The brilliant early-autumn weather provided a perfect backdrop for Saturday’s dedication of Rickenbach Park, the expansive lawn bordered by Pantigo Road, Accabonac Road, Methodist Lane, and Hook Mill Road in East Hampton Village.
Mayor Jerry Larsen, former town supervisor, and village administrator Larry Cantwell, Hugh King, the town and village historian, and the Rev. Dr. Ben Shambaugh of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church were among the speakers at a brief ceremony during which a plaque naming the space for Paul F. Rickenbach Jr., the village’s longest-serving mayor, was unveiled. The former mayor was also on hand.
A member of the village’s Police Department for many years and a former village board member, Mr. Rickenbach served as mayor from 1992 to 2019. Including his military service, “that’s a total of 60 years of dedicated service to our community,” Mayor Larsen told the gathering. Mr. Rickenbach is a past president of the Suffolk County Police Association and the Suffolk County Village Officials Association, the mayor said. “He played a key role in creating the village’s historic districts, preserving open spaces, maintaining historic buildings, and crafting the village’s first comprehensive plan in 2002.”
“During his tenure, village headquarters relocated to the historic Beecher Hand House, and several major restoration projects were undertaken, including the Gardiner Windmill, the Gardiner Mill Cottage — reopened as an art gallery — and significant repairs to the Hook Windmill,” according to a biography on the village’s website. “He oversaw the restoration and return of the Dominy Workshops to their original site on North Main Street and completed a comprehensive Historic Structure Report on Home, Sweet Home, which also received a fire suppression system to ensure its protection.”
Under his leadership, “the village purchased North End Commons and formally established four historic districts: the Huntting Lane Historic District, Ocean Avenue Historic District, Main Street Historic District, and Hook Historic District — ensuring the protection of East Hampton’s architectural and cultural heritage for generations to come,” the biography continues.
It is appropriate, Mr. King said, to honor Mr. Rickenbach at the site, given its historic spaces and structures, including the 1806 Old Hook Mill, the 1770 North End Cemetery, and the 1899 Methodist Church. “On a personal level, I want to thank Mayor Rickenbach,” he added. “His administration hired me in 1999 to work at Home, Sweet Home Museum, and they did one thing better. They hired Loretta,” Mr. King’s late wife, “to restore the gardens there.”
Mr. Cantwell, who retired in 2017 after 42 years in local government, spoke of Mr. Rickenbach’s role in acquiring the space, on which a car dealership previously stood. “Paul had his eye on this property as a possible purchase,” he said, “with a vision of tearing down the old automobile dealership and expanding what we know of as the North End Common.” The owner, the late Generosa Ammon, was reluctant to sell, he said. Finally, she agreed, “but we had to close on the property within a month. Closing on a commercial property with some environmental issues, with the village having to fund it through bond anticipation notes, and doing the due diligence was practically impossible.”
The town was willing to provide community preservation fund money, Mr. Cantwell said, and John Halsey of the Peconic Land Trust expressed an interest in helping with the acquisition, “but coming up with the money was the problem on such short notice. Paul got on the phone. He said, ‘We’re going to find a way to make this happen.’ ”
A village resident who wanted to remain anonymous offered an interest-free loan to the Land Trust. That resident, he said, was the late Carl Menges. Richard Warren of Inter-Science Research Associates was also instrumental in the acquisition, providing an environmental report. “None of this would have happened without Paul’s hard work and dedication to it,” Mr. Cantwell said. As anyone involved in local government knows, “sometimes you really do have to move a mountain in order to make something happen. Paul made this happen, and it’s a wonderful gift to the community.”
The site is an apt one to honor the former mayor for another, more poignant, reason. A decade ago, a Callery pear tree was planted at the North End Common. Known as a “survivor tree,” it was grown from a seedling harvested from a tree that endured the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack that destroyed the World Trade Center in Manhattan, and donated by Bartlett Tree Experts. Mr. Rickenbach’s daughter, Karen Rickenbach Mesiha, who worked at a law firm in the World Trade Center’s North Tower, was one of the last to exit the structure before it collapsed. Soon afterward, she began experiencing medical issues, and died in December 2015.
David McMaster of East Hampton, who worked for Bartlett Tree Experts, said that “we championed a program called the Survivor Tree Program,” and the survivor tree planted at the site “is really here as a remembrance of Paul’s daughter.” He quoted the then-mayor’s remarks at the time, when he asked that people take advantage of the memorial for “meditation and reflection on our lives.”
“I appreciate the kind words that were said regarding my tenure as mayor and as a public official,” Mr. Rickenbach said. “More than anything, I accept this honor today with sincere gratitude to my colleagues and all the residents of the village, and some town residents as well, that have allowed for all of this to happen.”
“Each and every one of us is a spoke in the wheel, and we have an obligation to try to make it better for ourselves and the persons to our left and right,” he continued. “I think that plays out in East Hampton Village, sometimes called America’s most beautiful village.”
