Villages

The wrecking ball is swinging, and the $1.4 million renovation and expansion project for the Lars Simenson Skatepark in Montauk is underway. The hope is that it can be finished by mid to late-summer.

The Amagansett Library has launched a free seed "catalog" with vegetable, herb, and flower seeds available for library users to take and grow at home. The project is in partnership with Amber Waves Farm, Cornell Cooperative Extension, and home gardeners and will provide resources and programs this summer about gardening for food and fun.

The peanut craze of 1897, the telephone strike of 1947, and the day in 1997 that the G&T Dairy Chicken House closed for good.

"I've always loved Montauk," said Jennifer Fowkes, the new executive director of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce.

The Breakwater Sailing Center, a.k.a. the Breakwater Yacht Club, in Sag Harbor, will host an open house on Tuesday to introduce a women's sailing initiative and new programs for the summer. "Historically, women are pretty much underrepresented as adult sailors," explained Joan Butler, a sailor, nurse practitioner, certified nurse-midwife, and a Breakwater member.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, churches here allowed parishioners to rent or buy pews, often charging more for those closest to the pulpit. Pew deeds or titles could be passed down to heirs as families grew, but during the 20th century the practice disappeared.

Despite the feeling of calm that has settled in after mask mandates were lifted, despite the significantly lower case numbers and deaths across the United States, Covid is not finished with us — or we with it.

The waters surrounding Plum Island are teeming with abundant life, not unlike the Long Island Sound, Peconic Estuary, and other nearby waterways. But a series of scientific dives below the surface last summer revealed something that sets Plum Island's marine environment apart from the rest. "There wasn't any trash," said Dr. Matthew Schlesinger, chief zoologist with the New York Natural Heritage Program, which completed the survey along with InnerSpace Scientific Diving.

A strain of avian flu that state officials have deemed "highly pathogenic" has arrived on the South Fork, where a farm in Sag Harbor lost a flock of about 6,000 game birds on March 23 due to the infection and its potential to spread. The outbreak has poultry farms here on high alert.

The Amagansett Presbyterian Church and the Stony Brook University School of Health Professions will have a free health fair on April 9 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Scoville Hall on Meeting House Lane.

An 1897 ice house gets its fill of “excellent quality” frozen blocks from Down East, and Governor Dewey crowns the Potato Queen of 1947 in Riverhead.

April Fools’ Day may be an unofficial holiday traditionally observed with pranks, jokes, and hoaxes every April 1, but this broadside for the “Fantastic, Grand Barbaric, and Cavalric Parade of April Fools” came from a Sag Harbor parade marking the occasion on April 3, 1871.