Villages

East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. presented a tentative  budgetof almost $20.3 million for the fiscal year, which begins on Aug. 1, at a village board meeting last Thursday, which would pierce the state-imposed 2-percent increase in property taxes. If the budget is approved by the board after a public hearing on June 20, spending would increase by 2.75 percent, or $542,870.

The Save Second House committee, a brand-new arm of the Montauk Historical Society, has four members and some big ideas for restoring the run-down building, which houses a museum.

The committee includes Honora Herlihy as its chairwoman, Nora Franzetti as secretary and treasurer, Lawrence Cooke, who has been working to establish an Indian Museum on the north side of the property, and Kathryn Nadeau, who replaced Elizabeth White last month as president of the historical society.

The Montauk Fire Department is looking for people willing to train as volunteer emergency medical technicians for its ambulance squad. An informational meeting will be held at the firehouse on Wednesday at 7 p.m. to explain what the position requires and how much training is needed for certification.

When Grace Lightcap attended a Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy conference in February, it revved up her mama bear instincts. Ms. Lightcap, whose 20-year-old son, Terence Lightcap, has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, realized that aside from her monthly donations to the advocacy group, she has not done anything lately on a larger scale to raise money for research into the disease.

She decided to hold a community yard sale on Memorial Day weekend to raise money to help speed approval for therapies that could help her son and others with Duchenne.

“It is with a heavy heart and deep regret to inform you all that this year, 2014, Pantigo Farm Co. will no longer be operating.”

Thus began a Facebook post by Sam Lester, who has been operating a small farm and farm stand on a two-acre parcel at the junction of Pantigo and Skimhampton Roads. Known for fresh produce and preserves such as blackberry and beach plum jams, the farm stand will be no more.

Pets and their people friends will be welcomed Saturday, May 3, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for a 40th anniversary party for the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons at 90 Daniel’s Hole Road. A highlight of the event will be a dog agility and obedience competition. Those bringing animals have been reminded to keep their dogs on leashes and cats in appropriate carriers.

For several weeks this month, the Suffolk County Water Authority has been working in Montauk to add 3,437 feet of a new 12-inch water main to connect pipes from the intersection of Montauk Highway to Caswell Road, near the Ditch Plain area. The new pipes from east to west of the site will provide additional pressure and protection against service interruption for residents of East Lake Drive.

Responding to a spate of applications before the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals involving outsized accessory structures that some homeowners have labeled garages, the East Hampton Village Board introduced an amendment to its code last Thursday that would tighten the definition of a garage to a structure designed or used for, and accessible to, motor vehicles.

He is a carpenter and he has long hair, traits he shares with the person he portrayed on Good Friday at St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church in Montauk

Donations of antique objects dating from the 1880s through 1920 are being sought by a committee working to establish a farm museum at the former Lester farm at North Main and Cedar Streets in East Hampton, which is owned by East Hampton Town.

The group is also seeking volunteers who would staff the museum during open hours once a week, on Saturdays.

Andrew Duggan Wetzel and Jennifer Leigh Slay of Portland, Ore., were married under the rotunda at the historic San Francisco City Hall on March 31, with Judge Robin Whirtlin officiating.

Loida Lewis, the widow of America’s first African-American billionaire, appeared Friday at a meeting of the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals  to request permits and variances for a construction project at her 165 Lily Pond Lane property.

The Montauk Library has released its operating budget proposal for 2014-15. At $774,198, the total is slightly higher than last year. If approved, taxpayers will pay $24.27 (up from $22.93) per $1,000 of assessed property value, roughly $121 for an average house.

The bulk of the library’s revenue comes from property taxes and such fees as fines, copy and computer charges, and grants, estimated at $19,603.

The Montauk Fire Department began its celebration of its 75th anniversary on Sunday with an ecumenical memorial service at St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church honoring all those who have served the department who have since died. A roll call of the deceased firemen and ladies auxiliary members was read, with the church bell rung after each name.

Serve Sag Harbor, a new nonprofit organized to tackle problems in the village, has a plan to tame traffic by narrowing the roadways with the help of sidewalk landscaping and large planters.

Work briefly came to a halt at the East Deck motel in Ditch Plain, Montauk, last week after Tom Preiato, East Hampton Town’s chief building inspector, issued a verbal stop-work order after receiving a report that concrete drainage rings were being installed on the beach there.

The property’s new owner, a limited liability company headed by Scott Bradley, had received a go-ahead from the zoning board of appeals to add up to 6,000 cubic yards of sand to buttress the five-acre oceanfront property’s dune and bluff crest.

Until an attorney for the East Hampton School Board stepped in, it appeared on Friday that a decision was imminent on P.C. Schenck and Sons’ application to install AT&T antennas and ground-based equipment at its oil distribution facility on Newtown Lane in East Hampton Village.

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service will close the beach above mean high tide at the Amagansett National Wildlife Refuge, which runs from Atlantic Avenue almost to Indian Wells Beach, and most of the Jessup’s Neck peninsula in the Elizabeth A. Morton National Wildlife Refuge in Sag Harbor on Tuesday to protect nesting shorebirds.

To the surprise of many in the audience, Tom Sperry, an employee of the Meeting House restaurant in Amagansett Square who had just delivered a vocal performance uncannily reminiscent of Frank Sinatra, was not crowned Mr. Amagansett at last Thursday’s fifth annual pageant.

Katy Stewart , Sag Harbor, Katy’s Courage Fund, Jim Stewart

It’s here, folks, the weekend some of us have been anticipating will pop the hard, cold bubble of winter. The Montauk Friends of Erin will be your hosts for the St. Patrick’s Day parade weekend, which starts tomorrow with a lunch to honor its grand marshal, Paul Monte of Gurney’s Inn.

Reservations for the lunch, which will take place at Gurney’s from noon to 3 p.m., have been requested and can be made by calling John Behan of the grand marshal committee. The cost is $50 per person, payable at the door.

The Maidstone Club’s application to expand and modernize its irrigation system, which has been the subject of multiple meetings of the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals, will require a final environmental impact statement before it can proceed.

An award-winning environmental documentary, “Bag It!” will be shown at LTV Studios in East Hampton on Friday, March 28, at 6 p.m. The film follows a character as he travels the world seeking to understand the use of plastic bags in our everyday lives. It addresses the effect of all plastics on the oceans, human health, and the environment.

Those who attend the screening, which is sponsored by the East Hampton Town litter committee, have been asked to donate a nonperishable food item at the door. The foodstuffs will be given to the East Hampton Food Pantry.         

Construction of a rock revetment in front of an oceanfront property at 11 West End Road in East Hampton Village resumed last Thursday after State Supreme Court Justice Andrew Tarantino lifted a temporary restraining order that had blocked the work since November.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation had initially given the property owner, Mollie Zweig, a tidal wetlands permit, and the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals had granted her variances to allow the revetment, or sea wall, as well as the removal of an existing rock groin.

A repaving project on the 8.2-mile stretch between Country Road 39 in Southampton and Stephen Hand's Path in East Hampton is slated to begin next Thursday.

After being stung by a venomous stonefish in Puerto Rico, Gina Bradley is working to get the word out to other travelers about what to do if they find themselves in her place.

In the beginning there were four men and it was on St. Patrick’s Day 1947 that they decided to march from one end of Montauk’s main drag to the other. They ended up at what is today the Shagwong Tavern, and an institution came to be.

       East Hampton Town officials have come up with proposed new legislation designed to tighten restrictions on taxis and prevent out-of-town companies from making a quick buck during the 8 to 12 weeks of summer. Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, the East Hampton Town board liaison to the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee, went over a draft of the legislation at a meeting of the committee on Monday. He warned, however, that it wasn’t simple to limit business in New York State. “We have very few tools to limit commerce,” he said.

       With hearings on new restrictions on parking in East Hampton Village municipal lots and on the commercial use of landscaping equipment scheduled for the village board’s meeting on Friday, March 21, the board considered both topics at its work session last Thursday.

       The hearings will be held at 11 a.m. at the Emergency Services Building.

       The fifth annual Mr. Amagansett pageant, a fund-raiser for the Donald T. Sharkey Memorial Community Fund, happens tonight at 7 at the Stephen Talkhouse.

       The venue will open at 6:30. Admission to the lighthearted pageant is $20. To compete, contestants pay a $150 entry fee.