“I wouldn’t be talking to you right now,” Lance Cpl. Roger King, the newest commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 982 in Sag Harbor, said last Thursday, referring to how quiet he was in high school. Chosen in an election in July, Mr. King is the youngest to have served as the post’s commander, and possibly the youngest in the state.

    Calling himself the nerdy type at Pierson, where he was primarily interested in computers, he graduated in 2003. Born in Sag Harbor and raised by parents who were both deaf, he felt different from other kids, which posed a challenge but at the same time gave him “a deeper human understanding,” he said. His experience with his parents’ disability also helped him when he served in Iraq, he said, because he was able to communicate with Iraqis through body language.

    Lance Corporal King served in the Marine Corps from March 2005 through March 2009, after he decided that small-town living was not leading him in the right direction, a decision that made him “10 times a better person,” he said.

    A military occupation specialist, he served two combat tours in Iraq, the first taking him to a forward operating base, and the second to Camp Fallujah with an infantry unit.

    “A few friends died,” he said — three, to be exact. The soft-spoken commander modestly reported that he was awarded a Purple Heart after being shot in the head. He had his helmet on at the time, and three days later was ready “to get back . . . put my life on the line to make sure my friends came home.”

    Lance Corporal King did not re-enlist because of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, such as irritability, nightmares, and sensitivity to noises.

    Even training could cause great stress, he said — for example when he was told to lie on the ground to simulate being killed in action. He said that when he left the Marines, the military helped him make the transition to civilian life with therapy and health benefits. In addition to the Purple Heart, he received the Iraqi Campaign Medal with a star (for two deployments) and Good Conduct Medals in three consecutive years.

    “I loved it, every second,” he said of his service.

    The suggestion to take on the post’s leadership position came from its previous commander, Harry (Haps) Wils, who served 10 consecutive terms, 15 in all. Lance Corporal King agreed, in the hope that he could change the stereotype of V.F.W. members being only older men. He said he wants to attract, support, and honor all of the men and women in and around Sag Harbor who are active members of the military as well as those who have served defending the country in the past.

    Responsibilities of the post commander include appointing committees and officers, approving spending, recruiting, attending district meetings and training sessions, and reporting to national V.F.W. offices. Officers at each post are trained to help other veterans with their various needs, including medical treatment.

    Lance Corporal King joined the Sag Harbor Fire Department two years ago and works a day job at Blue Sky Window Cleaning. He attends Suffolk Community College, where he needs six more credits to graduate. His goal is to teach history at the high school level. He has “always had a love” for the subject, he said.

    With no building of its own, the post uses the American Legion hall on Bay Street for its meetings, which are held on the third Monday of each month.        The V.F.W. welcomes others to help provide services to local veterans, in the form of scholarships, care packages to those deployed overseas, and support when they return. Recently, for example, the post gave an injured veteran a gift certificate for groceries. The organization also offers a “feeling of belonging, companionship, and brotherhood” to those who have served, he said.

    The Fire Department also gives him that feeling, which is helpful to life after the military. He boarded a department bus last Thursday for a trip to the Suffolk County Fire Academy in Yaphank for training.

    Lance Corporal King hopes that the community will support the post on its 50th anniversary by buying tickets to its 50-50 raffle. Tickets will be available under a tent on Long Wharf during HarborFest this weekend. Members will be on hand to answer questions veterans may have, and to welcome those who wish to join.

    Proposed amendments to 11 chapters of the East Hampton Town Code will come up for public hearing next Thursday, starting at 7 p.m., in East Hampton Town Hall. The amendments stem from revisions the town has found necessary in Chapter 45 of the code, which covers enforcement. They would assign new titles and define the specific powers of those who are charged with enforcement of state and town law. If approved, the Ordinance Enforcement Department title of chief investigator would be removed and replaced  with ordinance enforcement officer.

    The changes reflect a series of town efforts, dating back to the McGintee administration, intended to “correct and clarify” the wording of Chapter 45. They also come after two attorneys, representing business owners who have run afoul of the code, have charged that many of the town’s enforcement actions have been illegal, and after  a $55 million lawsuit against the town was filed in a case involving Thomas Ferreira, a Montauk mechanic. Former Supervisor Bill McGintee and the town board who served with him are named as defendants. 

    Thomas Horn, a former town fire marshal and safety inspector who is now an attorney, and Lawrence Kelly, who is representing Mr. Ferreira, believe the code is seriously flawed and have lobbied town officials for its revision. Mr. Horn points out that, in 2007, the town board had proposed legislation to create the position of chief investigator, having recognized problems in the code. The legislation was neither adopted nor sent for ratification to the New York Department of State, which would have been required.

    In the four years between 2007 and last year, new titles and duties were added in the Ordinance Enforcement Department. Dominic Shirrippa was director of code enforcement from 2006 to 2010, when Betsy Bambrick, who has the post now, was appointed. Mr. Horn said there is nothing in the code empowering them.

    The amendments to be considered next Thursday affect enforcement under state as well as town law. That the town code needed clarification with regard to state law had been brought to the town’s attention in September by Richard Smith, an officer of the Department of State, who came to East Hampton at the request of Mr. Horn. Meeting with Ms. Bambrick and Robert Connelly, a town attorney, Mr. Smith is reported to have told them the town code referred to the wrong statue, the state building code instead of the building maintenance code.

    Mr. Horn said he had called on the Department of State in connection with some 120 summonses alleging state and town code violations at Maidstone Cottages (on Bruce Lane in Springs). As a result, 100 of the citations were declared invalid, Mr. Horn said.

    In June 2011, the town had amended Chapter 102 of the town code (building construction) to acknowledge the applicability of the New York State Fire Prevention and Building code. And, in July, the town board established a committee to review the existing town code “in order to identify areas of potential conflict with the New York State Code.”  

    “Until the town made its attempt to fix things in June of 2011 they should have been living under the code as it existed from about 1999. Inspectors were never part of the code. A director of code enforcement was never part of the code,” Mr. Horn said.

    Not only Mr. Horn, but Lawrence Kelly, a former federal prosecutor who filed the $55 million lawsuit against the town, has been working behind the scenes on behalf of his clients. 

    For example, on June 18, Patrick Gunn, an assistant town attorney and public safety division administrator who oversees animal control, fire, building, and code enforcement, sent a memo to Town Justice Catherine Cahill regarding “unconstitutional issues asserted by counsel.” The counsel in question was Mr. Kelly, whom Mr. Gunn acknowledged meeting. The memo, which was obtained by The Star, said Mr. Kelly was claiming that the court had “for some time been denying defendants charged with town code violations their constitutional rights, including, but not limited to, speedy trial provisions.”

    Mr. Gunn’s memo reported that, in Mr. Kelly’s opinion, defendants had been denied their right to trial until curative action was taken and confirmed. “He believes that by requiring defendants to undertake affirmative acts before trial creates an unconstitutional burden and an admission of guilt,” Mr. Gunn wrote. However, Mr. Gunn assured Justice Cahill that nothing of that sort had happened under his watch.

    “I can’t imagine that the court or any of the town departments which file charges with the court ever took such a position . . . those departments divulge themselves of authority over the cases once charges are filed and presented to the town attorney for prosecution,” Mr. Gunn wrote. Justice Cahill, who released the memo, did not comment on its contents.

    On the other hand, Mr. Horn said that, as in the Maidstone Cottages case, the court could ask about health and safety. If claims of unsafe conditions were inaccurate, “property owners can be forced to correct things that don’t need to be corrected before being granted a trial.” The court has to depend on the knowledge and authority of code enforcers, he said.

    Mr. Kelly had filed the $55 million lawsuit in May. It alleges that summonses issued to Mr. Ferreira, which led to the removal of equipment, cars, and car parts from his property and a tax lien, were issued illegally because code enforcers did not have the proper authority and had used the wrong statutes. Mr. Kelly said the June 2011 attempt to address the issue “fixed only half the problem.”

    On several occasions, Mr. Kelly has warned the town board that illegal enforcement could bring a “financial Armageddon” down on East Hampton in the form of other lawsuits.

    Mr. Gunn disputes Mr. Kelly’s claim that enforcement has been illegal, while Supervisor Bill Wilkinson has said research into the charge had satisfied his “subordinates” that enforcement powers and protocols were correct.

    “We’re talking about enforcing state code, building and fire stuff, and we’re talking about town ordinances. In order to enforce state code, the people must be empowered in local law to do so explicitly. It was anything but, before. They are now going to identify who can do state code, and at the same time make it clear who can enforce local ordinances. This fix should go a long way to doing both things,” Mr. Horn said. 

    In addition to the Ordinance Enforcement Department, the chapters of the code affected by the proposed amendments cover appearance tickets, beaches and parks, bicycles, skates and surreys, building construction, commercial gatherings, filming, local waterfront revitalization program consistency review, peddling, waterways and boats, and zoning.

    In your face, Huffington Post and CNBC, and all the other naysayers who reported last week that the rich aren’t as philanthropic as regular Joes. Turns out, East Hampton residents who earn more money also give a greater percentage to charitable causes.

    According to a study conducted by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, using Internal Revenue Service tax records from 2008 (the most recent available), East Hampton households in ZIP code 11937 with discretionary incomes over $200,000 gave away 8 percent of it to charities. Compare that stat to people with an income between $50,000 and $99,999, who contributed 7.5 percent of it to nonprofits.

     What’s up with the people in between, who make $100,000 to $200,000? Those East Hampton taxpayers gave away only 4.5 percent of their discretionary means.

    “Donors often give more when they feel more connected to and rooted in their community,” explained Emily Gipple, a data-based reporter at the Chronicle of Philanthropy, in an e-mail. “The strong and welcomed presence of nonprofits and the causes they support may keep charity top-of-mind for residents, and at a certain level of income and lifestyle, philanthropy becomes a regular part of social life.”

    Ms. Gipple’s comments suggest that East Hampton’s summer benefit culture could explain why the affluent are more benevolent. But is it more than an open bar of top-shelf cocktails in exchange for a five- or even six-figure ticket?

    “A long time ago, residents at the end of Long Island learned that if we don’t help others in our community, who will?” said Barbara Jo Howard, director of marketing and communications at Guild Hall. “It’s a part of the community’s heritage.” Ms. Howard said Guild Hall raises money through a variety of methods, including art and ticket sales, benefits, and “simply through members’ generosity.”

    “A lot of Alec Baldwin’s fans come out to show support when he is tied to an event, but we have soooo much diverse talent that works with Guild Hall,” she said.

    “We noticed a reduction in giving during the economic downswing a couple of years ago,” said Mary Anna Morris, general manager of the East Hampton Ladies Village Improvement Society, which raises money through fund-raising drives, thrift shop and bookstore sales, and its popular annual fair. “People have been very generous this year, donating not just money, but also books, furniture, and clothing.”

    East Hampton was the only South Fork town in which the wealthiest people gave a higher percentage of their discretionary income. The most affluent Montauk taxpayers gave only 2.1 percent of disposable income to charity, compared with 6.4 percent from the $50,000 to $99,999 range. In Sagaponack, residents in that same under-$100,000 bracket gave a whopping 13.8 percent, and in Bridgehampton, those in the same bracket gave 11.5 percent. Granted, there are fewer than 50 Sagaponack households in the data who make between $50,000 and $99,000 — probably retirees with few or no expenses, Ms. Gipple said. The wealthiest Sagaponack residents gave a less-than-impressive  2.5 percent, which is below the national average of 4.2 percent.

    The data suggests that religion plays a big part in a community’s giving habits. When church or synagogue-related giving isn’t counted, the geography of giving is very different. Some states in the Northeast jump into the top 10 when secular gifts alone are counted. New York would rise from No. 18 to No. 2.

    “For a small community, people are very charitable,” said Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons. “For instance, we received a very large gift from an anonymous donor this year who strictly wanted to help feed the hungry.” Rabbi Zimmerman said all churches and synagogues here have two fund-raising components: one to support internal operations, and another to help the community — sheltering the homeless, soup kitchens, and scholarships.

    Even though the wealthy may give a lesser percentage of their income elsewhere, the study finds that the richest Americans still contribute the vast majority of dollars to charitable causes.

    The Democratic candidates looking to unseat New York State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle met in Southampton on Aug. 18 in one of their final debates before the primary next Thursday.

    Southampton Town Councilwoman Bridget Fleming and Jennifer Maertz, an attorney who is making her second bid for State Senate, pleaded their cases at the Rogers Memorial Library during a forum organized by the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons and recorded for Sea TV.

    The two agreed on many points. Both said children in the community deserve to inherit a healthy environment, good schools, and a strong job market, and both said that Albany has failed the First District, but at least one difference in approach was apparent.

    Asked about how they would have voted on the Marriage Equality Act, each said she supported it. Ms. Maertz called it a civil rights issue and said that “with regard to moral and civil issues” she would always vote her conscience first and foremost. “If 70 percent of this district was against a civil issue,” and she believed it was right, “I would still vote for it,” she said. She said she wished she had been elected when she ran two years ago so that she could have “cast that historic vote.”

    “I support marriage equality, but I do care what constituents say,” Ms. Fleming said. She added that Mr. LaValle seemed to think constituents were not ready for same-sex marriage when he voted against it, but “he was dead wrong” about the “critical and essential right.”

    Ms. Fleming said she had lost one of her sisters, who was a lesbian, in a car accident, and that her sister’s girlfriend of many years was not allowed into the hospital room because she was not a relative. “There is no question that people should choose who they want to live their lives with,” she said. “LaValle dismissed this issue,” she said, and “we’re on the wrong side of history.” Still, she said, “I can’t say that I don’t care what constituents say.”

    Ms. Fleming, who worked as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan for 10 years, was first elected to the Southampton Town Board in a special election in 2010 and won re-election last year. Ms. Maertz, a trial attorney who lives in Rocky Point, has a master’s in business administration.

    With the Republican National Convention at its midpoint in Tampa, Fla., Ms. Fleming joked during the debate that she knew the audience would “much rather be home on your couch watching Paul Ryan,” the vice presidential candidate, but also said that in the national elections there are serious issues at stake for women, such as “intimate, personal decisions” and equal pay for equal work. New York State has yet to have a female senator from Suffolk County, she said, adding that she “can fight for the needs of everyone in our community.”

    Asked how they would ensure that women in need had access to reproductive health care if a Romney-Ryan budgbudget eliminated federal funding for Planned Parenthood, both women spoke strongly in support of the organization.

    “We can’t elect them,” Ms. Maertz said. “Women will die if Planned Parenthood is not properly funded. Only a portion of what they do is abortion services,” she explained. “We have gone back hundreds of years,” she said, adding, “I will do whatever I can to fully fund necessary health care. For every dollar we spend,” she said, “we get four in return” from reduced pregnancies and other services that prevent expenses later, she said.

    “As a former sex crimes prosecutor,” Ms. Fleming said she was appalled by Republican Senator Todd Akin’s recent “grossly inaccurate comments about ‘legitimate rape’ and pregnancy terms.” She said she had called on Mr. LaValle to issue a statement that denounced him, but he refused. Women should have “the right to make an intimate, difficult decision without consulting a politician,” she said. Women’s health has been ignored by the Republican majority in the senate, she added.

    A question from the audience about electric rates and the Long Island Power Authority gave Ms. Fleming the opportunity to talk about how rates impact industry. LIPA and National Grid’s dominance of the market is “one of the reasons I am running,” she said. The monopoly results in astronomical rates compared to anywhere else in the state, she said, and the high electric bills keep innovative industries from operating here. It is “crucial we re-power power plants so we invite industry to Long Island.”

    Ms. Maertz said she is also passionate about the issue, and that she wrote an op-ed in Newsday on the subject. She agreed that “they have been working the system to keep them a monopoly on Long Island” and said competition, including sustainable resources such as solar technology, is necessary. She also believes that small businesses must be supported with tax credits, such as those offered in the state’s Excelsior Jobs Program, which supports biotechnology and manufacturing jobs.

    Ms. Fleming accused Senator LaValle of being more concerned with special interests than his constituents, and said that he “failed to protect our economy while voting to increase his own salary.”

    Ms. Maertz said she has had to work three jobs at a time, and that she and her husband “struggle to live here every day.” Citing high foreclosure rates, high tuition, and the low number of jobs available, she said, “We are not getting our fair share,” and “our youth are suffering.”

    Ms. Fleming said it is important to do “everything we can to get people back to work,” and that includes innovative projects. In terms of job training, she pointed to a project of her own, a farmers market in Flanders that is run by teenagers. They are learning valuable skills like how to run a market as well as how to eat good food. She said that Mr. LaValle brought in $7 million in grants to the district, but hundreds of millions of dollars are available. “We must fight for what we deserve” from Albany, she said. “We are not an A.T.M.”

     Asked their thoughts on whether the 2-percent tax levy cap should be continued and its effect on schools and municipalities, Ms. Maertz said that if it continues, teachers need more leeway. “We need to control the rise in taxes,” she said, “but need to make sure we get our share of funding.” She said that upstate New York gets more than it gives, and she would like to “bring back our share of tax” and “reduce mandates on the schools.”

    Speaking to the tax cap’s effect on municipalities, Ms. Fleming said, “Our budget is bone on bone. I was in there slugging away at staffing issues.” She said that the Southampton youth bureau was written out of the budget, and that she took it on and fought to restore it.

    The candidates also touched on the Shinnecock Nation’s desire for a casino. Ms. Maertz said she was thrilled when the Shinnecocks won federal recognition, but if a casino is to be built, “We have to make sure it is in the right place,” she said. She sees its potential to create jobs. “I would work with them in finding a suitable location that works for everyone,” she said.

    Ms. Fleming agreed that federal recognition was long overdue for “the ancient and dignified people that deserve” the ability to improve their infrastructure and obtain mortgages, for example. As for a casino, she said, “there are places that welcome that level of economic development. If it brings jobs, that’s great,” she said, “but not in our district.”

    In closing statements, Ms. Maertz expressed confidence in her ability to achieve budget and ethics reforms, while Ms. Fleming said she “is in a better position to break into this boys club and beat a 36-year incumbent.”

    The primary, traditionally scheduled for a Tuesday, will be held instead next Thursday so it does not coincide with memorials for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Only registered Democrats can cast their ballots in the State Senate primary. Voting is at the regular polling places.

    “Fire! There’s a fire!” someone yelled out at Dr. Eugene Z. Haller’s going-away party at East Hampton Airport on Saturday. Dr. Haller, a chiropractor, excused himself from a conversation after he realized all the shouting wasn’t just a poor attempt at humor, or double-entendre.

    “Who did this?” he asked, smiling as he hosed off a flaming sofa. 

    Two days after the party, Dr. Haller took off in his single-engine airplane on an overseas journey from East Hampton to Budapest.

    Lindbergh’s trans-Atlantic flight this was not. “This is a fun trip,” said Dr. Haller, who was accompanied by his longtime girlfriend, Ina Mehlig, who lives in Munich. “We’re touring. No set schedule.” Dr. Haller, a 35-year East Hampton resident who has been flying for just as long, described the trip as “a culmination of my skills as a pilot.”

    The couple will make seven scheduled stops to refuel and sightsee: Quebec City, Quebec; Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Narsarsuaq, Greenland (considered one of the world’s most dangerous airports, with the approach through a fjord necessitating a 90-degree turn to line up with the runway and a risk of icebergs drifting into the arrival path).

    Also, Reykjavik Iceland, Wick, Scotland, the Champagne and Bordeaux regions in France, Munich, and Budapest, where Dr. Haller will visit with family. As wine-lovers, the couple look forward especially to their time in France.

    On a typical travel day, Dr. Haller said his non-pressurized, non-turboprop 1977 Cessna 210 might cover 771 miles at altitudes below 17,000 feet, which takes four to five hours at 160 knots. “It cost me $600 to fill the tank this morning,” he said. The Cessna has logged more than 5,000 hours.

    “There’s always a certain level of danger in an aircraft, or a car, or walking down the street,” said the pilot, who prefers to “hand-fly” his plane rather than cruise on auto-pilot. “The plane doesn’t know whether it’s over the ocean, the sound, or land, so concentration, proper planning, and risk-mitigation are imperative.”

    In preparation for their 5,000-mile-plus trek, the couple completed an “aircraft ditching course” in Groton, Conn., an eight-hour survival class that teaches appropriate response to on-board emergencies and aircraft-ditching procedures, as well as sea survival simulations.

    “We’ve got immersion suits,” the protective one-piece garments designed to provide protection in cold water, Dr. Haller said. “Hypothermia is often the reason why people don’t make it.”

    Dr. Haller’s most harrowing experience in an airplane wasn’t in the air at all. “I hit a deer on the runway right there,” he said, pointing off into the distance. “If I’d accelerated a couple seconds sooner, damage could have been unthinkable.” Since then, the doctor has been a proponent of deer fence improvements at East Hampton Airport. “Why would you have a fence with holes in it?” he asked.

    It seemed as though every reveler at Saturday’s party had a story to tell about a trip they’d taken with Dr. Haller in his six-person Cessna. “We used to take off from here, hit the slopes in Vermont, and be back in time for dinner,” one person said. “We’d party-hearty in Panama and the Caribbean,” said another.

    “If anyone can do this trip, it’s Eugene,” said Michael Myers, the plane’s mechanic.

    “This will be a very special trip,” said Ms. Mehlig, a midwife who met Dr. Haller on a Royal Clipper cruise six years ago. Asked whether she would be with Dr. Haller on the return trip, she replied, “No way. I’m staying in Germany.”

    Speaking of the flight back, in November, Dr. Haller said he was considering a Southern Hemisphere route, through Africa. “It will be spring there,” he said.

    Pop quiz: If someone wanted to predict the outcome of this year’s race for New York’s First Congressional District, that person should employ opinion polls released by A) Democratic Representative Tim Bishop, B) Randy Altschuler, his Republican opponent, or C) None of the above.

    Answers may vary.

    “Our polls are accurate; theirs aren’t,” said Diana Weir, an Altschuler spokeswoman, in response to an Aug. 29 poll released by Mr. Bishop that reported a 14-point lead for the five-term congressman. “How does he release a poll that says he’s up double-digits, when the 2010 election results showed him ahead by less than a point? . . . What has he done? . . . It doesn’t pass the smell test.”

    Conversely, the most recent poll released by the Altschuler campaign, on July 29, gave the conservative challenger a 4-point lead with a 3-point margin of error, and to that, Robert Pierce, a spokesman for the Bishop campaign said, “The firm that conducted Altschuler’s polling has an awful reputation; they use robocalls and we use real people.”

    Whether automated telephone surveys are more reliable than those conducted by a person is uncertain. But what is apparent is that the companies that furnished each candidate’s polls have strong ties to that candidate’s respective political party: The Bishop campaign hired Global Strategy Group, a Democratic polling firm, whose slogan urges clients — such as United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Representative Gary Ackerman, and a laundry list of others — to “Campaign to Win.” Mr. Altschuler’s surveys, one of which reported a 14-point Obama deficit in this district, were conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, one of several companies owned by Scott Rasmussen, whose clients are predominantly Republican.

    Because the calls are automated, anyone with a credit card can order a Pulse Opinion Research poll on a variety of subjects.

    Mr. Bishop’s has recently faulted the opposition for failing to release polls overseen by McLaughlin and Associates, to whom Mr. Altschuler paid over $50,000 for polling since July 2011, including nearly $17,000 for a survey conducted in April this year. Mr. Altschuler has not released that data.

    “Polls are to be trusted as much as any piece of propaganda put out by a campaign,” said Patrick Murray, director of polling at Monmouth University in New Jersey, “. . . with a grain of salt.” According to Mr. Murray, the wording of polling questions can manipulate the results.

    Mr. Bishop’s survey back in March showed him up by 17 points. Another poll, by Garin-Hart-Yang, a Democratic “super PAC,” showed Mr. Bishop in a landslide 24-point lead just before Altschuler’s poll was released in late July.

    A poll that shows one candidate in the lead by a wide margin dissuades the other side’s financial contributors, Mr. Murray said, because it creates the impression that their candidate cannot win. “Poll results released by political candidates are geared toward potential donors, not typical voters,” Mr. Murray said. “Early money is important to get a campaign off the ground, and many polls are nothing more than a donation pitch in disguise.”

    Polls also act as a barometer that tells candidates which issues are important to their constituents. According to both candidates’ data, jobs and the economy on Long Island are of utmost concern to residents, and the candidates have paid requisite attention to that issue.

    “Polls are a snapshot in time,” said Ms. Weir, who chuckled when told that Mr. Altschuler has more than 3,000 more “likes” on Facebook than Mr. Bishop. “What really counts is what will happen in the voting booth.”

    In a district that has switched parties numerous times since 1951, and even had a congressman, Michael Forbes, who switched from Republican to Democratic enrollment while in office, it is practically impossible to say who will win. And last time around, Mr. Altschuler didn’t concede the 2010 race until 38 days after the election. With nearly 200,000 people casting ballots, he lost the race by just 593 votes.

    If Mr. Bishop wins, the result will likely be attributed to increased Democratic turnout. “There will definitely be a different electorate than there was in 2010 — a really bad year for Demoºcrats,” Mr. Pierce said. “More Democrats will show up because the base is pumped, this is a big-ticket election, and people are determined to keep Congress out of Tea Party hands.”

    On the other hand, the Independence Party endorsed Mr. Bishop in 2010, which earned him 7,370 votes. And this year, it is backing Mr. Altschuler.

    Voters will have a chance to hear the candidates debate the issues, not the polls, for the first time on Sept. 24, when the Hampton Bays Civic Association hosts a candidate debate at the Hampton Bays Senior Center.

    A meeting of the minds about helicopter traffic and the routes used on approach and departure from East Hampton Airport, bringing together federal, state, and municipal elected officials, along with representatives of citizens’ advocates for noise control, was being planned for Monday, but because of participants’ schedules, the exact date and time remained unconfirmed yesterday.

    The longstanding issue heated up this summer after air traffic controllers, new this season to the airport, and pilots agreed to reinstate a route sending traffic over areas in Southampton Town, such as Bridgehampton, Sag Harbor, Noyac, and Jessup’s Neck.

    The increase in traffic prompted complaints from residents of those areas, and the meeting tentatively scheduled for Monday is the result of initial discussions of the matter.

    East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson said at a town board work session on Tuesday that he had met with his Southampton counterpart, Anna Throne-Holst, as well as Southampton Councilwoman Christine Preston Scalera, who expressed their concerns that “the people of Southampton were being targeted by our new route. And I informed them that that wasn’t the intent of the board.”

    At the meeting next week, he said, participants will “talk about what they consider a ‘fair share.’ Which I think is fair,” he added.

    Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc asked if there is any data about the end destination for various airport users — whether they are headed to places in East Hampton, Southampton, or elsewhere.

    “East Hampton Airport has really become a regional airport for the East End,” he said. “Do we really even know what would be a fair distribution of our traffic, based on users? Should that be part of the discussion about being equitable?”

    “Who does our airport serve? Does it serve residents? Does it serve visitors?” Mr. Van Scoyoc continued. Mr. Wilkinson and Councilman Dominick Stanzione said Mr. Van Scoyoc had “a good point,” but that that information is not being collected, although it could be.

    However, said Councilman Stanzione, the board’s liaison to the airport, as far as aviation matters, the primary basis for decisions is “what is safe. And what is fair may not be safe.”

    Anger over airport noise was apparently the motivation for a caller to the airport noise hotline late last week, which prompted representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigations to visit the caller.

    “A person, in an angry moment, said some things that he shouldn’t have, that did get the attention of the F.B.I.,” Jim Brundige, the airport manager, said yesterday. “He said some things that he should not say,” about disrupting air traffic at the facility, Mr. Brundige said. An F.B.I. agent visited the caller, who had left his name.

    The investigation had “nothing to do” with a recent series of peaceful demonstrations outside the airport by members of the Quiet Skies Coalition, who are advocating noise-control efforts, Mr. Brundige said, adding that the caller was not a member of the group. The coalition has mounted only “peaceful protests,” he said. “None of their activities have crossed the line to that level, to my knowledge.”

    However, the incident, about which the details were initially unknown, instigated another round of salvos between the Quiet Skies Coalition and the East Hampton Aviation Association, a pilots’ group that sees the anti-noise advocates as pursuing an agenda to shut the airport down, though the protestors have said that is not their goal.

    In a press release issued Friday, Kathleen Cunningham, the chairwoman of the Quiet Skies Coalition, said that there had been a report to the F.B.I. that the protestors had planned to block the roads in an act of civil disobedience. No such effort was planned, she said. Ms. Cunningham said in the release that she was told that members of the East Hampton Aviation Association had called the federal agency.

    But Irving Paler, the group’s president, denounced that claim. “The East Hampton Aviation Association certainly did not call the F.B.I. or any other law enforcement agency,” he said in a prepared statement on Tuesday. “That is preposterous. We did not know anything about it. Peaceful protest is part of our American heritage.” The Quiet Skies Coalition’s protest at the airport on Friday took place without incident.

    East Hampton Town Police Chief Edward Ecker said yesterday that he had been contacted by an F.B.I agent assigned to an aviation unit at J.F.K. Airport, who had been given information that the protestors “were going to take it up a notch and try to get onto the airport tarmac and try to stop the helicopters from coming in.” After contacting Ms. Cunningham as well as a representative of a Noyac civic group recently formed to address airport matters, he said he was assured that was not the case, and informed the F.B.I. of such. Chief Ecker said he was unaware of any further F.B.I. involvement.

    Ms. Cunningham’s assertion, in the press release, that he had told her the aviation association had contacted the federal agency must be based on a misunderstanding, he said.

    It was midnight, Sunday, Labor Day weekend at the Point bar in downtown Montauk. The crowd of 20-somethings was 5 wide and 20 back, waiting to gain entrance. Andy Picarro and Patrick Gant guarded the gates. Inside, the L-shaped bar was packed, crowd hands in the air, dancing to a techno-beat.

    Across the street at the Memory Motel, it was much the same — a throng of people jamming to the beat, drinking the night away, inside the bar, and outside in the picket fence-enclosed parking lot.

    Both Mr. Picarro and Mr. Gant are big men, certainly not the kind a bully would choose to push around. But most of the job is not brawn.

    “You’ve got to talk people out of it,” Mr. Picarro said, as he checked the stamps on the hands of returning customers.

    Across the street, at Pizza Village, the vendor of choice for the late-night crowd, there was a line of about 25, waiting to order.

    At the Surf Lodge on South Edgemere Street, a new crowd was waiting to enter as another crowd looked for taxis to leave.

    An East Hampton Town police officer stopped to assist the chaotic swirl of taxis. An ambulance, sirens screaming, snaked its way down Edgemere, the officer shouting to the crowd, “Get out of the way! Get out of the way!”

    “East Hampton? Where?” a driver asks of a potential fare. Told Main Street, he said, “$80.”

    Part of the mystique of the Surf Lodge is its appearance. It looks and feels like an island. Inside, each area opens up into the next, some feeling quiet and intimate, some jammed and jamming.

    The crowd is in its 20s; 30 is pushing it. Thirty-five? You must be on Social Security.

    The packed barroom in front is dark with wall-to-wall dancing. You don’t walk through the room, you jam. It’s like a mosh pit for the well-heeled.

    And much of the crowd is well-heeled — investment bankers, hedge fund managers.

    Roger Akiki is in charge of security for Jayma Cardoso, a club owner with a visible presence, always on site watching over the frenzied party she has spun. “She is a fabulous person, a caring human being,” he said as he directed his staff, guiding customers through the labyrinth of rooms.

    In the outside bar area, fire burning in an open grill in the sand, Remi Shobitan, the bartender, slung drinks with speed, poetry, and grace.

    “People love him,” Mr. Akiki said, as Mr. Shobitan mixed two drinks in seconds.

    Back in town, by the beach, at the Sloppy Tuna, the hour is late but the crowd is still coming. One of the security team steps out to say hello to a cop.

    “A real shit show,” the cop says. “They leave Manhattan, and I guess there are no rules.”

    It’s been a tough season on the East Hampton Town police, especially those patrolling Montauk. Officers have been punched, cursed at, kicked, and spat on. Pre-dawn fights on Main Street were a regular occurrence.

    It has been controlled chaos, but it has been controlled. The East Hampton Town Police Department has made a point of networking with the security teams at the various bars.

    “You got your rich-kid entitlement mentality clashing with your local-kid entitlement mentality,” Mr. Picarro said, back at the Point as the hour approached 2:30 a.m.

    Told that things at the Sloppy Tuna were winding down, Mr. Picarro said, “They’ll start heading here.”

    “Anybody going to East Hampton?” a cab driver shouted. The price was still $80. The taxis were lined up on both sides of the street; they didn’t stay empty long.

    Traditionally, by the end of the season, Montauk has five or six cab companies running.

    This year, there are countless companies, with names like United, ABC, Mitts, Blue Sky, and All NY. Cabs are being sent out from UpIsland, even from New York, their drivers unfamiliar with Montauk.

    According to Elvis Almonte, a Montauk resident and driver for Surf Taxi, the drivers of these out-of-town taxis rely on global positioning devices to get them to requested destinations. The problem is, not every Montauk address is in the system.

    “If it isn’t in the GPS, they can’t find it,” he said.

    A cop checked the paperwork for one of the out-of-town cabs to make sure its driver had proper insurance and a license to operate a livery. The young driver was flustered, but produced the proper documentation.

    “I have everything,” he said, after the officer left, as people climbed into his minivan.

    Sometimes, as they piled into cabs, the young customers stacked themselves up in order to get the whole group inside, with men and woman sitting and lying on each other’s laps.

    At 3 a.m. at the Point, people were still streaming in.

    “I’m from Norway,” Mikel Haugstveit said as he headed inside to join the fray. “I took a plane to New York. I came to Montauk, slept in a hotel for three days, then I went surfing.”

    As with all the local clubs, the security team at the Point has one last job once the doors close.

    “You’ll hear the scraping of brooms at the end of the night,” Mr. Gant said, as the security team cleans up the cups, cans, and bottles left in the area after closing.

    At 3:30 at the Point, it was last call.

    The music was still going, the packed crowd was still dancing, but the door was now locked.

    A young man in designer orange shorts and a polo shirt pleaded to get back in, his girlfriend was inside, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. Once you step out, there is no return.

Photos by Sunny Khalsa

    “This is even more exciting than I thought it would be,” said Eleanor Ehrhardt, the woman who is credited with spearheading the campaign to get the Montauk Lighthouse declared a National Historic Landmark.

    She was speaking on Aug. 22 to a crowd of some 300 invited guests, who were seated under a tent on the Lighthouse grounds for the official ceremony, at which she accepted the historic-landmark plaque from Robie S. Lange, a National Parks Service historian.

    A roster of politicians, local clergy, historians, and Lighthouse officials sat in a row on a stage built for the event, overlooking a wide span of the Atlantic. Richard F. White Jr., a Montauk native and the chairman of the Montauk Lighthouse Committee, welcomed the crowd, all of whom had contributed in one way or another to the occasion.

    Guest speakers reminisced about their Lighthouse memories, with East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson noting that he had driven from Connecticut to propose to his wife there. “Could you imagine if she said no?” he asked to laughter.

    Representative Tim Bishop said he “vaguely” remembered visiting the Lighthouse after his junior and senior proms, which also prompted giggles.

    Joe Gaviola, a member of the Lighthouse committee, reminded the crowd that the Lighthouse is lit with thousands of white lights at Christmas. The festive lighting ceremony, which is held over the Thanksgiving weekend, draws several thousand to the community, he said, “and boy, does she look good. We have become Long Island’s Christmas ornament.”

    Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. called Mr. White an exemplar of good citizenship. “If you need anything done in Montauk, all you have to do is call the Montauk Historical Society,” he said.

    Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo couldn’t make the event but sent the state’s Suffolk County representative, Scott Martella, who hadn’t yet arrived when Mr. White introduced him as a surprise speaker. Shortly after, he walked down Turtle Hill, looking a bit disheveled before he put on his tie and jacket, and then made a joke about how horrible the traffic was heading out to the easternmost hamlet.

    Mr. White asked him if he was returning west right afterward. “If you think getting out here was bad, just wait until you hit the trade parade going home,” he said.

    Mr. Martella read a statement from Governor Cuomo, saying in part that “the Empire State is fortunate to be home to many landmarks, and now Montauk is one such landmark.”

    The designation is the federal government’s  highest level of recognition for a historic site. The Lighthouse was authorized by Congress and President George Washington in 1792 and built in 1796. It was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969.

    The landmark designation was awarded after a long process, led by the Montauk Historical Society, that began in September 2006 when the Lighthouse committee sent the National Park Service a request that they study the Lighthouse for possible landmark status. The Department of the Interior asked for more information, including a description of the land before and after the Lighthouse was built, construction materials, ancillary buildings, documentation of its importance to navigation, a comparison to other lighthouses, maps, and photos.

    In November 2008, Robert J. Hefner, a historical consultant, compiled an expanded draft and sent it to Mr. Lange. The process continued through January 2010, when evidence was submitted that the Lighthouse was the most-important beacon for ships sailing from Great Britain and France to New York with the manufactured goods that were a major part of America’s growing economy.

    The National Park Service formally notified Congress in March 2010 that a study was under way to determine the potential of the Montauk Point Lighthouse to be designated a National Historic Landmark. Mr. Hefner prepared a 44-page document compiling all areas of research and submitted it to the National Park System Advisory Committee for formal review a year later.

    Two months later, a band of Lighthouse officials including Mr. White, Ms. Ehrhardt, Brian Pope, a site manager, and Mr. Hefner, who gave a PowerPoint presentation, drove together to a meeting in Washington, D.C., where an advisory committee voted unanimously to recommending landmark designation. From there, the application was forwarded to Ken Salazar, secretary of the Department of Interior, who signed on the dotted line and made it official in March.

    In presenting the plaque to Ms. Ehrhardt, Mr. Lange noted that the designation makes the Lighthouse eligible for tax cuts and grants. The plaque will be mounted and put on the northwest side of the building.

    The event ended on an emotional note when Renee Akkala, accompanied by the Jane Hastings quartet, sang “In Montauk,” which was written by Percy Heath, the jazz bassist who was a longtime resident of the hamlet and a supporter of the Lighthouse. There is a plaque dedicated to him on the Lighthouse grounds right under the historical beacon.

    While residents of the Northwest section of East Hampton have had fewer helicopters flying overhead in the weeks since seasonal air traffic controllers at East Hampton Airport began routing more helicopters along an alternate route over Bridgehampton, Sag Harbor, Noyac, and North Sea, the residents of those areas are rising up against the increased noise in their neighborhoods.

    They have gained the attention of elected officials from both East Hampton and Southampton Towns and Representative Tim Bishop, who together will attempt to broker an equitable solution for all parties at a meeting on Sept. 10 at Southampton Town Hall.

    Hosted by Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne Holst and Councilwoman Christine Scalera, it will include East Hampton Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, Councilman Dominick Stanzione, and Jim Brundige, the East Hampton Airport supervisor, along with New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and Congressman Bishop. Representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration, the Eastern Region Helicopter Council, and civic groups such as the Quiet Skies Coalition will also attend.

    “The effort is to figure out some way to alleviate the disproportionate burden that was placed, in the last month, on the residents of Noyac and over Jessup’s Neck,” Oliver Longwell, Congressman Bishop’s communications director, said Tuesday. “People are very upset.” The issue dominated a portion of a meeting between municipal and F.A.A. officials on Monday that was designed to acquaint attendees with a new, F.A.A.-mandated flight route along Long Island’s north shore, which came about as a response to island-wide noise complaints. The congressman has created a new e-mail address, helicopternoise@ mail.house.gov, to which complainants can write.

    “We are definitely back at the drawing board,” Mr. Brundige said this week.  “We rolled the map back out, based on the pushback we got from Southampton.”

    “I think the watchword is ‘flexibility,’ ” Councilman Stanzione said on Tuesday. He serves as his board’s liaison to the airport, which East Hampton Town owns. However, he said, discussion with federal officials at the meeting on Monday “made clear who owns the sky; who makes the law, especially when it comes to helicopters. And it’s not us.”

    A large group attended a meeting in Bridgehampton last Thursday organized by the Noyac Civic Council, the second forum on the issue within several weeks, with officials from both East Hampton and Southampton Towns in attendance, as well as Congressman Bishop.

    Barry Holden, an architect, along with a group of his Cedar Point Lane, Noyac, neighbors, have also organized to voice their opposition to the increased traffic and have collected almost 370 signatures on a petition calling for East Hampton Town to act to alleviate it as of early this week, according to Mr. Holden.

    He said he has received comments from people living in Riverhead and on Shelter Island and the North Fork who have similar concerns over aircraft noise, and will strive to include those residents in discussions of a solution.

    In an interview this week, Mr. Brundige described the process of settling on the primary route to be used by helicopters as a collaboration — a result of discussions among the air traffic controllers, who must abide by F.A.A. requirements regarding air traffic, airport users, including representatives of the Eastern Region Helicopter Council, himself, and others.

    Town officials can have a voice in the decision-making, he said, though “fundamentally, the F.A.A. has control of the airspace; they’ve always had control of the airspace.” Councilman Stanzione had been a part of some of the discussions, Mr. Brundige said, though not a party to the decision to reinstitute what’s being called the northern route, a path above power transmission lines toward Sag Harbor. That grew primarily out of the air traffic controllers’ federal mandate to keep fixed wing aircraft and helicopters separate, he said.

    The route-setting discussions result in a “letter of agreement” to be signed by all involved indicating a mutual consent to use the designated flyways. However, Mr. Brundige said, pilots who wish to vary from the agreed-upon route may seek permission from the control tower, and controllers are expected to allow them to proceed once they have determined the plan is safe.

    There is no designated “waypoint,” or particular spot where planes enter the 4.8-mile radius of controlled airspace around the airport. “And that’s a problem,” Mr. Brundige said.

    Certainly, he said, town officials could get involved in developing another route in and out of the airport. “That’s their prerogative,” he said. But, he added, along with pilots, “the tower has to be a part of that discussion.” And the sphere of influence extends only to the perimeter of the designated area that the F.A.A. has authorized its air traffic controllers to oversee. The controllers are provided by a firm called Robinson Aviation. They are paid by the town, but beholden to federal requirements. 

    “We all are working together to try to run the airport as safely as possible,” Mr. Brundige said.

    Mr. Brundige explained Tuesday that, contrary to what many laypeople believe, air traffic controllers at small airports do not use radar to track aircraft, but are required by the F.A.A. to visually track them. Radar equipment is not standard at such traffic control towers, but where it is available, according to an F.A.A. traffic controllers’ handbook, controllers may not rely on it, except in certain proscribed circumstances. However, Mr. Brundige said, a system called AirScene, which tracks planes by identifying their transponder numbers, shows East Hampton’s air traffic controllers the locations of planes on a screen. The regional New York Terminal Radar Approach Control, or TRACON, uses radar to track aircraft that use the larger airports.

    “I’ve been living here since 2005 and it was quiet back then,” Patricia Currie, a resident of Noyac and a member of the East Hampton-based Quiet Skies Coalition, said recently. “I used to love sitting out in my garden; it was peaceful. Now they [the planes and helicopters] drive me crazy. I can’t sit outside or enjoy the nicest parts of the day anymore. It’s terrible.”

    “After the route change, peace and quiet came to Northwest Woods, but at the expense of Jessup’s Neck,” said Bob Wolfram, who lives in Sag Harbor.

    “There is always some level of noise. It’s constant. There are planes and helicopters every five minutes and it really is damaging the community. My house value has dropped,” Mr. Wolfram said.

    “It’s the airport that has changed, not me,” he said. “We as a community would embrace the airport if it went back to the way it was even 10 years ago, when it was used for local aviation enthusiasts. Now jets and helicopters blaze in at 5 a.m., and 12 at night. It’s turning into Islip [MacArthur Airport.] We can’t sleep, and more importantly, it’s dangerous. There will definitely be crashes. Maybe then it’ll get the attention it deserves.”

    The potential for East Hampton Town to gain F.A.A. approval to institute its own airport-use regulations, such as a curfew, has been a central issue in disagreements over airport management for years. The town’s acceptance of F.A.A. grants ties it to F.A.A. control of airport rules.

    Airport noise-abatement advocates have been pressing for the town to cease taking money from the federal agency in order to gain more local control, while the town board has indicated recently, by initiating the process of applying for a new F.A.A. grant, that it will not eschew that money. Instead, the board recently voted to start compiling aircraft noise data that could support a bid to the F.A.A. to institute airport-use regulations designed for noise abatement.

    A number of Noyac residents were among those protesting against aircraft noise at the airport on Aug. 19 and again on Sunday, when a small plane crashed into the woods off the end of a runway after attempting a takeoff. That incident is reported on separately in today’s Star.

With Reporting

by Matthew Sprung