Georgica Pond Foundation Still Searching for Director as Thiele Bows Out

The Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation is still searching for a new executive director, as Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., who is retiring from the State Assembly this year and was named the incoming director of the organization last summer, will not take the position after all.

“After a long career of public service focused on the protection of the East End’s environment and community character, working with the foundation presented an excellent opportunity for me to continue my passion for conservation in the next chapter of my professional life,” Thiele said in a statement this month. “I looked forward to working with the foundation on its important mission. I am extremely grateful to the confidence shown in me by the board of the foundation in selecting me for the position.

“Unfortunately, I am currently confronting some health challenges that will require me to reduce the heavy workload that I have maintained for so many years,” he continued.

“Consequently, I will not be able to continue as executive director of the Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation, Inc. as I had hoped after my term ends in the New York State Assembly. I very much appreciate the kindness and understanding of the foundation board in the wake of this decision. I remain committed to helping the foundation in every way possible during this transition.”

The foundation suffered another loss last month with the death of Jonathan Wainwright, its president and co-founder.

The foundation’s mission is to preserve the Georgica Pond ecosystem through science-based, watershedwide policy and restoration. Since its founding in 2015, the group has worked to mitigate degraded water quality, which has manifested in the form of blooms of toxic cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, through the replacement of aged residential septic systems with innovative/alternative systems that greatly reduce nitrogen leaching. Excessive nitrogen inputs from ground and surface water runoff feed dense plant life, whose decomposition is blamed for choking the pond of oxygen.

In July, the organization announced that former East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell had been elected to its board of directors.

Sara Davison, the foundation’s founding executive director, said last week that the organization is interviewing new candidates for the position. “I am staying on until a new person is found,” she said.