Coastal retreat, however politically unpopular it may be, is the only logical response to sea level rise, an environmental advocate told an audience at the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton on Saturday.

Kevin McAllister of Defend H2O,  formerly the Peconic Baykeeper, said that municipalities, the federal government, and the Army Corps of Engineers are making the wrong choices based on political and cost considerations rather than the long-term, science-based planning that would allow resilience. 

The intertidal zone — where the marine system meets terra firma — is characterized by dynamic equilibrium, a system that will remain in balance or adjust based on the supply of sand, the shape of the beach, energy, and sea level rise, Mr. McAllister said. “If something is changing, there will be a modification on one or all sides of that equation,” he said. 

But as illustrated in slides depicting coastlines on Long Island as well as in the Carolinas and Florida, the consequences of hard structures such as jetties, groins, and geotextile tubes are more harmful than effective, he said. He called such efforts, along with the elevation of structures and roadways, both expensive and shortsighted. 

“If we’re not looking at it in a holistic manner — a large system — we’re short-selling the dynamics and the continuity of sand flow,” he said of efforts to protect a particular section of shoreline. “You almost have to keep connecting the dots, if you will, with structures, because of the impacts of the initial structure that is causing downdrift. We’ve seen this time and time again.” 

On Montauk’s north coast, the beach on the eastern side of the inlet is accreting, he said, while the harbor’s jetties block the natural migration of sand westward. As a result, “you have property owner after property owner trying to stabilize the shoreline for protection of their homes” west of the jetties, “all the way to Culloden Point.” 

He questioned the wisdom, for example, of the Army Corps of Engineers plan to dredge the inlet, deposit the sediment on the “sand starved” beach, and construct a groin field intended to lock in the deposited sand. “We’re talking a lake environment, so the sediment is different,” he said of the inlet. Depositing that sand on a “high-energy ocean-style beach,” such as that abutting Block Island Sound, “the material will not match up. It will be finer, under wave attack will disappear very quickly, and then we’re left with groins, more structures out there.” 

The appropriate approach, he argued, is sand bypassing, or recouping the material on the eastern, updrift side and moving it to the west. “They don’t want to spend the money to do it,” he said. To the Army Corps, “this is just another job, and then cut and run. You have to invest in the proper approach, in this case sand bypassing, which would require annual maintenance, and moving material through, to have some semblance of stability on this downdrift side.” 

Where revetments or geotextile tubes are installed under the sand, the roots of beach grass that naturally run deep and stabilize a dune system cannot perform that function. “These plants never fully mature, never do what they do best,” he said. 

At Mastic Beach, which, like downtown Montauk, is at low elevation, “you can see the wetlands migrating, tidal marshes moving landward in conjunction with sea level rise,” Mr. McAllister said. Where the Army Corps wants to elevate houses and roadways, “what we have going on with sea level rise is inundation, groundwater coming up vertically. . . . As much as we may be controlling surge and storms, you’re not changing anything with regard to flooding.” A better approach, he said, would be to “buy out the homes, as opposed to foolish structural remedies that will have no bearing on reality.” 

Pointing to Dune Road in Quogue, Mr. McAllister cited a prevalence of “sunny day flooding” due to coastal inundation. “With respect to certain areas where we have developed” — including Lazy Point in Amagansett — “because of their low-lying elevations, they’re going to be susceptible to sea level rise.” 

With a scientific consensus that New York State’s coast will experience a sea level rise of between 16 and 36 inches by the 2050s, he said, these low-lying areas are in peril. “Elected officials do not want to hear me, but because we have minimal development in this strand of Dune Road, I think we need to have retreat from this area, and not continue with big investments.” Over the long term, “it’s a losing prospect to think that we can define that fluid line, the dynamic edge, and say we’re going to stay there forever.” 

That includes downtown Montauk, he said. “We have to find the political will to . . . buy out those 10 or 12 seasonal hotels, extinguish the structures there, and bring in a high volume of native beach sand. If it means dredging offshore and beach nourishing in the interim to restore functions and values of the natural system, that’s where we need to go. That will provide greater protection to the downtown while we’re figuring out where we need to go with the downtown,” which, he said, “will become an isthmus at some point. These are hard choices.”

Maximillian Osborn said he signed up for East Hampton High School’s Advanced Placement government class to help him figure out whom to vote for in this year’s presidential election, but two months into the class, even with daily discussions of the race led by his teacher, Billy Barbour, Maximillian, 18, still has no idea who he will vote for on Tuesday.

“I personally am really annoyed that this is my first election and these are my options right now,” he said to a reporter visiting his class on Monday. “I’m not a fan of either candidate right now. . . . Their morals just don’t seem in line for a president, I think.”

Feverish discourse on the 2016 election is seemingly everywhere right now — from newspapers and television to social media and even in the hallways and classrooms in our schools. The students are being inundated with information and opinions, Mr. Barbour said. “They are a lot more informed than in previous generations. . . . They have access to all the technology. When I was a kid, there were three channels. If I didn’t want to hear Ronald Reagan, I would turn off the TV or switch channels. That’s not an option for them. They’re in it to a degree I don’t think I’ve seen before.”

One of his students, Ciara Bowen, confirmed his theory. “You can’t avoid it,” she said. “You have commercials on your Snapchat, and it’s always on Facebook. Everyone is forced to be part of this election, more so than elections in the past. It’s because of how big of a character these candidates are. They’re kind of wild.”

The Ross School held a teach-in yesterday, bringing together students and teachers from 7th through 12th grades — for a whole day of lessons on government, history, politics, and issues such as foreign policy, immigration, health care, and the Supreme Court. Kevin Snyder, a cultural history teacher there, called this year’s election “a teachable moment.”

“To talk about what has been said has been challenging,” he said. “This isn’t a normal election. I think everyone can agree with that. It has been difficult to look at some of the things that have come up and discuss them with students.”

He has observed Ross students to be “keenly interested in the election,” particularly those who are headed into college next year or who are international students living in this country.

“We are focusing on the present but turning toward the future,” Mr. Snyder said.

For some students, the election is a real-time history lesson, but others are frustrated that the process seems to have devolved into something else. “I think it’s not even about politics anymore. I feel like this election is just getting so far off topic,” said Jacqui Thorsen, an East Hampton senior.

At Pierson High School, students in the International Baccalaureate first-year history course went all in on the election last week, teaming up as Republicans or Democrats to hold a mock debate moderated by two peers and their teacher, Ruth White-Dunne. It was so intense that some of the students admitted afterward they had been dreading the exercise.

“The debate itself was very stressful to prepare for, but I think it was very important to talk about politics because it does affect our everyday lives,” said Alex Dudley, a junior. “Our parents and the news tell us what to think, and us developing our own opinions is what I think is the most important.”

A classmate, Hope Brindle, agreed. “There is a horrible sense of dread when you’re about to share what you believe in with people you know who don’t share the exact same thing,” she said. “Not because you don’t respect their beliefs . . . but because there will be some conflict between the parties. But it’s important to talk about those kinds of things with people who have different opinions than you in a nontoxic environment, and I’m glad I got that opportunity.”

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have even had a presence in elementary classrooms, though it is more subtle. Mark Carlson, who teaches second and third grades at the Wainscott School, said that his students know the two candidates’ names and what they look like, but may not know what they stand for. “They’re definitely aware of them, which I think speaks volumes, whether positive or negative,” Mr. Carlson said. 

As Election Day approaches, Mr. Carlson has been leading lessons on how the U.S. government works. The activities will culminate in a mock election on Monday, but instead of casting a ballot for Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Trump, the Wainscott children will vote for a fictitious class president — “Billy,” “Sarah,” or “Brian,” who are proposing ideas such as more recess or less recess, no homework, fewer tests, and free candy at school.

“It’s a little difficult to get politics involved in schools with the younger kids,” Mr. Carlson said. “They start bringing in things that adults share with one another, and I don’t know if I wanted the culture of the classroom to reflect that. It has been pretty crazy.”

Older students seemed frustrated by the election, especially those old enough to understand the national discussion but not old enough to vote. And many are anxious about the results.

“I am stressed, definitely,” said Nia Dawson, a 17-year-old Bridgehampton senior in the school’s A.P. government class. “I’m going to be 18, 19, 20, and this person will be in office during some of the most important years in my life.”

“It is our future representative and leader of the U.S. that is on the line here,” Thomas Brooks, a Pierson junior, said. “Although we are not making an impact on that, I think there’s always stress involved because it’s such a big role to be filled.”

“People often don’t realize how much this election is actually going to affect us, because over the next four years we’re going to be done with high school and some of us are going to go straight to having a job,” said Gregory Baum, another Pierson junior. “The person who is elected is really going to affect what it’s going to be like finding a job.”

Raymond Maldonado, another Bridgehampton senior, fears electing a president who is eager to go to war, because of the prospect of the military draft. Raymond, 17, lost a cousin last year to the conflict in Iraq. “I’m going to be 18, but I didn’t have a vote. It’s going to affect my life directly even though I had no say in it.” 

What also became clear is the role schools play in teaching children about politics, civics, and government. Many students and teachers interviewed agreed that it is imperative that schools teach or talk about the election. Raymond, who transferred to Bridgehampton two weeks ago from a school UpIsland, said no one was talking about the election at his old school.

“We expect our schools to teach our kids physics, math, and all of that, but if we’re not expecting them to teach about politics, who is going to teach them?” he said. “I was definitely looking at both sides before I came here. . . . How are you supposed to know if you’re not educated?”

The 2016 election has helped Alexandra Perez, an East Hampton senior, learn how important it is to be engaged in politics.

“People do have the ability to change things,” she said, “if they’re voting even in minor elections for local boards. You don’t have to be hardcore out there in every campaign, but it’s definitely important to be informed and do your part.”

Citing recently reported results of tests on water from Suffolk County Water Authority wells throughout East Hampton Town, which showed the presence of chromium-6, a resident of Wainscott, where a well had the highest reading, is urging town officials to have tests done on drinking water from private wells.

Chromium-6 is a toxic element labeled a carcinogen by the federal Department of Health and Human Services. Of particular concern, the Wainscott resident, Simon Kinsella, wrote in a recent letter to Michael Sendlenski, the town attorney, is that the Environmental Protection Agency cites cement plants as a source of chromium-6, and that Suffolk Cement operates a plant at what is called the “pit,” a former sand-mining site comprising 38 acres north of Montauk Highway in the hamlet. 

The letter was copied to the town board, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the chairmen of the New York Senate’s health and environmental conservation committee, and the E.P.A., along with the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee, of which Mr. Kinsella is a member.

 It also was sent to Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, who has been monitoring water quality in the area for the East Hampton Town Trustees. Mr. Kinsella suggested that Dr. Gobler be engaged “to thoroughly test the drinking water within Wainscott.”

   The levels of chromium-6 in the samples from water authority wells in East Hampton Town ranged from .033 parts per billion at Montauk to a high of .54 parts per billion at Wainscott. The results were distributed in a recent report from the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group on nationwide testing for chromium-6.

The federal government has not set a standard for acceptable levels of chromium-6, which is also called hexavalent chromium and  can occur naturally. However, the E.P.A. has set a standard of 100 parts per billion for total chromium, which includes all forms of chromium. 

In California, where state regulators set a 10 parts per billion legal limit for chromium-6 in drinking water, scientists concluded that the ingestion of even minute amounts of the element is cancer causing. They set a safe level for lifetime exposure at .02 parts per billion. 

A legal battle over chromium-6 pollution in drinking water in Hinckley, Calif., which ended in a $333 million settlement against Pacific Gas and Electric, was chronicled in the film “Erin Brockovich.” 

Mr. Kinsella provided a report by Pace Analytical Services of Melville showing the results, he said, of laboratory tests on water samples from nine pools of standing water at the Suffolk Cement property. The levels in two of those nine samples were exponentially higher than those found in water authority wells. The property, which also contains Wainscott Sand and Gravel, is within a county-designated groundwater management zone pin­pointed for protection, as well as the Georgica Pond watershed. 

Groundwater in the hamlet is also among the topics on the agenda of the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee meeting on Saturday at the Wainscott Chapel at 9 a.m. 

“It’s very concerning,” Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez said this week of chromium-6.  She noted that Mr. Kinsella’s letter had been forwarded to the Suffolk County Department of Health Services in addition to D.E.C. officials and the water authority. 

“While we’re not looking to alarm anyone,” Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said at a town board meeting on Tuesday, “we believe engaging these agencies is a prudent thing to do.”

Carl Yastrzemski, the major league baseball great, Billy DePetris, and William Stavropoulos, who won county championships in six-man football, basketball, and baseball under the Bridgehampton School banner in the mid-1950s, the late Killer Bees basketball coach John Niles, and Sandy McFarland, who starred in track at East Hampton High School and at Syracuse University, are to be inducted into Bridgehampton’s Hall of Fame on Nov. 16.

The announcement was made at the Bridgehampton School Board meeting this week.

“We understand that Carl is coming,” Carl Johnson, the present Killer Bees coach and a member of the Hall of Fame committee, said of Yastrzemski, who lives in the Boston area. McFarland, an elementary school principal in Concord, N.C., who was unable to attend her recent induction into East Hampton High School’s Hall of Fame, is expected to attend the Bridgehampton ceremony, which Johnson said would be held at the school at 6 p.m.

McFarland still holds the outdoor 400-meter record at Syracuse, where she competed in indoor and outdoor track, and was the Big East’s indoor 400 champion.

Yastrzemski, who played his entire career for the Boston Red Sox, from 1961 to 1983, led the team to the World Series twice, and won baseball’s triple crown (most home runs, most runs batted in, and highest batting average) in 1967. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, N.Y., in 1989.

Niles coached the school’s boys basketball team, the Killer Bees, to state championships in 1984 and 1986. Niles said his ’86 team, which won with ease the county’s small schools championship and the state championship (Bridgehampton’s fifth such), was a singular one. 

The New York State Sportswriters Association agreed. Its weekly newsletter at the time declared that “the Bridgies are too good for Class D ball — the best Class D team we have ever seen.”

Troy Bowe, Julian Johnson, Ronnie Gholson, Darryl Hemby, Chris Parker, and Tim Jackson were among Niles’s players that year. 

Carl Johnson, who is the only coach in the state to have won three state championships as a player and three as a coach, said that all members of the Hall’s first class were Bridgehampton graduates. 

It was only because of that requirement that the late Roger Golden, credited as the creator of the high-pressure Killer Bees style of play, was not included among the inductees this year, he said. 

East Hampton Town police arrests this week varied from an East Hampton man charged with a felony for which bail was set at $10,000 and the arrests of three teenagers who were released without bail on misdemeanor and other charges.

Dennis E. McGuire, a resident of the mobile home park on Oakview Highway, was arrested Monday night and charged with videoing a woman as she was using the shower in his residence. According to police, Mr. McGuire, who turned 49 this month, shot the video using a Samsung cellphone at about 2 p.m. on Saturday. The woman, whose name was not released, had been visiting him and his wife, police said.

Capt. Chris Anderson said on Tuesday that police were contacted Saturday night “by a third party,” triggering an investigation. Mr. McGuire came into police headquarters on his own Monday and was arrested shortly after 9 p.m. According to police, he had confessed during questioning. “It was stupid,” he told detectives, adding that he had erased the video. However, the captain said, “We have recovered some physical evidence.”

During his arraignment in East Hampton Town Justice Court on Tuesday morning, Justice Lisa R. Rana reviewed his criminal record as she weighed the district attorney’s office’s request to have bail set at $10,000. She noted his prior arrests, several of which were on drunken driving charges, occurred more than 20 years ago. She issued an order of protection for his alleged victim, and told Mr. McGuire that he could only return to the trailer, which he owns, once, accompanied by police, to retrieve his belongings. 

“You may be facing some jail time,” Justice Rana said, agreeing to the $10,000 bail request. Bail was posted.

Three teenagers, two who are enrolled at East Hampton High School and a former 10th grader who recently dropped out, were arrested early Saturday morning, after a fight at 330 Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton. The identity of the youths, who were reportedly 17 or 16 years old, has been withheld.

Captain Anderson said there had been a feud between the three arrested youths and visitors to the house, whose names were not released. According to the report, police had been called to the house two days earlier to investigate alleged vandalism. A car parked there apparently had been spray-painted, but its owner declined to press charges.

On Saturday, the three young men allegedly followed someone in a vehicle to the house. Police said a fight broke out when they entered the property. A watch belonging to one of the residents allegedly fell to the ground, and, according to the report, one of the three picked it up and pocketed it.

 All three were charged with trespassing as a violation, although the individual who allegedly scooped up the watch was also charged with petty larceny and criminal possession of stolen property, as misdemeanors.

Because of the timing of the arrest, the three were held at headquarters all day Saturday and arraigned the next morning. They were released without having to post bail, but only after a dressing down by Justice Rana, who told their parents to set strict curfews for their sons. She warned the two enrolled students not to miss any classes, and ordered them to bring a report to that effect to their next court appearance. As for the youth who had dropped out of 10th grade, she posed a question: “How is that working out for you?”

In another arrest this week, the resident of another trailer park, the Montauk Shores Condominium, is facing a felony charge. George B. Fuchs, 73, who also has an address in East Quogue, was arrested Friday night charged with criminal mischief. 

According to police, the manager of the park, Matt S. Yudelson, was getting ready for bed when the Arlo Security app on his phone went off, alerting him that someone was at the perimeter of his trailer. Looking outside, he saw a figure near his parked vehicles. “I have a red Jeep, a Porsche, and a 1952 Ford,” he told police. The furtive figure began walking away through the park, Mr. Yudelson said, and he followed. 

As the person entered another trailer, a light went on allowing Mr. Yudelson to recognize Mr. Fuchs. Mr. Yudelson alleged that as manager of the park for 10 years, there had been times that “Mr. Fuchs did not follow the rules,” and had to be warned. 

Mr. Yudelson told police that as he returned to his trailer, he noticed a chemical smell near his vehicles. It appeared, he said, that paint stripper had been poured over the hood and sides of the 1952 Ford van, causing the paint to peel. He phoned police, who soon had Mr. Fuchs in custody. Bail was set the next morning at $500, which was posted.

While Bridgehampton Fire District commissioners say a public hearing on its 2017 budget was held on Oct. 18, as advertised and required by law, some members of the Bridgehampton Fire Department and the public claim they attempted to attend the hearing at the firehouse at the scheduled time, but found the building locked and no district officials in sight.

“They didn’t have a public hearing,” Tim Sieger, the Fire Department's first assistant chief, alleged in an interview last Thursday. He said he, along with Fire Department personnel and a handful of citizens, had arrived at the firehouse by 7 p.m., when the hearing was scheduled to begin. Unable to enter the building, Chief Sieger said, almost everyone left shortly afterward. He said one of the commissioners finally did arrive at the firehouse, but by then it was 7:19 p.m.

In an email to The Star last Thursday, Pam Balserus, the Bridgehampton Fire District secretary, disputed his claim. She said two commissioners were at the firehouse on Oct. 18 “as per our newspaper notice. They were there at 7 p.m. for half an hour and nobody showed up. . . . Any taxpayer had an opportunity to come at 7 p.m. to be heard. No people showed up so it ended at 7:30 as I stated.”

New York State law governing fire districts mandates a public hearing on the annual budget on the third Tuesday of October, but the law does not outline any steps districts must take if a public hearing is not held. Robert Freeman, the executive director of the New York State Committee on Open Government, said there are no formal consequences in such an event unless someone initiates a lawsuit. “Things are left on their own unless a court steps in and says things should not have happened this way.”

The Bridgehampton Fire District commissioners adopted the proposed 2017 budget of approximately $3.32 million on Sept. 14. They discussed the budget again on Sept. 28, but, noting it was possible to adjust it before the Nov. 4 deadline to adopt a final version, left it unchanged and scheduled a public hearing. The commissioners were set to meet again last night. They have until Nov. 7 to file the budget with the Town of Southampton. 

Correction: Tim Sieger is the Bridgehampton Fire Department's first assistant chief, not the department chief as stated in an earlier version of this article. 

The Bridgehampton School Board, which has discussed possible expansion of the kindergarten through 12th grade school building over the years, has set Dec. 13 for a referendum on whether to raise some $24.7 million to do so.

The board unanimously approved the Dec. 13 vote on a $24,734,568 proposition at its Oct. 19 meeting, with one board member, Kat McClelland, absent.

“This is a big step for this district and, in my mind, long overdue. . . . I feel very comfortable in bringing this proposed project to a vote and letting the people decide,” Jeff Mansfield, a board member, said. “That’s the way of our country, and the people will decide if they think this is a good idea.”

The school board also approved an environmental impact study required by state law, which clears the site for construction. The study concluded that “the proposed project will not result in significant impacts,” Robert Hauser, the assistant superintendent for finance and facilities, said during the meeting.

On Monday, however, the decision drew criticism from some members of the Bridgehampton Citizens Advisory Committee, who charged that the board was pushing through a December vote at a time when older voters may have left for warmer climates. “Just for P.R. purposes, that is such a bad idea, in my opinion,” Pamela Harwood, the committee’s chairwoman, said.

She asked Mr. Mansfield, who attended the meeting, whether the board would consider postponing the vote. “My parents left for Arizona and they are going to vote because they are going to use an absentee ballot,” Mr. Mansfield responded. He noted that scheduling the referendum had been a unanimous board decision. “It’s not up to me,” he said.

“You may be doing yourselves in,” Julie Burmeister, who has worked as a substitute teacher at the school, later told Mr. Mansfield. She said the district superintendent, Lois Favre, and the board had said there would be more discussions. “It was pushed through too quickly,” she said.

In an email to The Star, Dr. Favre said discussions about expansion had been ongoing for about 10 years.

“Solving the significant space issues . . . will help us to create the kind of learning environment that students and teachers can thrive in, and certainly one that the hamlet of Bridgehampton can be proud of showcasing,” Dr. Favre said. “Investing in our students goes a long way in providing them with the confidence that their community cares, and is behind them. While the space issue is upon us and very real, the real need is to provide students a viable, updated space to learn, collaborate, and grow — they deserve that.”

The idea of consolidation with surrounding school districts, or sending older students to other schools, was quickly raised at the citizens’ meeting. One member asked if studies had been done on the matter. Mr. Mansfield said the board also would have to put any proposal to pay tuition for students to attend other schools to a vote.

Mr. Mansfield had been among a Bridgehampton contingent who believed the school should be closed and, in 2009, supported three candidates who ran on a platform to do so. They lost by a 3-to-1 margin in the highest turnout the district had ever seen. “In essence, that election, de facto, became a vote to keep the school open,” he said, adding that what he heard voters say was, “We don’t want to tuition out the high school.” 

The student population has grown 35 percent in the last four or five years, and the building, which has had no substantial capital improvements since constructed in 1939, is not considered adequate. “Right now, where I am, the status quo is unacceptable,” Mr. Mansfield  said.

Ms. Harwood, who said she had never stepped foot in the school until she attended a community presentation on the proposal, agreed there was little doubt the building needed to be renovated and modernized. It is the expansion that is being questioned, she said. She has invited the school board and the administration to the committee’s Nov. 28 meeting to make a formal presentation. 

Members of the group also complained that they had not known the board was going to decide on scheduling a vote at last week’s school board meeting. Mr. Mansfield said he was sorry they felt there was a lack of communication. “That school has been a bit of an island for whatever reason. The school really has been on its own. Part of it is the school’s fault and part of it is the outside community,” he said. Ms. Harwood said his comment was fair.

Bridgehampton School officials held two community forums on the expansion, one on a Wednesday evening in September and the other on a Saturday morning in October, offering building tours and seeking public discussion. Officials said they mailed information to every post office box in Bridgehampton before both events. Still to be determined are the terms by which the school district can issue bonds for the money needed.

The building plans are still in draft form. Created by John A. Grillo, a Port Jefferson-based architect, they show a 35,440-square-foot addition at the back of the building along with renovations in the existing facility. The draft includes a new gym, fitness center, locker rooms, cafeteria, music suite, science and technology labs, and classrooms dedicated to social studies and small group instruction. It includes a renovated library and an auditorium with a stage. The existing auditorium doubles as a gym.

“We will be working as a team — community, board, staff, and students — to assure that the draft turns into a viable plan that meets the needs of the students and provides for community use where possible and practical,” Dr. Favre said.

When Tom Bogdan of Montauk formed a grassroots citizen group, Montauk United, a year or so ago, it was in response to what he saw as a “non-responsive local government” that he believed was failing at addressing critical problems in the hamlet, largely related to summertime tourism. 

But after the town board acted on a number of fronts to rein in traffic, noise, illegal rentals, overcrowding at nightspots, and the like, he realized that his group might change its focus.

So, Mr. Bogdan turned his attention to information-gathering, designing a survey to pinpoint the status, issues, and opinions of the community to create “a guidepost for the town board” and for community discussion, he told the town board at a meeting last week as he presented its results.

The purpose, according to the survey, was for the Montauk community to “understand for the first time who we are, what we think, the importance of social, political, and environmental issues affecting our lives, and how best to proceed in the future.” 

The questions were developed by Sally Krusch, a market research professional, in concert with the Concerned Citizens of Montauk and the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee.

The survey was sent in August to 3,800 Montauk property owners, and there was a return rate of 58 percent, with 90 percent of those who filled out the survey taking the time to write out additional, individual comments. 

Fifty-seven percent of the respondents were second-home owners, while 39 percent make Montauk their primary residence. The majority of those who gave their opinions — 56 percent overall, and 69 percent of those who said they lived in Montauk full time — had owned property in Montauk for more than 20 years. Sixty percent of those who filled out the survey were between 55 and 74 years old. 

Topping the list of issues of concern were the environment, coastal erosion, traffic congestion, and Montauk’s image or reputation, as phrased in the survey, and in that order. Beyond the top four issues, issues of most concern, in descending order, were taxis, rental control, late-night music, use of the village green, non-local events, and a category called “other issues.” 

Respondents were also asked to rate the importance of a specific list of issues. Of most concern was clean drinking water, followed by the effects of septic systems on water quality, coastal erosion and flooding, land preservation and stewardship, the environmental impact of new development, code enforcement, and public access to beaches and shorelines. 

According to Montauk United, the results mean that “people have a true appreciation for Montauk,” and that “we are on the right track.” 

The survey asked how residents “feel about the overall quality of life in Montauk today, compared to previous points in time,” and found that 36 percent thought it was “somewhat better,” and 31 percent felt it was “about the same.” Eleven percent thought it was “much better,” and 13 percent said it was “somewhat worse.” 

But, comparing the current quality of life in Montauk to that of five years ago, 35 percent of the people who answered the survey said it was “somewhat worse.” 

On the question of live music, which has been a source of noise complaints,  24 percent of the Montaukers said that it should only be allowed indoors. And 93 percent said that there should be a curfew for outdoor music. The town code allows outdoor music until 9 p.m. or until 11 for specially permitted events.

Stricter regulation of taxicabs drew a 79-percent approval rate. And the notion of cutting off alcohol sales at 2 a.m. instead of at the 4 a.m. last call time set by New York State drew support from 75 percent of the survey takers. 

The question of whether Montauk should incorporate as an independent village resulted in a split vote: 45 percent said no, 19 percent said yes, and 36 percent said they didn’t know.

While the citizens advisory committee system is set up to provide the town board with input from residents, the survey is “information from thousands,” versus just from the handful of residents that serve on the citizens advisory group, Mr. Bogdan said.

He shared a smattering of words that residents had used to describe what they liked best about Montauk: open space, family, small town, fishing, beauty, beaches, relaxed, ocean, fresh air. The words used to describe what people like least? They were: clubs, tourists, drunks, traffic, rude people, and the like.

If paddleboarding classes are not appropriate at a marina, where should they be allowed? 

Following an East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals decision on Tuesday night, that question will likely be one for the town board to grapple with in the coming months. The zoning board voted 4-0 on Tuesday to uphold a determination by the town’s chief principal building inspector, Ann Glennon, that Paddle Diva, which operates out of the Shagwong Marina on Three Mile Harbor, had expanded the marina’s use beyond what is allowed under town code by running paddleboard classes and renting and selling boards and other items there. 

In considering Paddle Diva’s appeal of the determination, the board had weighed such questions as whether paddleboards are boats, whether they can be stored at marinas as boats are, whether a paddleboard school can be operated out of a marina, and whether a retail shop associated with a paddleboard business was comparable to a marina store. 

The board on Tuesday accepted that a paddleboard is a form of a vessel, and in doing so had to consider other questions. “Out-of-water storage is another issue,” said Roy Dalene, a board member. The Shagwong Marina is classified as a recreational marina, which, unlike a boatyard, is not allowed to store vessels out of water.

Paddle Diva, which is owned by Gina Bradley, began operating out of the Shagwong Marina in 2012. Its offerings soon expanded from paddleboard lessons to include paddleboard sales and yoga classes. The building inspector was called in to take a look last year after the company was cited for converting an office space into a retail shop without the proper permit; its owners subsequently applied for a permit retroactively. 

The shop is an expansion of use, the board agreed, but the various classes Ms. Bradley runs do not fall under a defined use in the town’s code. Because of that, the board found, they are prohibited.

“If you all of a sudden introduce a use such as yoga or a training center,” said John Whelan, the board’s chairman, “. . . you could have 20 cars show up every hour.” 

The zoning board’s decision this week could have ramifications not only for other paddleboard companies, but also for other marinas. Members made it clear that some form of legislation is needed to deal with the explosion of paddleboarding classes being offered in the town’s waterways. “The town board needs to look into this, to create places” for such activity, Mr. Whelan said. 

Also on Tuesday, an Amagansett couple was before the board for the third time in four years in an effort to expand their house on Marine Boulevard. Carter Burwell, a composer of film scores, and his wife, Christine Sciulli, an artist, are this time hoping to add 782 square feet to their main house and to add a nearly 600-square-foot artist’s studio to the property. The existing house is 3,149 square feet with a 1,430-square-foot deck that they bought in 2010 from the fashion designer Elie Tahari. 

Their 2012 application, which would have required five variances as well as a permit to be built near coastal bluffs and duneland, was turned down. Earlier this year, they returned with a scaled-down proposal that required no variances but still involved building in a protected area. The board agreed with the Planning Department’s assessment that, while variances were no longer needed, the proposal itself was still an overly aggressive expansion on the site. 

In their latest application, they have eliminated some proposed retaining walls and made the driveway smaller, but have left plans for the detached studio largely unchanged, Tyler Borsack, a town planner, told the board.

The couple’s attorney, Richard Whalen, pointed out that the total lot coverage would be reduced by about 250 square feet. 

It appeared, from comments by Mr. Borsack, the planner handling this iteration for the town, that the new proposal may finally strike a winning note. “It has been designed to be more compact, with the intent of minimizing the visual massing that the board perceived was a problem with the previous design,” he said. 

The board has 62 days to make its decision.

The board also signed off on the first of two applications it had voted to approve for Fred and Joanne Wilson, the owners of two neighboring properties on Seabreeze Lane. They will tear down the two houses on the lots, one of which they just built four years ago, to create a family compound with two new houses.

Despite predictions of a disappointing bay scallop harvest, the director of the East Hampton Town Shellfish Hatchery delivered a mostly upbeat assessment of his agency’s efforts to the East Hampton Town Trustees on Monday. 

Barley Dunne told the trustees that approximately 1.5 million oysters had reached ideal seeding size this year and were disseminated in town waterways including Lake Montauk, Napeague Harbor, Three Mile Harbor, Northwest Creek, and Accabonac Harbor. The hatchery also dispersed around 8 million clams.

“We’re getting great harvest reports on oysters, both commercially and recreationally,” Mr. Dunne said. “The oysters seem to be really doing well.” 

So well, in fact, that “we’re also getting some poaching reports. That’s a concern.” 

Presently, people taking shellfish without a permit, harvesting undersized shellfish, or taking more than the established limit are assessed a $150 fine for a first offense. He recommended an increase in the penalty. “Back in the 1930s, when the trustees did their first ordinances, it was all based on natural sets,” he said. “No, you have this entity that’s creating seed and disseminating it through town, and it’s really become more a theft-of-services or theft-of-product issue.” 

Also of concern was a second consecutive year in which juvenile oysters at the hatchery were afflicted with a bacterium from the Roseobacter clade, though mortality was less than last year and the hatchery’s seeding goal was met, he said. Hatchery officials are working to develop a resistant strain, which Mr. Dunne said usually takes a few cycles. “For some reason, hatchery seed is more susceptible to it,” he told the trustees. “We should be able to develop that resistant strain.”

Some of the scallops spawned in the hatchery died shortly before they were to be seeded in waterways, he said, elaborating on comments made to The Star last week in which he pointed to rust tide and a lack of safe habitat as possible culprits in an expected poor harvest. “But the stuff that we seeded last year,” he said, “some of that is doing really well. In two of the harbors especially, there was a lot of nice scallops left from what we seeded last year.” Winter weather conditions and any appearance of harmful algal blooms in 2017 will determine, in part, the quality of next year’s harvest.

The community oyster garden, a pilot program launched this year in Three Mile Harbor, was a success, Mr. Dunne said, and he asked the trustees to consider doubling participation to 30 individuals or families next year. 

Also at the meeting, Francis Bock, the trustees’ clerk, told his colleagues that the State Department of Environmental Conservation has requested a recommendation of a waterway that would be evaluated for a possible conditional harvesting program during the winter months. Such a program, he said, allows harvesting in coves, harbors, or bays that are otherwise uncertified for the taking of shellfish but predictably meet water quality standards for certified areas during periods of little or no rainfall. The D.E.C. has operated 15 such programs on Long Island.

Establishing a conditional harvesting program would require a cooperative effort in which town personnel record rainfall, collect water samples, and take the samples to the D.E.C.’s laboratory in East Setauket for analysis. The trustees will recommend Accabonac Harbor, parts of which are either uncertified or seasonally certified for shellfishing, for the program.