Twice a year, the Town of East Hampton awards money to homeowners and businesses to incentivize water quality improvements. On Dec. 16, applications opened to award $1 million to fund eligible projects for 2025.

Larry Penny, the writer of The Star’s “Nature Notes” column for many years, died on Sunday in California following a two-week hospital stay. He was 89 and had lived in Noyac until recently.

A switch to a zone defense and Toby Foster’s fourth-quarter heroics led East Hampton over the Killer Bees in the championship game. Shelter Island topped the Ross School in the consolation game.

East Hampton High School’s wrestlers won a close one against Northport here on Dec. 11, before going on to battle the reigning county champ, North Babylon, two days later.

Plungers will be “freezin’ for a reason” at ocean beaches in East Hampton Village and Wainscott on New Year’s Day, their mad dashes into the frigid surf arguably motivated by desires for personal renewal and for their fellow citizens’ well-being, inasmuch as the proceeds from the usually very well-attended events go to food pantries in Sag Harbor and East Hampton Town.

Golf’s popularity, stone revetments, and Plum Island — ’twas ever thus, Starlings.

More from Star readers.

The East Hampton Town Board has a chance at its Jan. 2 organizational meeting to either back away from its decision to remove the chairman of the town planning board, or at least offer the public a reasonable explanation.

The state’s campaign to dismantle the Shinnecock Indian Nation’s electronic billboards and seek punitive damages is a waste of time and resources.

A lawsuit over a proposed swimming pool at the Huntting Inn in East Hampton Village is worthy of public attention.

One tradition that I have always been a sucker for is the tree in Town Pond, of which the best part is seeing the village crew setting it out from their tippy aluminum rowboat.

My son and I have been down for the count with influenza and quickly reached the Very Boring Stage of convalescence. Bring on Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson in “Red One,” the Christmas-themed action movie.

Notes on a new/old favorite, “Homicide: Life on the Street,” now streaming on Peacock.

First I hated driving the Cross Bronx Expressway. Then I discovered many other ways to hate it in “The Power Broker,” Robert Caro’s monumental biography of Robert Moses, the designer of it and so much else affecting our transportation lives.

Newly reported real estate transactions, Montauk to Southampton Village.

First-half property taxes are due without penalty by Jan. 10, according to a reminder posted on the East Hampton Town website.

Joanne Friedland Roberts's film weaves interviews, archival film footage, and photographs to tell the story of the men and women who have fished and farmed the East End for almost 400 years.

The third annual Bonac Print Shop Art Showcase at Ashawagh Hall in Springs will feature work by 35 East End artists.

The annual Pushcart Prize anthology of fiction, poetry, and essays is a barometer of our culture, and this year the word that echoes through it is “aftermath,” as we collectively pick among the ruins, searching for meaning.

National Theatre Live will bring Noel Coward's "Present Lives" to Guild Hall, where Susan Stroman, the director and choreographer, has been named president of the Academy of the Arts.