While business owners face the onset of summer with plans to maximize their earnings in the busy season, the East Hampton Town Board has been seeking to head off some of the traditional summer headaches — community disruption caused by busy commercial establishments — as well as to ease up on some restrictions to businesses.

Two laws adopted last Thursday revise the rules for restaurants and for retail takeout food shops, giving restaurants the ability to seek permission to accommodate more outdoor diners and legalizing seating in food shops, many of which have long had spots for people to sit and nosh, in violation of the town code. 

The code change that legalizes seating for up to 16 in takeout food shops also contains a provision that prohibits those shops in a resort zone.

That provision was opposed by Tiffany Scarlato, an attorney for the new owners of the former Oceanside Motel in Montauk, now called Hero Beach Club. She argued at a recent town board meeting that resort guests expect certain amenities, among them the ability to purchase a snack or a sandwich.

But town board members are leery of making it legal to add new things to Montauk’s traditional motels that would draw outside customers, making the motels destinations for more than just their guests.

Montauk’s recent popularity boom spurred the transformation of a number of formerly low-key motels, and problems caused by crowds drawn to trendy spots have been central to community complaints and discussions.

Two years ago the town board voted to prevent motels from adding a new restaurant or bar, unless the planning board issues a special permit. At that time, the board did not take retail food stores at motels into consideration.

Plans for renovations at Hero Beach Club show a retail area with the allowable 16 seats. It is surrounded by an extensive outdoor deck and sizable adjacent areas labeled “lobby” and “multi-purpose room.” In a basement level below, there is a large room with a “dishwashing station” depicted, and other facilities.

“A motel can provide some services to its clientele; we understand that,” Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said at a board meeting last week, but many seem to be looking to add more than what is allowed. He said he had examined the Hero Beach Club’s plans and seen “what looked to me like a restaurant and a bar, with a proposed music permit application, with a liquor authority license application, in a motel. Honestly, it looked to me like it was masquerading as a retail food store,” he said.

“I don’t want to go backwards . . . on the issues that we’ve been trying to deal with,” said Mr. Cantwell, mentioning crowds, noise, parking problems, and overloaded wastewater systems. If there is a loophole, he said, “people are going to drive a tractor trailer through it.”

While Mr. Cantwell said he supported adopting the proposed law barring retail takeout food stores at resorts, he said the board could revisit that provision, perhaps allowing motels to add food takeout shops by special permit.

That might be a way for hotels to provide a service to their guests, said Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, without allowing a situation with “hundreds of people coming to . . . a takeout store that’s really a bar with entertainment.”

“We heard loud and clear several years ago from the community about the direction they want Montauk to go,” said Mr. Van Scoyoc. In the summer of 2015, after one raucous holiday weekend in the hamlet, hundreds of residents descended on a town board meeting to demand that officials do something to rein things in.

Laraine Creegan of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce supported the idea of a special permit for food stores at resorts, which would allow the Planning Department and planning board to scrutinize plans and set criteria.

Montauk, she said, has sustained its popularity for a reason. “It’s not East Hampton,” she said. “It’s very eclectic, and that’s why everyone loves Montauk.”

Also last Thursday, a law clarifying the regulations that allow restaurants to place dining tables and chairs outdoors, and potentially expanding the allowable number of patio seats, was adopted without language that had caused a ruckus among restaurateurs, who showed up at  a Town Hall hearing to protest.

The provision would have effectively made it illegal to do anything other than sit down and dine outdoors, stopping restaurants from offering an outdoor waiting area, bar service, or the ability of patrons to listen to outdoor music without dining. It was designed, town officials said, to confine outdoor activities at restaurants to dining, reining in restaurants that have expanded their offerings.

“Some of the zoning code of the town has not been enforced for many years ­. . .­ certainly not in any firm way,” said Mr. Cantwell at a June 13 meeting in Montauk. “I think the lack of enforcement has resulted in confusion.”

The revised outdoor dining law is needed, he said, because without a clear law, there is “chaos.” In addition, while restaurants have already been allowed to move up to 30 percent of their seating outdoors, the new law, he pointed out, “opens up an opportunity for the first time for businesses to go beyond 30 percent.” Planning board approval will be needed. The law also calls for restaurants to file a seating plan with the town.

Business owners had complained about having new requirements imposed just at the start of the summer season. “I understand that and I have some sympathy about that,” Mr. Cantwell said last week. “My feeling is that this law should be adopted. Having said that . . . we’re in a transition period, and I think we should walk carefully and slowly with respect to its enforcement.”

“As inspections take place our staff can advise owners and work with owners so that everyone can come into compliance over some period of time.”

Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez said she, too, was sensitive to the timing of a law change and its impact on those in the hospitality business who make a majority of their earnings in the summer. “But I have confidence in our code enforcers and our fire marshals, that they’re not going to come down with a sledgehammer,” she said. Councilman Fred Overton agreed.

“I’m grateful to this town board for looking at all the things that need to be looked at in consideration of this,” Councilwoman Sylvia Overby said. She ticked off the various items on that day’s meeting agenda, which included water quality efforts and a free public Montauk shuttle bus along with the town code changes. “We’re trying to make sure that this place is a place that you come back to again and again,” she said.

The Southampton Town police chief was on the other side of an accident scene Thursday evening when he was involved in a crash in Brookhaven Town, according to Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman.

Steven E. Skrynecki called the supervisor from the hospital and told him he had been hit from behind as he slowed down in his town-owned Chevrolet Impala to assist a disabled motorist. The accident reportedly occurred in Yaphank, near Route 27 and Horseblock Road, around 7 p.m. Suffolk County police had no immediate comment. 

According to Mr. Schneiderman, a car on the side of the road was smoking from engine trouble. Chief Skrynecki went to pull onto the shoulder to help because he had a fire extinguisher in his town-issued sedan. The car behind him "plowed right into him." The chief's car "spun around." 

"He is okay," Mr. Schneiderman said. "He's just going to get checked out." 

The supervisor said the chief was alone in the Impala and was heading back to Nassau County, where he served as the police chief until accepting the position in the Town of Southampton. He officially started in May, but has been working as a consultant with the town since the beginning of the year. 

"He was trying to do a good deed," Mr. Schneiderman said. 

As it was, the chief's new Chevrolet Tahoe is expected to arrive early next month. 

The driver of an Acura lost control of her vehicle, which hopped a curb and slammed into the side of the Montauk Playhouse on Saturday afternoon, according to Montauk Fire Chief Vinnie Franzone. It was unclear what caused the accident. No one was seriously hurt and there was no structural damage to the building, he said.

The Montauk Fire Department was called at about 12:20 p.m. to the Playhouse, which is right next door to the firehouse on Flamingo Avenue. They found the car had gone over the sidewalk in the parking lot and hit the eastern corner of the building. Both the side and passenger front airbags deployed.

Both the female driver and the female passenger refused medical care, according to the chief. The vehicle was towed away.

In acknowledging the current state of the world and the political arena in which we are living, the CNN news anchor and journalist Don Lemon addressed Sag Harbor’s Pierson High School class of 2017 on Saturday about the freedom of expression.

“Right now, as a journalist, I feel even more compelled to talk to you about the freedom of expression, in part because of what is going on in the world, and because of some people who are trying to limit us,” Mr. Lemon said. “But mainly I feel compelled to talk to you about it because you are about to embark on the most fantastic and wonderful journey of self-discovery, whether you realize it or not.”

As the sun beamed down on the front lawn -- something that seemed unlikely with the morning’s heavy rain -- Mr. Lemon spoke to the graduates about being open and expressing themselves respectfully. By sharing his experiences at Louisiana State University, and his many since then, he encouraged students to understand the true meaning of the First Amendment.

“In a few short months you will be grateful for that freedom,” Mr. Lemon said. “That freedom to petition, that freedom to protest, the freedom to form your own thoughts, your own opinions, and your own beliefs in your own space. You’re going to appreciate that more than you know, the freedom to become you.”

While imparting advice about dos and don’ts, Mr. Lemon stressed that the freedom to express yourself also allows others -- “even if you don’t share their beliefs” -- the same right.

“We cannot just allow to be said what we love; we must also allow to be said what we hate,” Mr. Lemon said. “By allowing it to be said, it allows it to be contemplated, it allows it to be dissected, and either proved or disproved.”

Throughout his speech, Mr. Lemon highlighted principles of decency and respect, something that left an impression on the graduates.

“I felt like everything he said resonated with all of us,” said Ella Parker, the salutatorian, who will attend University of California at Berkeley, in the fall. “He wove in a lot of words of wisdom, but he drove home freedom of expression, and he stressed that with his experiences.”

After urging the graduating class to be open to new ways of thinking, new people, different cultures, and other points of view, Mr. Lemon said his best piece of advice was this: “Instead of judging someone, be curious about why this person believes what they believe,” he said. “The question is, why do they think that? Or, more personally, why do you think that?”

There are 53 students in Pierson’s graduating class this year; 50 plan to attend college in the fall.

Under a large tent on the back lawn of the Bridgehampton School, 14 seniors dressed in black and yellow robes and caps -- the school's colors -- graduated in a ceremony that was as uplifting as Sunday afternoon's blue skies. As the graduates were announced one by one, several danced their way down the aisle to take their place on stage.

Lois Favre, the school's superintendent, referred to the graduating seniors as her "worker bees in our beehive," a nod to the school's Killer Bees mascot and their legendary boys basketball team. As a testament to the tightly knit school community, Dr. Favre relayed a personal anecdote about each graduate, some of whom she first met when they were in fifth grade, when she first came to the school.

Also in attendance were members of Bridgehampton's class of 1967, commemorating their own graduation 50 years ago. Dr. Favre recalled world events of 1967 and the challenges of the time — civil unrest, racism, and sexism — noting that half a century later, the world is still gripped by the same issues. On a lighter note, she quipped, "1967 was also a time when miniskirts first arrived on the scene. Some days, they still seem to be on the scene in the Bridgehampton hallways, right girls?"

Nia Dawson, the class salutatorian, a Bridgehampton student since prekindergarten, gave an emotional speech, calling the school, "one big family in endless ways." She thanked her father for giving her a sense of humor and her passion for basketball. In the fall, Nia will attend the State University at New Paltz, where she will play basketball. Her mother, she said, was such a vocal supporter at all her games, that she often wore a T-shirt that read, "I Can't Keep Calm. I'm Nia Dawson's Mom."

The class valedictorian was Max Cheng, a graduate of the Hayground School, who joined Bridgehampton in ninth grade. Delivering an eloquent speech, Max called Bridgehampton "a wildly unique town." He highlighted the inequality of a hamlet where the average household income is $100,000, yet half of the school's student population lives below the poverty line.

"Some residents here have everything and others have nothing." Above all, Max said that he was deeply proud of belonging to a school that has broken down barriers of racism and classism. He left his classmates with words from two of his favorite celebrities: Issac Hayes and Spike Lee, who made famous the lines, "Do your thing" and "Do the right thing," respectively. This fall, Max will attend the Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College in New York City.

After years of wrangling between the Town of East Hampton and the owners of the Surf Lodge, a popular nightclub and motel, a giant step was taken this week toward finalizing a legal agreement.

“This will cover the entire site from now until eternity,” Andy Hammer, the attorney representing the Surf Lodge, told the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals at a public hearing on Tuesday.

Although the Surf Lodge and the town had signed a tentative agreement last year, the Surf Lodge was before the zoning board seeking a permit to operate and 21 setback variances for structures and appurtenances. They were needed, Mr. Hammer said, because the site had been developed before the town code was written. “It is in Fort Pond,” he said. Indeed, when it came to noticing neighbors about Tuesday night’s public hearing, there were none to be found, Beth Baldwin, attorney for the board, said. The slightly more than one-acre property, which is off Edgemere Street, is surrounded on three sides by water.

The agreement, signed by the town and the ownership group, Montauk Properties, a limited liability company, settled the number of people that would be allowed on the property — 395 — with an additional 50 allowed in a queuing area. The septic system is to be replaced with a modern one and moved closer to Edgemere Street, where there is now a berm. Live music is to be restricted to five days a week and no outdoor music is to be permitted after 8 p.m.

Michael Walrath, a venture capitalist, and Jayma Cardoso, the impresario who runs the club, co-signed last year’s agreement with Michael Sendlenski, the town’s lead attorney. Mr. Hammer told the board that the agreement had been reached after the town’s Planning and Building Departments and fire marshals reviewed the site inch by inch. Several structures, including a sound-attenuating band shell, are called for in the agreement, meaning it would be difficult for the zoning board to deny any variances for them.

“You’re saying, we’re kind of hand-cuffed,” Roy Dalene, a board member, said to Mr. Hammer. That was not the case with every variance requested, however. John Whelan, chairman, pointed out that the board could, if it wanted to, deny variances for a metal fire pit or a movie screen. Mr. Hammer said they were needed for “creating a vibe.” He also said that when it came to specifics not in the agreement, the board should use ordinary measures, weighing the benefit to the applicant versus any detriment to the community.

The club’s site plan is now before the planning board. It will consider that storm runoff from the structures on the property is designed to flow away from Fort Pond and that the parking lot will be covered with crushed, clean shells. Many of the specifics were planned in cooperation with the town’s representatives, Mr. Hammer said. For example, a railing along a walkway near the water’s edge has a round rather than a flat top, at the suggestion of Ann Glennon, the chief building inspector. Eric Schantz, the town’s senior planner, explained that this was intended “so that beer can’t be placed on them, and get dumped into Fort Pond.” “Or rosé,” Mr. Hammer quipped.

Once the zoning board acts on the variances before it, the planning board will schedule a public hearing on the site plan, the next step toward finalizing the agreement.

A self-proclaimed Ku Klux Klan grand wizard from Hampton Bays was found distributing leaflets in East Hampton Village last week, according to police.

At a little after 9 p.m. on June 13, a customer at Citarella came out of the store to find a paper flier attributed to “the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan” on his vehicle’s windshield.

According to a police report, the leaflet contained advice about drug and alcohol abuse.

East Hampton Village Police Chief Michael Tracey said that Douglas G. Munker, 35, who does not have a driver’s license, had been dropped off in the village and that he placed the leaflets on windshields on Main Street and Fithian Lane. Leafleting is prohibited by the village code.

Officers found similar material on vehicles on Newtown Lane, where they found Mr. Munker walking near the Middle School with more of the leaflets in his possession.

Police issued a warning to Mr. Munker that he was violating village law. They said he agreed to remove all of the leaflets he had placed on the windshields.

The next day, police found four of the leaflets attached to trees on Newtown Lane, according to a subsequent police report.

A Springs man arraigned last Thursday in East Hampton Town Justice Court on two felony charges, including sexual abuse in the first degree, was indicted Tuesday by a grand jury in Riverside. Valon Shoshi, 31, was unable to make the $75,000 bail set by East Hampton Town Justice Lisa R. Rana last Thursday and remained in county jail as of yesterday morning. The indictment will be unsealed and the charges made public in county court within the next week.

Mr. Shoshi turned himself in to East Hampton Village police on the afternoon before he was arraigned. In addition to the charge of sexual abuse, a second felony charge alleges that he violated an order of protection for the alleged victim, who described him to police as her boyfriend. Police are withholding her name because of the nature of the charges. He was also charged with assault and forcible touching as misdemeanors.

Police received a 911 call from the Gingerbread Lane house where the victim and Mr. Shoshi live a little after 2 a.m. on June 14. When police arrived, they called for an ambulance. The woman was bleeding from her mouth and complained of vaginal bruising. She was taken to Southampton Hospital, where stitches were needed to close the wound in her mouth.

The woman was interviewed by police and detectives at the hospital and then at Cedar Street headquarters later that morning. She told police Mr. Shoshi had been upset because she was not going to be able to attend an event with him because she had to work. Police said she told them that he became jealous, suspecting that she was seeing another man and continued to bring the matter up as day turned to night.

After midnight, with her two children asleep, she went to bed. She reported that Mr. Shoshi followed her to bed, putting his hand on her face, yelling that he was going to slit her neck and calling her vulgar names.

After he let go, she ran into the bathroom, locked the door, and dialed 911 on her cellphone, she said. When she left the bathroom, Mr. Shoshi was gone.

After a series of interviews with her Wednesday morning, detectives contacted Mr. Shoshi, who agreed to turn himself in. He was arrested a little after 4 p.m. Mr. Shoshi’s attorney in the case, Eileen Powers, was not available for his arraignment last Thursday morning, so Luis Pagan stepped in.

Rudy Migliore Jr., the prosecuting attorney, described the alleged incident in detail. Mr. Shoshi smiled through most of the process, seeming to laugh softly once or twice. Mr. Migliore pointed out that Mr. Shoshi is in the middle of a five-year probation sentence stemming from a 2014 incident, and also has an open assault charge in East Hampton, from 2015, in which it is alleged that he beat a New York City man unconscious outside Pizza Village in Montauk.  He asked that bail be set at $75,000. Mr. Pagan argued to no avail that Mr. Shoshi was not a flight risk, and that the alleged victim had previously made similar allegations, then failed to cooperate with the prosecution.

Justice Rana also presided over Mr. Shoshi’s 2014 arraignment, which followed an arrest on multiple charges, including that he had fired a shotgun three times in his family’s Gardiner Avenue house. A manhunt ensued, and Mr. Shoshi was arrested after officers surrounded his car outside the One Stop Market in East Hampton. He ultimately pleaded guilty to a felony charge of reckless endangerment, along with two misdemeanors, leading to the five-year probation.

At the time of that incident, he said he was distraught over the breakup of his marriage to a woman in his native Kosovo. Prior to returning to Kosovo in 2012, Mr. Shoshi had been an assistant chief of the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association and a volunteer with the Springs Fire Department for six years.

As he was led from the courthouse in handcuffs last Thursday, Mr. Shoshi said, “It’s all a frame-up.”

By a vote of 103 to 41, the New York State Assembly passed the Climate and Community Protection Act on Monday. If passed by the State Senate, it would set New York on a path to 100-percent renewable energy by 2050, invest in frontline communities that will bear the burden of climate change, and build a green economy.

The bill is with the State Senate’s rules committee. An official in Senator Kenneth P. LaValle’s district office said yesterday that it was unclear as to when, or if, it would be approved for a vote of the full Senate.

The act would establish the New York State Climate Action Council, consisting of 23 state agencies or individuals with expertise in environmental issues, environmental justice, labor, and regulated industries. It also requires the State Department of Environmental Conservation to establish greenhouse gas-reporting requirements, statewide greenhouse gas emissions limits, and regulations to achieve emissions reductions.

The act would require that 50 percent of the electrical capacity served by electricity distribution companies regulated by the Long Island Power Authority, the Public Service Commission, and the Power Authority of the State of New York be produced by renewable energy systems by 2030. It would establish incremental capacity levels of 27 percent by this year, 30 percent by 2020, 40 percent by 2025, and 50 percent by 2030.

It would also authorize money from the state’s environmental protection fund to be used to establish and implement easily replicated renewable energy projects, including solar arrays, heat pumps, and wind turbines, in public low-income housing in suburban, urban, and rural areas.

Within 24 hours of Southampton Town’s having launched a new online tool that allows residents to report nonemergency complaints and submit service requests, two requests had been logged.

“I think that’s pretty good,” Ross Baldwin said on Tuesday from Southampton Town Hall. He helped lead the charge in setting up the application, called Southampton Online Solutions, or S.O.S.

He said the program helped ensure that requests, like those first two — one for a tree stump removal in Bridgehampton and another for a street light outage in the Remsenburg-Speonk area — would be reviewed immediately by the right department, and allow the residents who made them to see the status of their requests.

Supervisor Jay Schneiderman said the application, which he considers a central portal for community concerns, complaints, and service requests, would ensure that no calls go unanswered. “We are using technology to improve constituent service, and that’s really at the core of it,” he said by phone yesterday. People are accustomed to using their smartphones for almost anything. “We’re an instant gratification society.”

A mobile-enabled website application that was developed in-house, S.O.S. can be used from any computer, tablet, or mobile device, and it has a user-friendly interface. The user is taken through a series of steps to report issues from illegal dumping to waterway navigation hazards, from illegal rentals to excessively barking dogs. Users can submit their names or make requests anonymously. Those who submit anonymously can track complaints by way of case number.

People can also see if someone else has already submitted a request for a specific problem, and staff can run reports to verify that requests are being resolved in a timely manner.

When visiting sos.southamptontownny.gov, users are asked if they are submitting a new request or checking on an old one. Next, a message will pop up saying that if it is a life-safety issue, 911 should be called. The user will then be asked to enter a request type. The drop-down menu is long and coded by department. Users can first select the department to narrow down the choices, or just browse the long list.

Next, a visitor to the site is asked to put in a location. This can be done manually or by clicking on a map. If geolocation is turned on on a device, it can be entered that way, too. Photographs can be uploaded and comments can be left explaining the situation in 150 characters or fewer.

If staff members receive a phone call, they can simply enter the information into the system. “I sometimes joke I’m the head of the complaint department,” Mr. Schneiderman said.

Mr. Baldwin, whose main duty is as the geographic information systems manager for the town (the site uses G.E.I.S. technology as a framework), said the idea has been batted around for quite some time, but got the green light when Mr. Schneiderman took office.

When building the website, Mr. Baldwin consulted with the city governments of New York and Chicago, which have similar online resources for citizens.

There are still some parts of the website that need to be adjusted, such as the zoom-in feature on the map. It also does not allow a user to report every kind of complaint. Potholes, for instance, fall under the purview of the Highway Department, which is not participating in the application, so in that case users are prompted to call that department directly. Alex Gregor, the town highway superintendent, said it is a liability issue.

Similarly, with requests that fall under the purview of the Southampton Town Police Department or a public utility in instances of power outages or street water issues, a phone number to call directly will be offered. Someone using the website from a smartphone can tap the number and place the call immediately.

“The true test will be the reviews the public gives it,” Mr. Schneiderman said.