27Speaks

Starting April 21, traffic signals on County Road 39 west of North Sea Road will be switched from a red-green cycle to either steady green or blinking yellow between 4 and 7 p.m. on weekdays. The two-week pilot program is designed to alleviate traffic during the afternoon westbound commute and to assess whether it could be a practicable solution to summer traffic. Southampton Town Highway Superintendent Charlie McArdle joined the editors on the podcast this week to explain how the program will work and to discuss Southampton's traffic challenges.

When a series of wildfires swept across the region between Manorville and Westhampton on March 8, among the areas that burned was the Dwarf Pine Plains, a 5,000-acre portion of the Pine Barrens core marked by the prevalence of much smaller pine trees than in the rest of the Pine Barrens. This week the editors are joined by reporters Michael Wright and Jack Motz, and Polly Weigand, the Northeast fire programs manager for the nonprofit Forest Stewards Guild, who talks about this ecologically unique area and sustainable forestry management practices.

At the recent New York Press Association newspaper conference in Saratoga Springs, where the Express News Group won multiple awards, Publisher Gavin Menu, Executive Editor Joe Shaw, Deputy Managing Editor Brendan O'Reilly and Arts and Living Editor Annette Hinkle took time out to discuss the current state of print media.

On March 8, a series of small brush fires hopscotched their way from Manorville east, culminating in an explosive wildfire near Francis S. Gabreski Airport in Westhampton. A massive response led by some 600 volunteers from 80 Long Island fire departments, augmented by another 10 ambulance companies, held the fire at bay, limiting damage to about 420 acres to the west and north of the airport. This week, Rudy Sunderman, the commissioner of the Suffolk County Department of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services, joins the staff of The Express News Group to talk about the firefighting efforts that kept the wildfires from being far worse.

Registered nurse Melody Butler, the director of infection prevention and control at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital and founder of Nurses Who Vaccinate, joins the editors to discuss what people can do to protect themselves and their families from various communicable diseases that are of growing concern.

Journalist Steve Wick recently published his debut novel, "The Ruins," a gripping tale of murder, espionage and Nazis on Long Island inspired by a trial he covered in 1980 as a young reporter at Newsday. Wick joins the editors on the podcast this week to discuss the true crime story and the process of creational a fictional work.

Cracking Down on County Road 39 Speeders by The Express News Group

After the Southampton History Museum notified the nonprofit Conscience Point Shellfish Hatchery that it has to vacate its home at the Conscience Point Historic Site in North Sea, there was an outcry from supporters of the hatchery, and a number of museum board resignations. The museum defended the move, asserting that the hatchery was conducting commercial sales and subletting boat slips, which could jeopardize the museum's nonprofit status. However, now the Town of Southampton historian has found documents that question whether the museum actually owns the parcel where the hatchery sits. It could be that hatchery is on town-owned land, and the museum has no right to evict it. Reporter Michael Wright joins the editors on the podcast this week to discuss the hatchery saga.

Sag Harbor's Joe Lauro, whose interests tend toward jazz, blues, jug and country, is a keen collector of music that was marketed by record companies from the 1920s to early 1940s to an emerging Black audience as “race records.” Recently, he acquired an important piece for his collection: a copy of the Reverend W.M. Mosley singing “Oh Death Spare Me Over Till Another Year.” The shellac record was one of more than 800 race records issued by Columbia Records from 1923 to 1932. And for years it was the only one of the Columbia releases that Lauro — or just about anyone else for that matter — did not own. Lauro joins the editors to discuss his collecting journey and the significance of the music.

Jonathan Miller, the president and CEO of real estate appraisal and consulting firm Miller Samuel Inc., joins the editors to discuss the state of the Hamptons market and offers his outlook for 2025.