Aug. 16 Main Newsletter

Where Are the Whales?

August 16, 2025

August 16, 2025

Today: Mostly sunny, high 78, winds east-southeast at 5 to 10 miles per hour. Tonight: Partly cloudy, low 67. Tomorrow: Mainly sunny, high 82, winds southwest at 10 to 15 m.p.h. Sunset tonight: 7:45. Sunrise tomorrow: 6 a.m. Three Mile Harbor tides today: Low, 10:06 a.m. and 11:15 p.m.; high, 4:40 p.m.

A senior scientist spots only 20 humpback whales this season here, down from 121 at this point in 2024. But we were spoiled: Last year was an aberration.

By Christopher Gangemi

A $2.2 million forest management contract for Napeague and Hither Hills State Parks, where the invasive southern pine beetle has killed thousands of trees and sparked concern about wildfires, will focus on areas adjacent to Montauk Highway and nearby residences and trails while creating additional access for fire departments to help reduce the risk to human life or property in the event of a wildfire, the governor said during a visit to Montauk Friday.

By Christopher Walsh

Worried residents of Napeague, who live in a part of East Hampton Town that’s next door to a vast state park littered with miles of dead trees, turned out in force to hear Chris Beckert, chief of the Amagansett Fire Department, address the hamlet’s citizens advisory committee about a recent fire in the park, which came scarily close to some of their homes. 

By Irene Silverman

More than a week after the body of Martha Nolan-O’Slatarra, a 33-year-old Manhattan-based Irish entrepreneur, was found on a boat docked at the Montauk Yacht Club, very little has been publicly disclosed by police about the circumstances of her death, while news outlets from around the world have attempted to surmise what might have happened.

By Bettina Neel

Service was paused at Gosman’s Topside, Inlet Cafe, and Clam Bar restaurants last week so the blessing of good health for Kate Hobbes could be celebrated by the tight-knit staff.

By Christopher Walsh

Robert Wilson died at home in Water Mill on July 31 after a brief illness. He was 83 and left behind not only a remarkable body of work as a theater director, playwright, and visual artist, but also the Watermill Center, a monument to his far-reaching vision. 

By Mark Segal

Robert Hefner and Kay Spear Gibson had been searching for some time for a suitable tribute to honor Isabel (Min) Spear Hefner, his wife and her sister, who died in 2023 of breast cancer. When they found an auction listing for a painting by Mary Nimmo Moran they “instantly knew” it would be the perfect way to memorialize Min’s “beauty, her incredible bravery.”

By Bettina Neel

Coming up: Main Beach fireworks on Saturday, free music Tuesday, and the final outdoor movie of the season in Herrick Park on Wednesday.

By Star Staff

At the Montauk Lighthouse, a national historic landmark, the Third New York Regiment will show off their Revolutionary War uniforms and accouterments, and the Kings of the Coast Pirates will perform. Downtown, the Montauk Artists Association is holding its second art show and sale of the summer.

By Christopher Walsh

The Fire Department's annual chicken barbecue is on Sunday and the Shoe-Inn warehouse sale has taken up residence at the American Legion Hall.

By Christopher Walsh

Amid continuing frustration over uncleared piles of dead pitch pines along the Napeague stretch left in the wake of the southern pine beetle infestation, the East Hampton Town Board approved millions of dollars in new fire protection contracts at a meeting last week. 

By Christopher Gangemi

Gabrielle McKay, who was sworn in as the East Hampton Village clerk at the end of July, is among the youngest of municipal clerks.

By Christopher Walsh

“If you’re hit by a car at 30 miles an hour, you will live. If you’re hit by a car at 45 miles per hour, you will die,” Barry Liebowitz, M.D., a resident of Long Lane, said at the Aug. 5 East Hampton Town Board meeting. 

By Christopher Gangemi

The East Hampton Town Board discussed draft legislation that would allow affordable multi-unit residences on lots as small as a half-acre.

By Christopher Walsh

The East Hampton Town Trustees heard a pitch for the construction of a fifth and sixth oyster reef in Three Mile Harbor on Monday, a plan they quickly approved. 

By Christopher Walsh

The Amagansett School Board issued a notice on Monday that Wayne Gauger, the board’s president, had resigned effective immediately. The board’s vice president, Addie Slater-Davison, has assumed the position of president and will hold the title until a new president is elected at the board’s July 2026 reorganization meeting. 

By Christopher Walsh

“Our season has been an amazing season,” John Ryan Jr., the town’s chief lifeguard, said of East Hampton Town’s junior lifeguard program, which teaches children ages 9 to 15 the importance of water safety and ocean awareness.

By Christopher Walsh

The Hampton Lifeguard Association finished an impressive fifth in the United States Life Saving Association's national tournament in California last week, but the biggest news coming out of the tourney was that four of H.L.A.'s U-19s qualified to compete for the U.S. team in the International Surf Rescue Challenge in New Zealand.

By Jack Graves

Before you know it, it’ll be the middle of October, when the season for blackfish begins. So I canceled my regular morning of tennis to take an early drive to Montauk to fish for fluke and sea bass aboard the Simple Life.

By Jon M. Diat

Susie DiSunno, the Kendall Madison Foundation’s most recent scholarship awardee, was welcomed by board members at Alan Patricof’s house in East Hampton Saturday morning for an informal gathering to continue the mentoring mission.

By Jack Graves

This weekend will be an active one, with the Artists and Writers Softball Game at Herrick Park, the Johnny Mac Tennis Project pro-am at Sportime, and Ellen’s Run in Southampton.

By Jack Graves

Hoops 4 Hope, which aids at-risk children in Zimbabwe and South Africa, and the LuMind Foundation, which improves the lives of those with Down syndrome, benefited from hotly contested basketball tournaments at Sportime in Amagansett.

By Jack Graves

This East Hampton Star archive snapshot of Frederica Gallatin (1913-2003) on the beach at the Maidstone Club depicts what a beach day in the 1930s would look like for young women in the summer colony.

By Megan Bardis

Ken Miller’s novel “High Finance” sends up Wall Street culture while exploring weighty matters — among other things, the grim wreckage of the crash of ’08.

Reviewed by Ana Daniel

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