The majority of the Bridgehampton School Board has endorsed piercing the tax cap, citing direction from residents who came to its two community forums and asked the district to preserve several key programs for students, as well as their own individual perceptions of the district’s financial picture.

At least five members of the board said during its March 30 meeting that they supported presenting to the Bridgehampton taxpayers a budget that preserves the current programs, staffing, and services, but which would carry a tax levy increase of about 9.14 percent. That’s above the state-allowed limit, so it would require a super-majority of voter approval during the May 17 budget vote.

Without going over the cap, school officials would have had to consider about $547,000 in cost reductions. Among the proposed cuts was Aspire, an after-school program in which students have a chance to do homework and take part in activities until their parents can pick them up. A slew of other items — career and technical education, clubs and field trips, driver’s education, curriculum training for teachers, summertime activity and wellness programs, and several teaching, clerical, and custodial positions — were also being considered for elimination.

“As far as the pulse of the community, I think we’ve done everything we could to find out how the community is feeling about it,” Jeff Mansfield, a school board member, said during the board’s March 30 meeting. “From what we’ve gathered, the district is behind us. They understand what we’re up against, and they’re behind us piercing the cap.”

Mr. Mansfield, along with Ronnie White, the school board president, Lillian Tyree-Johnson, the vice president, and Doug DeGroot, another board member, each said they favored proposing a budget with a year-over-year spending increase of 7.49 percent and a tax levy increase of 9.14 percent. This year, the state-mandated cap on tax levy increases is .12 percent, although certain factors such as real estate growth cause individual districts’ tax cap rates to vary.

Bridgehampton’s cap this year is 3.06 percent, which would have allowed the district to increase its tax levy by about $336,700. But according to figures provided by the school, its anticipated $403,700 increase in contractual health insurance costs would alone put the district over the cap. The district is also expecting large increases in transportation costs and teachers’ salaries.

Bridgehampton successfully passed an over-the-cap budget for the 2014-15 year on the second try. That year, the proposal was a $12.3 million spending plan that carried a tax levy increase of 8.8 percent, or $914,684.

This time around, during the March 30 meeting, the latest iteration of the budget is for $13.78 million, a year-over-year spending increase of about $960,000, or 7.49 percent. That budget would carry a tax levy of $12.01 million, which yields the 9.14 percent increase. With those figures in place, the district is projecting a tax increase of $71.56 for a home with an assessed value of $500,000.

“This cap isn’t going away,” Kat McCleland, another board member, said. “We say we don’t get back the programs that we take out, but even if we were to try to stay under, then our starting point is in a worse position next year. So it doesn’t eliminate this issue at all.”

School officials anticipated changing their final budget figures slightly when Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature reached a state budget agreement last week.

The Bridgehampton School Board is expected to formally adopt its budget at its next meeting, planned for Wednesday at 7 p.m.

For his latest book report, Harry Roussel is reading “The Green Book,” a science fiction story that is a little above his fifth-grade reading level.

That is a source of pride for Harry and his mother, Helen Roussel of Sag Harbor. At one point, Harry couldn’t read well at all. He has dyslexia, which makes learning to read particularly difficult. People who are dyslexic have trouble processing letters and connecting them to their sounds, which leads to problems with reading comprehension, spelling, and vocabulary.

Harry, 10, can read proficiently now, thanks to a program called the Wilson Intensive Reading System taught by a specially trained teacher at the Sag Harbor Elementary School. But other kids are not so lucky. Not every school has teachers trained to help those with dyslexia, and it is not a separate option on a student’s individualized education program, or I.E.P., which outlines a set of specific services to help those with special needs.

Ms. Roussel and her son are trying to change that. As members of Dyslexia on Long Island, which is part of a larger organization called Decoding Dyslexia New York, they recently made a trip to Albany to lobby state legislators to enact laws that would boost support for dyslexic students in public schools. One bill, currently making its way through the education committees of both the New York State Assembly and Senate, would add dyslexia as a category on the I.E.P. and require schools to train teachers in programs designed to help dyslexic children. A second bill would require early screening and support services for children who show dyslexia risk factors.

State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. signed on as a co-sponsor of the bills several weeks ago after hearing from many East End residents, particularly those in Sag Harbor. On Tuesday, he predicted the bills would “see some action” before the end of the current legislative session in June, but said one issue holding them back is funding. Many schools, he said, may not have the money to finance these initiatives on their own.

“I think they are important pieces of legislation as far as having teachers trained and providing early detection,” he said. “My preference would be to see the money come from New York and not see it come from the local school districts.”

In Albany, Harry met four other students with dyslexia, and the experience gave him the confidence to speak up, along with his mother, about this issue.

“We were trying to say we need to improve the education system for dyslexic children and challenged readers,” Harry said Monday. “It is hard to ask for help. It embarrasses you, sort of. We have to make it so you don’t have to ask for help. We’ll already have these programs.”

According to the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, 20 percent of people are dyslexic. Many who fall behind in reading by the fourth grade never catch up. Dyslexia is linked to problems with self-esteem and discipline, as children who are falling behind often start to think of themselves as stupid and start to act out. Other academic, social, and, sometimes, legal issues may follow. The National Institute of Health reports 85 percent of all juveniles in the court system are “functionally illiterate,” and three out of four people on welfare cannot read effectively.

“When I was younger, I was kind of lost. I didn’t really know what to think of myself,” Harry said. “It made me feel like I was the odd one out. Now, I feel like I’m not the different one.”

A disturbing trend, Ms. Roussel said, is the treatment of dyslexia as a behavioral disorder similar to attention deficit disorder. Drugs, such as Ritalin, are then given to dyslexic children because their problems learning to read are blamed on an inability to focus in school. Ritalin “will not help them to read. Children with dyslexia or children who read below grade level need a reading program and trained teachers,” not medication, Ms. Roussel said. Citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she added, “There have been no long-term studies of the use of psychotropic medication on children and how it affects their emotional development.”

She points to evidence-based tools such as Wilson and the Orton-Gillingham approach as proven methods. Additionally, she said, “The programs that have long proven to help children with dyslexia to read will also help all general education children.”

The problem is that the training and materials cost money. In a time when most districts are cutting spending, even a few thousand dollars may be too much to spare. In Sag Harbor’s 2016-17 budget, school officials reserved $3,000 for Wilson training. Ms. Roussel said so many parents elsewhere have found it hard to get support that there is enough demand for a private school. West of here, the Whole Child Academy will open later this year in Oakdale to educate children with dyslexia and other special needs.

Last year, she started a Facebook page, East End Network for Dyslexia, and she will be involved in launching a website, dyslexiaonlongislandny.com. She is relieved her son has received support from the Sag Harbor School District and his teachers, but she worries about children in other areas.

“It is through reading that students develop a social, cultural, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual awareness of themselves and the world around them,” Ms. Roussel said. “Literacy is an essential component to developing fully as a member of society. Therefore, children who do not learn to read and write to grade level are effectively disenfranchised.”

The moribund East Deck Motel, which is on a more than four-acre oceanfront site at Ditch Plain in Montauk, will be demolished over the next few weeks, along with its septic system and outdoor pool, as plans for four oceanfront house lots there move forward. Plans for the site were the subject of two public hearings at East Hampton Town Hall this week.

The owner of the land is a limited liability company headed by J. Darius Bikoff, one of the founding partners of Vitamin Water.

The ownership group purchased the property in 2013. Its original plan, for a private club, met with stiff opposition from neighbors and was eventually scuttled. The site was then put on the market for a reported $25 million, well over the reported purchase price — and more than East Hampton Town officials, who negotiated for a public purchase, decided the town could come up with using community preservation funds.

In February, the East Hampton Town Board changed the zoning of the property from resort to half-acre residential. The owners of the property, now named Montauk Colony, have submitted plans four oceanfront lots, each with a separate driveway off Deforest Road. The zoning board hearing Tuesday was on a request for variances to allow three of the lots to be less than 110-feet wide, as required in the zoning code. One of the partners, Scott Bradley, attended the hearing. The second hearing was to take place before the planning board last night on the subdivision itself.

In addition to lot-width variances, the zoning board considered a request for a special permit to allow a wooden walkway to be built over the dunes. However, it became clear during the lengthy hearing  that the walkway would be a sticking point.

With the planning board hearing coming up the next night, Leonard Ackerman, the attorney representing the owners, asked the board to grant the lot-width variances immediately, saying, “We very much would like an expedited process.” He then withdrew the walkway from Tuesday night consideration.

“Let’s not hold up this application,” Mr. Ackerman asked. The zoning board agreed, voting 5-to-0 to approve the lot-width variances.

When Mr. Ackerman withdrew the proposed walkway, which itself was an amended proposal (the original request was for two raised walkways over the dunes), he made it clear, however, that the owners would return to the board in the future with a similar request.

The problem with the walkway, Eric Schantz, a town planner, told the board, is that wave action at that location is very strong. He displayed photographs showing the tide coming right up to the dunes. Even though the walkway would be removable, there would have to be posts in the ground to secure it, he said, which could become debris in a strong storm. “There have not been any recently approved permits for entirely new walkways over the face of bluff in Montauk,” he said.

It was noted at the hearing that the owners had agreed to public access to the beach adjacent to the site in perpetuity.

Laura Michaels of the Ditch Plains Association, who also attended the hearing, said the association was “very concerned with dune stabilization.” She asked that when the zoning board’s attorney, Elizabeth Baldwin, writes the determination regarding the lot-width variances language be included requiring the owners to stabilize the dunes “with sand,” as opposed to any hard structure. The dunes there were rebuilt with clean sand in 2014 and revegetated, Mr. Schantz said.

“The trade-off,” Jeremy Samuelson of Concerned Citizens of Montauk told the board at the hearing, “is we’re going to put these houses closer to the road.” He said that was important because previous estimates of sea level rise are now seen as too conservative. Levels predicted in the year 2100 are now expected to occur in 2050, he said.

One board member, David Lys, pointed out that the owners could have configured the property with a cul-de-sac and created more than four buildable lots. Mr. Schantz had also noted that there were five 60-foot-wide lots directly across Deforest Road.

An 83-year-old woman took her own life inside her North Haven house, Southampton Town police said on Monday. The story, however sad, would have gone unreported in local newspapers, but for one thing: She had long been considered a suspect in the murder of her 100-year-old mother eight years ago.

Investigators had questioned Margaret Jean Burke after her mother, Jessie Margaret Burke, was shot to death in the same house in 2008. A former New York City corrections officer, 76 at the time, she was never charged.

On Monday, a family member discovered the younger Ms. Burke’s body on the bathroom floor of her house at 36 Payne Avenue. She had not been heard from since Sunday around noon, Detective Sgt. Lisa Costa said. Town police and the Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps responded at 12:52 p.m. Ms. Burke was pronounced dead on arrival. Detective Costa said she died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The detective did not comment on what kind of firearm was used or whether there was a suicide note left behind. She said the gun that was used in the suicide was not the one used in the mother’s murder. “The possibility was investigated, but they’re not related,” she said yesterday.

Southampton police consulted the county in its investigation this week in the hopes of pursuing “any other opportunities for closing out the murder of Jessie Burke.”

Attempts to reach her family living in the area were unsucessful.

On Monday, neighbors slowed as they drove by the police cars and police tape on the rainy, cold Monday afternoon. “It’s not the first time,” one said to a photographer. Two shooting deaths eight years apart — but the yellow crime scene tape came down a lot quicker this time. The Suffolk County medical examiner office came and went within an hour of his arrival.

It was a stark contrast to the investigation that followed Jessie Burke’s death on Aug. 31, 2008. It was the Sunday before Labor Day, a day many were savoring the last moments of summer. Detectives combed the area for evidence and questioned neighbors, looking for information.

It was the first murder in North Haven’s recorded history, which dates to the 1600s.

Margaret Jean Burke told detectives she had returned home from shopping to find her mother slumped over and bleeding in a recliner, where she had left her doing a crossword puzzle just an hour or so earlier. The centenarian was dead.

Responding officers found the woman had been shot in the head, but there was no gun to be found near her body. It was “the biggest clue” ruling out suicide, Detective Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick, the Suffolk homicide bureau chief, said in an interview at the time. He would not say what type of gun had been used or whether it was found elsewhere.

Southampton Town police, who have jurisdiction over North Haven, called in the county, as they do on murder investigations. The county was very thorough in its investigation, Detective Costa said, conducting numerous search warrants, searches of the area, and even dump searches.

Detectives in the Suffolk Homicide Bureau declined a request for comment yesterday, but the department confirmed that Mrs. Burke’s murder remains an open investigation.

Detective Lt. Fitzpatrick, who retired after 39 years on the force in 2014, had said in 2008 that there were no obvious signs of forced entry and nothing was reported missing from the house. Asked if there was a need for residents in the area to be concerned, he said: “I don’t think there’s somebody breaking into homes of people who are sitting in their chairs.”

Ms. Burke hired a Southampton criminal defense attorney after she was questioned. In an interview she gave The Southampton Press a year later, she admitted that detectives had accused her of a “mercy killing.”

However, Detective Lt. Fitzpatrick told The Star in the days following the murder that despite her turning 100 three weeks earlier, on Aug. 7, Mrs. Burke was living “a semi-independent” life in the house she shared with her daughter. She made her own meals and was able to get around the house. Her mind was sharp, her family said in her obituary. She played bridge with a group in Bridgehampton and often completed The New York Times crossword puzzle.

Daisy, as she was known to friends, had lived on the South Fork, at least part time, since 1925. Though she had been born in New York City, she was raised by her grandparents on a sheep farm in Scotland, after her mother died when she was 4. She returned to the states in 1923, joining her father and stepmother in Southampton, where she would graduate from high school. She became an X-ray technician in Manhattan, where she met James A. Burke.

They lived in Queens after marrying in 1931, and spent summer vacations in Noyac. They raised four children; Margaret Jean was the oldest. 

Mrs. Burke earned a nursing degree after her husband’s death in 1965, and worked as a registered nurse at Southampton Hospital.

Although it was not clear how long the mother and daughter had shared the house on Payne Avenue, tax records show that Margaret Jean Burke had owned the property since March of 1992. On North Haven, an area that has long debated how to handle the deer population, Ms. Burke had been a vociferous opponent of hunting in the 1990s. She ran unsuccessfully for North Haven Village mayor in 1994.

In the days and year following her mother’s death, she denied any involvement in the shooting. “She was adamant that she didn’t do it,” Detective Costa said.

Colin Astarita, whom Ms. Burke hired to represent her, described her at the time as distraught. He said she had been cooperative, submitting to gunpowder residue tests, giving police the clothing she wore that day, and allowing a search of her Toyota sedan. 

After learning of his former client’s suicide, Mr. Astarita said, “It is certainly a tragedy considering the circumstances of her mother’s death.”

The last time he heard from her was a few years ago, he said, when she inquired about the return of a firearm she owned that had been seized during the investigation. “As there is no statute of limitation for homicide, the detectives declined to return her property, which included a .22 caliber rifle, and I haven’t spoken with her since,” he said in a written statement.

Ms. Burke had had a previous brush with the law. In August of 1994, she was arrested and charged with drunken driving after a hit-and-run on Route 114. Bruce Davis, a personal injury lawyer of 1-800-LAWYERS fame, was walking his dog when he was hit and suffered a leg and foot injury.

Rossa Cole, who rents a house a few doors down, said the Burke house was subject to children’s lore. “They call it the scary, haunted house,” he said. His 9-year-old heard some tales from a neighborhood girl who has since moved, though he does not know how much was truth. “They knew something had happened there,” and when they would see Ms. Burke drive by they would hide.

Ms. Burke kept to herself. The house itself is set back in the woods on a nearly three-acre parcel at the end of the street, before a curve in the road. Rarely did Mr. Cole even see other cars parked there. 

As of yesterday, no services were finalized for Ms. Burke. The Yardley and Pino Funeral Home has been entrusted to handle the arrangements. 

The East Hampton Village Design Review Board ruled on Wednesday that a silver sculpture situated outside a recently opened art studio on Gingerbread Lane must be removed.

Shortly after the sculpture was erected outside the new Mannix Studio of Art, code enforcement officials informed Karyn Mannix, an East Hampton artist and gallerist, that if she did not remove it she would face a fine.

Dan Reichl, a code enforcement officer and building inspector, said on Monday that per village code, "anything that goes outside of any commercial building in the village, or any changes to the exterior, needs to be approved by the design review board prior, which it wasn't."

Ms. Mannix was allowed to keep the sculpture, which was created created by Steve Zaluski, in place pending the D.R.B.'s decision, but now has 30 days from the notice of violation to remove it. She said on Thursday that, while she has asked for an explanation as to why the sculpture could not remain, it will be removed this weekend.

"It's no big deal," she said on Thursday. "I wish I went to them first, but I didn't know. I'm disappointed that it didn't get okayed, because I'm not in the main 'walking' village. Granted, I am in the incorporated village, but I'm shocked. Disappointed and shocked."

Ms. Mannix said that she will return to the D.R.B. with a rendering of a different sculpture and seek its placement in a different location on the property. Had the D.R.B. allowed the sculpture to remain, it would still have had to be moved, as a portion of it was situated on village property.

The studio, which opened last month, offers classes for adults and children 6 and up.

"There's a lot coming up," Ms. Mannix said, "but people need to sign up for it to stay open."  

There are endless stories on the Internet about experiments on McDonald's food and how it appears not to decompose over time. For a class project, an East Hampton Middle School eighth-grader put his own twist on the experiment by testing not just a breaded chicken sandwich from McDonald's but also a similar sandwich from the school's own cafeteria.

Tycho Burwell bought the McDonald's sandwich on March 23, and the next day bought the sandwich at East Hampton Middle School along with an organic, breaded chicken sandwich from Harbor Market in Sag Harbor. He placed the three sandwiches separately under clear glass bowls and waited.

The result? In a little more than two weeks, the sandwich from Harbor Market became covered in fuzzy, bluish mold. The other two sandwiches, including the one purchased at the East Hampton Middle School cafeteria, appear almost exactly as they did when Tycho first brought them home.

Tycho's experiment was part of a project inspired by the book "Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan, which he read during Meredith Hasemann's English class. The book is about trends, politics, and critical issues affecting the food supply and consumption and in today's society.

"I had been eating the school lunches and I always felt like it was fast food, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to test it out," he said Thursday. "I'm not eating the school lunches anymore."

After reading the book and listening to presentations by local farmers and food experts who visited her classes, Ms. Hasemann asked her students to study issues pertaining to food chains and sources and document their work in investigative reports. Tycho, a budding photographer with a following on Instagram and whose pictures have been published in The Star, is creating a photo essay documenting the three sandwiches each day. Ms. Hasemann said the book "Omnivore's Dilemma" was eye-opening for the students and called Tycho's experiment "a provocative project with a provocative approach."

He said was "honestly, not surprised" at his results. He plans on formally bringing the sandwich experiment to the school after spring break, which is the last week in April. While the East Hampton School District has already implemented many changes to its food offerings this year, Tycho said he hopes his project yields additional changes in the school cafeteria.

Whitsons, the East Hampton School District's food service vendor, responded Friday morning by saying its chicken patties are high quality, safe, and contain no artificial flavors or colors, and that its products regularly undergo quality testing in a government-certified facility.

"We go above and beyond the national guidelines" for school nutrition, Katherine Barfuss, the nutrition services manager at Whitsons, said. "There's nothing in the chicken patty that would go against any of our standards there."

According to nutrition information provided by Whitsons, the chicken patty in question is made of chopped chicken with a whole-grain-rich breading. It has soy added. The 3.1-ounce patty contains 230 calories, 15 total grams of fat, 280 milligrams of sodium, and 12 grams of protein.

Ms. Barfuss said the appearance of mold is actually not a factor in determining whether a product is of poor quality. It is "usually the last thing that would grow on the product, rather than the first thing," she said.

Those with questions or concerns about the school food may contact Whitsons at 424-2700.

East Hampton Middle School has made headlines in the past for its efforts to provide nutritious, high-quality lunches for its students. In 2005, students at the school staged a sit-in protest as a means of asking the administration for healthier food options, a cause that was then taken up by the Wellness Foundation of East Hampton. The school and the foundation were later featured in the film "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead 2" by Joe Cross, a documentarian and health advocate.

"I'd say the result I would want to see, and I'm not saying this is possible at all because they have to keep their costs low, but I would like to see a more organic version of their food," Tycho said. "I can understand that it is a problem because it costs more, and that's why a lot of people eat at McDonald's, but organic food is better overall."

Christine Sciulli, Tycho's mother, said her son's experiment "begs the question, 'Why do the schools give the children this food?' "

"You can ask the questions, but you need to provide solutions, and that's where the problem comes in," she said. "I think it's really hard to be critical because of the constraints. People can always make their own lunches if they are appalled by it, but if the school didn't provide lunches, a lot of kids just wouldn't eat."

Almond Restaurant has been a part of our community, specifically Bridgehampton, for 15 years, a staggering accomplishment in an environment where restaurants open and close every season. The owners and business partners, Eric Lemonides and Jason Weiner, the chef, have been friends since they were 5 and 6 growing up in Brooklyn. 

On Tuesday they plan to have a three-pronged event to celebrate this milestone for the restaurant that was named after Mr. Weiner’s then girlfriend, Almond Zigmund, who is now his wife. (A risky and bold action, but it’s worked out just fine, thank you very much.) April 12 also happens to be the birthday of Mr. Weiner and Ms. Zigmund’s daughter, Rive. Family and friends will celebrate Rive’s eighth birthday, then at 7 the restaurant will host a benefit for Eric Striffler, a photographer who lost everything in a recent fire. And this, in a nutshell, demonstrates why Almond is an ongoing success story: It turned a celebratory, pat-ourselves-on-the-back-for-lasting-so-long event into an evening to help a member of the community in need.

There are three Almonds now. Besides the location in Bridgehampton, there is one in TriBeCa, one in the Flatiron district, and the L&W Oyster Co. in NoMad. To what do the owners attribute their success? Interviewed separately, their answers were remarkably similar, perhaps not surprising for partners who have worked together seamlessly for so long.

Mr. Lemonides runs the “front of the house” as it’s called in the restaurant biz. “We’re unpretentious, simple, warm, welcoming, fun. We don’t take it seriously, except for the fun part. If someone calls and says ‘We’ll be late for our reservation!’ we tell them ‘So what? It’s only dinner, get here when you can.’ ” Of course, this seemingly breezy attitude is the result of a lifetime of hard work in restaurants.

“It’s also our hiring philosophy,” he said. “We only get people who want to work here, and they stay. In 15 years we’ve only had three people working the door. . . . We don’t have tablecloths or TV sets. A**holes like tablecloth restaurants. We don’t get any a**holes here.”

And then there’s Mr. Weiner, whom I have never seen out of his chef garb and Amber Waves cap. We have worked numerous charity events together, and he is always coming from the restaurant and about to head back to the restaurant. His dedication and passion for local ingredients are evident. In summer, you can count on 90 percent of what is on your plate having come from within a four-mile radius. He reiterated Mr. Lemonides’s philosophy: “We just try to give people an experience based on warmth, honesty, and conviviality. The most important thing about the restaurant is the people. We’ve made amazing relationships with growers, baymen, and artisans, and, of course, our customers. We’ve been blessed with a super loyal bunch.”

The dishes at Almond are truly, authentically bistro-style: frisee and lardon salad, duck confit, steak frites, escargots, pots de creme. They are gutsy and savory, comforting and delicious. You will not find any molecular gastronomy going on here, just superb ingredients treated with respect.

Surely in the 15 years of Almond’s success, there have been some noteworthy celebrity sightings or adventures. Both men mention the Clintons, who have dined there numerous times, celebrated birthdays there, and have had Mr. Weiner cater fund-raising events. But their favorite anecdote involved the night the Clintons had to cancel a reservation and said someone would pick up the order instead. Shortly after, in ambled a lone Bill Clinton, who settled himself at the bar to enjoy a Grey Goose martini. The to-go order arrived, but he enjoyed himself a while longer. When he departed, he went to every single table of guests in the restaurant, shaking hands and chatting with everyone. There’s also the time that Joy Behar met John Boehner, and he ended up putting her in a headlock. He was squiffy; she was amused.

The day after Mr. Striffler lost everything in the fire, portfolio, camera equipment, literally everything except his dog, Bugsley, Mr. Weiner said to Mr. Lem­onides, “Dude! Eric Striffler is the party! We’ll have a benefit!” Mr. Lemonides agreed, saying, “He’s part of the fabric of where we live. We are part of the community and the community is part of us.”

Happy eighth birthday to Rive and happy anniversary to Almond and the outstanding men who started it all. Tuesday, 7 p.m. Be there and you will see.

In honor of the restaurant’s anniversary, Mr. Lemonides and Mr. Weiner have invited patrons to share with them their favorite memories of the eatery, by sending a letter (to P.O. Box 635, Bridgehampton 11932), an email (to [email protected]), or posting on the Almond Facebook page. Each person who shares a remembrance will be entered to win a “super-deluxe” dinner for four. The winner will be announced on Tuesday. 

The cocktail party for Mr. Striffler will include passed hors d’oeuvres and cocktails featuring local wines and spirits, along with a silent auction. Tickets are $40 in advance or $50 at the door. 

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If you paid attention to the news in February and March, you may know about the resurgence, at least locally, of one of the rarest of whales, the North Atlantic right whale, in New England coastal waters. This monster, Eubalaena glacialis, is one of three found in the three largest oceans. The South Atlantic right whale, has the largest population — as many as 10,000 exist. The Pacific right whale is down to less than a few hundred individuals, while the one that we have numbers as many as 400, with another 10 along the north European coast.

For almost 200 years it was the “right” whale to harvest, hence its name. It was slow swimming, up to 10 miles per hour; rich in whale blubber when it was harvested; floated, unlike many other whales; had a disproportionately large mass of baleen (thus the scientific name), and swam up and down the coast while feeding a mere few hundred feet offshore. It grows to be 60 feet long or so. The females outsize the males and can weigh up to 20 tons and live as long as we humans live on average.

It was first pursued by the Basques in the 11th century in such places as the Bay of Biscay, and later was the most sought after whale by Native Americans and white colonists in these parts.

On the Long Island and New England coasts, during spring, summer, and early fall, lookouts would post themselves on a high place such as one of the Montauk ocean bluffs and signal to whalers who had left their whaleboats waiting by the shore. The men would launch the whaleboat into the surf and row out to the whale, catch up to it, and harpoon it. Of course, it was not always duck soup. A big wave could toss the boat over, and the men would have to swim to shore, or the dying whale could thrash it over and even whack a man or two with its tail, injuring them.

Once dead and floating, the whale was towed to shore, and in a short time the blubber was cut off in pieces with special fleshing tools and cooked and reduced to valuable whale oil in big iron pots. The baleen was also removed and dried for various uses, much like ivory, and often the whale meat was served up at the dinner table.

Even though hunting for this species has been banned since 1938, it is making a very slow comeback if at all. Slow because a female isn’t mature until at least 7 years of age and calves only every four years or so. Right whale young are taken by orcas and large sharks, and the adults often die after colliding with ships or getting tangled in offshore fishnets.

The small population on the East Coast is listed as “functionally extinct.” But the 300 or so right whales that showed up in Cape Cod Bay after their annual return from waters off the southeastern American coast where the females calved give us hope that we can save the species from its predicted death throes. 

This whale species has a peculiar form of courtship, in which as many as 40 males court a single female at the same time. The female swims on her back during part of the courtship. If things go right she is impregnated and will swim south in the fall to calve in warmer waters. The calves weigh as much as a ton when born, thus they are probably the largest babies in the animal world. They suckle for up to a year and then become part of the pod. The male testes is also the largest in the animal world by far, weighing up to 750 pounds or more.

Not unlike the whale shark, the largest in the shark group, the right whale swims through the water with its mouth wide open, taking in voluminous amounts of water, which pass through the fine krill fingers and then out, leaving behind thousands upon thousands of tiny copepods, krill, and pteropods such as sea butterflies. Thus it is a third-level feeder in the food chain. But because it feeds at the surface or just below it for much of the time, it is an easy target for an ocean liner, tanker, or freighter, especially one traveling in the dark at night.

Like other cetaceans, the right whale is quite vocal, but its sounds are lower, shorter, and more grunt-like than some of the “singing” whales. However, if it hears a high-pitched sound like that of a siren, it rises to the surface. Thus, such sounds can be used to get a lurking whale to the top in order to avoid hitting it.

Its hearing, as in almost all other cetaceans, is very acute. It is well known that loud noises produced by humans via boats, torpedo blasts, or other amplification can interfere with a whale’s feeding and other behavioral routines, sometimes causing it to beach. One can imagine how the noises and shockwaves attendant to installing and operating an oil rig or wind turbine in coastal waters could easily interfere with the right whale’s daily ritual, drive it away or stupefy it, interrupt feeding and breeding.

Maybe that is why the right whale has all but disappeared from the Gulf of Mexico, the California coast, and the seas around the British Isles and Scandinavia. It’s more than ironic that one branch of government encourages offshore drilling and the erection and operation of wind turbines, while another branch of government spends millions upon millions trying to save whales and other endangered marine mammals and fish. If I were king I would certainly rule in favor of the latter. Maybe that is because many of my ancestors were whalers sailing out of Long Island ports such as Sag Harbor in pursuit of the right whale, and had practically wiped it out by 1750. I have inherited a very guilty conscience.

Larry Penny can be reached via email at [email protected].

James William Thompson, a Sag Harbor resident who as a Suffolk County Police detective sergeant fought the drug war on Long Island in the 1970s and ’80s and was part of one of the largest drug seizures off the coast of East Hampton, died March 17 in The Villages, a retirement community in central Florida. He was 74, and had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Mr. Thompson was instrumental in forming the federal Drug Enforcement Administration’s Long Island Task Force in 1974, where he supervised Suffolk and Nassau detectives and D.E.A. agents. The task force landed one of the largest drug seizures and most significant drug arrests in the county’s history, his family said.

Under his leadership, the task force intercepted a Colombian trawler off the coast of East Hampton on Sept. 3, 1981. They uncovered 40,000 pounds of marijuana, which led to the arrest and conviction of six organized crime leaders, six Colombian nationals, and an additional 21 defendants. 

Mr. Thompson was also known for arresting the president of the Pagans, an outlaw motorcycle gang, in 1978, which led to the seizure of millions of dollars of amphetamines and an arsenal of weapons. In 1979, his team took five kilograms of heroin off the streets in a Ronkonkoma bust, resulting in the arrest of five Mexican nationals.

This level of narcotics enforcement did not come without risk, his family said. The task force came under gunfire more than once. Once while executing a search warrant in Brooklyn, two officers were shot. They made a full recovery, but it had a profound impact on him. He cared about his officers and about getting the job done, and “always did the right thing,” the family said. “He left this world a better place than he found it.”

James Thompson, better known as Jim, was born in the Bronx on Aug. 17, 1941, to Marguerite Kinnard Thompson and Joseph Thompson. The family moved to Lindenhurst in 1959, where he met his wife of 53 years, the former Eleanor Timko. After graduating from Lindenhurst High School in 1960, he served in the Army National Guard.

On April 15, 1963, he joined the Suffolk County Police Department, starting in the First Precinct and quickly becoming an undercover narcotics investigator. He was promoted to sergeant in 1970, and just one year later was made a detective sergeant in the narcotics division.

  After he retired in 1984, the family moved to Sag Harbor, where they opened a family restaurant in Noyac called Jim’s Anchorage. He sold it around 1990, and went on to establish a successful private investigation business. He also worked as the supervising investigator for the New York State Insurance Fraud Agency.

He was a member of the Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps and a board member of St. Andrew’s School in Sag Harbor.

His greatest pride was his family, including his children, grandchildren, nephews, and extended family. “He enjoyed nothing more than pulling up his fish onto his boat with friends or taking a family picnic on his boat out into the middle of Noyac Bay,” his family said.

Mr. Thompson is survived by his wife and two daughters, June Ellen Haynal of Sag Harbor and Susan Marie Peterson of East Hampton. A son, James W. Thompson Jr., predeceased him, as did three brothers, Joseph, John, and Edward Thompson. A sister, Marie Shabatt of Lewiston, Pa., and a sister-in-law, Jean Thompson of West Babylon, also survive. He leaves four grandchildren and many nephews, nieces, and their children.

Visiting hours will be held tomorrow at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in Sag Harbor from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m.  There will be a funeral Mass at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church, of which he was a member, at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, with burial to follow at St. Andrew’s cemetery.

Memorial donations may be made to the Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps, P.O. Box 2725, Sag Harbor 11963. 

Correction: A funeral service for James W. Thompson is at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, not 8:30 a.m., as initially reported. 

If the Sloppy Tuna in downtown Montauk opens this season, it will do so without the man who was its head of security for the past five years. “I will be back in Montauk this season, but not there,” Robert Anderson said outside  East Hampton Town Justice Court on Monday after pleading guilty to 4 of the 12 noise violations he had been written up for between 2014 and 2015.

East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky fined Mr. Anderson a total of $7,500. “I’m not blaming anybody,” Mr. Anderson said of his former bosses, Drew Doscher and Michael Meyer, who are tangled in counter lawsuits. Mr. Anderson said he was in negotiations with another high-profile Montauk nightclub.

Meanwhile, the court-appointed receiver for Sloppy Tuna, Charles C. Russo, vowed last week in letters to the two warring partners that the club and bar will open on time and have a successful season.

The letter came in response to a March 29 Facebook post by Mr. Doscher on the Sloppy Tuna Facebook page informing the “Sloppy nation” that the hot spot as they know it “will not be opening at the same location in Montauk this summer.” Mr. Doscher railed against an order by New York State Supreme Court Justice Jerry Garguilo that would place the club under temporary control of Mr. Russo.

In his letter to the attorneys the next day, Mr. Russo demanded that Mr. Doscher turn over by Friday the more than $1 million the business has in a Chase Bank account to a receivership account Mr. Russo has created at Bridgehampton National Bank. He claimed that Mr. Doscher’s Facebook posting was in direct violation of the court order, which stipulated that Mr. Doscher is “restrained from interfering in any way” with the receiver’s operation of the business.

Mr. Russo, who also filed the letter with the clerk for Justice Garguilo, demanded that Mr. Doscher remove the posting and substitute a retraction instead. He also asked that Mr. Doscher be instructed to contact all news outlets to alert them to the retraction.

Mr. Russo warned that if Mr. Doscher does not comply with his demands, he risks facing criminal charges of contempt of court.

The warring parties were due back in court yesterday.