When a boyhood chum was asked what Edward V. Ecker Jr. was like as a child, he said that he was really good at ice-skating and sleigh-riding, winter sports that the chief of the East Hampton Town Police Department presumably has no more time for.

    Mr. Ecker will be named the Montauk Chamber of Commerce’s man of the year at its end-of-season party at East by Northeast restaurant next Thursday. The tickets, which cost $75 per person, were sold out weeks ago.

    Eddie, as he’s widely known, has risen through the ranks of the police department since he was hired as a patrolman in 1982. He was promoted to detective in 1986 and stayed with that division for 14 years. Being a detective and delving into police work “was the highlight of my professional career,” he said on Tuesday at the Montauk Precinct.

    In 1989, he was promoted to detective sergeant. For 12 weeks in 1992, he attended the F.B.I. Academy, where he was taught management skills including leadership, budgeting, and public speaking. He met many top law-enforcement agents who have remained friends to this day and still meet around the country. “But we always end up in Montauk,” said the chief.

    Born and raised in the hamlet, Mr. Ecker doesn’t hide the fact that he is in love with his hometown. Men or women, he greets people with a bear hug. When he was a boy, life revolved around the church and the fire department, he said. “It was such a tight community. My parents were part of both, so it was great.”

    In his rookie days, he came through the ranks with “some really good police officers. . . . All those guys were good mentors,” he said, singling out two former chiefs, Todd Sarris and Tom Scott. “I couldn’t have asked for a better group of guys to foster my career.”

    On his résumé he notes that after graduating from the Montauk School and East Hampton High School he attended several colleges with limited success. So he joined the Navy and was stationed aboard the U.S.S. Hawkbill as a qualified submariner. On one stint he stayed underwater in the sub for 40 days and never felt claustrophobic. “They train you and conduct tests to make sure you can handle it,” he said, adding that he was kept busy on the submarine in his roles as seaman, helmsman, and “solar watcher.”

    “I loved it and would have stayed on longer, but I wanted to get married and it wasn’t a family life.”

    But what he really wanted to be when he grew up was a train conductor, working with the Long Island Rail Road. He keeps at his house a set of trains that his wife inherited from a family member. He said he used to work bartending and waiting tables at the Blue Marlin restaurant, which was right next door to the Montauk train station. “It was perfect — all the conductors would come in and we’d talk.”

    It was when he was stationed outside Seattle that he met his wife, Roxanne. They will celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary on Sunday. After living for a while on Oahu in Hawaii, the couple decided in 1976 to move back to Montauk. “I was lucky that Rox was willing to come with me. She took a big jump moving 3,000 miles from her family,” Mr. Ecker said.

    They have two children, Kari Ann Shea, who lives in Virginia Beach with her husband, Dennis Shea, a Navy Seal, and Karli Pena, who is married to Jay Pena and lives in San Diego with their two children, Lily Rose and Jude, who is 2. The chief lights up when he shows a picture of his grandson wearing a Giants hat with curls flopping out from under it: “He’s got his Giants hat; he’s ready.”

    He was visiting his children in San Diego when Maureen Keller of the chamber of commerce called him with the news that he was named man of the year. “I felt great. I was so excited and happy. But when I got back home, I was humbled by it and humbled by the list of names that went before me,” Mr. Ecker said, noting that both of his parents, the late Edward V. Ecker Sr. and Frances Ecker, have been similarly honored by the organization.

    He’s a little worried, however, about the roast that is part of the evening. “My mother will be there,” he said,  grimacing slightly.

    The worry stems from the guest speakers, including Gordon Ryan, a Montauk attorney who created the “I Know Eddie Ecker” bumper stickers that were plastered all over the hamlet. Mr. Ryan came up with the idea when he learned that many people, when stopped by a police officer, used the line, thinking it would help them out of a jam.

    The bumper stickers took on a life of their own and started showing up in far-flung parts of the world. Mr. Ecker received pictures of the stickers on a rickshaw in Peking, an elephant in Singapore, tanks in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in places in the Antarctic. He got calls from people all over the world who said they had seen the stickers.

    When they first started appearing, the chief said, he had two thoughts: first, a hope “that no one would think I made them,” and second, wonder “that anyone thought they would really help when they got stopped.”

    He said he had no choice but to retaliate. He had stickers made up that said, “Gordon Ryan Esq. He’ll get you off.” Mr. Ecker wanted to introduce them at a very special place and time. “So I decided I’d do it at the Friends of Erin Grand Marshal luncheon,” he said with a laugh.

    These days, Mr. Ecker, who was named chief in 2010, has no time for pranks. As the head of the police department he sometimes puts in 10-to-12-hour days and drives frequently back and forth between the Montauk Precinct and police headquarters in Wainscott. He’s also mired in paperwork, but he can’t wait for next week’s party.

    In his speech, he said, he will mention the recent changes to Montauk. He speaks of the hamlet with passion. “It’s just a feeling you get out here. When someone in the community needs help, they get it. It’s not talked about, it’s not bragged about, but it’s done,” he said. “Things change, but the people of Montauk, the real people of Montauk, will never change.”

    Broader shores at Sammy’s Beach west of the Three Mile Harbor Inlet, and also at Soundview west of the Montauk Harbor Inlet, provided scenic evidence this week that the dredging of both inlets was complete — well, almost.

    The Three Mile Harbor job has been abbreviated. Sand shoals were to be removed from the harbor inlet but also from a channel at the harbor’s south end. Within the last few days, a decision has been made not to dredge the south end.

    Bill Hillman, chief engineer for the Suffolk Department of Public Works, the agency responsible for the work, said that 80,000 cubic yards had been removed from the harbor inlet, “but there are only about 1,700 cubic yards in the south end. It’s not worth moving the dredge.” Instead, Mr. Hillman said his department would work with the town to place buoys warning mariners of shoal areas in the channel. He said the channel, originally 150 feet wide, was now about 75 feet wide. The south end of the harbor has not been properly dredged for 30 years.

    Sand from the Three Mile Harbor Inlet was pumped to Sammy’s Beach by the Gibson and Cushman company of Bay Shore without the need to cross private property, as was feared. While Sammy’s beach was not badly eroded, the new sand should serve as an added defense against winter storm damage.

    As usual, the sand taken from clogged inlets and from the large shoal at the south end of Georgica Pond is viewed as a return, however brief, of eroded beaches.

    The rock jetties at Montauk and Three Mile Harbor are responsible for accelerating erosion down-drift of the prevailing tidal currents and for causing sand to pile up in the inlets themselves. Sand carried from the inlets via pipelines connected to hydraulic dredges has rebuilt lost beaches, although rebuilding beaches was not the primary goal.

    Shoaling posed serious navigational hazards in both inlets, and the same hazards exist in the Accabonac Harbor Inlet and in Napeague Harbor’s east channel, which is now virtually closed by sand buildup. Larry Penny, East Hampton Town’s director of natural resources, said the town had applied to the State Department of Environmental Conservation to extend permits to excavate the inlets at Napeague and Accabonac Harbors. The excavations must be done by Jan. 15, when such work will have to be suspended to comply with a federal mandate to protect breeding winter flounder.

    Diane McNally, clerk of the East Hampton Town Trustees, said that this time around sand from an excavation of Napeague’s east channel would not be used to rebuild beaches in the Lazy Point area, as residents have requested, because the state permit would have to be amended. Dredged material will be stored at Goff Point instead.

    Money for both excavations is expected to come as a result of the town’s having applied for state and federal disaster aid after last year’s Christmas northeaster — approximately $142,000 for the work at Accabonac Harbor and between $30,000 and $40,000 for Napeague.

    On Tuesday, the Montauk Coast Guard reported that dredging in the Montauk Harbor Inlet had ceased and the contractor, the North American Landscaping, Construction, and Dredge Company, was awaiting a final survey before the Army Corps of Engineers signs off on the work. Originally planned for 2013, the dredging of the inlet was moved up to early October because of a dangerous shoal that had grown from the east side to the center of the channel.

    In late October, problems with the 12-inch-diameter pipeline caused it to float to the surface. A number of boats hit the pipe on their way in and out of the harbor. After Supervisor Bill Wilkinson held a meeting with mariners, Army Corps representatives, the contractor, and the Coast Guard, the problem was ironed out.

    Assuming the Army Corps signs off on it, the $414,000 project, when completed, will have removed between 15,000 and 20,000 cubic yards from the channel. An Army Corps study to find a long-term solution to the severe erosion on the Soundview side of the Montauk Harbor jetties is due next year.

    The trustees will again hire a contractor, or perhaps more than one, to excavate sand from the large flat at the south end of Georgica Pond. The sand is purchased from the trustees by coastal engineers who use it to rebuild beaches where erosion threatens private property to the west of the pond.

    Ms. McNally said that following last year’s confusion over a bidding process for the Georgica job, an effort would be made this year to have contractors interested in the excavation work — which includes trucking sand away from the pond — enter into cooperative arrangements. A similar process is used by Southampton trustees.

    Ms. McNally explained that the D.E.C. allows 12,500 cubic yards of sand to be taken from Georgica Pond each calendar year. “For the last couple of years, we have not gotten that much out. We’ll try to get as much as we can,” she said.

    This year, the trustees will charge a flat rate of $7 per cubic yard for the sand, which could go up to $7.50 per cubic yard in January. Contractors will have from today until Jan. 15 to take the sand.

    East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson has narrowly won a second term in a race that came down to absentee ballots, claiming victory by a margin of 15 votes, the smallest in modern East Hampton Town history.

    The final tally was 3,403 votes for Mr. Wilkinson, the Republican candidate, and 3,388 for the Democrat, Zachary Cohen.

    Mr. Cohen, who lives in Springs, was a first-time candidate. He phoned the supervisor to congratulate him on Nov. 23 when the results became clear. “We had a nice chat about various things. I wished him well for the next two years. I did get in a comment about the town’s finances,” he said last week.

    “Fortunately there were 15 people with a long-term memory of how dire things were before Bill Wilkinson, and they and others voted him back in to finish the outstanding job he is doing,” Trace Duryea, the chairwoman of the East Hampton Town Republican Committee, said in an e-mail last week.

    Mr. Wilkinson did not return several calls for comment.

    Election night results, which did not include approximately 840 absentee, affidavit, or paper ballots, put Mr. Wilkinson 177 votes ahead of Mr. Cohen.

    The count of absentee ballots involved representatives of both the Democratic and Republican Parties reviewing envelopes and asking to have those they considered invalid thrown out.

    Ms. Duryea had been at Board of Election headquarters watching the process and said that it was interesting to see that “people were all over the place. Many of them were voting all up and down the ballot. People were voting for people,” not for parties.

     The Suffolk County Board of Elections put Mr. Wilkinson’s 2011 winning margin at 50.11 percent. He had 2,600 votes on the Republican line, 321 on the Conservative, and 482 on the Independence.

    “We didn’t get as many Republican votes as we should have,” Ms. Duryea said. “We should have gotten them all. On the other hand, that means that people are thinking. . . . We’ll analyze the results and see where we have to do some work.”

    Mr. Cohen had 2,999 votes on the Democratic line and 389 on the Working Families line. Had he “gained just one more vote in each election district, he would have won,” the Democrats said in a statement on their Web site.

    He said last week that his loss of the Independence line to Mr. Wilkinson despite being endorsed by the local Independence Party may have swayed the election results in his opponent’s favor, and Ms. Duryea acknowledged that the Independence line had certainly helped her candidate. Local party leaders had gathered signatures for Mr. Cohen’s nomination on that line, but at the last minute, the county, state, and national chairman, Frank MacKay, submitted papers authorizing Mr. Wilkinson to run as the Independence candidate for supervisor. Such a move was possible because neither candidate was a member of the Independence Party.

    “They won the election, but they lost the people,” said Elaine Jones, chairwoman of the local Independence Party. “The people were angry and they sent a huge message.”

    “I feel vindicated by our decision to endorse Zach because you could see the people’s dissatisfaction in their vote,” she said. “It was the [MTK] concert, it was the [proposed sale of the town] docks, it was all the issues combined. That’s why Bill Wilkinson almost lost this election.”

    Mr. Cohen said it was possible that he had picked up votes from some people who felt deceived by the county party’s backroom decision to back Mr. Wilkinson. There were 13 Independence Party absentee ballots with no choice for supervisor marked on them; those ballots could have gone his way, he said. He speculated that Republicans and others who may have been unwilling to vote for him on the Democratic or Working Families lines might have voted for him on the Independence line.

    “I think it’s ironic that Elaine Jones’s candidate won, in spite of her,” Ms. Duryea said Tuesday. And in an e-mail, she said: “In this community it is evident that other than the basic 2,100 or so Democrats who vote a straight party line, most of the people — for whatever reason — think for themselves. It is also apparent to me that the voter is needy; whoever they think will fulfill those needs the best will get the job for the upcoming term.” She said she does not believe in an “us and them” approach. “It’s important to always be embracing new people and new ideas. . . . Because we’re a small community, we have to have the support of ‘them,’ whoever ‘them’ is.”

    As to his future in town politics, Mr. Cohen said he would consider running again for supervisor in two years. “Some people assume already that I am doing it,” he said. “Some of it has to do with who runs, what the state of the town might be.”

    “We hope that Zach’s success, his continued involvement in public affairs, and the leadership of our newly elected councilpersons will impel those on the current board to rethink their ‘mandate’ and, working closely with the newly elected councilpersons, be more responsive to all in the community,” Jeanne Frankl, the Democratic chairwoman, said in a statement issued last week.

    In 2009, Mr. Wilkinson had a far larger margin over the Democratic candidate, winning by 2,308 votes, or 66 percent, against Ben Zwirn. In that election, the breakdown was Mr. Wilkinson, 4,713; Mr. Zwirn, 2,405.

    In other town races, absentee ballots could have changed the makeup of the nine-member town trustees, but did not. Deborah Klughers, a Democrat, held on to her slight lead over a running mate, Ray Hartjen, to win a first term on that board.

    The winning town board candidates, Peter Van Scoyoc and Sylvia Overby, both Democrats, picked up 460 and 479 votes, respectively, from absentee, affidavit, and paper ballots. The winning Republican candidate for highway superintendent, Stephen Lynch, earned another 348 votes from those ballots.

    Two East Hampton High School Students and one from Westhampton Beach High School admitted to trespassing on East Hampton High School property and defacing a picture of the boys varsity soccer team in the locker room.

    “The East Hampton Town police were instrumental in resolving this case,” Rich Burns, the East Hampton School District’s interim superintendent, said in a statement issued last Thursday.

    Mr. Burns described the graffiti, discovered on Nov. 7, as “offensive” and “racially charged.” It included swastikas drawn on the coaches’ shirt and genitalia drawn on many members of the soccer team.

    The incident and the school administration’s handling of it spawned a contentious debate at a school board meeting in mid-November.

    After it was discovered, members of the boys volleyball team, which practiced immediately after the county championship soccer team and therefore had access to the locker room, were questioned by school officials. That angered some parents, who took their concerns and frustrations to a school board meeting on Nov. 15.

    “I would like to express my personal regret to the members of the boys varsity volleyball team. I know many students and parents were deeply upset about the manner in which the students were questioned in this case,” Mr. Burns said in a statement last Thursday. He also expressed his compassion for the soccer team and the coaches “who were the victims of this disturbing incident.”

    The perpetrators’ names were not released, but none was a member of the volleyball team. All three have been suspended from school.  

    Larry Penny, East Hampton Town’s director of natural resources, was suspended without pay for 30 days, pursuant to pending disciplinary charges against him, by the East Hampton Town Board at a special work session yesterday.

    The 16 charges of misconduct, incompetence, and insubordination have to do with the storage, without authorization or proper permits, of animal parts or carcasses and formaldehyde in a basement storage room at the office condominium where the town has offices at 300 Pantigo Place in East Hampton, as well as with the way in which work for which the town received state and county permits was performed.

    It is also alleged that Mr. Penny, whose salary this year is $95,910, failed to perform his duties in overseeing work done under environmental permits and allowed an unauthorized transfer of town assets — trees that were removed from the Barbara Hale Preserve in Springs, where permitted clearing was done, according to the charges, in violation of the terms of a permit. The private contractor that removed the trees was allowed to take possession of them.

    Another charge of misconduct alleges that Mr. Penny failed to ensure within the allotted time the completion of habitat restoration work — the removal of 15 acres of phragmites in various town wetlands — for which the town received a state grant, “jeopardizing reimbursement of the town for time already spent by town employees under [the] grant.” The town also says the natural resources director failed to follow through on an unauthorized clearing case for which he was responsible.

    In addition, the town claims that he failed to supervise the employees in his department, “including but not limited to the handling of financial matters.”

    In the case of the animal carcasses, the legal document provided to Mr. Penny states that he was ordered by Bill Wilkinson, the town supervisor, to provide a plan for their disposal after they were discovered in September but did not do so. After an order to remove them in October was ignored, the town hired an outside contractor to come in and clear them away.

    “The collection and retention of some or all of these animal remains is not required in order for you to perform your duties,” the charges state.

    According to the town, the remains were stored “without proper safeguards to protect others from noxious odors and possible contact with such remains and any pathogens such remains may host.” The formaldehyde was also stored without proper records and monitoring, the charges state.

    Mr. Penny had permits to collect certain wildlife, the document says, though some had expired. However, the town charges state, he did not provide the documentation to indicate that required annual reports were filed or that migratory bird carcasses had been delivered to the American Museum of Natural History, as required.

    Town officials did not comment on the charges. The suspension, based on a unanimous vote of the board, was enacted under a provision of a state Civil Service law that allows a maximum 30-day suspension pending a hearing and determination of charges of incompetence or misconduct.

    Mr. Penny has served as natural resources director for 26 years. After being notified of the suspension, he said yesterday that “they have been trying to get rid of me for a long time. The board is not pleased with my performance.”

    “I think that it’s part of a bigger thing,” he said. “The election didn’t go so well for them. I had supported Wilkinson, but in 2010 they asked me to retire. I did not want to do that.”

    “I’m not going to take it lying down,” he said. “I am going to try my best to defend myself and get back in. This is some kind of brutal politics. And this administration is certainly capable of brutal politics.”

    He said he had been advised to file an appeal and would be calling a lawyer. “I am confident that I will overcome this in the end,” he said.

    Mr. Penny, who writes a weekly nature column for The East Hampton Star, had fought for his position in 2008, when the town board proposed eliminating it and placing the Natural Resources Department under the control of the Planning Department.

    Brad Loewen, a town councilman at the time and liaison to the department, had pointed to what he said were problems in the department under Mr. Penny’s leadership.

    At the time, the move was seen by members of the public as an attempt to diminish the Natural Resources Department, and a crowd appeared before the town board to defend Mr. Penny and protest. Many said maintaining an autonomous Natural Resources Department was crucial to properly safeguarding East Hampton’s habitats, wildlife, and other resources. Others spoke of Mr. Penny’s expertise and knowledge of East Hampton’s environment.

    Mr. Penny obtained legal counsel at that time, and the restructuring was eventually dropped, although some duties of the Natural Resources Department were shifted to other jurisdictions.

With Reporting by

David E. Rattray

    Rising enrollment at the John M. Marshall Elementary School had East Hampton School Board members and school administrators talking about possible solutions to overcrowded classrooms on Tuesday, but the board also considered suggestions about ways to trim the district budget and got an update on its upcoming superintendent search.

    “The numbers are going up and up and up,” said Jacqueline Lowey, a board member, speaking about elementary school enrollment. “What’s the limit? At what point do you cry ‘Uncle’? ”

    In just two years, enrollment at the school has climbed from 517 to 616 students, according to Christopher Tracey, the departing elementary school principal. “Kindergarten through third grade is usually 18 students or less,” Mr. Tracey said. “We are significantly above that.”

    The secondary issue, he said, was space. “There are two possible spots where classrooms could be placed,” but, he said, “We have several conundrums going on at the same time.”

    “It’s not a good situation,” added Keith Malsky, the middle school principal. “We’re running at 28 to 29 students in some classes.”

    “It’s bulging to the point of dysfunction,” Ms. Lowey said.

    The board agreed to examine converting a storage room and office space into classrooms.

    In a separate matter, the district’s citizens advisory committee suggested that the district look to facilities in another school building as a possible way to generate revenue.

    “The C.A.C. is looking at a two-pronged approach to the budget,” said Susan Naeve. “Especially in the area of cost-effectiveness of shared services. And two basic areas rose to the top.”

    One was food services. While the high school has a cafeteria and “this beautiful kitchen,” Ms. Naeve said, “Amagansett and Springs have no food.” The citizens committee proposed that East Hampton use its kitchen “to create good quality food” that could be offered for sale to the other districts. The board and Isabel Madison, the district’s business administrator, were excited by the prospect. “I’ve seen a centralized kitchen in another district, and I was very impressed,” Ms. Madison said, adding that the kitchen could become a cooperative venture.

    The committee also examined transportation costs. “The state requires that each district must transport its own students,” Ms. Naeve said. “But there might be a waiver for a regionalized approach, especially with the drop in state funding and the tax cap,” she said, referring to the state’s new 2-percent limit on property tax increases that will affect the district’s 2012-13 budget.

    Speaking of spending on a smaller scale, George Aman, a board member, said that he had enjoyed the high school production of “It’s a Wonderful Life” but was disappointed that the traditional senior citizens lunch that was held in past years prior to the Sunday matinee performance had not been held this year.

    Lawrence Roberts, director of the unified arts program, explained that there was less money in the budget this year and that what was there needed to be spent on students.

    “Maybe if the same situation arises, you could let us know,” said Laura Anker Grossman, the school board president. “It’s a great opportunity to get seniors out of the house around the holidays, and also to let them see our new building.”

    In other news, the board reported that it had hired the Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services to conduct its superintendent search.

    “The charge is zero dollars to the district,” Ms. Anker Grossman said. “We will have ancillary expenses, like advertising. But the cost is significantly smaller” than with any of the other firms the board had interviewed.

    Mr. Aman said that he had contacted other districts that had used BOCES to find superintendents, and that their impressions were “very positive,” he said.

    Also on Tuesday, Ms. Lowey suggested using a portion of the approximately $40,000 a year used to write, print, and mail the four issues of The Observer newsletter to create a better district Web site. “We have the worst Web presence of any East End school,” Ms. Lowey said. “It’s embarrassing.”

    “I’m not ready to let go of The Observer,” said Alison Anderson, another board member. “The seniors in the community love it.”

    On Nov. 11, after a relaxing day at the beach followed by a leisurely lunch in town, Tracy Howe and Peter Kraft pulled into their driveway at 68 Fresh Pond Road in Amagansett at around 3:30 p.m. with two of their children to find “20 foot flames shooting out of the house,” Ms. Howe said.

    The family had traveled from Frenchtown, N.J., to enjoy a final weekend before closing their summer house for the season. They were joined by their best friends, John and Victoria Kiely, and their two children. Both families also took along their dogs, Bosley, the Krafts’ yellow Lab, and Henry, the Kielys’ black Lab. The house was purchased by the Krafts in 2008, and Mr. Kiely had recently completed a total remodel of the house.

    “It was our son’s birthday,” said Ms. Howe. “We brought out all of his presents and birthday cupcakes for him.” They weren’t planning on cooking that weekend and put the cupcakes on the stovetop to keep them away from the dogs and the kids.

    That morning, after the birthday boy opened his presents, the families went to the beach with the dogs and took holiday photos. “We were in such relaxation mode. It’s such a slice of heaven out there,” said Ms. Howe. When they returned to the house in the early afternoon, Ms. Howe and her husband talked about where to leave the dogs. “It was a wet and rainy day. We couldn’t leave them on the porch, it was too cold,” she said. They decided to leave them inside, figuring they would be so tired that they would fall asleep.

    After a two-and-a-half-hour lunch, the families came back to the house to find it in flames. “We just freaked out,” said Ms. Howe. “Peter, John, and Victoria went flying out of the car. We all yelled ‘The dogs!’ ” She called 911, and sat with the four children. “I knew the three of them were going to go in that house to get the dogs out. I’m screaming for them not to go into the house, the 911 person was telling me not to let them into the house. They all went up and busted windows. Now we know that was the dumbest thing to do because we were just feeding [the fire] oxygen,” Ms. Howe said.

    Her primary concern was their safety. “You always think of the what ifs,” she said. “They’re leaving me here with four kids.” At first, the fire seemed to be contained to the front of the house, she said, but they quickly realized “it was beyond our control at that point. My husband went in and couldn’t stand the smoke.”

    “We all thought the dogs must have done something. We couldn’t figure out what could have gone wrong,” said Ms. Howe. She explained how the interior of the house was new, and that they had not cooked earlier that day. “We couldn’t think of anything we’d done to be a fire hazard. The kitchen wall was on fire, and I thought, what if the dogs got on the cook top, which is what happened,” she said.

    Ms. Howe said the fire marshal told her one of the knobs on the stove was turned counterclockwise to the “on” position, which started the fire. Apparently, the dogs jumped up to get to the cupcakes and were able to pull down a few, but could not reach the box. In their efforts, the burner was turned on.

    The dogs sought refuge in the back bedroom, the one part of the house that did not burn to the ground. “We broke the window where the dogs were, but the smoke was so black that we didn’t know they were in there,” said Ms. Howe. They figured “if the dogs were smart enough to move away from the flames, they had enough room to move away from the heat and the fire. We didn’t think that the smoke had filled the house to the degree that it did. Had they gone downstairs, they would’ve had a much better chance,” she added.

    Unfortunately, the dogs were killed by the smoke. “We have some peace of mind that they weren’t burnt,” she said, “It’s so heart wrenching because it’s a stupid, stupid thing that could’ve been avoided. Our dogs are like our family members. We witnessed something with the kids that some people don’t have to do in a lifetime.”

    Multiple fire departments helped combat the flames. “They were having problems, and they didn’t have any water for quite some time,” said Ms. Howe. Technical difficulties aside, “It wasn’t going to change the outcome. The fire was so hot, it had already spread through the whole house,” she said. “We were stuck there, with all the fire trucks, and the hoses. We had to sit there for three and a half hours and watch the house burn down.”

    Since the fire, there has been an overwhelmingly positive community response, Ms. Howe said, adding that she is grateful to the people and volunteers of East Hampton Town. “I can’t thank them enough for the help they gave us to get through that day — from helping us with our kids to the calming effect they had on us,” she said. “We had an incredible experience with the town during a horrific tragedy in our lives. People should know how lucky they are to live in the town they live in.”

    Ms. Howe said the ambulance volunteers sat with their kids for hours and gave them candy and stuffed animals. “The people that were there were so great. Steve [Howarth], the chaplain of the Amagansett Fire Department, took us back to get the collar, it was the warmest group of people we’ve ever met. The fire marshall, he went into one of the upstairs bedrooms and found my wedding ring,” she said. “My daughter received a card from a woman . . . who wanted to check on her and told her how brave she was. It was so thoughtful.”

    The fire department brought the families dinner that evening, and staff at the Meeting House restaurant in Amagansett sat them right away and gave them drinks. “We had someone flashing his lights at us after we left the restaurant. A man wanted to know if we were the family who lost our house. He offered his extra home to put us up anytime,” Ms. Howe said.

    “We find ourselves talking more about how amazing everyone was to us than the actual event of the fire. The fire marshall called my husband and said, ‘I hope you won’t leave our community. We’d like you to stay,’ ” she said. “The truth is, I don’t think we’d ever leave Amagansett now. We weren’t there year-round, but knowing how great everyone was, all the selfless acts, it was amazing to us,” Ms. Howe said.

    Picking up the pieces after losing the dogs and the house has been difficult. “It’s a huge process. We’re just starting. It’s all open wounds. Everything is gone, all my credit cards, work computers, all that nuisance that we’re trying to work through right now,” she said. “We’re so thankful and counting our blessing that no one was hurt. It wasn’t our primary house. . . . We were at least able to go back to a place that was familiar to us. We had clothes and things.”

    Her son has been upset and thinks that his cupcakes started the fire. “He’s more nervous about everything. He has a meltdown if I don’t turn lights out when I leave the room; he thinks leaving the lights on is a fire hazard,” she said. When they pull into their driveway in Frenchtown her son tells her, “ ‘Oh good, the house hasn’t burned down.’ ”

    She recognizes that it will take time for the whole thing to sink in. “Kids are so resilient,” Ms. Howe said. Her son has requested replacement birthday presents and a new dog.

    The dogs were cremated and the families plan to scatter their ashes in the ocean, and plant a tree on the property in their memory when they rebuild. “At the end of the day, we ultimately will come to peace with it. With each day, things are starting to become more normal again.”

    A hearing next Thursday night on funding for the construction of a fence around East Hampton Airport — to prevent collisions with deer and to increase security — is not simply about the project but about how opposing groups would like the airport to be operated and airport noise addressed.

    In recent years, complaints about aircraft traffic to and from East Hampton, particularly helicopters, have escalated, both locally and across Long Island, with concerns raised about disruptions to residents and the impacts of noise and emissions from planes on the environment.

    The issue has drawn regional attention, with efforts made by government officials, including Representative Tim Bishop, to move flight paths to routes that would have the least negative impact. Efforts have been complicated by federal transportation and aviation regulations, which provide limited authority to local municipalities.

    Dominick Stanzione, a Republican East Hampton Town Councilman, has proposed obtaining a Federal Aviation Administration grant for the fencing. Doing so would extend, for a new 20-year period, the town’s obligation to abide by a particular set of F.A.A. rules.

    Some argue that accepting the grant would foreclose the possibility of gaining local control over the airport through procedures available only to airport operators that are free of contractual agreements with the F.A.A., called grant assurances. Others, like Mr. Stanzione, assert that freedom from grant assurances is unnecessary, and that seeking autonomy from the F.A.A. is a complicated and costly process that would result in minimal, if any, gains.

    No definitive estimates on the cost of the fencing have been prepared. However, Mr. Stanzione, the councilman serving as the liaison on the town board’s committee on airport matters, said Monday the design of the project could cost $100,000 and the fencing itself, around the perimeter of the 600-acre site, could cost about $400,000. A separate airport fund in the town budget contains a surplus in excess of that amount, and some have suggested the surplus be used to pay for the work.

    Councilman Stanzione said that he was “using the vehicle of the deer fence to settle the issue . . . to accept F.A.A. funds for the airport. I can’t have a resolution generically accepting F.A.A. funds,” he said. “This is a vehicle for me to express a policy position . . . to  provide an opportunity for the board to have a hearing, in a public forum, on the premise of accepting F.A.A. funding. . . .”

    “I believe it is in the best interests of the town, because it’s the most fiscally responsible,” Mr. Stanzione said. The move, he said, and subsequent agreement to accept F.A.A. management rules, would be balanced by adopting a comprehensive noise-abatement program, the elements of which he has been working on for several months and expects to release in the coming week. He called the program a “progressive list” of more than 40 procedures, from the cheapest and easiest to implement to the more complicated.

    But those seeking an effective remedy for airport noise, such as members of the newly formed Quiet Skies Coalition, say that wresting local control of the airport from the F.A.A. is key. They have been waiting for 2014 when, they say, the town will have an opportunity to enact stricter regulations.

    The expiration at that time of four grant assurances, among the 39 in place, would give the town leeway, they say, to impose a ban on noisy helicopters, establish flight curfews, limit weekend airport use, and set other noise-reduction goals.

    (Though the majority of the town’s contractual obligations to the F.A.A. remain in place until 2021, the four will expire sooner, pursuant to a settlement with the F.A.A. of a lawsuit brought several years ago by a local group, the Committee to Stop Airport Expansion, and David Gruber, an East Hampton resident.)

    “The law is clear,” the Quiet Skies Coalition asserts in an ad in this week’s Star.

    Recent presentations by aviation attorneys, one arranged by the town board and another by the Quiet Skies Coalition, have outlined the underpinnings of the procedures an airport owner must follow to gain the ability to enact certain restrictions.

    Peter Kirsch, an attorney and consultant for the town board, who has represented two airport owners in such undertakings — one successful and one failed — and Sheila Jones, an attorney who spoke at a forum last month at the coalition’s request, agreed on the legal parameters. But they expressed different perspectives on whether the effort would be worth it or could bear fruit. Those who consider helicopter noise intolerable want the town to try anything it can.

    A campaign to implore East Hamptoners to attend the hearing next week is taking shape, with ads placed in newspapers by the Quiet Skies Coalition and the East Hampton Aviation Association, which supports taking F.A.A. funding.

    The aviation association alleges that those opposed to taking federal money are not only interested in local control but in closing the airport.

    Others have set up a Facebook page inviting residents to the “urgent” hearing. “Don’t let the current town board irrevocably change the peace and quiet of our community,” Susan McGraw Keber wrote on that page. 

    The town has accepted more than $103 million in F.A.A. grants for the airport since 1983, Mr. Stanzione said this week. The money paid for projects such as runway repair and building improvements — money that the town would have had to borrow if it hadn’t gotten federal funding, he said.

    Mr. Stanzione said he does not believe the majority of taxpayers favor turning down F.A.A. money and pursuing local control through a process with an unsure outcome.

    “If that were true, I would not advance the argument,” he said. The councilman said he is hoping that, during work session discussions following next week’s hearing, the town board will reach a bipartisan consensus to apply for the grant.

    It is unclear, however, whether such an application could be prepared, submitted, and reviewed by the F.A.A., before January, when, depending on the outcome of the town supervisor election — with ballots still being reviewed by the Board of Elections at press time — the town board majority could change.

    The two Democratic board members-elect, Peter Van Scoyoc and Sylvia Overby, have vowed to hold off on accepting F.A.A. money until its full impact, and noise control options, could be thoroughly reviewed. The potential Democratic supervisor, Zachary Cohen, would do the same.

    Mr. Stanzione said that regardless of the outcome he was pleased that the debate was on the table. “For the first time, we have had a real, honest public discussion on issues related to the airport.”

    Blessed with a perfect day, the East Hampton Town Recreation Department and John Keeshan Real Estate Thanksgiving Day road races in Montauk attracted another record-smashing turnout.

    “We registered 639,” said the races’ timer, Bob Beattie. “Last year we had 500.”

    John Keeshan, who founded the event 35 years ago, said, “What better family day could there be? We made up 400 T-shirts and we ran out of them, and we ran out of numbers too. It’s not about longevity, though, it’s about these young people, the first-timers with their fathers and mothers. That’s what makes it so heartwarming and exciting — to see how people have taken to it. We don’t advertise this beyond Southampton, though I know we could get even more to come. But this has always been a local race, and I want to keep it that way. It’s a Montauk run.”

    The inaugural group, which ran “from the flagpole in town out to Third House and back — about five miles all told,” in 1976, said Keeshan, had included himself, John Conner, Ray Charron, the late Bob Aaron, Richie Shea, Andy Neidnig, Billy O’Donnell, George Watson, and Burke Koncelik.

    Four of the founders — Keeshan, Watson, O’Donnell, and Conner, who was a spectator — were at the Circle last Thursday.

    Watson, who used to preside over a series of October races to his Dock bar and restaurant, races in which he often competed, recently revived his road race, from the Shagwong to the Dock, a last-minute kind of thing that drew 40 competitors. Asked if he ran, the wry restaurateur, who placed fourth that day among the three-miler’s 60 to 69-year-old males, in 30 minutes and 21 seconds, said, “No, I didn’t run, I officiated. I’ve got a lot of excuses now.”

    O’Donnell, who placed sixth among the 50 to 59-year-old males in the six-miler — a division that was topped by Montauk’s Dan Farnham in 42:12 — said that he was “the only one who has run this 35 times out of 35.”

    That’s including the snow year, 1989, in which, said Keeshan, “We had nine inches of snow and all these people standing around in shorts.”

    O’Donnell, who plans on making it “50 out of 50,” had to admit that his 24-year-old daughter, Caitlyn, had beaten him. “That’s what happens when you teach them,” he said.

    When Watson excused himself because he was getting cold, a commiserator said, “By all means — you don’t want to get pneumonia.”

    Speaking of pneumonia, Kevin Barry, East Hampton High’s boys cross-country coach, said he had come down with it recently, after contracting bronchitis and plantar fasciitis.

    “How did the little guys do?” asked Barry, referring to Erik Engstrom and Randy Santiago, both of Springs, who are expected to make an impact on next year’s team even though they’ll be ninth graders. Santiago and Engstrom, it turned out, crossed the line together in 18:49, good for second and third place among the three-miler’s 11 to 13-year-old boys division. Jackson Rafferty, another eighth grader from Springs, who’s also expected to move up to the varsity next fall, was fourth, in 19:39. 

    A protégé of Barry’s at Mercy High School some years ago, Kiernan Kelly, 33, of Bridgehampton, won the three-miler, in 17:11. The women’s winner was Tina Frey, also 37, of New York City, in 19:05.

    The names of the six-miler’s winners, John Schilkowsky, 20, of Morganton, N.C., and Kira Garry, 18, of Montauk, did not appear on the initial list posted on Beattie’s van. Schilkowsky, who runs for Cornell, crossed the line in 32:35, and Garry, who runs for Yale (who thought she was fifth over all) finished in 36:06, a time that impressed Diane O’Donnell, East Hampton High’s girls cross-country coach. The runner-up was Schilkowsky’s Cornell teammate, Will Weinlandt of Amagansett.

    “It was the usual chaos,” Beattie said later. “We’re always bouncing back and forth here — chasing people with the wrong numbers, or people who say they’re running the three, then run the six, or vice versa. We’re hoping to have it straightened out on our Web site [island-timing.com] by Monday night.”

    On Saturday, Beattie was to time another Turkey Trot, a 5K in Sag Harbor that benefited the Old Whalers Community House Fund, a race with a field of “180-something” that apparently was more manageable. Chris Koegel, 28, of Malverne, won it, in 17:15. Sinead FitzGibbon, who was fifth over all, in 19:30, was the women’s winner.

    Thanks to Keeshan, the overall winners and age-group winners were presented after last Thursday’s race with frozen turkeys.

    Kyle Cashin, an ultra athlete for whom a six-miler is a walk in the park, and who topped the men’s 40 to 49 division, in 35:55, said, “One of us had to run because Caroline, my brother Ed’s wife, forgot to buy a turkey.”

    As it turned out, the Cashins wound up with two turkeys because Caroline Cashin topped the women’s 30 to 39-year-old group in the three-miler.    

    “You couldn’t ask for a better day — it’s so much fun,” said Kyle Cashin, who was a first-timer.

    Asked if he’d been in any ultra races or triathlons lately, he said, with a smile, “We have a 17-month-old son who’s taking up the time. I thought the Ironman was hard until I started to take care of J.T.!”

    Did he think his son would follow in his footsteps? “Well, Nicole was all state in track, so I think he’s got pretty good genes. . . . He’ll probably wind up playing the piano.”

    Cashin does have his sights set on a 200-mile relay race in Oregon, “from Mount Hood down to the ocean. You’re doing like 25-minute 10Ks in the beginning. It’s an epic thing to do. Eight people do it. I’d love it if Ed could do it, though it’s in August, his busy time of the year. Maybe I’ll do it with J.T. in a stroller.”

    It was downright balmy on Saturday when an estimated 5,000 people gathered on the grounds of the Montauk Lighthouse for the fourth annual Lighting of the Light.

    Joe Gaviola, the master of ceremonies, credited the windless night to Msgr. Peter Anthony Libasci, the guest of honor and former pastor of St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church in Montauk, who will officially be named the bishop of the Diocese of Manchester, N.H., at a ceremony next Thursday.

    Father Peter, as he was known in the hamlet, was chosen to flick the big red switch that turned on the 3,770 white lights that Looks Good Services used to cover the Lighthouse building, windows, and tower.

    The grounds opened at 4:30 p.m., and the ceremony started an hour later. Children rolled down the hills, couples gazed out at the sea, and dogs romped through the crowd as Sarah Conway and the Revelers performed Christmas tunes.

    Locals may have been scarce, perhaps deterred by the traffic, but they made up for it the following day at Christmas at the Lighthouse. Santa sat in the Lighthouse parlor listening to holiday wishes, surrounded by a Christmas tree and holiday poinsettias, while cookies, hot chocolate, and cider were served in the museum rooms.

    Vehicles filled both lots and were parked out on the highway about a quarter-mile west. Bicycles wove through cars as the great exit began. East Hampton Town and state park police officers helped control the traffic.

    Late at night, visitors were still standing at the gates, gaping at the splendid site that will be lit from dawn to dusk though Jan. 1.

    “It was a great night,” Mr. Gaviola said.