Four new and excellent illustrated books, self-published by locals — in the nick of time for St. Nick.

“Surf 2017”

By Alex Feleppa

Pure and simple, this a collection of terrific images of East End surf — “no filters, no Photoshop, no nonsense,” as a blurb at the end of the book puts it. Mr. Feleppa, who grew up in Amagansett and now is the horticulturalist at the LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton, is a regular surfer, going out at all hours and in all weathers, and he often takes a camera. He captures the pristine greens and blues of our perfect Atlantic, and the soft hues of the sky and sand at the break of dawn and dusk. And the best part: There’s not a soul, and nary another surfer, in sight. A lovely souvenir of the year in waves, for the surfer or swimmer on your list. Hardcover, $75; available at Coastal Home, 2442 Montauk Highway, Bridgehampton, or via email [email protected].

“Kenneth B. Walsh, Artist”

Compiled and annotated by Christopher Walsh

Kenneth Bonar Walsh was an artist and World War II pilot whose career had a very unusual and even cinematic trajectory. He had worked as a designer of things like album covers and candy packaging in Manhattan before moving to Montauk, where he sold art and painted watercolors in a realist style — fishing boats, lighthouses and such. After a breakdown and a diagnosis of what used to be called “manic depression,” his business slowly fell apart but his artistic style underwent an incredible transformation: It was now Modernist, in hypervivid colors, with intersecting geometric forms creating figures and faces. Walsh’s work had largely been forgotten until his son, Christopher Walsh (a reporter here at The Star), started collecting canvases from around town and farther afield and having them restored. It isn’t just the personal history of Kenneth Walsh that is fascinating, though, it is the work itself. The book included sketches for future products — for example, what looks like a Segway, designed in the 1960s — that offer a glimpse of a brilliant mind. Paperback, $45; limited quantity available at The Star’s office, 153 Main Street, East Hampton, and online at kennethbwalshart.com. 

“The Wild Adventures of Scurry the Squirrel, 

Book One: Scurry’s First Adventure”

Story and photographs by Dell Cullum

Illustrations by Michele S. Mott

Children between the ages of about 4 and about 11 with be captivated by the star of this true-story picture book: Scurry, a baby gray squirrel who falls out of a tree, is discovered by a thoughtful girl named Betsy, and nursed back to health by Mr. Cullum and his wife, Dee. Released after rehabilitation, Scurry falls in with a gang of little rascals including Grumpy, a bully of a squirrel; Riff and Raff, who are rabbits, and a girlfriend named Miss Piggy. Ms. Mott’s illustrations are top-notch, capturing the charming personality of the principals without sacrificing realism. Paperback, $15; details at imaginationnature.com, and available Saturday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Golden Eagle, 144 North Main Street, East Hampton.

“The Great Barrier Beach Field Guide”

By Anthony S. Minardi

Illustrations by 

Francesco Bologna and Michele S. Mott 

Most of us enjoy a walk on the beach away from the crowds, but there is a special subset who like to be able to call by name the shells and seaweeds and grasses and lichens they come across while taking the salt air. What is that peculiar, leathery little star-shape thing with a puffball filled with dust in the middle? Aha! Mr. Minardi’s field guide tells us it’s an earthstar (Geaster hygrmetricus). What is that light, neony-green seaweed that kids think makes such nice mermaid hair? Sea lettuce (Ulva lactuca). Mr. Minardi, who some readers might remember from the days when he taught marine biology at East Hampton High School, has surveyed the barrier beaches between the Carolinas and New England for decades. With illustrations by Francesco Bologna and Michele S. Mott, and edited by Michael Buquicchio and Debra Rose. Paperback, $19.99; available online at thegreatbarrierbeachfieldguide.com.

Landscaping companies involved in the design of what is known as a rain garden on the East Hampton Village green and the Eastern Long Island chapter of the Surfrider Foundation would like to expand the garden, they told the East Hampton Village Board at a busy work session last Thursday. Also on the agenda was a proposal to change the village code to allow onsite food preparation and takeout and possible code changes regarding mass gatherings, fees for applications to the zoning board of appeals, and commercial-vehicle parking. 

Mark Mobius of Piazza Horticultural in Southampton, Stephen Mahoney of Mahoney Farm and Nursery in East Hampton, and Colleen Henn of the Surfrider Foundation said the rain garden and associated bioswale, or drainage course, on the green are removing silt and pollution from surface water runoff, as intended. The bioswale has sloping sides; the vegetation in the rain garden filters surface waters before they drain into the soil and make their way to Hook and Town Ponds.

 “We’re very pleased with the success of the bioswale and the community acceptance,” Mr. Mahoney said. “We refer to this planting as an ocean-friendly garden because the water eventually goes to the ocean where we all swim, surf, and recreate.”

Mr. Mobius noted that the two northernmost areas of plantings are connected, following the natural flow of water on the green. Now, he said, the plan is to connect the middle section to the southernmost plantings. “The general idea is to slow the water down to allow sediment to drop out. You’re creating a wetland area that then bestows all kinds of wetland functions and values, including water quality improvements and habitat improvements,” he said.

Ms. Henn, the chapter and clean water coordinator of the Surfrider Foundation’s Eastern Long Island chapter, said initial samples of enterococcus, a fecal coliform bacteria, at the village green revealed levels so high that they exceeded the task force’s test limit. However, she said, “We have been able to pull one or two samples since the garden has gone in, which is really great because it’s showing that it is functioning as it’s supposed to. . . . The bacteria levels have gone down,” although, while encouraging, the results won’t be conclusive without more samples, she said.  

While the reduction in fecal bacteria so far may seem modest, Mr. Mahoney said, “We usually think of three years as a benchmark for getting a level of maturity. While the results might be a little marginal, we hope that as the garden matures that it will have a more filtering effect.” 

“We’re all the beneficiary,” Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said, of the efforts, expressing approval of the extension. “I think it’s a natural evolution of events and a wonderful thing to do.”

The board later voted to approve an assessment of pathogens at Hook Pond to be conducted next year by the United States Geological Survey, at a cost of $35,250. 

Onsite food preparation and takeout was discussed in connection with a request from a representative of Rob Pollifrone, who owns Buoy One, a seafood shop on Race Lane near the Long Island Rail Road station, to allow plastic and paper containers. Mr. Pollifrone would like to convert an adjacent building to a coffee shop. 

The village effectively prohibits coffee shops or bakeries in the commercial district unless they were grandfathered at the time the prohibitions were enacted. In addition, regulations have been imposed. Scoop du Jour on Newtown Lane, which serves coffee and ice cream, must regularly wash the sidewalk in front of its building, for example. 

Last year, the chocolate company Godiva sought to lease a Main Street building, said Ken Collum, a code enforcement officer. While the sale of pre-packaged food is permitted, “you can’t sell anything for ready consumption or takeout” in paper or Styrofoam cups, he said. “That prohibited them from selling coffee. So that store, I think, is still vacant.” Second Nature on Newtown Lane had also inquired about the sale of fresh juices. “Currently,” Mr. Collum said, “they’re not permitted uses.” The sale of pre-packaged juices is allowed, however.

The board had recently discussed redefining the code to allow restaurant and other “wet” uses in its commercial district to combat an exodus of businesses from the village. Mr. Collum said that he and Billy Hajek, the village planner, had discussed special permits to allow such uses, providing litter was not the result. 

Richard Lawler, a board member, said he favored a code amendment to allow that use, but said enforcement should be stepped up to ensure sidewalks remain clean. His colleagues agreed. 

Rebecca Hansen, the village administrator, had the mass gathering rules on her mind. A permit is required now only for gatherings of 50 or more and when public parking is used or more garbage than normal is going to be produced, she said. “Over the course of the last few years, there have been a lot more applications for events on private residences and public property,” she said. The proposed legislation would mirror the Town of East Hampton’s, which was updated in 2014 and further streamlined this year, Ms. Hansen said. 

The mayor said changes of that kind were “a lot to digest,” and “a work in progress.” The board, he said, would “try to do our very best to recognize the concerns and needs of everybody,” and schedule a public hearing. 

Ms. Hansen also reminded the board that fees for zoning board applications had not changed since 2006. She pointed out that the zoning board “receives a large number of applications that have become rather time-consuming,” and can require the attention of eight or nine village employees, she said. “We’re at that point in time where we have to catch up with the fee structure,” the mayor said. An increase in these fees would be subject to public hearing. 

A public hearing also would have to be scheduled should the board move to amend the code regarding overnight parking of commercial vehicles in public lots.  Because commercial vehicles were found left for extended periods in the long-term lot off Railroad Avenue, the village had amended regulations to rule that out. Now, she said, commercial vehicles are occupying spaces near the train station on Railroad Avenue for extended periods. 

The board will consider a code amendment that would prohibit train-station parking by commercial vehicles while maintaining the right of those with commercial license plates on personal vehicles to park there. The Village of Southampton recently adopted a law with similar intent, the mayor said.

Shakespeare wanted his work to be performed. And for 20 years, students at the Hayground School in Bridgehampton have kept the Bard’s intentions alive. 

Shakespeare and Company, a Massachusetts organization committed to performing, training, and educating adults and children on all things Shakespearean, has been at the helm of Hayground’s performances as part of its annual artists-in-residence program, which involves full immersion into one of Shakespeare’s plays and culminates in two public performances. 

This year’s play, “The Tempest,” will be staged at Guild Hall today at 1 and 6 p.m. All 88 students enrolled in the school, ranging in age from 3 to 13, will participate, along with 11 faculty and staffers.

“The Tempest” was chosen because Marybeth Pacilio’s class was learning about pirates. Annie Considine, Grace Lazarz, Lori Evans, and Ellie Bartz, the Shakespeare and Company artists who have been in residence at Hayground for the last three weeks, adapted the original work so that its running time is approximately one hour. However, the language remains as written.

“We stay true to the original text,” said Ms. Considine, who has returned to the school for the fourth year. The story of “The Tempest” takes place on a remote island, where the sorcerer Prospero uses illusion and skillful manipulation to help restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place. He conjures up a storm (the eponymous tempest) to cause his usurping brother Antonio and the complicit King Alonso of Naples to believe they are shipwrecked and marooned on the island.

Shakespeare and Company, which is based in Lenox, Mass., has participated in school residency programs for over 30 years; its 20-year partnership with Hayground has run the longest. The four coaches visiting the school are professional actors who are part of the company’s education department. They offer children their choice of roles but confer with teachers so that the parts are appropriate for each. The students in the four oldest classes get a scene to work on, while the younger children are scattered about the play.

“This school is such a collaborative community,” Ms. Considine said. Indeed, parents, alumni, and community members volunteer to build sets, make costumes, and help in other ways. 

One of the challenges of “The Tempest,” the foursome acknowledged, is the prevalence of scenes that often incorporate over six children on stage at once. “It’s definitely harder to rehearse those scenes,” said Lori Evans, who is back at Hayground for her second year. “It’s much harder for the kids to focus.”

“Plus, the younger kids often get bored when they’re not speaking,” added Ms. Considine, over a pizza lunch at the school.

Two 6-year-old girls, Gigi Jordan and Camryn Eckey, interrupted a conversation to deliver a message to their Shakespeare teachers. While there, the girls recited their lines, which were largely unintelligible, but only because they were delivered through ear-to-ear grins. Shakespeare is fun was the apparent message. 

The theater program is part of Hayground’s artists-in-residence program, which invites professional artists, writers, and musicians to share their crafts in immersion workshops that challenge students to think, create, and perform.

The Shakespeare residency program aims to draw young people into the world of 16th-century England through movement, speech, and performance, which helps them internalize the language and meaning of the plays. Students also embark on an in-depth exploration of the story, text, and history of each play, with theater games, warm-ups, and rehearsals helping to prepare them for the stage.

The program also brings faculty and staff into the mix, as demonstrated by Arjun Achuthan, a teacher at the school, who stopped by following the mentors’ lunch break to deliver his Prospero monologue. He also shared the news that another staff member was down with the flu.

“There are no understudies,” Ms. Considine said. “One of us will walk on with a script in hand, if needed.”

The relevance of Shakespeare in today’s curriculums is subject to debate. While some educators have pushed against studying the Bard, claiming he is outdated, historians point out that Shakespeare lived in turbulent times that are not dissimilar to today, when wars were started on the basis of fraudulent dossiers, terrorists were being hunted down, and there was a blurring of sexual identity. 

At the Hayground School, however, the thought of not doing Shakespeare each year is heresy.

Admission to today’s performances is free. Any donations that materialize, however, will benefit the school’s artists-in-residence program.

An effort by Deepwater Wind, the Rhode Island company that plans to construct the South Fork Wind Farm approximately 30 miles east of Montauk, to alleviate the concerns of skeptical fishermen over disruption or destruction of their livelihood took an incremental step forward when the company’s president and vice president of development addressed a standing-room-only crowd at East Hampton Town Hall on Monday. 

Concerns remain, however, with commercial fishermen demanding to see data that Deepwater Wind has promised but has yet to produce, along with assurances that they will be compensated for losses resulting from construction or operation of the wind farm. 

The town trustees, who hosted the gathering at their last meeting of 2017, listened as Chris van Beek, Deepwater Wind’s president, and Clint Plummer, the vice president, insisted that the South Fork Wind Farm will be a benign installation, its turbines positioned so far from each other that fishing will not be impeded, and its transmission cable safely buried in the ocean floor. 

Ongoing postconstruction surveys around the Block Island Wind Farm, the nation’s first offshore wind farm, which Deepwater Wind built and operates, demonstrate no negative impacts, they told the audience, conceding, however, that some fishermen were compensated for interruptions to their business during its construction. 

“So far, it’s the conclusion that the fish habitat is as good as it was, or perhaps a little bit better,” Mr. van Beek said of the Block Island Wind Farm. “Especially fishing in the wind farm . . . is spectacular.” Recreational fishermen, he said, have migrated to waters around the turbines, which he said act as artificial reefs. 

Last week, Deepwater Wind proposed a number of incentives to the town, including a total of $600,000 for the trustees to establish fisheries habitat and marine environment improvement funds and $200,000 to the town for an energy sustainability and resiliency fund. On Monday, Mr. Plummer repeated the promise of an operations facility in Montauk, and along with it the first set of permanent jobs associated with offshore wind in New York. 

But for commercial fishermen who have long felt their livelihoods under attack from state and federal regulations, the South Fork Wind Farm, comprising up to 15 turbines, and the threat of perhaps hundreds more in the 256-square-mile Rhode Island and Massachusetts Wind Energy Area, remains an unacceptable risk. 

“You’re going into our fishing grounds,” Hank Lackner, owner of the 90-foot trawler Jason & Danielle, told the Deepwater Wind officials. Visibly angry, he demanded details as to how fishermen would be compensated for interruptions, likening that compensation to the incentives offered to the town, which he said are effectively bribery. “When I can’t fish where I have for decades . . . and have to change my business operations, what are you going to do?”

“Our goal,” Mr. Plummer answered, “is not to be putting anybody out. . . . We believe the construction methodology . . . will allow commercial fishing to continue to operate as today.” Should fishermen be displaced or their business otherwise interrupted as a result of Deepwater Wind’s activity, “we will deal with that on a business-to-business basis with individuals,” he said. 

“This is not a one-on-one question,” Mr. Lackner said. “This is about an industry that you will at some point interrupt. . . . You have not addressed it anywhere in your entire presentation.”

Chuck Morici, another Montauk fisherman, said that fishermen should select Deepwater Wind’s fisheries liaison — “somebody that is going to stick up for us,” he said — and not the company itself. The South Fork Wind Farm is “kind of a good idea,” he said, but fishermen are rightly opposed to it “because the governor, NOAA” — the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — “and everyone else has been putting them out of business for years. . . . We feel like we’re under attack. We have not gotten a fair shake. Wind power is great, bring it on . . . but we’ve got to make a living, too.” 

Dan Farnham, also of Montauk, asked about various fishing fleets’ ability to work in the area of the wind farm. 

“We will not restrict, nor will we ask, nor do we have the ability to restrict any activity,” Mr. Plummer said. “Mobile gear, fixed, up-down guys, anybody can fish.” Referring to the Block Island Wind Farm, he pointed to an increase in fishing at the bases of its five turbines. “That’s recreational,” he said, “but the point is, we’re not restricting anybody.”

But Wesley Peterson, another commercial fisherman based in Montauk, asked if an independent third party is verifying Deepwater Wind’s trawl surveys. Yes, was Mr. Plummer’s reply, Drew Carey, a scientist and managing partner of Rhode Island-based Inspire Environmental. Is he paid by Deepwater Wind? Yes, was the reply. Then he cannot be truly independent, Mr. Peterson said. 

Mr. Peterson also said that nets are getting caught on the concrete mattresses used to bury the Block Island farm’s transmission cable in areas where it could not be buried at the optimal four-to-six-foot depth under the ocean floor. Mr. van Beek had previously said that the mattresses had to be placed over about 5 percent of the cable’s path. 

“We haven’t received any reports of this,” Mr. Plummer said, “and we have fisheries liaisons and representatives in Rhode Island working with us. We’ve done videography surveys and seen no evidence of mats moved. We haven’t heard from anybody.” 

Mr. Peterson disagreed, and said that he would have affected fishermen contact Deepwater officials. 

Dan Lester, a bayman from Amagansett, asked about any effect on fish migration caused by the electromagnetic frequency emanating from the transmission cable, and how he would be compensated if it altered that migration. 

“We believe this installation can be done in such a way that it won’t impact fish populations,” Mr. Plummer said. 

Jim Grimes, a trustee, asked if Deepwater Wind is willing to create a fund to indemnify fishermen against any losses. “If you’re right about your science, it’s a bet you can’t lose,” he said.

“We’re not here asking for money,” Mr. Lester said. “We want to go to work. We just don’t want our work messed with.”

“Our primary focus is . . . to keep you working, to have zero to as minimal impact on what you’re doing,” Mr. Plummer said, imploring fishermen to participate in an ongoing dialogue with his company. 

The trustees’ harbor management committee will meet today at 5 p.m. at the Donald Lamb Building in Amagansett. The meeting, said the committee’s Rick Drew, will include a “debriefing” of Monday’s presentation. The committee will begin to form its recommendation to the full trustee board as to its support for the wind farm, he said.

Although the East Hampton Town Board rejected Kevin Gersh’s proposal to open a school here for children on the autism spectrum last Thursday, with four members of the board voting unanimously and Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez absent, the proposal is far from dead.

The board denied reassigning the lease of the now defunct Child Development Center of the Hamptons building on Stephen Hand’s Path to Gersh Academy, based on the fact that the company is not nonprofit, as C.D.C.H. had been.

Parents of autistic children who live between Southampton and Montauk have taken to social media to express disappointment and anger and to encourage families with autistic children to continue the fight. At the same time, Mr. Gersh, insisting that adequate specialized services are not offered by public schools here or by the Suffolk County Board of Cooperative Educational Services learning center in Westhampton Beach, has vowed to find another location in this area where he can open a school.

He also has engaged Stephen B. Latham, a senior partner of a prominent Riverhead law firm, who had a letter hand-delivered on Dec. 4 to Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell and town board members highlighting numerous factual inaccuracies made by school superintendents from Springs, Montauk, East Hampton, and Bridgehampton at a Nov. 21 town board meeting. 

According to Mr. Latham, who shared the letter with The Star after the town failed to release it, the superintendents’ claim that Gersh Academy is not accredited by New York State is a misrepresentation. The letter explained that Mr. Gersh had not sought accreditation for kindergarten through 12th grade because “we firmly believe that the regulatory restrictions and unfunded mandates would compromise our programs and hurt the very children we are here to serve.” However, the letter states, “initial approval from the New York State Education Department for [the . . .] preschool program was received for the East Hampton location of the Gersh Academy in September 2017.” Although all East End school districts provide special services for autistic students, none does so for preschool children.

Another “patently false” statement according to Mr. Latham, was the superintendents’ claim that a school district could only send special-needs children to the Gersh Academy following a state hearing that could cost as much as $100,000. “A hearing is only required when a school district opposes a parent’s request,” the letter said.

The letter also argued against sending children to the Board of Cooperative Educational Services program, stating, “Sending a child from the Town of East Hampton, or from the eastern portion of Southampton, the Village of Sag Harbor, or Shelter Island, to a facility in Westhampton Beach, when a dedicated spe cial-needs educational facility could be made available in the western portion of the Town of East Hampton, subjects these children to countless unnecessary hours on buses.” The letter went on to say Gersh does not think BOCES is the optimum education environment for a special-needs child.

To the superintendents who said there was no need for a specialized school in the area, Mr. Latham quoted the East Hampton Town Board, which in 2002 determined that there was a need for “establishing a school for children with disabilities residing on the East End of Long Island and providing a variety of developmental services for children”

Mr. Latham expanded on the quote by writing, “one has the impression that the district’s programs and services are more than adequate — and that the need envisioned by the town in 2002 no longer exists. Based on our discussions with parents of special needs children, therapeutic and clinical providers on the East End, the need is as great as it was in 2002.”

Meanwhile, in an email to The Star, Jack Pryor, a former principal of the Bridgehampton School, wrote, “It’s all about the money. The East End schools are xenophobic about outside influence. They have millions but can’t get the job done. As in any investigation, follow the money.”

“I learned that we are heavily outnumbered,” Reg Cornelia, the outgoing chairman of the East Hampton Town Republican Committee, said this week when asked to reflect on the Democrats’ strong performance in this year’s town races. “It’s going to be very difficult with these numbers to win elections.”

The Suffolk County Board of Elections certified results for the Nov. 7 election on Dec. 6, further confirming the Democrats’ dominance in East Hampton Town, where the party’s candidates won the races for town supervisor and town board and came away with a 7-to-2 majority on the East Hampton Town Trustees. 

Their election night showing was strong, and they made still more gains when absentee ballots were factored in. Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, the supervisor-elect, picked up 617 votes in the final count, bringing his total to 4,296 votes (62.8 percent), against Manny Vilar’s 2,544 (37.2 percent). Mr. Vilar picked up 243 votes in the final count.

Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez won re-election to a second four-year term with 4,543 votes, picking up 654 votes since election night, and Jeff Bragman won his first term as a councilman with 3,707, gaining 593 votes in the final count. On the Republican ticket, Paul Giardina had 2,464 votes and Jerry Larsen had 2,388; they picked up 252 and 228 votes, respectively. 

“I think that it was such a clear vote for good government, which is really comforting in this time of rotten government on the national level, and it’s wonderful for our town,” said Jeanne Frankl, a co-chairwoman of the town’s Democratic Committee, who, like Mr. Cornelia, will be stepping down. “We had good government in the Cantwell administration for four years, and our supervisor-elect was a part of that even before Larry was elected.”

She was also encouraged by the trustee votes, which she saw as a strong endorsement of the work that the current board’s Democratic majority began over the past two years and a desire to see that continue. “Our trustee candidates said, we are as determined as any trustee candidates have ever been to take care of our shores and our beaches and the property we own, but we are going to do it in a cooperative way.” The trustees, who serve two-year terms, with all nine standing for a vote the same year, oversee most of the town’s beaches, bottomlands, and waterways on behalf of the public. 

In the trustee race, absentee ballots had an outside potential to change the outcome. Diane McNally, a Republican who served as a trustee for more than two decades and was the board’s longtime presiding officer, stood in 10th place after the election night tally, but in the final count she dropped to 11th. 

“It’s a party-line vote now,” Mr. Cornelia said. “I thought we had by far the better list of candidates. We had two people with a captain’s license. . . . I thought on the trustee ticket we would do better than we did.”

On the Republican ticket, only Jim Grimes, an incumbent, and Susan Vorpahl, a first-time candidate who is a daughter of the late Stuart Vorpahl, a former trustee, were elected. 

The Democratic majority come January will include Francis Bock, the trustees’ current presiding officer, and his deputies, Bill Taylor and Rick Drew, as well as Brian Byrnes, another incumbent, and the newcomers John Aldred, Dell Cullum, and Susan McGraw Keber.

Mr. Bock had 4,423 votes, Mr. Drew had 3,995, Mr. Aldred 3,808, Mr. Cullum 3,780, Mr. Taylor 3,733, Mr. Byrnes 3,648, and Ms. McGraw Keber 3,314. Ms. Vorpahl got 3,288 votes, and Mr. Grimes had 3,178. Trailing them most closely were Rona Klopman with 3,027 and Ms. McNally with 2,907. 

Republican candidates were unified in opposition to Deepwater Wind’s planned 15-turbine facility 30 miles off Montauk, and Mr. Cornelia thought more people would support them at the polls for that reason. 

Whether it was party-line voting or an awareness of the issues the trustees tackle, more people voted in the trustee race than in 2015 or 2013. Mr. Bock, this year’s top vote-getter, had 811 more votes than he did in 2015, when he was also the top vote-getter, and 382 votes more than the high vote-getter in 2013. Even the ninth-place winner, Mr. Grimes, got 283 more votes than the ninth-place winner in 2015 and 241 more votes than the ninth-place winner in 2013. In a race with a dizzying 18 candidates and a confusing arrangement on the ballot, it seems that in some years people forgo the vote for trustees.

“The Democrats have been on a very, very strong campaign of registering second-home owners,” Mr. Cornelia said. “That puts us at a serious disadvantage because the New York City voter tends to be a very loyal Democrat. . . . If you look at the absentee ballots in general, there’s a greater preponderance of Democrats who will vote the party line.” 

“There is a strong level of interest among our second-home owners, who for the most part want to come out and enjoy what they see other people have been enjoying since 1640,” Ms. Frankl said.

Across the spectrum, she said, there was “a very high level of consensus about what needs to be done.” Even where there may be differences of opinion — about how to implement water quality improvements, for example — “what was there was a deep concern about water.”

In the 2017 race for town supervisor, 6,840 people voted out of 16,886 registered; only 40.5 percent voted for supervisor and 38.8 percent for town board candidates. Still, that is an improvement over 2015, when turnout was 37.7 percent in the race for supervisor  and 36.7 for town board.

“Turnout was somewhat disappointing, but we’re always disappointed in the turnout,” Ms. Frankl said. “We worry that people don’t appreciate how particularly important local elections are at this time when we’re counting on local government to do the forward-looking things because the federal government is repudiating its commitments to do things that we think are important on climate change, social issues. . . .”

Ms. Frankl, who is co-chairwoman with Ilissa Loewenstein Meyer, plans to step down early next year. Mr. Cornelia is stepping down at the end of this year, but vows to continue being a voice for the causes that are important to him. 

He would like to see a younger person take on the job of chairman and said that just as the Democrats did not give up when they were outnumbered by Republicans, his party will not give up. 

“Our job now is to keep them on their toes,” Mr. Cornelia said.

With issues that dominated conversation at East Hampton School Board meetings during 2017 — the site of a new school bus depot, for instance, and the lack of a football team — now largely off the table, the board and administration were asked to turn their attention to three other areas of concern: drugs in the schools, the security of the buildings, and a seemingly lax dress code.

Walter Quiroz, a parent at East Hampton High School, raised these issues in a letter addressed to the school board that he read in Spanish during last Tuesday’s  meeting. The letter was then translated to English by Elizabeth Reveiz, the school’s director of English as a new language. The letter was written on behalf of several parents who asked the school board and the administration to implement new policies and plans wherever possible.

“We have a few concerns regarding drugs at our school, the security of the buildings, and also the personal presentation of the students who attend our schools,” read Ms. Reveiz, on behalf of Mr. Quinoz. 

“Our children have shared with us their uneasiness about the use of electronic cigarettes in the bathrooms of the high school and middle school,” the letter stated. After outlining the pervasiveness of drugs at the school, the parent simply asked, “What is the plan the district is exploring to combat this problem?”

As for security of the school buildings, Mr. Quiroz wrote: “In the past few years, policies have been implemented to monitor who enters and leaves the buildings. We applaud you for that effort.” He was referring to the current policy that all visitors to the school’s buildings must present valid identification in order to gain entry. “Our worry, however, is that it does not guarantee that a student or a person cannot carry with them arms or weapons that can hurt others.”

Mr. Quiroz and the parents he represented asked the school board to make a commitment  to exploring and implementing another policy on security measures that will “guarantee or prohibit” weapons being taken into the school.

Security measures are a topic at the forefront of debate at many South Fork schools today. The issue was also raised during Monday’s work session of the Springs School Board, at which that school’s superintendent, Debra Winter, told members that the administration was investigating efforts to heighten their security measures around the campus. The group discussed installing additional cameras in the buildings as well as on school buses. Ms. Winter also urged the board to consider the purchase of a card reader that would scan driver’s licenses and state-issued identification cards to check them against lists of known criminals.

In East Hampton, the final issue outlined in Mr. Quiroz’s letter concerned the “inappropriate dress” of the students. He pointed out that although the dress code as outlined by the board of education hangs near the entrance to the high school, “it is clearly not being enforced.” He went on to say that while parents understand that teenagers often express their personalities through their clothing choices, the introduction of school uniforms might be something the board would want to consider. He said that he and like-minded friends believe uniforms would help with issues of sexual harassment and bullying. “Our object,” he wrote, “is to create an equal, inclusive, respectful, and safe environment.”

J.P. Foster, the school board’s president, responded to the letter by thanking Mr. Quiroz and the parents he represented for speaking up.

“These are all valid points” he said. “We share all the same concerns as you do as parents.” Mr. Foster acknowledged that “we’re trying to keep up with technology” as far as electronic smoking devices are concerned. The middle school recently held a forum for students, with a presentation by Ken Alversa, an East Hampton Town police officer, on the dangers of vaping and e-cigarettes. Still, Mr. Foster said, “We need to do more.”

Adam Fine, the high school principal, also responded to Mr. Quiroz’s concern about drug use at the school and informed those in the room that talks are underway with town officials and other East End school superintendents to set up a task force to deal with substance abuse problems. He called it “a community problem.”

The board acknowledged that students’ clothing was a topic that had arisen in the past, and that opinions were usually split about whether to adopt a uniform. 

“Maybe we can start,” said Jacqueline Lowey, a board member, “with a reminder that there is a dress code.”

In conclusion, Mr. Foster commended Mr. Quiroz for attending the meeting and sharing his concerns. “Honestly, you are the first parents who have stepped up to the plate — if we don’t hear from areas of our community, we don’t always know what’s going on.” Along with other board members, he promised Mr. Quiroz that they would consider holding meetings for a free exchange of ideas on how to deal with these issues.

Representative Lee Zeldin has taken strong exception to the characterization of Stephen Bannon, the White House's former chief strategist, as anti-Semitic.

Mr. Bannon is to headline a fund-raiser for the congressman's re-election campaign in Manhattan on Thursday.

Mr. Bannon's appearance there is to be the first in a planned series of fundraisers he will attend in support of Republican members of the House and Senate. It remains to be seen if these fund-raisers will be impacted by the defeat of Roy Moore, the Republican Senate candidate in Alabama, for whom Mr. Bannon went to bat.

Mr. Zeldin's communications director responded to emails seeking comment about Mr. Bannon on Friday. The day before, The Star had published an article about the upcoming fund-raiser. Mr. Bannon's participation in the benefit has spurred a petition, organized by a group called Bend the Arc Jewish Action, demanding that Mr. Zeldin disinvite him, as well as a protest outside the congressman's district office in Patchogue.

The Star had sought comment on Mr. Zeldin's embrace of Mr. Bannon, who is seen as an ally of the so-called "altright," a loose coalition of far-right conservatives who reject a traditional Republican platform. Some members of the alt-right unabashedly express neo- Nazi, white-supremacist, and anti-Semitic views, and some of those views have been aired on Breitbart News, to which Mr. Bannon returned as executive chairman after his firing from the Trump administration in August.

Mr. Zeldin, who is Jewish, was also asked about allegations that Mr. Bannon has himself made anti-Semitic statements.

In his reply, Mr. Zeldin pointed to Mr. Bannon's pro-Israeli policy positions.

For example, he said, Mr. Bannon is opposed to the "boycott, divest, sanctions" (B.D.S.) strategy, which is aimed at ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and which some consider anti- Semitic. Mr. Bannon, he said, was "the most passionate advocate I spoke to in the White House for combating the growing B.D.S. movement on college campuses and around the world."

Mr. Bannon, Mr. Zeldin said, is also an advocate for passage of the Taylor Force Act, which would stop most American aid, humanitarian and otherwise, to the Palestinian Authority, unless the Palestinian Authority took specific steps to counter violence against American and Israeli citizens by individuals under its control - specifically, by stopping support payments to the widows and children of individuals killed in a terrorist act or imprisoned by the Israeli authorities following such an act. (Opponents of the Taylor Force Act contend that Israel's definition of a terrorist act is problematic.)

Mr. Bannon also supports moving the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a policy President Trump announced last week, and decertification of the Iran nuclear deal, Mr. Zeldin said.

"I've witnessed countless people shamefully trying to smear him not only as anti-Semitic, but also calling him a Nazi, which truly is an absolutely disgusting character assassination," Mr. Zeldin said of Mr. Bannon.

While he was not defending Breitbart News, Mr. Zeldin said, "the sum total of content used to call them anti-Jewish was one story written by a Jewish author that called Bill Kristol a 'renegade Jew.' That's it." Mr. Kristol, the founder and editor-at-large of The Weekly Standard, is a vocal opponent of President Trump.

A hearing officer appointed to make recommendations to the town board has found William Taylor, the Town of East Hampton’s waterways management supervisor and a town trustee, not guilty on each of 14 charges of misconduct and incompetence levied against him last year after he was injured while securing an aquatic weed harvester in Georgica Pond. 

The town board is reviewing those findings, Supervisor Larry Cantwell said on Tuesday, and will make a determination as to whether or not to accept them at its meeting next Thursday. “We will take into consideration the findings and recommendations and the board will adopt a resolution,” he said. 

The town board had voted in November 2016 to suspend Mr. Taylor for 30 days without pay for actions taken without authorization two months earlier. Mr. Taylor denied all charges and vowed a vigorous defense. 

“I could never understand why these charges were brought in the first place,” Mr. Taylor said on Tuesday. “I didn’t do anything except try and help people.”

Disciplinary charges had been detailed in a document signed by Kim Shaw, the town’s director of natural resources, stating that Mr. Taylor “punched in to work for the Town, took a Town vehicle, and drove the Town vehicle to the area of Georgica Pond” on Sept. 4, 2016, a day he was not scheduled to work, all of which constitute engaging in unauthorized work and misconduct. As waterways management supervisor, Mr. Taylor is employed by the Natural Resources Department. 

Mr. Taylor had indeed gone to the pond. As Tropical Storm Hermine moved up the East Coast, Sara Davison, the executive director of the Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation, contacted Francis Bock, the trustees’ clerk, to voice her concern that the aquatic weed harvester the foundation had leased to remove macroalgae from the pond was not secured and could break free of its mooring during the storm. Mr. Bock relayed that message to Mr. Taylor, who offered to inspect the harvester. He had already planned to go to the pond to remove fencing that had been erected to protect piping-plover and least-tern nesting sites. 

The trustees, who manage many of the town’s waterways and bottomlands on behalf of the public, had just approved an opening of Georgica Pond to the Atlantic Ocean, which they typically do biannually. The weed harvester had to be moved to deeper water, Mr. Taylor said last year, “because the pond was to be opened, the water level was up a couple of feet, and if this thing was tied up where it was normally tied up, it would go aground.” He had moved it for the Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation on previous occasions, he said. 

While wading in the pond, Mr. Taylor suffered a severe cut on his foot, which required several days’ hospitalization. Two months after the incident, he was notified of the suspension and charges against him. 

The harvester was neither owned nor within the town’s control, and the town had not performed a hazard assessment and did not possess safety instructions, according to the document signed by Ms. Shaw. Mr. Taylor, it continued, was not wearing proper protective clothing, and his conduct was reckless. Moreover, the Natural Resources Department had taken the position that the pond should not be opened to the ocean before October, contrary to the trustees’ position. 

In a recommendation to the town dated Nov. 9, Eileen Powers, the hearing officer, wrote that she did not find sufficient evidence of the allegations. Moreover, Ms. Powers wrote, “Mr. Taylor’s decision to assist Sara Davison at Georgica Pond after he punched in to work for the town on Sept. 4, 2016, was, in my opinion, at worst an error of judgment and not an act in bad faith.” Mr. Taylor’s overlapping duties as waterways management supervisor and trustee, she added, muddied the waters and made the charges “difficult.” 

While Mr. Taylor did assist Ms. Davison without clocking out for the town, as he should have, Ms. Powers wrote, “I simply do not agree that the testimony presented indicated any willful misconduct or incompetence by Mr. Taylor in diverting from his intended plan to remove fencing by responding to, and checking on, the harvester in Georgica Pond. . . . Mr. Taylor checked in to work intending to remove fencing for the town but was then diverted by Ms. Davison’s request for help at the pond.”

Mr. Taylor said that the suspension and charges against him have taken a toll on both his finances and his health. The town, he said, should look upon his roles as waterways management supervisor and trustee as complementary, and not conflicting. “If I’m doing something to clean up a beach or the water,” he said, “it benefits everybody.”

The proposed merger of two lots on Isle of Wight Road in the Lion Head Beach area of Springs and the expansion an existing residence on one of the lots drew a crowd of 15 or 20 neighbors who argued against it at an East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals public hearing on Dec. 5. 

John and Patricia Dankowitz have an existing 2,600-square-foot house on the southern of the lots they want to merge, while the northern lot is undeveloped. They would like to expand the existing residence by 1,600 square feet after the lots are merged and to construct a 375-square-foot swimming pool, a 200-square-foot pool house, a slate patio, and a walkway to the beach at Hog Creek. They also plan to install a new septic system.

To complete this project on what would be a new 52,570-square-foot parcel, the Dankowitzes need a permit to build in an area containing tidal wetlands and bluffs, and eight variances for the pool, pool house, and the house itself. Some of the variances are minor. For example, they would like the house to be built 95 feet from tidal wetlands when the town code calls for 100 feet. The variances for the distance of the pool, pool house, and pool equipment from the bluff crest are slightly larger, ranging from 12.4 percent to 15.5 of the 100-foot setback required by code. The largest variances sought are a 25-percent reduction from wetlands for the pool house’s sanitary system and a 21.5-percent reduction from the required side-yard setback for the expanded residence.

David Kirst of Matthews, Kirst, & Cooley represented the Dankowitz family. He argued that the trade-offs for the town were a new septic system and that merging the lots would reduce density. In 1994 and again in 2009, the Z.B.A. had granted previous owners of the northern lot variances to construct a house there, although it was never built. His clients could build on it, he said, thereby increasing density. 

Tyler Borsack, a town planner, seemed to agree. Variances granted in the past for the undeveloped lot were far more substential than those now being requested, he reasoned. “The Planning Department also believes that the project as a whole would have less of an impact, when taken in conjunction with the mitigation measures, compared to having the northern lot improved with what was approved in 2009,” he said.

The neighbors were not mollified. Alex Miller, who lives at 19 Thanet Way and is the president of the Lion Head Beach Association, though he said he was not speaking in that capacity, said that, if approved, it “would be the largest structure on the western side of Hog Creek, totally out of character with the neighborhood, an affront to current environmental law, and damaging to the future health and safety of Hog Creek and neighboring residents.”

David Buda echoed a point made by several other speakers, that the addition, because of the topography, would, in effect, create a third floor, which is prohibited by the code.

The size of the proposed expanded house also came under scrutiny from the board. “This is a large house for the neighborhood,” Cate Rogers said.  She also said there had been extensive clearing on the properties. There were several issues the board wanted clarified, such as the construction protocol, and whether a proposed 24-inch roof overhang would require an additional variance. Mr. Kirst was given 30 days to provide the board with answers