It will soon be harder for business owners to park their commercial vehicles overnight on the streets and in the driveways of residential neighborhoods.

       On Tuesday, the East Hampton Town Board agreed to adopt a resolution banning the parking of big work trucks and other heavy equipment from residential streets between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m.

       The decision came in response to months of appeals from residents of Springs, who had complained that large trucks and other construction and landscaping equipment parked on neighborhood streets were causing a safety hazard and devaluing their property.

       Board members concurred that tougher restrictions were required for big trucks, excluding pickups and vans, but had some misgivings. Councilwoman Theresa Quigley, who later in the meeting unveiled a study showing that two-thirds of the businesses in town are located in a nonbusiness zoning district, said she did not want to make things more difficult for business owners. But she said the board could not ignore a situation where contractors’ trucks block narrow residential streets.

       Councilman Dominick Stanzione expressed concern that if a homeowner were having a project done and a contractor found it necessary to leave a truck at the site overnight, it might be unfairly ticketed. After some discussion with John Jilnicki, the town attorney, the board agreed that residents who faced such a situation could call police and explain their predicament.

       Mr. Stanzione also wondered where business owners who do not own or lease commercial property elsewhere and have no space for their trucks on their own property would park them.

       The East Hampton Town Democratic Committee feted its own during a holiday party at the Palm restaurant in East Hampton on Friday, honoring retiring Justice Catherine A. Cahill for her 20 years of service to the town and saluting a number of committee members for their work on this year’s campaign.

       Among the crowd of 95 guests were Supervisor-elect Larry Cantwell, Councilwoman-elect Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, and Steven Tekulsky, who was elected to take Ms. Cahill’s place on the bench.

       Andrew Harris of Montauk, a committee member, was named the Democrat of the Year, in part for his “countless hours and effort to the tasks of fulfilling the duties of a committeeman as well as bringing new energy and vitality to the Montauk Democratic community.” Betty Mazur, the committee’s vice chairwoman, got a nod for her “tireless management of the Democrats’ get-out-the-vote project year after year,” and Christopher Kelley, chairman of the campaign committee, was proclaimed “Major Domo Campaign 2013.” Both have the T-shirts to prove it.

       Also at the party, Arlene Coulter, another committee member, announced the creation of a new student internship in memory of the late Phyllis Madan, a member of the Democrats’ executive committee.     

       If all goes according to plan, solar panels could be cropping up next year on a number of vacant parcels owned by East Hampton Town.

       On Tuesday, the town board, acting at the request of Councilman Dominick Stanzione, agreed to seek bids from solar contractors to lease as many as 14  town-owned parcels, from Wainscott to Montauk. Mr. Stanzione said the project was the first step toward realizing a far-reaching objective adopted last summer by the town’s energy sustainability advisory committee, to which he is the liaison.

       The goal is to reduce the town’s energy consumption by 20 percent over the next decade. Leasees would pay the town an annual fee and make a profit by selling the electricity generated back to the Long Island Power Authority. 

       The program is being offered in conjunction with LIPA, which wants to expand solar power production on the island by 100 megawatts in the coming years through its Clean Solar Initiative, Mr. Stanzione said. LIPA has targeted the five eastern towns for up to 40 megawatts, with individual projects limited to 3-megawatt solar arrays.

       The Sag Harbor Village Zoning Board of Appeals, which has spent the better part of the past three years reviewing an application to expand the Harbor Heights gas station on Route 114, announced at a work session on Monday that it needs a little more time before making a decision.

       After a 90-minute review of the plan, which seeks variances for the reconstruction of the existing building there into a 718-square-foot convenience store, the addition of gas pumps, and landscaping along neighboring property lines, the board agreed to schedule another work session, tentatively set for Jan. 10 at 2 p.m., at which it expects to hammer out a decision. It is to be formally adopted at the board’s Jan. 21 meeting.

       “It’s difficult because there so many weird, esoteric considerations,” the board’s chairman, Anthony Hagen, said yesterday. “We have had so much material thrown at us, some of which is not relevant.”

       Over the years, the project, proposed by the property’s owner, John Leonard, has been scaled back considerably. It now requires only three variances, but opposition has remained fierce, with neighbors and other Sag Harbor residents arguing that the expansion would over-commercialize a residential neighborhood and mar a gateway to the village.

       Mr.  Hagen said the Z.B.A. had yet to take a straw vote on whether it will come down in favor of or against the application, or somewhere down the middle. “We’re still jelling,” he said.

       The East Hampton Town Republican Committee looked to a familiar face for its new leader when it elected Tom Knobel as its chairman on Dec. 11.

       Mr. Knobel, a former town councilman and trustee, was the committee’s vice chairman. He will replace Kurt Kappel, who stepped down after a two-year term. Mr. Knobel previously served eight years as the G.O.P. chairman before giving up the post in 2005.

       The committee will elect a vice chairman in the coming weeks, Mr. Knobel said.

       “I’m stepping up to provide both continuity and consistency,” said Mr. Knobel. Although the next town election will not be until 2015, Mr. Knobel said “the big Congressional race will certainly draw a lot of attention.”

       The First Congressional District seat is now held by Representative Tim Bishop, a Democrat. State Republican Senator Lee Zeldin has already announced that he will challenge the six-term incumbent in 2014. Mr. Zeldin ran against Mr. Bishop in 2008.

       “We have to attempt to turn people out and alert folks to the way things should be run in Washington,” Mr. Knobel said.

       Although Republicans lost their majority on the East Hampton Town Board, saw their majority shrink on the trustees, and lost the only other two contested elections, for town justice and assessor, Mr. Knobel refused to categorize the 2013 election, in which the party failed to field a supervisor candidate, as a failure.

       “Our clerk candidate and highway superintendent candidate flat-out won, and we split the council race,” Mr. Knobel said, referring to Carole Brennan and Steve Lynch, Republican candidates who ran unopposed and were cross-endorsed by Democrats and the Independence Party for town clerk and highway superintendent, and Town Clerk Fred Overton, who won one of two seats on the town board.

       The Republican cause was hurt when County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, a former supervisor, expressed interest in running for his old job again, but then changed his mind last spring.

       “He waffled about his interest in being supervisor. He indicated he wanted it and then he didn’t,” Mr. Knobel said. “We would have loved to have a supervisor candidate. That colors the whole thing.”

       The race for supervisor was further complicated when the Democratic candidate, Larry Cantwell, declined a last-minute Republican effort to cross endorse him.

       “That part was interesting. I have not seen a whole lot of political candidates who refuse cross endorsements,” said Mr. Knobel.

       A hearing on an application to install 12 AT&T antennas on the face of a 180,000-gallon oil tank at P.C. Schenck and Sons at 60 Newtown Lane drew alarm from neighboring property owners after a lengthy presentation at Friday’s meeting of the East Hampton Zoning Board of Appeals.

       The antennas as well as six cabinets housing telecommunications equipment on a concrete pad on the ground require setback variances from the village code. They are intended to increase coverage for AT&T’s cellphone subscribers. It is proposed to locate them 23 feet from one property line, where the required setback is 100 feet, and between 20 and 33 feet from the easterly line, where setbacks range from 40 to 44 feet. Though they would extend no higher than the oil tank itself, a variance is also required for their height.

       Along with John Huber, an attorney for the applicant, a team of consultants provided detailed testimony about the project. As a public utility, Mr. Huber said, the applicant is entitled to bypass some of the criteria for variances. He said the facility would be installed in the least visually obtrusive manner.

       The proposed antennas, in four groups of three, would be painted to blend with the fuel tank, Erin Echevarria of Hauppauge-based VHB Engineering told the board. She displayed photographic simulations and asserted there would be no significant impact. The facility would be unmanned and remotely monitored, she said, so there would be no sewage generated and minimal traffic.

       Frank Newbold, the board’s chairman, asked Mike Patel, of Tectonic Engineering in Newburgh, N.Y., if the installation would make noise. Mr. Patel said the equipment generates heat, as personal computers do, but added that the cabinets’ manufacturer measures 65 decibels at five feet, which he likened to the conversation he and Mr. Newbold were having.

       One criterion for a special permit, Mr. Newbold said, “is whether the proposed use will cause disturbing emissions or electrical discharges,” mentioning the proximate businesses, residences, and the East Hampton Middle School. “I know if I were a resident nearby I’d want more information about that,” he said.

       Mr. Huber also summarized language in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which he said “pre-empts state and local government regulation of the placement, construction, and modification of wireless service facilities on the basis of environmental effects of radio frequency emission, so long as the facility complies with the Federal Communications Commission regulations. This site will comply.”

       With that, he introduced Stephane Guillabert, a radio frequency engineer representing AT&T, David Collins of the Pinnacle Telecom Group in Cedar Knolls, N.J., who testified that the radio frequency energy fields at the site would be only 3.1 percent of what the F.C.C. allows, or the equivalent of that produced by a refrigerator, and Michael Lynch of Lynch Appraisal of Huntington, who said the installation would not have “any deleterious effect on surrounding properties” or their value.

       Christopher Minardi, a board member, asked if there would be a need for additional sites for such equipment, and was told by Mr. Guillabert that “there is always a need for a new site due to the growing demands of the customers.” 

       Mr. Huber noted that cellphone service here is limited by the lack of tall structures. A lattice tower near East Hampton Town Hall and the steeple of the East Hampton Presbyterian Church are used for antennas. “There is indeed a need for enhanced coverage in the community,” he said. “The primary goal is always to find the most architecturally consistent way to do it.”

       Some took a different view. Arthur Purcell of Barns Lane told board members they should consider that the proposed site is near residential properties both on his street and on Huntting Avenue, as well as near the middle school.

“There are still some questions about the possibility that there could be some radiation coming forth from this structure,” Mr. Purcell said. “We already live on the site with the oil tank there, and that’s a major concern for some people. . . . I think an oil tank and a cell tower adjacent to the Long Island Rail Road raise some questions.”

       Toni Ann Warren, representing the owners of 66 Newtown Lane, a complex of shops and offices, asked if AT&T would  sell some of its antenna space to Verizon or T-Mobile, and if that would increase the emanation of radio frequencies and the consequent need for more cooling fans. “Is this an opening for an increase in the size of antennas once you give this variance?” she asked. Noise from the fans is a concern for the businesses and offices at 66 Newtown Lane, she said.

       The proposed antennas, she said, would be at the same height as 66 Newtown Lane’s second-floor windows, which are operable. “There are a lot of studies that claim health issues and carcinogens. . . . We have second-floor offices; we have a second-floor middle school. What’s that going to do to our kids?”

       Finally, Joseph Lambiase, who recently purchased the property at 19 Barns Lane, said, “I’m going to be the lucky one that’s going to hear these fans go on and off.” The applicant, he said, “must meet minimal setback of 100 feet. . . . If this was very important to them, they could . . . make other arrangements. They don’t need to jam it right on a property line.”

       Mr. Lambiase also asked if the oil tank was triple-walled. The answer was that it is believed to be a single-wall tank, and Mr. Guillabert said the antennas would be welded to it. During installation, Mr. Lambiase argued that “if they were able to break that tank, which is possible when you’re welding . . . that area would be completely wiped out. It would be worthless. I don’t know why the community needs to take this risk.” If the need is legitimate, he said, “Put a triple-wall tank in and a fire-extinguisher system built into it. I am completely opposed.”

       Mr. Newbold asked Mr. Huber to return to the Z.B.A. on Jan. 24 to answer the concerns expressed. He also ssaid the Z.B.A. would have its engineering expert review the testimony.

       The State Department of Environmental Conservation has reclassified two East Hampton Town waterways, where the harvesting of shellfish from specific areas will be prohibited on a year-round or seasonal basis.

       On Friday, the agency announced emergency regulations that changed the designation of underwater shellfish lands for 3,690 acres of Long Island waters. The move, according to the D.E.C., resulted from its analyses demonstrating increased levels of fecal coliform bacteria and the potential for shellfish harvested from the areas in question to cause illness if consumed.

       In East Hampton, approximately 15 acres of Hand’s Creek was reclassified from seasonally uncertified, or closed to the harvesting of shellfish, to uncertified year round. The reclassified area includes all waterways, including tributaries, lying west of a line extending northerly from an orange marker located on the southern side of the entrance channel to the opposite shoreline. Additionally, from May 1 through Nov. 30, the area within a 500-foot radius in all directions of the entrance to Hand’s Creek is now uncertified.

       In Accabonac Harbor, where the northernmost portion is already closed to the harvesting of shellfish throughout the year, approximately 14 acres were reclassified from certified, or open, to seasonally uncertified. From May 1 through Nov. 30, the area lying west of a line extending southwesterly from the westernmost point of land of the property at 128 Gerard Drive, Springs, to an orange marker at the opposite shoreline, and south of the uncertified area (the northernmost portion), will also be closed to shellfishing.

       Some 15 acres of Cold Spring Pond in Southampton were also designated as seasonally uncertified. The D.E.C. designated 10 acres in Shinnecock Bay uncertified, as well as 3 acres in Gull Pond, in Southold.

       The reclassifications were made “because they did not meet the fecal coliform standards [in D.E.C. regulations] for certified shellfish lands,” Bill Fonda, an agency spokesman, wrote in an e-mail. The presence of fecal coliforms in the marine environment, he wrote, “indicates the likely presence of fecal material, including pathogenic bacteria and viruses, in the water that increases the potential for consumers to become ill if they eat shellfish from areas which have elevated levels of fecal coliforms.”

       In March, the East Hampton Town Trustees, who manage the waterways and bottomlands on behalf of the public, announced a program to monitor the waters under their jurisdiction in cooperation with Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University. The D.E.C.’s reclassifications “do not necessarily reflect the water quality of these systems as a whole,” Stephanie Forsberg, a trustee who delivers regular aquaculture reports to her colleagues, wrote in an e-mail. Ms. Forsberg earned a doctoral degree in marine biology from Stony Brook last year, working in Mr. Gobler’s laboratory as part of her studies.

       Overall water quality in trustee waters, she wrote, “is a bigger-picture question,” one she said the trustees were sure to consider at their next meeting, on Tuesday.

       Diane McNally, the trustees’ clerk, cautioned against drawing definitive conclusions from the D.E.C.’s action, which she said is based on three years’ worth of data. In the course of those three years, she said, Lisa Tettelbach, of the D.E.C.’s Bureau of Marine Resources, “needed to get her colleagues to the water body a certain number of times per year, after a certain amount of rain. That has been difficult for her, she doesn’t have the staff.”

       The D.E.C., Ms. McNally said, “is making projections based on data they have, but it might not always be the best data. They have to make a judgment call based on health and safety, on the probability that there could be an issue.”

       In August, the trustees hired Michael Bye as a pumpout boat operator. Last month, Ms. McNally announced to her colleagues that Mr. Bye, a bayman, had received training in water-quality sampling from the D.E.C. and would be able to augment the agency’s testing with regular reports on water quality in shellfish beds. “If we can get those samples to them, we might get a more accurate picture,” she said.

       Residents of East Hampton Village and the portion of Sag Harbor in East Hampton Town have apparently been getting off easy when it comes to paying their share of the costs for the Montauk Playhouse and other town projects that were financed by bonds in 2005, 2006, and 2008.

       The issue was brought to the town board’s attention last Thursday by Zachary Cohen, a former member of the town’s financial advisory committee who came within a whisker of defeating Supervisor Bill Wilkinson in 2011. Although Mr. Wilkinson, town budget officer Len Bernard, and Nawrocki Smith LLP, the town’s auditors, have often clashed with Mr. Cohen over his questioning of town finances, this time everybody is playing nice.

       Mr. Bernard said this week that Dave Tellier, a partner with Nawrocki Smith, will meet with town officials on Friday to review Mr. Cohen’s concerns and begin to make the necessary corrections.

       The biggest error involves some $6 million in expenses for the playhouse that were included in bonds issued in 2005 and 2006, according to Mr. Cohen. Those bonds should have been paid for out of the whole-town fund, which covers projects that theoretically benefit all town residents. Instead, they have been paid out of the part-town budget, which covers expenses that do not benefit residents of the incorporated villages.

       Mr. Cohen said that if the playhouse error is not corrected, going back to when the bonds were first issued in 2005 and extending forward until they are all paid off in 2026, residents outside the villages will end up paying more than $2 million in principal and interest that rightfully should be paid for by village residents.

       To date, according to Mr. Cohen, residents outside the villages have improperly paid an estimated $750,000 in taxes for projects that benefited everyone in town.

       The good news, according to Mr. Bernard, is that correcting the errors will have a negligible impact on tax rates. It will mean, though, that the town will have to shift surplus from its whole-town fund to the part-town fund to account for the mistake. That would leave the town with about $8 million in surplus in the whole-town fund and $3.5 million in the part-town fund, up from about $1.5 million, which Mr. Bernard said would be a healthier position anyway.

       He said Mr. Cohen’s findings were aftershocks from the administration of former Supervisor Bill McGintee, which amassed nearly $30 million in unaccounted-for deficits by the time he left office.

       In attempting to unravel the finances, the town and its representatives, as well as officials from the state comptroller’s office, went over hundreds of bonded items and agreed in February 2011 that it appeared that all bond payments were properly assigned, based on the findings of Nawrocki Smith, Mr. Bernard said.

       But, he said, minor problems were still to be expected. “When things pop up, you deal with it, and things will be popping up for years.”

       Mr. Bernard said it was likely a simple mistake — an assumption that village residents would not use the facility — that led to the playhouse bonds being assigned to the part-town fund. “But the playhouse can be used by anybody, like the beaches,” he said. “Whether you live in the village or not, you can use the town beaches.”

       Mr. Cohen, a self-described financial wonk, said he first uncovered the errors in 2011 when he was running for supervisor and planned to correct them if elected. He said he revisited the issue this year and chose to bring it to the town board after the election so it would not become a campaign issue.

       He said he hoped the town would be able to correct the errors before it officially adopts its 2014 budget on Tuesday, but if not it could still make the correction in the form of internal transfers after the new year.

       The East Hampton Aviation Association, the group that has vociferously defended East Hampton Airport against what it says are unreasonable efforts to limit its use and even shut it down, last week asked the East Hampton Town Board to delay a hearing on the airport capital plan until after the administration of Supervisor-elect Larry Cantwell settles in.

       Gerald Boleis, the association’s president, made the request in a letter to Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson dated Nov. 9. It requests that the hearing, originally set for next Thursday, be postponed “until at least February 2014 to provide the new administration an opportunity to review the plan prior to the public hearing.”

       The move might appear to be an olive branch to airport opponents, but Mr. Boleis said yesterday that it was simply in recognition of the slow pace of the political process.

       “Realistically, nothing is going to happen between now and the end of the year,” he said. “Whatever resolution they do now, the board could change next year.”

       The current Republican majority on the board has been friendly toward the airport and could reasonably be expected to pass a capital plan to its liking before turning off the lights and passing its office keys to the new Democratic majority.

       Mr. Cantwell said during the campaign that he doubted accepting Federal Aviation Administration grants would have an impact on town efforts to impose reasonable restrictions on the airport. Fred Overton, who will be the lone Republican on the new board, supports seeking federal funding. Incoming Councilwoman  Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, who like her fellow Democrats, Sylvia Overby and Peter Van Scoyoc, has expressed concerns about the airport, said she would favor holding off on seeking additional F.A.A. funding until the town is assured it will be allowed to clamp down on noisy helicopters and other annoyances. That could result in a majority that could block efforts to obtain federal grants.

       Airport opponents have expressed fear that if the town moves to accept additional grants from the F.A.A., efforts to impose a curfew and limits on the type of aircraft that can use the airport will be in vain.

       Mr. Boleis disputed that notion, saying that the shutdown of the federal government was still having ripple effects. “Even if the town asked the F.A.A. for money, the government is not going to be writing a check between now and the end of the year,” he said.

       A unanimous town board in 2012 adopted an airport master plan and requested F.A.A. funding for the construction of a deer fence around the airport, he recalled.

       “It’s been two years and nothing has been done. It is disappointing, but we think nothing will happen [next Thursday] either.”

East Hampton Town

Town Vehicles Up for Grabs

       East Hampton Town has placed a number of vehicles for sale online at auctionsinternational.com,  where bids will be accepted through Dec. 2.

       The cars and trucks include pickups, dump trucks, former police cars, and more.

Deer Project Collaboration

       With a 3-to-1 vote on Tuesday, the East Hampton Town Board opted to participate in the Long Island Deer Project, a collaboration between the Long Island Farm Bureau and the United States Department of Agriculture to reduce the deer herd in the five East End towns. The town expects to join East Hampton Village in allowing a deer-killing effort to be undertaken; the cost to each municipality is expected to be $15,000.  Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione, who has advocated for the town’s participation, was absent from the vote; Councilwoman Sylvia Overby voted against the resolution, saying additional information was needed.

New York State

Grant for Fuel Facility

       Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. announced last week that East Hampton Town and Village have been awarded $400,000 from the state’s Local Government Efficiency Grant Program for construction of a new joint fuel facility, which will replace and relocate aging facilities.

       A town-conducted feasibility study had concluded that a joint facility would save money through a reduced per-gallon cost for fuel, allow for state-of-the-art inventory control and billing, and reduce environmental impacts. The facility will be equipped with a generator and safety measures to ensure the site is operating according to local, state, and federal requirements for toxic and hazardous materials.

       The Local Government Efficiency Grant Program, administered by the New York Department of State, provides technical assistance and competitive grants to local governments for the development of projects that will save money and improve municipal efficiency through shared services, cooperative agreements, mergers, consolidations, and dissolutions.