Dubbed the “Save Montauk’s Waters” campaign, the plans to help the beleaguered water body were equal parts education and action. “The ultimate goal of this study is solid, evidence-backed recommendations for remediation of toxic blue-green algae and pathogenic bacteria in the pond, that will be cost effective and long lasting,” said Rebecca Holloway, Concerned Citizens of Montauk’s manager of environmental advocacy.

Bruce Collins was a pilot and co-captain on a bunker steamer and shrimp trawlers in the 1950s. He took a camera. The images he created of a lost working-man's life along the eastern and southern coastline are not just invaluable as social history, but stunning in their artistic merit.

The “apparent decline in our civil liberties and the unusual and extraordinary accretion of executive power that we’ve seen since Donald Trump was inaugurated” were considered with a mixture of gloom and optimism alongside denunciations of the conservative majority on the United States Supreme Court and a spirited call for citizen action to defend democracy at “Guardrails on Democracy,” the first Hamptons Institute discussion of the 2025 season.

“We actually lived off the land. We didn’t have electricity until I was 12. We had cows, steer, pigs. I milked the cows,” said Larry Koncelik, speaking at a public hearing before the East Hampton Town Board on the proposed purchase of a 9.35-acre parcel at 43 Mile Hill Road, along Northwest Harbor.