Fred Overton and Dominick Stanzione, the Republican candidates for East Hampton Town Board, took their lead from Deborah Ann Schwartz, a G.O.P. committee member on Oct. 9 as they embarked on an afternoon of door-to-door campaigning in an East Hampton Village neighborhood that could have been used as the backdrop for the opening scene of “Leave It to Beaver.”

    The first stop on Ms. Schwartz’s itinerary was Tim and Wibke Sullivan’s house on Church Street. “Was this a set up?” joked Mr. Overton when Mr. Sullivan, a stalwart Republican, opened the door and stepped outside to chat.

    But if the candidates thought they were going to get off easy, with a “Good luck!” and promise from Mr. Sullivan to vote for them, they were mistaken. Instead, Mr. Sullivan wanted to discuss the most recent dustup involving outgoing Republican Supervisor Bill Wilkinson and Councilwoman Theresa Quigley and residents of the Beach Hampton neighborhood in Amagansett over a Showtime program that was given a permit for overnight film production.

    The matter had brought a group of angry residents to a September town board meeting, where they complained about the noise and bright lights that kept them awake at night.

    “I don’t know why they just didn’t keep their mouths shut,” said Mr. Sullivan, referring to Mr. Wilkinson and Ms. Quigley, who have made it their business to engage, often angrily, members of the public from the dais. The candidates diplomatically sidestepped the issue and moved on.

    After leaving the Sullivans, the trio walked up Dayton Lane, finding only a couple of people at home, including John Cataletto, who accepted their brochures, with a smile.

    A few minutes later, the campaigners had made their way across Toilsome Lane, where they greeted Sherrill Dayton, who was busy putting cedar railings on his back porch.

    “You got your passport to come up here?” he asked with a broad grin as he greeted Mr. Overton, a Springs native, who only left town long enough to serve for years in the Navy during the Vietnam War.

    Mr. Overton, who was an aviation electrician assigned to a helicopter squadron based in Pensecola, Fla., said that during his naval career he was stationed on a ship for all of seven days. At least it was a big one: the U.S.S. Lexington, an aircraft carrier that was moored near the base and used for pilots practicing their landings. “They didn’t have enough fuel to get back so they had to land on the deck,” said Mr. Overton, who spent that week assigned to a helicopter prepared to rescue any pilots who missed their mark and wound up in the sea.

    After a stint in private business, including when he was a partner in an International truck and parts dealership in Amagansett, Mr. Overton became a town assessor in 1990, and has served 14 years as town clerk.

    Mr. Stanzione, a bond trader when he is not at Town Hall, asked Mr. Dayton if he was troubled by deer foraging in his garden. As many as 19 pass through regularly, he was told. Mr. Stanzione responded that he had led the effort on the town’s part to craft a new deer management plan, something the village is considering as well.

    Deer remained on the agenda as the candidates made their way down Meadow Way, stopping to talk with Ken Brown, a retired East Hampton Village police captain.

    “About 13 of them any given day,” he responded when asked if he saw many in the neighborhood. “They walk down the street like they own the place.”

    “We’ve got to do something,” said Mr. Stanzione. “I agree with the mayor,” referring to East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr., who has supported an initiative to reduce the deer herd by culling and sterilization. Mr. Stanzione says he would like the town to also reduce its deer population, citing the animals as health and safety hazards for the diseases they carry and accidents they cause.

    Both men agreed that the village’s plan is going to be controversial. “And you’re going to have an argument too,” Mr. Brown said as the candidates turned to leave.

    After a presentation by the Army Corps of Engineers about beach restoration in downtown Montauk, the East Hampton Town Board began to grapple this week with some of the issues involved.

    The federal government would pay 100 percent of the cost, provided that the scope of the project — which could include a buried seawall or the simple addition of sand — can be agreed upon while the money is available.

    Steve Couch of the Army Corps outlined several options during a packed meeting at Town Hall last Thursday. One was to buy or condemn the hamlet’s downtown shorefront hotels for relocation and construct a dune where they now stand, with a beach in front. The real estate would be purchased by the federal government, which is pursuing such a plan in areas of Fire Island.    

    Another option was to build a sand revetment under five feet of sand, with a 90-foot-wide beach, or to create a similar-width beach with sand alone and a 15-foot dune.

    A field of five stone groins jutting into the sea was also mentioned, but for comparison only, Mr. Couch said, as the Corps no longer endorses that idea, at least not for Montauk.

    Each option poses a different challenge and ongoing maintenance costs. All would be designed to withstand a so-called 75 or 100-year storm, and would provide the same protection to downtown Montauk, said Mr. Couch.

     Maintenance costs, or future restoration of any project to its minimum design standards, would be covered by federal, county, and state funds, depending on their availability.

    The Army Corps is expected to return within a month with a report detailing just what it will offer the town, based on a cost-benefit analysis by the agency.

    “This is a fact. . . .” Supervisor Bill Wilkinson said Tuesday. “If we do not accept this money, it will be taken other places. We have a unique opportunity, and I just want to make that clear.”

    State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. urged the town board last week “to reach consensus quickly — time being of the essence.”

    “These federal dollars that Congressman Bishop worked very hard to get — the attention to Montauk — could end up going elsewhere,” he said. “That point, I’m pretty certain of.” Nonetheless, he said, the decision should sit well not only with federal, state, and local officials, but also with the Montauk community.

    “Montauk is in a serious state of peril, and there’s no protection there,” said County Legislator Jay Schneiderman last week.

    On Tuesday, faced with pressure to be forearmed with a clear vision of Montauk’s future, town board members narrowed the options down to two: beach reconstruction with or without a buried hard structure under the sand.

    Though Councilwoman Sylvia Overby expressed interest in learning more about the real estate-purchase option, the other board members seemed ready to exclude it from consideration.    

    “Retreat, relocate, and buy out — never going to happen,” Mr. Wilkinson said. “The Corps isn’t going to spend the money, and we don’t have the time.”

    “In this particular instance, I don’t see that as an option, because I don’t think we’ll have time to get it together,” said Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc. But, he said, even should a Montauk beach be created to withstand a 100-year storm, the town must still develop “long-term strategies . . . other ways of dealing with downtown Montauk,” when considering the effects of a monster storm, larger than last year’s Category One Hurricane Sandy.

    “The options are a soft option or a hard option; I think it boils down to that,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said. A rock structure under the sand “is inconsistent with coastal policy,” as delineated in the town’s state and federal-approved Local Waterfront Revitalization Program plan, he said, “and is likely to be challenged. Therefore — loss of money.”

    The town, Mr. Van Scoyoc said, should urge the Army Corps to develop a project that’s “within the current coastal policies,” and has “the least potential harm.”

    “I’m saying that the emergency provision may allow us to put hard structures,” said Mr. Wilkinson. “The Army Corps of Engineers is aware of the L.W.R.P.”

    The town, he added, has a “very short window” to actually get federal money to pay for a beach project, “and anything that would contribute to a delay, on this board . . . would put that opportunity at risk.”

    If certain standards outlined in town law are met, Kathryn Santiago, a town attorney, told the board, actions inconsistent with the L.W.R.P. could be allowed.

    Mr. Van Scoyoc expressed concern that the federal agency’s analysis of which options meet its minimum cost-benefit ratio might be based on data collected right after Sandy. Since then, the beach has gained sand, the councilman pointed out, affecting reconstruction cost estimates.

    The future cost to the town of maintenance or beach rebuilding, should money not be forthcoming from other levels of government, should be factored in, Councilwoman Theresa Quigley said.

    Mr. Wilkinson, who had apparently already, independently, told the Corps that a buried-rock option is favored, according to Mr. Couch’s comments last week, said that “if the beach goes when they say sorry, the project’s out [of future federal, state, or county budgets], then you have rock.”

    Rameshwar Das, a Springs resident and a key author of the L.W.R.P. as it was developed over more than a decade, said it would be hard to make a case that the downtown beach in Montauk is an “emergency,” and that therefore installing rocks there would require a state-approved amendment to the L.W.R.P., which could take some time. There would be no delay, he said, “if you do what is consistent with the policies of the L.W.R.P., which derive from state coastal zone management policies.”

    Mr. Das also suggested the board pursue the idea, endorsed by some board members, of engaging a private coastal consultant for help weighing the Army Corps’s proposals. The Corps’s “record of coastal engineering excellence is not altogether consistent, especially on Long Island,” he said, citing a book titled “The Corps and the Shore.”

    “The Corps is basically a budget-driven organization,” he said. “The bigger the project, the better they like it. They basically like building things. It’s a little like having the contractor design your house.”

    Councilman Dominick Stanzione said he would endorse hiring a consultant, not only to provide information but “because the public would be more comfortable” with a decision made with help from an independent expert. But, he said, “we are against the clock in a competitive process.” He expressed concern that consulting an independent coastal expert could delay decision-making and jeopardize the chances of the project taking place in Montauk.

    In his remarks last week, Mr. Schneiderman, a Montauk resident and former town supervisor, acknowledged that the town, in its Local Waterfront Revitalization Program plan, “took a strong stand” against the installation of hard structures on the ocean beach. But, he said, “Montauk is in a state of emergency. If we blow this, we have made a terrible mistake. So please, everybody come together so we can make this happen as soon as possible,” he told the board.

Wilkinson analysis

     A Showtime film crew that received a permit to film in a number of East Hampton Town locations after meeting with Supervisor Bill Wilkinson to outline its plans prompted an angry outcry this week from Amagansett’s Beach Hampton neighborhood.

    Residents said their streets were blocked by trucks, that police halted homeowners out for a stroll, and that a town beach parking lot was taken over and blocked off for days. The cast of 60, along with noise from trucks and lights set up for nighttime filming — allowed “from sundown to sunup,” according to the permit — kept them awake until 2 or 3 a.m., they said.

    In comments at a town board meeting on Tuesday, and in several letters to the editor published in today’s Star, homeowners described a crowded and busy scene during the filming, which went on from Monday to Friday last week. No advance notice or information about the shoot had been provided to them, they said.

    The film crew was making the pilot of a program called “The Affair,” a drama exploring the impacts of infidelity when the wife of a local ranch owner has an affair with a summer visitor.

    Rona Klopman, the president of the Amagansett East Association, representing 325 residences, said she had received numerous indignant e-mails. Ms. Klopman circulated photos of the neighborhood, including one depicting 17 trucks lining the narrow Jacqueline Drive, “so that a fire truck could not get by,” she said.

    Ken Silverman of Marine Boulevard told the board a number of 40-foot trailers were parked in the town lot at Napeague Lane, and cones were placed across the entrance, barring entry.

    “There were “at least 400 people at the place,” he said, and “at least 100 to 120 cars parked on side streets and Marine Boulevard,” with work taking place from “dusk to sunup.” On two booms, which he said were 50 feet high, were lights that a production manager told him were 10,000 watts each. “There were a lot of provisions in the town code that weren’t being complied with,” he said.

    Town Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc raised questions about the production at the Tuesday meeting. “Frankly, I was quite concerned and appalled that we would be closing off our public road-ends and not allowing the public access to the beaches, both in Montauk and Amagansett,” he said. “If this is what extending the shoulder season means, I am quite concerned, to say the least.”

    The speakers received no sympathy from Mr. Wilkinson, nor from Councilwoman Theresa Quigley, both of whom have been unapologetic business supporters.

    “I assume that when a movie company is coming to town to take advantage of our bucolic environment, that lights will be involved,” Mr. Wilkinson said. “. . . A sacrifice has to be made.”

    “I’d like to see the lights outside of your window,” said Ms. Klopman.

    “I lived with that sacrifice for 10 years in Los Angeles, with lights outside my window,” Mr. Wilkinson, a former L.A. resident, yelled. “This is so capricious and silly,” he said later.

    Ms. Quigley called the residents bothered by the filming “selfish.” “We have a town that has 4 percent of its land devoted to an ability to earn an income,” Ms. Quigley said, referring to the town’s zoning districts. “One of the ways that people earn money in this town is through the film industry. And I want to point out that earning money is sort of something we have to do.”

    “Some people have to be occasionally disturbed by the ability of other people to make a living . . . it can’t always be ‘me, me, me,’ ” she said.

    So far this year, the town clerk’s office has issued 38 film permits, for still photography or movie shoots, Fred Overton, the town clerk, said Tuesday. Last year, 29 were issued; in 2011, there were 31.

    “This particular one is a complaint because it happened to happen in a neighborhood where there are a lot of complaints,” Ms. Quigley said. She elicited from Ms. Klopman the percentage of her association’s members that are year-round, versus seasonal, residents. The answer was about 40 houses.

    Ms. Quigley accused the speakers of engaging in “a political set-up” designed to advance a view that “the Republicans have destroyed the quality of life.”

    Ms. Klopman, a Democratic committeewoman, criticized Fred Overton, the town clerk, who is running on the Republican slate for a town board seat, in a letter read aloud to the board, which is also published in today’s Star. “How could the town clerk issue a permit that on its face” allowed violations of town laws? she asked.

    Screaming, Ms. Quigley decried “the whole world of creating drama about selfish issues. And you know what?” she told the residents who spoke at the meeting. “I’ve read your letters; your opinions are interesting — selfish.”

    “You know what has to stop in this town,” she said, “. . . is groups going after people. They go after, they nitpick, they go through records.”

    “It sounds like paranoia to me,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said to her.

    At present, film permit issuance is “purely an administrative process,” said Mr. Van Scoyoc, with no town board review required. The clerk forwards permit applications to the town police chief for review of potential traffic and public safety issues and to the town attorney’s office for review of insurance requirements, then issues the permit after those officials sign off. 

    The Showtime production paid the town a total of $30,100, which included daily filming fees for Sept. 23 to 27 and Sept. 30 to tomorrow, plus $25,000 for police services and $1,200 for beach parking fees.

    “I want to make it perfectly clear that this has nothing to do with Fred Overton,” said Mr. Van Scoyoc on Tuesday. He suggested that the board discuss instituting a review process when film permit applications call for extensive activity.

    Mr. Overton said he had followed the procedure prescribed in the town code. And, he added, “In this particular case I introduced the location manager to our supervisor. They had a lengthy discussion.”

    “This is really about a quality-of-life issue,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said. “It cuts across politics. Every person in town should be able to expect that they get a quiet night’s sleep in their residential neighborhood.”

    Councilwoman Sylvia Overby recalled that when a film crew from the TV show “Royal Pains” sought a permit to film a helicopter flying over Montauk’s Fort Pond Bay, the application was brought to the attention of the board, which turned it down.

    “We made a decision as a board,” she said. “Bill didn’t make it by himself; nobody made it by himself.”

     “I think it’s a matter of developing a threshold,” said Mr. Van Scoyoc. If filming calls for more than “a certain level of activity,” he said, “then it needs a more thorough review.”

    Councilman Dominick Stanzione said that “now that we have established this is not political,” he would be happy to discuss ideas for film permit review policy changes.

    Mr. Wilkinson laughed out loud.

    “I’d like to see what the threshold is,” he then said to Mr. Van Scoyoc. What is it? A million? A hundred thousand?” 

    “It’s not for me to decide,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said, suggesting that the people of East Hampton should have a chance to weigh in on what they would tolerate. “I do think that being able to film here is a good thing,” he said. But, he added, a “balance has to be met, between businesses and residents, between visitors and residents. This is our town.”

    Mr. Wilkinson said he had visited Beach Hampton during the film shoot, and overheard a woman ask a police officer what was going on. When she learned it was a Showtime project, “She goes, yeah, way to go.” He said the film crew “was inviting the neighbors to breakfast.”

    At present, Mr. Overton pointed out, no filming permit is needed for shoots taking place on private property. Perhaps that, said Mr. Van Scoyoc, is “another issue to look at, since it’s a commercial activity.”

    Filming, which also took place at the Lobster Roll restaurant on Napeague, the Deep Hollow Ranch in Montauk, and the Cedar Lawn Cemetery in East Hampton, among other sites, is to continue at Ditch Plain beach in Montauk today and tonight.

    It’s the most wonderful time of the year: the Hamptons International Film Festival.

     I think it was a rainy Saturday, either last year or the year before, and I was on a double. I’d been at the restaurant for eight hours already and the hostess sat a party of five, dressed in the requisite black, in my section. When I asked them what they would like to drink, instead of responding to my question one of the women mentioned how she’d been standing in line for hours to see a movie and she was exhausted and starving.

    She put a British-sounding emphasis on each horrifying word, and looked at me expectantly. It took me a minute to realize she wanted me to commiserate with her — I, who had been on my feet since 10 a.m., and it was now 6 in the evening.

    I stared at her with an open mouth, and I remember very clearly I said, “That sounds awful. I can truly think of nothing worse.” I remember she smiled, pleased I’d agreed with her.

    But this year I get to be one of those people dressed in black standing on line to see a truly life-changing film, after which I’ll say to anyone who asks (and even people who don’t), “You really must see it. It was divine. The cinematography was amazing. It brought me to tears. Definite influences of Godard,” and pretend I know what I’m talking about. Alas, I don’t drink tea, so my HIFF experience will not include terrorizing the poor servers with a small check and a long table occupation.

    I get to be one of those people dressed in black standing on line because I don’t have to work, I don’t have to waitress, I don’t have to run around like a chicken with my head cut off smiling sweetly, pacifying six tables that sit down at once, cringing at the small tips left by the hipster kids that HIFF hires to stand around with clipboards and lanyards looking very young and important. I don’t have to do any of that because I was fired.

    Actually, they called it “terminated.” They said, “We’ve decided on termination.” I feel that’s fairly aggressive language to use if you’re basically telling someone, “Hey, we don’t want you working for us anymore.”

    They told me what I was doing was bad for business, that if people found out who the columnist was or where she worked, they would stop coming to the restaurant. That I have an obligation to think of my fellow servers and not do something that could potentially damage their livelihoods.

    It was inevitable, fate, my destiny. If they refer to it as a termination, then I’m going to use equally epic language. From the moment I accepted the offer to write this column, I knew it was a matter of time. What would you do if you discovered one of your employees was exposing the behavior of your customers, albeit anonymously, in a local paper?

    People said I should get a lawyer, I was wrongfully fired, I should call Page Six. Maybe? I didn’t, though. I like the people I used to work for. I’m going to run into them at the I.G.A. and the bank and the post office. I don’t feel like creating undue animosity. Anyway, I’m just a small-town waitress who was fired for saying too much in too public of a space. No hard feelings.

    This is my last column for now. I’ve received a lot of positive feedback, some very interesting criticism, and I can say with certainty that it’s been an experience.

    I want to thank you for reading, and I am so grateful for the people who wrote letters to the editor in support of or against me. If nothing else, what I wanted to accomplish with this column was to spark a conversation about how servers are treated, what our responsibilities to ourselves and the customers are, the ritual of tipping and how that affects the worker-consumer relationship, and the bizarre and sometimes unfair influence of wealth on the entire dynamic of working in the Hamptons in the summer.

    It’s safe to dine out now. You no longer have to wonder if your server is Rebecca DeWinter, the one who writes all those nasty things. You don’t have to be afraid an anecdote about you will show up in the paper. However, I’m currently working toward an M.F.A. in creative writing, so there’s a chance you’ll feature in my fiction. But don’t worry, I promise I’ll keep your identity a secret. You can trust me — I’m a waitress.

    Despite a forecast for rain, as Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, a Democratic and Working Families candidate for East Hampton Town Board, set up camp in front of the Amagansett Post Office over the lunch hour on Monday, the skies were blue, and an Indian summer breeze warmed the air and her mood.

    “This is the best part of campaigning,” said Ms. Burke-Gonzalez, who clutched a stack of pamphlets as she prepared to greet voters. It is a task she has repeated almost daily for months at post offices, grocery stores, and other gathering places across town.

    On Monday, as she often is, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez was accompanied by Afton DiSunno of Northwest Woods, who is running for town trustee on the Democratic ticket. “We’re here to bring a little girl power to town government,” Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said.

    Despite the occasional grousing from people who say they do not want to be bothered by the candidates, most people are genuinely friendly, she said.

    “You learn to read their body language,” Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said, explaining that after a couple of months on the campaign trail, she’s become adept at knowing when someone is simply not interested in stopping to chat or even taking one of her brochures. In those cases, she offers a “Have a great day!” and turns her attention to the next prospect.

    Most people, though, offer encouragement, and some are eager to bend her ear about an issue that is important to them. On this day, John O’Connor of Springs wanted to know what Ms. Burke-Gonzalez’s position was on a proposal out of Town Hall to limit the number of work trucks that can be parked at private houses. The move has been suggested as a way to rein in the commercialization of residential neighborhoods.

    Mr. O’Connor said he had talked to young workers living in the community. “A couple are scared to death,” he said. Mr. O’Connor, who said there can be as many as five vehicles parked at his own house by various family members at any given time, said the legislation was misguided. “We’re talking about private property,” he said.

    As she typically does, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez offered a measured response, saying it was essential to first gather the facts by bringing together the town attorney, code enforcement officers, and representatives of the community to reach a solution through consensus that will clean up problem areas but not have unintended consequences.

    When another woman asked her to give one reason “why I should vote for you above all other candidates,” Ms. Burke-Gonzalez offered a similar answer, telling her that she would be deliberate in her decision-making, gathering the facts before jumping to conclusions.

    Still, others asked if there was anything she could do to eliminate the new fence that flanks the sidewalk at the Amagansett Post Office. Sorry, she told them, that was a matter that was strictly between the Postal Service, a federal agency, and the landlord.

    “I’m not a politician,” she said later, in offering one of her few sound-bite answers. “I’m a public servant.”

    Ms. Burke-Gonzalez was raised in Valley Stream, and studied marketing and management at Siena College. She worked for 14 years with Rav and Associates, an advertising agency in Water Mill, before moving to Blumenfeld + Fleming, a Montauk agency, where she is a part-time account executive.

    Ms. Burke-Gonzalez, who is making her first bid for townwide office after serving for nine years on the Springs School Board, the last two as board president, insists that there was no single issue that galvanized her to run.

    “While on the school board I learned that I really enjoyed public service,” she said. Although she thought about running in 2007, her children, Burke, 15, and Nina, 13, were too young at the time for her to make a commitment.

    Her husband, Joe Gonzalez, is a bartender at Rowdy Hall in East Hampton and often works nights, so when she attended school board meetings those first few years, she had to hire a babysitter. Now that her children are older, she said she can spare the time.

    Plus, she added, “I want my daughter to see me out of my comfort zone every day because I want her to grow up to be a strong and confident woman.”

    Two coastal experts speaking on Saturday at a Concerned Citizens of Montauk forum about options for rebuilding and protecting the Montauk shore unequivocally advised against placing hard structures on the beach, such as the buried seawall recently presented by the Army Corps of Engineers as one of the options for its Montauk project.

    East Hampton Town officials are to receive a report within the month from the Army Corps detailing the beach reconstruction projects it considers cost-effective for Montauk, one of which would be undertaken by the agency at 100-percent federal cost once the town signs off.

    A project to protect Montauk’s downtown beach has been fast-tracked as an “emergency stabilization” project under the Army Corps’s Fire Island to Montauk Point Reformulation study, some 50 years now in the making. However, with other communities also vying for the earmarked money, the town has been urged to quickly make a decision as to what is acceptable for its shore.

    After the lengthy study period, and a cursory presentation of potential options by Steve Couch of the Army Corps on Sept. 26 at Town Hall, Jeremy Samuelson, the executive director of C.C.O.M., called the push to make such a weighty decision in a matter of weeks “inappropriate.”

    “We need a full, transparent examination of the options, including environmental and economic,” he said on Saturday at the Montauk Firehouse. “I want us to get it right. I want it to be a beach town that still has a beach.”

    Both Orrin H. Pilkey, a marine and coastal geologist specializing in the study of ocean beaches and coastal policy, particularly in resort communities, and Stephen Leatherman, a professor and director of the Laboratory for Coastal Research at Florida International University — known as Dr. Beach for his beach ratings — said that the town should avoid armoring the ocean shore and instead rebuild and widen the beaches with sand.

    “You want to absolutely avoid hard structures if you possibly can — and you possibly can right now,” Mr. Pilkey said. “Nobody takes out a seawall; they just get bigger and bigger,” he said, as beaches erode in front of them.

    “Building seawalls only protects what’s behind them; it doesn’t protect the beach at all,” Mr. Leatherman said. “What are we trying to protect here?” he asked. “I think the issues are somewhat confused.”

    “What I hear you all saying,” Mr. Pilkey said, “is that the beaches are important. So the management decision should be based on the importance of the beaches. Are the buildings more important than the beaches?”

    There are a “lot more options” than those so far offered by the Corps, Mr. Leatherman said, such as creating a buried “boulder train” offshore to mitigate wave action, or creating a submerged offshore breakwater. The Army Corps, he said, “seems to have a standard formula.”

    “We should be thinking [about] moving buildings back,” Mr. Pilkey said. Though, he acknowledged, “the motel owners won’t be happy about that . . . it shouldn’t be your responsibility to protect their buildings. You weren’t the ones who were dumb enough to build next to an eroding shoreline,” he told the community members in attendance.

    The scientist, author of a book called “The Corps and the Shore,” as well as “Living With Long Island’s South Shore,” was critical of the Army Corps, citing some of its projects that, he said, proved ill-advised, such as a groin at Westhampton Beach and the levees that gave way during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Without major projects, he said, “the Corps will disappear. How could you possibly expect an agency that has to sing for its supper to be honest and competent? The Corps is dishonest and incompetent.”

    Mr. Leatherman said the Army Corps should evaluate offshore topography and other data that it is not clear they are seeking in order to determine the best course of action in Montauk.

    Both men also suggested that the town seek to include not just the downtown beach but a wider stretch of shoreline in the project.

    “We need to consider the whole beach here as a system. Let’s nourish your whole beach, not just a little portion of it,” said Mr. Leatherman. “The Corps’s plan needs to be extended all the way to Ditch Plain.” As sand moves naturally from the east to the west along Montauk’s shore, he said, any sand deposited at Ditch “will feed downtown beaches for a decade or more to come.”

    Both also discussed the inevitable impact of sea-level rise. “Like it or not, you’re going to retreat from the shoreline, one way or the other,” Mr. Pilkey said. “Which is most important — beaches or buildings?”

    “You have the possibility of doing a strategic, planned withdrawal,” he said.

    Instead of building a seawall to protect downtown motels, the scientists suggested that if necessary a series of geotubes — fabric bags filled with sand or a sand slurry — could be installed to protect the buildings during a storm. Then, said Mr. Leatherman, should erosion begin to reach them, “you can take them out and still have a beach” — unlike a stone wall.

    “These are some of the most dynamic beaches I’ve ever seen,” he said of Montauk. “There’s sometimes a 200-foot difference between winter and summer.”

    “If I was king of Montauk, I would do none of these things that we’re describing,” Mr. Pilkey said of the Corps’s options. “We need to think anew here,” he said. “Why are we looking at these really very costly and very damaging alternatives? Just because you’ve got the money is no reason to damage your beach.”

    If the Corps wants only to build a seawall, said Mr. Pilkey, “maybe it’s best not to take the money.”

    “I say, sand nourishment and a dune,” Mr. Leatherman said.

    Two new administrators are in their posts at the Springs School prompting many in the community to hope they will provide newfound continuity following the administrative complexities that arose toward the end of the last academic year.

    John Finello, superintendent, reported for duty on the first day of school, Sept. 9, and Cleopatra Panagiosoulis, assistant principal, started two weeks later, on Sept. 23. Mr. Finello is called Jay, while Ms. Panagiosoulis, whose six-syllable surname can be a challenge, especially for younger students, prefers either Cleo or Ms. P.

    The school had been without an assistant principal since early May, when Katherine Byrnes resigned amid testing irregularities on a state exam. The investigation, led by the Testing Integrity Unit of the New York State Education Department, is still under way.

    In the months following Dr. Byrnes’s abrupt departure, nearly 170 applicants applied to fill the vacancy. Ms. Panagiosoulis’s facility with language (she is fluent in both Spanish and Greek) and her experience with data made her the clear front-runner, according to members of the school board.

    But hiring an assistant principal was not the district’s only challenge. Springs had a difficult time securing steady leadership as a result of its decision to operate with a part-time instead of a full-time superintendent as a cost-saving measure. 

    In early September, the board announced that its part-time superintendent, Dominic Mucci, had been denied the waiver necessary from the New York State Education Department to continue in the job. He required a yearly waiver because he is a retiree collecting a pension and earning $30,000 a year, but is not yet 65. After 65, retired educators are not subject to earnings limitations.

    Mr. Finello, who is 63 and also a retiree, does not require a waiver since, in keeping with state regulations, he will receive approximately $25,000 for the remainder of the current calendar year and $30,000 come January. The school board has also agreed to provide him with up to $3,000 per month for rental expenses in East Hampton. His one-year term expires Aug. 31, 2014.

    “I am excited about having Jay and Cleo as part of our Springs family, and I am certain their contributions will help our district grow and achieve, especially in these times of great change in curriculum delivery, student assessment, and professional evaluation,” Eric Casale, the principal, said. He cited Mr. Finello’s broad experience and Ms. Panagiosoulis’s ability to communicate in three languages as particular assets.

    “I’m really happy that I’m here,” Ms. Panagiosoulis, 49, said during an interview late last week. Married with one teenage son, she commutes nearly 90 minutes each morning from the family’s home in Patchogue. “I immediately fell in love with the school. It’s very welcoming.”

     “In this school, it’s a real community of learners,” Mr. Finello said. He is a native of Huntington, who is now living in a temporary residence in Springs. “There’s a real collaboration between parents, teachers, staff, the board of education, and local community groups. I’m excited about being here and looking forward to continuing the wonderful program.”

    For the past two years, Mr. Finello was the interim superintendent of the East Islip School District. Prior to that, he spent 39 years in the Huntington School District, rising from teacher to staff developer to assistant principal to principal to assistant superintendent, before finally becoming the district’s superintendent. A graduate of St. John’s University, he received a master’s degree from Adelphi University and a diploma in administration from Long Island University’s C.W. Post Campus.

    Each week, Mr. Finello plans to spend two to three days at school, and said he was fast learning about its culture and building. Springs, which now enrolls around 725 students, is significantly smaller than the Huntington district.

    Ms. Panagiosoulis last worked as an assistant administrator for data and as an instruction specialist at the Evergreen Charter School in Hempstead, where the student body was 65 percent Latino and 35 percent black. In addition to her work at the charter school, she has done data work for the Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services. Earlier, she had spent several years in the classroom, teaching in Manhattan and the Bronx.

    Though Dr. Byrnes had previously overseen special education, Ms. Panagiosoulis will not do so. Instead, Louis Aiello, who stepped in to cover some of Dr. Byrnes’s duties in the interim, will stay on as a part-time employee overseeing special education, among other duties.

    Accustomed to wearing multiple hats, working with diverse students is among Ms. Panagiosoulis’s passions.  Her mother is Guatemalan, her father is Greek, and she was born in Guatemala. According to the most recent New York State figures, 51 percent of Springs students identify as Latino.

    “I take pride in opening doors and reaching out to different parts of the population,” said the fast-talking Ms. Panagiosoulis. “I want to make them feel like they can come here, that we speak their language, that we understand their culture.”

    There will be a new face on the bench at East Hampton Town Justice Court next year, as Steven Tekulsky, an East Hampton attorney in private practice, squares off on Nov. 5 against Carl Irace, a former deputy town attorney, to replace Justice Catherine Cahill, who will retire after 20 years.

    With the Democrats guaranteed a majority on the town board and cross endorsements the rule of the day in other local electoral contests, the race for justice is shaping up to be one of the most competitive, with both candidates slinging subtle barbs at their opponents while touting their qualifications in frequent appearances and interviews.

    “I’m comfortable with my three times the legal experience and five times the local experience,” said Mr. Tekulsky, 60, who has been in private practice since moving to East Hampton full time in 1988 and has often portrayed Mr. Irace as a Johnny-come-lately.

    Mr. Tekulsky, a past chief and active member of the East Hampton Fire Department, has been endorsed by the Democratic and Working Families Parties. He is making his second bid for town justice, having lost to the incumbent,  Lisa R. Rana, in 2007 by 333 votes.

    Mr. Irace, 38, who has the backing of the Republican, Independence, and Conservative Parties, is making his first bid for public office.

    A native of East Quogue, he left the Bronx District Attorney’s office in 2010, where he was an assistant district attorney for nine years, to return to the East End as an assistant town attorney when the Republicans were swept to power in East Hampton. He was promoted to deputy attorney before leaving to enter private practice after two years.

    “There is more to running a court efficiently than running around saying you are going to start it on time,” he said of Mr. Tekulsky’s oft-repeated promise to be on the bench by 9:30 a.m. each day.

    Besides his experience with the Bronx D.A., where he carried a heavy caseload, and his own practice, which has focused on criminal law, Mr. Irace pointed to his community involvement as helping qualify him for the job.

    If elected, Mr. Irace said he would clear the court’s backlog by separating calendars, so things like routine parking tickets could be processed quickly early in the day before other, more complicated cases and conferences bog things down.

    He pointed out that New York State allows video arraignments and said that would be a good way to reduce the time local police officers are required to be in the courtroom, and not out in the community.

    Mr. Irace said it is disappointing that East Hampton does not make better use of the drug court run by Southampton Town Justice Deborah Kooperstein and he pledged to start one in East Hampton. “For anyone who needs treatment, the closest court is in Hampton Bays,” he said. “I dealt with hundreds of these cases as a D.A. and it is one of the most valuable ways a court can serve the community.”

    Mr. Irace said the town’s courts also need to do a better job of handling zoning and code enforcement issues. “I can tell you I own my home in Springs and my wife’s mom owns a house in Montauk, so we experience these problems too,” he said.

    Too often, he said, the problem can be traced to a lack of experience among prosecutors and judges. “Having a judge with knowledge of land-use policies will help,” he said.

    Mr. Irace also pledged to hold night court sessions if there is a popular demand for it. “I did night hearings for the Z.B.A. for two years; when I was a D.A., I was on homicide beeper duty. If it’s something the community needs, I’d definitely sit on night court.”

    He added that because he speaks Spanish, he would be able to better serve the Spanish-speaking population.

    Mr. Tekulsky, who left a partnership in a New York firm that focused on defending hospitals and physicians in medical malpractice suits when he came east, has run a general practice legal office that handles everything from criminal cases, landlord-tenant disputes, zoning issues, business formations, real estate closings, probate, and even the occasional divorce. He also worked for four years in the Manhattan D.A.’s office after law school.

    “I think I have the experience, both with my legal background and life experience, to really do the job properly,” he said. “I’ve spent a lot of time in courtrooms and I’ve spent a lot of time out in the community. I have a real vision of how a courtroom should be run.”

    For starters, Mr. Tekulsky said court schedules could be tightened up for the benefit of citizens. He said town justices often appear on the bench 45 minutes to an hour after court is supposed to begin at 9:30 a.m. because they are holding conferences with attorneys beforehand. “The theory is all cases should be conferenced, so they can be handled one after another,” he said, “but some of the basic ones can be conferenced right at the bench.” He promised to be on the bench promptly at 9:30 to reduce waiting times.

    A more efficient court would eliminate the need to hold small claims trials and other routine cases during the evening hours, he said.

    Mr. Tekulsky said East Hampton should take advantage of Southampton’s drug court, questioning whether it would be beneficial to open a similar one in East Hampton. “You can’t have one in every court system,” he said.

    As to other changes, Mr. Tekulsky said he would like to see the community service format changed to provide a more meaningful task. “Most people can get 10 hours of credit for spending eight hours standing around the dump, doing nothing,” he said. “I’d like to work on ways to create a more vocational aspect to it. There are all sorts of possibilities. We should explore alternatives.”

    Mr. Tekulsky would also like to see a return of youth court, which was eliminated due to budget constraints and which offered teens an opportunity to adjudicate minor offenses on their own. “If there’s no money in the budget, maybe there could be a partnership between the town and private attorneys and other donors,” he said.

    Mr. Tekulsky was born in Brooklyn and raised in Stamford, Conn. He attended Elmira College and received his law degree from St. John’s University.

    His wife, Stephanie, is the owner of Steph’s Stuff, a toy store on the Circle in East Hampton Village. The couple has two adult children, Alexander of Springs, who owns a lawn service business, and Kylie of East Hampton, who is studying for a master’s degree in bilingual elementary education.

    Chief of the East Hampton Fire Department from 2003 to 2005, Mr. Tekulsky remains an active member of Engine Company 5 and the White Knights heavy rescue company. He is also a member of the East Hampton Town Board of Assessment Review.

    Mr. Irace and his wife, Alice Cooley Irace, an attorney with Eagan and Matthews of East Hampton, were married in June, live in Springs, and plan to stay in the community for the long term. “This is where we’re going to raise our kids,” he said.

    He has provided pro bono legal services to the Retreat, the Ladies Village Improvement Society, and the Amagansett Lifesaving Station since moving here and has become involved in civic organizations such as the Surfrider Foundation and the Lions Club.

    East Hamptoners like to regale outsiders with how the village was once voted the most beautiful in the country, the consequence of its perfect storm of historic edifices, picturesque pond, and canopy of stately trees — most notably American elms.

    These elms, many of which have died out since the ’70s with the invasion of Dutch elm disease caused by a fungus spread by the elm bark beetle, are the pride and joy of the Ladies Village Improvement Society, whose job it is to oversee the village’s trees. Though measures have been taken to plant more elms and save the old ones, they, along with the village’s other trees, face a new threat: construction vehicles.

    On Saturday, Olivia Brooks, head of the L.V.I.S. tree committee, gave a tour of village trees in order to alert readers to the jeopardy the trees are encountering. “Our trees are being destroyed,” she said, pointing out sites on Lee Avenue, some with more than a dozen heavy-duty vehicles parked on both private property and the “tree lawn,” the strip of village-owned turf that borders property lines and streets, and houses so-called “street trees.”

“Nobody thinks this is doing damage, but . . . what it’s doing to the root ball . . . the weight of the trucks compact the soil so hard that there is little air space . . . and [the tree] has trouble breathing. . . . The heart of the tree is the roots.”

    As she drove along Lee Avenue, she pointed out maples on the left, lindens on the right. “I’m a total tree nerd now,” she said. “If someone opened my brain they would find branches, leaves, roots.” She gestured to a stand of London planes whose knobby trunks looked as if they belonged in a horror flick. “One of our members calls them ‘the arthritic ladies.’ They’re very hardy and old, true survivors.”

    But they will not survive long, according to Michael Gaines, a board-certified arborist with CW Arborists in East Hampton, who, having noticed the destruction of trees for several years, led an informative walk for L.V.I.S. members a couple of weeks ago. Mr. Gaines, whose company’s job is to inventory, inspect, and diagnose trees, is alarmed about “construction damage” that “has a huge impact on the health and longevity of our street trees . . . even if the construction is on private property . . . one trespass on the root zone can have a permanent effect.”

    The most effective solution, he said, is to engender a “respect for the trees. . . . It needs to start from the beginning of the construction process” and be embraced by “architects, builders, contractors, utilities, right down to workers.” He singled out “irrigation guys,” who, he said, “like to cut off roots with their pipe-pullers.”

    Meanwhile, Ms. Brooks slowed down at a construction site where a house was nearly finished on the corner of Lee and Cottage Avenues. There was a tall tree that was grand, but leafless. “It’s dead,” she bemoaned. “They’ll have to take that down.” She turned onto Cottage where, till a week ago, a plaque marked a young London plane, “a memorial tree.” It was overturned by “trucks and machinery and has to be replaced” by the society.

    This sort of incident hits the organization hard. “We’re a nonprofit, and we can’t always afford [to pay] when a homeowner is negligent.”

    Back on Lee Avenue, Ms. Brooks pointed out a “commendable example” of a homeowner showing concern for street trees. On the tree lawn in front of a construction site harboring several vehicles, a snow fence zigzagged protectively around a stand of trees. “When I find out who did this I’m going to thank them,” she said.

    There are more than 3,500 street trees in the village. This year the society’s project is to prune all 120 American elms. “Those are our babies,” she said, lamenting that there are many communities that have none left. Last year the village lost three elms, one in the front yard of the L.V.I.S. headquarters, another on Pantigo Road, and the last near Accabonac Road.

    The drive continued as Ms. Brooks pointed out “the most beautiful elms” in town, one a glorious vase-shaped specimen to the left of Guild Hall’s walkway and opposite The Star’s offices, four more in front of the former estate of Robert D.L. Gardiner. At the corner of Main Street and Woods Lane, where the white-shuttered house stands, she pointed out a pair of magnificent copper beeches that “we’re in the process of losing.” Farther down Woods Lane she remarked that during the High Holy Days “cars are all parked along” the stretch near the Jewish Center of the Hamptons.

    Besides pruning, the society purchases, plants, and maintains trees for the first three years. “We watch them like hawks” to ensure they’re thriving, putting water bags on them till they establish themselves. “The first year they sleep, the second they creep, by the third year they leap,” she said proudly.

    This year so far the society has planted 28 trees. “They’re pricey,” she said. Though, as a nonprofit, they get a break, with elms costing about $3,000 each.

    In her five years on the committee, Ms. Brooks has become so tree happy that she asked her husband to buy her a plaque for a tree on Main Street for her 60th birthday. For $750 she has essentially adopted the tree, which the society will now care for in perpetuity in her father’s name. The tree grows in front of Obligato, near where her father kept his watchmaking shop.

    There’s more damage to be found in the business district, including an ailing tree in front of the Elie Tahari store and another in front of J. Crew. The trees are surrounded by enclosures, the soil blanketed by mulch, but pedestrian traffic is endangering them.

    “Trees are very resilient, but they can’t withstand what people put in these things . . . they’re like giant ashtrays . . . it’s disgusting.” Last week she watched in horror as a mother let her toddler pee in one.

    As for Mr. Gaines: “[Builders] are making a lot of money. I think they can do a better job of protecting our trees.”

    The Village of East Hampton will move quickly to control its population of white-tailed deer, which the mayor called “epidemic” on Monday afternoon, and a threat to human health and safety.

    This was the conclusion reached at a lively and sometimes tense meeting at which representatives of the Long Island Farm Bureau and the United States Department of Agriculture presented Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. and members of the village board with a management plan that would include killing and sterilizing deer over a span of at least three years.

    Joseph Gergela, the executive director of the farm bureau, a trade organization, cited Lyme disease and vehicle collisions, as well as a survey his group conducted 10 years ago that he said assessed annual damage to crops at $3 billion to $5 billion, to argue for such a program. The farm bureau has applied for a state grant with which, he said, “We are proposing to cull the herd where the hottest spots are, where the most damage is, economic and otherwise.”

    Mr. Gergela said he had met with East Hampton Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione, who attended Monday’s meeting, and examined the town’s deer management plan. “We’re not here to say we want to replace the plan developed locally over the last couple years. We want to have you work with us where appropriate so we can address the problem,” Mr. Gergela said. As part of the plan, venison would be donated to food banks throughout Long Island. “This is a public resource of the people of this state,” Mr. Gergela said. “The deer are owned by the people of the state.”

    Ron Delsener, a concert promoter and activist for animal rights who lives in East Hampton, took exception to that conclusion. “It’s all rubbish,” he said. “Can these people here see results of the survey you talked about? What you say, you have to back it up.”

    Citing an article by Larry Penny in last week’s Star, Mr. Delsener disputed assertions that deer, as a carrier of ticks, are to blame for Lyme disease in humans. Mr. Penny, formerly the town’s director of natural resources, reported that he had found no ticks at all in a search of known tick-infested areas on the South Fork. Deer are “beautiful, there’s nothing wrong with them,” Mr. Delsener said.

    “You don’t represent the government,” Mr. Gergela replied testily. “You have a voice, like any other citizen. Elected officials are here to represent the public interest, and they have to balance everybody’s point of view. People are entitled to their own opinion, not their own facts.”

    Bill Crain of the East Hampton Group for Wildlife implored village officials to understand that “deer have emotions, social lives, and deserve our respect.” He pleaded that people not jump to conclusions about the transmission of Lyme disease. Research, he said, “indicates probably no correlation between deer and Lyme. The main culprit is the white-footed mouse. Ticks will find other hosts. . . . If we get into panic mode, it will divert us from doing realistic things.”

    Actions based on science, Mr. Crain said, would include an immediate cessation in the hunting of turkeys — a primary predator of ticks — and deployment of four-poster bait stations, a device that applies an approved tickicide to a deer’s head and neck as it feeds on corn.

    Mr. Crain invited farm bureau officials to meet with his group to discuss humane approaches to crop damage, “rather than killing, rather than sterilizing. . . . I urge everyone keep cool heads and respect our fellow beings. . . . We need a little humility.”

    The mayor asked Mr. Crain if he would be receptive to a plan that would include killing deer along with sterilization. Mr. Crain replied that he would not. “We wouldn’t cull humans!” he exclaimed, suggesting instead a slow-driving campaign and roadside reflectors — “realistic approaches that will not involve violence.”

    Residents, some representing groups including the Village Preservation Society and the East Hampton Sportsmen’s Alliance, spoke in favor of culling and sterilization, some citing their own history with Lyme disease and babesiosis, a malaria-like illness, as well as the cost of treatment. But others criticized the presumption of causality between the deer population and these illnesses. Frustration mounted as speakers decried what they called, on one hand, a lack of action by the town and village, and on the other, a needless and ineffective slaughter.

    “One of the options that we have explored and feel the village would be well advised to employ is a deer sterilization program, because as has been voiced here so many times, nothing is happening,” said Kathleen Cunningham, speaking for the Village Preservation Society. “I recognize and respect the perspective of people who are not hunters, but the fact of the matter is, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is the organization legally responsible for permitting any handling of wildlife.” The D.E.C.’s approach to deer management, she noted, “is to cull, or kill, the deer.” 

    In addition to public health, she said, “People are erecting fences to protect their property, which is their right, but it’s really changing the village. It’s changing the character of our neighborhood.”

    “The unfortunate reality is, we have a situation that needs immediate attention and are tying to draw some consensus,” Mr. Rickenbach said.

    Again, Mr. Delsener broke in. “You are uninformed, Mr. Mayor. If you kill every living thing, you’re [still] going to have ticks. That’s your problem: You want to kill deer! Hunting season is coming — is that why?”

    He and Mr. Crain both noted that the D.E.C. has approved a plan submitted by the Village of Hastings-on-Hudson, set to commence this winter, under which does will be captured, tranquilized, injected with a contraceptive, tagged, and released. The plan does not include culling.

    Allen Gosser, assistant state director of the U.S.D.A.’s Wildlife Services Department, then addressed the room. Stating that his department has a program to reduce the deer population on the East End, he said that “Joe [Gergela] and I are here today to let the village know about the proposal, and if the village would like to be part of this larger plan, that would be great.” The plan, he said, includes the use of sharpshooters with “tools not available to the average hunter,” as well as baiting and thermal-imaging cameras.

    “We’d like the village to consider being part of our deer project,” he said.

    Surgical sterilization and four-poster bait stations could be included in the program, Mr. Gosser said.

    Mr. Gergela estimated the program would cost the village $15,000; $25,000 for the town. “We’re proposing to do this next winter, starting in February if we can get it done by then, only to hit the real problem spots identified by each municipality.” About 10 municipalities have signed on, he said.

    Joan Osborne, a village resident, suggested that residents could be asked in a referendum whether to fund such a program for 5 to 10 years. “I have every hope and trust that they would,” she said. “I’d appreciate the village do something about this situation.”

    Mr. Stanzione said the town’s next budget will include funding for a deer-management coordinator, who would work with a permanent deer-management advisory committee. Both culling and nonlethal alternatives, such as “speed management” of motorists, he said, are included in the town’s plan.

    “We tried to make it comprehensive. We tried to make everyone happy. I do not have the support of Mr. Crain, but I tried very hard,” Mr. Stanzione said.

    “That is not how I perceive it,” said Mr. Crain.

    Mayor Rickenbach ended the meeting with a promise that the board would begin deliberations as soon as today. “We have to take the bull by the horns, so to speak,” he said.