Memorial Day observances begin Monday morning at 9 with a ceremony at Main Beach in East Hampton for those members of the United States armed forces who were lost at sea.

    At 10 a.m. veterans and others will begin to gather near Guild Hall for a 10:30 parade along Main Street. Traffic will be diverted onto Dunemere and Further Lanes for the duration.

    At the conclusion of the parade, people will assemble at the Memorial Green at Hook Mill, where student scholarship and award winners will be announced and local dignitaries will make remarks and offer prayers.

    East Hampton American Legion Post 419 is this year’s organizer. Its commander is Fred Overton, the East Hampton Town clerk.

    Fifteen two-person teams made up of members of all branches of the military, veterans, and first responders will carry a United States flag 136 miles in about 26 hours from the Montauk Lighthouse to Ground Zero in Manhattan on Saturday to remind all in their path of the reason for the Memorial Day holiday.

    “As the parent of a fallen marine, every day is Memorial Day,” said Christian Haerter of Sag Harbor, whose son, Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter, was killed in Iraq in 2008 at the age of 19.

    The Memorial 100 run was started by members of the Third Battalion, 25th Marines, Mr. Haerter explained, to honor the 48 members of the unit who were killed in Iraq in 2005, one of the largest unit sacrifices in the war. The public has been encouraged to meet and greet members of the battalion tomorrow from 7 to 9 p.m. at the American Legion Hall on Bay Street in Sag Harbor.

    Participants will also honor first responders who died on Sept. 11, 2001, taking turns running on main thoroughfares such as Montauk Highway and backed by vehicular support from town and county governments. Supporting the effort is Mr. Haerter’s foundation, Jordan’s Initiative, and Hope for the Warriors, a national nonprofit organization the mission of which is to enhance the quality of life for post-9/11 service members who sustained physical and psychological wounds in the line of duty.

    “There would be no barbecues or beach bashes without these brave souls, and people should honor that fact,” Mr. Haerter told The Star on Monday, adding that he hopes everyone comes out to cheer the runners on and show their patriotism.

    “Memorial Day is another hard occasion to get through for me,” JoAnn Lyles, Corporal Haerter’s mother, said Monday. “Like Jordan’s birthday or the anniversary of his death.”

    She said that many people confuse Memorial Day with Veterans Day, as she did before her son joined the military. “Memorial Day was set aside to specifically honor our fallen military throughout American history, every war and conflict,” she wrote in an e-mail.

    “Freedom comes at a heavy price,” Ms. Lyles said. “The family barbecue should be celebrated,” she said, but people might also take the time to go to a Memorial Day parade and make a small donation to the American Legion Auxiliary for a red poppy to wear on a lapel or hat. Another appropriate action, she said, is to fly an American flag at half-staff until noon.

    “Visit one of the many cemeteries where small American flags wave beside headstones of heroes resting there,” she said. “Most of all, remember.”

    On Saturday between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., runners will come from North Haven across the bridge named after Ms. Lyles’s son. It will be lined with veterans holding 48 American flags representing the 46 marines and 2 Navy sailors killed in the battalion during a six-month deployment.

    Each flag will have a streamer with a gold star and the name of one of the branches of service. The flags, purchased by Mr. Haerter, will be donated to the Village of Sag Harbor.

    One of them will be held in honor of Corporal Haerter, and another for First Lt. Joseph J. Theinert, who grew up in Sag Harbor and on Shelter Island and was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2010.

    “I’m going to hold one for Joe,” said James Theinert of Sag Harbor, speaking of his son. “It’s a great idea and mission for these marines,” he said.

    Now in its fourth year, the relay was first run from the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond. Last year it moved to New York, starting at Orient Point and ending at Ground Zero.

    Running it for the second time is Sgt. Thomas Spotteck of Shelter Island, who said of his Marine Corps experience, “I have too many friends with missing limbs, organs, gunshot wounds . . . that have sacrificed the things they love and enjoy for our nation.”

    “This is how I represent those whom we left behind,” he said, “this is how I continue to support those who never made it home to their families and friends.”

    Michael Roesch, an Iraq war veteran and fitness trainer at Studio 89 in Sag Harbor, participated last year and will again this year to raise money for Hope for the Warriors, in particular, because the group helps military family members as well. “They not only help me, but they teach someone else how to deal with me,” he said.

    Runners have online support pages to raise money for the organization at hopeforthewarriors.org/2013Memorial100.

    Memorial Day “is a sacred day for Gold Star families,” Chrystyna Kestler, Lieutenant Theinert’s mother, said, referring to families who have lost sons and daughters in war. “The one day we ask that people pause for those who have given their all.”

    The storage building used by lifeguards at East Hampton Village’s Main Beach, damaged by Hurricane Sandy last October, will soon be demolished and reconstructed.

    The East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals voted to grant the village a coastal erosion permit and an area variance so that it can proceed. The new building will be on the site of the old one on the west side of the Main Beach pavilion. It will be larger, however, going from 396 to 603 square feet. Ed McDonald, the beach manager, had asked for the larger structure to house modern lifesaving equipment, the board noted.

    Measuring approximately 23 feet by 26.5 feet, the building will be constructed on pilings, in compliance with Federal Emergency Management Agency regulations, and will have a gable roof. The existing building is on a slab and has a flat roof.

    The board found that the new, larger building did not require further State Enviornmental Quality Review Act study, having no adverse effect on the character of the area or traffic. Nor will it have an impact on sewage treatment or removal because it will have no plumbing.

    Larry Cantwell, the village administrator, said a crew is likely to spend a few weeks completing construction next month. The elements of the building are expected to be prefabricated off site.

    “It’s isolated back there,” he said. “It won’t disturb the operations of the beach.” But, he added, “The idea is to try to get it rebuilt as quickly as possible.”

    “As we look through the weather records from April 1 to April 30, we go through the temperature range of sometimes the 20s to the 60s by the month’s end,” Richard G. Hendrickson wrote in his April weather report from Bridgehampton. “This great variation is due in part to our location — 100 miles out in the Atlantic Ocean, yet but a few miles from the mainland on the north.”

    “Southwesterly winds give our area warmer spring temperatures,” the United States Cooperative weather observer reported. Wind last month was from the southwest on 13 days, the prevailing summer direction. “When cooler easterly winds bring the cooler temperatures with showers, we are often in a two to three-day wet period.”

    Mr. Hendrickson, a retired farmer, said that one to three inches of rain can delay potato planting by three days. That wasn’t a problem last month. Rain fell on only two days in April — .15 of an inch on the 5th and 1.12 inches on the 12th. The long-term average for the month is 3 to 4 inches.

    “Few of us realize how beneficial the early spring rains are here to the many glacial-made freshwater ponds,” Mr. Hendrickson wrote. “They all have now perch, bass, sunfish, pickerel, and carp.” But he reminded readers: “You must have a New York State license to fish in these ponds.”

    He recorded 10 clear, 8 partly cloudy, and 12 cloudy days last month. In April, he said, “there is sometimes a freezing night, and often a fair snowfall!” The highest temperature last month came on the 9th, when it was 78 degrees, but that was the only day of the month with a temperature in the 70s. It was 60 or higher on seven other days and dropped down to 25 on April 2 and to the 20s on two nights.

    “Spring is on the way,” Mr. Hendrickson wrote, “but eastern Long Island is out in the Atlantic Ocean and that is the largest factor that governs our weather, as it always has.”

    After winning election to the Montauk Library’s board on April 27, Perry Haberman learned that he was ineligible for the position. The board took action at a meeting on Monday to declare the election null and void, leaving Mr. Haberman, who was elected with 62 votes, off the board.

    Mr. Haberman had switched his voter registration to reflect a New York City residence in order to vote in the presidential election, which meant he was no longer considered a Suffolk County resident for a full year prior to the library election, as mandated under New York State election law.

    In an e-mail message he said he had switched his registration because he knew he could not make it out to his Montauk home for the presidential election in November.

    “We were all shocked; it took us by surprise,” Joan Lycke, the board president, said. “Perry has been a dedicated library trustee. It’s an embarrassment and we feel bad about it.”

    Residency is determined solely by voter registration. An owner of a house in Montauk and the Montauk Book Shop, Mr. Haberman was still registered in New York City, where he also resides. “As a taxpayer and property owner in Montauk since 1994, as well as having a business in the hamlet, it never occurred to me that voter registration would be an issue,” he said.

    Mr. Haberman said he reviewed the 62 votes he had received for another five-year term and discovered that his name had been removed from the voter registration rolls. The library got in touch with its attorney, Bill Cullen, who is also the attorney for the Montauk School District, and he determined that Mr. Haberman was ineligible to accept re-election or continue his current term, which ends on June 30.

    Library officials have reviewed the minutes of all the meetings during Mr. Haberman’s term and have determined that all actions and votes taken during that time remain valid. The budget that was approved with 82 votes on April 27 is not affected.

    Mr. Haberman, who has been a board member for 10 years, five as president, said that before the election it was not his intention to run again, but other board members coaxed him into it, saying that they could use his assistance.

    “As you can see, the irony here was my willingness to help out my friends and colleagues on the board and then have this happen,” he said. “Neither I nor anyone else knew this would be an issue. Being required to submit my resignation in this manner after so many years of dedication is very frustrating, and to say that I am upset is an understatement.”

    In a release, board members said they regretfully accepted his resignation from the position. As a result, there is now a vacant seat on the board. A write-in candidate who received one vote was asked to step in, but declined. The vacancy can be filled by appointment until next year’s election. Anyone interested can reach the board through the library.

    New parking regulations in downtown Montauk are planned for this season in an effort to free up parking spaces near businesses close to the beaches, which are often tied up all day by beachgoers.

    The East Hampton Town Board will vote tonight to set a hearing for May 16 on a proposal developed by a parking committee of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce. It would limit parking to two hours in much of the area south of Main Street surrounding Edison Beach, including along South Etna Avenue and South Edison Street.

    Laraine Creegan, the executive director of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce, told the town board at a work session on Tuesday that parking near downtown businesses is increasingly occupied by “all-day beachgoers that are creeping up from Edison Beach.”

    All-day parking will continue to be available at the Kirk Park lot, near the I.G.A. market, which is free to nonresidents and residents alike. That lot, Ms. Creegan said, has been underutilized, and a larger sign will be erected informing the public that the lot is open to all, without limited hours.

    East Hampton Town Police Capt. Michael Sarlo, who worked with Ms. Creegan and others on the committee, along with Councilman Dominick Stanzione, said that “from a public safety standpoint, the recommendations make clear sense” and would help to “clean up a lot of the shoulders of the roadways,” where haphazard parking caused potential dangers to pedestrians and bike riders. “It just created a little bit of a chaotic scene,” Captain Sarlo said. Spaces, both parallel and head-in, will be marked, he said.

    In addition to the street-parking limits, parking in the lot behind Plaza Sports will be limited to two hours or designated only for those with resident parking permits.

   Words of wisdom from Margaret Mead warned to “never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

    Save Sag Harbor, founded in 2007, has taken those words to heart, making it its mission “to safeguard the scale and fabric of a historic village,” effecting positive change while preventing what it sees as negative, and backing the village’s commercial code, which the group helped push for.

    At the moment, the all-volunteer not-for-profit has its sights set on the Harbor Heights Service Station on Route 114, whose redevelopment is before the Sag Harbor Village Zoning Board of Appeals.

    “We want it to stay a gas station, to be modernized, upgraded, and safe,” said John Shaka, one of the group’s directors, and others in the group at a meeting on Monday afternoon. But the group also wants to rein in what happens at the site, owned by John Leonard’s Petroleum Ventures.

    The application before the zoning board calls for multiple variances, including one for a 102-foot long canopy over the gas pumps, which does not meet village code. The revamped station, which is in a residential and historic district, would have more pumps and a convenience store, as well as new underground storage tanks, an upgraded septic system, and new stormwater drainage and retention systems. 

    As Mr. Shaka sees it, the application is the first full-scale challenge to the commercial code. “Sometimes you have to play defense,” said Mr. Shaka.

    And so Save Sag Harbor has, by hiring Jeffrey Bragman, an East Hampton attorney, to oppose the application as originally proposed.

    A victory of sorts came at an April 16 zoning board meeting, when Dennis Downes, the applicant’s attorney, said he would amend the application, spell out what variances will still be needed, and present a new plan at the board’s May 21 meeting.

    Mia Grosjean, Save Sag Harbor’s president, said she looks forward to seeing the new design. “We’re optimistic,” she said, “confident that they can create something that is in compliance with regulations, that is all we wanted.”

    At an earlier zoning board meeting, Mr. Bragman presented detailed diagrams showing how the service station and a 600-square-foot convenience store could conform to code and still accomplish the owner’s objectives. An exception, he said, are those that would entail a change of use, such as additional gas pumps.    Although the code does not allow gas stations in residential districts, the business currently operates in one because it was there before the zoning code prohibited it.

    But the multiple variances it needs are substantial, Mr. Bragman argued at an April 16 zoning board meeting. “You are supposed to grant the minimum variance necessary, not 62 percent,” he said, telling the board, “He has not shown unnecessary hardship. . . . He has to prove for each and every use that he can’t get a reasonable return on his property, with competent financial evidence. . . . It is an inefficient argument: added profitability for larger size.”

    “Dennis does not believe it is an expansion, which is why he hasn’t applied for one,” Mr. Bragman said on April 16.

    Mr. Downes argued that the pumps need to be moved to make the filling area safer, something Save Sag Harbor is not opposed to.

    On April 16, Mr. Bragman also seemed to convince the zoning board that the canopy proposed above the pumps should be a considered a building under the code — a new 2,600-square-foot, roofed structure where one did not formerly exist.

    While the group is making headway thanks to its legal representative, legal advice does not come for free. “We’ve got a couple of bills to pay,” Ms. Grosjean said Monday. It will raise money to continue its mission at Meet Your Neighbors gathering on May 4 at St. David’s A.M.E. Zion Church, next door to Harbor Heights.

    At the event, the group will share some historical facts about the neighborhood, believed to have been part of an Underground Railroad network. It includes a burial ground that has just been awarded a site preservation grant by the Archeological Institute of America. Examples of the Harbor Heights plans will be offered, too, to show how “out of scale and jarring” the proposed remodel would look, said Ms. Grosjean.

    Proceeds will be split between a fund for legal fees and the restoration of the church’s bell tower by Dana Harvey, an Eagle Scout. Guests will be asked for a free-will donation.

    Long Wharf could be next on the agenda, after a traffic-calming workshop hosted by the group demonstrated the community’s interest in having a say about its use now that it is owned by the village.

    The group’s members don’t agree on every issue. When last summer’s passenger ferry service was first proposed from Long Wharf to Greenport, some were opposed, some were not. Save Sag Harbor put together a survey to get the community’s input, encouraging the mayor and the village’s harbor committee to create their own, as well.

    The group tries to support small businesses, too, encouraging the community to shop locally. And its members attend village meetings to just listen or write up reports for those unable to attend. “More people should attend these meetings . . . standing up for what you believe in, having a voice,” said Ms. Grosjean. She and Mr. Shaka both said they plan to run someday for a seat on the village board.

    The group’s goal, Mr. Shaka said, is not “let’s stop something.” It has also raised money for the restoration of the windmill on Long Wharf and for free WiFi in the village, for example.

    “You can see how you make a difference, said Hilary Loomis, secretary of the group.

    The Town of East Hampton is offering a boating safety course on May 18 at Town Hall, but early registration is necessary. Those interested can register by calling 324-4141. After registering, required reading will be provided so that participants will be able to come to the class prepared.

    The John Jermain Memorial Library’s budget vote and trustee election will be held on Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and is open to all registered voters in the Sag Harbor School District.

    The proposed 2014 budget is just under $2.29 million, an increase of $71,633 over this year’s approved budget, with $60,450 of that increase to be covered by taxpayers. That represents a difference of about $5 per year for the average homeowner, according to the library.

    The total includes $905,000 in debt service related to the restoration and expansion of the library. Other increases cover rises in health and unemployment insurance costs as well as in utilities and other day-to-day operations. The library is also planning expanded programming for families and senior citizens and is paying for new digital resources and climate-controlled storage for rare local materials and artifacts, according to its newsletter.

    Three candidates, whose election is assured, are running for three spots on the library’s board of trustees. They are Linley Whelan, who has served one three-year term and is seeking a second; Nick Gazzolo, who is active in a number of other village organizations and has a background in business and marketing, and Alison Bond, an editor, writer, and literary agent. Mr. Gazzolo and Ms. Bond will be first-time trustees.

    The library has a limit of two consecutive terms for its trustees and the two leaving the board, Carl Peterson and Carol Williams, have met their term limits. “They have just done great things for us in the six years they’ve been here,” said Catherine Creedon, the library’s director.

    Voting on Tuesday will be at the library’s temporary location at 34 West Water Street. Absentee ballots will be available at the school district office at Pierson High School until the morning of the vote.   

    Sag Harbor Village’s police chief, Tom Fabiano, pleaded yet again with Mayor Brian Gilbride on Tuesday evening to reconsider eliminating one officer from the force. The proposed village budget does away with the job. Should that in fact happen, said the chief, it would affect not only his department but “people that live, visit, go to school here, boat or drive here, have an event here, have a medical issue, fire, or criminal matter.”

    The budget was not on the village board’s agenda that night, and at press time a budget hearing had yet to be scheduled. The deadline for acceptance of the budget is May 1; the next village board meeting is not until May 14.

    “If it was truly about economic issues and the budget,” the chief said with some bewilderment, “there surely would be many more questions.”

    “Nobody has asked me how losing an officer adversely affects the department and the safety of the people in our village,” he told the board. “I wonder, how can you make an informed decision without this input.”    

    Citing a March 28 story in this newspaper, Chief Fabiano asked why Edward Gregory, a board member, had asked at a budget hearing a week earlier how it would affect the budget if the officer’s job was kept. “Why doesn’t he know that answer?” the chief asked, wondering if the board had had any discussion on the topic at all.

    “I am surprised that nobody is concerned about it, or doesn’t care about it,” said the chief. “It’s not like 100 guys. We have 11.”

    “The problem we have,” Mayor Gilbride responded, “is that there is a continuing escalating cost in both medical insurance and retirement. It’s nobody’s fault. . . . We have a 2-percent cap.”

    “We don’t have to adhere to that, replied Chief Fabiano. “The board can vote to go over that if need be.”

    Having already lost Officer Michael Gigante halfway through the last budget year after the mayor threatened to disband the entire force, Chief Fabiano said he wondered how the village, with only 10 officers, could stay safe. What with vacations, illnesses, personal time, disability, and event coverage, he said, it would be impossible to have two officers working per shift. And considering widespread predictions that this summer will be the busiest yet, he said, “This is no time to reduce the Police Department.”

    Mayor Gilbride suggested at a budget hearing on April 3 that two or three part-time officers be hired to fill the vacant positions. But part-time police officers are meant to supplement the force, Chief Fabiano told the board Tuesday, not to replace two full-time officers.

    “I’ve never heard what the magic number was that we need — what is it?” the chief asked. “I have [reviewed] my current budget, I told the mayor I am willing to make stops on anything I can possibly do to keep this position alive . . . I don’t know what I have to do, where to go, what to say, who to see. I ask you, what is the number?”

    Mayor Gilbride said police retirement expenses are increasing this year by a significant amount. “Medical has increased 10 or 12 percent for the last two years,” he said. “With no raises, there has still been a 21-percent increase. ”

    “I am not going to argue the numbers,” said the chief. “I’m here to save someone’s job.” Chief Fabiano said he had already found $90,000 he could cut if it would save the job of one of his officers. “With taking another guy out . . . I am going to need more overtime,” he said. “We will have to structure something like that,” said the mayor.

    Patrick Milazzo, the Police Benevolent Association’s representative, gave The Star an example in an e-mail yesterday of how a village resident would be affected should the 11th officer be retained. For a house assessed at $795,000, he  wrote, the tax cost of one officer “would be $51.52 per year, $4.28 per month, or 14 cents per day. Noteworthy I think, given the current discussion.”

    “This is nothing personal,” Mayor Gilbride told Chief Fabiano during Tuesday’s meeting. The chief disagreed. “You’ve made comments,” he said. “Let’s not go there.”

    At the tense April 3 budget hearing, Mayor Gilbride accused the chief of  “posturing.” “I’ll take it up with you tomorrow,” he said. The two met privately the next day, apparently to no avail.