In a move that has drawn criticism from the community, the Springs School Board has appointed a new district clerk, choosing a different staff member over an employee who had served for 13 years in that capacity.

The board voted 4-1 on July 13 to install Julie Bistrian, the school’s senior accounting clerk, as the new district clerk. The move means Fran Silipo, the previous clerk, who has been working in Springs since 1999, will continue to be the superintendent’s secretary, a position she had held in addition to the district clerk’s job for 13 years.

Jeff Miller cast the lone dissenting vote, while affirmative votes came from Liz Mendelman, the board’s president; Tim Frazier, the vice president, Barbara Dayton, a brand-new member of the board, and Adam Wilson.

The vote followed an executive session that lasted close to an hour and a half. School board members do not discuss the specifics of executive sessions when they pertain to matters such as hiring, real estate acquisition, and contract negotiations.

The board has drawn criticism from members of the community who say the decision to oust Ms. Silipo lacked transparency and fairness. Pat Brabant, a 30-year resident of Springs with four school-age children, said he was shocked to learn about it.

“Through all the different superintendents we have had . . . Fran has always been there to answer questions and get things resolved,” he said. “Talking to other people in the school district who have been there a lot longer than I have, people are really upset.”

Mr. Brabant said he had nothing against the new district clerk, but that “it’s tough when you don’t know what’s going on. Fran did a great job. She is the heart of the school.”

Ms. Silipo declined to comment on the board’s action, saying only that she was not given a reason for the change.

Reached by phone yesterday, Ms. Mendelman declined to discuss specifics, saying only that “the district clerk is an annual appointment, and the board decided to go in a different direction.” Ms. Silipo, she said, “is still the superintendent’s secretary, which is a very critical role for the school district.”

Visitors to the Amagansett Presbyterian Church’s 102nd summer fair on Saturday may be surprised at the progress made in the rebuilding of the church’s Scoville Hall, which was destroyed by fire in 2011.

“Everything is lining up beautifully,” the Rev. Steven Howarth said on Tuesday as workers neared completion of the Meeting House Lane building’s exterior. “The construction has gone without a hitch.” The project is on track for a December completion and will finish at or below its projected cost, he said.

The new structure sits on the same footprint as the original, which was dedicated as the church’s parish house in 1925 and later named for the Rev. Clarence Beecher Scoville, who led the congregation from 1919 to 1943. While its exterior recalls the original, its interior will reflect the church and community’s current and future needs.

“We wired it so the whole building, including the elevator, could be powered by a generator, and we’ve installed showers — thinking that there is no hurricane shelter in Amagansett,” Mr. Howarth said. “And then, a community resident stepped up and donated a generator sufficient to power the entire structure. We’ll have power, showers, and a safe structure in the event of a hurricane, which is especially important in Amagansett considering how low Beach Hampton is. We’re delighted to be able to do that.” 

Above a basement, which will be used for storage, the first floor will house meeting rooms, a kitchen, the minister’s study, and a reception room, which will open to a terrace. The second floor, with cathedral ceilings, will house a dining and banquet hall. All levels will be accessible by the elevator.

Many of the groups that met in Scoville Hall will return, Mr. Howarth said, including several 12-step groups, two Masonic lodges, and a congregation of the Church of the Nazarene. “Over the winter, we were hosting 19 groups a week in our little church building, which wasn’t designed for that,” he said. “We’ve had interest from local farmers, and local food producers who need a commercial kitchen.”

A wedding reception has already been scheduled, he said. “It delights us, because it’s a bayman’s family — folks looking for something that was truly affordable, which wasn’t available.”

Scoville Hall was engulfed in flames in the early morning hours of Oct. 15, 2011. More than 100 firefighters from five districts fought the blaze. Mr. Howarth, who serves in the Amagansett Fire Department as chaplain and firefighter, was in Connecticut with his wife, on their way to a vacation in Massachusetts, when the building was destroyed.

A three-year dispute with Peerless Insurance, a subsidiary of Liberty Mutual Insurance, followed. The disagreement drew the intervention of Barry Slotnick, an attorney who owns a house on Meeting House Lane. A settlement, reached last October, was $422,000 greater than the insurer’s initial offer; Mr. Howarth called it close to a realistic estimate of the cost of replacement.

Nonetheless, he said, the church remains short of what is needed to complete the reconstruction. “Our small congregation has really stepped up,” he said. “The church itself has put in about $400,000. But we’re still about $325,000 short.”

Along with the children’s games, pony rides, petting zoo, homemade crafts, plants, baked goods, and other offerings at the fair, which starts at 10 a.m. on the church’s grounds, a booth will provide information about Scoville Hall and its ongoing fund-raising needs. “The fair is cool,” Mr. Howarth said. “Some of the games haven’t changed in generations, which is part of its charm, but the Super Raffle has.”

With tickets ranging from $5 to $20, the raffle, in its 23rd year, offers a wide range of prizes from electronics, beach, and kitchen items to a wide variety of gift certificates, services, and lessons. “It’s a pretty remarkable list of donations from local businesses,” Mr. Howarth said, “with charming, old Americana games and rides for kids. A real mix.”

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.

Whether a 7-Eleven, or anything else for that matter, opens in the former Villa Prince Ristorante in Amagansett is off the table, and on the back burner, after a hearing in front of the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals Tuesday.

The owner of the property, Richard Principi, entered into an agreement with 7-Eleven to convert the long-vacant building to a convenience store operating under the chain’s rubric in February of this year, after many months of discussions. He was before the board on Tuesday to appeal a 2014 decision by Tom Preiato, the former chief building inspector for the town, that requires site plan approval from the town before any changes to the building can be made.

The presentation made by Mr. Principi’s representative, Alfred Amato, never seemed to get off the ground during the less than one-hour hearing. Mr. Amato presented the board with a half-inch-thick stack of documents before the meeting began, said the board’s chairman, John Whelan, and then accused the board and the town of withholding documents from him.

In response, Elizabeth Baldwin, as well as several board members, told Mr. Amato that he needed to come to the board’s office and examine the files.

The board raised multiple questions about the property. One issue was the question of illegal clearing that was said to have been done at some point between 2007 and 2010. Mr. Amato asked how the town could know that, to which Ms. Baldwin responded that the town has aerial photographs.

Whether the subdivision that created the property was ever finalized was also discussed, as well as the question of whether changing the site from a restaurant to a convenience store constituted a change of use under the town’s code.

Mr. Amato also challenged a town law that requires a special permit for what it defines as “formula stores.”

Several Amagansett residents were on hand, as was Frances Cirillo, the owner of Cirillo’s Market I.G.A., which is two properties west of the Principi lot.

“I was on the planning board from 1988 to 1998. Every time this property came in, we always thought we would see the paperwork. We never got our hands on it,” Pat Mansir told the board.

Rona Klopman held up a photograph of the parking lot in front of the vacant building. The lot was filled with cars, as it is on a daily basis. According to Ms. Klopman, Gurney’s Inn is leasing the lot, where, she said, its employees park before being bused to the resort on Old Montauk Highway.

In the end, the only thing the board and the applicant could agree to was that all concerned needed more time to examine documents and that the public hearing should be continued at a future date.

While technically that could happen as soon as 60 days from Tuesday, the reality is, Mr. Whelan explained, the board’s calendar is filled through October.

To experience summer on the South Fork is to witness the flaunting of materialism and, sometimes, unfathomable wealth. But if the efforts of Dan Lauter and Donna Soszynski-Lauter are successful, residents and visitors may one day experience treasures of an entirely different sort.

Mr. Lauter and Ms. Soszynski-Lauter, former residents of Amagansett who live in Chappaqua, N.Y., are assisting Lama Migmar Tseten, a Tibetan monk who is the Buddhist chaplain at Harvard University, in the search for a site at which to establish a temple and retreat center. With a donation of land, the South Fork would have a place at which the “three jewels” of Buddhism — the Buddha, the dharma (the teachings of Buddha), and the sangha, or community of practitioners — could flourish.

One who becomes a Buddhist is said to take refuge in the three jewels, as Mr. Lauter and Ms. Soszynski-Lauter have done. They met Lama Migmar several years ago at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, Mass., where he was teaching a program on Medicine Buddha, a Tibetan spiritual healing practice. “We made a nice connection with him,” Mr. Lauter said, “and started to talk about what seemed to be a void with this type of authentic lineage in the metropolitan area.”

In New England, Lama Migmar leads groups focused on Tara, a deity that in Tibetan Buddhism has 21 forms. Mr. Lauter and Ms. Soszynski-Lauter launched a satellite group in Chappaqua, which Mr. Lauter called a great way to introduce people to Buddhist teachings. More recently, in a discussion of the transitory nature of campus communities, Lama Migmar was “kind of lamenting that there wasn’t a real­ sangha community that sticks together and grows,” Mr. Lauter said, and asked the couple if they would be interested in helping to establish a permanent temple and retreat center. “When he said he was interested in the East End of Long Island, it sounded like an ideal place for a lot of reasons,” he said.

The tranquillity and natural beauty of the South Fork, the couple felt, was one reason, its proximity to the New York City metropolitan area another. “Lama asked us to set up a Tara group in New York City,” Mr. Lauter said. “That could also act as a feeder” for a retreat center here.

“We have found that when you have somebody like Lama, who’s very present, there is a real authentic and profound teaching,” Ms. Soszynski-Lauter said. “Also, Lama is very knowledgeable, articulate, intelligent, grounded, and accepting, and can help you break the concepts down. He’s written quite a number of books, and he travels a lot. He’s used to different audiences and interacting with people.”

“To have that kind of presence is pretty special,” Mr. Lauter agreed. When the lama attends the Tara group in Chappaqua, he said, “It makes a big difference to have somebody like that as a central figure. There’s a direct connection when you’re in the room with him.”

For his part, Lama Migmar expressed admiration for his students. “They are now yogis,” he said of Mr. Lauter and Ms. Soszynski-Lauter. “They are daily practitioners. They have opened their home to the Tara meditation group, which is difficult to do.”

A temple and retreat center on the South Fork, he said, would serve as a base for “meditation, prayers, and mindfulness. Spiritual practice.” Human life is complex, he said. “We have many needs — we have sickness, poverty, different karma,” or the sum of actions in our present and past states of existence. With spiritual practice, he said, one can “empower one’s self, bring more strength and confidence, subdue negative forces, and ultimately achieve enlightenment.”

For spiritual seekers, “It’s said that the teacher finds you,” Mr. Lauter noted. “We met with Lama Migmar, and it’s been a deep connection.” Taking refuge, Ms. Soszynski-Lauter said, is about “love and compassion for all sentient beings. That’s the core, loving-kindness.”

Just as they established a Tara group in Chappaqua, Mr. Lauter and Ms. Soszynski-Lauter hope that their outreach efforts will begin the process of establishing a temple and retreat center. “Our goal is to get the word out to people, in the hope that they will help through direct land donation, or to assist us in our efforts to make the proper connections to help donation outreach,” Mr. Lauter said. “This would be so helpful to the process.”

“It’s not about us,” Ms. Soszynski-Lauter said of the effort. “It’s about building a community.”

At a time when East Hampton Town residents have been demanding strict enforcement of the laws intended to stop illegal rentals and questionable business expansions, word has been received that the so-called 2-percent cap on how much the town may increase property taxes will be less than 1 percent next year unless a majority of the town board votes to pierce it.

The New York law designed to rein in property taxes limits tax increases to either 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. According to information from the New York State comptroller Monday, the limit on how much municipalities may increase taxes next year will be .73 percent, compared to an allowed 1.56-percent increase for 2015.

Even as Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, at a town board meeting Tuesday, said that efforts “to maintain and protect our community” will require “major resources” and “major funding,” he said the “tax cap formula for next year is going to be very limiting in terms of trying to provide services that are being demanded. The board will have to weigh how we are going to fund” public services, “especially in the area of enforcement and public safety.”

The permissible increase for next year would allow town taxes to rise by between $700,000 and $750,000, Len Bernard, the town’s budget officer, said on Tuesday. However, a “growth factor” calculation, based on increased property tax assessments in the town, and a tax increase allowance of $315,000 to be carried over from this year, will mean that a town tax increase for 2016 of about $1.1 million will be allowed, Mr. Bernard said. That amount shows a 35-percent decrease from 2015.

With a town budget of $71.5 million, and annual increases in the New York State Health Insurance Program through which the town covers employees, there is not a lot of wiggle room, the budget officer said. Next year’s health insurance increases are being estimated at between 6.4 and 8.6 percent. In addition, the town’s contracts with its labor unions require salary increases of 2 to 2.5 percent.

“Something seems inherently wrong with a system that produces these scenarios for local governments,” Supervisor Cantwell said in a press release yesterday. “At a time when our residents are looking for significant increases in our enforcement of local laws and more police and code enforcement staff to address quality-of-life issues in hamlets like Montauk and Springs, we are being told by the state that in order to do so, you may have to pierce the levy cap that is half what it was originally intended to be when the law was passed,” Mr. Cantwell said in the release. According to the state legislation, a town board can override the limit on the tax levy with the approval of three-fifths of its members. School districts, on the other hand, which are also affected by the cap, must obtain the approval of 60 percent of district voters to override the cap.

“I raise this issue because there are challenges to be faced in the upcoming budget,” Mr. Cantwell said at the town board meeting.

At 3 a.m. on Saturday, when Kimberly Esperian woke up “by the grace of God” to get a glass of water, she looked out the window and noticed bits of ash falling. She walked onto her porch and was shocked to see sparks raining down against the black sky.

“What the hell is that?” she thought. She grabbed a hose and doused the fire. The source turned out to be a Chinese lantern almost three feet high, one of the rice paper and bamboo balloons beloved of beachgoers.

The candle left a black mark on her shingles.

“I look up and the frickin’ thing is on fire on my roof!” she said. “It was like a spaceship up there!”

Ms. Esperian lives on Second House Road in Montauk, parallel to Fort Pond and a mile north of Kirk Park Beach. On the Fourth of July weekend, she had discovered a red, white, and blue lantern tucked into her privet. The metal rods were still hot, she said, hours after it landed.

She had heard of these lights settling on neighbors’ roofs, but this was the first time she had laid eyes on them, let alonespotted two on her property a few weeks apart.

The lanterns add yet another item to the list of destructive merriment caused by weekend partiers in the easternmost hamlet. The danger they pose has actually been a topic of discussion for several years. In 2012, New York State declared them a “recreational fire.”

“So as soon as you let go of them, they are now an unattended fire, which would make them a violation of the fire code,” said David Browne, chief fire marshal of East Hampton Town. Violators could be presented with a fine of up to $1,000.

Ed Michels, the chief harbormaster, worries about the lanterns “getting into the beach grass or into the house. If it goes out to sea, it’s fine. But they’re not going to set them off at night and look at the wind direction.” Sometimes the lanterns float toward land.

Over the years, they have made contact with several buildings while their candles continued to burn. In 2012, one started a fire atop Montauk’s Albatross motel, and another was found tangled in a power line. That same year, Mr. Browne’s department handed out memos to local businesses selling the lanterns, noting the new state classification. However, selling them is not illegal — only untethering them is.

There have been several attempts at the town level to make the state rules even stricter. Former Supervisor Bill Wilkinson urged the town board to adopt a law forbidding their use altogether, but red tape at the state level killed the proposal.

Now, years later, dozens of lanterns continue to glow on summer nights. Over the weekend of the Fourth, beaches lit up with floating lamps ascending into the sky.

While most instances have occurred in Montauk, the issue is not confined to that hamlet. A letter to the editor in this issue of The Star rehashes a tiff between the writer and her neighbor in Amagansett, who wanted to release a lantern.

“They’re still out there. It’s still happening,” said Mr. Browne this week. He has not seen anyone ticketed, though. Packed beaches make it difficult to spot individual violators, he said. “The question has been catching them when they’re lighting them. By the time you get down to the beach, they’re gone.”

Mr. Michels said the same. “They’re very hard to control. Unless you watch them do it, who did it? Especially in the dark.”

The Marine Patrol hands out summonses and walks the ocean beaches to spot wrongdoers, who, Mr. Michels acknowledged, likely do not know that releasing the lamps breaches the fire code. Patrols have pinpointed only a handful of violators since 2012, with just a single person ticketed so far this season.

Mr. Michels said there have been fewer lanterns this year than in the past, though several residents have recently found crumpled remnants on their property. For several days last week, Joan Palumbo, Ms. Esperian’s neighbor, watched a white plastic bag caught on her roof before a storm on July 15 propelled it to the ground. Ms. Palumbo was enraged to realize it was a Chinese lantern, displaying a burn hole the size of a small apple.

She immediately filed a complaint with ordinance enforcement, stating angrily that “In the name of fun or mystical naval lint picking I do not wish to be burned alive as I try to sleep.”

“It’s like a battle zone,” she said, using an obscenity. “Nobody wants to blame the perpetrators. It is really chaotic and freaky. It’s getting worse.”

Ms. Esperian herself did not call ordinance enforcement or the police, given her exhaustion at 3 a.m. “There’s so many problems in Montauk, I don’t want to add to them,” she said this week.

David King, the Springs fire chief, keeps a tight watch on the department’s Facebook page, especially after an unexpected post implied poor conduct.

A reader once uploaded a photo of a fireman on the scene without turnout gear, the necessary suit and equipment to combat fires. Chief King surmised the picture could have been taken hours after the fire was extinguished, but out of context it evoked sloppy protocol and unprepared firemen.

Now, Chief King refuses to post content that may be misconstrued and does not grant just anyone permission to publish. He sticks with photos that portray positivity, like summer barbecues and department awards. He is convinced no one saw the unfortunate post, but in case it happens again, he does not want someone to think, “Jeez, this is normal operating procedure for you guys?”

In an attempt at transparency, a number of East End police and fire departments and public figures have begun using social media to reach and appease residents. Some have been particularly taking advantage of it since the recent uproar over Montauk’s party scene. Yet, by embracing these outlets, they have also made themselves vulnerable to criticisms and misconceptions.

Michael Sarlo, the chief of the East Hampton Town Police Department, oversees its Twitter and Facebook pages himself, using them to highlight enforcement efforts and provide traffic updates or report on incidents. He also lists the number of arrests, summonses, calls, and citations over a certain period of time in a given location.

37 town ordinance, 16 parking & 24 traffic citations, and 5 arrests made in Montauk overnight.

— EHTPD (@EHTPD1) July 12, 2015

“I’m hoping it’s reaching the people who are coming to visit us to see ‘Wow those guys out there are writing a lot of tickets.’ So it’s hopefully somewhat of a deterrent as well,” he said.

One such post from July 11 provoked anger and an ensuing Twitter spat from Ditch Plains Taxi, which replied, “as law enforcement, this is very unprofessional to use social media to this capacity.” They then linked the department’s tweet to their own Twitter page and wrote the department was boasting “about ticketing the public.”

In a rare move, Chief Sarlo decided to respond. He doesn’t believe Twitter serves as the proper forum for discussion and, like Chief King, is careful to screen for possible misinformation.

“Thank you, law enforcement uses information sharing to help deter offenses, not boast,” read his response on Twitter.

“Save it for the blotter in the @EHStar this is low class and unprofessional,” replied Ditch Plains Taxi. The conversation ended there.

Larry Cantwell, the East Hampton Town Supervisor, created a Twitter account in May, and has already received some Twitter bashing as well. On June 5 he tweeted, “@uber cab partners need to be licensed like the 300 local cabs already are in #EastHampton.” Many agreed with Mr. Cantwell, but others called for him to “rethink the laws” and make the town safer by supporting Uberin East Hampton.

Jolene Sugarbaker tweeted back, “@LarryCantwellEH Consumers have spoken, we demand this service! Get off your Political High Horse, Major Cities have accepted just fine.” She continued to tweet several times, accusing Mr. Cantwell of allowing drunken driving on the road.

For Mr. Cantwell, Twitter is not his main social media outlet. He cares more about Facebook, and is a veteran user. He established his “official” page a few years ago and still has a personal profile. Sixty-five people follow him on Twitter and over 2,000 like him on Facebook. So far, he has found that Twitter works well for reaching the out-of-towners, but unlike Chief Sarlo, he wants to focus on residents and prefers Facebook for that.

After the Fourth of July revelries in Montauk, he published a statement on Facebook saying, “The unacceptable behavior of visitors to Montauk last weekend is outrageous and clearly requires prompt and forceful action. I have directed all of our enforcement personnel to bring their full resources to address illegal activity. There are many issues to address and I am committed to do so. I want to thank the Police Department and our other enforcement departments for their cooperation. We will all work with the residents of Montauk and turn this untenable situation around.”

The post garnered 195 likes, 50 comments, and 21 shares, well above his average of 30 or so likes.

“This is me. This is Larry talking. I just want to be able to provide as much information in a timely way as I can. I feel I have a responsibility as supervisor to do that,” he said.

Chief King and Chief Sarlo agree that social media has increased awareness and helped pump up their departments’ public relations. Yet Chief King remains vigilant about gossip or inappropriate comment.

“I’m going to deal with them harshly,” he said. “Lucky we haven’t had any of that.”

“Hopefully the chief won’t ban me for starting this page,” reads the first status on his department’s Facebook page from 2010. Apparently, things went okay.

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The unacceptable behavior of visitors to Montauk last weekend is outrageous and clearly requires prompt and forceful...

Posted by Larry Cantwell on Saturday, July 11, 2015

Update: After about seven hours and involving at least a dozen fire departments from across the South Fork, a fire that broke out in a Southampton Village house on Saturday afternoon was extinguished. 

Some firefighters remained at the house, located at 50 Wyandanch Lane, until about 10 p.m. The fire started at about 12:25 p.m., when a grease fire was reported in the kitchen. The fire spread and burned for nearly seven hours. The house was destroyed. 

In the early hours, smoke billowed from the stucco house; later, flames could be seen shooting through the roof. Firefighters attacked it with water from a ladder truck. At about 5:30 p.m., the East Hampton Fire Department brought in its "crash truck," which is kept at the East Hampton Airport and can spray foam that suffocates flames. Excavators were also called in to knock down portions of the house so that stubborn pockets of fire could be reached. 

Smoke drifted around the area, including at Southampton Hospital, which is less than a half-mile away. The smell of smoke remained in the area late Saturday night. 

In all, 12 fire departments were called. More than 200 firefighters, fire police, and emergency medical technicians responded. 

During the fire, emergency workers also had to respond to other calls, including an accident in Southampton Village and a reported water rescue in North Sea. 

Lawrence Friedman, a real estate mogul, and his wife, Marilyn Friedman, bought the house in 2004 for $7 million, online records show. The house is several properties north of the ocean at Wyandanch Lane Beach. 

No further information was available late Sunday night.

Originally, 2:31 p.m.: Nine fire departments between Westhampton and East Hampton have been called to respond because of a fire that reportedly destroyed a house in Southampton Saturday afternoon. 

Firefighters from East Hampton, Sag Harbor, and Bridgehampton were called to assist the Southampton Fire Department in fighting a blaze at 50 Wyandanch Lane, which began at about 12:25 p.m.

The North Sea, Hampton Bays, East Quogue, and Westhampton Fire Departments were also called to help.

While East Hampton and Bridgehampton Fire Departments were initially called to stand by at Southampton's firehouse in case there were other alarms, firefighters were moved up to help at the scene as firefighters had to be rotated out after using up their oxygen tanks and due to the heat. As of 2:10 p.m., the Westhampton Fire Department was going to stand by at the firehouse. 

Firefighters were also called over from Shelter Island to keep watch in Sag Harbor while Sag Harbor was tied up in Southampton. 

No further information was immediately available.