Villages

With Covid-19 infections on the rise again in Suffolk County, South Fork business owners are reinstituting mask mandates and other safety protocols. "We got to a point where we realized we had to take a stand," said one, Eric Lemonides, a co-owner of Almond in Bridgehampton, where patrons 12 and over are being asked to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative Covid test.

Domenic Papa, the owner of a Connecticut car dealership, has bought the Amagansett and Bellport I.G.A.s, also known as Cirillo's Markets, from Fran Cirillo. 

In collaboration with New York Natural Heritage Program and Cornell Cooperative Extension, Save the Sound's private donors sponsored a first-of-its-kind dive: five days underwater to survey biodiversity where the Long Island Sound and Peconic Estuary empty around 822-acre Plum Island.

"Cousin Belle," presumably 15-year-old Caroline Isabella Homan (1846-1923), daughter of Egbert Homan (1812-1888) and the former Caroline Conklin (1821-1898), wrote this detailed letter to Joshua B. Edwards (1830-1915) in October of 1861.

A proposal that would permit two-bedroom accessory dwellings with kitchens on East Hampton Village properties of 40,000 square feet or more, for use by family, friends, or employees of the primary residents, received unanimous support at a village board meeting on Friday.

When Juliana Lester, a rising East Hampton High School senior, noticed that "a lot of the locals have been moving away and . . . our story is kind of slipping through our fingers," the 16-year-old decided to do her part to teach people about the village's history.

Sugar Loaf, a burial ground sacred to the Shinnecock Indian Nation, has been returned to the tribe. Late last month, the Shinnecock Nation Graves Protection Warrior Society announced that the 4.5-acre piece of land in Shinnecock Hills had been purchased for $5.6 million with the help of the Peconic Land Trust.

This newspaper clipping from the Aug. 4, 1977, East Hampton Star advertises the upcoming Fisherman's Fair at Ashawagh Hall, benefiting the Springs Improvement Society. The ad is from the Springs Historical Society Archive.

Lovers of the oceans and the life within them have just a few days left to experience "Science and the Sea," an exhibition of photographs by the marine scientist and explorer Gaelin Rosenwaks at the Montauk Lighthouse Oceans Institute that is but a glimpse into the life of an inveterate adventurer, an academic scientist turned storyteller whose career on a given day may see her swimming with blue sharks off Montauk, or hammerheads in the Bahamas, or 45-ton sperm whales off the island of Dominica.

A law that will require East Hampton Village residents to install low-nitrogen septic systems when conventional systems fail was passed by the village board at a meeting on Friday. The law will take effect in a few weeks, after being filed with New York's secretary of state.

With the price of housing on the South Fork exorbitant and affordable places to live sadly lacking, two grassroots organizations, Solidarity Sundays and East End Yimby, have joined together to take action. Their first order of business: busting the myths surrounding municipally managed and public-private housing partnerships, fears of which include more traffic, more crime, poor construction, negative environmental impact, higher taxes, and lower property values for neighbors.

This photograph from the Amagansett Historical Association's Carleton Kelsey Collection shows Lodowick H. King (1844-1904), a native of Amagansett, seated for a portrait. He wears his Union Army Civil War uniform with his hat, which features his regiment number within a cross, set on a table next to him.

Rick Mosebach of Hicksville "didn't want to just walk in circles around my house," so he chose a destination, Montauk, and decided to get take his time covering the 90 miles on foot and learned a lot about the Island on the way.

After two months of nutrient-gobbling, the floating wetlands in Montauk's Fort Pond are healthy, if a little rattled by Tropical Storm Elsa earlier this month. The storm's strong winds flipped several of their corners and caused some of the 7,200 plants to fall from their plastic holders.

More than 16 months after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic caused a surge in East End real estate sales, the boom is still going strong, but there are signs it is "entering a more stable, less reactive environment."

East Hampton Town has gotten a $5,600 grant from the Preservation League of New York State to fund a cultural resource survey of cemeteries. 

As the Delta variant of Covid-19 continues to spread in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control on Tuesday officially recommended that even people already vaccinated against Covid-19 once again wear masks in indoor public settings if they are in a region with "substantial" or "high" levels of community transmission.

After the Covid-19 pandemic halted the South Fork Commuter Connection — just as it was gaining significant momentum as a viable transportation option for local workers — state officials on Monday announced the service will return in the fall.

If symptoms are severe and/or you cannot reach your primary care provider, you should consider going to your nearest emergency room more promptly for evaluation, but you can rest assured knowing this is very unlikely to occur given the rare incidence of this adverse effect to date as well as the excellent prognosis for recovery.

Forty-some cyclists riding regular bikes, hand cycles, and recumbent bikes cruised the nearly 22 miles from Amagansett to Sag Harbor and back again in an event marked by a sense of strength, support, and connections.

The Anchor Society's grassroots effort to develop a general store in East Hampton Village that will provide residents with daily necessities and a year-round gathering place kicked off on Sunday with a search to find the venture a suitable location in the commercial district. 

"I'm not sure what I would have done if I were not a fisherman," reflected Capt. Steven Forsberg Sr. of the Viking Fleet in Montauk, the largest privately owned fishing fleet in the Northeast. "I can't see doing anything else. I think I was born with it in my blood." There's probably a good bit of salt water mixed in that blood, too. 

Ask any bayman, and all would agree that the bay scallop fishery in the Peconic Bay estuary system in the past two years was a total calamity. As such, it was no surprise to learn that the United States Department of Commerce recently declared the events of 2019-20 a fishery disaster. 

The 17 fish featured were blackfish, porgy, swordfish, striped bass, sea bass, blowfish, butterfish, weakfish, cod, bluefish, tuna, mackerel, whiting, marlin, bunker, fluke, and flounder, all of which could be caught by fishermen here at the time.

The percentage of people testing positive for the virus has slowly but consistently ticked upward, leading to fears of yet another surge, this time almost entirely among the unvaccinated.

The New York State vaccination site at the Stony Brook Southampton college campus will cease operations as of the end of the day on Monday, July 26. The closure is part of the state's effort to "focus on localized vaccination efforts" in specific communities with lower vaccination rates, according to the governor's office.

Two longtime friends have combined their respective small businesses to create Clay Camp, which offers a mobile two-hour course in hand building and throwing, rolling and whirling on a potter's wheel.

The summer brings with it not only the joyful opportunity to spend time with friends and family or explore the outdoors, but also an associated increase in minor wounds and lacerations.

Three Mile Harbor will be closed to shellfishing from sunrise on Saturday through Wednesday, coinciding with the Clamshell Foundation's annual fireworks display, which is set for Saturday night.

A first haircut is a rite of passage for kids. Parents watch with pride as youthful locks hit the ground, a symbol of growing up. For the O'Brien family, however, their grandson's first haircut had particular meaning.