“The people of Wainscott are suffering. I don’t have enough sand,” Billy Mack of the First Coastal company told the East Hampton Town Trustees last week. The coastal engineer appeared at the trustees’ regular monthly meeting on Jan. 8 to request a supply of sand excavated from the seaward end of Georgica Pond.

    Both fine-grained beach sand and clean “beach-compatible” sand that includes coarser grains from sand mines are becoming harder to come by.

    First Coastal has been hired by beachfront residents of Wainscott to reconstruct dunes stripped from in front of their properties by the series of storms that began with megastorm Sandy on Oct. 29.

    Coastal storms have been so rapacious of late that the heavy-equipment companies that haul and shape it into replacement dunes — the only defenses that some homeowners have left — are suffering from sand deprivation. And, it’s not just a question of money.

    The homeowners in question, the billionaire Ronald Lauder among them, can afford to replace dunes again and again, and with sand in short supply, it doesn’t come cheap. The trustees, who own and manage Georgica Pond on behalf of the East Hampton public, charge a flat rate of $7.50 per cubic yard of sandy bottomland excavated from the pond. Southampton Town Trustees charge about the same for sand taken from Mecox Bay. Contractors purchase the sand and add their cost for hauling and shaping it into new dunes.

    The system has worked well in the past, but the frequency of storms, the legal restrictions placed on mining sand from coastal ponds, and the absence of other sand sources is leaving some of the most prized and valuable real estate in the country extremely vulnerable.

    During last week’s meeting, Mr. Mack complained that the trustees had departed from their usual procedure for distributing sand excavated from the pond.

    The arrangement between the Department of Environmental Conservation, the agency that oversees coastal development, including erosion control, for the state, and the trustees, who claim ownership of East Hampton’s beaches and bottomlands as well as legislative authority over their use, is a tricky one.

    The question of final authority over the excavation of sand from Georgica Pond is a sleeping dog that both agencies have let lie. As a result, the amount of sand that can be taken and when is negotiated between the D.E.C. and the East Hampton Town Department of Natural Resources. In recent years, the D.E.C. has permitted a total of 12,000 cubic yards to be taken each year. Efforts are being made to increase the amount.

    The demand for sand is such that the trustees have struggled to come up with a system to both sell it and divvy it up among competing contractors. Auctioning it to the highest bidder was tried, but the bidding process became unwieldy. It also required hiring a person to count truckloads.

    This year the trustees decided to sell the first, and possibly the only, 12,000 yards this year for a flat rate to one contractor, the Patrick Bistrian company.

    Because of differences between the Georgica Association and the trustees regarding access to the pond along the beach (the stretch between Beach Lane in Wainscott and the pond is one of the rare instances where private beach ownership predates formation of the trustees in 1686), the Bistrian company dealt directly with the Georgica Association.

    Last week, Mr. Mack took exception to the policy change. “It will take 25 days of hauling to do what we need to do. We’re on a tight schedule. The situation at Wainscott Pond is precarious,” Mr. Mack said, referring to a section of beach near the Lauder property that had been so narrowed by erosion that there was danger of an ocean breach. A cottage on the property has already been consumed by the sea. Mr. Mack said he would need 10,000 cubic yards to spread over three of the properties there.

    He accused the nine-member trustees of being “unresponsive” to his calls asking for Georgica sand. “I thought the trustees had a new policy where they would divvy up the Georgica sand between the contractors that needed it for $7.50 a cubic yard. They changed it without the public knowing and left the people in Wainscott in the lurch.”

    “There is serious danger of flooding. Why wasn’t I considered?” he asked.

    Mr. Mack was told that his firm was not chosen as the sole contractor to buy Georgica sand because it had a history of bypassing trustee permit requirements — “so we went with the other guy,” Diane McNally, the trustee clerk, said.

    Trustees told the contractor that a condition of a permit to allow First Coastal to start the Wainscott dune restoration work was the removal of geo-cubes, large sandbags, that were permitted to be used as a seawall, but only temporarily.

    Not all of the sandbags had been removed as of last week’s meeting, trustees said, another black mark, one that again slowed the pace of dune restoration.

    William Fleming, attorney for several of the Wainscott property owners, criticized the slow pace of the trustees’ approval process in a strongly worded letter the trustees this week. First Coastal was granted a go-ahead on Tuesday night.

    But then there’s the sand itself. The D.E.C. allows dunes to be rebuilt using beach-compatible sand. However, Sean McCaffrey, a trustee, said on Tuesday, “There’s the D.E.C.’s version of beach-compatible sand. Ours is different. We think clean sand. The D.E.C. allows a mixture” of beach-type sand and larger sand mined from quarries. “People wouldn’t want to lie on it,” Mr. McCaffrey said.

    Also Tuesday, Mr. Mack said First Coastal was “piecing together sand” from a few different sources, including Mecox Bay. “The trustees have conditioned that we use only beach sand, instead of beach-compatible. It makes it harder to secure sand. It seems like they’re picking on somebody. They are placing a tremendous number of hoops to go through to restore the dunes,” Mr. Mack said.

    The Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee considered Monday how to address the regular summertime occurrence of huge, alcohol-fueled crowds at Indian Wells Beach. East Hampton Town Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, the committee’s liaison to the town board, suggested the possibility of prohibiting parking on streets near Indian Wells Highway, as well as limiting taxi and bus access to the beach’s parking lot.

    “Do we have to close Indian Wells Highway at Bluff Road and say you can’t get by there without a town sticker?” asked Kieran Brew, the committee’s chairman. “I don’t like the ‘police’ aspect of it, but it is kind of crazy down there.”

    “The share-house issue in Amagansett is getting a little out of control,” Mr. Brew added. “It’s difficult to police, it’s difficult to enforce. This could be the bigger issue that we have to look at. This whole thing is a quality-of-life infringement. It’s great that lots of people love our little town, but is it going to be our little town if it becomes Belmar?” he asked, referring to the resort town on New Jersey’s shore.

    Could alcohol be outlawed during the daytime? it was asked. That would be a change in the law, Ms. Overby said, and such a change would apply townwide.

    “We should pass a law like the village has,” said the committee’s Sheila Okin. “On lifeguard beaches, between 9 and 5 you cannot drink. Why should we all have to suffer this way? And why should we have to use police and marine patrol in this silly manner? I think it’s ridiculous.”

    An alcohol ban, it was predicted, would not sit well with many business owners, particularly the hoteliers at the ocean beaches in Montauk. “You’re putting rules on everybody for this small group of outsiders who are blatantly being disruptive,” said Britton Bistrian, a member of the committee. “Enforcement could get rid of the problem. You can’t have a mass gathering of over 50 people without a permit.”

    But social media allows near-spontaneous yet informal mass gatherings numbering in the hundreds. At Indian Wells Beach, virtually all participants in such gatherings arrive bearing large quantities of beer. These crowds have discouraged many year-round residents from going to the beach, Ms. Overby said, particularly if they have children.

    “It has to be a pre-effective clampdown as opposed to post facto,” said the committee’s John Broderick. “When the 400 people are on the beach already, it’s too late. It really does come down to legislation combined with enforcement.”

    There has to be better enforcement, Ms. Overby agreed, “whatever the rules are. We don’t have as many marine patrol as we did in the past. You might want to have a traffic control officer stationed.”

    The committee segued into a brief discussion of tonight’s town board hearing on taxi legislation, a component of the crowds-and-alcohol issue at Indian Wells Beach. Ms. Overby suggested that committee members make their voices heard there.

    Proposed legislation would require fingerprinting and background checks of all drivers, the existence of a local office for all taxis operating in the town, and mandate liability insurance for all operators of taxis. The committee agreed that it supports stronger taxi regulation.

    “I don’t know if this will improve the situation at Indian Wells,” said Ms. Overby, “but it might.”

    The hearing starts at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.

    The future of Hren’s Nursery, a landmark on the Montauk Highway between East Hampton and Amagansett, was on the agenda of the East Hampton Town Planning Board  last week. The business was closed last year. Now, however, the Hren family has proposed subdividing the property, with one lot for the nursery, four house lots, and an agricultural reserve. The landscaping part of the business would be discontinued.

    According to JoAnne Pahwul, an assistant planner with the East Hampton Town Planning Department, the 4.9-acre business site was created in 1993 along with five one-acre residential lots when a 10-acre parcel owned by the late Joseph Hren was subdivided. The land is zoned for residential use, but because the nursery predated town zoning, it continued as a legal use.

    At the time, the planning board stipulated that an acre would have to be set aside as open space if the 4.9-acre parcel was ever subdivided further. In keeping with that stipulation, the current plan calls for a 1.25-acre agricultural parcel, to be operated by the nursery. The house lots would be between about 34,000 and 40,000 square feet each.

    At the board’s meeting on Jan. 9, the plan raised some questions. Ms. Pahwul asked how the agricultural reserve would be used if the nursery went out of business. Secondly, it was noted that the town code dictates agricultural businesses are to be on two acres or more.

    It was Ms. Pahwul’s recommendation that, given the growth of “pocket” and specialty farms, the planning board should consider suggesting to the town board that the code be changed to decrease the size requirement for an agricultural business to one acre. Patrick Schutte, a planning board member, agreed, and the board decided to revisit the idea at last night’s meeting.

    “There’s all sorts of agriculture. If we call something an agricultural reserve, it should stay as an agricultural reserve,” said Ian Calder-Piedmonte, a planning board member who owns a small farming business himself.

    “The board is in general agreement. Right now, we have a building falling apart,” Reed Jones, the chairman, said. David Weaver, the applicant’s agent, responded, saying that the Hrens were already removing buildings from the site.

     While the members of the planning board frequently accept Planning Department recommendations, in another matter on Jan. 9, concerning adjacent lots on Gerard Drive in Springs, the board sharply differed with the recommendation.

    Siri Reckler owns two small lots at 253 and 257 Gerard Drive. One is 50 feet wide; the other is 100 feet wide. According to Laurie Wiltshire, who was representaing Ms. Reckler, she is doing estate planning and wants to leave one of the lots to each of her two daughters. She asked that the lot lines be redrawn to make them equal in size.

    The Planning Department, based in part on a 2009 hearing on the issue, recommended against doing so, reasoning that one of the lots would wind up even more nonconforming since the zoning code requires residential parcels in the area to be at least 200 feet wide.

    “We’re simply trying to move a line,” Ms. Wiltshire said. The board agreed, voting unanimously to approve the changes, subject to approval from the Suffolk County Planning Commission.

    After abruptly quitting her job as assistant to East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson on Jan. 4, Johnson Nordlinger, a Montauk resident, has reportedly met with an attorney who specializes in helping employees who have allegedly been wronged.

    “We’ve met with her, and we’re investigating the situation,” Thomas Horn of Sag Harbor said Tuesday. “So far it’s a rare combination of alarming but not surprising,” he said of the circumstances surrounding Ms. Johnson’s resignation.

    Asked if Ms. Nordlinger was considering bringing a lawsuit under any employment regulations, he said that, whenever a client seeks a consultation, “it’s fair to say that. We’re still looking at a broad spectrum of issues,” he said.

    Three other employees who sought legal representation in recent years under Mr. Wilkinson’s administration had hired Mr. Horn as their attorney. Larry Penny, the former longtime Natural Resources director, engaged him after town officials brought a laundry list of disciplinary charges against him alleging misconduct, incompetence, and insubordination. Mr. Penny, who worked for the town for 26 years, claimed the administration was trying to force him out. After a 30-day suspension without pay, he never returned to work, and tendered his resignation early last year.

    Jorge Kusanovic, a Hispanic employee of the town Parks Department, filed an $18 million lawsuit against the town last fall, alleging racial discrimination. Besides Mr. Horn, he was represented by Lawrence Kelly, another attorney who has honed in on alleged misconduct by town officials in employee-related and other matters.

    Most recently, Mr. Horn negotiated a settlement with the town on behalf of Linda Norris, a Human Services Department employee who was also suspended without pay after the town charged her with misconduct and incompetence. She was transferred to a position in another department.

    Mr. Horn said Tuesday that “three or four other” ex-town employees have consulted with him, as have several people still employed by the town.

    “They are very, very worried,” he said. “And their worries range from . . . they are targeted, or that when the layoffs started there was such a recklessness.” Others who feel they are doing a good job are concerned that their work isn’t recognized, he said.

    A $554,310 grant was announced last week that will be used to make it safer for students to walk and bike to the Springs School.

    From the federal Safe Routes to School program, the grant was the result of a team effort among Springs School representatives and East Hampton Town officials, including Capt. Michael Sarlo of the Police Department and Steve Lynch, the highway superintendent. Elizabeth Mendelman, a member of the Springs School Board and a parent of two girls who attend the school, coordinated the effort, and it was endorsed by the Springs Citizens Advisory Committee.

    The money will pay for a sidewalk along the west side of Springs-Fireplace Road, between Woodbine Drive and Gardiner Avenue, and for changes to a crosswalk at that corner, making it safer for children to cross the road to get to School Street. Speed monitoring signs will also be installed.

    East Hampton Town will pay for and complete the work on behalf of the school. According to Len Bernard, the town budget officer, the project will be in the town’s 2013 capital plan and the money, to be reimbursed by the federal government, will be raised by issuing bonds.

    In presentations to the town board, Ms. Mendelman said that 104 Springs School students live in the vicinity of the new sidewalk, within walking or biking distance of school.     As the student population has increased, so too has traffic in the morning and afternoon when parents drive to school to drop off and pick up their children.      

    The Safe Routes to School program is designed to address not only traffic and ensuing air quality degradation around schools, but to encourage healthy exercise for children who increasingly lead sedentary lives. According to the program’s Web site, “Safety issues are a big concern for parents, who consistently cite traffic danger as a reason why their children are unable to bicycle or walk to school.”

    Ms. Mendelman said that an educational component of the program, to be overseen by Eric Casale, the Springs School principal, and Nina Friscia of the district’s PTA, would work to build parent involvement and support.

     A second phase of the project includes the extension of the sidewalk farther south, between Woodbine Drive and Copeces Lane. This will require coordination with Suffolk County, which owns that section of Springs-Fireplace Road.

    “This is one of the larger grants not related to the environment, storm damage, or landfill closure for the town, that I can think of, in recent history,” Mr. Bernard said. Charlene Kagel, the town’s chief auditor, and Nicole Ficeto, a grants analyst for the town, worked with Ms. Mendelman on the successful application.

    The total grant is more than the $472,000 that had been requested. Engineering plans were developed with the assistance of Tom Talmage, the town engineer, JoAnne Pawhul, the assistant town planning director, and Kevin Ahearn, the deputy highway superintendent. Specific details are to be developed in conjunction with the State Department of Transportation.

    Improving air quality in the pool area at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter could cost a minimum of $20,000, and perhaps considerably more, Juan Castro, the facility’s executive director, told the East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday.

    The town owns the building and has contracted with the Y.M.C.A. to run the center. The agreement calls for a $590,000 annual contribution from the town to the Y’s $2.2 million budget, and makes the town responsible for capital repairs to the building.

    Heavy use of the two pools at the center, especially in winter when outer doors remain closed, decreasing ventilation, has created a buildup of chloramine gas, which is created when ammonia from perspiration binds with the chlorine in the pool.

    County health officials, who have tested the water but not the air, have declared there is no public health hazard, but swimmers have reported experiencing symptoms such as rashes and respiratory issues.

    Mr. Castro told the town board on Tuesday that the Y strives to “fill our facility; maximize its use. That’s how we pay our bills,” he said. However, he acknowledged, the heavy use does create other issues, such as the air quality problem.

    Between 3:30 and 6 p.m. daily, 80 to 90 people are generally swimming in the two pools, with more people in the pool area on the sidelines, he said.

    Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson asked if the pool has a maximum-occupancy. “We’re pretty close to capacity,” Mr. Castro said. “We’re not at capacity.”

    “But it’s not just capacity; it’s activity,” he said. People in the pool excrete ammonia as they exercise, he said, and it is the chloramine gas formed when the ammonia interacts with chlorine in the pool that causes the air quality problem.

    In addition to the need to upgrade the pool systems, “It’s a people problem,” Mr. Castro said. If, for instance, he said, members of the high school swim team who work out before heading into the pool, fail to shower first, the problem is compounded. “So we have to have, now, a shower patrol,” Mr. Castro said.

    The $19,700 worth of upgrades would include replacing a pump motor and impeller, hair and sand trap filters, and upgrading pipes, as well as installing two computerized chlorination systems and carbon dioxide distributors — “everything brought up to today’s standards,” Mr. Castro said.

    Those steps are expected to improve the air quality in the pool area, though maybe not enough, he said. Changes to the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system may also be needed to “evacuate the bad air at times of high use.” Air quality tests will be conducted, and an engineer will evaluate the situation, he said.

    In addition to the work needed to improve the air quality, Mr. Castro said other capital improvements will be needed in the near future: resurfacing or painting the pool, and replacement of a Desert Air dehumidification system. A long-range capital improvement plan submitted by the Y to the town last year for consideration also includes the construction of four new classrooms.

    Johnson Nordlinger, East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson’s assistant, abruptly resigned from her job, without notice, on Friday.

    Ms. Nordlinger, a Montauk resident, declined to comment this week, beyond confirming that she is no longer working at Town Hall. Her position drew an annual salary of $45,000 last year, and was to have increased by $8,000, to $53,040, this year. The cost of associated benefits last year was $33,949; in 2013 benefits for the position are expected to cost $37,556, according to the town budget.

 Mr. Wilkinson did not respond to a request for comment.

East Hampton Town

Tax Day Descends

    Payments of the first half of 2012-13 East Hampton Town property taxes are due today and can be made in person at the town tax receiver’s office on Pantigo Place in East Hampton until 4 p.m.

Payments can also be made, using a credit card, online at officialpayments.com, or by phone, using a number provided on the town Web site, town.east-hampton.ny.us.

    Payments must be made whether or not a property owner has received a bill. New bills can be provided by the tax receiver to those who visit the office in person, or furnished to property owners by fax or e-mail.

    Bills were mailed out between Dec. 14 and Dec. 19 by a company hired by the town for that service, according to Len Bernard, the town budget officer. Each year, a number are returned by the post office as undeliverable, due to incorrect addresses on file, expired forwarding addresses, or the like.

    This year, several property owners who have previously received tax bills at their regular address have reported not receiving the current bill. Mr. Bernard said that every year the town works to correct and update its tax roll information and those situations will be analyzed, but that there does not appear to be a particular problem this year. “There has been no noticeable difference in receipts compared to last year at this time,” he said.

Taxicab Hearing

    The town board will hold a hearing next Thursday night on proposed changes to licensing regulations for taxi companies, designed to address problems caused largely by out-of-town companies operating here during the summer months.

    A new law passed last year required taxi operators to obtain licenses from the town clerk after providing proof of insurance and driver’s license information. Modifications would add a requirement that taxi companies have an office in the town, and subject license applicants, both proprietors and drivers, to fingerprinting and a criminal background check. Fines for unlicensed cabs would be increased, and a taxicab license review committee formed.

    The hearing will begin at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.

Board Appointments Delayed

    At its annual organizational meeting last Thursday, the town board put appointments of new members to several other boards on hold, largely because some town board members were unfamiliar with the nominees.

    A vote on appointing Elaine Miller to the zoning board of appeals for a five-year term was tabled over the objections of Supervisor Bill Wilkinson and Councilwoman Theresa Quigley. Richard Gerardi Jr.’s proposed appointment to the licensing review board was also postponed.

    The board suspended votes on reappointing Don Cirillo as the vice chairman of the Z.B.A., on appointing Jacques Franey to the ethics board, and on appointing a chair and vice chair of both the architectural review board and the licensing review board. Appointing a new member to the A.R.B. was also put on hold.

    However, with unanimous votes, Ian Calder-Piedmont was appointed to the town planning board for a seven-year term, and Nancy Keeshan was appointed vice chairwoman of the planning board, replacing Diana Weir.

Aerial Deer Survey a Go

    An answer to the vexing question of just how many deer reside in East Hampton Town will be forthcoming, enabling the town board to make future decisions about deer management techniques. With a vote on Tuesday, board members agreed to hire Visual Air Research to conduct an aerial population survey using infrared technology. The cost will be $13,000, or $16,500 if Gardiner’s Island is included. The survey is the first step in adoption of a town deer management plan. 

    A petition calling for East Hampton Town to prohibit waterfowl hunting on Montauk’s Fort Pond, submitted to the town board last month, prompted a discussion at a board work session on Dec. 18.

    A number of pondfront residents had signed the petition circulated by a neighbor, Jane Bimson, who is an advertising sales representative for The East Hampton Star. Board members had requested information from the town’s Department of Land Acquisition and Management, which was provided by Andy Gaites.

    The majority of the pond’s bottomland is owned by the town — 176 acres. Five acres of bottomland are owned by the state, three acres by a group called Fort Pond Partners, and one acre by another private individual.

    According to Mr. Gaites’s report to the board, the land has not been included on a list in the town code of areas open to hunting.

    As owner of the bottomland, the town could enact restrictions on what can happen there, such as where, or how many, duck blinds could be anchored. It is less clear whether the town could say “no hunting” on the pond. Mr. Gaites told the board, however, that the State Department of Environmental Conservation said town officials could designate Fort Pond as a “no-discharge” zone, barring the use of firearms.

    “If I were to describe how long people have been hunting on Fort Pond, people would say generations,” Supervisor Bill Wilkinson said.

    “There are too many people” surrounding the pond nowadays, said Ms. Bimson, who attended the Dec. 18 meeting. “Make it a safe zone for geese, ducks, and swans.”

    “And people on boats,” said Chris Behan, Ms. Bimson’s brother, also a Montauk resident.

    Last year, Ms. Bimson had told the board, Steven LiPani, another Montauker, was out fishing on the pond when young hunters shot in his direction.

    East Hampton Town Police Chief Edward Ecker, who was at last week’s meeting for other business, confirmed that the incident involving Mr. LiPani had been reported, but said he knew of no other similar incidents. Police have, however, received calls about shots being fired, he said.

    “At the time of this incident, these individuals were engaged in a legal activity that they were doing legally,” James Grimes, a Montauk resident and hunter, told the board. He said he had helped train some of the young hunters in hunting practices and safety.

    Mr. Grimes suggested that Mr. LiPani might also be at fault for the incident. People “have to be considerate and respectful of every other person,” he said. “Hunters have to be considerate of property owners,” he said. And others using the pond “have got to be respectful of someone hunting legally.”

    Hunting season for ducks lasts only between 30 and 45 days, he said. The board, said Mr. Grimes, shouldn’t ban hunting on Fort Pond “because the people living on the pond don’t like the sound of gunfire.”

    “Fort Pond . . . is probably one of the most accessible ponds in Montauk,” Mr. Grimes said, and is used by a handicapped youth. “This is the only place in East Hampton that he can go down and shoot.”

    “I think the state law — for safety — is you have to be 500 feet from any residence,” Mr. Ecker said. However, hunters shooting across the pond could position themselves closer than that to a house, as long as there was 500 feet of clear area in the direction they were shooting.

    The range of a shotgun, said Mr. Wilkinson, in answer to a question from Councilwoman Theresa Quigley, is “45 to 50 yards, at most. After that, it dissipates,” he said.

    Councilwoman Sylvia Overby asked if there were “alternative sites in Montauk” for waterfowl hunting.

    “Plenty,” Ms. Bimson answered her.

    “In all fairness, every standard can be applied to those sites, as well,” Mr. Wilkinson said.

    If lots around the pond are now mostly developed, Ms. Overby said, “then maybe something has to give on the other side. If there are alternative sites, then I would like to consider those alternatives.”

    Ms. Quigley said she lacked information on which to base a decision — the number of hunters desirous of using Fort Pond, for instance. And, she said, “If that’s a part of how people have enjoyed the area, then I don’t want to just flippantly say stop. It’s a careful analysis that has to be made.”

    “I happen to live near a duck blind, and so I hear the duck blind shots, the shotgun shots going off. I don’t have a problem with it. You bought there,” Ms. Quigley said.

    Mr. Wilkinson asked if “absent of this unfortunate event that happened last year, would we be discussing this?”

    “I think so,” Ms. Bimson told him, “because my neighbors — they don’t want hunting, and this brought it all to a head.”

    In a letter dated Dec. 18, Jeremy Samuelson, the executive director of Concerned Citizens of Montauk, asked the town board to close the pond to waterfowl hunting, in light of the support of residents around the pond and the availability of other hunting locations. “Not all possible uses are appropriate for all locations,” he wrote, adding that the interests of various user groups “must be weighed and accommodated.”

    But, the letter said, as “Fort Pond is completely encircled by dense residential, commercial, and industrial development . . . the real and possible impacts of waterfowl hunting — as well as the potential for conflict with other user groups and homeowners — are elevated.”

    Zachary Cohen, the chairman of the town’s nature preserve committee, suggested the uses of Fort Pond might be taken up by his committee, which could craft a management plan for the site, as it does for other town-owned lands. The committee could explore the pertinent legal and safety issues, he said. One recommendation, Mr. Cohen suggested, would be to do what the town trustees do regarding trustee-owned bodies of water and institute a permit system for duck blinds, limiting their number and proscribing their locations.

    One audience member, Naomi Salz, also weighed in on the issue. “It’s hard to believe,” she said, that in light of the recent mass shooting in Connecticut “we’re sitting here talking about guns being used so freely.”

    “Accidents do happen,” she said. “Guns kill people. And if somebody wants a duck, they should go to Waldbaum’s.”

    “And we should all sit at home and play computer games where we kill each other,” Ms. Quigley replied. “The point being, is at least you’re outside. And outside is better than inside.”

    The terms of a negotiated agreement between East Hampton Town and Linda Norris, who had been suspended in October from her post as the adult day care supervisor for the Human Services Department, were detailed this week. In addition to being kept on in a different town department, as announced last week, Ms. Norris will be required to attend sensitivity training at her own expense, and has been put on notice that she would be fired if any further issues arise.

    A Montauk resident, Ms. Norris had hired Lawrence Kelly and Thomas Horn, attorneys with a record of representing plaintiffs against the town. A large number of supporters appeared on her behalf at Town Hall on Dec. 7, when a hearing on the charges was scheduled. Also at Town Hall that day were, reportedly, two Human Services Department employees scheduled to testify before a hearing officer that was appointed to review the case. The hearing did not take place because negotiations resulted in a settlement.

    The stipulation of agreement, which both parties have signed, says that the charges filed by Diane Patrizio, the town’s director of Human Services, alleged “violations of town policy, conduct unbecoming an employee, insubordination, failure to perform her duties, acting beyond the scope of her authority, and/or unacceptable performance of supervisory responsibilities.”

    The Civil Service Employees Association had denied all the disciplinary charges on Ms. Norris’s behalf, but, after the negotiation, she pleaded guilty to one charge of “failure to perform [your] duties” and agreed to the 30-day suspension without pay, which she served from Oct. 10, after the charges were first brought, through Nov. 9.

    Ms. Norris was transferred to the East Hampton Town Office of Housing and Community Development as an administrative aide. After 10 days, the position was to go from “temporary” to “provisional” status. To retain the job, she must take a Civil Service examination and meet other qualifications. If she turns out not to be eligible for a permanent appointment to the position under Civil Service rules, the settlement calls for the town to “exercise its best efforts to locate another position” for which she is eligible and qualified.

    The sensitivity training to which Ms. Norris agreed will relate to “race relations, workplace violence, and/or such other training selected by the town,” according to the settlement. It is to be scheduled for a maximum of two unpaid workdays, although Ms. Norris may use accrued personal time off on those days. She will have to pay for the cost of the training, up to $500.

    By signing the stipulation of agreement, she also acknowleged that she had received a “notice and final warning” that the town would seek to terminate her employment should there be any future conduct on her part believed to violate town policy, “including but not limited to the town’s Workplace Violence Prevention Policy,” or other grounds for charges. She also waived her right to make future claims against the town related to the October disciplinary charges.