Year-round, unsewered homeowners in Suffolk County are eligible for a lottery to participate in an alternative wastewater treatment pilot program. The county will select 19 winners, who will get a new system installed at no cost, along with five years of free maintenance.

Nitrogen leaking from aging septic systems is seen as contributing to the deteriorated quality of some town waterways, helping to cause algal blooms that can kill marine life.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said in a statement that “we need to encourage better technology to remove nitrogen that makes its way into our surface water and groundwater. I would love to see a demonstration project here in East Hampton.”

East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. also delivered prepared remarks on the county’s initiative. “Septic systems have been the target and likely contributor to many of our groundwater contamination issues,” he said, “and I am pleased the county is moving ahead and seeking participation from our homeowners on this important public health matter.”

An application to participate in the lottery can be downloaded at suffolkcountyny.gov/departments/PublicWorks/SepticDemonstrationProgram.aspx. The deadline to apply is Nov. 14 at 4:30 p.m.

A noise analysis report on the East Hampton Airport is to be the subject of a special town board meeting today at 10 a.m. at East Hampton Village’s Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street.

Peter Kirsch, an aviation attorney hired by the town, will be on hand to address the interim report and potential next steps for the town. Peter Wadsworth of the town’s airport finances subcommittee will review an analysis of 2014 airplane noise. A public comment period will follow the presentations.

Update, 10:50 p.m.: Representative Tim Bishop conceded the race for New York's First Congressional District to State Senator Lee Zeldin.

With 87 percent of the votes counted, News 12 Long Island reported Mr. Zeldin leading Rep. Bishop by 55 to 45 percent.

Update, 10:30 p.m.: State Senator Lee Zeldin is moving closer to unseating Representative Tim Bishop in the election to represent New York's First Congressional District. With 68 percent of the votes counted, News 12 Long Island reported Mr. Zeldin leading Rep. Bishop by 54 to 46 percent.

At 10:15 p.m., Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was quickly called the winner in his race for reelection against the Republican challenger, Rob Astorino, and third-party candidates, addressed supporters. One hour and 20 minutes after polls had closed, State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle had a sizable lead over his Democratic challenger, Michael Conroy, 69 to 31 percent, with 72 percent of the votes counted. With 16 percent of the votes counted, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. led his closest challenger by 64 to 30 percent.

Original, 9:53 p.m.: The polls closed at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, and the counting of votes to determine who will represent New York's First Congressional District began. Late polling had shown a surge for the challenger, State Senator Lee Zeldin, who is running for a second time to unseat the incumbent, Representative Tim Bishop.

With 7 percent of the votes counted, News 12 Long Island reported Mr. Zeldin leading Mr. Bishop by 51 to 49 percent.

The race for New York's First has been watched nationwide, as Mr. Bishop, the six-term congressman, was seen as vulnerable. Outside groups have poured money into the district, with a conservative group called the American Action Network pledging to spend $1.2 million to defeat Mr. Bishop. Voters have been inundated with television, print, and social media advertising, most of it negative.

"Americans are angry this time," Greg Mansley, the East Hampton Town Republican Committee's media director, said on Tuesday. "They're not walking in to vote, they're marching in to vote. That's different."

Betty Mazur, vice chairwoman of the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee, would not offer a prediction on Tuesday, citing what she said was the unreliability of polls.

Also up for re-election were Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was quickly called the winner in his race against the Republican challenger, Rob Astorino, and third-party candidates. Forty minutes after polls had closed, State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle had a sizable lead over his Democratic challenger, Michael Conroy. In early returns, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. led two challengers with 64 percent of the vote.

Groundwater will be tested for the chemical pentachlorophenol, a toxic wood preservative used on utility poles, including those recently installed by PSEG Long Island as part of a controversial six-mile high-voltage electric line at three East Hampton Town and Village sites.

Town and village officials will hire an independent consulting firm to sample areas around three of the poles installed where there is a high water table and leaching may have occurred, Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said yesterday.

Earlier this year, water from a basement sump in East Hampton Village’s Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street, along the transmission line route, was found to contain the chemical, a carcinogen that has been banned in countries around the globe and is limited to industrial use in the United States.

A state law banning utility poles coated with pentachlorophenol has been proposed by Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle. The law also calls for warnings to be placed on existing poles treated with the chemical.

Pentachlorophenol, also called PCP, has been classified by the federal Environmental Protection Agency as a probable human carcinogen and its use restricted, but it has not been banned in the United States as it has in other countries.

A worldwide ban was discussed at the most recent Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, held by the United Nations and its Environment Programme in Rome last month.

Long Island Businesses for Responsible Energy, or LIBFRE, an East Hampton group that has sued PSEG over its installation of the penta-coated poles and high-tension transmission line, seeking to have the poles removed and lines placed underground at PSEG’s expense, earlier this year commissioned tests of soil surrounding some of the new poles and forwarded the results, showing levels of penta 300 times higher than the state threshold for chemical cleanup, to local, state, and county officials.

But in a June letter to Mr. Cantwell, Thomas B. Johnson of the state’s Bureau of Toxic Substance Assessment cited the Environmental Protection Agency’s findings that the use of penta as a wood preservative “will not pose unreasonable risks to humans or the environment.”

East Hampton Town’s natural resources director, Kim Shaw, said that the Suffolk Health Department, where she used to work, once regularly tested for penta in areas where wood treated with the chemical was used. She contacted the Health Department when the issue first arose in East Hampton and was told that the chemical had never been detected in surrounding soils, and that the testing program was suspended.

Depending on how deep the utility poles were inserted into the ground, Ms. Shaw said this week, they may be in contact with groundwater, which, in the area of the Emergency Services Building, flows into the Hook Pond watershed.

A complete environmental analysis, she said, should have included information about how deep the poles were to be sunk and data regarding depth to groundwater in the area.

Other things to be examined regarding the possibility of penta contamination, Ms. Shaw suggested, include whether the utility poles were freshly treated with the chemical, or seasoned, and the interaction between the type of wood used for the poles and the absorption of the chemical.

The town and village will share the cost of the groundwater testing, Mr. Cantwell said, and will have it done by a firm other than the one that conducted the tests for LIBFRE.

The public can have its say on next year’s town budget tonight at Town Hall, when the East Hampton Town Board will hold a hearing on the proposed $71.5 million plan.

If it is passed as it stands, properties outside the incorporated villages of Sag Harbor and East Hampton would pay $28.90 per $100 of assessed value, an increase of 1.8 percent over this year. Property owners within the villages would pay $11.63 per $100, an increase of 2.8 percent.

Of the overall budget, just over $49 million would be raised by taxes; the rest would come from various other sources. 

The increase in the tax levy would be well within the allowable increase under the state-mandated 2-percent cap. That amount — $300,000 — will be credited toward the town’s tax levy cap for 2016, allowing taxes to be increased by that much in addition to the allowable 2 percent.

Because the proposed tax levy increase remains under the state cap, under a state income tax credit program East Hampton residents will receive a rebate for the amount of the increase on the town portion of property taxes.

In recent weeks, upon review of the budget prepared and submitted to the town board by Supervisor Larry Cantwell, some changes were made. One source of revenue, $50,000 in fees that would be charged to landlords to register their rentals under a proposed new law, has been eliminated, “pending the town board’s continued review of the issue,” Mr. Cantwell wrote in a foreword to the revised plan.

Expected revenue from recently approved leases of town property to solar energy companies exploring potential installations — $80,000 next year — has been added to the budget.

Over all, the amount of expected income from sources other than property tax, including fees, leases, mortgage taxes, and fines, is up by $964,967 over this year. Revenue generated by the East Hampton Airport, including from a recent increase in fees charged for aviation fuel sales, accounts for 79 percent of that, or $757,319. The doubling of the aviation fuel fee, to 30 cents per gallon, has prompted a lawsuit by Sound Aircraft Services, which sells fuel at the airport.

Other adjustments made to the earlier budget include the addition of $70,000 to cover the actual costs of a recently settled contract with the town police union; $10,000 for the fisheries committee to promote the local industry, and the addition of $20,000 to hire a part-time staffer to oversee youth services.

The elimination of two part-time bus driver positions, which the budget says will not change the operation of the town’s transportation program, reduces proposed spending by almost $30,000.

Tonight’s hearing will begin at 6:30.

East Hampton Town

Charge Your Electric Car

An electric-vehicle charging station, newly installed at East Hampton Town Hall, will be unveiled at 9 a.m. tomorrow at an event organized by the town board and the Natural Resources Department. The public has been invited.  The station is in front of the police annex at the town hall campus on Pantigo Road. It will be demonstrated using electric vehicles provided by Buzz Chew Chevrolet and Tesla Motors, whose representatives will be on hand to answer technical questions. The town received a $10,500 grant from the New York State Energy Research Development Authority and a $2,000 grant from the New York Power Authority, covering the full cost of installation, in order to encourage the public and members of the town workforce to embrace electric vehicles. Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, the town board’s liaison to its energy sustainability committee, said the new charging station was part of an overall commitment to environmental sustainability.

C.P.F. Purchases Proposed and Approved

The town board will hold hearings next Thursday on three proposed purchases using the community preservation fund. Development rights to preserve farmland and open space would be acquired for a total of $7 million on 4.4 acres of land at 7 Beach Lane in Wainscott, owned by Jane Weigley. The purchase will be made jointly by the town and the Peconic Land Trust, which has raised $2.5 million for its share and which will continue to raise funds until the closing. The town’s cost will not exceed $4.4 million. Another hearing will focus on a proposed purchase of a .44-acre lot at 817 Accabonac Road in Springs, at its intersection with Old Stone Highway and Neck Path, which is owned by the estate of the late Eileen Roaman. The cost is $220,000. The third proposed purchase, for $2.2 million, is of 2.6 acres of land at 300, 306, and 312 Cranberry Hole Road in Amagansett. It is owned by the Sky and Ray Family Trust, Indian Pot L.L.C., and Helen Rattray, who is the publisher of The Star. The hearings will begin at 6:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, the town board has approved two other C.P.F. land purchases, following a Town Hall hearing last Thursday. A lot at 48 Northwest Landing Road in East Hampton that is just over an acre will be bought from Richard Dittmer for $470,000, and a .21-acre lot at 10 Brisbane Road in Montauk will be purchased for $250,000 from Rosette Miles.

A small but fervent group rallied outside Town Hall on Saturday, hoping to drum up public support and influence the East Hampton Town Board to take a stand against proposed state hunting regulations that would allow gunning on weekends in January and reduce the setback from structures for bow hunting from 500 to 150 feet.

In numbers hovering around a dozen, protesters held signs reading “No weekend hunting,” “Stop the slaughter, let our deer live,” and “Protect nature’s stillness in winter.” Some motorists honked car horns in support.

The town’s deer management advisory and nature preserve committees have discussed the new regulations, and the town board is expected to do so at a work session on Tuesday.

Supervisor Larry Cantwell said in an email yesterday that no decision had been made so far, but that he believes the deer population should be reduced. He and other officials have cited Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses, deer-vehicle collisions, destruction of landscaping, and the proliferation of deer fences to advocate for a cull of the deer population.

Town and village officials among others have advocated deer culls in the past, and as reported elsewhere in this edition, a new nonprofit organization is focusing on a so-called four-poster system to kill ticks.

In an annual report issued in September, the town’s deer management advisory committee, chaired by Zachary Cohen, and its deer-management coordinator, Andy Gaites, recommended that the town support the changes in the state hunting code. The committee did not recommend a professional culling effort this winter, but did suggest that qualified residents with appropriate permits be allowed to hunt on properties that are not now approved for hunting.

Should the new regulations be adopted in East Hampton, “The deer are going to be under attack from a lot of different ways,” said Bill Crain, a part-time resident of Montauk who is president of the East Hampton Group for Wildlife. Mr. Crain, who organized Saturday’s protest, called the prospect of weekend gun hunting and bow hunting closer to residences “very upsetting in the sense that the deer will never get a break. . . . Bow hunting is cruel because the wound rate is so high. It’s all cruel, but bow hunting is especially so,” he said.

Outside Town Hall on Saturday, Mr. Crain’s colleagues and his wife, Ellen, bemoaned the potential increase in hunting this winter. “I oppose all forms of hunting,” Donnie Moss of Sagaponack and New York City said. “Hunting is a blood sport and I think it should be banned. It jeopardizes public safety, and it’s horribly inhumane.” 

Catherine Gropper of Springs and New York City said she worried that joggers, hikers, or those taking outdoor classes would have to share the woodlands with hunters. “There was never weekend hunting before in the winter. There’s no mercy for the animals,” she said. “If there’s 12 people here or 50, we have to be vigilant.” She called expanded hunting “a social injustice, not just a wildlife injustice.”

“There should be hundreds of us out here,” Beverly Schnauzer of Sag Harbor said. “The apathy is pretty horrible,” Ms. Gropper agreed.

Many of the protestors decried citing tradition as a rationale to continue hunting. “I see these deer in my backyard and think, how could people want to kill these innocent creatures?” Mr. Moss said. “I want to protect them, not harm them. If Barcelona can ban bullfighting, the Hamptons can ban hunting. Tradition is never an excuse for the inhumane treatment of animals.”

Officials of 19 Danish offshore wind companies that are visiting the United States to explore investment in the offshore wind market visited Long Island yesterday. The Long Island Association and Long Island Forum for Technology hosted the delegation.

The group toured the Composites Prototyping Center in Plainview and held a discussion about manufacturing capabilities on Long Island. Representatives from Deepwater Wind, a Rhode Island company seeking to develop an offshore wind farm 30 miles east of Montauk, participated in the tour and discussion.

Both spending and anticipated revenues in the proposed $71.5 million 2015 East Hampton Town budget are “reasonable,” according to the New York State Comptroller’s office.

The state required the town to issue a deficit-financing bond covering the $28 million shortfall that accumulated under the McGintee administration, and as part of the requirement the town must submit its annual budgets to the state for review.

At a budget hearing last Thursday, Tom Knobel, the chairman of the East Hampton Republican Committee, raised a couple of questions. Mr. Knobel questioned a reliance on fees to raise revenue, suggesting that several projected sources of income — an expected payment from the county and increased income from the East Hampton Airport — might be both premature and ill-advised.

The projections are “conservative,” rejoined Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, who expressed confidence that they would be met.

Also last Thursday the town board appointed former Councilwoman Julia Prince to a position, beginning Sunday, as an ordinance inspector, at an annual salary of $44,757. Before being elected to the town board, Ms. Prince had worked in the Ordinance Enforcement Department.

According to another resolution approved last week, John Lascari will join the Building Department as a senior building inspector on Dec. 1, for a salary of $56,638 a year.

The public restroom to be constructed in the parking lot north of Main Street in Amagansett is “ready to go,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell told the hamlet’s citizens advisory committee on Monday night. Mr. Cantwell displayed the latest blueprints prepared by the architect, Joseph Catropa, which he said he considered the final design. The next steps, he told the committee, are to solicit bids, choose a contractor, and complete construction of the cedar-shingled building before next summer.

Concurrently, the lot is to be restriped, which will result in a small increase in the number of parking spaces. “It’s been vetted, the committee worked hard on it, and the architect did a good job of revising plans and putting it together,” Mr. Cantwell said. “We’re ready to go.”

Not everyone agreed. “It is probably way too late in this process,” Rachel Gruzen, an Amagansett resident, conceded before asking if the restroom “absolutely has to be in the location it is,” behind the library. The second floor of the library, where she and others often work for long periods, offers “the most extraordinary view,” she said. “All that common space was designed to look out over the fields.”

Tina Piette, whose law office is adjacent to the parking lot, also objected to the location, pointing out that the Suffolk County Department of Health Services’ approval of the restroom was for a site toward the west end of the lot. “Now I’m 50 feet, or 80 feet, whatever it is, but looking at a bathroom.”

“As far as I’m concerned, we’re ready to go with this,” Mr. Cantwell repeated. “Tina doesn’t want it in this location, I’m sure there are a few others. But I’ve worked on this now for nine months, and I think there was a strong consensus of opinion that this was the location.” The town, he said, will obtain Health Department approval for the spot as proposed. “There was strong consensus,” he reiterated. “In the center, as opposed to stuck in the corner.”

A proposed town law establishing a rental registry, which would require prospective landlords to provide detailed information about their houses and tenants, was also discussed. Several committee members stated that the law as drafted would punish the majority for the acts of a few who turn a blind eye to overcrowding and other code violations.

“It seems like overkill,” said Michael Diesenhaus, the committee’s vice chairman, “and like we’re asking a lot of people to go through a process to make sure that some people don’t take advantage of it.”

Jeanne Frankl, of the committee, disagreed. The discussion, she said, “should be reoriented a little bit from this idea of ‘Are we punishing people who have done no wrong?’ . . . We should be considering this from the vantage point of ‘Will it help us to enforce the law?’ Maybe that requires a little more investigation than has yet been made of why the law isn’t being enforced.”

There was a point at which one simply wanted to be left alone, Mr. Diesenhaus said. “My difference with you is, now we’re talking about your home.  If a couple hundred people per summer are nuisances, that’s not a high enough bar for me for crossing the Rubicon to now having everybody be in a process.”

“We’re still in the informational stage,” Mr. Cantwell said, acknowledging that the proposed law has drawn much criticism. “There are those people who perceive this as an unnecessary intrusion.” Contractors, for example, are required to be licensed, he said, and to include that license number when advertising their services.

Similarly, the proposed law would shift the burden of proof toward the homeowner, he said. A house with two mailboxes or utility meters, for example, might lead to a presumption of violation. “People object to the collection of information,” the supervisor said. “They feel it’s an imposition on their privacy. But the flip side is, there’s a database. If there’s an absentee landlord that lives someplace else, there is contact information.”

Mr. Cantwell acknowledged insufficient code enforcement efforts, but said that the town budget for the coming year allows for an additional officer and that another building inspector has recently been hired. “I’ve worked hard to try to get the code enforcement units of the town to work together,” he said — the building inspector, code enforcement officers, police, and fire marshal. “We’re trying to fill in the void and are doing the hirings as quickly as we can.”

Proposing and vetting a rental registry, Mr. Cantwell said, was a first step “to see whether or not this was something the community would support. There are a lot of questions to be answered. The last thing you want to do is create a system where it turns into a useless bureaucracy that bogs down and frustrates everybody.”