Residents of Toilsome Lane showed up in force at the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals meeting last week to discuss the Toilsome Farm Brewing Company proposed at the site of a long-vacant furniture warehouse.

While the pandemic’s trajectory remains uncertain, the Omicron variant’s tendency to cause milder sickness, combined with the sheer number of those with a degree of protection through prior infection or vaccination, signal a period of transition for the virus that has upended life for the past two years.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has announced a Feb. 23 auction for six lease areas totaling 488,000 acres in the New York Bight, a portion of the Atlantic Ocean off New York and New Jersey, for wind development.