Around the House
Montauk
August 26, 2026
Dear David,
As a senior citizen, there are chores around the house that become more difficult each year. Removing the heavy winter storm door, putting up a new flag holder, or hanging a new flower basket are simple tasks that have become dangerous and tricky. Hiring someone to help becomes more difficult and expensive each year.
There is a solution. If you live in the Town of East Hampton, call 631-329-6939, extension 7209. Liliana Rodriguez will quickly arrange for Tom, the handyman, to help. She will ask what you want done. No, they will not paint the house or replace your home’s roof.
Your taxes pay for their help. All you have to do is ask.
Thanks,
DAN BRIGANTI
Stronger Together
Amagansett
August 23, 2026
Dear David,
I’m writing in my capacity as a member and co-chairwoman of the Town of East Hampton’s Latino Advisory Committee. On Aug. 16, we held our first annual picnic where 120 community members of all ages came together at Maidstone Park for a wonderful afternoon of food, music, conversation, and community. The picnic was the brainchild of Jazmin Leon of the committee and was organized by Kathy Byrnes, Diana Rivera, Susan Retzky, and Alyson Follenius.
As Yesenia Quichimbo, my co-chairwoman, said in her welcoming remarks, “the L.A.C. is a space created for our community to speak, be heard, and help shape the future of our town. Cultural and linguistic representation at the town level is one of the most natural and powerful steps toward true inclusion. When our language, our stories, and our experiences are welcomed, we build a stronger, more whole community for everyone.”
The committee is grateful to Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez and the entire town board for their unanimous support in establishing this committee and, most recently, for passing the Public Safety and Accountability Law. We also thank the East Hampton Town Police Department for participating and collaborating with our committee, and the sponsors whose generosity made the picnic possible.
The Latino advisory committee exists to serve as a structured, nonpartisan advisory body that elevates Latino voices within the Town of East Hampton and ensures those voices are meaningfully considered in local decision making. The L.A.C. seeks to support policies and practices that strengthen the Town of East Hampton as a whole, recognizing diversity as a source of resilience, stability, and shared growth.
Our members are Louise Bergerson, Loring Bolger, Kathy Byrnes, Daniela Chavez, Priscila Dominguez, Alyson Follenius, Erika Garcia, Angel Labanda, Jazmin Leon, Jon Lopez, Rosa Lourenco, Valeria Marin, Katherine Mitchell, Ms. Quichimbo, Susan Retzky, Juan Roldan, Johanna Sanchez, Kenny Sanchez, myself, Larry Smith, Alicia Sullivan and Nicole Velez. Our guiding principle is that we are always stronger together, and we look forward to many more opportunities to build community with our neighbors.
The L.A.C. holds meetings on the first Saturday of each month at 8 a.m. at the East Hampton Town Senior Center.
We are one community. Somos una comunidad.
ANNA SKRENTA
Heads in the Sand
East Hampton Village
August 31, 2026
David,
I read with interest The Star’s editorial and coverage of the Aug. 21 board of trustees meeting. The discussion may have alerted some residents to the civil rights implications of Flock cameras, but these concerns are not new.
Flock cameras are not merely license-plate readers. They can contribute to a searchable, networked database capable of reconstructing a vehicle’s location history.
The Village of East Hampton began its broad deployment in December 2024, when the village board accepted 10 Flock Safety cameras. By April 2025, cameras had been installed at entrances to the village. This happened publicly, more than a year ago, with little apparent attention or concern from the community.
We cannot afford to keep our heads in the sand while surveillance systems are put in place. Residents need not attend every meeting, but they should follow village board proceedings, ask questions, and understand the implications of decisions being made in their name.
The East Hampton Star also has an important role. Reporting what officials approve is not always enough; readers need context and perspective to understand the board’s decisions and how they may affect their rights and their lives.
Public attention should come before — not after — these systems are installed.
DAVID GANZ
Not ‘at Large’
Montauk
August 29, 2026
To the Editor,
I am a longtime and very satisfied subscriber, and I look forward to each week’s issue of The Star. However, a story in the “Police & Courts” section of the Aug. 27 issue caught me up a bit short with its somewhat jarring language. “Alleged Dealers at Large,” by Leigh Goodstein, reported the arrest of two men over two months ago and their pending prosecution on relatively minor drug and vehicular charges.
The phrase “at large” carries a connotation of dangerous criminals on the lam attempting to elude law enforcement. The facts as reported do not support that implication. The two men were arrested and arraigned in court on nonviolent charges for which bail is not required and were given future court dates to appear for prosecution. They are not “at large.”
It’s also worth noting that these alleged “drug dealers” were caught with a little over three and a half grams of cocaine. Scarface they are not. But, perhaps coincidentally, they do share a common characteristic with that Al Pacino character — they have names that indicate a Hispanic heritage.
The style and the wording of this two-month-old story evoked the “draw your curtains and lock your doors” tabloid reporting of The New York Post. The East Hampton Star is usually much better than that.
Thank you for hearing me out.
EDWARD MCGOWAN
Hurtful, Hateful
East Hampton
August 31, 2026
Dear David,
Many thanks to Christopher Gangemi for his excellent investigative reporting in his Aug. 28 Star article (“Banner Meant to Stir People Up Did Just That”), concerning the anti-Islam banner flown by a Cessna 150L aircraft over Montauk on Aug. 25. Flown out of Westerly State Airport in Rhode Island, the plane was registered to Mark Simmons, owner and operator of Banner Tow U.S.A. It flew with the banner reading, “Islam is Terror.”
Mr. Simmons is quoted as saying: “I’m just a facilitator of a message. I do not take a political stand.”
He goes on to decry the fact that “people can’t have a dialogue anymore. More talking needs to happen and we need more communication between people who don’t get along. That’s how I feel as a person and it’s not the message you might see in the sky.”
He declined to say if he was the pilot, wouldn’t confirm whether or not he sent the plane, denied the message on the banner was hate speech, explained his First Amendment rights, and showed no recognition that putting the banner in the air was wrong.
He says he compartmentalizes his business from his personal beliefs.
“If people want to pay, he’ll tow.”
Simmons’s company was established in 1985 and operates as a division of Simmons Aviation Services L.L.C., which he owns. According to the National Transportation Safety board, his company has been linked to several non-fatal emergency landings and water ditchings in Rhode Island over the years.
Mr. Simmons’s rhetoric is full of rationalizations and denials. He says we need to have a dialogue in the country, yet he chooses to fly banners that hurt, infuriate, and feed biases, which makes civil dialogue for those who disagree with each other even more difficult.
He wants us to believe he’s neutral and innocent and just following good market and business practices, yet he is making political and economic choices and taking political stances based on who can pay for his services. Is there a banner he wouldn’t put up if the price was right?
He’s a great example of the moral bankruptcy, insensitivity to the hurting of others, and lack of a moral center that has swept the country. There need to be consequences to Mr. Simmons’s lack of common decency and integrity in his choice of using an anti-Islam message on one of his banners.
We have rules and regulations to monitor driving on our beaches, noise ordinances, use of drones, pets, etc., etc. For example, East Hampton does not allow driving on beaches from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Memorial Day to Sept. 15, and then only in designated areas. Sound like reasonable rules for banner fliers to follow as well. Why not?
As Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez put it: East Hampton is one community, and no one should be targeted because of their faith.” Kudos to her! We need other politicians, faith leaders, and people of good will to speak up.
Contact his company, The Star, and our political leaders — let them know your feelings.
Mr. Simmons advertises that his banner-flying offers a quintessential beach experience — the ads target people relaxing on the beach in a “clutter-free” environment. He’s absolutely right — with one exception. That beach experience does not need the hurtful and hateful banner that Simmons chose to display.
Very best,
JIM VRETTOS
Carbuncle on Main
Montauk
August 31, 2026
To the Editor;
How is it that the residents of Montauk have no say in how and what is being allowed to be built in our town? “What can we do?” — a question that is constantly being asked when discussing the changes and development of our town from the Surf Lodge to the bar in the parking lot of the Memory Motel to the 7-Eleven forced upon us without any discussion. The loud music that we were assured would be curtailed: It’s no longer just loud music. It is concert-level noise every weekend.
Now we have Este, that horrendous structure on Montauk Highway that has been allowed to be built. A modern building, three stories tall. Looks like the pill-box bunkers on the cliffs from World War II. A huge modern design that does not fit, either on its lot or with any of the other buildings or architectural style of buildings on our Main Street.
How was this allowed? Allowed not by the people of Montauk but by the powers that be in East Hampton.
You would never see that carbuncle on East Hampton Main Street. Why? Because they do not care what we want or think. They continue to show total disregard for the wants or desires of the residents of Montauk.
We have grown so weary of these types of changes with no input or discussion. The weariness is turning into anger.
So, what can we do?
As a start, we need to make sure they hear our voices, our anger. We should be standing up and demanding more say in any commercial changes planned for our community. Where is the public outcry I constantly hear in private conversations?
For those of you who were aware and did not alert the community: shame on you. You should resign immediately and be placed in stocks on the town green.
In a recent interview in a local paper, Marley Dominguez (an owner) was quoted as stating, “what we really want the town and community to understand is that we are building this for them “
Mr. Dominguez, if you really want to do something for the community, you will demolish this monstrosity and start over with something that fits the architecture and style of our beloved town.
For the love of Montauk,
B.J. WILSON
New Plan
Montauk
August 31, 2026
To the Editor,
Free advice for the owners of Este: A new game plan is in order to save time, money, and lawyers. Admit you made a mistake.
Call a real estate office and make an offer on Sel Rose across the street. That restaurant was originally called Little Park. Solves your parking and Health Department problems. You would also own the whole block. No competition.
Move your new building to the old house location for employee housing and possible restrooms for public use. Town should like this idea just because of the late night crowds in your area with not enough bathrooms.
Make a beautiful park between your pool and new employee housing and public restrooms. Use it in the evening for a holding area for dinner at Little Park. Maybe a service bar by the pool.
Hopefully you like the new game plan. Again, it will save you time, money, and provide a place to house employees, which the town still has not made much progress on through many administrations. The military uses barracks, and the Montauk Manor of 1920s through 1960s used barracks to house their personnel.
Don’t wake up with a white elephant and no green park to sit in. Please think about this, it may put a smile on a frown for the people of Montauk.
Hope to have dinner at Little Park next summer.
JIM BARNDS
Goes Unused?
East Hampton
August 31, 2026
Dear David,
The most recent incarnation of the Kirby Marcantonio and Chris Kelley “workforce” and “affordable” housing is popping up at 66 Spinner Lane with a proposed development of 48 units with 120 bedrooms dead center of a small, local residential neighborhood located on the Calvary Baptist Church property. To refresh readers’ memory this is the duo behind the failed bid to build 79 condos on six acres of farmland at 152 Three Mile Harbor Road, and who are waiting on town board approval to build 47 condo units at 350 Pantigo Road pending a substantial change to the town code. All of these projects have faced or face serious pushback from the community.
For the last four years, Mr. Maracantonio and Mr. Kelley have been lobbying and meeting with town officials to change its code to clear the way for this team of for-profit developers with no background in building to change the town code to allow them under the guise of affordable and work force housing to build what potentially could be hundreds of condos in East Hampton. It should also be noted that Mr. Marcantonio and Mr. Kelley refuse to divulge who their investor is or who owns 350 Pantigo Road, which is listed as being owned by 350 Pantigo L.L.C.
While this has been in process, East Hampton Town has been working with the state and securing grants for affordable housing by taking close to $28 million dollars from the State of New York to build The Green at Gardiner’s Point, as well as the most recent allocation for Cantwell Court. This money comes with strict guidelines in perpetuity with an 80-20 rule that requires 80 percent of the units be available to residents of Suffolk County and 20 percent be open to the residents of the state. To be clear, this is state-funded public housing.
All of this begs the questions why is East Hampton Town Board so intent on taking state money to build housing which comes with the albatross of the 80-20 rule and changing the town code to benefit a for-profit developer with no prior building experience, while the community housing fund (at present close to $21 million), which was adopted to benefit the residents of East Hampton exclusively, goes relatively unused? Why is this money not being used by the town to build affordable homes for East Hampton residents who live and work in East Hampton?
It was made very clear at a recent town board meeting that Councilmen Tom Flight, David Lys, and Ian Calder-Piedmonte intend to support the changes to the town code to allow Kirby Marcantonio and Chris Kelley (for-profit developers) to move forward with 350 Pantigo in September. Why are these board members not listening to the outcries from the community? Why are they dead set on taking money for state-funded housing and changing the code for developers rather than looking for solutions using the community housing war chest to build affordable homes for East Hampton residents. Perhaps, Councilmen Flight, Lys, and Calder-Piedmonte need to make their constituents their priority over whatever agenda is currently at play at Town Hall.
Best,
MARY WASERSTEIN
A Microcosm
Amagansett
August 30, 2026
To the Editor:
The Star and its readers have been paying a lot of attention to the problem of tick-borne diseases and what to do about them. As always, I am interested in the context, the narrative behind the narrative.
I was a member of the vaccinated generation. Born in 1954, a Google search discloses that in my early years, I would have received a DTP shot (against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis), smallpox (I remember the small round scar on my upper arm), and polio. The measles vaccine became universal in the 1960s.
My parents were both doctors, and our library included the books of Berton Roueche, who, more than anyone, communicated the idea that progress in medicine was unstoppable, and that anything which endangered us would be analyzed and then ended via prophylaxis. The story of penicillin was iconic.
In my Brooklyn household, we got The New York Times delivered. It, too, preached progress, but also described those parts of the planet (the “Third World”) where there were gaps: particularly places in Africa where children might catch horrifying diseases, which Roueche would have us believe, would, if they existed in Brooklyn, be fended off in a year or two. The problem, as The Times would have us believe, was one of distribution: Progress just needed to be better spread worldwide, a problem of foreign aid. It took years to see how the lack of medical research into tropical diseases was a feature of capitalism, and also to understand how the West distributed suffering to these regions, rather than just negligently or absent-mindedly withholding progress. Now I have lived long enough to see some of those diseases come here, while we generate some new ones of our own.
In my lifetime the idea of progress (on other fronts as well) died hard; the belief that medicine could protect children in America against anything going, which was always in large part a crock, vanished as part of the reality of the declining middle class. Conor Oberst sang, “They say a party can kill you,” but it is still a gross paradigm shift to fear death from a roast beef sandwich.
Living in the highly privileged Hamptons now shares with The Times’s Third World that if you walk outdoors you will be bitten by something, that your chance of contracting a disease is quantifiable, and that medical science has done remarkably little about it.
I was amused by the advice to wear special chemically-treated gaiters. The ticks you find on your arms or head don’t necessarily all walk up from your ankle, and anyway, do the gaiters really prevent a fast walk? A full-body hazmat suit might be even more effective — though in the movies there is always a tear.
Anyway, every story demands a punchline: What do Americans do when their own nation begins, even distantly, to mirror the Third World as a locus of unsolvable medical issues? They elect Donald Trump, who tells them the problem doesn’t exist, and then puts Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in charge.
Berton Roueche and The Times offered the idea that certain risks had been eliminated forever, but some of the diseases against which I was vaccinated are now making a comeback, including pertussis (whooping cough), diphtheria, and measles, and even polio is showing signs.
The idea that everything could be controlled was dangerous; the idea that nothing can be (or need be) is even more so. The first leads to complacency and under-preparation, but in the latter world, we just give up and sink.
Relating this all to the democracy I advance in my signature line, in that first world, we didn’t talk broadly enough about risks and realities, or concentrated on cures, not causes (gaiters will save us!). In that last world, we don’t analyze at all, or have no facts to go on (the problem doesn’t exist but is a woke con, and anyway will be solved by a border wall), our town being a microcosm of the world at large. Witness the lack of engagement here with anything which might actually aid, even in a small way, with managing the problem (except of course in The Star editorial and letters columns).
For democracy in East Hampton and everywhere,
JONATHAN WALLACE
Usual Suspects
East Hampton
August 31, 2026
Dear David,
Ticks get good press. At this time of year, the lone star tick in particular is publicly remarked upon. Just yesterday I was shown a YouTube video of a local medical persona who was filmed walking along the Long Wharf area of Sag Harbor, talking about avoiding that specific location due to the dangerous presence there of deer and lone star ticks. (In the 50-plus years I’ve been hanging around the vicinity, I have never seen a deer in the village, let alone on Long Wharf.)
People who have an issue with deer nibbling their plantings ought to unpack their hasty generalization that deer are the usual suspects promulgating lone star hatching in late summer and fall. These folks want those in charge to get rid of the deer by any means available. Lone star larvae handily provide a double excuse.
As hatchlings, they bite and then mature into nymphs and adults which can cause an allergy to mammalian meat.
They are hatched by the thousands by a single female — huge numbers in a single blob. If she were to lay her blob on a deer instead of on the ground (the ground being the usual case), then, based on the physical limitations of the situation — i.e., mass, volume, density, momentum, surface tension and interaction, gravity — the thousands of eggs would roll off the deer fur and fall to the ground to be consumed by ground-feeders such as mice.
More to come.
Sincerely,
PATRICIA HOPE
Facing the Costs
East Hampton
August 27, 2026
Dear Mr. Rattray,
On July 23, Nick LaLota voted against Congressional Resolution 89 directing Donald Trump to remove United States military forces from hostilities with Iran. In doing so, Mr. LaLota permitted Trump to continue the war with Iran that has resulted in 18 U.S. military deaths and 750 causalities as of Aug. 19, according to figures provided by CNN.
Calculating the actual financial cost of the war is impossible, as figures released by the Pentagon differ significantly from those provided by independent sources. However, there is no dispute that Americans are facing the financial costs of this war. According to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority website, the average cost for home-heating oil on Long Island rose from $4.35 to $5.24 per gallon, or a 20-percent increase, since the war started. Imagine what the price will be when the heating season starts, and if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed.
Despite what Trump claims, the Strait of Hormuz is still closed. Fox News reported that 13 ships were confirmed to have crossed the strait on Aug. 13, compared to between 130 and 140 ships that crossed the strait each day before the war started. Living in his fantasy world, Trump recently proposed to make the Strait of Hormuz part of the U.S.
If Chris Gallant had been representing us in Congress, he would have voted for the House resolution calling for removing U.S. forces from Iran. Mr. Gallant recognizes that Trump has no justification for starting the war, no strategy for victory, and no plan to end the conflict.
You can’t end Trump’s war with Iran. However, you can end Mr. LaLota’s career in Congress. All you have to do is vote for Chris Gallant this November.
SALVATORE TOCCI
Where’s Waldo?|
East Hampton
August 31, 2026
Dear David,
Memo to Republicans worrying that Democrats are communists: First, a primer on what communism is. It is state ownership and control of “the means of production.” That is, businesses.
Donald Trump has now used $27.7 billion of taxpayer money to buy into 38 private ventures knowing as we do that nothing from Trump comes without a kickback, that he will be driving decision-making, and his sons will be paid consultants.
If we look back at the parallels in history to this kind of big central government decision making, Russia under Stalin and China under Mao, the results are always the same. The economies collapse. People starve. Eventually it dissolves into a few favored oligarchs robbing the country of its resources while being protected by strong-armed security apparatchiks. Republicans have been pushing this narrative against Democrats since Ronald Reagan. Now they are sitting on their hands.
Trump’s big distraction today, I mean his big announcement, about taking over Venezuela’s oil industry is part of this process. Am I crazy, or did he already tell us the tankers from Venezuela are one million barrels per day. The United States pumps 13 million barrels domestically. It will take investment of many billions of dollars and years of work to upgrade the Venezuelan oil industry to a level that would have a significant impact on our oil enterprise.
When Maduro was ousted, Trump convened a meeting with Big Oil to offer them his big gift of new oil fields. The oil executives pointed out the country is rife with corruption and the countryside is run by gangs and therefore the country was not a place to invest money. No thanks.
Where’s Waldo in this picture? Option one: It is all bullshit, Trump’s lie-of-the-day. Option two: The businessman supposedly running this deal, Alejandro Betancourt, is under investigation for money laundering, corruption, and tax evasion. Perhaps Mr. Betancourt has convinced Trump and Big Oil that he’s just the guy to calm the waters, but that means greasing a lot of palms, and who knows where the money comes from for all this investment, or where the profits go if they pull it off? Another investment of our tax dollars to benefit the oil enterprise? You may have noticed that, with the help of Trump’s self-created oil crisis, Exxon’s profit doubled last quarter while selling gas for $4-plus per gallon. Option 3: Trump is promising Big Oil the protection of U.S. armed forces to ride shotgun in this oil heist. Been there. Done that. Used to be bananas. Today it’s oil. Bad idea.
Underlying these mysteries is the sad fact that, no matter what, Trump is attempting international piracy of another country’s resources by force and intimidation. He’s doing it in our name, dressing Uncle Sam in a red bandanna and an eye patch with a cutlass in his belt.
He is out of his mind, and he’s driving me crazy too.
DON MATHESON
Protect the Rights
Amagansett
August 30, 2026
To the Editor:
Benjamin Franklin stated when asked about what we created, “A republic. If you can keep it.” The purpose of our republic is to protect the rights of the individual from the will of the masses. The founding fathers knew that accountability to the people was necessary to maintain government by consent of the governed. They also knew that the average citizen is dominated by emotion and passion, not by fully informed and well-rounded input. It has been said Franklin or perhaps Thomas Jefferson coined the phrase, though neither did: “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb deciding what to eat for dinner; a republic protects the rights of the individual.”
There was a plethora of reasons for creating the bilateral Congress. Part of it was that some states wanted all states to have an equal say in the affairs of the union. Others felt more populous states should have a greater say. The nature of bilateral Congress created a compromise.
Another reason was that the founding fathers feared the consequences of populism. While the people needed to have a voice to maintain accountability, allowing the masses to make these decisions in the heat of the moment would destroy the republic. As such, the House of Representatives was directly elected by the people, to be the voice of the people. Senators were appointed by state legislatures. Their job was to ensure that the interests of the states as political entities were not overridden by the passion of an angry society that lacks the foresight to understand the long-term consequences of their votes.
When the House passed a bill, it was the job of the senators to review and make sure that the legislation in question didn’t erode the powers of the states in favor of concentrating power into the federal government, particularly the executive branch. Senators were essentially tasked with questioning, “What implications does this bill have on states’ rights? How does it affect my state government’s ability to govern the state without becoming a de facto representative of the president?”
Brown University offers as an overview to go along with the book “Electing the Senate: Indirect Democracy Before the Seventeenth Amendment”: “If in fact changing the way we elect our U.S. Senators did not substantively improve representation, it may serve as a caution to those who wish to change the Constitution to reform elections, and government more generally.”
Still here,
JOE KARPINSKI