Villages

For members of the Garden Club of East Hampton, spring is crunch time, and so it was for Katherine Jordan Appleton (1879-1949) of the Nid de Papillon estate.

With over 400 blood samples collected from Lyme-infected East Enders since 2014, Dr. George Dempsey of East Hampton Family Medicine is the largest contributor to the Bay Area Lyme Foundation Lyme Disease Biobank, and his samples have helped improve the test that can detect it. The new test could catch it even sooner.

Odds are, you’re not going to see an American bittern, despite its large size. Frankly, the American bittern doesn’t want to be seen; it chose invisibility as its superpower. Still, this is the best time of year to try; make the experience at least as much about the journey as the destination.

A hundred years ago, a rumrunning raid was successfully executed at Fort Pond Bay, where dozens of bootleggers were caught moving cases of booze by the score. And other trips deep into the past.

Last week, two large American elm trees, estimated to be between 80 and 100 years old, were cut down at the intersection of Main Street and Newtown Lane: one in front of Louis Vuitton, and the other in front of J. Crew. Neither had Dutch elm disease, according to Olivia Brooks, the chairwoman of the 25-person Ladies Village Improvement Society tree committee since 2008, but both had simply reached the end of their long lives.

Basketball courts, the farmers market, the May Day 5K, and the Hamptons Whodunit festival were topics of interest at Friday's meeting of the East Hampton Village Board.

Julio Florencio Teo Gómez was an inspiration to many people around him, his friends said, despite the tough circumstances he faced. To honor his memory, Hamptons Community Outreach announced on Feb. 10 that it is establishing a job-training program for people in circumstances like those Mr. Teo Gómez faced.

Of those standing outside the Hopping family home in Wainscott in this photograph taken sometime after 1880, Mary Jane Mabry Walker (circa 1865-1942), far left, was recently identified by her family.

Noah Gualtieri may be new to the job of operations manager at the East Hampton Food Pantry, but he is hardly new to the work of the pantry.

Emily Mastaler, coming from her previous role of president and chief executive officer of River Hospital in Alexandria Bay upstate, has "extensive healthcare knowledge, clinical expertise, and ability," the hospital said in an announcement on Wednesday.

The feud between former volunteers and East Hampton Village was reignited Friday at a hearing held by Suffolk County to determine if the new municipal ambulance department can continue to provide emergency medical services to town residents who live in Northwest Woods and other areas beyond village boundaries.

The old Promised Land Fish Factory smell test, and much more down The Star’s Memory Lane.

There was no big announcement, or surprise, only a letter to residents of East Hampton Village, circulated by Mayor Jerry Larsen along with an absentee ballot application, indicating he will be on the ballot for the June 18 village election. Deputy Mayor Christopher Minardi and Sandra Melendez, a trustee, will also run for re-election.

The new plan confines the controversial developer's proposed mixed-use building to only two lots, at 7 and 11 Bridge Street in Sag Harbor. Neither contains structures that contribute to the Sag Harbor Village Historic District.

Last week, an excavator tore up the Reutershan Parking Lot at the end of Eastman Way in East Hampton Village as rings for a new sanitary system sat behind a chain-link fence, a sign of big changes to come downtown.

The long-running matter of Harry Macklowe’s Georgica Pond property was again before the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals on Friday, ending this time in a unanimous vote that is unlikely to satisfy the homeowner and will likely be appealed.

In the Rev. Jon D. Rodriguez, the East Hampton Presbyterian Church believes it has found a dynamic and engaged young leader for its pulpit for years to come.

This invoice from Isaac Plato (circa 1767-1832) is signed by both Plato and Abraham Parsons, who paid him on behalf of the East Hampton Town Trustees. The invoice is partly for “chestnut rails” for the East Hampton parsonage.

The first cruise ship to call Sag Harbor a stop on its itinerary will moor in sight of Long Wharf in three months. Officials are looking to ease the way.

The dawning gas nightmare of 1972, and much more from The Star of yore.

The Center for Compassionate Leadership has announced a customized Compassionate Leadership Certification Training Program to be held this spring for nonprofit organizations on the South Fork.

Long Island’s Indigenous communities are hailing a new set of long-overdue rules, established by the Biden administration effective Jan. 12, that have museums and universities across the country covering up or altogether closing exhibits containing Native American funerary displays and other artifacts, which now must either be returned to sovereign tribes for reburial or displayed only with the permission of those Indigenous communities.

Three of the buildings that comprise Adam Potter's 11 Bridge Street Limited Liability Company in Sag Harbor — 23 Bridge Street, 12 Rose Street, and 8 Rose Street — hit the real estate market this week, raising the question of whether his plan for a large, mixed-use building there is dead.

Two large pumps buried near the Beacon restaurant on West Water Street were the unsung heroes after Superstorm Sandy, removing an estimated eight million gallons of saltwater from the parking lots behind Main Street, and even in less extreme situations the pumps play an important role in keeping the area dry.

For 50 years, Edward Thomas Banks used a horse-drawn wagon to collect refuse around East Hampton. When he finally gave in and bought a truck, it merited a page-one story in The Star.

La Dune, an iconic property in Southampton once listed for $150 million, was sold by Sotheby’s Concierge Auctions last month for $88.48 million in a bid placed over the phone. It was the most expensive property ever sold in a real estate auction on the South Fork.

When three East Hampton High School juniors rocked the chemistry world. And much more of note from past Stars.

Wanda Sanchez Day, the general and senior policy counsel for Organizacion Latino-Americana (OLA) of Eastern Long Island, will be honored at the New York City Bar Association's International Law Conference on the Status of Women on March 8.

In a significant win for the Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt, PSEG Long Island has opted to forgo its original plan to install an underground cable through the greenbelt, and is exploring an alternative  route that would redirect the cable under roadways to the north, including the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike.

A culinary stroll, fireworks over the water, ice-carving, fire-dancing, live music, and a whole lotta hot cocoa will heat things up in Sag Harbor Village on Saturday during the chamber of commerce’s annual HarborFrost celebration.