125 Years Ago 1900
From The East Hampton Star, March 2
The trial of Sylvester Conklin, of Southampton, for murder, will be held before the Grand Jury which will sit at Riverhead Monday, March 5. Conklin was charged with the killing of William Strouck, a German employed on the farm of Charles Dimon. Strouck was found by the roadside one Sunday morning with his head badly cut and a fractured skull. He was taken to the Presbyterian hospital, where he died a few days after. Suspicion attached to Conklin, the motive being jealousy, on account of a girl to whom both were paying attention. He was examined before Justice E.H. Foster and as a result of the examination was taken to Riverhead to await the action of the Grand Jury.
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Some time ago the towns of Southampton and Southold originated a proposition to establish boundary lines in Peconic bay between the two towns. As the plan developed, Shelter Island and East Hampton towns were interested in the project and it was finally proposed to divide up Peconic and Gardiner’s bays among the towns bordering on those waters.
At a conference of representatives of the several towns held at Riverhead February 19, the plan was generally approved, and it was voted to advise and recommend that the Board of Supervisors of Suffolk county be asked to approve and to submit to the Legislature for enactment of a plan of procedure for the division of the bays as laid down in a memorandum.
100 Years Ago 1925
From The East Hampton Star, February 27
Last Friday, at midnight, just as a number of Long Island “reformed Seventh Day Adventists” were awaiting the end of the world, a terrific blast of dynamite occurred at Oyster Bay, the shock being felt as far as Farmingdale.
Investigation resulted in the arrest of Emil Walti, Clausen Somers, George E. Dimaitino and Harry Hawkuist of Oyster Bay, who are held in $1,000 bail each for examination. The boys said it was a joke.
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Calling the action of the Long Island State Park Commission “autocratic” and “high-handed,” the Suffolk Supervisors have adopted a resolution providing for some of its members and the counsel, Robert P. Griffing, to appear in Albany to attend a hearing on the Thayer and Straus bills, which seek to curb the procedure of the commission in “appropriating” lands in this county for park purposes.
One or both of these bills provide that the Park Commission shall not acquire lands in either Nassau or Suffolk County for park purposes without first obtaining the consent of the Supervisors. This is likely to block considerable park work, unless the State will also pass legislation providing for the taxation of park lands for local purposes.
75 Years Ago 1950
From The East Hampton Star, March 2
Several days of cold weather unprecedented this winter gave East Hampton young people good skating on Georgica Pond, Hook Pond, and Town Pond, ending with yesterday morning’s rain and warmer temperature. On Sunday about two hundred people were seen skating on Georgica, something that has not occurred here for about ten years, and about ten ice-boats, from as far as Bellport, L.I., from Wainscott, Sagaponack and Mecox, sailed on that pond all day. It was a beautiful sight, recalling to older people the iceboating that was a great sport on Hook Pond during those winters that seemed colder than winters nowadays.
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A garbled message to the Amagansett Fire Dept. resulted in the complete demolition by fire of a building housing restrooms and washrooms, in the camping area on Lazy Point owned by John A. Craft and Joseph Dreesen, yesterday afternoon. Jesse Rodriguez, Orie Havens, and Rodney Rodriquez, all of Amagansett, spotted the blaze on their way to Amagansett and phoned the Amagansett Fire Dept.
Somehow, the message was so completely misunderstood that the firemen thought they were going to a grass fire in a section where the danger was not great, and so didn’t rush to the scene. The building was well burned by the time the small force arrived, and the two owners saw it go before their eyes.
50 Years Ago 1975
From The East Hampton Star, February 27
The student body of the Bridgehampton School is now about 80 percent black, and despite a good record of race-relations, the school has a serious racial problem — if only because too many of Bridgehampton’s white parents perceive it to have a racial problem, and pay to send their children elsewhere.
As the school’s guidance counselor laments, “It’s not ‘black and white’ at the school, but the community is making it black and white.”
One more citizens’ study group has accordingly undertaken to scrutinize every aspect of the school, and has asked help from the State Education Department to assess professionally the quality of the school’s education.
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The East Hampton Village Board indicated Friday that it has no appetite for two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame-seed bun: the Board tentatively approved a local law to bar take-out restaurants in the Village, amidst rumors that McDonald’s plans to put an eatery here.
The take-out restaurant law is an amendment to the Village zoning code that would keep out restaurants that serve food “primarily” for consumption outside the restaurant proper. Before it can become law, the Board must advertise it twice in the Star and hold a public hearing on it, and then vote again. It could become law within a month.
Village restaurants that now ostensibly fall into the take-out category would either be exempted because they don’t deal “primarily” in take-out food, or be classified as prior nonconforming usage.
25 Years Ago 2000
From The East Hampton Star, March 2
Workers for KeySpan Energy will begin taking soil and groundwater samples from under the gas ball on Long Island Avenue in Sag Harbor on Monday. The work is the first step toward determining the extent of the pollution that has caused the nearly one-acre site to be named the village’s third Superfund site, and cleaning it up.
The property was used as a gas manufacturing plant from 1859 to 1957. Manufactured gas was created as a byproduct of burning coal at small, local plants nationwide and was a common source of energy for lighting, cooking, and heating before widespread distribution of natural gas began.
The contaminants, believed to be buried at the site, could include “volatile aromatics” such as benzene, toluene, and xylene, as well as a host of other chemicals that are often found in solid masses similar to highway asphalt or coal tar.
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Suffolk Legislator George O. Guldi introduced a bill Tuesday providing for $1.9 million in county financial support toward the construction of a sand-bypass facility at Shinnecock Inlet. However, the measure was immediately criticized by a number of people speaking before the Legislature.
Shinnecock Inlet was cut through the barrier beach by the 1938 Hurricane as the vast amount of water driven up into Shinnecock Bay was blown back into the ocean as powerful winds shifted to the northwest. The inlet was stabilized by two parallel rock groins shortly afterward and proved a boon to the South Shore’s commercial fishing fleet.
