Villages

    A request by the Three P. Corporation to add approximately 400 square feet to a 1,400-square-foot contemporary saltbox located on a .1 acre on Collins Avenue was denied by the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals on Friday.

    “It’s just too big,” said John L. McGuirk III, who sits on the board.

    “You’re looking for a variance of almost 30-percent gross floor area,” Andrew Goldstein, the chairman of the zoning board, said. “That’s a substantial variance.”

    What will take place on the downtown green in Montauk on Memorial Day weekend is now up for determination by the East Hampton Town Board. Two groups, the Montauk Artists Association and the Montauk Memorial Committee, have filed applications for gathering permits to use the site for a full weekend of activities.

    “The first thing to make clear is that White’s is going nowhere,” said Hal Zwick, the Devlin McNiff Halstead Properties broker who recently listed the building at 81 Main Street, home to White’s Pharmacy since 1873, for $7.75 million. “The business is going very strong,” Mr. Zwick said.

    On Tuesday, Benito Villa, a founder of the Harborfrost festival, was en route to the Sag Harbor fire marshal’s office to request that ice sculptors be granted last-minute permission to set fire to their sculptures, in keeping with this year’s “Fire and Ice” theme. Also freshly added to this weekend’s lineup — which includes a Grucci fireworks display and live music, in addition to the artwork in ice — was an icy ring toss using glow-in-the-dark necklaces that participants will be encouraged to wear into the evening.

    “The town will be glowing,” Mr. Villa said.

East Hampton Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione got an earful of complaints.

Sitting beside a 20-foot altar set with flowers, bowls of water, crystals, and statues of the Buddha, Gen Nordin guided about 20 students through stages of prayer, silent concentration, and discussion

    David Conlin of Springs was having his cesspool pumped on Jan. 10 when his dog Mookie ran out the back door and fell some 18 feet into the open cesspool.

The new configuration for entering and exiting the Montauk I.G.A. parking lot has locals, the East Hampton Town Police Department, and motel owners perplexed.

More than 100 people turned out for an informational forum at the Bay Street Theatre organized by its management team and members of its board to discuss the theater’s future home last Thursday.

Jonathan Russo of Shelter Island was the winner of the East End Classic Boat Society’s 2011 fund-raising raffle.

After more than 15 years of discussion, Sag Harbor’s popular Havens Beach is going to have the remediation required to make it safe for swimmers.

The Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee looked over plans submitted by Dr. Molly Miosek, a veterinarian, for an animal clinic that she would like to build.

Renovations to restore a parking lot at the end of Lily Pond Lane at Georgica Beach, which was chewed up by Tropical Storm Irene, were presented to the East Hampton Village Board by Drew Bennett, the village engineer.

    The State Department of Environmental Conservation has asked Molly Zweig, a Georgica beachfront resident, or her legal representative to meet with agents next Thursday in an attempt to convince her to remove the fencing erected seaward of her property earlier this year.

    Need some preliminary screenings but are a little short of scratch after the holidays? The East Hampton Healthcare Foundation, in partnership with the South Fork Community Health Initiative and Southampton Hospital, is sponsoring a free community health fair on Friday, Jan. 6.

A beach scene featuring a blue sky, a lifeguard chair, beach umbrellas, and dogs and cats playing together will soon grace a loft area at the recently renovated thrift shop run by the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons in Sagaponack. The mural, a gift from Carol Saxe, a Springs artist, will be installed tomorrow.

The East Hampton Village Board meeting on Friday started off with a presentation to local contractors who volunteered their time and efforts to put the Hook Mill back together again.

Members of the Ladies Village Improvement Society appeared again before the East Hampton Village Zoning Board to discuss a parking plan for the L.V.I.S. headquarters.

The State Department of Environmental Conservation has signaled the possibility that New York’s recreational fluke fishermen will see big improvements

    It seems as if Patsy Topping has brought new meaning to “a warm and fuzzy Christmas.” Ms. Topping, who lives in South Carolina, arrived at her Bridgehampton farm early Friday morning with 20 puppies and young dogs saved from high-kill shelters in the South.

Under a subsidiary called the S.A.M. Trust, the producer and director Steven Spielberg has donated conservation easements over three properties on Georgica Cove in East Hampton Village

It has been surmised in New York magazine that if Gerald and Sara Wiborg Murphy’s property — 77 acres of oceanfront in East Hampton Village — were available for sale today, it could bring as much as $1 billion on the market.

At a meeting Monday night of the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee, Richard Kahn, a retired attorney, thoroughly criticized revisions of East Hampton Town’s lighting law

The Montauk Lighthouse is one step closer this week to obtaining landmark status

At the East Hampton Village Board’s work session last Thursday, the board discussed changes to the size of signs in the village, and adopted a law amending parking restrictions in the off-season.

    It may not look like the backlot at Warner Brothers, but you can’t beat the location, location, location. For the past few weeks, undergraduate film students from New York University have been building sets, rehearsing, and filming in Tom Ferreira’s backyard at 63 Navy Road on the banks of Fort Pond Bay in Montauk.

    Drivers might have noticed the crew filming on the Napeague stretch last week.

    Spaghetti and meatballs will be on the plate at the first fund-raiser to help restore Scoville Hall in Amagansett, which was destroyed by fire on Oct. 15. Sponsored by the Order of the Eastern Star of the Masons, who held meetings at the hall, the dinner will be held at the Amagansett Fire House on Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m.

        There were several deer in the wrong place at the wrong time recently in East Hampton Town; eight of them caused eight separate accidents in the past few weeks alone.

    On Sunday around 4 a.m., a deer struck the front of Steven Akkala’s 2009 Honda while he was on Montauk Highway near Shipwreck Drive in Amagansett.

Staff of the Retreat shelter in East Hampton and local police chiefs will hold a panel discussion Monday in Bridgehampton about domestic violence.

Billed as "what everyone needs to know" about violence in the home and between people who are in relationships, the session will be held in the Hampton Library on Bridgehampton Main Street. It begins at 7 p.m. Admission is free.

If all goes well Saturday at an Amagansett fund-raiser, a Marine unit deployed in Afghanistan will be getting a shipment of much-needed items very soon.