These images were taken in 1964 before the days of Google Maps, satellite imagery, and drones. The photographer, James Reutershan, took them from a plane following the ocean coastline near Georgica Pond. Wainscott Pond is visible in the front of the east view. 

James Reutershan was an East Hampton Town trustee who championed local conservation and preservation, and his interests coincided with those of Juan Terry Trippe, whose house was on the ocean at Georgica.

Known as the founder of Pan American Airlines, Mr. Trippe was one of the first to try to harness aviation for commercial passengers. He bought his house in East Hampton in 1935 and was there when it filled with surging floodwaters during the Hurricane of 1938. Recalling these memories, Mr. Trippe advocated plans to protect the shoreline near Georgica as part of broader Army Corps of Engineers plans for coastal erosion in Suffolk County. Mr. Trippe’s quiet outreach eventually resulted in a pair of short barrier walls, or groins, being installed near his property in 1965. These two photographs of the coastline were taken just before the addition of the groins. Mr. Trippe hoped to have a third groin built at Georgica Pond, along with a drainage pipe to allow the pond to be flushed.

While he made calls trying to protect Georgica’s coastline, James Reutershan publicly argued for environmental protections and conservation efforts throughout East Hampton. In addition to these photographs, Mr. Reutershan spent March of 1967 compiling a photographic chronicle of the erosion from the ground near the Trippe property on Georgica Pond. 

Those photographs of erosion near Georgica Pond are part of the materials donated by Mr. Reutershan’s family to the Long Island Collection in 2001. Mr. Reutershan’s environmental efforts were cut short with his early death, in 1971. Over 50 years later, concerns with erosion along East Hampton’s coastline remain current, with the photographs providing a different type of documentation for researchers.

—

Andrea Meyer is the Long Island Collection librarian and archivist at the East Hampton Library.

The marches and rallies that have sprung up since Donald J. Trump was elected president have brought together disaffected Americans who in the past would have been called liberal thinkers and who for the most part have supported movements for marriage equality, women’s rights, gay rights, and L.G.B.T.Q. rights.

In East Hampton on Saturday a lesser-known movement for a Third Reconstruction was advocated by the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber of North Carolina, who in impassioned oratory called for “an understandable moral agenda” fusing with the Poor People’s Campaign, which the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. initiated in 1968. 

“The Third Reconstruction: How a Moral Movement Is Overcoming the Politics of Division and Fear” is the title of Dr. Barber’s book, copies of which were sold on Saturday at a political gathering in Northwest Woods during a program that included upbeat singing by the Thunderbird Singers of the Shinnecock Indian Nation and a talk and performance by Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul, and Mary fame. Before the afternoon was over, partygoers joined him, singing “If I Had a Hammer.”

Dr. Barber is an activist preacher who is said to be walking in Dr. King’s shoes; his speech made that clear. He spoke with passion and at times anger, modulating his emotional voice from soft to loud as he called health care a right and decried poverty and war. His overall message was that right and left, black and white had to come together to create another Reconstruction.

Dr. Barber had a wide focus on this country’s ills and pulled no punches about what he said was “systemic racism.” Every country the United States has fought in the last decades is brown, black, and Muslim, he said. As for the federal policy that separated children from parents, which he called “hijacking,” he said, “Those are not children. They are brown children.”

Given that the First Reconstruction followed the Civil War and that the civil rights movement of the 1960s and ’70s is considered the Second Reconstruction, announcing that a Third Reconstruction is already underway seemed to be news, although in Washington, at the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, a new exhibition is titled “City of Hope: Reconstruction City and the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign.” 

In East Hampton, Dr. Barber, a religious man, said there was no messiah. “We have to do it ourselves. Get your boots on.”

Barbara Layton, the East Hampton woman who put Saturday’s program together, had brought Dr. Barber here. She drew a local and second-home crowd by reaching out to various churches and groups and Lucius Ware of the eastern Long Island branch of the N.A.A.C.P. She also called on Julie Ratner to be host. Ms. Layton had worked for a number of causes in the past, she said, but would now concentrate on bringing people together. 

“We have to step out of all our individual distinct silos,” she said. “The work is just beginning. It’s time for a brand-new story.”

The Rev. Dr. William Barber, a minister and civil rights leader from North Carolina who is president of the nonprofit Repairers of the Breach, will be the guest of honor at a fund-raiser for that organization on Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. in East Hampton. 

Dr. Barber, whom Cornel West described as “the closest person we have to Martin Luther King Jr. in our midst,” last year helped found the Poor People’s Campaign to carry on Dr. King’s mission to fight urban poverty. 

“We are being called, like our foremothers and fathers, to be the moral defibrillators of our time,” Dr. Barber said in his speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. He has taken up that call himself through his work in and out of the pulpit. 

Repairers of the Breach, a nonpartisan group, organizes, trains, and works with “a diverse school of prophets from every U.S. state and the District of Columbia who are rebuilding, raising up, and repairing the moral infrastructure of our country,” according to its website. “We declare that the moral public concerns of our faith traditions are how our society treats the poor, women, L.G.B.T.Q. people, children, workers, immigrants, communities of color, and the sick. Our deepest moral traditions point to equal protection under the law, the desire for peace within and among nations, the dignity of all people, and the responsibility to care for our common home.”

Barbara Layton, Patti Kenner, Julie Ratner, and Sam Eskenazi are organizing Saturday’s fund-raiser, which will also include music by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul, and Mary, and the Thunderbird Sisters of the Shinnecock Nation. Tickets, which can be reserved by calling Ms. Layton at her East Hampton restaurant, Babette’s, start at $50. The address of the gathering will be provided upon reserving a spot.

 A small procession of people, some wearing stickers that read “Protect the Long Pond Greenbelt,” voiced concern at a Sag Harbor Village Board public hearing on Tuesday evening about the board’s proposed use of a 24-acre site off the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike as an impound yard for vehicles seized by its Police Department. 

A site plan for the impound yard, which is in Southampton, had been approved by that town’s planning board on June 28. At the meeting, Elizabeth Vail, a lawyer representing Sag Harbor, said the village was only offering Southampton a chance to weigh in on the proposal as a courtesy.

“Technically, I don’t even think we had to submit to site plan review,” she said, citing a legal standard referred to as a Monroe test, which grants municipalities immunity from the zoning restrictions of an “encroaching governmental unit” when factors such as the public interest are at stake. “This is for an important police municipal need,” Ms. Vail said. “It’s going to benefit the health, safety, and welfare of Sag Harbor.” 

“We were alerted in advance that the village intended to use the Monroe test if we were not inclined to grant site plan approval or imposed conditions which they considered too onerous,” Dennis Finnerty, the chairman of the planning board, said via email this week. The planning board’s lawyer had determined that the village plan would meet the criteria of the Monroe test, Mr. Finnerty said, leaving his board with two options: approve the site plan and apply reasonable conditions or have the plan withdrawn, which would allow Sag Harbor to build the facility with no oversight by Southampton Town. 

“The lawyer threatened that from the very first time we met with her,” Dai Dayton, the president of the Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt, said. “We met with her and the mayor at the beginning of this. We thought once we made it obvious to them that this was going to affect the Long Pond Greenbelt, of course they would try to find another place for the impound yard, but that has not happened.”

The village plan calls for paving an 80-by-60-foot area for 20 parking spaces on an already-cleared part of the site. The conditions added by the planning board include the installation of a six-foot fence, the designation of a village employee to check on whether any impounded vehicles are leaking fluids, the addition of a bioswale to contain runoff from the paved lot, and a prohibition against adding lighting without prior approval.

 The lot, the board said, must also have mountable curbs, so that the eastern tiger salamander, an endangered species, can navigate through the area. The location of the lot would put it far enough away from the nearest salamander breeding pond to comply with State Department of Environmental Conservation regulations. 

The village had previously used the parcel to dump leaves gathered during seasonal cleanups. It also has allowed PSEG, the utility, to use the property as temporary parking for trucks, and Southampton Town leases another part of the property for its recycling center. The impound yard, Ms. Vail noted, would take up just four-tenths of a percent of the 24-acre site.

Prior to the planning board meeting, the Southampton Town Conservation Board had registered its objection to the proposal. In a June 13 letter to Mr. Finnerty, Harry S. Ludlow, the chairman of the conservation board, listed reasons why the impound yard would “pose an array of threats” to environmental health and drinking water. 

The property lies within a “critical environmental area” over the sole-source aquifer, he pointed out. The Environmental Protection Agency defines a sole-source aquifer as one that provides at least 50 percent of the drinking water for its service area and for which there are “no reasonably available alternative drinking water sources should the aquifer become contaminated.”

Mr. Ludlow suggested that the village find a “less environmentally sensitive” location for its impound yard. Ms. Dayton echoed that sentiment. “You can find any place that’s already paved to put an impound yard,” she said. “But you’re never going to get another Long Pond Greenbelt.” 

Even after giving the site plan approval, Mr. Finnerty said that he believes that more investigation into a different location is warranted. In fact, he offered some suggestions, such as the light industrial areas off Route 114 or around East Hampton Airport.

Mr. Finnerty also recommended that an engaged group of citizens “bring pressure to bear on the village trustees” before construction of the facility begins. 

Ms. Dayton had attended the meeting armed with more than 500 petitions signed by opponents of the proposal, as well as a series of letters written by State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., and representatives of the Nature Conservancy, the Group for the East End, and the Southampton Trails Preservation Society, all of whom wrote in support of safeguarding the greenbelt. 

After hearing from the public, Aidan Corish, one of the village trustees, said that while the village has a legitimate need to find space for a new impound yard, he, too, was hoping an alternative could be found. “Right now we have a problem that we need to solve, but I’m not convinced the Long Pond Greenbelt is the solution,” he said.

Item of the Week

From the East Hampton Library

Long Island Collection

Aside from its collection of historical materials, the Long Island Collection possesses quite a bit of literature by Long Island authors. The portrait at right is of George Sterling, a poet and playwright who was recognized in the San Francisco Bay Area as one of the greatest American poets of the early 20th century.

Born in Sag Harbor on Dec. 1, 1869, Sterling was the first of nine children of Dr. George A. Sterling, the village physician, and Mary Parker Havens Sterling. On his mother’s side, the Havens family was prominent in Sag Harbor and on Shelter Island, and his grandfather Capt. Wickham Havens was a whaler and master of the ship Thomas Dickinson. Sterling’s uncle was Frank C. Havens, who would come to have a big influence on his nephew’s life.

After graduating from the Union School in Sag Harbor, Sterling attended St. Charles College in Maryland, after which his father hoped he would enter the priesthood. Sterling, however, eventually followed his uncle to San Francisco, where Havens had established himself as a successful lawyer and real estate developer. 

While working as a clerk in his uncle’s real estate office in Oakland, in 1903 Sterling published a small volume of poetry titled “The Testimony of the Suns, and Other Poems” and quickly gained notoriety among the artists and writers there. It was shortly afterward that the portrait at left was taken by the photographer Arnold Genthe, known for his images of San Francisco’s Chinatown, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and various notable figures.

Between 1903 and his death in 1926, Sterling would go on to write 12 volumes of lyric poetry and five volumes of dramatic poetry. His best-known work was “A Wine of Wizardry.” Despite his successes, Sterling never became well known outside California, but it is important to remember this Long Island poet.

Gina Piastuck is the department head of the East Hampton Library’s Long Island Collection.

A recent study of the impact of sea level rise on coastal communities in the continental United States predicted that, by the year 2045, billions of dollars of East End real estate will be at risk of severe flooding. The report, conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit science-advocacy group, laid out a dire domino-effect of repercussions that could befall at-risk regions, envisioning “persistent high-tide flooding of homes, yards, roads, and business districts” that would lead to “effectively unlivable” neighborhoods. 

“The long-term risk of sea level rise has been flying under the radar and we wanted to make homeowners and communities aware of it,” said Kristina Dahl, a senior climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists. “We are also advocating for a change in policies at the local, state, and national levels.”

The authors of the report based their research on three sea level rise scenarios of varying degrees of severity that were developed for the federal government’s 2014 National Climate Assessment. They localized the data, including results from a 2017 survey of areas prone to chronic flooding, and applied property values amassed by Zillow, the online real estate database, to their findings. 

In Southampton Town, they found that, in the most extreme scenario — one that assumes a continued increase in carbon emissions, ongoing loss of the Antarctic ice sheet due to global warming, and sea level rise of two feet  — more than $3.5 billion worth of property would be in danger of chronic flooding by 2045. The real estate loss estimates in East Hampton Town, however, were, surprisingly, far lower, amounting to just over $2 million within the same time frame. 

Addressing the discrepancy, Ms. Dahl said that the group’s research found far fewer houses at risk in East Hampton Town than in Southampton Town, but she added that since the study was national in scope, errors in local home pricing or chronic flood risk were possible.  

The report’s projected amount of real estate loss in East Hampton Town seemed particularly egregious in comparison to a 2017 survey, conducted as part of the town’s coastal assessment resiliency plan, which foresaw much more high-value damage. In that study, a firm of engineers and scientists assessed the market value of East Hampton Town properties at risk from sea level rise and storm surges. Its findings showed that sea level rise will have a greater impact on bayside properties, including areas such as Accabonac Harbor, Northwest Harbor, and the north side of Lake Montauk. The estimated market value of real estate at risk along the shoreline of Gardiner’s Bay in Springs, for example, came to $538 million; for the north of Lake Montauk it was $493 million.

In terms of storm surge damage, the firm’s data showed that East Hampton Village and Napeague “have the highest exposed dollar value, both in the short term and over the next 50 to 60 years.” The value of such properties along the shore in East Hampton Village was estimated at $1.5 billion, and along Napeague it was $2.1 billion.

The analysis was based on projections adopted by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, which, using the most extreme forecast, estimated that sea level would rise two and a half feet by 2050 and six feet by 2100.  

Kim Shaw, the town’s director of natural resources, said that a second phase of the study will begin this fall. “We’ve retained another engineering firm to wrap up the rest of the report,” she said, adding that the town is pondering what code changes need to be made in order to mitigate damage from sea level rise. “We’re looking to other coast states to see how they’re dealing with the issue and what we can implement,” she said.

Earlier this year, the consultants who conducted the recent hamlet studies for East Hampton Town recommended that Montauk undergo a coastal retreat by relocating downtown shorefront businesses further inland.  

The report by the Union of Concerned Scientists warns that an increasing number of properties prone to chronic flooding could have a devastating effect on an at-risk region’s real estate market. A housing market crash could emerge, it says, and unlike with previous crashes, after which home prices ultimately rebounded, “properties chronically inundated by rising seas” will continue to decrease in value.

The availability of insurance currently provides a hedge against buying a house in danger of flooding. “I don’t think people are going to stop buying waterfront property as long as they get flood insurance,” said AnnMarie Pallister, vice president and East End liaison of the Long Island Board of Realtors, as well as an agent with Douglas Elliman.

Likewise, mortgage lenders rely on insurance to offset their risk.  “A mortgage company doesn’t care if you buy a house on the water or in the water as long as you’ve got flood insurance,” said William Wright, an owner of the Par East Mortgage Company. 

Ms. Dahl cautioned, however, that an increase in chronic flooding could lead to high-cost insurance premiums, and pointed out that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which creates the maps on which flood insurance is based, is not currently providing home buyers with all the information they need to make a sound investment decision. “They’re not figuring sea level rise into their flood maps, which is very meaningful when you have a 30-year mortgage,” she said. 

Laying out the worst-case scenario for the housing market, the Union of Concerned Scientists’ study posits that as chronic flooding worsens, “homeowners will begin to find themselves with mortgages that exceed the value of their homes.” Finding themselves stuck with houses that are unlivable and difficult to insure, it says, could lead owners to simply abandon the houses. 

Even those who are not homeowners could be affected by the crisis, the report states, as a diminishing property tax base could lead to a reduction in funding for a community’s public schools, emergency services, and infrastructure repair. 

In addition to raising awareness, “we’re encouraging people to put pressure on elected officials to get FEMA to update the flood insurance maps to incorporate sea level rise,” said Ms. Dahl. “When the risks are known, communities can have conversations about their options and what it means to live on the water.”

Rose Brown and Arthur Graham, who received the most votes in the June 19 election for two seats on the East Hampton Village Board, were sworn in at the board’s organizational meeting on Tuesday. Ms. Brown is a newcomer to the position, while Mr. Graham was re-elected after serving the final year of the late Elbert Edwards’s term.  

Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. paid tribute to the pair, noting that it would be Mr. Graham’s first four-year term, and welcoming Ms. Brown. “Rose is a very pretty addition to the board of trustees,” he said, telling her, “I think you’re going to find it exciting and challenging.”

The mayor also praised Bruce Siska, the former trustee who had been on the board for 11 years, including as deputy mayor since 2016, before losing a re-election bid. “We wish Bruce the very best and thank him for his service,” the mayor said. 

One of the first orders of business at the meeting was the appointment of Richard Lawler, a trustee since 2008, as the new deputy mayor. The board accepted Ms. Brown’s resignation as a member of the design review board, but did not announce who would take her place. The heads and members of the design review board, the zoning board of appeals, and the planning and ethics boards were reappointed. 

Michael Bouker, the deputy superintendent of public works, provided the trustees with a report on the village’s status relating to a state and federally mandated program governing stormwater runoff into separate sewer systems (known as MS4s). To prevent harmful pollutants, such as fertilizers, toxic chemicals, bacteria, and debris, from flowing into these systems, as well as into nearby bodies of water, municipalities are required to develop a stormwater management program. 

Mr. Bouker said the village was in compliance with the requirements, which include controlling stormwater runoff from construction sites, identifying and eliminating illicit discharges from storm drains into water bodies, and providing filtration systems that restrict or eliminate pathogens from entering the water. The requirements also include public education. 

The State Department of Environmental Conservation is developing new guidelines governing storm sewer systems, which will be announced this fall, Mr. Bouker said, “So we’re kind of on hold until we know what happens this fall. At that time, we will adjust our program to stay in compliance.”

Turning to an organizational matter, the board scheduled a public hearing on July 31 on a proposed law amending the residency requirements for full-time employees, not including police or other local officers. The current law requires full-time residency in either East Hampton Village or Town for a period of no less than one year prior to application for employment. The amendment will expand the range of candidates who have to have lived within Suffolk County for at least one year rather than the village or town. 

The amendment will not affect the positions of village administrator, highway superintendent, code enforcement supervisor, a public safety dispatcher, or department heads. The law would also require these employees to be “full-time residents of the Town of East Hampton throughout their employment.” 

With regard to equipment and vehicles, the board discussed a proposed new way to procure them, weighing whether to join a purchasing co-op comprising of New York municipalities. “Co-ops are offering much more competitive prices,” Becky Molinaro Hansen, the village administrator, said. Mayor Rickenbach said a decision would be made later in the month.  

In other organizational matters, the trustees approved the yearly salaries for appointed officers and noncontract employees. They will go into effect on Aug. 1. A notice to bidders will be advertised for services ranging from cleaning Herrick Park’s restrooms to tree trimming and removal. Bids will be opened on July 24 at 2 p.m. at Village Hall. And, a request from the Fire Department to hold its annual fireworks display on Aug. 25 or, in the case of rain, Aug. 26, was approved. 

Mayor Rickenbach ended the proceedings, which were held the day before the Fourth of July, on a patriotic note. “East Hampton represents all the good our country stands for,” he said. “God bless America, and God bless the men and women in uniform. So many of them have made the ultimate sacrifice. Because of many of those people, we have the democracy and the freedom that we enjoy today.”

Residents of Flaggy Hole Road in Springs who frequent the Gardiner’s Bay beach at Maidstone Park were surprised on June 25 to see East Hampton Town Parks Department workers installing a fence there, perpendicular to the beach, and complained that not only would the fence stop them from parking at the beach but also destroy their sunset views.

For the last few summers, signs and obstacles intended to keep trucks off the beach between Flaggy Hole Road and the jetty at the tip of Maidstone Park have consistently been taken down or removed. On May 15, the Springs Citizens Advisory Committee asked the town to replace them. Although the fence apparently was a response to this request, there was reportedly a 12-foot opening in it, big enough to drive a car through.

Both Kim Shaw, director of the Natural Resources Department, and Bill Taylor, an East Hampton Town Trustee and waterways management supervisor, agree that the fence was put at Flaggy Hole Road in error; it was supposed to be farther down the beach, near the eastern end of Maidstone Park. They said it would be moved soon.

Concern about what has been described as an unusually large number of ticks this spring — and the potential for increased instances of Lyme disease — has given rise to a first-time fund-raising effort by stores and restaurants on the North and South Forks.  

 East End Shop and Dine to End Lyme Disease happens on Saturday, with participants having pledged a percentage of the day’s proceeds, or a fixed sum, to the Global Lyme Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to conquering Lyme and other tick-borne illnesses through research, education, and awareness. 

Elizabeth Rasor, a teacher who lives in Sag Harbor and is one of the South Fork’s many residents afflicted with ­Lyme disease, is grappling with its effects more than three years after she was infected. She and Kinzey Fritz, who lives on the North Fork and in New York City and also has Lyme disease, have spearheaded the Shop and Dine fund-raiser. Businesses interested in participating have been asked to send an email to [email protected] or visit the Global Lyme Alliance website at globallymealliance.org. 

In Montauk, Gosman’s Restaurant, Shagwong Tavern, the Montauk Corner Store, and Deep Blue Vintage at the Montauket are among participants. Cavaniola’s Gourmet in Amagansett, the Smokin’ Wolf in East Hampton, Fairway restaurant at the Poxabogue Golf Center in Sagaponack, and Stand Wellness in Water Mill are also participants, as are Sagtown Coffee, Romany Kramoris Gallery, and Around Again in Sag Harbor. More than 10 businesses on the North Fork are taking part. 

“We encourage people to patronize these establishments on Saturday,” Ms. Rasor said. “We are very happy with the showing for our first fund-raiser and are confident that it will grow in the coming years.” A fall event is also being planned, she said. 

The Global Lyme Alliance holds events in Manhattan and Greenwich, Conn., where it is based, and has honored and received support from high-profile individuals, including the singer Rob Thomas and his wife, Marisol, who has suffered from Lyme disease for 15 years; the model and television personality Yolanda Hadid and her daughter, the model Bella Hadid, the fashion designer Joseph Abboud, and Ally Hilfiger, the  fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger’s daughter, who wrote “Bite Me: How ­Lyme Disease Stole My Childhood, Made Me Crazy, and Almost Killed Me.”

The Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center’s Thinking Forward Lecture Series, which is presented in partnership with Guild Hall, will feature “Equality in the Hamptons: Burying Our Heads in the Sand?” — a dialogue about race and segregation with Khalil Gibran Muhammad moderated by Ken Miller — on Friday, July 13, at 6 p.m. at Guild Hall.

Dr. Muhammad is a professor of history, race, and public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, a former director of the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and a professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard. His scholarship examines the broad intersections of race, democracy, inequality, and criminal justice in modern American history.

The lecture is free, but tickets are required. They are available from Guild Hall’s website or its box office.