It’s been about eight years since I last soaked and fished my lobster traps. Why did I stop? Well, it was a number of factors, first and foremost that it took a good amount of time to check and rebait the traps. Plus, my boat is not exactly a speed demon. A bit over 30 feet long with a fat 12-foot beam, the commercial Nova Scotia-built boat is very stout and heavy, moving barely more than 14 knots at cruising speed. As stable and safe as she is, she will never be confused with an offshore racer with quadruple 300-horsepower outboards. Speed is not my game.

As such, my trips to the lobster grounds near Plum and Gardiner’s Islands that held a decent amount of the tasty crustaceans, would take about an hour each way. Trying spots closer to home proved pretty futile. Lobsters love a rock-strewn environment and such real estate is just not in close proximity to my homeport of Sag Harbor. While my lobster catch rate dipped in my final few years of trapping, enough could be had each week to secure a nice shore dinner with friends (recreational folks can retain six, legal-size lobsters per day with up to five traps and must pay a $10 yearly fee for a noncommercial license). Trust me, you can make many new friends when you catch and offer them a lobster. 

After retiring from my corporate gig this past July, thoughts of setting my traps out entered my mind again. But the season was set to close on Sept. 8, and upon closer inspection, my gear was just not up to snuff as it had sat idle in the back of my marina for nearly a decade. Some serious decay had set in. Purchasing a new trap is expensive; a standard 36-inch trap can run anywhere from $75 to $100. Not cheap. I needed another solution.

Keeping in contact with some of the few commercial fishermen out of Montauk who still fish for lobster is a good option for used traps. Then a post on Bonac Yard Sale caught my eye the other day. On the popular closed Facebook group that allows local residents to buy, sell, and barter goods and services, I saw a post for used lobster traps for just $5 apiece. As the saying goes, the price was right. 

The traps were located toward the northern part of Springs, and Friday was as good as any day to take a ride to check them out and hopefully purchase a few. Ted Lester of the well-known fishing family possessed the traps, and about 200 of them were stacked like cordwood, eight feet high in the back of his yard. Preparing to move to a new home, Lester had stopped lobstering and was looking to clear out his gear before the new owners took over the property. 

Culling through the pile was no easy chore. Many were well worn and encrusted with white, dried-out barnacles. But others were in good shape. If those traps could talk, each would have some great stories to tell. They certainly caught their fair share of lobsters for the many years they were used. A handshake and an exchange of $50 bought me 10 traps for next season. A good deal.

Knowing that the traps came from a Lester felt like getting a product affixed with a blue-ribbon seal of approval. The traps are proven and battle-tested. I also have a good feeling that when I resume setting my traps next spring, I will likely have some new friends to share what I catch. And that’s not bad either. 

Elsewhere on the water, the fishing scene perked up on several fronts in recent days. “The action on the beaches has picked up nicely,” said Harvey Bennett of the Tackle Shop in Amagansett, who is also a distant cousin of Mr. Lester. “They opened the cut for Georgica Pond the other day and a lot of keeper stripers have been taken at night.” Bennett added that big bluefish are off Gardiner’s Island and that the Navy dock in Fort Pond Bay is holding a nice supply of blowfish, kingfish, and sea bass. 

“And don’t forget to check out the whales off of Amagansett,” added Bennett. “They have been putting on quite a show for a number of days close to the beach. Very cool to see them.”

Sebastian Gorgone, proprietor of Mrs. Sam’s Bait and Tackle in East Hampton, also echoed Bennett’s word on the improved beach action. “Good bass fishing of late from the ocean,” he said. “Lots of striped bass are being landed, but they have been picky too.” Gorgone suggests using a small one-to-two-ounce slender diamond jig with a rubber tail for the best results. “The fish are feeding on small sand eels, so as they say, you need to match the hatch.”

Blackfish activity is slowly picking up steam in shallow water. “I had one customer this weekend catch 15 keepers,” said Ken Morse of Tight Lines Bait and Tackle in Sag Harbor. “But they were in just 10 feet of water off Plum Island.” In the highly unusual category, Morse added that on Sunday a number of boaters and beach walkers saw a very large ocean sunfish gently flopping side-to-side in Noyac Bay. “I’ve never heard of a sunfish that far in the bay before. Very weird to say the least.” 

Out at Montauk, anglers were enthused with the reopening of Rhode Island and federal waters to black sea bass fishing on Sunday. Large sea bass were ready and waiting, and the catches were excellent, with a smattering of codfish mixed in too. “There were a lot of big sea bass on the cleaning tables on Sunday,” said David Reutershan at Westlake Marina. “Everybody reported excellent fishing.” The largest sea bass weighed in was a jumbo 6.8-pound fish taken by Pat Pavelik on the Egret. 

Reutershan said that striped bass fishing slowed up on Sunday, but that prior to that, the fishing was very good. “There are lots of reports of striped bass being very thick up in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, so we hope this great run of fish will continue through Thanksgiving this year.”  

Hunters should take note that the season to pursue pheasant and quail opens on Wednesday. And if a turkey for Thanksgiving is on your agenda, the season runs from Nov. 18 to Dec. 1.

We welcome your fishing tips, observations, and photographs at fish@ehstar.com. You can find the “On the Water” column on Twitter at @ehstarfishing.

“I call it the alphabet soup of college applications,” said Andi O’Hearn, the chief of student advancement at the Ross School in East Hampton, whose office is the last stop for seniors before they apply. Her reference was to the staggering number of options available to 12th graders today when it comes time to send in their applications.

The first deadline some students will encounter is Wednesday’s early decision date, when thousands of students across the country will click the “submit” button for only their single most desired college or university. Answers come back in December. In the alphabet soup parlance that Ms. O’Hearn mentioned, early decision is known as ED I, and if the college says yes, the student is contractually obliged to attend.

In addition to ED I, there is ED II — also binding, although with a slightly later deadline date, giving the student more time to shop around. Then there is early action, or EA, which has the same deadline as ED I but is nonbinding and does not require the student to accept or decline until around May 1. Next, there is restrictive early action, or EA II, which, according to Ms. O’Hearn, often appears only in the fine print at certain schools, and, although it is nonbinding, the applicant is not allowed to apply ED or EA to another school. 

Rolling decisions is another, whereby a school will consider applications as they arrive and notify students about three weeks later. Priority applications have an earlier deadline because of some unique consideration, such as an athletic or merit scholarship. Yet one more option: the plain old-fashioned regular decision, with a deadline usually around Jan. 1.

And all this presented to students who have yet to make it out of high school.

On the South Fork, approximately 140 of some 340 current seniors enrolled in the four nearest high schools — East Hampton, Pierson in Sag Harbor, Bridgehampton, and Ross — will apply in the early rounds, according to college admissions officials at those schools.

Adam Fine, the principal at East Hampton High School, said the senior class was full of early deciders. Approximately 65 students of the 186 who will graduate next year have already applied in the early pool or will do so by Wednesday, said Karen Kuneth, the school’s counseling coordinator, who oversees five counselors who help high schoolers.

Ms. Kuneth, who has worked in the school district for 17 years, said that while the number of early decision applications has remained consistent over the last few years, the number of early action applications (the nonbinding one) has risen exponentially. 

“EA really changed the landscape of applications,” she said. “Because it’s nonbinding, there’s really no downside for students who want to commit to certain schools but not all the way.” She said that last year’s class did “very well” by applying early.

Ms. Kuneth is quick to caution, however, as does the Ross School’s Ms. O’Hearn, that students who could strengthen or complete their transcripts, or need extra time to improve their grades or test scores, should not apply during the early rounds.

“ED and EA offer a false security,” explained Ms. O’Hearn, who has worked in admissions and college counseling since 1983. Approximately 50 percent of the 85 seniors at Ross will apply early, she said, adding, “I spend a lot of time talking kids out of applying early because it’s only an advantage if they are qualified candidates.” By that she means that their scores, grades, and overall portfolio will not threaten to hurt their selected college’s rankings.

Indeed, college rankings often lie at the inner workings of the black box that is the college admissions process. The annually published U.S. News & World Report ranking has long incensed journalists and educators who claim that the list’s real purpose is to exacerbate status anxiety in prospective students and parents. Many learned voices have decried the existence of such lists, claiming that they have encouraged colleges and universities to game the system — to do what they can to raise their place in the rankings.

Ms. O’Hearn said that she wants to believe the myriad options for college applications are there to offer students diverse choices and greater flexibility. But, ultimately, she conceded to another possibility: By aggressively increasing the size of their applicant pool, colleges can turn away a higher percentage of their applicants, thus appearing to be more selective and thereby raising the school’s ranking. After all, a college’s selectivity is the prime indicator of its desirability. 

Nonetheless, for the “earlies” there is some reassurance. An annual survey conducted by U.S. News in 2015 revealed that among the 245 ranked colleges and universities that participated in the study, the average acceptance rate for applicants who applied early decision or early action was about 63.1 percent, while the average for regular applicants was about 50.2 percent — a difference of 12.9 percentage points. 

For now, and over the next six weeks or so, college hopefuls and their parents will have no choice but to figure how to best navigate the complicated, anxiety-inducing experience of college admissions. Listening to advice from counselors is recommended. “We work hard to try and be sure the students understand the best strategies for them individually, and we work to support them,” Ms. O’Hearn said.

The Cedar Street Committee, led by Jeffrey Bragman, an attorney currently running for town board, has filed a lawsuit against the East Hampton School District, challenging the findings of an environmental impact study of school-owned property on Cedar Street, carried out under the State Environment Quality Review Act, or SEQRA. The study was paid for by the school and performed in April, at which time the school was considering building a bus depot on the street. That plan has since been set aside, with a parcel on Springs-Fireplace Road emerging as the front-runner.

“We have been served papers,” Rich Burns, the school’s superintendent, announced during last week’s board meeting. “It’s a request for judicial intervention. We are in a lawsuit.”

According to Mr. Bragman, the suit was filed because, “We felt it was prudent to make this challenge in the event that the Cedar Street property resurfaces as the building site.” However, he said, it is unlikely that the Cedar Street Committee will follow through with the lawsuit, as the school appears to be moving forward with the purchase of the Springs-Fireplace Road property. With a statute of limitations looming, Mr. Bragman explained, if they did not file, they would lose the right to do so in the future. It serves as a precaution, he said.

Board members were visibly surprised by the news. “Now,” said Christina DeSanti, the board’s vice president, “taxpayers will have to pay for legal fees.”

The next board meeting will be on Nov. 8 at 6:30 p.m. The board is expected to make its declaration regarding the mandated environmental impact study of the Springs-Fireplace Road property. V.H.B., the engineering and planning company that carried out the review, did not indicate the need for additional studies to be performed; they found that building the bus depot on the site would not have a negative environmental impact. However, the board felt it was in their best interest to commission a geophysical survey to uncover any potential buried hazards at the onetime scavenger waste site, which is owned by East Hampton Town. The geophysical survey was carried out earlier this week, and the results should be available by the next board meeting.

Eighteen candidates will vie on Nov. 7 for the nine seats on the East Hampton Town Trustees.

The trustees, a governing body distinct from the East Hampton Town Board, were granted jurisdiction over the town's common lands, including many of its beaches, bottomlands, and waterways by the Dongan Patent of 1686.

The trustees have diverse functions, including issuing permits and collecting fees for docks and moorings, and activities on lands under their jurisdiction, such as bulkhead reconstruction, but the trustee board has increasingly focused its attention on addressing water-quality degradation and stopping attempts by private property owners to privatize beaches or beach access points. Trustees are elected for two-year terms every two years, with all nine terms expiring in the same year.

Even if all of the incumbents running are re-elected, there will be new members on the 2018-19 board. Two current trustees, Tim Bock and Tyler Armstrong, are not seeking re-election. A third, Pat Mansir, resigned earlier this year.

Nearly all of the candidates have multiple party backing. Many of the candidates took part in recent forums organized by the East Hampton Historical Society.

Click on the names below to read about their backgrounds and qualifications. The letters following each name represent their party endorsements: C for Conservative, D for Democratic, I for Independence, R for Republican, Rf for Reform, W.E. for Women's Equality, and W.F. for Working Families. A sample ballot for the Town of East Hampton can be downloaded as a PDF here and in Spanish here.

John Aldred, D, I, W.F.

Joseph Bloecker, R, C, I

Francis Bock, D, W.F.

Brian Byrnes, D, W.F.

Gary Cobb, R, C, I

Dell Cullum, D

Richard Drew, D, I, W.F.

Julie Evans, R, Rf, C, I

Jim Grimes, R, C

Michael Havens, R, C

Lyndsey Hayes, R, C, I

Susan McGraw Keber, D, W.F., W.E.

Rona Klopman, D, I

Diane McNally, R, C, I

Francesca Rheannon, D, W.F., W.E.

Bill Taylor, D, I, W.F.

Susan Vorpahl, R, C, I

Willy Wolter, R, C

The Star's 2017 East Hampton Town Trustee endorsements can be found here.

A recent resurfacing of Conklin Terrace left much to be desired, residents of the street told the East Hampton Village Board on Friday. 

A contractor resurfaced the street on Oct. 2 in what Michael Bouker, the deputy superintendent of public works, described as an effort to preserve it and extend its lifetime. Minor repairs were done before the resurfacing, he said. “We’ve been doing this since 2008,” he said. “We’ve had some good results. It’s an intermediate step meant to extend the lifetime of the road.” 

But Sara Adams, one of several residents of Conklin Terrace to attend the meeting, complained of the “poor quality of work” on the road. “We, the residents, did not ask for our street to be repaved, and as a matter of fact we thought it was fine the way it was,” she said. Since the resurfacing, “the road is rough, jagged, uneven, unsightly, and ugly, with unfinished edges and irregular sides,” she said.

____

Betsy Petroski Smith brought another issue to the board’s attention, that of ‘the over-proliferation of magazines and publications that are littering our streets and sidewalks on Main Street and Newtown Lane.’

____

Ms. Adams and her neighbors “believe as a neighborhood community and taxpayers that we deserve better than what was laid down,” which “has greatly damaged the quality of our neighborhood.” Drainage issues were also not addressed, she said. She asked that the board “approve and grant us a new resurfaced roadway that is properly paved with hot asphalt to correct the damage done to Conklin Terrace.” Residents of the block planned to submit a petition to the board bearing that request this week. 

Asked by Barbara Borsack, a member of the board, when the full repaving of the street would be scheduled, Mr. Bouker answered that it would be some years off. “We’re going to see how it wears,” he said of the dead-end street. “It’s a low-volume road.”

Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. asked the residents to remain in contact with Mr. Bouker “to see if we can get through some of these issues. . . . We don’t want you to think that you’re a stepchild because you’re a dead-end street. . . . We accept your comments, we’ll try to work with you.” The board will discuss the matter with Scott Fithian, the superintendent of public works, he said, but would not make any guarantees, especially in light of the cost incurred from the recent resurfacing. “It’s not going to happen this year,” he said. 

Another resident of Conklin Terrace, Betsy Petroski Smith, brought another issue to the board’s attention, that of “the over-proliferation of magazines and publications that are littering our streets and sidewalks on Main Street and Newtown Lane.” These periodicals, she said, “are being dumped at a weekly rate, left to blow around, create a mess, especially after a rainstorm, and becoming an ugly eyesore in our beautiful village throughout the spring, summer, and fall seasons.” 

A Facebook page called East Hampton Magazines Littering Our Sidewalks documents “this mess in town,” Ms. Petroski Smith said, and its members are “wondering why the village board is allowing this to happen.” She asked that the board develop a plan to “take control of the situation before next spring and to clean up this mess for us.” 

“We recognize it’s an ongoing problem,” the mayor said. “We’re trying to grapple with it. I can assure you that the office of the village administrator, working with D.P.W., we’re attempting to make it better than it is already. . . . But indeed your comment is well spoken. We don’t really care for it either.” 

Also at the meeting, the board adopted amendments to the village code. One prohibits parking for a distance of 75 feet on the northern side of Fithian Lane. The restriction is in response to residents’ concerns about a line-of-sight problem. For the same reason, another amendment prohibits parking on Cross Highway from its intersection with Further Lane north to Hither Lane, on its east side from the intersection with Montauk Highway south to Hither Lane, and on both sides of Georgica Road from its intersection with Briar Patch Road to Montauk Highway. 

A third amendment limits the hours of beach fires to between 6 p.m. and midnight. All three amendments were given public hearings earlier in the meeting, none of which elicited comment. 

The board set its Nov. 17 meeting as the date for public hearings on amendments that would make parking restrictions for the last 10 spaces on Railroad Avenue before King Street consistent with the adjoining section, and prohibit parking in designated locations on Race Lane to address a line-of-sight issue. 

The board also approved a $17,945 proposal from Green Power Technology for the purchase of an electric-vehicle charging station to be installed in the long-term parking lot off Railroad Avenue. A $16,000 grant from the State Department of Environmental Conservation will offset the cost. 

Becky Hansen, the village administrator, said on Monday that she anticipated the station to be installed within the next month. 

Financial disclosures for East Hampton Town races that will be decided this Election Day show similar bottom lines between the Democratic and Republican fund-raising committees and candidates and very little heat.

With the supervisor position and two town board seats to be decided, there is a sharp contrast to two years ago, when hundreds of thousands of dollars from companies associated with East Hampton Airport flowed to the Republican side.

In 2017 so far, Democrats took in just over $103,000. The Republicans showed income of slightly more than $95,000. The figures come from disclosures filed with the New York State Board of Elections since the beginning of the year. They reflect activity through Oct. 2. Election Day is Nov. 7.

In terms of the number of individual donors and corporate contributors, the Democrats held a considerable lead this week, with 191. The Republicans had 75 donors, who provided an average of $993. The average Democratic contributor gave $454.

The only spending activity that can be directly tied to the airport has come from the Quiet Skies Coalition, which has advocated for strict noise control and is more sympathetic to the Democrats. This month, it began running advertisements blasting the Republicans for accepting the massive contributions in 2015. 

Quiet Skies’ political action committee has not filed any required disclosures with the state since July, recently missing an Oct. 6 deadline. The town Republican committee missed the Oct. 6 deadline as well, but later filed its report.

Kathleen Cunningham, the Quiet Skies director, said on Monday that about $5,000 had come in the preceding several days and that the committee’s treasurer, Pat Trunzo, would get a report to the board of elections as soon as possible. She said that none of the contributions had arrived before the Oct. 2 cut-off date for that disclosure period.

The East Hampton Leadership Coun­cil, which raised more than $280,000 from out-of-town helicopter companies and their surrogates for the Republicans the last time that the town board majority was in play, has not filed a report this cycle. In all, the Republican committee and its supporting political action committees netted about $480,000 in 2015 from airport interests, Ms. Cunningham said.

What a difference a year makes. In this election cycle, donations to the East Hampton Town Republican Committee, the main fund-raising entity for its candidates, picked up modestly as summer turned to fall, with about $61,000 coming in from a total of 10 contributors. 

Even without the corporate donations of two years ago, the top of the Republican ticket has staked out a pro-airport position in its own advertisements and public statements.

The most notable sums going into the Republican committee’s bank accounts were $20,000 from Howard G. Phanstiel, a former health insurance executive with several properties on Miankoma Lane in Amagansett, and just under $25,000 from GNYG L.L.C., an anonymous Delaware-registered company with a mailing address of 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan.

Sabin Metals of East Hampton gave $5,000, as did David S. Mack and Edward S. Pantzer, perennial contributors to the G.O.P.

Len Bernard, the East Hampton Town budget director, gave $125 to the Republican committee. He also made contributions to several of the Democratic candidates.

The Republican committee ended the filing period with just under $38,000 on hand, it said. 

Campaign 2017, a Democratic fund-raising arm, had a quiet few weeks on the income side following a frenzied primary period, taking in $750 from three donors. It reported $20,000 on hand, after expenses of about $13,000.

Katharine Rayner of East Hampton was the Democrats’ single largest contributor, providing $11,000. She was followed by John Hall’s $10,000. State Assemblyman Fred. W. Thiele Jr. gave $500 to Campaign 2017. David Kelley, a former U.S. attorney and a brother of Christopher Kelley, the East Hampton Democrats’ campaign committee chairman, gave $5,000.

The East Hampton Independence Party has not filed any disclosure reports since 2015. 

The next campaign finance disclosures for the November election cover the period of Oct. 3 through Oct. 23 and are due with the board of elections by Oct. 27. In the 14-day countdown to Election Day any contribution over $1,000 must be reported to the State Board of Elections within 24 hours.

Residents who live along Gardiner’s Bay and members of the Devon Yacht Club in Amagansett are unhappy about a changing seascape, as 5 and 10-acre oyster farms have begun to appear offshore from Promised Land to Devon, extending to the Napeague Harbor Inlet. 

Suffolk County is implementing its Shellfish Aquaculture Lease Program in Peconic Bay and Gardiner’s Bay. The parcels are leased for private, commercial shellfish cultivation under the program established after New York State ceded title to approximately 100,000 acres of bottomlands to Suffolk County, in 2004, and authorized the county to implement an aquaculture lease program for the region. 

The program was developed over four years and included 21 meetings of an advisory committee and two public hearings, in Hauppauge, before its formal adoption in 2009, according to program documents. 

Some bayfront residents, however, were taken by surprise by the recent appearance of the floating oyster farms, and fear that the program will result not only in a changed seascape but also impeded navigation in the bay. Two residents, neither of whom wanted to be identified, told The Star that they and their neighbors felt blindsided. 

The Devon Yacht Club “has expressed concern,” according to Dorian Dale, the county’s director of sustainability and chief recovery officer, who sits on the aquaculture lease program’s board. The county received those concerns in writing on Aug. 30, he said. “Devon asserted their concerns, then we heard in rapid order from a couple of public officials. We have assured them that we are giving the matter prompt attention and it is being considered by our law department.”

There are two active leases in proximity to the yacht club, he said, “but they do not appear to be impeding their rightful ingress and egress. One of those leases, in fact, has been active for four years. It wasn’t until a more recent lease was activated this summer in closer proximity and the leaseholder informed the club as a courtesy that they took notice.”

The club, Mr. Dale continued, cites vested property rights, historical access, and far-reaching navigability, among other issues. “These issues are complex, and it will take time for the law department to assess their merits and provide a determination. The county is certainly predisposed to coming to a reasonable resolution.” 

A request for comment from the yacht club went unanswered. “I have nothing to say about it,” an official there said earlier this month. 

The county issues leases within a delineated 29,969-acre shellfish cultivation zone. The zone includes State Department of Environmental Conservation-issued Temporary Marine Area Use Assignment locations; historical, private oyster grants, and other contiguous areas where any impacts or conflicts arising from aquaculture activity have been deemed minimal, according to the program’s overview. 

Lease applicants must obtain permits from government agencies for conducting aquaculture on their lease sites, including a shellfish culture permit from the D.E.C. once a lease has been issued. Leases are open to those planning to develop a commercial shellfish aquaculture operation. The program requires an initial $100 application fee and an annual lease fee of $200 plus $5 per acre, and $200 for private oyster grants. 

Public meetings were held on June 30 and July 26, also in Hauppauge, to review and consider lease applications for 55 sites submitted under the 2017 application cycle. Applicants in 2016 included Promised Land Mariculture Co., Empire State Shellfish Co., SeaJay Oyster Farming, and Winter Harbor Oyster Co., as well as individuals. 

The program is expected to grow. New shellfish aquaculture leases will be limited to a total of 60 additional acres per year, for a total of 600 acres by the 10th year of the program’s implementation. The program also provides municipalities, researchers, and not-for-profit groups with noncommercial shellfish cultivation leases for experimental, educational, and shellfish resource restoration purposes.

Bivalves such as oysters, hard clams, and scallops filter the water as they feed, which helps to mitigate an overabundance of nutrients that promote algal blooms such as brown tide, which can kill shellfish and finfish. Dense shellfish populations on farm sites, according to the county, will also augment the spawning potential of native populations. The aquaculture lease program “holds great promise in terms of improved water quality and revival of a shellfish industry that once provided considerable economic benefits, not to mention very tasty appetizers,” Mr. Dale said. 

The program’s overview states that the shellfish farms will increase private investment in shellfish aquaculture businesses, and will not present conflicts with commercial fishermen and other user groups.

But one bayfront summer resident said that as additional oyster farming sites are leased, navigation will be impossible in a large and growing portion of the bay, to the detriment of recreational boaters as well as commercial and recreational fishermen.

A League of Women Voters candidates’ debate in East Hampton on Monday night touched on a host of issues about the town’s most pressing needs and underscored the differences between Democratic and Republican candidates for town supervisor and for two seats on the town board.

The debate, moderated by Judy Samuelson of the League of Women Voters and David E. Rattray, the editor of The Star, gave candidates a chance to answer questions submitted by audience members. Supervisor candidates had the floor first, followed by town board candidates.

In his opening and closing remarks, Peter Van Scoyoc, a Democrat serving his second term on the town board, pointed to his record, and that of the sitting board, on open space preservation, water quality protection efforts, energy efficiency, social services, obtaining grants, and planning for the future through ongoing hamlet studies and creation of a plan that accounts for rising sea level and shoreline erosion. “I have 17 years of relevant experience in local town government. I’ve spent literally thousands of hours listening,” he said. “Preserving our economy relies on preserving our environment. I think that requires vigilance.” 

Manny Vilar, his Republican opponent, a senior sergeant with the State Parks Police, reviewed his credentials as a 33-year law enforcement professional and the president of the New York State Police Benevolent Association. He is a “recognized expert,” he said, in labor relations. That will serve him in fulfilling what he said he sees as a key role of the town supervisor.

“I’m a union guy; I’m a labor leader,” said Mr. Vilar. Expenses for salaries and benefits of town employees are a big part of the town budget, he said, making his skills essential. “There’s a constant recruitment and retention problem at Town Hall.” 

The supervisor “is the face of the town” in interactions with other municipal agencies, said Mr. Vilar. “It’s understanding the way those state agencies work. It’s all about doing right for the people you’re representing. . . .” 

“It’s really about leadership and the development of town policy . . . gaining consensus . . . listening to the community,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said in describing the role of town supervisor, who is also the “C.E.O. of the town.” It is “important to lead,” he said, in a town that “preserves its environment, is concerned about water, preserves its traditions, and is cognizant of its diversity.” 

The ability to start a business is “crucial to being able to continue to live here,” for some residents, Mr. Van Scoyoc said. The town has a business advisory committee, and the board has recently offered leases of town-owned industrial space surrounding the East Hampton Airport to local businesses, he said. 

“There needs to be a comprehensive business plan,” Mr. Vilar said, which also addresses affordable housing and affordable workplaces. 

Issues posed by the nature of East Hampton as a resort community brought Mr. Vilar to the problem of affordable housing, as well as transportation and affordable workspaces. “It all interconnects,” he said. “Positive, proactive enforcement” is needed to address violations of town code and unruly visitors. “There’s a way to handle a crowd.” As a parks policeman, he said, “I can do it.” 

“The question is, how can we improve our experience here, especially in the summertime?” asked Mr. Van Scoyoc. He pointed to the free bus shuttle instituted last summer in Montauk and the establishment of the town rental registry as contributors to “having a calmer, saner summer,” and mentioned the successful bid to the Long Island Rail Road to run shuttle trains on the East End, due in 2018. 

On the problem of airport noise, said Mr. Vilar, after a judge threw out curfew restrictions enacted by the town board in 2015, “we’re no further ahead than we were 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago.” He said it is a matter of “negotiating in good faith” with the Federal Aviation Administration on proposing acceptable restrictions. 

Mr. Van Scoyoc said that much has been done to pin down the issues and facts surrounding local control of the airport and that after “exhausting all of our judicial options” the board is proceeding with the F.A.A.’s Part 161 process to gain approval of airport use restrictions.

As long as the airport is self-sustaining, Mr. Vilar said, “I don’t see why we would” take money from the F.A.A., which gives them authority over how the airport is run.

The supervisor and town board candidates were all asked what they might do to reach out to members of the Latino community. Members of a Latino advisory board became uncomfortable going to Town Hall for meetings after President Trump was elected, Mr. Van Scoyoc and Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, an incumbent Democratic candidate for town board, said. 

“What’s going on at the Washington level is unfortunate, because it serves to alienate a portion of our community,” said Mr. Vilar. But, he said, “economic development and affordable housing helps all.” He suggested creating an office at Town Hall focused on “all immigrants.”

Town Board Candidates

If people are not comfortable going to Town Hall, “then we should go to them,” said Jerry Larsen, a Republican town board candidate and former East Hampton Village police chief. The Republicans have been reaching out to the Latino community, said Paul Giardina, who is seeking a town board seat on that ticket. 

Mr. Giardina charged that “the current town board has let us down.” A former staffer at the Environmental Protection Agency, “I have 40 years of experience as an environmental lead­er,” he said. 

“I’m proud of all that we’ve accomplished,” said Ms. Burke-Gonzalez, ticking off initiatives in social services, housing, and environmental protection.

With “management and leadership experience,” said Mr. Larsen, “I can make a positive difference.”

“We’re facing big issues for a small town,” said Jeffrey Bragman, a Demo­crat running for town board. He said he has “learned to listen to people,” and, in his career as a lawyer, has fought to stop “inappropriate development” and to “preserve the resources we need for the next generation.” 

The need for affordable housing was addressed in both segments of the debate, with Republicans charging that the incumbents and their board had done little, and the Democrats refuting that and saying that, historically, it has been solely Democratic boards that have created affordable housing. 

The town board has been working with business and housing advisory committees, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said, on possible code changes that would clear the way for work-force and seasonal housing in downtown or resort areas, and is seeking proposals from builders for temporary seasonal housing units in the Montauk dock area. In addition there are about 60 other new housing units in the planning stages, she said. But “unfortunately the time frame is frustratingly long” for the approval and construction process. 

A minimum of 1,000 new housing units is needed, said Mr. Giardina. He said he would look for public-private partnership opportunities to allow real estate workers and contractors to “make a buck” while promoting affordable housing. 

Mr. Larsen said the community preservation fund would be “a great way to get money for affordable housing.” The fund was initially reserved solely for open space land buys, but as of a vote last year, 20 percent of it can now be used for water quality projects. 

Mr. Bragman said he would revisit the idea of using a town-owned site in the Wainscott School District for affordable housing, though the proposal, which drew fire from the Wainscott School Board, “may have to be scaled down.” 

Both Mr. Bragman and Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said that the town’s rental registry, established by the current town board, is helping enforcement efforts against housing violations and helping to keep short-term rental services like Airbnb from having a negative effect here.

Mr. Giardina suggested a closer look and possible changes. “We need to understand what we’re really trying to accomplish,” he said. The rental “paradigm has changed,” with vacationers no longer interested in staying for the full summer season. “How do we protect our community and still encourage renters to come here, whether short or long term?” he asked.

“I’ve talked to code enforcement,” said Mr. Larsen. “This tool is not working.” He said he supports the idea of a registry of tenants so that the municipality could assist landlords if tenants misuse their rentals. 

Opportunities for local businesses, said Mr. Giardina, are key to making the town’s economy work. Asking two local business owners in the audience to stand up, Mr. Larsen criticized the elected town board for their dealings with them in negotiations over land leases. 

“When money becomes the driving force . . . it drives out people of modest means,” Mr. Bragman said. “We need the kids, we need the people of modest means to stay here.” 

On deer management, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said that she had supported expanded hunting because of concern over the “epidemic we have now for tick-borne diseases” and because “there are no natural predators for the deer.” Mr. Bragman said he would not vote for expanding hunting but would not seek to eliminate it. “I think we have to be science-based,” he said. “Do we really have a deer problem; are we overpopulated? I don’t think we have the answer yet.” 

Mr. Larsen agreed that a count of deer is needed and said, as the first item in a deer management plan adopted by the town, it should already have been done. “I’m totally opposed to just doing things blind and sitting on plans,” he said. “They have plans, they have visions, but they never do anything.” 

“Nothing really has been done with that in four years,” Mr. Giardina said. All of the deer management options in the plan should be evaluated “to make it work in a comprehensive fashion,” he said.

The Deepwater Wind offshore wind turbine project and water quality protection — in particular, the candidates’ differing positions in regard to programs that will result in the phase-out of nonfunctioning septic systems — were also among the topics at the debate. The candidates’ positions on these are covered in detail in a separate story in today’s Star. 

Mr. Giardina supports seeking a state and federal loan to obtain money to replace failing septics versus a current incentive program through which property owners who update their septics are provided with rebates paid for from the town’s preservation fund. 

The large-scale borrowing and investment could have a “dramatic impact,” said Mr. Larsen, versus the one-by-one replacements. “If we follow your course of action, maybe my grandkids will see it clean,” he said to the Democrats of water polluted by septic waste.

But Mr. Bragman criticized Mr. Giardina’s plan. It would be ill advised to borrow the large sum of money needed, he said, and unrealistic to assume that the town would be able to obtain a piece of the funding. The septic replacement program is just one of the “multi-pronged” efforts being undertaken to protect and restore water quality, he and Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said.

The East Hampton Town Trustees, who manage many of the town's beaches, waterways, and bottomlands on behalf of the public, oversaw the opening of Georgica Pond to the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday morning.

Though the pond is typically let on a biannual basis, in the spring and fall, there was no spring opening this year due to weather conditions and an earlier than anticipated arrival of federally protected shorebirds.

As a consequence, the pond's water level was particularly high in the spring, prompting some pondfront property owners, fearful of flooding, to plead with the trustees to open it. Their fears that conditions were ripe for another bloom of cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, were realized when that toxic algae reappeared in June. Unlike in recent years, however, the bloom dissipated quickly, possibly a result of measures taken by Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University's School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences on behalf of the trustees and Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation, a group of pondfront property owners that has funded Dr. Gobler's research and acted on his recommendations.

Over two and a half to three hours, a cut was excavated from the southern edge of the pond to the ocean, a span of approximately 300 feet, according to Bill Taylor, a deputy clerk of the trustees who was onsite. "The beaches have built up so much this summer, especially since the storms passed by," said Francis Bock, the trustees' clerk, or presiding officer. "But they also built up a mound in front, so they had to get through that."

"It went off without a hitch," said Jim Grimes, a trustee who was also on the scene. "Hopefully the cut stays open for a while. It got a nice start. There was still an outgoing tide when it breached about 11:30, and we still had a few more hours of tide going out. The first tide cycle will tell you whether it will stay open or not."

Georgica Pond was finally opened by the East Hampton Town Trustees this morning after a very long spring and summer, but we learned a lot in the process. Watching it breach and rush to the ocean is an incredible event to watch, no matter how often one has witnessed it.

A post shared by Friends Of Georgica Pond (@friendsofgeorgicapond) on Oct 19, 2017 at 10:23am PDT

Priscilla Ratazzi Whittle, a member of the Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation, witnessed the opening along with Annie Gilchrist Hall, another pondfront property owner, and Sara Davison, the foundation's executive director. "We cheered when the water started gushing out of the pond," she said. "I observed quite a few minnows being flushed out into the ocean, and also quite a few crabs. There were quite a few seagulls feasting on the minnows." East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell was also at the scene, she said.

A perceptible difference in the pond's height was apparent within 15 minutes of the letting, Mr. Grimes said, as the water flowed toward the ocean. "You probably have water coming in now," he said around 3:45 p.m. "I saw a significant number of crabs and bait heading out, and there will probably be a significant number of crabs and bait coming back in."

Drew Scott, the former "News 12 Long Island" anchor, is turning his family's loss amid the deadly opioid crisis into an effort to try to "save another life." 

Mr. Scott's granddaughter Hallie Rae Ulrich died of an overdose in East Hampton on Sept. 7. The 22-year-old, a budding artist who graduated from Pierson High School in Sag Harbor in 2013, was found on the side of the road near Cedar Point Park. Her boyfriend, Michael Goericke, 28, overdosed at his mother's house in Flanders the next day and died at the hospital. 

Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman got in touch with Mr. Scott, who covered Mr. Schneiderman's career as a county legislator, and invited him to join a group he was putting together in an attempt to battle opioid addiction on the East End. 

The newly organized Southampton Town Opioid Addiction Task Force will present an aptly named forum, "It Hits Home," on Nov. 15 in Hampton Bays, and Mr. Scott will help moderate it with Mr. Schneiderman. Medical, mental health, education, and law enforcement authorities will come together to discuss the epidemic. Family members who have been involved in opioid addiction will speak about how they handled it. The task force, however, also wants a dialogue with the audience, as the group will look to residents as it searches for solutions to the crisis.  

"I'm not ashamed to tell people this happened to me, and if this happened to me this could happen to anybody," Mr. Scott said by phone on Monday. The stigma attached to opioid addiction is part of the problem. "If it's cancer, heart disease — no one is afraid to step forward and say, 'Yes, it affected my family.' " Opioid addiction should be no different. 

The figures are staggering. More than 500 people died last year in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, Mr. Scott said. Southampton Town Police Chief Steven Skrynecki told the task force at a recent meeting that there were five deaths related to overdoses in the town in 2016. So far this year, there have been 17. "And the year is not over yet," Mr. Scott said. "Our jaws dropped." 

“This is a national crisis that has hit home,” said Mr. Schneiderman, co-chairman of the Opioid Addiction Task Force. “Our community is coming together in an effort to prevent further tragedies.”

"This is a huge battle we've got to wage," said Mr. Scott, one he is all too familiar with. His granddaughter, who had grown up with her twin sister, Ellison, in his and his wife's home in Westhampton, had struggled with heroin addiction for two years. Her boyfriend "gradually introduced her to heroin." She went to rehab twice. In July, she graduated from the drug court run in Southampton Town.

It seemed she had kicked her habit, but Mr. Scott warned his granddaughter not to hang out with people who would lead her astray. The last thing she said to him was, "I'm not stupid." 

"It just seems so awful that so many of these kids, so many of them — they’re not criminals. They’re not junkies. They’re just kids that get caught up in something that is way bigger than them." 

Just weeks before Ms. Ulrich's death, Mr. Scott decided to retire. He has the time now to devote to the task force and to the effort to ensure that this kind of tragedy strikes no other family. "By the fickle finger of fate," he said. 

The forum on Nov. 15 will be held in the auditorium at Hampton Bays High School. Young people are being encouraged to attend, and participating school districts are offering volunteer hours. 

The task force is developing an action plan that it hopes to present to the Southampton Town Board by June 1.