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.

    The first quarterly report issued by the East Hampton Town Ordinance Enforcement Department shows that housing violations make up a majority of cases the department has been dealing with since the start of the year. Of the 265 code-enforcement cases dealt with or under review as of April 1, 75 involved overcrowding or other violations of housing code.

    Furthermore, 51 of the documented housing violations were found in Springs; the remaining 24 were dispersed through­out East Hampton Town.

    Springs also leads the pack in environmental violations, with 31 of 73 reported cases involving litter, protected land, and illegal signs. Other zoning violations, including non-compliance with planning board or zoning board determinations, are also significant in Springs, which had 27 of the 46 reported cases; Amagansett and East Hampton, had seven zoning violations each, the second highest rate.

    Many of the cases that landed in the hands of the Ordinance Enforcement Department this quarter originated from a complaint lodged by a member of the general public, according to the report. It lists 52 of the 75 housing cases as having started with a resident’s complaint.

    Sixteen cases stemmed from ordinance enforcement officer patrol.

    The Springs Citizens Advisory Committee and residents met several times over the past few months at Ashawagh Hall, on Springs-Fireplace Road, to discuss what many have perceived as a housing crisis in Springs.

    Town Councilwoman Theresa Quig­ley’s proposed overhaul of the housing code touched off a firestorm in the hamlet this winter when she said she was considering a change in rules that would allow bedrooms in basements and in accessory structures, including garages, for the first time.

    At one of the Springs Citizens Advisory Committee meetings, at the end of February, Patrick J. Gunn, the town’s assistant attorney and administrator of public safety, said that a crackdown on illegal housing and overcrowding was his top priority.

    At that time Mr. Gunn said he was expecting a number of property owners to choose voluntary compliance with the town code rather than face sentencing in East Hampton Town Justice Court. However, the quarterly report indicates that in Springs, only 14 property owners chose to comply. Forty-six cases are currently in the Justice Court system, with five more about to enter. Twenty-two are still under investigation.

    Of a total 136 complaints in Springs (including those in categories other than housing), the Ordinance Enforcement Department determined 35 were unfounded.

    Across the town, safety matters, such as house numbering and pool fencing, which used to make up the bulk of cases, now only account for about 10 percent of the total. Officers, who can usually spot such violations from the street, brought a majority of these cases to the attention of the department.

     The records show that of the town-wide total of 265 cases, the 116 resulted from public complaint and 122 resulted from patrols. (The remaining 27 were termed “referrals from other agencies,” such as law enforcement.)

    Mr. Gunn did not return a call requesting comment on the report. But Councilwoman Julia Prince, the town board’s liaison to the Ordinance Enforcement Department, said yesterday that she is very pleased. “They’re doing a great job,” she said.

    The East Hampton Town Planning Board has recommended that the town board deny applications to rezone residential properties in Wainscott and Amagansett.

    Thomas Burke, who owns the Jeremiah Baker House on Main Street in Amagansett, asked to have the property restored to its limited business overlay designation, which was removed following the adoption of the town’s comprehensive plan in 2005.

    The house, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, was once owned by Jeremiah Baker, an innkeeper and mail deliverer in the 19th century. The former limited business zoning would have allowed for a small business to operate on the property. Mr. Burke said he wanted to open a sculpture and furniture repair business there.

    “It would be spot zoning,” Elaine Jones, an Amagansett resident and business owner, said at the April 6 meeting. Spot zoning, or changing the zoning of one piece of property when it does not fall within a town-mandated zone change, is illegal.

    Jon Tarbet, an attorney representing Paul Masi, who lives behind the Baker House, said that Mr. Burke’s plan does not take into consideration the goals of the comprehensive plan, which he said removed the limited business overlay so that nonresidential uses would not stretch farther down the south side of the highway in the hamlet.

    Saying Mr. Burke’s proposal would be a detriment to surrounding residential neighbors, Mr. Tarbet said the town code requires all zoning to be in compliance with the comprehensive plan.

    “How can the town board ignore the comprehensive plan?” he asked.

    Kathryn Santiago, the planning board’s attorney, said that following some research, she determined that the town is charged with “considering the town as a whole” and may not be required to follow recommendations of the 2005 document.

    “It’s scary that we would even consider changing it at this point,” said Peter Van Scoyoc, a board member, noting that the plan, which he said took many years and much community input to create, has only been in effect for six years.

    “It could inspire a domino effect,” said Robert Schaeffer, “it’s smacking of spot zoning.” The remaining three board members, Reed Jones, the chairman, Nancy Keeshan, and Patrick Schutte, agreed, and promised they would send their recommendation to town board.

    Likewise, the board found little favor for a plan to change the zoning of the Wainscott Post Office, which is also zoned for residential use. The owner of the property, a company called Wainscott Pooh, has asked that the lot be rezoned to central business.

    Stuyvesant Wainwright, an attorney representing the property owner, said that the comprehensive plan recommended that the post office be moved to the north side of the road from where it sits on the south side on Montauk Highway in the hamlet.

    Although the federal government has eight years remaining on its lease with Wainscott Pooh, Mr. Wainwright said there was no guarantee that the Wainscott Post Office would continue to operate there when the lease expires. It has been reported that home delivery is planned for the hamlet in the next two years.

    “Wainscott is in desperate need of some attention,” said Laurie Wiltshire, a land planner working for the property owner. She said the land is not suited for residential use, and called the intersection of Montauk Highway and Wainscott Stone Road the noisiest intersection in town.

    “Every single ambulance that leaves town goes past this intersection,” she said.

    Many from the Wainscott community came out in opposition to the plan, saying that any business that could cause more traffic on Montauk Highway would not work.

    “We don’t need more traffic there,” said Ms. Keeshan. Mr. Van Scoyoc agreed, calling the intersection a bottleneck into East Hampton.

    “I want to maintain Wainscott as it is,” said Jose Arandia, who lives on Sandown Court. Jordy Mark, another hamlet resident, echoed Mr. Arandia. “We kind of like the grittiness of Wainscott,” she said. Although Ms. Mark waxed poetic about the hub that is the Wainscott Post Office, Mr. Wainwright said that wherever the office ends up is “up to the U.S. government.”

    Again, all five board members at the meeting voted to recommend denial of the application. The town board will make a final determination at a later date.

    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.