First of all, we see no reason to vote against the district’s adopted $34 million budget for the 2012-2013 school year. Representing an increase of $956,172 over this year’s operating budget, and a tax-levy increase of only 1.94 percent, we applaud the district’s efforts to streamline operations and generate savings.

District Superintendent Dr. John Gratto worked closely with Business Director Janet Verneuille to come up with savings totaling almost $1 million. Not only will this put the district in a position to use $500,000 of fund balance for much-needed building repairs, it allows next year’s budget to come in under the two-percent tax-levy cap, which — if you’ve been following the news — is a big deal.

We suspect things won’t look so pretty this time next year, as the school is forced to find even more ways to trim expenses in the face of rising fixed costs. (Ahem, health insurance.) But for the purposes of Tuesday’s vote, we give this budget an enthusiastic thumbs up.

The same goes for Proposition #2, which should easily garner a majority of “yes” votes. Prop. #2 would allow the school to go to bond for up to $575,000 to purchase six new school buses. The measure would save the district $60,000 in transportation costs next year, and roughly $1 million over the next 10 years.

Now the hard part — Wilcoxen, Schiavoni or Gleeson? Three very qualified candidates are running for two open seats on the Sag Harbor School Board.

Former school board president Walter Wilcoxen brings six years of experience to the table, and board member Gregg Schiavoni is running for his second three-year term. Both have been staunch supporters of the International Baccalaureate (IB) and Pre-K programs, which we feel will truly benefit the district.

Then there’s newcomer Tom Gleeson who comes with 35 years experience as a public school teacher and seven years as a recruiter working in higher education. His expertise in the education realm is indisputably vast.

Over the years, we’ve praised Wilcoxen for his depth of knowledge and insight. He is an asset to the district and we fully support another three-year term. We also admire Schiavoni’s dedication to the programs the school has already put in place.

But, ultimately we find it difficult not to support Gleeson. He has been an outspoken and visible member of the community, and has proven himself to be a fighter when it comes to the strength of the district’s educational programs. We feel Gleeson can bring an incomparable amount of experience and passion to the board, and deserves a chance to do just that.

In Bridgehampton this year, under the leadership of Superintendent Dr. Lois Favre and the school board, the school has continued to do what it does best — evolve to meet challenges while protecting its identity.

Faced with the imposition of a two-percent property tax levy cap, the Bridgehampton’s school board could have made sweeping cuts in staffing, to programs or extra curricular activities like its edible garden and greenhouse, and shelved any plans not mandated by the state.

Instead, as per usual, the school district reached out to its community, asked them to weigh in on how best to wrestle with this task and cooperatively developed a $10.6 million spending plan that falls below the tax cap without losing programming.

This was accomplished through a 15-percent cut in spending across department lines, but the faculty, staff and administration truly made this budget a possibility. They voluntarily agreed to freeze salaries for the 2012-13 school year to protect the quality of education.

That alone speaks volumes about the commitment those in this school have for not only the students of Bridgehampton, but the community as a whole.

The Bridgehampton School has managed to remain fiscally responsible while increasing its Advanced Placement courses, developing learning programs for each student and creating a garden and greenhouse that is the envy of most schools. We encourage all members of the Bridgehampton School District to turn out on May 15 in favor of the 2012-2013 budget. It’s a fair budget and should be approved.

As for the school board elections, we feel the current board of education has developed a strong working relationship with each other as well as the administration. While we appreciate Gabriella Braia’s ideas and candidacy and look forward to her continued involvement with the Bridgehampton School, ultimately we choose to endorse Lillian Tyree-Johnson, Douglas DeGroot and Ronald White. We feel as a group, these candidates bring the right measure of fiscal responsibility, parental concern and vision for the future.

The idea is to try the ferry on a trial-basis for this season only. In order for that to happen, the village’s anti-ferry legislation would have to be lifted for the trial run period.

The ferry effort is being backed by the Hampton Jitney, which is arranging landside shuttle bus transportation to bring passengers in from Bridgehampton and East Hampton and from parking lots at the school. But the fears of many residents and business owners linger and are particularly centered around what they perceive will be massive traffic and parking issues.

Though the opposition is vocal, there are still plenty of people who support the idea, and feel this trial run is the most logical way to give it a shot. A multi-faceted approach to public transportation has long been advocated by Five Town Rural Transit and espoused in various comprehensive plans. And using our waterways to get around is historically how it was done.

We agree that the trial run should be attempted and believe it is the best way to determine if it will work. While this is already May, and the village board may feel the time is too short to plan appropriately, we would urge the board and the organizers to immediately put this on the agenda for next year.

Water-borne transportation has long been touted as a way to alleviate road traffic and enhance the way we get around out here. Unless we try it, we’ll never know.

But, this is not so with a Cash Mob.

On Sunday, a hundred or more East End residents (if expectations are proven to be accurate) will flock to one business in the downtown Sag Harbor area to spend their hard-earned cash in one local store.

Yes, your purchase will be spontaneous.

And yes, you may not buy conventional items found on your weekly shopping list.

(Although, you never know…)

But it’s only $20.

And it will mean much more than that to one local business, as well as the community as a whole.

As anyone who’s spent at least a year in this village can tell, it’s hard to maintain a business in Sag Harbor. Sure, our community’s luckier than most. We have a healthy base of local businesses and a community that’s done a great job of supporting them.

But, we’ve also seen well-intentioned businesses come and go well before their time, and “Mom and Pop” shops suddenly unable to make their rent.

Promoting local businesses by touting popular catch phrases — like the über-popular “Shop Local!” — only go so far. As we’ve seen with the success of last year’s first annual HarborFrost celebration, the community does well when the energy about town is high, and people can collectively enjoy not just a day in the village, but an event associated with it.

We welcome the East End’s first Cash Mob to the Sag Harbor area, and look forward to the spark of life it can bring to town this Sunday. We’re excited to see such an innovative approach to the “Shop Local” ideal, and we’re eager for the chance to see community members gathering together to not only support the village, but to have fun while doing so.

In the end, Cash Mob is an event that encompasses the entire village. While one lucky store will certainly reap major benefits in a relatively short period of time, any opportunity to attract large numbers of people to the village to — above all else — have a good time is a boon to the business community.

What’s more, the energy we’ve seen Cash Mobs spark in other cities across the country can have an infectious buzz for the community as a whole, potentially leading to more events like it across the East End.

It’s true, Cash Mob will not be (and should not act as) a panacea for a struggling business. And a successful one-day attack from a horde of cash-laden consumers may not, in itself, make as serious a dent as it may seem. But, we imagine the effects to be more long-lasting than one day can allow.

The chance to shine another festive light on the small business community is too great to pass up.

And, anyway, let’s not overlook the most important part of this whole equation: Cash Mob may actually be fun!

So we’ll see you at the windmill at 3 p.m. this Sunday. A don’t forget to bring a $20 bill along!

That importance is not lost on those businesses and residents in the Sag Harbor community who have come to appreciate the benefits — cultural and economic — the theater provides. Thanks to those who were able to make it happen, including a special acknowledgment to Pat Malloy, the theater’s landlord. His willingness to be flexible and allow the theater the option to leave early in pursuit of a new —  permanent — home is, as theater board president Frank Filipo says, “a gift.”

With the breathing room this new arrangement allows, we look forward to Bay Street planning its future here in the harbor.

At the time, the school’s cafeteria was facing a serious deficit and the board, looking to cut costs, decided PB&J was a good, relatively cheap alternative to the full meal served to paying customers.

It is still a decent low-cost option — in theory.

However, as the old saying goes, PB&J is only as good as the company it keeps.  Whole wheat bread is better than white, and natural peanut butter is better than highly processed varieties. (Though this is fuel for another discussion.)

At issue now is not the peanut butter (and the allergies many kids have to it), but rather jelly, that gelatinous blend of fruit and sugar which compliments ground peanuts so well.  The jelly that had been used by the Sag Harbor School District until this year contained high-fructose corn syrup.  Not unusual.  Many jelly varieties do these days.

In case you don’t know, high-fructose corn syrup differs from regular table sugar (sucrose) in that it is a liquid sweetener made from corn.  It has been widely used in place of sugar for the past 30 years because, as a liquid, it is easier to transport than its granulated counterpart. We also grow an awful lot of corn in this country and it has to end up somewhere.

However, according to several studies, including one conducted by Princeton University in 2010, high-fructose corn syrup may more readily lead to obesity than table sugar. And according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the rate of obesity in the United States has doubled in the last 20 years.  Correlated or not, this is certainly cause for concern.

So, what does this have to do with jelly here in Sag Harbor?

We’re not saying that eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich will make your child obese. We’re not even saying high-fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners should be banned from the school entirely. All students have the right to bring their own lunches to school, be it a hearty mix of kale and quinoa or PB&J with two cups of Smuckers jam between slices of Wonder Bread.

The issue here is the example that the Sag Harbor School District sets for its student body.

We applaud the school board’s decision last November to adopt a Wellness Policy that leaves no room for high-fructose corn syrup and fake sugar substitutes in food and drink provided by the school. While we don’t think the school should eliminate choice, we do believe it has a responsibility to offer healthy choices and stand by those choices.

They’re out there. Beverages like plain seltzer and 100 percent fruit juices are good alternatives and popular among kids. How about mixing the two to create a fizzy fruit drink? And, to its credit, the district is working to acquire healthier food items to stock next year’s cafeteria. The bidding process is a little more involved than the comparatively effortless process of buying off the state contract.  But, the way we see it, the pay-off is well worth it.

Yes choice is good — and since the school has chosen to offer healthier options, we feel it has no obligation to provide the alternative. So if kids still really need that high-fructose corn syrup fix, let their parents buy it and pack it in a lunch box. That’s their choice.

“People of all nationalities and backgrounds will voice their appreciation for the planet and demand its protection,” a message on the official Earth Day website proclaims. “Together we will stand united for a sustainable future and call upon individuals, organizations and governments to do their part.”

When you think about it, a lot has changed since the 1970s — and for the better. Cars and appliances run far more efficiently than they did a few decades ago, using far less fossil fuel and electricity. Meanwhile, the notoriously polluted byways and waterways of the New York metro area (who among us from that unenlightened era can soon forget the stench of the Meadowlands from the New Jersey Turnpike on a hot summer’s day?) have been largely reclaimed, cleaned up and are once again full of wildlife that can thrive there without fear of death and disease from toxic waste.

Beyond the urban landscape, there’s much to celebrate on the East End on this Earth Day as well. For one, let’s be thankful for the preservation efforts that, since the 1970s, have maintained the rural areas we still have in the face of rampant development pressures (anyone remember the proposed Montauk Highway bypass that would have cut through Sag Harbor’s southern reaches?)

But alas, there’s always garbage to be found on the streets and beaches of our fair towns and villages. So here on the East End, there are Earth Day celebrations aplenty and many of them come with an opportunity to do a little community service along the way. From the Great East End Clean-Up — for which Southampton Town residents will comb through over 70 locations with pokers and trash bags in hand — to local beach cleanups and environmentally friendly activities put on by organizations like the South Fork Natural History Museum and Nature Center (SoFo) and Concerned Citizens of Montauk (CCOM), there is plenty to choose from.

Earth Day has long been popular and we expect a good number of people on the East End to show up this weekend and do their part for the environment — even if it’s simply taking that extra few moments to bend down and pick up a piece of litter on our morning walks. Every little bit helps.

The public’s awareness of environmental issues on April 22 is admirable and important. However, there are 364 other days in the year that are not given Earth Day distinction. What happens then?

This Earth Day weekend, take a mental snapshot of the efforts you see around you to protect the environment, and work to make those practices a more regular part of your daily routine. We’re not saying you have to drive to Sagg Main every morning with a poker and a trash bag and comb the beach looking for scattered debris. (We know, we have day jobs, too.)

Rather, take time during the rest of the year to pick up trash when you encounter it, for example. Do your part to eliminate plastic from the waste stream and buy reusable cloth shopping bags to keep in the trunk for when you’re out and about. And don’t leave your car idling when you “just run in to grab something.” Yes, we know it’ll only take a second, but those brief moments still create unwanted emissions.

The point is, Earth Day will inevitably end; but the need to keep our environment clean and healthy will not.

This weekend, don’t pick up trash and debris just because it’s Earth Day; clean up the environment around you because it’s the right thing to do. Because this is where we all live and we don’t want to see it ruined.

A sliver of roadway once created for commuters to get between Southampton and Sag Harbor, the road has become much more significant for cars regularly traveling the length of the East End. It is often used as a zippy alternative to Montauk Highway, meaning speeding autos and commercial truck traffic are regular fixtures on this bayside artery.

For years residents have complained of increased traffic. Noyac Road, the main thruway for a relatively small community primarily comprised of homes, has become a by-way for an influx of vehicles, large and small. It’s annoying and dangerous to residents. And it’s also physically damaging to that road.

The road was not designed for incessant truck traffic. The noise is obnoxiously close to many residences, sure, but the weight of those vehicles digs into the pavement and causes more unnecessary cracks and blisters than the highway department can regularly keep up with.

We’re happy to hear Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst has been proactive in putting forth legislation that would ban commercial truck traffic on Noyac Road. The proposed legislation would prohibit trucks over 10,000 pounds — except those vehicles with reason to be there, like school buses or delivery trucks making stops on or near Noyac Road — and subject any violators to traffic fines.

This is a measure that’s been talked about for years, and it’s something that should have been enacted a long time ago, as Noyac Road traffic is nothing new. Southampton Town will hold a public hearing on the matter on Tuesday, April 24 and we hope to hear many voices in support of this plan.

However, we urge the Southampton Town Board not to lose sight of the bigger issue at hand. There is a real problem with the curve in front of Cromer’s Market and the Whalebone Gift Shop. We believe the ban on trucks on Noyac Road is a great way of addressing part of the problem, but it is in no way a silver bullet.

We’re pleased to see the town responded favorably to the wishes of Noyac residents at a community meeting two weeks ago and proceeded to back away from the extensive plan to totally transform the road in that area. (The handful of concrete medians, including a “loading zone” that blocks direct access to Bay Avenue, were a little too excessive.) And we’re eager to see more immediate measures being taken. Striping and/or rumble strips are a great way to initiate small steps toward change that the community, and the town at large, can begin to respond to.

At the same time, residents need to understand that anything the town does is going to change something. The hamlet is going to evolve whether residents want it to or not, and they have to be participants to help manage that change as best as possible.

What we really should be doing is making that road more pedestrian friendly, with bike lanes and sidewalks. Ultimately, we should not only work to ease the dangers that are so prevalent on that stretch of roadway, we should work to make Noyac Road even better than convention. But, that’s not possible without us first committing to some sort of change.

Again, there are few who would argue with the fact there is a problem on Noyac Road. ?But, it’s not going to get any better until we take decisive steps toward making that change.

Importantly, also, we believe the village has made the right choice in tightening up loopholes that have led to abuses of the mooring system in the harbor. Up to this point, mooring holders who did not have a boat were able to hold on to their moorings, and then sublet them through the launch operator. This resulted in a tidy bit of money for the holder of the mooring, but prevented village residents who wanted a mooring, and had a boat, from getting one.

The system of subletting moorings is legitimate, and serves two purposes: it allows the launch operator to earn a few more dollars, and also makes the harbor more dynamic, allowing visiting vessels to come in and spend a night or two when other vessels normally moored here are away. But the system was clearly abused by former boat owners who continued to hold onto their moorings.

After decades of turning its back on the waterfront, Sag Harbor, over the past 20 years or so, has realized it has a great asset there. Like port towns up and down the coast, we have become a destination for the sailing and motor yacht community, something that a generation before us fought to develop. Continuing to provide services that support that community is critical to fostering a waterfront economy.

Name a person who isn’t fond of the sight of furry little pets and adorable baby farm animals. It’s hard to resist the sight of puppies and kittens with their teensy little paws and giant floppy ears. And with the Easter season in full swing, April brings a new set of swoon-worthy animals to admire.

The operative word here being “admire.”

Spring is baby birthing time in the animal kingdom. It’s not just domestic dogs and cats that seem to be popping up all over. Fluffy bunnies, soft yellow baby ducklings, butter ball chicks — all are objects of affection, especially for grade school children it seems, who often hound their parents endlessly for one of their own.

How cute they would look in the Easter basket on Sunday morning. Yes, this time of year brings with it the temptation to bring a new furry or feathery creature into your home—which is great. There are certainly plenty of animals on the East End in need of good homes. But, before you adopt, realize that owning an animal requires years of responsibility, care, resources, time — and most of all, an undying commitment.

One of the reasons there are so many animals ready for adoption is the fact that some one has decide to give their animals up — or allow them to breed unchecked. Things have improved, particularly on the dog and cat front, since the 1970s, when the Animal Rescue Fund (ARF) of the Hamptons was founded.

A sign in its Wainscott offices harking back to its founding days reads, “Pet Owners, Have a Happy Vacation, When it Ends, Don’t Forget Your Valuables: Your Pets.”

But animals are still being left by the wayside — dumped at places like ARF in the night, like a baby in Dickensian times on the steps of an orphanage, or, even worse, just dumped and left to fend for themselves in the wild.

The idea of owning a cat or keeping a roost of chickens in your backyard is a lot different than the reality of the situation. Caring for an animal requires resources. It’s time and money, plain and simple.

Now, let’s be frank, it’s not the same as raising a kid. But, it’s definitely more involved than having a pet rock. And if you decide to bring an animal into your life today, you have a personal responsibility to realize this is not a temporary arrangement.

And remember — those chicks, duckies and bunnies that are so irresistible on Easter morn will likely be forgotten altogether by the kids once they’ve grown to be roosters, ducks and rabbits with all the bad habits and droppings that come with their species.

Don’t get us wrong, the benefits to owning a dog, a cat, a few chickens or a fluffy bunny are numerous. Animals can be very therapeutic and comforting. They can make great companions. Let’s face it, they’re pretty darn cute.

But resisting the urge to adopt a pet now, is better than adopting and abandoning it with an expectation that it’s someone else’s problem to deal with.

Last year alone, the school board presented a budget that projected a 6 percent increase to the tax levy, and a year before that the projected tax-levy increase hovered around a whopping 10 percent—which, at that point, was the highest tax rate increase the district had experienced in 10 years.

But times have changed. This two percent tax cap is here to stay. This year, the district has not only had its sights set on keeping its budget under control, it has taken a magnifying class to current expenditures.

The business department took crucial steps to streamline its costs — from refinancing the 2002 Bond Issue ($22,524) to paying off Teachers’ Retirement System Incentives early ($132,240) — garnering a total savings of nearly $400,000. And the Special Education Department, which has worked hard over the years to facilitate special needs students’ transitions into regular classes, this year showed savings of almost $500,000.

In total, the district claims it has taken measures that have resulted in exactly $935,413 of cost savings.

Furthermore, the district has shown significant efforts to think outside-the-box to save even more on costs. While the district proposes spending nearly $570,000 of tax-payer money to buy six new buses this year, that money would be accounted for via cost savings by the 2017-2018 school year. Overall, the business office projects this maneuver would generate upwards of $170,000 in savings over the next seven years.

Our hats are off to you, Sag Harbor School District.

However, we can’t help but worry about what this budget process will look like down the road. And not just in the distant future, we worry about where we’ll be exactly this time next year.

Getting through the first year of a mandatory tax cap is admirable. But getting through it in year two, three, four and beyond — well, that’s going to take some doing.

So while the district has taken several cost-cutting measures that have helped with the budgeting process this year, these won’t necessarily generate additional savings each consecutive year. In fact, while special education has seen a dramatic decrease in costs this year, this number can just as easily increase in coming years—and this is not something the district can necessarily plan for.

At this week’s school board meeting, board members Walter Wilcoxen and Ed Drohan spoke to a need for developing a long-term plan for the district. And we support this idea in full.

The two-percent tax-levy cap will be here again next year, and the year after that, and the year after that… for at least four more years until the state will finally have the chance to reassess the legislation. Who knows what will happen then? But in the meantime our school district is looking at a cap, all the while costs of benefits are expected to increase each year by more than that.

At some point, the tax cap is not going to allow us to keep up with those expenses — the next round of contract negotiations could be an issue. This means cutting costs. This can mean cutting programs, or staff members, or teachers, or — you knew we were getting to this — cutting benefits.

It was mentioned on Monday and we’re going to say it again: we highly encourage the Sag Harbor School District to enter into contract negotiations with the teachers’ union early. And we urge the teachers’ union to consider negotiating down.

The cost of personnel is high and continuing to climb. Let’s try to curb these growing costs before we have to make serious cuts to our children’s educational programs.

And let’s not wait until next year to do it.