The financial affairs of the East Hampton Town Trustees, who own much of the common lands and waterways in town on behalf of the public, were front and center in August, as the town looks ahead to a new fiscal year in January. The East Hampton Town Board allots about half the trustees’ annual budget each year — it was $251,456 this year — while other revenue comes from fees, including those for mooring or docking in waters under their jurisdiction, and from leases of trustee land at Lazy Point in Amagansett.

At a meeting on Aug. 13, Diane McNally, the trustees’ clerk, Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, and Len Bernard, the town’s budget officer, went over the panel’s finances. “We’ve tried to be fair and consistent with user groups,” Ms. McNally said following the meeting. “The fees that come to us, we do put back into the community. The bulk of the monies from the town are for the salaries and our secretary.”

The trustees are seeking an additional $87,000 from the town for next year and also would like to add a part-time secretary and increase the clerk’s salary commensurate with those of other department heads. The town provides Ms. McNally’s annual salary of $39,047, with an additional $2,500 per month coming from the trustee budget. The assistant clerk, Stephanie Forsberg, has an annual salary of $9,800, while the other seven trustees receive $7,400 per year.

Among other trustee expenses, dredging from 2009 to the present has cost $237,000, while the water-quality monitoring program instituted last year in conjunction with Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University has cost another $68,000.

In recent years the trustees’ coffers were boosted by $99,000 from the sale of sand excavated from Georgica Pond and from the settlement of a lawsuit targeting manufacturers, their subsidiaries, and distributors of the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether, or M.T.B.E. Among a dozen known M.T.B.E. spill sites in East Hampton Town was one near Three Mile Harbor. “We’ve been very fortunate that we’ve had that to utilize,” Ms. McNally said, noting that some of the money has been appropriated to ongoing litigation.

Litigation is, in fact, a major fiscal consideration, and the trustees would like town assistance with what it costs. The body has spent almost $106,000 on legal fees so far in 2014, Ms. McNally said, noting that from 2009 to the present, the legal bills, all related to lawsuits over boundaries between public and private land, have amounted to $388,000.

The trustees have expressed frustration over what they call a lack of respect for their jurisdiction among local governing bodies, and differences between them have also prompted legal action. For example, last year, the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals issued a permit to an oceanfront property owner for a rock revetment on the beach, which is claimed by the trustees. The trustees brought suit against the property owner, as well as the village and the town. The revetment was constructed, and the case remains in litigation.

Supervisor Cantwell would not comment specifically on the meeting with Ms. McNally, citing ongoing discussions with multiple town departments and an expected overall town budget of $70 million.

The Army Corps of Engineers has issued its draft environmental assessment for the Montauk beach protection work it is proposing — a slightly larger and more expensive dune construction and beach-fill project than had originally been floated.

The project is a “temporary stabilization” effort, according to the Army Corps, until more extensive rebuilding begins under the Fire Island to Montauk Point “reformulation project,” an extensive shoreline reconstruction that has been in the works for decades and is nearing final federal approval.

 In the meantime, the Army Corps would start in January to construct a 16- foot-tall dune along 3,100 feet of shoreline in downtown Montauk, largely in front of the oceanfront motels. The dune would extend from South Emery Street to the Atlantic Terrace motel.

Its core would contain approximately 14,000 geotextile bags filled with sand, each weighing about 1.7 tons. The work is expected to be complete by next May at a cost now estimated at $8.9 million, up from $7.5 million.

The project still falls short of what town officials had hoped would be created immediately, at full federal cost. However, in response to the town’s requests, the Army Corps has increased the proposed volume of sand to be used for the dune and beach fill from between 41,000 to 50,000 cubic yards to 71,000 cubic yards, Kim Shaw, the town’s natural resources director, said at a town board meeting on Tuesday.

Of that, 20,000 cubic yards of sand would be excavated from the project site; the rest would be trucked in.

According to the Army Corps, the interim project will not limit the longer-term beach reconstruction options and storm-protection solutions that could be undertaken later under the more far-reaching federal project, known as the FIMP reformulation study.

Town officials have been working since June to obtain the permission of property owners in the project area to complete surveys that will determine whether easements from those owners will be needed for the Army Corps to proceed. Town officials are hoping to schedule a visit here this month by representatives of the Army Corps and the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation, a partner on the Montauk project, to discuss its details at a public meeting.

Documents describing the project, including the Corps’ finding that it will have no significant environmental impact, can be found on the website for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New York Region, and will also be posted on the town’s website.

Public comments may be submitted on the environmental assessment until Sept. 25. They can be emailed to the project biologist at [email protected], or the project manager, at [email protected]. They may also be sent by mail to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District Planning Division-Environmental Branch (attention Robert Smith), 26 Federal Plaza, New York, ?N.Y. 10278.

Jemille Charlton, an attendant at East Hampton Airport since 2013, is expected to be appointed the new airport manager at a meeting of the East Hampton Town Board tonight. Mr. Charlton will replace Jim Brundige, the airport manager for the last decade, who is retiring.

Mr. Charlton will take the post immediately, working with Mr. Brundige until the outgoing manager’s last day, Oct. 17, Town Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez said Tuesday. She said the new manager has “a solid background in aviation, impeccable credentials, and deep roots in our community.”

Mr. Charlton, an East End native, has served for the last 15 years in the New York Air National Guard’s 106th Rescue Wing, stationed at Westhampton Beach, with which he is an aerospace maintenance craftsman crew chief. The 33-year-old attended New York Military Academy, the Community College of the Air Force, and Suffolk County Community College, and will graduate in May from the Dowling College School of Aviation with a degree in airport management. At East Hampton Airport, he has worked as a lineman for Sound Aircraft Services and as a representative for East Hampton Airlines.

The appointment comes at a time when the future of the airport — and the potential adoption of restrictions to curb aircraft noise across the region — has been an ongoing matter of debate.

In a press release, Mr. Charlton said he was honored to take the position. “I believe we can take our airport into the future while maintaining our East End quality of life,” he said. “As a community, we must think rationally and responsibility to ensure the stability of our East End for generations to come.”

The discovery last month of cochlodinium, or rust tide, in Three Mile Harbor in East Hampton came amid the ongoing closure of Georgica Pond to the harvesting of crabs and other marine life due to the discovery in July of another toxic algal bloom, cyanobacteria.

Rust tide, which is not harmful to humans but can kill shellfish and finfish, has now appeared in town waterways for 11 consecutive years, with recent sampling by Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University showing some of the highest densities since its first appearance. The algal bloom is a potential threat to this autumn’s bay scallop harvest.

“The rust tide has been blooming in Three Mile Harbor for three to four weeks now,” Dr. Gobler wrote in an email on Monday. “It has also been blooming in Sag Harbor and Accabonac Harbor, although less so recently in the latter,” he wrote.

Diane McNally, clerk of the East Hampton Town Trustees, who manage town waterways on behalf of the public, said that Georgica Pond would remain closed because of the continued presence of cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, which she said is not widespread. Cyanobacteria produces toxins that can be harmful to people and animals if ingested. The pond’s status was to be on the agenda of the trustees’ Aug. 26 meeting, which was canceled.

In a document related to Georgica Pond dated Sunday, Dr. Gobler wrote that the water-quality monitoring he has been doing in conjunction with the trustees for the past two years has revealed multiple problems, including low oxygen levels, fish kills, blooms of macroalgae, or seaweeds, and cyanobacteria blooms. High levels of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, as well as high temperatures and poor water circulation, promote the growth of cyanobacteria. “These issues must be addressed to alleviate these blooms,” he wrote.

Development of a management plan to address the pond was the focus of an Aug. 14 meeting between representatives from East Hampton Town and Village, the trustees, the Nature Conservancy, Dr. Gobler, and an environmental consultant. The plan was also a topic at the town board’s work session on Tuesday.

The pond should be opened to the ocean more frequently and for longer periods in order to increase flushing, raise salinity levels, and lower nutrient levels, Dr. Gobler wrote, all of which should discourage the development of algal blooms. However, “there are no comprehensive reports on the response of Georgica Pond to these openings; they could have unintended consequences on the ecosystem and its human and nonhuman residents or may be fully beneficial,” he wrote. “Once they are better understood, openings may be utilized more frequently or strategically to benefit all users of the pond.”

The most prominent nutrient sources must be identified, and the relative importance of nitrogen and phosphorus in promoting cyanobacteria blooms over a full year must be assessed, Dr. Gobler wrote.

A watershed management plan in development by participants of the Aug. 14 meeting will follow Dr. Gobler’s recommendations, East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said at the work session. Kim Shaw, the director of the town’s Natural Resources Department, will work with the trustees and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to that end, he said.

Use of fertilizers in watershed areas should be limited, according to the plan, and barriers installed at key locations to prevent pollutants from entering the pond. Natural buffers along the shoreline should be enlarged, and shoreline property owners should be educated as to the detrimental impact of fertilizer on the pond’s health.

The discussion also included requiring maximum setbacks from waterfront areas in all new construction, and the replacement of aging septic systems from which nutrients may be leaking into the watershed.

With reporting by Joanne Pilgrim

Unless future testing of East Hampton’s Georgica Pond has better results, taking crabs and other marine life will be prohibited there for at least another three weeks, the East Hampton Town Trustees decided on Tuesday. Most recent water samples indicate a “dangerously high level” of cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, which was first detected in the pond in July, said Stephanie Forsberg, the trustees’ assistant clerk.

The trustees have put up signs warning residents of the prohibition and advising kayakers and other recreational users of the pond of the danger posed to human and animal health.

Ingesting water containing elevated levels of cyanobacteria can cause headaches, fever, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting, while swimming in contaminated  water can cause irritation to eyes and skin.

Meanwhile, Suffolk County has advised residents against entering or using water from Sagg Pond in Sagaponack, Old Town Pond in Southampton, and several waterways farther west due to high levels of cyanobacteria.

While there is no conclusive evidence that consuming shellfish from a water body containing cyanobacteria is hazardous, “It’s not a risk I’m willing to take,” Dr. Forsberg said. “I almost think we should keep it closed for the season unless we have further notice” of a clean bill of health. The only solution, she said, is colder temperatures.

Dr. Forsberg, who has a doctorate in marine science from Stony Brook University, had initiated the water-quality testing program in the waters the trustees manage last year. On Tuesday, she also told her colleagues that cochlodinium, or rust tide, is still present in Three Mile Harbor in East Hampton. Rust tide is not harmful to humans but is to many marine species, she said.

The trustees are authorized to close a waterway to the harvesting of marine life for 21 days at a time, which they unanimously voted to do on Tuesday, effective immediately. Lifting the closure is conditioned on a positive change in the level of cyanobacteria as determined by Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University, whose laboratory conducts the testing in conjunction with the trustees.

An East Hampton Town employee’s $18 million discrimination lawsuit against the town has been settled, with an award of $81,000 to be paid to the plaintiff. Jorge Kusanovic, who works for the Parks and Recreation Department, had alleged that he was discriminated against because of his race, age, and national origin. An American citizen raised in Chile, he filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2007, and then, in 2012, sued, alleging he had been “subject to a continuous pattern of harassment as a Latino pioneer in the overwhelmingly white employment of East Hampton Town.”

The complaint detailed several instances of alleged discrimination. Mr. Kusanovic was passed over for promotion, it said, “in favor of younger, white hires,” was denied sick leave, was unfairly assigned to bathroom-cleaning duties, and was transferred to a Montauk post as an “exile” after he lent support to a Latino employee who claimed she was being sexually harassed by an older, white supervisor.

John Jilnicki, a town attorney, said in an email on Tuesday that “Mr. Kusanovic’s allegations arise from events which occurred a very long time ago, predating the current administration and involving, for the most part, employees who are no longer associated with the town.”

“We firmly believe that no one associated with the town discriminated against Mr. Kusanovic,” Mr. Jilnicki wrote. “The settlement provides a means to end this litigation without the expenditure of further time and resources on either side.”

He said the $81,000 award “pales in comparison” to what Mr. Kusanovic was seeking. The town admitted no liability in the case.

Lawrence Kelly, the attorney for Mr. Kusanovic, said the case “illustrated the stark bigotry of certain high-ranking town officials in previous town administrations.”

“Hispanics working in the Parks Department were tossed out of their jobs when the jobs were viewed as paying substantial hourly wages which, according to the bigots in town positions, should have been reserved for whites,” Mr. Kelly said, adding that his client was targeted when he “stood up for the competence and proficiency of the Hispanic employees” and proposed Hispanic candidates as new hires.

Mr. Kelly called Mr. Kusanovic “someone who showed that by persistence and a good work ethic, Latinos are rightfully earning respect and their proper place in East Hampton Town.”

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, following an investigation of the 2007 complaint, had informed the employee that the Department of Justice would not file suit on his behalf.

Increased parking this summer on side streets between Old Montauk Highway and Route 27, in a residential area of Montauk, led to a number of complaints to the East Hampton Town Police Department, not only about the cars along the sides of winding roads but about littering.

An investigation “led to Gurney’s Inn,” Lt. A.J. McGuire told the East Hampton Town Board at a meeting in Montauk on Tuesday. Board members had been asked to consider enacting a parking ban on the affected streets.

Gurney’s is under new management, he said, and “because of the increased population of Gurney’s, and Montauk in general, there were some decisions made about parking on-site at Gurney’s for employees, as well as overflow parking for events,” which led to the pileup on adjacent streets.

To keep employees from driving themselves to work, the hotel provided a shuttle to pick up those living in the hamlet at their residences, Lieutenant McGuire said. The shuttle would also collect those living out of town at public parking lots, where they would leave their vehicles during their shifts.

Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said he had been told some had been parking at the town’s Kirk Park beach lot. That lot was opened, at no charge, to nonresidents this season in order to reduce the number of cars left all day in the downtown shopping district by beachgoers.

But a number of Gurney’s employees who found the shuttle inconvenient “began to seek out parking in the area” of the hotel, Lieutenant McGuire told the board. He said he had spoken to Paul Monte, Gurney’s general manager, and that the management had “tried to assist us.”

“They’ve given their employees a clear-cut plan on what they would like them to do. The employees are making these decisions on their own, and currently they are parking their vehicles legally,” Lieutenant McGuire said. He warned that if the board enacted a parking ban on streets surrounding Gurney’s, drivers would begin to park in adjacent areas. “I would say you’d have to regulate the entire area or none of it.”

“My biggest concern,” he added, “is, the further you push them away, the longer they have to walk,” through streets that are unlit and dangerous at night.

Arlene Brodsky, a resident of Laurel Drive, told the board that valets from the inn had been parking cars on residential side streets for guests visiting the hotel and its beach on a day pass. Her husband, Hy Brodsky, said he “would not like to see cars parking across from my house all day. We moved there because of the beauty of the woods.”

“The only true resolution would be if Gurney’s accommodates the vehicles that they bring to the area,” said Lieutenant McGuire. “I’m not sure that’s necessarily possible either,” he added.

 Mr. Van Scoyoc suggested the board consider a street parking ban in the area. “It’s always good if a business will accommodate its employees and customers on site,” he said. 

Mr. Monte did not return a call for comment before press time.

A draft comprehensive wastewater management plan for East Hampton Town, developed by a consultant who has analyzed the waste treatment and water quality issues throughout the town from an environmental and economic standpoint, will be the subject of upcoming discussions by the town board and of several hearings at which the public may comment.

Pio Lombardo of Lombardo Associates, a Massachusetts environmental engineering and consulting firm, delivered an executive summary of the draft plan earlier this week. The full plan was expected to be posted last night at ehwaterrestore.com, a town website devoted to the consultant’s work.

The plan addresses existing wastewater management, including individual septic systems and their effect on surface and ground water as well as various water bodies’ watersheds.

It includes recommendations to address inadequate septic treatment and to improve water quality, as well as plans for ongoing water quality monitoring.

Mr. Lombardo found that nitrogen and phosphorous from waste and stormwater has adversely affected surface water quality throughout the town.

All of Three Mile Harbor, the consultant found, is “demonstrating signs of excessive nitrogen loadings,” including a recent concentration of harmful algae that could be toxic.

Because of that, the consultant said in the report, “it is recommended that remediation efforts begin in that area.”

The report recommends that the town enforce a regulation that requires inspections of private septic systems every three years and before a property transfer, and that neighborhood wastewater systems be installed in sensitive areas with malfunctioning or problematic septic systems, such as at Camp Hero, the dock area, Ditch Plain, and the downtown area in Montauk, around Three Mile Harbor, and in East Hampton Village within the Hook Pond watershed.

That watershed, along with those around Georgica and Fort Ponds, needs further study, according to the report’s executive summary, though treatment of groundwater in those areas to reduce nitrogen or phosphorous is recommended.

The plan also addresses individual properties throughout the town where septic system repairs or the installation of small neighborhood systems serving a handful of houses is recommended.

It includes recommendations for particular sites in various parts of the town where neighborhood wastewater treatment systems could be located.

Mr. Lombardo has also completed an analysis of the town’s aging scavenger waste treatment plant, which resulted in the town board taking steps for its permanent closure.

All of the reports and information compiled throughout the consultant’s process can be found at ehwaterrestore.com.

Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said Tuesday that the board will schedule four or five sessions at which the wastewater management plan will be discussed with the public. The first will be held at 10 a.m. on Sept. 23 at the East Hampton Village Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street in East Hampton. Another will take place on Oct. 7 at the Montauk Firehouse, also at 10 a.m.

On Tuesday, the town board voted on several budget amendments related to Mr. Lombardo’s work. In addition to his initial, $197,989 contract, the consultant will be paid an additional $29,000 for engineering work related to the scavenger waste plant closure, an additional $48,596 to engineer a plan to upgrade the Camp Hero wastewater system in Montauk, and an additional $16,415 for presentations and public meetings in connection with the comprehensive wastewater management plan.

Conciliation was in the air, and olive branches were extended in all directions on Aug. 27, when the East Hampton Town Planning Board scheduled a public hearing on the subdivision of roughly 40 acres of Wainscott farmland, which will result in seven house lots. The development had been years in the making and the subject of two lawsuits. The hearing will be at 7 p.m. on Sept. 17.

Jeffrey Colle bought the property for $26 million from Ronald Lauder in 2006. At the meeting on Aug. 27, Mary Jane Asato of the Southampton legal firm Bourke, Flanagan, and Asato, who has represented the applicant at countless meetings over the years, called the subdivision map “a balance of competing interests” and the best compromise. Almost 70 percent of the land will be kept in open space, presumably for agriculture.

The property is bordered by Wainscott Hollow Road on the west and Sayre’s Path on the east. It is part of what had been a swath of several hundred acres of farmland that ran from just south of Montauk Highway to the ocean. The Wainscott Cemetery and Wainscott School are nearby. Ms. Asato had told the board in 2013 that economic considerations were behind much of the subdivision’s design, including, apparently, the difference in value between an address on Wainscott Hollow Road as opposed to Sayre’s Path, and the proposed access had been the latest cause of debate.

The lots in the subdivision are now laid out along what could be called a baseball diamond. The lots vary from two to two-and-a-half acres, with the exception of the most southerly lot, which is only a half acre. A historic house, known as the Edwards house, is to be moved there as a guest house for the house on the largest lot, Ms. Asato said.

A portion of the property that could be said to be at second base will be the only house accessed from Sayre’s Path.  Several board members had argued, unsuccessfully, for most of the access to the property to be through that land instead of from the 1,200-foot-long driveway from Wainscott Hollow Road that the board has now gone along with. “This is bad planning,” Diana Weir, a board member, had said several times in recent months. In fact, if the driveway were extended another 300 feet, it would serve as a crossroad.

The property first came before the board in 2008. At the time Mr. Colle’s plan was to divide the land into between two and four properties, with one as large as 30 acres. Mr. Colle’s website home page is titled Estates by Colle, and large estates are what he is known for. He proposed a 14,556-square-foot, eight bedroom villa with an attached garage, elevator, tennis court, pool, and pool house on a portion of the 40-acre lot. The planning board was seemingly in favor of it. However, at a public hearing on Aug. 19, 2009, a majority of those who attended spoke against the application, with the size of the house a major objection. The board voted to reject the proposal on Sept. 23, 2009, and the applicant sued.

The lawsuit wasn’t resolved until the end of 2011, when Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Arlen Spinner wrote that rejecting the subdivision plan, was “arbitrary, capricious, and at preposterous discrepancy with their own history,” and “not supported by the facts.” He ordered the board to reconsider the plan.

Only two people now on the planning board, Bob Schaeffer and Pat Schutte, were members of it at the time. In the intervening years, however, Mr. Colle changed his mind about what to do with the property. He had won the right to build the 14,556-square-foot house, but, Ms. Asato told the board, the original buyer had lost interest. Another plan was proposed and it, in turn, generated court action. A neighbor, David Eagan, an attorney, representing his wife, Mary Anne McCaffrey, as well as two other neighbors, asked the court to mandate a thorough environmental impact review under the state’s Environmental Quality Review Act. This suit was rejected by Justice Spinner, who called it untimely.

In dealing with the board, Ms. Asato had sometimes been confrontational with individual board members. During a recent meeting, for example, she told Ian Calder-Piedmonte, “I’m not going to sit here and teach you zoning 101.”  At other times she has been willing to compromise, however, and she has now gained much of what her client was after.

The initial proposal brought to the board after the judge sent the application back had a line of five of the seven buildable lots along the driveway off Wainscott Hollow Road. Both the Planning Department and planning board opposed the layout, trying to maintain the vista of farmland from Wainscott Main Street north, which the proposed placement of the lots bisected. When Ms. Asato returned to the board with a revised proposal, most members found it largely unchanged, with five lots still on the long driveway. “I am disappointed. You have basically given us a take it or leave it approach,” said Reed Jones, the board’s chair.

The applicant subsequently submitted the plan going to public hearing. Eric Schantz, who is on the Planning Department staff, noted in a June memo that the subdivision had been “substantially redesigned.”  This included moving one of the lots board members had objected to from the access driveway to near Sayre’s Path.

Mr. Schaeffer was the one board member who was always vocal in his support of the subdivision. He frequently chided members for what he saw as an overly-lengthy delay. “Let’s get on with it,” he said several times over the months of meetings. He sparred with Mr. Calder-Piedmonte, much as Ms. Asato did, over the idea of trying to guarantee that the agricultural reserve would actually be used for farming. He also took on other board members over the necessity of maintaining a scenic vista.

“If you drive on Wainscott Hollow, people in the summer there aren’t using it for the view, they are using it to get around the traffic on the highway,” he said. He even clashed occasionally with Pat Schutte, who was generally supportive of the application. Not one board member seconded his previous motion to schedule the hearing on Aug. 13. But, on Aug. 27, the board was of one mind, and called the hearing for Sept. 17. Ms. Asato agreed, as well, to meet to explore ways to ensure the reserved land would be used for farming. After the vote was taken, one board member said, audibly, “Whew.”

East Hampton Town

Reconsidering Mass Gatherings

The town board will hold a hearing tonight on revisions to the town laws regarding mass gatherings. The law requires permits for assemblies of more than 50 people on residential properties, for organized gatherings of five or more people on public properties, and for gatherings on commercial sites if they involve outdoor areas, use of a tent, off-site parking, or sales of goods or refreshments on a property, or in an area of a property, not already approved for such sales.

The revised law would require permit applications for events involving 250 or more people to be submitted 60 days in advance; applications for gatherings of groups of 100 or fewer must be filed at least 15 days in advance.

The code would allow the town board to deny permits for events deemed unsuitable for their proposed location, for those that would conflict with other events, causing traffic congestion or a strain on public services, if the frequency of events on a particular site is too great, or if a property owner has been convicted of violating the terms of a mass gathering permit within the last three years. Assemblies on public property could be denied if they conflict with “ordinary public use of the land.”

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

Trash Cleanup

East Hampton Town will provide trash bags and gloves to volunteers pitching in on Saturday for the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup Day. Individuals and groups will be asked to fill out the Ocean Conservancy’s data collection form, which the town will provide, to record the type of debris found. The information will be used to identify debris “hot spots” or issues, raise awareness, and help communities adopt policies that will contribute to cleaner oceans.

Gloves, bags, and forms may be picked up during business hours at the town board office at East Hampton Town Hall through tomorrow. Filled trash bags may be left at garbage cans at beaches for pickup. Participants also have been asked to document their efforts with photos and to e-mail them to Councilwoman Sylvia Overby at [email protected].

Meanwhile, a post-season weigh-in of summertime trash came up with a grand tally of 741,000 pounds collected by the Parks and Recreation Department staff from all of the collection points at public parks, beaches, and facilities.

Ms. Overby reported Tuesday that 65,000 pounds of trash had been collected at beaches. Construction debris that was illegally deposited at road ends or on public lands totaled 37,000 pounds, she said. The board will compare the figures to last year’s.

Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell also said that a “data-driven” discussion of how things went this summer, will be held soon, with reports from those heading various town departments.

Wastewater Sessions

A recently released draft of a comprehensive wastewater management plan for East Hampton Town will be the subject of a public information meeting on Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the East Hampton Village Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street. Prepared by a consultant, the plan includes an examination of ground and surface waters and suggestions for how to prevent wastewater pollution, including a lot-by-lot analysis and specific neighborhood-based solutions.

A second session on the wastewater plan will take place at the Montauk Firehouse on Oct. 14. Each meeting will feature a detailed discussion of the recommendations relating to the hamlet in which the meeting is held.

On Army Corps Plans

The Army Corps of Engineers will present the final details of its downtown Montauk beach stabilization plan at a meeting next Thursday at noon at the Montauk Firehouse. The agency has proposed an $8.9 million project that would create a 161/2-foot tall dune along 3,100 feet of shoreline, with a core of 14,000 geotextile bags filled with sand.

Representatives from the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation, the Suffolk County Department of Public Works, and the town will be on hand.

Inspector Suspended

At a work session on Tuesday, the East Hampton Town Board voted to suspend Robert Fisher, a town building inspector, without pay for 30 days, pending a determination on disciplinary charges. According to the board resolution, Thomas Preiato, the chief building inspector, had charged Mr. Fisher with alleged misconduct and incompetence.

Mr. Fisher is entitled to a hearing in the case under New York Civil Service law provisions. Eileen Powers, an attorney, has been appointed as the hearing officer, and she is to prepare findings and recommendations for the board.

Airport Noise Reduction Vote

A commitment by the town board to have policies in place by next summer that would reduce bothersome aircraft noise from helicopters and planes using East Hampton Airport is outlined in a resolution to be voted on at a board meeting tonight.

Following a recent meeting on airport noise attended by close to 400 people from across the East End, the board has outlined its plans to enact airport use restrictions by compiling and submitting data about the noise problems to the Federal Aviation Administration. A presentation by a consultant compiling the noise data will be scheduled for an upcoming board meeting.

Napeague Parking

The East Hampton Town Board has agreed to hold a public hearing on the creation of a no-parking zone along Dolphin Drive on Napeague, which had been prohibited until recently although the town code apparently had been changed years ago to allow residents to park there in order to access the beach.

Residents along the road had complained to the board after no-parking signs there were removed and replaced with others indicating those with town resident permits could park there.The road is narrow, Supervisor Cant?well said at a board meeting on Tuesday, and it is bordered on the east by town property that is likely to become a nature preserve. Clearing of vegetation along that side, or of plantings in front of residences on the west side of the street, would be required to provide spaces suitable for parking, and Mr. Cantwell suggested that the board ratify a no-parking zone on both sides of the street.

Councilman Fred Overton, however, said that barring the public from parking along the road would essentially create a private beach usable only by nearby residents. Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc agreed, and said some parking should be considered. The hearing will allow the board to solicit the public’s opinion on what should be done. A second hearing, on designating the nearby town property as a nature preserve, will be held at the same meeting, on a date to be determined.