Professional, Caring
Montauk
April 13, 2025
Dear David,
I would like to thank and compliment the many people who came to the rescue when I experienced a late-night emergency health issue last week. Specifically, they are the 911 emergency dispatcher, the two East Hampton Town police officers who quickly arrived at my home, and the professional and caring ambulance crew from the Montauk Fire Department who transported me to the hospital while attending to my medical needs. I am truly blessed to live in such a wonderful community.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the compassionate and knowledgeable medical care that I received at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. The doctors, nurses, and medical assistants were fantastic. Otherwise, I would not be writing this letter.
Cheers,
BRIAN POPE
Not to Renew
Wainscott
April 14, 2025
Dear Editor,
As a resident of Wainscott since 2005, the issues regarding the Maidstone Gun Club are very important to me. While I very much respect the needs of our local law enforcement officers to access training facilities, those needs cannot outweigh local public-safety concerns. There are too many homes in the nearby vicinity that can be tragically impacted by a stray bullet.
The club has proven itself to be deficient in the necessary safety standards that would prevent any potential serious accidents. Barring a guarantee that these safety precautions will be implemented, the best solution for all those involved is simply not to renew its lease and have our first responders practice at another range. Another acceptable solution would be to close all outdoor facilities and keep the indoor pistol facilities open since they pose no safety threat.
Respectfully,
CLAUDE GERSTENHABER, M.D.
Poses Risks
Springs
April 14, 2025
Dear David,
East Hampton Town Board officials should not renew the lease with the Maidstone Gun Club. The town is currently being sued after stray bullets from the club’s property struck at least eight nearby homes. One incident caught on video shows two workers taking cover in a yard as the sound of an assault rifle echoes in the background in the middle of the afternoon.
Due to these serious safety concerns, the club has been closed by court order since November 2022. Beyond the immediate threat to public safety, the club poses environmental risks, as soil samples taken from the area tested positive for lead. (Research has shown that shooting ranges contribute to soil and groundwater pollution.)
As if the safety and environmental hazards weren’t enough, the gun club has been paying just $100 a year under a lease dating back to the 1980s. Springs taxpayers need to support the Springs School and other vital community needs, not subsidize a private gun club. There is no valid reason to renew this lease, especially when there is an outdoor range available for law enforcement use in Westhampton.
JACKI ESPOSITO
Undermines Code
Wainscott
April 14, 2025
Dear David:
The proposed amendments to the town code (“Smoother Path for Town Projects?” April 10), should alarm anyone disturbed by degradation of the natural environment, accelerated traffic congestion, or erosion of the character of the community here in East Hampton.
The amendments invent something called “community resources,” the definition of which is broad, amorphous, and wholly subject to the town board’s momentary whim. Under this proposal, any project that the town board — in its sole discretion — deems worthy will enjoy “swift development and implementation,” as the town attorney’s memorandum of April 4, 2025, promises.
The town board will be given the right to bypass the niceties of the zoning code to cut down trees, dig foundations, and reroute established traffic patterns with only the most cursory input from the town’s regulatory boards. The amendments will give the town board sole control over clearing restrictions in residential neighborhoods and Harbor Protection and Water Recharge Overlay Districts and will exempt the town from obtaining special permits and natural resources special permits for those projects that the town board deems to be “community resources.”
The presumed justification for these changes is to “prioritize [. . .] the welfare of the community [and allow] for the timely development of these projects, which may otherwise face delays or restrictions due to zoning limitations,” according to the town attorney’s memorandum.
The proposed amendments are a deeply flawed solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. I’d like to know the last time that a town project was unreasonably delayed or prevented from proceeding or some vital town need was waylaid as a result of the town’s being required to comply with the zoning code.
East Hampton’s zoning code has been a key reason that — up until now — other municipalities have envied the town’s ability to preserve its physical beauty and limit damage to its natural resources. Exempting the town from its own zoning code not only undermines the legitimacy of the zoning code, and the regulatory boards charged with enforcing it, but it lends support to those who criticize — or would like to do away with — the zoning code.
The town’s regulatory boards are composed of appointed, dedicated citizens whose sole interest is in enforcing the portions of the zoning code that are in their purview and about which they are expert, without concern for political priorities that are properly the place of the elected town board.
A bad project is a bad project, whether it’s built by the town or built by a private developer. Exempting the town from the zoning code only increases the likelihood that the public will find itself with needlessly denuded woodlands, avoidable traffic bottlenecks, and a further degraded community.
Sincerely,
SAMUEL KRAMER
Board Gone Rogue
Amagansett
April 13, 2025
To the Editor:
Christopher Gangemi’s article “Smoother Path for Town Projects?” illustrates the extent to which the town board has gone rogue. The same board members who hypocritically presided over the demonstration last week against Donald Trump’s lawlessness are proposing that “community resource” projects — which they define as anything the town sponsors — be exempt from the town’s own zoning laws entirely. The departing town attorney’s straight-faced statement that the town is “still going to have to comply” with state environmental quality review, or SEQRA, was especially amusing, given that the board has already, for years, gotten away with issuing a negative declaration for quite large and impactful projects.
This initiative must be viewed against the background already provided by the town’s abject failure to defend its citizens any further against the predatory and lawless Duryea’s expansion and commercial misuse of the airport. In the future, billionaires may not need to spend millions of their dollars deploying litigation teams to hollow out town government (both the Duryea and airport teams include “hollow man” James Catterson, an expert in this exercise) when the town is so adept at doing so itself.
For democracy in East Hampton,
JONATHAN WALLACE
Impressed
Springs
April 11, 2025
Dear David,
I’m so grateful and impressed by the Springs School signage on Old Stone Highway to designate the public entrance to the school. So much better for everyone: well designed and clear, not lighted up, which would have made no sense. And it is so much better than the ugly electronic signage at the Bridgehampton School (and the Sag Harbor firehouse).
Thanks to the people in charge of the school from one of their neighbors.
SUSAN HARDER
Not Just a Building
Amagansett
April 8, 2025
Dear David,
There’s a little school tucked between the sea and the trees that holds more of my heart than I could ever put into words. Amagansett School didn’t just educate me — it raised me. It raised my husband. It gave us both a place to belong when we were young and unsure, still figuring out who we were going to be in this world. And now, all these years later, it’s shaping our son with that same steady love. Soon, his little brother will join him, and the cycle will continue, a legacy written not in ink, but in footsteps, scraped knees, spelling tests, and hallway laughter. But that legacy didn’t start with us.
My great-grandmother went to Amagansett School. So did my uncle. My grandmother. My cousins. My mother-in-law. Her father. My husband. Me. And now, our boys. That’s six generations who’ve walked these halls, sung at school concerts, whispered to best friends during lunch, and proudly searched for their star on the gym wall. Because, if you know, you know; those stars are everything. They stretch across the gym walls like constellations, each one marking a graduating class. But they’re more than a tradition. They’re a family tree. A visual tapestry of the children who passed through, leaving behind not just names, but stories. My husband and I both have our stars. One day, our sons will, too, and with them, the quiet truth that they were part of something that truly mattered.
The world outside has gotten louder, faster, and more uncertain — and yes, our little school has felt that. In recent years, it’s been stretched to its limits, pressures from every angle: budgets, policies, enrollment. But through it all, the soul of Amagansett has stayed strong. Because it’s not just a building. It’s a heartbeat.
It’s Mike Rodgers helping me build my very first snowman. It’s Mrs. White — a pillar of quiet strength who’s carried the heart of this place for decades. It’s Mrs. Solomon, who recently retired, but just last week walked me to the admitting room at the hospital as I prepared for surgery. She asked about my boys. She asked about my family because that’s what this place teaches: not just math and reading, but how to show up for one another. How to love a community.
Amagansett may be small, but it holds multitudes. The soul of this school shows up in the everyday magic: teachers who greet children by name, staff who make sure every hallway feels safe, and those quiet, consistent moments that stitch childhood into something lasting. So yes, this is a thank-you. But more than that, it’s a love letter.
To the ones who gave me wings.
To the ones who gave my husband a place to thrive.
To the ones who raised generations of my family with compassion, grace, and grit.
And to the ones still planting seeds in our children that will grow into something beautiful.
Amagansett School is the thread that ties our past to our future. And I am endlessly proud — and forever grateful — to be part of its story.
With all my heart,
KATE CIULLO
Lies and Idiocy
East Hampton
April 10, 2025
Good evening,
It is Thursday evening and I’ve just finished reading this week’s letters to the editor. Once again, I am trying to decide if Bea Derrico is mentally deficient or just lacks the intelligence to separate what is fact and what is a boldface lie. The Environmental Protection Agency did not give $2 billion to a nonprofit for solar panels. That is so false, it is comical.
The Democrats, according to Ms. Derrico, want to raise taxes? What the hell are you talking about? How do you think the president and his group of idiot cabinet members are going to cut the taxes on billionaires? They will raise the taxes on middle income Americans. Billionaires will not have their taxes raised. You know, the billionaires that made millions yesterday after Trump posted on social media, “Now is a great time to buy” then proceeded to delay tariffs for 90 days. Market skyrocketed. Today, it plummeted. Nice manipulation by our president.
The United States did not send billions overseas for condoms, nor allocated money for sex change operations — another ridiculous made-up lie, I’m sure something Ms. Dericco read on Truth Social or Fox News. These are just two of the posts from Ms. Dericco lacking proof or just a shortage of intellect.
Skyrocketing federal spending sending inflation through the roof under Biden? Wrong. Where are you getting your facts? Seriously. I’m embarrassed for you. And maybe stop blaming everything on President Biden. Our country, under Biden, had an administration that did not threaten Social Security, Medicare, Veterans benefits, funds for schools and libraries, etc. — and I wouldn’t be worrying about how to pay my bills or buy food. Trump is a convicted felon, a sexual assaulter, and a person who lied about everything so that people would vote for him.
I am fed up with the select few MAGA Republicans who spew their lies and idiocy when writing to the paper. I, for one, would appreciate a little more fact-checking from The Star.
Sorry if I have rambled; I wish the truth didn’t mean as much as it does to me. Then I could just read the paper and pretend nothing bothers me.
Thanks,
DEBORAH GOODMAN
Biased
Amagansett
April 13, 2025
To the Editor,
I made a point not to attend the last Amagansett School Board meeting. Now you can see the bias on video. In fact, explicit bias, as viewed, is generally not accepted or tolerated at school board meetings. School board members are expected to uphold principles of fairness, equality, and respect for all individuals, and expressing explicit bias would violate these standards. In my opinion the Amagansett School Board allows and champions outright discrimination, continually.
A guideline from the U.S. Department of Education states, “. . . public school officials must not show favoritism or hostility towards any particular group or individual.” In Amagansett we just learned from Vice President Addie Slater-Davison it’s “majority” rule. It’s not here that every child and parent have a voice. Only those who garner favor with the “majority.” Thank you, school board, the staff, and parents who show the willingness to be biased. You again proved the point I’ve been making for a year.
Still here,
JOE KARPINSKI
The Rule of Law
East Hampton
April 13, 2025
To the Editor:
As Americans, we should take pride in our justice system whose protections try to assure fairness and set us apart from nations where fear and oppression dominate. Only in authoritarian states like Russia and North Korea can mere accusations lead directly to punishment without trial. There, individual citizens can be detained arbitrarily and subjected to state-sanctioned abuse without any of the rights we in America grant the accused.
When our government emulates such conduct, as it does in sending scores of Venezuelan immigrants to a Salvadoran jail without hearings to establish the truth of their alleged gang membership, or in the street arrest of a Tufts graduate student thereafter transported to detention in Louisiana without a hearing to establish probable cause of any guilt, we are all shamed by the denial of the due process our laws demand.
“Did Laken Riley get due process?” Tom Homan, President Trump’s border czar, groused recently when a congressional committee complained about the treatment of immigrants under the Trump administration. I understand his upset. Laken Riley was murdered by an undocumented immigrant. But Homan misses the point. The rights we offer an accused, whether citizen or not, is prescribed by our Constitution and is a major component of our democracy. Bestowing those rights on the least of us, even when the pain from their alleged action is most acute, should be a source of great pride to every American, not anger.
We should never allow our emotions, and certainly not political expedience, no matter how despicable the allegation, to overcome our obligations to the rule of law in our country. Difficult as that may be, we must subordinate our anger to the justice of America’s judicial process. Only by that deferral can we be true to the ideals that would make us great.
On behalf of Concerned Neighbors of Long Island,
JOAN CASPI
FRED DOSS
TIM FRAZIER
JOAN OVERLOCK
JUDITH SCHNEIDER
TESS WACHS
NORBERT WEISSBERG
Trump Bragged
Plainview
April 13, 2025
To the Editor,
In 2005, Donald Trump bragged about his propensity to “grab [women] by the pussy,” and now 20 years (and two presidencies) later, he’s bragging about numerous world leaders calling him up, “kissing my ass.” So I think that perhaps it was less objectionable when he used to brag about his brain, mind, and intelligence.
RICHARD SIEGELMAN
Attack From Within
North Haven
April 14, 2025
Dear David:
Trust is a frame of mind. Our country stayed “United” for almost 249 years, with just one serious period when the United States became divided during the American Civil War. Southerners often called that the “Recent Unpleasantness.” It seems “unpleasantness” has returned to threaten us again, as we saw during the criminal insurrection on Jan. 6, 2020, and now with Project 2025 and the Department of Government Efficiency.
Are we going to stand for this, or are we going to demand of our politicians of both parties to wise up and work for us rather than voting for their own selfish well-being? If they — of both parties — have any remaining spine to speak truth to power, they must use it now or be voted to the dustbin of history.
A violent attack from within, upon our government and citizens, is tearing us apart. Everything of value our government built with congressional approval is being destroyed with sloppy, vindictive, and unlawful executive orders.
This DOGE obsession with efficiency is a Trojan horse claiming to eliminate waste. The truth is we are being disarmed from effective self-governing, and our national security fails among worldwide threats. Is this deception meant to enable the renewal of those huge tax cuts for our billionaires? The much darker possibility is we are being shifted into an autocracy, plutocracy, or oligarchy form of government. You must decide which term best fits.
Trust is failing among ourselves, and the trust of us by our foreign allies has disappeared. To err is human, to forgive is divine. That is the frame of mind necessary for a healthy functioning democracy. Trust in each other allows for honest negotiations for maximum mutual satisfaction. Have we as a nation lost that ability?
Of course there have been omissions and government screw-ups over time. The originalists left it for the citizens, through Congress, to deal with those errors and omissions, according to constitutional guidelines. History shows many improvements were effected when our government followed constitutional democracy, fine-tuning itself to better serve the will of those it governed. Slavery, women’s rights, scientific discovery, world wars all required lawful changes to our democracy.
Where are we now? Dis-united or united? Half our politicians and population are promoting a destruction of this system of trust, responsibility, and innovation. Our safety is threatened. Congress remains silent and ineffective.
Regulatory agencies are disabled. Education is becoming doctrinaire. The environment and public health don’t matter. Nobody here in Suffolk or in Albany or Washington, D.C., seems fit and willing to enter this battle against tyranny. As a nation, we seem to have become fat, dumb, and happy, letting others take over our responsibilities. Less than half of us vote. Less than that scream foul when there is abuse. Apathy has gone too far.
Nick LaLota, Lee Zeldin, M.T.G., Elon Musk, Stephen Miller, R.F.K. Jr., “Moses” Johnson, Pete Hegseth, and Howard Lutnick all toe the Potus line with a firehose of lies helped by a complicit media. They have imposed themselves on all of us long enough. We must fact-check for ourselves, and push our representatives to represent us. Let’s all focus on facts and not fantasy (as we see sometimes in these letters) so that we may, once again, act like a healthy, effective democracy.
Thanks to The Star for being an important community forum.
ANTHONY CORON
Nation With Borders
St. Petersburg, Fla.
April 10, 2025
Dear Editor:
We are a sovereign nation with borders protected by a rule of law that permits legal immigration, legal asylum, and refugees fleeing from persecution and oppression, such as those in the past: Cubans, South Vietnamese, Russian Jews, and other oppressed peoples, fleeing dictators, on a case-by-case basis.
We are not a nation of illegal immigrants. It is asinine, if not downright infantile, to conflate “immigrant” with “illegal immigrant” or think a noncitizen who walked across the border is paid off the books and doesn’t contribute his fair share to our common good, should be entitled to universal health care benefits, government welfare and housing assistance, free education and cellphones, funded debit cards, and the privilege to vote as equal to a person who is a rightful, taxpaying citizen unless you’re a person who doesn’t know the definition of “woman,” a category of pea-brain citizens likely the same ones who key Teslas because they want Musk to keep his hands off their big, beautiful, national debt.
But more important, it’s a human rights risk both for the illegal alien and natural citizens. Why? If you aren’t in the country legally, you exist in the underworld and that is where human rights are violated. It’s true. Illegal immigrants pose the greatest risk to themselves and others. They have no wage protection, no workers’ compensation, no recourse for stolen wages or guarantees for reimbursement of goods or services, and live in substandard, codeless housing. They are at the mercy of the person who provides work and shelter with no legal remedy. The women are taken advantage of, and the children live unstable lives. And what can happen when an illegal immigrant becomes desperate? They break the law to survive. Or become victims of human trafficking, domestic violence, and substance abuse, the very social problems we already have here with our own citizens without assuming the burden of foreigners who don’t belong here, overextending our available public funds to subsidize the resources they need to live here safely in denial of those who are entitled to it, like homeless vets and the mentally ill.
If a person simply decides to leave their native country and come to America, they must follow a process to enter and stay. The reason is safety. The world is a violent place. American citizens are entitled by virtue of their citizenship, not to mention their right, to be protected from foreign agents who spy, counterculture, radical terrorists, violent drug cartels and gangs, and mentally ill prisoners from other countries released from their own penitentiaries to make room for more.
America screens people because it’s a privilege to live in America. We only improve by the quality of the people who we allow to come in and stay. And it’s the first duty of the commander in chief to protect our country’s borders and citizens from outside evil forces. The first question to ask a person campaigning to lead our country is: Do you faithfully swear, as is your first and primary constitutional duty, to protect our borders and preserve the rights and safety of your citizens?
President Biden reneged on that sacred oath, promise and duty, endangering citizens and the illegal border crossers, compromising our freedom, and tore the country further apart. He was the Great Divider. He let millions of people storm into our country who had no right to be here under the current terms of legal immigration who now live marginal and often dangerous lives because his party has only one goal: to convert our republic to a one-party state where elections don’t matter and have no consequences.
That is the truth of illegal immigration. It’s a form of slave labor, “cotton pickers,” as some might say. The ever-honorable, ghetto-mouth Jasmine Crockett and thousands of self-righteous, virtue-signaling social justice warriors voted for it in exchange for losing the battle over mask mandates. Look in the mirror and ask yourselves: Who benefits most by allowing the unvetted invasion of foreigners? If you’re honest, you’d say: “Me, because I sure do like paying almost nothing to get those hedges trimmed and my floors mopped.”
Let’s not quibble. Nothing screams cheap labor more than coming home to the fragrant scent of Fabuloso after a day of Botox and fillers. It’s not about human rights. It’s about paying someone less than you would have to if the person were born in the U.S.A. and had job protection. Guess who’s coming to dinner? Not Javier and Maria from Guatemala, but they’ll clean it up for next to nothing.
CAROL DRAY