Summer 2026
Wainscott
August 18, 2026
To the Editor,
Trains hitting cars, jets hitting jets, parking mayhem, and U-turns are the new left turn.
It seems Range Rovers cost less when you buy them without the turn signals.
Delivery trucks the size of the Queen Mary, and massive landscaping trailers most definitely staying off the lawn. I wish I owned the orange cone concession.
Influencers, under-the-influencers, and selfie orgies just keeping it real.
Apparently it’s now okay for power walkers and bike riders to saunter down the road three abreast, and if you’re not deep into your cellphone in the middle of a crosswalk you are doing Sag Harbor all wrong.
The Entitlement Olympics are having medal ceremonies hourly.
And by the way, when did they stop putting mirrors in rental houses?
Is there a branch of ICE to get these schmuckones outta here?
Two weeks and counting.
From a safe place,
TOM MACNIVEN
There Are Choices
Montauk
August 21, 2026
To the Editor,
On the eve of Thursday, Aug. 20, we were returning to our cottage after a day spent exploring what we had come to see as a beautiful and welcoming place. It was dark, and a heavy rain was beginning to fall, the kind of rain that quickly turns roads into rivers and makes everyone hurry toward shelter. And then, through the darkness, one of our passengers caught a glimpse of something on the side of the road. We stopped.
There, left alone in a carrier, were two tiny kittens. They had nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. No way to escape as the rain grew heavier and the water began rising around them.
We brought the carrier into the car and took them back to our cottage. When we opened it, we found two beautiful little kittens, dirty, frightened, and completely dependent upon the kindness of strangers. We couldn’t stop asking ourselves one question: Who could do this?
If you can no longer care for an animal, there are other choices. Call a shelter. Contact a rescue organization. Ask a veterinarian for help. Reach out to neighbors or post that you need someone to adopt them. But, please, don’t leave a helpless animal trapped in a carrier on the side of a road and drive away.
As I write this at 4 a.m., the rain outside is still torrential and relentless. But those two kittens are no longer outside in it. Tonight they were bathed. They were fed. They are warm. They are safe. And, most important, they now have a home with people who understand something very simple: All lives are precious.
To the person who left them there, I hope you somehow read this. I hope the next time you are faced with a difficult decision involving a helpless animal you remember that there is always another way. And to the person in our car who happened to look out into the darkness at exactly the right moment, thank you for seeing what someone else had left behind.
Best,
KIM PHELAN
The Talkhouse
Amagansett
August 21, 2026
To the Editor:
Thank you for your shout-out to the Talkhouse! It is the greatest dive bar in America, with an almost supernatural affect.
I don’t remember what year we first went there in the 1990s or who we saw but recall driving out for a New Year’s long before we bought our house in 1997, then spending the night in a motel room on the Napeague stretch with a door that wouldn’t close.
Over the years, when we could still afford the more-expensive tickets, we saw the Jefferson Airplane, Eric Burdon, Richie Havens, John Sebastian, Leon Russell, and Suzanne Vega there.
Commander Cody, identifying us as the oldest people in the room, strolled over before starting his set and said, “I want to warn you, we play very loud.”
What I should have said: “Dude, you’re older than me. If you can play it, I can listen to it.”
In later years, as we became less wealthy, we stopped buying the $80 and $100 tickets and started seeing local and regional bands, such as Hello Brooklyn. Once, when we arrived early for a 10 p.m. show, the staff let us in to see the end of the Wailers’ set.
More than anyone else, however, Nancy Atlas has become identified with the Talkhouse, especially her New Year’s Eve shows, to one of which she wore a hat with a fully rigged schooner model on top. She performed “Living Next Door to Alice” and taught us the rowdy pub chant response, which I reproduce as, “Who the frap is Alice?”
I adore Nancy, adore the Talkhouse, adore Peter for keeping it going all these years. Now that we’re usually asleep before the (cheaper) 10 p.m. shows start, we don’t go as often, but make a point of getting there once or twice a year. Often, we don’t know the band, but are drawn by the time and price — a weekend night when we are feeling energetic or caught an afternoon nap, and a ticket price of $40 or less (used to be $10 to $20 in the old days). We have never been disappointed. Most of all we are drawn by the very intense mana. Stephen Talkhouse forever!
For democracy and
music in East Hampton,
JONATHAN WALLACE
Guild Hall
East Hampton Village
August 18, 2026
To the Editor,
Guild Hall has been an important cultural institution in East Hampton for nearly a century, and there is no question that it has played a significant role in the artistic history of this community. But I believe it is time to have a more honest conversation about what a nonprofit cultural institution owes the community that helped build and sustain it.
Guild Hall was founded in 1931 through significant local support, including contributions from village residents. Over the decades, it has grown into a major institution with substantial resources, donors, fund-raising campaigns, and a recently completed $29 million capital improvements project. Its building underwent a phased renovation completed in 2009, followed by another major renovation beginning in 2022, and ultimately reopened in 2023 and 2024. That raises a simple question: How much of that investment is being returned directly to the local artists and creative community that Guild Hall exists to serve?
Doing one or two group exhibitions a year featuring local artists should not be treated as though that alone constitutes meaningful community engagement. A community is more than an audience that buys tickets, attends events, donates money, or supports institutions through its presence. It includes the artists, galleries, small businesses, educators, cultural workers, and creative people who make the East End what it is.
Nonprofits should not simply grow within a community. They should grow with the community.
If an institution can raise tens of millions of dollars to improve its own facilities, it should also be asking how it can create substantially more opportunities for the local artists whose work contributes to the cultural identity and economic vitality of the East End.
This isn’t an argument against Guild Hall. It is an argument for Guild Hall to live up to the responsibility that comes with being such an important institution.
I believe it’s time for our major nonprofit cultural organizations to start paying forward in a much bigger way through more exhibitions, paid opportunities, artist development, accessible programming, partnerships with emerging artists, and meaningful support for the local creative economy.
The question shouldn’t simply be, “How much has the institution done for the community?” It should also be, “How much more could it be doing?”
RYAN ZWICK
Double U
Montauk
August 23, 2026
Dear Sir,
I very much enjoyed your comments in “Bad Driving Bingo” (Aug. 6). One driving maneuver my husband and I have noticed this season here in Montauk is a proliferation of U-turns. We even observed a double U-turn in town, undoubtedly to snag a particular parking space. Many car drivers, e-bikers, and even some pedestrians seem not to be paying attention when on the road.
Regards,
VICKIE AARON
Keep It Safe
Montauk
August 24, 2026
Dear David,
The editorial written for The Star on Aug. 13, “A Wish for the Beaches” –- is so well written and captures the locals’ dreams.
We dream of clean sand. We dream of all obeying the rules. Dogs allowed only before 10 a.m. and plenty of time given after 6 p.m. daily.
Cars without East Hampton stickers parked everywhere and anywhere. Parking is a problem, as street signs posted say “No Parking Any Time.”
Clean water is a must and should be tested more often.
Montauk always seems to be neglected on all counts.
Here’s a request to the town supervisor: Do your job. Montauk is a big part of East Hampton, and plenty of taxpayers live here. Locals are well aware.
If tickets were given out for those who do not remove their dogs by 10 a.m. this is for them. Word spreads fast. Send the harbormasters down to Dirt Lot Beach around 3, they will do well.
If we can only have a police officer in town catch the U-turners and ignore-the-stop-sign drivers, we may make the fall a little bit safer.
Love Montauk, keep it safe.
BEA DERRICO
Better Solution.
Springs
August 17, 2026
Dear Editors:
As a descendant of an original 17th-century family in East Hampton, who grew up in Springs enjoying the town and village beaches, I share the goals expressed in the editorial “A Wish List for the Beaches” (Aug. 13). Like many newer families and first-time visitors, I too want the beaches’ unique and natural beauty maintained and to avoid dog waste, fire debris, amplified music, smoking, garbage, and unintended surfcaster accidents.
However, as a frequent beach visitor for many years, I have not observed these problems as often as the editorial suggests. Portraying the beaches as a “minefield” of dog waste, fire debris, competing loud music, and clouds of cigar smoke interrupted by surfcasting accidents overstates reality. In my experience, the beaches are spectacular and generally pristine
— a place for enjoying a beach day, peaceful walks with family and pets, fishing, marveling at a passing humpback or shorebird, or simply experiencing the Atlantic’s ever-changing colors and sea state.
While the Marine Patrol and lifeguards thankfully step in as necessary, most beach visitors clean up after themselves and after others, and are the most effective protectors of the natural beauty of East Hampton’s beaches. The citizens and visitors who enjoy and appreciate that beauty throughout the year are the beaches’ true guardians.
Enacting legislative prohibitions, instead of encouraging the common sense of the overwhelming majority of beach visitors, will not change the small handful of people who disregard the generations-old traditions of visiting the beaches with family, pets, four-wheel vehicles in the off-hours and off- season, fishing, and the joy of an evening cookout. Banning such beach usage to outlaw conduct of the few and thereby disappointing many will not foster the common-sense beach usage that most already embrace and it will inevitably immerse the town, village, and the trustees in the age-old dispute over who can regulate the beach following the Dongan Patent. Thus, encouraging the overwhelming majority’s respectful use and enjoyment of the beaches is a better solution than enacting laws that are unlikely to be followed by the few.
Very truly yours,
EDWARD H. TILLINGHAST III
Strong Opposition
Springs
August 24, 2026
Dear David,
As a Springs homeowner for 37 years, I would like to express my strong opposition to the proposed parking lot adjacent to the nature preserve and the Springs Library.
I feel that adding another parking lot is an invitation to sprawl, and reflects the unfortunate UpIsland mind-set of putting cars first and pedestrians and bicyclists last. Springs is not a museum frozen in time, nor should it be. But must we continue to dispose, piece by piece, of the rural history, natural landscape, and distinctive character that we are trying so desperately to hang on to?
There is a larger principle at stake here. Every new parking lot may seem like a small and reasonable response to an immediate need. But taken together, these decisions gradually change the character of a community. More parking encourages more driving, consumes open space, fragments the landscape, and makes walking and bicycling less central to how people experience their own community. Once open space is taken away, it is exceedingly difficult to get it back.
There is also something deeply incongruous about placing a parking lot immediately adjacent to a nature preserve. A nature preserve represents an intentional decision to protect land from development; putting a parking lot, cars, and the infrastructure that comes with them directly alongside it seems contrary to that very purpose.
This seems particularly unfortunate in Springs, where we still have something increasingly rare on the East End: a genuine sense of place and a true connection to the landscape. The nature preserve and the library are precisely the kinds of community assets that should be protected without surrounding them with a parking lot.
And if the proposed parking lot is primarily being considered to accommodate the Springs Farmers Market, I would urge the town to consider another solution. I cherish the farmers market for the wonderful vendors who’ve become friends, and the small-town atmosphere it’s come to symbolize. But the market could be moved two blocks to the enormous Springs School property. Why not utilize the school’s tremendous parking infrastructure already in place instead of creating a permanent parking lot as the solution to a seasonal parking problem? Locating the market at the school could reinforce the very community character we should be trying to preserve. The school is already a civic gathering place and could allow the farmers market to remain a walkable, bicycle-friendly community event.
The same principle applies to increased activity in the area, including the library’s mahjong games and the growing use of the food pantry at Springs Presbyterian Church. Both are valuable and essential community assets. Ashawagh Hall directly across the street has a parking lot that is generally available on weekdays, and the church has its own parking lot as well. Before creating new parking infrastructure, the town should consider these parking resources that already exist. The question should not be whether we need to create more parking, but whether we can make better use of what we already have.
We have spent decades watching the increasing development of the East End and its subsequent dependence on cars at the expense of bicyclists and pedestrians. We cannot continually claim to value our rural character while making decisions that incrementally erode it. Preserving the character of Springs will require saying no to some seemingly convenient solutions and looking instead for ones that work with the landscape and the community rather than against them.
Simply put, the mind-set shouldn’t be “Where can we put more cars?” but “What kind of Springs do we want to leave to the next generation?”
I hope the town board will reconsider the proposed parking lot and explore alternatives.
Sincerely,
IRWIN T. LEVY
Parking Needs
Springs
August 23, 2026
To the Editor,
As one of the people in favor of a new parking lot behind the Springs Library I have, as per your suggestion, taken a step back to reconsider, and here are my thoughts.
The creation of a parking lot is not an undertaking that should be started without weighing the pros and cons of the project, as well as making it as environmentally friendly as possible. Perhaps you are not in Springs often enough to note the increase in events and programming from the entities in the Springs Historic District. In addition to the seasonal farmers market there is year-round programming that creates serious parking problems.
The Springs Library has weekly mahjong games that have become so popular that they now have back-to-back sessions. There are monthly meetings sponsored by the Springs Library at Ashawagh Hall that can attract well over 30 people, most coming in separate cars. The Springs Improvement Society, in addition to having community events at Ashawagh Hall, also rents the hall to individuals and groups that advertise effectively for high attendance at their opening receptions. There are also parking needs for the Springs Food Pantry volunteers. Add to that well-attended events sponsored by the Heart of Springs and you have parking problems that are with us throughout the year.
The need for safe, accessible parking for people working or volunteering in the area or enjoying the programming offered is very real and needs to be addressed. The town board is reviewing possible solutions that take into consideration safety, environmental concerns, and accessibility.
I would urge you and your readers to review the recently presented plan and, acknowledging the need for more parking, provide suggestions that will lead to the best possible solution.
Thank you,
LORING BOLGER
Serious Problems
East Hampton Village
August 22, 2026
Dear East Hampton Star,
I read last week’s editorial “Pave Paradise” and immediately felt that there are aspects of the proposed new parking area that no one is really taking into account.
To begin with, I will say that the problem of parking around Ashawagh Hall has been a bad one for decades. As far back as the 1980s, I remember going to art shows where my mother had paintings, and parking was always a nightmare. It’s only gotten worse. So on the face of it, a new parking lot would seem like a good idea. But it’s really not.
I know from talking to others that most who are against the parking lot have certain ulterior motives. My reasoning is more fundamental and science-based.
The area around Ashawagh Hall, the General Store, the church, and Springs School is ecologically sensitive because they are all in very close proximity to Pussy’s Pond. It’s unfortunate that this is the case. The fact that the area draws so many vehicles and they are parked in such close proximity to the water means that there is already contamination taking place.
A parking lot would not only damage the land’s already overtaxed ability to deal with this pollution but concentrate and move it directly into Pussy’s Pond. That same water would be prevented from getting to the aquifer, as it would either be piped into the pond or else into a sewer which would probably empty into the bay. Either way it means less potable water from the aquifer. This may seem insignificant but the same argument is made by people insisting on paving large parts of their properties. Individually they are insignificant but, taken all together, the volume of water redirected is huge.
So while I recognize the parking issues, I really believe that a new paved parking area would cause other less-tangible but more serious problems.
It was ignorance (Ashawagh Hall and the church have been where they are practically since the area was settled) that allowed the area to be built up the way we find it today. Let’s not solve this problem by adding others.
would cause other less-tangible but more serious problems.
To be blunt, a parking lot would enhance quality of life in the short term but in the long term it would make it more difficult to sustain life at all.
Thanks for reading, as always.
Sincerely,
MATT HARNICK
Walmart Solution
Springs
August 24, 2026
Dear David,
We agree it would be a shame to trade trees for up to 33 new parking spaces behind the Springs Library for the farmers market. This is a Walmart solution.
Farmers and food buyers meet here on Saturday morning in the summer in a rural environment that looks much as it did a century ago. The Springs Green and the larger Springs Historic District constitute a microcosm of what has brought so many people to love — and live in — East Hampton.
The proposed parking lot entrance on Springs-Fireplace Road presents a safety issue. Speeding along this corridor is endemic despite efforts of the East Hampton Town Police to enforce the speed limit. Multiple vehicles moving in and out of this speedway could be accidents waiting to happen.
Rather than taking chain saws to more trees, why not fix the dangerous corner shoulder in front of the Springs Library? Why not explore Genie Henderson’s idea of coordinating the Saturday Farmers Market with the new parking spaces at the Springs School? Why not seek to persuade the Springs General Store to move its fence farther back to open up a few more parking places while it remains closed?
As Joni Mitchell first sang in 1970, “They paved paradise. Put up a parking lot.” And, “Don’t it always seem to go. That you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone?”
Sincerely,
ALICE and JOHN TEPPER MARLIN
Make Matters Worse
Montauk
August 22, 2026
To the Editor:
I have one question for the developers of Este on Montauk Highway: Do you think the people in Montauk just fell off the back of the turnip truck?
I have many questions for the planning board: What in God’s name were you thinking to begin with when you initially approved the removal of a small beach cottage (occupancy maybe two or four people) to allow a three-story structure with rooftop music which would supposedly be for a 39-seat restaurant business?
The corner for the proposed business is the busiest intersection in Montauk. The water table between the lake and the ocean is the lowest in town, just a matter of feet. Traffic on any given day is stop-and-go, at best. This proposed business will only make matters far worse.
In the early 1990s, I bought four lots on Main Street: the parking lot next to the Medical Center, the two lots that The Point restaurant sits on, and the fourth lot, which is Mary Persan’s florist shop, Strawberry Fields.
At the time the florist shop was a pre-existing, nonconforming use, a run-down residence in the business district. I went to the planning board to put on a roof, wooden siding, and new windows and doors. I wasn’t asking for an extra inch of space. I also wanted to put two dormers on the roof, not for extra space but solely for aesthetics. I was told at the time by the architectural review board that I couldn’t put dormers on the roof because dormers weren’t compatible with Montauk. I was put through hoops of fire.
According to the planning board meeting I attended, the board now has some reservations about this project. The article in last week’s Star confirmed this. My question is, when plans were first submitted to the board, why weren’t whistles and sirens wailing, rockets and flares going off, and red lights flashing? Not only because of the size, but how about 11 bathrooms?
Do any readers of The Star believe a building of this size would be built on Main Street in East Hampton or any other of the towns? I don’t think so.
I attended a citizens advisory board meeting about a month ago at the Montauk Library. People were angry about the new Este building. The next day I found out that Lou Cortese, a planning board member, was in the audience. Lou never said one word. If that had been me, as a planning board member, I would have stood up and explained why and how the board had approved the building. The people of Montauk would like an explanation.
Didn’t we learn anything from the 7-Eleven, or the Surf Lodge, or the new businesses that have opened in the past 10 years?
The owners of Este must be planning to use a crane to lift cars into the supposed 20-car parking lot; if this business ever does come to fruition, the staff alone will exceed 20 vehicles.
If the planning board succeeds in shoving this project down Montauk’s throat, I have a bridge in Brooklyn the board may be interested in buying.
GEORGE WATSON
Working on a Plan
East Hampton
August 21, 2026
Dear Star,
I want to clear up any misconceptions regarding the prospect of an affordable housing complex at the Calvary Baptist Church. To start, there has been no formal application for a project yet. Working with the church’s leaders and congregation I am working on a plan that will I believe deliver a number of benefits to the church itself and the community.
To start, Calvary has all the essential elements required by the town’s affordable housing code for an affordable housing project. It is more than three acres, six in fact. It is located with public water. It fronts a major transportation access and can be compatible with the neighborhood.
As to the size of the project, those six total acres would allow a maximum of 60 units. However, both the church and I agree a smaller project would be in better keeping with the property and the community. As to how large, our engineers and septic experts are working on that as I write.
Whatever the number it will be a mix of two and three-bedroom townhouses similar in design to the East Hampton townhouses on Toilsome Lane. Each will have full basements, private patios, front porches, and will conform to the aesthetics of the neighborhood. A landscaping budget of $500,000 will ensure privacy for the homeowners and screening for the neighborhood.
Unlike 350 Pantigo, this will not be a work-force project but rather a targeted affordable housing project. It is specifically designed for essential workers who cannot afford to buy a home in East Hampton. That includes teachers, health care workers, police, and municipal workers.
These homes will be sold, not rented. Given the uncertainty about building costs one to two years from now when we expect to break ground (today’s 50-percent tariff on Canadian lumber is only one example of the variables we will have to work with) we expect to bring the units in for prices between $650,000 and $750,000.
No matter what we plan, the overall process is long, detailed, specific, and must include the concerns of the neighborhood. That said, we all know affordable housing is the single-most important issue facing this town. We are simply not providing enough affordable housing to make a dent in the literally hundreds of local families who would like to live in the town they love.
As to “do it somewhere else,” that simply is not an option. There are no more than a handful of possible locations for projects large or small from Montauk to Wainscott. This is one that can work. Working with the town and the community, it will work.
Last, I am extremely proud to be working with the staff and members of the church. They are good, God-fearing people. Founded in 1943, they are not the largest church in East Hampton and far from the wealthiest. But they know this community is in trouble and want to help.
Not only will they be able to offer housing to those who most need it, they can use the proceeds of the project to expand their community outreach and support. That includes more spiritual and personal counseling, room for 12-step meetings, day care, social meeting space, and more. They are dedicated to the future of East Hampton, as am I. We welcome the support and help of everyone in this town who feels the same way.
Sincerely,
KIRBY MARCANTONIO
Affordable Housing
East Hampton
August 24, 026
Dear David,
I am writing to raise issues pertaining to the proposed amendment to Chapter 255 (zoning) of the East Hampton Town Code regarding the creation of rent-restricted employer-sponsored housing, specifically the provisions allowing for special permits to increase density.
While the need for true affordable housing in East Hampton is undeniable, this code change as written serves the interests of for-profit developers rather than our community and local work force. The divided town board is scheduled to vote on the zoning change this September.
By way of background, I am sharing the rich history and current status of 350 Pantigo Road, the only site within East Hampton Town that will be immediately affected by the upcoming zoning change vote in September.
In the 1800s, this property operated as a continuous horse farm stretching from Pantigo Road to Further Lane, anchored by the historic 1745 Abraham Baker House. In 1924, it became the Riding Club of East Hampton, where a young Jacqueline Bouvier learned to ride during the 1930s and 1940s.
By the mid-1900s, the land was cleared for commercial use. It served as a Stern’s Department Store from 1967 until 1994, and the riding academy buildings were ultimately demolished in 2011. Throughout the 1990s, proposals by the A&P corporation for a 35,000-square-foot grocery superstore faced federal lawsuits and were ultimately defeated.
While the Pantigo Road Historic District was established and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, it unfortunately does not extend to include this section previously called Pantigo, between East Hampton Village and Amagansett.
In 2022, a proposal to subdivide the land into three luxury residential lots prompted the East Hampton Town Planning Department to recommend that the town consider purchasing the property for affordable housing, citing the extreme housing crisis and the site’s ideal location. Although residents approved the Community Housing Fund in 2022 to fund such acquisitions, the local government did not act.
Consequently, Kirby Marcantonio acquired an interest in the property for $5 million in 2023. He has proposed “Jacqueline’s Field,” a work force housing community of up to 47 multi-unit condominiums to be sold to local institutions and rented to essential workers.
This proposal has gone through town code revisions, public hearings, and planning board reviews. The divided town board is scheduled to vote on the zoning change this September. A July 24 letter from the East Hampton Town Planning Department to the town board summarizes public opposition and notes that many aspects of the code change remain open and unresolved.
My primary objections to the proposed amendment include unwarranted density increases. Allowing a special permit to increase development density from eight units per acre to 12 units per acre — raising the proposed project at 350 Pantigo Road from 32 to 47 units — overburdens our infrastructure. I agree with Kathee Burke-Gonzalez and Councilwoman Cate Rogers that increased density via special permits should not be an option for this legislation.
Lack of financial transparency: The developers have refused to publicly disclose their investors. Changing the town code to benefit a for-profit entity with undisclosed backers raises significant red flags.
Inexperience of the development team: The owner, attorney, general contractor, and modular fabrication company lack large-scale development experience and a proven track record on Long Island.
Exclusion of small businesses: At projected prices of $1.2 million to $1.5 million, units will likely be purchased by large corporations rather than local “mom and pop” businesses, failing to serve workers earning below 130 percent of the area median income.
Loopholes in occupancy and rents: Classifying this as work force housing bypasses standard residential occupancy limits, potentially allowing landlords to place six or more unrelated people in a three-bedroom unit and collect excessive monthly rents under the 130 percent cap. There is also an inherent conflict when employers are renting living quarters to employees, who might feel constrained to raise concerns about living or work conditions.
Legal Inaccuracies: Contrary to the developer’s claims, the East Hampton School District has concluded it cannot legally use taxpayer funds to purchase these units for staff housing under Education Law Section 1709(2).
Traffic and public safety hazards: This stretch of Pantigo Road is already dangerous, with two major accidents occurring in June and July 2026. Adding 47 units will escalate these traffic and parking hazards to a crisis point.
Precedent for overdevelopment: Correspondence indicates intent to use this code change for further large-scale developments at 60 Spinner Lane and the Maidstone Gun Club site. Removing the Affordable Housing and Limited Business Overlay classifications eliminates critical barriers against unchecked growth.
The town had the opportunity to purchase 350 Pantigo Road using the Community Housing Fund to create genuine, publicly subsidized affordable housing, but failed to act. Instead of passing legislation that enriches for-profit developers, while still costing taxpayers money, the town should utilize the Community Housing Fund to create true, publicly subsidized affordable housing.
Regards,
LORRAINE BONAVENTURA
Something in Writing
East Hampton
August 24, 2026
Dear David,
I’ve been an East Hampton homeowner since 1987 and like many of my fellow homeowners, have visited the town clerk’s office periodically to secure and fill out necessary forms for permits. People in the office have been generally pleasant, and it’s always been a relatively hassle-free experience over the years. Until now.
My wife Beatty and I were involved in a serious car accident on Aug. 19, and our car was totaled. We went the next day to the town clerk’s office to get a temporary beach pass on our rental. We took the police report, our driver’s licenses, insurance and registration papers, and explained the situation to a clerk who was very helpful and extremely understanding.
The car had been towed, was in the shop, and was totaled. The insurance adjuster was on the way to view the car and verify what the repair shop had already decided.
The protocol, designed by Michael Hansen, the recently elected town clerk, was to email the documents to him. We didn’t have a printer or scanner, so we said we’d return in person with the required documents.
My wife called Cheryl, the assistant clerk, and told her how grateful we would be to get the permit and be able to go to the beach without the worry of being ticketed. Cheryl’s comment was, “You couldn’t be feeling that bad if you want to go to the beach.”
We took over the hard copies of the documents. Mr. Hansen was adamant that without something in writing verifying that our car was totaled, he would not be able or willing to give us a temporary permit. He asked us when we would be getting a new car, emphasizing that he was doing us a favor in giving us a temporary.
I suggested he call the garage and they would tell him it was totaled.
We weren’t aware that people need proof that their car is totaled or that the clerk needed to know when we were getting a new car in order to get a temporary permit. We were turned away again.
I called the next day and told Cheryl we had all the necessary documents, including the adjuster’s report, and would like to come over and get our permit. She told me that Mr. Hansen had just gone into a meeting and we would have to wait until the meeting was over. (She had no idea of when that would be.) He needed to email us and let us know when we could come over.
I mentioned how one of the clerks who had been so helpful and empathetic to our situation had already Xeroxed all the necessary papers and they were in the office. All we would need to take was the adjuster’s report, which we had.
Cheryl’s remark was, “She’s just a clerk.”
We, of course, understand and accept the need to follow reasonable rules that the office might have to get permits. This had much more to do with arrogance, insensitivity, and wielding power on Mr. Hansen’s part.
The atmosphere in the office is a toxic one; other workers I talked to acknowledged that reality. Attitudes and tones toward workers and residents begin at the top. Mr. Hansen, as The Star pointed out in a Sept. 25, 2025, column (“The Next Town Clerk Has Big Shoes to Fill”), is not a people person, but a technocrat who owns a technology consultancy business specializing in website development and database management. For him, it’s the needs of the technology that override the needs of human beings. The community has lost a big part of its soul.
There’s always the next election. Throw the rascals out!
Sincerely,
JIM VRETTOS
Need a Cull
Springs
August 22, 2026
To the Editor,
I found your coverage of the potential “tick-bomb” problem of interest since this seems to be a growing challenge. When I recently visited the local urgent care facility in town and asked how many of the patients came due to ticks, I was told it was maybe a quarter of all visits. One of the people next to me in the waiting room was there because of a tick bite from stepping a few feet off the fairway at Montauk Downs.
It reminded me that we had friends from out of town who played golf there last September. At first, since all four had never been here before, they thought it was odd that there were 11 deer along one of the first holes either grazing or resting within 10 yards of the tee.
When one of these people, though, stepped on a tick bomb a few holes later, it resulted in his getting both the meat and milk allergy. All these people say they will never come to East Hampton again. This is why other resort areas like both Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket have both recently stated they will significantly increase their hunting and have targets of culling 60 to 70 percent of the deer population.
Without natural predators, the size of a deer herd can grow exponentially till they exhaust all the food sources in the area. Eventually some start to starve and are malnourished, which has been going on for over a decade in some parts of East Hampton.
The town was told in 2013 it had a serious deer overpopulation problem and that parts of town had probably 100 deer per square mile — five or six times what most wildlife biologists will tell you is safe for a healthy environment. That number would suggest we need to do a cull of at least 80 percent.
That doesn’t mean the town should do something so drastic, but it finally has to start taking common-sense steps to reduce both the deer and ticks. I hope that finally happens, but I was disappointed in your earlier article about the town board meeting on Aug 11 titled, “The Question: To Count Deer or Cull Them.” The town really needs to do both this winter. But for that to happen, money has to be allocated for this purpose.
It’s not clear that will happen given the comments by the town board member in charge of the committees studying these issues, Tom Flight. He seemed over concerned about the cost of either option? He said a survey could cost as much as $100,000 — and that is too much? That coming from a town that just spent $5 million for sand at Ditch Plain that will likely wash away in four or five years? Or one that has spent $2 million on plans with various architects over the years to build a new senior center that has nothing to show for it or any idea even what they want to build after more than a decade?
I wish the town were more fiscally responsible, but when it comes to the health of residents, something finally needs to be done. I’ve been asking the town to look at the program North Haven runs for four years now, as it significantly reduces ticks by over 80 percent, they claim. They also spend $200,000 a year for a small village that has 5 percent of our population.
Can’t East Hampton spend at least spend $500,000 for a few years? As I’ve suggested in an earlier letter, perhaps this money could come from the community preservation fund, but if not, the town needs to admit the serious problem deer pose — first, from traffic accidents, where we probably lead the entire country for this statistic, but more important from tick-borne diseases that doctors increasingly find are more harmful than previously thought. Three different diseases have been deemed to be fatal in extreme cases in the last year. Moreover, many of these diseases can also lead to serious neurological problems if not caught early enough and can also be difficult to detect.
An accurate deer survey would allow the town to focus on the areas where the deer population is most extreme and do targeted culls. The town already has years of traffic data the results of which drive the placement of warning signs all over town. A combination of these two sources of information would be a great place to start targeted culls using professional hunters given the residential density of many of these areas.
The Town of East Hampton doesn’t have a few hundred more deer than it should, it likely has more than 5,000 too many that are leading to over a billion new ticks being created every year. The place to start reducing them is in Springs, where an accurate survey might only cost $20,000 from my inquiries on the topic.
After years of asking for even the simplest step to be taken, it is finally time for the town board to quit making excuses and finally take action.
BRAD BROOKS
Back on the Trails
Naushon Island, Mass.
August 21, 2026
Dear Neighbors,
I’m writing from up the coast on the Elizabeth Islands next to Martha’s Vineyard. We have the same ecosystem you do and huge densities of dog, deer, and lone star ticks. At this season, we step into “tick bombs” that can leave us with a hundred bites and an allergy to beef. A decade back, when this started up, we devised a defense that might help you guys, too.
We tried all the gaiters and treated socks but found that lone star ticks are so small they go through the socks — and so fast that they scamper up past the gaiters.
We identified a super-tight-weave parachute fabric that breathed well and we used it to sew up oversocks that cover the foot and lower leg, where the ticks hop on. We treated those with permethrin at Insect Shield in North Carolina, so that they are a double defense: a complete fabric barrier plus a repellent that lasts for 70 washings. We also included a turndown at the knee to trap climbing ticks, and lone stars climb fast!
We have no pavement or vehicles on these islands, so we are into the ticks the second we step out the door. And I am a field biologist and amateur archaeologist, so I am always in the bushes. These Ticktogs have really changed our lives, and we are back on the trails and in the woods feeling a lot more secure. And they are used by many of the pros, like Patrick Roden-Reynolds, the tick officer on the Vineyard.
We had so much interest from outside our community that we sewed up a big batch in Fall River, Mass., and have made them available outside our islands for the first time. We hope they can help you as much as they have helped us, just search “Ticktogs.”
Enjoy the end of summer!
PAUL ELIAS
Reduced Already
Amagansett
August 24, 2026
To the Editor,
Recently, The Star reported that the town board is in support of a deer cull to supposedly reduce ticks. Once again, this board would do something completely stupid against their Democratic pledge to help the environment.
As any good biologist and any educated person out here knows, the main host of every species of tick is not the deer; it is the white-footed mouse. So, killing the deer is not going to reduce ticks. It will just be another attack on the environment and the wild animals, all of which Democrats are supposed to protect.
But this administration is so stupid and anti-environmental, it would be completely in character. This administration voted to demolish an eight-acre forest, where all the critically endangered long-eared brown bats lived. Now we have no bats! So why wouldn’t they kill the deer, too? Maybe because the deer population is so radically reduced already.
We used to have a nice deer herd in East Hampton. Most of them have been hunted. Stony Hill used to have a herd close to 50 that would always gather at sunset off Town Lane, but the herd has been radically reduced by the Peconic Land Trust’s permitted killers to the point where there are only a few left.
There should be no deer cull. Their population is so radically reduced it would be factually preposterous, as all studies show a fraction of the deer population still exists here. The well-documented host of the tick is a mouse, not a deer.
ALEXANDER PETERS
Amagansett Springs Aquifer Protection
Strange Sound
Amagansett
August 23, 2026
To the Editor,
Protections have been stripped from Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, the largest intact temperate rain forest in the world. The Department of Agriculture will hope to allow logging soon. The Department of the Interior will remind you that it’s happy National Parks Week.
The Ring of Fire had 187 seismic events categorized officially as earthquakes over the last seven days. El Nino is here with the peak and early declining phase of Solar Cycle 25.
Waterspouts UpIsland, just like we had southeast of Montauk on Nov. 13, 2021. That was a fun day, sitting outside, taking pictures, temperature drops, clouds going two directions, and the hail. Perfect conditions. The only thing missing back then was the potential for sirens like we had in the valley at university.
Ah, a strange sound outside. Just the southern pine beetle munching on some pines. They are the new crickets. Ticks — three hatchouts a year for the last several years, typically March, May, and October. All that snow this winter only kept them incubated.
Enough fun for this week. Hopefully, the horses at the Classic stay safe. Someone rumored it’s the new beef.
Still here,
JOE KARPINSKI
We Will Remember
Amagansett
August 24, 2026
To the Editor,
We need to get our bearings, our priorities, as a nation come November, once and for all. Because instead of getting our ducks in a row about the energy grid here, and its enormous fragility, we have been playing politics with people’s lives. Imagine a storm here, as mentioned in The New York Times Magazine, and our grid is incapacitated. Now imagine it takes years to get it up and running again. Fiction? Not totally. Because, instead of taking care of business at home, we prioritize foreign wars that maim, kill, and destroy.
America is suffering as rarely before and that is before Wall Street and Main Street go under due to the debt crisis approaching $40 trillion that is mounting and the 40 million acres in the West that could be lost to logging forever. There will be nothing left of America. We will ask ourselves, did we really need another depression to look inward and think of welfare and health and sanity and balance and peace? We will remember the deranged deregulation that occurred under Reagan in favor of the oil industry. We will remember Bush’s priorities in favor of oil and gas with no regard to health and the environment.
We will remember those of our time who still act in favour of mining and deforestation and the cattle industry. Those who believed bananas should be taken off the school menu because the fruit isn’t grown in America; that’s literally bananas. Those who wanted to reverse the forgiving of student debt to the point where most of Gen Z is questioning the very value of college, who can no longer dream of the American Dream, much like the youth of India and China.
We will remember the antiquated medieval policies of demolishing health care and stopping food stamps so that tens of millions cannot afford both their rent and food. That’s extravagant, isn’t it? We will remember those who wanted to hijack the voting system making every vote not count unless it went in the direction of those in charge.
We will remember gas prices going beyond what most can afford and be reminded that it increased because of an “excursion” in the Middle East that has the stirrings of World War III. We will remember who antagonized both our allies and the global order to the point where foreign policy became almost meaningless because we had become the world’s bully with no clue how to diplomatically engage.
We will remember when America utterly unraveled because incompetence, delinquency, and psychopathology ruled America and disemboweled it from the inside out. We will remember the heat of the world, now upturning Europe to the point where much of the continent won’t be able to feed itself because of Greenland’s utter meltdown, which is creating an Omega Block and keeping the hot Saharan winds bellowing on European soil. Crop failures will ensue, and it will eventually creep up on American farms and quite possibly create a vast dustbowl here.
We will remember those techno A.I. oligarchs who thought nothing of the commonweal and who cut funding to science, health, education, and everything that supports life.
We might remember that being slightly controversial was better than acting as a zombie, and unresponsive to everything that supports life, especially children, and Gen Z, who consider themselves the futureless generation.
We will remember those who did not believe in vaccines or climate change, so that if a virus strikes from the Amazon or the Arctic and we are left totally defenseless we will have no one to blame but those who looked down on experts, knowledge, and know-how. We will remember those who denied existing on a fragile planet, because now Europe is no longer Europe and its rivers are disappearing. We will have no one to blame but those who were only interested in making quick bucks in oil and A.I., and maybe remember that the pernicious energy and water-draining tomfoolery of data centers does not grow wheat or support life in any way.
We will remember those who wanted to rewrite history, deny the blasphemous slavery on which this country was based, and the massacre of tens of millions of its first people and the near-extinction of the buffalo. We will remember those who poisoned the soil and nearly eliminated most insects and a third of bird populations in North America in favor of the pesticide industry and profits. Some will remember the history of slavery and extraction and subjugation despite all efforts to erase it.
We will surely remember when nearly nothing is affordable any longer and we will be living in one vast “high tech slum,” as Edward Abbey so gallantly put it, as he tried to stop the mutilation of public lands and forests out west.
When hunger strikes America, we will remember those who looked away from renewables and took away food stamps and looked down on those empathetic to life and scream a blood and soul-curdling scream such as America has never screamed in its history. Some might remember the dream of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Surely some might remember.
CYRIL CHRISTO
Never Ever
Amagansett
August 24, 2026
Dear David,
“Joe Biden ate my homework!”
Whatever else you can say about the current administration, you have to admire their consistency, because no mistakes, whether military, political, economic, or legal are never ever their fault.
RUSSELL BENNETT
Their True Colors
North Haven
August 24, 2026
To the Editor,
Jonathan Wallace, the vicar of the pro-Palestinian, anti-American rabble in downtown Sag Harbor, who functioned as a combination legal adviser and participant in the group’s unlawful assault at the Jewish-owned Lulu’s restaurant in Sag Harbor is at it again with his daffy prattling (Letters, Aug. 13). His merry group of invaders targeted a Jewish businessman in his place of business — shades of the beginning of the Nazi gulag as it started up in Germany in the 1930s.
This was a fundamental assault on the values and traditions that most Americans of all races and religions accept. His group showed their true colors — affiliating in principle and practice with the leftist groups that are burrowing under to transform our traditions and law. Scratch the surface of this group, and you shouldn’t be surprised to find an assortment of individuals who would be happy to dismantle the police and our nation’s border patrol, in short, to thoroughly cripple the United States and weaken its ability to defend itself. This is their beginning.
As a coda, let us offer a bit of a history lesson to those who participate with this group, especially those who claim Jewish affiliation and at the same time support the nationalist aspirations of the Palestinians. During World War II, the leading Palestinian leader, Muhammad Amin el-Husseini, spent much time in Berlin under the protective eye of Adolf Hitler. Hitler’s goal was to colonize Palestine for the Third Reich as he had colonized areas in Europe and Africa. Husseini was solidly on board with this. They both planned death camps for the Jewish residents of Palestine, employing the killing machines of the kind the Nazis built in Poland. Only the military defeat of Nazi Germany thwarted their jointly planned genocide.
Husseini was later declared a Nazi war criminal and had to escape to Egypt to avoid being tried and executed. His promotion of Palestinian nationalism — the dream of a separate state for Palestinians, was inextricably tied up to a virulent antisemitism that existed in Europe at that time. But that Palestinian nationalism today hasn’t changed; it is still suffused with perhaps an even greater degree of hatred toward Jews and an unremitting position that the State of Israel has no right to exist.
MITCHEL AGOOS
STEVEN BECKER
ALAIN HYMAN
DAVID SAXE
East End Jews for Israel
Without a Source
East Hampton
August 21, 2026
Dear Mr. Rattray,
In response to a letter published on Aug. 20, I do not consider that the question I asked concerning Nick LaLota’s position on the legitimacy of the 2020 election was “nonsense” or constituted a “gotcha” question. Rather, it was an attempt to find out where my elected representative in the House stands on an issue that Donald Trump continually raises. I did not expect a staff member to answer the question when I called. However, I did expect a response after having been told that someone would get back to me. As I wrote, it never happened.
I am glad the writer got a response from Mr. LaLota’s office. Perhaps he would like to share how to do this.
As far as the claim that “$171 billion in Medicaid fraud was recently reported,” does the writer have a reliable source for such a statement? Let’s check the facts.
According to the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy website, “HHS (Health and Human Services) publishes improper payment rates for Medicaid, Medicare, and other programs. For 2024, the national Medicaid improper payment rate is estimated to be 5.09 percent. That translates into $31.1 billion in federal Medicaid improper payments in 2024. The other way to look at this is that 94.9 percent of federal Medicaid outlays, or $579.7 billion, were properly paid.”
The report also points out that 74 percent of the improper payments was “because information required for payment or eligibility determination was missing from the claim or state systems; had the information been available, the claim may have been payable (or not).” The bottom line is that about 1.5 percent of Medicaid payments, or approximately $8 billion, may have been the result of fraud.
This figure still reveals significant fraud, but a far cry from the $171 billion cited by the author. Perhaps even this significantly lower figure would have been even lower had Trump not fired all the inspector generals in charge of uncovering fraud.
In any case, when it comes to politics, I’m not playing “juvenile games.” You play juvenile games when you toss out figures without citing a reliable source. Perhaps this is what is meant by “alternative facts.”
SALVATORE TOCCI
Why LaLota?
East Hampton
August 20, 2026
To the Editor:
Representative Nick LaLota is enthusiastic about being re-elected. The more interesting question is why his constituents should be.
Mr. LaLota voted for — and celebrated — the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill. New York State estimates that, as a result of its health-care provisions, 48,000 people in his district will lose health coverage, and 976 hospital jobs in the First Congressional District will be lost. The law also makes deep cuts to food assistance on which thousands of Long Islanders depend.
Then there is the accomplishment Mr. LaLota is particularly proud of: raising the cap on the state and local tax deduction from $10,000 to $40,000. But Internal Revenue Service data cited by the Congressional Research Service show that only 16.3 percent of First District taxpayers claimed a SALT deduction under the previous rules, and SALT benefits skew heavily toward higher-income taxpayers. The higher cap Mr. LaLota secured is also temporary: In 2030, it drops back to $10,000.
Meanwhile, Mr. LaLota has taken to threatening municipalities in his own district because he says they are refusing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. But municipalities are not required to do whatever Immigration and Customs Enforcement asks of them simply because it asks. The federal government cannot commandeer state and local officials to enforce federal immigration law, and local governments remain bound by constitutional limits on detention.
Mr. LaLota is perfectly entitled to support aggressive immigration enforcement. What he is not entitled to do is invent legal obligations that do not exist and then threaten communities in his own district for failing to comply with them.
So, we have 48,000 constituents expected to lose health coverage, nearly 1,000 hospital jobs at risk, cuts to food assistance, a temporary increase in a tax deduction claimed under the previous rules by 16.3 percent of New York First District taxpayers, and a congressman threatening his own municipalities based on a mistaken view of the law. Hardly compelling reasons to return him to Congress.
Sincerely,
ANDREW VAN PRAAG