A federal appeals court ruling on Friday striking down three 2015 East Hampton Town laws designed to reduce noise from aircraft using East Hampton Airport may well galvanize those negatively affected by aircraft noise, who had looked to the laws for relief, to rally behind the idea of closing the airport. 

The town is “deeply disappointed” in the decision, Michael Sendlenski, the town attorney, said in a press release Friday afternoon. 

The town board, as the airport’s proprietor, has “always held the belief that it had a public policy responsibility to protect local residents from the loud and disturbing effects of airport noise,” according to the statement.

The court, however, ruled that the town cannot independently enact airport use restrictions, but must follow the federal Airport Noise and Capacity Act and seek federal approval. 

“The court’s opinion undermines local control of operations at the town-owned airport property,” Mr. Sendlenski wrote, “and establishes that the federal bureaucracy controls regulations in the area of aviation noise abatement and control.”

The court decision “expanded federal control at the expense of local government, eroding the concept of home rule,” New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. wrote in his own press release, issued on Monday.

“The F.A.A. has shown itself to be interested only in protecting the moneyed special interests of the helicopter industry. There is no reason to believe that will change,” Assemblyman Thiele wrote. 

The judgment raises the question, Mr. Thiele said, of “whether or not the Town of East Hampton should be in the ‘airport business’ at all. The health and safety of its residents must always take precedence over commercial enterprise.”

“Perhaps now more people will clearly see that the only remedy is to close that airport!” Patricia Currie, a founder of Say No to KHTO (East Hampton Airport), said in her own press release. “Enough pandering to aviation operators whose claims about ‘safety’ fail to conceal their real motives: unfettered access 24/7/365, and airport expansion.”

Ms. Currie said the group had anticipated the ruling, and that “noise-affected residents have been manipulated by the town’s poorly conceived approach to securing peace and quiet for the thousands of Long Island families who suffer health-threatening noise impacts. . . .” The court’s decision, she said, “reflects the questionable advice” of Peter Kirsch, the town’s aviation counsel, and “raises the question as to why the legal firm has not been replaced.” 

The ruling will “fuel the cause” of the group, Ms. Currie said. Say No to KHTO’s immediate agenda, according to a press release, is to develop plans for “environmentally responsible and socially sensitive” alternate uses of the airport property.

A coalition of opponents to airport regulation, including the Friends of the East Hampton Airport along with a number of aviation companies, sued in federal court just after the town board enacted three airport use restrictions in 2015.

In late June 2015, Judge Joanna Seybert blocked one — a once-a-week limit on takeoffs and landings of planes that fall into a noisy aircraft category — but allowed two curfews to be enacted. 

A general ban on takeoffs and landings from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. and an extended ban from 8 p.m. to 9 a.m. for noisy aircraft has been in effect since July 2, 2015. During the 2015 and 2016 summer seasons, according to the town, 99 percent of flights complied with the curfews. 

But the Court of Appeals ruling struck down the curfews, and upheld the lower court decision barring the once-a-week restriction.

The court ruled that the federal Airport Noise and Capacity Act requires all airport owners to follow required procedures when seeking to enact local restrictions on airport access, whether or not they accept federal airport grants. 

Several contractual obligations to the F.A.A. related to acceptance by the town of previous grants have expired, and town officials intended to take no further grants.

The town had relied upon a Federal Aviation Administration memo to former U.S. Representative Tim Bishop stating that East Hampton could adopt “reasonable” noise restrictions without going through the “lengthy F.A.A. bureaucratic review and approval process,” outlined under the Airport Noise and Capacity Act.

The Court of Appeals judge decided differently, agreeing with the plaintiffs’ argument that the act’s procedural requirements for local restrictions on airport access apply to all public airport proprietors regardless of their federal funding status. 

“Unfortunately . . . the decision has usurped the town’s local authority, contrary to the assurances of the F.A.A. written statement to Congressman Bishop,” the town wrote in the press release, “therefore making burdensome ANCA review and F.A.A. approval mandatory for any aviation noise regulations adopted by an airport proprietor.” 

The court decision says that Congress enacted the Airport Noise and Capacity Act based on findings that “noise policy must be carried out at the national level” to prevent “uncoordinated and inconsistent restrictions on aviation that could impede the national air transportation system.”

Kathleen Cunningham, who heads the Quiet Skies Coalition, a group that has fought against airport noise, said in a press release that she was “stunned” by the decision. “We’ll have to go back to the drawing board to begin working on real solutions to the environmental challenges this airport causes,” she said.

The National Air Transportation Association applauded the ruling and called on the town to immediately rescind 38 summonses that had been issued to aircraft operators for violations of the curfew this past summer, and to refund fines levied for them. A number of aviation companies that received summonses appeared in town justice court last week, and a plea-bargaining agreement was reached. 

The appeals court “made a sound decision in favor of aviation businesses and our national airport system,” Martin H. Hiller, the president of the association, said in press release. “The imposition of arbitrary airport restrictions that do not comply with F.A.A. procedures would burden the vibrant general aviation community at HTO [East Hampton Airport], potentially reducing future investment and creating inadvertent job loss.” 

“Although today’s court decision places the solution to the aviation noise problem firmly at the feet of Congress and the F.A.A., the town will continue to explore every available option so that the residents of the East End won’t continue to be [afflicted] by an unrelenting din from the skies above,” the town concluded in its press release. 

Data already being collected regarding the aircraft noise issue stemming from helicopters and other planes using the airport could be used in making a case for F.A.A. approval of local airport restrictions, if the town chooses to go that route.

Should the town wish to pursue the case in court, it could ask for a hearing before the entire panel of Second Circuit Court of Appeals judges, or go to the Supreme Court. 

East End voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a referendum to extend the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund through 2050 and to allow up to 20 percent of its future proceeds to be used for water quality initiatives. 

Delivering a resounding yes for the measure, over 78 percent of East Hampton voters (6,842 to 1,909) and over 80 percent of Southampton voters (16,349 to 4,050) supported it. 

“Once again East Hampton voters have proven their overwhelming support for open space preservation and environmental protection,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said yesterday morning. “We’re ready to continue to preserve open space as aggressively as we have to this point, and to get to work on the details of our water quality improvement and protection program.”

The measure also passed decisively in Riverhead and Southold Towns, with nearly 75 and 80 percent of the vote, respectively. On Shelter Island, just under 70 percent of voters wanted to extend he program and add the water-quality component. 

“The public recognizes the issues we’re facing with water quality,” said State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. “The size of the victory is compelling,” he said, and will “arm the supporters of water-quality remediation” to appeal to the county and state for additional resources. He said a new state environmental bond act, with a large water-quality component, should be discussed. 

The preservation fund, financed by a 2-percent tax on most real estate transfers, was first passed in 1999. Voters approved a 10-year extension, through 2030, in 2006.

Since its inception, the fund has raised over $1 billion for open space and historical preservation in the five East End towns. Supporters of the referendum, looking at a 10-year average of past revenue, expect that it could provide East Hampton Town with some $4.6 million annually for water projects such as wastewater treatment, aquatic habitat restoration, stormwater diversion, and other pollution prevention efforts.

“I think the water is as important to our community as the land is,” Jeanne Frankl, chairwoman of the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee, said at a Democratic Party gathering Tuesday night at LTV. “The high water table makes our drinking water fragile . . . 20 percent is not too much to invest in water.” 

Each town has drafted its own plan listing possible projects that could be undertaken with the money. In East Hampton, Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc has said, the first step will likely be testing ground and surface waters to establish baseline water-quality levels before improvement efforts are undertaken.

With Reporting by 

Christine Sampson

A close look at South Fork district-by-district election results for the 2016 presidential race shows that although a majority of Suffolk County broke for the Trump-Pence ticket at the polls on Tuesday, the Clinton-Kaine team came out on top in all but one of the 37 Election Districts between Tuckahoe and Montauk.

In East Hampton Town, Donald Trump's support was strongest in Montauk, which tends to be more Republican-leaning than elsewhere in the town. Even so, Hillary Clinton won all four Montauk Election Districts, though by only 1 and 2 votes in the case of Election Districts 19 (198 to 197) and 10 (350 to 348), and by just 22 votes in E.D. 6 (108 to 86), according to a breakdown of unofficial results provided by the Suffolk County Board of Elections.

The town's three districts with the greatest number of eligible voters went very strongly for Mrs. Clinton. In E.D. 14 in East Hampton the count was 533 to 225 and in E.D. 8 and E.D. 11 in East Hampton Village it was 471 to 205 and 481 to 287, respectively. The unofficial townwide vote count, which does not include all absentee ballots, was 6,172 for Mrs. Clinton and 3,516 for Mr. Trump. Of the 16,898 eligible to vote in East Hampton Town, 9,979 went to the polls on Tuesday.

In Southampton Town, 24,137 of the 38,946 people eligible to vote cast ballots in Tuesday's election. Mrs. Clinton was the top presidential vote getter there, too, but not by much. She had 11,892 votes to Mr. Trump's 11,407. His support in Southampton Town was strongest in Eastport and East Quogue, and he won 20 of the town's 42 Election Districts.

In the Congressional race, where Representative Lee Zeldin triumphed over his Democratic challenger, former Southampton Town supervisor Anna Throne-Holst, East Hampton Town's results did not mimic those district-wide. Ms. Throne-Holst beat Mr. Zeldin in 17 of 19 Election Districts in East Hampton, with Mr. Zeldin winning only in E.D. 19 (201 to 196) and E.D. 10 (377 to 330) in Montauk.

The total vote count in East Hampton Town was 5,898 for Ms. Throne-Holst, 3,862 for Mr. Zeldin.

In Southampton Town, Mr. Zeldin had 692 votes more than Ms. Throne-Holst, for a final, unofficial count of 12,213 to 11,521. He widened his lead vastly in Brookhaven Town, where he got 114,303 to Ms. Throne-Holst's 78,403. In Smithtown the vote was 25,428 for Mr. Zeldin to 12,967 for Ms. Throne-Holst. Riverhead broke for the incumbent 8,535 to 5,470. The vote for him in Southold was 6,101 to 4,568.

In Islip Town, where only some of the Election Districts are in the First Congressional District, he had 3,610 to 2,081 for Ms. Throne-Holst. She earned more votes than him on Shelter Island, 732 to 630.

Hillary Clinton may have won the State of New York and the popular vote, but presidential election results in Suffolk County, where she trailed Donald J. Trump by 8 percent, are more reflective of how the two candidates fared in the Electoral College.

In Suffolk, according to unofficial results from the county board of elections, 2016 voter turnout was up by 36,609 over the last presidential election. Third-party candidates got nearly three times the number of votes as they did in 2012, when Barack Obama faced Mitt Romney.

Mr. Trump won 328,403 votes to Mrs. Clinton's 276,953, or 52.13 percent to 43.96 percent.

Mrs. Clinton's tally was fewer in terms of both numbers and percentage points than Mr. Romney's 2016 vote count in Suffolk.

Mr. Obama won Suffolk in 2016 with 24,324 fewer votes than Mr. Trump got in the county on Tuesday.

The third-party candidates — Gary Johnson on the Libertarian and Independence lines and Jill Stein of the Green Party — took in a combined 20,364 votes in Suffolk (12,761 for Mr. Johnson and 7,603 for Ms. Stein). There were 4,243 write-ins for president, more than the total number of votes for Mr. Johnson in his 2012 bid for president.

In Nassau County, Mrs. Clinton was the top vote-getter in the presidential race, with 307,326 votes, or 50.88 percent, to Mr. Trump's 275,479, or 45.61 percent.

In his victory speech on election night, Donald Trump called on America to “bind the wounds of division” and “come together as one united people,” but with his anti-immigrant rhetoric on the campaign trail still resonating, his election has struck a note of fear and uncertainty for many Latin American immigrants on the South Fork, particularly those who are undocumented. 

In East Hampton, Democrats outnumber Republicans about 70 percent to 30 percent, while countywide, their numbers are more even, said Reg Cornelia, the East Hampton Town Republican Committee chairman, but despite those figures, Mr. Trump prevailed with a more than 8-point lead over Hillary Clinton in Suffolk County. 

“It’s a very exciting win,” Mr. Cornelia said. “In spite of what the media, the national media, like to talk about . . . this election was really about serious issues. Are we going down the socialist path with Mrs. Clinton? Continuing Obama’s policy? Or making a U-turn back to constitutional, free-market process?”

Mr. Cornelia said that Mr. Trump was willing to talk about issues that both parties had avoided — like “that damn border.” The first priority on Mr. Trump’s immigration plan is to “begin working on an impenetrable physical wall on the southern border, on day one,” according to his website, where he vows that Mexico will pay for the wall.

“My phone has been ringing off the hook,” said Diana Walker, an Amagansett resident, advocate, and a member of East Hampton Town’s Latino advisory committee. Undocumented immigrants are “terrified they are going to be deported,” she said. With President Obama’s election, it seemed America had become more tolerant, she said. “I think that we were blindsided by all these unhappy people who just said, ‘No. We’re not being left behind and we don’t like it.’ Their voices prevailed.” 

The Rev. Stephen Grozio of the Hispanic Apostolate, which provides Spanish-speaking priests for Catholic churches on the East End, said the Latino community is shocked by Trump’s win. “I don’t know if they considered the ‘what if.’ It was more like the ‘I hope not,’ ” he said yesterday. Concerns about what will happen to undocumented immigrants are shared by many who are documented because, he said, “everyone has relatives” who may not be here legally.

Ms. Walker has been reassuring undocumented immigrants that policy changes cannot happen overnight. “Those of us in the advocacy business are really going to have to have the balls to be a strong firewall, if for no other reason than that the economic bottom would fall out from this area.” 

“Our entire resort community runs on the engine of immigrants,” largely Latino, but also Jamaican and Irish, said Minerva Perez, the executive director of Organizacion Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island. She said the East End business community has to take stock of its future. Without immigrant labor, what would that be like? “The response to that question, I hope, would be let’s take care of who we have here now.” 

She said it is more important than ever to bridge the cultural divide and to be vigilant about what may be bubbling to the surface. “We are fully willing, able, and ready to speak up,” Ms. Perez said, whether it is on policy issues or bullying, to “make sure we’re together and not just the Latino community.” 

Locally, she said she has seen such “great things” happen recently — diversity training of local police, ongoing dialogues with local leaders, and the creation of the Latino advisory committee in East Hampton. “I’ve seen people come together, like showing up to move a woman out of a slumlord-like situation at the drop of a hat,” she said. “We seem to know how to take care of each other. I just want it to continue in that vein.”

She agreed that Mr. Trump’s election has stirred fear, but she said that many undocumented immigrants have come from such dire situations in economically depressed countries that “no matter what goes on here, it’s so much better.”

Sandra I. Melendez, an East Hampton attorney who practices immigration, tax, and criminal law, said people are afraid of what a Trump presidency could bring. “The people that are here without status, I can tell you, they are all afraid. It is a game changer.”

She received a text message at 6:30 yesterday morning from a client, asking “Please review my case status. I want to know if it is coming soon. I am afraid that with this person winning, I can lose my benefits.” 

“People are worried. We all should be,” Ms. Melendez said.

However, she cautioned that even if Trump follows through on campaign promises to remove undocumented immigrants and overturn paths to citizenship opened by President Obama, the power will rest with Congress. “It is not like he can just sign an executive order. There are going to be groups fighting it. It is going to be a long battle. Who knows what is going to happen? We will have to wait for January to see. First 100 days.”

Andrew Bedini, a co-owner of Java Nation coffee roaster in Bridgehampton who was born in Argentina and speaks fluent Spanish, said that the mood among his Latino regulars was subdued yesterday morning. “They’re shocked. People are worried,” he said.

“We are actually in fear now,” said Mario Guerra, 36, an undocumented immigrant who came to the United States from Ecuador 11 years ago. Afraid to give his real name, he said, “If what he said in his campaign is going to be true. . . . I have several friends that have applied for DREAM Act, and they’re worried. They’re probably going to lose their driver’s license, work permit, all that. So it’s pretty scary.”

With two small children, one who is on the autism spectrum, his biggest concern is losing the services his family gets through New York State. “Are we going to be able to get it somewhere else for my kid with special needs?” 

He works in construction and is also worried that business owners are not going to want to give him work. “Will you be punished by law if you hire illegal immigrants, that type of stuff,” he said. 

“The sun doesn’t even want to come out today,” said a 27-year-old from Ecuador, also afraid to give his name because of his immigration status. He came to the United States seven years ago and overstayed his visa. Many of his family members are citizens and have been here since the 1980s, but members of his immediate family are not. 

Pedro Enqrique Rivera, a 44-year-old living in Springs for the last 10 years, said he understands the fear those who are not citizens feel. Still, he knows enough about American government that he is not concerned that his path to citizenship is threatened. Having received his green card a year ago, after coming here from Mexico on student visas, and then obtaining work permits, he has to wait three to five years to apply for citizenship. “These kind of changes take a long time. I don’t think he’s allowed to do these right away. There are many other issues he has in the world to be concerned about,” he said.

Nancy Nano, a Peruvian who has been here 20 years, voted Tuesday in her first presidential election since becoming an American citizen in May, casting her ballot for Mrs. Clinton. “I’m sad now. I expected she’s the winner,” she said by phone from her Noyac tailoring shop. She is disheartened by the way Mr. Trump speaks “about women, about everybody, about immigrants, too,” and feels sorry for her friends who are undocumented. “They are scared. I don’t know what they can do now.”

She came to the U.S. through Mexico 20 years ago. Nine years ago, with the help of her employer in Manhattan, she obtained working papers and a driver’s license. The citizenship process took nearly a decade. “Thank God, I am a citizen,” she said, but she is concerned about the future. “This is my country. What happens now?” 

Even with the loss of her candidate, she is glad to have cast her first ballot. “Yesterday was my first experience in my life. I’m feeling really good. My disappointment that she’s not the winner? Well, that’s life!”

Necessity is the mother of invention, and when young Nicholas wanted to eat an apple but was frustrated by the sticky juice that got all over his hand, his mother, Debbie Blake-Frasca, got an idea. 

Ms. Blake-Frasca and her daughter, Megan Morici, both of Montauk, are partners in the invention and launch of Handy Apple, an apple holder for children. Early adopters, including a gathering at an apple festival, have praised the invention, and the mother-daughter team is already planning another product. 

“It was all based around my little brother, who was 5 at the time,” said Ms. Morici, who was then studying business communication at Long Island University in Riverhead. “He wanted to eat an apple and the juices got all over his hand. My mom went into the kitchen and got corn holders.”

Nicholas liked the makeshift solution, but the skewers were both too small and too sharp for the boy. Ms. Blake-Frasca, whose Out of the Woods Crafts is a popular vendor at fairs, assembled a prototype that would overcome those shortcomings, and through research discovered that no such product existed.

“That’s how the Handy Apple came about,” Ms. Morici said. “Ever since then, my mom and I have been working together. She is the inventor, and I have been helping on the marketing side.” 

As it happened, Ms. Morici had a project due at L.I.U.: the launch of a business with attendant website, marketing effort, and public relations blitz. Further effort was required, and the mother-daughter team became versed in such things as patents, trademarks, and bar codes. “I’m definitely putting my degree to use,” she said. 

Handy Apple was a hit at the 44th annual Apples and Crafts Fair, held Oct. 8 and 9 in Woodstock, Vt., Ms. Morici said. “Our target audience was really kids. It’s almost a toy, a really fun way to have a kid eat a healthy snack.” Nonetheless, “We had older people saying, ‘This is great for people with arthritis,’ and a special-education teacher pointed out that this is amazing for children with sensory issues. We didn’t even think about that.” 

Joy Mangano, the Long Island woman who invented the Miracle Mop, holds more than 100 patents, and is the subject of the 2015 movie “Joy,” was “a huge inspiration,” Ms. Morici said. “Taking care of what needs to be taken care of — that was Joy. You go through those moments of ‘Can I do this? Is it going to work?’ You doubt yourself, but think of all the positive things.” Ms. Mangano, she said, “is a strong woman that did what she wanted to do.” 

Handy Apple is at present available at the Red Horse Market, One Stop Market, and Groundworks@Hren’s in East Hampton, Hank’s Pumpkintown in Water Mill, and Nook and Cranny Gifts in Islip. A website, handyapple.com, is now live. 

“We can’t wait to see what happens,” Ms. Morici said of the market’s reaction to Handy Apple. Regardless, these new inventors are not finished. “We’re definitely working on more,” she said.

The East Hampton Library is a little more than a week away from unveiling the latest, and last, piece of the overhaul it began in June 2012: a new young adult room in the basement of the building that will be dedicated to serving teenagers who have few places to go for relaxation, recreation, and independent and group studying.

“We’re really here to serve everybody in the community and to fill the needs that they have, including the high school kids,” Dennis Fabiszak, the director of the library, said in an interview last week. “They seem to have been forgotten about in a lot of places, and we’re going to change that.”

The library will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Nov. 19 at noon. It will be followed by a pizza-tasting contest and the announcement of the winner of the teen photography contest, for which the library solicited entries over the past few weeks. A large wall mural painted by a group of East Hampton High School art students will also be revealed.

The new young adult room has a bright, earthy, and modern feel to it, with a palette of greens, bamboo accents, crisp lines, and carpeting and countertops made from recycled materials. The concept was chosen not by library officials or architects, but by young people themselves, who convened as the library’s teen advisory board to select the room’s colors, prioritize its amenities, and decide on other elements for the project. They ultimately met twice with professional designers to finalize the plans.

“It feels like an accomplishment,” said Jackie Chuya, 15. “You designed something for yourself and it’s put into the real world.”

Wells Woolcott, 13, added, “It’s something that’s going to last a lot longer than just ourselves. That’s a really great thing.”

Raquel Burns, 18, said everyone started with different opinions for how the room should look. “We came together and made one room that we’re all happy with,” she said. “This room is not just one mind, it’s all of us together. . . . I think that’s cool.”

About a year ago, a group of East Hampton High School seniors penned a letter to the library administration requesting a space there dedicated to teens. They graduated soon afterward, but Mr. Fabiszak said the library jumped into action. It soon received a major gift from the estate of the late George and Teda Balasses, which meant the project could be funded entirely through private sources. Ben Krupinski was the builder, Lee Skolnick was the architect and interior designer, and A.M.G. of Sag Harbor was the woodworker. The entire project totaled about $400,000, including labor, materials, and other donations.

At one point, a concept for a beach-themed room was suggested, but the majority of the teen advisory board wanted something more distinct from the children’s room, which had a similar design.

The 800-square-foot room will feature desktop computers along one wall, as well as laptop computers for students to borrow while they are at the library. Those computers will be outfitted with software chosen by the teen board to complement what they and their peers are learning at school and are interested in outside of academics.

There will be comfortable chairs on one end of the room, and a conference table with a projector at the other end for students who want space to work together on group projects. And, of course, there will be the library’s young adult book collection, which was expanded in anticipation of increased use.

“By providing that space, we feel that it will be used a lot more effectively and there will be more attendance,” Mr. Fabiszak said. “That’s what we have seen with the other spaces we have created.”

And indeed, books remain part of the appeal.

“As an avid reader, I love all the options that are here. . . . I will definitely come here more,” said Gaby Arevalo, 17.

“Teenagers still read, but it is an age where voluntary reading for pleasure does drop off, so it’s important to have a place for them to have materials there, to encourage lifelong reading and learning,” said Lisa Michne, the library’s young adult program director.

She expects the new room to have a wider impact, too.

“It’s a very neutral space. It’s not the school. They’re not being graded. It’s not the sports field,” Ms. Michne said. “Friendships are made here that wouldn’t necessarily normally be made, so it’s kind of cool. You see it every time.”

Members of the village board learned that a traffic roundabout long planned for the intersection of Buell and Toilsome Lanes is likely to be constructed in the spring and heard plans to create a soft barrier at the south end of Town Pond to protect the Hedges Inn property.

The roundabout, designed by the office of Drew Bennett, a consulting engineer, is intended to control and make traffic safer at what is called the five corners intersection. “We anticipate Department of Transportation approval and a work permit to be issued shortly,” Mr. Bennett told the board. “With board approval, we would be in position for winter bidding.”

Approximately 3,800 square yards of roadway will be relocated to accommodate the 100-foot-diameter roundabout, which he said would enhance the safety of motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians. The project will include a landscaped center island, pedestrian safety islands amid multiple crosswalks, and the relocation of one utility pole, and new sidewalks, signs, landscaping, and drainage. The estimated cost is $1 million, of which $700,000 will come from a state grant.

Mayor Rickenbach asked that the Ladies Village Improvement Society and Garden Club of East Hampton be included in landscape plans for the center island. “We’ll provide a water tap inside the roundabout itself so they’ll be able to irrigate any shrubs and flowers,” Mr. Bennett said.

The single-lane roundabout will resemble one on North Haven rather than one on Scuttlehole Road in Bridgehampton, which is smaller. It will accommodate the East Hampton Fire Department’s vehicles, Mr. Bennett said. He called the continuous movement of traffic encouraged by the roundabout “a significant improvement” over the present hard stops. Bicyclists will share the roundabout with motorists, which Mr. Bennett said is safer than an additional lane.

Mr. Bennett also discussed the creation of a soft barrier for vehicles that fail to execute the 90-degree left-hand turn from Woods Lane onto Main Street. The idea is to create what he called a wet swale, a shallow, sloped depression, at the south end of the pond.

According to Becky Molinaro, the village administrator, after a New York City taxi crossed the grass island there and crashed through the Hedges Inn fence in September, one of several such incidents, “representatives from the property came in again and asked if it was something the village could discuss and review for consideration.” The inn’s owners, she said, had indicated a willingness to share the cost.

The swale would be planted and its bottom would be muddy, Mr. Bennett said. “The idea was that it would not be a sharp barrier to a car traveling across it, but would certainly slow it down if not bring it to a halt,” he said. “We’ll go back to the folks that raised the issue and will look for equal funding,” the mayor said.

A former Sag Harbor man who recently moved to the Oakview Highway trailer park in East Hampton was arrested Tuesday afternoon on three rape charges.

According to Adriana Noyola, the assistant district attorney who handled his arraignment yesterday in East Hampton Town Justice Court, Benjamin Lehman, 25, had sexual intercourse twice with a 16-year-old-girl, and with another 16-year-old as well. The three charges are Class E felonies, the lowest felony level.

One of the victims was said to be present in the courtroom. She apparently did not want Justice Steven Tekulsky to give her an order of protection, but he issued court orders on behalf of both teens, requiring that Mr. Lehman have no further contact with either. 

Ms. Noyola asked that bail be set at $50,000. Matt D’Amato, a Legal Aid Society lawyer, argued for a much lower amount, pointing out that the defendant had lived in Sag Harbor for many years before moving to East Hampton and was about to start a new job. Ms. Noyola countered that Mr. Lehman has at least two prior arrests, one on a felony charge of burglary in 2008 when he was 17, stemming from an incident at Pierson High School, and another earlier this year, on charges of menacing and endangering the welfare of a minor. The disposition of the two cases could not immediately be learned.

Justice Tekulsky set bail at $15,000. It was not met, and Mr. Lehman was remanded to the county jail in Riverside. He will be brought back to East Hampton Monday afternoon and released later that day, should the district attorney’s office fail to obtain a grand jury indictment on the charges. If a grand jury is convened, Mr. D’Amato asked that his client be allowed to testify.

It is difficult the morning after the election to come to grips with what they said could not happen: Donald J. Trump will follow Barack Obama as president of the United States.

Among the terrifying aspects of the coming Trump years is that he has surrounded himself not with the country’s best minds on the right but with embarrassing second-stringers like former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who so far has barely escaped indictment in the Bridgegate scandal. Then there is Congress. The big test will be whether Mr. Trump is independent-minded enough to veto the more dangerous schemes that will come from Republicans in the House and Senate and to reconsider what he and they will do about the vacancy on the Supreme Court.

For many of us who live on the East End of Long Island and for those who vacation here, Washington, D.C., seems very far away. Yet in many ways the federal government’s role is significant here. Consider that almost the entire North and South Fork economy is powered by the labor of mostly Latin American workers; sudden changes in immigration policy could be catastrophic to the farming, construction, and hospitality sectors. Abandoning Obamacare could plunge many of our friends and neighbors back into the ranks of the uninsured. And if predictions are accurate, upheaval in the stock market could have a profoundly negative effect on local real estate.

The East End should be at the forefront of work to combat climate change and the sea level rise it produces — aided by visionary leadership from Washington. Now that seems impossible, and backward motion on international emissions control agreements could have a devastating, irreversible effect here over the coming decades. If a Trump-led government reduces support for alternative energy, the Northeast could again be affected by pollution from coal-burning power plants. Mr. Trump’s anti-regulation views could gut the Environmental Protection Agency and slow efforts to preserve wildlife and assure viable fish stocks for future generations as he and Congress rip apart other federal agencies.

Washington is not quite as far away as we might wish. The risks for our region of the Trump years are very real.