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.

    “Good buffers make good neighbors,” Jeffrey Bragman said, loosely quoting Robert Frost, as he told the Sag Harbor Village Zoning Board of Appeals on Tuesday night that the proposed reconstruction of the Harbor Heights Service Station on Madison Street was out of line.

    Mr. Bragman, an East Hampton lawyer representing Save Sag Harbor, a citizens group, began his remarks after the board had already approved four applications, discussed other business, and held a lengthy hearing on a Garden Street property. (The Star will cover the latter in a future issue.)

    Before Mr. Bragman was done, however, Anthony Hagen, the board chairman, called a halt to his presentation due to the late hour. What Mr. Bragman said would be “the best part” of his argument on behalf of Save Sag Harbor is scheduled for the Z.B.A.’s next meeting, on March 19, when public comment will also be heard.

    The attorney accused the applicant, who does business as Petroleum Ventures, of “stripping out every zoning protection designed to help neighbors,” while saying that it was not the zoning board’s responsibility to “protect a businessman who wants to maximize his profit.” He called the proposal for Harbor Heights a “detriment to the community,” saying that, according to village legislation, gas stations are intended to remain small. The “applicant is not entitled to sell you into a variance because they disagree with the policy.”

    Mr. Bragman offered the board a picture of how much the applicant was asking for in numerous variance requests with a service station plan that would require none. According to Mr. Bragman’s plan, the applicant could have two pumps, a 1,273-square-foot building, a garage, 50-foot setbacks at front, 30-foot-deep landscaping all around, 31 parking spaces, and a 600-square-foot store, along with a complete basement of equal size.

    Instead, he said the design calls for a 58-percent variance for height, falls 2,000 square- feet short on landscaping, and increases lighting from 17 to 33 percent. The two additional pumps proposed would amount to a “physical extension of nonconforming use . . . an obvious expansion of use.” Tearing the old building down and relocating it was legally problematic, as well, he said, and the new building and pumps would cover more of the lot.

    Focusing on a proposed new fuel island, he said that it would be 24 feet long by 3 feet wide and “bigger than the building they want to build.” He compared the 89-foot-long canopy over the pumps to those at gas stations on Montauk Highway in Wainscott, which he said was “inappropriate in this setting.”

    Noting that the application calls for a 972-square-foot convenience store, he said only 600 square feet is allowed. “A glamorous convenience store” with several aisles and room for pop-up displays requested 89 percent setback variance for a sign, “2 feet away instead of 20 feet,” saying that in effect it would constitute repealing the setback provisions of the law. He also talked of the “landmark church to the west,” telling the board, “The applicant didn’t pay attention to it, but you should.”

    “You don’t grant variances for the convenience of an applicant, so they can make more money,” Mr. Bragman told the board.  “You lack the power to do it, and you shouldn’t do it.”

    A plastic jug had been placed on the counter near the cash register at the 7-Eleven in Sag Harbor to collect donations for Jhenny Bueno Arias, the severely injured “best employee” of Saqib Hameed, the owner of the Long Island Avenue store. Mr. Hameed is handling everything for Ms. Arias, who “has nobody,” he said on Tuesday.

    The plastic jug was stolen Saturday, according the store’s manager that night, Muhammad-Khalid Nazir, who called Sag Harbor Village police when a man ran into the store, grabbed the jug, and drove off.

    Ms. Bueno Arias, a 36-year-old single mother of four, was struck by a car as she walked home from work on Jan. 15. She was airlifted to Stony Brook University Medical Center with life-threatening injuries that included several fractured bones and punctured and lacerated organs. The car’s driver, David Corigliano of East Hampton, 60, was not charged with any wrongdoing and remained with Ms. Bueno Arias after his vehicle struck her. She had been crossing the multi-lane intersection where Jermain Avenue crosses Main Street and becomes Brick Kiln Road.

    While a police investigation is ongoing concerning the stolen donations, the dollar amount of which was not known, and while police study evidence captured by surveillance cameras, Mr. Hameed’s focus is on his employee, whom he visits daily. In an interview on Tuesday, he said that she is staying with a friend and is unable to walk or care for herself in any way. Discharged from the hospital because she didn’t have insurance, she still has a long road to recovery and is in need of constant care, he said.

    “I am trying to get her into an inpatient rehab,” Mr. Hameed said. He said he was grateful for donations received at a recent bake sale held at the store, and was able to pay her rent with the money raised.

    Ms. Bueno Arias is treasured by her boss, who called her honest, friendly, and reliable, and she’s a favorite among customers of all ages as well. “The whole town is helping with an open heart,” Mr. Hameed said.

    Charlie Canavan of Sag Harbor, who plans events for the Hysterical Society, will donate the proceeds from a $40 culinary stroll down Main Street on Saturday during HarborFrost. Music will be courtesy of the New Dawn Trio. Attendees have been invited to join the charitable fun at 1:30 p.m. for food and a cash bar at Il Capuccino. Other stops will be made at L.T. Burger, Page at 63 Main, and Muse in the Harbor restaurants.

    Joe Lauro, another Sag Harbor resident, has gotten in touch with Mr. Hameed in hopes of assisting with money from Island Gift of Life, which he said is “there for situations just like this.”

    Donations can be made in cash or by check made out to Jhenny Bueno Arias and dropped off at 7-Eleven, or checks can be sent to Mr. Hameed at P.O. Box 3134, Sag Harbor 11963.

    Since the December massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., which left 20 children and six adult staffers dead, parents across the nation have worried about the safety and security of their children — a concern that grows especially acute during school hours.

    On Tuesday, in response to a joint letter signed by the Parent Teacher Association presidents of John M. Marshall Elementary School and the East Hampton Middle School, East Hampton Village officials decided to reinstate a part-time police officer at both schools. The letter had received “overwhelming parental support,” according to Wendy Geehreng, who heads the middle school PTA.

    “In 2013, we live in a different world. Our K-12 students are taught on cue to get to a safe place as quickly as possible. They know what ‘lockout’ and ‘lockdown’ mean,” read the letter, co-signed by Erica Hren of John Marshall’s PTA. “We, as parents, know for many reasons, Sandy Hook could have happened here or anywhere else. We are not immune to the dangers. We, as parents, ask that the village, for the safety of the children and teachers, place an officer in our schools to serve as a DARE officer, and to also be a police presence.”

    Starting next week, a part-time police officer will patrol both the elementary and middle schools.

    For years, a full-time DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) officer circulated between the two schools. Last spring, the village voted to eliminate the position, citing both the questionable effectiveness of the DARE program and budgetary constraints.

    “After the incident at Sandy Hook, some of the parents decided that they would feel better if they had more police presence. We discussed it as a board, and decided there was a relevance to that,” said Richard Lawler, a village board member. The village officer who patrols both campuses at the beginning and end of the school day will continue to do so, he said, and to make periodic drop-in visits as in the past.

    The village did not allocate money to pay for the increased police presence. “Chief Larsen will carry it out with the budget that he has,” Mr. Lawler said.

    The chief confirmed that one of his three detectives would now be assigned to patrol the two schools for three days each week.

    “Manpower-wise, we’re at a minimum now,” he said. “We are going to accommodate it, but it’s putting us in an awkward situation. We’ll now be running with two detectives. It’s the only way I could do it and not pay overtime.”

    As things stand, said Chief Larsen, the town and village forces are training together. “God forbid, were something to happen, it will be a joint effort.”

    East Hampton High School, which is outside village limits, has a town police officer assigned to the high school five days a week.

    “The saying that it takes a village to raise a child rings true here.  Our village of East Hampton, under the leadership of Mayor Rickenbach, the village board, and Chief Gerry Larsen took a great step in improving the safety and welfare of the children this week,” said Ms. Geehreng. “For this, we are truly grateful.”

    Talk of increased school security similarly ruled the night at Tuesday evening’s East Hampton School Board meeting. The board ultimately voted 5-1 to hire Michael J. Guido Jr., a Rocky Point-based architect, to perform “security audits” at each of the three schools, at a cost of $18,000. Mr. Guido has worked with the district on past projects.

    Jackie Lowey took issue with the contract, calling it a “sole-source contract” that had not been put out to bid. She was the only board member to vote against it. “It’s a lot of money for a small school district,” she said.

    Mr. Guido estimated his costs at around $6,000 per building. “We’ll look at the doors, fences, are there places for people to hide, are the structures safe from an automobile intrusion. We’ll go through procedures with staff, interview police, ask people how things are handled, how they handle visitors, attendance, whether it’s an open or closed campus.”

    Superintendent Richard J. Burns said he had met with school administrators, head custodians, and the village and town police chiefs in the weeks following Sandy Hook. “Everybody has a prescription about what we should do, what we’re lacking, what we’re not lacking. Should there be locks on doors, shades on the windows. The responses have been astronomical,” he said. “It makes the most sense to have an architect that’s familiar with the community and will give us an appraisal that’s well beyond a bureaucratic response.”

    Time is of the essence, said the superintendent.  “We need a comprehensive plan. Let’s stop with the Band-Aids. What we need is a unified vision.”

East Hampton Town police said Thursday that they had arrested the person they believe struck and killed John Judge on Amagansett's Main Street in October.

According to a release, Edward L. Orr, 30, of Edison Drive, Montauk, was behind the wheel of his 2004 Jeep Cherokee when it hit Mr. Judge, who had been crossing the street on foot. There were no witnesses.

Mr. Judge, 61, was found in the road shoulder, apparently just a short time after he had been struck, by East Hampton Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione. He was rushed to Southampton Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

During the initial investigation, police recovered parts of what they said was a dark-colored vehicle near where Mr. Judge had been struck. In an October Crime

Edward L. Orr in a photograph provided by East Hampton Town police.

Stoppers release, police said that Mr. Judge had been hit on Oct. 23 at about 7:50 p.m. and that the vehicle involved would have sustained front-end damage, as well as damage to a headlight and its front passenger side.

Police said Thursday night that Mr. Orr's Jeep was recovered in New Jersey but did not give any further details. He was arrested Thursday afternoon. A description of the charges has not been released.

An electrician who lived in Amagansett, Mr. Judge was a regular customer at Astro's Pizza in the hamlet, and had just left the shop when he was killed. He had worked for many years at Decorum Antiques and Accessories of Amagansett across Main Street. Elaine Monroe, its owner, recalled him in an obituary in The East Hampton Star as "a lovely guy, very generous. He would give you the shirt off his back."

Police have continued to ask that anyone who saw the incident phone their tip line at 631-537-7575.

Power was interrupted to some 1,400 customers in East Hampton Town by an intense winter storm that hit the region beginning late Friday.

The Long Island Power Authority Storm Center reported that Montauk had approximately 600 houses and businesses without power and Springs had some 320 without electricity. About 730 customers were without power in Southampton Town.

Snowfall totals early Saturday ranged from six inches along Gardiner's Bay in Amagansett to eight inches in Bridgehampton. Western Suffolk was harder hit, with accumulation of more than 28 inches in East Setauket and 24 inches in Stony Brook.

Top wind gusts recorded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were 56 knots (64 miles per hour) shortly before 8 p.m. on Friday at an unmanned weather station 23 miles south-southwest of Montauk Point. The highest recorded seas reached more than 23 feet at about 11 p.m. on Friday.

East Hampton Town and Village and the Town of Southampton declared snow emergencies effective until at least midday on Saturday. Nonemergency travel remained prohibited.

East Hampton Town Highway Superintendent Steve Lynch, reached by phone early Saturday, said that the state of emergency remained in effect.

"The roads are a mess right now," Mr. Lynch said. "We had all the roads cleared and then we got dumped with another eight inches of snow. And we are out doing what we can; they are slippery underneath. A lot of trees down . . . and a lot of power outages."

"We are hoping to have everything cleared up by 4 or 5 this afternoon," he said.

Mr. Lynch said that East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson ordered the closing of the town landfill and that its employees where helping the Highway Department clear roads.

Storm in photos:

    The Beach House, a hotel and playground for the well-sandaled young in downtown Montauk, can keep its bar, and its gift shop, too, but will probably have to go through some form of site plan review.

    On Tuesday night, the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals considered an appeal by the hotel’s owners, Chris Jones and Larry Siedlick, against Tom Preiato’s determination that a poolside bar and a small kiosk-type building being used as a gift shop lack the proper permits and must be shut down.

    Mr. Prieato, the town’s head building inspector, noted among other things that “the service bar is being used as a general public bar, a use not approved for the structure.”

    At a public hearing the week before, the resort’s attorney had introduced a prior case, Gauthier v. the Village of Larchmont, in which a court ruled that a bar is an accepted use by a hotel. The zoning board quickly agreed with that on Tuesday. But while the bar’s existence was deemed acceptable, the question of how it got there was another matter.

    Mr. Preiato told the board at the hearing that the bar, or part of it anyway, had been razed and then rebuilt. That, the board concurred this week, would trigger the need for a site plan, as would the conversion of a shed into the aforementioned gift shop, since the buildings had been changed.

    Although ruling against Mr. Preiato’s determination,  “We’re not giving them carte blanche,” said Alex Walter, the Z.B.A. chairman. “They can have these uses. That doesn’t exempt them from a site plan.”

    The board tabled the matter for one week to allow its attorney, Robert Connelly, time to craft the determination.

    Actions on two other controversial properties were tabled as well, after some heated debate.

    The two properties are both in Amagansett but far apart, one on Gardiner’s Bay and the other by the Atlantic. Michael Patrick’s parcel is at 295 Cranberry Hole Road; Stephen Ruvitusso’s is on Ocean Lane in Beach Hampton.

    The Cranberry Hole Road proposal would replace an existing house with a bigger one of 3,457 square feet with decking, which would require numerous variances from wetland and coastal setbacks, along with a natural resources special permit. The Beach Hampton plan would add 653 square feet to the first floor, a 227-square-foot dormer, a 19-square-foot entranceway, and 101 square feet of roof deck. Multiple wetland variances are needed along with a height variance and a natural resources special permit.

    Both properties are in wetland areas, and therefore “constrained,” according to Mr. Walter, meaning that any new construction would need relief from various setback regulations.

    Coincidentally, both parcels had been before the board in 1986, their owners seeking approval for the current structures. Mr. Walter noted that the 1986 board had pondered the proper size of the house on each lot, and he warned against ignoring its finding, while not ruling out approval of the requested variances.

    The arguments pro and con were similar for the two properties.

    “I think this proposal could be scaled back,” Lee White said of the Beach Hampton proposal. Of the Cranberry Road house, he said, “They could do a better job.”

    Don Cirillo argued for granting all the variances as requested for both properties, arguing that expanding the existing footprints did not constitute a major increase.

    Sharon McCobb remarked that she had tried to review the Cranberry Hole Road hearing but much of the debate had taken place away from the podium and was thus lost. Mr. Walter encouraged the board members to visit both the properties; in the meantime the applications were tabled.

    The zoning board did approve three applications on Tuesday. Ulises Licaega can keep the deck he replaced on his Ocean Lane property. He’d told the board on Feb. 5 that he didn’t realize it had never received a certificate of occupancy.

    Michael Burns can replace his mobile home in the Montauk Shores Condominium complex, the board decided, and Mr. Burns will be allowed to build the six-foot-wide deck he requested.  The deck had engendered some concern from members because of its proximity to an oceanfront bluff that is eroding.

    “The fear is, approving something that is going to drop into the ocean,” Ms. McCobb said. In the end, though, the deck was seen as a relatively small request that already had the blessing of the condominium board.

    Finally, a house on Gerard Drive in Springs, owned by Barbara Kruger, can be pulled back on the property and raised four feet to meet FEMA regulations and to protect it from the ever encroaching waters of Gardiner’s Bay. The board had actually suggested to Ms. Kruger that she pull the house even further back from the bay, but after consideration she declined, citing the additional time that would be required.

    The board approved all three applications unanimously except for the mobile home. Mr. White voted against that one.

    Councilman Dominick Stanzione defended his and East Hampton Town’s record on recent changes to aircraft routes into and out of East Hampton Airport during a heated meeting in Town Hall last Thursday.

    “I’ve given it my all, and I stand on my record on this,” he said.

    Mr. Stanzione’s response followed statements by a number of people who spoke at an East Hampton Town Board meeting about what they viewed as the failure of officials to control noise, particularly from helicopters and jets.

    Some of those who took a turn at the Town Hall podium had traveled to East Hampton from the North Fork, including Teresa McCaskie, who showed board members a handwritten log she kept of aircraft noise incidents.

    “Basically these pilots are doing what they want, when they want, whenever they want,” she said. “They are flying over our homes, they are flying over our schools.”

    Mr. Stanzione had become the focus of anti-noise activists since he came under attack last summer for telling air traffic controllers at East Hampton Airport to direct more helicopters over Noyac and the North Fork. Though shortly thereafter members of the town board objected to not being informed about the change in advance, they so far have not asked the controllers to shift the aircraft to another route.

    Several people at the meeting asked whether there was a short-term plan to reduce aircraft noise. James Ding, a Noyac resident, told the board, “It’s your noise. Take some responsibility.”

    Demonstrations seen last summer at East Hampton Airport could resume and possibly become disruptive, Charles Neumann of Noyac said, hinting at 1960s-style civil disobedience. “Things might get ugly, for us, for you guys, if we cannot have some relief in the short term.” Mr. Neumann is a past president of the Noyac Civic Council.

    Janice LoRousso, who lives in Jamesport and owns a house in Noyac, said aircraft noise was a quality-of-life issue. “I have an elderly mother. She’s 90. She needs this? Nobody needs this,” she said.

    Another Noyac resident, Patricia Currie, who along with several others who spoke at Thursday’s meeting is a member of the Quiet Skies Coalition, faulted the town’s outside aviation attorney, Peter Kirsch, for perpetuating the noise crisis. “Mr. Kirsch misled the board by calling diverting traffic to other towns an accomplishment,” she said.

    She said that Mr. Stanzione had engaged in an “ongoing deception” over who was responsible for the route change.

    Pat Trunzo, a former East Hampton Town councilman, said that Mr. Kirsch’s view that the town should undertake a Federal Aviation Administration study of air traffic was risky. “I think you might be on the brink of being sold another bill of goods by your advisers,” he said. He said the work would lead to a “very comfortable retirement” for Mr. Kirsch.

    Instead, Mr. Trunzo and others argued, the town should seek to increase its leverage with the F.A.A. by working to get free of “grant assurances” that apparently obligate the airport to be operated with only minimal restrictions.

    The town has appeared poised to accept F.A.A. money for a deer-fence project at the airport, which noise activists fear would tie East Hampton to additional years of grant assurances. A set of these assurances is to expire next year.

    “You are on the brink of giving away the only negotiating leverage you have if you sign up for another 20 years prematurely,” he said.

    Mr. Trunzo told the board he believed that the remaining assurances were very limited in scope and would not hamper the town’s options if it chose to impose new rules designed to limit noise.

    At Mr. Kirsch’s urging, the town is preparing to undertake a Part 161 study, which could cost up to $2 million and take as much as two years to complete. Its goal would be to describe noise conditions in affected areas as a prerequisite to solutions that are acceptable to the F.A.A.

    During an East Hampton Town Board meeting on Feb. 5, Mr. Kirsch said that such a study could help form a legal defense if the town were sued for any new restrictions on, for example, the days of the week the airport was open.

    When the public comment ended, Mr. Stanzione said that the current East Hampton Town leadership had “done more to address airport noise than any other board in the last decade,” citing the completion of an airport master plan and an airport layout plan.

    He said the town had “opened up a dialog with the F.A.A.”

    For her part, Councilwoman Theresa Quigley said she was sympathetic to the views of many in the Town Hall audience. “I don’t consider the impact on neighboring municipalities any different than I consider its impact on East Hampton.”

    “I apologize to all of you,” she said. However, she said, she was “not ready to talk about what we will or will not do.”