Respect Is All
East Hampton
August 31, 2024
Dear David,
A friend passed recently and his request was, his partner said, to make fine noise about the lack of a proper cellphone tower in Springs. People cannot be without access to making emergency phone calls, or be cut off from their faraway loved ones or town services. Let’s get this tower going and put it where it makes the most sense. This is a matter at the top of the town’s list, yes? I hope so.
In the spirit of gratitude, let me say kudos to the swift Springs Volunteer Ambulance and all our E.M.T.s out here serving tirelessly and showing up in record time. We are lucky in that. The community salutes you. Also, while I’m at it, our police are doing a grand job keeping us all safe. Last week, when scary trouble befell Montauk and roads were closed off, and people were imagining the worst, we knew the police were on the job defusing a situation that could have escalated. Thank goodness it did not. We live in a bubble out here, far from the maddening city, but we’re not immune from mental illness and, let’s face it, things happen here, too. For all the whiners who are quick to call us the “Town of No,” we say yes, thank you, for keeping our people safe and hamlets beautiful. We like our visitors, to a degree, as we’re only human, after all. But it’s hard to get from one place to another with the influx each summer; so a good measure of respect is all anyone asks. Leave it as you found it. Follow the rules of the road and the place. I hope everyone enjoyed the summer and will cherish the gorgeous days of September to come. We breathe a bit easier in the fall.
There’s always much to say politically, but this week I dedicate my letter to a fisherman gone too soon. A man who changed his life for the better, teaching us in his quiet way that opening our eyes and seeing the beauty of people and our world is there for all of us, if we dare. Rest in peace, John Wanag.
Sincerely,
NANCI LAGARENNE
She’s Not Very Smart
Montauk
September 2, 2024
Dear David,
The following comes three and a half years too late. Facebook’s boss, Mark Zuckerberg, is now revealing the extent to which the Biden/Harris White House pressured the social media firm to censor anti-vaccine content. Truly speaking, this was not the only pressure put on Facebook, but Zuckerberg chose to be brainwashed. The government has no right to stop free speech. Zuckerman should not have followed the request from Biden/Harris.
While Ms. Harris swears by her record as a tough prosecutor, note that she helped a bail fund raise $40 million after the Minneapolis riots in 2020, to free criminals from jail after their exit. Some committed other crimes, like murder.
Some more lies from Biden/Harris. Inflation took off after the “American Rescue Plan” took effect. Harris broke the vote. Flip-flopping on fracking: today, yes, tomorrow, no. Understand you can’t be all in for a green deal but yes for fracking and offshore drilling.
The books were cooked for a couple of years. Biden/Harris perpetrated fraud on the American people by faking the numbers in the monthly jobs report. The Bureau of Labor Statistics report revealed that over the course of last year, there were nearly a million fewer jobs created than the administration claimed. Please check with the B.L.S. for all information.
It definitely looks like the politicians will hide Kamala, as she cannot answer a single question off script. She’s pathetic. Truth be told, she’s not very smart, her record shows nothing. While [I was] watching a Black pastor’s interview, he had not one single good thing to say about her, along with him an African-American woman blasting Harris’s record while in California.
Voting for her because she’s a woman is a really bad idea.
F.Y.I., Donald Trump has nothing to do with Project 2025. His name is not connected to it.
In God and country,
BEA DERRICO