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.

On Saturday morning when Friday’s snow had just begun to melt, I went on Eileen Schwinn’s annual Morton Wildlife Refuge bird walk under the auspices of the East End Audubon Society. It was cold but sunny and pleasant, and as we walked down to the bay along that well-trodden trail that ultimately leads to Jessup’s Point, chickadees, titmice, cardinals, and an occasional nuthatch begged for seeds and my 10 or so fellow walkers would stop to oblige them.

There was enough snow to read the tracks, and those of turkeys, rabbits, squirrels, and the occasional fox stood out clearly. Our tracks obliterated many of the others but only on the trails, which we kept to. Reading and comparing tracks got me thinking: Ours were flatfooted, clearly showing the tread pattern on the soles of our hiking footwear; those of non-humans showed not tread, but instead, claws, pads, and the like. The red fox and the turkey tracks stood out; both animals tend to walk in a very straight line, and in the case of the former, one rear paw fits neatly into the track made by the forepaw so that the line of tracks immediately says “red fox.” Dogs and other canines are not that meticulous in their gaits.

Humans and other primates have plantigrade feet that meet the ground with both heal and forefoot simultaneously, especially when standing. Cottontail rabbits, gray squirrels, raccoons, bears, and even kangaroos are also plantigrade. Such mammals can stand upright for longer periods of time and with more stability, which allows them to use their hands and forepaws for manipulating things like food and tools.

All rodents are plantigrade. The ubiquitous gray squirrel has plantigrade feet, as does the woodchuck, but it can use its tail as a prop to increase its balance while using its forepaws to do some housekeeping.

Dogs, foxes, cats, and other mammals that have forefeet that are identical to hind feet in size and shape have digitigrade stances and gaits, meaning that their heels are raised and never touch the ground while standing or running. They can’t use their forefeet the way raccoons and humans can, but they can run very fast if need be and spring high into the air. Except for a few, like the leopard, they can’t climb trees and swing from limb to limb.

Most rodents — mice, rats, squirrels, rabbits, prairie dogs, chipmunks, and the like — lay down symmetrical pairs of tracks. Tracks of the forepaws are usually smaller than those of the hind paws, especially in cottontails, jackrabbits, and snowshoe hares. Thus, when you see two pairs of paw prints, one behind the other, in the snow, you know you have a rodent. Those of mice are similar to those of squirrels but much, much smaller. 

We saw a lot of deer tracks during our walk. Young of the year leave smaller tracks than adults. Deer, horses, cows, and other ungulates run on their fore toes, which are crafted into hooves. In horses, the fore toes are welded together. In deer, the two are separated so you see two side-by-side marks each time the foot makes contact with the snow. Like digitigrades, they can also run very fast and are very good jumpers.

Adult turkey tracks are very large, a good four inches back to front, side to side. The heel, or tarsus, of birds is part of the leg bone that stems from the knee. Turkeys and the flightless ratites — ostriches, rheas, emus, and cassowaries — can run very fast, with one foot down ahead of the other like deer and dogs. Herons, shorebirds, crows, grackles, and quail walk and run in the same manner. Walking birds with long tails such as pheasants often accompany their footprints with tail-drag lines.

Penguins are not ratites but are also flightless, as was the extinct dodo. They use their wings to propel them through the water. When on land, they walk the way we do but take very, very tiny steps. Single-stepping birds that can fly often run a bit before taking off, the way grebes and loons run across the surface of the water before flying.

Almost all songbirds hop when moving over the ground. Thus they leave pairs of side-by-side tracks, which could be confused with tracks left by a mouse, but instead of a cluster of four, two slightly smaller than the other two, they are laid down in single pairs only. They can put one foot after another if need be, but almost never do. When taking off, they hop into the air while simultaneously flapping their wings.

Red-winged blackbirds were singing, robins were calling, geese were courting, but the most prominent sign of the coming spring on our walk through the refuge was the adult chipmunk, which popped out time and again from a little hollow in the bottom of a standing tree trunk to take sunflower seeds thrown its way. Such an early emergence from winter sleep by chipmunks is almost becoming commonplace in this millennium. One wonders if it is a sign of global warming or just another anomaly?

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

The Sag Harbor School District will ask the community during the annual school board and budget vote in May whether it should issue bonds to buy and renovate the Stella Maris Regional School. The purchase would cost $3.3 million and the renovations at least $6.34 million to bring the building up to current state codes. 

Katy Graves, Sag Harbor’s superintendent, said last week that the school board has definite plans to add such a bond referendum to the ballot.  “That’s the advice we got from our attorney. No type of survey can ever take the place of a bond vote,” Ms. Graves said.

The district unveiled these costs and five potential uses for the building on Tuesday after several months of research, discussions in executive sessions, and time spent preparing the report and a related survey of public opinion.

In a letter to the community that accompanied a 42-page document filled with information, the school board described the potential to purchase Stella Maris, the value of which has fallen to $3.3 million from $3.5 million, as a “once in a lifetime opportunity.

“The questions we have been grappling with are many. Should we buy it? If we do, how would we use it? Could it be an income-producing asset?” the board said. “At the end of the day, the decision to purchase this property is up to the voters. However, considering our unique position, we felt obligated to do the due diligence necessary to judge the value of this investment by examining the possibilities and fully vetting these questions for the community.”

Five proposed uses for Stella Maris if voters approve the purchase would range from an additional $596,000 to $2.32 million for programs. The first  would be to relocate the prekindergarten, some special education classes, and certain district offices. The space vacated at Pierson Middle and High School would then be used to create an “authentic middle school wing.”

The second potential use would be a district-wide  facility that could even prepare food for the elementary school, which currently does not have a school cafeteria. It would also include options for career training programs for high school students.

A third proposal would be to establish the STEAM Academy of the East End. The acronym stands for science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. A fourth proposal would be to establish a Culinary Arts and Hospitality Academy of the East End, which would also have a large group instruction and event space. 

A fifth option would be to purchase the facility for the sole purpose of leasing it to youth services and community programs, with no school services there. 

The information and survey are available in the school offices, at the John Jermain Memorial Library, and online at bit.ly/stellamarisschool. The district will collect responses through March 16.

Nowhere in the material does the district outline the possible impact that running these programs might have on its general operating budget, which James Sanford, a resident who has been a vocal critic of the district’s exploration of the Stella Maris property, says is a major flaw. “To me that’s the most important data . . . for the public to make a decision,” Mr. Sanford said yesterday. “We’re under very onerous tax cap constraints over the next few years. The options confound me.”

He likened the district’s inquiry into potential revenue-producing programs to starting a business. “Why does a district think it should be using its funds to start a speculative business?” he said. “We’re not venture capitalists. Options three to five specifically make us look like we are.”

A neighbor’s campaign to make the owners of the Breakers motel obtain a permit before they can reopen its long-dormant restaurant was unanimously rejected by the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals Tuesday night.

Jay Schneiderman, the Southampton Town supervisor, and his sister, Helen Ficalora, own the Breakers. Mr. Schneiderman was on hand for the board’s deliberation of the appeal by Jane Concannon, who owns an adjacent property.

During a Dec. 1 public hearing, Ms. Concannon had alleged that the restaurant did not exist on Dec. 19, 1984, when the Old Montauk Highway neighborhood where the motel is located was rezoned from residential to resort use. Under the change in the law, an existing motel could open a new restaurant if it obtained a permit and went through site plan review. But if it already had a restaurant, it would be exempted from the review process.

The board never got to the merits of the case. The problem with Ms. Concannon’s appeal, members determined, was that it should have been made many years ago.

A 2005 certificate of occupancy for the motel included language describing a restaurant. Normally, such a certificate would have to be challenged within 60 days of its issuance. However, said John Jilnicki, the town attorney who advised the board members on the appeal, the clock on such a challenge actually starts ticking when a complainant should “reasonably know” that something is happening that needs looking into.

In this case, the board found that date to be five years later, in 2010, when Mr. Schneiderman and Ms. Ficalora applied for site plan review for a deck. At that 2010 meeting — Cate Rogers, a board member, said Tuesday — the public hearing notice was read, aloud, twice. The description included a restaurant. Ms. Rogers pointed out that Ms. Concannon could be seen sitting in the audience, in a video of the hearing provided by LTV.

Further, she said, in 2014 Ms. Concannon saw the construction involved in the installation of a new septic system on the Breakers property, and that too should have triggered an inquiry. Instead, the neighbor waited until 2015 to make her appeal.

The other board members agreed with Ms. Rogers, though David Lys said he wished they had been able to grapple with the merits. John Whelan, the chairman, agreed. Had that been the case, Mr. Whelan said, their deliberations would have lasted “much longer.”

“To challenge a 10-year-old C. of O. in a case where notice was clearly given would have been a leap,” Mr. Schneiderman said after the decision was announced, suggesting that approving the appeal would have set a dangerous precedent.

Later in the evening, on the same grounds of untimeliness, the board denied Mr. Schneiderman’s appeal against a Building Department determination favoring Ms. Concannon. The denial will allow the Concannon family to replace its house next door to the Breakers. Also on Tuesday, the board approved an application for a special permit from the owners of 349 Cranberry Hole Road in Amagansett, to allow construction of a walkway from the house to the beach on Gardiner’s Bay, as well as an enlarged driveway, to facilitate handicapped access. The owner of the house, Sam Isaly, needs a wheelchair to get to the beach. The permit was needed because of the proximity of wetlands and dune crest.

The board had declined to approve a somewhat similar proposal last year. “The gentleman needs this structure for a rather large wheelchair,” Ms. Rogers said, noting that the project had been scaled back since the board first heard it.

“The walkway is not on the beach,” Mr. Lys said. “It would not act as a hard structure.” However, he asked his fellow members to deny a request for a handrail, and also asked that the walkway be removed should the house be sold or change hands. His colleagues agreed.

“I was a bit upset they went ahead with a driveway without approval, but he needs a special van,” Roy Dalene said, though he added that he would have approved the driveway anyway.

Lee White had an emergency and could not attend the meeting, but Mr. Whelan made it clear that he would be able to add his thoughts when it comes time to approve the formal decision.

A system of autonomous power-generating stations at key locations in East Hampton could keep important buildings powered even if widespread power outages occurred while also saving money and using primarily clean technology, according to experts from Hitachi, who have conducted a feasibility study for the so-called microgrid system.

The stations would use renewable energy technology — solar generation and battery storage systems — along with natural gas.

The “nodes,” as each individual system is being called, would be sited at critical facilities including the Town Hall campus, the airport, police headquarters, and the East Hampton Village Emergency Services Building. Several locations in Montauk, among them the firehouse, the Montauk Playhouse, the train station, and an East Hampton Housing Authority complex, have also been targeted.

By generating 80 to 85 percent of the power used at those sites, the nodes would not only save money but would reduce carbon emissions in East Hampton by 1,900 tons a year — the equivalent of taking 1,450 cars off the road — a consultant said during a town board presentation on Tuesday.

While savings on energy costs would be realized immediately, 20 years out, after capital costs for the systems are repaid, “the savings are massive,” the consultant, Brian Levite of Hitachi Microgrids, said.

The systems would be tied in to the power grid, but if the grid went down, they would be able to continue operating and providing power to the various buildings.

Although the town vowed in 2013 to move away from natural gas in order reach a goal of meeting its electricity needs with solely renewable energy by 2020, the process discussed Tuesday, called “combined heat and power,” would recapture and use heat generated by the system, operating in a more energy-efficient manner than traditional natural gas systems.

That element could be replaced with a renewable energy component in the future, the consultants said.

With energy demands increasing across the South Fork, PSEG Long Island has cited a need to create more power-generating stations and install more transmission lines here.

A six-mile line from an East Hampton Village substation to another in Amagansett has been put in and is being readied; the installation of the high-voltage line and tall utility poles through residential neighborhoods caused public outrage and lawsuits.

“The microgrid can actually offset their need to do this,” John Botos, a town Natural Resources Department staffer coordinating energy efficiency efforts, told the town board on Tuesday.

The feasibility study for the microgrid system discussed on Tuesday was undertaken and paid for through the state’s New York Prize program, designed to promote energy resiliency in communities across the state.

Eighty-three municipalities, including East Hampton, received $100,000 grants to study the feasibility of microgrid energy systems that would provide power even in the face of storms, grid outages, and the like. The town hired a team of consultants from Hitachi, Johnson Controls, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to do the study.

Fewer communities will qualify for $1 million grants for the second stage of the process, aimed at developing engineering designs and cost estimates, but East Hampton is hoping to be in the mix of about a dozen to be selected. Communities that complete the process and qualify would receive state funding for some portion of the cost of installing their new energy systems. The state has $25 million to be distributed to the final-stage winners.

Consultants put the cost of the microgrid node system outlined at the town board session at approximately $7 million, though grants and incentives could bring down the installation cost. At least $73,000 in savings on energy costs would likely be realized each year and about $1 million worth of power would be generated. Operating costs would be about $540,000 a year, the consultants said.

The system could be built under various scenarios — town ownership, third-party ownership by a company such as Hitachi, under an agreement with the town, a public-private partnership, or ownership by a utility such as PSEG Long Island.

Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell called for a more detailed economic analysis, which the Hitachi representatives said could be done after the town provides more data.

In a separate effort in response to a state “reforming energy vision” process, PSEG Long Island has issued a call for proposals to meet increased South Fork energy needs. Some three dozen have reportedly been submitted. They include a similar microgrid system, with two stations proposed for East Hampton and one for Southampton, as well as offshore wind turbines. The proposals are to be vetted later this spring.

If you are a Bernie Sanders supporter on the East End, it is not hard to find others who “Feel the Bern.” Supporters have watched debates, made phone calls, signed petitions, and carpooled to “get out the vote” events. Those who support Donald J. Trump here have not made similar public efforts, but they are out there. As for Hillary Clinton, all is quiet as local supporters point to the number of delegates she can count on for the national convention.

Joe Bloecker of Montauk, a Republican and former East Hampton Town trustee, said Mr. Trump’s fans were “waiting and watching,” given that he is self-funding his campaign and that the New York State presidential primary is still a month and a half off.

Describing a recent lunch at Shippy’s Pumpernickels Restaurant East in Southampton, Mr. Bloecker said it showed Trump supporters were more prevalent here than might appear. All eight people at the bar at the lunch were for Trump, he said. “What gets more local than a Tuesday at Shippy’s?”

Anecdotal evidence is about as reliable as can be found at the moment. The New York Republican primary, on April 19, is one of the last 16 in the country, and there has been very little polling.

According to the website RealClearPolitics, there have been only two polls surveying the presidential primary in New York State so far. Quinnipiac University conducted the first, polling from June 28 to July 1, 2015, and Siena University Research Institute conducted the second, from Jan. 31 to Feb. 3 this year. The Siena poll showed Mr. Trump leading with 34 percent of the sample while Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio came in second, tying at 16 percent. This poll was conducted with only one state, Iowa, accounted for and before Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, and Carly Fiorina dropped out of the race.

A more recent Siena/Newsday poll, from Feb. 14 through 18 and Feb. 21 through 22, showed Mr. Trump the clear leader among Long Island Republicans with 49 percent of those sampled.

As for the general election, 41 percent of those polled said they would vote for Mr. Trump while 38 said they would pick Hillary Clinton. This resulted in a statistical tie because the survey had a sampling error of plus-or-minus 3.1 points and 20 percent of those polled said they would not pick either candidate.

While the data from the polls show a decisive lead by Mr. Trump over other Republicans, not all Republicans on the East End think he is the right choice. Beatrice Derrico of Sag Harbor, who frequently expresses political opinions in letters to the editor, is unhappy with the Republican choices, especially with the frontrunner, who she said has “no substance. He repeats himself constantly and has added no answers.”

After dismissing Mr. Rubio for being “a true liar” and Mr. Cruz for doing “some underhanded stuff,” Mrs. Derrico is sticking to her “choice from day one” — Ben Carson.

Mr. Bloecker had kinder words for Mr. Trump and thinks he will do well here. Mr. Trump “has a heart” and likes to help out the community, Mr. Bloecker said. As evidence, he recalled a 1996 event in Amagansett for which Mr. Trump traveled from New York City. Mr. Bloecker said Mr. Trump attended the Second Annual Dishes Summer Beach Games, at which supermodels played volleyball on Atlantic Avenue Beach to raise money for pediatric AIDS research.

While every municipality in New York State is facing an almost-zero limit on increases in taxes, the state tax cap, first adopted in 2012, is particularly onerous for school districts. 

Here on the South Fork, as local school districts prepare budgets for the 2016-17 academic year and voting in May, the Bridgehampton School District appears to be facing the most severe cuts so far in order to stay within the .12 percent cap.

Attempting to go above the cap is not out of the question, however. Districts were asked to tell New York State this week whether they intended to try to pierce the cap, which would require a super-majority or at least 60 percent approval by voters.

The East Hampton District is trying keep its tax increase below the cap, and Sag Harbor intends to stay within it. Wainscott officials, on the other hand, have said the district is likely to see a decrease of 1.1 percent or $27,444 in its tax levy. The issue remains open for discussion in Amagansett and Springs.

The Bridgehampton School has reviewed its budget in detail, announcing that it may have to kill after-school and summer programs, field trips, career and technical training, and driver’s education. And that’s not all. During a school board meeting on Feb. 24, officials warned that potential teacher and employee layoffs and a decrease in funding for student clubs were being considered to offset some hefty increases in expenses over which the administration has no control.

Looking at the proposed Bridgehampton budget for 2016-17, the district is facing a gap of about $1,034,000 between rising costs and the amount by which it can increase taxes. Without going above the cap, Bridgehampton would be able to raise this year’s levy by only $336,704, or about 3 percent. This is higher than the base limit of .12 percent because the district has had an increase in overall property value. 

The latest budget figure for 2016-17 is $14.09 million, which, if enacted, would represent a 9.95-percent increase over this year’s $12.8 million. Driving the increase are dramatic jumps in busing and health insurance costs, an expected enrollment increase of 50 students, contractual salary increases for teachers, and training to support students for whom English is not a native language, among other items. A budget-related community forum is set for Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the school.

According to Robert Hauser, the district’s assistant superintendent of finance and facilities, ending the after-school Aspire program would save $35,000 and eliminating all field trips would save $14,000. Cutting driver’s ed would save $18,000 and axing the summer camp and Jump Start programs would save $30,000. Mr. Hauser said Bridgehampton was working with nearby districts to try to save on transportation, however, which was initially slated to jump about 55 percent.

A $32,000 saving would result from ending the district’s participation in Board of Cooperative Educational Services occupational programs. As for student clubs, the district is considering cutting between $15,000 and $65,000 in stipends for teachers who advise them. Also on the table for possible cuts, up to $50,000, are fees for teacher training consultants. No specifics were given with regard to staff reductions outside of two potential retirements that could save about $150,000.

Mr. Hauser said Bridgehampton anticipated telling the state that it might try to pierce the cap, but that the district could change its response later. Bridgehampton successfully pierced the cap for the 2014-15 school budget by about 8.8 percent or $914,684. He added that the district could tap into reserve funds for an additional $50,000 in revenue, but he said, “We’re limited to how much we can tap into it without completely depleting them. We’ve got to be careful.” The district has combined reserve funds of $1.8 million, and is considering using $400,000 from the current year’s fund balance toward next year’s budget.

Last week’s presentation followed four meetings of the school board’s budget advisory committee, which consists of Mr. Hauser, Lois Favre, the superintendent, and Jeff Mansfield a school board member, who informed his colleagues last September that he would be unable to attend district meetings between Dec. 14 and March 8. One parent and one community member are also on the committee.

The school board sat mostly in silence during the Feb. 24 meeting. Jennifer Vinski, a school board member, asked whether the potential cuts had been discussed by the budget advisory committee.

“They actually came to the conclusion that to get to the kind of numbers we have to get to, they knew it was going to be the after-school programs, all of the bigger numbers,” Ms. Favre replied. “They were aware of that, and they left it to Bob and I to look at. This is all just ideas of things that could be cut. . . . We don’t want to see anything go, but we’ll bring these ideas to the community.”

Two people and two dogs escaped a fire that destroyed a house in Water Mill early Thursday morning thanks to the quick action of two police officers. 

The house at 5 Seven Ponds Towd Road was completely ablaze when the fire was first reported just after 3 a.m. Charles Knoebel and Ed McIntyre, Southampton Village police officers, were around the corner when they heard the call. Even though the house is located in the town Police Department's jurisdiction, the village police rushed to the house. "They entered the building and alerted a female occupant," said Chris Brenner, the first assistant chief of the Southampton Fire Department. "The house was engulfed at the time," but the officers were able to help the occupants to safety. 

As she surveyed the damage Thursday afternoon, Kristen Kiernan, whose mother had owned the house for 40 years and whose sister and a friend were inside it at the time of the fire, was thankful that the officers were there. Officer Knobel, she said, “jumped out of his car and knocked on doors and got everybody out.” Neither the people nor the dogs were injured. Ms. Kiernan's mother is away in Florida.

"Flames were coming out of the roof and the side windows when we arrived on the scene,” Chief Brenner said. The department, led by Chief Michael Kampf, called for help from the Sag Harbor and North Sea Fire Departments, as well as the Hampton Bays Fire Department's rapid intervention team, which stands by in case a firefighter needs to be rescued from inside the building. The Bridgehampton Fire Department stood by at Southampton's headquarters to answer other calls that came in while firefighters were busy.

Firefighters fought flames for nearly three hours, even though they had extinguished the bulk of the blaze quickly, and some firefighters remained at the scene until about 8:30 a.m. Sustained winds of over 20 miles per hour kept the fire burning for much longer than usual, Chief Brenner said. Embers blew 60 to 80 yards from the house and threatened neighboring houses; the firefighters had to continuously check the surrounding properties.

One portion of the house suffered more damage than the other, but Brian Williams, a Southampton Town fire marshal investigating the cause, said the house was a total loss. Mr. Williams was still trying to pinpoint the source on Thursday afternoon.

No firefighters were injured. 

Correction: The police officers were on-duty at the time, not off-duty as previously reported.

Sag Harbor Village officials unveiled conceptual drawings and related details on Friday for a waterfront park they would like to see on Ferry Road, despite unwillingness by the private property owners to sell the property.

Because the owners have had longstanding plans for condominium development on the four parcels they own there, village officials have been considering buying the land through condemnation. They have been working with the Town of Southampton to obtain community preservation fund money for the purchase. The vacant Harborview Professional Building is on the property. 

Working on the design with a top landscape architect, Edmund D. Hollander, a village homeowner, the idea is to combine five parcels with an adjacent village-owned property, to create a park that would provide beach access, recreation, and more parking. It would be named for John Steinbeck, the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who was a long-time Sag Harbor resident.

The parcels are 1,3, and 5 Ferry Road, plus a small right of way that used to be owned by the Long Island Rail Road, and a contiguous lot at 2 West Water Street, where the 1-800-LAWYER building, known for its previous owner, stands. 

Greystone Property Development, a Manhattan-based real estate company, has submitted an application to create 11 condos, 8 on the Ferry Road parcels and 3 on neighboring West Water Street. 

Plans released on Friday show the two-acre park with two sandy beaches, a fishing and small boat pier, and a pedestrian walkway under the Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter Veterans Memorial Bridge that connects it to Windmill Park on the other side of the bridge. There would be public restrooms with a solar-paneled roof, three trails celebrating the ecology and history of the village, a weather station, osprey nest stands, restored oyster and eelgrass beds, and a playground, among other amenities.

“Public response to the Steinbeck Park has been overwhelming,” Mayor Sandra Schroeder said in a statement on Friday. “I cannot tell you how many people have expressed their very strong support for this plan. Many see it as our last chance to get it right and save our historic waterfront. The village does not need or want more condominiums. What we want and need is a transformative park plan that will build on our maritime heritage and protect it for our children, their children, and their children’s children into the future.”

By phone Friday afternoon the mayor said she would prefer to buy the properties directly, using C.P.F. money, to which village taxpayers have contributed millions of dollars through real estate transaction fees, but, she said, “If we have to we’re going the condemnation route.”

The Sag Harbor Village Board has retained an attorney, Saul R. Fenchel of Garden City, who specializes in condemnation proceedings. State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. the village attorney, said on Friday that planning and preparation for condemnation was well underway. He expects the village to make a decision about whether to start legal proceedings for condemnation in the next few of months. A public hearing would follow.

Since only towns administer C.P.F. money, the village asked Southampton to put the properties on its acquisition list back in October, a move that allowed the town to obtain an appraisal, which was completed recently, according to Mr. Thiele. The figure has not been made public to allow for negotiations with the property owners, he said. 

Seven continents and seven oceans. The oceans are encroaching on the continents, eating away at them with increasing ferocity. They now occupy more than 70 percent of our world’s outer skin and by time the next millennium rolls around, they’ll probably cover as much as 80 percent. We have been defacing our 30 percent at an ever-increasing pace ever since the industrial revolution ramped up in the mid-1800s. Our factories and our wars are collectively changing the landscape overnight. Where will it end?

Up until the middle of the last century, we thought our seven seas were too big and too deep to be muddied by land-based activities. We’ve finally come to the conclusion that we were misguided all along, not only by politicians and businessmen, but by the scientists themselves. We know now that not only are the marine waters not immune to what we do so franticly and ineptly on land, they are probably even more vulnerable to corruption and dystrophy than the land masses they surround.

In the last 10 years we have discovered the following signs of around-the-world deterioration of marine environments, both near shore and hundreds of miles offshore: Our piggish habits have generated massive flotillas of plastic and other solid wastes in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The continued dumping of billions and billions of gallons of wastewater from cities, factories, hospitals, residential areas, and farms into the oceans has begun to cause serious chemical changes, changes that were entirely unpredictable 70 years ago.

When I studied oceanology and oceanography in 1955 at Cornell University, the pH of seawater was considered to be a constant, due to self-buffering and other factors; the oceans would be alkaline forever. The saltiness was also taken as a near constant, a little more than 30 parts per thousand, salt to water. The ocean bottom was believed to be as unsullied as the surface of the continents had been only hundreds of years ago. 

That was before every populated area across the globe became sewered. That was before all of the factories and power plants with access to waterways that led to the seas used them conveniently for dumping and cooling. That was before the advent of the most powerful insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides. A few, like those of Rachel Carson and Jacques Cousteau, in particular, tried to warn us, but we were largely deaf to their warnings and had to see for ourselves before we bought into their predictions.

Since then we have learned the hard way. Every day, oil spills, septic waste, excess carbon dioxide, mining of the ocean bottom, and lately the voluminous intrusion of plastics such as microbeads continue to degrade our marine waters. The oceans are no longer invulnerable. Because of gravity, a principle worked out hundreds of years ago by Newton and others, everything runs downhill: rivers, soil, pollutants, and other waste stuff. Then, too, the atmosphere is not like it used to be. It has increased nitrogen-based pollutants, much more carbon dioxide, ash particles, and thousands of other substances that find their way into the seas and gradually subvert their makeup.

We have finally learned the unvarnished truth. But is it too late? And have we stopped junking up the ocean? Hardly at all. We are still installing oil rigs, pipes to siphon off natural gas, and lately, giant wind turbines. About these latter additions, a very wise man and inventor of electric lights, Thomas Edison, more than 100 years ago, said, harness the sun (and we are finally), without mentioning the wind. Without the sun, there would be no wind. 

Our civilization came into being by way of agriculture and fishing. The land provided things to eat and use for making clothes and other needs, such as medicines. The oceans provided fresh fish and shellfish to give us protein and needed trace elements like iodine.

While natural farming, as opposed to farming with genetically modified seed stocks and antibiotic feeds for livestock and poultry, is experiencing a renaissance in some quarters, commercial fishing is barely hanging on. I, for one, much prefer a black sea bass plucked by a local fisherman’s net to catfish grown on muddy fish farms in Mississippi. Yes, we still haven’t learned and are as needy as ever with respect to material commodities.

Are we going to stop degrading the oceans by continuing to fill them with chemicals and massive structures, using them as testing grounds for weapons of mass destruction, and the like? I doubt it. The very least we can do is have a moratorium on using the oceans for other than fishing and transportation, while we try to figure out how to stop what is already well in progress. 

Or would you rather live on Mars?

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