While the East Hampton Town building inspector weighs whether a private club at the Montauk Beach House constitutes a second business at the downtown resort, allegations made by two men who worked with the Beach House in its inaugural season last year cast the private club as a mere accessory to an even larger second business, that of a music venue.

    The resort is allowed in downtown Montauk, despite the fact that the area is not zoned for motel usage, because it predates zoning, however the addition of a second business on the property could trigger a full site plan review before the town planning board, according to the town’s chief building inspector, Tom Preiato.

    Mr. Preiato insisted on Tuesday that the private club being advertised on the motel’s Web site was a “proposal,” not an actual business, despite the fact that the motel is selling memberships for $1,100, with a discounted $750 membership for locals, who wouldn’t need to stay in the motel.

    According to Terry Casey of New York, who said he ran the booking business for the 32-room motel last year, the whole question of the private club is misdirected.

    According to Mr. Casey, the Beach House’s goal, in terms of music, is to bring in leading D.J.s to draw at least 1,000 people over the course of the day. An event that drew 500 was considered a “failure.”

    Chris Jones, who owns the resort with Larry Seidlick, said earlier this month that it was ridiculous to allege that the Beach House was trying to draw such crowds. He said that crowds at the poolside bar, where the D.J.s and live music acts play, had never been larger than 300 in the 2012 season.

    Mr. Casey said he signed an 18-month contract with Mr. Jones and Mr. Seidlick at the beginning of the 2012 summer season, only to be told by Mr. Jones earlier this month that his services were no longer wanted. “They wanted to cut out the middle man,” Mr. Casey said in mid-May.

    Francois Belizaire, an event planner who was a partner in a now-defunct company called the Event Society, said earlier this month that his company planned the season’s calendar for the Beach House last year. “Design-wise it is beautiful,” he said of the resort.

    It was his job to guide the ownership group, which he and Mr. Casey said were inexperienced in music event planning, in “how to structure the format, the whole music festival they wanted to bring in, the right clientele, people who were going to buy bottles by the pool.”

    To much initial protest, Mr. Jones attempted in 2011 to launch an August music festival first in Amagansett, then at East Hampton Airport, to be called MTK, short for Music to Know. The event was eventually canceled due to disappointing advance ticket sales.

    The goal for the Beach House, Mr. Belizaire said, was “to get the right people to come out of the Hamptons and come to Montauk. Let your hair down and kick back.” He said his company did just that, drawing over 1,500 people to the Beach House on several Saturdays.

    “I came up with different concepts, different bands and D.J.s,” he said, and he brought on Mr. Casey, whom he had known for years. “He knows how the bands worked. He had a really good sense of the pulse of the music.”

    Mr. Belizaire described the opening event. “We did the launch with Paul Oakenfold [the D.J.], easily 2,000 people, wall-to-wall bodies. There were lines out the door.”

    One touch Mr. Belizaire was particularly proud of: “I tapped into some of my network of exotic car owners. We took all the parking spaces in front of the Beach House,” filling the spaces with mint-condition vintage cars. “I pinched myself, that day.”

    “We also did Mark Ronson. He’s a shrewd talent and an amazing soul.” At noon, Mr. Belizaire said, it was raining and the bar was deserted. “It was hot, 90 degrees.” It stopped raining, and the sun and the crowd showed up. “Easily 1,600 people,” he said. “Our joke was, he brought the sunshine.”

    Mr. Casey said that top D.J.s on the level of Mr. Ronson and Mr. Oakenfold, who have massive online followings, receive $25,000 per day for a venue like the Beach House.

    According to both Mr. Casey and Mr. Belizaire, Mr. Jones and Mr. Siedlick were ecstatic when they saw the initial results, with an estimated $100,000 or more coming in on successful Saturday nights.

    Both Mr. Siedlick and Mr. Jones disputed the idea that the bar could bring in that kind of money.

    Mr. Belizaire explained how the music events played out in 2012. A sponsor, such as a vodka company, would book an evening through Mr. Casey, who would, coordinating with Mr. Belizaire, book a D.J. with a known following. The house, Mr. Jones and Mr. Siedlick, would make their money on a split of the bar and poolside sales revenues, with Mr. Belizaire getting a share of the sales that his personnel were responsible for.

    Mr. Jones said earlier this month that Mr. Casey had not been in charge of booking acts for the resort last year and was instead a bitter ex-employee of Matt Thomas, who is handling events this season for the Beach House.

    In a recent interview, Mr. Thomas said he was the one who got Mr. Casey involved to begin with, but that there was simply no place for him in this year’s operation. Mr. Thomas estimated that crowds of about 500 people attended the most successful events of the 2012 season at the Beach House.

    Before turning the Ronjo into the Beach House, Mr. Jones turned the moribund Shepherds Neck Inn and Shepherds Beach Motel, also in Montauk, into the boutique resorts Solé and Solé Beach.

    At the Beach House, the bar, along with a gift shop on the site, is the very reason that the whole question of a private club as a second usage came up. The East Hampton Town Planning Board is weighing a narrower site plan for those amenities and will continue that discussion on Wednesday evening.

    The building inspector, meanwhile, seems to be saying that if a membership club is to continue at the site, a full site plan review would be necessary. Regardless of the outcomes of either discussion, fans of the resort are not likely to stay away.

    A cold rain and a Memorial Day weekend weather forecast that looked more early March than late May was not enough to dampen the spirits of the 2,000 or so riders on the first Friday Long Island Rail Road Cannonball to ever leave from Penn Station, going nonstop to the Hamptons.

    For decades, the Cannonball, pulled by a diesel-powered locomotive, would make the trip to Montauk beginning at the Hunter’s Point station in Long Island City. The bulk of the Cannonball’s riders would board an electrically powered train in Penn Station, changing trains at Jamaica. Now the Cannonball will be pulled by an electric engine out of Penn Station, and later switched to diesel power.

    Mostly 20-somethings, with some older folk thrown in, filled the aisles and stairs of the double-decker cars on Friday, sitting on bags, suitcases, and, occasionally, each other.

    Spirits flowed freely, laughter was infectious, and the police officers stationed on the train had little to do in the way of policing.

    Deric Bradford was seated on the steps to the lower level of car three, next to his girlfriend, as he opened a bottle of wine. “It’s a nice rosé from Provence,” he said. He was headed to Bridgehampton. His Saturday night plans?  Southampton Social Club.

    “The Surf Lodge,” Jenn Nelson said of her Saturday night destination. She was headed to Montauk, as were many of the younger riders. While she loves the nightlife, she is also on a mission. “I’m launching a pop-up church.”

    Ms. Nelson is a member of the Liberty Church in Manhattan. “We decided to launch services in Montauk Sunday mornings, for people who spend summer in the Hamptons.”

    Absolut and ginger ale was the drink of choice for Tom Sadowski, who was headed to Westhampton Beach. “I’m going home after a long week in the city,” he said. He had friends coming over to ring in the season Saturday night.

    “Excuse me,” Mr. Sadowski called out, trying to get a passing conductor’s attention. The outlet he had plugged his cellphone into had suddenly gone dead. The conductor said he would check and see if anything could be done.

    “If not, just return the money for the ticket,” Mr. Sadowski said.

    A few minutes later, the conducor returned with bad news: the outlet would be dead for the rest of the trip. No refund coming.

    Alexandra Rosano and Conner Golden were bound for Montauk, seated in the fourth car’s upper deck. With luggage space at a premium, she had her weekender bag on her lap, along with her smartphone.

    Matt Doherty and Kristin Phelps were headed to their share house in what Mr. Doherty called “Hampton Springs,” near Maidstone Park.

    They’d spent the last two summers sharing a house in Westhampton. “We’re trying to get further out there towards Montauk,” Mr. Doherty said. Why? Because it is Montauk, he said. On Saturday, they’d be at “Sloppy Tuna, if it rains. Good for all ages,” he said.

    “Cyril’s for B.B.C.,” said Ms. Phelps, “banana Bailey’s colada.”

    Karoline Deutschmann was seated on the stairs by the bar in car five, holding her son, Anton, as he played a game on her smartphone. “This is my first time on the Cannonball,” she said. “If I was 23, 24, I would love it. Now?” she shrugged and smiled, “not so much.” But the rum and coke she was drinking certainly took the edge off the ride. Her husband, Andreas, was seated on the floor in the crowded vestibule on the other side of car five, a gray pug in a dog carrier next to him. “It could be worse,” he said.

    Two young Frenchmen drinking Heineken were standing in the crowded aisle, next to their girlfriends, who had managed to get seats together.

    “We came from France to see what East Hampton has to offer,” one of them said, before admitting that they were all living in New York and had been to the Hamptons before.

    Their weekend plans? “Chill and drink and go out,” the second man said. “And be merry,” the first one added.

    Chloe Bethel, headed for East Hampton, was one of the first on the train, and had found a seat next to her friends on car three. She spent some of the trip reading from her tablet.

    Normally, she stays with family, but this weekend she would stay with friends, but still visit her grandmother. She planned on “drinking, regardless, ringing in the summer.”

    Dawn Hunter spent the trip standing in the aisle, leaning against a seat, reading a paperback copy of Max Brooks’s “World War Z.” Her weekend plans? “Chilling, chilling, minding my business.”

    A few of the riders were headed to work.

    South Pointe is going to be the Southampton hotspot this year, according to Natasha Roberts, who will be working there and sharing a house in Sag Harbor with a few friends.

    Some of the more mature riders looked back on the Cannonball years past with fond memories.

    “I loved Hunter’s Point,” Lynn Friedman said.

    For some riders, boarding the Cannonball at Hunter’s Point was the commuting equivalent of a New York Nirvana, like insider trading or buying something at wholesale.

    “It was great. Not everybody knew about it,” Ms. Friedman said.

    Avoiding the crush of bodies at Jamaica by boarding at Hunter’s Point was almost an art form to Holly Peterson, a novelist, and one that she is determined to continue, albeit in a different fashion. 

    Ms. Peterson had once again made an inside score on Friday, getting her six children and herself seated together on the Cannonball for their ride to Water Mill. Her daughter Eliza was sleeping curled up on the seat next to her, head on her lap.

    “It’s like the fall of Saigon, with worse manners,” Ms. Peterson said of the mob scene boarding the Cannonball. “I felt very smug at Hunter’s Point. Now, it’s ruined.” When she arrived with her brood at Penn Station Friday, she was greeted with the same “Jamaica Station Bedlam” that she had avoided in the past.

    But, as with many a New Yorker, the skill at making the deal was the thing.

    “My strategy now is to flirt with the Long Island Rail Road guys,” she said. She succeeded, getting the inside scoop, the platform number in advance, and her family safely down onto the train before the hordes descended.

    Rich Winter took one look at the mob at Penn Station before the 4:07 p.m. departure and skipped waiting on line, instead going straight to the train, happy to pay the $6 penalty to buy his ticket on board for the trip to Westhampton.

    Tickets don’t just cost more for those who buy on board.

    In past years, the connecting train left Penn Station at 3:58 p.m., which made it off-peak. The new time makes it a peak train. Multiply the $7.25 difference in price by the approximately 2,000 passengers on board, and you come up with an additional $14,500 per Friday trip for the L.I.R.R., and the Cannonball will run on the same schedule on Thursdays.

    Friday’s train ended up 10 minutes late at its first stop in Westhampton.

    “This is distinctly un-Cannonball-ish,” said Rich Donaldson, who sat opposite Ms. Friedman on the train. Strangers when they boarded, they seemed to be friends by the end of the trip.

    The train began emptying at Westhampton and by the time it left East Hampton, its penultimate stop, the median age on board couldn’t have been more than 25.

    The bar crew for the two reserved-seating-only parlor cars at the front of the train began cleaning up. Tips had been okay, said Jerry Voltaire, one of the crew.

    Amazingly, the toilets in at least the first five cars of the train had survived, although, by their looks, just barely.

    A conductor explained that the main reason the toilets on the double-deckers tend to fail is that the flush button shorts out when pressed rapidly three times in succession, but because there is a pause between push and flush, riders often press it again, leading to frequent failures.

    The Cannonball pulled into Montauk a little before 7, greeted by a throng of taxi drivers calling out, “Taxi? Want a taxi?”

    The season had, unofficially, officially begun.

The first cannonball rolls into Penn Station on May 24.  Tom McMorrow, photos.

Like "the fall of Saigon" is how one passenger described the scene to board the train at Penn Station.

Christina Bruno and Natasha Robertson enjoy their beverages of choice on the ride out east. 

Connor Golden and Alexandra Rosano survived the cramped luggage conditions.

The stairs were as good a spot as any for Deric Bradford to enjoy a fine Provincal rose.

The crew attempted to keep everyone happy on the ride out to Montauk.

Not everyone was happy, however.

By the last stop, all of the cares of the ride and the city were forgotten.

   “Does D__ still own this place?” asks the man with a mouth full of food. “I know the owner,” he says to the women. “D__ is such a nice person. So warm and caring. Everyone I know who knows the owner says the same thing. I’ve had a few drinks with D__. What a nice person. Isn’t D__ great?” he asks me.

    “Ah, yes, the owner is very nice,” I say.

    The women do not look impressed.

    Their entrees are cleared and the man orders coffee. When I bring it over I leave dessert menus on the table, explaining what our special is.

    After about 10 minutes of the dessert menus not being touched, I go over to see if the man would like more coffee. He declines. I then ask about dessert. The women shake their heads and indicate that they don’t want anything more. I remove the dessert menus from the table and print the check.

    As I’m dropping the bill in the middle of the table (and not squarely in front of the man since that is outdated and presumptuous and I do not want to offend the women if either they’re paying or they’re feminists or they’re both), I begin to say, “Thank you so much . . .” when the man interrupts me.

    “Wow! That was fast!” he declares in a cheery voice. My hand pauses in mid-air.

    “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to rush you. I just thought that since you didn’t want more coffee or dessert you might want the check. I didn’t want you to be sitting here tapping your feet and waiting for me to bring it to you.” I’m speaking very quickly and the words are tumbling together. My neck is hot and itchy and I can feel myself flushing with embarrassment.

    I shove the offending check into my apron pocket. Making a table feel rushed is such a rookie move and I know better.

    “Oh no! You’re fine! We were just talking about the difference between the service here and the service in Europe. You know in Europe? Everything is so much more relaxed there. You go to a restaurant and sit for a while then you order and after you’re finished you can stay for as long as you want. No one rushes you. That’s how it should be everywhere,” the man says.

    I start to express regret that I didn’t give them more time, but the man reassures me, “This has nothing to do with your service. It’s like this everywhere. The restaurants just want us out of here so they can get the next table in. No one wants to take their time. Why do you think that is?”

    It takes a couple seconds before I realize he’s not asking this rhetorically.

    “Why do I think that is? I think it’s because people are demanding. It’s because, in America, people want what they want when they want it and if they aren’t instantly gratified they complain.”

    “It’s because the cost of running a successful restaurant is higher than it’s ever been so the tables have to be turned with greater frequency to get in the black.”

    “It’s because, as a society, we have come to expect a certain level of rapid service. People are no longer willing to wait for their waitress to run food to other tables and clear plates, and this is why bussers and runners are employed.” 

    “In Europe, a continent I have been to, by the way, the servers are paid a living minimum wage. They’re not working for tips. Things can wait. Here, in America, I have to do everything I can to make as much money as possible during my shift since I am only paid $2.31 an hour, and not even that after taxes. Have you ever gotten a zero paycheck for 40 hours of work? I’m sure we would all be better off if you could force your beliefs about how restaurant service should be performed onto the entire world.”

    “And I’m not reassured when you say your conversation about the American-style of service has nothing to do with me. I’m your waitress. This is America. So congratulations! In addition to asking a question for which I can give you no satisfactory answer, you’ve now made it clear I’ve done my job in such a way as to cause you to negatively compare this experience to the hours you spent unhurried and at peace in some Parisian cafe. Great. Well, this has been fun for me.”

    What I actually say is, “I don’t know.”

    “Ah, well! It’s really such a shame the way things are done here,” says the man. “I’ll take the check.”

    I make change for them and leave the bill on the table. “Thank you so much,” I say. “Enjoy the rest of your evening.”

    “Tell the owner I say hello, will you? We’re overdue for a drink,” says the man as he shrugs on his coat.

    “Of course I will,” I say, smiling. He’s forgotten to tell me his name. I’m not going to ask.

With just over a week until Memorial Day, the start of the beach season, pleasure-seekers flocking to Montauk's Ditch Plain beach, a hangout that The Wall Street Journal once called "about as close as New Yorkers can get to an 'Endless Summer'-style surf heaven," could find an inhospitable seascape officially closed to swimmers.

Wind and storms, beginning with Hurricane Sandy last fall, have stripped the beach of sand, leaving only rocky hardpan on which to spread blankets or towels, exposing hazardous, formerly buried, chunks of concrete, and replacing the soft sand at the surf line and undersea with piles of large stones.

East Hampton Town officials learned Tuesday from Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc that the town's superintendent of recreation, John Rooney, and John McGeehan, the first assistant chief of the town lifeguards, who have been monitoring Ditch for months, have recommended, in the interest of safety, that the beach stay closed to swimming, with no lifeguards on duty, unless or until conditions change.

The situation is unlikely to affect the surfers who ride the waves at a widely touted surf break east of Ditch's designated bathing beach, though sunbathers who enjoy watching them could be discouraged from taking a dip in the shadow of No Swimming signs.

"So much of the sand has been taken away during the course of the winter. Historically, sand will come in and fill in over the spring, and it hasn't really done that this spring," Mr. McGeehan said on Tuesday.

Lifeguards have already been assigned for this summer at Ditch, and would normally take up their posts on weekends starting next week, going to full-time daily hours beginning in mid-June, as at other town beaches. This year, though, the conditions could easily leave Ditch out of the early-summer mix, Mr. McGeehan said, "unless in the next week there's an extraordinary turnaround and a lot of sand moves in there."

Rather than waiting for sand to accrue and replenish the beach naturally, Mr. Van Scoyoc suggested at the town board meeting Tuesday that it might be trucked in or pumped from offshore, something that has been done before. "This is the worst we've certainly seen in the last decade," said the councilman.

Not only could swimmers encounter underwater obstructions — or body surfers find themselves whooshed ashore onto a bed of rocks — but people strolling along the beach, in its present state, will have to clamber over half-buried boulders. The ground, Mr. McGeehan pointed out, is also hazardous "to lifeguards, in case we had to move quickly across the beach to assist someone."

"I can't in good conscience put staff there," Mr. Rooney said. "We have to hope that nature puts something back, or the town board does something. We've been discussing it constantly since February, March."

The popular beach was described last summer in "A Guide to Montauk's 'Hampsters,' the Fedora Rating Scale," a blog posting on guestofaguest.com, as "the first stop off the train for many hampsters." And this summer, given the storm damage to beaches on the Jersey Shore, even more tourists could head this way, the recreation superintendent said yesterday.

Given the drastic shoreline changes, Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson said Tuesday, "I would advise everyone in the town that when they're swimming for the first time this year, to be cautious. We had an incredible storm. Everything has shifted. That storm moved rather large boulders. So I would be very, very careful. Wade into the water this year." The town board will ultimately determine when and whether Ditch Plain beach is officially opened, he said.

Councilwoman Theresa Quigley expressed concern about whether the lifeguards assigned to guard swimmers at Ditch would lose their jobs should the beach remain closed.

"If they don't get called into the job, they don't get called into the job," Mr. Wilkinson said. "I would assume that the labor is attached to the project. So if the project isn't there, you don't take the labor and absorb it somewhere else."

But, Ms. Quigley said, should those staffers find other jobs, and then the beach becomes safe enough to reopen, the town could face a shortage of lifeguards.

Instead of opening Ditch Plain during the early part of the season, it's possible that Kirk Park, the westerly beach in Montauk, which is normally not guarded or opened for swimming until mid-June, could open early, along with Edison (Nick's) Beach, which is set for its normal opening on Memorial Day weekend.

The condition of the beach at Ditch this year is a new dilemma, and at the moment, it's touch-and-go, Mr. Rooney said. "We just have to watch and see what happens, unless the town makes a decision to do something artificially."

But, he said, even if officials decide to bear the expense of dumping loads of sand onto the beach, that sand could all be washed away in a single storm.

"We can't help the hand we're dealt," Mr. Rooney said.

"Unfortunately, the ocean is going to do what the ocean is going to do," said Mr. McGeehan.

Starting July 1 all dogs on East Hampton Village beaches will have to be kept on leashes while they are within 300 feet of parking lots and road ends.

In a unanimous vote Friday, the East Hampton Village Board approved the controversial change to its existing regulations. Previously, dogs could run at will during the hours that they were allowed on the ocean beaches: before 9 a.m. and after 6 p.m. during the summer months.

The rule will be in effect through Sept. 30 and thereafter from the second Sunday in May through September. Markers will be placed delineating the points at which dogs can be without a leash.

The measure follows months of debate and often-acrimonious comment from village and town residents regarding dog owners’ rights and from those who have complained about dog waste and aggressive dogs that have allegedly affected public enjoyment of beaches.

Matthew Norklun, a resident of the village, made numerous appearances before the board to complain about dog waste on the beaches and to allege that aggressive dogs had attacked him. Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. also cited complaints made by those whose sunset picnics and other gatherings were interrupted by dogs.

Dozens of residents have promised greater self-enforcement and public-education efforts to maintain waste-free beaches and control over their pets. Representatives of the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons and a group called beachdogs11937 had pleaded with the board to abandon or delay added restrictions, some asking for time to implement their public-education efforts. Steven Gaines, an author and resident of Wainscott, established an advocacy group called Citizens for Responsible Dog Ownership in response to the village’s proposals.

The board had considered a number of restrictions, including a leash requirement extending to 500 feet from road ends, extending the prohibition of dogs to later in the evening, and banning dogs from certain beaches altogether.

At a hearing on April 19, some residents objected to the proposed 500-foot regulation, citing health problems that made walking such a distance difficult or impossible.

Mayor Rickenbach read a statement at the conclusion of the meeting. “Today your board of trustees took legislative action on an amendment to our code relating to restraining dogs on village beaches. We believe our action strikes a legitimate balance between the safety and interests of beachgoers and dog owners alike who want to enjoy the same beautiful amenities our beachfronts offer,” he said.

“This adoption of this code amendment has been achieved after much thoughtful debate and public discussion for which we are grateful,” the mayor said.

    The developer proposing to build 89 condominium units targeting affluent baby boomers on 24 acres of open farmland in Amagansett told the East Hampton Town Planning Board on May 15 that he was there to listen.

    He got an earful.

    Starting with JoAnne Pahwul’s 20-page memo to the board summarizing the proposal, which is in a very preliminary state, it was clear from comments that no one in Town Hall that night favored it as currently constituted, save for Francis P. Jenkins III, the head of a company called Putnam Bridge, and his team of planners and architects.

    Mr. Jenkins said at the end of the meeting that he welcomed the feedback, negative though it might be, and would reassess and retool the proposal. The development requires a major zoning change by the East Hampton Town Board before it can even begin to become a reality.

    Ms. Pahwul, the town’s assistant planning director, told the board that “the proposed project does not meet the year-round residents’ needs. It protects neither farmland” nor open vistas, she added.

    Robert Schaeffer expressed surprise that such a proposal was even possible, asking why it was not before the board as a subdivision. He asked a fellow board member, Pat Schutte, if he had ever seen anything similar, and Mr. Schutte replied that he hadn’t.

    Mr. Schutte and Mr. Schaeffer are the longest-serving members on the board.

    “It’s co-ops,” Diana Weir said, explaining why a subdivision of the land was not needed. “They are not going to own their own piece of dirt.”

    “I think this has a long way to go. The pricing is an issue. The density is going to be an issue,” she concluded.

    Mr. Schutte expressed concern about the self-contained septic treatment system. “One issue is ground flow from the waste. We have seen a lot of new sanitary systems come and go. That is a very big hurdle for you to overcome,” he told Mr. Jenkins.

    Jacquelin Robertson of Cooper, Robertson, and Partners, an architectural and urban design firm, touted the plan for Mr. Jenkins, who also spoke to the board at length. “Very few places are places you go to and say, ‘I want to come back,’ ” Mr. Robertson said.

    While complimenting Ms. Pahwul’s memo, he told the board that he, too, was a planner, having worked in that position for an extended time for the City of New York. “We’re trying to produce a place that is not scary,” he said, “it is as green a project as the town has ever seen.”

    The plans call for 100-percent on-site sewage treatment, as well as solar panels to power the facility, Mr. Robertson said. “Global warming has caught up with us,” said the architect.

    He talked about revegetation after the massive project is built. “There are about five things that grow here,” he told the board, “that won’t grow anywhere else,” mentioning, for one, Korean dogwood. “This place is a place where the natural world of the East End is in full force.” He also named privet.

    When asked why the plan features a windmill, Mr. Robertson told the board it was an “iconic” image for the East End. He also called the idea of preserving the town’s agricultural land “a dream.”

    “We can’t ignore the values our town has,” Ian Calder-Piedmonte, a board member, said. “You can say that agriculture is a dream. At this point, we need more information.”

    Speaking toward the end of the discussion, the board’s chairman, Reed Jones, remarked that “I tend to be pro-business, pro-development . . . we can’t overlook that the applicant has the right to some development.” But, he said, “You’re trying to do an awful lot on those 23 acres. I have been in a lot of places in this world, and we have a very special place . . . I don’t want to fumble it.”

    The planning board held the preliminary review in case the town asks for its comments. Ms. Pahwul wrote in her memo that “the project is not permitted under current zoning and is dependent on the town board’s approval of a senior citizen housing overlay district. . . . If the town board decides to proceed to a public hearing on the proposal, formal comments from the planning board will be required.”

    After the meeting was over, Mr. Jenkins huddled with his team outside the hall. He said he planned to incorporate the board’s comments into the proposal.

    The town beach at Ditch Plain in Montauk will remain closed to swimmers, with no lifeguards on duty, for the foreseeable future. Erosion has stripped away the sand on shore and underwater, leaving dangerous rocks as well as concrete building remnants.

    East Hampton Town officials are investigating work on a rock revetment to the east of the beach, the subject of a separate story on this page, which has apparently exceeded that allowed under town and state permits. Members of the East Hampton Town Board questioned Tuesday whether the addition of more rocks along that stretch of the shore has caused the excessive scouring at Ditch.

    “I think it’s only exacerbated it,” said Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc. “There is an annual trend” of wintertime sand erosion and springtime accretion in the area, but this year, while Hurricane Sandy began the erosion process in late October, the trend has not reversed.

    The rock revetment — which doubled the size of an existing 880-foot structure, according to the executive director of Concerned Citizens of Montauk, Jeremy Samuelson — “had nothing to do” with the extreme erosion at the Ditch beach, Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson asserted at the board meeting Tuesday.

    “It’s a pretty common dynamic,” said Mr. Van Scoyoc, referring to scouring caused to nearby areas by hard structures along the beach.

    According to the town’s director of natural resources, Kim Shaw, town records show that Montauk Shores Condominiums applied for a permit in the early 1990s to construct an 880-foot rock revetment and to repair drainage pipes at the top of the dunes. Though the East Hampton Zoning Board of Appeals allowed the drainage-pipe work to proceed, it required an environmental impact statement for the revetment work, to assess its potential effect.

    Records do not indicate that was ever done, though rocks were installed, apparently under an “emergency repairs” provision of the town code. In subsequent years, according to Ms. Shaw, the condo association applied for and received building permits to install a combination of sand, filter fabric, and rocks. Pat Gunn, who heads the Division of Public Safety, which includes ordinance enforcement, is investigating, Ms. Shaw said. 

    “These are exactly the types of structures that impact coastal processes and should be vetted by coastal engineers as well as regulatory agencies,” said Mr. Samuelson of C.C.O.M. on Tuesday. “The applicants in this case have completely misrepresented their intentions.”

    Meanwhile, the town board discussed paying to add sand to the Ditch beach so it can be used as a bathing beach this summer. Mr. Wilkinson suggested hiring Drew Bennett, an East Hampton consulting engineer, to assess the feasibility of a “beach-scraping” project, taking built-up sand from the western part of the Ditch beach and moving it onto the areas of exposed rock. State permits would be required for the work.

    Mr. Bennett’s areas of expertise, according to his Web site, are architectural engineering and construction, civil engineering, including coastal engineering, and environmental engineering, including various water-related issues.

    “It’s problematic to place any sand there until the pattern of erosion changes,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said. The trailer park’s rock revetment is “completely exposed and interacting with the ocean” to unknown effect, he said.

    “It’s just a temporary solution to get sand at Ditch,” Mr. Wilkinson said.

    “I’d like to understand the dynamic” before committing the funds to move sand onto the beach, said Councilwoman Sylvia Overby.

    “This is something that the coastal engineers could look at — somebody with real expertise,” said Mr. Van Scoyoc. With Mr. Stanzione and Ms. Overby, he had resolved several weeks ago, at a meeting where the other two board members were absent, to hire an independent coastal engineer to give the town facts on which to base decisions about erosion, in downtown Montauk and elsewhere.

    “We need a coastal engineer to start this work,” Mr. Van Scoyoc repeated. “There seems to be some resistance to moving forward,” he said, after Ms. Quigley and Mr. Wilkinson raised questions.

    In light of the board’s discussions of potential changes to the town’s coastal policy, amending the Local Waterfront Revitalization Project plan to allow the installation of temporary hard structures to protect oceanfront buildings threatened by erosion, Mr. Van Scoyoc said he was concerned about “changing the L.W.R.P. in that fashion without a scientific basis.”

    “This board needs coverage,” said John Jilnicki, the town attorney. “If you adopt something and you don’t have the expertise to back up your decision, you’re going to have liability.”

    “If something happens because we issue a permit,” Mr. Jilnicki said, referring to potential negative effects on neighboring properties if the town allows hard structures to go in on the beach, “there’s no doubt that we would be held responsible.”

    With the exception of posting a summer traffic control officer to keep people out of the water, an idea to which Councilwoman Theresa Quigley strenuously objected on the grounds that it would be “interfering with somebody’s free choice to take a swim,” the board agreed to implement suggestions from town lifeguards and John Rooney, the parks and recreation superintendent. “No swimming” signs pointing out the safety hazards will be prominently posted at Ditch. Kirk Park beach, at the western side of downtown Montauk, will be opened earlier than usual, with lifeguards posted there.

    Board members also will begin to seek out a coastal engineer, and authorized the town Planning Department to apply for a grant that could help to cover the cost.

    A rock revetment built in April on the east side of the Ditch Plain beach in front of the Montauk Shores Condominiums, an oceanfront mobile home park, is under investigation by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

    State officials visited the site last week, and it is now part of an ongoing investigation, said Bill Fonda, a D.E.C. spokesman.

    The revetment is blocking access by beachcombers and to a popular fishing site called Cavett’s Cove. The Concerned Citizens of Montauk and the East Hampton-Long Island Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation have filed complaints with the D.E.C.

    A permit issued to Montauk Shores on Nov. 27, 2012, by Tom Preiato, East Hampton Town’s senior building inspector, states that approval was granted for work to “restore storm-damaged dune with sand and relocation of existing rocks at the existing manufactured home park.”

    But environmentalists say the scope of the project, which is being done by the Keith Grimes company, exceeds what is allowed under the permit. Jeremy Samuelson, executive director of the Concerned Citizens, said yesterday that it was obvious that existing rocks were not used.

    At a meeting earlier this month of the town board-appointed Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee, Ray Cortell, a committee member, said he saw rocks being delivered by truck at 10 p.m. one night in April. “It was all very innocuous,” he said.

    Tom Muse, a Montauk resident and an environmental consultant for the Surfrider Foundation, said the revetment was a “hot topic on the beach.”

    He said the rocks used in April were significantly larger than allowed by the D.E.C. permit, which called for the use of locally quarried stone. “All this matters very much for people who use that beach,” Mr. Muse said. He explained that the revetment dramatically changes the natural beach dynamic, as Long Island beaches are fed sand from beaches and cliffs to the east of them. “The trailer park sea wall does not, so to speak, play along,” he said.

    That the expanded revetment will cause sand to move offshore for some distance due to the wave energy coming off it, is a fairly well understood coastal phenomenon and “probably why the D.E.C. said they would provide the permit for the rocks if the mobile park officials agreed to keep it capped with sand,” Mr. Muse said. “To my knowledge, they have never kept up their end of the bargain.”

    Mr. Samuelson said that public access to the site would only be possible at the lowest of tides. “But the real concern is that shore-hardening structures beget shore-hardening structures,” he said — the more you build, the more sand you are going to lose.

    “The real tragedy here is that we’ve failed to require additional review of a project like this. The town has failed to insist over the last decade that this be reviewed by an adequate engineer,” Mr. Samuelson concluded.

     Phone calls to Montauk Shores Condominium representatives were not returned.

    Eastern Long Island is one of the most hospitable habitats in the country for ticks, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and these tiny eight-legged creatures wreak havoc on the lives of hundreds of residents and visitors each year.

    Suffolk County’s reported cases of tick-related diseases in 2011, the most recent available, according to Lauren Barlow, a public health nurse epidemiologist for the county, included 656 probable cases of Lyme disease, 206 of babesiosis, 29 of anaplasmosis, 20 of ehrlichiosis, and 2 of Rocky Mountain spotted fever, all of which can be life altering or even fatal.

    In recent years, people have begun to report a new complication caused by the bite of infected lone star ticks — a severe allergy to red meat, causing difficulty breathing, severe abdominal and chest paint, or loss of consciousness, symptoms that appear three to six hours after eating.

    The allergy, first identified in 2009 by researchers at the University of Virginia, may have been affecting people on the East End for years, but those who developed it often had no clue as to its cause. Patrick Milazzo, a Sag Harbor police officer, is one of them. He had his first allergic reaction in August of 2009 not long after being bitten by tiny nymph ticks in Northwest Woods and a few hours after finishing dinner.

    His second attack six months later, after having a gyro, sent him to the hospital. He felt an intense pressure on his chest and his throat began to close, making it difficult to breath. The hospital had no idea what it was, he said, and it was only much later after seeing Dr. Erin McGintee, an allergist with ENT and Allergy Associates in East Hampton, that he learned that the fatty content in the lamb had triggered the reaction.

    People who develop the allergy do not experience symptoms each time they eat red meat, Dr. McGintee explained in an article for her practice’s quarterly magazine last spring. The more red meat they eat and the higher its fat content, the more likely it is to trigger a reaction. Some patients lose the allergy over time, she said, but if they are bitten again by an infected lone star tick, it can be reactivated.

    Dr. McGintee now has 69 patients with the allergy and diagnoses a few new cases every month, she said in an e-mail on Monday. Nationwide, the majority of cases are in the Southeast, but as the lone star tick becomes more prevalent on the East End, so do the number of tick-related meat allergies, Dr. McGintee wrote in her article.

    Along with a doctor from the University of Virginia, she is collecting data from three different “patient populations” with the allergy — here, in Virginia, and in North Carolina.

    Locally, the lone star tick is now more common than all other ticks, according to Dan Gilrein, an entomologist with the Cornell Cooperative Extension. It can also carry ehrlichia, a bacterial pathogen that causes fevers, aches, and kidney and lung damage, according to New York State Department of Health. As with deer ticks, lone star ticks range from poppy seed to sesame seed size during their life cycle. The adult female has a white dot on her back.

    Lyme disease, a bacterial infection transmitted by the deer tick, is more familiar to New Yorkers, with 95,000 cases diagnosed in New York State since the illness became reportable in 1986, according to the State Department of Health. It affects the skin and nervous system and can spread to the joints, heart, and the brain if not caught and treated early. Deer ticks also transmit babesiosis and anaplasmosis, also known as human granulocytic ehrlichiosis.

    According to the Health Department, 4,000 Americans will be infected with the babesie parasite this year. Babesiosis can cause fever, fatigue, and anemia for days to months, according to the department, and can have severe results for the elderly or immuno-compromised.

    On the East Coast, children exposed to pets or tick habitats are the ones most often infected with Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Carried mostly by the dog tick, it can be identified by a rapidly spreading rash as well as other symptoms common to tick-borne diseases. Most of the country’s cases of Rocky Mountain spotted fever occur on Long Island.

    It’s enough to make you want to stay inside all summer, but there are ways to minimize the risk of being bitten and not everyone bitten by a tick becomes infected with the many illnesses they carry.

    In a release sent earlier this month, State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. encouraged his constituents to learn the facts and take precautions: Wear long-sleeve shirts and long pants tucked into socks when in wooded or grassy areas. Wear light-colored clothing so ticks will stand out.

    In most cases, according to the State Health Department, the tick must be attached for 36 hours or more before the bacteria can be transmitted, so regular checks of people and pets are essential, with particular attention to the backs of knees, behind the ears, the scalp, and backside. Proper removal is also essential to reduce chance of infection. Tweezers are recommended to “pull the tick in a steady, upward motion away from the skin, without jerking or twisting the body,” which can increase chance for infection. The bite area and hands should then be disinfected and the tick placed in a small container of rubbing alcohol.

    Not all ticks are infected with disease-causing bacteria. Those that are contract the disease from creatures they feed on, such as mice, chipmunks, deer, and birds.

    Although spray repellants can keep ticks from biting you, there are health risks associated with exposure to some of these repellants or improper application, the State Health Department warns.

    Products containing permethrin, for example, will kill ticks and insects that come in contact with it, but are for use on clothing only, not on skin, the state  says. Some people used geranium, cedar, lemongrass, soy, or citronella oil to repel ticks, “but there is limited information on their effectiveness and toxicity,” according to the department’s Web site.

    Brian Kelly of East End Tick Control has made a business out of dealing with ticks, and has plenty of tips to share. “In order to decrease the risk of tick-related illness, maintain a clean trimmed lawn, cut back branches to let in more sunlight, and consider sprays, natural or conventional, and collars to prevent ticks being carried into the home by animals,” he said. The Health Department Web site also suggests clearing brush, leaf litter, and tall grass from around the house, stacking woodpiles away from the house and off the ground, and keeping the ground under bird feeders clean to avoid attracting small animals that can carry ticks.

    For those with children, the state suggests putting swing sets and other play equipment in sunny, dry areas of the yard, away from the woods.

    And it recommends that people in especially tick-prone areas consider “an approved insecticide once a year, in June.”

    When Mr. Kelly is called to analyze and treat a property he first uses a procedure called “flagging” — dragging a white sheet along the bushes and tall grass to learn the density and types of ticks he is dealing with. His recommendations usually include monthly ground spraying of a synthetic chemical related to the chrysanthemum called Astro permethrin. Although sprayed areas are said to be safe for human activity within 15 minutes, he warned that permethrin will also kill good insects, such as bees and butterflies. And, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s permethrin fact sheet, the chemical is also “highly toxic to freshwater and estuarine aquatic organisms.”

    Mr. Kelly tries to confine spraying to areas underneath decks and near woodpiles and stone walls, where mice and chipmunks congregate. There is no need to spray higher than 18 inches above ground, he said, and “spraying in the middle of the lawn would not be good for anyone.”

    He also uses Damminix in areas where mice and chipmunks hang out. The cardboard tubes are stuffed with the chemical-soaked cotton. The animals use it to make nests and it kills ticks in the process. Another nonchemical method that can help, he said, is to put up backyard boxes to attract screech owls, which feed on mice, or keep guinea hens, which eat ticks.

    Barbara Ferichs, the owner of All Natural Tick Solutions in Sag Harbor, said that a garlic-based spray certified for use on organic farms is just as effective as permethrin, but a little more expensive because it requires bi-monthly applications. 

    On Shelter Island, permethrin is applied topically to deer in 14 locations by a town-funded program involving units called four-posters, baited with corn. The chemical is applied to their necks via rollers as the deer eat.

    “Our work showed the four-poster does dramatically bring down tick populations over time in areas where it is used,” Dan Gilrein said in a recent e-mail, a conclusion that he said is based on data from sheet drags in their proximity. But there are questions about the impacts to groundwater and to the meat of deer that have come in contact with permethrin.

    Richard Kelly, a Shelter Island resident who has spent a great deal of his own time and money investigating the program, helped pay for a soil test of an area surrounding a unit. The results, he said, showed an “off the charts” concentration of the chemical in the soil beneath the unit, and significant concentrations 100 yards from it, both of them higher than the EPA safety levels for permethrin in soil. “It washed off with the rain,” he said, “and rolled downhill.”

    A hunter himself, Mr. Kelly said he took several deer organ and tissue samples to the Long Island Analytical Laboratories, where tests, he said, revealed permethrin in the deer’s tissue at a concentration “way over the threshold” used by the United States Department of Agriculture for cattle and pigs.

    “The four-poster thing is a joke,” Jack Reiser, a former North Haven Village mayor and member of the village’s deer management committee said earlier this month. The possibility of four-posters in the village, known for one of the highest incidences of ticks on the South Fork, was presented to its trustees a few weeks ago. Out of 11 members of the deer management committee, he said, “there wasn’t one of us that wanted it.” The cost of the four-poster program, Mr. Reiser said, with the physical structure, maintenance, corn, and technicians, “would easily be a half million dollars every year.”

    “We have a huge problem with Lyme disease,” Mr. Reiser said, but a combination approach is necessary, including deer birth control and reduction of the herd, which would also help reduce the number of car-deer collisions, he said.

    The Springs School District announced Saturday that it had turned over information to the Testing Integrity Unit of the New York State Education Department concerning a possible  testing irregularity related to a recent state assessment.

    A press release the district issued said that the allegation of a possible irregularity concerns one Springs staff member and one student — though the district declined to identify either individual by name.

    For most schools on the East End, state exams were administered during the months of April and May, though dates varied at each school. The Test Security Unit, based in Albany, is responsible for ensuring the security and integrity of New York State assessments.

    “The district immediately turned over this information to its attorney and as per state law, the Testing Integrity Unit of the State Education Department was notified,” read the release. “It is anticipated that the special unit will conduct its own investigation of this matter.”

    “We can’t confirm or deny whether an investigation is going on,” said Antonia Valentine, a spokesperson with the New York State Education Department. Incident reports are first submitted on the Testing Security Unit’s Web site.

    “If/when an investigation results in a final agency action against an educator’s certificate(s) or a school district action regarding a tenured educator’s employment, then certain information will be available under the Freedom of Information Law,” Ms. Valentine wrote in an e-mail.

    She said the education commissioner’s regulations “authorize the Education Department to investigate allegations of poor moral character lodged against certified educators and applicants for certification. Any educator facing charges in accordance with Part 83 regulations is afforded the opportunity for a full due process hearing. At issue when the Department initiates disciplinary charges is whether the certified educator retains the certificate(s) held or [is] issued the certificate(s) applied for.”

    The press release from Springs School said that it is still unknown how long such an investigation would take, though “it is not expected to be a significant period of time.”

     “Disciplinary proceedings at both the school district and state level may result in a range of penalties or outcomes,” Ms. Valentine wrote. “School district discipline may result in formal reprimand, counseling or medical treatment, fine, suspension of employment without pay, or termination. State action may result in revocation, suspension of certification, fine, requirement of continued education or training, or, in the case of an applicant, denial of a certificate.”

     “We have high expectations for our students and our staff and take pride in the integrity they display each and every day,” Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, the school board president, said in the release. “This allegation is an isolated incident concerning one staff member and one student, but regardless, we have to ensure that state-mandated testing protocols are completely followed.”

     “Aside from the question about this one particular allegation, we are confident that our recent assessments were delivered appropriately by our professional staff. We will continue to update the community as we learn more about this matter,” Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said.

     “As our community is aware, we have followed the protocol established by the State Education Department,” Dominic Mucci, the Springs School superintendent, said yesterday. On Monday night, the board indicated it intends to reappoint Mr. Mucci to his current part-time post. As a retiree, he is allowed to serve for an additional year, provided he first secures a waiver from New York State. “As a school district, we have taken the actions we believe necessary to maintain the integrity of the Springs School.”

    At Springs School over the past month, two officials have resigned: Katherine Byrnes, the assistant principal, and David Baird, the head bus driver. The Springs School Board convened an unannounced special meeting on the morning of May 8, at which the board unanimously accepted Dr. Byrne’s resignation, effective May 7. On Monday night, the board voted to accept Mr. Baird’s resignation, effective June 30.

    Due to an editing error, an article in last week’s paper about Dr. Byrnes’s departure from Springs may have led readers to believe that there were 28 special education students at the district where she was previously employed. In fact, that number referred to the special education students at the Springs School. 

    Apart from Dr. Byrne’s abrupt departure, adding to the confusion was the recent absence of Eric Casale, the Springs School principal. May 1 was the last day Dr. Byrnes was seen on campus. The next day, after reportedly complaining of chest pains, Mr. Casale left the school by ambulance and was taken to Southampton Hospital. He returned to his post on Monday morning.

    This is not the first time in his career that Mr. Casale has had to deal with allegations of testing irregularities at a school he has helmed. A 2005 New York Post story reported on a cheating incident that occurred while Mr. Casale was principal of P.S. 91 in the Bronx. In that case, according to the Post, Barbara Lee, a former math coach who had become assistant principal, was accused of helping students cheat during a New York State Regents exam in the spring of 2004.

    The story included allegations that Mr. Casale destroyed student and teacher testimonies related to potential wrongdoing to protect the assistant principal, but a 2010 Post follow-up reported that the city eventually terminated Ms. Lee’s employment following a protracted, and costly, legal battle.

    “There is no connection between what happened here and that article,” Mr. Casale said Tuesday afternoon. “It was taken care of in 2005. The teacher was terminated in 2010 when the investigation concluded.”

    Mr. Casale began his tenure at Springs School in the fall of 2005. “This has been my home for the last eight years,” he said.