Tom Knobel, the chairman of the East Hampton Town Republican Committee and a former member of the town board and town trustees, intends to challenge the incumbent, Larry Cantwell, for the position of town supervisor in the election in November. The Republican committee, which screened candidates last night, will vote on Tuesday.

“We need leadership at the town supervisor level,” Mr. Knobel, who also seeks the endorsement of the Conservative and Independence Parties, said yesterday. “I have some abilities I would bring to it. Also, I would attempt to unite rather than divide — this board has brought forth a number of divisive issues without solutions. To that end, I can offer quite a bit.”

He cited controversial matters including the downtown Montauk beach stabilization project, East Hampton Airport, and the community preservation fund as “issues that have townwide consequences.” He will outline his positions in greater detail, he said, pending his party’s nomination.

Mr. Knobel, who works for the Suffolk County Board of Elections, ran unsuccessfully for supervisor in 1997. “Obviously, every go-round has issues, and they change,” he said. “I’m looking forward to it. And as much as there’s a nervousness, I’m sure my counterpart, Larry Cantwell, welcomes the opportunity to offer his ideas. It’s nice to be able to say what you’re about.”

Mr. Cantwell, who ran unopposed in 2013 and will seek re-election on the Democratic ticket, agreed. “The public benefits from a debate and conversations in an election,” he said yesterday. “I welcome an opponent.” He is also seeking the endorsement of the Independence Party.

The Democratic Party’s screening committee, which has been interviewing candidates since March, will present its recommendations to the full committee tonight. It has recommended Mr. Cantwell as well as Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc and Councilwoman Sylvia Overby for the offices they currently hold, and has endorsed Justice Lisa R. Rana, Steven Lynch, the incumbent town highway superintendent, and Jeanne Nielsen and Jill Massa, the incumbent assessors.

For trustees, the Democrats have recommended Bill Taylor, Brian Byrnes, and Deborah Klughers, all incumbents, as well as Francis Bock, Pat Mansir, Rona Klopman, Zachary Cohen, Tyler Armstrong, and Rick Drew.

Greg Mansley, media director for the Republican committee, called Mr. Knobel’s candidacy “a breath of fresh air in a very smoky room.” As supervisor, he would represent an improvement, Mr. Mansley said. “Tom’s got a lot of expe rience. He’s quite forthright and presents both sides of a case. He really puts a lot of thought into what he’s doing before he says it. I appreciate that in a candidate as well as an individual.”

Elaine Jones, the chairwoman of the Independence Party, said that her party will await the conclusion of the Democratic and Republican Parties’ screening process before announcing endorsements. That announcement may come on Monday, she said, adding that people may be surprised by some endorsements, particularly for town trustee.

“It’s very good that they have endorsed Tom Knobel,” Ms. Jones said of the Republicans, “because it’s right that there be two choices. I’m glad that they found a supervisor candidate because I would rather see a competition. The people should have a choice.”

Lona Rubenstein, a consultant and strategist who worked on Mr. Knobel’s previous campaign for supervisor and supported Mr. Cantwell’s 2013 campaign, offered a positive assessment of the upcoming contest. “Listen to Lona — 81 is the new 40,” she said. “I just think East Hampton can’t lose with either of them. They’re both good.”

Mr. Knobel was accepted to law school, Ms. Rubenstein said, but chose to make a living as a commercial fisherman. “I always had a lot of respect for someone who made those choices,” she said.

Mr. Cantwell, she said, “has done a wonderful job. Larry has really done a good job in a tough environment — the town is becoming more like Massapequa in terms of development, population, available land. Where one time it was just the Bonackers and the people from away, there are so many interest groups involved now. The problems are more like those facing the UpIsland towns.”

In the Amagansett School District, Mary Lownes, an incumbent candidate, has served on the school board for the last 13 years. She is the mother of three children, including one attending high school in East Hampton, and is a former volunteer with the PTA and the high school’s site-based management committee. A former Sunday school teacher as well, she has helped fund-raise for the town’s junior lifeguard program. She is employed in the sales industry.

“I’m running for the continuity of our board of education plans,” she said. “I want to continue community service to my town, and continue to maintain the programming to make sure that the children of our district have all the things that my children had.”

Ms. Lownes’s challenger is Steve Graboski, a 34-year resident of Amagansett and a retired East Hampton Town police officer. Mr. Graboski now owns a construction business, Primeline Modular Homes, and is a 19-year member of the Amagansett Fire Department.

“With many years of experience dealing with the public, I am mindful of the need to be a good listener and to think independently and objectively when considering issues before me,” Mr. Gra boski said in a statement. “I feel that my diverse professional experience will be an asset to the board of education.”

Christina DeSanti, Liz Pucci, and Deme Minskoff are incumbent East Hampton School Board members who are running together to retain their seats, while John Ryan Sr., a former teacher and board member, is hoping to return to the board.

While Ms. Minskoff is a sitting board member, this will be her first time running. She was unanimously appointed to the board in October 2014 to succeed Patricia Hope, who had resigned her seat. Ms. Minskoff, 52, has served as president of the East Hampton Middle School PTA. She has a bachelor’s degree in economics, and has worked as a buyer and merchandiser. She has one child attending East Hampton Middle School and another at the high school.

“I would like to continue to advocate for more diverse educational opportunities, safe and welcoming classrooms, and making sure children are prepared for their next steps,” she said.

Ms. Pucci, herself an alumna of East Hampton High School, is also a former PTA volunteer and president. She is a mother of four, including one student at the high school. She has served on the board since July 2011. Ms. Pucci, 52, said the current board was working very well together. “I can’t say enough about how people are really stepping up and doing what they need to do for the kids. I think it’s going to continue, and I’m pleased to be a part of it.”

Ms. DeSanti, who was first elected to the board in 2012, currently serves as its vice president and liaison to Project Most, the after-school program. She has a bachelor’s degree in business management and runs a catering company in East Hampton along with her husband. Her two children attend East Hampton Middle School and East Hampton High School.

“I think we’ve been really responsible in terms of budgeting, uncovering every rock that we can find, and I think it’s finally starting to pay off,” Ms. DeSanti said. “It’s a product of the school board working together, and that’s what we would like to continue.”

Mr. Ryan, 79, a math and computer teacher in East Hampton schools for 24 years, was elected to the school board six times following his retirement. He volunteers with East Hampton Ocean Rescue and works with the junior lifeguard program. He supports the in-school swim program, and supports the idea of the­ Common Core curriculum but believes its rollout is flawed and students are tested too much.

“I feel very personally attached to the East Hampton School District,” he said. “I really feel a lot of ownership, and I think I can help. That’s why I’m running.”

A customer was said to be seriously injured at a Riverhead Building Supply yard in East Hampton when pallets of wallboard fell on him Friday morning. 

The accident occurred in one of the large warehouses at 1 Cove Hollow Road and Route 114 just before 10:30 a.m. The East Hampton Village Ambulance Association treated the male victim, as the East Hampton Fire Department's heavy rescue squad reportedly worked to free him. East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo said the man suffered "serious injuries to the lower half of his body." 

At about 10:50 a.m., an ambulance left the warehouse, taking the man to the East Hampton Airport to meet a medevac helicopter.

The man, whose name has not yet been released, was flown to Stony Brook University Hospital, which is the nearest trauma center. An East Hampton Village police officer was set to drive his wife to Stony Brook as soon as she arrived on the scene.

East Hampton Town police are investigating the accident; no further information was available.

Firefighters remained at the warehouse keeping an eye on structural damage to an interior supply rack, as police completed a report and workers moved material. 

New high-voltage electric transmission lines that run through narrow residential streets of East Hampton Village could be removed and instead installed underground, according to a recent proposal by PSEG Long Island, the utility company that installed them.

According to New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., who is among local elected officials that met recently with PSEG executives, the company has offered to bury an approximately 1.5-mile section of the line, at a total cost that has been estimated at between $5 million and $10 million, and to pay for half of the cost.

If the proposal is agreed to, East Hampton Village would pay the rest and recoup the cost by charging village ratepayers through a tax or a utility bill surcharge. The super-size poles installed for the high-voltage wires would either be replaced with standard-size poles, or topped off and made shorter.

Talks between the parties are continuing and no definite deal has been reached, said Mr. Thiele. The East Hampton Village administrator, Becky Molinaro, said Friday that "the village will not confirm or deny" the PSEG proposal, nor comment on the talks. A comment from PSEG officials was not immediately available.

The line, designed to increase system resiliency, is part of a six-mile extension between substations in the village and on Old Stone Highway in Amagansett that has been the subject of consternation and dispute. Village residents and others along the route and throughout the town have protested the installation of the lines and the large roadside poles they hang on, citing health and safety concerns over their proximity to houses as well as aesthetic concerns.

One citizens' group has sued PSEG, citing those concerns as well as environmental concerns based on the use of a toxic preservative on the poles, and a loss of property values.

Whether the lines throughout the rest of the town, which run along Accabonac Highway and Town Lane to Old Stone Highway and the eastern substation, could also be buried, is still in question. "They made it clear that this is their proposal; this isn't part of a larger negotiation," the assemblyman said of the PSEG proposal for East Hampton Village.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said Friday that "constructive discussion" is continuing among the officials and the utility, though there are "varying degrees of progress in reaching decisions" regarding work in the village and in the town.

Because the talks are "delicate," he said he is "not at liberty to discuss" the dialogue in more detail. "We're going to have to see what we can achieve, with PSEG, and the costs, and how the costs would be paid," he said.

However, the supervisor said that he is "reluctant to require every ratepayer throughout the town to pay, on the utility bill, for the cost of burying the portion [of the transmission line] in the town."

"We had a duty to bring [the proposal on the table] back to all of the interested stakeholders, which has now been done," said Mr. Thiele.

While the line installation is complete, a legal dispute between PSEG and East Hampton Town, which issued a stop-work order on the utility's Amagansett substation, the endpoint of the high-voltage line extension, has kept the service off line.

Assemblyman Thiele said Friday that he and others have kept pressure on PSEG Long Island over the high-voltage line in East Hampton, others in other Long Island communities, and other issues, such as rates and a lack of state authority and oversight of the utility.

"The leverage we have is public opinion," he said. "That has caused them to put a proposal on the table."

Officials are expected to make decisions within the coming weeks.

The State Department of Environmental Conservation announced on Thursday that due to the detection of a marine biotoxin the harvesting of shellfish and carnivorous gastropods, such as whelks, conchs, and moon snails, was temporarily prohibited in approximately 3,900 acres in the Town of Southampton.

All of Shinnecock Bay west of the southbound lanes of the Ponquogue Bridge, and all bottomlands east of the western side of the Post Lane Bridge in Quogue, are affected by the closure. The prohibition will remain in effect until further notice.

As part of the D.E.C.'s ongoing monitoring activities, shellfish collected in Weesuck Creek in East Quogue tested positive for saxitoxin, a biotoxin that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning, which affects the nervous system and paralyzes muscles. High levels of PSP can be fatal. Carnivorous gastropods feed on shellfish. They can accumulate biotoxins at levels that are hazardous to human health.

The closure follows the D.E.C.'s same action in the Town of Riverhead on Wednesday. There, all underwater lands in Meetinghouse and Terry Creeks, covering approximately 100 acres, were closed to the harvesting of carnivorous gastropods until further notice after shellfish collected in Meetinghouse Creek tested positive for saxitoxin. The harvesting of shellfish is currently prohibited on a year-round basis there.

The D.E.C.'s emergency shellfish closure information line, 631-444-0480, offers a recorded message advising of the status of temporarily closed shellfish areas. The message will be updated during the closures.

An elderly woman who had been reported missing in Northwest Woods on Monday has been found unharmed, East Hampton Town police said. 

A Silver alert, which is issued when the elderly or the disabled are missing, went out midafternoon Monday for Charlotte Silverberg, an 81-year-old who suffers from Alzheimer's disease. Police said she was last seen walking in the area of Karin Drive, off Hand's Creek Road, but it was unclear if she lived in the area. They said she is known to walk long distances and "has been found in unlocked vehicles in the past." Police offered a description of her. 

Less than 20 minutes after the alert was issued, Chief Michael Sarlo said Ms. Silverberg had been found at 2:35 p.m. Alerts that had already been in the process of being sent out continued to go out to residents, however. 

She had been missing for several hours. The Suffolk County sherrif's office assisted in the search with K-9 units.

No other information was released. 

A tractor-trailer struck a Long Island Rail Road overpass on Route 114 in East Hampton and turned over onto its side on Tuesday morning, shutting a portion of the road between Toilsome Lane and Cove Hollow Road. 

The accident occurred just before 8:45 a.m. when the driver tried to fit the trailer underneath the train trestle, and struck the bridge, according to East Hampton Fire Department Chief Richard Osterberg Jr. Before the trailer flipped onto its side, some of the roof was ripped off. Small plants and greenery spilled out of the top of the trailer onto the roadway,  and pieces of insulation were strewn about the road. 

The driver was not hurt, and refused medical attention from the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association. 

East Hampton Town police asked for the Long Island Rail Road to inspect the overpass, though Chief Osterberg said he did not think there had been any structural damage. 

The road was still closed in both directions between Toilsome Lane and Cove Hollow Road as of 9:30 a.m., while police waited for tow trucks to remove the tractor trailer.

A hearing will be held next Thursday at United States District Court in Central Islip on a bid by helicopter and aviation companies and a group called Friends of the East Hampton Airport to block the East Hampton Town Board from implementing an overnight curfew and restrictions on helicopters and other noisy aircraft.

The parties are plaintiffs in a suit challenging the legality of the new restrictions, which the board had hoped to have in place before the summer season. Aircraft that fall into a “noisy” category would be held to one takeoff and one landing per week from May through September, and the airport would be shut down from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., with extended curfew hours of 8 p.m. to 9 a.m. for the noisy planes.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which itself was sued in January by the same group of plaintiffs in an action related to the town’s new laws, is expected to support the plaintiffs in their demand for a temporary restraining order. If it is granted, according to attorneys for the plaintiffs, the new restrictions cannot be implemented, at least until theoutcome of the lawsuits is determined.

The National Business Aviation Association recently joined the action against the town. According to its website, the group is also “considering additional measures to ensure . . . reasonable and reliable access” to East Hampton Airport for its members and other aviators.

Those who are suing the town contend that East Hampton is bound by agreements with the F.A.A. to operate within certain parameters of federal aviation law and policy, and that the airport use restrictions fall outside of those bounds and of Constitutional precepts.

The January suit against the F.A.A. challenged that agency’s stance regarding the town’s obligations. According to the settlement of an earlier lawsuit against the F.A.A. by a local group called the Committee to Stop Airport Expansion, the federal agency agreed to release the town from four contractual agreements, or “grant assurances,” after 2014. That, the F.A.A. said in a 2012 letter to former Congressman Tim Bishop, freed the town from complying with certain F.A.A. procedures in developing its own airport use restrictions to reduce aircraft noise.

In a letter to Judge Sandra J. Feuerstein, Lisa Zornberg of Lankler Siffert & Wohl in Manhattan, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said an F.A.A. attorney had indicated that the agency “intends to support plaintiffs’ application” for the temporary restraining order. She asked that the lawsuits against the F.A.A. and the town be consolidated, as they address common legal issues, and said the F.A.A. had indicated it would not object. The town, she said, did not consent.

In a statement released this week, Kathleen Cunningham of the Quiet Skies Coalition called the F.A.A.’s decision to support a restraining order “unexpected and alarming.”

It suggests, she said, that the agency is unwilling to defend its settlement agreement with the Committee to Stop Airport Expansion, which underpins the town’s recent efforts to adopt airport access limits. The settlement, Ms. Cunningham said, “legally restored the town’s proprietary rights . . . and therefore is fundamental to the town’s plans to mitigate disturbing aircraft noise impacts for East End residents this season.”

“The East Hampton Town Board has adopted policy to protect the health, welfare and safety of the residents of the Town of East Hampton, as well as residents all over the East End of Long Island, as is its right and responsibility,” according to the Quiet Skies press release. “The board worked in a transparent and comprehensive way, which led to the adoption of policy to protect the public from the adverse health, environmental and economic impacts of aircraft noise, while supporting a safely maintained, recreational airport.  To go back to try to undo the foundation of these policies is the worst sort of big government interference. And, for whom?  Some out of state helicopter companies that are unhappy that they cannot have 24/7/365 access to our community.”

“The Friends [of the East Hampton Airport] are trying to compel the F.A.A. to go back and negate the settlement now that the town is rightfully and lawfully acting as airport proprietor because they don’t want any limits on their ability to make planeloads of money at our expense,” said former Town Councilman Pat Trunzo III, a Quiet Skies member, in the release.

Congressman Lee Zeldin, who replaced Tim Bishop and is the newly appointed vice chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation, wrote recently to the F.A.A., calling for the agency to stand by its previous assurances regarding the town’s rights to regulate the airport, provided no new federal airport grants were accepted.

“East Hampton is setting the stage for years of costly litigation by attempting to implement severe operating restrictions at HTO,” Steve Brown, the National Business Aviation Association’s chief operating officer, said in an article on the group’s website.

“East Hampton is part of a national system of airports, and operational restrictions like those under consideration present a threat to the nation’s air transport system that transcends local communities,” Mr. Brown and others had written in a letter to the town. “This is a critical element in the survival of our nation’s system of airports and one the town can expect will be vigorously defended.”

Affordable housing, particularly its scarcity, is among the most pressing issues facing the South Fork’s year-round residents. While revenues from the Peconic Bay Region Community Pre­servation Fund’s 2-percent transfer tax — $22.6 million in the first quarter and over $1 billion since its inception in 1999 — demonstrate a thriving real estate market, the shortage of housing available to low and moderate-income residents has broad implications.

In the five East End towns, where 60 percent of all housing units are seasonal, many young adults cannot afford to live in their hometown. The pool of potential recruits for emergency services is shallow, and employers have difficulty finding and retaining staff. Many houses are crowded with multiple families and residents, and labor coming from less expensive areas contributes to traffic and congestion.

Relief, however, may be on the way. Last week, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. introduced legislation that would authorize the five East End towns to create a work-force housing fund to help residents achieve homeownership. Residents at or under 120 percent of Suffolk County’s median family income would be eligible for the program. At present, according to a release issued by Mr. Thiele’s office, that figure is $130,800.

The fund would provide no-interest loans of up to $250,000 toward the purchase of a home, restrictions allocating existing housing stock for work-force housing, and housing counseling for residents.

A $10-per-square-foot fee on residential construction in excess of 3,000 square feet would finance the fund, the creation of which would be subject to a mandatory referendum. That surcharge — $40,000 for a 7,000-square-foot house, for example — would be included in a building permit fee.

Loans for affordable housing would be repaid to the fund upon the resale of a house and in an amount equal to the proportion of the loan to the original purchase price. As an example, if the fund provided a $200,000 loan toward the purchase of a $600,000 house, and the house was subsequently resold for $900,000, one-third of the resale price, or $300,000, would be paid back to the town and returned to the fund.

“I’m trying to move this in the Assembly between now and June,” Mr. Thiele said on Tuesday. “I think there’s a lot of community support.”

A similar effort several years ago, he said, was derailed by the financial crisis that began in 2008. “This is a bill I had worked on for several years,” he said. “We had had some hearings in the district, generated a report, and did a lot of research.” Today, he said, “Judging by the local real estate market, the recession is behind us. We’re seeing extremely high and escalating real estate prices. I’ve revived this and am trying to move it forward.”

The proposed legislation, said Tom Ruhle, East Hampton Town’s director of housing, “would dovetail nicely” with the town’s Community Housing Opportunity Fund, the December 2014 implementation plan for which recommends creation of a “substantial down payment assistance program” to assist first-time homebuyers in purchasing open-market properties. “Affordable housing is a huge problem out here, which I think everybody knows,” Mr. Ruhle said. “People can’t afford to rent and they can’t afford to buy. It’s a crisis.”

Adding a work-force housing fund, he said, would help to alleviate that crisis. Speaking for himself and not on behalf of the town government, he also said, “I would personally love to see the expansion of the 2-percent land transfer tax to include provisions for affordable housing.”

Mr. Ruhle was not alone. Though none of four real estate professionals on the South Fork responded to a request for comment, Mitchell Pally, the chief executive officer of the Long Island Builders Institute, offered the same suggestion. While the association is formulating a response to Mr. Thiele’s proposed legislation, its East End committee has already voted to oppose it.

“The concept of a work-force housing fund is essential and strongly supported,” Mr. Pally said on Tuesday. “However, we don’t believe the way the funds are being raised is the right way to do so. We believe this is an issue that permeates throughout the entire community, and therefore everybody in the community should be part of the solution, if funds have to be raised.” Affordable housing, he said, “is a societal problem, not just caused by people who are building larger homes.”

“Any time you talk about a fee . . . perhaps in the real estate and building industries, there may be some resistance,” Mr. Thiele conceded. “But it’s necessary to create the balance in the community as far as housing opportunity.”

While a committee tasked with updating the Community Housing Opportunity Fund’s implementation plan recommended an option to fund affordable housing through the C.P.F., the town board asked that that option be removed from the plan, said Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, liaison to the C.P.F. advisory board.

“In a real estate market where the median home price is nearly $1 ­million, extraordinary efforts must be made to provide the diverse housing options that mean schoolteachers, firefighters, plumbers, and more can live in the community where they work,” Ms. Overby said. “We are a richer community if we are a diverse community. However, C.P.F. was voted on by the public several times for preservation of open space, preservation of historic properties, purchase of recreational opportunities, and preservation of farmlands and farming. A change in C.P.F. would need to be voted on by the public that ushered in the original legislation, in my opinion.”

The danger of allowing C.P.F. money “to be ‘subdivided’ is that other truly meaningful projects might have their hands out as well,” Ms. Overby said, “and where does one stop when all might be worthy?” The C.P.F., she said, “should be true to its origins, and options such as the one proposed by Assemblymen Thiele should be considered.”