It has been a bad 10 days for dolphins on the South Fork. Two that washed ashore within two days on the ocean beaches in Napeague and Amagansett last week appear to have died after becoming entangled in fishing nets, according to officials, and another found struggling but alive in Three Mile Harbor early last week was later euthanized. A fourth washed up dead in East Hampton Village.

Workers at the East Hampton Marina spotted the dolphin in Three Mile Harbor at around 10 a.m. on Oct. 3. “One of our employees saw him swimming in the back making circles. He didn’t look good,” said William Plitt. The Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation responded in an attempt to rescue it.

Chuck Bowman, the president of the foundation, said it was an offshore bottlenose dolphin — nearly 10 feet long. “It really shouldn’t have been there. Sometimes we’ll get smaller ones inshore,” he said, but one this big should never have made its way to the harbor. “It’s unusual,” Mr. Bowman said. “It usually means it’s compromised, disoriented, or sick.”

Using a sling-like contraption, the foundation’s team attempted to carry the dolphin back into deeper waters but it was too weak to float. It kept beaching itself, Mr. Bowman said. After several tries it became clear to rescuers that the dolphin needed to be taken out of the water. It was moved into a rescue van for transport. In the end, “the only real way to handle it was to have it euthanized,” Mr Bowman said.

A necropsy — usually done with tissue and blood samples — was performed on the dolphin. Results were pending, he said.

Then over the weekend, the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society performed necropsies on two deceased bottlenose dolphins that had washed ashore not far from each other in Amagansett. The first was reported on Friday afternoon around 2 p.m. at the end of Atlantic Avenue Beach, and the second was found Saturday morning at about 7 on the beach at Napeague Lane. Beachgoers discovered the dolphins, and the East Hampton Marine Patrol unit assisted. 

A team of society biologists and volunteers took the dolphin bodies to the East Hampton Recycling Center on Saturday. They performed the necropsies between 1 and 5:30 p.m., sending samples to a pathologist. The remains were disposed of at the recycling center. 

Both were female and sexually immature, between 5 and 13 years old, according to Rachel Bosworth, a spokes woman for the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society. The dolphin at Atlantic Avenue measured 6.9 feet long and weighed 300 pounds. The other dolphin was 6.3 feet and weighed 250 pounds. They both had lacerations on their skin “consistent with entanglement,” Ms. Bosworth said in a statement yesterday. “Line impressions on the right lateral tail stock of the smaller dolphin appear consistent with roping or line associated with netting.” The cases are being investigated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Law Enforcement. “At this time, it is too early to determine the actual cause of death as the investigation is ongoing,” she said. 

“Necropsies are an important research effort that allows us to better understand different marine mammal and sea turtle species,” said Rob DiGiovanni, the chief scientist with the conservation society. “Without understanding why animals are washing up dead we cannot make informed decisions on our impacts. For these necropsies, we believe they may be an offshore species considering the size of these bottlenose dolphins that washed up in relation to their age, as well as their body condition being free of marks commonly found on inshore dolphins.”

On Tuesday morning, a heavily-decayed dolphin carcass was found just west of the Main Beach pavilion in East Hampton Village. A responding police officer suspected it may have been the same one that had been discovered at Egypt Beach on Saturday. Beachgoers had dragged that dolphin back into the water before biologists were able to respond. 

Dolphins are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Under federal law, the public must stay a minimum of 50 yards away from them. Interaction can cause harm to people and the dolphins. Marine mammal sightings and strandings can be reported by calling 631-369-9829. Information can also be found at amseas.org/report-a-sighting/.

Both the Riverhead Foundation and Atlantic Marine Conservation Society receive calls about strandings, with the foundation responding for live marine mammals and the conservation society responding for those that are deceased, according to Mr. Bowman. Both have different types of stranding agreements with NOAA. The A.M.C.S. also has a stranding agreement for large live whales and the Riverhead Foundation has the stranding agreement for live small whales, dolphins, seals, among others.

So far in 2017, the society has responded to reports of 109 marine mammals and sea turtles in New York State, Mr. DiGiovanni said.

Two dead bottlenose dolphins were also found in Southampton in early August. 

With four dolphins found dead or dying on East Hampton shores in just over a week, is there cause for concern? According to Mr. Bowman, no. He attributes the numbers to the fact that there were so many dolphins in the area this summer. Dolphins and whales came closer to shore to feed on menhaden. “I’ve never seen anything like it. There were acres of it,” Mr. Bowman said of the small fish, also called bunker. 

“If you’re going to have more animals, you’re going to have more dead animals. They do get sick, injured, die of old age. Everything has a life span,” he said. 

“Mortality events usually take place over a larger area. If there had been lots of dolphins washing up down in Maryland and then moving north,” he said, that would be another story. “This is not that unusual.”

In July, the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society completed its first marine mammal survey of the season offshore near the Shinnecock Inlet. It reported nine bottlenose dolphins were feeding in the area. The organization also collected 6.92 pounds of marine debris floating in the water, including 26 balloons. Marine debris is one of the leading causes of marine animal injuries and deaths.

With Reporting by Jackie Pape

The East Hampton Village Board took a long look into the future at its work session last Thursday, with agenda items that included affordable housing, accessory structures, and a dramatic re-imagining of the village as presented by two architects.

Maziar Behrooz and Bruce Engel, East Hampton architects, presented what they have previously called a “guerrilla plan” that they say would address environmental, transportation, and housing deficiencies while connecting existing and new hubs of activity, restoring the pedestrian and bicycle-friendly village of years past. The architects presented their “Vision for the Village of East Hampton” before an audience at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill on Aug. 31, and in a follow-up article in The Star, Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. called the plan “thought provoking and stimulating,” and suggested its authors present it at a work session. 

Because the village had not commissioned them to create their vision, “it gave us opportunity to think freely and openly,” Mr. Behrooz told the board. But, he added, “We need feedback from you all, who know this town far better than we do. Should you feel that this is worth pursuing, we would be happy to be part of a committee . . . and see where it can go.” 

After their presentation to the board, the mayor said that in conjunction with the town, the village had purchased property contiguous with Herrick Park. “That’s very important because it’s an extension of our green space,” in harmony with the architects’ plan. The board is aligned with the town in efforts to mitigate deteriorated water quality in its ponds, and both municipalities are considering wastewater management. “What you’ve offered us this morning gives us additional food for thought,” he said. “At least let this be a beginning of the dialogue.” 

“We have to look into doing something,” said Bruce Siska, the deputy mayor, “because of the core center and all the cesspools and sewer systems in the Reutershan parking lot and the Schenck parking lot. We’re going to have to do something, and we’re looking at having more available housing in the core community, which is going to put a strain on the sewer system.” 

Discussions of affordable housing and the use of accessory structures followed the presentation. Bill Chaleff, an architect who assisted Mr. Behrooz and Mr. Engel in their plan, said that “two-thirds of all the housing stock on the South Fork are second homes, and the year-round community is overwhelmed by this.” That figure, he said, is “very rapidly moving toward three-quarters.” 

Barbara Borsack said that the presentation coincided with her thinking about the commercial district’s future. Retail stores across the country are dying, she said, victims to online shopping. “It occurred to me that we do have to consider wastewater treatment,” she said. “In order to open Main Street and Newtown Lane to the possibility of more restaurants, which is one way to keep our village vibrant . . . we need to talk about wastewater.” Some kind of treatment facility will be necessary. That, she said, “would also enable us to encourage affordable housing over the businesses on Main Street and Newtown Lane, because septic is also an issue there. We’ve had a number of what were apartments become office space. It would be nice if we could get them to revert to some kind of affordable housing.”

Billy Hajek, the village planner, agreed that sewage flow is paramount in the complex issue of additional housing. “Right now, in a very soft way, the code does encourage apartments above commercial buildings,” he said, as does the village’s comprehensive plan. Concrete incentives that lead to action, however, are “the heavy lift that will require some study, investigative work as to how best to do it.” 

The board could define affordable housing and work-force housing based on median income, Mr. Hajek said, and determine eligibility based on being a member of the fire department or employed by the school district, for example. “If you create the law you could craft it however you like.”

“I would like to see us have a committee work on it,” Ms. Borsack said. The mayor asked her and Arthur Graham, another board member, to study the issues. 

In a separate matter, Ken Collum, the village’s building inspector, told the board of his department’s concerns. According to code, a property owner need not have a swimming pool in order to have a pool house. These accessory structures can be up to 250 square feet and include a half-bathroom. “We do have a few in the village that, they’ll call it a library or something,” he said. “If the village’s intent is to allow that, that’s fine, we just need clarification in the definition of pool houses. It sometimes causes issues with these morphing into other things,” such as habitable space. He suggested changing the code to require a property to have a swimming pool if it has a pool house. 

That discussion segued into another: “the carving out of 250 square feet of an existing or new building” that is labeled a pool house, Mr. Collum said. “Time and time again before the zoning board of appeals, we see these are becoming rec rooms, they’re becoming gyms, they’re becoming anything but a garage.” Past consideration of requiring a pool house to be a stand-alone structure has not been acted upon, he said. “We talk about this every year, it sits there, and we don’t really do anything about it.” 

Further, Mr. Collum said, property owners are building garages and other detached structures that feature full basements in which mechanical devices for the residence, such as heating and plumbing equipment, are situated. Instead of being in the basement of the residence, they are connected to the residence via tunnel or other conduit, he said. 

Basements in accessory structures are not counted in floor-area calculations. “These homes are basically investments,” he said. “These properties are worth a lot of money. We develop them, and we don’t charge them for [floor area] in that basement. So if you have 10,000 square feet above ground and a 5,000-square-foot basement, now you have a 15,000-square-foot home.” 

The Village of Southampton prohibits basements under accessory structures, he said. “I’m not sure the board wants to go that way, but we’re looking for guidance in our department,” he said. Mr. Siska said that the village’s planning and zoning committee, which he chairs, would examine the issues Mr. Collum raised.

The main committee supporting East Hampton Town Republicans missed a Friday deadline to provide a required campaign finance report to New York State regulators.

According to the New York State Board of Elections, the East Hampton Town Republican Committee filed its last report in July. It was supposed to have provided an updated accounting of its income and spending at the end of last week.

Richard Gheradi, the Republican town committee treasurer, said that a computer problem had prevented him from uploading the report to the board of elections by the deadline and that he would do it by the end of the day on Tuesday. It finally popped up on the board of elections website yesterday.

From the reports that were available early in the week, the donation picture for 2017 indicated an imbalance in enthusiasm. Democratic supporters have out-contributed Republicans by a large margin as Election Day nears.

“People are generally happy with the direction of the town and the direction of the leadership,” Christopher Kelley, the Democratic campaign chairman, said.

Though the Republican committee’s filings could not be examined in detail yesterday, its contributions did not indicate activity from interests associated with East Hampton Airport, as had been the story in 2015, when about three-quarters of Republican fund-raising was from airport businesses and their backers.

Individually, Paul Giardina, one of the Republican Party’s candidates for East Hampton Town Board, made the deadline, delivering all of his necessary disclosure forms to the board of elections, as did Manny Vilar, the Republican supervisor candidate. 

Jerry Larsen, who is running as a Republican for town board, said that he had delivered his figures by the deadline. After several attempts to reach him and the board of elections, Mr. Larsen’s summary page disclosure appeared on the state website on Tuesday afternoon. The filing listed no contributions after his ill-fated Independency Party primary bid last month and a balance on hand of just under $7,500. 

Each of the Democratic committees and the party’s candidates met the Friday deadline.

In its July report, which gave an incomplete picture of how it is faring financially this close to the election, the Town Republican Committee listed just over $11,000 in contributions since the beginning of the year. By the same July filing date, the party’s Democratic counterparts had raised $22,000, according to a statement provided to the board of elections.

Mr. Kelley said that the Democrats had benefited from a September primary bid by Zachary Cohen, who had been passed over for a town board nomination. Mr. Cohen came in third behind the party’s choices, Jeffrey Bragman and Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez in a hard-fought contest that well exceeded turnout expectations.

Mr. Kelley contrasted his party’s candidates with the Republicans’, whom he called lackluster.

He also said that a pent-up demand among Democrats to be more politically active after the election of Donald Trump as president was also helping drive excitement.

“Let’s compare experience,” Reg Cornelia, the Republican Committee’s chairman, said. “We have three candidates with extensive experience in managing large organizations. I think when it comes to credentials, I don’t see anyone who even comes close.” 

As for the president, Mr. Cornelia said, “Trump does offend some people, but I’m hoping that people will focus on the local issues.”

Like Mr. Cohen, one of the Republican town board candidates, Mr. Larsen, mounted an unsuccessful primary challenge, trying to wrest an Independence Party ballot spot from either Mr. Bragman or Ms. Burke-Gonzalez, the Dem­ocrats who had been cross-endorsed.

Though Mr. Larsen raised more than $13,500 during his primary run-up, his bid was invalidated after a successful court challenge from Democrats over a mistake on his paperwork. 

In an earlier report, Mr. Larsen said he spent $1,000 to hire Lona Rubenstein of Amagansett as a political consultant. He can use his remaining money in the general election.

Mr. Cohen’s failed primary attempt helped light a fire under Democratic donors, who collectively pumped in $90,000 in July, August, and September. That period was also in advance of the Democrats’ end-of-summer fund-raiser at the Neighborhood House in East Hampton.

Among those making contributions was the cookbook author and television personality Ina Garten, who has a house in East Hampton Village, who gave Ms. Burke-Gonzalez’s campaign $1,000.

Len Bernard, the East Hampton Town budget officer and a former Republican town board member and supervisor candidate, donated $250 to Ms. Burke-Gonzalez and $375 to Peter Van Scoyoc’s supervisor-bid war chest. In the available filings, Mr. Bernard was not listed as directing any money to the Republican candidates.

The 60 donors who gave an average of $172 to Ms. Burke-Gonzalez’s campaign fund during the primary were the most contributing to any single candidate. 

Mr. Giardina came in second in individual donors, with 57 of them giving an average donation of $194.

Eleven names appeared on Mr. Vilar’s forms, giving an average of $736. In his July disclosure, he listed $4,000 in donations from four members of the Kalisman family, who own property in the Georgica Association and were heirs to the Alfred Taubman commercial real estate empire.

Mr. Vilar reported $5,000 in payments to Ms. Rubenstein over a three-month period. He also spent money on Facebook advertisements, campaign literature, and radio spots.

Mr. Van Scoyoc listed contributions from nine donors, and Mr. Bragman from 15. 

The Democrats’ Campaign 2017 spent nearly $13,000 on print and radio ads, postage, graphic design, and other costs in the postprimary filing period.

Contribution limits put a cap on how much a candidate can accept from single donors and vary depending on township. In East Hampton, donors can give up to $1,000 to each candidate in both the general election and primary periods. New York State holds the total amount that any corporation can donate in a calendar year to $5,000.

An East Hampton Town Board vote last week to purchase the Montauk Highway, Wainscott, site of the long-closed Star Room nightclub, which also was known as the Swamp, was a step in the right direction, according to a number of Wainscott residents who spoke in favor of the buy at a hearing last Thursday night, but it was not the final hurdle in obtaining the 1.1-acre lot.

The property is owned by the estate of Isha Kausik, but a bank holds a $2.5 million mortgage on it. The town board has approved a contract with the estate for a $2.1 million purchase using the community preservation fund, but the bank must clear the deal.

A recent proposal to build a car wash on the property met with opposition from numerous members of the community, who said it would increase traffic and be harmful to the environment.

The town has been eyeing the site since 2015, Scott Wilson, the town’s director of land acquisitions and management, said last week. If purchased it would remove the vacant, dilapidated buildings to return the lot to a natural state. 

Sara Davison, the executive director of the Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation, which has raised $300,000 to contribute toward the purchase, noted at the hearing that the draft hamlet study for Wainscott envisions a park, or open space, there. 

“It is imperative to preserve these rare opportunities for public green space within the business district and the Georgica Pond watershed,” Ms. Davison said, adding that the science is clear. “We believe that this is money well spent, and will help improve the quality of life for all East Hampton residents.” 

Among others who spoke at the hearing was Philip Young, who said he had been developing commercial property in Wainscott since the 1980s, and has at times been at odds with East Hampton Town. But, he said, based on the proximity of the old Star Room to residences, “this is the one instance where I’m totally for what you’re doing.” 

“Apart from being at the entrance to Wainscott and the entrance to East Hampton, it is a key component for the watershed area in all of East Hampton,” Jose Arandia said. 

“This is a really good move on your part. Thank you for listening to us,” Carol Slater said. “It’s so encouraging that the money is being used this way,” one man said. 

“What a concept — a government that listens to the residents of the community and takes on a challenging project. You’re on a roll,” Marian Lindbergh, a Wainscott resident who works for the Nature Conservancy, said. 

She gave board members thanks, noting that it comes “from someone who remembers hearing the sounds of the Swamp from my house. So many of my house guests went over there,” she said, “so I can’t really call it a derelict operation. But I’m glad it’s going to be forested, or a park.”

East Hampton officials, who have so far been stymied in their effort to cut back air traffic into and out of the town airport — and the accompanying noise that causes complaints across the East End — agreed this week to apply to the Federal Aviation Administration for permission to enact new restrictions.

The town board had adopted landing restrictions in 2015 intended to stem the flow of planes that are causing an outcry from those under their flight paths, but a court last year nullified curfews and a once-a-week landing limit for the noisiest planes.

The F.A.A. process, called a Part 161 application, could take years and cost millions, but a judge ruled that it was the only correct procedure, under the federal Airport Noise and Capacity Act. 

“It’s our next logical step in seeking meaningful relief,” Town Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said at a meeting of the town board on Tuesday. Councilwoman Sylvia Overby and Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell agreed. 

Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, the liaison on airport matters, recommended the application. She is expected to offer a resolution at a board meeting tonight spelling out the goal of providing relief to residents bothered by aircraft noise, noting the actions taken to date, and outlining a rationale for the decision to make the Part 161 application. 

The process will include proposed restrictions, which are to be developed in public discussions with the town’s new aviation attorney, Bob O’Connor of Morrison Foerster, and noise consultant, MaryAnn Eagan of Harris Miller Miller & Hansen. They are likely to focus on so-called Stage Three aircraft,  an F.A.A. designation that refers to aircraft that are quieter than Stage One and Two planes, which now includes most helicopters, the source of a majority of noise complaints. 

No other airport owner nationwide has applied to the F.A.A. for permission to restrict takeoffs and landings by Stage Three planes. And only one airport, in Naples, Fla., has successfully gained approval to restrict Stage Two aircraft — solely jets. 

Four airport owners filed but then dropped their applications to the F.A.A. for flight restrictions before they were fully reviewed, while two airports in California, Los Angeles International and the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport, went through the whole procedure only to have the applications denied. Both took about a decade, at a cost to L.A. of $3 million and to Burbank of $7 million. 

But Mr. O’Connor told the town board recently that he believes unique circumstances here give East Hampton a better chance. He said it was significant that the judge who ruled that the town had to follow the Part 161 process also said the town had adequate proof of a real noise problem, and therefore that an overnight curfew was reasonable.

Town Councilman Fred Overton, who said he would not be on hand tonight to vote on the resolution authorizing the application, also offered his support for it at Tuesday’s meeting. “I see no alternative, no other way to go at this point,” he said. He expressed concern about the possible outcome but noted his “tremendous respect” for his board colleagues and in particular Ms. Burke-Gonzalez, who led the board’s efforts.

“I think with your tenacity, with your hard work, you may succeed,” Mr. Overton said. “I hope you succeed, because I don’t want to see the airport close,” he said. 

Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said at the town board meeting Tuesday that airport-related legal bills incurred since the current administration took the reins in 2014 have reached just over $2 million. The amount includes fees for all legal work, including the ultimately unsuccessful defense of the 2015 airport laws against litigation brought by a coalition of aviation groups. The money was paid from the airport fund, which receives revenues from airport landing fees, aviation fuel sales, and other money raised at the airport. 

Jerry Larsen, a Republican candidate for town board, has raised the question of whether using money from the airport fund for legal defense of airport restrictions was permissible, echoing charges made by the National Business Aviation Association and other aviation groups in a complaint, called a Part 16, to the F.A.A. The complaint, filed after the town adopted the three laws restricting airport use in 2015 and before they were struck down, asserts that the town lacked the authority to enact those laws. 

In addition, citing a press release by town officials that refers to airport funds being used to defend the restrictions in court, as well as previous court cases, the complaint asserts that such spending is disallowed by F.A.A. regulations that define how and when airport revenue may be used for attorney fees. 

“The town is obligated to draw upon general funds and its tax base — and not airport funds — if it is to pursue an anti-airport agenda,” the aviation groups says in the complaint.  

Signed by Steve Brown, the National Business Aviation Association chief operating officer, the complaint asks the F.A.A. not only to bar the town from enacting airport restrictions but to find that its use of airport revenue to defend them in court is incompatible with one of the grant assurances, or binding agreements, the town had entered into with the F.A.A. when accepting federal airport money in the past, and to force the town to “take corrective action.” 

In public forums recently Mr. Larsen has suggested that the town could be forced to repay the airport fund for legal fees from its general fund, and could be subject to fines. 

Both sides filed briefs regarding the complaint, and a determination by the F.A.A. has been awaited since 2015.

“The town is confident in its position, laid out in its papers, that employing attorneys and other professionals for the airport is an airport expenditure,” Michael Sendlenski, the East Hampton Town attorney, said yesterday. There is “enormous precedent” for the use of airport funds to defend airport noise or access restrictions, he said.

Total revenue generated by the airport, through landing fees, fuel sales, and other sources in 2016 was just over $5 million, and is expected to be $5.6 million this year. Anticipated revenue for next year, according to a tentative budget prepared by Supervisor Cantwell, is $5.5 million, with planned expenses estimated at $5.1 million. 

The airport fund had a surplus, or fund balance, at the end of 2016 of $1.8 million; it is expected to end 2017 with a $2.6 million surplus. Combined, the town’s two general funds had a $21.6 million surplus at the end of 2016, with a projected surplus at the end of this year of close to $30 million.

A Sagaponack man stands accused by Sag Harbor Village police of being a cocaine trafficker. David A. Weinzweig, who turns 40 in December, was arraigned on three felony charges, including possession of the drug with the intent to sell on Friday in Sag Harbor Village Justice Court in front of Justice Lisa R. Rana.

Mr. Weinzweig was on the court's calendar that day to begin to deal with three misdemeanor charges, including possession of a small amount of cocaine and aggravated drunken driving, which were originally made by police after his early morning arrest on Sept. 23.

Police had stopped Mr. Weinzweig in a 1999 Mercury Mountaineer at about 4:15 in the morning in front of the Shell Station on Hampton Street for allegedly driving without working brake lights. According to police, after placing him under arrest on the drunken driving charge, the officer noticed two packs of Camel cigarettes on the floor in front of the driver's seat. Most of the cigarettes had been removed from the packs, and replaced with small packets of a white powdery substance, leading to the initial misdemeanor possession charge.

The Mercury was impounded, and police continued to search it. On Sept. 26, they added the felony charges to the court file, saying that they had found a plastic sandwich bag containing over an eighth of an ounce of the drug inside a tote bag on the floor behind the front passenger seat. In addition to the felony charges, police also charged Mr. Weinzweig with possession of drug paraphernalia, including 27 glassine envelopes and a digital scale. That charge is a misdemeanor.

Standing next to Mr. Weinzweig in court on Friday was his attorney, Edward Burke Jr., who entered a denial to the felony charges. Mr. Burke told the court that Mr. Weinzweig was not a flight risk, and asked that the original bail amount of $500 be maintained. Justice Rana agreed with Mr. Burke, but only after issuing a stern warning from the bench that if Mr. Weinzweig were to miss any scheduled court appearances, his bail would be raised many times over.

Mr. Burke said afterwards that Mr. Weinzweig was looking forward to defending himself against the charges in court.

“LBJ,” the Rob Reiner biopic that had its New York premiere at the Hamptons International Film Festival, is particularly meaningful and poignant in the context of the nation’s present political turmoil and spasms of gun violence. A powerful biography of Lyndon Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, who was thrust into the role by John F. Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, it drew a long ovation at the Southampton Cinema on Saturday.

Mr. Reiner himself drew a capacity audience when he was interviewed at the East Hampton Middle School on Sunday. The actor and director, known for his starring role across eight seasons of “All in the Family” and for directing films including “This Is Spinal Tap,” “Stand by Me,” “The Princess Bride,” “When Harry Met Sally,” and “A Few Good Men,” was harshly critical of President Trump and repeatedly warned that the malevolent use of social media is “eating away at the fabric of demo­cracy.” 

Johnson, who is portrayed in “LBJ” by Woody Harrelson, was an immensely powerful lawmaker whose ambition and political acumen went hand in hand with a deep insecurity. Mr. Reiner’s biography is primarily focused on the years of Kennedy’s campaign and presidency, and the initial months following his assassination. As Kennedy’s vice president, Johnson walked a fine line, navigating ongoing tension between his Southern Democratic colleagues and the Northeastern, telegenic, Ivy League-educated Kennedy brothers they disdain. 

With American military engagement in Southeast Asia growing along with the civil rights movement at home, Johnson had to battle and balance competing forces. Finally in the Oval Office, he opted to promote Kennedy’s legacy, pushing Congress toward adopting the Civil Rights Act over the strenuous objection of Southern legislators, notably Richard Russell Jr. of Georgia. “Wait till you see Woody Harrelson,” Mr. Reiner said of the actor’s portrayal of Johnson. “I hope he gets a nomination.”

Johnson, Mr. Reiner said, was “a very complex person.” While he was larger than life, “a tough Texan who would manipulate and browbeat people . . . he also had this incredibly insecure side to him. He was frightened a lot of times.” 

Were it not for the Vietnam War, Johnson would rank among the greatest presidents in American history, Mr. Reiner said, citing domestic accomplishments like Medicare and Medicaid, the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and Head Start. Having said that, “you look at this film now in context of what a real president was able to accomplish and what that person in the White House is doing. I don’t even call him president, I don’t know what it is,” he said. “It’s like you’re in a nightmare that you can’t wake up from.” 

For years, Mr. Trump advanced the lie that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, which Mr. Reiner called “a total racist attack on a really qualified, highly intelligent president — scandal-free, by the way.” Mr. Obama’s election, he said, was quickly followed by a backlash. Mr. Trump has unearthed “this incredible cancer that’s underneath this racism. It bubbles to the surface, he gives it a bullhorn, and we’re back, it seems, to where we were so many years ago, like we’re fighting the last battle of the Civil War.” 

Mr. Reiner shunned social media until last year, when Mr. Trump’s rise compelled him to seek a platform. But “I’m really nervous about social media,” he said. “Look at what the Russians were able to do with Facebook and Twitter, and how they were able to push out actual fake news stories and poison our heads with propaganda. . . . I’m really scared about the capacity that social media has to change our way of thinking.”

The press, he added, is under attack by the president and conservatives. “It’s very hard for the public to determine what’s real and what’s fake. . . . If we don’t have a free and independent press to shine a light on what is actually fake, then we have the deterioration of democracy. That’s really scary.” This is the first time in our history, he said, “where we have been invaded and attacked from a foreign enemy, where we haven’t come together.” 

Mr. Reiner recently launched investigaterussia.org, which describes itself as a resource to “help Americans recognize and understand the gravity of Russia’s continuing attacks on our democracy.” 

“Nobody’s listening,” Mr. Reiner said of Russian interference in our elections, “because it doesn’t feel like anything happened,” but “this is insidious.” 

His next film, “Shock and Awe,” also starring Mr. Harrelson, premiered on Sept. 30 at the Zurich Film Festival. “It’s about the run-up to the war in Iraq,” Mr. Reiner said, and was inspired by “Buying the War,” a PBS documentary by Bill Moyers, who had served as Johnson’s press secretary, about four journalists “who actually got it all right,” debunking the George W. Bush administration’s justifications for invading Iraq in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. “Nobody was listening,” he said, “because people were caught up in the fervor of 9/11 and they bought the bill of goods that the Bush administration was pushing out.”

“The basis for democracy is a free and independent press,” he said. “And if we don’t have one and we don’t have an informed public, we’re going to be in trouble.”

It is amazing how many people (especially women) chose not to see the extraordinary hit “Get Out” because it was billed as a horror movie. It was so much more. Still, skittish viewers notwithstanding, Jordan Peele’s film grossed more than $200 million worldwide from a $4.5 million budget, making it 2017’s most profitable movie. 

It was remarkable for lots of reasons: A debut film from a cult comedian, with no big-name stars and a premise that wove suspense, humor, and horror while making a hard-hitting political statement about liberal America. 

Mr. Peele surely knows a thing or two about timing. The movie was released in the middle of a ghastly state of the world in 2017, when unabashed racism was rearing its head in various grotesque shapes. Consequently, “Get Out” came to represent wonderful, thought-provoking cinema.

One of the highlights of this year’s Hamptons International Film Festival was a discussion on Sunday evening at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor called “Anatomy of a Scene: Get Out.” Moderated by Eric Kohn, the deputy editor for IndieWire and chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle, the panel included Mr. Peele, the film’s two producers, Sean McKittrick and Jason Blum, and its standout young stars, Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams.

And there was so much to discuss: the taboo of mixed relationships, eugenics, slavery, black dudes dying first in horror films, liberals, racism, and police brutality. Five scenes were shown, and the ensemble dissected each. In a packed house, a show of hands determined that most had seen the film.

Mr. Peele likened the setting of his creepy movie to a place: “Well‚ like here,” hinting at the white liberal Hamptons enclave and the marginalized minorities that lie behind its genteel facade, as well as “the lie that is post-racial America,” as he calls the covert racism still very much present throughout the country. The laughter that followed was robust but struck a raw nerve.

“Get Out” is all about nerve-shredding. Like a thorny yet amusing fusion of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” “The Stepford Wives,” and “Rosemary’s Baby,” the film follows Chris (Mr. Kaluuya), a successful black photographer who travels with his white girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams), for a meet-the-parents weekend at their rural estate, where Chris’s initial anxieties about the trip prove to be more than justified.

The panel discussed one of the movie’s pivotal scenes, involving a performance that demanded a lot from Mr. Kaluuya as he was being forcibly separated from reality through hypnosis at the hands of his potential mother-in-law, played terrifyingly by Catherine Keener. She sends Chris disappearing through the floor into a dark netherworld called “the sunken place.” Mr. Kaluuya’s performance is pitch perfect, particularly as it requires him to mine searing emotions as he recalls the death of his character’s mother in a hit-and-run incident.

To some in the audience, Mr. Kaluuya’s charming North London street accent came as a surprise (but not to this writer, who grew up in the same corner of London). The 27-year-old, recently listed among Variety’s top actors to watch in 2017, proved to be as affable in person as he is on screen, explaining the depths he needed to reach in order to deliver the right performance. “I had to think about something uncomfortable, like meeting the in-laws,” he said. “And then going into spaces that haven’t yet healed.”

Mr. Peele said that after watching Mr. Kaluuya in an episode of the British science-fiction anthology series “Black Mirror” he immediately hired the British-born son of Ugandan immigrants.

Ms. Williams, another newcomer to the big screen, takes her character, Rose, through a remarkable transformation from sweet, liberal white girl to something entirely villainous. In order to achieve that darkness in the scenes after her character has completely revealed the depths of her evil, Ms. Williams explained, she had to close herself off, isolating herself from actors she had grown close to during production. 

“She wouldn’t even talk to me,” Mr. Kaluuya said.

“I liked you too much,” she responded. “I would have said, ‘Let’s keep you alive.’ ”

According to Mr. Peele, the psychotic transformation of Rose’s character was so perfect it became known as her “Ro-Ro character.”

The “Get Out” discussion proved that on the East End, as it does around the world, themes of the American nightmare resonate perfectly — and amusingly — with the times and an audience tickled by perceptive wit.

Suffolk County Health Department officials testing water from private wells in the area of the East Hampton Airport have found levels of two perfluorinated chemicals at one residence in excess of the Environmental Protection Agency’s acceptable levels for lifetime exposure to avoid adverse effects.

The State and County Health Departments want to sample all private wells in an area bounded on the north by the airport, on the west by Town Line Road, on the east by Daniel’s Hole Road, and on the south by Montauk Highway and Merriwood Drive. 

As a precaution, East Hampton Town has offered to provide free bottled drinking water to all those in the test area who are not connected to Suffolk County Water Authority public water supplies, which are regularly tested.

Perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs — considered an “emerging contaminant” by the E.P.A. and a potential danger to health — include a number of compounds used in manufacturing to make products resistant to stains, grease, and water. They are used in firefighting foams and other materials, and in the aerospace, automotive, construction, and electronics industries because of their friction-reducing properties. 

According to the E.P.A., studies on animals indicate that exposure to two PFC compounds — perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) — over certain levels may negatively impact fetuses and breastfed infants, affect the thyroid, liver, and immune systems, and cause cancer, among other effects. 

A survey by the State Department of Environmental Conservation of facilities where products containing PFOS and PFOA may have been used led to the well-testing program after it was revealed that such products had been used at the airport.

Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell yesterday advised residents approached by the Health Department to allow their wells to be tested, which will be done free of charge. Once more information is compiled, he said, the D.E.C. may investigate the source of the contamination, and, if necessary, plans could be made to have affected residents hooked up to public water. 

In the meantime, those in the test area can arrange for bottled water deliveries by contacting the town’s Purchasing Department by phone or by sending an email to [email protected]. 

To begin to determine if there are other possible areas of contamination in the town, Mr. Cantwell said he has asked the fire marshal to collect information from fire departments regarding whether they have used firefighting foam, or if they have any on hand. 

The chemicals in question are currently unregulated by the federal government, but the Environmental Protection Agency has established informational-only health advisories for PFOS and PFOA and is working to help states and public water providers take steps to reduce exposure to them in drinking water. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, water providers are required to monitor for them.

The E.P.A.’s health advisories are nonregulatory and designed “to provide information on contaminants that can cause human health effects and are known or anticipated to occur in drinking water,” according to a fact sheet by the agency.

To provide “a margin of protection from a lifetime of exposure to PFOA and PFOS from drinking water,” the E.P.A. has set a combined level of 70 parts per trillion of the two chemicals as a maximum safe level in water. 

The health advisories do not address exposure to the chemicals from skin contact, breathing, or other sources of exposure beyond drinking water. In January 2016, the Food and Drug Administration banned use of the two compounds in food packaging. 

Research is ongoing by agencies including the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program on the potential health effects of exposure to them. 

In April 2016, PFOS was added to New York State’s list of hazardous substances in connection with the Superfund cleanup program. 

The discovery of PFOS in public water supply wells in the vicinity of the Air National Guard Base at Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach, traced to the firefighting foam used at the base, led the state to declare the area a Superfund site last September. 

Several hundred residents exposed to the chemical sued the county and state, pointing to serious health conditions suffered by people in a wide number of households surrounding the base. They asked to be provided with ongoing blood testing to monitor health risks, which the State Health Department last winter agreed to provide.

The Department of Defense was required to undertake a cleanup and to pay for nearby residents with private wells — those where contamination was found and those that could be impacted — to hook up to public water mains. Bottled water was supplied, and the public water supply was treated to remove the contamination. Treatments such as reverse osmosis, or with activated carbon, can be used to remove PFOA and PFOS from drinking water, according to the E.P.A. 

In a press release yesterday, the County Health Department asked residents in the delineated testing area to call the Department’s office of water resources at 631-852-5810 to arrange for water testing. Those with questions about PFCs and their health effects may visit the Health Department website at suffolkcountyny.gov/health or call the New York State water quality hotline at 800-801-8092. Those unsure if they have private wells or are served by public water may call the Suffolk County Water Authority at 631-698-9500.

The last big holiday before Election Day has come and gone. Everyone, well, almost everyone, has left the outback and gone back to the suburbs and urbs. We and nature are left to our own devices. 

Every year, it seems, the traffic becomes progressively worse. More and more people come to enjoy the East End and more of us native East Enders breathe a sigh of relief and go about our business when the season comes to a close. We have six months to recover, if we ever do. 

But the razing and rebuilding is not about to stop completely. Leaf blowers rejoin buzzing saws, commercial traffic continues to rumble past, the autumn calm is but a poor replica of what we grew up with. Yet, notwithstanding all of the open space amassed in the last 20 years, the rumble, although lower in pitch, continues and continues and continues into the winter. 

We used to think that when the last McMansion was built on the last empty lot, peace would fall upon us, but that is not the case. A brand-new house is now replacing every older one. Not only does the beat go on, it beats faster and faster with each passing year. It is no longer a surprise that the number-one way of making a living here is by selling and renting real estate. National and international firms have replaced local ones. Is there a successful realtor left in town who is not beholden to one?

At a public forum on offshore wind turbines held in Amagansett two weeks ago, a graph popped up on the screen that showed future energy needs of the area. It started with 2017 and steeply rose into the middle of the century. If my interpretation is correct, it predicted a tenfold increase in energy needs. “How could that be?” I thought to myself. I thought that we were already approaching build-out and headed toward octupling our growth? That chart, which still blazes in my head in two dimensions, strongly suggests such a future. 

There are only a handful of dividable parcels left to develop, maybe, fewer than 100 vacant lots in East Hampton, yet that graph raised the question of how many teardowns and rebuilds are in order.

For the past 30 years Bonackers and native residents of lesser means have been bailing out, going south and west. If that graph is true, such emigration will eventually become a stampede.

The handwriting is on the wall. The number of realtors in town now outnumbers the number in every other working-class category including plumbers, electricians, carpenters, and the like. When I started working for the town in 1983 there were more than 100 baymen and almost that many offshore fishermen. Why is there a daily “trade parade” on Long Island that begins and ends west of Brookhaven, making traffic unbearable in the morning and afternoon?

The western suburbs are also facing similar growing pains. Not all Long Island tradespeople work on the East End. One learns by reading Newsday every day that there is no end to the number of units approved for Brookhaven, Smithtown, Babylon, Huntington, Hempstead, Oyster Bay, and North Hempstead, not to mention the cities of Glen Cove and Long Beach. 

If all of the units before Long Island planning and zoning boards today and those in realtors’ and developers’ heads were approved and built within the next five years, the population (and energy needs) would grow by more than 10 percent. We already have three million or so inhabitants in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. In other words, Long Island outside of Brooklyn and Queens would rank among the top most populous cities in the United States.

About five years ago, Larry Swanson, a professor and chairman of Suffolk County’s Council on Environmental Quality and Chris Gobler, a Stony Brook University professor, co-wrote an op-ed piece in Newsday that advanced very believable arguments supporting the notion that Long Island is already built out.

Since that article, traffic has increased, building has increased, there’s another new shopping mall every year, and public schools are, as ever, bursting at the seams. Our sole-source aquifer is loaded with this and that harmful chemical. Atmospheric ozone figures are among the highest in the state, at least 50 percent of our estuarine and freshwaters are seriously polluted, shellfish populations have disappeared, and on and on and on. And the sea is rising around us more rapidly with each passing year.

People, we are already past the tipping point and well on our way to dystopia! What then? All progress is not good progress! When will it stop? 

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