Villages

Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. formally announced his resignation as East Hampton Village Mayor at the village board’s organizational meeting on July 3. His resignation will take effect on Dec. 31, more than six months before his term is to expire.

The East Hampton Town Board voted on July 2 to give the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Army Corps of Engineers a temporary access easement near the Montauk Lighthouse so that an extensive reconstruction of the roughly 1,000-foot-long rock revetment that wraps around the Point can proceed. 

Ethel Henn, the treasurer of the Springs Historical Society, was at her desk in the Springs Library last week, opening the mail and chatting with a visitor, when she suddenly gasped and exclaimed in delight. From an envelope postmarked Henderson, Nev., she had just withdrawn a check for $200, with “For the Springs Library” on the memo line.

Chalking tires to know when a vehicle has overstayed its allotted time in a parking spot is a legal and ongoing method of local law enforcement, East Hampton Village Chief of Police Michael Tracey said last Thursday. 

Confusion about whether municipalities can lawfully mark tires has been widespread since April, when a federal appeals court ruled that Alison Taylor of Saginaw, Mich., who had received 15 parking tickets there after having had her tires chalked‚ could sue the city for violating her Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches. 

Mr. Grimes will be honored Sunday evening as the Fishing Legend of the Year at the 19th annual Montauk Mercury Grand Slam fishing tournament in recognition of his many decades of involvement and volunteerism in the community.

In a lecture called “1969: The Year That Pointed the Way” on Monday at 5:30 p.m. at the Rogers Memorial Library, Clive Young, an author, will explore the moon landing, Woodstock, the distinctive music of the time, and fashion trends.

At the Beach

The Jewish Center of the Hamptons will host Shabbat on the Beach tomorrow at 6 p.m., with music, a bonfire, s’mores, and more. Shabbat on the Beach will take place at 6 each Friday for the rest of the summer.

East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr., who has held the office since 1992, said last week that he would resign as of Dec. 31, more than six months before his term is up. He planned to make an official announcement at the village board’s organizational meeting on Wednesday.

“This decision comes after much soul-searching and contemplation,” Mayor Rickenbach said. “It has been a humbling experience to serve as a public official to a wonderful, caring, and sophisticated constituency.”

Barbara Borsack, a member of the East Hampton Village Board who is running for village mayor in 2020, held a kickoff party for her campaign on Sunday at the home of Ina Garten, the celebrity chef and cookbook author.

It’s been an unusual season for the normally reliable bluefish this year. Catches were scarce in many locales the past two months, and the fish showed up only a week or so ago in Noyac Bay. Usually they could be found as early as the first week of May in this area.

The low trestles crossing North Main Street and Accabonac Road in East Hampton Village, infamous for being struck by trucks, will be raised from 11 to 14 feet when new bridges are installed this fall, the Long Island Rail Road said.

Residents and business owners weigh­ed in Friday on a proposed East Hampton Village law that would prohibit professional landscapers from using gas-powered leaf blowers from June 1 to Labor Day. The proposed ban includes a provision allowing their use for cleanup after a major storm, or when responding to an emergency.

Jerry Larsen, a former East Hampton Village police chief who is running for village mayor in 2020, on Sunday introduced his running mate, Sandra Melendez, an attorney who is seeking to be the first Latina to serve on the village board.

Kathleen Mulcahy, who will be sworn in as the new mayor of Sag Harbor Village on Monday, discussed plans for her first months in office, including increasing public participation in government, establishing a new environmental committee, and finding the money to create a village administrator position.

Ms. Mulcahy pulled off a major upset in the June 18 election when she defeated Sandra Schroeder, the two-term incumbent, with 489 votes to Ms. Schroeder’s 197.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc announced on Tuesday that PSEG Long Island will abandon a proposed site in Montauk's Hither Woods and build a new electrical substation on a Long Island Power Authority-owned parcel on Shore Road, near the site of the present facility.

A Thursday night salon series at the Jewish Center of the Hamptons will kick off next week with a discussion between Michael Musto and Rabbi Lyle Rothman.

Wonder no more about the mysterious painted records popping up in public spaces and on utility poles from Southampton to Montauk.

It’s the work of Brandon Hernandez, who goes by the moniker Think, and whose street art began as an obsession with sound.

The East Hampton artist studied audio production at a Board of Cooperative Educational Services program, graduating from high school in 2016. Mr. Hernandez recalled one particular class in which his teacher first played digitally recorded music for the students, then switched to music on vinyl.

East Hampton’s beaches and bucolic atmosphere have drawn many visitors since before the 1870s, but a typical day at the beach has changed a lot in the last 150 years.

Almost three years after promising East Hampton Town officials they would tackle overcrowding, excessive noise, and environmental concerns at the Surf Lodge in Montauk, the owners have launched a full-scale effort to address the problems. 

Kathleen Mulcahy, a challenger mounting her first bid for Sag Harbor mayor, pulled off a major upset Tuesday, unseating the two-term incumbent, Sandra Schroeder, with 489 votes to Ms. Schroeder's 197.

Christian Tyler Schenck, the son of Marcia and Christopher Schenck of East Hampton, was married to Brittany Taylor Greene on May 19 in Lebanon, Tenn. Jeannie Hunter officiated.

Cyanobacteria blooms, which are more commonly known as blue-green algae and pose health risks to people and animals, have been found in Wainscott Pond in that hamlet and Mill Pond in Water Mill, the Suffolk County Department of Health Services announced Wednesday.

Four candidates are vying for two seats on the Sag Harbor Village Board Tuesday. Aidan Corish, an incumbent, is seeking a second term, while Robert Plumb, Jennifer Ponzini, and Silas Marder would be newcomers to the board.

It’s a worker’s market these days on the South Fork, where many business owners say the problem they’re having attracting and retaining employees has reached a critical mass.

History will come alive tomorrow at 5 p.m. at the Amagansett Life-Saving and Coast Guard Station Museum with the annual observance of the June 1942 landing of Nazi saboteurs near Atlantic Avenue Beach.

It’s been nine years since Haiti’s 7.0-magnitude earthquake killed almost 250,000 people, and the beginning of Jonathan Glynn’s efforts in that country. On June 22, his group, Wings Over Haiti, will host its third annual benefit, fittingly held in three private hangars at East Hampton Airport.

Item of the Week: From the East Hampton Library Long Island Collection

Hoping to limit the spread of overlarge houses on small residential lots, the East Hampton Village Board pondered new zoning code regulations for roof heights at a meeting last Thursday. 

Nine of the 38 local bodies of water regularly tested by the Concerned Citizens of Montauk and Surfrider Foundation were found this week to have levels of enterococcus, a gut bacteria, considered harmful to one's health.

Test results from samples collected on June 3 showed high counts of fecal enterococcus cells at three sites at Lake Montauk: Little Reed Pond Creek, Nature Preserve Beach, and East Creek, and at an outfall pipe on the ocean beach at Surfside Place.

With the Wainscott Sewing Society’s upcoming strawberry festival on June 16 at Wainscott Chapel, this ticket for the 1948 East Hampton Town Tercentenary Celebration’s Strawberry Festival left me wondering about the history of strawberry festivals locally.