Long-running negotiations between East Hampton Town and the Bistrian family over the town's possible purchase and preservation of a large tract of farmland in Amagansett have reached yet another impasse.

In an email to The Star on Friday, Bonnie Bistrian wrote that the family's appraisers, Goodman Marks Associates, have 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 — which "we are happy to sell," Ms. Bistrian said — at $32.5 million.

The appraisals were provided to the town, which in return made an offer of $22 million for the land, about $3 million more than it had offered in 2014 but "$10.5 million below the appraised value . . . It's very disappointing for us," Ms. Bistrian said.

Ten individual parcels are on the table, each of which, under town code, could have a house on it. The family has no immediate plans to develop, she said, but added that "all we need to do is open the roads."

Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, who was in Sag Harbor most of Friday conferring with other local officials about that morning's ruinous fire, indicated that the town had been interested in the development rights but was "unable to come to terms on the fair market value."

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

A second building destroyed by a fire that ripped through five Main Street buildings in Sag Harbor on Friday has been demolished. 

On Monday afternoon, workers turned heavy equipment on a building that housed the Compass real estate agency at 84 Main Street. Its structural integrity had been compromised in Friday's blaze. Flames had been first seen on the deck of an apartment on the second-story of the building at about 6:10 a.m. One apartment was evacauted. No one was hurt. 

A three-story building, it was directly to the north of the Sag Harbor Cinema, which was demolished Friday night. The cinema lobby's roof collapsed as firefighters tried to extinguish the fire and the facade of the building, with its iconic neon "Sag Harbor" sign, was separated from the rest of the structure and was in danger of immediate collapse. Keith Grimes Inc., which the village contracted to conduct all the demolition work, was able to salvage the sign, a replica of the original.

The cinema's seating and screen are in a separate section behind the Compass building; it sustained heavy smoke and water damage but remained standing. 

Village officials have no plans to immediately demolish any other buildings, they said on Monday. Three others were heavily damaged in the fire, closing businesses that included Sagtown Coffee, the Collette consignment store, Matta, Brown Harris Stevens real estate, and Henry Lehr. 

Sag Harbor Village Mayor Sandra Schroeder has asked that any person or business displaced by the fire, or any business that was unable to open because of the fire, contact the village immediately. "There are resources available to assist individuals that have been displaced and businesses that were affected by the fire," the mayor said in an announcement. Main Street was closed for most of Friday.

Fire marshals are investigating the cause of the fire. Fire and police officials have said arson has been ruled out. 

Main Street is open with traffic being shifted away from the fire-damaged buildings as crews continue to demolish the Compass building and clean up the debris on Monday.

Meanwhile, more than $40,000 has been raised for Fred Kumwenda, one of the residents displaced by the fire. 

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.

The fire that ripped through a section of Sag Harbor’s Main Street on Friday morning — the worst on the South Fork in 22 years — destroyed two buildings, including the Sag Harbor Cinema, badly damaged others, devastated businesses, and displaced two people from second-story apartments.

Despite reports that cigarettes were blame for the blaze, fire investigators have yet to pinpoint a cause, though arson has been ruled out.

Too structurally unsound to be left standing, the front portion of the theater and a building to the north of it that housed Compass real estate were torn down between Friday night and Monday, leaving a gaping hole in the village business district. The loss of theater’s Art Deco facade, an iconic and beloved symbol of the village that bore its name in vivid neon letters, has been felt across the South Fork and beyond.

During a concert at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, the musician Billy Joel, a longtime village homeowner, bid farewell to “the old Sag Harbor Cinema” while playing Ennio Morricone’s “Cinema Paradiso” on the piano.

“There are not a lot of places when you think of a town, a city, and a community, where one image pops to mind,” said David Nugent, the artistic director of the Hamptons International Film Festival. “But, Sag Harbor, that’s just the first image that pops into so many people’s head — that cinema. That’s why I think it’s such a blow to so many,” he said. The sign, he added, “was such a beautiful emblem.”

People arriving in the village on the Hampton Jitney knew they had arrived when they spotted the sign, said Nada Barry, who owns the Wharf Shop on the opposite side of Main Street. Now, she said, “We don’t have a big sign saying ‘Welcome to Sag Harbor.’ ”

The roof on the front portion of the building, where the RJD Gallery and the theater’s lobby were located, collapsed during the fire. The cinema’s wood and stucco facade was separated from the rest of the structure, left precariously leaning over the sidewalk. Tom Preiato, the village building inspector, called for its demolition after consulting with county engineers.

The village contracted Keith Grimes Inc. to demolish that part of the building on Friday evening. The contractor was able to save the 11-year-old sign, a replica of the original and a village landmark, and it was taken to a storage facility in Bridgehampton. The theater’s owner, Gerry Mallow, had removed the original rusting sign in 2004, but its fans in the community mounted a successful fund-raising effort to replace it with the new one, which was installed in October 2005.

The theater portion of the 1930s building, with the large screen and seating, which was in the back side of the “L”-shaped structure, remains standing this week, having sustained only smoke damage.

The cinema has long been for sale, most recently for $14 million. Robby Stein, the village’s deputy mayor, said Friday that he was involved with a small group that was quietly working to purchase it and turn it into a cinema arts foundation. The group has architectural and structural reports on the building, and had hoped to enter into more serious negotiations with Mr. Mallow in the coming months. The hope now is that can be rebuilt, and village officials have pledged to help facilitate that.

Ms. Barry, who has been in business for over 40 years, has seen three major fires on Main Street during that time. She expects there will be an economic impact from the loss of the cinema. “People would make a trip for the unusual films and eat here,” she said.

Battling Fire . . . and Ice

Friday’s fire was first reported just after 6 a.m. by a Sag Harbor Village police officer who was stopping at Sagtown Coffee in the Shopping Cove before his shift began. Officer Randy Steyert had been up all night with his feverish son and was desperate for a cup of coffee, he said. As he pulled up to the Shopping Cove, he smelled something burning, then looked up and saw smoke billowing from behind the Main Street buildings. Village police surveillance cameras had caught the first signs of smoke just minutes before the officer arrived. 

He went up the stairs to the back of Shopping Cove by the coffee shop, and saw flames on the deck of a second-story apartment in the back of 84 Main Street. He called in the fire at 6:11 a.m.

After alerting the Sagtown employees, he ran back to Main Street, found the entrance to the apartment above the Compass real estate office, and banged on the apartment door to wake any occupants. Michael Lynch told the officer later that he almost ignored the banging, but then saw the smoke out his window.

• RELATED: Ways to Help After the Fire

“There was enough time for him to get a jacket and shoes on and get out the door,” Officer Steyert said. He was the only one home and his apartment was not yet filled with smoke. The officer said it took about a minute for what had been a small fire to fully engulf the building. “Once the fire got going, Main Street was pitch black,” he said.

None of the other three apartments in the nearby buildings were occupied at the time, police said, and Mr. Lynch’s roommate was not home.

Sag Harbor firefighters arrived on scene within four minutes. Chief Thomas Gardella said he knew almost right away that it was going to be the worst fire of his career. He joined the department three years after the 1994 Easter Sunday fire on Main Street that destroyed Emporium Hardware, just a few doors north of the Shopping Cove.

He set up a command post in the municipal parking lot behind the buildings, and Bruce Schiavoni, the first assistant chief, took over operations at the front of the building. Standing alone behind the Brown Harris Stevens building, south of the cinema, just before day-break, Chief Gardella put his turnout gear on, climbed the back stairs of the Shopping Cove, and saw “a tremendous ball of fire.” The back of the Compass building, the lobby of the cinema, and the second floor of the Brown Harris Stevens building were already on fire.

The temperature was well below freezing and frigid winds were out of the northwest at 20 miles per hour, pushing the fire toward the apartments over Brown Harris Stevens and the Henry Lehr boutique south of that, he said.

“There was no way I was going to let that happen,” Chief Gardella said. His mission was to protect the buildings to the north and south. Ladder trucks from Sag Harbor, East Hampton, East Quogue, and Southampton were utilized at four corners of the buildings to douse the flames from above. All the chiefs agreed East Hampton was in one of the most difficult positions, the southeast corner, with the wind and smoke coming directly at them.

East Hampton Fire Chief Kenneth Wessberg said his guys “got beaten up.”

“That’s the heaviest smoke and fire conditions I’ve faced,” said Phil O’Connell, a 12-year firefighter who was one of the first men sent up in the bucket of East Hampton’s tower ladder truck.

Wearing their gear, helmets, and facemasks connected to a 6,000-pound tank of breathable air, Mr. O’Connell and Rory Knight fought back the flames for the first hour and a half. The smoke was so heavy at times, they could not see the roof of the buildings, the ground below, or even the ladder leading down to the truck.

At times, the wind blew the water right back at them. There were some “jerky movements,” which Mr. O’Connell said were “disconcerting” at 15 feet above a roofline, but he added that the company is so well trained that they were ready for it.

With wind-chill values between zero and 10 degrees, water quickly turned to ice. “Everybody’s gear was frozen. We had icicles off our helmets. The inside of our masks was icing up,” he said. At one point, his jacket sleeve got stuck to the side of the bucket. When it was time for another crew to rotate into the bucket, there was no way they could climb down the icy ladder, so the bucket was lowered to the ground.

Search teams were sent into the apartments, but found no one. Firefighters tried to make an interior push, but the chief said it was too hot. Thermal cameras pointed at the ceiling of the cinema showed the fire had reached 600 degrees.

“Wind-driven fire is crazy. It’s like a blowtorch effect,” he said. The Black Sunday fire in Manhattan in January 2005, when two firemen were killed and four were forced to jump out a window, was a wind-driven fire, the chief said. It led to mandatory bailout training for all firefighters.

“I had a plan, we implemented, and it was successful. To me, the fact that nobody got hurt — there were no injuries at all — says to me, it was a success,” Chief Gardella said. “Yes, it was my fire scene, but it also says that those chiefs that were on scene and overseeing their men did an excellent job.”

During one search, an East Hampton fireman got separated from his crew when conditions rapidly deteriorated in the building, Chief Gardella said. He kept his cool, though, found his way to a window and broke it; a ladder rescued him from the second story.

In total, six buildings sustained some sort of damage in the fire, from minor smoke damage to being completely gutted by the flames. According to Mr. Preiato, going from north to south, they include: 78 Main Street, on the south side of the Shopping Cove, which houses Sagtown Coffee, Collette Luxury Consignment, and Matta; a former bakery building at 84 Main Street, which housed Compass real estate on the first floor and the front of the second floor, as well as a duplex apartment that ran from the back of the second to the third floor; 90 Main Street, site of the cinema lobby and the RJD Gallery, and 96 Main Street with Brown Harris Stevens on the first floor and an apartment above. The last one “is pretty compromised,” Mr. Preiato said, and he has ordered an engineering report on it. The Henry Lehr building at 102 Main Street sustained some smoke damage and a hole in the roof above the two second-story apartments. Lastly, the offices of Banducci, Katz, and Ferraris and the Corner Closet at 108 Main Street had light smoke damage.

Sixteen fire and emergency medical service agencies from Montauk to Eastport, including the Flanders and Shelter Island departments, assisted in some way on Friday, and 150 emergency personnel responded, whether at the fire or to stand by at other firehouses to pick up unrelated calls. Local eateries like Grindstone Coffee and 7-Eleven took food and hot coffee to the emergency responders while they remained at the scene some six hours. Sag Harbor responded back a few hours later when a small fire reignited.

• RELATED: Community Gathering Planned in Sag Harbor Tuesday 

As to the cause of the fire, “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 blaze. “They were dropped to the side of the steps, well below where the fire started,” Mr. Baker said.

The origin of the fire is listed as undetermined as of now, he 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 could not 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. Mr. Baker said he took photographs while he was on scene throughout the weekend, but that nothing substitutes 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.

Sag Harbor Village Police Chief Austin McGuire said on Tuesday morning that he had 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 have confirmed that the cause remains undetermined. 

“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.

“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.

Sag Harbor residents sent a clear message to the Sag Harbor School District: An artificial turf athletic field is not wanted in the community.

With a final count of 1,016 to 135 on Wednesday, voters rejected the school district's proposal to use $365,000 from its capital reserve fund to supplement the money the community had approved by referendum in November 2013 for an artificial turf athletic field at Pierson Middle and High School. The field emerged as a controversial issue in recent months at school board meetings and community forums primarily because of questions over its alleged health risks.

The result gives the school board the green light to pursue a natural grass option at Pierson. The district would have $1.45 million available to revamp the grass field, and has also discussed adding a sports practice field and redoing the outdoor multipurpose court at the Sag Harbor Elementary School. Using the money for grass instead of for its original purpose, artificial turf, required special legislation from New York State.

"The governor has okayed it," Katy Graves, Sag Harbor's superintendent, said Wednesday after the result was announced. "That will be the shift, but that still has to be voter approved, so we've already established a date for another vote."

The anticipated date is Feb. 15, 2017. The school board is expected to solidify the details at its meeting on Monday at 7:30 p.m. in the Pierson library.

A handful of community members in attendance to hear the results on Wednesday were satisfied with the outcome.

"This is a great victory for the health of our children and the environment," said Helen Roussel, a parent of three children in Sag Harbor schools. 

After considering but rejecting the former Child Development Center of the Hamptons building on town-owned land in Wainscott as a site for a new senior citizens center, the East Hampton Town Board is poised to build a new center on Springs-Fireplace Road in East Hampton behind the existing building, which would be razed.

Six architectural firms have already responded to a request for proposals to design the new center, and three, which made it onto the board’s short list, have been interviewed, Jeanne Carrozza, the town’s purchasing agent, told the town board at a meeting on Tuesday. 

After examining each firm’s proposals and qualifications, a review committee recommended Savik & Murray, a Holbrook engineering firm, which has been involved in a number of town projects. 

Construction of a 17,500-square-foot building has been estimated to cost ­between $275 and $325 per square foot, or from $4.8 to $5.7 million. The engineering firm would receive $239,000 for architectural design, preparation of specifics for construction bids, and administration of the construction, which is expected to take about nine months. The firm also asked for $61,000 for incidentals. 

Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, the town board’s liaison to the Human Services Department, which runs senior citizens programs, said Tuesday that there would be challenges during construction, requiring  such accommodations as moving certain programs to other locations temporarily.

The town offers nutrition, adult day care, recreation, health, and other social programs at the senior center. The building, which once housed a bar called the Cottage Inn, is estimated to be a century old and is in poor repair. 

A senior services committee issued a report  in 2014 recommending a new building, and Ms. Burke-Gonzalez worked this year with town staff to analyze demographics and future needs. The committee drafted a plan last spring calling for a new building to be 50 percent larger in order to provide a larger kitchen and dining room and a number of activity rooms and also to better accommodate the handicapped. The group considered various sites but decided the current location, which is centrally located and within walking distance of affordable housing complexes for senior citizens, the best option.

However, when the C.D.C.H. charter school closed in June, town officials thought it wise to consider it for the new center. Among the factors disqualifying it for a senior center, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said this week, were its Wainscott location, requiring a longer drive for most of those who use the center, and, for those driving to it from east of Wainscott, a tricky left turn onto Montauk Highway in order to head home. That move becomes virtually impossible, and dangerous, in summer traffic, she said. 

The Springs-Fireplace Road property where the existing center sits comprises  several lots, which the town is likely to combine, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said. It is zoned for residential use, and would have to be rezoned. Plans for the new building, once developed, will be sent to the planning board for site-plan review. 

After a two-year installation process, the first offshore wind farm in the United States is now operational off Block Island, and still more may be coming to the waters off Long Island.

On Monday, Deepwater Wind, a Rhode Island company, announced that the Block Island Wind Farm, a five-turbine, 30-megawatt installation situated three miles from the island’s coast, had completed commissioning and testing phases and begun commercial operation. 

The wind farm is expected to supply more than 90 percent of Block Island’s electricity needs. Power generated by it will also be routed to New England’s power grid via National Grid’s Sea2shore submarine transmission cable system. 

“Our success here is a testament to the hard work of hundreds of local workers who helped build this historic project, and to the Block Islanders and the thousands more around the U.S. who’ve supported us every step of the way of this amazing journey,” Jeffrey Grybowski, Deepwater Wind’s chief executive officer, said in a statement. 

The country’s second offshore wind farm may move closer to fruition next month, when the Long Island Power Authority’s board of trustees is expected to formally accept Deepwater Wind’s proposal to construct a 90-megawatt wind farm in federally leased waters approximately 30 miles east of Montauk. 

LIPA’s chief executive officer, Thomas Falcone, had recommended in July that the board accept the proposal for the installation, known as the South Fork Wind Farm. Hours before it was to take place, however, the board’s July meeting was postponed after officials of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority asked it to delay a vote on accepting the wind farm so that the project could be examined in the larger context of an Offshore Wind Master Plan that was still under development. A blueprint of the master plan, which is expected next year, was released in September. 

Also postponed in July was LIPA’s expected announcements about the  installation of two energy-storage battery facilities, to be situated in Wainscott and Montauk, that would be used during periods of peak demand, and a related “demand response” program. Under that program electricity consumers, by agreement with the utility, could temporarily reduce or deactivate high-consuming equipment during peak demand periods.

In another development for offshore wind, the New York State Energy Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) submitted documentation and a bid deposit to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management last month to take part in an auction, scheduled for Saturday, for development rights in a 79,350-acre wind energy area 12 miles off Long Island’s coast. NYSERDA would be the first state entity to participate in such an auction. 

Last Thursday, a consortium includ ing the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, the Fisheries Survival Fund, the Garden State Seafood Association, and the Narragansett Chamber of Commerce filed a lawsuit alleging that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management had failed to adequately consider the impact of the wind energy area on the commercial fishing industry. The suit claimed that wind farms in that area would disrupt the harvesting of scallops, squid, sea bass, and summer flounder. On Monday, however, the consortium and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management reached an agreement allowing the auction to proceed. 

Gordian Raacke, executive director of Renewable Energy Long Island, will take part in a rally outside LIPA’s headquarters in Uniondale on Tuesday morning, during the utility’s board meeting. “It’s not just about LIPA’s decision on the expected vote” on the South Fork Wind Farm, he said, “but also on the offshore wind farm lease that NYSERDA will be bidding on and hopefully moving forward with. We’ll be calling on the governor to move ahead with building an offshore wind industry for the State of New York and Long Island.”

“We are pretty confident that everything is going to work out as planned,” Mr. Raacke said, “but we’ll be there just to be present and look at the calls for action in the larger picture.” 

Demand for electricity on the South Fork has far outpaced the rest of Long Island, with particularly high usage in the summer and on weekends and holidays. Electricity demand has also vastly outpaced population growth, with the megawatt peak growing by 44 percent while residential accounts grew by just 4 percent and commercial accounts by 12.3 percent over a decade, according to statistics issued last year by PSEG Long Island, which manages the island’s electrical grid on behalf of LIPA. 

“When we looked at the options and alternatives to meet the growing need in East Hampton and Southampton, it turns out this is the lowest-cost proposal,” Mr. Falcone said of the South Fork Wind Farm in July. “It makes sense to bring this generation in while also meeting some renewable energy goals our board has established. It’s not just good for East Hampton and Southampton, it’s good for everybody on Long Island, a very good place to deliver the energy.” 

Mr. Falcone said at that time that he hoped to finalize a contract with Deepwater Wind by the first quarter of 2017, and anticipated the South Fork Wind Farm being operational around the end of 2022.

The Sag Harbor Village Board on Monday tabled a law that would bring its code in line with state laws and allow bowhunting on private property with an owner’s permission. The decision came after hunters challenged a ban the board had enacted two years ago. 

On advice of counsel, the village board had proposed a law that would allow hunting on private property as long as the owner is the one hunting or he or she has given written permission to someone to hunt there. The proposal states that it is in the village’s best interest to be consistent with New York’s Environmental Conservation Law. Hunting with firearms remains prohibited.

In recent years, the State Department of Environmental Conservation amended its own regulations on bowhunting by reducing the setback for the discharge of a long bow from 500 feet to 150 feet from a house the owner of which does not consent to the hunt. 

But, responding to complaints from residents about hunting in the village, where houses are often close together and there is not much open space, in 2015 the board passed a law that prohibited all hunting. There was a law on the books that dated to 1932 outlawing hunting, but it did not specifically mentioned bow-and-arrow hunting. 

Concerns from Hunters for Deer, a not-for-profit that arranges for insured and proficiency-tested bowhunters to hunt deer on private property, came up immediately, and a lawsuit was threatened based on the state regulations. The group was told at the time that the law would not be enforced while the village considered whether the state law pre-empted the village law. No decision was ever made and no further discussion took place, until earlier this fall, when a bowhunter who had been given permission to hunt on private property behind Oakland Cemetery through Hunters for Deer was subsequently warned by police to stay away. Court papers were filed, and while the village was given time to justify the law, the hunter went back to the property, off Suffolk Street, and was later arrested.

The Village of East Hampton requires that bowhunters obtain a permit through its office with a valid D.E.C. license and permission from the property owner, according to Rebecca Molinaro, the village administrator. North Haven Village also requires a permit. The Village of Sagaponack has no laws on the books regarding hunting.

Wendy Chamberlain, who recently moved from Bridgehampton to Sag Harbor, and who is a co-founder of the Wildlife Coalition of Eastern Long Island and a member of the Southampton Town deer protection management board, said the legal advice she has received says the village is under no legal compunction to conform to the D.E.C.’s laws. 

“I want to know what you’re going to say to the first family who loses a child walking through the woods,” she said. 

“I do not want to be that family that there is an issue,” said Jennifer Joly, who has an autistic child and lives across the street from where the hunter was arrested in October. She does not believe that hunting should be allowed in residential areas and agreed with a point Ms. Chamberlain made that the law should at least include a mandate that any property being hunted be posted so people can avoid the area. 

John Linder, the property owner on Suffolk Street who had allowed the hunting in the fall, called it a humane way to manage the population. “We have eliminated their habitat; we see them on the road,” he said. He told the board the hunters “come at 4 a.m. Oftentimes they’re gone by daylight.”

Mayor Sandra Schroeder said she thought the state law allows hunting only during daylight hours. 

Mr. Linder said that they come early to set up. “I don’t like how these people have been portrayed as irresponsible. They aren’t.” 

When the discussion turned to the board, Ms. Schroeder said, “I’m totally against it. I think it’s dangerous.” 

Robby Stein, the deputy mayor, made a motion to table the law for further review until the January meeting. While the rest of the board agreed, the mayor voted against doing so. “I’d like to see it disappear. I think it’s dangerous,” she said. 

David J. Gilmartin Jr., the village attorney, said he would prepare a memo for the board, which will meet again on Jan. 9 at 5 p.m., instead of the usual 6 p.m., to hear a presentation on water quality.

East Hampton School District officials, following weeks of community criticism over a proposed school bus depot in a residential district off Cedar Street, are now exploring a different location, the town-owned former scavenger waste facility, and is considering using a town and village-owned refueling facility on Springs-Fireplace Road in East Hampton.

Two school board members and two administrators met with town officials shortly before Thanksgiving to discuss the three-acre site, which has been rehabilitated and cleared for redevelopment. At a Dec. 6 school board meeting, the board directed Superintendent Richard Burns to ask the town for a price.

Supervisor Larry Cantwell confirmed yesterday that the town and the school district are in talks about the property, but declined to discuss its value. 

“I have, with the town board’s knowledge, spoken to representatives of the school regarding the potential availability of that property and our interest in selling to them if they would like to pursue the purchase of it,” Mr. Cantwell said. “I’m not going to get into the details of negotiations.”

While the school district’s initial plans for the bus maintenance depot on the Cedar Street side of the high school campus included a fuel pump, Mr. Burns said that “there could be communication and collaboration” for the district to use instead the fueling depot at the town Highway Department, nearby on the same road and co-owned by the town and East Hampton Village.

Indeed, Mr. Cantwell said, that idea is on the table. He said the fueling facility was capable of handling the additional capacity of school buses. “I think it would benefit all parties: the village, the town, and the school district,” the supervisor said. “To the extent that we can share services and assets to benefit the taxpayers collectively, we all need to do more of this.”

The town and the village would negotiate a cost-sharing agreement if the school were to come on board, he added. “It’s not a free ride.”

Christina DeSanti, vice president of the school board, said during the Dec. 6 meeting that she would be comfortable with the arrangement. “It will be a little more inconvenient, but it’s manageable, and we’d be splitting the maintenance,” she said. “It would take care of all the environmental concerns, and it would lower the cost of our project. . . . To me, it makes sense to take the fueling facility out of the Cedar Street project and use the town and village’s.”

While the school board seemed amenable to working out an agreement on the fuel depot, some members appeared reluctant to pursue the scavenger waste site, especially without knowing its price tag.

J.P. Foster, the board’s president, said he disliked buying more property because the whole idea was to save the taxpayers money: “I don’t want to add any more cost when we have a piece of property we can use. Maybe we compromise by not having the fuel there. . . .”

John Ryan Sr. had no problem with buses using the municipal fueling facility, but was opposed to buying the scavenger waste site. “It’s extra money. I believe the [bus depot] can fit on our property. We don’t have to pay rent or buy a piece of land.”

Jackie Lowey agreed. “Once you start talking about purchasing land to do construction on, you sort of erase any of the financial advantages of saving money,” she said. “If it’s not saving money, I don’t want to go ahead with a construction project.”

Purchasing the scavenger waste site rather than building on Cedar Street had strong support from district residents who attended the Dec. 6 meeting.

“If we spread out the cost of this, the taxpayers would be willing to pay the incremental increase. . . . I for one would approve of your spending $1 million, $2 million, or $3 million,” Lorne Singh said. “Down the road, it’s going to be worth it. I do think you need your own bus depot, but not on [Cedar Street].”

Charles John Collins said the scavenger waste site “makes so much sense,” as opposed to siting a bus depot on a mostly residential street. “It’s obvious a commercial entity should not be in that part of town. Meanwhile, there’s this property the town owns in a very industrial part of town,” Mr. Collins said. “We should explore that option a lot further.”

Paul Fiondella said the district should avoid building a bus barn on Cedar Street by contracting with the town to maintain and repair its buses at the highway department, in addition to using the town and village-owned fueling facility. “I would urge you to negotiate with the town,” he said.