Maureen and Dave Rutkowski are once again taking the reins at John’s Drive-In in Montauk. Mr. Rutkowski opened the popular ice cream and hamburger joint in 1985 and operated it with the help of his family up until 17 years ago, when he sold it to Tom Pontecorvo, a longtime employee. 

On Friday, the couple, who met there when Ms. Rutkowski took a summer job and ended up falling for her boss, officially closed the deal with an announcement saying they are now the proud new/old owners of John’s Drive-In. 

“Those early years were great fun. The staff, the mix of locals and summer visitors built strong friendships, not to mention lots of memories that last until today. I’m hoping that our children can have the same type of experience,” Ms. Rutkowski said.

The couple sold the business when their first child turned 3; they wanted more family time, especially in summer when the place was always busy, even back then. Now, their two children, Alexandra and John, who are both in their teens, are excited about helping run it and having a new hangout. 

The plan is to open under their ownership by the weekend of Friday, March 18, in time for the St. Patrick’s Day parade that Sunday. Since they bought the business they’ve been busy prepping for the season, but there will be no major menu changes. As the times are a bit different since their first go-round, however, there might be some new ice cream flavors. 

Adam Fine, who is in his sixth year as the principal of East Hampton High School, was named Administrator of the Year last week by the Council of Administrators and Supervisors, a Long Island group of more than 1,400 school leaders.

Mr. Fine said Tuesday that he considers the award to be more about the school than about his own leadership. He credited the high school’s two assistant principals, Timothy Fromm and Maria Mondini, with making important contributions. “This award reaffirms what we have been doing here,” Mr. Fine said.

Mr. Fine was previously a principal in Southampton, an assistant principal in Syosset, and a special education teacher and assistant principal in Longwood. He holds degrees from Binghamton University, New York University, and Teachers College of Columbia University.

Mr. Fine said he feels blessed to be working in East Hampton. What drew him here six years ago, he said, was “the idea that it brought together so many different communities.” He added that the school’s size, about 870 students and 150 staff members, allows it to accomplish so much.

“I like instructionally pushing the envelope, preparing more kids to be college and career ready, and improving the culture and climate of the school,” he said. “We’re tackling mental health and substance abuse head on. I enjoy engaging the community.”

The stakes in the long-running duel between the Town of East Hampton and the owners of Cyril’s Fish House on Napeague were raised considerably this week when Justice Steven Tekulsky scheduled May 3 as the day to begin jury selection in a criminal trial of the ownership group. The group faces a total of 248 charges, many of them unclassified misdemeanors, each of which is punishable by up to six months in the county jail. Almost all the charges date from 2014.

According to Michael Sendlenski, who heads the town attorney’s office, Joseph Prokop is handling the case. Neither Mr. Sendlenski nor Mr. Prokop would talk about it this week; Mr. Sendlenski explained that it was office policy not to address pending litigation.

Conrad Jordan, attorney for the defendants, did not return phone calls to his office.

There are multiple defendants named, including Clan-Fitz Inc. The New York State Liquor Authority issued Cyril’s a new license this year, running from April 1 through Halloween, under that name.

According to William Crowley, spokesman for the liquor authority, the authorization, known as a summer vessel license, would be based upon the owners having presented the authority with a certificate of occupancy when they first applied, in the 1980s. But 59 of the misdemeanor charges are for lacking a valid certificate of occupancy. If the establishment is convicted of any of them, Mr. Crowley said, the authority would review the license. “You need a certificate of occupancy to operate,” he said.

In 2014, the authority cancelled Cyril’s license, but that action was stayed when the owners sued the state.

Cyril Fitzsimons himself is not directly named in the criminal complaint, though two corporate entities, of which he may be a partner, are. Besides Clan-Fitz Inc., the defendants are Cyril’s, Debra Dioguardi Lakind, Michael Dioguardi, and Robert Dioguardi.

In 2012, in a somewhat similar case, the owners of the Surf Lodge in Montauk settled over 100 counts, many of them misdemeanors, out of court, agreeing to pay $100,000 in settlement.

The jury chosen May 3 for the East Hampton Town Justice Court trial will have six members plus two alternates, drawn from the East Hampton area. This is a separate action from the town’s civil lawsuit against the owners, which began in 2013. That case is adjourned for the time being to allow Cyril’s to satisfy the alleged violations via the site plan review process. The criminal proceedings have been in limbo for the past two years as well, for the same reason.

But the site plan review process came to a crashing halt last month, with members of the planning board expressing anger at being presented a plan essentially unchanged from years past. “This came before us before, and it was the same song,” Nancy Keeshan said at the time. “They are illegal,” Kathleen Cunningham said. “They go against the town’s code.”

It is likely that the May trial will keep the civil case, also being handled by Mr. Prokop, in abeyance until the criminal charges are adjudicated.

With a proposed work force housing development at 531 Montauk Highway in Amagansett raising questions about an influx of school-aged children and an increased tax burden, the Amagansett School Board will host an information session in the school gymnasium on March 19 at 11 a.m.

The board sent a letter to residents of the district last week urging them to attend, “to learn more about the likely impacts of this project on our school, available space and resources, and projected financial impact.”

The proposed development would include 76 bedrooms in 40 apartments, including 12 each of one, two, and three-bedroom units. Four studio apartments would be attached to commercial suites.

The letter says that according to an analysis prepared by the school board, the project “may result in a large increase in the number of new students at the Amagansett School, and in older grades, for whom we must pay tuition to the East Hampton School District or other schools.” Such an influx, it says, “is likely to result in significantly higher taxes for Amagansett School District residents and/or cuts to Amagansett School programs.”

The board will solicit comments at the conclusion of the meeting. The letter also includes a tear-off sheet on which those unable to attend can express their opinion of the proposed project by mail.

At the board’s Feb. 23 meeting, Eleanor Tritt, the district superintendent, said that projecting the number of students that could come to the school as a result of the proposed development was difficult, given the hamlet’s small size. “Projections based on very small numbers are very problematic,” she said. “The majority of our students in our school” — 77 percent, she said at a subsequent board meeting, on Tuesday — “were not born in Amagansett. To use current births in Amagansett is fallacious.”

Among the issues the district will face, Ms. Tritt said, are that “until children actually come, we will not know how those children would fit into the existing classrooms, depending on the grade level they’ll come in at. We have no vacant classrooms.” The number of students attending East Hampton Middle and High Schools, she said, would also be of concern, “because we are obligated to pay the tuition to those schools.”

The school’s preliminary 2016-17 budget, which indicated the likelihood that the district would seek to pierce the tax levy cap, was also unveiled at the Feb. 23 meeting, heightening concerns on the board about the obligations an influx of students would represent.

In a presentation to the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee in December, Catherine Casey, executive director of the East Hampton Housing Authority, estimated that the development would add 37 more students to the district. While enrollment fluctuates, 110 children were attending the school as of yesterday, with a total of 191 students living in the district at present.

Monthly rents in the proposed development, which may be completed by 2019, will be at fair market rates based on a federal Office of Housing and Urban Development schedule, though no tenant will pay more than approximately 30 percent of their income in rent. Some tenants would receive a subsidy, Ms. Casey said. At the advisory committee meeting in December, she said that current standards would put monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment between $1,039 and $1,425. A two-bedroom apartment would cost between $1,124 and $1,682 per month, and a three-bedroom between $1,236 and $2,232.

Some 20 teachers who have been working without a contract since July 1 sent the Montauk School Board a strong signal on Tuesday when they arrived at a board meeting wearing black T-shirts with “Montauk Teachers Association” emblazoned on them in white letters.

Laura Schilling, the president of the  association, read a statement at the meeting asking the board to continue to negotiate. This is the second time a contract wasn’t settled before it expired. “The teachers have always maintained a high level of professionalism in these uncertain times,” Ms. Schilling said in an email after the meeting.

“It is our hope that the board of education will recognize our value to our students and this community.”

The issue that has stymied negotiations is a longevity clause in the last contract that provided a 1-percent salary increase compounded when teachers were employed for at least 23 years by 2011. District officials have said they never intended teachers to continue receiving longevity pay.

 Twelve teachers who were affected filed a grievance notice with the New York State Public Employment Relations Board. They claim the longevity agreement, made with Diane Hausman, the school board president, and Judith Pfister, who was on the negotiating team, was clearly understood to mean that not only teachers who reached longevity by 2011 but those who served at least 23 years in subsequent years would receive the increase. They also say the clause was not supposed to sunset.

When school started in the fall, the teachers who were not allotted longevity pay asked the Montauk Teachers Association to represent them. In two cases, it was reported, the board had asked several teachers who did receive longevity pay to give it back.

Jack Perna, the district superintendent, and Ms. Hausman did not comment on the issue, saying they were not allowed to do so publicly.  

Also at Tuesday’s meeting it was announced that Jason Biondo, who resigned from the board in late January, would be reinstated as a board member through the end of this school year. He was not at Tuesday’s meeting, the fourth he has missed, while during the session, his wife, Lauren Biondo, was appointed a new substitute teacher.

Any local building department file contains deeds, architectural drawings, board approvals, and the like, but those looking back at the old Bulova Watchcase factory project will also find a bound book and hundreds of digital images documenting its recently completed renovation.

Michael Heller, a photographer for The Sag Harbor Express, presented his 200-page coffeetable book, as well as a flash drive with files on it, to the Sag Harbor Village Board at the start of Tuesday’s meeting.

Four and a half years ago, when the project that would transform the building from abandoned eyesore to high-end condominiums first began, he approached the developers, Cape Advisors, about photographing construction as it went along. He worked out a deal with them to become the photographer of record, and was given unparalleled access to the site.

Mr. Heller made 115 visits to the site. From Nov. 8, 2011, to Feb. 5, 2016, he went there every two weeks or so to capture every phase. He ended up with 9,800 photographs.

“I painfully edited those down to about 200, which I then published in a book that just came out this week,” he told the board. The self-published book is available for purchase online through Blurb.com, by typing “watchcase” in the search menu.

From the start, Mr. Heller said, he felt the images should become part of the village record “because it’s such an important building.” He presented a copy of the book, along with the flash drive, to the village.

“That is wonderful,” Mayor Sandra Schroeder said as she thanked Mr. Heller. “That’s a very nice way to start a meeting.” 

There also will be a copy available to the public at the John Jermain Memorial Library.

Concerned that artificial turf fields carry health risks because of the materials they are made of, a pair of Sag Harbor parents launched a petition this week in an attempt to halt the construction of a turf field at Pierson Middle and High School. A donor has stepped forward to offer to redo Pierson’s field with natural grass.

In their argument, Jill Musnicki, a parent of a Sag Harbor Elementary School student, and Diane Hewett, who has one child at the elementary school and one at Pierson, assert that “more questions have arisen regarding the safety of synthetic turf” since the $1.62 million project was approved in a 585-to-507 vote on Nov. 13, 2013. “National sporting teams and health researchers are questioning its safety,” Ms. Musnicki and Ms. Hewett wrote. “Shouldn’t we do the same?”

The petition garnered 70 signatures within 24 hours after its Monday night launch and by Wednesday morning surpassed 160, with dozens of comments in support of axing the turf or at the very least putting the project on hold until more studies can be completed.

The potential donor is the Bridge Golf Club in Bridgehampton. “Certainly, we would be happy to help the community improve their sports field turf quality and playability in an organic fashion,” Gregg Stanley, the club’s certified golf course superintendent, said in an email.

The nonprofit group Healthy Child Healthy World in February reported on its blog that three government agencies, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, had teamed up to launch a study of artificial turf fields. Many use crumb rubber, which is derived from used tires or other scrap rubber. Early concerns include the potential toxicity of the chemicals used in the making of the rubber and the potential for it to heat to high temperatures on hot days.

When the turf field proposition was first floated, neither Ms. Musnicki nor Ms. Hewett supported it. “I do believe people did have good intentions,” Ms. Musnicki said. “A lot of those people have realized maybe it was a mistake.” She has also suggested that a revote on the turf field might be a good idea.

She said her research has suggested that “they’re basically recycling hazardous waste into schoolyards.”

“The concern for someone like me is that they are basically doing this to the whole field, more or less. Dust and particles — you can’t really escape them,” she said. “Other schools that have bigger fields only do part of it where people play their organized sports. . . . At our school, the field is so small and basically that’s the only outdoor space. That’s a big concern. There’s no option.”

East Hampton High School had one turf field installed in 2005 for $1.4 million. It still has a grass playing field and grass practice areas on campus. Joe Vasile-Cozzo, the athletic director, said the district has had “a few rumblings” about the turf field, but that it has really benefited the district. “Scheduling-wise, I rarely cancel games on the turf, so it really helps,” he said. “There are a couple of articles in the paper you see nationally, but we see minimal concerns about it on our end.”

Ms. Hewett and Ms. Musnicki said they would prefer a grass field at Pierson, especially since recent advances in landscape technology have made it possible to more easily maintain such fields.

“The jury is still out on synthetic turf, and until we know all the facts, I do not want our children to be the guinea pigs,” Ms. Hewett said.

Altering the turf field project may prove extremely complicated at this point. The district sold bonds in mid-February to begin financing the project and then opened up the bidding process for companies to submit proposals for the field. The district’s architectural and engineering firm, BBS Architects, is reviewing the bids and is expected to make recommendations to the school board within the next few weeks.

Katy Graves, Sag Harbor’s superintendent, said yesterday that she is still collecting and reviewing the comments sent by residents.

“We’ll do what’s best for children, but a bond anticipation note has been voted on by the community, albeit three years ago,” Ms. Graves said, pointing out that state regulations are very strict when it comes to upholding community votes. “I sent the information to the board of education, but we’re still in another piece of this, which is scrutinizing the bids that have come through. This is a crucial piece. I have to wait for those engineers and architects to weigh in.”

Following weeks of speculation, the mystery buyer of BookHampton has finally been revealed.

"Carolyn Brody is the buyer," confirmed Charline Spektor, the East Hampton bookstore's longtime owner, early Monday. "We're tying up a few loose ends, but the keys are being handed over this week."

Ms. Spektor, who purchased BookHampton in 2000, described Ms. Brody as a "wonderful customer and wonderful reader who's beginning an exciting chapter in her own life."

"I love bookstores. I've wanted to own a bookstore since I was 9 years old," Ms. Brody said Tuesday. "I consider a bookstore an integral part of the community."

A civic leader, Ms. Brody has lived in East Hampton for 30 years as a summer and weekend resident. An advocate for the arts and the environment, Ms. Brody has served as chairwoman emerita of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, as past chairwoman of the National Building Museum, and was appointed by President Clinton to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. In addition, she has been a real estate consultant to the World Bank and a real estate investment banker at First Boston Corporation.

For the time being, the bookstore will remain closed, with brown paper covering its windows, until "sometime in May," as it undergoes a minor facelift. Once it reopens, Ms. Brody confirmed it would remain open year round.

As for the six full-time employees, Ms. Brody plans to meet with them later this week. "My hope is that they'll stay," she said.

BookHampton was first opened on Newtown Lane in 1971 by George Caldwell and Jorge Costello, known as "the Georges." The bookstore later moved to Main Street before landing across the street in its current location next to Starbucks. Hal Zwick briefly purchased it before Ms. Spektor and Jeremy Nussbaum, her husband, who died in 2012, bought it in 2000.

Besides the East Hampton and Southampton stores, the couple also opened locations in Sag Harbor, Amagansett, and Mattituck, all of which closed in recent years. In November, Ms. Spektor sold the Southampton store to Daniel Hirsch and Gregory Harris, two former employees.

Ms. Spektor can finally breathe a sigh of relief now that the last remaining location has been sold. Since losing her husband and then receiving a breast cancer diagnosis shortly thereafter, she credits the East Hampton community for its support and kindness, enabling her to get back on her feet.

Now healthy, besides finishing two plays, Ms. Spektor plans to devote her free time to gun control advocacy.

Mostly, Ms. Spektor looks forward to returning to BookHampton as a loyal customer — with Ms. Brody now positioned on the other side of the counter.

An accident on Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton sent one to the hospital with minor injuries Tuesday. 

The Bridgehampton Fire Department and Southampton Town police were called out to the accident at the intersection of Halsey Lane, just east of the Citarella market, just before 4:30 p.m. The front end of a sedan and the side of a pickup truck suffered damage. It appeared the car ran into the side of the truck. Airbags deployed in both vehicles, and one ambulance responded. 

The driver's injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.

No further information was available.

In a surprise twist at the annual Guild Hall Academy of the Arts dinner at the Rainbow Room in Manhattan on Tuesday night, a person not on the roster of honorees became the evening's most notable lifetime achievement award recipient.

Mary Heilmann, A.M. Homes, and Charlotte Moss and Barry S. Friedberg had all received their awards when Sarah Jessica Parker took the podium to accept hers. After a witty tribute by Eric Fischl, the president of the Academy of the Arts, she began by acknowledging how important Guild Hall and its programs were to her and the community, but her remarks quickly pivoted to focus on Ruth Appelhof, Guild Hall's longtime director who announced her imminent retirement last year.

A video tribute to the outgoing director was cued, citing 17 years of achievement in programming and the restoration of the building, as well as highlighting Guild Hall's new artists in residence program, which is expected to be one of her legacies. Ms. Parker continued after the video, suggesting that Ms. Appelhof be named "permanent cultural ambassador for life" and sharing a tribute to Ms. Appelhof that she worked on with Jon Robin Baitz, the playwright and screenwriter.

In particular, the actress cited Ms. Appelhof's efforts in "tirelessly, tirelessly working to keep our beautiful place also culturally beautiful," especially in the summer "when we all hide like mice from a tribe of feral cats and feel like it's endangered of losing some of its magic."

Ms. Appelhof's stunned surprise at the award, and the standing ovation that followed, was undoubtedly genuine. "Oh my goodness," she said, before asking the audience to acknowledge Guild Hall's staff and board. Without having any prepared remarks, she thanked the board and academy and promised to continue to support the institution and community in her retirement.

The first group of five artists in residence, who are now living in Guild House, a residence behind the cultural center, which was acquired last year, were at the dinner. This was fitting, as the initiative came out of an acceptance speech that Mr. Baitz gave upon receiving his lifetime achievement award a few years ago.

Basically a call to arms to make certain that the next generation of artists, actors, and writers are nurtured by the community, it was a mandate that Ms. Appelhof and Mr. Fischl took to heart and began working on. Having the first group of artists in residence on Tuesday, during what is likely to be Ms. Appelhof's last academy dinner as director, was clearly a proud moment for her, which she also acknowledged.

Ms. Heilmann's award in visual arts was presented by Adam Weinberg, the director of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Roseanne Cash presented A.M. Homes's literary arts award. Howard Milstein, a longtime business partner of Mr. Friedberg, presented the philanthropic award to Mr. Friedberg and Ms. Moss.