According to a report from the Federal Election Commission this week, nonprofits, political action committees, and super PACs have spent almost $3.3 million to influence voters in the race for the House of Representatives this year, with more than three times the money — $2,523,720 to $770,508 — spent on behalf of Randy Altschuler, a Republican endorsed by the Independence and Conservative Parties who is challenging Representative Tim Bishop, the incumbent five-term Democrat, for the second time.

    Bob Biersack, a senior fellow at the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., said it had been over a month since outside money was spent to benefit Mr. Bishop, although Mr. Biersack was uncertain about the impact such spending will have.

    “Neither candidate is new,” he said. “Ads usually shape voters’ opinions when a candidate isn’t well-defined.”

     “We don’t control outside spending; every candidate is allowed to benefit from it,” Diana Weir, an Altschuler spokeswoman, said about the super PACs helping his campaign. “Mr. Bishop’s campaign has raised over $700,000 from special interest PACs who have their own agenda,” Ms. Weir said. She said that although Mr. Altschuler had raised less direct money, more individuals had contributed, which, she said, put his candidacy “on a winning trajectory.”

    Robert Pierce, a spokesman for the Bishop campaign, agreed that individual contributions were vital. “Dark money, from organizations that don’t disclose their donors, is influencing this election,” he said. “I’m quoting Tim Bishop here, but do you think Sheldon Adelson knows where Coram is? They don’t care about Long Island; they care about having someone else in the office who reflects their interests.”

    “When it’s all said and done, this will be close to a $10 million election,” he said. Among the super PACs, Prosperity First has spent $932,219 on television and radio ads and mailings attacking Mr. Bishop’s ability to create Long Island jobs: “Tim Bishop: The only job he cares about is his own,” and, “Tim Bishop voted for Pelosi’s job killing agenda 97 percent of the time . . . He’s not a bishop; he’s a pawn.”

    Crossroads GPS, founded by Karl Rove, the former chief political adviser for President George W. Bush, has spent $704,744 for Mr. Altschuler. Not far behind, the Republican National Committee has spent $533,404.

    For Mr. Bishop, Communications Workers of America super PACs, and the House Majority and National Education Association PACs have spent between $204,550 and $306,485. A House Majority television ad attacked Mr. Altschuler’s jobs record, saying, “Altschuler made millions sending jobs overseas . . . supports a plan that John McCain’s financial adviser said would result in the loss of 1.7 million jobs . . . if [he] is elected, will we have anything left?”

    Nationally, from Jan. 1, 2011, to Oct. 24, 561 outside groups were responsible for spending $903,237,021 on this year’s elections compared to just over $255 million in 2010 and 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The First Congressional District now ranks 33rd among 435 in the amount spent in House of Representatives races.

    The candidates are expected to appear at forums in Montauk and Bridgehampton next week.

    “Consideration of alternatives to how the Police Department is organized is something the people should have input in,” Pierce Hance, a former mayor of Sag Harbor, said at the start of Tuesday evening’s village board meeting. In time set aside for public comment, Mr. Hance asked questions of the village’s current mayor, Brian Gilbride, regarding the future of the department, the possibility of outsourcing police services to the county, and the board’s negotiations with the departments of Southampton and East Hampton Towns for that purpose.

    Mr. Hance was displeased that his efforts to learn more were obstructed by executive sessions and the board’s refusal to allow the press access to proposals, despite Freedom of Information Law requests.

    “The fact that we are as open as we are is a credit to us,” Mr. Gilbride responded. He explained that he is dealing with an expired Police Benevolent Association contract and that negotiations had reached a stalemate. “We continue to meet to resolve something,” he said, “but the cost of policing in Sag Harbor is getting very expensive.” The average salary, pension, and medical package has been $178,000 each for 13 officers, he said, but a recent increase in retirement pay has brought that figure to around $182,000.

    “There will be time for public discussion when this unfolds,” Mr. Gilbride promised.

    “Why isn’t the public privy to the alternatives now,” Mr. Hance asked. “Why can’t you have these meetings in public?” The village board voted to consider bringing in outside police services on Sept. 23.

    Mr. Gilbride wondered if open information might have altered the negotiations already. Correspondence with the Suffolk Sheriff’s Office about having its officers patrol the village ended up on the Schwartz Report online, he said. “Last Friday we got a proposal from Southampton which is different from when we met with [Town Police Chief William] Wilson.”

    Sag Harbor Village Police Chief Tom Fabiano also had a question for Mr. Gilbride: Does he plan to abolish his department or cut it in half? He said he had heard of or seen evidence of both.

    The proposal was for half, Mr. Gilbride said, but police officials in East Hampton Town, in which a portion of Sag Harbor sits, suggested that the entire department be replaced. Still, “I want to have a Sag Harbor police force with maybe other services backing them up,” the mayor said. “People stop me in the street and say get rid of all of them, but I am not of that opinion.”

    Chief Fabiano asked how it would be possible to have half of the officers working for the village and half for the Sheriff’s Office. A high-ranking member of the Sheriff’s Office didn’t know how that would work either, the chief said. He said he was hurt that he hadn’t been shown any of the proposals after policing the village for 35 years.

    “I don’t mind talking about it,” Mr. Gilbride said. The issue had not been on the meeting’s agenda. “At the end of the day, to me, this has to do with the cost of policing . . . if you look at the sheriff’s proposal, they can supply pretty much what we have now . . . for roughly $923,000, for which we now pay $2.4 million.”

    “You’re getting a lot more,” said Chief Fabiano.

    “I don’t know that,” Mr. Gilbride replied. “This is becoming about how much Sag Harbor can afford with a 2-percent tax cap,” he said, referring to the new state limit on property tax increases.

    “Can we let the village vote on it before we go ahead any further?” asked Jeffrey Peters, a member of the village’s harbor committee. “Can’t we let the people make the decision first?”

    A potential savings of $1.6 million is what must be considered, Mr. Gilbride said. Later, maybe the village could have its own police force again, he said.

    “What we’re doing is receiving bids from other departments,” Edward Gregory, a village board member, told Mr. Peters. “We want the best bang for the buck and the best people. . . . It’s all dollars and cents.”

    Kevin Duchemin, the board’s newest member, did not speak at the meeting but told The Star on Tuesday that he alone on the board had voted against the proposal to outsource police services because most village residents realize “we have a terrific department” and that “response times are great.” He doesn’t know many people who question their village tax bill, he said.

    “I appreciate your looking out for us,” Mr. Peters said. “I just think you should ask our opinion.”

    Answering further questions, Mr. Gilbride said that traffic control would remain with the village, as would ticket revenues. Of the police headquarters, expanded not all that long ago, the mayor said, “We can rent that building. I don’t want that. . . .”

    “With those kinds of numbers, it may make sense to abolish” the department. “It worked in Greenport,” where Southold Town took over police services.

    “With the current costs of retirement and medical,” Mr. Gilbride continued, “that is what’s becoming difficult . . . we started going down this road and we’re going to finish it.”

    “This is not a public hearing,” Mr. Hance reminded the board from the audience. “If I didn’t ask the question or the chief didn’t, we wouldn’t be talking about this.”

    “If we can release these proposals, I will be happy to do it,” Mr. Gilbride said, adding that he would talk about it with Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., the village attorney. “It doesn’t phase me one iota . . . this discussion is not over; it’s in the beginning stages.”

    Mr. Thiele was in fact at the meeting. “You don’t have to release them,” he told the mayor. “If you want to release them, you can.”

    “I don’t think there is an intention of secrecy,” said Robby Stein, another board member, who called the situation a dialogue. “A lot of this has been fact-finding,” he said. “Then it really should go to public discussion.”

    Wearing a neck brace after fracturing his neck in a recent bicycle accident in the village, he added, “I wouldn’t have wanted to wait a long time for someone to show up when I was hit by a deer. . . . I probably wouldn’t be here.”

    Mr. Stein took a few moments at the end of the meeting to “thank this community that has been extraordinary.” He has recently begun remembering the early September accident, and recalls biking along a cemetery when he was hit by a deer from the side and behind and lifted off his bicycle. He was airlifted to Stony Brook University Medical Center with two fractured vertebrae in his neck, one in his back, a broken nose, a concussion, and many stitches. He said on Tuesday that he had “mostly recovered.”

    Last October, Alexa, then a senior at Bridgehampton High School, began mulling over her options for college.

    Of the 23 students in her senior class and with seven Advanced Placement courses under her belt, Alexa consistently ranked in the top five. 

    Attending a prestigious college like Cornell or Stanford had long been her dream.

    But as an undocumented student lacking a Social Security number, Alexa soon realized she couldn’t apply for federal student aid. Instead, she’d be forced to pay full freight and to do so out of pocket.

    Money worries aside, Alexa ultimately decided against applying. She feared that doing so would draw unwanted attention to her parents, who illegally emigrated from Mexico about 15 years ago. Her mother owns a house cleaning company. Her father works in irrigation.

    For fear of deportation, she requested that her real name not be used.

    “I couldn’t take out student loans, and my parents couldn’t take out student loans, and I was really upset. I had worked so hard and for so long and I was stuck,” said Alexa one recent afternoon in Water Mill. Twice a week, she takes classes part-time at Stony Brook University. “Because of my immigration status, I was too scared and I didn’t apply. I just couldn’t risk it.”

    Now 17, Alexa has spent her young life living in the shadows. Since the age of 2, she has split her time between East Hampton and Bridgehampton.

    In recent months, rather than continuing to fly under the radar, Alexa is daring to step out into the light. Alongside hundreds of thousands of other undocumented young people nationwide, Alexa is pinning her hopes on a two-year, temporary work permit that might allow her to finally come out of hiding. She’s hoping it will enable her to get a driver’s license, work in a job that doesn’t pay off the books, and save up enough money to someday attend law school.

    “We won’t have to hide or be ashamed anymore. We can feel equal to those who were born here and who have legal status,” said Alexa, who has already sent in a thick stack of supporting documentation and gone in for fingerprints. On tenterhooks, she’s now waiting to find out whether her application has been approved or denied. “It will be a huge relief.”

    Announced in mid-June of this year, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, provides illegal immigrants who arrived in the United States as children a temporary reprieve from the looming threat of deportation. The executive order signed by President Obama stipulates that applicants must prove they arrived here before turning 16, that they have lived here continuously for the past five years, and that they were under the age of 31 as of June 15 of this year.

    Additionally, applicants must either still be enrolled in school, have a high school or equivalent degree, or have received an honorable discharge from the military. Further, they must be in good legal standing.

    But documenting an undocumented existence is not without its challenges. As a further hurdle, applicants must provide a mountain of evidence linking them to each quarter of the requisite five years.

    Across the nation, public schools have been inundated with records requests. According to Candace Stafford, coordinator of guidance at East Hampton High School, 59 former students have requested proof of their identity — everything from transcripts and report cards to attendance records and photographs. Numerous calls to Bridgehampton High School and Pierson High School in Sag Harbor went unreturned.

    Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency within the Department of Homeland Security that is handling the applications, won’t reveal the exact number who have applied, though some have estimated it as high as 150,000. Nationwide, while around 1.4 million are eligible to apply, here on the North and South Forks, immigration rights activists estimate that some 2,000 young people might be eligible for DACA.

    “Let’s get one thing straight, this is not the DREAM Act,” clarified Daniel Hartnett, a bilingual social worker at the John M. Marshall Elementary School. Mr. Hartnett referred to the sweeping federal piece of legislation that would have provided permanent residency to undocumented minors. It passed in the U.S. House of Representatives but failed in the Senate by five votes.

    “I voted for the DREAM Act, and allowing undocumented young people to come out of the shadows and contribute to society by working or attending school is a positive development for fairness in federal immigration policy,” Representative Tim Bishop said in an e-mail yesterday. “I view this new policy as progress towards comprehensive immigration reform that will strengthen our borders, boost our economy, and put the undocumented immigrants already in our communities on a path to earned legal status.”

    “The door is cracked open and it’s not a slam dunk, but it is a good opportunity,” said Mr. Hartnett, who counsels potential applicants during the afternoons at Immigration Legal Services of Long Island in Water Mill, in the basement of the Incarnation Lutheran Church. So far, of the nearly 250 individuals they have shepherded through the application process, 1 has been approved.

    “These children are victims of their parents’ choices,” said Mr. Hartnett, whose own father entered the country illegally from Ireland. “Illegal immigration has been occurring for a long time now, probably for 200 years, and is now as American as apple pie.”

    “The kids did everything right. They came here and learned the language, and many of them did not know they were even here illegally until the time came to apply for a college loan or they applied for a job and needed a Social Security number,” he said. “They can’t work and they can’t drive. This will finally allow them to save money and go to college.”

    But Carlos Piovanetti, the managing director of the Immigration Legal Services of Long Island, cautions that while DACA is a step in the right direction, it is a far cry from what he believes is needed: comprehensive immigration reform. “DACA is a Band-aid,” said Mr. Piovanetti. “We need a global vision for this.”

    He explained that under DACA, individuals are not entitled to health care. Further, while many express a desire to work and save money for school, Mr. Piovanetti cautioned that only legal, permanent residents are eligible to apply for federal student aid. And while in New York, in-state tuition is given to residents irrespective of their immigration status, many other states charge undocumented students out-of-state tuition rates.

    “These kids want to have a family and they want to have a home,” said Mr. Piovanetti. “This is the only country many of them have known and they don’t want to have to continue to live in the shadows of anonymity for the rest of their lives.”

    Harry Redlitz, who runs the Peconic Learning Center, an educational facility in Hampton Bays, cautioned that the clock is ticking — especially with November’s presidential election and the potential for a new president to overturn DACA, an executive order and not a law. Last week, Governor Mitt Romney indicated that while he wouldn’t necessarily cancel existing two-year deferrals, he doesn’t plan to continue the program under his administration.

    The Peconic Learning Center, which charges between $250 and $300 to help individuals assemble their DACA paperwork (on top of the requisite $465 federal application fee), has filed two applications. In many instances, would-be applicants express what Mr. Redlitz considers a justifiable reluctance of “not wanting to rock the boat, fearing it might jeopardize the status of their parents.”

    Eugene Kelley, the English as a second language director at the East Hampton School District, is similarly sympathetic. Between the elementary, middle, and high schools, he supervises more than 200 students in a district where Spanish is increasingly the primary language spoken at home, and approximately 17 percent of students were born outside of the U.S.

    “I feel for them. I feel for these kids,” said Mr. Kelley. “Parents make these decisions thinking they are providing for them and making the best decisions. But the ripple effect is the undocumented child who grows into an adult and is truly without a country.”

    Jorge, 18, who graduated from East Hampton High in June, submitted his DACA paperwork in early September. Later this month, he will travel to Riverhead to take pictures and submit his fingerprints for final approval.

    Along with his mother, who now works in a shop in downtown East Hampton, Jorge arrived from Ecuador when he was 1. On weekends, he buses tables in Sag Harbor. Unable to work as a salaried employee, he survives on tip money alone.

    Twice a week, he travels into the city to take audio engineering classes at a vocational school in midtown Manhattan. Lacking a Social Security number, he’s unable to enroll in a formal degree program.

    For Jorge, a lot is riding on the DACA decision — namely, peace of mind and a sense of freedom he’s yet to feel since arriving here as a baby.

    “I feel like more doors would open for me,” he said one recent evening at his family’s house in East Hampton. “I wouldn’t have to be scared of the law and I wouldn’t have to worry so much. But I’m not getting my hopes up. They twist and turn every minute.”

    Concerned about the East Hampton Town Board’s frequent use of executive sessions to discuss matters out of the public eye, two East Hampton Town residents who regularly attend board meetings sought and received an opinion on the legality of the sessions from the New York Department of State’s Committee on Open Government.

    In a response dated Sept. 27, the committee outlined the specific instances in which a board may use executive session, addressing the situations cited in the request for an opinion, but did not weigh in specifically on whether the board has been acting properly.

    Rona Klopman and Sue Avedon, who are both members of the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee but were acting independently, sent an inquiry in mid-July to Robert J. Freeman, the committee on open government’s director.

    In a cover letter, Ms. Klopman wrote that, after attending board meetings since 2009, “I have become concerned that the East Hampton Town Supervisor, William Wilkinson, who sets the agenda, may be violating the open meetings law.”

    “Having open meetings at which the public can be present is a very important part of our democracy, so that should be the rule,” Ms. Avedon said on Tuesday.

    She acknowledged that there are exceptions, but, she said, “it’s been my feeling with this administration that they have gone way beyond those expectations. That deprives the public of its rights.”

    Ms. Avedon said she heard Mr. Freeman give a talk about the open meetings and freedom of information laws and that “it really prompted me to think about how important the issue was.”

    “When we started to see what seems to be a pattern in our town, the red flag went up.”

    Ms. Klopman said that a reporter’s questioning in 2011 of an executive session the board wanted to hold to discuss notices of violation received from the State Department of Environmental Conservation — a session canceled after input from the town attorney — led her to look into what topics may legally be discussed in private. Although they include “discussions regarding proposed, pending, or current legislation,” case law and advisory opinions have indicated that the abstract possibility of a lawsuit does not warrant a discussion out of the public eye.

    That situation was one of the examples sent to the committee on open government.  Another was the listing on board work session agendas of an executive session.

    Because the open meetings law prescribes a procedure that must be undertaken during a public meeting before an executive session may be held, including specifying the grounds for entering into the session, and a majority vote to do so, “ . . . it has been consistently advised that a public body [. . .] cannot schedule or conduct an executive session in advance of a meeting,” Camille S. Jobin-Davis, the open government committee’s assistant director, wrote in the letter to Ms. Klopman.

    As to the litigation exception to public discussion, Ms. Jobin-Davis said, “we believe that the exception is intended to permit a public body to discuss its litigation strategy behind closed doors, rather than issues that might eventually result in litigation.”

    “Under a broader construction, as the court points out, almost every issue could be discussed in executive session, which would be contrary to the intent of the law,” she wrote.

    On another example provided, an executive session to discuss the potential sale of the town’s Fort Pond House property in Montauk, Ms. Jobin-Davis said that “under particular circumstances,” the sale of real property may be discussed in an executive session. However, she said, the applicable provision in the law says that discussion may take place “only when publicity would substantially affect the value thereof.”

    “My impression has been that executive session has been called frequently, in a way that is not in keeping with the open meetings law,” Ms. Avedon said on Tuesday.

    The town board was copied on the state agency’s response to the inquiry.  John Jilnicki, the town attorney, did not respond to a request for comment yesterday. 

    But Ms. Klopman said she “was really glad to see that boardwatching kind of pays off. Because it’s been going on for a while, and they haven’t responded to anybody saying, ‘I don’t think this is legal.’ ”

    Mr. Wilkinson often cites his corporate background, she said. “It’s never too late to learn that not everything operates in that way,” she said. “There’s always an opportunity to learn that what you’re doing is not exactly right.”

    After a work session on Tuesday, the board held an executive session to discuss a personnel matter, then resumed an open session to vote on an action regarding two employees. “Executive session” was, however, not listed on the meeting’s agenda, as it has been previously.

    “You’d better wear a bulletproof vest after you leave here,” Larry Cantwell, the East Hampton Village administrator, said to Drew Bennett, a consulting engineer, who presented three potentially controversial solutions for the tricky Main Street and Buell Lane intersection at a meeting of the village board on Friday.

    The proposals are for permanently blocking vehicles entering the intersection from Dunemere Lane, seeking state approval for traffic lights, or building a roundabout centered on the Village Green flagpole.

    The intersection is the location of frequent motor vehicle accidents. In one notable recent collision, a hit-and-run driver struck a van, which, in turn, damaged the flagpole’s base.

    “What we have is a heavy traffic demand on a weak infrastructure,” Mr. Bennett said. “These ideas aren’t particularly innovative; they’re ideas that people have discussed for the past 10 years or so.”

    “It’s good that a dialogue is beginning to occur,” he said.

    The first idea Mr. Bennett presented would close off the connection between Main Street and Dunemere Lane — the option to which the board responded most favorably on Friday. He said that this was “grand scale” version of what village police did this summer when officers placed orange cones there, preventing drivers from entering the intersection.

    “Although this option would most likely make the intersection safer,” Mr. Bennett said, “it diverts traffic to roads perpendicular to Route 27, such as James and Pondview Lanes.”

    The board agreed with Mr. Bennett’s view that the forced diversion would have unforeseen consequences on other streets, and could lead to “intersection improvement” at James Lane and Ocean Avenue to handle increased traffic flow.

    The second option would be for traffic signals at the intersection, which would result in vehicles idling in front of the green, library, and Guild Hall, according to a written assessment Mr. Bennett completed for the village in June.

    None of the board members expressed support for this, and Mr. Bennett also seemed to lack enthusiasm for the alternative. “The village comprehensive plan limits the amount of lights that can be erected,” he said. “Moreover, this is a significant change that could wind up increasing traffic.”

    Neither did the board seem impressed with the third alternative, which involved a “high-capacity roundabout centered around the flag pole.” Mr. Bennett said that there is “not enough existing land area to implement this alternative.” Additional land would have to come from the green, the East Hampton Library, and possibly a private home, and “would result in a very negative impact to the village,” according to Mr. Bennett.

    Village Trustee Bruce Siska said, “If the roundabout doesn’t fit, cross it off the list.”

    Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. called upon Andrew Right, who was sitting in the audience to offer his views. Mr. Right said that he is glad that the village seeks to improve a dangerous situation.

    “Perhaps it would be best to try options on a temporary basis,” he said. “The village can place moveable planters at the intersection to see how it works.”

    Mayor Rickenbach said, “We’ve corresponded with the state to come out to look at the situation, and they have yet to do so.”

    “I like the idea of a seasonal solution,” Village Trustee Barbara Borsack said. “It’s a three-month problem, and we shouldn’t rush into a plan that we have to live with for 12 months. Let’s take our time and think this through.”

    A group of 41 former campers from around the country reunited and reminisced on Saturday about their annual eight-week sojourns at the Fireplace Lodge Girls Camp, a waterfront campsite at the end of Fireplace Road in Springs that dated to 1935.                The group gathered for lunch in Montauk at Gurney’s Inn, and afterward visited the old camp, now owned by Mary Ryan, who invited them to walk the property and have a campfire. The strong winds did not allow for a fire, but the women delighted in exploring the place that brought back fond memories, singing camp songs arm in arm on the bluff, and sharing laughter and tears on the beach below.

    Whether they camped at the same time or not, it was apparent that the women all felt a connection through their shared experiences.

    As they walked toward the bluff, Jane Ross, a camper for 13 years who had lived in Garden City and here, in Barnes Landing, as a girl, pointed to a field where she remembered goats, donkeys, and an infirmary.

    Even though she splits her time now between the South Fork and St. Petersburg, Fla., Ms. Ross hadn’t visited the spot since she was a girl. “Sometimes it is not fun,” she said, because things change too much. She showed her friend a place on the bluff where the junior bunks used to be. Other bunks, as well as the dining and recreation rooms were also along the bluff, which the girls used to climb up with a rope as part of their survival training, she recalled.

    “It made us really strong,” Ms. Ross said. A former canoeing counselor at the camp, she said she used the valuable water skills she learned there throughout her life.

    The roots of the camp were in music and drama, Shannon Cunniff of Arlington, Va., the reunion’s primary organizer, said on Monday. “We would sing all the time,” said Ms. Cuniff, who spent over a year searching for campers, counselors, and “kitchen men” on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and through Google, word of mouth, and old correspondences.

    Some of the campers also received individual lessons for voice, violin, piano, Cunniff said, there was a musical show in a converted barn called Antler Hall, and the last night before parent pick-up each year there was an operetta.

    There were also arts and crafts, archery, and horse riding on the property, which was equipped with a barn and two riding rings. Ms. Cunniff said that advanced riders would go around East Hampton, or take the horses swimming in the bay.

    Of all of the activities, what seemed to stick with the women most, aside from the words to their camp songs, were the swimming and survival skills learned under the direction of Bill Dunn, a former Marine and high school teacher who served as the waterfront safety director. Ms. Cunniff said that he may have been the most influential person on their childhoods.

    “He drown-proofed us,” she said. “We swam every day unless there was lightning.”

    The most advanced swimmers had to swim seven times between large rocks in the bay, sometimes in wet jeans with their legs tied together.

    “ ‘If there is water in the bay, we are swimming today,’ ” was the phrase she recalled. The girls practiced safety drills for various situations such as being knocked out of a sailboat, where they removed their pants, blew into the legs to make a raft, and “survival bobbed” with their feet tied together. She said they learned to be so comfortable in the water that they would never panic.

    They also learned to make fires and went on secret nighttime drills for which they would be awakened and sent on rescue missions in the woods, for example. Mr. Dunn would watch from the trees to be sure they were okay and applying their lessons.

    While packing for the camp’s only other reunion in 1990, Mr. Dunn suffered a massive heart attack, and sent his regrets via a letter, that told the women how important they were to him. He died a few days later.

    In Montauk on Saturday, Ms. Cunniff presented a slideshow of archived photos and a DVD of memories collected from former campers. Tables were filled with memorabilia that felt “almost like a living museum,” with badges and medals, sweatshirts and caps, and books filled with photographs.

    In return, the group surprised her with a gift basket of vintage products reminiscent of their days at camp, such as Lemon Up shampoo and Close Up toothpaste.

    “That was a hoot,” said Raleigh Mayer of New York City, who attended the camp as a child. She said on Tuesday that she had visited only once before this weekend, in the 1980s, when the abandoned dorms were still on the property. “It was kind of sad,” she said.

    Ms. Cunniff was ecstatic to walk the property on Saturday, she said, and see that it was preserved and protected, not covered in condos. “It still had that sense of place,” she said. The ladies were excited to learn and hear about how the Peconic Land Trust preserved and protected the land, too, from Pam Greene, vice president of the trust, who joined them for a presentation.

    Ms. Cunniff attended camp for seven years in the ’60s, when her family would come from New York City to their beach house on Collins Avenue in East Hampton from Memorial Day through Labor Day. The campers came primarily from New York City and New Jersey, and from all income brackets, she said. Some parents saved all year, and some visited by helicopter.

    At the site on Saturday, alumni sang the camp song, which included the motto “living life with a real purpose and with love and loyalty,” and also sang a song specific to the “chief,” Adelaide Purcell, the camp’s founder and director. Tears were shed as Ms. Mayer read a poem about the camp that was written in the 1980s.

    “She was ahead of her time,” Ms. Cunniff said of Ms. Purcell. “I folded my clothes,” Ms. Cunniff said, “completed chores, and learned independence, responsibility, respect, and how to function in a society.”

    “It was liberating,” she said. “I was never as happy as when I was at camp.”

    Ms. Ryan joined the women in song down on the beach and was accepted as a “Fireplace Lady,” and presented with memorabilia including two historic articles about the camp from The Star. The gift that brought Ms. Ryan to tears, however, was that of a large cast iron cauldron, approximately three feet wide and high, that was a historical piece of the property. During camp days, Ms. Cunniff remembered it upon a stone base, always with fresh flowers.

    The artifact ended up on another property, taken there by someone looking out for its best interests, but the women knew that Ms. Ryan wanted it returned to its home. “It was always there,” said Ms. Cunniff, and now it is “a piece of Fireplace that will continue to exist.”

    In appreciation of Ms. Cunniff’s efforts, Gwen Miller, the camp’s most senior counselor and musical director, presented her with the Honor Camper of the Year Award, which was a highly coveted award back in the day. “I can guarantee there will be another, sooner than later,” Ms. Mayer said on Tuesday. “People were so thrilled.”

    David H. Hernandez, the East Hampton High School student who took his own life on Sept. 29, had been the subject of repeated and sustained bullying at the school because of his sexual orientation, according to his mother, Carmita Barros, who claims the school administration ignored what was happening because David was an immigrant Latino.

    The 16-year-old, a junior at the school, is the second Latino student at the high school to have committed suicide in less than three years. Colombian-born Tatiana Giraldo-Fahardo, a senior, died at home in Montauk in December 2009.

    Her son had been despondent since the beginning of the school year, Ms. Barros said. He left a note for her, asking her for forgiveness and hoping that God would understand his actions. The note, written in Spanish, asked his mother to bury him in Ecuador.  Click for Obituary

   Last Thursday, Ms. Barros and a group of 18 parents and teenagers gathered at the bereaved family’s house to speak out against bullying and what they see as an indifferent school administration. Several calls to the school principal, Adam S. Fine, and the district ssuperintendent, Richard Burns, requesting comment on the allegations were not returned.

    Candles were lit about the room, as well as in a shrine to Nuestra de la Nube, Our Lady of the Clouds, an Ecuadorean tradition honoring the Virgin Mary.

    “[Ms. Barros] is just looking for justice,” said Blanca Stella Buitrago, who acted as spokeswoman for the group.

    Ms. Barros came to America from Ecuador 13 years ago to work, sending money back every two weeks or so to support her children. Eventually she sent for them, first for her daughter, Gabriella, and then, a little over three years ago, for David, whom she hadn’t seen for eight years.

    She realized as soon as he arrived that he was gay, she said at the gathering, and tried to create a home environment where he could feel accepted. He came at the end of the school year, and was placed in a class with Gabriella to help him adjust.

    Ms. Hernandez, who is now 18, said she had experienced first-hand the brutality of bullying when she arrived at East Hampton High. She said the persecution, mostly by fellow Latinos — including Ecuadoreans who have been in the country longer — could have been for a variety of reasons: height (she is small of stature), the inability to speak any English, and ignorance about what to wear.

    David enjoyed going to school those few days with his sister, and looked forward to his freshman year. It was short-lived, however. No longer in class with Gabriella, he began to be teased.

    “One day he came home crying,” Ms. Barros said. “He was crying and crying. He told me, Mom, I don’t want to go back to school.” He did, though.

    He particularly dreaded riding in the school bus. Ms. Barros began driving him to school every day from their house in Springs, except for Fridays, when her work schedule prevented it. “When I’d drop him off, he’d put his head down,” she said.

    She could see how unhappy he was when he’d return from school, especially on Fridays, and would ask what was troubling him. “ ‘It’s all right, Mom, it’s okay,’ he told me.”

    Though David had been athletic in Ecuador, he dreaded gym class at the school, said Ms. Barros.

    After making it through his freshman and sophomore years, she said, his mental state seemed to deteriorate when the current school year began. He was seeing a psychiatrist on Mondays and a psychologist on Fridays.

    “Two weeks ago, they stole his cellphone,” Ms. Barros said. She went to the school to complain.

    Next, she said, “a group of Spanish kids threw his sandwich on the floor” in the lunchroom. “I told the school what happened. They said they were going to talk to them.” She questions what actions the school actually took.

    In a series of entries in Spanish on his Facebook page, which the family shared for publication, David expressed himself.

    On Sept. 14, he wrote, “I feel so bad. Every day of my life, somebody’s laughing at me.”

    The next day, he wrote, “This is so crazy. There are some moments there’s no point to live, when you feel you don’t have control . . . There are moments that I think that God has forgotten about me.”

    On Sept. 26, the family attended a church service for Nuestra de la Nube. Afterward, said Ruth Barros, David’s aunt, who lives with the family, the boy began asking questions about God and religion.

    The next day, he attended a meeting at the high school of the Gay-Straight Alliance, which is dedicated to fostering the acceptance of all sexual persuasions among the student body.

    “He seemed like a nice guy,” said Joel Johnson, 16, the organization’s president, who spoke about the meeting shortly after David’s death. “He didn’t get a lot of talking in,” as the meeting dealt with administrative matters.

    The day before he died, David experienced a particularly bad moment at school. Ms. Barros learned about it afterward from the teacher. “David sat down,” Ms. Barros said she was told, crossing his legs as he did so and putting his elbows on his desk. Some in the class began laughing at him, taunting him about his posture. According to Ms. Barros, the whole class began to laugh. The teacher scolded them.

    That night, Ms. Barros said, he was the lowest she’d ever seen, but in the morning, when she made breakfast, he seemed happy. Afterward, however, he began pacing, then went into his bedroom.

    At 1 p.m., she went into his room to say goodbye as she left for work. He was asleep. It was the last time she saw him alive.

    “What we are upset about is that the school did nothing,” Ms. Buitrago said. She said the bullying of Latino children was not isolated to gay students, and turned to the people crowded into Ms. Barros’s small living room for proof.

    “How many of you have had your children bullied? Raise your hands.”

    Every hand in the room went up.

    Sandra Torres has a son in the school who, she said, has been pushed around. “They took his backpack,” she said. When the backpack was found, the books were still in it but everything else was gone, including his dental retainer. She went to the school to complain, but said she felt as if she was ignored.

    “If this happened to a white kid, things would be different,” Ms. Buitrago said.

    According to Ms. Torres, one impetus behind bullying may be the school’s policy toward children who speak no English, which she said was to divide them from the general student body to allow them to better acclimate. “It makes them feel bad,” she said, and makes them an inviting target.

    She said there was little contact between the school administration and the Spanish-speaking community. “Most schools have a PTA,” she said. If there is one at East Hampton High School, she said she had never been invited to join it.

    “We all have kids here, and we don’t want this to happen again,” said Ms. Buitrago. “When they are in school, we feel they should be protected. We don’t feel protected by the town. We are afraid for our children.”

    “What is justice?” asked Ms. Barros. “Justice means the government will make laws. If you know a kid is bullying, suspend him.”

    “There are a lot of new people coming in,” Ms. Buitrago said. “They should not be discriminated against because of their look or their race. Because they don’t speak English. And because of their sexual orientation.” In Ms. Barros’s living room that day, there was full agreement.

    On Tuesday, after learning of David’s death, the Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth Network said it would “fast-track” its efforts to open an L.G.B.T. community center in Suffolk County. The organization plans to hold a meeting at the high school at 6 p.m. on Oct. 22 to discuss what may have happened at the school and how to put an end to it.

    Meanwhile, in Southampton Town, this month has been named Bullying Prevention Month, following a finding by the town’s youth bureau that 21 percent of teenagers who responded to a survey reported having been bullied during the 2011-2012 school year. The town will hold several meetings during the month focusing on bullying and cyber-bullying, for example on Facebook. The first event will take place on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Rogers Memorial Library.

    In July, New York State’s new Dignity for All Students Act took effect. It requires schools to report incidents of bullying and discrimination, and to write the act into the school’s code of conduct. According to Bridget LeRoy, East Hampton High School’s communications coordinator, the school has adopted the act and posted it on its Web site.

    When Richard Gosman, a 7-year-old from Montauk, was asked if he liked living in his new house, which he and his mom and dad moved into in mid-September, he said he’d rather be living in the woods with Rex, his 5-month-old German shepherd puppy who went missing on Oct. 1.

    Bryan and Michele Gosman have been posting signs all over Montauk, with some in East Hampton and Amagansett. They’ve also sent more than 2,000 posters with Rex’s picture to every veterinarian’s office across Long Island and in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maryland from a list they obtained from a company online.

    Mr. Gosman, of Gosman’s Fish Market, usually took the puppy to work with him each day in the dock area. For some reason on Oct. 1, Rex stayed home, and the family thinks he may have decided to travel on his own to his master’s place of work.

    The puppy is one of three dogs the family owns that are allowed to roam freely in the spacious, slightly confined backyard, which borders a nature preserve. He has never wandered off before and always stayed with the other dogs, a mixed-breed rescue from Puerto Rico and another shepherd.

    The family has searched for days. While Mr. Gosman was rambling through the woods calling Rex’s name, he was bitten by an insect and his hand swelled terribly. His doctor thought it may have been a spider bite, and Mr. Gosman was hospitalized for two days. Bored in the hospital, he started Googling information about lost dogs and found that one can hire scent-tracking dogs to help find a lost animal.

    Upon his release, he and Ms. Gosman made several phone calls and ended up hiring four tracking dogs from Maine — a Belgian Malinois, a Labrador retriever, a hound mix, and a bloodhound. The dogs were brought to the new house on Beech Hollow Lane and were given several of Rex’s toys, blankets, and other items specific to Rex’s scent. Several items were swabbed and put in Ziploc bags for the dogs to sniff while tracking.

    The Belgian Malinois picked up Rex’s scent and led the crew to an area about a mile away from the Gosmans’ house, to the Edward Albee Foundation, a barn-type building with several outbuildings near Falcon Road. The Labrador confirmed that the scent was Rex’s. But from there the scent dropped, leaving the Lab’s trainers and his owners with the impression that Rex had been picked up. No one staying in the foundation had seen the dog.

    Days later, on Friday, several young residents who had seen a poster of the missing dog were playing paintball in the woods near Big Reed Path off East Lake Drive, several miles from the Gosmans’ house. They said they had seen the dog and called out to him, but he ran off, slightly skittish. They mentioned to Mr. Gosman that there are several other dogs they often see in the area. After that sighting, the Gosmans started visiting the area every day, calling out Rex’s name.

    On Monday, Ms. Gosman went back there to search again, and she came upon a group of landscapers. They said they hadn’t seen a dog, but as she was leaving, one of them stopped her and said he did remember seeing a shepherd-type dog on Friday in the same area.

    The couple hired a new set of scent-tracking dogs from Connecticut, and they were able to detect Rex’s scent in the woods, where the others had thought they had seen him. “The trainer told us she could be almost 100-percent sure the dog had been in the area,” Mr. Gosman said.

    Since Big Reed Path is near the Deep Hollow Ranch, which is now leased by Patrick and Kate Keogh, who also own a shepherd, the Gosmans got in touch with them and learned they were away — their dog could not have been the one the landscaper had seen. Besides, the Keoghs’ shepherd is much older and bigger, while Rex weighs in at about 50 pounds.

    The Gosmans said they could not believe the support and help they have received from the Montauk community. “It’s like everybody’s looking for him,” said Ms. Gosman. The family is offering a big reward for Rex’s return, and no questions will be asked. They just want their puppy back, especially Richard, a second grader at the Montauk School who prays nightly for his return.

    “I just hope that if someone has him that they’re taking good care of him and not hurting him. He’s just a dopey, friendly puppy who was loving life,” Mr. Gosman said.

    Anyone who has seen the puppy or knows anything pertaining to his disappearance can e-mail Ms. Gosman at [email protected] or call her at 631-335-5102.

    An arrest on Cedar Drive in Springs last Thursday morning involving a stolen iPhone ended up triggering a mini-manhunt when the handcuffed suspect, Justin Cruz, 18, of East Hampton, escaped, outrunning police and disappearing into the woods.

    Suffolk County police dispatched a helicopter to aid in the search, and New York State troopers sent a German shepherd called O’Reilly from its K-9 unit, with his handler, Trooper Kevin Drew.

    Because they had no item of the suspect’s clothing to help the dog pick up his scent, it was sent into the woods to “pick up the freshest scent he finds,” Trooper Drew said about two hours after the manhunt began. The dog is trained to sniff the most recently disturbed ground cover in the woods, he explained. The area is dotted with forest cover, with residences scattered in.

    O’Reilly initially seemed to pick up a scent, but then lost it, doubling back to the house where the fugitive was initially taken into custody. The helicopter hovered low in the sky, patrolling back and forth. Police continued to comb the neighborhood, in cars and on foot, going house to house on many blocks, but did not find a trace of him.

    A little after midnight, Mr. Cruz, handcuffs gone, walked into the East Hampton Town Police headquarters in Wainscott and surrendered. He was at that point re-arrested, on the original charge of criminal possession of stolen property, plus an additional charge of escaping from custody. Both are Class A misdemeanors.

    It all began a little after 8 a.m., when two town officers, following up on a report of an Apple iPhone stolen the day before, pulled up to a Cedar Drive house. In the course of interviewing Mr. Cruz, who was visiting there, police activated the missing cellphone, which made a sound. According to the police report, it was found on Mr. Cruz’s person. An officer handcuffed him in the standard hands-behind-the-back position and placed him in the rear of the police car. The officer then went back inside to interview a resident of the house.

    Left alone in the rear of the car, Mr. Cruz, who is a wiry six feet tall, worked his hands down behind his back to his ankles, then under his feet. His shackled hands were now in front of him. He then, according to the police, climbed through the partition between the front and back seats and exited the squad car through an unlocked front door. The officers saw him sprinting away toward the woods.

    When an initial search proved fruitless, police called in the county.

    In court Saturday morning, Mr. Cruz, who had been arrested in April on a charge of trespassing, was arraigned before Justice Catherine Cahill. He told the court he had dropped out of school his junior year and was working part time, landscaping and building decks.

    “That’s what you dropped out for?” Justice Cahill asked.

    “I made a mistake,” he replied.

    She asked him about his living circumstances. He told her he was living with his uncle.

    “Where are your parents?”

    “My mother is incarcerated, and my father was deported.”

    He said he had lived in East Hampton for four years. “I said I was sorry to the officer I ran away from. I was scared,” he told the court.

    Justice Cahill asked him how he was doing with his previous commitment to the court stemming from the April arrest, to do 60 hours’ community service. He told her he’d done 20.

    “Are you kidding? The first time, it was 30 hours, and you blew it off, so it became 60 hours. Mr. Cruz, you’re going down the wrong road. You better get that community service done.”

    Justice Cahill set bail at $500. Mr. Cruz was taken away.

Phoenix House Incident

     In other police news, officers were called on Sept. 25 to the Phoenix House Academy juvenile drug treatment facility in Wainscott by the staff. According to the police report, an 18-year-old, whose name was redacted from the report, had, with another resident, blindfolded a 14-year-old boy as the younger boy asked for the cigarette he felt he was owed.

    The 18-year-old told the blindfolded 14-year-old to put out his hand for the cigarette and then spit in it. He then exposed himself, according to the report, and began sexually touching the younger boy, who pushed away and ran out of the room. The Phoenix staff notified their supervisor, who called the 14-year-old’s father as well as the police.

    Police  interviewed them, eventually placing the 18-year-old under arrest. He was charged with acting in a manner injurious to a child, as well as forcible touching, both Class A misdemeanors.

    Bail was set the next morning at $2,500.

    “Our first concern is the safety of the residents,” Traci Donnelly, the regional director for Phoenix House, said Tuesday. “We offer across-the-board help” for the victim, she said. “We assess the person’s needs. Do they want to stay in Phoenix? We work closely with the parents and spouses.”

    Phoenix House will try to find an outside treatment facility more appropriate for the accused as well, Ms. Donnelly said.

    In a closed-door session on Sept. 23, the Sag Harbor Village Board agreed to seek partial police patrols from the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department and to offer early retirement to eligible village police officers. The vote on an early retirement incentive was unanimous, but outsourcing police services was approved 3-to-1. Kevin Duchemin, an East Hampton Village Police sergeant who is the newest board member, cast the negative vote.

    Concerned about the future of the department, Sag Harbor Village Police Chief Tom Fabiano said on Tuesday that he had “no clue” how replacing the department’s 12 full-time officers with others from the Sheriff’s Office would work or “why that would be done.” He also said he was surprised that he has not been told the details of the early retirement offer. Village residents don’t know either, because the  board has been discussing, voting, and drafting legal documents in executive session.

    “The mayor has gotten some numbers for services from the county sheriff and East Hampton Town. The board has decided to move forward on this by having the village labor lawyer and myself research a retirement incentive . . . and an inter-municipal agreement for supplemental police services. No final decisions were made,” State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., the village attorney who was at the Sept. 23 meeting, said. Via e-mail yesterday, Mr. Thiele said, “I do not know what public input the board will seek on this. It’s up to the board.”

    Village police have been working without a contract for over a year after months of negotiation, with the standoff having gone to arbitration.

     “It’s ridiculous” that the board has not asked for his opinion, Chief Fabiano said. He was told months ago, he said, that the only reason for the possible abolition or reduction of the police force was the increasing cost of retirement and medical expenses.

    A Sag Harbor native with 35 years on the job, one thing Chief Fabiano said he is sure of is that “they are not going to get the level of service” and that he will be “extremely concerned about the welfare of the village.” That the change apparently is based on costs, the chief asked, “Have complaints been filed? Are people’s taxes too high?”    

    “People should be involved in the process,” he said. “They might have moved here because it is a “nice, safe place to live.”

    According to Legislator Jay Schneiderman, the County Legislature would have to approve any agreement reached.

“It will be quite a debate,” he said yesterday. “It will not go flying through, if it goes through at all.”

      The village police log during a typical off-season week includes several pages of calls that officers have responded to, including those related to motor vehicles — accidents, speeding, unlicensed operators, intoxicated persons found driving — as well as fire alarms, harassment charges, cellphone violations, elderly falls, miscellaneous injuries and illnesses, domestic issues, streetlight outages, and loud music complaints.

    Other calls requiring police presence in a recent week included a student’s attempted suicide and another’s hospitalization for difficulty breathing, along with civil disputes, assistance with a locked bicycle, fear of identity theft due to a frozen computer, a homecoming parade detail, and a loose dog.

    An informal sampling on Tuesday of local business owners and residents found that they were wary of the change.

    Mike Reilly, a manager at the Corner Bar, said, “Let the people decide . . . the public pays the taxes that pay the salaries. I don’t know anyone who minds paying taxes for a good police force.” He added, “We just paid for the new headquarters. It doesn’t make sense.”  And he expressed fear of what might happen in a disaster. “Lives depend on these people,” he said.

    Erling Hope, a resident who was seen speaking with a village police officer on Main Street on Tuesday, said he didn’t think using sheriff personnel was a good idea. Those who patrol the village should be “in touch with the community,” he said. The officer he was speaking with, Hugh Caulfield, a Sag Harbor resident who was formerly a New York City police officer, praised the force, saying they are “dedicated people who give a lot.”

    “I’m against it,” said Peter D’Angelo, owner of the Emporium True Value hardware store, while Rick Kresberg, an owner of Provisions Natural Market, said he is “in favor of having our own Police Department. They know our community better.”

    At the Wharf Shop, a word of caution came from Nada Barry, a longtime resident. “I don’t know all of the facts and figures to form an opinion,” she said, but then added that she felt comfortable with the police, having known many of the officers since they were children. Although North Haven Village has contracted with the Southampton Town force for police services, she said the Sag Harbor department responds to calls first.

    As for the public’s involvement, Chief Fabiano said “a chicken coop gets more attention than the Police Department.” Mayor Brian Gilbride did not return phone calls.