The Coast Guard rescued four people who were in distress in Lake Montauk on Saturday. 

Someone on shore called at about 5:30 p.m. and said that five people were treading water in the lake next to paddleboards and kayaks, the Coast Guard said. After Sector Long Island Sound issued an urgent marine information broadcast, Coast Guard Station Montauk, which already had a 29-foot response boat under way, headed toward the group in the water. 

The crew found four people in distress, and brought them aboard the rescue boat. The fifth person had already swum to shore. The four who were rescued were taken to the Coast Guard station. They were not injured. It was not clear what had caused them to be in distress.

In a statement Saturday night, the Coast Guard reminded kayakers, paddleboarders, and boaters to file a float plan to let family and friends know where they are going to be and when they will be back. It will assist rescuers in a search for overdue boaters who may be in distress. 

On a break from their worldwide "Head Full of Dreams" tour, Coldplay performed at the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett on Sunday night in a "secret" concert sponsored by Sirius XM satellite radio.

Signs of a big event were apparent on Amagansett's Main Street many hours before the 6 p.m. show, when town police and fire marshals cordoned off areas for fans to wait and positioned themselves in front of the Talkhouse.

Crowds swelled along the sidewalk and traffic along Montauk Highway was stopped intermittently by police to allow concertgoers and onlookers to cross.

The band, using Jack's Stir Brew coffee shop across the street from the Talkhouse as its V.I.P. lounge, was ushered across the street in front of stopped traffic and along a corridor to get onto and off the stage.

Sirius subscribers had entered a contest to win tickets to a show at an undisclosed New York location, along with transportation and lodging.

The venue was not announced before the selection of concert ticket winners, but a poster issued by Sirius depicted the Coldplay musicians in front of the Montauk Lighthouse. Chris Martin, the band's lead singer, shared a house in Amgansett with his former wife, Gwyneth Paltrow, and still visits the area.

The Talkhouse has hosted numerous high-profile musicians over the years, but is just a fraction of the size of the arenas and stadiums at which Coldplay usually performs. Recent stops on the band's tour included the MetLife Stadium at the Meadowlands in New Jersey last month, as well as overseas dates in Munich, Copenhagen, London, and Amsterdam.

"It's just a treat, man," Mr. Martin told a Sirius XM host, as reported on the radio service's blog. "The thing is, I think part of the reason we're enjoying ourselves so much is because we're very connected to the fact that we're just a group of friends that came from this kind of place. So to come back and play a tiny bar is very humbling and it also reminds us not to take the big shows for granted, and to be appreciative of anybody who shows up because there was a time when we couldn't fill this building."

Among the guests in the audience of about 200 inside the Talkhouse on Sunday, besides ticket-winners, were Jimmy Buffett, John McEnroe, Christie Brinkley, Chad Smith, and Jon Bon Jovi.

Beyonce and Jay-Z, with their daughter, Blue Ivy, who had reportedly spent Friday night with President Obama celebrating his birthday, pulled up in a large black S.U.V. and were ushered in the Talkhouse back door. They spent only a few minutes inside before leaving.

In addition to those who viewed the show stageside, a number of guests watched the performance on a live feed on several TVs set up on the Talkhouse's back deck.

Coldplay, which has released seven studio albums and won seven Grammy Awards over the band's two decades, performed for over an hour, playing both old and new songs, such as "Yellow," "Fix You," "Sky Full of Stars," and "Hymn for the Weekend," as well as a cover of David Bowie's "Heroes."

The show aired live and will be rebroadcast several times over the next week on Sirius channels.

Chris Martin jumped high.             Photo credit: Kevin Mazur

Jimmy Buffett was among the celebrities who enjoyed Coldplay's concert at the Talkhouse.  Photo credit: Kevin Mazur

Spurred on by a desire to win the franchise's first-ever Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League championship, the third-seeded Montauk Mustangs swept the second-seeded North Ospreys this past weekend, 13-4 and 10-7.

"The guys are focusing at the right time," the Mustang's coach, Mitchell Feller, said after Sunday's clinching win at the Montauk School.

It looked as if Montauk had put the game away with a six-run second, which upped the margin to 7-3, but, as Feller had said before the game, "the Ospreys can swing it -- you can never count them out."

Going into the bottom of the fourth, it was 7-7, though a bases-loaded single by Eric Hassell and a sac fly by Tom Brady in that frame put the Mustangs ahead for good. Rob Vani crushed a home run over the left field fence in the sixth to nail down the lid.

The Mustangs' starter, Joe Broderick, shut down the North Forkers in the fifth, sixth, and seventh, leaving Josh Walker and Zach Barnes to finish up.

Monday was an off day. The championship series with the Westhampton Aviators is to begin Tuesday at the Westhampton Elementary School, at 4 p.m. Game two is to be played at the Montauk School Wednesday at 4, and, if necessary, a third game will be played in Westhampton on Thursday, also at 4.   

David E. Eagan, an East Hampton lawyer and president of the Wainscott School Board, has been barred from practicing law for two years for failing to file proper New York State tax returns for 2010.

Following a July 27 decision by a grievance committee seated in the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division in Brooklyn Mr. Eagan will not be able to act in any role in the legal profession as of Aug. 26.

The original felony charge of criminal tax fraud was eventually reduced to a misdemeanor charge of attempted tax fraud.

During his allocution in Suffolk County Court on May 13, 2014, as part of his guilty plea, Mr. Eagan admitted to having withheld over $171,930 from the state. As part of the plea agreement, he paid the state $495,145, for back taxes, penalties, and interest. In return, he was sentenced to an unconditional discharge.

The grievance committee said that Mr. Eagan claimed that his failure to pay his taxes "resulted from an actual inability to pay and was not motivated by dishonesty or a desire to accumulate wealth."

The five justices making up the committee were not moved by this claim, writing in their decision, "While the respondent did suffer a sudden reversal of fortune when he lost his partnership position at a law firm, the respondent attempted to maintain his lifestyle, including running a horse farm, which not only was not profitable, but required him to use personal income to help cover the expenses required to keep the farm running. The respondent made a calculated decision to pay his federal taxes, but not his state taxes, based on his stated belief that the Internal Revenue Service was the more aggressive tax entity. Although the respondent claimed that he was putting aside savings to pay his overdue taxes, and, indeed, had saved enough money, the respondent continued his pattern of avoidance until he learned that he was under investigation by the taxing authorities."

After 18 months, Mr. Eagan will be allowed to apply for permission to practice law again, provided as there are no violations before them.

Mr. Eagan is the president of the Wainscott School Board and ran unopposed to keep his seat in 2014, despite having been charged with tax fraud earlier that year.

Mr. Eagan and his partner Brian E. Matthews were not available for comment on Friday.

Officials including State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo, and members of the town board gathered at the intersection of Main Street and Hedges Lane in Amagansett on Monday morning to discuss a plan to install lighted crosswalks at four locations, two in that hamlet and two in Montauk. It is hoped, Mr. Cantwell said, that the lighted crosswalks will be completed by next summer.

In each location, existing crosswalks will be upgraded to include flashing lights alerting motorists of a pedestrian crossing. Similar crosswalks have been installed on Main Street and Newtown Lane in East Hampton Village and on Main Street in Bridgehampton.

In Amagansett, the new lighted crosswalks will be at the intersection of Main Street and Hedges Lane, and on Montauk Highway between the I.G.A. supermarket and the senior citizens housing complex on the grounds of St. Michael's Lutheran Church. In Montauk, they will be installed on Montauk Highway between the 7-Eleven store and the I.G.A., and on Montauk Highway at Carl Fisher Plaza.

Lighted crosswalks can be activated by the push of a button, like those in East Hampton Village, or automatically when a sensor detects motion in its path, as in Bridgehampton. It has not been determined which type will be installed, but "pedestrian safety is key," Mr. LaValle said. Both have pros and cons, Mr. Thiele said, noting that pedestrians do not always pass through the motion-activated sensor.

The project will cost approximately $350,000, Mr. Cantwell said, an expense that will be largely offset by a $250,000 grant from the state's Community Projects Fund. He thanked Mr. LaValle and Mr. Thiele, whom he called "strong allies for me and the town," for their efforts in securing the grant money.

Francine Lane and Anne Jones of the Amagansett Library thanked the officials, saying the upgrades will make children safer, a concern given the summer crowds in the hamlet's commercial district.

Members of the Montauk and Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committees, whom Mr. Cantwell said would review the plans prior to construction, were also on hand. The town has already hired L.K. McLean Associates to design and oversee the installation of the crosswalks.

Riding the hot bats of their catcher, Phil Capra, and their first baseman, Rob Vani, the Montauk Mustangs evened the count in Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League's championship series, defeating the top-seeded Westhampton Aviators 7-4 on Wednesday at the Montauk School. The deciding game is Friday at 4 p.m. at the Westhampton Beach Elementary School. 

The Aviators had won the first game, played the day before at Westhampton Beach, 5-2 behind the strong performance of their 6-foot-9-inch starter, Seamus Brazill, who led the league's pitchers during the regular season with a 0.97 earned run average.

Capra, who was moved by Mitchell Feller into the four hole after the former cleanup hitter (and all-star game M.V.P.), Nick Fanneron, suffered a broken wrist at the end of the season, broke the ice Wednesday with a two-run home run in the bottom of the first inning. And, after the visitors had taken a 3-2 lead in the top of the sixth, the stocky, bearded Wagner College catcher hit another two-run homer in the bottom half to wrest the lead back.

Soon after Capra's homer, Bryce Packard drove in what was to prove to be the game-winner with a sacrifice fly that plated Eric Hassell, who had singled, moved up to second on a base hit by Ryan Markey, and on to third via Tyler Galazin's sacrifice bunt.

Zach Barnes, the Mustangs' starter, came out after six strong innings, during which he'd given up three runs (two of them unearned), four hits, and one walk.

In the fifth, Trey Silvers, the Aviators' designated hitter, touched Barnes for a home run over the not-so-monsterish "Mustangs"-emblazoned red monster in left center field.

Feller used Ryan Smith (who notched three strikeouts after walking Silvers and hitting Jack Massa with a pitch to lead off the seventh), Bryce Packard (who pitched out of bases-loaded situation he inherited from Smith in the eighth), and Jamie Galazin (who pitched the ninth) to finish up.

"Everybody's been stepping up," the coach said afterward. "Phil had been hitting fifth or sixth before Nick got hurt, Zach was a closer, not a starter, and Jamie, our center fielder, is an outfielder, not a pitcher by trade."

Rob Vani, the Mustangs' hard-hitting first baseman, who precedes Capra in the lineup, hit a two-run home run of his own, a towering shot over the right field fence, in the home team's seventh for a 7-3 lead.

Going into Friday's game, Capra was hitting .588 with three home runs and 12 runs batted in for the playoffs (he drove in 23 in the regular season), and Vani, also with three homers, was batting .529.

The Bridgehampton School District has directed its architect to draw up a proposal for an expansion to the school building.

Robert Hauser, assistant superintendent for finance and facilities, said during Tuesday’s school board meeting that the school was only in the “preliminary stages of considering the feasibility.” The district recently hired John A. Grillo, who is based in Port Jefferson, as its architect.

“We have provided our district architect with a list of our needs and directed him to come with renderings and a cost analysis,” Mr. Hauser said. “At the present time we have no idea of the scope, cost, or square footage. However, regardless of the size of the proposal, we will need time to talk to the community and gather their input.”

He said the district had evaluated not just the main building but also several portable outbuildings, including two that are over 40 years old and one that is over 50. Concerns include handicapped accessibility, security considerations, the overall condition of the main building, a gymnasium that does not meet some standards for high school sports, and a growing student body.

Enrollment has grown about 40 percent since the 2012-13 school year, from 155 students that year to a projected 217 in 2016-17, and is expected to keep growing.

Lois Favre, Bridgehampton’s superintendent, said Mr. Grillo’s drawings were expected later this month or in September. She hopes to hold a community vote on the project in December.

New rules limiting the size of houses that can be built on different-size properties in East Hampton Town are under discussion following a tightening of house-size rules in East Hampton Village last year and a recent discussion of similar issues in Sag Harbor resulting in a law setting house-size limits in the village for the first time.

“We allow much larger homes in proportion to lot sizes than we should,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said at a board meeting on Tuesday. “I think we need to address our gross floor area,” he said. “I think it should be less.”

The size of houses “relates to a number of issues,” he said, “population, water quality, character of neighborhoods.”

East Hampton’s code currently allows a residence’s gross floor area to be 12 percent of the total lot area, plus 1,600 square feet.

The board will review options that could reduce that maximum, based on a chart prepared for it by the Planning Department that shows comparable laws in surrounding areas.

Mr. Cantwell said that he supports a standard previously used by East Hampton Village, limiting houses to 10 percent of their lot area, plus 1,000 square feet. Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez asked for further information on what the various potential ratio formulas could mean. The matter is expected to be discussed again at the board’s Aug. 16 work session.

Other code amendments under discussion pertain to how gross floor area is defined, such as whether basement area is included, and how total lot coverage is calculated, considering such things as roof overhangs.

The combination of standards, Mr. Cantwell said, must be considered as to overall effect, because “if you add it all together, it could become too restrictive.”

Nonetheless, he said, “There is still a good deal of development and redevelopment that could take place. . . . This would be a good time to have a better policy on it.”

East End citizen activists focused on the problem of aircraft noise are keying in to a new online plane-tracking system that provides real-time information about planes overhead and allows complaints to be lodged about aircraft noise.

The system, they say, is more user-friendly than the one set up by East Hampton Town to compile aircraft data and accept complaints about planes using East Hampton Airport.

AirNoise Report was developed by residents of Queens and Nassau affected by planes using metro-area airports. Members of the Southampton Town noise advisory committee told the Southampton Town Board recently that several antennas that relay information to the system have already been installed in areas around East Hampton Airport, and there are plans to install more. The group urged the Southampton board to use the system to collect information about aviation traffic and noise complaints. 

By logging in to a real-time map at AirNoiseReport.com, users can see icons depicting planes detected in the area. Clicking on an icon will reveal an aircraft’s type, altitude, and speed, as well as its registration number. Complaints can be lodged through a link in the same window.

AirNoise Report compiles complaints and issues reports to participating partners, which at present include several New York City, Queens, and Long Island elected officials and a Whitestone, Queens, citizens group.

East Hampton officials have contracted with another company, PlaneNoise, for its online complaint system. East Hampton also has a contract with Vector Airport Systems to record and track the planes using the airport. The information is used to charge landing fees, but is also merged with the complaint data to determine which aircraft are causing the complaints and, in some cases, violating the town’s curfew on overnight takeoffs and landings.

A recently added public access portal allows anyone online access to a flight-tracking map that also accepts complaints. The map can be accessed through an “aircraft flight-tracking” link on the town’s main website and on the airport’s web page. The system shows a plane’s flight track and altitude within an approximately 12-mile radius of the airport, and shows aircraft flying at 10,000 feet or below.

Airport officials can see the information in real time, but the public will have a 10-minute lag time in obtaining up-to-the minute information, which has been a chief source of complaints about the system. Jemille Charlton, manager of East Hampton Airport, said yesterday that as a municipal airport it follows Federal Aviation Administration policy limiting real-time information and blocking aircraft registration numbers.

Critics have also complained that Robert Grotell, the founder of PlaneNoise, has ties to the Eastern Region Helicopter Council, an industry association. Mr. Grotell has served as an adviser to the group.

East Hampton Town Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez said yesterday that the town was satisfied with its complaint and aircraft tracking systems. She said the spreadsheet provided by AirNoise Report was incompatible with East Hampton Airport’s data and could not be automatically incorporated into it.

In addition, she said, the town, with a court case pending that challenges the airport-use restrictions enacted last year, has been advised by its outside counsel on airport matters not to change the way it collects airport use and noise data, which serves as a legal underpinning for the laws being challenged.

Besides AirNoise Report, there are several other online aviation tracking systems, including Planefinder.net and FlightRadar24.com. Each relies on information received either through sensors or antennas installed at locations in the area being monitored, or from aviation radar, for which the closest equipment is at Islip MacArthur Airport.

Sensors for East Hampton’s Plane­Noise system are at Southampton Hospital, a Noyac cell tower site, Maidstone Park in Springs, and the Amagansett Firehouse, said Councilwoman Burke-Gonzalez. Without local data-collection sites, some of the plane-tracking systems could fall short here, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said.

New York State Comptroller Thomas F. DiNapoli on Wednesday released an audit criticizing the Montauk School District for financial practices that allegedly included overestimating its budget, keeping surpluses that exceed state limits, overfilling some reserve funds, and failing to create long-term financial and capital plans.

According to the comptroller's report, which examined financial records between July 1, 2012, and Dec. 31, 2015, Montauk's unassigned fund balance, or the amount it has left over in its operating budget at the end of a given school year, varied between 4.3 and 6.8 percent of the following year's school budget. State law caps a school district's unassigned fund balance at 4 percent. Auditors added back leftover money from budgeted items that hadn't been spent, and found Montauk's fund balances looked more like 9 to 11 percent.

The report says Montauk overestimated its budget by a cumulative $1.1 million between the 2012-13 and 2014-15 school years, and says Montauk planned to use $2.8 million in fund balance over those three years but did not actually use approximately 94 percent of that sum.

The comptroller also said Montauk has too much money in a reserve fund dedicated to workers compensation costs and kept almost $1 million more than it needed in a capital project fund.

"As a result of these budgeting practices . . . the property tax levy was higher than necessary," the report read. "The board needs to improve its budget process and ensure it adopts reasonable budgets and appropriately maintains restricted funds to effectively manage the district's financial condition."

In an email to The Star, Jack Perna, the Montauk School District superintendent, said the comptroller's report does not recognize the challenges that East End school districts specifically face, such as small school sizes, the tuition system, and populations of students that move in and out of districts frequently due to difficult housing situations.

"I feel the comptroller does not take that into account as much as they can," Mr. Perna said.

In a response letter to the comptroller, Mr. Perna explained why the state arrived at some of its conclusions.

The state had identified $830,000 in Montauk's budget that it said "would not be needed," but Mr. Perna explained it would, in fact, be needed. He said it will be used to replace the portable classroom buildings the district had originally installed in 1973.

"The project became bigger than simply replacing classrooms," Mr. Perna said. "We are still awaiting drawings to be submitted to [the state's Education Department] for approval. That money will be needed and we intend to get this project done as soon as possible."

He said the decision to over-fund the workers compensation reserve was made in anticipation of the district's shift away from the East End Health Plan toward the New York State Health Insurance Plan, a popular health care plan among school districts. The district will need to compensate the East End Health Plan when it withdraws from that plan, which is more expensive than the new health care system, Mr. Perna said. The surplus showed up because the switch has been delayed due to the ongoing contract negotiations with the Montauk Teachers Association, Mr. Perna said.

Other surplus moneys flagged by the state were intended to cover tuition costs, Mr. Perna said. Those costs can shift dramatically if high-school-age students move into the district, which only serves students in kindergarten through eighth grade and sends its older students to East Hampton High School on a per-student tuition basis.

Mr. Perna disagreed that the district lacked a long-term capital plan, and pointed out the district had lowered its tax levy this year by applying leftover money to its budget, therefore reducing the amount of money the taxpayers would have to contribute. He said the district would use excess money to further reduce property taxes again in the future, and said the district would begin using the comptroller's template for financial planning.

Mr. Perna pledged in his response to the state that "we will certainly be sure to keep within the statutory limit" regarding fund balances.

"Our future budgets will not have an unrestricted fund balance which will result in the surpluses far exceeding our needs," he said. "We do and will continue to review our reserve funds annually so that they are in line with what we feel the district will need according to our five-year facility and financial plans."