Villages

From an 1897 sidewalk outrage to a 1997 conflict between beachgoers and beach drivers, the news of yore rivets.

Concerned Citizens of Montauk, which monitors enterococcus bacteria and blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, levels in local waters, has issued a warning about rising levels of the latter in Fort Pond in Montauk, which the group has been monitoring since June.

Despite the confusion and tragedy of American life in 2022, they somehow return each spring; like flying foil-wrapped gifts come to life. And now, as early as this week, the males will depart from our area to begin their largely daytime migrations south. This is one of the most entertaining weeks to “feeder watch,” as they defend their last sips.

On Saturday night well after hours, when most lifeguards are home and dry, Thomas Casse was at a dinner party at the Montauk Shores Condominiums just east of Ditch Plain when another attendee, Sophie Walton, first heard a faint cry for help.

It's news that neither a commercial bayman nor those who enjoy bay scallops wanted to hear: For the fourth summer in a row, there has been a significant die-off of mature bay scallops in local waters.

“It was Black gold and soul all in one place,” said Suzan Johnson-Cook, one of several honorees at a Saturday gala at the Bridgehampton Community House to celebrate 75 years of Azurest, a historically Black resort community in Sag Harbor. Her sentiments were echoed by many and highlighted the rich and resonant history of Azurest, one of three communities that comprise the so-called “SANS” enclave that also includes Sag Harbor Hills and Ninevah Beach.

This early photograph shows a group of people in the surf, identified as “Maidstone Club Bathers,” with the esteemed Dr. Everett Herrick in the middle of it all.

A seemingly routine request for a new crosswalk at the Amber Waves market, the hugely popular farm market just west of the Amagansett Firehouse, set off a series of increasingly testy exchanges at the August meeting of the hamlet’s citizens advisory committee.

Peter Gundersen, a son of Martha and Peter Gundersen of Amagansett, married Samantha Haney, a California native and daughter of Jane and Keith Haney of Gulf Breeze, Fla., on April 16 in Pensacola, Fla. 

“Trees at Sunset,” a 1931 painting by Renwick Taylor, has returned to Long Island after many years and will be temporarily exhibited at the Amagansett Library. The painting is a decorative landscape created during Taylor’s residence at Laurelton Hall, Louis Comfort Tiffany’s estate near Oyster Bay.

Just because there is flat water doesn’t mean lifeguards can relax. It was a green-flag day up at Maidstone Park last Thursday when lifeguards needed to call in a Jet Ski for assistance for a father and son who were swimming in the calm waters but got too close to the jetty on an incoming tide, according to John Ryan Jr., chief of the East Hampton Town’s lifeguards.

A complaint over an inundation of bicycles in 1897, a 1922 film shoot that had the dunes of Napeague substitute for a Middle East desert, and more from the old-time pages of The Star.