Villages

    Richard Schneider, an East Hampton Village Police Department lieutenant and 35-year veteran of the force, has retired. The village board accepted his resignation on Friday, his last day on the job. The board also authorized a payment of $129,229.04 for accrued time.

    “Rich, we wish you the very best for whatever the future holds for you and your family,” Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said. “Good health and longevity.” The lieutenant told the board that he was retiring with mixed emotions. “The Police Department is my family,” he said.

    The Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons has proclaimed it a “week of love” at its adoption center at 90 Daniel’s Hole Road. In celebration of Valentine’s Day and in hopes of finding homes for pets in its care, the center has extended its adoption hours by an hour, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Through next Thursday, those who adopt will receive a free 2013 ARF calendar, a flower pen, and a pet portrait. The adoption fees will be reduced, and tours of the facility will be given. Refreshments will be served as well.

    The 13 Sea Spray Cottages at Main Beach will remain in the hands of their current tenants for the 2013 season, rather than having their leases auctioned as they were in 2010.

    In what was otherwise an uneventful meeting, the Sag Harbor Village Board erupted Tuesday night when the son of one of the board members was denied admission to the Sag Harbor Fire Department.

    Kevin J. Duchemin, a trustee who has been a member of the Fire Department himself for over 20 years and is an East Hampton Village policeman, said he was “blindsided” when Mayor Brian Gilbride announced that his son, Kevin J. Duchemin Jr., could not join the department.

    A week and a half ago as he wrote his monthly weather report for January, Richard G. Hendrickson was asking, “Where’s the snow?” The answer arrived on Friday and Saturday.

Two events, one planned for Sunday, the other postponed a day because of Friday and Saturday's blizzard, will take place today.

    Keri Lynne Marino and Leland Edwards Winslow were married on Sept. 9 at St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church in Montauk by the Rev. Michael Rieder. They celebrated with a reception afterward at East by Northeast restaurant in Montauk.

    The bride is a daughter of Joyce and Carmine Marino of Montauk. A music teacher at Crossroads Music, she graduated from East Hampton High School in 2004 and from Molloy College in Rockville Centre in 2008.

    Nonresident parking permits for East Hampton Village beaches are selling briskly.

    As of noon yesterday, some 600 permits had been sold since they were made available last Friday, said Sue Dayton, principal clerk at Village Hall. A total of 3,000 will be available, she said.

    It was another rousing meeting of the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee on Monday. Beach erosion was a primary concern, and Steve Kalimnios, the owner of the Royal Atlantic Resort Motel, spoke passionately about his efforts to save it.

    The life of Gregg Rickards, a musically gifted graduate of East Hampton High School who died last August at age 23, was celebrated at a fund-raiser held on Friday night at the high school.

    A vision of Sag Harbor 10 years from now was imagined on Saturday afternoon by more than two dozen residents — lifers, newcomers, year-rounders, and weekenders — at a Sag Harbor Active Transport workshop held in the parish hall of St. Andrew’s Catholic Church. Asked for one word describing how Sag Harbor could be, responses included safe, progressive, quiet, athletic, peaceful, visual, innovative, healthy, green, enlightened, accessible, slow, and sociable.

    A celebration of life service for two men who were presumed lost at sea aboard the Foxy Lady II, a commercial fishing vessel that frequently packed out in Montauk, will be held on Deer Isle, Me., on Feb. 24.

    Alena Antonovna Tsvirka, the daughter of Ina and Anton Tsvirka of Gorodeya, Minsk, Belarus, was married to Henry Charles Uihlein of Amagansett on Dec. 22 at the Montauk Community Church. The Rev. Bill Hoffman officiated, and a reception followed at Gurney’s Inn.

    A relative newcomer to the hamlet was crowned at the fourth annual Mr. Amagansett pageant, held on Saturday night at Stephen Talkhouse.

    Matt Schmitt, competing under the name Matt from the Meeting House, dashed out from that restaurant’s kitchen, just across Main Street, and onto the Talkhouse stage at the last minute to best the competition as $5,000 was raised for the Donald T. Sharkey Memorial Community Fund.

    A contractor hoping to convert the second floor of his commercial building on Lumber Lane into two apartments for his sons, returned to the East Hampton Village Zoning Board on Friday with something to celebrate.

    The actor Alec Baldwin, who has long taken an interest in politics of a regional and national nature, will speak about issues of importance to East Hampton Town residents at the East Hampton Conservators’ winter gathering at the Huntting Inn on Main Street on Feb. 9 from 6 to 8 p.m. Wine and hors d’oeuvres will be supplied.

    A briefing for Congressional staffers on the H-2B visa program, which allows employers to hire a temporary foreign work staff, will be held in Washington, D.C., on Monday at 3 p.m. Members of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce are urging business owners to attend the meeting and lend support.

    “As you know, this program is very important to the seasonal employees in Montauk,” wrote Laraine Creegan, the chamber’s executive director.

The ideas of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were honored at Calvary Baptist Church in East Hampton on Monday, with the Rev. Michael Jackson of Triune Baptist Church in Sag Harbor as keynote speaker and that church’s choir joining in the celebration.

    “We will praise you for the rest of our days,” sung members of the Calvary Youth Choir. Young speakers including Jacarra Stephens read Scripture with words such as “thinkest no evil.”

    “Love never fails,” exclaimed Sharlene Hartwell, a minister who spoke of unity and forgiveness.

    Tom Lawrence, a code enforcement officer for East Hampton Village, has resigned effective Feb. 15. At its meeting last Friday, the village board accepted his resignation and authorized payment of $33,066.60 for “unused accumulated time, pursuant to employee agreement.”

    The owners of historic timber-frame houses in East Hampton Village will get a zoning bonus that will allow them to build or expand second dwellings on their property following the village board’s adoption on Friday of zoning code amendments designed to encourage preservation of those landmark structures.

A modest snowfall overnight left about three inches of accumulation on the South Fork Tuesday morning. Most schools were opening on schedule. Montauk was the only district announcing a delayed opening.

    Jean and John Cowen of Sag Harbor have announced the engagement of Mrs. Cowen’s daughter, Jenna K. Brill, to Gary Cadwell. Mr. Cadwell’s parents are Floyd Cadwell and Mary and George Adams of New Mexico. Ms. Brill is the daughter of the late Jeffrey Brill of East Hampton.

    The couple live in Colorado, where an autumn 2013 wedding is planned.

    The wait is finally over.

    Last Thursday, a certificate of occupancy was issued and senior citizens, selected via lottery for the 40 newly constructed apartments on the grounds of St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Amagansett, began to move in.

    Twenty-five years after Christian Wolffer established the Sagaponack vineyard and winery that eventually became Wolffer Estate Vineyard, his daughter Joey Wolffer and son, Marc Wolffer, announced on Monday that they will be the new co-owners of the operation.

    At a press conference held in the Sagaponack tasting room, the two said they look forward to continuing the legacy built by their father, who died four years ago in a swimming accident in Brazil.

    Elayna Martin, a daughter of Diane and Tom Martin of East Hampton, and Eban Ball, the son of Kammy and Donny Ball of Amagansett, were married on Sept. 28 at Martha  Clara Vineyards on the North Fork.

    The bride works for the C.D.C.H. preschool. Her husband is an East Hampton Village police officer. They live in Amagansett.

    The Greek Orthodox Church of the Hamptons will celebrate the completion of the Johnides Family Cultural Center on Sunday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and blessing by Bishop Andonios Paropoulos, chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

    The Sag Harbor Village Board has held a few “special” meetings recently in addition to its monthly session, with regard to village employees, committee members, and volunteers. One such meeting, held on Dec. 28 at 8 a.m., included a discussion of the village police force, which the board has talked of cutting or even disbanding.

    Members of the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee had an emotional exchange on Monday night about their hamlet’s future amid global warming and recent climate change, wondering what would happen if Montauk became an island and lost its beaches and economy.

    Some members wondered if anything could be done right now to stave off disaster and save the beaches, motels, Ditch Plain area, and the entire downtown.

    “Where is winter?” Richard G. Hendrickson, the United States Cooperative weather observer in Bridgehampton, wondered in his monthly weather report for December. Last month was a mild one, with temperatures reaching 50 degrees or higher on 11 days and hitting 61 on the 11th. The low for the month was 20 degrees on Dec. 7.

    All will be welcomed at the next community soup dinner at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church, on Wednesday from 5 to 7 p.m. There is no cost for the meal, which is sponsored by the East Hampton Clericus, an interdenominational organization of local religious leaders, and organized by Joe Realmuto of East Hampton’s Honest Man Restaurant Group.