Update, 7:30 p.m.: The road has been reopened. 

Originally: An accident in front of Buzz Chew on County Road 39 in Southampton has closed the road in both directions from the Princess Diner on Montauk Highway to David White's Lane, according to an alert from the Town of Southampton. 

A car reportedly crashed into a pole at around 12:45 p.m. The Southampton Fire Department responded. It was unclear how bad the injuries were, but a medevac helicopter was called to transport a patient to Stony Brook University Hospital.

Southampton Village police are handling the accident, though dispatchers said at about 3:15 p.m., they didn't know how much longer the road would be closed for. 

David Disick, who was hit by a car while riding his bicycle on the Napeague stretch on Sunday afternoon, died at Stony Brook University Hospital on Wednesday, East Hampton Town police said. 

Mr. Disick, a 77-year-old East Hampton resident, was riding his bicycle east in the westbound shoulder, facing traffic, when he "suddenly attempted to travel across the lanes," town police Capt. Chris Anderson said earlier this week. A 2015 GMC, driven by Joseph Moleti of Nesconset, hit Mr. Disick in front of the Lobster Roll restaurant at 12:12 p.m., police said. 

Captain Anderson, who confirmed the news of Mr. Disick's death on Friday, said the department was notifed by the Suffolk medical examiner on Thursday. A determination of his cause of death was pending. "We are obviously awaiting the report of the medical examiner," Captain Anderson said. 

While an investigation remained open, Captain Anderson said he did not expect the driver of the GMC to be charged or issued any citations. 

In a $5 million lawsuit against the East Hampton Village Police Department, a Wainscott couple claim they were tortured and humiliated in 2012 after being arrested for protesting during a fund-raiser for Mitt Romney at Ron Perelman's estate on Georgica Pond.

The two men, who are married, claim that their sexual orientation was part of the reason for their alleged mistreatment. They charge that their constitutional rights to free speech, due process, and their right to equal protection under the law were violated.

Simon Kinsella and David Fink, who filed their suit in the United States District Court in Central Islip on Tuesday, have also named East Hampton Village, Police Chief Gerard Larsen, Sgt. Jeffrey Erickson, Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr., Capt. Michael Tracey, four unnamed officers, and Officer Eban Ball.

The two say in their complaint that they were flying a rainbow flag in their sailboat, the Trumpeter, on the afternoon of July 8, 2012, on Georgica Pond. They were planning to display a sign that read "Freedom to Marry for All Americans." According to the complaint, they were approached by a motorboat manned by Sergeant Erickson, who, they allege, told them they were not allowed to sail in the pond. They said that the sergeant did not identify himself as an officer.

Chief Larsen, who was out of his office on Thursday, said in a July 12, 2012, article in The Star that the two men had crossed a police line on the pond being patrolled by one boat. That line, the chief said, was drawn up by Secret Service agents, who are in charge of guarding the president and serious candidates for the office, which Mr. Romney was at the time.

In the lawsuit, it is alleged that the Trumpeter was rammed by the motorboat operated by Sergeant Erickson, after which the sergeant then took control of their boat, which they allege was badly damaged.

They claim that after the boat was rammed, Mr. Fink, who was wading to shore, was shoved and held underwater by four unnamed officers, who stepped on his back, for "an unreasonable period of time." Mr. Fink was "pummeled, manhandled, beaten," the complaint reads, "and publicly humiliated, and tortured repeatedly" by the four officers.

All this, they say, was visible to the 100 or so guests at the fund-raiser.

When he spoke about the arrests in 2012, Chief Larsen painted a very different picture of events than that portrayed in the lawsuit, saying that Mr. Fink, when confronted by law enforcement, attempted to flee by swimming to shore and then refused to get out of the water, "where he allegedy waded while screaming obscenities," according to The Star.

After being arrested, the lawsuit says, Mr. Kinsella was handcuffed to a chair at police headquarters, while Mr. Fink was handcuffed to a pole. Mr. Fink and Mr. Kinsella claim that the latter was denied his medication, which he is required to take daily for an unnamed condition, and that requests for medical attention and water by Mr. Fink were ignored. It charges that when Mr. Fink, who has cardiovascular difficulties, finally received treatment, his blood pressure was over 200.

The two men were both charged with the same three counts, disorderly conduct, obstruction of justice, and resisting arrest, charges that were dismissed in early 2013, the complaint says.

Mr. Fink and Mr. Kinsella are being represented by Frederick K. Brewington of Hempstead. The suit has been assigned to Judge Arthur D. Spatt and Magistrate Judge Steven L. Locke.

A Sag Harbor driver who police said just missed hitting three pedestrians on Ocean Avenue in East Hampton Village, including a mother and her 6-month-old baby, was arrested Wednesday and charged with reckless driving and driving with ability impaired by drugs.

The mother, Zoe Wilson, who lives in the village, told police she was jogging with her baby toward Main Beach when she first noticed the Jeep Wranger, which Scott W. Smith, 38, of Sag Harbor was driving "very slowly." He looked "a bit lost," she said.

After reaching the beach, she was jogging back up the sidewalk on Ocean Avenue when she saw the Jeep again, this time parked on the grass near a big white house.

There was an older woman walking on the sidewalk near the vehicle. "All of the sudden, the Jeep began to move slowly, over the sidewalk and into a lamppost," she told police. "I jumped off of the sidewalk with the stroller to avoid being hit," she said. "The older woman also jumped out of the way. If I didn't jump out of the way, the Jeep would have hit us."

Police said Mr. Smith also mowed over a speed-limit sign. After striking the light pole, Mr. Smith put his vehicle into reverse and drove away.

He was found about a block or so away on Lee Avenue. The 2010 Jeep, police said, was in the road, and Mr. Smith was behind the wheel slumped over and unconscious. In his right hand was a can of Dust Destroyer, a compressed air product that is used to clean computers. Known as "duster," it results in a sort of high when inhaled. It is considered highly toxic if used improperly.

According to the officer who found the Jeep, when Mr. Smith came to, he was asked to roll down his window, but was unable to do so.

After several minutes, he told the officer he was coming back from the Bridgehampton Commons, and was headed to Sag Harbor. He also allegedly said that he had taken two prescription drugs, buspirone and Lexapro, both controlled substances.

Placed under arrest, he was taken to police headquarters on Cedar Street, where he consented to have blood drawn. The sample was sent to the Suffolk County Crime Lab for analysis.

Besides the misdemeanor charges, Mr. Smith is also charged with leaving the scene of an accident and failing to maintain his proper lane.

Held overnight, he was arraigned in East Hampton Town Justice Court on Thursday and was released after posting $1,000 bail.

Update, 2 p.m.: Juan P. Porras, 48, and Jose Jaime Restrepo-Perez, 41, of Springs, who police have accused of running a cocaine distribution ring, are facing bails of $500,000 and $100,000 respectively. They were arrested Wednesday after a traffic stop on Route 114 in East Hampton.

Mr. Porras was represented at his arraignment Wednesday in East Hampton Town Justice Court by Brian Francese of the Legal Aid Society, who entered a denial to the multiple felony charges his client is facing. In setting Mr. Porras's bail, Justice Steven Tekulsky pointed out that he has at least one previous felony conviction.

His co-defendant, Mr. Restrepo-Perez, has one prior conviction at the misdemeanor level. The court will appoint a a lawyer for him, since, under the law, he cannot be represented by his co-defendant's lawyer. Carl Irace stood in to act as his lawyer during the arraignment.

Originally, 10:18 a.m.: East Hampton Town police arrested two Springs men they accuse of running a cocaine distribution ring on Wednesday. The two face a minimum of 15 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charge.

Juan P. Porras, 48, and Jose Jaime Restrepo-Perez, 41, were arrested after a traffic stop on Route 114. According to police, Mr. Porras, the driver of the vehicle, was in possession of six ounces of cocaine at the time. He and Mr. Restrepo-Perez were charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance in the second degree. The charge is triggered by possession of four ounces or more of a controlled drug.

Both Mr. Porras and Mr. Restrepo-Perez were already the targets of an ongoing investigation being conducted jointly by the department and the East End Drug Task Force.

As a result of that investigation, both men have also been charged with selling large quantities of cocaine, specifically, according to the charge, two or more ounces at a time. Criminal sale of a controlled substance in the first degree is a felony that carries a minimum of 15 years in state prison.

Mr. Porras is also accused making sales of cocaine in quantities large enough to trigger additional felony charges of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the second degree, meaning he was selling a half-ounce or more at a time.

The two are scheduled to be arraigned in East Hampton Town Justice Court this morning.

Anti-hedge fund, pro-labor advocates plan to "take the Hamptons" on Saturday in protest of Gov. Andrew M. Coumo's fund-raiser at the East Hampton residence of Daniel Loeb, a hedge fund manager. 

The Hedge Clippers, a New York City group that is working to expose how billionaire hedge funders influence government and politics to increase their own wealth, will demonstrate near Mr. Loeb's Highway Behind the Pond house at Two Mile Hollow Beach at 6 p.m. East Hampton Village police said Wednesday evening that there has been no permit requested for the protest yet. 

Hedge Clippers is backed, according to The New York Times, by the American Federation of Teachers and Zephyr Teachout, who ran against Governor Cuomo in 2014. There are three buses planning to pick up protestors in the Bronx, New York City, and Brooklyn, on Saturday mornings, and another bus leaving Hempstead and picking up in Brentwood that afternoon.

"Right after the end of a legislative session where Andrew Cuomo spent his time in Albany attacking public schools and breaking his promises to working families, he's jetting off to the Hamptons for a $5,000-a-plate fund-raiser hosted by his billionaire backers," the group wrote in an announcement on its Facebook page. "We'll be there to crash it." 

VOCAL NY and New York Communities for Change are also taking part in the protest, according to Capital New York, which noted that Mr. Loeb is "a powerful charter school advocate." He is the chairman of the board at Eva Moskowitz's Success Academy and serves on the board at StudentsFirstNY. 

How busy was the July Fourth weekend? So busy that new records were likely reached in East Hampton Town, in traffic, police activity, and general chaos.

The situation in Montauk, where a quantum leap in recent years in the number of visitors who come to party at a growing number of bars and clubs is a topic of ongoing friction, was so extreme that it was the talk of the town Monday morning and at a Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee meeting that night.

The acute summer headaches have engendered talk of civil disobedience by members of a new Facebook group called Montauk Locals — people who, says its page, “do not want our town destroyed or abused by out-of-towners that have no respect for our town and the locals, workers, and beaches.”

“No matter where I went in Montauk . . . all I heard from people was how upset and angry they were. We’ve had it,” said Perry Duryea III, a member of a well-known Montauk family, who took out a full-page ad in today’s Star to send an open letter to the community articulating his concerns. “We’re just maxed out.”

Besides complaints about music pounding out of hotels and clubs, public drunkenness, and traffic tie-ups, there were the concerns of Montauk Fire Department volunteers and ambulance personnel about their inability to get past a choke point on Edgemere Road, just south of the firehouse, caused by crowds at the Surf Lodge restaurant and bar.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell took time at a town board work session Tuesday to comment on the travails of the holiday weekend, making some explicit promises to step in. The long weekend was “somewhat unprecedented,” he said, with “a large volume of activity that the police responded to” — 464 calls for police assistance over the three days. By contrast, there were 256 police calls over the Memorial Day weekend, Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc reported.

Police issued 130 citations for such offenses as traffic infractions, driving while ability-impaired, and town code noncompliance, and made 16 arrests over the weekend, Mr. Cantwell reported.

“Some of the results from the weekend are troubling,” he said in a phone interview later Tuesday. Parking problems and traffic tie-ups were acute, he reported, particularly in Montauk. “The infrastructure there was simply never meant to accommodate the volume of people that we have there on a weekend such as the Fourth of July.”

With the holiday, along with its celebratory fireworks shows at Devon in Amagansett and on the Montauk beach, falling on a Saturday this year, the police, fire marshals, marine patrol, and ordinance enforcement officers were “under great stress,” the supervisor said. Noise complaints poured in, primarily prompted by Montauk hotspots, and police issued summonses to several establishments.

“I want to remind operators: your license is subject to revocation by the town board — and we will pursue that,” said Mr. Cantwell at the Tuesday meeting, in an announcement aimed at holders of town permits to sponsor live music shows. A hearing may be held and a license pulled after three noise violations are accrued.

“We are going to review the music licensing law,” perhaps tightening the rules or eliminating the licenses altogether, Mr. Cantwell elaborated after the meeting. “I honestly feel that in some cases the system is being abused, and I think the town board has a responsibility to respond to that.”

One “particular public safety issue” occurs on Edgemere Road, Mr. Cantwell said, where patrons of a bar he left unnamed “are walking out in the street at night to get to and fro, and it’s dangerous. Somebody is going to get injured, seriously injured, at that location.” As Edgemere is a county road, he spoke Tuesday afternoon to the office of the Suffolk County executive, and sent a letter to the county Department of Public Works, which could extend no-parking areas along there.

He had received an email with a photo, Mr. Cantwell said, that “appeared to show patrons at one of the locations in Montauk urinating in Fort Pond, which is extremely troubling.”

“I want to make a plea,” he said, to business owners, who “have a responsibility” to be good neighbors and to control what happens at their establishments. “The fact that that would happen at an establishment that has staff and security is part of the problem,” he said. “Businesses have a responsibility to control their clientele.”

Fire safety codes, including a maximum-occupancy limit, and county health department regulations addressing how many patrons can be accommodated with a certain number of bathrooms and the like will be brought to bear, the supervisor said. “We are going to look very carefully at this issue,” he promised, saying that the town would work with the county on enforcement.

On the matter of enforcement, he said the board “will authorize as we need to,” overtime for police and other law officers through the summer. He said he had already informed town department heads “to bring on staff to keep this community safe.”

“We have a responsibility to enforce the law and the codes of this town and we will do everything in our power to do so,” he concluded.

“We really feel that we have no voice, that no one’s listening,” said B.J. Wilson, who started the Montauk Locals group. “Montauk is so far out of control,” the 50-year resident of the hamlet said. “There’s no enforcement.”

“Everybody’s got a story,” he said, rattling off an anecdote about an ambulance, its lights on, speeding to a call but being stopped outside the Surf Lodge so that taxis ferrying bar patrons could access the road. “There’s a bar in the Memory [Motel] parking lot,” he said. “There’s police helping drunk people cross the road. The group rentals. The taxis.”

One evening recently after work, Mr. Wilson said, a group of locals having a beer outside the Dock restaurant called out to a visitor who had dropped his unwanted ice cream cone on the ground and walked on. When asked to pick it up, he just looked at them, Mr. Wilson said. “It could have gone real ugly right there. I know you can’t do anything about people’s general attitudes.” But, he said, the town must act in an official capacity to do what it can.

Acts of civil disobedience may be warranted to draw attention to the problem, Mr. Wilson said, “because look at what we’re going through. Nothing’s being done. It’s not one thing — it’s everything.”

“We’re going to meet and discuss our options,” he said. “If it goes to local justice rather than civil disobedience, it’s going to get ugly . . . the town administration allowed this drunken debauchery.”

In his ad, Mr. Duryea wrote that “the infrastructure of this summer destination is not designed for the numbers of people coming here, and the result is a rapid deterioration in the appearance and character of the community.” With speeding taxis, crowds, and litter, the “post-midnight scene” downtown, he said, is “like a page out of ‘Apocalypse Now.’ ”

Mr. Duryea also referenced recent events such as the blocked ambulance, an assault on a Montauk merchant by a taxi driver, and residents who awoke to find a drunken stranger passed out in their house.

He went on: “Is it little wonder that fewer and fewer families are coming to Montauk? Who would want to expose their child to some of the above?”

Montauk’s attributes, Mr. Duryea said — “open space, beautiful beaches, and some of the best fishing around” — “means nothing,” he wrote, “if we are merely known as the place where you can tie one on and walk around half naked.”

Both he and Mr. Wilson said that the invasion of weekend partyers is having a negative effect on Montauk’s larger tourist economy, based on second-home owners and family vacation visits. “What I would call ‘the money people’ are leaving,” Mr. Duryea said. “They are seeing the trend, and they are leaving.”

“Put a paddy wagon down on Main Street in Montauk for a couple of Saturday nights and see what happens,” he suggested yesterday. The city of New Orleans employs that tactic to tamp down public drunkenness during Mardi Gras, he said. “I never thought I would be saying these things. But I woke up Sunday so upset; I’m a native son. I’ve seen it all, but I’ve never seen it like this.”

In a letter to the editor published in this issue, T. Baker has a long list of “a few thoughts coming off the Fourth of July weekend.”

“Me first,” he writes. “Road rage. Loud obnoxious idiots. Litter. Barking dogs. ‘I don’t care about my neighbors as long as I have fun.’ ”

“The summer of 2015 has begun,” he concludes. “This town’s in trouble.”

“It shouldn’t get out of control to begin with,” Mr. Cantwell said late Tuesday. “I want to send a message to those that are going on the edge that we’re going to do everything we can, within our power, to rein this in.”

But, he cautioned, change will not be instantaneous, and there are limitations to what government can constrain. “This is not something that happened overnight,” he said. “It’s a situation that’s been building, maybe, to the crescendo that we saw this weekend.”

Related: After Hectic Fourth of July, Besieged Montauk Residents Ponder Solutions

East Hampton Town police responded to what may well be a record number of incidents this past three-day weekend, about 190 of them reported during the 24 hours of July Fourth alone.

“It was a perfect storm,” Capt. Chris Anderson said Tuesday. He pointed to Montauk’s exploding reputation as a mecca for young partiers, along with a massive influx of out-of-towners for the hamlet’s Saturday-night fireworks show, as major factors in the spike of incidents on the holiday itself. Both this year and last, it took police over two hours to clear downtown Montauk of the cars of visitors trying to leave after the show ended.

When the Montauk Friends of Erin hold their annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the streets are also flooded with visitors, Captain Anderson said. However, crowd control for that event is augmented by over 100 additional police from other jurisdictions.

Certain programs do beef up the local police presence during the summers, such as the county’s Stop D.W.I. series, which was in place here Friday night, as reported elsewhere in this issue. New York State sends extra troopers to Montauk on some weekends, but by and large the town police are left to deal with the growing number of incidents on their own.

Officers in the field, while not allowed to comment publicly, say privately that they feel they are running from call to call, putting out fires but not really policing. The force has not grown substantively in many years, according to its annual reports. In addition, as Chief Michael D. Sarlo pointed out earlier this year, several key detectives and officers have retired, meaning some personnel have had to switch around. Among other things, such changes mean time away from the beat spent training.

Last year, when the Fourth fell on a Friday, there were 439 incidents involving a police response. This year the number jumped to 481, many callers complaining of noise, illegal fireworks, and drunken or violent behavior.

“We continue to get busier, and as the number of people coming to East Hampton grows, our challenges in managing response time, enforcement efforts, and maintaining a visible public safety presence increase,” Chief Sarlo said this week. “We are working hard to handle the influx as best we can. It is a difficult task, and we can’t be everywhere at once, but our officers are doing an outstanding job.”

Calls for emergency medical services also were high over the weekend, keeping ambulances on a loop back and forth to Southampton Hospital. From Friday to Monday, Montauk to Water Mill, crews answered nearly 100 calls.

• RELATED: Busy Weekend in Emergency Rooms

The Montauk department was by far the busiest with 32 E.M.S. calls, all of them taken to the hospital (a single call may last up to three hours, due to the long ride back in summer traffic, without lights or sirens). Montauk Chief Joe Lenahan called it “a long, frustrating weekend for my fire and E.M.S. personnel.”

In addition, Montauk firefighters stood by for the “Stars Over Montauk” fireworks display Saturday evening. Just after the show ended, word came of a possible fire at the commercial docks on East Lake Drive. It turned out to be about a bonfire, but firefighters had to fight heavy vehicle and pedestrian traffic just to reach the scene.

“We encountered between 200 to 300 people sitting and standing in the middle median from the Circle to the block at Johnny’s Tackle Shop,” Chief Lenahan said. He had to divert the trucks up Flamingo Avenue to West Lake Drive just to get to East Lake Drive safely. “I’m glad that the fire did not amount to anything, because we lost crucial time going the long way instead of going through town,” he said. “I was nervous my equipment would get compromised and someone would get hit. The people would just not get out the road.”

• RELATED: After Hectic Fourth of July Besieged Montauk Residents Ponder Solutions

The East Hampton Village Ambulance Association responded to 24 calls; the Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps answered 20 calls. The Amagansett Fire Department and the Bridgehampton Fire Department, both of which have ambulance companies, each responded to 10 calls. The Springs Fire Department was the least busy with three calls.

At the ocean and bay beaches, lifeguards were kept on their toes looking out for the 15,000 or so bathers they estimated were at protected beaches in Amagansett and Montauk from July 1 to Monday. The lifeguard chief, John Ryan Jr., said the beaches were “packed” Friday and Sunday, but less so Saturday in cloudy weather. Still, there were “constant rescues,” he said. Lifeguards flew a yellow flag, meaning use caution, for most of the weekend except for Sunday, when the flags were red, signifying dangerous surf conditions.

Mr. Ryan said ocean lifeguards were particularly busy in Amagansett, where there were a total of 31 rescues of swimmers caught in rip tides and brought safely to shore. At Atlantic Avenue, where the rip current was extremely long and strong, there were a total of 25 rescues, 18 in the protected area and 7 in unprotected areas nearby. “They were plucking kids and adults, swimmers in distress, left and right,” Mr. Ryan said.

Out in Montauk, there were 19 rescues, all at the protected ocean beaches. Also, six people were injured at the beaches during that same time period.

Beach fires on East Hampton Town beaches might soon have to be built only in containers, and not directly on the sand, if the town board adopts a law similar to one passed some time ago in East Hampton Village.

The board discussed a draft law this week, but will wait for comments from the East Hampton Town Trustees, who have have jurisdiction over most town beaches, before moving ahead.

However, with the charred remains of more and more fires littering the beaches and discoloring the sand, and a recent incident in which a preschooler burned her feet on embers smoldering in the sand, some kind of action is needed, board members agreed at a Tuesday meeting.

“When a young child is burned from the remains of a beach fire, it’s troubling — it’s a safety issue,” Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said. And, he said, there is the “issue of the accumulation of charred wood. Our beaches end up littered with charcoaled wood. It’s really not very pleasant. . . .”

In a recently adopted tack, Mr. Cantwell posted a question to constituents on his Facebook page, asking their opinions on the whether beach fires should be allowed only in containers. There were 125 responses, he said, and though various opinions were expressed, “It’s clearly a concern of the community. People care about this issue, and they care about safety, and they care about the condition of the beaches. People want a better result than we’re getting at present.”

Restrictions are an “idea whose time has come,” Town Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said. “I think we need to tighten it up a little bit, and make it safer and cleaner.” Councilwoman Sylvia Overby agreed. “It may be time,” she said.

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Recently a child was burned after stepping on a buried beach fire at Maidstone Beach. Should the Town require all beach...

Posted by Larry Cantwell on Monday, June 29, 2015

As all of the pre-summer frenzy was under way here this spring, slowly taking shape — stone by stone, row by concentric row — on a field of grass overlooking Fort Pond Bay in Montauk was a labyrinth, an ancient shape for a walking practice of contemplation and meditation.

A project of a community group called 12 Women — comprising, as might be expected, 12 Montauk women — the labyrinth was completed late last week in an area of the Edward V. Ecker Sr. County Park at Navy Road.

12 Women groups have come together in various communities all over, with a goal, local members explained, of contributing “something of beauty” to their town and environs.

The Montauk women did not know each other before forming their group in 2012. They came from different segments of the community, but many of them had adopted some form of spiritual practice.

They met once a month, at first focusing each meeting on a topic or workshop, and using rituals, like passing around a talking stick and a listening stick, to frame their time together. “It’s a commitment that supercedes all commitments,” said Laurie Cancellieri, a member.

For a while before the idea of building the labyrinth took shape, the group decided that they were the “thing of beauty,” and just gathered in solidarity, with no particular goal.

The fellowship and sharing was a healing thing, said Michelle LaMay.

The women have “become like family,” Allison Harrington said, “soul sisters.”

Sarah Conway walked a labyrinth in Mexico and so loved the experience — one that is “very grounding and uplifting, calming, and joyful,” she said — that she brought the idea to the group in Montauk.

In researching labyrinths and how they can be built, she talked not only to the designer of the one in Mexico, but to a woman who has a labyrinth on Block Island, and to labyrinth builders around the country.

The process in Montauk took about a year and a half, and, early on, included a facsimile drawn in the sand.

“We are 12 very diverse women with diverse interests and expertise,” Ms. Cancellieri said. “So whatever we need to do we can figure it out.” They motivated one another.

Ms. Harrington is a hiker and birdwatcher. Joanie Schilling is a yoga practitioner. There’s an artist and a dancer and a computer person. Susan Vitale, the ladies said, is the group’s “Mother Earth.”

And the labyrinth, said Cathy McGuire, would never have been built “if it wasn’t for Sarah figuring out how to get it from the paper to the earth.”

Several Montauk sites were considered, such as at Camp Hero, in Kirk Park, and near the lighthouse.

To test the energy of a location, Ms. McGuire learned about dousing, and took a reading of each potential site — a tradition in labyrinth building that is a way to “speak to the land,” Ms. Conway said.

“This was the strongest energy spot,” she said, standing on the windswept field at the Navy Road park. Initially, the group chose another location, but at Ms. Conway’s behest revisited the site on Fort Pond Bay. A perfect circle had been mowed into the tall grass, the women said, with a path leading to a tree.

With the help of East Hampton Town Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, the women got permission to build the labyrinth there.

Dousing was used to pinpoint the labyrinth’s center, where a tall mullein plant happened to be growing.

The shape was laid out with a long rope, and the paths — seven lanes in four quadrants — were marked with flags. To begin, each woman gathered a collection of 35 rocks.

Ms. Conway said she is “grateful to my 12 Women sisters for embracing the project with me and bringing it to fruition.”

“The greatest thrill for me in building the labyrinth here in Montauk is watching others discover it and walk it, seeing children and adults delight in it and walk it together,” she said.

Stone labyrinths dating from medieval times have been found all over the world and were built at gothic cathedrals such as the one at Chartres Cathedral in France.

The symbol and shape has appeared in various cultures — depicting, some believe, a path to God or enlightenment. Walking the labyrinth, a sacred path, may be seen as a substitute for a pilgrimage, a devotional practice.

The quiet and calm space of the labyrinth offers a “counterbalance,” said Ms. Harrington. “For me, this type of creative and spiritual energy is a really needed respite from the money-driven self-indulgence that seems to define so much of the Hamptons in summertime. It gives me hope and restores my spirit.”

The circular shape, on a slight incline, aligns with the curve of a mowed line as the land rises at a slight hill sloping toward Hither Woods.

Entering the labyrinth, you cannot worry about where you’re going; you take each step and follow the path, trusting in the rightness of the circles you are walking, their tight turns and long sweeps, circle-backs and stretches that take you clear to the other side.

You notice the grass, its greens and carmine, the birds singing, the sun, the breeze, the variety of stones. You stop anticipating and just follow the rhythm of the circle, of the rows. You stay in the moment and all is well.

Over to the side of the park, people amble out on the old Navy pier. They walk their dogs. A plane crosses overhead. The train passes on the tracks close by. All is peaceful.

On the wide outside edge the stones, tighter together, make a perimeter boundary. In the center there are two black locust stumps to sit on and an altar of sorts, a jumble of rocks, a glitter heart on one, with tall feathers stuck in the dirt, and coins sprinkled atop, encircled by long strands of beads.

It’s a good bet that this altar will change and grow as people discover the labyrinth and leave tokens, mementos, talismans of their own.

As the grass grows, the 12 Women group members will keep the labyrinth paths cut short, a continuing commitment to come back with weed whackers in hand.

On her visits to the site, Ms. McGuire said, she has met a woman from Denmark, who said she wants to start a 12 Women group of her own and make a labyrinth; two girls from the Czech Republic who also want to get involved in a similar project, and two young men, new to meditation, who vowed to bring the practice to their corporate workplace. 

“It’s just so exciting to see people so interested,” Ms. McGuire said. “I really can feel that this is going to be an amazing, healing place.”

The labyrinth, said Louise Juliano, a member of the 12 Women group, was a “labor of love.” She believes it will inspire those who walk it to meditate and will help people “get in touch with their higher selves, to promote healing and a sense of well-being.”

The other labyrinth makers were Anna Guebli, Connie Judson, Melissa Mahone, and Stephanie Whiston.

“I think each time it will probably become a different experience,” said Ms. Harrington, who was waiting to take her first walk through the Montauk labyrinth until the 12 Women could “christen” it together. “It’s a container for everything,” she said.