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.

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.

East Hampton Town’s airport manager, Jim Brundige, will step down from his post in the fall, after his replacement is hired and has some on-the-job time to work with his predecessor.

Mr. Brundige confirmed Tuesday that he had informed the town board early this month of his intent to retire just as he reaches the decade mark in his position as manager of the airport, which has been a perennial flashpoint in community discussions about aircraft noise as well as airport repairs and finances.

Just last night, the town board held a meeting to hear noise complaints from across the region, and a large crowd was expected, including residents of both the North and South Forks angry about noise and a contingent of airport supporters who fear a secret agenda of shutting the airport down.

Mr. Brundige said that his decision was a personal one. Before coming to work in East Hampton, he said, “I already had a long aviation career.” He retired at age 60 as an airline pilot, as was then required, before taking the job with the town.

He began his career as a pilot in the Air Force, flying fighter jets and air-sea rescue helicopters. He then flew jets for a major worldwide corporation before signing on with United Airlines, where he spent 20 years flying and in a management post in the airline’s chief pilot’s office at Kennedy Airport.

Not too much rest is on the horizon for Mr. Brundige upon his retirement from the town airport.

In addition to assisting his wife, Barbara Brundige, a broker with the Sag Harbor office of Douglas Elliman, with her business, he will work as an aviation consultant, he said, with a couple of firms — though not on any matters involving East Hampton.

“It’s been a long haul,” Mr. Brundige said Tuesday. “The town’s been very good to me. It’s been a very interesting, challenging job, but no job that’s worth anything wouldn’t be that way.”

Managing the East Hampton Airport in an often-charged atmosphere has been a “great learning experience,” the manager said, that will provide perspective in his future work as a consultant. Over his tenure, an airport master plan was updated, lawsuits ensued, and heated public and political debate continued over whether the town should continue to take federal airport grants, and how more local control could be gained over the airport traffic that creates problematic noise.

The town board is expected to announce its choice for the next airport manager soon, “perhaps by the next regular town board meeting,” Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said in an email on Tuesday.

Mr. Brundige, he said, “is a gentleman who acted professionally representing the town in the face of tumultuous issues during a period of significant change at the airport.”

John W. Templeman pleaded guilty Monday in East Hampton Town Justice Court to six charges stemming from allegedly rolling over a house he owns in Montauk for excessive short-term rentals. He was fined $7,500 and received a stern warning from East Hampton Town Justice Lisa R. Rana: “If I see anything like this in front of me again, it is not going to be a good situation.”

Mr. Templeman, 32, an attorney who heads up the international arbitration wing of White and Case in New York, spoke softly as he said “guilty” three times to Justice Rana.

Originally charged with six unclassified misdemeanors, including violating the town’s code regarding “excessive turnover,” he instead pleaded guilty to the lesser non-criminal charges of noise violations. He also was originally cited for using his house at 5 South Federal Street in Montauk as a two-family residence, lacking a certificate of occupancy, advertising his short-term rentals on a website, Airbnb.com, and draining his swimming pool onto public property. All are violations of the town’s zoning code.

“Our goal in settling,” Michael Sendlenski, the town’s prosecuting attorney said Monday, “is to bring the owner into compliance.”

The $7,500 he was fined was less than one week’s rental income from the Montauk house. An UpIsland man, Giancarlo Negovetti, told investigators he paid $10,000 for one week’s stay. Mr. Templeman also rented the house out on several occasions for three-day stays, according to the court files.

Mr. Templeman’s advertisement on Airbnb.com promised five bedrooms, plus a pullout couch in the living room, a large in-ground pool, and an eight-person hot tub.

His attorney, Brian Lester of Tarbet and Lester, said that Mr. Templeman was unaware of the prohibition against short-term rentals in the town’s code. “He would never have done it if he had known,” Mr. Lester said outside the courthouse Monday.

Mr. Templeman declined to comment, other than to say he has been in Montauk for the past four years. According to court papers, he lives year round in Greenwich Village.

According to David Betts, East Hampton Town’s director of public safety, Mr. Templeman has cancelled all remaining short-term rentals he had booked for the rest of the year. “I don’t expect any more trouble,” Mr. Betts said.

East Hampton Town

For a Town Farm Museum

Monetary donations are being sought for East Hampton Town’s farm museum, which is taking shape on the corner of North Main and Cedar Streets in East Hampton on the former Selah Lester property, now owned by the town. The museum will illuminate the lives of farmers in East Hampton and the importance of the town’s farms to its prosperity and history.

A volunteer group has been collecting artifacts through donations or loans, and they must now be inventoried and cataloged. The cost of a digital camera, computer, printer, and bar code equipment to accomplish that task has been estimated at $2,500. Checks payable to East Hampton Town Farm Museum may be sent to the East Hampton Historical Society, to the attention of the society’s director, Richard Barons, at 101 Main Street, East Hampton 11937.

New Push for Adopt-a-Road

East Hampton Town’s Highway Department, along with the town recycling and litter committee, are attempting to re-energize the town’s Adopt-a-Road program, urging community members, businesses, and guests to help remove roadside litter in Montauk, Amagansett, East Hampton, Springs, and Wainscott.

Highway Superintendent Steve Lynch will assist volunteers in choosing a section of road to “adopt,” and will place a sign, at no charge, with the adopter’s name, business name, or message on the road chosen for adoption. In return, the road must be cleaned at least eight times a year.

An Adopt-a-Road agreement can be downloaded from the Highway Department’s page on the town website, town.east-hampton.ny.us.

Construction Debris Okayed

After a short suspension last week, the town recycling center is once again accepting construction and demolition debris. Because of a buildup of the debris at the UpIsland facilities to which it is trucked from East Hampton, the repository here got overfilled and the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation ordered East Hampton to take no more.

Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said Tuesday that East Hampton will soon pen an agreement with the Town of Brookhaven regarding taking extra construction debris, as needed, so that future backups can be avoided.

Nature Preserve on Napeague

The future of three town-owned parcels on Napeague, with frontage on the ocean, was discussed at a town board meeting on Tuesday. The previous administration had considered opening a new public bathing beach in the area and building a parking lot and bathroom facilities on one of the lots.

The town’s nature preserve committee recommends designating the majority, if not all, of the acreage as a nature preserve to protect undisturbed duneland and plants, Zachary Cohen of that committee told the board.

Several board members agreed. Should a new bathing beach be needed, Supervisor Larry Cantwell said, several adjacent miles of beachfront owned by New York State could present an “opportunity.”

Members of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee want to have a say in determining the future use of Amagansett Farm, the 19-acre parcel purchased by East Hampton Town. The town is considering various proposals for use.

In a sparsely attended meeting on Monday, the group debated the most appropriate use, if any, of the property, which was purchased in the spring using the community preservation fund.

Kieran Brew, the committee’s chairman, read aloud an email from Scott Wilson, the town’s director of land acquisition and management, which detailed the process of awarding use of the land. Sealed proposals were due July 31. Members of the C.P.F. advisory committee are now charged with reviewing and evaluating them. The committee will discuss the evaluations on Aug. 25, after which members will submit their findings to the town board, narrowing the field of applicants for the board to interview.

A public discussion of the top applicants, at a town board work session, is the likely next step, Mr. Wilson wrote. The board, however, reserves the right to dismiss all applications and begin the process again.

As reported last week in The Star, agricultural, recreational, and equestrian uses are among the six proposals submitted.

Many ACAC members spoke in favor of agricultural use.  But Elaine Jones, an owner of the Vicki’s Veggies farm stand, who is not a member of the committee, objected to the idea of a commercial venture on land that cost the town $10.1 million to preserve, and worried aloud about deer fencing and hoop houses should the parcel be used for agriculture. “That land is the most beautiful piece of land in Amagansett,” she said. “I don’t want to see it ruined. You may as well bring in a 7-Eleven.”

Ms. Jones was not happy about a proposal from the Bunker Hill Corner Farm Collaborative, made up of Balsam Farms, Amber Waves Farm, and Britton Bistrian, an Amagansett land use planner who is a member of the committee but was not present, to rent most of the parcel and its barn for $6,000 a year. “If it’s true that one proposal was $6,000,” she said, “I would pay $10,000 to leave it open space. It’s not worth destroying it for $6,000.”

Ian Calder-Piedmonte, an owner of Balsam Farms who is not a committee member, defended the Bunker Hill proposal. Leasing the property, he said, “affords us an opportunity to keep doing what we love. And I think it’s reasonable.”

Another concern raised was the state of the soil. Rona Klopman of the committee quoted Herbert Field, also of the committee, who told her that the property had been a potato field. Until the 1930s, arsenic was applied to potato fields as a pesticide. “Whatever proposal goes there, we should have an idea of the quality and contents of the soil,” she said.

In other news from the meeting, the town has chosen an architectural firm to design the public restroom that is to be built in the parking lot north of Main Street. “Their proposal was around $15,000, which is very reasonable,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said. “They’ll put sketches together, we’ll communicate with the citizens advisory committee and decide what kind of building we want.”

Some members of the committee conveyed their neighbors’ concerns about vehicles speeding on Bluff Road and nearby lanes and their wish for an all-way stop at the intersection of Bluff Road and Atlantic Avenue. The “wonderful August people” with their “fast cars and bad attitudes” were responsible, Mr. Brew said. Mr. Cantwell suggested that members reach a consensus and send a letter to the town board. “We’ll have the Police Department and Highway Department look to see if it makes sense from a traffic point of view,” he said.

East Hampton Town is considering banning thin-ply plastic bags, and is seeking input from the business sector as well as from members of the town’s litter and energy sustainability committees.

Supervisor Larry Cantwell said Tuesday that the supervisors and mayors of the eastern Suffolk towns have been discussing a regional ban, and that a rough draft of legislation is being circulated.

 “This is the kind of issue that really should be done on a regional, county, or even state level,” Mr. Cantwell said at a town board work session. East Hampton Village adopted a ban on single-use plastic bags in 2011; the village of Southampton also has enacted a ban.

Nationwide, 133 municipalities have adopted such bans, said Dieter von Lehsten, the co-chair of the Sustainable Southampton Green Advisory Committee, a Southampton Town group, who attended Tuesday’s session. He urged the East Hampton board to take the lead in this area. “It’s a domino effect; everyone else will fall in line,” he said.

The Town of Southold hosted a recent forum on the issue, and Councilwoman Sylvia Overby suggested holding a similar event here. A film, “Bag It,” which illustrates the environmental impacts of the extensive use of plastic bags, could be shown at a forum or board work session, Mr. Cantwell suggested.

“When you look at what’s happening globally with plastic products in the environment . . . it’s having a devastating impact,” he said.

The bag ban in the village, where Mr. Cantwell served as administrator before running for town office, “worked well,” he said. “Whether it would work well on a townwide basis, given the number of retailers who would be impacted, it’s hard to say.”

Both Frank Dalene, chairman of the town’s energy sustainability committee, and Kathleen Kirkwood of the litter committee expressed support for a ban at Tuesday’s meeting. The town board will ask retailers and other business owners for their comments after the busy summer season is over, through groups such as the East Hampton Business Alliance and the Montauk Chamber of Commerce.

East Hampton Town’s bond rating has again been upgraded by Moody’s Investors Service, which assesses the town’s financial position and outlook before issuing a rating prior to a town bond sale.

The rating went up one level from Aa3, assigned last year, to Aa2. The ratings range from a low of C to a top rating of Aaa. Numeric modifiers of 1, 2, or 3 are added to all but the top designation, with 1 indicating a top rating within the alphabetical category. The Aa2 rating is two steps from the top rating of Aaa.

East Hampton’s rating was dropped to A2 after the extent of financial mismanagement under the McGintee administration came to light.

According to Moody’s, “the Aa2 rating reflects the town’s stable financial position, which has improved over the past several years as a result of deficit financing, improved budgeting and strengthened financial management practices. The rating also incorporates a moderate debt burden and sizeable tax base characterized by strong wealth and income levels.”

Moody’s also cited “strong management with demonstrated ability to restore financial flexibility.”

Len Bernard, the town budget officer, said in an official statement that Moody’s had “recognized the many improvements and advancements in financial operations made during the Wilkinson Administration and the resulting positive performance, and felt very comfortable with the direction and leadership of current Supervisor [Larry] Cantwell with his 30-plus years of proven experience in municipal finance and budgeting.”

Mr. Cantwell said in the release that he was “pleased Moody’s has recognized the Town’s improved financial condition as well as our preliminary results in the current year and expressed confidence in our outlook going forward.” 

“The improved rating should generate more market interest in the bonds and bond anticipation notes being sold later this month by the town and should result in lower interest costs,” according to the release.

Mr. Bernard predicted that the town could save up to $100,000 in interest over the life of the bonds.

Moody’s also assigned a “stable outlook” to the town, saying that “the town is expected to maintain a solid financial position due to its conservative budgeting and strong financial management practices with limited future borrowing planned.”

East Hampton Town

Helicopter Traffic Soars

Traffic at the East Hampton Airport has increased this year, Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez reported recently. In particular, the number of helicopters landing and taking off from the airport went up sharply, according to end-of-July figures — a 40-percent increase over year-to-date figures last year. The airport had logged 12,677 “operations” overall — takeoffs or landings — in 2014 as of two weeks ago, the councilwoman reported, versus a total of 10,577 during the same period last year. Both the town and airport noise abatement groups have been urging residents affected by aircraft noise to make reports to an airport noise hotline, particularly important this summer as consultants are compiling noise data the town could use to seek airport use restrictions. Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said an online noise complaint form can now be found on the home page of the town’s website, town.east-hampton.ny.us. Noise complaints this year totaled 10,158 at the end of July, compared to 2,798 last year. They came from 373 diffent households, while last year 174 households called in complaints.

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Long-Range PSEG Plan to Be Aired Here

An information session and hearing on PSEG Long Island’s long-range plan to meet energy needs, called Utility 2.0, will be held at East Hampton Village’s Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street on Aug. 26. It will begin with a presentation at 5 p.m., followed by an opportunity for the public to comment beginning at 6. East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell and East Hampton Village Mayor Paul Rickenbach had asked the utility, which held its required public session on the future plan in Stony Brook, to schedule a local session. A negative public response to PSEG’s installation of high-voltage lines along a six-mile route from the village to a substation in Amagansett has led to concern over what other projects the company may have planned. Mr. Cantwell, along with New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., has criticized the Utility 2.0 plan for a lack of specifics.

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Affordable Apartments Rule Expanded

In response to comments at a public hearing last week, the town board agreed Tuesday that the town code should allow two affordable apartments in buildings located in the town’s limited business districts rather than one, provided other criteria are met. A proposed change to the existing law, providing the ability to create an apartment in that zoning district, had limited it to one.

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Taxi Drivers Cited for Violations

Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell announced this week that enforcement of East Hampton’s taxi regulations, which require all drivers to be fingerprinted and undergo a background check, has resulted so far in the issuance of 115 summonses. Fifty-five of those were for violations of the town code, and 60 were for Vehicle and Traffic Law violations.

The East Hampton Town Trustees will likely extend the closure of Georgica Pond in East Hampton to the harvesting of crabs and fish, as microcystin toxin, a product of the blue-green algal bloom known as cyanobacteria that can cause liver damage in humans and animals, has now been measured in the water body. Georgica is closed to the taking of shellfish other than crabs year round.

At the same time, algal blooms known as cochlodinium, or rust tide, have been detected in isolated sections of Three Mile Harbor, Accabonac Harbor, and waterways around Sag Harbor, a trustee said.

Microcystin, produced during algal blooms such as the cyanobacteria detected in Georgica Pond two weeks ago, is present at low levels, Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences wrote in an email. Dr. Gobler has been monitoring water quality, in conjunction with the trustees, in waterways the trustees oversee on behalf of the public, since last year. The measurement of heightened levels of cyanobacteria prompted the trustees to hold a special meeting on July 24 at which they passed a resolution prohibiting the taking of crabs and other shellfish and marine life from Georgica Pond.

Cyanobacterial blooms can deplete oxygen in waterways, threatening marine life and drinking and irrigation water supplies. Such blooms can form in waterways during warm weather, particularly when elevated levels of nitrogen or phosphorus are present.

“The levels of blue-green algae in the pond have remained at a moderate level during the past 10 days,” Dr. Gobler wrote. At .5 micrograms per liter, the level of microcystin measured is low, representing one-half the drinking-water standard set by the World Health Organization.

The same algal bloom growing in Lake Erie and detected at a water treatment plant serving Toledo, Ohio, is behind the recent loss of drinking water for half a million people. Georgica Pond is not used for drinking water, Dr. Gobler wrote, “and thus these levels are not a serious threat, even for recreational use.”

However, “winds can create surface scums of algae, concentrating them and potentially creating a ‘high probability threat.’ ” According to the World Health Organization, scums can represent thousandfold concentrations of microcystin. People and pets, Dr. Gobler wrote, “should always avoid dense aggregations of thick, green material on the shoreline.”

“Our board will likely have to extend the resolution to keep Georgica Pond closed to crabbing until these levels of toxins subside,” Stephanie Forsberg, the trustees’ assistant clerk, wrote in an email, “since the chance for these toxins to reside in marine life is possible, but we do not know for certain.” The trustees will discuss the matter when they meet on Tuesday, Dr. Forsberg wrote.

Dr. Forsberg said that rust tide is not toxic to humans but in high densities can be toxic to fish and shellfish. “The good thing about rust tide is that it tends to be patchy and could leave as quickly as it appeared, so we are hoping for the best case scenario and for that to occur,” she wrote of the blooms in Accabonac and Three Mile Harbors, “but unfortunately only time will tell.”