Timothy D. Sini, a 37-year-old Democrat serving as the Suffolk County police commissioner, handily won the race for Suffolk District attorney Tuesday night. Mr. Sini received 62 percent of the vote over Raymond Perini, a Republican. Christopher Garvey, who ran on the Libertarian ticket, received 1 percent of the vote. 

The race for Suffolk sheriff was razor thin. With all 1,052 districts reporting at 11:30 p.m., just 1,354 votes separated Errol D. Toulon Jr., a Democrat, and Lawrence M. Zacarese, a Republican. Both candidates had about 49 percent of the vote, with Mr. Toulon holding a slight edge. If he were to win, he would be the first African-American elected to a countywide position in Suffolk. A third candidate, Peter J. Krauss, who ran as a Libertarian, earned 1.6 percent of the vote. 

The Suffolk County sheriff runs the county's two jails. Mr. Toulon is a former deputy commissioner for the New York City Department of Correction. Mr. Zacarese is the assistant chief of the Stony Brook University Police Department. 

In his victory speech around 10:30 p.m., Mr. Sini promised to restore trust in the district attorney's office, held by Thomas Spota, who is under federal indictment. "Together we have ushered in a new era in criminal justice in Suffolk County — an era of integrity, fairness, and doing the right thing," he said. He thanked voters for giving him "this awesome responsibility, this awesome privilege" and promised to "return the office to the honorable institution it once was."  

"Now is not the time to rest on our laurels," he told his supporters. "It's time to get to work. Those of us who stand for justice, morality, and doing the right thing need to do that work," he said, adding that he will start by assembling "a top-notch transition team" to do a full assessment of the district attorney's office. 

The Suffolk County Legislature will remain dominated by Democrats following Tuesday's vote.

Legislator Bridget Fleming, who represents the South Fork, was re-elected by a wide margin and will keep her seat in the 11-to-7 Democratic majority.

"Generally speaking, people wanted a positive message. It feels really good because that's how I've always tried to approach the job," Ms. Fleming said yesterday.

Suffolk Republicans picked up one Legislature post. Rudolph Sunderman took the Third District, beating Joshua Slaughter, a Democrat. In that district, Legislator Kate Browning, a Democrat, could not run again because of term limits.

"Although it's very hard to have the short two-year terms, I am glad to have had the opportunity to talk with constituents," Ms. Fleming said. Among their concerns, she said, were natural resources, public transportation, affordable housing, tick-borne illness, and opioid abuse.

"One other thing that is important to them is an economy that works for everyone," she said. "I am really pleased that my staff and I have been able to make progress on those issues, but there's a ton left to do."

East End Democrats in the Legislature have gained ground since the election two years ago. Ms. Fleming and Legislators Kara Hahn and Sarah S. Anker each had increases in their support in percentage terms. Ms. Fleming easily beat Heather Collins with 64 percent of all votes cast, up from 60 percent in 2015. Legislator Al Krupski, who represents the North Fork, won with 70 percent of the vote.

Thomas Muratore, a Republican legislator seeking re-election, was 10 points off his 2015 results, and Mr. Sunderman only managed to win 52 percent of the votes cast.

The enthusiasm divide could be an indicator in the 2018 contest for the seat in Congress now held by Representative Lee Zeldin, a Republican closely tied to President Trump. Mr. Zeldin's First Congressional District roughly encompasses Suffolk Districts 1 through 6, where Democrats hold a 4-2 edge in the Legislature.

Elsewhere in the First Congressional District, Democrats made gains as well. In Southampton Stan Glinka, an incumbent Republican town councilman, came in third after Julie Lofstad and Thomas John Schiavoni, a Democratic newcomer. East Hampton had a near-total Democratic sweep.

In Riverhead, the Republican town supervisor, Sean Walter, lost to Laura Jens-Smith, and another Democrat, Catherine Kent, took a seat on the town board.

Brookhaven, which makes up much of Mr. Zeldin's power base, re-elected its Republican supervisor, Edward P. Romaine, and will maintain a 5-to-1 Republican majority on the town council.

 

A copy of the 1776 Declaration of Independence that was passed down through descendants of Col. David Mulford, an East Hampton man who led a regiment at the time of the American Revolution, is about as rare a document related to the birth of the United States as is known. 

Out of an edition of 500 printed by John Holt on July 9, 1776, in White Plains, only 5 copies are thought to have survived. It will be sold at auction, along with a collection of early papers related to the history of East Hampton, on Saturday by Blanchard’s Auction Service in Potsdam, N.Y.

Blanchard’s has set a pre-auction estimate of $500,000 to $1 million for Colonel Mulford’s Declaration and between $25,000 and $50,000 for the family papers.

In a catalog prepared for the auction, the auction house described the contemporary owner of the Declaration and the other papers as a descendant of Colonel Mulford, as well of members of the Gardiner and Buell families. Lion Gardiner, who died in 1663, was the first European landholder in what would become New York State. His daughter, Elizabeth, born on Gardiner’s Island in 1641, was the first child of English parentage. Colonel Mulford was born in East Hampton in 1722 and died here of smallpox in 1778.

The collection of papers to be auctioned on Saturday includes items that provide insight into the daily lives of women and enslaved Africans, something conspicuously absent otherwise from the historical record.

Kip Blanchard, who runs the auction house with his wife, Sue, said that he first saw the papers and the Declaration about eight years ago in a desk drawer where they had been stored. Their condition was excellent, he said, since they had been kept in a clean, dry place and only rarely exposed to light. At the time, there was no plan to sell them.

However, in 2015, the upstate owner, who decided to remain unidentified, saw a news story about curators at the Cincinnati Museum having discovered a Holt printing of the Declaration of Independence in its collection. That got things moving, and the owner asked the Blanchards earlier this year if they would sell it and the other papers.

Mr. Blanchard turned to Keith Arbour, a manuscript and printing specialist in Cambridge, Mass., for authentication and to help understand the significance of the Declaration and the associated family papers.

“This is a copy that descended in the most ideal way. It’s really a historian’s dream, preserving all the context,” Mr. Arbour said in an interview.

Mr. Blanchard said setting a pre-auction estimate was difficult. None of the other four known Holt printings of the Declaration has ever come up for sale. A copy of the first broadside printing of the Declaration of Independence, by John Dunlap in Philadelphia on the night of July 4, 1776, sold for more than $8.1 million in 2000.

The Holt edition came just five days after Dunlap, the official printer of the Continental Congress, made his 500 copies. Presumably, Mr. Blanchard said, one of the Dunlap broadsides was rushed by horseback to the Provincial Convention of the Colony of New York and then to John Holt, who set it in type, making some minor changes to punctuation and how some words were capitalized. Holt’s Declaration is less a second printing than a nearly contemporaneous version, issued with the same intent: to get the word out as fast as possible about the revolutionary cause.

As a preface to the Holt edition, the New York delegates unanimously resolved that they would “at the risque of our Lives and Fortunes, join with the other Colonies in supporting it.” They then gave orders to print the Declaration and “publish the same with the Beat of Drum, at this place on Thursday next.”

It was a dangerous act. Mr. Blanchard said that possessing a single copy of the Declaration would result in death if one of the revolutionaries were captured by the British. 

“We tend to think of the people in 1776 as already radicalized, but most people were not in favor of independence,” Mr. Arbour said.

David Mulford’s copy reached him within days of coming off Holt’s press. The Declaration passed through Uriah Rogers’s hands in Southampton on July 24, 1776, according to a notation on the letter that contained it. Rogers had been a major in Colonel Mulford’s regiment, and wrote that he had “made Bold to Open & Read them.”

“It’s a rally-the-troops message, and it’s stunning, really,” Mr. Arbour said. Many colonists at that time were undecided, and many admired King George. “It’s a pretty shocking thing to bring these charges against him.”

“It’s a weapon, a live, legal document. It says, ‘Detach yourself from the king and put yourself under the protection of the United States of America,’ ” Mr. Arbour said.

By that point, Mulford had been a member of the local militia since at least 1748. By March 1776, according to his report to the Provincial Congress, he commanded 768 men. His regiment was en route to Brooklyn in August of that year, when the British routed the American Continental Army. Mulford’s regiment was ordered to turn back and ready themselves to fight another day.

Over the years, the Mulford copy was rarely seen. Among other items to be auctioned Saturday are an 1895 news clipping from The Mount Vernon Daily Argus reporting that Robert L. Mulford of Second Avenue had put it on display between two pieces of glass.

“To think that the Library of Congress does not even have a copy of this,” Mr. Blanchard mused.

The second lot in the auction, with its collections of wills, letters, and broadsides, is of interest to historians as well. One item is a 1667 description of local Indian tribes by Thomas James, who was East Hampton’s first minister. Another is an original 1716 printing of Samuel Mulford’s defense of East Hampton residents’ right to catch whales from the beach without taxation by the British crown.

“To me, the importance of the documents is how vibrant our community was in the late-18th and early-19th century, how very cosmopolitan we were,” Richard Barons of the East Hampton Historical Society said. “This was a young, enthusiastic community, interested in the Revolution, in investments, in many things,” he said.

Other items include broadsides reminding would-be rebels that it was not too late to return to the king’s cause. A 1777 proclamation outlines terms for pardons and protection of those who might surrender within a set period of time. Mr. Arbour said that judging from the relative absence of wear and tear the pro-British material in the collection appeared to have been tucked away almost as soon as it was received. 

An appraisal from 1798 of the estate of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Buell, who was East Hampton’s minister before and after the Revolution, listed among his goods a wampum belt and four African slaves with remaining years of service.

In a 1799 will in the collection, Mary Gardiner, the widow of Col. Abraham Gardiner, leaves to her son Nathaniel “my clock, my mill, my sword which was his Fathers, my new Silver Cann, one half dozen spoons marked AMG, one black walnut chest.” Those items in a later will found among the papers instead were to go to a grandson.

Another item, a letter written in 1796, is to Colonel Mulford from John McComb, the architect of the Montauk Lighthouse.

Also dating from 1776 is a bill of sale between David Mulford the younger and Reverend Buell for “my Negro Servant man called Gree.” The price, “fifty pounds of lawful money of New-York currency.”

Other letters convey detailed military intelligence or hint at disagreements among men over their degree of  commitment to the revolutionary cause.

Among the familiar old East Hampton names are some that are not so well known. One is in a 1759 indenture agreement for Benjamin Pinick of “Montauket on Long Island,” who went to work on the Isle of Wight, the name of Gardiner’s Island at the time.

The auction will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday. Blanchard’s plans a live-stream of the proceedings and a short introduction to the lots by Mr. Arbour.

Mr. Barons is hopeful that the family papers, Lot B in the Saturday auction, can return to East Hampton. The East Hampton Library is among the parties interested in bidding for them to add to its climate-controlled Long Island Collection. “It would be so much more readily available to have them in this community. It means that they can become woven in as part of our whole fabric,” Mr. Barons said. 

A spreading infestation of southern pine beetles in Northwest Woods, East Hampton, prompted Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell to declare a state of emergency last Thursday, authorizing town employees to inspect both public and private lands and, if necessary, cut down infested trees, with the permission of the landowner.

Concerned residents — “a very high volume,” according to the town’s Department of Land Acquisition and Management — have been calling Town Hall, including many from the Northwest neighborhood, but also from other parts of town. Inspections are ongoing, Andy Drake, an environmental analyst for the town, said in an email on Tuesday, and a map showing the spread of the pine beetle outbreak is being created. 

“We are doing our best to get back to everyone that calls as quickly as possible,” wrote Mr. Drake. In addition to more than 1,700 affected trees on a piece of town-owned land, about 800 trees on private property have been found infested.

Workers deployed to East Hampton by the State Department of Environmental Conservation began cutting down infested trees on the town-owned site on Tuesday. The team is expected to be at work on the outbreak for the next week. 

Town workers felled an additional 20 “stage-one infested pitch pines,” Mr. Drake said, on the former Maeder property at 46 Swamp Road in East Hampton, which the town purchased using the community preservation fund. 

Mr. Cantwell’s emergency declaration says that “time is of the essence to attempt to manage and stop the spread of the infestation, as town staff is observing more trees being infested on a daily basis.” Accordingly, the town has given the land management staff authority to contract with private tree care companies to cut down beetle-infested trees. The department is receiving bids from several companies, and hopes to have agreements in place for work to begin on private lands next week, said Mr. Drake.

The town board will be asked at its meeting tomorrow night to approve funding up to $180,000 to address the pine beetle crisis, Mr. Cantwell said. Of that sum, $100,000 would come from the preservation fund, which can be used for work on lands purchased and preserved through the C.P.F. program. Work on other town-owned or private lands would be paid for with an $80,000 appropriation from the town’s general fund. The initial five-day state-of-emergency period, which expired Tuesday afternoon, is to be extended.

“The goal here is for the tree to be felled flat on the ground,” and for cuts to be made in the bark to expose beetles to predators and the weather, Mr. Cantwell explained Tuesday. On average, he said, the work costs $100 per tree. 

The State Department of Environmental Conservation “has advised that the infestation will continue to spread to other public and private properties that are dominated by pitch pines if not managed,  posing the threat of creating an environmental catastrophe of tens of thousands of pitch pines being killed by these beetles,” according to the emergency declaration.

Native to the southeastern United States, where they have severely impacted forests, southern pine beetles have been expanding their range. Warming winter temperatures are believed to be the cause.

The beetles were first found in New York State three years ago in other areas of Suffolk County, including Long Island’s core Pine Barrens. Until now, East Hampton has been spared a serious outbreak.

“The threat of tree loss from pine beetle infestation of pitch pine forests is great where an outbreak spreads rapidly during certain times of the year,” Mr. Cantwell said last week in a release. “The adult beetle tunnels through the tree underneath the bark, killing the tree in two to four months.”

While it appears pitch pines are the trees most affected at present, there is concern, the supervisor said, about beetles spreading to white pines and other East Hampton pine forests. 

Southern pine beetle populations can persist for years in low numbers, according to the D.E.C., but then explode, killing many trees, if conditions are right. Signs of an infestation include clumps of resin visible on the exterior of pine trees, holes and tunnels in the bark, and reddish-brown dead needles.

East Hampton Town had already planned to seek state funding for a pine beetle containment program that would have begun in January, but the spread of the beetles has created an “urgent need” to curtail infestations, according to Mr. Drake.

“Southern pine beetles are believed to be idle below 45 degrees Fahrenheit,” he wrote. “So, hopefully, the temperatures drop very soon and the pause button is hit on this southern pine beetle expansion.”

Property owners wanting to report an infestation or request a site inspection have been asked to contact the Department of Land Acquisition and Management at 631-324-7420. The D.E.C. website contains general information about the southern pine beetle and its impact on trees. 

Voter turnout will be high among East Hampton’s senior citizens, according to an informal poll taken early this week, but most of those gathered at the town’s senior citizens center on Monday were tight-lipped as to their opinions of the 2017 campaign and those asking for their vote. 

As they gathered at the center on Springs-Fireplace Road that day, discussion was lively — until a reporter showed up, at least. 

One aspect of this year’s race for townwide offices including supervisor, town board, and trustees has left some voters decidedly annoyed: the campaign signs that sprouted like invasive weeds on nearly every inch of open space. 

“I find they’re very distracting,” said Joan Brill Kallmeyer of Springs. “I’m very annoyed by them, and I don’t want to vote for any of them.” Ms. Kallmeyer said that she does intend to vote, however.

“All the campaign posters” were also on Kerry S. Baker’s mind. “I think it’s disgusting, and I can’t believe the town has allowed it,” said the Springs resident. “It’s like garage sale signs — after people have garage sales, they never take the signs down. This is East Hampton; this is a beautiful, rural hamlet. The signs are up and down the road. It’s never been like this, as much, and I think it’s horrible.”

In campaign season, candidates’ reach extends right into people’s houses, said one visitor to the center. “Every night, some woman calls,” she said, adding that upon hearing the familiar voice she slams the telephone receiver down. “Hopefully, it will damage her hearing,” she said. Is the voice on the other end advocating for a particular candidate? she was asked. “I’ve never listened. I don’t get that far.”

For Anthony Lombardo of East Hampton, there is just one important issue. “There’s a handful of us that live here on reduced rent,” he said. “We don’t have much money. I know the cabs have to make their money — I was an entrepreneur, I sympathize.” But for residents of the Windmill Village and St. Michael’s senior citizens apartment complexes in East Hampton and Amagansett, “if you go to the train station or to the supermarket and back, there should be some financial consideration” of the fare, he said. “I don’t blame them, they have to make their money, but just for those of us in some hardship, when we need some minor transportation. That’s the only thing I would like.” 

Ms. Kallmeyer gave high marks to Supervisor Larry Cantwell, who is not seeking re-election. Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, a Democrat, will be elected to succeed him, one man predicted. Not if Paul Harry of East Hampton can help it, however. “I’m a staunch Republican,” he said, “so I’ll vote the ticket.” 

One man who did not wish to be identified predicted that “the constitutional convention would give all those bloodsuckers more of a finger into our pies,” should New Yorkers vote next week to hold a convention to revise and amend the State Constitution in 2018. 

Discussion often veered to politics at the national level, and, one year later, at least a few visitors to the center were still needling one another over their vote for, or against, President Trump. 

Regardless, lawmakers at every level of government do share one trait, the opponent of a constitutional convention stated. “When somebody gets elected,” he said, “I think they take them to a room and have their brains turned to mush."

Tuesday may be an off-year Election Day as far as national and New York State elections are concerned, but for Long Island’s townships the stakes are high.

In East Hampton and Southampton there are competitive races for town board and supervisor, and several important county positions are in play as well. 

East Hampton Town Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc hopes to follow Larry Cantwell as supervisor. Mr. Cantwell is not seeking re-election after four years in the post and plans to retire from public life. East Hampton Town Councilman Fred Overton is also not seeking re-election.

Should Mr. Van Scoyoc take the top job, a vacancy would be left on the five-member town board as of January, when a board majority could appoint someone to serve until a special election in November 2018. That person could then run to fill the remaining year of Mr. Van Scoyoc’s term. 

Mr. Van Scoyoc’s challenger is Manny Vilar, a New York State Parks police sergeant making his first bid for elected office.

Rounding out the town candidates are Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, who is nearing the end of her first term as a councilwoman, and three first-time candidates, Jeffrey Bragman, Paul Giardina, and Gerard Larsen. 

Polls will be open in East Hampton from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. A list of polling places can be found on page A11.

Live election results will be carried on LTV on Optimum channel 20. South­ampton results will be on channel 22.

Shall there be a convention to revise the Constitution and amend the same?

This is the first of three questions that will be put to New York State voters on Tuesday, appearing on the flip side of the election ballots. 

The State Constitution requires that every 20 years voters decide if a convention should be held to amend it. If a majority votes no on Tuesday, there will be no convention. If the yeas prevail, three delegates from each senatorial district will be elected in November 2018, along with 15 at-large delegates who will be elected statewide. The delegates would convene in Albany in April 2019. 

Amendments adopted by a majority of delegates would be submitted to voters in a statewide referendum, at an election held at least six weeks after the convention adjourns. Any amendments that voters approve would take effect the following Jan. 1.

Should voters decide in favor of a constitutional convention, the delegates will wield significant power. They will appoint any officers, employees, and assistants that they deem necessary, and set their compensation. They will also determine the convention’s expenses and the rules of their proceedings. Delegates would be paid the equivalent of an Assembly member’s salary, $79,500, plus travel and other expenses. 

The last state constitutional convention, in 1967, spanned five and a half months. In that year’s general election, voters rejected all of the delegates’ proposals. New Yorkers voted against calling a constitutional convention in 1977 and 1997. 

The question of holding such a convention is controversial. Proponents say that new rights and safeguards for democracy, such as fair campaign finance, nonpartisan redistricting, rights to clean air and water, and protection for women’s right to choose could be gained by holding one. Opponents argue that rights already in the State Constitution, such as free and public education, safeguards for public employee pensions, and a ban on public funds for religious schools, could be lost. 

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele has not taken an active role in the debate but is personally opposed to a constitutional convention. “It’s not about whether or not you support reform, I do,” he told The Star on Tuesday. “It’s not whether positive changes to the constitution can be made — that could happen, too. But I don’t think this mechanism, the way it’s set up, is going to yield that reform.” 

One problem, said Mr. Thiele, is that the delegates would be chosen under the same election and campaign-finance laws by which senators are elected. Absent restrictions on who can be a delegate, he said, the body could comprise “political leaders, lobbyists, governors’ appointees, people that have a vested stake or interest in the status quo.” Instead, he said, “It should be more a people’s convention.” 

“If I thought that this convention would yield reform, I would support it,” Mr. Thiele said. “I do support a bill that would put limitations about who could be elected as a delegate.” Should voters approve a convention to revise the constitution, he said, “I would push for legislation that’d put in place some limitations on who would be delegates” before the convention took place.

Convention opponents also fear that “it’s going to open up some constitutionally protected benefits for employees of the state, municipalities, and others,” said East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell. “So unions are strongly opposed to it. Things like the retirement system and other things are protected in the constitution now, and unions fear that protection will be lost.”

“I don’t believe there is a strong consensus of opinion for this,” Mr. Cantwell said, “nor have those who support it made a case for it, frankly.”

The East Hampton Town Republican Committee has not taken a position on a constitutional convention, said Reg Cornelia, its chairman. Speaking for himself, he said such procedures are liable to abuse. “It depends on who runs those conventions — for all we know, they could come out with ‘The Communist Manifesto,’ ” he said. “We got lucky with the Founders, they wrote a brilliant constitution.” New Yorkers “might not be so lucky, although it seems like people are fed up with Albany.”

The East Hampton Group for Good Government has likewise not taken a stand,  said Arthur Malman, its vice president. Mr. Malman said Tuesday that he had yet to study the issue in depth.

The question was the subject of a debate last month at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Amagansett, hosted by the East Hampton Democratic Committee. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, argued for a “no” vote, while Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union of New York City, presented the opposite view.

Citizens Union was formed as an independent political party in 1897 and repurposed itself, in 1908, as “a nonpartisan force for good government to avoid the problem of party patronage,” according to its website. It strongly urges New Yorkers to vote in favor of a constitutional convention, which it calls a once-in-a-generation occasion to “open” the State Constitution and “make much-needed reforms to improve the performance of our State government, strengthen the integrity of our political institutions, and reform our broken 20th-century voting and electoral systems.” 

New York State United Teachers, a federation of unions representing more than 600,000 current or retired school faculty, administrators, and other employees, as well as health care professionals such as nurses and technicians, is equally determined in its opposition. In its November-December periodical, it calls a constitutional convention a wasteful and costly exercise that “would be controlled by Albany politicians and insiders.” The right to join a union, retirement security, health care, and children’s access to quality public education would be threatened by a convention, it argues. 

“Unions have been very organized against a constitutional convention,” Mr. Thiele said, “primarily because of their concern that the guaranteed protection of pension benefits could be altered.” But, like the adage about politics in general, this ballot proposal has made for strange bedfellows, he said. “You’ve got groups that are usually allies that aren’t, and groups that are usually in opposition that are. The landscape is interesting, but after I carve all that away, without putting limits on the rules for delegate selection . . . and it’s probably costing a lot of money in the process.”

Citizens Union acknowledges a possible threat to protections codified in the Constitution, but “we believe that this risk is worth taking, as it provides the opportunity to construct governmental systems that improve representative democracy through increased accountability, transparency, effectiveness, and ethical conduct.”

Senator Kenneth P. LaValle Jr. said that, as a state senator, “We cannot promote any constitutional issue that’s on the ballot.” He did say, however, that those in favor of a constitutional convention “have to put forth a pretty good argument, because of the cost.” But most important, he said, “People need to make a decision and vote.”

On the eve of an important local election, the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee and its candidates held a fund-raising edge over the Republicans. This was despite almost $75,000 in late donations to the East Hampton Town Republican Committee from a mystery group linked to the town airport.

According to reports filed with the New York Board of Elections, the Republican committee brought in just over $52,000 between Oct. 3 and 23, nearly all of it from a single source. The top-dollar donor was the same contributor that gave the committee $24,970 in September, GNYG, a limited-liability company with a Midtown Manhattan office building address. It donated $25,000 to the Republican committee on Oct. 10 and $24,940 on Oct. 16.

Richard Gherardi, the Republican committee treasurer, said in an interview that GNYG was a number of East Hampton homeowners who use helicopter services at East Hampton Airport. 

“They are several people from south of the highway, Lily Pond Lane and Further Lane, who have gotten together because they are unhappy with the way the town has been being managed,” he said. 

The anonymous donors are not owners of any of the helicopter companies or aviation interests that pumped more than $275,000 to the town Republicans in 2015, Mr. Gherardi said. “They do take helicopters out here,” he said.

The almost $75,000 GNYG was reported as giving to the committee since the beginning of August accounted for more than two-thirds of its total income and half of all money raised by all Republicans in East Hampton Town this year.

GNYG’s Manhattan address is in the same building as offices of Fox News and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., among many other businesses.

The individuals behind GNYG could not be precisely identified; it is a Delaware-registered limited liability company.

In campaign materials and public statements, the Republican town board candidates have expressed support for fewer restrictions at East Hampton Airport. 

“These individuals have every right to put their money into organizations that they believe in. We are unsurprised by this,” said Kathleen Cunningham, the chairwoman of the Quiet Skies Coalition, an East Hampton advocacy group concerned with aircraft noise. 

The political action committee of the Quiet Skies Coalition, Q.S.C. PAC, filed reports with the board of elections on Monday, two days after a Friday deadline, indicating that it had received about $14,000 in donations. 

On Wednesday, Quiet Skies announced its endorsements of three East Hampton Democrats, Peter Van Scoyoc for town supervisor and Kathee Burke-Gonzalez and Jeff Bragman for town board.

Amos Goodman, an East Hampton Republican activist, said on Monday that he had filed a complaint with the state board of elections alleging problems with the Quiet Skies PAC’s late disclosure. Several of its contributions should have actually been declared in an earlier filing round but none were reported, he said. Mr. Goodman ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Suffolk Legislature two years ago.

Mr. Goodman also told the board of elections that the Quiet Skies Coalition’s chairwoman, Ms. Cunningham, who is also a member of the town planning board, could be violating the spirit of a state law barring policy makers from managing political committees. Pat Trunzo, an East Hampton building contractor, is the Quiet Skies PAC treasurer, Ms. Cunningham said.

In his own letter, Donald Cirillo, a former East Hampton Republican Committee treasurer, made similar allegations about the Quiet Skies report to the board of elections.

When she was appointed to the planning board in 2015, Ms. Cunningham said, she asked the town attorney if her role with the Quiet Skies Coalition and as the director of the Village Preservation Society would present a conflict. She said that she was told it would not.

“No one has asked me to recuse myself,” she said. “I feel that I can be fair when those matters come up.” 

“They don’t have enough substance in their general theme, so they have to hit me personally,” Ms. Cunningham said.

She said that the anonymous donors to the town Republican Committee, if they did indeed use helicopters to get to and from East Hampton, may actually be acting against their own interests, as calls to close the airport continue to mount in the absence of measures to address excessive aircraft noise. “I think they are at cross-purposes. I don’t think they have thought this through,” she said.

Among Democratic fund-raising groups, donations totaled more than $65,000 since Oct. 3, according to reports filed with the board of elections, bringing the year’s total so far to just over $166,000.

Campaign 2017, the Democrats’ main fund-raising arm, took in just over $47,000 in that period. The town Democratic Committee reported $13,450 in contributions during the same period. Thomas Ogden of Wainscott was the top donor to the various Democratic funds, providing $9,000.

Donations to the several Republican campaign committees added up to about $55,000, raising their total income to a bit over $150,000.

Paul Giardina, running for East Hampton Town Board, was listed as loaning his campaign committee $1,000 on Oct. 23.

Update, 11:18 a.m.:  “There was never any fire,” said Debra Winter, the Springs School superintendent, when she was reached about why the school was evacuated Tuesday morning.

“We pulled the fire alarm because it did not go off since the smoke was isolated to one classroom," Ms. Winter explained. Some children were still on school buses, about to be dropped off when the smoke was noticed at about 8:30 a.m. Students still on buses remained on them while those already inside the building were taken to the school’s evacuation sites: Ashawagh Hall, the Springs Library, and the Springs Community Presbyterian Church.

The Fire Department determined that a piece of caulk from the heating system fell onto a steam pipe. They found the charred caulk, the official culprit to blame for the smoke, Ms. Winter said. The fire chief could not be reached for immediate comment.

Students returned to the building at 9:45 a.m., the superintendent said.

Originally, 9:38 p.m.: The Springs School was evacuated as a precaution after people smelled smoke in the building Tuesday morning, East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo said.

Chief Sarlo said students should be returning to class soon as fire officials were completing their investigation. "Parents do not need to pick up their kids. Fire drill protocols [are] being followed," he wrote in an email. 

Firefighters with the Springs Fire Department were called to 48 School Street for a possible structure fire at about 8:30 a.m., but only an engine was asked to respond. Firefighters and police were still on the scene at about 9:20 a.m. and students were keeping warm in the nearby Ashawagh Hall and the Springs Community Church. Meanwhile, School Street was blocked off for emergency vehicles.

Chief Sarlo said he would defer to fire officials on what caused the smell of smoke. 

This article will be updated with more information when it becomes available.

The Farrell Building Company’s plan to build an eight-bedroom, 4,627-square-foot house in the middle of Ditch Plain, a Montauk neighborhood known for its small lots and modest homes, has two neighbors seeing red.

The one-acre-plus property, at the dogleg corner of Caswell Road and Agnew Avenue, is one of the last undeveloped tracts in the Ditch neighborhood. In addition to the house, Farrell proposes to construct a 647-square-foot swimming pool and a small detached garage. Because the lot contains substantial wetlands — some 4,785 square feet — Farrell needs a special permit from the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals, which held a public hearing on the plan on Oct. 24. 

Farrell has agreed to create a 14,162-square-foot easement to protect the wetlands, and the State Department of Environmental Conservation and the East Hampton Architectural Review Board have already signed off on the plan, with the latter approval being needed because the property is in the Montauk Association Historic District. Just behind it stands one of the so-called Seven Sisters cottages, designed by McKim, Mead and White.

Katie Osiecki of Due East Planning, representing the applicant, told zoning board members that while swimming pools are unusual in Ditch, there are six in the neighborhood.

Lisa D’Andrea, the town planner overseeing the application, stressed the importance of the wetlands. Besides the area already documented, she said, there is another part of the lot that the town investigated as possible wetlands, though it fell short of qualifying. The presence of wetlands in Ditch is vital, Ms. D’Andrea said in her memo to the board, describing the property in question as typical of the area, where soil is hard rather than sandy, and drains poorly. Much of the runoff flows toward Lake Montauk, she noted, and increased development has led to higher nitrogen levels in the lake.

Maria Sidorff and her late husband, Michael Sidorff, built their house east of the Farrell property in 1968. They were public school teachers at the time. Ms. Sidorff, now an archaeologist, had just returned from Europe when she saw a sign on the neighboring property announcing the public hearing, she said, adding that she had never otherwise been notified of the Farrell proposal. 

Rick Whalen, the lawyer representing the applicant, said that notice had been sent to Ms. Sidorff via certified mail. That, it turned out, was the problem. The town has Ms. Sidorff’s Florida address as her mailing address. Because the letter is certified, and requires a signature, it was not forwarded to her Montauk address. 

Ms. Sidorff warned of flooding, which she said is prevalent in the neighborhood. Mr. Whalen countered that the undeveloped property is not in a flood zone. Ms. Sidorff also expressed concern that overdevelopment was causing degradation of water quality in the hamlet.

The neighbor to the west also spoke out against the proposal. Abigail Monahan told the board that her mother, Lili Adams, the owner of the Ditch Witch food truck, and her father, Thomas Monahan, were unable to attend the meeting, but wanted their objections heard. They were not against development of the property, she said, but felt that the proposed building envelope was far too large.

The zoning board agreed to close the public hearing but keep the record open for two weeks, to allow a more accurate survey to be filed.

Also on Oct. 24, board members approved Robert DeNiro’s plan to tear down his almost-3,000-square-foot Old Montauk Highway residence in Montauk and replace it with a slightly smaller modern structure. The property, almost an acre and a half, faces the ocean, and the existing house pre-dates zoning. Mr. DeNiro, the star of such films as “Mean Streets,” “Taxi Driver,” and “The Godfather Part 2,” needed a permit to proceed because of the proximity of bluffs. The two variances granted will allow the new house and decking to be closer to the toe of the bluff than town code allows.

Celebrities usually hide their identities behind mysteriously named limited liability companies, but not Mr. DeNiro. On Sept. 26, when the public hearing on his application was held, he walked into Town Hall accompanied by the architect, Pamela Glazer, and they took seats in the front row center.

Mr. DeNiro was not present on Oct. 24. Cate Rogers, a board member, said that his current house dates mostly from the 1950s and has cracks in the foundation, and called the new septic system, which will be installed between the new house and Old Montauk Highway, a “significant” improvement. She noted that the new structure will be as far from the bluff line as possible. Board members then instructed their attorney, Elizabeth Baldwin, to draw up an approval for the proposal.