Joan’s Table
East Hampton
July 29, 2026
To the Editor,
I’ve just learned that Evan Thomas’s mom, Joan Tulp, passed on last night. She introduced Evan to me in the first days of 1991. Joan was a regular as I took control at Estia in Amagansett. Her days often started on table eight, in the window, near the door, a banquet with two benches that occasionally sat more than two guests at each side.
When I’d asked her if she could recommend a craftsman who could help me to reimagine the space, her son Evan “Wood Right” was the first name she shared with me and indeed his work changed the room’s look and functionality in many ways. I think that made her and most of our regulars happy and comfortable.
Joan drank decaf coffee and lots of it, occasionally a small breakfast, too. Her table hosted a variety of guests, local politicians, like Tony Bullock, the town supervisor, stopped by occasionally, artists like Marvin Kuhn, the East Hampton Star illustrator, shared the table, too. Locals and N.Y. City fines filtered in and out at Joan’s invitation. She was a ginger-haired beauty who had a heavy lipstick smile for everyone who said hello. Her day at Estia started around 8:30 and ended once the last visitor moved on or a meeting at the Amagansett Village Improvement Society called on her to run a committee. Amagansett beautification was Joan’s passion, tennis on the courts at the edge of town, too.
My friend Joan Tulp welcomed me into a community that I’ll always think of as home. Along with most of those who shared her table, she sits in a window of the big coffee shop in the sky, smiling down on Evan, her grandchildren, and all who shuffle about on Amagansett’s Main Street and beaches.
She will be missed but not forgotten.
Sincerely,
COLIN AMBROSE
Helping Others
Amagansett
July 29, 2026
To the Editor,
Everyone who lives in the Hamptons, especially in Amagansett, Napeague, Montauk, East Hampton, Sag Harbor, Wainscott, Water Mill, and Southampton, knew who Joan Tulp was. She was the unofficial mayor of Amagansett. People of every generation loved her. I am a millennial, and even my Gen Z son adored her.
I first met Joan at Indian Wells Beach after my husband introduced us. From the very beginning, she welcomed me with kindness, warmth, and a beautiful smile.
I don’t have many friends here yet, as I am still relatively new to the community, but I can proudly say that Joan was my friend. Whenever I felt lonely or simply needed someone to talk to, I would drive to Indian Wells Beach, hoping to find Ms. Tulp. She was always there, not just for me, but for everyone. Our conversations made my days brighter and brought peace to my mind.
Her stories were as fascinating as she was. She was a devoted mother of sons, a loving grandmother to many grandchildren, and a remarkable member of the Amagansett community who dedicated so much of her life to helping others. She served with the Amagansett Village Improvement Society for 50 years, including as its co-president, and poured her heart into this community, always giving, caring, and serving.
My deepest and most heartfelt condolences go out to her entire family. I loved her. I love her. And I will always love her. My heart aches over the loss of such an extraordinary woman. She was the only friend I had in Amagansett, and her absence will leave a space that can never be filled.
Goodbye, my dear friend. I will miss you more than words can express. Thank you for your kindness, your friendship, and your beautiful heart.
I will love you forever.
With love,
SISSY SAKVARLISHVILI
Ray of Sunshine
Amagansett
August 2, 2026
Dear Mr. Rattray,
We attended the Amagansett Village Improvement Society’s annual Summer Splash on Saturday at South Fork Country Club. A lovely event as always but for one glaring absence: Joan Tulp, co-president of A.V.I.S. and spiritual leader and renewable energy source of our community for so many decades.
This year’s honoree, East Hampton’s beloved town crier and historian, Hugh King, greeted guests at the door and suggested I write a letter about Joan. I told him I’d planned to do just that, and the letter would have just two words: “Joan Tulp” because there’s nothing really I could add to the lovely tribute The Star gave Joan in its editorial and obituary in last week’s paper. So we thank you for that.
There were wonderful words of appreciation spoken by Victor Gelb, Joan’s co-president of the society. And the most imaginative “tribute” at Saturday’s event? Maybe the T-shirt worn by our friend and A.V.I.S. tennis pro, Peter Hoopes. In letters on the front of his tee, “Joan’s Beach Amagansett,” a clever reference to Ms. Tulp’s designated daily parking spot front and center at Indian Wells Beach. No matter the weather, you could count on a ray of sunshine in that spot — where a memorial bench should now be placed in the sand.
To Joan forever,
LYLE GREENFIELD
Beach Guardians
East Hampton
July 2, 2026
To the Editor:
Having “The Odyssey” on the brain, I have been reflecting on the gods and goddess of Atlantic Beach. These are the lifeguards who ran the inaugural adult Beach Guardian program, a newly created town program which started this year. The program just finished with the adults competing during the well-run Junior Lifesaving Program sponsored by the Hampton Lifeguard Association (established in 1992). The beach guardians met every Saturday and Sunday morning during the month of July, 9:30 to 11 a.m., during the junior lifeguard training.
These lifeguards, who shall be named shortly, gave us 20 adults (many of whom had kids in the junior program), their time, energy, extraordinary expertise, skills, patience, and encouragement. The incredible skills that these guards consider second nature after years of experience were both demonstrated to us and were interactive.
Here is a sample of the lifesaving techniques and life skills that were taught: CPR (for adults and infants), how to recognize and understand the nature of rip currents and sweep, the nature of a wave, spinal immobilization, line rescues, paddleboard rescues, and, most important to me, entering and exiting the surf.
Primarily, the mission of the Beach Guardian program is to foster ocean safety and understanding of the ocean’s nature. This is not a program that is a substitute for what our guards provide day in and day out during the season. However, after going through it, I can “safely” say that I have a better understanding of the ocean, and can enter and return to shore with an understanding, self-empowerment, and skill set that I did not have before. I can now recognize a swimmer in distress and know the importance of swimming at a guarded beach. There will be now more eyes on safety and more eyes on the water. Farewell to my unguarded much beloved Wiborg’s Beach!
On behalf of the fantastic community that participated in the program, please accept our heartfelt thanks to the gods and goddess who coached this program in a masterful way: Johnny Ryan Jr., TJ Calabrese, Ed Ryan, Carleen Meers, Bob Bottini, and Steve McMahon. Thanks to East Hampton Town for its support.
See you on the beach!
NANCY BRODY
Drivers Behaving Badly
Springs
August 3, 2026
To the Editor,
Here we are in the first week of August of 2026. Today there was a torrential downpour of rain, which made me want to stay home but I had to run a work errand in East Hampton. This meant driving from Springs into East Hampton Village. This time of year, I avoid driving into or anywhere near the village due to the overwhelming traffic and hazardous driving on weekends. But this was Monday and life must go on, right?
Drivers were all behaving badly, everyone in a rush, tourists who didn’t know where they were going, cars blocking lanes in all directions, etc., etc. I could go into detail about what a bad decision this was, elaborate on the nonexistent parking, etc., but that is not the focus of this letter. I was simply shocked that, once again, at the busiest time of the year there were zero traffic police at any intersection helping to make traffic move smoothly.
I saw lots of traffic enforcement, marking tires and issuing parking tickets, but absolutely not one person at the exit of the Reutershan parking lot near Stop and Shop on Newtown Lane, no one at the intersection of Main Street and Newtown Lane near Citarella, no one at the crosswalk on Main Street near the Palm and the Ladies Village Improvement Society. You get the idea.
I simply do not understand why the village doesn’t have traffic police at these major intersections. It is a miracle that there hasn’t been a serious accident.
The village apparently has a robust budget for many things, such as issuing parking tickets, hanging banners for all sorts of events, redesigning Herrick Park (again), installing bright lights on historic windmills at night, and promoting pop-ups on properties in the historic districts. But it’s not just the financial aspect; it’s a matter of priorities.
Once again, it makes me wonder if we year-round folks matter to the governing body of the village at all? What about our quality of life?
Sincerely,
CRISTINA BUCKLEY
Picture This
East Hampton
August 3, 2026
Dear Mr. Editor,
Hope all is well at The Star. So, I follow your column and can tell by your writings that your underwear got all bunched up over letter writers using artificial intelligence to compose a letter to you. Well, you don’t have to worry about me. I am A.I.-free, but I can see that’s a sore spot or pet peeve of yours. I’ll share mine.
My pet peeve is noise out on the water. Let me explain. Picture this, you’re at anchor in Three Mile Harbor, beautiful summer day, light breeze, waves slapping the hull. You start to doze off, then it comes: the excessive loud music, the boom and thumping of loud music, and poof, the tranquillity is gone. Captain Jackass and the charter boat Bugfuck are on a cruise, and of course there are the 15-plus bimbos dancing on the deck.
What adds to the quagmire are the obtuse noise laws of the Town of East Hampton. I think the noise laws have more loopholes than the rental registry laws. So, figure this one out: You can’t operate a motor vessel with an excessively loud exhaust, but there is no law against the excessive loud music that could drown out the exhaust noise.
So, after the charter boat goes by and that fades into the Head of the Harbor, we then have the wedding announcer out of East Hampton Point. I have felt like I know everyone at these weddings because the broadcast is loud and clear over the water. I wonder why and how the neighbors put up with that.
So, I guess it’s like the rental registry — it’s all about the flow of money.
As always, best regards and yours to command,
JEFFREY PLITT
Unsustainable Rates
East Hampton Village
July 31, 2026
Dear David,
This one is a response to your Mast-Head “One Hole of Water.” I think I can give some insight into why you are likely 100 percent correct about what has happened to our water: overuse.
Full disclosure: I may not be a hydrologist, but I took a course in field biology back in the late 1980s when I was studying at the Southampton campus back when it was Long Island University. It focused mainly on the ecology and geology of Long Island and included aspects of geology and hydrology.
The short story is that our population has been pulling water out of the aquifer at unsustainable rates for decades. The first tangible sign of it happened back in the 1970s when the Montauk segment of the aquifer ran dry. That segment of the aquifer now suffers from saltwater contamination and, I was told at the time, was so tainted that it couldn’t be used.
Montauk has had to have its water piped in from our aquifer, which may have seemed like a good fix at the time but there were people, myself included, who felt it was a bad idea in the long run, especially if there was going to be continued residential and commercial development. More people means more demand for water. You can’t argue with simple mathematics.
Irrigation systems are a main contributor to the overuse of water but are only part of the problem. The simple fact is population. Since the 1970s drought, the South Fork has seen explosive development as our population has grown. In addition to the growth of the year-round population, we also have the annual influx of tourists, which, I think, more than triples our population (you can fact-check me on this).
The tourist season has not only grown in the number of people but in how long it lasts. Once it was reliably from Labor Day to Memorial Day. Now it starts as soon as the weather is warm, usually the end of April, and often ends around Thanksgiving in November. This may be good for the local economy, but it has heavily impacted our water use and is leading us down a dangerous path.
Though we can take all the water-saving measures we like, the real problem is that our aquifer cannot support this kind of population. The average annual rainfall may have been steady for decades, but, as noted, our population, and thus water usage, has grown considerably and at an uncontrolled rate. It’s no wonder ponds are drying up.
Another contributing factor has been the amount of paving that has happened. Rainwater can only get to the aquifer if it falls on open ground or a porous surface that lets it percolate down. A significant portion of any rainfall is shunted to storm drains, which often lead to sewers or directly into the ocean. That shunted water is not getting into the aquifer.
I will close by saying that I’ve been acutely aware of the problem for most of my life. When I took over my family’s house, I stopped using the irrigation system. My lawn turns brown but it doesn’t die, and hardier grasses have begun to take over. And lots of clover. I have been trying for years to limit my water use, especially in summer when it’s most crucial. It pains me to drive by dozens of houses on a rainy day and see that their sprinklers are going full blast.
I know that this has been long, and I apologize, but the subject is not simple and can’t be addressed in just a few words. The obvious solution would be to reduce the number of people, especially tourists, but that would be unpopular and complicated and probably reinforce the popular view that the “Hamptons” are an exclusive, rich-people-only community, which we definitely are not. For now, I’ll only say please try watering lawns once a week, as that’s all they really need. And definitely don’t use water-wasting toys like Slip and Slides.
I feel it’s inevitable that there will be a repeat of the Montauk debacle on a wider scale and it’s only a matter of time before it happens. (You can call me Eeyore if you like. My mother does.)
As always, thanks for reading.
Sincerely,
MATT HARNICK
Without Discussion
East Hampton Village
August 3, 2026
David,
Why does nearly every resolution presented to the East Hampton Village Board of Trustees pass unanimously — most often without meaningful public deliberation?
Residents deserve to understand how their elected officials reach their decisions. Are alternatives debated? Are disagreements discussed before the public meeting? Does each trustee independently consider what is best for the people of East Hampton?
Transparent government requires more than a public vote. It requires an open discussion that allows residents to hear the reasoning behind important decisions.
Jerry Larsen and the trustees should explain why dissent and public debate appear to be so rare.
DAVID GANZ
Not Held in Public
Amagansett
August 3, 2026
Dear David,
As the elected chairwoman of the Amagansett citizens advisory committee for many years, I know how important government transparency is to the East Hampton community. That is why the recent Wainscott C.A.C. meeting on Saturday was so deeply disappointing. I went to attend this past Saturday’s meeting only to find it was not held in public at its usual venue, the chapel in Wainscott, but only over a closed-to-the-public Zoom link
I am calling directly on East Hampton Town Councilwoman Cate Rogers, who serves as the official town board liaison to the Wainscott C.A.C., to address a major breakdown in public access and transparency of government. By conducting this session entirely over Zoom and strictly shutting out residents from other hamlets, the committee restricted public oversight and limited important community discussions regarding water quality and PFAS issues, zoning, traffic, and municipal policies that impact the entire town, not just a single hamlet. Citizens advisory committees are not private clubs.
As the Wainscott C.A.C. liaison, Councilwoman Rogers needs to ensure these advisory bodies remain open and transparent to all town residents. Perhaps the chairman of the Wainscott C.A.C., Hersey Eggington, needs a lesson in open government.
Holding closed digital meetings sets a poor precedent for local government, and future East Hampton C.A.C. meeting sessions must guarantee open, unrestricted access to the public.
RONA KLOPMAN
Understated the Problem
Springs
July 31, 2026
To the Editor,
I found your recent article on a new potentially lethal tick-borne disease, Bourbon, to understate the potential problem to our area. While the chances of getting this newly discovered lethal disease is quite rare, there are no commercial tests for it or known cures.
While your paper consults an expert in Lyme, this disease comes from a completely different tick — the ever-growing and aggressive lone star tick. His observation that his patients for tick-borne disease are down this year don’t jibe with others’.
Dr. Luis Marcos, director of the Tick-Borne Diseases Clinic at Stony Brook, who discovered this rare case, said, “the Bourbon virus is likely more prevalent than we think in our region and other cases are likely not being diagnosed.” He also said, “On Long Island, we have a lot of lone star ticks, and this may be just the very, very, tip of the iceberg.” The main symptoms of the disease are headaches, fatigue, weakness, nausea, joint pain. It can also lower the body’s ability to fight infection since it lowers the white blood cell count.
Suffolk Executive Ed Romaine recently said that Suffolk County is experiencing a public health crisis in terms of tick-borne diseases and we are “the epicenter” for them in the entire state. Given we lead the county in deer-car collisions and deer harvested (both numbers are undercounted), East Hampton is likely the epicenter of the epicenter, but no one would ever guess that from reading The Star.
I appreciate that a handful of my letters on this topic have been published over the last year, but I was confused as to why the title assigned to my most recent one was, “Ignore This Issue.” Besides the complete failure when it comes to monitoring the potential pollution of our sole-source aquifer (at the airport, the battery facilities, gun club, and Recycling Center), I can’t think of anything else more important.
East Hampton likely has five times the number of deer per square mile than is considered to be healthy for the environment and they are probably helping to create a billion new ticks each year in town. Given this situation, it is hard to understand why the current administration continues to ignore a problem they were told about over a dozen years ago by both the Department of Environmental Conservation and Cornell that, quite frankly, is much worse today.
Martha’s Vineyard, similar in terms of size and deer problem, has studied this problem and, despite harvesting even more deer than we do each year, has just determined that it will be necessary to increase their deer cull to try and reduce their herd by between 60 and 70 percent. Given there are no natural predators in either location, that is the only solution. For that to happen, though, the town has to finally allocate money for this purpose. Whether it is for a four-poster program or a cull.
I’ve always been told by the town over the years that it doesn’t have the money. The amount allocated last year to deal with this issue was a paltry $40,000 out of a $110 million budget.
Perhaps it’s finally time to admit this is a serious health and traffic safety issue for the “community” and to allocate some of the funds from the community preservation fund for this purpose.
While the wording of its objectives can be vague, spending money to reduce the tick population would clearly help people be able to enjoy recreation in our preserved forests as opposed to even some hunters now being scared to enter them.
BRAD BROOKS
Pervasive Secrecy
Amagansett
July 31, 2026
To the Editor:
Apropos of Christopher Walsh’s “For Some Town Trustees, Truck Beach Grievances Persist,” the back story, the context, the huge contempt judgement, which, if paid by the trustees, would equal half their resources, is very mysterious. Given my goal of seeing democracy implemented in East Hampton in my lifetime, the pervasive secrecy in which the town operates is a major obstacle. We neither know why the town board does anything, nor why anything happens to it.
Iconic instances of this cloud of unknowing are: One, the senior center: Why is building the thing so darn important? Two, the gun club: Why is keeping it open so critical? Occam’s razor says corruption is probably the answer, but I would like to know who owes what to whom.
Anyway, here are the questions I would like to see answered about the Truck Beach contempt judgement: Why would any court, anywhere, ever issue such a huge financial penalty against a smaller public entity like the town or the trustees? If the playing field is not level, everywhere else it seems to tilt toward small governments, not away.
Nobody in authority wants to harm, let alone dismantle, towns, anywhere in this country, except here in Suffolk. Is this a consequence of East Hampton being a Democrat-controlled town in a very red county? Is it Brookhaven’s revenge?
It is a law school truism that contempt proceedings and financial sanctions are intended to give the targets an incentive to behave better, not as a punishment intended to crush them. Much smaller fines would have been adequate.
It seems almost a glimpse into a dystopian alternate universe to witness a court system where nobody ever stopped to think how rapacious these sanctions were — not the lawyer (my friend James Catterson) who sought them, his clients (the homeowners adjacent to Truck Beach who consented), or the judges (who granted or approved them).
I have been waiting all this time for anyone to say, “This is wrong!” and it took Francis Bock, a trustee, to do it, four years after the event only to have other trustees whinge that he had violated omerta. (Credit due: I also remember a Star editorial.)
These funds, when paid, come out of your pocket and mine, as citizens of this town and constituents of the trustees — money that could, in theory (at least if this were a democracy), have gone to local needs (such as filling in those potholes we keep hearing about or repairing the bridge or dredging) is being appropriated by a few people, hrrrm, who already have a lot of money.
Something else I would like to know: Is any of that money even going to make it to the homeowners — or will it all go to their lawyers? I believe it was characterized as attorneys’ fees incurred in pursuit of the contempt motion.
Of course, the town board’s position on dragging the trustees into this mess is also a classic in moral vacuity: Bad things happen to good people (shrug).
It adds a certain cachet that David Lys was chosen to express the town’s lack of a moral center. He does it so well!
For democracy in East Hampton,
JONATHAN WALLACE
Godfathers of Communism
Montauk
August 1, 2026
Dear David,
A group that calls themselves Democratic Socialists of America have been plotting for 50 years a full, extreme radical takeover of New York City. Starting with public schools, these groups admit they want to mold a new generation of baby Russian comrades.
Professors in higher schools are calling for kids to be educated in a democratic socialist frame and to be taught the godfathers of communism. These men’s — Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels — writings inspired some of the most murderous dictators in history beginning with Stalin and Mao.
The curriculum needs to be relooked, revised, and reframed. Parents, pay attention, be aware of power-hungry radicals. These radicals are looking to convert your children to their beliefs. This is called grooming.
Communism is here. They have patiently waited 50 years or more. This looks like the end of New York City if the present mayor and his wife get full control.
In God and country,
BEA DERRICO
More-Sinister Following
North Haven
August 2, 2026
To the Editor:
Is Jonathan Wallace (Letters, July 30), the shomer of the pro-Palestinian gaggle that invaded a Jewish businessman’s (Marc Rowan) restaurant Lulu’s a few Sundays ago in Sag Harbor, auditioning for a column at The East Hampton Star? Every week without fail he attempts to show off his impressive academic credentials (Columbia, Harvard Law), but somehow he fell short this time with his puerile observations concerning the menu at Lulu’s.
We will not use this response time of ours to debate the misconceptions he blathers about weekly — the improper charges of genocide leveled against Israel and the escalating problems relating to antisemitism in America. What we do wish to point out is that aside from attempts to parse the hatred of Israel with the hatred of Jews (which today is a futile and dishonest undertaking), the group of pro-Palestinian flag-waving hooligans he led as shomer, demonstrated by their invasion of a man’s property and personal rights, a resistance and disregard for the core principles of American democracy that operate as a barrier for the well-being of all of us.
Mr. Wallace likens his charges at Lulu’s to those who participated at the historic lunch-counter sit-ins of the 1960s that were a potent part of the civil rights movement. It’s likely that those who were actually involved in those historic times might be mortified by such comparison. That movement was part of the vast and belated undertaking to mandate that African-Americans were to be equal participants in American society. Those who burst into Lulu’s are part of a broader, more sinister following today that eschews fundamental American values and sees our nation only through the distorted lens of post-colonialism.
MITCHEL AGOOS
STEVEN BECKER
ALAIN HYMAN
DAVID SAXE
East End Jews for Israel
Get Back to Me
East Hampton
July 30, 2026
Dear Mr. Rattray,
On July 17, I called Nick LaLota’s office in Washington, D.C., to ask if the congressman believed that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. I was told that someone would get back to me with an answer. Two weeks have passed, and I have not received an answer. Is Mr. LaLota a 2020 election denier like Trump?
In any case, if Mr. LaLota cannot answer the simple question that I asked, how can he possibly answer questions, such as, “How many of your constituents have lost their medical coverage after you voted to eliminate their Medicaid benefits?” or, “How many families in your district find it more difficult to feed their children after you voted to eliminate their SNAP benefits?” If I asked these questions, I doubt that I would receive an answer because I doubt that Mr. LaLota cares.
Try calling Mr. LaLota’s D.C. office with a question and see if you get an answer. If you don’t or if you are not satisfied with the answer, why not vote for Chris Gallant this November? His office will answer your question.
SALVATORE TOCCI