An East Hampton Town police sergeant, Daniel Roman, was severely injured Friday evening in an accident on Old Montauk Highway in Montauk. 

Riding west on a 2005 Suzuki motorcycle, Sergeant Roman collided head-on with an eastbound 2012 Honda Accord being driven by Stephen Lawton Weber Jr. of Baltimore. Police said Mr. Weber had been making a left turn onto an access road to Second House Road, where Old Montauk Highway splits into a triple fork in the road, when the crash happened, shortly after 6 p.m.

A Montauk Fire Department ambulance rushed the off-duty officer to the Route 27 overlook near Cemetery Road, where he was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital, the nearest trauma center.

Mr. Weber's wife, Megan, had in the Honda's passenger seat next to him. Both of their airbags deployed. She later told her mother, who was also on her way to Montauk that evening in a different car, that she had performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Sergeant Roman at the scene of the accident. According to her mother, Kathy Kaufman, Ms. Weber is a critical-care nurse.

Ms. Kaufman said she was in a car ahead of the Webers. They were to meet at Sammy's restaurant, she said, for a wedding rehearsal dinner. She did not witness the accident. 

Ms. Weber was eventually taken to Southampton Hospital, complaining of head pain; she has since been released. Her husband also complained of pain and was treated at the scene. 

East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo thanked the Montauk Fire Department and Ms. Weber “for her quick attention to Danny.”

Sergeant Roman's wife, Julia Prince, posted on Facebook Saturday morning that he had pulled through surgery successfully, that he had no apparent head injuries, and that he was conscious. He was listed in critical condition as of noon Saturday, according to a hospital spokesman.

“Our entire department is pulling for Danny to make a full and complete recovery, said Chief Sarlo. “Many officers were at the hospital with Julia last night, and a stream of guys are in and out today. He is lucky to be alive—he spent much of the night in surgery—and right now is in good spirits and the prognosis looks pretty good.” 

Sergeant Roman is the lead officer of one of the five squads that patrol East Hampton Town and has been on the force for 14 years.

The chief said “The outpouring of support from our fellow officers and their Departments has been tremendous and much appreciated by us, as well as Julia and his family.”

With Reporting by Taylor K. Vecsey

It will be another three weeks before a federal judge decides whether new access restrictions at East Hampton Airport can take effect. In the meantime, it will be business as usual at the airport.

On Monday morning East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell and Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, with lawyers for the town, met in Central Islip with District Court Judge Joanna Seybert, along with attorneys for a coalition of airport users and aviation business groups that sued the town over the restrictions.

The plaintiffs had applied for a temporary restraining order against the new laws, which were to have been imposed beginning Tuesday.

Instead, the judge will rule June 8 on a preliminary injunction, which could involve a hearing with arguments.

Robert Schumacher of the United States Attorney’s office represented the Federal Aviation Administration, which asked the judge for the delay in order to review the restrictions.

Mr. Cantwell and Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said the two sides met with Judge Seybert for about 45 minutes. Various aspects of the airport issue were discussed, they said, and the judge asked for three weeks to make a determination. “We agreed to that time schedule,” the supervisor said.

Town officials had hoped to have the laws, including an overnight airport curfew, in place before the Memorial Day weekend. Planes that fall into a “noisy” category would be limited to one takeoff and one landing a week from now through September and subjected to an extended curfew.

The town board enacted the three airport use laws last month to address the impacts of aircraft noise in response to continued complaints from across the East End, particularly about helicopters. An outright ban on helicopter use of the airport during the summer season was proposed, but dropped.

Opponents charge that the restrictions fall outside the town’s jurisdiction and F.A.A. regulations, and will have a detrimental effect on business.

East Hampton Town Police Sgt. Daniel Roman, who was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital Friday evening after a motorcycle accident in Montauk, was in fair condition Monday night, the hospital reported.

The East Hampton Town detective squad is wrapping up its investigation of the two-vehicle collision on Old Montauk Highway, which left Sergeant Roman with life-threatening injuries. According to an email sent out by Chief Michael Sarlo at noon on Tuesday, the driver of the 2012 Honda Accord that hit Sergeant Roman's 2005 Suzuki is being issued a citation for failing to yield the right of way. "It appears to be a simple case of the driver not being familiar with the area attempting to make a turn and not seeing the oncoming motorcycle. There are no other contributing factors," the chief said.

According to police, Stephen Lawton Weber Jr. and his wife, Megan Weber, who was in the front passenger seat, were in Montauk for a wedding and were on their way to a rehearsal dinner in the dock area when the accident occurred. The Webers are from Baltimore.

The chief expressed his gratitude to the Montauk Fire Department for its quick response and treatment, and to Ms. Weber, who immediately began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Sergeant Roman, who had hit the front windshield upon collision and bounced over the car. He has "multiple serious broken bones, including his arm, leg, hand and some vertebrae compression issues," in addition to multiple lacerations, Chief Sarlo said. 

A 14-year veteran of the force, the sergeant has headed one of the five squads of officers who patrol East Hampton Town since early 2012. Two officers were recently promoted to the rank of sergeant, Barry Johnson and Chelsea Tierney. One of the two may temporarily replace him as he recovers.

"The care Danny received has been phenomenal," Chief Sarlo said. He said Sergeant Roman's wife, Julia Prince, "is very thankful for the support and care provided, and wants everyone to know how much she appreciates the well wishes."

While voters in Springs approved the budget, they were not as receptive to a proposed capital improvement project that would have spent all or most of a $2 million reserve fund on a parking lot and other physical changes to the campus. About 56 percent of the voters rejected that proposition.

By a vote of 232 to 184, voters said no to using $2 million from a capital reserve fund for improvements such as a new parking lot for 150 vehicles, a reconfigured drop-off/pickup loop, changes to Ed Hults Lane, and more. It would not require additional taxes to be collected.

Still, the Springs School District's proposed $27.36 million budget received voter support, passing 293 to 121. Other propositions overwhelmingly passed. The district’s five-year tuition contract with the East Hampton School District was approved in a 321-to-87 vote, and the proposition green-lighting the purchase of a wheelchair-accessible van, 311 to 87.

Barbara Dayton, the lone candidate for one open seat on the school board, received 332 votes. 

Sag Harbor’s $37.55 million budget was approved 720 to 246. With that budget, the district expects to spend more on teacher salaries, library and audiovisual materials, recreational activities, and guidance services. Voters also handily approved the district’s plan to establish a $2.5 million reserve fund for future repairs, with a 709-to-243 vote.

In the race for three seats on the school board, Tommy John Schiavoni, Stephanie Bitis, and Chris Tice emerged the winners. Mr. Schiavoni and Ms. Bitis received 723 and 677 votes respectively, earning three-year seats. Ms. Tice took in 605 votes to earn a one-year term. James Sanford received 348 votes and James Ding got 243. 

RELATED: For results in Amagansett, Bridgehampton, East Hampton, Montauk and Wainscott budget votes and elections, click here. 

The East Hampton Village Board's tentative 2015-16 budget, unveiled last Thursday, includes money to extend its paid emergency medical services program so that a first responder can be on staff around the clock seven days a week.

At present, one paramedic or critical care technician, both of whom offer advanced life support care, is on duty from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., seven days a week to supplement the village's volunteer ambulance association. 

"This program has become an invaluable asset to the village and works in conjunction with our dedicated volunteers to serve all of our residents and visitors," Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. wrote in his budget statement. It will double in cost in the next fiscal year, but is expected to remain steady afterward.

In the proposed $20.53 million fiscal plan, the village's total ambulance expenditures would jump from $315,000 to $443,000.

Over all, the budget represents a spending increase of 1.1 percent. The tax rate, at $28 per $100 of assessed value, will not change from this fiscal year. The village will collect nearly $12.36 million in taxes in the next fiscal year, an increase of $87,232, or .7 percent, over this year's tax levy.

The budget also includes a village match for a grant from Suffolk County for a stormwater abatement project in the Hook Pond watershed, details of which are to be unveiled at a May 30 meeting. Other proposed capital projects include the purchase of equipment for the village's Department of Public Works and roof repair at the Sea Spray Cottages at Main Beach, which are a significant source of rental income for the village. The village will also set aside additional reserves for future fire department and ambulance purchases.

Increases in the mortgage recording tax, sales of beach parking permits, and building permit revenues are expected to boost non-property tax revenue by $154,210. The village expects to save some money by having some maintenance work performed in house, rather than contracting with an outside company. The refinancing of two bonds also reduced long-term debt, the mayor wrote.

In the last seven years, the mayor said, the village tax rate has increased less than 2 percent on average. "The Village of East Hampton has been fortunate to maintain a healthy financial outlook," he said, "while seeking to provide the level of services expected by its residents and while keeping spending at an appropriate level." He thanked his colleagues on the board as well as Becky Molinaro, the village administrator, and department heads. "We want to give back as much to the taxpayer as we can by way of revenues we incur," he said.

Also revealed at the work session was a proposed five-year capital plan, succeeding the plan that expires at the end of the fiscal year, on July 31. The plan, Ms. Molinaro said, anticipates approximately $1 million less in spending on capital projects then the preceding plan. Highlights include appropriations for construction of a roundabout at the intersection of Toilsome and Buell Lanes sometime in 2015, for which the village received a $700,000 grant from the state, and a Newtown Lane resurfacing project, as well as potential vehicle acquisitions including an ambulance and two fire trucks. Adopting the plan, Ms. Molinaro said, would allow the village board to use it as a guideline as it prepares annual budgets over the next five years.

"This is an extended-family operation," the mayor said of the proposed 2015-16 budget and five-year plan. "Hopefully it will be well received by the public."

After working without a contract for nearly two school years, teachers in Bridgehampton have a new contract following a 5-0 vote by the school board on May 6.

The contract is retroactive to July 2013 and runs through the 2017-18 school year. It includes cost-of-living increases of 0.5 percent in 2015-16 and 2016-17 and 0.75 percent in 2017-18. The teachers currently pay 12 percent of their health insurance premiums, but that will shift to 14 percent and then 16 percent over the next two years.

The contract also says both parties will begin to negotiate the new job evaluation process as soon as the new state regulations are made clear to school districts. Changes to the review process were included in the education reform package pushed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. The state budget attempted to have standardized test scores make up 50 percent of teacher evaluations, but after large numbers of students refused to take those state tests last month, it is unclear how soon the state will implement its new policy.

In Bridgehampton, more than 20 percent of students in grades three to eight refused the tests in English language arts and mathematics given in April.

According to Lois Favre, Bridgehampton's superintendent, the negotiation process was lengthy due only to "the difficulty of getting the players at the table" and not because of any major problems along the way. Both parties negotiated in good faith, she said.

"Having a contract in place immediately improves the morale and tone in the school," Ms. Favre said. "Teachers feel supported."

"The negotiations committee is happy that negotiations are over and the contract is settled," said Helen Wolfe of the Bridgehampton Teachers Association.

While one school board member, Lillian Tyree-Johnson, initially moved to approve the contract as part of a consent agenda last week, Jennifer Vinski, another board member, asked that it be voted on individually. "This is a big deal," Ms. Vinski said during the meeting.

Two board members, Doug DeGroot and Larry LaPointe, were absent at the time of the vote, which took place during a special meeting that started at approximately 7:45 p.m. The meeting's start time had been published in two different ways: on the school's web page as "immediately following the public hearing," and on the agenda with an 8 p.m. start time. The public hearing on the budget, which was attended by most of the school board, two reporters, and one member of the general public, began at 7 p.m. and lasted about 40 minutes.

A small amount of a pool chemical spilled onto the road after a pool company's pickup truck and a car collided on Main Street in East Hampton Village on Wednesday just before 8:30 a.m. 

Village Police Chief Gerard Larsen said the Beach Hampton Pools truck had been traveling west on Main Street when the driver tried to make a left turn onto The Circle, just before a Chase Bank branch. The driver of the car, which was going east, did not see the truck turn in front of him and struck it on its passenger side. The car ended up partially on the sidewalk in front of Milly clothing store.

One of the drivers was taken to Southampton Hospital. Neither of the drivers' names were released.

Initially, police were concerned about roughly two pounds of calcium chloride that had spilled onto the road from the pool truck. Chief Larsen said police contacted the State Department of Environmental Conservation for guidance and were told the spill was not hazardous. The East Hampton Fire Department helped clean up the chemical, the chief said. 

Main Street was not closed to traffic.

A 75-year-old customer was seriously injured in a Riverhead Building Supply warehouse in East Hampton when sheets of wallboard fell on him Friday morning in what police are calling “a freak” accident. The customer, George Lombardi, who is an East Hampton builder, remained in critical condition at Stony Brook University Hospital as of Tuesday.

East Hampton Town Police Capt. Chris Anderson said there was no doubt that Mr. Lombardi was lucky to be alive after at least “a couple hundred sheets fell from their stored stacked position.” Detectives investigated the accident, which occurred in one of the large warehouses at 1 Cove Hollow Road and Route 114, just before 10:30 a.m. While they have closed the investigation, they are still unsure what exactly caused the wallboard to topple over; it had not been hit by a forklift or any other vehicle.

“We don’t know what happened,” Captain Anderson said. The wallboard is stacked about 20 feet high in what are called drafts, each of which has about 30 sheets in it. The drafts are separated by a two-inch space to allow a forklift to remove some. The man and a Riverhead Building Supply employee were standing at one end of the stacked wallboards.

“There was no forewarning. The yard worker who was there was lucky himself. Another flip and he would be under it too,” he said. “It was a horrible, horrible freak incident.”

A medevac helicopter airlifted Mr. Lombardi to Stony Brook University Hospital, the nearest trauma center, from East Hampton Airport in Wainscott. Captain Anderson said he did not know the extent of Mr. Lombardi’s injuries.

“It was one of the worst accidents I’ve seen where the person was actually alive,” said East Hampton Village Chief Gerard Larsen, who happened to be nearby and responded. Chief Larsen had left work mid-morning so that he could pick his daughter up from college, and was driving down Route 114 when he saw two village police cars racing to a call. Curious, he followed them to what is known as Riverhead Building Supply Dairy Yard. Along with police officers, Riverhead Building Supply employees, and East Hampton firefighters, who had also been called, he helped lift the sheets off the man.

Though he was unsure of exactly how many of the 8-by-4 boards there were, “It had to be thousands of pounds,” Chief Larsen said. “It took two people to move each section.” One sheet averages about 70 pounds.

Though the accident occurred in the town police jurisdiction, village police assisted because the supply yard is close to the village-town line. Chief Larsen had a village police officer drive Mr. Lombardi’s wife to Stony Brook after Riverhead Building Supply informed her of the accident, he said.

“Everyone there did a terrific job — the firefighters, the paramedic, the police, the Riverhead employees,” he said. Nick Calace, a paramedic who works for the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association, was one of the first to arrive, and did a great job caring for Mr. Lombardi and directing help, the chief said.

Riverhead Building Supply’s corporate office did not respond to a request for comment.

The 150-foot communications antenna erected behind the Springs Firehouse, which surprised neighbors and prompted a rash of complaints about its safety and aesthetics, drew a crowd to the firehouse for a meeting of the Springs Fire District Board of Commissioners on Monday night.

Virtually every speaker thanked the elected commissioners and fire department volunteers who work under them for their public service but decried the lack of public discussion before the board of commissioners had the antenna put up.

“The tower’s probably going to be there to stay,” said Patrick Glennon, who heads the board of commissioners.

Placing antennas for the two-way radios and pagers used by the volunteer firefighters and ambulance corps members on the pole will provide coverage in the dead spots throughout Springs, commissioners have said, which is key to ensuring the safety of residents and volunteers. In the future, Mr. Glennon explained last week, the antenna’s height could make it possible to tie in to county dispatching systems.

The commissioners signed a 30-year contract with a company called Elite Towers, which owns the structure.

At the top of the antenna, six smaller antennas for fire district communications will be placed: two that are four feet long, two six feet long, and two at eight feet, nine inches.

Inside the structure, Mr. Glennon said Monday, space can be rented to cellular communications companies. AT&T has reportedly already applied to install its equipment there.

Elite will pay the fire district a flat fee of $1,500 a month, Mr. Glennon said, along with $3,000 per month per cellular carrier that it rents to. The company will receive the bulk of the cell companies’ rent. A maximum of five companies can put equipment inside the antenna, commissioners said.

Many in the crowd on Monday seemed ready to accept that better emergency communications, both on the two-way radios and on pagers used by the district, is needed — and even perhaps that it would necessitate a tall antenna.

But the commissioners, they said, had made no such case to the community. “The issue is . . . if this is so necessary, if this is so good for the community . . . why did it happen suddenly and without notice?” David Buda asked.

“We want to work with you, so that your needs can be met, and our concerns can be addressed,” said David Kelley, an attorney who lives on neighboring Talmage Farm Lane and a spokesperson for concerned neighbors. “We’d like to have that dialogue; we’d like to avoid litigation,” he said. 

Mr. Kelley asserted that the commissioners had run afoul of “upwards of 7 to 10 town codes that are intended to protect the environment and the people around this town.”

The fire district’s exemption for local zoning codes is not a given, he said, but must be assessed and specifically granted, according to previous case law, and in this case “will be challenged and defeated.”

Provisions of the State Environmental Quality Review Act should have been followed, he and others said, and would have dictated a look at potential harm from the antenna, and alternatives.

In speaking to his neighbors on Talmage Farm Lane, Krae Van Sickle said, “I didn’t run into anybody who wasn’t appalled by this process. I appeal to you guys to try to avoid this train wreck. We know there are alternatives,” he said, to applause.

“In the research we have done, there clearly are alternatives that would have been less intrusive,” said Mary Spitzer, a neighbor.

“The point is, did anybody do their homework?” asked Larry Mayer. He and others questioned whether the commissioners had adequately researched options for solving the communication problems before accepting the deal offered by Elite Towers.

“It’s a shame,” said Ana Nunez, a fire department member. “We would like to see what surveys were done, what areas [of coverage] are needed the most. . . .”

“When we take this office . . . we’re looking out for the tax dollars,” said Mr. Glennon. “We were looking for the most cost-effective way to do it.”

 Rachel Kleinberg, a Springs resident and the mother of an infant, who can see the tower from her backyard, thanked the commissioners for putting the antenna up. “If I need to call 911, I want that message to get to all the volunteers,” she said.

“I am torn between deep gratitude and sincere concern about the tower — and the process as much,” said Tracey Frazier, a teacher at the Springs School. “What we would appreciate is dialogue and conversation around it so that we feel we are part of the decision-making process.”

“You’re representatives; this was a fast one, guys,” Debra Foster told the commissioners. “Will you please have a meeting where you can answer these legitimate questions?”

John Darren Re of East Hampton, accused by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of passing off over 60 worthless paintings to wealthy buyers as made by Jackson Pollock, was sentenced on Tuesday, his 55th birthday, to five years in federal prison. Mr. Re pleaded guilty in December to a single count of wire fraud.

In pronouncing his sentence, United States District Judge P. Kevin Castel accepted the probation officer's recommendation that the prison term exceed the three to four years agreed upon between Mr. Re’s attorney, Annalisa Miron, and federal prosecutors. He could have sentenced the defendant to up to 20 years.

Upon his release, Mr. Re will spend three more years under monitored supervision. He was also ordered to pay $2.5 million to the government, and over $2 million more in restitution to his victims. The government is seizing the Deep Quest, a submarine-like craft Mr. Re once maintained had cost him over half a million dollars.

The F.B.I. charged that Mr. Re started selling fake Pollocks in 2001. He based his operation in Manhattan, according to court documents, but used an East Hampton provenance to convince potential buyers that the paintings were real, claiming they had been discovered in the Spring Close Highway basement of George Schulte, a restorer of antiques, after Mr. Schulte’s death.

 Included among the court documents was a letter to the judge from one of the duped buyers. John Szemansco wrote that he had lost his life savings, several million dollars, and that trusting Mr. Re was “the worst decision of my life.” He added that he is past retirement age but has had to return to work, fighting off foreclosure. He rents out rooms in his house to make ends meet, he wrote.

Mr. Re told the court in December that “sometime not too long before 2005, I acquired artwork that I bought in a storage unit in Manhattan. I was not given any information as to the origin of the artwork from the storage unit manager. Being a woodworker at the time, I had several people with expertise view the artwork. They told me that it was possibly attributed to Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.”

“Previous to that, I had been employed at a shop that was previously owned by George Schulte before he had died in 1996, of East Hampton, Springs, New York, who I thought possibly knew Jackson Pollock in the late ’40s and early ’50s.”

 “Your Honor, I’m not going to sit here and claim that making up the Schulte provenance was out of ignorance. It was out of arrogance, and my misconduct has brought shame to my family and myself, and I hurt other people.”

Mr. Re is due to be sentenced next month in State Supreme Court, Riverside, on a different charge, a felony count of failing to pay state taxes. He pleaded guilty to that charge in February.

After sentence was pronounced Tuesday he was taken to the Manhattan Correctional Center to begin serving his term. He will be sent to another federal facility shortly.