A majority of the East Hampton Town Board voted Tuesday to allow the Montauk Brewing Company, which plans to add brewing equipment to its tasting room in Montauk, to use three public parking spots in a nearby lot to fulfill a town requirement to provide more parking.

    The brewery founders, three East Hampton High School graduates, had asked the board to waive the standard $15,000-per-spot fee imposed if downtown businesses cannot provide their own parking spots. The money goes into a fund earmarked for providing public parking. The board took up the topic again this week after tabling two resolutions proposing different solutions two weeks ago.

    On Tuesday, Councilwoman Theresa Quigley again proposed a licensing agreement giving the business free use of the town spots for three years. “If they’re successful, then they could pay something in the future,” she said.

    Supervisor Bill Wilkinson agreed, citing a desire to help a local business get off the ground. “Somebody talked about moving Jimmy Kimmel from L.A. to New York,” said the former Los Angeles resident. “That’s what this is — it’s an incentive. It’s no different than having an incubator.”

    “We keep talking about creating jobs; retaining our kids,” Mr. Wilkinson said.

    Councilwoman Sylvia Overby and Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, though evincing a desire to assist the entrepreneurs, expressed some qualms. Mr. Van Scoyoc had proposed a deal allowing the business to amortize the $45,000 fee over a number of years, and on Tuesday repeated his reservations about changing the requirement prescribed in town law on the basis of a particular request.

    “Is the process going to be driven by an individual’s request, rather than taking a look at the bigger picture, and changing the process?” he asked.

    “We had a process, and that process was losing our youth,” Mr. Wilkinson retorted. “I don’t know if you’ve read about it. It was called the brain drain of Suffolk County.”

    “I think the idea that we’re not allowed to vary from the process is so antithetical to land use — not everybody fits into the mold,” Ms. Quigley said. “If somebody comes to me with a proposal, if it sits with me well, given the facts. . . . If somebody else makes a proposal that works, I’m going to say yes to them, too.”

    The fees-in-lieu-of-parking requirement is part of the site plan process, overseen by the planning board. That board and the zoning board of appeals deal with such matters, Ms. Overby said. “There is a process. And I’m not going to supplant my ideas,” she said.

    Ms. Quigley pushed forward with a resolution approving the free use of the spots for the three-year term, after which the agreement would be reassessed, she said. Mr. Wilkinson seconded it. Councilman Dominick Stanzione asked that the deal include, after the initial three free years, a payment schedule through which the business would pay the parking fees over a five-year term.

    “The amortization should include a waiver, should they create jobs,” Ms. Quigley said. “That would in essence constitute a payment, because they’re providing someone with a job.” She agreed, however, to include Mr. Stanzione’s idea.

    Ms. Overby asked that the resolution include a description of the special circumstances — namely, the proximity of public parking. That way, she said, numerous other downtown businesses will not assume that they would be eligible for a similar deal. She also asked that the resolution be put on paper before being brought to a vote. Both her requests were ignored, and she abstained from the vote.

    Mr. Van Scoyoc voted no — “because I believe it’s changing a process,” he said. “I think it’s a response to a specific application. It was cooked up on the spot. . . .” He said he did not disagree with making an exception for businesses near municipal parking. “But until that is done in a way that takes a comprehensive look at parking issues in Montauk, we have to stay the course,” he said, adding that he believed he had already offered a “good compromise.”

    Was the driveway asphalt, or was it gravel, or was it gravel-covered oil? And is gravel-covered oil the same as asphalt?

    Those were the questions of the day at the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals hearing on March 26. The driveway in question is part of a sprawling 186,000-square-foot property at 2118 Montauk Highway on Napeague owned by Lawrence Weiss.

    His representative at the hearing, Richard E. Whalen of LandMarks, told the board that after buying the property in 2005 Mr. Weiss began noticing pools of water on the driveway, and had a contractor from Speonk repave it with asphalt in 2009. He then went to the Building Department, seeking a permit to expand the house. In July 2012, Tom Preiato, the town’s head building inspector, ruled that the driveway had been altered, and because of that, no building permit could be issued.

    An asphalt driveway is not permitted in that neighborhood under the town code, unless it was laid down before the code was written.

    Mr. Whalen, in appealing Mr. Preiato’s determination, argued that it was. Asphalt and stone laid over oil are essentially the same thing, he said, and do not constitute an alteration. Asphalt, he said, is made up of oil and stone together.

    Brian Frank of the town Planning Department saw it differently. “Oil and stone do not have the same structure as asphalt,” he said. “To look at the driveway and to say nothing was changed is irrational.”

    Mr. Frank told the board it should tread lightly when considering reversing a determination by the building inspector. Such reversals can have “far-reaching” consequences, he said.

    Board members looked at before-and-after aerial photographs of the driveway. The problem was, said Don Cirillo, that though you could see stones on the surface, there was no way to tell what was beneath them.

    Drew Bennett, an engineer, addressed that issue for Mr. Weiss. “I was tasked with determining what is the content of the driveway,” he said. He took core samples of the current driveway in three locations, he told the board. In one sample, he said, it was clear that there was indeed oil under the gravel. The other two samples were inconclusive, which Mr. Bennett attributed to wear and tear.

    The zoning board agreed to close the hearing, and now has until May 27 to decide whether Mr. Preiato’s determination was correct.

    Instead of having a consultant create a comprehensive wastewater management plan for East Hampton Town — a plan that is to include recommendations on environmental protection, ongoing surface and groundwater quality monitoring, meeting regulatory mandates, and what to do about the town’s currently inoperable scavenger waste treatment plant — Councilwoman Theresa Quigley suggested on Tuesday budgeting perhaps as much as $10 million to subsidize upgrades of private septic systems in ecologically sensitive areas of town.

    Both Ms. Quigley and Supervisor Bill Wilkinson have opposed the plan put forward by the other three board members to hire a consultant, likely at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars, to collect data and draft an overarching plan before final decisions are made regarding the waste treatment plant, for instance. At the start of last year, the two were ready to sell the plant to the sole private company that had submitted a bid but were stymied when Councilman Dominick Stanzione, who had supported seeking bidders, agreed with the two new board members, Sylvia Overby and Peter Van Scoyoc, that the bid was unacceptable.

    A committee that evaluated submissions by consultants interested in creating the town’s wastewater plan recommended that the board accept a proposal by a coalition comprising Lombardo Associates, a Massachusetts company, the FPM Group of Ronkonkoma, and the Woods Hole Group, along with Christopher Gobler, a Stony Brook Southampton professor. Mr. Wilkinson and Ms. Quigley criticized that recommendation Tuesday, but Mr. Stanzione said he would offer a resolution at tonight’s meeting to hire the group.

    Lombardo Associates has developed a wastewater treatment system that can be used on a small scale. Ms. Quigley charged that, if the town hires Pio Lombardo as a consultant “he is going to be suggesting that we put his product in, his own product.”

    “I’m suggesting that this man who’s selling the product is not going to find that there is nothing wrong,” she said. “There’s a foregone conclusion to this study, and that foregone conclusion is to shut down the plant and put Mr. Lombardo’s system all over town.”

    The board voted unanimously on Jan. 8 to seek proposals for the comprehensive wastewater plan from four pre-qualified firms that had previously submitted outlines and any others. The proposals were vetted by a committee of town staffers that included the heads of the Planning and Natural Resources Departments.

    Jeanne Carrozza, the town purchasing agent, told the board on March 19 that each was scored on 40 different criteria, with two proposals earning more than the 70 points needed for further review of their specifics and price. The firm selected for recommendation to the board “fully satisfies the requirements” outlined by the town board, she said, which included professional qualifications, financial responsibility, and the use of innovative technology.

    Ms. Quigley took issue with the vetting process at the March 19 meeting, comparing it to a similar group evaluation applied several years ago to bids by vendors on town beach locations. “We tried this and it blew up in our faces,” she said.

    In that process, a huge public outcry ensued when it was announced that a longtime Ditch Plain vendor had not made the grade and would lose its spot, and all vendors’ bids were thrown out by the board when it was discovered that not all had received the same information, invalidating the bids.

    “If we are so concerned about our groundwater,” Ms. Quigley said Tuesday, the town would do better to give money directly to residents for septic system upgrades, “instead of having Mr. Lombardo and police coming to our septic tanks. Trust me, it is the next step,” she said.

    Mr. Wilkinson pointed a finger at Mr. Stanzione. “This is a charade,” he said heatedly. “Dominick, you’re putting the public through a charade.”

    Turning to Len Bernard, the town budget officer, Mr. Wilkinson ascertained that four votes — a supermajority of the board — would be needed to issue a bond to raise the money for the consultants’ fees. The money could come from bonds, Mr. Bernard said, or could be taken out of a surplus from the town operating budget.

    “We’ll get it either way,” Mr. Stanzione told Mr. Wilkinson.

    “Really, you know that?” the supervisor replied.

    Mr. Bernard reported that borrowing $10 million for septic upgrades would add $700,000 a year to the town budget for 20 years, and would put an annual increase to the town budget, which must include unavoidable increases in costs for employee benefits and other items, over the state-imposed 2-percent tax increase cap.

    However, any sum the town commits to underwriting septic upgrades would be unlikely to be expended in one year, Councilwoman Sylvia Overby pointed out.

    “It’s a great idea to start thinking about septic upgrades,” Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc told Ms. Quigley. But, he added, “I don’t think it supplants the need to have the study.” One thing the wastewater management plan would do, he said, would be to identify, “scientifically,” the areas of the town where septic upgrades are most needed.

    Should the town move forward with an upgrade program, he said, it would not necessarily mean issuing bonds to raise the money — other options, such as establishing a septic upgrade tax district could be explored, he said.

     After establishing a Water Quality Protection Fund six months ago, Southampton Town officials recently began discussing an incentive program to help residents replace, repair, or upgrade aging or failing septic systems dating from 1981 or earlier. The proposal calls for providing up to $5,000 or 60 percent of the cost to homeowners who install systems verified by the County Health Department to reduce nitrates going into groundwater. Money from the water protection fund and rebates will be drawn from a Southampton Town budget surplus from 2012.

    “Dear Honorable President Obama:” begins a letter sent last week to the president by the East Hampton Town Trustees.

    Members of the 300-year-old panel asked Mr. Obama to direct the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to delay the start of annual efforts to protect endangered shorebirds beyond April 1. That is the deadline for halting all activities that might endanger piping plovers and least terns during their breeding season, which ends in August. An extension would allow workers to continue restoring beaches ravished by Superstorm Sandy.

    The trustees wrote: “In review of the Endangered Species Act of 1972, within section 7, a subsection labeled (p) is found exemptions in presidentially declared disaster areas. This paragraph allows you, Mr. President, to make a determination for the repair or replacement of a public facility [the beach] substantially as it existed prior to the disaster when it involves an emergency situation which does not allow the ordinary procedures of pertinent E.S.A. sections to be followed.”

    The trustees also pointed out that many of the beaches where the threatened and endangered birds breed were stripped away by Sandy and the northeasters that followed.

    “We ask that you grant this relief to ensure the repair and replacement of sand along our shorelines can continue past April 1, 2013, to facilitate the rebuilding of our community to its pre-disaster condition.”       

East Hampton Town

Louse and Lazy: Much Debris

    Cleanup efforts led by the East Hampton Town Trustees last week at Louse Point in Springs and Lazy Point on Napeague yielded a large amount of debris that was hauled away from the beaches and boat-launching areas. Deborah Klughers, a trustee, reported to the town board on Tuesday that 13,500 pounds of debris had been collected at Lazy Point, not including fishing ropes, traps, and the like taken separately to a gear drop-off at the Montauk recycling center. At Louse Point, the total was more than 5,800 pounds.

    Ms. Klughers, before making her report, asked the town board to guess how much debris had been collected but was unable to engage either Supervisor Bill Wilkinson or Councilwoman Theresa Quigley. “I don’t play guessing games,” both said.

Barge, Unmoved Since ’09, to Be Sold

    The town will sell a barge with a crane on it that was purchased to enable dock and piling repair to be done in-house, without hiring marine contractors. The barge hasn’t moved since 2009, Ed Michels, the head of the East Hampton Town Marine Patrol, said at a board meeting on Tuesday, and is costing several thousand dollars a year in upkeep. The barge was last used by town workers to complete work that would have cost between $250,000 and $300,000 if hired out, Mr. Michels said. It was purchased for $225,000, and so has paid for itself, he said.

    Staffing cutbacks since 2009 have left the town without a full, qualified crew to run the barge and crane. And, said Mr. Michels and Jim Bennett, a crane operator, the crane itself is adequate only for work in Three Mile Harbor; it is not strong enough to install pilings, for instance, in the Montauk bottomland.

    According to Len Bernard, the town budget officer, the town still owes $140,000 on the barge, which has been appraised at $80,000 to $100,000. The Town of Islip has offered to purchase it for $85,000, and the Suffolk Department of Public Works is a potential buyer as well.

    The sale was approved by the board in a split vote along party lines, with the three Republicans — Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, Councilwoman Theresa Quigley, and Councilman Dominick Stanzione — giving the go-ahead.

Go-Ahead on Taxicab Licenses

    Also approved in a 3-to-2 vote on Tuesday was revised legislation governing taxicab licenses. The board had held a hearing in January on the law, which was tweaked after its implementation last year, and has made minor changes to several drafts since then. On Tuesday, board members agreed to have the town clerk continue to issue the licenses, with problems or reviews handed to the licensing review board, and to change the license term from one to two years. Requirements for driver background checks, and that cab companies seeking town licenses maintain an office in East Hampton Town, remain.

    Councilwoman Quigley moved for the vote, which was seconded by Mr. Wilkinson, without having a resolution written up. Mr. Wilkinson had said during the Tuesday session that he would be absent from a formal board meeting tonight, at which resolutions are normally brought to a vote.

    Although feedback on the law is still coming in — on Tuesday from the owner of Moko Taxi and his attorney — board members learned that the clerk’s office already has 20 requests on hold for new taxi licenses and has done three renewals, and they expressed a desire to get the legislation in place before the summer season. However, both Councilwoman Sylvia Overby and Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc asked that the vote wait until the board had a written draft in hand, but Ms. Quigley kept her resolution on the table. Mr. Van Scoyoc, along with Councilman Stanzione, abstained. Ms. Overby voted yes but expressed concerns about voting on unwritten resolutions.

New Zoning Committee Proposed

    With numerous businesses in the town on land now zoned for residential use and labeled “pre-existing, nonconforming” — a designation that allows them to continue but not to expand — the question of whether changes to the town code are needed should be examined, Councilwoman Quigley said Tuesday.

    She proposed forming a committee with three business owners and three “non-business owners — neighbor types,” to be assisted by a town attorney, Planning Department staff, building inspector, and perhaps natural resources staff as consultants. “There has been constant complaints that it creates problems for businesses,” Ms. Quigley said of the pre-existing, nonconforming status created after zoning has been changed. “This is an issue that has many elements.”

    The group should look at “all perspectives, including neighbors who would be impacted should something happen,” Ms. Quigley said. And, she said, “a long-term effect has to be the effect on our economy and the ability of people to make a living.” Councilman Stanzione said he was in “general agreement with the idea,” but that the committee “has to be really diverse” and “committed to . . . reconciling the long-term planning solutions.”

    Noting that the town already has a business committee, and a budget and finance advisory committee, Councilwoman Overby suggested giving those groups the task, but Ms. Quigley disagreed. 

    A draft capital plan for East Hampton Town in 2013 includes $9.5 million in projected spending, on items ranging from playground equipment to new stairs at Culloden Beach in Montauk and Police, Parks, and Highway Department vehicles.

    In 2014, the proposed plan, for which a town board vote is forthcoming, includes $1.9 million in projects.

    The projects will largely be funded by borrowing money — through issuing bonds — although some will be subsidized by federal, state, and county grants.

    Of this year’s projected $9.5 million project total, for instance, $7.2 million would be borrowed. The town expects to receive $1.6 million in federal emergency reimbursements related to Hurricane Sandy, as well as $649,310 in other grants.

    While the town board may approve the two-year capital budget as a whole, separate votes must be taken in order to move forward with individual listed projects, and a supermajority vote is needed to approve issuing bonds.

    Included in the draft is $300,000 to pay for a townwide wastewater management plan, to which Councilwoman Theresa Quigley and Supervisor Bill Wilkinson have been opposed.

    Councilman Dominick Stanzione pointed out that the projected capital budget does not include any planned spending at East Hampton Airport. If town officials opt not to accept new Federal Aviation Administration grants, which some residents have advocated as a path toward gaining better control over airport use and noise, the capital budget would have to be increased by $12 to $13 million, he said.

    Also absent from the capital plan is any sum for erosion control efforts or beach replenishment. The town is hoping to get $20 million in federal funding to rebuild Montauk beaches from Ditch Plain to the downtown area.

    Big-ticket items that have been recently discussed by the board and are included in the capital spending plan are construction of a fueling station for police and other town vehicles for an estimated $300,000, the purchase of two generators to keep Town Hall and the Montauk Playhouse open and running in the case of a power outage, for which the budget includes $500,000, and building upgrades and repairs to the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter, a $165,000 item. 

    In addition, the capital budget includes a $300,000 project to address stormwater runoff around Accabonac Harbor, a total of $150,000 over two years to digitize town records, and $60,000 for a vault to house documents. It also earmarks $190,000 for a second phase of repairs to dock pilings. 

    The town anticipates spending $2.2 million this year to repair damage from Sandy, 75 percent of which will be refunded by the state and federal governments.

    The capital plan also calls for spending $15,000 both this year and next to make town buildings more accessible and compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

    At a town board meeting on March 12, Len Bernard, the budget officer, said that the capital plan contains “just about every request that department heads made during the budgeting process.”

    The fate of the last parcel of undivided farmland in the Wainscott corridor, once part of two farms owned by the Hedges and the Osborne families, came before the East Hampton Town Planning Board on March 20.

    The land, almost 40 acres at 55 Wainscott Hollow Road once owned by Ronald Lauder, is owned now by a limited liability company with the address as its name.

    The applicants came before the board previously seeking site plan approval for a 14,566-square-foot single-family house with a 983-square-foot attached garage, a tennis court, a large swimming pool with a small pool house, and a 1,124-square-foot covered porch. It was one of the few applications the board has denied in recent years.

    The owners, represented by Mary Jane Asato of Bourke, Flanagan and Asato, took the town to court, and won a court order requiring the board to reverse its decision, which it did in February of last year.

    But instead of building the house on the site as had been granted, the owners are now coming before the board with a plan to subdivide the land into seven buildable parcels, while at the same time, setting aside 70 percent of the land as an agricultural reserve. It was where the houses were to be built that caused a kerfuffle at the meeting.

    Ms. Asato presented the board with a plan that would have located five of the houses along a hedgerow, running straight across the vista, from Wainscott Hollow Road to Sayre’s Path.

    In addition, an access road would have to be built.

    Ms. Asato told the board that the subdivision plan, as designed, would have the least impact on its neighbors.

    The Planning Department, in a memo to the board, disagreed, encouraging the owners to explore different plans and offering a couple of options.

    David Eagan, who owns a house neighboring the property, agreed with the Planning Department. He pointed out that, under guidelines adopted by the East Hampton Town Board in 2006 for the development of Wainscott, any open farm space should be contiguous with adjoining farm space.

    He also reminded the board that the stated priorities listed in the guidelines included creating “open space, including agricultural lands” and “lands of exceptional scenic value.” He argued that the 40 acres in question were both.

    “Whatever the board decides here, there are going to be some upset people,” said the board’s chairman, Reed Jones, adding that a neighbor on Sayre’s Path had also objected to the houses being placed near his.

    The session was a preliminary one, and the board encouraged the owners to consider and return with possible alternatives to their current plan.

     “This was all potato farms,” Mr. Eagan said on Tuesday as he walked out into his back yard, and pointed at the open land, which cuts a corridor from just south of Montauk Highway, all the way to the ocean, with a few houses along Wainscott Main Street being the only obstruction.

    Houses should be built next to houses, with the open corridor being maintained, he said.

    Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, who was the East Hampton Town Republicans’ top choice to run for supervisor this year, announced Monday that he will instead seek a sixth and final term in the Legislature, leaving Republicans to seek out a new candidate to lead their ticket.

    “It was not an easy decision,” Mr. Schneiderman said Monday. “Ultimately I came to the conclusion that I could still do a lot for the community at the county level.”

    Kurt Kappel, chairman of the East Hampton Town Republican Committee, said Monday that he was disappointed, but that the party still had plenty of time to find a replacement supervisor candidate. “We’re not being lazy about it, but it’s not like we’re in panic mode.”

    In fact, the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee is still in the process of screening candidates for its ticket and often does not hold its nominating convention until May. Larry Cantwell, the East Hampton Village administrator and a town board member years ago, has made no secret of the fact that he’s considering a run for supervisor.

    “My friends in the G.O.P. have managed to insult their current supervisor and nominate a candidate who isn’t running,” Mr. Cantwell said yesterday. “I hope they nominate a strong candidate because the people deserve a lively debate of the serious issues we face as a community.” Mr. Cantwell will retire from his village post this summer.

    The Democrats also have a strong potential candidate in Zachary Cohen, who lost to Mr. Wilkinson by just 15 votes in 2011.

    “My goal has always been, and continues to be, to seek the nomination for supervisor,” Mr. Cohen said by e-mail yesterday. “In the last election, I was honored to receive this nomination from the local Democratic, Independence, and Working Families Parties.”

    Both of the G.O.P.’s chosen candidates for town board — Councilman Dominick Stanzione and Fred Overton, the town clerk — might be considered for supervisor, Mr. Kappel said.

    Mr. Overton said Monday that he is open to the idea. “I’ll see what input I can get from family and friends and what sort of team I could put together. . . . It’s not a decision I’m going to rush into.”

    Mr. Stanzione, who is finishing his first term in office, did not return calls by press time. Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, a Republican, has said he does not wish to run for re-election, but did not respond to a request for comment.

    “I think a lot of people, when they heard Jay was going to screen, felt he was going to be a good candidate so they didn’t come forward,” Mr. Kappel said.

    Mr. Overton, the town clerk for 14 years, was one of them. “I hadn’t given it any serious consideration. . . . Not only was there Jay, but Bill hadn’t said he wouldn’t run.”

    Mr. Schneiderman was the only candidate East Hampton Republicans interviewed for the supervisor slot.

    Asked if he felt he had burned a bridge with the East Hampton G.O.P., Mr. Schneiderman said, “I hope not. I feel like I have been honest with them. . . . A lot of this period, I was almost sure I was going to run for supervisor.”

    That job is more constant and more demanding than being a legislator, he said, but he also “asked myself, ‘Am I going backwards rather than forwards?’ ”

    A prepared statement on his decision to run for legislator sent out Monday morning included what can only be seen as an early endorsement from Democratic County Executive Steve Bellone: “I am grateful that Legislator Schneiderman has chosen to seek re-election. Jay is a strong voice and a relentless advocate for the East End. As we work to put our finances in order, deliver services more efficiently, and rebuild after Sandy, I need Jay Schneiderman’s voice in the Legislature.” Mr. Schneiderman was first elected to the Legislature as a Republican, but joined the Independence Party midway through his tenure and now caucuses with the Democrats.

    Not only does he have greater short-term job stability as legislator — he won overwhelmingly in 2011 and ran unopposed in 2009 — but if re-elected he might also be in a good position to work on some of the very issues he had hoped to tackle if he returned to Town Hall. Top among them, he said, is “rebuilding the beach in downtown Montauk.”

    His children factored into his decision, too. The 24/7 schedule of a town supervisor is less conducive to family life, he said, but he is not ruling out a run at some point in the future, “when my kids are a little older.”

    East Hampton Republicans have Steve Lynch, the highway superintendent, running for a second term, Carol Brennan, the deputy town clerk, on tap to replace Mr. Overton, Carl Irace, a former town attorney, for town justice, and Joe Bloecker, a trustee, for assessor. They have also nominated the four incumbent Republican trustees who plan to run again. That leaves them with five more trustee candidates to choose, along with a supervisor nominee and potentially another nominee for town board.

    An East Hampton Town committee developing recommendations on protecting Lake Montauk from pollution presented the town board with several interim suggestions at a board meeting on March 12.

    New signs notifying boaters that Lake Montauk is a federally designated “no-discharge” zone are needed, the committee said, to make it clear that waste may not be released from vessels into the lake. The group suggested a public awareness campaign, perhaps coupled with a boating safety education effort focusing on issues such as boat driving while intoxicated and compliance with maximum-passenger limits.

    In addition, the committee said, waste pump-out services provided at a fixed station and by a pump-out boat operated by the East Hampton Town Trustees should be expanded, especially on weekends.

    The committee also suggested other signs, and perhaps kiosks, designed to inform people about the sensitive and unique ecology of the lake.

    A public outreach program could include litter clean-up efforts around the shores of the lake and a brochure covering guidelines for lake preservation and information about the Lake Montauk watershed.

    “It is suspected, but not proven, that some septic waste is finding its way into the lake from as far away as Ditch Plains,” the committee wrote in a report submitted to the town board.

    To avoid this, the group said, the town should encourage the upgrade and relocation of septic systems away from wetlands and surface waters, as well as the use of state-of-the-art sanitary systems, including those that can service more than one property.

    More frequent water testing for toxins and bacteria should be done at different sites around the lake, the group said, to “fill in the gaps” in data from tests done by the county and state.

    At the beach at South Lake, which has been closed to swimming by the County Health Department, the committee recommended that a sign now saying “Swimming Prohibited. No Lifeguard on Duty,” be changed to a more explicit message stating “Warning: Elevated bacterial levels have been recorded in this area. As a precaution all water contact in this area should be avoided.” The sign, the same as one used at Havens Beach in Sag Harbor, where there are also water quality problems, depicts a silhouette of a swimmer covered with a red slash.

    Town Councilwoman Theresa Quigley objected, saying that the water tests do not always show bacterial levels that would preclude swimming. “I find the sign completely contradictory, to the point that we want people to enjoy it,” she said of the beach.

    The levels do vary, said Julie Evans-Brumm, a committee member. But, she said, “Until we can actually remediate the source, we can’t actually open South Lake to swimming.” The committee’s final Lake Montauk watershed plan will address such mitigation.

    “The intent of the sign is to let people know that there is a possible health risk there,” said Brian Frank, a town planner and committee member. “Enterococcus is a pathogen,” he said, and those that are most vulnerable, such as the elderly and children, should protect themselves from it.

    “You can give me all the details you want,” Ms. Quigley said, “but, big picture, we have a town where you can’t do anything. We’re allowing downtown Montauk beaches to be eroded, we’re closing the lake. Where do people go?”

    “We are turning into a town where we shut down everything,” Ms. Quigley complained. “You guys have been in business for four years and all you’ve come up with is a sign?” she said to the committee members. “To me all that says is don’t use the beach.”

    She asked the committee to suggest language for a sign that “better reflects the science.”

    In its report to the board, the group reviewed its activities. It has mapped the lake watershed boundaries, modeled stormwater volumes for various level storms, developed a preliminary report on eelgrass, analyzed bottom sediments, inventoried finfish in the lake, and taken and analyzed coliform bacteria from 15 sampling stations around the lake.

    Continued work, resulting in a final Lake Montauk watershed plan, includes developing target goals, continuing discussions of sources of water quality impairments, and mapping the “sewershed,” or drainage infrastructure, around the lake.

    Residents of the East Hampton neighborhood comprising Miller Lanes West and East and Indian Hill Road have been left frustrated with the results of their continuing appeals to the town board to do something about the volume of traffic and speeding through their neighborhood.

    The board was poised at a meeting on March 7 to approve restrictions on heavy trucks over nine tons on those roads (except for local delivery), and to pass a law prohibiting left turns from Indian Hill Road at its intersection with North Main Street or Three Mile Harbor Road. But the resolution was tabled after a group of residents that had sat through other board business — including a hearing that pushed the meeting well past 10 p.m. — questioned the board’s approach.

    “Now we’re left with, once again, a kind of piecemeal approach that’s not going to solve the problem,” said Julia Mead, a Miller Lane West resident who has been organizing concerned neighbors. “I’m wondering why no iteration of this plan has included a reduction of the speed limit on our road.”

    Enacting a weight limit and banning large trucks from the neighborhood’s roads does address part of the problem, she acknowledged. But residents, she said, are disappointed with the lack of a comprehensive solution. Why, she asked, has the board not included residents of the area in its discussions of the problem?

    Others wondered why a ban on left turns from Indian Hill Road is needed. The idea was first floated by Supervisor Bill Wilkinson in an earlier discussion. He said that the concept had been reviewed and approved by Eddie Ecker, the town police chief.

    Ms. Mead suggested a professional review by traffic engineers is warranted.

    A comprehensive look at the entire area is needed, Councilwoman Theresa Quigley said, as changing traffic patterns on any specific streets would have a ripple effect on other streets, including the nearby main byway of Cedar Street and its intersection with North Main Street.

    The board had held a hearing last fall on residents’ suggestion to ban through traffic on their streets. That suggestion prompted protests that the ban would, in effect, privatize roads that are paid for and maintained by the Town Highway Department.

    That proposal also included erecting stop signs at Downey Lane where it intersects with Miller Lane East and Miller Lane West. Ms. Mead asked the board last week why that had not happened.