Villages

Columbia Law School announced this week the receipt of a $3.5 million gift from the Andrew Sabin Family Foundation to support and expand its Center for Climate Change Law. The center, which will now be known as the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, was established five years ago with the help of funding from the Sabin foundation.

In the heart of East Hampton Village, a plan to build a tennis court angered one neighbor and, when its proposed location was changed in response, drew an objection from another neighbor. The tennis court is to be built on the former Gardiner estate, at 127 Main Street, which is now owned by Shahab Karmely. His property and that of the first neighbor who objected, Kenneth Kuchin of 123 Main Street, are for sale.

Bill Clinton became the first-ever United States president to play golf at Montauk Downs in the state-owned course’s 87-year history on Aug. 20.

Mr. Clinton, who had celebrated his 68th birthday the day before, and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, are renting a house in Amagansett for August. They have spent the past several summers on the South Fork.

Labor Day weekend brings not only the end of the summer rental season but also the Shinnecock Indian Nation’s annual powwow, which will take place on the reservation from tomorrow through Monday.

The event, said to be the 68th in the tradition, features drum and dance contests, authentic native dress, and over $50,000 in prize money. The Shinnecocks will welcome members of many other tribes as well as the general public, and native arts, crafts, and foods will be for sale. There will also be raffles and a sunset fire-lighting.

Sunday will mark the first of what is to be an annual Heart of Springs summer fund-raiser at Ashawagh Hall, supporting not only the hall and its grounds, but also the Springs Library, which houses the hamlet’s historical society, and the Springs Presbyterian Church.

The Heart of Springs group formed this past winter to raise money and awareness for the hamlet and its historic district. The members are all Springs residents who are active and involved in the community. The party is the organization’s first event.

An honor guard of motorcycles and police cruisers escorted a truck carrying a twisted 1,000-pound, 14-foot-long steel beam from the World Trade Center to the American Legion Hall in Amagansett on Aug. 13, in the culmination of a long effort to erect a 9/11 memorial there. For Tony Ganga, commander of the Sons of the American Legion Squadron 419, and for others involved in the planning, the artifact’s arrival was a cause for celebration.

Saturday brings the first annual Springs Agricultural Fair to the green outside Ashawagh Hall during the weekly farmers market.

When Olivia Walsh visited the Montauk Historical Society’s arts and crafts fair at the Second House Museum in July, she wondered why there were no crafts available for children. So the 7-year-old took matters into her own hands. She asked her mom, Lauren Walsh, to find out if she could set up a stand and teach others how to make bird feeders, a craft she learned from a book. The answer was yes.

Though Nancy Bennett-Donohue, who celebrated her 103rd birthday on July 29, now lives in Micco, Fla., her roots are Bonac through and through.

Suppose Dylan Lauren of Dylan’s Candy Bar and Steven Spielberg of “Jaws” were in a local news story. What would it be about? The proceedings of the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals. At its meeting Friday, the board agreed that Dylan’s Candy Bar can sell hand-scooped ice cream and that accessory structures on the film director’s property here could remain where they are. 

Historic preservation in the heart of East Hampton Village will be enhanced with the purchase of the Gardiner home lot, Robert Hefner, the director of historic services for the village, said at East Hampton Town Hall last week.

Mr. Hefner, along with village officials and civic group representatives, spoke in favor of a purchase of 3.7 acres of the original lot, for $9.6 million from the town’s community preservation fund.

Following the hearing, the purchase was approved with a unanimous vote of the town board.

East End Climate Action Network, an organization aiming to address and educate the public about climate change and resiliency, and Renewable Energy Long Island, a not-for-profit organization based in East Hampton that promotes sustainable energy use and generation, will co-host the Renewable Energy and Sustainability Fair on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on the grounds of the Amagansett Historical Association.

Concerned Citizens of Montauk has asked the East Hampton Town Planning Board to call for a full environmental impact statement before making any decisions about a proposed large-scale project at the East Deck Motel site at Ditch Plain, claiming that the application raises serious questions about environmental and community impacts.

A representative of the U.S. Forest Service will present his findings on the deer impact on deer forestry at a forum hosted by the Village Preservation Society of East Hampton on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

Jerry Seinfeld was spotted at Babette's restaurant in East Hampton Village on Monday.

The Montauk Village Association, the group that keeps flowers abloom throughout the hamlet, will host its annual Greenery Scenery party on Friday, Aug. 15, at the Montauk Lake Club from 6 to 9 p.m.

This year the group will honor James Grimes of Fort Pond Native Plants for “his many years of service and commitment to Montauk,” said Nancy Keeshan, the president of the M.V.A.

The East Hampton Village Board closed out the fiscal year last Thursday, adopting six code amendments, accepting several bids, and approving employment agreements. Barbara Borsack, the deputy mayor, presided in the absence of Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr.

It may not be a date that will live in infamy, but June 13, 1942, is certainly a date of historic importance. Shortly after midnight, four trained German saboteurs landed in the fog on the beach near the Coast Guard station on Atlantic Avenue in Amagansett. They had rowed ashore in a collapsible rubber boat filled with explosives, clothing, several thousand dollars in cash, and a two-year plan to blow up aluminum and magnesium plants, canals, bridges, waterways, and locks, according to the Sea Frontier War Diary, a document held at the National Archives and Records Administration.

Meghan McNelis Rooney of Pittsburgh and Jonathan Graham Foley of Montauk were married on July 12 at Immaculate Conception Chapel at St. Francis University in Loretto, Pa. The Rev. Paul Taylor officiated. A reception followed at Klein Immergrun, a family estate in Loretto.

The bride wore a silk satin dress by Johanna Johnson, an Australian designer, a veil of her own design, and shoes from Landin. She carried white peonies, English garden roses, and pink spray roses.

The Maidstone Club’s more than two-year effort to modernize and expand the irrigation system on its 18 and 9-hole golf courses ended on Friday when the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals approved area variances and special and freshwater wetlands permits for the project, albeit with two of the five members voting to deny the application.

The Diamond in the Rough Gala, the Montauk Playhouse Community Center’s most elegant and largest fund-raiser of the season, will be held under a lighted tent on the Playhouse grounds on Saturday from 7 to 11 p.m. A full-course meal will be served, with an open bar and music by the Nancy Atlas Project.

Amanda Bono and James Bennett were married on May 10 at the Amagansett Presbyterian Church. The Rev. Steven Howarth officiated. A reception followed at the American Legion Hall in Amagansett.

The bride is a daughter of Betsy and Thomas Bono of Eau Claire Street in Springs. Mr. Bennett was raised by Regina and Stephen Lynch of Cooper Lane in East Hampton. His parents are Clint Bennett of East Hampton and Patty Eames of Arizona.

The East Hampton Village board will hold hearings next Thursday on laws that would prohibit feeding wildfowl in certain areas and would restrict parking on a section of Newtown Lane.

The village is proposing a ban on feeding geese, ducks, swans, or other wildfowl within 200 feet of the shorelines of Georgica and Hook Ponds. Violations would be subject to a fine up to $250 or imprisonment for up to 15 days, or both.

Though the Ladies Village Improvement Society Fair has many longstanding traditions — it turns 118 on Saturday — there will be quite a few changes to this year’s festivities.

For starters, this year’s L.V.I.S. Fair committee, led by Vickie Lundin, chose a theme that was inspired by Karen Klug?lein’s artwork for the fair poster, titled “Cedar Point Rocks.”

Fei Shao and Peter W. Emmerson were married on July 6 at their house on Kirk’s Place in Northwest, East Hampton. The Rev. Denis Brunelle of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church performed the ceremony, and a reception followed at the house.

On their wedding day, both men wore cream linen suits and white shirts. Their best men, Frank Burnes and Kevin Truex, both of East Hampton, wore navy blazers, white shirts, and cream trousers.

With a potential Long Island Rail Road strike looming, East Hampton and Southampton officials are discussing what to do if the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its L.I.R.R. unions fail to agree by Sunday.

The 10th anniversary of Soldier Ride, the cycling and rehabilitative event benefiting the Wounded Warrior Project, will be marked tomorrow at 8 p.m. with a screening of “Welcome to Soldier Ride,” a film documenting its origin and inaugural cross-country ride, at Amagansett Square.

On Saturday, a 30-mile ride in honor of Lance Cpl. Jordan C. Haerter, a Sag Harbor resident who was killed in Iraq at the age of 19, will depart from Ocean View Farm in Amagansett. The 9 a.m. ride will follow an opening ceremony at 8:30. A community picnic will be held at the farm at noon.

More than 25 interior designers will participate in this year’s Hampton Designer Showhouse in Bridgehampton, which will open with a preview cocktail party on Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.

This year’s house will be on Paul’s Lane, with designers to include Allison Hennessy, Anne Tarasoff, Caleb Anderson, Elsa R. Soyars, Gil Walsh, Greg McKenzie, India Hicks, Kate Singer, Mecox Design Services, Melanie Roy, Patrik Lonn, Phoebe Howard, and many others.

Seven children from New York City eagerly stepped out of a bus that arrived in the Lumber Lane parking lot in East Hampton, excited to begin a weeklong vacation that promised outdoor adventures and an escape from the city in the summer.

Bridgehampton’s Main Street was the site last Thursday of an impassioned protest that drew some 40 people who are hoping to keep a CVS pharmacy and convenience store from going up at the intersection of Main Street and the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike. Calling themselves Save Bridgehampton Main Street, the group expressed contempt in no uncertain terms for the planned two-story building, which is to have 9,000 square feet of retail space and a 4,400-square-foot basement.