Editorials

Between unsolicited cellphone calls and hard-to-get-rid-of computer popups, it’s a wonder that any of us come out whole at the end of a day.

Here we go again. Representative Lee Zeldin is out front in his support of President Trump, dismissing as phony a serious impeachment inquiry based on credible allegations.

With less than a month to go before Election Day, East Hampton voters have some difficult choices to make. The toughest among them, however, might be on the town trustees portion of the ballot. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: It’s high time the venerable elected body with nine members adopted staggered terms.

It is movie time again in East Hampton. Next Thursday at Guild Hall, the Hamptons International Film Festival officially opens with the screening of “Just Mercy.” From then until the afternoon of Oct. 14, it will be a cinephile’s delight, with dozens of features and short films, as well as talks and parties, from all over the world and homegrown directors, writers, and producers, famous and not so famous. With this much to choose from in a short few days, just choosing what to see can seem daunting. Tickets have gone on sale, and while some of the biggest titles might be sold out, there are always plenty of other choices.

People who leave their vehicles in the Amagansett municipal parking lot to ride the Hampton Jitney are incensed about Town Hall’s plan to eliminate or sharply reduce long-term use of the lot. Having gotten used to the convenience of parking relatively close to the Jitney stop, they are unhappy about losing this perk. However, it is not entirely clear that reserving public parking spaces for users of a private, for-profit service is good policy.

Regular readers of this newspaper know it has made a significant editorial commitment of time, resources, and newsprint to issues surrounding greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution in its coverage of alternative energy sources and the reduction of demand.

As a legal standoff between East Hampton Town and the Springs Fire District over a disputed radio and cellphone tower drags on toward a fourth year, emergency communications — as well as mobile phone service — in the populous hamlet remains poor to nonexistent.

It has often been said that if you weren’t for impeachment already, you were not paying attention, but nothing has been quite enough.

For some time, we have observed that the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals operates in what seems to be a universe unto itself.

On Saturday, voters in the East Hampton, Wainscott, and Springs School Districts will have a chance to support an institution that is a cultural and educational hub for the community. The East Hampton Library, on Main Street overlooking the Village Green, is asking residents to approve a modest tax increase to help pay for its growing services.

While the White House either is or is not hurtling toward war with Iran, the Democratic primary, and, not to overlook it, the beginning steps of a presidential impeachment, we should not forget that thousands of residents of the Abacos Islands in the Bahamas remain in dire need of assistance.

Thousands of young people are expected to rally around the world tomorrow in a students’ day of action to call attention more aggressively to the need to combat the looming crisis of human-caused global warming. New York City leaders are taking climate change seriously, to the point that they are allowing the 1.1-million public school students to leave classrooms and take part in the protests without penalty. Closer to home, some students are expected to walk out on their own; others are likely to be among those headed to the city on rented buses.

For East Hampton voters who have not followed the bumpy and bruising run up to the November town election, the lack of choices will be surprising. Notably, there will be no Republican candidates for supervisor or town board because the county party would not sign off on the local party’s choice of nominees, a requirement since none of them are registered Republicans.

Members of the Springs Fire Department were upset that a town planning board hearing on a controversial radio and cellular telephone monopole behind the firehouse was scheduled for last night — that is, Sept. 11, the same evening that the somber annual memorial ceremony is held at Hook Mill.

It seems only right to offer a tip of the cap to the professionals and volunteers who answer the call at any time of day or night even as the population of residents and day-trippers doubles and then doubles again then returns to normal after Labor Day.

A recent little-noticed report about East Hampton Town’s wastewater system upgrade program deserves wider attention. Produced by the town’s water quality advisory committee, the report offered five ways to increase the rate at which property owners are signing on.

And just like that, the tropical Atlantic came alive. After an August with minimal swell and no hurricanes, two named storms popped up, one as we went to press Wednesday threatening to make a first landfall in already battered Puerto Rico and projected to arrive as Hurricane Dorian in northern Florida on Monday. At the same time, but less of a threat to shore, another storm developed off the Carolina coast but was to move away into the open ocean by the end of the week.

A proposal to force New York private schools to report more than their local boards of education now require is circulating in Albany and has some educators and parents worried.

Term limits are great talking points during political campaigns, but after getting elected, most officials lose interest in them. National Democratic strategists looking to push Representative Lee Zeldin out of office have seized on his 2014 victory over the incumbent, Tim Bishop, as evidence of just such a flip-flop.

The Village of Sag Harbor gets it. In a ceremony marking its new Steinbeck Park, Southampton Town and Sag Harbor elected officials celebrated the creation of a public waterfront asset. Officials in other towns and villages should be watching this closely. This park might never have been a reality had the village, over many years, failed to resist pressure from developers.

The big field on Montauk Highway east of the Amagansett I.G.A. is quiet again following two large benefit events — the Soldier Ride fund-raiser and the East Hampton Library Authors Night book fair.

Recently and almost in passing, an East Hampton Town Board member observed that it might be necessary to seek outside help for the Ordinance Enforcement Department. At the moment, the town lists eight field employees and one clerk in the department directory, but three work only part time. This small group is supposed to provide seven-day-a-week coverage, taking on everything and anything not otherwise in the purview of town police.

All agreed new helping hands are harder than ever to recruit. This has led to a graying of the volunteer work force, in which a 50-year-old can feel that he or she is the springyist chicken in the coop.

It seems somehow crazy that Donald Trump is to arrive on the East End tomorrow for a fund-raiser, after two mass shootings within hours of each other, as if nothing were wrong.

Two sides are circling each other in regard to a new, consolidated town shellfish hatchery off Gann Road at Three Mile Harbor. Untangling this will help guide what has been an excessively contentious debate toward an amicable resolution.

Town and county officials are going to have a difficult time convincing anyone that the cause of a rash of earaches and other infections among people who surf and swim at Ditch Plain has been caused by anything other than wastewater effluent from the adjacent mobile home park.

The Montauk Lighthouse will undergo repair beginning this summer and major restoration of its protective seawall is to begin in the fall. These are costly endeavors — more than $1 million for the tower and $24 million for the stonework — but in the minds of many, well worth it.

The Trump re-election campaign recently began selling 10-pack plastic drinking straws after the president seized on the paper versions as a sign of liberal overreach. This followed media outrage from the right earlier this year after plastic ones were banned for takeout drinks in Washington, D.C.

What is it, really, about wind that pushes otherwise reasonable people over the edge? Certainly, there is no equivalent outcry when gas lines or water mains are installed or replaced. And if those vigorous in their opposition to the Orsted Deepwater South Fork Wind Farm far out in the ocean truly wanted to do something about the cost of electricity, they could advocate for the various “demand-reduction” programs that have had some success and have room to grow. No, for all the position papers and public statements, the intense opposition cannot truly be explained.

The lack of an efficient customer service response to the Optimum internet outage Monday night was remarkable in itself and for what it said about the overtaxed infrastructure on the East End in general.