Villages

There’s a lot we expect from our local governments, but East Hampton Village may be the only municipality that has a candy assistance program to help residents meet the high cost of handing out candy to trick-or-treaters on Halloween.

This receipt, dated Oct. 21, 1703, records the first annual payment by East Hampton settlers to the Montaukett people. The payment amounted to a rental fee for the use of grazing lands on the Montauk peninsula.

It had been at least 30 years, likely more, since the Wainscott Sewing Society did any actual sewing. That changed earlier this year, when eight members of the group, all with multigenerational ties to the hamlet, took up scissors, needles, and thread once more.

Thirty-three years ago, Theo Landi’s sister-in-law Geri Sanicola said to her, “This town needs a party shop.” Mrs. Landi replied, “You find a spot and maybe we’ll do it.” The Party Shoppe has been helping to make birthday parties and holidays complete ever since.

At a short but sweet East Hampton Village Board work session on Oct. 5, the village dedicated the Pantigo Mill behind the Home, Sweet Home Museum to Hugh King, the village historian.

One C. Schenck cleans his gutters in 1898, and other public spiritedness from The Star of yesteryear.

With its last effort at creating affordable housing legislation struck down by the New York State Supreme Court in April, the Sag Harbor Village Board introduced a new affordable housing initiative at last week’s board meeting, “just to start the conversation,” said Mayor Tom Gardella.

From the gruesome, watery death of a bootlegger in 1923 to East Hampton’s spirited 350th anniversary celebration parade 75 years later, we offer you a choice tour of past Star reportage.

After months of planning and one postponement due to inclement weather, East Hampton Town will celebrate its 375th anniversary on Saturday, weather permitting.

As people across the world mourned and prayed for those killed, wounded, and taken hostage in a violent surprise attack by the terrorist group Hamas in Israel on Saturday, Oct. 7, so too did the South Fork’s Jewish community, joined in solidarity by members and leaders of other religious organizations.

Children gather to decorate the windows of Tony’s Sport Shop on Newtown Lane leading up to Halloween in 1976 in this photograph from The Star’s archive. Tony Cangiolosi ran the store from 1966 to 1980.

Beginning Saturday and continuing for the next six weekends, the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society will lead hikes that break the length of the town’s portion of the Paumanok Path into roughly eight-mile sections, starting in Wainscott and ending at Montauk Point.