This Morning’s Bulletin — 12.21.16

Good Morning, and Happy Winter Solstice!

• Today will be partly sunny, with a high near 43 but wind chill values between 20 and 30, with a west wind 6 to 13 miles per hour. Tonight will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 24. There’s a 20 percent chance of showers before 4 p.m. Thursday, but otherwise it will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 46. Friday will be sunny, with a high near 43. 

• The winter solstice was at 5:44 this morning, Eastern Standard Time. Sunrise today in Riverhead is at 7:12 a.m. and sunset is at 4:26 p.m. The days only get longer and colder from here!

• More than 100 advocates for offshore wind, comprised of environmental and labor groups and politicians, rallied outside of Long Island Power Authority headquarters in Uniondale Tuesday morning urging the agency to sign a contract to purchase power for the East End from offshore wind. The Beacon’s full story is online here.

• A second Crowdraise fundraiser is underway for a tenant of an apartment destroyed in last Friday’s fire in Sag Harbor. Michael Lynch had just moved into his apartment above Compass Realty three days before the fire, and ran out of his apartment into the street in just his coat, pants and slippers when Sag Harbor Police Officer Randy Steyert banged on his door to wake him up and rescue him. As of Tuesday evening, more than $12,000 had been raised. The Compass Realty building was demolished Monday.

• The Suffolk County District Attorney’s office released a grand jury’s 156-page report yesterday on the circumstances surrounding the 2015 limousine crash at Route 48 and Depot Lane in Cutchogue that killed four members of a bridal party and seriously injured four others. The report cites “an inadequate traffic light at the historically dangerous intersection” and the limousine’s ‘woefully inadequate Anti-Intrusion Bar’ installed to protect passengers,” according to the District Attorney’s office. The year-long investigation, which included interviews with dozens of witnesses and review of thousands of documents, also found there is “a complete lack of regulation of stretch limousine construction.”

• State Assemblyman Fred Thiele announced Tuesday that the New York State Board for Historic Preservation has recommended adding the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church to the state and national registers of historic places. The church is one of 26 properties nominated statewide and the only one nominated from Long Island. The Federal/Greek Revival style building, constructed in 1842, is the third consecutive church building serving a congregation that was formed in the 1660s.

• Center Stage at Southampton Cultural Center has announced they will hold auditions for Burt Bachrach and Hal David’s “Promises, Promises” on Sunday, Jan. 8 and Monday, Jan. 9 at 6 p.m. at Southampton Cultural Center in Veteran’s Hall.

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

Dec. 21
MTK Hbr: 2:41 a.m., 3:06 p.m.
Orient: 3:42 a.m., 4:07 p.m.
Greenport: 4:10 a.m., 4:35 p.m.
Sag Hbr: 4:05 a.m., 4:30 p.m.
N. Suffolk: 5:32 a.m., 5:57 p.m.
S. JPT: 5:39 a.m., 6:04 p.m.
Shinn. Inlet: 12:49 a.m., 12:59 p.m.

Dec. 22
MTK Hbr: 3:41 a.m., 4:06 p.m.
Orient: 4:42 a.m., 5:07 p.m.
Greenport: 5:10 a.m., 5:35 p.m.
Sag Hbr: 5:05 a.m., 5:30 p.m.
N. Suffolk: 6:32 a.m., 6:57 p.m.
S. JPT: 6:39 a.m., 7:04 p.m.
Shinn. Inlet: 1:40 a.m., 1:51 p.m.

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