A house can be built at 85 South Edgemere Street in Montauk on a controversial vacant lot at the edge of  Fort Pond,  just not the exact house the owners had wanted, according to a 3-2 vote Tuesday by the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals. The lot is slightly over an acre, but with a very small building envelope due to surrounding wetlands.

    The application has a checkered history. When the first public hearing on the site was held in 2011, board members noted, there was no public opposition. Variances were needed, and they appeared to have been approved in February 2012, making it possible for construction of a 2,437-square-foot house with a 410-square-foot carport to begin.

     Between then and last October, however, the property changed hands. The new owners, Timothy and Noell Twiggs, seeking to modify the original proposal, applied to fold the carport into the square footage of the house, which would then be two stories and 2,950 square feet, with a deck the same size as had been approved in February, 1,195 square feet. On Oct. 10, 2012, the board approved their plan to fold in the carport.

    “A couple of months go by, and neighbors notice the property being cleared,” Brian Gosman, board member and Montauk resident, told the board on Tuesday. Meanwhile, it had emerged that two essential setback variances had been overlooked in the original application. On March 7,  the building department revoked the building permit, citing the missing variances.

    The quest for those two variances — 5 feet and 8.4 feet — brought the project back before the board on June 11, when a new hearing led to an outpouring of local opposition. Jeremy Samuelson, the executive director of the Concerned Citizens of Montauk, told the board then that the growth of the proposed house was responsible.

     Alex Walter, the board chairman, said on Tuesday that while both the applicants and the board had overlooked the needed variances when the October modification was made, the onus was on the applicant to submit an accurate survey. The variances may seem small, he told the board, but they were large for such a constrained lot, at 25 and 45 percent.

    Mr. Gosman and Don Cirillo argued that the project should be approved in its entirety, but the other members disagreed, on the grounds that, as Mr. Walter had said, the variances were substantial enough to change their view of the entire proposal.

    “This thing has to be cleaned up, and we can do it now,” Mr. Walter said.

    Mr. Walter said he was all in favor of the 50-foot variance previously granted for a septic system, which, he pointed out, will be superior to those in surrounding properties. He also supported the special permits needed to build in such an ecologically fragile area, but suggested that the owners be encouraged to redesign the house so it would not need the two new variances.

    Mr. Cirillo asked if Mr. Walter was saying that the house would have to be smaller.

    “I’m not saying smaller,” Mr. Walter said. The Twiggses could build their 2,950-square-foot house, he said, if they could design it so it would not need the variances.

    “They can build a larger house than mine,” David Lys said, siding with Mr. Walter.

    “I think it would be larger than all of ours,” Mr. Walter said.

    Lee White, also a Montauk resident, joined with Mr. Walter and Mr. Lys to reapprove the permits and the septic system, but not the new variances. Mr. Cirillo and Mr. Gosman voted to approve the application in its entirety.

    In a memo to the board written before the June hearing, Brian Frank, the Planning Department’s head environmentalist, described the archaeological significance of the site, one of the last undeveloped parcels on Fort Pond. Archaeological investigations there revealed many artifacts, he wrote, with the property deemed potentially worthy of listing in the National Register of Historic Places. The surveys concluded that the lot held “a treasure trove of archaeological information of prehistoric life and ways of Native Americans, their land use, and cultural history.”

    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.”

    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.

   East Hampton Studios, the building on Industrial Road in Wainscott that was constructed as a film production soundstage in hopes that it would stimulate a developing film industry here, will become a storage facility.

    Permission from East Hampton Town, which leases the underlying land to the building owner, Michael Wudyka, was needed to change the use of the site, and town board members agreed Tuesday to the plan. Mr. Wudyka’s rent is in arrears, and he has been unable to turn the stage into a successful film production facility. A sale of the building to a storage company is pending, which would allow Mr. Wudyka to pay the town what he owes.

    Town board members expressed regret that the film industry did not take off here. The property is a part of the town’s industrial park on land around East Hampton Airport, which was envisioned as an incubator for industry that would create local jobs.

    Board members said at a meeting on Tuesday that  a number of town residents, including Frazer Dougherty, had called or written to suggest the town retain the use of the studio building for film production, or perhaps other businesses with a greater economic impact than a storage facility. Mr. Dougherty, the founder of East Hampton’s public access cable station, LTV, also founded and built East Hampton Studios.

    In recent weeks, following an East Hampton Star report on the East Hampton Studios request, representatives of Harvey Weinstein, a film producer who co-founded Miramax Films, called The Star to inquire about the studio, but Mr. Wudyka said earlier this week that he had not been approached.

    On Tuesday, the town board unanimously agreed to allow Mr. Wudyka to assign the lease of the property to the new building owner, whose name has not been made public, for the remainder of the lease, as well as for any renewal period provided therein. A formal resolution is expected shortly.

    A meeting on East Hampton Town’s comprehensive wastewater management plan, which was to have been held in Montauk on Wednesday, will be rescheduled.

    Consultants hired to develop the plan, which will include recommendations regarding the town’s septic waste-treatment plant, individual septic systems, and ongoing water-quality monitoring, are planning a series of meetings to focus on the needs and issues of individual hamlets.

    They also plan to form ad hoc project advisory groups, with “interested and knowledgeable professionals” as members, to review materials generated by the consultants and provide feedback. Members of the public will be invited to listen in and observe.

    A group focusing on the science of surface and groundwater-quality issues, and one designed to let business owners convey their wastewater-related challenges to the consultants, will be formed immediately. Another advisory group, on legal, financial, and land-use issues, will be formed later.

    Experienced professionals knowledgeable about the topics and interested in participating have been asked to send a brief outline of their relevant experience to Pio@LombardAssociates. com.

    Consultants are currently gathering data from various sources, including the East Hampton Town Trustees, on surface-water quality, the Lake Montauk Water Quality Management plan, assessors’ records, and water quality information from Suffolk County and the Suffolk County Water Authority. Reports, maps, and updates are posted at a project Web site, at EHWaterRestore.com.

    This week, a deep water-monitoring well is being installed along the shoulder of Springs-Fireplace Road near the scavenger waste treatment plant. According to a press release from Pio Lombardo, a lead consultant on the wastewater project, the well will help scientists evaluate whether the treatment plant has had an effect on the deeper groundwater near the plant and to gain a better understanding of groundwater flow in the area. Samples will be taken not only in the deep well, which goes down approximately 150 feet, but at existing monitoring wells around the septic plant and at areas of the plant that discharge waste products into the ground.

    The results, Mr. Lombardo said, will be coordinated with those of an ongoing groundwater monitoring program at the nearby former landfill (now the recycling center) “to allow for a comprehensive evaluation of groundwater quality and flow patterns” in the vicinity.

    In the aquaculture report she delivered to her colleagues at the East Hampton Town Trustees’ meeting on Tuesday, Stephanie Forsberg said that levels of cochlodinium, or rust tide, had decreased from the levels measured in local waters two weeks earlier.

    As reported previously, the algae that can be fatal to shellfish and finfish were discovered earlier this month in Three Mile Harbor, Northwest Harbor, and Accabonac Harbor. The trustees, in cooperation with Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University, have been monitoring the waters under the trustees’ jurisdiction.

    “We still have rust tide — cochlodinium bloom — however, at decreased levels,” Ms. Forsberg told her co-trustees. “It’s not a full, intense bloom.” In the densest concentrations, she said, the cells-per-liter count of the algae is declining. Falling temperatures, she said, account for the decreasing concentration.

    Testing has turned up no cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, in Georgica Pond, Ms. Forsberg said, adding that the trustees will issue a statement in the coming weeks regarding “last year’s alleged event.” She was referring to the death, last September, of a dog that apparently drank water from a pond adjacent to Georgica Pond.

    Personnel at Dr. Gobler’s laboratory will continue biweekly testing of local waters through November, Ms. Forsberg told her colleagues, depending on weather conditions. Data from the testing will be compiled and presented to the public next year, she said.

    In other news from the trustees’ meeting, Sean McCaffrey, a trustee, asked that the group approve the opening of Georgica Pond to the Atlantic Ocean on or around Oct. 15. His colleagues were unanimously in favor.

    Billy Mack of First Coastal, a coastal engineering firm based in Westhampton Beach, who was attending the meeting on behalf of clients with applications before the board, asked that the trustees consider awarding a contract for the work to his company. Diane McNally, the trustees’ clerk, agreed to consider First Coastal but advised Mr. Mack that the project was not an excavation but the standard biannual opening of the pond.

    Ms. McNally told the trustees, who own and manage beaches, waterways, and bottomlands on behalf of the public, that Fred Overton, the town clerk, had received a request for permission to film a commercial on Friday evening at Atlantic Avenue Beach. As part of the project, she said, “They want a bonfire with a truckload of wood.”

    “I make a motion to deny,” Ms. Forsberg said. Her colleagues seconded the motion.

    The meeting started with a presentation by local girl scouts. Lisa Schulte Brown, a troop co-leader, told the trustees that 13 scouts, all students at the John M. Marshall Elementary School and two of whom were in attendance, are to donate 20 hours’ community service in pursuit of a bronze award. She felt that the scouts’ service should involve local history and the environment.

    “Thirteen active girls at your disposal,” Ms. Schulte Brown announced. “It should be something of value.”

    Deborah Klughers, a trustee, suggested that the scouts interview past, or currently serving, senior trustees. “Some have outstanding environmental stories,” she said. Raising awareness of not only the monetary value of shellfish, but its historic value, might be a worthy goal, she added, suggesting that such a project take the form of an educational video, literature, or public service announcements. A similar study of eelgrass, beach grass, dunes, or marshlands would also be valuable, she suggested, as would a beach cleanup.

    Ms. Forsberg advised Ms. Schulte Brown to take these ideas to the troop and determine which would be of greatest interest to the scouts and value to their community-service project.

    Candidates for East Hampton Town supervisor and town board will meet at the Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street Saturday afternoon for the first of several debates scheduled over the next five weeks.

    This one, sponsored by the East Hampton Group for Good Government, is likely to include questions on the airport, deer control, wastewater, code enforcement, and the merits of a town manager, the group’s president, Jeffrey Fisher, said Monday. The debate will start at 2 p.m.

    Larry Cantwell, who is running unopposed for town supervisor on the Democratic, Independence, and Working Families lines, will be on hand, as will his Democratic running mates, Kathee Burke-Gonzalez and Job Potter, and their Republican challengers, Fred Overton and Dominick Stanzione, who also have Independence Party backing.

    “The G.G.G. hopes to encourage more residents to take an interest in local issues,” Mr. Fisher said. The debates are “an effective way to educate the public and at the same time bring people from both sides of the aisle together to participate in the electoral process.”

    The Group for Good Government, established in 2009, is a nonpartisan group formed to educate its members and the community at large about local issues. Over the past four years, it has held a number of meet-the-candidate events and forums and debates on East Hampton Town and East Hampton School District matters. This year, the group has held forums on wastewater and a town manager.

    This election year, “I think there’s a lot of enthusiasm,” Mr. Fisher said.

    On Saturday, candidates will answer questions prepared by a committee of the group’s members. There may also be an opportunity for those in the audience to write their own questions for candidates. The meeting will be recorded for later broadcast on LTV.

    A number of other debates and candidate forums will follow the Group for Good Government’s event in the coming weeks. On Oct. 20, candidates for East Hampton Town supervisor, town board, town justice, and Suffolk County legislator will be at the Concerned Citizens of Montauk’s meet-the-candidates forum from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Montauk Firehouse. Candidates for East Hampton Town Board and Suffolk County Legislature will also meet at an Oct. 21 League of Women Voters debate to be held at 7 p.m. at the Emergency Services Building in East Hampton.

    The Northwest Alliance, a group formed to protect Northwest Creek and Harbor, Barcelona Neck, the Grace Estate, and the environmental quality of areas in East Hampton’s Northwest Woods, has asked candidates for East Hampton Town Supervisor and town board to answer a short list of questions on water quality, the dredging of Northwest Creek, and aircraft noise “in the hopes of building a consensus on the urgency of the protection of this area,” according to T. James Matthews and Patricia Hope, members of the alliance’s steering committee.

    “We feel like our concerns have really been neglected for the last long while,” Mr. Matthews said Friday.

    Answers from three of the five candidates, the Democrats Larry Cantwell, Job Potter, and Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, have been circulated to the group’s 80 members and to the press. The Republican town board candidates, Fred Overton and Councilman Dominick Stanzione, had not responded by the group’s deadline, but said this week they planned to do so.

    The alliance asked what the candidates would do to ensure that the town code adapts to changes in water quality resulting from rising sea level, wetland retreat, “compromised” septic systems, and “saltwater intrusion into our aquifer.” It questioned what they would do to address the “governmental impasse” preventing the dredging of Northwest Creek. The creek has been closed to shellfishing for several years. Were it dredged more regularly, water quality might improve significantly, but the Suffolk County Department of Public Works will “dredge based only on navigational needs,” the group’s questionnaire said.

    Finally, the alliance asked, “What will you do to create and maintain a balanced and informed discussion of the issue of effects of aircraft noise on wildlife habitat protection?” The concern has to do with the routing of helicopters over the Barcelona Neck and Northwest Creek area.

    The candidates’ responses have been posted in their entirety on the alliance’s Web site, northwestallianceny.org and will also be posted on The Star’s.

    Larry Cantwell was the top vote-getter in the Republican primary for East Hampton Town supervisor, but Mr. Cantwell, the former East Hampton Village administrator who is running on the Democratic, Independence, and Working Families lines, has declined the nomination.

    Turnout was lower than 2 percent, and even in countywide Republican races, like those for sheriff or district attorney, less than 8 percent of registered Republicans showed up on Sept. 10.

    Of the 4,094 registered Republicans in East Hampton Town as of primary day, only 69 voted in the write-in primary for town supervisor. Mr. Cantwell received 35 votes, Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, who is not running for re-election, got 13. Next in line was Councilwoman Theresa Quigley, with 3 votes. There was one vote each for Fred Overton and Councilman Dominick Stanzione, who are running for town board on the Republican line, Zach Cohen, who tried for the Democratic nomination for supervisor, and Legislator Jay Schneiderman, who was tapped by the G.O.P. to run for supervisor before deciding to seek a final term on the County Legislature. Twelve others also got one vote each.

    The newest voter enrollment figures for East Hampton Town, released on Tuesday by the Suffolk County Board of Elections, show 4,063 registered Republicans in the town. There are 6,390 registered Democrats, 995 registered with the Independence Party, 170 Conservatives, 49 in the Green Party, 37 in the Working Families Party, and 6 Libertarians. East Hampton has 4,340 unaffiliated voters and 101 who are registered with myriad minor parties.  

    At the urging of Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has granted a six-month extension for Sandy-impacted homeowners to file flood insurance claims. The move follows a bipartisan call led by Ms. Gillibrand to extend FEMA’s Oct. 29 deadline for homeowners to file a Proof of Loss form under the National Flood Insurance Program the agency manages.

    Ms. Gillibrand and Mr. Schumer, along with New Jersey’s U.S. senators and members of both states’

Congressional delegations, emphasized that many homeowners are unable to meet the deadline because they are still awaiting repair work to begin or only recently learned of additional expenses as they commence repairs or reconstruction. Ms. Gillibrand personally lobbied Craig Fugate, FEMA’s administrator, for an extension, which now reaches to 18 months from Sandy’s landfall on Oct. 29 of last year.

    “Sandy-impacted homeowners who suffered damages from the storm should not be denied claims due to the timing of their paperwork,” Ms. Gillibrand said. “This critical extension will give struggling families more time to apply for the resources they deserve to repair and rebuild their homes.”