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.

When she seemed to be taking too long, he looked for her, but she wasn't anywhere to be found on 45-foot cabin cruiser. He threw whatever flotation devices he could find into the water and radioed the Coast Guard just aftermidnight on Sunday

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.

Find out what's happening in Westhampton-Hampton Bayswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Matauqus Tarrant, the museum's assistant curator and site manager, said they now plan to have a mural painted on the fence where the hateful language was sprayed. "We want to bring this full circle," he said.

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.

Find out what's happening in Westhampton-Hampton Bayswith free, real-time updates from Patch.


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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