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.

Contractors and homeowners who for years have avoided paying dump fees by leaving building debris and household castoffs in the woods along Town Line Road and Merchant’s Path, north of Montauk Highway in Wainscott, might want to think again: Someone may be watching.

The East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday agreed to let Highway Superintendent Stephen Lynch purchase low-cost video cameras that they hope will catch illicit dumpers in the act.

“There’s some feeling that this is a dumping area,” said Councilwoman Theresa Quigley.

“There needs to be a concerted effort that this is no longer a no-man’s land,” said Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc.

The board also gave the go-ahead for the Highway Department to make signs announcing that the area is under video surveillance to thwart would-be scofflaws.

Supervisor Bill Wilkinson suggested the town “try to engage a private-public partnership to clean it up” that would involve enlisting the aid of Boy Scouts, high school students, and other community groups in a clean-up day.

“I’d also like to see violators do some community service,” said Mr. Van Scoyoc.

Zachary Cohen, chairman of the town’s nature preserve committee, said cameras would probably also record a large number of motorcyclists taking their bikes along trails in the area.

Mr. Wilkinson said the cameras might have yet another use.  “We’ll get a deer count, too,” he remarked.       

       The composition of the East Hampton Town Trustees will remain largely unchanged following Tuesday’s vote. Unofficial results indicate that all seven of the incumbent trustees were re-elected. With absentee ballots yet to be counted, however, the winners of the final two positions on the nine-member board are yet to be determined.

       Diane McNally, the trustees’ clerk, was easily re-elected, with an unofficial tally of 3,131 votes. Stephanie Forsberg won 3,490 votes, Stephen Lester received 3,431 votes, and Timothy Bock, 3,045 votes. Nathaniel Miller won 2,965 votes, Sean McCaffrey received 2,836 votes, and 2,669 voters cast ballots for Deborah Klughers.

       All but Mr. Lester and Ms. Klughers ran on the Republican, Conservative, and Independence tickets. Mr. Lester ran with backing from the Democratic and Independence Parties, and Ms. Klughers ran on the Democratic and Working Families tickets.

       As for the remaining two seats, yesterday, pending a count of absentee ballots, the unofficial count had Brian Byrnes, on the Democratic and Independence ticket, winning 2,492 votes, and Dennis Curles, running with Republican, Conservative, and Independence Party backing, with 2,438. Brian Pardini, also with the Republican, Conservative, and Independence Party backing, was just 7 votes behind Mr. Curles, with 2,431 votes. Afton DiSunno, a Democrat, was within striking distance with 2,360 votes.

       Yesterday, Ms. McNally expressed relief at Tuesday’s outcome and called the result an affirmation of her colleagues’ efforts. As the present term concludes and with the town still addressing Hurricane Sandy’s aftermath, “what we’ve been doing to reaffirm trustee policies, although it caused a little angst to people, once they understood what was going on they supported us across the board.”

       Ms. McNally referred to the trustees’ assertion of their jurisdiction over the bottomlands of town waterways, and their move last spring to condense the 90 moorings set aside for large boats within an area of Three Mile Harbor, which angered some boat owners.

       “As an incumbent, you’re seeking confirmation that what you’ve done for your community is right. We’re all pleased and honored that we are adequately representing the people that voted for us,” she said.

       As the clerk, Ms. McNally holds a full-time position on the board and is effectively the face of the body, which has overseen the town’s common lands since the Dongan Patent of 1686 granted it that authority. “Being in that position,” she said of her role, “it’s great to represent my colleagues in a way that hasn’t cost them their position in the town.”

       The state of the town’s shorelines, Ms. McNally said, will remain an important issue on which trustees will assert their jurisdiction. The body has sought to prevent, with limited success, rock revetments from being constructed on beaches, and often clashes with beachfront property owners who erect fencing and other erosion-control structures. “I’m very interested to see how the new town board handles that,” she said.

       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.

       Memoranda from two attorneys specializing in airport matters are expected to be on forthcoming agendas of the East Hampton Town Board, but, with Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, Councilwoman Theresa Quigley, and Councilman Dominick Stanzione leaving office at the end of the year, a new board in January will be faced with making airport decisions. Mr. Stanzione, the town’s airport liaison, lost his bid for re-election on Tuesday.

       Town board members recently received a report outlining new federal policy regarding airports from Peter Kirsch, the town’s airport consultant, but it has not yet been discussed. Mr. Kirsch first prepared an advisory report in 2008. The ongoing debate is over how East Hampton might best address aircraft noise, and how the F.A.A.’s authority might be diminished or enforced.

       In another recent report, Sheila Jones, a lawyer hired by the local Committee to Stop Airport Expansion, responded to a study by still another attorney, David E. Schaffer, who was hired by the East Hampton Aviation Association and provided his opinions to the board in July.  

       Both agree that local government control is pre-empted by the federal government, and that various factors influence the ability of a town to successfully enact local restrictions, and, if necessary, defend them against an F.A.A. challenge.

       They disagree, however, as to the extent that freedom from F.A.A. “grant assurances” — contractual agreements with the federal agency that are attached when the town accepts F.A.A. grants — would or would not put the town on stronger ground in enforcing and maintaining such restrictions.

       In her memo to the board, Ms. Jones said that Mr. Schaffer “has not taken into account all of the relevant factors. . . .” She cited a Supreme Court case, New York City v. National Helicopter, which outlined the scope of local authority, which, she said, created a precedent applicable to East Hampton. She also referred to Mr. Kirsch’s 2008 memo, and said she agrees with his summary of that case: that the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that “a local government can limit helicopter traffic in order to address local noise or environmental concerns.”

       In that case, the court upheld New York City ordinances that limit helicopter traffic to certain times of the day or week, limit overall numbers of helicopter traffic, and regulate helicopter noise directly.

       “Clearly, therefore, the Town of East Hampton has the power to impose limitations on the use of the airport in order to address noise,” Ms. Jones wrote. However, she also said, as have every consultant, that the limits must be “reasonable, nonarbitrary, and nondiscriminatory.”

       The Committee to Stop Airport Expansion, which she represents, holds that several F.A.A. grant assurances due to expire at the end of 2014 are “relevant to the scope of local authority to control noise.” This was confirmed by the F.A.A. in correspondence with Representative Tim Bishop about East Hampton Airport, Ms. Jones said.

       In the absence of the assurances, she wrote, East Hampton could exercise as much control over its airport as was upheld by the court in the National Helicopter case. The town could not attempt to control airborne aircraft, and it would have to treat “similarly noisy aircraft alike.”

       Contradicting what Mr. Schaffer said in his letter to the town, Ms. Jones said that should the town remain subject to all of the grant assurances, it would be “significantly limited . . . in its ability to impose restrictions” that would otherwise be permissible under the National Helicopter precedent.

 Ms. Jones wrote that Mr. Schaffer “is wrong” in his assertion that “accepting F.A.A. funding does not diminish the town’s authority to adopt reasonable and  nondiscriminatory restrictions. . . .”

       Specifically, she says, if the town is subject to F.A.A. grant assurances and seeks to impose an airport use restriction, the F.A.A. can mount an administrative proceeding to determine whether, in the agency’s view, the restriction complies with the grant assurances’ terms and conditions. If the F.A.A. says a town regulation violates these terms, the town would have to prove that the F.A.A. acted “unreasonably, arbitrarily, and capriciously” in making that decision. Ms. Jones wrote that federal courts defer to F.A.A. administrative decisions.

       Conversely, should the town be free of grant assurances and should the F.A.A. or a private party still assert that a restriction imposed by the town is unreasonable, the burden to prove that would be on the F.A.A. Mr. Schaffer, whose memo was described in these pages in the summer, wrote that that “does not address the role of the F.A.A. when a proprietor adopts a noise or access restriction, and thus fails to account for significant factor limiting the town’s authority.”

       Ms. Jones also claimed that Mr. Schaffer’s report does not address the import of another F.A.A. regulatory program, which specifies the procedure that airport proprietors who have accepted F.A.A. grants must follow when seeking to impose a noise or access restriction.

       Mr. Kirsch, she noted, had told the town in his 2008 memo that “case law and F.A.A. legal opinions . . . severely limit the ability of an owner of a federally-assisted airport [one that accepts grants] to impose use restrictions.”

       That, she said, is the Committee to Stop Airport Expansion’s point. “The ability of the town to impose use restrictions on its own airport will be significantly constrained if it applies to the F.A.A. for any additional airport planning and development funds. . . .”

A series of free workshops sponsored by the Town of East Hampton and Chase Bank will offer information designed to guide those purchasing a house through the process. Targeted to first-time buyers, the workshops are free and open to all, and will be held at LTV Studios at 75 Industrial Road in Wainscott.

The first session, on Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m., will be on money management and budgeting. It will be followed by sessions on understanding credit on Nov. 20, on the mortgage process on Dec. 4, and on mortgage products on Dec. 11. The seminars will be taped by LTV and broadcast on the cable station, which airs programs on Channels 20 and 22.

East Hampton Town

Budget, Land Buy Hearings

    The East Hampton Town Board will hold a hearing at Town Hall next Thursday at 7 p.m. on a proposed $69.9 million budget for 2014. An initial tentative spending plan was amended, with the addition of several items totaling $62,000.  Len Bernard, the town’s budget officer, said Tuesday that the final numbers bring the budget to within $6,500 of the maximum tax increase amount allowed the town under a state-imposed 2-percent cap on tax increases. A hearing will also be held next Thursday night on the purchase of 1.9 acres on Montauk Highway in Amagansett for a total of $750,000. The property is jointly owned by several holders, including the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons and Tufts and Yeshiva Universities. An anonymous donor will be contributing $350,000 to the town toward the cost; the remainder will come from the community preservation fund.

Suffolk County

Water Body Research

    Researchers at Stony Brook University have found that Georgica Pond is one of the most pristine bodies of water in Suffolk County.  A study commissioned by the East Hampton Town Trustees followed the September 2012 death of a dog that may have consumed water from or near Georgica Pond, which, it was feared, might have contained blue-green algae. Earlier this year, the trustees had voted to initiate monitoring of the waters in its jurisdiction and launched a partnership with Dr. Christopher Gobler, an expert on toxic algae.

    Dr. Gobler compared his findings at Georgica and other water bodies in East Hampton Town to 12 sites across the county. Georgica Pond, which is brackish and periodically opened to the Atlantic, had some of the lowest levels of blue-green algae, with each of two sites sampled within the pond having, on average, less than 1 microgram per liter during the spring, summer, and fall of 2013. In a press release, Dr. Gobler noted that Lake Agawam in Southampton Village and Mill Pond in Water Mill had more than 20 micrograms of blue algae per liter, a finding that warranted listing with the state Department of Environmental Conservation. A follow-up study of Georgica, as part of the continued water quality monitoring of all trustee-managed waters, is planned in 2014.    C.W.

Those who have closely watched the campaigns or are big supporters of one or more of the candidates may want to join the Republicans or Democrats for the election night excitement on Tuesday.

Republicans will be gathering at Indian Wells Tavern in Amagansett to count the returns, celebrate their candidates, and congratulate winners starting around 9 p.m., when the polls close.

Democrats will make their headquarters at Rowdy Hall in East Hampton, where they will be poring over results.

Polls are open on Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

    Like most emergency services volunteers, Karen Haab, who has been an advanced emergency medical technician for 11 of her 12 years with the Springs Fire Department, is not one to toot her own horn.

But lately, others have been all too happy to do it for her.

    On Saturday, with friends, officials, and a good number of her colleagues from the Springs Fire Department on hand, Ms. Haab was presented with a medal of honor from the Firemen’s Association of the State of New York.

   She was previously honored at the organization’s annual convention in August and again last month by Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, who presented her with a proclamation.

    Ms. Haab received the firefighter association’s EMS Provider of the Year Award for her actions on Aug. 4, 2012, when she was at Atlantic Avenue Beach in Amagansett and found herself pressed into service to help save the life of a 77-year-old man who had broken his neck after being rumbled in the surf while boogie boarding with his granddaughter.

    Stuart Herman of Springs and Port Washington was at Saturday’s presentation at the Springs Firehouse with his wife, Sarah, to meet Ms. Haab for the first time since his rescue.

    “I’m very fortunate, very fortunate to have Karen save me,” Mr. Herman said.

    Ms. Haab said she was at the beach with friends for the annual Clamshell Foundation Sandcastle Contest when she noticed commotion around Mr. Herman and saw two people pulling him from the water.

    “I didn’t remember this at the time, but I asked my boyfriend, ‘Should I help?’ ” Ms. Haab said, “and before he could answer I was gone.”

    Ms. Haab first stabilized Mr. Herman’s neck and then began administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation when he stopped breathing and turned blue. Lifeguards and another E.M.T. soon arrived with a backboard and an automatic defibrillator, allowing Ms. Haab to direct the rescue effort until an ambulance arrived. Mr. Herman was first taken to Southampton Hospital and then transferred to Stony Brook University Hospital after an M.R.I. revealed two fractured vertebrae in his neck.

    Ms. Haab received her award from Robert McConville of Selden, the first vice president of the firefighter association, and Eugene Perry of Patchogue, one of its directors. Mr. McConville said he was proud to report that three of the most recent six recipients of the award have come from Suffolk County.

    Springs Fire Chief Ben Miller said the award was something that his entire department could be proud of. “It truly goes to all the members of the Springs Fire Department,” he said.

   Sarah Herman said her husband had made a remarkable recovery, recalling how his right arm was paralyzed for a time after the accident, although she said she didn’t think he would be doing any more boogie boarding.

    Mr. Herman said he couldn’t recall much of the accident. He said the last thing he remembered, he was taking turns riding in on the boogie board with his 9-year-old granddaughter when he lost the board and dived under a wave to retrieve it. He regained consciousness at the hospital.

    Spirits were light on Saturday, with Mr. Herman joking with Ross Perchik of the Clamshell Foundation about whether his accident disrupted the sandcastle contest. “Except for one little incident, it was pretty cool,” Mr. Perchik replied.

    Mr. Herman said he only regretted that he was unconscious in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, saying, “I could have at least seen her help me in her civilian garb,” a comment that brought a smile to Ms. Haab’s face.

    So what was she wearing at the time of the rescue? “A royal blue bikini,” she said.

    The East Hampton Town Board held hearings last Thursday on legislation designed to address complaints  about commercial vehicles — work trucks and other equipment — parked on residential lots, largely in Springs. The board found, however, that its proposed solution — to allow two commercially registered vehicles of up to 14,000 pounds gross vehicle weight — did not sit well with a number of speakers.

    A second proposed law would prohibit the parking of commercially registered vehicles on residential streets between midnight and 6 a.m.

    Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, who originally introduced the parking proposal, said he had asked to withdraw it but had been overruled by a board majority. He said he had realized that “one size doesn’t fit all,” in terms of what might be appropriate on properties of different sizes, and called for a study group to examine the issue further and return to the board with suggestions.

    There is a law on the books excluding most businesses from residential areas, but it has been difficult to enforce as far as the parking of commercial vehicles, according to Pat Gunn, the head of the town’s Public Safety Division. Mr. Gunn has been telling the town board for two years that the law, which allows only parking of “light trucks” on residential lots, lacks a definition of that term.

    Regardless of the law, Supervisor Bill Wilkinson said that “we had never put the people that use their driveways on notice that this is unacceptable . . . so I think it’s an obligation on our part” to offer business owners another place to park their trucks, “because what had been acceptable is no longer acceptable.”

    “I stress ‘residential,’ ” said Connie Kenney, a Springs resident. Some professional home-based businesses are allowed under the town code, she noted, “but running a masonry business or a landscaping business that requires large trucks is unacceptable in a residential neighborhood.”

    Parking “anything more than what we would all refer to as a pickup truck” should not be allowed, she said. “The people of Springs need immediate relief from what we consider to be a flagrant lack of concern to the rights of homeowners.”

     She displayed photos of equipment, such as a wood chipper, that she said was regularly stored on roadsides and on dead-end roads.

    Neil Zelenetz, also of Springs, told the board that “we have high taxes . . . reduced services . . . overcrowding . . . a lack of code enforcement. Various town boards over the years have been ineffective at limiting or reversing these trends . . . it’s a no-brainer to not have large vehicles, or even medium-size vehicles on the streets or in driveways. If they’re in business, they’re in business. They should have a place to operate their business.”

    Fred Weinberg agreed. “The storage of trucks and equipment is a standard cost of doing business,” he said. “We  the homeowners are in essence paying for what they’re not paying for, and at a much larger cost,” in declining property values.

    When there is no more room in driveways or on lawns, David Buda said, people use the streets nearby. “They simply appropriate the public’s right of way to park their vehicles.”

    “I’m not saying that there should be no commercial vehicles” at residences, said Mr. Buda. “It’s a question of size, and what is excessive.” In his opinion, he said, “a dump truck is beyond the pale. A van and a pickup truck should be allowed. But the business grows; the trucks grow.”

    He said the town’s legislation should also apply to trailers.

    The 14,500-pound maximum is “way too much,” according to Martin Drew of Springs, who said commercial vehicle parking is “becoming a blight.”

    “When it’s registered as a commercial vehicle . . . it doesn’t belong in a residential neighborhood,” he said, suggesting instead that there should be “truck farms” in every hamlet. The issue, he said, is the number and activity of workers coming and going in residential areas.

    Rita Wasserman of Springs also said the proposed rule was too liberal. “I’m thinking no trucks,” she said.

    Carol Buda said the limit under discussion was “an ill-conceived resolution in response to our complaints.” Because of the “board’s lack of action,” she said, “the truck issue has become noticeably worse.” The town board, she said, “has failed to put the residential code first.”

    But Iris Osborne, a Wainscott resident, told the board that “you have to consider the working people.”

    “These working people are not rich; they don’t have a lot of money. Maybe they can’t afford to rent a place to keep their trucks. Because they have a commercial license, you’re going to say they can’t park in their own driveway?”

    Ms. Osborne agreed, however, that a ban on street parking was reasonable, and that parking “lots and lots” of vehicles and equipment at a residence could be unacceptable.

    One issue, she said, with centralized parking lots for work vehicles, could be security. People park their equipment close to their houses, she said, to guard against theft.

    Rather than trying to change the relevant section of the town code completely, Ms. Buda suggested that the board should perhaps have stuck to the simpler solution originally suggested by Mr. Gunn: simply provide a definition of “light truck.”