Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman of Montauk received a plum assignment in this, his sixth and final term in office, when he was elected deputy presiding officer on Jan. 2. Legislator DuWayne Gregory, a Democrat from Amityville and the legislature’s majority leader, was elected presiding officer.

       Mr. Gregory is the first African-American to assume the legislature’s top leadership position. Mr. Schneiderman is the first representative from the East End to be named to a leadership role since 1986, when Gregory Blass of Jamesport was elected presiding officer.

       A former two-term East Hampton Town supervisor, Mr. Schneiderman is the legislature’s sole Independence Party member. He was elected unanimously to his new post by the legislature’s majority caucus, which includes 10 Democrats and one member of the Working Families Party.

       “There are only two positions that the legislature elects as a body, the presiding officer and the deputy presiding officer, so it’s a real honor,” he said.

       Having served 10 years on the legislature, Mr. Schneiderman is its senior member. His new post is largely honorary, he explained: He will preside over the legislature in Mr. Gregory’s absence and represent him at public events he is unable to attend. He pointed out, however, that “it’s significant for someone from the East End and someone from a minor party . . . in this position I can speak on behalf of the legislature and not just my district.”

       Although he received unanimous support from the majority caucus, Mr. Schneiderman said that was not the case with the six Republican legislators. “Five of the six voted against me and one abstained,” he said, lamenting that their action launched the new session on a “very partisan tone.”

       “I’ve always tried to be bipartisan. I’ve helped Republicans get bills out of committee. I’ve always looked at bills on their merits,” Mr. Schneiderman said.

       This week, Mr. Gregory announced that Mr. Schneiderman had been appointed chairman of the Parks and Recreation Committee and will serve on the Government Operations, Personnel, Housing, Consumer Protection, and Economic Development committees as well.

       Of his decision to appoint Mr. Schneiderman chairman of parks and recreation, Mr. Gregory praised his earlier work as head of the Public Works and Transportation Committee. “He brings 10 years of experience as a legislator to the table,” he said, “and he has a thorough knowledge of the county’s parks . . . I expect him to continue his groundbreaking work as chairman.”

       Besides overseeing the county’s Department of Parks, Recreation, and Conservation, the committee has jurisdiction over 46,000 acres of county parkland, including golf courses, campgrounds, and beaches.

       In his role as chairman of the committee, Mr. Schneiderman said he would like to see, in Montauk, a stewardship arrangement established to protect the Lindley house, which was originally built as a lookout for enemy ships, the restoration of Third House at Theodore Roosevelt County Park so it can be reopened to the public, and the establishment of an observatory at the park.

       The legislator is optimistic that sales tax revenue will continue to increase in the coming year with the improving economy. “I feel like we’ve turned a corner and no longer need to contract,” he said. “Hopefully, we are done with layoffs and cuts to contracted services.”

       This session, Mr. Schneiderman promised to press for initiatives as diverse as the completion of a sidewalk to the Springs School, the enactment of limits on pesticide use, and an effort to “codify” a percentage of sales tax revenue to be earmarked for towns and villages that are not covered by the Suffolk County Police Department.

       “Right now, it’s about 7 percent of what the police district gets and it should be closer to 11 percent,” he said, which would amount to about $3 million a year. “That would be hundreds of thousands of dollars a year” for towns like Southampton and East Hampton, “and it would make it a lot easier to live within the governor’s tax cap.”

       “I’d like to get that done this year, so my successor doesn’t have to struggle with it,” Mr. Schneiderman said.

       With a new year and a primary concern — the proposed 555 Amagansett senior citizens housing development — seemingly behind them, members of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee spent the first meeting of 2014 briefing their new liaison to the East Hampton Town Board, Supervisor Larry Cantwell.

       Mr. Cantwell, an Amagansett native, has succeeded Sylvia Overby, who moved to East Hampton’s citizens committee. With a lighter attendance than at the last several meetings, the committee’s chairman and members brought Mr. Cantwell up to date on their hopes and concerns.

       Mr. Cantwell recounted his roots in the hamlet and demonstrated his familiarity with many of the committee’s concerns. “It’s important to hear directly from you,” he told the gathering, “to be part of the conversation to get things done.”

       Issues of concern to the committee are primarily of the quality-of-life variety, and topics raised included crowds and drinking at Indian Wells Beach, share houses, litter, taxi legislation, and the code enforcement that residents would like to see applied to each.

       Mr. Cantwell noted “some progress and improvements” made at the popular beach last year, where a manned booth at the parking lot’s entrance restricted vehicle access. “I have some of my own ideas that may be helpful,” he said, adding that he has asked his planning staff to gather surveys and aerial depictions to “see if physical adjustments can be made to improve circulation and parking.” There are limits to actions the town can take, he said, but it is “something we should try to look at before summer.”

       Mr. Cantwell, who served as the East Hampton Village administrator for 31 years until his retirement last summer, said he is “very concerned about the size of crowds and drinking behavior” at Indian Wells Beach and, echoing discussion at previous committee meetings, proposed “a discussion about whether or not alcohol should be consumed at a public beach within a certain distance of lifeguarded areas, for example. Such a proposal would have to be looked at on a townwide basis.”

       On village beaches, he said, “We banned consumption quite a few years ago.” He said that he was not suggesting the town enact such a ban, “but that did become an effective way to control under-age drinking, for example, and other activities that were interfering with other people’s peaceful enjoyment of a public beach.”

       Share house overcrowding “is definitely high on our list,” Kieran Brew, the committee’s chairman, told Mr. Cantwell. Members and guests alike, he said, have reported frequent disturbance from all-night parties with their attendant noise and traffic. “We feel like code enforcement isn’t necessarily aligned with violations in terms of time — being out there when violations happen,” Mr. Brew said. Share houses, he said, “seem to be one of the hot-button problems, something we’d really like to see some resolution on.”

       Code enforcement, Mr. Cantwell said, is “a difficult area,” and involves addressing issues of concern to the community, the presence of enforcement officers at the time of a violation, prosecution in court, and “judges willing to step up to the plate and do it.” The town’s Ordinance Enforcement Department, he said, “is essentially five people. Think about what’s going on here 24 hours a day, especially in summer. It’s difficult to conceive those five people are going to be able to control everything.”

       John Broderick of the committee told Mr. Cantwell that he felt the taxi legislation enacted last year was a positive step. “But it’s an evolution. . . . Obviously, a problem is happening if we had to have legislation.” Mr. Broderick, who lives on Oak Lane, complained about taxis speeding on his street as they bypass Route 27 on the way to East Hampton Village. “I’ve seen UpIsland [taxi drivers] sleeping in their cars at the train station,” he added.

       Mr. Cantwell said the town board is looking at existing legislation pertaining to taxis, as well as to noise and mass assembly. “Each board member agreed to accept responsibility to work with town attorneys and citizens groups to see if any improvements can be made in those laws,” he said. “One is the taxi law.”

       Mr. Cantwell raised the committee’s perennial issue of the lack of a public restroom in the hamlet’s commercial district, pledging to help resolve it. “I saw the results in the Village of East Hampton when we built a restroom in Herrick Park,” he said. “It was very well received by all businesses and merchants. It’s what you have to have in a business center like here.”

       A proposal to build a restroom in the parking lot on the north side of Main Street would displace six or seven parking spaces, Mr. Cantwell said. With parking also in short supply, he asked, “Does that make sense?”

       He also recalled the possibility of a public restroom being constructed on Amagansett Square, which Randy Lerner, that property’s owner, had proposed, pledging to absorb a majority of its cost. Would that satisfy the committee? “We need a public bathroom,” said Mr. Brew. “If the private business owner wants to put one there, that’s a phenomenal add-on, but if you talk to the business owners on this side, and the people at the library, they’ve had it,” he said, referring to the crowds, particularly in the summer. The consequent loss of parking spaces, Mr. Brew said, “was the biggest issue. We’re well short of what town studies have found would be adequate. It’s a tradeoff. We would rather not trade off.”

       Britton Bistrian, a member of the committee and a land-use consultant — Mr. Lerner is a client — told the gathering that “the private bathroom, hopefully, will be something you will see in very near future.” However, she said, the hamlet has another big issue that may not be apparent on the surface, affordable housing. “We cannot put more apartments above stores in Amagansett . . . until you put in a public sewer. If we’re looking at a public bathroom, we should have comprehensive wastewater treatment in Amagansett.”

       “We need a point person, a ‘toilet czar,’ ” Mr. Broderick said. “Somebody that is the focal point of this discussion.”

       “The town is doing a comprehensive wastewater treatment study,” Mr. Cantwell said. “You could wade through that process to see whether or not some treatment system would apply and be desirable in Amagansett. All these things delay the process of building a bathroom.” He pledged to look into the matter, to “see what’s on file as to what’s been done to this point.”

       With respect to parking, Tom Field of the committee wondered aloud if long-term parking, presently permitted in the northerly rows of the parking lot, should be prohibited. “I think people are parking for weeks and weeks,” he said. “Why is that car not at home?”

       Strict regulation in East Hampton Village, Mr. Cantwell said, “is a very effective way to turn over parking spaces. But there are consequences to that: It applies to everybody. There are merchants, their employees. Where are they going to park? You could eliminate overnight parking or parking for longer terms. You could put a ban on parking for more than 24 hours or 7 days. Then it becomes an enforcement issue.” He pledged to “get a better picture of what the obstacles are. I’ve got to see the lay of the land before I can focus on what is a good alternative,” he said.

       As for the proposed 555 development, which was at least temporarily derailed last month when the Suffolk County Planning Commission announced its opposition to the required zone change, Mr. Cantwell spoke in general terms about future opportunities for the 24-acre site, including an affordable housing overlay district and “keeping local working families in town.” Or, he said, “that vast open space is something we should try to protect to the extent we can.”

       The East Hampton Town Republican Committee has elected Reg Cornelia, a longtime committee member, as its vice chairman. He will join Tom Knobel, who the committee elected last month to a two-year term as chairman.

       Mr. Cornelia, who, like Mr. Knobel, works at the Suffolk County Board of Elections, is a member of the Springs Citizens Advisory Committee and is a former Springs School Board member.

       On Tuesday, he said the most pressing job facing the committee is to find a candidate to challenge Representative Tim Bishop, who he described as a “lap dog” for the Obama administration. “He has stood behind every failed or scandalous event of the Obama administration,” he said. “I think his time is up.”

       Republicans face an uphill battle in East Hampton Town, where Democrats have a nearly two-to-one advantage in registered members, he said. “If nothing else, we have to be a watchdog on what the other side is doing, hopefully, without the rancor that has come from the audience when there is a Republican in office,” he said.

       Mr. Cornelia offered some early praise for Larry Cantwell, the town’s newly elected Democratic supervisor. “I’m encouraged with Larry Cantwell sticking with Len Bernard” as budget officer, he said.

       Mr. Bernard also served as budget officer under the former Republican supervisors Jay Schneiderman and Bill Wilkinson. Under Mr. Schneiderman, the town’s bond rating went up and taxes went down, Mr. Cornelia said, while under Mr. Wilkinson, the town had to wrestle with a $27 million deficit rung up by his predecessor, Bill McGintee.

       A shift in party control in East Hampton Town Hall and the new appointees that come with it can create unique circumstances for the town’s appointed boards to wrestle with, as the zoning board of appeals discovered on Tuesday night.

       Stuart Grannen, the owner of 21 Fresh Pond Road in Amagansett, which is just shy of an acre, applied to the board last year for permission to tear down the house at his property and replace it with a new 2,435-square-foot, two-story house that would be 20 feet from the front property line where 40 feet is normally required. The house on the property now pre-dates the town’s zoning code.

       The property abuts the South Fork Country Club Golf Course, of which Alex Walter, the board’s chairman, is a member, causing Mr. Walter to sit out on the hearing and later deliberations over the variance request.

       With Mr. Walter out, the remaining four members split down the middle regarding the application. Since a majority vote of the full board is needed to approve any variance request, the application was denied in December.

       The rubbing point for the two members who voted against the application was Mr. Grannen’s plan to demolish the existing house. By doing so, Lee White and David Lys argued, the board was bound by the town’s zoning code to consider the property as vacant and without a structure that was legally pre-existing and nonconforming.

       When considered as a vacant parcel, the two argued, there was a building envelope on the site that was more conforming to the zoning code than the one chosen by Mr. Grannen.

       The board’s new attorney, Elizabeth Baldwin, appointed on Jan. 2, was charged with crafting a document reflecting the board’s denial of Mr. Grannen’s request, on which board members would then sign off.

       When the new Town Board took office, besides appointing Ms. Baldwin as the new attorney, it also voted to replace Mr. White, whose five-year term had expired, with Cate Rogers.

       That meant that there was now only one member who could sign off on Ms. Baldwin’s draft determinimation, and two, Don Cirillo and Bryan Gosman, ready to sign in favor of the application.

       The board looked to Ms. Baldwin for legal guidance, and based on that, members agreed to hold an entirely new hearing on the application, giving Mr. Grannen the opportunity to make his case before the new board member and allowing Ms. Rogers, now the board’s vice chairwoman, to be part of the deliberations before the board votes on the request.

       This is Ms. Baldwin’s second go-round as the zoning board’s attorney. She first came to work for the town in 2004 and took over as the Z.B.A.’s attorney from 2006 to 2009. She was replaced when a Republican majority took over in Town Hall in 2010. Before returning to the town attorney’s office, she was most recently associate director and counsel to the North Shore Land Alliance, a land trust.

       The East Hampton Town Trustees commenced their first meeting of 2014 on Tuesday night with a swearing-in ceremony and the introduction of the board’s two new members.

       Carole Brennan, the town clerk, presided over the swearing in of the board, which now includes Brian Byrnes and Bill Taylor. John Courtney, the trustees’ attorney, then led a call for nominations for clerk and assistant clerk. The board nominated and unanimously voted for Diane McNally and Stephanie Forsberg to remain in their respective roles.

       Kimberly Barbour, a habitat restoration outreach specialist with the Cornell Cooperative Extension Marine Program in Southold, proposed a marine meadows program in which her group would collaborate with the trustees. The community-based eelgrass restoration program founded in 2011 would take advantage of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Hurricane Sandy Coastal Resiliency Grant.

       Eelgrass shoots prepared by Marine Meadows volunteers over the past two years, and now supplemented by dune and marsh grass, would be planted in areas needing revegetation. Ms. Barbour told the trustees that she is going to all East End towns in search of such sites. “We could supply our own stock and hopefully help out communities,” she said.

       Ms. Barbour asked the trustees for a letter supporting the program. “We would hope that it would be a joint project,” she said, “that some of you would be out helping us or recruiting local groups.”

       Deborah Klughers, a trustee, said that she would like to see the town’s scallop sanctuaries, in Three Mile Harbor and Napeague Harbor, replanted with eelgrass. She and her colleagues also discussed revegetation efforts at Gerard Drive and Louse Point in Springs, and at Lazy Point.

       The trustees voted unanimously to write a letter in support of the program.

       Debate of the board’s annual resolutions, some of which set fees for mooring and other use of waters and bottomlands under trustees’ jurisdiction, dominated the meeting, as did a continuation of the discussion at Friday’s East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals hearing on the Maidstone Club’s proposed irrigation expansion project.

       Ms. Klughers and Timothy Bock had addressed that board on behalf of the trustees to voice their concerns about the project’s potential impact on Hook Pond. (A separate article on that hearing appears elsewhere in this issue.) The board decided to submit its concerns in writing to the Z.B.A. during the 10-day period for public comment, which ends on Monday.

East Hampton Town

Affordable Housing Committee

       An East Hampton Community Housing Opportunity Fund committee is to be formed, comprising seven residents who will discuss ideas for the establishment of affordable housing — an item on the new East Hampton Town Board’s agenda.

       An advisory committee to oversee use of the fund — which, Councilwoman Sylvia Overby reported Tuesday, has some money remaining, but “not enough to complete a project” — is required under the town code but had not been empaneled for five or six years. Ms. Overby asked fellow board members for nominees, and interested members of the public were asked to call Town Hall.

Town Offices to Recycle

       After a town board discussion about working to increase the rate of recycling throughout the town, Supervisor Larry Cantwell issued a directive last week calling on all town offices to recycle paper products. In a release, he noted a lack of recycling bins at Town Hall.

       “If we ask our residents to increase their recycling efforts, the town must do so, as well,” Mr. Cantwell said in the release. The recycling will help accomplish two goals, he said: protecting the environment and reducing the town’s garbage-disposal expense.

Solar Energy in Sight

       A request for proposals from companies interested in setting up solar energy systems at various town properties yielded 13 inquiries, Councilwoman Sylvia Overby reported this week. The town’s energy sustainability committee is vetting the responses.

       Under a program sponsored by the Long Island Power Authority, the energy generated would be fed into the power grid, reducing the need for power generated elsewhere. Once approved by the town, the proposals must be sent by the end of this month to LIPA for final approval.

       Supervisor Larry Cantwell pointed out an opportunity for “multiple wins” for East Hamptoners — in generating and selling solar power as well as in gaining revenue from leasing town property for “substantial sums.”

       J.P.

Federal

Bishop Speaks on Washington

       Representative Tim Bishop will present a “Washington update” on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton. The library has asked that those attending sign up in advance at myrml.org or by phone to assure a seat.

       Mr. Bishop, a six-term Democrat, is seeking re-election in November. He is expected to face New York State Senator Lee Zeldin, whom he defeated in 2008.

       A public hearing by the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals on an application from the new owner of the East Deck Motel at Ditch Plain in Montauk to bring about 300 dump trucks of sand to the site was fast-tracked by unanimous consent on Tuesday night. It will be on Feb. 4.

       Brian Frank, the chief environmentalist of the Planning Department, told the board that the plan was to add 6,000 cubic yards of sand to the beach. Because no structural work is involved, he said the department would ordinarily recommend that the application be handled administratively. However, he said the scale of the project could be the subject of controversy, thus requiring a hearing.

       It was a point all board members agreed with, although no one disputed the need for beach restoration. The board was shown aerial photographs of the motel, which is on the eastern edge of what Mr. Frank called one of the town’s most popular beaches. He pointed out changes on the coastline since 2010.

       Don Cirillo told his fellow board members that to go the administrative route with something so ambitious might smack of “an end-run.” He was supported, among others, by Alex Walter, the board’s chairman, and Cate Rogers, the newest member, who was appointed by the East Hampton Town Board on Jan. 3.

       A Delaware limited liability corporation, ED40, is identified as having bought the East Deck’s 5.01 acres on lots 15 and 16 at 40 DeForest Road, from Montauk Agency and Jettie on Oct. 1 for $14.75 million. The corporation was represented at the hearing by Richard Hammer, a Montauk attorney.

       Mr. Hammer expressed concern that the hearing process could delay what he called essential work. “We don’t want to be going into June,” he said. Mr. Walter promised to add the hearing onto the public calendar as soon as a legal notice could be placed in The East Hampton Star.

       In other action Tuesday, the board held three public hearings on applications from two property owners. Two of the hearings were on two undeveloped parcels on the Three Mile Harbor shoreline, at 33 and 35 Springwood Way. Billy Hajek of Land Marks, a land planning firm, represented the owners, one of whom, Michael DeSario, was in the audience. The lots are each roughly an acre. Z.B.A. permits are needed because they contain wetlands, bluffs, and beachfront.

       The request had been on the administrative action list for the Planning Department to act without a public hearing, until a neighbor, Michael Federman, raised a concern about the scale of new houses, each about 5,300 square feet. But Mr. Hajek pointed out to the board that the plans were within town code guidelines. He said to deny the special permits needed would be “arbitrary.” The board has 62 days to make a decision.

       The most heated exchange of the evening came during the final hearing, for a proposed two-car garage on a small lot at Pine Way and Central Avenue in Amagansett. Seth and Sherry Leist want to put up the garage on their 13,000-square-foot lot. A similar application, for a 456-square-foot structure, was turned down by the board in June of 2012. The newly proposed garage is somewhat bigger, at 480 square feet, and it has been repositioned.

       The Leists were represented by Richard Whalen, also of Land Marks. He said the couple needed a garage to protect their cars from the salt air and potential accidents and vandalism if parked in the street.

       The garage would need an eight-foot variance to be within 92 feet of wetlands when 100 feet is required and another variance to be placed less than the required 30 feet from both Pine Way and Central Avenue. The problem, in the opinion of the Planning Department, again represented by Mr. Frank, is that there are already many structures on the small lot — a house, a shed, a pool house, and a pool patio, all of which are closer to the wetlands than the town code allows.

       But Mr. Whalen referred to neighboring houses, which were even closer to the wetlands. “The wildlife is not going to know our garage exists,” he said.

       Mr. Frank reminded the board of its reasoning in declining the requested garage last year. “The board originally found that the variances requested were substantial and self-created.”

       Mr. Frank and Mr. Whalen called the facts each had presented “irrelevant.” The board has 62 days to decide which facts matter.

       Mr. Walter also announced a reshuffling of responsibilities for board members, who are each designated to take the lead on applications for their assigned hamlet. Lee White, whose five-year term expired at the end of the year, had been responsible for Amagansett. David Lys will take on that territory and his former responsibility, Springs, now goes to Ms. Rogers. Mr. Cirillo will be responsible for East Hampton, Mr. Walter, Wainscott, and Bryan Gosman, Montauk.

        It was standing room only at East Hampton Town Hall during swearing-in ceremonies for newly elected town officials last Thursday morning.

       With a quiet “Good morning,” prompting a round of applause, incoming Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell commanded the attention of the crowd, which filled the meeting room after a half-hour of coffee, Dreesen’s doughnuts, fruit, and chit-chat in the atrium.

       Mr. Cantwell introduced Barbara Borsack, his “lifelong friend” and former colleague in East Hampton Village, where he was longtime village administrator. Ms. Borsack, the village’s deputy mayor, led a chorus of “God Bless America.”

       Former East Hampton Town Justice James R. Ketcham rose to don his black robe — “to make it official,” he said — before swearing in the new supervisor.

       Steven Tekulsky, who would be sworn in a few minutes later as a new town justice by his friend, Alex Walter, stood in his brand-new judge’s robe, his hand on the shoulder of his elderly mother, seated in the front row wearing a wrist corsage.

       “You knew what to do right away,” Justice Ketcham teased Carole Brennan after her swearing-in as the new town clerk. As a longtime deputy town clerk, Ms. Brennan had participated in many similar official ceremonies.

       She did the honors for her former boss, Fred Overton, who eschewed an incumbent run for town clerk and instead sought, and won, a seat on the town board. “We’re switching sides,” she told Mr. Overton as the two stood at the front of Town Hall, Ms. Brennan with a face full of emotion and a huge grin.

       Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, also taking a seat on the town board, was sworn in by Town Justice Lisa R. Rana. Her husband, Joe Gonzalez, flashed her a smile and a big thumbs-up as she stepped to the side of the room following her oath.

       Ms. Rana then swore in the incumbent highway superintendent, Steve Lynch, and his deputy, Kevin Ahearn.

       “Now we’re going to swear in the new Carole,” Ms. Brennan said before doing the honors for Jeanne Hamilton, a three-decade Town Hall veteran, who replaces Ms. Brennan as the deputy town clerk.

       Len Bernard, the East Hampton Town budget officer, presented the new town board at its very first work session on Tuesday with an issue that must be resolved quickly.

       The 2014 budget, adopted in November, relies for operation of the Sanitation Department on an increase in fees for use of the recycling and garbage transfer centers, and, he said, about $300,000 has to be raised to make the budget balance.

       The hikes outlined by Mr. Bernardwould see the cost of a household dump sticker rise from $100 to $115, and a secondary sticker, issued for a second car in the same household, go from $15 to $40. That fee has not been increased since 2008, Mr. Bernard told the board.

       Other proposed increases include a small hike in the cost of stickers for senior citizens, from $50 to $55. The cost of dropping off construction debris would go from $140 per ton to $150, and of dumping brush, from $100 to $115 a ton. 

       “I think the fee increases are reasonable, I think they’re balanced . . . I don’t think you’re going to find much objection from the public,” said Mr. Bernard.

       For vehicles without dump stickers, it now costs $10 for a single drop-off at the recycling center. Doubling the entry fee would generate over $100,000 in needed revenue, the budget officer said.

       The suggestion caused some concern among board members, however. “What I’m concerned about is what the additional cost is going to be for us to pick up the additional garbage that’s going to be left around town,” said Councilman Fred Overton.

       “It will be an additional burden on enforcement,” Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc predicted.

       “I think there’s an education process that’s going to need to come about, that we haven’t done in a while, about the recyclables,” said Councilwoman Sylvia Overby. The town makes money selling some recyclables, such as cardboard and plastics.

       “We’re going to have to launch a campaign increasing the rate of recycling in East Hampton . . .  because it’s good for the environment and it lowers our costs,” Supervisor Larry Cantwell said. “I think our recycling rate is low.”

       He also suggested the town reopen areas at the recycling centers where residents can drop off reusable items.

       Mr. Bernard said that in order to balance the sanitation budget without raising taxes — a key concern, especially under the state-imposed 2-percent cap on tax increases — some surplus monies had been allocated to Sanitation in 2012 and 2013. That practice is unsustainable, he advised. Fees must be increased to cover expenses, both for the sanitation budget and as a general practice.

       The board could address the “broader issues,” such as “litter and recycling and the operations of the Sanitation Department,” later, said Mr. Cantwell, but the recycling fees must be dealt with immediately, because this year’s “budget has anticipated an increase in revenue.” No decisions were made this week.

       Tomorrow is the East Hampton Town deadline for payment of the first half of 2013-14 property taxes. The second half is due by May 31.

       Taxes may be paid at the office of the town tax receiver at 300 Pantigo Place in East Hampton or by phone or online using a credit card at officialpayments.com and the jurisdiction code 4216.

       Although it is unclear whether last year’s history is repeating itself — numerous residents never received their tax bills — several complaints have been received about missing bills this year. Town staffers were trying this week to determine if the problem went beyond the normal number of bills that are returned each year as undeliverable, due to address errors or the like.

       East Hampton’s budget officer, Len Bernard, said this week that, though property owners are required to pay taxes on time regardless of whether or not the town has issued a bill, in cases where the town tax assessors had failed to print out a property tax bill, town officials would ask the county, which assesses fees for late taxes, to waive those fees.

       Mr. Bernard said the tax bills were printed out and hand-delivered to a company hired by the town to process and prepare them for mailing. They were mailed from the East Hampton Post Office on Dec. 13.  Some tax bills, particularly those going to the owners of multiple properties  — about 4,000, Mr. Bernard said — were processed by the assessors office itself.

       The town must wait until the county adopts the tax warrant for all municipalities, at the first meeting of the Suffolk Legislature in December, before beginning to prepare East Hampton tax bills. After a lengthy process of checking to make sure the tax bills will equal the amount of the town’s tax warrant, the bills are printed out over the course of several days.

       Tomorrow is also the deadline to pay property taxes in Southampton Town. First-half taxes can be paid at the Office of the Tax Receiver at Town Hall at 116 Hampton Road in Southampton Village. Payments may also be made online at the town website, www.southamptontownny.gov.