Marvelously Efficient East Hampton May 11, 2015 Dear David, The East Hampton food pantry is a wonderful place. Its weekly offerings of fresh vegetables and fruit, meat, dairy, and other essentials to a healthy diet has for years sustained me and a considerable portion of the town’s working and retired population. It is marvelously efficient, from the time you check in until you are served and, when necessary, helped to your car or bus stop. And, most unusual of all for a charity, the volunteers there are, one and all, warm and respectful. I have not once seen “attitude” from any volunteer toward me or anyone else. I find it a pleasure to go there. However, this is the Hamptons, and our canteen must compete with our summer scene of wealthier charities capable of producing lavish, star-studded fund-raisers. These charities are worthy too, but I can think of no cause more essential to our community’s health and heart than our pantry. So please consider a generous donation. And if you like, check it out yourself, any Tuesday afternoon at the Windmill Village II Community Room, 219 Accabonac Road. Phone 324-2300. With thanks, RICHARD ROSENTHAL Mystery Art Sale Springs May 7, 2015 Dear Editor, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up,” is the famous quote by Pablo Picasso. On the first days of May, all of Springs and beyond shared the joy of art at the second annual Springs Mystery Art Sale. The children hand-wrote letters to local artists, asking for help, and the artistic community answered in force. After six months of intense effort by the Springs Mystery Art Committee of the most devoted volunteers, the buyers followed the blue question marks (a logo designed by Colleen Bothwell of I and I Design) and converged on Ashawagh Hall to buy paintings from a selection of 1,300 5-by-7-inch canvases. Over 600 artists and 570 students and staff contributed, often with more than one piece. All of the students visited the show and were thrilled to see their work hanging with the professionals’ — a truly authentic learning experience. Some students bought their favorite pieces, as did serious art collectors. To name all who contributed would be impossible, from the many staff members and community supporters who stepped up to man the boards to the artists and musicians. The Springs Mystery Band of Angelina Modica, John Gibbons, Joey Calavito, Joe Van Asco, and Peter Fitzgerald regaled the gathering before the auction, led by Lucas Hunt, with Telly Karoussos and Brad Penuel following up with the entertainment. The kindness of strangers was exemplified by Steven Hildreth of Springs, who bought three tickets each day of the show to purchase student art, to the delight of these young artists. The big winners are the children of Springs. The proceeds pay artists to participate in the Visiting Artist Program. From last year’s show, artists were paid to conduct workshops for all grade levels, with over 20 visiting artists participating in the program so far, including making a comic book with Andy Piver, creating sets with Paton Miller for the opera, Shakespearean acting with the Vaughans, visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art and working with Linda Capello at the Art Barge (thanks to Chris Cohan), as well as framing their work as part of the school’s permanent collection in the halls. Based on this year’s sales, we are promising another great year of visiting artists enriching the lives of our children. As an art educator, local resident, and parent of Springs School graduates, I couldn’t be prouder of our student artists, school, and community. Anyone interested in participating in the Visiting Artist Program in the upcoming year, call me at 324-0144, extension 362, or email [email protected]. Thanks to all, COLLEEN McGOWAN Director Visiting Artist Program Additional businesses and individuals that contributed to the Springs Mystery Art Sale can be found in the Card of Thanks section of this issue’s classifieds. Ed. Never Kill a Honeybee Springs May 11, 2015 Dear David, It’s honeybee swarm season! Swarming occurs when something is not quite right in the hive, and is also nature’s way of honeybee colony reproduction. Honeybees are the only bees that swarm, so if you see a “ball of bees” on a tree limb, fence, or anywhere else, these are honeybees that should be saved and never killed. The queen and her workers wait while scout bees search for a place to build their new home. They look for a nice dark area, like a hollow tree, or your shed, garage, or attic! The search can take minutes to days, so it is very important that you act fast and call a local beekeeper to relocate the colony and never call an exterminator to kill them, since honeybees are responsible for pollinating many of the foods we eat, contributing billions of dollars to our economy every year. Honeybee swarms are generally docile, but extreme caution should be taken, as they are wild animals that could become agitated if not handled properly. Honeybees are in decline across the planet, and are integral to our food security and supply. They also make honey and beeswax, which is a sweet bonus! So, if you spot a swarm of honeybees, please do not kill them. You can call Bonac Bees at 377-1943 for free swarm-catching, or check out the Long Island Beekeepers Club for a list of beekeepers who also catch swarms. While I’ve got your attention, if you plan to use chemical pesticides in your yard and garden (herbicides, fungicides, insecticides) please do not use insecticides in the neonicotinoid family (acetamiprid, clothianidin, imidacloprid, nitenpyram, nithiazine, thiacloprid, and thiamethoxam), as these are deadly to honeybees and are not very good for your family, pets, or the planet either. Many seeds are pretreated with systemic neonicotinoids (the most widely used is imidacloprid), and the insecticide is integrated into the entire plant, including the leaves, pollen, nectar, flowers, and fruits! Beware when purchasing from the big-box retailers, as they commonly pre-treat their plants and seeds with these systemic insect-killers. Look for the “U.S.D.A. Organic” label on seeds and nursery plants to be sure that they do not contain these hidden chemicals, or any others for that matter. Please think of the future of the people and the planet, and also the sweet little honeybee, and do not use chemical pesticides on your lawn and gardens. There are effective and environmentally friendly alternatives that we can all use. And remember, everything we do on the land ends up in the sea, so if you like clean drinking water and healthy marine and freshwater ecosystems, with robust fisheries and a thriving tourist economy, please use organic, nontoxic products on your lawn and gardens. Bee well! DEBORAH KLUGHERS Communications Tower East Hampton May 10, 2015 Dear David: The 160-foot-high AT&T communications tower that went up overnight on the property of the Springs Fire Department in a high-density residential neighborhood is, as kids like to say, a do-over. AT&T needs to take its tower down and start over with a transparent public review process. By cloaking itself in the uniform of the Springs Fire Department, AT&T claimed an exemption from town zoning and took what it thought was a shortcut, which will turn out to be a long and winding road. Let’s hear all the points of view from the fire commissioners and the community. What are the costs and revenues for this project and who is paying and receiving them? What is the justification for adding a fifth communications tower within a three-mile stretch on Fireplace Road, with a sixth tower already approved at the Camp Blue Bay Girl Scout camp? There is new technology all the time that makes these towers more and more obsolete. Is this new tower really about emergency service communications, or corporate profits? It’s not enough for the fire commissioners to secretly decide this tower makes sense. It’s not enough for the town attorney to make a call that this project needs no public review. They must make their case to the people in Springs whom they represent, in an open and transparent process. The best solution here is for AT&T to voluntarily take the tower down and have the fire commissioners try to make a public and transparent case for why they think it’s a good idea. If the proposal can stand up to that scrutiny, then it can be put up. And if not, then AT&T should use it someplace else. Sincerely, RANDY PARSONS The Housing Crunch Amagansett May 8, 2015 Dear David, Here’s to The Star’s fine reporting by Christopher Walsh, “Taking on the South Fork Housing Crunch,” and the spot-on editorial suggesting that a percentage of the community preservation fund tax be allocated to affordable housing. There will be pushback from the dysfunctionals in Albany to legislation adding a luxury tax on larger-house construction. But if they want a work force, they’d better put it on the ballot. If we do not create affordable work-force housing, the East End economy will die. There will be no service providers, with the exception of money managers who have the energy to bicycle out from Manhattan. I’ll be here with the dog, eating rabbits and dandelions, dealing with robots and drones. It will be hell! All good things, DIANA WALKER Housing Fund Springs May 10, 2015 Dear Editor: A few comments and questions regarding Assemblyman Fred Thiele’s proposed legislation to subsidize a work-force housing fund, as reported in the May 7 East Hampton Star. Beyond the income qualification, what other criteria would be used to allocate funds and services to families, especially if the demand for such has to be rationed? For example, family, size, current county of residence, current or previous home ownership, credit history, current assets, name and location of employer, etc. The 3,000-square-foot exclusion from a fee seems to be somewhat low. In this day and age, that size home is not considered extravagant. What about starting the fee at, say 5,000 square feet? What about a graduated fee structure, whereby larger construction would pay a higher per-square-foot fee? The effect of a flat-rate structure is similar to a regressive tax, whereby lower-sized homes are likely to pay a higher percentage of the building cost. A very steeply graduated fee would allow for lower fees on middle-class purchasers, while not being a terrible burden to those building 12,000-square-foot or larger multimillion-dollar homes. Should second homes pay the same fee as primary residences? Why should the tax only be on new construction? What about additions to houses that significantly increase their size to over whatever minimum is established? What about the sale of existing homes? It seems to me that over the years the community preservation fund’s 2-percent transfer tax revenue is being spent on less worthy purchases than in earlier years. This is not meant as a criticism, as the most worthy are usually, and properly, addressed first. Perhaps we should consider a way to use some of this revenue for the housing issue. Respectfully, NEIL ZELENETZ Not a Partisan Issue Springs May 10, 2015 Dear David, In a letter to The Star, May 7, Peter C. Osborne advises us that climate change is not a problem, and he refers us to the website of Dr. Don Easterbrook. Dr. Easterbrook is a professor emeritus, i.e., retired, and a paid speaker for the Heartland Institute, which formerly lobbied for the tobacco industry. Heartland and its co-sponsors of climate conferences have received in excess of $67 million from Exxon, the Koch brothers, and the Scaife Foundation. Even with that amount of funding, they are hard pressed to find anybody with current credentials in science to endorse their denial of climate change. A study from the University of Queensland involving 4,000 peer-reviewed scientific papers taking a position on the source of climate change found that 97 percent of peer-reviewed scientific papers concluded that man-made climate change is happening. If 97 doctors said you had lung cancer, I doubt you would take much solace from 3 who said you were fine, don’t worry about it. Mr. Osborne’s choice, to rely on fringe websites and fossil fuel-funded propagandists, to the exclusion of mainstream science, is his own choice. But readers should be aware that among scientists, he would not find a reputable platform that agreed with him. Readers should also be aware that this is not a partisan issue. Well-known conservatives, among them the former Secretaries of the U.S. Treasury George Shultz, Henry Paulsen, and Robert Rubin (the latter two also former heads of Goldman Sachs) are speaking openly about the urgent need to act to slow carbon dioxide emissions or risk global catastrophe. Why Mr. Osborne thinks he has access to better information than these well-connected public figures and the National Science Foundation is a mystery. DON MATHESON Citizens’ Climate Lobby My Swim Challenge East Hampton May 7, 2015 Dear David, My swim challenge to every third and fourth grader in East Hampton and Southampton, by Big Bad John, lifeguard for life: Whereas the South Fork of Long Island is surrounded by water and has the finest beaches in the world; Whereas the South Fork also has the highest number of home in-ground pools per residential homes; e.g., my family owns eight homes in East Hampton and six have pools; Whereas the greatest cause of accidental death for children under 9 years old is not in cars or by fire, but is by drowning, Therefore I, John J. Ryan Sr., challenge every third and fourth grader in East Hampton and Southampton to pass our Junior Lifeguard Program pretest. That test is: A. Tread water in the deep end of our Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter pool for five minutes. B. Swim underwater for 10 yards. C. Swim two laps (50 yards) of freestyle slowly, with your best form. (Also see below **.) I further challenge all the grade schools on the South Fork to put swim training and water safety into their physical education programs. I believe it is more important than teaching them how to play dodgeball. Schools should teach the whole child. Some of our schools do this. The best examples of this are Sag Harbor, Springs, the Child Development Center of the Hamptons, and the John Marshall Elementary School in East Hampton (this program should be in phys ed, but is not). Think about this: Our schools insist that all children be vaccinated. I agree with this policy. A nonswimmer youth is just like an unvaccinated child, because he is not only a danger to himself, but also to his friends who swim with him and who might attempt to save him when he panics. **Children ages 9 through 14 can continue to refine their freestyle, breast, and side strokes so that all aspects of these (stroke, breathing, and kick) are good or excellent. If that happens, then they can take the Junior Lifeguard Summer Program qualifying test. This training is provided free of charge at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter every Sunday in March, April, May, and June. Thank you, JOHN J. RYAN Sr. Lifeguard for Life Independent Investigator East Hampton May 11, 2015 To the Editor, Regarding the East Hampton school-test meeting controversy: While it may or may not be racial profiling, it is unclear why only Latino families were involved and not other families. The only way to resolve this issue, as well as what went on at various meetings, is for the board to hire an independent investigator to interview all those involved and prepare a report — a report that should be public once it is completed. If any report shows school personnel at fault, there should be severe consequences. As to the parent who thought her son was a victim of “bullying by the administration,” I would not be surprised if that were the case. What is surprising is Richard Burns, the superintendent, defending his administrators and, in essence, saying that the statements weren’t true. For the board to do nothing would be indefensible. STEPHEN GROSSMAN Another Term Together East Hampton May 11, 2015 To the Editor: As the mother of three children in our East Hampton School District, I am writing to support the re-election of Christina DeSanti, Deme Minskoff, and Liz Pucci to the school board. They have worked diligently to address the needs of all children in our district, especially in the areas of mental health support and technology. I am confident that this team will continue to consider the needs of all when making important decisions that affect the education and well-being of our kids. Serving another term together will allow DeSanti, Minskoff, and Pucci to further the progress they have already made on these and many other important educational issues. Sincerely, MAUREEN RUDDY A Clear Understanding Amagansett May 1, 2015 Dear Editor: I have known Mary Lownes for over 10 years. We moved to Amagansett as a new family when our child was in second grade. Mary introduced us to many other Amagansett families, school functions, community activities, church events, and kept us informed about the school district and the Amagansett community. It has been my pleasure to volunteer with Mary on the school site-based committee, PTA events, St. Luke’s Church functions, Amagansett Library book sales, school fund-raising, and junior lifeguarding activities. All of these have benefited our children and the well-being of our community. Mary would always be the volunteer who we could depend on. The jobs were always done with honesty and integrity. Especially in these times of educational change, continuing to produce a high-quality school curriculum, meet Common Core requirements, and work within a tight New York State-mandated cap budget, a school board member who has experience and knowledge is critical. Mary also has a clear understanding of the compliance requirements of the New York State educational laws. She has the experience and knowledge that we need as a school board member, and has and will serve our community well. LINDA CAPPELLO A True Asset Amagansett May 1, 2015 To the Editor: My family and I moved to Amagansett as full-time residents in 2011 from Manhattan. Although we owned a home in Amagansett for several years, the transition to full-time resident was a daunting proposition. One of the only people I knew who lived here full time was Mary Lownes. We met briefly through mutual friends. I reached out to her for help! Mary was so kind and welcoming. She set me up with doctors, baby sitters, and friends. I immediately joined her book club and per her recommendation was on the Amagansett School PTA board within a few months. Mary stressed the importance of being an active contributor in a small-town public school and this made perfect sense. Coming from a private school in Manhattan was an easier transition than I ever could have imagined thanks to the advice I received from Mary. I am an extremely involved parent at the Amagansett School, and I see first-hand how important it is to have a qualified and experienced school board. Mary Lownes is a true asset to our Amagansett School community. She is a knowledgeable board member with 13 years of school board experience. We need this kind of experience — it is vital to our school! Mary always puts the needs of our children first, as any board member should. I wholeheartedly support Mary Lownes for re-election and I hope you all will as well. Best, RANDI BALL Served Us Well Amagansett May 11, 2015 To the Editor, Time to vote for the school board and then to vote for Mary Lownes for the school board again. For 13 years, she has served us well. Just visit our school and you can tell that for all of those years she has worked hard to see that the Amagansett School was the best it could be. Tuesday is the election date. Vote any time, from 2 to 8. JANE WEILLER Sound of Freedom Amagansett May 4, 2015 To the Editor: In response to Ms. Susan McGraw Keber’s letter titled “Coast Guard Helicopter,” based on her description I don’t believe it was a Coast Guard helicopter. However, if in fact it was a Coast Guard helicopter, as a military service the Coast Guard is charged with numerous missions around the world. So although the helicopter may have been “deafening loud,” that deafening loud sound can also be referred to as “the sound of freedom.” NICK PUPO Get a New Lawyer Wainscott May 5, 2015 Dear David, Now that the town has finally taken some modest action to curb airport noise — and is under attack in federal court by the New Jersey-based helicopter companies (allied with Ben Krupinski’s Sound Aircraft Services) — the question has to be asked: Why is the attorney Peter Kirsch still representing East Hampton in aviation matters? This man has been wrong in just about everything significant that he has advised the town on over the course of nearly a decade. Not only has his advice been consistently bad, he has often contradicted himself. His history as an aviation litigator? He lost to the Federal Aviation Administration on the critical legal issue in the Naples airport litigation. The helicopter companies now suing the town have incorporated in their legal papers one of Kirsch’s public presentations to East Hampton. They are using the public statements of Kirsch to make their case against us. You can’t make this stuff up. Also ignored by the current town board and supervisor is that not so long ago Kirsch accompanied Councilman Dominick Stanzione on an unauthorized trip to Washington, D.C., to lobby the F.A.A. They were trying to get another F.A.A. grant that would have prevented the town from adopting airport noise rules for 20 more years. Kirsch then hid Stanzione’s unauthorized travel expenses in one of Kirsch’s legal bills. How can this be reconciled with the ethical requirement that a lawyer not “engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation”? Yet he remains East Hampton’s highly compensated attorney. Several citizens have called for the town board to get a new lawyer to represent us in this critical environmental battle. Kirsch is surely not the best person to lead us in our “fight” to control our own airport. Or perhaps the board doesn’t really want to control it anyway. BARRY RAEBECK The Correct Signage Amagansett May 9, 2015 Dear Editor, Last Thursday, May 7, the East Hampton Town Board unanimously voted to return the “No Parking Anytime” signs to both sides of Dolphin Drive, where they had been legitimately in place for 40 years. The signs had been changed in August of last year, without notice to anyone, including the board, to allow town-permit parking on both sides of the street. The change was based on a town code amendment that could not be legally validated, thereby resulting in an incorrect town code that has now been corrected by the board. When the correct signage is soon restored, the street will once again be signed in conformance with the existing valid town code. Sadly, over the last eight months there has been much confusion introduced, some of which we feel was intentional, that mixed the ongoing issues of beach access, nature preserve access, beach privatization, parking, etc., with what was in reality a road signage problem. We truly realize that these other issues are legitimate and still very much alive, and will continue to be addressed in the future with respect to the entire town, including our neighborhood. This vote corrected a flawed town code. It did not put an end to the future consideration of any and all legitimate issues, developmental or otherwise, that are raised and pursued through the proper governmental avenues available. The board should be complimented for making a tough decision on a matter that had become distorted and politicized, whether purposely or not. We hope the voters are now aware of the truth in this matter and will base their future decisions, political or otherwise, on a truly informed basis. NORMAN EDWARDS For the East End Dunes Residents Association Porta-Potties East Hampton May 6, 2015 To the Editor, I want to share the worst experience I ever had in a store. The store is One Stop Market in Springs. I went in shopping and asked to use the restroom. I was told I had to use the porta-potty at the far end of the parking lot. My first reaction was no, I’m a woman of age and they are not comfortable or clean places. Then I was outraged to find out they have two bathrooms inside. I’m not sure what kind of store owners would send their customers outside. I’m thinking maybe they should go outside. Let their customer have one inside. While I was telling friends and neighbors about my experience they said, “According to their radio ad, they love their customers.” Well, they lie. This is not how you treat your customers. Just to enlighten you on porta-potties, they are usually a temporary fixture. Not an everyday structure at a store. ANN MAIRE BENNET Their Dickensian Bent East Hampton May 7, 2015 Dear Editor. “One of the duties of the state is caring for those of its citizens who find themselves the victims of such adverse circumstances as makes them unable to obtain even the necessities for mere existence without the aid of others. That responsibility is recognized by every civilized nation. To these unfortunate citizens aid must be extended by government, not as a matter of charity but as a matter of social duty.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt, Fireside Chat, 1933. Such were the sentiments, philosophy, and politics of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the time of the Great Depression, and which came to be known as the New Deal. The mindset it created spawned programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, and even the minimum wage. Today, they exist as safety nets for the citizenry, and they are supported and protected by Democrats and spurned and consistently attacked by Republicans. Unfortunately for many who need help, including children of all ages, there are 22 states where they have become the targets of let-them-eat-cake Republican majorities and lie helplessly in the path of massive cuts in budgets that help sustain them and, along with cuts in funds for health, and education, and money to repair their infrastructures, minimize future hope for their resurrection. Because an increase in taxes is anathema for these creatures at the helm, they seek to cut their no-tax-increase budgets shortfalls with cuts from those funds targeted for those who have no lobbyists to fight for them nor voting power to show their opposition. These are victims of a twisted, arcane belief that benefits to the rich “trickle down” to the middle class and the poor, a philosophy long discarded and discredited by history and mainline, non-partisan economists as faulty and unworkable. Now in many sports “piling on” during the game is illegal. Not so for the present-day compassionless Republicans, when it comes to the money they grudgingly provide for the needy. They pile on degradation and shame and make life a little more difficult for those who already have plenty of angst just paying the rent and putting food on the table on $475 per month for a family of four (to be ended after two years and six months in some states, unless they find work). So a 3-year-old will go hungry before he is 6 if his or her father or mother can’t find work. And by the way, not one of these allegedly extravagant, thankless groups will be able to continue its flaunting ways. They won’t be able to use these huge state benefits of $475 per month for a family of four any way they want, either. The law will make sure they don’t go on Caribbean cruises or go to steak and seafood restaurants or get tattooed or shop at specialty food stores, and they will be precluded from going to a movie or withdrawing more than $25 from an A.T.M. on any one day. So in the course of breaking the so-called “circle of dependence” that has now become the mantra of these bullies and hardheads, they now degrade those who need their help. While alleging a cycle of laziness and sloth they conjure up, decrying abuses of the system and fraud, all of which may exist in less than one percent of the cases, these Republicans daily expose their Dickensian bent and march merrily to church on Sunday, where they thank their God for the blessings they have and the ones they deprive others from obtaining. RICHARD P. HIGER The Rosy Glow Southold April 11, 2015 To the Editor, Brian Donlevy and his girl the Ida Lupino model, and I, 12 years old, were out. It was late and Brian Donlevy asked his friend John Horan if he could bring us in and sleep over. The Horans were my idea for “Ryan’s Hope” much later. The beauty and I had the same sense of humor and laughed all night long. I kept calling my friends in the next room to come over, the Horan girls, to laugh with us as Donlevy slept. After a while, Mr. Horan told us it was time to leave. I was surprised to see how fast on their feet my friends were. I guess from being famous they were good at getaway. Their house on Dartmouth Street was nice, with great trees, and reminded me of residential Los Angeles. We later went to Donlevy’s apartment on the lower part of Manhattan, that must have been decorated for 1775, rosy rugs, walls, white furniture, rosy, and he put a ship in a tiny bottle. I loved the rosy glow in the expansive old spaces. When I decorated my home years later in Maine, I tried to get the glow. Everything — rosy colors, curtains with roses, a swivel chair — was maroon, except for an aqua sofa. The glow matched and my son loved it enough that he didn’t want to get up! A year later, age 13, I was having a hard time getting into Mary Louis Academy, a school promised to me; my older sister went too. Brian Donlevy carried me up the steps holding a gun, dropped it on the desk. He and a popular nun walked in another room and came out laughing. My girlfriend said that you could just walk in and sit down at Mary Louis! This was a true story that was, in my earliest thoughts, meant to be in “Ryan’s Hope,” my creation. It never was seen. Robert Ryan was also one of the Ryans for the show. Johnny Ryan was played then by Bernard Barrow. Regards, ANITA FAGAN
Published 4 years ago
Last updated 4 years ago
Letters to the Editor: 05.14.15
May 14, 2015