The Sagaponack Village Board is considering a law that would seek to rein in development in the village by addressing lot coverage, gross square floor area, and accessory structures in backyards.

    The board discussed a draft of the law at a meeting on Monday, but agreed that much work remained before the changes could be brought to a public hearing.

    The goal, according to Mayor Donald Louchheim, is to put “constraints on what people can do with the land.” Residents often ask him why people are able to build such large compounds in the village, he said, adding that they are also concerned about relatively small lots where “virtually every square inch has been disturbed” by a pool, deck, septic system, grading, garages, tennis courts, and more.

    Board members are also concerned about the recent trend of utilizing underground space, often exceeding the footprint of the house above, for spas, wine cellars, and other recreational uses. The Architectural Review Board has recently heard a request for an underground garage with a mechanical turnstile allowing a homeowner to select the car they want to drive and have it delivered to him, said Lisa Duryea Thayer. The same person also wants to have five or six bedrooms below ground level.

    Anthony B. Tohill, the village’s attorney, said he had a “clear sense of the evil” the board seeks to remedy,” but board members took issue with some of the wording of the law he drafted, saying they found it hard to understand.

    In the end, it was agreed that the draft legislation would be discussed further at a planning board meeting on July 16, when Richard Warren, the village’s consulting engineer, could offer his input and recommendations.

    The board also voted to appropriate $50,000 into the village’s tree fund, so that the tree committee could begin removing trees that are causing dangerous situations by obstructing sight lines at certain intersections. The newly-formed tree committee is working on a policy for the maintenance of existing street trees and the review of requests for planting new trees.

    A resolution was drafted about limiting construction on Sundays, due to citizen complaints. It would exclude homeowners from working on their own houses.

    The board will meet next on July 9 at 3 p.m.

    The new control tower at East Hampton Airport will begin operating Friday morning at 7. Air traffic controllers will direct planes coming into and flying out of the airport from 7 a.m. till 11 p.m. daily, through October.

    Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione said yesterday that he worked for a year to get the control tower, a temporary trailer-like structure, up and running, and to obtain the required Federal Aviation Administration permission.

    The federal agency published a notice officially designating a radius of 4.8 miles from the airport, and up to 2,500 feet, as controlled airspace during the tower’s operating times.

    The ruling creates a “cylinder of control,” Councilman Stanzione said, in which routes for approaches and takeoffs — and minimum altitudes — will be dictated by the air traffic controllers on duty.

    “The first and principal responsibility of the air traffic control tower is to increase safety, and provide a controlled airspace,” he said. However, “it is hoped and anticipated that having professionally controlled airspace will make a real contribution to noise mitigation, through radius and altitude restrictions, and enforcing what are now voluntary rules,” added Mr. Stanzione.

    He expressed “a tremendous amount of appreciation” toward Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, as well as the existing and previous town boards, both of which provided “unanimous support for this effort.”

    Jim Brundige, the airport manager, along with town attorneys and workers who installed electrical and communications connections, “made a Herculean effort to get the thing hooked up,” he said.

    In an e-mail to airport users, Mr. Brundige said there will be a meeting at the airport terminal on Saturday at 10 a.m. to brief everyone on tower operations and give them a chance to meet the controllers.   

    Paper lanterns made of rice paper and bamboo, which float gracefully skyward when lit on fire until burning themselves out, are becoming popular amusements, but they are dangerous and are prohibited under state law, the East Hampton Town Fire Marshal’s office advised this week.

     David Browne, the chief fire marshal, said in a release that numerous complaints about the lanterns have been received, and that several fires related to them have been reported.

     According to Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, who proposed a law banning the lanterns at a town board work session on Tuesday, one of them recently landed on the roof of the Albatross Motel in Montauk and started a fire. It was quickly squelched.

     State law does not ban the lanterns outright, but categorizes them as “recreational fires,” which must be constantly attended. Therefore, Mr. Browne wrote in his memo, the use of sky lanterns is a violation of the state fire code, unless they are anchored or tethered.

    Patrick Gunn, a town attorney who is the public safety division administrator, informed the town board on Tuesday that it could not adopt a law that differs from state law without first obtaining a variance from the state. Mr. Wilkinson suggested that the town pursue that permission. “It’s pretty, it’s a nice aesthetic, but I don’t think the risks associated are worth allowing them to continue,” he said.

    Meanwhile, town fire marshals will begin enforcing the state fire code and citing those who release sky lanterns. Violations could result in a $1,000 fine, Mr. Gunn said on Tuesday.

    Mr. Browne is recording a public service announcement that will be broadcast on the Sag Harbor radio station WLNG by the end of the week, Mr. Gunn told board members Tuesday, and will issue a written notice about the law to businesses selling the sky lanterns.    

    The Cornell Cooperative Extension’s marine program has received two grants, one to further its work to bring back this area’s scallop industry, the other to determine if there is more than a single monkfish population along the East Coast.

    In 2005, in cooperation with Long Island University, Cornell Cooperative Extension’s marine program created protected areas that have helped to increase the success of bay scallops’ spawning seasons.

    Last week, the extension received a $182,900 grant to expand the scallop spawner program. The grant was part of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s regional council initiative. The program has the support of the Long Island Regional Economic Council and the Empire State Development Corporation.

    Before a series of brown algae tides killed off scallops and other shellfish beginning in the mid-1980s, the Peconic scallop fishery kept between 400 to 600 baymen and shuckers busy. The Peconic scallop industry, the largest in the nation at one time, contributed an estimated $10 million to the Suffolk County economy before the fall, and after the economic multipliers were added.  

    Cornell Cooperative Extension has also received a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s cooperative research program to study genetic variations in monkfish.

    The study, which will sample monkfish stocks from Newfoundland to North Carolina, aims to determine whether the coastwide population is comprised of one or more separate stocks. Monkfish make up a valuable contribution to the New England and Mid-Atlantic seafood industry. In 2010, landings had a market value of nearly $19 million.

    The project, with its fishermen collaborators, will evaluate sampled monkfish using sensitive D.N.A. markers. New York University and Rutgers University are participating in the study. The Cooperative Extension does not receive direct funding for the study. Rather, NOAA allocates a number of fish from the overall monkfish quota that are sold to finance the research.

    The former chairman of an East Hampton Town computer committee spoke to the town board on Tuesday about upgrading some of the town’s information technology services, regardless of a recent board deadlock over a plan to seek proposals from outside companies to take over some of the town I.T. Department’s duties.

    “All I want to see . . . is some progress on something that I think is achievable,” Paul Fiondella told the board. “The public doesn’t care if you get along or not. We just want you to move forward,” he said.

    One way to begin addressing a technological upgrade, Mr. Fiondella said, is to develop a Web-based payment system through which residents can apply and pay for town permits, needed for beach parking or the recycling centers, for instance.

    Councilwoman Theresa Quigley told him that is something she would like to do, “but I can’t get the board to agree.”

    Ms. Quigley and Supervisor Bill Wilkinson supported a resolution to seek proposals on outsourcing information technology services, but the other three board members did not.

    Mr. Fiondella suggested seeking compromise where it might be possible. “Why not move forward with one area you can agree on?” he asked. A request for proposal could focus on just the services needed to set up an online payment system, he said, which would be a convenience for taxpayers. “It’s not an issue of all or nothing,” he told Ms. Quigley. “You have to start with consensus.”

    “This town does not have a good track record in dealing with big issues,” he said. But Ms. Quigley said that there are other areas she feels are “just as much needed” as online bill paying — wireless Internet at Town Hall, for instance. Not being a town employee, she told Mr. Fiondella, he is unaware of the extent of the town’s problems with technology. For example, she said, “I can’t open my e-mail.”

    “I am not willing to stop there,” she said of Mr. Fiondella’s suggestion. “Dealing with minutiae is not a way to run government. And so to back down because of political pressure — either it’s a choice that we deal with this issue, or we back down,” she said.

    “It’s a very limited and narrow focus, and I think it’s a great approach,” Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc told Mr. Fiondella. Councilwoman Sylvia Overby agreed.

    To address the bigger picture about information technology services, she said, analysis is needed. “Maybe we need to expand our existing I.T. Department,” she said.

    “I appreciate the fact that you’re pointing out that we can make progress on small issues,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said. “There won’t be a deadlock. When you take on a huge, huge topic, you’re not going to agree on everything.”

    Mr. Van Scoyoc said that WiFi is slated to be installed at Town Hall this week. Ms. Quigley said that was due to efforts by her and Mr. Wilkinson.

    Mr. Wilkinson addressed only the issue of the proposal to seek outsiders to provide information technology services. In private business, he said, “you mandated that your employees perform at the same level or better” than others who could perform the same duties. “That’s performance. We don’t have that option here.”

    He said Ms. Overby’s stance that the board should solicit information from other town departments about what is needed by them as far as technology before making wholesale changes to the Information Technology Department, or outsourcing duties, “scares the hell out of me. It becomes a plethora of a ‘want list,’ and it’s financially irresponsible,” he said.

Cost-Saving Efforts

    Efforts to reduce overtime and compensatory time costs have been effective, Councilwoman Theresa Quigley reported to the East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday. After issuing a directive requiring town department heads to give prior approval to employees before overtime or “comp time” hours are accrued, the town has saved close to $500,000 in a year on those payments to staff, Ms. Quigley said. “It’s been very effective,” she said.

East Hampton Town

Lifeline for Life Saving Station

    Exterior repairs and restoration of the historic Amagansett Life Saving Station will be done gratis by Ben Krupinski, an East Hampton resident and contractor.

    After attending a recent re-enactment of the Nazi landing on nearby Atlantic Avenue beach during World War II, Mr. Krupinski offered to do the work, which will include installing authentic window replacements.

    The life-saving station, which was a private residence off Bluff Road for many years, was donated to the town by the Carmichael family and moved to its original location on Atlantic Avenue. A committee has been formed to raise money so that it can be restored and opened to the public.

Sloppy Tuna in Trouble

    The East Hampton Town Board will hold a hearing on Aug. 14 on whether to suspend a music permit issued to the Sloppy Tuna in Montauk, which has received its fourth citation for violating the town noise ordinance this summer.

    The town code calls for a mandatory hearing to occur after a fourth alleged violation. Members of the public may attend and comment. The hearing will be held during a regularly scheduled town board work session at the Montauk Firehouse, which begins at 10 a.m.

    The Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee was pretty much talked out Monday night after a long discussion about crowds at Indian Wells Beach, but not so much so that the perennial subject of public bathrooms in the parking lot behind Main Street did not come up for an airing.

    Bathrooms were promised there as long as 12 years ago, and a $225,000 bond was floated, but nothing has come of it; and now the necessary County Health Department permits have expired and the application process must start all over.

    Over the 10-day stretch surrounding July 4, said Michael Cinque of Amagansett Wines and Spirits, at least three or four people a day asked to use his bathroom.

    At the Amagansett Library, the need was so great that one of the two toilets overflowed, “which usually doesn’t happen until August,” said Cynthia Young, the library’s director.

    “We can count on it, on a busy weekend,” Ms. Young said. “The year before last we had people lined up out the door to use the bathroom. As much as we would like to, we would never turn anyone away, but it does have an impact on the quality of life.” She said she had spent “well over $100 on toilet paper in the last two weeks.”

    Ms. Young waded in herself to help clean the bathroom. “If I could just get an allowance for shoes,” she said. “I’ve lost a couple of pairs cleaning up in there.

    Mr. Cinque also said, as he and others have before, that the parking lot behind Main Street was full to overflowing for the entire holiday and beyond, and that a single traffic control officer had boasted of writing 40 tickets, $80 apiece, for cars parked at the the end of the lot facing the field, where there are no white lines.

    The creation, at the state comptroller’s recommendation, of an East Hampton Town audit committee to oversee the town’s financial reporting and controls has the endorsement of the town’s budget and finance advisory committee, although not in the form in which it has been proposed.

    Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson and Councilwoman Theresa Quigley were the only two board members who supported a resolution offered by the supervisor last month naming themselves, both Republicans, along with two town residents, Stanley Arkin, and Carole Campolo, the secretary of the East Hampton Republican Committee, to the group. Len Bernard, the town budget officer, who was appointed by Mr. Wilkinson, Charlene Kagel, the town’s chief auditor, and Patrick Gunn, an assistant town attorney, were to be named as ex officio committee members. The resolution failed at a June 7 meeting.

    In subsequent discussions at town board meetings, the other three members of the board, Dominick Stanzione, Peter Van Scoyoc, and Sylvia Overby,  questioned the makeup of the committee, suggesting a more bipartisan group. Ms. Quigley offered to vacate her spot to allow a Democrat to be named, but the participation of Mr. Wilkinson — who, as supervisor, is the chief financial officer of the town — was also questioned. The proposal has not been reconsidered in public by the board.

    Discussion has apparently continued behind the scenes, however, and the budget and finance advisory committee weighed in recently in a letter to the board.

    The committee’s members include, the letter said, people with “financial expertise, accounting backgrounds,” and people who have served on public company audit committees.

    The creation of an independent audit committee, the letter said, would “help cement” the advances made by the Republican-majority board over the last two years in bringing the town’s financial affairs under control. Besides complying with the recommendation of the state comptroller, an audit committee would improve the town’s standing with credit rating agencies and “increase the confidence of town residents in the propriety of its financial management.”

    But the members of the group “unanimously recommend” that the audit committee include only independent, qualified town residents and not town board members or town employees.

    “The purpose of the [audit committee] should be to encourage candid discussion of possible improvements to the town’s financial controls and to give the town residents comfort that the town’s financial management has operated solely in their best interests,” the committee stated.

    The audit committee’s role, the advisory group said, should be to make recommendations on improving financial management and internal controls as well as on how to correct problems pinpointed by outside auditors in their annual audits of the town’s various funds.

     However, the budget and finance committee suggested, the town board could assign additional tasks, such as evaluating the qualifications of the town’s financial area personnel or providing a venue for town residents or employees to report financial irregularities “with the expectation of not opening themselves to retaliation.”

    “Often instances of financial misfeasance slip through controls but could be brought to light by a whistleblower system,” the advisory committee’s letter to the board said, suggesting that a dedicated telephone number could be set up and accessed only by the independent audit committee members.

    After researching the audit committees set up by other municipalities or public companies, the budget and finance committee recommended that the group have five to seven members who should all be “able to read and understand financial statements,” with at least one having a more extensive professional finance or accounting background.

    At public companies, according to the letter, audit committees do not include anyone who is part of management or doing significant business with the company. “Some governmental audit committees include no elected officials or employees. Others include one or more,” the committee’s letter said.

    However, the group noted, both Mr. Bernard and Ms. Kagel “generally favor” having board members on the audit committee. Mr. Bernard explained at a recent board meeting that that practice is followed by other entities, such as nearby municipalities and school boards, and is based on the fact that the board members are ultimately responsible for their entity’s financial affairs.

    In a response to the advisory group’s recommendations, Ms. Kagel said that “in order to provide the necessary oversight, the committee must also possess the authority to direct town personnel and contract vendors to provide the information needed by both the external and internal auditors to perform their work. This would have to come from the town board, which provides a valid argument to have their representation on the audit committee.”

    Should the audit committee contain board members, the budget and finance advisory group suggested an equal balance between Republicans and Democrats.

    The Group for Good Government, an independent local residents group that has sponsored educational efforts on various matters of public interest, also recently weighed in on the town audit committee idea.

    It called the recent proposal “a good initiative that needs refinements.” The biggest concerns about the proposed membership of the group, it said, were that “town officials who had prepared the financial statements and instituted the financial controls would now control the ‘independent’ audit committee to review them” and that the committee, as proposed, would include no Democrats, and that one of the two “outside independent members was an active Republican and secretary of the local party.”

    Ms. Campolo has said she would resign from her Republican Committee post if appointed to the audit group.

    The advisory group said that it believes both Ms. Campolo, as a former deputy executive director of the New York City Campaign Finance Board, and Mr. Arkin, who has a background in investment banking, venture capital, and money management, “have the background and expertise to . . . contribute to the work of the audit committee.”

    “I just wanted the committee to have balance,” Councilman Stanzione said this week. “I didn’t want a rubber stamp.”

    “It’s such an important idea that it deserves a chance,” County Legislator Jay Schneiderman said yesterday, speaking in support of the county’s authorization of a ferry license for Hampton Jitney, operating as the Peconic Bay Water Jitney, to run a passenger service between Greenport and Sag Harbor.

    Tuesday’s hearing at the county offices in Hauppauge was opened and closed, and now the bill is eligible for a vote in the Public Works and Transportation Committee, which Mr. Schneiderman leads. He expects the bill to be discharged from the committee without recommendation on Tuesday, which will make it eligible for a vote by the Legislature a week later. The reason for that expectation is that the committee doesn’t want to approve a license for a use not yet permitted by the Village of Sag Harbor. The committee’s meeting will take place at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, while the Sag Harbor Village Board will not vote on the matter until its monthly board meeting later that evening.

    If the village passes the measure, Mr. Schneiderman anticipates that the county will approve the license on June 19. Greenport has already approved the water jitney’s use of its village dock.

    Fares should be settled then as well, the legislator said: $20 for a round-trip ticket and $11 one-way. He said Jeff Lynch, Hampton Jitney’s president, has committed to a half-price fare for children under 15.

    Ownership and management of Sag Harbor’s Long Wharf, where the water jitney plans to drop off and pick up passengers, was also discussed Tuesday in Hauppauge. As it stands now, the village is a holdover tenant. Its lease with the county expired in June 2011, which makes the county the managing agent for the wharf.

    “To clear up the confusion, I filed a bill yesterday that will also be eligible for committee vote on Tuesday, and on the floor on June 19, to extend the lease until the end of December,” Mr. Schneiderman said. The extension would allow Sag Harbor to make the decisions on matters concerning the wharf, including where the water jitney would dock.

    Mr. Schneiderman said he believes the revenues collected from Long Wharf will continue to go solely to the village, which will have an opportunity to charge the jitney a reasonable fee for the use of the wharf.

    “Give it a season, see if it works,” the legislator said, “then take it from there and decide if you want to continue it. I think it’s a great idea to connect the two villages.”

    Mr. Schneiderman, who said he is seriously considering running for the office he once held, East Hampton Town supervisor, feels the water jitney would reduce traffic by encouraging visitors to travel to the area by public transportation. And, he said, those who wish to go to Sag Harbor from points east to take the water jitney to the North Fork could use the county’s S92 bus route, which is able to adjust schedules to work with those of the water jitney.

    “I expect the lease extension to pass, and the license and fares to pass,” Mr. Schneiderman said. If the Village of Sag Harbor approves Tuesday, the water jitney will become a reality. “Once its up and running, I think people will find that it did not produce the traffic or parking problems they feared.”

    In a development demonstrating the influence of national politics on the local scene, Representative Tim Bishop, a Democrat, received the endorsement of John Behan on Monday in La Bodega restaurant in Montauk. Mr. Behan cited the National Republican Congressional Committee’s focus on this district’s campaign as a significant motivation for his decision.

    Mr. Bishop, who is from Southampton, is running for re-election for his congressional seat in the first district of New York, comprising most of eastern Suffolk County. His Republican opponent is Randy Altschuler, a businessman and entrepreneur who lives in St. James.

    Mr. Behan is a former state assemblyman and former East Hampton Town Republican chairman, as well as a decorated Marine Corps veteran. He has been a prominent figure in both local and regional Republican politics.

    In a phone interview on Tuesday, Mr. Behan said that in 2010, when he was the chairman of the town Republican committee, he thought Mr. Altschuler ran a great race. Since then, Mr. Behan has left the committee and has altered his opinion of the candidate, calling him “Houdini” for what he saw as a disappearing act after the last election only to resurface to run for office again. He questioned Mr. Altschuler’s commitment to the district, calling him a “Johnny-come-lately” who moved to the district only to run in it and with no ties to the community.

    Mr. Altschuler has challenged those assertions this week and stated in a mass e-mail that his wife’s pediatric practice in Smithtown and his infant daughter’s birth there were evidence of his commitment to this region. His campaign cast Mr. Behan’s endorsement as a local issue, focusing on his involvement with the town’s Republican committee and his falling-out with its leaders since last year’s town election when the town board candidates Mr. Behan proposed — his wife, Marilyn Behan, and Bill Mott — were rejected by them.

    In a statement, the Altschuler campaign said the endorsement “was really about local politics, and has no impact on the tremendous momentum Randy has right now.” It cited the endorsements Mr. Altschuler recently received from the New York State Independence Party, the Suffolk County Conservative Party, and the Suffolk County Republican Party. Mr. Bishop had the endorsement of the Independence Party in the 2010 election and more than 7,000 people voted for him on that line. He won the last election by only 593 votes.

    Regarding Mr. Altschuler’s campaign. Mr. Behan said his main concern was the involvement of the National Republican ongressional Committee in this district. “Altschuler has a suitcase full of money he is walking around with all of the time. It impresses the [Suffolk County] Republican Committee and the national committee,” which are pleased to have a candidate they do not have to help finance, he said.

    George Demos, who was attempting to run a Republican primary challenge to Mr. Altschuler, suddenly dropped out of the race on May 25 citing the need to focus on his wedding preparations. Mr. Behan called this evidence of “shenanigans” on the part of the national committee. “He didn’t just quit one day. They had to make a big offering to Demos for him to drop out. He was as committed to running as Altschuler and Bishop.”

    He said the Demos campaign was doing well enough to have been a viable challenge to the Altschuler campaign in a primary. “I’m opposed to the national committee telling us who our candidate should be. It’s unsettling,” Mr. Behan said.

    In the last election, Mr. Altschuler initially had the support of the county committee chairman, John Jay LaValle. Mr. LaValle, however, became neutral to negative during the primary race after the state Republican Party chairman’s son decided to run. Christopher Cox, the son of Edward Cox and the grandson of President Richard Nixon, lost the 2010 primary to Mr. Altschuler after he and Mr. Demos split the Conservative and Tea Party votes.

    This year, Mr. Behan said he felt that both of the Republican candidates were running to promote their own status and not out of a dedication to public service. Despite Mr. Bishop’s opponents calling into question his campaign’s employment of family members as consultants in previous elections, Mr. Behan said he believed Mr. Bishop was a dedicated public servant.

    Mr. Behan represented the South Fork in the State Assembly from 1978 to 1995 and helped create its Veterans Affairs Committee. He was severely wounded in combat in Vietnam and served as director of the New York State Division of Veterans’ Affairs from 1995 to 1998.

    In endorsing Mr. Bishop, Mr. Behan praised his commitment to veterans’ issues and his understanding of the concerns of the farmers and fisherman of the East End. “He has a special staff person just on veterans’ issues working with constituents to fight with the Department of Veterans Affairs to get needed benefits. That’s a major position for any elected official to take, to not be ashamed to have a person solely assigned to that task.” He said Mr. Bishop was the first congressman he was aware of from this district to have such a staffer.

    Even after 12 years of retirement from the Assembly, Mr. Behan said people still called him for help with governmental problems. “Whenever I need help on a federal level and call Bishop’s office for previous constituents of mine, the doors fly open. Tim Bishop has helped me on several occasions, even though I was the Republican committee chairman. There were no questions about party affiliation.”

    Despite the national focus on this district, Mr. Behan said he thought residents would continue their tradition of voting for people they respect and who they believe will help their families the most. “It’s the person, not the politics. I think a lot of people feel the same way I do, even if they aren’t willing to say so publicly.” He noted that when Otis Pike was a Democratic congressman more than three decades ago he served on a Republicans for Pike committee, and Mr. Pike endorsed him for the Assembly.

    Mr. Behan said Mr. Bishop is a viable candidate and early polling from the Bishop campaign has shown him with a 17-point lead over Mr. Altshculer. Still, he worried about the Democrat being dragged down by those going to the polls to vote against President Barack Obama. “They’re fed up with Obama and anyone associated with him. I agree it’s time for Obama to go, but not Bishop.”