Skip to main content

Montauk Library Dreams Big

Thu, 05/16/2019 - 17:41
Along with additional interior space for children, the Montauk Library would also get an outdoor terrace for children if renovation and expansion plans are approved by voters.

The 1991 Montauk Library building is in need of an upgrade, according to Denise DiPaolo, its director. Montauk School District voters will have an opportunity to vote for or against a nearly $7.5 million project next week. The money would come from bond sales coordinated by the Montauk School District and paid back by taxes spread out over a number of years.

In a March interview, Ms. DiPaolo said that the work would provide about 5,000 more square feet of space, to a large degree through an internal reconfiguration. About 1,600 square feet would be added to the building’s footprint.

The children’s area would triple in size. There would be a space set aside for teens, a cafe, and a terrace with a view of the ocean. Improvements would also be made to the archive and meeting rooms.

Ms. DiPaolo said that the number of annual visitors to the library increased by more than 20 percent between 2013 and 2018. Attendance at programs for children more than tripled during that time. A new local-history and fishing memorabilia area would be housed in the new addition, which would also have a terrace. The proposal also covers sound-baffling, solar panels, vertical wind turbines, stormwater collection for irrigation, and a low-nitrogen septic system.

Voting for registered legal residents of the Montauk School District will be at the school from 2 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

Villages

Springs Food Pantry Sees the Need, Addresses It

The last few years have presented challenges the Springs Food Pantry’s founders could not have anticipated when it was first established. More than 600 families are now registered to receive the assistance it provides, and an average of 355 families are served each week.

Jun 26, 2025

A Newsletter on Being a Jew in Today’s America

One of the essential roles of religion, Rabbi Jan Uhrbach of the Bridge Shul in Bridgehampton said this week, is to “help us hold onto our humanity, and remind us of the higher values that go beyond money and power and position and all of those things, in a time when the values that I hold dear are not only being violated, they’re being rejected as values.”

Jun 26, 2025

Item of the Week: The Hemerocallis Garden, 1962

Hemerocallis may be an unfamiliar term, but the garden adjacent to Clinton Academy once bore the name. This photo shows the gate to the garden some two decades after its establishment in 1941.

Jun 26, 2025

 

Your support for The East Hampton Star helps us deliver the news, arts, and community information you need. Whether you are an online subscriber, get the paper in the mail, delivered to your door in Manhattan, or are just passing through, every reader counts. We value you for being part of The Star family.

Your subscription to The Star does more than get you great arts, news, sports, and outdoors stories. It makes everything we do possible.