As a child growing up in Springs, Laura Rosner was diagnosed with Stargardt’s disease, an incurable juvenile form of macular degeneration. Now a special education teacher at the John M. Marshall Elementary School in East Hampton, she has a unique perspective when it comes to educating students with disabilities and diverse educational needs.

For the second time in just under a year, the East Hampton Town Board held a public hearing on a proposed law that would give the town regulatory powers over mining, mulching, and composting operations and require the monitoring and reporting of the impact of such operations on groundwater.

Since East Hampton Village's Town Pond was “mucked out” last year, it has had a difficult time holding water. It is also beset by an invasive aquatic plant, Eurasian watermilfoil, which workers are beginning to remove this week, but the effect will be largely aesthetic, as plant fragments and roots will remain in place allowing the invasive plant to spread in the future.