100 Years Ago 1923
From The East Hampton Star, April 13
In a circular letter received by Dr. David Edwards, health officer for East Hampton town and village, Dr. Herman M. Biggs, State Commissioner of Health, calls for the observance of the week beginning April 16 as Clean-Up Week. Dr. Edwards has made the following proclamation:
“I feel that it should hardly be necessary to call your attention to the need of complying with the Department of Health’s suggestions and making our village and town clean and healthy.”
“There is one condition existing, however, that should not be tolerated, namely, the dumping of rubbish on or near roads. If we are to have an attractive town it is the duty of every resident to see that garbage and rubbish is properly disposed of, possibly by public incineration.”
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Presbytery Notes
Elder R. Gosman is elected delegate to the Presbytery and Elder J.D. Edwards alternate.
Tuesday evening of next week will be devoted to lectures and talk on missions, dealing principally with problems connected with the mountaineers of the south. It is expected that the meeting will be especially interesting and it is hoped that there will be a good attendance by the people of the community.
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Exception to exaggerated conditions of rum-running in Sag Harbor is expressed by the Rev. Raymond L. Scofield, rector of Christ P.E. church, in an open letter. The rector also preached a peppery sermon. Among other sentiments he expresses are: “I do not know whether the rum runners are kept busy in Sag Harbor; but I do know that all the rest of us are very busy earning our living, tending our little homes and helping our less fortunate fellowmen. We haven’t had time or authority to procure evidence to convict bootleggers and have left that to those who have both, the Government agents and the employees of the Anti-saloon League.
75 Years Ago 1948
From The East Hampton Star, April 15
Mrs. F. Raymond Dominy went from Smithtown Branch, L.I., to Auburn, N.Y., for the funeral services on April 5 for her son Capt. Felix R. Dominy Jr., U.S.M.C., killed at Iwo Jima on March 2, 1945. The service was held at two o’clock in Scipio Rural Cemetery, where Capt. Dominy was buried beside his brother, John Howard Dominy, who died in infancy. Mrs. Dominy had made arrangements last May when in Auburn for the burial in the Akin family burial plot. She stayed with her sister, Mrs. William M. Henry of Auburn; it was at Mrs. Henry’s home that the services were held.
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Four new elm trees planted last week on the Amagansett Main Street marked the beginning of a spring tree planting drive sponsored by the Amagansett Village Improvement Society. This was reported by the Society’s Tree Planting Committee, consisting of David Talmage, chairman, Mrs. Sunset B. Hasbrook, Miss Ethel Baker and George Eichhorn.
The new trees, all approximately four to five inches in diameter and approximately fifteen feet high, have been spaced to fill out gaps in the formerly beautiful canopy of trees severely damaged by the 1938 hurricane.
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The Guild Hall Players’ pageant directors, headed by Mrs. Enez Whipple, met on Monday evening to discuss casting of the characters in the spectacle to be given on East Hampton’s Village Green on the afternoon of Saturday, June 26, as a highlight in the Township’s commemoration of its 300th birthday. Before the final casting, the Players ask anyone who took part in the 275th anniversary pageant in 1924, who would like to take part in this one, to drop a postcard giving name and telephone number to the chairman of the particular episode in which he is interested.
50 Years Ago 1973
From The East Hampton Star, April 12
Montauk
Mrs. Margaret Guffin, owner and operator of Sunset View Cottages, exhibited her “Back Stimutron” at the Expo ‘73 which was held at the Hilton Hotel in New York March 25-March 31. The exhibit was sponsored by the International Patent Affiliate, Ltd. The invention was a great success and many orders were taken for it.
Businessmen from England, France and Japan were most enthusiastic buyers for export.
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With half of its roughly 43,000 acres, a figure including Gardiner’s Island but not the Incorporated Villages, still open and unsubdivided, and activity in land speculation intense, East Hampton Town stands at a critical point in its history.
The next few years, more or less, should tell the tale. Will the town continue to maintain its rural character in the face of increasing pressures for development, and will what change there is support a healthy, locally oriented economy?
Interviews with members of the Town’s five-man zoning committee during the past week or so lead to the conclusion that there is reason for cautious optimism. The zoning committee, charged with implementing the Comprehensive Plan, a 1968 East Hampton Town-Village document, comprises Councilman Henry A. Mund Jr., Town planner Thomas Thorsen, Donald Lamb, who is planning coordinator, Clayton Morey of the Planning Board, and Eugene Haas.
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The East Hampton Town Young Men’s Christian Association opened a counseling center on April 1, on the second floor of 1 Main Street, East Hampton, to give what its executive director, John P. Welch, described as “free professional and personal guidance to young people . . . on the vocational, educational, and the various problems they are facing with every day.”
25 Years Ago 1998
From The East Hampton Star, April 16
After more than a decade with the highest possible credit rating, East Hampton Town saw its evaluation drop this month after Moody’s Investment Services, a major rater of municipal creditworthiness, voiced concerns about the town’s fund balance and its lack of a complete 1996 audit.
This week, the town’s legal and financial advisers said they were working hard to reverse the drop, from A1 to A2. So far, they said, the action has not affected taxpayers.
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The East Hampton Town Trustees reluctantly agreed to postpone the adoption of no-discharge regulations for boats in town waters during a contentious public hearing on Tuesday night at Town Hall.
Instead, the Trustees vowed to support a “year of education” proposed by a committee representing town officials, the Association of Marine Industries, and the Montauk Harbor Association, during which voters will have a chance to adapt to what “no discharge” will mean.
The Trustees had agreed in late November to adopt an ordinance declaring all town waterways off-limits for the discharge of marine sewage, with the understanding that the town effort to obtain Federal no-discharge designation could take two or three years.
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Fishstock stirred the pot at Monday’s meeting of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee. Gene Hamilton’s proposal for a fund-raising acoustic-music concert in a field behind Main Street drew mixed reactions from the committee, which makes recommendations to the East Hampton Town Board on Amagansett matters.
Mr. Hamilton, a musician and former Amagansett resident who runs the popular “acoustic Mondays” at the Stephen Talkhouse, came to the meeting to pitch the Fishstock concert, so named for its fishing-related cause: Money raised from the concert would be given to the Town Shellfish Hatchery.
