Big Duck Holiday Lighting tonight at 7pm

Over 15,000 cubic yards of sand later, the Ditch Plains dune restoration in Montauk approaches completion this week. Jack Motz reports on 27east.com that a highly anticipated project, the dune restoration is the second of a two-phase undertaking that began last year intended to rebuild the area’s dune after chronic erosion and storms dwindled the beach and the dune to the point of near-nonexistence.

“The beach itself was reduced down to what everybody calls the hard pan, the clay lens that is part of the geologic formations out there,” said Assistant Town Planning Director Brian Frank. “So, you had a thin veneer of sand left, and if that area were left to recover naturally, I’m not really sure how long it would take, if ever.”

The first phase, completed last year, saw the placement of 5,800 cubic yards of Department of Environmental Conservation-approved white sand intended to provide a safe recreational beach for the summer.

Started last month, the second phase addresses the dunes, which protect the surrounding neighborhood from breaches, flooding and damages to infrastructure, and entailed the placement of up to 20,000 cubic yards of sand along approximately 2,200 feet of shoreline. Having come in with a bid of $1.21 million in October, Bistrian Materials is conducting the work. A substantial portion of the total cost was covered by state grants.

“It is supposed to protect the structures behind there,” said East Hampton Town Councilman David Lys. “It is a barricade. It is not the cure-all.”

For the past few weeks, trucks lined the beach, as one shuttled sand on the beach, which others then formed into the mold of the engineered dune, and as of Monday, Bistrian Materials had laid down 15,000 cubic yards of sand.

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Tonight at 7 p.m. is the holiday lighting of The Big Duck in Flanders. Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON that you should get there early if you want to find a parking spot for this event that brings out the whole community, with caroling, warm refreshments and the ever-anticipated arrival of Santa Claus via a Flanders Fire Truck.

The Big Duck is a ferro-cement style building in the shape of a duck, located in Flanders. It was originally built in 1931 by duck farmer Martin Maurer and used as a shop to sell ducks, dairy, and duck eggs. It was added to both the National Register of Historic Places and the New York State Register of Historic Places in 1997. It is a principal building on the Big Duck Ranch, listed on the NRHP and NYSRHP in 2008.

Once again tonight at 7 p.m. the annual ceremony to light the Holiday Big Duck happens in Flanders featuring carolers, refreshments, and the Flanders Fire Truck delivery of Santa Claus!

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The Village of Westhampton Beach will host its annual Christmas Tree and Menorah Lighting Celebration on the Village Green this coming Saturday evening, December 6, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. As posted on 27east.com, at 6 p.m. Saturday, the Westhampton Beach Fire Department will escort Santa to the Green, joining decorated fire trucks from neighboring departments in a festive parade of lights down Main Street. The trucks will leave the Westhampton Beach firehouse at 5:45 p.m., travel south on Sunset Avenue to Hansen Place and then left onto Potunk Lane before proceeding to Main Street toward the Village Green, where Santa will greet children of all ages from Westhampton Beach and beyond.

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Some East End residents rallying behind a woman arrested after trying to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from detaining a man in Westhampton say they have a message for her: We’ve got your back. Bart Jones reports in NEWSDAY that the residents started an online fundraising campaign that has raised thousands of dollars. They also are sending messages of solidarity to Tamara Mayorga-Wong, 57, who faces charges of obstructing a federal...