Fireworks on the South Fork do not just begin and end with the Fourth of July. Instead, appreciative crowds are treated to a series of spectacles that last until Labor Day weekend. Here is the scoop on celebrations with a flare:

July 3

Southampton: Fireworks are scheduled, weather permitting, for 10 p.m. at the North Sea Fire Department’s Memorial Athletic Field as part of the festivities for the fire department’s annual carnival, which lasts from July 1 through July 5.

July 4

Montauk: The sky over Umbrella Beach will be lit up at 9 p.m. for the Montauk Chamber of Commerce’s “Stars over Montauk.”

Southampton: See Grucci fireworks at the 27th annual American Picnic from 7  to 10 p.m. The event, which benefits the Southampton Fresh Air Home, will be held at 1030 Meadow Lane, but the fireworks are visible from other spots along Meadow Lane. The rain date is July 6. Also in Southampton, the Commission on Veterans Patriotic Events will hold its annual Fourth of July parade at 10 a.m. in the village.

July 5

Amagansett: The Devon Yacht Club’s annual fireworks show is held on the club’s private beach but can be seen just as well from neighboring Fresh Pond beach. The fun begins at 9:15 p.m.

Sag Harbor: At 9:30 p.m. oohs and aahs will be heard at Marine Beach when the Sag Harbor Yacht Club presents its annual fireworks show.

July 12

Shelter Island: The Shelter Island Chamber of Commerce, together with the East Hampton based not-for profit Clamshell Foundation, hosts its 57th annual spectacle at Crescent Beach. There will be parking at Goat Hill.

July 19

East Hampton: The Clamshell Foundation will hold the Great Bonac Fireworks Show for the 33rd summer, featuring Grucci fireworks. The blasts go off at 9:20 p.m. over Three Mile Harbor and the fireworks can be seen at beaches like Maidstone Park, Sammy’s Beach, Gann Road, and any others off Hands Creek Road, Springy Banks Road, or the head of Three Mile Harbor. Rain date is Sunday, July 20.

Sept. 6

East Hampton: The East Hampton Fire Department’s annual fireworks show at Main Beach will begin at dusk.  Parking is on a first come first served basis and no permits are required.

A hearing last Thursday night at East Hampton Town Hall on a daytime alcohol ban at two Amagansett beaches drew speakers mostly in favor of it. Drinking would be banned during the hours when lifeguards are on duty, within 1,500 feet of the road endings on the Indian Wells and Atlantic Avenue beaches.

 Seven of nine East Hampton Town Trustees, who have jurisdiction over town beaches outside of Montauk, object to the ban as proposed. They have suggested limiting it to Indian Wells only, over a smaller area than proposed, and only on weekends.

Diane McNally, the trustees’ clerk, expressed frustration during the hearing. “We offered you a compromise, which in our opinion just wasn’t considered at all,” she told the town board. She submitted a petition against the ban as proposed, with 200 signatures collected in just over four days.

Indian Wells beach in particular is the target of residents’ complaints that it has become a hangout for rowdy beer-drinkers, a shift from the family-friendly beach it had always been. Changes over the last two years enforcing resident-only parking there have helped, some said at the hearing, but not eliminated the issues.

East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo told the town board that the officers have issued a number of summonses at Indian Wells in the past few years. However, he said, much of the behavior prompting complaints did not violate any laws.

He then read aloud the legal definitions of some legal violations, such as disorderly conduct and littering. “The ‘lewd’ or ‘disorderly’ behavior that many find offensive and wish to curtail,” said the chief, “while [it] may be offensive to some, and may be morally questionable,” is not necessarily criminal.

When people do act in a manner for which they can be ticketed, he said, officers must directly observe the violations in order to issue summonses.

During the last two summers, when partying at Indian Wells was promoted among seasonal visitors on websites such as Guest of a Guest, a traffic control officer and a Marine Patrol officer were stationed there, the chief reminded the gathering. Another Marine Patrol officer was assigned to make spot checks. Those officers have been handing out pamphlets on beach regulations, and garbage bags, he said.

In 2012, Chief Sarlo said, about 60 summonses were issued, for transgressions including public urination and failure to follow posted regulations or listen to lifeguards. In 2013, 37 summonses for open containers of alcohol in the parking lot were issued.

Those who spoke against the drinking ban at the two beaches decried its affecting everyone when the behavior of only some was the problem. “I don’t think this is well thought-out,” said Ira Barocas.

But several speakers said it was needed. Rob Andrade, an Indian Wells Highway resident, said the beach there hadonce been a haven for kids, including his 10-year-old daughter. Now, he said, “I do not want her seeing what goes on. I’ve seen fights there. That’s what happens when people drink.”

Elaine Jones detailed her multigenerational roots in Amagansett and how her family has always enjoyed Indian Wells Beach. “I went to that beach, my daughter went to that beach, and now my grandchildren can’t go to that beach because my daughter will not allow them to witness that behavior.”

“The behavior exhibited only occurs on the weekends, it seems,” said Deborah Klughers, a town trustee. “So why are we punishing the residents, for the most part, or people who aren’t the problem?” She said pushing those who want to drink on the beach 1,500 feet from the lifeguards would endanger swimmers and create more problems because the bathrooms and garbage cans would be so far away. Instead of a ban, she said, “Keep going forward with the upped enforcement.”

Marc Schultz called the ban a “reasonable compromise” that would help to reverse the new “party-hearty” tenor at Indian Wells.

Bill Taylor, a town trustee who supports the ban and described himself as a “minority” within the group, said, “I think it’s time we sent a message to the people who are destroying our beaches. I think over the last four years the beaches in our town have gotten out of hand, and I think this says we’re not going to take it any more.”

“This is a matter of public safety, not a matter of public access,” he said, adding that as such it was up to the town board and not the town trustees.

Diana Walker of Amagansett said that while she believes the trustees support more orderly behavior on the beaches, they “are conditioned to be defensive about their jurisdiction.”

Stuart Vorpahl, a former trustee and a longtime proponent of trustees’ historical rights, said the town board had “got off on the wrong foot” by initially scheduling a public hearing on the drinking ban without consulting the ancient body. The trustees’ authority as a “state within a state” has been upheld by the courts, he said, but has “been ignored time after time” by town government, and the drinking ban was shaping up to be another example of that attitude “raising its shameful head.”

“I get the feeling that our authority is being challenged once again,” said Brian Byrnes, a trustee, “and if we’re going down, we’re going down swinging.”

The 500-foot boundary that the trustees suggested for the area where alcohol might be banned, is the length of one and a half football fields, he said, and “would be adequate.”

Ms. McNally noted that the proposed law would amend Chapter 82, a “peace and good order” section that addresses public drinking, but not Chapter 92, which covers beaches and parks. Changing the beach regulations in that chapter requires the approval of the majority of town trustees — so, Ms. McNally said, there “remains a question” about what would happen if the town attempted to enforce a beach regulation without trustee cooperation.

“We would always prefer to act in concert with the trustees,” Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said.

“I know,” said Ms. McNally. “But every time you say that, the words are there, but the actions are not.”

Stephanie Forsberg, the trustees’ assistant clerk, said the group would like to see a compromise.

“The first time we are having a dialogue is at a public hearing,” she told the town board. “Yes, we are members of the public, but we are your elected officials.” But, she said, “this is where I want to bring us, as two elected boards, back together.”

Mr. Cantwell reminded the audience that he had attended a trustee meeting to tell them about the proposed alcohol ban when discussions of it first started. “The town board changed this law in part in response to the town trustees,” he said. “You may feel like it’s not enough of a compromise, but it’s a compromise.”

“I respect the town trustees very, very much,” said Joan Tulp of Amagansett, who supports the proposed ban. “I do this very sadly, but times have changed.” Just the day before, she said, “on a beautiful, peaceful day at Indian Wells, we were surrounded, and our peace was shattered, by the paparazzi and the Kardashians.”

That got a rise from Ms. McNally, who got up to comment again, this time, she said, as an individual, not as a representative of the trustees. “We have allowed this to happen,” she said, “these people who take advantage of our resources and are just trashing the town on so many levels. It’s time to stop allowing this to happen in our community.”

For example, she said, people who are being rude in such places as the grocery store should be told, “We don’t act like that in our town.”

“And also,” Ms. McNally said, “who gave the Kardashians permission to film on Indian Wells Beach? Because the trustees didn’t, and if you see them on the beach, call the police. Get them out of here.”

If writers have a voice, painters a vision, and fashion designers a recognizable style, it stands to reason that builders also have their own signature look. In this area there are builders whose work you can identify a mile away — if you could catch a glimpse over the hedges, that is, or have the good fortune to be invited inside.

Externally, the going style for most builders is the gambrel, defined by its four-sided roofline, an indigenous style that dates back to the manses of the turn-of-the-20th-century summer colonists. One builder who has veered away from the gambrel is Wainscott’s Michael Davis, who is known for gabled roofs that evoke English country cottages or his adaptations of the traditional American farmhouse, albeit on a supersized Hamptons scale.

Al Giaquinto of Plum Builders on Pantigo Road, East Hampton, has done away with a residential profile altogether, instead building what he calls “modern barns.”

But where builders’ individual styles are most obvious is inside their creations. Mr. Davis is keen to point out that, having built more than 75 houses — one spec and eight or nine custom per year — he has never duplicated one.

“He builds each for the site,” said Diane Saatchi of Saunders, who represents his properties. “He doesn’t take the same house and clunk it onto different lots. He’ll design to maximize the way the light works.” You know when you walk into a Michael Davis house, she said. “The rooms light up.”

He also has a muted neutral palette that doesn’t default to white. “I describe them as Giorgio Armani colors,” Ms. Saatchi said. And he’s not afraid to go against the norm. While most builders use polished nickel door hardware, for Mr. Davis’s latest house he used burnished brass. “It’s the first time I’ve seen that in years,” Ms. Saatchi said. “He’s always ahead of the crowd.”

Mr. Giaquinto, who moved barns here from New England in the 1980s and rebuilt them according to the style of that decade, is now building huge barnlike spaces with gabled ceilings and trusses. “This is the oldest envelope in this area,” he said. The main room is so cavernous he likens it to an urban loft. Large wall expanses are built with art displays in mind.

Kitchens are oversized, an outgrowth of Mr. Giaquinto’s Italian heritage. His average kitchen spans 20 by 20 feet, with islands running 4 feet wide and from 14 to 18 feet long. “It gives the opportunity to have four or five people working together comfortably,” he said. Instead of hiding the wine cellar away in the basement, he puts it in the living room, which also functions as the dining room.

The “modern” in the concept derives from his generous use of glass windows that slide into walls, creating large openings to 1,200-foot terraces. “We have as much glass as a modern house and twice as much as a traditional.”

There are at least two builders who transcend building to also decorate their houses. Of the three houses James Michael Howard has built locally so far, two went into bidding wars. “He plans the total concept, from wall coverings and window treatments . . . decking it out as if it’s for one of his high-end clients,” said Gary DePersia of Corcoran. Mr. Howard is also an interior designer. For the house he is now erecting in Water Mill, he has ordered a dozen rugs to be made in Turkey and is planning each detail, from the bedding to the glassware.

“This is a house you’d think someone lived there, but it’s a spec house,” Mr. DePersia said. Another way you can tell Mr. Howard’s houses: rooms with vaulted ceilings.

Dan Scotti, a former lawyer who “always had a deep passion for building,” also goes a step beyond staging his houses to decorate them with art and furnishings he’s picked up on his travels. While Mr. Howard includes everything in the sale price — down to the spoons — Mr. Scotti does not leave his furnishings behind. Not to worry, Molly Sims, an actress and model, bought one of his houses and liked his design touches so much she asked him to decorate it for her.

While Mr. Scotti likes to make exteriors with symmetrical gables and simple rooflines “that look like they’ve been there since the turn of the century,” his interior layouts are sleek and contemporary. His trademark touches include tongue-and-groove millwork ceilings painted in a high-gloss supersaturated color.

“I like the imperfection of using individual boards,” he said, adding that they give a feeling of history. He prefers a dark ceiling “because it adds drama and makes the room feel cozy.”

Admittedly “obsessed with vintage industrial lighting,” Mr. Scotti incorporates such fixtures, and not recessed lights, into hallways and kitchens. In a house for sale on Further Lane in East Hampton, he installed a vintage ’50s starburst chandelier that set him back $50,000. That piece will go to the buyers.

Jeffrey Colle, who has just finished a house on David’s Lane in Water Mill, is known for installing antique wide-plank flooring, often from Europe. His millwork is all custom and often executed on site. He prides himself on “Old World craftsmanship” that can be seen in details such as hand-doweled floors, handmade cabinetry, and French-chalked quarter-sawn oak paneling. Another trademark is his extensive use of pocket doors that when closed delineate rooms, but when open accentuate a free-flowing floor plan where rooms open into each other.

Last, but certainly not least, are the houses of Joe Farrell, the most prolific builder on the South Fork. “You can walk in and know immediately it’s a Farrell house,” said Ms. Saatchi. “There are a couple of layouts that are popular, and he repeats them.” His houses are “variations on central hall colonials” with sweeping side stairways and ego-boosting two-and-a-half-story foyers. Most come with a theater, elevator, and high-ceiling basement.

“People respond to them,” said Ms. Saatchi. “You can’t argue with success.”

With an average of 4,500 emergency medical calls to answer each year in the Town of East Hampton and ongoing struggles with volunteer recruitment, retention, and response times, the emergency medical service community is getting creative about how to ensure help gets to patients faster. 

The East End Ambulance Coalition, made up of representatives from all six agencies that serve the town, is proposing an East End Responder Program that would be spread over all six districts as a single territory. Under the program, which has gotten mixed response from the various agencies — advanced life support providers would respond to the scene of emergencies 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in what are known as “fly cars.” An ambulance and volunteer emergency medical technicians would also need to respond, but medical attention could already be started on scene.

Advanced life support providers offer an increased level of care, particularly during major trauma or heart attacks. In contrast to basic emergency medical technicians, they can intubate a patient, start intravenous therapy, and administer narcotics, such as pain medication and drugs that help stop seizures.

Philip Cammann, a paramedic who volunteers with the Bridgehampton Fire Department and a member of the subcommittee that has been working on the proposal for the past 15 months, said that the program would be a shared resource instead of a proprietary one. Paid providers who work in one-person shifts in Montauk, Amagansett, and East Hampton — all of which have instituted their own paid programs over the past year — cannot leave their districts if a neighboring one needs help, unless a patient is in cardiac arrest. But, under a longstanding mutual aid program, volunteers can.

Leaders of the districts that oversee ambulance services are not convinced that a regional approach to immediate medical service is necessary.

The proposal calls for three first responders on duty during the off season and six during the peak season. Each first responder would have a primary area in which to answer calls as they are dispatched. When one is tied up on a call, the others would shift over to help cover the other areas, similar to how police set up sector cars.

In order to set up a program that runs across district lines, the committee wants to form a new tax district that would also be set up as a union-free, not-for-profit agency serving from Montauk to the western edges of the Bridgehampton Fire District in Water Mill and the Sag Harbor Fire District in Noyac. Ambulance agencies in Southampton, Hampton Bays, Flanders, and Westhampton are set up as not-for-profits that contract with the Town of Southampton to provide services.

Based on preliminary figures, including initial expenses for vehicles and equipment and an estimated payroll of $1.4 million, the program would cost approximately $2.5 million annually. For a house with a valuation at $1 million, the cost would be $137.30 per year.

By comparison, the Montauk Fire District, which has one paid provider on duty 24 hours a day during the summer and 12 hours a day during the off-season, budgeted about $150,000 for its program per year.

“Our feeling is it takes the financial responsibility of each individual area and spreads it over everyone,” Mary Ellen McGuire, a member of the committee who represents the East Hampton Volunteer Ambulance Association, told the East Hampton Village Board on Friday.

The committee has discussed the proposal with both East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell and Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst, who said they would cooperate in helping form the district if the various boards requested it. “I’m not going to form an overriding ambulance district unless every fire district wants it,” Mr. Cantwell said recently.

The committee has been visiting the various governing bodies this month. “We’re trying to get everybody on board conceptually so we can then sit down with the town boards so we can work out details,” Mr. Cammann told the village board.

The proposal has so far failed to pass muster with the majority of the boards. East Hampton Village, which oversees the East Hampton ambulance, and the boards of the Springs and Amagansett Fire Districts said they are not interested, at least right now.

“I applaud the concept,” East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said at the meeting Friday, but added, “I don’t think we’re ready to get on board.”

“I hope we’re not deflating your initiative, but there’s too many questions we have to take into consideration,” the mayor said. Later, he described the plan as “rather far-reaching,” but said he would not rule it out entirely. “It may be something I forecast happening at some point in the future, but I’m not 100 percent certain it’s something we need to do right now,” particularly because just this spring, the village hired advanced life support providers who act as first responders.

The cost of a paid first responder may prove to be the biggest hurdle.

Pat Glennon, the chairman of the Springs Fire District, where the budget is just over $1 million per year, said that while the board did not take a formal vote, members unanimously agreed they were not in favor of the proposal. The cost, he said, would be too much to bear in a hamlet where taxes are already higher than in other parts of the town and homeowners largely working class. “You’ve got to remember, Springs is basically the poor person’s town, if you will,” he said. The added expense “might be the difference between some elderly man or woman not getting their medication.”

Springs, he said, does not necessarily need 24-hour coverage. Without a large business district, most volunteers work elsewhere and cannot respond back during the day, but are available in the evenings. The Springs ambulance answered a little over 600 calls last year, 400 to 450 of which were in its district. While it has 12 E.M.T.s, only 4 of them are A.L.S. providers, including Mr. Glennon, who has been a critical care technician for 15 years and an E.M.T. for nearly 25.

“If we consistently turn around and say ‘more taxes, more taxes,’ what are we actually doing to the residents of our community?” he asked. “Can you put a price on it? No. At the same time, if you had to, how much is it going to actually save?”

Mr. Glennon said the board is open to other solutions, and is hoping to explore the potential for sharing Amagansett’s paid provider or paying him or her to respond to Springs as necessary.

In Amagansett, however, Daniel Shields, the chairman of the board of fire commissioners, said it is too soon to say whether that is feasible. “Honestly, at this point, we’re trying to take care of our own. I don’t know how we can share one person.”

While Amagansett’s Board of Fire Commissioners also is not interested in the regional first responder program, Mr. Shields highly recommends a partially-paid system in light of the success he has seen in Amagansett. The E.M.S. response times have dramatically decreased since the program’s inception.

Before the program was instituted April 1, the average time from when the call was dispatched to when the first contact was made with the patient was 13 minutes. From April 1 to May 15, when paid first responders were only on call 12 hours a day, the average time from dispatch to the first patient contact decreased to 9.1 minutes. In the brief period from May 15 to June 1, when paid responders have been on the 24-hour-a-day summer schedule, that time dropped to 5.1 minutes.

Similarly, the average time it took an ambulance — still manned only by volunteers — to respond on scene also improved. The average time from when the call was dispatched to when an ambulance arrived dropped from 14.9 minutes before the program to 9.1 minutes after May 15.

Other districts are more keen on the idea of a regional approach. The Sag Harbor Village Board passed a resolution earlier this month to show its interest. Mayor Brian Gilbride said the time has come for agencies to transition toward a paid system. “I never thought it would come in my lifetime. I come from a time when we had a waiting list for fire and ambulance [volunteers], five or six years,” he said.

The village even put off hiring an E.M.T. for the newly created position of ambulance administrator for the Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps, which runs 1,300 to 1,400 calls each year. “I think the first responder program, if it gets legs, we won’t need a full-timer,” he said. “It’s a work in progress. We’ll see how this unfolds.”

Ray Topping, the chairman of the Bridgehampton Board of Fire Commissioners, said it is too soon to tell what direction his district will move in. The board recently starting considering hiring a paid provider of its own. “I think everybody is having difficulty getting crews together. We’re having trouble now getting personnel to a fire scene. It keeps me up at night thinking about it,” he said. “We’re open to everything.”

The Montauk Fire Commissioners were expected to discuss the issue yesterday.

After the meeting with the East Hampton Village Board on Friday, Mr. Cammann said he was disappointed more districts were not thinking regionally and that his committee is steadfast in its position that this is the right approach.

“It’s what the rank and file voted to do. A unified system has proven to be the best,” he said. “As long as the community comes first, what works for them works for us.”

With reporting by

Christopher Walsh

Under a brilliant blue sky, the East Hampton Library’s new 6,800-square-foot children’s addition was unveiled on Saturday morning. Hundreds of residents attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony before viewing the fruits of several years of planning, fund-raising, and construction.

“The children are going to be absolutely delighted,” said Tom Twomey, chairman of the library’s board of managers. Libraries, he said, are both “a place where knowledge, learning, and research take place” and “an essential element of democracy.”

Mr. Twomey praised the board of managers, including Donald Hunting, Sheila Rogers, Ann Chapman, Maureen Egan, Charles Soriano, Sara Davison, Deborah Walter, and Gail Parker. He singled out Mr. Hunting for recognition, noting that he has served the library in one or another capacity since 1964.

In a quote he attributed to Andrew Carnegie, Dennis Fabiszak, the library’s director, said teamwork was “the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” He recognized the entire staff of the library, citing the group effort that allowed the addition’s creation while the institution continued to serve the community.

Ms. Rogers thanked the 300 donors who contributed to the $6.5 million project, which included an extensive renovation of the library’s existing spaces.

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, and East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell also delivered remarks. Mr. Thiele cited the persistence needed to accomplish the expansion and renovation. “The journey was long,” agreed Mr. LaValle, “but it was worth waiting for.”

“The people who live here really do meet the needs of the community,” said Mr. Cantwell.

That theme was echoed by the actor Alec Baldwin, who has donated substantial sums to the library and who presented awards to elementary and middle school students who submitted entries to the library’s writing and drawing contest. Those essays and more were put into a time capsule that is to be sealed at the library for 200 years.

Mr. Baldwin’s $1 million donation to the library, given last November through the foundation that bears his name, helped to underwrite completion of the Baldwin Family Lecture Room, situated within the expansion. The room is to be used for children’s programs, film screenings, poetry readings, lectures on local history, and author and book events. It houses a state-of-the-art audio-visual system.

Mr. Baldwin, who has a house in Amagansett, thanked local businessmen including Ben Krupinski, who served as contractor for the project. “It sounds clichéd about the community effort and everyone coming together,” Mr. Baldwin said after the ceremony, but “this really was that. This is a dream a lot of people had.”

The children’s addition features dedicated areas housing collections, computers, and furniture for age groups from birth through eighth grade. A mural teaches the alphabet to younger children, and the ceiling is painted to depict the sky. Custom light fixtures resemble both books and a flock of birds flying through the sky. An area for toddlers features twin 10-foot-tall lighthouses, and a 16-foot-tall windmill makes up the easy reader alcove. The librarian’s desk resembles a 16-foot dory, and windows are etched with blue waves.

Mr. Baldwin described the completed addition as “breathtaking.” “The beautiful child’s theme, the nautical theme,” he said, captures “everything about this community. They absolutely nailed it. It couldn’t be better. It’s a happy day.”

After a song by the East Hampton Middle School Bonnettes, the choral ensemble that opened the ceremony with the national anthem, the ribbon was cut, and residents and visitors streamed in to see the result of a decade-long collective effort to improve what Mr. Twomey called “a wonderful jewel box for the community.”

Casey, a 10-month-old female husky mix with an unusual medical condition, has gotten a new lease on life in the care of the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons and now needs a new home. Her condition is megaesophagus, which makes it impossible to eat while standing up in a normal position without vomiting.

Enter Bill Petrie, a  Southampton carpenter, who, working with his daughter Anna, made the pup a customized chair that allows her not only to eat while sitting in an upright position but standing on her hind legs, which she prefers.

Sarah Alward, ARF’s veterinarian, explained the origin of the chair, which was invented by a couple, whose surname is Bailey, for their own dog. A DVD is available that shows how it can be built easily with a little handiwork.

Until the Petries built a Bailey chair for Casey, she had been using one made for another dog at the shelter with megaesophagus. That chair, however, was designed only for sitting while eating. “She tolerated the feedings in the old chair, but needed her own so that she could stand up,” Dr. Alward said. “Now, she knows that the chair means food; it is inadvertent positive reinforcement.”

Dr. Alward explained that having seen cases of megaesophagus before, she had “an index of suspicion that made Casey’s diagnosis a quick one. Because Casey would regurgitate the food whole, it was clear that it was not moving down her esophagus.” A dog with megaesophagus has an esophagus too large and without the necessary muscle tone to squeeze food down into the stomach. Touching Casey’s neck, Dr. Alward said she found that Casey’s esophagus felt like a plastic bag. An X-ray confirmed her diagnosis.

The staff at ARF raves about Casey, saying she is a loving puppy with an especially gentle temperament who has become one of their favorites. They report that she loves to run, knows basic commands, and even gets along with cats. She has no problems besides food while on four legs. Managing her eating schedule is the biggest commitment new caretakers would have to make.

Dr. Alward said it is apparent that Casey’s condition is genetic because she is healthy in every other way. She requires no medication, and can lead a normal dog’s life aside from her time in the Bailey chair. She puts herself in it excitedly at mealtime and has to stay put for 20 minutes to digest. She is not allowed free access to water, but can drink from anything available if she is held up on her hind legs.

Casey’s condition, untreated, could have caused her to develop aspiration pneumonia from frequent vomiting; Dr. Alward said she has seen dogs die that way. An adoptive family, who will strictly adhere to mealtime rules, will allow Casey to live as a fully functioning and happy dog.

The matter of Steven Spielberg’s garage and storage structure on Apaquogue Road, which needs an area variance to permit its continued existence, came before the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals at its meeting on Friday.

The structure is 38.3 feet from the front property line. At the time of its construction, the required setback was 50 feet. In August 2002, a few months after a building permit was issued, the setback was increased to 80 feet.

The noted film director is also appealing an earlier determination requiring a special permit for the already-built addition of two bedrooms to a second residence on the 5.5-acre property. The village’s head building inspector, Ken Collum, had found that the bedrooms were added without Suffolk County Health Department approval.

Linda Riley, the village attorney, told the board that no part of the garage complies with the current 80-foot front and side-yard setbacks. True, said Richard Whalen, an attorney representing the applicant, but more than three-quarters of it conformed to the standard at the time the building permit was issued.

That permit, Ms. Riley responded, expired years ago.

Mr. Whalen told the board that conforming to the old 50-foot setback would have forced the structure to jut into a driveway. “The building is all but invisible from Apaquogue Road, and for that matter it really is from the neighboring property to the north,” he said, by reason of thick hedges. “The building has no impact on neighbors or on the public at large. That’s not an excuse for it being put not within the setback, but visually, it has no impact on anyone outside the property.”

The driveway notwithstanding, said Ms. Riley, “There’s all kinds of other space for a garage.”

Mr. Spielberg was probably trying to maximize space devoted to paddocks, Mr. Whalen suggested.

Ms. Riley said the application called the structure’s location “a builder’s error,” yet Mr. Whelan was now arguing that it was a deliberate choice. This, she said, amounted to “another case of let’s build it now, and who’s going to make us take it away, because it’s already there?”

“Right,” murmured Lys Marigold, the board’s vice chairwoman, who waspresiding in the absence of Frank Newbold, the chairman.

Under the 2002 requirement, Mr. Whalen said, the structure encroaches 11.7 feet into the setback. “If you look at visual impacts on the neighborhood . . . this really is not a significant variance,” he said.

“The fact is that it’s the law now that is applicable,” Ms. Riley protested. “You have to concede that what’s in the setback area is 100 percent of the building . . . it’s not a small portion of the building.”

Mr. Whalen disagreed. “Even though we didn’t get a C of O, we got a building permit,” he said, “and the majority of the building was compliant with the setbacks when the building was built.”

Ms. Marigold asked him to determine just when the garage was constructed, and said the board would proceed from there.

With regard to the bedrooms added to the second residence, Mr. Whalen said that in 2005 a building permit was issued to convert three of five garage bays on the ground floor to two bedrooms and two bathrooms, which increased both bedrooms and bathrooms from two to four.

After finding this year that no county health permit had been obtained, Mr. Collum declined to issue a certificate of occupancy, he said, adding that Mr. Whalen has both appealed that decision and sought a permit retroactively.

“The work that was done to the building was pursuant to a building permit,” said Mr. Whalen. There too, he told the board, the construction is not visible to neighbors and has no effect on them, and the building was already in use as a residence. “Even if you were to conclude a special permit is required, there are very good grounds for issuing it,” he said.

Ms. Marigold shook her head. “Over and over again, you call it a lawfully existing single-family residence, and yet under our village code, a single-family residence is ‘designed or arranged for occupancy by one family on a non-transient basis.’ How does that fit? These are extra guest rooms that are not occupied most of the time.”

“Neither you nor I knows how they are occupied,” said Mr. Whalen.

“Yes, we do,” said Ms. Marigold. “There’s a very, very buttoned-up estate manager who took me around, and I said, ‘Who lives here?’ and he said, ‘No one.’ He talked about how when they have people like President Clinton come and stay, it’s used for one night or two for their Secret Service men. No one lives there.”

“There was a framed photograph. I said, ‘Why are there photographs here?’ He said, ‘Just for the look. Nobody stays here except once in a while we use it for spillover.’ ”

“That’s not a single family.”

Mr. Whalen said that Health Department approval was not required because all modern septic systems are designed for four-bedroom houses. Drew Bennett, a consulting engineer for the village, had confirmed that the system met required standards, he said.

Ms. Riley told the board a special permit would resolve the matter. “I’m inclined to grant that,” Ms. Marigold said. Her colleagues voiced agreement, and the hearing was held over to Friday, June 27.

The board also announced three determinations. An application for variances to permit the construction of walkways and patios within setbacks at 54 Lee Avenue was granted. A brick patio was allowed to remain within a setback and a play structure and generator were allowed to remain as close as five feet from the property line at 19 Lee Avenue, and an extension of existing stairs and the construction of an eight-foot-high sound barrier around the generator were granted. Finally, the board okayed the continued maintenance of an arbor and granted a front-yard setback variance for an addition to a house at 111 Montauk Highway.

A hearing concerning a garage and caretaker’s apartment on property belonging to Howard Schultz, chief executive officer of the Starbucks chain, was adjourned once again. It will resume on Friday, June 27.

A hearing Thursday night at East Hampton Town Hall on a daytime alcohol ban at two Amagansett beaches drew speakers mostly in favor of the concept.

Residents said that Indian Wells Beach, in particular, has become a spot for groups of partying beachgoers, a shift from the family-friendly beach it has always been. Changes put in place by the town during the last two years enforcing resident-only parking there have helped, they said, but not eliminated the issues on the sand.

East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo spoke during the hearing as well. He said that a number of summonses for various offenses had been issued to individuals at Indian Wells in the past few years but said much of the behavior prompting complaints did not violate any laws.

Those who spoke against the proposed drinking ban at Indian Wells and Atlantic Avenue Beaches during the hours that lifeguards are present decried placing the restriction on everyone when the behavior of only some beachgoers is the problem.

The East Hampton Town Trustees, who have jurisdiction over those two ocean beaches, for the most part oppose the ban. They have suggested limiting it to Indian Wells, within a smaller area of beach and only on weekends.

A Sagaponack man charged with arson for allegedly setting fire to an oceanfront house in Bridgehampton in April will soon be committed to a psychiatric hospital, where he may well spend the rest of his life. The Suffolk district attorney's office agreed Friday not to contest county doctors' determinations that he is mentally incompetent to stand trial.

David Osiecki, 64, was brought in shackles to Southampton Town Justice Court Friday for the fourth and likely last time since his arrest on April 19, the day of the fire. For the first time since his arrest, he was not wearing county jail-issued clothing. Instead, taking advantage of the right all prisoners have when they are taken to court to don street clothes, he was wearing worn-out jeans and a green short-sleeved shirt.

Southampton Town police reportedly found several personal items belonging to Mr. Osiecki at 187 Dune Road, the scene of the fire, including identification. He quickly admitted setting the blaze, which caused extensive damage. He also told police he had tried and failed to burn down a cellphone tower the day before.

In his courthouse appearances after being arrested, he made rambling statements to reporters about needing to get the artwork in the house to Norway and trying to save the owner, Ziel Feldman, whose son, he asserted, had been "abducted by the Israelis." According to police, Mr. Osiecki and Mr. Feldman knew each other, though it was not clear how.

On Friday afternoon, as he was led into the courthouse, Mr. Osiecki proclaimed that "I am innocent until proven guilty." As he was brought into the crowded courtroom, his ankle chain dragging across the floor, he looked around at those seated in the courtroom, apparently not realizing that almost all were there to answer zoning violations.

Standing at Mr. Osiecki's side, facing the bench, was his attorney, Edward Burke, Jr. "Just moments ago," Mr. Burke told Justice Andrea Schiavoni," I spoke with assistant district attorney Pete Timmons. He has indicated they will move to indict within two weeks, perhaps sooner. He is not challenging the evaluation."

The defendant did not appear to understand what was going on. Just before he was led away, he leaned over and asked Mr. Burke, "Can we talk with the judge in chambers, and can they reduce the bail"" Bail had been set during Mr. Osiecki's April arraignment at $500,000.

"We'll talk about it," Mr. Burke said, patting him on the back.

In the parking lot later, the lawyer said Mr. Osiecki's mental health would be evaluated from time to time in the hospital. If he is ever found to be sane, he will be brought back to stand trial. 

A Stamford, Conn., man, Jason Monet, was arrested by East Hampton Town police on Saturday night on a drunken-driving charge after an accident on Napeague that sent a motorcycle rider to Stony Brook University Hospital for surgery.

The victim, Sidney Hughes of Montauk, sustained severe leg injuries, a friend said.

Mr. Monet was released on $1,000 bail after arraignment in East Hampton Town Justice Court on Sunday. Mr. Hughes underwent the first of what doctors have warned the family will be several surgeries, according to Justin Portell, the friend who, like Mr. Hughes, is a member of Enders MC, a South Fork motorcycle club..

According to Mr. Portell, Mr. Hughes was eastbound at about 10 p.m., traveling at about 55 miles per hour, when Mr. Monet's westbound B.M.W. moved across the road in front of him. "He never had a chance," Mr. Portell said.

Mr. Monet and a female passenger, whom he identified in court on Sunday morning as his girlfriend, were not hurt in the accident.

After his arrest Mr. Monet was taken to East Hampton Town police headquarters in Wainscott, where he refused to submit to a breath test.

"Something should be done. That is ridiculous," Mr. Portell said on Sunday from the hospital upset that Mr. Monet faces only a single charge of misdemeanor driving while intoxicated. The Suffolk district attorney could seek further charges through a grand jury but there was no indication that there were plans to do so.

Mr. Monet told East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky at his arraignment that he and his girlfriend were vacationing in the area. He is due back in court on July 24.