Never Forget
East Hampton
September 2, 2026
Dear David,
It is 25 years later, and we promised we would never forget. However, I feel many people have forgotten that day. Some of us of course can’t forget because we were there in New York City living and working; because we had family and friends in the Twin Towers; because we had sons and daughters who were the other pilots flying that day for American and United Airlines; because we knew members of the crew on Flight 93; because we cannot forget the 343 firefighters, including their chaplain, who ran into the towers that day and sacrificed everything. How can we forget them?
Sept. 11, 2026, is a day to remember all those who died that day and those whose lives were cut short from helping in the aftermath.
God bless America.
DOREEN M. QUARANTO
Left the Scene
Amagansett
September 4, 2026
To the Editor,
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the East Hampton Town Police Department and specifically Sgt. Andrew Nimmo and Officer Tyler Kilmnick.
Sometime between the evening of Aug. 26 and early morning of Aug. 27, someone decided to exit the roadway northbound on Abraham’s Path and crash into our split-rail fence at the American Legion Post. In the process of this act, they caused damage to three sections of fence and to the grass area around that fence.
Instead of showing integrity and staying at the scene of the accident, they decided to leave. Fortunately, they did leave parts of their car behind, which we have for safekeeping. If you are the one who damaged our fence, feel free to contact the post and we can see to it your car parts are returned.
Through their diligence and hard work while conducting the investigation, Sergeant Nimmo and Officer Kilmnick were able to track down the owner of the vehicle. Hopefully, besides having to fix the damage to their car, they will also have to pay a fine for leaving the scene of an accident.
Again, thank you, East Hampton Town police!
NICK PUPO
Commander
American Legion Post 419
Outpouring of Love
Amagansett
September 1, 2026
Dear Editor:
I would like to say thank you on behalf of the entire Tulp family for the outpouring of love and support for our mother, Joan Tulp.
Joan loved working with many organizations that kept Amagansett (and East Hampton) beautiful and worked hard to preserve the essence of her hamlet from years long ago. The ones closest to her heart were Amagansett Village Improvement Society, the Art Barge, Amagansett Ladies Auxiliary, and so many more. There are many people she met along the way, and she made friends with all of them.
I would especially like to thank The Star for its July 30 editorial, which captured Joan’s true esssence, and Christopher Walsh for his thoughtful obituary.
Joan is gone now but her spirit is alive and well all around us.
Thank you to everyone,
JAMIE TULP
Beloved Amagansett
East Hampton
September 4, 2026
To the Editor:
As Labor Day arrived this week, I know I am not the only Star reader who will remember this summer as the summer we lost Amagansett’s beloved Joan Tulp. The Star’s obituary and editorial about her last month were such wonderful tributes.
I was lucky to know Joan from the Amagansett Beach Association and last year had the opportunity to write about her for New York magazine. During one interview, she shared that in the years before she moved out here full time, she dreaded going back to Brooklyn every fall. She wrote this poem, “Amagansett,” during one of those bittersweet end-of-summer moments decades ago. Inspired by the many letters to the editor she herself wrote, I wanted to share it here with the permission of her family.
Sincerely,
LUCY BOYLE
—
Amagansett
Only by the ocean can I lick my
wounds of life.
Soon I will be almost healed.
When the scars come again
I will return to
the brightness,
the waves burgeoning in,
the solitude,
But not silence.
It brings joy fleetingly
but necessary.
I will be back.
JOAN TULP
Year to Remember
Calgary, Canada
September 2, 2026
Dear Mr. Rattray,
As the summer of 2026 comes to an end and we reflect on our nation’s 250th anniversary, we are reminded that it was half a century ago we celebrated the bicentennial.
For those of us who graduated from East Hampton High School in 1976, that milestone year comes into focus once again as we plan to gather for our class reunion on Oct. 17.
That year, 1976, was most definitely a year to remember. Beyond the many celebrations that took place all over the country, the year marked our first opportunity to vote (and in a presidential election year), NASA landed on Mars, and the Air and Space Museum opened in Washington D.C., and, hard as it is to believe, Apple was founded that year.
So, we share with everyone the history of the country and the large-scale events that took place. But for the East Hampton High School Class of ’76, it wasn’t just the big, national, notable, newsworthy events that marked the bicentennial. It was about the pride we felt for our town and in sharing the experience of being fortunate to live in a special place at an incredible time.
For us, it was about what was happening more locally, at home, on the East End. It was a special Fouth of July parade and the fireworks at Main Beach. It was dressing in period costume and standing at Hook Mill with its sails open as it whipped around in the summer breeze. It was weathering the storm as Hurricane Belle crashed right into our villages with a vengeance as some packed for college; and it was all of us, the Class of ’76, wearing commemorative ribbons as we received our diplomas with our friends and classmates from Montauk to Sagaponack and everywhere in between. It was saying farewell to what we knew as we looked forward to what might come.
We are fortunate to have had the privilege of growing up in a town steeped in rich history, with legends and lessons taught to us from as early as we can remember. The stories that span from before the very early days of our country to the present continue to teach us about the important history of our town.
Many of our classmates chose to stay in and around East Hampton and many more have left, but it seems we always come home to the place that means so much to all of us. It will always be home. And that makes it even more fitting that our reunion is to be held on homecoming weekend.
As East Hampton High School Bonackers (thanks to the true Bonackers for allowing us to be honorary ones), we couldn’t be prouder of who we are and where we come from. We are indeed, the mighty, mighty Bonackers. If there’s anyone from the Class of ’76 who hasn’t received an invitation to our event on Oct. 17, we can be reached at [email protected].
Looking forward to celebrating 50 years with lifelong friends.
BETTY RICE
JUDITH MARKOWITZ
Co-chairwomen
East Hampton High School Class of ’76 Reunion Committee
A Community
Sag Harbor
September 2, 2026
To the Editor,
Guild Hall has been an important cultural institution in East Hampton for nearly a century. On that, surely, we can all agree. But at a moment when its value to our community is being publicly questioned, I think it is worth having a more honest conversation about what it actually means for a cultural institution to serve a community. A community is not one constituency, one profession, one interest group, or one individual claiming to speak on everyone’s behalf. It is all of us.
For generations, Guild Hall has brought extraordinary art, theater, music, film, conversation, education, and cultural experiences to East Hampton. It has given artists a place to exhibit and perform, audiences a place to gather, children and adults opportunities to learn, and our community something increasingly rare: a shared cultural home.
That is not incidental to community engagement. That is community engagement.
And maintaining such an institution requires more than good intentions. It requires vision, fund-raising, stewardship, programming, preservation, administration, and the ability to keep a nearly century-old institution relevant to new generations.
Under the leadership of Andrea Grover, Guild Hall has done precisely that. She has approached her role with intelligence, imagination, professionalism, and a deep understanding of both Guild Hall’s history and its future. The renovation of Guild Hall should not be characterized as money spent merely to improve its own facilities, as though the building existed for the benefit of the institution itself. Guild Hall is a nonprofit. Its galleries, theater, classrooms, grounds, programs, and public spaces are the investment in the community.
When millions of dollars are raised to preserve and renew a cultural institution that belongs to no private owner and exists for public benefit, that is not money being taken away from the community. It is money being invested in something the community will inherit.
Of course, Guild Hall can do more; every worthwhile institution can. Every museum can mount another exhibition. Every theater can present another artist. Every school can offer another program. Every nonprofit can find another worthy person or project to support.
But “How much more could it be doing?” is an easy question to ask when someone else bears the responsibility for raising the money, maintaining the institution, balancing competing needs, and ensuring that it will still be here decades from now. A better question might be: What would East Hampton be without Guild Hall?
What would our community have lost over nearly 100 years without the exhibitions, performances, lectures, artists, students, teachers, audiences, conversations, friendships, and memories that have passed through its doors?
Local artists are enormously important to the cultural identity of the East End. So are writers, musicians, actors, educators, galleries, small businesses, families, seniors citizens, young people, longtime residents, and visitors. No single group owns the word “community,” and no individual has been elected to speak for all of us.
Guild Hall does not merely grow within this community. Its history is intertwined with the history of East Hampton itself. It has grown with this community for almost a century.
Constructive criticism is healthy. Cultural institutions should be questioned, challenged, and encouraged to evolve. But there is a difference between constructive criticism and repeatedly measuring a public institution according to how much it advances one particular constituency or agenda.
I, for one, am grateful for Guild Hall. I am grateful to the donors, volunteers, artists, staff members, trustees, audiences, and community members who have sustained it for generations. And I am grateful for Andrea Grover’s leadership and for the enormous amount of work required to preserve this institution while continuing to move it forward.
Guild Hall does not need to prove that it contributes to East Hampton. One need only look at what East Hampton has received from Guild Hall for nearly a century.
NADIA ERNESTUS
90 Days
Lazy Point
September 4, 2026
Dear David,
I am writing in response to “90 Days to Issue a Building Permit, or It’s Denied.”
The idea that, if a permit is not issued, the application is deemed denied seems unfair. The Building Department could ignore an application and then the applicant would be forced to apply to the zoning board or state court for action.
The default outcome should be the permit is approved if the Building Department hasn’t reviewed it on time.
RICH MOREY
Extreme Weather
East Hampton
September 1, 2026
Dear Editor:
“Hundreds feared dead in devastating Nepal flood” is the latest in what seem to be almost-daily reports of severe climate events. Climate change is increasing the likelihood and severity of many extreme weather events, underscoring the need for much stronger preventive action.
Animal agriculture is a major contributor to climate change, an existential global threat. Cattle emit large quantities of methane, a particularly potent greenhouse gas, while enormous amounts of land are devoted to grazing and growing animal feed. Reducing consumption of animal products would enable significant reforestation. The increase in carbon-absorbing trees would reduce the current hazardous level of atmospheric carbon dioxide to a much safer level.
It’s time for action.
ELIJAH HANNESBURG
Recognizing Woodlands
East Hampton
September 7, 2026
Dear David,
East Hampton continues to grow, and, as it does, we will need adequate infrastructure to support the change. The Springs Library parking lot discussion provides a good opportunity to step back and think about just what counts as infrastructure. We don’t ordinarily think of trees as infrastructure, but that’s exactly what they are. They provide invaluable natural services.
First, we need to understand that they are not “just” trees. They are woven into an unimaginably complex above and below-ground “machinery” that cycles and recycles energy from the sun throughout our ecosystems. They work day and night with soil organisms to deliver services we cannot live without but barely consider.
A spoonful of soil can contain miles of tiny mycelial hyphae and millions of soil biota. Even small, second-growth woodland systems working with fungal networks filter our water, recycle nutrients, build soil, sequester carbon, and control runoff, just to mention a handful of services.
I should add that dead trees, like fallen leaves, are an important and necessary part of this system. They keep contributing as they decay. In nature, nothing is wasted.
Across the Northeast, our forests, these remarkable engines of life, are threatened. Two of the biggest culprits are deer and humans. Our burgeoning deer population is eating the forest understory, destroying its capacity to regenerate new trees. And humans, well, we just keep cutting down trees. We can’t seem to stop.
Even a thoughtfully designed parking lot with replacement trees cannot provide the combined services of a woodland ecosystem. It would be far preferable to find an alternative solution for the parking problem, especially when ample parking already exists at the nearby Springs School.
Recognizing woodlands as infrastructure, we should understand that as East Hampton grows, we need to do everything possible to preserve what’s left of them. They are the underrecognized infrastructure we need to keep our water, air, and soil healthy.
LEN GREEN
A Harder Look
Springs
September 7, 2026
To the Editor:
The town board’s plan for a 35-space parking lot behind the Springs Library, near Pussy’s Pond, deserves a harder look before it moves forward.
The proposed parking lot sits in a harbor protection overlay district, where clearing is capped at 50 percent of the site. According to the engineer’s drawings, the current plan clears 81 percent.
The town has spent years restoring the water quality in this impaired pond — removing nonnative vegetation like phragmites, replacing it with native vegetation, installing a permeable reactive nitrogen barrier, monitoring wells, installing a bioswale, and other stormwater runoff mitigation controls. A parking lot this size risks undoing that work.
Although described as a “gravel” lot, we know the creation of the parking lot requires excavation, removal of trees, roots, and topsoil, all for the creation of a base layer to withstand the weight of vehicles. The base layer, often crusher run, or road base, is designed to pack tight for stability, which cuts its hydraulic conductivity way down. The gravel on top drains better, but the base underneath becomes the bottleneck. The more it’s driven on, the more compacted it can get. So over all, a gravel lot is still more permeable than asphalt, but not nearly as much as in raw gravel would suggest.
The parking lot is upland of the pond, and this gradient will be a factor to consider in managing the conditions for increased stormwater runoff and sediment intrusion. The stormwater containment measures still aren’t identified, and no alternative sites appear to have been studied.
The stated need is event parking for the Springs “triangle,” including Ashawagh Hall. Ashwagh Hall has a rated capacity for 150 people. Yet on a recent day this summer, over 125 cars were counted parked in the roadside before the counting was stopped.
Ashawagh Hall may have outgrown its space. The hall is a historic community center — the old schoolhouse at the corner of Springs-Fireplace Road and Old Stone Highway — and its calendar is packed: the farmers market, the Springs Invitational, author talks, classes, meetings. The proposed parking lot would provide 35 spaces, which won’t keep pace with that growth, and removing more of the woods behind the library is a poor and partial answer to a parking problem that the hall itself may have already outgrown.
There are alternatives to this parking lot. I think it’s time we look at the options. The town can protect the pond and find a parking solution that matches the community’s real needs today.
Thank you,
PATRICE DALTON
On the Table?
Wainscott
August 31, 2026
Dear David,
The end of the summer season has only increased the air assault for thousands of local and hundreds of thousands of regional residents. Air traffic is up once again. At our recent Wainscott citizens meeting, in response to a bevy of folks’ complaints and endless frustration, Cate Rogers said, “Closure is not off the table.” Well, it certainly doesn’t appear to be “on” the table. Kathee Burke-Gonzalez calls it “the nuclear option,” indicating how she perceives what I call the wildflower option.
During this past Sunday afternoon and evening (and Monday morning starting before 7), helicopters in various flight “patterns” came and went incessantly for hours. Often they were 20 or 30 seconds apart. They flew at altitudes from 200 to 1,500 feet, most came in and departed on low, reckless glide paths refusing to fly higher and spiral down as they are “asked” to. Sometimes a seaplane blasted through on yet another crisscrossing flight “pattern.” Oh, and there were jets too, of course.
We know the airport offers no economic benefit to all but a few members of this community. We know that tourism is a non-factor. We know the impact of destructive emissions, including lead from avgas still being sold at our airport (huh?).
We know the PFAS contamination already in the aquifer is linked directly to airport activities. There are ongoing safety issues, with another new incident (collision of jets on the tarmac). We don’t need a giant airport to medevac anyone. And the New York State Constitution Article 1, Section 19, guarantees, “Each person shall have a right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.” Yet our Democratic town leaders, self-proclaimed environmentalists (living nowhere near a flight path), do nothing regarding the largest environmental disaster in our midst.
BARRY RAEBECK
Toads
Montauk
September 7, 2026
Editor,
Montauk is changing rapidly. All the box turtles, snapping turtles, red ear sliders, toads, and frogs have been run over and squashed by toads in Range Rovers.
Happy Labor Day,
GEORGE WATSON
Call to Action
Montauk
September 7, 2026
To the Editor,
As virtually every member of our Montauk community knows, there is a commercial building under construction on Main Street that will be a prominent stain on the appearance of, and the quality of life in, our village. It is totally inconsistent with the scale and look of our town. It has been represented by its developer to be one thing, when even a casual look reveals that it is something very different. It is being built to accommodate many more patrons than it should, who will arrive in many more cars than we can handle, and it will place many more people in a small portion of downtown than it is intended to have.
As a lifelong citizen of our precious hamlet, I am writing with a call to action. Sadly, the officials we have elected and selected to protect our interests are not doing that. So, I am calling on our community to do what Americans do when they are not being heard, and when the system is not doing its job. We exercise our right to compel those in power to do the right thing. If one branch of the government is not responsive, we seek relief from another branch.
I call on our community — and particularly on our many able lawyers — to help us, to petition the courts to intervene before it is too late. Our town officials apparently do not plan to hold a public hearing about this building until the construction is essentially complete. We all know how that will turn out. We need to ask the court — now — to step in to protect our community, to require the developer and the town to comply with all applicable laws.
For the love of Montauk,
B.J. WILSON
Wish It Well
East Bay, Calif.
September 3, 2026
Good morning, David,
Simple pleasures and staying in touch please me. Reading your paper first thing, since I am three hours behind you, is just that, a pleasure. And it keeps me abreast of the goings-on in a town I lived in for 38 years.
I read Pat Hope’s letter first. We’re old friends, and she is a top-notch scientist who knows the deer tick. She has been studying them for years. I pay attention when she talks about ticks. I don’t miss worrying about getting bit anymore, that’s for sure. Been there. Didn’t get the alpha-gal, thankfully.
I would like to get it on record that I’m awfully tired of hearing that East Hampton Town doesn’t care about Montauk. “This would never happen in East Hampton.” Oh boy, I could tell you a whopper of truth but I’ll leave it at three words: sole-source aquifer.
We who lived and worked in East Hampton for years were fighting (still are) the sand-mining pit that should have been closed long ago. Read up on it.
Anyway, we love Montauk and wish it well in its fight against buildings that don’t belong there and quality of life. From what I read, someone who knows a thing or two about rules and regulations is on the job. Have faith. The bastards don’t always win. My mom told us that.
Speaking of moms and dads, Baylis’s column “The Short Goodbye” was touching. Such a good dad. It’s been decades since we said goodbye to college-leaving sons. It can break your heart. And yet they surely grow up and surprise you greatly. Anyway, chin up, Baylis, she’ll be back home for Christmas.
Bess’s The Shipwreck Rose’s “Curtain Call” was my literal jam this week. I read it at breakfast. “Raised by wolves . . .” — I love that line. A child of the 1960s and ’70s, I relate. We lived on those old black-and-white movies. We could and did watch for hours. My mom loved the darker ones with Bette Davis. But Gene Tierney, a fellow redhead like Mom, was her absolute favorite. Of course we saw “Laura.”
My personal favorite, as I aspired to write even as a girl reading the Brenda Starr comic strip in The Daily News, was Helene Hanff in “84 Charing Cross Road,” played by Anne Bancroft. A struggling writer in a bedsit in New York City communicating with London seemed not only romantic but the best job. Judi Dench and Anthony Hopkins round out the cast. I must watch it again soon. Bess’s column took me back in a good way, wolves and all, so thanks.
Wishing Montauk and East Hampton and Sag, too, my other love out there, my best. One may leave a place bodily but the heart remains.
Lovingly,
NANCI LAGARENNE
Connect the Dots
East Hampton
September 7, 2026
To the Editor,
In 1879 George Pullman, founder of the Pullman Palace Sleeping Car Company, purchased 4,000 acres outside of Chicago. The land, which would become Pullman, Ill., would be the location of the nation’s first “model” community — a sort of company town on steroids in which the business provided, and thus controlled, every aspect of its resident-workers’ lives from groceries to schools.
Alcohol was banned, and church attendance made mandatory. Rents and fees were directly debited from the workers’ pay. Pullman, a moral crusader, sought to improve living conditions while simultaneously tightening the noose of control over every aspect of their lives.
When a nationwide recession beset the country in 1893, Pullman, worth $20 million at that time, slashed pay while leaving rents and fees untouched. The events that followed included a national strike, violent army crackdown, and, eventually, the creation of Labor Day as token recognition of what occurred. There is no straight line connecting 19th-century Illinois and East Hampton today, but our well-intentioned town board might be trying to connect the dots.
Initiatives to provide affordable housing by incentivizing employer-owned apartments repeats Pullman’s mistake of tying the basic need of housing to the whims of an employer. Recent proposals double down on this mind-set, treating workers as transient resources worthy of basic human rights only when safely within the good graces of their bosses. Under this arrangement, it is easy to imagine the coercion employers would be able to exert over their workers. Would you be able to say no to an extra shift, a pay cut, or a schedule change when the consequence just might be losing your home?
Public funds should not be used to facilitate a return to unregulated 19th-century industrialism. The goal of any affordable housing plan needs to advance the goal of providing stable homes for families to grow — regardless of by whom their paychecks might be signed.
STEVE NADRAMIA
Solves Only Part
Columbus, Ohio
September 5, 2026
To the Editor,
East Hampton is debating how to keep essential workers in the community. The Star reported on Aug. 13 that an employer-sponsored housing proposal was moving toward a September vote. The town has also heard plans aimed at teachers, health workers, municipal employees, and local business staff.
Keeping workers nearby solves only part of the talent problem. Stanford’s Aug. 12 “Payroll Update” found employment among United States workers ages 22 to 25 in highly A.I.-exposed occupations about 19 percent below the pace of less-exposed peers, with reduced hiring driving much of the gap.
Local employers should use A.I. to remove repetitive preparation, then give younger workers more responsibility for checking results, handling exceptions, and explaining decisions under supervision.
A community that works this hard to retain employees should also protect the path by which beginners become experienced professionals.
GLEB TSIPURSKY
Employee Housing
East Hampton
September 4, 2026
Dear David,
I want to point out some inaccuracies in last week’s letter from Lorraine Bonaventura and Mary Waserstein. Both refer to the upcoming plan for the Calvary Baptist Church and affordable housing in general. To begin with, I agree with both that the town needs as many tools as we can create to combat the crisis the lack of affordable housing poses for East Hampton.
As an example, at last night’s town board meeting a new code was approved that gives business a chance to build employee housing on their sites. It is a limited program: You have to own the property, it has to have enough space to accommodate housing, it has to provide the usual septic and parking safeguards, as any new development requires, and it has to make economic sense to the business owner. Still, I’m sure it will help some local businesses.
The same with accessory units. There are folks here who can choose to add them to their homes and provide space for themselves or an affordable tenant or relative. Again, consideration of lot size, construction cost, and planning and legal fees all bear into the decision, but there are applications on the way, so that’s a good thing, too.
Soon I hope to see the board pass the new, rent-restricted code for work-force housing. Again, it is a limited program that to this date applies to only a few parcels. And it has stringent regulations about how the units are used, how employers have to guarantee their employees’ tenant rights, how rents have to fall into the town’s own affordable costs.
Taken together, these three codes open some doors for affordable and work-force housing. But given the hundreds of people here who cannot afford to lease or own a home, it is not enough.
That’s why the existing town code for affordable housing remains the single biggest tool we have to add affordable units. A code we will apply to the new Calvary Baptist project; our plans will be available in two weeks, and I look forward to sharing them with the town and the public.
As to the specifics of both Mary and Lorraine’s questions. Density: The town code has been amended to allow 12 units per acre for affordable housing projects. This simply brings the town code into conformity with current Suffolk County Health Department requirements for projects like these. That standard of 12 per acre is now town code for all work-force, affordable, and senior citizen projects. So, 350 is not an exception; we simply are the first. Calvary will be the second.
To achieve that density, you must install a state-of-the-art septic system, identical to the ones the town uses at the Gansett Green and Gardiner’s Green projects. It is a $2 million investment that is unmatched for protecting the community and groundwater.
Investors: I have said this 10 times if I said it once, my only investor in 350 Pantigo is a Montauk businessman with roots that go back to the 1940s. His family owns a number of local businesses and as such knows that housing for businesses is one of the most crucial issues we can tackle if we are going to maintain our business base. He has served on numerous public committees, is often asked to comment on Montauk-wide issues, and is one of the brightest, most community focused people in that hamlet. If he chooses to remain anonymous, that’s his privilege.
As for Calvary, I have no investor. A local bank has agreed to fund the project from construction loan to finish after we have obtained the proper permits.
Experience: I spent 15 years as an East Hampton real estate broker, from 1980 to 1995. My specialty was land, buying it, selling it, and developing it. As such, I had to know the zoning code cold, have an inventory of land that was available, and match projects to people. I also worked with my father to develop oceanfront co-ops in Amagansett and Montauk, including the Ocean Dunes, Driftwood, East Hampton House, Atlantic Terrace, and Port Royal. Again, I had to know everything from local zoning to state law to do that. All of this I bring to the plate for the projects I choose to do.
Construction: Our units will be modular, and we have engaged the fourth-largest manufacturer in America. My general contractor is Montauk-based. With 30-years’ experience he is called whenever a big job needs to be done. That includes rebuilding the Montauk Yacht Club twice, overhauling the first Gurney’s Inn, then the Panoramic View, then the health spa at Gurney’s, and again, another makeover for Gurney’s. This fall he will be back at the Yacht Club, where a $40 million renovation will need to be done by spring. And if anyone can do it, he can and will. We are lucky to have someone with his background on the team.
Costs: Our units cost roughly $600,000 to $700,000 to build, based on today’s costs. Given the uncertainty of increases in materials (50 percent tariff on Canadian timber) and labor, we hope that number holds true for the next 18 months, when we hope to start. Given that, we expect to sell these units for far less than the $1.2 million to $1.5 million Lorraine mentions.
Small Business: Right now, small businesses have three choices for employee housing. Offer none and see if you can hire anyone; buy a run-down ranch in Springs for $1.2 million, fix it up, and play landlord, or pay $6,000 to $8,000 a month to rent a house. We will offer them a fourth option: Buy a unit at far less than market price, leave the landlording to a professional management company, and ensure the continued success of your business.
Schools: I had hoped the local school district could buy units for their staff. They cannot. So, we will offer that chance directly to teachers, medical staff, police, municipal workers at the Calvary Baptist project, which is soon to be announced.
Town Housing Fund: The town has been collecting a half-percent tax on all sales here to fund its own projects. To date, that fund has been used sparingly. And, like both Mary and Lorraine, I think it should be used more liberally. How that is done, where it is done, are issues I am sure the town board and Housing Office are working on.
I know, a long letter. But I want everyone to know exactly what we are doing and how we are going to do it; 350 will offer dozens of local businesses a chance to survive. I am extremely proud of that and look forward to continuing this work at the Calvary Baptist Church. There all our units will be affordable units for sale directly to local teachers, police, health care, municipal workers, and anyone who needs a roof over their heads.
KIRBY MARCANTONIO
Stark Overreach
Amagansett
September 4, 2026
Dear David,
The recent restrictions placed on public discourse and individual expression within our community at a Wainscott citizens advisory committee meeting are deeply concerning and fundamentally undemocratic.
A thriving democracy relies entirely on the open exchange of ideas, yet the silencing of expert diverse perspectives threatens the very core of our civic life. It is especially disconcerting when that voice of restriction is that of Councilwoman Cate Rogers. As the town board liaison, her role should be to facilitate, not stifle, the flow of critical information to the public.
The decision to rescind the invitation of Si Kinsella, a knowledgeable resident, to present vital data on PFAS groundwater contamination at a recent citizens advisory committee meeting is a stark example of this overreach. When leadership actively keeps community members in the dark about critical public health and environmental concerns, it severely undermines the principles of representation and mutual accountability. True democratic governing requires us to listen to uncomfortable truths and dissenting opinions, not just the ideas that are convenient, curated, or widely agreed upon by those in power.
Shutting down debate does not create harmony; it merely breeds resentment and alienates the public from the institutions meant to serve them.
RONA KLOPMAN
Barred From Talk
Amagansett
September 4, 2026
To the Editor:
Christopher Walsh’s article “Barred From a PFAS Talk” (Sept. 3) describes a very basic and obvious violation of Si Kinsella’s First Amendment rights, with Cate Rogers obliviously confessing to it: “I want to ensure that the information you all are receiving on this is based on the investigation, those involved in the investigation, and those with the testing results.”
Social media, Mr. Walsh quotes her as continuing, is full of “theories, a lot of unscientific information. and it’s an incredibly false and unhelpful conversation.” Ms. Rogers, can you say “viewpoint discrimination”? It would be a really great idea for the town board to go for some basic First Amendment training.
Some other nuances here: Cate Rogers is, in a not very disguised way, calling Si a liar. This smacks of another constitutional doctrine I suggest Ms. Rogers look up: First Amendment retaliation. Si has been a voice in the wilderness on PFAS and a gadfly to the town board for years.
Last but not least, what is the purpose of hamlet advisory committees if the town board liaisons ruthlessly manage what advice they can hear from their constituents?
And also, I feel the need to add, shame on Hersey Egginton for obediently disinviting Si.
For democracy in East Hampton,
JONATHAN WALLACE
Still a Snake
Amagansett
September 4, 2026
To the Editor,
To quote “The Da Vinci Code,” as it plays on the television in the background. Robert Langdon: “This is the original icon for male. It’s a rudimentary phallus. This is known as the blade. It represents aggression and manhood. It’s a symbol still used today in modern military uniform.”
Sir Leigh Teabing: “Yes, the more penises you have, the higher your rank. Boys will be boys.”
Always remember: Feed a snake. Love a snake. Respect a snake. Pray for a snake. Doesn’t matter, it’s still going to bite you. No matter how much a snake sheds its skin, it’s still a snake.
We can only hope teachers and staff have an amazing school year. To them: Remember, you are a part of your students’ stories. If you have belief and encouragement in them, that can become the foundation of their self-esteem. Every moment matters.
In my humble opinion, some have certainly gone astray. But on to greener pastures. What’s up, Timmy Fromm? I remember you said you don’t want your name in the paper. Why exactly is that again?
Still here,
JOE KARPINSKI
Every Vote Counts
East Hampton
September 3, 2026
Dear Mr. Rattray,
In 2020, the Republican candidate for chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court beat his Democratic opponent by 401 votes out of 5.4 million cast.
In 2024, the Republican majority on the court led by the chief justice approved a gerrymandering bill that eventually sent 10 Republicans and four Democrats to the House. In the past, North Carolina had sent seven Republicans and seven Democrats to the House, reflecting its 50-50 partisan makeup.
You’re probably wondering what does a local election in North Carolina have to do with New York or the rest of the country? Everything! Sending the 10 Republicans from North Carolina to the House in 2024 gave their party the majority. Mike Johnson was elected speaker, and Donald Trump’s agenda was set in motion.
If North Carolina’s Supreme Court had not ruled the gerrymandering bill legal, the state would have probably sent seven Democrats to the House, giving them the majority by one seat. Think about it: 401 votes, or less than .01 percent of the North Carolina ballots cast in 2020, were responsible for a Republican becoming chief justice and setting in motion a sequence of events that led to a Republican majority, first in the North Carolina Supreme Court and then in the United States House of Representatives.
This North Carolina election proves that every vote counts.
If you think Chris Gallant has an uphill battle against Nick LaLota, you’re right. Just check their campaign war chests. If you think Chris Gallant does not have a chance of winning, you’re wrong. All it will take may be your vote.
SALVATORE TOCCI
Forgot to Mention
East Hampton
September 3, 2026
To the Editor,
Representative Nick LaLota sent constituents a letter on Sept. 2 boasting that he helped secure increased Lyme disease funding, including a $1 million increase for Lyme research and $5 million for the LymeX Innovation Accelerator. Good. We desperately need it.
What Mr. LaLota somehow forgot to mention is that the Trump administration is proposing to cut roughly $5 billion from the National Institutes of Health. That omission is breathtaking.
Mr. LaLota wants East End voters to applaud a few million dollars for tick-borne disease programs while the administration he supports proposes taking billions out of American medical research. He calls this, “fighting for the federal resources needed to protect East End families.” I call it gaslighting.
If Mr. LaLota really believes federal medical research matters, there is a very simple question he should answer: Will he publicly oppose Trump’s $5 billion National Institutes of Health cut?
You cannot pose with researchers at Stony Brook, boast about millions for Lyme research, and remain silent while the administration guts medical research on a vastly larger scale.
Either fight for medical research or don’t. But please don’t insult our intelligence.
ANDREW VAN PRAAG
Terrible Waste
Springs
September 4, 2026
Dear David,
I escaped Nazi Germany as a child with my mother and grandparents; my father was in a Nazi concentration camp.
I cannot stay silent in the face of Hamas brutality, but does that justify genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank today?
Six million Jews were slaughtered in the Holocaust. What a terrible waste.
Have we learned nothing?
PETER GAMBY
My Small Part
Montauk
September 7, 2026
To the Editor:
I recently returned from another monthlong trip to Palestine to teach and advise documentary filmmakers. I also volunteered for a month in 2024 for the same purpose. These trips were my own idea and completely financed and organized by me. I went alone, lived in a Palestinian-owned apartment, taught at a Palestinian-owned education center, and fully immersed myself in the Palestinian way of life.
I organized two teams of filmmakers: One, made up of an advanced group from my 2024 students, and the second consisting of new students. Almost all were in college or recent college graduates.
The advanced group produced a powerful, 10-minute documentary about childhood trauma in Palestine, where the acronym P.T.S.D. is no longer used because the trauma is never ending. The second engaging film is a seven-minute exploration of the true nature of Palestinians, as opposed to the stereotypes manufactured by American media (especially cinema) and politicians for over a century.
I came home incredibly fulfilled having done my small part in making the world a better place, but I was faced with a disturbing dilemma. The natural tendency of any filmmaker is to get their documentary seen by as many people as possible. But that is not true in Palestine where it can be life-threatening.
Given Israel’s reputation, and that of its supporters, for viciously and disproportionately punishing anyone who criticizes them, it can be dangerous to create media that portrays Palestinians in a favorable light or exposes their genocidal actions, particularly if you live in Palestine.
Oppressed people want to be heard, yet when Palestinians choose peaceful forms of expression, they risk their lives and the lives of their families. This was shockingly demonstrated after the 2024 Palestinian film “No Other Land” won the Academy Award for best documentary. It tells the story of a Palestinian village in the West Bank that is slowly being wiped off the map by Israel’s illegal occupation and new settlements.
After winning the Oscar, its Palestinian creators and community contributors faced a severe wave of violent settler attacks, military raids, and arrests.
On March 24, 2025, Hamdan Ballal, the Academy Award-winning co-director, was attacked by armed settlers, beaten, and then detained and further injured by the Israeli military.
On July 28, 2025, Awdah Hathaleen, an activist who contributed to the film, was shot and killed by an Israeli settler named Yinon Levy. The Israeli military withheld Hathaleen’s body for 10 days before allowing a restricted funeral. A detailed report on the killing was later aired by Democracy Now.
On Feb. 15 Ballal’s family home in Susya was attacked again by settlers and raided by soldiers. Ballal’s brother was hospitalized as a consequence, and several members of the family were arrested.
I’m sure that some readers will wonder why they were unaware of all this. It’s because American media is being controlled by the same forces that silence the voices of young Palestinians. Israel and its supporters have suppressed U.S. campus protests; routinely threaten members of Congress through AIPAC, a powerful American, pro-Israel lobbying group that frequently unseats politicians sympathetic to Palestine; and completely controls the Middle East narrative in mainstream American media.
Unrelated to the Oscar-winning film, my teaching assistant’s father was imprisoned for 11 months because he re-posted a nonviolent internet meme. He was released just before my arrival, having lost 50 percent of his weight.
The prospect of being incarcerated in an Israeli prison evokes extreme fear among Palestinians and for good reason. They know what happens there. The Israeli human rights organization, B’Tselem, published a report in 2025 which is titled, “Welcome to Hell: The Israeli Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps.” The executive summary states, “Frequent acts of severe, arbitrary violence; sexual assault; humiliation and degradation, deliberate starvation; forced unhygienic conditions; sleep deprivation, prohibition on, and punitive measures for, religious worship; confiscation of all communal and personal belongings; and denial of adequate medical treatment — these descriptions appear time and again in the testimonies, in horrifying detail and with chilling similarities.”
If Israelis and their state-sponsored settlers are brazen enough to harm and kill Academy Award winners, what can a few young Palestinian documentarians expect?
I want to feature their work and tell the world what’s really going on in Palestine, but the more viewers the documentaries attract, the higher the risk that these young Palestinians will be harmed or killed. It’s deeply troubling that peaceful Palestinians expressing themselves can die as violently as if they were on a battlefield.
I once called Palestinians “beautiful people” in this newspaper back in 2024, and I stand by that characterization with even more conviction.
They suffer, but the vast majority do not hate. They still cling to their land and their culture when little is left. They lose everything but persevere. And they somehow find joy in the midst of indescribable horrors. So, wouldn’t the world be better served by learning from them, rather than trying to exterminate them?
JEFF GEWERT
Inconvenient Actions
East Hampton
September 1, 2026
To the Editor,
I recently reread Tom Perrotta’s novel “The Leftovers,” published in 2011. For those who haven’t read it or could use a reminder, the Rapture occurs, and a vast number of people worldwide simply vanish in a single moment into thin air. (Not everyone who disappears is particularly good or saintlike, which adds to the confusion.)
Of those who remain, some attempt to go on as if nothing much has occurred. They continue to have pleasant dinners out at a nice restaurant, a beer with the guys, the weekly manicure. But there is also a group that forms, called the Guilty Remnant. And the Guilty Remnant wants people to remember that something is very wrong. In fact, through disruptive and intrusive behavior, they insist on it.
I was thinking of “The Leftovers” when I was a witness to the social action that occurred at Lulu in Sag Harbor on July 5. The activists, including East End for Peace and Justice, are a group of people saying, “Wake up!”
Wake up: More than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed since Oct. 2023, with the United Nations verifying that more than 21,000 of those killed were children, with many more Palestinians missing, injured, or maimed.
Nothing excuses what Hamas did on Oct. 7, 2023, the 1,200 killed and hundreds kidnapped, the terrible trauma suffered by the families and loved ones, as well as the trauma of the entire country. But also, nothing excuses the brutal response of Netanyahu’s government. Many Jewish groups have acknowledged that Netanyahu’s government has been and is committing genocide, including B’tselem, Jewish Voice for Peace, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, and IfNotNow. The July 5 action was one in a long line of civil disobedience, this time aimed at increasing attention to the fact that the genocide continues to this day.
Remember, regarding civil disobedience: Abolitionists were upsetting slave owners since the late 1600s. Civil rights activists in the 1960s inconvenienced and upset people who supported segregation (including those out for a meal at white-only diners). Gandhi’s sit-ins were highly disruptive to people attempting to go about their daily lives. Anti-Apartheid activists in South Africa deeply upset those wishing to maintain the status quo. And all those inconvenient, disruptive actions helped lead to some measure of human rights redress.
East End Peace and Justice clearly state that their overarching goal is peace and justice. For all people, everywhere. Their efforts to achieve this should be appreciated and applauded.
GINNY ST. JOHN