Village Thanks Contractors for Help

East Hampton Village officials recognized two local businesses that volunteered time and equipment to finish restoring to go up.

Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said that when the village was calling around to see if it could the project at Hook Mill completed for the holiday, volunteered to shingle the building and volunteered their to put the historic grist mill's sails back on.

They went "above and beyond," Rickenbach said during a meeting on Friday. The shingling was completed in just a few days earlier this month and the sails were put up in a matters of hours.

He presented the men, which included Jon Hummel and Bruce Rambold who provided the , with framed notes of appreciation that included a photograph of Hook Mill from the 1880s. He thanked them all for the "beautiful and magnanimous gesture."

"By golly, that's what our community is all about," the mayor said.

The restoration project took nearly 18 months to finish, longer than was initially expected. The mill's sails have been lit for Christmas for the first time since 2009.