Villages

Farmers markets in East Hampton and Springs will not open this week as initially planned.

East Hampton Village Mayor Richard Lawler appointed Ray Harden, a co-owner of the Ben Krupinski building company, as a village board member on Friday over the objections of two board members.

The closure of restaurants and bars, endless time at home, various distillations of apocalyptic doom — these ingredients make a strong cocktail for business at wine and liquor stores during the pandemic. 

South Fork retail stores have been closed to the public during the economic shutdown, but when they are allowed to reopen, shopkeepers said this week that they will be welcoming back customers with steam-cleaned products, curbside pickup, sidewalk sales, and pleas to wear masks and practice social distancing.

It’s always sunny on the Thrive East website, where Charlotte LaGuardia, a certified nutrition specialist, offers her clients a host of services and a blog to address general concerns regarding food, health, stress, and activity.

Four town ocean beaches will open on Saturday during lifeguarded hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.: Indian Wells and Atlantic Avenue in Amagansett, and South Edison and Ditch Plain in Montauk. For the time being they will be open on weekends only. 

Memorial Day ceremonies can proceed in even light of Covid-19, with a maximum of 10 people taking part, but the federal Department of Veterans Affairs has issued a blanket policy nationwide prohibiting volunteers from decorating gravesites at national veterans cemeteries, as is the annual practice in many places.

There are approximately 230 seniors in East Hampton High School's class of 2020, and community members are lining up by the dozen — virtually, of course — to make sure every one of them feels special during these challenging times.

“My priority is to make sure Suffolk County residents will be able to enjoy access to the beaches during this crisis, while we do have reduced capacity,” County Executive Steve Bellone said on Monday.

“A summertime influx of people into our area has the potential to cause renewed outbreaks of Covid-19 and reverse the progress our area has made in reducing spread of the disease through weeks of staying at home, quarantining, and following precautions in public,” town board members wrote to the governor.

Wary about the prospect of welcoming a series of new visitors in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the inn's management announced this week that it will seek to rent the entire property from June 1 to Labor Day for $1 million, or $350,000 per month.

The county is awaiting an executive order from the governor before allowing the procedures. It is expected shortly.