A new chain store on the site of the old Plitt Ford dealership on the Montauk Highway in Wainscott is becoming a reality almost two years after the death of the principal owner of the property in a car crash just miles away.

A 15,000-square-foot Home Goods store, designed by the architect Peter Cook, will be constructed there, Mr. Cook said Tuesday. Home Goods specializes in home furnishings and is  part of a larger corporation, TJX, which also owns Marshall’s, T.J. Maxx, and Sierra Trading Post, according to the Home Goods website.

Mr. Cook has a small stake in the holding company that owns the property, Wainscott Retail. But the driving force behind the project was the late Gregg Saunders, who  died when an Audi station wagon swerved across double yellow lines into the path of his Prius.

“This project was Gregg’s vision,” Mr. Cook said. “These four years of work are now coming to fruition, and will establish a gateway to Wainscott, which was his goal,” Mr. Cook said.

 Site plan approval was obtained in 2012 for a new building on the 83,185-square-foot parcel, which is a few hundred feet west of Wainscott Northwest Road. The land is in a central business district and no variances were required.

Demolition of the old, rambling building, which had recently housed a patio furniture store and, before that, a branch of Whole Foods, began last week. Mr. Saunders had hoped to see Whole Foods or a Trader Joe’s established there, Mr. Cook said, but the food chains doubted the viability of year-round operation.

Tom Preiato, the town’s chief building inspector, said  Tuesday that the proposed building is poised to receive a building permit after it the town fire marshal gives its design an okay and the architectural review board approves the signs. He added that the permit was not contingent on whether the East Hampton Town Board adopts restrictions on chain, or formula, stores, after  a public hearing on such restrictions tonight. “That is not going to matter. This is already an approved site plan,” he said.

Mr. Cook said all parking would be off-street, with Home Goods sharing a three-lane access road with La Campannina, to the east, and a second business. He did not anticipate much effect on traffic flow. Mr. Cook said he had shared the plans with the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee. “They were very pleased on the development of the property,” he said.

During a public hearing on the site plan, on March 7, 2012, only one speaker expressed concern. Barbara Miller feared that Wainscott Northwest Road might become a shortcut for drivers trying to avoid traffic jams during the summer season.

The entrance to the one-story store will be at the rear, facing the 98-space parking lot, which will have four spaces reserved for handicapped parking, and two spaces dedicated for trucks to load and unload. The building will be 22 feet from the property line on Montauk Highway.

Originally, the planning board had given its approval for a somewhat larger, 17,500-square-foot, structure; it was scaled back to 15,000 square feet last year.

A toll-free telephone number at which residents will be able to register complaints about construction and landscaping noise is one outcome of a hearing the East Hampton Village Board held on April 3 on proposals to restrict offending activities.

Barbara Borsack, the deputy mayor, told the board at the hearing that she, Richard Lawler, another board member, and Becky Molinaro, the village administrator, had had a “very constructive” meeting the previous day with involved contractors and representatives of the Village Preservation Society.

It was agreed, she said, that construction and landscaping should conclude by 6 p.m. on weekdays and 3 p.m. on Saturdays between June 1 and Sept. 15, and be prohibited on Sundays except by a tenant or homeowner. It was also agreed that radios should be banned from work sites. The group also agreed that the date on which the new restrictions would go into effect should be moved from May 15 to June 1, she said, in order to allow longer hours “through Memorial Day, because that’s when the big push is to get everything done.”

Although the village had proposed changing the start time of such work on weekdays to 9 a.m., the existing 7 a.m. start should be allowed to stand, she said, as the group of business owners insisted it was essential. “They felt it would be a huge hardship to start at 9,” which the village board had proposed, Ms. Borsack said.

No recommendation was made with regard to the commercial use of gas or diesel-powered landscaping equipment, however. The board had proposed a start time of 8 a.m. on weekdays and Saturdays from June 1 through the second Friday in December, the latter date coinciding with the conclusion of the village’s leaf pickup service.

“We talked about decibel levels,” Ms. Borsack said. “We talked about phasing in new equipment for leaf blowers. I think that’s going to take some investigation on our part. . . . We may want to make that a separate issue.”

Joe Morgano of Power Equipment Plus, which sells and repairs landscaping and construction equipment, told the board that Stihl, a manufacturer, “is working with me, and they work with other towns and cities across the country, to help with this problem.” Mr. Morgano also suggested that landscape companies “need to train their help.” A handheld leaf blower, he said, is quieter than those incorporating a backpack and should be used for smaller jobs, for example.

Margaret Turner of the East Hampton Business Alliance applauded the idea of a hotline for complaints. “That’s important to . . . perhaps help the village focus in on where the problems lie,” she said.

Kathy Cunningham, speaking on behalf of the Village Preservation Society, said homeowners had to do their part in policing noise levels, as well. “This can only work collaboratively if there’s a functioning hotline, and homeownersneed to understand that they need to hire contractors that are observing these rules and regulations.”

On Tuesday, Ms. Molinaro said the village was already working to establish the hotline and hoped it would be operational within two weeks. An email address would also be set up for residents to register complaints, she said. That could be implemented sooner, she said, but village officials would prefer to launch both simultaneously.

The hearing had been closed on April 3, but was reopened when Michael Tuths, a landscaper, told the board  some of his colleagues were still unclear on how the proposed legislation would affect them. How would the new rules apply to a landscaper who is building a patio, he asked. That is construction, Linda Riley, the village attorney, responded.

Declan Blackmore of Summerhill Landscapes in Sag Harbor said that 70 percent of his business was construction. “I’m a landscape contractor, but we build gardens.”

“We’re trying to reach agreement between those that don’t want the noise and those that have to create some noise to do their work,” Mr. Lawler told Mr. Blackmore. “We’re not targeting landscapers, we’re trying to target the problem.”

Also on April 3, the board continued to discuss a solution to the parking shortage in the business district. Its most recent proposal would restrict parking in municipal lots to two hours between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. from May 1 through Dec. 31, and on Fridays, Saturdays, and federal holidays from Jan. 1 through April 30.

When Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. asked Scott Fithian, the superintendent of public works, for an opinion, Mr. Fithian suggested limiting parking in some or all of the spaces directly behind Village Hardware in the Barns-Schenck lot to 15 or 30 minutes. “I’ve had a lot of people complain about getting into the hardware store,” he said. Capt. Mike Tracey of the Police Department said that Chief Gerard Larsen had suggested a 15-minute limit at spaces near the Waldbaum’s supermarket in the Reutershan lot.

The board also discussed the efficacy of signs in the Reutershan lot designating a section exclusively for compact cars. Mary Anna Morris, general manager of the Ladies Village Improvement Society headquarters adjacent to the lot, said, “As someone who is right there every day, that is absolutely not enforced.” Many volunteers at the nearby L.V.I.S., she said, are senior citizens who have said they would not volunteer if they had to park in the long-term lot near Lumber Lane during the winter. “Please keep the local population’s needs in mind,” she said.

The mayor, suggesting that a legal definition of compact cars was necessary, asked Mr. Fithian to see if the small-car section could be reconfigured so that the overall lot could accommodate more vehicles. “We have a finite number of parking spaces within the central commercial business core in the village,” he said. “We’re doing our best to deliver a product that works for everybody.”

A unanimous vote by the East Hampton Town Board last Thursday to buy 19 acres of Amagansett land along Montauk Highway and preserve it for agriculture and recreation drew kudos and congratulations from members of the audience, several of whom spoke at a hearing on the $10.1 million purchase prior to the vote. The money will come from the town’s community preservation fund.

“It’s a dream come true for me that you have a chance to preserve the acreage,” said Joan Tulp, an Amagansett resident. “I urge you to make sure that it stays the beautiful, countrified space that it always has been.”

“It was almost snapped from us by 555,” she said, referring to the efforts by a Connecticut developer, Putnam Bridge, to create a 79-unit housing development there, known as 555 for the property’s address on Montauk Highway.

Putnam Bridge had asked the previous town board to create a new senior citizens housing district and rezone the land, in order to achieve its goals. 

“I come here very relaxed tonight,” said Rona Klopman, contrasting the meeting to others at which the 555 development was proposed and when a large outdoor concert had been approved there, but later canceled due to poor ticket sales. “I am very happy to see the courage that this board has to put this land up for preservation,” she said.

“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,” said Diana Walker.

“Fantastic,” said Susan Bratton.

“Brilliant. Kudos. Wonderful,” Betty Mazur said.

Elaine Jones, a nearby property owner, also supported the purchase but warned about use of the property. “We don’t want flea markets there,” she told the board. “You have to be very careful about what’s happening at these farmers markets.”

Putnam Bridge will retain a 4.5-acre lot with highway frontage, which is adjacent in the rear to the two lots that make up the 19 acres. That property is zoned for affordable housing, and a plan making use of the site for that purpose is reportedly under discussion.

Putnam Bridge purchased the three lots for $10.3 million in 2012. The company paid $9.2 million for the two lots being sold to the town.

The town board also voted last Thursday to purchase 3.5 acres on Napeague Harbor Road from the Bistrian Land Corporation for open space, using $1.1 million from the preservation fund.

Speakers at a hearing last Thursday on proposed regulations on chain stores in East Hampton Town were largely in favor of the idea, but some counseled caution and urged the town board to notify individual commercial property owners and give them another chance to weigh in.

“I don’t read the little print on these newspapers,” said Michael Cinque, the owner of Amagansett Wines and Spirits and several Main Street buildings in that hamlet. “Slow this down,” he said. “You should be contacting the people who are affected.”

Under the proposed legislation, businesses deemed “formula stores” would be allowed only in central business districts under a special permit issued by the planning board. They could not, however, be sited within a mile of any historic district’s boundaries, or within a half-mile of a designated historic site.

Additional restrictions, such as 2,500-square-foot size limit, and the inability to use standardized decor or corporate logos, would be imposed under the law, if approved.

In an overview of the draft legislation, Marguerite Wolffsohn, the town planning director, said that its goals include maintaining community character and “diverse and vibrant commercial areas.” 

There are central business zones in Wainscott, downtown Montauk and the Montauk harbor area, on North Main Street in East Hampton, and in Amagansett.

There are historic districts or sites within the boundaries outlined in the law in Amagansett, East Hampton, and Montauk, Ms. Wolffsohn said.

According to the draft law, formula businesses would be defined as a retail store, restaurant, bar, or takeout shop that is “under common ownership or is a franchise,” and is one of 10 or more of such businesses worldwide.

Two or more of five attributes — a standardized menu or standardized array of merchandise, with half or more coming from a single distributor; the use of a trademark word, phrase, symbol, or design, on products or as part of store design; a standardized color scheme inside and outside the establishment; standardized interior decor, and the use of a standardized uniform by employees — would also have to apply for a business to fall into the definition.

“The brand is us, it’s East Hampton Town. We are unique; they are not,” said Diana Walker. She referred to a telephone poll conducted in the last weeks in which leading questions were asked. “I would like to propose . . . that the formula store pollsters with their scare tactics — ‘You won’t be able to buy milk’ — be outed,” she said.

“I think it’s a little draconian,” Bonnie Krupinski said of the proposed law. “In doing so we’re really banning all the stores. We certainly need some of these formula-type businesses to maintain the community. We need to look at the economic impact,” she told the board. “I think you’re banning too much.” Under the draft law, she said, restaurants such as the Palm and the East Hampton Grill could be precluded.

“There’s a strange movement going on in America, that corporations have the same rights as individuals,” said Larry Mayer. “I don’t believe they do.” East Hampton’s real estate values are “some of the highest in the world,” he said, “because we don’t have that squalor.”

“Change that works for the common good is not draconian at all,” Larry Smith said later on. “This particular legislation is a bellwether of what this town would be like in a very few years. This is in our hands; it is our responsibility to do it.”

Elaine Jones said that the law would not ban formula stores but simply subject them to particular planning board scrutiny. “I don’t want to look like Riverhead or Southampton,” she said. “I love to go shopping there, but I don’t want East Hampton or Amagansett to look like that.”

Other speakers supported the law because they believe it would help protect locally owned businesses.

“Local stores . . . they sustain our community. They create more jobs here; they keep the money here,” Rona Klopman said.

“The formula stores can pay these really, really high rents, and they’re really going to squeeze the local businesses out,” Sue Avedon said. There is a “very long list” of other communities where similar laws have been enacted, she said.

Maintaining community character is tied in with the economy, said Susan Bratton. “If we allow our town to be sold to the highest bidders, the formula stores, so that the character and the charm are no longer there, it hurts the long-term property values, everyone’s property values. Because no one wants to go to Atlantic City.”

“The spirit is good,” said Freddy Friedler, a property manager for the Amagansett Square shopping area. “But at the same time I feel that it needs to be looked at more thoroughly. We shouldn’t be too narrow-minded and limited about what a formula store is, because it could end up hurting the community as well. Take a good, hard look at the way the legislation is going to be written,” he told the board.

In a memo to the town board, the planning board also suggested that the law, as proposed, “may be too restrictive.” The board agreed with the concept of the law but recommended that it be modified. No suggestions for how that should be done were provided.

Theresa Codispoti, a senior real estate representative for 7-Eleven, read a statement on behalf of the corporation’s regional development director, Ken Barnes. She urged the board to use enforcement of existing zoning laws to achieve desired ends rather than enact the new law.

“The Town of East Hampton already has some of the most restrictive zoning laws in the entire nation,” she said. Her company, she said, is “flexible on store design,” and its goals are “seamlessly weaving into the fabric of the community.”

“People who don’t live here do not understand how important our history and heritage are to us,” Alissa Meyer said. “The control of businesses that come into our town must remain within control of our town.”

Noting that Montauk’s 7-Eleven is the top-grossing 7-Eleven store nationwide, Debra Foster asked, “You don’t think other chains are going to come in?” In addition, she said, East Hampton is “the place for a write-off if you also have a place in Palm Beach.”

“Our local people don’t have a chance,” she said.

On behalf of the East Hampton Business Alliance, Margaret Turner, its executive director, urged the board to complete the planning studies of the various hamlets that are called for in the comprehensive plan, as well as a business needs study also prescribed in the plan, before acting.

“Until the town knows what the town wants and what the town needs, and what local business could handle, legislation like this should not be passed,” she said.

She questioned aspects of the draft law. Prohibiting formula stores in all but central business zones provides only a “very limited area” for such stores, she said. If the concern is chain stores’ appearance, “isn’t that why we have an architectural review board?” she asked. And, she said, the distance requirement from historic areas or sites “seems arbitrary.”

The board should keep in mind, Ms. Turner said, that franchise stores are “individually owned, and often by locals.”

Averill Geus disagreed. She said formula stores are “built, stocked, and run not by the . . . community in which they were built,” but by “some honcho. We already have formula mansions; we certainly don’t need formula stores.”

“The town’s authority to enact this legislation is not perfectly clear,” said Tina Piette, another business property owner. State legislation to clarify a municipality’s rights regarding formula store regulation, sponsored by Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., is still pending, she said. “I can only assume that this is a race to the law to keep the proposed 7-Eleven from opening in Amagansett.” She said the board should be better informed about the number of properties a new law would affect, and hear from those affected, before acting.

John Broderick addressed that notion. “All legislation is motivated by events or situations,” he said.

Jeanne Frankl warned about the potential impact of delaying action on the proposed law, which, she said, usually means someone considering doing something that would be curtailed “rushes to get in under the line.”

If a new business study reveals that the law should be modified, that could be done, she said. “But in the meantime, we should not let the formula stores take over our town.”

Suffolk County

Schneiderman to Address League

Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman will be the guest speaker at the annual meeting of the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons on Sunday. Mr. Schneiderman, who is in his sixth and final term in the Legislature, will discuss East End issues and trends over brunch at the Southampton Cultural Center on Pond Lane.

The event, which is open to the public, will start at 10:30 a.m. and include a brief business meeting at which league members will adopt the 2014-15 budget, elect officers and directors, and adopt a local program. Emma Newburger, an East Hampton High School senior, will receive the league’s $1,000 Betty Desch Student Leadership Award scholarship.

Federal

Gillibrand in Time’s Top 100

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has been named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, joining such figures as Robert Redford, Pope Francis, Jeff Bezos, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, Vladimir Putin, and Edward Snowden, to name just a few on this year’s list.

A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Ms. Gillibrand has fought to reform the military’s handling of sexual assault cases and championed legislation to remove such cases from the military chain of command. She is also pushing to expand paid family medical leave, make child care more affordable, allow graduates to refinance federal student loans, and combat sexual assault on college campuses, according to a release from her office this week.

“Don’t ever underestimate her,” Alfonse D’Amato, a former Republican senator for whom she interned, wrote in a brief tribute for the magazine. “If Kirsten Gillibrand wants to be a rock star, she’ll be a rock star. But she’d make a great president. When she draws a line in the sand, everyone knows not to cross it.”

Sandy Claim Deadline Extended

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has extended the deadline for homeowners to file flood insurance claims related to Superstorm Sandy until Oct. 29. Under a previous extension, the deadline for claims had been yesterday.

In a release issued yesterday, Representative Tim Bishop, who supported the move, said, “This extension will allow Long Islanders additional time to fully and accurately document losses and account for additional expenses that were discovered after the rebuilding began.”

The National Flood Insurance Program requires that homeowners making claims submit detailed documentation supporting those claims, including such things as invoices and canceled checks.

Support for New Farmers

An informational “webinar” on the federal Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, administered through the Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, will be held on Tuesday. The program offers assistance to collaborative state, local, tribal, or regional networks or partnerships, such as cooperative extensions. It aims to “enhance the sustainability of the next generation of farmers” through money to train and educate farmers who have been in the business for 10 years or less, according to a release from Mr. Bishop’s office.

According to his office, “priority will be given to projects led by or including non-governmental community-based or school-based agricultural educational organizations.” Tuesday’s webinar will focus on funding available for “socially disadvantaged and military veteran farmers.”

More information about the program can be found at nifa.usda.gov/fo/beginningfarmersandranchers.cfm. Applications are due June 12.

Installation of solar energy systems on Long Island is poised to expand with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s announcement last week of a $60 million investment to support the solar industry’s transition to PSEG Long Island, which operates the Long Island Power Authority’s transmission and distribution system.

PSEG Long Island will join with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which administers existing solar installation programs, to locally implement the statewide NY-Sun Initiative, a public-private partnership launched in 2012 that works to develop solar energy infrastructure. Last week, state regulators approved a plan to extend the NY-Sun Initiative through 2023.

The $60 million, which will provide incentives for residential and commercial solar installations through rebates, represents a more than doubling of the NY-Sun Initiative’s proposed $28 million allocation for Long Island. Solar systems eligible for tax incentives and rebate programs will also increase from 10 to 25 kilowatts for residential installations and from 100 to 200 kilowatts for commercial structures.

Under the plan, PSEG Long Island will locally administer the Energy Research and Development Authority’s Megawatt Block program, a rebate initiative in which megawatts are allocated to regions in the state and regional targets are divided into blocks to which incentives are assigned. The program, which takes effect June 1, replaces LIPA’s Solar Pioneer and Solar Entrepreneur Program, which has distributed some $170 million in rebates for more than 8,000 solar systems installed on Long Island, according to PSEG Long Island.

Local administration of the program by PSEG Long Island is important, said Gordian Raacke, executive director of Renewable Energy Long Island, a nonprofit organization in East Hampton that promotes clean and sustainable energy generation and use. “It’s good news because it keeps it closer to home,” he said. “It means that we — the advocates and local installers here on Long Island — have an easier way to make our voices heard. We don’t have to go to Albany to make sure they hear us.”

Mike Bailis, vice president of SUNation Solar Systems in Oakdale, said that the governor’s announcement “provides us with some stability in the market in the short run, knowing that that program is going to be locally run and administered with a sustained amount of funding both now and in the near future.” In a larger sense, Mr. Bailis said, the $60 million investment is “something everyone within the industry has been looking for, which is some type of plan. It’s very difficult for any small business to put a five-year plan into place when you don’t even know what is going to happen next year.”

Mr. Raacke agreed, calling the NY-Sun Initiative’s proposed $28 million allocation far short of what was needed for a sustained implementation of solar energy infrastructure on Long Island. But, he added, as solar power moves toward becoming cost-competitive with fossil fuels and nuclear energy, consumers cannot expect tax incentives and rebate programs to continue indefinitely. A federal tax credit, for example, is set to expire in 2016. “The message for consumers is also that this may be it for rebates on solar, so if anyone was thinking about ‘going solar’ and is procrastinating, as is human nature, it would be a good idea to get going on it now because these rebates will not last forever,” he said.

Mr. Bailis was more optimistic, if cautiously. He predicted that when the federal credit expires and the $60 million investment for incentives is exhausted, “if we still need incentives, I would say that the powers that be will figure out where to find the money. In the eyes of the state government, the one thing that solar brings is jobs. It takes local people to install, design, service, etc. If the incentives go away and companies leave or go out of business, all those jobs are gone.”

The cost of photovoltaic systems has dropped precipitously over the last four years, Mr. Raacke said, providing further incentive to make the investment. “As we’ve seen in the past, there has been this rush on solar rebate money and before you knew it, it was exhausted,” he said. “The safe thing to do is get in on the game now.”

Also, he said, “Some people that call us ask, ‘The price came down, isn’t it going to come down further? Maybe I should wait.’ By waiting longer, they are needlessly sending more of their money to the utility company every month. If they wait another year or two, they will send thousands to the utility company when they could be keeping that in their own pockets.”

Village elections will be held next month in East Hampton, Sag Harbor, and Sagaponack, but first the ballots have to be set.    Nominating petitions for candidates for East Hampton Village and Sag Harbor Village boards are due back no later than Tuesday at 5 p.m. There are two open positions in each village. In East Hampton, Elbert Edwards and Bruce Siska are up for re-election, and Kevin Duchemin and Robbie Stein’s seats are up in Sag Harbor. The elections will be held on June 17 from noon to 9 p.m. in the Emergency Services Building in East Hampton and at the Sag Harbor firehouse, respectively.

In Sagaponack, the election will be held at Village Hall on June 20 from noon to 9 p.m. Positions held by Mayor Don Loucheim and Lee Foster and Lisa Duryea Thayer, board members, are up. Nominating petitions are due back on Friday, May 16.

All of the incumbents have picked up petitions, according to the village clerks.

An agreement between the Eastern Region Helicopter Council and East Hampton Town’s airport managers and air traffic controllers regarding helicopter routes into and out of the airport calls for choppers to reach altitudes of 3,000 and 3,500 feet over certain waypoints along designated routes, flying 1,000 feet higher than what had previously been outlined.

Those altitudes would apply at Nassau Point off the Southold Town shore and over Georgica Pond in East Hampton, but neither the altitudes nor the routes are mandatory. Local officials have no authority to dictate them, but pilots are requested to follow them, and, in an effort to encourage compliance, town airport managers will make reports about those who deviate from them to the helicopter council, an industry organization.

The designated routes are set annually, and have been a source of controversy and complaints by those who live beneath them.

This year, the suggested routes were reviewed by both subcommittees of the town’s airport planning committee — one comprising noise-abatement advocates and the other, members of the aviation community — Peter Boody, a recently appointed senior airport attendant, told the town board at a meeting on Tuesday. Both groups endorsed the higher altitude guidelines, Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, the board’s airport liaison, said.

If the flow of other aircraft traffic allows, helicopters, which cannot mix with fixed-wing aircraft, would climb to higher altitudes as soon as possible when taking off from the airport, Jeff Smith, the helicopter council chairman, said at Tuesday’s meeting.

The designated incoming and outgoing routes were designed to minimize aircraft turns, which cause helicopters to make more noise than when flying a straight trajectory, Mr. Boody said. Those agreed to this year essentially mirror those used last year, he said, when the number of noise complaints phoned in to an airport complaint line dropped from 11,000 to 6,700.

East Hampton will pay air traffic controllers to direct traffic beginning on May 19, between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m., until the fall. The controlled airspace extends in a 4.8-mile radius from the airport, up to 2,500 feet above ground level.

On both arrivals and departures, a southerly, or “sierra” route, will send aircraft over Georgica Pond and along the south shore. A northerly, or “November,” route for arrivals will have helicopters approaching the airport from the northwest.

An easterly (“echo”) route will be used for departures, with helicopters climbing to above 2,000 feet within the airport boundary, when possible, heading northwest over the power lines, remaining east of Town Line Road, and turning right toward Barcelona Neck.

That route is “troubling,” commented Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, as it takes helicopters over preserved lands in Northwest and on Shelter Island, areas “where the impacts of development was meant to be limited.”

“We’ve now created a helicopter superhighway to the Hamptons” over those sites, he said. “I find that a very troubling contradiction.”

Mr. Boody said he would be in close contact with Mr. Smith throughout the coming busy season in order to achieve the best results.

He has been reviewing records showing the flight patterns that have previously been followed by various helicopters. “My general impression is, it’s remarkable how much eagerness there is to comply,” he told the board. “But in the busy season, people do cut corners or get a little sloppy.”

The owners of Cyril’s Fish House on Napeague were handed another setback in their fight to open the popular roadside eatery for the 2014 summer season, when the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals upheld a stop-work order issued last winter by Tom Preiato, the town’s chief building inspector.

The board, led by John Whelan, its newly appointed chairman, voted 4-0 to uphold the order, which was issued on Jan. 28 after two gasoline tanks dating from the late 1960s, when the site was a gas station, were dug up and removed.

Mr. Preiato expressed concern during an April 22 hearing on the appeal about the area under a brick patio and bar that face the highway, saying a proper inspection needed to be done. He said that the ground where the 2,000-gallon tanks were removed appeared to be sagging, and said he worried about the structural integrity of the bar itself.

In addition, the town has obtained a temporary restraining order from New York State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Farneti that prevents Cyril’s from opening in any other form than that which existed in the 1980s: 40 seats in a 300-square-foot structure with a 120-square-foot deck. According to the town’s Planning Department, the restaurant in its current form covers about 1,000 square feet when all structures on the site are included.

Michael Dioguardi, one of the owners, was scheduled to have a preliminary site plan meeting with the East Hampton Town Planning Board last night. Mr. Dioguardi’s attorney is Dianne Le Verrier. A site plan approval from the board is required before a building permit can be issued and the stop-work order lifted.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and Legislator Jay Schneiderman took to the road in heavy wind and rain to meet with their East End constituents, coming all the way to Montauk, Mr. Schneiderman’s home town, where they sat down with some 30 people at Gurney’s Inn and talked with a group of commercial fishermen at the docks.

 Mr. Bellone told the Gurney’s Inn group that the county intends to be a full partner with the East End and to focus on regional issues. He praised Mr. Schneiderman, saying with a laugh, “He’s your personal advocate for the East End. He’s not shy.” The men agreed that a good partnership makes for significant progress.

Topics ranged from erosion, to the need for  affordable housing, and the county’s 3-percent hotel-motel tax, which is set to expire at the end of 2015 but is expected to be reinstated. Also discussed were ways to keep young adults from leaving the county, which Mr. Bellone said occurred in a higher number than in any other region of the state. To counteract that he said public transportation needed to be improved and areas established where young people would not only be able to find work but places to socialize. The county, he said, should also find ways to provide 20-somethings with affordable housing and a lower cost of living.

The 3-percent hotel-motel tax has long been a thorn in Mr. Schneiderman’s and Montauk business owners’ sides. They argue that although Montauk pays more than many other places because of its motels and hotels, it doesn’t get its fair share of attention from the Long Island Convention and Visitors Bureau, which receives the tax money to promote tourism and maintain parks and landmarks.

Mr. Bellone said the bureau needed to do “better marketing on regional issues. It needs a real examination.”

“I’d like to see a bit more of that money head back this way,” Paul Monte, the general manager of Gurney’s who is president of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce, said.

Mr. Bellone called public transportation a real problem  and said he intends to work on it immediately. “The county, I know, is over-processed and obsessed with studies. I’m not a study guy. They do a study and then it’s put on a shelf and forgotten. The way I work is to identify the problem, come up with a solution, build a consensus, and then move forward. Let’s go,” he said.

On erosion, Mr. Bellone said the county would pick up maintenance and inspection costs of the project outlined recently by the Army Corps of Engineers. “The county will be a full partner to the East End for things you want to see get done,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Schneiderman looked out Gurney’s wide windows toward the rough sea and said, “One good storm and we’re all in trouble.”