Gold Stars and Dunce Caps

GOLD STAR To Carolyn Munaco and a group of volunteers who went out early in the morning on a cold, rainy, blustery day to save horseshoe crabs that had been trapped while spawning at a beach in Hampton Bays. High water allowed the crabs safely onto the beach to lay eggs, but then the crabs found themselves blocked from returning to the water by an erosion control structure made of stone and wire. A “bucket brigade” of volunteers boosted the crabs up and over and back into the water. It was a great example of human beings causing a problem for creatures we share the planet with — and solving it with some old-fashioned teamwork. An aside: It might be a good idea to try to find a long-term solution that won’t require regular intervention for our arthropod friends, who have been on the planet some 400 million years.

GOLD STAR To the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons, for rescuing animals and finding loving homes for them for 50 years. Stars for all the organizations that help find cats and dogs new homes, but full credit to ARF, which started as a small effort among a group of animal lovers and has grown to an operation with dozens of employees and a track record of saving thousands and thousands of animals. Any organization that reaches the half century mark is doing something right — this one has five decades of loving relationships to reflect on.

DUNCE CAP To Southampton Village officials, for repeatedly missing the point. There is no reason to take potshots at Anthony Carter, the village administrator, for the job he’s doing. The question is: Why did the village custom-make the job listing to assure his hiring? And then immediately begin chipping away at the duties assigned to the administrator in the past? The problem isn’t with Carter — it’s with the way the deck appeared to be stacked by village officials to provide him with a job, and a full-time salary, and then to defend the hiring to allow him to continue to collect a pension as well. It appears that the village will be required by Civil Service officials to try again to make sure there aren’t other qualified candidates out there. That is something that should have been done the first time.

GOLD STAR To CTREE, Stony Brook Southampton Hospital and Fighting Chance, for collaborating in an effort to help cancer survivors and those fighting cancer. All three organizations provide vital support in so many different ways, and joining forces has magnified the power of what they can do. A cancer diagnosis can feel terrifying and isolating, and all-consuming. These organizations have allowed those battling cancer to connect with others who know what they’re going through, and to get lost in the simple comfort of brushing a horse in an open field, and connecting with an animal that won’t judge them or ask questions. Therapy comes in many forms, and sometimes on four legs.

DUNCE CAP To Ron DeSantis, the governor of thousands of waterfront communities, for leaving his own constituents — and the rest of us within a stone’s throw of the oceans — out to dry, or, rather, the opposite. Florida’s state government will no longer be required to consider climate change when crafting energy policy under legislation signed Wednesday by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican. This silly man signed sweeping legislation in March that takes effect July 1, lifting any requirement for Florida lawmakers to consider impact on climate change when making decisions. No more energy conservation or renewable energy, no more offshore wind turbines in state waters, no more fuel-efficient vehicles purchased by the state. “We’re restoring sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots,” he said on social media. Parsing this new policy for sanity isn’t worth the effort — it’s merely head-in-the-sand idiocy, which, in one way, won’t be a problem for long, because most of the sand will wash away around him soon enough.

GOLD STAR For all the scientists, elected officials and engaged residents working here and elsewhere to mitigate the actual effects of climate change in our waterfront communities. Chris Gloninger, the senior scientist in climate and risk communication for the Woods Hole Group in Massachusetts, noted at a recent Express Sessions event: “There is more evidence that atmospheric and climate scientists have that climate change is caused by humans than medical doctors have that smoking causes cancer. Unlike the governor of Florida, we must all work to identify the way we are making things worse, and think about real strategies for fixing it. There’s no room for error.

GOLD STAR To Sag Harbor Village officials, for listening to the concerns of residents and scaling back a paid parking plan just before the start of a busy summer season. It’s a conversation to continue having: What role does paid parking play in generating revenue but also keeping spaces open for people who want to become customers? But May is not the time to try to decide such a thorny question and enact a significant new policy that could adversely impact merchants just as their prime economic season begins. It’s a conversation for another day.

DUNCE CAP To those who saw American Cruise Line as a threat, rather than an opportunity. The small ship docked in Sag Harbor and delivered a cluster of passengers for a short visit early this month. Instead of a major disruption, they were a welcome sight — “especially on a Tuesday in May,” as one merchant put it. No cars, just an appreciation for a historic village and a few bucks to spend while they’re here. It’s a gentle reminder: Not every new thing is a bad thing.

GOLD STAR To Dee Yardley, the Sag Harbor Village superintendent of public works, for a well-orchestrated repaving of Main Street from the Civil War monument to Glover Street before the summer season got underway. The street was scarred with all sorts of patchwork from other projects over the last couple of years, from gas mains to electric lines, and was badly in need of some attention. It was done swiftly and on time — a success that might otherwise not have attracted much notice because it wasn’t a problem.

DUNCE CAP To Section XI’s rule regarding baseball/softball teams qualifying for the playoffs, which left a deserving team sitting at home. The East Hampton softball team finished its regular season 7-1 and shared the League V title with Westhampton Beach — but unlike the Hurricanes, the Bonackers did not qualify for the playoffs due to finishing with a 9-9 mandatory nonleague record. Teams needed to finish with a record at least one game over .500 in order to qualify. It’s a rule the county has had in place for the past few years since it went to a double-elimination format. In instances like this, where a team actually shared a league title, the county should have a rule in place where those teams either automatically qualify, or can at least petition to get into the postseason. What happened here was patently unfair.

GOLD STAR To Southampton Village officials, for following through on a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers. In the works for years, the new ban would have been easy to keep shelving, hand-wringing over the impact on landscaping companies. But the truth is that most companies are switching away from polluting, noisy gas-powered equipment anyway — and while every leaf blower is a nuisance (let’s be honest), at least the village has its sights set on the worst of the bunch. By getting a ban in place, they’ve set a bar for other local villages and towns to clear. And they should, before fall.

DUNCE CAP To the Federal Aviation Administration, for nixing a proposed music festival at Gabreski Airport in June. The Palm Tree Music Festival was set to return to the South Fork on June 22 for a fourth time, with plans to once again use Gabreski for music fans to gather by the thousands for a top-notch event. It’s hard to imagine that a single day of music would interfere terribly with the operation of the airport — especially since the festival has been there before. It’s a big event, but it’s been managed well in the past, and it should get its day in the sun.

GOLD STAR To kelp farmers and the promise of a “blue economy” for the region. The Shinnecock Nation has been working for some time on growing kelp, and last week the New York State celebrated its first commercial kelp farm harvest in Mastic Beach. Stony Brook Southampton had a symposium earlier this month on the promise of using seaweed to both clean local waters and use it to improve soil quality. The region’s agricultural heritage demands that these efforts get full support, and common sense suggests that the ocean and the farm fields both benefit from it.

GOLD STAR To Suffolk County, for its new on-demand bus service. Yes, you read that right: The rollout was a disaster deserving of a dunce cap, certainly. But let’s not miss the big picture here: Demand is what blew up the opening few days of the app-based service, which replaces the inefficient routes that were run in the past. That means it’s a good idea that was simply not executed effectively at the start. There’s plenty of room to improve, and it’s clear that the new service is one that people want and need. Earn that gold star, county officials — fix the issues quickly, and get people where they need to go.

GOLD STAR To the Southampton Arts Center, for its terrific exhibition, “Beyond The Streets: Post Graffiti,” which will remain up through July 20. Long before Banksy brought it mainstream respectability, and skyrocketing value, graffiti crossed over into the art world: Lee Quiñones, Keith Haring, Fab 5 Freddy, Lady Pink, Jean-Michel Basquiat and many, many others were its pioneers. It’s a vibrant addition that should be celebrated, and the SAC’s terrific show does just that.