Villages

The Maidstone Club’s more than two-year effort to modernize and expand the irrigation system on its 18 and 9-hole golf courses ended on Friday when the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals approved area variances and special and freshwater wetlands permits for the project, albeit with two of the five members voting to deny the application.

The Diamond in the Rough Gala, the Montauk Playhouse Community Center’s most elegant and largest fund-raiser of the season, will be held under a lighted tent on the Playhouse grounds on Saturday from 7 to 11 p.m. A full-course meal will be served, with an open bar and music by the Nancy Atlas Project.

Amanda Bono and James Bennett were married on May 10 at the Amagansett Presbyterian Church. The Rev. Steven Howarth officiated. A reception followed at the American Legion Hall in Amagansett.

The bride is a daughter of Betsy and Thomas Bono of Eau Claire Street in Springs. Mr. Bennett was raised by Regina and Stephen Lynch of Cooper Lane in East Hampton. His parents are Clint Bennett of East Hampton and Patty Eames of Arizona.

The East Hampton Village board will hold hearings next Thursday on laws that would prohibit feeding wildfowl in certain areas and would restrict parking on a section of Newtown Lane.

The village is proposing a ban on feeding geese, ducks, swans, or other wildfowl within 200 feet of the shorelines of Georgica and Hook Ponds. Violations would be subject to a fine up to $250 or imprisonment for up to 15 days, or both.

Though the Ladies Village Improvement Society Fair has many longstanding traditions — it turns 118 on Saturday — there will be quite a few changes to this year’s festivities.

For starters, this year’s L.V.I.S. Fair committee, led by Vickie Lundin, chose a theme that was inspired by Karen Klug?lein’s artwork for the fair poster, titled “Cedar Point Rocks.”

Fei Shao and Peter W. Emmerson were married on July 6 at their house on Kirk’s Place in Northwest, East Hampton. The Rev. Denis Brunelle of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church performed the ceremony, and a reception followed at the house.

On their wedding day, both men wore cream linen suits and white shirts. Their best men, Frank Burnes and Kevin Truex, both of East Hampton, wore navy blazers, white shirts, and cream trousers.

With a potential Long Island Rail Road strike looming, East Hampton and Southampton officials are discussing what to do if the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its L.I.R.R. unions fail to agree by Sunday.

The 10th anniversary of Soldier Ride, the cycling and rehabilitative event benefiting the Wounded Warrior Project, will be marked tomorrow at 8 p.m. with a screening of “Welcome to Soldier Ride,” a film documenting its origin and inaugural cross-country ride, at Amagansett Square.

On Saturday, a 30-mile ride in honor of Lance Cpl. Jordan C. Haerter, a Sag Harbor resident who was killed in Iraq at the age of 19, will depart from Ocean View Farm in Amagansett. The 9 a.m. ride will follow an opening ceremony at 8:30. A community picnic will be held at the farm at noon.

More than 25 interior designers will participate in this year’s Hampton Designer Showhouse in Bridgehampton, which will open with a preview cocktail party on Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.

This year’s house will be on Paul’s Lane, with designers to include Allison Hennessy, Anne Tarasoff, Caleb Anderson, Elsa R. Soyars, Gil Walsh, Greg McKenzie, India Hicks, Kate Singer, Mecox Design Services, Melanie Roy, Patrik Lonn, Phoebe Howard, and many others.

Seven children from New York City eagerly stepped out of a bus that arrived in the Lumber Lane parking lot in East Hampton, excited to begin a weeklong vacation that promised outdoor adventures and an escape from the city in the summer.

Bridgehampton’s Main Street was the site last Thursday of an impassioned protest that drew some 40 people who are hoping to keep a CVS pharmacy and convenience store from going up at the intersection of Main Street and the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike. Calling themselves Save Bridgehampton Main Street, the group expressed contempt in no uncertain terms for the planned two-story building, which is to have 9,000 square feet of retail space and a 4,400-square-foot basement.

Where can you see an epidemic grow right out in the open? In the Town of East Hampton, according to the voiceover on an episode of "Destination Whitetail" airing on Wednesday at 8:30 and 11:30 p.m. on the Sportsman Channel.

The Maidstone Club’s lengthy effort to put in a new golf course irrigation system took a step closer to success at an East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals meeting on Friday with the filing of a long-awaited final environmental impact statement. The board’s unanimous vote to accept the statement, pending public comment, followed discussion with Chick Voorhis of Nelson Pope and Voorhis, which had prepared it.

Kevin McAllister, who served as Peconic Baykeeper for 16 years until his dismissal in March, has formed a new group aimed at restoring and protecting ground and surface waters on and around Long Island.

Defend H2O, comprising Mr. McAllister, Skip Tollefsen, the former owner of Lobster Inn in Southampton, and Mike Bottini, a naturalist and writer, will advocate for the enactment of stronger water quality standards, sewage management reform, an end to use of the insecticide methoprene to control the mosquito population, and wetlands protection.

For those who know little to nothing about the Long Island Rail Road in Sag Harbor, an exhibit at the Sag Harbor Historical Society’s Annie Cooper Boyd House through October offers a good introduction to why the village was one of the first on the East End to rally for a railroad connection.

“The Long Island Rail Road Years in Sag Harbor, 1870-1939” tells the story, from start to finish, of one of the L.I.R.R’s first branches on the East End.

One Montauk resident might say to another, “I’ll meet you at the Circle,” and be understood. They and the U.P.S. delivery man would know that the non-descript address “the Plaza” was in fact the same as the circle of businesses located in the downtown section of their hamlet, the same circle designed by the developer Carl Fisher in the 1920s. So why not gussy up the address with a little history?

The Maidstone Club’s application to expand and modernize its irrigation system, which the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals is likely to rule on this month, has prompted the creation of a group to focus on the ecological health of Hook Pond. Frank Newbold, chairman of the village’s zoning board, described the new group at the board’s meeting on Friday.

Interns studying water quality in Montauk’s Big Reed Pond for the Third House Nature Center presented their findings to a small group at the Montauk Library on Friday.

Conrad Kabbaz, Daisy Kelly, and Serrana Mattiauda explained that a contaminant called cyanobacteria, otherwise known as a blue-green algae bloom, has choked the freshwater pond of its oxygen, killing off plant life and several species of fish, including large-mouthed bass and whitefish. The bacteria can be toxic to people and to animals, who may sip from the water or as they walk around its edge.

After a brief public hearing, the East Hampton Village Board adopted a $20.29 million budget for the 2014-15 fiscal year on Friday.

The budget represents a spending increase of $550,000 and results in a tax increase of 2.14 percent, a rate comparable to the average over the last seven years.

The proposed spending increase required the board to vote to authorize an override of the property tax cap, which it did last month.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has warn?ed that cyanobacteria, which is informally known as blue-green algae, has been found in Big Reed Pond off East Lake Drive in Montauk and could be hazardous to people and animals, especially dogs that take a dip in the pond or even walk too close to its edge. Big Reed Pond, as well as Lake Agawam in Southampton and Marratooka Lake in Mattituck, has been declared off-limits for people and dogs by the D.E.C.

Elbert Edwards and Bruce Siska were easily re-elected to the East Hampton Village Board on Tuesday. When the polls closed at 9 p.m., Mr. Edwards had received 55 votes; 53 votes were cast for Mr. Siska. Three write-in votes were cast, with two for Michael Elinski and one for John Wessberg.

In a four-way race for two seats on the Sag Harbor Village Board, Robby Stein and Sandra Schroeder were victorious in Tuesday’s election, which saw a high turnout of 515 voters.

Mr. Stein, the only incumbent running this time around, was the top vote getter, with 308 votes, including 30 absentee ballots. Kevin Duchemin, who had served one term, did not run for re-election.

Kaitlin A. Ganga and Jeremiah L. Overton were married in the field behind the American Legion Hall in Amagansett on May 17, a date that marks both of their birthdays. East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky officiated.

The bride is the daughter of Megan Ganga of Glade Road and Anthony J. Ganga of Neck Path, both in Springs. Mr. Overton’s parents are Leon and Suzanne Overton of Three Mile Harbor Road, East Hampton.

Wondering where your prescription and over-the-counter medications may end up when tossed in the trash or flushed down the toilet? The answer is an important one: our drinking water, bays, and harbors.

The third annual re-enactment of the 1942 Nazi saboteur landing on Atlantic Avenue Beach in Amagansett will take place tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. The action will begin and end at the former Life Saving Station, the 1902 structure on Atlantic Avenue that is undergoing extensive renovation as a museum and community center. Admission is free.

The brothers Richie and Jacob Nessel are probably the most reluctant oldtimers to be honored tonight at the annual Old Timers dinner hosted by the Montauk Chamber of Commerce.

“I’m not old,” said Jake Nessel.

“It’s wonderful. Can I leave now and go home for dinner?” asked Richie Nessel when the two met with a visitor for a photograph on the docks near the Ebb Tide, the boat Captain Jake runs.

Moody’s Investor Service has upgraded East Hampton Village’s bond rating from Aa2 to Aa1, indicating a very strong capacity to meet financial commitments.

The provider of credit ratings and risk analysis cited the village’s sizable and affluent tax base and modest debt burden as strong indicators of its financial position.

The upgrade, according to a release issued by Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. and the village board, followed the village’s decision to refinance a series of bonds, resulting in savings of almost $225,000.

The East Hampton Town Board will form three committees to grapple with erosion in the downtown Montauk beach area, Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc told the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee Monday night.

One committee will deal with the Army Corps of Engineers, the second will work on creating a tax district to fund beach-restoration projects, and the third will help devise a post-storm recovery plan.

“If we have a catastrophic storm, we’ll have a plan and make ourselves more resilient,” he said.

Southampton Hospital will host a panel discussion on tick-borne illnesses on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at the Parrish Memorial Hall on Herrick Road in Southampton Village.

The panel is the first event offered by the hospital’s recently launched Tick-Borne Disease Resource Center, a place to go for education and facilitated access to medical care related to tick bites. An advisory panel consists of nine different medical specialists who address the spectrum of issues associated with the different diseases ticks are known to carry and transmit.

Two seats on the East Hampton Village Board will be filled on June 17, when voters go to the polls from noon to 9 p.m. The Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street is the polling place.Elbert Edwards and Bruce Siska, incumbent board members, are up for re-election and are running unopposed.