Felt the Love
Springs
November 11, 2025
Dear David,
To our wonderful community: On Aug. 5, our family’s life was turned upside down. Immediately, the love from our community traveled to us. When things seemed scary and overwhelming, our friends and family showed up. You know who you are!
Thank you for the Jitney tickets, so we could travel to be with Rob as he was treated in the city. Thank you for the meals that were delivered to our home and for the help with our yard, so we could focus on our family. Thank you for the help with our children, so they could continue to make every sports practice and special event. For all of the quiet acts of generosity, thank you.
When we received word that Rob was going to be coming home, friends showed up to make renovations, so our house was handicap accessible and wheelchair friendly. Thank you. Then Rob came home, and the love continued. Thank you to our friends and family who have helped with driving to appointments and continue to visit to share words of encouragement.
Last week, the Bonac community showed up! We were completely overwhelmed with emotion at the love and support that was shared at the Clubhouse. So many stories of how Rob has made a positive impact on others is simply the best way to motivate someone! Thank you to everyone who helped to make the event such an amazing one. We believe everyone felt the love in the room that night.
What makes a small town special isn’t just the size, it’s the heart of the people who live in it. Thank you for surrounding us with that heart and for reminding us that no one faces hard times alone here.
We are deeply grateful for every one of you and are thankful to call Bonac our home.
Forever grateful,
ROB, JANINE, DECLAN,
JAMES, and SHEA BALNIS
Health Risks
Springs
November 23, 2025
To the Editor,
I found your article about the health risks from the lone star tick of interest, since it has become dominant in our area.
There is still much to learn about these types of diseases, and your article made a great point that it takes much less time to be infected by the lone star tick than for Lyme. However, it didn’t mention that each lone star tick bite can have a cumulative effect increasing the levels of this sugar in your blood. This creates a situation where more extreme reactions are possible, especially as it is often not diagnosed properly and people don’t use proper precautions.
Disappointingly, the main source of these types of ticks was not made clear. One of the leading medical experts, who was quoted in your article, has said in the past, “If you don’t have a deer problem, you don’t have a tick problem.”
A national publication this past week stated, “As the name suggests, this tick is actually from the South but has migrated north due to the warming temperatures and large deer populations that serve as breeding grounds for their larvae.” The facts are each deer can play host for up to a thousand tick larvae.
In 2013, the Town of East Hampton approved of a much-needed deer cull, as it and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation were both concerned that deer collisions on local roads had gone from 25 in 2000 to 108 in 2011. Last year, they had increased by over 400 percent to 550 and they have consistently been above 500 for nearly a decade!
Our town amazingly accounts for roughly a third of all deer collisions reported in the entire county. The main reason is deer herds can double within just a few years if there are no natural predators and ample food supplies.
In 2014, a local environmental group was able to get a temporary restraining order to block the cull due to a highly flawed deer survey at the time that said there were fewer deer in town than were killed by hunters and cars each year, which of course was impossible.
Did the town do another deer survey as they should have in the last decade as deer collisions increased exponentially? No, but now with much better infrared drone technology the town needs to do one today in the most populated hamlet like Springs to get a better understanding of this problem that is not only making people sick and causing too many car accidents (deer account for 96 percent of all wildlife related deaths in the U.S.), but that also has decimated the local plant life and forestry.
Ironically, the same environmental group did push for the town to start using four-poster tick machines to try to at least reduce the tick population back then. That never happened and when I went to the town administration four years ago myself asking for this, I was told they were “too expensive”.
At what point can the local town administration admit we have a serious traffic, health, and environmental situation due to the extremely large deer herd and start to take action by spending at least $300,000 annually for perhaps five years in an effort to bring back some normalcy.
Some of that money, $100,000, should go to increase deer harvest through offering bounties to local hunters or professionals and have some of that meat be given to local food pantries. Another $100,000 needs to be used for a four-poster program that places like North Haven have shown can be very successful (up to 80 percent) in reducing ticks in areas where they are used. Lastly, another $100,000 should go towards a sterilization program since a new shot that only requires a single dose may be approved of in the next year.
Given the town has increased its budget by over 15 percent in just the last two years to $108 million by wasting millions on traffic circles where two new stop signs were needed, or overpaying unqualified architects for the senior center project, it finally has to do a better job of allocating its fiscal resources.
BRAD BROOKS
Absurdly Lenient
North Haven
November 23, 2025
To the Editor,
The Jewish community of the Hamptons ought to be outraged at the absurdly lenient five-day prison sentence offered to Michael Nicholoulias by Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Steven A. Pilewski. (“Five Days for Hateful Graffiti,” The East Hampton Star, Nov. 20). Mr. Nichloulias had on a number of occasions, after the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7, 2023, spewed his hatred of Jews through assorted graffiti postings of antisemitic slurs and swastikas throughout Montauk.
The five-day sentence, obviously fueled by the restorative justice inclinations of the court and its rabbinical assistant, Rabbi Josh Franklin of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons, has now provided a green light to those who harbor antisemitic intent and proclivities and who now know that the local judiciary views antisemitic acts, such as these, to be merely a minor community tic, with the offender essentially awarded with a walk in the park.
What is especially galling is that Rabbi Franklin signed on to this sentence, despite the fact that he was unconvinced of the defendant’s remorse. And, in any event, such remorse, if it was present, was not simply sufficient. An appropriate punishment was necessary that would also serve as a warning and deterrent to others. The graffiti postings, laden with swastikas, were deeply disturbing and hurtful to the Jewish community. Had the defendant been given an appropriate incarceration, he would have had ample time to search his soul for the purpose of seeking repentance. The community would have also benefited from such a proper dosage of law enforcement. Finally, in response to the homily offered by the Rabbi, one thing is certain — justice was not done.
DAVID SAXE
MITCHEL AGOOS
Racial Profiling
Amagansett
November 23, 2025
To the Editor,
As events have unfolded, there have been numerous instances of Immigration and Customs Enforcement behaving in ways that can only be construed as racial profiling, even as proclamations are made to the contrary.
To define terms properly, racial profiling refers to the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of a crime based on the individual’s race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin. Racial profiling is discriminatory, but more than that, it creates an atmosphere in which hate crimes become more permissible and acceptable. We are witnessing the federal government leading by an unacceptable example. It is necessary that authorities apprehend criminals, but racial profiling should not be part of that process.
From my perspective as a senior American — having lived through the last 84 years and seen so much unfold in our nation — I feel as though I am now living in a frightening, “Alice-in-Wonderland,” upside-down world. Addressing how unacceptable it is to stereotype people has been part of national efforts for years. Instilling this understanding through local and national initiatives has been an ongoing effort. And now, after all these years of anti-bias education, federal agents are engaging in what so many have worked so long to undo as a cultural norm: discrimination based on racial profiling.
Racial profiling diminishes Americans’ ability to be accepting of others. One of my favorite lines from the song “The House I Live In (That’s America to Me),” ends with, “But especially the people, that’s America to me.” People means all of the people — not just some. The goal is acceptance and understanding of one another.
As a member of the Anti-Bias Task Force of East Hampton and as a compassionate person, racial profiling is antithetical to everything I believe could and should make me proud to say that I am an American. This is America, where so many have chosen to come over the last 250 years for the promise of what life can be in a society committed to ensuring that racial profiling has no place. This is America, where those who were enslaved — who did not choose to come here — are now part of the community that is America, and where the goal must be to ensure that racial profiling is not part of our society. America is not always perfect, but it has been working toward a more just society. Racial profiling has no place in America, and it certainly has no place being used by federal agents. This is not acceptable. This is un-American.
LOUISE BERGERSON
Affordable Places
East Hampton
November 21, 2025
Dear David,
As I read the article about the new use of the old Sherrill Dairy Farm in East Hampton I thought, “how lovely.” But then I began to rethink it. We do have farms out here — and beautiful farm stands.
What we do not have is affordable places for people to live. How many affordable houses could be built on that farm?
I have been at a community meeting recently where people were begging for even a tiny piece of land for a home.
We all know about the line of cars coming and going every day from the west. How many of those people would like to spend more time with their families or get an extra hour of sleep?
I am also aware of rent gouging. One woman told me that she had to pay $2,600 a month for a single room and shared bath.
The housing situation in East Hampton is a crisis needing attention.
Truthfully, we do not need another small farm.
JANE RIVKIN
Dumbfounded
East Hampton Village
November 23, 2025
To the Editor:
I agree with Jerry’s sentiments in his Nov. 11 letter in The Star. East Hampton deserves leadership that listens, acts, and delivers. For that reason alone, he should not be a candidate for East Hampton Town supervisor.
After the online and offline news about his candidacy, I’ve come away believing I’m living in a counter-cosmos where every truth is inverted, every force runs backward, and reality itself seems to recoil from what we know to be fact.
During the Covid lockdown, I became more engaged in the village community. I was able to spend more time out here and less time in Brooklyn Heights. Since then, my residency in East Hampton Village has become permanent.
While channel surfing one day, I came across the wonders of public access: LTV and the East Hampton Village Trustees meeting.
While watching a few of them, I was dumbfounded by how they conducted the meetings. Agendas were not timely or accurate. Materials were unavailable or disorganized. They added additional agenda items at the last minute. It appeared the trustees were following Jerry’s lead and rubber-stamping every resolution.
The standing operating procedure was to ignore the New York State Open Meetings Law enacted in 1977, which requires that meeting materials, e.g., agendas, be available no later than 72 hours before a meeting. Moreover, under the Law, decisions made in executive session must be published. And Freedom of Information Law requests, they’re ignored or rejected out of hand.
Unfortunately, the successes he asserts are, upon examination, not supported by the evidence. Not sure what Jerry considers transparency. Public discourse does not exist in Village Hall. Decisions are predetermined before every board of trustees meeting, and the village administrator carefully curates the presentations under Jerry’s tutelage. Every resolution is passed unanimously with no discussion. I have a sense that, many times, the trustees do not review the packet. Items for the agenda and materials for the packet are being eliminated, revised, or added up to the last minute. There are even occasions when the trustees vote in favor of a resolution without reviewing any documentation.
Contrary to Trustee Doyle’s platform, Jerry eliminated work sessions, resulting in one monthly public meeting.
I have not gone unscathed for my criticism of Jerry’s administration. Planned and choreographed by Marcos Balderon, Jerry Larsen, Lee Betram, and others. The authorities charged me with reckless driving in Lot 1 at Main Beach. They claimed they had security camera footage of me speeding, swerving, and almost hitting a lot attendant. When we FOILed the footage, the village claimed someone had overridden it. Well, we were able to secure footage from the assistant district attorney debunking all their claims. On June 28, the State of New York Supreme Court ruled the village’s actions were “arbitrary and capricious.” In layman’s terms, “the village acted without a reasonable basis or justification, without proper consideration of relevant factors or evidence, and potentially based on a personal whim or prejudice.”
Over the past few years, both Jerry and his wife, Lisa, have had an eye on public office. Ms. Larsen unsuccessfully ran for the East Hampton Town Board in 2015 with Republican backing. Also, as a Republican, Jerry took a shot at it two years later, coming in last when the votes were counted. And finally, Jerry rented an apartment on in the village only when he became mayor. And the rest is history — or is it?
This past month, Jerry indicated the relationship between the village and town has deteriorated. Jerry is making unsubstantiated criticisms. It’s reassuring that Kathee Burke-Gonzalez is taking the high road in this race.
Jerry has made several blunders, including the Herrick Park and Tesla Stadium fiascos. Fortunately, the foundation can bail him out.
Finally, some time ago, I was interested in a better understanding of Marcos’s background. The village rejected the FOIL request. I was able to uncover some data points: two judgments against him from creditors: Pride Acquisitions L.L.C. and the New York State Commissioner of Taxation and Finance.
Some folks may find this of interest.
DAVID GANZ
Trying to Bully
Amagansett
November 23, 2025
To the Editor:
Jerry Larsen’s letter to The Star last week provides a fascinating case study of the man’s personality and his campaign tactics.
Mr. Larsen wrote that he had encouraged a distressed town resident to speak to The Star about her situation, then leveraged her distress to mount an attack on Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, his adversary in next spring’s primary, using terms like “incompetent” and “disgraceful”. He concludes by asking town residents to reach out to him “confidentially” at his Gmail address to provide him with further scandalous matter he can use in his campaign.
I enjoy calling subtext to the attention of people who don’t spot it themselves when they act. I have named Mr. Larsen a bully; here he is trying to bully Burke Gonzalez. I have called him intrusive, a would-be master of surveillance politics; here he invades the privacy of his subject, the town citizen he names and I do not. Did she consent to be used this way, in his campaign? Did she read and approve the letter before he sent it? What is his promise of “confidentiality” worth to anyone who emails him?
What is his track record in the village helping the oppressed? Why isn’t he running his campaign on ideas, policies, principles instead of doxing his adversary? Because that is how the First Citizen plays.
Jerry Larsen is the last person in our surroundings I would want to see as supervisor of our town. We would very likely get a much better public servant if we picked someone in a lottery.
For democracy in East Hampton,
JONATHAN WALLACE
Housing Crisis
East Hampton
November 23, 2025
Dear David,
Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez continues to promote her “All Hands on Housing” initiative as evidence of her commitment to solving East Hampton’s housing crisis. But when you look beyond the slogan and examine the reality on the ground, a very different picture emerges: a policy defined by abandoned homes, stalled projects, and years of mismanagement.
Across the Whalebone Woods neighborhood and other areas of town, critical housing assets have sat unused throughout her administration: Bow Oarsman’s Road, abandoned lots since 2013 and 2016; Tub Oarsman’s Road, one abandoned since 2020, despite the town purchasing it for affordable housing; Joshua Edwards Court, vacant since the town acquired it in 2021, Morris Park Lane, empty lot since 2020, following county transfer for affordable housing, and Cantwell Court, 16-lot subdivision stalled since 2020.
These are not minor delays. These are properties that can house local families, teachers, firefighters, seniors, and year-round workers. Instead, they sit abandoned, deteriorating, or trapped in bureaucratic limbo.
While Supervisor Burke-Gonzalez repeats her “All Hands on Housing” mantra, what residents see is inaction and neglect. Families are being pushed out of East Hampton because they cannot find housing. The town has repeatedly failed to utilize the properties it already owns or may be able to obtain. (See my Instagram,
@mayorlarsen)
We need leadership that understands housing is not a slogan. It is responsibility. It is accountability.
East Hampton cannot afford any more broken promises.
Sincerely,
JERRY LARSEN
Summer Job
Bel Air, Md.
November 19, 2025
Dear David,
A 50-year (1975) snippet from the Nov. 13 “The Way It Was” caught my eye and brought back some colorful memories.
Perry B. Duryea Jr. was a good friend of my dad, Robert Reutershan: both lifelong residents, World War II naval lieutenant commanders, and East End Republicans. In the fall of 1969, my mother, Nanci Reutershan, had a chance encounter with Perry which was to significantly shape my future.
My mother was then focused on colleges for me. Perry, then the last Republican Speaker of the New York State Assembly, was a 1942 graduate of Colgate University, where his son Chip was then a junior. Well, no surprise, Perry’s strong advice to my mom was to send young Chris to join his son at Colgate. I applied and was accepted into the class of 1974.
Coming home from college in summer of 1972, I quickly started looking for a summer job. My younger brother, Timothy, then a strapping teenager, had been working as a landscaper in Montauk for Bill Wilson, a high school friend’s father. Always on point, Tim suggested I give Bill a call.
After a quick phone call that evening, I was immediately hired. The following morning, with a 6 a.m. start time, Tim and I were up at dawn for the drive from East Hampton to Montauk.
Following the frenzy of Carl Fisher’s prewar mega-resort plans had come and gone, Montauk returned to its mostly quiet past as a remote, wind-swept, motel-oriented, summer resort. Its surf and beaches, its deep-sea fishing, the lighthouse and the Air Force base were, perhaps, the primary economic drivers of the tiny community. And, as long as I can remember, Montauk has also been known for its many and often rowdy bars. Locally it was often referred to as a drinking town with a fishing problem.
The Wilson crew included his two teenage sons, Scott and B.J., my brother Tim, John Duke, an East Hampton summer friend of mine, Bernie, a crusty old salt best known for his morning “bud,” and its new foreman, me. Our days started at dawn, ended at dusk and bronzed us all under the relentless Montauk sun.
Bill Wilson had just won the Montauk Village Association’s contract to landscape several of the downtown blocks. The work was accomplished in phases and was spread out between our many other residential jobs.
The project’s design elements were tailored to the village’s seaside location. The trees were indestructible pines, richly covered with sticky sap and pointy needles, and more than happy to share these fruits with whomever foolishly tried to manhandle them into place. The shrubs, however, made the pines seem tame. Mostly junipers, the slightest touch of their scratchy branches produced an almost instant burning rash. And one needed to embrace them within one’s arms and against one’s often naked belly and chest in order to lower them into place.
The beds were randomly planted with these pines and numerous smaller junipers and other hardy evergreen shrubs and bushes. The ground was then covered with truck load after truck load of smooth stone gravel hand shoveled into wheelbarrows and then hand-spread with rakes to a depth of about a foot.
Given the project’s importance to Montauk, it garnered considerable oversight. The chief overseer was Betty Duryea, then a leader of the Montauk Village Association and also Perry Duryea’s wife.
Betty Duryea was a formidable woman. Betty would show up at the work site on a regular but often unannounced basis. Always clear in her belief of what needed to happen, her commanding presence sought to keep the project moving and on track. While she always wanted to see and speak with Bill, once he learned of my college and family ties with Duryeas, I was put in charge of dealing with her. Lucky for me, she was always courteous, saving her “concerns” for my boss whose most-successful strategy was to disappear whenever he saw her coming.
By summer’s end in 1973, the newly landscaped blocks had been transformed into oriental-like compositions, somewhat reminiscent of formal Japanese gravel gardens. From The Star’s recent snippet, however, it appears that by 1975 there had been no Zen masters charged with the daily raking of the gravel beds and no prohibition of high heeled shoes — hence the reported idea to “glue down” those annoying pebbles. While the “indestructible” pines have since died, I believe the annoying pebbles are still there!
As always, my best regards,
CHRIS REUTERSHAN
Trump’s Claims
East Hampton
November 21, 2025
Dear Mr. Rattray,
Despite what many people think when they go food shopping, Trump recently claimed that the United States economy has improved since he was re-elected. Let’s look at the facts.
Trump’s claim: “Prices are down under the Trump administration, and they’re down substantially.”
Fact: Recent figures from the federal Consumer Price Index show that prices are 3 percent higher than they were in September 2024. The 0.6 percent increase in average grocery prices from July to August was the biggest month-to-month spike in three years. According to the C.P.I., household energy costs were 6.2 percent higher in September than they were in September 2024.
Trump’s claim: “Inflation is almost nonexistent.”
Fact: There has been inflation every month of his term. The September inflation rate of 3 percent was the same as the rate in January, the month Trump returned to the White House. According to a September CNBC report, coffee prices have risen 18.9 percent; beef and veal, 14.7 percent, and bananas 6.9 percent over the past year. The report also states, “The higher tariffs are adding to inflation, as evidenced by higher prices for beef and coffee, household furnishings, appliances and apparel.”
Trump’s claim: “Gasoline prices have plummeted to the lowest in two decades. We’re at almost $2 for gasoline.”
Fact: The national average in November was $3.08 per gallon, according to AAA, and $3.17 according to the U.S. Energy Information Association. These prices are higher than they were in 2020 and early 2021.
Rather than making claims, perhaps Trump should say that he is presenting “alternative facts.”
SALVATORE TOCCI
Targeting
Amagansett
November 22, 2025
To the Editor:
Those in perceived power will isolate you by poisoning the people you trust against you before your truth ever gets told.
That’s how they cut off your support early so when you finally speak, no one’s listening and they’ve already framed you as the problem.
The example I would use would be the targeting of a student and a family. That’s my family — wife and children — since the school board president, Addie Slater-Davison, has already alluded to as I paraphrase here. Present evidence, if you have any. Which she wrote in an email.
The only reason we have the video evidence is because the superintendent, Michael Rodgers, requested to call in who he did to film him doing the act described above.
Still here,
JOE KARPINSKI