Villages

    A handful of new parking-by-permit-only signs posted in two public lots in Montauk have some cheering and at least one business owner scratching his head and asking why.

    The signs are part of an East Hampton Town project that added some 40 parking spaces to the hamlet by reconfiguring a number of spaces from parallel parking to head-on early last summer.

    “Just because plastic is disposable, that doesn’t mean it goes away,” says Jeb Berrier in the award-winning documentary “Bag It: Is Your Life Too Plastic?” which will be screened for free at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton on Monday. “And where is away?” According to the movie, “away” is overflowing landfills, mountainous islands of trash in the oceans, and even our own toxic bodies.

A week before Tropical Storm Irene ravaged the East Coast, David Ryan, the owner and founder of Sailing Montauk, was left with a lightning-charred Catalina 38, damaged beyond repair.

The Montauk Chamber of Commerce will be host its 30th fall festival on Saturday and Sunday, and, appropriately, 30 restaurants have promised to donate New England and Manhattan clam chowders.

A letter that will be sent to the two East Hampton Town justices asking them to do more to crack down on problems at the Surf Lodge restaurant was unanimously approved by the Montauk Citizens Committee.

    Chaps may have their place in the world of fashion, but when it comes to using a chain saw, they are a definite must.

    Michael Gaines, founder and president of CW Arborists in East Hampton, held a free chain-saw safety class on Sept. 15 at his place of business on Three Mile Harbor Road. Seven people listened intently as he instructed them about the intricacies of chain-saw techniques.

Representatives from the Montauk Friends of Erin, the Montauk Chamber of Commerce, the East Hampton Town Police Department, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will gather next week at Gurney’s Inn to discuss how to discourage drunken, under-age people from attending the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in the hamlet.

Chamber officials drew up the petitions that have been posted in the chamber and at local businesses asking the transportation authority not to send trains to Montauk on March 12, the day of next year’s parade.

The 40-year-old Millstone nuclear facility in Waterford, Conn., is the same distance from Montauk as Montauk is from the Bridgehampton Commons.

In the 40 minutes it took Dr. Valenti and crew to fire up the backup generator, $9,000 worth of striped bass died.

As a huge American flag fluttered in the wind from the top of a ladder truck, the Montauk Fire Department dedicated a Sept. 11 monument on the department grounds on Sunday.

Those who shop at the I.G.A. in Amagansett has discontinued the use of plastic shopping bags in the grocery store altogether.

“Under Our Skin,” a much-anticipated documentary film about Lyme disease, will be shown tomorrow night at 7 at LTV Studio 3 Cinema in Wainscott.

In honor of the group’s 50th year, the Montauk Friends of Erin will kick off the season of the green a bit early with a Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day party.

Georgica Beach regulars are outraged at the apparent attempt by a property owner, Molly Zweig, to usurp a portion of public beach.

Which of two neighbors rightfully owns a cat, which one woman believes is her long-lost Ragdoll, a cream-colored breed created in the 1960s, will apparently be resolved in court.

Pleanty to see, eat, and do as HarborFest 2011 sails into Sag Harbor this weekend.

    The Rev. Bill Hoffmann favors small towns and is used to cold winters. So he should be a good match for the Montauk Community Church, where he has been installed as its new pastor.

    Mr. Hoffmann, his wife, Valerie, and three daughters, the youngest of whom enrolled in the Montauk School yesterday, moved to the hamlet in early August from the Rochester (N.Y.) Community Church, where winters can be harsh, but still not as bad as was his time serving the ministry in Minnesota. “It cannot be any worse than that,” he said.

    Irene was the big weather news in August, but as tropical storms and hurricanes go, it “could have been more severe,” Richard G. Hendrickson, the United States Cooperative weather observer in Bridgehampton, wrote in his monthly report for August.

    “It stayed on its northward path and we were spared the true severity of its wind and high ocean,” he said. “Some trees are down and many, many branches are torn off trees. High tidal water, some shore erosion, but mild compared to the damage done during the path of some of our previous hurricanes.”

    “Miss Electricity,” a play by Kathryn Walat, will have its last two performances tomorrow and Sunday at the Mulford Barn on James Lane in East Hampton. The second production this year by the Mulford Repertory Theater company, “Miss Electricity” is a comedy for younger audiences.

    At 6 a.m. Sunday, Hurricane Irene's top sustained winds had decreased to near 75 miles per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center.

    As the leading edge of the huge storm reached eastern Long Island during the night, a little drizzle gave way to heavier rain, and wind that was beginning to bend the oaks in the woods between Sag Harbor and East Hampton. Lightning could be seen coming from the upper cloud layers. Trees were beginning to fall, with a report of a tree down in Noyac that cut power to some residents.

    Tests conducted twice last week at the south end of Lake Montauk by the Suffolk County Department of Health Services revealed a brief but heavy influx of enterococcus bacteria following heavy rain, but an almost total absence of the potentially harmful pollutant two days later.

    Reached yesterday morning, East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson said the test results “speak for a retention pond in that area. In the meantime, the south end should be closed to bathing for a time after heavy rains. We will benefit from the new data.”

    While cities and states across the country are struggling financially or on the verge of default, East Hampton Village — through careful budgeting and a few unexpected windfalls — ended up with around $700,000 more than expected when the fiscal books closed at the end of July.

    Once a year, the staff at the Montauk Lighthouse presents Lighthouse Weekend, which offers an opportunity to take a step back in time and learn the ways of colonial people. The event will take place on Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

    Lawrence Cooke of Montauk is on a one-man mission to get a Montauk Indian museum built in the hamlet. He has the collection, which includes several of his own pieces as well as some from the collections of others, but he needs money to get the job done, about $500,000.

    A local storeowner donated $1,000 to the cause, which helped Mr. Cooke get T-shirts made and fliers printed. “I wish there were 4,999 more people like him,” he said this week in his front yard, where chickens clucked, tomatoes grew in tubs, and kayaks were scattered about.

    The Montauk Village Association, the group responsible for beautifying the hamlet with trees and pots of flowers, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and will party down on Friday, Aug. 19, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Montauk Yacht Club.

    The annual Fisherman’s Fair takes over the Ashawagh Hall green in Springs on Saturday, offering fun, fare, shopping, crafts, and camaraderie for the 79th year.

    From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. the grounds surrounding the hall, the Springs Library, and the Parsons Blacksmith Shop will be full, rain or shine.

    It’s time to whip out those sculpting tools, and whatever else is needed to carve out those bas-reliefs, creatures, and cities from the sand.

    The Clamshell Foundation’s 20th East Hampton SandCastle Contest will take place on Saturday at Atlantic Avenue Beach in Amagansett from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The rain date is Sunday.

    While thunder and a little lightning were frequent occurrences last month, on the whole, July was free of severe thunder and lightning as well as ocean storms, according to Richard G. Hendrickson, the United States Cooperative weather observer in Bridgehampton.

    It seems like Dina Merrill — the actress and arts benefactor who has lived on West Dune Lane for over 50 years — will still be able to see the sea she loves.    Her husband, Ted Hartley, chairman of R.K.O. Pictures, sat in the second row at the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals meeting on Friday while his attorney, Rick Whalen, laid out plans to rework an existing walkway and platform in the dunes outside the couple’s house to accommodate Ms. Merrill’s wheelchair.

    According to the 1967 film “The Graduate,” plastics were poised to be the next big thing. 

    They sure were.

    Now, due to the prevalence of discarded plastic bags in the local landscape, the East Hampton Village Board has proposed banning their use for goods purchased at retail. The ban would not affect bags larger than 28-by-36 inches, however.