The East Hampton Town Board on Thursday changed up the management of the town airport, terminating Jemille Charlton and returning Jim Brundige to the position he left two years ago.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell on Friday declined to discuss Mr. Charlton's departure other than to say he was "let go."

Mr. Cantwell said Mr. Brundige was brought back because of "his availability and experience to act as interim airport manager." The appointment is effective Nov. 1 and runs through Dec. 31, 2017, while the town searches for a permanent airport manager.

Mr. Charlton had been named to the post in September of 2014 after having served as an attendant there for about a year. At that time, he was appointed as the replacement for Mr. Brundige, who had announced his retirement after a decade at the post.

The East Hampton Town Airport came under fire in September from a group of citizens who had formed an autonomous committee on airport noise and visited the airport during Labor Day weekend. They alleged having witnessed unsafe practices there, including children who ran unaccompanied onto the tarmac and helicopters that were refueled at the terminal rather than away from it. In August, after an airplane made a rough landing at the airport that the Federal Aviation Administration was called in to investigate, the East Hampton Police and Fire Departments were not informed of the situation, which is standard protocol.

Mr. Charlton could not immediately be reached for comment.

A vehicle in which Dick Cavett and his wife, Martha Rogers, were passengers was struck by a 2000 Ford pickup truck late Wednesday afternoon on Montauk Highway, about 150 yards east of the Hither Hills overlook.

Ms. Rogers, 64, suffered multiple lacerations on her head and face and was taken to Southampton Hospital to be treated. Mr. Cavett, 79, and the driver of the 2012 Toyota sedan were unhurt in the accident.

According to East Hampton Town police, the driver of the truck, Sean Connor Turner, 19, of Manhattan, had pulled onto the shoulder in the eastbound lane, in order to make a U-turn. He pulled out, police said, not seeing the eastbound car Mr. Cavett and his wife were in. The driver of that vehicle was Yi Wang, 53, of Great Neck. Mr. Wang told police he tried to avoid the crash by swerving to his left, but was not successful. The car then veered off the road and into a tree in some woods south of the highway.

The crash occurred around 4:30, as the sun was dropping lower in the sky. Police noted that glare from the sun played a role in the accident, but also said Mr. Turner was making an improper turn. The report does not state whether any summonses were issued. Mr. Turner and his passenger, Bailey Sullivan, were not hurt.

The accident occurred about a mile west of the site where a Montauk woman, Janis Hewitt, was killed in a car accident the day before. 

It was a long and winding road, but the dilapidated building at 6 Union Street in Sag Harbor Village, commonly known as the Morpurgo house, finally changed hands this week. 

An agreement that followed an auction in June, after a near 20-year battle over the condition and ownership of the 210-year-old house, closed on Tuesday. A group including Mitch Winston of Amagansett and Mark Egerman of Beverly Hills, Calif., purchased the property for $1.325 million.

“Now begins the long process to bring the property to its former glory, thereby ridding the village of an eyesore once and for all,” said Christian Lipp, a Compass real estate agent who, with Scott Strough, brokered the deal. 

Though it is badly run down, preservationists have called the two-and-a-half-story Federal style-Italianate structure a contributing resource to the local and national historic districts. 

Both agents will continue to shepherd the project, Mr. Lipp said. The first order of business is to properly secure it. Village officials have long deemed the building a hazard to public health and safety, and even considered knocking it down. The concern was that children might get hurt wandering around the place, which has an open septic tank and a crumbling porch, among other dangers. The village wanted better safeguards, and the bank involved in the foreclosure had a fence erected as the process came to a close.

The 4,000-square-foot house, which sits behind the John Jermain Memorial Library, has been abandoned for many years. It was neglected for decades while two sisters, Annselm and Helga Morpurgo, fought over it. Twice, a judge ordered it auctioned, starting at over $1 million, but it never sold. One sister tried to sell it on eBay for $19 million, with no takers. It had neither running water nor heat when the village took action in 2007, saying the house was unfit for human occupancy and ordering the remaining sister out.

The drama continued, though. A corporation bought the house later that year and it soon went into foreclosure, wrapped up in the phony mortgage schemes that landed former Suffolk Legislator George O. Guldi in prison. The lengthy foreclosure process was only completed this year, followed by the auction in June. 

There would be one more chapter to add to the saga. In July, before the scheduled closing, a Dix Hills woman brought a lawsuit against several individuals and entities involved in the sale, claiming she had a financial interest in the property and had not been notified of the auction. A Suffolk County Supreme Court judge dismissed the suit late in the summer. The woman did not appeal the decision, and the new closing was scheduled. 

The new owners will document the building’s interior and exterior as they assess its condition to determine whether it can be salvaged, Mr. Lipp said. “Although the house is a wreck, we would hope to preserve numerous aspects of the home, of course,” he said, including any recoverable elements. The goal is to re-create the original facade. 

The owners’ architect and builder will work with the village, especially its board of historic preservation and architectural review. “I am expecting this will be a somewhat lengthy process, but we are hoping to adhere to the guidelines set forth and ‘color within the lines,’ so to speak, so that it’s as efficient and prudent a process as possible for all parties involved,” Mr. Lipp said. “We’ll have to be a team effort, no question.”

A senior airport attendant, a part-time attendant, and a maintenance employee are manning the East Hampton Town Airport this week after the East Hampton Town Board fired the facility’s manager last Thursday. 

Effective Nov. 12, Jemille Charlton will be relieved of the post. Jim Brundige, the former airport manager, will return on Tuesday to the position he left two years ago. 

East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell on Friday declined to discuss Mr. Charlton’s departure other than to say he was “let go.”

Mr. Cantwell said Mr. Brundige was brought back because of “his availability and experience to act as interim airport manager.” His reappointment is provisional and runs through Dec. 31, 2017, while the town searches for a permanent airport manager. Mr. Brundige will earn an annual salary of $92,000. According to the 2016 East Hampton Town budget, Mr. Charlton was earning $64,260.

Mr. Charlton had been named to the post in September 2014 after having served as an attendant there for about a year. At that time, he was appointed as the replacement for Mr. Brundige, who had announced his retirement after a decade as airport manager.

Mr. Charlton, who completed a bachelor’s degree in aviation management at Dowling College while employed as the airport manager, is on paid administrative leave with the town through Nov. 12, while he is on active duty with the New York Air National Guard.

“I have, and always have had, the airport and our town’s best interest in mind. I hope and pray that my work has not been in vain,” Mr. Charlton said in a Facebook message to The Star on Saturday.

Mr. Brundige came to East Hampton after retiring from a 20-year post with United Airlines, where he served as a pilot and in a management position at the airline’s chief pilot’s office at Kennedy Airport. Before that, he flew jets for a worldwide corporation, and, in the Air Force, was a fighter jet and air-sea rescue helicopter pilot.

Though Mr. Brundige will officially take over the airport management duties on Tuesday, he said early this week that he had already contacted the Federal Aviation Administration to get up-to-date with airport issues related to that agency, and had spoken to Arthur Malman, the head of East Hampton Town’s airport management advisory committee, and with representatives of local pilots’ groups.

The former and future airport manager said he was pleased to see that a number of initiatives and projects at the airport are under way, from the removal of trees that jut into an F.A.A.-defined airport runway clear zone to the paving of taxiways and other safety efforts. “All of these things are going in the right direction,” Mr. Brundige said. 

The East Hampton Town Airport came under fire in September from a group of citizens who had formed an autonomous committee on airport noise and visited the airport during Labor Day weekend. They alleged having witnessed unsafe practices there, including children who ran unaccompanied onto the tarmac and helicopters that were refueled at the terminal rather than away from it. In August, after an airplane made a rough landing at the airport that the Federal Aviation Administration was called in to investigate, the East Hampton Police and Fire Departments were not informed of the situation, which is standard protocol.

Caring people on the East End often step into the breach to help when there is a local or even worldwide need. Following the destruction of Hurricane Matthew earlier this month, there are efforts to assist those in Haiti, where the damage was catastrophic.

An event called Hearts Out for Haiti on Saturday at 668 the Gig Shack in Montauk will raise money to buy water filters and solar chargers and for direct relief efforts in that country. Beginning at 8 p.m., the fund-raiser will include live music by Manny and by the Sturdy Souls, as well as food, a raffle, and a cash bar. Tickets will be $20 at the door.

It was organized by Kyle Siegel, a Montauk native and yoga teacher who plans to go to Haiti himself as soon as possible with the supplies and to assist in relief efforts there.

With the devastation throughout Haiti, and subsequent cholera outbreaks, the ability for laypeople to assist at present is limited. But Mr. Siegel said this week that he would continue to raise money locally through benefits until volunteers are once again accepted, at which point he will personally deliver the aid and other supplies.

“Once I saw the devastation — seeing the images. . . . Every day the death toll is rising,” he said. A massive earthquake in Haiti several years ago took its toll, and the poverty-stricken country has yet to recover. Mr. Siegel said the effects of the earthquake-hurricane double whammy galvanized him into action.

Melissa Berman, a Montauk resident who, after Hurricane Sandy, organized East End Cares, a volunteer group that has since mobilized around several other causes, also got busy after the hurricane. Through Facebook posts she quickly raised money for the purchase of solar chargers, needed to keep communications equipment going in disaster areas, and water filters, which a volunteer delivered.

Wings Over Haiti, a relief group organized by Jonathan Nash Glynn of Sag Harbor after the 2010 earthquake, is planning a fund-raiser for early December.

The Ross School’s lower school campus on Butter Lane in Bridgehampton is home not only to students, but also to birds, butterflies, frogs, and other animals that have found favorable habitats there.

The National Wildlife Federation recently named the school a certified wildlife habitat through its Garden for Wildlife program. Schools, parks, farms, businesses, religious institutions, and private properties are eligible for certification if they provide what the organization deems essential elements for wildlife, such as clean water, natural food sources, cover, and places to raise young.

“We have made a commitment to this certification that we’re going to keep up,” Bryan Smith, a Ross science teacher who led the effort, said Tuesday. “We want to let everyone in our community know that this is what we want our school to look like. We’re really happy to have gone through this process. The kids were very into it. They put a lot of effort into making our campus look nice as well as making it a friendly place for nature.”

In a news release, the National Wildlife Federation’s Garden for Life program was reported to have certified close to 200,000 wildlife habitats across the country over the last 40 years. The Ross School’s certification includes recognition in the federation’s Million Pollinator Garden Challenge.

Along the way, Mr. Smith said, the Wellness Foundation of East Hampton gave the lower school a grant that was used to purchase tools and supplies, and the Ross School Parent Association supported the project financially. The school also received a grant from a government-sponsored organization called Monarch Watch, which allowed students to expand the school’s milkweed garden and attract more monarch butterflies. “We doubled the amount of milkweed we had on campus in the last year. They have been exploding here,” Mr. Smith said.

Mr. Smith said the National Wildlife Federation’s goal of environmental awareness aligns with the school’s approach to sustainability.

“We really focus as a school on our impact on the natural environment in pretty much every grade in science, how we interact with and interpret the natural world, and how we influence it,” Mr. Smith said.

A 352-foot-long bridge that would be 140 feet north of the existing Dunemere Lane bridge across Hook Pond, and more or less parallel to it, drew sharp questions about preservation of the vista and the pond’s water quality when the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals considered an application from the Maidstone Club on Friday.

Representatives of the club argued that the new bridge, which would connect the second tee of the golf course to its fairway across the pond, would enhance the safety not only of golfers but of pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists, who now share the existing bridge, which is part of the roadway. The proposal calls for a wood bridge to be erected on 42 wood pilings driven a minimum of 11 feet below the pond’s surface, each anchored by poured concrete.

The club seeks a freshwater wetlands permit as well as a permit from the Z.B.A. to construct the bridge, clear vegetation, install paths, and make alterations to a tee box. Also needed would be area variances, because the western end of the bridge would be just eight feet from a village-owned 5.2-acre reserve that contains wetlands, and 50 feet from a private house lot, where the required setback is 55 feet. The project would also require design review board approval.

David Dubin, an attorney representing the club, told board members that a permit examiner and field biologist from the State Department of Environmental Conservation had found that the plans comply with its regulations. Drew Bennett, a consultant for the Maidstone Club, said the bridge would be at a higher elevation than the existing roadway bridge, which, he said, is often flooded.

Lys Marigold, the board’s vice chairwoman, was skeptical. She said turtles sun themselves on rocks and swans nest in the area, “and you want to build a bridge on it, which will alter the view forever for every village inhabitant. Maybe I’m overly involved in this, but I feel passionately that this shouldn’t be allowed to change our scenic vista just for a few golf carts a day.”

Mr. Dubin said the owner of the adjacent private property might have argued that the bridge would have a negative impact, but instead supports the project. Left unsaid was that the adjacent property, on Egypt Lane, is for sale.

 Mr. Dubin said the criteria for granting a variance are specific to the neighborhood, not the village as a whole. Renderings of the bridge, which were presented to the board, showed that the bridge would be “not at all adverse or disturbing,” he said.

“These are very romanticized views,” Ms. Marigold said of the renderings. “I’m worried . . . instead of seeing a swan gliding by, seeing a golf cart with people on it, which is a very different vista.”  Frank Newbold, the board’s chairman, noted that the village’s historic preservation plan describes private lands with public benefit and the retention of open space. “It’s been an iconic part of East Hampton since the Maidstone was founded in 1891,” he said.

He also referred to the two recently constructed drainage swales in the village, which are intended to intercept pollutants before they reach Hook Pond via runoff from roads, and quoted an editorial in last week’s East Hampton Star. “ ‘The future of our ponds — and drinking water — is at stake,’ ” he read, “ ‘and the public should keep a steady eye’ on proposals that affect the pond.”

Christopher Minardi, a member of the board, agreed. “The pilings and the stress on Hook Pond is something that we really should be careful about,” he said.

Mr. Newbold said the hearing would remain open so that Rob Herrmann, an independent environmental consultant, could review the application. The hearing was tentatively scheduled to resume on Friday, Oct. 28. 

In other business at the meeting, five  applications were approved. The East Hampton Town Trustees received a freshwater wetlands permit to use village-owned property at the end of Cove Hollow Road for staging and dewatering dredged spoil in connection with a project at Georgica Pond. The trustees are to maintain a project-limiting fence and straw bales around the site, notify the Highway Department at least 48 hours ahead of beginning the work, and repair any damage to the roadway or drainage pipe. A timeframe for the work is dependent on a required D.E.C. permit.

Peter Morton, a cofounder of the Hard Rock Cafe chain, was granted variances to remove a swimming pool and construct a new one within the coastal erosion hazard area at 57 West End Road on the condition that he comply with a protocol to minimize disturbance. Mr. Morton recently rebuilt the historical house on the property, which was destroyed by fire in March 2015.

The board granted Frank Jackson variances to make alterations and additions to the historical timber-frame house at 223 Main Street, to alter an accessory building, and to install a new septic system, all of which fall within wetlands or property-line setbacks. Variances were also granted for the house to exceed the maximum permitted floor area and height. The variances were conditioned on recommendations from the design review board with respect to removal and replacement of any timber framing. 

The board granted Thomas Lee variances to allow air-conditioning units, wood decking, walkways, sheds, planters, a wall, and children’s play sets to remain within required setbacks at 43 East Dune Lane, and for structures to cover 128 square feet more than the code allows.

David Gallo of 94 Apaquogue Road was also granted variances. He plans to construct a tennis court that falls within required setbacks and a garage that will be in the front yard, which is typically prohibited.

The East Hampton School District’s plan to build a bus maintenance barn and refueling facility on the Cedar Street side of its high school campus has begun to take shape around options that the district says would reduce its impact on the surrounding residential neighborhood.

Mike Guido, the district’s architect, on Tuesday presented a preliminary site plan that would position a rectangular building lengthwise, parallel to the school property line, so that it would act as a sound buffer between buses and the houses immediately to the east of district property on Pine Street. He said trees, shrubs, and fencing would be placed strategically to limit noise and also limit the sight of the facility for those across the way on Cedar Street. A second option would place the building perpendicular to the property line, farther away from Cedar Street, though it was said that placement would offer less of a sound barrier to the houses to the east.

In either option, the driveway into and out of the facility would be maintained on the east side of the property, instead of being positioned at its center. The goal of that would be to “create a visual blockage from the street,” Mr. Guido said on Tuesday. “We’ll minimize the ability to see the building.”

The bus parking would be arranged on the west side of the school property. There the buses would be able to plug into heating units designed to warm their engines without having to idle them, and angled so that they would not have to shift into reverse, thereby avoiding loud beeping and other noises that would disrupt neighbors.

The plan also incorporates the existing two buildings, which are used for general campus maintenance and storage. J.P. Foster, the school board president, said the cost of tearing them down and adding equivalent square footage to the bus barn would be nearly half a million dollars.

“We’ve gone through quite a few options,” Mr. Guido said. “In order to locate the building anywhere else on the site, the two existing buildings would have to come down, and I believe that has been eliminated as an option, so it really limits us to where it fits and gives us proper access to where the buses can safely get in and out.”

Board members also discussed the likelihood that the bus barn itself would not produce much noise because it would be air-conditioned and its doors would be closed during the day.

Although much remains to be decided, Mr. Foster said, the cost of the plan is still estimated at $4.5 million to $5 million.

During the meeting, Ellen Collins, an East Hampton teacher and resident of Cedar Street, continued to object to the district’s plan based on the idea that it would put an industrial building in a residential area.

“I appreciate that the board has tried to work with us, but after a lot of going back and forth, I feel like the board is taking the path of least resistance,” Ms. taking the path of least resistance,” Ms. Collins said, adding later, that “the easiest thing to do is not always the most responsible way to conduct business, to really work with a neighbor, to make less of an impact on our lives. We were told, ‘You bought by a school.’ Yes, we did, with happiness. But we didn’t buy by an industrial complex. And that is something I think you need to think about.”

Reached by phone yesterday, Mr. Foster disagreed that the district was taking the easy way out, and pledged the district would continue to look for ways to minimize the impact on the neighbors.

“We looked at the whole thing comprehensively,” he said. “Now we are in a position where we have to put it on our property. We’ve talked to the town, we’ve looked at private sales, private rentals. . . . We’re trying our best to be a good neighbor, but we also have to be able to function.”

Also on Tuesday, the school board approved without discussion a resolution giving Richard Burns, the superintendent, permission to sign a lease on behalf of the school district with a business called 41114 LLC “upon finalization of that lease agreement between the parties.” Mr. Burns said it was related to the district’s existing transportation depot, which is located at 41 Route 114 in East Hampton, but said it could not be talked about in further detail. The school board later adjourned to an executive session to discuss real estate.

Southampton Hospital officials will submit a final application for an East Hampton satellite emergency room and treatment center to the state by the end of the year, and would like to see it on Pantigo Place, adjacent to the East Hampton Healthcare Foundation medical facility.

A 4.5-acre town-owned property there houses Little League fields, which would be relocated.

“There is a tremendous need for walk-in care or urgent care, and E.R. care,” in East Hampton, Robert Chaloner, the hospital’s president and chief executive officer, said Tuesday at a meeting of the East Hampton Town Board.

He and other hospital officials have been working with town officials to pinpoint a location for the new facility, for which the hospital has received a $10 million state grant.

Another potential setting is also being considered: a portion of the 45-acre, town-owned parcel on Stephen Hand’s Path in Wainscott where the former Child Development Center of the Hamptons and a town recreation area are sited.

Both properties were analyzed by the town’s Planning Department with regard to traffic, zoning, the impact on the environment, the new center’s proximity to residential areas, and the distance from the emergency service providers in surrounding fire districts.

The eastern option, at Pantigo Place, rates higher on virtually all scores, although its smaller size is a concern.

Location is key, said Mr. Chaloner, and a likely one needs to be submitted to the state in a final permit application by the end of the year. Construction would not begin for several years, he said.

Discussion regarding a plan to build a new “state-of-the-art community hospital” on the Stony Brook Southampton campus, several miles west of the hospital’s current location, is nearing completion, said Mr. Chaloner. Since its inception, that project has had emergency responders and others concerned about moving the hospital even farther away from East Hampton — a worry that Mr. Chaloner, a resident of Northwest Woods, said he fully understands.

Until fairly recently, New York State did not sanction hospital satellite centers, he told the board. But after the hospital applied a year and a half ago for permission to set one up in East Hampton, the state indicated its support and promised the grant to help with construction.

“So we think we’ve got the means to go out and raise the money to build such a facility,” said Mr. Chaloner.

The cost is estimated at $35 million to $45 million. The hospital president said there had been “some strong indication from lead philanthropists” of donations, and that he feels confident, with many others indicating broad support, that “we can make it work.”

Under the terms of its issuance, the $10 million grant must be used by 2021.

Preliminary plans call for the construction of an approximately 54,000-square-foot building to provide space for an emergency room, treatment rooms, patient beds, and waiting rooms, as well as an imaging center, lab, and offices for primary care doctors and specialists. In a second phase, a 10,000-square-foot addition could be built.

In conjunction with the East Hampton Healthcare Foundation, the hospital has been recruiting physicians to relocate to the South Fork, Mr. Chaloner said. A new hospital satellite center will help attract them, he predicted. Housing to accommodate them could be included in the project.

The two urgent care centers in Wainscott and Amagansett, which would be folded into the new facility, are not authorized to serve patients brought by ambulance, said Mr. Chaloner.

The travel distance from surrounding areas to the hospital, which serves patients from Westhampton to Montauk, coupled with traffic and delays, “are a deterrent to health care,” Mr. Chaloner said, and the hospital has been “struggling

. . . to appropriately locate services.”

Emergency medical service providers who respond to calls from Montauk can be tied up for four hours on a round trip to the hospital, he said. “It’s not a problem that’s going away. We clearly know that this is a need that has to be met.”

A hospital analysis of the number of patients coming from East Hampton each year showed a tally of some 17,000, a larger number than expected, Mr. Chaloner said.

With a satellite at Pantigo Place, the estimated average travel time of 58 minutes from Montauk to the current emergency room in Southampton would be reduced to 26 minutes to the new E.R., according to the planning analysis, and the current 33-minute trip from the East Hampton Firehouse would go down to only four minutes to reach a new Pantigo Place site, or nine minutes to get to a facility in Wainscott.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell expressed concern on Tuesday about the smaller size of the Pantigo Place lot. He asked Eric Schantz, a town planner, to take a careful look at how the property might accommodate the new building as well as needed parking. The Little League lot, he said, is presently used for parking on workdays, mainly by workers at the adjacent East Hampton Healthcare Foundation or the office condominium complex across the street.

“None of us want to be in a position of having squeezed this into a shoebox,” Mr. Cantwell said.

Additional space for doctors’ offices would open up in the office condo complex, Councilwoman Sylvia Overby noted, once the town completes its overhaul of Town Hall buildings and moves several departments out of the condos.

“I really want to thank the hospital for [its] vision here,” Mr. Cantwell said at Tuesday’s meeting. “We really, really are very grateful for your vision and your work in trying to meet that need.”

Last year, Ken Walles said a broker asked him if he would be interested in selling his Montauk motel, the Oceanside Resort. It was not on the market, but the broker wanted to know what the price would have to be for him to sell. Ten million dollars, Mr. Walles told him. A week later, the broker had a buyer.

The deal took over a year to close, but on Monday, Mr. Walles sold the 30-room property at 626 Montauk Highway, the first motel as you head into downtown Montauk from the west. Jon Krasner, a developer who is also an owner in the Shagwong and Saltbox restaurants, purchased it with partners for Mr. Walles’s magic number, $10 million. 

“It’s bittersweet,” said Mr. Walles, who has been in the hospitality industry for 40 years and owned the Oceanside for 18. “It’s something you don’t want to do, but when you have all this money flying around, how long are you going to hold out?”

Mr. Krasner said he and his partners, whom he declined to name, are planning to reopen soon and are “upgrading the hotel into a family-friendly destination that takes advantage of its beautiful surroundings and what we believe to be one of the most impressive semi-private beaches in Montauk,” he said. The town’s Kirk Park Beach is just over the dune. “We want to be a hotel for everybody,” he said. “We want to be a very positive addition to the Montauk community.”

Jack Botero, who brokered the deal, the principal of the real estate investment firm BlackBrick L.L.C., said he is seeing a “tectonic shift in the type of investor that is coming to take a look at Montauk.” Today’s investors are people who have fallen in love with the area and are not happy with the party season. They want to raise the bar and provide additional services that “are more welcoming to a burgeoning demographic of affluence that has been bubbling at the border for a long time,” he said. “They want to invest their hard-earned monies here, and I don’t see that changing.”

While Mr. Walles had not planned to sell, he said, it was only a matter of time with “the way things were going on out here, the various developers and this new money coming into Montauk.”

“That was the eventuality. If I had an additional half a million to complete the renovation on the exterior, then maybe not,” he said. He said he had done extensive renovations over the years on the three buildings from operating revenues, but had not been able to complete them.

Mr. Walles bought the motel, built in the 1950s, for $1.4 million. It was then a seasonal motel, but he made the decision to keep it open year round, even as a sign that said, “Last one out, turn off the lights,” used to go up across the street around Labor Day. “If you have a property, you’re supposed to be opened all the time,” he said. He started putting holiday lights up to ensure visitors knew he was open for business, and once received a legal letter from town officials reprimanding him for putting them up too early in the year.

But it was the smiley face on the east-facing exterior wall that landed him in court. The motel had always been yellow, and when he was having the exterior painted one year, he decided to add the big smiley face as a joke. Initially, only the locals seemed to notice, he said. “It’s funny. It’s happy. It’s Montauk. I was forced to leave it by popular demand,” he said. “You’ve got to keep Montauk fun.”

Later, when he had two smaller ones painted, he was hit with town code violations. The case was eventually tossed, and the smiley faces remain. He does not know what will become of them under the new ownership.

Mr. Walles plans to remain in Montauk, where he bought a house three years ago. In the spring, he began a two-year term as the president of the Long Island Hospitality and Leisure Association, and while he will focus on that, he also plans to travel.