With illegal fireworks, noise complaints, bar fights, accidents, ambulance calls, missing pets, long traffic backups, and bustling business over the Fourth of July weekend, the South Fork officially shook off its remaining Covid cobwebs and picked up the pace for peak season.

At the start of last Thursday's meeting, Mayor Jerry Larsen apologized for the village's failure to put out American flags on June 19 in honor of the first observance of Juneteenth — a day that commemorates the end of slavery in the nation — as a federal holiday.

A Pheasant Woods Lane resident, not a fan of the bright floodlights installed on his shared driveway, called police around midnight Sunday to say he could not see to get into his own driveway. Police contacted the neighbors, who shut off the lights.

New York State has $110 million available to fund community-based mobility and environmental initiatives. The money will support projects focusing on safety and accessibility in public transportation as part of the Transportation Alternatives Program and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program. 

East Hampton Town's senior citizens nutrition programs will resume meal service at the town's senior citizens center on Springs-Fireplace Road and at the Montauk Playhouse Community Center on Monday

East Hampton Library Item of the Week: On July 14, 1842, Alexander Gardiner wrote to his mother, Juliana McLachlan Gardiner, in East Hampton, sending news of family and friends, along with business interests. Two years before, his parents whisked his younger sisters off to Washington, D.C., to avoid the scandal that followed his sister Julia (1820-1889), who eventually become First Lady, modeling for a lithograph advertisement.

It is an indication of Trumpism’s tragic grip on the Republican Party that Lee Zeldin could be considered the presumptive nominee in a bid for governor of the State of New York.

There was a time not that long ago when closing the airport was not something mentioned in public; now it is among the options.

What has happened to Montauk is a shame.

Decades ago, a movement to build a bypass skirting the hamlets and villages on Montauk Highway was beaten back. I wonder what the naysayers would think if they could see 2021.

Did you see the New York Times piece this weekend about a pro-laziness movement led by a factory dropout from Zhejiang Province, China?

Never mind the backups, jam-ups, and clogged (traffic) arteries, the quality of driving itself has taken a nosedive.

The goose that lays the golden egg is on life support.

Throughout this past year, for reasons that are not entirely clear to me, I have returned again and again to the lyrical prose of Peter Matthiessen’s “The Tree Where Man Was Born.”

AMAGANSETT

Edwards Trust to Betty Englis, 425 Cranberry Hole Road (vacant), April 30, $2,550,000.

BRIDGEHAMPTON

Eugene G. Smith to J. and D. LI Home Builders L.L.C., 867 Millstone Road (vacant), Feb. 9, $225,000.

Stefan Wiskemann to Caroline and Jeremy Leventhal, 20 Audobon Avenue, April 26, $5,750,000.

While firefighters are often summoned to help animals in distress, it's a rare day when an aerial truck comes to the rescue. But that's what happened on June 25, when Montauk firefighters were called to help rescue a seagull caught in a power line near the Dock restaurant. 

Kim Tetrault, the longtime chief oyster guru at the Cornell Cooperative Extension Marine Center in Southold, tends oysters hatched in late March and scallops still too tiny to be seen without a microscope.

Samantha Duane of East Hampton certainly skates through life, and this summer, she's inviting other people to join her for friendly skate gatherings that the ex-roller derby pro hosts Monday nights in the parking lot of the Clubhouse off Daniel's Hole Road.

A show of works by the late Gahan Wilson opens Thursday, and the Sag Harbor Community Band has an upcoming performance.

The latest raft of missives . . .