by Marianna Levine

James Dwoskin, a commercial real estate developer and Sag Harbor resident, has just come back from another eight-day trip to Nicaragua. This voyage, like the ones before, weren’t motivated by sea and sun, but rather by a desire to make a difference in the Western Hemisphere’s second poorest country. Of the nation’s 5.6 million people, approximately four million live in poverty, according to Dwoskin, with a per capita GDP of only $1,123 annually in 2008 (NY State’s was $48,076 that year or over 42 times higher).

This time Dwoskin went specifically to find a village in great need that Sag Harbor might be able to adopt and support as a community. He is calling this project SHINE, short for Sag Harbor in Nicaragua Enterprise, and is hoping to get local residents and already established groups such as churches, synagogues, and schools interested in assisting this village. How Dwoskin came to be interested in Nicaragua is an interesting story.

“My college roommate and business partner Mark Sullivan comes from a philanthropic family, and he really studies these types of organizations, looking for the most bang for the buck. We didn’t want to just give money, we also wanted to make sure things got done,” Dwoskin explains.

Through this process Sullivan discovered an NGO called El Porvenir, that assists villages in Nicaragua to get practical things taken for granted in the U.S. such as clean water and working latrines. It works together with the local people to build wells, efficient wood burning stoves, latrines, and wash stations. A few years ago, Dwoskin and Sullivan started to travel down to select impoverished villages with El Porvenir, off-setting the organization’s travel costs by paying for the trips themselves.

Dwoskin explains, “El Porvenir only goes to towns that have actively solicited them. All the labor comes from the town, and they even get people to participate in re-forestation, something they also do.”

For Dwoskin, actually going down there and seeing the people and their living conditions has been a life changing experience. “The people really pulled at my heart strings. I made up my mind to make a difference.”

It was his personal interaction with the people and their communities, which really got Dwoskin interested in having other people from Sag Harbor not only donate money, but also donate their time, to go down and help the villagers of Monteverde, the village he selected to adopt. He feels a personal connection between the two communities would give a lot to both places.

As for the choice of Monteverde, it was an obvious one for Dwoskin who had visited other villages in the area.

“We were looking for a village of about the same size who had needs but ones that wouldn’t be too daunting for our community,” he said. “We got to Monteverde toward the end of our trip and realized the need was great there.”

Dwoskin explains, “For approximately six months of the year there is a total absence of water in Monteverde. The village has no functioning well. During the dry season, which lasts roughly six months, the residents must travel approximately 2-3 kilometers down and up the mountain to fetch water from a well or a tainted creek in one of the neighboring villages. The round trip journey for water takes about two hours.”

Dwoskin hopes that Sag Harbor may come together to raise money for a well and perhaps latrines for the village’s school which serves about 100 children. These seem like humble requests but ones that Dwoskin confirms will mean a lot to the village.

“Growing up in New York City, I had Hispanic friends, and felt a natural affinity for Latin America,” said Dwoskin. “I also thought the issues down there affect us here in Sag Harbor. People come here because of the poverty there. I thought through partnering up with Monteverde we could show some solidarity with our community’s silent (Hispanic) minority.”

For now, Dwoskin is putting together a presentation he’d like to show to various community organizations. He is hoping that the Sag Harbor school district may want to make Monteverde a service learning opportunity for high school students in the future, or that local organizations both religious and secular may want to join in and help Monteverde in some way. He has also come up with a few fun fundraising ideas such as T-shirts, a salsa night, or a Latin meets local jam session.

In the end Dwoskin states “when we give, be it time or money, without expectation of getting anything in return, we receive ten times the benefit. The community will be enhanced in ways we cannot predict.”

Popularity: 2% [?]

Board Should Resist Pressure

Dear Editor:

Please publish my address to the Sag Harbor School Board:

I would like to address the board this evening and wish the board success in arriving at a solution to Saturday’s scheduled contract negotiations, hopefully, by solving their differences, in the best interest of the entire community. In the last several BOE meetings the board has been pressed “ad nauseam”, by the audience to commit to meeting and staying in session until a solution is reached. A forced demand of this nature is unfair to the board. I do not believe either side can benefit by agreeing to an unlimited time request to reach a solution.

Instead, if the board and the union, committed to a predetermined time limit for the meeting, that would seem to be more practical and respectful to both sides, rather than to pressure these contingents like children to stay in school until a solution is reached.

The Sag Harbor School district is at a pivotal point in its history with the future of its community relations at stake. Any contractual decisions agreed to by the BOE and TASH will affect the budget approval by the community in May. In these trying economic times both sides should consider the potential consequences of their actions.

The commissioner of education of the State of New York in numerous decisions has stated that the board of education can not delegate its statutory responsibility under the education law and civil service, (The Taylor Law) through a voter proposition on teacher compensation.

The legal constraints, of course, prevent the board from opening a direct channel of communication with the public on these critical issues through the vehicle of voter propositions regarding teacher raises and retiree health insurance. however, the board can certainly respond to the will of the electorate through budget hearings, public information and transparency during the negotiation process to the maximum extent appropriate.

 I would like to compliment the board and the administration on the very professional and open presentations regarding the budget, however, I do believe, more public information should be made available on critical issues and these issues need to be addressed in a much more transparent manner.

I would like to see a compilation of all teachers’ salaries, the health insurance for all teachers and the retirement benefit costs of all teachers. The 2.7 percent increase, 27 year guaranteed annual salary increase for all teachers needs to continue to be acknowledged and recognized by the Board of Education as an actual salary increase rather than yielding to TASH’s viewpoint that the step increases be dismissed as inconsequential.

Please, let the public know the quantitative cost of the retirement health plan. It is constantly discussed in terms of the premium contribution paid by the board, or the percentage paid by the teachers. The board wants teachers hired prior to 2000 to pay 15% of the premium cost in retirement, while TASH is unwilling to have teachers hired prior to 2000 pay any amount toward their health insurance costs in retirement. It is rarely mentioned by either side that the cost today approaches $16,000 annually per participant for a family plan (it’s about $10,000 for an individual plan.)

This is why the plan in many circles is called “The Cadillac Plan”!!

When people are not well informed and the communication between and the community and the education is veiled, rather than transparent, rumor and opinion replace facts and mutual trust is lost.

In closing, I would like to urge the board to repel all pressure to have you agree to time requirements demanded by any constituency. This board would, no doubt, rebuff any direct attempt to usurp that same duty and refuse to capitulate to any proposed “heckler’s veto” over rational rules for that fair and sensible conclusion of negotiations.  

Ed Drohan

Noyac

Don’t Forget to Pack Your Bags!

Dear Editor:

At present, the national debt exceeds $13 trillion. I foresee the debt being at about $20 trillion by 2016, and $30 trillion by 2020. In short, the government is broke and has been broke for many years now, and with the fixed expenditures of the USA, our government will, I regret to say, go out of business by 2020.

How could this be! Well, ask yourself the following question: “Where does the sky end?” This question cannot be answered by the human brain. Even if you said that the sky ends, 150 million, trillion miles away, then what’s behind that. Is there a fence that says “here is where the sky ends?” I don’t think so. In fact, our inability to answer the question only makes our debt problem more of a problem. Clearly, if all 308 million men, women and children living in America today sought to eliminate the debt, then each of us would have to put up more than $40,000. Most people live from paycheck to paycheck, and the thought that every person in America, even babies, could put up $40,000 is wishful thinking.

The first of the baby boomers are about to collect Social Security and Medicare benefits. In ten years, millions of baby boomers are going to put an inconceivable burden on our nation’s health, and the President and Congress won’t be able to engage in discretionary spending. Everybody should see the writing on the walls, insofar as our annual deficits and national debt are concerned. Furthermore, more and more of our representatives in the House and Senate are fed up, and choosing not to run for reelection. Recently, I learned that Senator Evan Bigh from Indiana, who has served his state well in the higher body for 12 years, stated that he loved America but that he “hated Congress.”

In short, it’s about time, if you can, to pack your bags with gold and silver American coins and go to another country; for here, in our beloved America, the business analysts and commentators are going to reveal to all of us that the paper money in our purses and wallets are if not virtually worthless, then in fact worthless. So what should we do? Speaking personally, for the past 18 months, I have not been buying stocks or bonds, but have instead been buying gold and silver bullion coins that I also take possession of. I anticipate a day when some financier who has a $4 million stock and bond portfolio, will within a week see his/her portfolio shrink by about 80%. I see this individual on the telephone with his/her stock and bond broker begging him/her to get him/her out of the market, and hopefully salvage $1 million. Of course, the problem with that scenario will be what s/he will do with the $1 million in cash after s/he liquidates his/her portfolio into cash which I, and others, truly believe will be worthless.

Everyone, in my view, should, if they can, buy gold and silver American coins and take possession of same. When the markets collapses as earlier stated herein, I suspect that the fair market value of a one ounce gold American coin to be worth, at least, $7,500. Therefore, at best the financier might be able to take his $1 million in paper money and buy as many gold and silver coins as s/he can.

As for me and my family, my plan, when reality sets in, is to go to a local airport in the Hamptons, and try to get a commercial aircraft pilot operating a private jet who would be willing to fly me, my wife and my two children to my wife’s homeland of Costa Rica not for dollars, but for three ounces of gold coins paid to the pilot. There, my wife, has a 40 acre tract of land. Assuming that we can get a commercial private pilot to fly us out of the country, we will hopefully leave America for good. Accordingly, contact a precious metal dealer, and if you can, buy gold and silver coins, pack your bags with these coins and regrettably get the hell out of here.

President Thomas Jefferson, that late, great American and one of the founding fathers of our nation said words to the effect that when the government fails to work anymore, create a new government. Like all other nations through history, no nation has lasted forever. America is and was an experiment and it hurts deep down in my soul that we’re coming to the end of this wonderful and glorious experiment. To those who are my friends and acquaintances, take care and know that when I leave this nation with my family, I take absolutely no joy in the fact that both I and mine, might be the few who escape the social and civil unrest that will befall America when the end comes. My prayers are for me, mine and for you as well!

So long!

Fred Fisher, Esq.

Southampton

Now What?

Dear Bryan,

The fundamental question of these times is, “Now that government hath giveth, how does it taketh away?” I said it last week and I am saying it again because it is the fundamental question. The peoples’ reply will either preserve America’s freedom or it will relegate our divinely inspired experiment in self-governance to the ash heap of history as we become nothing more than a European-style socialist society.

Greece is in deep economic trouble because of its deficits and debt. It is trying to “taketh away” entitlements that it had “giveth” over the years. But the people of Greece have gotten used to their “cradle to grave” care, so they are holding national strikes and protests as the government seeks to put the genie back in the bottle.

If we keep adding entitlements like socialized, nationalized health care then our future is foretold. We will need no crystal ball. We will become Greece. A bankrupt nation, fair reader, is a nation beholden to its creditors, not to its creators we like to call, “the sons of liberty.”

Bill Jones

Hampton Bays

Popularity: 1% [?]

When it Snowed

Dear Bryan,

When I saw the December 24, 2009 issue of the Express with the great snow pictures, especially the front page color picture, I was going to write and tell Michael Heller how much I liked his photos. I also wanted to comment on Brian Gilbride’s statement, “I’ve lived here all my life and I don’t recall these kinds of storms.” I never did write but on the February 11^th Express he says almost the same thing. So, Bryan, I’d like to tell you a story. I, too, have lived here all my life and I’ll be 84 this year, which gives me a lot more to remember. A day or two after Christmas in 1948 or 49 we had a big blizzard that cut the East End off from the city and deliveries for two or three days. Having more grocery stores in the village than we do now, plus Cillis dairy farm, we were able to deal with everything and made no big fuss.

On the evening of January 10, 1954, it started to snow hard. Around 2 a.m. on January 11  my daughter decided she wanted to make her arrival into this world. On the way to the hospital my husband had to brush snow off the windshield several times because the wipers couldn’t keep up with it. Many of the hospital staff had to be taken to work by fire trucks. I’ve often called my daughter my “blizzard baby.”

Skip ahead (I can’t remember every storm) to February 1978 and ’79. Both years my younger son was in California visiting my older son and both times he could not return on his scheduled flights because we’d had blizzards and the airports were closed for a couple of days.

I remember my dad, Russell Basile, telling us about the snows when he was a boy, here. Sometimes it was piled so high and so deep down the middle of the village that the snow crews made short tunnels at intervals so people could get from one side of the street to the other. I recall a time or two when the snow was piled high — and deep enough — that the snow crews made ‘archways’ through it, along the Main Street and we were able to go from one side of the street to the other. It was fun.

When we were growing up we didn’t — of course — have the weather reports we do now, but the ‘old timers’ had ways of predicting the weather and were more often right than wrong. One thing they’d say was that you could ‘smell’ snow coming. They were right, you can. Many a night we would go to bed and the next morning find lots of snow had fallen and windows had ‘Jack Frost’ etchings on them. We had fun etching the ice off. Short of a blizzard we went to school, hoping the principal would announce ‘half session.’ We would not be released for lunch, but stayed until 11 a.m. when we went home for the day. We didn’t stay home though. After lunch, nearly every kid in the village headed for the ‘school hill’ where we spent the afternoon sledding until nearly dark when we trudged home with rosy cheeks, and often, chapped wrists where our mittens had pulled away from our sleeves while sledding. The word “bored” was never used. Besides sledding and ice skating, we made snow forts and snow men and had friendly snow ball fights. Sure, winter has its inconveniences, but we didn’t moan and groan about snow. It was expected and accepted. End of story.

Leatrice B. Christensen

Sag Harbor

Pivotal Moment

Dear Editor:   

A pivotal moment is upon us. Come March 9 we vote on who will fill the open seat on Southampton’s Town Board. It will be a defining moment on how this town will be governed for the next few years. Make no mistake, it will be a crucial period that will determine if Southampton is restored to fiscal responsibility and if conservation and preservation efforts are killed or renewed in the face of re-emerging developmental pressures—especially from those special interests in Brookhaven and points west who would fatten themselves at our expense.

Put simply, Bridget Fleming is the best candidate for town board in the upcoming “special election” on Tuesday, March 9. 

I worked with Bridget Fleming when she was on our Noyac CAC and we were lucky to have her when she served. A quick study, a good listener, reflective, diplomatic, I got to see up close her powers of analysis, her intelligence, her lawyerly training (an invaluable asset for us on the CAC on land-use matters), her love of the environment. Caring, knowledgeable, she’s a first-rate lawyer who held an important position in Manhattan’s D.A.’s office investigating and prosecuting fraud in taxpayer-funded programs and who now practices law in Sag Harbor. Her attributes, sunny disposition, and sense of humor are a breath of fresh air. We need talented, smart, energetic and dedicated public servants like Bridget Fleming. She and her husband, Bob Agoglia, a small independent contractor, moved here 10 years ago and are raising an adorable son who’s now six. 

In “realpolitick” terms, electing a fourth Republican—a super majority—onto the town board would be disastrous for Southampton townspeople. Suicidal. We got a glimpse of this in January when the Democrat, Sally Pope, was replaced in the close election by the Republican Jim Malone. Immediately, campaign promises were broken to work collaboratively for the good of the town; raw power and politics as usual reared its ugly head aligning against lone Democrat, Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst. We took a surprising step backwards in the realm of transparency. I was horrified when the Republicans bypassed the “public interview” process for a back door appointment to the planning board. For years we’d fought to get rid of the closed practice of backroom appointments for vacancies on the town’s boards—planning, ZBA, etc.—and we finally succeeded. The reversion to past (and bad) practice by the newly constituted board incited public ire, and rightly so. Thus, the Republicans flunked their first acid test.   Supervisor Throne-Holst is in the vulnerable position to be undercut every step of the way; hamstrung. She needs the help of another Democrat on the board to move our town forward, even with such basic mechanics as seconding a motion. We need Bridget Fleming. She’s for the people, not the special interests that run this town and who, frankly, own town hall. Don’t be complacent. Please get out and vote on March 9 for Bridget Fleming.

Julie Penny

Noyac

Ship of State Taking on Water

Dear Bryan,

“A democracy will last only until such time as the people realize that they have access to the public treasury.” I used this quote last September and do so again because it leads to the fundamental question of our times, “Now that government hath giveth, how does it taketh away?”

We know that the overspending must end and that the national debt needs serious attention. Instinctively, we are anxious about our predicament because we know that it is unsustainable and we are embarrassed to be leaving our children a bankrupt nation. Yet, in seeking a solution we must come to terms with the fact that, “we have met the enemy and it is us.”

The next word that comes to mind is sacrifice. Who will be willing to give up a share of the government largess? Unless there is a chorus, actually a primal public scream of “I am ready to sacrifice,” the day of reckoning is surely around the corner. Because we, the people, are so schizophrenic about cutting costs “but not my cost,” our politicians are paralyzed to act.

We must free politicians to give us the government that we can afford and not a government that is unaffordable. The ship of state that we are on is taking on too much water. We need to answer the fundamental question of our times, fair reader, with the answer, “I stand ready to sacrifice for there is no other solution.” In other words, “I love America too much to see it fail.”

Bill Jones

Hampton Bays

Popularity: 1% [?]

Having already been cited by the Village of Sag Harbor, in a court case yet to be determined, on Monday night attorney Edward Burke, Jr. and his wife Patricia approached the Sag Harbor Village Planning Board to change the use of a historic building they recently converted into office spaces, in an effort to legalize the use of five separate businesses already operating at the Division Street building.

According to attorney Timothy S. McCulley, representing the Burke family, the building’s current certificate of occupancy is for a residence, and has yet to be changed to allow for office uses. The building currently houses Morrissey Advisory Services, Dr. Stephen Petruccelli’s East End Sports Chiropractic, G & L Building Corporation and the law offices of Rayano & Garabedian.

The five office spaces, said McCulley range in size from 206 square feet to 414 square feet, whereas the new code requires a minimum of 800 square-feet for each office in the district, meaning the Burkes may need at least one variance from the village zoning board of appeals (ZBA) to make the change.

The Burkes may also need a variance to address parking, according to a memo drafted by village planning consultant Rich Warren of Inter- Science Research Associates. Under the new code, office spaces require one space per 200 square feet of gross floor area, which would translate into 11 parking spaces, with the Burkes entitled to four parking space credits. McCulley said they have come up with plans for five or seven additional spaces, although village attorney Anthony Tohill will review the parking issue before next month’s meeting to determine whether the Burkes’ credits stand or if they need relief from the ZBA.

Warren also noted that adjacent property owners specifically sought to not be included in the village’s office district when it was drafted last year and while the code would require the Burkes to erect a 15-foot landscape buffer between their building and a neighboring home, their current plan only shows a plan within three to six feet of the adjacent property. He suggested the Burkes reach out to the neighbor and noted they may need another variance to allow the smaller buffer.

“They would be the first ones to come to me and say, I don’t have a spot or I need more parking,” said Patricia Burke of her tenants. “And I haven’t gotten any of that.”

“As far as the neighbors, when we were redoing it everyone said, thank

God you bought this, and it is an eyesore,” she continued, noting not one neighbor has yet to complain about the addition of offices in the neighborhood.

The application will be heard again at the board’s March 23 meeting.

Popularity: 2% [?]

The John Jermain Memorial Library this week cleared its first obstacle in the Sag Harbor Planning Board’s review of its 7000-square-foot expansion and restoration plan, moving a step closer to public review and examination by the historic preservation and architectural review board and the village zoning board of appeals.

On Monday, March 1, the planning board officially deemed the library’s application complete after months of gathering information. The board will now begin its formal review of the project, likely starting with a public session sometime in April or May.

Members of the library board and its director Catherine Creedon, accompanied by the library’s architects, planner and contractor, breathed sighs of relief as the resolution was passed after being told at two previous meetings the village needed more information on issues like parking, sewage, landscaping and adjacent property owners before the project could move forward.

The board and its village consultants, however, stressed this was just a first step and there would be a number of issues to explore before John Jermain Memorial Library (JJML) can break ground on its new facility. Creedon has expressed hope the library could do so in time for its centennial celebration in October.

Creedon said she looks forward to presenting the public, which this summer approved the library’s request for almost $10 million in funding for the project, with the trustee’s plans.

“One of the great things about last night was it freed me up to be a little excited about this project,” said Creedon. “This winter we have been compromised in providing services because of the degradation of the building.”

According to Creedon, a skylight is leaking so badly that during a program last week, patrons shifted throughout the room to avoid falling water. While Creedon has already purchased fleece blankets to contend with an unreliable heating system, she joked this week she might also be purchasing umbrellas.

In addition to repairing and restoring the historic library building, which was first constructed in 1910, the library proposes a 7,000 square-foot addition on the rear of the building. Modern in style, it resembles a glass cube. In addition to planning board and ARB approval, the project will also require variances from the zoning board.

On Monday, Sag Harbor Village Planning Consultant Rich Warren said the library has provided enough material to move forward, but that he still has a number of questions.

The library has no on-site parking spaces and hopes to continue to rely on public parking around the library after the addition is complete. Planner David Emilita states that within 800 feet of the library there are 243 on-street spaces, with 231 considered available to the library after considering homes that require on-street parking.

Emilita estimates the village code only requires 84 spaces for the library, with a parking demand at 47 spaces at peak hours of operation based on traffic studies.

Planning Board member and acting chairman Greg Ferraris said he would prefer to acknowledge there is not enough parking –- knowing the board can move forward regardless – rather than set a precedent by allowing on- street parking to stand in for on-site parking. Ferraris said he wasn’t discouraging the library from creating a plan for parking, but is concerned that private developers down the road could use the plan as a precedent.

“They are going to need to provide some proof to the ZBA,” replied Warren, adding that the issue should be addressed sooner rather than later.

Village attorney Tohill said the approval could be limited specifically to the library, a public institution seeking to create an addition for the public good. His advice is for the planning board move forward alone.

In addition to the ZBA, the library will also need approval from the

Sag Harbor Village Board of Trustees to extend the village sewer line to the Main Street location. Sag Harbor sewage treatment plant engineer Paul H. Dietrich has reported the plant could accommodate the anticipated 1,825.5 gallons per day of sewage expected from the library, as well as three other residences and the Custom House, all which may or may not have to hook up to the line in order for it to be extended.

On Tuesday, Creedon said she hoped to have a preliminary meeting set up with village board members sometime this month.

“It’s not the end of the discussion,” said Warren. “It’s the beginning of the discussion, so to speak.”

Warren said first and foremost, he believes a public hearing could help guide the board’s review.

“I think it would be helpful to know what the concerns of the public are so we know we haven’t missed anything,” Warren said. “That may help us determine the review process we go through.”

Popularity: 1% [?]

After two years of business in Amagansett Square, BoBookHampton may have closed its Amagansett location, but its Sag Harbor store, pictured here with manager Sarah Doherty and Barry Lisee, is still going strong.okHampton owner Charline Spektor this week announced the independent bookstore would close the location, citing economics and “the surprising lack of foot-traffic in Amagansett.”

“East Hampton is a thriving store and they were too close together,” Spektor said on Tuesday. She added in addition to the East Hampton branch of BookHampton, both the Sag Harbor and Southampton locations continue to operate successfully.

BookHampton at Amagansett Square was originally conceived as a store to focus on children, keeping in character with Amagansett’s family-centric community, although the location maintained a collection of other genres of literature as well as DVDs, merchandise and CDs. Spektor said on Tuesday all three remaining BookHampton locations, in particular Sag Harbor, continue to operate with full children’s sections.

While Spektor dismissed the current impact of electronic publishing on independent bookstores, she acknowledged online retailers like Amazon have affected the industry. Big-box, bargain book retailers like Barnes and Noble have yet to find a home on the East End, despite attempts to open a Bridgehampton location in recent years.

But rather than focus on those challenges, Spektor chooses to shine a light on the benefits of independent bookstores, which are often tailored specifically to serve the communities and Main Streets they inhabit.

“The value of an independent bookstore is that you can see in our stores that we are making literary choices based on the community,” she said. BookHampton is able to reach beyond the standard chain-store inventory, with a collection that boasts literary classics, popular fiction and non-fiction titles as well as lesser known authors.

Having a dedicated staff of booksellers who “are really well read, well rounded and all live in the community,” makes carrying out such a high level of knowledge and service possible, and also helps prop up the local economy, Spektor added.

“An important part of this is that independent book stores that are neighborhood bookstores, on the commerce side, the dollars earned stay in the community,” she said. “It doesn’t leave town.”

Spektor, who owns BookHampton with her husband Jeremy Nussbaum, said the store has also developed programming aimed at engaging the community in literary and intellectual pursuits. Its four-month, free winter lecture series, which kicked off in January at the East Hampton branch, brings an array of educators into the community to discuss topics ranging from “The Rise and Fall of the Aztec Empire,” to climate change, poetry and the economics of education – a lecture given last week by Dr. Pedro Noguera. This Saturday, at 5 p.m., the store will host Stony Brook University Professor Stephanie Wade, who will take a look at writers who have explored the human condition in a lecture titled “True Stories: Finding Freedom at the Crossroads of Cultural and Persona Myths.”

BookHampton also hosts book and reading groups at all locations, including an ongoing Rowdy Readers Book Group, held at Rowdy Hall in East Hampton on Tuesday afternoons through March 16 and a reading group at the Southampton store on Wednesday afternoons through May 12. In Sag Harbor, manager Sarah Doherty hosts a Saturday reading group, which will discuss John Banville’s “The Infinities” on March 14 and Robert Goolrick’s “The Reliable Wife” on March 21. For the younger set, the Sag Harbor branch also holds story time for children ages two to five years old on Monday and Friday mornings at 10:30 a.m.

“And then, of course, we have our annual Mystery and Mayhem weekend in May,” said Spektor. “We bring in 30 terrific mystery writers, both established and some emerging, who fill our communities with mysteries and enigma.”

That event will take place May 14 through May 16.

“We are a very active part of all three neighborhoods,” said Spektor.

As for future BookHampton locations in the wake of the Amagansett store’s closing, Spektor said she remains optimistic.

“You have to be permanently optimistic, intrepidly optimistic as an independent bookstore,” she said. “We are committed to the communities we live in and committed to making great recommendations for our customers. Reading is the future for all of our children and when people see that, they appreciate the value of keeping independent book stores in our communities.”

BookHampton is located at 41 Main Street in East Hampton (324-4939); 91 Main Street in Southampton (283-0270) and at 20 Main Street in Sag Harbor (725-8425).

Popularity: 2% [?]

The 35-year-old talks about why she and a group of Sag Harbor residents think the diversity and artistic core of the village make it the perfect location to create The American Music Festival of Sag Harbor, a hopefully annual tradition held each April, but one festival organizers hope to kick off at this year’s HarborFest.

First off, why a music festival in Sag Harbor?

Well, to be honest, the whole process has been completely organic. My background is in music and it is where my passion lies and this is my community. When I came back I first noticed the music at Bay Burger and I was really knocked out at the quality of musicianship, the number of people coming each week and the good, down to earth feeling. When I found out they were going to continue the jam sessions at Bay Street Theatre, I was inspired. I talked to Claes Brondal from the Bay Burger jazz jam sessions and asked how this had all come about and he told me about how Bay Street had really been engaging the community and opened up and how the event was free. It was inspiring, this partnership and that Bay Street would continue this musical momentum. I told Claes about the idea for a music festival and he said I should talk to John Landes [co-owner of Bay Burger]. I told him I thought it would be great to do a music festival and we started gathering a group of people and the more we talked about it the more enthusiastic the feedback we got was. In the meantime, music at Phao began and the singer songwriters at Bay Street. It’s exciting – out of the whole East End, I feel Sag Harbor has this artistic vibe – it just fits. Sag Harbor is unique and in particular, is very supportive of the arts.

The festival also aims to support Sag Harbor itself. The idea originally was to start it before the season, but we have decided this year, because of conflicts, to launch the festival this September with the help of the Sag Harbor Chamber of Commerce at HarborFest. We have talked to Robert Evjen [president of the chamber] and he is really excited about the idea of being able to bring music into the event. We are operating as a non-profit with John Landes, Laura Grenning and I serving as directors. We are hoping  through sponsorships we can raise enough money to cover the costs of the festival and anything that is left over we would look to use to provide scholarships for musicians.

The festival has been billed as an “American” music festival. When I think of American music, I think of blues, jazz, rock-and-roll – musical genres created here or genres that flourished in the United States. What is your definition of American music?

You are right on target. That is the feeling we want for the festival. I would also include in that folk music and rhythm and blues and also Americana. That really leaves us wide open for a variety of artists. We would like to start small with a three-day festival. The first time out, our goal is to exceed expectation know we have a good model set up. We are hoping it will be an annual event at the end of April after this year’s kick off. In April, every one has spring fever, it’s the off-season and it could draw people to Sag Harbor becoming an off-season magnet for the village. It is also for the community. In-season we are all so busy, we don’t always get to enjoy the cultural events going on out here. This year we are hoping to collaborate with the schools – this school district is known for its emphasis in music – as well as students and community members that are interested as well. We want a festival feel to the weekend – music on the streets with Bay Street serving as the main stage with three concerts over the weekend of September 10 through September 12.

Are you modeling this weekend on any other music festivals around the country?

To be honest, not one in particular. We really want this to be about music and about Sag Harbor. We are hoping to collaborate with organizations throughout the village to enfuse Sag Harbor history into the festival.

Do you have “dream” headliners the festival would attract in a perfect world?

In a perfect world, there are a lot of local greats out here, and a lot of big names we would like to get involved, not just as performers, but as organizers. We are establishing a music advisory committee to help set up the program. There are so many genres in American music we want to have a program that touches on them all, but holds a theme. I hesitate to say any names of dream headliners, but they know who they are.

As for local musicians, part of the idea is to have street music throughout the village during the festival, correct?

We are still working with the [Sag Harbor Village Board of] trustees to get the proper permitting. In concert with HarborFest, we hope to have different locations throughout Main Street and other areas of the village and have different acts playing throughout the day, kind of like the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Our philosophy is the more, the merrier, but we are open to seeing how it evolves because this is for our community. We hope it will bring more business to the village in the off-season while also supporting this incredible surge of creativity. There is just so much music going on in Sag Harbor right now.

How can local musicians get involved?

First of all, the best way to get involved is if you are not in the local music scene yet get to the open mic sessions, get to Blue Sky, get to Bay Street. Being involved in music and networking you have to get out there performing – be where the action is. Specifically with the music festival, we will do an open call and anyone who is interested in sending a CD or whatever they have, with contact information, can reach us at The American Music Festival of Sag Harbor, PO Box 2323 Sag Harbor, NY 11963.

What is your personal connection to music — why does this matter you?

The short story is I have worked for non-profits for the last 15 years, starting with Bay Street Theatre, but it has almost all been music related. For seven years, I was the director of the Henry Mancini Music Festival in Los Angeles. We brought in children from all over the area and hosted free concerts at UCLA. I am a local Long Islander, so I came back to New York and worked for the Grammys from 2004 to 2006, which taught me a little bit more about music. The last couple of years I have been doing consulting work because while I love New York City, I prefer a different lifestyle. I have worked from Ireland to San Francisco, but my home base is Sag Harbor and I am trying to do more work locally.

But this is not about me, and I want to stress that. Music is my passion, and my happy place right now is bringing the right people together. I am just excited to do that.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Dorothy Field, Peter Iwanyckyj, Tara Hagerman celebrate Bridgehampton National Bank’s Centennial on Friday, February 19 at the Sag Harbor branch of the bank.

Bridgehampton National Bank was founded when farmers and small business owners alike banded together to create a community-based financial institution in Bridgehampton that could address the needs of a growing agricultural economy.

Henry Chatfield, G. Clarence Topping and Elmer Thomson opened the bank on the east side of the E.C. Loper store on Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton on February 19, 1910. Their focus was to serve local businesses in the area, loaning farmers the money to purchase seeds during difficult times and aiding local merchants in expansion.

And according to Bridgehampton National Bank (BNB) CEO Kevin O’Connor, very little has changed over the last 100 years when it comes to BNB’s core philosophy – it is a community bank where personal relationships are forged, whether between lenders and small business owners, or tellers and the working mom who deposits her check each Friday.

“Last night, Southampton Town presented us with a proclamation, and it was very personal, not just some standard proclamation,” said O’Connor on Wednesday morning. “It was very special to our organization to accept that kind of honor, in Southampton, where we began, where so many of our shareholders live. I looked around, and I felt like I knew everyone in the room. It was a very personal experience.”

Providing a personal experience for business owners and clients, said O’Connor, is the secret to BNB’s success and one of the reasons he said the bank has flourished, particularly in the last two decades where 16 branches and counting were founded by BNB from Montauk to Mattituck and now as far west as Shirley.

“We like to think our employees, in a sense, become business advisors for these local companies,” said O’Connor. “We hope to be able to work with customers on a one-on-one basis, and will make introductions to accountants if they are looking to take their business to the next level, or attorneys if a business is considering purchasing a property. It really is a partnership. You want to be a trusted advisor.”

That extends, said O’Connor, to BNB’s branches, all which celebrated the centennial with their customers this past Friday with cake and balloons.

“I value tremendously the branch employees and network,” said O’Connor. “For a long time, I think people perceived the lenders as the superstars, but what the branch managers and tellers do is so important. They are the people our clients generally have the most contact with.”

Bridgehampton National Bank was federally chartered in 1910, joining the Federal Reserve System in 1914. The 1920s began the first period of expansion for BNB, with its board of directors purchasing the Loper Building in Bridgehampton in 1920 for $8,000, agreeing to lease the west side of the building to the post office.

Coming through the Depression intact, by 1935, BNB managed 2,000 accounts. By the 1960s, the company had formed a partnership with AInterBank, which would become VISA, and through this alliance were able to offer small business owners the ability to accept credit card purchases. BNB’s growth continued in the 1970s when it opened its first branch office in the Bridgehampton Plaza on Snake Hollow Road, but it was in the 1990s that the company truly branched out, developing its website and opening a number of branches across the North and South forks. BNB currently serves clients in Bridgehampton, Mattituck, East Hampton, Southampton, Southold, Montauk, Greenport, Sag Harbor, Hampton Bays, Westhampton Beach, Wading River, Cutchogue and Shirley.

According to O’Connor, with a number of small businesses flourishing in Patchogue, BNB is looking to open a branch there next.

“We will never put a branch next to Wal-Mart, because that is frankly not our marketplace,” said O’Connor. “We went to Shirley because there were a lot of people with small businesses and we will go to Patchogue for the same reason.”

O’Connor sees BNB continuing to expand, using this now 100-year-old model of conservative, community-based banking.

“A company has to have a culture and I think we have a very strong culture,” said O’Connor. “We have all the products, all the technology the big banks have, but we can also deliver and serve our customers at locally based branches where many of our customers are our shareholders and we look them in the eye, every day.”

Popularity: 1% [?]

As Sag Harbor Trustees kick off their budget talks, the village is

looking at an estimated 1.39 percent tax increase over last year’s

$8,091,169 spending plan, $567,454 of which came from the village’s

sewer tax. However, with just one meeting behind them, the board is

considering several capital projects and vehicle purchases that could

push that increase even higher.

Not yet added to the proposed budget are hopes for the creation of a

village justice court, addressing erosion on West Water Street,

improvements to Sag Harbor’s historic Municipal Building, the

purchase of a new fire rescue boat and air packs for the Sag Harbor

Volunteer Fire Department and monies to fund the creation of a public

park between the L/Cpl Jordan Haerter Veterans Memorial Bridge and

the parcel known as Ferry Road.

On Tuesday, February 23 the board convened its first of several

planned budget meeting, speaking with department heads, village

treasurer Eileen Tuohy and trustees about their hopes for the next

fiscal year.

“Health insurance costs have gone up as they have everywhere else,”

said Touhy. “Other than that everything is pretty level with what was

spent last year.”

Sag Harbor Mayor Brian Gilbride said a priority this year will be to

budget monies to deal with erosion on West Water Street, where the

beachfront adjacent to the street loses more and more ground with

each storm.

Language exists in village approval for luxury condos on West Water

Street that discusses that developer’s role in the design and

implementation of a waterfront walkway across the street from the

site, where the erosion is occurring. However, the New York

Department of Environmental Conservation balked at any plan that

would disrupt the wetlands, preferring any walkway be constructed on

the streetscape, requiring re-engineering of the roadway, and a

possible loss of parking spaces.

On Tuesday, Gilbride said he was unsure what course of action the

village would take, but said at the very least it needs to

immediately address the eroding beachfront, while examining a long

range capital plan for the area.

Secondly, he said he would like to see old plans for a park next to

the village bridge revitalized, although costs for that project are

not expected to be unveiled until the board’s next budget meeting on

March 12 at 4 p.m.

Trustees are also considering a Sag Harbor justice court, a move

strongly supported by village police chief Tom Fabiano. According to

Gilbride, the estimated $100,000 needed to kick off that venture has

yet to be factored into the next budget and more solid figures will

be available at next month’s meeting.

Sag Harbor Volunteer Fire Department Chief Robert Mitchell requested

some of the largest departmental expenditures of the evening, seeking

monies to replace the department’s 53 air packs, which may cost

between $320,000 and $390,000.

“All the departments around us have been getting updated packs and we

have been using their orphans,” said Mitchell of his department.

While they had sought a grant to cover the cost, Mitchell said they

have yet to hear a response.

Mitchell noted they also have had issues with their fire rescue boat,

purchased in 1994, which has stress cracks, is water logged and needs

to have its engine replaced this summer. That, said Mitchell, could

cost anywhere from $150,000 to $500,000. The vessel is mainly used

for rescue operations, in the event of boat fires and other

waterfront areas fire department vehicles cannot reach and is used by

the dive team. After the meeting, Gilbride said he would look at

capital reserves to see what the village could afford to spend on the

new boat.

In the police department, Chief Fabiano said he tried to keep his

budget in line with last year’s spending plan. In what he has already

submitted to the village, the chief is asking for another full time

officer as well as a vehicle. Sag Harbor also needs to add live scan

technology to its police department, which allows for digital

fingerprinting, although Fabiano said the county and the state will

cover a majority of the cost, except for about $900 a year in

maintenance.

The Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps also needs a new vehicle,

but due to its reserve fund, the expense will not affect the village

budget. According to President Eddie Downes, he does need to replace

a first responder vehicle, but will be able to do so through the

department’s $144,000 reserve fund. The vehicle will cost roughly

$42,000 and the reserve fund will be replenished by any sale of the

old first responder.

Superintendent of Public Works Jim Early said his only major

equipment replacement would be a chipper, for $27,000. The current

one, he said, is so old parts are not available to repair it. Harbor

Master Bob Bori added he needs about $10,000 to repair Long Wharf and

the village’s B and transient docks.

“Every year since I have been here I would love to do something

here,” said Gilbride of the Municipal Building, which has empty third

and fourth floors that are not weight bearing or handicap accessible.

Early said the exterior of the building is also in need of repair.

As for Havens Beach, for which the village is exploring a remediation

plan, trustees said they felt a final plan may be a budget year off

and said they would wait for final testing results before choosing a

course of action.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Sag Harbor brothers Adam and John Busiello took first in their weight classes in last week’s Suffolk County wrestling championships at John Glenn High School in Elwood, an event sanctioned by USA Wrestling.

Despite their obvious youth, Adam is a third grader at Sag Harbor Elementary and John is a sixth grader at Pierson, both boys are experienced wrestlers, earning All-American status last year at the Northeast Nationals in York, Pa.

Next up for the pair, who travel to Finest Fitness in Patchogue several times a week in the winter to train with the RaZor Wrestling Club, are the New York State championships in Endicott, N.Y. on March 5. The last tournament of their season is the Ohio Tournament of Champions in Columbus, Ohio on April 24.

The boys do wrestle locally in their off-season, occasionally working out with Bonac varsity coach Joe Russo and his assistant (and father) Lou Russo in the East Hampton youth wrestling program.

In nailing down their county titles this past weekend, Adam pinned all four of his competitors in the 65-pound Intermediate Division while John overcame a three-time state champion in winning the 85-pound Novice Division.

Popularity: 1% [?]