The Sag Harbor Village Planning Board may hand down a decision involving Harbor Heights, the Hampton road service station that wants to add a convenience store, on Tuesday at its 5:30 meeting, after evaluating the project through State Environmental Quality Review Act guidelines. The board may be ready to declare a negative SEQRA evaluation, having in hand a new traffic study and modified lighting and landscaping plans.

    The original traffic report was unacceptable, as it analyzed the property as a convenience store only, rather than a gas station with a store as a subordinate use.

    Stonefield Engineering and Design, which did the second study, monitored the road for two weeks in July, including the July 4 holiday, and found about 16,000 vehicles on the road on a typical Tuesday-through-Thursday  weekday over a 24-hour period, distributed evenly in both directions. That is twice the average of off-season traffic, said Larry Perrine, a board member, at the board’s August meeting, referring to the original traffic study.

    According to current calculations, there are 54 vehicles stopping at the station during weekday morning peak hours, 61 at midday, and 50 during peak evening hours, with a noticeable increase on Saturdays.

    The planning board was also concerned about minimizing the impact of lighting on nearby properties while still providing safe access. The new lighting plan eliminates free-standing light poles, cuts in half the number of fixtures under the fueling canopy, and reduces the intensity of bulbs used to the lowest available.

    A new rendering shows 50- to 80-foot eastern white pines and 35- to 60-foot leyland cypresses, proposed as a double row to surround the “country market” style store and service station.

    The public hearing will be left open to further comment. A final decision may be made at the board’s October meeting.

    The renovation plan for 31 West Water Street in Sag Harbor, to turn the existing Baron’s Cove Inn into a “destination resort,” was discussed before the village planning board and concerned neighbors on Tuesday evening. The neighbors had submitted a long list of concerns to the board.

    Curtis Bashaw, a partner in Cape Advisors who is managing the project, bypassed the lectern and microphone, instead standing in front of the audience, to talk about his previous experience, which, he said, includes a “bunch of hotels in Cape May, an old [New Jersey] resort town also with whaling roots that go back to the 1600s, like this place.”

    His properties, said Mr. Bashaw, are characterized by “lemonade, bicycles, and flags . . . family-oriented, classic American resorts.”

    Cape Resorts, an arm of Cape Advisors, operates five hotels, he said, two of them circa the 1870s and one on a residential street. “We are not a hotel hiding as a night club,” he said. “We understand how horrible that would be.”

    “I appreciate what these small towns mean to people who live and work there,” he told the Water Street neighbors. “We’re not carpetbaggers, we stay firmly fixed, and hope that [the development and the community] dovetail nicely.” As “stakeholders” who are tackling the Bulova watchcase factory, he said he has heard villagers voicing their concerns for years.

    Mr. Bashaw explained his plan to renovate the outdated motel to look upscale, to add a 79-seat upstairs restaurant for guests, to restore the existing pool, and to add a lobby with an eight-seat bar, “so an innkeeper can welcome them, give them a key, and offer them a drink.” The lobby will feature a wood-burning fireplace, he said.

    “We’re not requesting a variance,” Mr. Bashaw stressed, explaining that all plans have been designed to conform to the zoning code, including a 499-square-foot side patio and 18 seats on an upper-level porch facing the water. The restaurant is located in a motel/hotel zone and has been confirmed to be an accessory use to the hotel.

    Mr. Bashaw also met personally last week with neighbors, who told him what a nightmare it was when Rocco’s occupied the site. He said the Cape May community was equally alarmed when he opened the historic Virginia Hotel there, and that he self-imposed restrictions to quiet their fears, such as ending beverage service at midnight. Here, on the other hand, “Your village code protects you,” he told the audience. “The restaurant is limited — a party with 500 people is far beyond an accessory use.” He also confirmed that the pool would be restricted to hotel guests.

    Knowing that noise was a prime concern, Mr. Bashaw had proposed a midnight “last call.” The neighbors countered by letter with a request that it be 11 p.m. He said on Tuesday that it would be fair to have last call outside at 10 p.m., and indoors at midnight. He also agreed to go above and beyond the village music ordinance, ending any outdoor acoustic music at 9 p.m. He explained that at his circa 1816 Congress Hall property in Cape May, those who wish to sit outside by the water are reminded of “quiet time” with signs along the veranda.

    To further persuade neighbors, Mr. Bashaw promised not to collect a cover charge or to sell full bottles of alcohol other than wine or champagne, customary for families and couples who frequent a resort destination. He said he was willing have that written into a “voluntary deed restriction that runs with the land.”

    Angela Scott, a resident of Spring Street, spoke on behalf of the immediate neighbors when Mr. Bashaw finished his presentation. “We still have questions,” she said, about the lobby bar’s location on the first floor and the restaurant on the second. Neighbors think a bar in the lobby would attract non-guests, which could create parking and noise issues, she said.

    Mr. Bashaw disagreed with their request to eliminate the lobby bar. It follows code, he said. Eight seats at the bar are part of the 87 seats allowed. “We like the lobby vibe and don’t want to eliminate that,” he said.

    As for the neighbors’ request to eliminate outdoor games, such as “pool polo, which might elevate the noise level combined with alcohol,” Mr. Bashaw did not agree, saying he could not prevent a child from playing with a beach ball. “We’re going to keep it quiet,” he assured.

    To concerns about poolside dining — a hotel guest wanting to sip coffee or eat a sandwich in a lounge chair — he said he would neither encourage nor prevent it. To the request that the number of events be restricted, Mr. Bashaw said that private parties such as family reunions would take place, according to village code, but no promoted parties.

    The neighbors also had sewage concerns, which were addressed by Richard Warren of Inter-Science Associates, who verified that capacity exists for the 87 seats, and by Robby Stein, a village board member in charge of sewage concerns who was in the audience. “The capacity is not even at 50 percent,” said Mr. Stein.

    Ms. Scott also asked that signs advertising the hotel’s restaurant, bar, and shops be restricted, lest it encourage the public to use the facilities.

    She also voiced concern about parking, saying that sufficient parking needed to be assured.

    After both speakers finished, Neil Slevin, chairman of the planning board, said the building department will also need to review the application, and that he would like time with the board to discuss the neighbors’ concerns, the parking issue in particular.  “I think it’s entirely possible that the hotel will be filled,” he said, and as for others, “Where are those people going to park?”

    Greg Ferraris, a board member and former mayor, called the concerns “all valid, we’ve been discussing them for 18 months.” However, he said, “most of the issues will be resolved in the code itself. We can’t force them to do a lot of these things.”

    The public hearing will continue next month, and the planning board will be the lead agency for the application. “We have considered the ramifications of what has been proposed in the site plan,” Mr. Slavin said. “Most of the community seems to have a high level of confidence in the applicant running a professional operation.”

    “We arrived in the dead of night,” said Yuri Ando, pastor of the East Hampton Methodist Church, speaking of an Aug. 25 church mission to the Catskill Mountain town of Prattsville. “The motel owner gave us a special rate after I told him why we were there, which made it $10 a night for each of us.”

    Ms. Ando was accompanied by three church members, Kiana Magat, Beaubelle Bugante, and Patricia Bugante, their trip made possible by church collections and donations. They left after the Aug. 25 services in East Hampton.

    The next morning, as the sun’s rays spread over Prattsville, Ms. Ando was awestruck — much of the town remains in shambles a year after it was hit by Tropical Storm Irene.

    “We only had two full days to work, and I wondered if we could even put a dent in it,” said Ms. Ando. “We decided to go on mission to Prattsville because there is a volunteer coordinator in place,” she said. “We just figured if we can help, then why wouldn’t we?”

    They were assigned to a 2,500-square-foot New England farmhouse on Main Street, where they ripped away drywall and plaster and used a special vacuum to remove moldy insulation. About the dirty job, she said, “Wearing one surgical mask was not enough . . . I had to wear two.”

    The house was one of three that was recently bought for $7,000 by a Prattsville resident who wants to “keep homes available for residents to purchase,” according to Jackie Wilkie of Huntersfield Christian Training Center, who has coordinated volunteers like Ms. Ando since last September. “After mold remediation, foundation repairs, and electrical work [done by volunteers], the new homeowner will have a better starting point to build on.” To date, Ms. Wilkie’s organization has rebuilt 25 houses in Prattsville.

    “The government is helping, but change is slow,” Ms. Ando said of Prattsville, which Gov. Andrew Cuomo named the New York State town hit hardest hit by Irene. “What people have received so far is barely enough to buy materials, much less rebuild an entire home.”

    In an Aug. 23 press release, Governor Cuomo said more than $574 million in state aid had been apportioned to the area to assist in recovery from Tropical Storm Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, which further defiled the region 10 days later. He said Prattsville businesses and homeowners are eligible for up to an additional $500,000.

    Moreover, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it could allocate additional funding to cover un-met individual needs of storm victims, as well as for the acquisition of uninhabitable properties.

    “It was difficult for the residents to fathom that people were there to help and expected nothing in return,” Ms. Ando said, because many storm victims believed she would attempt to recruit them to her church. “You don’t have to believe in God to be helped.”

    She told of several other volunteer groups that had come from Michigan, California, and North Carolina, most of which are from faith-based groups, lending a helping hand to the town of 650 people.

    “They’re even finding humor in their tragedy — the community held a first anniversary event they named Mudfest,” said Ms. Ando. “The town raised funds by selling mud pies, mud pancakes, and a rides on a ‘mudslide,’ where kids launched themselves down a wet tarp into a pool of mud.”

    Mudfest wasn’t all fun and games. A Native American ceremony was held to bless the Schoharie Creek, water from which jumped the Gilboa Dam and washed away much of the town during the storm.

    “Just as you’re driving out of the town, there is a sign that says, ‘Prattsville perseveres with your help,’ ” Ms. Ando said. “I see hope for that place.”

    It’s a different scene from a year ago, when graffiti-laced buildings hosted messages like “Tx FEMA . . . 4 nutt’n.”

    Several reports have said that Prattsville is rebuilding a more modern town less prone to floods, one that will have a town green, a recreation complex, and more modern houses. Governor Cuomo’s plan for the area includes funding for dam improvements and increased cellphone coverage.

    “The people of Prattsville are very resilient and independent, which meant that few of them sought government assistance,” James Coleman, a community recovery specialist at FEMA, said in a telephone conversation from New Orleans, where he was assessing Hurricane Isaac’s impact. “Only eight of Prattsville’s 700 or so residents initially asked for temporary housing. Even later with a little nudging from FEMA, only around 20 trailers were dispatched.” Instead of seeking government help, many residents just moved in with family and friends nearby, according to Mr. Coleman.

    The temporary housing units were erected on the west side of the town’s center in a mobile home park, one of the only neighborhoods above the floodplain, Mr. Coleman said.

    “Everything in town was underwater,” he said, adding that no one in town had a functional automobile. “It was akin to being hit with several tsunamis, which channeled down Main Street.”

    “The first determination we usually ask residents to make after a disaster like that is whether or not they want to return,” Mr. Coleman said. “Many Prattsville residents live in 200-year-old-plus Victorian and Queen Anne houses that have been passed down through many generations.”

    Although FEMA’s long-term community recovery division left the area in May, the agency’s Albany office visits Prattsville on a regular basis to ensure continued progress, Mr. Coleman said.

    “There is not one emergency services personnel, resident, or community planner who does not hold volunteers [like Yuri Ando’s group] in the highest regard,” Mr. Coleman said. “They are the true face of recovery.”

    The economic meltdown may be behind us, but schools, states, and local governments are still paying for it. In an Aug. 31 announcement, Thomas P. DiNapoli, the New York State Comptroller, said retirement contribution rates for state and local civil service employees, as well as police and firefighters, will rise in the 2014-15 fiscal year.

    At the close of last Thursday’s East Hampton Village Board work session, Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. relayed the news. “The bottom line is, there’s going to be an increase in the amount of money we’re going to have to pay the New York State retirement system,” said the mayor.

    The current sum is $1.725 million. The amount will rise to $1.923 million.

    “When you look at the 2 percent [property tax] cap that’s in place, this further exacerbates the village’s ability to maintain fiscal stability,” Mr. Rickenbach said.

    The rate increase will come into play in June, when the village adopts its next budget. “The amount the village pays into the retirement fund is one piece of our budget, albeit a big piece,” said Larry Cantwell, the village administrator, after the meeting. “It’s premature to know what adjustments will or won’t be made to compensate for the rate increase.”

    “The higher rate is not a surprise,” Mr. Cantwell said, noting that it has risen for the past five years. “The cost of benefits provided to employees are increasing and taking a larger share of total compensation for employees, and that’s what we’re trying to deal with.”

    The retirement fund provides benefits to over a million retirees, beneficiaries, and active employees across the state, and to 65 full-time employees here in the village, 24 of whom are police and firefighters.

    At the same work session, the board considered a written request by Teddy and Howard Waltman of 39 Baiting Hollow Road to lower the speed limit there from 30 miles per hour to 25. The Waltmans complained of speeding cars and loud noise from exhaust. Chief Jerry Larsen of the village said no summonses had been issued in recent speed-limit enforcement on the street; nevertheless, the board will schedule a public hearing on the issue.

    Trustees approved the installation of a natural gas meter at the Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street, marking the first stage in the building’s switchover from oil to natural gas heat.

    Finally, the board okayed an upgrade/replacement of the Motorola radio equipment that broadcasts village emergency 911 signals throughout the South Fork. The current equipment was installed in 1998.

    “Any end-of-summer comments?” Mr. Rickenbach asked before the board adjourned. Barbara Borsack, the deputy mayor, replied, “Isn’t it nice?”

    A dozen or more people who left town when the season started and haven’t been seen at an Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee meeting in months showed up on Monday night for a well-attended meeting, much of it devoted to talk about rapacious taxicabs.

    Taxis have, to his knowledge, been charging as much as $75 or $80 for a ride from Montauk to Amagansett, said Michael Cinque. Was there any way to regulate them?

    East Hampton Town Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, the town board liaison to the committee, answered that 65 companies had bought business licenses from the town clerk’s office this year, at $150 apiece. Companies presumably have more than one vehicle, she said, and each one must display its own vehicle license, according to the town code, “attached to the upper left of the rear windshield of the vehicle and to the upper right of the front windshield.”

    The town can regulate taxis up to a point, Ms. Overby said. For example, at Indian Wells Beach last weekend, “I saw three kids in back of a cab, three on top of them, and two more in front. [The law says] you need one to a seat belt. But we don’t have enough people to say, ‘You can only take four, not the eight you’re cramming in.’ I saw it happening over and over last Saturday.”

    “They go back to New York with thousands in cash,” said Kieran Brew, ACAC’s chairman.

    “Can I just go and buy a taxi permit?” asked John Broderick.

    “You must fill out a form,” including proof of liability insurance, Ms. Overby told him.

    Someone else wanted to know how much the town knew about the drivers of the cabs. “There’s regulation, but no background check,” said the councilwoman.

    “Then, is the company responsible for its drivers?” Mr. Broderick persisted. The town code says it is: “Owners are to review the criminal history of any operator, including renewal operators, in a manner consistent with Article 23-A of the New York State Correction Law.”

    “We want the town to regulate this, but there’s not enough people,” said Mr. Brew. “Seems like everything we discuss ends up like this. The situation at Indian Wells is far from over. It wouldn’t break my heart to see no taxis there. If you can’t have nonresidents, why taxis?”

    Indian Wells is a resident-sticker-only beach, a fact that did not keep hordes of beer-drinkers in their 20s and 30s from cabbing in and taking it over, in large part, this summer. The town board responded to complaints with an increase in police and marine patrol presence, which resulted, Mr. Brew wrote to the board on Friday in a thank-you letter on behalf of ACAC, in “less parking lot congestion caused by waiting taxis, less public drinking and apparent intoxication in the parking lot and bathrooms, fewer people using the dunes as a restroom, and a little more respect from this crowd toward the other people that use the beach.”

    He added, however, that “our members still strongly feel that the situation has a long way to go before it can be considered under control.” Members of the committee had received copies of the letter by e-mail, and Mr. Brew got a nice round of applause for it.

    Mr. Broderick also had a question about the sign for the forthcoming Amagansett Estates, erected by the developers of the old Nesbitt property on Montauk Highway west of the hamlet. Was it legal, he wanted to know, calling it “big and garish.”

    “That’s a code enforcement issue,” said Ms. Overby, suggesting it was the province of the Town Architectural Review Board.

    After requesting the information from East Hampton Town Police Chief Ed Ecker, Ms. Overby gave the committee a rundown of police statistics specific to Amagansett, from the Friday of Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, covering this year and last. By far the biggest change from one season to another has been a surge in the number of traffic tickets: 428 in 2011, 543 in 2012, an increase of 115. “Parking complaints” also rose, from 33 to 50, as did larcenies, from 11 to 25. The number of 911 calls, however, showed a steep drop, from 169 in the summer of 2011 to 100 this year.

    Motor vehicle accidents within the hamlet fell from 91 to 73. There were five fewer “civil complaints” this year than last (19 vs. 24), five fewer cases of criminal mischief (9 vs. 4), and five fewer reports of “prowlers” (2 vs. 7) as well. Arrests, however, went up from 22 to 32, and noise complaints from 95 to 106.

    Most categories showed little change from one year to the next, including assaults (none in 2011, 1 this year), burglaries (3, 4), custody disputes (1, 2), “distressed swimmers” (2, 6), dog complaints (6, 4), and “calls for service,” which could involve anything from a cat up a tree to a heart attack (1,160 vs. 1,154).

    Police also reported almost twice as many arrests this summer for driving while intoxicated, 67 in 2011 and 130 this year. That statistic pertains to the entire town, not just Amagansett; D.W.I. arrests are not broken down by hamlet.

    After Sheila Okin asked about it, Ms. Overby gave members an informed rundown on the town’s scavenger waste plant, observing with a half-smile that she is the town board’s liaison to “sanitation, scavenger waste, and the litter committee.” Many stories have appeared in The Star on the plant, which has been closed for years. It is currently being used as a transfer station, which may itself be temporarily closed. A public hearing on the closing was held last Thursday in Town Hall and is reported elsewhere in this issue.

    Finally, there was some good news about the hamlet’s long-wished-for public bathrooms. Ms. Overby reported that she has been working with Tom Talmage, the town engineer, to get an extension of the county health permit that will at last allow their construction, the original permit having expired before any work was done. If all goes well, she said, by next summer there will be two unisex bathrooms in a prefab building standing to the far west of the town parking lot behind Main Street. An alley near the Stephen Talkhouse leads from Main Street almost directly to the spot, which, someone observed, should be mightily convenient.

    The advisory committee will meet next on Oct. 15 rather than Oct. 8, which is Columbus Day.

    Trucks will be at the Montauk docks from 7 a.m. tomorrow and again on Sept. 20 to haul away unwanted and out-of-use commercial fishing gear free of charge. A red-painted container has also been placed at the Montauk waste transfer station for the fleet’s castoff nets, gear, traps, and line. Commercial fishermen who take gear to the transfer station will not be charged for entrance or a “tipping fee,” East Hampton Town Clerk Fred Overton said.

    The East Hampton program is part of a national Fishing for Energy initiative, which was announced in the spring and is backed by the Fish and Wildlife Foundation with support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Covanta Energy, which runs waste-to-electricity plants around the country, will help dispose of the derelict fishing gear with Schnitzer Steel, which produces recycled metal products, such as rebar and wire, reclaiming what it can.

    According to the Fish and Wildlife Foundation, 1.3 million pounds of commercial fishing gear were collected last year at program drop points. NOAA figures that one ton of discarded net can produce enough electricity to power a typical American house for 25 days.

    The panther-like creature spotted eating composted scraps at the Spring Close Farm in East Hampton on Sunday was probably a dog or fox, according to the State Department of Environmental Conservation, whose officers examined paw prints attributed to the animal.

    The animal was observed by Michael Lester on land on Spring Close Highway leased by Lester Farms from Mike Bistrian. Mr. Lester told investigators he saw a cat-like creature at about 11 a.m. on Sunday. He described it as being about five feet long and two feet high at the shoulder, with a long, striped tail. It was eating composted vegetables and meat scraps. The animal fled into the brush upon his arrival, Mr. Lester said.

    “There was not sufficient evidence of a cougar, panther, jaguar, or similar exotic cat in the area,” a D.E.C. press release stated. Investigators examined paw prints that included claw marks. “Cats have retractable claws, so they typically don’t leave claw marks when they walk,” the D.E.C. reported stated. 

    The D.E.C.’s wildlife staff also did a search of their special license database for all types of exotic cats and no listings came up for anybody nearby licensed to possess such animals.

    Could the prints be attributable to the first ever South Fork sighting of a coyote? It is a possibility, according to Mike Bottini, a wildlife biologist. “But it would have had to pass through Queens and the length of Long Island without being seen.”

    Mr. Bottini said the description of a “striped tail” made him think it could have been a gray fox, although the paw print was too large.

    At the end of a Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee meeting on Monday, at which the proliferation of taxi cabs, litter, noise, and parking woes were discussed, members learned that a tattoo parlor is to come to the hamlet. Lola Snow Esperian is wading through the permit process required by the Suffolk County Department of Health and plans to open the parlor in one of the small stores behind the Washout restaurant near the train station. It will be called Lola’s Hot and Flying Tattoos.

    Ms. Snow Esperian told the committee she is 65 years old and an artist. She promised that the police would never be called to the parlor, that she would keep normal hours, and would not work on drunks. “There will be no late nights,” she said.

    According to Ms. Snow Esperian, other tattoo artists are said to be making plans to open in Montauk because of its popularity. Her daughter, Kimberly Esperian, who also attended the meeting, said her mother has been in the body art business for 38 years and has an unblemished record. The committee made no comment.

     Members complained about the number of taxi cabs that did business in Montauk this summer. Not only do cabs gather outside popular night spots and at the train station, they said, but they also filled a majority of the parking spaces on both sides of Main Street near the Montauk Chamber of Commerce office.

   East Hampton Town Clerk Fred Overton said yesterday that 75 taxi businesses had been issued permits this year and 375 cabs are currently operating in the town. No specific numbers are available for each hamlet, however.

    At the meeting, East Hampton Town Police Lt. Chris Hatch, the Montauk precinct commander, said there was no way to limit taxis as long as they display required town permits. He described the requirements and said the town charges $150 per vehicle and $200 for a business permit.

    Police officers, Lieutenant Hatch said, cite those taxis that don’t have the required stickers. But, he said, it’s a slippery slope as livery cabs might drive customers out east and then have to hang around to take them back. “So then they decide to pick up a fare while they’re waiting,” he said.

    Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione, the committee’s town board liaison, noted that the town board had a public hearing to consider refining the legislation on taxis about a year and half ago. “Where were you all then?” he asked. A member yelled out from the sizable crowd that the problem had not been as bad before this summer.

    Others said the requirements should be made stricter, with the drivers required to have a local address, and it was said that taxi companies should be charged up to $5,000 per permit. One person in the audience said cab drivers should be drug-tested.

    As far as litter, members suggested the town add more trash cans and start an awareness program. Mr. Stanzione, however, said a campaign for a clean village was an appropriate project for the Montauk Chamber of Commerce and the Montauk Village Association. “It should be a people’s campaign, and leave the town out of it,” he said. But Lisa Grenci, a member and former chairwoman of the committee, called it the town’s responsibility.

    The committee plans to invite John Jilnicki, the East Hampton Town attorney, to the October meeting to get some  answers on town laws.

        Cynthia Young, the director of the Amagansett Library, talked to the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee before the start of its Monday night meeting about a Suffolk County program called JEEP, for Joint Emergency Evacuation Plan, aimed at people in wheelchairs or the homebound who cannot leave their houses in an emergency situation without help.

    JEEP maintains a county database of those in need of special assistance during disasters, who must be registered ahead of time with the County Office of Emergency Management, she explained, and Ms. Young has volunteered the library as a registration site. She asked ACAC members to “please help spread the word,” adding that volunteers to help evacuate the disabled might also be available through the library.

    Tom Field, a member of the Amagansett Fire Department, noted that the town maintains a similar database, and suggested Ms. Young contact Bruce Bates, who runs it. Other fire and police departments have lists as well, he said, but the trick is keeping all the information up to date: “Are we missing anyone? Are these people still living here?” Mr. Field said another link, the library’s, “would be great.”

    Bill Jackson, who is on the board of Meals on Wheels, promised to pass out the county’s fliers there. Rona Klopman suggested that the East Hampton Town Department of Human Services might also have a list.

    “The trick is getting all this information meshed,” said Ms. Young. “I think the place to start is on the community level, making people aware,” and she urged the members of ACAC to go out and do just that

    Last Thursday’s announcement of a second confirmed case of the mosquito-borne West Nile virus in Suffolk this year arrived amid aerial pesticide spraying by the county and a furious reaction from those who fear the spraying endangers the environment and public health.

    The latest West Nile case involves a resident of Huntington, who is recovering. The first person diagnosed with the virus, on Aug. 6, was a Babylon resident who has since recovered. While both cases occurred in western Suffolk, the Division of Vector Control of the County Department of Public Works has included eastern Long Island in its spraying program. Spraying has occurred in the Town of East Hampton, most recently on Aug. 21 over Napeague and Accabonac Harbor.

    The use of insecticides including methoprene, commonly used as a mosquito larvicide, and resmethrin (also known as Scourge) to kill adult mosquitoes via low-altitude, large-droplet liquid application, is in keeping with the a long-term plan and environmental impact statement passed by the County Legislature in 2007 despite objections of environmentalists and the county’s Council on Environmental Quality.

    “That was about a $4.6-million effort to comprehensively look at mosquito control in the county,” Dominick Ninivaggi, superintendent of the Division of Vector Control, said. 

    “The county is trying to act responsibly when it comes to West Nile virus, and with a minimal environmental impact,” Mr. Ninivaggi said. “It’s certainly effective in reducing the number of mosquitoes. One thing we looked at in the long-term plan is the level of activity. . . . We do know, by looking at our trap data and by looking over history, our program of larval control in salt marshes is extremely effective. Go to the wilderness area of Fire Island National Seashore, where we’ve done nothing for many years because it’s a wilderness. Our traps there will collect 10 to 100 times, sometimes 1,000 times, the number of mosquitoes we see anywhere else in Suffolk County.”

    The insecticides being used are registered by the Environmental Protection Agency and the State Department of Environmental Conservation and they are said to be applied in accordance with state and federal permits. Mr. Ninivaggi cautioned that the small number of confirmed cases in Suffolk could be misleading. The time lag between a mosquito bite, the appearance of symptoms, a diagnosis, and a confirmation could mean that other cases will eventually be confirmed.

    “We look at the surveillance data and try to decide where the balance is between acting to prevent disease and not over-reacting by spraying areas unnecessarily,” Mr. Niivaggi said.

    Kevin McAllister, who, as the president of the nonprofit Peconic Baykeeper organization, is adamant in his opposition to the spraying. “I think it’s totally overblown with respect to controlling mosquitoes, and doesn’t have any discernible effect and reduction on West Nile, period.”

    Mr. McAllister described an experience he had last week. “I was on the beach in the evening, the county was spraying the marshes along Moriches Bay. It was a helicopter, moving very slowly. I could tell it was a spraying event.” At the time, he said, there were no mosquitoes in the vicinity. “All of a sudden, the location I was sitting at became infested. The mosquitoes are basically getting out in front of the spray fog that they had released. This begs the question, ‘What’s the kill effect of these pesticides on mosquitoes?’ ”

    According to Mr. McAllister, “a host of beneficial insects is being negatively affected.”

    Wiltraud Salm of Southampton is among those who have lashed out about the spraying program. Her house is adjacent to Scallop Pond Preserve, a salt marsh that is part of the Sebonac Creek estuary and abuts the Cow Neck peninsula. The area has been preserved by the Peconic Land Trust. “The mosquitoes that live in the marsh fly away from the spray and come up to the house,” Mrs. Salm said. “Other than that, we don’t have any mosquitoes at the house.”

    Ms. Salm accused the county of deliberately spraying her property. “They are sneaky; they say they will spray at a certain time, and then wait until I am elsewhere. I caught them every time, I quickly run out and shoo them away. If I don’t, they spray liberally everywhere.”

    Mrs. Salm has written to Mr. Ninivaggi expressing her disapproval. In a letter dated Aug. 13, she accused the county of spraying right up to her house and asked, “Do I have to sue you for trespassing?”

    Mr. McAllister has also written to Mr. Ninivaggi, asserting “you do not have the authority. . . to spray private lands with lethal pesticides without landowner authorization. . . . It is your obligation to respect [Mrs. Salm’s] wishes and keep your poisons off the privately owned Scallop Pond marshlands.”

    Mr. Ninivaggi denied that the marshland treated in that area was her property. “I’ve already given her that information, so it’s a moot point, but the county does have authority to enter private lands to conduct mosquito control under public health law.”

    Another development, one likely to amplify the debate, is the recent detection, as concluded in a study by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, of methoprene and resmethrin residues in lobsters harvested from Long Island Sound. “The literature is full of the impacts of these products on aquatic life, fish, and invertebrates. The presence of pesticides in lobster is irresponsible and unacceptable,” Mr. McAllister said.

     Scott Warren, an emeritus professor of botany at Connecticut College, had questions about the conclusion of the lobster study, however. “There have been assertions of insecticide as causal agents of lobster decline in Long Island Sound for some time, since the first real major decline occurred [in 1999]. A more problematic issue for lobsters in Long Island Sound is alleged to be water temperatures. They’re a cold-water species, and the water is getting a lot warmer, to a point where we’re flirting with what lobsters can deal with and remain healthy. In cold-water temperatures, the small amounts of pesticides might not have had much effect, but in a physiologically stressed condition, that could nail them.”

    Mr. Ninivaggi conceded that the detection of the specific insectsides was a concern. However, he said the results of the study were yet to be confirmed. “Nobody who is knowledgeable on this subject can understand these findings, so the first thing we have to do is make sure these findings are real and not some sort of laboratory artifact. The county, as part of our E.I.S., looked at the ecological toxicity and behavior of the materials we use. What we found, both for resmethrin and methoprene, is that these materials degrade very rapidly in the environment. They don’t accumulate. With that information at hand, it’s hard to understand how these materials can be found in high concentrations in lobsters that are many miles from any application of these materials.”

    Mosquitoes and lobsters are related biologically. “The impact of these pesticides on flying mosquitoes holds true for crustaceans,” Mr. McAllister said. “I’m not trying to dismiss illness or death associated with West Nile, but 40,000 people die a year from the common flu. Let’s put it in perspective: Is the prescription a lot worse than the actual ill?”

    “We’ve done our own studies in cooperation with Stony Brook University and the United States Geological Survey,” Mr. Ninivaggi said. “They found that right after application these materials are at extremely low levels, and after hours or days are undetectable. We’re confident in these results.”

    The county’s spraying program is occurring as Dallas has experienced 200 cases and 10 deaths related to West Nile this year.

    “There’s no question that West Nile is a public health concern, that it can get out of hand,” Professor Warren said. “I can sympathize with the Vector Control people who look to Dallas and think, ‘Could it happen here?’ And if it did, the first thing people would say is, ‘Why didn’t you do something?’ . . . By the standards of DDT, Scourge is pretty nice, but they’re still insecticides. They have the potential to disrupt the metabolism of anything they land on.”