The affluent Georgica Association is the setting for a pandemic comedy written and produced by Nick Schutt, who spent summers there growing up.

Folioeast is showing paintings by Eva Faye and Amy Wickersham at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts in Bridgehampton.

Kelly Taxter has stepped down as Parrish Art Museum director after nine months.

On an average day at the Montauk School, it’s normal for around 13 or 14 students to be absent, amounting to 4 percent of the school’s enrollment of 328. On Friday, its absences jumped to 23 percent — about 75 children — after a social media post threatening violence went viral and whipped families into a frenzy across the nation.

If there’s any doubt that people are concerned about rising Covid-19 numbers on the South Fork, countywide, and across the state, one need only drive by East Hampton Town’s Covid testing site on Stephen Hand’s Path. The facility ran out of tests and closed early on Tuesday, and Wednesday morning, the line of people waiting for tests was 50 cars long.

With the East Hampton Town Board’s unanimous vote on Tuesday to approve an agreement to put an emergency communications tower at the Camp Blue Bay property on Flaggy Hole Road in Springs, a collective sigh of relief could be heard elsewhere in the hamlet as residents’ five-month struggle to prevent the tower from being erected in a wooded area in their neighborhood had officially succeeded.

The new owner of the former Rick’s Crabby Cowboy Cafe in Montauk has big plans for the property, but they are far too big, the East Hampton Town Planning Board told his attorney last week.

A local law that would give East Hampton Town regulatory powers over mining, mulching, and composting operations and require the monitoring and reporting of any impacts to groundwater drew strong support from environmental advocates at a public hearing last Thursday. Representatives of a local business engaged in such operations, however, vigorously criticized the proposal.

If you are lucky enough to encounter one of these visitors from the north, the number-one rule is to simply keep your distance.

Laura Stein, a longtime resident of Montauk who had a long and distinguished career as a marketing and advertising executive, author, and fitness expert, died of cancer at home in New York City on Nov. 22. She was 75.

Richard Bono, who ran Bono’s Small Engine Repair in East Hampton for decades, died at home here on Nov. 27. He was 86 and had been in declining health for the past year.

Barbara Patricola-McNiff, who owned and operated the Devlin-McNiff real estate business in East Hampton with her husband, John, died on Nov. 21 at home here. She was 81.

Word has been received of the death of Merrie Barbara Bennett Gay, a lifelong resident of Springs, on July 15 at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Quiogue. She was 63 and had been ill with cancer for two years.

Ellen Frank, an artist, scholar, writer, and founder of the Ellen Frank Illumination Arts Foundation in Springs, died last Thursday at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. She was 75. An obituary will appear in a future issue.

By an 8-to-1 vote on Dec. 15, the Long Island Power Authority’s board of trustees approved a new contract with PSEG Long Island, which operates and maintains the electrical grid on its behalf.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has completed its environmental review of potential impacts from offshore wind energy leasing activities in the New York Bight, off New York and New Jersey, and has issued a finding of no significant impact.

Consultants to the town who have spent the last few months fact-finding on the future of East Hampton Airport reported to the town board on Tuesday about community support and opposition, and the economic implications of closing the airport or, alternatively, imposing certain restrictions.

Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott asked the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division on Monday to block the installation of a transmission cable connecting the South Fork Wind Farm to the electric grid until the court ruled on the group’s appeal of what it calls the state’s improper approval of its route through the hamlet.

Projects that will protect or improve ground and surface waters may be eligible for funding under the water quality portion of East Hampton Town’s community preservation fund.

The omicron variant of Covid-19, known to be more contagious than previous variants, is causing virus cases and hospitalizations to rise fast.