Registered East Hampton, Springs, and Wainscott School District voters approved the East Hampton Library’s 2014 budget on Saturday. The vote was 162 to 43 in favor of a $2.1 million budget, representing an increase of $141,000 over this year. Next year’s budget will result in an average tax increase of $7.76 for homeowners.

    Dennis Fabiszak, the library’s director, told The Star that the library’s expansion, presently under way, necessitated some of the increases. A larger building will mean additional heating and cooling capacity, he said, and a part-time librarian will be hired for the new children’s room. In addition, a part-time custodian will be added to the staff to meet the demands of a larger building. Purchases of books and recorded music account for the balance of the budget increase, he said.

    Drs. Robert J. Marshall and Simone Verniere Marshall of East Hampton and New York City celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary and her 89th birthday at a lunch on Saturday at the Amagansett house of their daughter and son-in-law Annette and Jacques Franey. Their other daughter and son-in-law, Drs. Gabrielle Salomon and Amir Salomon of Summit, N.J., co-hosted the celebration.

    The Marshalls were married on Sept. 13, 1953. The two have dedicated their professional lives to the practice of psychology and psychoanalysis and co-wrote the book “The Transference-Countertransference Matrix,” published by Columbia University Press. Simone Marshall, born in Paris, graduated from the Sorbonne in 1949, entered Columbia University on a Fulbright scholarship in 1951, and earned her Ph.D. in 1959. She trained at the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychology, graduating in 1970, and had a career as a psychologist and psychoanalyst.

    Her husband, an educator and lecturer, has served on the faculty of the Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies for over 30 years and written more than 35 articles and chapters on such subjects as milieu therapy, juvenile delinquency, psychoanalytic theory and technique, and supervision. According to his family, he “is known for his use of humor and creativity in psychotherapy.”

    At the party on Saturday, he entertained guests with a skit he called “Surviving 60 Years of Marital Bliss,” which included sentimental and humorous songs. The Marshalls’ three grandchildren then surprised them with “their own original musical caricature of their grandparents.”

    The Montauk Seafood Festival will have its inaugural launch on the weekend of Sept. 21 at the Montauk Marine Basin on West Lake Drive from noon to 5 p.m.

    The two-day event will be held under a tent near the Hula Hut and have nonstop music by three bands, food from at least 12 local restaurants, a snapper derby, goldfish races, and fish printing and airbrush painting on T-shirts and hats. In addition to seafood there will be burgers and hot dogs for the landlubbers.

    The event was the brainchild of Joe Bloecker, the president of the Montauk Friends of Erin, who invited the East Hampton Kiwanis to get on board. A group of planners started meeting about three months ago. They brought in Laura Mastandrea, who has helped out at other charitable events, to organize the festival and line up sponsors. “The response has been good,” she said.

    Food vendors pay a fee of $500 for a space. Visitors will pay a small fee to try various restaurants’ specialties, and $1 from each item purchased will be added to the festival’s proceeds, which will benefit other activities sponsored by the two civic groups throughout the rest of the year, such as Toys for Tots, pediatric trauma care, the Montauk St. Patrick’s Day parade, and scholarships.

    Another goal of the festival is to attract people to Montauk’s harbor area, said Carl Darenberg, one of the planners and the owner of the Montauk Marine Basin. “There’s a harbor out here and people aren’t aware of it. We’re trying to pull visitors from the downtown area,” he said. “Montauk is supposed to be the fishing capital of the world, and lately it’s been very quiet on the docks.”

    It seemed appropriate that the organizers met on a windy, rain-swept dock at the marine basin to go over their plans Tuesday afternoon. Lynn Calvo of the Hula Hut said she would be making her signature fruit infusion and “shark bite” drinks, Mr. Bloecker will be shucking clams, and Mr. Darenberg was reminded that he will be one of the living fishing legends giving hourly talks to groups about the heady days of fishing in the hamlet.

    Ken Giustino, another planner and the publisher of The Montauk Sun, said the festival will help extend the season, similar to the Montauk Music Festival, which he started several years ago to kick off the season a few weeks before Memorial Day. Mr. Giustino is also one of the sponsors, as is My Earth Water, whose products will be sold at the festival, and Despatch Self Storage.

    Some of the food that will be served, in addition to clams, burgers, and dogs, are lobster rolls, ahi tuna slides, ceviche, fish tacos, crab cakes, oysters, and seafood crepes. “I told them to do something you can do fast and something you do well,” Mr. Bloecker said of the participating restaurants.

    For the kids, the snapper derby will take place right on the dock at the marine basin, where Mr. Darenberg said the snappers have been plentiful and as big as bluefish lately. Admission is free, and the festival will be held rain or shine.

   The East Hampton High School class of 1973 will hold its 40th reunion on Oct. 12 from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Fairway Restaurant at the Poxabogue Golf Center in Sagaponack.

   A light buffet and open bar will be provided for $35 per person. Class members wishing to attend have been asked to e-mail Wendy Leese Mott at lazys@ opton­line.net or Kim Friedah Brown at kimfbrown@gmail. com.

   A motorcycle ride to benefit the Donald T. Sharkey Memorial Community Fund, in conjunction with the Red Knights, will take place on Sunday. Registration begins at 9 a.m. at the Bridgehampton Fire Department, and the ride, heading east to Montauk Point, starts at 11.

   At the conclusion, there will be a stop for food, beverages, and a 50-50 raffle at Cyril’s Fish House on Napeague. Registration is $30 per rider.

    During a weekend that was full of celebration for the couple and their families and friends, Haley Cunningham Grant and Eric James Weaver were married on Aug. 25 on the beach at Gurney’s Inn in Montauk.

    On the Friday before their wedding, Ms. Grant and Mr. Weaver welcomed guests for music, wine, and a sunset view at the Wolffer Estate Vineyard in Sagaponack. On Saturday, there was beach volleyball at South Edison Beach in Montauk and pre-wedding Sunday-morning yoga. A reception at Gurney’s followed the wedding ceremony, which was performed by Alison Caiolla, an interfaith minister from New York City.

    Ms. Grant is a daughter of Patia Cunningham and Jack Grant of East Hampton. She graduated from East Hampton High School in 2003 and from the University of Delaware in 2007. She works for Momentum Worldwide in Chicago as a producer.

    Mr. Weaver is the son of James Weaver of Woodstock, Ill., and the late Christine Weiss. He attended Crystal Lake High School and graduated from Illinois State University. He works as an account manager for Shire Regenerative Medicine in Chicago.

    Caitlin Grant was the maid of honor. The bridesmaids were Corinne Weaver, Meagan Martino, Winter Canavan, and Alison Harrington Scott. The groomsmen were Fei Wang, Chad Seabold, Edward Wells, Mark Cornwell, and Ryan Walker.

    The couple live in Chicago.

    The East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals heard emotional appeals from two residents who spoke on separate applications before it on Friday.

   One of the applications, which drew opposition, was from adjacent property owners, Kevin and Mary Harty of 21 La Forest Lane, and C Squared Holdings, the owner of 27 La Forest Lane. They were seeking permission to shift the boundary between the parcels, which, Richard Whalen, an attorney representing the applicants, said would result in one property shrinking by 6,346 square feet, to 41,534 square feet, while the other would grow by the same amount, to 57,591 square feet.  

    The other application was from Jane H. Maynard of Baiting Hollow Road, who implored the board to consider personal circumstances and grant nine retroactive variances.

    According to Richard Whalen, an attorney representing the La Forest property owners, the Hartys’ property would become smaller and the applicable yard setbacks would change, requiring an area variance. A swimming pool on the C Squared lot, Mr. Whalen said, would “become more nonconforming.”

    “There’s no net change,” Mr. Whalen said. “The land transferred from one goes to the other.”

    The C Squared building envelope would retain its present width, 114 feet, while the width of the building envelope on the Harty lot would decrease to 91 feet. “The total area on which one can build on the two lots actually decreases,” he said, adding that it was “only a peculiarity in how setbacks work” that brought the applicants before the board. He called the proposed change modest and said the size of the lots would remain comparable to others in the vicinity.

    Minimum lots of 160,000 square feet are required in the zoning district. “No construction, no new structures, no physical changes to anything,” Mr. Whalen said of the properties.

    William Dejonge of 17 La Forest Lane, however, challenged Mr. Whalen’s characterization of the lot-line modification. “In my understanding . . . by increasing 27 La Forest Lane by 6,346 square feet, the buildable area increases by approxmately 640 square feet,” he said. He also asserted that if 21 La Forest Lane were to shrink, the setbacks would also shrink, meaning a new structure could be built closer to the lot lines. “Is that a misunderstanding on my part?” he asked the board.

    Frank Newbold, the board’s chairman, told Mr. Dejonge that he was correct, that the side-yard setback would decrease from 27.31 feet to 24 feet. The notice for the hearing, Mr. Dejonge said, includes no construction plans, but “it just seemed a bit incomplete that somebody would acquire, at presumably substantial expense, extra [land] with no intention to take advantage of the extra square footage.” When Larry Hillel, a board member said that both lots were considerably under-built, Mr. Dejonge shot back, “It’s not irrelevant if you take a pre-existing, nonconforming [lot] and make it even more so.” 

    Mr. Newbold concurred that while the applicants were not applying for a construction permit at the moment, “they have the right to in the future.”

    One should expect, Mr. Dejonge warned, that subsequently there would “be a miraculous development of plans to do something with that extra square footage. Therefore, if one acts on this, you should think about it as a preamble to the second shoe which is inevitably going to drop, which is to build a larger structure.”

    The lot-line modification, he said, would not be, as Mr. Whalen described it, “a wash,” because it changes where structures could be built. “It does have impacts on the neighbors,” he said.

    Mr. Whalen repeated his statement that the combined building envelopes would decrease. Gross floor area, “which is the size of the buildings, will change, and I think it is a wash. Allowed [gross floor area] will be reduced on the Harty lot . . . so the size of a house on that lot will be decreased, but proportionally the size of a possible house on the [C Squared] lot will be increased.” The maximum permitted gross floor area, he said, would increase by about 640 square feet. “There’s really no material effect on the neighbors in terms of yard setbacks and total building size that can be built on both lots,” he said, though he conceded that the applicants “probably do have plans to do something.”

    The board expects to rule on the application at its next meeting, on Sept. 13.

    William J. Fleming, an East Hampton attorney,  represented Ms. Maynard, who is seeking nine variances for existing structures: a deck, garage, swimming pool patio, pool equipment shed, brick surrounding an herb garden, stone steps, and slate walkways.

    Mr. Fleming said the Maynard house was “quite a marvelous rebuild” and contained only 60 percent of the allowable gross floor area. “It is, in modern parlance, almost modest,” he said, “where people are maxing out to the very perimeters of a property.”

    But, he conceded, a series of mistakes had been made. “The builder acknowledged that when he sited the proposed garage he didn’t have the surveyor stake it — he did it off the existing residence.” It wound up being a half-foot farther toward the rear yard than was permitted, or 29.3 feet rather than 29.8 feet, he said. “I submit that is a de minimus amount.”

    Regarding the swimming pool, Mr. Fleming said a decision had been made “in the field” that a three-foot surround could be expanded to five feet, exceeding the permitted setback by 18 inches. “Again, I submit that a foot and a half could not be noticed by the naked eye.” Similarly, it was decided that an outdoor shower be installed, increasing the size of the pool shed to house a hot-water heater.

    Decisions were made, Mr. Fleming said, based on the safety of the homeowner. Slate walkways such as exist here had not been regulated structures, he said, “but now everything is regulated.”

    Ms. Maynard’s husband, Walter Maynard, is retired and suffers from some disability with his legs, Mr. Fleming said. “We would appreciate it if that walkway can be regularized.” The Maynards own adjacent properties, and Mr. Fleming said the nearest neighbor had no objection to the variances.

    Mr. Newbold reminded the attorney that the property had been before the board before and that it had issued a determination on Feb. 10, 2012, that specifically stated the setbacks for the swimming pool and garage. Noting the number of variances now being requested, he asked, “Would not it have been better to come back to the board and say, ‘This is what’s required?’ ”

    Mr. Fleming conceded the point, “but I was not involved in the construction.” During construction, he said, “there seemed to be a loss of communication between the owner and the contractor. I respectfully submit that since the Maynards are the adjacent owner to the east, any variances are against their own interest and thus not against any other neighbors.” He added that Baiting Hollow Road is approximately 35 feet from the property line. 

    Mr. Newbold asked Mr. Fleming if his client might re-examine the application and identify some requests that could be eliminated “that would not change the safety of the structure but would indicate a stronger will to adhere to the previous variance.” 

    At that point, Ms. Maynard, who had been sitting in the last row of folding chairs, approached the lectern. Visibly upset, she asked for “some consideration,” saying that, “this has been a very aggravating experience both for my husband, who’s been ill all winter, and myself. We have been put through the wringer many times, and it gives us a very, very bad feeling about living in this area at all.”

    Mr. Maynard, she said, is 81 and has been hospitalized in Southampton and New York City with Lyme disease. “All of the burden of this has been put on me. I’ve probably aged 10 years over all this in what I’ve been through.” She said “mistakes definitely were made,” but added that she “would never do another building project again in this area under these circumstances. I respectfully submit that you might reconsider putting this off yet again because I’m really tired of going through it.”

    Mr. Newbold promised to take the circumstances into account. Noting that variances had been approved previously, he said, “Considerations were given for the house, and now we are finding that that was taken a few steps further. So we’re asking you to review what actually did happen.”

    While public libraries everywhere are adapting more or less effectively to the many challenges posed by the technological revolution, the East Hampton Library — known not so very long ago for its dusty stacks, once-a-year book sales, and “Shhh, quiet, please” admonitions — is fast becoming a pacesetter among its peers. Not only is it keeping up with digital change, it is running a step or two ahead.

    Most small libraries here, including East Hampton, Amagansett, Sag Harbor, and Montauk, have offered Internet and Wi-Fi service (a lifesaver for their communities in the days following Hurricane Sandy) for several years now, not to mention downloadable music, streaming movies, classes in Windows and eBay, and, more recently, e-readers to lend out, preloaded with both classics and best sellers. But the East Hampton Library has gone beyond, into a wider world.

    Asked why it had held no Memorial Day book sale this summer, as had been the tradition, Dennis Fabiszak, the library’s director, sat back in his chair and smiled.

    “We were making $4,000 to $5,000 a year on book sales,” he began, painting a picture of a labor-intensive process of planning and execution dependent to a large extent on an army of volunteers. “Then, about a year and a half ago, we became a ‘corporate seller’ on Amazon, with about 1,500 books.”

    That means that Amazon catalogs East Hampton’s books, many of them “very obscure,” on its giant site, where, said Mr. Fabiszak, people all over the world can find and order them.

    “Our books are being purchased by government officials, collectors, people who really want them,” he said. “Every morning we see that maybe 20 have been bought, and we send them out.” Not long ago, the library shipped a Roy Lichtenstein art book to a buyer in South Korea who identified himself as the minister of defense there.

    “We could have them on a cart for years and years, and no one would pay $1 for them,” Mr. Fabiszak said. “Now, people fight to pay $50. We are estimated to make $30,000 this year.”

    Because the library is doing so well with its virtual partner, said the director, it is able, for the first time, to give away “thousands of books” at its brick-and-mortar site on Main Street near Town Pond — “yet we are still making six or seven times as much. Much, much, more money on Amazon.”

    While a few patrons may not yet be aware that toward the back of the building piles of free books can be found, with new ones added every day, a lot of people have apparently caught on.

    “In the last six months we’ve given away over 10,000 books,” said Mr. Fabiszak, “It’s the best of both worlds.”

    In its first meeting of the new fiscal year, the East Hampton Village Board considered and quickly adopted three laws aimed at tightening existing regulations and reducing vehicular traffic on Huntting Lane, and fielded a request for new signage regarding pets in cars.

    As previously reported in The Star, one proposed amendment would clarify the requirements for a resident beach-parking permit. Only those related by blood or marriage to village property owners are legally qualified for the permit. The proposed amendment requires an affidavit signed and notarized by the property owner attesting to the relationship and that the relative is currently residing at the property owner’s residence.

    Susan McGuirk, who said she and her siblings own a house in the village, told the board she was “interested in how this came to be a problem.”

    “We had some abuses this year in particular, where people alleged that they were nuclear members of a family,” Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. answered. “It turned out the house in question was rented and there was no one in the nuclear family living there, and they tried to usurp what was a very generous gesture on the behalf of the village.” He reiterated that a legitimate nuclear-family member of a village resident is entitled to a permit if they are living in the property owner’s house.

    “I still think it’s a little ambiguous,” Barbara Borsack of the board said of the amendment. “You could have different family members coming out every weekend. Are they all entitled to a beach sticker every time a new family member comes to visit for the weekend?”

    Linda Riley, the village attorney, said that “ ‘Residing,’ not visiting,” is the key word. “Visitors don’t get permits.”

    “I still think it’s a little ambiguous,” Ms. Borsack said. “I think they can come in and say, ‘This relative is living with me this week,’ and next week, another one.”

    Property owners will have to have an affidavit, the mayor said. “They’re going to have to swear to it. It’s very specific.”

    Ms. Riley said that proof of residency, in the form of documents such as a driver’s license, voter registration card, automobile registration, utility bill, or income tax return, was required. Ms. Borsack was satisfied with the explanation.

    With no comment from the board or public, the board also voted unanimously to codify its policy that mass assembly permits for events to be held on commercial premises are issued only when the event is to be held indoors. Similarly, a unanimous vote prohibits all parking, standing, or stopping on both sides of Huntting Lane from the intersection of Huntting Lane and Main Street easterly a distance of 676 feet.

    The mayor then asked if anyone else cared to address the board. Lynn Lehocky, who said she is a village resident, stood before the board and requested that signs alerting people to a law against, and penalty for, leaving pets unattended in cars be erected in the village. Ms. Lehocky, who told The Star that she served on the board of Pennsylvania’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, cited the recent report of a dog that died of heat exposure after being left in a car in Bridgehampton.

    Such signage has recently been erected in Southampton Town and Sag Harbor Village, as well as in some privately owned parking lots, she said. She showed a sample sign, said that it cost approximately $30, and offered to pay for signs for the village. “The signs, I think, act as a deterrent to people who are not aware that it is a law,” she said, “and it also empowers people who see what’s happening to report it.”

    Mayor Rickenbach said he was sympathetic, but that “in many respects the Village of East Hampton is very suspect with new signage. We try to keep it at a minimum.” He said that while he and the board are animal lovers, “if we did it for animals, I would submit that we should likewise remind people that they should not leave their children in the car. I applaud the fact that you’re here . . . but am a little resistant to putting signage up.” He wondered aloud if there was another way to educate the public.

    Ms. Lehocky said she was open to any ideas, but that “it seems to be epidemic. . . . Even with windows somewhat down, the temperatures skyrocket to a point very quickly where they can kill the animal.”

    Richard Lawler, a board member, suggested a notification within stores, given that that is where people parking their cars tend to go.

    The mayor suggested that Ms. Lehocky contact Becky Molinaro, the village administrator, who would put her in touch with the East Hampton Business Alliance and Chamber of Commerce “to work with them to have some type of notification in the stores. I think that’s a very valid option,” he said. “We support what you’re saying, I’m just very averse to the signage.”

    The mayor also issued a proclamation congratulating WLNG, which marked its 50th anniversary on Aug. 13. Citing the Sag Harbor radio station’s value in providing current event and cultural information to its audience, he presented the proclamation to Rusty Potz, the station’s executive vice president. “We thank you for a job well done, and we look forward to another 50,” he told Mr. Potz.

    Page at 63 Main, a restaurant in Sag Harbor, took a giant leap Tuesday toward the establishment of a backyard seating garden there. A permit approval of the newest site plan is expected at the village planning board’s next meeting, on Sept. 24.

    Previously, Neil Slevin, the chairman of the planning board, had serious concerns about the plan by Gerard Wawryk, the restaurant’s owner, to eliminate a driveway off Division Street, at the rear of the Main Street eatery, to make room for a courtyard where customers could take food and drinks purchased inside.

    The most recent site plan retained a portion of the driveway, with a reduced seating area. All that remains for the project to go through is an adjustment to the planned placement of five downward-shining, dark-skies compliant lights. Dennis Downes, Mr. Wawryk’s lawyer, told Denise Schoen, the attorney for the planning board, that she would have that straight away.

    No further comments or questions were forthcoming from the board or the public in attendance.

    The proposed courtyard would have tables and chairs set on grass, surrounded by landscaping and adjacent to a paved driveway. There is to be an arbor and gate at a walkway entry from Division Street.

    Mr. Wawryk has purchased a refrigerated Dumpster and said he will have it emptied as many times as necessary to ensure that there is no garbage odor in the area.

    Aside from Gregory Ferraris, who abstained because of a conflict with his accounting practice, all board members were in favor of Ms. Schoen’s drafting a document for approval at the next meeting.

    “I appreciate you working with us,” Mr. Downes said.