When Arlene Furer opened the Cigar Bar in Sag Harbor 10 years ago she thought that her patrons would be "high-end cigar smokers and cognac drinkers." As it turned out, "that crowd is already in bed" by the time her business starts to pick up. The bar, she said recently, has taken on "an identity of its own."

That identity means one thing to Ms. Furer and something else to the Sag Harbor Village police, who visit the Cigar Bar regularly over reports of stolen wallets and purses or fights among patrons. Since Memorial Day weekend, code enforcement officers have issued several summonses for alleged overcrowding and citations for fire code violations.

Tucked next to La Superica restaurant at the north end of Main Street, the Cigar Bar serves from 2 p.m. to 4 a.m. all the usual drinks plus concoctions such as a "hot and dirty martini" for $10. From 6 a.m. until 2 p.m., customers can buy tea or Starbucks coffee from a server in the bar's entryway.

The bar, which has a maximum legal occupancy of 28, is one of only two places in Suffolk County left where patrons can legally drink and smoke at the same time. New York's Clean Indoor Air Act allows smoking in public places only in cigar bars or smoking establishments that existed in December 2002.

The bar's decor includes six stools, several small velveteen sofas, like those seen in brothels in Hollywood westerns, and a few rugs.

There is also a walk-in humidor with glass doors and windows; it contains "many, many shelves of premium cigars," Ms. Furer said. Several varieties of cigarettes are also sold at the bar.

Ms. Furer said that her customers are a diverse lot, adding that she once counted people of 15 different nationalities on the premises. Summertime brings people from all over the world who have docked their boats in Sag Harbor, added to regulars who live on the South Fork. The locals have the place to themselves in the doldrums of February.

At around 11:30 on a recent Friday night, a little more than 30 people were scattered around the bar. Two young women with blond hair and tight jeans danced sinuously near the window. Three men dressed in hip-hop style slumped in stuffed chairs at the bar's entrance, and a man in his late 50s, standing alone near a column, bobbed his head to the thumping music, dragging deeply on a cigar.

A group of people were lined up at the bar, yelling orders over the music, as a gaggle of people in their 30s with the air of visitors to the village spilled in from the street. There were no fights, no cries of theft; then again, it was still early.

The problem, said Sag Harbor officials, is that the pleasures of a late night bar don't always coincide with the aims of police, government, and village residents.

Sag Harbor Village Police Chief Thomas Fabiano said in June that things "seem to be getting progressively worse" at the bar.

At 3 a.m. on June 8, police were called about a "verbal dispute" among patrons. No one was hurt and no charges were filed. But on May 16 at 4 a.m., one patron allegedly threw a bottle at another, and a 24-year-old Wisconsin resident was charged with a misdemeanor count of assault. Police said that his alleged victim was treated at the hospital and released.

On May 8 at 12:30 a.m., police were also called to the bar because of a fight, this one resulting in "minor wounds." No charges were filed.

Thefts are not uncommon, and usually involve purses and wallets, police said, although on one occasion a patron's nail gun was taken after he placed it on the bar. Bryon Connolly, a former Cigar Bar employee, claimed that a customer's laptop computer was stolen.

"I'm sure it happens," Ms. Furer said. "Alcohol impairs the judgment."

Sag Harbor Village Mayor Edward Deyermond has said that overcrowding is a problem at the bar, but Ms. Furer said on June 3 that her bartenders "are strictly enforcing" the 28-person limit. On weekends, she added, an employee stands at the door to check customers' IDs and control any fights that break out.

Timothy Platt, the Sag Harbor code enforcement officer and fire marshal, visited the Cigar Bar on the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. All three nights, he said, the bar exceeded its occupancy limit - by 12, 17, and 20 people.

After the first night, Mr. Platt warned bar employees that he would return on Saturday and Sunday. Still, the bar was overcrowded, and summonses were issued for those nights. The bar has also been cited for fire code violations, but quickly complied with the regulations, he said.

Mayor Deyermond said that the bar has established an illegal "patio" in the parking lot behind the restaurant. Mr. Connolly claimed that a back door was left open so that when code enforcement officers arrived, customers could be hustled out of the bar room itself.

Mayor Deyermond said that if chronic overcrowding continues, the village will bring a suit against the Cigar Bar in Southampton Town Justice Court. "We want to enforce our zoning codes and we'll do what he have to," he said.

Ms. Furer said she was negotiating with the village to remove some of the bar's seats in order to increase its maximum occupancy. For each seat she removes, she can add two to the number, she said, adding that she would be willing to take out all the couches and bar stools.

Such an effort could constitute an expansion of the bar under the restrictive rules that govern cigar bars, however, according to Mayor Deyermond, and would mean that Ms. Furer would lose her license as a smoking establishment.

For now, Ms. Furer is simply trying to run a business, and the Cigar Bar, she said, is not about police reports and code enforcement visits. "It's about meeting great people. This place is about everyone having fun."

A Manhattan man who added a bathroom to the third floor of his Montauk house without a building permit and in defiance of a stop-work order has been told to rip it out - a job that will cost at least $20,000, he protested.

Three-story houses are prohibited by the East Hampton Town Code. Said Vedad's house, between Hamilton and Houston Drives, had a legally pre-existing third floor when he bought it in 1995, but a variance from the code would be needed in order to build on to it.

Mr. Vedad was brought into East Hampton Town Justice Court in September, fined $750, and ordered to apply for the variance.

Powder Room

At a recent Town Zoning Board of Appeals hearing, he maintained the addition was merely an extension of his third story, and said it was needed for an extra "powder room."

The second floor and its bathroom, he said, had been renovated so his elderly mother could live there.

Zoning Board members had little sympathy for the homeowner in reviewing his application for variances to legalize the 10-by-16-foot addition.

"It's clearly self-imposed" said the Z.B.A. chairman, Jay Schneiderman.

Hearing Testimony

Testimony at the Nov. 18 hearing alleged that the house had been listed for sale and for rent with Montauk brokers, although Mr. Vedad's lawyer, Robert Kouffman of East Hampton, said it was "never listed for rental or sale." His client "just wanted to test the market," said Mr. Kouffman.

Carol Morrison, who lives nearby, complained that the house was obtrusive in the neighborhood because of its height and because of extensive clearing of the property.

Mr. Kouffman argued that other houses in the area had three stories, but board members said most were two-story structures with basements and garages dug into the hilly grade. A basement without living space is not considered a story.

Mr. Vedad's house might have been considered a two-story house with basement, except that its certificate of occupancy notes "living space" in the basement. Additionally, much of the earth formerly surrounding the basement has been removed, exposing the level.

Board members ruled 4-to-0 at a Nov. 25 work session to deny the variance.

Mr. Schneiderman observed that Mr. Vedad could solve his problem by filling in the grade around the basement (first-floor) level, thus making the house conform to zoning, rather than ripping off the addition.

Peter Van Scoyoc, a Z.B.A. member, abstained from the vote, saying he had submitted a bid to do work on the house.

Nine Variances

Also at last week's work session, the Z.B.A. denied William Fowkes, a contractor, permission to build a house on a tiny, 5,000-square foot lot off Gardiner's Cove Road near Three Mile Harbor and the Three Mile Harbor Inn in East Hampton.

Board members ruled the 1,500-square-foot, two-story house proposed was too big for the constrained lot, whose wetland pockets drain into the harbor.

To build the house as proposed, Mr. Fowkes would need a total of nine variances, from height requirements, property-line and wetlands setbacks, and lot-coverage limits. The septic system would have been just 71 feet from the wetland edge, where 200 feet is the requirement.

Acquisition? Unlikely

Mr. Fowkes's application posed a fairly common problem for the Z.B.A. when faced with undersized lots: The town cannot completely deny a property owner the use of a legally existing lot unless the town is willing to acquire the property.

Board members inquired whether the town might consider purchasing the lot, but Brian Frank, a town planner, said it was unlikely that this lot would be a priority over other, more sensitive parcels.

Neighbors at Mr. Fowkes's earlier hearing had urged the board to deny the house, saying its septic system would contaminate their wells and that their own houses were well below the 1,500 square feet being proposed.

Septic: No Way, Nowhere

During their deliberations, board members at first appeared to be split. Both Charles Butler and Philip Gamble argued against allowing any development at all on the site.

"There's no way in the world this septic system can go in without jeopardizing the wells of his neighbors," asserted Mr. Gamble.

No matter where the septic system was placed on the lot, he said, it would lie too close to the wetlands and too close to at least one neighbor's well.

Septic: Somewhere

Mr. Schneiderman reminded the board that a total denial would mean condemning the property.

"We can determine if the septic is in the best location, but we can't say a septic system can't go on this property, because that would be condemning it."

After further discussion, the board ruled the house could be reduced in size, reducing some of the variances.

The board voted 4-1 to deny the house as proposed, with Mr. Schneiderman casting the only dissenting vote. He said the house could have been approved with a lesser height variance.

AMAGANSETT

Cappelli to Edna and Siobhan Braken, Mulford Lane, $173,000.

BRIDGEHAMPTON

Hoffmann to Janet Bruce, Hildreth Road, $545,000.

Morgan to Sam Linder and Arthur Alban, Paul's Lane, $290,000.

Mann to 2727 L.L.C., Quimby Lane, $2,700,000.

Gersen to Peter and Joan Wilson, Pheasant Drive, $250,000.

EAST HAMPTON

Bysheim to Edward and Mary McDonald, Greenhollow Road, $647,000.

Fowkes to Liam McCann and Jane Arginteanu, Whooping Hollow Road, $225,000.

Alda L.L.C. to Julie Katzman, Jones Creek Lane, $1,400,000.

MONTAUK

Kollegger to The Nature Conservancy and The Town of East Hampton, DeForest Road, $425,000.

O'Brien to Ruben and Janet Hidalgo, Gannet Drive, $150,000.

NORTH HAVEN

Karmas to Jeffrey Milici and Yvonne Sandtorv, Coves End Lane, $235,000.

King estate to Palma Enterprises, Ferry Road, $370,000.

NORTHWEST

Lubin (trustee) to Clifford and Judith Shapiro, Springwood Way, $310,000.

Feldman to Stanley Baumblatt, Semaphore Road, $210,000. SAG HARBOR

Stearns to Anne Staniorski and Frank LaSalla, Ridge Drive, $160,000.

Albinson to Domenick and Geralyn DeMango and Jill Nardo, Denise Street, $219,000.

SAGAPONACK

Davis to Jan Quaegebeur, Hedges Lane, $900,000.

SPRINGS

Nagle to Blanca Ramos, Hollyoak Avenue, $167,000.

WAINSCOTT

Cook to Jane Rosenthal, South Breeze Drive, $420,000.

WATER MILL

Mullinix to Charles and Sally Lloyd, Bay Lane, $1,050,000.

The lame duck Republican majority on the East Hampton Town Board hopes to move forward with planned work on the Town Airport's main runway, although the incoming Democratic Town Board majority is set against it without further environmental review.

As it stands, "It is very definitely the policy of the town that this project should proceed," Councilman Thomas Knobel said last week, pointing to a string of Town Board resolutions that set the project in motion. Mr. Knobel and Councilman Len Bernard took issue with a headline in last week's Star stating that a $2.5 million Federal Aviation Administration grant for the project had been canceled.

The F.A.A. grant is still available for the runway improvements, Mr. Knobel said, and will remain so until the F.A.A. hears officially that the town has changed its mind. "It's a very viable and active project," Mr. Knobel said last week.

Democratic Meeting

The headline was on a story that described a meeting held two weeks ago by several town representatives with F.A.A. officials.

Democratic Councilman Peter Hammerle and Councilman-elect Job Potter attended it, but none of the three Republican board members or the incoming Republican Councilwoman were invited. Councilman Knobel, who has been the Town Board's liaison to the F.A.A. for the past two years, later referred to the meeting as an example of [Supervisor Cathy] Lester's "scheming, maneuvering, and closed-door dealing."

"The Republicans are being set up as a straw man to be fought," he said last week.

Outcome Anticipated

He and his Republican colleagues on the board, Councilman Bernard and Councilwoman Nancy McCaffrey, believe people will feel differently about the runway after tomorrow's public meeting on the project with representatives of the F.A.A. and the town's airport consulting engineers at Town Hall.

The runway was one of the key issues in this year's election campaign and some, including the Town Supervisor, have called the election a referendum on the issue.

Those opposed to the repaving of the runway to its original 100-foot width - 75 feet with a 121/2-foot shoulder on either side - have said the new runway would be a welcome mat to larger, noisier planes, and would intensify use of the airport.

100-Foot Standard

They'd like to see the runway paved without the shoulders, but a 75-foot-wide runway would not meet the F.A.A.'s standards, based on the sizes of planes already using East Hampton Airport. The F.A.A. does not fund projects it considers below standard, so a narrower runway would most likely have to be funded by the town.

The Supervisor and her supporters also believe the project wasn't subjected to sufficient environmental and public review. She notes that the airport layout plan, of which this project is a part, was never brought before the public for comment. The question, as she sees it, is whether the town should give up control of its airport to Federal authorities or whether it can rein in this project.

"The voters made a decision," Supervisor Lester said. "A lot of that had to do with this very project."

Contentious Debate

Those on both sides of the runway debate have often shown up at Town Board meetings to voice concerns. Tomorrow's meeting is expected to be a well-attended and contentious one.

The three Republican Town Board members say the project has been adequately reviewed and will have no adverse environmental impacts. They point out that the town's natural resources director, Larry Penny, examined the site and proposed various mitigation measures to protect plant species there. Councilman Knobel also has contested claims that the paving would be significantly thicker than it is now. "The only thing of additional thickness will be the 121/2-foot shoulders."

There, he said, crushed gravel would be laid to stabilize the shoulders and four-to-five inches of asphalt will cover that. The entire runway would be regraded to provide better drainage, and a two-inch asphalt overlay will be laid on top of it.

Undergo SEQRA?

"Any less smears and cracks," he said. If the runway has an increased weight-bearing capacity, it's no more an increase than if it were repaved to 75 feet wide, he added. "The procedure was correctly done. . . . The process has been followed."

"That can be picked apart very easily," Ms. Lester said Tuesday. She continues to maintain that the project should undergo State Environmental Quality Review. "If there is a community group willing to take some legal action," she said, "a court of law has high regard for SEQRA."

The Democrats hope to put the runway widening and overlay on hold as of January and to bring the airport layout plan to a public hearing sometime next year.

Would Drop Grant

In that case the F.A.A. would close out its grant to the town without prejudice. This was reported last week and prompted the headline the Republicans questioned.

The Supervisor said she pointed out some "procedural problems" with the project when she and other Democrats met with the F.A.A. on Nov. 20, and "We were told we would not be put on the 'bad boys' list."

The town will be reimbursed soon for the nearly $190,000 already spent on the design and engineering of a 100-foot-wide runway, she said, and it will be able to reapply for the runway funding in the future.

No Guarantee

However, there is no guarantee the funds will be available, and, if the town eventually decides to repave the runway to less than 100 feet, it will have to repay that $190,000 to the F.A.A. Mr. Knobel had pressed this fact during the election campaign.

Mr. Knobel pointed to a chain of Town Board resolutions authorizing the engineering and design work, soliciting bids on the project, and, in September, authorizing the Supervisor to sign a contract with the lowest bidder, as proof of the Town Board's intentions.

The Supervisor neither voted for, nor signed, that contract, however, and now the company chosen, Hendrickson Brothers of Farmingdale, is asking a judge to force her or another member of the Town Board to do so. "It's a courtesy to say authorize . . . ," Mr. Knobel said this week, referring to the resolution. ". . . At a certain point it's not your option."

Hendrickson Suit

"What's the point of having a governing body in charge of the town if the Supervisor [doesn't follow its directions]?" asked Mary O'Connor, a representative of the East Hampton Aviation Association. She said pilots were up in arms at the Supervisor's handling of the issue, but also recognized some of the concerns of those living in Wainscott and other areas in the airport's flight path.

"We've been trying to talk to them to see if there isn't some way we can lobby for curfews [on larger planes]." she said. But relations between the pilots and the people in the flight path have been strained over the years. And the tension is sure to be played out at the public meeting tomorrow.

The question of whether the Supervisor or another board member will be ordered to sign the Hendrickson Brothers contract was to have been answered in court yesterday.

Makes Prediction

Even before this suit surfaced, however, the Republican board members had been considering just such a move. Last week, Mr. Knobel said there was a "great possibility" he or another Republican board member would sign the contract. "It's almost incumbent upon us to back up our resolutions," he said.

"I'm not sure if legally they can do that," the Supervisor said Tuesday. "I don't think that's looking at the best interests of the town."

The Supervisor said that if the Republicans push the project through before the end of the year "there is going to be a lot of community outrage. . . . A great number of people basically told us they are willing to take some legal action against the town. Why not let the [SEQRA and public hearing] process go through?"

Tomorrow's voting session begins at 10 a.m. in Town Hall. The hearing portion is scheduled for 10:30 a.m., also at Town Hall, but the American Legion Hall in Amagansett has been booked in anticipation of a crowd.

Southampton Town Supervisor Patrick A. Heaney last Thursday deemed a petition by Sagaponack residents to form their own village to be "legally sufficient." His determination allows them to proceed with a vote of all Sagaponack School District residents on whether or not to incorporate.

Even though Sagaponack residents might be considering a site for their village hall or fantasizing about being mayor, between sips of celebratory champagne, there is a caveat. The supervisor's decision is subject to judicial review and can be challenged as to whether the decision is legal, based on insufficient evidence, or contrary to the weight of evidence.

"Get prepared for more litigation," Mr. Heaney said as he finished reading his decision to Sagaponack representatives.

The acting Southampton town attorney, Steve Brown, who has had health problems recently, said dryly that he hoped to "stay alive as long as the case continues." He added that those opposed to the decision had 30 days to file a legal challenge with the town clerk.

Once any legal challenges are resolved, the residents of the proposed village will have 40 days to vote on whether to go ahead with it. Mr. Brown said he was confident that the petition would be upheld.

Among those who might mount a challenge are the proponents of the village of Dunehampton whose own petition was rejected by Mr. Heaney last year. Lawyers representing Dunehampton's supporters took the matter up to the State Court of Appeals, which recently declined to hear the case. They have until Aug. 1 to challenge the Sagaponack petition, and only people living within the boundaries of the Sagaponack School District can do that.

Thomas Butler, a partner in the law firm Chadbourne and Park in New York City who represents Dunehampton's supporters, said they were reviewing the Sagaponack decision and considering their options. They plan to make a statement soon, he said.

A challenge on their part would be a pre-emptive strike defending their own petition for a village with roughly the same boundaries. It was filed under the name of Southampton Beach (Mr. Heaney deemed their Dunehampton petition insufficient, so they have filed a second one).

The petition for Southampton Beach will be eligible for consideration now that Mr. Heaney has made a decision about Sagaponack's petition. However, without the beachfront that would lie within a Sagaponack village, Southampton Beach would not have the required land or population to incorporate.

Sagaponack residents were among those who challenged the original Dunehampton petition, and tried not to repeat the mistakes made there - including the names of people who had died, for instance, or who were not permanent residents. "And they still met the test," Mr. Heaney said.

The push for a Sagaponack village was at first a defensive measure against Dunehampton's attempt to carve off its coastline, but Alfred R. Kelman said the mission had now united the community "to move forward as one village."

"The insular nature of Sagaponack and our community spirit was aroused by the aggressive action to redraw historical lines," he said.

Mr. Kelman said a Sagaponack village would "continue under a similar manner. There's no mystery here." The residents would decide what their relationship would be to Southampton Town, but would not form "a runaway village" and presumably would continue to use the town's services under contract.

But those details have not yet been discussed, according to Janice Kelman, Mr. Kelman's wife, who said there would be a series of meetings to decide them.

New zoning laws could be one of the changes on the horizon, however. Mr. Kelman noted that the hamlet considered incorporation when Ira Rennert's humongous house was approved by the town, but the consensus was not there.

"Residents who did not want to separate realized the lesson" when they were unable to stop the house, and also when they saw the "snake-like map of Dunehampton." They started to come around to the idea, Mr. Kelman said.

While Sagaponack residents were guarded about the legal challenges, they could not suppress some excitement. Noting the Aug. 1 deadline for a challenge, Ana Daniel said it would good to have the incorporation vote in August because of the higher seasonal population.

Perhaps thinking about the Dunehampton proponents who tend to be second homeowners, too, and presumably would vote against the Sagaponack incorporation, Mr. Kelman said he would prefer September.

Four years ago, Cebra Graves, a 22-year-old English major recently graduated from Yale, followed a few friends to Chicago, encouraged by the prospect of cheap rent and because "It seemed like as good a place as anywhere" to launch a career.

"I wanted to write a novel."

The fiction-writing has been shelved, but Mr. Graves is indeed making a living with his pen, or, more accurately, a computer keyboard - albeit in a vastly different way than he imagined.

The former Springs resident is now the editor of the financial Web site launched earlier this year by Morningstar, a mutual fund-rating service.

Rave Reviews

Although in its infancy, the Morningstar site has garnered rave reviews. Barron's, the weekly published by Dow Jones, recently listed it in its top 10, ranking it number 4.

Money magazine went a step further, calling Morningstar's the best financial site on the Web.

With more and more Americans saving for their retirement, children's education, or other long-term financial goals, mutual funds have become the investment of choice and a trillion-dollar industry. But with some 8,000 funds to choose from, making investment decisions can be a bewildering experience.

Five-Star System

"The whole idea behind Morningstar is that people hate numbers. They don't want to learn the theory, they just want the numbers translated into something that is easy and understandable," said Mr. Graves.

The company, launched in 1985, is widely regarded as a trusted source for fund information. Its five-star rating system has a reputation akin to a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.

But Mr. Graves stressed that Morningstar takes pains to remind investors that the rating system, which ranks funds based on their volatility and success against the broader market, is "just one component," and should not be the sole reason to buy a particular fund.

http://www.morningstar.net

The company's Web site (http://www.morningstar.net), he said, takes advantage of the explosive growth in personal computers to give users additional information that may not be found so readily elsewhere.

It includes sections that help investors learn basic financial concepts, plan strategy, research stocks and mutual funds, choose a discount broker, monitor their portfolios, and talk money with each other in a chat room.

As editor, Mr. Graves is in charge of "content, and getting it out there every week." He oversees a staff of three feature writers and a news reporter, who monitors financial wire services for breaking news and edits work submitted by freelancers and staff members.

New Every Day

"We have a new feature every day, a new column every day, and news spread throughout the site," said the Webmeister. He also writes at least one story a week.

As might be expected, the pages are heavily laced with interviews with fund managers, reports on stock offerings, and other business news. For instance, when Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company led by Warren Buffet, the superman of investors, held its annual meeting, Morningstar was there.

"We profiled some of the companies he has bought into, and even had a complete transcript of the meeting," said Mr. Graves. "It was a pretty good journalistic piece. No newspaper would be able to do that. It is just too focused a niche."

Wide-Open Spaces

Mr. Graves is quick not to take credit for the Web site's success. Morningstar operates the project on a "team concept," he said. He praised its designers, who, he said, have created pages that are easy to navigate, allowing users, estimated at over 20,000 a day, to jump from news articles to statistical databases and back.

"The Web is really a designer's medium," Mr. Graves said. "It's a whole new format that's wide open. It's as if when they invented the printing press, they distributed it to millions of people at once."

Newcomers have the edge in the financial Web sites. None of the top 10, said Mr. Graves, "have anything to do with traditional publishers. It's like, anything you learned in conventional publishing doesn't work."

Slow Starter

Although Morningstar tries to stay on the "cutting edge of new technology," according to Mr. Graves, it was slow to launch a Web site. At first, the company relied on a service provided by America Online.

"It was pretty bland," said Mr. Graves, who was among several staff members urging management to start its own site.

"One of the people who was lobbying the bosses was "the boss," said Mr. Graves, meaning Joseph Mansueto, the company's founder, who came out of semiretirement to lead the project. "Without his interest, it wouldn't have taken off."

Two Years And Out

Before joining the Web site staff, Mr. Graves worked for two years as one of the company's mutual-fund analysts. His job was to write terse summaries of a dozen different funds every two weeks.

"It's like writing a sonnet about the same subject every day, and the subject is mutual funds," he said with a sigh.

"It's pretty much a two-year-and-out kind of job," Mr. Graves continued, noting that many Morningstar analysts have built on their experience and training there to land jobs with investment companies.

Entry To Business

Morningstar prefers to hire liberal arts graduates, he said, reasoning that "it's easier to teach an English major about investing than it is to teach an investor how to write."

Although he is now well versed in the world of finance and investing, Mr. Graves said he still relies on his background in English. "About the only place deconstructionism works is when you try to decipher what Alan Greenspan said," he joked.

His own entry to the business world was something of a fluke. Mr. Graves spent the summer after graduation in East Hampton busing tables to squirrel away money for the move to Chicago. The low rents he expected to find there did not materialize, and he turned to temporary agencies for work.

Early Dismissal

He soon eyed a position in futures trading.

"You got off at 3 o'clock," he explained - leaving plenty of time to write that novel.

The first job Mr. Graves applied for was with an arbitrage firm. "I went out and bought a suit, because I didn't even have one."

The prospective employer told him to be at the office at the ungodly hour of 5 a.m. He showed up at the appointed time and waited until 6:30, when the trader showed up - dressed in jeans.

No Future In Futures

The interview was "a steady stream of abuse," Mr. Graves recalled, with the trader telling him he was too small and ill-prepared to make it in the rough-and-tumble world of the Chicago trading pits.

Still, "he offered me a job right then and there" - a job which, said Mr. Graves, he declined, because "the guy was such a wacko."

Mr. Graves eventually found a home with a hedge fund "run by a Harvard dropout who was not at all impressed with my Yale education." He was placed on the stock loan desk and assigned "to shave a couple basis points" off the cost of borrowing securities needed to collateralize the firm's short positions.

Fascination With Computers

Realizing that he would not become a trader with the firm, Mr. Graves then made the jump to Morningstar.

Although he is now an editor - following, in a way, the footsteps of his father, Jack Graves, The Star's longtime sports editor and columnist - Mr. Graves would like to work on the "development side" of the Web site, exploring "what kind of features we'll have, and finding new ways to tell the stories and explain the concepts."

"It's all very exciting," he said of the Web. "There is all this information that will soon be at your fingertips."

A fascination with computers is "a generational thing," Mr. Graves suspects.

"Almost all my college friends are working on line, or in some way related to the computer industry," he said. "My grandmother will never see what I do with my life, because she'll never get on a computer. Just mention the word 'Web' to her, and she sighs."

The East End Land Bank Coalition, which supports a 2 percent real estate transfer tax for open space, farmland, and historic preservation, has asked Gov. George E. Pataki to take a closer look at proposed land-bank legislation for the five North and South Fork towns.

The coalition has asked to meet with the Governor. While members await his answer, they are joining other local groups in seeking homegrown suggestions for "rescuing" the East End.

In September Mr. Pataki vetoed transfer-tax legislation for East Hampton Town, saying the bill did not contain an exemption for farmland transfers and did not include other East End towns.

All Five Towns

A revised bill drafted since then includes all five towns: East Hampton, Southampton, Southold, Riverhead, and Shelter Island.

Under the new legislation, the sale of farmland for continued agricultural use and land transfers for preservation purposes will be exempt from the 2 percent tax. The tax will apply only to higher-priced real estate sales, with the cutoff to be determined by the individual towns.

In his veto message the Governor pledged that his administration would work with local leaders to create a better bill.

Seek Pataki's Support

In an Oct. 31 letter to the Governor with 100 signatures, the Land Bank Coalition asked for "immediate support" of the new draft.

"The East End needs this tool if it is to avoid becoming yet another overdeveloped, overcrowded, characterless community," the letter urged.

Some of those involved in the Land Bank Coalition are also active in the East End Rescue Coalition, which is sponsoring two half-day planning meetings on Saturday to explore how eastern Long Island has grown and how it can grow in the future.

The meetings will be from 8 a.m. to noon at Southold High School on the North Fork, and from 1 to 5 p.m. at Southampton College on the South Fork.

Coalition Members

East End Rescue, like the Land Bank Coalition, is made up of a number of groups concerned with land use and the environment.

They include the American Planning Association, East End Forever, Group for the South Fork, Long Island Pine Barrens Society, North Fork Environmental Council, Peconic Land Trust, Regional Plan Association, Southampton College, Suffolk County Planning Department, and the Suffolk County Water Authority.

Land-use experts participating in Saturday's meetings will discuss such preservation tools as community land banks, changes in the estate tax law, the sale of development rights, conservation easements, and development planning.

Speakers

Steve Wick, a reporter for Newsday and the author of "Heaven and Earth," about the disappearance of North Fork farmland, is scheduled to speak.

Other speakers will be Robert Yaro of the Regional Plan Association, Edward McMahon of the Conservation Fund, Steve Jones, the county planning director, and Michael LoGrande of the Water Authority.

Three concurrent sessions will feature speakers with planning experience on Cape Cod, Nantucket, and greater Massachusetts, areas that face development pressures similar to those on the East End.

Those planning to attend one of Saturday's meetings have been asked to reserve a seat by calling Judy Christrup at the Group for the South Fork in Bridgehampton.

Erosion Expert's Revetment Cited

Rhodes W. Fairbridge, a professor emeritus of geology at Columbia University who is considered an expert on coastal erosion, has been charged with violating the East Hampton Town Code.

According to papers filed in Justice Court, Mr. Fairbridge allegedly built an illegal 75-foot rock revetment on town property next to his Fresh Pond Road, Amagansett, house, which looks out onto Gardiner's Bay. Mr. Fairbridge was not present for a court appearance scheduled for Monday.

Mr. Fairbridge explained on Tuesday, from his other home in Manhattan, that the town's notice was sent on Nov. 14 to his Manhattan address but that he and his wife, Dolores, were still in Amagansett at the time. They returned to Manhattan for the winter on Monday, he said, and found the notice in their mail.

Answering Charges

According to information filed by James Cavanagh, assistant natural resources director for the town, Mr. Fairbridge is accused of building "an approximately 75-foot revetment on town property in the parking lot on Fresh Pond Road, adjacent to his residence," without a natural resources permit or a building permit.

A line of boulders, perhaps 30 feet in length, on what appears to be town property in front of the road-end parking area, was visible on a recent visit. Mr. Cavanagh said Tuesday that he could not make any comments on the case at this time.

He was writing a letter to Justice Roger W. Walker to explain why he was not present in court as well as to answer the charges "at considerable length," Mr. Fairbridge said on Tuesday. Because the judge has not yet received the letter, Mr. Fairbridge did not want to discuss the charges at much length, he said.

Beach Erosion

He did say that he believed he had a current permit to construct the rock revetment at issue, adding that he and his wife believe the permit is valid until 1998, although he could not recall whom the permit was issued by. No record of any such permit was in the files of the Town Zoning Board of Appeals, which issues natural resources permits for activities within 150 feet of protected features, such as the beach.

A 1985 permit from the Zoning Board did give the Fairbridges permission to rebuild and repair the inner and higher sea wall and outer and lower wooden bulkhead which still exist on the bay side of their house. The bulkhead ties into a town-owned bulkhead seaward of the road end.

Mr. Fairbridge also said, as he has expressed in the past, that erosion of the bay beach in the area of his house has been caused by the two Fresh Pond jetties, which he said should be removed, and the town's bulkhead, which he said should be made taller and repaired.

Jetties In Question

Mr. Fairbridge, honorary president of the Quaternary Union Shorelines Commission and associate editor of the Journal of Coastal Research, also recommends building offshore breakwaters in the area.

His observations and recommendations for the bay beach around his home were the subject of a Guestwords in the Jan. 19, 1995, issue of The Star.

Discussions among the East Hampton Town Trustees, the town's engineering consultant, and the State Department of Environmental Conservation on the possibility of shortening or removing the northern Fresh Pond jetty were reported in The Star last month.

Hard structures, both parallel and perpendicular to the shoreline, have been praised for protecting shoreline properties by some, but also have been criticized for affecting the natural flow of sediment and hastening erosion in front of and downdrift of the property where they are installed.

Elsewhere in the nation, the chief mission of the Literacy Volunteers of America is to teach reading and writing, though on the East End, according to Donna Frey, the group's Suffolk coordinator, there is little or no call for it.

In part, said Ms. Frey, that is because people who cannot read find it harder to seek help than people who cannot speak English: "There's no stigma there."

Literacy Volunteers tutors receive a 24-hour training course.

The Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services offers classes from September to May via the East Hampton School District's adult education program, for beginning to intermediate students. The teachers are paid and have bachelor's degrees. Most are certified to teach English as a second language.

The Literacy Volunteers and BOCES programs are free.

Southampton College's three-tiered course is the largest and fastest-growing facet of its continuing education program, said Laura Lyons, the program's director. The college offers a 40-hour course that costs $185 a semester, an intensive class that costs $1,235 for 300 hours, and a $250 study group for those hoping to pass the college aptitude test.

Literacy Volunteers and BOCES encourage more advanced students to attend college. Many go to Suffolk Community College in Riverhead.

The BOCES program in Brentwood gives a popular course for students aiming for their high school equivalency diplomas, although there is no great demand for it yet in East Hampton, said Judy Kahn, the director.

In East Hampton, the need is to find a job and then a better job, she said. "It's the same in Brentwood, but the jobs there - factory jobs and so forth - require a high school degree."

None of the programs require proof of legal residency, except to apply for Federal tuition aid at Southampton College.

"I'm smiling from ear to ear," Capt. Paul Forsberg of Montauk said yesterday morning after learning that a Federal District Court Judge in New York City declared that gambling cruise boats could start the roulette wheels spinning three miles from shore, instead of 12.

A fleet of floating gambling houses set sail last year from New York and other coastal ports. In doing so, boat owners, including Captain Forsberg, relied on the understanding that the boundary between state and Federal waters lay three miles from shore.

Last fall, however, Zachary Carter, the United States Attorney in Brooklyn, interpreted Federal maritime law differently, citing a 1996 amendment designed to keep potential criminal activities farther offshore.

On Monday, Judge Allyne R. Ross of Brooklyn's Federal District Court, ruled that the anti-crime amendment had not been written to exclude gambling.

"It's what we thought all along," Captain Forsberg said, adding that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents had paid a visit to his Montauk offices in the fall shortly after Mr. Carter's ruling, and warned him to sail 12 miles before the gambling started or risk seizure of his boat.

He explained that weather conditions three miles offshore are far calmer than they are at 12 miles out.

"It's terrific. We can start in the spring and go longer into the fall. It helps us a lot," Captain Forsberg said.