Detailed studies of East Hampton Town’s various hamlets are to be commissioned by the town board in an effort to plan for future development or preservation in accordance with the comprehensive plan.

A draft outline of studies for Wainscott, Springs, East Hampton, Amagansett, and the downtown and dock areas of Montauk is being developed by the Planning Department. It will provide the basis of a request for proposals from professional planning consultants for the studies. Their full scope will take shape during the course of the consultants’ work, which is to include discussions with the public about concerns and visions for the individual hamlets.

According to the draft outline, the studies will cover existing environmental, zoning, land use, and traffic conditions, and each hamlet’s design. They are then to take a look at these matters with regard to future development, as well as recreation and open space, providing for pedestrian and bicycle access, and public transportation.

While the town comprehensive plan, last updated in 2005, contains overall goals for the separate areas of town, it calls for more detailed studies to pinpoint goals for each hamlet.

“The hamlet studies need to fit into the overall comprehensive plan,” Supervisor Larry Cantwell said at a May 19 town board work session. “We’re drilling down into the specific kinds of planning issues within each hamlet — all kinds of detail. This is a chance to really get into the nitty-gritty.”

For instance, according to a draft prepared by Marguerite Wolffsohn, the town’s planning director, the Springs study might include a look at how the hamlet’s isolated pockets of commercial development serve residents and “what is needed for them to thrive without growing too much for the community or destroying the character of the community.”

In Montauk, planning for the future of the downtown area would include an examination of parking, including needs at the beaches and the difference between nighttime and daytime parking demand. The study of the dock area could address improving public access to the waterfront and the potential there for affordable housing. 

Criteria for a planning study of the town’s economy and business needs, which would dovetail with the hamlet studies, have also been under discussion, following recommendations made to the board by an appointed committee earlier this year.

In response to the recent transformation, particularly in Montauk, of motel bars and restaurants into popular stand-alone destinations, the East Hampton Town Board is preparing to revise the town code to prohibit new motel-based bars and restaurants in residential zones.

Many of the Montauk facilities in question are in residential areas, but pre-exist the zoning code and, as such, are allowed to continue. However, their popularity has begun to create problems, such as noise and crowding, for neighbors.

Under the new law, motels with a minimum of 25 guest rooms in commercially zoned areas could apply to the planning board for permission to have a bar or restaurant, subject to special-permit standards. They would have to have adequate parking, and be found to be compatible with the neighborhood.

The proposed law will be the subject of a public hearing, which has not been scheduled.

Revisions to the code will also address the development or redevelopment of buildings in commercial areas of the town.

With Beth Baldwin, a town attorney, and Marguerite Wolffsohn, the town’s planning director, the board also discussed on Tuesday how to write a law that would prevent close-to-the road development in highway-front areas like Wainscott, where buildings are typically set back and a buffer is usual, while continuing to allow the traditional sidewalk-front downtown commercial buildings in hamlets such as Amagansett and Montauk.

Draft legislation presented to the board for discussion would allow the planning board to require a greater setback from the road for buildings in central business districts, where a 10-foot minimum setback is now required. The planning board would be allowed to consider the surrounding area and to require developers of a commercial building to adhere to the established standard regarding how buildings are placed. 

A greater setback would not be necessary unless the planning board requires it, in order to allow downtown-style development to continue where appropriate. A pyramid law would be enacted, limiting the height of buildings according to their proximity to property lines, and a hearing required if there are modifications to the building plans.

The law as proposed would apply to two categories only, supermarkets and “superstores,” which are large retail stores. Supermarkets, according to the code, may be as large as 25,000 square feet, and “superstores” may be 10,000 square feet.

Supervisor Larry Cantwell said other types of stores should be on the list as well. “It’s really, any commercial development along the highway should be set back.”

Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc agreed. “The real issue is the mass and scale.”

Ms. Wolffsohn said the overall issue of “zoning the streetscape” was the kind of question to be addressed in forthcoming planning studies of the individual hamlets. “Are you asking us to do something like that now?” she asked Mr. Cantwell. “It really is a part of the hamlet studies.”

“Can’t we find a way to do this without creating a revolution — of zoning?” Mr. Cantwell asked. “I don’t want to delay this. I think this is important, and it’s something we’ve got to get done.”

The discussion was occasioned by the redevelopment of the old Plitt Ford building on Montauk Highway in Wainscott, now a HomeGoods store. It opened on Sunday.

Though the 15,000-square-foot building’s size remained the same, and it complies with existing town code, it stands out along the highway. Many have wondered how such a building was allowed so close to the road.

Board members asked the planning staff to draft a revised law, which will be discussed at a future meeting.

A list of repairs and maintenance projects at East Hampton Airport was discussed on Tuesday by the town board and consultants who have been hired to establish priorities for the work over the next five years.

Pilots and other airport observers have been critical of the town for lagging on necessary projects, and Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell pressed the consultants continually about how to get the ball rolling.

“There’s a lot of frustration that the town has not kept up on safety and maintenance that most people agree is necessary at the airport,” Mr. Cantwell said. “The inaction of the town is being questioned — legitimately, I think.”

The projects include the installation of an automated weather observation system, (its purchase has already gone out for bids), the removal or flagging of obstructions such as trees or power lines in a runway clear zone, as required by the Federal Aviation Administration, and completion of a perimeter fence for security and to thwart deer, which, consultants said, could be completed this year.

Also on the list are the completion of a taxiway parallel to the main runway, pavement repairs on the runways and near the airport terminal, and the development of a pavement management program to keep on top of cracks and the like, an upgrade of the aviation fuel farm, and a study of wind conditions and runway usage to facilitate decisions about which runways should remain open.

“I think the board is anxious to move forward as quickly as possible. The truth is, we’re behind the eight-ball here,” Mr. Cantwell said, “and we’d like to catch up.” Although the airport’s needs are longstanding and predate his administration, Mr. Cantwell told the consultants, “My message to you guys is let’s get going.”

The board is expected to appoint members of a new airport advisory committee at its meeting tonight. Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez said  three people from the aviation community, three community members affected by aircraft noise, and three who have legal or financial background will be appointed.

Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc recommended adding another member, someone with a background in real estate, and was asked to suggest who it might be.

The new committee will be asked to weigh in on the prioritized list of airport projects, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, a Democrat, has won the endorsement of the East Hampton Independence Party for a second run.

The party, which made its announcement on Monday, also selected Councilwoman Sylvia Overby and Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, both incumbent Democrats, as their candidates. Republicans will run Nancy Keeshan of Montauk and Len Czajka of Springs for those posts and Tom Knobel, the party’s chairman, for town supervisor.

Both Ms. Keeshan and Mr. Czajka are first time candidates. Ms. Keeshan, who had contemplated a run for supervisor in 2013, is a partner with her father in Keeshan Real Estate in Montauk. A town planning board member for five years, she has long been active in the Montauk Village Association, a civic group.

Mr. Czajka retired from a career in banking and is involved in the Clearwater Beach Property Owners Association.

Mr. Knobel served on the town board in the 1990s and ran for supervisor in 1997. His nomination is not unexpected, but was made official with a committee vote Tuesday evening.

All three parties endorsed Lisa R. Rana for town justice, Stephen Lynch for superintendent of highways, and Jeanne Nielsen and Jill Massa for town assessors. All are incumbents.

Many candidates will vie for one of nine seats on the town trustees, the governing body established by the Dongan Patent of 1686. Diane McNally, Tim Bock, Sean McCaffrey, and Nat Miller, all incumbents on the Republican ticket, were backed by their party for reelection. The Independence Party also endorsed Mr. Bock and Mr. McCaffrey. Bill Taylor, Brian Byrnes, and Deborah Klughers, incumbent Democrats, received their party’s backing, with Mr. Taylor and Mr. Byrnes also backed by the Independence Party.

The Republicans also endorsed Joe Bloecker, a former trustee who is seeking to rejoin the body, as well as Joshua Davidson, James Grimes, Michael Havens, and Stephen Lynch Jr. Mr. Lynch also received Independence Party backing. Along with their incumbents, the Democrats also selected Francis Bock, Pat Mansir, Rona Klopman, Zachary Cohen, Tyler Armstrong, and Rick Drew to run for trustee. Ms. Mansir, who is vice chairwoman of the Independence Party, also received her party’s backing, while the Independence Party also endorsed Francis Bock, Ms. Klopman, and Mr. Cohen.

The East Hampton Democrats selected their nominees last Thursday, choosing all of the candidates recommended by their 12-member screening committee. Betty Mazur, the group’s vice chairwoman, said the party was pleased that many new applicants had come forward as candidates for trustee and that it was able to present “an unusually diverse slate with a range of relevant experiences.”

Greg Mansley, media director for the Republican Committee, called his party’s selections “a strong ticket. We’re going to go after these people aggressively to strengthen the government here in the town of East Hampton and give it additional transparency,” he said yesterday.

In a release issued on Monday, Elaine Jones, the Independence Party’s chairwoman, wrote that many potential candidates from the Independence, Democratic, and Republican Parties had screened for elected positions. “There was much talent and community concern exhibited both from those interviewed and the screening committee,” Ms. Jones said.

With Reporting by Carissa Katz

Signs prohibiting parking along Dolphin Drive on Napeague, which were removed after a parking ban had been posted there for years, will go back up, according to a resolution passed by the East Hampton Town Board last week.

Discussion over whether the roadway, a short stretch on the south side of Montauk Highway that leads to the Atlantic shore and is bordered on the east by the town’s South Flora nature preserve, has pitted residents of the area against Zachary Cohen, a member of the town’s nature preserve committee, who believes that parking must be provided there to ensure public access to the preserve.

Residents, including Jonathan Wallace, an attorney who lives on the street and has filed suit against the town over removal of the no-parking signs, have said allowing parking will overrun their neighborhood with beachgoers and impede emergency access.

In a draft management plan issued recently to the town board for review, the nature preserve committee recommended creating several parking spaces along the eastern side of the Dolphin Drive right of way.

Elizabeth Vail, the town attorney, said after the town board vote last week that the move to replace the no-parking signs complies with the town’s legislative record regarding parking rules for the street. In light of the lawsuit, she told the board, it is “the only legal posture, for the duration, until you can consider [the nature preserve management] plan.”

Supervisor Larry Cantwell said this week that the board would consider parking for the preserve when it reviews the overall management plan.

In the meantime, Mr. Cohen is not the only one bristling at what is perceived as a move to keep outsiders out. Speaking at last week’s meeting, Loring Bolger said that she would like to take a Dolphin Drive-area resident up on his offer to those assembled to visit and see conditions for themselves, or to walk the trails in the preserve — “but there’s no place to park,” she said.

Norman Edwards, who lives in the area, demurred. Public parking is available on nearby Atlantic Drive, he said.

In the past year and a quarter, East Hampton Town has kept spending down, reduced costs, and accrued surplus in its various budget funds, Len Bernard, the town’s budget officer, told the town board last week.

In a report on the town’s financial affairs in 2014 and 2015, to date, the town’s Finance Department credited “prudent and conservative budgeting and close budget monitoring” throughout the year.

“A large reason for our good fund performance is because we spent less than we budgeted for,” Mr. Bernard told the town board.

The practices, under Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell’s administration, have led to recognition by agencies such as Moody’s Investors Services, which, in a report last month, said the town has “strong management and [a] demonstrated ability to restore financial flexibility,” and the Government Finance Officers Association, which, for the first time, last year recognized East Hampton for the caliber of its financial reporting.

Last summer, the town’s credit rating was upgraded to Aa2 by Moody’s, and another upgrade is expected this year.

All of the town’s budget funds built up surplus in 2014, Mr. Bernard said — with the exception of the Highway Department, which tapped $195,851 in surplus to pay for the extensive snow removal services required over the harsh winter.

The fund balance across the town’s major funds grew by more than $2 million last year, according to the budget officer, with all but the scavenger waste fund reaching the 20-percent surplus goal set by the town.

Mr. Bernard said the town was able to reap savings by refinancing bonds and by closing the septic waste transfer station at its old scavenger waste treatment plant, which had been inoperable.

Supervisor Cantwell said at last week’s meeting that he was pleased with the positive financial picture. “A lot of progress was made over the last two years,” he said.

He said he had pinpointed “the need to lower the overall indebtedness of the town” when a review revealed that $1 in every $5 spent was going toward debt repayment.

At 2014’s end, the town’s total indebtedness was more than $109 million, according to the Finance Department report. That was more than $10 million less than the town owed at the end of 2014. About $6 million of the decrease was due to the board’s capital borrowing policy of limiting annual borrowing for capital projects to about $5 million, less than the amount of capital debt being retired for the year.

By the end of 2015, Mr. Bernard reported, East Hampton’s debt is expected to go down by another $6.2 million, and by the end of 2018 the town’s overall indebtedness is expected to decrease to just over $80 million.

“That’s going to free up a lot of flexibility for the town,” Mr. Cantwell said.

Other positive financial factors the Finance Department report pointed to were the recent settlement of two of three union contracts, which the report called “fair to the employees and financially sound for the town;” the 2015 operating budget, which stayed below the state-mandated tax levy cap and contained a 3-percent spending increase, and a “flawless tax billing and collection season” so far this year after the appointment of a new tax receiver and the institution of new processes and controls.

The scarcity of parking in Amagansett’s commercial district, along with potential remedies and enforcement, were primary topics of discussion at the hamlet’s citizens advisory committee on Monday.

Supervisor Larry Cantwell, the East Hampton Town Board’s liaison to the committee, suggested that the configuration of the roughly 150 spaces in the municipal lot north of Main Street be revisited. Where the entire back half of the lot now allows what is in effect unlimited parking, a 72-hour limit would be implemented, on the northernmost row only, he said. The remaining spaces would have a 2-hour limit, save for three spaces on either side of the lot’s entrance, behind Amagansett Wines on the west side and the Amagansett Library to the east. Parking in those six spaces, Mr. Cantwell said, would be limited to 30 minutes. The changes, he said, “could free up a lot of these spaces for turnover.”

At present, time limits are loosely enforced, if at all, committee members have often noted. Throughout the winter, many vehicles were buried under snow for weeks or months.

Should new limits be implemented and enforced, Mr. Cantwell said, commercial and residential property owners could be issued a number of permits exempting their vehicles and those of their employees or tenants from the restrictions. He suggested a survey be conducted to determine how many residents and employees would be affected by the proposed changes, pledging to return to the committee with the results.

With Memorial Day weekend looming, “Time is getting short,” the supervisor said. “The sooner we can resolve the question, the sooner we can get something started. Whether it could start in middle of summer, I don’t know.”

After much discussion, the committee decided that there are more long-term spaces than needed and agreed to support the proposal.

The parking lot has consumed much of the committee’s deliberations in recent months, and on Monday night a visitor raised another aspect. Mary Lownes asked Lt. John Claflin, who attended the meeting as the East Hampton Town Police Department’s new liaison to the hamlet, whether a squad car could be stationed in the lot to deter people from “pre-gaming” — drinking alcohol in their cars — before going to nearby bars. The lot is sometimes littered with bottles and cans, she said, presenting a danger to children riding bicycles. “If they see a police car, it’s a deterrent.”

Scheduled foot patrols concentrating on quality-of-life issues happen on weekends and, as permitted, during the week, Lieutenant Claflin said. “I will bring it back and do what I can,” he told Ms. Lownes.

The committee’s seemingly endless campaign for a public restroom in the parking lot was derailed in March by the discovery that a restaurant’s septic system, installed in 2009 on town-owned property (the parking lot) was too close to a well on adjacent property. While the restroom itself met Suffolk County Health Department requirements, the department refused to issue a certificate of occupancy for it, anywhere at all on the parking lot, until the septic system is relocated.

“We continue to work with them,” Mr. Cantwell said. He invited committee members to attend a meeting on Wednesday at Town Hall of property owners adjacent to the parking lot and representatives of the library’s board, who opposed the restroom’s proposed location.

“We’ll see if we can find a way to reach a consensus about where exactly the restroom should go,” said the supervisor. “Hopefully, we’ll come out of that with an agreement and build a bathroom.”

East Hampton Town

New Summer Event Fees

As the summer season of social events draws near, the East Hampton Town Board set new fees last Thursday for gatherings held on public properties or at commercial establishments. A $100-a-day application fee will be charged for parties, fund-raisers, and the like. A sliding scale was established for parades, marathons, triathlons, races, and similar events that use the town’s roadways.

Application fees for events with 50 to 99 registered participants were set at $100 a day; those with up to 499 attendees, at $500, and so on, up to $4,000 for events with 2,500 or more people participating. Residents throwing parties on private properties will be exempt from the application fees, as will charitable organizations (though, depending on the number of guests, gathering permits may still be required).

In addition, an “impact fee” will be calculated based on costs to the town for traffic control and any other municipal services that might be required for the event. That fee could be waived by the town board for charitable groups.

A security deposit, on a sliding scale, will be required for use of public properties: $100 for gatherings of 50 to 100 people, up to $1,000 for events with more than 1,000 guests. Residents will not be charged a deposit for gatherings of 100 people or fewer. Event sponsors will, in addition, be required to pay the costs of site cleanup, even above and beyond the security deposit amount, should they fail to meet that responsibility.

Picked for Town Hall Redo

L.K. McLean Associates, a Brookhaven engineering firm, will be hired to develop plans to revamp the Town Hall campus, which will include the future of the old Town Hall building. After soliciting proposals for the architectural services, the town board voted last week to pay McLean $345,000 to do the work.

Food Truck Bids Awarded

Bids were awarded last week to food truck vendors who will gain exclusive rights to set up shop at several public beach locations. The Ditch Witch will pay $38,475 for a three-year contract to remain in the Otis Road location near Ditch Plain Beach in Montauk, where it has operated for a number of years. Scott Bogetti was awarded a three-year, $34,050 contract for a spot at the Ditch parking lot. Kona Ice will set up at Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett, paying $31,500 for three years, and Matthew Meehan got the vending spot at Gin Beach in Montauk and will pay $9,000 for three years.

Indian Wells Alcohol Ban

Alcohol will again be banned during certain days and times at Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett this season, according to a vote of the town board last week. No drinking will be allowed within 1,000 feet of the road ending at Indian Wells during the hours of lifeguard protection on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays through September.

Parking and C.P.F. on the Table

The town board will hold a number of hearings at its Thursday night meeting next week. On the table for discussion will be a parking prohibition along a 1,375-foot stretch of Oakview Highway in East Hampton, on both sides of the street, and allowing East Hampton Town to waive the need for hunters to obtain a State Department of Environmental Conservation permit.

Several hearings will be held on proposed property purchases using the community preservation fund. The properties include Theresa and Hugh Quigley’s 6.4 acres on Swamp Road in East Hampton, at $2.5 million, where a house would be removed and the land returned to its natural state; a 2.75-acre tract at 30 and 32 Three Mile Harbor Road in Springs owned by Jonathan Miller Jr., for $1 million, for open space, and a lot of just over half an acre on Gerard Drive in Springs, owned by the estate of Dorothy King, for $900,000. It also has a residence that would be removed.

The hearings will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.

Four Preservation Purchases

After hearings last week, the board authorized the acquisition, with the preservation fund, of Mark Vernazza’s 6 South Genesee Court, Montauk, property, a .42-acre vacant lot, for $295,000; of vacant lots totaling 6.5 acres on Sycamore and Cedar Drives in Springs, owned by the Fireplace Road Corporation, for $2.6 million, for open space; of Marilee Foster’s property on Town Line Road in Wainscott, five acres for $600,000, also for open space, and of Mary Marin’s third-acre lot at 54 Lincoln Road in Montauk, for $250,000

A Native American burial site, which was discovered in 1917 off Springs Close Highway in East Hampton, has split the town planning board down the middle in connection with a subdivision application for property across the street.

The applicant is Patrick Bistrian III, principal of an L.L.C. called E.E.B. Farms. Richard Whalen of LandMarks, Mr. Bistrian’s representative, told the planners on April 22 that Mr. Bistrian plans to create a family compound and build a pond on the site, which has been in his family for many years.

Although the property is shown on tax maps as three different parcels, it is actually divided into two, a 22-acre site, which is vacant, and a smaller lot with a house on it. Mr. Bistrian has applied for subdivision approval under the town’s open space provisions, allowing the larger lot to be divided into four buildable parcels, ranging from about 90,000 to 100,000 square feet, although the land is zoned for three-acre minimum lots. The remaining land would be divided into two preserves, one of 7.7 acres for agriculture, the other a standard reserve slightly larger than 3 acres.

Because the burial sites are only 300 feet away,  JoAnne Pahwul, assistant director  of the Planning Department, told the board that the department believes a new archeological study should be made to make certain there is nothing of Native American significance on the Bistrian site. She reported that 58 burials had been unearthed at a depth of  four to five feet in 1917, according to a 1991 report by James Treux, who  had inspected the site. He also found six fireplaces, lined with 40 stones each, as well as coins and other artifacts, which dated the burials to the late 1600s to the early 1700s. 

A second survey of the Bistrian property was done in 1992,  finding evidence of plowing but nothing of Native American significance, but Ms. Pahwul said new standards for how such surveys are to be conducted had been adopted by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation in 1994.  This change led to request for a new survey in 1996, but this was not done.

The cost of such work was clearly a concern to the applicant, Mr. Whalen said. He argued that the mere proximity of burials did not mean that a new survey would produce any different results.

The board split on whether to require a new study, splitting 3-to-3. However, because Diana Weir was not at the meeting, she is expected to be the deciding vote, Reed Jones, chairman of the board, said.

Another review before the planners that night involved the Iacono Farm on Long Lane, a popular destination for fresh eggs and local chickens. The AT&T corporation has something difhe planned antenna placement  appears quite noticeable. Board members asked if the additional equipment could be made flush with the tower, an idea Eric Schantz, a senior planner for the town, had suggested in a memo. Board members also wondered if, by approving the proposal, the board would be opening the door to more wind towers across the town suddenly becoming cellphone towers.

Mr. Schantz pointed out that the town code has directives that are not mandatory on the placement of such towers, with farms excluded as possible sites.

John Huber of Nielson, Huber & Coughlin, an attorney who has appeared before the board numerous times representing phone companies’ tower requests, cautioned the board that under federal law the town would not be able to prohibit the antennas. He said he would work with the Planning Department to find an aesthetically more pleasing solution.

At the Montauk Light

In other matters at the busy meeting, Johnson Nordlinger, representing the lighthouse committee of the Montauk Historical Society, spoke about its plan to construct a 500-square-foot barn on the over three-and-a-half acre site, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

 The new barn would be used for storage and allow another building currently used for that purpose to be restored as a lighthouse keeper’s dwelling, for which it was built in 1838. The society has been awarded a matching state grant for the project.

Board members, led by Nancy Keeshan, who has a business in Montauk, were supportive of the plan. Ms. Keeshan pointed out that a Pod currently behind the 1838 building would be removed, and the new storage barn placed next to it, on the west side of the driveway that leads to it.

The only caveat from the town’s Planning Department, in the form of a memo from Ms. Pahwul, was that earlier test excavations indicate there might be items of historical significance beneath the surface. Ms. Nordlinger told the board that any excavation would be carefully monitored. She pointed to the society’s longstanding commitment to preserving historical sites. The board noted that as correct, and the plan moved a step closer to fruition.

Finally, the Three Mile Harbor Marina had a site plan before the board for a building to be used for mechanical equipment and to provide toilet facilities for persons whose boats dock at the marina. Mark Mendelman explained that those docked at the marina now have to use a portable toilet.

However, Mr. Mendelman also told the board that the Building Department could not issue a certificate of occupancy for the building because of certain conditions that pre-existed the Mendelman ownership group’s purchase of the marina, just months before Hurricane Sandy struck. He said bulkheads also needed repair.

The board was pleased with the thoroughness of the presentation, and encouraged Mr. Mendelman to continue to work with the Planning Department.

The twice-monthly meetings of the East Hampton Town Trustees may soon be recorded and broadcast on LTV, East Hampton’s public access television station.

With seven of the nine members of the governing body present at a meeting on Tuesday, the group addressed recent calls by some of the residents who regularly attend trustee meetings, agreeing to contact LTV to inquire about the installation of audiovisual equipment and broadcast of the meetings, which would also be archived on the station’s website.

At the same time, the trustees’ clerk, Diane McNally, acknowledged that the public has a right to record the proceedings on smartphones or other devices, provided they are not disruptive.

At the trustees’ previous meeting, on April 14, several in attendance, including Chini Alarco and Elaine Jones, both of whom live in Amagansett, asked about their right to record the meetings. On Tuesday, Ms. Jones and Diana Walker, who also lives in Amagansett and frequently attends the meetings, again urged the trustees to pursue installation of audiovisual equipment. Ms. Alarco had submitted a letter asking the same, Ms. McNally said.

Ms. McNally read from the state’s Open Meetings Law, which states that “Any meeting of a public body that is open to the public shall be open to being photographed, broadcast, webcast, or otherwise recorded and/or transmitted by audio or video means.” She also read an excerpt of the law stating that a public body may adopt rules to ensure that its proceedings remain orderly. Those rules will be posted and made available to those in attendance, she said.

Consideration of the question to record and broadcast, Ms. McNally said, has been sporadic due to the possibility, as proposed in a space-needs study conducted by the town, that the trustees would relocate to the Town Hall campus. “But as of this date, I have not been asked by anyone what our space needs might be,” she said. Given her belief that the trustees would remain at the Donald Lamb Building in Amagansett for the foreseeable future, and that the town has budgeted money for recording their meetings, “perhaps we should reach out to LTV again,” she said, despite concerns that conditions in the trustees’ cramped meeting room would produce poor-quality recordings.

“It’s not going to be like Town Hall,” she said, referring to the televised meetings of the town board and other town government groups, “but at this point it may behoove us to make that inquiry and see what we can do.” She emphasized, however, that the audio recordings made by Lori Miller-Carr, the group’s secretary, would remain the trustees’ official record.

On Clam Digging

In other news from the meeting, the trustees voted unanimously to allow the hand digging of soft-shell clams throughout 2015. The town code currently prohibits the harvesting of soft clams between May 1 and Aug. 31.

In asking that the trustees use their authority to manage the taking of shellfish in town waters, Nat Miller, a trustee and bayman, said that some of his colleagues on the water had requested a lifting of the prohibition. “You can make a day’s pay,” he said of the soft clams, likening the proposed action to the trustees’ vote last month to extend the scallop season through April.

While the town’s shellfish hatchery does not seed area waters with soft-shell clams, John Dunne, its director, was not opposed to lifting the summer prohibition, Mr. Miller said.

The trustees will determine the effect of lifting the prohibition this year before deciding whether to make the change permanent. Commercial and recreational fishermen must hold a permit to harvest shellfish.