Ned R. Wessels, 36, a former resident of East Quogue and a convicted sex offender, was taken from county jail to East Hampton Town Justice Court last Thursday to be arraigned on charges of burglary and possession of stolen property. It was one of at least eight sets of charges he is facing in East End courts.

According to East Hampton Village police, Mr. Wessels burglarized a Buell Lane Extension, East Hampton, house owned by Thomas and Kathleen Piacentine on April 13, 2017, making off with over $15,000 worth of jewelry and watches. He allegedly pawned them on Long Island in the weeks that followed. 

Mr. Piacentine told police that a day or so before the burglary he had seen the driver of a van belonging to Edible Arrangements, a fruit delivery company, walk onto his property. After the burglary, the younger Mr. Piacentine identified the driver as Mr. Wessels, a friend of one of his sons, also named Thomas, who was not at home at the time but later warned his father that Mr. Wessels was a thief who had done time in jail. After the burglary, the younger Mr. Piacentine, who knew Mr. Wessels and called him, reported that Mr. Wessels said he “was in a bad position” and that the jewelry “was spread out all over the city.” He promised to return it, but never got back to them. 

In the complaint on file at East Hampton Justice Court, Mr. Wessels is accused of selling the jewelry to three different pawnshops belonging to a company called Wall Street Gold. Suffolk County and East Hampton Village detectives were able to trace the transactions, and in August a warrant for his arrest was issued by East Hampton Town Justice Court. He had by then vanished, however.

The first of Mr. Wessels’s string of arrests was made by a Southampton Town patrolman in December 2016 on drug possession charges after he allegedly saw him injecting himself with heroin while in a car in Riverside. 

On May 2, 2017, he was charged by Suffolk County police with three misdemeanors, including driving while impaired by drugs, possession of a hypodermic needle, and possession of narcotics. On May 17, the same department arrested him on two misdemeanor charges, possession of narcotics and possession of a hypodermic needle. On June 21, after a traffic stop, Suffolk County police charged him with vehicular infractions including two misdemeanors. Then, on June 23, he was charged by Suffolk County with petty larceny, also a misdemeanor. 

At about this time, court records indicated that Mr. Wessels had entered an in-patient drug treatment program but had absconded by August, by which time numerous warrants had been issued for his arrest. 

Earlier, on Dec. 21, 2016, a warrant had been issued for Mr. Wessels’s arrest by New York State Justice Barbara Kahn on a felony charge of failing to register as a sex offender. He had been convicted of a sex offense in 2006. 

On Jan. 7, county police arrested him again, and on Jan. 8 bail was set at $250 in Suffolk County Criminal Court for each of five misdemeanor charges. He is being held in the county jail in Yaphank. Then, on Jan. 10, Justice Kahn set bail at $25,000 on a charge of failing to register as a sex offender, the same amount set by East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky on the burglary charges last Thursday.

The Suffolk County Health Department has expanded a survey of private wells in Wainscott following the detection of perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs, in four additional wells, bringing the total number of wells in which PFCs have been detected to 63. 

The discovery of PFCs in wells near the East Hampton Airport, following a survey that began in August, represents “our highest-priority issue at the moment,” Councilman Jeffrey Bragman said at the East Hampton Town Board’s work session on Tuesday. The board, he said, understands its “obligation to protect the health and safety of residents,” and to that end is considering all options. 

The expanded survey area now includes properties south of the East Hampton Airport lying east of Town Line Road and Sayre’s Path, west of Daniel’s Hole Road and Georgica Pond, and north of Wainscott Main Street.

The expanded boundaries were determined based on the current understanding of groundwater flow as depicted in the United States Geological Survey groundwater elevation maps and the location of known detections above the health advisory level in three private wells. The Health Department is planning to install groundwater-monitoring wells in the area to confirm the groundwater flow. 

Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc, referring to a news release issued by the county on Friday, said that the 63 wells that had detections of perfluorooctane sulfonate, or PFOS, and perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, were among 138 test results received to date. Among those, three wells showed PFCs above the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s lifetime health advisory level of .07 parts per billion. PFOS and PFOA were not detected in the other 75 private wells sampled. 

Though PFCs are currently unregulated, the E.P.A. has identified both PFOS and PFOA as contaminants of emerging concern. The agency issued the lifetime health advisory level of .07 parts per billion to protect the most sensitive populations, including fetuses during pregnancy and breastfed babies, against potential adverse health effects.

According to the E.P.A., studies on animals indicate that exposure to the two compounds over certain levels can also negatively affect the thyroid, liver, and immune systems, and cause cancer, among other effects. 

The chemicals have been used in such industrial and commercial products as firefighting foam and coatings that repel water, oil, stains, and grease. People can be exposed to both PFOS and PFOA through air, water, or soil from industrial sources and from consumer products. 

The well-testing program in East Hampton began after a survey by the State Department of Environmental Conservation, of facilities where products containing PFOS and PFOA may have been used, revealed that such products had been used at the airport. 

Mr. Van Scoyoc encouraged residents in the survey area to have the Health Department test their wells. A free test can be scheduled by calling the department’s office of water resources at 631-852-5810. The town is working closely with the D.E.C, the Suffolk County Water Authority, state and local officials including Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, and Legislator Bridget Fleming so that the resources are brought to bear to ensure safe drinking water for residents, he said. 

The D.E.C. is continuing a study to determine the source of the contamination, the supervisor said. “We will continue to press for the resources necessary to address this,” he said, and the issue will be a regular aspect of the board’s work sessions. In addition, he said, the town will continue to provide bottled water to residents in the survey area who use a private well for drinking water. Delivery can be arranged by calling the town’s purchasing department 631-324-4183. 

In other news from the Tuesday meeting, Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez announced that she is stepping down as the board’s liaison to the airport after four years. Ms. Burke-Gonzalez, who was re-elected to serve a second term in November, said that she plans a greater focus on “the human side” in town government, including construction of a new senior citizens center, adolescent mental health, the planned emergency care facility to be operated by Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, and the needs of the Latino community. “I’m really excited,” she said. 

In the airport, which has long rattled residents living under flight paths to and from it, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez had taken on “one of the most difficult topics,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said. “You really concentrated, and worked very hard to strip away a lot of myths that surrounded the issue. It’s been a very constructive four years.” 

He acknowledged successes and failures: Three 2015 laws restricting access to the airport in order to reduce noise were later struck down. Last year, the United States Supreme Court opted not to review that decision. The board, he said, will continue to work toward meaningful restrictions on aircraft takeoffs and landings. 

Sylvia Overby, the deputy supervisor, and Mr. Bragman will succeed Ms. Burke-Gonzalez as co-liaisons. Mr. Bragman, who was elected to the board in November, said in an August debate among Democratic Party candidates that “airport noise was harming thousands of people” and that helicopters “have no business in our community.”

On Tuesday, Ms. Overby said that, “We feel the airport needs some co-parenting,” and referred to the application procedure known as a Part 161 process that airports must perform when proposing noise or operational restrictions on aircraft. The board has hired a law firm to prepare the Part 161 application. 

The board also appointed Joanne Pilgrim as executive assistant to the supervisor. Ms. Pilgrim was a longtime reporter and associate editor at The Star and covered the town board until the end of 2017. She replaces Alex Walter, who served in that role under Supervisor Larry Cantwell.

As East Hampton and Southampton town boards move full speed ahead to mandate the upgrading of septic systems, the Sagaponack Village Board on Monday decided that it would continue to take a go-slow approach. 

“This a very big change,” said Sagaponack Deputy Mayor Lee Foster of the move for homeowners to transition to advanced septic systems that reduce nitrogen in wastewater. “These are very much more sophisticated systems, and I want to see how well they’re working and whether there’s been any profound difficulties with maintenance. I think maintenance is going to be an issue.”

Laws passed by the town boards of East Hampton and Southampton this past summer require that nitrogen-reducing septic systems be installed at all new buildings. The boards have also incentivized home and business owners to switch over to the more environmentally friendly systems by offering a rebate — financed by money from the community preservation fund — that may cover up to the entire The increased attention on septic systems has been driven by water-quality protection efforts that seek to fight algae-producing nitrogen in groundwater and water bodies. 

Ms. Foster spoke of the specific situation of Sagaponack: “Sagg Pond has always been the only body of water that’s not tidal, that just sits there,” she said, “and the historical realities of Sagg Pond is that it’s always been brackish.”

Still, the Sagaponack board intends to keep an eye on its neighboring towns to determine if a septic upgrade will prove to be in its best interest, as well. “We’re going to revisit this, of course,” said Ms. Foster, who, along with Sagaponack Mayor Donald Louchheim, took a firsthand look at the new septic systems when they were introduced as part of Suffolk County’s pilot program. “But you have to see how well these systems are working over a period of time, and we don’t have those answers.”

Environmentalists are decrying the Trump administration’s announcement last Thursday that it will allow new offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling in most coastal waters, including off the Eastern Seaboard. The plan represents a further effort to undo the environmental legacy of President Barack Obama, who acted late in his term to ban such drilling, and is consistent with a federal environmental policy that is dismissive of climate change. 

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke said last Thursday that the plan for “responsibly developing the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program” for 2019-24 proposed to make more than 90 percent of the total outer continental shelf acreage and more than 98 percent of “undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources in federal offshore areas available” for possible exploration and development. 

At the same time, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement plans to reverse safety regulations enacted after the Deepwater Horizon accident in 2010, in which an explosion on the offshore rig caused an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil to be discharged into the Gulf of Mexico. It was the largest marine oil spill in the nation’s history, fouling an estimated 1,100 miles of shoreline and causing far-reaching damage to the fishing and tourism industries, and to wildlife. 

“Nobody voted to put our oceans, marine life, coastal communities, and all they support at risk,” Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said yesterday. “This is a reckless gamble we can’t afford. We need to tell the president, tell the Congress, and tell our governors we won’t turn our oceans and coasts into industrial sacrifice zones at risk of the next BP-style disaster for the sake of oil and gas profits. We’ll insist on protecting these waters and we’ll hold our leaders to account.”

Bob Deans, an N.R.D.C. spokesman, added that the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will accept public comment until March 9. Information is at boem.gov/national-program. 

In addition to environmentalists, pushback has come from lawmakers in East Coast and West Coast states, where the impact of an accidental spill on commercial fishing and tourism is feared. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo issued a statement last Thursday in which he contrasted the president’s announcement with New York’s initiatives to transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy sources. “President Trump’s move to allow new offshore oil and gas drilling on nearly all previously off-limit coastal waters represents yet another federal assault on our environment and our future,” he said. “Instead of taking action to confront climate change and safeguard our natural resources, the administration is abdicating its responsibility to protect our future.”

“While Washington paves the way for big oil and the gas industry to hurt our environment,” the statement continued, “New York is investing in the clean energy jobs of tomorrow and stepping up for our planet, our economy, and our children.”

Representative Lee Zeldin of New York’s First Congressional District, a Republican who broke with his party over the tax overhaul legislation approved last month, is likewise opposed to the plan. “I support an energy strategy that secures American energy independence and drives down costs,” he said in a statement on Friday. “On Long Island, however, our waterways are our way of life, and drilling off of Long Island is unacceptable and counterproductive to the well-being of our communities.”

On the Atlantic Coast, only the governor of Maine, a close political ally of the president, has come out in favor of offshore drilling. The governors of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, California, Oregon, Washington, and Florida also oppose plans to open waters to offshore drilling. 

On Tuesday, however, Mr. Zinke removed Florida from consideration for new oil and gas development. On Twitter, Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, a Democrat who opposed the plan to drill off Florida’s coast and will stand for re-election in November, called the move a “political stunt” aimed at helping Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican who may challenge him for his Senate seat. Florida’s exemption, he said via Twitter, was “orchestrated by the Trump administration to help Rick Scott, who has wanted to drill off Florida’s coast his entire career.” 

Gordian Raacke, executive director of Renewable Energy Long Island, said that “the administration’s proposal to allow oil and gas drilling on the outer continental shelf on both coasts would not only be a huge boondoggle for big oil but threaten coastal communities with accidental oil spills while accelerating climate change.” If implemented, the proposal, which he called reckless, “would drag us back into the past at a time when we must leave carbon-based fossil fuels underground and switch to renewable energy sources.” 

Chad Nelson, chief executive officer of the Surfrider Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protection of the oceans, waves, and beaches, called the Trump administration’s plan “far and away the biggest effort to open up drilling, ever.” Nonetheless, he said on Monday, “there’s a ton of opposition, seemingly at every level.” 

Along with vehement opposition from governors of coastal states, the Surfrider Foundation, Mr. Nelson said, is “trying to build local and state opposition to the plan.” When President Obama proposed allowing seismic blasting and drilling in the Atlantic Ocean, a plan that was ultimately abandoned, “every single coastal community in South Carolina passed a formal resolution opposed to drilling,” he said. “We’d love to see one of those in every coastal community on both coasts.” Coastal communities, he said, “have everything to lose and very little to gain.”

In East Hampton, then-Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc sponsored a resolution in August declaring the town board’s support for a continued ban on offshore oil and gas exploration and development along the Atlantic Seaboard. The Town of Southampton passed a similar resolution, also in August. 

Following his swearing in as the new town supervisor last week, Mr. Van Scoyoc spoke of the town board’s continued support for the goal of meeting all of its electricity needs from renewable sources, including the South Fork Wind Farm, a proposed installation to be constructed approximately 30 miles east of Montauk. 

Colleen Henn, of the Surfrider Foundation’s eastern Long Island chapter, urged people to attend a Feb. 15 public hearing to be held from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Hilton Albany. A rally will also be held near the hearing, Ms. Henn said. On Feb. 15 and 16, members of the Surfrider Foundation, coastal businesses, and others will convene in Washington to lobby legislators for a ban on offshore drilling, as well as advocate for funding for water quality testing, a reduction in plastic pollution, and promotion of coastal resilience.

The Trump administration’s plan “blatantly disregards coastal communities’ dependence on tourism, recreation, and fishing industries,” Ms. Henn wrote in an email on Monday. “These industries generate billions of dollars for our nation’s economy. Opening the coasts for drilling is a huge step backward for U.S. energy policy in a time when we should be switching to clean, sustainable energy sources. . . . We stand ready to fight the Trump administration’s attempt to remove permanent protections for the Arctic and Atlantic from oil drilling.” 

For lawmakers and activists opposed to offshore drilling, the fight is not a new one. An April 1982 report in The Star stated that the Town of East Hampton had applied to New York State for a grant to fund the development of an “oil spill contingency plan” in the event of an accident from offshore drilling in the Atlantic. That move came against the backdrop of aggressive moves by the Interior Department, under then-Secretary James Watt and his successors, to lease or sell areas in the North and Mid-Atlantic, including at the Georges Banks, “considered the world’s most productive fishing grounds,” The Star reported. 

Mr. Nelson of the Surfrider Foundation predicted a challenging campaign to stand up to the federal government, but said, “It really is a grassroots campaign. It’s going to be up to folks in communities and states to convince their representatives that this is what they want.”

“If you’re a local business in any coastal community like Montauk,” he said, “regardless of your politics, this plan has nothing but threats to your financial well-being and very little to offer.”

While outrage over President Trump's reference on Thursday to Haiti and African nations as "shithole countries" has been widespread among lawmakers the world over, Representative Lee Zeldin was among the first United States lawmakers to jump to the president's defense that evening.

In a series of tweets from his @leezeldin account, Mr. Zeldin wrote, "Pres @realDonaldTrump wasn't elected for his ability or willingness to be politically correct," adding later in another tweet, he said, " I'm not [. . .] here to call for the President's mouth to be washed out w soap & then for him to be physically removed from office. He's not perfect, but no President has ever been perfect. I'm still very strongly rooting for his success & America's success in this great new year."

The "shithole" comment, which Mr. Trump denies, was said to come during a White House meeting on immigration with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle. Protections for people from Haiti and some African nations were on the agenda as was a deal that might bar deportation of immigrants brought to the United States as children, as detailed in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, initiative.

"The fact is that there are many nations in the world struggling mightily . . . politically & economically, w poor infrastructure, schools, physical security & more," Mr. Zeldin tweeted Thursday evening. "These third world nations have some of the worst possible challenges imaginable. They also have certain aspects of culture, tradition, values, & religion, that can be emulated the world over." While the United States "can & should help where we can," he wrote, it "also can & should prioritize many challenges we are facing right her at home. Our immigration policies must get stronger, our limited resources spent wiser, & our priorities placed smarter."

While Mr. Zeldin's tweets sought to shift the discussion from the President's language to his apparent underlying sentiments, criticism of the President was swift and unequivocal from Haiti to Nigeria to South Africa to Norway to the Vatican.

I'm not though here to call for the President's mouth to be washed out w soap & then for him to be physically removed from office. He's not perfect, but no President has ever been perfect. I'm still very strongly rooting for his success & America's success in this great new year.

— Lee Zeldin (@leezeldin) January 12, 2018

Here in the First Congressional District, where Mr. Zeldin is serving his second term, would-be Democratic challengers called him out for his support of Mr. Trump at a forum on Saturday at Stony Brook Southampton hosted by the Southampton Progressive Caucus.

Mr. Trump's remarks were bad, said Brendan Henry, one of the six candidates at the forum, but Mr. Zeldin's were worse. "I actually told him on his web page, 'This is why I'm going to beat you in November,' " he said to applause. "We can't become a nation that turns its back on people," Mr. Henry said. Immigrants, he said, are "hard-working people. They're families, people in your community. . . . I know these people, and all they want is a chance."

Mr. Trump's meeting with legislators could have led to a resolution as to undocumented immigrants brought into the country by their parents, "and Trump shot it down," said Perry Gershon, an East Hampton resident and candidate to challenge Mr. Zeldin. "And you can look at where Lee Zeldin has come out on this," he said, referring to the congressman's supportive statement. "He's not attacking Trump, he says we're not going to wash his mouth out with soap. That's not the way we fix our problems in America. We need our congressman to be pushing for immigration reform."

Vivian Viloria-Fisher, another candidate, said that for a time Suffolk County was "ground zero for immigrant issues," recalling incidents that she called shameful. In debating his predecessor, Tim Bishop, she recalled Mr. Zeldin "using immigration as a fear-mongering tactic to try to get votes." Immigrants applying for legal status under DACA "have had to put their lives on hold," while "there are young people who are already being detained . . . people who have a proven record of being great participants in our county's culture, in our country's communities." Mr. Trump has pulled the rug out from under them, she said, "and Lee Zeldin has not done anything to make their lives whole again. We must have a comprehensive immigration policy, because we can't continue to have 12 million people, maybe more, living in the shadows."

"Why are we still afraid that Lee Zeldin is going to succeed with this wedge issue?" another candidate, Elaine DiMasi, asked in reference to immigration. "It's because we know that he's going to pull out racism, that we now know exists, much greater than ever before."

David Pechefsky, another candidate, criticized Mr. Zeldin during a discussion about foreign policy. "That guy seems to want us to go to war with Iran," he said. Mr. Zeldin, he said, "seems eager. . . . We need to stop this right now."

A marine mammal rescue team was en route to Amagansett Tuesday afternoon to pick up a young seal that was discovered on a roadside a considerable distance from Gardiner's Bay.

Police were called after a passer-by noticed the seal pup on the side of Bendigo Road on Tuesday afternoon. The spot where it was found is near the Devon Yacht Club but not directly on the water. A small frozen stream that leads to the yacht club boat basin is nearby.

Video by T.E. McMorrow

An East Hampton Town police officer and a member of the Amagansett ambulance company used a board to keep the seal pup from scrambling onto the roadway. It appeared to be in good health.

Dell Cullum, a recently elected East Hampton Town trustee and wildlife handler, was among those who responded to check on the seal.

The next phase in hamlet studies underway for the Town of East Hampton will see two presentations by the consultants engaged to conduct the studies. 

Councilwoman Sylvia Overby said at the town board’s work session on Tuesday that consultants would present updated drafts of plans for the future of the hamlets’ commercial centers at its Feb. 6 work session. The updated drafts are based on information gathered from reports by the hamlets’ respective citizens advisory committees and comments sent to a dedicated email address, [email protected]. 

“They’re looking at putting them into buckets of ‘Here are issues that can be addressed now, here are the longer-term issues that may need a steering committee’ ” to move forward, Ms. Overby said of the consultants. She is the town board’s new liaison to Montauk’s citizens advisory committee.

That evening from 6 to 8, the presentation will be repeated at LTV’s studios in Wainscott. 

The plans for East Hampton, Amagansett, Wainscott, Montauk, and Springs, along with a business and economic study report, can be viewed in their present form on the town’s website, ehamptonny.gov, by searching for “hamlet study.” 

The public will be able to digest the updated plans, Ms. Overby said, and she encouraged continued engagement through attending the presentations and submitting comments via mail or email. A final draft and public hearing will follow, probably in the spring, she said.

The Springs Fire Department and its members have raised nearly $30,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in an effort launched in memory of David M. King, an ex-chief who died of acute lymphoblastic leukemia last February.

The department had hoped to raise $5,000 for the society through Sunday pancake breakfasts at the firehouse through the fall. Had it fallen short in breakfast proceeds, department members agreed they would make up the difference. That proved unnecessary.

Last week, the department’s newly elected chief, Ryan Balnis, presented a check for $10,000 to Michael Davis, captain of Team DMK for a Cure, a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Team in Training that is running races to raise money for the society in memory of Mr. King. In addition to the support from the department as a whole, four individual firefighters and two exempt members of the department raised nearly $20,000 more for the team. As of yesterday, Team DMK for a Cure had collected nearly $69,000 toward its $100,000 fund-raising goal. 

Team members have been training since August to run in 5K, 10K, half-marathon, and full-marathon events at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., last week and the Bridgehampton Half Marathon in May. 

Those interested in donating can do so by clicking “donate” at the teamintraining.org homepage and entering “Team DMK for a Cure” in the search field. Those wishing to train and run with the team can email Mr. Davis at [email protected].

East Hampton

A Jonathan Drive couple told police Dec. 28 that they had been visited by a trespasser the previous evening. The intruder appeared to have entered a screened-in porch around 5:30 and remained there for about an hour. He or she did not ring the doorbell or knock on the door and seemed to have left without taking or disturbing anything, according to the report. 

East Hampton Village

Laurie Tomasino, a manager at the Maidstone Hotel restaurant, told police on Jan. 3 that at some point on New Year’s Eve, 400 rented white cloth napkins were stolen from an unlocked storage building on the property. The napkins were embroidered with a diamond pattern along the edges. An employee of the restaurant’s linen service had placed four plastic bags, each containing 100 napkins, in the storage area that morning. The complaint has been turned over to the department’s detective squad. 

Montauk

Police were called to a Fairview Avenue house at 3:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day. A fight had broken out as guests were leaving the house, and one guest from North Bergen, N.J., was aided by Montauk emergency medical technicians. He was eventually taken to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, having suffered lacerations to his nose and under an eye, but he declined to press charges. The other man had a cut on his nose and scratches on his cheek, but did not require medical attention. 

At about the same time, police received a report of criminal mischief regarding an incident in the parking lot outside the Point Bar and Grill. Nicole Klepper of Montvale, N.Y., reported that a male customer who had to be escorted out of the establishment got into his car, drove it around to the parking lot behind the Point, then got out and smashed a rear taillight on Ms. Klepper’s 2014 Jeep Compass. He then drove off. Ms. Klepper said she would not press charges as long as the perpetrator paid to have the taillight repaired. 

Sag Harbor

Police were called to a Main Street house Saturday. Hilary Hamann suspected that someone was trying to log in to her computer after seeing moving letters and digits in the log-in icon. She said she had gotten the computer back from GeekHampton two weeks ago and wanted the incident documented. 

During the snowstorm last Thursday, Carla Gargano called police to report what appeared to be septic overflow on Glover Street. When police arrived, they determined that the flooding was actually caused by the high tide. Motorcyclists riding over frozen Round Pond off Middle Lane Highway caused a concerned Kenneth Dorph to contact police. When officers arrived, however, the riders were gone.

Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. and the East Hampton Village Board used their first work session of the new year on Tuesday to discuss two highly impactful issues: regulating the use of leaf blowers and possibly lifting a ban on the playing of live music in village restaurants.

With a roomful of landscapers in attendance, Arthur Graham, a member of the board, jumped into the leaf-blower debate by summing up the machines as “something that drive residents of this village crazy” and calling the controversy “a self-created problem by the landscaping community.” Mr. Graham offered an example of the type of scenario that angers constituents, saying, “Very often a van and trailer roll up on a quarter-acre property [with] a five-man crew. So you might have three blowers going on a quarter-acre property. Very often they will blow the driveway. That creates huge clouds of dust that gets all over everybody’s cars.”

The main concern about leaf blowers, of course, is the noise they create. “Right now, it’s too noisy,” Mr. Graham said. “And there’s a fair amount of sentiment in the village to ban them outright.” He said that he would instead prefer to work with landscapers to find a mutually beneficial way forward, such as encouraging an industry changeover from the use of extremely noisy gas-powered blowers to quieter electric versions, or perhaps limiting the number of leaf blowers used on a property. “I think we need to strike a balance between unfettered leaf-blower operation and a more sane approach,” he said.

Acknowledging the need for landscapers to use leaf blowers — particularly for lawn cleanup in the fall — board members made clear that whatever restrictions they consider would be focused mainly on the weeks between Memorial Day and Labor Day. “We’re not looking to reduce your productivity,” Mr. Graham told those in attendance. “We’re not looking to create roadblocks for you keeping this village as beautiful as it is.”

Although it was a work session and not a public hearing, Mayor Rickenbach opened the discussion so that some of the landscapers in the audience could express their views. 

Donald Mahoney, the president of Mahoney Associates, a landscaping company, took the opportunity to make clear his objection to an outright ban. “I would ask the board to not take any action,” said Mr. Mahoney, suggesting a dialogue between the board and the landscaping community would lead to a more amicable resolution. “If there is an outright ban, then our association would definitely seek litigation, which we obviously don’t want to do.” 

Mr. Mahoney went on to point out the potential ramifications of phasing out the more powerful gas-powered leaf blowers. “Yes,” he said, “we have the electric-battery-powered option. My company has started to go that route. They definitely are quieter; they don’t have the same velocity, which means the jobs would take longer, and there’s a cost to that.” 

Furthermore, Mr. Mahoney wondered aloud, would the landscaping companies be reimbursed for the overhead cost — which he claimed would be “massive” — involved in transitioning from gas-powered to electric-powered leaf blowers? “Are there going to be rebates?” he asked. “Otherwise, it’s going to get passed right on to the taxpayers.”

Mayor Rickenbach welcomed the feedback from landscapers, calling it a good conversation. “We’re here to work with you, folks,” he said, but added that “quite frankly, the handwriting is on the wall.”

Likening the leaf-blower debate to the environmental concerns that led to the institution of the countywide fee on disposable bags on Jan. 1 of this year, Mr. Rickenbach said, “This is a changing psyche. It’s a quality-of-life issue for the residents we represent. And sometimes there have to be adaptations.”

On the subject of lifting the ban on live music in restaurants in the village, the board seemed to be unanimously in favor of it, with one major caveat: There should be no use of amplifiers. 

“I have no problem with a piano player or an acoustic guitar player or a singer,” said Barbara Borsack. “But when you amplify it in a residential neighborhood, then it’s going to affect the residents, and our residents have to take priority.” 

Richard Lawler also brought up the possibility of limiting the time frame in which live music could be played, and he highlighted the need to examine all the repercussions that could follow allowing live music at restaurants. “In addition to possible noise that might be generated, it could attract more customers, which is more traffic, which is more parking issues, all of which is disruptive to the residents that surround these potential venues.” 

  Mayor Rickenbach floated the notion that perhaps the board should limit the number of people that would constitute a musical ensemble — a string quartet might pass muster, but would a six-person band be going too far? 

Although the details of the proposed legislation still need to be worked out, Mayor Rickenbach said, one thing was set in stone: “We all agree that we don’t want to see amplification, period.”