In a climate marked by uncertainty, rumor, fear, and even paranoia among undocumented immigrants and their supporters, members of the East Hampton Clericus are taking a simple, old-fashioned approach to distributing a positive message.

“Love Thy Neighbor” is the message that a series of four buttons bears, each conveying the command, attributed to Jesus Christ in the Gospel According to Matthew, in at least two languages. Each includes a potent symbol, be it a Star of David, the star and crescent associated with Islam, or the outline of a man, woman, and child superimposed on a heart. Two include the message in English and Spanish, and the others add either Hebrew or a Hebrew transliteration.

The campaign, an advertisement for love and tolerance, came about when the Rev. Gerardo Romo-Garcia, who leads a Latino ministry at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton, saw the buttons online, according to Cantor Debra Stein of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons. Together, they decided to order 500 of each of the four designs.

“It’s our way of trying to focus people on the important issues surrounding our undocumented neighbors,” Ms. Stein said yesterday, “and those being attacked in ways we didn’t think we would see — the rise of anti-Semitism, anti-Islamism. We’re trying to sensitize people.”

The clericus sent buttons to the Islamic Association of Long Island, located at the Selden Masjid, the first mosque in Suffolk County, “and we got a beautiful note from them,” Cantor Stein said, along with a pledge to distribute them.

Other members of the clericus have distributed the buttons, she said, and they will continue until they have no more.

Debra Winter will be the new Springs School District superintendent beginning July 1. During a special meeting at the school Wednesday, the Board of Education officially announced her appointment. She is replacing John J. Finello, who had been serving as interim superintendent following his retirement last July. Mr. Finello had been the superintendent since 2013.

Ms. Winter, who was selected following a four-month search, is the assistant superintendent for student and community services at the Longwood Central School District in Middle Island. She has 30 years of experience in special education. She also was an adjunct professor at Dowling College in Oakdale for 12 years, followed by appointments as director of pupil personnel, first for the Plainview-Old Bethpage School District, then for the Jericho School District.

A house at risk of falling into the water at the end of Mulford Lane at Lazy Point was purchased by a New York City developer acting as an agent for an unnamed buyer on Tuesday. The purchase price, $757,351, was one dollar more than the bank was willing to pay for the house, which Gardiner’s Bay has been encroaching on for many years, to the point where the waves now lap up under the structure’s front deck. The auction was conducted by Robert A. Flink, a court-appointed referee, in the hallway between the East Hampton Town supervisor’s office and the Town Hall auditorium.

Hudson City Savings Bank owned the foreclosed mortgage which had been issued to the property’s owner, Kevin Klenke. The foreclosure amount was just over $977,000, plus fees and interest.

Mr. Flink read the terms of sale to the four people in attendance. He told the room that at the close of bidding the buyer would have to immediately pay 10 percent of the winning bid. He warned those in attendance that the house was being sold “as is.” The house, located on a property slightly more than a tenth of an acre in size, has been stripped of all appliances, lacks steps to its front door, and has a sagging roof. While waterfront views are usually thought of as looking out toward the horizon, the water view at 153 Mulford Lane can also be seen by looking straight down from the front deck.

Valerie De Roche, a representative of McCabe, Weisberg, & Conway, the bank’s law firm, opened the bidding with the bank’s top bid of $757,350. Mr. Flink had told the group beforehand, “When we do the bidding we can start at smaller increments, but at my discretion, I will let you know that we have to increase the increments to $5,000 to $10,000, depending on what we get up to.”

That, it turned out, was not necessary.

Casey Schear, the winning bidder, bid one dollar higher than the bank’s bid. “Are there any other bidders? Are there any other bids?” Mr. Flink asked the room, with silence the answer. “Going once, going twice, sold.”

Mr. Schear, Mr. Flink, and Ms. De Roche then retired to the seating area outside the town attorney’s office, signing contracts and exchanging money. Mr. Schear explained afterward that he brings bank checks in varying denominations, in order to be ready to pay the required 10 percent up front. He augmented one of his bank checks with cash to make the down payment of $75,735.

Mr. Flink described the process in generic terms. “The bank sets the minimum bid,” he said. He was asked about what happens to the difference between the bank’s minimum bid and the actual foreclosure amount of over $977,000. “I don’t want to speak for the bank, but, yes, they would be willing to write that amount off.”

Also on hand was a neighbor of the property, Joshua Young. He might have been prepared to bid some amount for the property, but not when he heard the bank’s minimum. “I assumed the bank was going to take it. I was very surprised. It is a challenging location,” he said.

The Army Corps of Engineers will once again make repairs to the 3,100-foot sandbag barrier installed on the downtown Montauk beach before deeming the $8.4 million project finished and handing over responsibility for future upkeep to Suffolk County and East Hampton Town.

Contractors for the Army Corps are set to start work on Monday, according to town officials. They will replace several feet of sand covering the pile of bags, which has been washed away by the surf, and will replace fencing and replant beach grass that was also washed away.

Similar work was done in December and January after damage from winter storms, at a cost of $700,000, but more storms made it necessary to redo the work.

The Army Corps did not and will not replace sand seaward of the sandbag wall, a “berm” that built up the beach when the sandbag wall was installed and was originally to have been maintained by the county and town once the project was handed off. That requirement has since been dropped from a draft operations and maintenance manual that must be approved by the county, town, and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation before going into effect.

Since the surf often rises right to the edge of the sandbag wall, maintaining a sand berm in front of that has proven “kind of impossible to do,” Alex Walter, Supervisor Larry Cantwell’s executive assistant, who is coordinating the project, said Tuesday.

The Army Corps has also dropped a requirement that beach grass be maintained on the sandbag dune, though they will be replacing it as part of the upcoming work. If it gets washed out in the future, it will not have to be replaced.

The town and county will, however, be responsible for replacing sand on top of the pile of sandbags. But while a draft agreement called for it to be done as quickly as possible after the sand is washed away, in light of continual damage from regular winter storms that requirement has also been revised; the final agreement is not expected to call for immediate sand replacement but to allow the town to have the work done after the winter season, when beach erosion wanes, for instance, so as to avoid having to do it over and over repeatedly.

In addition, to avoid repeated damage to sand fencing installed to keep people off the piled sandbags, Mr. Walter said, the town will be allowed to remove the fencing during the winter months and to replace it in the spring.

The Retreat, which runs an East Hampton shelter and numerous programs for the victims of domestic violence, could have half its annual funding disappear if proposals in the White House’s recently submitted budget are approved by Congress.

In the East Hampton School District, administrators have begun to worry about a potential loss of $900,000 in federal funding.

And the elimination of funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services in Washington, D.C., could cut access to a research database used across Suffolk County and throw educational and arts-grant processes into disarray by removing money that pays salaries for staff at the New York State Education Department.

The Trump administration’s partial outline of a so-called “skinny budget” suggests that billions of dollars from an array of government agencies be cut to help offset a $54 million increase in spending for the military and the Homeland Security Department. Two of the biggest cuts in the $1.15 trillion plan come at the expense of the Environmental Protection Agency and foreign aid. But many of the more modest programs that would be axed operate in small communities throughout America, with repercussions felt from Montauk to Modesto.

Some of the smaller agencies that could be eliminated are the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Legal Services Corporation, which finances lawyers for those unable to afford them. Environmental and state agencies would suffer the harshest blows, in percentage terms.

“It’s approximately $1 million we’re taking about, and we’re extremely worried what will happen in the next year to 18 months,” said Loretta Davis, the Retreat’s executive director.

According to Ms. Davis, that $1 million in federal money covers more than 10 salaries, including that of a supervisor, and professional development.

“We have been notified by Steve Bellone, at the Suffolk County executive office, that there will certainly be cuts we will need to deal with,” Ms. Davis said. The Retreat has already reached out to its biggest private donors in the hope that they might increase contributions.

“Otherwise,” Ms. Davis said, “it’s potentially a loss of jobs as well as some vital programs.” One of those to go would be the Fatherhood Initiative Program, which helps young fathers build healthy relationships through career counseling and financial planning. “This is a prevention program, and if the reoccurring grant we receive goes away, how do we continue to offer help to these young men who are often teenagers?” The Retreat was the only organization in Suffolk County to receive this grant, derived from federal funding.

“The greatness of any country can be measured by the value it places on the health, education, and welfare of its peo ple as well as the protection and use of its natural resources,” East Hampton Town Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said in an email. “The loss of federal funding endangers critical programs for children, their working parents, seniors, and the environment. We can do better.”

In the school district, Richard Burns, East Hampton’s superintendent, echoed Mr. Van Scoyoc’s concern. “If this plan goes through, it’s the kids who most need the money who will suffer. It’s always the little people,” said Mr. Burns, decrying the impact this budget would have on his schools. “We receive approximately $900,000 a year for three title grants that will be eliminated.”

Title I is for special-education students, particularly for pre-referral programs, explained Mr. Burns, to help kids with reading, writing, and speech. Title II is for professional development for teachers to be trained for state-mandated programs such as the prevention of bullying, said Mr. Burns, adding, “and that’s the irony, these are state-mandated efforts but we will have to find the money to cover them elsewhere.” Title III is officially known as the English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement Act; it provides extra help for “English language learners,” as well as professional development programs and after-school enrichment initiatives.

“I really don’t know how we will fund these programs if the money goes away,” said Mr. Burns, “It’s extremely worrying.”

Another blow could be felt by library patrons. The Institute of Museum and Library Services is one of the four cultural agencies to be eliminated in the president’s proposed plan. One important online system, the New York Virtual Electronic Library, is entirely funded by the library institute.

It would cost the county library system approximately $700,000 a year if it had to pay for its share of the program itself, according to Dennis Fabiszak, the director of the East Hampton Library.

The virtual library provides students and East Hampton’s 13,000-plus library card holders with research capabilities, including access to The New York Times archives from 1995 to the present, Mr. Fabizack said.

“We’ve saved millions of dollars over the years by having this database — the research is readily available to everyone — that it would be a huge loss,” said Mr. Fabiszak. A loss of personnel and services, including reading programs, he said, would be necessary as the trickle-down effect kicked in, from the federal level to state to town. “It’s such a tiny portion of the federal budget,” said Mr. Fabiszak, “and yet its effects on this community would be huge.”

Health care has been been a focus for the Trump administration, and Sheila Rogers, the director of the East Hampton Healthcare Center on Pantigo Road in East Hampton, is relieved that the Affordable Care Act is still intact.

“We’re okay for now,” said Ms. Rogers, who has been at the center’s helm since it opened in 1992. “We service a large number of residents in the community who are undocumented with no access to insurance, or those who have, for a variety of reasons, let their insurance lapse, as well as seniors, and low or no-income families, so thank goodness they still have health care.”

The health care center is entirely privately funded — “We have some very generous donors,” Ms. Rogers said — and therefore will not be directly affected by the proposed budget cuts. However, she said, other health care programs in the area are vulnerable, and these services are often intertwined. She pointed to the example of the Hudson River Healthcare program, funded entirely by federal grants and slated to be cut; it was originally set up to provide free health care to migrant farm workers, and there is a branch at Southampton Hospital that provides care to hundreds of undocumented workers. That center would be shut down under the proposed plan.

The budget blueprint also proposes the elimination of the $3 billion Community Development Block Grant program. That is not good news for Tom Ruhle, the director of the East Hampton Town Housing and Community Development office. The department receives $104,400 a year from the federally funded Community Development Block Grant, which helps it maintain and repair affordable-housing residences, such as the rental units at Whalebone Village. These block grants also assist nonprofit organizations like the Retreat with repairs, installing wheel-chair accessible entrances, for instance. Block grant money paid for a roof over a playground in Montauk.

“This money will simply not be there next year,” said Mr. Ruhle, “because the program is in the plan to be shut down completely.”

Funding could also disappear from the department’s Rental Assistance Program, which helps place low income families in housing.

“Everything will be tighter,” said Ms. Ruhle. “including a program called HOME, which helps struggling families put a down payment on homes.”

Much noise has been made on social media about the impact of the proposed budget on Meals on Wheels. The East Hampton division of Meals on Wheels, which provides 600 meals per week to both senior citizens and disabled younger residents, is entirely funded through private donations, said Frank Eipper, its director. However, he worries that donors might switch gears, feeling the urgency of giving to other defunded causes, such as Planned Parenthood, instead.

And, again, there is the trickle-down question. East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said that last year the town donated $10,000 to East Hampton Meals on Wheels after it was reported that the numbers of people seeking assistance had increased and that the organization could not feed everyone. The town stepped in and supported the group with an annual grant, which Mr. Cantwell said would be eliminated if the block grant cut goes through.

Another area that remains largely intact for now, due to funding that is primarily from private contributions, is the East End arts scene — museums and theaters. Despite the proposed elimination of organizations like the National Endowment for the Arts, most local arts institutions would not feel a direct impact. However, Tracy Mitchell, the executive director of Bay Street Theater, said, “We recently applied for a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, but now I think I’ll move it from the hopeful pile to the forget-it pile.”

Mr. Cantwell remains optimistic that the White House budget will not come to pass, calling the probability of its being adopted slim.

Underscoring the belief that it is best to lead by example, Charles Soriano, the principal of the East Hampton Middle School, suggested a face-to-face get-together rather than a phone conversation or via email.

“Let’s have a no-device meeting,” he said.

Together with parents and faculty, Dr. Soriano is planning a “Friends and Family First” initiative at the school, to be held on a Saturday in May, inviting students and parents to unplug and go device-free during waking hours.

“It is strictly voluntary,” he said. “An experiment, really, to take a break from digital life, from technology — to help our middle schoolers create mindfulness about how electronics like phones, computers, and game consoles influence their behavior.”

Those wishing to participate in the device-free Saturday will be required to sign a pledge, promising to adhere to the rules of cyber restraint. Parents will co-sign. And, parents wishing to participate in solidarity, or simply in recognition that device addiction afflicts adults too, will need to get their children to co-sign for them, with the little ones promising to keep an eye on the adults. In a show of support for the idea, local businesses including Mary’s Marvelous, Khanh Sports, and Gurney’s Resort have donated prizes for middle schoolers and parents who log the most hours free of devices.

Dr. Soriano knows a day of digital detox will not be easy. In an email announcing the idea to the middle school community (the date is yet to be determined), the principal wrote, “This day will be hard for some, easier for others (. . . like cutting off a limb for still others), but we need to start somewhere.”

According to Dr. Soriano, who has been at the school’s helm for almost five years, middle schoolers, mostly between 11 and 14, naturally struggle with executive function, in-person communication, and decision-making. “Put a smartphone in their hands and you’ve got the prefect storm for things to go very wrong,” he said.

He estimates approximately 80 percent of East Hampton’s sixth graders have cellphones and are linked to social media. Unlike the days of his own childhood, he said, when hurled insults simply evaporated, today’s affronts are encoded in text, which goads youngsters in to a game of one-upmanship often escalating rapidly to a nuclear level.

It is not solely about the dangers of social media that prompted this discussion and the idea of a device-free Saturday, but the increasing number of hours tweens and teens are spending in front of a screen. Dr. Soriano, echoing many experts, believes that the hours per day that kids spend tethered to apps like Instagram and Snapchat are crowding out face-to-face experiences.

In a recent New York Times column headed “Resist the Internet,” Ross Douthat wrote that today’s generation is “enslaved to the internet.”

“Your day-to-day, minute-to-minute existence is dominated by a compulsion to check email and Twitter and Facebook and Instagram with a frequency that bears no relationship to any communicative need,” he fumed.

East Hampton is not the only East End school grappling with the issue. At the Ross School, Nick Kardaras, a parent of elementary school children, will speak to the community about his recent book called “Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction Is Hijacking Our Kids — and How to Break the Trance.” Mr. Kardaras will share his research and findings at Ross on April 27 from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Perhaps it’s the beginning of a movement, Dr. Soriano said. Mr. Douthat hopes so, too. “Only a movement can save you from the tyrant in your pocket,” he wrote.

As anticipated, the New York State budget for the fiscal year 2018, passed on Monday, will remove ride-hailing services, such as Uber and Lyft, from local regulation and place them instead under the control of the State Department of Motor Vehicles.

The state will require mandatory background checks for drivers, have a zero-tolerance drug and alcohol policy, and ongoing monitoring for traffic safety compliance.

The move will make it possible for Uber and others to re-establish themselves in East Hampton Town after being effectively forced out by a taxi-licensing law that required companies to have offices in the town, and for the vehicles used by drivers-for-hire to be owned by the licensed cab company. The law also is expected to make required Southampton Town permits for ride-hailing companies moot.

Of particular significance, the budget provides increased state aid for local schools, money for construction at the State University’s Stony Brook Southampton campus, and also makes state and city two and four-year universities and colleges free for certain students.

  The increased state aid to public schools provides an additional 3 percent, or $100,673, to the East Hampton School District; 3.8 percent more, or an additional $65,166 to Springs; a 4.8-percent increase for Bridgehampton, totaling $34,452, and an increase of 4.2 percent, or $35,149, for Montauk. Funding is also included for prekindergarten, after-school, cyber-bullying prevention, adult literacy, and career training programs, among others.

Local schools will also receive $175,000 to continue a partnership with the state, local governments, Southampton Hospital, and the Family Service League to continue mental health services for youth.

  In addition to establishing Excelsior Scholarships, which will provide free tuition at State University of New York schools for students whose families earn less than $125,000 annually, the budget provides $6,000 scholarships for students from eligible families to attend private colleges. Students would be required to enroll full time, to maintain successful grade-point averages, and to live and work in the state after completing college for the number of years during which they received educational scholarships.

Capital improvements to the buildings on the State University’s Stony Brook Southampton campus, which will create new academic space, were funded at $5 million. The SUNY capital plan also includes $2 million in state funds for a health and sports center at the eastern campus of Suffolk Community College.

The Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center will be among 15 Long Island agencies to receive $30,000 each in state funds this year to provide services to children and families. 

Environmental funding of interest on the South Fork includes, among $2.5 billion earmarked for clean water projects, $1 billion to help municipalities upgrade drinking and wastewater infra structure, $245 million for water quality improvement projects, $110 million for land purchases to protect water, and $75 million for septic system and cesspool upgrades and replacement. Also in the budget is $300 million for the state’s Environmental Protection Fund.

The budget provides for a drinking water quality council to be established under the State Health Department, along with an “emerging contaminant” monitoring program to regularly test drinking water for pollutants.

Other allocations for environmental initiatives include $1 million for the Stony Brook University Water Technology Center’s research, development, and pilot projects to remove 1,4 dioxane from the water supply, $3 million for Suffolk County to address nitrogen pollution caused by septic waste, $250,000 to the Long Island Regional Planning Council for the Long Island Nitrogen Reduction Plan, $200,000 for the Peconic Estuary Program, and $6 million to eradicate invasive species, including the southern pine beetle.

East Hampton Town's petition to have the Supreme Court review a lower court decision that struck down takeoff and landing restrictions at the East Hampton Airport for noise abatement, including an overnight curfew, got some support this week when the City of New York and other groups, the Town of Southold among them, filed amicus curiae, or "friend of the court," briefs backing the town's request.

"Responsibility for protecting local residents from aviation noise has historically been shouldered primarily by local governmental airport proprietors," Zachary W. Carter, the corporation counsel for New York City, wrote in the city's brief.

The briefs argue that the lower courts improperly interpreted the role and applicability of the federal Airport Noise and Capacity Act and a set of procedures to be followed when enacting local airport regulations, particularly in the case of small airports that have declined to accept Federal Aviation Administration money.

East Hampton Town's position is that it is not subject to the act, known as ANCA; while following a broader outline under Federal Aviation Administration guidelines in establishing an underpinning for "reasonable" noise-related airport use restrictions, the town did not undergo the extensive approval process delineated by ANCA before adopting its airport regulations.

Three town laws were adopted in 2015: an overnight curfew on takeoffs and landings by all planes between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., extended curfew hours, from 8 p.m. to 9 a.m., for planes falling into a defined "noisy" category, and a limit of one takeoff and landing per week for noisy planes.

All three were immediately challenged in court by aviation interests, and the weekly limit was barred from enactment. The curfews went into effect in early July 2015.

In November, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit struck down all three East Hampton Town laws. Represented by Kathleen Sullivan and David Cooper of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart and Sullivan, the town filed a Supreme Court petition earlier this year.

The nation's highest court chooses to hear only a fraction of the cases submitted to it each year, and it could be months before a decision is made.

"Today's filing by the City of New York illustrates that this issue is all about local control. Whether it is our country's largest city or a small town like East Hampton, local governments know what is right for their community and should have the ability to make local decisions at their own airport. We welcome the City of New York to our fight to restore local control and protect the welfare of our respective communities," Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, the board's liaison on airport matters, said in a press release.

The Airport Noise and Capacity Act was central to a 1998 court case against New York City regarding its 34th Street heliport, filed by the National Helicopter Corporation. In that case, the court upheld the city's right to impose restrictions on use of the heliport in order to reduce aircraft noise.

In its brief to the court, Southold Town notes that the Federal Aviation Administration had agreed that East Hampton would not be held to the ANCA provisions, and challenges the authority of the court to supersede that decision.

"Noisy helicopter overflights between Manhattan's East Side and East Hampton have inflicted collateral damage on Southold by depriving many town residents, visitors, and businesses of the natural quiet of the place," the Southold attorneys wrote in their brief.

The third brief in support of East Hampton's Supreme Court bid was filed by a local group, the Committee to Stop Airport Expansion, in conjunction with the International Municipal Lawyers Association, which has more than 2,500 members, including legal counsel for cities, counties, and towns, and is described in the brief as "an international clearinghouse of legal information and cooperation on municipal legal matters."

A portion of that brief addresses the possible impact of the courts' eliminating local decision-making over airports.

"The result of 'federalizing' every airstrip in the nation, if the Second Circuit's overreach is allowed to remain in place," it says, "will be to discourage local governments from developing and maintaining airport facilities they cannot adequately regulate. Local airports will continue to close. Local communities in turn will be deprived of the tourism and commerce those airports facilitate, as well as the benefits of private aviation."

The brief expresses support for the town's argument that the lower court decision "dramatically expands federal regulation of local airports beyond Congress's intention."

"We are hopeful that the Supreme Court will recognize this as an issue of national concern and grant review to the town's petition," Supervisor Larry Cantwell said in the release.

Hundreds of travelers found themselves scrambling for reservations on Manhattan-bound Hampton Jitneys early Monday after a Dumpster struck the underside of the North Main Street railroad trestle in East Hampton Village and the Long Island Rail Road suspended service. Service was resumed between Jamaica and East Hampton in late morning, though how long service between East Hampton and Montauk would be suspended was uncertain.

According to Sgt. Mathew A. Morgan of the East Hampton Village police, the truck is registered to a Bay Shore company, and the Dumpster was being hauled by a 2004 Mack truck. The driver was issued a summons for ignoring signs warning northbound vehicles approaching the underpass that there is only 10 feet of clearance. There were no injuries.

A crew of railroad workers brought in a German-made Liebherr crane with a boom approximately 80 feet long. A strap was attached to the end of the boom, and it appeared the crew was pulling the trestle slightly up. A spokesman for the railroad was not immediately available for comment.

The railroad provided shuttle buses for affected stations and the Jitney was fully booked through the morning for buses leaving Montauk.  

Sag Harbor could get its cinema back. A community organization has entered into a contract with the owner of the Sag Harbor Cinema property four months after part of the iconic building was destroyed by fire. Fund-raising to seal the deal has now officially begun.

The Sag Harbor Partnership, a group that formed more than a year ago to help create a municipal park in the village, announced this week that after months of negotiations a contract has been signed to buy the property from Gerald Mallow, its longtime owner. The price: $8 million.

April Gornik, a North Haven artist and community activist who is the vice president of the partnership and led the charge, said they have until the end of the year to close.

Time is of the essence, she said by phone on Tuesday. They have until about July, when a big fund-raiser is planned, to decide "if what we're looking at in terms of pledges is substantial enough to go forward." One anonymous donor has already pledged $1 million.

A wind-fueled fire ripped through a section of Sag Harbor's Main Street on Dec. 16, ultimately destroying two buildings, including the Sag Harbor Cinema, and badly damaging others, devastating businesses and displacing two people from second-story apartments.

Flames gutted the lobby of the cinema, leaving the Art Deco facade in danger of collapse. Officials tore down the lobby that very night. The theater portion of the 1930s building, with a large screen and located at the back of the L-shaped structure, remained standing. Officials said it had smoke damage only. The theater's neon "Sag Harbor" sign, an 11-year-old replica of the original and considered a village landmark, was saved and is being kept in a nearby storage facility.

"We think it's really important to give our community back what it lost," Ms. Gornik said. "It really was the heart of this place in a big way."

The partnership plans not only to rebuild, but to establish a Sag Harbor Cinema Arts Center. The not-for-profit would expand on the cinema's tradition of art house film programming with educational initiatives for school-age children and residents.

Ms. Gornik said estimates for the construction project are $4 million to $5 million at a minimum.

Plans include rebuilding the facade and repairing the sign, and rebuilding and repurposing some of the space. The group plans to preserve the "curved scope" screen currently in the 480-seat theater, though Ms. Gornik said no one from the group had yet been able to get inside to assess the damage.

The group has plans for two theaters. A larger one would seat about 250 people, another about 150. A private screening room with 30 seats is planned for the second floor above Main Street. It would also serve as a classroom.

"We want to do programming that will serve a really wide range of people and age groups," Ms. Gornik said.

The cinema has long been for sale, and the idea of purchasing it for community use is nothing new. The asking price was $14 million before the fire. Several members of the partnership have been trying to buy it, to ensure it remained a cinema, since 2009.

"We were concerned that we'd lose it to some big business, and Main Street would be irrevocably changed," Ms. Gornik said in a press release.

Giulia D'Agnolo Vallan, a member of the selection committee for the Venice Film Festival, and Andrew Fierberg, a movie producer, came up with the original vision for the cinema arts foundation, Ms. Gornik said.

The small group reconvened in July, when, Ms. Gornik said, Mr. Mallow expressed an interest in having the cinema purchased by someone who wanted to preserve it. Architectural and structural reports were drawn up.

"We were set to be in contract by the end of December, when the fire threw everything into disarray, but we didn't lose hope," she said. The group forged ahead, working with experts on how best to rebuild the cinema, make it profitable, and serve the community. "We're grateful that Gerry stuck with us."

"The Cinema Arts Center will provide an opportunity to draw on the talents and experiences of an ever-expanding year-round community on the East End," Susan Lacy, a filmmaker, creator of the "American Masters" series on PBS, and Noyac homeowner, said in the release.

The partnership's Big Tent party, to be held on Long Wharf on July 16, will serve as a fund-raiser and honor Mr. Mallow. The partnership's inaugural party last year raised more than $130,000, which was donated to the Village of Sag Harbor to help its efforts to establish a waterfront park.

Once money for the purchase has been secured, a capital campaign will begin for the construction. Grant money may also be available.

"We are fortunate to live in a community where so many people are giving of their time, talent, and money toward restoring such a cultural treasure," said Nick Gazzolo, the president of the partnership. "Main Street won't feel whole until that famous sign is shining again. Everyone wants to see this comeback."

Contributions to the project will be tax-deductible and can be made to the Sag Harbor Partnership.