The East Hampton Town Board is on the verge of approving the purchase and construction of a control facility at the East Hampton airport, according to statements made during Tuesday’s work session as the board considered the winning bids for the project.

    Supervisor Bill Wilkinson questioned the rising cost of the structure, saying he thought it was supposed to be $400,000. “We now find that the cost of the tower is $400,000, steel is another $148,000,” with electrical  expenses on top, he said.

    Mr. Wilkinson asked what the true total would be, and Councilman Dominick Stanzione, who has shepherded the tower project from the start, responded that if all aspects of it were taken into account, including planning, contracting, and so forth, the cost could well be $1 million.

    “So it’s a million-dollar tower,” said Mr. Wilkinson.

    “A lot of those costs were in previous budgets,” said Mr. Stanzione. “The total cost of the tower management contract is $400,000. That includes the tower, but not the structure that holds the tower.”

    “So it’s now a $550,000 tower,” said Mr. Wilkinson.

    Mr. Stanzione explained that the rising costs were due to increased steel prices, the need to modify a design change for the pod that holds the tower, and time pressures — for the job to be done as soon as possible, hopefully by Memorial Day.

    “Where’s the [additional] money coming from?” Mr. Wilkinson asked Len Bernard, the town budget officer.

    “The airport surplus,” Mr. Bernard replied.

    “It’s taxpayers’ dollars we’re talking about,” said Councilwoman Theresa Quigley, objecting to what she saw as a piecemeal approach.

    “Whenever you’re trying to do something for the first time, there are unknowns that can’t be accurately estimated,” Mr. Stanzione said. “We did our best to budget this as accurately as possible.”

    He reminded the board that the airport has been classified a Class D airspace, allowing planes to approach and depart at higher altitudes, which will lower the noise level.

     “You know what? Put it on me,” Mr. Stanzione said of the growing cost of the seasonal facility. “I’ll take the hit.”

    Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc noted the broad support for the project from both the pro-airport faction and those concerned with airport noise levels.

    “In the end, it’s money, and we can’t be flippant about how we spend it,” Ms. Quigley said of the rising costs. She cautioned that an airport surplus is not guaranteed going forward.

    There was a moment of levity late in the session. Councilwoman Sylvia Overby reminded the board that Saturday is STOP Day, for residents to drop off toxic nonrecyclables, including computers and laptops, at the town recycling facility.

    Upon hearing this, Mr. Stanzione remarked, “Good. I can throw away my campaign literature.”

    The day ended in an executive session to discuss personnel issues and review potential property purchases.

    The $35,000 that the East Hampton Town Board’s Republican majority agreed to accept for a portion of a town-owned alleyway that bisects the old Ronjo motel in Montauk has been confirmed by an independent appraiser, who told the town board on Tuesday that the parcel is worth between $30,000 and $40,000.

    “We went to American Institute of Appraisers, and reached out to get another appraisal of an alleyway in Montauk,” Republican Supervisor Bill Wilkinson said as he introduced the appraiser, Ronald Paradiso of Jerome Hains Realty in New York.

    “For the press: We’ve never met,” Mr. Wilkinson said, adding, “I better stay away from humor and Ronjo.” The supervisor had previously been quoted as saying that he had pulled the original price of $35,000 for the alleyway, “out of the air,” a statement he has since said was a joke. The two Democrats on the board had called repeatedly for an independent appraisal of the 20-foot wide alley and opposed the sale because the property’s value had not been independently established.

    Mr. Paradiso took the board through the steps he used to determine a fair-value appraisal, telling the board that he reviewed previous appraisals commissioned by both the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee and by Chris Jones and Lawrence Siedlick, principals of the Montauk Beach House, as the motel is now called.

    Mr. Paradiso inspected the alleyway and the adjoining properties, concluding that, as with both earlier valuations, the motel site was the only adjoining property that was a logical buyer for development.

    The owners’ appraisal, done by Stephen H. Schuster of Sag Harbor, came in at $22,500, but was flawed, Mr. Paradiso said, since it did not use sale prices of comparable properties in the area.

    The appraisal commissioned by the Democrats and done by Cynthia Marshall, whose firm, Clark and Marshall, is often used by the town, placed the value of the property at $184,000, using sales of nearby properties to determine value. That was a correct procedure, Mr. Paradiso said. However, “she did make a special assumption” that the land would be purchased only for development, and that improperly skewed the final number, he said.

    In end, Mr. Paradiso said, “There is only one buyer and one seller for this land,” which greatly discounts the value of the alleyway. Mr. Paradiso gave the alley a top value of about $72,000 and a low value of $12,275, but stressed that a proper figure could not be determined by averaging the two numbers, because of the discount required since there was only one seller and one buyer. The true value for the property, he said, was between $30,000 and $40,000.

    That is when the fireworks began.

    “Were you aware that this land could be used without any structure?” Democratic Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc asked Mr. Paradiso.

    Mr. Van Scoyoc argued that the land could be put out for bid for mobile food vendors, just as the town does with beach vending locations.

    He went on to question the assumption that there was only one bidder, since the property has never been put out to bid. He also questioned whether the property’s value could be enhanced by using it for parking.

    Mr. Wilkinson pointed out that Mr. Paradiso had extensive credentials working with dozens of state and town governments and agencies, as well as hundreds of private sector businesses.

    Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, also a Democrat, told the board that at least one food vender had expressed interest in the alleyway, and said that it should be put out to bid.

    Ms. Overby asked whether Mr. Paradiso had ever done business with Farrell Fritz, the law firm that Ms. Quigley is a member of.

    “So then if they have done work with Farrell Fritz, so?” Mr. Wilkinson asked.

    Ms. Overby said that she would have used an appraiser who was familiar with the East End.

    “Knowledge is a great thing, Bill,” Ms. Overby said.

    “You’re impugning his integrity and my integrity,” Ms. Quigley said. “I have no relation with Mr. Paradiso.” She called the question “completely inappropriate.”

    “I think that Mr. Paradiso has done a good job with the information that he had,” Ms. Overby said.

    At that point Ms. Quigley and Mr. Scoyoc began talking over each other.

    Mr. Wilkinson thanked Mr. Paradiso for coming.

    “I hope you will consider me again in the future,” Mr. Paradiso said as he left.

    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.”

    When the garage door to the Montauk Fire Department annex on Second House Road opened wide on the afternoon of May 11, Larry Keller crossed the threshold driving a brand-new Action TrackChair. All but one of the boy scouts of Montauk’s Troop 136 knew who the chair was for.

    The scouts were gathered in the annex, their regular meeting place. They had already pledged their allegiance to the flag and recited the Boy Scout motto: “On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and country, and to obey Scout Law, to help other people at all times . . .”

    The person they had decided to help this time by raising $12,000 for an all-terrain wheelchair was their fellow scout Davin Fischer.

    Davin is 16. He was born with spina bifida, which keeps him in a wheelchair most of the time, but does not stop him from working at Uihlein’s Marina during the summer months, and generally pushing the boundaries of his disability.

    Lydia Fischer, Davin’s mother, said that about two months ago, she and her husband, Bob Fischer, noticed a flier advertising the Action TrackChair that Larry Keller had placed at the Montauket bar and restaurant. Mr. Keller grew up in Montauk. He was injured and partially paralyzed in an automobile accident in 2009, and now distributes Action TrackChairs through his OTP Mobility company. 

    Searching for ways to get back to fishing and doing the other things he once enjoyed, he discovered the TrackChair, a battery-powered vehicle that moves on tank treads, climbs, passes easily through sand, grass, and brush, and can be outfitted with attachments for fishing rods, shotguns, cameras, or whatever tool fits the driver’s outdoor passion.

    Unbeknownst to Davin, his parents contacted Mr. Keller. As the scouts’ plan to raise money to purchase a chair developed, Mr. Keller invited Davin to try one out under the pretense that it would help with a marketing photo shoot. They met at the end of Navy Road and headed for the trails of Hither Woods.

    “He was amazed,” Ms. Fischer said on Tuesday. “He was going over brush, up the trails. Then, when Larry came out to the beach at Ditch Plain, Davin went again. Larry was measuring him up for the right size chair. Davin had no clue.”

    Davin and Mr. Keller drove their TrackChairs way down the beach to the Shadmoor bluffs where Davin had never been in the eight years he’s lived in Montauk.

    On May 4, the scouts met at the firehouse annex excited to be leaving the next day for some whitewater rafting in Pennsylvania. Chris Haines, the scoutmaster, outlined the trip — what clothes to bring, shoes — and then said it was time to recognize a scout whose can-do spirit had inspired Troop 136.

    The scouts knew the recognition was deserved, but the award was also a way to get Davin to wheel himself up to the front of the room in preparation for the surprise.

    When the garage door opened and the TrackChair approached, it was clear the truth had not sunk in. But then, Larry Keller slowly rose out of the new chair, and offered Davin a hand to climb aboard. The Scouts cheered. Several yelled: “It’s yours,” to make him understand that if the world was not exactly his oyster, it was now a lot bigger than it had been.

    On Saturday he joined the troop on the trip to Pennsylvania, and while he could not go rafting as he’d done the year before because of a recent surgery on his foot, he did take the new chair down to the riverbank to fish with his dad.

    The Surf Lodge, the popular Montauk club that has been before the East Hampton Town Justice Court and Zoning Board of Appeals on numerous occasions in the last year, can keep its portable dry bar on the patio.

    The East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals voted 4 to 0 on Tuesday to reverse a June 2011 determination by the town’s senior building inspector, Tom Preiato, that the dry bar, or waiters’ station, was an expansion of the club’s nonconforming status and therefore prohibited without a variance. Eric Bregman of Gilmartin and Bregman represented the Lodge.

    Bryan Gosman of Montauk had recused himself from Surf Lodge proceedings, and the four other members of the panel deadlocked on a second part of the inspector’s determination — that an awning put up over the patio was a structure requiring a natural resources permit. The awning will have to be modified so that it is neither attached to the ground nor the deck, Mr. Bregman said yesterday.

     The club had recently restructured its ownership team, although Jayma Cardoso, its charismatic front person, has remained the sole holdover. “We will abide by whatever decision the board makes,” Ms. Cardoso said last week, commenting that the restaurant and hotel wanted to work with the town, not against it.

    The Surf Lodge had racked up nearly 700 alleged code violations last year, resulting in on-again, off-again sessions in town court. An appearance before Justice Catherine A. Cahill is scheduled there on Monday.

    Robert Connelly, an East Hampton Town attorney, indicated yesterday that the number of citations is now likely to be reduced. The town had offered to settle the complaints against the club for $100,000 last October.

    Two other decisions by Mr. Preiato are likely to be debated at the zoning board’s next meeting, on May 22. One is on an appeal from David Eagan, attorney for the Concerned Citizens of Wainscott, challenging a site plan approved by the town planning board for a project known as Wainscott Wombles at 411 Montauk Highway. Approval was based on Mr. Preiato’s June 2 ruling that both residential and business uses were permitted on the site. The property is owned by Michael Davis, who seeks to build a small house there in addition to the existing business building. The property is zoned residentially, but has been used commercially for many years.

    It had been thought that Mr. Eagan and Mr. Davis’s representative, Denise Schoen of  Tarbet, Lester, and Schoen, were close to a settlement, but Alex Walter, the Z.B.A. chairman, warned the board Tuesday to be prepared to debate and vote on the matter on May 22.

    Also likely to be taken up that night is an appeal of a decision by Mr. Preiato in November 2011 to reinstate a building permit he had rescinded in August of the same year for construction of a woodworking shop on Abraham’s Path.

    The board began its Tuesday session with an extension of April’s hearing for Bethany Mayer, the owner of a house at 25 Wyandanch Lane in Beach Hampton, to present a modified plan for a smaller addition. She had sought a variance from the town’s pyramid law to build a second floor. At a hearing in April, the proposal faced fierce opposition from neighbors.

    Also on Tuesday, the board turned down Dana and Andrew Stern’s request for a setback variance in to build a 512-square-foot swimming pool close to the street at 8 Treasure Island Drive, also in Beach Hampton.

    “This area has a definable character,” Lee White, a member of the panel, said, arguing that the pool would have had a negative affect on the quality of life in the neighborhood where neighbors walk along the streets.

    The board voted 4 to 1 against the proposal, with one member, Don Cirillo, the lone proponent.

    In an article in The Star last week on the board’s meeting that week, Carter Burwell was incorrectly identified as the owner of a house at 33 Whalers Lane. Mr. Burwell and his family live at 98 Marine Boulevard. It is that location for which Mr. Burwell is seeking a variance replace a 3,129-square-foot deck with one of 2,994 square feet and to replace a stone walkway with a wooden one.

    The owners of the Whalers Lane house, identified only as YINZ L.L.C., are seeking a variance for three walkways and 87 square feet of second floor decking.

      Residents of all ages have been invited to get involved in Marine Meadows, the newest Cornell Cooperative Extension program aimed at restoring eelgrass, a vital habitat for shellfish and finfish, in local bays.

     According to the cooperative extension, “Over the last 70 years, eelgrass populations worldwide have declined considerably due to pollution, disturbance and disease.” Pollution prevention activities, along with well-planned restoration efforts, will help to ensure the preservation of this species. Public involvement allows the program to greatly expand its effect.

     Hands-on workshops for volunteers have been taking place around the East End, including one on Saturday at the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton from 10 a.m. to noon. Participants will weave eelgrass shoots into burlap planting discs, to be planted by program staff in restoration sites within local estuaries. The resulting “marine meadows” will serve as a habitat for many fish species, helping to enhance the health and productivity of South Fork bays.

    Saturday’s workshop will be led by Kimberly Barbour, a habitat restoration outreach specialist at the extension’s marine program. Registration, which is requested because of limited space, is free, by calling the museum.

    Close to two dozen speakers at a hearing before the East Hampton Town Board last week on proposed town legislation requiring bars or restaurants to have entertainment permits expressed unanimous opposition to the law. The legislation was billed as an attempt to rein in the numbers of people gathering outdoors at those businesses, in response to complaints from nearby residents about crowds.

    The law would require any establishment offering live music or other entertainment to first obtain a town permit and would allow the town to review and possibly revoke them if there were three zoning code violations within three years.

    Business owners decried an additional regulation that could curtail their ability to maximize their success in the key summer months, while musicians expressed concern about the effect on their opportunities to perform.

    And those concerned about the environment, or focused on the heart of the problem — the recent enormous popularity of several long-lived places in Montauk where constant outdoor parties are affecting residents’ lives — discussed the impact of a law that could legalize big crowds in the outdoor areas of bars and restaurants, in addition to their indoor capacity.

    Many said that the town already has effective zoning and other laws to address isolated problems, and that they should be better enforced.

    “I see a town that has maybe not asserted itself enough when it could have,” John Havlicek said.

    Laraine Creegan said she represented 300 businesses, members of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce, the owners of which are “adamantly opposed” to the measure. “It’s really an enforcement issue,” she said.

    “In my opinion, there’s no reason to do this,” Paul Monte of Gurney’s Inn, the president of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce board of directors, said.

    He outlined the numerous regulations to which businesses such as his are subject and said, “To put the onus on business owners to start counting the number of people outside, as well as the number of people inside . . . it’s much ado about nothing, in my opinion.”

    While expressing a high opinion of Edward Ecker, the current town police chief, Mr. Monte, and others also questioned the provision in the draft law that would give the authority to set maximum outdoor occupancy numbers for individual establishments to the police chief.

    Others were concerned about squelching the summertime activity on which businesses depend. People come here for outdoor enjoyment, Kathy Weiss said. “It seems to me all this new law would do is punish them, and discourage the very people we want to attract. It’s a short enough season without more laws on people and business.” Loud applause followed her comments.

    “We are a resort and a second-home owner community, and people come here to be outside,” said Margaret Turner of the East Hampton Business Alliance.

    Michael Brosnan read a statement from Montauk Citizens’ Voice, a new business group, expressing its “strong opposition.” Businesses are “highly dependent on this type of attraction” he said, and enacting any new rules now leaves too little time for debate before the summer season.

    “This legislation is not the solution the community seeks,” said Jeremy Samuelson of the Group for the East End. If problems from outdoor crowds stem from pre-existing, nonconforming businesses, such as those in residential areas, then the solution should address those and not apply to all businesses, he said.

    At the one person per seven square feet standard proposed for setting occupancy, he said, 6,285 people could be allowed to gather on a one-acre yard. “From an environmental perspective, the greatest concern with this . . . lies in septic concerns,” he said. “The infrastructure on the property should be able to accommodate” the numbers allowed, he said.

    Using Ruschmeyer’s restaurant in Montauk as an example, he said, and calculating about half of its property as open outdoor space, “more than 9,000 people could be patrons at this property and need to use the bathroom. How can this not be perceived as anything but an expansion of a pre-existing use?” he asked.

    The density the new law would allow is “so out of line . . . it’s ridiculous,” Bill Akin said.

    Mr. Samuelson said he wondered how many people would visit Montauk if there were high bacteria counts in open water, or algal blooms. “Our environment is our economy,” he said to applause.

    “In my opinion, this would allow an extraordinary expansion of permitted uses in restaurants and bars, all without the review of our Planning Department or planning board,” Richard Kahn said. “At the same time, it would throw a hand grenade into our zoning code.”

    Debra Foster, a former town councilwoman, characterized the draft legislation as an attempt to undo the present zoning code, which she called “very serious business.”

    “You need to go by [State Environmental Quality Review Act] review, and the town code, and the Suffolk County Department of Health,” she said. She said she had discussed the proposed law with a Health Department official and when she told him of the maximum occupancy that could be allowed, “he couldn’t speak.” Health Department regulations would supersede any town-imposed occupancy numbers, she said.

    Sue Avedon said that the proposal is “legitimizing the expansion of nonconforming uses. Ordinarily that would be subjected to its own individual permit.”

    “People focus on ‘nonconforming,’ ” Supervisor Bill Wilkinson responded. “We seem to forget about ‘pre-existing.’ ” As he has persistently done when discussing the subject, he recited the history of restaurants and clubs like the Surf Lodge and Ruschmeyer’s, emphasizing their longevity. “So I have some sympathy for those people,” he said.

    Jeffrey Bragman, an attorney hired by Ms. Foster to research the proposed law, said that it does not address the problem of crowding cited by those who have complained to the town. “In fact, to the contrary, it seems to embrace it, and expand it, and make it worse.”

    Definitions in the town code detail what can happen at certain kinds of businesses, he said. “You can’t just look out your back window and say, ‘I have a nice yard, I’m going to stick 500 people there.’ ”

    “This is a complete repudiation of 20 years of careful, skillful planning that makes East Hampton what it is,” he told the board. “You are blazing through zoning regulations. It’s unprecedented. I’ve never seen a town board even attempt something like this without environmental review.” The audience applauded his comments.

    “It’s like a go-ahead for businesses to start a whole new business outdoors,” Jeanne Frankl said. “I’m sure that wasn’t what you meant.”

    A number of musicians, who had mobilized a presence at the meeting through Facebook and other means, urged the town board to consider them and their livelihoods.

    “We have a remarkable community of very talented musicians here,” who need more opportunities to perform, said Job Potter, also a former councilman.

    “It is difficult to survive as a musician out here,” Nancy Atlas said.

    “I think that we hear very, very, very, very strongly: no,” said Councilwoman Theresa Quigley at the close of the hearing, adding that she was “especially happy to hear from both sides.” She said the Planning Department was “completely involved in this process,” and that “the specific problem that this law seeks to address is not from a lack of enforcement, it’s one that arises for a lack of a tool to use.”

    Mr. Wilkinson discussed the jobs generated by business spending in the community. “And it’s called the economic ripple effect of business,” he said. “I will encourage every business opportunity in this town.”

    Romeo and Juliet had nothing on the magical, and these days often ill-fated, rendezvous that have occurred for millions of years up and down the East Coast shoreline under the full moons of spring and summer.

    The rays from last weekend’s super moon, whose fullness coincided with our satellite’s perigee — its closest brush with Earth all year — surely plucked at the blue-blooded heartstrings of horseshoe crabs, guiding them close to shore in search of mates and enduring posterity. Both could be in jeopardy.

    Dowling College in Oakdale is helping to guarantee their future through a Long Island-wide survey. Volunteers are needed.

    The blood of these “living fossils” really is blue — not only a sign of their nobility, but because instead of hemoglobin it carries oxygen via copper-based hemocyanin. Their blood also contains amebocytes that guard against pathogens, making horseshoe crab blood an important tool in medical science. With a special state permit, laboratories may collect crabs, draw blood, and return them to the sea. Their value to science is relatively new in the total scheme of things.

    Truly ancient are the animals themselves. Limulus polyphemus and three other varieties of horseshoe crab are said to be among the earth’s oldest living invertebrates. Fossils have been found in sedimentary rock from the late Ordovician period, about 450 million years ago. Not that far back, but old, is the animals’ link in a unique food chain that spans many thousands of miles and the discriminating tastes of wading shorebirds.

    On moonlit nights in May and June, the “crabs,” which are actually arthropods more closely related to spiders and scorpions, enter shallow water. The female digs a hole in the sand. There is an unknown something in the grains that says, “This is the place.”

    She lays her eggs, between 60,000 and 100,000 of them, in a number of smaller batches. The male, clinging on the female’s helmet-like shell from behind, fertilizes the eggs. They take about two weeks to hatch.

    The red knot, ruddy brown in color and about the size of a blue jay, is a species of shorebird that times its migration from as far south as Tierra del Fuego to coincide with the horseshoe crabs’ mating season along the Eastern Seaboard. The knots arrive thin and hungry from their many thousands of miles on the wing. They gorge on the horseshoe caviar before moving on to their summer digs.

    Turns out that “horsefeet,” as they are known in these parts, are about the best bait (when chopped in half) to lure conch into traps. Conchs, or welks, become scungilli when they are boiled from their shells and then steamed until tender.

    The harvest of horseshoe crabs is strictly regulated by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. Harvesters must be licensed in this state by the Department of Environmental Conservation. Fishermen are limited to 25 crabs per day, although the quota changes based on harvest numbers compiled from fishermen’s mandatory reports.

    In 2004, in response to reports of a decline in the horseshoe crab population on Long Island and elsewhere, Dowling College began an annual survey. Dowling’s Center for Estuarine, Environmental, and Coastal Oceans Monitoring is now taking its 10th horseshoe crab inventory. The purpose of the survey is to gauge horseshoe crab population trends and habitat suitability along Long Island’s 600 miles of shoreline.

    To participate, would-be volunteers can contact Sixto Portilla at [email protected] or John Tanacredi, Ph.D., at [email protected].

    Our local Limulus variety ranges from the Canadian maritime provinces to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. There are only four varieties on Earth, three of which are in Asia, and two of these are in severe decline. On one of Japan’s southernmost islands, large crowds turn out to encourage a single breeding pair, according to Mr. Tanacredi.

    Mr. Tanacredi, a world-renowned expert on horseshoe crabs, is chairman of Dowling’s department of earth and marine science and directs the monitoring program. In addition to the annual survey, Dowling raises and releases approximately 10,000 horseshoe crabs into the Great South Bay each year.

    Loss of habitat is the biggest contributor to a decline in horseshoe crab numbers at a rate the Dowling survey puts at about 10 percent in just the past five years. Dowling’s survey volunteers check on 65 known breeding sites from Brooklyn to Montauk. In recent years, the most productive breeding area has been Plum Beach on Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn.

    Last summer Mr. Tanacredi visited China, where he helped coordinate the first international conference on Asian horseshoe crabs at Hong Kong University. Chinese scientists visited Dowling College in 2007 in part to get a handle on the Asian crabs’ decline. The new Chinese National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium in Taiwan has a wing dedicated to the conservation of Asian horseshoe crabs, closely related to our own.

    In Asia the crabs are harvested for scientific purposes, but, unlike the variety here, Asian horseshoes wind up on dinner plates throughout Southeast Asia and, although an acquired taste to say the least — “They’re pretty rough,” Mr. Tanacredi said — they are considered an exotic food.

    “What’s happening is like hot dog vendors in Manhattan. There are stalls with a host of invertebrates to eat, including horseshoe crabs. If they’re gravid, their eggs are eaten like caviar. Just recently, an airline container at Kennedy Airport was found to contain hundreds en route to China.”

    And, they are important culturally. In parts of China they are called “husband and wives” crabs and are considered an essential presence at weddings.

    Mr. Tanacredi said that although Limulus was in better shape than its Asian cousins, loss of habitat was endangering them. Horseshoe crabs are harmless. That spiky tail is nature’s clever lever, used by overturned crabs to right themselves. It’s not enough to protect them from loss of habitat resulting from pollution and coastal development.

    “There’s a slow, incremental, long-term reduction of the animals’ habitat, a chronic issue,” Mr. Tanacredi said. “That we could push them to extinction after all these years is a sad commentary.”

    Residents in school districts around the state will vote on budgets and school board candidates on Tuesday, following a season of slashing and burning as many of the districts struggled to remain under Albany’s newly-imposed 2-percent property tax levy cap. Positions have been terminated and programs have been reduced or, in some cases, eliminated completely in order for districts to come into compliance.

    Locally, only Amagansett’s board has decided to pierce the cap, given increased enrollment and therefore increased tuition for Amagansett students attending the East Hampton Middle or High School. In Springs and East Hampton, even though the budget totals are lower than the current year’s, tax rates have increased due, in both cases, to lowered revenues.

    The tax rate is not the same as the property tax levy, and districts have been permitted by the State Department of Education’s series of complex directives to exempt certain expenses — such as capital projects, fund balances, and tuition  — from the calculation of the final amount to be raised by taxes. The tax cap limits only the tax levy, not the tax rate or the budget. Because of the exemptions, the tax levies in every local district are actually increasing by more than 2 percent.

    Amagansett has proposed a budget of $9.67 million, a 5.21-percent increase over this year’s budget of $9.2 million. The estimated tax rate increase is 3.89 percent, reflected as $28.49 per $100 of assessed value compared to $27.42 per $100 this year. The budget will need a supermajority of voters, over 60 percent, in order to pass. In Amagansett’s case, the increased amount to be raised by taxes is greater than its exemptions allow. Mary Lownes, the incumbent, is running to retain her seat on the board. She is being challenged by Rona Klopman.    

    Springs has proposed a budget of $24.63 million, .84 percent below this year’s $24.84 million budget. A tax rate increase of 3.19 percent is due to almost $1 million lost in non-tax revenue, according to Colleen Card, the district’s business administrator. The rate of $88.97 per $100 of assessed value is the highest in the five districts in East Hampton Town, and is marginally higher than 2011-12’s $86.22 per $100.

    John Grant, an incumbent, is running to retain his seat, and he is challenged by Dennis Donatuti, the former principal of the John M. Marshall Elementary School.

    East Hampton has a proposed budget for 2012-13 of $62.84 million, a 2.43- percent decrease from this year’s budget of $64.4 million. The decrease was achieved in four months of budget workshops, a series of cuts, and early retirement incentives. There is an estimated tax rate increase of 3.18 percent, reflected as $47.45 per $100 of assessed value compared to 2011-12’s $45.99 per $100.

    Liz Pucci is running unopposed to retain her seat. Christina DeSanti, running for the seat being vacated by Laura Anker Grossman, also is unopposed.

    Montauk has a proposed budget for 2012-13 of $18.5 million, a 2.2-percent increase over this year’s $18.1 million budget. The estimated tax rate increase of 2.87 percent is reflected as a tax of $53.16 per $100 of assessed value compared to 2011-12’s $51.68 per $100. Kelly White is running unopposed to retain her seat on the board.

    Wainscott has a proposed budget for 2012-13 of $3.5 million, a 2.11-percent decrease over this year’s budget of $3.58 million. There is an estimated tax rate increase of 2.24 percent, reflected as $18.20 per $100 of assessed value compared to 2011-12’s $17.80 per $100. Kelly Anderson is running for the seat vacated by Iris Osborn; David Eagan is running unopposed to retain his place on the board.

    The 2-percent tax-levy cap has been imposed until at least 2016, meaning that for school districts across New York, there is more slashing and burning to come.

    Despite voices of fear and opposition, Mayor Brian Gilbride and the members of the Sag Harbor Village Board except Timothy Culver voted Tuesday night to allow ferries in the village, amending an existing law that prohibits them. While it is possible that the proposed plan could be put in action in time for the season, several more legal hurdles remain to be cleared.

    Pierce Hance, a former village mayor who has been a leading critic of the move, said at the public hearing before the vote that ferries were one of only three uses precluded by the village code, a decision made in 2008. He said the project was “not well planned,” and that the chamber of commerce, which met last week, did not view it positively.

    Jennifer Houser, a resident and a former trustee, said the reason there is no ferry landing in East Hampton, Montauk, or Springs is that “they don’t want it,” and “Sag Harbor doesn’t want it either.” Day-trippers, she said, were more likely to buy ice cream cones than to spend money in upscale boutiques. She asked why there was no review process in place, and suggested that people from Moriches and Shirley might come to Sag Harbor, park, and use the ferry as a jumping-off point on the way to the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut.

    State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., who is also the Sag Harbor Village attorney, ran down some provisions of the temporary permit later that evening. It specifies, he said, that an application must be made for land use and the use of Long Wharf, which would require another hearing before approval. The village could impose a landing fee, along with “reasonable conditions,” at that time, said Mr. Thiele. The local Water Revitalization Plan and the State Environmental Quality Review Act will also apply, he said.

    Mr. Gilbride said that during an unspecified trial period the village would be in close touch with the chief of police, foot patrol officers, the dockmaster, and planning board members for input and recommendations. The Zoning Board of Appeals might also designate a watchdog committee, the mayor suggested.

    Some speakers were worried about children who swim, sail, and kayak in village waters. Parking was also a worry, amid concerns that people will no longer shop in the village if traffic, already bad, gets any worse.

    Ann Lieber, an administrator at the Custom House, shook her head at the opposing voices. “We used to have a ferry, they used to come to the Custom House,” she said. “I think the ferry would support the stores and restaurants, and historic places, such as the Whaling Museum. It’s only for the summer that we’re trying it. Why not give it a shot?”

    “They can’t park on Main Street, it’s only two-hour parking,” said Ms. Lieber. “And the North Fork people will not have their cars either.”

    “I have lived here for 10 years, and have always had a problem parking here for 10 years,” said Bob Fitzsimons. He said there was nothing to fear but fear itself, and that water travel was forward thinking. “It’s a passenger ferry,” he said. “I think it’s a good idea to try it.” He suggested creating a slush fund in case of spilled gas or other disaster.

    Bruce Stafford, a board member, agreed. “It’s a waterfront village, there is never any parking, and I don’t think its going to be any worse,” he said. “I think it’s worth a try. We can always pull the plug on it. I would go to Greenport with my family.”

    Kate Plumb, an astrologer, told the gathering that she had done Sag Harbor’s astrological chart and it is an Aries village. “We have to take on our identity as a pioneer, and do something different,” she said, explaining that the sign of Aries is known for innovation and enterprise.

    Edward Gregory, a longtime board member, said the ferry opponents reminded him of when “7-Eleven was going to end our world in the village, and then we allowed it . . . 7-Eleven is quite a good neighbor.” He said that while it was “always easier to say no to something, after a lot of thought I would like to at least try it.”

    Jeff Lynch, the president of Hampton Jitney, who will head the proposed venture, spoke of it briefly and softly, stating that many pubic transportation advocates and studies support it. He thanked the board for its consideration.    At decision time, Robbie Stein, a board member, said using waterways as transportation was something to be considered, although “we do not know how it will affect business or traffic. I do want more answers from the Jitney, but right now I do want to give it a chance.”

    Mr. Culver, the lone naysayer on the board, said many of his High Street and Bay Street neighbors had called him, all of them expressing opposition. “I am going to vote against it,” he said, but “I do compliment the village for looking at a creative solution.”

    “We still have a lot of hurdles,” Mr. Lynch said yesterday. “It is unclear if we can clear them all before a summer launch.” He will soon submit a formal application, spelling out support and ground transportation plans, to both Sag Harbor and Greenport. “They will give us the path to follow,” he said. “The bottom line, I have said a few times, is, if we feel it will not work effectively, then we will kill it ourselves.” 

     Greenport is to hold its public hearing tonight at 6.