Indispensable
East Hampton Village
May 19, 2025
Dear David,
As a regular reader of The East Hampton Star, I want to support your recent increase in the price of the paper from $1 to $2. I can only add that I wish you had done it several years ago, as the paper is an indispensable source of information as to what is happening in the Town of East Hampton and the village. In addition, your various editorial columns are a thoughtful addition to the factual information you report.
I hope all your readers share the belief I have, that without The Star weekly we would all feel like strangers in the community, as you are the best source to keep the residents connected!
Sincerely,
ALAN PATRICOF
Music to Inspire
Springs
May 18, 2025
Dear Editor,
Maestro Leonard Berstein’s words ring so true: “When we touch one another through music, we are touching the heart, the mind, and the spirit all at once.” How fortunate we are in having the opportunity to enjoy this feeling as we listen to beautiful music together right in our backyards!
From May 29 to May 31, find a lovely local venue which works for you (Springs, the village, Sag Harbor, and Bridgehampton). Enjoy Mozart and Vivaldi, as well as the beautiful arias of Bellini and Dvorak, provided by the Hamptons Festival of Music musicians — all wonderful music which has withstood the test of time. Familiar tunes to many, maybe new to others, just come and enjoy the experience.
Now more than ever we need music to unite, inspire, and bring us joy. Details at thfm.org.
CHRISTINE GANITSCH
Deserves a Parade
East Hampton
May 19, 2025
To the Editor,
Today, I write not just as a proud family member, but as someone deeply moved by the life’s work of a man who has quietly and humbly helped keep the Town of East Hampton running for nearly three decades. After 27 years of loyal service, it’s time we all recognize and thank Jim Bennett the way he deserves.
He began his journey in 1998, when Cathy Lester was town supervisor, working as a maintenance mechanic in the Buildings and Grounds Department. He moved office furniture, laid carpeting, mowed town properties, trimmed hedges, and took care of the very spaces we all walk through every day — often without a second thought. His work was behind the scenes but it made our public spaces safer, cleaner, and more comfortable.
Over the next few years he adapted, transitioned, and eventually found himself in Harbors and Docks, working under the supervision of men like now-East Hampton Town Safety Coordinator Ed Michels, Kevin Maier, and Frank Kennedy and Pete Anderson, (who both have since passed), and his fellow maintenance mechanic, Miles Maier. Together, they kept the waterfront safe and operable — repairing docks, servicing town boats, and ensuring residents and visitors alike could enjoy our harbors.
He became a waterways mechanic, handling navigational aids, buoys, and swim lines for our beaches. His deep care for our environment and community led him to earn his crane operator’s license, and he began operating the town barge, replacing pilings and taking on complex waterfront repairs. Eventually, he rose to waterways maintenance supervisor, managing dock projects, ordering materials, installing buoys and swim lines year after year. He witnessed tremendous changes in this town and continued to work tirelessly through all of them.
In 2022, he was elected Civil Service Employees Association Union president, a role he embraced to bring about long-overdue change for town workers. He worked closely with current Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez and helped usher in a new era — one defined by empathy, respect, and action. Thanks to his persistence, union workers finally received a long-overdue raise, after far too many years of little to no increases, and family leave time changes that make it easier for parents to prioritize their families during a critical life transition. He fought to change that.
He never forgot where he came from. Family was — and is — everything. He fought to make life better not just for his own, but for every working family in East Hampton. He knows how hard it is to live here, and he used every tool in his reach to make it easier for those who serve behind the scenes — especially the ones living paycheck to paycheck.
As he retires, his message is simple: Keep pushing. Keep speaking up. Keep fighting for what’s right. He opened the door. Now it’s up to the rest of us to keep it open — and walk through it.
From the bottom of our hearts: Thank you. Thank you for supporting your family and giving us the security to stay here. Without your job and your sacrifice, we could never have made a life in this town. We’re forever grateful.
And to the community: If you see him, stop him. Shake his hand. Say thank you. He doesn’t want a parade — but he certainly deserves one.
With deepest gratitude,
BRIDGETTE MCAULIFFE - On behalf of his family and all those who work year round to keep East Hampton going.
Treated With Respect
Hanceville, Ala.
May 14, 2025
To the Editor,
Some old-timers will find this letter strange as I am sure, David, the current editor, will. I used to be a frequent writer and arguably one of the most controversial for sure. Most readers of long ago had no idea of my relationship with Helen Rattray. I was never proven wrong in any of my writings and actually accomplished a lot of good interactions with the town government and local colorful town people.
Helen and I had a lot of conversations on the phone about a current letter I had just written and submitted. “This one has to go to the lawyers,” was the final determination, as I had refused to have anything I wrote changed by anyone. A simple comma or omission can change an entire letter, as I am sure everyone knows — such as, “We ate, grandma” or, “We ate grandma.” Anyway.
Most people thought Helen and I had a confrontational relationship from those who confronted me about her. Helen Rattray was maybe the editor of a very progressive, liberal newspaper with a left-wing Hollywood readership, but Helen treated me with the utmost respect, even if others thought differently.
I once got word of some dirt on a local who was running for office and was very popular and considered a shoe-in for election. Helen got very upset in our phone call, and I told her it was very real. She found out the truth and, in a front-page editorial did not endorse the candidate. I was often given inside information from whistleblowers who knew I would run with the truth and it caused a lot of people to get very upset with me.
I once recall over 14 letters written against me the following week. But Helen always treated me with respect — I once told her it was because I sold newspapers and she said, “I don’t need you to sell anything.”
Rusty Drumm once profiled me in the paper as he and I sat on my deck overlooking Fort Pond Bay. I proofed it and told him it would never run as it made me look too good, but Helen ran it anyway. Sadly enough both Helen and Rusty are gone and with them went the truth.
When Helen retired and David took over The Star, I got a call from David that he might deny and he told me, you are through writing in this paper. I will never publish another letter of yours ever again. Naturally, I told him exactly what I thought of him, and we will see if this one gets in.
In closing: Now that I look back on those days, it occurs to me that it was the beginning of the downfall of the First Amendment and canceling people for their thoughts, as is so prevalent today. So? I had a good run and had a lot of fun and, now that Helen is gone, we will include her in our prayers and hope that when she got to her final interview with the Big Guy she said, “I treated ‘the Last American’ very fairly,” and he smiles and lets her in! Angels surround you, Helen.
Sincerely,
WILLIAM H. ADDEO
—
While the editor does not recall a conversation, it is unlikely that one took place in the way the letter writer remembers. The Star’s policy is to print every letter to the editor it receives, provided they are unique to this newspaper and not libelous, obscene, or an invasion of privacy. Ed.
Cleaner Water
East Hampton
May 13, 2025
Dear David,
We at Surfrider Foundation Eastern Long Island Ocean Friendly Gardens were thrilled to see Durell Godfrey’s May 8 front-page picture of our Wake Up the Garden Day at the village green. Thanks to The Star and Durell for recognizing the importance of the rain garden bioswale.
Most people don’t realize that this winding river of flowers with its spectacular show of pink and white hibiscus flowers in late summer does more than beautify the entrance to the village. In slowing down and filtering pollutants from runoff water as it makes its way through the Hook Pond watershed to the pond and the ocean beyond, it helps us to have cleaner, healthier bodies of water.
The village green and Methodist Lane bioswales, both designed and planted by Tony Piazza, are maintained by volunteers with a generous assist from Piazza Horticulture at Whitmores. I want to thank Tony, Whitmores, and the community and organizations who come out and do the work, especially the dedicated volunteers of ReWild Long Island South Fork Chapter. And a shout-out to Dave Cataletto and his East Hampton Middle Schoolers who came to Methodist Lane on Monday to clean the garbage the bioswale traps!
Anyone interested in learning about bioswale rain gardens and their native plants stop by on one of our workdays. You don’t need to come prepared to work but we would love it if you did. To find out more email [email protected].
KRIS LIEM
Important Work
Montauk
May 13, 2025
To the Editor,
This may not be the most pressing issue facing our nation right now, but still, I feel compelled to complain about the design for the Montauk Playhouse aquatic center. I know, I know, picayune. But I have been eagerly anticipating the pools, and I know I will be irritated forevermore, so, in the spirit of local news, here goes.
The design, as pictured in renderings posted on the Playhouse Facebook page and elsewhere, is by Lee Skolnick. He has produced some wonderful spaces on the East End over the years, but this isn’t one of them. The image appropriates a very famous woodcut, “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa,” ca. 1831, by Katsushika Hokusai. The original is a sacred icon of Japanese woodblock printmaking and one of the most recognized works of art in the world. It’s a masterpiece of symbolism — a meditation on nature’s overwhelming power and human fragility.
In the original, the wave towers over tiny boats carrying fishermen. Mount Fuji, sacred and stoic, sits quietly in the background, seemingly small but eternal, in contrast to the ephemeral violence of the wave. The men are completely at the mercy of the sea, a reflection of the Buddhist idea of impermanence. In the Edo era, this spoke to a deep cultural tension between human ambition and nature’s indifference — a truth that still resonates in the era of climate disasters.
The Playhouse mural replaces Mount Fuji with the Montauk Lighthouse. It strips away the philosophical heart of the work and drops in a local landmark like a clip-art sticker. What should evoke awe and reverence ends up looking like a municipal branding exercise in a locker room. I guess someone at the firm thought, “Let’s do a local twist on a classic”! But if you understand the cultural and spiritual gravity of the original, this edit doesn’t just miss the point — it inverts it. Because in this version, the Lighthouse isn’t watching over the wave; it’s about to get obliterated by it. It’s kind of like President Trump pictured in papal robes; it’s offensive to anyone who understands the solemnity and sacred meaning the original robes represent. You don’t have to be religious to feel the slap. I request we respectfully not appropriate an important work of Japanese art into a mockery.
Sincerely
LAURA EULER
Pave the Streets
East Hampton
May 18, 2025
To the Editor,
Now that the roundabout on Stephen Hand’s Path is almost complete, please, please, please, Town of East Hampton, pave the adjoining streets. Long Lane, the part mostly after exiting the roundabout, has been lumpy bumpy for years! Two Holes of Water has many holes, both leaving and approaching the roundabout.
Fix the holes. Pave the streets. These are not side streets; these are heavily traveled roads affecting many many drivers.
JANE ADELMAN
License Plate Data
Amagansett
May 17, 2025
To the Editor:
I did a little research on the Flock license plate scanning technology installed by the village.
In any new initiative by the First Citizen, I look for the profit motive. This one was easy: The village collects the fines on the noncompliant cars located by the system. It also gets to impound some of those vehicles, which, I suppose, it could later sell at auction. Also, there are substantial private markets for license plate data, and it might be valuable to someone to know who shops in East Hampton and where.
Second, the privacy and civil liberties implications of these systems are pretty profound. Most disturbingly, they can be used to flag particular cars. Remember the First Citizen’s egregious rhetoric about the volunteers who inadvertently stood in his way when he wanted to monetize the ambulance? The Flock system would give him the ability to know when and where any of his targets was in the village at any time. Think about that.
Flock boasts that its cameras not only record license plates, but bumper stickers — and your paper noted that one of the first arrests involved the identification of a red Jeep with a Trump sticker whose driver had allegedly shoplifted (ha).
Questions for the First Citizen: Who has access to this data? (In some places, every municipal employee does.) Under what conditions? What supervision is there? (Police officers elsewhere have used the technology to track their ex-wives or journalists who wrote about them.) How long is it retained? (Some localities keep the data for years; several Texas towns keep it forever.) With whom is it shared? (Many Flock customers share the information with adjoining municipalities, regional databases, and even with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.)
The First Citizen would not be my first choice to trust with this technology.
For democracy in East Hampton,
JONATHAN WALLACE
Cause Fatal Crashes
Wainscott
May 16, 2025
Dear David,
Three days after the license plate readers were portrayed in The Star as bogeymen, Newsday reported that there were 50,0000 unlicensed drivers on Long Island. Data shows they are more likely to cause fatal crashes than others on the road.
To give some idea, what that resembles, envision a fully packed Yankee Stadium, seats 46,537, add in the thousands of standees.
How many of the operators, picked up by the license plate readers, fit that category?
Protecting the residents is the main priority they are sworn to provide. They should be applauded for this endeavor. The laws in place require motorists to have insurance and a license. Don’t Chuck Schumer and his cohorts continually parrot, “No one is above the law!”
Respectfully;
ARTHUR J.FRENCH
Not What We Want
East Hampton
May 19, 2025
Dear Editor,
In response to the story in the May 15 East Hampton Star regarding the Windmill Village 1 expansion, we would like to explain why the plan to split the apartments on our property is not what we want.
Several years ago, before the zoning change, we met with the town board regarding building more apartments on the Windmill Village 1 site using about half an acre of property from the adjacent senior center. This came about before the zoning was changed. The board changed the zoning from eight apartments per acre to 12 per acre for senior housing complexes and that made it possible to build 20 more apartments on our site.
There are three senior housing affordable housing complexes in East Hampton: Windmill Village 1, Windmill Village 2, and St. Michael’s. The residents of these three complexes and board of directors worked over the past two years to make this change happen. It was a great victory for everyone. The housing is badly needed. The waiting list for the three complexes is well over 200. Due to the cost of land in East Hampton the only option to build more senior housing is to expand the existing projects. Windmill 1 had a site drawing made showing where the new apartments would go.
Over the past several years this plan has been looked at and discussed by the town board, the Planning Department, and the housing office. No one ever said that this was not a good plan.
The original plan would not disturb the existing buildings or displace residents. When we met with the Planning Department recently, things started to go wrong. They told us that our plan was in an easement area (which was never filed) and that we could not cut down any trees.
We explained that we would replace any trees we removed. We were asked to submit other plans that would place the apartments in different areas of the complex.
We used community housing funds to draw up new plans with three options. We were not happy with any of the options that would split the apartments and decided to pay the $500 fee to go directly to the planning board for a preliminary hearing. The result of the preliminary review was that we choose one of the two options that would split the apartments. The apartments in these options would be crowded into our open space areas and eliminate our dog run.
Since there is no one else in the town building senior housing, and the Windmill residents are willing to add more apartments, we would like to have a say on where the apartments go. We do not want to lose the open space areas that make Windmill Village such a nice place to live. We are inviting the planning board members to come to Windmill and meet the residents and discuss the best place to locate the new additional apartments.
Sincerely,
GERRY MOONEY
On-site staff
CAROL SHERMAN
Tenant Representative
Climate Denial
Springs
May 18, 2025
To the Editor,
I found your editorial about climate denial at the federal level and the various steps being taken to handicap science and green investment quite depressing. Unfortunately, at the local level, things are just as bad.
Despite pledging to completely reduce all greenhouse-gas emissions over a decade ago, the town produces even more today according to last year’s sustainability report. Do they have a plan to finally reduce them now? It wouldn’t seem so, but they apparently think it’s a good idea to waste $5 million to just dump a greater amount of sand at Ditch Plain that will likely just wash away in a few years.
Perhaps instead the town should finally invest in solar for its own buildings or land, since they paid for a study of this seven years ago. Given the federal government’s Inflation Reduction Act would allow for a 30 percent refund for such projects, the town could probably cut its own cost of electric power in half over the long term if it took just this simple step that might only cost half of the sand program.
Moreover, the town has a great opportunity to lease part of the 97 acres designated for the gun club to a community solar project that would generate significant lease income for the town and allow for local residents and businesses to lower their cost of electricity while also going green — a win-win if there ever was one.
There are many other common-sense steps the town could take to reduce emissions, but I will mention one other that could have a huge impact: Start a sustainability fund with a small percentage of the community preservation fund, as was done for water quality purposes. If 25 basis points of the C.P.F. fee (would amount to several million every year) were directed toward a sustainable investment fund, it could provide rebates for local residents to install solar, heat pumps, or buy an electric vehicle. This, once again, would be similar to the septic upgrade plan that also gets rebates from the state and county.
The last point I will make is that I was disappointed that your opinion piece mentioned only carbon dioxide pollution or its equivalents — this is not surprising since that is what most do. However, methane (natural gas) is the second most impactful greenhouse gas and it has increased 150 percent in the atmosphere since industrial times (three times greater than CO2) and yet it is rarely mentioned?
More important, its impact is often significantly understated at just 25 times that of CO2 by our Environmental Protection Agency even when fully staffed. If shorter time periods were used for this calculation, its impact jumps to 80 to 120 times! Given methane only lasts roughly 20 years, versus the hundreds for CO2, it makes scientific sense to use shorter evaluation periods.
Furthermore, the E.P.A. has grossly underestimated the amount of methane that is leaking from drilling and then throughout our infrastructure — recently it has acknowledged it may be two to three times greater than thought for decades.
The sad facts are that if the E.P.A. did a better job of calculating how much methane is leaking and what its actual global warming impact was, it wouldn’t be able to claim that we as a nation have made any real progress in limiting our greenhouse gas emissions either.
Some scientists working for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have said reducing methane in the atmosphere is the quickest and cheapest way to slow climate change, so I’m hoping more attention is finally paid to it and that both the federal and local governments do a better job of combating global warming.
BRAD BROOKS
Accountability
Amagansett
May 18, 2025
To the Editor,
At this point, I have won or lost a bid to be on the school board. Thank you to everyone who has reached out in support. The memorandum of facts remains. The quotes Kristen Peterson and Wayne Gauger placed in this publication are easily refuted.
Kristen Peterson speaks of words like integrity, accountability, the school follows policy, and procedure. These are easily refuted. In my opinion, Kristen Peterson just legally voted in her first school board election. State and county documents compiled with that of the school tell the multiple stories. I will remind you, this publication allowed the interim superintendent, Richard Loeschner, to say my information was “wrong” last year. I produce documents; he testified during the Maria Dorr 3020A hearing he knows because he feels it in his “gut.”
Kristen Peterson changed her voter status between Jan. 10 and Feb. 28 this year. [ . . .]
In my opinion, Mr. Gauger, along with the entire school board, is now fully complicit in these actions.
Michael Rodgers, who is now the superintendent, never was assistant to the superintendent. No supporting documents, but what is written in his resumé. This is a position the school abolished June 26, 2012, to make way for the principal. Let us not forget Michael Rodgers has his own charge against Amagansett School hiding in a Miami, Fla., district office. The burning question is what led to that? In my opinion, it was filed so Mr. Rodgers could save his own backside. We’ll soon see if it will be released by the government. Hey, sneakers to loafers, what happened around the mid-2000s? You seem to have a lot of skeletons in that closet.
Mr. Rodgers again also initiated the Maria Dorr 3020A hearing by having the time stamps on a piece of paper to hand Richard Loeschner, which Mr. Rodgers was not authorized to view any cameras. Why and how did he have any times? Conveniently, he didn’t testify. Though he does this on every day of the hearings. Mr. Rodgers, not Richard Loeschner, found individuals to testify and even had Jason Hancock, a teacher, pulled as a “surprise” witness the first day of school. Mr. Rodgers also met continuously with Mr. Loeschner before, after, and during the event. It was highlighted in the final briefs and rendered decision.
My biggest question will always be why the young Hispanic child, whose mother worked at Shell, was pulled to talk to Mr. Loeschner multiple times. The Caucasian child who brought the six envelopes was never questioned once.
Does anyone ever stop to go, “What happened to Deborah King, Robert Brisbane, and Brigit Diprimo?” Three principals in three years before Ms. Dorr took the spot. Rumor has it, a group of names comes up — one retired, two are in the hierarchy of the school. Tale as old as time.
Where are the morals, ethics, integrity, review, following policy and procedure? Absent. Above all, where is accountability? Not at Amagansett School. One way or another, I’m not going anywhere.
Still here,
JOE KARPINSKI
Ignores History
East Hampton
May 17, 2025
To the Editor
On his recent visit to Saudi Arabia, President Trump said he wants “commerce not chaos.” Worryingly, his economic policies have led to higher costs, uncertainty, and risks to America’s long-term prosperity.
His mercantilist vision ignores the lessons of economic history. Mercantilist policies relied heavily on government intervention, tariffs, and monopolies to protect domestic industries. The result was reduced competition, increased inefficiency, higher production costs, and the death of innovation. By the middle of the 19th century, most major European countries had abandoned mercantilism in favor of free trade because it became obvious that the long-term drawbacks outweighed the short-term gains.
Trump’s enthusiasm for mercantilism might result in limited, sector-specific gains but is unlikely to be a successful long-term strategy for U.S. prosperity or global leadership.
ANDREW VAN PRAAG
Sawdust Caesar
Montauk
May 9, 2025
Dear David,
After experiencing the great thrill of Liberation Day and the rest of the 99 days, I am forced to write a political and personal advice column — something along the lines of an obnoxious Ann Landers or a perceptive TikTok influencer:
Dear Felon-in-Chief Trump: Your inconsistent tariff “policy” of “when, where, and how much” is currently destroying our economy and will lead us into a recession. The tariffs will lead to higher food prices, higher car prices, numerous business failures, and result in a huge increase in in unemployment. Your immigration policy of kidnapping American children and thousands of innocent people has split husbands from their wives and parents from their children. All is done in the name of freeing our nation of criminals and rapists. This seems a little hypocritical to me as you actually have been convicted of 34 felonies and sexual assault. You are also fond of fondling the genitalia of women. Yes, we all know that “it takes one to know one,” but you are violating our Constitution and ignoring our courts.
Your entire administration is based on hate, cruelty, and fear. Fortunately, the tide is slowly turning, and one day future historians will describe you as a petty sawdust Caesar with fascist and regal aspirations. Your failure to appoint neither Marjorie Taylor Greene nor Looney Loomer as roving ambassador to outer space will also be duly noted as a major faux pas.
Some personal advice: You need to lose some weight and tighten your hair weave. Also, please do something about the orange hue of your face. Folks are starting to call you “Pumpkin Head.” You also need to shower more frequently; your cabinet members are all complaining that you really smell — although it just might be all of the onions on the quarter-pound cheeseburgers that you quaff down while posting on Untruth Social every night.
Next week we will take a candid look at some really uncool cabinet members.
Cheers,
BRIAN POPE