The Surf Lodge, Montauk’s hot summer spot, will be mellowing down a bit this summer with a new ownership group, Montauk Properties L.L.C., it was announced Monday. The new team will still feature Jayma Cardoso as its day-to-day manager and public face, but Rob McKinley, Jamie Mulholland, and Steve Kamali, other former owners, are out of the picture, according to Montauk Properties.

    Ms. Cardoso sees this as a chance to reassess and reinvigorate the Surf Lodge, focusing more on the hotel and dining experience, as opposed to simply being a nighttime destination.

    “For me, it’s my baby, I helped build it,” Ms. Cardoso said. “I love Montauk. It is a special place.” It is Ms. Cardoso’s goal to establish strong lines of communication with the community, a vision shared by Michael Walrath, a digital advertising innovator, and the head of Montauk Properties. Mr. Walrath was the founder and C.E.O. of Right Media, before its purchase by Yahoo in 2007.

    “I think the original vision [for the Surf Lodge] was to have it be a more mellow place than it became,” Mr. Walrath said Monday. “Our vision is going back to the a much simpler plan.”

    Ms. Cardoso’s plan for the restaurant is to emphasize reservation seating, as well as an earlier closing time, in order to cut down on the influx of late-night partiers, according to a Surf Lodge representative.

    As for the current litigious relationship with East Hampton Town, it is Mr. Walrath’s goal to bridge the gap between the sides. The Surf Lodge is due back in court on May 14 in front of Justice Catherine A. Cahill, who is entertaining a motion by the restaurant’s attorney, Thomas Horn, to dismiss many of the town’s nearly 700 zoning citations against it as duplicative and repetitive.

    During a March 19 conference in chambers with Colin Astarita, the Surf Lodge’s former attorney, Justice Cahill and the town attorneys were skeptical about a potential sale, believing that it might simply be a way to avoid penalties incurred.

    Mr. Walrath said on Monday that Montauk Properties had been a minor partner in the old ownership structure, but now was the sole owner of the restaurant.

    Before news of the sale had broken, “I felt we were close to an agreement in concept,” Mr. Horn said on Monday. “I’m not as sure now. There appears to be some misinformation that got to the town’s side.”

    Still, he said, he was optimistic that an agreement will be reached.

    “I think when reasonable people sit down, this is not going to be that hard a problem to solve,” Mr. Walrath said.

    The Surf Lodge has also been before the town’s zoning board of appeals, seeking to overturn a determination by the town’s senior building inspector,  who ruled that an outdoor wait service station and dry bar constituted an expansion of the business and would require a variance from the zoning board. The establishment does not conform to current zoning regulations, but is allowed to operate as is because it existed before those regulations were established. However, expansion is prohibited.

    Jeremy Samuelson, an environmental advocate who represented Group for the East End and the Concerned Citizens of Montauk in contesting the appeal on April 24, said Monday that “the environmental community would welcome the opportunity for a fresh start,” as long as that includes “concrete action” to address the antiquated septic system on the grounds which, he said, endangers Fort Pond.

    The Surf Lodge also has a site plan application in front of the town planning board.

    Deer in the twilight at the side of the road. Deer dashing across the yellow lines, causing drivers to swerve and hit the brakes. Deer in the yard stripping the leaves off nurtured ornamentals. Deer staring up brazenly from a meal of just-planted pansies. Herds of deer cruising through farmers’ fields, wreaking havoc on tender crops.

    Deer causing accidents and carrying ticks that make people sick with Lyme disease, babesiosis, ehrlichiosis.

    Too many deer, most residents seem to agree. For several years, people have been imploring the East Hampton Town Board to take some kind of action on the burgeoning problem.

    After holding a “deer summit” in 2010, the board asked its nature preserve committee to make recommendations regarding deer management on town properties. To continue the effort, a deer management working group was formed, under Councilman Dominick Stanzione’s direction.

    “We are in a deer emergency situation,” he told the town board on Tuesday. “The public health of the people is at stake.” During a board work session, Mr. Stanzione reviewed a draft committee report that could form the basis for a comprehensive deer-management plan.

    Collisions between vehicles and deer are increasing, he said, as are instances of tick-borne diseases, and damage to their property is prompting more and more homeowners to install deer fences — which, according to the committee’s report, “are making an unmistakable negative impact on the character of our community.”

    Among the suggestions in the report, he said, are allowing an incremental increase in hunting and, possibly, an “emergency” culling through targeted hunting, with an eye toward reducing the number of deer by half within five years “to an ecologically and culturally sustainable level.” Nonlethal methods, such as fertility control, should also be implemented, Mr. Stanzione said.

    The management committee, he said, tried to incorporate different views, including those of persons opposed to hunting, who, he said, “in the past, may have had an impact on boards not acting” decisively on the deer problem.

    Other recommendations include developing a multi-town regional approach, creating an established budget line for the management program, and pursuing grants and other sources of funding.

    The committee made several specific recommendations, among them opening more lands to hunters, including nonresidents; creating a nuisance deer hotline, and revising deer-fencing regulations. An essential first step, it said, would be to obtain a reliable estimate of the deer population, which could be consulted as time goes on to gauge the effectiveness of deer-control efforts. The committee recommended an aerial survey using infrared cameras to count the herds.

    That process, and follow-up observations on the ground, noted Marguerite Wolffsohn, the town planning director, at Tuesday’s meeting, would provide not only a population estimate but information critical to planning a successful campaign by sharpshooters, such as data about the location and movements of the herd.

    Coordination among the various entities that own and manage open land in East Hampton is also a key element, said Councilman Stanzione.

    “Local preserved and native ecosystems have incurred some of the most significant environmental damage,” according to the report. “The drastic negative environmental impacts to the forest understory and the ecology of non-forest habitats also damage populations of other wildlife.”

    “The absence of any coordination across land management constituencies has contributed to the damaging growth in the deer population. Any plan must address this issue,” it adds.

    Councilwoman Theresa Quigley expressed impatience at Tuesday’s meeting, saying that, with the number of deer she sees while driving around East Hampton, the town should act immediately. “I really don’t understand what the plan is,” she said.

    She repeatedly pressed for more specifics.  Mr. Stanzione explained that the draft report contains the committee’s recommendations, as well as options for the board to consider.

    Rather than review elements of the plan, Ms. Quigley said, “I would rather just say ‘go for it.’ ”

    Mr. Stanzione responded that “We have legal obligations and processes to go through before we can begin.” Any deer management plan, he said, must be adopted following New York State Environmental Quality Review Act procedures, with a full review and public hearing required, as well as approval by the Department of Environmental Conservation, before it can be put into place. Once adopted, it can become part of the official town comprehensive plan.

    “[The draft report] is the basis for a final plan,” the councilman said. “The preliminary work this body did is going to save us an enormous amount of time as we move forward.”

    He thanked the 30 members of the committee, who, he said, “dealt honestly and earnestly with all the key issues dealing with deer, and came to a consensus” as to what to recommend.

    The committee members included State Senator Kenneth J. LaValle, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, and representatives from groups such as the D.E.C., the Group for the East End, the East Hampton Group for Wildlife, East Hampton Sportsmen’s Alliance, and the state and county parks departments

    “I think when you read through it, Theresa, you’ll find it’s mostly recommendations,” Mr. Stanzione told Ms. Quigley on Tuesday. “And the decisions — the committee wants the best, but it costs more, and the board has to make the decision. It’ll make sense once you read it.”

    At a work session on Tuesday, after the board reviews the report, it is expected to be the subject of discussion. It will be posted on the town’s Web site, town.east-hampton.ny.us, Ms. Wolffsohn said, for public review.

    The memory of early April’s major brush fire in Manorville may be receding, but preparations for an even greater fire are intensifying throughout South Fork fire departments. The fear of a blaze on the level of the Pine Barrens fire of 1995, when smoke from Hampton Bays could be seen at Montauk Point, persists, because despite Tuesday’s heavy rain, this year remains one of the driest in nearly three decades.

    Measuring from January through April 21, 1995 was the fourth driest year recorded since the National Weather Service began compiling eastern Long Island records at MacArthur Airport in  1984, according to Michael Layer, a meteorologist with the service.

  Even adding in Tuesday’s approximately .74 inch of rain, the first third of this year has been the second driest, Mr. Layer said Tuesday.

    By the time August had rolled around in 1995, it had become the driest year on record for the time period, Mr. Layer said, making the risk of fire extraordinarily high.

    Chief Richard Schoen of the Montauk Fire Department remembers the Pine Barrens fire clearly. “We spent three days there, camped out at Hampton Bays firehouse. There were probably 200 pieces of equipment.”

    One of the two trucks lost during that blaze belonged to the Montauk department. As the trucks rolled toward the inferno, “the truck behind us got hung up on a log just when the wind, which was blowing northwest, blew northeast and blew right at them,” Chief Schoen said. The men had to run for their lives. When they returned, the vehicle was incinerated.

    The chief also recalled the Hither Hills fire of 1986, another drought year. “It was set off by a train brake locked up and setting off sparks.”

    When the brush is dry and the wind is blowing, one spark is all that is needed to start a blaze. The thought of such a fire in today’s Montauk gave Chief Schoen pause. “We have far more houses here south of the highway. It would be an issue,” he said.

    The recent brush fire in Manorville, which many South Fork fire departments helped fight, could prove invaluable training if a catastrophic fire event does occur this year.

    “The guys going up and into the woods and fighting the fire, that’s good experience,” said Tom Bono, the new chief of the East Hampton Fire Department. On April 16 at around 2:30 p.m., East Hampton sent a crew of eight or nine firefighters to the Manorville fire under the leadership of Ray Harden, the former chief. Chief Bono stayed in East Hampton and organized the relief crew.

    “Everyone wanted to help, and share their expertise,” said Allen Bennett Jr., a captain with the Amagansett Fire Department at the time and now a second assistant chief. Mark Bennett, then the department’s chief, selected crews based on experience, also keeping in mind future shifts and potential needs in the home district.

    The experience, said Allen Bennett Jr., was pretty intense. He was acting officer in charge of a brush truck sent to Manorville. In all, 30 members from his department assisted in that fire, splitting time between two shifts. Mr. Bennett was part of the first shift, which began at 4:30 p.m. on April 16, and fought the fire until 1 a.m., when the second shift came on. They stayed until nighttime operations were called off due to safety concerns.

    Equipped with four-wheel-drive caged brush trucks designed to knock over trees, the Amagansett firefighters had followed the East Hampton Fire Department a mile and a half into the woods to the fire. A line of seven trucks continuously encircled the fire, spraying the ground with 600 gallons of water per truck, as embers fell from trees like orange rain, he recalled last month.

    Mr. Bennett’s truck got a flat tire while deep in the woods, and at first, the firefighters did not know what went wrong. They heard a “pop” and “ashes were everywhere,” he said. They called back to Amagansett asking for a new tire, and drove out of the woods on three wheels behind an East Hampton truck that cleared the way, then changed the tire and went back into the maelstrom.

    The Sag Harbor Fire Department was also activated on the afternoon of April 16, asked to send one engine truck with 15 firefighters to stand on call at the Hampton Bays firehouse, according to its chief, Peter Garypie. They were released from duty around 9:30 p.m., and were mobilized again at 5:15 a.m. on April 17, when they were asked to send a brush truck and tanker to Manorville.

    Led by Chief Garypie and Jimmy Frazier, a second assistant chief, 16 members helped fight the fire until about 10:30 that morning, when they returned to the staging area while a helicopter dropped water. “They had most of it controlled,” the chief said, but the firefighters returned to the woods to extinguish spot fires and supply water with their tanker truck.

    About half of the Sag Harbor crew has been with the department for five years or less, and the Manorville fire was an important experience for the department’s new members, Chief Garypie said. “Everyone came home safe,” he said, and “everyone did a phenomenal job.”

    Balancing the needs of fighting a major fire to the west and protecting the houses and land that firefighters leave behind is one of the jobs of the district’s four Suffolk County department fire coordinators.

    These coordinators, generally former chiefs, are elected by the department chiefs and confirmed by the town. They act as “super chiefs,” and must understand the needs of and be able to communicate with all the local departments, as well as the impacted fire zone.

    “Once the local fire department finds out the scope of the event, they start calling in other resources,” Bruce Bates, one of the four coordinators and a member of the Springs Fire Department, said last Thursday. “They go through the county fire system. The county is divided up into [10] divisions.”

    When a call comes from a division west of East Hampton, multiple layers of coordination are required. “If we send everything west, we have nothing left,” said Mr. Bates, who has been a coordinator for almost 17 years. 

    In the most recent fire, the Montauk brush truck was stationed in Amagansett, because it was the only brush truck left on the eastern part of the South Fork.

    According to Chief Schoen of the Montauk Fire Department, a crew for the truck plus a chief spent roughly 24 hours on round-the-clock duty in the Amagansett firehouse, ready for action if a brush fire ignited in East Hampton town.

    In East Hampton, Chief Bono had a pool contractor, Paul Hatch, station a water tanker truck of his own at the firehouse because the department’s vehicles were depleted, sure that the East Hampton Fire Department was prepared for any eventuality.

    Springs sent one tanker with 3,000 gallons of water to the staging area for the Manorville fire, Chief Claflin said last Thursday. Because Springs is mostly residential, it does not have a brush truck, the chief explained. The Springs Fire Department’s job was to make sure the trucks in the field had full tanks of water.

    “As chief, I can only organize and supervise a certain number of people. The coordinator makes all the decisions,” Chief Claflin said. The coordinator calling the shots on the scene during the recent fire was Kent Howie of the Amagansett Fire Department.

    With that experience behind them, local departments are making preparations for a wildfire, but training can be a challenge. “You can’t set fire to the woods and put it out,” Chief Schoen said.

    The departments are conducting various wildfire training sessions. “We did a drill on Monday [April 23] night with chain saw and all three brush trucks,” Chief Schoen said.

    Another exercise the departments run in preparation for major fire events is  a water-shuttle drill, where they practice transferring wter faro one tanker to another.

    Proactive steps are being taken along the Long Island Rail Road tracks. “A lot of our brush fires occur along the tracks,” Chief Schoen said. The primary culprits, he explained, are sparks from the wheels and brakes, but lit cigarette butts tossed by passengers smoking between the cars is a cause as well. The tracks run through uninhabited thick brush. Engineers frequently spot these fires but have a hard time pinpointing their location to firefighters, with recognizable landmarks sometimes miles apart.

    A solution being instituted by the Montauk firefighters in cooperation with the Boy Scouts and Eagle Scouts is old tech and reliable — numbered sign posts placed equidistant from Navy Road in Montauk to Amagansett, allowing the engineers to pinpoint a fire and report it to the local department.

    Another solution, according to the chief, is for the town and state to keep the trails through the brush clear. “Maintaining the trails is important so that we have access to them,” he said.

    But the best solution to the fire threat is out of the firefighters’ hands — rain, and a lot of it.

    East Hampton Town’s community preservation fund, which had been raided to cover expenses in other parts of the town budget during years of financial mismanagement under a prior administration, was made whole in the last quarter of 2011 — “a big accomplishment,” Len Bernard, the town budget officer, said on Tuesday as he presented a financial report to the town board. In addition, current financial management has enabled the town to end 2011 with a surplus in a number of other funds.

    “There is no money due to the C.P.F.,” Mr. Bernard said. The final, necessary repayment to the C.P.F. was one of the last pieces of the effort to untangle years of incomplete and improper financial practices, which resulted in an accumulated deficit of $27 million.

    With state legislative authority, the town had issued bonds to cover the deficit, borrowing about $5 million more than was needed on the advice of a financial consultant, Mr. Bernard said. A tight budget, with more revenue coming in than expected, and spending below what was anticipated, also helped build surpluses.

    The town’s financial standing is good, Mr. Bernard said, adding that a recent review by Moody’s Investor Service sustained the town’s A1 bond rating, and its “stable outlook.” 

    Charlene Kagel, an accountant for the town, said that at the end of 2011, the town’s main operating fund had a surplus of $6.8 million, with $2.4 million added to it during the year. The “B” fund, another operating fund, ended the year with a $1.4 million balance, with $223,400 built up during 2011. Also ending 2011 with a surplus were the town highway and capital funds, and the airport fund, which had a $2.1 million surplus.

    Although the board welcomed Mr. Bernard’s news, Councilwoman Theresa Quigley questioned whether the town should accumulate such surpluses. “Is it fair to tax people [for a] $63 million [budget] when we have $20 million sitting in the bank?” she asked, noting that the surpluses represent a considerable percentage of this year’s overall budget.

    “The answer is yes,” Mr. Bernard said. A town goal is to maintain a surplus in each fund of 20 percent of that fund’s overall budget, he said. He also explained that in devising the 2011 and 2012 budgets, the town had appropriated some money from surpluses in certain funds as revenue “in order to not overtax the taxpayer.”

    Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione congratulated Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, Mr. Bernard, and Ms. Kagel for their work on the town’s finances.

    “When we came into office,” Mr. Stanzione said, “it was almost incomprehensible that we would be able to get a handle on it in such a short period of time.”

    “We were actually talking bankruptcy at one time,” Mr. Wilkinson said. “The other thing that bothers me is the naiveté of some — and it’s come up in this audience — to say that was a one-time thing you’ve done with finance.”

    “If you understand finance, you have to attack the foundations of finance and put disciplines in place,” he said.

    Last year, Mr. Bernard reported, “we ended the year without adding any new debt,” with the exception of the borrowing to cover the budget deficit. Because some debt was being paid off, repayments on that borrowing was incorporated into the budget “without adding to the tax levy,” he said.

    The town’s outside auditing firm, Nawrocki Smith, should have a draft 2011 audit report completed in about a month, Mr. Bernard said. Ms. Kagel had prepared audit documents that will be submitted to the firm as well as the state comptroller, he said, saving the $15,000 to $20,000 it used to cost to have an outside firm do that work.

    In addition, Ms. Kagel said, an audit of the community preservation fund for 2011 has just been completed. The fund ended the year with an approximately $30 million balance, she said, though some of that money is committed for pending purchases.

    “We are actively pursuing properties on a routine basis,” Mr. Wilkinson said. In 2011, Mr. Bernard reported, $14.3 million came in to the preservation fund, from a 2-percent real estate transfer tax, and $16 million was spent to buy land.

    East Hampton is one of five eastern Suffolk towns selected by the state comptroller for routine audits reviewing Highway Departments’ expenditures, Ms. Kagel told the board. The review began last week and will last up to five weeks. The comptroller’s office will issue an overall report of its findings and specific reports for each town.

    Within Town Hall, Ms. Kagel said, audits by the budget office staff are continuing. An audit of LTV, the provider of local programming to which the town funnels a Cablevision fee, has been completed, she said, as has a petty cash audit. A look at how various town departments handle petty cash showed “very good results,” she said, and an audit of cash collection practices will begin in the summer.

    “Safe, reliable, and comfortable transportation for non-motorized travelers” — including pedestrian walkways, marked bicycle routes, and bike lanes — is being planned for the South Fork’s state roads, according to New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr.

    The improvements, now in the design phase, are expected to commence next spring under the supervision of the State Department of Transportation, and will put the roads in compliance with both state standards and those of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

    “We have worked long and hard to change the attitude that our roads are only for the automobile,” Mr. Thiele said in an e-mail on Saturday. He has spearheaded traffic calming measures and bike lane projects along Route 114, for example, “to encourage pedestrian and bicycle use of our roadways,” he wrote, adding that the projects will be another step toward creating more livable communities. 

    The state projects will include filling in gaps in sidewalks that are shorter than half a mile in length, and additional marked bicycle lanes to “address critical connections in our local bicycle network,” according to a release from Mr. Thiele’s office. During the process, other improvements may be provided as well, he said, such as curbs, signs, and the replacement of paving.

    Upgrades to bike lanes, shoulder repair, signs, parking limitations, and pavement markings are planned for Montauk Highway through Water Mill, Wainscott, Sagaponack, and East Hampton.

    In Montauk, Ditch Plain and Montauk Point State Park will see improvements too, and there will be improvements from Navajo Lane to Eton Road on Napeague and from Bluff Road to Dune Lane in Amagansett.

    Sag Harbor Village Police Chief Tom Fabiano said yesterday that he is trying to come up with a plan for the village. He worked with Sinead FitzGibbon in 2005 to develop a bike route to connect cycle lanes in Southampton and East Hampton Towns to new lanes in the village. He encourages bicycles as transportation in general, but not through the village business district, due to safety concerns. The current bicycle route bypasses Main Street, bringing traffic down Long Island Avenue instead.

    “In this changing time, we are all more interested in healthier lifestyles and in minimizing our use of fossil fuels. Bicycle riding for both sport and for transportation helps in both of these endeavors,” Theresa Quigley, an East Hampton Town councilwoman and liaison to the town’s bicycle committee, said in an e-mail.

    “Our roads are not really bike friendly. . . . It was in this light that last year’s board began the committee,” she said. The East Hampton Town Bicycle Committee, formed in June of 2011, has nine members who serve a one-year term. All are bicycle enthusiasts who had worked on the idea prior to the town’s input, she said.

    The committee makes recommendations to the town board regarding safety for bicyclists of all skill levels.

    The town code states that it encourages bicycle use, both for transportation as well as for leisure activity, and the town included bicycles in its 2005 comprehensive traffic plan as an alternative means of transportation, and to both reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality.

    The East Hampton bicycle committee determined that the best way to begin was to focus on one discreet route, and, after considering routes in all the hamlets, it decided on one in Amagansett. The route begins at the train station, runs across Montauk Highway, down Atlantic Avenue, then crosses Bluff Road, and ends at the Atlantic Avenue beach.

    Although it is a simple route, Ms. Quigley said that getting it done is very complicated. JoAnne Pahwul, the assistant planning director, has been responsible for working out the details with the committee, the State D.O.T., and the town attorney’s office to “pull together what we need to do to get the project finished,” Ms. Quigley said.

    “We have a plan,” she said. “We have a willing highway superintendent, Stephen Lynch, who is merely awaiting our word and he will be ready to paint the [markings] along the approved route.” The town board has approved the route, the committee has commented positively on it, and the Parks and Recreation Department is working on building bicycle racks to install at the beach, Ms. Quigley wrote in an e-mail on Sunday.

    “We are happy that New York State is finally moving forward on creating bike lanes,” she said. “It is an issue that is important to our community and our safety,” she said.

    The East Hampton Town Board’s recent granting of an “exclusive commercial mass-gathering permit” to a firm that plans to offer surfing lessons on three town-owned beaches has brought to a boil an issue that’s been simmering for years on the town’s back burner.

    The East Hampton Town Trustees, who own and manage most of the town’s beaches other than in Montauk, have long opposed business activities on the sands, seeing it as their paramount responsibility to provide free access to perhaps the town’s most valuable resource. Last week the trustees agreed that the commercial use of town beaches should be prohibited, and asked town board members to join them in talks to come up with an acceptable approach — if there is one. 

    On April 5, the town board unanimously agreed to allow the Main Beach Surf and Sport shop to give surfing lessons at beaches off Beach Lane in Wainscott and Napeague Lane in Amagansett, and at Ditch Plain in Montauk. Each lesson was  expected to draw 10 or 15 students, with the locations to be changed on a rotating basis.

    The surf shop submitted its application to the trustees as well. It was denied. The trustees have also received a request from East Hampton Volleyball, which would like to hold pay-for-play league play on Indian Wells and Atlantic Beaches in Amagansett.

    Last Wednesday, Diane McNally, the trustee clerk, sent a memo to Town Councilwoman Theresa Quigley advising her that “at this time, this board does not support the issuance of exclusive commercial mass-gathering permits on public lands. The trustee beaches committee would welcome an opportunity to meet with you to further discuss this issue.”

    “There’s going to be a problem,” said Nat Miller, a trustee, during the nine-member board’s April work session last week.

    “We can see the writing on the wall,” Ms. McNally said.

    “We don’t want the beach to become a commercial enterprise,” echoed Joe Bloecker.

    Several years ago, the trustees drew a line in the sand when it came to out-of-town organizations seeking to hold events, particularly a growing number of benefits on town beaches.

    “Just today we got a request from a magazine from away that wanted to use the beach to hand out sample products,” Ms. McNally said Tuesday, adding that the requests from out-of-town organizations kept growing. “How do you say no to a benefit for children’s leukemia? But it was getting huge.”

    Trustees now limit benefit gatherings to resident groups such as the annual Sand Castle competition in Amagansett.

    During a phone interview, the trustee clerk said the issue was complicated by the fact that regulations defining the use of public beaches for mass gatherings have a similar history as regulations for beach driving and shellfish harvesting. That is, these regulations, as they appear in the town code, are a joint creation — brought about by hard-fought compromises — of the trustees and the municipal government.

    Trustees have legislative powers, but no enforcement powers. From their point of view, having their stance on public resources reflected in the town code is a way of enforcing it. The joint regulations have also helped to preclude squabbles over jurisdiction.    

    During last week’s meeting, Ms. McNally said she had no problem with beach gatherings of over 50 people, such as weddings or picnics, as long as no structures were involved.

    “It’s the exclusive mass gatherings that started to tip the scale,” she said. “The [town] board just approved surfing lessons on the beach, but what happens when the public shows up and wants to put down a towel on public property? It’s a conflict that should be addressed before it’s here.” Ms. McNally added that the question could “potentially” become a problem vis-a-vis the town board unless something can be worked out.

    John Courtney, the trustees’ attorney, reminded the board that if push came to shove, “It’s their code, but it’s our property. You let this happen, or not let it happen. You can do what you want to do. You are not bound by their code. You can say no because you say no, not because of what their code says.”

    Ms. McNally urged that a committee of trustees meet with town board members. “Throw it on the table. We don’t have a problem yet. Let’s see if we can work it out.” 

    During a town board work session on Tuesday, Councilwoman Quigley suggested the board not allow commercial activity on any of the town’s protected bathing beaches. “On the other hand,” she said, “paddle-boarding is nice, surf lessons are nice and should be encouraged, but can’t we carve out a place?”

    Her suggestion followed a lengthy discussion about commercial versus public use of beaches brought on by an application from a group seeking to conduct paddle board tours of Lake Montauk, Fort Pond Bay, Napeague Harbor, and Georgica Pond throughout the summer.

     Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said “cordoning off” sections of beach for commercial use “was not a precedent we want to set.”

    Supervisor Bill Wilkinson spoke against the concept as well. Councilman Dominic Stanzione said, “I’m torn here. We are a tourist town.”

    “Yes, but we have a second-home community and they pay taxes,” Ms. Quigley said.

    “These are more like commercial licenses,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said of the “exclusive mass-gathering” permits. 

    Mr. Wilkinson asked if exceptions could be made for nonprofit organizations, and Ms. Quigley suggested asking the town’s ocean rescue guards to suggest possible locations for such commercial activities.

    Apparently no one on the town board had read the trustee clerk’s memo before Tuesday’s session took place.

    A state law that limits the percentage of phosphorus in lawn fertilizers and restricts the time of year when and locations where fertilizers can be used went into effect on Jan. 1. The New York State Dishwasher Detergent and Nutrient Runoff Law was enacted to reduce the amount of phosphorus entering and degrading the water and to lower the cost to local governments of removing excess quantities.

    The law applies to fertilizer application and would restrict the use of “weed and feed” products that contain phosphorus in amounts over 0.67 percent, unless a soil test showed that a lawn needed phosphorus or in cases where a new lawn is being established.

    “I would like to see it go further,” Kevin McAllister, the Peconic Baykeeper, said.

    The law, according to a release from Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., aims to improve recreational and other uses of the state’s waters.

    Mr. McAllister said the county put restrictions into effect a few years ago, and while the state is now involved, “We’ve got to do better. . . . We have got to move beyond the trend of the ‘trophy lawn.’ ”

    The desire for emerald green, dandelion-free lawns is leading homeowners to pay for excessive applications of fertilizer, he said. Those “hooked on turf,” the baykeeper said, need to learn that a healthy green lawn is possible using organic and sustainable practices that will not threaten water quality.

    The State Department of Environmental Conservation states that most soils in New York already contain sufficient phosphorus to support turf grass growth without additional phosphorus from fertilizers, which can account for up to 50 percent of the phosphorus in stormwater runoff.

    Phosphorus is expensive for municipalities to remove from wastewater at treatment plants — from $1 to $20 per pound. More than 100 sub-watersheds in the state contain water impaired by phosphorus, according to the D.E.C.’s Web site.

    The state’s recent closure of Shinnecock Bay was nitrogen-related, Mr. McAllister said. “We have to curtail the loading of fertilizer,” he said, adding that the way we manage tens of thousands of lawns will make a difference.

    Pollutants enter bays and harbors in a number of ways, but primarily through groundwater and stormwater runoff, according to the Nature Conservancy. Fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides that are used on lawns travel through the soil to the groundwater that flows into our bays and harbors. Phosphorus affects fresh water, and nitrogen affects marine waters.

    Mr. McAllister said many of our water bodies have been on the state’s impaired-waters list, which is reassessed every two years, since 2006. In 2010, he said, the entirety of the county’s south shore, including fresh water bodies in East Hampton and Southampton Towns, were placed on the list for either recurring algae blooms or low oxygen levels.

    The baykeeper explained that nitrogen from fertilizers triggers the microscopic plants to burst in growth for several weeks. They then decompose and consume dissolved oxygen from the water, resulting in fish and crab kills.

    In addition to devastating shellfish populations, overgrowth of algae causes brown tides and interferes with swimming, boating, and fishing, too, the Nature Conservancy said. Even chemicals used on properties far inland can travel long distances underground, ultimately finding their way into bays and wetlands and onto beaches.

    In the release, Mr. Thiele reminded East End residents to be mindful of the new state law, which prohibits the application of fertilizers that contain nitrogen, phosphorus, or potassium between Dec. 1 and April 1. If a product does not contain any of the three primary macronutrients, it could be applied during the winter months without violating the law.

    “Banning fertilizer in the winter is not going to do it,” Mr. McAllister said. “To really see the reductions, we need to impose more restrictions during the entire year.” The spring and summer are when most homeowners are using lawn products, often as a result of “brilliant marketing” disguised as education by companies such as Scotts, he said.

    Although the law also states that “no fertilizers may be applied within 20 feet of surface water,” an exception is made where there is a 10-foot-wide vegetative buffer of planted or naturally occurring vegetation — trees, shrubs, legumes, or grasses — or if the fertilizer is applied using a deflector shield or drop spreader, in which cases applications may be done within three feet of a body of water.

    The law does not affect agricultural fertilizer, flower or vegetable gardens, pasture land, land where hay is harvested, the trees, shrubs, and turf grown on turf farms, or any form of agricultural production.

    Mr. McAllister is concerned that the law does not apply to agricultural lands, which he said are a significant contributor of nitrogen flushing into groundwater. He said the county’s monitoring of nitrate levels in groundwater downstream from farms is “through the roof.”

    The law requires retailers to display phosphorus fertilizer separately from phosphorus-free fertilizer and to post signs notifying customers of the terms of the law. It has no specific disposal requirements for lawn fertilizer containing phosphorus. The law affects organic phosphorus fertilizer, as well, but not compost or liquid compost as long as they do not contain chemically, mechanically, or otherwise manipulated manure or plant matter.

    The state banned the sale of phosphorus-containing dishwasher detergents for household use in 2010. The new law prohibits the sale of such detergents for commercial use as of July 1, 2013.

    Mr. McAllister said education of property owners about sustainable practices is a priority — the application, for example, of compost that is organic and slowly releases nutrients that are absorbed for growth instead of flushed. He said useful information such as “Four Steps to a Pesticide-Free Lawn” is available online at neighborhood-network.org. The Web site has suggestions such as mowing with the blade set higher, watering infrequently and deeply, seeding with a tall fescue blend, and using organic solutions on weeds and pests. There is also a list of companies that provide landscaping services using sustainable practices.

    The Nature Conservancy suggests that homeowners replace high-maintenance sod lawns with native grasses and shrubs that require less fertilization and irrigation.

    Mr. McAllister also pointed out that the natural resources of the water bodies on the East End drive the economy here. Regarding polluted, fishless waters that can’t be swum in, he asked, “What will this do to property values?”

    “We’ve got to change our evil ways,” the baykeeper said. “This isn’t alarmist, it’s reality.”

    A basement being built below an ancillary building at the Montauk Beach House, the former Ronjo motel, will lead to a public hearing before the East Hampton Town Planning Board, the board decided on April 18.

    At first, the board was uncertain as to whether the new basement would require a public hearing or would be considered so minor as to be exempt from one.

    JoAnne Pahwul, the town’s assistant planning director, laid out the possible triggers for a minor site plan review, which does not require a hearing. If, for example, “the proposed structure is not inhabitable and covers no more than 500 square feet in area,” a hearing is not necessary. It was this point that got the board’s attention. The basement, according to Ms. Pahwul, is 947 square feet, and at first blush, this would seem to automatically exclude the project from minor site plan review.

    The question then became: What is the exact meaning of the word “cover”?

    “There’s two ways this can be taken,” said Kathryn Santiago, a town attorney. “The first is the conventional way where ‘covers’ means ‘covers no more than 500 square feet.’ However, the word ‘cover’ is not defined in the code anywhere. The next closest term is ‘coverage,’ which would be total lot coverage.” Because the building above the basement, which is to house office and living space, was already on the property, its lot coverage has already been taken into account.

    The owners of the Beach House, Larry Siedlick and Chris Jones, were in the audience flanking their attorney, Richard Hammer. Mr. Hammer said that they are not averse to a hearing, but stressed that timing is essential with the season just weeks away.

    Mr. Jones, who is also an owner of Solé East and Solé East Beach in Montauk, the former Shepherd’s Neck Inn and Shepherd’s Beach Motel, has developed a reputation for renovating and reviving moribund resorts in Montauk and elsewhere.

    The excavation of the basement prompted the town senior building inspector to issue a stop-work order last month for that portion of the project. Since then, a permit was issued allowing all buildings to be “rebuilt to previous dimensions,” and giving the owners temporary approval to construct the footings and foundation walls for the basement “with the understanding that the completion of this structure without site plan approval shall vest no rights in its continued existence as a ‘basement’ structure.” Work has resumed.

    “As a Montauk neighbor I am just thrilled that these applicants are upgrading this resort,” said Nancy Keeshan, a board member whose family-owned business is just yards from the Montauk Beach House. But, she cautioned, “The law is very specific. The crux of the problem is the law reads that it should cover no more than 500 square feet.”

    She suggested that the applicants consider making the basement just 500 square feet so the board “can deem it a minor site plan and move forward.”

    However Ian Calder-Piedmonte, another board member, said “I hope you don’t change your plan based on whether there is a public hearing. I don’t think you should sacrifice the basement for what amounts to one extra hearing here.”

    “There is absolutely no problem with proceeding to a public hearing,” Mr. Jones said, “other than the fact that my wife will probably moan at me because we’re probably going to be in the newspapers for even longer.”

    Mr. Hammer also addressed drainage on the site, a topic Ms. Pahwul had briefly touched on, telling the board that the project would increase the amount of permeable ground into which water can drain by over 4,000 square feet, “a huge number that will improve drainage in and of itself,” he said. Most of the low-lying downtown Montauk is covered with either asphalt or buildings, increasing the probability of flooding, he said.

    In the end, the board agreed that a public hearing should be held with the sole focus on the basement. The hearing, to be officially scheduled at the board’s May 9 meeting, will most likely be on June 6.

    The number of arrests rose significantly in 2011 in East Hampton Town, according to an annual report released by the East Hampton Town Police Department last week.

    Total calls for police assistance rose by 11 percent to a five-year high of 18,148. This number, however, includes all calls, from criminal complaints to a report of a cat stuck up a tree, Chief Edward Ecker said on Monday.

    More telling is the category “penal arrests,” which rose 22 percent to a five-year high of 388. The records released go back only five years.

    Part of the increase is related to enhanced police technique, particularly in the detective squad. “Last year, we had a lot more proactive investigations,” Chief Ecker said. “We’ve expanded. We’ve added a detective sergeant.”

    Another noticeable area of change was in parking enforcement: Traffic control officers were busy, writing 6,180 summonses, another five-year high.

    “It’s a one-year thing,” the chief said, explaining that the return rate from the previous year of the younger, seasonally employed T.C.O.s is crucial to strong enforcement. “Last year, we had a very good nucleus of workers. They hit the ground running.”

    Chief Ecker also pointed out that writing parking tickets wasn’t the only way in which the Police Department uses traffic control officers.

    “People don’t realize how much they do,” he said. “Triathlons, marathons, at least eight smaller road races, library fairs.” Being able to rely on this squad frees town officers to focus on other police activities.

    One area where there was a decrease was in driving while intoxicated arrests, which, at 156, were at a five-year low. There were a variety of reasons for the drop. “We had 11 people out last year. We were working with a skeleton crew.”

    One of those out was Officer Vincent Rantinella, who was recently awarded a “top cop” award for his work against drunken driving. The officer was in a crash in February 2011 in which the other driver, who was drunk, was going the wrong way on an exit ramp. Officer Rantinella returned to duty earlier this year.

    The department has increased its efforts against drunken driving. “We’ve changed it up this year. We’re up about 20” arrests for driving while intoxicated as opposed to last year at this time, he said.

    After months of board meetings and a community forum in February, the Springs School Board heard a presentation on the 2012-13 budget of $24.68 million Monday night, delivered by the district’s treasurer, Colleen Card.

    Because of tax levy limitations, the new 2012-13 budget is actually $208,920, or .84 percent, less than the current year’s budget. In order to stay under the state-mandated 2 percent property tax levy cap, $791,969 worth of cuts were made to existing programs, including the elimination of 5.8 teaching positions and two teaching assistants.

    The new budget translates to a property tax rate increase of 3.19 percent, and a tax levy increase of 2.97 percent, which is allowable under the new law.

    Other changes at the Springs School next year include a 50-percent cut of all extracurricular activities — although as of yet the administration wasn’t sure if that meant half of the activities would be cut, or if all the activities would be cut in half — the end of interscholastic sports, a new middle school model where the sixth grade would now follow the same schedule as the seventh and eighth grades, and the return from a nine-period day to an eight-period day.

    Janice Varizi, a Springs School parent, spoke up about the interscholastic sports cut.

    “What are the kids going to do now?” she asked the board. “Go home and play video games?”

    Her son has played football for the past four years, but now that option will not be available. “It’s a recipe for disaster,” she said. “These kids are going to be going in to the high school and competing for places on teams with other kids who have been playing all along. This wouldn’t be happening if it was your son,” she said, addressing the school board president, Kathee Burke Gonzalez.

    “You don’t want to go there,” Ms. Gonzalez said. “That is unfair.”

    “Maybe, but it’s true,” said Ms. Varizi.

    “These were extremely difficult decisions,” Mr. Casale said. “It breaks my heart, but under this budget we’re stretched to the max, we’ve hit our ceiling. We had to find what would have the least impact on the least number of kids.”

    John Grant, the school board’s vice president, agreed. “I don’t think anyone can expect us to trim our academic budget and not our sports,” he said.

    Mary McPartland, another school parent, asked if it would be possible for a group of parents to instigate a booster club. “This is beyond crucial for our eighth graders,” she said. The board agreed that it was a good idea, although the eight-period day may preclude students from leaving classes early for games. The new budget shows a proposed tax rate of $889.70 per $1,000 of assessed value, up from $862.05 in the 2011-12 budget.

    There will be a public hearing on the budget on May 7. The statewide budget vote is on May 15.