While there's good news - sufficiently good to rate a lead story in Tuesday's New York Times - in several recent reports showing that median household incomes continue to rise and that advances among minorities have been noteworthy, the salient fact, as far as we're concerned, is how little the tide has risen for all boats in this buoyant economy.

According to a Census Bureau release this week, "the number of poor Americans in 1996 totaled 36.5 million, representing 13.7 percent of the nation's total population. . . . Neither figure was significantly different from the previous year's estimate. In 1996, the average poverty threshold for a family of four was $16,036."

In addition, "the number of uninsured children under 18 grew to 10.6 million (14.8 percent) in 1996; both the number and percentage were statistically higher than the 1995 figures of 9.8 million and 13.8 percent, respectively. Over all, an estimated 41.7 million, or 15.6 percent, of Americans had no health insurance during all of 1996."

To no one's surprise, the percentage of the nation's income claimed by the wealthiest fifth continued to rise, as it has more or less steadily over the past 30 years, in contrast to the other four-fifths of the populace.

Is our economy healthy? It would seem so. Until we erase poverty and make personal health insurance universal, however, the cheering will ring hollow.

It took weeks for the East Hampton Town Sanitation Department to find the wall - the massive concrete wall at the back of the recycling plant in East Hampton. It was obscured for a good part of the summer by a mountain of garbage estimated, at its worst, to weigh 400 tons.

The pile is gone now, as are the visitors, welcome as they were, who generated most of it. With autumn here, the Sanitation Department has a chance to recover from its toughest summer ever and the town has a chance to evaluate its success at recycling.

Ten years ago, New York State established a goal to halve its waste stream, through recycling and other methods, by December 1997. East Hampton's own solid waste management plan was more ambitious, its goal was to exceed the state's. So how are we doing?

A report from the Sanitation Department states that the town has recycled slightly over 35 percent of its garbage so far this year. The figure includes the plentiful amount of brush from backyard gardeners and professional landscapers which the town turns into wood chips. If you leave the brush out, the town's rate so far this year drops to only 23 percent.

At one point, in April and May, the overall rate was above 43 percent; town officials say they are hoping for a return to 40 percent by the end of the year. That suggests that businesses whose peak is in summer, as well as seasonal residents and visitors, are not as adept at complying with the town recycling laws as year-round residents. It also suggests that the year-round contingent is a key to the town's achieving a 50 percent (or better) recycling rate.

In that vein, The Star and East Hampton Kiwanis have become partners in a plan to encourage the largest segment of the population, those who take their own trash to the dumps, to make their mark starting this winter. There are roughly 10,000 permits for self-haulers, as they are called at the recycling plant, and these are the folks we depend on to lead the way toward better compliance from everyone.

This weekend, members of Kiwanis and Star staffers will be at the East Hampton and Montauk disposal areas handing out refrigerator magnets that, in a neat 2-by-3-inch format, spell out the 10 categories of recyclables that self-haulers are mandated to separate from nonrecyclables.

Although changes in Town Hall earlier in the year made it difficult to get the magnets out to the public before summer, when they might have done the most good, the idea now is to get the year-round population further on track and to help those who arrive next spring jump aboard. Ten years ago, when East Hampton and New York set their goals, recycling was relatively new and a 50-percent rate seemed easily achievable. Harsh economic realities have interfered. Because the cost of doing what was planned is great there have been changes and staff cutbacks. Those in charge are left having to weigh the idiosyncrasies of an economy that makes it cheaper to truck a ton of garbage to a landfill in Pennsylvania than to recycle it.

We have to remember, however, that it is only cheaper in the short term.

There is an old family tradition in the ballet, that what is learned from the master or mistress is passed down by the principal dancers to the little ones. That tradition was brought from Russia to the United States by the late George Balanchine, the master choreographer of this century, and he encouraged his favorite dancers to keep it alive.

And so, endowed with his legacy, a dozen or so of his principal dancers have become disciples, teaching his style and preserving his ballets all over the world. A few, quite literally, were endowed; he left the rights to about 100 ballets he felt were worth something to a handful of friends.

"I am of the first Balanchine generation, the first generation after his death. It is an enormous, important responsibility," said Karin von Aroldingen, formerly a New York City Ballet principal dancer. She lives in Southampton and Manhattan, and was, at the end of Balanchine's life, the favorite among his favorites.

A Legacy

"I still want to dance sometimes but I owe something to the second generation, as do we all." She said she feels enormously grateful to see there is a strong second generation of Balanchine disciples.

Peter Martins, whom Balanchine named to replace him as Ballet Master-in-Chief, is, like Ms. von Aroldingen, of the first generation. Mr. Martins has a 30-year-old son, Nilas Martins, who, like his father, began dancing at the Royal Danish Ballet School in Copenhagen and became a principal dancer at New York City Ballet.

Ms. von Aroldingen inherited the rights to six ballets - "Serenade," his first American ballet and the most popular, as well as "Liebeslieder Walzer," "Stravinsky Violin Concerto," "Une Porte et Un Soupir," "Vienna Waltzes," and "Kammermusik No. 2" - and, as a trustee of the Balanchine Trust, travels all over the world staging his productions.

It was long before his death, though, that Balanchine coaxed her into preserving his legacy. When she was in her mid-20s, and still an active soloist, the ballet master convinced her to teach 8, 9, and 10-year-old girls in the School of American Ballet, which he founded in 1934.

Also A Painter

"I told him no. How could I teach? I was still dancing. And girls that small, they have no concentration. But he told me that is the way it was done in Russia."

Buried in Oakland Cemetery in Sag Harbor, Balanchine died in 1983. He lived for a short time in the Canterbury Mews in Southampton, having bought an apartment there across from Ms. von Aroldingen and her husband, Morton Gewirtz.

They now live off Flying Point Road, with an armoire in the foyer that Balanchine painted himself in brightly colored, whimsical Russian style and watercolors and pastels on the walls, equally vivid and colorful, painted by Ms. von Aroldingen.

"We dancers are not at all intellectual. We like color and music and beauty and excitement."

She said she studied during layoffs from dancing at the Art Students League and laughingly recalled how she once tried to paint a scene from the biblical story of the prodigal son, which had also been made into a ballet. Her teacher thought the better of it and suggested something on a lighter theme.

Her repertory of vibrant flowers and landscapes was shown last season at the Millennium Gallery in East Hampton.

Ironic Death

Forty-nine years after Balanchine founded the School of American Ballet, now one of the most prestigious in the world, he died, ironically, of a mysterious ailment that repeatedly tipped him off balance. It was not diagnosed as Jakob-Creutzfeldt, known these days as mad cow disease, until some time later.

Barbara Horgan, who was Balanchine's secretary for many years, encouraged him to write a will so the rights to his ballets would not revert to a brother still living in the then Soviet Union. Balanchine's style was anomalous there and, being the legacy of a defector in any case, could have even been banned as counter-revolutionary or confiscated by the Government.

After his death, Ms. Horgan created the Balanchine Foundation, an educational organization, and Ms. von Aroldingen became the ballet mistress and a trustee of the Balanchine Trust, which protects his name by acting as a clearinghouse for requests to stage his ballets.

A Strong Mentor

More than 800 productions have been staged worldwide since his death, overseen by a network of roughly 15 of his principal dancers. Ms. von Aroldingen herself has worked in mainland China, Korea, Africa, Australia, and across the United States.

"We have such a strong network that I know nothing will be lost in my lifetime. Balanchine was like Stravinsky. They said now is now, I don't care what's after me. But we care."

Her immense loyalty to his work stems from her regard for the work but also for him. He was her mentor, recognizing her talent, helping her to develop into an important dancer, then encouraging her to extend the dancer's all-too-brief career by teaching and staging ballets.

As she wrote in "I Remember Balanchine," a collection of memoirs written by dancers, friends, and other associates, he was also a substitute father - and a bit of a mother sometimes too.

A "Good Dictator"

They cooked grand feasts together, spent holidays together with her family here and with her mother, who lives now in the mountains outside Salzburg, Austria, and, according to biographers, it was she whom Balanchine called for in his last days.

"He was a dictator in a sense but in a good sense. He used to tell me, 'I could give you food and even chew it for you but you have to swallow.' He didn't like change. He made adjustments. He gave us artistic freedom to interpret; if I wasn't good at turning to the right we went to the left."

And, they were both emigrees. Her family, originally from Berlin, was evacuated during the war to Griez, in former East Germany. She was born there in 1941, the second of three daughters. Toward the end of the war, her father, a scientist, went to meet a group of professors in Czechoslovakia. He never returned, and his disappearance remains a mystery, she said.

Only To Dance

After the war, her mother one by one brought her three daughters back to West Berlin and they lived there, in rather somber circumstances, with relatives. Ms. von Aroldingen recalled hearing music that made her want to dance when she was 9 years old.

"I never played with dolls. I always wanted only to dance," she said, adding there was no money for ballet classes after her father's disappearance.

So, she auditioned at a private ballet school and was awarded an eight-year scholarship. At 10, she was chosen from among 200 girls to dance the title role in "The Little Match Girl," a film that continues to be shown in Europe around Christmastime.

Trained in the classical Russian tradition, but also in modern and folk dancing, she passed her state exams in dance theory and history at 16 and joined the corps of the modest American Festival Ballet for an eight-month run.

With Lenya

At the same time, Tatjana Gsovsky, who ran the Frankfurt Opera Ballet and was the wife of Victor Gsovsky, a respected ballet master and choreographer, also attempted to hire the teenager.

"I was so young, it was such an honor, but I had to tell her I already had an engagement. She thought I was snotty," shrugged Ms. von Aroldingen.

Madame Gsovsky persisted, though, hiring her a few years later to share the lead role in a stage production of Kurt Weill's "Seven Deadly Sins" with Lotte Lenya. The voluptuous redhead, known for her throaty cabaret style, sang the part of Anna and Ms. von Aroldingen danced it, the two of them emerging on stage under the same black cape.

It was an honor for the 17-year-old newcomer; Ms. Lenya was a major star in those days and was singing Anna for the third time - she first sang it in the original, groundbreaking production in 1933 and, later, in 1958 in New York, with Allegra Kent, the prima ballerina.

To New York

Two years later, the singer ar ranged Ms. von Aroldingen's first meeting with Balanchine, an audition in Hamburg in 1962.

"I was absolutely terrified. I fell off pointe. I was shaking. But Balanchine said later he had X-ray eyes and could see through the nerves."

Two weeks later, she received a letter inviting her to tour the U.S. with the New York City Ballet. She accepted, wiggling out of her Frankfurt contract with a fabricated elopement.

"I didn't speak English. I found it very hard to communicate when I got to New York. But, after all, dance is the universal language," she said.

Still, her training in the Russian style - muscular, strong, and firmly grounded - conflicted with the highly refined and highly musical Balanchine style. She had to learn technique all over again but her long, slim physique, which would have been considered an unathletic anomaly by the old school, fit perfectly the swan-necked, swift, and hyper-extended profile of the Balanchine ballerina.

Last Performance

"There was a saying about Balanchine, that he could see music. The steps, the dancers, the costumes, the sets - everything was the music."

Her first appearance was as a monster in Stravinsky's "Firebird," and her second as a demi-soloist in Bizet's "Symphony in C."

"I did demi-solo parts but I was not technically a soloist for five years. The parts and the titles did not matter to me in any case. I only wanted to dance."

In 1972, she was named a principal dancer, for whom Balanchine especially created 18 roles. The first was the female lead in an abstract ballet set to Stravinsky's "Violin Concerto," where she danced "an incredibly acrobatic" pas de deux with Jean-Pierre Bonnefous.

"Violin Concerto," which she danced many times and was bequeathed to her, was her favorite, and it was to become the piece she requested for her final performance; she retired from dancing in 1984, a year after her teacher and mentor died.

Choreography

"He knew us better than we knew ourselves," said Ms. von Aroldingen, adding that the roles he created for her - in, among others, "Who Cares?" "Vienna Waltzes," "Kammermusik No. 2," and "Une Porte et Un Soupir" - and the 50-odd other roles for which he chose her were versatile, deceptively difficult, and often highly romanticized.

Many of them also involved waltz music, and she recalled one critic who labeled her "the empress of the waltz."

In addition to coaxing her to teach, Balanchine asked her in 1976 to stage a ballet for him. Again she protested that she was not ready to do anything other than dance. Again Balanchine prevailed.

"He said, 'No dear, you have eyes and a body!' " She chose "Liebeslieder Walzer," Brahms's love songs (and, of course, waltzes) played by four piano voices - soprano, mezzo-soprano, bass, and tenor - and completed the choreography in just three weeks.

On The Road

"It was hard. The waltz needs two people, and I had to learn how to dance the boy part. I used a little girl small enough to lift as a stand-in for the girl part. But Balanchine knew I could do it. He put me there . . . but he never complimented much."

She eventually had to stop teaching altogether; his ballets are in such demand that she is constantly flying from one production to another. The Star caught her between Birmingham, England, and Salt Lake City, where Ballet West will perform "Violin Concerto."

"It is characteristic of Balanchine that his works look so easy to perform but, technically, they really are very, very hard. I sometimes have to suggest that a young company pick an easier ballet," she smiled, adding later that "I could just say no but I never do. Balanchine belongs to the world."

Remember the upstate lawmaker who dug into the legislative pork barrel a year or two ago and withdrew several thousand public dollars to build a clubhouse for his duck-hunting buddies back home? Called to account by a taxpayers' group, he protested that the project, which entailed tearing down an old blind, was a civic matter undertaken for the greater environmental good.

That fellow, resourceful though he surely was, had nothing on the legislator who managed to extract $15,000 from the public coffers this year to further the cause of whale-watching on Seneca Lake.

In the heart of the Finger Lakes District, Seneca is a freshwater body noted for trout-fishing, board surfing, and scuba diving, because of its deep, cold water. Anyone claiming to have seen a whale there, however, could rightly be hauled in for substance abuse, most likely LSD.

According to CHANGE-NY, a tax reform organization, the money - which represents just a tiny drop in a $609 million bucket of so-called members' items - or "pork index" - will be used for a festival at which boaters pretend to search for whales.

"Taxpayers across the state should be cringing because of this nonsense," said Thomas Carroll, the group's president. Some of the 4,400 or so schemes to be funded this year are legitimate, of course, but a good number, he said, are simply "election-year grants to hometown groups."

Scalers of Montauk mountain tops, take note. An avalanche of public funds sometimes descends where least expected, or deserved.

Aided by a $200,000 gift from the Mashantucket Pequots, owners of the wildly successful Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, Conn., Southampton's Shinnecock Tribe is forging ahead with plans to build a 5,000-square-foot cultural center and museum, much as the Pequots themselves have recently done, though on a far smaller scale.

The Pequots' gift, announced this week, is the latest in a series of contributions the tribe has made to Native American historical and cultural projects around the country since 1993.

Beaver Creek Log Homes of Oneida, N.Y., which is staffed in large part by Native Oneidas, has been hired to build the center. The shell is expected to be completed by December. It will be constructed of white pine logs harvested on Iroquois lands near upstate Binghamton.

White Pine Exterior

The idea has been in the talking stages, on and off, for about four years, though only this year, apparently, did it begin to seem doable. A New York architect with a house in Southampton, Campion Platt, has met regularly with a committee of Shinnecocks since January, he said Tuesday, to discuss the project.

Mr. Platt is donating his services. "I am mindful as an American about what has happened to the Indians," he said this week, "and I want to be as helpful as I can."

The Shinnecocks intend to duplicate a museum built by Beaver Creek upstate, Mr. Platt said. That structure is featured in the current issue of Log Home Design magazine.

The architect described the firm's approach. First, workers assemble the complete building near the site where the logs have been cut. Then the logs are taken apart to be moved. Finally, they are reassembled on their permanent site. No nails are used in the process.

A Healing Spirit

One of Beaver Creek's principals is Jules Obomsawin, an Oneida. His wife, Robbin Obomsawin, is a subcontractor. "Our largest piece of equipment is a chain saw," she said this week.

Mrs. Obomsawin, a photographer as well, said the 14 to 18-inch, 40 and 60-foot white pine logs that will be used in the building are hand-selected for the clarity of the wood. Each, she said, will be hand-peeled and their cambium (sub-bark) will be hand-washed.

White pine, she noted, is believed to have a "healing spirit." For generations, she said, Native Americans have been taught to lean against a tree in a white pine forest if they feel ill.

The two-story cultural center, according to Mr. Platt, will contain a longhouse with a vaulted ceiling reaching some 17 feet, to be used for exhibit space and as a craft center, and a grade-level area, faced in stone, for classrooms and cultural activities.

The exhibits will contain original archeological and other native materials reflecting, said the architect, 10,000 years of Shinnecock heritage.

From a design point of view, the Shinnecocks' cultural committee was interested in making the center "as simple a construction as possible, in keeping with traditional longhouse style," Mr. Platt said.

A Learning Facility

The tribe had intended at first to renovate an old building on the reservation formerly used for oyster-farming, said Mr. Platt. That idea gave way to a more ambitious one, to construct a new facility on a new site, and to create a "learning museum, not just a building housing artifacts."

"That donation will go a long way to completing the structure," Mr. Platt said. About $100,000 remains to be raised, sources said.

The Pequots do not reveal how much their casino earns, nor how much they donate to charity. Under an agreement with the State of Connecticut, however, Foxwoods reports its gross winnings from its slot machines only - $600 million last year - and pays 25 percent of that to the state.

Pequot Beneficence

The Pequots' seven-person tribal council made the decision to donate the $200,000 to the Shinnecock Museum, said Arthur Henick, a spokes man.

The Pequots have in the past contributed $10 million to the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of the American Indian, $500,000 to the Hartford (Conn.) Ballet for a new version of "The Nutcracker" that will incorporate Native American themes, and $100,000 to Connecticut branches of the Young Men's Christian Association.

Additionally, the tribe has invested some $700,000 in what Mr. Henick called the "first-ever mainstream film project by and about Native Americans." Called "Naturally Native," it is being written and directed by a California woman who is part Sioux, part Cherokee, Valerie Red Horse.

Those nostalgic for the East Hampton of yesteryear will be sad to see another local institution, Snowflake, close its doors on Oct. 19. They may be happy, however, to hear that the owner of the Pantigo Road ice cream-and-hamburger spot and favorite Little League team haunt intends that it remain a place with special appeal for kids.

Michael Cinque of Amagansett wants to see the half-acre property continue in the same line of business, he said this week, and will make that a condition of the next lease he signs.

He envisions "a kid-friendly family joint, because I have two boys," who are almost at the age to start Little League themselves.

The Kitchen Sink

"The whole beauty of that place is it can be a great family" spot, said Mr. Cinque, where one could get a Coney Island hot dog and a "kitchen sink" sundae, the impossible-to-eat-it-all kind he remembers from his childhood.

Mr. Cinque, who also owns Amagansett Wines and Spirits and Wainscott Wines and Spirits, bought the property in 1994 for $375,000, under the name Amagansett Associates. He said he had "all intentions of actually running it" himself at the time, but "reality" set in; his other businesses were too demanding of his time.

He still hopes, in a few more years, to have the time to operate the business himself, and even has a name and some menu items in mind. The Snowflake is "definitely a landmark-type of joint in town," he said.

Rent Will Rise

David McMahon of Montauk, a former charter boat captain who has been running the Snowflake for the past 12 years, was philosophical about the expiration of his lease.

He said he had planned to sell the business anyway because it was time for him to retire.

"I imagine the people in East Hampton would be happy to see the property continue in the same sort of use," he said, adding that five people had expressed interest in buying his business, but the new rent was so high "that you couldn't make a profit."

Mr. McMahon kept the Snowflake open seven months a year. While Mr. Cinque interviews prospective lessees, he will be looking for buyers for his business equipment, such as the soft-serve ice cream machines.

Plenty Of Interest

Mr. Cinque said the cost of his mortgage was such that he had to raise the rent above what he said was an outdated sum. "It's strictly economics," he said.

"You can make it a year-round business," Mr. Cinque suggested.

He has received several calls a day for several days, he said Tuesday, from local residents interested in an operation similar to the Snowflake, and expects more in the days to come after placing advertisements in several publications, including The Star.

The property, at the corner of private Maple Lane, is in a residentially zoned neighborhood as well as in a limited business district, though the Snowflake's current use legally pre-exists zoning. If the business use is not continued it will be lost, and the property will revert to current zoning.

Limited Business

Joanne Pahwul, the assistant director of the Town Planning Department, said that on the advice of deputy East Hampton Town attorney Richard Whalen, she did not want to speculate what other kinds of uses might be allowed. "It's kind of a complex matter," she said.

The limited business district allows for certain low-intensity businesses which, in part, preserve the residential character of a neighborhood, though the use is limited to only a portion of a property.

It seems unlikely that the Snowflake building could be used for anything much different from what is there now.

The developers of more than 43 acres of woods stretching from Route 114 (Sag Harbor Turnpike) in East Hampton have gotten a little too far down the road with their subdivision - literally.

Well over a year ago, Deep Hollow Associates finished cutting a road onto the rolling property to serve 12 eventual house lots. The problem was, the partnership never had approval for the road. Now the dirt road and its steep dirt banks, directly across from Red Fox Lane, remain unfinished and prone to erode onto 114.

The subdivision, known as Hilltops, was nearing final approval when the East Hampton Town Planning Board last reviewed it in April 1996. The developers were told then that the plan would be ready for clearance once the Health Department okayed it, an earlier county approval having expired. The Planning Board signed off on the design of the road during that review.

Since then, the road has been cut, cleared, and graded. Deep Hollow Associates and their representatives on the application, George H. Walbridge Company, told the board last week they thought the map had been approved and weren't aware at the time that the Health Department approval had expired.

The Town Planning Department has recommended the developers begin some of the remaining work on the road to stabilize the shoulders, such as an erosion-control mat and the vegetation approved in the plans. Meanwhile, several members of the Planning Board proposed reporting the premature clearing and grading to the town's code enforcement officer or the State Department of Transportation.

The principals of Deep Hollow Associates are listed as Gregory Troutman and Robert Kramer.

AMAGANSETT

Principi Jr. to William and Lois Dannecker, Miankoma Lane, $395,000.

Fariel to Cherie Butler and Raymond DeMarco, Beach Avenue, $325,000.

BRIDGEHAMPTON

Collins to Joseph and Ellen Wright, Mitchell Lane, $1,370,000.

Bet Tov Const. to Mary Clark, Aelfie's Way, $350,000.

Bauer to Edward Gordon, Mitchell Lane, $800,000.

EAST HAMPTON

Schieck to Barry Murac, Sherrill Road, $249,000.

Briggs to George Caldwell and George Castello, Amy's Court, $420,000.

Laupot to Madeline Beckwith, Miller Terrace, $165,000.

Wooded Homes Inc. to John Purcell, Two Holes of Water Road, $625,000.

Lipset to Rhonda Schulik, Treescape Drive, $215,000.

MONTAUK

The Star Co. L.P. to Karen Langdon, Leon Court, $220,000.

NOYAC

Fasulo to Kevin and Jerilyn Bock, Pine Neck Avenue, $180,000.

Gribetz to Mark Humphrey and Laurence Rundie, Deerfield Road, $575,000.

SAG HARBOR

Rodriguez estate to Waldtraut Biondi, Elizabeth Street, $224,500.

Vigilante to Achille Tagliasacchi, Redwood Road, $390,000.

Reichman to Robert Koening and Karin Mass, Hildreth Avenue, $220,000.

SPRINGS

Warner to Stefano and Marc Filiberti, Underwood Drive, $194,000.

WAINSCOTT

Ogden Jr. to John Thornton, Georgica Association Road, $2,050,000.

WATER MILL

Nichols to Arnott & Raffo Inc., Middle Line Highway, $425,000.

After months of discussions and a detailed environmental review, it appears likely that East Hampton Town officials will support a Suffolk County Water Authority proposal to bring public water from Napeague to Montauk.

Up to 20 million gallons a year could be pumped from the East Hampton aquifer via a water main extension, putting an end to the hamlet's perpetual summer water crisis.

The seasonal emergency is over now, with hotels quieter and the large crowds mostly gone. But many believe that until something is done to bring Montauk a cleaner, more reliable source of water than is provided by the Water Authority's overburdened system of pipes and wells there, the problems will not go away.

Hither Woods Aquifer

"This is an emergency condition that they can't satisfy without putting in an extension," a town consultant, Kevin Phillips of the hydrogeologic engineering firm Fanning, Phillips, and Molnar, said at a Sept. 16 meeting on the project.

Ever since the extension was first proposed, there have been those in Town Hall who questioned the prudence of connecting the Montauk water system to the Napeague main.

Some believed the untapped aquifer under Hither Woods - land preserved with funds from the town, county, state, and the Water Authority - would prove sufficient for Montauk's water demands. Others feared that connecting the Napeague main to the Montauk system would allow the Water Authority to take water west some day from Hither Woods.

Mainland Water

"That'll never happen," Mr. Phillips said last week. If anything, he said, the town should consider the impact on the East Hampton water table if Montauk gets all its water from the mainland.

"There is no reason why these Montauk wells won't shut down," he said.

Lisa Liquori, the town planning director, agreed. "Nobody wants to leave Montauk high and dry, but poor management, and all the wells could go just like that," she said.

As it worked on the required environmental impact statement for the project - which local officials first said was insufficient and then dubbed incomplete - the Water Authority accused the town, and particularly its planning director, of holding up the most economic solution to Montauk's water problems: a $1.5 million extension of the water main.

The town in turn blamed the authority for not exploring other solutions before the problems reached crisis level.

Time For Action

Both sides now seem to be done casting blame and ready to take action. The Water Authority has made some minor concessions to the town and the town is beginning to recognize that it may not have much choice in determining the source of Montauk's future water supply.

Larry Penny, the director of natural resources, was originally opposed to bringing mainland water to Montauk but now believes the Hither Woods aquifer could not sustain the hamlet's water needs on its own.

"They need water from the East Hampton mainland," he said this week.

In its updated environmental impact statement, the Water Authority gave the town the less than promising results of a test well drilled in Hither Woods. It indicated that the saltwater intrusion zone was not as far down as expected.

According to Mr. Phillips, a well in Hither Woods could safely pump about 300 gallons of water per minute. The Water Authority plans to pump a yearly average of 38 gallons per minute from East Hampton.

"If this is a situation where you're building the pipeline for peak pumping needs, without doubt it would be a minor impact to the town," Mr. Phillips said. During peak season, that 38-gallon-per-minute figure would be much greater, and during the slower season it might be almost nothing.

So why isn't the Hither Woods aquifer, which could pump 300 gallons per minute, good enough?

Given projected growth in Montauk, "[the hamlet's] needs are going to be so great that even Hither Woods would be seriously drained," Mr. Penny said this week.

Mr. Phillips said that to supply all of Montauk with water from East Hampton would take at least five times what the Water Authority currently plans to pump.

"Some people in Town Hall were banking on, if the town took water from Hither Woods, we would not have to make this connection," Michael LoGrande, the chairman and chief executive officer of the Water Authority, said this week.

Mr. LoGrande said the authority had no grand designs on Montauk's water, nor does it plan to shut down the existing wells there.

"We're making the connection to back up the Montauk system," he said. "Hither Woods is not the answer to that."

Meter Will Measure

Even if a well were to go on line in Hither Woods, Mr. LoGrande said, it would serve only to replace one of the existing Montauk wells and not to supply the whole hamlet.

"There was not as great a well field there as we thought there was going to be," he explained.

The Water Authority has agreed to install a meter to measure the flow of water both to and from Montauk and has pledged to continue maintenance of the Montauk system. According to Mr. LoGrande, the authority already has plans to put in an iron-removal system at the existing Montauk wells.

Other upgrades will be done on a priority basis, the environmental impact statement promises.

Seek Assurance

The town would like some further assurance that the wells in Montauk won't be shut down.

"It would be wrong for the East Hampton aquifer to supply all of Montauk," Mr. Phillips said, adding later, "Let them show you how the water table will respond to that."

A drop of just a foot in the mainland water table could, he said, have a serious impact on the shoreline streams and ponds of the mainland.

"The Suffolk County Water Authority's objective is to run this as a business," Mr. Phillips said. "They say, what's cheaper? If it's cheaper to turn off the wells in Montauk, they're going to do it."

Others have suggested that the Water Authority may also be eager to provide as many new hookups as possible to recoup some of its recent losses in Montauk.

Chairman Responds

Mr. LoGrande took offense to this characterization.

"The Suffolk County Water Authority has 320,000 customers, $90 million in revenue," he said. "We are not looking for more customers. We're here to serve the people and do a very effective job, period."

He said that over the past few years the authority has spent close to $12 million in Montauk.

"That's more money than we've ever spent anywhere. Montauk's growth would never recover that investment. . . . Montauk has always been an economic failure for the Water Authority."

And, he pointed out, East Hampton has not jumped at offers to take over the system.

Development Pressure?

Town officials have worried that with water easily available, Montauk could face increased development pressures.

"We don't want an explosion of growth," Town Supervisor Cathy Lester said at the Town Board meeting last week. "And we want to make sure [the water] isn't going to go to any possible dream of a golf course in Montauk."

"To try to control that by limiting the water supply is not the wisest policy to follow," Mr. LoGrande responded this week. "Water mains do not necessarily bring development," he maintained, using as an illustration a new main in Southold. It was installed in 1994, and since then, the Water Authority chairman said, there have been no new customers there.

"We're not asking for carte blanche," he said. "This draft environmental impact statement is the longest and most tedious one we've ever done."

Wainscott Watershed

It has shown, he said, that the East Hampton aquifer, which does not hit the saltwater interface until 637 feet below grade, could back up the Montauk system, provide for projected development in Montauk, and even serve Springs if need be.

According to the statement, the volume of water under the woods in northwest Wainscott is as pure as anywhere on Long Island. But with increased use and increased construction on watershed land, its quality can slowly degrade over the years.

Not For Golf Courses

"We want to protect that watershed land to provide for the people of East Hampton, to supply Montauk with drinking water, not to water golf courses," Mr. Penny said this week, referring to the recent extension of public water to 124 acres off Accabonac Highway and Abraham's Path owned by the Bistrian family and slated to become the Stony Hill Country Club.

Mr. Penny said he hoped that action would not set a precedent for how public water can be used.

The Town Board has until next Thursday to decide if the latest update to the environmental impact statement for the water main extension is complete. If it is deemed complete, the project will be brought to a public hearing this fall.

A body found dumped near the West Side Highway in Manhattan Tuesday morning was identified late yesterday as that of Nelson G. Gross, the owner of the Dark Horse Farm in Bridgehampton. The New Jersey resident, a developer and fallen political power broker, disappeared on Sept. 17.

Three New York City teenagers, one of whom is believed to have worked at a New Jersey restaurant owned by the victim, have been charged with a Federal offense, although it was unclear at press time whether the charge was kidnapping.

The body, with multiple stab wounds, was discovered 25 blocks from where Mr. Gross's silver BMW sedan had been found three days before in upper Manhattan, with a shatter ed window and one tire up on the curb.

Wife Waited At Farm

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is handling the case. A $100,000 reward had been offered for information leading to Mr. Gross's safe return.

The names of the three suspects, all male juveniles, were not released because of their ages. Federal statute defines a juvenile as under 18.

Elias Villeda, the barn manager at Dark Horse Farm, said Mr. Gross's wife, Noel, who is chairwoman of the New Jersey Racing Commission, stayed at the Mitchell Lane farm from the day of her husband's disappearance until Friday. F.B.I. agents visited the farm more than once, according to Mr. Villeda.

The family reported Mr. Gross missing late on Sept. 17 after he failed to show up there.

Two Passengers

Mr. Gross, 65, was last seen alive just after 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 17 driving the BMW away from his restaurant, the Binghamton Ferryboat, on the Hudson in Edgewater, N.J. There reportedly were two men in the car with him when he stopped at the Bank of New York just 100 yards away and withdrew $20,000.

A news report in The Record of Hackensack, which has been widely cited, quoted Michael Gross, his brother, as saying one of the two went into the bank with Mr. Gross, and was videotaped by a security camera. No member of the family could identify him.

The Record also reported that Neil Gross, Nelson Gross's son, waved as his father drove away from the floating restaurant but was ignored. Neil Gross told police he spoke to his father on a cellular phone a short time later, and was told whatever was going on was "just business."

Car Discovered

The elder Mr. Gross was to have met his wife about two hours later. The car was found on Riverside Drive near 160th Street. Reports say it may have been there for two days. Michael Gross told the press that authorities had been looking in upper Manhattan for the car but declined to say why.

It was found near a fire hydrant with one wheel up on the curb, leading authorities to speculate that whoever dumped it wanted it to be located quickly.

Mr. Gross, a political kingpin in New Jersey during the 1960s and '70s before a Federal conviction for illegal fund raising, had in recent years lived quietly, dividing his time among his restaurant in New Jersey, the Bridgehampton horse farm and the nearby Atlantic Golf Club, and a winter house in Palm Beach, Fla.

Managers at the Atlantic, which is not far from the farm, declined to comment, though one, who would not give his full name, said Mr. Gross, who was semi-retired, played often at the exclusive club. He did not have a regular foursome, the man said.

In his heyday as a political kingpin, Mr. Gross was the Republican leader in Bergen County and later for the entire state. He was a major fund-raiser for President Richard M. Nixon and an adviser to the Nixon Administration on international drug control.

Served Five Months

In 1970, Mr. Gross was among the targets of a Federal investigation into suspected mob activity in a union, but the investigation was dropped. His bid that year for a seat in the United States Senate failed.

In 1973, while fund raising for New Jersey Governor William Cahill, Mr. Gross was indicted on Federal fraud charges. He was convicted the next year of channeling illegal contributions to Governor Cahill's 1969 campaign, and served five months of a two-year sentence in a Federal prison.

A lawyer, he was disbarred after the conviction but was readmitted in 1984.

Real Estate Developer

After his release from prison, Mr. Gross did not return to politics but made a fortune in real estate.

In addition to being a partner in the Binghamton Ferryboat, he owned 12 riverside acres there that also house a catering business operating on a rebuilt barge. His other properties include a Paramus shopping mall and an office building in Hackensack.

A dinner theater at the Ferryboat called the Sidewheeler has been showing since March a mystery production of "Murdered by the Mob."

Classic Champion

The barn at the 12-acre Dark Horse Farm is home to Left Field, a thoroughbred who was the local grand hunter champion at the Hampton Classic last month, and four other horses.

Mrs. Gross, whose job it is to oversee horse racing and parimutuel betting in New Jersey, has in the past been a winning rider in the adult hunter class but did not ride in the 1997 Classic.

She trains with Charles Weaver, a noted trainer who owns the Old Salem Farm upstate. His farm has a separate number listed at Dark Horse but Brian Simonson, who works there and answered that phone yesterday, declined to say anything about the case.