CELEBRATING LOCAL GRADUATES C5
[
A SAlute to the GrAduAteS
]
TAKING A FINAL WALK OUT OF C2 THE BEEHIVE
A nd They’re Off Members of the
Class of 2019 celebrate
Since 1859
4, 2019 THURSDAY, JULY
their final moment
as students at Pierson
High School with
the traditional
tossing of their
mortarboards on
Graduation
Pierson Hill.
ay for Future Starts Tod Tomorrow the Leaders of
ement 2019 Pierson Commenc
Graduates move on to next chapter with passion, hope BY MARGARET
OSBORNE
opened Emily Hallock with Salutatorian t on Saturday commencemen inspire and advise the to Class words meant High School’s moments of Pierson to embark on the readied of 2019 as they their lives. next chapter of students that Hallock reminded thing is to have “the most important stay true to told them to exercises passion,” and of at Saturday’s commencement photos themselves. to be the leaders the Class of 2019 michael heller “We are tasked impacts start today,” Emily Hallock addresses our School. to think Salutatorian tomorrow, but them underneath advised students behav- at Pierson Middle-High the rows and dragged she said. She and language School the forming a semicircle around from the age of the Sag Harbor twice about their trees, them that in students in of black and scarlet robes crowd and watching ior, reminding donned to rest of the Others fanned themselves nothing is forgotten. and District, the school’s lawn social media, a distance. you say and do, paraded down or held an umbrella “Be careful what example to those and their commencement ceremony. to with programs good that begin down the aisle strive to be a for shade. the class valedictoshe said, adding As they proceeded proudly greeted speech, Hannah Tuma, around you,” she was “standing take their seats, they the commufollowed Hallock’s she had “no doubt” and family while and Circum- rian, who politicians, performers 3 Pomp of whom friends among future played many continued on page people, nity band the sun’s unforgiving and business public’s eye.” stance. To avoid chairs out of will be in the heat, Pierson glare, some guests pulled as Braving the sweltering in their last act High School seniors,
The Future of PRE-NURSE
RY–GRADE
top left) Leyla Dorph-Lowrie to the (Clockwise from up Pierson Hill leads her classmates of graduation on Satclose was the flagpole at the Carl Bernstein urday. Journalist Saturday’s speaker during commencement not to fear students them ceremony, urging to seek out be informed and a kiss rebelliousness, to gets a hug and truth. Kristin Pettigrew
Local students bid adieu to their schools. Inside
from Stephen Hesler.
Old Timers
Safe Places
19th-century baseball played pg 21 at Herrick Park.
Campus politics colors pg B1 new play.
School
BOARDING 12, DAY AND
ROSS.ORG
$1.50
THURSDAY, JULY 4, 2019 VOLUME 161 NO. 1
sagharborexpress.com
Sag Harbor
Mecox Cut Remains Open Some boaters are complaining, but it helps flush out the bay. > Page 6
Ferries Face A Rising Sea Local companies are making plans to deal with climate chage. > Page 7
Rabbi Says ‘Welcome’
MULCAHY TAKES CONTROL BY KATHRYN G. MENU
KATHLEEN MULCAHY was officially sworn in as the new mayor of Sag Harbor Monday afternoon, July 1, at the annual reorganization meeting of the Board of Trustees and announced during her first stint at the helm that she would restore public comment to the beginning of regular meetings. Mayor Mulcahy and the board also voted to add a regular work session to their monthly meeting schedule and to create a Sag Harbor Environmental Advisory Committee. No appointments were made to the new panel. “One of the things I want to do here in the village is to make us a very environmentally friendly village,” Ms.
An environmental committee and more public input are promised by mayor
Mulcahy said of the committee. “So a number of you here in this room I will likely be reaching out to be part of it. It is going to be a key part of what I do working with volunteers and it will be looking not only at our water but our air, our land, from clear-cutting trees to waste management to a holistic look across the board at our environment throughout the village.” Ms. Mulcahy said after the meeting
that the make-up of the new committee was a work in progress and would be the subject of a discussion at the board’s first work session on Wednesday, July 24 at 5 p.m. Theoretically, she said, she would like to see a board with diverse expertise on issues such as water quality, clear cutting and fertilizer use and other environmental issues. “I would like to keep it a manageable size, but a lot of people have a lot to add to this group,” she said. Newly elected Trustee Robert Plumb and re-elected Trustee Aidan Corish were also sworn into office during the organizational meeting on Monday, which carried a festive air, the audi-
continued on page 15
TRO LIMITS MINING AT SAND LAND SITE
> Page 3
On the Screen East Hampton Cinema Phone (631) 324-0448 Midsommar (R) Spider-man: Far from Home (PG-13) Yesterday (PG-13) Toy Story 4 (G) Pavarotti (NR) Rocketman (R)
Court prohibits digging deeper, may deny expansion BY ANISAH ABDULLAH
Southampton Cinema Phone (631) 287-2774 Spider-man: Far from Home (PG-13) Annabelle Comes Home (R) Toy Story 4 (G) Late Night (R) The Secret Life of Pets 2 (PG)
Weekend Weather Thursday, July 4 Partly Sunny
POMP AND HUGS
Temps in the high 70s
Katie Kneeland gets a huge hug from her best friend Aidan Mega following the Pierson High School graduation ceremony on Saturday. See inside for complete coverage of high school graduation.
Friday, July 5 Partly Cloudy
Temps in the high 70s
Saturday, July 6 Morning T-storms Temps in the high 70s
Sunday, July 7 Partly Cloudy Temps in the low 80s
INSIDE Obituaries 17 Opinion 10 Arts & Leisure B1 Calendar B2 Classifieds 12 Sports 22 The Hometown Newspaper of STUART LOWRIE
michael heller photo
Noyac
Rabbi Dan Geffen celebrates five years at Temple Adas Israel.
b c f c
Village Clerk Beth Kamper, left, swears in Mayor Kathleen Mulcahy.
michael heller photo
THE APPELLATE DIVISION of the State Supreme Court has issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting all mining activities below 160 feet above mean sea level at Sand Land — something that had been allowed in a recently issued permit — pending the court’s decision on whether to issue its own order to prohibit expanded mining at the Noyac sand mine. That means that while operations can continue at the sand mine, owners cannot dig any deeper. The State Department of Environmental Conservation granted Sand Land a modified permit on June 6 that allowed the mine to dig an additional 40 feet down, and to remain
continued on page 15
North Haven
4-Posters Seem to Be Working Evidence suggests fewer ticks on the peninsula BY PETER BOODY
THE VILLAGE of North Haven this season is working to establish a database to prove the effectiveness of its 4-poster program to kill ticks and reduce the incidence of tick-borne illnesses on the 2.7-square-mile peninsula between Shelter Island and Sag
continued on page 15
Montauk
Montauk
Mother Is Charged In Children’s Deaths
Attorney Cites Alibi In Park Murder Case
Suspect said to be distraught and suicidal BY MICHAEL WRIGHT
A 24-YEAR-OLD MOTHER who investigators say had killed her two toddlers earlier in the day begged East Hampton Town Police officers to shoot her as they approached her car in Montauk last Thursday afternoon, June 27. The woman, Tenia Campbell of Medford, had told her mother over the phone that afternoon that her two “babies,” twin 2-year-old girls Jasmine and Jaida, were dead, and that she was driving to a beach, where she planned to kill herself — sparking a countywide search for the minivan she was driving. Instead, she ended up just off Montauk Highway, near Third House, in Montauk County Park, pleading with offi-
cers to shoot her. The first officers to arrive on the scene — directed by Suffolk County dispatchers, who were tracking her cellphone location — found the hysterical mother at the entrance to the park on Montauk Highway and took her into custody, then made the tragic discovery. The two toddlers were strapped into their car seats in the back of the Chrysler minivan, which Ms. Campbell had parked and already exited when officers arrived. The children were both unconscious, not breathing and in cardiac arrest. Emergency medical responders from the Montauk Fire Department none-
continued on page 18
Claims suspect was actually at work BY ELIZABETH VESPE
Tenia Campbell is escorted to her arraignment Friday by two East Hampton kyril bromley photo Town police officers.
A WEEK FOLLOWING Joseph Grippo’s arrest, his attorney, Daniel Russo, said in Suffolk County Criminal Court that his client had an alibi — he had been at work — the morning that Robert Casado, 38, was found, barely breathing and with wounds that would prove to be fatal, in Kirk Park in Montauk. Mr. Casado was pronounced dead at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital not long afterward, the victim of severe blunt force trauma to the head and stab wounds. Mr. Grippo has been charged with his murder. After being transported from the
Suffolk County Jail on Friday, to which he was returned the same day, Mr. Grippo stood in silence next to his attorney, hands cuffed behind his back, as Daryl Levy, the assistant district attorney of the Suffolk County Homicide Bureau, who is prosecuting the case, read aloud details about Mr. Casado’s death. Following the unsealing on Friday of an indictment handed down by the grand jury, Judge Stephen L. Braslow denied bail. Mr. Russo entered a plea of not guilty for his client, who has been charged with second-degree murder.
continued on page 18
HamptonJitney.com 631 . 283 .4600