Where Montauk Highway meets Hill Street in Southampton stands the most iconic tree of the East End. It is a centuries-old beech tree. Its majestic symmetrical branches welcome visitors from the west. It is a symbol of the past, the present and the future. It is truly one of the oldest trees in the area, witnessing not only hurricanes but revolutions.
It also is considered by the Shinnecock Nation as sacred.
National Grid, with its massive trucks and equipment, is within 10 feet of the beech tree’s trunk doing some sort of murky work that they would not identify. Tree roots are equivalent to the breadth of its canopy. The beech tree’s roots cannot survive such a devastating invasion.
Please help us save this magnificent tree from extinction. Tell National Grid to back off.
Anna Brinsmade Klebnikov
East Quogue and Sagaponack
A SolutionThe traffic disaster is caused mainly by huge trucks, not passenger cars, and not by local residents. Here is the solution. Eastbound: Add a new third high-occupancy vehicle lane on Sunrise Highway from Westhampton Beach to the start of County...
Blinding HypocrisyJesse Warren for supervisor? Really? That’s what the psychotically ambitious former mayor of Southampton Village recently proposed to the local Republican leadership. The inverted symmetry of it is striking. Current Town Supervisor Maria Moore, with a successful term behind her,...
Come TogetherHampton Bays is the embodiment of the “Cheers” theme song: It’s a place “where everybody knows your name.” If I describe Hampton Bays to someone not from here, it’s compared to Stars Hollow in “Gilmore Girls” or a small town...
Two Sets of RulesSouthampton Village Mayor Bill Manger rammed through a bloated $37 million annual budget, the largest in Southampton Village history. Spending continues to spiral out of control, up another $1.2 million this year alone, on top of the $2.1 million increase...
Positive ActionsDenunciation by recitation would not stand up in court, nor should it in the court of public opinion. Without the strengths of context, evidence or sources, Carol Scott’s Letter to the Editor [“Bad for Southampton,” Letters, April 24] unfairly maligns...
How Did This Happen?If I had a dollar for every person who has called, emailed or stopped me on a village street in the past two weeks to express their outrage over the solar canopy erected in the Jobs Lane parking lot, I...
Not a JokeJust last week, the Southampton Town Democratic Party’s vice chair, who jokingly described herself as Chairman Gordon Herr’s “henchwoman,” went after a former elected official and a former Southampton Town Planning Board member [“Beware of Grudges,” Letters, April 24]. Why?...
You've Been DupedI’d like to respond to Andi Klausner’s recent letter [“Beware of Grudges,” Letters, April 24], in which she assumed the role of grifter Gordon Herr’s “henchwoman.” Andi, you’re not the henchwoman — you’re the patsy. Andi’s letter got me thinking:...
