The 20th anniversary of the Peconic Estuary’s being named an estuary of national significance by the federal Environmental Protection Agency will be celebrated on Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Long Island Science Center, 11 West Main Street in Riverhead. The estuary also has been called “One of the Last Great Places in the Western Hemisphere” by the Nature Conservancy.

     Live music, chances at ll a.m. and at noon to paddle the Peconic with Mike Bottini, a local naturalist and writer, and hourly educational programs on river ecology with the center’s staff will take place from 11 a.m. through 2 p.m. Tours of the Grangibel Park fish ladder, with Byron Young, who is on the State Department of Environmental Conservation staff, will take place at 1 and 2 p.m.

    Estuaries are the most productive ecosystems on earth, containing more life per square inch than a lush rainforest. The Peconic Estuary starts at the headwaters of the Peconic River near Brookhaven National Laboratory and stretches through the bays and inlets to Montauk Point. Some 111 rare species have been identified on its 125,000 land and 158,000 surface water acres.

    The Peconic Estuary Program was created by activists to protect and restore the environmental quality of the extraordinary resource. Opportunities to speak with the staff, volunteers, and others involved in the program will be available during Saturday’s celebration, and the first 150 attendees will be offered a free water bottle, with the Suffolk County Water Authority on hand to fill them.

    Contributions to the Peconic Bay Community Preservation Fund, from a 2-percent real estate transfer tax on most land sales, for last month are up from April, 2011, totaling $6.1 million this year versus $5 million last year.

“Hopefully, this is an indication that we are entering a robust period for real estate sales,” New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. said in a press release this week.

    The number of real estate transactions for the first quarter of 2012 was 1,927, compared to 1,835 a year ago, Mr. Thiele reported. The sales generated a total of $16.6 million for the five East End towns that have established the fund — East Hampton, Southampton, Riverhead, Shelter Island, and Southold. Last year’s first-quarter revenue was $17.6 million.

    In East Hampton Town, the first-quarter income for the land-purchase fund was up 38 percent over last year, for a total of just over $5 million. The other towns saw a decrease for the period over last year.

    The East Hampton Town Board will hold a hearing next Thursday on a $60,000 project designed to correct problems with the streetlights in downtown Montauk. The lights, which meet dark-sky friendly standards, have become dimmer over time, prompting complaints to the board that it is difficult to see in the downtown area at night.

    According to Councilman Dominick Stanzione, the globes on the fixtures have been weathered by the elements, causing the problem, and will be the only thing that will be changed.

    The hearing will begin at 7 p.m. at Town Hall. Two other hearings to be held next Thursday will be on proposed property purchases for open space. The town is considering buying just under three acres on Quality Row in Springs. It is owned by Dana Roman and would cost $575,000, to be paid by the community preservation fund.

The second proposed purchase is of a third of an acre at 8 Soak Hides Road in East Hampton, for $190,000, also through the community preservation fund. Several structures on the site would be removed. The land is owned by Carl Lipomi.

    Recent tests that revealed the presence of a dangerous form of marine plankton in shellfish taken from Sag Harbor Cove have prompted the East Hampton Town Trustees to invite the scientist responsible for the testing to share his knowledge.

    Dr. Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University will give a talk tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. in the East Hampton Town Hall meeting room on “Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning and Red Tides in East End Waters,” addressing the causes, effects, and distribution.

    Earlier this month, the State Department of Environmental Conservation imposed a ban on shellfishing in Sag Harbor’s upper cove after tests conducted on a hunch by Dr. Gobler discovered clams containing a dinoflagellate known as Alexandrium. The plankton produces a neurotoxin that can lead to serious illness and even death.

    Stephanie Talmage Forsberg, an East Hampton Town trustee and also a doctoral candidate in marine science at Stony Brook, worked in Dr. Gobler’s laboratory. She said on Tuesday that because the culprit Alexandrium had shown up in Maine and had “trickled down to Long Island Sound” causing bottomland closures in Northport Harbor, Dr. Gobler thought it important to do some testing on the East End. He was able to secure a grant to do so.

    Ms. Forsberg said the trustees wanted to educate the public, both as a warning and to reassure baymen and others that tests in Three Mile Harbor and Lake Montauk have come up negative for the plankton.

    Although red in color, Alexandrium is not the same organism as the alga that causes red tide. It is more dangerous. Ms. Forsberg said as soon as Dr. Gobler’s findings were reported to the D.E.C., the agency put out a press release that said the organism produced a “biotoxin.” While accurate in a broad sense, Ms. Forsberg said, it was not specific enough. “There are poisons and there are poisons,” she said, and this one, a neurotoxin that can interrupt vital biological functions, can be deadly.

    The dinoflagellate was potentially even more dangerous, she said, because during its cyst phase it settles to the bottom only to erupt when conditions, including increased levels of nitrogen from septic systems or sewage treatment plants, are right. “Once it blooms the cysts can settle to the bottom.” 

    “The levels were alarmingly high,” she said of the tests from Sag Harbor Cove. “It shines a light on the need for more testing. Dr. Gobler took the initiative to begin with. Heaven forbid there were fatal consequences. We thought it was important to educate people.”

    Two attorneys active in town zoning affairs are squaring off against each other following an East Hampton Town Planning Board April 4 decision giving William Babinski, a Wainscott farmer, site plan approval to build a second barn. Litigation has begun even though the matter is headed for a public hearing before the town board at 7 p.m. next Thursday and even though the barn is 80 percent complete.   

  It was 84 days ago that Mr. Babinski first went before the planning board about  adding a 1,380-square-foot barn to his Beach Lane farm. The developmental rights on the property are owned jointly by the town and the Peconic Land Trust, making town board approval necessary for new construction.

    Tom and Shelly Gilbert, who own adjacent property, told the board at its hearing on March 7 that Mr. Babinski’s existing barn already obscured their view of the open fields and that a new one would obliterate it. They noted that they had contributed to the trust to help make the development rights purchase possible. Mr. Babinski said the new barn would be adjacent to the old one, and half its size.

    The Gilberts’ attorney, Jeff Bragman, has initiated a lawsuit against the town and its head building inspector, Tom Prieato, who subsequently rescinded the building permit for the barn and issued a stop-work order. Mr. Babinski’s attorney, David Eagan of McLaughlin and Eagan, commented only that Mr. Babinski is quite angry. The planning board voted 5 to 1 for approval, with its chairman, Reed Jones, voting in favor of the Gilberts.

    The East Hampton Zoning Board of Appeals entered the labyrinth of logic inside a barn on Abraham’s Path in Amagansett Tuesday night as it began its initial deliberation on a challenge to a Nov. 3, 2011, reinstatement of a building permit by the town’s acting chief building inspector, Tom Preiato, who had revoked the permit five weeks earlier.

    In 2008, the town’s chief building inspector, the late Don Sharkey, issued a certificate of occupancy for a barn at 459 Abraham’s Path, determining that the structure had been used continuously as a business since 1957 and therefore was a “pre-existing, nonconforming” building, allowing it to be used as a business despite being in a residentially zoned neighborhood.

    Mr. Preiato issued a building permit to construct a woodworking shop in the barn in November 2010, based on the 2008 certificate of occupancy, but he rescinded that building permit on Aug. 31, 2011, after several neighbors argued that the building was not entitled to pre-existing and nonconforming status as it had not truly been used as a business.

    On Nov. 3, after hearing from the attorney representing Ronald Webb, who holds the lease on the property, Mr. Preiato sent out a memo reversing himself again.

    “I think the $64,000 question is whether there was a business there,” Alex Walter, the board’s chairman, said as the board began deliberating.

    The board quickly turned its attention to whether there was any evidence at all that the barn, which has no electricity, had ever been used as a business.

    “There should be something like a ledger sheet,” said Don Cirillo, a board member, picking up where he’d left off at the April 24 public hearing on the matter. He asked if there was a single cancelled check or receipt that would show that the barn had been used as a business.

    “There was no electricity running to the barn. Here we have a very, very, loose” definition of a business, said Sharon McCobb, a board member.

    Lee White, another board member, pointed out that the affidavits produced by Mr. Webb’s attorney, Jonathan Tarbet of Tarbet, Lester, and Schoen, appeared more like form letters than thought-out statements of fact.

    “I think if there was an existing business for that many years,” there would be some proof, said Bryan Gosman, another member.

    “The C of O was issued to a mistake in fact,” Mr. Cirillo said, “A barn is a barn.”

    The board will continue the discussion at its June 12 work session.

    In other zoning board news, at a May 22 meeting, a number of neighbors turned out to oppose a new pool and pool house on Wyandanch Lane in the Beach Hampton section of Amagansett.

    Lewis Meyers, the property owner, whose house is on an adjoining lot, needs a wetlands setback variance and an eight-foot variance from the setbacks from his own property line to build a 648-square-foot swimming pool and a 180-square-foot pool house.

    At one time, an accessory structure like a pool or pool house could not be built alone on a property that did not also contain a primary residence, but that changed in 2008. After the comedian Jerry Seinfeld built a baseball field on property next to his on Further Lane in East Hampton, the town board enacted what some call the Seinfeld law, allowing accessory structures on separate, adjoining properties under the same ownership, provided they would allow for construction of a main house should ownership change in the future.

    Mr. Meyers’s attorney, Nancy Marshall of Biondo and Hammer, argued that the zoning board could approve the variances he needs while requiring a covenant, that, if the property was ever sold, the pool would have to be removed.

    “To sum up, the Meyers family will definitely benefit, and it shouldn’t impact the neighborhood,” she said.

    But the neighbors on hand disagreed.

    “I can understand a variance to build a house, but I can’t understand why you’d grant a variance to build a pool,” said Florence Polikoff, who’s owned a house on an adjacent property for 40 years.

    Mark Bloom, also a 40-year resident of the neighborhood, followed Ms. Polikoff, and presented the board with a letter, from a third neighbor in opposition who was unable to attend the hearing.

    “This is as nonessential as possible,” Mr. Bloom said of the pool. “On our block, as far as I know, there is one tiny pool two doors down from Mr. Meyers. I object to the pool because it changes the nature of the neighborhood.”

    He reminded the board of its recent decision of May 8 denying a setback variance from the adjacent roads for a proposed 512-square-foot swimming pool on Treasure Island Drive, also in Beach Hampton.

    “This area has a definable character,” Mr. White said at the time, arguing that the pool would have had a negative effect on the quality of life in the quiet neighborhood.

East Hampton Town

Airport Tower Here Soon

    An air traffic control facility  — commonly called a tower but actually a modular building to house equipment and traffic controllers — could be up and running at East Hampton Airport by June 18, Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione said on Tuesday.

    The Federal Aviation Administration-approved  structure is expected to arrive at the airport tomorrow, and work such as electric hookups will be done next week.  Also next week, the air traffic control staff will arrive and begin training for their work here.

    In other airport news, Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said at the town board’s meeting Tuesday that he will call for a full financial feasibility study to determine if the airport can be self-sustaining, allowing the town to stop accepting F.A.A. grants. Taking the federal money, which obligates the town to abide by a number of F.A.A. rules regarding the airport’s operation, has long been the center of a debate over the town’s ability, or lack of it, to minimize aircraft noise disturbance.

Waste Management and Water Protection

    State legislation co-sponsored by Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., which has already passed the Assembly, could be a key element in a future East Hampton Town comprehensive septic waste management program, Councilman Stanzione said Tuesday.

    The state watershed protection improvement district bill would allow the town to establish special tax districts in watershed areas to raise money for projects designed to protect ground and surface waters. They could help pay for septic system upgrades, alternative septic systems, stormwater collection devices, and the like, in order to “capture, treat, and infiltrate runoff and decrease the amount of pollutants” reaching water bodies, as Mr. Thiele said in a press release. Recent discussions about what to do with the town’s aging scavenger waste treatment plant have spawned recommendations that the town take a comprehensive look at the issue of septic waste and water protection and create a multifaceted plan, Mr. Stanzione said. Small, localized wastewater treatment facilities in environmentally sensitive areas, eliminating less efficient individual septic systems, could be a part of the plan, he said.   

    Not to be outdone by Jerry Seinfeld, who just got the go-ahead to install a solar power system at his Further Lane, East Hampton, property, Alec Baldwin has submitted plans to the town for a wind turbine on his five acres off Town Lane in Amagansett. He will become the first homeowner in East Hampton to have one, should the town board approve his request.

    The two celebrities are not only aligned in their quest for green energy. Recent reports in the entertainment media have speculated about a yet-to-be-revealed project in which the two will collaborate, along with Larry David and Ricky Gervais.

    Two turbines have gone up over the past year on farms on Long Lane in East Hampton — at the 7-acre Iacono chicken farm and on Stephen Mahoney’s 20-acre tree farm — but Mr. Baldwin is the first to seek permission for one on residential land. His property is bordered by agricultural land, including three acres in his name.

    The Amagansett Fire Department has a wind turbine behind its Main Street firehouse, within sight, across fields, of Mr. Baldwin’s place. His turbine would be identical to the ones on Long Lane, made by Bergey Windpower.

    According to the town code, a special permit must be obtained for the construction of any “wind energy conversion system.” The town board is to consider a complete plan of the proposed system and its location, and evaluate whether the turbine would adversely affect neighbors, the environment, or the character of the community before issuing the permit. The board must also obtain a certification from an engineer as to its “strength and integrity,” as well as hold a public hearing before acting.

    Joel Halsey, a town planner, discussed Mr. Baldwin’s application with the town board at a work session on Tuesday. “What if you live in a community with 400 houses, and 400 houses want a wind turbine?” Supervisor Bill Wilkinson asked.

    East Hampton is participating with other municipalities in the development of a countywide uniform code governing wind-energy systems. It would contain specific standards for the installation of such systems, and would replace current local legislation, which requires the town board to issue a special permit but does not contain detailed requirements such as a minimum property size or required setbacks for a turbine from property lines.

    Once the town adopts the uniform wind energy legislation, Mr. Halsey said, obtaining permission for a turbine “would be like getting a building permit. It would be a matter of right if you had adequate property size and could meet setbacks.”

    Mr. Wilkinson suggested that prior to adopting the code, the town should investigate what the ultimate result could be. “The thought is, you could have unlimited turbines,” he said.

    “We would like to have a computer model,” said the supervisor, “so you have some understanding of what the policy is going to be.”

    Maps showing areas of the town where wind turbines would be cost-effective, and eligible properties under the forthcoming code, could be prepared, Mr. Halsey said. He estimated that only half, if that, of the properties in town would meet minimum standards allowing turbines. And, he said, the town could limit their locations, excluding designated Scenic Areas of Statewide Significance, for instance, or requiring more detailed review of applications for turbines on properties in certain areas.

    Greg Zwirko, an architect and Amagansett resident, has long pursued the idea of harnessing wind energy on his property. He first submitted an application for a turbine system six years ago. However, the town board at the time, lacking specific town code standards, failed to act on it, despite Mr. Zwirko’s repeated requests.

    His application, however, sparked the initial discussion about drafting a more comprehensive section of the code.

    Mr. Zwirko said yesterday that he was still hoping to move ahead with his plan.

    Mr. Baldwin’s turbine, if approved, could produce up to 110 percent of his energy requirements, according to the terms of a Long Island Power Authority rebate program, Mr. Halsey said Tuesday. Any energy produced by the wind but not used on site would be sent into the LIPA power grid, producing revenue, in the form of a credit, for the property owner.

    The town board agreed to hold a public hearing on Mr. Baldwin’s request. Mr. Wilkinson asked if it was possible to avoid having Mr. Baldwin’s turbine be yellow, like the fire department’s. The Bergey company makes them in yellow and in gray, Mr. Halsey said.

    “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.”