125 Years Ago 1899
From The East Hampton Star, April 21
The project of lighting the streets of East Hampton by electricity has been postponed for the present. Singularly enough the opposition to the scheme comes from some of the summer residents who think kerosene lamps more in harmony with the colonial character of the old village. Why not return to tallow dips?
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The Star always has been, and ever shall be, open to the free discussion of all subjects which have to do with the welfare of the town, and both sides of every subject shall be given a hearing, regardless of our own opinion in the matter. We have never failed to publish all communications treating upon public matters when the authors have been fair enough to give names. The Star shines for all.
100 Years Ago 1924
From The East Hampton Star, April 18
A letter from William J. Whittemore, who has a place on Amagansett road, and who has always been interested in the word "Pantigo," sheds light upon the place-name. It also relegates to realms of conjecture the story of the ancient who exclaimed, "Pant, I go," as he climbed the Pantigo hill.
Mr. Whittemore says:
"The word is evidently Indian in its origin and having no possible relation to the legend of the old farmers, told to me when we made our first inquiries. So I was pleased when my good neighbor, Frank Nielson, was helping Foster Sayville, of the Museum of the American Indian, in his researches about Pantigo, to have him get from Mr. Sayville the information that the word is Algonquin and signifies 'view.' This is most fitting if one knows the lay of the land, back of Nielson's, and off toward the old burial place beyond the railroad cutting. So I imagine a little search in an Algonquin dictionary would dispose of all the chiefs and panting Indians."
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According to an accurate account of persons who visited Maidstone Park last season, kept by Superintendent John Field, there were 14,999 persons who enjoyed the facilities and privileges of this public recreation park.
The report shows that July 26 was the biggest day of the summer at the Park, as there were 437 persons there. The next busy day was August 5th, when the superintendent counted 397 persons. As is usual the month of August proved the busiest of the season at the Park, a total of 5,504 going there.
75 Years Ago 1949
From The East Hampton Star, April 21
A series of thefts, which Suffolk County police characterized as the strangest they had ever encountered, appeared to be solved when Village Police Chief Francis Leddy found an assortment of nearly one hundred pairs of high-heeled slippers Monday morning at the home of a twenty-four-year-old Navy veteran, on Devon Road, Amagansett. For months village and town police had been puzzled over the many minor thefts committed here and in Amagansett and by the fact that in almost every case high-heeled slippers, usually around size 6, were taken while more valuable things were overlooked. Police charge that radios, paints, shingles and carpenter's tools, also found at the home, had also been stolen.
The array of stolen shoes spread out on a mahogany table made a sorrowful sight. High heels of all shades and materials were to be found, and while most of the shoes had been worn and were scuffed, four pairs of shoes which had apparently not been worn were in the collection. The whole case has puzzled police and the display of stolen goods — never sold, given away or used, apparently, but stolen for some strange reason — told a pathetic story. Psychologists will have to carry on the investigation from this point.
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Tonight's meeting of the Guild Hall Camera Club is at the Newtown Lane home of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Parsons. Mrs. Parsons has a collection of dolls from fifty to one hundred years old belonging to her mother and grandmother. Members have been urged to bring their cameras as Mrs. Parsons and Mr. Edwardes will have the dolls and special indoor lighting equipment set up for table-top photography.
50 Years Ago 1974
From The East Hampton Star, April 18
The East Hampton Town Board — with the exception of Councilwoman Mary Fallon, who was vacationing in India, a prize won at last year's Ladies' Village Improvement Society horse show — met Tuesday night in an hour-long, harmonious, at times bantering session, before a "full house."
Board members intoned 23 resolutions, adopting all with unanimity except for one which permitted police officers to grow modified mustaches and sideburns and prohibited them from sporting beards and goatees. Councilman Eamon McDonough abstained. "How could I vote for it?" he said later. "I wear a beard and a goatee."
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East Hampton High School's principal, Charles Adams, resigned suddenly on April 4 for unspecified "personal reasons." He had been with the School for less than two years. His resignation, which the School has not announced, will not be "official" until the School Board accepts it. The Board will meet on Tuesday.
The School District's supervising principal, Robert Freidah, declined yesterday to discuss the resignation, other than to call it "unexpected," explaining that he had forwarded Mr. Adams's letter of resignation to the Board, and that it was the Board's business. The Board's president, Frank Brill, said that he could not discuss it because the letter was still in the mails.
Mr. Adams said yesterday that the letter "cites personal reasons and a personal opportunity" without explaining them, and he declined to explain them. "It's kind of a personal matter," he said. "I don't think it would be very wise to discuss it with you."
25 Years Ago 1999
From The East Hampton Star, April 22
A young woman's slowly collapsing nervous system — and the courage to fight it — are poignantly evident in a small, first floor motel room at the East Hampton House on Montauk Highway.
For weeks, the room has been home to Aliza Ashkenasi and her 22-year-old daughter, Deiby (pronounced Debby), who is taking massive intravenous doses of antibiotics, along with other medicines for Lyme disease, babesiosis, and human granulocytic ehrlichiosis, diseases that are carried by ticks.
Dr. Joseph J. Burrascano of Springs-Fireplace Road, East Hampton, a specialist in tick-borne ailments, is directing the treatment.
About a month after returning home to Rishon LeZion, half an hour south of Tel Aviv, the normally happy and active 16-year-old began experiencing fevers, a sore throat, and general achiness and fatigue.
Today, she is confined to a wheelchair, paralyzed for the most part from the waist down, and blind.
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Developments this week in East Hampton Town's dilemma over whether to mine or cap the Montauk landfill appear to have tipped the scales toward capping. The Town Board has called a meeting for 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, in the Montauk Firehouse, to discuss its options.
An engineer's report released Tuesday put the cost of capping all or part of the landfill at between $5.5 million and $7 million, while the only legal bid on mining put that cost at $23.4 million.
