A letter written by Paige Morehead, the Springs School’s speech therapist, asking the school board to reconsider the abrupt resignation of the school’s assistant principal, Christine Cleary, prompted an outcry Monday night at the school’s annual budget hearing.

The letter, read aloud by Cristen Keyes, a third-grade teacher at the school (Ms. Morehead was unable to attend the meeting), beseeched the board to retain Ms. Cleary, saying she played a vital role alongside the principal, Eric Casale, in helping to manage an already short-staffed, packed-to-the-gills school. The writer described the elimination of the position as “not thought through at all.”

Barbara Dayton, the board president, responded. “I think we need to clear something up. The board did not eliminate the assistant principal position,” she said.

Several staff and community members, appearing stunned, followed Ms. Keyes to the podium looking for answers, especially to determine who was responsible for Ms. Cleary’s departure.

“I can hear your frustration by the lack of answers,” said Ms. Dayton, “but we simply cannot discuss employment contracts and terms at this time.”

Brenda Crozier, a greeter for the school, rose to speak. “I sit in a position from where I can observe exactly how indispensable Christine Cleary is to the school,” she said. “She and Mr. Casale make a great team . . . the students feel valued knowing there is always someone there for them. Most staff are under the impression that the assistant principal position was cut because we now have a new superintendent to work with Mr. Casale, and Ms. Cleary is no longer needed.”

“The assistant principal position has not been removed from next year’s budget. That’s really all we can say,” replied Ms. Dayton.

A parent of two children at the school, Sema Mendelman, also voiced frustration. “Until we get some answers, the rumor mill will keep going,” said Ms. Mendelman. “We heard that she was given the option to either become a teacher or leave.”

School Superintendent John J. Finello, who is due to retire on June 30, responded. “We cannot control the misinformation that spreads, but the fact is, we cannot discuss personnel issues,” he said. “There are some things for which we cannot provide answers immediately.”

Ms. Cleary could not be reached for comment. Ms. Dayton wrote in an email to The Star, “As of this time the board of education has not acted upon Ms. Cleary’s resignation as assistant principal.”

Also at the meeting, Carl Fraser, the interim school business administrator, again presented the tax-compliant budget for 2017-2018, with a bottom line of $28.1 million. The numbers have more or less remained unchanged since February, and the full-capacity crowd had no comments to make.

In a letter published in The Star last week, Mary Eames, an Amagansett resident, wondered why three administrators were needed at a school with “103 students and 75 others attending East Hampton Middle and High Schools,” and why only two of their salaries appeared on the 2017-18 school budget, for a total of $356,567. Omitting the third, she said, allowed the school to claim an $815 savings on administrative costs compared to last year.

On Tuesday, during the school’s annual public hearing on the proposed budget, Ms. Eames launched into a long and heated sparring match with the district superintendent, Eleanor Tritt.

“You hired an administrator [Tom Lamorgese] to help you with instructional evaluation,” Ms. Eames told Ms. Tritt. “His salary comes out of taxpayer dollars. So why isn’t that figure included in the budget?”

“He is not a salaried employee,” responded Ms. Tritt. “Only salaries appear on the budget. He is on a per diem rate.”

According to the superintendent, Mr. Lamorgese’s day rate is $350, and since January he has earned approximately $24,000, which translates to between 17 and 20 working days each month.

“And if he continues from September to December,” said Ms. Eames, “that means another $25,000, totaling about $50,000 of taxpayer money for a school with a projected number of 96 kids for the next year. So, admin costs are actually close to half a million dollars. There’s no savings here.”

Ms. Eames then turned to Patrick Bistrian III, the school board president. “You’re the superintendent’s boss,” she said, asking him to explain what she called the “full-time employment” of Mr. Lamorgese, who joins Ms. Tritt and the school principal, Maria Dorr, to form the administrative triumvirate.

“He is not a full-time employee,” objected Mr. Bistrian. “We use him when we need him, and not just for instructional evaluation but also for other duties as specified by the superintendent.”

Ms. Eames moved on to Ms. Tritt’s own compensation package, demanding to know why one of the smaller school districts in the area pays its superintendent a yearly salary of $195,520, plus free housing and various perks, including an expense account.

Patrick R. Bistrian, a school board member, interrupted her. “That’s just not fair. Ms. Tritt is not at the top of the list of superintendents as far as salaries go.”

“Oh, yes she is,” Ms. Eames responded. “If you think about how much more work other superintendents have to do in order to manage a lot more than 95 kids, she is definitely at the top. She’s got the premium rate.”

According to a recently published report on the salaries of local school superintendents, the East Hampton School District, with over 900 students, pays its superintendent some $250,000. Montauk pays $192,000 to a superintendent who is also the school principal for a school with about 350 students. In the Springs School District, which has over 700 students, the superintendent’s salary is approximately $200,000.

Ms. Eames concluded her remarks by stating that, for the first time in 40 years, she will vote against the budget. Ms. Tritt had earlier reported that should the budget not be passed, the school would be forced to adopt a contingent budget of about $200,000 less, resulting in cuts to after-school programs, salaries, and the prekindergarten program for 3-year-olds.

“That’s simply not true,” said Ms. Eames. “You are bullying the taxpayer. You have a reserve fund, not earmarked for anything specific, that could be used to help cover the deficit of the backup budget. You cannot bully, you cannot steal, and you cannot cheat the public, and then teach kids not to do so.”

Rona Klopman, another longtime resident of Amagansett, followed Ms. Eames with more harsh words.

“I was really hoping, with new board members, that it wouldn’t be deja vu this year,” she said. “But I feel that board members are once again picked simply to rubber-stamp whatever the superintendent wants to do.” Citing a lack of transparency in the proposed budget, Ms. Klopman sounded ambivalent as to whether she would vote to adopt it.

“I have never voted against the budget,” she said. “But I really feel that this board is not being respectful of taxpayers.”

In a phone interview yesterday, Ms. Tritt reacted to Tuesday night’s heated comments, pointing out that the budgeting process is a very complex one. “We are only required to report administrative salaries for people making $130,000 or more a year. Tom [Lamorgese] is making a fraction of that and receives no benefits, so we are saving the taxpayer dollars,” she said.

She also wanted to tell the community that an independent auditor had recently visited the school and complimented the district on being fiscally responsible.

“That has always been my goal,” said the superintendent, “to serve our students responsibly and maintain consistency in what we do and how we do it, so that there are no ramifications in the future.”

Now that New York State has adopted legislation calling for the state, and only the state, to regulate Uber, Lyfft, and other “e-hailing companies,” as Nancylynn Thiele, an East Hampton Town attorney, described the taxi services that are summoned through smartphone apps, the Town of East Hampton must revise its taxi regulations.

Speaking at a town board meeting Tuesday, Ms. Thiele said transportation network companies, which are referred to as T.N.C.s, must be excluded from the town’s definition of taxicab. She also pointed out other necessary changes. 

The town now requires all cab companies to meet certain criteria. Included among them are a requirement that each company obtain a business license and licenses for each vehicle, and that would-be drivers undergo fingerprinting and background checks.

Even after the state takes regulatory authority over Uber and other ride-hailing services, the town will be allowed to apply parking related restrictions, under which conventional taxicabs must operate, to them. Those strictures, such as one prohibiting drivers from sleeping overnight in cars, will be moved to the vehicles and traffic section of the town code.

State officials have until July, or 90 days from the adoption of the state law, to get statewide regulations in place. In the interim, all the town’s taxicab regulations will continue to apply. A town law that requires taxicab companies to maintain offices in East Hampton, and another that requires the cars used for these businesses to be company-owned, had essentially ruled out ride-hailing services here.

The state already has adopted restrictions stating that ride-hailing companies may not solicit riders other than through their apps and may not accept cash fares. Transportation companies in East Hampton may hold a state license as a ride-hailing business, or a town taxi license, but not both.

Tuesday’s board meeting was marked by complaints from Joe Loffreno, a Montauk resident, who argued that the town fee for a taxi driver’s license, $200, was too high. The board, which had been considering resetting taxi fees, agreed later on Tuesday to reset all fees related to taxicab licensing so that they are the same as in Southampton Town. That will lower the driver’s fee to $100. Anyone who already paid that fee this year will receive a credit for the difference once the new fee structure is in place.

. “So you’re going to approach us with guns,” he asked, saying “show us your taxi licenses. Doesn’t that sound a little like mob tactics?”

Mr. Loffreno, who was a perennial Town Hall critic during the former McGintee administration and who appeared at Town Hall on Tuesday with a daughter who also drives a cab, repeatedly demanded to be told where the fee money goes, and was told it went into the town’s general fund. He was asked several times to relinquish the podium, but held on until Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell asked whether it would be necessary to call the police.

Town Hall critic during the former McGintee administration and who appeared at Town Hall on Tuesday with a daughter who also drives a cab, repeatedly demanded to be told where the fee money goes, and was told it went into the town’s general fund. He was asked several times to relinquish the podium, but held on until Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell asked whether it would be necessary to call the police.

After leaving the meeting room, Mr. Loffreno and his daughter questioned Ms. Thiele and members of the town clerk’s staff until Ms. Thiele did summon the police, who asked them to leave.

While in the custody of East Hampton Town police Saturday night on a charge of driving while intoxicated, a 21-year-old woman turned violent, striking a village policeman, who had come to assist, with a closed fist. Amanda E. Stetler of Hampton Bays was in handcuffs, in the back of a town police cruiser bound for Wainscott headquarters, when the arresting officer, fearing his prisoner was having an unspecified “medical event,” pulled over on Main Street in East Hampton. Two officers from the village met him there.

While they waited for an ambulance to arrive, the town officer removed Ms. Stetler’s handcuffs. At that point, “she became combative,” according to the report, lunging out of the patrol car and throwing a punch at one of the village officers, striking him flush on the side of his face. “Said punch caused swelling, redness, and discomfort to the left cheek, jawbone, and rear left side teeth of undersigned officer,” he reported.

The woman then took off running. Officers raced down Main Street in pursuit and she was soon back in custody.

The incident, which police said began at about 8 p.m. when they spotted her 2017 BMW swerving on Montauk Highway near Windmill Lane in Amagansett, ended at Southampton Hospital, where she was admitted for observation. She refused to take a blood test to determine the level of alcohol in her system, police said. The officer she struck was also taken to the hospital, where he was treated and released, East Hampton Village Chief Michael Tracey said Tuesday.

On top of the drunken-driving charge, town police added charges of resisting arrest and unlawful escape from custody. All three are misdemeanors. The village department added a violation charge of harassment. The village report describes Ms. Stetler as “highly intoxicated and possibly suffering from alcohol poisoning.” She will be arraigned on the charges next Thursday.

Police reportedly clocked a Manhattan woman driving a 2014 Mini Cooper east through Amagansett at midnight Friday at 49 miles per hour in a 35 m.p.h. zone as she approached the Napeague stretch. Jacqueline S. Castro told the arresting officer that she had had “a few glasses of wine.”

She took the breath test at headquarters, with a reported reading of .17, over twice the level that defines intoxication and just below the .18 number that would have raised the misdemeanor charge to a more serious level.

East Hampton Town Justice Lisa R. Rana ordered Ms. Castro released without bail on Saturday morning and told her to return to court on May 25. Ms. Castro said she would be out of town on business that day and had already bought plane tickets. The date was changed to June 15. “I appreciate it,” she told the court.

A Sunday night traffic stop on Stephen Hand’s Path in East Hampton led to the arrest of Edgar Benjamin Vasquez, 38, of Westhampton Beach. Police said his 2005 Honda had crossed a hazard marking and swerved into the oncoming lane. His breath test in Wainscott produced a reading of .11, police said.

While the drunken-driving charge he faces is a misdemeanor, he also was charged with a felony for unlicensed driving. Mr. Vasquez is already facing another D.W.I. charge elsewhere, which triggered the new felony charge. Bail was set at $5,000. Mr. Vasquez was unable to post it, and was in the county jail as of yesterday.

The arrest of John Tyler Armstrong, an East Hampton Town Trustee, is reported elsewhere on this page.

The East Hampton Fire Department gathered for its annual inspection dinner on Saturday night, regrouping for another year and honoring those who have served.

This year’s chiefs will continue in their posts for the 2017-18 year, with Kenneth Wessberg at the helm, Gerry Turza as first assistant chief, and Jamalia Hayes as second assistant chief. Among the first people recognized during the dinner at the Maidstone Club was Kenny Brown for his 55 years of service.

Mr. Brown, who will turn 73 in June, still responds to calls as a member of Company No. 5. “You can’t get some 22-year-olds out of bed in the middle of the night,” Chief Wessberg said of Mr. Brown’s dedication. Mr. Brown said Monday that he is still qualified to drive three of the trucks and goes to calls whenever he can. He has no plans to retire. “They’ll take me out of there feet first,” he said with a laugh.

An 11th-generation member of East Hampton’s Hedges family, he was born and raised in East Hampton and served the community for 35 years with the East Hampton Village Police Department. He retired as a police lieutenant in 2001. “I don’t regret one minute of it,” he said of his many years of public service.

He joined the fire department at 18, following in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps. He considered joining the New York City Fire Department for a time, but said, “I’m a country boy, not a city boy.” He served as the department’s chief from 1978 to 1982.

The fire chiefs not only recognized Mr. Brown, but also his wife, Linda Brown, with whom he will soon celebrate 51 years of marriage. They gave her a big bouquet of flowers. “She’s always supported him with the fire service,” Chief Wessberg said.

The big winner of the evening was Rory Knight, who took home the Firefighter of the Year award. Mr. Knight has  been in the department only about five years, according to the chief, but is a dedicated member of the ladder truck company and was an integral part of the East Hampton team that fought the raging Sag Harbor fire in December.

Joan Jacobs, who has served as the department secretary for the past four years, received a chief’s appreciation award. “She was a great, great secretary for the chiefs,” Mr. Wessberg said, adding that she never said no to a request, even if he asked at the last minute. Ms. Jacobs has been a member of the fire police company for nearly 20 years.

The Officer of the Year award went to Sam Fisher, a lieutenant with Company No. 4. A member for about five years, he was recognized for helping the chiefs respond to automatic fire alarms.

Several others were recognized as well. Three members — John Anderson, Francis Mott, and Mark MacPherson — received plaques for 40 years of service. Jack Engelhardt and Robert Lawler earned pins for 35 years of service. Alex Walter, John Diamond, and James Brooks got 30-year pins, while John Tarbet, John Geehreng, Francis Bock, and Chief Turza were recognized for 25 years with the department.

Edwin Geus and Christopher Hatch got 20-year pins, and Jonathan Dayton, Isaac Lopez, and Dudley Hayes — Chief Hayes’s father — got 15-year pins. Pat Bezubek, Dan Schaefer, and Alex Tekulsky were recognized for 10 years of service.

Members of the Bistrian family, the owners, through corporate entities, of 33 acres of farmland north of Amagansett Main Street, have sued East Hampton Town to force construction of an access road from there to Windmill Lane so that house lots may be developed on the acreage.

On and off for decades, the town has negotiated with the family to buy the land for preservation, either outright or through the purchase of development rights, or some combination thereof.

In August, after reaching yet another impasse over conflicting assessments and a purchase price, the Bistrians notified the town that they would proceed with development. They demanded that East Hampton follow through on its promise to construct an access road into the site from Windmill Lane, which they say was agreed to in 1971 when Peter Bistrian provided the town with land to create the Amagansett municipal parking lot.

The family, through its attorney, had said last year that if the town did not build the road by October, they would install it themselves. According to the lawsuit, there has been no response, to date, by the town.

Ten contiguous parcels make up the acreage, some sections of which, lacking an access road, are landlocked.

The area is zoned for two-acre residential lots, but is also in an agricultural zone, which imposes restrictions on how it can be developed. Appraisals on the land’s value commissioned by the town and by the family have differed widely. Last year, appraisers for the Bistrians set the price at $29 million. The town, based on its own appraisal, offered $19 million.

The lawsuit, filed early last week in State Supreme Court, seeks a court order verifying that the access road area was dedicated to the town as a public highway, that the town is obligated to “open, pave, and maintain” it, and that Steve Lynch, the highway superintendent, be compelled to oversee its construction.

Alternatively, it asks the court for a judgment upholding the family’s right to open up and improve the access road from the property to Windmill Lane themselves, and restraining the town from interfering with that process.

The suit cites a September 1970 East Hampton Town Board resolution outlining a proposal to “acquire and improve as a parking lot a parcel of land approximately two acres on the north side on Main Street, Amagansett, and acquire approximately three acres for a future access road north and west to Windmill Lane, and to pay all necessary acquisition and improvement costs” associated. It also references a legal notice in The Star prior to a public vote on the acquisition, and the results of the referendum, in which town voters approved it.

In September 1971, Peter Bistrian conveyed ownership to the town of the 2.3 acres for the parking lot, and, for no additional fee, the additional three acres for the access road, “for the sole purpose,” according to the lawsuit, “of developing the road that would provide [him] with access to the rest of his property, which had been eliminated as a result” of transferring the 2.3-acre parcel.

The construction of the parking lot, according to a letter from the Bistrians’ attorney to the town board last year, removed the approach to the family’s property from Main Street, prompting the agreement for Peter Bistrian to provide the town, at no cost, with the additional three acres for the access road.

  The road is depicted on the town tax map leading from the north side of the parking lot through the farm fields and then curving west to intersect with Windmill Lane in the area of Schellinger Road.

According to the lawsuit, the town has over the years acknowledged the existence of the conceptual road, most recently in its application to the Suffolk County Health Department for a permit for the new public restroom at the edge of the parking lot and farm fields, to be opened next week.

“The town’s refusal to open the road,” the suit alleges, “is a transparent attempt to obstruct further development, without justification.”

With its endorsement of Jeffrey Bragman for town councilman, the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee’s screening committee has signed off on a slate of candidates for town board and other townwide offices, but a primary challenge could be in the works.

In choosing Mr. Bragman, an attorney, the screening committee passed over a perennial contender, Zachary Cohen of Springs, who ran a tight race for town supervisor in 2011 and had announced his intention to seek a town board nomination last month.

This week, Mr. Cohen seemed poised to push for a primary. Nominations will be voted on by the full committee at a nominating convention on May 17, when supporters of Mr. Cohen could put his name forward as an alternative.

“We had 10 qualified candidates interview for the town council positions and only two spots to fill,” Jeanne Frankl, the Democratic Committee’s co-chairwoman, said in a release on Monday announcing the screening committee’s picks. “Our interviews and deliberations have taken over two months, but we are extremely happy with the outcome and believe we have qualified, experienced people who know the issues and know how to formulate policies to deal with those issues.”

If he wins the nomination, Mr. Bragman would share the ticket with Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, who is running for supervisor, and Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, who is seeking a second term.

Selection by the local committee confers no privilege or preferred status, Mr. Cohen said in a statement issued on Monday. “By law, the decision as to the party’s candidate does not lie either with the party committee or with its screening subcommittee, but with the party membership. All party members stand on a completely equal footing in a primary election. . . . I look forward to a fresh, exciting, and vigorous primary campaign that speaks to the issues of concern to East Hampton voters.”

Mr. Cohen, who fell 15 votes short in his 2011 bid to oust Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, called himself “an independent Democrat.” He pointed out his positions on the town’s nature preserve committee, the Suffolk County Tick Control Advisory Committee, and the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund Advisory Opinions Bureau. He is also advising the town’s airport management advisory committee, he said.

Mr. Bragman has represented the town’s architectural review board, zoning board of appeals, and planning board, as well as applicants before various planning and zoning boards. He was also counsel to the North Haven Village Zoning Board of Appeals and served as that village’s attorney. He is also a member of the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund Advisory Opinions Bureau.

The 2017 campaign will be Mr. Bragman’s first foray into politics.

“This year was amazing and I have to believe it has something to do with people’s outrage about the current president and the state of affairs nationally,” Ms. Frankl said in the statement on Monday, referring to the number of people interested in running for town office.

The three Democrats are expected to face Manny Vilar, the East Hampton Town Republican Committee’s nominee for supervisor, and Jerry Larsen and Paul Giardina, its candidates for town board.

The Democrats’ screening committee also recommended four incumbents for re-election: Town Clerk Carole Brennan, East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky, Eugene DePasquale for assessor, and Steve Lynch, a Republican whom the Democrats cross-endorsed for superintendent of highways.

“I am so honored to have received the support of the screening committee and look forward to running with Kathee and Jeff,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said in a statement. “I am proud of my 16-year record of leadership in East Hampton Town government protecting our natural resources, open space, and environment. I will continue to work to improve and protect water quality, achieve relief for those affected by aircraft noise, and combat threats to our quality of life throughout the town.”

“While tremendous challenges lie ahead, I have proven that I have what it takes to lead,” Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said in a statement of her own. “With community support I hope to continue to bring my energy, experience, and commitment to townwide office for another four years.”

Some 250 people marched along Sag Harbor’s Main Street and held a rally at Long Wharf on Saturday as part of a national campaign to draw attention to climate change and urge lawmakers to act to mitigate its predicted impact.

Under sunny skies, the event brought together a cross-section of South Fork residents, from scientists and conservationists to celebrities to regular folk concerned about sea level rise and more frequent and extreme weather events, among the other effects of a warming climate. The march and rally were among hundreds held across the country, including one in Washington, D.C., where tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets and surrounded the White House in protest against President Donald Trump’s rollback of environmental regulations.

Throughout the event, word spread that the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s website had just been stripped of much of its content relating to climate change. “On every level, our environment is threatened, including the fact that they are erasing the information on climate change to try to convince people that it doesn’t exist,” Christie Brinkley, the model and author, told The Star. “I’m here first and foremost as a mother because I feel that our children, all children’s future, is really in grave danger right now. I think that we all have a responsibility to be informed and to speak out.”

John Andrews, a scientist who has lived in Sag Harbor since 1969, spoke at Long Wharf, where demonstrators had gathered after the march. Mr. Andrews asked the assembled to learn about Citizens Climate Lobby, which advocates for a phased-in imposition of a fee on fossil fuels that would be rebated in full to households. The nonpartisan group, to which he belongs, “has the best solution,” he told the crowd, “which is to price carbon, make people who use fossil fuels pay the necessary price, and return all that money to the people in equal shares, so that those of us who conserve will come out ahead. People who are poorer and lower on the economic scale will be better off simply because they don’t have the money to spend on energy, but they’ll get the same rebate that Bill Gates gets.”

Both President Trump and Congressman Lee Zeldin, who represents New York’s First Congressional District, were criticized in statements and on picket signs. Last year Mr. Zeldin joined the climate lobby’s bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus. “Some of my friends say it was a political stunt,” Mr. Andrews said yesterday, “but I like to believe it was more than that.” Mr. Andrews was part of a delegation that called on Mr. Zeldin in November.

He said he hoped the congressman would become a co-sponsor of the Republican Climate Resolution, introduced by 18 members of Congress, which “invokes the conservative principle ‘to protect, conserve, and be good stewards of our environment, responsibly plan for all market factors, and base our policy decisions in science and quantifiable facts on the ground,’ ” according to the Citizens Climate Lobby website.

The group’s nonpartisan strategy, Mr. Andrews told the demonstrators, “is essential if we’re going to go beyond feeling good and actually get something done, because nothing is going to happen unless there’s a critical mass of conservatives as well as progressives who are willing to stand up for action.”

Jill Rappaport, a journalist, author, and animal activist who lives in Water Mill, came to the demonstration out of concern for all beings, she said, including her six rescue dogs — “my ‘fur children,’ ” she told The Star. “It’s very scary to think what the world’s going to be like 10 years from now,” she said. “We just want to know that there’s going to be a future for all of us. Everybody has to do their part: Speak up and really make sure we are doing our job to protect our environment. There’s power in numbers, and when people step out, that’s when we see change.”

Kevin McAllister, founder of the advocacy group Defend H2O and the former Peconic Baykeeper, was at the front of the march. He later told the crowd about the bulkheads, revetments, and other hard structures that will keep rising seas at bay but “will inevitably destroy our public spaces, our recreational use, and certainly have a negative impact on our economy. I really urge you to play close attention to this,” he said. “Let’s not have four years go by” in which policy is driven by “private interests that are more about protecting their property.”

Other speakers implored the assembled to contact New York’s senators, Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand. “They need to hear from us too,” one speaker said. “The people who care about our health, we can win. We don’t have the money on our side, but we have what’s right on our side. By banding together, we can do this, we can protect our planet . . . we can save ourselves.”

Ms. Brinkley picked up on that theme. “Why?” she asked of the deleted data on the E.P.A.’s website. “So that a few rich corporations can continue to make even more money? . . . Roll back the regulations? Those regulations are there to protect Republicans, Democrats, this generation, future generations. We can’t ignore that.”

Art lovers, get out your calendars and cancel all appointments between next Thursday and May 13 because there is a good chance you could snap up an April Gornik or Charles Waller for the bargain price of $20.

 The Springs School Mystery Art Sale will return to Ashawagh Hall this year after a hiatus in 2016. Organized by the school’s art department and a committee of parents and faculty, the sale raises money for the school’s Visiting Artists Program.

It has a simple premise: Artists — famed, aspiring, students, or dabblers — submit original 5-by-7-inch pieces of work in a variety of mediums, which are then displayed anonymously and sold for $20 each. The signatures are hidden on the back and only revealed after the sale is over. Approximately half of the 1,200 pieces expected will be by professional artists.

Beginning next Thursday at 4 p.m., anyone can walk in and pick up a trophy for $20.

In the past, the school has raised $40,000 from the sale, prompting Lucas Hunt, a professional auctioneer who will preside over a live auction at the sale on May 13, to call it “one of the greatest fund-raisers ever.”

According to Colleen McGowan, who teaches art at the school and is the coordinator of the visual arts program there, all proceeds go directly to the school’s Visiting Artists Program, an art enrichment initiative for kindergarten through eighth grade that pays artists to visit the school and funds art-related field trips for students.

“It’s a really nice circular thing here, a closed loop. Money from the community is going straight back into the pockets of the community. We help artists who live out here as well as get students excited about the possibilities of art and maybe even become successful artists themselves,” Ms. McGowan said.

For Alex DeHavenon, who teaches art history to the school’s seventh and eighth graders, the importance of keeping art alive in Springs is key.

“It’s great to teach students about the historical heritage of art in Springs from Jackson Pollock to Willem de Kooning but it is equally important for them to learn that the contemporary art world is still vibrant in Springs, with many great artists still living here.”

The idea for the event originated with Sara Faulkner, an artist from the United Kingdom who moved to Springs six years ago with her family and has two children at the school. In London a few years ago, Ms. Faulkner had been invited to the Secret Postcard Sale at the Royal College of Art, where attendees can bid on anonymous postcard-sized works by creative megastars such as Yoko Ono and Sir Paul Smith as well as rising talents at the school. The event, which still continues, attracts art lovers from all over Europe, many of whom camp outside the building the night before.

“Springs is like a modest version of that,” said Ms. Faulkner. “We are very conscious of the price point and we want this to be enjoyed by people in our community who don’t normally get a chance to visit an art gallery and appreciate all this great work.”

This year, there will be an added cultural twist. Forty pieces of student artwork from the Angela Landa Elementary School in Havana, Cuba, will be added to the sale. Irena Grant, a parent of a Springs eighth grader, was in Havana in February when she met Richard Robert Diaz, an art teacher at the school. Mr. Diaz told Ms. Grant about the school’s dire shortage of art supplies and lack of technology.

Upon returning to Springs, Ms. Grant spoke with Ms. McGowan and others at the school, and before long, a deal was struck. Mr. Diaz would provide artwork created by his students to be sold at the Mystery Art Sale, in exchange for the art materials he needed.

“We are taking them a variety of special art supplies, which the Golden Eagle artist supply store generously helped us with. I am also taking a laptop, as they don’t have one, and the art teacher is very eager to have his students go on virtual tours of the world’s museums and galleries,” Ms. Grant, who traveled back to Cuba with another parent this week to collect the student art, wrote in an email.

In Springs, the popularity of the Mystery Art Sale has forced the special committee to devise a plan to detract trained art hunters from swooping up the big names, leaving nothing for the amateurs still waiting on line. As a result, this year each person will only be sold three dots, each for $20, to be placed on their chosen pieces.

“If they want to buy another three dots, they’ll have to go back to the end of the line,” said Ms. McGowan, adding, “and last year the line went all the way from Ashawagh Hall to the General Store.”

Ultimately, the project’s team (who have pledged not to buy or provide insider tips) hopes that people will appreciate the entire body of art and not simply focus on what’s famous and what’s not. As collectors say, buy what you like. Even if you do not bag a big name, you could end up going home with a big name of the future.

The deadline for submitting artwork has been extended to tomorrow at 5 p.m. Instructions can be found online at springsmysteryartsale.com.

Paddle Diva, which has been under fire from the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals for giving paddleboard lessons in Three Mile Harbor, can continue to operate this season, according to an agreement announced Tuesday between the town and the company, whose owner, Gina Bradley, had sued to stay in business.

Z.B.A. members voted 4-0 in October to uphold a determination by the town’s head building inspector, Ann Glennon, that Paddle Diva, which operates from the Shagwong Marina, had expanded the marina’s use beyond what is allowed under the town code by running classes and renting and selling boards and other items there.

The zoning board had wrestled with several issues during its deliberations, among them whether a paddleboard falls under the definition of a boat. Having concluded that paddleboards are indeed a form of boat, members then had to deal with the town code, which prohibits out-of-water storage of boats at recreational marinas, such as Shagwong. (Out-of-water storage is restricted to sites classified as boatyards.) Ms. Bradley has been running her business at the Shagwong Marina since 2012.

On Jan. 31, Dianne K. Le Verrier of the East Hampton law firm Jordan and Le Verrier asked State Supreme Court Justice Arthur G. Pitts to prevent the town from enforcing the zoning board’s decision until Ms. Bradley’s suit was adjudicated. Pending his decision, which is said to be months off, the two sides agreed that the lessons, rentals, and sales of paddleboards could continue.  “I’m thrilled I can be in business this year, to be an active member of the community,” Ms. Bradley said yesterday.