Ask an East Hampton resident how many people were here last weekend, and you will hear a vague response if you get anything at all. If you do, the answer will range from a guess, 100,000, to an honest, if unsatisfying, “I have no idea.” The uncertainty extends to government planners, who must work from estimates dating back in most cases more than a decade.

Part of the information gap stems from the United States Census, which sends its enumerators into the field every 10 years in the spring, when the South Fork population is at a low ebb. Based on those counts, it issues regular updates but these do not take seasonal and transient visitors into account.

East Hampton Town, according to the Census’s most recent demographic profile, had a population of about 21,457. This is the number of residents cited in a housing assessment released by the town in November, for example.

Looking more closely, the holes in that figure become apparent: The Census counted just over 8,400 occupied households, less than half the total that actually exist, according to the East Hampton Town Planning Department.

Southampton Town, in a 2013 “sustainability” update to its big-picture planning guidelines, pegged its population at just over 54,700, more or less the same as that counted by the Census Bureau three years earlier.

The fact is that on a busy summer weekend, the actual number is much, much higher. The problem is that no one knows for sure just how much higher it really is. Nor has anyone quantified the effect of social media and the new online “sharing” economy on visitors’ numbers, be they overnighters or day-trippers.

“We don’t fundamentally understand our population, so we don’t fundamentally understand our economy,” Jeremy Samuelson, the director of Concerned Citizens of Montauk, said. “We need to ask who’s really here and what kind of population do they represent.”

Officially, according to the Suffolk Planning Commission, peak summertime population, defined as people spending the night between Eastport and Montauk Point, rose from about 200,000 to 262,000 between 1990 and 2010. These estimates, the county planners said in a disclaimer, were based on available data, such as the number of motel rooms, available campsites, and arough guess about houseguests. It predated by several years the rise of online sites such as Airbnb, that have opened up an unknown number of new accommodation options.

About 15 years ago, East Hampton Town estimated its peak population at about 91,000; it was pegged at 94,000 in a county report in 2010. The figure has not been updated since. Even so, it puts the summer populace at well over twice the Census Bureau’s urban-area benchmark of 1,000 people per square mile.

“It’s a pop-up urban area, but do we have a pop-up urban infrastructure? I don’t think so,” Robert DeLuca, the president of the Group for the East End, said.

East Hampton Town encompasses approximately 70 square miles; more than 40 percent of the total is parkland, uninhabitable wetlands, or other protected areas, according to the town information technology office. That leaves residents, visitors, workers, and people just passing through jammed together onto no more than 42 square miles.

Mr. Samuelson said that until a clear picture of the residents and visitors was obtained it would be impossible to really know what the appropriate levels of services, infrastructure, and utility supplies would be.

“It’s like you were told that some people were coming over for dinner, and you asked, ‘Really? How many?’ and you didn’t get an answer,” he said.

The pressure that population growth puts on emergency responders is enormous, with the number of ambulance calls steadily increasing. In the space of less than two years nearly every fire department has added paid paramedics to their otherwise all-volunteer personnel rosters.

Hard numbers are difficult to come by, but one source is the New York State Department of Transportation, which has detailed traffic counts for Route 27, the main road into and out of the area, going back several years. Last year, it said that about 50,000 vehicles a day passed a single point on the road in Southampton Town during the month of August.

Another source, one might think, would be the Long Island Rail Road, but a spokesman said that it only did station-by-station ridership counts once or twice a decade.

“I do think that knowing the population does matter,” Mr. DeLuca said. He said that the cumulative impact of more people on the South Fork was not necessarily proportional to their numbers. “At a certain point, things stop behaving in a rational way,” he said, citing as an example, drivers swarming onto the back roads, which has both damaged the road surfaces and made the alternate routes sometimes nearly impassible.

Mr. DeLuca said that key areas where better knowledge of the summer crowds are important included transportation, health and public safety, the water supply, and wastewater.

“At times it works as an urban ecosystem, with open lands as the buffer,” he said. “The amount of activities that we have put here contributes to the reduction of what that buffer can do.”

“It’s really a very challenging thing to manage. You have to pat the planners on the back for this,” he said.

Behind the seasonal numbers, the Suffolk Planning Commission said that in 2010 there were rooms for about 11,400 motel and hotel guests in East Hampton Town, more than twice the figure for all of Southampton and six times that of Southold Town. East Hampton had camping space for about 1,400 people as well.

Montauk, the county said, sees the most dramatic seasonal population increases because it has more seasonal residences and vastly more motel and other transient rooms than any other community in eastern Suffolk.

Estimates are now made more complicated by the rise of online home-sharing sites, such as Airbnb, which this week listed more than 1,300 private, double-occupancy rooms in owner-occupied houses between Hampton Bays and Montauk. There were more than 5,800 “whole place” rental listings for two guests on the site during the same time period on the South Fork. Airbnb did not respond to a request for further details.

In addition, as Mr. DeLuca said, the number of workers making daily trips to and from the South Fork is essentially unknown, but one indication that he saw was a shift in traffic toward the middle of the week. “Basically on the ground, they’re having lunch, they’re throwing away garbage, going to the bathroom. They’re here,” he said.

One of the other growing trends, especially in East Hampton Town, is that a majority of houses were only seasonally occupied. People who think about such things, including Maziar Behrooz, an architect with offices in East Hampton and Manhattan, worry about what would happen if that began to shift and more people began to live in the area year round. Mr. Behrooz hosted a forum for the American Institute of Architects Peconic Chapter at the Parrish Art Museum last month titled, “Fix This Town” with Suffolk Legislator Jay Schneiderman and Felipe Correa, an architect and Harvard associate professor.

During the forum, Mr. Correa cautioned that planning for the numbers might be a mistake. “You should plan for the community you want it to be,” he said.

The Montauk Chamber of Commerce has released a short video highlighting the traditional pleasures of the hamlet, even as party-hearty summer hordes continue to provide fodder for tabloids and other metro-area media eager to focus on Hamptons stories this time of year.

Shot at various sites around town, including Deep Hollow Ranch, the Lighthouse, and Gosman’s Dock, it depicts surfers, families fishing and sailing, yoga on the beach, and so on, and includes views of the shore, the business district, trails, and ponds, shot using an aerial drone. It was directed by James Katsipis.

Another Montauk-focused film, “Reel Montauk,” which documents the hamlet throughout history and today, including old footage and interviews with longtime local residents, is being shown at local venues, including the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton, where it screened on Tuesday. John Barrett was the filmmaker.

While the Montauk Chamber is seeking to put a positive spin on things, one resident is hoping to enlist at least 1,000 members of the community in a new group called Montauk United, which with the power of numbers, he says, can work with town officials and others to implement changes.

They are needed, according to a full-page ad in this issue of The Star, to address “problems such as public drunkenness, crime, outrageously bad behavior, and generally intolerable mayhem that has been foisted on our community through greed, indifference, and the contempt and abuse of the legal and moral values that are Montauk’s social foundation.”

Tom Bogdan is seeking members and donations for Montauk United, described as a “nonpartisan, apolitical citizen action group.”

By banding together, Mr. Bogdan explains in the ad and in a letter to the  editor published here last week, Montaukers will gain “strength and power” vis-a-vis the powers-that-be whose cooperation is needed to address “serious problems and issues that are negatively affecting our community.”

The group will further define its goals at initial meetings, Mr. Bogdan said Monday, but will seek to “support and assist” the town board in what the ad says are “their greatly appreciated, and hoped-for continuous efforts,” and to interact with county and state agencies to “demand action when and where necessary.”

The Montauk group can look to oth er communities in the United States, Mr. Bogdan said, that have successfully wrestled with an influx of problematic visitors, such as Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a spring break destination, and Sturgis, S.D., where bikers throng for an annual motorcycle rally. 

“Let us face these problems together as one united positive force for our community, our Montauk. Only through joining together can we have the will, strength and power to prevail,” says his ad.

In other news of the easternmost hamlet, a restaurant there that had far exceeded its maximum legal occupancy and was welcoming a nightclub crowd, according to East Hampton Town officials, fought back this week against a July 15 court order constraining it from exceeding its 68-person occupancy limit, and from operating as a nightclub.

Since May, officials have issued multiple citations for overcrowding to the restaurant, which opened earlier this year as the Harbor Raw Bar and Lounge, but which, according to its publicists in an email this week, is now called simply Harbor.

Acting Supreme Court Justice Denise F. Molia set a temporary restraining order in place until today, when both sides are expected to return for a court conference. In the meantime, however, the restaurant owners asked that it be stayed. According to town officials, Acting Supreme Court Justice James C. Hudson on Friday left the bulk of the court order in place, but agreed to lift it against Robert Hirsch, one of Harbor’s owners. While the occupancy limit and order against becoming a nightclub remains, Mr. Hirsch cannot be charged personally should violations occur, town officials said.

In a press release last week, Harbor said that “Montauk’s newest restaurant and lounge” remains open for business “despite the Town of East Hampton’s selective actions” against it, adding that it plans to introduce a Sunday movie night with “family-friendly films.”

The business, according to the release, will “remain good corporate citizens” while continuing its summer program of nightly D.J.s, live music, charity events, and daytime bocce ball, and operating a takeout food stand on the site.

Meanwhile, the increased presence since the July Fourth weekend of police and code enforcement officers has seemed, according to reports, to have tamped down the noise and chaos somewhat.

Two issues related to the reinforced dune to be built by the Army Corps of Engineers along the downtown Montauk beach — how to deal with stormwater drainage and the design of a dozen pedestrian beach accesses over the artificial dune — appeared to have been resolved this week after discussions among the Corps, New York State officials, and an engineer hired by East Hampton Town.

Construction of the $8.4 million federal project, which will result in a 16.5-foot-tall dune with a core of sand-filled geotextile bags stretching 3,100 feet along the shore from the Atlantic Terrace motel to Emery Street, is slated to begin in October, after a planned spring start was delayed.

Steve Pratek of Dvirka and Bartilucci, an engineering firm hired late last year by the town, had told the town board at a meeting early this month that stormwater drainage and pedestrian beach accesses were still being hashed out.

Water that builds up during rainstorms from a 33-acre area of Montauk collects in the South Edison Street area, Mr. Pratek said, and generally flows from that low point over the sand into the sea. But the Army Corps dune will stem that flow, causing flooding in the downtown area.

Installing traditional drainage structures such as recharge basins and drywells underground in the area would be problematic, Mr. Pratek said, because of  the groundwater level, soil structure, and limits on where they can be placed. A $3 million system could be installed — at town expense — he said, but it would be able to handle less than an inch of rain, a fraction of what builds up during a storm.

The installation of a floodgate in the dune, such as those used in the Army Corps-constructed levees in New Orleans, had been suggested. A wood or metal gate could be opened to allow built-up rainwater to reach the ocean or closed to keep ocean surges from flooding the downtown.

But last week a different solution was informally agreed upon, according to Alex Walter, East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell’s assistant. He reported on Tuesday that the plans now call for a lower dune at South Edison Street, where a vehicle access is proposed, so that stormwater can flow over the dune, and for a stockpile of extra sand to be provided to the town, which would be available to fill the breach and keep the ocean out when necessary.

When to leave the opening in the lower dune intact and when to close it would presumably be a matter of judgment during a storm that threatens both ocean surges and stormwater flooding. At Lowenstein Court, to the eastern edge of the dune project, where a drainage pipe now funnels stormwater over the beach, the pipe will be extended through the dune.

The second sticking point was what the pedestrian accesses over the dune would look like. While town officials pictured “a simple path,” as Mr. Cantwell described them at the July 14 discussion, officials of the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation were insisting on freestanding bridge-like structures — 50-foot-long spans a foot and a half higher than the dune.

“That becomes a massive structure,” Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said at the session.

“These things get built — nobody’s going to like them. The community’s not going to like them,” Mr. Cantwell said.

In addition to the state officials’ opinion, Mr. Pratek told the town that the Army Corps wanted only five pedestrian accesses over the dune, based on concerns about protecting the geotextile sandbags. But agreements between the oceanfront property owners and the town, when needed easements from the property owners were obtained, called for the individual accesses.

Mr. Walter said Tuesday that the town has now gotten “basically, what we asked for” — a plan for unobtrusive walking paths. However, the town will be obligated to maintain the paths by adding sand if they become degraded.

The Army Corps project is described by the federal agency as an interim measure to stabilize the beach until a reconstruction project gets under way through the agency’s larger Fire Island to Montauk Point “reformulation study” — which has been ongoing for more than 60 years.

The project has been challenged by the Eastern Long Island Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation and by an environmental advocacy group called Defend H20. Along with four individual petitioners, they have filed a lawsuit against the project in State Supreme Court.

Opponents of the project argue that it will cause environmental degradation of the beach through increased erosion and the introduction of upland sand, and they say the reinforced dune is counter to East Hampton Town’s coastal regulations and policies.

Speaking at the town board’s July 14 meeting, Jeremy Samuelson, the executive director of Concerned Citizens of Montauk, called it “highly unrealistic” to expect that the project’s design would be worked out in time for construction to begin in the fall.

 “I think we’re getting strung along here,” he said. “My question is, does the Army Corps of Engineers really want to build this project? At what point do we acknowledge that the emperor has no clothes?”

Alex Vanegas and Morgan Brown sat down in plastic garden chairs on opposite sides of a chess board Tuesday, each regarding the other with a cool confidence in spite of the heat of a summer morning at LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton.

Alex, 12, set up the white pieces as Mr. Brown, 22, set up the black ones, and the two shook hands. Flanked on all sides by 20 other kids around Alex’s age, the players set out on personal quests to win what the onlookers, with a quiet seriousness worthy of an international tournament, were calling a chess-off.

A kid from Springs who attends the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton

RECenter’s summer camp program, Alex had just won four straight games against his peers. So had Mr. Brown, a summer camp counselor, who stepped in when the tournament organizers needed one more player in the bracket. Their final showdown was a tie-breaker designed to crown a winner of the first-ever Chess in the Schools tournament on Long Island.

Mr. Brown emerged victorious, and Alex declared that “second place is all right.” And everyone was a winner in the eyes of Yolanda F. Johnson, the vice president of development and communication for Chess in the Schools, the non-profit organization that sponsored Tuesday’s tournament and many others like it in New York City.

“I am so proud of all of you,” Ms. Johnson told the kids after the competition ended, complimenting their hard work.

“I definitely saw a lot of improvement throughout the rounds,” said Shaun Smith, the tournament director.

Chess in the Schools was established in 1986, and since then has involved more than half a million children in its various instructional programs and tournaments. The organization works primarily with students in grades 3 to 12 in economically disadvantaged areas of the city — about 13,000 kids per year in 50 schools — and organizes tournaments that draw players from many places beyond those schools. The organization also holds teacher-training workshops for educators who want to start clubs in their own schools. There’s even a College Bound program that takes the students beyond their chess lessons into standardized test prep, college fairs, and cultural excursions; this year, all 135 of the program’s high school seniors are headed to college.

“We are really thrilled to be making our first foray into Long Island and into the Hamptons,” Ms. Johnson said. “It’s like planting a seed that introduces the work of Chess in the Schools — and isn’t it fitting to be here at LongHouse?”

From LongHouse’s perspective, partnering with Chess in the Schools was another chance to inspire and encourage young minds. Selena Rothwell, the chairwoman of LongHouse Reserve’s educational program, said the goal was similar to that of the student art show held there each year.

“It gives children the opportunity to shine and feel successful,” Ms. Rothwell said. “I can see building this program. . . . This is a partnership that can become something greater.”

Ms. Johnson said the benefits of chess for children were significant. “Chess is a tool to hone the soft skills, like critical thinking, thinking ahead, good decision-making, concentration.”

“It’s interesting, because you can be one of the smartest people in the world academically, but if you’re lacking those skills, you may not be as successful. These skills help you be successful in life.”

Plus, Ms. Johnson said, there’s the camaraderie, fun, and friendships that the kids develop while playing chess.

For Alex, who has only been playing for about a year, Tuesday’s tournament was, on a scale of fun going from 1 to 10, a perfect 10. “I was really nervous, but I was happy to be here,” he said. “It was a lot of fun. It’s a thinking game. Not easy.”

Laura Calderon, 11, who first learned the game three years ago and who finished in third place on Tuesday, agreed. “I learned how to pay attention,” she said. “I learned concentration and confidence. At first, I did not have confidence.” She paused a moment, then added, “It’s hard, but I would practice it and do it again.”

A 17-year-old who was seriously injured when his car turned over on North Haven was allegedly driving recklessly and without a license in the early morning hours on Sunday. 

Southampton Town police said James Peralta Sanchima was the only person inside a 2003 GMC pickup truck that they found overturned on Short Beach Road at 4:13 a.m. The young man was driving south on Short Beach Road when he drove off the road, hit several mailboxes, and lost control of the truck.  It came to rest across the northbound lane. 

The Sag Harbor Fire Department and the Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps responded to the accident. Mr. Peralata Sanchima was airlifted from Havens Beach to Stony Brook University Hospital, where he is listed in serious, but stable, condition, police said. 

Charged with reckless driving and unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, both misdemeanors, he was released with an appearance ticket. He will be arraigned in Southampton Town Justice Court at a later date. 

Two directors at an East Hampton children's summer camp were charged with multiple safety and crowding violations on Wednesday after a search of a staff house at 17 Ocean Boulevard in East Hampton.

East Hampton Town officials said in a press statement that the house was being occupied by 25 counselors working at the Hampton Country Day Camp, which is on Buckskill Road in East Hampton. The house is owned by the same Glen Cove limited liability corporation that owns the camp.

David S. Skolnick, 32, of Plainview and Doris E. Rosen, 60, of Jericho were each charged with 61 alleged violations, including failure to obtain building permits, missing smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, blocking fire egress from rooms, failure to maintain and enclose a swimming pool, and keeping garbage within the residence.

No one was available for comment at the camp on Wednesday afternoon, a receptionist there said.

According to the camp's website, Mr. Skolnick, a Cornell University graduate, has worked for the TLC Family of Camps for many years, becoming the East Hampton camp's director in 2010. Ms. Rosen was also made a director in 2010. They are due in East Hampton Town Justice Court on Aug. 17 to answer the charges.

Jay Jacobs, the president of the TLC camps, was not charged, according to the town.

The town said in its statement that the action Wednesday followed an investigation. The search warrant was executed by the town Ordinance Enforcement Department, town police, and Fire Marshal's Office.

"Most of the house had been altered without the required building permits or inspections, making for a dangerous living situation, the town said. The legally four-bedroom house had been expanded to eight bedrooms, all with bunk beds. Among the charges leveled against Mr. Skolnick and Ms. Rosen was the house had been improperly converted to a dormitory and that exit windows had been blocked by air-conditioners. There were five more vehicles observed on the property than allowed for a rented property, the town said.

The Springs Fisherman’s Fair, a tradition that traces its origins back over eight decades, happens on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the grounds of Ashawagh Hall.

The event is the Springs Improvement Society’s annual fund-raising event for the hall, which hosts farmers markets, art shows, and community events throughout the year. The money raised at the fair is earmarked for the building’s maintenance and the society’s scholarship program.

As always, baked goods, jams, and jellies will be for sale, along with a seafood combo, sweet corn, hot dogs, and, of course, clams — in pies, on the half shell, and in chowder.

This year’s fair, however, represents a break with tradition. “We have had an ice cream truck before, but this is the first time that a majority of food items are going to be from outside,” Loring Bolger of the Springs Improvement Society said. The vendors include the Long Island Pickle Company, Dutch’s Spirits, Hamptons Brine, Peter Ambrose catering, and the Montauk Brewery.

The society is also working in conjunction with the Springs Presbyterian Church this year. The church will offer its air-conditioned rectory as a place to eat and relax.

There will be arts, crafts, and children’s games, said Kristi Hood of the Springs General Store, an organizer of the fair. “It’s a really fun day.”

Plants, produce, and merchandise specific to the event, including a T-shirt designed by Peter Spacek and an Abby Abrams-designed poster for the 48th annual Springs Invitational Art Show, taking place concurrently inside Ashawagh Hall, will be offered. Older posters for the show will also be available.

A children’s area, run by Officer Kim Notel of the East Hampton Town police, will have a slide, a climbing wall, and games. A fire truck and an ambulance from the Springs Fire Department are expected to be on display for children’s perusal.

The East End Classic Boat Society will unveil its 2015 raffle prize, a Pooduck skiff that it has been constructing for the last several months, and sell raffle tickets for the craft. The 13-foot skiff includes a trailer, lateen sailing rig, and oars.

Donations are still needed for the bake sale. Those interested in offering baked goods have been asked to bring them to Ashawagh Hall by 9 a.m. on Saturday. Volunteers have also been invited to provide short breaks for those staffing booths, Ms. Bolger said.

He’s not quite one in a million, but it kind of felt that way.

The Wainscott School District has hired a new teacher, Mark Carlson of Hampton Bays, who was chosen from a pool of about 1,700 applicants for one job, which became available when Dorry Silvey retired in June.

The Star reported in April — when Wainscott had received a mere 1,200 résumés — that, according to a spokesman for the Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services, the elementary school job market was “pretty flooded.”

By the time the figure hit 1,700 applicants, Mr. Carlson had heard the numbers. “To say it that way . . . it sounds overwhelming,” he said on Tuesday. “I’m very blessed, and I’m very fortunate to have this opportunity.”

Mr. Carlson, 35, is a certified elementary teacher who holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s degree in special education, both from Southampton College. He is currently enrolled in a certification program called TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages). He comes from the Southampton School District, where he was a teacher assistant for four years. Prior to that, he worked in Eastport-South Manor and East Quogue.

“I’m looking forward to just getting started and really developing relationships with the children and with the community as a whole,” Mr. Carlson said. “It’s such a small school that it’s very important that I develop those relationships with those kids and their families.”

Small, indeed. As the new second and third-grade teacher, Mr. Carlson will have a class of eight this year. He has experience teaching multiple grades, having taught fifth, sixth, and eighth graders together in a special-education classroom.

That part of his background appealed to Stuart Rachlin, Wainscott’s superintendent. “With our setup — two grades, with potentially four grades’ span in abilities — someone who has taught in heterogeneous settings has a huge leg up over others,” Mr. Rachlin said, adding that Mr. Carlson “has a calm demeanor, pleasant smile, and interacted wonderfully with the children when he did his demonstration lesson.”

Not only was Mr. Carlson one in 1,700, he is also most likely the first full-time male teacher in the Wainscott School’s 285-year history, according to the superintendent.

Mr. Carlson and his wife, Jessica, who is originally from Montauk, have two young daughters. In addition to all his other experience he has coached lacrosse and football, which he said will be on hold until he adjusts to his new job. He enjoys teaching math and science the most, he said, incorporates technology whenever possible, and likes to get students up out of their seats and moving around.

When he was a boy, his said, his own teachers could have done a better job with him.

“I was very outspoken. I liked to get up and walk around, talk to everyone. I was just a boy that liked to have fun,” he said. “My teachers would send me out of the classroom a lot and write it on my progress reports. The way it was handled encouraged me to not want to teach that way.”

“Once I started student teaching and tutoring at different schools on the East End, I really felt at home. I said, this is how I want to spend my life.”

Before his death in 2005, Peter Jennings was a key supporter of the Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center, and he and his wife, Kayce Freed Jennings, held a fund-raiser called Jazz at Jennings at their house for many years.

It had been even longer still since the last Jazz at Jennings benefit took place, but in June, Ms. Jennings brought back the fund-raiser — this time called Jazz for Jennings and held at the Watermill Center — to honor both Mr. Jennings and his commitment to the Bridgehampton Child Care Center.

The event raised close to $200,000. Now, the center has announced how it will be using some of its proceeds. Bonnie Michelle Cannon, the center’s executive director, said Friday there will soon be a new playground and a music program. Add to that an additional grant from AT&T’s New York State division that will help the center expand its college and test preparation program for teens, and the summer of 2015 appears to be a pivotal one for the center.

Ms. Cannon said the center’s programs and improvements are aimed at complementing what is already happening in the schools.

Some $40,000 to $50,000 will go toward the new playground, though that figure does not include installation and the rubber play surface that will accompany it. The Danish company Kompan, which also manufactured the playground at Agawam Park in Southampton, is building the equipment.

“There’s thought behind it. It will help the children with their growth,” Ms. Cannon said, calling it “a change that we need to make” because of how safety requirements and physical education practices have changed over the years. The existing playground is more than 15 years old.

A storage shed will also be built, freeing up space in one of the educational buildings on campus. That space will then be used to house a music program that will feature a keyboard studio with soundproof walls. The Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church will contribute some of the keyboards for the program.

“There are studies that have shown how the fine arts are instrumental in academic success,” Ms. Cannon said. “A lot of our educational institutions have been scaling down on music. . . . This is another way to make sure that our kids will be successful in their studies.”

The new playground and keyboard studio can be seen at the center’s Aug. 21 open house from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at 551 Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike.

With the help of a $10,000 grant last year from AT&T, the center launched an SAT preparation workshop for teens in Bridgehampton and surrounding communities. After receiving another grant from AT&T last week, it will be able to expand that program to include essay writing and PSAT preparation this year.

“AT&T has a $350 million commitment nationwide to support local efforts to ensure youth acquire the skills they need to get through school and prepare for college and careers,” Marissa Shorenstein, president of AT&T’s New York State division, said on Friday. “We support programs like this one, which helps students outside the classroom and provides valuable skills. This is an extraordinary center . . . and we’re proud to be a supporter.”

The grant will cover instruction, supplies, and materials like sample tests, according to Ms. Cannon. The workshops will span six weeks and cost just $40, compared to the hundreds of dollars or more that private companies often charge for similar programs.

“For AT&T to understand the importance of this . . . and actually put some funding behind it is incredible,” Ms. Cannon said. “This helps the future of our children. . . . They believe in us and believe in what we’re trying to do here.”

The center was established in 1949 following a fire in a migrant camp in which two children were killed. Today the center serves a predominantly Latino and African-American population with widely-used programs for teens and kids ages 5 to 12 after school and during the summer.

During a hot and poorly attended meeting of the East Hampton Town Trustees on Tuesday, at which litter on East Hampton Village beaches was the primary focus, a compromise was proposed regarding the removal of trash receptacles. 

Deborah Klughers, one of the trus­tees, had implored her colleagues to continue to press village officials to take the receptacles off the beaches and place them in the parking lots, but relented when it was suggested that they be moved to the lots only at night.

The trustees own and manage many of the beaches, waterways, and bottomlands in the town on behalf of the public. On July 14, the village administrator and beach manager, who attended a trustees’ meeting at their request, defended their efforts to control litter and noted that the village had received no complaints about the state of the beaches.

With five of the nine trustees present Tuesday, Ms. Klughers displayed two photographs taken by Dell Cullum, a vocal critic of litter and of receptacles on the beaches. “This garbage was scattered all the way to the water line, east and west on the shore,” she said. “What are we going to do about this, guys?” she asked. “Does anybody want to try to change this, or are we okay with this?”

Ms. Klughers had an ally in Brian Byrnes. At night, he said, receptacles may be “knocked over by an animal, or a 14-year-old animal. If it makes its way into the ocean, then we have a bigger problem, a different problem.” Garbage is less likely to enter the water if receptacles are in the parking lot, he said. Of the beach staff and marine patrol officers, “They do a great job, I understand that,” he said, “but at nighttime, you get horseplay, animals. They can’t be there 24/7 policing this.”

The trustees’ clerk, Diane McNally, who previously cast a lone dissenting vote against a request that the cans be moved, maintained her position. “I don’t think it’s going to matter if it’s on the sand or pavement,” she said. “They’re just going to drop it where they sit and walk away from it.” Enforcement, and perhaps more frequent garbage pickups, are the only solutions, she said.

Ms. McNally referred to research conducted by Walt Disney, who is said to have calculated that an average person will not walk farther than 30 feet to dispose of garbage before discarding it on the ground. “Yeah, it looks horrible, but I don’t think it’s making a detrimental impact on our waterways. The town and village are doing the best they can,” Ms. McNally said.

Ms. Klughers moved to send a letter requesting the compromise that they be removed at night, which Mr. Byrnes seconded. Over Ms. McNally’s opposition, the board voted to make that request.

Ms. McNally also told her colleagues that Madeline VenJohn, an assistant town attorney, has been asked to review the penalties for litter. The trustees would like the fine for littering on the beach, presently $100, to match that for littering on a street, sidewalk, or other public place, which is up to $1,000.

Turning to more pleasant matter, the trustees agreed to postpone their 25th annual largest clam contest by one week and to consider moving it from the grounds of the Lamb Building in Amagansett, where they meet. They had scheduled it for Sept. 27, but moved it to Oct. 4 after learning that some participants, including John Dunne, director of the town’s shellfish hatchery, had prior commitments on that date.

The largest clam contest includes a chowder contest and guests line up for free clams, oysters, and chowder.

In some years, the contest has attracted more people than the Lamb Building and its grounds can comfortably accommodate, Ms. McNally said. She suggested the Amagansett Firehouse, the senior citizens housing complex at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church, also in Amagansett, or Ashawagh Hall in Springs as alternatives. The location is yet to be determined.

At last year’s contest, Ms. Klughers said, a 99-percent rate of recycling was achieved. “Let’s shoot for 100 this year,” she said.