Off the record, on the QT in WHB, and very hush-hush…
His name has been bandied about the Village for over a year, but until now, Westhampton Beach Police Officer Steven McManus has yet to speak publicly about several controversial incidents in which he has been involved.
Here, for the first time, Officer McManus goes on the record about his missing pistol, Supervisor Linda Kabot's DWI arrest and the police contact with East End Independent reporter Lisa Finn's son: More...
The following appeared in the OtBB Comments queue within the past hour to be appended to "The connection clarifies."
It is presented unedited, but broken into paragraphs for greater legibility: More...
...you certainly had your demons, but over the past three decades, you became a cinematic icon with your lunatic intensity and quirky acting style.
Interesting incident on Dune Road late last evening which sheds some light on the nature of the coverage of Village politics by The End End Independent and its area correspondent.
A Westhampton Beach police cruiser on routine patrol between 10:30 and 11:00 pm found a vehicle parked at Lashley Pavilion, the More...
Updated 05/28/2010 – 11:25 am
...a candidates' debate in the run-up to this year's Westhampton Beach elections.
This should be a good thing, right?
Ennnnt! Not so fast there, folks! More...
Updated 05/27/2010 – 07:38 pm
No, not "Jeanne," my wife, but Jean Schweibish, a woman with whom I've spent the better part of two decades not getting along.
No particular reason other than polarity... we have traditionally been on opposite sides of (mostly local) issues, and neither of us are reticent about expressing ourselves. More...
Slow evening at the Westhampton Beach Village Board's monthly Work Session... no more police officers suspended, no further reports of "blue flu" and no activity on the Disciplinary Charges presently hanging over the heads of Michael Bruetsch, Joseph Pesapane and Steven Cunneen.
The charges involving Officers Bruetsch and Pesapane are now entering their eighth month without resolution thanks to the intractability of the three obstructionist Trustees, Joan Levan, Jim Kametler and Hank Tucker. More...
Updated 05/24/2010 – 16:45 pm
...running for two Trustee seats on the Westhampton Beach Village Board as Suffolk County Board of Elections has determined Sunshine Party candidate Michelle Buggé's Nominating Petition to be "invalid."
A fax over the signature of Commissioner Cathy L Richter and received by Village Clerk Kathleen McGinnis following this morning's meeting of Commissions in Yaphank, declared that Ms. Buggé's petition was deficient in valid signatures. More...
With celebrity-hungry BM (big media) making a fuss in the tabloids about sightings of Kate Hudson, Ginnifer Goodwin and über-hunk Colin Egglesfield... Colin who?... in "the Hamptons," we can take some comfort in the fact that no more specific location was identified.
(Some mild sleuthing reveals that it's in Southampton... poor them!) More...
Updated 05/23/2010 – 11:03 am
"Bauer's gone berserk" says another diehard devotee of Fox's long-running "24" which will conclude its eighth and final season Monday evening at 8:00 pm.
It is, since its debut on November 6, 2001, one of perhaps four multi-season broadcast network series1 where I've never missed an episode in sequence. More...
Anyone who thinks that lame duck Village Trustee Jim Kametler wrote the letter over his signature in this morning's Southampton Press Western Edition, has never read one of his field reports from his time on the Westhampton Beach Police force.
The letter is an interesting critique of his fellow Trustee Toni-Jo Birk's time in office and More...
Being a continuation of Part 1.
Whatever Fred Hager may say about his separation from the Village Police Department today, the agreement makes it plain that he knew the jig was up and desired...
"...to avoid the commencement or initiation of any charges against him pursuant to Civil Service Law Section 75;" More...
...on the Westhampton Beach School District and Westhampton Free Library voting.
The budget measures succeeded, but the one most had their eye on, Proposition 3... More...
...when voting on the Westhampton Beach School District and Westhampton Free Library budgets today.
The "Turf Wars" have been waged here and at Board of Education meetings, and if you didn't decide which which lever you plan to throw on Proposition 3, then you probably don't intend to vote at all. More...
Veteran Westhampton Beach Police Officer Steven Cunneen was formally suspended this noon at a special session of the Village Board.
In a meeting called for 11:30 am and attended by Mayor Conrad Teller and all four Trustees, Detective Cunneen was suspended, with pay, effective tomorrow, May 18th. More...
Obtained from the Village of Westhampton Beach under a Freedom of Information Law request, even redacted it's not pretty, portraying a man unwilling or unable to comport himself in the professional manner required of a law enforcement careerist.
But as a friend of OtBB likes to say, "It is what it is." More...
No, not the upcoming Belmont Stakes field, but the final (pending petition challenges) line-up for the Village Election on June 18th.
And only one "dark horse" candidate, Michelle Buggé on the ironically-named Sunshine Party, has filed a nominating petition with a total of 64 signatures. More...
Updated 05/14/2010 – 5:53 pm
Dreadful news leaking out of 30 Rockefeller Center... NBC has decided to shut down its record-tying long-run series, "Law&Order!"
And somewhere five floors above West 96th Street, my wife's friend Myrna, a fellow "L&O" aficionado, is staring down at the pavement... an option I do not have.
NBC confirmed this afternoon that it will telecast the series final episode, Monday, May 24.
Rats! Brandon Tarticoff would never have let this happen!
From Wednesday's Publisher's Weekly:
"The Books & Books indie chain is working its way north from South Florida with the July 1 opening of (a 2,000 sq. ft.) Books & Books Westhampton Beach."
The release further goes on to quote co-owner (with Denise Berthiaume) Jack McKeown, described as a "book industry consultant," More...
The videotape record of the May 2010 Westhampton Beach Village Board meeting is now available for all to see.
An OtBB reader wondered if perhaps Trustee Jim Kametler and Remsenburg gadfly Angelo dela Fuente were right, and that I was making it all up.
Res ipsa loquitur.
...of the Yiddish term chutzpah is that of the son who murders both parents, then throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.
There can be no better current example of the term than in yesterday's The East End Independent article by Lisa Finn, the bulk of More...
...may be found on the Website of Potunk Lodge #1071, whose Masonic temple is on Montauk Highway, next to the West Methodist Church in Westhampton.
Updated 05/11/2010 – 09:09 am
This evening's School and Library budget hearings were held in the High School's Large Group Instruction Room.
Less than five people who didn't have to be there were in attendance, so it seems that any questions anyone had prior to next Tuesday's vote, have already been settled. More...
Updated 05/10/2010 – 11:20 am
This evening is the Budget Hearings for both the Westhampton Beach School District and the Westhampton Free Library ("WFL"), and it is the latter which raises larger questions than even the school's contentious "turf wars."
(Voting will be held next Monday in the High School's Large Group Instruction Room, 7:00 am to 9:00 pm.) More...
...why Phil Ochs' "Power And The Glory" didn't achieve the folk-era patriotic anthem status of Woody Guthrie's "This land Is Your Land."
(Lyrics)
It's a powerful and rousing song which I first heard Ochs perform at a tiny Greenwich Village club, The Gaslight on Bleeker Street, in More...
An archetype of my formative years, Philadelphia Phillies Hall of Fame right-hander Robin Roberts, passed away Thursday, age 83.
I hadn't thought of Roberts in years, but for the first half of the '50s I thought about him often, wishing my Brooklyn Dodgers had such a dependable ace pitching for them. More...
The question mark is less about Chris Cox's intentions than just how "local" he actually is.
His campaign Website positions him as:
"A resident of Westhampton Beach, the grandson of former President Richard Nixon and a successful businessman, More...
...in local geography. On-line Newsday headline from this morning:
Southampton rallies against sex offender trailers
"Parents, educators and the Southampton supervisor are rallying this morning against housing homeless sex offenders on county land in Westhampton Beach." More...
When the scandal broke two years ago which led to the immediate resignation of New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer, the enduring image for many was that of Silda Wall Spitzer appearing at her philandering husband's side as he did his mea culpa and "I'm outta here" act before the media.
What a sad, lovely and courageous figure she seemed, standing with that bounder. More...
Someone has a terrific sense of humor.
Just in from OtBB's crack research staff, an on-line listing for the 24 Oak Street property owned by Jim Kametler's wife, Carol S. Meyer: More...
If the signs in front of 24 Oak Street and his property on Montauk Highway in Westhampton are to be trusted, we won't have Jim Kametler to kick around anymore.
Nor will he be screwing around anymore with the Village in service to his vendetta against his former boss, Chief Ray Dean. More...
Growing up in Westhampton Beach there was no more iconic location in the Village than The Patio Hotel & Restaurant.
Owned by a group of prominent local businessmen... the Weixelbaum brothers and ol' Herm Bishop among them... the restaurant was not only a hub in the Village, but a "destination" from all over Suffolk County in the way More...
...to JoAnn and Ed Dean on attaining the almost unimaginable, 50 years of marriage!
That's half-a-century, and who even expects to achieve such a milestone anymore! More...
