In Richard G. Hendrickson’s monthly weather reports, summarized from the daily data he diligently collected in Bridgehampton for nearly 85 years, one could find not only a record of temperatures, precipitation, and wind directions, but anecdotes and wisdom from bygone days on the South Fork. He brought to them a farmer’s appreciation of the joys and challenges that came with each month of the year and an environmentalist’s concern for the future of the South Fork in the face of overdevelopment and global warming.

Mr. Hendrickson, a volunteer with the National Weather Service’s Cooperative Observer Program since he was a teenager, continued to take measurements and readings at his backyard weather station on Lumber Lane until early last year, when he was 102.

He was the country’s longest-serving volunteer observer and was honored numerous times for his longevity of service and the volume of historical weather information he contributed to his country by chronicling the area’s weather twice a day, almost every day since 1930. An award for 80 years of service was named in his honor, and last year he was recognized for 85 years of service.

“He was such a hero,” said Tim Morrin, who manages the Cooperative Observer Program. “He was so unselfish; he would go over and beyond.”

“He represented the true art of taking weather observations,” said I. Ross Dickman, the meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service’s office in Upton, who praised his “dedication and loyalty” over the years. “He would call in with not only his weather observations, but he would tell us a story.”

When the observer program was modernized, volunteers were given the chance to report their observations electronically. “He really didn’t want to have any part of that because to him, the most important part of his daily observation was actually talking to one of the members of the National Weather Service,” Mr. Morrin said. “It was a special thing for all of us.”

Mr. Hendrickson died on Saturday at the Westhampton Care Center at the age of 103.

A farmer by profession like his father before him, he was also a historian, author, and collector extraordinaire whose basement was a veritable museum of interesting items and artifacts from the South Fork and beyond, each of which had a story that he knew and loved to share.

He collected arrowheads, spear points, and Native American tools, hand-carved decoys, and antique firearms and cannons, among other things. An expert on firearms, he had given more than 100 lectures on the subject and had a firearms business on the side, buying and selling new and used hunting guns and pistols as well as ammunition, cannons, powder horns, and swords. His collection of antique guns included one that dated to the 1400s and another that had belonged to the famous lawman Wyatt Earp.

He fired the working cannons in his front yard on Independence Day and New Year’s Eve for 60 years and took them to such events as the Bridgehampton Museum’s annual antique road rally, where they added a bang to the starting line festivities.

“They just don’t make people like Richard Hendrickson anymore,” said Bob DeLuca, president of the Group for the East End, which had an office in Bridgehampton for many years. “He had a passion for life and the world around him and an unending curiosity that fueled his consistent learning and his desire to educate others.” Each month Mr. Hendrickson would take his handwritten weather summaries to the group’s offices, where staff members would type them up before he sent them on to local newspapers. In the process, Mr. Hendrickson would regale them with stories and interesting tidbits.

“He was a rare treasure,” said Julie Greene, curator and archivist for the Bridgehampton Museum. Mr. Hendrickson had long served as the museum’s historian and was a founding member of the Bridge Hampton Historical Society, as the museum was formerly known. “Whenever I had a question, he would be the first person that would pop into my mind,” she said. “He told some of the most incredible stories of the area, and not just about the people but the land and where the world is coming from and how it’s changed.”

“He was interested in all things related to history,” said his granddaughter Sara Hendrickson of Bridgehampton.

On his mother’s side, Mr. Hendrickson’s ancestors had deep roots on the South Fork. His great-great-grandfather Capt. Jesse R. Halsey sailed on a whaling boat out of Sag Harbor. His father, Howard Hendrickson, was born on a farm and came to work in 1907 at a Bridgehampton potato farm, where his father eventually bought him the Hill View Farm on Lumber Lane. After trying potatoes he turned to dairy farming and later the poultry business.

Richard G. Hendrickson was born at Hill View Farm on Sept. 2, 1912, to Howard Hendrickson and the former Edith Rogers. Finding arrowheads and spear points while clearing farmland with his father as a boy sparked a lifelong interest in the South Fork’s original inhabitants.

He lived and worked on Hill View Farm or nearby for his entire life, with a brief exception. In 1917 and ’18, to avoid the flu epidemic, he and his brother, Erwin, were sent to live with his mother’s parents on Gardiner’s Island, where his grandfather rented land to raise sheep, hogs, and cattle and grow corn and hay.

He left high school to help out on the farm. When he was 18, Ernest S. Clowes, an author who had operated a backyard weather station for the National Weather Service, convinced Mr. Hendrickson’s father to set up a station at Hill View Farm and taught the teenager to take the measurements.

“We had 30 head of milk cows, 5,500 white leghorn breeders [chickens], were hatching 2,500 baby chicks weekly, and shipping hatching eggs to nearby states and overseas,” Mr. Hendrickson wrote in his 1996 book, “Winds of the Fish’s Tail.” “We also raised 4,500 pullets each year, raised all our new calves, acres of corn, alfalfa, and wheat, plus we experimented with types of new and improved pastures by importing different grasses and clovers from around the world. All this was reason enough to want to study and work with nature.”

At that point he was already running the poultry operation on the farm. Working at first with Mr. Clowes and later on his own, he took weather readings at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. almost every day from then on, providing data daily to the National Weather Service and later summarizing his observations for a monthly weather column sent to local papers.

In 1935 he married Dorothea Haelig, a teacher from New Jersey who had come to work at the Bridgehampton School. She was 10 years his senior, said his granddaughter. They had a son, Richard H. Hendrickson.

The family left dairy farming in 1953, when Suffolk County passed a law requiring that milk be pasteurized. “We couldn’t afford to pasteurize, so we gave up the herd and imported 50 head of beef cattle weighing 400 to 500 pounds, and kept them till they weighed over 1,000 pounds, and sold them at livestock auctions in Pennsylvania,” he told The Star in 1993. Failing to make money on the steers, Hill View Farm instead expanded the poultry operation through the 1970s and ’80s, then turned to field corn and sweet corn.

Mr. Hendrickson retired from farming in the early 1980s and rented space in the chicken houses for car storage.

He was a man of his place and rarely left town, but in 1959 he and his wife made an unlikely journey to New Zealand, where they dined with the prime minister. The trip was “courtesy of the Hormel Meat Co. because they had purchased the one billionth can of Spam,” according to a 1997 article in Newsday.

His first wife died in early 1982. He was married later that year to Lillian Baldac, who died in June.

Mr. Hendrickson remained both engaged and active into his 90s and 100s, even chopping his own wood and mowing his own lawn in the last decade.

“He consistently had a boyish fascination, a whimsy about how wonderful every aspect of the natural world is. He had it to the last day I saw him. And there wasn’t a thing that went by that he wasn’t curious about,” Mr. DeLuca said.

He published his second book, “From the Bushy Plain of Bulls Head,” a memoir written almost entirely in verse, in 2006.

In addition to his granddaughter Sara Hendrickson, he leaves two other granddaughters, Leah Hendrickson and Rachel Green, both of Jamesport, a sister, Edith Williams of Raleigh, N.C., and several nieces and nephews. His brother died before him, and his son died in 2014.

Services for Mr. Hendrickson are to begin on Friday, Jan. 22, with visiting from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. at the Brockett Funeral Home in Southampton. A funeral will be held at the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church on Jan. 23 at 11 a.m., followed by burial at Edgewood Cemetery in Bridgehampton.

Donations have been suggested to the Bridgehampton Museum, P.O. Box 977, Bridgehampton 11932.

The Springs Fire District is suing the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals, challenging its determination that town building inspectors acted incorrectly in allowing the construction of the district’s 150-foot tall communications tower.

The pole, which stands behind the Springs Firehouse, has already been equipped with devices that fire commissioners say will make it easier to reach first responders in an emergency, though the devices have not yet been activated.

The zoning board found, by a 4-1 decision, that the fire district must seek site plan approval from the town for the project.

Also named as defendants in the lawsuit are the office of the town clerk and the Building Department. The telecommunications company that erected the pole, Elite Towers, is co-plaintiff with the fire district.

The appeals board’s determination, written by its attorney, Elizabeth Baldwin, states that the fire commissioners failed to conduct a required “balancing of the public interest test,” and that the district, despite its status as a municipal entity, did not have “blanket immunity” from the permitting process.

“The Z.B.A. got it wrong,” Carl Irace, the district’s lawyer, said yesterday. Among other things, he questioned its use of the term “blanket immunity,” saying it was not legal parlance.

Further, Mr. Irace said that “when the town issued the building permit, it was saying ‘we are not going to review this anymore.’ They gave the ball back to the fire district,” he said, and no officials ever appeared at public hearings on the matter. “The town took deliberate steps to stay out of it, and the zoning board is attempting to reassert itself in, where the town chose not to tread.”

Both radio and cellphone communications have historically been poor in Springs, the suit says, with “large areas” having “minimal or no radio service, including numerous areas inside the Springs School District.” The tower, it says, is an attempt to rectify the situation.

The action was filed with the county clerk on Friday, after which the town was served. The town has until Feb. 16, when the two sides will meet in State Supreme Court in Riverhead, to respond to the suit.

The Montauk precinct has a new commanding officer. East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo announced on Tuesday during a town board meeting at the Montauk Firehouse that Sgt. Joe Kearney will take on the job, one that has been staffed in the recent past by officers at the rank of lieutenant.

With the recent retirement of Lt. Thomas Grenci, however, coupled with the transfer of Lt. Austin McGuire from the East Hampton force to Sag Harbor Village, to become the department's chief, East Hampton is down to two officers at the lieutenant rank.

But to Chief Sarlo this challenge is actually an opportunity. “Given the level of activity and issues facing Montauk, we decided to put a first-line supervisor in the precinct commander post,” he said yesterday. “Working nights and weekends alongside the officers, supervising the part-time officers and the special directed patrol shifts, Joe will have less administrative responsibilities and less office hours than our previous precinct commanders have in the past.”

The advantage Sergeant Kearney brings, the chief said, is his many years of experience on patrol.

“Our senior staff and I will continue to handle most of the planning and communication with our Montauk residents, along with Joe. The public can still go to the Montauk precinct, which will have a secretary on weekdays, and weekends in the summer, and we will make sure that we maintain open lines of communication with the public.”

Sergeant Kearney, an Army veteran, has served on the East Hampton Town force for 18 years and has been a sergeant since 2009. “He has been a field training officer, defensive tactics instructor, [emergency services unit] team leader, and has overseen our State Liquor Authority enforcement over the past two years,” Chief Sarlo said.

“He brings a great deal of professionalism and dedication to the assignment. He is a quiet leader who will follow through on the focused and directed enforcement plans we put forth last summer.”

“While Montauk is sleeping in the winter, we’re not,” East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo said at a town board meeting on Tuesday.

Though the temperature is frigid, town officials have turned their attention toward summer and its influx of visitors that last year turned downtown Montauk into a noisy and chaotic scene that had hundreds of residents up in arms, demanding steps be taken to rein things in.

Actions taken last year — such as new no-parking zones and a hard tack on nightclub over-occupancy, including increased enforcement of occupancy limits and a law requiring clubs to keep close count of patrons — had an impact, but the town board is examining what else needs to be done before things ramp up again this year.

Yesterday, those heading up all town departments involved in enforcing laws and codes — the police, fire marshals, ordinance enforcement officers, Marine Patrol, and the building inspector — met for a strategy discussion, and meetings will continue regularly, Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said Tuesday. The agenda was to include “nuances of the law, and how we can apply them to solve the problems,” Mr. Cantwell said.

“We’re heavily involved in planning for the summer at this time of the year,” Chief Sarlo said Tuesday.

Among those with whom he is discussing the forthcoming season, he said, are the town attorneys and town justices. Meetings with civic groups, including the town’s citizens advisory committees, and with the managers and security staff of bars and clubs are planned “very early in the season,” he said. The objective is “to build on the momentum we had at the end of last season, to have a more compliant and safe situation on the streets.”

The Police Department’s plans to keep noise, public drunkenness, overcrowding, and other problems in Montauk in check next summer include the appointment of a new commanding officer at the Montauk police precinct, Sgt. Joe Kearney. His appointment is reported on in a separate story in today’s Star.

On the legislative front, the town board will discuss potential revisions to the town law regarding the issuance of music entertainment permits, which are required for establishments that present music.

Michael Sendlenski, the town attorney, will present a draft to the town board for review at a forthcoming work session.

In light of New York State Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s announcement that he intends to offer legislation to regulate cars for hire, such as taxis and Uber cars — another area of concern to the town — Mr. Cantwell said that he will send a letter with recommendations to the governor’s office and to East Hampton’s state representatives.

“I want them to be aware of the problems we have,” he said. Large numbers of taxis coming to work in East Hampton in the summer and a proliferating number of drivers working through Uber have been the subject of many complaints and an effort last year to tamp down what was viewed as a disorderly situation.

The town lacks the authority to enact certain taxi regulations without establishing its own taxi and limousine commission — which is “difficult and expensive,” Mr. Cantwell said this week. A taxi licensing law put into effect last summer created waves, angering Uber and Uber users when its drivers, who are independent contractors, were found to be ineligible for town licenses. The law requires taxi companies operating here to have offices in the town.

The supervisor said he would ask Governor Cuomo “to give us some flexibility in state law,” so that the town could enact targeted regulations such as designating areas where cabs can and cannot park.

Summer is also on the horizon for the Montauk Chamber of Commerce, which participated in the New York Times Travel Show held recently at the Javits Center in Manhattan. The chamber made efforts last summer to counter a rowdy portrayal of Montauk in media coverage of the backlash against summer tourism gone awry. At the show it reached out to travelers from the New York area who are within several hours of Montauk, targeting families.

According to a press release, the chamber distributed a Montauk vacation guide, gave away two getaways to Montauk, showed a video about a family vacation that the chamber produced, and distributed a tip sheet called “15 Ways Kids Can Be Kids on a Montauk Vacation.”

Matthew Rojano, a Sagaponack man arrested by Southampton Town police in October on multiple drug possession charges, pleaded guilty Nov. 13 in State Supreme Court in Riverside to a single count of attempted possession of a controlled substance, a felony.

Mr. Rojano, who was elected in 2014 to the board of trustees of the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton to represent Sagaponack, was arrested on Oct. 29 along with Oscar Reyes-Torres, after police conducted a raid at 312 Sagg Road, assisted by a K-9 unit from the county sheriff’s office.

In return for the guilty plea, two more serious charges against Mr. Rojano involving possession of cocaine with intent to sell were dismissed. He will be sentenced on Jan. 25 in the courtroom of Justice Richard Ambro.

Mr. Reyes-Torres was indicted by a grand jury and was arraigned by Justice Ambro the day before. (Mr. Rojano had waived his right to a grand jury investigation.) Mr. Reyes-Torres pleaded not guilty to felony charges of cocaine possession and possession with intent to sell, as well as a felony marijuana charge of possession; police said he was caught with more than eight ounces of pot. Free on $5,000 bail, he is due back in the courtroom of Justice Martin I. Efman on Tuesday. 

Another local man who pleaded guilty recently to felony drug charges is Jose Restrepo, who was arrested along with another Springs man, Juan P. Porras, in July. Both were charged with multiple felonies related to dealing cocaine. Mr. Restrepo entered his plea on Dec. 4 and will be sentenced on Feb. 7 by Justice John J. Toomey. Mr. Porras’s case is still open. 

Both men are being held in county jail, unable to meet the bail set for them in six-figure amounts.

The East Hampton Clericus’s annual series of soup dinners begins Wednesday, offering a healthy helping of community, camaraderie, and volunteerism along with the good eats. 

Dinner will consist of several types of soups provided by local restaurants, among them Nick and Toni’s, Townline BBQ, and La Fondita, all presided over by Joe Realmuto, plus bread and fruit donated by local bakeries and religious organizations and desserts contributed by residents attending the dinner. The dinners are free, and will take place on the second Wednesday of each month between January and March from 5 to 7 p.m. at Most Holy Trinity Church’s Parish Hall in East Hampton. Those who are interested in attending are asked to also consider spending a portion of their time volunteering to help serve the food either before or after they eat.

“The key word is community. Everyone comes from all walks of life. . . . It’s a wonderful, wonderful evening. Everybody just pitches in. People feel really good about it,” said Doreen Quaranto, a licensed clinical social worker and the director of outreach at Most Holy Trinity who coordinates the community soup dinners on behalf of the clericus.

The clericus, which comprises leaders from different faiths in the East Hampton area, began sponsoring the dinners late in 2009 after taking over a pilot program that an East Hampton Town committee started that March. According to the Very Rev. Denis Brunelle, who heads the East Hampton Clericus and leads St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, that is when the economic downturn and the town’s own financial difficulties prompted cutbacks in town social services that began to be felt by its residents.

“We thought that it was important because there was an important need,” Mr. Brunelle said. “Some of the senior citizens were making decisions like ‘Do I have medicine or do I have food?’ For some who live in their cars, it was a matter of having something warm to eat. We as the clericus . . . decided to band together. Each one of us does something to help make it possible.”

The Jewish Center of the Hamptons, for instance, provides the paper goods, and St. Luke’s typically provides centerpieces made of fruit. The soup dinners have been so successful, Ms. Quaranto said, that they were recognized among national “best practices in parish social ministry” by the nonprofit organization Catholic Charities U.S.A. in 2012.

The event draws support from outside the religious community, too. Teachers from the John M. Marshall Elementary School provide live music. And then, of course, there are the bakers, restaurants, and caterers. Over the years, it hasn’t been just Mr. Realmuto’s Honest Man Restaurant Group donating soup. Indian Wells Tavern, Fresno restaurant, the Art of Eating, DG Catering, Almond, the Hayground School, and George Hirsch are among those who have also cooked for the dinners.

Mr. Realmuto said guests can expect a variety of soups ranging from a vegetarian squash soup to pork pozole, a Mexican favorite, to a hearty chili or chicken soup. 

“I think it’s a really, really nice thing not just for people who are in need . . . but it also becomes a community event, which is really nice,” he said.

The goal, said Mr. Brunelle, is also to break down barriers between the various religious organizations in the community. “A lot of this is to tear some of that down by ministering together in caring for those in our area that need help.” 

Ms. Quaranto said the social outcomes of the soup dinners over the years have been numerous and satisfying. People have helped each other find jobs, and once, someone who was desperate for a computer was given one by someone he met at a dinner who was looking to donate his old one. “We have senior citizens who are tired of eating alone who come and feel like they’ve had a family meal,” she said. “We had a little girl come who said she’d never been to such a fancy restaurant in her whole life.”

Ms. Quaranto said this year’s soup dinners will proceed much the same as they have in the past, although she has one goal in mind: to figure out a transportation system that would allow people to attend even if they do not drive at night or are otherwise unable to get to the church. “That would be my wish for 2016. Hopefully, somebody will have an idea,” she said.

In addition to being helpful, the dinners, Ms. Quaranto, Mr. Realmuto, and Rev. Brunelle all agreed, are simply enjoyable.

“Part of the fun for me is getting to see people working in any kind of ministry, getting people to see each other as brothers and sisters, and getting to know new people,” Mr. Brunelle said. “I think it’s an important aspect of the soup dinners here.”

Bagpipers and members of the Shinnecock Indian Nation helped usher in Jay Schneiderman’s first day as South­ampton Town Supervisor on Tuesday, but the fanfare ended there. While an organizational meeting followed the swearing-in ceremony, Mr. Schneiderman postponed a number of important appointments, deciding to wait until after a special election later this month to fill an unexpected vacancy on the town board. Whether the board’s majority will be Democratic or Republican depends on that election.

It is not quite the way Mr. Schneiderman thought he would start his term. Having served a 12-year term limit on the Suffolk County Legislature, he was elected supervisor on the Independence and Democratic lines in November, along with John Bouvier, who became the newest town councilman on Tuesday. Just weeks later, Brad Bender, a Democrat, resigned his town board seat amid drug-related charges. 

The situation left the board split 2-2. Councilman Stan Glinka, in the midst of a two-year term, and Councilwoman Christine Scalera, who was re-elected in November, are Republicans. 

Before Mr. Schneiderman’s predecessor, Anna Throne-Holst, left office, the board scheduled the special election for Jan. 26, in the 60-to-90-day window mandated by state law. Richard W. Yastrzemski, a Republican who ran against Mr. Schneiderman for supervisor, and Julie Lofstad, a Democrat who was Mr. Bouvier’s running-mate, are vying for the position. 

“We don’t have a full board,” Mr. Schneiderman said Tuesday from his new office, implying that he may not have the support for some of the appointments he hopes to make for review boards and for the job of town attorney. Tiffany Scarlato, who has been town attorney since 2011 but was not tapped to remain in office, handed in her resignation this week and is using up her vacation time until she leaves on Friday, Jan. 15. Kathleen Murray, the deputy town attorney, is acting town attorney for now.

Mr. Schneiderman said he was looking outside Town Hall for a replacement. He said there was one candidate, a woman, whom he described as bipartisan, “highly credentialed‚“ and “someone who would make a superb town attorney,” but declined to name her. Mr. Bouvier and Mr. Glinka have spoken to her, he said, and Ms. Scalera will speak to her, but “whether Republicans on the town board are willing to embrace her . . .” He trailed off. “We’re working on it.”

NancyLynn Schurr Thiele, the wife of Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., is rumored to be the candidate. A lawyer who was admitted to the bar in 1992, she is counsel to the office of the New York State Senate Majority. She said yesterday that she had submitted her resume and been interviewed, but had heard nothing as yet.

Mr. Schneiderman said it was possible that he will ask for a vote on the appointment before the special election, but only if he knows he has three votes. Other appointments, to land-use boards, he will put off entirely. “I’m not going to even try.” Instead, all current members will be held over even if their terms have expired. 

The supervisor said he was looking to shake things up and bring in some new faces, people whom he considers future leaders of the town. “Those appointments have a history of sometimes being partisan,” he said. “I’m certainly looking to put on people I feel are best qualified.”

Mr. Schneiderman formerly served as East Hampton Town supervisor and the chairman of the town’s zoning board. He recently moved from Montauk, where he still owns property and a motel, and is building a house in Southampton Village. Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and other officials, including Mr. Thiele and County Legislator Bridget Fleming, a former town board member, attended the swearing-in ceremony. “I’m really excited about the opportunities that exist here,” Mr. Bellone, a Democrat, said. “We will be a partner in the things that you want to do here, that you envision on water quality, which we all care so deeply about.”

Afterward, the first town board meeting of 2016 barely saw a quorum, as Councilwoman Scalera, who broke her arm in two places in an ice-skating accident over the holidays, was not in attendance. Sundy Schermeyer, the town clerk, swore in Ms. Scalera for a second term at her home. She hopes to be back to work next week. 

Her absence, and the vacancy on the board, caused some issues with routine banking matters: Mr. Glinka had to recuse himself from resolutions involving Bridgehampton National Bank, of which he is a vice president. 

Frank Zappone will remain deputy supervisor, a position he held during Ms. Throne-Holst’s six-year tenure, though his appointment was not finalized. Leonard Marchese, the town comptroller, was one of the few who received a formal appointment on Tuesday. Mr. Schneiderman, noting the sound financial situation he is inheriting and the town’s AAA financial rating, told Mr. Marchese that “It’s great to have somebody of your skill.”

“I’m impressed with the dedication and professionalism of the town management team,” the new supervisor said after he was sworn in. “I look forward to working with all the town employees who work in this great town, from those who plow our roads during a snowstorm, to the crews who keep our parks in shape, to the people who help feed our seniors at our nutritional centers.”

Correction: Nancy Lynn Schurr Thiele is not the chairwoman of the Southampton Independence Party, but rather her husband, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. is the chairman of that party.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell laid out a comprehensive agenda for 2016 at the town board’s annual organizational meeting Tuesday, which included capital projects, environmental protection, hamlet planning, affordable housing, and fiscal prudence.

In a wide-ranging statement, Mr. Cantwell noted that discussions were underway with Southampton Hospital, which “has expressed serious interest in building a new year-round, 24/7 emergency care facility in East Hampton. He also said the expansion of the town-owned industrial park at East Hampton Airport would be started, with the goal of attracting new commercial tenants.

The meeting began with the supervisor being sworn in, along with the town board members Peter Van Scoyoc and Sylvia Overby as well as a host of board and committee appointees. The appointments are covered separately.

Planning for the future of the town’s hamlets will be “at the forefront in the year ahead,” Mr. Cantwell said, with studies on Amagansett, Montauk, Wainscott, and Springs underway. 

Regarding Montauk, “notwithstanding the controversy” over the Army Corps of Engineers’ downtown Montauk beach stabilization project — construction of a 3,100-foot sandbag seawall that prompted protests and ongoing controversy — the town must focus on the Army Corps’s plans for Montauk under its Fire Island to Montauk Point plan that is scheduled to be announced this winter. “We will press the Army Corps for a sand-only . . . improvement and work to reach a consensus with the community,” Mr. Cantwell said. 

To plan for how the town might act in the face of sea-level rise and climate change, a study will begin this year of coastal erosion rates and potential storm threats, so that a coastal assessment and resiliency plan (called CARP) can be developed. 

Also in 2016, “tangible results” are needed on affordable housing, Mr. Cantwell said. While town officials declined, after objections by the Wainscott School Board, to provide land for an affordable complex there, he said “as a community we need to move beyond the word ‘no’ when we should be discussing ‘how.’ ” The town needs to see a manor-house-style development built, which is planned for Accabonac Road, he said, and to support the East Hampton Housing Authority’s plan for affordable housing in Amagansett.

Water quality will also be a focus in the coming year. Following state approval, the town hopes to develop a comprehensive plan for water quality protection that could be paid for with a portion of the town’s community preservation fund — a strategy that would require voter approval in a ballot proposition in the fall. Mr. Cantwell said he would also like to partner with the town trustees to expand their water quality testing and monitoring programs.   Construction coming up includes replacing the vacant old town hall building on the Town Hall campus so that all town offices can be consolidated there, and making plans to replace the town’s East Hampton center for senior citizens. 

The cost of the Town Hall and senior citizens center buildings can be offset, Mr. Cantwell said, by the sale of 11,000 square feet of office space at 300 Pantigo Place, where some offices now are located, and of the former scavenger waste property on Springs-Fireplace Road.

With regard to the industrial park, Mr. Cantwell said the town already is in preliminary discussions with three prospective tenants for existing lots, who would bring the “potential to maintain and create jobs and generate significant lease revenue for the airport fund.”

The town board, Mr. Cantwell said, will continue implementing “a methodical capital and maintenance plan” for the airport. An analysis of last summer’s noise data and patterns is expected to be completed and ready for public discussion in March, he said. 

Using the preservation fund money, “preserving environmentally sensitive land while reducing development density—as we have done with the Lake Montauk and Springs outreach—will continue to be a top priority in the year ahead,” Mr. Cantwell said. The purchase of 50 acres is pending, he said, noting that more than 200 acres have been preserved over the last two years.

In discussing the enforcement of town codes in order to protect residents’ quality of life, Mr. Cantwell laid down a hard line regarding the upcoming imposition of a rental registry law. “. . . If you have been participating in a group house, high-turnover rental, or multiple family occupancy in a single-family residence, it is time to stop,” he said. “If we find illegal housing, we will bring the full force of the law to bear.” 

While a “firm financial foundation” underpins “everything we do,” he said the town must remain diligent. “Over the past two years. . . year-end finances have balanced and surpluses created,” budgets have remained below the state tax cap, and total town indebtedness has been reduced, he said.

Before articulating the 2016 agenda, Mr. Cantwell thanked his fellow board members. “I am fortunate to serve on a town board that wrestles with difficult problems,” he said, mentioning “helicopter noise, enforcement challenges in Montauk, overcrowded housing in single-family residences, and downtown Montauk beach stabilization.”. . . I know how hard making some of these decisions can be,” the supervisor said. 

He also thanked those serving on the town’s appointed boards and advisory committees, and town employees, a number of whom, as Civil Service Employees Association union members, are involved in contentious negotiations with the town over a new contract. 

“To the extent that we have been successful,” he said of the town board’s endeavors, “to a large extent, it is a result of the employees and the staff and the volunteers that have given their time to the town.” 

Sag Harbor officials are planning a session to fully explain proposed zoning code revisions meant to curtail overdevelopment in the village, revisions they formulated over the past six months during a freeze on major residential building projects.

“It’s too big to say this is what we’re doing, we’re done,” said Mayor Sandra Schroeder on Tuesday. In the meantime, the village intends to dial back on the development moratorium, even though the village board will vote next week to keep it in place for another three months. Projects that meet the standards set forth in the proposal will be allowed to go forward in the planning process and be reviewed by the necessary village boards. 

Of the four local laws proposed, the most substantial change is the introduction of a cap on how big a house can be based on the size of the property. In calculating gross floor area, the village would consider the total square footage of the house, including basements, where at least half the height is above grade, but not including cellars (with at least half of the height below grade). 

“Sag Harbor is the only village left that doesn’t have a gross floor area ordinance,” said Fred W. Thiele Jr., the village attorney, who helped to craft the amendments, as a way “to conserve the resources that make Sag Harbor special” as the trend toward bigger houses on smaller lots grew. The village, which has been on the National Register of Historic Places for more than 40 years, had a decision to make, he said: Be “the Hollywood-set version of a historic village or you could actually have a historic village.”

Rich Warren of InterScience, a consultant, looked at all 1,845 properties in the village and plotted the size of each of the 1,607 residential lots and each house based on data from the assessors’ offices in the Towns of East Hampton and Southampton, as well as information from the village Building Department. Of those residential lots, 1,167 are less than 20,000 square feet. The median house size is 1,500 square feet, pretty significant, officials said, in terms of applications made in recent years. 

“Let’s say we haven’t seen many of those in a long time,” said Denise Schoen, the attorney for the planning and zoning boards. Twenty-five building permits were issued over the last two years, 19 for houses over 3,000 square feet and 11 for houses over 4,000 square feet. “You get used to the bigger sizes and all of a sudden it skews your view.” 

Under current zoning, a lot of 5,000 square feet or less could see a 2,000-square-foot house. That won’t change under the new ordinance, though other villages, like Sagaponack and North Haven, allow only a 1,500-square-foot house on a property of that size.

The differences under the proposed ordinance become more apparent as the lot size grows. For instance, a 15,000-square-foot lot could see a 6,000-square-foot house now, but the proposed zoning changes would allow a gross floor area of only 2,800 square feet on a lot that size. In neighboring villages, except Southampton Village, which allows houses of up to 3,300 square feet on a 15,000-square-foot lot, the cap would be 2,500 square feet.

Lots that are more than 20,000 square feet and up to 30,000 square feet, would be able to have houses no larger than 4,000 square feet, standard in most villages. Right now, a house on a lot that size in Sag Harbor could go as large as 12,000 square feet. 

A special permit from the village board, rather than the planning board, would be required for houses proposed on lots larger than 30,000 square feet (there are only 114 such properties), with house sizes capped at between 4,000 and 6,000 square feet for lots up to 80,000 square feet.

Another amendment would allow the village to set an additional permit fee of $15 per square foot on applications for houses larger than 3,000-square-feet. That additional fee would go into an affordable housing fund already set up and would be used to establish affordable housing in the Sag Harbor School District. The proposal would be the first in the state, Mr. Thiele said, though the concept has been used in California and Colorado. 

There are some other changes afoot, as well. The historic preservation and architectural review board is the focus of one amendment that would formalize the board’s process, moving it from being an “informal consensus-driven board,” Mr. Thiele said. “I suspect you’ll see more public hearings.” For one, the way the board considers projects with any aspect of demolition will be more stringent. “We had no definition” before, Mr. Thiele said. Any removal of historic structures would trigger these requirements, he said. 

Applicants who plan to demolish historic buildings — there are 700 in the village — will have to meet “a burden of proof.” On major applications, the architectural review board could require a bond be posted to guarantee the work is done as it is supposed to be. The village has had little recourse in recent years when several houses were demolished without full approval. 

Last, an amendment with regard to swimming pools will help the zoning board and harbor committee as it reviews such applications. Though it was not the major focus of the board’s work during the moratorium, current regulations are confusing, the attorneys said. The proposal will establish elevation from groundwater, among other things, Mr. Warren said. 

The six-month moratorium is set to expire on Jan. 25. The board intends to modify the moratorium to allow projects to move forward that would ultimately fall into the proposed criteria with respect to gross floor area. A hearing on the modification will be held on Tuesday.  

The informational meeting on the changes, with a date still to be determined, will take place before a public hearing is scheduled, though officials hope to pass the amendments in three months’ time. 

Update, 2:37 p.m.: A 27-year-old East Hampton man was identified as the driver who died in a Bridgehampton accident involving a Suffolk County transit bus Friday morning.

Cesar Marin was driving a 2002 Chevrolet Trailblazer west on Montauk Highway when he lost control of his vehicle "due to icy roadway conditions," police said. The sport utility vehicle went into the eastbound lane and struck the county bus head-on just west of Newlight Lane and Windmill Lane at about 6:50 a.m. Mr. Marin was pronounced dead at the scene. 

No criminal charges were filed against the driver of the bus, Andrej Jaglowski, 50, of Riverhead, police said. Mr. Jaglowski was taken to Southampton Hospital by the Bridgehampton Fire Department ambulance. He was treated for non-life-threatening injuries and released. 

The New York State Department of Transportation Motor Safety unit performed a safety check of the bus, and the Trailblazer has been impounded for a safety check. 

Several accidents occurred around the Town of Southampton on Friday morning because of the road conditions. In fact, police said that about 10 minutes after the fatal accident occurred, another accident happened at the same location. No injuries were reported in that case. 

Detectives have asked anyone who may have witnessed the accident to contact detectives at 631-702-2230. They also cautioned drivers to allow extra travel time and always use a seatbelt. Police did not indicate whether Mr. Marin had been wearing one. 

Originally: The driver of a sport utility vehicle was killed in a collision with a Suffolk County bus on Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton Friday morning just before 7. 

Southampton Town Police Sgt. Michael Joyce confirmed the fatality, but would not comment further, describing the investigation as ongoing. The accident occurred near the Hayground Market, and Montauk Highway was closed between Newlight Lane and Hayground Road while detectives took measurements of the accident scene. Sergeant Joyce said that there was ice on the road at the time. 

The driver of the S.U.V. was declared dead at the scene. The Bridgehampton Fire Deparment responded with its heavy rescue truck, but it was not immediately used. 

Police have not released the man's name, pending notification of his family. 

The driver of the Suffolk County S92 transit bus, the county's "blue bus," was taken to Southampton Hospital. The bus, which had no passengers at the time, was headed to the East Hampton train station, where it begins its circuitous route across the East End.

Several other serious accidents occurred on Friday morning around the East End, mainly in the Town of Southampton. Highway trucks were out salting the roads Friday morning.