Villages

While Dr. King’s example was one of peaceful but powerful advocacy, “we still have a long way to go,” said James Banks, a social worker, college professor, and social justice advocate who was the keynote speaker at Calvary Baptist Church’s annual Martin Luther King’s Birthday service on Monday.

It’s a cold and still January afternoon as the commercial fishing vessel Kimberly makes its way through the inlet at Lake Montauk, which is scheduled to be dredged in October, from 12 to 17 feet, by the Army Corps of Engineers. That’s great news for captains and crew alike, but there’s a catch. The dredging, according to the Montauk attorney Andy Hammer, could make a bad situation worse at the bustling commercial-fishing boat basin attached to Inlet Seafood.

On Saturday, teams of birders spread out across New York State to count freshwater ducks, saltwater ducks, and geese for the annual New York State Ornithological Association waterfowl count. Locally, from Shinnecock Inlet to Montauk Point, seven groups of birders faced winds and temperatures that were stubbornly in the mid-30s to peer into our ponds, bays, and coves. They located 31 species of waterfowl for a total of 10,451 birds. More than half that number, 5,303, were the familiar Canada goose.

A boy’s fear for the fate of a goat back in 1898 is one of the lighter touches from The Star of yore.

The Sag Harbor Village Board announced on Jan. 10 its intention to extend the village’s paid parking program for 2023. The board would like to extend the season by approximately six weeks, so it would run from May 1 until Nov. 30. In 2022, Long Wharf was converted to paid parking from May 17 until Oct. 10. The board voted to hold a public hearing on the matter at the next meeting, on Feb. 14.

This December 1989 photo from The East Hampton Star’s archive depicts Percy Heath, Montauker, sportfisherman, artist, and bassist who co-founded the Modern Jazz Quartet.

The property on Long Island Avenue in Sag Harbor where Friends of Bay Street had planned to build a new Bay Street Theater is instead being put on the market, The Star learned this week.

Last week housing for a feral cat colony living under the pavilion at Sagg Main Beach was dismantled and the colony was dispersed. After being sent photos of cat prints in the sand near a piping plover colony, the American Bird Conservancy had threatened to sue the Southampton Town trustees for not doing enough to protect the plovers, which are considered endangered in New York State.

Ripped from the pages of The Star of yore.

Gentle reader, it happened here . . .

Barnes & Noble announced Thursday that it will open a new bookstore in the Bridgehampton Commons this summer, taking over two storefronts previously occupied by Collette and Collette Annex. It will be the company's first foray into the South Fork bookselling world.

Before the 1830s, public schools were not freely available in America, and schools required tuition. Seen here, an itemized receipt for tuition payments from Jonathan Mulford (1770-1840), with his children’s names.