Recent Stories: East Hampton

    The East Hampton Village should modify roads and educate motorists in order to better accommodate bicyclists and pedestrians, according to two residents who addressed the East Hampton Village Board at its work session last Thursday.
    Describing roadways as dangerous and the relationship between motorists and bicyclists as “anarchy,” Paul Fiondella and Howard Lebwith suggested adoption of a detailed set of principles that they said would result in safer conditions for bikers and pedestrians.

    At an otherwise uneventful meeting of the East Hampton Village Board, a public hearing date on a proposed amendment to a local law concerning dogs on village beaches was set for April 19 at 11 a.m. at the Emergency Services Building.
    With Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr., Larry Cantwell, the village administrator, and Richard Lawler, a trustee, all absent, Barbara Borsack, a trustee and the deputy mayor, presided.

    Richard Schneider, an East Hampton Village Police Department lieutenant and 35-year veteran of the force, has retired. The village board accepted his resignation on Friday, his last day on the job. The board also authorized a payment of $129,229.04 for accrued time.

    The actor Alec Baldwin, who has long taken an interest in politics of a regional and national nature, will speak about issues of importance to East Hampton Town residents at the East Hampton Conservators’ winter gathering at the Huntting Inn on Main Street on Feb. 9 from 6 to 8 p.m. Wine and hors d’oeuvres will be supplied.

    Tom Lawrence, a code enforcement officer for East Hampton Village, has resigned effective Feb. 15. At its meeting last Friday, the village board accepted his resignation and authorized payment of $33,066.60 for “unused accumulated time, pursuant to employee agreement.”

    An East Hampton School Board vote to approve a medical leave extension through Friday, Jan. 18, for Charles Soriano, the middle school principal, got people talking at a board meeting Tuesday night.
    Rumored to have contracted Lyme disease, Dr. Soriano has been away from his post since early fall. A former principal, Thomas Lamorgese, has served as interim principal at the school since mid-November.

    After Hurricane Sandy caused the play’s postponement last weekend, partial proceeds from the East Hampton High School production of “Pygmalion” will go to a good cause. A cast and crew of almost 40 students have been preparing for the production since mid-September and last week decided to donate a portion of the show’s proceeds to the American Red Cross.

    The East Hampton Village Zoning Board plans to reopen the hearing on an unusual application from John and Suzanne Cartier, who seek to move their 2,575-square-foot house to the rear of their lot, add 182 square feet to it, and then construct a second 2,486-square-foot residence. The Cartiers’ intent is to live in the new house, while their children and grandchildren take up residence in the existing one. The property, at 105 Main Street, shares a driveway with the East Hampton Historical Society’s Osborn Jackson house.

    By a vote of 195 to 36, taxpayers overwhelmingly approved an almost $2 million 2013 budget for the East Hampton Library on Saturday. The increase from this year’s budget was just over $120,000.
    Dennis Fabiszak, library director, said the library board and staff were thankful for the support, noting that the budget was approved by 84 percent of those who voted.

    At a meeting on Friday, for the second time, the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals granted Howard Schultz, the president of Starbucks, and his wife, Sheri Kersch Schultz, an interior designer, a coastal erosion hazard permit and a variance to allow the construction of a deck and a 2,521-square-foot addition at the first floor and basement levels of their waterfront house on Gracie Lane. The property is just over four acres.

    The Thomas Moran Trust is fine-tuning a site plan for the restoration of the artist’s house and studio on Main Street in East Hampton, a National Historic Landmark.
    The trust began the public phase of its $4.5 million fund-raising campaign this year. It has raised approximately the same amount since its inception in 2007, according to its first newsletter, The Studio, published on Sept. 18. Most recently, the trust received a $500,000 gift from the Joseph and Sylvia Slifka Foundation.