Last year, for the first time in more than a decade, an East Hampton High School softball team, a very young squad with only two senior starters, earned a berth in the county playoffs, convincing the coaches, Annemarie Brown and Melanie Anderson, that “we’re starting to get back on track.”

After years of planning and fund-raising, the East Hampton Village Board finally voted to approve the first phase of the renovation of Herrick Park. It will incorporate the southern portion of the park and includes the playing fields area.

East Hampton’s varsity Academic Team stands unbeaten this year and will next compete in the regional Quiz Bowl finals sometime in April. Having fun, while giving their brains a good workout, is the goal for the whip-smart members of this group, each with their idiosyncratic areas of expertise.

The East Hampton Town Trustees and 12 fishermen filed a class-action lawsuit last Thursday on behalf of themselves and all residents of the town, asserting that the five homeowners associations whose members’ deeds were determined to extend to the mean high water mark on a stretch of Napeague beach are unlawfully depriving them of access.