Only in the Hamptons might a work of abstract art, albeit a haphazard one, be used to gauge whether officials were on the right track in charging someone with a violation of law. Rian White, who had been in a five-year back-and-forth with the Town of East Hampton, which ended when a collection of what some of his neighbors considered junk was hauled away from his Springs property, is in hot water again.

    Mr. White had been cited repeatedly for not clearing his yard of car parts, tires, tools, a casement window — all manner of scrap. In 2009, the town hired an outside contractor to take it all away. (Town employees had refused to do so.) Mr. White wound up paying the hauler’s $14,000 fee through his property tax bills, but the town apparently wasn’t through with him.

    In March, the town sent him a summons along with a copy of a section of the town code that refers to the paint on one’s house. (The town complies with New York State property maintenance statutes.) The statute reads: “All exterior walls shall be free from holes, breaks, and loose or rotting materials; and maintained weatherproof and properly surface-coated where required to prevent deterioration.” 

    Mr. White saw it as a hint that the paint on his house, on Fanning Avenue, was peeling, and, in response, put up a sign in his front yard: “Help paint a starving artist’s house. Throw a pint.” 

    The sign did not say what color, or where to throw it. Mr. Rian now points to the front of his house as an Abstract Expressionist work in progress, with blue and yellow blotches on a light green background and one forceful yellow streak, a lightning bolt of sorts, across the glass panels of the front door.

    “The town told me I didn’t have enough paint on the house. None of my neighbors have paint. If you have cedar shake they don’t have to paint their houses. So, I put ladders up, had neighborhood kids over, and they threw paint at the house. I’m going to paint the sides like a regular color, but I like what happened to the front. I took 190 photos of different sections, five by six. They came out nuts,” Mr. Rian said on Tuesday.

    Mr. White reported that he had missed a June 9 court appearance. “I called them that morning and said I was busy painting and didn’t have a ride up there.” He said yesterday that he imagined the town had ordered him to appear in court on another date, but he hadn’t checked his mail box.

    He might have painted his house the traditional way, “but the town took all my paint, brushes, and took a brand-new Anderson casement window, put it in a truck and crushed it,” he said, referring to incident in 2009, which he videoed and titled “Trampled,” Parts One and Two.  

    Meanwhile, Lawrence Kelly, who is representing a number of local business owners who have run afoul of town enforcement, thinks Mr. White may be the canary in the Constitutional coal mine. A former federal prosecutor based in Garden City, he expects to file a class-action suit against the town within two weeks on the grounds that code enforcement here is unconstitutional.

    Although not representing Mr. White, Mr. Kelly said the case was important as an example of the town’s “reactive departments. They have become reactive to singular neighbors. Singular neighbors move the government.”

    Mr. Kelly is representing Tom Ferreira of Montauk, an auto mechanic who has filed a $55 million civil rights action against the town in federal court in May. Cars, car parts, and tools were removed from Mr. Ferreira’s Navy Road property, Mr. Kelly said, without a warrant, although he had a pre-existing, nonconforming right to operate a garage. He was charged $19,500 for two separate hauls by Trinity Transportation, the same contractor hired in the Rian White case, and because he has been unable to pay it, a tax lien has been placed on his property, making foreclosure a probability.

     Mr. Kelly faulted the concept of town board member liaisons. “For the past eight years you’ve had this split in management, so you end up with people like Ferreira, or simply because a neighbor doesn’t want to live next to Mexicans, they are raided.”

    The class action suit Mr. Kelly plans to bring is based on his contention that because the town did not exempt its own code from requirements of the state fire, building, and property maintenance codes in 2003, “summonses are void, unenforceable, and issued by guys who are not authorized. Everything in the same area is pre-empted, unenforceable, and void. But, they have been issuing them all this summer.”

    Mr. Kelly said that because the code enforcement employees were not authorized under state law, their actions are unconstitutional. “I’m going to have thousands of claimants.” He has warned the town that it is facing financial Armageddon in open town board meetings.

     “This Rian White thing is them testing the waters to see if anyone’s still looking,” Mr. Kelly said.

    Mr. White said: “The whole thing with  Tom [Ferreira] is giving me renewed knowledge that this is a bunch of crap. I’m a firm believer in the Constitution of the United States, and it’s getting walked all over in this town.”

    Asked about Mr. Kelly’s assertions regarding the legal authority of the town’s code enforcement office, Supervisor Bill Wilkinson said yesterday that he had questioned the attorney in response to the same claims he had made several times to the town board.

    “He suggested I set up some kind of mediation board, establish some sort of dispute resolution system and bring the parties together. I said, ‘Based on what? I have no proof we have done anything wrong.’ ” Mr. Wilkinson said he had asked that Mr. Kelly’s assertions be researched. “My subordinates are telling me we don’t have a problem,” he said.

    “It’s been a crazy year for ticks,” George Dempsey, M.D., said at his East Hampton office late last month. “Several new cases a week.” Dr. Dempsey is now participating in an international research study of Lyme disease. “I’m excited to start getting some results. I think after the summer we will have some preliminary information. The more info we get the better.”

    Working in the office formerly occupied by Dr. Joseph Burruscano, whom he called “the Holy Grail of Lyme disease,” Dr. Dempsey said, “We have 10 subjects . . . it would be nice to get 20.” In order to take part in the study, patients need to have a “brand-new case and a fresh new rash.” After a visit with Dr. Dempsey — with the tick, if possible — patients can be treated by whomever they wish, he said.

    Not only has the doctor noted an increase in Lyme cases this year compared to previous years, he has detected an increase in other tick-related infections. He has also noticed that those with the “bull’s-eye” rash are tourists more often than year-round residents. He guessed that “many of them probably go back to the city and don’t know what is going on. The population has increased out here,” he said, and many people “are not aware of prevention measures.”

    “I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t really hear,” said Marissa Fanelli, who lives on Shelter Island and has had Lyme disease and related infections since she was 15. Experiencing severe vertigo, fatigue, and pain because of nerve damage in her throat and ear in her 30s, she went to “doctor after doctor,” who suggested she had multiple sclerosis, lupus, and even a brain tumor before she was finally diagnosed with bartonella, a tick-borne disease, after meeting a facial-pain specialist while attending dental hygienist school in New Jersey.

    For years, tick-related illnesses have been misdiagnosed as other diseases with similar symptoms, such as loss of facial muscle tone, severe headaches, neck stiffness, and shooting pains.

    “If left untreated, it can result in severe debilitation and death,” warned Jesse A. Stoff, M.D., who spoke about Lyme to a little over 20 people at the Wild by Nature market in Hampton Bays last month. He has seen the complexities of the disease in the several new cases he encounters weekly at the East End Wellness Center in Riverhead. Dr. Stoff showed slides of bacteria in the spirochete family, explaining that they are hard to kill because of phased life cycles in which it lies dormant inside cells.

    Regarding other common tick-borne illnesses, like babesiosis, bartonella, and ehrlichiosis, Dr. Dempsey said, “If there are 100 with Lyme disease, 30 will have other diseases as well.”

    Charlie Mattson of Shelter Island, who has babesiosis, said in an e-mail message that the infection not only made him “feel like s*** for over a month,” but also had a strange, and increasingly common, life-changing effect: “I can no longer eat red meat,” he said. When he does, he vomits and sweats for three days. Some doctors think the symptom results from developing an allergy to animal protein. Mr. Mattson now has to “watch everything I eat, and most barbecues don’t have much in the way of chicken.”

    Because there are several strains of bacteria with different protein patterns, Dr. Stoff explained, all tests don’t cover all variations.

    “The lab tests are not precise,” Glenn Goodman, D.C., of Sag Harbor said. “Cutting-edge doctors will diagnose from symptoms, not lab tests.”

    Dr. Stoff believes that “the ultimate test is a culture,” but the culture is slow-growing, and it can take up to five weeks to obtain results.

    Bringing the tick along to the doctor’s office is helpful, Dr. Dempsey said. “If we know what we’re looking at, it saves a lot of grief. Many ticks are not a problem . . . just because they’re small doesn’t mean it’s a deer tick. It can be a baby tick.”

    “I haven’t heard of any Lyme cases that are fatal,” he said. But other tick diseases and co-infections can be. He said ehrlichiosis is the worst, but that babesiosis can be very severe as well. “They are so sick,” he said of people with ehrlichiosis, which “blood work doesn’t always pick up. . . . I’m tipped off just by seeing them, but it is treatable.”

The Cost, the Numbers

    Even with an IV for aggressive antibiotic treatment, Ms. Fanelli still suffers from constant nerve pain, fatigue, and brain fog (which she called “Lyme brain”). “The cost,” she said, “is ridiculous.” Last year, she spent more than $26,000 in medication alone, not including weekly blood tests and doctor visits. “Insurance companies don’t pay without a positive test,” she said. “We have to fight for better testing.” From her research and experience, she said, “most Lyme tests are negative.”

    Working to educate herself and help others, Ms. Fanelli attends conventions held by “Lyme-literate doctors” and has traveled to Washington, D.C. “It’s horrific,” she said of the long-term symptoms, which in her support group of “Lymies” range from eye problems and arthritic pain to immune system disorders and even permanent paralysis. “It’s a lot more serious than people think. This time last year, I didn’t think I was going to make it.”

    Ms. Fanelli found that she needed help from the Tick-Borne Disease Alliance, which supports initiatives to find cures and raises money for health practitioners who want to be educated about the latest research and co-infections.

    Dr. Dempsey suggested donations to TimeforLyme.org for research into chronic Lyme conditions. “We have some great technology,” he said. “We can distinguish DNA by means that we couldn’t before, to find the genetic sequence down to the exact nucleic acid. . . . Ticks carry numerous diseases,” he said, “I don’t make many assumptions.”

    The number of Lyme disease cases must be confirmed by a lab, Dr. Dempsey said, as it is a reportable disease, but only Suffolk County as a whole is tabulated: At a rate of 1,000 per two million people, the numbers don’t reveal the intensity of infections on the East End, particularly since in Suffolk “half a million never get near a tick.” He said it was essential to find better ways of diagnosing and identifying all diseases in ticks.

When a Tick Is Found

    Although many ticks are simply too small to be detected, if a tick is found on the body, “safe removal is important,” Dr. Stoff said. Some recommend using iodine or olive oil to help release the tick’s grip on the skin, he said, but removal should involve tweezers. “Grab it just below its rear enlarged part, as close to the head as possible. Pull it straight out in one piece with gentle traction” while trying to avoid squeezing the blood of the tick into your system.

    There are several schools of thought on treating Lyme disease, Dr. Stoff said. “If you live in a high-risk area, my recommendation is to take the antibiotics. . . . I’m not a huge fan of drugs in my practice, but I have not found any research indicating anything besides an antibiotic that can kill the bacteria.”

    “It’s critical to pile in tons of probiotics,” he added. However, “ongoing antibiotics will not work,” Dr. Stoff said, for what he called post-Lyme syndrome — symptoms virtually identical to the initial illness but that appear after Lyme is successfully treated. “There are tests for post-Lyme syndrome which look at inflammatory markers in the blood.”

    Dr. Stoff’s treatment plan, designed to “get the immune system back,” often includes progressive allergy desensitization to stimulate the balance of fighter T-cells. He also recommends supplements, including fish oil and vitamins C and D. He said there was a “huge difference between natural and synthetic stuff.” Diet, digestion, sleep, and avoiding stress are crucial.

    Dr. Goodman uses herbs that “have extensive historic application as anti-microbials, and we also use homeopathic remedies.” His goal is to use remedies that provoke “regenerative nutritive action” to re-establish the immune system. Dr. Goodman has a practice with his wife, Dr. Suzanne Kirby, that offers alternatives and complementary approaches.

    “I am not against the use of antibiotics,” he said. “However, there are instances where they are inadequate or ineffective.” He explained that in addition to killing bacteria, “the remedies help the cell to both eject the stored toxins and provide it with nutrients to increase the cell’s function.”

    In Dr. Dempsey’s office, if a patient has a rash, “call it Lyme and treat it.” He said that most doctors will follow standard infectious disease guidelines, with antibiotic treatment ranging from 10 to 21 days, depending on the size of the rash and the severity of the symptoms.

    Dr. Jerry Simon, who used to work with Dr. Burruscano, has a practice in that office as well, offering alternative treatments. “We are trying to treat it from all sides,” Dr. Dempsey said. “It is an art, leave it to us.”

    According to Dr. Burrascano’s Web site, “Despite antibiotic treatments, patients will not return to normal unless they exercise. . . . A properly executed exercise program becomes part of the treatment, as it can actually go beyond the antibiotics in helping to clear the symptoms and to maintain a remission.”

Prevention

    Prevention is something all residents could be better acquainted with, Dr. Dempsey said — wearing clothing treated with permethrin designed to withstand 60 wash cycles, for instance.

    “Stay out of the high grasses,” Dr. Goodman said, “and do the tick checks.”

    Dr. Stoff warned against “dogs and cats that go outside and then come inside and bring ticks. . . . You can get Lyme disease from your own bed.” He said those with pets should have them wear tick collars and treat them with tick dip. “Do not let them into your bedroom.”

    Dr. Dempsey’s long-term study is open to every age and gender, as long as participants have a rash, which he will biopsy. The organisms in the skin are analyzed for types and strains, and blood is drawn to be sent to a laboratory in California — “the only one in the world that does it,” he said. The research has been funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health and sponsored through the State University of New York, the Rockefeller Institute, and the New Jersey School of Medicine. The study is being replicated near John Hopkins University in Baltimore and also in the Midwest.

    Another way to help, according to Dr. Dempsey, is to push for financing for the United States Department of Health and Human Services. “It does not have the funds,” he said. “Science, that’s what I am into. We still have a lot to sort out.”

    No matter where they turn, the East Hampton Town Trustees keep saying, regulations that protect the beaches and bottomlands, which they own and manage on behalf of the public, are not being enforced. Violations of beach-driving and shellfishing ordinances and illegal dock construction are on the top their list.

    During a July 24 work session, trustees agreed that Ed Michels, the chief harbormaster, was doing all he could. But, they said, more boots on the ground were needed. They suggested that deputy harbormasters be hired.

    Mr. Michels heads Marine Patrol, a division of the Town Police Department, which employs eight or nine part-time officers. Reached after the meeting, Mr. Michels said, “There is no such thing as deputization. You’re either a part-time police officer or a part-time peace officer.” They pointed out that they receive the same training as other police officers and carry firearms.

    Mr. Michels agreed that part-time officers were in order, but said he did not have an idea where the money to hire them would come from. The East Hampton Town Board controls the Police Department’s budget as well as the trustees’.

     Lynn Mendelman, a trustee, had suggested at the meeting that the trustees ask the town board to increase its mariculture budget to help pay for enforcement. Diane McNally, the group’s presiding officer, endorsed the idea yesterday. The budget line, which is used to assist the town hatchery and to pay baymen to relay oysters from Oyster Pond to other town waters, has remained at about $5,000 for years.

    Another trustee, Nat Miller, said it was not only people “from away” who were violating shellfish regulations, for instance, but locals, who knew where enforcement personnel were not looking.

    The health of Napeague Harbor was also on the agenda at the July 24 session.

    Ms. McNally reported on a recent meeting with other town officials on a study by William Bowman of Land Use Ecological Services, a Medford firm, which had been hired by the Peconic Estuary Program.

    Napeague Harbor has had two navigation channels historically, one on the east side of Hicks Island, the other on the west side, and sometimes both. The east channel has been closed for several years because of shoaling. According to Kim Shaw of the Town Natural Resources Department, what had started as a study of Napeague Harbor’s tidal circulation had become a “dredging feasibility” study because of budgetary constraints.    

    The trustees would like to see the east channel reopened, but Ms. Shaw said yesterday that was unlikely because the county would entertain the dredging of only one navigational channel, and the west channel was now functioning. Because the east channel is no longer navigable, Ms. Shaw said, reopening it would require it to be considered as a new project with ensuing bureaucratic hurdles. She also said that a hydrologist working with the Peconic Estuary Program as a consultant had said Napeague Harbor could not support two channels.

    The trustees did not seem deterred. In the interest of keeping the east side of the harbor flushed by tidal currents, they discussed the possibility of maintaining it with a culvert such as they have under Gerard Drive in Springs, which opens the north end of Accabonac Harbor to Gardiner’ Bay.

Local pilots are baffled by recent full-page ads offering the Montauk Airport as a parcel for sale. Collectively it appears they are against it, and some of them are considering pooling their resources to buy it. But not for the $18.5 million that it is listed for, an amount they said just doesn’t make sense.

Peter Lowenstein, the president of the Montauk Pilot’s Association, which has 25 members, said that he is involved with a group that might be willing to buy the airport so that the hamlet doesn’t lose its only airstrip.

“Every single pilot would be extremely unhappy if there is not an airport,” he said, adding that it is “reasonably used,” especially in summer.

Paul Brennan of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate, who holds the listing, agrees with Mr. Lowenstein that it would be a shame for the hamlet to lose the airport. He said Monday that he has contacted several government officials to see if a partnership could be arranged between town, county, and state entities to buy it, possibly with community preservation fund money, but to no avail.

“Government doesn’t seem to want to be involved. Wilkinson doesn’t want another headache,” he said, referring to East Hampton Town’s supervisor. “What if there is a hurricane and Napeague gets washed out or an evacuation? I don’t think people are thinking down the road,” he said.

This is not the first time there has been talk of a public purchase of the airstrip. In 1961, negotiations were underway for the sale of the airport and its incorporation into a proposed Suffolk County Airport Authority. The Federal Aviation Administration even made $250,000 available to the county to buy the airport the following year, but neither the sale nor the county airport authority came to pass.

Mr. Brennan said this week that a buyer could subdivide the 37-acre airport into six lots (that would probably be reduced to four as it progressed) and put a housing development on the land.

The airport is owned by eight stockholders who have asked not to be named, Mr. Brennan said. “They really don’t want people asking them why they’re selling the airport.”

One of the shareholders is the Duryea family of Montauk, which has had a hand in the airport since its construction in the late 1950s. In 1957 Montauk Airstrip Incorporated, headed by Perry B. Duryea Jr., bought the airport tract off East Lake Drive from the Montauk Beach Company. Mr. Duryea, a pilot in World War II, was speaker of the New York State Assembly.

The airport first opened for light planes in February 1958 and opened fully that spring. At the time a “portel” was planned that would have included a structure with 15 motel-type apartments, a 30-slip marina, and a Hertz rental car service, none of which panned out.

Mr. Duryea’s son, Perry (Chip) Duryea III, did not return a call for comment this week.

Mr. Brennan has held the listing for a month now, and tried to work with government officials before making it public just last week. The airport is surrounded by 1,000 acres of county parkland, including the camping area at Gin Beach.

Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, a Montauk resident, said on Tuesday that the Montauk Airport is still limited by the stipulations of a Federal Aviation Association grant that was issued for runway improvements in 1996, which prohibits any changes for another 10 years.

The county’s finances right now would not allow for purchase of the airport, but, he said, portions of the surrounding property could be bought with money from the town’s preservation fund, and other portions might eventually be purchased through the county’s land fund program.

He wondered if East Hampton Town would even want two airports. “It doesn’t seem that they like the airport they have,” he said. East Hampton Airport, which is owned by the town, has been the subject of ongoing litigation over one thing or another for years.

He, too, said that without an airstrip in the hamlet, future evacuations in case of natural disasters could be jeopardized. “I think it would be a terrible loss for Montauk. We have to consider the options. In Montauk people will fight losing the airport,” he said, later adding, “It would be bad. That would be something I’d really not like to see. What if medical supplies had to be delivered to Montauk? Without an airport it would be hard.”

State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele concurred, but said that the state would not get involved with a possible purchase. He said he has been approached by a group of users interested in buying the property. “People have expressed an interest. There are those who want to see an airport remain. They’re going to have to step up to the plate,” he said, crediting Mr. Brennan for working behind the scenes to find an alternative to residential development.

Mr. Brennan hopes the pilots do manage to see the airport remain. “I think it would be a shame for a Hilton to go in there,” he said.

With Research by Leah Steans-Gail

    The saga of the Montauk Beach House is headed to the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals following a determination by the town’s head building inspector, Tom Prieato, that it has expanded certain uses without approval. In a letter sent on Friday to one of the resort’s owners, Chris Jones, Mr. Prieato said the questioned uses should be shut down immediately. The Beach House has appealed.

    The Beach House, which renovated the old Ronjo Motel on Montauk’s South Elmwood Street, opened in late June amid much fanfare. It has 33 rooms, couches and lounges in the pool area and on an upper deck, a Jacuzzi, a women’s clothing shop, and a bar. It is Mr. Prieato’s opinion that the renovation plans did not indicate a shop and that the bar was intended for “guest services” not the general public.

    “The code is gray, at best,” Mr. Jones said this week. “It puts owners of a property in a position where there is no right or wrong, only shades of gray.”

    Mr. Prieato’s letter also noted the creation of the retail shop in what had been a shed without approval. “These are serious issues, and you are directed to cease the operation of the same, since it is in violation of the [town] code and to avoid further enforcement proceedings,” the letter states.

    “The code is far from perfect and this will give us a chance to clarify,” Richard A. Hammer of Biondo and Hammer, an attorney for the Beach House, said yesterday.

    “Has the bar exceeded accessory use and, if so, we need to know what are the ground rules, what does the code mean?”

    Mr. Hammer said that he submitted a Freedom of Information Law request to the town fire marshal’s office in an attempt to find out what that office’s inspections have shown operating there over the past 40 years.

    “What constitutes an accessory use?” Mr. Hammer asked. If an accessory bar is limited to the hotel’s customers, and a friend were on the premises, “can the  friend sit down for a drink?”

    “We can’t operate a resort without guest amenities. You can’t run a resort like that,” Mr. Jones said yesterday.

    Patrick Gunn, an attorney who is head of public safety for the town, said yesterday that he supports Mr. Prieato’s determination. The town attorney’s office will take the next few days to assess any future actions, he said.

    Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson congratulated the Beach House’s owners at its opening festivities, saying, “This baby has been delivered today.” The town board’s decision to sell a portion of a public alley that runs through the property to the Beach House for $35,000 without first having the land appraised had stirred political controversy. Mr. Wilkinson and others have hailed the resort for helping the Montauk economy.

    On Tuesday, Mr. Jones said, “We have partnerships with the surf shop, the bike shop, the Bake Shop, the T-shirt guys, all the local businesses. It’s sad that people aren’t talking about that.”

    Apparently it’s true. Piping plovers do taste like chicken, at least crows and foxes think so. Both predators have been on the increase for the past several years, foxes following an outbreak of mange that culled the population, and crows having recovered from the effects of the West Nile virus.

    During a meeting of the East Hampton Town Trustees on Tuesday night, Stephen Lester, a trustee, asked if changes in United States Fish and Wildlife Service policy regarding the birds, changes that permitted people to spread towels and amble through areas sectioned off by snow fencing, were playing a negative role.

    Lisa D’Andrea of the East Hampton Town Planning Department reported a dramatic drop in the number of the endangered and carefully protected shore bird hatchlings that lived long enough to fledge.

    At the ocean beach by Georgica Pond, 12 chicks were hatched from three nests. All were taken by foxes. “Crows and foxes are back. A couple of exclosures were dug out,” Ms. D’Andrea said, referring to the wire cages often placed over nests to keep predators from them. “There was a nest at Lily Pond. A fox tried to dig it out, but didn’t succeed. We’re hoping they will survive. At the first plover nest that hatched at Lily Pond, chicks were gone in a couple of days. A fox got them,” Ms. D’Andrea said on Tuesday.

    “Crows like the eggs and will go after young chicks. They are smart enough to know eggs are in the exclosures and if they keep watching, the hatchlings will eventually run out. We had a nest at Main Beach. We caught the crows sitting on the exclosure. The day they hatched, the crows were there. Parents saved two. It’s a learned behavior,” she said of the crows’ patience and cunning.

    Ms. D’Andrea, who oversees the town’s plover protection efforts on approximately 18 miles of East Hampton coastline, said exclosures were used on a case by case basis.

    “Sometimes exclosing them isn’t good. It announces they are there. Same with foxes. They see the structure. In some respects it’s like a bull’s-eye,” a target that counteracts the birds’ natural beach-colored, white, tan, and gray camouflage.

    The rebounding fox population had been devastating for the endangered least tern breeding season. “We can’t exclose them. They’re fliers. Their defense is not so much camo, but numbers, but dive-bombing a fox doesn’t work.”

    The town’s plover watcher said that after the mange devastated the fox population during the winter of 2000, plovers and least terns benefited from the predator’s absence. “There were a few of years of good plover activity. 

    In 2009, there were 46 plover pairs and 55 fledges. In 2006, one of the best seasons ever recorded, 56 plover pairs produced 94 fledges. In all, town managers watched over 31 pairs of plovers this season. As of Tuesday there were 24 fledges with a possible five more to come.

    Piping plovers and least terns are protected by both state and federal law, and all efforts by town and county park and conservation agencies must follow guidelines adopted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. There are nesting areas on state land at Hicks Island, Napeague State Park, Goff Point, and Hither Hills State Park. Plovers nest on county parkland at Gin Beach in Montauk, Northwest Harbor, and Cedar Point Park in the Northwest section of East Hampton.

    Mr. Lester’s question regarding any changes in Fish and Wildlife policy was answered yesterday during a phone interview with Steven Papa, a senior fish and wildlife biologist with the service. There have been no changes:

    “Snow fencing is meant to keep vehicles out, but does not preclude beachgoers. The symbolic fencing [rope or string with flags] is the protected area. Nobody is allowed in those areas,” Mr. Papa said. Mr. Papa said he had put out a call to state and county park bird watchers for their fledgling numbers. They will be available soon. 

    “Is this the right place?”

    She was holding a small piece of paper in her hand. On it was written a  time, 9:30, and the address of the building behind her, the East Hampton Town Justice Court.

    It was 7:30 on Sunday morning.

    Seven hours earlier, her husband had been arrested, charged with driving while intoxicated.

    The couple are here from Brazil on a one-month vacation, staying in a corporate apartment on West 51st Street in Manhattan.

    They rented a car and drove out to Montauk on a whim, spending the day at the beach and having dinner at the Surf Lodge. There were no rooms available there so they decided to head west, looking for a motel. They got a quarter-mile or so down Industrial Road, to the bend where it turns into Second House Road, when they were pulled over by an East Hampton Village police officer, stationed in Montauk on Saturday night as part of a task force targeting drunken drivers.

    “He had a beer,” Marcella Drumond said.

    Her husband, Jose Drumond, was asked to step out of the car, she said. She sat in the dark, watching him perform roadside sobriety tests, walking seven steps, heel touching toe, hands at the sides.

    Suddenly, she said, he was gone.

    The officer handed her the piece of paper.

    She had nowhere to go and no one to speak to. Portuguese is not a language frequently heard on the East End, and her English is minimal. She sat in their car all night, waiting for the morning.

    Told she was in the right place, she repeated, “He had a beer. And they arrested him. I hate this place. I want to go back to Brazil.”

    She pulled the car into a shadow cast by the building, an early morning respite from the rising summer sun.

    Melissa Aguanno, an assistant district attorney who is putting in her final two weeks at the D.A.’s office before making the plunge into private practice, was the first official to arrive. She was followed by two East Hampton police officers, one from the town, the other from the village, both carrying paperwork from the night’s arrests. Ms. Aguanno thumbed through the reports, making small talk with the officers before going inside.

    There had been 11 arrests during the night. There was a lot of paperwork.

    The sun was higher in the sky, the shadow cast by the still-locked courthouse gone, so Ms. Drumond got out of the car and walked to a picnic table shaded by a large oak tree.

    Tania Valverde, a translator, arrived. Ms. Valverde speaks five languages fluently, including Portuguese, having lived in Brazil for nine years. Ms. Drumond was pointed out to her. She went over and began talking.

    Hearing her native tongue, Ms. Drumond’s emotional dam burst, and she started to cry. The two women spoke for several minutes under the shady tree.

    Justice Catherine Cahill arrived. There were now several other people standing around the parking lot, friends and relatives of those arrested.

    An East Hampton Town police van pulled up. The first six arrestees stepped out, hands shackled behind their backs, and walked single-file into the building.

    “Where is he? He’s not there,” said Ms. Drumond.

    She was told he would be in the second group. She went into the courthouse and sat down as the first defendants were arraigned.

    Then they brought Mr. Drumond in, seating him at the end of the bench, closest to the onlookers. The couple were able to exchange a few words.

    Trevor M. Darrell, an attorney who was representing another defendant, acted as Mr. Drumond’s counsel for the arraignment. Mr. Drumond, he told the court, is an attorney in Brazil.

    Ms. Aguanno initially requested that bail be set at $800, a figure that made sense to Justice Cahill, until Mr. Darrell explained that his only resource for bail would be Ms. Drumond’s debit card, which had a $500 limit.

    The justice agreed to bail of $500 and set a return date to finish the arraignment for July 25 at 1 p.m., noting that the paperwork was incomplete but that Mr. Drumond had refused to take a breath test. An officer led him away.

    Ms. Drumond was given directions to a cash machine and to village police headquarters, where her husband was being held. Cash in hand, she went to the station. Detective Sgt. Bryan Eldridge greeted her, counted out the bills she handed him, and promised to bring her husband out in a couple of minutes.

    While she waited, she was told that in New York State, refusal to take a breath test leads to an automatic license suspension and immediate arrest.

    “In Brazil,” she said, “the breath test is not required, so nobody ever takes it.”

    The arrest report that was released on Monday does not say just what happened during Mr. Drumond’s arrest, so it was unclear as of yesterday whether his declining to take a breath test was what led to his being charged.

    After a short time the detective brought him out to where his wife waited, wished him luck, and went back to his office. Alone in the lobby, the Drumonds sat on a bench, embraced, and quietly cried.

   On Wednesday, the district attorney’s office agreed to lower the charge against Mr. Drumond to driving under the influence, a violation, in return for 40 hours of community service, which Mr. Drumond will complete over the next week.

     A head-on crash between a pickup truck and a Volvo on Route 114 south of Sag Harbor claimed the life of the Volvo driver, Douglas Foster Schneiderman, 51, of Maclean, Va., and left his two passengers hospitalized with serious injuries. The accident happened a little after noon on Sunday.

     Brian K. Midgett, 20, of East Hampton, the driver of the 1996 Ford truck, was airlifted to Stony Brook University Medical Center with what East Hampton Town police described as serious injuries. Police said Mr. Midgett's truck, which was southbound, had drifted into the oncoming lane.

      Police impounded both vehicles for inspection. Anyone with information about the accident has been asked to call (631) 537-7575.

    A plan to divide a 43,000-square-foot Ditch Plain parcel into two lots, one of 20,000 square feet and the other of 23,000, was broached for the first time at an East Hampton Town Planning Board meeting on July 25. Judging from board members’ reactions, it could provoke divisive debate.

    The property, at the pivotal location where Ditch Plain Road does a sweeping hook and becomes Deforest Road, opposite the busiest beach-access parking lot in Ditch, has an odd shape, similar to a triangle with a curved edge. An existing house there pre-dates zoning, but its location is odd as well, visually, sitting on the eastern border of the property, close to the neighboring house, leaving most of the land, which was cleared many years ago, unused.

    The current owners, the Sullivan family, seek to break off the western part of the property to form a 23,000-square-foot triangle, with the house remaining on what would then become a rectangular lot.

    The challenges presented by such a division are apparently daunting.

    “Why is this being brought forward at this time?” asked Reed Jones, the planning board chairman. “Is the property for sale?” (There were two large Saunders Realty “For Sale” signs posted there yesterday.)

    “I don’t like it when we’re asked to jump through hoops,” said Diana Weir, a member of the board. The proposed division would require multiple variances from the town zoning board.

    Other board members expressed concern that a new driveway might create lowered visibility and increased traffic. “This [beach] is one of the main attractions in Montauk,” said Nancy Keeshan. “This is a busy corner.” She remarked that the hearing could be the start of a prolonged process, whereupon Ms. Weir said, “I have a problem with selling off pieces of larger property. There are a lot of hoops to go through. I am uncomfortable with it.”

    “To be truthful, I don’t see a compelling reason for this that makes sense,” said Mr. Jones. “I think you’re trying to do a little too much on this parcel of land.”

    The board agreed that any such division would eventually be required to go through a public hearing.

    There was also a hearing that night for Amagansett Estates LLC, a parcel of land that totals about 120,000 square feet. The parcel, at 93 and 103 Montauk Highway in Amagansett, near Windmill Lane, is currently divided in two, with seven nonconforming houses on the two lots.

    Kenneth Yerves, a developer, wants to combine the two lots and re-divide them into four lots, three each of 40,000 square feet and the fourth of 23,000 square feet. The fourth lot required approval from the zoning board of appeals, which was obtained after a hearing on June 5.

    The Town Planning Department advised both the Z.B.A. and the planning board that the proposal decreases the housing density on the land and would therefore be beneficial. Nobody spoke in opposition, though one neighbor, Tom Pierce, did suggest that the screening vegetation used near his property be changed to one that could withstand the lack of sunlight caused by his large shady trees.

    In 2011, Steven Gaines, an author and radio and television host, ran for public office and, as a result, had what he called a life-changing experience.

    Mr. Gaines described his run for the East Hampton Town Board as the guest of honor at the Hamptons Sara Chapter of Hadassah’s annual summer lunch Friday at East Hampton Point restaurant.

    He said that he had written a book about being handed the Republican nomination by East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson and what followed, but that his proposal has so far met with rejection from publishers. He was told, he said, that the book was “too local” and that it might be a better sell if he added some celebrities.

    Mr. Gaines rose to prominence here after the 1998 publication of “Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons.” He began his writing career as music columnist at The New York Daily News. He was among the key founders of the Hamptons International Film Festival. His “Sunday Brunch Live” from Sag Harbor’s American Hotel was heard for many years on the Southampton public radio station, WLIU.

    Reading from the book proposal, Mr. Gaines recounted the period leading up to his being named to the Republican slate, despite being, in his words, a gay, Jewish Democrat. He described a private lunch with Mr. Wilkinson at Rowdy Hall in East Hampton Village at which he was offered the nomination after a 90-minute conversation.

    Leading up to the fateful meeting, Mr. Gaines said, had been a quick sequence of events in which he had met Town Councilwoman Theresa Quigley and her husband on the beach. This led to a meeting with Trace Duryea, the then-Republican Committee chairwoman.

    Mr. Gaines said that he was struck during the lunch at Rowdy Hall that Mr. Wilkinson “didn’t seem to know anything about me.”

    When pressed, Mr. Wilkinson, a former Disney corporate human relations executive, said that he liked Mr. Gaines’s “brains” and the way he thought.

    “This seemed dicey to me,” Mr. Gaines said. “Is this the way he filled thousands of positions at Disney?”

    Mr. Wilkinson, apparently sensing hesitation, said, “Last call: Yes or no?”

    “Not a single virtuous thought came into my head,” Mr. Gaines said. “If I said no, I’d surely regret it. ‘Maybe I can do something,’ ” he recalled thinking.

    Mr. Gaines agreed to join the ticket with Mr. Wilkinson, who was seeking re-election, and Richard Haeg, whom he described as an “archconservative.”

    In a profanity-laced jest, Mr. Wilkinson told him that if he changed his mind, he would, “kill me.”

    Mr. Gaines likened the decision to “stepping into an open manhole.” Old friends stopped speaking to him. Some of his campaign signs were defaced.

    Mr. Wilkinson, he said, also took a degree of abuse for naming him to the ticket. There were “explosive shouting matches” in Town Hall, Mr. Gaines said. John Behan, a former town G.O.P. leader and disabled Vietnam War veteran who wanted his wife, Marilyn, to get the nomination objected in a heated phone call to the supervisor, he said. Ms. Behan went on the get the Independence Party nod.

    Democrats considered him a turncoat, he said. Gays and lesbians called him a traitor, and he said fellow Jews called him an embarrassment.

    “ ‘Shame on you,’ people said to me in restaurants,” he said.

    “Believe me, there are terrible people on both sides.”

    Mr. Gaines reserved particular enmity for the actor Alec Baldwin, a part-time Amagansett resident and a founder of the East Hampton Conservators, a political action committee closely allied with local Democrats. He said Mr. Baldwin had “gained control” of the East Hampton Democratic Party through his sizeable cash donations.

    He also said he was ousted from the East Hampton Library’s Author’s Night roster and that the Long Island Gay and Lesbian Alliance would not return his call seeking its endorsement.

    Nor would the Suffolk Conservative Party give him its backing. Mr. Gaines described a grim meeting at Villa Paul, a Hampton Bays restaurant, during which his pitch was met with blank stares at first, then applause when he made a straight-up plea about why he would need their support in a six-way contest. The party endorsed his running mate, Mr. Haeg, but left its other line for town board blank.

    Once Election Day came and went, Mr. Gaines ended up in fourth place out of a field of six running for two open seats. The two Democrats, Sylvia Overby and Peter Van Scoyoc, had won, followed by Mr. Haeg, with Mr. Gaines just 20 votes back. Trailing him were Bill Mott and Ms. Behan, the Independence Party candidates.

    During the campaign, he recalled, he met plenty of decent people. What began as an admittedly “vanity run” for him ended up delivering an education and increased his belief in representative government and the good qualities of most people.

    “After so many years of writing and talking and thinking about East Hampton, I found its soul and heart by trying to win its votes,” Mr. Gaines said.

    “Ultimately, running for office was an inspiring lesson about how democracy manages to work, despite itself, even in a place where the grassroots are on manicured lawns.”