by Richard Gambino

“The Child is father of the Man,” wrote Wordsworth. So it is I see so many ghosts from my earliest Christmases. Little ghosts. All about me.  In Sag Harbor, so far from the Brooklyn of my earliest years, the Red Hook long gone, itself a ghost of an Italian immigrant neighborhood where longshoremen walked the streets to and from work with bailing hooks twisted into their belts. Where each December, my father and I would go to Court Street and select the largest evergreen tree for sale on the sidewalk outside a grocery store. We lived in the “parlor floor” of a brownstone built in the 1880s for a rich family, and  before I was born converted to four cold-water, three-room apartments, one on each floor, to rent to immigrant families like mine.

But being on the parlor floor had a great distinction. It had been the floor for entertaining when the building was a grand townhouse, so our beautifully ornamented nineteenth-century ceilings were eighteen feet high, allowing us to have the tallest Christmas tree we could buy, the tallest Christmas trees by far that I’ve ever had. And under the tree, a hand-carved wood manger with a baby, his parents and some gentle-looking farm animals. In the Italian tradition, such crèche scenes go back many centuries. A story has it that Francis of Assisi shocked church officials by bringing  real live farm animals into a church to enliven a life-size manger scene. But can you imagine how much the kids must have loved it!

In my youngest years, I was, of course, too young to understand theological doctrines, so what I saw before me was just a child and his family, much like mine. A child’s Christmas, as it was. And still is, for every child I see on Sag Harbor’s Main Street, eyes large and alive to the multi-colored lights brightening a winter’s long night, the serene manger at one end of Main Street, and tall Christmas tree and the lighted, sacred Menorah at the other. (A heart-felt thank you to all the good people who each December make the town into such a wondrous delight.) Later on, as a young man studying for a PhD in philosophy, I read the theological arguments for the existence of God, and, from time to time since then, have taught about them. The best of them are, in my opinion, only arguments that belief in God is not irrational. But beyond them, the truest argument I know for a loving God is each small child, every one of them.

In the faces of very young children, open faces, I find the core of all hope. They haven’t yet put on masks of persona, of what we want the world to see and not see about us. There is so much wonder in the eyes of  young children, nourishing a drive to explore and learn, and such a great natural feeling of the joy of living (at least in those who have not been neglected or abused). So, in each child’s face I read  hope for the future, hope that for him or her the lucid eyes and open heart will be well cultivated and brought to bear in making a good life for each of them, and all of them. I feel this hope because I’ve become again one of them, the bright wonder of  life outshining  the darker areas of  my adult knowledge. So I refuse to join in any cynicism such as I heard recently that childhood takes so long because it takes a long time to make kids who are bright of mind and bright of spirit into many adults who are dull of mind and spirit, or worse.

The kids’ infectious and inspiring expressions and responses also remind me of John Adams’ truth that, “There are only two creatures of value on the face of the earth, those with the commitment [here, responsible adults] and those who require the commitment of others [here, children].” Seeing the infant in his humble, make-shift crib on Main Street reminds me of our responsibility to the very young, who so depend on our love and wisdom. Here’s a rub: the possibilities of the kids becoming adults who are compassionate, loving, generous of spirit, and intelligent, depend on our  being compassionate, loving, generous of spirit and intelligent toward them. 

A couple of centuries ago, David Hume stated what I think people with common sense had long observed. All decent behavior by a person relies on his  having as part of his most inner being what Hume called “moral sentiment,” meaning a real, living sense of empathy and sympathy for other people, and for their joys and sorrows, pleasures and pains, aspirations and set-backs. So far as I know, this truth has been confirmed by every psychologist who has studied children. Oh, the language has changed. Hume talked about “character,” and modern developmental psychologists instead use the word “personality.” But the truth is confirmed. In contrast, throughout most of history, children over the age of seven (the “age of reasoning”), and even younger were commonly treated as miniature adults. Worse, moral and religious ideas were drummed into them by intimidating  lecturing, often enforced by fear of punishment.  Religion by terrorism. And by a certain age, the kids got the message by listening to the real lesson in the experience, “the music behind the words,” as it were. The lesson that power and fear rule the world. That real sympathy and empathy for others, and the lesson that “God is love,” are just abstractions, like “God is infinite,” and “God is eternal.”  Fit maybe for people like Francis of Assisi, but, nod-nod, wink-wink, we had better be self-centered and calloused toward others behind the masks of “goodness” we, as children, learned all too well to wear. Moral sentiment? Social rites and rituals, okay. Even some religious ones, maybe. But don’t push me more than that.

Yet, each December I look into the innocent, intelligent, joyful  eyes of little children on Main Street and  become again the young child enthralled by the infant and his family under a huge Christmas tree improbably set in a Brooklyn tenement. That little boy is still father to the man I am now. And I thank God for that. 

RICHARD GAMBINO wishes everyone a good Christmas, Hanukkah and 2009.

Ligonee’s Importance

Dear Bryan,

Bill Brauniger, in his letter to the Sag Harbor Express, December 18, writes, “[Ligonee] brook is not a natural feature and may well add to the flow of contaminants, commonly found in storm water run-off, to Sag Harbor Cove,” and so he suggests, “Given this, perhaps the most environmentally positive thing to do with the ‘brook’ would be to return it to its natural state by filling it in.”

Filling in Ligonee was tried. In 1969, some Sag Harbor citizens took it upon themselves to stop the flow of Ligonee Brook and bulldozed an earthen dam to close the north end of Long Pond. They did this thinking the extra water depth would increase water percolation into the aquifer below the pond. But what happened was almost instantly neighbors complained of flooding and a naturalist pointing out that vegetation important for wildfowl was drowned. It’s a long story, which was resolved in 1973 when spring rains increased the water pressure; the earthen dam caved in, and Ligonee flowed again.

“Ligonee Brook, or the Alewive Drain, connecting Long Pond with the Cove, was a fish run so long ago no one can say whether it was a natural brook, or in part artificial” is a portion of what historian, Harry D. Sleight, wrote in Sag Harbor in Earlier Days on the subject of natural versus man-made. We know William Wallace Tooker wrote, “The brook is not natural but dug by the fisherman.” The closest evidence I can find of such an early act is in the Southampton Town Records. In 1793, the town trustees gave John Jermain permission “to dig across the Road that leads from Sagg to Sag Harbour And across the road in order to let the waters of Crooked Pond and Little Long Pond into said [Otter] Pond….” Following this permission there is no mention that letting of the waters into Otter Pond ever happened.

Just ten years later, in 1803, the New York State legislature defined the border of Sag Harbor as following the course of “old Legonee creek or brook” as we know it today. “Beginning at a road leading from Sag-Harbor aforesaid, to North-Sea, upon the old Legonee creek or brook; thence running with the said creek or brook to middle line and old boundary between the great south and north division; from thence [east] on the said middle line until it strikes the line between the towns of East and Southampton…”

Though Ligonee has been enhanced over history, for me the most interesting and convincing evidence that Ligonee Brook is natural is the remains of an oxbow carved by Ligonee’s water flowing to Sag Harbor cove. No man or slave would have dug this “S” shaped oxbow no matter how much rum he’d partaken in. Nature took centuries to make it. When the LIRR laid out the railroad bed in 1869, they cut off the oxbow so that the tracks passed over Ligonee just once rather than three times. The severed oxbow loop can be seen on the west side of the tracks somewhat north of Middle Line trail.

There are enough stories and records about Ligonee Brook, Sag Harbor’s western border, to fill a book, and so I hope that Sag Harbor takes pride in Ligonee’s history and respects its function of draining excess surface water from the ponds.

Sincerely yours,

Jean Held

Sag Harbor

For Sal Vacca

Dear Editor:

My sister Rosemary Ward and I would like to thank everyone connected with our father’s peaceful passing. We are first of all deeply appreciating the manner in which Sal Vacca lived his full life of 92 years. His defining moment arrived when he met our mother, Alice Juliano Vacca. We don’t know if it was love at first sight, but it shined on brightly from that moment to this. There is a special bond between a father and his children, but when the father is deeply in love with the mother of the children, the bond that is created as a result is nothing short of eternal. We could not have chosen more perfect parents.

There is no way to adequately express in words the character and the class that Sal Vacca exemplified in the way he lived his life. For those who knew him, no explanation is necessary. For those who did not, none is possible. He lived by the Golden Rule and treated others with the same respect that he appreciated in return. He was a gentleman in every sense of the word. He was a dedicated husband, father, friend, and public servant. He also practiced a deep devotion to the Creator of all life. I personally acknowledge and revere such a Creator because no man could be as truly blessed as I am on his own merit.

Rosemary and I would like to thank Dad’s doctor, Richard Panebianco for recognizing that to treat our father’s cancer at his advanced age would have undoubtedly created a host of complications, making the high quality of his remaining days unlikely, if not impossible. There is no way for us to express the depth of our appreciation to East End Hospice for the manner in which each individual lovingly cared for Dad’s needs, enhanced his quality of life, and respected his dignity without fail. East End Hospice is truly an organization of angels.

Our father touched so many people in a positive way that we can’t begin to mention by name everyone who went out of their way to make his passing peaceful. However, we do want to express our gratitude to the Sag Harbor Fire Department for giving our father, Sal Vacca, the most phenomenal bon voyage imaginable. Only Rosemary and I know to what lengths the Fire Department went to honor our father, and we can say without exaggeration that these extraordinary Volunteers treated our father as if he were Royalty.

In conclusion, as much as we appreciate the human touch, we appreciate just as much whatever opened up the sky at the cemetery and let the sun shine through for the service there. As dreary as the weather and the occasion seemed, there would be no raining on Dad’s parade. It was as though our father, Sal Vacca, could find no better way to say “thank you” from his broader perspective. Personally, I have no doubt that this is true.

Sincerely,

Bobby Vacca

Rosemary Ward

Assessment Doesn’t Make Sense

Dear Bryan,

The Village Board of Sag Harbor works very hard and does some great work on behalf of the village but the idea that we should abolish the practice of keeping our own separate tax rolls completely baffles me. Just a few years back the board had a complete reassessment done of Sag Harbor. Not only that but since then multiple reassessments have been done for multiple properties. At that time, the board stated as today: “It’s not going to affect them as much as they think.” Well, it did affect many property owners adversely and the greatest share was the “blue collar people”. These are people who have lived in Sag Harbor all their lives and have owned homes here for many years. They have paid their dues and made this village the great place it is. Right or wrong, their properties had lower assessments than others that have newly moved here and the assessment hit the “blue collar people” very hard who can least afford it. It was an informal homesteaders discount — which states like Florida have and we don’t, officially — that was completely eliminated by the new assessment. Additionally, just the cost of that reassessment increased our taxes.

 Now the board wants to eliminate that recent assessment and adopt East Hampton’s assessments. They want East Hampton to reassess because they feel their assessments are inferior. Obviously, this begs the question why would anyone want to throw away the newest, greatest for something they believe is inferior? That question aside, this will once again hit the “blue collar people” the most and not by lowering the taxes I can assure you. This is also the same East Hampton that just increased our taxes by about 30 percent, which can hardly be classified as no small amount. This reassessment will also cost money and that will be passed along by an increase in our taxes. So basically, the board wants to throw away all the money, time and effort that was spent on our reassessment a few years back, consolidate with the East Hampton assessment, convince East Hampton to reassess us again, completely eliminate any informal homesteaders discount, create another round of grievances, petitions and supreme court appeals, increase our taxes at the very least since we will have to pay for this while the economy is being likened to the Great Depression, home values are plummeting, wages are not increasing and what you can buy with a dollar is getting less and less.

The only people I see clamoring about all of this is the board. We have a complete reassessment of Sag Harbor in place that is up to date and good. The public is not demanding the elimination of redundancy. Anyone who wishes to grieve can. I am completely baffled by all this and can’t help but feel there is lack of transparency here because none of this makes sense.

Bruce Fletcher

Sag Harbor

The Great Depression, World War II, the turbulence of the 1960s — as painful as they are, why is it that particularly difficult times in history are also often remembered by those who endured them as being particularly precious and special?

Perhaps you could call it a dual edged sword of irony — the fact that happy memories are never quite so sweet as when they blossom from the soil of strife. When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. For it’s in troubled times that we are truly most in need of happy visions — like the sight of someone feared lost forever walking through the front door on Christmas Eve. It’s a universal truth and the reason why 60-year-old movies continue to make us well up year after year.

Yes, there’s something about extreme difficulties that lend themselves nicely to improvement of the human condition. Bad times do (obviously) drive some people to dastardly deeds, but they also inspire masses of others to think poetically and act emotionally. Think of all those holiday stories from bygone eras when children who wake up on Christmas morning are thrilled to find nothing more in their stocking than a single orange and a handmade scarf.

So if you’re struggling financially and looking for a bright spot in this bleak economic and social time in our history, consider this. For the children in your life, maybe not getting everything they want come Christmas morning will in fact be a priceless gift — a valuable lesson on the importance of priorities that will last far longer than the i-Pod you didn’t buy this year.

Think back on your own favorite Christmas memories. While you may hit on a note of nostalgia while recalling the Big Wheel or the Barbie Dream House, remember, it was not the toy itself, but the family who surrounded you the minute you opened it, that created the memory. Those parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles who now are nothing more than a handful of overexposed frames on an 8 millimeter home movie.

It’s the ultimate Christmas gift and one that you’re not likely to find at the mall at any price.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. 

J.J. Nolis’ wood shingled home on Denison Street can best be described as traditional, but with a contemporary twist. Elegantly furnished and boasting a master bathroom that is the envy of all who lay eyes on it, the home is full of light and good cheer — especially good cheer.

Every other year, the Sag Harbor LVIS hosts a house tour between Christmas and New Year’s. This year, there are five homes on the tour, but without a doubt, Nolis’ house will be the holiday centerpiece of the event. Visitors need take only one step inside Nolis’ front door before they will realize that in addition to being an architect, and a designer — Nolis is, in fact, a child who has never grown up.

There, nestled in the foyer of his entryway is the true centerpiece of the home — a 19 foot high, tin foil covered Christmas display that Nolis (who doesn’t mind being known as the “Willy Wonka of Christmas”) calls “Candy Cane Mountain.”

To get a sense of Candy Cane Mountain, think of a favorite childhood memory and add a vision of a very tall Macy’s window during the holidays, but without the crass commercialism of product placement.

Nolis’ Candy Cane Mountain is a riot of color and light with layers upon layers of tinsel, and beads and faces and figures surrounding a virtual fantasy land of miniature joy. Through the post W.W.II miracle of animatronics (batteries and extension cords not included) tiny skiers go up plastic hills only to turn around and come zipping back down, over and over again. Meanwhile, the Tornado, a mini roller coaster, rushes full speed down hills and around curves while little amusement park planes suspended by strings from a revolving carousel soar round and round.

But the main attraction of candy cane mountain is the music. It sits overhead, at about the 10 foot level and is a miniature bell choir made up of seven soldiers and one Santa. With little mallets in hand, each figure turns to ring the bells at their sides. The little choir rings out 36 separate songs before starting all over. It’s not just Jingle Bells either — the repertoire even includes Carol of the Bells, a tough song for such a tiny bell choir.

“The origins of the bell choir were my Aunt Marion and Uncle Al Sakavich,” explains Nolis. “They live in Woodbury, Conn. and three years ago when I moved in they said, ‘You’re the person we want to have this.’ They were older and always knew I was the one person who would care for this and use it.”

Nolis has been creating his elaborate Christmas display for 20 years now. But this is only his third Christmas in his new house. Prior to that, he had only the limited space in his apartment with which to work, and most of the 80 boxes of decorations stayed in the attic or basement.

A lot of friends come and see the display and say I put them in the Christmas spirit every year.”

It’s easy to see why. In addition to Candy Cane Mountain, Nolis also has some 150 nutcrackers, bunches of Santas and countless other memorable Christmas objects. In the living room is a Lithuanian Christmas tree, a nod to Nolis’ heritage, with hand made ornaments created by his grandmother.

This year, it took 100 hours and 32 rolls of aluminum foil to assemble Candy Cane Mountain, and Nolis called on his godson, Dana Harvey, a Pierson High School student, to help.

“There are also 180 electric candles in the windows,” says Nolis, who points to his mother as being the inspiration behind his love of Christmas.

“Tillie Nolis, my mom, was over the top with anything that could make people laugh. My mom passed away from Lou Gehrig’s disease two years ago. Christmas was always so much fun,” he says. “I definitely have my mom’s Christmas spirit. I didn’t realize how much I had it until she passed away. I built the house and I wanted to bring her here, but she was so ill, she never saw it.”

“Everything in my house as a story behind it. It’s authentic and for a reason. That’s what Christmas is for me,” he adds. “It’s my meaningful connection.”

Nolis is also a session singer who travels regularly to Nashville to record. He and his friend Mike Dodson have written a Christmas song entitled, what else, “Candy Cane Mountain.” Nolis recently recorded the song, backed up by some of his favorite Nashville singers, and come next Christmas, will officially release it.

 “It’s just a fun Christmas song. It reminds you of those old specials like Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.”

Also on the tour this year is the historic Sag Harbor home of Joy Lewis — a circa 1830 Greek Revival on Hampton Street built for shipbuilder Charles T. Dering. Like Nolis, Lewis loves decorating for the holidays. But her displays reflect a slightly different focus.

“It touches me…the things people bring when they come to this country,” says Joy Lewis as she looks wistfully at the small, elegant Christmas tree on a table in the front hall of her home.

It’s obvious even to a casual viewer that Lewis has love for all things historic. Busts of George Washington and Voltaire share space with vintage board games and paintings of local notable figures.

“When I came to the East Coast, I can’t forget the first night I slept in an 18^th century house,” says Lewis. “I loved it — that feeling of being in a house someone spent so much time in, the feel of the people that lived there before.”

“It inspires you to think of those who were here before,” says Lewis who is fascinated not only by people with names like Dering or James Fennimore Cooper who was Dering’s business partner and very likely visited him at the home or William Wallace Tooker the well known ethnologist who also once lived there — but by the smaller and often undocumented lives. The lives represented, for instance, on the Christmas tree in Lewis’ foyer.

The tree itself is from the German area of Transylvania in Romania. It’s all white — made of turkey feathers wrapped around wire. Hanging from the boughs are intricate little silvery ornaments that, at first glance, look as if they are made of tin. But closer examination reveals they are much more fragile in nature and are actually constructed of thick paper.

 “They are called Dresdens and were made in Germany from 1880 until W.W.I when they melted down the molds for munitions,” says Lewis. “I think the center of the craft was in Dresden.”

“They had a male and female mold, and they would punch them as engravers do,” adds Lewis. “There were three dimensional ones and also flat ones.”

Lewis notes that while the Germans were also known for making fine blown glass ornaments, those were primarily for export. The paper Dresdens didn’t tend to travel far from home — unless they were packed in the luggage of immigrants.

“The paper ones were for themselves,” she says.

Lewis and her late husband, Bob, became avid collectors of Dresdens after finding their first — a delicate little armchair — in an antique shop in the city. Many more were found at shops locally

“Our imagination was as if these are the ornaments that might have been brought by the Germans who worked at the watch case factory,” says Lewis.

Among the paper Dresdens on Lewis’ tree is a zeppelin, a fish, a miniature house and a sailboat. The tree is also decorated with die-cut lithographs from the period of angelic faces and outdoor scenes, as well as cornucopias and fragile, lacy looking ornaments most likely handmade by women in the Thüringen Mountains from material like cotton, wool and paper.

“They are so delicate. It’s amazing they survived,” says Lewis. “I love the cornucopia and the little presents in them.”

Considering the violent history of Germany — particularly Dresden which was heavily bombed during W.W.II — and the fact that the paper ornaments were mainly produced for the local market, it’s amazing that any of them have survived at all. In fact, notes Lewis, they are not all that common.

“In big traumas, things get lost,” she notes.

As a child born in Kansas during the Depression, Lewis knows all about big traumas, the fragile nature of family treasures and the appreciation of simple gifts.

“People born in the dust bowl in Kansas appreciate everything so much,” she says. “When you’ve had enough time to realize what you’ve been doing, though you don’t know while you’re doing it, you get an interesting perspective.”

“One thing I’ve realized is that one of the things Bob and I shared was a rescue fantasy,” says Lewis who bought and fixed up a number of old houses with her husband during their life together. “The first time we were in Sag Harbor, it looked like it was going into the ground. We just felt we had to save it.”

“My father was a small town preacher,” says Lewis. “That’s probably where I got my interest in saving things — but I turned to different stuff.”

When she was in third grade, Lewis and her family escaped the dust bowl by moving to Sheridan, Wyoming where her father had found a church to preach in. For Lewis and her little sister, it was Shangri-la.

“Everything I had seen until then was brown,” she says. “It was the Christmas season when we were there. People at the social hall were singing Christmas songs and they sang this Victorian one — ‘Up on the housetop.’”

“My sister told me later she was amazed that our mother knew the words,” says Lewis. “How did our mother learn the words? We had never heard her sing that song. That’s when I realized at another depth what the Depression meant. They could’ve sung them but didn’t. The songs are free, but they were too sad to sing them.”

The Sag Harbor LVIS Holiday House Tour is from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, December 27. Five homes and the Sag Harbor Historical Society will be on view. Refreshments will be served at Bay Street Theatre, Long Wharf. Tickets are $35 in advance at the Wharf Shop or $40 on tour day at the Historical Society, 174 Main Street. Call 725-7984 for details.

Though not observed in this country, Boxing Day, which is celebrated in the U.K and Canada on the day after Christmas, dates back to a time when it was customary for the wealthy to give gifts to employees or people in a lower social class.

Boxing Day is also traditionally when working people are given a little time off to gather with their own friends and families around the holidays. Given how hard most year rounders work to survive on the East End, especially in this economy, it somehow seems appropriate that Kathryn Szoka and Maryann Calendrille, proprietors of Canio’s Books in Sag Harbor, have arranged for a Boxing Day concert at their shop featuring musicians Cynthia Post and Roy Lechich.

“I think of Boxing Day as an opportunity to play after all the work and frenzy and preparations for the big Christmas holiday are done,” notes Calendrille, an old friend of Cynthia and Roy’s. “That’s when the servants, staff — and yes, us shop girls — get to relax a bit and party.”

Cynthia and Roy live in Branford, Conn. and are partners both in music and in life. On stage, they are known collectively as The Elsewhere Band. Cynthia, a pianist, is also a singer and songwriter. As a musician, Roy is adept at a number of instruments, including guitar and fiddle.

The duo perform at Canio’s on Boxing Day, this Friday, December 26 at 6 p.m. It would seem that Cynthia and Roy’s music fits the bill, given that, as a venue, Canio’s is all about friends getting together to share a few tunes and good times. In fact, that was how Cynthia and Roy first met more than two decades ago when they were students at Southampton College.

“I was always involved in music,” explains Roy. “I started violin at age five and studied until I was 13 or 14, then I did the teenage thing and switched to guitar — folk guitar and rock stuff. When I got to Southampton in my suite there were a bunch of musicians to play with. It was a community of students who played. There were always people sitting around and playing.”

While Cynthia was well versed in folk music by the time she arrived at Southampton College, having traveled to many folk festivals, at Southampton, she was exposed to new musical influences like jazz and blues, and even madrigals, a centuries-old style of music, which will be part of the Canio’s Boxing Day program on Friday.

“Before Bach and scales, there was church music in the late middle ages,” says Roy. “There was official music, then there was all this secular music. Madrigals, even though they are related to religion, were songs you could dance to in a field on a sunny day. These were written by composers, including Henry VIII, and written in four part harmonies. The idea was that people get together and if there were 12 of them, they could split up the parts between them.”

“We’re going to sing a couple lively ones we’ve chosen,” adds Cynthia. “They are fun to do and seem to work well with two singers. I might even print up the words for King Henry VIII for the audience. Apparently all these noble people were trained in hunting, dancing, singing and composition so they could pass time with good company.”

Good music with good company seems to be a philosophy for Cynthia and Roy, who will also be performing some Italian folk tunes at Canio’s in a musical nod to Roy’s heritage.

“When I grew up my parents would have friends come over, and at some point after dinner they’d have wine and all sit back and start singing these songs,” says Roy. “After dinner there were all these harmonies going on. A lot of these songs are really old.”

“It’s a similar thing to people getting together today and enjoying singing and playing,” he says.

While they love the old songs, Roy and Cynthia also write and record their own original music and, after years of working together, have found that their talents compliment each other nicely. Cynthia excels as a singer and songwriter while Roy fills out the sound musically, playing with arrangements and adding depth to the songs. The couple’s most recent recording is a CD of original work entitled “Cave Drawings” and when asked how she describes their music, Cynthia pauses and considers the question.

“Back in college I would’ve said it was folk or folk rock,” she says. “All the flavors of it are what I grew up knowing —songs by people like Stevie Nicks or Celtic ballads, so I’ve often found it difficult to say what it is I do. There’s also country and some blues in it.”

“If I had my way, I’d just call it folk rock,” she adds. “It still sounds like the best ways to describe it. It’s melodic and female vocal oriented.”

It also is apparently timeless, and while musical trends have come and gone, Cynthia and Roy have found that, throughout the years, they have always managed to find audiences for their music.

“We always feel there’s a vein of people who enjoy it,” says Cynthia. “We will go through dry spells — clubs change and we lose places. Then we go to a party and play and it’s so nice to feel that people really do love what we’re doing.”

“We’ve played our share of bars where we were competing with sports on TV,” admits Roy.

Lately, however, Cynthia and Roy have found a new venue for making music — one which is reminiscent of their days at Southampton College or the intimate setting of a place like Canio’s.

“The latest and greatest thing for us is the house concert scene,” says Cynthia. “People open up their house or backyard for a night of music and might even have a sound system.”

Though the idea is relatively new in this part of the world, getting together at homes to make music is a tradition that goes back literally centuries. In Nova Scotia, people often gather for Cielidhs (pronounced kaylees) impromptu home concerts to which everyone is invited. A similar music scene has long existed in rural Ireland and other places around the globe.

“I think it’s a spreading idea,” says Roy. “We’ve heard about it for several years. It’s a comfortable idea. You play in a house where you can fit 15 to 20 people, or in a back yard where you can have a few more. In a way, it’s like having a party, but it’s clear that the music is the central thing.”

House concert hosts don’t typically charge an entrance fee, but they will request donations for the musicians and often, the take is split with the house.

“I’m excited about the house concerts,” says Cynthia. “Sometimes you feel like you’re not meeting people. But there’s a real sense of community with them.”

“I think it’s coming around,” says Roy. “The idea is it’s nice to watch a small group perform simple music in a simple way. Just the idea of a handful of people sitting around playing instruments.”

“It’s a better way for honing your skills than playing a bar,” adds Cynthia. “In that intimate situation you want to play your instrument well, sing well and get in touch with your muse.”

“You’re also aware that people are listening for a change,” she says.

Cynthia Post and Roy Lechich’s Boxing Day concert begins at 6 p.m. on Friday, December 26 at Canio’s Books (290 Main Street, Sag Harbor). Admission is free. Call 725-4926 for more information.

By Benito Vila

Nothing’s perfect but Pierson boys’ varsity basketball is doing its best to stay that way. The team is now 2-0 in League VIII play after last night’s 36-20 win over Shelter Island at home, keeping the Whalers atop the standings along with Stony Brook and pre-season favorite Greenport.

The scoring started slowly, Pierson putting points up first after three minutes plus had gone by, team captain Joe Dowling banking a shot in off the glass under the basket. Nearly another two minutes went by before the Indians tied the game at two.

The decidedly Pierson crowd called out a football-like “DEE-FENSE” just under three minutes left in the second quarter, picking up on what had become the mainstay of the game, Shelter Island up at that point 5-3.

Both coaches struggled to jumpstart their offenses, substituting in freely to find a group that could connect from the floor. The Whalers went ahead 6-5 with 1:45 left in the half on a baseline drive by Casey Crowley that gave them the lead for good.

The Bright Side

The Pierson boys managed to keep up their pressure and pull away on the scoreboard somewhat, a steal and lay-up by Nick DePetris with 5:18 left in the fourth pushing the lead to 27-14. A Luke Kirrane lay-up with 1:09 left prompted the “start the ferry” call from the bleacher creatures, the score 32-16.

Kirrane scored all eight of his points in the last period to give the Whalers what they needed to win. Crowley led the team with 10 and Dowling finished with nine.

Whaler varsity coach Fred Marienfeld said afterwards, “It wasn’t pretty, but I gotta look at the bright side: I’d rather have an ugly win than an ugly loss. Our defense was the bright spot; we didn’t give up any double-digit quarters. On offense, we have work to do; they made us work in the half court and that’s a tough way to go.”

What’s Next

Last weekend’s snow curtailed the boys’ trip to a tournament in Rochester and left the team home to practice. Coach Marienfeld has rescheduled that trip next weekend, just after New Year’s. Looking ahead to what’s in store after the holidays, Coach Marienfeld said, “We need the practice; we need to do a lot to keep getting better. And we also need to play games; getting everyone away and doing something as a team will be good for us.”

The Whalers will be back in the gym later this week and early next getting ready for the games upstate and a January 6 match-up at Mercy. The team is home again Thursday, January 8, hosting Ross at 5:45 p.m.

SYS Workouts A Go

Whaler varsity baseball coach Sean Crowley has made arrangements for a series of wintertime workouts at SYS. These sessions, for baseball players 13-and-up, will make use of the facility’s batting cages, arena court and pitching lanes for seven Sundays between January 11 and the start of practice in March.

Pierson middle school and high school coaches will be on hand to supervise the workouts which are scheduled from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on January 11, 18 and 25, February 1 and 8, and March 1 and 8. There is a $90 fee to participate in all the sessions and a $20-a-day drop-in option.

Coach Crowley has also asked Dr. Steve Petruccelli, a local chiropractor and former collegiate pitcher, to provide specialized training and video analysis for players interested in those additional services.

Open Gym Nights

Meanwhile, the Lady Whalers’ new varsity coach, Melissa Edwards, has opted to keep her players closer to home, setting up sessions in the Pierson gym following home varsity basketball games. Those workouts are free and open to softball players 7-and-up; the next one will be held Tuesday, January 6 after the Lady Whalers’ match-up with Mercy .

Giving their time to the community, Coach Edwards and her varsity players will be leading the Little League’s wintertime softball clinics once they start next month.

The local bicycle advocate and physical therapist on her initiative to allow bikes on Main Street, finding safe routes through the village and the need for cars and bikes to exist peacefully.

When did you become a bike enthusiast?

I was a competitive swimmer in Ireland throughout my childhood and in college. When I went to university, I started cycling mainly for transportation. In Ireland, when I was 21-years-old, it cost almost $2,000 dollars to insure your car, and this was almost 20 years ago. So it was too expensive for me to have a car.

When I moved here [Sag Harbor], in 1996, I was living on a sailboat because I was managing Pat Malloy’s boat, Challenge. The only way I got around was by sailing, when I was at sea, or biking, when I was in the village. Then, I became interested in bike racing when I started competing in triathlons. I competed for about 10 years. I still compete but less so now. Then, I discovered my passion for mountain biking and trail biking.

When you first moved here did you notice that motorists had a different relationship to cyclists compared to Ireland?

In Europe, there is a very different relationship between cyclists and motorists. There aren’t defined bicycle lanes, but there is more road sharing between bikes and cars. That is noticeably absent here. [America] is a car culture, by virtue of the vastness of expanses people travel and the design of American towns.

Tell me a little more about your new cyclist advocacy group, Spokes People, which you helped start.

We have a bunch of enthusiastic people. There are almost 210 people on our email list and it is growing daily, and we just started four weeks ago. They are all locals, and are cyclists and non-cyclists. Our group has come out of a passion for cycling, and seeing this perfectly flat area of Sag Harbor not being used for that purpose.

I think a whole group of cycling enthusiasts feel threatened by the difficulties of negotiating traffic here. We all started talking about how we could contribute to the solution instead of just complaining about it, and then our little group was born.

Do you think promoting bike use in Sag Harbor is one way to make Sag Harbor a more green friendly community?

I think [Sag Harbor Village Mayor] Greg Ferraris has a vision of Sag Harbor as a beacon for green and sustainable living on the East End. He has promoted the growth of those kinds of organizations here. He initiated the 725Green committee. So he, along with 725Green and other groups like Save Sag Harbor, all have the same goal of improving the demand for parking in the village, reducing congestion, and improving access to village businesses for bikes. I really feel that my organization’s mission dovetails with many of these organizations and we hope to work with them. I think we share a common goal, along with the mayor and the chief of police, to find ways that we can improve the village.

What are some of Spokes Peoples ideas for increasing bike accessibility in the village?

We are trying to draft a multi-pronged proposal that involves the creation of a bike route around and through the village, with many bike park sites where people can safely lock their bikes, which would facilitate access to Main Street and adjacent streets.

What do you think about criticisms of allowing bikes on Main Streets?

I think peoples’ fear of more accidents is born out of unfamiliarity with traffic systems where bikes and cars can co-exist. We feel that with a system of chevron markings [arrows with a caricature of a bike rider, like the ones on Route 114] which is the official road marking of the New York State Department of Transportation, we’ll improve the safe transit of cyclists through difficult intersections.

Three of the main feeder roads into the village all have dedicated bike lanes. These roads spill into the village and in the village there is no bike route. There is no system to address the lack of cycling routes connecting those dots.

We feel that a coordinated approach between our organization and the village to review the cycling routes will join these dots and facilitate a safe passage into and through the town.

Do you think the diagonal parking along Main Street presents unique problems for allowing bikes to ride through the street?

It is a unique situation but it is one that other cities have come up against and have dealt with in different ways. We want to look at all viable solutions for dealing with this issue.

Are you the first organization to try and repeal this local law?

This isn’t a new idea. [Sag Harbor resident] Ken Dorph presented a proposal to repeal this law back in 1997, with a similar design and approach to improving cycling in the village.

Everyone sites the lack of funding as being an obstacle, but often there is also a lack of political will for something new to happen if the money does become available.

We feel that our proposal is coming about at an important time. It is in confluence with many other movements and issues, like gas prices, Safe Routes to School, and under-active children, that will make this group more effective in our attempts to facilitate cycling. We are bringing this proposal to the village when there is a much greater awareness of sustainable transportation that can assist all of these issues.

Do you expect a big turnout at the public hearing, on January 23, on repealing the local law banning bike riding through Main Street?

I guarantee that we will have at least 30 to 50 cyclists at that hearing. We have emailed all of our members this week and are going to try and coordinate with the Save Sag Harbor group. 

CAPTAIN’S ROW Walk to everything - great potential, single family residence with detached garage on .11 acres in the heart of the village. Wonderful investment property or renovation potential. $1.2M. Corcoran Real Estate.

By Marissa Maier

No one can remember when East Hampton Town ever received a full assessment, but Supervisor Bill McGintee now says one is necessary. Prompted by the dramatic differences in property value assessments on the East Hampton side of the village, which the mayor said could wreak havoc in the village, The Sag Harbor Board of Trustees has decided to continue its role as an assessing board, delaying a local law which would have given the job to Southampton Town. The decision may also lead, for the first time, to a full town-wide property tax re-assessment by East Hampton Town.

During a special work session held on Wednesday, December 17, the Sag Harbor Village Board of Trustees held a public hearing on delaying the law, which sought to terminate the village’s “status as a separate property assessing unit for village real property tax purposes.”

Because the village of Sag Harbor lies between East Hampton and Southampton Towns, taxpayers either pay town taxes to East Hampton Town or Southampton Town depending on the location of their property. However, the town property tax assessments vary greatly between the two. Since 1992, Southampton Town has conducted a series of property tax reassessments, which assess properties in the town at 100% of market value. While in East Hampton a full, town-wide reassessment has never been conducted. Property and houses in East Hampton are usually reassessed when they are built, sold or renovated. This means that there is a huge discrepancy between the tax values for properties in East Hampton and those in Southampton.

To address the discrepancy, Sag Harbor Village has historically contracted with the Town of Southampton to assess both the Southampton and the East Hampton side of the village for taxes that are paid to the village. This assessment is only used for the village taxes and not taxes paid to East Hampton Town. Sag Harbor residents on the East Hampton side of the village, pay their town taxes based on the East Hampton assessment of their properties.

Last month, the village board passed legislation allowing it to relinquish its status as an assessing unit and to give this status over to Southampton Town. They did this to increase efficiency and avoid duplication between the village and the town. For example, when a resident, whose house is on the Southampton side of the village, wanted to appeal the real property tax value of their home they would have to first visit the Sag Harbor trustees and then the Southampton town board. By passing this legislation, which would have gone into effect in January, property owners would have had to appeal their case to their respective town only, and not the village.

Last month, however, it came to the attention of the village that if this local law went into effect they would not be able to use the property values, as assessed by Southampton Town, for village tax purposes for the East Hampton side of the village. Instead, the properties on the East Hampton side of the village would have to be assessed based on the East Hampton Town assessments. It was at this point that the village became aware of the implications the law would have had, considering the discrepancies in values on the East Hampton side of the village.

If the local law had been enacted, 63 percent of property owners would have had an increased assessment and 23 percent would have had a decreased assessment. Of the properties with an increased assessment, 47 percent would have seen their assessment increase by 50 percent or more, and 15 percent would have seen their assessment double. Of the properties with a decreased assessment, some would have decreased by 98 percent.

“Its scary,” said board member Tiffany Scarlato of these drastic discrepancies. She added that she has seen assessment discrepancies of some $20 million in the same area in East Hampton.

In a letter to East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill McGintee last week, Sag Harbor Mayor Greg Ferraris urges the town to do a complete and full assessment of the town to begin addressing the discrepancies.

“As you can see, these wide fluctuations of assessed value among properties with similar market values would create havoc within our Village,” wrote Ferraris.

The supervisor agrees.

“An assessment is long overdue. It is something that has to be done,” said McGintee in an interview this week. He cited a lack of political will and public resistance as the reason a whole town assessment has been shelved for decades.

“I think people fear that their taxes might go up … I can’t speak for past administrations but I believe a lot of elected officials are afraid of tackling [an assessment] because of political fall out … Many elected officials don’t seem to survive a reassessment,” McGintee added.

McGintee hopes to sway public opinion by educating them on the full implications of the assessment – including its good points. He believes, for example, an assessment would level the playing field for East Hampton taxpayers by evenly and fairly distributing the burden of property taxes.

Many residents already agree with McGintee, like Sag Harbor Board of Trustees member Brian Gilbride. Gilbride lives on the East Hampton side of the village and believes an assessment would help rather than hurt blue-collar families.

“Some of the Further Lane and ocean front homes pay less in taxes than some of the working class homes in Springs and Amagansett,” said Gilbride.

Board member Ed Deyermond, who is also the Southampton Town Assessor, estimates an East Hampton Town assessment could be completed in one year. Deyermond says the initial Southampton Town assessment included 50,000 homes - roughly double the number of homes in East Hampton Town - and was completed in two years. 

McGintee, however, is worried about finding funding for an assessment project. The 1992 Southampton Town assessment cost $1.8 million dollars to complete. Deyermond says that although East Hampton is a great deal smaller than Southampton Town, costs associated with conducting an assessment have increased since 1992. McGintee guesses that an East Hampton assessment would cost over $1 million. Although a portion of this money will be reimbursed by the state, East Hampton Town will be required to provide the up front payments for the assessment company.

McGintee plans to broach the subject of an East Hampton Town assessment at the second East Hampton Town board work session with the other members of the board. The meeting will be held in mid-January. He also would like to educate them on the process of an assessment. Meanwhile, McGintee plans to gather more information on exactly how an assessment will affect members his constituency.

Despite funding worries and possible public resistance, McGintee said, “We will find a way of getting [this assessment] done.”

Map above illustrates potential changes in assessments for specific property for specific properties on the East Hampton Town side of Sag Harbor Village.