A Good Playground
East Hampton
November 2, 2026
To the Editor:
As a lifelong East Hampton resident and mother of young children, I read with interest a recent letter objecting to the planned improvements at Herrick Park. And, as someone who recently wrote to this paper about the lack of suitable playgrounds for small children in our community, I’d like to offer another perspective.
Young families need places to go. A playground that offers safe, engaging equipment for children of different ages and abilities, including sensory-friendly features, isn’t a luxury. It’s a basic part of a community that wants to be livable year-round, not just in summer.
Traffic in the village is already a year-round reality. To suggest that a playground upgrade will be the thing that tips the scales ignores what’s happening all around us. If anything, many of the families who will use the park live nearby and can walk or bike, and a good playground close to home means fewer car trips to other places to find one.
I also respectfully disagree that there is nowhere for adults to sit in peace. East Hampton is full of quiet, beautiful places to rest and enjoy the outdoors. I’ve lived here all my life and have never viewed Herrick Park as a tranquil space. It has always been a lively community hub with excited children walking over from the middle school, the tennis courts being used by people of all ages, to the farmers market, and the evening flag football games. For anyone seeking quiet in nature, I recommend the duck pond.
Supporting a playground doesn’t take anything away from anyone else. It simply says that children belong here, too. I’m grateful to the village for listening, and I look forward to seeing the park come to life.
MIA PLITT
‘Under Threat’
Amagansett
November 2, 2026
Dear Editor,
Star stories this past week underscore the difficulty and importance of locally controlling our town’s beauty.
In “History Still Under Threat,” it was noted how in an increasingly homogenized world, preservation is what makes places distinct. And in the article “Cranberry Hole Road Bridge Work to Begin,” we learn how a historic bridge constructed in 1895 will be demolished and replaced with a Metropolitan Transportation Authority cookie-cutter, off-the-shelf bridge. The cost of the new bridge is reportedly $20 million to $25 million.
The reason for the replacement: “The problem was truckers ignoring the [five-ton] weight restrictions,” said Stephen Lynch, the East Hampton Town highway superintendent.
One would think the technology exists to install, for a lot less money, a device to automatically weigh vehicles that either drops a gate or otherwise penalizes overweight trucks, much the way scofflaws not paying bridge and tunnel tolls are caught or, more importantly, stopped.
On a more hopeful and positive note, Amagansett residents have recently pushed back for a variety of reasons, one of them the aesthetics, of a million-dollar-plus Amagansett downtown lighting plan presented to Amagansett residents by Councilman Tom Flight.
ROBERT WICK
Critical Funding
Amagansett
November 2, 2026
Dear David,
We are writing to express our sincere gratitude to East Hampton Town Councilman Tom Flight and Suffolk County Legislator Tommy John Schiavoni for their outstanding leadership in securing the critical $32 million in funding required to repair and reopen the Cranberry Hole Bridge.
For years, the closure of this vital bridge has created a frustrating and prolonged disruption for our community, cutting off an essential artery, hindering emergency response routes, and complicating daily travel for local residents. While it often seemed like bureaucratic inertia would keep the bridge closed indefinitely, Councilman Flight and Legislator Schiavoni refused to let this project fall through the cracks.
This victory is a testament to Councilman Flight’s relentless dedication to the people of East Hampton. Beyond his instrumental role in tackling the bridge crisis, his focused efforts across our town — from advocating for neighborhood safety to ensuring fiscal accountability and modernizing local services — demonstrate a true commitment to keeping our government responsive and effective.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority commitment to fixing this bridge by the end of this year is an incredible win for Amagansett and the entire Town of East Hampton. It is a powerful reminder of what we can accomplish when dedicated public servants listen to their constituents, roll up their sleeves, and relentlessly pursue solutions to long-standing local problems.
Thank you, Tom and Tommy John, for your unwavering commitment to our infrastructure, our safety, and our community.
RONA KLOPMAN
VICKI LITTMAN
Most Useful
Montauk
October 31, 2026
Dear David,
Each year, the issue of The Star closest to Election Day is the most useful of all the year’s issues. Not this year! Why? Usually, this issue contains a ballot that looks like the one used to vote. This issue had all the local races, but we are asked to vote in three additional judicial races. The Star presented none of these. My computer listed all the judicial candidates, but my printer could not print the last several names.
DAN BRIGANTI
Slow Motion
Amagansett
October 30, 2026
To the Editor:
I was startled to read in “New Chair Talks Unity” that Anna Skrenta is no longer the chairwoman of the town Democratic Committee. She was a familiar presence, and, full disclosure, I enjoyed provoking her. (She called me a “mansplainer” once.)
Given the lack of transparency — and reporting — what happened? I am concerned she got scapegoated for the systemic decay of the local party, which lost numerous seats to the Larsen crowd in the last election.
Certainly, the new chairman is not going to be able to fix that. In his interview with Christopher Gangemi, Michael Koegler spoke of the Trump administration, the vote-getting effort, his three daughters, and the Larsen group and how great he gets on with them. (I don’t believe him.) But he was “noncommittal” on whether Tom Flight, who defected, will be re-nominated (he won’t).
Remarkably, his only mention of the town is a promise to create a “policy group” to “track and understand the issues faced by the town and communicate them back.” This is the oldest, tritest gag in the playbook: “We took action! We made a committee!” (Think, the town’s Coastal Resiliency Assessment Plan committee, which they called “CARP” instead of using the actual acronym.)
Wasn’t the existing committee already studying the town? Why do you need another layer in between? And won’t the town board bully and dominate that group, the way it has the citizens advisory committees?
Despite a dry list of the matters the new, redundant, and futile committee (let’s call it the R.F.C.) would monitor, “the senior center, the airport, the battery storage facility, affordable housing,” he didn’t mention the bribery.
Mr. Koegler never acknowledged the existing dysfunction, nor suggested the committee could have any role in addressing it.
It’s like watching a truck crash in slow motion while the driver shouts, “Keep on truckin!”
For democracy in East Hampton,
JONATHAN WALLACE
Farewell Letter
East Hampton
October 29, 2026
Dear Mr. Rattray,
This is my farewell letter to The Star. I would like to thank the editors for having published every letter I have submitted weekly since September 2025. These letters have allowed me to express my deep concern about the existential threat that Trump and his administration pose to our democracy.
My letters have stated facts supported by reliable sources that anyone can access online. These facts have revealed a president who considers himself above the law and acts with only one goal in mind—to establish himself as a rich, powerful dictator without regard to our Constitution or concern about our nation’s welfare.
By the time this letter is published, the election will be over. Along with those who have encouraged me during my letter-writing campaign, I hope that our efforts were not in vain and that America “shall have a new birth of freedom,” as President Lincoln said some 160 years ago.
SALVATORE TOCCI
Should Be Suits
Montauk
November 2, 2026
Dear David,
Election Day is tomorrow. Thank the Lord the liars will be finally silenced.
Each and every politician swears what they’re telling you is truthful. I believe there should be lawsuits on both sides for the lies constantly repeated. All are saying what they think you, as the voter, want to hear.
Here’s a big example: Barack Obama called the Ilhan Omar investigation “appalling.” However, his own Federal Bureau of Investigation found the evidence.
This was confirmed by the rag paper The New York Times, truth that Barack Obama’s Department of Justice found the evidence of Ilhan’s sham marriage and buried it for a decade.
F.Y.I., Joe Biden’s D.O.J. also investigated Ilhan.
Goodnight, liars.
In God and country,
BEA DERRICO
No Legal Loophole
North Haven
November 2, 2026
To the Editor,
Jonathan Wallace, one of the protesting intruders into Lulu’s restaurant this past summer, seeks to give a lesson (Oct. 22) in constitutional law based upon a deliberate misreading of our prior letter that commented upon the knowing and deliberate falsehoods written by Jeff Gewert in various letters and columns of his published in The East Hampton Star relating generally to Israel and specifically to its conduct of war against Hamas.
It is our view that present New York State constitutional law, while friendly to the letter writer and newspaper publisher, does not offer legal protection to the publication by a newspaper of deliberate and knowing false factual fabrications. There is no legal loophole for the foregoing despite the protestations of Mr. Wallace. While the Court of Appeals issued a highly protective ruling shielding publishers from libel claims arising from letters to the editor, the court outlined boundaries where such protection would cease to exist.
Accordingly, based on our prior letter, our concern and position still stands. Perhaps, Mr. Wallace’s ire arises as a result of his concern over some of his published thoughts contained in his endless stream of drivel submitted to The Star each week.
MITCHEL AGOOS
ALAIN HYMAN
DAVID B. SAXE
East End Jews for Israel