125 Years Ago 1900
From The East Hampton Star, February 16
State Assemblyman Hatch has introduced a concurrent resolution amending the Constitution to abolish capital punishment and make murder in the first degree punishable by life imprisonment. This is a different course of procedure taken than that of Mr. Mahler, who also aimed to abolish capital punishment but did so by amending code. Mr. Hatch says he has favorable assurance for his amendment from a number of members.
Should the resolution be successful, it will be two years before it can go into effect, therefore it cannot help any persons at present under sentence of death.
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The shore farms of East Hampton and elsewhere on Long Island possess advantages for the economical raising of poultry superior to those of the West. Though the West abounds in the elements of grain feeding, that fact is offset by the inexhaustible supply of animal food contained in the seaweed which the tides twice in each twenty-four hours cast up on the island’s beaches.
So long as summer continues, such food is preferred by them to grain, which they will scorn even if cast before them. On it eggs will be produced in abundance and the young thrive and grow with the rapidity not to be affected by any other form of nourishment.
100 Years Ago 1925
From The East Hampton Star, February 13
The Tyles Holm dairy herd, owned by Gould Bros. of this village, has recently been tuberculin-tested by a Federal veterinarian and pronounced clean. This is the second clean test that the herd has had and it is now entitled to a certificate as a tuberculosis free, accredited herd.
This is a goal toward which the owners of this herd have been striving for the past three and a half years and they are to be congratulated upon their success. This is the third herd in East Hampton to be accredited and is probably the largest in the county to go into the accredited list, there being forty-two head in the herd.
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For the better protection of the forests of Suffolk county from fire, the Conservation Commission has adopted a regulation prohibiting anyone from starting a fire for clearing land or burning logs, brush, stumps or dry grass in any part of the towns of Babylon, Brookhaven, East Hampton, Huntington, Islip, Riverhead, Smithtown and Southampton, without first obtaining a written permit from the district ranger or fire warden.
There are about 300,000 acres of forests in Suffolk county, which is included in what is known as the Sixth fire district in the state. Three fire observation towers are maintained by the Conservation Commission, one on Telescope Hill near Selden, one on Flanders Hill south of Riverhead and a new one on Dix Hill.
75 Years Ago 1950
From The East Hampton Star, February 16
The Suffolk Board of Supervisors put its stamp of approval Tuesday on four pieces of legislation currently pending at Albany and which have particular reference to this county. Eight of the ten members of the board attended the special meeting in Riverhead over which Supervisor Everett C. Tuthill of Shelter Island presided as temporary chairman.
By unanimous vote in each instance, the supervisors endorsed bills providing for the continuance of the Suffolk County Water Authority, the establishment of a separate children’s court in the county, the adjustment of the salary of the county judge and the institution of a new method of indexing real property instruments in the office of the county clerk.
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Arrangements were going forward this week for the all-important gearing up on a proposed Long Island potato marketing agreement which will be opened in Polish Hall, Riverhead, on Monday, Feb. 27, at 9:30 a.m. All potato growers and shippers of both Suffolk and Nassau counties have been invited to attend.
The purpose of the hearing, which may continue for two or even three or four days, is to develop industry opinions on the overall operation of a potato marketing agreement. It is probable that hundreds of thousands of words of testimony will be taken for later analysis by U.S. Department of Agriculture specialists.
50 Years Ago 1975
From The East Hampton Star, February 13
Perry B. Duryea of Montauk, in a careful statement prepared for the Federal Interior Department’s offshore oil hearing this week, makes it clear that he still has major reservations about oil drilling off Long Island, at least until more studies are made and more precautions taken.
His statement, read Tuesday by an aide, described his present stance as a “holding position,” and contends on the basis of the Interior Department’s own study that it is “premature now for Long Island to face any ‘High Noon’ showdown.”
But the Assembly Minority Leader’s qualified objections were overshadowed this week by a suit that Nassau and Suffolk Counties and five Long Island Towns filed to stop the Federal government cold from leasing to offshore oil companies here or anywhere else. The suit was filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.
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A State Supreme Court judge ruled Friday that the end did not justify the means when the Southampton Town Board downzoned a ten-acre duck farm at Hayground, between Water Mill and Bridgehampton. The Board had wanted to get rid of the duck farm; its end was “desirable” but its means “arbitrary and unreasonable” and “unlawful,” according to Justice John Scileppi, since the downzoning “was not the product of careful deliberation within the framework of sound planning concepts.” Water Mill residents had often complained, and the Board agreed, that the Mecox Bay Poultry Farm’s 300,000 ducks polluted the Bay. The neighbors also disliked the ducks’ odor.
25 Years Ago 2000
From The East Hampton Star, February 17
A splash and a blast last Thursday marked the latest setbacks in the State Department of Transportation’s hapless reconstruction of the Sag Harbor-North Haven bridge. Early in the day, as crews were trying to remove a section of the 65-year-old span, a dozen other pieces fell into Sag Harbor Cove.
Then, a few hours later, an electric heater ignited a leaking propane gas tank in a portable trailer used by the workers. No one was injured in either incident, and Transportation Department officials said work on the bridge would be delayed only “minimally.” It is slated for completion by Dec. 1.
“The bridge collapses, the trailer explodes, and it’s only 10 to 12 — the day isn’t even over yet,” remarked Sag Harbor Mayor Bill Young, one of the dozen or so onlookers gathered by the bridge minutes after the explosion.
“Maybe I should pull out the coffee wagon,” mused the Mayor. “I haven’t seen this many people at this end of town in a long time.”
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The dredge called Shinnecock began work yesterday on the east side of the Montauk Harbor Inlet. Its powerful pump and 16-inch-diameter steel pipe have already begun to move sand east to west across the channel bottom and up over the west jetty, to be spread out to replace the beach that countless storms have eroded.
The new beach will be a welcome redistribution of the shoal that has grounded boats entering and exiting the harbor for over two years.
