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Week in Review: Planning for Wildfires in Our Backyards

Lessons From the Westhampton Pines Fire, Southold Hotel Moratorium to Sunset, East End Arts Plans Unveiled

Author

Beth Young
May 10, 2026

On the Forks

Planning for Wildfires In Our Backyards

While vast swaths of Long Island’s fire-prone pine barrens are west of the East End, communities throughout western Southampton Town learned quickly in March of 2025 that they could easily be right in the path of an out-of-control wildfire.

Congress 2026

Lukas Ventouras Counts on his Candor to Cut Through the Noise

Lukas Ventouras at an April 23 Town Hall in Mattituck.

The first thing you’ll likely hear about Democratic congressional candidate Lukas Ventouras is his youth. At 25 years old, he’s just reached the age threshold to be allowed to serve in Congress, but he’s hoping his message of standing up for working class people on Long Island will resonate with voters of all ages.

North Fork

Hotel Moratorium Will Sunset as Southold Weighs Zoning Update Priorities (Including a Tree Clearing Code)

Southold Town’s nearly two-year-old moratorium on considering applications for new hotels may expire this June, as the town begins to prioritize adopting aspects of its zoning update piece by piece.

Community housing, an update to the town’s 2022 big house law and a tree clearing code have also emerged as priorities.

Southold Sours on Idea of Using Peconic Community Center as Justice Court

When a pipe burst in the sprinkler system in the Southold Town Hall meeting room in the middle of this winter’s deep freeze, every town department and committee that uses that room was sent scrambling to find a new place to meet.

Nowhere was this felt more deeply than the town’s Justice Court, which moved to the auditorium in the Peconic Lane Community Center.

After several months of this temporary arrangement, the Town Board discussed the possibility of dedicating the building entirely to the Justice Court at its April 21 work session, but by the board’s May 5 work session appeared to have soured on the idea.

Riverhead

Plans Unveiled for Revamped East End Arts Campus

By Denise Civiletti/Riverhead Local

East End Arts and DXA Studio unveiled a conceptual redesign Thursday for the organization’s East Main Street campus, which would raise and relocate its historic buildings to protect them from flooding while creating a more accessible arts and gathering space in downtown Riverhead.

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Photos: Southold CAC Plants ReWild Pollinator Garden at Town Hall

Volunteers with the Southold Town Conservation Advisory Council and ReWild Long Island’s North Fork chapter were busy on Wednesday planting a new pollinator garden behind Southold Town Hall.

The 713-square-foot garden was planned by members of the CAC, including CAC Vice Chair and ReWild volunteer Inga Van Eysden, CAC Chair Carol Brown, Cornell Master Gardener Anne Sande and architect Barbara Friedman, who took a seven-week ReWild garden design course to prepare for the project.

ReWild Long Island provides grants of plants and expert gardeners to help design and plant native gardens in public spaces throughout Long Island.

Community

Southold’s Sonia Spar Honored as Champion of Diversity

Sonia Spar and Suffolk County Legislator Greg Doroski

Suffolk County Legislator Greg Doroski honored Sonia Spar as the 2026 Champion of Diversity for Suffolk County’s First Legislative District at a ceremony at the Southold Town Board’s May 5 meeting at the Peconic Lane Community Center.

UPCOMING EVENTS

May 14-31

Anything Goes Opens at NFCT

This classic Cole Porter comedy takes you aboard the S.S. American where a lovestruck stowaway, a nightclub singer with a flair for chaos, and a whole crew ready to dance their way into your heart. This show is a timeless delight for audiences of all ages.

May 16 & 17

North Fork Audubon Native Plant Sale

NFAS is pleased to announce its 2026 Spring Native Plant Sale, taking place in Greenport, NY, on Saturday and Sunday, May 16 and 17, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. No pre-ordering is required. A full list of available species is now online here.

May 16

Long Island Fleece & Fiber Fair

Hallockville Museum Farm will host its annual Long Island Fleece & Fiber Festival on Saturday, May 16, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. inviting visitors to experience the full journey of fiber – from raw fleece to finished textile — at its historic North Fork campus.

Hot Off the Press

Our May print edition is now on newsstands throughout the East End
All words in and on The Beacon are always generated by human beings. Guaranteed.

Words

“When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d
And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night.
I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.”

— Walt Whitman

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d

Song of the bleeding throat, Death’s outlet song of life, (for well dear brother I know, If thou wast not granted to sing thou would’st surely die.) 5…

The Poetry Foundation

See you next Sunday,

Beth