Arthur French handed the East Hampton Town Board a check for $11 at a meeting last Thursday night. “That’s my tax savings,” he said, telling the board to keep it.

    Although the board cut the budget this year, decreasing residents’ taxes, it also cut the fall leaf pickup service that had been provided by the Highway Department. After approving suspension of the service on a trial basis last fall, the board voted recently to eliminate the service permanently.

    “That was your bottom line, including school taxes,” Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson told Mr. French, taking umbrage at his criticism. School taxes account for a large portion of the overall tax bill paid by property owners each year.

    “And you cost me $565 just to get rid of the leaves,” Mr. French retorted. He, and dozens of other residents who spoke at a hearing on suspending the leaf pickup program last year, said that for those who could not haul the leaves from their properties to the dump themselves, the cost of paying someone to do it would far exceed any savings on taxes that would result from eliminating the program.

    Just how much the town was expected to save in its budget was also at issue. Scott King, the highway superintendent, said the net savings in salaries and equipment would be $180,000, while Mr. Wilkinson and other board members who supported the elimination said it would be closer to $550,000.

    Mr. French said at last year’s hearing that, using the board members’ figure, dropping the program would save $46 per property tax bill, or, under Mr. King’s analysis, $18 per household. 

    “Send me a bill,” he told the board then. “I’ll be glad to give you a check for $46 to come and pick up my leaves.”

    “You were elected to serve the people,” Mr. French told the board last week, “and some of your decisions are counter to that. You heard us,” he said of the speakers at last year’s hearing, “but you didn’t listen to us.” Only a handful of residents who spoke at that hearing were in favor of eliminating the Highway Department leaf pickup.

    And, said Mr. French, a phalanx of volunteers who would help elderly or otherwise needy residents dispose of their fallen leaves never materialized. “I’m still waiting for your volunteers,” he told Councilwoman Theresa Quigley, who organized the program. “I’ve been standing out there all winter.”

    “We did listen, and that’s why we decided to suspend it for a year and not eliminate it,” Ms. Quigley said. The final decision was made after the fall season, she said, which did not yield any complaints or accidents attributed to uncollected fallen leaves. Mr. French said the public did not protest the final decision “because they gave up.”

    He applauded the board’s accomplishments in improving the town’s fiscal matters, “but you can’t do it on the backs of the working people here,” he said.

    And, he asked, referring to a permit issued for the MTK: Music to Know concert to be held at the East Hampton Airport, “When did the town board become a shill for two guys who want to make money, while you take money out of our pockets?”

    Responses by both Mr. Wilkinson and Ms. Quigley grew heated after Mr. French called them “a Taliban board.”

    “I served as an infantryman,” Mr. Wilkinson said, “. . . and for you to call me a Taliban. . . . I’m telling you man to man,” he said.

    “And we’re not shills. And we’re most certainly not Taliban,” Ms. Quigley said. “I am not willing to take the level of disrespect with which you make your arguments.”

    “You’re not an emperor. You were elected supervisor,” Mr. French told Mr. Wilkinson.

    Also at last Thursday’s meeting, the board agreed to increase the fees charged to commercial haulers for disposal of waste, including leaves, at the town recycling and trash transfer centers, which could result in higher prices charged to consumers. The per-load fee charged to haulers without yearly permits was raised from $15 to $25 per load.

    Also at last week’s board meeting, the town board appointed Htun Han, an Amagansett real estate agent, to replace Susan Ecker on the town’s assessment review board. Ms. Ecker, who was appointed in February to a five-year term, has resigned from the post.

    The board also issued a mass-gathering permit to Project MOST, the sponsor of a farmers market held each Friday from May 27 through Sept. 30 in the parking lot of Nick and Toni’s restaurant on East Hampton’s North Main Street. The board had initially denied the market a permit last year, calling it a commercial enterprise under the restaurant’s auspices, but issued the permit after Project MOST, a nonprofit organization, became the sponsor.

    Councilwoman Quigley said that the board hopes to offer the market use of a town property across the street, the former Lester homestead. In order to do that, state legislation must be passed to allow a profit-making enterprise to use the site, which was purchased under the community preservation program. New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. is working in Albany on such a bill, she said.

    Mr. Thiele said this week that he generally supports legislation, which has passed the Senate and is before the Assembly, that would include “retail farm operations” such as farmstands under the definition of agriculture, allowing them on land designated as agricultural.

    However, the bill is not specifically aimed at community preservation fund purchases, nor is the Lester property held by the town in use as farmland. The goal of the legislation, according to a draft, is to “enhance farmers’ ability to market their farm, food, and other products directly to consumers through encouraging the development of retail farm operations such as roadside stands and on-farm markets,” and is designed to “ensure that farmers who operate roadside stands and farm markets will have protection for their retail farm operations under the state’s right-to-farm laws.”

    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.

    The Stella Maris School in Sag Harbor, the oldest Catholic school on Long Island, will close at the end of this year. Financial difficulties that grew more serious when over 30 students withdrew this past fall have proved too much for parents and teachers to overcome.

    The Rev. Michael J. Rieder, the executive pastor of the school board, wrote to parents, teachers, and staff members on Friday, informing them that “we have no choice but to close our school at the end of this academic year.” He discouraged “lashing out at brothers and sisters in need,” saying that divisiveness within the school’s community, including among frustrated parents, “does not fit the picture of who we are as Christians.” The school has been reported to be nearly $500,000 in debt.

    Calling the situation a “sad reality,” Mr. Rieder said plummeting enrollment was the chief cause of the financial troubles. Apparently five grades had three or fewer students registered for the coming year, something the pastor described as being less than a “healthy learning environment.”

    The news comes in the wake of anall-hands-on-deck effort by pastors and East End Catholics generally to forge ahead with an austerity plan to keep the school viable.

    William Murphy, the bishop of Rockville Centre, the diocese that administers Stella Maris, wrote Mr. Rieder Friday to express his regret at the school’s closure.

    “As you pointed out,” Mr. Murphy’s letter reads, “there are only forty-four students registered for kindergarten through grade eight, and nine students for nursery and prekindergarten. Unfortunately, there is no way that a school can operate academically or financially with so few students. Therefore, with great sadness I accept your recommendation.”

    Students from Stella Maris are likely to splinter off into local public schools, but a sizable number will end up at the other nearby Catholic school, Our Lady of the Hamptons in Southampton.

    Originally called the St. Andrew Parish School, Stella Maris was founded by the Religious Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary in 1877.

    Jean Cowen, a parent and educator active in trying to keep Stella Maris afloat, said the press coverage of the school’s financial woes compounded the problem, causing an exodus of worried parents.

    “All this stuff about the finances came out, and there was a powerful group of disgruntled parents who decided that they were going to make some demands on the diocese, and if those demands weren’t met, they were all going to pull their kids. I think that some of the demands were not possible, and so they all went over and enrolled their kids at Our Lady of the Hamptons.”

    Ms. Cowen described a “mob mentality,” in which parents were concerned their children would miss out on a spot at Our Lady of the Hamptons and accelerated the pace of withdrawal from the ailing Sag Harbor Catholic school. Her own son, she said, would go to the Sag Harbor Elementary School.

    “It’s not that I was invested so much in a Catholic education. I was invested in that school, and those people. I’m heartbroken about it. Every time I walk in that building I have to fight back tears.”

    She said she harbors no regrets, though, about the “solid foundation” that Stella Maris provided her child.

        The question facing the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals on Friday was this: If an applicant is tearing down most of a pre-existing, non-conforming house to build something that is code-compliant, does he still need to apply for a special permit? In the no good deed goes unpunished department, it appears he does.

    The board was faced with just this quandary when Nick Capstick-Dale of 98 Egypt Lane, who is not only tearing down most of a nonconforming house, save for a converted garage area, to build one that is more compliant, but is also replacing three cesspools that are uncomfortably close to groundwater to put in a new and improved septic system farther from the wetlands.

    He needs a freshwater wetlands permit for the work because his proposed house, pool, deck, and driveway will all be 77 feet or closer from wetlands where 150 feet is required. The upgraded septic and drainage systems will be 141 and 68 feet from wetlands where 200 feet is required.

    The board lauded Johanna Caleca, the applicant’s attorney, along with the rest of Mr. Capstick-Dale’s team for the work they intend to do, and the board’s chairman, Andrew Goldstein, made it clear that Mr. Capstick-Dale could anticipate a determination in his favor on May 13 for the wetlands permit, but the board is faced now with setting precedent in the village, a continuing obstacle as teardowns become the norm rather than the exception.

    “This is just something in our code which might not be entirely clear,” said Linda Reilly, the village attorney. “Even though they’re bringing the septic into compliance, they are leaving part of the structure. Other municipalities require full conforming or a special permit. It’s a chance to make an interpretation,” she said, suggesting that the project might also require a special permit.

    Mr. Goldstein agreed that it was a good thing to do. “It’s about the village’s ability to control these uses,” he said. “We can’t proceed with blissful ignorance now that we’ve been alerted. Even though this is a relatively benign application, not every one is going to be this easy.”

    The application will be renoticed for a hearing on the special permit request because, as Mr. Goldstein pointed out to Ms. Caleca, “This is an issue beyond your client’s application. We don’t know all the situations where this could be important.”

        The future of Stella Maris Catholic Regional School in Sag Harbor has been clouded by reports of financial ruin these past few weeks. The message from the school community and the parishes that support it: We’re not going anywhere. Not yet, anyway.

    Msgr. Donald Hanson of Most Holy Trinity Church in East Hampton released a statement recently to update the parish on the situation. He led off with acknowledgement that the school was “in trouble.”

    Indeed, at the beginning of this school year, some 36 students withdrew right before classes began, in part, it seems, because of the opening of a public preschool program in Sag Harbor. In his statement, Mr. Hanson said that the school budget was already in the red (and the deficit will reach nearly half a million dollars by August); the loss of tuition from the preschoolers has made the situation far more difficult.

    The school, currently attended by about 180 students, is funded by a combination of grants and contributions from the five East End Catholic parishes. It has explored several alternative sources of sustainability. One idea, a partnership with the Catholic Regional School in Southampton, has been rejected by the school’s board as implausible before next September.

    The Diocese of Rockville Centre, which has supervisory authority over Stella Maris, did develop an “austerity budget,” as Mr. Hanson termed it, to help it remain viable through the next years. The diocese also offered to come up with $90,000 to see the school through this year, and a further $90,000 for next year, on the condition that the school board balance its budget by that time.

    The diocese has also assured parents that it will not allow the school to close midyear. If it opens next September, it will complete the year.

    Jane Peters, until recently the principal of the school, has faced criticism for her handling of the situation. She has resigned, indicating her hope that her departure might put a stop to distracting controversy over her role, and ease the transition to a more financially healthy institution.

    An interim board has been convened, with the aim of seeking additional funding, and the local Catholic parishes have said they remain vigilant in their efforts to keep this institution’s doors open.

    Mr. Hanson, however, still felt compelled to end his report with the admission that the school’s future “remains clouded.”

    Jean Cowen, a former public school teacher whose son has attended Stella Maris for five years, said this week that the discussion has focused too much on alleged mismanagement and financial impropriety and not enough on the simple question of enrollment.

    “Many parents like myself are trying very hard to keep the school open,” Ms. Cowen said. “It truly is a special place. If we could get the diocese to give us one more year, we know now what the problems are and believe we could fix them. Our big push is to just get as many people as possible to enroll. That’s our message.”

    Criticism of Ms. Peters’s tenure is inappropriate, Ms. Cowen said, as the former principal could not have done anything to prevent the massive exodus of students this fall.

    Having filled in for a Stella Maris teacher on maternity leave, Ms. Cowen said, she has seen the school from both a parent’s and an educator’s point of view. Her praise was effusive.

    “I don’t think many of us would be fighting this hard if we didn’t think this was a special place. It’s the oldest Catholic school on Long Island, has been in Sag Harbor for over 100 years.” Stella Maris, under the name Saint Andrew’s Parish School, was founded in 1877; it merged with Most Holy Trinity School in 1992.

    The attorney for Kenneth Reiss of Driftwood Lane in Springs appeared before the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals Tuesday evening. Having purchased in 2010 roughly two-thirds of an acre that looks out over Gardiner’s Bay, Mr. Reiss has applied for a natural resources special permit to construct a 4,571-square-foot house, a swimming pool, a pool house, and an extensive patio within the setback zones for both tidal wetlands and the coastal bluff crest.

    Several of Mr. Reiss’s neighbors spoke out against the application. “I live across the street and I’ve been there for 45 years,” Thomas Fahey said. “The question is, who owns the beach?” Mr. Fahey referred to the “Yom Kippur staircase incident,” in which a prior owner of the property suddenly removed a staircase that had been used by residents for years to access the bay beach. Margaret Backman of Driftwood Lane also referred to the removal of the staircase in voicing opposition to Mr. Reiss’s application.

    Brian Frank, the chief environmental analyst for the Town Planning Department, reminded Z.B.A. members that in 2007 they approved a permit for a slightly smaller house that would have been 100 feet away from the dune crest, the minimum distance required by the town code, as opposed to the present application, which proposes a building 83.6 feet away. Mr. Frank said Mr. Reiss is seeking to decrease the setback “on an ephemeral basis,” having to do with the difficulty of pinpointing the bay’s mean high water mark, which determines the required setback from the beach.

    Another of Mr. Reiss’s neighbors pointed out that the proposed building is “a big house for a little piece of property.” After reminding the audience that the size of the house was not the issue before the board, its chairman, Philip Gamble, proceeded to the next application.    A.D.H.

    A pilot program exhorting East Hamptoners and visitors to carry in and then carry out items they take to public lands such as nature preserves and beaches at road ends will get under way at 28 sites this summer. The program will allow the elimination of trash cans at those spots and, it is hoped, lighten the load for the Town Parks Department, which empties those bins.

    Councilman Pete Hammerle modeled the Carry In, Carry Out program after a similar one he saw implemented in Vermont. Such programs, he said in introducing the idea at a town board work session on Tuesday, have been a “proven success in many areas of the country.”

    With members of the Parks and Land Acquisition and Management Departments, Mr. Hammerle developed a list of locations that are not heavily used, or where no trash cans have been installed.

    Signs will be posted there announcing the Carry In, Carry Out program and asking that visitors make sure to cart their trash away with them when they go.

    The test sites will include Sammy’s Beach, the Grace Estate, and Camp Norweska in Northwest, Culloden in Montauk, harborfront sites along Gerard Drive, and Jacob’s Farm, the Dodge property, and Pussy’s Pond in Springs, where schoolchildren from the nearby Springs School will be asked to become part of the program.

    “I’d like to see the community embrace it, and maybe we can expand it,” Mr. Hammerle said Tuesday.

    Compliance at the initial sites will be monitored by the Parks Department, and adjustments will be made if needed.

    The Parks Department currently places — and regularly empties — 301 garbage cans at 80 locations throughout the town, Mr. Hammerle said.

    Eventually, he hopes, by changing public attitudes and behavior, the town will see real savings in the department’s costs through the elimination of some of those waste cans. In addition, he said, lightening the workload would enable parks workers to better monitor and address overflowing trash containers in spots such as the heavily used ocean beaches in summer.

    The 43 Carry In, Carry Out signs needed to get the program started will cost $30 each, Mr. Hammerle said.

    The town board is expected to approve the program formally tonight through a board resolution. While it may not be possible to mark all of the pilot spots by Memorial Day, Mr. Hammerle said the goal is to have them all designated by the July Fourth weekend.

    Steve Bellone, the Democratic town supervisor of Babylon, formally entered the race for county executive yesterday at a rally in his hometown, making him that party’s de facto nominee and setting him on a collision course with the G.O.P. front-runner, Suffolk County Treasurer Angie Carpenter.

Steve Bellone

    Mr. Bellone, who served on Babylon’s town board for four years before being elected supervisor in 2001, graduated from North Babylon High School and received a bachelor’s degree from Queens College in 1991. He enlisted in the Army the following year, earning a master’s degree in public administration while serving. He went on to Fordham for a law degree and was admitted to the New York Bar in 1999.

    Environmental groups have praised him, the Sierra Club of Long Island designating him the environmentalist of the year in 2009.

    Married with two daughters, Mr. Bellone considers himself to be a centrist Democrat, emphasizing tax cuts and balanced budgets, though he insisted when reached by phone yesterday that his fiscal conservatism hasn’t prevented him from investing in things that matter.

    “Government matters,” he said in describing his vision. “It affects people’s lives, communities. It needs to be operating. You can make government both effective and efficient. It can do the things it needs to do to help our community move forward and still be as cost-effective as possible for taxpayers.”

    The Babylon supervisor will face another western Suffolk candidate in Ms. Carpenter. No candidates from the East End have entered the race.

    In a statement released to supporters to coincide with his announcement yesterday, Mr. Bellone said, “I have listened, and now it is time to lead. I will bring people together to get things done by ending the notion that divisive politics and press statements are a substitute for actual leadership. I will work with, and not against, our police officers to make our communities safer,” he said, referring to the current administration’s treatment of county police, which later by phone he called “demoralizing.”

    County Executive Steve Levy has declined to seek re-election in the wake of allegations of campaign fund-raising impropriety.

    In the speech, Mr. Bellone went after the Levy administration for the sex offender trailers that remain in Southampton Town and Riverhead, and he promised a top-to-bottom review of the county’s finances related to them. He confirmed over the phone that he would support sharing the burden of housing the offenders, calling the situation “unacceptable.”

    “What’s happening on the East End right now with respect to sex offenders is some of the worst public policy I’ve ever seen,” he said. “It would be a focus of mine from the beginning.”

    As Ms. Carpenter has, Mr. Bellone indicated that he would support legislation to more equitably share countywide sales tax revenues for public safety, money that under the Levy administration has been earmarked for western Suffolk. The issue is a top priority of County Legislator Jay Schneiderman of Montauk.

    Mr. Bellone said he knows and respects his probable Republican opponent. He sees himself as having Democrats across the county united behind him, and with the county Democratic Party treating him like their nominee, a protracted primary fight appears unlikely.

    Candidates for school boards made their intentions official this week. There will be contested races in Amagansett, Springs, East Hampton, and Sag Harbor, but with the departure of the incumbents on the East Hampton and Springs School Boards, those races are wide open.

    In East Hampton, John Ryan Sr., a board member since 1993, and James Amaden, the school board president and a board member since 2005, are stepping down. Looking to take their seats are Patricia Hope, Jacqueline Lowey, Marie Klarman, Paul Fiondella, Liz Pucci, and Bill Rosenthal. Regardless of the election results, come July all but two of the board members — Laura Anker Grossman and Stephen Talmage — will be in their first terms.

    Asked about his decision to leave the school board, Mr. Ryan said, “I did the dispensability test. You stick your hand in a bucket; if the hole stays in when you pull it out, you’re indispensable.”

    “I’ve enjoyed it, but 50 years is enough,” he said, referring to his time on the board and his 28 years as a math and computer teacher in the district. His 9 children attended East Hampton schools and 18 of his 22 grandchildren will, too. “I’m proud of our school system. We have great staff, great administrators, great parents.”

    There are some things he would do differently, he said, indicating his frustration over the district’s ongoing lawsuit with Victor Canseco and Sandpebble Builders. He wanted to remain on the school board through the building project, which is now nearly complete. “I think it’s been satisfactorily done. There are good people on the board and good people running.”

    Ms. Lowey, who has a son in first grade and a daughter in fourth grade at the John M. Marshall Elementary School, is a former deputy director of the National Parks Service and a former deputy chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Transportation. She now works as a consultant to nonprofits and corporations. She served on the board of the Children’s Museum of the East End for years and was instrumental in raising the money to build it. At school, she said, she was a four-time class mother and is a frequent volunteer. This is her first run.

    Ms. Hope was a biology teacher at East Hampton High School for 33 years and head of the science department for 8. When she retired from teaching, she said, she knew that she wanted to run for school board eventually and has been attending board meetings regularly for the past year in preparation. “I want to be measured and civil, and I think there’s room for that,” she said Tuesday. “I think money should be spent wisely and in the interest of the students’ education,” she said. “Any money not spent wisely in the interest of the students needs to be questioned.”

    Ms. Pucci, a past president and vice president of the John Marshall PTA, serves on the East Hampton Middle School’s site-based committee and occasionally on the district’s committee for special education. The mother of four boys, two of whom are still in the school system, she works part time for the district as a lunch monitor at John Marshall. She has been involved in school affairs for 16 years. “It’s such a critical time. I’m really nervous about our school,” she said Tuesday.

    Paul Fiondella, long a board watchdog, had not returned calls by press time, and Ms. Klarman and Mr. Rosenthal also could not be reached.

    The nonpartisan East Hampton Group for Good Government will hold a candidates’ forum on April 30 at 1 p.m. in the high school auditorium.

Springs

    In Springs, Liz Mendelman, Tim Frazier, Phyllis Mallah, and Arthur Goldman are vying for the spots that will be vacated by Christopher Kelley, the board’s president and a board member for 12 years, and Thomas Talmage, elected in 2005.

    Ms. Mendelman, who has a professional background in medical technology and human resources, is president of the school’s PTA, an assistant Junior Girl Scout troop leader, and a member of the Springs Citizens Advisory Committee. She has two daughters at the school and is running for school board for the first time.

    Mr. Frazier, the principal of the Southampton Intermediate School, has worked in the education field since 1976, as a teacher first and as an administrator starting in the mid-1980s. His wife, Tracey Frazier, is a teacher at the Springs School.

    Ms. Mallah, who ran for school board last year, was a teacher and assistant principal in the Yonkers public school system before retiring to Springs. “Though I have many interests, I still consider myself a consummate educator,” she wrote in a brief biography provided to the district along with her petition to run.

    Mr. Goldman, a frequent board watcher who is running for the first time, is a social studies teacher and coordinator at East Hampton High School, where he has taught for 14 years. Both of his daughters graduated from the Springs School, and his wife, Eileen Goldman, is a teacher’s assistant there.

Amagansett

    In Amagansett, the three candidates for two spots include Vincent Vigorita and Patrick R. Bistrian, board members since 2005, and Phelan Wolf, a parent and attorney looking to win a spot on the board for the first time.

    Among other things, Dr. Vigorita is the medical director at Biomet Tissue Banks, a professor of pathology and orthopedic surgery at the State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn, and director of research at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center and St. Vincent’s Medical Center’s department of orthopedics.

    Mr. Wolf and Mr. Bistrian could not be reached by press time.

Sag Harbor

    Four candidates are competing for three positions on the Sag Harbor School Board. The incumbents, Sandi Kruel and Theresa Samot, who have served two terms, and Mary Anne Miller, who has served one, are running to keep their seats, and Annette Bierfriend is making her first run.

    Ms. Bierfriend is a co-president of the Sag Harbor PTA and serves on the district’s long-range planning, professional development, and prekindergarten committees. She worked as a senior mortgage underwriter before becoming a stay-at-home mom eight years ago.

    Ms. Samot, the board’s vice president and a former president, has served on its audit, financial planning, budget, policy, and wellness committees and was chairwoman of the district’s Wall of Honor committee. She is also a director of the College of New Rochelle alumni board and a Girl Scout leader. Two of her daughters graduated from Pierson High School and a third is a student there now.

    Ms. Kruel and Ms. Miller could not be reached by press time.

Other Schools, Other Races

    At the Montauk School, Patti Leber, a past vice president of the board, is running unopposed to keep her seat.

    The Bridgehampton School District’s longtime clerk, Joyce Manigo, died on Saturday, and the district was unable to provide the names of candidates this week.

    The Wainscott School had not returned calls as of press time.

    Voters will go to the polls to cast ballots on candidates and school budgets on May 17.

With Reporting by Rocio Fidalgo

    Under state and federal mandate, East Hampton Town must design and implement a comprehensive program to deal with stormwater runoff, ensuring that it does not transport pollutants into water bodies such as Lake Montauk and Accabonac Harbor.

    Rain washing off roads and traveling directly into nearby waters, or through storm drains that empty into harbors or bays, can carry fertilizers, toxic chemicals, bacteria, or debris that affect the health of the waters, sometimes resulting in their closing to shellfishing, or to swimming. That in turn can have an economic impact.

    The program, known as MS4, for Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System, imposes detailed requirements for its various components, including public education, land use and building regulations that set standards for dealing with stormwater runoff, a proactive campaign to find and eliminate illicit discharges of stormwater into water bodies, and pollution prevention guidelines for town activities such as road maintenance, landscaping, and winter de-icing.

    “Stormwater is a serious issue on Long Island,” and a primary cause of problems in the Long Island Sound and south shore and Peconic estuary systems, Eileen Keenan, a project manager of New York Sea Grant, a nonprofit educational organization for municipal officials, told the East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday.

    Ms. Keenan has been working with a team of town employees, including those in the planning and natural resources departments, along with Councilman Dominick Stanzione, on East Hampton’s MS4 program.

    According to the State Department of Environmental Conservation, which oversees the municipal stormwater programs, several of East Hampton’s water bodies, including Northwest Creek, Accabonac Harbor, Lake Montauk, and Georgica Pond have exceeded the allowable maximum level of pathogens.

    One requirement of the MS4 program will be to “reduce bacterial impairment” of those sites, Ms. Keenan said.

    East End towns have banded together in order to more effectively address stormwater issues, Ms. Keenan said, through the Peconic Intermunicipal Stormwater Management Project.

    Coordinating efforts, she told the town board, will allow adjacent towns to work together on protection of shared drainage areas, avoid duplication of efforts, and allow the municipalities to leverage their financial and technical resources.

    It could also, she said, increase the chances of obtaining grants to pay for the installation of drainage structures or other work, as some funding is earmarked only for joint multitown projects.

    In addition, she said, East Hampton, which has just begun its MS4 project, could benefit from the experiences of other towns that were required to begin sooner.

    With funding from the Peconic Estuary Program, and working with consultants including representatives from the Cornell Cooperative Extension service, the collaborative project will identify towns’ priorities, develop an action plan and budget, and create the needed intermunicipal agreements.