Tuesday is the day of an anticipated Sag Harbor Village Planning Board public forum on an application to expand the Harbor Heights service station at 114 Hampton Street. According to Richard Warren, the village’s environmental consultant, the event has been called to make sure the board is addressing all potential issues rather than solicit opinions.

    John Leonard, the owner of Harbor Heights, has proposed a full redesign of the business, moving the pumps farther from Hampton Street and adding restrooms and a convenience store. The 1,874-square-foot service station building would be replaced with one of similar size abutting an existing vehicle repair garage at the rear.

    Mr. Warren has given the project his seal of approval. “I am in favor of it,” he said. In a report to the board, he noted that many aspects of the business do not comply with current standards. Environmental benefits, according to Mr. Warren, would be reduced impact on groundwater, with better drainage, upgraded fuel tanks, new fuel pipes, and a new septic system. His report also refers to the proposed architecture, design, and lighting as improvements.

    The plan has provoked objections from the station’s neighbors, documented in letters to the planning board as well as petitions. They have cited the station’s historic district zoning and expressed concern about proposed outdoor lighting and the potential for late hours that could generate increased traffic and noise.

    There have also been comments and a petition in favor  of the project, with the building’s improved appearance and condition, relocation of the pumps, and redesigned curbs that would prevent a backlog of cars on Hampton Road during peak hours.

    Mr. Leonard has said he had the building designed, including the repair garage, to look like a house. “I am not building a mini-mart,” he said. Dennis Downes, his attorney, had also told village officials that a convenience store was necessary to make ends meet.

    In a conversation on Monday morning at the station, Pam Kern, who has worked at Harbor Heights for 30 years, said it contributes to the local community in many ways. It addition to residents, she said the station serves out-of-town visitors by providing maps and directions.

    Interior floor plans call for an 11-door refrigerator, two 20-foot-long retail “gondolas,” two 16-foot-long counters surrounding an attendant’s area, a hand sink and office for employees, and a unisex, handicapped-accessible restroom. The garage would have seating for customers as well as another restroom for public use.

    The exterior plan shows a cedar-shingled, residential-style building with six windows surrounding a six-foot-wide doorway and an open porch. Instead of fronting on the road, the building is to face west toward Eastville Avenue. The garage would also be shingled and it would  have two barn-style doors. It was unclear this week if there would be one or two gas pumps in addition to the existing two. They are to be moved to a location farther from Hampton Road and be under a lighted canopy.

    A new parking area also would be further from the street, a sidewalk would be built, and new curbing would limit access. In addition to a new septic system and drainage improvements, three underground gas storage tanks would be upgraded and another one installed.

    According to P. W. Grosser Consulting, the village’s engineers, there are unanswered questions about the convenience store, or country market, including review of the requirements of the Suffolk Department of Health Services. The firm recommended further discussion of a variance request to allow the convenience store to go over the 600-square-foot limit in the village code to 1,000 square feet.

    Traffic study results are also a concern of the consulting firm because additional fuel pumps were not included in the study. Maintenance of new indigenous grasses was recommended to assure visibility, and a proposed sign, four feet from the front property line,  should also be discussed, the firm said.

    The meeting on Tuesday will begin with a work session at 5:30 p.m. The regular meeting, to include the forum, will start at 6.

    The question of who might step into Larry Penny’s shoes as East Hampton Town’s natural resources director, and when, is coming to the fore this week with town officials confirming that they are considering candidates for the job while also denying that Mr. Penny has submitted an official request for retirement.

    Mr. Penny has been absent from his department at the town’s Pantigo Place offices since December, when he was served with a list of disciplinary charges and suspended for 30 days without pay. On Jan. 5, just before the 30 days were to expire, the town and Mr. Penny’s attorney, Tom Horn, issued a statement saying that the charges of incompetence, insubordination, and misconduct were being dropped, and Mr. Penny would be left to choose his own retirement date.

    However, those inquiring about applying for his job have been told that it is not an officially open position, as the Human Resources Department has not been asked to process Mr. Penny’s retirement or to open a search for his replacement.

    Nonetheless, Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione confirmed last week that the town board had interviewed at least one candidate.

    The town board’s consideration of candidates for the natural resources job has apparently not included a request for information on potential candidates through the county Civil Service system, as is required. Hiring someone for Mr. Penny’s title under that system, as “director of environmental protection,” is subject to Civil Service procedures.

    The town must first look to a list maintained by the Civil Service of people who have passed a test for the title and who meet the minimum education and experience requirements assigned to it.

    If the list contains three or more interested potential candidates, the town must hire from that pool.

    If there is no “eligible list,” East Hampton officials may petition the Civil Service for permission to hire someone who has not yet taken the test for the title, on a provisional basis.

    They must, however, meet the minimum requirements, which include holding a bachelor’s degree plus 30 additional credits in math and the sciences, as well as six years of professional or administrative experience in environmental protection activities. Additional education can substitute for up to two years of work experience.

    On the second anniversary of one of the largest natural disasters of our time, Jonathan Glynn, an artist who lives in Sag Harbor, honored the occasion with a trip to Haiti to celebrate the groundbreaking of a new school and community center that his not-for-profit organization Wings Over Haiti is building. With attendees such as Danielle Campbell of News 12, the students of the already existing class put on a performance, and received their report cards.

    The school, about eight miles north of Port-au-Prince in the town of Croix des Bouquets, was made possible by countless acts of charity and hard work by people on Long Island and in Haiti. The founders of Wings Over Haiti are committed to developing a community with independence through education.

    “I am a white Jew from New Jersey, I don’t give handouts,” said Mr. Glynn, the founder and president, on Sunday. It’s more about giving a hand up, Ms. Campbell explained in her documented special on the trip, which aired on Channel 12 this week. Mr. Glynn said that giving hope to those who live in “the largest gravesite in human history,” is his priority. “ARF treats dogs better than these kids live,” he said.

    “The only people getting paid are Haitians” — teachers and builders, for example. The money Wings Over Haiti has raised has also gone toward food for students, the land purchase, and construction materials for the new multi-use building that will house the school, a medical clinic, a center for adult education, and a community kitchen. Mr. Glynn hopes his integrated community model, including Wings Over Haiti’s lean budget, can be replicated from the ground up.

    “We are feeding them twice a day,” said Mr. Glynn of the school’s 42 students. “Why educate the kids if we can’t keep them alive?” The larger community of 75 is fed meals that include cornmeal, beans, okra, bananas, and a small amount of chicken for necessary protein. “There are too many people to save,” said Mr. Glynn, seeming frustrated at the magnitude of need and at his own organization’s limitations.

    That lesson was learned the hard way with the loss in June of a 4-year-old from complications of starvation. The child, Jean Eli, was the second in his family to die of malnutrition. It came to the attention of Carina Blon, an 18-year-old American volunteering to live on site in Haiti, that the child was taking the food he was fed at school to his family, instead of eating it. The loss was a terrible blow to the whole Wings Over Haiti community, and a pivotal point.

    “Everything stops and we spend our own money when someone is about to die,” said Mr. Glynn. Most people in that area are lucky to eat one meal every three days, staying alive by drinking warm water mixed with salt, Mr. Glynn said. People also eat dried clay, formed into patties, in order to feel like they have eaten.

    There is “zero medical care,” said Mr. Glynn, but many turn to voodoo practitioners to diagnose or treat what ails them. Mr. Glynn recalled that one woman in the community was told she was dying of a broken heart. When the doctor on call for Wings Over Haiti, Richard Ruppenstein, looked into the situation, it was found that the woman had pneumonia, and she was treated accordingly.

    Dr. Ruppenstein, who has an office in Port Jefferson, has worked in Haiti since shortly after the earthquake. On his blog, reachhaiti.com, he said that he traveled the road from the east, north, and south of Port-au-Prince just after the earthquake without finding any relief or aid stations set up by any country. Not much has changed since then, he said.

    Board certified in wound care, he enlisted the help several people, purchased two large suitcases full of medical supplies and medications, and walked around Haiti saving lives.

    In addition to earthquake-related injuries and amputations, Dr. Ruppenstein wrote on his blog that infectious disease takes hold due to the lack of sanitation and food sources. Haiti has the highest crime rate in the hemisphere because, he said, despair, hunger, and hopelessness breeds criminality in the best human being.

    Wings Over Haiti has purchased land up the road from the current school, which is on the property where Wings Over Haiti’s Haitian director, Shad St. Louis, grew up. Mr. St. Louis was working as a guidance counselor in Middletown, N.Y., at the time of the earthquake, and after reading about Mr. Glynn and becoming involved with Wings Over Haiti, he returned full time to his birthplace to take charge of the operation. While much remains to be done, Mr. St. Louis said it has been “a very successful year.”

    Ms. Campbell, along with Melissa McMullan, the organization’s educational director, and Mr. Glynn, all agree that the Haitian crew building the new school are motivated, capable, and hard working. The architects, plumbers, and electricians are thrilled to have the chance to rebuild a better Haiti, they said. The day the land needed to be cleared, the mothers of the students arrived at the site with machetes and got the job done, Ms. McMullan said Monday. “Given the resources, these people can work magic.”

    The design of the community building was a combined American-Haitian effort led by Al Tuff of Bridgehampton, recently named director of Wings of Haiti. Haitians improved upon some of the specifications, and the result is an earthquake-safe building expected to last 200 years. Wells and pumps on the property provide clean drinking water, and the 1,400-square-foot building will be powered with solar energy, making it possible to have an Internet connection and a freezer to store meat for the 42 children and their families.

    Ms. McMullan became involved when her students at the J.F.K. Middle School in Port Jefferson Station insisted that she do so. After the earthquake, her students felt like they needed to do something, not just continue with the scheduled lesson plans. Their initial relief effort involved contacting businesses such as Proctor and Gamble to gather needed items, but they were turned down. Using the school district’s telephone database instead resulted in an outpouring of help from the Port Jefferson community. An example: half a ton of shoes were donated, then transported aboard a Hampton Jitney to Florida, to be shipped to Haiti.

    After reading that Mr. Glynn was planning to fly to Haiti in his own plane to take medical teams and supplies, she approached him about taking some of the items her students had collected. She ended up with him in Haiti, creating a curriculum for children at the school his organization is building.

    Her goal is to teach children critical thinking skills so that they can look around them and ask “What is wrong here, and what can I do about it?” she said. Helping families develop an economic base and providing them with life skills and career training are also essential parts of the program.

    “They want to work, they want to learn, they want to grow their own food,” Ms. Campbell said. The school already has a community garden. Students are being taught in Creole, but there are plans to teach French and English, too.

    Mr. Glynn sees the new building as a haven for students and their parents. “I will not be satisfied until the vision I have is complete,” he said.

    With only $300 left in the Wings Over Haiti account, he recently took out a home equity loan to keep the project moving. “We need about $50,000 to get it done,” Mr. Glynn said on Sunday. “We’ve saved a lot of lives, but there is so much more to be done.” Those wishing to donate or find more information about his work can visit his Web site, wingsoverhaiti.org, where they can also purchase a children’s book about his experiences.

    “Jonathan has taught all of us about the power one person has to really spark tremendous change,” Ms. McMullan said.

    The weather has been exceptionally good for January. Cold and deep snow are not a problem. The deer herd throughout East Hampton appears to be bigger than ever. Why then, two weeks into the annual monthlong deer-hunting season for gunners, has the harvest been so low?

    Hunters who bag a deer in Montauk must take it to the State Department of Environmental Conservation’s check station on Old Montauk Highway. Yesterday, the check station reported that only 12 deer had been taken from the woods at Hither Hills State Park, and 7 from Montauk Point State Park.

    Meanwhile, during the same two-week period, there were 14 deer killed by vehicles within the boundaries of East Hampton Town. Between January of 2011 and January of this year, state workers have picked up 231 dead deer along state roads on the South Fork. The D.E.C. has not yet tallied the harvest of deer during the archery season that ended on Dec. 31.

    Experts say there may be a simple explanation for the low numbers. The short answer is, deer are not being taken in the woods because they’re not in the woods. An answer to how best to keep a lid on the expanding population of whitetail deer is not so easy.

    “They’re in everybody’s backyard. They’re not stupid, that’s why the herd is so big,” said Steven Tekulsky, a member of the recently formed East Hampton Sportsmen’s Alliance. The group was organized to help the town and individual neighborhoods control the herd through education and, if need be, by obtaining state-issued “nuisance” hunting permits that allow hunters to cull deer from private properties and communities.

    Why deer have abandoned the forest in favor of human turf is not difficult to understand, Larry Penny, the town’s director of natural resources, said on Tuesday.

    “It’s a bad acorn year,” he said of the deer’s favorite, high-protein forage food. “And, they’re competing with wild turkeys on the ground. They prefer nice landscaping, junipers, arborvitae to twigs and buds. Browse is not their favorite food. There’s lots of green stuff in residential areas, and they’re safe there. Some now live there permanently” — no surprise to the town’s human population.

    Terry O’Riordan, one of the founders of the sportsmen’s alliance, said, “I agree that the acorn shortage is a factor. Turkeys may be the next new vermin, as far as our woods and forests are concerned.”

    Hunting is still considered to be the most efficient and cost-effective way to cull deer herds. Population is managed y manipulating the mortality rates of adult female deer. According to the D.E.C., the job has become more difficult in recent years because of a 40-percent reduction in the amount of hunting activity since the mid-1980s.

    The D.E.C. also reports that more troubling is the fact that lands that are closed to hunting or that get only nominal hunting pressure function as refuge areas for deer. This frustrates the D.E.C.’s ability to manage deer numbers to levels that are acceptable to the public. Compounding the problem are people who feed the deer, which is a violation of state law.

    “Frequently this results in locally abundant deer populations that negatively impact forests, create problems for homeowners and motorists, and may decrease the value attributed to deer by the affected public,” a section of the conservation agency’s deer management policy says. “Hunting remains the first choice and most cost-effective option for controlling deer populations.”

    The agency also has a mandate to accommodate the state’s half-million hunters who, in addition to thinning the herds by approximately 200,000 deer each year, also produce 11 million pounds of high-quality meat.

    Hunting may be the most effective means, but it remains distasteful and inhumane to some. Bill and Ellen Crain of the East Hampton Group for Wildlife staged a three-day hunger strike to dramatize their concern at the start of this year’s hunting season.

    Councilman Dominick Stanzione is spearheading the Deer Management Working Group, an effort to come up with a comprehensive management plan for the East End in cooperation with government and nongovernment land managers, including the Peconic Land Trust, the Nature Conservancy, and county and state parks departments.

    Mr. Stanzione said local hunters were doing as much as they could do. “We need a more comprehensive, compassionate, and effective deer-management plan. We have an inclusive committee of about 19 members, a real cross-section, hunters as well as those favoring nonlethal approaches.” He said the committee was also receiving suggestions from the federal Department of Agriculture, which is involved in deer management up and down the East Coast.

    Mr. Stanzione said he expected to present a draft version of the management plan to town board members within a week or two.

    The cold temperature was no deterrent for the crowd that packed the Calvary Baptist Church in East Hampton on Monday to sing, listen, and pay tribute to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., described as “one of the most transcending humans of all times” by the afternoon’s keynote speaker, the Rev. Michael Jackson of Triune Baptist Church of Sag Harbor.

    Joining Calvary Baptist’s pastor, Charles Earle Hopson, at the memorial service were the Rev. Marvin Dozier of Unity Baptist Church in Mattituck and Pastor Oswaldo Palomo of the Vida Abundante/Living Water Church in Wainscott.

    Mr. Palomo started off the event by quoting Dr. King: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that,” and then advised the celebrants “to bring light into this community.”

    Dave Cheney was the master of ceremonies, and there were performances by the youth choir of Calvary Baptist Church, the Triune Baptist Church choir, and a choir from Wainscott hurches, with Klever Prieto, a soloist.

    The event doubled as a benefit for the Calvary Baptist Church’s Martin Luther King Scholarship fund, which aid students in financial need. “We can afford to send four students to college,” Mr. Cheney said as donations were collected.

    The crowd included a number of local school and government officials, among them East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr., East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, town council members Dominick Stanzione and Sylvia Overby, Richard Burns, the East Hampton School District’s interim superintendent, and Christopher Tracey, principal of the John M. Marshall Elementary School. Lucius Ware, president of the local chapter of the N.A.A.C.P., was also in attendance.

    Mr. Jackson spoke of Dr. King’s many accomplishments, including that he was the youngest man to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, at the age of 35. “His life and time captured this nation. And he challenged the status quo to have it live up to its foundation,” he said.

    Mr. Jackson also discussed how Dr. King was able to persevere with humor and respect for others in the face of the daunting task before him. “He was more than a civil rights leader. He was more than someone who was thrown into the political arena. He was a preacher, with a purpose to lift up the disenfranchised, and stand up for justice,” Mr. Jackson said.

    He talked about Dr. King’s nonviolent demonstrations, referencing his respect for Mahatma Gandhi. “The true essence of who we are is found in the moments of crisis,” Mr. Jackson said, “and the critical moments of a standoff.”

    Mr. Jackson said Dr. King was “a leader who dared to dream and hope, but he pressed on. Even in the midst of dogs released on him, and pepper sprayed, he pressed on.”

    “How many of us have that courage?” he asked.

    In his own era, Dr. King suggested we would have tough times ahead, Mr. Jackson said. “A revolution is taking place; we’re in the pivotal moment of our history right now. There is uncertainty and instability.” Referring to Dr. King’s tactics when handling conflict, he said, “We take a stand because it is the right thing to do.”

    “True leadership is never a given, it is earned by your character, and what you do,” Mr. Jackson said.

    He questioned what Dr. King would have to say about Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran. “One day instead of going into these places, we will study war no more,” he answered for Dr. King.

    The ceremony concluded with everyone joining together to sing “We Shall Overcome.”

    A rare, tall-case alarm clock made in East Hampton in 1798 by the Dominy family was sold at auction at Sotheby's in New York on Saturday to an unidentified bidder. With a buyer's premium, a surcharge the auction house attaches to sales, the final price was $110,500.The clock's pre-sale estimate was $50,000 to $100,000.

    The interior clockwork was made by Nathaniel Dominy IV, its 85-1/2-inch-tall case by his son Nathaniel Dominy V. Four generations of Dominys made clocks, furniture, windmills, and utilitarian objects in East Hampton from the mid-1700s to the mid-1800s.

    Glenn Purcell, a collector of Dominy furniture who was in the room during the sale, said he had not bought the clock and did not know who had. The winning bid was $90,000, before the surcharge.

     The mood in the room appeared to be subdued. A few paintings that sold before the clock well exceeded their highest estimates, while one of the featured items in the sale, a rare goose tureen up for bid after the clock, failed to sell. Another very important piece, a Queen Anne high chest of drawers made in 1756 by John Townsend of Newport, one of the most sought after shops in colonial America, sold just over its high estimate, for $3.6 million with the buyer's premium. The piece was even more significant for being sold by a direct descendant of its original owner Lt. Col. Oliver Arnold of East Greenwich, R.I.

    Other clocks in the morning sale were not estimated as high as the Dominy clock. One, a rare, Queen Anne tall-case clock by Anthony Ward of New York from 1730 with an estimate of $20,000 to $30,000 failed to sell. A clock from Philadelphia with works by Solomon Parke with restorations sold at its high estimate of $8,000, with a final cost of $10,000 with the buyer's premium.

     Later lots fared much better with many items of interest well exceeding their estimates.

    As a condition of an East Hampton Town Trustee okay to repair a rock revetment in front of his oceanfront property back in 2006, William Rayner of West End Road promised to keep it covered with sand. This he has done, and he has a trustee permit to do the same early next month. And the gods of bureaucracy have smiled on the project.

    The sand is to come from a flat at the southeast end of nearby Georgica Pond, which the town and State Department of Environmental Conservation have long since agreed would be beneficial to the health of the pond. First Coastal, a Westhampton Beach company, is ready to do the work after entering into contract with the trustees for the excavation of the 2,000 cubic yards of sand required to cover the structure.

    When Billy Mack of First Coastal went before the trustees Tuesday night to get the board’s final okay, however, he learned that access to Georgica Pond and the Rayner revetment had been thrown into question. 

    The D.E.C., through the town’s Department of Natural Resources, had approved the removal of up to 12,000 cubic yards of sand each year from the flat. Contractors had already removed the amount allowed for 2011 for badly eroded beaches to the west. 

    Diane McNally, the trustee clerk, reported Tuesday that the state had agreed to allow more sand to be taken via a simple amendment to the 2011 permit. 

    So far so good.

    Billy Mack of the First Coastal company went before the trustees to get the board's final okay for the work, but there was a rub, Ms. McNally announced.

    On the one hand, First Coastal had obtained a licensing agreement with the Georgica Association to move equipment along the beach between the Beach Lane road end and the south end of the pond. On the other hand, the Georgica Association was not going to permit heavy machinery needed for the excavation to traverse the beach unless the association was given 2,000 cubic yards of trustee-owned sand at no charge. Catch-22.

    The stretch between Beach Lane and the pond is one of the only places of town where the beach is not owned by the trustees on behalf of the public (excepting in Montauk where the trustees lost sway back in the 1800s). The Association and the trustees have an understanding that allows residents to travel down the beach at certain hours to go crabbing in the summer.

    Although the Rayner property is located east of the Georgica gut, machinery can not approach from the east because of serious erosion there. 

    Trustees are offering the sand to First Coastal under the terms of the D.E.C. agreement for additional excavation at $7 per cubic yard, the 2011 price.

    Mr. Mack said the plan was to excavate the Rayner before the end of the month, stockpile it beside the revetment, and place it early in early February. The work must be done before April 1 and the arrival of nesting piping plovers.   

    In a Jan. 18 letter sent to the trustees' attorney, John Courtney, via the Georgica Association's lawyers, Mr. Courtney was advised: "In exchange for giving the trustees permission to use the association's beach, the Georgica Association would like to make arrangements to remove up to 2,000 cubic yards of sand without fee from the trustees."

    "We won't be extorted," Ms. McNally said, adding that the board would not favor one individual over another when it came to dispensing a common East Hampton resource.

    "We have to make it clear there will be no free sand," attorney Courtney concurred.

    With three million Long Islanders dependent on a single underground aquifer for drinking water, and the annual use of millions of pounds of pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides, local environmental groups have asked the State Department of Environmental Conservation to immediately ban the three most frequently found chemicals, atrazine, metalaxyl, and imidacloprid, from use on the Island. 

    In a January press release from the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, one of the organizations that has called for the ban, these chemicals are said to have been linked to cancer and kidney and liver damage, in addition to having negative effects on the environment and shellfish populations. The National Resources Defense Council recommends that consumers use certified filters to remove volatile organic compounds from their water until the chemicals are phased out.

 Other groups that have asked for the ban include the Long Island Sierra Club, the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, the Sustainability Institute at Molloy College, and the Group for the East End.

    For over 50 years, farmers internationally have used the herbicide  atrazine to fight weeds in corn and other crops. The European Union banned it in 2003,  citing “ubiquitous and unpreventable groundwater contamination,” following bans in France, Denmark, Germany, Norway, and Sweden. The same year, however, the Environmental Protection Agency approved its continued use in the United States. Nine years later, atrazine is still a widely used herbicide, with more than 60 million pounds applied annually across the country.

    Atrazine’s effects have been documented extensively. One source, pubmed.org, cites evidence that atrazine interferes with reproduction and development, and may cause cancer, with amphibians, mammals, and humans affected even at low levels of exposure. Another concern is the chemical’s potential to act synergistically with other contaminants.

 The D.E.C.’s own Long Island Pesticide Use Management Plan, issued in December, shows that imidacloprid was detected 782 times at 182 locations on Long Island, metalaxyl 1,292 times at 727 locations, and atrazine 126 times at 88 locations. Suffolk County, with the largest agricultural sales in New York, and in particular the East End, are of greatest concern.

    In addition, the D.E.C.’s Web site notes that many other chemicals in use on Long Island have been detected at concentrations in excess of New York State standards. Once in an aquifer, they remain there for decades or longer, discharging contaminants into surrounding surface water resources, including freshwater and tidal wetlands, the Web site states.

    According to Dick Amper, executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, a new water quality assurance entity is necessary to assure that water quality standards are met. In his opinion, because there is no single identity charged with protecting groundwater, it is not being adequately protected. The Suffolk Health Department regulates drinking water while the D.E.C. regulates surface water.

    Mr. Amper called on others to take action, including  manufacturers, distributors, and users, health advocacy groups, homeowner and civic associations, farmers, vineyards, nurseries, golf courses, and public health and town planning organizations.

    “This is the biggest environmental challenge that has ever confronted Long Island,” Mr. Amper said, emphasizing that homeowners must be a part of a “shared commitment and sacrifice to turn this around, before the next generation of children cannot drink the water anymore.”

    Residents can do their part by maintaining cesspools adequately, returning unused pharmaceuticals to appropriate facilities, paying attention to chemicals in personal care products and solvents used in the home, and avoiding chemical fertilizers, he said.

    The D.E.C. has also recommended citizen attention to household chemicals, asking the public to avoid “weed and feed” combination products. It has reported that 62 of the contaminants found in groundwater are contained in personal care products, including anti-bacterial soaps and toothpastes.

    Paul Wagner, vice president of Treewise Ecological Landscape Management in East Hampton, said that the insecticide imidacloprid is widely used in lawn care here for grub control. His company is among those that use natural or biological methods to promote healthy soil. He also said hydrogen peroxide, which breaks down readily, was a safe fungicide.

    Commenting on the massive effort he thought it would take to really protect groundwater, Mr. Amper said the amount of nitrogen from sewage had increased in the upper glacial aquifer by 40 percent since the last study 17 years ago and deeper levels have increased by 200 percent. “It is really bad,” he said. “If the present trend continues, water will be undrinkable before 2050. It is a disaster in the making, and it raises the hair on the back of my neck.”

Richard D. Threlkeld, a retired network television news reporter, died Friday morning in Amagansett when his Mini Cooper struck a Peterbilt truck hauling propane.

East Hampton Town police said Mr. Threlkeld, 74, had been driving in a northerly direction on Cross Highway when his car hit the truck driven by Earl Fryberger Jr. of Coatsville, Pa., in the Montauk Highway intersection. Mr. Fryberger, 57, was not hurt.

Mr. Threlkeld was pulled from the Mini Cooper and taken to Southampton Hospital by Amagansett Fire Department ambulance. He was declared dead by emergency room personnel.

Suffolk police remained on the scene for several hours. The Mini Cooper ended up on the grass in front of the American Legion building. Police did not say what caused the collision, and both vehicles were to undergo safety checks. Police have asked anyone who witnessed the accident to call them at 537-7575.

Mr. Threlkeld was a 25-year veteran of CBS News, its New York affiliate reported today, though he interrupted his tenure there with a stint at ABC News in the 1980s.

During his news career, he covered the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, and the Tiananmen Square protests. His last assignment for CBS News was as Moscow correspondent. His wife, Betsy Aaron, was CNN's Moscow correspondent at the time.

Lesley Stahl, with whom Mr. Threlkeld anchored the CBS Morning News from 1977 to 1979, issued a statement Friday, calling Mr. Threlkeld "one of the best reporters, someone CBS sent to troubled spots to cover the big stories of the day. Richard was known for his integrity and his decency."

According to an online property listing service, Mr. Threlkeld had a house on Robins Way in Barnes Landing, East Hampton, not far from the site of the accident.

    “If Dr. King were alive today, I firmly believe he would be an ‘Occupier,’ ” Mark Naison, a professor of African-American studies and history at Fordham University, said this week.

    Speaking during the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. weekend at a meeting of Occupy the Hamptons on Sunday, and in subsequent interviews, Dr. Naison said the Occupy movement had brought the issues of economic inequality that Dr. King had raised to the forefront of political discourse.

    “We all have to follow Dr. King’s example, and be drum majors for justice,” he said, after the group watched a video of Dr. King’s “drum major” speech. Before he was gunned down, “Dr. King was supporting striking sanitation workers in Memphis and on the verge of leading a poor people’s campaign, which bore more than a little resemblance to today’s Occupy movements,” Dr. Naison said.

    Dr. Naison has been an activist since the civil rights movement of the 1960s. An eight-year resident of Springs, he suggested that Occupy the Hamptons include music at its events and focus on problems of local residents, such as housing foreclosures, the needs of veterans, and hunger. He said the Springs School did not have an adequate lunch program.

    Asked whether the Occupy movement was going to grow, Dr. Naison said, “This is just the beginning. These are the leaders of tomorrow . . . the problems are deep . . . we as a society need to do something.” He noted that the civil rights movement, shich he called one of the most important movements in American history, had begun with a student sit-in.

     Dr. Naison, a frequent guest speaker, was interviewed on ABC television when Occupy Wall Street first occurred and said he is able to address both advocates and critics of the movement. The major issues today, he said, are unemployment and the unequal distribution of wealth.

    Dr. Naison has appeared on “The O’Reilly Factor,” the Discovery Channel’s “Greatest American Competition” (as Dr. King’s advocate), and on “The Dave Chappell Show” in a skit called “I Know Black People.” His videos can be seen online, including “The Palin Effect” and “Stimulate Me,” and he has written three books: “White Boy: A Memoir,” “Communists in Harlem During the Depression,” and “The Southern Tenants Farmers Union and the C.I.O.”  

    As a professor, Dr. Naison calls himself the Notorious Ph.D. His Fordham courses include “The Sixties: Years of Protest, Years of Change,” “The Worker in American Life,” and “From Rock and Roll to Hip-Hop.” He uses rap to connect with his students, he said.

    On Jan. 7, Dr. Naison was the guest speaker at a meeting of the Southampton Democratic Club at the Southampton Publick House. Ninety-seven people attended, of which 25 percent were first-time participants. “That percentage is a first,” Grania Brolin, one of the event organizers, reported in an e-mail.

Dr. Naison’s talk included statistics on economic inequality. He reported saying that the “Walmart C.E.O. makes $16,000 an hour while entry level workers make $6.50 an hour,” and that the income in New York of the 1 percent was now 44 percent of the total state income, up from 9 percent in the 1950s and ’60s.

 “In my opinion,” he said in an interview, “people thought trickle-down economics worked. Most people thought that the very wealthy were an essential source of jobs.” The Occupy movement is tapping into the anger and frustration of youth who can’t find jobs and are saddled with student loans, he said. “Their counterparts in other countries had been doing this for months prior.”

     With the housing market collapse and the economic crisis, “the whole rationale for trickle-down economics began collapsing like a house of cards,” he said.

Because of Occupy Wall Street, Dr. Naison said, “A damn burst and a new language to describe economic inequality took hold like wildfire, dominated by the image of the 1 percent and the 99 percent.” “Occupy” became a new metaphor. “The transformation has been nothing short of remarkable,” he said.

    “These young people who are protesting have found a way of forcing our society to deal with economic inequality in a way that scholars like myself have not been able to do. . . . The protesters are giving voice to a generation that is . . . no longer needed in this society even though they are educated and skilled. They are turning this into a reality that can’t be ignored.”

    Dr. Naison recently became a founding member of the Fordham University 99 Percent Club. He helped to write the organizing principles, which he said include disseminating accurate information about worldwide movements, providing support to local movements, taking action against economic inequality and threats to freedom of expression, and creating networks among supporters of the Occupy movement. He stressed that such clubs allow people to participate in a wide variety of protests.

    A post on his Facebook page says, “We need leaders among the people, not leaders of the people.” This week he said, “Nothing I have experienced in 40-plus years of activism, including my experience with the Occupy movement and the 99 Percent Clubs in the last six months, has convinced me this approach is wrong.”