For the second time this year, the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals wrestled with a request for a variance that would allow the owners of a bayfront house on Lazy Point in Amagansett to construct a 147-foot stone revetment to protect the property from the receding shoreline.

    This time, the tide turned in favor of the Mulford Lane homeowners, with the board voting 3-2 to grant the potentially precedent-setting variance. The chairman, Alex Walter, cast the deciding vote, joining Don Cirillo and Bryan Gosman. Sharon McCobb and Lee White voted against it.

    Town code prohibits solid revetments in the Lazy Point area along Gardiner’s Bay.

    Purchased by Christine Lemieux and Joshua Young in 2010, the house now on the property sits on its northern edge, with water from the bay lapping under its deck. In February, the board granted the couple the right to tear down and rebuild the house on the other side of the property, away from the water, but turned down a similar revetment plan, 4-1. Only Mr. Cirillo voted to approve what he called “a retaining wall,” arguing, as he did again on Tuesday, that an owner should be allowed to protect their property from a deteriorating shoreline.

    “When water comes onto somebody’s land, I don’t think that town code restrictions are applicable,” Mr. Cirillo said Tuesday.

    Both Mr. Gosman and Mr. Walter were swayed by what they said was an improved plan — a U shape with the revetment now following the contour of the property on the west and having a vinyl “return” on the east side — as well as by the fact that, unlike in February, the State Department of Environmental Conservation has issued an approval for the project.

    Brian Frank, the town’s chief environmental analyst, cautioned the board in a report written in September, writing, “Bulkheads and revetments frequently have unanticipated environmental impacts. These impacts extend beyond the footprint of the structure, causing erosion and diminishing the quality of the natural resources on adjacent properties, as well.”

    Ms. McCobb, while voting against the variance, pointed out the lack of opposition from neighbors throughout the process. The only neighbors to speak out at either public hearing were in support of the plan.

    However, she also said the planned wall “is going to be in the water. This is going to be immediately affected by wave action.” The change in tidal drift, which Mr. Frank had cautioned about, may be apparent from the outset.

    “The house has to be in imminent peril” for such a shore-hardening structure to be approved, Mr. White said, arguing against the proposal. Because the board had already granted the couple the right to tear down and rebuild away from the water, Mr. White argued that it would not be appropriate at this time to grant such a radical variance. “This area is a pretty dynamic area,” Mr. White said, cautioning against the precedential impact of a yes vote. “If we set the bar too low,” he said, it will be hard to say no to applicants in the future.

    At the close of business, Mr. Walter announced that the board will soon move the start time for its scheduled Tuesday meetings from 7:30 to 6:30 p.m.

    A duck blind constructed on a small island at the northwest corner of Fort Pond in Montauk had pondside residents crying “waterfowl” last week. It was the first time in memory that a blind has been placed on Turtle Island, far too close to homes, many residents say, and to the ducks that they had come to view as part of the neighborhood.

    The hunters who built the blind decided this week to move it to another part of the pond, but the move has not halted efforts to ban duck hunting in the water body, which measures three miles in circumference from Industrial Road south to Montauk Highway, and east to west from Edgemere to Second House Roads.

    Although ducks have been hunted in the pond before, the East Hampton Town Hunting Guide, a bulletin published by the Natural Resources Department, does not list Fort Pond as a hunting area and has posted no signs announcing the duck hunting season.

    The hunters’ decision to move the blind came after Jane Bimson, whose house is less than 100 yards from the blind, circulated a petition that reads in part:

    “Hunting on Fort Pond has become a danger to those who live near its shoreline, as well as to those who use it recreationally. Additionally, the discharge of firearms close to the [Long Island Power Authority] substation creates the potential for an ecological disaster.” Ms. Bimson, who is an advertising sales representative for The Star, said yesterday she would continue to lobby for a hunting ban in Fort Pond.

    It is not the first time she has run afoul of duck hunters in the pond. In presenting her petition to the town board on Nov. 20, Ms. Bimson told members that her boyfriend, Steven LiPani, was fishing near the island the day after Thanksgiving last year when hunters next to the LIPA station purposely fired in his direction. Shot fell about 20 feet short of his boat.

    The hunters in question received a warning from the State Department of Environmental Conservation police.

    While the duck blind’s builders, Zachary Becker among them, reportedly intend to move their blind, they were not required by law to do so. The D.E.C.’s hunting regulations permit the erection of blinds used in the hunting of waterfowl over water close to shore even in residential areas as long as hunters fire out over the water.

    “There is no minimum distance,” said Liza Bobseine, a state conservation officer familiar with the Fort Pond blind issue. “They have to shoot in a safe direction no matter how near or far they are. They can be literally 10 feet from a house and it’s still legal.”

    Ms. Bimson and the 120 people who signed her petition, half of whom live on the pond, are asking the town board to ban the hunting of waterfowl in Fort Pond. A number of petition signers said they were upset because they feed the ducks and think of them as pets. Orla Troy, who lives on Edgemere Road, said she was given nine ducks last spring. She raised them and set them free on the pond last year. Five were shot shortly after hunting season started, then three more were lost.

    Lidia Karras, who lives pondside on Edgemere Road, said she was afraid to let her three young children outside to play during duck hunting season.

    And then there is the noise.

    The loud gunshots early in the morning before dawn jar you out of bed, Ms. Bimson told the board. “What about the noise ordinance. Landscapers are not allowed to mow lawns before 7 a.m. Restaurants can’t play music too loud. Why are hunters exempt?” Ms. Bimson asked the board.

    The town’s Department of Land Acquisition and Management oversees hunting within the township. Andrew Gaites, who runs the department, said he recommends adding or subtracting hunting areas, although the final decision is the town board’s. His department is also responsible for posting hunting areas. “The board could declare Fort Pond a no discharge zone,” he said, “discharge” referring to the firing of bird shot.

    There is a precedent.

    The East Hampton Town Trustees, who manage the placement of duck blinds on bottomland elsewhere in the town, have banned hunting in Hook Pond in East Hampton in order to keep it as a preserve.

    The trustees own the bottomland, on behalf of the East Hampton public, in Hook Pond and in most other water bodies outside of Montauk, where the 300-year-old trustee panel lost its authority in the 1800s. The town board has not yet made a decision regarding the call to ban hunting in Fort Pond.

    A packed house of parents aired their grievances at a three-hour meeting of the East Hampton School Board on Nov. 20, the night before the start of the Thanksgiving holiday. Nearly all the impassioned comments concerned the new limits on Middle School field trips and extracurricular activities.

    “It’s like they’ve sucked all the fun out of middle school,” said Sandra Albukrek, whose daughter is in sixth grade and is a member of the Bonnettes, the all-girls choir.

    “I understand the need to take the fluff out of the budget, but you also need to take into account that one child’s fluff is another child’s passion,” said Wendy Geehreng, president of the Middle School PTA. Two of her four children are at the school.

    Confusion and frustration mounted as parents expressed concern over the cancellation of studio art, of a Bonnettes performance at Lincoln Center, and of the sixth-grade OWLS (Outdoors While Learning Science) program, as well as the absence of a student council, among other changes.

    “Perhaps there shouldn’t have been a knife taken to field trips. Maybe a scalpel would have been a better option,” said Richard J. Burns, Superintendent of Schools. “Tom is going to take care of it. Welcome back, Tom.”

    “Tom,” Dr. Thomas Lamorgese, has served as interim principal of the Middle School since mid-November. Later in the meeting, the board unanimously approved his per diem rate of $350 a day while the school’s current principal, Dr. Charles Soriano, is out on an extended medical leave.

    Dr. Soriano’s absence has fueled much of the ongoing confusion, according to several parents. Dr. Lamorgese said he hoped he might return before Christmas vacation.

    The board was unable to resolve all the concerns being raised but did agree that the Bonnettes should take the Lincoln Center stage next spring. Further, at the urging of Jackie Lowey, a board member, the OWLS program was reinstated, at a cost to the district of $4,800, split between the fall and spring semesters at a cost of $2,400 per term. The program will resume after the Christmas vacation.

     Mr. Burns reminded the gathering that education comes first, and that time spent in the classroom is the top priority. “Right now, we are in the middle of the pack,” he said, “and we deserve to be on the high end of the pack.”

    Ms Lowey agreed. “There is no question that the entire school district is putting education first,” she said. “The board and the administration want to pursue academic excellence from grades K-12. When there is a valuable educational experience available outside of the classroom that enriches our students and furthers that goal, we will support and facilitate it.”

    Mr. Burns next addressed the issue of making up the five instructional days that were lost when schools shut down after Hurricane Sandy. With state-mandated tests occurring next April, he said the need for increased classroom time was acute. Adam Fine, principal of East Hampton High School, has already canceled January midterms, opting to use the exam week for extra class time.

    On Monday, the district released its plan to recover the five missed days. Rather than eliminate the February recess, the spring break will be split into two long weekends, with classes held from March 26 through March 28. In the event of an additional snow day, school will be in session on March 25 as well.

    “While not every field trip and extracurricular is necessary, there should at least be a discussion about what is and what is not necessary,” Ms. Geehreng said after the meeting. “Our intent was never for the board to have to micro-manage every field trip, but some things just seem to disappear and no one knows why.”

    Attorneys for a Montauk mechanic who is suing the Town of East Hampton in federal court claim the town has withheld key documents that could affect the outcome of the case.

    Thomas Horn, a former East Hampton Town fire marshal, and Lawrence Kelly, a former State Department attorney, are representing Thomas Ferreira, whose repair shop they allege was improperly targeted beginning in 2008 and whose tools, cars, and car parts were confiscated the following year.

    Mr. Ferreira’s lawyers contend that town officials have failed to respond to

dozens of requests for documents under the New York State Freedom of Information Law, and say some of their requests date back more than two years.

    Mr. Ferreira’s attorneys are not alone in criticizing the town’s responses to FOIL requests. Among others are Donald Torr, the former owner of the Crow’s Nest restaurant in Montauk, and David Buda of Springs, a consistent monitor of town affairs.

    As set out in the law, all requests must be acknowledged in writing within five days, and a municipality must also keep a running log that details the progress in gathering the information. The law provides for certain exemptions, and for an appeals process should a FOIL request be denied. East Hampton Town Clerk Fred Overton is the FOIL manager for the town, and Supervisor Bill Wilkinson is the appeals officer. On Friday, Mr. Overton said the system seemed to be working well. Supervisor Wilkinson said he had not personally seen any freedom of information requests from Mr. Ferreira’s representatives.

     “I usually send requests to the specific departments. If it’s a legal matter it goes to the town attorney, if code enforcement it goes to the Ordinance Department,” Mr. Overton said. John Jilnicki, the town attorney, manages FOIL

requests that come into his department and determines whether the information requested is exempted from disclosure.

    “I keep a record of all requests. Most departments will fill the request and send the information to me. I call the people. The law says we have to respond in five days, but if it’s a legitimate delay I think we have 20 days,” the town clerk said. Mr. Overton said he reviews FOIL files once a week and if requests have not been met he calls the department involved to find out why. He said his office had received over 270 FOIL requests so far this year, and, he added, “There are not a lot of complaints.” 

    According Mr. Horn, the original FOIL request in the Ferreira matter was made in February of 2010. It was prompted, he said, by the lack of a warrant during a raid on Mr. Ferreira’s Automotive Solutions business, at 63 Navy Road. To the attorneys, this indicated the possible existence of a conspiracy to remove the business from the shore of Fort Pond Bay without due process. Mr. Horn said certification by the Ordinance Enforcement Department is required before property may be seized. A certification document was among those unsuccessfully requested.

    Communications among officials on the day of the raid were also sought. A request for a transcript of a taped meeting of the Montauk Citizens Advisory  Committee was ignored, he said. The attorneys wanted it in order to show that a member of that committee had said she was working closely with the town attorney’s office on attempts to clean up the Ferreira property.  

    Mr. Horn and Mr. Kelly claim that two documents obtained outside the FOIL process, and at great expense to their client, had prompted their FOIL requests.The first was a report by James Dunlop, a town fire marshal, dated June 17, 2009, in which he stated he had found no dangerous stored fuels on the Ferreira property, which had been asserted in summonses. The second document was a report given to the town board and copied to the attorney’s office by Kenneth Glogg, an enforcement inspector. It contradicts the fire marshal’s subsequent report and warns of a serious danger to public health and safety. The latter document was shown to town board members before they voted for the raid. But, the attorneys say, Mr. Dunlop’s  report was not shared with the board. 

    The attorneys did obtain a memo from Madeleine Narvilis, an assistant town attorney at the time, through a FOIL request. They say it instructs Michael Johnson, chief fire marshal, to rewrite Mr. Dunlop’s report using language that justified the raid. Mr. Kelly said receipt of the memo was “a singular exception to the town’s overall policy of ignoring FOIL requests.”

    Mr. Overton’s picture of a well-oiled machine does not square with the experience of a number of people interviewed, in addition to Mr. Ferriera’s attorneys. However, the general impression seemed to be that the hang-ups were not necessarily found in the town clerk’s office.

    Donald Torr, former owner of the Crow’s Nest Restaurant in Montauk, said it was six months after filing a FOIL request related to the town’s dealings with the restaurant before he got the documents he sought. He said he had to call several times before he got a verbal, not written, acknowledgement that Mr. Overton had received the request.

    “I had to keep after them. I was told it got filed away, lost, the same excuses. I made three or four personal appearances looking for someone to talk to,” the former restaurateur said, adding that he was told his request had been sent to Mr. Jilnicki and that Mr. Jilnicki would forward the material to the town clerk. “The clerk said he didn’t see it, so I called Jilnicki and he said he didn’t know where it went.”

    David Buda, a Springs resident, is a consistent monitor of local government. “I’ve had some successes and some failures. The deputy clerk, Carol

Brennan, has on occasion expedited service including e-mailing documents almost immediately. But, I’ve had one request totally ignored that was directed from the town board through Fred [Overton].”

    Mr. Buda said that he had submitted a formal FOIL request in early May for a copy of a letter discussed at a town board meeting. On June 6, he said, he followed up with an e-mail to Mr. Overton with a copy of the request. “To this day there has been no response. If they’d said it was rejected, okay, but no

response,” he said. He added that he had made two other unanswered requests that went from the town clerk’s office into “the black hole of the attorney’s office.”

    On the other hand, Mr. Buda had high praise for the “expedited” service in the office of the Ordinance Enforcement Department. “They’re on top of things,” he said. But, he added, when documents are “in the possession of the town clerk, the response is efficient.”

    The East Hampton Star has used the Freedom of Information Law to seek information on numerous occasions with varying degrees of response and often with delays exceeding the deadlines set out by the law.

    Last summer, a request was made for a required “subject list” of records that

the Freedom of Information Law says all agencies must keep. Apparently, no department produced such lists, and Mr. Overton did not respond within the required five days nor after e-mailed reminders. The Star never received a formal response.

    Quick work by the East Hampton Village detective squad resulted in the arrest this week of Daniel Monteiro, 24, of East Hampton, on multiple charges related to the burglary of an oceanfront Lily Pond Lane house on Friday morning as well as a break-in on Talkhouse Walk last Thursday afternoon.

    One clue that led police to call Mr. Monteiro “a person of interest” was a set of tire tracks across a lawn, leading from one driveway to another at the Lily Pond Lane house, which is owned by  Josephine Chaus, a fashion designer and clothing manufacturer.

    “Right from the beginning, you’re dealing with a person with knowledge of the property,” Detective Sgt. Matt Bennett said Tuesday, hours after Mr. Monteiro’s morning arraignment. According to the detective, an outsider would not have known that by driving across the large lawn, one could reach a second exit from the estate.

    With Detective Greg Brown heading the investigation, the squad zeroed in on Mr. Monteiro after learning that the Lily Pond Lane residence and the house on Talkhouse Walk, which are a few miles apart, had one thing in common: the same caretaker.

    Mr. Bennett stressed that the caretaker was not considered a suspect. Rather, it was her son, who was familiar with both properties.

    Village police brought him in for questioning on Monday, joined by detectives from the town, who were investigating the Talkhouse Walk burglary. Mr. Monteiro soon confessed to the crimes, the detective said.

    Both houses were protected by burglar alarms, and both of them went off. In the first incident, an East Hampton Town police officer was sent to the Talkhouse Walk address, where Scan Security had reported a break-in. A Scan employee met the officer there and disarmed the alarm, which was set off when a double-paned glass back door was shattered. The alarm apparently scared off the intruder, though not before four $20 bills, which were lying near the point of entry, were stolen. Valuable electronics inside the house were untouched.

    Such was not the case at about 5:30 the next morning, when Mr. Monteiro allegedly struck the Lily Pond Lane house, which is in village police juisdiction. Detectives said he got in by smashing a glass pane in the entryway and reaching in to open the front door.

    This time, despite the alarm, he removed a Mac laptop, which has since been recovered, before speeding away, leaving telltale tire tracks across Ms. Chaus’s lawn.

    Mr. Monteiro faces two counts of burglary in the second degree, two charges of criminal mischief, possession of burglary tools, and possession of stolen property. Justice Catherine Cahill set bail in East Hampton Town Justice Court at $10,000. Mr. Monteiro, unable to meet it, was taken to the county jail in Riverside.

    Fire departments in East Hampton Town have been working together to try to answer all ambulance calls, but they struggle to do so, with shortages of volunteers particularly acute during daytime hours.

    The Springs Fire Department is short on volunteers for all units, with 85 members covering the hamlet with the most full-time residents, Chief John Claflin said on Monday. One hundred members were determined to be ideal for the fire district, a number it hasn’t had in 25 years, he said. Calls that come in during the day are the hardest to fill, the chief said, because Springs doesn’t have much of a business district from which people can run out to answer them.

    The same people do most of the calls, Chief Claflin said. While a fire call can result in only an hour of a volunteer’s time, a summer ambulance call may take about three hours from the time a pager goes off to the return from Southampton Hospital. From Montauk, it can take even longer.

    However, since a paid system would result in an increase in taxes, the departments short on ambulance volunteers have been getting by with assistance from other departments thanks to a mutual aid agreement.

    It’s a “wonderful co-existence here . . . a mutual admiration society,” said Mary Ellen McGuire, chief of the East Hampton Ambulance Association. The departments all help one another, with no consistency of who needs the help on any given day.

    Amagansett’s Chief P.J. Cantwell said the department is “mixing and matching crews” — a driver from Springs and an E.M.T. from East Hampton Village, for example. The dispatch center and fire department coordinate every time there is a call.

    “We can always use volunteers, especially in summer,” Chief Cantwell said. It’s difficult, he said, “because you are asking so much of them.” With summertime traffic, you’re asking someone to take two or three hours out of the day for each call. Even in an ambulance with lights and sirens, it can take up to 45 minutes to get to Southampton. When the work is done at the hospital, the return trip, without emergency lights, can take well over an hour. Still, his department is better off than Montauk, he said, where the trip can take up to five hours in summer.

    Add training to the mix — initially two nights a week — plus hospital time, department meetings, company meetings, drills, parades, and funerals, and “it’s quite a commitment to get anyone to join,” Chief Cantwell said. “We are thankful for the ones we have.” The greater the numbers, the greater the chance that someone will be available.

    “We can always use more,” Chief McGuire said of her own ambulance association, which currently has about 50 active members. “We run over 1,300 calls a year, the most out here,” she said on Tuesday, “up 40 calls from last year.” In her experience, too, shortages of volunteers tend to occur during the day, when people are working.

    Chief Claflin hopes to get more young people involved, he said, people who will stick around. With the six months of training it takes for a volunteer to become an E.M.T., it is frustrating to lose one. If five volunteers come in, he said, two or three usually stay. Some move, some retire, and sometimes it just doesn’t work out with family life or work. Others find it to be the greatest part of their lives, and they “live to do it,” he said. Volunteers can choose when they are assigned to be on call. Some may go out on three or four calls a night.

    Volunteers must have a valid New York State driver’s license, reside within the fire district, and go out on a certain percentage of calls to stay active. It is still possible for those who go south for the winter to make up their numbers of calls in spring, summer, or fall, Chief Claflin said.

    Volunteers are required to attend ongoing training classes pertaining to cardiac problems, pediatrics, and geriatrics, for example, “to stay at the top of their game,” Chief McGuire said. Initial E.M.T. training also includes fire safety drills.

    In return, a state program provides benefits based on a point system that keeps track of the number of calls a volunteer goes out on. Those who volunteer for 20 or 30 years of service may be eligible for a retirement at the age of 62. Most departments offer the use of a firehouse gym, and Springs offers one at Body Tech in Amagansett and Montauk. Volunteers are also given a free annual physical, and those who volunteer for five or more years receive 10 percent off their school and property taxes, Chief Claflin said.

    Chief McGuire said the next available E.M.T. class won’t be until September, but volunteers who joined now could begin with C.P.R. training, first aid, and a few different prerequisite classes, available either online or in-house. Volunteers could also begin to ride in an ambulance, get a physical, and ensure that their immunizations are up to date.

    “It’s a big commitment,” Chief McGuire said, but for the right person, it’s a great opportunity to meet others, fulfill potential, and experience the rewards of helping the community. Volunteers from the various departments often meet outside of a call, whether by attending a continuing education class in Sag Harbor or a weekend class in Hauppauge. Most of the departments also invite volunteers from another department when they have speakers that will fulfill a continuing education requirement.

    Volunteers are of both genders, from the ages of 20 to 70, and from all walks of life, Chief McGuire said. However, “not everyone can have a cool head in a crisis situation,” she warned.

    Chief Cantwell and Chief McGuire agreed that they go on a lot of calls that are not medical emergencies. Taking volunteers and an ambulance out of service for a sprained finger, Chief McGuire said, “is an injustice to the community.” And with all calls going to Southampton Hospital, a satellite facility would be helpful, Mr. Cantwell said.

    Chief Claflin, who is also a police officer, goes on ambulance calls on his days off. He’s getting ready to retire soon. “It’s been rewarding,” he said, “but it’s my time to pass the hat.”

    Barry Gilliam, a popular FedEx driver whose contract termination last month sparked a community outcry and inspired a grassroots effort to get him reinstated with the company, is back on his East Hampton Village and Wainscott route as of this week.

    “Sometimes you can fight City Hall,” said Mary Croghan of the East Hampton Business Service, who collected over 400 signatures in three days last month urging FedEx to reconsider Mr. Gilliam’s termination.

    FedEx Ground sells delivery routes to independent contractors, who service the routes with their own trucks. Mr. Gilliam had owned and driven his route for 11 years and had one employee driving a second truck.

    In the month since his contract was terminated, a number of other drivers had filled in on the route, and the rumor was that they planned to pool their resources to buy the route, then hire Mr. Gilliam back as the driver. Mr. Gilliam had not returned a call as of press time to confirm that arrangement, but regardless of the specifics, his customers are just happy to have him back, as can be seen in the dozens of posts since Tuesday on the Facebook page We Want Barry Gilliam Reinstated at FedEx Ground.

    “Welcome home, Barry!” Ms. Croghan posted yesterday. “You are so deeply appreciated by a grateful community.”

    Scallop season opened in town waters on Monday with a healthy crop from Napeague Harbor providing local markets with the much-anticipated plump nuggets that many on the East End associate with Thanksgiving. And now there’s a new way to eat them.

    At the Lester shucking shed on Abraham’s Path in East Hampton on Tuesday, the door opened and a visitor was greeted by a smell of clean, mossy sweetness as the scallop meats, which have almost religious status here, flew from Jimmy Lester’s hands.

    The veteran shucker mused about shucking as the offerings piled up in a plastic tub, and the empty shells clattered into a barrel. “I used to shuck five pounds and have a cigarette. Every five pounds a cigarette. I’m much faster since I quit.”

    Bruce Sasso of Stuart’s Market in Amagansett, where scallops were for sale this week for $24.99 a pound, described those from Napeague as “a nice large scallop. The guys had their limit rather quickly. Everyone is on the same spot, so who knows how long it will last. But they’re the best we’ve seen in a long time.”

    That the crop will be smaller than last year is the result of an ominous algae bloom, particularly in state waters like Northwest Harbor, which usually provides most of those on the South Fork.

    But while shucking proceeded here, Greg Rivara, a biologist and scallop specialist with the Cornell Cooperative Extension, was on a Long Island Rail Road train headed to the famous Oyster Bar in New York’s Grand Central Station with a sample bag of something new.

    The different product, okayed for sale by the State Department of Environmental Conservation on June 25, is a yearling, ranging from the size of a quarter to a silver dollar. They are steamed open, clam-like, and eaten whole — pretty blue eyes, whisker-like tentacles, roe, digestive gland and all —  the stuff normally discarded when a mature scallop’s adductor muscle is cut from the shell, the way Jimmy Lester, and generations of local shuckers before him, have done it.

    When they are steamed, their body parts curl up around the adductor, adding substance and flavor, Mr. Rivara said. The new product and the traditional one can be compared to the difference between veal and steak, he said. “They’re delicious served on the shell like mussels and small hard clams.”

    The Cooperative Extension has joined forces with four North Fork oyster farmers, including Mr. Rivara, to market yearlings, which are smaller than the legal size of those taken in the wild. Unlike larger scallops, for which harvesting seasons are regulated, growers are being allowed to set their own season for yearlings. However, they can only be sold in the shell; the state does not allow them to be sold as shucked meats.

    Mr. Rivara said harvesting yearlings from farmed scallops was considered decades ago, and was calculated at the time to have a market value of $1 million in New York State alone.

    On Saturday, Mr. Rivara squired Florence Fabricant, The New York Times food columnist, out to see the scallops in their farmed beds. 

    East End Oysters in Great Peconic Bay, Cornell Oysters of Southold (no relation to Cornell University or its Cooperative Extension), Widows Hole Oyster Company of Greenport, and the Oyster Pond Shellfish Company of Orient are cooperating in the project.

    The new product will not be available in volume until sometime in 2013, Mr. Rivara said, although the growers have a number on hand and would welcome hearing from anyone interested in giving them a try.

    Sam Kramer admitted to having had falcon fantasies as a kid; suiting up in the light armor of his imagination before mounting a war horse and ordering his squire to hand up his hooded falcon.

    “I never really thought about having one, but it was in the back of my mind. I kept looking into it. I always had a passion for birds and bird watching,” the Ross School senior said last week between classes.

    He grew up in New York City, and his fantasy was built upon by the book “My Side of the Mountain” by Jean Craighead George, about a boy who leaves his family’s cramped apartment in New York City to survive in the Catskill Mountains using Indian skills, with air support provided by Frightful, a peregrine falcon.

    “I felt connected to the story,” Mr. Kramer said, but it wasn’t until a friend of his father’s, Dennis Roy, chief of the Southampton Fire Department and a falconer, invited him to meet his female goshawk that he decided to use the Ross School’s senior project program to turn fantasy into a soaring reality. “I never thought I would have the time for it. It was my opportunity.”

    The first step was to find a bird — a juvenile red-tailed hawk was his raptor of choice. Falconry is strictly regulated by the State Department of Environmental Conservation, and an apprentice falconer can only have a red-tail or a kestrel to train with. Would-be falconers are required to work for five years under a master falconer in order to obtain a license. Other types of raptor can be used after two years of the apprenticeship.

    “We drove around the North Fork looking for a first-year bird, but couldn’t find one. I was getting worried. It was late in the year.”

    Through the New York State Falconry Association, Mr. Kramer learned of a man named Brian Bunt in Monroe, N.Y. A trip was made and on Nov. 3, two young male red-tailed hawks were trapped. “I took the bigger of the two,” a bird the novice falconer has named Atlas.

    Trapping the hawk “was a sport in itself,” he said. A pigeon is used as bait, one wearing a harness tethered to a pole by a long string. “The birds come in, hit and stun the pigeon. The falconer pulls the pigeon under a net. The hawk follows it.”

    Since capturing Atlas, Sam Kramer has been training his future hunting partner, a long process. First, suitable indoor housing for the hawk must be provided. Mr. Kramer renovated a 12-by-12-foot shed for the purpose. The facility has to pass D.E.C. inspection. Mr. Roy has shown him out to attach “jesses,” long leather straps for the hawk’s ankles with a metal swivel to prevent the anklets from twisting.

    “I hold on to the tether. Training is based on food. For the first few days, the hawk spends time on your fist [inside a thick leather glove] while you try to get him to eat. If he doesn’t eat there, he doesn’t eat. This guy was stubborn. It took nine days for him to eat. Now he eats like crazy.”

    Mr. Kramer said that once Atlas was eating, he worked at getting the hawk to jump onto his fist to get food. “He comes to believe you’re his source of food. You use a lure, a padded leather thing. He learns it means food. He gets food when he retrieves it from longer and longer distances.”

    And, speaking of food, it is most important to manage a bird’s weight carefully, Mr. Kramer said. “Always keep the bird hungry enough to want to hunt and respond to a signal.”

    The falconer said it would be a few more weeks for Atlas to be ready to go into the field. “I’ve read that for the first 10 kills, you allow the bird to gorge on his prey. Then, if I want the whole pelt, or the meat, I will put food, a piece of chicken, on my glove, and while he’s eating, slide the rabbit or quail out of sight.”

    “I don’t think I’ve ever eaten rabbit, but I’ll try it.”

    Several residents and their representatives spoke both for and against East Hampton Village’s plan to designate two dozen houses and a windmill as timber-frame landmarks at a village board meeting on Friday.

    The proposal aims to “promote preservation” of the structures, all built between 1700 and 1850, by offering owners a “zoning bonus” in hopes that they will leave the original structures largely intact.

    Eleven of the houses were built before American independence, said Robert Hefner, the village’s director of historic services. The oldest, the Phoebe Huntting House, is about 300 years old, and the youngest, the Nathan Barnes House on Pantigo Road, was built around 1845, he said. “These buildings tell stories about farming life, about the whaling industry. They tell stories even about the Revolutionary War. These buildings bring facts, dates, and historic persons to life,” he said.

    The buildings’ present owners have been good stewards, said Mr. Hefner. “This program will ensure that this tradition of stewardship will be honored by future generations. While maintaining the important features of their historic buildings, owners will still be able to improve, modernize, and expand their properties to meet changing needs, just as owners in historic districts have been able to do for the past 25 years.”

    The village board held hearings Friday on three related pieces of legislation — one designating the buildings as landmarks, another permitting owners to transfer some of the floor area allowed in a primary residence to an accessory dwelling, or guesthouse, and a third providing guidelines for how the village’s design review is to evaluate applications for accessory dwellings on the 25 landmark properties.

    If enacted, the law will permit up to 35 percent of the allowable gross floor area for a property, up to a maximum of 3,000 square feet, to be transferred from the main residence to an accessory dwelling on the same property. Given the small size of most of the houses in question, the law’s intent is to allow their preservation without preventing their owners from increasing habitable living space in the way that others can.

    The draft legislation points out that owners of the timber-frame landmark buildings “do not benefit from the neighborhood-wide preservation provided by an historic district.” The “zoning bonus” is an effort to make the historic guidelines that will accompany such properties “more advantageous and workable.”

    C. Sherrill Dayton, who owns the Josiah Dayton House at 35 Toilsome Lane, commended the village for its foresight in establishing the program. “The old Dayton house has served my family well. I grew up there, now my 13th-generation grandsons get to spend time in a homestead. I want them to be able to continue to enjoy East Hampton for many years to come. However, unless there is a program such as the one being proposed, houses like mine will become a thing of the past,” he said.

    Most of the houses in question are no longer owned by local families, said Mr. Dayton. “East Hampton is rapidly changing, and I’m sorry to say not for the better. Some of our most beautiful and historic houses are being demolished and replaced by the so-called bigger and better mega-mansions. We are quickly losing the historic character of our village, as well as the local families and the younger generation that can’t afford to live here. Yes, one would need to follow the village guidelines in protecting the integrity and the landmark when any improvements are made to the external structure. But having the opportunity to build an accessory cottage or apartment on the property is a win-win situation in my eyes. . . . It’s a way of preserving the past for the future generations, and gives our visitors a reason to keep coming to our wonderful village.”

    The houses in question, said Mary Busch of Mill Hill Lane, “are a special part of our history and should be preserved. We would not be trying to freeze East Hampton Village in time by doing this. Rather, we would be working with homeowners to provide them with a mechanism to enhance the use of their property, and at the same time saving a valuable piece of our history.”

    Richard Barons, director of the East Hampton Historical Society, read from a letter he presented to Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. The society “supports any proposal that can save this unique sum of our 18th and 19th-century roots. It’s vitally important to continue the landmark of East Hampton’s old homes, commercial shops, and buildings of early industry. Without landmark designations such as this current proposal, the heart and soul of this beautiful village could erode away,” he wrote.

    But Anthony Pasca, an attorney with Esseks, Hefter, and Angel, argued against the proposal on behalf of his client, who owns one of the designated structures, the Edward Mulford House at 34 Hither Lane. The owner acquired the lot in 1985, built a foundation, and then relocated the house, which was then situated on Pantigo Road, said Mr. Pasca. His client has respected the historic integrity of the house and has no plans for further development on the lot, said Mr. Pasca, who nonetheless urged the board to modify the proposal to be an “opt-in” program, rather than one imposed by the village.

    Individual landmarking is extraordinary and an imposition, Mr. Pasca said. “If you landmark this property, you instantly take away a level of rights that the next-door neighbor enjoys. That’s what separates this from historic-district designation, where everybody’s in the same boat.”

    Mr. Pasca suggested that the board designate the properties as eligible for landmarking, subject to their owners filing a petition or form of acceptance with the building inspector if and when they want to make modifications. “At that point, the landmarking would be locked in. It would be a voluntary acceptance of the program, and the rights going forward would vest at that point,” he said, adding that such a program could be a model for other municipalities. He also suggested granting owners greater flexibility by changing the 35-percent or 3,000 square feet transferability component to 40 percent and 4,000 square feet.

    Mayor Rickenbach responded that this was simply a public hearing, and that the village was not attempting to promulgate future legislation. “I think it’s a very interesting concept that you use, ‘by invitation.’ There’s always a way to seek a goal, and that may be something that we consider,” he said.

    Alice Cooley, of the law firm Eagan and Matthews, also voiced opposition to the proposal on behalf of the owners of the Miller House at 29 Jones Road. They object to the designation, she said, “as it is a great burden to place on a property owner without the benefit of being in a historic district.” Next door, she noted, is a new, “maxed-out” house. Her clients, she added, “do not see how there can be any public benefit from designating a private home which cannot be viewed from the road at all. For families that are planning their estates, I think it would be really helpful to have some time to discuss this plan with their families and decide if they do want to be a part of the program.”

    Eric Gibson, a village resident who does not own one of the houses in question, said that the proposal accomplishes preservation of the value represented by the timber-frame structures “in the great American way, through compromise. It seems to me an elegant solution, and a light-handed one. There are only some two-dozen properties so designated.”

    Finally, Kathleen Cunningham, executive director of the Village Preservation Society of East Hampton, said that the group supported the broad goals of the plan, but requests that the hearing remain open to entertain the alternatives that had been raised.

    “I see that there are some legitimate thoughts that have been raised here today,” Mayor Rickenbach said, announcing that the hearing would remain open until the board’s Dec. 3 work session. “The board would encourage any additional commentary, either supportive or critical, and we will take that into consideration.”

    Also on Friday, the board adopted code amendments changing the method for calculating the alternate setbacks for oddly shaped lots, increasing the available daily parking passes at Main Beach and Two Mile Hollow Beach for non-permit holders to 40 each on weekends and holidays, and increasing the number of available nonresident beach parking permits to 3,000 for 2013.