The largest climate rally in the nation’s history happened in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, and the movement to mitigate climate change has Dan Asselin to thank for some of the estimated 50,000 attendees.

    Mr. Asselin, a musician who grew up in East Hampton and has performed at venues including Neoteric Fine Art in Amagansett, served as a volunteer bus organizer for the Forward on Climate rally, which was spearheaded by the groups 350.org, the Sierra Club, and the Hip Hop Caucus. One hundred fifty buses brought approximately 7,500 people from 30 states to the rally, said Mr. Asselin, with buses leaving from locations throughout New York City and Long Island. One, he said, carried a contingent from Hurricane Sandy-ravaged Far Rockaway, Queens.

    “Sunday was pretty amazing,” Mr. Asselin said of the rally. “At one point, we were standing in front of the White House, the entire mass of people was coming down Pennsylvania Avenue, and it was endless.”

    The rally, he said, “is about showing the Obama administration and, really, the entire U.S. government that this is important to us. It may not be on their radar, but it’s on ours.”

    At the forefront of the climate change mitigation movement, said Mr. Asselin, are efforts to halt the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, which would transport synthetic crude oil from Canada to multiple points in the United States, and a campaign, beginning with colleges and universities, to divest from fossil fuel companies.

    Mr. Asselin pointed to Bill McKibben, an author, activist, the Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College in Vermont, and founder of 350.org, as a primary inspiration for his activism. “350.org is decisively leading the way in advocating for a sane response to climate change,” he said. “They’re responding to some really discouraging political apathy and avoidance across the board. People, citizens from all across the country, are responding to that.”

    Mr. McKibben, said Mr. Asselin, “kind of wrote the book on climate change.” Indeed, Mr. McKibben’s books include “The End of Nature,” an early warning about climate change published in 1989, and “Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet” from 2010. “The idea of a climate that was warming due to human causes had been around,” Mr. Asselin said, “but he put it on the map in a real way.”

    Mr. Asselin, who lives in Brooklyn, referred to his roots on the South Fork as another motivating force behind his passion for environmental activism. “Growing up in a rural environment is what makes me feel so connected to this issue. I know, just from doing outreach, that a lot of people in the city don’t see the connection,” he said.

    Similarly, he and some others of his generation — Mr. Asselin is 26 — are sometimes frustrated by their peers’ apathy. “That’s why things are how they are,” he said. “My generation is politically apathetic. And I was too, until this issue lit me up. I know that state very well. It’s a sad place to be.”

    But, he added, “it’s not completely their fault. They see the political system is really corrupt. They think their voice doesn’t matter. The relationship between corporations and the federal government is messed up. But this generation is really capable of organizing itself. We had 112 on two buses; all of them paid online and were ready to come down at 7 a.m. on a Sunday. So there’s some hope.”

    And while 50,000 is a modest figure relative to some previous rallies in Washington, that number is both a milestone and one that may be surpassed as 350.org carries out its mission to build “a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis,” according to its Web site. 

    For Mr. Asselin, the Forward on Climate rally was personally fulfilling as well. “I’ve been so completely immersed in the coordination and planning for the buses,” he said, “and all the responsibilities that go along with that, that being there was a very personal experience.”

    Among the big-ticket items included in the Springs School District’s preliminary budget for the next school year are 50 new computerized devices, a propane-powered school bus, a school-wide security overhaul, and a wireless infrastructure upgrade.

    Thomas Primiano, the district’s treasurer, went over the numbers on Feb. 13 during the first of three budget workshops. This one dealt with buildings and grounds, transportation, technology, school board expenses, and other contractual items, and the maximum allowable tax levy for the next school year — just over $23.7 million, which would represent a 3 percent increase over this year’s tax levy. Certain items are exempt from the tax cap.

    Last year, in order to stay under the state-mandated 2-percent tax levy cap, $791,969 in cuts were made to various programs — an excruciating fate the district is hoping to avoid this time around.

    Beginning in the 2014-15 school year, New York State will mandate that students in third through eighth grades take computerized assessments. While legally required, the burden to comply will fall on schools, with no additional state money.

    Timothy Frazier, a school board member and principal of Southampton Intermediate School, along with several parents, expressed frustration at yet another unfunded mandate.

    “Number two pencils are a heck of a lot cheaper than tablets,” said Kathee Burke Gonzalez, the School Board’s president. “We don’t have the infrastructure to have a couple of hundred kids taking a test on a tablet,” she said, noting that areas of Springs School still lacked basic Internet connectivity.

    In order to comply with such a requirement, Springs School will need an additional 150 to 250 devices, whether laptops, tablets, desktop computers, or some combination. For now, the school plans to phase in approximately 50 devices each year. Also at issue is increasing availability of building-wide wireless access.

    For the 2013-14 school year, Springs will also see a projected increase of $189,822 in state aid, the bulk of which concerns $87,100 in charter school transition costs that the school overpaid for last year. For every student living in Springs that attends the Child Development Center of the Hamptons, a charter school in East Hampton primarily for children with special needs, the school is required to pay $22,500. Last year, the district budgeted for more students than ultimately enrolled.

    “The 18-percent change in state aid for this year is an unusual year, and we shouldn’t be expecting that in the future,” Mr. Primiano said. “We need to save and maintain our reserves.”

    Besides leasing a new propane-powered school bus, which the district would eventually own, the preliminary budget also includes $55,000 to transport a student with special needs to Westhampton Beach. The trip, provided by an outside company, requires not only a driver, but also two monitors to accompany the student.

    In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, Springs is also planning for a security overhaul by replacing all locks, implementing an intercom system, and installing security cameras. The locks alone are projected to cost $5,000.

    Last week’s meeting was sparsely attended, and included only a handful of parents.

    “We would like to invite the public to come out and participate,” said Ms. Burke Gonzalez.

     Two more workshops are planned in the coming weeks. A second session is scheduled on March 6 to tackle instructional programs, interscholastic sports, and field trips. A third, on March 20, will address tuition to East Hampton High School, the Board of Cooperative Educational Services, employee benefits, administration, and the overall projected budget and tax rate. All convene at 6:30 p.m. in the school’s common room.

    The East Hampton Town Republican Committee voted on Feb. 13 on its nominees for town supervisor and highway superintendent, and although it is not making its choices public yet, its chairman said Monday that the committee had only screened one candidate for each of the positions — Jay Schneiderman for supervisor and Steve Lynch for highway superintendent.

    Also on Feb. 13, the committee interviewed two potential candidates for town justice — Carl Irace, a former town attorney, and Robert Kouffman, an attorney who has run for the job in the past. The G.O.P. screened candidates for town board, town trustees, assessor, and town clerk as well at that meeting, its chairman, Kurt Kappel, said Monday.

    As expected, Republican Councilman Dominick Stanzione met with the committee members to make the case for a second term and Fred Overton, the town clerk, was interviewed to run for town board after 14 years in his current position and 12 before that as a town trustee and town assessor.

    “I’ve heard a lot for the past 14 years sitting with the town board,” Mr. Overton said. “Not that I have all the answers, but I think I have a lot to offer. . . . I think I have an insight. I’ve lived it for 14 years.”

    If Mr. Schneiderman, a county legislator who was town supervisor for four years, is chosen to lead the ticket, “I think he’ll be a great candidate,” Mr. Overton said yesterday. He was first elected town clerk the year that Mr. Schneiderman was elected supervisor and has worked under both Democratic and Republican administrations since then.

    He said he’s had good feedback from the committee, but added, “When you’re in politics for as long as I’ve been, you realize nothing is for sure until all the T’s are crossed and the I’s are dotted.”

    “I think we really have a strong slate this year,” Mr. Kappel said. “There are a lot of people who are pretty energized who want to run.”

    Carol Brennan, the deputy clerk for many years, is eyeing Mr. Overton’s position and was the only one to meet with the committee last week, Mr. Kappel said. Mr. Overton said he had full confidence in her ability to run the clerk’s office, something she did often in his absence over the past year.

    Joe Bloecker, a town trustee, screened for assessor, and for trustee the committee interviewed Dennis Curles and Mike Bottini last week. Earlier, it had screened Tom Cooper and six incumbent trustees who plan to run again — Diane McNally, Nat Miller, Stephanie Forsberg, Tim Bock, Sean McCaffrey, and Deborah Klughers, who was elected on the Democratic ticket. On Feb. 13, the committee voted to re-nominate the five Republican incumbents, leaving four spots to fill on the trustee ticket. The committee will interview and vote on additional candidates at a meeting on Wednesday.

    It expects to name its full slate by the end of the month, Mr. Kappel said. This despite the fact that Republican Supervisor Bill Wilkinson has not yet indicated whether he wants to run for a third term. Mr. Wilkinson has run for office three times, winning in 2009 against Ben Zwirn and beating out the Democratic candidate, Zachary Cohen, by just 15 votes in 2011.

    Mr. Cohen is among this year’s potential candidates for the top job on the Democratic ticket, but the Democratic Committee is still in the process of screening. Larry Cantwell, who is retiring from his 30-year position as the East Hampton Village administrator, has said he is pondering a run for town supervisor. He served on the East Hampton Town Board before taking his job with the village. Mr. Cantwell is rumored to have the party’s support, but Democrats will not name their slate until March and perhaps even April.

    Members of the Montauk Fire Department are on a mission to upgrade the hamlet’s hurricane shelters and raise money for a generator for the Montauk Playhouse Community Center, one of the designated shelters in the easternmost hamlet, along with the Montauk School and the Montauk Downs, but the only one that does not have a generator.

    The Montauk Firehouse is also a shelter, but for fire department members and their families only. A former Fire Department chief, Peter Joyce, who is leading the charge, explained that in an emergency situation volunteer firemen would be better able to respond if they knew their families were taken care of.

    Mr. Joyce has been visiting various organizations asking for their help. When he appeared before the Montauk School Board in January, he also asked for a list of equipment the school might need in case it was required as a shelter. A committee of firefighters has been formed and is focusing on shoring up the community should another storm the magnitude of Sandy hit and force an evacuation. The committee plans to apply for funding to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

    The fire department hopes to raise enough money, or have a benefactor come forward with a large enough donation, to purchase the generator, which will cost about $300,000.

    “Montauk has always been a community that can move mountains to help people. And we have to stay that way and work together to get this thing going,” Mr. Joyce said.

    At a gathering on Feb. 12 at the firehouse, Mr. Joyce and Chief Richard Schoen sat around a spread of maps identifying the areas that would be hit hardest in a storm surge similar to the one that wiped out whole neighborhoods during Hurricane Sandy, causing millions of dollars in damage. Mr. Joyce said the hamlet could become an island of its own.

    With that in mind, he said, the fire department is creating an evacuation plan as if East Hampton did not exist, since one of the worst trouble spots is the Napeague stretch. If flooded, it would cut Montaukers off from the rest of Long Island.

    When Sandy struck, the only evacuation center open was East Hampton High School. East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson wanted to open the Playhouse during Sandy but found the plan unworkable, as there were no Red Cross volunteers available to manage it. Luckily it was not needed, but it could be before long, said Mr. Joyce, who has taken it upon himself to drive through the hamlet and has identified over 600 houses that are in danger zones. The zones are highlighted on the maps, which are available for all to see at the firehouse

    There are three places most vulnerable to a sea breach, said Mr. Joyce: Napeague, downtown Montauk, and the Ditch Plain area, especially the oceanfront trailer park known as Montauk Shores Condominiums. “They are definitely in danger,” Mr. Joyce said. The dock area is also a low-lying zone and could suffer great damage from flooding.

    A fireman for over 30 years, Mr. Joyce was born and raised in Montauk. He remembers stories he heard from his mother, Peg Joyce, who lived in the old fishing village on Navy Road when it was almost wiped out during the Hurricane of 1938. “I know this can happen,” he said.

    A 1997 book by Peg Winski of the Montauk Historical Society described the conditions after that hurricane. Utility poles were downed, houses were destroyed, and boats upended. “Very few buildings were left intact,” she wrote.

    Montauk students at East Hampton High School had to stay overnight with classmates, relatives, and teachers, although many were not able to sleep, what with rumors floating about that the Atlantic had swept in to meet Fort Pond Bay and Montauk was no more. “Thankfully, the rumors were only half true,” Ms. Winski wrote.

    Hurricane Sandy really put the focus on this project, said Mr. Schoen, who was scheduled to meet with Red Cross officials this week to unlock a trailer that has been sitting on the grounds of the Montauk Playhouse for almost three years. He planned to take the visitors to the other shelters to hear their recommendations as to what might be needed.

    Mr. Joyce said that in addition to a working generator, shelters must have blankets, cots, food supplies, and proper heating and ventilation. “You can’t put 500-plus people in a shelter without proper ventilation. We saw that happen with Katrina,” he said.

    Both firemen said a storm hitting in summer, when the population swells to thousands, was their biggest fear. Getting the word out early about an upcoming storm is essential, they said, so summer people have time to return to their other houses and locals can move in with relatives up west until it passes. “But the scope doesn’t always lend itself to an easy solution,” said the chief.

    In the next few weeks the town will host a Red Cross volunteer training session for people to become certified as safety managers in evacuation centers. A time and date for the one-day course will soon be announced.

    A Springs man, Samuel Spielberg, 31, was killed in a one-car crash late Friday night.

    First responders reported finding his 2002 Toyota 4Runner in woods off Red Dirt Road, just west of Old Stone Highway. The SUV, which had overturned, was engulfed in flames, said to be shooting 20 feet in the air.

    A call alerting East Hampton Town police to the crash was logged in at 11:27 p.m. The initial police report said the car had "failed to negotiate a curve in the roadway."

    After the Amagansett Fire Department extinguished the blaze, Mr. Spielberg's body was found in the burnt-out vehicle. Police said he was its sole occupant. Police are interviewing witnesses who saw Mr. Spielberg shortly before his death, and conducting a safety inspection of the car.

    In an interview last week, before the crash, Chief Edward Ecker pointed out that Old Stone Highway and its ancillary roads, unlike a number of other roads in the town that have the word "highway" in them, is just that: a main thoroughfare for traffic headed to Springs from Amagansett and Montauk. Speaking of Jeffrey Ahn, who was struck and killed by a taxicab as he walked along Old Stone Highway in June, the chief remarked that the roads in that neighborhood  are narrow and winding, and have no shoulder.

    Mr. Spielberg was the second road-related fatality this month in the Town of East Hampton. Kelly Anne Doroski, 23, of East Hampton died in a one-car crash on Route 114 on Feb. 7.

    Last year, town police reported eight deaths on the roads, the most in at least 10 years, even as the total number of reported accidents continued a 10-year trend of decline. Car accidents have declined in 9 of the past 10 years, from 1,055 in 2003, to 870 in 2012, a decrease of almost 18 percent.

    Chief Ecker, in the department's annual report, released earlier this month, put a heavy priority for the upcoming year on making the roads of East Hampton safer. He could not attribute any clear pattern to last year's eight incidents, an unusually high number.

    Town police statistics show that the number of fatalities has swung up and down over the past decade. Between 2003 and 2005, for example, there were a total of 17 road deaths, during years when there was an average of over 1,000 accidents reported per year.

    There were six fatalities on the roads between 2006 and 2008, and none at all in 2009. Two thousand ten saw four road deaths, with only one in 2011, before last year's number spiked to eight.

    Throughout the decade the number of reported accidents other than fatalities has declined steadily, bottoming out at 870 last year, the fewest in recent memory.

    East Hampton Town and the Peconic Land Trust will join forces to purchase the development rights over 9.5 Amagansett acres containing the Stony Hill Stables.

    According to a unanimous vote of the town board last Thursday night, after a hearing on the idea, East Hampton will spend $489,250 of its community preservation fund to preserve the stables. The land trust will begin fund-raising to acquire its portion of the $978,500 purchase price, Sara Gordon, a representative of the land trust, said Tuesday.

    Stony Hill Stables, which has 30 horses and offers riding camps and lessons in hunters, jumpers, and dressage, was established 50 years ago by the Hotchkiss family and remains under the ownership of Elizabeth (Wickety) Hotchkiss.

    An application to create a three-lot residential subdivision in lieu of the farm has been under town planning board review. But, Ms. Gordon said this week, the stables have “ardent supporters” who drew up a petition asking for them to be saved. That prompted the land trust to get involved and approach town officials about a plan.

    The trust’s Deborah Light Preserve, Quail Hill Farm, and Stony Hill properties are close to the stables, along Town Lane, Ms. Gordon noted. “It’s kind of in our backyard as well. It’s a community character preservation” effort, she said.

    Ms. Gordon said it could take several years to raise the money to proceed, but, “the alternative, because of the needs of the family, is a three-lot subdivision.”

    The town, said Scott Wilson, East Hampton’s director of land acquisitions and management, “will close whenever they’re ready.”

    “We’re confident that we’re going to succeed,” Ms. Gordon said, “and that it’s a good place to put our efforts.”

    Some potential donors have already come forward, said Maureen Bluedorn, the president of the Stony Hill Stables Foundation. “We’re just thrilled that the town is taking these steps to preserve the essence of what East Hampton is all about,” she said by phone on Monday. Preserving the acreage (an approximately one-acre area containing the family house will be excluded) will help maintain the pastoral and historic nature of the area.

     Stony Hill Stables is used by locals, Ms. Bluedorn said. With 28 employees, it has more than 230 students a year, she said. The foundation, she continued, was established specifically to provide scholarships to local children, enabling them not only to take riding lessons, but also to be assigned a pony for a summer riding camp and to participate in horse shows. At the hearing at Town Hall last week, Marc Lowlicht, the father of an 11-year-old scholarship recipient, read a letter she wrote about what it has meant to her.

    Also last Thursday, following a hearing, the town board voted to buy two lots on Lincoln Avenue in Springs, totaling a half acre, from Suffolk County for $7,920. The purchase will also be made with the community fund, to preserve open space.

    David Buda, the sole speaker at the hearing, called it a “welcome acquisition” that would add to adjacent vacant parcels that have also been purchased. It would be a “wonderful resource for Springs . . . if the town intends to make it a passive park.” The parcels, he said, were designated for use as a park in 1977 urban-renewal maps of the area.

    The justice system has been a revolving door that may finally have come to a stop on Friday for the driver accused of running over and killing John Judge on Amagansett Main Street in October. East Hampton Town Justice Catherine Cahill set bail that day for Edward L. Orr of Montauk at $250,000 cash.

    This is at least the sixth time in the last five years that Mr. Orr, 30, has been arrested. Four of the arrests resulted in convictions; at least three were alcohol-related, according to court records and police reports. One charge was a felony.

    During Friday’s arraignment, Mr. Orr appeared dazed. Elena Lupo, a friend of Mr. Judge who was in court during the proceedings, said she saw him look back at his parents, Anita and Edward F. Orr III, who were seated in the last row of the courtroom, and mouth the words, “What the [expletive] am I doing here?”

    On Monday, a grand jury indicted him on a felony charge of fleeing the scene of an accident where the driver had good reason to know there was an injury, said Dan Cronin, an assistant county district attorney who has handled the case to date. More charges may be brought over the next few weeks.

    Asked if he would be able to post bail, the elder Mr. Orr looked down and shook his head no.

    “They never stopped. They kept on it,” East Hampton Town Police Chief Eddie Ecker said of the long investigation that ended in Mr. Orr’s arrest.

    For seven hours after Mr. Judge’s body was found slumped against the wheel-well of an SUV parked on the eastbound side of the street opposite Astro Pizza, town detectives, along with a county forensics team, combed the roadway, which was closed to traffic, for the slightest slivers of wreckage from the car. It was apparent at the time that the car had front-end damage, the chief said.

    Some motorists complained that night about the long delays, but in the end the police had gathered enough evidence to form a rough description of the car, which they said was a dark SUV-type vehicle.

    State Department of Motor Vehicles records indicated there were about 1,500 cars here that were possible matches, the chief said.

    According to Detective Lt. Chris Anderson, the police painstakingly examined cars that might match the debris they had collected. “We didn’t zero in on any one vehicle. We examined between 60 and 70 possible matches” across several jurisdictions, Detective Anderson said, before coming across the 2004 Jeep Cherokee belonging to Mr. Orr. It was the same vehicle he had been driving when he was arrested on the drunken-driving charge in 2008.

    The Jeep was in an auction lot in New Jersey. Its damage was consistent with what detectives were looking for.

    Finding the car was not enough, though. The police would have to place the driver at the scene of the accident. It took time, but in the end Mr. Orr’s cellphone records did just that, police said.

    Detective Anderson said the police have been in possession of the car for some time, and indicated that the investigation is ongoing. It could expand to include anyone who aided Mr. Orr, he said.

    The word in Montauk is that Mr. Orr stayed there that night and drove the Jeep to New Jersey, where he also lives, the next day, eluding a massive manhunt by local police, who brought in county helicopters to aid in the search.

    In early 2008, Mr. Orr was convicted of fleeing a police officer after leading the police on a chase in Montauk. That summer, an order of protection was issued for his parents, who were concerned about his heavy drinking, reports indicated. When the parents called a few days later to say he had violated the order of protection, a patrolman spotted Mr. Orr driving the  Jeep and pulled him over, leading to the drunken-driving arrest and conviction. It was in the middle of the day. Mr. Orr had reportedly been drinking Captain Morgan rum.

    In 2009, he was working for Marshall’s Fuels in Montauk when he was arrested for embezzling company funds. He was convicted of felony grand larceny and sentenced to five years’ probation.

    On a November afternoon in 2011, police were summoned to his parents’ Montauk residence. Officers reported that his father had his back turned, unloading his car, when someone grabbed him from behind and put him in a chokehold. The elder Mr. Orr realized it was his son when he heard him say, “How do you like this?”

    The son let go after about 30 seconds, but ran into the house and came out brandishing two knives. The father ran to a neighbor’s house and waited for the police. His son, he told them, was angry because the elder Orr had told his probation officer he had been drinking excessively, in violation of the terms of his probation.

    Mr. Orr served six months in the county jail over that time period, according to Michael Sharkey, chief of staff of the County Sheriff’s Office. He has been in and out of alcohol-abuse treatment centers.

    “I couldn’t go to court,” said Tony Lupo, the owner of Astro’s, where Mr. Judge had picked up a to-go order minutes before he was killed. The two men were close friends. “If I would’ve went, I would’ve choked him,” Mr. Lupo said of Mr. Orr. “They would’ve had to arrest me.”

    Neither Detective Anderson nor Mr. Cronin would confirm a published report that Mr. Orr has confessed.

    Whale removal: $7,500. It’s an unusual ledger entry in any town. But even in East Hampton, which has had its share of whale misadventures recently, it was a bill that surprised the town trustees, simply because they said they never authorized it and were never consulted about it.

    Speaking at a meeting on Tuesday night, Diane McNally, the clerk of the trustees, said charging the trustees for the removal of a finback whale that washed up on Napeague on Jan. 13 was the determination of the town’s budget officer, Len Bernard, and Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, since it happened on a trustee beach.

    “While I do appreciate their acknowledging that it was a trustee beach, no one asked us about cost or anything about removing the whale or how to go about it,” Ms. McNally said.

    Stephanie Forsberg, a trustee, said the town officers should be reminded that the trustees only expend money when a majority of them vote to do so. “We did not discuss it nor did we make a vote to spend the public’s money for that.”

    Billy Mack of First Coastal in Westhampton Beach offered to remove the whale for nothing. “I had a machine not that far away,” he said at the meeting. “I said I’d be happy to do it. . . . They said they had already made other arrangements.”

    Instead, the arrangements were made with Bistrian Gravel Corporation through the East Hampton Town Highway Department and approved by the supervisor, Mr. Bernard said in a joint interview yesterday with Ed Michels, the town’s chief harbormaster.

    “I was never asked when I was there,” Ms. Forsberg said, “and I was one of the first people on the beach.” She said she spoke with Mr. Wilkinson about the whale, but he never brought up the subject of its removal. She said that Mr. Michels, who was one of those in charge on the scene, was very helpful but asked only that the trustees permit them to close the beach to the public for safety reasons.

    Mr. Michels said yesterday that the trustees had been notified immediately and that he had a long discussion with one of them, Deborah Klughers. “We discussed the alternative methods to remove the whale. She was concerned that it might be buried or towed out to sea.” The decision to cut up the remains and incinerate them was what she preferred, he said.

    “There was no question about what the cost would be after it was done,” Mr. Michels said. On the contrary, he and Mr. Bernard said that it was not something that could be determined in advance of the job.

    Ms. Klughers said at the meeting Tuesday that she had not been consulted about the removal.

    Mr. Bernard said it was the supervisor’s determination that the bill should go to the trustees, as the whale was on their land. “Ed coordinated with the highway superintendent for removal, and he certainly wasn’t going to pay for it out of his budget.” When it comes to issues involving the beach, Mr. Bernard said the trustees seem to assume that someone else is “going to foot the bill on what they claim vehemently to be their area.”

    He said a similar situation had occurred when sea turtles washed up on bay beaches and had to be removed by a payloader. He said the Clearwater Beach Association, as the property owners, were charged for the removal.

    Mr. Michels said the reason that such a chargeback to the trustees had not come up before was because the whales that washed up here in recent memory had not been on trustee beaches. The last whale to wash up on Napeague was about 25 years ago, he said, and it was buried. More recent incidents were in Montauk and East Hampton Village, and the town and the village, respectively, took responsibility.

    According to Mr. Michels, Mr. Mack did approach him about offering his equipment on the beach, and he referred him to Steve Lynch, the highway superintendent. “He never offered it for free,” Mr. Michels said.

    He added that the size of the job and the amount of time they had to do it required special equipment, an earth-moving dump truck, to minimize the trips to the town dump with the 2,200 tons of whale remains that were already creating a health hazard.

    Mr. Bernard said he had never smelled anything like it, and that Mr. Lynch, who was on site the entire time, “had to throw away his pants” because the smell would not come out after several washings.

    The high tide did not recede until the afternoon, and the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation did not finish the necropsy until 2 or 3 p.m. That left the town with only a few hours to remove the cut-up remains before the sun went down, which would bring on the added expense of a light source, Mr. Michels said.

    “It only took three or four loads. With a payloader it would have taken multiple days,” Mr. Michels said.

    The remains were left on the tipping room floor of the dump and then put on roll-off containers headed to the incinerator, where they were burned.

    Questions and disagreements about bills and reimbursements have been an issue between town administrators and the trustees for some time. Although many trustees were willing to pay the bill, they indicated that they would go to a town board meeting and discuss the whale removal along with a number of other outstanding financial matters.

    Ms. McNally said it was important that the trustees be more involved and understand the procedures in these situations if the group is going to be financially responsible for them. “The trustees have a minimal town budget,” she said, and much of the income from their property, such as beach permits and other permits and fees, goes back to the town. Although she said she did not have a problem paying the bill, “we asked how it would be done and were never told.”

    There was never a discussion with the supervisor, she said. “It was attached in an e-mail that said you’re responsible for this. It was not handled professionally.”

    East Hampton Town and East Hampton Village, both facing a need to repair the aging fuel tanks and pumps where their police, highway, and other official cars and trucks gas up, are banding together to seek grant money for the construction of a centralized, shared facility.

    New York State’s Local Government Efficiency Program provides assistance and grants for the development of projects that achieve cost savings and improve efficiency through shared initiatives. With a March 13 deadline to apply for money, both town and village officials have been discussing the project.

    Up to $400,000 in grant money could be available, Larry Cantwell, the East Hampton Village administrator, said yesterday. “That might very well pay for most of the cost of a new facility,” he said, adding that the remaining costs would involve dismantling the existing facilities.

    The village’s fueling station at its Department of Public Works site on Accabonac Road is “23 years old or more,” Mr. Cantwell said at a village board meeting on Friday. “At some point we’re going to have to do a major upgrade of that system,” he said.

    Mr. Cantwell and Scott Fithian, the village’s superintendent of public works, have been meeting with East Hampton Town officials, including Highway Superintendent Steve Lynch and a representative from the town police.

    East Hampton Town has fueling facilities at its Highway Department and at the town police garage behind Town Hall, and shares a fueling site in Montauk with the Montauk Fire Department. The two main sites — both the underground fuel storage tanks and the fuel pumps — are “outdated, deteriorated, and in critical need of replacement,” Charlene Kagel, an accountant for the town, told the town board at a meeting on Tuesday with village officials.

    The village board had hired Drew Bennett, a consulting engineer, to do a preliminary report on the redesign of its facility, at an estimated cost of $3,900.

    Mr. Bennett will now proceed with work on behalf of both the village and the town, to prepare a cost-benefit analysis for the joint project and to design the centralized facility. Its location has not yet been determined, though it would be placed on town or village-owned land.

    Mr. Bennett said at the town board meeting on Tuesday that he would evaluate whether two separate diesel fuel tanks maintained by the town’s Parks and Recreation and Sanitation Departments should be eliminated.

    Whether or not the new fuel tanks will be installed above or below ground will also be decided, the engineer said.

    The underground tanks now used by both the village and the town all date to the early 1980s, Mr. Bennett said. Though he “doesn’t anticipate any major can of worms” in their removal, “there’s always a risk of an accumulation of small spillage” of fuel that would have to be dealt with.

    The new fuel pumps would be equipped with a computerized recordkeeping system to log which vehicles are getting gas. Ms. Kagel said that the system could tie in to a regional fueling station concept under discussion by public officials countywide, which would allow vehicles from any municipality to fuel up at participating stations. Bills would then be sent out to various towns and villages, accordingly.

    The new site could include charging stations for electric cars and incorporate the use of alternative energy, Ms. Kagel said.

    She said that Shelter Island Town and its school district had received a state grant for a similar project, and that “the likelihood is good” that the East Hampton application would also be successful.

    Either way, Ms. Kagel said, for the town and village to pool their resources to build a new fuel facility “would make financial sense.”

    The joint project is “an indication of the changing times with respect to local government,” East Hampton Village Mayor F. Paul Rickenbach Jr. said last week. “The village is pleased to cooperate with the town in this inter-municipal undertaking.”

     “Shared services are not only good for the taxpayer, it’s a practical way to go,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson said on Tuesday. He pointed to a recent successful example, when the town and village jointly operated an emergency operations center during the last two big storms.

    East Hampton Village has appointed a replacement for Larry Cantwell, the village administrator for the past 30 years, Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. announced at a village board meeting on Friday.

    Rebecca Molinaro, the clerk-treasurer of the Village of Westhampton Beach, will assume the role on May 1. Mr. Cantwell and Ms. Molinaro will work together until Mr. Cantwell’s retirement in July.

    Ms. Molinaro has a master’s degree in public policy and 10 years of government experience as executive assistant to Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. She has served in her present role for the past three years. Ms. Molinaro said Friday that she and her daughter, Emma McGrory, will relocate from Remsenburg to East Hampton. Her starting salary, said the mayor, will be $95,000 per year.

    “Becky’s education and work experience is directly within the area of expertise required for the position of village administrator and this makes her an outstanding choice to carry on the tradition of good work by Larry,” the mayor said in a prepared statement.

    The incoming village administrator said after the meeting that she is “very excited” about the job. In governing on a local level, she said, “the response is tangible and almost immediate.” Working as a village administrator gives her “an amazing opportunity to become part of it,” she said.

    On Friday, Mayor Rickenbach and Ms. Molinaro discussed the considerable similarities between the villages, which include year-round populations that swell in size with an influx of summer residents and visitors, issues of storms and coastal erosion and, especially in recent years, the need to be familiar with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

    The mayor, who said that he and Mayor Conrad Teller of Westhampton Beach share a similar career track, with each moving from law enforcement into government, described Ms. Molinaro as “a professional lady and a class act,” and predicted “an extremely smooth and transparent transition.”

    Ms. Molinaro departs from her present position amid a minor controversy that has been described as an accounting mishap in which village employees were overpaid by a total of $22,000. The error has been corrected, and Ms. Molinaro has recommended that the village move from a biweekly payroll schedule to a 24-week schedule to preclude a repeat of the error. Preparing the village budget is one of the village administrator’s many duties in East Hampton.

    Members of the East Hampton Village Board were aware of the situation, Mr. Cantwell said yesterday. “They took a look at it. The state comptroller’s office took a look. It was corrected. I think it’s the kind of mistake that could happen, and we didn’t feel it reflected on Becky’s competence or qualifications in any way,” he said.