Community Corner
East End Notebook: Boater Death; Museum Targeted With Hate Messages
Also, this week hearing held on Canoe Place Inn restoration and residents speak out about Plum Island.
Take a look at the week's top headlines from across the East End.
EAST HAMPTON
Cops: 'Nothing Appears Suspicious' About Boater's Death
Investigators believe a New York City woman whose body was pulled out of the ocean off Montauk on Sunday may have simply fallen in by accident.
John Petrocelli told investigators that he and his wife Ninive Petrocelli were sitting out on the bow of their boat, anchored two and a half miles from shore, when she went to retrieve a sweater before she disappeared into the calm, but dark waters.
SOUTHAMPTON
Volunteers Clean Up Graffiti at Shinnecock Museum
Shinnecock Indian Nation Cultural Center and Museum staff arrived at work Wednesday morning to the disheartening sight of graffiti covering the fence leading to the new Wikun Village living history exhibition.
By the afternoon, staff members and volunteers had a power washer, scrub brushes and primer in hand to remove and conceal the spraypaint before children and other museum guests had to see the obscene and racial graffiti.
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WESTHAMPTON
Hampton Bays Residents Speak Out on Canoe Place Inn Plan
Hampton Bays residents — some there to see the deteriorating Canoe Place Inn brought back to its former glory, and others who have concerns about a busy business coming to their neighborhood and near the water — poured into Town Hall Wednesday to speak out on a change of zone petition and draft environmental impact statement on the plan.
Developers Gregg and Mitchell Rechler have pitched a maritime planned development district that includes sparing the inn from the wrecking ball — and completely restoring it as a catering facility with overnight accommodations. A planned development district is a zoning tool that allows greater density on a parcel than is permitted by current zoning, in exchange for a community benefit.
Several residents said this was the right plan for Hampton Bays.
RIVERHEAD
Miss Polish Town Queen 2013 Cherishes Traditions, Family Ties
While all eyes may have been focused across the pond this summer as England celebrated the birth of Baby Prince George, in Riverhead, the celebration has been for hometown royalty — Miss Polish Town Queen USA 2013.
For this year's queen, Baiting Hollow resident Ashley Yakaboski, 20, a graduate of Bishop McGann Mercy High School who now attends the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York for jewelry design, winning the crown was a long-time dream come true.
And this weekend, at the 39th Annual Polish Town Civic Street Fair and Festival, her family will cheer on their Polish Queen.
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NORTH FORK
Public Speaks Out on Plum Island
Residents came out once again Tuesday to speak passionately about the future of Plum Island.
A public hearing was held regarding Southold's proposed zoning plan for the island, which calls for a 125-acre Plum Island research district, which would comprise 20 percent of the island, and a 350-acre Plum Island conservation district, that would make up the remaining 80 percent, which would be a natural preserve.
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