125 Years Ago 1900
From The East Hampton Star, April 6
The State Assembly passed a bill permitting women who are property owners to vote at town and village elections for officers.
The Senate, meanwhile, by a vote of twenty-six to twenty-two, passed a bill to repeal the Horton law permitting prize fights. The bill now goes to the governor. It was a strict party vote.
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There is daylight ahead of Long Island at last in the matter of securing rapid transit to the heart of Manhattan. The Wagner bill permitting the Long Island Railroad managers to go ahead with the construction of the subway on Atlantic avenue has passed the Legislature and will be signed by the mayor and governor, who are both favorable to the scheme.
Long Island Railroad President Baldwin says the company will go right to work upon the signing of the bill by the governor, and by the beginning of the coming summer from 2,000 to 3,000 men will be engaged upon the work, which will be finished within two and a half years, at which point the entire Atlantic avenue division of the road will be equipped with electricity, and this will be followed by the electrifying of the road to Long Island City also.
100 Years Ago 1925
From The East Hampton Star, April 3
Officers Howard, Finch, and Overton of the State Conservation Commission arrested three men found hunting at Cedar Point last Sunday. One duck was found in the possession of the party. They were taken before Justice Sheldon Miller and given small fines.
Of late there have been several complaints received by the game wardens of shooting spring sheldrake at Cedar Point. When the officers arrived at the beach they found hunting going on, just as if the season were open.
The hunting privileges at Cedar Point are leased to the Sag Harbor Gun Club, to which several East Hampton sportsmen belong. They engage a caretaker there during the open season to protect their lease.
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A transfer tax decree was entered in the estate of David J. Gardiner, a descendant of the noted Lion Gardiner, first white owner of Gardiner’s Island. The estate was appraised at upward of $500,000.
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The Pennsylvania Railroad Company employed Will H. Lyford to investigate the advisability of developing Fort Pond Bay, at the extreme eastern end of Long Island, as a transatlantic port for fast passenger, mail and freight ships. Mr. Lyford, working with the assistance of government agents and representatives of the shipping companies concerned, found that the waters in the vicinity of Montauk Point were well suited for harbor purposes and that some saving in time would result if ships docked at that point rather than New York City.
His reports state, however, that steamship companies are not ready to leave the Port of New York at this time, and he fears that the minimum cost of constructing piers, $12,000,000, in addition to the cost of the necessary land and railroad extensions, would be a losing proposition.
75 Years Ago 1950
From The East Hampton Star, April 6
A new weather information service planned especially to meet the needs of eastern Long Island farmers was inaugurated Monday, April 3, when three radio stations in New York City and a fourth in Hempstead began broadcasting localized bulletins prepared by the New York office of the U.S. Weather Bureau in collaboration with the meteorological department of the Brookhaven National Laboratory at Upton.
Station WNBC will broadcast weekday bulletins on Tom Page’s early morning farm news program, WOR will also air the daily broadcast, and farm news commentator Phil Alampi will give it out on his program on WJZ as well.
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Application has been made to the N.Y. District office of Army Engineers by Goble Aircraft Specialists, of Mineola and Montauk, for a permit to maintain the existing pier and marine railway and to construct catwalks and install mooring piles in Fort Pond Bay at Montauk.
The applicant proposes to maintain the existing L-shaped pier with its adjoining finger piers and the marine railway, and construct two landings adjoining the existing pier and install two lines of mooring pikes 35 feet from and parallel to the proposed landings.
50 Years Ago 1975
From The East Hampton Star, April 3
A Southampton Town Councilman, urging his colleagues not to “sit here in our chairs and talk about it,” presented Tuesday a draft version of a local law that would license home improvement contractors.
The Councilman, William F. McCoy of Bridgehampton, wanted the board to hold a public hearing on the proposal on April 15, but withheld his resolution after Supervisor Theodore O. Hulse suggested the Board first seek “input” from the Town Supervisors and Village Mayors in the five East End Towns.
Mr. Hulse is anxious to hear what neighboring municipalities have to say because a law governing contractors in Southampton Town apparently would do little good if the other Towns and Villages did not have similar laws.
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“I hear rumblings,” warned Trustee William Bates when the resolution on salaries for Sag Harbor Village officials came up at Tuesday’s meeting. The rumblings subsided somewhat when he read the resolution: The Mayor is to receive an annual stipend of $1,200; each Trustee, $600.
“This represents a substantial increase,” he kidded. The Mayor and Trustees receive no salaries now. Mr. Bates said the Village has checked on the policies of other Villages throughout the state before proposing to award itself a stipend recognizing time and effort.
25 Years Ago 2000
From The East Hampton Star, April 6
When East Hampton Town first told the residents of the Three Mile Harbor Trailer Park about a state program that could help them buy the land their trailers occupy and repair the park’s ailing infrastructure themselves, they were skeptical, but hopeful.
The owner seemed reluctant to spend money on the needed repairs, and because the mobile home park was on the market, the residents’ future was already uncertain. At first blush, the State Housing Finance Agency program seemed to give them a chance to control their own destinies. An H.F.A. consultant told them they could form a cooperative to buy the park and qualify for a state-financed loan that might cover up to 95 percent of the anticipated costs.
But three years later, they still don’t own the park and the repairs remain undone.
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Saturday was Census Day for most of the country, but in East Hampton it was just another April 1. That is because East Hampton Town, as well as Shelter Island and Southold, are getting “special attention” from the Bureau of the Census, according to Geraldine Sheridan, an assistant recruiting manager at the Census 2000 office in Medford.
All three towns, which the bureau considers rural, are being canvassed door-to-door. The inhabitants of Southampton Town, by comparison, were counted, like most places in the nation, by mail and phone.
“We found 99 percent of the new houses,” said Lou Arceri, who worked on the hunt for residences two years ago. “The houses were going up so fast it was hard to keep track,” said the Amagansett resident.
