National Grid Generation, which sells the electricity generated at its Long Island fossil fuel-based power stations to the Long Island Power Authority, plans to construct a five-megawatt battery facility on an undeveloped parcel on Cove Hollow Road in East Hampton.

The utility has filed with the New York State Public Service Commission to lease property to East Hampton Energy Storage Center, a limited liability company jointly owned with a subsidiary of NextEra Energy and formed to own and operate the battery storage facility. LIPA selected the battery facility as part of a request for proposals to address the South Fork’s energy needs.

The battery, which will help LIPA meet peak demand, will also serve as the receiving station for the South Fork Wind Farm, a 15-turbine, 90-megawatt installation that is planned for a site 30 miles off Montauk.

The battery is to be housed in a 4,000-square-foot building on a site containing a LIPA substation and National Grid Generation’s oil-burning peaker plants, which typically run during periods of high demand. The substation will connect the battery storage system to LIPA’s electricity distribution system. National Grid is also planning a battery storage facility in Montauk.

In January, LIPA inked a contract to buy electricity from Deepwater Wind, the Rhode Island company that will apply for federal and state permits to construct the offshore wind farm in waters leased from the federal government. The battery storage facility is scheduled to be operational next year, while the wind farm, if all goes according to plan, will be operational by the end of 2022. 

Upon completion, the Cove Hollow Road facility will be Long Island’s first large-scale energy storage battery. Efficient storage is an essential component of renewable energy due to the variability of wind and sunlight, allowing a constant output regardless of weather conditions.

In a related development, on Monday LIPA and PSEG Long Island, which manages the island’s electricity grid on LIPA’s behalf, issued a “historic game changer,” in the words of Renewable Energy Long Island’s executive director, in the form of its draft plan for Long Island’s present and future energy needs.

Among the highlights in the document, called the 2017 Long Island Integrated Resource Plan and Repowering Studies, are LIPA’s plan to build out a renewable energy infrastructure, and a downward revision of its long-term load forecast. The utility now predicts virtually no growth in demand through 2035, a 1,700-megawatt decline from its 2013 forecast, although continued growth in demand is projected on the South Fork. Electricity production at Long Island’s fossil-fuel power plants has declined since 1999, according to the document, a trend that is expected to continue as renewable energy has become cost-competitive with new or refurbished traditional plants.

“What we’re witnessing is the beginning of the end of fossil fuels,” said Gordian Raacke of Renewable Energy Long Island, an advocacy group. “LIPA, which for more than 100 years has put all their eggs into the fossils fuels basket, is now saying, ‘We’re going to switch to renewable energy sources,’ primarily because they are now cost-effective and are going to be less costly than fossil fuels. That’s the tipping point we’ve all been pushing for, for the last few decades. It’s a big deal.”

The ascendance of renewable energy will help meet the mandate set forth in the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency’s Clean Energy Standard, which requires that 50 percent of the state’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2030.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo intends to go further. In his 2017 State of the State address, he set forth the long-term objective to meet 100 percent of energy needs through renewable sources. “We want to get 2.4 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030 and we are not going to stop until we reach 100 percent renewable,” he said, “because that’s what a sustainable New York is really all about.”

The state, Mr. Raacke said, is “taking a page from East Hampton’s playbook,” a reference to the town board’s 2014 vote to set the goal of meeting all of the town’s electricity needs with renewable sources by 2020. “That’s where this is going,” he said.

The state’s Offshore Wind Blue­print, issued in September, established a framework for development of offshore wind electricity generation. The document is a precursor to the Offshore Wind Master Plan, expected by year’s end.

An East Hampton Town Trustee was arrested on drunken driving charges early Saturday morning. Town police said they clocked John Tyler Armstrong, 30, driving a 1999 Subaru Legacy, at 62 miles per hour on Cedar Street, where the speed limit is 30 m.p.h., adding that the Subaru had been swerving across the road. He was stopped near Fieldview Lane at about 3 a.m.

Mr. Armstrong failed roadside sobriety tests, police said, before being taken to headquarters in Wainscott, where a breath test allegedly produced a reading of .13 of 1 percent. A reading of .08 or higher defines intoxication.

He was arraigned several hours later before East Hampton Town Justice Lisa R. Rana, who suspended his driver's license.

"How long is the suspension?" Mr. Armstrong asked.

"The suspension stays in place until the case is adjudicated," she told him. Noting that this was his first-ever brush with the law, Justice Rana suggested that he could be eligible for a hardship license that would allow him to drive to and from work.

She released him without bail, with a future date in court of May 25, warning him to be there that day or a warrant would be issued for his arrest. "You don't want that," she said.

"I sure don't," he replied. "I don't want any of this, but I messed up."

Mr. Armstrong is completing his first two-year term as a trustee after being elected in 2015 on the Democratic ticket, and is running for re-election this fall. A sign of his popularity in the community was his election in February to the whimsical post of Mr. Amagansett, a benefit event that is held every year. Mr. Armstrong is an Amagansett resident.

Long Beach Road, which runs between Noyac and North Haven, was shut down after a suspicious package was reported Saturday afternoon. 

Update: Members of the Suffolk Police Emergency Service Section disposed of the material, and the road was subsequently reopened to traffic by early evening.

"Somebody found something" on the beach, according to Southampton Town Police Sgt. Michael Burns, who spoke from headquarters on Saturday just after 3 p.m. "It was marked explosives on it." 

Sergeant Burns said the package was described as "a tube with putty coming out of it." It was reportedly found near the Bay Point subdivision.

The road was closed as a precaution, he said. The Suffolk County Emergency Service Section, which is the county's bomb squad, was called out to remove it.

Emergency vehicles were blocking Long Beach Road at Noyac Road and at Third Street on North Haven, where traffic was being diverted back to Route 114.

The Sag Harbor Fire Department and Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps stood by until the scene was cleared. 

Police officials said nothing suspicious was found in nearby Sag Harbor Village, where earlier on Saturday a climate change march was held. 

Two teens and a 22-year-old who allegedly robbed an East Hampton man a little before midnight on Feb. 22 using what appeared to be a pistol have been arrested by East Hampton Town police detectives.

They were all charged with robbery in the second degree, a felony. The two teens, Terrell Donald Smith, 19, of Southampton and Lauren N. Gerry, 18, of Manorville, were taken into custody after being questioned at police headquarters in Wainscott Tuesday. Both confessed in lengthy statements. They were released after posting bail set by Justice Steven Tekulsky: $1,000 for Mr. Smith and $750 for Ms. Gerry.

Devon Trent, 22, of Bayport turned himself in Thursday morning after police contacted him. His parents, who were in court for his arraignment, posted $1,000 bail, also set by Justice Tekulsky.

It was Mr. Trent who held the weapon in question -- a black Airsoft pistol that looks like the real thing — according to the police and statements from Mr. Smith and Ms. Gerry.

In Ms. Gerry's statement, she said that she had asked her boyfriend, Mr. Trent, to arrange for her to buy an ounce of marijuana. Mr. Trent put her in contact with the alleged victim, Tyler Barnish, an Ocean Parkway resident. "He was going to sell me weed," she said. Ms. Gerry Snap-chatted with Mr. Barnish, "saying I needed an ounce of weed, and told him who I was." The two agreed upon $300 as the purchase price, she told detectives. The transaction was to take place outside Mr. Barnish's residence.

According to Mr. Smith's statement, that was when Mr. Trent called him. "I need you to ride with me," he said he was told. Mr. Trent and Ms. Gerry drove to Mr. Smith's house. "Let's take your whip out to East Hampton," Mr. Trent allegedly said to Mr. Smith. The "whip" in question was a 2003 Ford Mustang. With Mr. Trent driving the Mustang, the threesome headed towards East Hampton. "Devon knew a kid out there who had some bud," Mr. Smith explained, meaning marijuana. Mr. Smith saw that Mr. Trent had the Airsoft gun with him, he told police.

The two men got out of the car down the block from Mr. Barnish's house. "Devon and I were going to run up on the guy and take his weed," Mr. Smith explained.

Mr. Barnish came outside and went to the Mustang. That is when the two men made their move. "I couldn't believe it was actually going down," Mr. Smith told police. They confronted Mr. Barnish, and Mr. Trent pointed the gun at him, and emptied his pockets, pulling out the bag of marijuana, about $150 in cash, and an LG Vizio cellphone, according to police. The two men then jumped into the passenger side of the two-door car, cramming themselves into the front seat, as Mr. Trent shouted at Ms. Gerry, "Go, go, go!" the statements say.

Ms. Gerry sped off and almost immediately got lost. Stopping when they thought they were a safe distance away, Mr. Trent, who is familiar with the East Hampton area because he works part time in store in the village, allegedly got behind the wheel and navigated them back to Mr. Smith's Hillcrest Avenue house in Southampton.

In Ms. Gerry's statement, she initially denied that her boyfriend, Mr. Trent, was with them. Instead, she told police, the gunman was a white male. Mr. Trent is black. "He was a tall white male with a thin build, dark black hair, big ears, and acne on his face," she said. She did not know his name.

She then did an about-face with the detectives interviewing her Tuesday morning. "I want to say that I wasn't totally truthful with everything I said," she told detectives. "It was Devon and myself's (sic.) plan to rip off Tyler," she allegedly said. "I wish I would have never done what we did," she said at the end of her statement.

Mr. Trent was arraigned Thursday a little before noon. Rudy Migliore Jr., assistant district attorney, told Justice Tekulsky that, of the three defendants, it was Mr. Trent who was the most culpable, and asked bail be set at $15,000. Mr. Trent's mother cried as Mr. Migliore spoke.

On Mr. Trent's behalf, Matthew D'Amato, an attorney at the Legal Aid Society, argued that Mr. Trent has never been in trouble with the law, that he had turned himself in voluntarily, and is a full-time student at Suffolk County Community College. Mr. D'Amato also pointed out the Mr. Trent's parents were seated in the courtroom. Justice Tekulsky noted the presence of the parents, and set bail at $1,000. 

Note: This article was updated with the print version on April 27, 2017.

Yogi Bob, a little dog that captured the hearts of the South Fork when he went missing from East Hampton over a year ago, is home again after being found at the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter, his owner said.

“Miracles happen!!! Yogi Bob is proof!!!” Dominique Garstin wrote in an Instagram post on Monday after being reunited with the five-pound wonder dog.

“No one is more surprised than me,” she said Tuesday, while returning to the shelter in Wantagh to retrieve the dog.

Posters with Yogi Bob’s picture — some offering a $5,000 reward for his return — remain on trees and utility poles from Montauk to Southampton 15 months after he ran off during a walk near Ms. Garstin’s house on Georgica Road. He was wearing an argyle sweater and had just had a bath, but did not have his collar on and had not been microchipped, she said.

Ms. Garstin’s desperate search for the now 4-year-old dog persisted last year despite a blizzard in early January and frigid temperatures that would have tested even the heartiest of canines. In the early days she got tips from well-wishers who believed they had spotted Yogi Bob in East Hampton, then Bridgehampton, and then back in East Hampton. More than 1,000 people followed her efforts via the Find Yogi Bob Facebook page.

Convinced that he was alive but scared and honing his survival skills to be able to endure the perils of the outdoors, Ms. Garstin hired an Ohio woman and her team of tracking dogs to follow Yogi Bob’s scent and retrace his footsteps in January 2016. They confirmed the callers’ accounts of where he had traveled in his early days away from home, but from there the trail went cold — until this week.

On Monday, Christie Franti, an animal behavior consultant for the Town of Hempstead, sent a photograph of a dog she thought might be Yogi Bob to the Find Yogi Bob Facebook page. Ms. Franti had been an animal control officer for East Hampton Town last year. There was a poster of the dog at her office there, and everyone in the department kept a lookout for him, she said. “Yogi Bob, he’s like a local celebrity.”

Earlier this week, she was evaluating a small stray dog that had been picked up 12 days ago in a Hempstead parking lot. He bore a strong resemblance to the dog on the Yogi Bob flyers, but when she sent a picture to a former co-worker, “I was almost joking that I found Yogi Bob.” It seemed unlikely, but she eventually decided to reach out to the owner. “There are all these unbelievable stories” about people finding beloved pets after long ordeals in all parts of the country. What if this were one of them?”

“The first day, I almost felt guilty getting this poor woman’s hopes up and I gave her a dog that wasn’t him,” Ms. Franti said. Sensitive to a pet owner’s emotions, she did not say she had Yogi Bob, but rather that she had come across a dog that looked a lot like him. Ms. Garstin asked for a few specific pictures, and quickly decided to head to the shelter in Wantagh to see for herself.

“I was very skeptical,” Ms. Garstin said Tuesday afternoon. “I had followed 50 different red herrings.” When the dog was brought out to her, “It was like having a ghost delivered into the waiting room. . . . When you have your animal in your arms, you know.”

The dog has a half-dozen specific characteristics that convince her he is Yogi Bob. He is “an intact male,” not yet neutered; “he has these tiny little feet that are slightly externally rotated,” a distinctly shaped tail, “one little nubby short rib,” and he walks with a slight limp.

“If it wasn’t him, it was a clone,” Ms. Franti said, reviewing all the similarities. She, too, was skeptical, but after seeing Ms. Garstin with the dog, she said she now believes that he really is Yogi Bob.

“What are the odds of that?” she said. “I feel like I completed the last thing that I left unfinished in East Hampton.”

And if this is a clone and not the original? “This dog just hit the lotto on owners,” Ms. Franti said.

The dog’s coat was badly matted and he had a respiratory infection, but he is otherwise well. Although Ms. Garstin identified him on Monday, he could not go home with her right away because he had nipped at someone. “The Department of Health requires that dogs be held 10 days in the event of a bite or a scratch that breaks the skin,” Ms. Franti explained.

He was microchipped before being released and will be neutered when he has recovered from the infection. (Dogs that are not neutered are 75 percent more likely to wander off, Ms. Franti said.)

Ms. Garstin had a new outfit and a live GPS tracking device waiting for the dog at home. He had a bath Tuesday night and she gave him a grooming herself. “He had a trim . . . but he needs some styling this week,” she said yesterday.

“I think we’re all completely shocked,” she added, and then turned to address the dog. “And I would love to know what you’ve been up to for the last year and a half.”

Now that he has his tracker, should he ever go missing again, she will know exactly what adventures he has had.

In East Hampton, Yogi Bob had already become something of a legend, even before he was found — pined for on Facebook, written about in the newspapers, and even immortalized in a song, “Goodbye Yogi Bob,” that Thomas Muse performed at the 2016 Mr. Amagansett pageant to the tune of Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind.”

Ms. Garstin’s Facebook post announcing that she had found her dog drew over 500 comments in less than a day.

“People need some good news,” she said yesterday.

This video was added on April 26, 2017:

In an online scam now under investigation, someone stole about $167,000 from the Ross School in East Hampton earlier this month, according to East Hampton Town police.

On the morning of April 7 an email that appeared to be from Courtney Sale Ross, the founder of the school, was received by the school's chief financial officer, James Grossi, and was routed to Tracy Stigliano, the comptroller, police said.

A largely redacted police report indicated that the school sent $42,370 several hours after receiving the email.

In another email message, it appeared that Ms. Ross was asking that a financial transfer be made to a bank account.

Detective Sgt. Greg Schaefer said what turned out to be a scam was under investigation, and did not provide details about the accounts that received the money.

School officials did not call police until three days later when another email was received asking that $200,000 be sent to a Chinese acount, and officials realized the school had been defrauded.

Novelette Brown, the director of public relations at Ross, said Tuesday that, because the school acted promptly when it learned it had been tricked, it "was able to limit any and all damages." She would not go into detail, but said, "we have not been damaged as a result of this incident."

The private school, with branches on Goodfriend Drive off Route 114 in East Hampton and on Butter Lane in Bridgehampton, was founded Ms. Ross in 1991. In an article in The East Hampton Star on March 7, 2013, the school described Ms. Ross's changing role: "Even though Mrs. Ross will be on campus less in person, as chairman of the board of trustees, she will maintain a digital presence through media and technology and continue to lead the school's mission to be at the forefront of innovation and excellence."

Mr. Grossi, reached by phone Tuesday, declined to comment. 

A project started last fall to improve the water quality of Town and Hook Ponds in East Hampton should be expanded slightly, not only to be more effective but to set an example for residential property owners, a landscape architect told the East Hampton Village Board on Friday.

The construction of bioswales — drainage courses designed to trap pollutants and silt from surface runoff on the green to the north of Town Pond — “had some pitfalls,” Tony Piazza of the Southampton landscape and garden design firm Piazza Horticultural told the board. Approximately a quarter of an acre on the green was excavated, and the changes in grade created ponding in some places. That, he said, was normal: “Sometimes the land and the terrain tells you how it has to be handled, rather than an engineer telling it how it has to be handled.”

Following the installation of wick drains, excessive water on the green drains within four hours, Mr. Piazza said. The next phase of the project, planting, is the aspect that should be expanded, he said. The original plan calls for three planting areas: next to the flagpole, across James Lane from St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, and next to the bridge on Mill Lane.

Stephen Mahoney of Mahoney Farm and Nursery in East Hampton accompanied Mr. Piazza. Both are members of the Surfrider Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting oceans and beaches, and a partner, with the village and the Ladies Village Improvement Society, in the project.

“We’re here to ask the board to consider us to do additional planting above and beyond what we had originally proposed,” Mr. Piazza said, chiefly to “connect the dots” by planting a 6 to 12-foot-wide “ribbon” between the bioswales at the flagpole and across from the church. This, he said, would be a natural line of plants, “as it would occur in nature in a wet area, to better capture that water as it moves and filter it even more as it goes through the process.”

Such extensive planting on the grassy spread of the village green may seem radical, he allowed, but it could “set an example to the homeowners that large, green expanses of lawn are not necessarily the best thing for everyone.” Runoff from fertilized residential lawns contributes to water bodies’ ailments, such as harmful algal blooms. “It could be a good message to send and a good aesthetic for people to get used to,” he said, “that the green carpet isn’t always the most beautiful thing.”

The planting connecting the two rain gardens “should look like nature put it there . . . following the meandering path that the water created,” Mr. Piazza said. He proposed Iris versicolor, or blue flag, a native iris that grows in wetlands, as well as Hibiscus moscheutos, a native mallow, and a native grass. At their tallest, the plants would rise to three feet, he said.

The additional work would come at no expense to the village, as the Surfrider Foundation has raised more than needed for the project as initially envisioned. Mr. Piazza said he hoped planting could begin next week.

Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. asked Mr. Piazza to stake out the proposed planting and put his proposal in writing ahead of the board’s next work session, next Thursday.

Howard Lutnick, the chairman and chief operating officer of Cantor Fitzgerald, may soon have a permit to build a one-and-a-half-story, 11,850-square-foot barn and a basketball court on his Bridgehampton estate, following a settlement with the Town of Southampton that ends a decade-old dispute. All he needs now is the approval of the Suffolk County Health Department.

Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman acknowledged at Monday night’s Bridgehampton Citizens Advisory Committee meeting that there was some feeling in the community that “the town had given away the store.” However, lawyers who handled the case said it was in the town’s best interest to put to bed some longstanding questions about what was permitted on the property thanks to one of the first conservation easements ever entered into by the town.

Mr. Lutnick, under the name 545 Halsey Lane Properties L.L.C., is the owner of 40.7 acres in an agricultural overlay district at that address. The property is one of the town’s earliest agricultural reserves, formed back in July 1980. It is unlike any other because it allowed for a single-family home and accessory uses without providing for planning board review. Mr. Schneiderman said last month that it may have been “the worst ag reserve ever written.”

Mr. Lutnick purchased the property in 2003, after a sizable house had gone up on its northern end. He asked to build an 11,250-square-foot two-story barn, which he said was for a small apple orchard at the southern end of the property, considered an agricultural use, and a basketball court closer to the house. The Southampton Town Planning Board and the Agricultural Advisory Committee said no to both.

Eventually, the agricultural committee tried to revise his plan with a 2,400-square-foot barn. The plan also called for the removal of an existing baseball diamond and jungle gym, as well as art sculptures, privet hedges, and landscaping equipment on the grounds.

Mr. Lutnick brought five separate lawsuits in federal and state courts, together seeking upward of $80 million. In some cases, they were filed not only against the appointed boards but also their individual members -— an unusual move in trying to hold the members personally liable, according to David Arntsen, a partner at Devitt Spellman Barrett, a Smithtown firm hired by the town.

One of the federal cases was dismissed, but the other sent certain matters back to the planning board for reconsideration. “That was a win for us, but it was one that was clearly temporary,” Mr. Arntsen said. Unless the board agreed to everything Mr. Lutnick wanted, the case would just be back in court, and Mr. Lutnick had already been appealing any dismissal.

Earlier Monday evening, Mary Wilson, the town’s community preservation manager, explained to the advisory committee that agricultural easements have evolved over time, with more recent ones becoming more restrictive. “It’s fair to say that the one in this case was un-evolved,” Mr. Arntsen said, adding it was very ambiguous and ripe for litigation. “It created a lot of uncertainty in our minds.”

In a settlement dated May 31, 2016, and signed by Mr. Schneiderman and Mr. Lutnick the following day, Mr. Lutnick is allowed to build a barn no larger than the 11,000-square-foot one he requested. The settlement also allows for sports structures such as the basketball court.

Mr. Arntsen said the point of the settlement was to “put certainty into the document.” The idea that the town had capitulated to Mr. Lutnick’s demands was incorrect, he insisted.

What constituted the building envelope and layout of the agricultural reserve; what were compatible recreational uses, and whether the planning board even had purview over Mr. Lutnick’s proposal (at the time the easement was created, the town board had the review status) were among the questions the easement failed to address.

In the fall of 2015, months before the settlement was signed and before Mr. Schneiderman took office, town board members, members of the planning board, Mr. Lutnick’s attorneys, and Mr. Lutnick himself, who flew in by helicopter for the day, met to discuss it, Mr. Arntsen said.

While a settlement was finally reached, litigation is still pending, said the lawyer. Until Mr. Lutnick receives a final permit, which awaits approval from the county, the court cases remain open.

A neighbor, Robert Rosenthal, spoke out about the settlement at an advisory committee meeting in March, questioning whether the barn was really for an orchard. He said he believed that Mr. Lutnick, a classic-car enthusiast, would be using it as a garage. Mr. Arntsen said an orchard was the use stipulated in the settlement.

After the permit for the barn is issued, Mr. Lutnick has agreed to a five-year moratorium during which he will not request building permits for non-agricultural or non-landscaping improvements outside the building envelope. After five years he can, as of right, build non-agricultural recreational improvements in an area described as the “recreational building envelope,” up to 5,000 square feet.

At its meeting on Monday night, the Bridgehampton Citizens Advisory Committee was given a window into the current pedestrian and traffic safety analysis of the hamlet’s Main Street.

The Town of Southampton hired L.K. McLean Associates, a Brookhaven firm, in late March, to make recommendations about increasing safety along Montauk Highway and best using $700,000 in state grant money earmarked for crosswalks and lighting improvements. The first phase of the study was approved at a price of $38,500. The first in-depth design in a second phase will cost $21,600.

Ray DiBiase, a traffic engineer and the vice president of McLean Associates, told the committee there have been 11 serious bicycle and pedestrian accidents in a three-year period in the downtown area. Anna Pump, the cookbook author and owner of Loaves & Fishes, was killed crossing the street by the Bridgehampton Post Office in October 2015.

Pedestrians need to be more visible, Mr. DiBiase told the group. During off-peak periods, when there is no traffic, speed is an issue, but during the summer season, traffic moves slowly through downtown and motorists veer off onto back roads.

“It’s a balancing act,” the engineer said. “We don’t want to do anything here that is going to increase the congestion — if you can believe that — on Montauk Highway, by encouraging people to use the bypass routes.”

His firm will continue to talk to community groups, emergency responders, and the business community, he said, before making recommendations. However, he laid out some of the options being considered. They include crosswalk signs with rectangular rapid-flashing beacons, overhead crosswalk signs lit with LED lights, traffic signals, raised medians, and crosswalk light beams.

The prospect of raised islands in the middle of Main Street, between the east and westbound lanes of traffic, drew particular discussion. How would emergency vehicles get through traffic?

Mr. DiBiase said they would be able to roll their tires along the side of the medians.

Others mentioned that trucks delivering to the Main Street restaurants park in the middle of the street. “They do that, but remember, it’s illegal,” said Tom Neely, the town’s transportation and traffic safety director.

The response from the crowd was: Why aren’t the police doing anything about it? Dick Bruce said that the trucks should be parking in the lots, even if they are not directly behind the restaurants. “If you can’t walk five-eighths of a mile, you shouldn’t be delivering beer,” he said.

Mr. Bruce asked about the yellow crosswalk stanchions and if the town planned to put any more out in the middle of the crosswalks. “I bought five of these signs out of my own pocket,” he said. “I’d like to turn that job over to someone other than myself. They are $400 apiece, and you get them in Deer Park.”

Christine Fetten, the town engineer, said there were some liability issues relative to the stanchions.

One thing Mr. DiBiase said he would not be recommending was another lighted crosswalk like the one in front of the Bridgehampton Library. “We know there are maintenance issues with them,” he said. The lights are often not working, committee members said.

Members also made it clear they hope the study will home in on lighting issues. One woman said any improvements would be irrelevant without lighting and enforcement. “None of it’s going to matter if we don’t have those two things.”

The town board will take its weekly work session on the road June 8 and hold one at the Bridgehampton Community House. The plan is for Mr. DiBiase to make an initial recommendation at that time.

The State Department of Environmental Conservation has warned against spring and summer pruning of oak trees, which have become infected across the state and Suffolk County with a disease called oak wilt.

Beetles that can spread the disease are active in spring and summer and are attracted to freshly cut or injured healthy trees, according to the D.E.C., and so could carry the fungus from sick to unaffected trees if pruning takes place now. If pruning is needed, it should be done between October and February, according to the state.

A fungus that blocks water and nutrients and causes leaves to wilt and drop off, the disease has been killing thousands of oak trees in the eastern United States annually and is expected to make its appearance in East Hampton Town this summer. The state agency will undertake sampling and aerial surveys to check for oak wilt in July, when it is most apparent. Infected trees will have to be cut down.

Oak wilt is one of the most destructive tree diseases, and can kill trees in as little as four to six weeks. Symptoms include discoloration around leaf edges and sudden loss of a substantial portion of leaves during the summer months.

Earlier this year, the D.E.C. issued an emergency order creating a protective quarantine zone encompassing the entire county. It prohibits the transport outside the county of oak wood, or firewood logs of any species, as it is difficult to determine whether cut logs are oak or not. Protective zones have also been established throughout the state.

All oak trees can come down with oak wilt disease, but red oaks are particularly susceptible; they die faster from the fungus than white oaks, and spread the disease more readily.

The fungus spreads through tree roots below ground, and is spread above ground by the beetles, which feed on tree sap and bark. Beetles can spread oak wilt spores throughout an area of several miles.

The D.E.C. has encouraged people to report possible instances of oak wilt to its Forest Health office, by phone at 866-640-0652 or by email to [email protected].  Photos of the symptoms should be included.