Groundwater contamination in the hamlet of Wainscott was not caused by a 70.5-acre former sand and gravel mine in that hamlet, according to a new determination by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Two six-week programs for young thespians through Bay Street Theater will begin on Sept. 26 outdoors on the grounds of the Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum.

A second public hearing on community choice aggregation, a program that allows a local government to procure electricity and/or natural gas on behalf of its residents, businesses, and municipal accounts from a provider other than an area's traditional utility, will happen during the East Hampton Town Board's meeting next Thursday. 

The village plans to develop an affordable housing program that will be overseen by East Hampton Housing Authority, the village board announced at a meeting last Thursday.

Parents and children can expect the experience of riding the school bus to be different in light of Covid-19 -- if, that is, they take the bus at all.

As of Tuesday, with the daily Covid-19 infection rate on Long Island hovering around 1.5 percent, school sports are still a go starting on Sept. 21. On Wednesday, the New York State Department of Health released further guidelines governing each sport, clarifying that football, volleyball, rugby, and now cheerleading will not start until March 1, 2021.

Capt. Paul Dixon, a fly-fishing guide with To the Point Charters of East Hampton, is a pioneer in this specialty fishing locally and thanks to his advocacy helpint to preserve the stocks of striped bass and other fish, was recently named to receive the 2021 Izaak Walton Award from the American Museum of Fly Fishing.

Sag Harbor Village Mayor Kathleen Mulcahy presented detailed goals for a proposal to impose a six-month moratorium on commercial redevelopment in the village's waterfront area at a board meeting on Tuesday. 

This has been a summer of consternation and intense debate for Jewish communities worldwide. How to bring people together for the High Holy Days, which begin on the evening of Friday, Sept. 18, while keeping them safely apart in the midst of a pandemic? On the South Fork, with a single exception, the answer, in the main, was Zoom.

The angry exchanges resumed on Tuesday when the East Hampton Town Board again discussed Stony Brook Southampton Hospital's planned emergency room annex ahead of a vote on the proposal's environmental impact that is expected next Tuesday. 

With mask-wearing mandates in place for every student, except in some cases those with disabilities, many school districts are now banning the use of masks with valves or exhalation vents.

Those "are not recommended, as they can allow exhaled respiratory droplets to reach others," according to the New York State chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

I hope that if any of you know anyone who may be struggling with addiction during the pandemic, you might find a quiet moment to offer encouragement, to ask if there's anything you can do to help. Sometimes that's all it takes to get someone headed in the right direction.

Elections for East Hampton Village mayor and two open trustee seats will be held on Tuesday. Voting will take place at the Emergency Services Building at 1 Cedar Street from noon to 9 p.m.

East Hampton Library item of the week: On July 12, 1765, Thomas Dering (1720-1785) created this inventory of his personal effects, along with their value, listed as £700.48.

The Town of East Hampton and the town trustees will share a community benefits package worth almost $29 million in exchange for easements allowing Orsted U.S Offshore Wind and Eversource, partners developing the proposed 15-turbine South Fork Wind project, to land the installation's export cable and bury it on a path to the Long Island Power Authority substation in East Hampton. 

Gail Sheehy, a New York City journalist, commentator, and author who had lived part time in East Hampton until about 2008, died unexpectedly of complications of pneumonia at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital on Aug. 24. She was 83.

Robert Hagan has resigned from his post as director of instruction and technology for the East Hampton School District. He had been with East Hampton for more than seven years and is leaving to accept an assistant superintendent position closer to home.

Dan Budnik, a photographer whose subjects ranged from artists of the 1950s to the civil rights movement to Native American culture to the baymen of the South Fork, died at an assisted living facility in Tucson, Ariz., on Aug. 14.

John W. Jurgensen, a former sergeant in the mounted unit of the New York Police Department, died of pancreatic cancer at home in Montauk on Saturday. He was 74, and had been ill for more than two years. 

The Hamptons International Film Festival's closing night film this year will be "One Night in Miami." Directed by the actress Regina King, it is based on a play of the same name about the gathering of four giants of sports, music, and activism on the night of a major boxing upset in 1964.