On The Beach Blog

"Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night!" – Bette Davis, All About Eve

It should come as scant surprise that the Jewish community... and not just those of the Orthodox persuasion... have decided enough is enough!

They are speaking out against what they clear­ly feel is a pervasive anti-Semitism among locals after several months of sitting quietly by and letting Irene Barrett and the rest of the ad-hoc anti-eruvians run amok rattling sabres about Westhampton Beach becoming "another Five Towns." More...

At the July Village Board Meeting, in response to the direct question:

"Are we paying the same amount this year for the same (police) coverage we had last year?"

...Mayor Conrad Teller, coming to rescue of a distressed Trustee Toni-Jo Birk, stated:

"We're getting the coverage we believe is neces­sary. No larger cost than the cost last year or the year before."

However the certified numbers, obtained under a Freedom of Information Law request, tell a different story: More...

Updated 07/29/2008 - 10:45 am

As forecast last week, Rabbi Marc Schneier is finally set to extend that long-promised, curiously-delayed "hand of friendship" and hold his own educational eruv meeting at the Hampton Synagogue at 8:00 pm on Wednes­day, August 13.

It is open to the public... even those shadowy members of the Christian Citizens Council.

Some more cynical than I would note that the announcement is as much about the Rabbi as the eruv.

...just how is that new Police Department shift schedule working out for the Village?

Mid-Summer Sunday afternoon and only two (2!) officers on duty when the weather hit and started taking down pole and trees, making Beach and Seafield Lanes, and the West Bay Bridge impassable? More...

Updated 07/28/2008 - 11:25 pm

Sunday started out beautifully... sunny, balmy skies, gentle Summer zephyrs... but by mid-afternoon I was out pulling large branches and medium-sized tree-limbs out of East Main Street so that the indecisive traffic could pass and gawk down Seafield Lane where fire ap­paratus was blocking passage while seeing to some minor emergency situation. More...

MadAve legend Jerry Della Femina and I share something in common, a weakness for the Sausage&Egg McMuffin™ found beneath most Golden Arches... but only before 10:30 am. More...

...to a Synagogue near us. More...

And contrary to the custom of today's baseball clubs, it was a "single admission" twin-bill, with the postponed monthly Meeting immedi­ately following the regularly scheduled Work Session. More...

Ahhhh, my friends, there's good news tonight.

Well, for Hampton Synagogue, at least. More...

...isn't it time you really came clean with us about how the "new" Police Department shift schedules you and the rank 'n' file de­vised and implemented a year ago are working out for the rest of the Village?!?

You were quite directly asked (by ol' pain-in-the-arse me) about this matter at the annual Village Board Organizational Meeting on July 7th, and you rather clumsily flubbed your response, alternately dancing, dissembling and ducking the straight-forward inquiry.

The answer was very simple: police depart­ment overtime is up 51.48% from last year, or $54,528 up from $35,997 in 2007! More...

Updated 07/23/2008 - 09:22 am

Less than three weeks after the Village Board in a purely spiteful political move declined to reappoint former Chairman Victor Levy to the Planning Board, that entity has lost another valuable member now that Barbara Ramsay has tendered her resignation...

"...effective September 1, 2008, or as soon as a replacement board member can be appointed."

Mrs. Ramsay has served for nine years.

The Planning Board IQ attrition continues.

...this should be of interest to us all:

"The authors of anonymous online posts that accused a former congressman of paying $25,000 to the mayor of Mamaroneck, N.Y., in connection with a home renovation project may soon find themselves the named defendants in a defamation action."

Cite: N.Y. Court Defines Test for Obtaining Identities Behind Online Posts.

Everyone feels braver and more rambunctious behind a modem and a Nom de 'Net, but this is about personal responsibility. More...

Glenn Dorskind, having just added the longest "Comment" in the ten-month history of OtBB, like Dave Reilly last Winter, deserves some front page exposure and dialogue for his effort.

"I do not like all this fighting. I love this Village and I think there is some real lack of communication, especially on the Eruv. As someone who grew up reformed and studied and taught Buddhism for the last 30 years, I had no idea what an Eruv was, so I am not surprised that my non-Jewish brothers and sisters are concerned. I respect that concern and feel strongly that it should be addressed. I am not qualified to do so." More...

...whose ox is being gored.

I received several comments on Wednesday's "Fueling the Paranoia" entry which, together, caused some head-scratching.

The first originated with a blog-reader... it was in an E-mail so I'll let the writer "out" himself if he choses... who was incensed: More...

Updated 07/17/2008 – 11:45 pm

...for now, at least.

We see by this morning's Southampton Press Western Edition that the 1983 Federal Civil Rights Action prosecuted against Quogue by Andrew J. Campanelli on behalf of Westhamp­ton Beach developer Rocco Lettieri, has hit a slight snag. More...

Updated 07/16/2008 - 03:25 pm

Now one could marginalize this as "someone else who's bought into the mythos which our local Rabbi has created for himself," but it is instructive to digest:

"First, it’s important to note that we were at a friend’s house very close to the Hampton Syna­gogue, which was founded 18 years ago by Rabbi Marc Schneier and is thriving in a place and a situation where such success was consid­ered extremely unlikely. If you want to gain some insight into what an eclectic mix of modern Jew­ish men and women from very diverse back­grounds are doing these days, it’s worthwhile taking a look inside what Rabbi Schneier has built and de­vel­oped here in the Hamptons." More...

Andrew J. Campanelli, the Mineola-based attorney who specializes in 1983 Civil Rights Actions ("The one who would bankrupt the Village"), is back with an Amend­ed Verified Complaint, 88 pages worth! More...

Yesterday afternoon's mail found a solicitation from the Police Benevolent Association, Inc. of Westhampton Beach, Kerry Laube, President.

They represent that they are a non-profit organization, and this might bear some careful scrutiny given their political activity of recent. More...

In one of the more disgraceful moves by the Teller Administration, Joan Levan presiding, one of the brighter assets anywhere in Village Government over the past 25 years, Victor Levy, has been, as forecast last month, put out to pasture. More...

OtBB was alerted to the problem by an E-mail from a friend:

"The Performing Arts Center is having a Boz Scaggs concert tonight. Three tour buses and one large truck have had their motors running since about 9:00 am or 10:00 am. It is now after 5:00 pm and the concert is not until 8:30 pm. Who knows when they'll be pulling out! The trucks are taking up parking from the corner of main to past my house. The stink of the fumes is God-awful. There is a law that trucks are not supposed to run continually for more than five minutes. More...

Friday's terrific SS Centennial Regatta at WYS stirred many old memories of sunny days and starry evenings spent sailing the waters of Moriches Bay more than half-a-century ago.

My sister and I had #93, More...

It was "old home week," and it was the 100th anniversary of the launching of the very first SS class boat, the actual naming of which is shrouded in the gray mists of lower Great South Bay.

It was a celebration of a sailing tradition unique to the local bays of Moriches, Quantuck and Shinnecock, and of the 156 known SS boats built... the most recent one just two years ago by Beecher Halsey III... and Merry Murray (née Medina) who has skippered the Centennial project over the past two-plus years announced that 38 of the small sloops had registered for the three-race regatta sailed off Speonk Shore Point at Westhampton Yacht Squadron. More...

On a special interest forum I visit, a certain type of participant is known as an "mwm," or a Moron with a Modem.

And The Southampton Press, which this Spring launched its 27east interactive Website, has of late been assaulted by mwms in squadrons. More...

The Mineola-based attorney who specializes in the 1983 Actions discussed earlier this Spring in A New Cloud Darkens Village Hall, E-mailed OtBB last month: More...

Updated 07/01/2008 - 07:02 pm

After a contentious re-canvas at the Suffolk County Board of Elections yesterday, it has been determined that Deputy Mayor James Kametler has won re-election to the West­hampton Beach Village Board by a slim three vote margin.

Three-hundred and twenty legal Village voters mourn.

The Press' Jessica DiNapoli has a fuller report on 27East.