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.

    Besides endless traffic and lines at the grocery stores, overflowing garbage cans are another downside of the summer population explosion.

    But now East Hampton Village will be doing something about it, at least at one site on Newtown Lane, where the village will be testing a solar-powered trash compactor, known as the BigBelly, for a period of weeks starting sometime in mid-June.

    Not only will the BigBelly continue tamping down the trash, but when the receptacle is full, it will automatically send an alert to a Web-based program announcing that it is ready to be emptied.

    “It’s attractive, and no bigger than a regular trash can,” said Larry Cantwell, the East Hampton Village administrator. Mr. Cantwell acknowledged that at the height of the summer, the Parks Department will need to empty each regular can every day, increasing labor hours, vehicle wear-and-tear, and fuel use.

    The cost of a new BigBelly, now in its fourth incarnation, is around $4,000, but Mr. Cantwell said that the village will be able to calculate what the cost savings are by using the trash compactor for a few weeks. “If it only needs to be emptied once every four days,” he said, “in theory, that’s reducing the cost of pickup to 25 percent.”

    “At the end of the period, if we’re impressed with the results, we may buy one,” Mr. Cantwell said.

    East Hampton Village would then join the ranks of big cities like Philadelphia and Chicago, or closer to home, Port Jefferson, which has 20 of them, according to Franklin Cruz, the chairman and founder of D.E.C. Green in the Bronx, the company that manufactures the BigBelly.

    “The mayor of Port Jefferson has told me personally that she is thrilled with them,” Mr. Cruz said in a telephone interview on Monday. The BigBelly is now accepting refuse in all 50 states and in 30 countries around the globe.

    “Your typical trash receptacle has a limited capacity,” said Mr. Cruz, who is a native Long Islander. “In a municipal sense what we have here is an archaic system at tremendous expense in fuel, labor, pollution. These are cutting-edge appliances that are entirely off the grid.”

    “With a more limited workforce in the municipalities due to budget constraints, and more people enjoying stay-cations, also due to economic reasons, the need has gone up while the resources have remained the same or been reduced,” Mr. Cruz said. “The BigBelly is just a good idea.”

    As litter rises to a certain point in the receptacle, it breaks through an internal beam that sends a message, to a computer or even a smartphone, saying it’s time to pick up the trash.

    The village’s BigBelly will take its place at what Mr. Cantwell described as one of the most active trash sites — outside the Scoop Du Jour ice cream shop on Newtown Lane. “That receptacle seems to get filled up quickly with napkins and paper cups, especially during the evening,” Mr. Cantwell said.

    Mr. Cruz said the system is very low maintenance, with a 12-volt battery that needs to be replaced approximately once every four years. Each BigBelly is expected to last for about a decade.

    “We are excited to be participating in the upcoming pilot program for East Hampton,” Mr. Cruz wrote in an e-mail, “as we are confident that with a compaction ratio of five traditional trash baskets to one, the BigBelly will produce a minimum 80-percent reduction in the number of pickups, an 80-percent reduction in fuel consumption and related CO2 emissions, which contribute to climate change, traffic congestion, and wear and tear on roads, plastic bags going to the landfill prematurely — all the while helping to improve curb appeal.”

    A recent shellfish ban in Sag Harbor Cove was the subject of intense discussion at a meeting Monday night of the village’s harbor committee. “We have been too slack,” said Bruce Tait, the committee chairman, about overpopulation, leaching septic tanks, fertilizer, and cesspools. “People can die from this bacteria,” he said. “This is serious.”

    Dennis Downs, an attorney who was in the audience for another issue, agreed that the closing of the enclosed coves was very troubling. “A friend of mine who lives in Bay Point saw kids clamming in Upper Cove,” he said. “The clams could be poisonous and kill you.”

    The committee wondered whether enough was being done to inform the public. “It’s a deadly bacteria,” Mr. Tait said, “If you don’t read the paper, you’re not told.” Kevin McAllister, the Peconic Baykeeper, agreed with that opinion. “The average person not tuned into the media would not know,” he said on Tuesday. “It is a serious public health threat.”

    According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, “Paralytic shellfish poisoning is a very serious illness that can start with a tingling, or numb feeling, in the lips, tongue and face, within minutes to a few hours after eating contaminated shellfish. Depending on the amount of toxin that’s ingested, the tingling can spread to the fingers and toes, followed by paralysis of the arms and legs and difficulty breathing. Some people have the feeling that they’re floating or may become nauseated. If enough toxins are consumed, the paralysis can spread to the chest and abdomen and, when the muscles used for breathing become paralyzed, the illness can result in death.”

    Mussels, clams, oysters, and scallops can accumulate unsafe levels of the toxin that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning, the D.E.C. said. Whelks and other gastropods (moon snails), which prey upon shellfish, can also have toxic levels. The meat of crustaceans, such as lobsters and crabs, is not known to accumulate biotoxins, but the tomalley, or green gut, can have unsafe levels and should be discarded.

    The harbor committee suggested among other things that signs be placed in stores where clam rakes are sold to alert the public to the danger. “It’s important that people know they can’t go clamming in these waters,” said Mr. Tait.

    Mr. Downs, a Sag Harbor resident for 30 years, told the gathering that the D.E.C. marks a closed area with a post, painted red on top. “People don’t know what that means,” he said. In Upper Cove, Morris Cove, and Payne’s Creek, “I see them clamming all the time, they don’t know what the red pole means. Maybe the D.E.C. can put up a sign,” he said.

Tom Hamilton, a harbor committee member, suggested a packet of information for the public, stating the best practices for fertilizer and pesticide use, which the chairman called “a very good idea.”

    “We are reaching the tipping point,” Mr. McAllister said on Tuesday. “This is here,” he said, speaking of fallout from land development since the ’60s. “Nitrogen is the culprit,” he said confidently, citing the work of Christopher Gobler, whom he called “a premier algae-bloom researcher” at the State University at Stony Brook. “It’s from wastewater.”

    Karen Graulich, a marine biologist for the D.E.C., wrote in an e-mail that “although Alexandrium is a naturally occurring organism that has been identified in many estuaries throughout Long Island, the reasons for its recent blooms in certain locations are not well understood.” Jim Ryan of Response Marine in Greenport, who forwarded that email, has offered the D.E.C. remediation assistance in the affected areas. His company has worked extensively on marine environmental projects, including oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico.

    Aphrodite Montalvo, a citizen participation specialist for the D.E.C., explained by e-mail that the department initially sampled oysters in Sag Harbor Cove and is now sampling mussels from a monitoring station at a private facility. It is the shellfish, not the water, that is tested, she said.

    Both the water and the shellfish may appear to be fine. According to the D.E.C.’s fact sheet, paralytic shellfish poisoning is rarely associated with discoloration of water. The toxin can be present in high amounts even when the water is clear, and it can remain in shellfish long after an algae bloom has dissipated, though they may continue to look perfectly normal.

    “State-of-the-art treatment is necessary,” said Mr. McAllister. He suggested placing a septic system underground to treat 30 to 50 houses in the Redwood area, and upgrading existing systems. “We have to start talking about strategies,” he said. “Innovative progressive technology is necessary. The community needs to ask itself, ‘What value do we place on clean water?’ ”

    “We live in a water-based economy,” the baykeeper concluded. “If it’s unswimmable and unfishable, who will come here? They will go somewhere else.”

    A fire that broke out at the Montauk Fish Dock next to Gosman’s in the early morning hours on Friday gutted a dockside structure that housed waxed fish boxes, scales, a forklift, and the office of the business that ships all of Montauk’s tilefish landings, worth millions of dollars each year.

    “It was like a building full of candles,” said Richard Schoen, chief of the Montauk Fire Department, referring to the building’s supply of waxed boxes. “The primary concern was the fire spreading to adjacent boats and buildings.”

    In all, eight trucks responded to the blaze. A strong southwest wind rekindled the fire early Saturday morning.

    The Fish Dock also packs out and ships the catch of small draggers. Paul Farnham, the business owner, leased the old structure from the Perry B. Duryea and Son company, located on Fort Pond Bay in Montauk.

    Mr. Farnham said on Sunday that he was able to continue packing out boats because the Fish Dock’s cooler and ice machine, located outside the main structure, were not damaged. The packing house itself was gutted in the fire and will have to be torn down. It has a storied history.

    On the morning of Sept. 1, 1951, the 42-foot party boat Pelican left the Fishangri-la dock on Fort Pond Bay for a day of fishing, overloaded with 62 fishermen. At just after 2 p.m. the Pelican capsized with the loss of 45 lives. The bodies of the dead were brought back to Montauk Harbor and placed on ice in the packing house.

    Perry B. (Chip) Duryea III said the late Alvin McDonald ran a shipping business and a small retail fish market from there at the time. William Pell, who owned a shipping dock on the North Fork, leased the building for a while, and Bill Vorpahl Sr., the former owner of Stuart’s Seafood in Amagansett, ran the V and H Fisheries from there. Mr. Duryea said the structure would be rebuilt.

    East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson arrived at the scene on Saturday morning. “When I heard about it I called Pat Gunn, head of code enforcement, and told him to do as much as possible to help. It’s a 12-month business, but they are coming into the heavy part of the season. It’s incredibly important to the town to sustain the business. We can’t afford to allow a business interruption of any scale to a guy like Paul. Any hiccup can hurt his business,” Mr. Wilkinson said yesterday.

    The supervisor praised the fire department and the Inlet Seafood dock, the largest of three fish-shipping businesses that make Montauk’s fishing port the busiest in the state, for quickly offering help to Mr. Farnham.

    Jerry Seinfeld, creator of the long-running eponymous television sitcom, is going solar at his Further Lane estate in East Hampton.

    The East Hampton Town Architectural Review Board gave  the go-ahead for two 65-by-10-foot solar arrays on his property on May 10. The roughly 25-kilowatt system will be between the swimming pool, which is at the dune side of the oceanside property, and a Nature Conservancy preserve. Laurie Wiltshire of Land Planning Services, who represented Mr. Seinfeld before the board, said the installation “would not be visible to anyone.”

    The panels, made by SunPower, are the most efficient on the market, harvesting 20 percent of the energy released by the sun’s rays, according to the company’s Web site. In this case, a company spokesman said, the panels would be able to provide more power than Mr. Seinfeld could possibly need.

    Mr. Seinfeld bought the more than 10-acre site from Billy Joel in 2000 for a reported $32 million. It is divided into legally separate parcels and has a private ball field on one of them, just off Further Lane behind a sprawling residence with 24 rooms.

    The solar installation required A.R.B. approval because although the land is residentially zoned, it carries an agricultural overlay. The project will also have to go before the zoning board of appeals, which considers such matters as setbacks from property lines.

    Mr. Seinfeld’s ball field was built before the town, in 2005, passed what many call the Jerry Seinfeld law. The town had required that a “principal structure,” or residence, had to be on any lot where an owner wanted to put up a shed, a pool, tennis courts, or even a ball field. In changing the law, officials said it had been counter to the town’s goal of decreasing the density of development.

    This allowed Mr. Seinfeld to go on playing baseball without the threat of any legal umpires calling him out.

    Steps being taken to outsource information technology services for East Hampton Town, potentially eliminating the town department that oversees those services for all town departments, were put on hold last Thursday when a three-vote town board majority agreed to table a request for proposals from outside contractors, overriding the wishes of Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson and Councilwoman Theresa Quigley.

    Arthur Malman of the town’s budget and finance advisory committee had just presented a report to the board that recommended increased investment in information technology, including adding two new staffers in the department. Doing so, according to the report, could “reduce the cost of government operations in the long term” and pay for itself, perhaps within three years.

    The report recommends that the board complete a study of the town’s existing “I.T. landscape” by this summer and analyze software and hardware needs.

    “Thoughtful introduction of I.T. within a specific business process is the most likely tool to reduce the cost of government operations in the long term,” and “would increase productivity, effectiveness, and value for the town, its citizens, and its businesses,” the budget and finance committee wrote. However, the report says, it would require continued investment.

    The committee, a group of local businesspeople and professionals appointed by the town board, includes Michael Diesenhaus, who served as the head of technological operations for the New York Stock Exchange and “is an expert in this area,” Mr. Malman said.

    The group also recommended that the town set up “e-gov” services that could be used by town residents and businesses needing access to property and other public records. According to an analysis by the information technology department provided in the report, an investment of $80,000 in such technology would generate about $100,000 in savings annually, including a reduction in the number of hours town staff spends responding to requests for information.

    Jay Diaz, a labor relations specialist for the town’s Civil Service Employees Association, also spoke to the board at last week’s meeting. If information technology services are outsourced, he asked, what would happen to the four union employees in that department?

    Mr. Diaz questioned an estimate by the town’s budget officer, Len Bernard, that the department costs the town $1 million a year. Each of the town’s departments require computer hardware, software, and services, for which there are licensing and other costs, he said.

    Mr. Wilkinson told Mr. Diaz that, because the board’s actions could lead to a grievance being filed against the town by the union, it would be “inappropriate” to discuss the matter in public. “No decision has been made,” he said, “and whatever decision is made will involve discussions with the C.S.E.A.”

    “A [request for proposals] has gone out,” Mr. Wilkinson said. “It does affect the unit that the local C.S.E.A. leader is in,” he told Mr. Diaz. “We will, in all cases, follow the collective bargaining agreement.”

    However, the resolution that was tabled over Mr. Wilkinson’s and Ms. Quigley’s objections was to authorize the issuance of a request for proposals from technology companies that could take over the town staffers’ duties.

    When Mr. Wilkinson offered the resolution, other board members suggested that, in light of the budget and finance committee’s report and other questions, more discussion was in order. “I got a number of calls on this,” Councilman Dominick Stanzione said. Though he said he supports “exploring outsourcing,” he suggested the board put the resolution on hold until after the issues could be discussed at a work session.

    Councilwoman Sylvia Overby and Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc agreed. The town’s obligations under New York State’s Municipal Separate Stormwater Systems program, whereby efforts on various fronts to contain stormwater runoff must be implemented and documented, will require technological coordination, Mr. Van Scoyoc said.

    Also last Thursday, the board split along the same lines over two resolutions offered by Councilman Van Scoyoc on behalf of East Hampton Town Highway Superintendent Stephen Lynch.

    Mr. Van Scoyoc, the Highway Department liaison, said that the board, in previous discussions, had agreed to Mr. Lynch’s request for an additional seasonal worker, with the salary to be paid by transferring $32,000 from the Highway Department’s drainage improvements budget line. 

    However, Mr. Wilkinson said he had removed the resolutions from the meeting’s agenda after receiving e-mails from Mr. Lynch that left him confused about what was requested. Mr. Van Scoyoc retrieved and offered them.

    Both the supervisor and Ms. Quigley voted against resolutions appointing the laborer and approving the budget modification, condemning what they called additional spending that had not been budgeted for. Mr. Van Scoyoc pointed out that the sum for the salary was not being added to the budget, but being taken from another area to cover the worker’s pay.

    On Tuesday, United States Army First Lt. Joseph James Theinert of Shelter Island and Marine Lance Cpl. Jordan C. Haerter of Sag Harbor were posthumously inducted into the New York State Senate’s Veterans Hall of Fame.        

    Their mothers, JoAnn Lyles and Chrys Kestler, drove together to the Albany ceremony to accept the honor on their sons’ behalf.

    The nomination had been made by State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, who said in a press release that he did so “to demonstrate our respect and gratitude for their patriotism and sacrifice.”

    Both men died while protecting the lives of those under their command. Lance Corporal Haerter was killed in action at the age of 19, on April 22, 2008, in Ramadi, Iraq, during which time it was the center of insurgency. Lieutenant Theinert deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom as a new first lieutenant, and was killed in action at the age of 24 approximately six weeks later, on June 4, 2010, while on a patrol.

    “Joe and Jordan had never met,” Ms. Kestler said on Sunday, “but when he heard the news of Jordan’s death, he called and asked me to come to West Point so he could purchase dress blues for the funeral. It was the first time he wore them.”

    The two mothers had met before at Riverhead Building Supply, where Ms. Lyles works, when Ms. Kestler said she “noticed Jordan’s name at her desk.”

    She told Ms. Lyles, “My son is getting ready to deploy,” and cried. From that moment, in addition to a business relationship, the two shared the bond of being military mothers. When she later learned of her own son’s death, Ms. Kestler said Ms. Lyles was one of the first to contact her. Ms. Lyles told her, “I never wanted you to be in my place. You can lean on me.”

    On the same day, Lance Corporal Haerter’s father, Christian Haerter, who lives and owns a business Sag Harbor, said he put on a suit and went to the house of Jim Theinert, Lieutenant Theinert’s father, to offer his support. “I don’t know if it helped or not,” he said, “It’s a different journey for everyone.”

    Mr. Haerter has made raising awareness a part of his journey. He does this, in part, through license plates such as “Son K.I.A.” and “Why War?” which he had on his motorcycle before his son was killed. These are not statements of protest, but rather a way to inspire people to think about the issue. “We do it for Joey too,” he said. “We put his face in different places to keep people remembering, some people forget how young they were.”

    Bill Clark, an owner of the South Ferry that connects Sag Harbor and Shelter Island, spoke on Monday of the outpouring of support from Lieutenant Theinert’s friends and family.

    “He was soft-spoken, humble, and endeared to all at the ferry,” said Mr. Clark of Lieutenant Theinert, who worked on the ferry for three summers during college. He said that Lieutenant Theinert was completely sure of what he wanted to do. “It was just in his gut to serve,” he said, “in a realistic, powerful way that was believable and admirable to me.”

    On learning of his death, the owners of the ferry company decided to rename one of the boats after him. The Lt. Joe Theinert was christened on July 3, 2010. When passengers ask about the name, one of the boat’s captains, Christopher Stone, who knew Lieutenant Theinert “since he was on his mother’s hip,” couldn’t answer without becoming emotional. He decided to make up informational postcards to hand to passengers, telling them about Lieutenant Theinert — his academic achievements, the fact that he was a star athlete in cross-country, lacrosse, and basketball for the Shelter Island, Pierson, and Ross Schools.

    Last spring, the ferryboat welcomed his entire 1-71 Calvary, 1st Brigade combat team, with a cruise and live on-board music. On Shelter Island, residents lined the streets to welcome them. Ms. Lyles planned a lunch at the Sag Harbor American Legion Hall. There was a lobster bake at the Kestlers’ Shelter Island farm, with a visit from the New York Police Department Emerald Society bagpipers, and a breakfast at the Shelter Island Fire Department.

    Both Gold Star mothers welcome their sons’ comrades to their homes, treating them as they would their own sons. They come for the annual Soldier Ride the Hamptons each July, dedicated to Lance Corporal Haerter, a fund-raising event for wounded veterans that Ms. Lyles has become active in.

    “Joe’s death is part of the quilt that makes up my life,” Ms. Kestler said, “It is a big, ugly tear. People have helped to repair it, but it’s still ugly. Now I can laugh with my other two sons, and continue to be a wife and mother.” One thing that has helped her is being of service to other veterans.

    Mr. Haerter agreed, saying that helping others is a way of “making something good out of something really bad.” He does this through Jordan’s Initiative, an organization he founded to help veterans and active members of the military and their families. The organization recently delivered an adaptive custom-fit bicycle to a marine with limited use of his legs. The organization also helps veterans with living expenses, and provides a community spirit award annually to a Pierson High School student. “I feel that Jordan’s heart is in it, and it makes me feel better,” he said.

    As for the Sag Harbor bridge named for her son, Ms. Lyles said, “It was all a very nice surprise. . . . I knew nothing about it.” Jordan’s Initiative added the plaque on the bridge “to tell Jordan’s story to those who might wonder.”

    People continue to pay tribute to the two fallen soldiers with memorials small and large. Lieutenant Theinert’s Shelter Island basketball jersey was retired this year at a 3-on-3 basketball tournament in his name and now hangs in the school gym. His childhood friends organized the tournament, held around Thanksgiving when people are back home, “not only to honor Joey,” said Carla Cadzin, “but for the community, and so the younger kids know his story. . . . Whether they are 16, 25, or 65, he has brought everyone closer in so many ways.”

    Tattoos have become a popular tribute, as well. “I’m not sure how many —maybe 15 — and each is a unique design,” Ms. Lyles said. “Every so often I get another e-mail or Facebook message with a photo. Many chose the military memorial symbol; boots, rifle, and helmet, with Jordan’s name and date of death.”

    Lance Cpl. Michael Mundy, a friend of Lieutenant Theinert’s who recently returned from a seven-month deployment in Afghanistan with the Marines, said he just got the tattoo “J10” over his heart. The whole Ross School lacrosse team had painted “J10,” representing Lieutenant Theinert’s 10th Mountain Division,  on their calves during his first deployment to Afghanistan, he said.

    “I still look up to Joe,” he said in an e-mail. “I know that Joe was looking after me every second.” He got the tattoo over his heart “so I know that he is with me always.”

    At sunrise on Memorial Day, Mr. Haerter will place flags in the flag holders that he installed himself on the bulkhead along the bridge named for his son. He said that before people enjoy Memorial Day with beer, watermelon, and barbecues, he hopes they take time to remember and recognize those who have sacrificed their lives for their country. There are a lot of other people from Sag Harbor who have been killed, he said. “Plant a flag, help the V.F.W. to put flags on graves, and teach kids about the meaning of the day.”

    In a thank-you letter framed with a photograph of his son that hangs at the Sag Harbor Police Station, Mr. Haerter wrote: “There is no way that I can ever fill in the void that was left when Jordan died, but it is comforting to know that we live in a community that cares for one another.” 

    “We’re not cool.”

    So says Jayma Cardoso, the maitre d’ hotel of the Surf Lodge, Montauk’s magnet for the young and hip, although her clientele would likely take issue with Ms. Cardoso’s self-evaluation.

    After a year in the spotlight during a bruising court battle between the Town of East Hampton and the previous ownership of the club, Edgemere Montauk L.L.C., which finally ended on May 14 with the new owners Montauk Properties agreeing to pay the town a record-setting $100,000 fine, Ms. Cardoso now feels free to return the Lodge to the original vision she had for it when the club was first opened in 2008.

    “The whole idea when we first opened the Surf Lodge,” she said in a recent interview, was to have music and relaxed fun, but “no doorman, we wanted everybody to be able to come in.”

    And come they did, to enjoy the sunsets over Fort Pond, music on the deck, and the down-home funky beach ambiance Ms. Cardoso created.

    In her eyes, though, the club fell victim to its own success, with people flocking to the Surf Lodge in ever-increasing numbers.

    The growing crowds, particularly late at night, kindled local opposition to the summer hot spot, creating a chasm between the club and some residents of Montauk, a gulf Ms. Cardoso wants to bridge.

    “We don’t want to change the fact that everybody can come in, but we do want to limit the numbers,” she said.

    In order to do that, Ms. Cardoso is switching the restaurant side of the business to a reservation-preferred seating plan.

    She points out an irony of the restaurant business that, at a certain point, more customers do not equal more money.

    “It is not fun for the community. It is not fun for the guests,” she said, adding, “We don’t make more money.”

    When a restaurant is crowded, Ms. Cardoso said, service declines, and the check average per customer drops.

    There are many other tweaks and changes in the works.

    “I sympathize with some of the frustrations [of the neighbors]. I like to put myself in other people’s shoes,” she said.

    “If I went out of my house to walk my dog, and I found a bottle of beer, I would be really angry. I’m the kind of person that would take that bottle to the Surf Lodge and say, ‘Look, this is not cool.’ ”

    To prevent such incidents, Ms. Cardoso has employees coming in at 7 a.m., to walk two miles in either direction from the club’s location on Edgemere Street, picking up every cup and bottle they see, including items not sold at the Lodge.

    “The best thing we can do as a business,” she said, in order to get along with the community, “is to think of everything that could potentially be a hurdle.”

    To be clear, Montaukers should not expect a teetotaling somber soiree to replace the Lodge. “I definitely want to keep the concerts. I’m not going to sit here and tell you, we’re going to stop everything, that we’re going to be a sleepy venue.”

    “But now we’re going to stop the live music at 9 p.m. In the past, we would shut the music in the back,” the deck that faces out over the water, “between 11 and 12. Now we’re going to shut that music at 10 p.m.”

    “Sound travels. Sometimes a laugh will get to the other side. Because the vibe inside will be more chilled,” Ms. Cardoso said, the sounds outside should be a little less frenetic.

    Ms. Cardoso is bringing in a new chef as well, Chris Randle, who is replacing original chef, Sam Talbot, a “Top Chef” finalist.

    About Mr. Randle, Ms. Cardoso said, “He’s an amazing chef who’s going to embrace the local farmers we have” and, of course, the fresh-out-of-the-ocean fish.

    “In the past years, we had become a place where you go to hear a band and to have a cocktail.” Ms. Cardoso foresees a new emphasis on the dining experience.

    “It’ll be a place to have brunch in the afternoon, and segue into a beautiful dinner in the early evening.”

    One thing not changing is the laid-back atmosphere.

    “No high heels,” she said. “It’s a place where you can come in your flip-flops and your sarong.”

    Another change that Surf Lodge habitues will find in 2012 is the timing of the last call for drinks. “We intend to shut down at 2 a.m. Last call will be at 1:45.” In the past, the closing hour was 4 a.m. “My mother taught me, ‘Nothing good happens after 2 a.m.’ ”

    Ms. Cardoso was one of four children born to Marina and Jayr Cardoso, 35 years ago in the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba, near the South Atlantic. She was named after both her father (Jayr) and mother, (Marina), hence, Jayma.

    Her parents were very religious people, and the family was close-knit. “That gave me and my sisters and brother a strong base, a strong core,” she said.

    The New York Times announced Ms. Cardoso’s engagement to Scott Campbell, an investor, a couple of years ago. Ms. Cardoso was demure on the exact details of the coming marriage.

    She first discovered Montauk when she was working as hostess at Rocco Ancarola’s Boom Bistro in Bridgehampton 12 years ago, Ms. Cardoso said. At the end of a hectic nonstop weekend, she would go to East Deck Motel in Ditch Plain to recharge her batteries. “Montauk would be my refuge,” she said.

    The new ownership group, which is headed by the Internet entrepreneur Michael Walrath, a Montauk homeowner, is in it for the long haul, she said.

    “We don’t need to make that [investment] money this season. Maybe 20 years. Maybe 30.”

    “I want to run a business that is, foremost, responsible. That is manageable. We can manage the parking system. We can manage the front of the house. We can manage the guest experience. And it doesn’t matter if I’m in Montauk, or if I’m in Nantucket, or if I’m in Brazil.”

    Besides the music, another aspect of the business that won’t be changing is Ms. Cardoso’s insistence that her customers do not get behind the wheel of a car if they’ve been drinking.

    “I tell them, if you turn out of here, you’re going to be arrested,” she said. She stresses to her clientele, that while it may seem inconvenient to leave the car behind, that inconvenience is far outweighed by the life-changing experience of being arrested, or even worse, being in an accident while drunk.

    “I watch them,” she said about her clientele, as they prepare to exit. Even a slightly tipsy customer receives Ms. Cardoso’s counsel.

    She has set up a system with local Montauk cabs, as well as her own staff, to make sure her customers get home safely.

    “Whatever it takes,” she said.

    Ms. Cardoso believes she has put a strong staff in place. “I now have 45 people who want to make the place work, no matter what.”

    She sees the changes made as a natural maturing process for the Surf Lodge, as newer nightspots become the “cool” flavor of the month, while the Surf Lodge mellows a bit.

    And if the changes mean that the Lodge loses money?

    “If it doesn’t work, and we cannot pay our bills, then we cannot be in business.”

    “I’m confident my plan will work,” she said with a smile.

    Charles Soriano, who has served as the East Hampton School District’s assistant superintendent for the past nine years, is moving a few blocks down the road to become the East Hampton Middle School principal on July 1.

    “Anticipating the transition back to building leadership is personally exciting for me,” Dr. Soriano said in a letter to the staff. “It is a change that I eagerly embrace as I think about the hustle, bustle, and joy of regular contact with kids. This was the reason I entered our profession in the first place.”

    Dr. Soriano’s move is one of several changes in the school administration that are being planned. Although definitive titles are still in the works, at press time it seemed as though Keith Malsky, who moved from assistant principal to principal last summer when Thomas Lamorgese retired, would join the principal, Gina Kraus, and the staff at the John M. Marshall Elementary School as an associate principal, and that Daniel Hartnett, the current assistant principal at John Marshall, would return to his former position as district-wide bilingual social worker.

    Larry Roberts, who has for the past year split his time between being assistant principal at the middle school and the director of the district’s unified arts program, is leaving at the end of the school year. The unified arts position was eliminated as part of the budget process. As of now, there is no word on who will step in as assistant middle school principal, or whether the district will fill the position of assistant superintendent. “It’s under discussion with the board,” said Richard Burns, the district’s superintendent, of Dr. Soriano’s previous posiiton.

    “This has been a long, well-thought-out, deliberative process,” Mr. Burns told a crowd of bewildered middle school parents at Tuesday night’s school board meeting. “Sometimes these types of decisions are made on June 28,” two days before a change in employment would occur, “but we wanted to be transparent about this,” he said. “We felt very strongly that this is the way we should move forward.”

    Mr. Malsky and Ms. Kraus, who were both at the school board meeting, did not comment on the changes.

    “Charlie is a pleasure to work with,” Mr. Burns said. “And with the wealth of knowledge he has, he is going to be so on target at the middle school.”

    Dr. Soriano earned a doctorate in organizational leadership and education at the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds an M.A. from Middlebury College, a bachelor’s degree from the College of the Holy Cross, and a second M.A. from Rutgers University, in educational leadership.

    He was the recipient of a Fulbright fellowship to study in Japan, and of a teacher grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 1997, he was named distinguished teacher of the year in the Westfield, N.J., public school system.

    In addition to his work with the district, Dr. Soriano serves on the board of the Amagansett Food Institute and is the treasurer of the East Hampton Library. When not working, he likes to travel; he has visited almost 50 countries on five continents, indulging his love of extreme hiking in some of them. On a recent trip to South America, Dr. Soriano spent the night in a steel shipping container at 14,000 feet during an Andean mountain crossing from Chile to Argentina.

    “As I think about my career’s path,” Dr. Soriano said in his letter to the staff, “I know my next chapter will include classroom teaching again in some form or fashion — returning me to where I began 23 years ago. Until that time, I am thankful to be working in East Hampton.”