AMAGANSETT

Gordon to Peter and Lynn Peck, Fresh Pond Road, $165,000.

Berri estate to David Metcalf, Marine Boulevard, $360,000.

BRIDGEHAMPTON

Bridge Bldg. Co. to Andrew Baur and Sherin Gobran, Woodruff Lane, $308,500.

Doran to Elizabeth Higgins, Edgewood Avenue, $165,000.

Bialsky to Ira Slovin, Mitchells Lane, $700,000.

EAST HAMPTON

Lowerre to Liana Gerson, Apaquogue Road, $650,000.

Wertheim to Lewis Cohen and Pamela Bicket, Miller Lane West, $170,000.

Richard Principi Inc. to Sid and Linda Golden, South Seaview Road, $845,000.

Joseph to Eric Ellenbogen, Highway Behind the Pond, $2,490,000.

Simpson to Irene D'Agostino, Montauk Highway, $230,000.

Tillinghast to Lynne Breslin, Woods Lane, $400,000.

Town of East Hampton to Arlethia Lawler, Accabonac Highway, $159,000.

Caldwell to Z&S Realty L.L.C., Newtown Lane, $795,000.

MONTAUK

LePerigord Inc. to George Briguet, East Lake Drive, $280,000.

William to Atlantic Bluffs Assoc., East Lake Drive, (two lots, 3.9 acres upland, 6.7 acres bottomland), $1,475,000.

Serricchio to Craig and Lucille Robertson, Benson Drive, $207,000.

NORTH HAVEN

Wroldsen Jr. to Jeffrey and Mala Sander, Sunset Beach Road, $425,000.

NORTHWEST

Adlerstein to Harvey Weinstein, North Cape Lane, $389,000.

1446 Corp. to Frederick and Helene Stilwell, Ely Brook to Hand's Creek Road, $240,000.

Ferrara to Robert Guida, North Hollow Drive, $420,000.

NOYAC

Buffo 3d to Nina Amodio, Widgeon Lane, $195,000.

Regine Starr Inc. to Gildo Spadoni, North View Drive, $225,000.

SAG HARBOR

Simms to Hazel Hammond, Amity Street, $217,500.

Howard estate to Alice and Bayard Van Hecke, Madison Street, $280,000.

SAGAPONACK

Katz to Robert and Cecile Rosner, Old Barn Lane, $1,100,000.

SPRINGS

Grossman to the Nature Conservancy, Fireplace Road, $180,000.

Dorman estate to Robert Barker and Jill Schneider, Glen Way, $200,000.

WATER MILL

Southern to Jonathan and Ilene Cranin, Westminster Road, $525,000.

A 13-year-old Sag Harbor boy, Jamie Gregor, jumped into the freezing waters of Northwest Creek Tuesday morning to rescue his dog, Lucy.

Jamie, his mother, Marianne Gregor, and Lucy were taking a walk at Barcelona Neck, a daily activity before Jamie's home-schooling lessons, when Lucy spotted two other dogs, got free of her lead, and ran after the other canines.

Running across the frozen waters of Northwest Creek, Lucy fell through the ice halfway across the inlet and began struggling to get out of the water. When it became clear that Lucy could not get out by herself, Ms. Gregor took off in her car to get help while Jamie stayed behind to continue his encouraging calls to Lucy.

Tearful Mom

Ms. Gregor raced to the Sag Harbor Golf Club, where Val Miller, a member of the club's board of directors, said he "just happened to be there" to do some work. He made the appropriate phone calls for emergency help and then followed her back to the creek.

"I was in tears," Ms. Gregor said. Despite her warnings to her son not to go after Lucy, she said she feared he would.

"When I got back to the beach I couldn't find both of them," she recalled. Then she heard her son yelling from the other side of the creek that he had fallen through the ice too.

Apparently Jamie had decided to crawl across the ice to pull Lucy out but fell through himself. He managed to pull himself out of the water and crawl back to land. He then tried another rescue effort, this time succeeding.

"He must have been in there for 15 minutes," said Ms. Gregor yesterday as both son and dog were recovering.

"He said he didn't think about anything but saving his dog," Ms. Gregor said.

Suffering from hypothermia, Jamie was taken by ambulance to Southamp ton Hospital, where he was kept for observation about an hour and a half before being released. Lucy was taken to the East Hampton Town dog pound, where she recovered in a warming room.

Lucy, 4, a retriever, German shepherd, and Border collie mix, was an abused dog before being adopted by the Gregors from the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons several years ago.

The five-man crew of the Trinity, a dragger out of Rhode Island, was saved by a Coast Guard helicopter and cutter after their boat sank in mountainous seas and a driving snowstorm 60 miles southwest of Montauk early Friday morning.

The crew of the Montauk-based dragger Pontos stood by in case help was needed, and witnessed the rescue.

According to the Coast Guard's First District Headquarters in Boston, a Mayday was received at 1:23 a.m. The Trinity was taking on water. A helicopter was dispatched from Cape Cod, and the 270-foot, medium-endurance cutter Seneca, already at sea on patrol, also responded.

It was dark, winds were gusting to 50 knots with snow. Seas were 15 to 25 feet.

Capt. Mike Welch of the Pontos said his boat was 17 miles from the Trinity when the Mayday came over the radio. "The seas were hideous. We were finishing up a tow and were going to turn to and ride it out."

Instead, the Pontos headed for the sinking boat and reached it in time to see the helicopter arrive. The Trinity crew was already in a lifeboat and being taken off. As their boat sank, three were rescued by the helicopter, two by the cutter.

"We saw it go down," said Captain Welch. "The lights just disappeared. They were lucky the Coast Guard was there. Everything went perfectly."

Coast Guard authorities said it was not yet known what caused the Trinity to take on water. There were no injuries.

Millions of football fans will be busy Sunday rooting for their favorite team in the 31st annual Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the Green Bay Packers. But plenty of South Fork residents, like fans throughout the nation, will be closely watching another contest that has become as much a tradition for the football championship as turkey has for Thanksgiving - the Super Bowl pool.

Though found mostly at bars, such pools also exist in workplaces, some restaurants, even a local barbershop. Some establishments begin selling boxes, or chances, in their pools months ahead of the January event (one is even advertising boxes for next year's Super Bowl now). Chances range from The Star's $1-a-box employee game to a local bar's $500-a-shot, $20,000-grand-prize con test.

Barred At Bars

All told, pretty hefty sums are being wagered here, judging from a sampling of seven local establishments called by The Star. The total wagers of just those seven amount to more than $100,000. Add in the bars not contacted and the pools at workplaces and private bets, and we're talking big bucks.

Super Bowl pools straddle a fine line in terms of legality. For the pool not to be considered illegal gambling, the person or persons sponsoring it may not take a cut or percentage, and all monies must be distributed to the winners.

While according to the State Penal Law, "technically they are legal," East Hampton Town Police Captain Todd Sarris noted, a different state law - the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law - prohibits any form of gambling in establishments that serve alcohol. However, enforcement is admittedly very lax.

"They don't enforce, unless they receive a complaint," Captain Sarris said.

Maris Hart, a public relations officer for the State Liquor Authority, would not comment on how many complaints, if any, the agency has received in the past.

Pure Luck

No need to worry about point spreads in Super Bowl pools; winning them is a matter of pure luck. Randomly assigned numbers determine who wins.

For the uninitiated, here's how it works: First, make a square grid of 100 boxes, 10 boxes across and 10 down. Each box is sold until the grid is full, at which time numbers are assigned by the luck of the draw of 10 cards - the ace through 10, 10 being zero.

The cards are shuffled and then dealt, once for across and once for down. Only now do players know what their numbers are. Though it is a random selection, because of how football is scored those lucky enough to get certain numbers and certain combinations - zeros and sevens are among the best - will have better chances of winning.

Four Prizes

Generally four prizes are awarded per pool, though the ones with costlier boxes and bigger prizes get more complicated. In those with four prizes, winnings go to those with the score (if it's in the double digits the second digit is used) at the end of the first, second, and third quarters and the final score.

Example: At the end of the first quarter, the score is Patriots 7, Packers 0. Patriots are at the top of the grid, Packers along the side. Go across to where the 7 lies, and then down to where the zero fell, and whoever wrote their name in that box is the winner.

Fearing possible legal repercussions, South Fork bartenders and bar owners were understandably reluctant to be quoted on the record about their Super Bowl pools.

But Vinnie Mazzeo, the owner of Vinnie's Barbershop in Amagansett, who has one of the East End's more popular pools, doesn't have to worry about the Liquor Authority. He said he starts selling boxes in his $100 pool in July, when "most of the people are making their money," so they can afford it. That pool filled up two weeks ago, Mr. Mazzeo said.

Another, less expensive pool, with $20 boxes, started selling in September and filled up in about six weeks. Not just men, he said, but women and grandmothers too buy boxes in the pools, which Mr. Mazzeo said he's been doing for 20 years. "It's fun. . . . I like doing them," he said.

Winnings can be small or big. One local bar will have a final $1-a-box the day of the Super Bowl. Other pools are set at $2, $10, $20, $25, $50, $100, and - the biggest wager found on the South Fork - $500 per box. Almost all of the boxes are sold out by now, though as of Tuesday evening a few spaces could be found. Most bars expect a good-sized crowd for the football game, which will be played in New Orleans Sunday afternoon.

High Stakes

The biggest pool The Star could find, at a popular East Hampton bar, brings in a total of $50,000 in bet monies (at $500 per box) and offers more than just the standard four chances of winning. The prizes are: first quarter, $2,000, second quarter, $8,000, third quarter $2,000, and final score, $20,000.

Then those who have the reverse numbers of the score (say 0 and 7 when the score is 7-0) win $1,000 in the first quarter, $3,000 in the second, $1,000 in the third, and $5,000 final score. Also, whoever gets stuck with the unlikely combinations of 2/2, 5/5, and 8/8 each get $1,000.

In his barbershop pool, excitement gets the best of some winners, Mr. Mazzeo said.

"Some guys come right to my house," where Mr. Mazzeo said he has a party and his own family pool, "but most wait until work the next day."

Despite concern over the loss of nearly 50 acres of farmland, the East Hampton Town Planning Board agreed last week on a preliminary layout for the South Fork Country Club's expanded golf course in Amagansett.

The board at its Jan. 15 meeting told the club it was on par with planning concerns, but still has a long review process ahead.

The Planning Board and the country club have met several times to discuss how best to arrange the course and its clubhouse. The Town Planning Department, however, has asked the board to consider the larger question: "Is golf an appropriate use for this site?"

Nine More Holes

The club is in contract to buy 55 acres of currently farmed agricultural land off of Old Stone Highway, across from its present nine-hole course. The club wants to put another nine holes on the 55 acres, as well as a new, two-story clubhouse.

Just over six acres of farmland would be preserved in an agricultural easement along Old Stone Highway. The club submitted a formal application this month, setting forth most of the specifics of the plan.

Expected to cost roughly $5.5 million, the expansion would be paid for largely through an increase in the club's membership, to 400 members from the current 230 or so. The club anticipates having 21 employees.

Clubhouse Is Moved

The application calls for an 8,160-square-foot, two-story clubhouse with a 163-space parking lot. The location of the clubhouse had been the main concern of board members during initial discussions.

It was first proposed at the northern end of the site, off Deep Lane, but the latest plan places it in the southwest corner near the railroad tracks, facing Old Stone Highway.

John McGowan, an East Hampton attorney representing the club, said the location would keep development clustered with other "disturbed" areas - a LILCO power station and the train tracks - and would leave important farm vistas open at Quail Hill.

Town Planning Department members agreed, accepting the general site layout of the course and commending the club for submitting a plan "that shows sensitivity to a number of planning concerns."

Overall Impact

However, planners stressed the board should look at the overall effect of a golf course on the site.

In an eight-page memo to board members, the department stated the board's "main concern" in reviewing the project should be the impact on the site's prime soils and the loss of farmland.

The memo noted that the site is part of one of the town's largest tracts of contiguous farmland and is targeted for preservation in its current Open Space Plan.

The golf course's plan would preserve only 10.7 percent of the site's prime soils, planners noted. Even if the property were developed as a residential subdivision, the town would require the preservation of at least 70 percent.

Farmland At Issue

"Serious consideration should be given to whether golf is an appropriate use for this site and/or whether more agricultural soils than currently proposed should be preserved," the memo states.

Mike Bottini, an environmental planner with the Group for the South Fork, concurred. He told the Planning Board he was "very disappointed there was not more effort to preserve more farmland" and urged that at least 10 acres, not just six, be saved.

Planning Board members said they sympathized with the farmland issue.

Job Potter, the board's Amagansett liaison, pointed out that the town and Suffolk County had once tried to negotiate a purchase of development rights to the farmland, but could not reach a satisfactory price with the owners.

No Takers?

The 55.5 acres consist of two parcels, one owned by Andrew Sabin and the other by Edward S. Gordon. The Gordon parcel was recently approved for a four-lot subdivision.

Mr. Sabin said there was currently little interest in his land from farmers. The Struk family, which owns the Amagansett Farmers Market, has leased up to 40 acres in the past to grow everything from strawberries to broccoli, but, Mr. Sabin said, has cut down to only 10 acres and may not be interested at all next season.

Mr. Sabin said he had advertised the land for lease, but has had no takers.

"I'm not a golfer," he said. "I'd prefer to see farmland over a golf course, but nobody wants to farm the land anymore. It's too small a piece for some of the bigger farmers to come down from Southampton for."

Planning Board members agreed a golf course was preferable to other types of development, especially since there is already a course right across the road.

Only A "Nod"

"In general, I think there are some pluses. There's definitely a demand for more golf in the town, and we're expanding an existing club, so that's a plus," said Mr. Potter.

Sheila Downs said the club's plan "looks good. The applicant has been working very well with the board, and I don't think there's going to be any major stumbling blocks."

Members voiced only minor concerns with the layout, such as traffic safety on Old Stone Highway and the protection of a scenic easement that runs through the property.

The board stressed, however, that their agreement on the layout was not an approval, only a nod to the club to go ahead and prepare a formal site plan application.

Thirty-seven people were forced out of their apartments and left homeless Friday afternoon when a raging fire swept through the main building of the Montauk Motel on Edison Street in Montauk.

Ralph Mayer, the owner of the 24-unit motel, and the other evacuated residents, some cloaked in blankets to keep warm on a frigid day, stood by watching as smoke and flames poured out of the northwest corner of the building. Firefighters had to use a chain saw to cut huge holes in the roof Mr. Mayer had built himself.

By the time the fire was finally dous ed, three hours later, the northwest corner of the second story, just above the motel's office, was totally gutted, along with three adjacent apartments. The entire main building of the motel sustained smoke and water damage, and because of the gaping holes the roof will have to be replaced.

Mr. Mayer estimated the damage would cost $300,000 to repair.

Under Investigation

The cause of the blaze is still under investigation. The East Hampton fire marshal, Tom Horn, said the probe was focusing on a chimney fire. Montauk Fire Chief Tom Grenci said he believed the fire began between floors in a stove pipe from a wood-burning stove.

Members of the Montauk Fire Department turned out in force to battle the blaze, with backup assistance from the East Hampton, Springs, and Amagansett Fire Departments.

The blaze began around 3:25 p.m. in the first unit on the second level and swiftly traveled to the three adjacent units, completely destroying all of them. Large holes in the ceilings of the lower level units caused severe smoke and water damage to the tenants' belongings.

Although the motel was equipped with numerous smoke detectors, Mr. Mayer said he had no idea what was going on until a tenant began banging on his door while he was watching television. When he went outside, heavy, black smoke was pouring out of the upper level. The north side of the building soon became engulfed in flames.

Affordable Haven

Rather than a traditional motel, the Montauk Motel is a year-round residence for some and an affordable haven for newcomers to Montauk.

After safely evacuating the building, the tenants stood across the street, watching as all their belongings went up in smoke. One resident became hysterical, which caused her to hyperventilate. The Montauk ambulance took her to Southampton Hospital, where she was treated and released.

Most of the tenants are single. Mr. Mayer provided for the only family displaced by the fire by opening up a vacant cottage on his property. To accommodate some of his older tenants, he also reopened three units in a back building that had been shut down for the winter.

Dorothy LaMay, who owns the Neptune motel next door, opened units there as well, and most of the remaining residents were able to find temporary housing on their own through friends.

Outpouring Of Aid

A huge outpouring of help from the community, including Town Supervisor Cathy Lester and members of the Town Human Services Department, has made the loss easier for the displaced tenants. Members of the Human Services Department helped provide the tenants with food from the Montauk Food Pantry. Ines Fox, a director of the food pantry, and her daughter, Anna, both of whom speak Spanish, also helped translate for the Spanish-speaking victims of the fire.

Donations of clothing and bedding poured in from the Montauk Community Church and the items were just as quickly handed out. "Everybody was incredible," said Mrs. Fox.

Announcements were made during services on Sunday by the Rev. John Best of the Montauk Community Church and the Rev. Raymond Nugent of St. Therese Catholic Church, requesting help from the congregation. Al though clothing was originally requested, it is no longer needed. Food and monetary donations can still be made to Frances Ecker or Mrs. Fox, directors of the food pantry.

Eerily Quiet

Mr. Mayer purchased the Montauk Motel in 1963. For years he renovated, adding an upper level and an additional building in the back of the complex. Mr. Mayer lives in the main building with his wife, Claire, and daughter, Jennifer, but neither was in Montauk at the time of the fire.

The motel is on a dead end road behind Lions Field. A group of cottages on the west side of the road is also owned by Mr. Mayer. Firemen were able to confine the blaze to the main building.

It was eerily quiet at the motel site the day after the fire. Shingles and pink insulation hung from holes in the charred building. Burnt bedding was piled in the front yard. The water used to douse the flames, because of the frigid weather, had become a frozen sheath around some of the tenants' possessions. In one room a set of dentures was frozen in a plastic container. Drawers were frozen shut. Micro waves, televisions, and books were strewn all over. Tenants removed whatever they could salvage.

Missing Sparrow

Mr. Mayer was searching through the debris for his pet sparrow, Peanuts, given to him by his stepdaughter, Debbie Barbarise, who months ago had caught a small boy attacking a nest of newly born sparrows. Three of the six were already dead. She packed up the other three and brought them out to Montauk. Mr. and Mrs. Mayer fed them faithfully with an eyedropper and provided an incubator. Two had died, but Peanuts survived. At press time he had not been found.

Joseph O'Connor, a resident of the motel for 16 years, summed it up for Mr. Mayer and the other inhabitants when he said, "We're survivors, we'll rebuild."

Ebonics

Amagansett

January 19, 1997

To The Editor:

My wife and I have been reading many opinions on the subject of Ebonics, not only in your newspaper, but in about a jillion other publications as well. Lots of folks seem to be against Ebonics, not too many in favor of it. Both sides are missing an important point. Whatever justification exists for the teaching of the correct use of an African American dialect must also exist for training in other American dialects.

My wife is a Japanese American, and I am a Jewish American. As such, we feel that it is discrimination at its ugliest that our children are not being taught Nipponics ("Nozumu, what is the past pluperfect of the sentence "I am lunning in the leray lace on Flyday?") or Heebonics ("Shlomo, conjugate the verb 'to schlepp.' "I schlepp, you schlepp, we schlepp, he sits, she sits, they say nothing.").

Search as we might, we could not find a single school which is currently teaching either, let alone both. (Actually, we haven't got any children, but we'll have a couple, 'cause that's how strongly we feel about this.)

Also, I don't think we are alone in feeling left out. German American children should be taught their Teutonics, Italian kids their Macaronics, French their Tresbonics, Chinese their Wontonics, Cubans their Castronics, East Enders their Bonics, and West Enders their Nonbonics.

We are convinced that this is the way to go. Personally, I am in strong disagreement with those who think that this approach is wrong. There are several excellent precedents for breaking a language down to the point of interpersonal incomprehensibility. The oldest known deliberate effort to make people unable to make themselves understood was made by no less an authority on right and wrong than God himself, at the Tower of Babel. The most recent deliberate effort which comes to mind is being made on an ongoing basis by the Internal Revenue Service.

And, closer to home, let's not forget the writings of G. Richert, whose letters in your newspaper (written in You'reputtingmeonics) are such masterpieces of impenetrability that there are several cults in California who live by his printed words.

One last thought, while we're at it. In consideration of those poor unfortunates who have no ethnic minority background to call their own, we could have a completely separate language for each profession in America. Doctors could speak their Bubonics, chefs their Greypouponics, bartenders their Ginandtonics, plumbers their Fixthejonics, and attorneys their Chronicmoronics. (This last one is already in place.) Members of national organizations could speak their Masonics, Lionics, Kiwanics, or Knightsofcolonics.

Abandoning the teaching of Ebonics may well be a step 100 percent in the wrong direction. It will be just one more thing being taken away from minorities. Nobody would listen to David Brenner when he pointed out that we were making a big mistake in trying to reduce air pollution. How much healthier we would all be if we had followed his advice to increase the size of air pollution until it became too big to fit in our noses.

Sincerely,

WILLIAM R. SAGAL

Quality Of Life

Amagansett

January 17, 1997

Dear Helen,

I live on Mulford Lane near Lazy Point. I would like to comment on your article and editorial about bringing town water to Lazy Point.

You speculated that we were seizing the opportunity to "piggy-back" with the coming of public water to Landfall. Really, this was not a factor. The motivation is very simply our concern about our quality of life, primarily our health.

You stated in the editorial that "surely the people of Lazy Point have learned to live with the poor quality of their water." This situation unfortunately is not about an exercise of will, of mind over matter. The quality of our water is poor. In many cases, coliform is present. This is a threat to our physical well-being which we all must consider a priority.

Lazy Point is an incredibly fragile area. I personally don't want to see it overdeveloped. Nor do the neighbors I've talked to. The land just couldn't handle it. I'm looking forward to helping to bring decent water to Lazy Point while discouraging any misuse or overdevelopment of the land.

Thank you,

BARBARA DiLORENZO

Please address correspondence to [email protected]

Last summer, during a marathon public hearing on Vertical Broadcasting's plan to build a 360-foot communications tower in Noyac, an angry resident charged that the all-Republican Southampton Town Board had allowed the firm's owners, Eric and Gerry Ferrara, "to move into Town Hall."

The board would give the application a rubber-stamp approval, said the taxpayer.

An irate Supervisor Vincent Cannuscio rebuked that speaker, and later, during a break in the testimony, told bystanders that those who questioned the impartiality of the Town Board - whose members had accepted campaign donations from the Ferraras - would be in for a surprise.

Sought Zone Change

"I was dropping hints for months," Mr. Cannuscio said this week, following the arrest of Eric J. Ferrara, 38, of Post Lane in Southampton on charges of bribery.

Federal authorities credited Supervisor Cannuscio and two Councilmen, Patrick (Skip) Heaney and Steven Halsey, with pivotal roles in an undercover investigation that ended on Jan. 15. Mr. Ferrara is alleged to have tried to bribe the three officials to approve the tower.

"He did the wrong thing, and we did the right thing, as trite as that sounds," said Mr. Cannuscio. "He was buying, and we weren't selling."

Vertical Broadcasting had applied in 1993 for a zone change to allow it to build the $3 million communications tower on the moraine east of Millstone Road.

Pretended To Cooperate

The application generated fierce opposition and resulted in a series of public hearings last summer during which the Town Board listened to over 18 hours of testimony.

Ironically, the board had accepted a final environmental impact statement on the project just before Mr. Ferrara's arrest.

"It was everything," said Loretta Lynch, a Federal prosecutor, of the board members' cooperation. "They reported the incident and were willing to go back and take back their earlier denials and pretend they would accept this money."

According to a complaint filed in United States District Court in Uniondale, the investigation, which began last spring, culminated when Mr. Ferrara on Jan. 9 offered $20,000 to one board member, with $5,000 to be left in his vehicle the next day.

Hidden Wire

Mr. Ferrara, who was released on $200,000 bail, faces a maximum 10-year sentence and $250,000 fine if convicted. Ms. Lynch said she expected a grand jury indictment in 10 days to a month.

Although Mr. Cannuscio and Mr. Halsey said they had been asked by Federal investigators not to discuss specifics, Mr. Heaney confirmed published reports that Mr. Halsey had worn a wire and been frisked by Mr. Ferrara before a meeting at the Paradise Diner in Sag Harbor. The concealed wire reportedly went unnoticed.

During that meeting, Mr. Halsey, as instructed by Justice Department investigators, agreed to accept the alleged bribe.

In the predawn hours of Jan. 10, Mr. Halsey is reported to have seen a person fitting Mr. Ferrara's description leaving a package, found later to contain $5,000 in $100 bills, in his truck.

Mr. Halsey turned the money over to Federal investigators, triggering the arrest.

Mr. Ferrara also offered Mr. Cannuscio "a substantial amount of money," according to Mr. Heaney. "I don't know if it was $100,000 or $150,000, to be given after he left political office," he said. The Supervisor, too, tape-recorded his meetings with Mr. Ferrara, according to Mr. Heaney.

Councilman Heaney himself played a peripheral role in the investigation because he was so adamant in his refusal, he said.

Mr. Ferrara offered him a bribe in the spring of 1996, Mr. Heaney alleged, and "if I didn't take it, he would spend substantially more money to drum me out of office."

"It was a 'take the carrot or I'll hit you with the stick' thing," said the Councilman.

The Look On Her Face

"It was a big surprise for me. I thought, I've got to disclose this," said Mr. Heaney. "So I called the town attorney [Lisa Kombrink] and made arrangements to come in and talk to her."

"The look on her face, when I told her. She said, 'You're not the first, nor are you the second.' "

Mr. Halsey, too, reported the alleged bribery attempt to Ms. Kombrink.

Supervisor Cannuscio discussed it with Vincent Toomey of Lake Success, the town's labor attorney, because, he said, he wanted to "get it as far away from the local political spectrum as possible," to avoid leaks.

It was Mr. Toomey who first reported the matter to the Justice Department, which has jurisdiction in the case because the town receives more than $10,000 a year from the Federal Government.

Emotional Ordeal

Like the others, Mr. Cannuscio said he was stunned by Mr. Ferrara's alleged overtures.

"I told him, you don't have to do that," he said. "To myself, I thought, you stupid bastard, this is not going to help."

Mr. Halsey said he was "internally outraged and hurt" by the alleged attempt. "Obviously, he couldn't have held me in high esteem," he said. "He had absolutely no respect for me as a person or an elected official."

The ordeal left Mr. Halsey "very, very tired," he said. "The emotional and physical stress for the entire year was immense. It was hard to keep going, because you were always wondering what was going to happen next. I just feel whipped."

Anxious Moments

"It created anxious moments from the moment it happened," said Mr. Cannuscio. "I thought those anxious moments would go away when it came out, but they did not."

"Some people think all you have to do is say no and it's over," he continued. "But there is trepidation, fear, anxiety, and a whole range of emotions, none of which are good."

Said Mr. Heaney: "My strongest emotion after my contact with this guy, after my anger and my disbelief - I was mostly embarrassed."

Mr. Cannuscio and Mr. Heaney are said to be mulling an offer to take a retreat at the Siena Spirituality Center in Water Mill.

All three officials said they were touched by the reaction of the community after their role in the investigation was reported last week.

Community Support

"Gosh, yeah, everywhere I go, people are coming up to me," said Mr. Halsey.

He said he was recognized by the check-out clerk at the Bridgehampton King Kullen early last Thursday when he stopped in to pick up 10 copies of Newsday, which first reported the story, with his picture on the cover.

Mr. Halsey said he had received a number of congratulatory telephone calls and letters from friends, neighbors, and even people he does not know.

"Maybe this will alleviate the stereotypical view of a politician always lining his pockets," he said.

Application Is "Dead"

As for Vertical Broadcasting's application, "Face it, it's dead in the water," said Mr. Heaney. "I've been compromised. I can't even cast a no vote."

Ms. Kombrink said she would advise Mr. Cannuscio and Mr. Halsey also to recuse themselves.

"There's only two members who could cast a vote," said Mr. Heaney, referring to Councilman James Drew and Councilwoman Martha Rogers. "I don't know if they would be inclined to do so. It would mean a defeat anyway."

Mr. Ferrara is a Town Republican Committeeman, but is expected to step down.

When the Parrish Art Museum arranges a program for local students, it doesn't mean a guided gallery tour or classes in kite-making. It means having them spend a year and a half preparing to mount an ambitious, full-scale museum exhibit.

This is the fourth such partnership between the museum and South ampton High School, and the result is a deeply researched exhibit on the impact of World War II on American art and culture. Called "Dark Images, Bright Prospects: The Survival of the Figure After World War II," it will open at the Parrish on Feb. 9.

The decade following World War II was notable for an unsettling dichotomy: unbounded optimism and economic growth at war's end offset by fear of nuclear destruction and Communism and growing unease about racial division in America. This duality affected the artists of the period, who were already torn by the art world's own division between the figurative and the abstract.

Behind The Scenes

Some 50 high school students were involved in this year's project, according to the school's social studies coordinator, Joseph O'Donnell. They worked on two levels, one meeting their social studies requirements and the other a purely voluntary one.

Students chose the areas that interested them, with computer fiends loading information to produce a catalogue, for instance. Some interviewed Southampton residents who had been alive and working in various fields in the decade following the war, and one group worked on making the exhibit accessible to primary school children.

Students on an artifacts committee traveled to museums and galleries to select works to be exhibited, while others worked on music and filming.

"They really appreciated the chance to go behind the scenes and meet museum experts that the general public wouldn't have," said Mr. O'Donnell.

Living Room/Bomb Shelter

In addition to the exhibit of work by leading artists of the time, the show will feature personal memory albums, photographs, newspaper headlines, and "Visions of Optimism," a room furnished with a Charles Eames chair and sofa and other design elements of the era.

In striking contrast will be "Visions of Pessimism," a recreation of a bomb shelter complete with sandbags, stacked canned goods, a government propaganda film, and a recorded announcement of what to do in case of nuclear attack.

Mr. O'Donnell stressed that while the students were involved in every process of the exhibit, they were closely supervised all the way.

Among the people the students got to meet, Mr. O'Donnell said, was the world-renowned exhibit designer Ralph Applebaum (the Holocaust Museum is among his credits). The students visited his studio in Manhattan, and Mr. Applebaum himself came out to Southampton to work with them at the Parrish.

Also involved in the project were such noteworthies as the economist Robert Heilbroner and Morris Dickstein, a historian and director of the Center for the Humanities at City University. Sandra Kraskin, curator and art historian at the Museum of Modern Art, treated students to a special visit there.

Come Feb. 9, the public will get a major museum show. The students, to whom World War II must seem as distant as the Napoleonic Wars, have had the past brought to life for them in a way that no history book could ever do. They have also had a lesson in practical, hands-on organization and the satisfaction of an end result that will be seen not just by parents in the gymnasium, but by the world at large.

Writing, says David Epstein, "is the only thing I can do. It's not something you can choose, it's something that chooses you."

With stacks of screenplays for TV and film and stories for the stage behind him, one play staged recently in London, a revival of another in Washington, D.C., and the film "Palookaville" now showing across the United States and in Europe, Mr. Epstein has clearly answered the call.

"I was always interested in endless possibilities," he said one recent afternoon in his East Hampton Village office, a writing retreat just down the street from his home. "I didn't want to do something that would be the same from year to year."

Screenplays By The Stack

Over the years, Mr. Epstein has written numerous movies for TV, including an adaptation of "Murders in the Rue Morgue" that starred Rebecca De Mornay, Val Kilmer, and George C. Scott. He has also written a stack of screenplays, for studios like Warner Brothers, Columbia, 20th Century Fox, and Disney, that remain - so far - on paper.

His recent rewrite of the script for a movie called "Home Fries" is in production, though, being filmed in Texas with Drew Barrymore and Shelley Duvall. He has an East Coast agent who promotes his plays, and a Hollywood agent, too.

Writing for the theater is the most gratifying, he said. While movies are a "director's medium, in the theater the playwright is still the big banana."

Three Desperate Guys

Mr. Epstein's "Exact Change" was staged at London's Lyric Hammersmith theater in 1995. A comedy "about three guys who've known each other their whole lives, and what happens when they get desperate to pay their bills," it was all set to move to a West End theater when a cast member left.

Producers wanted to recast the part with an American star, Mr. Epstein said, but the ensuing delay caused plans to fall through. A New York production company's option on the play has expired, and now Mr. Epstein is hoping a recent reading of the play by the actors Harvey Keitel, John Shea, and James Naughton (a Tony Award-winning friend from Yale) will interest investors.

"There's nothing, to me, that equals sitting in the theater when a play of mine is being rehearsed," he mused.

"Exact Change"

He recalled a visit to London with his family: his wife, Kate, to whom he's been married for 20 years, daughters Lilly, 17, and Grace, 15, and his son, Rafey, 13.

He took the kids to London to see "Exact Change" because, he said, "if your father is a writer, the way I'm a writer, your kids frequently don't have a real connection to what you do."

"Exact Change" interested Uberto Passolini, an Italian producer who suggested Mr. Epstein write a screenplay based on it. Not keen on the idea, the playwright made an alternate suggestion.

"It was the relationship between the three main characters he was responding to," Mr. Epstein felt, and proposed writing a screenplay with that at its heart.

Men's Friendships

The writer himself has nurtured close friendships since the days when, as a lifeguard on Fire Island and a high school and college basketball player, he learned about "loyalty, respect, and friendship."

He feels "very comfortable," he said, "working with relationships among men who've known each other for years." The dynamics of such masculine friendships is a theme that runs throughout much of his work.

Mr. Passolini, "remarkably," took a chance on the screenplay idea. The result was "Palookaville," which focuses on three longtime male friends, and their wives and girlfriends.

"My long-term, good, solid relationship with my wife, Kate, has given me the female side," Mr. Epstein said.

"Palookaville"

"Palookaville" features the actors Vincent Gallo, William Forsythe, and Adam Trese. It turns on their misguided attempt to rob a Brink's truck.

"I can't stand writing anything that's without humor - I can't relate to that," Mr. Epstein said, adding quickly that "that's not to say I don't write about serious things."

"All of the best stuff" is funny, he explained. "I mean, Chekhov is funny." Even a new play he is writing on the theme of racism - which he called "a malignancy on American society" - is "sort of funny," he said, "strange as it might sound."

Growing up in Manhattan with a father, Benjamin Epstein, who was the national director of the Anti-Defamation League for 30 years, Mr. Epstein said he gained "an acute sense" of racism as it exists in this country. His developing play, called "Ways of Men," will require a producer who "is going to take chances," he said.

"I think the play does - it's confrontational."

"Palookaville" was released by Orion/Goldwyn in October, after showings at the Venice Film Festival in 1995, where it won an award; the Philadelphia Film Festival, which it opened in May 1996, and the Sundance Film Festival last winter.

At Sundance, Mr. Epstein said, several hundred people were turned away from the film's second showing. "The reviews started off terrific and got better."

Calvino's Credit

Some accounts of the film say it is "based on" stories by the Italian writer Italo Calvino, but that is a misunderstanding, said Mr. Epstein.

He explained that Mr. Passolini, after reviewing an early draft of the script, had given him a book of Calvino stories, three of which "impacted [the rewriting of] three scenes."

Mr. Passolini, having talked to Mr. Calvino's widow about the movie, felt her husband's work should be acknowledged. A credit follows the movie: "With thanks and apologies to Italo Calvino" - leading, said the screenwriter, to some erroneous conclusions. "I was surprised to see it there," Mr. Epstein said of the credit.

An article in The Nation this fall about Mr. Calvino, said Mr. Epstein, even directed readers to see "Palookaville" for an introduction to the work of the noted author.

Between Projects

The movie is now playing in theaters from Boston to San Francisco, as well as in Italy and Germany. It can be seen by Long Islanders beginning on Friday, Jan. 31, at the Cinema Arts Center in Huntington.

Except for one play, a musical written with Al Carmines, a composer and the minister of Judson Church in Greenwich Village, where the Epsteins lived when first married, Mr. Epstein works alone. Inspiration can come from anything, he said, though it often comes from newspaper articles: "I look at reading as part of my job."

Between projects, he spends his time "reading and fussing, playing as much tennis as I can," and doing household chores such as painting the porch. He takes frequent trips to New York City to "recharge batteries," though he also loves the quiet of East Hampton.

Family Feedback

The Epsteins have owned their rambling village house for 17 years, and family life, with three teenagers and a golden retriever named Jambo, holds a central part in the rhythm of Mr. Epstein's days.

His first feedback often comes from his wife, he said. A friend, Jacques Levy ("merciless and very sharp"), also provides reaction to early drafts. Mr. Epstein hopes Mr. Levy, a director who mounted two early versions of "Exact Change," will do the New York version as well.

Though paid work in his field is often unpredictable, "the opportunity for excitement is always there. When I'm working, I'm intimately involved with this secret treasure. When it's time to expose it, I hope other people will be excited by it. For now, it's enough that I'm excited by it."

"Every time I start a new project, it's with interesting people," he added. "How many people can do that?"

Career Satisfaction

Besides his new play, Mr. Epstein is developing a movie idea with two friends, Barnet Kellman, a director, and Paul Witt, a producer. They plan to pitch it to a few Hollywood studios next month. "I think we have a good shot," he said.

Though his parents wanted him to go to law school - his mother graduated at the top of her law school class in the 1930s - Mr. Epstein majored in English and theater at Brandeis University, then earned a master's in playwrighting and dramatic literature at Yale.

"If I hadn't been a writer, I'd probably have had a more secure existence, but I wouldn't have gotten the same satisfaction," he reflected, adding, though, that the satisfaction is not always there.

"There's no cap on hope," he said. "All I know was, what I wanted to do had to be connected to who I really was."