Martin Pettersen of Maidstone Park, who was known as Whitey, died on Friday after a long illness. He was 81. A graveside service and military burial will be held at Most Holy Trinity Cemetery on Cedar Street in East Hampton on Tuesday at 11 a.m., the Rev. Peter J. Garry officiating. Visitors will be welcome at the gravesite ceremony. An obituary will appear in a future issue.

Kathleen Patricia Thompson, who owned FiFi's Franks, a onetime hot dog concession at Main Beach in Sagaponack, died on Oct. 7 at home in Williamsburg, Va. The former East Hampton resident was 60.

Twenty-five members of the New York and New Jersey delegations to the House of Representatives wrote to Amanda Lefton, the new director of the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, on Friday to urge her to "jump-start the offshore wind leasing process" by issuing final Wind Energy Areas and subsequent lease auctions in the New York Bight. 

An Oakview Highway woman told police that someone had driven across her lawn overnight on Saturday. Her split-rail fence was destroyed and an officer also noted a broken post, umbrella stand, and spotlight, plus tire marks.

A driver was arrested last week on a charge of aggravated unlicensed driving after hitting a tree on private property at the intersection of Wainscott Main Street and Beach Lane.

Severe weather caused many a slip-and-slide on local roads last week, though no injuries were reported.

East Hampton High School's boys basketball team was 2-1 in league play as of Tuesday, and 2-3 over all.

Having followed his coach's advice, Kal Lewis, the University of Iowa freshman from Shelter Island, trailed a Big Ten pack for most of the indoor mile race at Iowa's field house Friday before kicking his way to fourth place in a lifetime-best 4 minutes and 7.14 seconds, "a second out of second, and a step out of third," according to Cliff Clark, Shelter Island's running guru.

Councilman David Lys hopes to include $250,000 toward the renovation and expansion of the Montauk skate park in East Hampton Town's capital budget.

For the third year in a row East Hampton High's boys swimming team won the League II meet, this one contested Saturday at Hauppauge High School, topping four teams — Hauppauge, West Islip, Sayville-Bayport-Blue Point, and Northport — that had defeated the 3-4 Bonackers in dual meet competition.

As hopes for a return to normalcy in 2021 gather strength, the East Hampton Town Board is considering the costs and quantity of beach parking and beach driving permits the town will issue to nonresidents, resorts, and co-ops this year. 

At the beginning of September, four South Fork college students talked with The East Hampton Star about their expectations and experiences so far attending school during the Covid-19 pandemic. One semester later, this is how it's going.

People have rushed and raided shelves for the obvious during Covid — hand sanitizer, disinfectant, paper towels, yeast for all those burgeoning home bakers — but they've also rushed to buy up unexpected things like dumbbells, balloons, Krud Kutter, tiki torches, and zinc.

On Friday from noon to 1 p.m., the East Hampton Library will hold a virtual African-American Read-In for teens, in which high schoolers are invited to read literature, speeches, and poems written by Black authors, poets, and leaders. Participants can read passages aloud or simply observe and listen.

A student art show, birdwatching, abstract drawing, and more activities coming up for kids and teens.

The Sag Harbor School District last week reported that costs for school busing, office administration, maintenance, utilities, and operations are increasing only marginally in its 2021-22 budget proposal. A senior school official also announced a target tax-levy increase of 1.5 percent, which is a smidge under the maximum that Sag Harbor would be allowed to enact under New York State's limits on tax levy increases.

After a months-long search to find someone to fill the newly created position of executive director, the Ladies Village Improvement Society of East Hampton, a women's organization founded in 1895 with an all-female board of directors, has announced the hiring of "the most qualified candidate," a man.

With the pandemic still upending normal life, East Hampton School District officials have made it clear they are taking seriously the mental health and academic needs of their students, quite literally putting their money where their mouths are.

Maxwell Gomberg, a ninth grader at the Bridgehampton School, recently put his love of computer technology to good use in a national coding contest. His team emerged the first-place winner on Jan. 31 at the competition's advanced level II.

Avenues: The World School, a for-profit independent school that set up a small "studio" campus last summer at the Hampton Country Day Camp in East Hampton, this week announced that it will remain there for another school year.