Amagansett farmland north of the hamlet’s Main Street appears to be on the drawing board for development. Discussions of its purchase and preservation by East Hampton Town, using the community preservation fund, have apparently come to naught.

In a letter from their attorney to the town board, members of the Bistrian family, who own the 30 acres in separate parcels through their Bistrian Land Corporation, Bistrian Farms Corporation, and Fireplace Development Corporation, say they had made “numerous attempts” over 35 years to reach an agreement with the town to preserve the “scenic space and scenic vista” that define the landscape of the north side of the public parking lot in Amagansett, stretching across to Town Lane, but that “it has become apparent that the town is not willing to buy the property at fair market value.”

“The Bistrians have no choice but to proceed with . . . development . . . in accordance with the present residential zoning,” the family, through an attorney, has informed the town. The land is zoned for two-acre residential lots, but is also in an agricultural zone, which imposes restrictions on how it can be developed so that farmland can be preserved.

Scott Wilson, the director of land acquisitions and management, said this week that the town board’s C.P.F. advisory committee has ranked the land “quite highly,” giving it priority for preservation. He confirmed that discussions have been ongoing, with negotiations taking place on and off for four years.

According to town policy, the town cannot pay more for a property than its appraised value, even if its development potential would enhance its future value.

The Bistrians have “negotiated with the town in good faith on every conceivable basis as to allow for preservation of the subject property,” their attorney said in the letter to the town. Among the various options proposed, it said, was a plan to cluster houses on a portion of the land while preserving the rest as open space.

Consequently, the family is now demanding that the town provide an access road to landlocked sections of the acreage. Such a road was legally agreed to in 1970 when the town acquired two acres of land for the parking lot from Peter Bistrian, according to their attorney, Robert B. Lynn Jr. of Lynn, Gartner, Dunne and Covello in Mineola.

The agreement called for the town to open and pave an access road to Windmill Lane, Mr. Lynn said. The road, which would lead from the north side of the parking lot west to Windmill Lane, already exists, legally, on paper, on the town tax map.

“In essence, the town has benefited from the transaction but has not performed the obligations which were to benefit the Bistrians,” Mr. Lynn wrote.

The construction of the parking lot, the attorney’s letter explains, eliminated an access from the Bistrian property to Main Street, prompting an agreement for Mr. Bistrian to provide the town, at no cost, with an additional three acres north of the lot, to create the access road to be paid for by the town. The access is depicted on the map as leading from the north side of the parking lot through farm fields, then curving west to intersect with Windmill Lane near Schellinger Road.

At present, Mr. Lynn said, there is no access to four of the nine lots that make up the Bistrian farmland, which includes two parcels that could take access from Cozzens Lane.

The letter, dated Aug. 12, gives the town 60 days to pave the road. Otherwise, it says, the Bistrians will have it paved themselves without further notice.

For the first time since Lee White resigned from the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals, leaving the panel with four rather than five members, an application had to be denied because a member recused himself and the remaining three members could not agree.

An application before the board on Aug. 9 was from Scott Sinawi for property at 4 Waring Lane in Springs. He wants to partially demolish a house, leaving 598 square feet of it standing, which would be converted into a wood-working shop. He then would put up a 3,102-square-foot house with 1,800 square feet of decking, and build a swimming pool. His plans require wetland permits and a variance for the septic system.

 Given that the chairman of the board, John Whelan, recused himself, Elizabeth Baldwin, attorney for the board, said that unless the remaining three agreed on whether to approve or reject the application, it would be automatically denied. It soon became clear that the three members would not agree.

“This is a very aggressive and involved redevelopment of this property,” Cate Rogers told her fellow members, David Lys and Roy Dalene. “It abuts Accabonac Harbor, and wetlands to the north,” she said. But she concluded that replacing and moving the “antique” septic system with a modern one was a strong incentive for approval. The two other board members did not agree with her.

Further affecting the decision was that  the hearing on the application had been closed on June 21 and decisions are required within 62 days. Putting the vote off was not an option since a fourth member was not expected to be appointed within that time. The application was denied, but without prejudice, which means Mr. Sinawi could reapply in the future.

Under the state code governing the  local government, alternate members can be appointed to such boards, who might make a difference in cases such as this, but the  town board would have to amend the town code to allow such an appointment.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said last week that the town board was actively vetting potential candidates for the vacant post.

Another application denied that night was from Richard Giles, the owner of 23 Dogwood Street in Montauk. Mr. Giles wanted to build a 540-square-foot pool house, while the town code limits them to 200 square feet. Mr. Giles told the board during a July 26 public hearing that he has four daughters who need privacy. He added the pool house was designed to match the pool itself. His arguments fell on deaf ears.

Mr. Lys warned that approving the request would be precedent-setting, calling it a “massive variance request.” The board rejected the application unanimously.

Another application denied that night by a unanimous vote was that of Camellia Weinstein, the owner of 6 Prentice Place in Ditch Plain, Montauk. She wanted to tear down a small house on a lot that is  slightly over 7,000 square feet and replace it with a 2,473-square-foot, two-story house. The design of the house includes dormers, which extend toward neighboring properties, violating a town law. The board feared  the new house would loom over its neighbors and denied the application unanimously.

Elation brought on by last week’s surprising near-disappearance of the cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, bloom that appeared in Georgica Pond in East Hampton in June was dashed by a dramatic resurgence of the toxic algal bloom on Monday and Tuesday, which in turn was quickly followed by an order-of-magnitude decline.

As it has since July 1, the pond remains closed to the harvesting of shellfish, crabs, and other marine species by order of the East Hampton Town Trustees, who manage many of the town’s waterways and bottomlands on behalf of the public.

Data collected by a monitoring buoy in the southern end of the pond generally measured fewer than 2 micrograms per liter, and often well under 1 microgram per liter, of cyanobacteria from Aug. 10 until Monday, when it began a steep increase, to 14.28 micrograms per liter on Tuesday afternoon. Since then, the toxic algae had fallen to less than 1 microgram per liter but were on a slight upward trajectory, measuring .95 microgram per liter at noon yesterday. Values above approximately 3 micrograms per liter meet the State Department of Environmental Conservation’s threshold constituting a harmful bloom.

Exposure to cyanobacteria at high concentrations can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, allergic reactions, breathing difficulties, or skin, eye, or throat irritation. It can be fatal to children and animals.

The fluctuating but generally low measurements of cyanobacteria in Georgica Pond over the summer come amid intensifying blooms in 10 other East End lakes and ponds, Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences said on Saturday. These include Hook Pond in East Hampton, Wainscott Pond, Sagg Pond in Sagaponack, Kellis Pond in Bridgehampton, Mill Pond in Water Mill, and Old Town Pond and Lake Agawam in Southampton.

Dr. Gobler has led a water-quality monitoring effort for the trustees since 2013 and is now also working on behalf of the Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation, a pondfront property owners group that formed last year to fight the pond’s environmental degradation.

The trustees “are considering the situation in Georgica Pond to be unchanged, and will be very careful in making any announcements on it in the future,” Francis Bock, their clerk, or presiding officer, wrote in an email on Tuesday. Yesterday, he said that the intense heat of the past week would presumably cause the water temperature to rise, promoting conditions in which the cyanobacteria bloom could thrive.

The trustees, he said, hope soon to open the pond to the Atlantic Ocean, which is typically done on a biannual basis and serves to flush its waters and restore salinity, causing the algal bloom to dissipate. That, however, cannot be done until piping plovers and least terns, federally protected birds that nest along the shoreline, are confirmed to have departed the area, along with their fledglings. The shorebirds’ presence in the spring prevented the April letting of the pond this year.

There has been speculation that the relatively low measurements of cyanobacteria in the past few weeks were a result of the Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation’s effort to remove macroalgae, which releases nitrogen and phosphorus as it decays and is believed to promote the cyanobacteria blooms that have fouled the pond over the last several years.

“We need more information to conclusively say what the cause is,” Dr. Gobler said on Saturday.

The foundation launched an aquatic weed harvester, a motorized craft that removes macroalgae, in May in an effort to quantify its nitrogen and phosphorus content. It has removed several pickup-truck loads of macroalgae, a project that is meant to determine if removing it is effective in combating cyanobacteria. Depending on the amount of macroalgae in the pond, the harvester is to continue operating through this month.

The foundation “is delighted that to date the 2016 field season has produced low toxic blue-green algae levels,” Sara Davison, the group’s executive director, said in a statement issued on Monday, “but it is still too early to draw any conclusions on the reasons for the decline, and there is still time for new harmful algal blooms to develop.”

The statement proved prophetic, given the following day’s dramatic if brief surge. “It is important to take a long view here,” Ms. Davison wrote in an email on Tuesday evening, “and not react to day-to-day spikes. Many factors can affect the cyanobacteria levels,” including weather, pond depth and salinity, and nutrient input. “Many that we don’t understand fully.”

To an outsider, what looked like a pile of trash filling the commons room at the Springs School on Monday was, on closer inspection, a collection of materials intended to be taken apart and reassembled to create new contraptions by the kids at Camp Invention.

While they were exploring scientific and engineering concepts in small group workshops, Sema Mendelman, a parent of two students and a frequent Springs School volunteer, was busy organizing the trash — egg cartons, wicker baskets, plastic bottles, lampshades, bubble wrap, cardboard tubes, cassette tape players, computer keyboards, video game controllers, radio speakers, and much, much more.

The Springs program had its genesis a few years ago when Ms. Mendelman searched for science-related summer activities for her children. She said the closest program was in Hampton Bays, and “that was too far.” 

What she did next was to get in touch with Camp Invention, a program developed by the National Inventors Hall of Fame, about building a camp here. Now in its fourth year at the Springs School, Camp Invention is a weeklong summer event for kids entering kindergarten through sixth grade that promotes science, engineering, math, technology, and imagination. Sean Knight, a Springs science teacher, immediately jumped on board as its director.

Of the camp’s 80 students, 65 are from Springs and the John M. Marshall Elementary School in East Hampton. The rest are from nearby districts or children whose families are here for the summer. Many of the kids come back for a second year, Mr. Knight said. The camp also attracts middle school students as counselors-in-training and high school students who earn community service credit.

The teachers this year are Melissa Knight, Dina Rafferty, and Kim Havlik, local elementary teachers, and Jennifer Marchignoli, from Manhasset. They receive instruction from the National Inventors Hall of Fame before camp begins and go on to develop their own lessons.

The activities this year are Epic Park, in which kids design an amusement park of their dreams using physics, design, entrepreneurship, and clean energy concepts. A  CrickoBot workshop has  students making solar-powered bugs and other tiny inventions inspired by crickets. There’s a Maker Studio, where kids apply reverse engineering to take apart electronic devices and use the pieces in new projects, and a Where Pigs Fly lab in which they experiment with everything from demolition and cup- tower explosions to programming and coding as well as the chemistry of polymer slime and spinning disco ball circuits.

According to Mr. Knight, many students  have not been able to work on projects for extended periods or explore subjects to their fullest extent during the school year ever since the Common Core curriculum standards were adopted. “Here, they get to work on a project all week. One of the great things about the camp is that kids get to have a lot of trial and error, instead of coming into a 50-minute lab where they have to solve the problem right away,” he said.

Opinions from some of the kids taking part were positive. “It’s really fun. It gives you a chance to explore,” Finn Hopkins, a Springs School fifth grader, said. “The really cool part is every year they come up with something new.” Jameson Grant, a Springs sixth grader who has signed up for the camp all four years, said that after her first year, she started asking her parents for things around the house she could take apart and reuse. Chloe Swickard, also a Springs sixth grader, said, “This really makes you think. You don’t think this much in your daily life.”

Mr. Knight said he doesn’t see Camp Invention “slowing down anytime soon” and Ms. Mendelman said the program complements what is taught in school. “The thing I really love about this camp is that there is no right way to do things. They figure things out for themselves. Kids are exploring, and that’s really cool.”

A two-vehicle crash at about 3 a.m. on Friday sent two women to the hospital and resulted in the arrest of Sahm Adrangi, 35, on misdemeanor charges of driving while intoxicated and possession of cocaine.

Mr. Adrangi’s 2015 BMW convertible was westbound on Montauk Highway in Amagansett, approaching its intersection with Bluff Road, when it veered into the oncoming lane and collided with a 2012 Ford sport-utility vehicle, according to East Hampton Town police.

Rhina A. Sanchez, 25, the driver of the S.U.V., injured her neck in the crash and was flown by helicopter to Stony Brook University Hospital. Kelly Mackel, 27, a passenger in the BMW, complained of a head injury and was taken to Southampton Hospital.

Police said each driver claimed that the other had crossed the double yellow line. However, according to a diagram drawn up afterward by the arresting officer, it was Mr. Adrangi’s car that was in the wrong lane at the time of the collision.

Mr. Adrangi, a Manhattan resident, told police that he was driving home from the Surf Lodge in Montauk when the accident happened. “I was driving pretty fast, like 55, 60,” he said. The speed limit on that stretch is 35 miles per hour, police said. An officer wrote him summonses for speeding and lane-changing.

After being arrested, he was patted down, with police allegedly pulling a wallet out of his right back pants pocket. In it, they said, was a plastic bag of cocaine.

“That’s my wallet,” Mr. Adrangi said, “but I don’t know how that got in there.”

At his arraignment Saturday morning, Mr. Adrangi told East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky that he was renting a house on Arbor Path in Amagansett for the season, and asked to defer proceedings so that he could have his attorney, Tad Scharfenberg, present. He had refused to take the breath test at police headquarters, resulting, Justice Tekulsky told him, in the automatic suspension of his driver’s license. Bail was set at $1,000, which was posted.

A motorcyclist who was thrown from his 2016 Harley-Davidson and seriously injured after trying to overtake a car on Route 114 in East Hampton on Saturday was also flown to Stony Brook. Jay Rowe, 42, of East Hampton was treated by the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association, which took him to a nearby ball field at the Ross School on Goodfriend Drive, where the helicopter landed.

Mr. Rowe, who remained in critical condition as of yesterday, has been charged with driving under the influence of drugs and unlawful possession of marijuana. Wendy Zoland, 65, of Mamaroneck, N.Y., whose 2013 Acura was turning left about 800 feet north of Goodfriend Drive when the motorcycle struck her car, was not hurt. She had several passengers, one of whom, a child, was taken to Southampton Hospital for minor injuries.

At about 9:30 on Friday night, policereceived a call that a man was slumped behind the wheel of a 1992 Porsche convertible in the Viking Fleet parking lot in Montauk. When an officer responded, the car was gone, but another officer spotted it and pulled it over, leading to the arrest of Chris W. Layton, 50, of Franklin Lakes, N.J., on a charge of aggravated drunken driving. Mr. Layton’s breath test at police headquarters in Wainscott reportedly produced a reading of .29 of 1 percent.

Mr. Layton, who said in court that he had been visiting a friend for the weekend, deferred his arraignment until his next court appearance, on Sept. 1. Bail of $1,000 was posted.

An accident in the parking lot behind the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett led to the third D.W.I. arraignment in Justice Court Saturday morning. Police said Sara K. Chapman, 25, of Southampton had backed her 2010 Chevrolet pickup truck into another vehicle and driven away.

Two witnesses called 911, and Ms. Chapman was stopped within minutes. Police noted that she had a learner’s permit, but no driver’s license. She was released Saturday on $250 bail.

Bert W. Leland of Springs, 56, was stopped on Springs-Fireplace Road late Sunday afternoon for a moving violation and charged with D.W.I. after his breath test produced a reading of .08.

Police said they found quantities of three controlled narcotic drugs on him, including oxycodone, methadone hydrochloride, and oxycontin, and charged him also with three counts of possession. A computer check reportedly showed that his insurance had lapsed, they added. Mr. Leland, a longtime resident of the community, was released Monday without bail, but with a future date on Justice Tekulsky’s criminal calendar.

An East Hampton man who was just released from jail was back in handcuffs Friday evening, charged burglary, possession of stolen property, and criminal mischief, all at the felony level, for allegedly stealing D.J. equipment from Club Leo in East Hampton.

Scott D. Golden, 47, who police allege is a crack cocaine addict, is said to have stolen over $5,000 of equipment from Club Leo on Three Mile Harbor Road. The club is less than a mile from his residence at the mobile home village on Oakview Highway. The theft was first reported on the afternoon of Aug. 8. Shortly after receiving the burglary complaint, the East Hampton police detective squad determined that Mr. Golden was a prime suspect, and police executed a search warrant on Friday of Mr. Golden’s mobile home. In addition, he was also charged with one misdemeanor, possession of burglary tools.

Mr. Golden was arrested in May on charges of assault, menacing, and strangulation, all at the misdemeanor level, after an altercation in his mobile home with a female guest. Unable to make bail, he was held in county jail until late last month, when he pleaded guilty to at least one of the charges, and was sentenced, essentially, to time served.

During his May arraignment, East Hampton Town Justice Lisa R. Rana spoke to him about his criminal history, which she said included 4 felony convictions and 13 misdemeanor convictions. His most recent felony conviction came after he was arrested for burglary in East Hampton; he served three years in state prison after that arrest.

Because of his four felony convictions, he was not eligible to have bail set by East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky during his Saturday morning arraignment. He will be held in county jail until Thursday, when he will be brought back to East Hampton Town Justice Court. If not indicted by a grand jury by then, he will be released. If indicted, the case will be moved to county court.

A two-vehicle crash on Montauk Highway in Amagansett early Saturday morning, in which one of the drivers was injured, resulted in the arrest of a summer renter on misdemeanor charges of drunken driving and cocaine possession.

According to police, Sahm Adrangi, 35, was driving a 2015 BMW convertible at about 3 a.m. on Montauk Highway near Bluff Road when he collided with a Ford sport-utility vehicle that had been headed in the opposite direction.

Police did not release the name of the Ford's driver nor describe her injuries. A portion of the highway was closed for some time after the accident.

According to police, both drivers said that the other had crossed over the double yellow line before the accident. Police ticketed Mr. Adrangi for speeding. He refused to submit to a breath-alcohol test at police headquarters.

After being brought into East Hampton Town Justice Court Saturday morning, Mr. Adrangi told Justice Steven Tekulsky that he wanted to defer his arraignment until his next court appearance, so that he could have his attorney present.

Because Mr. Adrangi had refused to take the breath test at police headquarters, Justice Tekulsky told him that his drivers license was suspended.

Justice Tekulsky set bail at $1,000, which Mr. Adrangi posted at police headquarters.

Separately, police received a call that a man was slumped behind the wheel of a 1992 Porsche convertible in the Viking Fleet parking lot in Montauk at around 9:30 on Friday night.

When an officer responded, the Porsche was gone. Another officer spotted it shortly afterward being driven by Chris W. Layton, 50, and made a traffic stop, leading to his arrest. He said in court that he was visiting a friend here for the weekend. 

At police headquarters, Mr. Layton’s breath test produced a reading of .29 of 1 percent, leading to a charge of aggravated drunken driving. He deferred his arraignment until his next court appearance, on Sept. 1, and posted $1,000 bail at police headquarters.

The body of a 23-year-old Eastport man was found lying on the ground in the grassy common at the Rough Riders condominium complex on Fort Pond in Montauk at 6 a.m. Saturday. A passer-by called police. They said that it was clear when officers arrived that Gavin Q. Keblish was dead.

The Suffolk County Medical Examiner's office was called in to assist in the investigation, which determined that foul play was not involved. Police would not disclose whether a drug or alcohol overdose was involved. They have asked anyone with information to call detectives at 631-537-7575. All calls will be kept confidential.

I’ve avoided writing a column about fishing with drones because, quite frankly, I think it’s an idiotic pursuit. But recently I’ve been getting reports from tackle shops that more and more customers are inquiring about using a drone rather than a surf rod to deliver a baited hook. 

In my view, a surf fisherman who uses a drone to send a plug, tin, or bait to feeding fish is no different than a golfer who employs one to drop a Titleist 12 inches from the pin from 450 yards away. Yes, the fisherman will catch more fish, and, yes, the golfer will shoot a record score, but where’s the sport in either endeavor? Sorry. There is none.

Maybe if I fished for the table more than for sport I wouldn’t be so opposed to the concept. But even my friend Tom, an exceptional fisherman who eats more fish than a local gray seal, believes that drone fishing “just doesn’t seem right.” An integral part of any sport is learning, practicing, and perfecting techniques. In surf fishing this applies to casting. Using a drone instead of acquiring the necessary casting skills is almost cheating, like using a corked bat to hit a baseball farther. 

A quick tour of the internet indicates that drones designed for fishing are pretty expensive, at a couple grand with accessories and such. Why waste money on something that surely will end up on a dirty garage shelf next to the Roomba? Instead, spend the bucks on a nice rod, reel, and some casting lessons from a local expert. 

Using a drone to scout for fish is another story. Captains for years have been using powerful radar to scan for flocks of surface-feeding birds, which typically signal the presence of fish. Drones are simply an evolution of this technology that can save fishermen fuel costs and minimize unproductive time on the water. Drones can also help surfcasters locate schools of fish along the shoreline when otherwise they would have to hoof it down the beach or motor back and forth in their four-wheeler. Of course the angler who is catching fish in solitude will not appreciate the distant operator’s aerial reconnaissance and might respond with an unfortunate errant cast. Oops. 

Imagine what would happen during the fall run around Montauk Point if surfcasters sent their plugs way beyond the surf line among the mosquito fleet and boaters dropped their tins into the waters below surfcasters standing on rocks under the Lighthouse. Mercifully, the loud and annoying buzzing generated by a drone’s four rotors would certainly drown out the exchanged pleasantries.

Another electronic device that some fishermen are experimenting with locally is the iBobber, a wireless sonar fish-finding device. Based on info gleaned from the internet, one casts the iBobber into a body of water and either lets it sit or slowly retrieves it. The device allegedly maps the contour of the bottom and detects fish swimming underneath its location. The captured information is then transmitted to and displayed on the angler’s smartphone. Does it work? Maybe in a still pond but unlikely in a moving current. The iBobber costs less than $100 so the cost of early adoption isn’t crazy high.

David Reutershan from Gone Fishing Marina in Montauk reported that “the bite is on,” despite the hot weather. On Tuesday, a charter boat returned by lunch limited out on bass and sea bass, with stripers up to 41 pounds. Boaters have been catching keeper fluke, and a private captain came back early one morning this week because he got tired of catching so many fish.

“Loads of weakfish” have made an appearance near inlets in the bays to the west, said Sebastian Gorgone of Mrs. Sam’s Bait and Tackle in East Hampton. “There are big schools with some keepers,” he said. “Guys are astounded.” 

Weakfish are taking bait, such as sandworms and clams, he said, and soft-plastic jelly worms bounced off the bottom. “It’s the stuff you use to catch fluke,” Gorgone said.

Inside Three Mile Harbor, snappers and bottlefish can be found. The blow-toads, as Gorgone described them, can be caught on tiny hooks baited with clams, squid, or worms. Mrs. Sam’s, on Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton, is open Monday to Saturday from 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and on Sunday from 8 a.m. to about 5:30 p.m.

Harvey Bennett at the Tackle Shop on Montauk Highway in Amagansett said that his customers, too, had found blowfish along several docks in Three Mile Harbor. “The past week, it’s really taken off,” he said. 

Chunkers have taken a few big bass with bait — one around 40 pounds, Bennett said — on the sandy ocean beaches. A customer fishing with soft-plastic shad lures found a bunch of short bass and a keeper the other night on the ocean in East Hampton Village.

Bennett also said that delicious kingfish were around, as were a few small mackerel.

Correction: Capt. Tom Federico's boat is called the Surfmaster, not the Surfcaster, as previously reported. 

Thomas Gilbert Jr. who is charged with murdering his father in January 2015 in his parents' Manhattan apartment, was found fit to stand trial in the Centre Street courtroom of State Supreme Court Justice Melissa Jackson on Wednesday. Psychiatrists had disagreed over his mental state for many months, delaying the start of the trial.

Police say Mr. Gilbert, who is being held on Rikers Island, shot his father to death with a pistol, then staged the scene to make it look like a suicide. His next court date is Oct. 5.

The family's house in the Georgica Association, where they had vacationed for many years, was sold earlier this year.