The Maidstone Club has withdrawn an application to the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals for permits and variances to construct a 352-foot-long concrete bridge spanning a small section of Hook Pond north of Dunemere Lane.

A hearing on the application began in October, with representatives of the private club arguing that the shared use by motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians, golfers, and caddies of the section of Dunemere Lane that is a bridge over the pond, was dangerous, particularly during the summer. The new bridge was to be parallel to the existing one and approximately 140 feet north of it. The bridge would have connected the club’s second tee to its fairway across the pond, and be restricted to use by club members. Construction would have required 42 wood pilings driven a minimum of 11 feet below the pond’s surface. The project also would have required design review board approval.

The application galvanized members of the Ladies Village Improvement Society and other residents, many of whom wrote to the board opposing it, citing preservation of the view and potential harm to the pond’s water quality and wildlife habitat. Several Z.B.A. members had been skeptical of the need for a second bridge, and asked that the feasibility of widening the Dunemere Lane bridge be explored. Club officials called that unrealistic.

In a Jan. 18 letter to Pam Bennett, the village’s deputy clerk, David Dubin, an attorney representing the club, asked that the application be withdrawn “in order to fully address certain concerns.” The club “remains resolute in its efforts to address the significant safety issues existing at Dunemere bridge,” he wrote, “and is committed to working with the village in this regard.”

The hearing on the application took place at two October meetings. Scheduled to be continued on Dec. 9, the hearing was postponed at the club’s request but was to resume at tomorrow’s meeting.

Two separate groups of teenagers, 15 youths altogether, were arrested on Monday and charged with trespassing in the old Camp Hero radar tower at Montauk Point. “Must be something on social media,” one East Hampton Town police officer said later that day.

The first call was received at 8:37 a.m. from a state parks employee, who saw four boys and a girl coming out of the building and gave the police dispatcher a description of their car. An officer spotted it, headed west, on Amagansett Main Street shortly after 10 and pulled it over.

The parks worker was taken to the scene and identified the five. An officer explained to them that they would be charged with trespassing as a violation, which he said was the equivalent of a traffic ticket. A driver who happened by as they were waiting, handcuffed, to be taken to the station, overheard them laughing and joking about the incident. “I saw the bluffs. Whatever happens now, happens,” one of the boys said.

The five, all aged 18 or 19, drove here from Hicksville, according to the report.

At a little before 4 p.m. another call was received, and police rounded up 10 more teens at the tower, this time from Southampton, aged 16 to 18. Like the first group, they were released after being ticketed, and will be arraigned in East Hampton Town Justice Court at a future date.

The tower has long been a lure for thrill-seeking teenagers. Built during World War II, it is part of a much larger complex, with underground bunkers and concrete buildings still standing. Legend has it that it was part of a top-secret research program, “The Montauk Project,” rumored to include time travel.

All openings to the tower save an air vent are now sealed, but youths manage to slip through a hole in the chain-link fence and sneak in through the vent. The stairs inside are rotting away, and copper and asbestos debris is scattered about, locals say, but the climbers are undeterred.

A letter from the 10-year-old son of two accomplished actors was not enough to persuade the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals to grant variances to legalize a treehouse, playing court, and swing set when it met on Friday. While the board often deals with minuscule variance requests, this application may have been a first.

Peter Hermann and Mariska Hargitay, who met on the television series “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” seek variances at Cottage Avenue to allow the structures, as well as a slate walkway, which fall within required side and rear-yard setbacks. Mr. Hermann and Ms. Hargitay, who is the daughter of the late actress Jayne Mansfield, also seek a variance to allow an accessory building to have 63 square feet of floor area above the maximum permitted by the zoning code.

“I don’t know if this is a game-changer,” Richard Hammer, the couple’s attorney, said, presenting a letter from August Hermann, their son, which he read aloud. “ ‘Dear Mr. Newbold, I promise to play basketball really, really quietly.’ ” “That’s the best evidence I’ve seen in a long time,” Craig Humphrey, a board member, said to laughter. Nonetheless, with the exception of the slate walkway, the board seemed adamant that the structures comply with the code.

 Presenting the case for the swing set, Mr. Hammer said it was planned within the side-yard setback to allow a clear view from the house’s kitchen. However, Frank Newbold, the board’s chairman, said moving it 12 feet to a conforming location would put it closer to the kitchen with nothing to obscure it. “Swing sets do create noise,” he said, adding that moving it “would still respect the neighbors’ privacy.”

As for the treehouse, there are few trees on the property that could accommodate it, Mr. Hammer said, adding that neither the applicant nor the contractor was likely to have known it would be subject to the code. Lys Marigold, the board’s vice chairwoman, was skeptical. “They came in 2013 to get permission for trellises and walkways. After they did that, they built this huge treehouse, and they never thought they needed to come to the Building Department or anything?”

The treehouse roof also appears to be higher than the 14-foot limit for accessory structures, Mr. Newbold said. Further, it is just 7.2 feet from the property line, beyond which there is an occupied apartment. “As often happens in these old neighborhoods, there’s a pre-existing structure next door with a full-time family in residence,” he said, “and now they have this structure seven feet away.” He called the variance requests substantial and said there was a suitable tree in a conforming location for the treehouse.

The playing court, which includes a basketball hoop and backboard, drew similar objections as well as criticism from the board, as it was depicted on a 2004 survey but missing from a 2012 survey, when the certificate of occupancy was updated, two years after the present owners purchased the property. No permit was ever issued to install the court, nor is it mentioned in any certificate of occupancy. In the cement at the court’s perimeter, the date June 2015 is inscribed in what appears to be a child’s handwriting. The court, board members suggested, was installed illegally, removed, and then, following an inspection by the Building Department, reinstalled both larger and closer to the property line.

Mr. Newbold said there were conforming locations where the court could be situated. “Again, the concern is the proximity to the neighbor,” he said, referring to the couple who live in the apartment and their children.

The hearing was closed, but not before Ms. Marigold noted another potential problem. She said there were two beds visible in an accessory building although its certificate of occupancy explicitly prohibits sleeping or dwelling in it. “Remind your clients of what’s in their C. of O.,” she told Mr. Hammer.

Four determinations also were announced at the meeting. The board granted the Incorporated Village of East Hampton a permit and variances to allow the building known as the mill cottage on the Lion Gardiner home lot at 36 James Lane to be restored and converted into a museum for 19th and early 20th-century paintings of East Hampton. Additions are to be removed so that the building will have an 1880s appearance and a well house will be replaced for the same reason. Four gravel parking spaces will be installed where an addition to the cottage will be demolished.

In other decisions, Michael Eisner, the former chief executive officer of the Walt Disney Company, was granted variances for an addition on a house at 97 Main Street that will result in its having 6,530 square feet of floor area, where the pre-existing nonconforming floor area is 5,916 square feet and the maximum permitted under code is 5,712 square feet. The board also granted variances to allow alterations and legalize patios, a slate walkway, and a garbage bin, all within required setbacks.

The board granted Peter Mirijanian and Irina Petrossian of 5 Collins Avenue variances to legalize existing lot coverage of 2,520 square feet, where 1,907 square feet is the maximum. In addition they were granted permission for 46 square feet of floor area in an accessory building, which is above the code, and to legalize the conversion of a nonconforming garage to a pool house within required setbacks that is larger than the maximum 250 square feet allowed and that has an indoor shower, which is prohibited.

Variances were also granted to legalize a slate patio, a shed, a concrete patio, and pool equipment within required setbacks. The application was approved on the conditions that a stove and bathtub be removed from an accessory building and no heat or other bathroom facility be installed.

J3-Sea, a limited liability corporation registered in North Carolina, was granted a variance to legalize 2,175 square feet of lot coverage where the maximum on the pre-existing nonconforming lot at 28 Dayton Lane is 1,953 square feet. The applicant also received variances to legalize an entry step within the front-yard setback and an outdoor shower within the rear-yard lot line.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that almost everyone on the East End knows Eddie Ecker, but now those from other parts of Long Island who flock to Montauk for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade will get to know him too. One of Montauk’s favorite sons, he will lead the 55th annual Montauk Friends of Erin parade as grand marshal on March 26.

“I’m a history guy and I love tradition and to be a part of this tradition is an honor,” Mr. Ecker said this week.

A Montauk native, Mr. Ecker was a member of the East Hampton Town Police Department for 32 years, rising through the ranks before retiring as the police chief in 2013. He is such a well-liked member of the community that the phrase “I Know Eddie Ecker” began appearing on bumper stickers 10 years ago, thanks to Gordon Ryan, a Montauk attorney, who heard that people would say that to try and get out of a ticket when stopped by local police.

While Mr. Ecker joins a long list of people he respects and admires — “People who really love Montauk,” he said — it is “extra special” to be following in his parents’ footsteps.  His late father, Edward V. Ecker Sr., a former town supervisor, was the grand marshal in 1984, and his mother, Mary Frances Ecker, then 80, led the parade in 2009, waving to paradegoers from Mickey Valcich’s yellow Corvette.

“One of the common threads here is that all these people, there’s a real tie and love for the Montauk community,” he said.

Mr. Ecker graduated from the Montauk School in 1968 and from East Hampton High School in 1972. A year later, he enlisted in the Navy. After completing submarine school, he was stationed aboard the nuclear-powered submarine Hawkbill, which was based in various places, including San Diego, Bremerton in Washington State, and Pearl Harbor.

In 1976, he and his wife, Roxanne, moved back to Montauk. He joined the Police Department after working for Suffolk County as a child-support investigator and a youth worker.

Mr. Ecker has not missed a parade in many years, though he usually was there as a police officer and had to miss being a reveler. “I think I got off when my father was the grand marshal, but I worked when my mother was the grand marshal,” he said. Back when “Big Ed” led the parade in 1984, it was not as popular with visitors, he said, and the Police Department could spare an officer. Twenty-five years later, when his mother was picked, thousands more were in attendance. This year, nearly 25,000 people are expected, with thousands pouring in by train.

Since his retirement, Mr. Ecker has enjoyed being a parade participant. He has marched with the Montauk Fire Department, of which he is a 40-year member, and last year drove its ambulance.

As grand marshal, he will represent the Montauk Friends of Erin at other St. Patrick’s Day parades, including the one in Manhattan. Asked what he is looking forward to most about the parade season, he said he likes all the Montauk festivities and most enjoys the luncheon at Gurney’s on Friday afternoon at the start of the parade weekend.

“I don’t think I’ve missed a luncheon in many, many years. It’s always a nice group of local people getting together,” he said, adding that he always looks forward to the roast.

Soon after the announcement last week that Mr. Ecker would be grand marshal, he began receiving congratulatory calls, particularly from former grand marshals. They offered similar comments: “When you make that turn onto Main Street,” they said, “it’s really something to see. You can’t imagine looking down Main Street — it’s a tunnel of people.”

Although the date of the parade has been set, the starting time has not been officially announced. In recent years, the Friends of Erin has worked with the town and Metropolitan Transportation Authority police to pick a time based on the train schedule. Yesterday, Michael Sarlo, the East Hampton Town police chief, said he hoped the start would be before noon. Brian Matthews, the president of the Friends of Erin, said he believes it will step off at 11:30.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell announced on Friday that he would not seek a third term.

The announcement was made to members of the media who had been invited to join him at Goldberg’s Famous Bagels in East Hampton. Mr. Cantwell, a Democrat, said that after weighing his options over the holidays, he decided he wanted to spend more time with his family.

“I don’t have specific plans,” he said. “I’m not leaving this to do something new and exciting, other than to take time off and enjoy myself.”

Mr. Cantwell, who is 66, said that in his two terms as town supervisor he had put the public’s interest first and that his personal and private interests had “taken a backseat to that. I want my family’s interests and my interests to get in the driver’s seat.”

He said he had enjoyed every bit of what he has done as supervisor and planned to work hard for the remainder of his term, through December.  Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said Mr. Cantwell had told him of his decision last Thursday evening. “I am disappointed that he will not be seeking another term. Larry has done a terrific job as supervisor and the town is in great shape right now,” he said.

“Larry has been an extraordinary leader for East Hampton and I am sorry that he has decided not to run again,” Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, who was re-elected to a four-year term on the town board in 2015, wrote in an email on Friday afternoon. “I agree with Larry’s inclusive style of governing and feel fortunate to have served with him.” As for her own plans, “I will consult with others, including my family,” she said.

Among Mr. Cantwell’s priorities for the remainder of his term is to pass legislation that would help residents upgrade failing septic systems, which are polluting groundwater and harbors and bays, and “a specific plan to begin replacing cesspools.”

He wants to press the Army Corps of Engineers on its Montauk beach-replenishment project. He said the next steps would include a maintenance plan prepared by the town. “We’ll see whether or not they will listen to the town and other residents in Montauk about what the best option would be going forward,” he said.

Regarding East Hampton Airport, Mr. Cantwell said the town had acted with good faith and worked diligently to put noise restrictions in place. “That approach was taken to keep the airport open, by the way, not to close the airport.” In November, however, the federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan barred the town from enforcing three 2015 laws aimed at addressing excessive aircraft noise, siding with an aviation group called Friends of East Hampton Airport.

“Frankly,” Mr. Cantwell said Friday, “that has taken some of the tools we thought we had the power to enact away from us.” One approach the town could take, he said, was to persuade the aviation industry to enact voluntary restrictions. Another was federal legislation hat would grant the town the right to enact local restrictions. “We’re going to pursue that by working with our U.S. Senators and our U.S. Congress,” the supervisor said. The town has hired a lawyer to petition the Supreme Court to hear its appeal.

  In his final year as supervisor, Mr. Cantwell said he would continue to press the state and the Long Island Power Authority to approve offshore wind farms. Concern about the environmental impacts posed by the construction and operation of offshore wind farms is “overstated,” he suggested, but he hopes to get Deepwater Wind, the company that hopes to build a wind farm 30 miles from Montauk, to meet with fishermen and discuss it.

He said that, if anything, the election of Donald J. Trump as president would have motivated him to stay on.

Mr. Cantwell feels good, he said, about having established a constructive dialogue on the town board and between it and the public, “something that was especially needed after the prior town boards.” The board has been focused on problems, “as opposed to political gamesmanship,” he said, “and as a result the public is more engaged, I think, in helping us make some of the decisions. You could argue with decisions that we’ve made, but I think you’d be hard pressed to argue that we haven’t set a tone of cooperation.”

Mr. Cantwell said he had spoken with other board members regarding a successor, perhaps one of their number. “They’re elected, they have a track record, and they have some experience. And I think any one of the three current Democrats on the board would all make a good supervisor,” he said of Mr. Van Scoyoc, Ms. Overby, and Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, who said later on Friday that she would not be interested in the position. The town supervisor’s post is a two-year term.

Councilman Fred Overton, an Independent, whose term is coming to a close, has said he will not seek re-election.

Mr. Cantwell was elected to his second term as supervisor in November 2015 by a wide margin over Tom Knobel, the Republican candidate. That year’s race was notable as the most expensive ever in East Hampton Town, as hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent by aviation interests to attack the Democratic candidates, who favored the airport restrictions.

Reg Cornelia, chairman of the East Hampton Republican Committee, said that Mr. Cantwell’s announcement presents an opportunity for his party. “I was surprised,” he said on Tuesday. “I thought Larry had his teeth into it and was going to keep going. It certainly opens doors for us, assuming I can come up with a candidate.”

Mr. Cantwell ran unopposed in 2013. He “would have been extremely hard to beat, as he proved in the last election,” Mr. Cornelia said. “I think he’s done some things right and some things wrong. But it definitely shakes things up a bit.” The Republicans were to hold their monthly meeting last night, but screening of candidates for office has yet to be scheduled. “We’re really just beginning,” Mr. Cornelia said.

“Larry’s done a great job, and I’m glad he’s giving us another year,” Jeanne Frankl, chairwoman of the East Hampton Democrats, wrote in an email,  “particularly this important one, when we have a chance to build consensus and move forward with challenging priorities like water protection, sustainability, erosion control, and affordable housing, to mention a few. After that, I hope he’ll be a wise counselor to his admirers in the community.”

_____

With Reporting by David E. Rattray

Early in the fall, when fourth graders at the Springs School were brainstorming ideas for their annual opera, which they would conceive, write, and ultimately perform next week, they had to look no farther than the end of School Street.

There, students were watching and learning from an ambitious East Hampton Town project to restore Pussy’s Pond, enhance its ecosystems, and establish a small park on its shores. “They found that material engaging enough, that in their extra time, it was just kind of on their minds,” said Meghan Lydon, the fifth-grade teacher who is coordinating the opera program for the first time this year.

The project became the inspiration for “Beyond the Duck Pond,” which the 75 Watch Us Live Opera Company will open on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Guild Hall, with additional shows next Thursday at 9:30 and 11 a.m. and Friday, Jan. 27, at 9 a.m.

The story, explained Lily Griffin, a student stagehand, “is about these two students who go through a portal into future Springs.” There, they warn the people they meet that some of their habits, like feeding bread to the ducks at Pussy’s Pond, are unhealthy, both for the ducks and for the pond.

“This actually teaches a lesson to the kids in the younger grades,” said Janpol Munzon, a performer who plays Mr. Quackers, the owner of a big bread company whose last name made him the target of childhood bullying and led to a lifelong resentment of ducks. “It starts in the present, goes into the future, and then back to the present.”

Working after school with a team of teachers and other adults, students developed the story, wrote the songs and script, created the costumes, sets, and makeup design, and even handled public relations. There are 20 or so performers, and over 50 more who do all the hard work it takes to mount a full-scale production.

This is the 20th year that the school’s fourth graders have presented an original “opera” — actually more of a straight-up musical that had its roots two decades ago in the Metropolitan Opera’s Creating Original Opera program for schools. The performance has become a cornerstone of the fourth-grade experience at Springs. This year, every one of the 75 or so fourth graders (the number has fluctuated since the school year began) has a part to play in the production, ­Continued from A1

be it onstage or behind the scenes.

“We told them all the responsibilities of the different positions in the production,” Ms. Lydon explained. “Everyone picked their top three choices, and everyone got one of their top two choices.”

James Moret, a stagehand, thinks he would like to have that job in another production some day; he likes being able to go on stage during scene changes and see the audience while they cannot see him.

“In this show, there is an emphasis on more child-created content, getting more students involved in costume and makeup,” said Angelina Modica, a music teacher who is the production’s musical director. Being involved in so many aspects of the show “gives them so much more ownership of it,” she said. “They really care about it.” 

“A lot of these kids have never been on stage before,” said Ashley Dellapolla, a third-grade teacher who shares directing responsibilities with Amanda Waleko, a second-grade teacher. “They’ve never felt what it’s like to perform.”

“They’ve taken the initiative to learn their lines, learn the lyrics. They really come focused and prepared,” Ms. Waleko said.

“They’re bringing everything they’ve got to it,” Ms. Lydon said.

“This is our moment,” said Angie Guaman, who plays one of four ducks and also helps out with public relations.

The company began rehearsals in November and started working on the Guild Hall stage last week. In the hallway outside the theater on Tuesday, Angie and her fellow ducks — Aileen Jimenez, Alejandra Jimenez, and Amanda Barros — practiced their big number, a cha-cha, for a visitor. All four like to sing and dance, but Amanda said she “wasn’t planning to be a performer” at first — “I got nervous, but I wanted to help the dancers,” she said — but she had experience from classes she had taken at Dancehampton. In the end, she was bitten by the performance bug, but she also enjoys her other job working with the costume team.

Asked what was the most fun about the production, Aileen said, “There’s a lot to choose from, but I think it’s when everyone gets together and sings ‘Beyond the Duck Pond.’ ”

“When you act, you’ve got to bring the character to life, and it makes me happy because ever since I was little, I always used to sing for my family,” Alejandra said. “It makes me think, ‘When I grow up, should I be a singer?’ ”

“I became a performer because it sounded interesting. . . . And I wanted to make my mom proud,” Janpol said. He has a solo that will surely do that.

All told, there are 12 or 13 songs in the production, some for just a few performers and several for the full cast. Caleigh Barletta, who helped compose songs and plays a talking dog named Spot, said she liked one called “Welcome to My Wonderful Town” because she got to be onstage with her twin sister. Her favorite is “Pollution Solution,” a rap.

Kyril Bromley, who has worked with the opera for most of its years, composed the arrangements and plays piano for the production. John Gibbons, another Springs music teacher, plays guitar. Alex de Havenon, a Springs art teacher, and Lisa Weston, an artist, headed up the student team of set designers, and Tracy Larkin, a family and consumer sciences teacher, oversaw costume and makeup design.

Sue Ellen O’Connor, who was in charge of the program from its inception, no longer teaches at the school, and Colleen McGowan, an art teacher who worked in tandem with her, is not directly involved this year.

“I think we tried to stay with the heart of the program that was established,” Ms. Modica said.

“We’ve developed a really great team,” Ms. Dellapolla said.

“We try to keep everything as student-driven as we can,” Ms. Lydon said. Even though the work is done outside the classroom, the “project-based learning experience . . . does kind of mirror what they do in school.”

“It’s a special moment that every child should have in their life at some point,” Ms. Dellapolla said. Since September, she has watched the fourth graders grow into their roles as writers, performers, and crew members. “It’s been pretty great to see that change and that dynamic. It’s why I became a teacher in the first place — to make a change and create a great experience for the kids.”

As the Montauk School secretary in the 1980s, Fran Ecker noticed that some students lacked a proper lunch. With two other women, Ines Fox and Shelley Engstrom, she decided to help families in need of extra food and established the Montauk Community Food Pantry in 1984.

It is among seven programs in every hamlet from Bridgehampton to Montauk, each providing food to hundreds of local residents.

Ms. Ecker, who still holds the post of secretary with the food pantry volunteer group, raised the money initially needed for the pantry by selling chances on afghan blankets she hand-knit herself. “She is really a very inspirational woman,” said Alice Houseknecht, who has volunteered for over a dozen years and more recently stepped up to oversee the food pantry and its group of about 30 “wonderful volunteers.”

It is still thriving, distributing food to Montauk residents monthly from November through April on the third Tuesday of the month from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

It was housed at first at the Montauk Community Church, but now St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church provides space in its parish center on South Essex Street.

For those who cannot come to the church for pickup, Ms. Houseknecht will deliver. And, she said, “emergency food is always available.”

Approximately 345 people a month come in and receive five bags of nonperishable groceries, plus some frozen goods, enough for about seven meals per person. Preregistration is not required, but proof of residency is.

The Montauk group also steps in to help with other needs. “Every so often I’ll get a call from a family that’s just come into town,” and is staying with a relative or a friend, Ms. Houseknecht said. “In those situations we have been sort of a lifeline for them.” Volunteers will meet the family at the food pantry and give them not only things to eat but also clothing, contributions to help cover necessities like rent, or help with transportation.

Like other local food pantries, Montauk receives some food items from Long Island Cares, a regional distributor whose mission is to address hunger across Long Island, and also gets what is collected by local organizations through food drives.

But about 90 percent of the items given out in Montauk are purchased by the food pantry, which gets support from “everyone,” Ms. Houseknecht said, from individual contributors, to civic groups, to businesses, and volunteers. While the pantry is independent from the church, St. Therese parishioners offer help to pantry clients, collecting Christmas gifts, for instance. The children in religious education classes have made birthday celebration kits to be given out to pantry clients: empty cake boxes filled with cake mix and frosting, birthday candles, handmade cards, and small gifts.

Recently, through the work of another helpful volunteer, a pantry website went live at montaukfoodpantry.org.

An emphasis on good nutrition at the Springs Food Pantry includes a visit from a bilingual nutritionist once a month, and the distribution of fresh produce, milk, and eggs.

The pantry was established in 1994 as a mission of the Springs Presbyterian Church, where it is housed. It is open on Wednesdays from 4 to 6 p.m., year round — and has been open, without interruption, for every week of the year for 22 years now, said Pamela Bicket, a volunteer board member.

The “recipients,” as Ms. Bicket calls some 95 families that visit to pick up food, are about 75 percent Latino, “the vast majority from Ecuador.”

 Of the others, she said, a number are longtime locals, often with families that go back generations in Springs. All residents in need within the Springs School District are eligible.

At the pantry, they fill up their own bags with enough groceries for three or four family meals. In December, 1,156 people were served.

The pantry sent out a survey several years ago to determine the recipients’ food preferences. “We were offering traditional American foods for lunch,” such as macaroni and cheese or chicken noodle soup, Ms. Bicket said. Instead, they learned that beans, dried or canned, were considered a staple — pinto beans or kidney beans in particular — and that hot oatmeal was popular with Latino families, even in the summer. Canned soup was not favored.

Marta Blanco, who visits regularly from the Cornell Cooperative Extension Service to discuss healthy eating, has been working with families on “improving nutrition and making better choices.” More families are choosing brown rice, for instance, over white, and will take home the venison donated to the pantry by hunters, Ms. Bicket said.

The food pantry spends between $55,000 and $60,000 a year, Ms. Bicket said, and gets “a good bit of support from our local businesses.” It is able to purchase food at low cost from Long Island Cares and also receives contributions through other distribution programs.

The East Hampton Food Pantry distributes food at two sites: from a temporary home base at the Hampton Country Day Camp on Buckskill Road in East Hampton, after losing its longtime home at the Windmill Village apartment complex, on Tuesdays from 1 to 6 p.m., and, in winter, at the St. Michael’s senior citizens housing complex in Amagansett. The satellite opened last week, and its hours are from 4 to 6 p.m., also on Tuesday.

Those who request assistance are asked to fill out a registration form, in person or online, and must provide proof that they live in the Town of East Hampton. As at other pantries, there is no income check or other proof required.

Vicki Littman, the chairwoman of the East Hampton Food Pantry, said that the number of people who need food always increases between November and May, when work here can be scarce. In December, approximately 260 families a week visited the food pantry she oversees. A bag of groceries, depending on the size of the family, will provide meals for two or three days, and includes produce, fruit, milk, and eggs. “When we can afford it, we give them meat,” Ms. Littman said.

The cost of food is about $3,000 a week during the winter. The number of visitors drops during summer months, but still, 100 families a week seek assistance.

“There really is a hidden face here,” Ms. Littman said. “It’s hard to live in such an expensive community.” Those in need include senior citizens on fixed incomes, and the underemployed. With enough food in hand for a few days, people can use their money to pay a bill instead, Ms. Littman said.

Sag Harborites in need can receive food for at least nine meals each week at the Old Whalers Church on Tuesdays from 10:30 a.m. to noon. The Sag Harbor Food Pantry, founded in 1987 and open year round, serves about 100 families weekly, Evelyn Ramunno, its director, said. An annual appeal and other fund-raisers help bring in the money to pay the weekly bill for groceries, about $1,200, she said.

Ms. Ramunno said she will continue volunteering “as long as the need is there.” There are many longtime helpers, and “it’s a social thing as well as hard work.” The volunteer pool includes a couple of people who came in when they needed food but now, doing better, “they began helping because they wanted to pay back a bit,” Ms. Ramunno said.

As in Springs, the Bridgehampton Food Pantry offers “client choice” of foods to pack for home all year long, “because of the ethnic diversity of our clientele,” which includes both migrant workers and Latino families, said Tom White, the director. The pantry operates out of the Bridgehampton Community House on Wednesdays from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. There are a few homeless people who rely on the pantry for food. “We do have some people living out in the woods,” he said.

The food pantry volunteers deliver a number of food bags to the senior citizens nutrition center in Bridgehampton, where individuals pick them up.

Mr. White, whose late mother, Elizabeth White, founded the food pantry in the late 1970s along with Gloria Harris, another Bridgehampton resident, said he is reaching out to local community gardens and farm stands to solicit donations of more fresh food, and that he hopes to be able to add evening hours to the schedule.

Serving residents of the Bridgehampton and Sagaponack area, the Bridgehampton pantry usually sees 38 to 50 clients a week in winter; just before Christmas, 87 people came in for food, Mr. White said.

For residents of Wainscott, there is a food pantry at the Living Water Full Gospel Church that is open two days a week: Wednesdays from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., and Fridays from 10 a.m. to noon.

In a stirring conclusion of a celebration at Calvary Baptist Church in East Hampton marking the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin King Jr. on Monday, those in the sanctuary stood hand in hand in a circle to sing “We Shall Overcome.” The keynote address was presented by Gregory Parks, an East Hampton native who is an assistant professor of law at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, and the program included a reading of Scripture, a song of praise by members of the Iglesia Cristiana Church, a poem, “Martin’s Message,” read by Regina Astor, and hymns by the church choir.

Dr. Parks, the author of 10 books as well as a host of scholarly articles, graduated from East Hampton High School, attended Howard University, and received a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Kentucky before earning a law degree from Cornell University.

Before launching into his talk, Dr. Parks acknowledged the many members of the audience who were hometown friends, former teachers, and family members. He noted that his father, Leon Parks, had been an East Hampton school administrator and his mother, Queen Davis-Parks, a longtime teacher at the John M. Marshall Elementary School here.

The last time he had been in Calvary Baptist Church, he said, was for his mother’s funeral — which would have given him pause had he stopped to think about it. Instead, it seemed fitting to deliver a speech inspired by his mother, originally intended for an audience at the Villanova University School of Law, which was canceled twice due to snow. “God works in mysterious ways,” he said.

In wide-ranging comments, Dr. Parks quoted writers, musicians, religious figures, and others of note, from John Coltrane to Lil’ Wayne, Elizabeth Gilbert, James Baldwin, and the Beatles, not to mention the Bible and Martin Luther King Jr. He discussed the need to counteract reflexive attitudes — racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and so on — by the power of love.

“In this life we’re called upon not just to make a living, but to make a difference,” Dr. Parks said. Religious doctrines and texts, from the Talmud to the Koran and the Bible, promote caring for others, social welfare, and justice, he said.

“Dr. King promoted a Christian doctrine of loving not only God but one another as well,” Dr. Parks said. “It’s no surprise,” that Cornel West, a contemporary black American leader, “tells us that ‘you can’t lead the people if you don’t love the people; you can’t save the people if you don’t serve the people. . . ,’ ” he said. “I urge you to uplift our brothers and sisters in humanity. . . . We must embrace love as a verb, a transformative force.”

A nationwide problem, Dr. Parks said, is that “marginalized groups have been taught not to love who and what they are.” Majority groups, on the other hand, have at times been taught “a false sense of greatness . . . a false love.”

“Self-love is influenced by outside factors,” he said, citing a 1940s study known as “the doll test,” which surveyed children’s racial perceptions. When asked which of several dolls of different races they preferred, African-American children chose white dolls most often. The study concluded that “prejudice, discrimination, and segregation” created a feeling of inferiority and damaged the self-esteem of African-American children. Its results were used to bolster the Brown v. Board of Education decision against segregated schools.

This dynamic persists even in what’s often now described as a “post-racial” world, Dr. Parks said, adding that a lack of awareness accompanies insidious discrimination. “That’s why a white person can want to build a wall to keep immigrants out of a nation of immigrants, and honestly believe they’re not racist.”

“As a minority you must constantly find ways . . . to love who you are,” he told the audience. And, he said, members of majority groups must “reject that notion of supremacy and appreciate the beauty of those who are different.”

Dr. Parks also referred to “the tension involved in critiquing the United States.” Standing up against wrongdoing “is in its own way a sign of love for one’s country . . . a commitment to improving it,” he said. He invoked Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, and other African-Americans who were shot and killed by police, saying, “the list goes on.”

“In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith,” he said. “Criticism . . . is an act of patriotism.” Citizens “have an obligation to make a more perfect union” by highlighting the gaps between the Constitution and the nation’s realities. “It’s apparent that Dr. King relied on his idea of love to pursue justice for African Americans, and for disenfranchised people.”

Dr. Parks closed with a quote from Dr. King: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Addressing the audience, Dr. Parks said, “May these words undergird your work as people of God, citizens of your country, as family members.”

Dr. Parks’s talk was followed by remarks from community leaders, including Richard Burns, the East Hampton School District superintendent, Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, and Village Mayor Paul Rickenbach Jr. “East Hampton is an inclusive, not an exclusive community,” Mr. Rickenbach said.

“I can proudly say we are a multicultural Baptist church,” declared John Lewis, a church member who served as the event’s master of ceremonies.

Lucius Ware, the president of the eastern Long Island chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said, “Our work, as you all know, is certainly cut out for us as much or more than ever before.”

“We can’t get complacent,” Henry Haney, a church member, warned. “We all came here on different ships, but right now we’re all in the same boat.”

East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo, whose father was an East Hampton school administrator and who was Dr. Parks’s camp counselor when he was a teenager, said he had been taught by his family and by his kindergarten teacher, Carrie Gilbert, that “people are about what’s inside of people, not what’s outside of people.” Mrs. Gilbert, who was seated in the front of the church, spoke next.

 It was a “joy and a pleasure” to hear Dr. Parks, who had been one of her kindergarten students, she said. “Never underestimate children. Treat them all equally, praise them, inspire them,” she said, as the crowd applauded.

Every once in a while a bird shows up that takes the South Fork by storm. In the past, it’s been eagles, snowy owls, pelicans, Lapland longspurs, Ross’s gulls, puffins, painted buntings, and scissor-tail flycatchers, to name but a few. Birdwatchers come from all over the United States, even from as far west as California, to see some of those rare birds.

Another has shown up recently. This one stands up to four feet tall, has a long pointy bill and a red patch on the back of its head. Its wingspan can be six feet from tip to tip when fully extended. It soars like a vulture for hours on end and is often confused with herons and egrets. You probably guessed it: It is the sandhill crane, Grus Canadensis. “Grus” because of the growling trumpet-like calls it makes, “canadensis” because the majority of the migrating ones breed on the sand hill prairies of western and central Canada.

It is not the first one to be seen on the South Fork or the rest of Long Island. Several decades ago, one was spotted by a boy in Bridgehampton. Because he was a young, novice bird watcher, his sighting had to be confirmed by a senior bird watcher, one with more experience and authority.

That boy, Alex Van Boer, is now grown and married and does professionally what he used to do for fun: He works for Colorado’s Bird Conservancy. He is the son of the late landscape photographer and portraitist Diane Gorodnitzki. Diane was a longtime ecological contributor to various South Fork conservation groups including the Group for America’s South Fork (now Group for the East End) and the Peconic Land Trust. She died in 2010, a great loss to eastern Long Island, its pastoral fields, and its fauna and flora. His father, Kenton Van Boer, is an architect who practiced his art here, but now resides in Maine.

I don’t get around as much as I used to and I would never have heard about the crane if it were not for a call from Elizabeth Sarfaty, who in turn got a call from a friend who had seen it in Wainscott, south of Main Street, across from the Wainscott Chapel. Elizabeth then put Terry Sullivan on to it and Terry went down and took several photos. In documenting a rare bird, a photo is as valuable as a page-long description. Photos usually do not lie.

Sandhill cranes are not nearly as rare as their larger North American cousin, the gravely endangered whooping crane. There are more than 400,000 of the migratory ones that breed on the upper prairies of the western United State and Canada. Separate non-migratory subspecies can be found in Florida, coastal Mississippi, and Cuba. By far the rarest of the three are those in Cuba, which number about 300 at last count.

Unlike herons and egrets, they don’t fly with their neck crooked, but with their necks straight out ahead and legs straight out behind. They walk or run in the matter of the flightless ratites — ostriches, emus, and such. The migratory ones are mostly herbivorous, stopping to feed in the grain fields of the Southwest, including California, but other populations have more cosmopolitan tastes, even taking mice, frogs, and lizards.

They in turn are prey for a variety of carnivores, including bobcats, mountain lions, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, and even eagles and the larger hawks. Adults defend themselves by running or remaining and fighting, striking with their sharp beaks or kicking with their long sturdy legs in the manner of roosters.

Courtship consists of male and female standing close to each other, facing each other, and making those growling bugle calls back and forth, the male uttering one, the female two back during each round. Hmm, not so different from Homo sapiens couples’ exchange of calls. Males share in the housekeeping with their mates, helping to construct and guard the nest, even sharing the incubation duties. The female lays mostly two-egg clutches. The young, after fledging, stay with their parents until the next brood, after which they hang around in teenage gangs. 

Migratory sandhill cranes all occupy eastern Siberia. When they are migrating, cranes mostly ride with the wind and on uplifting currents the way vultures do. These cranes have a very well described fossil record, with ones in North America almost identical to contemporary ones and those dating back two million years or more. No variation of a human has been around that long, so maybe we can learn something from a bipedal bird that is almost as tall as we are, is as monogamous as many of us are, and has a much longer earthly existence.

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

Clean water, both to drink and in ponds and bays, is high on the 2017 agenda for local and state lawmakers.

As East Hampton officials work on a plan to offer property owners in key sensitive areas an incentive to upgrade the substandard septic systems that contribute to nitrogen pollution, New York State Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has announced the Clean Water Infrastructure Act of 2017, a plan to invest $2 billion in water projects across the state, and Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. has separately introduced legislation that would place a $5 billion bond act referendum on the ballot in November, with $4 billion to be earmarked for water quality improvement projects, and $1 billion for open space preservation.

The governor’s plan would provide capital funds to upgrade municipal drinking water and wastewater systems, and to protect surface and drinking water through efforts such as open space conservation, wetland protection, and the containment of contaminated road runoff. The state Superfund would also be increased to expedite the cleanup of hazardous waste sites in order to protect drinking water.

Last year, the governor launched a “water quality rapid response team” to identify and address drinking water quality issues, and in September, he signed legislation that requires school districts to test for lead in drinking water.

“There is no place in the state that will benefit more than Long Island from this funding,” Assemblyman Thiele said in a press release regarding the state funding. “We are surrounded by water and draw our drinking water from under our feet. With the development of the Long Island Nitrogen Action Plan (LINAP), the development of new technology from the New York State Center for Clean Water Technology at Stony Brook, and the recent approval of water quality funding as part of the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund, eastern Long Island is well positioned to take full advantage of state water quality capital funds.”

Assemblyman Thiele said that his proposed state bond act would make money available for “green infrastructure” that will safeguard water and bolster jobs and the economy. 

“Many industries, including tourism, fishing, and agriculture depend on clean water. We will never reverse the continued degradation of our water resources without a major influx of capital funding to address our crumbling green infrastructure,” he said in a press release last week.

He expects New York voters will support his proposed bond act to finance environmental initiatives, as they have approved seven similar referendums since 1960. The last was the 1996 Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act fostered by then-governor George Pataki.

“ I am hopeful that this idea will get serious consideration during the 2017 [legislative] session,” he said.