We are not out of the woods yet. It is still cold and the birds that have been showing up at your feeder daily will still need another couple of weeks of food to keep them going. In the past, very few people fed birds, and if they did, it was likely to be something not nutritious like Wonder Bread. Not as many birds stayed around during the winter, and those that did were either raptors or owls that fed on mice and other small mammals, or those vegetarians that searched far and wide for scattered seeds, cedar berries, and the like.

In the old days there were far fewer houses, far fewer lawns, more farm fields and more over-wintering fruit such as holly berries and bayberries. In many quarters, privets and bittersweet have replaced the native fruit bearers, and, while some birds will eat the foreign berries, they would prefer the native ones.

Parts of the South Fork are known for their hedge-fronted houses. This is especially true of the houses south of the highway where there are hedges galore, usually tall and well kept. These hedges are generally made up of privets, the number one hedge plant of all time. Lately, however, arborvitae hedges are springing up throughout the area. Arborvitae are related to our native eastern red cedars, but their berries are not sought after like those of the native plants. There are still a few native red cedar and white hedges, but they have a hard time handling the road salt put down to prevent freezing and black ice during the winter.

There are many native fruit-producing species that could take the place of the arborvitae and privet hedges, but they are not in demand because they are not as well comported as the latter and they leave spaces that one can see through during drive-bys. So, as we progress into the new millennium, we see more and more hedges and fewer and fewer native fruit trees and old fields with their winter standing crop of goldenrod and seeds from several grasses.

Very few politicians use the word rural to describe the South Fork. The word has become synonymous with no progress, even regression. As the old folks peel away and are replaced by the millennials, many native species, rustic gates, porches with settees, and detached garages are considered old fashioned and are to be avoided. In the last century about half the houses sported grape arbors and fruit trees. But they require attention and nowadays while trying to make a living and keeping up socially, who has time to fuss with such fancies?

Those houses that still live in the past and have hollies, eastern red cedars, still attract birds and supply needed and nutritious foodstuffs. Frankly, the birds outside my window, which chow down every day from dawn to dusk, do not complain about a diet of nearly 100 percent sunflower seeds. Sunflower seeds are tasty and nutritious — humans enjoy them as well — but berries supply certain elements that sunflower seeds lack. You will almost never see a robin, bluebird, catbird, or mockingbird take a sunflower seed. They are strictly fruit and berry eaters in the winter months.

Hollies and junipers are particularly good for those species that do not eat seeds. Female hollies replete with red berries are a sight for sore eyes after a big winter storm covers the ground. Not only do the birds take advantage of these late-fruiting species, the trees also fare well. The birds that feed on their fruit defecate their seeds and many of those seeds germinate to become seedlings come spring. This is a process known as co-evolution and it is widespread.

But who has time to nurture such goings-on? We have to keep up with what’s going on or, for many of us, just keep afloat in a haywire world headed into deep entropy. But for many of us nature lovers, the sight of a bluebird stealing a holly berry or a robin ensconced in an eastern red cedar tree feeding on the berries for an hour or more while sheltered from the wind by the thick covering of tiny juniper needles helps us get through the winter. We, along with the bluebird and robin, know that spring is on its way and we take comfort in that vision.

Which is better, progression or regression? Some of each keeps us in touch with the past and helps us get on in the future.

Larry Penny can be reached via email at [email protected].

A decades-long East Hampton Town Parks and Recreation Department practice of reusing industrial metal barrels for trash cans in public places has been halted after an employee, who felt ill after clearing barrels of chemical residue, raised questions about it.

Town officials have called a certified company to cart away the 55-gallon drums, some of which contained Foam-Lok, a spray foam insulation. They also have ordered soil and water tests of areas near the Parks Department headquarters on the Town Hall campus where chemicals were dumped in anticipation of painting the barrels.

Foam-Lok is a polyurethane product created by combining two chemical mixtures that contain ingredients known to be skin and eye irritants and other materials that are potentially hazardous to health.

J. Michael Grisham, a maintenance mechanic in the Parks Department, told The Star that in the first week of March he had been assigned to pick up approximately 25 used drums from an insulation company and clean them out. The drums had a couple of inches of chemicals remaining in them, Mr. Grisham said, and since he did the work he has experienced shortness of breath, lightheadedness, nausea, and hair loss.

The Parks Department, which removes trash from beaches and other public places, was reportedly stockpiling barrels for use as additional garbage cans along the route of the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Montauk this weekend.

Mr. Grisham initially became concerned, he said, when he was instructed to cut the tops off the drums with a power tool that could create sparks. Assuming the chemical in the barrels might be flammable and that the drums might be pressurized, he used a different tool. However, he noticed a strong odor, he said, and took the precaution of putting on gloves, a dust mask, and a hat.

After opening up about 18 drums inside the department’s garage, he began to feel lightheaded and nauseous toward the end of the day, he said. He collected the residue from each barrel, pouring it into one. He also expressed his concerns to his supervisor, Richard Webb, but, he said, was told to continue the work, which followed standard procedure.

The next day, he and another worker were asked to rinse out the barrels, plus 10 more that had been collected, which, he said “had significantly more chemicals in them.” Once cleaned, they were to be sent to the Montauk Playhouse to be painted.

In a statement prepared for town officials, Mr. Grisham wrote that the workers were told to hose out the barrels with water “and empty them on the pavement outside the shop.” Mr. Grisham recounted that he told Mr. Webb, “I’m not comfortable with this; I don’t want to pour it out.” But, “he told me get it done,” he said.

The odor was strong, he said, and his co-worker complained of a headache. In an effort to speed things along, Mr. Grish­am added some paint thinner to each drum, figuring it would make it easier to remove the existing chemicals. The attempt to clean out the barrels with water was fruitless, however, he said, as the chemicals did not appear to be water soluble. He said he was instructed by Mr. Webb to drain out the barrels on hilly ground behind the shop. “At this point, I was not feeling well at all,” he wrote.

The barrels were labeled with hazard warnings and a company phone number, which, eventually, was called for guidance. According to Foam-Lok company safety data, empty containers should not be reused, waste should be kept out of sewers, and containers should not be cut, drilled, ground, or welded. Drums containing some of the spray foam ingredients require special handling for disposal, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The ingredients in the spray foam include isocyanates, which are found in paints and varnishes, and are “powerful irritants” to the eyes and gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts if absorbed through the lungs or skin, and can cause asthma and chemical sensitization, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Installers of foam insulation are instructed to wear respirators and other protective equipment and to avoid breathing mist or vapor.

The ingredients also include ethylene glycol, which, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, can cause respiratory irritation if inhaled, or, with acute exposure, affect the central nervous system. They also include flame retardants and other chemicals.

After a day and a half of dealing with the barrels, Mr. Grisham said, he experienced shortness of breath and a “hot tingling sensation.” Concerned about jeopardizing his position with the department, he said he was reluctant to make a report or throw up “a red flag” by seeking medical attention. But by the following week, after noticing some hair loss, he went to the emergency room at Southampton Hospital where a chest X-ray and E.K.G. revealed no problems, and to the Wainscott Walk-In clinic, where he had a blood test and urinalysis.

Though doctors found nothing wrong, Mr. Grisham said he was worried enough to contact a poison control center as well as the spray foam product manufacturer’s emergency number. A representative told him, he said, that reuse of the barrels should be discontinued, and any spilled chemicals cleaned up.

Eventually, workers told Ed Michels, East Hampton Town’s chief harbormaster, who, as the town’s safety officer, is in charge of protocol for safe workplace practices. They also alerted the State Department of Environmental Conservation.

“I did a U-turn,” Mr. Michels said this week. “We stopped it right there.” He also spoke to D.E.C. officials, and was told that whatever chemicals had been released did not constitute a large enough spill for the agency to get involved.

Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said that immediately upon learning of the situation he called a meeting with Tony Littman, the Parks and Recreation Department head, Mr. Webb, Steve Lynch, the town highway superintendent, as well as Alex Walter, his executive assistant, and Mr. Michels “to get to the bottom of what happened.”

On Monday, Mr. Cantwell said he thought the practice was well intended but should have been stopped years ago. “Reusing barrels is one thing, but if they’re not properly cleaned. . . . If we have to buy garbage containers, we’ll buy them, to avoid any potential hazards to employees and the public,” he said.

“The practice of accepting used 55-gallon drums as trash cans throughout the town is to stop immediately,” Mr. Michels wrote in a memo to Mr. Littman dated March 15. “I don’t know what they had in the past; they don’t know what they had in the past,” Mr. Michels said Tuesday. He has ordered the Parks Department to examine “all 300 barrels that they had” to determine their safety.

It is unclear where barrels have been obtained in the past, and what they might have contained. Neither Mr. Littman nor Mr. Webb returned calls for comment

After his medical evaluation, Mr. Grish­am was cleared to return to work, and was on the job this week, his employment status  unchanged. He said he had contacted a lawyer and his union representative, but had not filed a grievance.

“The town is not in the practice of taking action against someone who has blown the whistle about a practice that should end,” Mr. Cantwell said on Monday. He declined to comment about whether any action would be taken against those in charge at the  Parks Department, and he expressed confidence in Mr. Littman who, he said, had accepted responsibility.

Lee Colombo, a Parks Department worker assigned to the Montauk Playhouse, said Tuesday that barrels with spray foam chemicals  — some containing as much as several gallons — were handled there in early March, with the contents dumped out in an unfinished interior space, where the cans were to be painted.

“I told the guys, hey, I wouldn’t be touching that stuff. It has a warning label right on it.” A 15-year veteran of the Parks Department, he said he had long been concerned about the practice. He added that he shared Mr. Grisham’s concerns about workers’ exposure to chemicals and chemicals in the environment, and that he was glad Mr. Grisham had spoken out. “I feel like some of the guys are scared to say no, to step up,” he said. There is an attitude, he said, of “ ‘Just get it done, bub. Don’t worry about it.’ ”

The disposal of the barrels “will cost several thousands of dollars,” Mr. Cantwell said this week. Orange safety cones were put in place last week near cardboard covering stained spots outside the Parks Department garage where testing of a drain and the soil is to be done. “The stuff doesn’t go away,” Mr. Grisham said.

Eighth graders from the Montauk School accomplished something that many East Enders could not: They met Representative Lee Zeldin in person.

During the school’s annual trip to Washington, D.C., last week, the group of 40 students, 23 parents, and 4 teachers received a tour of the Capitol, culminating in a brief meeting with Representative Zeldin, whose district includes the South Fork.

On March 15, he talked with students and chaperons for about 20 minutes at the Capitol Visitors Center, said Brad Dickinson, who teaches social studies at the school. Mr. Dickinson has been overseeing the school’s eighth-grade trip to the nation’s capital for 34 years, and coordinated the meeting with Mr. Zeldin’s office in advance.

One student asked Mr. Zeldin if progress had been made on passing the new health care bill. He explained that it was in the process of going through several committees and amendments, and that only after that could it be approved. Another student pushed the question further, asking the congressman if he believed that the amended health care plan was good. According to Mr. Dickinson, Mr. Zeldin replied, “ ‘Yes, parts of it.’ ”

Asked by another student why he has not made himself more available to the public over the past few months, Mr. Zeldin told the group that, for now, he is concentrating on appearing at town hall meetings with small groups only.

The congressman has been under attack by his constituents for canceling town hall meetings this year and failing to appear at scheduled public meetings. According to a press release from his office, the reason for cancellations is that protesters “chose reprehensible tactics to harass attendees at an event the congressman was at, including banging on the sides of the cars driving by and jumping in front of cars to stop them.” Organizers of that event have disputed that characterization.

According to Mr. Dickinson, Montauk students were thrilled to have met with the congressmen and were grateful for his explanations of how Congress works and the details about his job.

The other highlight of the trip, he said, was a visit to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery. Two eighth graders, Lily Greenwood and Nolan King, were chosen to place wreaths at the tomb, an experience that the teacher described as “very moving for all.”

A Montauk man who had an infant and a 2-year-old in his car was arrested early Sunday morning on a felony charge of driving while intoxicated.

East Hampton Town police said they spotted Marco Gutama-Pillco’s 2003 Chevrolet swerving across lane lines on Abraham’s Path in Amagansett shortly after midnight and pulled him over. He failed roadside sobriety tests, according to the police.

He was charged under Leandra’s Law, which makes it a felony to drive drunk with a child aged 15 or under in the car. A warrant was later issued requiring him to allow a blood sample to be drawn at police headquarters to determine his blood-alcohol level, as is mandated under Leandra’s Law, named for an 11-year-old who was killed by a drunken driver.

Leandra’s Law was passed weeks later, in 2009. The year before, Mr. Gutama-Pillco, now 32, had been convicted in a D.W.I. crash. That accident also involved a child, who, East Hampton Town Justice Lisa Rana noted at his arraignment on Sunday morning, “suffered harm.”

“While that was technically not a Leandra’s Law case since the law had not come into effect,” she said, “the facts and circumstances are still that serious.”

“The mother was in the car during [Sunday’s] incident?” Justice Rana asked Mr. Gutama-Pillco’s attorney, Edward Burke Jr. “Yes,” Mr. Burke answered, “They were coming back from a birthday party.”

“Based on that information, I’m going to have to direct that the Police Department contact Child Protective Services and mandate a report,” she said.

Noting that Mr. Gutama-Pillco’s criminal record also showed a 2009 arrest for assault, later reduced to a misdemeanor, Justice Rana set bail at $20,000. Mr. Gutama-Pillco’s wife and several family members, who were in the court, said they would raise the bail. An hour later, they posted it in cash at police headquarters.

A Springs man who was arrested last Thursday night also faces a D.W.I. charge. Juan I. Auquilla, 53, was seen swerving on Springs-Fireplace Road near Queens Lane in East Hampton, police said, and reportedly refused to take a breath test at headquarters.

Because Mr. Auquilla was arrested in Southampton shortly after New Year’s Day on a misdemeanor D.W.I. charge that has yet to be adjudicated, he was additionally charged with felony unlicensed driving. Justice Steven Tekulsky set bail at $1,000 and warned him not to drive “unless and until your privileges are restored.”

An East Hampton woman driving a black Land Rover Discovery north on Main Street, Sag Harbor, on Sunday afternoon sideswiped several parked vehicles, then drove off, police said. Elaine Chaloner was soon located on Hampton Street after a witness dialed 911. Her car’s passenger side was damaged, according to Sag Harbor Village police, consistent with the report.

She told the arresting officer that she had just left Buddha Berry, “looked down for a split second, and hit several parked vehicles.” She also said she had had two beers at LT Burger. She drove off, the report continued, “because she was scared.” Her breath test produced a .13 reading, above the .08 number that defines intoxication. She was released without bail the next morning after being arraigned on the misdemeanor charge.

A Springs woman, Karla Nicole Maldonado-Rodriguez, 30, was charged with misdemeanor D.W.I. early Saturday morning after failing to signal a turn from Town Lane to Abraham’s Path in Amagansett, according to the officer who stopped her 2009 Jeep. The charge was later raised to the “aggravated” level after her breath test produced a reported reading of .19. Bail of $250 was posted later that morning.

Coerte V. W. Felske of Montauk, 56, stands charged with D.W.I. for the third time since 2012, though he has no criminal record since both prior cases were adjudicated as violations. Town police said they saw his 1989 Toyota stopped on Industrial Road in Montauk early Sunday in front of an unoccupied structure. They pulled over to question him and brought him back to headquarters on suspicion of drunken driving. Both his insurance and registration have lapsed, police noted, leading to two additional misdemeanor charges.

“Your license is suspended on two counts,” Justice Rana told him at his arraignment. “One, based upon the prior conviction over the past five years,” and second, because he had refused to take the headquarters breath test. He was released on no bail with a future date on her criminal calendar.

Hobson Michael Howell, 71, who told the court Sunday that he lives in Noyac but will soon be moving to Springs, was pulled over on Toilsome Lane after an electronic reader told an East Hampton Village officer that his inspection and registration had lapsed. He was driving a 1998 Jeep, the same vehicle he was driving last September when town police charged him with misdemeanor D.W.I., a charge ultimately pleaded down to the violation level before Justice Rana.

His breath test came in at .07, high enough to trigger a charge of driving with ability impaired. More important, he was charged twice over with misdemeanor unlicensed driving.

Justice Rana’s patience with Mr. Howell was clearly tried. First, she pointed out, he had not paid one cent toward the fine he incurred on the violation. She told him she was again suspending his driving privileges. He then offered to pay the fine. Monday, when the court clerk’s office would be open, and asked if he could have a new hardship license. The answer was no. “How do I get here?” he asked. “I afforded you a lot of opportunities in your prior case,” Justice Rana said. “It’s not for me to figure out how you’re going to get from your home to here.” She released Mr. Howell without bail.

Also charged with D.W.I. early Sunday were Nicholas Zumpul, 22, of Lindenhurst, and Celina Honore d’Este of Manhattan and East Hampton. Ms. d’Este was stopped after failing to dim the headlights of her 2016 BMW for an oncoming patrol car on Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton, police said; Mr. Zumpul because his 2013 Jeep Liberty was clocked at 46 miles per hour in downtown Montauk where the limit is 30. Both were released without bail.

Daniel John Reese, 22, of Springs was arrested a little after midnight last Thursday on Town Lane in Amagansett; police said his 2003 Ford was speeding and swerving. His reading was .13, and he was released without bail.

Carlos E. Mendoza’s test early Sunday at Sag Harbor police headquarters produced a reported reading of .14. Police stopped his 2015 Chevrolet Silverado on Main Street, because, allegedly, its headlights were off. He was released without bail.

Finally, two Sag Harbor residents were arrested over the weekend by state troopers. Richard I. Obler was charged with driving with ability impaired by drugs, a misdemeanor, after being stopped at a sobriety checkpoint just before midnight Friday on the eastbound side of Sunrise Highway. Jaime R. Japa, 36, was stopped in Southampton by a trooper who said he was driving erratically. Both men were released after being booked at state police headquarters in Riverside, and will be arraigned in Southampton Justice Court at a future date.

An electrical problem with a light fixture in an industrial building in East Hampton sparked a quick-moving fire Tuesday morning, fire officials said. Firefighters were able to stop the blaze from spreading beyond two bays occupied by a landscaping company. A complicated cleanup ensued because of fertilizers and chemicals used by the landscapers.

Workers inside the repair shop at 10 Washington Avenue were painting the body of a truck when there was “a pop” above them, according to Tom Baker, an East Hampton Town fire marshal who investigated. He said a worker reported that he immediately saw smoke and reached for a fire extinguisher, but the fire was rapidly spreading. The workers evacuated the building immediately. Black smoke was pouring from it when 911 dispatchers received the first call just before 8:50 a.m.

Mr. Baker said Tuesday afternoon that he had determined that “a couple of bad wires” inside a fluorescent light in the ceiling were to blame. “When it arcs, it sparks. Whatever the spark hit, got it ignited.”

Chief Ken Wessberg of the East Hampton Fire Department said volunteers stopped the flames from spreading throughout the building, a large pole barn occupied by several businesses, containing it to the two bays occupied by a landscaping company owned by Richard Swanson. The building is owned by John DiSunno of Amagansett.

“It was a great knockdown by my guys,” Chief Wessberg said. “Unfortunately, the guy lost all of his equipment,” including lawn mowers, rototillers, and the like.

Chief Wessberg had initially called for town’s hazmat team because of spilled fertilizer. Firefighters used sand and dirt to make a berm so it did not continue to spread, according to Mr. Baker.

State Department of Environmental Conservation spills response personnel were called in to oversee the cleanup of herbicide and pesticide, in addition to the fertilizer. Miller Environmental Group of Calverton was hired to coordinate the cleanup, according to Bill Fonda, a spokesman for the D.E.C. “D.E.C. is assessing drainage structures that may have been impacted by the runoff from the firefighting efforts,” he said. “Miller Environmental staff will also be repackaging fertilizer bags impacted by the fire for off-site disposal.”

Mr. Baker said, however, that “not a whole lot got released.” Drinking water was not a concern, he said, as most of the homeowners in the area are on public water mains because of the proximity of the town recycling center.

No injuries were reported during the fire. The East Hampton Village Ambulance Association and the Amagansett Fire Department also responded. The Springs Fire Department was at the ready to answer any other calls in East Hampton.

By the time Nancy Rowan closed her old Golden Eagle shop on Gingerbread Lane in East Hampton in the fall of 2013, it had grown from a well-stocked art store into a veritable art center, selling canvases, paints, fine papers, and the like and also offering classes for adults and children in a variety of mediums. Even though the store reopened on Newtown Lane just a few months later, the classes fell by the wayside for lack of parking.

Now, Ms. Rowan and a longtime associate and new business partner, Michael Weisman, are preparing to bring back the art classes, and more, in a spot on North Main Street that they will call Studio 144.

“This new location is like a little world unto itself,” Mr. Weisman said Tuesday. The property, a little over an acre on a flag lot next to Nick and Toni’s restaurant, includes an old house, which will become an art store, a barn out back where classes will be held, and plenty of parking. The property had been overgrown and empty for several years, but was recently tidied up and put on the market for rent. “The outbuilding is really what sold us,” he said.

The business partners envision classes in every discipline and for every skill level as well as gallery shows and other happenings, and they will have room for all of it on North Main Street. The Newtown Lane shop will remain open, but may shift its focus. “We’re kicking around ideas for that now,” said Mr. Weisman, who helped Ms. Rowan open on Newtown Lane and has stayed on to work there.

“We’re very thrilled because we’ve been looking for space for a long time,” he said.

No stranger to East Hampton’s retail landscape, he ran Inside Out, a home-centered, design-forward store on East Hampton’s Railroad Avenue, for a number of years before closing it in 2006 and moving away. He returned in 2013 when Ms. Rowan asked for his help scouting for and designing a new location when she lost her old lease after 12 years on Gingerbread Lane.

The partners hope to begin offering classes at Studio 144 (their street number on North Main) by mid-May and to have the store up and running by mid to late June.

This week, they put out a call for art teachers for children and adults in all mediums. Those interested have been asked to email Annie Barrett at [email protected].

“I’m not really a person who does a lot of boasting, but I get a really good feeling about this,” Mr. Weisman said.

Pointing to a recent uptick in youth drug overdoses and suicides, Walker Bragman, a representative of the East End New Leaders, last week stressed the need for the community to provide more social and recreational options for teens and reiterated a call for a shift in focus at the East Hampton Y.M.C.A. RECenter, which he said has moved away from its mission as a youth center.

Speaking at a town board meeting last Thursday, he called the RECenter under management of the Y.M.C.A. “essentially a gym for adults.” The organization operates the town-owned building under a licensing agreement with East Hampton Town.

“Have a stage upstairs, have a music area, have a lounge,” he said. “As a community we can take positive steps to address this problem . . . provide them an alternative to these party houses that have been cropping up,” Mr. Bragman said.

“Free play,” or unstructured time to be with friends in a safe setting, is essential for youth, Mr. Bragman said, and can held them resist “the appeal of drugs.”

“Our approach has to change,” he said. “If we even save one life, it will be worth it.”

He said the New Leaders would present a business plan to the town in the coming months as to how the RECenter building could be used after next year when the Y.M.C.A.’s current contract with the town expires. It should not be renewed, he said.

In a letter presented by Susan McGraw Keber, who is Mr. Bragman’s mother, Dr. Martin Diner, a school psychologist who lives in East Hampton, described how he was “struck . . . by the absence of activity venues for teenagers” in East Hampton. “Our kids are dangerously bored,” he wrote. The options presented are “out of step with the developmental needs of our young population” between 12 and 20 years old, he said in his letter. “Too many have died, and will continue to do. We share the responsibility.”

But others spoke positively of the Y.M.C.A. RECenter and its programs. “I’ve seen a lot of good things that the Y does,” said Afton DiSunno, the mother of a high school boy who participates in RECenter activities. He and his friends go to the facility after school, she said. “There are lots of things for them to do in our town; it’s not all bad.”

Jack Marshall, a RECenter employee who also spoke, ticked off the array of activities: swimming lessons, swim team, synchronized swimming, soccer, basketball, lessons in karate, dance, and music, reduced-cost theater trips, camps during the summer and school breaks, an annual Healthy Kids day, and weekly Friday Night Madness exclusively for youth. Beginning next month, there will be Saturday programs featuring sports, arts and crafts, and science, technology, engineering, arts, and math activities.

The top floor of the RECenter building, said Ms. McGraw Keber, used to be a social space for youth, but is now filled with exercise bikes. “Having to be programmed at all times is, I think, missing the point,” she said.

“With all the good things that are going on, we’re still missing something,” another speaker said, “because we’re still losing kids to drugs and alcohol.”

“There is a problem in our community,” acknowledged Mr. Marshall, who grew up in East Hampton and returned to his hometown in 2012 after graduating from college. “Instead of pointing the finger I think we all need to come together and realize this is a community issue and not a Y.M.C.A. issue,” he said.

“Youth development and self-confidence and core values are so much of what we do there,” said Norma Bushman, another employee of the Y.M.C.A.

“It starts at home,” said Samone Johnson, the Y’s medical director. “A lot of kids don’t have supervision, so they don’t want to go to a place with supervision.”

Kira Leader read a letter from her mother, Jacqui Leader, which referenced her son and Kira’s brother, Sax Leader, who died of an overdose in 2013 in New York City.

Drug use is widespread, Ms. Leader told the board. “This town is really suffering for not having a place where youth, 13 and up, can go to be together,” she said. Teens did gather at the RECenter for a while, she said. “I don’t understand when it changed or why.”

“If it’s a publicly funded facility, then it should be benefiting the public equally. There are not that many community spaces; everything is privatized,” Tyler Armstrong told the board. The now-empty building on town land in Wainscott that once held the Child Development Center of the Hamptons could be an “excellent community center,” he suggested. There should be a survey soliciting young people’s opinions, he said, as to “what they actually want.”

Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez said that a teen advisory board could be created, and could work with the East End New Leaders and with the Y.M.C.A. to “figure out a way we want to move forward.” She said 44 percent of the Y.M.C.A. RECenter’s members are under 18.

The town has inquired about the purchase of the former C.D.C.H. building, she said, but there is a lack of agreement on the price. If the purchase could take place, what is needed, she said, is an independent entity that would manage the facility for the town.

“The drug and alcohol abuse issue throughout our town is a serious issue,” Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said. The town provides funding for counseling and drug abuse treatment programs, has police officers doing outreach in the schools, provides youth recreation programs, and has sponsored training sessions in the use of Narcan, an antidote to opioid overdoses.

There is a “space problem,” at the RECenter building, the supervisor said, but also “a lot of good going on.” An administrator for East Hampton Village, which donated the RECenter land, when the building was constructed, Mr. Cantwell said that “the mission at that time was for that to be a youth center. What happens at that facility today . . . has evolved over time, and it’s different — and that’s not a bad thing.”

A Y.M.C.A. Correction

A story in The Star last week reported that Walker Bragman of the East End New Leaders, a group that is advocating for more space dedicated to youth at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter, asserted that the Y.M.C.A. had turned the center, which was built to serve primarily as a youth center, into a “for-profit gym.”

Under its current operating license with East Hampton Town, which owns the RECenter building, the town provides the Y.M.C.A. with $590,000 each year for operating expenses at the facility and is responsible for capital improvements to the building.

Under the contract, the Y.M.CA. is allowed to retain 10 percent of the income derived from operating the facility as an operating fee.

Once annual operating expenses are met, any revenue beyond that must be returned to East Hampton Town for a capital improvement reserve fund.

  Last year, $29,000 was returned to the town, and in 2014, approximately $27,000 was returned.

More than 150 people crowded into Clinton Academy in East Hampton last Thursday for a look at the future of electricity generation, as representatives of Deepwater Wind, a Rhode Island company, presented its recently approved plan to construct a wind farm 30 miles offshore. 

Those in attendance, including officials in East Hampton Town and Village government, were generally enthusiastic about the project. However, members of the commercial fishing industry, some of whom were at the meeting, continue to criticize the plan, fearing its impact on their livelihood and accusing both Deepwater Wind and local and state governments of ignoring their concerns.

Upon its anticipated completion in December 2022, the South Fork Wind Farm is expected to provide 90 megawatts of electricity to the South Fork, where demand is projected to continue to increase sharply. The installation, up to 15 turbines placed in federally leased waters, is expected to produce energy sufficient to power more than 50,000 residences.

The Long Island Power Authority authorized its chief executive to sign a 20-year contract with Deepwater Wind to buy the energy generated by the wind farm in January. The agreement includes a five-year extension option. 

On Thursday, Deepwater Wind officials including Jeffrey Grybowski, the chief executive officer, and Clint Plummer, its vice president of development, said that a cable connecting the wind farm to the Long Island Power Authority substation on Buell Lane in East Hampton would likely make land either at the defunct fish factory at Promised Land or the parking lot at Fresh Pond Beach, both on Gardiner’s Bay. The cable would be buried beneath existing roads to the substation, they said. Onshore surveys of the proposed route are to begin in the spring. 

A power purchase agreement with LIPA will be finalized this year, the Deepwater officials said, and permit applications will be submitted to state and federal agencies in 2018. 

The turbines will be situated at least one mile apart, the Deepwater officials said, allowing fishing vessels to move between them. Strict protocols will be in place during construction to protect marine life from harm, they said, adding that they have worked and will continue to work with commercial fishermen to address their concerns and minimize impact to fish habitat and migratory patterns. 

Undersea survey work is to begin this spring and will include several vessels that will deploy sonar-based equipment in the water. Samples of the seabed, images of its contours, and measurements of the water including salinity, temperature, and depth will be collected and analyzed, Mr. Grybowski said.  

The strong turnout at last Thursday’s event illustrated the “high level of interest” in the project, Mr. Grybowski said on Tuesday. “It was an excellent way for the community to start to ask questions and get educated about the project.” 

Earlier last Thursday, Mr. Grybowski and Mr. Plummer said that some commercial fishermen based in Rhode Island who were initially skeptical of the Block Island Wind Farm, Deepwater Wind’s five-turbine installation that began operation in December, now support it. They predicted that the concerns of Long Island’s commercial fishermen would be similarly assuaged. 

Commercial fishermen and their representatives who attended the event, however, remained unconvinced. “It sounds great,” said Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, “but what happens under the water line really does matter. This is still an industrial project,” she said, one that “is not conducive to having fish and mammals and habitat survive. Anyone that calls himself an environmentalist should be extremely anxious at the thought that our East End waters are going to be compromised.” 

Bruce Beckwith of Montauk, who fishes for multiple species from the Allison and Lisa, a 45-foot dragger, said that many questions remain unanswered  and an offshore wind farm’s potential impact was yet another burden on fishermen already hindered by strict regulations and quotas. “What is all this activity on the bottom, and how much damage is it going to do to habitat?” he asked on Tuesday. The waters in which the South Fork Wind Farm will be constructed overlap Cox’s Ledge, which Mr. Beckwith said is “a known codfish spawning ground” and has long been fished for many other species. “The National Marine Fisheries Service has been on fishermen about essential fish habitat,” he said. “They’re going to start pounding these huge windmills into the ground. . . . What about the damage to be done just putting these in? What about electric current going through the water? There are a lot of unknowns.” 

“Offshore wind is very compatible with fish spawning grounds,” Mr. Grybowski said. “These structures take up a very, very small percentage of the ocean where they’re located.” In fact, he said, “there is a lot of evidence that shows that projects like this are very beneficial for marine life. The basic assumption that somehow putting these in a spawning ground is detrimental to marine life is simply not consistent with the evidence.” 

Aaron Williams, who fishes from the Tradition, a 63-foot dragger based in Point Judith, R.I., said that the Block Island Wind Farm’s turbines present a safety issue. He cited a recent mechanical failure that forced him to shut down the Tradition’s engine, “and we were about 200 yards away from one.” There have always been obstructions to navigate around, he said, but “these five windmills . . . God forbid you might have to drift through them. I’m all for alternative anything that could help us, but it’s the location of these, especially these five we’re dealing with firsthand.” 

Moreover, Mr. Williams said, the cable connecting the wind farm to Block Island and the mainland is covered by concrete mats in areas where it could not be buried. “It’s easy, on Deepwater’s end, to say ‘We can just put a mat where we can’t bury it.’ That becomes a very big safety issue, too.” 

He said that he knows of three fishermen whose gear has been caught on a concrete mat. “A boat ends up anchored to the bottom, the gear comes up different than normally,” he said. “It stops us, but we’re towing at 3 knots; scallopers are at 5.2, 5.5 knots. For a scallop dredge to hit one, they’d lose their gear, the wire would break.” 

Mr. Grybowski acknowledged that several mats were used to cover “less than 1 percent” of the cable, but said Deepwater Wind has received no reports of fishing gear getting caught on them. “These mats are not dissimilar to rocks and boulders on the sea floor,” he said. “Commercial fishermen find ways to deal with the geology of the seabed already. This is a few pieces of concrete on the seabed in a really big ocean.” 

Mr. Beckwith also complained that “they want to run this cable through Napeague Bay, right north of Montauk. We fish there from April through December. For the inshore fleet, that’s the main area we fish. When would they put this in? How will that affect the fish in that area? There are a lot of questions the fishermen have.” 

“I don’t think any fishermen are against wind power,” Mr. Beckwith added. “I’m certainly not. It’s just that I think it’s a lot more cost effective with windmills on the land. Of course, the people that want them don’t want to look at them, but anybody that’s worked on water their whole life, or has a mechanical mind, knows that maintaining them on the water is a lot harder.” 

Mr. Williams, who said that members of his family have fished for almost 100 years, echoed many of his peers in saying that fishermen had been left out of the wind farms’ planning. “I feel there was no interaction between Deepwater and fishermen,” he said. 

Ms. Brady agreed. “These should only be built where living things aren’t,” she said of offshore wind farms, and Cox’s Ledge is not such a site. She criticized the state and the town, which has a stated goal of achieving all of its electricity needs through renewable sources by 2020. “The fact that the town had a hand in this from the beginning shows that they have no concern for the fishermen that, frankly, are one of the oldest professions in East Hampton,” she said. “It is unconscionable on so many levels.”

The trial of a former manager of the Poxabogue Golf Center in Sagaponack on a felony charge of unlawful surveillance got underway Thursday in the Arthur Cromarty Criminal Court Complex in Riverside.

John W. Cortes, an assistant district attorney arguing the case, told the jury that Steven Lee of Ronkonkoma had violated the privacy of a 16-year-old girl when, on July 28, 2015, he took a single photograph with his iPhone through what was, effectively, a two-way mirror. "This was no accident. This was no mistake," Mr. Cortes said. "He made the decision to exploit this child for his own selfish reasons."

He said that Mr. Lee had stored the photo on his phone "day after day after day, month after month after month," until his arrest in October 2015.

The Poxabogue Golf Center is a public course owned by the Town of Southampton, which contracts for its management. It was closed temporarily following Mr. Lee's arrest.

The defense did not dispute that Mr. Lee took the photograph of the girl, who was seated on a bench outside his office, and kept it on his cellphone. James O'Shea, one of Mr. Lee's two attorneys, told the jury that Mr. Lee's taking the photograph was "distasteful, stupid, but not illegal," as she was seated in a public place.

The girl was waiting for her parents to finish a golf game on the nine-hole course. The photograph shows her with legs spread and one foot up on the bench, revealing her underwear.

The town's handling of the investigation, however, was an issue for the defense.

On Thursday, Mr. Cortes called five witnesses, including Howard Matheson, who was employed at Poxabogue at the time of the incident. He told the jury that Mr. Lee, who was his manager, had shown him the photograph on the cellphone shortly after taking it, and that the photograph bothered and disgusted him.

A couple of days after being shown the image, Mr. Matheson called then-Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst to complain. She was not in, so he left a message with a secretary. Two more days went by, and he discovered a recorded message from Ms. Throne-Holst on his phone. "We are well aware of it, and things will be taken care of," she said, according to Mr. Matheson. He later deleted the message.

This, apparently, was weeks before police began an active investigation. It appeared from the testimony that Mr. Matheson was the first Poxabogue employee to be interviewed by police, on Sept. 30, 2015, nearly two months after he had contacted the town supervisor.

Mr. Matheson said he had not called police after being shown the photo. Neither had another Poxabogue employee who took the stand, John Haining, who was an assistant golf pro there. Mr. Haining said during cross-examination by Patrick O'Connell, the other attorney representing Mr. Lee, that Mr. Lee had called the photo "a view from my office." He said Mr. Lee "was laughing about it. We said he should delete it. It is not a good picture."

Mr. Lee was arrested on Oct. 21, 2015.

Also testifying was one of the supervising police officers who handled the case, Sgt. William Kiernan, who read to the jury Mr. Lee's statement to police. "A girl was sitting outside my office. I saw a girl with her legs spread," Mr. Lee is quoted as saying. "I did it kidding around. It was more of a joke than anything."

The trial is scheduled to resume on Monday in the courtroom of New York State Supreme Court Justice John J. Toomey before a jury of six men and six women.

Update, 1:30 p.m.: The East Hampton Fire Department stopped a fire from spreading throughout an industrial building Tuesday morning. Chief Ken Wessberg said the fire started while work was being done on trucks inside one of the bays in a large pole barn at 10 Washington Avenue just before 9 a.m.

According to the chief, firefighters contained the fire to just two bays occupied by a landscaping company owned by Richard Swanson. Oscar's Rock and Dirt, an excavating company, and an electrical company occupy the other bays of the building, Chief Wessberg said. The building is owned by John DiSunno of Amagansett. 

"It was a great knockdown by my guys," the chief said Tuesday afternoon after turning the investigation over to the East Hampton Town fire marshal's office. "Unfortunately, the guy lost all of his equipment," including lawn mowers, rototillers, and the like. 

The State Department of Environmental Conservation was also called in to oversee the cleanup of fertilizer. 

Originally, 9:16 a.m.: A fire broke out in a commercial building at 10 Washington Avenue, off Springs-Fireplace Road in East Hampton, on Tuesday morning. Emergency 911 dispatchers received several calls from people reporting black smoke pouring out of the building at around 8:50 a.m. 

East Hampton Fire Department personnel on scene confirmed that there was a fire in the building. It was not immediately clear which business occupies that building. Oscar's Rock and Dirt, an excavation company, uses that address, according to a Google search. East Hampton Fire Chief Kenny Wessberg called for the town's hazardous-materials team to respond at 9:17 a.m. 

Earlier, chiefs called for backup from the Amagansett Fire Department's rapid intervention team, which stands by in case firefighters who go into the building need to be rescued. The Springs Fire Department was asked to stand by at East Hampton's firehouse in case there are any more calls. 

The East Hampton Town fire marshal's office was called to investigate the cause. 

Check back for updates as they become available.