Enters large Red fox.

I chase.

Buddy’s face reflects…”Whoa… What just happened“

- Audrey Gaul

With a projected 1.4-percent increase in the tax levy, the amount of money the village needs to raise through property taxes to fund the budget has not exceeded a state-mandated two-percent property tax cap, noted Sag Harbor Mayor Brian Gilbride during a budget work session last Thursday. In fact, it is one of the only municipalities on the East End that has not passed a resolution allowing it to pierce the tax cap.

“I think we have done pretty well,” said Mayor Gilbride on Tuesday. “But I wouldn’t want to cut anything more. Already we have some projects that we are expecting will cost more than we originally anticipated.”

The proposed 2012-2013 budget is for $8,056,311 in the general fund, which is a 2.78-percent increase over the 2011-2012 budget. In addition to paring down the budget over the last month, the village board of trustees had also chosen to use $30,000 of the $2.1 million in reserve to offset an increase in taxes.

Mayor Gilbride said outside of property taxes, the village expects to bring in $2,217,054 in revenues, a $314,000 increase over last year. According to the anticipated revenues report, those increases come from an expected bump in monies collected by the village’s harbor master for dockage, by the building department for safety inspection fees, fines collected by the Village of Sag Harbor as well as increases in state aid.

Based on assessed values of homes in Sag Harbor Village, the general fund budget will result in a tax increase of one-percent. For a home in the village with an estimated value of $795,000, this would result in a tax bill of $2,175.80, a $21.55 increase over 2011-2012.

The village’s sewer fund budget has remained exactly the same as last year, reported Trustee Robby Stein, who is the board’s liaison to the wastewater treatment plant. That budget is for $506,224, with just $20,588 available to offset the cost placed on users within the sewer district. However, because of a higher consumption level for the water use portion of the sewer payments, the rate charged per unit will decrease from $5.38 to $5.29 in 2012-2013, said Mayor Gilbride. That could translate into $234 in annual savings for some of the highest users in the sewer district, he said, with restaurants expected to save about $70 annually and a single family home saving about $24.

While the village has managed to keep the general fund budget below the two-percent tax cap, the budget does not include the cost of several high profile projects Mayor Gilbride has committed to over the course of his term. Those include the remediation of Havens Beach, the bulkhead at West Water Street and improvements to the Municipal Building.

While the Havens Beach project is still awaiting final approval from the Army Corp of Engineers, the village has begun the first phase of the Municipal Building project. This week, it also received bids for the bulkhead project at West Water Street, which is meant to prevent erosion on the beach from threatening the roadway.

The village had hoped the project would cost around $250,000, however, when bids were opened on Monday morning the lowest price came in around $380,000 with the highest well over $400,000, said Mayor Gilbride.

On Tuesday, Mayor Gilbride said he would meet with Superintendent of Public Works Dee Yardley to give the lowest bidder, Keith Grimes, a call to see if the project could be completed by the end of next month.

“If we can get this done by season, it will be one less thing on our plates,” said Mayor Gilbride.

The cost of this capital project will be funded through the village’s reserve account, he added.

Also missing from the 2012-2013 tentative budget is any increase in salaries for the Sag Harbor Village Police Department, which has been working without a contract for over a year. The contract dispute is currently in mediation and according to Mayor Gilbride both parties are scheduled to come back to the table with the mediator in June.

A public hearing on the tentative budget will be held on Friday, March 30 at 5 p.m.

At last Wednesday’s meeting of the Sag Harbor School Board, where the 2012-2013 budget was supposed to be finalized, a lot was accomplished and much more was discussed. However, a decision on the budget was not among the tasks checked off.

“In all the conversations with business administrators in Albany over the last month,” said Director of Business Operations Janet Verneuille, “the rules have been changing, so they recommended we wait until the next meeting [to finalize the budget].”

Verneuille’s not worried about holding off, though, because she said, “We were early anyway.”

In the meantime, a detailed breakdown of the proposed $34,182,256 budget was presented by Verneuille and Dr. John Gratto, district superintendent. The budget represents a 2.88 percent increase in total spending over the current budget.

This is the first year school districts and municipalities are required to stay below an increase of 2 percent over the previous year when calculating how much they will need to raise through taxes to pay for their budgets. (Although there are a number of expenses that are excluded from the rule).

To stay under the tax levy limit, the school district was looking at a maximum tax levy of $31,591,184. The budget presented Wednesday had a tax levy which came in below that amount: $31,546,719, giving the district a $44,465 buffer. However, some of the numbers in the proposal are still estimates — and potential new expenditures were also discussed at the meeting.

In the proposed budget, there are very few cuts. Dr. Gratto said class sizes will remain as they are, with 17 to 18 students in each class in the primary grades and 20 to 22 students in the middle and high school classes.

“We thought about cutting classes from four [per grade] to three,” said Dr. Gratto. “We could have eliminated seven teachers, but would have increased class size. We decided not to do that.”

The board also did not cut any sports, clubs or any support services in the budget. The board was, however, able to find some substantial savings this year.

“We saved money in a lot of ways,” said Dr. Gratto. “In 2010-2011, eight teachers left and we replaced them with 5.8 positions. This saved us $720,000. We also trimmed special education teaching staff by three because our special ed classification rate has gone down.”

Dr. Gratto made a point that services were not taken away from students who needed them, but rather, “We have fewer students needing these services.”

This decrease in special education classifications came about in various ways, and School Board President Mary Anne Miller explained that one of the most important tactics is early intervention.

“We retrained our staff to help them identify issues,” she said in a phone interview. “If you can diagnose early on, many can be out [of special ed] by grades 3 or 4, and that’s what you want.”

She added that many students used to be sent out of the area to receive needed services.

“We’ve seen great savings from bringing some special ed kids back into the building, thinking outside the box to change offerings,” said Miller.

While Miller explained that every year students from the district are sent to other facilities, depending on their needs, more students were able to be served right on the Pierson campus with a few changes. “We now have our own life skills program in our building. It required more staffing, but there were so many benefits, both financial and quality of life.”

“Dr. Gratto wanted to try bringing the students back to our building,” she said. Now, instead of being bused out of the district for services, students are getting special services at Pierson. “We found quite a bit of savings as well as improved quality of life for the students and their families to not be transported away every day.”

Another way in which the district has saved money in recent years is by purchasing two buses, which allows the district to provide more transportation in-house. Dr. Gratto wants to multiply these savings by investing in more buses this year.

“When voters approved buying two buses, we saved a lot of money,” said Dr. Gratto. “Still though, we are contracting five regular runs with Montauk Bus Company. If voters approve six more buses, we could do virtually all our transportation in-house, and not have to contract out.”

Given some of the expenditures, like field trips, which cost the district $92 per hour with a 3-hour minimum, the estimated savings in busing costs would be over $1 million in the next 10 years, administrators said.

“Because of the way the debt payment falls, we will save $44,314 in the first year,” Verneuille said in a follow-up phone interview. “We can’t factor these savings into our budget because we don’t know if it’s going to pass or not.”

Another issue that came up at the meeting, and has not yet been factored into the proposed budget, is student accident insurance. For several months, the district had no student accident insurance plan in place. While liability insurance is required by law, accident insurance is not. There was some debate among the board members as to whose responsibility it is to cover students in the case of an accident where no one is at fault.

“The fundamental question,” said board member Chris Tice, “is while students are under the care of the district, do we feel we have an obligation to provide them with insurance, considering we require them to engage in high-risk activity? Personally I think we have that responsibility.”

Other board members, like Walter Wilcoxen, argued that students were not involved in high-risk activities and it should not be the school’s responsibility to insure them.

Miller advocated a parent-purchased insurance plan, saying “I like that parents can take care of it themselves. I can’t rationalize the $45,000 in the budget.”

Board member Sandi Kruel said that, “To not have it is just not acceptable. Every time my kid goes out and gets on a bus, it’s an accident waiting to happen.”

In the end, it came to a vote of 3-3 and board member Theresa Samot broke the tie with a vote for the school to purchase the plan. The student accident insurance plan, Chartis, will cost the district $45,765 and will go into effect as soon as possible.

Resident Elena Loreto stood up after the vote, imploring the board to next time “realize there are many seniors having difficulties paying yearly increases in taxes…You have a viable alternative by allowing parents to pay for their children’s insurance. I am not going to ask you to revote it.

But the next time something comes up to add something else to the budget think about your little neighbor who turns the heat down to 55 to save money.”

When asked how the plan would be covered, Verneuille said “I don’t know whether we’ll adjust the budget or cut something in another spot.”

“Those funds will come out of the undesignated fund balance, and that will affect the proposed budget,” said Miller on the phone. “That’s a discussion we have to have. Janet is quoting that we are about $40,000 under having to pierce the cap. If we decide to muck around with numbers as they are now, there will have to be a revision someplace else.”

The next budget meeting will take place on March 12, and these issues will be discussed. A decision is expected on the proposed budget at that meeting.

The winter months have come and gone, and before all of the heavy snow clothes have even made their way out of the closet we find ourselves on the cusp of spring. Heralding the arrival of the new season is the beginning of baseball season in high schools across Long Island. For the Pierson/Bridgehampton Whalers that means varsity tryouts on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances that means third-year Head Coach John Tortorella  will have a completed roster for League VIII play by Thursday afternoon.

Last year the Whalers finished the season with a solid league record of  11-7, and a trip to the Suffolk County Class C Championship Game. The team fell to McGann-Mercy in the finals.

Tortorella expects to field to the same team from last year, excepting the three seniors that graduated last may.

Those graduated seniors left some large holes in the Whalers’ roster this season, none bigger than the one left by starting pitcher Jake Weingartner.

Weingartner had been the team’s number one pitcher last year. He also played as one of the team’s shortstops and proved to be an offensive presence at the plate. He was named to the 2011 All-County team for his performance last season.

The Whalers also lost two key bats last year, those of All League center fielder Tyler Gilbride and outfielder Gavin Kudlak.

Tortorella said that the team will miss both players for their versatility on defense and their power hitting.

“We will have to pull up some underclassmen,” said Tortorella about replacing the graduated seniors, “we will see how that goes.”

Junior Coleman Vila will take over the one spot on the team’s pitching rotation. While Aaron Schiavoni and Forrest Loesch, both All League freshmen last season, will occupy the next two spots in the starting rotation.

The rest of the bullpen has yet to be decided according to Tortorella, with players competing for the role in tryouts next week.

“I hope our pitching turns out being good,” he said, “we have some depth and we have some potential.”

Among the other returning players from last year, Tortorella expects Jake Bennett, Hunter Leyser, Michael Heller, Emet Evjen and Brendan Hemby to return to the team.

“This year I think we are just solid across the board,” said Tortorella.

The defending Class C Champions Mercy left League VIII after last season, and have moved up to the more competitive League VII. With the champs out of the league, that gives a lot of hungry teams their own chance to capture the title.

“Right now [the field] is wide open,” said Tortorella. “Every team in the league is bringing back a lot of players.”

This year League VIII will be comprised of the Whalers, the Port Jefferson Royals, the Southold Settlers, the Smithtown Christian Knights, the Greenport/Shelter Island Porters and the Stony Brook Bears.

The Whalers begin their season with a series of scrimmages in mid-March. These scrimmages will have no effect on the Whalers overall league record. The first of these “friendlies” is at the Southampton Mariners on Saturday, March 17 at 10 a.m. This is followed by two more scrimmages against East Hampton, the first will be held at Mashashimuet Park on Monday, March 19 at 4 p.m., the other is an away game at East Hampton on Wednesday, March 21 at 4 p.m.

The first league game of the season is a home game on February 27 at 4:40 p.m. The match will be the first of four league games the Whalers will play against the Port Jefferson Royals.

Helen A. Harrison

When the Archives of American Art invited me to be the guest curator of a show celebrating Jackson Pollock’s 100^th birthday, I jumped at the chance to dig into the original documents. His personal papers, which were donated to the Archives by his widow, Lee Krasner, have been digitized and are accessible to anyone with an Internet connection, but the exhibition’s purpose is to display the actual stuff. There’s nothing like the real things to take you into the artist’s world — the family snapshots, the personal notes, the scrapbooks, the mementoes of a short but enormously influential life and career. There was one drawback, however: the collection is in Washington, DC, quite a curatorial commute from Sag Harbor. But by traveling to the material online, I was able to make a preliminary selection, so I knew what I was looking for when I got to the Archives and hit the boxes.

I was eager to find one particular document that’s often been reproduced and quoted. The original is filed under “Photographs” instead of where it belongs, in “Notes by Pollock,” because it’s pasted on the back of a Hans Namuth portrait of the artist. It’s a handwritten statement, actually a series of phrases summarizing his intentions, which probably dates from 1950. One phrase, “memories arrested in space,” gave me the exhibition’s title; another, “energy and motion made visible,” was used by B.H. Friedman to subtitle his Pollock biography. The paper is good quality, the words are elegantly arranged on the page, and the document is signed, as if Pollock meant it to be official. It neatly and concisely says, “this is what I’m trying to do, this is what my art is about.” Pollock was said to be inarticulate regarding his work, but this piece of paper contradicts that notion.

In a file labeled “Fan Mail to Pollock,” I spotted a letter from a woman named Helen K. Sellers of Charleston, SC, written on August 8, 1949. That was the publication date of the now-famous Life magazine article on Pollock, headlined, “Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?” Mrs. Sellers wrote on behalf of her seven year-old son Manning, who loved one of the paintings in the Life color spread, the long canvas identified as Number Nine. (It’s now called Summertime: Number 9A, 1948, and it’s in the Tate Modern in London.) Manning asked her to tell Pollock that he’d put it in his scrapbook, “the first painting that he has ever cut out,” and that he wanted the artist to have his picture in exchange — not a painting, but a photograph of him with his cocker spaniel, Snafu. I’ll bet Pollock never had a more heartfelt and sincere tribute. He kept the letter and the photo, and there they were, 63 years later, in the fan mail file.

Well, Manning may have fallen in love with Number Nine, but I fell in love with Manning and Snafu. Not only did I want the documents in the show, but I thought that Manning would like to know about it. Again thanks to the Internet I was able to track him down in Florida. He was surprised to hear from me, and thrilled to learn that his fan letter has survived — although Snafu has long since gone to that great dog park in the sky.

“Memories Arrested in Space: a centennial tribute to Jackson Pollock from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art,” opened on January 28, the 100^th anniversary of Pollock’s birth, and will be on view through May 15 in the Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery, Donald W. Reynolds Center, 8th and F Streets, NW, Washington, D.C. Sample the exhibition at: www.aaa.si.edu/exhibitions/memories-arrested.

By Andrew Rudansky

Diving into the icy cold waters surrounding the East End during the frosty winter months is not the most comfortable way to spend an afternoon. But take it from me, just because plunging isn’t the most relaxing experience, doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyable and rewarding in its own right.

As the self-proclaimed, resident expert in winter swimming at The Sag Harbor Express, I have personally taken chilly jaunts into the bays and oceans off of Long Island many times this winter. A recent convert to winter swimming, my first plunge was the result of a bar bet this past November. But losing that bet might have been the best thing for me.

The number two in the country Alabama Crimson Tide was hosting the number one LSU Tigers on November 5 in a college gridiron classic that was to become a preview of this year’s BCS title game.

In an effort to make the game more interesting, a bet was wagered with the loser made to strip down and take a dip into the chilly November waters.

I said “Roll Tide,” but after a brutal 9-6 Alabama loss the tide rolled me as I splashed about in the dark waters of Noyac Bay.

Without a doubt I am an awful gambler, and since that chilly night in November I have bet my way into the chilly waters on close to 20 different occasions. What I did not expect was the benefits that my poor gambling skills, and the subsequent plunges, would have on my health.

Winter swimming has been practiced for years across the globe. Many in Finland enjoy the occasional therapeutic ice swim, members of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club have been taking winter dips for over a century, and the devotees of the Orthodox Church in Russia celebrate the feast of Epiphany with a quick dunk beneath the ice.

“I think overall, if you don’t have any serious medical conditions, this swimming [in the winter] is generally pretty safe,” said Dr. Anthony Knott M.D.

Dr. Knott said he is a great proponent of cold water plunging, adding that he jumps into the waters near his office on Main Street, Montauk on a weekly basis. He is such a fan of the practice that he has recommended the practice to some of his patients for the associated health effects.

“It reduces stress hormones, it increases your white blood cell count, bolsters the immune system, and it increases your blood circulation by increasing the blood thinning enzymes,” said Dr. Knott. “Also, from a mental health point-of-view, it clears the mind.”

He said that those with heart conditions and serious asthma should use precaution when plunging, as the freezing temperatures could cause complications with either condition.

This Saturday, February 11, the entire town will get the opportunity to experience the exhilaration of winter swimming at this year’s HarborFrost celebration. The Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps will be hosting their second annual “Frosty Plunge,” a charity event intended to raise money for the EMT ambulance fund.

The plunge is set to occur at 3:30 p.m. next to the windmill, near Long Wharf; the corps is asking for a $25 donation to participate.

For those people taking part in the upcoming “Frosty Plunge” let me first say that you never get used to the shocking experience, however, there are some tips to help ease into the experience.

Surviving the icy water requires a mix of informed preparation and healthy amount of willpower. With plenty of both, any dip into the bay can be an invigorating and not-to-painful experience.

For those looking to take the plunge, there is much to do before even stepping foot on the sands.

Coming prepared is of the utmost importance, so bring a bag with a warm hat, gloves, a comfy sweater and plenty of dry towels, the more the better. Most importantly make sure to bring a pair of sandals or water shoes, as the cold sand can be the worst part of any plunging experience.

This year, Phao will be offering hot soup at the beach, and the Sag Harbor Gym will open its doors for the use of its showers for the plungers. Take advantage of both after getting out of the water, and drink as much hot cocoa as you can get your hands on. Getting as warm as possible after the plunge is important to avoid mild hypothermia, a risk that Dr. Knott said was possible if someone is exposed to prolonged, cold temperatures.

As for willpower, a plunger’s state of mind is extremely important before getting into the water. It is a challenge to ignore every iota of human instinct about self-preservation, and hurl your entire body into the freezing cold water.

“When you are standing there on the beach you ask yourself ‘why am I doing this,’” said Andrew Ward, co-founder of the Shelter Island Polar Bear Club and winter swimming enthusiast.

Ward and the other members of the club jump into the waters off of Hay Beach, Shelter Island every Sunday at 12 noon, starting each winter on January 1.

“Obviously this is not for everybody,” he said, “a lot of people don’t like feeling uncomfortable.”

The actual plunging should be approached like tearing off a Band-Aid. It is best done quickly, and with little hesitation.

“You just have to start running,” said Ward about plunging, “and then you have to just pull the trigger.”

HarborFrost, now in its second year after a highly successful inaugural showing, is a winter festival meant to bring the residents of Sag Harbor and the surrounding hamlets together.

Hosted by The Sag Harbor Chamber of Commerce, HarborFrost is a time for residents to express their love of Sag Harbor, as well as their acceptance of the winter season they are forced to endure.

Of all the many events at this year’s festival, and there are many, the one that I won’t be missing is the “Frosty Plunge.” Hope to see all of you there.

According to Southampton Town Police, an unidentified man allegedly accosted a female jogger in a parking lot in Long Beach Park on Thursday, February 2 around 2:28 p.m.

The woman claims that the man, thought to be middle-aged and Hispanic, parked his small, green sedan in the Long Beach lot then exited the vehicle and asked her for directions to an unspecified bank.  According to her testimony, the man then placed his arm around her shoulders and asked her to “come show him.”

Police say the jogger then grew alarmed and struck the man in the head with her iPod and fled the location with no further incident.

The suspect was reportedly wearing a black, fleece, zippered jacket and a plain blue baseball cap.  Detectives are investigating the incident and request that anyone with information call the Southampton Town Detective Division at 702-2230.

By Jim Marquardt

On  the wall of the Eastville Community Historical Society on Hampton Street is a modestly framed roster of “19^th Century Eastville Whalers,” the ships they sailed on and their crew assignments. A little research revealed that the 13 men listed were only a fraction of the thousands of African-Americans who manned ships that sailed from Sag Harbor, New Bedford, Nantucket and Greenport, pursuing their giant quarry throughout the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans. White and Black sailors joined rainbow crews of Shinnecock Indians, Pacific Islanders, Creoles, Peruvians, West Indians, Colombians and a few Europeans. At sea, skin color was far less important than courage and skill, and the only measure of a shipmate was seamanship and success at catching whales. One Black seaman in those days said, “A colored man is looked upon as a man, and is promoted in rank according to ability to perform the same duties as the white man.”

Sag Harbor whalers came upon great adventures. Pyrrus Concer, a steerman and harpooner was aboard the Manhattan, commanded by Mercator Cooper, when it rescued 11 shipwrecked fishermen near Japan in 1846. Captain Cooper decided to return the sailors to their homeland, though foreign vessels were forbidden to enter Japanese waters. Reaching port in the Bay of Jeddo, armed boats surrounded the Manhattan and Japanese officials demanded an explanation for the intrusion. The Japanese were intrigued with Concer, never having seen a Black man before. When they understood the Americans’ peaceful purpose, the Japanese rewarded Cooper with spars, water, rice and fresh provisions, then ordered the Manhattan to leave and never to return. (A few years later, Concer joined the gold rush to California, but soon came back and in retirement sailed excursions around Lake Agawam in Southampton.)

In the golden age of whaling from 1800 to 1860, according to “Black Hands, White Sails” by Pat McKissack, African-Americans made up at least 25 percent of whaleship crews, and after the Civil War, as white sailors found jobs ashore, the numbers grew to 50 percent.

Work on a whaleship was tough, smelly and dangerous, and voyages to the far reaches of the oceans might go on for two or three years. McKissak says whaling’s death rate was second only to mining. A young sailor wrote, “There is no class of men in the world who are so unfairly dealt with, so oppressed, so degraded, as the seamen who man the vessels engaged in the American whale fishery.”

We’d like to think ships out of Sag Harbor took a more enlightened approach to their crews, but that’s probably unrealistic. The heyday of whaling coincided with the years of slavery in the United States and many Black crewmen were escaped slaves who took any job under any conditions. On a whaleship they were safe from slave hunters.

According to the Long Island Historical Journal, when Fair Helen departed Sag Harbor in 1817, her crew included Black sailors Cato Rogers and Nananias Cuffee. The Abigail shipped out a year later with six Black whalers, and in 1819 there were seven African-Americans in a crew of 15. They served as steermen-harpooners, stewards, cooks, seamen and greenhands. A few became mates and masters.

In 2000, the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum and Eastville Community Historical Society mounted a celebration of Black whalers. One of the exhibits was a heavy canvas “ditty bag” that belonged to Black boat-steerer Clayton King who shipped out from Sag Harbor in 1865 on the Odd Fellow, and in 1868 on the Myra. The ditty bag held a marlinspike and fid for splicing rope, a jack knife, a ball of beeswax to coat needles, a “palm” of leather fitted with a metal socket and thumb hole for mending sails.

Isaiah Peake was a cook aboard the Sag Harbor bark Oscar under the command of Isaac Ludlow of Bridgehampton. While the ship was anchored off Rio de Janeiro, a drunken crewman named Curtis instigated a mutiny. When Curtis came at Ludlow with an axe, the captain shot him, ending the mutiny. A New York court tried the mutineers   and sentenced Peake to only eight months in prison, probably realizing he was more a bystander than a mutineer.

Whaling was a major U.S. industry in the first half of the 19^th century, producing basic ingredients for oil lamps, soap, smokeless candles, machine lubricants, bristles for brushes and brooms, bones for hoop skirts, corsets and umbrella frames. Crew compensation was calculated in the form of “lays,” a percentage share of the returning whaleship’s valuable cargo. Owners took 50 percent, captains 12 percent. A greenhand might get less than a half-percent before “expenses” were deducted to cover cash advances, clothing from the ship’s slop chest, tobacco and equipment. After months and years at sea some sailors owed money to the ship owners.

When the whaling industry began to decline, many ships sailed for the California coast where gold was discovered. One of them, the Sabina, with Black seaman John Crook aboard, took six months to reach the West Coast. In those times, square-rigged ships had to sail thousands of miles south down along two continents, west around turbulent Cape Horn, and thousands of miles north to California. Like many others, Sabina’s crew deserted the ship for the gold fields. She never returned to Sag Harbor and lies under the City of San Francisco. Some entrepreneurial Blacks made more money as cooks, barbers and shopkeepers in the mining camps that they could ever make chasing dreams of gold.

African-Americans made a unique contribution to whaling. Based on the “call and response” of slave spirituals, they created sea chanteys sung by sailors to the rhythm of their work. It was said that a good song was worth ten men on a rope. Many Black sailors now rest in the century-old cemetery near St. David’s AME Zion Church on Route 114. Locked away with them in the holy ground are memories of long voyages where they faced great hardship, but found pride and equality by meeting the challenges of a daunting profession.

By Andrew Rudansky

Still riding high from their 51-24 victory over the visiting Port Jefferson Royals on December 10, the Pierson Lady Whalers varsity basketball team was brought back down to earth after finding themselves on the business end of a 54-18 beating at home by the Westhampton Lady Hurricanes on Saturday, December 17.

The Lady Whalers were stunned in the first quarter when they were outscored 26-0 by a Westhampton squad led by forward Kristen Polan. Polan scored nine of her game-high 13 points in the first.

For most of the first half the Hurricanes blew right through the Lady Whalers’ zone defense, and on the other side of the ball created turnovers and blocked shots that stifled the Whalers offense.

The Pierson squad, now with a record of 1-4, was without long-time head coach Dennis Case, who missed the game due to personal reasons. Replacing him as skipper for the game was assistant coach Kevin Barron. This game was Barron’s first time as head coach of the Lady Whalers.

While admitting that few things went right in the first half, Barron said there was a lot to like about the Lady Whalers in the game.

“They played a lot better in the second half,” said Barron. “And when we switched out of zone, I thought that our man-to-man defense showed a lot of promise.”

Bridget Canavan led the Lady Whalers with six points, while Emily Hinz, Katherine Matthers, Rachel Saidman and Abby Ruiz also contributed to the team’s offensive output.

“So I told them just now that that is a victory in our book,” said Barron, “I gave them a goal, hold them under 55, we held them to 54.”

The Lady Whalers traveled to McGann-Mercy yesterday to take on the Monarchs in another non-league matchup; however that game was not over as of press time.

After the winter break the girls will have another test when they head across the ferry to take on Kelsey McGayhey and the Shelter Island Lady Indians (1-2) on Tuesday, January 3 at 5:45 p.m.

“In my opinion, we’re going to look back at this and question why we didn’t do this earlier,” Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst said to her fellow council members.

Throne-Holst was speaking at a town board work session last Friday, December 9 in reference to a proposed ban on single-use plastic bags throughout the town of Southampton.

“I think the entire world is moving in this direction,” added Throne-Holst, a stanch proponent of the measure.

The proposal to ban plastic bags in the town of Southampton comes nearly six months after the first work session was held on the matter. In that time, the town’s sustainability committee chairman Tip Brolin sought more information from the town’s business community and consumers, specifically addressing concerns many businesses initially expressed regarding the high price of replacing plastic with recyclable paper.

The town’s proposed plastic ban initially would effectively ban single-use plastic bags less than two mils thick, and less than 28 inches by 36 inches in size. Smaller plastic bags — like those used to hold fish and produce — would not be affected by the ban.

The legislation also originally included provisions that would have allowed stores to carry paper bags made of 40 percent recyclable materials, a stipulation that essentially mirrors similar legislation already enacted in Westport, Conn. (Most grocery stores use paper bags that are made of 30 percent recyclable materials.)

“I do generally agree with the fact that we need to get greener,” said Debbie Longnecker of Cromer’s Market on Noyac Road.

However, she expressed some concern with the added price tag associated with purchasing reusable bags and paper bags.

At one point, she explained, “We gave reusable bags away. However, not everyone brings them back.”

She said the store’s winter clientele is more inclined to get into the habit of consistently bringing reusable bags when they shop. But she said it’s a different story with the summer people who are in the area for a short period of time and less inclined to bring their own bags when they shop.

“I think a lot more planning has to be done before [this law is enacted],” she added. “There needs to be a cost-effective alternative before you say to people: You can’t do this anymore.”

Partially quelling Longnecker’s concern, Brolin explained last week that the proposed legislation will in fact allow stores to use the less expensive paper bags made of 30 percent recyclable materials. Plus, he added that follow-up surveys with nearly 1,700 shoppers in Westport, Conn. revealed that 53 percent were consistently using reusable bags after the plastic ban went into effect. Brolin compared this number to the nearby Norwalk/Wilton area — which has not implemented a plastic bag ban — where the number is closer to 10 percent.

Should Southampton Town decide to implement legislation that bans single-use plastic bags, it would follow in the footsteps of both Southampton Village, which banned plastic last spring, and East Hampton Village, which adopted similar legislation last month. The legislation proposed for the town would essentially be the same as that adopted in the Village of Southampton, except that paper bags would only have to be made with 30 percent recyclable materials as opposed to 40 percent.

Before adopting the legislation, Brolin reported that the town initially discussed promoting the use of reusable shopping bags by educating the community on the harms of single-use plastic bags — the fact that most of the bags are not recycled and are piling up in landfills and littering the oceans, thereby potentially harming at least 260 different sea species. However, Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst said that after a lackluster response from the business community, she feels the best tactic at this point is to adopt the legislation and spend six months before the policy is enacted making residents aware of this change.

According to Liz Plouff, the town’s sustainability coordinator, education will come in the way of press releases and conferences, as well as a partnership with SeaTV, the town government television channel. In addition, Plouff has suggested the town hand-out reusable bags to town residents at no charge. She said the town could finance this measure by getting local stores and businesses to pay a small fee in exchange for getting their logos printed on the bags.

The town board will hold its first official public hearing on the proposed plastic bag legislation on Thursday, December 22.