EDITORIALS

Scenery Matters
“Bury the power lines!” has become a rallying cry across the South Fork in the last few months. First, a good number of people who live north of Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton and Water Mill objected to a plan by the Long Island Power Authority to install new transmission cables on high poles, as part of an eight-mile run from Southampton Village eastward. LIPA had originally planned for half the cables to run underground, but after a ruckus was raised, agreed to bump the underground percentage up to a whopping 55 percent.

Question of Priorities
We would love to be able to tell you in fine detail just why the East Hampton School District’s 2008-9 budget is going up nearly 8 percent for next year. But getting a clear understanding of the spending plan has been frustrating. The district neglected to respond to an early Freedom of Information Law request for a copy of the budget, instead pointing to the spring newsletter sent to all district taxpayers, which offers a summary. The school board approved the budget on April 8, but the run-around ended only this week, when we were finally able to lay our hands on a copy of the budget — from a school office. In years past, reporters, and, on occasion, officers of the parents organization, were invited to sit down with school officials to go over the document line-by-line; but that was then.

COLUMNS
Connections | Helen S. Rattray
Is It Gray? Is It Blue?
For the past 10 days, I’ve been worrying over a batch of color strips from a neighborhood paint store.

The Mast-Head | David E. Rattray
An Emotional Week
Last week was an emotional one for a number of the people around the Star office.

Point of View | Jack Graves
Talkin’ Change
“Change! Change you can believe in,” I said, holding up before my co-workers a jar of quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies that had come over the past few months to fill a plastic jasmine rice jar I keep on my desk.