As they begin a new session, members of the United States Senate are embroiled in a controversy over, of all things, laptop computers.

Several techno-savvy Senators want to bring their laptops onto the Senate floor, where no writing instrument more intrusive than a pen or pencil has ever been seen, and use them for taking notes or the retrieval of pertinent information. Others say laptops would be distracting at best, and, at worst, in the words of Senator Robert G. Torricelli of New Jersey, "lead to staff instructions on voting and the scripting of all remarks."

There are Democrats and Republicans on both sides of the laptop fence, proving once again that foolishness knows no political bounds.

Bring on the laptops, or any other contrivance that will help make our Senators more efficient and better informed.

When John Vassilaros of Springs appeared recently in East Hampton Town Justice Court on a charge of "scraping" the beach in front of his King's Point Road property, he was given a conditional discharge. The condition required him to apply to the Town Zoning Board of Appeals for a natural resources permit, which is required for such activity on or near the beach.

The Zoning Board heard his case last week, but denied his request. Now he must return to the court for its final word.

Mr. Vassilaros told the board at his Aug. 19 hearing that he only had his Gardiner's Bay beach "scraped" because he had seen the same thing done next door at the Clearwater Beach Property Owners Association three times each summer season, including the very same day he had his done.

Hired On the Spot

In fact, it was the man riding a Bobcat machine with a chain to "scrape" (pick up and move rocks from) the association's beach whom Mr. Vassilaros hired on the spot that day, to do the same job for him and for a neighbor. He paid the man "200 bucks, a sandwich, and a beer," Mr. Vassilaros told the Z.B.A.

He assured the board that no sand was moved on the beach, but that, in his case at least, the rocks were simply brought up to the toe of the bluff, which is armored by a bulkhead.

"It's not removing anything from the beach," Mr. Vassilaros said. "Actually, what it does is clean the beach."

"People just leave it neater when it is neater," he added.

He said he was surprised that he was cited when the Property Owners' Association has not been. He was also surprised, he said, that a permit was required for the activity since he had never received notice of the association's asking for such a permit.

Never Again

Mr. Vassilaros told the board he did not plan to "scrape" the beach in front of his property again.

Though the association has a permit to dredge at its marina, no one present at last week's hearing had knowledge of a permit to perform beach "scraping."

After making its decision later in the night, the Zoning Board agreed to send a letter to the town's code enforcement officer alerting him to the fact that "scraping" may be going on there.

Scale Of Work

Heather Anderson started off the board's discussion with a saying she is fond of - that it is "easier to get forgiveness than permission" - and said she would not approve something already done that she would not approve beforehand.

The three other board members present in the end agreed with her, though the chairman, Jay Schneiderman, stressed the "very minor nature" of the work on Mr. Vassilaros's property. Still, he said, the same activity on a greater scale could have an environmental impact.

During the hearing, Brian Frank of the Planning Department agreed that there was no evidence of any disturbance or change in the beach's grade and no environmental effects from work "on this scale."

Sixteeen-year-old Matt Scott, an East Hampton High School junior who is about to begin his third season as the Bonackers' number-one golfer, became the youngest person ever to win the South Fork Country Club's championship on Sunday.

The talented, modest teenager, who is working this summer with the East Hampton Sports Camp based at the Neighborhood House and at the Sag Harbor Golf Club, demurred, however, when asked to comment on the victory, deferring to his opponent, Max Rampe, 43, whose road through the match play tournament, Scott said, was more worthy of note.

Rampe, a New York State Highway Department employee, who played on East Hampton High golf teams in the late 1960s and early '70s, defeated his first-round opponent, Dick Powell, on the 18th hole; bested Pat Bistrian 3d, a former club champion, on the 17th, and Richie Tiska on the 18th before tangling with Matt in a 36-hole final that wasn't decided until the penultimate hole.

"Great Match, Great Kid"

"It was a great match - he's a great kid," Rampe said of the teenager, who is a son of East Hampton Town Police Chief Thomas Scott. "It was tight all the way. He had me four down with five to go. I won the next two holes to go two down, but I lost on the 35th. Matt played really great - he deserved to win. He should have a future in golf."

A gallery of about 40 or so followed the finalists as they traversed the nine-hole course almost four times.

Lee Dion, the club's president, said later, in answer to a question, that he doubted that special dispensation had to be given the 16-year-old to play in the tournament, but apparently Jim Salisbury, the golf committee chairman, did waive a recent bylaw that limits club championship participation to those 18 and up.

Since He Was 12

Scott, who started playing the game at South Fork just a few years ago, has improved rapidly, rising from an 11 handicap two years ago to four today. It was the first year that Rampe, a third-year member who has an eight handicap, had played in the tournament.

According to Larry Cantwell, who was in the gallery, the two previous youngest club champions were Gary Salisbury and Chris Becker, winners at 18. "The beauty of it was that we've all watched Matthew develop on that golf course since he was 12. It's a good story. He's a terrific young kid."

Claude Beudert, the East Hampton High School golf coach, said of Matt, "He's the best I've seen in my 10 years of coaching. He began playing for me as a freshman, when he was number-two and Carl Libert [now a sophomore at the State University at Binghamton] was number-one. He's coming into his own. He won all three of his matches in the recent Ryder Cup match between Nassau and Suffolk County high school players. Golf's a passion for him."

In other South Fork tournament news, the A flight championship pitted father - Alex Walter Sr. - against son - Alex Jr., who is about to begin his junior year at Brown University. Alex Sr. won on the 15th hole, four-up. While both have nine handicaps, Alex Jr. began last season as a 24 handicap.

Sweep For The Walters

"After the match, he called Brown's new coach to see if he couldn't play on the squad," said his mother, Debbie, a first-year player who brought home the women's D flight trophy, completing a sweep for the Walters.

John Keeshan was the men's B flight winner with Cantwell the runner-up; the C flight men's champ was David Griffiths with James Cornehisen the runner-up, and Michael Santopolo was the D flight champion with Robert O'Brien the runner-up.

Among the women, Rose Millevolte won the club championship, besting Sue Byrd; Liz Levandoski was the A flight champion with Joann Claflin the runner-up; Roma Karp was the B flight champion with Julie Kopka the runner-up; Marlene Dion won the C flight championship over Sara Portnoy, and Maureen Lydon was the runner-up to Walter in the D flight final.

A high-speed passenger ferry, shunned by Sag Harbor a year ago, began a trial weekend service from Manhattan to Greenport two weeks ago and has received gushing praise from that village's Mayor. It will extend its weekly runs into the fall.

"It's fantastic," said Mayor David Kapell. "It builds a bridge in history back to the 19th century when that was the way people came out here. It's a bonanza for Greenport."

Mr. Kapell, who rode the New York Fast Ferry during its maiden voyage to Greenport on Aug. 15, described the trip on the 125-foot catamaran as "relaxing, comfortable, and beautiful. Everyone I spoke to had the same reaction: 'What a way to go.'"

Weekend Runs

John Koenig, a partner in the company, said the ferry had brought about 150 passengers the first weekend and 100 the second. It can hold 350 people and travel at up to 35 knots.

The boat remained moored in Greenport over both weekends and was used for daytime excursions around Shelter Island and into Gardiner's Bay.

The ferry leaves its berth at East 34th Street in Manhattan on Fridays at 6:30 p.m., arriving in Greenport via Long Island Sound about three hours later. It returns to New York the same time on Sunday, although this week, because of the Labor Day holiday, it will return on Monday.

Round-trip tickets are $48, a one-way ride is $27. The boat provides food and beverage service.

Sag Harbor Concerns

Last September the company sought to introduce its service to Sag Harbor, but its announcement caught the village by surprise and raised fears of traffic jams at Long Wharf. The Village Board was also concerned that passengers would leave their cars in village parking lots all week.

"The problem we had is that they had spent about two years of planning their service in New York and they gave about an afternoon of consideration to Sag Harbor," said Sag Harbor Mayor Pierce Hance. "It would have turned the village into a parking lot."

Traffic concerns may have caused an uproar in Sag Harbor, but Greenport had had no problems, Mr. Kapell said. "We've had no experience that way whatsoever," he said. "People are coming out on the boat and getting picked up like they would at the train station."

An Alternative

The biggest problem so far, he said, is that the boat's weekly arrival has drawn about 100 curious onlookers to watch it dock.

Although there were reports that fishermen in Plum Gut had complained about the catamaran's wake and speed, Mr. Koenig said, "Nobody said a word to us. You're responsible for your own wake, and we're very conscientious."

"In our view, it offers an important alternative way for people to get out here," said Mr. Kapell. "How can you beat that as compared to the Long Island Expressway or the Long Island Rail Road?"

"It makes too much sense for it not to happen," said Mr. Koenig. "It will happen on the South Fork. You will see it in Sag Harbor or Montauk. Sooner or later, people are going to see the wisdom of it."

But, he said, after "the great debacle of Sag Harbor," his firm would not expand its service there. If a ferry comes, it will come from someone else.

Water Taxi Network?

Mr. Kapell said the day may return when villages on the East End are connected by a network of smaller ferries as they were last century and earlier this century. "It would take the form of a water taxi," he said. "It's very common in other parts of the world."

Mr. Hance said Sag Harbor would be willing to listen to proposals for smaller, localized passenger ferries to serve the village, but only if they "make sense in terms of regional planning" and "if they don't turn Sag Harbor into a terminal. If Greenport wants to be that, fine."

"We still have a working waterfront, and that's what we want," said Mr. Kapell. Although the village has allowed the ferry to dock at a municipal pier for free during the trial runs, "we'll want to be compensated" in the future, he said.

"We think this is an important opportunity to extend our tourist season," he added. To the ferry's detractors, Mr. Kapell said, "My suggestion is, ride it from New York to Greenport, and then we'll talk."

When Robert Hefner, an East Hampton consultant on historic architecture, looked at the old Gilbert King house at 1044 Fireplace Road in Springs back in 1983, it was in "excellent" condition.

Today, however, its occupants describe the house as in a "fairly deplorable state," in the words of their agent, Gene E. Cross, who explained why they wanted to remove the house and build a new one of similar architecture but larger size in its place.

Mr. Cross was representing Eric and Sheri Betuel, full-time residents here for five years, at a hearing on Aug. 19 before the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals at which concerns about preserving the area's architectural heritage were raised by a Springs resident, Heather Anderson, who stepped down from her usual seat with other members of the board to speak.

Unusual Triangle

Mr. Cross, an East Hampton planner who works both privately and for the Incorporated Village, started off by telling the board that, were all of today's setback requirements met on this property, a 30-square-foot triangle would be left for building; in other words, variances would be unavoidable.

The Betuels and their two young children, he argued, need more space, and the house would require more costly and "extensive renovations" to bring it to building codes. New construction, he said, was more desirable and more cost effective.

He also said his clients had located the proposed new sanitary system as far away from the wetlands as possible, and had just recently revised their application to increase by several feet the separation between the harbor's salt marsh and a proposed pool and deck.

Expenses Involved

Because of the expenses involved - about $200,000 to buy the property from Mr. Betuel's mother, Gloria, and approximately $450,000 for the new construction - Mr. Cross said adding the pool was an incentive for them to follow through with the project.

"I believe this is one of those cases where the best interests for our family, East Hampton, and Accabonac Harbor are all intertwined," Mr. Betuel wrote in a letter to the board.

According to Mr. Hefner's 1983 survey, done for the town and the State Department of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, the early-19th-century house was moved to its Fireplace Road location in the mid-19th century. It has had some 20th-century alterations.

History Described

"This house appears on the 1873 Beers Atlas when it was owned by Gilbert King," Mr. Hefner's report states. "According to his granddaughter, Pauline King Maranville Field, Gilbert moved the house here from Three Mile Harbor Road."

Mr. King seems to be listed in the East Hampton History and Genealogy as Benjamin (Gilbert), an eighth-generation East Hamptoner born to Richard King in 1819. He died on Dec. 1, 1872.

"It is a historic home," Ms. Anderson said, a fact that the board should take into consideration. She encouraged the Betuels to renovate and expand the existing house and "still keep the historic look of the home."

Concerns for historic architecture were not the only ones raised. Brian Frank, on behalf of the Town Planning Department, raised environmental issues, too.

Variances Sought

The Betuels had asked the Z.B.A. for a natural resources permit, several wetland and front-yard setback variances, and a variance to clear an additional 1,915 square feet of the roughly one-and-a-half-acre lot, a good part of which is tidal wetlands associated with Accabonac Harbor.

In addition to replacing the existing, roughly 1,500-square-foot house with a new, roughly 3,000-square-foot structure, the Betuels hope to install a 16-by-32-foot swimming pool with four feet of decking on three of its sides.

A new septic system in a more conforming location (the current cesspool is in the wetlands) and a proposed scenic easement over the wetlands would be environmental benefits from the Betuels' project, Mr. Cross said. Mr. Frank recommended the board accept the easement.

No Pools In Area

Mr. Frank, however, called the requested variances "extensive," adding that the pool did not meet natural resources permit standards. Four of the eight requested variances could be eliminated by denying the pool, he said, noting in his environmental assessment form that there are "presently no swimming pools in this vicinity of Accabonac Harbor located within wetland setbacks."

The wetlands - "almost wholly pristine intertidal salt marsh" - contribute to the harbor's top water quality rating, Mr. Frank noted. The harbor is listed as part of the Peconic Estuary Program critical environmental area and is a New York State significant fish and wildlife area.

The request for the clearing variance could be eliminated, too, Mr. Frank said, by requiring the Betuels to replant the same square footage immediately landward of the wetland edge. Mr. Cross indicated the Betuels could be amenable to that.

Record Recommended

Springs has two houses on the National and State Register of Historic Places, the Jackson Pollock House and the Ambrose Parsons House (the home of the Springs Library and Historical Society), both of which are on Fireplace Road.

It might behoove the Town Planning Department and local historical societies to organize a record of historical homes around town, Ms. Anderson said, noting that the department was not aware of the significance of the Betuels' house.

"It's unfortunate . . . that we don't have any guidelines put in place" to protect such historic buildings, Ms. Anderson said, which "add to the attractiveness of an area of our town." Ms. Anderson is the president of the Springs Historical Society, though she told the board she was not speaking on its behalf.

Applicants' Intent

The town has no officially designated historic districts like those in the Village of East Hampton, which provides for greater review of any work done on the exterior of historic buildings.

At the hearing, Mr. Cross said his clients intend to use existing timbers in the construction of the new house, adding that "this house is not pristine."

"You try to save what you can, but you have to realize that times change and people are entitled to use structures and modify them," Mr. Cross said. "The intent of the applicants here is to rebuild the same house that they've got."

Tuna were still missing in action this week for the most part, although mako sharks kept some offshore fishermen reeling. Chad Conklin, former captain of the Nischa, was perhaps the best example.

He took his open boat about 20 miles offshore alone on Sunday morning and returned to the Montauk Marine Basin with a 318-pound mako - no mean feat. In fact, he said he didn't think he was going to be able to boat the fish, but in the end brought it close enough to drop the reel and wield a harpoon.

Altenkirch's Precision Outfitters shop in Hampton Bays reported makos in the 100 to 150-pound range caught with consistency by Shinnecock-based boats fishing east of the inlet in 130 to 160 feet of water. The catch of the week up Southampton way may have been the 11-pound, 13-ounce "doormat" fluke angled by the son of one of Altenkirch's customers.

This season's amazingly good fluke fishing has not subsided, according to anglers working the south side of Montauk and around Gardiner's Island in the bay.

School Truants?

There were various reports of yellowfin and longfin tuna, but no large schools. Capt. Joe McBride of the My Mate charter boat reportedly found one school on his way to Block Canyon for an overnight trip. Ten yellowfin were taken in short order. The My Mate curtailed its canyon trip and headed back to Montauk to finish the day catching striped bass.

Pound net fishermen saw a run of bonito in Fort Pond Bay, Montauk, two weeks ago, but the bullet-shaped little tunas have gone.

Scott Gaeckle of Dixon's Sporting Life shop in Wainscott said false albacore (little tuny) were schooling near the Ruins and Tobaccolot Bay, both off Gardiner's Island. He said that if this season is typical they will soon amass at Montauk Point, providing the most-exciting fly fishing this area has to offer. "Any day now," he said.

Meanwhile, the Dixon shallow-draft charter boats have concentrated on big bluefish and striped bass north of Gardiner's Island in the rips near Great Gull and Little Gull Islands.

Casters without boats continue to enjoy a mix of bluefish, bass, and weakfish on the south side, like clockwork in the early mornings on Napeague.

AMAGANSETT

Stepan to Johanna Ellner, Jacqueline Drive, $327,000.

Henderson (trustee) to Richard Mishaan, Bluff Road, $1,000,000.

BRIDGEHAMPTON

Sabot to Cecil Simpson, Main Street, $220,000.

Haugen to Isaac Mizrahi, Hildreth Avenue, $485,000.

Wiskey Hill Inc. to Arnott and Raffo Inc., Mill Path, $160,000.

EAST HAMPTON

Lynch Homes to Beth Flanders, Whooping Hollow Road, $200,000.

Ames to Frederic Glass, Diane Drive, $323,500.

MONTAUK

Messaros to William Bell, Maple Street, $500,000.

NORTH HAVEN

Little Fawns Inc. to John and Maureen Kenlon, Bay View Court, $275,000. NORTHWEST

Cedar Woods Ltd. to Eastlane Const. Inc., Owls Nest Lane, $175,000.

Cedar Woods Ltd. to B&E Builders Inc., Owls Nest Lane, $170,000.

SAG HARBOR

Wolfson to Cindy Tzerman, Whalers Walk, $337,500.

SAGAPONACK

McGrane to Julie and Blake Edwards, Hedges Lane, $1,350,000.

SPRINGS

Scheimberg to James and Angela Perillo, Long Woods Lane, $277,000.

Vassilaros to Alice and Richard Myers Jr., Gerard Drive, $400,000.

WATER MILL

Mab Construct. to Richard Mortimer and Elliot Epstein, Deer Ridge Trail, $500,000.

Citibank to Susan and David Burris, Halsey Lane, $410,000.

What are the chances? Two bottles bearing messages are tossed ashore after a tempestuous late summer storm. They are found one day, and 15 miles, apart (one in Amagansett and one in Southampton) by small children exploring the beach.

With the seas as rough as they were last Thursday and Friday, it's not surprising the waters would yield up a couple of treasures like these.

But what if both bottles originated in Shanghai? That's a long and tangled route to travel. And what if they were dropped into the sea on the same day, by the same person, Wang Zhao-Da, and contained the very same message?

Then what would the chances be?

Find In The Foam

On Thursday the ocean was still rumbling with storm when Susan DeVito walked along Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett with her four children, stepping to avoid errant waves and debris that had come in with the tide. She kicked a bottle out of the foam.

It looked no different from any other Seven-Up or ginger ale bottle - just another piece of garbage, until her son Adam, 8, spotted something inside. It was every young adventurer's dream.

Dear the friend:

When you recieve this letter, you must find that I am from the remote place - China. I am Chinese, I was born on Oct. 7, 1979. I am studying in Ting Chao Middle School, Nan Hui, Shanghai, China. . . .

I like collecting stamps, playing all kinds of balls, swimming. . . . Do you know Chinese? Understand?

. . . I hope you can make friends with me. I am waiting for your letter. I believe this bottle will reach the remote opposite place and I believe you will write the back letter, too. I'm waiting.

. . . The Remote Friend: Wang Zhao-Da

Oct. 7, 1996

Adam, his brother, Connor, 3, and his twin 6-year-old sisters, Emily and Stasia, took the bottle back to their grandparents, Viola and George McClancy, in Amagansett. Mr. McClancy said his first thought was that it was probably a fraud, but he noted the bottle was definitely of a foreign make and suggested that his grandchildren take it to the newspaper anyway.

In Southampton

The next day in Southampton, as Morgan and Rolf Lehman of Meadow Lane walked on the beach with their babysitter, Rebecca Dersteine, they came upon a similar bottle. The children had no way of knowing then, but the message was exactly the same as the one found by the DeVitos the day before.

After The Star E-mailed a Shanghai newspaper, a reporter there confirmed that the letter, at least, was legitimate.

"He put some bottles in the sea a year ago and now is very surprised to be informed of this story," the reporter wrote of Zhao-Da via E-mail yesterday morning. (Zhao-Da does not have his own E-mail address.)

How Could It Be?

So how did both copies make it to the same shore after such a lengthy journey? Did a mariner aboard a trade vessel drop young Zhao-Da's bottles into New York Harbor, where they could easily have been pushed east to the South Fork beaches? Were they tossed to sea at Montauk Point by Chinese tourists on vacation? Or did they truly chance to navigate the high seas by the same route, perhaps tethered together with a piece of cord until the pounding waves drove them ashore this week?

"The most probable route is in a suitcase," Charlie Flagg of Brook hav en National Laboratory said yesterday. Dr. Flagg holds a Ph.D. in physical oceanography and is an expert in world ocean currents.

To reach the shores of eastern Long Island from Shanghai at all, the bottles would have effectively circumnavigated the world almost twice, Dr. Flagg said. And though the chances that the tiny vessels managed to make it from China to these shores were "so narrow as to be implausible," he said, he did offer an educated guess on a possible path.

They would have traveled north from Shanghai via the Kuroshio current into the North Pacific. There they would pass to the south of the Aleutian Islands and journey down the west coast of North America by way of the California current.

They would then head west again along the Equator through the Indonesian Passage and into the Indian Ocean, where they would be carried south somewhere near Madascar and enter the circumpolar current.

Assuming they got that far, the bottles would then move west off South Australia, and past Cape Horn almost to the African coast, but would be caught in the Benguala current in the South Atlantic. Eventually they would have been carried across the Atlantic by the south equatorial current, where they might have drifted west to join the coastal current off north Brazil, and then into the Gulf Stream.

Stands By The Suitcase

"They could have been kicked out of the Gulf Stream, made their way across the slope sea gyre, and then across the Continental Shelf, which is no small feat," and finally ended up on Long Island, Dr. Flagg said.

He recalled a similar bottle story a few years ago in which a bottle found on the California coast had supposedly been let go in the Finger Lakes of New York. He was highly skeptical of the truth in that bottle tale and is of this one too. "Phenomena of this sort, equally unlikely, have occured before, and in both cases I stand by the suitcase theory."

The Lehman children, just 3 and 5 years old, are too young to understand how far away China is, but their father, Robin Lehman, has been puzzling over the bottle's journey all week. "The fact that two were found just 20 miles apart, I find that amazing."

"If it's a hoax," Mr. Lehman said, "they did it very well and more power to them."

Southampton Hospital's balance sheet this week shows the hospital should have about $10 million more in the bank than it does. Dr. John J. Ferry Jr., the hospital's president, said the red ink mostly represents monies owed to the hospital by managed care companies and other insurers.

To make ends meet, with an annual operating budget of some $65 million, the hospital has had to borrow and to dip into reserves, to the tune of $4 million so far this year. About $2 million of it had been invested in stocks, losing the hospital the advantage of this year's powerful bull market.

Because of the lagging reimbursements, the hospital has slowed its payments to some of its own vendors in recent months - building contractors, architects, and such.

Meanwhile, it has put off until later this fall renovations on its maternity wing that were to have been done in the spring.

Building Delayed

Work on a new hospital sports rehabilitation center on Pantigo Road, East Hampton, which was to have begun in June, got off the ground only last week. Hospital officials attributed that delay to a holdup in paperwork, though, and a subsequent dearth of contractors at the height of the season.

While a few jobs have been lost to attrition, there have been no layoffs, Dr. Ferry said.

Southampton Hospital raised a record $1.6 million at its summer benefit this month, at a time when "expenses go through the roof," Dr. Ferry said, referring to the increased demand on the facility by seasonal visitors.

"Thank God," he said, "for the summer party."

Dunning Letters

Late reimbursements - four months or more after services have been rendered - as well as a growing chaos in the billing process, are not exclusive to Southampton Hospital, or even to hospitals generally. A sampling of South Fork doctors' offices revealed that insurers also have fallen behind in their payments to physicians and other health-care providers.

Meanwhile, subscribers in various health care plans report that they have received "balance bills" - that is, for a portion of providers' fees - that the insurance companies are supposed to pay. Some have even received dunning letters that threaten their credit standing.

Four of almost 30 managed-care companies with which Southampton Hospital has contracts are responsible for the lion's share of the $10 million it is owed.

Four Companies

The companies and their payables are VYTRA (formerly ChoiceCare), a Long Island insurance company, which owes the hospital $2.2 million, of which $1.9 is more than 30 days overdue; Oxford Health Plans, $1.5 million ($1.3 million is more than a month overdue, although Dr. Ferry said Oxford has shown a "dramatic improvement" since March); Blue Cross/Blue Shield of New York, $1.5 million owed with 1.3 million over 30 days late, and Aetna-U.S. Healthcare, $600,000, of which $500,000 is owed for more than 30 days.

Both Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Oxford at various times during 1997, have owed as much $3 million, Dr. Ferry said.

Blue Cross actually withheld claims payments from January through March this year, as leverage, it appeared, while negotiating a new contract, signed in April, with the hospital. Oxford attributed its delays to glitches in its computer system.

To add to the hospital's woes, VYTRA discontinued a five-year relationship with the Southampton Hospital Laboratory about 18 months ago and established an exclusive arrangement with Lab Corp, another laboratory, for its members.

Lab Corp has a blood-drawing station at the East Hampton Medical Group building.

Over the past 18 months, the hospital has continued to provide lab services to VYTRA patients while attempting to negotiate a contract with Lab Corp. This week, however, Dr. Ferry, who keeps a sharp eye on the bottom line, concluded it was probably out the $250,000 Lab Corp owes.

The hospital said it was discontinuing "the year and a half of fruitless negotiations."

The company, Dr. Ferry explained, offered to reimburse the hospital only $4 to draw blood specimens, compensation he called "worse than capitation," the per-capita fee some managed-care companies pay their primary-care physicians.

National Trend

Consequently, as of Friday, Sept. 5, the hospital will no longer provide routine outpatient lab services for VYTRA patients. It will do emergency testing, however, under physicians' orders.

While the Northeast has been slower to sign on to managed care than other parts of the country, developments here reflect a national trend.

In April, a New York Times report noted that "some of the biggest H.M.O.s are among the slowest payers," citing Oxford, United Healthcare Corporation, and Humana as, respectively, 94, 77, and 71 days behind as of Dec. 31, 1996.

Together, at the end of the year, the three reported $3.23 billion in accounts payable to hospitals, doctors, and other medical providers.

Playing The Float

The Times article suggested what some here have suspected about Oxford's tardiness - that "a large share" of managed-care profits come from "what has long been a mainstay of traditional insurers: earning interest on other people's money."

New York State Attorney General Dennis Vacco, in the August issue of Hospital and Healthcare News, a trade publication, noted Oxford's "86 percent increase in first-quarter earnings" and the fact that the company's former chief executive officer (Steven Wiggens, now the board chairman), received more than $21 million in compensation last year.

"This," Mr. Vacco concluded, "does not seem to indicate a company in financial difficulty." Echoing The Times findings, Mr. Vacco said Oxford might have taken advantage of "what is commonly known in the healthcare industry as 'the float,' in which the H.M.O. could garner interest income by withholding legitimate repayments for a period of time."

State Settlement

To put a halt to such a practice, the state began an investigation of Oxford's payment practices in February, which culminated last month in what Mr. Vacco called a "precedent-setting" settlement.

Under the agreement, Oxford has agreed to pay 9 percent annual interest on any undisputed claims unpaid after 30 days, going back to April 1. While the company admitted no wrongdoing, it will pay the $150,000 cost of the investigation.

Echoing the hospital's experience, local doctors said Oxford had been better about its reimbursements in the last month.

Meanwhile there are two "prompt payment" proposals before the State Legislature that would mandate that all managed care companies pay interest on overdue payments.

Free-For-All

For Southampton Hospital, and others in New York State, the payment crisis was exacerbated when the Legislature voted to deregulate reimbursement rates for the state's hospitals, effective Jan. 1, 1997. The legislation threw the industry into a free-market environment where each insurance company now can negotiate different reimbursement rates with each hospital.

The only rates that remain regulated are Medicare, the Federal insurance for the elderly, Medicaid, which covers the poor, Workman's Compensation, and "no-fault" automobile coverage.

"It's a free-for-all," said Dr. Ferry.

It was about expanding house and home on Friday, at two East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals hearings.

The home is the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home. Members of the third and fourth generations of Sag Harbor's Yardley family hope to establish a branch of the business at the East Hampton Medical Group building on Pantigo Road, which they own.

The house, on Hither Lane, belongs to Edward and Magda Bleier, who want to add to it over a neighbor's objections.

The Yardley family needs a special permit to convert the medical building to another nonconforming use on Pantigo Road, a residential zone. More than a dozen neighbors attended the hearing.

Rival's Lament

"This is like being led to the gallows," said Karen MacKillop, who, with her husband, Donald, owns the Williams Funeral Home on Newtown Lane. Williams has been the only undertaker in town for several decades.

"My life and welfare and my family's welfare are on the line," said Ms. MacKillop. If Yardley and Pino opens in East Hampton, she said, "we would have to sell the business."

For neighbors of the proposed funeral home, traffic was a major concern. Several people took issue with Kenneth Yardley's estimate that only about 50 funerals were likely to take place at the Pantigo building.

Traffic Count

There are about 150 deaths a year in East Hampton, he said, and "we anticipate getting about half the business."

"The cremation rate," he added, "is roughly a third." But in that case, he said, "you go right from where you pass away to a crematory."

Mr. Yardley said he had been keeping a traffic count at the Sag Harbor parlor, which he said received between eight and 30 cars during visiting hours. "It depends," he said, "on how popular somebody is."

Mrs. MacKillop, however, said families sometimes receive "hundreds" of visitors at Williams.

Williams's parking lot holds 50 cars. Mrs. MacKillop told the board that nearby municipal lots and the street can accommodate the overflow. There are 37 spaces in the lot at the Pantigo building.

Property Values

Aware that some neighbors were upset about having a funeral home move in, Daniel Voorhees, the Yardleys' attorney, noted that the family would plant shrubs to increase screening and remove a security light that has been a nuisance.

In support of the application, Ernest Clark, an East Hampton appraiser, said he had made an "informal survey" of the area and concluder that there was "mixed use" there - including the Buzz Chew car dealership, an apartment house, the New York Telephone building, a bed and breakfast, and a single-family house containing eight pianos, where lessons are given.

Only 39 percent of the parcels are one-family houses, Mr. Clark said, adding that property values have not changed "in years."

"It's the highway itself that affects" property values there, he said, and because of it, the area will "never develop as other village areas have."

Unhappy Neighbors

But John Ford, who recently sold his nearby house at 90 Pantigo Road, said he put it on the market as soon as he heard about the funeral home.

"Everyone has said property values would diminish," Mr. Ford said. Besides, he added, "I don't want to live next door" to a funeral parlor. "Few people do."

Mr. Ford said he "got less" for his house than he should have. He said the new owners want to convert it to a bed and breakfast.

"This is not an upbeat kind of situation, if you know what I mean," said Ellis French, a former president of the East Hampton Business Alliance, who lives at 24 Egypt Close, also a neighbor. Mr. French, who said a funeral home would have a "psychological" impact, added that he could "appreciate both sides."

"I'm not saying I'm going to sell my house," he said, "but I want to get as far away from the funeral parlor as I can."

"Night Deliveries"

Mr. French also said he was "not happy" about a suggestion from Gene E. Cross, the village planning consultant, that more parking be built on the property's back lawn.

The Yardleys have said they would prefer not to disturb the lawn. Other neighbors concurred, including Lois Brown, from next door, who said she would be "outraged" if any parking were to go there.

"The nature of the business doesn't concern me," Ms. Brown told the board, "but night deliveries do."

Mr. Yardley said the funeral home uses one hearse and one limousine, and that "deliveries of human remains are made in station wagons."

Leases Expiring

John Cartier, the president of the East Hampton Village Preservation Society, spoke against what he called "excess commercial development" in the village. "All consideration should be given to residential neighbors in this case," he said.

Deering Yardley Jr. said the proposal included two first-floor chapels, one with seating for 70, the other for 30. Storage and office space would occupy the second floor of the 5,500-square-foot building.

Leases for several physicians and for blood and X-ray laboratories now at the medical building end in December, Mr. Yardley said. The doctors and labs are expected to rent space in a new medical arts building Southampton Hospital is planning down the road, on Pantigo Place.

Neighbors' Dispute

Mr. Voorhees was also the attorney representing the Bleiers, who want to add a 36-square-foot shed to their house, expand a deck, enclose a second-floor balcony, and create an arbor. All the additions will require variances, as they are closer to the property lines than permitted.

The house, pre-existing and nonconforming, has been on Hither Lane for nearly a century, predating village zoning regulations. According to Mr. Voorhees, the additions will total "not more than 300 square feet," which he called "insignificant."

That was not how Carol Simmons Rathborne, the neighbor to the west, saw it. The proposal is "enormously close to my property," she complained. "To come within 15 feet is a hardship to me and my property, and I very strenuously request protection from this kind of encroachment."

Border Clash

This is not the first border clash between Mrs. Rathborne and the Bleiers. Six years ago, the Bleiers charged that Mrs. Rathborne had removed vegetation from a 30-foot-wide scenic easement that separates their lands.

When the board ruled that her efforts to replant it were adequate they sued both her and the board. The suit was dismissed.

Mrs. Rathborne's main objection Friday was to enclosing the second-story balcony on the west side of the house. She said it would eliminate open space. The Bleiers, however, claimed it would increase privacy for both parties.

"No Love Lost"

Actually, Mrs. Bleier said, "this will protect me from the noise from the parties" at the neighbor's house, and "from the electric cars that her children use [in the driveway] all the time."

"I hope you don't see hostility in this," Mrs. Bleier added.

"There is no love lost between the two neighbors," her husband, an executive for Time-Warner, reminded the board, adding that he would "rely on your sense of aesthetics and judgment."

Thomas Gaines, the board's chairman, noted three other neighbors had written letters supporting the Bleiers' application.

The Z.B.A. is expected to deliberate on both applications tomorrow, at an 11 a.m. work session at the Emergency Building on Cedar Street.