A badly decomposed corpse found on the shore of Gardiner's Bay in Amagansett on May 21 remains unidentified.

A local resident walking dogs that day found what appeared to be human remains at the water's edge. The Suffolk medical examiner's office said that they were of a man with a slight build and between 20 and 30 years old.

East Hampton Town Police Chief Ed Ecker said Friday that three possibilities top his list of leads as to its identity, including Ward Wickens, a commercial fisherman who fell overboard on May 3 off the southern coast of Nova Scotia, as well as two individuals reported missing from Point Judith, Rhode Island.

Chief Ecker remains skeptical that a swift correlation of the body with any particular missing persons report will be possible. The town police continue to work on the case with Rhode Island detectives and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Barrington, N.S.

With a cloud-filled sky giving way to rain, veterans, boy and girl scouts, and members of several fire departments and ambulance companies marched on East Hampton Main Street Monday to mark Memorial Day, 2011.

Despite the downpour, which began in earnest just as the first flag-carrying marchers reached the business district, a sizable turnout of people, young and old, remained to watch the parade go by. Those without umbrellas crowded under store awnings and the eaves of buildings and cheered as the veterans went by. One woman backed her infant in a stroller into a clothing shop's open front door to get out of the rain and secure a view over parked cars.

East Hampton Town Clerk Fred Overton, his notes almost unreadable because of the rain, presided over a ceremony that followed at the Memorial Green near Hook Mill. Among those in attendance were East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson and East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr.

After the parade, about 200 people gathered in a semi-circle and listened to remarks from Mr. Overton, who is also the commander of East Hampton's American Legion Post No. 419, in Amagansett, and Tom Byrne, the commander of the Everit Albert Herter Veterans of Foreign Wars Post in Wainscott.

Mr. Byrne cited the fighting spirit of the United States military. "The heart of America is freedom," he said.

"We remember our fallen," he said. "Once a year is not enough. Widows, orphans, mothers and fathers, they remember every day."

Bill Fleming, a Wainscott resident who was drafted into the Army in 1970, was the keynote speaker. He said that occasion was a "day of humility and a day of renewal for all of us."

"Small towns like this town supply those who fight and suffer the losses," he said.

"We fight for the ideals that started this nation. . . . Today we renew our commitment to those who served," he concluded.

The names of East Hampton students who won awards from the American Legion and V.F.W. were read at the end of the ceremony.

    The Town of East Hampton ended last year with at least $5.9 million in surplus from the 2010 budget, the town supervisor, Bill Wilkinson, announced in a press release last week.

    The surplus was the result of a variety of measures, he said, including “not filling 18 funded positions, cutting back in all areas of budgeted spending (travel, conferences, computers, and various equipment), reaching an industry standard labor settlement with police, cutting back on vehicle usage, and seeing over 30 individuals take advantage of an early retirement incentive.”

    “All department heads and town employees who tightened their belts and did more with less in 2010 are to be commended for greatly assisting in bringing us to this historic point in the town’s recovery,” he wrote.

    The $5.9 million will be added to a total of $21.2 million in bonds issued to cover the town’s accumulated deficit, which was certified by the state comptroller at $27.2 million as of the end of 2009, when financial affairs began to be put back in order.

    Last Thursday, the town sold $11.7 million in deficit-financing bonds and got a “very good” interest rate, of 2.7 percent, according to the press release, comparable with rates given recently to bond sales by Rockland and Suffolk Counties.

    With the permanent financing in place, Mr. Wilkinson said that the process of making whole the town funds that were misused by the previous administration can be completed. The town has already returned $4 million to the community preservation fund and $5.8 million to the capital fund, he said.

    Additional surplus from 2010 will be put into reserves established recently to cover future expenses, and to develop a general fund reserve of up to 5 percent, as recommended by the town’s financial advisers.   

    A proposed amendment to East Hampton Town’s home improvement contractors law, discussed by the town board on Tuesday, would extend a requirement to obtain $100 licenses to do business in the town to anyone doing paid work at someone’s residence, no matter how small the job.

    A law now on the books exempts landscapers doing “grounds maintenance” or gardening, those doing simple repair or maintenance jobs, and those earning less than $500 for a job.

    The new law, if adopted, would require plumbers and electricians, who are separately licensed by county or state law, to obtain a town license as well. Wind or solar energy systems installers would be included in the license requirement as well.

    The town code amendment was developed during discussions by Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson and Councilwoman Theresa Quigley with local contractors, insurance agents, and a town attorney.

    Rob Connolly, the attorney, presented the details to the board on Tuesday. Mr. Wilkinson said Tuesday that the proposal is an attempt to “even the playing field” for local contractors whose bids are undercut by unlicensed contractors. Those not paying for liability insurance, workers’ compensation, Social Security, and other overhead costs are able to offer lower prices to consumers, and are edging out the legitimate businesses, he said.

    “Not only does he get the job, but it makes the legitimate contractor look like a thief,” said Joe Bloecker, a member of the group that met to discuss the changes to the law.

    “It seemed our out-of-town contractors didn’t have the same restrictions as our local guys,” Mr. Wilkinson said.

    The license requirement for home improvement contractors doing business in East Hampton has been on the books since 1977, and was amended in 2005 and 2006. In order to obtain a license, contractors must show proof of adequate liability insurance and provide information about any previous business names, liens, bankruptcies, criminal convictions, and litigation arising out of home improvement work.

    The proposal under discussion would eliminate a 2006 addition that required contractors to attend at least five hours of applicable continuing education courses each year. Instead, only first-time licensees would be required to show proof of the five classroom hours. 

    All subcontractors on a job, not just the general contractor, would be required to have and display a town license, under the amended code.

    Board members are expected to discuss the code change at a future meeting before scheduling a public hearing on the amendment.  

    If not every cloud has a silver lining, some do, as was dramatically proved last Thursday morning when Deidre Quinn, a Montauk landscaper, drove west through Hither Woods.

    That day the cloud took the form of the gruesome aftermath of a collision between a deer and a car driven at high speed. “It must have happened just a few seconds before,” Ms. Quinn said, going on to describe how a driver who had witnessed the crash told her later that she’d seen something fly through the air when the deer was hit.

    “People were driving around it. As I came up to where the deer was, it was clearly dead, split down the middle. I looked down and saw a long thing in the road,” Ms. Quinn said. She realized later it must have been the placenta. “Then a dark thing. It moved.”

    It was a fawn, alive, covered with amniotic fluid, forced from the mother’s body by the impact. The landscaper was surprised but perhaps less disturbed than most would have been. She had seen, and helped, a number of horses and lambs give birth during her years working at Deep Hollow Ranch in Montauk.

    She got out of her car, toweled the fawn dry, put him in her lap, and drove to the Veterinary Clinic of East Hampton at Goodfriend Park. Kira, her border collie, sat beside them on the driver’s seat. “Kira was fine,” Ms. Quinn said.

    Ms. Quinn said the fawn, a male, nuzzled his head under her arm looking for his mother for a drink. “He cried, and squirmed. He was warm, and moved his legs, I could tell he was okay.”

    The fawn got the once-over at the vet and was then taken to the Wildlife Rescue Center of the Hamptons in Hampton Bays, where as of Tuesday he was being bottle fed along with another newborn and doing fine.

    Because it is being raised by hand, the deer might not be released in Montauk, but will find a new home in the rescue center’s hundreds of acres. Dee Quinn said she planned to visit the fawn in the near future.

    Randy Altschuler, a St. James businessman who rode a wave of anger at President Obama to come within inches of unseating Democratic Representative Tim Bishop last fall, has announced that he will run again for New York’s 1st Congressional seat next year rather than pursue the Suffolk County executive position as had been speculated.

    In a statement released to the press on May 25, Mr. Altschuler said, “The truth is that after falling just short last year, my intent had always been to seek a rematch with Congressman Bishop in 2012 and in the coming days I will file papers making that run official. I am eager to contrast my record as a successful entrepreneur and small businessman who knows how to create jobs versus Congressman Bishop’s record as a tax, spend, and borrow politician who has run our economy into the ground.”

    Mr. Altschuler led briefly in the 2010 contest after all the voting machines in the district were recanvassed, but upon the conclusion of a 36-day absentee ballot count, he conceded to the incumbent. The final margin was fewer than 600 votes out of around 200,000 cast. He is not a shoo-in, per se, for the Republican nomination for another go next fall, but as he continues to enjoy wide backing in the Suffolk County G.O.P., he can be safely regarded as the front-runner.

    Mr. Bishop declined to comment directly, but his campaign spokesman, Jon Schneider, said Friday that if Mr. Altschuler came up short in 2010, the political environment in 2012 with President Barack Obama on the ballot will prove less hospitable to his candidacy.

    “No doubt, Randy came close last time. That said, 2010 was the best year for the Republicans in several generations. A presidential year is a vastly different election; in Suffolk County, it’s a better electorate for a Democrat.” Nationwide, Republicans picked up 63 seats last fall in their midterm sweep, riding Tea Party support to their biggest congressional gains in decades. In 2008, President Obama carried Suffolk County with 53 percent of the vote over John McCain, a much narrower margin than the 63 percent he earned statewide.

    Mr. Schneider pointed out Friday that Mr. Bishop has never run unopposed and did not expect to cruise to reelection this time around, either. He said his candidate’s support of dredging Montauk Harbor and the preservation of jobs at Brookhaven National Lab that were threatened during the budget negotiations on Capitol Hill this spring would bolster his support.

    The congressman’s spokesman also went after Mr. Altschuler for allegedly refusing to take a position on Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan’s budget proposal, which would change Medi­care for those currently under 55 to a voucher system, with individuals receiving government subsidies to purchase private health plans. Mr. Bishop voted against the budget proposal when it passed the House in mid-April; it failed to pass the Senate.

    Mr. Altschuler’s spokesman, Chris Russell, responded Tuesday, “Randy is just getting his campaign under way and will have plenty to say about all the important issues facing the country in coming days, weeks, and months ahead.  While Mr. Bishop likes to ask questions, how about he takes the time to answer some, like where are all the jobs that were supposed to be created with his big-government stimulus bill and what’s his plan to cut spending and dig us out of trillions upon trillions in debt that he helped to create during his years in Washington?”

    In addition to the Medicare question, which would seem to have played an outsized role -- as members of both parties in Washington have conceded -- in handing New York’s 26th Congressional District seat to a Democrat during a special election there last week, voters are sure to hear about taxes and debt, issues Mr. Altschuler raised repeatedly during the last campaign, as well as the health care law passed last year that Mr. Bishop supported and continues to trumpet as a flawed but vital measure.

     Morone saxatilis is a regal fish with silver stripes whose glimmer, caught in the face of a wave, or reflecting a ray of sunshine down deep, can instill reverence in the hardest of angling hearts.

    As a resource, the striped bass is an ore with rich veins that stream from estuaries all along the East Coast each spring, the migrating mother lode passing through legions of recreational hooks and market-bound nets on its way to and from Northeastern feeding grounds. 

    From the mid-1990s when bass populations were placed under strict regulatory control to about 2006, a peak of abundance, all was right with the world as defined by those whose lives revolved around them for sport or money. But, for the past several years there have been whispers among fishermen, and they’re growing louder: There don’t seem to be as many bass around. The farther east one looks, the more profound the sense.

    The Vineyard Gazette, a venerable broadsheet that pays close attention to the bass beat, ran a banner earlier this month that read: “Scary Decline in Striper Stocks.”

    The paper reported that last year’s springtime sea worm hatch in the island’s coastal ponds — “an event that historically attracts stripers by the thousands — had just about failed after years of under-performance.” The Massachusetts division of marine fisheries has seen a 75-percent drop in the catch of small stripers in the past four years.

    For the past two, the SurfMasters surfcasting tournament with contenders among the more expert casters found anywhere on the coast, has had to make do with shorter and shorter periods during which 30 to 50-pound fish get within range. A noticeable downturn.

    “Last year, it never rose to a high note. It happened for about two days, a short period. Last year and the previous year were two of the worst in the past decade. Very little action. If you caught a 20-pounder it was something special,” said Fred Kalkstein, one of the SurfMaster tournament’s annual organizers.

    “The recreational harvest has been down coastwide for the past several years,” said Stephen Hines, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s section head for finfish and crustaceans. Mr. Hines said the commercial bass fishery had remained more consistent, perhaps because of its “individual quota system.” Specific numbers of tags allocated to each licensed fisherman tend to impose stricter catch limits.    

    The recreational shortfalls, no matter how subtle, tend to create high anxiety within the sportfishing industry. In Massachusetts, fishermen and their representatives are demanding that fishery managers and politicians curtail the commercial catch. On Web sites devoted to striped bass sportfishing, there are calls for the same thing all along the coast. It’s a call that echoes down through the years, as far back as the late 19th century, whenever the bass population wavers.

    In the mid-1980s when the coastal bass population reached historically low levels, the debate between sport and market fishermen turned violent at times. In East Hampton, nets were cut and a culture was eventually overwhelmed when pressure from the sport industry resulted in the elimination of the local haulseine fishery.

    In 1991, after suffering a ban on the sale of bass for the previous five years because of contamination from Hudson River polychlorinated biphenyls, P.C.B.s, baymen were deprived of their most effective gear, their “money fish,” and in many respects, their centuries-old way of life.

    Neither statistics that clearly showed a far greater impact on the resource from sportfishing nor civil disobedience on the part of Billy Joel and local politicians could stem the tide. Twenty years on, an effort by the National Marine Fisheries Service to get a handle on recreational landings is just getting under way.

    With restrictive regulations in place for the past 30 years, the commercial fishing bugaboo may not be so easy to blame for the recent downturn, despite some well-publicized illegal market fishing down south. The cause of slowly dwindling bass stocks may have less to do with fishing, managers say, and more to do with nature.

    “Fishing pressure has not changed much,” said Robert Beal of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. The commission is a federally-empowered body that manages near-shore migratory species including striped bass.

    Mr. Beal, who is its director of interstate fisheries management, said that in the last couple years there had been a 60-percent drop in the striped bass catch coastwide by sportfishermen. “It’s starting to concern managers, especially in the Gulf of Maine above Cape Cod. They’re not seeing the numbers they did at the peak,” which Mr. Beal said occurred in 2006.

    “The bulk of the fish come from the Chesapeake, but we’re seeing low numbers in all the estuaries. There has been relatively low recruitment in the last three of four years,” he said, referring to the number of young-of-the-year bass that are seen during seine surveys in the Chesapeake Bay and other estuaries.

    “We’re not seeing any big slug of fish. There are fewer juveniles coming in, and fewer adults,” Mr. Beal said. And, although he said the bass population remained above biomass levels that would signal collapse, “there are some concerns. Managers are starting to write an addendum, a modification to the management plan to be considered. A new stock assessment will be ready by the November meeting of the commission. They want to be in a position to act.”

    So if not fishing pressure, what? Mr. Beal and Mr. Hines agreed that the high recruitment that fostered the abundance of bass in 2006, might have been an “overachievement,” the word used by Mr. Beal to suggest that once a spawning biomass puts enough animals in the system, breeding fish tend to produce fewer young. “It’s a biological reaction common in other fishes. You won’t see good recruitment for a few years,” a natural cycle, Mr. Hines said.

    The Atlantic States Commission’s director of interstate fisheries management added that the relative success of juvenile recruitment could also be “driven by wet and dry seasons. The concern is seeing fewer adults being caught and year-class strength not strong.”

    “Another problem is that most of our regulations have us fishing for the most successful breeders,” said Michael Potts, captain of the Blue Fin IV charter boat in Montauk. “There are schools of thought, which I identify with, that it would be better to target different size fish. Around three years ago, we had success with big fish all year. Since then, not that many. Nowhere near the problem in the early ’80s, but it has been a concern.” Captain Potts also holds a state commercial bass license.

    “I don’t favor commercial increase, even though it would benefit me, but I don’t favor a decrease either. We should be seeing a shortage of 2-year-old bass,” he said,  reflecting what was a poor recruitment in 2009. “What we are seeing is a lot of 10 and 20-pounders around. The maximum breeder is around 25 to 30 pounds. Killing 50-pound bass doesn’t matter. They’re past their prime.”

    “My recommendation would be something like, instead of two bass over 28 inches [the current bag limit in New York for anglers aboard for-hire boats], which forces us to fish for two of the largest bass for everyone, what if you were allowed one bass between 24 and 32 inches, and one over 32, a sweet one and a trophy. There are fewer bass. You can feel it, a quiet trend, but I don’t think we’re on the verge of collapse.”

    The Atlantic States Commission’s Mr. Beal agreed. “I don’t want to paint a grim picture,” he said. “There’s still a lot of striped bass in the ocean. It’s a premier fishery up and down the coast.”   

    The possibility that the Montauk Harbor Inlet will get an emergency dredging this year moved toward a probability on Tuesday when Representative Timothy Bishop announced that $1,152,228 had been secured by the Army Corps of Engineers to help pay for the work.

    The digging could begin in September or October of this year, Mr. Bishop said yesterday.

    There is no question that a sand flat that has been growing from the east jetty of the inlet toward the center of the heavily used harbor mouth needs to be removed. Over the winter, the larger boats in Montauk’s commercial fishing fleet were forced to wait as long as seven hours for a tide high enough to carry them past the shoal.

    Repeated incident reports to the Montauk Coast Guard station coincided with a lawsuit brought by residents of Montauk’s Soundview community, where houses were threatened by severe erosion. The two issues are related by the fact that east-to-west storm-driven currents both feed sand into the harbor inlet and erode beaches to the west of the inlet jetties. A separate Army Corps study aims at correcting the chronic erosion and related shoaling.

    In February, Representative Bishop, East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, Councilwoman Julia Prince, State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., representatives of the Army Corps, and Rear Admiral Daniel A. Neptun, commander of the Coast Guard’s First District in Boston, were given a first-hand look at the shoal by members of the Montauk Coast Guard station.

    “We started getting calls from the Coast Guard station to let us know the extent of the shoaling. We had the Corps there that day, and that began the process. We’re in an earmark-free environment,” Mr. Bishop said, referring to budgetary rules that limit the number of pet projects legislators can include in budget requests. 

    “So, a primary tool was taken away from me. I got on the career staff of the Corps about the severity of the issue, and went to work with the senior leadership of the Coast Guard,” Mr. Bishop said.

    The dredge money, he said, was coming from the operational and maintenance budget of the Army Corps, an internal allocation. “The next step is the bidding and scheduling, but we’re all on the same page. They recognize it as an

    Residents of Newtown Lane and nearby streets packed the room during an East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals meeting Friday to hear about the proposed development of six lots on the corner of Newtown and Race Lanes.

    Tom Osborne of Osborne and McGowan in East Hampton was at the meeting to represent Vincent Chiavarone Builders and J. Mart Realty, who own the properties at 153 and 147 Newtown Lane and plan to divide them into six lots. (A separate subdivision application is before the village planning board.) They were before the zoning board for variances to allow some existing structures to remain on the new lots, or at least to reuse their footprints when the properties are divided, which led to the question: What do the owners intend to do with the new lots?

    “Is it going to be redeveloped?” asked Andrew Goldstein, the chairman of the board.

    “Yes,” answered Mr. Osborne.

    The answer caused a murmur in the crowd, and a stir on the board as well.

    “My problem with this application is, I look at the size of these properties, and what is allowed on these properties,” said Mr. Goldstein. “I feel there may be an intention of piggybacking of larger houses in the same footprint, and closer to the road.” Among other things, the new plans call for a house just over 19 feet from Race Lane, where 35 feet is required.

    “There is a belief that the largest possible house will be constructed,” Mr. Goldstein added. “We can’t have a 4,000-square-foot house 19 feet from the road. I think we should deny the variance,” he said.

    “Maybe we should put a size restriction on the houses,” suggested Larry Hillel, a board member.

    “I’m not going to vote on a variance that allows them to build a big house that close to Newtown Lane,” Mr. Goldstein said.

    As for the proposed house on Race Lane, Mr. Goldstein said, “I have a problem with a 20-foot setback on Race Lane. It’s too close, and it’s a narrow street. I think he’s got to go back to the drawing board with this.”

    The hearing was adjourned until the applicant could draw up more acceptable plans for the board, but not before a neighbor expressed her opinion.

    “The property looks terrible,” said Mary Ella Moeller of Newtown Lane. “It looks like the property owner is running a slum. We had to call code enforcement to have the hedges clipped,” she said. “If this is how he expects to keep up his new buildings, I recommend you not grant him a single variance.”

    Also on the docket was the continuing neighborly feud over Frederick Ayer III’s proposed 1,200-plus-square-foot addition at 81 Ocean Avenue, which the neighbors across the street, Daniel and Joanna Rose, would like placed elsewhere, where they would not see it at all.

    According to Bill Fleming, the attorney for the applicant, “Approximately 19 feet would be visible from the road if you could see through all the screening.” He passed around photographs to the board and added that the proposed addition is “almost 100 yards from the road, in the backyard.”

    “The addition is supposedly to house an antique French billiard table,” said Bill Esseks, attorney for the Roses, adding that a two-story addition with 600-odd square feet per floor, was more than necessary for that.

    He suggested the northwest corner of the property rather than the northeast, as is currently planned. “Then they can have as many billiard tables as they want,” Mr. Esseks said.

    Mr. Goldstein shot down Mr. Esseks’s idea. “The design review board has stated they don’t want it there,” he said, referring to the northwest corner. “And zoning is based on whether it’s a detriment to the neighborhood.”

    “The Roses don’t think the variance should be granted,” answered Mr. Esseks. “It’s the sanctity of the statute they’re concerned with, not their own personal opinion.”

    Looking at the photos, Mr. Goldstein remarked that it appeared that the new addition at the back of the Ayers’ property would obscure the Roses’ view of a neighboring chimney.

    “Are they particular devotees of chimneys?” he asked Mr. Esseks.

    “They have a right to object,” said Mr. Esseks.

    “They do,” said Mr. Goldstein.

    “And they object,” answered Mr. Esseks.

    Mr. Goldstein remarked that when the trees were in leaf, the addition would be invisible to the neighbors.

    “I don’t think there’s a rule about if you can’t see it, you can’t complain about it,” Mr. Esseks retorted. “If that were the case, I could put 20-foot privet around my house and do whatever I want. My clients have a right to deny.”

    “Everyone has a right to complain,” agreed Mr. Goldstein. “But not every complaint bears fruit.”

    Mr. Goldstein agreed to hold the hearing open until the meeting on Friday, May 27.

    An East Hampton family that has tried for many years to gain final planning board approval for a four-lot commercial subdivision on land between Springs-Fireplace and Three Mile Harbor Roads expressed frustration and pleaded for help at a town board meeting earlier this month. They were hoping, it appeared, to find allies in Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson and Councilwoman Theresa Quigley, who from the start of the administration last year have said the planning process here is onerous.

    However, opposition to the proposal among some who live in the area has again been galvanized by the revived suggestion that the landlocked parcel be accessed over the southern portion of West Drive, routing commercial vehicles through what is now a quiet, dead-end street.

    Carolyn Lester Snyder and her husband, Harold, who has since died, applied to the planning board for subdivision approval in 1999. She still hopes to offer the spaces as storage and vehicle depots for service businesses, such as construction companies, plumbers, and landscapers. The lots would be created on seven acres behind the family’s popular gourmet and fresh produce market, Round Swamp Farm, on Three Mile Harbor Road, stretching east toward Springs-Fireplace Road.    

    It was determined then that the family had legal access to the property from the southerly portion of West Drive, which adjoins Springs-Fireplace Road. However, John Jilnicki, the town attorney, said last week that an urban-renewal map of the area appears to show conflicting information.

    The planning board granted preliminary site plan approval in 2009, but required instead that access to the subdivision be over the northern portion of West Drive, a stretch bordered by industrial properties.

    That plan was formalized in a 2004 resolution by the town board, which called for the creation of a cul-de-sac at the end of the southern West Drive, to prevent through traffic.

    That is when things became mired down.

    Gaining the right to use the northern portion of West Drive required the town to condemn land from uncooperative property owners, and that process has now stretched over six years, according to Laurie Wiltshire, a land planner representing the Snyders, who spoke at the East Hampton Town Board meeting on May 3.

    Ms. Quigley said that the board must take costs to taxpayers into account. Condemning the land will cost an estimated $60,000, plus incidentals, she said.

    “Six years is a lot to impose on an individual, and $70,000 is a lot to impose on the taxpayers,” she said. “I don’t know why we went down this road.”

    “The planning board is not allowed to make decisions in a vacuum,” she later remarked.

    “I just remember a lot of residents years ago, begging us not to change the character of their quiet little street,” said Councilman Pete Hammerle.

    “Every road in town has trucks on it,” said Carolyn Snyder. In a shaky voice she said, “We should be suing the town for what we have lost over 25 years.” The family has spent $80,000 on roadwork on the northerly end of West Drive, Lisa Niggles, her daughter, said.

    The process has been inching forward, according to Mr. Jilnicki, the town attorney. He said the town has acquired title to some of the needed land (some through a land swap), but that it has encountered a number of legal snags along the way.    One property owner, he said, will not cooperate unless the town creates a road improvement district, in which the changes to West Drive would be funded by taxes assessed on landowners bordering it.

     “I think it’s reprehensible,” Ms. Quigley said. “I don’t know what the problem is.”

    “You’ve been present at discussions with the condemnation counsel,” Mr. Jilnicki told her.

    If the process cannot be completed soon, Ms. Quigley said, then the southern access option should be used. “I’m with Ms. Snyder,” she said. “There are trucks on every road in this town.”

    But in order for the southern option to go forward, the planning board would have to modify its conditional subdivision approval.

    Both Ms. Snyder and Charlie Niggles, another family member, said that when the family began the subdivision process, the southern portion of West Drive was a dirt road, without residences.

    Ms. Niggles said that a neighborhood resident she had spoken to expressed concerns about drug trafficking at the dead end of West Drive, and noisy dirt bikes in use. The area would be safer if the road were opened up, Ms. Niggles said: Lights and a gate would be installed if that becomes the entrance to the Snyder subdivision.

    Residents of West Drive, Morris Park Lane, and the environs painted a different picture when they spoke to the board last Thursday night.

    “What you saw at the last work session was what I call theater at its best,” J.B. D’Santos told the board. “They could go through their own land at any time, but refuse to do so because they want more freebies.”

     “There is a socioeconomic problem,” Mr. D’Santos suggested, with the decision to route trucks through “a neighborhood that is basically formed by African-Americans, Latinos, and a few whites.”

    “Quality of life has to be an equal playing field, and we can’t just take a longtime family in East Hampton and place their quality of life above ours,” said Elizabeth Cotter, a West Drive resident, of the Snyder family, which has deep roots in East Hampton. “I’m asking you guys to slow down,” she told the board.

    “Whatever the decision has to be, it’s taken too long,” said Mr. Wilkinson.

    “It’s about the planning process for me,” said Ms. Quigley. “I’m looking at a process that’s completely unacceptable, because that’s a quality of life issue.”

    “It’s been 20 years that we’ve been dealing with this,” said Jennifer Steph­ens, who grew up in the Morris Park neighborhood. “Why is it that they can’t use their own property?”

    Ms. Stephens took issue with Ms. Niggles’s comments about drug trafficking. “That’s how it seems, that the Snyders are saying that we’re beneath them,” she said.

    After watching a videotape of the board’s discussion with the Snyder family, Mr. D’Santos said it appeared as if the family had found allies among the board members. “You were smiling,” he said.

    “I’ve been told I should smile more,” Mr. Wilkinson replied.

    “You should smile more; it’s good for your face,” said Ms. Stephens. “You don’t look like you’re approachable. You were smiling when you needed those election votes.”

    “My passion is to figure out why the process is taking so long,” Ms. Quigley said. “I don’t care about the color of skin of the applicant. I care about the people of our town who should be treated with respect.”

    The town attorney had been asked to provide information for a discussion of the Snyder application at a board work session on Tuesday, but speakers last Thursday night asked for the discussion to be moved from a daytime work session to a nighttime meeting, so that working people could attend.