Classic Ideas
East Hampton
February 15, 2026
To the Editor,
Loved spotting this on last week’s editorial page: “A.I. in in the Letters,” next to “A Men’s Club for Film” offering Chat/A.I. explanations of fewer men in book clubs, and followed by a quote from The Guardian on men in Epstein files commenting on women and assuming the women aren’t listening. Classic ideas, thought-provoking relationship, terrific juxtaposition.
NANCY LEDERMAN
No Data Presented
Sag Harbor
February 16, 2026
To the Editor,
Sag Harbor Village is unique, as it contains parts of both East Hampton and Southampton Towns. The village of 2.3 square miles has a diversified population of approximately 2,800 households, half of which are occupied by year-round residents. The village, regardless of residential address, shares schools, a library, fire stations, emergency and volunteer ambulance services, beaches, a recycling center, and Sag Harbor Village leases a transfer depot to Southampton Town for $10 a year. All these services are not delineated by residential address, as all village residents collectively pay for these services.
The Southampton Town Board efforts, lead by Councilwoman Cyndi McNamara, at the Jan. 27 meeting and again at Feb. 10’s, proposed eliminating access for all Sag Harbor Village residents who reside east of Division Street, Eastville, and the Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest, and Ninevah Beach community from the remaining three town ocean beaches of Sagg Main Beach, Mecox Beach, and W. Scott Cameron Beach.
These ocean beaches are the closest to Sag Harbor Village, leaving access to only one bay beach, Foster Memorial Beach. Foster Memorial Beach (Long Beach) was not part of the negotiation. Thankfully, in 1949, the Foster family, the original owners of Long Beach, had the foresight, when gifting the bay beach property to Southampton Town, to incorporate into the deed equal access to the beach for all Sag Harbor Village residents as a whole. The result being the “nearest” ocean beach for east side residents would be Indian Wells in Amagansett.
Of the 900 East Hampton “side” residents, only 245 (or 27 percent) obtained this pass in 2025. No data was presented of the 245 passes issued: How often the pass was used.
I paid for the pass but was only able to go to the ocean once, post-Labor Day.
Southampton Town claims it is losing money and there is parking overcrowding by allowing east side residents access to residential ocean beach passes. Overcrowding is the result of seasonal residents, their guests, and out-of-scale overdevelopment prevalent in Southampton, seen by the typical size of a house being constructed.
Southampton Town proposed that east side Sag Harbor Village residents pay the nonresident fee of $500, a 900 percent increase over the $50 resident beach pass that has been paid in the past, creating a true hardship for working families.
By the town’s logic, reducing access to only Long Beach should also reduce the east side resident permit fee. The town suggested allowing east side resident access only to Mecox Beach at a fee of $150 and imposing other restrictions to access on weekends and day passes.
There is a better compromise. Southampton Town should continue to work in good faith with Mayor Gardella and the Sag Harbor Village trustees to arrive at a reasonable resolution.
Enjoying the ocean, as residents have done for generations and decades, should remain; it is the neighborly way forward.
ANGELA L. INZERILLO
Put Down Gravel
East Hampton Village
February 14, 2026
Dear East Hampton Star,
We’ve all been putting up with the work that PSEG and National Grid have been doing updating the electrical lines around the town. One thing I personally looked forward to was the repaving of my street, Egypt Close, which was in need of it even before the work began.
While I was very happy to see the pavers, I was also very puzzled as were my neighbors, because instead of leaving it normal blacktop, they put down fine gravel. At first we thought this was in preparation for another step, but on asking the workers, they said that the gravel was permanent.
Personally I’m at a loss as to why this was done and I haven’t been able to find anyone to explain it to me. The obvious source would be the Highway Department but they don’t seem to have an answer. Neighbors I have spoken to have tried other avenues but got nowhere.
The problem is that gravel poses many problems and is an unsuitable surface for a well-used road. It tends to get redistributed to the sides and creates drifts of heavy material. It can also get into storm drains and cause clogging, a particular concern on Egypt Close, as we have multiple places which are prone to flooding even though they have drains. The water table is just so close to the surface here.
It also poses a problem for snowplows. My landscaper also plows for the village and town and this was the first or second complaint he’d had about the gravel, the other being the messiness of the stuff.
I’ve begun to wonder if this was a mistake of some kind. Hard to believe that, though, because the logistics involved ought to have been noticed and it took a lot of physical effort to do. In any case, I wish we residents had been asked about this or even been informed that this was going to be done. At least we could have made our voices heard.
Thanks for reading.
Sincerely,
MATT HARNICK
Plant-Based Milk
East Hampton
February 13, 2026
Dear Editor:
A recent move to expand access to non-dairy milk in school lunch programs is a long-overdue step toward healthier, more inclusive nutrition. Millions of students are lactose intolerant, allergic to dairy, or come from families that avoid animal products for ethical or cultural reasons.
Offering plant-based milk isn’t radical, it’s practical. These options provide essential nutrients without the saturated fat and cholesterol found in dairy, and they come with a much smaller environmental footprint.
School meals shape lifelong habits. When we normalize plant-based choices early, we teach children that compassion, health, and sustainability can coexist on the same tray.
In a time when childhood health concerns and climate anxiety are rising, modernizing school nutrition just makes sense. Giving students plant-based options empowers families, respects differences, and quietly models a kinder way forward — one lunch at a time.
Sincerely,
EDWIN HORATH
Who’s in Charge
Montauk
February 15, 2026
Dear Mr. Rattray:
I read with interest “County Dems Give Larsen an Ultimatum” (Feb. 12). Something’s rotten in the Town of East Hampton.
I’m pretty sure I’m not the only East Hampton citizen and voter who’s struck by the determination of the county and town Democratic politburo chairs to prevent the people of East Hampton from deciding who will lead our town.
If Jerry Larsen’s campaign’s fund-raising is uncompliant, let the campaign fix it. But let’s not pretend that’s what’s really going on. This is about power and control — a political machine extending from the other end of the county telling us in East Hampton how things are gonna work.
That machine (and its local proxies) doesn’t trust us to make decisions in its best interests. So, it’s working overtime to deprive us of the opportunity to make decisions in our best interests.
This isn’t about Mr. Larsen and Kathee Burke-Gonzalez; it’s about power and control exercised from far away. And it’s about a local committee that ostensibly represents Democrats throughout East Hampton, but, despite some great people among its membership, isn’t much more than a rump means of circulating candidate petitions on behalf of the county machine.
Jerry isn’t Rich Schaffer’s guy. Rich isn’t from East Hampton. He doesn’t live here. He doesn’t work here. He doesn’t have any interests here, save what flows from here to the benefit of western Suffolk County. But he’s determined to tell the people of East Hampton who’s in charge. He’s so comfortable on his throne that he’s forgotten, if he ever really knew, that this isn’t about him. It’s about all of us. Maybe that’s what “No Kings” should mean out here.
JONATHAN YELLEN
As if Listening
Amagansett
February 14, 2026
To the Editor:
Christopher Gangemi, in “We Are Not Protected,” on last week’s front page, reports that the town’s “newly reconstituted Latino advisory committee” is co-chaired by Anna Skrenta, the town Democratic Committee chairwoman. In an article I had missed in the Jan. 22 paper, it appears that another member of the town Democratic Party faithful, Loring Bolger of Springs, was also appointed.
Hmm. Last time I checked, each of the hamlet advisory committees consisted entirely of people from the hamlet. A town board member serves as liaison to each advisory committee (Kathee Burke-Gonzalez is liaison to this one).
Some of these liaisons were known to dominate the proceedings inappropriately (notably when Peter Van Scoyoc prevented me from speaking at an Amagansett advisory committee meeting to which I had been invited).
I have written a number of times over the years about the disrespect with which these committees are viewed by the town board; in last week’s letter I mentioned its disregardful treatment of the coastal resiliency advisory committee.
These committees have increasingly in recent years seemed like mere opportunities for the town to act as if it is listening, rather than serving as actual conduits for advice or public opinion. “Of course we take coastal resiliency seriously; we appointed a committee.”
The consistent message of the town to its Latino community in our present emergency has been “We can’t really do anything.” Read down far enough in Mr. Gangemi’s article and you find these statements from the town supervisor: “Our police can observe, but they can’t interfere”; “If they take people, they don’t tell us who they took or where they took them.” “Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said ICE does not let the town know when it is operating in the jurisdiction.” Mr. Gangemi also mentions in passing that Chief Mike Sarlo didn’t show up or send anyone.
Elsewhere, elected Democrats are doing a whole lot more than that to stand up to ICE and to protect their constituents. Here, governed by DINOs (Democrats in name only), the town has clumsily and, I assume, reluctantly created an advisory committee with the wires unusually exposed. The appointment of Anna Skrenta as co-chair appears to communicate an unusual lack of trust, a wish to manage the Latino committee even more tightly than the others.
For democracy in East Hampton,
JONATHAN WALLACE
Called Again
East Hampton
February 16, 2026
Dear David,
A recent experience with Phil Gamble and Sons plumbers: Several years ago, I had an issue with a frozen pipe and they did a good job resolving it, after which I thought I was a customer in good standing.
Recently a leak in the same area was concerning, and I called them to have it checked out and dealt with.
Day 1: I called, answering machine picked up. My call was “very important” and they’d get back to me. I left a message. Day 2: No call back. I called again, same as day 1. Day 3: Got a call back. Was told they’d send someone. They’d let me know when. Day 4 and 5: No call back or other communication. Day 6: Called again. Same answering machine. My call was (still) important. I left a message inquiring regarding status. Day 7: Still no call.
I called again. Again, machine. I left a message, told them they needed to change their message: My call apparently wasn’t important, and if they couldn’t help/respond, I’d have to try elsewhere, and was very disappointed that they couldn’t come in one week’s time frame and didn’t have the courtesy to let me know this, or apprise me of status (a two-minute call).
I then did receive a call back. I was informed that they were sorry they couldn’t arrange something, and understood if I had to go elsewhere. I told them I was very disappointed in the treatment I got, and I think it would be a good thing that I advise others.
In sum, if you are a longstanding customer or otherwise have a better connection than me, perhaps you won’t have/get this experience or treatment from them.
Otherwise, fair warning. No help. No communication thereon.
RICHARD QUARANTO
—
Phil Gamble and Sons Plumbing and Heating responded that the team makes every effort to serve their customers in a timely manner. The period in question had extremely cold weather with an overflow of high-priority plumbing emergencies. Ed.
D.O.J. Covering Up
East Hampton
February 11, 2026
Dear Editor,
Nick LaLota, in his statement posted on his congressional website in November 2025, claims, in reference to the Epstein files, that Pam Bondi has promised and delivered complete transparency, and that under Biden, there were “no new indictments and no urgency.”
I do believe Mr. LaLota may not realize that under Biden this was an “ongoing” investigation and the Department of Justice is not supposed to make public statements that could otherwise compromise the investigation, hence the silence.
It is under the Trump administration that narratives are released before investigations are even started, to say nothing of complete: just look at the Missouri murders.
Under the Trump administration, the public was told the investigation was complete, and the D.O.J. made the announcement that there was, in effect, nothing there, except of course, a “client list” that suddenly disappeared.
Everyone knows that the D.O.J. is covering up for the elite Epstein billionaire crowd. Howard Lutnick, billionaire secretary of commerce, lied to Americans, but he gets a “get-out-of-jail” pass and keeps his job. Somehow, initially, his name didn’t pop up.
Two hours into reviewing unredacted documents, six names have appeared that Ms. Bondi’s team somehow strangely missed, including Leslie Wexner, billionaire owner of Victoria’s Secret, and Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, chairman and chief executive officer of Dubai-based logistics giant DP World, one of the emirate’s most influential business figures.
Transparency is the last thing this D.O.J. is offering. Controlling the narrative is the Trump agenda, and Mr. LaLota has proven that he is on board. He needs to be voted out of office.
LORNE M. SINGH
Goal Is Control
East Hampton
February 14, 2026
Dear David:
This letter is for the women readers, especially women in college or those seeking a career — and their mothers.
When I was a kid in New Jersey, “guy” places like service stations and auto parts stores hung a placard with the motto: “Keep them barefoot in the winter and pregnant in the summer.” (I was too young or naive to get it.) One doesn’t see such offensively misogynistic stuff in public these days.
Yet, just a few weeks ago, the Heritage Foundation, the outfit behind Project 2025, released its road map to “save America.” Its right-wing authors offer a guide with its goal the subjugation of women. Its plan is to push women out of both college and the workplace and instead funnel them into early marriages and motherhood and trap them there.
Alarmed at lower birth rates, Heritage posits that the future of the country depends upon more straight, married, white couples having more children.
According to Heritage, the factors that drive down birth rates and threaten the country include the proliferation of birth control, more prospects for women to receive higher education, and work outside the home. In other words, Heritage perceives that every major advancement for women’s rights and freedom is a problem.
And Heritage has the answers: Eradicate access to contraception, create an administration hostile to divorce, and extoll a workplace model devoid of women. (Remember when J.D. Vance advised wives to suffer through abusive marriages?)
Heritage wants young women to believe that work is soulless and unfulfilling, that feminism has made women miserable, and that the real path to happiness is being a stay-at-home mom. The newly minted right-wing mantra for women ignores the seasons — it’s “Less burnout, more babies.”
Even Mr. Vance is advising women to give up work for motherhood. He warns that women will never find great meaning in work, but instead that great meaning is found if women dedicate themselves to the creation and sustenance of human life.
From embracing the “tradwife” concept to disinformation about birth control, conservatives are desperate to convince the next generation of women that the erosion of their rights isn’t a political and moral crisis, but instead, a lifestyle upgrade. Why bother with the horror of the professional world, young women are told, when you can just opt out? Reinforcing that message are insincere “debates” on whether feminism “failed women.”
If this were just about correcting the birth rate decline, one would think those concerned would extol the benefits of in vitro fertilization or how to incentivize surrogacy. If conservatives were really worried about the birth rate and the American family, they would propose policy solutions that would incentivize families, like paid parental leave, affordable child care, and prenatal care that actually helps pregnant women. But one hears nothing of that.
The actual goal is good old-fashioned control over a world where women — young women, especially — have no choices.
The truth is that the next generation of women is as ambitious as ever. The futures they want for themselves are broad and bright, as they should be. Sometimes that includes husbands and children; sometimes it doesn’t. Interestingly, a recent study found that young men are far more likely to name children as their top marker of personal success. In contrast, women cite financial independence and their careers.
In other words, Heritage’s road map and the conservative agenda is really about building the world that its men want and forcing women to live inside it.
Young women and their mothers should keep this in mind as they vote this November.
Sincerely,
BRUCE COLBATH
Depends Entirely
East Hampton
February 13, 2026
Sir,
Representative Nick LaLota’s Feb. 12 email asks, “Does this help you this tax season?” Before answering, voters should ask whether they’re getting the full story.
He urges constituents to claim “the new $40,000 State and Local Tax deduction,” as though it’s a broad new benefit available to every taxpayer. It isn’t.
The change raises the cap on the SALT itemized deduction. You only benefit if you itemize instead of taking the standard deduction, and the amount depends entirely on your income, how much you pay in state and local taxes, and your tax bracket. Many middle-class households will see modest savings or none at all.
He also advertises savings of “about $2,860” for the “average Long Island family.” That figure is presented as if it were typical. In reality, it’s a projection built on specific assumptions about income, homeownership, and tax liability. For some higher-income homeowners it may be close. For many others, it simply won’t be.
Then there’s the inflation claim, that inflation eased from “about 4.95 percent under President Biden’s policies” to “roughly 2.7 percent under President Trump’s policies.” Inflation has cooled from its pandemic-era peak, but reducing a complex, global economic cycle to a partisan before-and-after snapshot is political messaging, not serious analysis. Prices rose and fell because of impacts to supply chains, energy shocks, Federal Reserve policy, and global demand — not because of a single switch flipped in the White House.
Long Islanders deserve straight talk about what a tax change actually does, who qualifies, who benefits, and who doesn’t. Presenting a conditional tax adjustment as sweeping relief may work in a campaign email. It does not meet the standard voters should expect from their representative.
Sincerely,
ANDREW VAN PRAAG
Dutifully Destroying
North Haven
February 16, 2026
Dear David:
Thanks, MAGA-heads of Suffolk County, for your knee-jerk support of the pathetic, gutless puppet for Trump and his regime: Lee Zeldin, who showed his repugnant colors as a House representative, and now we have him as a subservient waterboy for Trump, as the United States Environmental Protection Agency administrator.
Lee Zeldin, in his own words, said, “As E.P.A. administrator, I am proud to deliver the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history.” He is dutifully destroying the E.P.A. — and us. This month, he repealed the 2009 greenhouse-gas-endangerment finding.
Most every effort to help control toxic emissions and its effects on the climate, clean air, and clean water was removed by Zeldin to favor Trump and the purchased promise to the fossil fuel industries of coal, oil, and gas.
Don’t those folks realize Long Island is actually an island? We are surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the Sound, and separated from the mainland by two rivers and the island of Manhattan. Our economy and safety, including our comfort, health, and recreation, depend on the careful administration of our natural resources and our precious aquifer, soils, and clean air.
Trump hates all this as eco-babble (as he sees it). Oil is king! Windmills and clean air are stupid. Climate change is a hoax. So what do our representatives Lee Zeldin and Nick LaLota do in the face of scientific facts? They support our destruction by following orders from the would-be-tyrant/king, D.J.T., and not us!
Can Trump voters now understand the tragic error of their support? Please grow up and think for yourselves. Abandon your misguided admiration of this team of phony, macho, daddy idols. Think, talk, support, and vote for your own family’s safety and the best interests of your own community, and abandon this ugly era of bullying politics for personal grift and disgusting prejudice.
Wake up to what’s really going on. Please.
ANTHONY CORON
Ultimate Objective
East Hampton
February 12, 2026
Dear Mr. Rattray,
With the chaos that surrounds us because of the actions of the Trump administration, little if any attention has been paid to the National Prayer Breakfast held on Feb. 5. The speeches delivered by Trump and Pete Hegseth clearly reveal what the ultimate objective of this administration is — a Christian nation pledging its loyalty and obedience to a man who has replaced our democracy with a dictatorship.
In his rambling, incoherent speech, Trump attacked the faith of Democrats, criticized Republicans who have opposed him, falsely claimed once again that he won the 2020 election, and repeatedly cursed. Perhaps Trump thought he was addressing a MAGA luncheon rather than a prayer breakfast.
Disturbing as Trump’s speech was, it pales in comparison to Hegseth’s where he didn’t look back but rather forward to where he thinks our country should be heading. Consider just part of what he said: “America was founded as a Christian nation. It remains a Christian nation in our DNA.” “Christ is king and may God bless our warriors.” “Unafraid and unabashed in this fight, we must remember every single day especially, especially in this town, that all power, honor, and all glory belongs to our lord and savior, Jesus Christ.”
As a Christian, I find that these comments promoting Christian nationalism reveal a person who is ignorant of the message that Jesus Christ preached. As an American, I find these comments reveal a person who is also ignorant of the country we are.
Hegseth’s comments reveal not only ignorance but, more disconcerting, a belief in a fusion between national power and divine mission. Perhaps this explains the tattoo on his arm.
SALVATORE TOCCI
Clean Energy
Sag Harbor
February 11, 2026
Dear David,
I am relieved that a federal judge struck down Trump’s last stop-work order on East Coast offshore wind projects. Sunrise Wind will now join Empire Wind and South Fork Wind in delivering clean, affordable energy to the East End.
Our Representative Nick LaLota is one of the precious few Republicans who have bucked the president and come out in support of offshore wind, so he deserves our thanks — for now.
Offshore wind does not “drive whales crazy,” as President Trump claims, or ruin ocean views, other than from his Scottish golf course. What it does do is threaten fossil fuel dominance by providing clean, affordable energy, so Trump is still trying his best to stop it.
Trump and his minions have halted all new offshore wind leases in federal waters, and systematically taken the ax to every other regulation and law that supports renewable energy.
Trump started with declaring a bogus “energy emergency” favoring fossil fuels alone, even though wind and solar power are the cheapest and fastest ways to add new electric generation. His crowning achievement is having his Environmental Protection Agency rescind the endangerment finding that climate change, driven by burning fossil fuels, is a danger to human health. People are being killed from increasingly violent hurricanes, floods, and wildfires powered by a warming atmosphere, but these are not a danger to human health? It’s crazy.
In November, we, the people, can take action at the ballot box and restore sanity to our government. Mr. LaLota must stand firm in support of clean energy — and renounce Trump’s madness.
STEPHANIE DOBA
We Don’t Know
East Hampton
February 2, 2026
Dear David,
In a Jan. 25th letter to The Star (“Symbol of Hatred”), Messrs. Saxe and Agoos raise a valid question concerning the 2023 incident of swastika postings in Montauk and the subsequent judicial response to the individual guilty of the acts.
They raised the same point I did in my letter about the incident. Mine was directed to Rabbi Josh Franklin of the East Hampton Jewish Center, who was consulted in the sentencing and who contributed a confused understanding concerning the nature of restorative justice.
Mr. Saxe and Mr. Agoos are understandably concerned as they raise the question: “What evidence is there that this antisemitic miscreant has satisfactorily demonstrated that he has been ‘restored’ in the eyes of the Jewish community?”
The answer is we don’t know because Rabbi Franklin didn’t do his due diligence and follow up on this individual to find out if there were reasons for the Jewish community to still be concerned after he had served his sentence of five days in jail.
Mr. Saxe, Mr. Agoos, and Rabbi Franklin would have had their answer, ironically, only if a robust restorative justice sentence and program had been initiated and followed.
Instead, we’re left with Mr. Saxe and Mr. Agoos’s own symbol and expression of hatred as they conclude: “As far as we are concerned, his body and soul (if he has one) deserved to rot.”
This type of judicial temperament from a judge with more than 50 years of service and still practicing law?
Mr. Saxe, Mr. Agoos, and Rabbi Franklin would all do well to take a basic, 101 course on restorative justice.
Sincerely,
JIM VRETTOS