East Hampton and Amagansett firefighters volunteered to head north last week to help fight a 5,000-acre wildfire in Orange County, N.Y., not once but twice, battling unfamiliar terrain to do so. “They fight fires completely differently than we do when we have a brush fire,” the Amagansett chief said.

“One of the things that I struggle with is people saying the AIDS crisis is a thing of the past, as if the time to remember is something for the past,” said Tom House, the founder of Hamptons Pride, which is bringing quilts from the National AIDS Memorial to the East Hampton Presbyterian Church next week.

With a large inflatable rat in tow, a group from the Laborers Local 66 union has been stationed this week outside the Montauk Playhouse Community Center, where new aquatic and cultural centers are under construction, with signs calling out the architects and general contractors on the project.

Debate over the addition of an area for small dogs at the Springs Park continued this week as the park committee met to discuss recommended changes that also include removal of invasive species.

Design work has yet to begin on a new lighting plan for downtown Amagansett, where large trees line Main Street and sometimes block light, but the East Hampton Town Board appeared happy Tuesday with a preliminary study by L.K. McLean Associates, the project engineers.

The westernmost grass field at the Stephen Hand’s Path Recreational Facility will be converted to a multiuse artificial turf field in January, with work to be completed possibly by Memorial Day, depending on weather. Councilman David Lys and Matt Jedlicka, an engineer at L.K. McLean Associates, gave a presentation on the project to the town board at a meeting on Tuesday.

“It could have gone worse. We’re lucky that I have officers here that weren’t shot,” said Police Chief Jeff Erickson at Friday’s East Hampton Village Board meeting. Chief Erickson was recognizing Sgt. Wayne Gauger and Officers John Clark and Robbie Greene for a traffic stop on Aug. 31 that turned into a scuffle and the eventual confiscation of an illegal gun.

Two dozen women from across the South Fork gathered Monday night at Grace Presbyterian Church in Water Mill to kick off a season of soup-making in which the goal is to prepare 1,000 quarts of hearty, homemade soup for people facing food insecurity and homelessness.

The South Fork had more harmful blue-green algae blooms this year than ever before, researchers at Stony Brook University recently announced as part of an annual water quality report.

Devon Leaver, a daughter of Suzanne and Brian Leaver of Amagansett, and Xavier De Cardenas, the son of Evangeline and Frank De Cardenas of Roselle, N.J., were married on Nov. 9 at Montauk Downs. The Rev. Joe Iadanza officiated.

The Sag Harbor School Board on Monday officially approved a Latin honors system to replace the current practice of ranking students, adopting a policy that is to begin next school year with the graduating class of 2026. The vote was 6-0 with one board member, Alex Kriegsman, abstaining.

Springs School is full of talent, and Lucy Fagerland is one example of that.

The Friday Preteen Project returns tomorrow from 6 to 8 p.m. through Project Most. Plus: a Wiffle ball tournament, Origami Club, kids' movies, board games, and anime.

As Thanksgiving approaches, many of us are digging out favorite holiday recipes or looking for something new to try. The Ladies Village Improvement Society has published cookbooks as a fund-raiser since the group’s founding in 1896, and the society’s 1908 “Cook Book” has some great holiday classics.

A Three Mile Harbor Drive resident reported an online dating scam on the afternoon of Nov. 16. Somehow, said the 80-year-old man, a person on the dating platform had gotten his phone number and demanded $2,000 from him, threatening to tell his family he was using the site if he did not comply. Police told the man to block the number.

A 2-year-old was taken to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital following a head-on collision Saturday afternoon on State Route 27 near Upland Road in Montauk.

At a West Lake Drive house in Montauk on Oct. 28, East Hampton Town police arrested a local man on a charge of violating an order of protection, a class-E felony.

Residents of Sag Harbor knew Anthony Brandt as the chairman of its Board of Historic Preservation and Architectural Review, one of the regulatory boards charged with maintaining the authenticity and character of houses and other buildings in the village. A formidable advocate for preservation, he served in the role for seven years beginning in 1986, five years after he first moved to the village, and again from 2016 to 2019.

Despite a lifetime of health challenges, Diana Lee Foster, known as Lee to family and friends, maintained a positive outlook. The Montauk native died of pneumonia last Thursday at Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead.

Christian Gutierrez “lived his entire 21 years in the most wonderful way,” his family wrote. “He never held back from doing what he loved — spending time with family, cherishing his friends, and riding his motorcycle.” Mr. Gutierrez, an East Hampton High School graduate who grew up in Springs, died in a motorcycle accident in Riverhead on Oct. 6.