The Town of East Hampton has agreed to extend the current scheduling of its police force.

The town and the Police Benevolent Association had been at loggerheads, with the P.B.A. rejecting the town's plan to have officers alternate between 12-hour day shifts and 12-hour night shifts every four months. A Jan. 1 deadline was looming over the dispute.

The current schedule, which has officers working exclusively either day or night 12-hour shifts all year, was instituted at the beginning of 2017 for a yearlong test.

The experimental schedule replaced one that had been in place for many years in which officers rotated through three shifts, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., 3 p.m. to 11 p.m., and 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. It was extremely unpopular with the rank and file.

Anthony Bosco, president of the P.B.A., pointed to several facts earlier this week that he said demonstrated the superiority for both the department and the officers in maintaining a set 12-hour schedule throughout the year. They included decreases in both overtime paid out by the town and sick days taken by officers, a 16-percent increase in arrests, and a sharp increase in citations issued. In addition, the old eight-hour schedule required the department to divide officers into five squads. The schedule now in place divides the same number of officers into four squads, meaning more boots on the ground.

The two sides began negotiating the 2018 schedule at the end of November. The latest proposal from the town was to keep the present schedule for four months, to allow further negotiations. That was rejected by the P.B.A. in what Mr. Bosco described as an overwhelming majority at the end of a meeting at Ashawagh Hall in Springs earlier this week.

Instead, the P.B.A. countered with an either/or proposition: either extend the current scheduling formula for another year, or revert back to the unpopular, less productive rotation system. Jan. 1 was the deadline.

Deputy Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc sat down with Mr. Bosco at Town Hall on Dec. 29, and the two men signed a stipulation that will extend the current experimental schedule for another year. Mr. Van Scoyoc will be sworn in as town supervisor on Jan. 2.

Mr. Bosco said he anticipates that the town board will ratify the agreement at the Jan. 4 board meeting. The P.B.A. will hold a special meeting over the coming days to allow them to ratify it, as well.

"I'm pleased that we are moving forward in a positive way and am looking forward to resolving any remaining issues," Mr. Van Scoyoc said.

Mr. Bosco believes the one-year extension will give his members and the police chief ample time to work out any improvements that need to be made to the schedule. "We are more than willing to work with the chief," he said.

"There are still factors and issues which the fixed tours create that we will need more time to evaluate before making a final agreement on the terms of managing the schedule," Chief Michael Sarlo said by email. "There are numerous issues which we will continue to discuss and evaluate during this extension in hopes of coming up with agreeable terms that will still give our officers a healthy work chart while also meeting overall department needs."

Included in the new stipulation is language that if the two sides do not come to an agreement on a permanent scheduling process by Dec. 31, 2018, the schedule will revert to the eight-hour rotational shifts, a prospect neither side seems anxious to see. They have 367 days to work it out.

There is one group of P.B.A. members not covered by the current plan: the dispatchers. The department now employs 10 dispatchers, one of whom is on sick leave. They work on the old eight-hour rotating shift schedule. The town would need to increase the total number of dispatchers to 12 before they could switch to the set 12-hour shift schedule.

“Deadly Cure”

Lawrence Goldstone

Pegasus Books, $25.95

“Deadly Cure,” a new novel by Lawrence Goldstone, the author of several previous novels as well as a number of nonfiction historical works, takes place in New York City at the dawning of the 20th century. It is September of 1899, and the brand-new age of electricity. “Reading was so much more pleasant by incandescent light. These rooms were his first that did not use gas or oil.”

The novel commences with Dr. Noah Whitestone, a young physician in private practice in Brooklyn, summoned to the wealthy home of Mildred and Aldridge Anschutz. Aldridge is a colonel in the Army, serving in the Philippines, and Mildred is “neighborhood nobility, niece to Brooklyn’s last mayor, Frederick Wurster.” Noah has been called to treat Willard, “her youngest, a rambunctious, perpetually cheerful five-year-old.” 

“Mrs. Anschutz had made little secret that she considered Noah too young, too inexperienced, too . . . unacceptable . . . to treat her or her five children. She, like most of the wealthy and the prominent, preferred Arnold Frias, he of the white mane and booming baritone, on the board of directors of four hospitals. . . .” Dr. Frias is rich and powerful and drives a new International Benz automobile, “the first of its kind in Brooklyn.”

When Noah examines Willard, he sees gooseflesh and a runny nose. The child is perspiring heavily, yet he complains of feeling cold and is in agony from stomach discomfort. His eyes are watery and his pupils are dilated. “Noah was stunned. The symptoms seemed classic. But in this house? With a boy of five?” 

When the boy runs to the “water closet” Noah tries to follow, but Mrs. Anschutz will not permit it. Noah tells her that he must examine the “product” (to check for blood or mucus), but she says, “You may not! How dare you? Dr. Frias would never think to violate a patient’s privacy so heinously.” 

Noah gently inquires if there might be any “morphia” in the house. 

“Certainly not! We are not Chinamen or dope fiends in my home.” 

Eventually the young physician gives the boy two drops of laudanum (a tincture of opium) in order to help him sleep, and then has to rush off to another house call about a dying man.

When Noah returns a couple of hours later, Willard is barely breathing and subsequently dies in Noah’s arms. Noah is distraught and full of self-doubt about whether he might have somehow missed something regarding the boy’s condition. Should he not have given him the (tiny) dose of laudanum? He takes one of the blue pills that Dr. Frias has prescribed in order to experimentally determine exactly what the boy has been taking. It is clear he suspects morphine. At the time, “each drug company fabricated its own wares,” and it would be impossible to know without testing what this drug contained. 

Noah finds out that there is a new (and perfectly legal) drug being tested on children. It is being marketed by the German company Bayer, and is being test-prescribed for children’s coughs. The drug is called Heroin and “is to be marketed throughout the nation in elixirs, tablets, pastilles, and powders. It will be prescribed for asthma, dysentery, nervous disorders, respiratory disease, and, most ironically, as a treatment for morphine addiction. Its most widespread application, however, will be as a cough suppressant, particularly for children.” 

Let me repeat this so we are clear: Bayer, the company we all know for its brand of aspirin, brought heroin to the United States in pill form, and marketed it, just as it did its other drugs. This is true! 

“This year Bayer will produce a ton of Heroin. They will send the product around the world, but fully half of the production will come to the United States. America has restrictive patents, but almost no safety standards for pharmaceuticals. That combination means that nowhere in the world will Heroin be more profitable.”

The discovery of this fact, and the unearthing of a conspiracy that involves Dr. Frias (paid by Bayer to perform tests on the heroin), crooked cops, and a cast of other nefarious characters who will not hesitate to use violence, kidnapping, and worse to prevent knowledge of the perilous nature of this new drug and the fact that it has already apparently killed several children of the poor (Bayer’s U.S. experimental subjects), takes up the remainder of “Deadly Cure.” It is part historical novel, part medical detective story, part thriller, and part political page-turner and polemic on the lack of oversight for patent medicines.

“There was rarely a newspaper page lacking an advertisement, often with testimonials, extolling some supposed miracle cure. Ayer’s Cherry Pectoral, Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup, Darby’s Carminative, Godfrey’s Cordial, Dover’s Powder — the list was endless. The hundreds who died each year and thousands more who developed addictions were never mentioned.” 

For all of its historical accuracy and interest (and the material is wonderful and captivating), this novel might just as well have been written about the current opioid crisis. With the current political administration rushing to defang nearly every federal agency, including the Food and Drug Administration, and to deregulate business in general, most of what takes place in the novel in 1900 is also occurring today. Except that instead of heroin, we are in the midst of a raging opioid addiction epidemic. 

Opioids legally sold by pharmaceutical companies in the form of hydrocodone, oxycodone, and fentanyl are being marketed for outrageous profits and are not being properly regulated. According to a recent study by the National Center for Health Statistics, an arm of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2016 there were more than 63,600 drug overdose deaths in the United States as a direct result of opioid use. 

Scott Gottlieb, the current head of the F.D.A., spent much of his career working for giant pharmaceutical companies like Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Bristol-Myers Squibb, New Enterprise, GSK, MedAvante, and Glytec. These are the very companies he is supposed to be regulating. Fox, meet henhouse. The parallels with the fictional Dr. Frias and good old-fashioned heroin are unmistakable. The Sacklers, the family that owns Purdue Pharma, have become one of the wealthiest families in the country. Their net worth is around $14 billion, largely based on profits from the sales of OxyContin.

I am giving short shrift to the plot of “Deadly Cure” because I think Mr. Goldstone is making a very direct reference to the issues of today. If this were July, I would say that this novel is a terrific beach read, but since it is winter, let’s just say that if you are looking to curl up by the fire with a fast-paced, interesting historical novel, with lots of plot twists and some relevance to today, this one is a good bet. 

Michael Z. Jody, a regular book reviewer for The Star, is a psychoanalyst and couples counselor with offices in Amagansett and New York City. 

Lawrence Goldstone lives in Sagaponack.

The mood was jubilant at East Hampton Town Hall on Tuesday morning as a new town board was sworn in along with several other officials, following an election that saw Democrats complete a near-sweep of the town’s governing bodies and agencies.

Remarks delivered by Peter Van Scoyoc, the new supervisor, clearly aimed to demonstrate continuity with the board that was led by his predecessor, Larry Cantwell, who has retired after more than four decades in public service. Touching on the issues that have dominated the Town Hall agenda in recent years, Mr. Van Scoyoc, who defeated his Republican challenger with almost 63 percent of the vote in November, expressed humility and gratitude to voters for his election. He pledged to be open to new ideas and tolerant of differences and encouraged others to follow suit.

“We must engage in constructive and civil dialogue while respecting each other’s views. . . . We must care for the most vulnerable among us, and work constructively in the best interest of all,” said Mr. Van Scoyoc, who was elected while serving a second term on the town board.

The new town board will appoint his replacement in the coming weeks, and in November a special election will be held, with the winner serving the final year of Mr. Van Scoyoc's term. Mr. Van Scoyoc was deputy supervisor under Mr. Cantwell. On Tuesday, Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, who is serving her second four-year term, was named deputy supervisor.

Looking ahead, the new supervisor said that protecting and improving water quality is foremost among the town’s challenges. “The water we depend on is underfoot,” he said. “We must tread lightly, be mindful of the fact that what we do on the land has a direct and significant impact on the quality of our water.” Referring to the recent discovery of contaminated wells in Wainscott, he said that the town will continue to work with state and Suffolk agencies and officials to determine its source.

The nascent effort to combat nitrogen leakage into aquifers and surface waters, which is blamed for harmful algal blooms that impact marine life, will continue, Mr. Van Scoyoc said. To reverse this phenomenon, the town is offering septic rebates of up to $16,000, funded by the community preservation fund, to replace residential and commercial waste treatment systems with low-nitrogen systems. As of Monday, he noted, the town requires low-nitrogen systems for all new construction and substantial renovations.

The effort to improve water quality will involve open space acquisition and habitat restoration, including community oyster gardens, he said, with the town's preservation fund again the source of funding. “My administration will work hard to preserve and protect our water,” he said.

Bigger-picture issues include coastal erosion and sea level rise. The second phase of the Coastal Assessment and Resiliency Plan study, following the initial assessment phase, will see the development of “strategies to help us adapt to our changing surroundings and to be proactive rather than reactive in addressing the impending impacts,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said, pledging to push the federal government to deliver a sand-only beach replenishment project in downtown Montauk under the Fire Island to Montauk Point Reformulation study, or FIMP. “This will allow us the time we need to accomplish implementation of CARP’s strategic planning effort,” he said.

The new town board will continue its support of the South Fork Wind Farm, a proposed installation to be constructed some 30 miles east of Montauk that could be operational late in 2022. The board’s goal to achieve all of the town’s electricity needs through renewable sources by 2020 -- announced in 2014 but one it has acknowledged will not be met -- remains in place, the supervisor said. The board will pursue solar energy production on town-owned properties and incorporate solar panels on town buildings whenever possible, he said.

The town will invest in energy-efficient technology, including the retrofitting of streetlights in downtown Montauk with LED fixtures, Mr. Van Scoyoc said. A transition to electric vehicles and the installation of more electric vehicle charging stations will reduce energy consumption, toxic emissions, and costs, he said.

The town’s history and traditions must also be preserved, Mr. Van Scoyoc said, pointing to public access to waterways as a primary concern. “Our town was founded with the provision that our town’s beaches, bays, bottomlands, trails, and ancient roadways are to be forever held in common to the benefit of all,” he said, to a cry of “Yeah!” from the audience. The town will protect and expand these rights through appropriate land acquisition and preservation, he said.

A new threat, he said, is opioid addiction, and the town’s youth must be safeguarded through a concerted, joint effort with schools and community groups.

The supervisor acknowledged the scarcity of affordable housing, which he called a challenge for young people, working families, and senior citizens. Congested roadways and understaffed volunteer fire departments and businesses are among the consequences of exorbitant real estate valuations and the high cost of living, he said. The 12 units comprising the Manor House project on Accabonac Road in East Hampton, and a plan to begin construction of 48 more units in the town, represent a start in addressing the critical shortage, he said.

Also under consideration are infrastructure projects including construction of a new senior citizens center on the site of the existing center, on Springs-Fireplace Road in East Hampton, which he said would allow additional programs and services. A plan to consolidate the town’s work force by moving employees from the offices at 300 Pantigo Place to the Town Hall campus will be reviewed at the town board’s Jan. 16 work session. The building at 300 Pantigo Place will eventually be sold to help offset the plan’s costs, he said; a $500,000 grant for this purpose is already in hand.

“We have made great strides in addressing quality of life issues, such as overcrowded housing, over-occupancy in nightspots, and illegal rentals,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said. “But continued vigilance is required.” He pledged to coordinate with the town’s Code Enforcement, Building, and Police Departments, along with the fire marshal and town attorney’s office, to achieve full compliance with the code.

The town is moving forward with an analysis, known as a Part 161 study, that airports must perform when proposing noise or operational restrictions on aircraft, an effort to enact control over the aircraft noise that “has long disrupted the peace and tranquillity” of residents, Mr. Van Scoyoc said. Several in attendance murmured "Yes" in response. The effort will be lengthy and expensive, he said, but the airport fund, which is derived from landing fees and leases at East Hampton Airport, will absorb the cost.

The town’s finances are “on solid ground,” the new supervisor said, and the town recently achieved the highest credit rating in its history. “Our goal will be to stay within our budget, reduce overall indebtedness, and increase efficiency,” while remaining under the state-imposed 2-percent tax cap, he said.

“I’m confident that together we can rise to meet any challenge and reach any goal,” the supervisor said. “As supervisor of the Town of East Hampton I look forward to working with all of our residents in serving East Hampton, a place like no other I know.”

Mention the Black Panther movement of the 1960s to those old enough to remember, and most likely it conjures beret-wearing revolutionaries with raised fists who packed guns. What often gets lost in the story is a program they instituted in 1968 to provide free breakfasts to schoolchildren in Oakland, Calif. The program became so popular that by the end of 1969, the Panthers had set up kitchens in cities across the nation and were feeding more than 10,000 children every day before school.

Jake Ruehl, a Springs resident who is 20 and a sophomore at St. Lawrence University, learned about the Panthers’ legacy of social justice and community building during an exhibit last year at the Queens Museum. He decided to start his own initiative, called Free Breakfasts for Kids, at the Deep Root Learning Center in Canton, N.Y., not far from his college campus. Following the success of Free Breakfasts for Kids, which is now expanding to a church in the Canton area, Jake decided to bring it to East Hampton. 

Free Breakfasts for Kids will begin on Jan. 8 for students at the East Hampton Middle School. The program will kick off with free breakfasts every Monday at Babette’s restaurant, a few doors down from the school on Newtown Lane. For approximately an hour before the school bell sounds at 7:45 a.m., any student with a valid East Hampton Middle School identification card will be welcomed in.

“I am happy to be serving the community,” said Barbara Layton, the owner of Babette’s, who was approached by Mr. Ruehl. “I’m delighted to offer these kids clean, nourishing, and organic food — it makes all the difference.” 

Ms. Layton said that the menu will change each week, varying between whole-grain waffles, French toast, and free-range eggs. Produce donations from Open Minded Organics and Quail Hill Farm will also be featured. There will definitely be no Cheerios or Pop Tarts, she emphasized with a smile.

“The idea is lovely,” said Charles Soriano, the principal at the middle school. “Anything that helps kids is good.” Some logistics still need to be worked out, he pointed out, such as how children who take the school bus in the mornings — and are not permitted to go anywhere but straight into the school building — might attend. However, if a parent or guardian drives a student to school, that would not be a problem.

“We’ll deal with issues as they come up,” said Ms. Layton, who was a Montessori teacher before opening Babette’s 23 years ago. She had in mind another potential challenge: What if 100 children show up, when the restaurant can best accommodate 55 to 60 people? “I haven’t even discussed money yet with Jake. I’m just happy to do this,” she said, unfazed.

Ms. Layton believes that community building should be a priority during these divisive times, and hopes that through initiatives such as this, East Hampton might be a beacon for change. She will be there, she promised, watching the children during the breakfast hour. “I’m going to see who’s always sitting together, who’s being excluded, and I’ll try to be a facilitator for building bonds between kids.” 

According to No Kid Hungry, a nationwide organization dedicated to ending childhood hunger, 20 million children in the United States receive free or reduced lunches, but only half that number receive free breakfasts — and, in many cases, the lack of a nutritious breakfast is because of budget cuts. Consequently, many schools rely on philanthropic programs such as Free Breakfasts for Kids to give children who might otherwise go hungry a healthy meal to start their day. 

The National Institutes of Health has summarized 36 different research articles and studies, and draws the broad conclusion that a habitual breakfast, especially a nutritious and varied one, has positive effects on students’ behavior and academic performance. School officials report that when kids eat breakfast, they see better attendance, less tardiness, fewer behavioral problems, increased graduation rates, and a decrease in the number of students who must repeat grades.  

For all those reasons, the Springs School instituted Blessings in a Backpack in September, which sends a backpack home with qualifying students, filled with food for the weekend.

“What really appealed to me about the free breakfasts program,” said Jake, “is that there’s no stigma attached. You show up with your school ID and you get to sit down and enjoy breakfast.”

While Jake, whose mother is the actress Mercedes Ruehl, will return to college in January, he said he has made arrangements with a few key people to ensure the program runs smoothly. According to the school social workers and administrators he spoke with, about 50 to 60 students from the middle school could show up for a free breakfast. 

His goal is that the program would expand from one day a week to five, and he is also in the process of enlisting other restaurants, including Lulu Kitchen and Bar in Sag Harbor. His motivation to start the program on the South Fork was summed up on his online Free Breakfasts for Kids GoFundMe.com page:

“In the towns and villages in the Hamptons, there is of course legendary wealth,” he wrote on the fund-raising site, where he has collected almost $5,000 for the East Hampton initiative. “But we must remember that there are also significant populations of struggling, hard-working families: some the sons and daughters of generations of fishermen and farmers, some drawn from afar with the prospects of jobs and a better life for their children, some the descendants of our indigenous peoples. The aim of the breakfast program is to give nourishment and support to these and all of our communities.”

People doing errands or working in the Village of East Hampton may have noticed a tiny parade of dogs being walked through the streets late mornings on Monday and Friday, even being taken into shops. This is a canine outreach army from the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons in Wainscott. The walkers usually have ARF sweatshirts on, and the dogs sport ARF vests.

They are special creatures, having been chosen by Barbara Pezzanite, ARF’s animal behaviorist, in consultation with the organization’s volunteers, as those most likely to benefit from such forays into the society of humans. They are usually dogs that need to be given a chance to acquire a dose of confidence in their dealings with people. They are adoptable, as well. 

Claudia Camozzi, who works at Turpan in the village, found her dog, Paco, during one of these walks, when he was with his canine cronies Annabelle, Rory, and Rio. Paco is a black-and-white beach mutt from Puerto Rico, where ARF has rescued many dogs since the island was hit by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. On Dec. 17 alone, 124 puppies arrived at ARF from Puerto Rico.

After adopting Paco from that group of dogs, “as he surely misses them,” Ms. Camozzi said, “I try to meet up with the volunteers to continue the tradition.” Village shop owners, especially those at Roberta Roller Rabbit, BookHampton, and Park Place Liquors, “are very receptive to the dogs — give them treats and hugs, and let them run around,” she said. “Paco is our second dog from ARF. The team at ARF is truly exceptional.”

A few months ago, Dr. Pezzanite, in combination with a core group of volunteers, started to identify which dogs might benefit the most from the project, including slightly older, larger dogs as well as those on the less outgoing side, said Scott Howe, the director of ARF for the past year and a half. All volunteers — usually there are three to five at a time walking the dogs — have gone through training in dog walking and will continue walking them through the village in any kind of weather. 

“The volunteers get a lot of credit,” Mr. Howe said.

With a vote last Thursday, the East Hampton Town Board approved the $4 million purchase of an additional layer of development rights over almost 30 acres of farmland in Wainscott, allowing restrictions to be placed on the land that will permit its use solely for food crop production.

Before the vote, several residents at the town board meeting spoke against the purchase, particularly without first having the soil tested for toxic chemicals. The farmland, on Osborn Lane and Wainscott Hollow Road, and long in the Dankowski family, had previously been used for crops on which agricultural chemicals were commonly sprayed.

Development rights over the land, leaving its title in the Dankowskis’ hands but restricting its use to agriculture, have already been purchased by Suffolk County. But in the first of what could be a number of similar efforts, the town sought to pay for the ability to impose tighter restrictions, delineating just what kind of agriculture could take place.

The restriction in this case has been endorsed by Peter Dankowski, who farms the site. Under the new development rights purchase, if the land remains fallow for two years, the town can step in and lease it to a qualified farmer. If the land is to be sold, it must go to a farmer. The future value of the land will be capped at $25,000 an acre, plus any improvements, in order to keep it affordable in a future sale to another farmer.

The agreement also bars the construction of new barns or other permanent structures, limits the extent and location of temporary structures like hoop houses, and calls for at least 92 percent of the farm to be used to grow food crops.

While supported by other farmers and the Peconic Land Trust at a hearing on the proposed rights purchase last summer, some raised questions about the use of community preservation fund money for such enhanced rights purchases, and about the concept of imposing particular restrictions on what type of agriculture might take place on a site.

As the 2018 midterm elections come into view, Democrats in New York’s First Congressional District, stretching from Montauk to Brookhaven and most of Smithtown, are feeling that Representative Lee Zeldin is vulnerable, despite the Republican’s re-election in 2016 with 58 percent of the vote. 

Nationally, once-demoralized Democrats are interpreting recent events as a massive rejection of President Trump, whom polls consistently show draws approval from around one in three voters. Signs of a sea-change, in Democratic strategists  view, include last month’s gubernatorial victories in Virginia and New Jersey, which were followed by the Dec. 12 special election in which Doug Jones, a Democrat, defeated Roy Moore, a Republican who had been endorsed by the President and Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist and current executive chairman of Breitbart News, in the solidly Republican state of Alabama. 

The Cook Political Report, an independent newsletter that analyzes elections and campaigns, puts New York’s First District in its “likely Republican” column, meaning the seat is not presently considered competitive but has the potential to become so. But the Dec. 14 fund-raiser for Mr. Zeldin that featured Mr. Bannon as the headlining speaker has given Mr. Zeldin’s critics ammunition that they hope will last through November. 

Breitbart News is an opinion and commentary website that Mr. Bannon described last year as “the platform for the alt-right,” a loosely organized group that is widely seen as promoting white supremacy, anti-Semitism, neo-Nazism, and neo-Fascism. Mr. Zeldin rejects that characterization, and cites Mr. Bannon’s strong support for Israel and its government’s policies as reasons why he considers him a friend and ally.

Mr. Bannon is at odds with so-called establishment Republicans and has vowed to defeat many of them in the midterm elections. Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader,is among those drawing Mr. Bannon’s disdain, but this month it was Mr. McConnell on the offensive, ridiculing Mr. Bannon for backing Mr. Moore, who faced multiple accusations of seeking sexual relationships with teenage girls, after the Republicans lost the Senate seat. 

Drawing attention to the bond between Mr. Zeldin and Mr. Bannon will, the Congressman’s opponents hope, weaken his standing among First District voters. 

At least five East Hampton residents, each of them associated with Resist and Replace, a national effort to defeat Republicans in 2018, were among those who traveled to Manhattan on Dec. 14 to protest Mr. Bannon’s presence at Mr. Zeldin’s fund-raiser. The fund-raiser’s location was not disclosed, and so the protesters assembled outside the Park Avenue office of Wayne Berman, a co-host of the event, according to Amy Turner of Wainscott, who took part.

“I’m horrified that our congressman, who’s tried to portray himself as some kind of moderate, is aligning himself with an extremist like Bannon,” Ms. Turner said. Mr. Bannon, she said, “provides a voice, through Breitbart, for white supremacy and hate and bigotry of all kinds. I could not believe the congressman was aligning himself with those kinds of views. . . . He’s more interested in raising money than respecting his constituents. It felt like he needed a strong message.”

David Posnett of Springs said that his mother’s family were German Jews who emigrated to the United States before World War II. “For me, Judaism is all about tolerance and helping people,” he said. “I cannot understand current Israel right-wing politics. . . . It seems like a group of American Jews have aligned themselves with the right-wing faction in Israel.”

That group, he said, includes Mr. Zeldin. “For him, it seems to me, it’s all about power. It’s not the kind of Judaism I’m familiar with. His latest stroke, which is to befriend himself with Steve Bannon, is a slap in the face of everybody, and I’m hoping this will backfire.”

Mr. Bannon, Mr. Posnett said, “has been very cagey. You can’t find anti-Semitic statements attributed to him, but as head of Breitbart, he hires writers that write inflammatory stuff, and then you get hundreds and hundreds of wackos across the country who write even worse stuff as comments” on the website. “Among those are extremely violent, anti-Semitic comments.” 

Mr. Posnett, a retired physician, also criticized Mr. Zeldin for repeated votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. “I spent my whole life trying to save people, primarily cancer patients,” he said. “I’ve seen countless patients die because of a lack of insurance, bureaucratic hurdles, so they couldn’t get their chemo in time because they had no insurance to cover it. For me, even though it was imperfect, Obamacare was a huge step forward. . . . The Republican attitude is,  'If you can’t pay, go and die.' "

Mara Gerstein of East Hampton delivered a speech at the protest, drawing a parallel between her Jewish ancestors and Mr. Zeldin’s, both of whom came to New York from Europe. “And now, here we are, protesting Congressman Lee Zeldin’s alliance with the person in this country who bears as much responsibility for the rise of the alt-right as anyone we could name,” she told the assembled. Mr. Bannon, she said, is “the spiritual leader of the men and women who marched on Charlottesville chanting ‘Jews will not replace us.’ It is Steve Bannon ' the wolf in wolves’ clothing ' who has consolidated today’s white supremacist movements behind political leaders who are willing to use identity-based hate as the fastest route to power.” 

Ms. Gerstein thanked her fellow protesters for attending, “to tell Lee Zeldin that yes, you are the company you keep, that we see the choices he has made, and that we’ll keep showing up until we have someone representing us who believes in a bright future for America, not someone whose embrace of the alt-right dishonors the sacrifice and mocks the aspirations of our people.” 

The New York Post, citing an unnamed source, reported that the fund-raiser was held at the Southern Hospitality restaurant, about one mile from the protest. Mr. Zeldin, the source said, referred to the protesters in his remarks. They were there, he said, “because none of them work.”

When the clock strikes midnight on Sunday and South Fork residents turn their attention to new beginnings, several matters of importance remain unresolved and are sure to linger in the collective conscience well into 2018 and beyond. 

The proposed South Fork Wind Farm occupied the attention of many residents and governing officials throughout 2017 and, if anything, will be a matter of greater debate next year as its developer, Rhode Island-based Deepwater Wind, submits formal applications to multiple federal, state, and local permitting agencies. 

Shortly after the Long Island Power Authority chose Deepwater Wind’s proposal to construct a 90-megawatt wind farm approximately 30 miles east of Montauk, the company’s officials, led by Clint Plummer, its vice president of operations, made the first of a number of appearances in the Town of East Hampton and solicited opinion from various stakeholders. The most vocal opposition has come from commercial fishermen, fearful of detrimental effects of the wind farm’s construction and operation. 

In response to concerns about the wind farm’s transmission cable to a LIPA substation in East Hampton, Deepwater Wind altered an initial plan to route it along Gardiner’s Bay, instead choosing an oceanside landfall at the end of Beach Lane in Wainscott. The landing will require an easement from the town trustees, who own and manage many of the town’s beaches and bottomlands on behalf of the public, and from the town board, as the buried cable would make its way underground along several streets to the substation. 

Early this month, Deepwater Wind announced a package of cash grants for environmental projects and other incentives. But hurdles remain, particularly opposition from fishermen. Rhode Island-based fishermen have taken note of the controversy and are increasingly vocal in their criticism of Deepwater Wind’s Block Island Wind Farm, a five-turbine installation that began operation one year ago and is the nation’s first offshore wind farm. 

Most recently, commercial fishermen and Deepwater Wind are at odds over reports by the former that their trawl nets have snagged on the concrete mats that cover approximately 5 percent of the Block Island Wind Farm’s transmission cable.

“We were fishing in a place we traditionally fished — not just myself, the whole fleet, for years,” Joel Hovanesian of Rhode Island, who owns the vessel Defiant, said last week. “We ended up snagging our net on the bottom on an obstruction that is basically where they put these mats over these cables.”

Rich Fuka, the president of the Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance, that state’s largest commercial fishing advocacy group, called the Block Island Wind Farm “the crash test dummy for the national project,” hundreds of offshore turbines stretching from Maine to Delaware that other fishermen have alled the industrialization of the ocean. “Fishermen’s concerns about gear entanglements with mats, this is all true,” he said. New Yorkers, he said, “are not going to be told the truth.”

Deepwater Wind officials dispute accounts of entanglement on their installation and have pledged to host South Fork fishermen aboard a Rhode Island fisherman’s vessel to demonstrate that the concrete mats are not an impediment to fishing. 

The long-term issue is how the South Fork meets rising electricity demand and whether offshore wind is part of that solution. Fishermen argue that destroying the environment to save it makes no sense. Deepwater Wind counters that its wind farms will have minimal environmental impact, while a business-as-usual approach, in which the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions totaled 15.1 trillion pounds of carbon dioxide equivalents in 2014, is untenable and will result in more frequent, and violent, extreme weather and warmer and more acidic oceans that one day may not be able to sustain life. 

The town trustees are more intimately involved in another struggle: ownership of a stretch of ocean beach at Napeague. In 2017, plaintiffs appealed the previous year’s decision in State Supreme Court, ruling that they do not own a 4,000-foot strip of sand popularly known as Truck Beach.

The trustees and town are defendants in the suit brought by several homeowners’ groups and individuals who have long complained that hundreds of trucks, by their count, congregate there on summer days, presenting a hazard to other beachgoers. People and dogs, they argue, urinate and defecate on the beach and in the dunes, and speeding trucks are both dangerous to people and destructive to the fragile beach environment and endangered shorebirds that nest there. 

The trustees’ position is that unfettered beach access is a sacred right extending back to the town’s founding and an indispensable component of its maritime heritage. The board and its supporters see the struggle as a last line of defense against well-heeled summer residents’ efforts to privatize public lands. 

Supervisor Larry Cantwell, who is retiring, called the November 2016 decision by Justice Ralph Gazzillo “an enormous win for public access to our beaches.” 

Cindi Crain, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, saw it differently, citing the court’s ruling that the trustees “unequivocally sold the Napeague beach into private hands in the late 1800s.” A microscopic examination of deeds, an essential element of the plaintiffs’ claims, occupied a significant portion of the trial. 

The situation on the beach last summer “was about the same,” Ms. Crain said this month. “People peeing on the beach, a lot of cars.” The beach in front of her house hosted two nesting pairs of endangered piping plovers, she said, so vehicles were prohibited from the beach until early August. “Otherwise, to me, there always seemed to be a similar amount of cars.”

“We just hope the law prevails,” she said. “We’ll see if the appellate court agrees with our take on the matter.”

One issue on which all residents can perhaps unite is the ongoing effort to improve the health of Georgica Pond. Several consecutive summers in which cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, bloomed in the pond led to action by the trustees and, later, a group of pondfront property owners calling itself the Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation. 

The trustees enlisted Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences to test the waters of Georgica Pond and other waterways under their jurisdiction, determine the type and sources of pollution, and issue recommendations as to how to mitigate the condition. The foundation followed suit, raising money among its deep-pocketed members to fund Dr. Gobler’s research and remediation efforts. 

With several years’ worth of data in hand, the efforts appear to be working. In 2016 and 2017, the foundation leased an aquatic weed harvester to remove plant material from the pond throughout the summer. The plant material, or macroalgae, releases nitrogen and phosphorus as it decays, which is believed to promote algal blooms. Once removed from the pond, the macroalgae was taken to the town’s recycling center for composting. 

This year “turned out to be an excellent year for the water quality of the pond,” Sara Davison, the foundation’s executive director, told the trustees last month. Dissolved oxygen levels were high, there were no fish kills, and a single cyanobacteria bloom, in June, lasted just one week. “If you compare that to past years, that’s really quite a significant improvement,” she said, “and we’re all very happy about that.”

These conditions, she noted, were present despite the fact that the pond was not opened to the Atlantic Ocean in the spring, one of two lettings that the trustees typically conduct, which helps to circulate the water and flush it of toxins.

The trustees oversaw a letting of the pond to the ocean in October, an event that Anne Gilchrist Hall of the foundation called “great news” that would “restore the saline balance needed for fish and crab life and flush out algae blooms.” A secondary benefit, she said, was the alleviation of flooding. “Wetland flooding has not been good for buffer zones and trees along the pond,” she said. 

Later that month, Ms. Davison thanked the trustees for taking that action, and asked them to remember to “get the spring opening accomplished next year.”

The East Hampton Town Planning Board spent a good portion of its Dec. 13 meeting on the Hero Beach Club, the former Oceanside Beach Resort, where a 16-seat restaurant in one of the three buildings on the property, which is just under an acre. A large painting of a face with a winking eye marks the exterior of the main building. 

The property is in a resort zone, where accessory restaurants are allowed with planning board approval. Three guest rooms were removed from a building on the northeastern part of the site to make room for the restaurant. The town’s principal building inspector, Ann M. Glennon, has said, however, that the restaurant building “would not be considered freestanding but an accessory to the motel” because it contains the hotel’s office.

On June 29, the State Liquor Authority approved a license for the hotel, which is owned by a limited liability company headed by Jon Krassner, Edward P. Wasserman, and Michael L. Hensch. The company bought the property for $9.6 million and has since invested over $1 million in renovations and an additional $500,000. 

At the Dec. 13 session, planning board members voiced both support for and concern about the application. Diana Weir, whose term ends at the end of the year, thanked the owners for investing in the community. “I am very supportive,” Nancy Keeshan said. “You guys have done a first-class job of cleaning that place up.”

Kathleen Cunningham, however, expressed concern about the sanitary system. “You can’t put a restaurant there until there is a community sewer system,” she said. If and when such a system will become a reality is unclear.

Parking was another concern. Tiffany Scarlato, attorney for the owners, told the board there is room for 21 spaces in front of the building and that because the site predates zoning there are 23 spaces “vested,” or grandfathered in, on South Eton and South Emerson Streets.

In an Oct. 25 letter, Ms. Scarlato described the reasons for a new restaurant. “The restaurant is intended to service guests of the resort with a quick bite to eat, whether it is breakfast or lunch,” she wrote. “The resort is situated on the outskirts of the main business district, a distance away from the nearest restaurant, making this element of the resort not only important but necessary for the resort to be sustainable in today’s industry.” She did not mention dinner service. 

Randy Parsons, a board member, was not moved. “For me, this is too much.”

“It could, at some point in the future, get out of hand,” Job Potter, the chairman, said. “I remain a non-supporter.” 

Beyond the septic and parking issues, several members were concerned about whether the Hero Beach Club would become another nighttime “hot spot” in downtown Montauk. Britton Bistrian of Land Use Solutions, representing the owners, said by phone on Tuesday that a hot spot was antithetical to the owners’ goals. “There were no noise complaints this year,” she said. The last thing a guest at an exclusive high-end resort wants to hear is revelers throughout the night, she said. 

The liquor license allows drinks throughout the grounds — at poolside, on decking, and on a large lawn. It also allows 30 to 35 tables, seating up to 115 people, and up to 499 people on the property. Recorded and live music are permitted under the license, which cites “classic rock, beach/surf music, Jimmy Buffett, etc.” 

Ms. Bistrian pointed out that elsewhere in the license, where the number of security workers had to be specified, the number entered was zero. This showed, she said, that the owners do not seek to become a popular night spot, requiring numerous security personnel at night.

After the meeting, Mr. Potter sent Ms. Bistrian a letter indicating that the board was satisfied with some aspects of the application. He asked that the landscaping be depicted on the site plan. However, he wrote, the board still needs to determine whether or not the parking requirements have been met.

The owners originally applied to be allowed to use the building that will be a restaurant for takeout food and beverages. The East Hampton Town Board outlawed such use at resorts soon afterward, leading the owners to launch a lawsuit against the town. According to Ms. Scarlato, the matter is still being litigated.

Last Wednesday afternoon was a clammer’s dream. Coming off a new moon and enforced by a cold, strong northwesterly wind, the tide that day would be extremely low. It was a classic “blowout tide” as old-timers around here would say. 

Since I was a little kid, I was always fascinated by such extreme low tides. To me, it offered a unique window to explore a new part of the beach that was rarely, if ever, seen. Even today, I still get anxious and will even alter my plans to take advantage of such an event. And on this particular day, it was no different. It was time to get the hip boots and clam rake out of the garage.

But there was also another reason to hit the beach. As tradition dictates in my household, freshly dug hard and soft-shell clams were on the menu, as they had been for many years for Christmas. The timing was right and my outing was a great success. The clams were plentiful and fat from the cold water. While I will never refuse a clam taken in the summer months, there is just no comparison to the taste of one freshly dug up from the sandy and muddy waters during the icy winter months. I am as happy as a clam, as they say.

But the surprising bonus that day was the capture of about four dozen perfectly sized wild oysters that clung tightly together to some nearby rocks. The most logical reason for the rebound of wild oyster stock in recent years is the successful efforts of numerous local homeowners raising oyster spat from their docks. The picking was easy, too. With about a bushel of bay scallops still residing in the floating lobster crate at my dock, and my diverse haul on a great low tide that afternoon, I most certainly entered shellfish nirvana for the holiday season.

Having the option to pursue clams or oysters in the winter is a great diversion, too, as there are only a few types of fish available for those with a rod and reel. The season for black sea bass, which were around in great numbers and large sizes this year, closes on Dec. 31, so codfish will pretty much be the lone game in town. How good it will be is anybody’s guess. In general, the colder the winter, the better the action. Time will tell. But the current bitter cold snap should help boost those odds. 

Over all, the 2017 fishing season was a rather mixed bag, depending on who you asked. While very few would agree that the much-anticipated fall surfcasting season was anything but mediocre at best, striped bass feeding in the deeper waters off Montauk and other areas was excellent most of the year through the middle of October. And many of these fish were very large too. At times, it was staggering to see how many fish over 30 pounds were landed with such regularity. 

It was also encouraging to see more recreational anglers and professional captains urge their fares to release many of these fish, as most are female breeders that are core to ensuring that future generations of bass will be around. Truth to that was witnessed late this fall as a slew of small, undersize fish, some not even 10 inches in length, were landed from the ocean wash; the signs are promising that we’ll see a steady supply of action over the coming years.

Fluke-fishing fans lamented a poor start to the season (I was skunked on my first three trips in May), but a massive run of large doormats commenced around Labor Day south of Montauk, quickly making it a season to remember. The list of fish taken over 10 pounds was epic and lasted until the season closed a few weeks later. Such an event will likely be hard to replicate.

For those in the pursuit of various pelagics much farther offshore, the season was a downer by most accounts. The bite for bluefin and yellowfin tuna was inconsistent all season, and many turned their attention to the outstanding run of thresher sharks that were literally only a few miles off the beach in numbers never seen before. Feasting on massive schools of bunker, threshers and other sharks were also regularly landed by surfcasters. 

And there were very few complaints about the bay scallop season, which got underway in early November. Despite a void of the tasty bivalves in Lake Montauk and Napeague Harbor, the waters from Three Mile Harbor all the way westward to Flanders were flush with a crop that will be hard to top anytime soon. The prices at local fish markets were some of the lowest in a number of years and just about every restaurant had them on their menu on a daily basis. Lots of good eats that many have enjoyed for the past two months.

But the good news ends there, as most areas saw a meager number of juvenile scallops that would be ready for harvest next November. Why was there a poor spawn this late spring? Nobody knows. But what is most certain is that scallops and Mother Nature are a very fickle combination. 

Here’s to calm seas, tight lines, and best wishes in 2018.