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.

Saturday is the day for the Springs Fisherman’s Fair, which will offer lots of its traditional pleasures but include some new ones, and will take place during the afternoon and early evening hours, for a change, this year. From 1 to 8 p.m. on the grounds at Ashawagh Hall and across the street at the Springs Presbyterian Church and the Springs Library, there will be food, crafts, and games, along with a lineup of performances by area musicians.

The farmers market, held weekly on the green on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., will wrap up at noon this weekend.

The Springs Invitational Art Show, curated by Nick Tarr this year, will be open for viewing in Ashawagh Hall all day. Also starting at 9 a.m. will be a sale of local plants and of Springs Improvement Society merchandise such as this year’s art show poster, and Fisherman’s Fair T-shirts, mugs, and caps.

During the afternoon fair, there will be plenty of prepared food — chowder, clam pies, baked clams, oysters, hot dogs, corn, and a seafood combo — over at the church, along with food vendors, including Mister Softee ice cream.

Crafts will be for sale, and a children’s area, with a bouncy house, a fish-printing station, and loads of games, will be open from 1 to 5 p.m.

The musical lineup is as follows: Michael Pour at 1 p.m.; OCDC with Cynthia Daniels and Sarah Greene at 1:30; Job Potter and Friends at 2:15 p.m.; Nancy Atlas and Inda Eaton at 3; Hampton Gypsies at 4:45; Fred Raimondo at 5:30, and the Michael Rusinsky Band at 6:15, followed by Michael Weiskopf at 7.

Whether it is democracy in action, partisan warfare, or both may depend on one’s point of view, but in the last month differences among the East Hampton Town Trustees have erupted into shouting matches and accusations of politicization and grandstanding, all over the Trustee Waters Improvement and Management Task Force, a.k.a. the harbor management committee, a group that until recently had scant recognition even among the nine-member trustee body. 

The three-person committee was created by trustee resolution in 2001. It has helped the trustees draft priority lists for waterways to be dredged, recommended amendments to shellfish regulations, helped to establish kayak racks at beaches, and assisted inspection of launching ramps and removal of derelict moorings and duck blinds. Members often use their personal boats and vehicles in these efforts.

Several trustees, however, describe a committee that has been virtually dormant for the last few years, particularly since the January 2011 death of Norman Edwards, a trustee. The town’s Natural Resources Department is supposed to interface with it, and a member of the town board is to serve as a liaison, neither of which now happens. The group is meant to meet monthly, and members are to be paid a $50 stipend per meeting, though they have not been paid this year.

Since the election last November tipped the balance of the trustees from a 5-4 Republican majority to a 3-6 minority, many of the trustees’ meetings have been punctuated by fierce opposition to policy changes, particularly from Diane McNally, its former longtime clerk, a Republican.

At the trustees’ July 11 meeting, several members questioned the harbor management committees’ purpose. “What is the value proposition of the committee?” asked Rick Drew, a first-term Democrat. “Are we getting expert-level advice on environmental issues, on boating issues, on beach issues?”

When the committee was formed, said Tyler Armstrong, another first-term Demo­crat, “managing the harbors and moorings and docks was one of the major things, but with water quality becoming a major issue . . . it could stand to be broadened to encompass some kind of advice about water quality.”

Brian Byrnes questioned the stipend, likening the committee to a hamlet’s citizens advisory committee, whose members are volunteers. “I don’t even know who’s on the harbor management committee as we speak,” he said, suggesting an annual review and potential changes to its membership.

With Ms. McNally absent on July 11, only Tim Bock, a Republican, offered wholehearted support. “These people live here, they go on the water here,” he said. “They probably are the best experts we’ve got.”

At the next meeting, on July 25, Ms. McNally, whose son, Adam Mamay, is a member of the committee, informed the board that Bill Becker, a committee member since its formation, had resigned the day after the July 11 meeting. She then offered a withering critique of the July 11 discussion, which she had watched on LTV.

After reviewing that meeting, “I’m not surprised by Mr. Becker’s resignation,” she said. “Your lack of knowledge was reflected by mindless criticism, and was offensive to those who are or have been members.” She singled out Mr. Byrnes and Bill Taylor, both second-term Democrats, and Pat Mansir, a former town board member who was elected a trustee on the Democratic ticket last November.

“The bottom line,” she added, “is that some of you didn’t like my son being a member of the committee. You thought his participation was somehow politically motivated, and you’re wrong.”

Several trustees expressed shock at that assertion. “I think the question really was, at the time the members of the board were unaware who the members were,” said Jim Grimes, a Republican serving his first term. “I don’t think anybody on the present harbor management board should have been offended. . . . The whole motivation of your dialogue is malicious, to say the very least.” Had she raised these views with Francis Bock, the trustees’ clerk, prior to the meeting, “instead of grandstanding, which is honestly what you just did, we could have reached out to Bill Becker and done some things to mend fences,” he said.

At the trustees’ meeting on Monday, a sense of cooperation prevailed, although Ms. Mansir suggested the harbor management committee was redundant and perhaps unnecessary at this time. Her colleagues disagreed.

With concerns such as the harmful algal blooms fouling Georgica and Wainscott Ponds occupying more of their time and resources, “there may be an opportunity for the committee to take on an environmental focus that would be really helpful to the board,” Mr. Drew said. “There are some traditional approaches the harbor management committee brings to the table. Maybe we need to look at new opportunities, too.”

The issues have changed, agreed Francis Bock, “but the need, I think, is still there. They’ve done good work in the past, and I believe it can do good work in the future. It kind of lost momentum for a little while.”

But Ms. McNally issued a challenge to the majority. “If it doesn’t satisfy your criteria at this point, change it,” she said of the committee. “I’m going to sit here and watch . . . and I’ll give you my opinions

Political fund-raising for the presidential race heats up on the South Fork this weekend, with an event for Donald Trump to take place in East Hampton on Saturday and several fund-raisers for Hillary Clinton scheduled for the end of the month.

The Trump event will take place on Saturday night at the Highway Behind the Pond residence of Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets. Peter Kalikow of Montauk, the former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority who heads a Manhattan real estate firm, is a co-host, as is, reportedly, Anthony Scaramucci, the founder of SkyBridge Capital, an investment firm.

“I’ve known Donald Trump for 40 years, and I think he would make a great president,” Mr. Kalikow said yesterday through a representative. Howard Lorber, a businessman and investor who is chairman of the Southampton Hospital Foundation, is also a co-host. He is among those just named by Mr. Trump to a 13-member economic policy advisory council.

Hillary Clinton will be on hand for fund-raisers from Aug. 28 through 30, including a late-night concert by the singer Jimmy Buffett at his North Haven residence, and a dinner in East Hampton co-hosted by Alan Patricof, a longtime Clinton supporter, and Charles Phillips, the chief executive officer of Infor Global Solutions, a software company, who served on President Barack Obama’s economic recovery advisory board. 

Other events reportedly slated to occur during Mrs. Clinton’s visit include a big-ticket fund-raiser in Bridgehampton hosted by Jonathan Tisch of the Loews Corporation, who is treasurer of the New York Giants, and Bill Rudin of Rudin Management.

Dinners are also planned in Quogue and Southampton, with Adam Sender, a hedge fund manager and art collector, and Barbara Lee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, who was appointed chairwoman of the New York State Council on the Arts in April, and Carl Spielvogel, former United States ambassador to the Slovak Republic, among the hosts.

A proposed East Hampton Town law that would allow and regulate the use of up to 20 percent of the community preservation fund for projects intended to improve water quality drew the unanimous support of more than two dozen people at a hearing at Town Hall last Thursday, although a number of speakers urged the board to tighten the law’s language to ensure it would not spur development.

The preservation fund program, adopted in 1999 in the five East End towns, has raised over $1 billion for land and historical preservation through a 2-percent tax on most real estate transactions. The law, which also extends the C.P.F. program for 20 years, to 2050, will require voter approval on Election Day. It requires town board approval of a water quality improvement plan that the board is expected to approve shortly, its having been recently presented by Kim Shaw, the town natural resources director. The plan calls for each project to be approved by the town board, with an advisory committee and a plan manager offering advice.

Among those who faulted some of the language in the law was a contingent of local Democrats. Jeanne Frankl, an attorney who is the chairwomen of the Town Democratic Committee, said she had deep concerns. “You must go back to the drawing board on this,” she said.

David Weinstein called the proposal a “landmark piece of legislation” but said, “C.P.F. funds should not be used to aid private development in any way.” As written, future town officials might be able to subvert the law’s intent, he said.

Betty Mazur found the intent of the law “excellent,” but said it was “not quite strong enough to prevent any unintended consequences.”

The members of the board took their concerns seriously, postponing a vote on the law at the close of the hearing and subsequently revising the text. The law had read that “projects which have as their primary purpose the accommodation of new growth

. . . shall not qualify for funding. . . .” The word “primary” has now been removed. The revised law mirrors state legislation exactly and is likely to be approved at the board’s meeting next Thursday.

Alec Baldwin, an actor and an Amagansett resident, was among the many at the hearing who expressed strong support. “Why protect land in a waterfront community if the water is going to go down the tubes?” he asked. He suggested that town officials arrange a community forum at which “what exactly will happen with this C.P.F. money” can be explained to the public.

Anna Throne-Holst, the former Southampton Town supervisor who is running for Congress, called the community preservation fund “one of the most successful preservation efforts in the nation,” which, she said, was achieved “without actually taxing individuals for whom that might pose difficulty.” The cost to future taxpayers of not addressing widespread water quality “is almost incalculable,” she said.

A major component of the law is that C.P.F. money is to be made available for rebates to property owners who install more efficient septic systems. County Legislator Bridget Fleming pointed out that recently enacted county laws authorize the Suffolk Department of Health Services to approve new waste systems that can largely eliminate the discharge of nitrogen.

“We wanted to be clear that if we introduced these new sanitary systems that we weren’t opening the door to development,” she said. She also said that the county law has restrictions on population density. Existing town zoning restrictions would also still apply.

Other projects that could be funded under the law are wastewater treatment systems, aquatic habitat restoration, pollution prevention, “non-point source abatement and control,” and participation in the Peconic Bay National Estuary Program.

Kevin McDonald, a conservation policy adviser for the Nature Conservancy, said studies over the years “all came back and said, ‘your problem is nitrogen,’ ” with the source identified as individual disposal systems.

“We got the best people in the country on marine research,” Mr. McDonald said, and they all said dealing with the nitrogen entering the waters was essential. “Where you reduce the offending pollutant, natural systems will recover,” he said. The problem was not in question; the only deficiency was funding, he said. “So we forcefully, fully, and strongly endorse the proposal.”

Judith Weis, a Springs resident and marine biology professor, underscored Mr. McDonald’s points, saying, however, that the public should be aware that “it’s not going to be a quick fix. It’s not going to recover next year, or the year after — it’s going to take a long time.”

Given the time it would take to have an impact, action is “well overdue,” Laura Michaels of Montauk’s Ditch Plains Association said.

Protection of land through the community preservation fund has already protected property from water pollution, Jeremy Samuelson, the executive director of Concerned Citizens of Montauk, said, “but it is not enough.”

For example, 68 percent of Montauk has been preserved, “but Lake Montauk hasn’t been able to have a public bathing beach since 2006 because it can’t pass a health certification,” he said. “The hard part is how do we pay for it? And we have in front of us now an elegant solution.” To address some of the fears about preservation money helping to spur development, he suggested making new construction on vacant lots ineligible for septic rebates.

Robert DeLuca, the president of the Group for the East End, said the issue was “always funding. Without this plan I don’t know what other tool we have.” He called the town’s management plan a “strategic, thorough, thoughtful, and measured approach to dealing with a large issue.”

Over and over the speakers, including East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr., spoke in favor of the law. The village adopted its own water quality improvement plan last month.

“It has been scientifically documented that the water quality of our East Hampton water bodies is impaired,” Helene Forst of East Hampton, said. “Taking 20 percent of the C.P.F. to protect our water bodies is a measure that will protect our town’s vistas, water estuaries, and natural lands.”

During the hearing, East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell agreed that “the language is important . . . ,” but, he said, care must be taken so that “you don’t get into a situation where someone can’t do anything with their property.”

Alex Miller of Springs also voiced support, “provided that the approval of the referendum’s language precludes any development beyond what is currently allowed by zoning.”

“It will take years but we’ve got to get started. We’re on the wrong track,” Mr. Cantwell said at the close of the hearing. Without doing so, “the future doesn’t look so good, even in a commu

It’s not all chill vibe and aloha spirit on these hot August days at Ditch Plain beach in Montauk. Friction ignited this week at the popular beach, a premier East Coast surfing spot, pitting old-guard surfers against the crowds flooding in in the wake of Montauk’s newfound popularity.

A group of Montauk surfers and beachgoers, several with sandy children in tow, described their concerns about the scene at Ditch to the East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday.

Corey’s Wave, a successful surf-lesson business with a town permit to give lessons at the beach, “has overwhelmed and is exploiting the beach and the surf community” in the so-called Dirt Lot area of the beach, according to a memo distributed by the group.

“It’s like mayhem,” one speaker said. “Those guys are down there all day, every day, just clogging the place up.”

But yesterday, supporters of Corey’s Wave, along with its owners, crowded into a special meeting called by the board to discuss the situation and consider the status of the business’s license.

The enterprise is well run and highly regarded, several dozen people of all ages, about 10 on up, told board members. And Kristen Angiulo, who owns it with her husband, Corey Senese, said it is “100 percent in compliance” with its permit.

“You don’t teach surfing lessons to a student over rocks,” said one critic, Tony Villar, on Tuesday. “Especially a beginner. They should be on a sand beach.”

When an instructor has four students and pushes them toward a wave and into the lineup, “he’s creating a dangerous situation, and he’s not following the rules that everybody accepts,” said Jimmy Sullivan.

The permit held by the Montauk-based Corey’s Wave allows it to offer surf lessons at Ditch from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day, through September, with up to 25 people at a time. Air and Speed, another Montauk business, also holds a license to give lessons there. And, said Trevor Darrell, the attorney for Corey’s Wave, there are other, unlicensed entities offering surf lessons at that beach. He said he has proposed to town officials that surf instructors wear identifying armbands or rashguards, so that if a problem arises, Marine Patrol or police officers can pinpoint which business is involved. His clients, Mr. Darrell said, have received no summonses from law enforcement.

Corey’s Wave, he said, would agree to amendments to its license if necessary, such as limiting the number of students or moving the lessons to a less crowded area on weekends for the remainder of the summer. 

None of the Montaukers objected to surf lessons taking place. Crowding, however, is a problem, they said. They also denounced the behavior of Corey’s Wave instructors, who they alleged fail to observe accepted surf etiquette, such as not interfering with the surfers’ lineup. Some instructors, they claimed, have told members of the public to leave the water, or areas of the public beach.

The situation, said one man, has “come to a boiling point.” Tempers reportedly flared over the weekend.

“These people are coming down and just taking over the beach, they’re telling people to get out of the way, that they can’t be there,” another speaker claimed at Tuesday’s meeting.

Ms. Angiulo said by phone later that day that those claims were “100 percent so false. . . . It’s ludicrous, not to be believed, that that would be the case. All of our instructors are model citizens,” she said, trained in first aid and C.P.R., adding that someone with a lifeguard certification is always on hand. “We follow all the rules; we follow the regulations meticulously,” she said, “based on not restricting the public on the beach in any way. We strive to do the best we can and respect everyone, and are courteous to everyone in the community.”

Yesterday, speaker after speaker praised the business, its owners, and their instructors, saying that they stress surf etiquette and safety.

“This is a passion for us; this is not a fly-by-night operation,” Ms. Angiulo said.

But Tuesday’s meeting was a different story. “All we see is tents with credit card machines, kids getting pushed, telling people to get out of the water, that they don’t belong there,” said Vincent Carillo of Montauk.

Many at yesterday’s meeting disagreed. “It was a railroad job yesterday at that meeting,” James Katsipis said. “I’ve been surfing next to these guys for years, I’ve never seen a problem.”

“You got hustled,” Mike Grande told the town board. He said it was “a lie” that the Corey’s Wave people were “aggressive, rude, and not safe. There’s people down there that are aggressive, rude, and unsafe — it’s not them.”

“It gets a little crazy out there in the summertime,” Mr. Katsipis said. “If you take away the surf lessons, you’re going to have 200 kids out there with no supervision. It’s going to be a bloodbath.”

“Ditch Plains is the most popular surf break in our area,” the surfers who complained wrote in a memo to the board. “It is already way overcrowded without the additional crowd that is now using the beach for Corey’s Wave surf lessons.”

“The ocean and the beach is a public resource, and there should be no business on it,” said Joseph Giannini. “It’s ruining it for us, and we want it out of there. Those resources belong to us, the public.”

Michael Angiulo, Ms. Angiulo’s father, told the board he felt that some who are complaining were reacting to a changed reality, with more people here, generally, and bigger crowds at Ditch. “They cannot turn back time,” he said. “That’s the way it is now.”

“It’s Montauk in July and August; I think ‘Montauk’ is the Native American word for ‘mayhem,’ ” Mr. Grande said.

“I think we need a timeout,” said Steven White at yesterday’s crowded meeting, invoking “aloha spirit.” “It’s a public beach, we have to remember that everybody’s equal.”

 Requests from people who want to use public areas for different kinds of business or fund-raisers have long been a concern for town officials. A mass-gathering permit committee that vets these applications “struggle[s] at every meeting,” Councilman Fred Overton said, regarding “commercial uses of our natural resources,” not only by surf camps but paddleboard renters, caterers, and so on. The committee has already planned to take a broad look at town policy over the winter, and discuss tighter controls. But in the meantime, “believe me, we do due diligence before we issue a permit for any activity.”

“It’s nothing personal about Corey’s Wave,” Chuck Weimar, a surfer, said yesterday. “It’s just that it’s an unprecedented exploitation of the public beach.” Ditch is “our popular surfing beach,” he said. “The beach is too crowded.” The situation would not have come to such a head had the town permit specified some other beach, he said.

“He set up camp in the worst place, and now hardcore surfers who have been there 20 or 30 years, we have to compete with them for parking. There must be another place to teach people to surf,” Mr. Giannini said.

But, said a Corey’s Wave student, “People in New York City want to go to Ditch Plain. It’s been in all the magazines; that’s where they want to go.”

“Not every place has consistent waves,” Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell noted yesterday. “It’s sacred ground; people have surfed there for generations.” Lessons have also long been offered there, he said.

The board “wrestles with the issue of private vendors at public facilities,” the supervisor said, especially in light of public demand.

Board members agreed that there was no immediate need to amend the license given Corey’s Wave. However, they guaranteed a discussion when the summer ends of the tenuous balance between user groups at Ditch Plain, as well as at other popular, and sometimes overrun, destinations.

“The view is that the town allows for larger houses than perhaps we should,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell told the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee Monday night toward the end of a meeting that, if never quite heated, was occasionally simmering.

In response to the flood of big houses being built here on modest lots that almost disappear beneath them, and following the recent examples of Sag Harbor and East Hampton Villages, the town board has been discussing new rules that would limit a house’s size relative to the size of its lot. The supervisor, who is the board’s liaison to the advisory committee, had come to the meeting armed with a stack of spreadsheets, enough for all 20 or so in attendance, showing the numbers under current consideration.

Opponents were vocal in their disapproval of the code change. Kieran Brew, a real estate agent who lives in an older house on a half-acre lot, took strong exception to it. Mr. Brew, a past president of the committee, had signaled his displeasure the day before the meeting in an email to Mr. Cantwell, calling the initiative “unreasonable, unfair, arbitrary and completely unnecessary.”

“Like many families in East Hampton, our house is our retirement savings, and any reduction of the potential use of our property reduces the value of our assets by a substantial amount,” he wrote. Mr. Cantwell emailed back stressing that East Hampton Village’s code is “much more restrictive” than the town’s. “Have the prices of homes and real estate values in the village gone down since their law was adopted a number of years ago?” asked the supervisor, who was the village administrator when its law was passed.

Under the current town formula, which says a house can cover up to 12 percent of its lot plus 1,600 square feet, a 20,000-square-foot parcel such as Mr. Brew’s can accommodate a house with a gross floor area of up to 4,000 square feet. The change now being considered would limit the size of a new house on his lot to 3,000 square feet, substantially reducing the lot’s appeal to buyers, he said at the meeting. “It’s frightening to think that you’re doing an end run around my retirement,” he told Mr. Cantwell.

“Many people fear overdevelopment and the impact on the character of neighborhoods,” the supervisor responded. “The golden goose will be slayed.” He added that the new size limit “is potentially 20 to 30 percent less development in the town.”

At a town board meeting last week, Mr. Cantwell had said that the size of houses “relates to a number of issues — population, water quality, character of neighborhoods,” all of which came into play as the meeting continued.    

“Many of us feel that both aesthetically and economically, our own Amagansett is heading for disaster, because these mammoth houses are turning Amagansett into Great Neck,” said Jeanne Frankl. “Then there is the burden on our water and our entire infrastructure in bringing in more people — and, the argument of people with houses on small lots suffering most.”

“I question the data,” said Tom Field. “If we have so much development, how come the school has so few kids? It’s not a water issue, these people are not costing the community, they’re not bringing in kids, not driving taxes up.” On the contrary, he said, the big new houses are typically empty for much of the year.

 The idea that the town was holding up the two incorporated villages as models in proposing new limits on house size bothered Michael Diesenhaus, who protested that “East Hampton Village is completely different from the rest of East Hampton. The village is a unique market, not a good indicator of what will happen” elsewhere, he said. “This negatively affects the small homeowner more.”

 The town does not, at least not now, include basement space when computing gross floor area, but that too may change, depending on how “livable basement space” is defined. Mr. Cantwell spoke, for example, of new houses with basements that extend beyond the floors of the house itself. “Houses have been built with tunnels connecting to the garage,” he said.

“Will basement space be counted as gross floor area if you turn it into livable space?” asked Tina Piette.

“What does ‘livable space’ mean?” Mr. Field interrupted. “I teach C.P.R.; I have 14 mannequins; I built a den to hold them. The building inspector said it’s a bedroom, it needs a smoke alarm. . . .”

“I don’t know the answer,” the supervisor said. “I’m not a building inspector. . . . The problem is the belief on the part of some people that we allow too large a house on too small a lot.”

“ ‘Some people,’ yes,” Ms. Piette said pointedly.

“So,” said Mr. Field, “because ‘some people’ think a house is too big, we should . . .” “Devalue it,” Ms. Piette finished.

The town board plans to continue its discussion of house-size limits at a work session on Tuesday, at which, Mr. Cantwell said, it will analyze such aspects as basements, livable or otherwise, gross floor area, and more.

He will report back to the advisory committee at its next meeting, on Sept. 12 at the American Legion Hall. The committee had been seeking a new meeting place, and the Legion has offered its building for the purpose.

Along with the lightning, thunder, and rain, Wednesday afternoon's storm brought first responders out in droves to respond to fire and medical emergencies across the South Fork.

The National Weather Service had issued a tornado warning for the East End late Wednesday afternoon, a warning that proved critical when a small tornado was confirmed to have touched down on the North Fork. According to Carlie Buccola, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Upton, Connecticut and the North Fork were more heavily impacted than the South Fork. Still, the rain fell hard and fast, causing flash flooding on the roads, and the lightning and thunder sounded fire alarms and started at least one fire.

"It was crazy," said Tom Gardella, chief of the Sag Harbor Fire Department, which responded to four calls, including two possible structure fires, within a 37-minute time frame.

As the downpour began, just before 4:30 p.m., the department was called to 52 Union Street in Sag Harbor Village, where they found a fire in the roof above the kitchen. The occupant had already left the house and the whole ceiling was filled with smoke, Chief Gardella said. Firefighters put out the fire relatively quickly, which didn't take much water, since they already had a good supply from Mother Nature, he said. That fire is still under investigation. The chief said it's unclear whether the cause was weather-related.

Not 20 minutes later, at 4:44 p.m., with the lightning continuing to hit, the department received another report of a structure fire at 7 Poplar Street, in the Pine Neck neighborhood of Noyac. The alarm was going off and there was an electrical smell in the house. From his command post under a porch on the Union Street property, he sent his first assistant chief, Bruce Schiavoni, and two engines to Noyac.

Firefighters didn't find a fire, just smoke, and determined there was some kind of electrical issue, most likely caused by a lightning strike, Chief Gardella said. They turned the electric to the house off and used thermal imaging cameras to check the walls. But, the volunteers couldn't go home just yet.

At 5:05 p.m., while firefighters were still at the Union Street and Poplar Street houses, the chief received word that there was flooding at 3605 Noyac Road, between the Waterside condominiums and Cromer's Market, on the water side. Dispatchers told the chief the first floor was flooded and two residents were trapped on the second floor.

"That was not the case," Chief Gardella said. As it turned out, the basement had water in it, though it was already receding by the time he arrived. He had called for help from the North Sea Fire Department, but canceled it when he found no one was trapped.

In the midst of the three calls, there was a call for an automatic fire alarm on Grant Street, which was answered by a captain, using the chief's vehicles.

"I think we handled it pretty well considering," Chief Gardella said. "Nobody got hurt and there were no mishaps, that's what I'm most proud of," he said. "You have all these members responding and getting on apparatus and bringing apparatus from one scene to another safely without any incident. That sometimes gets overlooked."

Meanwhile in East Hampton, firefighters also had their hands full, answering four calls in 20 minutes. "I think the storm lasted a total of 30 minutes. When it came, it was relentless," said Chief Ken Wessberg. Just after 5 p.m., there was a small kitchen fire at Chiquita Latina on Pantigo Road and a gas leak reported in front of the Blue Parrot in the village. Then, the department received a call that a house may have been struck by lightning on Briar Patch Road, the chief said, adding it was a false alarm. Another gas leak was reported, this one on Buell Lane, shortly after. The chief said it was the methane gas from the septic tanks getting full of water that caused the problem.

As Chief Wessberg drove to the last call, he said there was six to eight inches of water from Buell Lane  running across Main Street by the flagpole as storm drains failed to keep up with the amount of rain that fell. "I've lived here my whole life, I've never seen that," he said.

The Amagansett Fire Department also was called out to a report of structure fire on Atlantic Avenue that turned out not to be much, and there was a transformer fire across the street from its headquarters on Main Street that caused a power outage.

The National Weather Service did not have specific rain totals for individual towns, but said the hamlet of Montauk, which was spared some of the storm's worst rain, got about a quarter-inch of rain in a 12-hour span, according to Ms. Buccola. Severe, sustained flooding was not a major problem across the East End, she said, though some areas probably experienced the kind of localized "nuisance flooding" that occurs when drains cannot handle the amount of rain that falls in a short period of time.

Indeed, Stephen Lynch, East Hampton Town's highway superintendent, said that was exactly the kind of flooding that occurred in the town.

"There were just a lot of wash-outs around town — a lot of flooding -- but as soon as it stopped raining, the water went down right away," he said, noting that East Hampton and Wainscott seemed to be "hit harder" than Montauk or Amagansett.

Mr. Lynch said the town did not receive any calls regarding incidents during the storm itself. On Thursday though, "there was a lot of sweeping and cleaning up" dirt and debris in the streets, he said.

Also, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation issued a warning that waters may not be safe for shellfishing due to the heavy rainfall.

The Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center will be able to upgrade its heating and air-conditioning system, replace its roof and outdoor siding, finish renovations to its kitchen, and complete other capital projects thanks to a $250,000 grant from New York State.

New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. formally announced the grant during a press conference at the center in East Hampton Village on Monday.

“You do an outstanding job and it’s good to be able to help,” he said to the center’s board members and administrators who had gathered for the announcement.

The grant came from the state’s community facilities program, through which legislators can request funding for local organizations they deem important and in need of support.

“There is, in my opinion, no more worthwhile project than what you’re doing here at the Eleanor Whitmore Center,” Mr. Thiele said. “I know you’ve got many things to do here, and hopefully this will help toward that.”

“We are in great need of this kind of support. We have a lot of projects that we need to take care of,” said Ruth Ann W. McSpadden, chairwoman of the board of directors. “We’re trying to work our way through a list of things that either need to be overhauled or maintained. We have a lot of long-deferred maintenance. We want to create the most wonderful, safe environment for these children.”

Eleanor Whitmore, a founder and longtime supporter of the center, remains the honorary chairwoman of its board of directors. “This grant answers our prayers,” she said Monday.

The $250,000 grant will go specifically toward capital improvements but beyond that, Maureen Wikane, the center’s executive director, said, the nonprofit needs to raise about $400,000 each year toward its $1.4 million operating budget to be financially solvent.

The Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center has its roots as a day-care center and senior citizen center, beginning its programs in a house donated in 1969. Since the 1996-97 school year the center has been the provider of the East Hampton School District’s prekindergarten program, which was extended to a full day for the first time in the 2015-16 school year. East Hampton pays tuition for 54 four-year-olds to attend prekindergarten there. As of late July, there was a waiting list of about seven children; an updated figure was not available this week.

The center also runs tuition-based day- care programs for children as young as 18 months.

Students in four South Fork school districts, East Hampton, Sag Harbor, Amagansett, and Montauk, came out ahead of statewide averages in the last standardized English and math tests for grades three through eight, while the Bridgehampton School District straddled the line and the Springs School District fell short.  

Because of changes in this year’s tests, including a rule that allowed students as much time as they needed, state officials said in a news release that comparing year-to-year results was not apples-to-apples. Local administrators have instead been comparing their students’ outcomes to those from around the state and county and similar districts.

Statewide, 38 percent of children in grades three through eight scored as proficient in English. In math, the number was 39 percent.

In East Hampton, 41 percent were proficient in English, 42 percent in math. Broken down by individual grades, highlights included 47 percent of seventh graders and 62 percent of eighth graders scoring well in English and 50 percent of sixth graders scoring well in math. Lower scores were received in English by 32 percent of third graders and 20 percent of fifth graders.

“I was very, very pleased with a lot of our results, but there are areas where we obviously have a lot of work to do,” Robert Tymann, East Hampton’s assistant superintendent, said by phone Tuesday. “If a district is ever coming out and saying they are doing as well as they can in every area, that I would question.”

 Complicating the results for some districts are the numbers of students who declined to take the exams. East Hampton had a relatively low number of opt-outs, about 14 to 15 percent in English and math, respectively, but that was not the case in other districts.

About one in four students in Springs did not take the tests. Eric Casale, the school principal, said that impacted the results. “We’re not happy. We’re never happy until every child is considered proficient, but the numbers, because of the opt-outs, are skewed. . . . For us it happens to be that many of those kids are proficient students.”

“I know the level of teaching and learning that goes on here,” Mr. Casale said. “We revise our practices every year. We tweak them because you have different groups of kids in the classrooms. But over all, I’m very confident in our program. It is a rigorous program in English language arts and math, as well as science and other content areas.”

Bridgehampton School students scored at 38-percent proficiency in English, meeting the state average, but fell 7 percentage points short in math, at 32 percent. The school had one of the highest percentages opt-outs, 43.7 percent in English and 47.5 percent in math. Lois Favre, Bridgehampton’s superintendent, could not be reached for comment.

Montauk students achieved 54-percent proficiency in English and 50-percent proficiency in math. Roughly 19.5 percent of students opted out of the English tests and 24 percent out of math. Jack Perna, the superintendent, said he was simultaneously happy and unhappy with the results.

“It’s going to sound cliché. There’s always room for improvement,” he said yesterday by phone. “I’m happy with the scores. I wish we didn’t have to do any of this, but that’s the reality. So we will continue to go on and improve the best we can without other subjects suffering.”

In Sag Harbor, where one-third of students opted out of the English tests and 34.2 percent out of math, the results in grades three through eight were above state averages. Forty-five percent scored as proficient in English, 53 percent in math. Highlights included 57 and 50-percent proficiency in English in grades three and four, respectively, and 62 and 65-percent proficiency in math in grades four and seven, respectively. Just 25 percent of eighth graders and 32 percent of sixth graders scored as proficient in English, however. Katy Graves, Sag Harbor’s superintendent, could not be reached for comment.

Suffolk County’s combined scores showed 38-percent proficiency in English and 41-percent in math. Most South Fork schools beat those overall averages.

Principals and teachers have access to specific data showing which students answered which questions incorrectly. Dr. Tymann said this will help teachers support those students in areas where they need help, particularly since the tests, and the controversial Common Core standards, on which the overall curriculum is based, are tougher than they were years ago.

“The standards now require application of knowledge. They are harder, more rigorous than they used to be. . . . So by teaching to the more rigorous standards and trying to get students to apply knowledge . . . they will be ready for whatever the test may bring.”

In Amagansett, the combined third-through-sixth grade test scores showed 47-percent proficiency in English and 49-percent in math. However, Eleanor Tritt, the superintendent, said in April that about one-quarter of the 59 students eligible to take the tests did not do so.

“Regarding opt-outs, we have no way of knowing how, or if, the opt-out movement impacted the state outcomes. . . . We actually use other nationally validated and reliable assessments to guide us in continuous program evaluation,” Ms. Tritt said in an email yesterday.

The state did not publicly release test scores for the Wainscott or Sagaponack School Districts.