Villages

    The Greek Orthodox Church of the Hamptons will celebrate the completion of the Johnides Family Cultural Center on Sunday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and blessing by Bishop Andonios Paropoulos, chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

    The Sag Harbor Village Board has held a few “special” meetings recently in addition to its monthly session, with regard to village employees, committee members, and volunteers. One such meeting, held on Dec. 28 at 8 a.m., included a discussion of the village police force, which the board has talked of cutting or even disbanding.

    Members of the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee had an emotional exchange on Monday night about their hamlet’s future amid global warming and recent climate change, wondering what would happen if Montauk became an island and lost its beaches and economy.

    Some members wondered if anything could be done right now to stave off disaster and save the beaches, motels, Ditch Plain area, and the entire downtown.

    “Where is winter?” Richard G. Hendrickson, the United States Cooperative weather observer in Bridgehampton, wondered in his monthly weather report for December. Last month was a mild one, with temperatures reaching 50 degrees or higher on 11 days and hitting 61 on the 11th. The low for the month was 20 degrees on Dec. 7.

    All will be welcomed at the next community soup dinner at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church, on Wednesday from 5 to 7 p.m. There is no cost for the meal, which is sponsored by the East Hampton Clericus, an interdenominational organization of local religious leaders, and organized by Joe Realmuto of East Hampton’s Honest Man Restaurant Group.

    Church bells will ring villagewide on Saturday in Southampton in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on Jan. 1, 1863. Sponsored by many village organizations and businesses, events will include a public reading of the document, a round-table discussion of its meaning, and a party with poetry, jazz, and food.

    Jacqueline Beh and Charles Brian Clark were married on Oct. 6 in the Church of St. Lawrence the Martyr in Sayville. They are Suffolk County case managers who met on the job. A party for the families of the bride and bridegroom was held at Casa Luis in Smithtown, the site of the newlyweds’ first date.

    “It looks like it’s actually happening,” County Legislator Jay Schneiderman said of the county’s transfer of Long Wharf to Sag Harbor Village after the unanimous County Legislature vote Tuesday to do so. “It has been a couple of years in the works,” he said, “historically, a couple of hundred years,” he said.

    Though the transfer still needs County Executive Steve Bellone’s signature, Mr. Schneiderman said he doesn’t expect a veto. The next steps would then be the Sag Harbor Village Board’s approval and legal documents to transfer the deed.

    The Maidstone Club’s effort to implement its irrigation improvement project took a small step forward on Friday when the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals approved an outline for an environmental impact statement it has asked the club to prepare.

   On Monday the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Commmitee discussed lessons learned from Hurricane Sandy, which struck the region on Oct. 29, as well as a proposal to do away with the town’s architectural review board.

    Kieran Brew, the committee’s chairman, raised the topic of emergency planning. “I’m just trying to start the conversation,” Mr. Brew said. “You don’t really think about it until it’s too late.”

   Rachel Adele Kleinberg and Chad Michael Crills of Springs were married at the beach at Gurney’s Inn in Montauk on June 24 under a huppah built by the bridegroom. Rabbi Gloria Milner and the Rev. Habacuc Vargas co-officiated in Hebrew and English.

    Ms. Kleinberg, who is keeping her name, is the librarian at the Montauk School. The daughter of Lois and Larry Kleinberg of Amagansett and Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., she attended Duke University, North Carolina Central University, and Long Island University.

   Like the Pony Express with a pony gone lame, FedEx has removed Montauk’s one-and-only drop box, leaving residents with a 12-mile ride to the closest box in Amagansett. Poof, the trusty drop box pony that waited to be loaded up with important missives through all kinds of weather has vanished.

    Weather-wise, last month was noteworthy not for any storms we had, but because we had no severe storms, said Richard G. Hendrickson, the United States Cooperative weather observer in Bridgehampton.

    “November is usually the month for 60-to-70-mile-per-hour winds and severe coastal erosion,” Mr. Hendrickson wrote in his monthly weather report.

    John Jilnicki, the East Hampton Town attorney, told the members of the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee and quite a few guests on Tuesday evening that the town is in the process of overhauling several provisions of the town code to make them specific to the hamlet, including the law on mass gathering permits and noise violations. “The legislation we have now is difficult for most people to understand,” he said. The committee, concerned about whether summonses have been issued for code violations, had been trying for some time to get Mr. Jilnicki to a meeting

    Richard and Karen Brown of Washington Avenue in Montauk have announced the engagement of their daughter Amanda Marie Brown to Matthew Ryan Jarm. Mr. Jarm’s parents, Robert and Patty Jarm, live in Annandale, Va.

    Ms. Brown received a Bachelor of Science degree from James Madison University in Virginia and a Master of Education degree in curriculum and instruction from George Mason University. She is a second-grade teacher at Forest Edge Elementary School in Reston, Va.

    When their daughter, Mia Bella, was born, Francesca Buffo and Noah Zingarelli, formerly of Springs, were told she would live a month, maybe a year at most, but Mia defied the odds at many turns, and in February will celebrate her sixth birthday — a miracle her parents prayed for, but could never count on.

    “It’s horrible here,” said Linda Shapiro of East Hampton, after arriving in the Rockaways last Thursday with a van filled with pet supplies.

    Learning on the radio about what she called a “desperate need for pet food and litter” in the towns where she grew up, she called Andy Sabin of Springs, a friend and fellow animal-lover, to help. He immediately agreed, and a van was loaded with 1,000 bags of cat litter, 1,000 cans of dog food, and 1,000 cans of cat food.

    Nineteen days after Hurricane Sandy, Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr., at the conclusion of Friday’s village board meeting, estimated the village’s costs as a result of the hurricane at $400,000, citing damage to public property, debris removal, tree work, and emergency measures. Plans were being made to repair damage at Main Beach and Georgica Beach, he said.

    Stephanie Maietta and Peter Gaddi returned to Montauk, where they met and fell in love, to be married on Oct. 19.

    The couple, who have spent decades of summers in Montauk with their families, were wed at St. Therese of Lisieaux Catholic Church, with a reception following at the Montauk Yacht Club.

    The day before a female goat was scheduled to be slaughtered for her meat, she dropped a big surprise — two babies born on Sept. 27, an unusual time for a goat to give birth, since they often deliver in the spring, rarely in the fall.

    Jeremy Vannoy of Delaware, who raises and sells livestock for their meat, had no idea she was pregnant. So, of course, he canceled the slaughtering.

    “He’s a livestock agent with a heart,” Kelley Foster said.

    If there is one person in Montauk to be thankful for, especially for parents of young children, it’s Maureen Rutkowski. But don’t tell her that, because she’ll only rebuff the statement and make sure everyone else involved gets kudos.

    “I’m just the face of a great group of people,” she said from her lakefront house, which is scattered with kids’ paraphernalia — balls, lacrosse sticks, jackets, and other stuff her two children, Alexandra, 13, and John, 9, collect and throw about.

    The East Hampton Village Board will attempt to stop John and Suzanne Cartier from building a second house on their property at 105 Main Street, even though the zoning board of appeals determined earlier this month that their plans conform to zoning requirements.

    The village board voted on Friday to hire the law firm Lamb and Barnosky to commence legal actions to “preclude the proposed disturbance of the premises,” which is covered by a scenic easement granted to the village in 1975.

    With changing weather patterns and violent storms becoming more frequent, Montauk residents are confused and concerned about where the hamlet’s emergency shelters are located. There were no shelters open in the easternmost hamlet during either Hurricane Sandy or the northeaster that followed a week later.

    Pat Trunzo III, an attorney representing himself, made a case before the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals for variances necessary to convert the second floor of his building at 11 Lumber Lane into two 800-sqaure-foot “affordable” apartments to be occupied by his two sons, Thomas and Steve. The spaces are currently leased to family construction and other trade companies as storage. Mr. Trunzo owns the property with his brother, Mike Trunzo.

     Carl Darenberg knows Montauk, probably better than anyone else. He is at every party, event, festival, and fishing contest that’s held. And, on the following morning, he shares photos with the rest of the world in cyberspace, including Facebook.

    There’s no doubt that by Saturday morning, Montauk Chamber of Commerce’s end-of-season party tomorrow night honoring him as Person of the Year will be posted.

    But you can beat him to it by attending the party. It will be held at East by Northeast from 6:30 to 11 p.m.

    On Sunday, the congregation of the Amagansett Presbyterian Church will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Robert Beecher Stuart’s ordination as minister of word and sacrament. Late last month, Mr. Stuart, pastor of the church from 1981 to 1998, traveled to Princeton Theological Seminary, where he marked the anniversary with his classmates.

    In a wide-ranging discussion at his house in Springs this week, Mr. Stuart looked back on 50 years, noting some profound changes in the church and the larger world over the past half-century.

    After unsuccessfully challenging their neighbors’ plan to build a second house almost as big as the first one at their East Hampton Main Street property, Gordon and Amanda Bowling told the village zoning board of appeals on Oct. 26 that they will build their own family compound next door.

    The East Hampton Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 550 and the Sag Harbor V.F.W. Post 9082 will honor veterans on Sunday — Veterans Day — with parades in each village.

    The East Hampton parade will kick off  at the Citarella market at 10 a.m. and proceed to Hook Mill for a solemn ceremony. At 11 a.m., the American Legion Post in Amagansett will perform an annual 11th Hour Ceremony to remember all who have served in the wars.

    Mike Martinson and Mike Doall saw the storm coming a week out and knew the potential damage Hurricane Sandy could do to their Montauk Shellfish Company, and the million or so oysters that were growing in cages in Lake Montauk.

    “We . . . started sinking stuff to the bottom,” Mr. Martinson said on Monday. By “stuff” he was referring to the contents of a portion of the 3,000 or so plastic cages that were strung near the surface on longlines on the east side of Lake Montauk just south of the Gone Fishing Marina. 

    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.