A toxic element labeled a carcinogen by the federal Department of Health and Human Services has been found in 93 percent of Suffolk County Water Authority wells, including a number in East Hampton Town.

Chromium-6, or hexavalent chromium, an element that occurs naturally in rocks, plants, soil, and animals, but is also produced and used by a variety of industries, from leather tanning to chrome plating and the production of dyes and pigments -- and has been found to be released into the environment by the electric power industry — was detected in tests conducted between 2013 and 2015.

There is no nationwide safe drinking water standard for chromium-6. However, in California scientists concluded that the ingestion of tiny amounts of the element can cause cancer. In that state, chromium-6 was at the center of the legal battle chronicled in the 2000 movie, "Erin Brockovich," the true story of a legal clerk who spearheaded a fight against Pacific Gas and Electric, winning a $333 million settlement for residents of a California town whose drinking water was poisoned by chromium-6 released by the utility.

California scientists set a safe level, at which the chemical would not be expected to cause a health risk over lifetime exposure, at .02 parts per billion. Public health goals — which are not legally enforceable —in New Jersey and North Carolina were set at .07 p.p.b.

Nonetheless, California regulators set legal limits for chromium-6 in drinking water at 10 parts per billion, "after aggressive lobbying by industry and water utilities," said the authors of a report on the chemical issued last week.

Sample levels in East Hampton water authority supplies ranged from .033 parts per billion at a Montauk well field to a high of .54 parts per billion at a Wainscott well.

Of 808 water samples from water authority wells across Suffolk County, chromium-6 was found in 751, or 93 percent of them.

In the report issued on Sept. 20, based on water test data compiled by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Washington, D.C., Environmental Working Group said that "potentially unsafe concentrations" of chromium-6 were detected in the water supplies for more than 200 million Americans in all 50 states, more than two thirds of the country's population.

Based on that, they estimated that the chemical "will cause more than 12,000 excess cases of cancer by the end of the century."

The levels of chromium-6 in East Hampton water are all below a general standard set by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. There is no E.P.A. standard of any kind specifically for chromium-6; instead, the agency has set a standard of 100 parts per billion for total chromium, which includes all forms of chromium, including chromium-6.

But, "in order to ensure that the greatest potential risk is addressed," the agency says, the assumption is that all of the chromium may be the more toxic chromium-6 — meaning that the agency allows levels of up that amount in drinking water without notification to consumers.

The water test results of samples taken from wells on Oakview Highway and Spring Close Highway in East Hampton, Fresh Pond Road in Amagansett, and Accabonac Road in Springs, as well as on Flamingo Avenue and Montauk Highway in Montauk, among others, show levels that are to be expected of the naturally occurring chromium-6, Kevin Durk, the Suffolk County Water Authority's director of water quality and laboratory services said on Sept. 21. "We have nothing close to the MCL [maximum-contaminant-level allowed] at all," he said.

The water authority follows the standards set by state and federal law regarding chromium, he said. For some chemicals, however, more stringent standards are set based on in-house analysis and recommendations. But, he said, "there is a difference of opinion about the health effects" of chromium.

The E.P.A. is reportedly evaluating the risks of chromium-6, with a report to be released for public comment next year.

But federal regulations "are stalled by a chemical industry challenge," a "standoff between scientists and advocates who want regulations based strictly on the chemical's health hazards, and industry, political and economic interests who want more relaxed rules based on the cost and feasibility of cleanup," said the authors of the report released last week, Dr. David Andrews and Bill Walker, a senior scientist and a managing editor at the Environmental Working Group.

The report details examples of how industry pressures have influenced chromium regulation. Though the E.P.A. prepared a draft report on the contaminant in 2011, the study authors say, its completion was delayed after interference by industry interests.

Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the E.P.A. is required to test water for up to 30 unregulated contaminants every five years in order to assess whether new regulations are warranted. Over the past two decades, according to the study authors, the agency has ordered tests for only 81 chemicals and developed new regulations for only one of them, perchlorate — and those have not yet been implemented.

The federal law says the E.P.A. must determine the level of contaminants in drinking water at which no adverse health effects are likely to occur, based on exposure over a lifetime.

That "health goal," however, is not a legally enforceable mandate. It differs from the maximum-contaminant-level standard set by the agency, which is a legal limit for levels of contaminants in the water of any public system.

An E.P.A. website says that the maximum contaminant levels "are set as close to the health goals as possible after considering costs, benefits, and the ability of public water systems to detect and remove contaminants using suitable treatment technologies."

"We always try to be on the cutting edge, and be proactive," said Mr. Durk of the Suffolk County Water Authority yesterday. His lab tested water for 398 compounds last year, he said, far above the 149 contaminants for which New York State requires testing. And tests are done more frequently than required, Mr. Durk said — at a minimum of twice a year. The water authority publishes its water test results in a comprehensive report distributed to the public annually.

There are various forms of treatment the water authority could use to remove chromium from water supplies, Mr. Durk said, should that be deemed necessary, and, he said, in-home carbon filter systems have been found to remove it, at least temporarily.

With a crowd of about 200 looking on appreciatively in East Hampton High School’s auditorium Saturday morning, the 1989 gymnastics team, the seven McKee brothers, Ed Bahns, Kathryn Mirras, Brynn Maguire, Sandy McFarland, and the late Eleanor Dickinson Baker and James P. McNally Jr. were inducted into the high school’s Hall of Fame.

Kathy Strandberg McGeehan’s conference and league-champion gymnastics team is the third from that year — the others being the state-champion boys basketball team and the state Final Four field hockey team — to have a plaque on the wall.

In addition, it was a back-to-back appearance on the stage for Mirras and Maguire, who had been inducted last year as well, as members of Lou Reale’s 2001 state Final Four softball team.

It was said that the late Eleanor Dickinson Baker, of the class of 1936, would have averaged 45 points per game had today’s basketball rules been in effect in 1934, a year in which her 7-0 team was the state sectional champion, defeating Lindenhurst.

Her son, Dick Baker, said his mother, born in 1918 at Third House in Montauk, led Montauk’s junior high team to three successive undefeated seasons before coming to the high school.

“Can you imagine what travel was like in the 1930s for Montauk athletes to get back and forth, or for their families to attend games?” Baker asked. “The stretch across Napeague wasn’t paved at the time — it was a cinder road.”

And many colleges at the time, he said, didn’t think women should play sports. 

As for girls basketball, “the court was split into halves with three guards in the defensive end, two forwards in the offensive end, and a center who could run the full court. Players were allowed one dribble, and there was no reaching in to take the ball away. That was considered aggressive play. All shots were worth 1 point, and coaches weren’t allowed to speak to their teams during timeouts — only at halftime!”

“When I was growing up we had a backboard and a netless basket hanging off the garage. . . . She would often shoot with us. She shot well and had good range. When I asked my dad why he didn’t join in, he said, ‘I wouldn’t want to be compared to your mother — it wouldn’t come out well for me.’ ”

In speaking about the late James McNally, of the class of 1949, his niece, Colleen, said he’d been an outstanding boxer and guard on the football team that Fran Kiernan said was the best he’d ever had.

His classmates, she said, had established a citizenship award in his name following his untimely death in a motor vehicle accident on July 1, 1949 — an award that is presented to this day.

All the McKee brothers — Dick, Matt, Kelly, Mark, Billy, Brian, and Joey — were honored that day, and their sister, Maureen Marciniak, would have been, too, said their presenter, Bob Budd, “except she didn’t play football for me.”

Combined, the McKees, it says on their plaque, totaled 17 years in varsity football, basketball, baseball, and wrestling competition here, collected 34 varsity letters, have 154 years of coaching experience in the above-named sports, and have volunteered 85 years collectively as T-ball, Biddy Basketball, and youth football coaches in East Hampton and Springs.

Budd said that the late Maureen McKee, when asked how she’d managed to rear such outstanding sons, had replied, “I gave them all the love I had, and when there was no more to give I found some more.”

Joey McKee is East Hampton’s football coach and its junior varsity boys basketball coach, Mark is the athletic director at the Springs School, Kelly McKee assists his younger brother with the football team and is to coach the girls basketball team this winter, Brian McKee coaches wrestling at the Trinity School in New York City, and Billy McKee recently resigned as the boys basketball coach following a successful run.

Concerning the latter, Budd said, “If Larry Brown ever does come to coach here, he’ll have a tough act to follow.” 

Dick McKee, who spoke for his brothers, said their parents told them that if they were ever to receive an award like this they should, first, mention their parents, and, second, not let Mark talk.

The occasion reminded him, said Dick McKee, of the dialogue between Kevin Costner’s character, Ray, and his father after Shoeless Joe Jackson and other departed major leaguers materialized to play a game on the baseball diamond that Ray had built in an Iowa cornfield, having been told, “Build it and they will come.”

“Is this heaven?” his father asked. No, said Ray, “It’s Iowa.” 

Dick McKee said he and his brothers were inclined to make the same connection: to think of heaven and East Hampton in the same breath.

Sandy McFarland Ward (’92), a native of Bridgehampton and a Syracuse University graduate who is an elementary school principal in Concord, N.C., could not make it, though she sent a video in which she spoke fondly of her time here and of the opportunities that sport-sharing had provided her in track and gymnastics. 

Running for East Hampton High, she was a county champion in the 100 and 200-meter dashes and the state runner-up in the 200 in 1991, her junior year, and was fourth in the state 200 in her senior year.

At Syracuse, which she attended on a full athletic scholarship, she competed in indoor and outdoor track. She was the Big East’s indoor 400 champion and still holds the outdoor 400 record there.

Brenda Pinckney, her aunt, accepted the plaque on McFarland Ward’s behalf.

Ed Bahns, a 1973 graduate who was a four-sport athlete at East Hampton (golf, football, basketball, and baseball) before going to Florida Southern on a full baseball scholarship, said it had been a great honor to represent the silver-medal-winning United States baseball team in the 1975 Pan Am Games in Mexico City. 

“Playing for your country, wearing the red, white, and blue, and walking into a stadium filled with 125,000 people . . . it’s beyond words,” the longtime East Hampton coach said.

Bahns won a national championship at Florida Southern, was the team’s most valuable player in his senior year, and was drafted by the Chicago White Sox, in whose organization he played for three years. In his career here he has coached a number of sports — baseball, girls tennis, boys and girls basketball, and bowling.

His family, he said, had always been there for him, a sentiment that he shared with his fellow inductees.

Erin Bock Abran, in speaking about Kathryn Mirras (2004) and Brynn Maguire (2002), said they were exceedingly reliable teammates whom you looked to when the chips were down. 

Mirras, who is now a dentist here, went to the University of Virginia on a full athletic scholarship to play softball. She was an all-state softball player in her senior year at East Hampton. At the 2004 athletic awards dinner, she won the Paul Yuska award, which is given to the senior class’s best female athlete, was named the M.V.P. of the girls soccer and girls basketball teams, and was a recipient of a Kendall Madison Foundation mentoring scholarship.

Maguire, who lettered in field hockey, winter track, and softball here, and who captained the field hockey and softball teams, was a two-time collegiate all-American in field hockey at the University of Mary Washington.

Donna Sennefelder, in speaking for the 1989 gymnastics team, said, her voice catching, that they very much missed one of their teammates, Mary Hadjipopov Sireci, who died in the past year. “We’ll always be with you,” she said. 

Mary Hadjipopov’s award was given to her daughter, Sarah, who was accompanied to the ceremony by her grandparents Henrika and John Conner.

That gymnastics team’s roster included, besides Sennefelder, Jennifer Fuchs, Shannon D’Andrea, Becky Brown, Robin Streck, Dawn Becker, Julie Siegel, Erin McGintee, Tara McGintee, Diane Cooper, Cintia Torres, Penelope Benith, Nicole Starr, Loretta Kom, Stephanie King, Jennifer Brown, Caroline Somers, Yani Cuesta, Cathy Fleetwood, Tara Provini, Namie Trowbridge, and, as aforesaid, Sandy McFarland. 

A tentative 2017 budget for East Hampton Town presented this week by Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell calls for $75.1 million in spending, a 1.8-percent increase over 2016.

The budget relies on $50.4 million in taxes. If it is adopted, the tax levy would increase by 1.3 percent, a hike that is within the state-mandated cap on property tax increases.

Tax rates in East Hampton Town, outside the incorporated villages, would rise by just over 1 percent, to $29.70 per $100 of assessed value. In East Hampton Village and the portion of Sag Harbor that lies within East Hampton Town, rates would decrease by 3.9 percent, setting a rate of $11.25 in taxes to be paid per $100 of assessed property value.

At those rates, the owners of a house in East Hampton Town with a market value of close to $1.7 million would pay $31.90 more in taxes this year; if the property is within village boundaries, the tax bill would go down by $46.20.

For properties outside of the villages with a market value of $678,000, taxes would go up by $12.76; they would go down by $18.48 for properties in the villages.

The spending plan, wrote Mr. Cantwell, includes money to improve lifeguard protection, adding a third lifeguard stand on the downtown Montauk beach, and to post beach attendants at several beaches to keep bathrooms clean and keep litter in check. There will likely be one attendant to cover Indian Wells and Atlantic Avenue beaches in Amagansett, another for the downtown Montauk beaches, and a third stationed at Ditch Plain, Mr. Cantwell said yesterday.

The budget also includes money to hire police officers to replace those who are leaving the town’s employ, and to add a laborer to the Highway Department staff.

Grants to outside civic, social service, and cultural organizations remain largely the same under Mr. Cantwell’s proposed budget for next year. A new $10,000 grant to Meals on Wheels has been proposed, to help the organization avoid cutting back its services, and $4,500 has been added to help the I-Tri youth athletics program pay for relocating its swimming sessions to the pool at Gurney’s Resort when the East Hampton YMCA RECenter, where they normally take place, closes for a time this year for upgrades and repairs.

The budget “reflects salary and benefit costs for existing employees,” Mr. Cantwell wrote in a budget memo. Concurrently, he said, expenses have been brought down through cutting the town’s outstanding debt and through the permanent closure of the scavenger waste plant.

Officials have hewn to a policy over the last several years of retiring more debt than accruing it. The town’s total indebtedness next year is projected to be over $94 million, down from $146 million in 2009.

Debt payments next year will total $12.5 million, representing more than 16 percent of the annual budget. Employee salaries and benefits account for 59 percent of the proposed budget, or $44 million, and other expenditures, the rest.

The town expects to end this year with surplus balances in each of its major budget funds, a factor that has contributed to recent upgrades in East Hampton’s credit rating. Surpluses in the two operating funds are expected to be in the $10 million range, representing surpluses of 37 and 39 percent.

A highway fund will end the year $2.3 million in the black, it is anticipated; the airport fund is expected to have a $1.3 million surplus at the end of 2016, and the sanitation fund is expected to have $1.6 million.

Discussions of the proposed budget will take place at town board work sessions on Oct. 11 and 18, and a hearing, at which the public may offer comments, will be held on Nov. 3. The board is expected to vote on the budget at its Nov. 17 meeting.

The alleged ringleader of a Montauk share house that was occupied by 18 people when East Hampton Town authorities raided it at 6 a.m. on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend was arraigned Monday on 46 charges in East Hampton Town Justice Court.

Most of the charges against Alina Gershman of New York City are misdemeanors, considered crimes. Ms. Gershman, 36, faces up to $72,000 in fines and six months in jail for each of them, Hope DeLauder, the town attorney prosecuting the case, told Justice Lisa R. Rana. She asked that bail be set at $5,000, saying that Ms. Gershman, who owns a condominium on West 36th Street in Manhattan, does not own the house in question and has no other connection to the town.

Justice Rana, after a prolonged conference with Ms. DeLauder and Edward Burke Jr., Ms. Gershman’s attorney, agreed with the amount, and warned Ms. Gershman that should she fail to appear in court in the future, a warrant would be issued for her arrest.

Also arraigned Monday was the owner of the house, at 13 Beech Hollow Court, Thomas Mahl. Mr. Mahl, 62, is facing 35 charges, mostly also misdemeanors. He was freed without bail, in recognition of his ties to the community. He owns another house in Montauk as well.

According to code enforcement officers, the house’s certificate of occupancy specifies four bedrooms. The town alleges that nine bedrooms were in use at the time of the raid.

The charges against Ms. Gershman and Mr. Mahl include change of use, lack of a building permit or certificate of occupancy for the extra bedrooms, and violations of the fire code, including lack of a smoke detector. In addition, Ms. Gershman faces 17 counts of illegally selling shares in a rental online, one for each of the renters found on the premises during the raid. She herself was the 18th person in the house that morning.

Interviewed outside the courthouse, Mr. Mahl claimed to have no knowledge of what Ms. Gershman was doing with the house. He had leased to her for the entire summer season, he said.

Mr. Mahl said on Monday that when he entered the house after the raid he discovered that the basement had been divided into separate sleeping areas, as had the pool house. “She turned the breakfast nook into a bedroom,” he said. “I’m totally surprised. I didn’t know anything. I didn’t make any money on it. I had nothing to do with it.” He declined to say how much Ms. Gershman had paid him. According to the town, she was charging $1,800 per room per weekend.

It is the second straight year that one of Mr. Mahl’s houses has been the target of an investigation and charges. Kimberly Geise, 47, who rented his house on Gates Avenue last summer, pleaded guilty in October to seven charges stemming from the sale of shares on Airbnb and Craigslist, and paid a fine of $3,500. Mr. Mahl was issued a warning but was not prosecuted. The town’s lead attorney, Michael Sendlenski, said this week, however, that “the owner is culpable” the second time around.

Mr. Sendlenski called the living conditions found during the raid “dangerously overcrowded.”

The 17 renters who were in the house at the time were arraigned as well. Each was charged with two counts, illegal purchase of shares and illegal occupancy.

Thirteen had their cases adjourned, with the promise that charges will be dismissed in six months if they stay out of trouble. They were Alic S. Andronikov, Nicole Arnot, Audrey M. Cady, William Chin, Elizabeth A. Cunningham, Pericles G. Ducas, Anya Estrov, Patrick Giganti, Alexander Goldberg, Eric J. Kubecka, Joan Osterwilder, Zivile Rezgyte, and Lillian B. Stoner. All are cooperating with the investigation, Ms. DeLauder said during their arraignments.

Two others, Kathryn L. Freund and Allison M. Heyden, have each agreed to perform eight hours of community service. The last two, Jean Chaffel and Lindsey R. Lefelhoc, will have their cases adjudicated on Nov. 21.

Ms. Gershman and Mr. Mahl, who is represented by Brian Matthews, are due back in court on Oct. 24.

East Hampton Town has launched a new website that town staffers said at a town board meeting on Tuesday is more interactive, user-friendly, and comprehensive than the previous site, which had not been upgraded in six years.

With the same web address, ehamptonny.gov — though users might need to clear computer caches to eliminate access to the old site — the new website allows users to sign up for emergency alerts and notifications of all kinds, through email or text message, and view postings about events, newsletters, agendas for various board or government meetings, or town code changes.

Various town departments have pages that will provide information, a list of frequently asked questions, and links to other pertinent web pages.

Information will be posted on the site in easily accessible sections addressing town boards and commissions, the town code, town projects, town publications, LTV (the local public-access TV station), and more.

Forms and permit applications, some of which can be filled out and submitted online, will be accessible through the website as well, and online payments for things such as traffic or parking tickets can be made. Online tax payments will be possible for a portion of the year, from Dec. 15 to May 31.

The website also provides a full listing of staff in the various departments, and their email addresses.

A “Doing Business” section provides bid notices, a calendar of events of interest to business owners, state and county-based information about starting a business, and links to applicable pages for the planning board, Building Department, and so on.

In the “Community” section are pages regarding human services, employment opportunities, parks and other facilities, schools, libraries, and the like.

A “Services” section pulls together links for residents to learn more about services provided by the town, from the recycling center to housing and transportation programs.

The new site, which features photographs by various contributors of areas of the town, is “one heck of a great change,” Bob Pease of the Information Technology Department told the town board on Tuesday.

“It was a huge effort to pull all this information together,” Supervisor Larry Cantwell said.

The website, for which the town contracted with a firm called Civic Plus for $72,624, has been under development since January.

Mr. Cantwell thanked the group that worked on the project, which included Mr. Pease, Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, and Charlene Kagel and Nicole Ficeto of the town’s Finance Department.

The Army Corps of Engineers will be in Montauk on Wednesday to present its future plans for the hamlet’s downtown beach, under its extensive Fire Island to Montauk Point shoreline project called FIMP. The plan calls for the addition of 120,000 cubic yards of sand to the beach every four years, in front of the line of buried sandbags recently installed by the Corps.

Beginning at 6 p.m. at the Montauk Playhouse, Army Corps of Engineers representatives will present information. A question-and-answer session will follow at 7.

The proposal falls short of what town officials had hoped for, following the installation of the 3,100-foot sandbag wall, which was done after Superstorm Sandy under federal emergency authorization and was expected to be only an interim measure until the Corps could complete a more extensive beach restoration.

The town board has sought help from First Coastal, a specialized consulting firm, to prepare its response to the Army Corps’ draft plan.

The recent damage to the sandbag wall from Hermine, a tropical storm that had minimal effect here, illustrates “the inadequacy” of that project and of the proposal under FIMP to add sand every four years, East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell has said. “What is needed to protect the beach and downtown Montauk is a major beach-fill project that would pump at least 1 million cubic yards of sand from an offshore source to provide the protection needed in the hamlet of Montauk,” he said in a recent release.

As the Army Corps prepares to come to town, Defend H20, an organization that staunchly opposed the Corps’ sandbag wall installation on the downtown beach on legal and environmental grounds, is taking formal steps against the new project as well. Defend H2O sued to stop the sandbags, but abandoned the suit in the face of an unfavorable initial court ruling.

The group, along with other opponents, predicted the sandbag wall would result in a loss of the beach shoreward. Putting such a structure on the beach, Defend H2O also said, is prohibited under state and local coastal policy.

Carl Irace, an attorney for the group, said that a “report of improper administration” will be submitted this week regarding East Hampton Town’s compliance with the federal Coastal Zone Management Act and its policies as articulated in the town’s local waterfront revitalization plan.

The report, to be sent to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees coastal zone management, will, said Mr. Irace, outline “errors made by all levels of government during the review of the Army Corps revetment proposal.” Had the sandbag wall been properly reviewed, he said, “there is no way it would have received approval by the state.”

New York State dropped the ball, Mr. Irace alleged, with both the Department of State and the Department of Environmental Conservation failing to conduct proper reviews. The state “also improperly abrogated its responsibilities to the town, which clearly had no idea what it was doing — but also had no authority under law to do so,” Mr. Irace wrote in an email to The Star.

One other East Hampton Town project is included in the FIMP plan, a similar addition of 120,000 cubic yards of sand every four years to the beach near Potato Road in Wainscott, between Town Line Beach and Peter’s Pond.

In a separate endeavor, the Army Corps is also looking to add to a stone revetment armoring the shore at the Montauk Lighthouse. The plan, for which a comment period ended in June, calls for the addition of 15-ton boulders on top of the existing revetment along 840 feet of shore, in order, according to an Army Corps document, to provide “protection for the most vulnerable portion of the bluff that would directly endanger the lighthouse complex should it fail.”

The estimated $14.6 million federal project was originally authorized in 2006 and was funded by Congress in the post-Sandy disaster relief act. The plan was re-evaluated after Sandy and revised.

The Montauk Historical Society, which owns the lighthouse, agrees with the approach, but others, notably the Surfrider Foundation, oppose additional armoring of the shore and have instead advocated moving the lighthouse back away from the bluff.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently signed legislation sponsored by Senator Kenneth P. LaValle and Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. that will clear the way for the re-armoring project.

The Department of Environmental Conservation, which is needed to sign on as the required state “sponsor” of the federal project, had been precluded from entering into a financial agreement with nonprofit organizations such as the Montauk Historical Society; the legislation allows that to occur. It grants the D.E.C. commissioner the authority to undertake any project necessary to protect a National Historic Landmark, such as the lighthouse, from shore erosion. The lighthouse was given that designation, and deeded to the historical society, in 1996.

Both lawmakers endorsed the Army Corps’ lighthouse project in recent releases.

“The Montauk Point Lighthouse has been part of Long Island’s land and seascape for more than 200 years. This new legislation, combined with the national landmark status, will ensure that the Montauk Historical Society can continue their great work in protecting this lighthouse and ensure its existence for future generations,” said Assemblyman Thiele.

“Without this legislation, the D.E.C. cannot assist with shore erosion there,” said Senator LaValle in a release last summer. “The legislation provides a solution to the issue.”

Claudia Patterson often could be found last year sitting at a desk in the second-floor corridor of the Bridgehampton School, where an employee would normally be supervising the hallway. But Claudia is not a hall monitor. She was a sophomore, taking an online class that required independent study, and she had no other place to go. Every classroom was occupied every period of the day, even the computer lab, library, and cafeteria.

“There’s no real area to sit and do work, whether you’re ahead or behind,” she said during a tour of the school on Sept. 14 by about 25 residents who attended a public forum at which the district asked students, teachers, and school board members to make the case for expansion.

Signs of age and corrosion are evident in the ancient-looking safety station in the school’s sole science lab, which houses classes in the four high school disciplines: physics, earth science, biology, and chemistry. The robotics and computer lab in the basement is not accessible for the handicapped, and the emergency exit is up a ladder and through a window that is partially blocked by pipes.

Students study and do research in the library, but they also take classes in art and sewing there. Furthermore, because the second-floor classrooms were divided in half at some point in the past, most have a capacity for only 12 to 16 high school students while 18 or more are in the elementary grades now and expected to move up.

The gymnasium doubles as an auditorium, with a stage that is used as a fitness room and weight-lifting equipment that gets moved, often to a spot that blocks an exit, each time the drama club puts on a production. Dozens of rusty lockers, mostly from the original construction, are still used, and many are broken.

The gym itself, which accommodates physical education classes as well as recess, assemblies, and other functions, is much smaller than a regulation-size high school gym. The championship Killer Bees varsity is allowed to play there because the school was grandfathered in when regulations changed. Some schools  refuse to play there, according to Bridgehampton officials.

“We’re not looking to modernize and expand the facilities in the hope that children will come,” Jeff Mansfield, a school board member, said at the forum. “We need to modernize and expand the facilities because they are already here.”

The Bridgehampton School, constructed in 1939, is the only local school to have never undergone a major building expansion. It has instead used a handful of portable buildings, which were added more than 40 years ago.

The Wainscott School opened its current building in 2007. The Amagansett School was expanded in 2000. The Montauk School, first built in 1927, saw additions in 1955, 1965, 1973, and 2000. The Springs School finished a new wing in 2002, and the East Hampton School ­District undertook a $79.2 million overhaul in 2006, with expansions to John M. Marshall Elementary School and East Hampton High School. Sag Harbor is in the midst of a $9.04 million capital project even though it has completed multiple additions and renovation at both of its buildings over the years. And the Sagaponack School, erected in 1885, was enlarged in 1920.

“We’re over a week into the school year,” Lois Favre, the district superintendent, said, “and today, we had to make a decision to move a classroom into the district office because we are running out of space. . . . It’s very disruptive to the educational process.”

Preliminary expansion plans include a 35,440-square-foot addition and renovations estimated at between $25 million and $30 million. Robert Hauser, the assistant superintendent for finance and facilities, said that for a project of $25 million with an estimated interest rate of 2 percent, the district’s debt would increase annual school taxes by about $135 for a house valued at $750,000. The district is already in the midst of paying off a 10-year, $1,350,000 bond for a window replacement project it undertook in 2011.

John Grillo, the district’s architect, said the drawings that have been drafted show a building that could accommodate 400 to 450 students. “At the end of this plan, there will be no more students in the basement,” he said.

Questions have been raised over whether the district will eventually need as much capacity as planned, however. A demographic study completed in May of 2015 by the Western Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services projected 197 students by the year 2023 and said it then would begin to steady. But when school opened this year, enrollment was already at 209. The student population is up 35 percent from three years ago.

“We’re getting an influx of students at an even quicker rate than the demographic study is predicting,” Dr. Favre said.

With a date for a referendum estimated to take place by the end of 2016, several months for planning, design, and feedback, and about 16 weeks for approval by the New York State Education Department, school officials predict the district could break ground in the summer of 2018 and then spend 16 to 18 months on construction.

The conversation over space needs has been going on for at least as far back as 2005, but efforts to move forward with expansion have stalled several times.

While negotiations are ongoing between the Village of Sag Harbor and the owners of property where the village would like to create a waterfront park — to the south of the North Haven bridge — Greystone Development, the Manhattan real estate company that owns the land, has brought a nearby project for 11 condominiums into play.

Greg Ferraris, the chairman of the planning board, called a joint session of his board with the zoning and architectural review boards, as well as the harbor committee, last Thursday at which Greystone’s preliminary plans for two buildings replacing what is known as the “1-800-LAWYERS” building at 2 West Water Street were described. Although there is no application before any of the boards, the developers appeared to have scaled back their plans.

Gary Brewer, an architect with the Manhattan firm Robert A.M. Stern Architects, showed the gathering designs for the new buildings in an L-configuration. The larger of the two would have three stories with three units on each floor. The other, to be known as the garden house, would have one unit on each of two floors. Both buildings would have porches facing the harbor.

Mr. Brewer said he had just begun to work on the design. “We’re looking at the whaling history and the Greek Revival architecture that typically goes with the whaling industry, not just in Sag Harbor, but other towns as well, Martha’s Vineyard and whatnot,” he told the boards.

He mentioned shingled roofs, clapboard siding, classical eaves, movable wood shutters, and landscaping that would help “nestle it into its site.” He also said Greystone wants to work with Ed Hollander, a noted landscape architect who lives in Sag Harbor and has worked on a design for the village park. The buildings, he said, would complement the park.

Though Greystone’s preliminary drawings show a park to the south of the North Haven Bridge, it was unclear how much acreage it would be willing to set aside for the park. When the park was first proposed last year, the developers said they were unwilling to sell.   

The village has been interested in buying the developed properties Greystone owns at 1, 3, and 5 Ferry Road for the park in addition to the vacant land nearer the bridge. Denise Schoen, a village attorney, said it was appropriate that the village board was not at the session because it is negotiating to buy the proposed parkland using the community preservation fund. “We have a Chinese wall up,” Ms. Schoen said.

Greystone had earlier planned to include the Ferry Road parcels in a 30,000-square-foot project with a “staggered row” of single-family condominium houses, which would stretch toward the commercial shops on Long Island Avenue. The square footage of the newly proposed condominiums was not provided.

Reached on Tuesday, Mr. Ferraris said, “This application is substantially less complex than the prior. We won’t have to deal with the logistical integration between the 1, 3, and 5 Ferry Road parcel and the 7-Eleven and La Superica buildings. That was a big issue that needed to be addressed.” 

Even though it is scaled back, the new proposal will require variances, though the number is unclear. At the meeting, Mr. Brewer said the roof of the three-story building would be about 46 feet above grade. The village code limits heights to 35 feet, or two stories. However, the 1-800-LAWYERS building, with its cupola, is 58 feet tall, according to Angelo Laino, a civil engineer with V.H.B. Engineering, which will be handling  environmental issues for the developers.

Mary Ann Eddy, a member of the harbor committee, said she was having difficulty imagining the scale of the new buildings and asked if she’d be able to see them while having lunch outdoors at the American Hotel, although she said she was being facetious. “I’m wondering if it’s going to be a presence for Main Street.”

Dennis Downes, a Sag Harbor attorney representing Greystone, pointed out that there are three-story buildings across the street from the hotel, though he didn’t know their height.

A parking garage is proposed underneath the buildings, and a variance would likely be needed for parking, as well. Only 13 parking spots were mentioned, which, Mr. Laino said, was because some of the area that could be used for parking would be a park.

Mr. Downes said he expected the main part of the application to go before the zoning board of appeals. However, the planning board is expected to take lead agency status under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, which requires a study and which Mr. Downes said could take four to six months. 

Questions about public access and the park were on the minds of those who attended the joint session. John Shaka, the chairman of the harbor committee, asked about public access along the waterfront. Mr. Downes said a walkway was under consideration but not in the current plans.

Answering a question from Nathan Brown, a member of the planning board, Mr. Downes said, “If this plan goes forward, the land the park goes on would be conveyed to the village.” The acreage Greystone would reserve for the park remained uncertain.

Ms. Schoen told the group that once an application is made, the boards considering it “can’t take into account the purchase by the village, legally.”

“We’re anxious to move forward with this process,” Mr. Downes said. He told the group he hopes other joint meetings would be possible. “We’re all very grateful you came out tonight.”

Citizens Climate Lobby, a group that advocates the phased-in imposition of a fee on fossil fuels that would be rebated in full to households, claimed a significant victory on Monday in announcing that Representative Lee Zeldin, a Republican seeking re-election to represent New York’s First Congressional District, has joined its bipartisan House Climate Solutions Caucus.

But Mr. Zeldin’s opponent in the Nov. 8 election, former Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst, dismissed Mr. Zeldin’s move, calling the congressman “an avowed climate change denialist” who joined the caucus only after she had expressed a desire to join it, should she be elected to Congress. While Mr. Zeldin has joined the caucus, he has not endorsed Citizens Climate Lobby’s policy of a fee on fossil fuels.

The stated goal of the caucus is to “explore policy options that address the impacts, causes, and challenges of our changing climate.” Mr. Zeldin is one of four new members to the caucus, which must be equally represented by Democrats and Republicans.

Ashley Hunt-Martorano, the climate lobby’s director of marketing and events and a former co-leader of its Long Island chapter, called it the “Noah’s Ark caucus,” meaning that members can only join in pairs, each representing one of the two major political parties to maintain its bipartisan status. There are currently 20 members.

“Clearly, there are a lot more Democrats interested in joining the caucus, which is an easier task with the political climate,” Ms. Hunt-Martorano said on Tuesday. There is a waiting list for Democrats who want to join, she said, but to do so they would “need to find a partner across the aisle to work with.” The climate lobby’s 300-plus chapters across the country, she said, “are working with their elected Republican officials to try and get them to join the caucus so other Democrats can come along.”

Nonetheless, Ms. Hunt-Martorano said, she is “beyond thrilled” that Mr. Zeldin joined the House Climate Solutions Caucus. “It’s a major step forward,” she said. “He’s a Republican, and the Republican position on solving the issue of climate change for quite a long time has been unnecessarily politicized.” Mr. Zeldin’s move “demonstrates that while the party line has been to ignore or actually deny this problem, he’s not doing that.” Citizens Climate Lobby, she said, is dedicated to solving the environmental crisis that climate scientists warn is looming, “not creating more debate or divisiveness.”

Ms. Throne-Holst said that she is a C.C.L. member and “would look forward to serving” on the bipartisan caucus. Of Mr. Zeldin, “I have a feeling he has a slightly different agenda,” she said. “You can join these things to be helpful or to be obstructive. . . . Once I started talking about this as one of my goals as representative of the district, he joined it. He had plenty of opportunities to do it prior.”

In a statement issued by his campaign, Mr. Zeldin voiced support for “an all-of-the-above energy strategy that includes wind, solar, and other clean and green energy technology, all of which protects the environment and promotes America’s energy independence, while ensuring that energy prices go down for Long Island ratepayers, who have some of the highest electric bills in the country.” He said that the Long Island Power Authority should embrace alternative energy technologies and emphasized the importance of protecting shorelines through “coastal and wetland restoration projects that will use the natural environment to prevent erosion.”

Ms. Throne-Holst said that she supports development of offshore wind farms but, like Mr. Zeldin, stressed a need to protect the commercial fishing industry from negative impacts. “We are a district that is almost uniquely well positioned,” she said. “We’re surrounded by water, we have an abundance of wind, an abundance of sun. . . . We could sooner rather than later get to an independence from fossil fuels. No question, there will be a transition period, but we could ramp up that effort very rapidly and be a leader in getting there. The net positive for people’s utility rates would be significant, not to mention reduction in our carbon footprint and meeting sustainability goals that have an effect on our environment and economy.”

Citizens Climate Lobby does not endorse candidates, and Ms. Hunt-Martorano emphasized the organization’s commitment to working with both parties to address climate change. “We understand the political reality,” she said. “Republicans are in the majority in the House, and likely will be after the election.” Regardless of the political composition of Congress, “our organization has committed to passing climate legislation in 2017,” she said. “That’s why we’re doing hard work with Republicans such as Representative Zeldin, building relationships and doing that work.”

The group proposes an initial $15-per-ton fee on carbon dioxide emissions of fossil fuels to be imposed at the point of entry, be it a mine, well, or port. That, its members argue, would account for the true cost, creating a level playing field for all energy sources. A 2013 study it commissioned by the analytics firm Regional Economic Models concluded that during its first 20 years a fee-and-dividend policy would result in a 50-percent reduction of carbon emissions below 1990 levels, the addition of 2.8 million jobs, and, as a result of a reduction in air pollutants, the avoidance of 230,000 premature deaths.

Ms. Hunt-Martorano called this a market-driven policy, making it more attractive to Republicans than subsidies, regulation, or executive actions. “Economic reports demonstrate our policy is the most progressive and libertarian policy out there,” she said. “Progressive because it protects low and middle-income people, and libertarian because it will correct market distortion by making the energy sector more a free market. Right now, we’re propping up fossil fuels, and they’re cheaper than they should be.” Republicans, she said, “are seeing there is room for an economic policy that has climate co-benefits.”

The Northeast Canyons and Sea­mounts Marine National Monument, covering 4,913 square miles of ocean located 130 miles southeast of Cape Cod, became the first marine national monument in the Atlantic Ocean last Thursday through designation by President Obama under the 1906 Antiquities Act.

There are 124 national monuments across the United States and its territories, among them the Statue of Liberty, the Grand Canyon, and Giant Sequoia, but only four marine national monuments. The other three — the Marianas Trench, Pacific Remote Islands and Rose Atoll, and the Papahanaumo­kuakea — are all in the Pacific Ocean.

The new marine national monument covers an area that contains canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon and underwater mountains known as sea­mounts that reach nearly to the ocean’s surface, according to the National Audubon Society, a wildlife conservation organization. The protected area is home to a wide variety of sea life including sperm, right, and sei whales, marlin, tuna, sharks, sea turtles, dolphin, and microscopic plankton. Unique and colorful coldwater coral, some the size of small trees, are found at the bottom of the monument’s deep canyons. Scientists recently discovered that Atlantic puffins spend the winter feeding on the krill and small fish that thrive in the monument’s nutrient-rich waters.

The Marine National Monument Program works with federal and regional partners and stakeholders to conserve and protect the marine resources in the protected areas, according fpir.noaa.gov, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s website.

Mining, drilling, and ultimately commercial fishing are banned under the marine national monument designation. The Atlantic red crab and lobster fisheries will be phased out over seven years while other commercial fishing operations are required to leave the area within 60 days. However, recreational fishing will continue as before.

The area covered by the new marine national monument is a popular offshore fishing spot for anglers pursuing billfish, tuna, and mahimahi near the ocean surface. The local recreational fishing and boating community had argued that recreational fishing should be allowed to continue because the type of fishing practiced in these areas, trolling baits for example, has no interaction with the bottom habitats that are being protected.

Not unexpectedly, New England’s commercial fishing fleet is angered by the termination of commercial fishing rights within the waters of the new maritime national monument.

“We don’t normally create laws in this country by the stroke of an imperial pen,” says Bob Vanasse, a spokesman for the National Coalition for Fishing Communities. In contrast to the detailed regulatory process for creating a national marine sanctuary, the designation of a marine national monument only requires a presidential proclamation. Vanasse anticipates the offshore lobster industry will lose about $10 million per year in revenue as a result of the federal action.

It’s reasonable to assume that the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument will not be the first and last marine national monument in our region. Sooner or later recreational and commercial fishermen will again have to persuade federal officals that their practices do not interfere with broad marine life and ecosystem conservation goals.

Let’s hope that recreational fishing continues to be permitted within marine national monuments and that any decision about terminating commercial fishing takes into consideration not only the industry’s value to the local economy but also its importance to the impacted communities’ heritage.

Meanwhile, action is heating up in local waters. False albacore can be found from Three Mile Harbor to Montauk and shore anglers are taking bass and blues from ocean beaches. Those casting tins to false albacore without success might try adding a small spearing imitation fly as a teaser. Max Gorolski, all of 6 years old, proved age is just a number by using a fly rod to catch his first albie. Bruce Stevens caught a fiesty false albacore on a Deadly Dick, thereby reversing the “just one more” curse placed upon him years ago by offended fish gods.

Harvey Bennett at the Tackle Shop in Amagansett reported that bass and blues were taken throughout the day from the beach behind the White Sands Motel on Napeague and at Hither Hills State Park in Montauk. Kingfish are thick in Three Mile Harbor and snappers are still chomping in the bay, he added.

Paulie’s Tackle in Montauk reported that surfcasters were finding small bass and big blues around the Point and south side.

Sebastian Gorgone at Mrs. Sam’s Bait and Tackle in East Hampton reported that small mackerel were caught outside Three Mile Harbor and schools of bunker continue to move around the bay.

T.J. at Gone Fishing Marina in Montauk reported outstanding fishing with boaters catching striped bass day and night on eels, and fluke up to nine pounds. The sea bass and porgy bites remain hot off Montauk Point, he added.

Ken Morse at Tight Lines Tackle in Sag Harbor reported catches of albies and up to 10-pound mackerel at Shinnecock. Mike Mansir landed a seven-pound fluke and George Pharoah jigged a pile of sea bass on the south side of Montauk, he added. Tight Lines Tackle is now closed on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The annual Montauk SurfMasters Tournament is under way but no fish had been weighed-in as of Saturday. The Montauk Surf Fishing Classic will be held tomorrow through Sunday. Montauk State Park at 631-668-3781 has tournament information.

The fluke season ended yesterday.

—

The Star’s fishing columnist on can be followed on Twitter, @ehstarfishing. Photos of prize catches can be emailed to David Kuperschmid at fishreport @ehstar.com.