125 Years Ago - 1897
From The East Hampton Star, April 16
T. Brophy, until recently station agent at Montauk, has been appointed superintendent for the Montauk Co. at Montauk, and will occupy the same position as that held by Mr. Bunker at that place last summer. Mr. Brophy has been an efficient and faithful employee of the company and is deserving of the promotion.
—
Pathmaster Talmage, who made such a change in the appearance of Newtown lane last year, is keeping his eye upon that thoroughfare, and if perseverance counts, he will make of it a good highway.
—
The addition on Miss Annie Huntting’s house is nearly completed. Tom Babcock has the work in charge and shows his usual ability as a superior workman. The addition of fifteen feet on the west side makes it a double house, enlarging the dining room to 45 feet in all and throwing the hall into a room of 26 feet. Besides the addition of rooms on the second floor he is finishing off three rooms on the third floor, making a seventeen roomed house.
100 Years Ago - 1922
From The East Hampton Star, April 14
The local jail, or lock-up as it is often called, was inspected by James Shillinglaw of the State Commission of Prisons on March 21st, and found adequate. This lock-up is used by both the town and village, that is on rare occasions. We believe that it has only been used eight times in the past year, which speaks very well for the orderliness of the East Hampton public.
—
Next week is Clean-up-week, having been designated by State Commissioner of Health Dr. Hermann M. Biggs and re-designated by the local Ladies’ Village Improvement Society.
The society asks the residents of the village and town to co-operate with it in making East Hampton more attractive by cleaning up the back yards. Last year this society hired a team and driver who visited every property owner in the village and carted away his rubbish. This was quite an expensive undertaking and the society did not feel itself able to perform this service this year.
—
The regular monthly meeting of the town board was held at Clerk Ketcham’s office last Saturday afternoon at which nearly all of the members were in attendance.
After considerable discussion the compensation for the fire wardens and laborers summoned to fight forest fires in the town was fixed at fifty cents per hour for wardens and thirty cents per hour for laborers.
75 Years Ago - 1947
From The East Hampton Star, April 17
The Suffolk County Department of Health has issued the following statement regarding smallpox vaccination:
“The presence of Smallpox cases in the City of New York makes it advisable for residents of Suffolk County whose business requires travel to New York City and especially those whose places of business are in New York City, to take the precaution of being vaccinated immediately by their family physician, since this is the only known method of protection against this highly contagious disease.”
—
The Guild Hall Players gave East Hampton an excellent show last Friday and Saturday nights in the John Drew Theater; Emlyn Williams’ murder melodrama, “Night Must Fall”, was ably presented by a cast of nine, directed by Mrs. Warren Whipple and staged by Michael Smollin with a large staff of assistants. Stanley Stanlea was business manager.
In a prologue at the Court of Criminal Appeal in London, Kenneth Anderson as the Lord Chief Justice lets the audience know that a fiendish crime has been committed, but gives no hint as to the identity of the murderer.
—
With impressive services, flanked by her staff of officers, Mrs. Florence Corwin was installed as the new President of the V.F.W. Ladies Auxiliary last Friday evening in Masonic Hall.
The meeting was conducted by Mrs. Sadie Effingham as Deputy Representative of the national organization; she was assisted by Mrs. Florence Lally, who came with her from Islip for the occasion.
50 Years Ago - 1972
From The East Hampton Star, April 13
A 30-foot sloop, the Sojourn, came ashore at Hither Hills State Park, Montauk, at about 7 p.m. Thursday. Its crew, Robert A. Hall, 24, and Bruce A. Barlow, 24, both of Broadbrook, Conn., had anchored south of Montauk, apparently believing themselves to be in a harbor. A strong sou’wester blew the sloop onto the beach.
The two swam through the surf and, uninjured, checked into the Wavecrest Motel, where they were found the next morning after their craft had been discovered and a search for them made.
—
Recommendations for a revised proposal governing marina use and expansion in East Hampton Town were made at last Friday’s meeting of the East Hampton Town Board. In other action, the board formally requested the State Department of Environmental Conservation to spray Sevin on several thousand acres here infested with a gypsy moth, and accepted a scenic easement on ten wetland acres south of Napeague Harbor.
—
Auto races this summer at the Bridgehampton track may be held in comparative silence or, possibly, not at all.
State Attorney General Louis J. Lefkowitz recently filed suit in the Riverhead Supreme Court against the Bridgehampton Road Races Corporation, which owns the track, and the Sports Car Club of America, which sanctions the competitions there, to prevent them from continuing to hold races producing “loud, disagreeable and incessant noise.” The suit is based on the common law giving the State the power to “abate a public nuisance.”
25 Years Ago - 1997
From The East Hampton Star, April 17
Neighbors who oppose plans to build a nursery school on a residential portion of Route 114 have mobilized. While a dozen turned out at an East Hampton Town Planning Board hearing several weeks ago, last week every seat in the Town Hall courtroom was full as the Planning Board continued its review of the proposed school.
—
Tired of thinking about garbage? Hear this. East Hampton is, in the words of Town Councilman Len Bernard, facing “the biggest capital project . . . ever undertaken.” And, he said, “money aside, it’s the biggest decision the board has ever made. It’s a moral question. Do we leave all that garbage in the ground, or do we take it away?”
Whether to mine or to cap the town’s two landfills wedges the Town Board firmly between a rock and a hard place. The estimated cost of the former is $50 million. That’s the rock. Capping, which would have unpleasant side effects, including odiferous ones, would cost $36 million. That’s the hard place.
—
State Education Department officials insisted this week that “an orderly transition” was under way, but parents of about 30 preschool special education children from Montauk to Bridgehampton were not at all sure about where their 3 to 5-year-olds will go to school this summer and in September.
The Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services decided last week to close the doors of its 20-year-old preschool special education program in Westhampton Beach on June 30. The action, anticipated and postponed for more than three months, returns preschool children with disabilities to their school districts for placement.
