Proposed changes to the East Hampton Town building code will be the subject of hearings before the town board at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall next Thursday. It is the second time revisions will be aired, after comments at an earlier hearing prompted some revisions.

A major change in the law calculating the size of houses according to their lot size sets the maxiumum gross floor area at 10 percent of the lot plus 1,600 square feet. In a resolution, the change is said to be intended “to preserve the town’s rural and historic character.”  An existing provision that also limited gross floor area to 20,000 square feet regardless of the size of a property would remain in place.

Provisions enacted in 2008 limited house sizes to 12 percent of lot size, plus 1,600 square feet, along with a maximum of 20,000 square feet, whichever was less. Restricting the construction of “monster homes” said to “threaten the character of the community” had been recommended in the town’s 2005 update of its comprehensive plan. “Regulating the residential gross floor area according to lot size would help to assure that new construction is more compatible with the scale and character of existing development,” the comprehensive plan says.

 The current town board “feels that large homes have continued to threaten the character of the community,” according to the resolution to be considered next week.

The second draft of the gross floor area regulation, written after questions were raised at a November hearing by people who had already begun house construction, will contain a grandfathering provision, as will other revised building codes.

Those who, as of Dec. 15, have a valid building permit, an application before or an approval from the planning board, zoning board, or architectural review board, or who have applied for a building permit that requires no other town approvals would be exempt from new restrictions, should they be approved.

Other laws to be heard again next week with the grandfathering provision added include a revised definition of cellar, prohibiting them from extending more than 10 percent beyond the foundation walls of a building’s first floor and restricting their ceiling height; an amended definition of the way coverage is calculated, to address raised buildings and overhangs, and a revised definition of the way gross floor area is calculated.

Cellars, attics, or spaces with ceilings of less than five feet would be excluded from the calculation, but stairwells and interior spaces with a ceiling height of more than 15 feet would be counted twice toward gross floor area.

Under a revised draft of that regulation, modified based on comments at the previous public hearing, that provision would apply only in residential, and not commercial, buildings.

As we look toward a new year, it's also good to look back at all that happened in 2016. Perhaps it will be of little surprise that our most-read story of the year came just two weeks ago when a fire damaged several buildings on Main Street in Sag Harbor, including the iconic Sag Harbor Cinema.

In East Hampton, what captured our readers' attention thoughout most of the year was largely police news that we shared online, including several horrific accidents. But a few less distressing news items were reader favorites, too. Remember when Coldplay played the Talkhouse? Or that Showtime series "Billions"? 

So let's take a reflective look back at the 16 most-read stories of 2016, and here's to an even better 2017. To all of our readers, both online and in print, have a happy new year! 

Top 16 Stories of 2016

1. 'Catastrophic' Fire Devastates Sag Harbor Main Street Stores, Dec. 16

2. Southampton House Stars in New Showtime Series ‘Billions,' Jan. 10

3. Pre-Dawn Raid at Montauk's Malibu Motel Nets Three Arrests, Aug. 9 

4. Early Morning Accident Results in Injury, Arrest, Sept. 14 

5. Cops: 'Prince of Montauk' Was Driving High, June 21

6. Jack deLashmet, Garden Designer, Was 58, Feb. 2 

7. Cops: Drunken Driver Arrested, Passenger Seriously Injured in Springs Crash, Aug. 31

8. Alleged Drunken Driver Airlifted Off Maidstone Club Greens After Crash, July 2

9. Fatality in Montauk Traffic Accident, Oct. 18

10. Body Found at Rough Riders, Aug. 14

11. Town Charges 19 in Dawn Raid of Rented House, Sept. 2

12. Senior Pranks Spur Disciplinary Action at East Hampton High, May 27

13. Amagansett Manhunt Follows Robbery at Gunpoint in Montauk, Aug. 29

14. Thomas Gilbert Will Stand Trial, Aug. 18 

15. Coldplay Rocks Amagansett's Stephen Talkhouse, Aug. 8 

16. Bail Set at $11K for Former Bonac Football Star, July 2

The off-season may be quiet, but East Hampton Town officials, well aware that sun-seekers will return with the climbing roses as usual next summer and businesses will be back in full swing to serve them, are putting new teeth in existing laws to better control potential chaos, particularly in Montauk.

Taxicab company owners and individual cab drivers will have to be fingerprinted this year in order to obtain the required town taxicab licenses — a regulation that has been on the books but was not in force because the town had not yet set up a background check system.

Several cab company owners and drivers questioned aspects of the revised law at a town board meeting last week. While not disagreeing with the idea of a background check — he checks the references of his own employees — Mark Ripolone of Ditch Plains Taxi in Montauk said the procedure could make it difficult for him to add staff quickly, once the busy season hits in July. The fingerprinting regulation will not, he added, address problems caused by drivers who sublet cars from companies and who, he said, act aggressively in pursuing fares.

The fingerprinting requirement will be a hardship, both Mr. Ripolone and Ted Kopoulos, a taxicab driver, said.

Juan Munoz, another cab owner, said that fingerprinting could unfairly prevent drivers with previous convictions for drunken driving, but who are now just trying to make a living, from obtaining the needed town license. 

Also looking ahead, the town board last Thursday enacted a pilot program legalizing and governing outdoor dining on downtown Montauk sidewalks.

 A business committee appointed by town officials has worked to develop standards and restrictions, with an eye toward aesthetics and preventing crowding problems. Along with the Montauk Chamber of Commerce, the group proposed a pilot program to allow for outdoor dining, but only in the downtown area, for a limited time, and under certain conditions. A hearing on the draft law was held in June.

Restaurants must apply to the town fire marshal for a license to add tables in the sidewalk right of way, giving a description and sketch of the outdoor dining area, a certificate of insurance and indemnification, and a fee of $30 per seat. Restaurants will be allowed to move up to 20 percent of their approved indoor seating outside, though in no case more than 16 seats. They will not be allowed to have more tables or seats, in total, than they are already permitted under health and other regulations, and the tables may only be placed directly in front of the restaurant. The law requires that a sidewalk area of at least six feet remain clear and unobstructed.

The tables and chairs will have to be set out each day and removed from the sidewalk each evening before midnight. Umbrellas and lighting will be prohibited.

Other restrictions may be added by the fire marshal as deemed necessary. Outdoor dining licenses will be valid from May 1 until the third Monday in October each year.

The outdoor tables may be used for table service only, not for consumption of takeout or other foods not ordered from the restaurant’s menu.

The issue of seats for dining in takeout food shops will be next on the agenda of the business committee, which will examine the situation and offer advice to the town board regarding regulations.

Their inventions ranged widely, but they shared a common theme: They were the original creations of Hayground School students working together to crack a challenging problem.

Every one of their projects garnered an honorable mention, out of more than 300 entries in the 2016 Spark!Lab Global Invent It Challenge, sponsored by ePals, an education media company, and the Smithsonian Institute’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. The students will represent Hayground next year as ambassadors to others entering the 2017 competition.

Julie Fanelli-Denny, who teaches children ages 6 through 11, said the project gave her students “an authentic challenge to invent something that meets the needs of a larger community.” Their task was to create something that would solve a health problem.

Eve Achuthan-Kozar and Rive Weiner created “Cat Armor” to protect a cat owner from scratches. Kodiak Tarrant-Papasodora and Felicia Franklin, after much trial and error, invented the “Seaweed Bag,” an alternative to plastic shopping bags made from seaweed and other natural materials. Nico Pontecorvo and Leslie Samuel came up with the “Gripper Glove” to help someone grasp and hold on to objects.

The students “work collaboratively to solve problems,” sharing their experiences, Ms. Fanelli-Denny said, to troubleshoot, test prototypes, and offer suggestions to each other. They then present their inventions to be judged by scientists and other professionals. “They do real, meaningful work that becomes important to them as they become more invested in solving their problem,” she said.

All the teams said they had fun working on their inventions and that becoming ambassadors would be great.

“On a scale from 1 to 10, it was a 10,” said Rive. “The thing I liked about it most was researching it. I liked working on it, but it was really hard, because we had to do a lot of prototypes.”

Her teammate, Eve, said being an ambassador “feels like a big responsibility.”

“It feels like we can accomplish many things in our life now,” she said.

Lengthy negotiations between East Hampton Town and the Bistrian family over the possible purchase and preservation of a large tract of farmland they own in Amagansett have reached yet another impasse.

In an email to The Star on Friday, Bonnie Bistrian said the family’s appraisers, Goodman Marks Associates, had pegged the fair market value of the 30-acre property, which lies between Windmill Lane and Main Street, north and west of the hamlet’s municipal parking lot, at $35 million. The appraisers put the value of the development rights alone — which “we are happy to sell,” Ms. Bistrian said — at $32.5 million.

On Friday, East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, who was in Sag Harbor most of the day conferring with officials about that morning’s ruinous fire, confirmed that the town had been interested in the development rights but, he said, it was “unable to come to terms on the fair market value.” The town received two separate appraisals recently, each one far off the price sought by the Bistrians.

“My personal perspective is that this farmland should be preserved,” the supervisor said. “I am bitterly disappointed that we have been unable to come to terms.”

The appraisals done for the Bistrian family were provided to the town, after which, according to Ms. Bistrian, it made an offer of $22 million, about $3 million more than it had offered in 2014, a sum the family rejected. She said the latest offer was “$10.5 million below the appraised value.” Like Mr. Cantwell, she said, “It’s very disappointing for us.”

Ten separate parcels are involved, each of which, Ms. Bistrian said, could have a house on it. The exact number apparently would depend on the town code’s requirements on farmland preservation. The family has no immediate plans to develop, Ms. Bistrian indicated, but she added, “All we need to do is vation. The family has no immediate plans to develop, Ms. Bistrian indicated, but she added, “All we need to do is open the road.”

 The road to which she referred exists on paper and would, if opened, run between the parking lot and Windmill Lane, providing access to the lots.

  On Monday, Scott Crowe, a Windmill Lane resident who heads Save Our Farmland Amagansett, an ad hoc group formed to preserve the field, challenged the Bistrians’ claim to ownership of the road. “We believe it is essential to correct the often repeated — and therefore commonly accepted — misconception that there exists any agreement to build a road. There is absolutely no legal basis for such a claim,” he wrote in an email to Dodson and Flinker, the Massachusetts consultants retained by the town to oversee its ongoing hamlet studies.

“Our group and many other residents are emphatically against developing this highway,” Mr. Crowe wrote. “Such a road would irreparably damage the town’s character, and funnel even more noisy traffic into surrounding quiet residential streets, causing dangerous conditions for pedestrians, runners, and bikers.”

Mr. Crowe said by phone yesterday that he hoped the impasse would not wind up in court. “I think there’s a better outcome, where everyone can win,” he said, involving “private buyers” who would purchase part of the land, and the town the rest. As it stands, however, the difference between the town’s assessment and the Bistrians’ is too large, he said. “Their asking price moved from $29 million [two years ago] to $32 million. I’d like to see the numbers go back to 29 and 22. That gives us something to work with.”

Nearly six years after a Springs man was accused of shooting, stabbing, and beating his estranged girlfriend, in front of their children, he is headed to state prison. Suffolk County Criminal Court Judge Timothy Mazzei handed down a maximum sentence of 25 years to Sabas Martinez on Friday.

On Feb. 13, 2011, East Hampton Town police arrested Mr. Martinez after he attacked Noemi Sanchez, with whom he has three daughters, two of whom witnessed the assault in their house on Squaw Road. Police said at the time that he was waiting for Ms. Sanchez when she came home at 1:30 a.m., and he beat her, stabbed her in the head with a kitchen knife, and shot her with an air rifle before his daughters persuaded him to let their mother go. He then cut his neck and wrists in front of them.

Amayrani Martinez, who was 16 at the time and helped disarm her father during the attack, addressed the court on Friday, saying, Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota’s office reported, that she had “lost the father she knew and admired.” She said her father had shown that “his true self was a very different person than the person that she had looked up to.”

She also spoke of the severe emotional trauma that she, her two sisters, 11 and 22 years old at the time, and her mother experienced, adding that they had persevered nonetheless. Ms. San­chez, who was 40 when the attack occurred, was hospitalized for her injuries and underwent surgery. She has since recovered.

A jury convicted Mr. Martinez, 44, on the charge of attempted murder in the second degree on Nov. 16, but it was not his first trial. In 2015, a jury deadlocked on the attempted-murder charge but found him guilty of second-degree assault, criminal possession of a weapon, and endangering the welfare of a child. At that trial, he was acquitted of assault in the first degree and of first-degree burglary charges.

Following a grand jury indictment in 2011, prosecutors said that he was homeless and living with relatives. Ms. Sanchez was reportedly asked to take him back, but she refused. He then sent her a text message saying she would regret that decision. In fact, Ms. Sanchez had sought an order of protection from Mr. Martinez just days before the attack, as well as help from the Retreat, the East Hampton-based domestic violence agency.

Mr. Martinez, a Mexican national, was already a convicted felon at the time of the attack. He had been released on bond from an immigration detention center four months earlier, and deportation proceedings against him were pending. According to court papers, he had been convicted of felony driving while intoxicated and had been arrested 10 times.

He has been held at Suffolk County jail in Riverside since the 2011 arrest.

After he serves his 25-year sentence, he will be under post-release supervision for five years, on the highest count, attempted murder. He also received a seven-year sentence, plus three years of post-release supervision, on the assault charge — one year on each of the weapon and child endangerment charges. All the sentences run concurrently.

The Long Island Collection at the East Hampton Library is a repository of some 100,000 historical treasures, including a cloth of gold once owned by Captain Kidd. Each year, Gina Piastuck, the librarian in charge, inventories the new acquisitions, recording what is known of their origin and deciding whether to add them to the 4,735 that can be seen online.

During a reporter’s recent visit to the Long Island Room at the library, Ms. Piastuck described four noteworthy recent acquisitions: a letter dated July 8, 1840, from the Rev. Robert D. Gardner about the death of his young wife a couple of weeks after giving birth; a calling card that explains the origin of the library’s colonial-revival mahogany clock; letters dating to the late 19th century from a husband to a wife who was living with their children in the East Hampton summer colony while he was elsewhere at work; an album of photographs showing East End Coast Guard stations after the 1938 Hurricane and during World War II, and three mid-1850s ledgers from a Sag Harbor store. Each one tells a story.

The letter from the Rev. Robert D. Gardner, which was sent to his brother Nicholas G. Gardner, was written after Phebe Miller Gardner died before her 25th birthday. Mr. Gardner had come from Connecticut to teach at Clinton Academy in East Hampton; Phebe was one of his older students.

In the letter, he says he had last written to tell his brother of the birth of their son but now had to “tell a tale of mourning. . . . My dear Phebe lives no more on earth. She was all to me that human being could be to another, and a dear object to her parents’ hearts, but all ties are sundered, and she is summoned, as I trust, to her everlasting rest.”

Documents in the library note that she was buried at the South End Burying Ground in East Hampton Village. Their son, Sam­u­el M. Gardner, grew up here, married Mary Frances Osborn, and moved to Connecticut. They had two sons, one of whom moved back to East Hampton, where he and his wife lived in an Osborn house on Main Street. Details like this provide families with information they may not otherwise know.

Something of a mystery surrounded the mahogany colonial-revival clock just outside the door into the Long Island Room, where Ms. Piastuck keeps watch. The memory of where it had come from had been relegated to files. One day not too long ago, Dennis Fabiszak, the library director, decided he wanted to hear the clock chime and asked Sheila Rogers, the president of the library’s board of managers, about it. She, in turn, called Stan Bitterman, an East Hampton expert on old clocks.

 It was Mr. Bitterman who solved the mystery. While cleaning and repairing the tall case clock he found a calling card inside it. The front of the card reads “Mr. James W. De Graff,” with an “s” inserted by hand after “Mr.” The back of the card reads: “My father’s wedding present to me in 1890 from Tiffany’s.”

Mrs. de Graff was the daughter of Samuel and Hettie Milliken of Brooklyn. Her daughter with James de Graff, Eleanor de Graff Carr, donated the clock, attributed to J.J. Elliott, to the library in the mid-1950s. They had been summer residents here, of Apaquogue Road and then Egypt Lane.

And Mr. Fabiszak got his wish: The clock chimes. Three heavy weights are for a quarter-hour chime, a half-hour and hour chime, and one runs the clock.

Every four days Mr. Fabiszak cranks the weights back up and adjusts the time since the clock seems to gain a minute every two days.

Late-19th-century photographs and five letters, dated June 25, 1891, through Sept. 3, 1891, were from Henry B. Wilson to his wife, Grace B.W. Wilson, who was looking after their two children at the James S. Satterthwaite house on Ocean Avenue in East Hampton. Mr. Wilson was a silent partner in Dexter, Lambert & Company of Paterson, N.J., a silk manufacturer. A descendant donated the letters and photographs.

The album of 20th-century black-and-white Coast Guard photographs are of the stations at Westhampton Beach, Quogue, and East Moriches, taken at a time when surfmen patrolled the beaches. A Coast Guardsman assigned to the Moriches Station created the album.

Finally, the three large ledgers were kept in the mid-1850s by H.L. Topping General Merchandise, a sort of one-stop shop in Sag Harbor. They recorded what was sold, what business, institutional, and personal clients had bought, and offer the names of hundreds of customers. Surely someone in Sag Harbor today would enjoy visiting Ms. Piastuck in the Long Island Room and taking some time to ferret out recognizable names of people living in Sag Harbor today.

Best of the Fest

On Friday, the Parrish Art Museum will screen award-winning short films from the New York International Children's Film Festival in an hourlong program that begins at 6 p.m. The 12 films are geared to children 3 to 7, but are appropriate for all ages. They include one live-action short and 11 animated films from Australia, Brazil, Frane, Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The program costs $10, but is free for members, children, and students.

Happy New Year!

There are New Year’s Eve parties for kids planned at the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor and the Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton on Saturday, both of them during the daylight hours.

The John Jermain party will begin at 11:15 a.m. and include a countdown to noon. There will be games and music. As of yesterday, space was still available for CMEE’s 1 p.m. party, which culminates in a confetti-filled countdown. The cost is $14 per person; members get in free. Reservations are required.

Other New Year’s-themed activities include a story time at the Amagansett Library on Saturday at 11 a.m. geared to 3 to 8-year-olds. Older and younger siblings will be welcomed, as well. Children 4 and up will make hats starting at 4 p.m. tomorrow at the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton. Also tomorrow, at the Montauk Library kids in kindergarten and above can make party hats, noisemakers, and a time capsule from 3 to 4 p.m.

Dragons, Storks, Monsters

“Pete’s Dragon,” a movie about a boy who lives in the woods with a dragon, will be shown this afternoon at 2 at the East Hampton Library. “Storks,” an animated tale of a stork who must deliver an unauthorized baby despite the fact that storks have moved on to the package delivery business, will be shown on Monday at 1:30 p.m. The family movie next Thursday at 4 p.m. will be “Monsters University.”

High school students can make New Year’s crafts in the library’s young-adult room today from 2 to 5 p.m.

On Wednesday, the library will begin another series of Snap Circuits workshops for ages 7 and up. Working in groups of two, participants will learn some of the basics of electronics while building circuits that can “light up, sound off, and power an accessory,” according to the library. The program will run from 4 to 5 p.m. and will be repeated on Jan. 19, Feb. 16, and Feb. 21. Advance registration has been requested.

Despite reports that cigarettes were blame for the fire on Friday that destroyed several Main Street buildings in Sag Harbor, including the lobby of the Sag Harbor Cinema, fire investigators have yet to pinpoint a cause. 

"I strongly don't feel it's the cigarettes," Tom Baker, the East Hampton Town fire marshal leading the investigation, said on Tuesday afternoon. While "a bunch of cigarettes" were found on the ground in the rear of the Compass realty building at 84 Main Street, he did not find evidence that they sparked the early morning fire. "They were dropped to the side of the steps — well below where the fire started." 

The origin of the fire is listed as undetermined as of now, Mr. Baker said. What he does know for sure is that the fire started outside of the Compass building. During his investigation at the scene, he pulled apart the wooden steps leading to the real estate office and found what he described as charring. "There's no way to get anything down in there. I couldn't have flicked a cigarette down there," he said. He found telephone and cable lines behind the area, but cannot say for sure that the fire was electrical, even after consulting with an electrical underwriter on Tuesday. 

PSEG-Long Island responded to the fire early on to turn the power off while firefighters battled the flames — something Mr. Baker said was a sound decision to keep firefighters safe. But because lines were cut, he could not explore whether there were any issues at the power source. 

"Because the building is not there anymore, I can't go back and investigate," Mr. Baker said, referring to the demolition of the Compass building. Tom Preiato, the village building inspector, was concerned about the structural integrity of the building and called for its demolition. Mr. Baker said he took photographs while he was on scene throughout the weekend, but that nothing subsitutes for sifting through debris in person.

"I'm thinking it's something catastrophic," Mr. Baker said. An employee who opened up Sagtown Coffee, to the north of the Compass building, reported walking by the back of the building at 5:30 a.m. and not seeing or smelling anything. A police officer who reported the fire was the first to see flames on the deck of an apartment on the second floor, at 6:11 a.m. 

Sag Harbor Village Police Chief Austin McGuire said on Tuesday morning that he has spoken directly with the Suffolk County arson investigators, who were called in to assist the East Hampton Town fire marshal's office in investigating the fire because of the extent of the damage, and that they also have said the cause remains undetermined.  

"Cigarettes," Chief McGuire said, are"one of the many causes they are investigating," 

"It's a very long, arduous process," Chief McGuire said of fire investigations. There was a large amount of debris to sift through, compounded by roof collapses, and the thousands of gallons of water doused on the buildings to put out the flames. After consulting with the county's chief engineer, Mr. Preiato made the call to demolish the facade of the cinema after consulting with the county's chief engineer, and on Monday decided that the Compass building should also be demolished.  

"I'm sure everybody wants to know exactly what happened, but it's going to take time," Chief McGuire said. 

Mr. Baker will continue his investigation as he works with insurance investigators in the coming weeks. 

Update, Dec. 22: The village board met Wednesday morning to ratify East Hampton Village Police Chief Gerard Larsen's 2016-17 contract, which had not yet been decided on, and approve a separation agreement. Chief Larsen will leave office at the end of the month, use up his remaining vacation time, and not officially retire until the end of the village’s fiscal year on July 31.

The board announced Wednesday, however, that it would appoint Capt. Michael Tracey as acting chief on Jan. 5 while a search for a new hire is conducted.

“I have had a rewarding career,” Chief Larsen wrote in a statement issued Wednesday, referring to memorable cases in East Hampton and his participation with a group of officers who helped the New York Police Department guard the United Nations in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

As chief, he wrote, “I have been able to touch people’s lives, whether it is hiring local men and women to serve as police officers and dispatchers or transporting a family by police car to the hospital when their loved one has been severely injured or planting a tree in memory of a young girl who was tragically killed. I also take great pride in our Police Department, our 911 dispatch center, and our paid paramedic program. I am proud of all the dedicated men and women who serve the village and have served the village under my command; they are great people.”

Chief Larsen also announced that he had taken a job as director of security for a private-sector company. “I don’t know if that would ever happen again,” he said Wednesday of the offer. “I felt I had to take it.” He and his wife, Lisa Mulhern-Larsen, own Protec Security Services, which provides property management services and installs alarm and video surveillance systems.

Furthermore, in his statement he expressed interest in running for town board. “I know I can do a great job for the residents of East Hampton,” he wrote.

Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said on Tuesday that the chief had indicated that he was ready to move on. “We accept that and wish him well,” the mayor said.

The news comes just months after Chief Larsen was passed over for the chief’s job in the Town of Southampton. He applied for the position in April, and the town board hired Steven Skrynecki, the Nassau County police chief, in September. He does not start until early 2017.

Asked about his working relationship with Chief Larsen, the mayor said, “He’s been our chief of police for a certain number of years. We’re moving into a new era. . . .”

Chief Larsen has been with the department for 33 years. “During my career I have been fortunate to have had and continue to have great support within the community, with the mayor and the village board,” he said in April.

An East Hampton native, he started his career as a traffic control officer with the village in 1983 and became a part-time officer the following year. About two years later, he entered the New York Police Department’s academy but two weeks in was offered a full-time position in East Hampton under Chief Glen Stonemetz.

Chief Larsen’s annual salary was $180,558 as of April.

Originally, Dec. 20: East Hampton Village Police Chief Gerard Larsen is retiring after 14 years in the position.

The village board will meet on Wednesday morning at 8 to ratify two contracts, the first being his 2016-17 contract, which had not yet been decided on, and a separation agreement. Chief Larsen will leave office at the end of the month, use up his remaining vacation time, and not officially retire until the end of the village's fiscal year in July. 

Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said a more formal statement would be made after the meeting. He said the chief had indicated that he was ready to move on. "We accept that and wish him well," the mayor said.

The news comes just months after Chief Larsen was passed over for the chief's position in the Town of Southampton. He applied in April, and the town board hired Steven Skrynecki, the Nassau County police chief, in September, though he does not start until early 2017.

Asked about his working relationship with the chief, the mayor said, "He's been our chief of police for a certain number of years. We're moving into a new era, and we wish him well." 

Chief Larsen has been with the East Hampton Village Police Department for 30 years. “During my career I have been fortunate to have had and continue to have great support within the community, with the mayor and the village board. However, I am certainly interested in other opportunities that may exist,” the chief said back in April. 

An East Hampton native, he started his career as a traffic control officer with the village in 1983 and became a part-time officer the following year. About two years later, he entered the New York Police Department's academy but two weeks in he was offered a full-time position in East Hampton under Chief Glen Stonemetz. 

Chief Larsen's annual salary was $180,558 as of last April. He could not be reached for comment.