East End Notebook: Hamptons Hurricane Relief Fund Still Going Strong

EAST HAMPTON

Friends Make Montauk School Supe Grand Marshal

It's official: Jack Perna has been named the 51st grand marshal of the Montauk Friends of Erin St. Patrick's Day Parade. 

Joseph Bloecker, the acting president of the organization that throws Montauk's biggest bash, which draws 30,000 people, said, "It was a vote by unanimous decision." 

Perna, the Montauk School principal and superintendent, also grew up in the hamlet.

NORTH FORK

Krupski Wins Open Legislature Seat in Landslide

Southold Town will have to find another councilman.

Southold Town Councilman Al Krupski defeated Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter during a special election Tuesday night for a seat on the Suffolk County Legislature.

Unofficial results on the Suffolk County Board of Elections website show Krupski with 6,561 votes to Walter's 3,182 – 67 percent of the vote – with all 65 election districts reporting.

RIVERHEAD

Councilwoman Pushes for FAA facility at EPCAL

Sparks flew at the Riverhead Town board work session Thursday as Town Supervisor Sean Walter and Councilwoman Jodi Giglio locked horns about a potential proposal that could site a Federal Aviation Administration control tower at Enterprise Park at Calverton.

According to the FAA, on Dec. 20, the FAA issued a request for information for land for the new integrated air traffic control facility in New York. The RFI is for information and planning purposes; it is not a solicitation for offers to sell the property, and is open until Jan. 31.

Giglio said the FAA wanted to relocate the FAA Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) from its current location at Long Island MacArthur Airport in the Town of Islip.

SOUTHAMPTON

Hamptons Hurricane Relief Fund Is Not Slowing Down

At least 10 times since Superstorm Sandy struck New York in late October, Southampton resident Romi Sloan's garage has filled to capacity with donations to Hamptons Hurricane Relief Fund, the charity she started with Kym Smith, of East Quogue, in the wake of the disaster.

Sloan said Tuesday — as the pair spent their afternoon sorting through donations of clothes, books, food and more — that at least once a week a truck stuffed to the brim leaves the garage to bring aid to people in need on Long Island and Staten Island.

Both Sloan and Smith have thrown their lives into their charity, which they began after witnessing the devastation Superstorm Sandy wrought and the immense need of Sandy's victims. Sloan and Smith agreed Tuesday — going on three months since the storm made landfall in the Northeast — that they do not anticipate their work will be done for years to come.

WESTHAMPTON-HAMPTON BAYS

Civic Eyes Forming Village of Hampton Bays

A group of residents in Hamptons Bays are resuscitating the long talked about idea of incorporating as a village to gain some independence from Southampton Town and have more of a say over their own neighborhoods.