Randy Altschuler has gained the endorsement of the Suffolk County Republican Committee in his Congressional run against Representative Tim Bishop, a Democrat seeking re-election in November.

    Last week, John Jay LaValle, the county G.O.P. chairman, said in a statement that Mr. Altschuler was chosen for his “real world” business experience, which, the party will argue, will help address the weakness in the American economy. Mr. Altschuler was supported and then abandoned by the party in 2010 during an ugly primary battle that was not resolved until September that year, leaving little time to recover for the general election.

    George Demos, one of the candidates who challenged Mr. Altschuler in the 2010 primary, plans to mount another primary fight. This year the federal primary elections will be held on June 26.

    The primaries for state offices have not been set, but Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. has introduced a bill that would have those primaries take place on the same day, the fourth Tuesday in June, which would apply to future state office races as well.

    The committee screened both candidates. Mr. LaValle said Mr. Altschuler’s support was overwhelming among the party leaders this year. A formal nomination will occur at a future date that has yet to be set, according to the committee, dependent on the new district lines that still need to be finalized by the State Legislature.

    While the Altschuler campaign has been mostly ignoring Mr. Demos’s efforts, Mr. Demos’s reaction to the endorsement was combative. He said Mr. Altschuler “has played the inside game of money and power. This process is disgraceful and it deserves to be defeated. More importantly, it deserves to be exposed.”

    He reprised his criticisms from the last campaign, referring to the candidate as “Outsourcer Randy Altschuler,” based on a company he once owned and co-founded to send high-paying back-office Wall Street jobs to India and other countries where the workers would accept a fraction of the salaries. It was reported to be one of the first companies to send white-collar jobs overseas in publications such as The New Yorker and Business Week. He has since co-founded another company, CloudBlue, which recycles electronic devices. It is based in Norcross, Ga.

    The characterization has historically been harmful to Mr. Altschuler, who lost narrowly to Mr. Bishop in a year when Republicans did exceptionally well in Congressional races. The party and the campaign have recast Mr. Altschuler as a “self-made businessman who came from humble beginnings to achieve the American dream,” in Mr. LaValle’s words.

    Mr. Demos, meanwhile, said he was the only conservative candidate in the race. “The voters in the primary will not be moved by the endorsements of a few party bosses,” he said. He pledged to defeat Mr. Altschuler in the primary.

    After setting a minimum price of $3 million for the sale of seven town-owned office condominiums at Pantigo Place in East Hampton — or $428,571 per condo — the three members of the East Hampton Town Board’s Republican majority agreed on Tuesday to accept a bid of $1.2 million for four of the condos, a sale price of $300,000 each.

    The decision set off a heated discussion, but the debate may well be moot, as the buyer, Andrew Sabin, said yesterday that he had withdrawn his bid.

    Appraisers had set the value of the seven condos, sold together, at $3.7 million, or $528,571 each, or $628,571 each if sold separately.

    In the face of questions about the plan from Sylvia Overby and Peter Van Scoyoc, the new Democratic members of the board, about the price and whether it is realistic to expect a renovation of the old town hall building to be completed in time for town offices to be moved there in just a year, Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson asked Tuesday, “At what point would this board accept a discount” to the potential buyer?

    As part of a deal, the town would get a rent-free year in the sold condos, while renovations are completed at the former town hall building; however, plans for those renovations have not yet begun. 

    Mr. Sabin confirmed that he had originally approached the town about buying all of the office units for $3 million, and had then submitted the lower bid for four of the condos.

    But he said that he had sent a letter withdrawing the bid until the new board members “get on board and figure out what they want to do.”

    However, Mr. Sabin, who owns four units at the Pantigo building, and uses two for the offices of Sabin Metal Corporation, said that he would “rethink it” if he got a go-ahead from the board for the low sale price. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said.

    Mr. Sabin asserted that “there’s no market” for the condominiums, and said he had planned to hold them until the commercial real estate market improved. One of his condos, he said, has been vacant for three years, and a tenant is moving out of another.

    Councilwoman Theresa Quigley, who had broached the topic to the board, said Tuesday that bids of $1.2 million and $700,000 had been received, in addition to the $3 million. That offer, she said, “was a great bid, but the person didn’t like how government operated, and pulled out,” before coming back with “lower and lower bids.”

    Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson said the sale would raise money for renovation of the old town hall building. “There’s a tremendous value to having a workforce on the same campus,” he said.

    He said that after gutting the 10,000-square-foot space, a “European-type work space,” with open areas allotting 75 to 100 feet per worker, versus the standard 200 square feet per person, could be created, and a model initiated where workers would not necessarily complete their responsibilities at Town Hall.

    Ms. Quigley said that selling the condos would save the town $40,000 a year on maintenance fees for the four units. In addition, she said, having only one town office in the old town hall building at present — and the associated light and heating costs — is wasteful.

    The old building is in poor repair and has suffered water damage, including in the former courtroom, which was condemned by the town fire marshal. Recently, $60,000 of equipment for the town’s new telephone system was installed in the basement there, Ms. Overby said.

    Mr. Wilkinson said an engineer who examined the building had estimated a $500,000 renovation cost. But Councilman Van Scoyoc, who is a building contractor, said that it is impossible to tell without a full review, and that it could easily be much more.

    The time needed for the project could also be much longer than a year, he said. According to the sale proposal described by Ms. Quigley, after a year the town would have to pay $15,000 to $17,000 a month on the Pantigo Place condos if town offices still occupied them.

    “In a perfect world it could go pretty quickly, but we don’t have any plans yet,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said. He suggested the board immediately begin working out a plan, but Ms. Quigley said she was unwilling to spend money on planning the project until the sale proceeds come in.

    Selling the condos is not the only way the town could finance a building renovation, Mr. Van Scoyoc pointed out.

    With the new state law imposing a 2-percent cap on tax increases, and the need to finance a multimillion-dollar deficit that had accumulated in past years, it will be difficult to raise money for capital projects, Councilman Dominick Stanzione said. A capital plan is being developed.

    “We’re under a real tight constraint with our capital budget, so we have to look at creative options, and this is one of those kinds of responses to our situation that I support,” he said.

    He suggested that the board vote on a resolution approving the sale at its next meeting.

    Councilwoman Overby suggested more consideration is needed. She questioned what the condos had been appraised for, which was not discussed at the meeting, as well as what price other condos may have recently sold for.

    The units were purchased by the town in 1991 and 1996, Len Bernard, the town budget officer, said, at an approximately $300,000 cost per unit, and the town still owes about $120,000 on them.

Duel Over the Green

    Two Montauk groups hoping to receive mass-gathering permits for use of the Montauk hamlet green over Memorial Day weekend will have to wait another week for a decision from the East Hampton Town Board.

    The Montauk Artists Association has held an art fair on the green, but last year a veterans’ group, the Montauk Memorial Committee, also requested use of the space for a Memorial Day ceremony. The two shared the space. But this year, the veterans have expanded plans for three days of activities, and say their request should take precedence because of the holiday.

    Speakers supporing both sides — and several promoting a compromise — gave their opinions at a town board meeting last Thursday. After a brief discussion at a subsequent meeting on Tuesday, Dominick Stanzione, the councilman who is the Montauk liaison, set a deadline of next week for the Solomonic decision.

Lighting Committee

    Susan Harder, a lighting consultant from Springs who was appointed to a committee formed recently to review proposed changes to the town’s outdoor lighting code, resigned from the committee, reading a letter explaining her rationale at the town board’s meeting Tuesday.

    Ms. Harder claimed that Councilwoman Theresa Quigley, who has spearheaded an effort to change the lighting code, wants to repeal the existing “dark-sky” code, which was designed to limit excessive lighting, and, she said, replace it with a code that “eliminates important provisions.”

    Ms. Harder, a member of the Dark Sky Association who has worked with other communities to craft lighting legislation, has said that simple amendments to the existing code could solve problems with it, and that she had delivered her recommendations instead to Councilwoman Sylvia Overby.

Chief Auditor On Board

    Charlene Kagel, a certified public accountant who has been working for East Hampton Town, was appointed to the newly created position of chief auditor at a town board meeting on Tuesday. She will have status as a department head, and continue working with Len Bernard, the town budget officer and head of the Finance Division.

    Ms. Kagel, who is now paid on an hourly basis for a total of about $84,000 a year, will earn a $90,000 annual salary in her new position. 

    With the absence of Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione at an East Hampton Town Board meeting last Thursday leaving the four remaining board members split evenly along party lines, “no” votes — and an abstention — by the two new Democratic board members made it impossible for Town Councilwoman Theresa Quigley to gain approval for three of her initiatives.

    At a work session two days earlier, the board had discussed selling four of the town’s office condos at Pantigo Place in East Hampton to a buyer who had offered $1.2 million for the lot, well below a maximum appraised value of $628,571 each, and under an original minimum sale price set by the town of $428,571 each. The buyer, Andrew Sabin, told The Star last week that he had withdrawn the offer, but might still consider going forward.

    The plan, advanced by Ms. Quigley and Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, called for the town offices occupying those condos to remain in place for a year, rent free, per the terms of the sale, and then to move to renovated quarters in the old town hall building, now largely empty.

    But Councilwoman Sylvia Overby and Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, a builder, had questions about the proposal, from the sale price to whether it was feasible to rehabilitate the aging town hall, a portion of which has been condemned, within a year. No building plans have been developed, though Supervisor Wilkinson said he had had an engineer look at the site.

    Under the proposed terms of the condo sale, which is contingent on an immediate closing, should the town offices need to remain longer than a year, the rent would cost $15,000 to $17,000 per month.

    At the meeting last week, Ms. Quigley offered a resolution calling for the town to issue a request for proposals for “architectural services for the renovation of the old town hall,” with a deadline of March 15 for submissions. The specifications would have been made available to interested architects today.

    “We haven’t developed specs yet,” Ms. Overby said. Mr. Wilkinson said that he had recommended a large open workspace. “I’d like to have a little discussion about what the needs are,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said. Both voted against the resolution.

    The vote prompted the supervisor to comment. “The clock is on you,” he told the two Democrats. “We’re going to slow everything down in this town,” said Mr. Wilkinson, who has often complained about the “pace of play” in town government. “Everything’s been looked at. We want to now go back over the last 24 months?”

    “I don’t mind making decisions in a thorough way and having the public agree with it. . . .” Mr. Van Scoyoc said.

    Mr. Van Scoyoc’s no vote, and Ms. Overby’s abstention from a vote to approve changes to the town code regarding home improvement contracting licenses, also caused Mr. Wilkinson to complain. Ms. Overby said she was abstaining because the issue was on a list for the board to discuss but it had never been brought up. “A freaking halt,” Mr. Wilkinson said under his breath.

    Another town code change, that would extend to three years the length of time that planning board, zoning board, and architectural review board approvals remain in effect, was the third measure that failed to pass, in a 2-to-2 vote.

    It was estimated that the town could lose $27,000 in fees by extending the validity time, and Ms. Overby said that she disapproved of the change “because of taxpayer cost.”

    East Hampton Republican, Conservative, and Tea Party members came out early, and presumably will be out often, in support of Randy Altschuler, with an endorsement on Friday at the Hook Mill in East Hampton.

    The group included East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, and town board members Theresa Quigley and Dominick Stanzione, East Hampton Town Conservative Party chairman Vincent Downing, East End Tea Party chairwoman Lynda Edwards, and Kurt Kappel, the East Hampton Town Republican Party chairman.

    Mr. Altschuler said he was grateful for the endorsement. “While most elected officials and politicians talk about cutting taxes, reining in spending, and reducing the size and cost of government, Bill Wilkinson and the East Hampton Republicans have done it. I am honored to receive their endorsement and am committed to bringing those same fiscally responsible values to Washington so we can revitalize our economy and create jobs here in Suffolk County.”

    Diana Weir, his campaign manager, and a former East Hampton Town councilwoman, added that the concerns of East Hampton Town and South Fork residents such as the environment, fishing quotas, and federal funds for beach replenishment were issues that Mr. Altschuler has been engaged in since the last election and that he wants to be actively involved in seeing that they are resolved in the region’s favor.

    “Things like the fishing quotas have a major impact on small businesses and it is a regional issue. Randy wants to be more proactive and attend those hearings. It’s important for all of us,” she said.

    In a written statement, Mr. Wilkinson praised Mr. Altschuler’s business and job creation success as well as his commitment to East Hampton, including hiring Ms. Weir, who lives in Wainscott, to be his campaign manager.

    Upgrading from a traditional septic system to a new, high-technology waste treatment design called Nitrex, which the East Hampton Town Board heard about on Tuesday, could not only help keep nitrate levels lower in surface and groundwater, but also could benefit pre-existing, nonconforming businesses that do not meet current standards and codes, said Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, 

    Mr. Wilkinson’s focus was on Lake Montauk, where, he said, samples have found human DNA, derived from waste discharge into the lake. With a highly effective waste treatment system, he said, “everybody wins.”

    At the town board’s work session on Tuesday, Kevin McAllister, the Peconic Baykeeper and a member of the Lake Montauk Advisory Committee, introduced Pio Lombardo of Lombardo Associates in Boston, a wastewater engineering firm that, he said, assists “unsewered communities” with wastewater management issues. The company’s specialty, he said, is “sewer avoidance” as well as “growth management.”

    Faced with a decision about what to do with the town scavenger waste treatment plant, some board members have broached the idea of developing an overall wastewater management plan before making any long-term decisions about the plant, an idea Mr. Lombardo encouraged. Mr. Wilkinson and Councilwoman Theresa Quigley advocate accepting a private company’s purchase offer for the plant, but discussion of the various issues continues.

    “I would urge you, from a procedural perspective, to think about a comprehensive plan,” Mr. Lombardo said.

    His presentation, however, focused on the Nitrex system, which can be used in lieu of, or with a retrofitted, traditional septic system.

    The system converts nitrogen, a product of human waste that affects aquatic ecosystems and groundwater, into nitrogen gas that is harmlessly released into the atmosphere. It averages 94 percent nitrogen removal, Mr. Lombardo said, “as good as the most sophisticated plant.”

    The development of sewer systems, which collect and send septic waste to a central plant for treatment, is not feasible in most communities, Mr. Lombardo said, except perhaps in downtown areas.

    “So we’re going to have to deal with our waste individually — perhaps in neighborhoods,” he said. “So let’s move away . . . and really embark on progressive treatment.”

    While the cost to an average property owner who must tie into a sewer system is $50,000 to $60,000, Mr. Lombardo said, a Nitrex system can be installed for half that. About $40 a year worth of electricity is used to operate a pump that runs for about 20 minutes a day. Monitoring costs could be about $600 a year, he said.

    In places throughout the country, including Woodstock, N.Y., Mr. Lombardo said, his company has helped devise wastewater management systems that may include communal treatment systems for neighborhoods or other geographic areas. A tax district can be created to pay for them, he said, with its boundaries corresponding to, perhaps, those of a particular watershed, such as Lake Montauk.

    As Peconic Baykeeper, Mr. McAllister has been working to get Suffolk County to revise its standards for septic systems, and to accept alternative systems.

    So far, he and Mr. Lombardo said, the County Health Department has approved Nitrex systems for restaurants or multi-family dwellings, and not for single-family residences, but will be assessing its use in that setting.

    Mr. McAllister noted that municipalities may enact more stringent requirements for septic treatment than the county. Individual property owners who wish to install a system such as Nitrex right now can apply for a variance from the existing county regulations.

    Beginning today, food peddlers who wish to set up shop at one of 12 authorized sites at town-owned beaches in East Hampton can pick up applications from the Town Purchasing Department allowing them to bid on the rights to use one of the spots.

    The rights will be given to the highest bidder. A points system, which the board attempted to institute last year, allowing the town board to weigh non-monetary factors such as experience and community ties as well as business and marketing details, has been abandoned.

    Although that system was designed to provide consideration for longtime and popular vendors such as the Ditch Witch, which has been selling food at Ditch Plain beach for years, it did not result in the Ditch Witch gaining the concession for that spot last year. Instead, a newcomer, Turf Lobster Rolls, came out ahead. Another longtime vendor at Ditch run by a local family, Beach Dog, lost out to Montaco, a relative newcomer.

    That announcement prompted a wave of protest, and eventually the town board, citing a glitch in the process, in that not all of the bidders had received a detailed breakdown of the weighted criteria, threw out all of the bids, and the pay-for-a-site process. A compromise enabled all of the Montauk vendors to do business.

    This year, the process begins again. While for years, vendors were allowed to set up shop on essentially a first-come-first-served basis, and traditional territories were informally respected, an increase in peddlers and the growth in popularity of food trucks created a need to begin to regulate the field, the town board had said.

    The 12 sites to be licensed include Indian Wells Beach and Albert’s Landing in Amagansett, Maidstone Park in Springs, and Kirk Park and East Lake Drive in Montauk, among others.

    A hearing will be held by the town board at 7 p.m. next Thursday at Town Hall on the addition of a South Otis Road location, near Ditch Plain in Montauk.

    Potential vendors must submit bids to the Purchasing Department by 1 p.m. on March 22.

East Hampton Town

Actual Cost of Chief Auditor

    An item last week about the appointment of Charlene Kagel, an accountant who has been working part time for the town, to a chief auditor position, inaccurately described the impact of the move on the town budget.

    Ms. Kagel will earn a $90,000 salary in the new, full-time post. She had been paid on an hourly basis, which, extrapolated to a full-time position, would equal an annual salary of approximately $84,000, as was reported.

     She had not, however, been putting in full-time hours. The 2012 budget contained $40,000 for the position, Len Bernard, the town budget officer, said Tuesday. The remainder to be needed this year for her salary will be taken from a contingency budget line, he said.

Dog Step Law a No Go

    An effort by Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione to enact legislation requiring all pools to have steps that would enable a dog or a child to get out of the pool hit the doldrums on Tuesday with a thumbs-down vote by the rest of the board.

    Mr. Stanzione said there had been several dog drownings after animals fell into pools and were unable to get out. But board members pointed to an existing code provision requiring fences around pools, and Supervisor Bill Wilkinson noted that dogs must be trained to use pool steps and become familiar with a particular pool.

    The proposal would also have added a provision to the pool fencing code that would allow town officials to go onto a property and rectify an unsafe situation, such as lack of a fence. At present, the only action the town can take is to fine a pool owner who is not in compliance with the law.

    The East Hampton Town Board is expected to vote tonight to reject a bid to purchase the town-owned office condominiums at Pantigo Place, now occupied by the Building Department, tax assessors, Planning Department, and other town departments.

    Although town officials never disclosed the name of the bidder, Andrew Sabin, who owns several of the condo units and houses his corporate offices there, confirmed two weeks ago that he had submitted an initial bid of $3 million for all of the condos, then a bid of $1.2 million for four of the seven town condos. Both had been withdrawn, he said.

    The town had solicited bids for the seven units, for a minimum of $3 million, based on Mr. Sabin’s offer. No other bidders came forward.

    The units had been appraised at $3.7 million if sold together ($528,571 each), or $628,571 each if sold separately. The sale was based on a plan to renovate the old town hall building so that all of the town departments could be housed on one campus. The terms were to include one rent-free year in the condos for town departments.

    Town Councilwoman Theresa Quigley is expected to offer a resolution tonight issuing a call for proposals to architects for the old town hall renovation, although the two Democratic board members, Sylvia Overby and Peter Van Scoyoc, have suggested first developing specific criteria. A needs assessment would be a place to start, Mr. Van Scoyoc suggested at the board’s meeting on Tuesday.

    On Tuesday morning it appeared that a compromise allowing both the Montauk Artists Association and the Montauk Veterans Association to proceed with their Memorial Day weekend plans, both of which involve using the Montauk green, would be struck by the time a town board work session concluded. But whether the veterans would sign on to an idea developed by Councilman Dominick Stanzione in concert with Ken Walles, a member of the group, remained up in the air.

    At a meeting tonight, however, the town board is planning to approve the Montauk Artists Association’s mass-gathering permit request, giving them use of the green on the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, with the exception, on Sunday, of the area around the veterans memorial.

    Mr. Stanzione outlined the potential scenario on Tuesday: While the artists would proceed with their show and sale on the green, the veterans association would begin its Sunday parade at the western edge of town, at Second House, and conclude the march at the memorial on the green.

    The councilman said he had worked with East Hampton Town Police Chief Edward Ecker on plans to close an adjacent section of the traffic circle to cars, in order to provide more space for the veterans activities.

    On Monday, Memorial Day, the artists are to have vacated the green, which would be dedicated to the veterans use.

    Although Mr. Stanzione and Mr. Walles had gone through details of the plan, Tom Bogdan, another member of the veterans group, told the town board on Tuesday that, if the artists are to be allowed to use the green on Memorial Day weekend, his group would withdraw its request and base its activities solely at Second House instead. In return, however, he requested the board members’ “personal commitment” that the green would be reserved for the veterans exclusive use next year. “What you recommend is chaos,” he told Mr. Stanzione. “We’ll move.”

    But Mr. Stanzione pointed out that it is unlikely that the board would agree to a promise regarding next year.

    Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, who said he would recuse himself from a vote on the issue, as he is a veteran, called for a comprehensive discussion, in the fall, of how the green should be used. “There is a pretty good split” of opinions on the matter, he said, with some in Montauk of the belief that the central downtown open area should not be used for moneymaking enterprises.

    Councilwoman Theresa Quigley, while acknowledging the contributions of veterans, said to Mr. Bogdan that “artists are also a member of the community.” She agreed with comments made by Hy Brodsky, a Montauk resident who stressed the meaning of Memorial Day and its history as a one-day remembrance.

    “From day one, Decoration Day — now called Memorial Day — has been a one-day event,” Mr. Brodsky said. “It was compacted, and therefore it wasn’t diluted,” he said. “The meaning and significance was clear.” He said the holiday is a “passive day . . . to think about the lives of people who died. You don’t stretch that out,” he said. “You bring it all together in one day.”

    Ms. Quigley said she was unwilling to make a promise to allow only the veterans to use the green next year.

    Mr. Walles told the board that he would have to confer with other members of the veterans group as to whether Mr. Stanzione’s solution is acceptable.

    But, he said of the proposed compromise, “This is basically the leftovers. And I think it’s time we recognize the veterans. Let’s not give them the leftovers. Let’s not treat them as secondary citizens.”