July 26 Main Newsletter

Lessons From Napeague Brush Fire

July 26, 2025

July 26, 2025

Today: A mix of sun and clouds, high 80, winds east at 5 to 10 miles per hour. Tonight: Partly cloudy, low 67. Tomorrow: Clouds early with showers in the afternoon, high 79 winds south at 5 to 10 m.p.h. Sunset tonight: 8:10. Sunrise tomorrow: 5:40. Three Mile Harbor tides today: High, 11:47 a.m.; low, 11:23 a.m.; low, 5:53 p.m.

A fire that burned a scar the size of a football field into the woods on the north side of the railroad tracks on Napeague on July 16, temporarily closing the road and halting train service, could have been much worse, Chris Beckert, the chief of the Amagansett Fire Department, said this week.

By Christopher Gangemi

Jess Garay, an avid thrifter, is “always hunting for a treasure” when shopping for vintage clothing. But earlier this month in Amagansett, she found one she is sure she will never be able to top: a jersey that had belonged to her late cousin, who died at 24.

By Bettina Neil

A driver was injured and East Hampton Village Main Street was closed for more than an hour on Wednesday after a massive tree limb fell without warning

By David E. Rattray

People who attend the Montauk Playhouse’s Senior Nutrition Program are in an uproar over the recent resignation of its executive director, Anna Ostroff, and angrily let the program’s board of directors know it during a combative meeting on Tuesday.

By Christopher Walsh

In September, the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center will officially accept its first group of infants between 12 and 18 months — a longtime aspiration of the center’s board, and its namesake.

By Bettina Neel

The Springs School District and its superintendent are the targets of a wrongful-termination lawsuit filed by a former administrator who claims she was fired for refusing to carry out tasks she found unethical and harmful to students.

By Christine Sampson

“What we’re trying to do here is convert,” said Biddle Duke, the moderator at a ChangeHampton panel discussion called “How to Move the Eco-Needle on Our Lands.”

By Christopher Gangemi

The rally coincided with the fifth anniversary of the death of John Lewis, a United States representative from Georgia and an icon of the civil rights movement, and was the latest in a series of protests against the Trump administration organized by People for Democracy East Hampton.

By Christopher Walsh

EyeGallery, described as “a living cabinet of curiosities,” has opened in the 4,000-square-foot space that had long been home to White’s Drug and Department Store.

By Christopher Walsh

The historic 3,230-square-foot William H. Hedges House, built in 1889 by George Eldredge with alterations made in 1946, has come on the market in East Hampton for the first time in a quarter century.

By Christopher Walsh

Cindy and Joe Realmuto have “been an instrumental component of Project Most since its inception,” its executive director, Rebecca Taylor, said. They will be celebrated at a summer benefit on Sunday at Moby’s in East Hampton.

By Star Staff

The seventh annual Hamptons Dog Show is on Saturday from 4 to 7 p.m. at the American Legion Hall in Amagansett, with the East Hampton Lions Club hosting this fund-raiser for the Guide Dog Foundation of Long Island.

By Christopher Walsh

The Ellen Hermanson Foundation will host its 30th Summer Gala on Saturday from 6:30 to 11:30 p.m. at the Bridgehampton Tennis and Surf Club.

By Bettina Neel

Nat Butler, a Montauk native, has taken extraordinary photos of N.B.A. players on and off the court over the years, as is abundantly evident in his recently published book, “Courtside: 40 Years of NBA Photography.” At 62, he’s still at it.

By Jack Graves

“You decide who you are,” Kerri Walsh Jennings, the beach volleyball Olympian, told 50 young people at East Hampton High Monday morning, a day after her surprise visit to the junior lifeguard program at Atlantic Avenue Beach. “You choose what to focus on.”

By Jack Graves

On Sunday, I took four of my friends on the water with Capt. Rob Aaronson of the charter boat Oh Brother. It was my first time fishing out of Montauk this season, and it was good to be back home.

By Jon M. Diat

Notable Passings

Patricia Peterson, a pioneering fashion editor for The New York Times who became a vice president at the department store Henri Bendel, died at home in Manhattan on June 15. She was 99 and lived part time in Amagansett.

By Carissa Katz

Edward L. Schiff, an eminent authority on real estate law, died of heart failure on July 4 in New York City. A summer resident of Montauk for more than 40 years, he was 96.

By Christopher Walsh

Paul Libin, one of the most influential and successful producers in Broadway history and a Springs homeowner for about 60 years, died on June 28 in a Manhattan hospital at the age of 94.

By Irene Silverman

Hampton Chutney, a culinary fixture on the South Fork since 1997, has begun construction on a new location at Astor Place in NoHo.
By Bettina Neel

Six account books dating to as early as 1794 were discovered in a barn here. They not only document transactions for merchandise such as calico, schoolbooks, and maize, they offer a glimpse into life in early East Hampton.

By Megan Bardis

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