A partially built barn in Wainscott, standing on land that community members and East Hampton Town paid to preserve, was the subject of a hearing at Town Hall last Thursday night and is presenting a legal quagmire.

    After holding a hearing last week on whether to issue a construction permit for the barn, on the Babinski farm in Wainscott, the town board debated on Tuesday about how to proceed under a section of the town code that they agreed is outmoded and should probably be deleted.

    The barn was approved by the planning board, and the building inspector issued a permit for it. Neighbors sued to overturn the planning board approval, however, and work on the barn, which is close to completion, was halted after a stop-work order was issued.

    Because the town has purchased the development rights for the farmland on which the barn is being built, it was determined, according to a relevant section of the town code, that the town board must also sign off on the construction.

    That part of the code, said Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc at the Tuesday work session, should be repealed. “I don’t think this is a necessary step for a farmer to have to go through,” he said. “There’s no criteria in the code by which to judge the appropriateness of the structure.” Although requiring a town board-issued permit, the code section in question does not lay out standards to help the board determine whether to issue it.

    “We have a review process in place for agricultural buildings,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said. “This is a vestige, I believe, of a time when we did not have a review process.”

    The law was adopted in 1982, said John Jilnicki, the town attorney, when the purchase of development rights was new. It was likely designed to ensure some degree of control over farm buildings on land the town had paid to preserve.

    Now, he said, including the Babinski purchase, the deeds transferring development rights spell out conditions. In the Babinski case, the agreement designated a four-acre portion of the acreage where agricultural buildings would be confined, and established a 30-foot setback limit along three sides of the area.

    At last week’s hearing, Andy Babinski, whose son is farming the land, said that “never was structure placement an issue.” A requirement that precluded the farmers from putting up an agricultural building in the most convenient section of the four acres, he said, would have been “a definite devaluation of the land’s value,” and would have prompted the family to ask for more money for the development rights.

    Alex Balsam, a farmer and an attorney, said at the hearing that farmers who sell the development rights on their land transfer only that, and not the right to farm the property or put up agricultural buildings. Requiring a permit from the town board to do so, he said, is “nothing more than a tool of harassment against the farmer.”

    William Babinski, who obtained both planning board and architectural review board approval for the barn, “has done everything, and more, that the law requires,” said his attorney, David Eagan. “And then to have, at best, an unenforceable provision to be enforced for the first time in the history of the town — that’s just plain wrong.”

    But Tom Gilbert, a neighbor of the Beach Lane farm and the plaintiff in the lawsuit against the planning board’s approval, argued that public money, plus private contributions from the neighbors, including $20,000 from his own family, had been spent and that the town should exercise some oversight.

    “We think that the function of the town in these circumstances is to provide a balanced solution, to balance the needs of the neighbors and the farmers and the community,” making sure, he said, “that we’re not disproportionately being penalized by virtue of the fact that all the barns are being just dropped in front of our property.”

    “That’s our primary view; obliterating our view, essentially,” Mr. Gilbert said. “We don’t think this is an appropriate use of the rights — really collective rights, now.”

    “The town did not relinquish regulatory control” when it spent $7 million on the development rights, Jeffrey Bragman, Mr. Gilbert’s attorney, said, asserting that the town board must follow the existing town code “unless and until a court of law tells you it’s improper.”

    The town board’s discussion on Tuesday centered on what exactly is required by law. Councilwoman Theresa Quigley suggested that the board not make its own decision on the building permit, but said instead that the planning board review, and the discussion by the 2005 town board when forging the agreement with the Babinskis, constitutes the required review.

    However, “there is no legal basis for that,” Mr. Jilnicki said. In order to make the case that the board’s legal obligation has already been met, it would have to review a transcript of the 2005 public hearing on the development rights purchase.

    “It seems to me this guy has gone through enough process,” Ms. Quigley said of Mr. Babinski. “I believe that we should take a step that does whatever we can to get them out of this litigious morass they’re in.”

    “I think the fact is, there will be a lawsuit whatever we do,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said, “and I don’t see where following the code is the least defensible. I don’t think that a town board can simply ignore a section of the code that requires a process.”

    Councilwoman Sylvia Overby suggested that the board simply issue the construction permit. Ms. Quigley disagreed, and Councilman Dominick Stanzione asked for time to review the 2005 board discussion.

    An earlier version of this story misidentified Alex Balsam as being recently appointed to the East Hampton Town Planning Board. He is not a member.

    In Sag Harbor Village, three people are seeking two seats on the village board in the election on Tuesday. Robby Stein and Bruce Stafford are running for second terms, and Kevin Duchemin, a sergeant with the East Hampton Village Police Department, is hoping to unseat one of them to win a spot on the board for the first time.

Mr. Duchemin, a 20-year firefighter with the Sag Harbor Fire Department who also owns a landscape business, is a lifelong resident of the village, where he lives with his wife of 18 years, and three children, who are 24, 17, and 14. His oldest son, Robert, will graduate from the Suffolk County Police Academy tomorrow, and will take a seasonal position with East Hampton Town.

Mr. Duchemin said in a conversation on Tuesday that he was interested in the seat a few years ago, but that Mayor Brian Gilbride thought perhaps he should wait until he retired due to time constraints. This time, he said, “I didn’t ask anyone’s opinion.”

    Mr. Duchemin said that the issue of affordable housing is important if the village wants to “keep the local kids local.” Illegal apartments are another area of concern. The village came close to addressing them a few years ago, he said, but the issue was pushed to the back burner, never to resurface. Code changes to allow utilization of accessory apartments may be the only option for affordable living in the village, he said.

    Mr. Stein is a child psychologist who is also a member of the Bay Street Theatre’s board of trustees and the board of Mashashimuet Park. He said on Monday that as the liaison to the village waste treatment plant, he has cut costs over 70 percent, while helping to improve the plant’s efficiency. He has also been involved in community issues such as outdoor dining and music, and environmental issues including wastewater runoff, bay health, and the keeping of chickens. Having summered on the South Fork as a child and lived here year round for 15 years, Mr. Stein said that he is very engaged with the changing face of the village.

    Mr. Stafford described himself as a “hands-on guy,” and said he has the time the job needs, and enjoys hearing from the public, whether it be at one of his three kids’ activities, the 7-Eleven, or a village board meeting. The current board is a “great working board,” he said on Tuesday, with five diverse people. He believes they have done a good job increasing service while keeping taxes low. Born and raised in Sag Harbor, Mr. Stafford has volunteered for the Fire Department for 34 years, and serves as the chairman of the United Methodist Church. He is the board’s liaison to the fire department.

    Voting on Tuesday will be from noon to 9 p.m. at the Sag Harbor Fire Department at 1357 Brick Kiln Road.

    The East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals ruled on two controversial appeals Tuesday night, voting 3 to 2 to deny Bethany Mayer, owner of a tiny 4,000-square-foot parcel of land in Amagansett’s Beach Hampton neighborhood, the right to expand her house by adding a second floor, then voting unanimously to deny an appeal by Richard Eagan, an attorney, to reverse a building inspector’s determination allowing both residential and business development on the same piece of land, normally zoned for housing, in Wainscott.

    Ms. Mayer, a single mother of one who runs a clothing shop in Sag Harbor, first appeared before the board on April 3, asking to expand the two-bedroom house at 25 Wyandanch Lane she bought last August. “It was all I could afford,” she said at the time. The house is on one of the smallest parcels of land in the town.

    At issue was the town’s pyramid law, which prevents construction of a building out of proportion to the size of the plot of land.

    Don Cirillo, a board member, argued strongly that Ms. Mayer had a right to build as she saw fit, especially since her attorney, Richard Hammer, had presented the board with a second plan scaling back the expansion to only 300 feet. The revised plan, however, was still in violation of the pyramid rule.

    “This is not being done to flip the property. This is a hardship. We should encourage people to move into town,” Mr. Cirillo said.

    Alex Walter, the board chairman, reminded members that there was a good deal of opposition from neighbors in April. “If the neighbors object to a variance, it would be a hard thing for me to grant,” said Lee White. He said Ms. Mayer, when she bought the house, should have known what she was getting.

    “She bought a very small house on a very small lot. The pyramid law is there to protect the neighbors,” agreed Sharon McCobb.

    Mr. Walter noted that the Z.B.A. had, in 1982, turned down a similar request for the same property. “I find it difficult to go back and rewrite history,” he said.

     “That is the entire reason we have variances,” said Mr. Cirillo, adding that East Hampton should not only be for “rich retired people.”

    “What hasn’t changed is that the lot is still only 4,000 square feet,” Mr. Walter responded.

    Bryan Gosman voted with Mr. Cirillo for approval, but they were in the minority. Ms. McCobb, however, left the door open for Ms. Mayer to make a return visit to the board, remarking that “I don’t mind the size of it. It is just where it is going.” If the 300-square-foot expansion were to the north of the house, where the immediate neighbor is farther away, instead of the south, she would be inclined to vote for approval, she said.

    Mr. Eagan, representing the Concerned Citizens of Wainscott, was appealing a June 2011 determination by Tom Preiato, the town’s acting chief building inspector, allowing dual usage on a property at Montauk Highway and Sayre’s Path.

    Mr. Preiato referenced a variance granted by the zoning board in 1975 for the property.

    Based on his recommendation, the town planning board in January approved the tear-down of the existing 1,375-square-foot building, to be replaced by a business of similar size and a 600-square-foot residence.

    Since the site is zoned for residential use, a business there would normally not be permitted. However, the building predated the town’s zoning laws and was therefore considered a pre-existing, nonconforming  structure, thus allowable.

    In appealing that decision to the zoning board, Mr. Eagan argued on March 27 that the building, which had been built as a diner, could not be replaced by a “dual-usage” plan, the right to such usage having been forfeited in the 1975 action.

    The owner of the site, Michael Davis, through his attorney, Denise Schoen, had argued that adding a residence to the site would bring it closer to the actual zoning code, and was thus an improvement.

    Mr. Walter told the board, “The decision we will make will be on the merits of the building inspector’s decision.”

    It became clear after a few more minutes of discussion that there was a consensus on the issue among the members, and they then rendered their verdict.

    “If the board doesn’t get it correctly, the courts will,” Mr. Eagan said before the hearing began.

    Further Lane, between Indian Wells Highway in Amagansett and Egypt Lane in East Hampton, has to be one of the most beautiful residential byways in the country. Tony homes and former farm fields on its south side overlook rolling dunes and the Atlantic Ocean. Those on the north side are buttressed by hedgerows and stately old trees.

    But this spring there is one stretch of the lane that seems not exactly naked, but unsuitably dressed — a long row of London plane trees on the south side of the road with nary a leaf unfurled.

    The same is true of London planes in other parts of town and elsewhere on the East End, and the stunted leaf growth can be seen in other species too, including black locusts, sassafras, pin oaks, birches, willows, sweet gums, elms, silver maples, and tulip trees.

    Tropical storm Irene, which slammed the East End last Aug. 28, is largely to blame, according to Neil Hendrickson, an arborist with Bartlett Tree Experts, a nationwide company.

    Mr. Hendrickson was called in when local arborists reported the strange absence of spring foliage. He said that because the East End is practically an island unto itself, it was normal for trees to be salted by storm-driven winds. But the salting they got from Irene was heavier by orders of magnitude, he said, both because of the strength and duration of the wind’s attack.

    “It’s very common for a storm of that magnitude, 70 to 80 miles per hour, to drive the salt into the tree. And, high velocity adds up to more salt. The wind lasted up to 12 hours. It reduces the boundary layer,” Mr. Hendrickson said, comparing a tree without that layer to a person without clothing in a driving wind.

    Potential buds “desiccate, dry out. It creates reverse osmosis. It’s like salting a slug, except on trees,” Mr. Hendrickson said. “We did see trees located below the blast of wind with good leaves.”

    “We could weave this into a bigger story, with climate change, and the odd weather. It’s hard to tease out the actual cause.” However, Mr. Hendrickson said Irene’s salting was followed by an extremely dry early spring. “The abnormal spring had the trees leafing out in an asynchronous way. Some trees that I’d never seen leaf out before March 31 leafed out three weeks early and then dried out.”

    The arborist explained that when leaves first emerge, they do so using starch stored in the branch. “They come out like a bird from an egg and start photosynthesis. They reach down for water. If there’s no water, they don’t have the strength. We can’t link it directly, but there’s probably an interaction between the salting, the very early bud break, and the dry spring.”

    “Even though planes are tough and exist in about every city in the country, they may not be tough enough for the unusual set of circumstances. We think it’s a compelling story,” Mr. Hendrickson said. 

    Strangely, the related native American sycamore — “the one with marbly bark” — was not affected by Irene’s salting. Most London planes were nursery-grown transplants, he explained.

    He said some of the planes may not come back. “Most trees have stored energy. They have enough for only one good refoliation. This makes them more susceptible to disease. They have less ability to defend themselves. They can spend the interest, but now they’re spending principle.”

    The tree expert said time would tell. In the meantime, he told tree owners to give the planes plenty of water in hopes it will help them “push more leaves. If not, do things to encourage them like mulching, fertilization, and disease management, he said. 

    For the price of $10,000 in 1910, Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage purchased the land directly across from her summer home on Main Street in Sag Harbor. She chose to build on it in memory of her grandfather Major John Jermain, who lived in the village after serving with the Westchester Militia in the American Revolution. At that time, it was the highest price ever paid for a piece of real estate in Sag Harbor. Two years later, an impressive Doric-columned brick building designed in the classical revival style by Augustus N. Allen was permanently given to the people of Sag Harbor and vicinity as the John Jermain Memorial Library.

    Mrs. Russell Sage, as she is known, Sag Harbor’s greatest benefactor, also provided the village with Pierson High School, named for her mother, Margaret Pierson Jermain, and Mashashimuet Park, among other charitable contributions. The library is a landmark in the historic district of the village, listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

    Now wrapped in scaffolding for a complete renovation and restoration expected to be completed in the summer of 2014, when the library is to be filled again with restored and repaired chandeliers, wall sconces, antique furniture, and clocks, the building will accommodate growth in the community and for future generations. Large meeting spaces will be suitable for concerts, films, and workshops, and a digital lab with hardware and software will include a three-dimensional printer and movie and music-editing equipment for public use. Far from old-fashioned, the library, from its temporary location on West Water Street, is already circulating laptops, iPads, and Kindles and offering free downloads on Facebook.

    The stone lintels of the windows, designed with a Greek key pattern, will remain, as will architectural details such as wreaths, torches, and “egg and dart” molding. Bronze torches will continue to light the entryways, and the winding marble staircase will once again lead to the expansive brick, copper, and stained-glass dome that rises 60 feet above ground. The stained-glass laylight has been removed for re-leading.

    On the grounds, the grand tricolor beech tree has been moved to Mashashimuet Park, thanks to the Sag Harbor Tree Fund, and there it will be able to spread and grow to its full 50-foot height. Other commemorative trees are being cared for at an off-site location during the construction and will be returned to a new low-maintenance landscape at the library, planned to have native plants.

    Meanwhile, the library is working out of its temporary location behind the 7-Eleven, diagonally across from the village post office. The clean, airy space has art on display and a few water-view windows. Sitting beside one of them last Thursday, Catherine Creedon, the library’s director, said the space is in many ways better than the original. It is handicapped-accessible, she said, and the layout seems to have been perfectly planned. The children’s room, for instance, has a window onto the various adult areas used for reading, writing, and browsing books and movies. A tutor was teaching math to a student at a large desk overlooking the harbor, with many other desks and 13 public computers nearby.

    The library has just received its second state grant for the renovation, for $150,000, which “certainly helped,” Ms. Creedon said. The previous grant was used to restore and light the dome at the top of the library. She said the financial assistance from the state would help the renovation to be done “extensively,” so that the library can be a resource for the whole community, including village businesses, which she envisions co-sponsoring programs there.

    Ms. Creedon will speak at length about the old and new spaces, the role of libraries in the 21st century, and the part John Jermain can play as “a key shareholder in a vibrant Main Street” on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at the American Hotel. The lunch, organized by the Sag Harbor Historical Society, costs $50. Reservations can be made by e-mailing [email protected].

    Many people do not know how much their library cards can provide them with, Ms. Creedon said, and consultations are available to explain all of the resources; all one needs is an appointment. She said members of any Suffolk County library can use the free resources, many of which are available online at johnjermain.org.

    Frederic Stephens Jr., 20, of East Hampton was shot in the right arm last Thursday night at a house on Springs-Fireplace Road, leading to what East Hampton Village Police Chief Gerald Larsen termed a “dangerous” and “reckless” car chase along Montauk Highway to Southampton Hospital.

    The driver of the car, a woman identified yesterday as Kimberly M. Delrio, 22, of Springs, is facing arraignment on three charges, including reckless endangerment, a felony.

    A village officer first spotted the speeding vehicle on Newtown Lane and followed it along Gingerbread Lane toward Montauk Highway. It was the first night of the long Memorial Day weekend.

    The officer radioed for backup and began to pursue the car, catching up to it at the American gas station on Toilsome Lane. The driver had pulled off the road, trying to jockey past the dense traffic by driving through the station, only to become trapped by cars pulling away from the pumps.

    “Stephens got out and said, ‘I’ve been shot, I’ve been shot!’ ” Det. Lt. Anthony Long said on Tuesday. While the officer radioed for an ambulance, however, Mr. Stephens got back in the car and it sped away.

    “There were two village officers trying to stop the car,” Detective Long continued. Not knowing whether the occupants were armed, he said, they had to proceed with caution.

     “It is unbelievable how reckless the driver was,” Detective Long said. “It’s important the public understands that yes, there is someone injured in the car, but this was an awful dangerous way to get to the hospital.” The detective has watched the videotape of the pursuit and found it extremely disturbing. “Thank God nobody got killed,” he said.

    There was a second couple in the car that night whom police have not yet identified. The investigation is ongoing, according to Det. Lieut. Christopher Anderson of the town police.

    The officers following the speeding car radioed ahead, allowing Southampton police to clear a path for it as best they could. Once at the hospital, after Mr. Stephens was admitted, village police detained Ms. Delrio. She was turned over to town police when it became clear that the shooting had occurred in their jurisdiction.

    Earlier this month, Mr. Stephens pleaded guilty to a first-time offense of driving while intoxicated.  His father, also Frederic Stephens, was convicted of multiple drug-related felonies in 2009 and is currently serving time in Franklin Correctional Facility in Monroe, N.Y. He will be eligible for parole in October 2014. East Hampton Town police said at the time that the Sept. 5, 2008, arrest of the elder Mr. Stephens was deemed to have made a major dent in drugs in the East Hampton area.

    “Please remember them today,” was the refrain spoken by retired Navy Capt. William T. Brown, who delivered the keynote address following East Hampton’s Memorial Day parade finale on Monday.

    After the parade of members of the armed forces, bagpipers, fire trucks, and scouts marched down Main Street to the Hook Mill memorial green, the Rev. Earl Hopson of Calvary Baptist Church gave a rousing invocation and the church’s junior choir urged the 100-plus gathered there to “testify.”

    Captain Brown welcomed home local veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “This Memorial Day will be personal for you. You are the backbone of the community,” Captain Brown said, going on to remind the crowd that Memorial Day was declared “Decoration Day” to commemorate fallen Union soldiers during the Civil War. Today it is a day to remember United States soldiers, marines, sailors, and coast guardsmen who have lost their lives in wartime.

    Captain Brown spoke about Chris Buckley, a Long Islander and Navy helicopter pilot, who was lost in 1997. “Please remember him today,” he said.

    He talked about Mike Murphy a Navy SEAL buried in Calverton National Cemetery. The Congressional Medal of Honor recipient gave his life to save his men. A guided missile destroyer will bear his name. “Please remember him today,” he said.

    He also talked about serving on the aircraft carrier Okinawa during the Vietnam War. “In my mind’s eye I can see them sitting across the table from me,” he said of two marines who left the ship to face North Vietnamese troops in Quan Tri Province. They never returned. “Please remember them today,” he said.

    He spoke about the Nazi saboteurs who invaded Amagansett with explosives 70 years ago on June 12, 1942, and the Coast Guardsman, John Cullen, who found them on the beach and alerted authorities. Mr. Cullen died last year.

    He said a book titled “They Came to Kill” by Eugene Rachlis tells the story. Captain Brown brought copies for East Hampton Town Supervor Bill Wilkinson and Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr.

    He spoke about the heroism of Marine Lance Cpl. Jordan C. Haerter of Sag Harbor, who died on April 22, 2008, firing on a truck laden with explosives as it approached a barracks filled with marines and Afghan soldiers. His sacrifice saved many lives. 

    He paid tribute to Army First Lt. Joseph Theinert of Shelter Island, who was killed on June 4, 2010, while investigating an improvised explosive device outside Kandahar, Afghanistan.

    Captain Brown read from a speech given by Gen. John Kelly, commanding officer of the Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq, in 2008. In his speech General Kelly paid tribute to the bravery of Lance Corporal Haerter and his fellow guard, Cpl. Jonathan Yale.

    Captain Brown told the crowd that just four days before giving his speech, General Kelly’s own son, a marine, was killed. “He gave 40 years of his life, and a son.” Captain Brown asked that all the fallen be remembered.

    A 21-gun salute, the playing of taps, and the hoisting of the American Flag from its half-staff position ended the event.

    A lawsuit that was to be filed in Federal District Court in Central Islip this morning charges that East Hampton Town officials, including a former town supervisor, a police lieutenant, two code enforcement inspectors, two town attorneys, and four former town councilpeople, conspired to deny a Montauk auto mechanic of his civil rights.

    Although not named as defendants in the action, the suit includes a narrative that also points to the involvement of ad hoc citizens committee members, at least one a Democratic Party functionary. It also criticizes the town’s justice court for creating an environment that led to the abuse of governmental power.

    The suit was filed on behalf of Thomas Ferreira by Lawrence Kelly, a former federal prosecutor and United States State Department attorney from Garden City. It is Mr. Ferreira’s second legal action filed against the town in connection with the seizure and destruction of his belongings in June and September of 2009. In 2010, Mr. Ferreira filed an Article 78 action against the town in State Supreme Court charging that his constitutional rights to due process had been violated.

    Mr. Kelly said during an interview on Saturday that in 2009 the East Hampton Town Board had acted as “a bizarre Star Chamber” that used illegal closed-door sessions to orchestrate a plan to oust Mr. Ferreira from his Navy Road property on Fort Pond Bay.

    Mr. Kelly’s 64-page complaint alleges that the plan included a deliberate effort by the town attorney’s office to flout state law, suppress information, and circumvent the town’s court system in order to rid a gentrifying neighborhood of a legally preexisting garage using unauthorized code enforcement personnel to commit what he calls “economic extortion.”

    Mr. Ferreira’s property, including over $100,000 worth of cars, car parts, and tools, was removed during two separate “enforcement actions” in June and September of 2009, and destroyed in the process by a contractor hired by the town. The town charged Mr. Ferreira $22,000 for removal of the vehicles and equipment. When he could not pay, a tax lien for that amount was applied to his property. It remains in effect today.

    As part of a settlement agreement on Mr. Ferreira’s Article 78 action, the town had offered in February of this year to remove the lien, he said, upon him agreeing to hold the town harmless regarding the events that led to the removal of his property. He declined.

    According to Mr. Kelly’s filing, neither visit was sanctioned by a warrant. When Mr. Ferreira asked East Hampton Town Police Sgt. Thomas Grenci to produce one during the June 22 seizure, he was threatened with arrest, the lawsuit claims.

    The complaint alleges that Mr. Ferreira was denied a trial prior to the town’s seizures of his property for fear the proceedings would reveal that the numerous summonses issued to him, and to “hundreds if not thousands” of others, were issued by code enforcement personnel who were forbidden by state law to do so. 

    Mr. Kelly’s narrative goes on to assert that members of the Montauk Citizens Advisory and litter committees — both ad hoc bodies authorized by the town — conspired with agents of the town, including police, to remove Mr. Ferreira’s Automotive Solutions. The committee members were not named as defendants in the complaint, but were part of a narrative designed to reveal a pattern of what Mr. Kelly said was civil rights abuse.

    Mr. Kelly said the Ferreira case revealed a clear pattern of business-as-usual during the McGintee administration.

    The defendants named in the case are former Supervisor Bill McGintee, Peter Hammerle, Pat Mansir, Brad Loewen, and Julia Prince, former town board members, police Lt. Thomas Grenci, Madeline Narvilas, a former town attorney, John Jilnicki, the current town attorney, and the code enforcement inspectors Dominic Schirrippa and Kenneth Glogg. East Hampton Town as a whole is also named in the suit.

    Only Ms. Mansir agreed to speak about this matter; the others named in the draft declined to comment or could not be reached.

    One of the more potentially damning allegations involves a series of back-and-forth inspection reports and memos that appear to show Ms. Narvilas insisting that two reports — in which fire marshals cited no danger posed by the fuel in cars on Mr. Ferreira’s property — be replaced by one that declared “a potential catastrophe” — words she purportedly supplied to the fire marshal’s office in a June 19 memo.

    According to Mr. Kelly, the replacement report was meant to diffuse any problems that could arise if the fire marshals’ original, positive, reports should leak out. If she could have gotten the fire marshal to sign on to it, it would also have been used in a complaint to be made against Mr. Ferreira in State Supreme Court, Mr. Kelly said. James Dunlop, the chief fire marshal, did not sign it.

    Mr. Kelly alleges that the positive reports were not provided to the town board, specifically not to Ms. Mansir and Mr. Loewen, prior to the board’s passage, on June 18, of a resolution approving the June 22 visit to Mr. Ferreira’s property.

    During a phone interview on Monday, Ms. Mansir confirmed Mr. Kelly’s assertion that the town board was not told about the fire marshals’ clean bills of health. Nor were members told, she said, that Mr. Ferreira’s car repair business was licensed by the state and was a legal pre-existing, nonconforming use of his property. She voted for the enforcement action with the rest of the five-member board, something she said she would not have done had she been given the missing information.

    “There had to have been discussions. Maddie [Ms. Narvilas] was new to us. It had a bad overtone to me because of the Rian White situation,” Ms. Mansir said. As in the Ferreira case, belongings were taken away from Mr. White’s Springs property earlier the same year, and he was charged for the costs the town incurred to take away his belongings. “We relied on what was given to us,” Ms. Mansir said.

    “I remember hearing that we, the town board, would not be told when they were going to do it. I was told it was a blight on the neighborhood with leaking fuel coming out of trucks and cars,” she said. “We were never told there was no danger from fuels. We were told we were upholding health, safety, and welfare, so leaking fuels would have been a danger.”

    “That puts us very much in the wrong,” Ms. Mansir said. “They took his equipment and tools. I voted no when they put a lien on his property. I don’t think they did that legally. I’d like to know how concerned they were with leaking fuels when they crushed his cars right there on the beach.”

    “When the government comes down on you, you carry it with you for the rest of your life. It went on for so long,” Ms. Mansir said.

    In all, Mr. Kelly claims that the defendants violated Mr. Ferreira’s rights under the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments. There are six causes of action in total.

    Mr. Ferreira was denied his right to due process under the Fifth Amendment, Mr. Kelly claims, because the town’s litter law, under which his client’s property was seized, was preempted by the New York State Property Maintenance Code that permits a mechanic to store cars and parts. 

    As of Jan. 1, 2003, the state’s property maintenance code superceded all municipal laws dealing with fire prevention, safety, and related matters. Municipalities could request special exemptions. Southampton did, for instance. East Hampton never sought an exemption to the general state law. As a result, “Major elements of the East Hampton Town Code became unenforceable regarding property maintenance and uniform building codes,” Mr. Kelly said, a fact he claims the defendants were aware of.

    Furthermore, he claims, the town “encouraged unauthorized code enforcement inspectors to pick out areas of unenforceable town code to shape an instrument of oppression against Mr. Ferreira without any sworn affidavits, with illegal executive sessions, and without court scrutiny.”

    The suit claims that Mr. Glogg, a code enforcement inspector, knowingly used the word “abandoned” in referring to the cars on the Ferreira property in his unsworn, unsigned report to the town board, evidence, Mr. Kelly wrote, of “evil intent, bad faith, and intentional and knowing misconduct. Cars used for their parts are, by definition, not abandoned. They were not ‘litter,’ ” he said, although the town’s litter code was used in the resolution authorizing the seizures of his property.

    The Fifth Amendment also states that government cannot perform an “excessive taking,” that is seize private property for a public purpose without just compensation. Mr. Kelly claims the matter was never brought before a civil or criminal court for a review to determine probable cause for the seizures.

    In his filing, Mr. Kelly refers to a 2011 statement made by Mr. Hammerle to The East Hampton Star. Mr. Hammerle stated that Mr. Ferreira had purposely delayed court proceedings on the charges against him. Mr. Ferreira claims his many requests for a trial were denied.

    Mr. Kelly’s filing states that it was the intent of the individual members of the town board to avoid the courts and satisfy the Democratic Party vice chairwoman, Lisa Grenci’s, effort to rid the neighborhood of Mr. Ferreira’s repair shop.

    Mr. Kelly said yesterday that Sergeant Grenci’s role should have been as a “neutral” in the June 2009 action. That role was “ethically conflicted” by his membership in the town’s litter committee, which was actively working to remove material from Mr. Ferreira’s repair shop. “There should have been a judge there,” Mr. Kelly said.

    Mr. Kelly’s filing alleges that Lynden Restrepo, a broker of the Atlantic Beach Realty Group and also a member of the litter committee, told the town zoning board of appeals during a public meeting in February of last year that she was working closely with the town attorney’s office to use government resources against Mr. Ferreira.

    The filing adds that Ms. Restrepo used “privileged information unavailable to the general public and in the custody and control of the East Hampton Town Police.”

    Furthermore, the filing states that the town neglected to provide after-the-fact hearings regarding the impoundment of Mr. Ferreira’s property, which had been crushed at the scene of the seizures.

    Mr. Kelly said on Tuesday that in addition to the town board’s abuse of the open meetings law, it was the failure of the court system to give Mr. Ferreira a trial that allowed the town’s unconstitutional methods to decide Mr. Ferreira’s fate.

   East Hampton Town police are asking for help investigating the shooting of a young man Thursday evening at 154 Springs-Fireplace Road in East Hampton.

    Police said that Frederick Stephens Jr., 20, was shot once, sustaining a wound on his right arm. The incident occurred at about 8:30 p.m.

   According to press releases issued by police on Friday, the Mr. Stephens traveled to Southampton Hospital in a private vehicle and was transferred from there to Stony Brook University Medical Center, where he underwent surgery.

    On May 3 Mr. Stephens pleaded guilty to first-offense driving while intoxicated, and East Hampton Town Justice Lisa R. Rana sentenced him to a 90-day drivers license revocation and $1,150 in fines and court fees. In an April 12 arrest, police said that he had been stopped for speeding on Springs-Fireplace Road in East Hampton and found to have an open bottle of vodka in the car's center cup-holder. He was released without bail after being processed and held overnight.

   Police did not offer any further details on Thursday's incident, including whether there were any witnesses, suspects, or a possible motive.

    Those with information about the shooting can phone the East Hampton Town police's detective division at 631-537-6989.

     "Please remember them today," was the refrain spoken by retired Navy Capt. William T. Brown, who delivered the keynote address following East Hampton's Memorial parade on Monday.

     After the parade of service people, bagpipers, fire trucks, and scouts marched down Main Street to the Hook Mill memorial green, the Rev. Earl Hopson of Calvary Baptist Church in East Hampton gave a rousing invocation and the church’s junior choir urged the 100-plus gathered there to “testify.”

     Captain Brown welcomed home local veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "This Memorial Day will be personal for you. You are the backbone of the community," Captain Brown said, going on to remind the crowd that Memorial Day was declared "Decoration Day" to commemorate fallen Union soldiers  during the Civil War. Today it is a day to remember United States soldiers, marines, sailors, and Coast Guardsmen who have lost their lives in wartime.

     Captain Brown spoke about Chris Buckley, a Long Islander and Navy helicopter pilot, who was lost in 1997. "Please remember him today," he said.

     He talked about Mike Murphy a Navy SEAL buried in Calverton National Cemetery. The Congressional Medal of Honor recipient gave his life to save his men. A guided missile destroyer will bear his name. "Please remember him today."

     He also talked about serving on the aircraft carrier Okinawa during the Vietnam War. "In my mind's eye I can see them sitting across the table from me," he said of two marines who left the ship to face North Vietnamese troops in Quan Tri Province. They never returned. "Please remember them today," Captain Brown said.

     He spoke about the Nazi saboteurs who invaded Amagansett with explosives 70 years ago on June 12, 1942, and the Coast Guardsman, John Cullen, who found them on the beach and alerted authorities. Mr. Cullen died last year.

     He said a book entitled "They Came to Kill" by Eugene Rachlis tells the story. Captain Brown brought copies for East Hampton Town Supervor Bill Wilkinson, and Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr.

     He spoke about the heroism of Marine Lance Cpl. Jordan C. Haerter of Sag Harbor, who died on April 22, 2008, firing on a truck laden with explosives as it approached a barracks filled with marines and Afghan soldiers. His sacrifice saved many lives. "Please remember him today."

     He paid tribute to Army First Lt. Joseph Theinert of Shelter Island, who was killed on June 4, 2010, while investigating an improvised explosive device outside Kandahar, Afghanistan. "Please remember him today."

     Captain Brown read from a speech given by Gen. John Kelly, commanding officer of the Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq, in 2008. In his speech General Kelly paid tribute to the bravery of Lance Corporal Haerter and his fellow guard, Cpl. Jonathan Yale.

     Captain Brown told the crowd that just four days before giving his speech, General Kelly's own son, a marine, was killed. "He gave 40 years of his life, and a son." Captain Brown asked that all the fallen be remembered.

     A 21-gun salute, the playing of taps, and the hoisting of the American Flag from its half-staff position ended the event.