Possible legislation limiting both the size of signs and the preponderance of bamboo was discussed at the East Hampton Village Board’s work session last Thursday.

    Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. introduced the idea of reducing the size of temporary commercial signs, like those used by real estate agents and contractors, from the current allowable seven square feet to one and a half square feet.

    The mayor pointed to recent sign legislation on Shelter Island, which limits temporary signs to a total area of one and a half square feet.

    “They expected there to be more resistance than they actually had,” he said of the Shelter Island legislature. “Most real estate agents were in favor of it.”

    “Can we impose a term?” asked Bruce Siska, a board member. “There are two lots on my street where the signs have been up for five years.”

    Barbara Strong Borsack, the deputy mayor, said that setting time limits on signs would be very difficult. “And real estate is not going the way it used to,” she added. “I would hate to affect business.”

    Mayor Rickenbach said he would be willing to compromise if the board was amenable to a public hearing.

    “I’m not in any way berating the real estate agents,” he said. “But with all the open houses on the weekends, and the signs all over the place, it sends a message that East Hampton Village is for sale. It isn’t, and it does a disservice to the good people who live here.”

    Also last Thursday, the board continued a discussion about the possibility of a ban on bamboo. Valued by some as an inexpensive and fast-growing ornamental, the invasive plant has taken over a few village lots, with little regard for property lines.

    Elbert Edwards, a board member, said he felt an overall ban on bamboo in the village to be “a little drastic.”

    “If a person has a problem with vegetation encroaching on their property, they have a right to bring a civil suit,” said Linda Riley, the village attorney. “You can certainly have a law that says it has to be maintained on your own property and not encroach, but then you have to be prepared to prove it,” she said. “If it becomes a local law, it can’t be left to a neighbor’s decision” about whether it is bothering them or not. “That makes the neighbor into the building inspector,” she said.

    “Do we need to have legislation on this?” Ms. Borsack asked. “If there’s only been two complaints, can they take it up civilly?”

    “We are sympathetic to the people who have reached out to Village Hall on this,” the mayor said. “How can we be proactive and preventative?” The board decided to put the matter on hold for now.

    The village board also discussed the requirements of a federally and state-mandated stormwater management plan meant to address regulations for what are officially called Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems.

    “It’s a national law, handed down to the state to implement, then handed down to individual small governments to handle,” said Larry Cantwell, the village administrator. The new mandates are costly, he said, but “you don’t really have a choice.”

    “It will be expensive, but ultimately we’re going to have to come up with a mitigation plan to implement this program that has fallen on our shoulders,” he said, adding that the village already has “a reasonably decent handle on this.”

    The future of the Thomas Moran House, the Long Island Power Authority’s answer to Tropical Storm Irene, and plaques and proclamations were on the agenda at Friday’s East Hampton Village Board meeting.

    Marti Mayo, the executive director of the Thomas Moran Trust, gave an update on the house at 229 Main Street. It is deteriorating, she said, with some sections on the verge of collapse.

    The house, built in 1884 as the home of the artists Thomas Moran and his wife, Mary Nimmo Moran, was designated a National Historic Landmark very early on, in 1965, when the landmark program was only two years old. “Even the Statue of Liberty wasn’t designated until 1992,” Ms. Mayo said.

    The house was privately owned until 2004, when Elizabeth “Boots” Lamb died. A trust was formed in 2007 to bring the property back to its 1916 appearance, which the trust deems the apex of its heyday.

    The cost of the renovation, which includes structural work, landscaping,  ground and water studies, and experts to match paints, textiles, and more, will be in the $8 million range. The trust has raised almost half that amount, $3.5 million.

    “We’re anxious to be a good neighbor,” said Ms. Mayo. “And we take our responsibilities seriously. This will be a wonderful monument to this artist,” whose famous paintings of the Western landscape led directly to the creation of Yellowstone National Park.

    Having to negotiate the hurdles required at state and federal levels has  caused a time issue for the trust. Ms. Mayo, who has been on the job since April, was “hopeful, no promises” that renovations would begin within the next several months, but wanted to know whether the board might give it another year to get fully under way.

    “I think we’d be inclined to look favorably on it,” Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach said. “But we would have to draw a line in the sand after that.”

    Bruce Siska, the newest member of the board, got a roasting from Hugh King, who graduated from East Hampton High School with Mr. Siska in 1959. Mr. King brought his high school yearbook and searched through it, chuckling, for mention of Mr. Siska in the popularity polls. There was none. “He did marry Mary Talmage, who was voted ‘most sincere,’ ” Mr. King said. When the board asked which popularity contest Mr. King had won, he acknowledged, “best all-around.”

    Steven Tricario, a district manager for the Long Island Power Authority on eastern Long Island, introduced himself to the board as its government liaison. In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene, the village had sent a strongly worded letter to LIPA chastising it for a breakdown in communications.

    “I don’t think it was the [fault of] the workers who came out here during Irene,” said the mayor. “They did a yeoman’s job. It was a problem of communication.”

    Mr. Tricario said that “moving forward, our goal is to provide safe and reliable service.”

    The mayor issued a proclamation to honor veterans during Veterans Appreciation Week, from Nov. 5 through Nov. 11.

    There to accept the plaque was August Bouker, who thanked everyone for their continued support of veterans. The Veterans Day parade, sponsored by V.F.W. Post 550 and American Legion Post 419, will start in front of London Jewelers at 10 a.m. on Nov. 11.

    A ledger has recently come to light, a kind of logbook that chronicled the day-to-day activities at the Ditch Plain, Montauk, lifesaving station during the five-year period from 1873 to 1878. Trouble is, you will have to go to Southold to see it.

    The Southold Historical Society purchased the ledger for its Horton Point Lighthouse Museum after it was offered for sale by a private collector.

    “We were contacted by a dealer who acquired it. He contacted a number of institutions. It was in excellent condition. We have collections related to the U.S. Life Saving Service,” said Geoffrey Fleming, director of the Horton Light museum.

     The Life Saving Service operated stations all along the coast. It was one of the Coast Guard’s precursor agencies. 

    Mr. Fleming said his museum bought the log last summer at a cost “in the low thousands,” along with a number of photographs of East End lifesaving stations. He said the book details a number of rescues, maintenance information, and shipwrecks, of which the most tragic was surely the wreck of the Circassian off Bridgehampton. On Jan 1, The New York Times reported that “the search for the bodies of the unfortunate men of the ship Circassian was rewarded yesterday afternoon by the discovery of three corpses which were thrown up on the shore about four miles [west] of Montauk Point. The wind did not abate until nightfall, yet it was not so keen as to drive off the patrolling men of the Life Saving Service.”

    The lifesaving station was certainly the Ditch Plain Station. The bodies were those of three crewman, all of whom were Shinnecock Indians. The wreck itself occurred on the stormy night of Dec. 11.

    Mr. Fleming said that yes, he had been contacted after the sale by a representative of the Montauk Lighthouse Museum. Tricia Wood, the Montauk museum’s site manager, said Tuesday that while the Horton Light museum was not interested in selling the book, it would consider lending it to Montauk sometime in the future.

    More information about the ledger can be found on the Southold Historical Society’s Web site, southoldhistoricalsociety.org.

    The Montauk Chamber of Commerce will be host its 30th fall festival on Saturday and Sunday, and, appropriately, 30 restaurants have promised to donate New England and Manhattan clam chowders for the popular chowder tasting contest on Saturday.

    The festival runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and from noon to 5 on Sunday, but be warned: Lines for the chowder tasting start forming early on Saturday. The winners in both categories, who will be chosen by the people and food critics from local newspapers, will be announced at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

    On both days, there will also be a 30-horse carousel, inflatable rides, crab races, pumpkin decorating, face painting, live music, oysters and clams on the half shell, and other October-fest style food. There will be street games, a farmers market, plant sales, and wine and beer tastings. This year, the chamber has also added a new attraction, the wheel of chance.

    On Sunday the folks from the Montauk Playhouse Community Center will join the fun under a tent from noon to 3 p.m., where there will be live music, a silent auction with prizes that range from gift certificates from local restaurants, stores, and motels to handbags, paintings, technical gadgets, gift baskets, and more. A separate silent auction will feature sports and entertainment memorabilia. Popcorn, cotton candy, and baked goods will be available for purchase.

    On Sunday, the chamber will pull the winning tickets in its Cash Catch raffle, with prizes expected to total  $29,000, depending on how many tickets are sold. The tickets cost $50 apiece and will be sold right up to the drawing.

    The festival is a fund-raiser for the Montauk Food Pantry, the chamber’s Frank A. Cappozola Scholarship award, the annual Montauk fireworks display, and other events that the chamber hosts.

    Volunteers are still needed. Those interested can contact Pat Shea at the chamber office.

Representatives from the Montauk Friends of Erin, the Montauk Chamber of Commerce, the East Hampton Town Police Department, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will gather next week at Gurney’s Inn to discuss how to discourage drunken, under-age people from attending the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in the hamlet.

Chamber officials drew up the petitions that have been posted in the chamber and at local businesses asking the transportation authority not to send trains to Montauk on March 12, the day of next year’s parade.

“In the past few years, those trains have brought thousands of youths, many inebriated and under age, and has resulted in taking away the fun, family tradition that had been enjoyed for many years,” the petition says.

Residents have embraced the petition, Joe Bloecker, the president of the Friends of Erin, said. He explained that the plan is to have the petitions at the meeting so that the representatives of the M.T.A. can see just how many people in Montauk don’t like what happens every year at the parade.

“It’ll give us a leg to stand on,” Mr. Bloecker said. “The problems are coming off the trains. We don’t want that and we don’t want them to send any trains. They’re not doing us any favors.”

If the M.T.A. doesn’t cooperate, the Friends of Erin are considering starting the parade at 10 a.m. to circumvent the revelers, most of whom, according to Mr. Bloecker, will have attended parades in other areas on the previous day and will be too hung over to jump a train that early in the morning. But the idea has not been “set in stone,” he said, and the group is happy to negotiate.

Chamber members don’t want to see the time changed, as that will deter families from driving out for the festivities, which have attracted crowds of up to 40,000 people in the past. “People up west would have to leave at 5 a.m. to get out that early,” said Laraine Creegan, the chamber’s executive director. “We’re really not taking a stand. We love the parade. We’re just concerned about the earlier timing.”

Sal Arena, an M.T.A. spokesman, said yesterday that the agency would discuss the parade with Ms. Creegan at next week’s meeting.

Apparently last year’s parade was one of the worst. Mr. Bloecker said that 95 percent of the arrests were related to under-age drinkers trying to get into bars and the fights that ensued. He said the bars all had good security, but that “the reason the fights take place outside the bars is because they won’t let them in. And then it makes them look bad” when the revelers hang around.

Following last year’s parade the Friends of Erin started brainstorming on how to tame the rowdy crowds and return the parade to the families. They came up with the earlier start time but kept it a secret until recently, Mr. Bloecker said. “Enough is enough.”

Several years ago, security was tightened, with a wider range of police officers — from the town, the M.T.A., the state park police, and the highway patrol. They were posted at the train station with drug-and-alcohol-sniffing dogs and confiscated containers of alcohol as they were carried off the train.

It helped for a year or two, but the trouble escalated at last year’s event when, to avoid the police and a search of their backpacks, a number of paradegoers jumped from the train, sneaked under the platform, and exited on Industrial Road, south of the station, Mr. Bloecker said.

The Friends of Erin and the chamber of commerce are encouraging public comment to help in the final decision.

“We need to let the people in Montauk know that we don’t support these people coming out here,” Mr. Bloecker said. “If they don’t stop the train, we will change the parade start to 10 a.m.”

    The Concerned Citizens of Montauk will meet for its annual meeting on Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Montauk Fire Department. After a brief business meeting, the folks will sit back for the general meeting, which will include a lecture titled, “Twenty Miles to Millstone: Is Nuclear Power a Threat to Montauk?”

    Appearing on a panel of experts will be Karl Grossman, a journalist who has written extensively on nuclear power, and Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, a Montauk resident.

    The 40-year-old Millstone nuclear facility in Waterford, Conn., is the same distance from Montauk as Montauk is from the Bridgehampton Commons, C.C.O.M. pointed out in a press release, meaning that a problem there could pose a danger to communities across the Sound.

    Panelists will discuss the prospect of evacuating Long Island and the need to reassess reliance on nuclear power. The danger of nuclear power was brought to the fore after a major earthquake and devastating tsunami in Japan earlier this year damaged nuclear reactors at the Fukushima, Daiichi, power plant, leading to a major nuclear crisis.

    Since then, C.C.O.M. said, other major economies have moved aggressively away from nuclear power, while officials in the United States limited their response to a review of the 104 plants across the country. Earlier this month, federal inspectors cited Millstone for operating at capacities far beyond those permitted.

    The panelists will discuss the fact that despite these findings there has been no reconsideration of recent license extensions permitting the facility’s two reactors to operate for an additional 20 years, prolonging the plant’s intended 40-year life span.   

    In honor of the group’s 50th year, the Montauk Friends of Erin will kick off the season of the green a bit early with a Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day party on Saturday at 3 p.m.

    But before that, at noon, the friends will unveil a new monument on the downtown green dedicated to the 50 grand marshals who have led the St. Patrick’s Day parade that traditionally wakes up the sleepy hamlet after a long winter and draws thousands of people. The Amityville Highland Pipe Band will perform, and a Coast Guard color guard will lead the ceremony.

    The monument will include the name of the parade’s 2012 grand marshal, which usually isn’t announced until late January. “It’s been hard to keep it a secret since we decided early in the summer,” said Joe Bloecker, the president of the friends. “I thought a monument would be a nice gesture to the grand marshals and their families, most of whom still live in Montauk,” he said.

    Mr. Bloecker came up with the idea for a memorial and the rest of the friends were enthusiastic about it, he said. On Tuesday morning, the East Hampton Town Board approved the monument, which has been placed just to the east of the steps to the gazebo. Construction began later that day. The materials and labor were donated by Tom and Kathy Ciccariello of the Seven Sons landscaping company.

    The final piece engraved with this year’s grand marshal’s name will not be installed until just before the unveiling ceremony. “We can’t let anyone know who it is before Saturday,” Mr. Bloecker said. Rumors have been spreading for the last week.

    The party afterward will run till 7 p.m. at the Old Harbor House. The $50 tickets include an open bar, a barbecue, and live music and dancing. Tickets can be bought in advance at Becker’s Home Center or at the Montauk Chamber of Commerce.

    “Under Our Skin,” a much-anticipated documentary film about Lyme disease, will be shown tomorrow night at 7 at LTV Studio 3 Cinema in Wainscott. Directed by Andy Abrahams, the film investigates this often misdiagnosed malady, which is all too well known on the East End, drawing disconcerting conclusions about the failings of the health care industry.

 According to the Centers for Disease Control, Lyme disease cases have increased by a staggering 94 percent since 2004, almost doubling between then and 2009, when the last numbers were compiled. “Under Our Skin” attempts to counter the ever-growing complications surrounding  the disease, from doctors’ diagnoses to costly battles with insurance companies and varying treatment possibilities.

 A panel discussion will follow the film, featuring Dr. Joseph Burrascano, a Lyme disease specialist who lives in East Hampton, and Stacey Sobel, the executive director of the Turn the Corner Foundation, which is dedicated to Lyme education and research.

Tomorrow night’s event is a pre-screening of the Hamptons Take 2 Film Festival, which is scheduled for Nov. 18 through Nov. 20. Tickets are $15, available at the door.

    Those who shop at the I.G.A. in Amagansett (also known as Cirillo’s Market) can choose to put their groceries in the paper bags provided or take their own totes. Frances Cirillo, who runs the company from her offices in East Setauket, has discontinued the use of plastic shopping bags in the grocery store altogether . . . and no one even had to ask.

    “Ultimately, it’s the right thing to do,” she said by telephone on Tuesday. “It’s the direction things are going in.”

    The Amagansett supermarket, which has been in the Cirillo family since the early 1970s, made the switch about a month ago.

    East Hampton Village passed a ban on plastic grocery bags at the end of July, emulating the action taken by Southampton Village in April. The latest ban does not go into effect until the beginning of next year, but there has already been talk at board meetings that East Hampton Town may not be far behind.

    However, Ms. Cirillo said, the potentially looming townwide law was not the reason for her voluntary compliance.

    “It’s good for the environment,” she said. “It’s good for our grandchildren. It’s the way to go.”

    She said that paper bags are slightly more expensive — around 11 cents each, compared to “pennies” for plastic — but she did not sound fazed in the least about it.

    “When you know you’re doing the right thing for yourself, for your children, for the environment, it doesn’t matter as much,” she said.

    “Surprised, but positive,” is how Eric Morris of East Hampton, one of the Amagansett store’s managers, characterized the reaction of customers who have noticed the change. “We’ve had nothing but positive feedback.”

    The store’s other manager, Gustavo Renata, said that reviews on the plastic ban have been mixed. “For some people, it’s harder to change,” he said.

    The Rev. Bill Hoffmann favors small towns and is used to cold winters. So he should be a good match for the Montauk Community Church, where he has been installed as its new pastor.

    Mr. Hoffmann, his wife, Valerie, and three daughters, the youngest of whom enrolled in the Montauk School yesterday, moved to the hamlet in early August from the Rochester (N.Y.) Community Church, where winters can be harsh, but still not as bad as was his time serving the ministry in Minnesota. “It cannot be any worse than that,” he said.

    Montauk is familiar to him. He grew up in Hicksville and visited Montauk in his early years and as a teen. He went fishing with his father and grandfather and with friends to the beach. But what he enjoyed most, he said, was hiking through the area’s wooded acreage.

    “As one who loves the outdoors, it’s certainly an amazing place to be,” he said. “I’m feeling pretty spoiled to look out my window and see the ocean right now.”

    Mr. Hoffmann and his wife were married almost 30 years ago, three days after he received an undergraduate degree in forestry. He became superintendent of Wisconsin’s state parks, but was always active in the church. Eventually, he began to sense a calling. “I was exploring if this was the right thing for me,” he said.

    Through prayer with his family and local pastor, he made the decision to attend a seminary in Kentucky.  When he graduated in 1996, he served in several upstate New York towns and also counseled prisoners incarcerated nearby.

    One day, while tinkering at the computer, he searched the Presbyterian Church’s network, mainly to catch up on friends. “I wasn’t looking to move,” he said. But he and his wife had thought that if an appointment came up in Montauk they should look into it.

    That is what happened. After meeting with the church’s research committee, the congregation voted unanimously to hire him in June. “It seemed like a good fit,” he said.

    Mr. Hoffmann said the Montauk church’s ecumenical spirit and the community’s closeness attracted him, adding that the almost oceanfront parsonage was also a draw. “It’s beautiful,” he said.

    As a hiker, he said he cannot wait to get out on the wooded trails and paths in the hamlet. Sitting at his desk with a computer open and stacks of books neatly on shelves, the new minister said he does house calls, as was evident from an overheard phone call. As for his ministry, he said he planned no quick changes.

    “I think it’s important for me to learn what’s important to [the congregation]. The things they have already in place are excellent. I’d just like to strengthen those relationships.”