The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for eastern Long Island in advance of a storm that could bring up to 10 inches of snow to the region on Monday. A high surf advisory is in effect through Tuesday morning.

Air temperatures will fall to about 29 degrees during the day on Monday, dipping to 23 overnight and into Tuesday.

The Weather Service office in Upton said that an intensifying low pressure system will pass south and east of Long Island on Monday. Strong winds from the northeast with gusts to 35 miles per hour are expected to be accompanied by rain turning to heavy, wet snow. Downed trees and powerlines are possible.

The greatest snow accumulation will be on the twin forks, forecasters said. Between 2 and 4 inches of snow is likely in New York City on Monday.

Snow is possible through Thursday.

Arctic cold is predicted for the end of the week.

Update, 4:35 p.m.: East Hampton Village police announced the arrest of an East Hampton man who turned himself in Tuesday afternoon on a charge of leaving the scene of an accident in which there was physical damage.

Police said Luis M. Pacho-Mejia, 37, was the driver of a 2001 Nissan Xterra that plowed through the fence at North End Cemetery, badly damaging 12 historic gravestones. Mr. Pacho-Mejia reportedly told police he fell asleep behind the wheel at about 3 a.m. Sunday.

Accompanied by his lawyer, Sandra Melendez, he was charged and then released. He will be arraigned in East Hampton Town Justice Court at a future date.

Originally, 1:33 p.m.: Twelve headstones in East Hampton Village's historic North End Cemetery, some of them hundreds of years old, were damaged by a hit-and-run driver Saturday night or early Sunday morning.

Village Police Chief Gerard Larsen said Tuesday that the driver of a gray 2001 Nissan Xterra was heading east on Montauk Highway, not far from the CVS pharmacy, when the vehicle left the roadway, hopped the curb, passed the windmill, and plowed into the cemetery.

"We have pieces of the car left at the scene," Chief Larsen said. Police have asked the public to help identify the driver. They were able to identify the make, model, and color of the vehicle from the debris left behind.

It won't be hard to spot, the chief said. "The grill is smashed out, and the right-side quarter panel was left behind in the graveyard."

The driver then backed out of the cemetery and onto Methodist Lane before making an illegal left turn and heading north toward Springs on the one-way street.

Some of the gravestones are very badly damaged, Chief Larsen said.

Anyone with further information has been asked to call 631-324-0777.

Jack Ingram deLashmet, a renowned landscape architect and garden designer whose sense of humor and courtly Southern manner charmed friends and clients, died at Good Shepherd Hospice in Port Jefferson on Sunday after a long illness. He was 58.

Mr. deLashmet moved to the East End in 2000 and opened his firm, deLashmet and Associates, soon afterward.

In a 2011 article in The Star, he said, “It’s a beautiful place, but all of my reasons for being here were career-driven.” He commented that the area “has people who have the resources for gardens and is full of an increasingly environmentally conscious group of people with whom you are designing.” The firm completed notable landscape projects and historic garden restorations throughout the United States and Europe. Its work has been seen in Town and Country, Elle Décor, House and Garden, and Architectural Digest, among other publications, and was featured in the books “Hamptons Havens” and “Houses of the Hamptons, 1880-1930.” His bestselling book, “Hamptons Gardens,” was published by Assouline in 2011.

One of his East End clients, Susan Dusenberry, wrote, “His loss is profound. He was a tremendously unique person of various and crazy talents. His early season concept of radiating rows of plantings, mimicking the dunes below my house, was really Jack at his best.”

He was born on Jan. 25, 1958, in Jackson, Miss., to Dr. John I. deLashmet and the former Katherine (Pete) Wicks. He grew up in nearby Clinton, where his maternal grandparents, Garden Club of America members, lived at Wickstead, an estate whose gardens set him on the path he followed most of his life.

After studying urban planning at the University of Mississippi, Mr. deLashmet detoured for a successful turn on Wall Street before resuming landscape studies at Georgia Tech, the Inchbald School of Design in London, and the English Gardening School, also in London.

Before his move to New York, he had lived and worked in Greensboro, N.C., where he was executive director of the Triad Health Project, an organization that served the region’s H.I.V./AIDS population. His environmental, human rights, and H.I.V. fund-raising efforts led to his being named one of Ten Outstanding Young Americans in 1996, and he was honored as an “Unsung Hero” by the city of Atlanta for tree-saving efforts there.

He was a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the American Institute of Architects, Garden Writers Association, Institute of Classical Architecture, and the Mississippi Society of Arts and Letters.

Mr. deLashmet is survived by Geoffrey Nimmer, his former companion and longtime friend, two sisters, Katherine Ann deLashmet Wheeler and Jeannine de- Lashmet Anderson, and a brother, Arthur T. deLashmet, as well as eight nieces and nephews. His siblings live in Mississippi.

A memorial service will be held next Thursday at 11 a.m. at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church in Bridgehampton, of which he was a member. The Rev. Timothy Lewis will officiate. A celebration of his life will be held in the spring.

Memorial contributions have been suggested to God’s Love We Deliver, 166 Avenue of the Americas, New York City 10013 or to Good Shepherd Hospice, 200 Belle Terre Road, Port Jefferson 11777.

Sallie White, a friend of Mr. deLashmet’s for 25 years, spoke of him this week, saying, “Jack was one of the most extraordinary, talented, brilliant, and imaginative humans to grace our planet. His wit and humor were legendary. He was the toast of every town and the brightest light in every room. Jack left the world a more beautiful, wondrous, and joyful place for his having visited, and he will be missed beyond words.”

I love Super Bowl parties! The Super Bowl is a day of lager and shouting, gorging and gambling. There are Vegas-worthy halftime shows, and it’s an excuse to eat tiny, deep fried bird-meat parts swathed in muy picoso sauce and celery splinters sidecar-ed with blue cheese dip. I dust off my block of Velveeta cheese (Have you ever noticed it doesn’t require refrigeration?!) and make chile con queso dip.

I’m trying to get excited over Super Bowl 50, but don’t much care about either team. If my Washington Redskins aren’t in it, preferably against the despicable Dallas Cowboys, well, I’m just there for the brews and chews. I think I’ll root for the Carolina Panthers because the Carolinas have better food. 

I went to Charleston a few years ago and enjoyed four days of chicken and waffles, shrimp and grits, eight-layer coconut cake, pimento cheese doodads, oysters galore, hummingbird cake, buttermilk pie, fried green tomatoes, and Carolina gold rice. Charleston is like New Orleans without the dirt and jazz and public drinking; in other words, New Orleans is just a wee bit more fun. But I digress.

If you’re rooting for the Panthers, you could have some Carolina-themed food, like mini chicken and waffles made with Eggos, barbecue pork sliders, banana pudding, and some of their boutique beers like Hop, Drop, ’n’ Roll or Pernicious I.P.A. 

About the only food that Denver is known for is an omelette with onions, peppers, and ham, and a delicacy known as Rocky Mountain oysters, a.k.a. huevos del toro, calf fries, or Montana tendergroins. These would be pig, sheep, or cow testicles. I have had these when living in Texas, and they’re not bad. If you are a Broncos fan and are inclined to serve them, here’s what you do: Find some balls and peel off the membrane. Slice them in front of your boyfriend or husband (bwah-ha-ha-ha!), dredge them in seasoned flour, deep fry, and serve with cocktail sauce, although I think a piquant smoked paprika aioli might just take them to the next level. They also like green chile stews in Colorado, but that’s more of a New Mexico specialty, so I will be serving some authentic green chile cream-cheese-filled tortilla pinwheels.

I really don’t know much about football, so I watched that nifty movie “Brian’s Song,” thinking I might learn something. Here’s what I learned from this film that is mercifully only one hour and 15 minutes long. Billy Dee Williams and James Caan don’t seem to be wearing any Hollywood makeup because they’re shiny and sweaty throughout the whole movie. Also James Caan is super tan even though they are playing for the Chicago Bears. It’s set in 1965 but was made in 1971; they wear tight white pants off the field and play on real grass! And all the players look like big, healthy, beefy men, not the HGH-steroid-loaded goons of today. 

It is a sad movie and will bring tears to your eyes faster than one of those $5 million, 30-second ads for Budweiser beer, full of gentle Clydesdales and fluffy golden retriever puppies. But I digress again. . . .

My goal (tee hee) for this Sunday is to serve some Super Bowl-esque food that is healthier, like buffalo style cauliflower bites served with a tangy cashew nut cream dip full of scallions. Maybe some mini Denver omelette-style frittatas made with Iacono Farm eggs, and a spicy low fat ginger cake. Some Montauk ale and Sag Harbor rum cocktails will make the halftime show more exciting.

Speaking of which, Coldplay and Beyonce will be performing. What kind of food do they like? Apparently, Chris Martin doesn’t subscribe to his consciously uncoupled ex’s uber-healthy eating habits. He fasts one day a week (Mondays), but confesses that the next day he tends to gorge on sweets, Nutella pancakes to be specific. 

Beyonce likes soul food and fast food and seafood but generally sticks to a healthy diet. Sunday is her cheat day, so maybe along with millions of other Americans this Sunday, she will indulge in some chicken wings — 1.25 million will be consumed according to the National Chicken Council, plus 48 million takeout pizzas, 80 million avocados for guacamole, and 325 million gallons of beer. Did you know that 26 percent of people believe that God determines the outcome of a game? This tidbit courtesy of the Public Religion Research Institute. Beyonce also keeps a picture of an Oscar above her treadmill to inspire her. We have so much in common; I do, too! But my Oscar is a Meyer, as in wiener. 

Pigs in blankets are another popular, easy to serve finger food for the Super Bowl.

A lot of people are rooting for Peyton Manning, because at the creaky, old age of 39, this could be his last rodeo, I mean Super Bowl. But Tre Boston, safety for the Panthers, gave some convoluted pizza analogy about why they just don’t care about Mr. Manning’s swan song. “So if a man has the last piece of pizza in the world, are you going to take that last piece? One of y’all got to live! One of us has to win, and I’m not trying to lose. It’s you and that one man. You gonna live or not? I’m trying to win. I don’t care who you are.” Tre Boston has a nifty hairdo, but I don’t see him ending up on a Wheaties cereal box with that attitude and lack of respect for his elders. But I digress. . . . 

Here are some semi-healthy recipes for your Super Bowl party this weekend.

Click for recipes

The odd winter continues. In a letter to Newsday, John Cryan of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and one of the original founders of the Pine Barrens Society, calls it a fifth season. It may be the most unusual winter I’ve witnessed here in my 63 years of residence on both forks. All of nature is used to a real winter, and when it never comes, the situation could become calamitous. At any rate I am extremely curious with respect to spring, Will it be a bona fide one or a second crazy season following the first crazy one?

This is the time when chipmunks and woodchucks are supposed to be hibernating. Robins are supposed to be long gone, and freshwater bodies, as well as some salt-ish ones, frozen over. Life cycles of thousands of local species including insects and green plants are genetically geared to undergo a normal winter. We humans may also be programmed to endure a cold, icy, and snowy winter. Will everything go haywire, including us?

I mentioned woodchucks, a.k.a. groundhogs. What will happen to Punxsutawney Phil and the many others in the Northeast that were ceremoniously retrieved from their burrows Tuesday and held up by a mayor or other politico for the public and news cameras? Without any winter to predict an end to, they could certainly lose their luster. Instead of being called respectfully woodchucks or groundhogs, the old name for them in farming country, “varmint,” may once again apply.

The woodchuck, one of the largest North American rodents, right up there with beavers in size and furriness, was absent from the South Fork until the middle 1990s when they began to assert themselves. No one has ever determined how they got here. They eschew water and are not great swimmers like beavers. They should be hibernating in the winter when the Shinnecock Canal and Shinnecock Bay and part of Peconic Bay are frozen over, so it is doubtful that they walked across the ice as several mammals such as caribou and coyotes do to get from one piece of land to another. It has been speculated that a nuisance trapper captured one or more in Hampton Bays and let them go east of the canal.

At any rate, the South Fork is warmer than the rest of Long Island, at least warmer than the North Fork and western and central Suffolk, where the air in the pine barrens is often 10 degrees colder than that in Sag Harbor or Montauk. Woodchucks here may not follow the hibernation rule that governs the species’ activities elsewhere. Such it is that an East Hampton Star photographer has been able to photograph the one or two that live under her porch in the yard of her East Hampton house.

Long Island is bereft of large mammals. We used to have beavers, bobcats, wolves, maybe, even bears. But now we are reduced to deer, raccoons, red and gray foxes, skunks, opossums, and woodchucks. Sorry, I forgot the coyote of the genetic hybrid coywolf that has found its way here in the last couple of years. Dell Cullum had photographed one a few years back in Bridgehampton.

Coyotes, however you refer to them, will be well established here by the end of the decade, or at least by 2030. We won’t have to fret about too many deer as we seem to do now; the coyotes will see to that. Wouldn’t it be great to have bobcats back, as well?

I’m not so sure we could handle wolves again. We particularly had to concern ourselves with the dogs kept by the South Fork’s Native Americans, which were probably much more wolf than dog.

We did have a beaver or two in the last decade, but they seem to have disappeared. And in this decade there was a skunk hanging around the Lighthouse in Montauk. One skunk or one beaver, however, does not make for a family or a population increase. The one mammal that is apparently making a comeback, not counting the three species of seals that are becoming so common here in the winter, is the otter. Mike Bottini, an inveterate biologist, hiker, and kayaker, has been plotting their comeback, up from a solitary otter or two in odd years prior to the new millennium to pairs having families today. He doesn’t have to see an otter to know one has been around; he knows their tracks and even their scat, a talent still practiced by many members of Native American tribes across America and Canada.

With respect to native mammals on the South Fork, the three newcomers are the woodchuck first, the southern flying squirrel second, and now the otter. We may not have to put a pair back in Otter Pond in Sag Harbor; they may get there on their own. Wouldn’t that be the perfect topping on the perfect pudding? 

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

A site plan submission from the owners of Cyril’s Fish House, who are trying to legalize numerous additions made to the property since 1984, received a frosty reception from the East Hampton Town Planning Board on Jan. 27.

Michael Dioguardi and his family, along with Cyril Fitzsimmons, have been locked in an ongoing legal battle with the town over the restaurant, which is in a residential zone. After a hearing in Riverhead before State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Farneti, they were told they must either operate the business as it was in December 1984, or work out their differences via the site plan process. Any changes or additions made after 1984 would have to be either legalized or removed.

The town has cited the restaurant for multiple structures that did not exist in 1984, including five truck trailers, a stockade fence, and a roadside bar.

“Can you give me a brief rationale as to why these structures should be legalized?” Reed Jones, the planning board’s chairman, asked Conrad Jordan, representing the popular roadside restaurant. “I’ve been on this board for seven years,” Mr. Jones continued. “This application is a frequent flyer. Why is this application so complicated?”

Mr. Jordan answered Mr. Jones’s question with two of his own. “Why not? What is it about these structures that are doing anybody any harm in any way?”

“They are illegal,” Kathleen Cunningham, a board member, answered. “They are an illegal use in this zone. They go against the town’s code.”

“So, there are certain technical obstacles,” Mr. Jordan suggested.

“It is not technical. It is a physical problem,” Ms. Cunningham retorted. She pressed Mr. Jordan to “give us the two-minute pitch as to why we should allow this, in its current configuration.”

Mr. Jordan addressed various topics as he spoke with the board. He said Cyril’s roadside bar would be replaced by patio seating. He said that because cars must slow down when they approach Cyril’s to avoid people walking on the shoulders, that made the road safer, not more dangerous, and that congestion on the road was a “one-night-a-week” problem.

“This came before us before, and it was the same song,” Nancy Keeshan said. “I drive there every night, five nights a week.” It takes her 10 to 15 minutes to navigate past Cyril’s during the season, she said.

Mr. Jordan said there were other sites that were far more dangerous, citing an evening when he took his children for dinner at the Surf Lodge. There, he said, people are forced to walk in the road to get around the parked cars.

Mr. Jordan referred at least twice during his presentation to a “trial,” apparently meaning the hearings before Justice Farneti, who warned in 2014 that should the case go to trial, “the likelihood of success favors the town.”

Speaking of the stockade fence, Mr. Jordan said it protected the nearby wetlands. “You’ve got too many people on that site, and the wastewater is a big issue,” Ms. Cunningham replied.

The next day, the board sent Mr. Jordan a letter stating, in part: “The board determined that applicant should remove all structures that do not have site plan approval, as it is not in the interest of good planning or consistent with the standards and purposes of site plan review to legalize the expansion of a non-conforming commercial use on the property.”

The restaurant’s New York State seasonal liquor license expired in October. During the 2014 summer season, the state rescinded the license, but later reinstated it to allow for an appeal. One reason given by the State Liquor Authority for the 2014 action was the restaurant’s failure to comply with the  code.

Whether Cyril’s has filed for a new license for 2016 could not be immediately determined.

An aggressive stance toward those who violate the East Hampton Town Code translated last year into better compliance with the laws.

Betsy Bambrick, who heads the Ordinance Enforcement Department, told the town board on Tuesday that not only were more violators who ignored charges taken to court, but voluntary compliance improved as well. The enforcement director suggested that people have become more aware that the town is being aggressive in obtaining code compliance, either “upfront or through the court system.”

Her department opened 1,939 cases in 2015, she said, up from 1,590 in 2014. Of last year’s total, 812 were resolved through voluntary compliance, 550 were determined to be unfounded, and 358 resulted in court cases. That last number was down slightly from the 388 cases adjudicated in 2014, but, Ms. Bambrick told the board, the 358 cases resulted in 1,304 counts of violations. In 2014, by comparison, the 388 court cases produced only 653 such counts.

Though the number of code cases opened last year in Montauk, after a summer in which residents banded together to demand increased enforcement, was lower than in 2014 — 474 versus 553 — “the cases themselves were bigger,” Ms. Bambrick said.

“It’s really the number of charges or counts that were brought,” said Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, noting that they had “more than doubled.”

Ms. Bambrick said that while voluntary compliance — having violators correct offenses before the court gets involved — is the goal, her department has taken a hard line if that does not happen. “We write every charge,” she said. “If we’re not getting voluntary compliance, we’re writing every charge.”

Four hundred fifty-six of last year’s code enforcement investigations were related to zoning violations, twice as many as in any other category. Housing code and environmental violations and those related to taxi licensing made up the next-largest categories. Alleged violations relating to noise, lighting, parking, contractor licensing, and signs were among the other cases that were opened last year.

Complaints came from various sources, with 642 of them, a large majority, generated internally by ordinance enforcement department staffers, stemming, for instance, from repeated scanning of online rental sites, where those who illegally rent houses for short periods of time might advertise. Officers on patrol initiated complaints 377 times, while 317 complaints came in through the department’s online system.

Phone callers generated 293 complaints, and 131 were lodged in person. There were also 155 referrals from other town departments about code violations, and 24 complaints received by email.

East Hampton Town police have asked for the public's help in identifying a woman who made purchases using credit card information apparently stolen from an East Hampton resident.

According to a news release sent out by the department, "a white female with long blonde hair wearing blue jeans, a white long-sleeve fleece with pockets and white sneakers" walked into a Target store in Huntington Station on Nov. 25 and purchased jewelry, electronics, and gift cards with a credit card, using the stolen personal information to get the transactions approved.

She was dropped off, and later picked up, at the store at 124 East Jericho Turnpike by a driver in a four-door gray or white sedan.

The department sent out a surveillance photo of both the suspect and the car involved.

Anyone with information on her or the vehicle involved has been asked to call East Hampton Town police at 631-537-7575.

The Child Development Center of the Hamptons is in talks with Kevin Gersh, who operates several private schools for autistic children on Long Island and in Puerto Rico, for a potential management role at the school following at least one financially troublesome year that saw the South Fork's only charter school lose about $350,000.

Last week, in response to a Freedom of Information request seeking financial data and other school records from C.D.C.H., school staff forwarded the inquiry to Mr. Gersh, a philanthropist and the founder of the Gersh Academy schools, summer camp, and after-school programs, as well the Gersh Experience, an independent living program for young adults on the autism spectrum. He is also a co-founder of the West Hills Montessori School. Mr. Gersh's public relations firm declined to detail Mr. Gersh's relationship with C.D.C.H. However, Marilyn Zaretsky, the chairwoman of the C.D.C.H. board of directors, confirmed Friday that talks are under way.

"The programs that they create are extraordinary," Ms. Zaretsky said.

A change in the management of the school could happen as early as July 1, pending approval by the State University of New York's Charter School Institute, which is the entity that approves new charter schools, renews or revokes their credentials, conducts audits and performance reviews, and approves mergers.

The relationship with Mr. Gersh comes to light just after C.D.C.H., a public charter school on Stephen Hand's Path in East Hampton that offers both general education and special education programs, said it had stabilized its finances. Ms. Zaretsky said the school was able to "level out" its financial woes by handing some of its expenses over to Family Residences and Essential Enterprises, an Old Bethpage not-for-profit that currently manages the school. Ms. Zaretsky said the school also eliminated the position of assistant head-of-school and "streamlined some of our programs and the auxiliary staff so that we were able to function."

According to C.D.C.H.'s February 2015 board meeting minutes, the school reported losses of at least $350,000 between July and December 2014. "The school is experiencing financial difficulty due to the lower number of special needs children in attendance," the minutes read. "Cash flow is also a problem, as expenses exceed revenue."

By June 2015, the deficit had grown slightly, to about $355,000. The June 2015 minutes — which were the most recent available on the school's website, though the board met three more times in 2015 — noted that lower attendance had continued to impact the school financially. During the same meeting, the board adjourned to an executive session to discuss, among other things, "matters leading to the employment of a particular corporation."

In November 2013, C.D.C.H. had 80 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. That figure fell to between 57 and 62 students for 2015-16, according to Ms. Zaretsky. The students come from local public schools, which pay the C.D.C.H. tuition from operating budgets.

A significant portion of the student body comes from the Springs School District, which sends 26 students across the grade levels to C.D.C.H. , according to a Springs official. Wainscott and Montauk each have one student at C.D.C.H.; East Hampton has two special education students there and eight in the general education program, representatives of those districts said. Amagansett has three, but two are preparing to transfer out, according to that district. Citing student privacy concerns, Sag Harbor school officials declined to say whether any of its students attend the charter school. Bridgehampton and Sagaponack School do not have students at C.D.C.H.

Schools within a radius of 50 miles may send students to C.D.C.H.. But Ms. Zaretsky said it is those districts' budgetary constraints that have had an impact on C.D.C.H.'s finances and said, "they are doing as much as possible to keep children in district" because they pay tuition per student. This year's tuition rates are $25,075 in the general education program and more than $60,000 per student in special education.

"We are focusing a great deal on recruitment," Ms. Zaretsky said. "It's very much needed on the East End, this type of program. There is not a real centralized Board of Cooperative Educational Services to provide what we can provide, whether [for] a child with special needs or not. We've been able to make headway with all types of children with a very personalized program."

After beginning in 1997 as a program for a small group of toddlers in the house of Dawn Zimmerman Hummel, its founder, who sought a social and educational opportunity for her autistic son, C.D.C.H. opened as an official public charter school in January of 2001. It served students in kindergarten through third grade. By the 2005-6 school year, it had expanded up to fifth grade.

The SUNY Charter School Institute found C.D.C.H. to be in good academic standing during the 2014-15 school year and in several school years prior. In February of 2015, the Charter School Institute recommended a full five-year renewal of C.D.C.H.'s charter.

But despite its positive academic standing, the school has had challenges on the financial front. In February of 2013, an audit by the office of New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli found a weakness in C.D.C.H.'s financial practices due to the lack of certain financial reports from FREE.

"The board’s failure to rigorously review the school’s finances, particularly in view of the management corporation’s complete control of its financial activities, significantly increases the risk that school assets could be lost or misappropriated," the comptroller's audit stated. "We also found that the two-month budget-to-actual revenue and expenditure reports that FREE presented to the board did not contain information to ensure school funds are effectively and efficiently used."

Also among the audit's findings was that for two years, C.D.C.H.'s regular school program operated at a surplus, masking the fact that its summer program operated at a deficit. The comptroller said in the February 2013 audit that the school's financial reporting procedures at the time failed to show that loss. The school's board said in a subsequent letter to the comptroller that it had resolved any deficiencies by requesting and receiving more financial data from FREE.

Gerard Cairns, FREE's vice president of education and youth services, who is  C.D.C.H.'s interim school leader, could not be reached for comment Friday.

As recently as Jan. 1, the C.D.C.H. Foundation for Special Children, a nonprofit organization that supports the charter school, was collecting donations via the crowd-funding website gofundme.com. As of Friday, about $3,500 of its $500,000 goal had been raised over the course of 10 months. The campaign's page reads, "The shifting educational landscape has presented us with some short-term financial hurdles, and we would greatly appreciate your help."

"I think [our direction] is extremely positive," Ms. Zaretsky said. "Last year we spent a lot of time with committees reviewing the finances, knowing the position we were in, and getting a great deal of parent support to keep the school open." 

--

A correction: The Springs School District is currently sending 26 students to C.D.C.H., not 31, as stated when this article was first posted. It had 31 students at C.D.C.H. in the fall, but some are no longer enrolled there, according to the Springs principal, Eric Casale.

A Springs property owner has sued East Hampton Town and the Nature Conservancy to stop the public purchase of two lots next to his Squaw Road house. Two houses would be torn down by the conservancy, which owns the land, before the purchase, and the site left in its natural state. Money for the acquisition is coming from the town’s community preservation fund.

Richard Levin, who circulated a petition against the purchase before a hearing and vote on it last summer, asserts in a lawsuit filed last month that public use of the 1.6-acre site, for which the town is to pay $2.6 million, would “seriously affect the use, value, and quiet enjoyment of his residence.”

“Once the land becomes public it will attract swimmers and picnickers who will trash the property,” he said in a letter to the town board last summer.

Mr. Levin asserts that the town failed to consider the impact of the acquisition on his Squaw Road neighborhood, and of its residents’ quality of life, and failed to “produce any evidence to justify the proposed purchase.”

According to the board resolution approving it, the purpose of the land purchase “is the preservation of parks, nature preserves, or recreation areas.” In accordance with town policy, a management plan for the site will be developed, and a hearing held to solicit public comment on the plan before it is adopted.

“They never said what the land was going to be used for,” Mr. Levin’s attorney, Stephen Grossman of Sag Harbor, said this week. But, he said, in the  Nature Conservancy’s application to the town for a permit to demolish the residences, the future use was described as a “park.”

“Dropping a park” next to a residential lot has “a strong negative effect on the value of your house, and your privacy,” said the lawyer.

The property was tapped as a top candidate for preservation by a C.P.F. committee that advises the town board, in part to eliminate shoreside septic systems that could contribute to pollution of Three Mile Harbor.

Mr. Grossman disagrees. “To say this would have an effect on the quality of water in Three Mile Harbor is ridiculous.”

At a hearing on the purchase in August, some nearby residents said they would prefer to see houses on the land, particularly new ones that would have to adhere to current environmental standards. Several echoed Mr. Levin’s concerns about disruption from visitors to the public site. Others, however, strongly supported the purchase and the preservation of open space in their neighborhood.

In the lawsuit, Mr. Levin said he offered the Nature Conservancy $4 million for the land on Sept. 9, several weeks after a contract with the town was signed, and his offer was declined. The conservancy acquired the property from the late Robert Olson.

A response by the town and the conservancy to the lawsuit is due to the court by Feb. 11.