Southampton Town Councilwoman Bridget Fleming of Noyac, the Democratic candidate for state senator from the First District, debated the Republican incumbent, Senator Kenneth P. LaValle of Port Jefferson, on Monday night in East Hampton. Fierce competitive tension could be seen and felt during the discussion, which was focused on dollars and sense.

    Ms. Fleming, formerly a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office and chief of a unit investigating fraud in public programs, repeatedly challenged the 36-year incumbent’s expenditures. Mr. LaValle defended his record and accused his opponent of presenting inaccurate facts.

    Ms. Fleming called Mr. LaValle “the number-one spender” in the Senate, citing over $500,000 for office expenses in a recent six-month period, including, she said, “$140,000 in self-serving campaign-style mailers.” She called it a “cynical abuse of our taxpayer dollars.”

    “I hope you did the crossword puzzle,” was the senator’s response. One of his mailers had one in it.

    After Mr. LaValle denied being the Senate’s highest spender, Ms. Fleming invited the audience to view her Web site for her sources, “compiled by a nonpartisan group, current to October.”

    The evening’s topics came from the audience, the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, and the questioners, Judy Samuelson of the League, and David E. Rattray and Bryan Boyhan, editors of The East Hampton Star and The Sag Harbor Express. Carol Mellor, a past president of the League, was the moderator. Mr. Rattray also wondered about Senate expenditures. “The state legislature spent $100 million this year,” he said. “Did someone not get the memo that we are in a recession?”

    Mr. LaValle defended his “distinctive record” on tax relief, jobs, and economic development, citing the recent integration of the Stony Brook Medical Center and Southampton Hospital, which he said will result in “good health care for people of the South Fork, and jobs to follow.”

    “Being a legislator is about planning,” he said.

    The senator said his chairmanship of the state’s Higher Education Committee had led to Stony Brook University’s acquisition of the Southampton campus, which he said would be an “economic development engine” as well as an improvement in education.

     Ms. Samuelson asked the candidates about consolidating school districts to save on costs. “Do you support such action?” she asked. Mr. LaValle said he was pleased with the 18 months of meetings that resulted in the merger of the Eastport and South Manor districts, and also mentioned the merger some Cutchogue on the North Fork. He said he had tried to accomplish this in East Hampton as well, “but the district said no, we don’t want to do it.”

    “I have been in the forefront,” he said. “Just today . . . I was trying to get Tuckahoe and Southampton to consider that.”

    With the 2-percent property tax cap, he suggested, districts might feel more pressure to consolidate in such areas as transportation, lunch programs, and instructional staff.

    Ms. Fleming called consolidation “a very good idea,” but added that “as a mom of a fourth grader who spends every weekday in a morning program in the gym,” she understands how hard it is for parents to give up control. For a vote on consolidation to succeed, she said, it would be necessary to offer better services for schoolchildren.

    The East End is “property rich, tax poor,” said the councilwoman —  considered affluent, in fact, under a state formula that expects it to contribute more than other districts. “The formula deprives us of our own funding,” she said. “We send it to Albany and we simply don’t get back our fair share to our classrooms.”

    Mr. Boyhan posed another school-finance question, asking about lifetime benefits and pension reform for employees. Ms. Fleming said reform was necessary, and that she has been working with success on benefits and pensions as they affect Southampton Town employees. “We can’t expect the middle class to shoulder Wall Street excesses,” she said. “A lot of pension funds suffered.” Remarking that pension costs have soared, she said “fraud and waste is a good place to start.”

    Mr. Rattray asked the candidates about the 2-percent tax cap’s sustainability and fairness. “I voted for that reform and that relief,” Mr. LaValle responded. With a $13 billion deficit, he said, “I wanted to reduce taxes . . . sharing services is the first step that needs to be taken.” Both candidates said maximum state aid was necessary to make the cap work, and Ms. Fleming said it had had “a real effect on discipline at the local level,” both in educational and governmental institutions.

    Speaking of noise from low-flying planes and helicopters, “Is it time to sue?” asked Mr. Boyhan. Mr. LaValle replied that a recent letter to the Federal Aviation Administration asking for an Atlantic route in addition to the present one over the North Fork, was the answer. Officials from all the East End towns signed the letter.

    Ms. Fleming disagreed that a letter was the answer. She has asked the Southampton Town attorney to explore the possibility of a lawsuit, she said. Helicopter noise affects her own neighborhood in Noyac, she said, and “It is a burden we can no longer sustain.”

    She suggested that curfews be imposed on the flyovers as well as a higher altitude. She has worked on those solutions with Southampton Supervisor Ana Throne-Holst and Councilwoman Christine Scalera, she said, with an eye to litigation.

    The talk turned from economics to the environment when Mr. Rattray asked about Albany’s role in coastal erosion and rising sea levels. The First District’s exposure is the largest in the state.

“Beach lines have moved,” said Ms. Fleming. “We have to be responsive to man-made structures and the concerns of property owners.” Southampton Town is currently exploring coastal erosion within a taxing district, she noted, although “I have not decided how I am going to vote” on the very large project, there being “no guarantee that it will work or if it may have an environmental impact.” Sea level rise is a different question, she said, involving overall watershed management and the local waterfront revitalization program.

    Mr. LaValle said global warming and renewable energy has begun to be addressed at Brookhaven National Laboratory, with a large solar energy project there.

    Ms. Samuelson wanted the candidates’ views on campaign finance reform. Mr. LaValle said he favored “regulating  super PACs that have gotten out of control.”

    “We will spend two billion dollars on this presidential election,” he said.

    Ms. Fleming said unlimited, undisclosed spending was “so destructive to the fabric of the democratic process . . . we have to take action.” She said she has sponsored legislation to ask the state to overturn Citizens United, the landmark Supreme Court case holding that corporations and unions can make unrestricted political contributions. “The real issues are being obscured,” she said. “People who are legitimate candidates with good ideas are suppressed because of money . . . we certainly aren’t going to get good government out of it.”

    “We deserve leaders that are outraged by scandals in Albany and do not see them as business as usual,” the councilwoman added. She said she wants more for the East End: plenty of jobs, good schools, and a healthy economy. “Young people go elsewhere . . . due to steady tuition hikes over the last 36 years,” she said, “and businesses have left due to high electricity rates.”

    “The Senator is a leader in a broken system,” she concluded.

    Mr. LaValle repeatedly mentioned his record, including his work with State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. that brought “fiscal integrity to the town of East Hampton’s finances” and preserved “much land in the town of East Hampton.”

    If elected, Ms. Fleming would be the first female state senator from Suffolk County.

    Prospects for the scallop season were unsettled this week, as baymen get ready for state and Southampton waters to open for dredging on Nov. 5 and East Hampton waters on Nov. 12. A bountiful harvest looks as though it could be the best in years in Napeague and Three Mile Harbors, while high hopes have been replaced by skepticism in Northwest Harbor and elsewhere because of unexpected die-offs.

    Greg Rivara, a shellfish biologist with Cornell Cooperative Extension, said yesterday that the rumors of a scallop die-off were true anywhere that was touched by last summer’s “mahogany tide,” the name he used for colonies of the algae Cochlidium polykrikoides. “It’s like brown tide, but not as bad,” he said. But bad enough to set back the scallop recovery, which began in 2005. 

    In August, those monitoring the scallop population in the Peconic Estuary had reported a dramatic increase in juvenile and adult scallops, with the numbers rivaling the population prior to the series of Aureococcus anophageferrens, brown algae, tides, which began in 1985 and all but destroyed the resource. The commercial fishery, in which 400 to 600 baymen worked, had been valued at $2 million to $4 million, or, in today’s dollars, at more than $10 million.

    Early efforts to bring scallops back were frustrated by the inability of a disparate stock to breed. This was made difficult by the fact that scallops live only 18 to 22 months and usually reproduce only once.

    Then in 2005, Suffolk County gave a $2 million grant to a Cooperative Extension Peconic Bay scallop restoration project. It was aimed at improving breeding by seeding protected spawning sanctuaries with enough scallops to practically guarantee success. The theory was that spat generated within the sanctuaries eventually would be carried hither and yon to augment natural sets. 

The program was also funded by the Long Island Regional Development Council.  

    Barley Dunn, director of the town shellfish hatchery on Fort Pond Bay in Montauk, which received county funding for scallop sanctuaries in Napeague and Three Mile Harbors, has reported finding 185 times as many scallop larvae on the collecting screens than was found three years ago.

    “Since we started, spat collection has been up. Napeague is off the charts,” Mr. Dunne said on Tuesday. Without wanting to identify the exact locations of dense sets of the precious bivalves, the hatchery director said he had observed areas where scallops “virtually carpeted the bottom.”

    That was how prospects looked elsewhere in August. “Huge, huge, huge, way more than we’ve been seeing. We’ve seen a new record every year. Last year we caught 80,000 spat across 25 sites in the bays over a five-and-a -half month period. This year, in our first sampling of 25 stations we had 131,000 — huge numbers,” Stephen Tettlebach, professor of biology at C.W. Post College, said at the time.

    Yesterday, however, Dr. Tettlebach had a different report. He said the annual fall survey, completed last week, showed that bug, or juvenile scallops, seemed to have survived the blight, but that Northwest Harbor, where Southampton and East Hampton baymen dredge for scallops, seems badly affected.

    Dr. Tettlebach said in many areas the survey found “densities way down from spring, a lot of dead scallops we call ‘cluckers,’ that signifies recent mortality, perhaps the last two months.” He said the biggest die-offs were in areas that had the highest concentrations of scallops last spring, which led him to think that “food limitation” might have something to do with the die-offs. 

    Meanwhile, during Tuesday night’s meeting of the East Hampton Town Trustees, Nat Miller expressed concern over scallop poaching, which he said was a growing problem. Poachers sometimes go into the sanctuaries, which are off-limits, or start dredging before the season opens.

     At Mr. Miller’s suggestion, the trustees will ask Ed Michels, the town’s senior harbormaster, to increase surveilance of local waters throughout the scallop season.

    “I’m retiring because it’s been a good run and 30 years is enough. I’m not retiring to run for office,” Larry Cantwell, the East Hampton Village administrator, said Tuesday, when asked if his retirement announcement last week signaled a possible return to East Hampton Town politics.

    “Almost every election over the past 30 years I’ve been asked and certainly it’s been suggested recently and that gives me pause to consider it,” Mr. Cantwell said of talk that he might consider a 2013 run for supervisor on the Democratic ticket.

    “Part of me is interested, because I have a lifetime of experience in East Hampton and 37 years of public service.” On the other hand, he said, “To leave on a high note from the village is a wonderful thing. I question whether I want to subject myself to the nastiness that politics has become in East Hampton.”

    Mr. Cantwell served on the East Hampton Town Board for five and a half years, from 1977 to 1982, and made an unsuccessful bid for supervisor against the Republican incumbent, Mary Fallon, in 1981. He has since served on the town planning board and the East Hampton Housing Authority. But he first entered town politics in 1975, when at age 25 he was elected bay constable, becoming the town’s youngest elected official and “the first Democrat elected to that position in 42 years,” he said.

    His final year on the town board was a fractious one. Just after the 1981 election, he said, Republicans announced plans to abolish the Planning Department and hire a consultant instead. At the time, there was still a Democratic majority on the board, which opposed the move. “We were able to pass a local law before the end of the year that said prior to abolishment of any department, the town is required to pass a local law and have a public hearing,” he said. “We were able to get the public involved.” In the end, the Planning Department was dissolved and a consultant was hired. Mr. Cantwell resigned as councilman the following year to become East Hampton Village’s clerk-treasurer. (After five years on the job, his duties were expanded and he became the village administrator.)

    Still, Mr. Cantwell remembers Town Hall then as a more civil place than it seems to be today. “We had our moments and sometimes there were disagreements and sometimes they were sharp, but afterwards, we could go to lunch together,” Mr. Cantwell said. “There was a civility between the board members and between the board members and the public.”

    “I’ve been fortunate to have a successful career with the village where politics is left outside the front door,” he said Tuesday.

    His position with the village is an appointed one, with a term that runs concurrent with that of the mayor, but in his 30 years on the job, the village has had only three mayors.

    Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. has worked with Mr. Cantwell throughout his 20-year tenure. When the village administrator told the board last week of his plans to retire in June or July of 2013, “you could hear a pin drop,” Mayor Rickenbach said at Friday’s village board meeting. “You’re a legend, and you will be noticed and recognized for your contribution to our community,” the mayor said to Mr. Cantwell, adding that it had been an “esteemed honor” to work with him.

    Only one village board member, Elbert Edwards, has held his post longer than Mr. Cantwell.

    Barbara Borsack, the deputy mayor, said Mr. Cantwell’s departure would be “a sad day . . . I’m sorry to see it coming.” And Richard Lawler, a board member who serves as village police commissioner, praised Mr. Cantwell for his dedication and professionalism.

    Mr. Cantwell thanked the village board on Friday for “instilling me with the confidence it takes to do my job.” He also praised the village employees, “from the beach personnel to the firemen — they are the real heroes.”

    “There is a unique relationship between village government and village residents,” Mr. Cantwell said Tuesday. In East Hampton Village, he said, “there is an unusual sense of trust that exists between residents and the government. It makes it a lot easier to do the job.”

    The village has started taking applications to replace Mr. Cantwell, who will, Ms. Borsack said, leave big shoes to fill. Résumés are to be sent to Village Hall, attention Larry Cantwell.

    He hopes that with a nine-month lead, he will be able to help make the transition to a new village administrator as smooth as possible.

    As for a possible run for supervisor, he said, “I’m balancing my desire to continue to serve the community I love and . . . the personal sacrifices you have to make to be an elected official in the Town of East Hampton.”

    Zachary Cohen, who lost to Supervisor Bill Wilkinson by just 15 votes in 2011, has been presumed to be the Democrats’ choice for the top of the ticket in 2013. He had only good things to say about Mr. Cantwell. “Larry would be an ideal candidate for any elected office since he is highly qualified, has already sat on the town board, is a proven manager, is well known and well liked, and will beat any Republican or Independence Party candidate he runs against,” he wrote in an e-mail. “He would also be ideal as the first-ever town administrator.”

    In recent local election years, many have suggested that East Hampton Town needs a professional town manager similar to a village administrator. Mr. Cantwell thinks there’s “merit” to this, especially because it would help provide continuity from supervisor to supervisor.

    Mr. Wilkinson, a Republican, has not indicated whether he plans to run again in 2013, but County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, a former supervisor who ran on the Republican ticket but has since become an Independence Party member, has said he wants to try again for his old job.

With Reporting by Larry LaVigne II

     A woman's body washed ashore at Georgica Beach in East Hampton Village Tuesday morning, according to Village Police Chief Jerry Larsen. Chief Larsen said a passerby noticed the body, that of a woman between the ages of 45 and 50, at 7:30 a.m. and notified police.

     The body has been sent to medical examiners for further identification.

     It seemed clear the woman was a victim of Hurricane Sandy’s dangerous surf, but no further details were available Tuesday afternoon. Chief Larsen said town police are investigating the possible link between the woman found on Georgica and a woman reported missing from Montauk on Monday night after she failed to return home from a walk on the beach with her dog.

"Yesterday was insane," Theo Foscolo, the assistant general manger at Rowdy Hall, a restaurant on Main Street, East Hampton, said of the over 350 people served at lunch and dinner Monday. "Everybody just wanted to get out of the house."

Mr. Foscolo attributed much of the increased traffic to Rowdy Hall's being one of the only restaurants open in the village; on Newtown Lane, Cittanuova was closed, as was Sam's Restaurant, he said. Mr. Foscolo said Rowdy Hall never lost power.

The Optical Shop of Aspen on Main Street, East Hampton, reopened Tuesday. Metah Valdez, a style consultant at the store, said business has been very slow. "A couple of repairmen and some trick-or-treaters have come in," she said yesterday. "The storm definitely put a damper on sales."

Elsewhere in the village, Babette's restaurant, BookHampton, Starbucks, and the Golden Pear café are open and were doing brisk business.

Many village businesses have had their electricity restored, despite warnings from Long Island Power Authority and public officials to residents that it could take 7 to 10 days, or more.

Al Fierro, a bartender at Indian Wells Tavern in Amagansett, said Wednesday business was better than usual. The restaurant reopened its doors for lunch on Tuesday, after the restaurant and bar was put back on the grid Tuesday night.

As of yesterday, the Meeting House, a restaurant in Amagansett Square, still had plywood on its doors and windows.

Walbaums, IGA, and Citarella are open in East Hampton, and there are reports that the gas is pumping at the Hess Station on Montauk Highway in Wainscott.

In Sag Harbor, where severe flooding and widespread loss of power occurred, the Golden Pear, Corner Bar, and 7-Eleven were reportedly open, as was Schiavoni's IGA Market.

The Amagansett IGA was open by Tuesday and had a good supply of most essentials.

Most of the stores in downtown Montauk were able to get their doors open by Wednesday.

    Suffolk County Executive Steven Bellone last week signed into a law a requirement that all recreational boaters living in Suffolk obtain a state safe-boating certificate. The law was passed unanimously by the County Legislature after a spate of fatal boating accidents in recent years, including the capsizing of an overloaded boat in July that killed three children.

    The law will require that recreational boaters attend safe-boating classes, although the venues for such classes and the curriculum were not spelled out. The current state boating instruction offered by the U.S. Power Squadron and Coast Guard Auxiliary is an eight-hour course that covers basic seamanship and rules of the road. Sailors will be exempt from the law.

    On the East End, the job of enforcing the new law will fall to the marine police of the five towns. “It’s long overdue,” Ed Michels, East Hampton’s senior harbormaster, said on Tuesday. “Now if we stop a boat, the first thing we’ll ask for is the certificate. I can’t argue with the safety aspect, but I haven’t seen the specifics of how the courses will be given.”

    As a federal agency, the Coast Guard will not be enforcing the law, according to Senior Chief Petty Officer Jason Walter of the Montauk station.

    County Legislator Jay Schneiderman said the bill had the support of the Legislature, given the recent accidents. “A lot of capable boaters might resent going to any kind of class, but there’s no fee. I’m trying to amend the bill to give more power to the bay constables so they can certify people they know are seasoned boaters through personal experience,” Mr. Schneiderman said.

    “I think we’re on the right track, but I don’t want to punish people who are experienced boaters. There are national standards for boating safety. Implementation is the hard part,” Mr. Schneiderman said, an opinion shared by Brian Kemp, New York’s boating law administrator. Mr. Kemp said he had received a number of calls from people wondering if the current eight-hour course was likely to be abbreviated.

    “I’m looking into ways to make the classes accessible,” Mr. Schneiderman said, “maybe it could be done online,” an idea that Mr. Michels did not like.

    “They should go to a class like the Power Squadron gives,” Mr. Michels said.

    The state has offered safe-boating courses and exams for the past 54 years, but they are not required. Other states permit online courses and exams, but in New York, Web sites like Boaterexam.com can be used only as study guides.

    The law would eempt boat renters, who in most instances are required to view a safety video before getting the keys. Henry Uihlein of Uihlein’s Marina and Boat Rental in Montauk said the customers who rent Jet Skis from him must watch a 20-minute video, also available to boat renters. “If people don’t feel comfortable, we provide a captain, an experienced boater, at no cost. Next year I’m going to put GPS equipment on the boats so I can monitor them,” Mr. Uihlein said.

    Since 1998, state law has required that kids ages 10 to 18 have a safe-boating certificate obtained by attending a boating safety course and passing an exam in order to drive a personal watercraft such as a Jet Ski.

    The new law does not pertain to commercial fishermen or other commercial boaters. Nor does it apply to boaters coming from outside Suffolk County, as is the case with the many fishermen who descend on Montauk this time of year for the fall run of striped bass.

    The mandatory education law will go into effect next year — not a lot of time to figure out how and where classes will be held, or whether the current boating courses will be altered, Mr. Michels said.

    An outpouring of support — and music — filled the Steven Talkhouse in Amagansett Friday night at a benefit for Cheryl Bennett and Michael Mazzaraco, an East Hampton couple who have been besieged by the complications and costs of breast cancer.

    Ms. Bennett, the mother of two young girls, underwent a seven-hour double mastectomy and partial reconstruction surgery on July 3. All the breast tissue and 30 lymph nodes from her right arm were removed, and she has been receiving chemotherapy treatments since August, which will continue for the next two or three months.

    The last thing she expected, she said this week, was a diagnosis of breast cancer in June, eight months after giving birth. “Imagine taking care of a baby and going through breast cancer at the same time,” she said. After the surgery she could neither lift the baby nor drive to her five-days-a-week medical appointments.

    Mr. Mazzaraco, the head sound engineer at the Talkhouse, became the full-time caregiver for Ms. Bennett and her daughters,  which made things financially difficult, she said.  “We are grateful that his boss and the staff were understanding about the time he had to take off,” she said. “They have always treated us like a part of their family.”

    The type of breast cancer Ms. Bennett had is called “estrogen plus.”  Considered “postpartum breast cancer,” it affects women within five years after giving birth due to elevated estrogen levels during pregnancy. She said she was fortunate that it was the “HER2” type which is not aggressive, although it did invade three of the 30 lymph nodes removed.

    Ms. Bennett’s  cousin Jaime Castantine started planning the benefit in July when she saw how intense the surgery and recovery would be. Musicians and business owners came to her aid, with donations of money, food, gift cards for gas, time, and raffle donations.

    “I am thankful for the generosity of this community,” Ms. Bennett said.

    “I was scared out of my mind when I was diagnosed with breast cancer,” Ms. Bennett said, “especially being so young and having my girls who are also very young.” The girls are now 1 and 9 years old. Frightened and uncertain, she said she frantically researched breast cancer online, engrossed for hours in other women’s detailed diaries. “As sad as it was,” she said, “it was inspiring to know that other women have gone through this and survived.” She also had encouragement and support of an aunt, Sarah Scainetti of East Hampton, who was treated for a more aggressive form of breast cancer when she was 35 years old, and is alive and well 12 years later.

     Complications that came after surgery included, Ms. Bennett said, “an antibiotic-associated bacteria infection in my intestines.” Apparently caused by the antibiotic Cipro, it took months to eradicate. “It is at bay as of now but can come back at anytime, especially during chemotherapy,” she said, “It is one of my worst fears other than the cancer.”

    “I am also dealing with another infection in my tooth that flared up during chemo,” she said, due to the chemotherapy’s suppression of her immune system.  She saw an oral surgeon which cost over a $1,000 just to have the problem diagnosed, she said.    

    Among the musicians who came out Saturday was Tali Icepack Jackson, who called Mr. Mazzacaro a fine and caring person.  Randolph Hudson,  another performer,  agreed, saying that Mr. Mazzacaro was “one of the most talented musicians and performers in the Hamptons. . . always willing to jump in to help others.”

    Across the street at Crossroads Music, Michael D. Clark, the owner, contributed guitars to be auctioned, which “brought in a couple of thousand dollars,” he said.  He also keeps a container for donations and is selling raffle tickets for an Oct. 31 drawing.

    “It is just unbelievable that musical community, who don’t make a whole lot of money in the first place, always jump up and say ‘I’ll help’ for fellow East Enders.” The help, unfortunately, is “small potatoes compared to what Cheryl and Michael are going through,” he said.

    Ms. Bennett said she appreciated the aid, which will help pay for medical expenses that weren’t covered by her insurance and for traveling expenses. She said the Stony Brook University Medical Center and Southampton Oncologists did not accept her insurance,  so she travels to the North Shore Hematology and Oncology Associates for treatment. Additional reconstruction surgery, possible radiation treatment, various  medications, and hormone therapy to stop her body from producing estrogen are all in her future.

    “I found the Care for Cher benefit to be one of the more electric and joyous nights,” Abigail Levin, a performer and friend,  said in an e-mail. She called the musical community here a “supremely supportive family network.”

    Mick Hargreaves, a musician who was on the receiving end of a benefit himself a little over a year ago, said the event was “quite an emotional experience for me . . . a very powerful reminder of the immense positive power people can have when they gather to help someone is in need.” Glad that he is “still around to play and sing to help in a musical fashion,” he expressed gratitude to those involved and to “the Talkhouse for continuing to be the musical church where we gather.”

    Another event for a community member in need will take place on Wednesday at Ashawagh Hall, where art and other items will be sold to raise funds for Tim Lee, a Springs resident, photographer, lighting designer, and antiques dealer, who  was diagnosed in December with stage 4 esophageal cancer. After three months of chemotherapy, followed by another two months of radiation and chemotherapy, he has been unable to work, and his health insurance was canceled midway through his treatment. The food, drinks, and music by Nancy Atlas and Friends will serve as a celebration, he said, as he looks forward to regaining his health again.

    “The situation Cheryl and Mazz are in is all too common unfortunately,” said Mr. Hudson. “It is fortunate that we have a strong and supportive musical community willing to help each other . . . as the Beatles sang, ‘The love you take is equal to the love you make.’ ”

    Anyone who has spent time in East Hampton Village during working hours has probably run across Barry Gilliam, the affable FedEx guy who goes about his duties with a smile on his face and an attention to service that his customers say is all too rare.

    So when a different FedEx contractor showed up instead on Mr. Gilliam’s route Friday and customers learned that Mr. Gilliam’s contract with the company had ended, they were “flabbergasted,” said Mary Croghan of the East Hampton Business Service, an authorized FedEx shipper.

    By Saturday evening, Joi Jackson Perle of Wainscott had started a Facebook page, We Want Barry Gilliam Reinstated at FedEx Ground. It had 500 members by midday Sunday and nearly 1,300 by yesterday morning. On Monday, Ms. Croghan put together a petition urging FedEx Ground to reconsider the termination of Mr. Gilliam’s contract. Customers have been flooding FedEx’s Holbrook office with complaints, which are now being routed to a FedEx office outside Pittsburgh, and members of the Facebook page have been calling for a local boycott of the company.

    “This was a fellow that was a sterling representative of that mark,” Ms. Croghan said Tuesday. His work, she said, was “superlative.”

    FedEx drivers on the South Fork are independent contractors who own their routes and own or lease their own trucks and vans. Mr. Gilliam has two trucks and worked with another driver to cover East Hampton Village, Wainscott, and a few stops in Bridgehampton. An East Hampton native who now lives in Calverton, he has been working a South Fork route for FedEx for 11 years.

    This summer, he learned that his corporation, Barry Gilliam Inc., was out of compliance with FedEx’s requirements for independent contractors. His station manager in Holbrook gave him “a certain amount of time to try to get the corp. into compliance,” Mr. Gilliam said Monday, but he couldn’t look into the issues “given it was the busiest time of year.” He did not describe the issues, but said he was told by a third party that he probably wouldn’t have enough time to work them out before the deadline. He requested an extension, but the manager in Holbrook “couldn’t do it,” Mr. Gilliam said.

    Other reports on the termination of his contract attribute it to a question of which type of corporation Barry Gilliam Inc. was registered as — a C corporation or an S corporation, which is exempt from some New York State corporate taxes.

    “FedEx Ground values and appreciates the customer relationships built, and service provided by, Barry Gilliam and his company,” Erin Truxal, a FedEx representative, wrote in a statement to the press. “Customer feedback and superior service is an essential part of our business. Independent contractors agree to provide more than that level of service. Independent contractors must be incorporated and remain in good standing in the state where they do business.”

    “The issue here was not whether Barry Gilliam Inc. was registered as an S corporation or a C corporation,” the statement said. “Either are acceptable. Out of respect for Barry Gilliam, we are not sharing all of the details of the situation; however, there were a number of issues that have not been shared regarding Barry Gilliam Inc. and the reason FedEx Ground stopped doing business with the company.”

    Ms. Truxal wrote that Mr. Gilliam had “many chances and months to correct the problems” and “ample opportunity” to sell the business before his contract was terminated.

    If he could resolve the problems, he would “in a heartbeat,” Mr. Gilliam said. “This is what I do.” Despite the overwhelming support from his customers and their efforts on his behalf, Mr. Gilliam seems resigned to his fate. His manager “did the right thing on his end,” he said Monday, but added, “In my defense, this was like the busiest time of year for me, and my first priority is trying to take care of my customers. I’m contracted . . . to get packages where they have to get. I did that.”

    “He did it really, really well, diligently and efficiently, and he was so generous in terms of his service,” Ms. Croghan said. Before he took over the route, her business sent everything but overnight packages by UPS. “He’s the guy who really developed the trade here,” she said. He is a hard worker from a blue-collar background who put his customers first, she said, and “it’s easy to understand why he failed at the administrative aspect.”

    But to his supporters, who relied on his efficiency and were buoyed by his good humor, the corporate matters carry little water. They have left hundreds of comments on the We Want Barry Gilliam Reinstated Facebook page extolling his virtues and lamenting his absence.

    “I am appalled that FedEx would treat such a wonderful man like this,” wrote Julie Reidel Kelley, the pharmaceutical buyer for the Veterinary Clinic of East Hampton, who said the entire clinic is registering a complaint with FedEx.

    “So he missed a deadline. He didn’t miss promoting your corporation by delivering your packages and pickups on time in a friendly manner that any other corporation would appreciate,” posted James Robert Vece.

    And Mark Smith, an owner of Nick and Toni’s, Rowdy Hall, La Fondita, and Townline BBQ restaurants, wrote, “Barry was their best brand ambassador and a great, pleasant, hard-working person.”

    “He’s such an important person and is so loved and is such a hard worker,” said Donna Hadjipopov, whose company Bulgar manufactures textiles and pottery and has a warehouse in East Hampton. “I’ve hired hundreds of people in my life and he’s a very rare person,” she said. She stuck with FedEx because of Mr. Gilliam, but if he is not reinstated, she will cancel her account, she said. “Out here, you have someone like Barry, who barely has anyplace to park, but he deals with everybody with a smile on his face.”

    “He’s kind of a part of your day, like your favorite coffee shop,” said Ms. Jackson Perle, who grew up with Mr. Gilliam. “Despite having the Hamptons tag, which I hate, we are a small town,” she said, and one that will fight for someone who is such a part of the community.

    Ms. Croghan wants to get the petition to FedEx by today, before the company can consider selling Mr. Gilliam’s route.

    “I can’t even put into words how I feel,” Mr. Gilliam said Monday. “I have a smile on my face and I feel really, really, really good, when I should be feeling depressed. It lifts me to no end.” Mr. Gilliam said he feels as though he disappointed his customers.

    “I love what I do,” he said. Nothing his customers requested was ever a hassle for him, he said. His attitude was always “I’m going to try to do it the best way that I can to please the customer.”

    He knew two weeks ago that his contract was coming to an end last Thursday, but said nothing to his regulars. “I didn’t want to have to go through the hurt and tell them goodbye,” he said.

    He is thinking about selling his two trucks to someone at the terminal in Holbrook, but said, “I hope I’m back in the driver’s seat someday.”

   The lights have gone dark at the Montauk Movie, possibly for good.

    Fox Studios, a large producer of movies worldwide, has alerted all theaters that it will switch to digital films in December, and Dave Rutkowski, the theater’s manager, said he expects the other studios to follow suit. The new digital equipment would cost up to $85,000, an amount he said his family is not willing to spend.

    The big chains, he said, have all the buying power. “And that just hurts the little theaters,” he said.

    He remembers the Friday nights when teenagers would flock to the theater. “Their parents gave them $10 to $20 bucks and they didn’t leave until it was all spent,” he said, smiling at the thought. In the past five years, he said, movie theaters have seen a decrease in customers as people spend more of their viewing time with flat-screen TVs, home computers, and other digital devices.

    But Mr. Rutkowski has fond memories of the films he’s seen on the big screen, especially “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” He was the projectionist and was so spellbound by the movie when he first saw it that he almost forgot to switch reels. “I couldn’t take my eyes off of it,” he said.

    There is something special about being among the first to see a new movie in the theater. In recent years, long lines formed hours before the midnight screenings of films from the Harry Potter and Batman franchises.

    Mr. Rutkowski’s father, John Rut­kowski, has owned the building since 1982, when he bought it from Leon and Carmen Lefkowitz, who also own the Pathfinder Day Camp in Montauk, now managed by their daughter Nancy Burns.

    The building, which is in a central business zone, could be revamped as a restaurant, retail store, or yoga studio, among other things. “There’s a whole list of things you would be able to do here,” the younger Mr. Rutkowski said.

    He’s had several appointments with possible renters and numerous phone calls from local real estate agents. It will be a sad day for the family if the theater does not continue to show movies, he said. “But you can’t keep it open for sentimental reasons.”

    If a potential renter does not step forward, the family might consider reopening for the season next year and showing only the movies that remain on 35mm film reels. And if it rents, he said, he’ll have to find himself a job. “I have plans,” he said. “I’m looking at other businesses.”

   Over 100 people gathered at the East Hampton High School auditorium Monday night to discuss whether a gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered community center should be established on the South Fork.

    David Kilmnick, the chief executive of Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth, who organized and led the forum, said many residents have reached out to him to “get the ball rolling,” and one couple has even offered a $20,000 matching pledge to start a center.

    At the start of his presentation, Mr. Kilmnick projected a photograph of David Hernandez, a 16-year-old junior at East Hampton High School who took his own life on Sept. 29 after he was reportedly bullied because of his sexual orientation.

    “No one should feel so alone and isolated that he has to take his own life,” said Mr. Kilmnick, who operates state-licensed community centers in Bay Shore and Garden City similar to the one he envisions in Southampton or East Hampton Town. “A permanent venue where young people can feel welcomed is long overdue on the East End.”

    He shared statistics related to anti-gay bullying: “Eighty-five percent of [gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender] youth report hearing anti-gay and homophobic language on a regular basis.” “Hispanic and Latino G.L.B.T. students experience higher levels of verbal and physical harassment and physical assault.” “Four in 10 G.L.B.T. youth say the community they live in is not accepting.”

    Mr. Kilmnick’s organization has been working closely with the East Hampton School District since 1995, he said, and the district is home to the only middle school in Suffolk County with a Gay Straight Alliance, a student club that seeks to improve school environments, regardless of sexual orientation.

    Several district officials were on hand on Monday, as were Bridget Fleming, the Democratic candidate for New York State Senate, and Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr.

    In the absence of school funding for such programs, an East End community center would provide youth and family support, as well as programs to improve the school environment for gay youth, H.I.V. and disease-prevention programs, and a social outlet, said Mr. Kilmnick, who said that LIGALY will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year. An L.G.B.T. center “would give a visibility and a voice to people who don’t have it here.”

    The $20,000 matching pledge, received on Sunday, came from the filmmaking couple, Jennifer Brooke and Beatrice Alda of Sag Harbor, Mr. Kilmnick said. Near the end of the discussion on Monday, Beverly Dash and Debra Lobel, an East Hampton couple that have been together for 54 years, announced a pledge of $2,500, a moment that sparked some of the night’s most spirited applause.

    The public comment portion of the  evening centered around how to combat bullying, sparked by a question from George Aman, president of the East Hampton School Board.

    “Bullying happened before David [Hernandez] and unfortunately, it will continue to happen,” Mr. Kilmnick said. “We obviously cannot police every kid all the time.” He added, “It begins with changing the community norm.”

    Harriet Hellman, a pediatric nurse practitioner who said she treated David, recommended that the center include programs tailored toward the Hispanic population and other minority groups; she also suggested the center be named after David Hernandez.

    One person challenged the school officials in attendance to address the audience about issues surrounding David’s death, describing the way the district has handled it as a “no-comment stance.”

    “Not everything is black and white,” Mr. Kilmnick said, explaining that certain laws restrict “the district’s ability to share certain information.”

    “It is difficult to describe the sickness and sadness we’ve felt in recent weeks,” said Maria Mondini, the high school’s assistant principal. “We talk openly about gay and even transgender issues.” She added, “It would be difficult not to find someone who wasn’t bullied in high school. As open as our community is, kids still need a space in our community.”

    “We are discovering how to move forward to achieve long-term success,” said Adam Fine, the school principal, who mentioned that the National Center for School Climate and School Culture will assess the school’s environment. “We want to prevent kids from making decisions that hurt one another. . . . It’s about teaching respect and how to react when they see inappropriate behavior.”

    Joel Johnson, who helped form the Gay-Straight Alliance at the middle school, and is now president of the high school’s G.S.A., said his weekly travels — from where he lives in Springs — to the community center in Bay Shore gave him the courage to come out, and “people here also need support, and safety to be who they are.”

    Rhonnie Winokur, a school bus driver who identified herself as an “old, gay woman,” said “bullying sometimes starts at home.” She recounted childhood stories of being abused by her father. “In addition to reaching out to young people who are being bullied, something should be done to engage the bully’s parents,” she said.

    Mr. Kilmnick agreed; he said there is a L.I.G.A.L.Y. program that gives young people who commit a hate crime the option to do community service at his organization. “It’s often the parents who are against their children’s interaction with gay people.”

    Katrina Foster, a married gay woman and pastor of St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Amagansett, said young people sometimes learn homophobia from church. She said she had given a sermon on acceptance in response to David Hernandez’s death.

    Mr. Kilmnick referred to a L.I.G.A.L.Y. program called the Aleph Project, which offers “acceptance-based” programs in churches, particularly synagogues. He called the 8-month-old program “very successful,” and said he looks forward to enhancing its offerings on the East End.

    He encouraged people to visit L.I.G.A.L.Y’s Web site to sign up for a new East End G.L.B.T. Advisory Committee, as well as to donate toward the proposed community center.

    “We were very happy with the evening, both in turnout, commitment, and willingness of folks to get actively involved,” Mr. Kilmnick said yesterday. “Although the turnout may not have looked that large in the 900-seat auditorium, we just counted the sign-in sheets of everyone who attended and there were 134 folks who showed up!” He added, “Out of the 134 attendees, 37 signed up to be part of the East End G.L.B.T. Advisory Committee, which is a fantastic number and indicative of the community support that is out there and needed to make The Center a reality.”

    This was the first of a number of meetings planned to discuss a community center.