The Suffolk County Legislature approved a 2018 vector control plan on Tuesday that includes use of methoprene, a mosquito larvicide, but also acknowledges a pilot program launched this year at Accabonac Harbor that is intended to reduce and possibly eliminate the pesticide’s use. 

The Legislature passed the 2018 plan by a 17-to-1 vote, a disappointment to activists who insist that methoprene is harmful to nontarget species including lobsters and crabs. While county officials say it is safe, the East Hampton Town Board and the town trustees have long opposed its use on wetlands under their jurisdiction. In the summer months, the county’s Division of Vector Control typically conducts a blanket application of methoprene via helicopters flying at low altitude over Accabonac Harbor, Napeague, and Beach Hampton in Amagansett. 

But language added to the 2018 work plan marks a step toward its reduction and a more finely targeted application, rather than blanketing an area. “A cooperative project with the Town of East Hampton and the Nature Conservancy is underway to map mosquito breeding activity in Accabonac Harbor with the potential goals of pesticide reduction and preliminary designing for a wetlands restoration project,” it reads, describing the project in which interns from Stony Brook University identified mosquito breeding “hotspots” that could be more precisely targeted. These were logged by GPS, compiled, and characterized by location and level of activity. “Using the data, aerial treatment zones will be remapped, allowing for reduced pesticide use and for planning of wetland restoration actions,” according to the plan. The program is to serve as a guide for the development of similar programs at other marshland systems. 

“It’s incremental change,” Legislator Bridget Fleming, who represents the Second Legislative District, said yesterday. “I know some people feel frustrated that there is not an outright ban on methoprene, but I continue to have as a goal the reduction and elimination of pesticide spraying to the extent possible and this is moving in that direction, so I was happy to support it.” 

Sarah Anker, of the Sixth District, cast the lone dissenting vote. 

“I was urged by some advocates to simply cast a no vote,” Ms. Fleming said, “but I felt it very important to recognize the commitment of the new director” of the county’s Division of Vector Control, Tom Iwanejko, “to reducing pesticides. That’s why even though I would love to see it go further, I want to maintain that relationship, and continue to look for opportunities to work cooperatively within a super-tight budget by bringing in the Nature Conservancy, the town trustees, and whomever else might be appropriate to assist the vector control program continue to move in the direction of reduction and elimination of chemical pesticides.”

On Monday, Kevin McAllister, the founder of the environmental advocacy group Defend H2O, repeated his call for restrictions on pesticide use in tidal wetlands. In a letter to County Executive Steve Bellone, presiding officer DuWayne Gregory, and members of the Legislature, he specifically asked that methoprene application be curtailed. Methoprene, he wrote, “is highly toxic to some species of freshwater, estuarine, and marine invertebrates.” Further, he wrote, arthropod-borne disease does not exist in larval-stage mosquitoes, and salt marsh mosquitoes do not transmit West Nile virus. 

Connecticut banned methoprene’s use in coastal areas in 2013, New York City restricted its use near Jamaica Bay in 2001, and Rhode Island has restricted its use adjacent to Narragansett Bay and Long Island Sound, Mr. McAllister reminded the county officials. Each of those jurisdictions, he wrote, relies on Bti, a biological agent that is believed to be harmless to nontarget species. 

“If there was a suspension of methoprene use,” Mr. McAllister said on Tuesday, “maybe there could be a policy where if things get completely out of hand with infestations, we relax the restriction and deal with it.” The pesticide’s continued use, he said, is about quality of life rather than public health. “At least let’s get through a trial here,” he said of a suspension of methoprene use, “instead of defending it at all costs.”

The county reported seven cases of West Nile virus, two of which were fatal, in 2017. The seven were in the Towns of Brookhaven, Smithtown, Islip, and Babylon. As of September, 119 mosquito samples in the county tested positive for West Nile virus and four tested positive for eastern equine encephalitis virus.

In another change to the 2018 work plan, the Department of Public Works will increase its focus on controlling ticks and other arthropods that are vectors for human disease, Ms. Fleming said. “From my perspective, that’s a really important change because it’s been, and continues to be, my goal to shift some of the focus of the vector control program from mosquito control to what’s really critical in our district and the South Fork, which is tick-borne illnesses.”

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.

The yellow forsythia is still blooming here and there, but all but the lowest leaves are off the oaks and other hardwoods. We don’t know what the southern pine-boring beetles are doing, how many larvae survived to become adults, or what’s in store for next year’s native pines.

The winter birds are scarce this December. Was it a poor breeding year in the north, or did many not migrate south to our latitude? Or did some migrate farther south than usual? If it weren’t for the gulls, common crows, and turkeys, this winter might go down as a birdless one.

Strangely, the turkey vultures are still around. Vicki Bustamante encountered three over Riverhead the other day. A few days earlier she saw a raven in Water Mill. The annual Montauk Bird Count came up with a raven on Gardiner’s Island. Terry Sullivan watched as an immature bald eagle flew over Sag Harbor’s Otter Pond, one side to the other.

Earlier in the week, Terry happened to be making his “milk run,” camera in hand, when he came upon a strange situation at Otter Pond. On it were 40 or 50 gulls, not the usual one or two. They were feeding on a crop of young-of-the-year menhaden, which apparently had succumbed to an oxygen shortage after a thin layer of ice had formed. Menhaden travel in huge schools, using up a large amount of oxygen as they go. When the pond freezes over, even if only overnight, the ice becomes a barrier to oxygen from the air reaching the water, and the fish die as the oxygen in the water is rapidly depleted.

While the overwintering songbirds — the white-throated sparrows, juncos, goldfinches, et cctera— are in short supply, the larger birds, the ones that are obvious to the unaided eye, are more plentiful. One of them, the snowy owl, made an early appearance. We are not sure if the same ones come down from the north every year, but the same spots along the edges of the local salt marshes frequently have these owls sitting isolated on them, motionlessly facing the water.

Because there has been a dearth of acorns on the ground this year, especially those from the white oaks, which are the favorites, the squirrels have been having a hard time of it, and while trying to cross roads in quest for food many have bitten the dust. Cottontail rabbits also make up a goodly percentage of the roadkills, not because of a food shortage, but more due to a rise in their population, apparently coincident with a scarcity of foxes in recent years. On the other hand, raccoons and opossums are rather scarce as roadkills this year.

By the same token, blue jays, which are somewhat dependent on the acorn crop, aren’t around much this winter. Where they go during such times is still a mystery to me. The traveling flocks of chickadees, downy woodpeckers, tufted titmice, and the like are not as obvious as they usually are. When my wife and I came home from Christmas dinner on Monday, we heard strange noises coming from one of our house’s vertical drainpipes. I removed the pipe and two tufted titmice flew out, none the worse for wear. One hung around as if to thank us, then retreated into nearby pines.

The winter has been slow in coming — we’ve yet to have a solid week of freezing weather — but that may be about to change. As this column is being written in the dark of Monday evening, the outside temperature is sitting at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. At the same time, it seems to be getting progressively colder. Each day’s photoperiod is lengthening, about half a minute a day, more in the afternoon than in the morning.

The testosterone levels of us males, after reaching an annual low during the winter solstice on Dec. 21, should be slowly inching up. In this respect we are similar to most birds, three-spined sticklebacks, mammals that don’t hibernate, and a host of other vertebrate species. Some of us who get impatient often take testosterone boosters, but I still rely on the old-fashioned way: increasing day length.

Larry Penny can be reached via email at [email protected].

The first of what promises to be many meetings at which the Creeks, Ronald Perelman’s 58-acre estate at 291 Montauk Highway, will be considered occupied much of Friday’s meeting of the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals. 

In March of 2012, it was discovered that Mr. Perelman, the billionaire investor and philanthropist, had constructed and altered multiple structures at the Creeks without obtaining building permits. That discovery was made only when a fire took Ken Collum, a volunteer firefighter who is now the village’s building inspector, to the property. 

That incident, and what Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. more recently described as “a dragging of the feet” in failing to resolve the violations, annoyed members of the village board, who voted unanimously to decline Mr. Perelman’s proposal to change the property’s zoning. That proposal, delivered to the village board in March, would have brought two noncompliant residences and multiple accessory structures on the property into compliance through the creation of a new residential district with minimum lots of 240,000 square feet, allowing Mr. Perelman to maintain multiple residences on what one of his attorneys called a family compound. 

The zone-change proposal having failed, Mr. Perelman now seeks to legalize the previous enlargement of an accessory building housing a shul, a place of Jewish worship, to 1,275 square feet, where the maximum permitted for an accessory building is 250 square feet; legalization of the shul’s three rooms and two bathrooms, where only one room is permitted, and permission for the building to remain 15.1 feet in height, where the maximum permitted is 14 feet. A special permit may also be needed for the shul to be used for religious services and education. 

Mr. Perelman also seeks variances to legalize 160 square feet of additions to the main residence and for the earlier extension, expansion, and alteration of nonconforming accessory buildings containing cooking and living facilities. The additions are 100 feet from wetlands, where a 150-foot setback is required. 

Mr. Perelman proposes 28,407 square feet of combined floor area for the one-family dwellings, where 26,236 square feet is the legally pre-existing total. 

Variances would also be required to legalize the construction of a 5,802-square-foot barn containing cooking and living facilities, which Mr. Perelman proposes in exchange for converting a 4,217-square-foot carriage house, also containing cooking and living facilities, into an accessory building containing storage space, mechanical areas and generator, a workshop, garage, and bathroom.

What was described as a workout building that was enlarged from 575 to 795 square feet, and falls within the wetlands setback, also requires variances to be legal. According to the zoning board, the location of the structure’s septic system, if there is one, is unknown. 

Area and wetland setback variances are also required to legalize six pieces of art and sculptures installed within the rear-yard and wetland setbacks, the nearest situated directly on the rear-yard lot line and wetlands; the required rear-yard setback is 40 feet, the required wetlands setback 150 feet. 

Wetlands setback variances are also required to legalize a chicken coop and trellises, and for the clearing of vegetation and landscaping within 125 feet of wetlands. Finally, a maintenance tent that is 67 square feet larger than the maximum permitted requires a variance.

On Friday, Leonard Ackerman, an attorney representing Mr. Perelman, promised vast improvement to the environmental conditions at the Creeks, which fronts on the ecologically compromised Georgica Pond, including the replacement of septic systems with state-of-the-art denitrification systems recently approved by Suffolk County. Nitrogen seepage is blamed for the harmful algal blooms that have afflicted the pond in recent years. 

The application, Mr. Ackerman told the board, represents “the culmination of a tremendous amount of work.” Mr. Perelman, he said, is merely a “caretaker,” a “steward” of the property who, “with foresight and, frankly, artistic desire,” sought to maintain “a magical part of East Hampton.” 

The numerous code violations discovered by Mr. Collum in 2012 were a product of “exuberance” by since-departed staff, Mr. Ackerman said. Those unnamed staffers were guilty, he said, of “too much desire to please” their boss. “That wasn’t the owner’s doing, that was the omission by staff who are no longer part of the Creeks, in their exuberance to satisfy the owner.” 

Upgrades to the septic systems, connection to public water, installation of fire hydrants on Montauk Highway, a vegetative buffer between the property and the pond, and revegetation of cleared land are mitigation measures already in progress, Mr. Ackerman said. 

He emphasized the size of the property: At 58 acres, it is some five times larger than the next-largest village property, which is on West End Road, Mr. Ackerman said. That is remarkable, Frank Newbold, the board’s chairman, agreed, but “it’s still subject to the same code as the smallest. It is a very complicated application,” with “a huge amount of material to absorb. We’re going to go slowly.” 

And that is what they did, spending almost half of the nearly three-and-one-half-hour meeting considering the Creeks. Few conclusions were drawn on Friday, however, with Mr. Newbold declaring that the meeting was “a good introduction” to “a difficult project to get your arms around,” one with “a huge amount of details. We’ll all do our homework to try to absorb it.” 

One worry board members emphasized was setting a precedent. A “constant concern,” Mr. Newbold said, is that “buildings morph into cottages” with habitable space. Some board members were uncomfortable with the proposal to transfer living space from the carriage house to the barn. Transferring dwelling rights from one structure to another was “not a concept we’ve ever used before,” Mr. Newbold said.

“I don’t like the word ‘transfer,’ ” said Lys Marigold, the board’s vice chairwoman. “We’re opening a precedent.”

“It’s ‘converting,’ ” Mr. Ackerman said. He cited a 2015 determination in which the board granted variances allowing the relocation and reconstruction of a pre-existing second dwelling at another property, also on Montauk Highway. That case involved a derelict cottage on the property line, Mr. Newbold answered. “I’m not sure that’s a parallel.” 

East Hampton Town Trustee Jim Grimes spoke on behalf of the trustees, who manage Georgica Pond. The trustees wanted to underscore the importance of vegetative buffers between the property and the pond, he said, and wanted to be sure there would be enforcement of any conditions attached to variance relief. But, he said, “I think the village is on the right path.” Septic-system upgrades and establishment of “real and meaningful buffers,” would represent “an opportunity to improve the quality of the water in Georgica Pond,” he said.

The hearing was left open and will be revisited at the board’s next meeting, on Jan. 12. 

Two determinations on other matters were announced at the meeting. Mariska Hargitay and Peter Hermann, actors who met while appearing on the television series “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” were granted a variance to legalize and permit the relocation of an accessory building constructed without a building permit at their house on Cottage Avenue. The structure, a tree house, was relocated within the permitted accessory-building envelope, as were a swing set and sports court. The tree house was also lowered to a conforming height. The variance relief was granted on the condition that it is maintained without windows or insulation.

The board granted David Solomon variances to legalize construction of a tennis court at his property on Middle Lane, where there is no main house, and for the court to remain within required side and rear-yard setbacks. Mr. Solomon owns the adjacent property, and the tennis court was constructed before he owned it. Slate pavers were also allowed to remain within a side-yard setback. The relief was granted on the condition that, unless a dwelling has been constructed on the lot, the variances will terminate if and when the lot is no longer in Mr. Solomon’s ownership.

The New York Civil Liberties Union argued unsuccessfully in the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn on Tuesday for the release of a man being held by the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department on a detainment request from Immigration and Enforcement. 

The man, Susai Manickam Francis, 55, originally from India, had been living in Northport. He has been arrested numerous times this year, most recently on Nov. 28 by Suffolk County police on a charge of disorderly conduct, a violation. Unable to make bail, he was taken to Nassau County, where he pleaded guilty on Dec. 4 to an outstanding misdemeanor charge of aggravated drunken driving, and then returned to Suffolk County.

According to his N.Y.C.L.U. attorney, Jordan Walls, Mr. Francis was taken to court in Central Islip on Monday, where he pleaded guilty to the disorderly conduct charge and was sentenced to time served. However, instead of being released, he was transferred to county jail in Riverside, honoring a detainment request made by ICE the day after he en tered his guilty plea in Nassau. Such requests ask that prisoners be kept in custody to allow time for ICE to act. To Mr. Walls this violates New York State and federal law governing arrests.

Mr. Walls was hopeful on Tuesday afternoon, on his client’s behalf, that the court would hand down its decision that day, and that Mr. Francis would be released. However, the court did not issue a ruling, and Mr. Francis was picked up by ICE agents yesterday morning. It is not immediately known which detention center he was taken to. 

Michael Sharkey, the chief of the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department, defended the department’s dealings with detainers. He said Tuesday that the sheriffs are acting “based on the current Suffolk County attorney’s office’s legal opinion.”

“My position on detainers is that they are unconstitutional, and should not be enforced,” Sandra Melendez, an East Hampton-based attorney whose office handles both criminal and immigration law, said yesterday. Referring to bail or bond, she said, “Many of my clients that get picked up on minor charges have not been able to clear their criminal case, because once they pay, ICE takes them. They never bring them back.” It has been Ms. Melendez’s experience that when a defendant is deported, the bond or bail is not exonerated.

While it is apparently too late to help Mr. Francis, N.Y.C.L.U. is hopeful that when a decision is handed down by the Appellate Division on Mr. Francis’s case, the ruling can be used to change the county’s procedures regarding detainers, according to Naomi Dann, media relations officer for N.Y.C.L.U. 

“Susai Manickam Francis, an Indian national, unlawfully present in the United States, is currently in ICE custody pending removal proceedings,” Rachael Yong Yow, a public affairs officer for ICE, said in a statement yesterday.

A $32.8 million centralized wastewater treatment system being designed for downtown Montauk would eliminate septic system headaches faced by many businesses and prevent contaminants from reaching ground and surface waters, but could cost some of the larger businesses more than six figures a year.

Costs to individual downtown properties that would initially be hooked up would be apportioned through a tax district to be created by the town, based on the gallons per day of sewage that each property would be putting into the system. The businesses that generate the largest amount of septic waste would pay the largest share of the system’s capital and operating costs.

As proposed, in its first phase the project would serve 199 developed properties in the downtown area. The system could be extended to the area surrounding the Long Island Rail Road station in Montauk in a second phase for an additional $13 million, and in a third phase to the dock area and Star Island for $23 million, at a total cost of more than $69 million. 

Wastewater would be collected throughout the downtown area through a gravity-based system and piped to a collection spot at a beach parking area, then pumped to a treatment station that would strip it of contaminants.

The resulting effluent, free of biological agents, pharmaceuticals, a host of chemicals dubbed “emerging contaminants,” and of virtually all nitrogen, would be clean enough to reuse, and could be piped back into Montauk, perhaps for irrigation use at the Montauk Downs golf course.

An area at the town’s Montauk recycling center and landfill, or on an adjacent, privately owned cell tower site, has been recommended for the treatment plant. 

According to Pio Lombardo of Lombardo Associates, the engineering firm that created the town’s comprehensive wastewater management plan and has been working on the design of the septic treatment project, 90 percent of the developed properties in Montauk’s downtown “have serious needs for an improved wastewater system.” 

“Our concern is public health,” he said at a town board meeting on Tuesday, citing an inadequate separation between septic systems and groundwater. 

According to Mr. Lombardo’s assessment, the project would be affordable if the town can obtain grants for at least half of its cost.

Property owners in downtown Montauk would bear the costs of the construction and operation of the project’s first phase. 

Estimated annual costs to various individual downtown businesses, calculated according to the amount of grant money the town might be awarded to help pay for the system, were presented at a town board meeting on Tuesday by Mr. Lombardo.

 Many of downtown Montauk’s businesses already shoulder a hefty annual bill for repeated septic system pumpouts to deal with inadequate, failing systems that they cannot replace with higher-technology systems on their own properties because “there’s just no room for a code-compliant system,” Mr. Lombardo explained. “The bottom line in downtown Montauk is these properties have problems.” 

The annual cost, for example, to the Royal Atlantic Beach Resort, which generates the highest amount of septic waste, could reach $251,990 if no grants are received and the town has to pay off the entire cost of the system, or could be $120,150 should 75 percent of the cost be covered by grant money. 

The Atlantic Terrace Motel, which generates the second-largest amount of waste, would be charged $132,390 annually, without grant money offsetting the project’s costs, or $63,230 if grants for 75 percent of the cost are received.

If no grants are received, yearly charges to smaller hotels and businesses on the list of the top-30 waste generators, such as the Sloppy Tuna bar and restaurant or the Shagwong Tavern and the Albatross West motel, would range from about $76,000 down to $28,000. If grants are secured to cover 75 percent of the project’s cost, the range would be $37,000 to $13,500.

Because of a dearth of baseline data, Mr. Lombardo said that the positive environmental impact — on reduction of bacteria and nitrogen in water, for example — of the $32 million system can only be estimated. 

“We have environmental degradation — measurable degradation,” said Laura Tooman, the director of Concerned Citizens of Montauk, which has an ongoing water-testing program. “We have septics in groundwater; we have non-code-compliant septics and cesspools, and businesses pumping on a daily basis.”  

Several funding sources for the wastewater treatment project have been identified, including two state funds earmarked for water quality. The town has already applied to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for $5 million under its water quality improvement program. Other county, state, and regional grants could be available, as well as a low-interest loan through the State Environmental Facilities Corporation, Mr. Lombardo said Tuesday. 

In addition, the town could apply some of its community preservation fund money, from the 20-percent portion of the fund authorized for use on water quality projects, to the project.

Should officials choose to do that, and depending on how they calculate the amount that can be allocated per property in the wastewater treatment zone, almost $10 million of the cost could be covered. 

If, however, officials allocate C.P.F. money on a per-property basis, rather than based on the volume of septic flow coming from a property, the amount the preservation fund could contribute toward the treatment system cost would be far less, at approximately $2 or $3 million.

Plans for the wastewater treatment system are being developed in conjunction with the long-term hamlet study and plan for Montauk, which is nearing completion by consultants. 

Mr. Lombardo laid out an aggressive timeline for the next steps in the project, in order to meet a June 2018 deadline for application to an expected $5 million New York State grant program. 

A map and plan for the wastewater treatment system tax district would be prepared in the coming months and presented to the public for discussion in April and May in advance of a town board vote on formation of the district in May or June. 

In order to build public consensus for the project, Mr. Lombardo suggested holding small group meetings, with property owners. Because many leave Montauk for the season, the meetings could be held both in Montauk and in New York City, and through webinars, he said. 

Fewer than half the downtown property owners polled earlier about the project expressed their initial support, Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell noted, so “there’s work to do,” he said.

With county and state enforcement efforts pending against cesspools and septics that do not meet current standards, said Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, the town’s supervisor-elect, “the clock is ticking” for property owners out of compliance, “and this would be the only way for them to solve their problem.”

Town Councilwoman Sylvia Overby expressed concern about the unintended consequences, such as increased development, of installing a centralized waste treatment system. Mr. Lombardo said the potential for secondary growth impacts would be analyzed and addressed in the project plans. “There are legal and technical ways to keep it under control. What I’ve been advised by your Planning Department is that there are other factors; you’ve got a lot of control mechanisms in place.” 

“Our zoning laws are pretty restrictive, because of parking and setbacks and whatnot,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said. Sewage district regulations could limit the extent to which each property could use the sewage district, or, for instance, suggested Mr. Van Scoyoc, allow increased use on certain properties for only certain purposes, such as the creation of affordable housing. 

Supervisor Cantwell pointed out that community preservation fund law specifically precludes use of that money for water quality projects that could induce growth. “That needs to be very clear, in writing, added right up front.”

Grant applications, design work, and permitting would take place through the rest of 2018 and 2019, with construction to begin in 2020. The system could be in operation by 2022 or 2023, Mr. Lombardo said. 

A summary of Mr. Lombardo’s presentation to the board will be posted to the town’s website.

Christmas comes but once a year. It’s the only day of the year when politicians take a back seat to everyday living and friends and families can rejoice in their absence. On all other days we are bombarded with them and their attitudes and orientations. They show up on all of the other national holidays. They march with the marchers, engage in public oratory, imbue the ceremonies with words and gestures, make sure that one way or another they are noticed. 

I guess the country couldn’t carry on without them. They are as necessary as firemen, policemen, butchers, carpenters, teachers, undertakers, and those from the rest of the thousands of trades and services that make up our culture. But it is nice to be free of them one day a year. It is comforting to know that at least for one day of 365 we get on and have a good time without them.

We humans may be the only species that has national holidays. Other mammals, birds, fishes, reptiles, amphibians, and even insects don’t have a day when they are completely free of the constraints of making a living. And if any of them do, our scientists have yet to show that. For them, every day is both a holiday and a working day.

Christmas is one of the few days that is celebrated in one form or another on every continent.

Some of its trappings derive directly from nature. Reindeer are caribou; Christmas trees are firs, spruce, and other evergreens. Mistletoe is a parasitic flowering plant that lives high up in deciduous trees. Wreaths are woven from evergreen branches. Nuts of several kinds are generally part of the festivities. 

Christmas is one of the only days of the year when you can be rich or poor, happy or unhappy, young or old, feminine or masculine, and not be judged by your thoughts or actions. Santa Claus may have to prove himself on Christmas, but the rest of us don’t have to. And it’s been so for many, many centuries. We are all equal in the eyes of God.

But, Christmas could become a dying ember if we are not careful. We are about to segue into an entirely new way of existing. We are about to enter a world run by robots and intelligent machines, if we haven’t already. Robots will replace working people in most trades; machine intelligence will make the decisions, the politicians will merely mouth them or make them legal with their signatures. Bureaucrats, who already are machinelike, will continue to occupy the required number of office seats and will earn their pay by making official the decisions turned out by the machines and signed by the politicians, lawyers, and consultants. Machines will write the codes by which we live day to day and humans will enforce them, in the rare situation when someone does something wrong.

As is already done in some quarters, machines will produce the machines that produce the machines. The beauty of such a system will be that it will be completely free of human error. And it will be completely unbiased as long as politicians and religious leaders don’t write the codes by which they are encoded. There may be a typo here and there, but never a double negative, spoonerism, arithmetical error, or dangling participle.

We humans will have become 100 percent consumers. Consume, consume, consume. That will become our mission. We may live forever, but only as lifelong consumers. We will live a life of ease (machines, like Watson, rarely make mistakes), but will Christmas be Christmas as in the past centuries or become Christmas with a small “c”? i.e., just another holiday? Come to think of it, we may be closer to a Brave New World than we think. Will somebody pass the christmas soma?

 I need a drink. 

Larry Penny can be reached via email at [email protected].

Representative Lee Zeldin of New York’s First Congressional District was 1 of 12 Republicans in the House of Representatives to vote against the Republicans’ sweeping overhaul of the tax code on Tuesday. The House voted 227 to 203 to pass the plan, which resolved differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. 

The Senate, in a 51 to 48 vote, passed the plan in the early hours of yesterday. A second House vote yesterday, necessary after Senate Democrats said that three provisions in the bill violated Senate rules and had to be removed, passed in the House 224-201. It now awaits President Trump’s signature. No Democrats in either chamber voted in favor of the bill. 

The legislation would cut taxes for corporations. Taxes would also be reduced for individuals, though most of those changes would expire in eight years. 

Representative Peter King of the Second Congressional District also voted against the tax bill, as did three other New York Republicans. Eleven of the 12 Republicans voting no represent congressional districts in New York, New Jersey, and California. 

A provision in the bill limiting the deduction for state and local taxes to $10,000 was behind the 12 Republicans’ dissenting votes. The original bill called for eliminating the deduction altogether. 

Mr. Zeldin never wavered from his opposition to the plan. The reinstatement of the state and local tax deduction, capped at $10,000, did not go far enough, he said. 

In a release issued on Tuesday, he reiterated his opposition, calling it “a geographic redistribution of wealth, taking extra money from a place like New York to pay for deeper tax cuts elsewhere.” He said that while he does like aspects of the final plan, including a reduction in the corporate tax rate, that “should not be done on the backs of any hard-working, middle-income taxpayers.” 

He called the final bill “a massive missed opportunity” for taxpayers “who also desperately needed tax relief and ended up getting screwed by the handicap of rigid ideological blinders and a countdown clock that really wasn’t yet at zero.”

The East Hampton Village Board declared its unanimous support for a resolution brought by the Suffolk County Village Officials Association regarding the sale of so-called “bump stocks” at its last meeting of the year on Friday. 

The gunman who killed 58 people and wounded almost 500 at an outdoor music festival in Las Vegas on Oct. 1 is believed to have modified his weapons with devices that enabled them to fire bullets in rapid succession. The number of casualties notwithstanding, that mass shooting was one of many in 2017 and previous years. 

The village officials association, consisting of 33 villages, advised the State Legislature of its position that banning the sale of bump stocks would be in the best interests of the residents of its member villages and consistent with the mission of government to protect its citizenry from harm. The village board’s resolution supports that message. 

On Oct. 10, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. co-sponsored legislation that would outlaw a trigger crank, a bump-fire device, or any part, combination of parts, component, device, attachment, or accessory that is designed to or functions to accelerate the rate of fire of a semiautomatic rifle to approximate the operation of a machine gun. 

Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. conveyed his strong support for that legislation later in October. A former police officer, he makes a point of calling for a moment of silence at the board’s meetings and work sessions that follow mass shootings. 

Friday’s meeting came five years and one day after a gunman killed 26 people, including 20 children between 6 and 7 years old, at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. 

“I thank the board for this last resolution,” the mayor told his colleagues, “because we are in the time frame when we are suffering and remembering those lost at Sandy Hook five years ago. Sometimes, as the cliché says, it takes a village. We want to be at the forefront of trying to make a difference.”

On Monday, the mayor said, “I understand the Second Amendment, I understand the right to bear arms, but it has become so lopsided with respect to what’s out there as far as weaponry. . . . We, as members of the human race, have a moral obligation as to what’s happening on the national front.” Automatic weapons, he said, “don’t belong in the hands of John Q. Citizen.”

The village board also attended to routine business, such as approval of new members of the Fire Department and disposal of three impound vehicles.