East Hampton Village launch­ed a new website on Friday. The new site, at easthamptonvillage. org, features a complete redesign that Becky Hansen, the village administrator, said is more interactive for residents and anyone else looking for information relating to the village. 

The project was put out to bid last year. After selecting Civic Plus, a Kansas firm that specializes in municipal web design and software for local governments, village staff met to review design options and information that would be transferred to the new site. Village staff can now make changes and provide real-time updates, such as closings and emergency alerts.

“The village is very happy with the new design and potential for more direct exchange with the public,” Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said in a statement.

LTV will hold an orientation workshop, open to any resident interested in producing a show at the studio or learning the ins and outs of video production, on Monday, at its headquarters on Industrial Road in Wainscott. The orientation is a prerequisite for would-be LTV producers, and also for a class in directing and camera work, which will be held on Sept. 16. 

“We want to encourage as many people as possible to become producers, so we are offering it at night to make it easier for those who work regular business hours,” said Morgan Vaughan, LTV’s executive director. 

The class in camera work and directing will run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Those not able to make that class can volunteer to train on other producers’ shows.

Registration for the orientation class is by email to Ellen Watson, the development director, at [email protected], or by calling 631-537-2777, ext. 110.

On Monday, the 16th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, emergency responders and the public will gather once again to remember those who lost their lives at the Memorial Green at Hook Mill. The ceremony will start at 6 p.m. 

Presented each year by the East Hampton Town Chiefs Association, the brief event will include a benediction and the placing of a memorial wreath, according to Gerry Turza, the president of the association. 

Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, including 343 firefighters.

Just as organizations throughout the country assisted Long Islanders in the 2012 aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, a Montauk-based nonprofit has partnered with a national organization to assist victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas. East End Cares has joined Team Rubicon, a nonprofit that deploys military veterans and first responders to the heart of disaster-stricken areas to help provide emergency services in Houston.  

An online fund-raising effort is underway, with East End Cares hoping to reach its $15,000 goal in order to send physical help to the area. Donors can text “Cares” to 87872 or make a donation at teamrubiconusa.org.

Marc DeNofio, a Team Rubicon representative, said the aid received so far had been greatly appreciated. In an email, he wrote: “The donations that arrive at Team Rubicon are coming from personal donations, corporations, and nonprofit partners such as the East End Cares. These donations help us provide our services in the immediate nature that they are needed.”

Assisting victims of Hurricane Harvey is Team Rubicon’s largest effort since its inception in 2010. According to the organization’s website, it has sent 212 volunteers to hurricane-impacted communities in Texas and another 495 have provided remote support.

Mr. DeNofio shared a firsthand story by Sandra Moore, a resident of Southwest Houston since 1984, who was not home when the flood waters reached her neighborhood. Trained water rescue volunteers, he said, safely guided her home to grab some necessary belongings and her cat.

“I was overwhelmingly impressed with this team. I tell everyone to support Team Rubicon. They’re the real deal. They’re professional, and kind, and I felt so safe with them. I was weeping frantically when they arrived, but I later cried with joy knowing they were here,”  Ms. Moore wrote.

While Team Rubicon’s efforts in Texas continue, the organization is also  monitoring the Category 5 Hurricane Irma, which is tied for the second-strongest ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. At press time it was charging toward the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and the southeastern Bahamas, with reports that by the weekend or early next week it might hit Florida and the Southeast United States.

An application to resolve the illegal conversion of an attic to habitable space was finally closed on Friday, with members of the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals expressing regret for subjecting the property owners to what the building inspector had likened to a Ping-Pong match. 

When Charles and Karen Phillips bought their house, at 233 Cove Hollow Road, from a developer last year, it was larger than indicated on the building permit. A certificate of occupancy had been granted, but it specified that the area over the property’s three-car garage was to be only a storage attic. The floor plan also showed an adjacent storage area that had attic space above it. The wording of the certificate of occupancy was imprecise as to what space could not be converted.

Relocating from California, Mr. Phillips, who is the chief executive officer of Infor, a company that specializes in enterprise software applications, was unaware of this and hired a contractor to create an office and conference room in the storage area. It was completed before the Phillipses moved in. Upon discovering that the office and conference room had resulted in the floor area of the house being some 1,200 square feet above the maximum allowed, the couple applied for a variance.

 Their application was first heard at the board’s June 23 meeting, with members disinclined to grant what they considered a  substantial variance. When the hearing was continued on July 28, the applicants offered to remove a corridor, bedroom, and full bathroom from the first floor and to convert it to a screened-in porch, which would no longer be included in the floor area calculation. A half-bathroom adjacent to the office would also be removed, and the Phillipses offered a covenant stating that the space would never become a bedroom.

However, it was discovered that converting the first-floor living space to a porch would result in the basement’s extending beyond the house’s footprint, which is prohibited. At the July 28 session, the couple agreed to apply for a building permit for the first-floor conversion, even though it was likely to be denied. On Friday, in what was technically a new hearing, the Phillipses applied for the variance necessary to convert portions of the first floor to a screened porch with a full cellar below it. At Friday’s meeting, Lys Marigold, the board’s vice chairwoman, who was at the June 23 but not the July 28 meeting, called a halt to the process.

 “It was an original mistake from the Building Department, and then the contractor,” she said. “It’s a compounded mistake that has just kept going and going and going.” Given the unusual circumstances, it made more sense to simply grant a variance for the excess floor area created by finishing the space above the garage, she said. 

Addressing the couple, she said, “When you’re here longer, you will see that the Z.B.A. is actually very fair, very considerate, and we’re not mean ogres. If the others of the board will step back, too, I would like to present a case for just accepting it,” although with the stipulation that the office and conference room never be used as a bedroom. 

The office and conference room have existed for some time with no complaints from neighbors, Frank Newbold, the board’s chairman, said, “and it all seems quite a reasonable use by the applicant.” Mr. Phillips “has made every effort . . . to find mitigation that’s reasonable,” he said, adding that requiring the couple to convert a portion of the first floor would be onerous.  

“I characterized them as innocent victims all along,” Lenny Ackerman, the couple’s attorney, said, “and I think this is good value judgment on behalf of the board.”

The board decided that a covenant stating that the office and conference room area would never become a bedroom, even under future owners, was sufficient to conclude the discussion.

Also at the meeting, the board announced decisions concerning two of four contiguous lots on Lee Avenue. Jane Goldman and her husband, Benjamin Lewis, were granted a variance allowing eight-foot-high deer fencing at 72 and 74 Lee Avenue, despite the six-foot limit in the zoning code. The board had granted variances for the fencing at 70 and 76 Lee Avenue on Aug. 11, noting that it was embedded in vegetation and could not be seen by neighbors or passers-by. However, it delayed action on 72 and 74 because the fencing on those lots runs through a scenic easement donated to the village. 

The board had previously granted a variance regarding the easement on the condition that structures be removed from the easement. The applicants took the matter to court, the court annulled the condition in the Z.B.A. decision, and the village filed a notice of appeal, which is pending.

To help with rescue efforts in the battered area around Houston and southeast Texas, the nonprofit East End Cares has partnered with Team Rubicon, a nationwide nongovernment organization that unites military veterans with first responders for rapid emergency responses.

As of noon Tuesday, Team Rubicon volunteers had rescued at least 35 residents. Three additional boat teams are expected to join the search and rescue effort tomorrow, and operations will continue for the next three to four days.

To support these efforts, East End Cares is raising money and is looking to send its own team of volunteers. Information about the organization can be found on its Facebook page, which was set up by Melissa Berman of Montauk. Under its aegis she helped coordinate relief on Long Island after Hurricane Sandy and has traveled to Lesbos in Greece.

To help the efforts of East End Cares and Team Rubicon, donations can be made at teamrubiconusa.org.

In addition, the East Hampton School District will hold a clothing drive and bake sale on Saturday, Sept. 9, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the high school on Long Lane in East Hampton to raise money for Houston relief.

Debbie Mansir, the programs coordinator, has asked that women’s, men’s, and children’s clothes be separated before being dropped off. One hundred percent of the proceeds will go  to rescue efforts.

For more information and to donate, residents can call Ms. Mansir at 631-329-6462.

For anyone who has not seen the exhibition of drawings, paintings, photographs, and sculpture by South Fork artists that opened at the Jackson Carriage House in Amagansett on Aug. 5, the next few days offer a last chance.

Fifty percent of the proceeds go to the Amagansett Historical Association to help maintain Miss Amelia’s Cottage, the Phebe Cottage, the carriage houses, and the property they stand on, at the intersection of Montauk Highway and Windmill Lane. The exhibition will be open from 2 to 6 p.m. tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday, and then at those hours from Friday, Sept. 1, to Sept. 3, when a closing reception will be held.

The association had an open house on Saturday at the Phebe Cottage in connection with the progress being made on the Kelsey Archive, a collection of 5,000 historical photographs and postcards bequeathed to it by the late Carleton Kelsey, who had been the Amagansett librarian.

The images have been sorted and conserved and are now being digitized. The Phebe Cottage has been fitted with a state-of-the-art climate-control system to protect the original images, and a summer intern, Christina Stankewicz, has been working on the project since June.

Peter Garnham, the president of the association’s board of trustees, said the association would appreciate donations to help pay for the project, although he could not predict when the work would be completed.

“We are a small organization, with a limited budget,” he said, “but we try to do everything to the highest professional standards. Projects such as this take longer, but we believe that these unique images of Amagansett’s history are worth taking the time to get it right.”

He asked anyone who would like more information or a tour of the Kelsey Archive to contact him at 631-375-1475 or pgarnham@optonline. net.

Saturday offers a chance to properly dispose of household hazardous waste, as the Town of Southampton will hold a STOP day — for Stop Throwing Out Pollutants — at the Sag Harbor transfer station on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Residents can get rid of automotive products, like antifreeze, batteries, and brake fluid, and household products like oil-based paints and paint strippers, stains and varnishes, toilet bowl cleaners, and driveway sealers. Lawn and garden products, like pesticides and insecticides, along with aerosol cans, kerosene, and swimming pool chemicals can also be disposed of during this time.

A full list of accepted materials can be found on the town’s website or by calling the town’s recycling office at 631-283-5210. The next STOP day will be at the Hampton Bays transfer facility on Oct. 21.

This year’s piping plover chicks have fledged, adding 35 young plovers to the limited population of the endangered birds after a protective watch and efforts to keep people, vehicles, dogs, and other predators away from them. The species is protected under federal law.

Juliana Duryea of East Hampton Town’s Natural Resources Department reported to the town board earlier this month that 34 plover pairs had returned to 15 different places where they had previously nested, including the bay beaches at Louse Point and King’s Point in Springs and the ocean shore on Napeague.

On average, the plovers successfully raised one chick per pair, fewer than in previous years, Ms. Duryea said.

In 2014, the fledge rate averaged 1.5 chicks per pair, and in 2015, two chicks per pair. Last year, the plover couples raised an average of 2.5 chicks each. Even with the dip in fledglings this year, said Ms. Duryea, East Hampton’s plover count remains close to the goal set by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for procreating plovers, of at least 1.5 chicks per pair over a five-year period.

Plovers nest in the sand, where they are vulnerable to all kinds of disturbance and predation. “I’ve been seeing a lot of foxes,” Ms. Duryea said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service administers a plover protection program nationwide, but has delegated the responsibility in East Hampton to the town.

While the federal agency might choose to close off all access to beaches where plovers are observed, by keeping close tabs on plover pairs and chicks, the Natural Resources Department aims to minimize beach closures, tailoring decisions to bar vehicles or pedestrians to the exact locations of nests or chicks.

During nesting, all access to nesting areas must be prohibited. Once the eggs hatch, the protected areas often expand, as the hatchlings wander around the beach. “When the chicks are roaming around the beaches, we have to restrict trucks,” said Ms. Duryea. Pedestrians, however, may be let into such areas.

This year, a part of the Napeague ocean beach where vehicles gather, known as Truck Beach, was affected for a time, prompting Diane McNally, a town trustee, to complain at the Aug. 8 town board meeting. “As a trustee, I’d like to know before the fence goes up,” she said.  More people monitoring the birds, she said, could make it unnecessary to shut down large areas of the beach.

Volunteers have worked with Ms. Duryea to track plovers in areas including Sammy’s Beach in East Hampton, Lion’s Head and Clearwater Beach in Springs, and in Amagansett, Kim Shaw, the natural resources director, said.

Piping plovers were common along the Atlantic Coast during the 19th century, but were nearly wiped out after their feathers became a popular trim for ladies’ hats. Increased development and recreation along the beaches where they nest also contributed to the population’s decline, and the birds were protected under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1986. The Atlantic Coast population of plovers is currently listed as threatened.

Piping plovers, small, stocky, sandy-colored birds similar to sandpipers, may be seen in groups on the beaches at this time of year. By mid-September, adult and young plovers have usually migrated south to their wintering grounds from North Carolina to Florida.

A new energy company is offering East Hampton customers an alternative to purchasing their electricity and gas from PSEG-Long Island.

Agera will provide electricity to commercial customers here at rates that will vary according to the energy market but that are projected to remain lower per kilowatt hour than PSEG’s, a representative of the Westchester company said this week.

While those who sign on to the new energy company for electricity will be purchasing their power from Agera, the final delivery of energy from substations to customers’ properties will use infrastructure controlled by PSEG, so customers will still pay a delivery charge to PSEG. Electric bills already reflect two separate fees, for kilowatt hours of electricity and for its delivery.

Agera has been in business for four years, Peter Novielli, a product specialist with the company, said this week. It supplies energy in 14 states and to more than 100 utility companies, including Con Edison in New York City.

It got off the ground in New York after state lawmakers deregulated the electricity and gas market, allowing independent power producers to enter the market and giving consumers a choice of where to purchase their electricity and gas.

The state’s local utilities, such as PSEG-Long Island, remain responsible for operating distribution and transmission systems that deliver electric and natural gas service. However, deregulation allows retail energy suppliers to compete with the utilities to provide the electricity and natural gas.

But in East Hampton, PSEG-Long Island has been the only option until now. Mr. Novielli said Agera has been soliciting East Hampton customers since early this year, including through recent emails. 

“We are always trying to stay as competitive as possible,” he said. “We are normally, on an average, two to four cents lower [per kilowatt hour] than the utility companies.”

In a recent solicitation email, Agera contrasted its per-kilowatt-hour fees with those charged by PSEG. In January, for instance, PSEG charged 10.8 cents, and Agera, 7.03 cents. In May, PSEG’s price was 10.9 cents per kilowatt hour, and Agera’s 6.9 cents. And in July, when PSEG-Long Island charged 10.4 cents per kilowatt hour, according to the email, Agera charged 7.7 cents.

Those who wish to switch over to Agera must do so in advance for an upcoming month. They are guaranteed a particular rate for only up to two months; after that it is subject to change. Customers may opt out at any time with no cancellation fee.

The electricity provided by Agera comes from both renewable sources (wind) and from traditional fossil fuel plants. Customers can choose to purchase 100-percent wind power, or a combination of energy from wind and fossil fuels, at commensurately higher rates.

Agera also provides natural gas, through the in-ground pipelines, to residences or businesses.  The company has a “large number” of customers in New York State, Mr. Novielli said, and about 1.8 million nationwide.

New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., an outspoken critic of PSEG-Long Island and a sponsor of a number of laws aimed at energy consumer protection, said yesterday that competition is welcome.

“Since deregulation, I’ve talked with various people who have talked about trying to provide an alternative to PSEG, none of which have really gotten off the ground,” he said.

The relationship between the Long Island Power Authority, or LIPA, and PSEG-Long Island, said Mr. Thiele, makes PSEG “a private company with a virtual monopoly that has the least oversight and competition of any utility in the country.”

“That does not serve the public well,” he said. “The prospect of competition is something that I think is healthy and, frankly, necessary.”

Whether Agera can make a go of it, given the vicissitudes of the energy market and its large-scale purchasing contracts, remains to be seen, said Mr. Thiele. But, he said, “it’s a really interesting concept. It’s something the consumers should be aware of.”