This Morning’s Bulletin — 1.15.21

Good Morning!

• Today will be mostly cloudy, with a high temperature near 47 degrees and an east wind 6 to 13 miles per hour. We’re expecting rain overnight, with the temperature rising to around 46 by 2 a.m. and an east wind 10 to 14 miles per hour. We’re expecting rain on Saturday, mainly before noon. Sunday will be sunny, with a high near 42.

• The new Covid-19 vaccination distribution system is “virtually non-existent” on the East End, say 17 elected officials, who sent a letter requesting a network of distribution sites on the East End to Governor Andrew Cuomo and Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone on Thursday. Here’s our full story.

• Suffolk County reported 1,587 new cases of Covid-19 in the 24 hours ending Thursday, with 9.3 percent of people tested testing positive. There are currently 837 people hospitalized with the virus in the county, with 140 of them in ICU and 22 percent of hospital beds in the county are available. The county reported 22 new deaths on Thursday, bringing the death toll here to 2,524 people.

“The trend we saw earlier this week is holding steady, with a positivity rate below 10 percent for the sixth day in a row now here in Suffolk County,” said Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone on Thursday. “After months of drastic increase, it seems we are finally moving in a positive direction.”

• A new, two-year project to safeguard the Montauk Lighthouse from erosion is slated to begin this spring, after the federal and state government awarded a $30.7 million contract for the project this week. Here’s our full story.

• This evening at 5 p.m., the Parrish Art Museum dives into the topic of affordable housing and preservation on the East End with artist Scott Bluedorn, whose “Bonac Blind,” a duck blind repurposed as an off-grid microhome, is currently on view in the meadow at the museum in Water Mill. Here are more details.

• Music For Montauk is presenting the online premiere of a new performance of composer Olivier Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time,” filmed at Camp Hero in Montauk, this evening at 8 p.m. Here are more details.

• The East End’s many customary celebrations of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. this weekend have been disrupted by the pandemic, but Southampton’s Rogers Memorial Library is celebrating with a YouTube staff reading of Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, available to stream on Monday, and the Hamptons Doc Fest is celebrating with a free screening of the feature documentary “MLK/FBI,” the headline film of its December film festival, available all day Monday. Register to see “MLK/FBI” online here.

The high tides on the East End for the next two days are as follows:

January 15
Plum Gut Harbor: 11:09 a.m., 11:36 p.m.
Montauk Harbor: 10:17 a.m., 10:44 p.m.
Greenport: 11:46 a.m.
Mattituck Inlet: 12:26 a.m., 12:43 p.m.
Sag Harbor: 11:41 a.m.
New Suffolk: 12:45 a.m., 1:08 p.m.
South Jamesport: 12:52 a.m., 1:15 p.m.
Shinn. Bay Entrance: 10:25 a.m., 10:56 p.m.
Shinn. Inlet: 8:34 a.m., 9:05 p.m.

January 16
Plum Gut Harbor: 11:57 a.m.
Montauk Harbor: 11:05 a.m., 11:34 p.m.
Greenport: 12:13 a.m., 12:34 p.m.
Mattituck Inlet: 1:12 a.m., 1:30 p.m.
Sag Harbor: 12:08 a.m., 12:29 p.m.
New Suffolk: 1:35 a.m., 1:56 p.m.
South Jamesport: 1:42 a.m., 2:03 p.m.
Shinn. Bay Entrance: 11:13 a.m., 11:46 p.m.
Shinn. Inlet: 9:21 a.m., 9:55 p.m.

And that’s the way things look at dawn’s light here today.