The High School Playwrights Festival will be held on Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor.

The festival will feature six topical one-act plays written, produced by, and starring high school students from Sag Harbor, Bridgehampton, Southampton, and, a newcomer this year, the Frederick Douglass Academy in Manhattan. East Hampton High School chose not to participate this year.

The plays address issues that interest or concern high school students - previous years have seen drugs, child abuse, friendship, cowardice, and teenage pregnancy addressed, among other subjects both serious and amusing.

Hands-On Training

The event, now in its fourth year, is the culmination of Bay Street's Educational Outreach Program. The program is headed by Bay Street's producer, Murphy Davis, its program administrator, Marilyn Koch, and two instructors, Mary Spitzer and John Martin Green.

The High School Playwrights Festival offers students a chance to experience hands-on-training in all aspects of theater, from writing and acting to production work.

Three-Day Workshop

The course includes a visit to a Manhattan theater production. Working with the theater's professional staff, the students learn about lighting, scenic and costume design, and theater administration, in addition to writing and producing the plays.

The success of the program led to the development of a pilot project for an intensive workshop, held in November, where 26 students from the different schools lived and worked together at the Harbor for Boys and Girls.

A student play from this three-day workshop will be presented along with the other plays, one from each school.

Tickets to the festival can be charged by phone by calling the Bay Street box office.

Peter (Bosco) Michne came to the door of his Springs house wetsuit in hand, ready to hit the beach. "Surfing is the downfall of my music career," said the guitarist, who has lent his talent to a steady stream of local musical endeavors spanning blues, rock, and jazz since he was a student at East Hampton High School in the late 1970s.

"Surfing is like a total lifestyle," he said. "When the surf is good you have to go. So you have to watch the weather and the tides. I'm an avid fan of the Weather Channel."

Actually, as Mr. Michne pointed out moments later, his career - playing in a succession of bands, giving lessons, doing occasional studio work - and the flexible hours that go along with it "support my surfing habit" and allow him to live on the East End.

Pizza Change

"To really succeed in the music business, you have to live in the city," he said. "I've had offers, but I've never wanted to. I don't really like - I hate - the city. The city environment doesn't work for me. I'm probably digging my own grave professionally, but the ocean keeps me here."

Not that he has not tried to crack the city on occasion. Some of the bands he has performed with have landed gigs at the Bitter End,

CBGBs, and other New York clubs.

"We do it mostly for exposure and experience, not to make money," he said. "You get paid enough to pay for parking and gas and maybe have enough left over to get a slice before you leave town."

Four Flavors

Like many others who toil in this resort economy, "I make most of my money in the summer," said Mr. Michne, who divides his time among four groups, Hurricane, Paragon, The Napeague Choirboys, and The King Charles Band. "One July, I played 27 nights in a row. That's a record for me. Sometimes three gigs a day, two weddings and a club date."

Each band plays a different style. The members of Hurricane favor Southern rock. Paragon plays more "alternate and up-to-date stuff," according to Mr. Michne. As the house band for the Thursday night open jams at the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett, The Choirboys tend to "keep it simple, mostly blues," said Mr. Michne.

"When I started playing with King Charles that was like going to blues school," said Mr. Michne. The band also delves into jazz and rhythm and blues. Charles Cannon, the leader, who died recently, had "played at the Apollo Theater for Little Richard and people like that," according to Mr. Michne. "Although he died, we're trying to carry on," he said.

Studio Gigs

Other musicians who have played in the band through the years had served apprenticeships with the likes of Ike and Tina Turner, Otis Redding, and Wilson Pickett. "Those guys had done it," he said.

Mr. Michne enjoys blending in, he said. "I'm more of a sideman....I never deal with the club owners. I'd rather be the guy you call when you need a guitar player."

While a fair share of local bands keep Mr. Michne's number in their Rolodexes for live dates, he also gets asked frequently to sit in for local musicians working in the growing number of studios popping up on the East End.

"People ask me to play because they want something that I do," he said. "But what that is, I really don't know."

"We all have the same information," he continued. "It's not the tone or the equipment, but the notes you choose to play, and that is your style."

Heart Or Head?

"People may have ideas of what they want to hear, and they will try to guide me, but I try to bring something of myself along," he said. "When it comes time to blow I do my own thing, and sometimes that gets me in trouble."

Mr. Michne also has difficulty pinpointing his own influences, although he cites The Beatles "for their songs" and The Allman Brothers Band, "where I first learned about improvisation," as two important ones. "One day I can be listening to Ozzie Osborne, and the next day James Taylor," he said. However, "some of the strongest influences are the people I play with," he said.

Shifting gears from one style to another can be hard, he said. "To play jazz you have to be practicing all the time because the technique is so important," he said. "To play blues, you play from the heart. It's much more important than technique."

Winter Doldrums

He likes singing, but not singing lead, Mr. Michne said. "I'm more of a relief singer. When the lead wants to take a break, I'll do a couple songs."

Summer may be too busy, but "in the winter you're lucky if you can play once a week," he said. This time of year, he and his bandmates seek work UpIsland in Huntington, Locust Valley, Oyster Bay, and other more heavily populated areas.

"Lessons. That's how I make it" in the lean winter months, he said. Mr. Michne teaches students one-on-one at the South Fork Christian School in Water Mill and at the East End Arts Council in Riverhead. In between, he books as many private lessons as possible, preferring, as he put it, to "make house calls. It's more convenient."

Teaching's Rewards

His students range from children to adults. "I try to go with what each student wants," said Mr. Michne. He teaches youngsters "simple nursery rhyme-type songs," explores music theory with accomplished players, and also takes the time to help developing players hone their chops.

"The high school guys usually know how to play," he said. "They want to learn songs. They ask me, 'Teach me Nirvana' or whatever is current," he said.

"I really enjoy teaching," he went on. "It's great when the kids come back and say, 'I practiced!' and you see they've learned something."

Teaching has other rewards. Some of Mr. Michne's former students "are coming up through the ranks," he said. At a recent open acoustic jam at the Talkhouse, a number of his former students, including one who is now at the Berklee School of Music, showed up to perform. "I didn't even have to play," said Mr. Michne, who obviously enjoys listening as well.

In His Blood

Like many musicians, Mr. Michne got his start early. "My grandmother had a piano, and I took lessons from the time I was 7," he said. And he went on to take trumpet lessons from third grade through high school.

"My father used to play in the duo in the late '50s, covering Elvis and The Everly Brothers," he said. "Then I came along and put a stop to that." Nevertheless, his father continued to play his old favorites at home before eventually finding his way to "church choir and barbershop" music, said Mr. Michne.

"I've played guitar as long as I can remember," he said. "We always had one lying around the house that I could bang around on," he said.

Guitar Duo

In high school, he and his brother, Jeff, formed a number of bands. "We used to rehearse at our house, play real loud," he said with a smile. "But our parents always encouraged us to play." The Michne brothers soon found themselves "playing in bars even though we weren't supposed to be there," he said.

Music runs in Mr. Michne's present family as well. He is married to Trina Tozzi, a guitarist for Sweet Little Sister, a rock band. The couple's son, Gavin, is learning how to play drums.

With a family, it is easy to see why Mr. Michne is something of a homebody. But the trait was firmly established years ago.

In the early '80s, Mr. Michne was invited to Geneva, Switzerland, to do studio work. Despite the difficulties of communicating with his high school French, "it was a great experience, but there was no wave there," he said.

Several years ago, Mr. Michne joined John Hanford and the members of One World for a 10-day gig at the Stephen Talkhouse's bar in Miami Beach. "I couldn't wait to get home," he said.

Surf Still Beckons

He also tried to satisfy his love of music and surfing by moving to Southern California, "but everyone was playing punk rock, and I was trying to learn jazz," he said.

But he keeps the door open. "If something really good comes along" like a chance to back a major performer, "I'm not going to turn it down," he said. "It would be a dream come true."

For now, the surf beckons. Like many locals, Mr. Michne jealously protects the location of his favorite spots. "I can't divulge any of that info," he said, "the fellows don't. . ." stopping himself in mid-sentence.

However, he would reveal that his nickname, Bosco, originated in the surf lineup and not from a taste for chocolate milk.

"It started when I was about 13," he said. "Everyone had a nickname, Toad, Spoons, the Bull. I was Bosco, still am. Johnny Ball started calling me that. You can blame him."

"This book is born of my obsession to be sure that these children will not be forgotten. I publish [it] hoping it will strike a blow against anti-Semitism, racism, and xenophobia."

Serge Klarsfeld

From the Author's Preface

There is a poignancy in the conversation of a small group of people who have helped to bring to the public eye a particularly appalling shander - Yiddish for a shameful act - as one of them put it.

The matter involves 11,400 Jewish children, some not yet 2 years of age, whom the French Vichy Government turned over to the Nazis for extinction at Auschwitz and other death camps more than 50 years ago. Only about 300 survived, among them Ernest Nives, now of East Hampton and New York City.

Mr. Nives, along with some others from the East End, has been working with Serge Klarsfeld, a French author, attorney, and a Holocaust survivor who has devoted his working life to documenting war crimes, hunting down Nazis, and researching the fate of French Jewry during World War II.

Tracked Down Barbie

It was Mr. Klarsfeld and his wife, Beate, who in the 1970s located Klaus Barbie, the Gestapo chief known as the "butcher of Lyons," living comfortably in Bolivia, and brought him to justice in France in 1987.

Mr. Klarsfeld's most recent work is "Le Memorial des Enfants Juifs Deportes de France," a 1,700-page tome published in 1994 by the French organization he heads, known as the Sons and Daughters of the Jewish Deportees of France.

Last month, New York University Press published a 1,900-page English version, edited and translated in part by Howard Epstein, also of East Hampton and New York. Its title is "French Children of the Holocaust: A Memorial."

"Most Satisfying"

"This is the most satisfying project I ever did," said Mr. Epstein, noting though that because he knew "how the story ended," he experienced "some periods of self-despair" while working on it.

Mr. Epstein, an editor and publisher and a retired president of Facts On File, said he did much of his work on the book at his East Hampton house, where he could be "undisturbed."

The two editions, results of extraordinary effort, contain the photographs of 2,500 children and their brief biographies - brief because their lives were brief - which were gathered from surviving relatives and family friends all over the world.

Mr. Klarsfeld also gathered the photos over 20 years by appealing to the Red Cross. Others come from memorial plaques, and, in some cases, the author is reported to have taken legal action against the French Government archivists to gain access to 50-year-old identity cards.

Giving Them Names

The book is "a gravestone to all those who did not have one," Mr. Nives said this week. "Each one will have a face."

"It is my duty as one of the survivors to speak for those who cannot," he explained. "I am putting my strength to make sure they will not fall into oblivion."

Before Mr. Klarsfeld's exhaustive work, said Mr. Epstein, none of the children was known by name - listed "only by a number" in the available German records.

Ironically, as a student in Paris after the war, Mr. Epstein had lived in an apartment owned by the family of Juliette Mowszowicz, one of the children transported east from the Paris/Bobigny railroad station and gassed at Auschwitz in September 1943. Juliette is listed in the book.

Visited Auschwitz

Mr. Epstein recalled meeting Mr. Klarsfeld through Peter Hellman, a journalist who had done a piece for The New York Times about a trial of former Gestapo officers. Mr. Hellman and his wife, Susan Cohen, also helped launch the English edition.

Years later, in October 1994, after Mr. Hellman and Mr. Epstein visited Auschwitz together, Mr. Epstein said it was "like someone reaching down your throat and turning you inside out."

Steven Scheuer of East Hampton, another supporter of the project, said he and his wife, Alida Brill Scheuer, herself an author and philanthropist, met Mr. Klarsfeld in Paris through a cousin who had lost family members in the Holocaust. Mr. Scheuer noted that his European family had strong roots in Strasbourg.

Found It Devastating

"He is one of the great men of the century - selfless and dedicated," said Mr. Scheuer of Mr. Klarsfeld, characterizing him as "gentle, kind, and enormously persistent."

Mr. Scheuer said his wife, who speaks "beautiful French," was "devastated by the French edition." The couple decided to start a small foundation to help fund the publication of an English-language version.

Mr. Scheuer said the book is "a remarkable piece of work" that should be available to all universities, libraries, and synagogues. The English version was introduced at a publication party at N.Y.U. last month, where he recalled that "the power and impact of the work brought tears to everyone's eyes."

Web Site?

Backers of the English edition hope to sponsor an exhibit of the photographs, first at Manhattan's New School for Social Research in February, and later on tour. One of the stops might be the East End, where Mr. Scheuer said Guild Hall or Southampton's Parrish Museum could act as host.

Supporters also hope to create a web site on the Internet for the project, in part to be able to gather additional photographs and information about those children the whereabouts of whose photos are still unknown.

"I want my children to know and to be aware that the Holocaust is part of history," said Suzanne Slesin of Bridgehampton and New York, another supporter. Ms. Slesin, formerly an editor at The New York Times and now a design editor at House & Garden, said Peter Hellman originally sent her the French edition. She said she donated some money from a family foundation toward the translation in honor of her son's bar mitzvah.

Like A Family Album

The photos in the book are so "ordinary," resembling those in any family album, said Ms. Slesin, and "that makes the book even more powerful. Everyone knows someone who looks like" the children in these pictures.

Mr. Nives, for many years an accountant in the entertainment industry, said he attended a 50-year reunion of Holocaust survivors in Paris not long ago. He had been arrested at age 17 in Clermont-Ferrand, near Vichy, in August 1942, when he was separated from his mother.

"We were slaves cut off from the world," he recalled. "I had worked hard in the fields as a farmer so I was strong. But you couldn't survive alone. You had to have friends within the camp, and you had to help each other."

"We had an absolute determination that we would make it, but you also have to talk about fate..."

Copies of "French Children of the Holocaust" can be purchased for $95 each through the publisher, the N.Y.U. bookstore, and the Harvard Coop. Orders also may be placed through a toll free number, 800-996-6987.

One of our number thought it was a hoax when she read in a recent copy of The Litchfield County Times that animal rights activists had busted up a hostelry's annual Turkey Olympics, a perhaps bumptious but otherwise non-Mephistophelian event, and that some of the visionaries had got themselves arrested in the process, gone on a 24-hour "hunger strike," and said they looked forward with relish to a jury trial.

But it was not a hoax. The event, apparently put on by the Inn on Lake Waramaug for the past 18 years, attracts pet turkeys who high-jump two inches, sprint 50 yards, and participate in an act of conspicuous consumption, while wearing costumes. Prizes are awarded for the fastest eater, the most uncooperative, and the best-dressed contestant, and the entries this year included Greta Gobble, and Madonna and Arnold Schwarzeneger look-alikes.

The chagrined inn manager said the birds were pets and were not destined for the chopping block. Commenting that no animal abuse was involved, she said, "If they stop this, next will be Thanksgiving." Besides, a woman who brought her Tom told the manager, she said, that "he hadn't had so much fun in years with all of those female turkeys around."

The activists said that the arrestees were walking in the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Our view is that Gandhi and King had bigger fish to fry.

Friends and relatives of America's three and a half million millionaires, rejoice: This holiday season offers blessed surcease from the age-old problem of what to buy the man or woman on your list who really does have everything.

According to a new book called "The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy," your Uncle Bigbucks won't care a fig for that gold belt buckle you're thinking of blowing the ranch on, not even if it comes with an alligator belt attached and in a robin's-egg-blue Tiffany box.

No, but Uncle B. might be delighted with the gift of a sturdy pair of suspenders, the kind you can pick up for $20 or so at the Sag Harbor Variety Store or Caldor's. Or perhaps a handsome wrench.

Millionaires, says Thomas J. Stanley, the author, lead surprisingly simple lives. Not for them Bergdorf's or Neiman-Marcus; their favorite places to shop are Sears and J.C. Penney. Those are the stores, at least, says Mr. Stanley, whose credit cards are more often found in the wallets of the wealthy than any other.

Whereas Mr. and Mrs. Striver, wanting to look and feel successful, go for big houses and expensive cars they really can't afford, the Bigbucks, says the author, live modestly. That's how they got rich in the first place, by living below their means, saving every cent, and staying away from people like the Strivers.

Once upon a time, Mr. Stanley writes, before he understood what makes a millionaire tick, he was employed by a bank trust department to interview people whose accounts totaled $10 million or so. He ordered gourmet foods and the finest wines to be served during the interviews, expecting to put the subjects at ease in the style to which they were accustomed.

The millionaires, he reports, ate and drank hardly anything. Only when sandwiches and beer appeared did they relax and open up.

Who would benefit from year-round bus service within Montauk and to and from East Hampton? Workers to whom a way across Napeague could put dinner on the table.

Social service clients who use clinics and government resources in Riverhead and other places to which a bus connection might be made in East Hampton.

Senior citizens with faltering driving skills who need to reach medical specialists and shopping facilities.

High school students who would like to participate in after-school functions, go to a movie or Guild Hall, or visit friends.

And the not so few people so often seen walking along Edgemere Road or the Montauk Highway - sometimes struggling under the weight of grocery and laundry bags on their way to and from downtown Montauk.

Ten weeks of bus service in high summer, as the county now provides, is simply insufficient for these residents, however low their number. Reliable bus service with predictable schedules would certainly increase ridership - something the county seems to want before it lays out the $44,000 it says it will cost to provide year-round service to its easternmost taxpayers.

To their credit, East Hampton Town Councilman Tom Knobel, who has been lobbying county representatives for three years, Councilman Pete Hammerle, the Town Board's liaison to the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee, and George Guldi, who represents the East End on the County Legislature, have been following several tacks with an aim to improving bus service for Montaukers.

One is to establish a year-round feeder route comparable to 10-B, the one that now connects Springs-Fireplace Road to East Hampton Village. Another is to amend the state franchise with the Hampton Jitney and Hamptons on My Mind bus companies to permit local pickups and dropoffs at the easternmost end, at least in the off-season.

A third option is to send the Springs bus to Montauk as well. Any improvement in service, the two Town Board members point out, should bring an increase in ridership that could only encourage the county to do more.

Let's hope that one of these plans bears fruit. Montauk in winter without a car really can be that spot between a rock and a hard place.

Continuing the trend toward consolidation in radio, two Amagansett-based radio stations, WEHM and WBEA, have been acquired jointly by an out-of-town buyer, pending approval from the Federal Communications Commission.

The two FM stations, which are locally managed and programmed, merged operations just over two years ago to form the Hamptons Radio Corporation. Fred Seegal of New York is the majority owner, with Derrick Cephas of Orient and Robert Sargent Shriver III of Los Angeles as major partners.

The price is reported to be $3.2 million, though none of the parties to the sale would confirm this. Mr. Seegal said Friday he expected the sale to be final within 45 days, or by early January.

"Adult Contemporary"

Several other shareholders, some of them celebrities, have also retained stock from the stations' previous incarnations. Mickey Schulhof, Christie Brinkley, Alan Grubman, Laura Ross, Bruce Wasserstein, Arnold Glimscher, and Mortimer Zuckerman are among those who stand to recoup their investments in the sale.

Zoe Kamitses, the stations' general manager, said Friday that they had been acquired by AAA Entertainment, a division of Back Bay Broadcasting Company of Providence, R.I. The company runs two FM stations, WWKX and WAKX, and one AM station, WLKW, in Providence, as well as WKCD in New London. All specialize in pop and rock standards, known in the business as "A.C.," or adult contemporary music.

No Place To Grow

The company also owns a large printing plant in Providence, but John Maguire, its president, said Friday that the company was "a radio-only company" as far as media operations go.

Ms. Kamitses said the current owners had decided "they either had to take it to the next level or find someone who would. First of all it had become profitable, and they're primarily investors."

"We would have liked to grow the business, but there's no place else for us to grow it," said Mr. Seegal. "I wish the new owners very well."

The sale comes as small, local radio stations are being bought and sold at a rapid pace nationwide. In 1996, the Federal Government relaxed restrictions on the number of media properties a single company could own in one market, opening the way for the merger of WEHM and WBEA, as well as many other ownership shuffles on Long Island.

"Very Positive"

The trend has been criticized for its homogenizing effect on local radio, with many formerly community-oriented stations losing some or all of their independence and local production control, or simply being used as feeder transmitters for music and news produced elsewhere.

Mal Kahn, who bought WBAZ in Southold and WLIE in Bridgehampton two years ago, said of the sale, "If they're not a local company, why is that positive?"

But Ms. Kamitses said she was pleased that this particular company had chosen to buy the two stations. "It's not one of the huge radio corporations," she said. "It's a one-owner company that is very positive about live radio stations in small marketplaces. What they wanted to do is acquire more properties and let us do with them what we're doing with Beach [WBEA] and with WEHM."

To Add Personnel

Mr. Maguire said that Back Bay intends to retain and augment the Amagansett operation and use it as a launching pad for future radio acquisitions. An expansion further into Suffolk County, with Ms. Kamitses and her full-time staff of 14 putting their expertise to work in setting up new operations, was "an eventual goal," he said.

"We certainly believe we have the human assets to run more than two radio stations," he said, adding that Ms. Kamitses and her staff "run the stations beautifully, and they have the assets to do more."

"There are a lot of things for sale, and there are a lot of interesting things that could happen," said Ms. Kamitses. "We'll be expanding personnel and having a lot more layers of management. I think that within the next six months there are going to be a lot of really interesting jobs that come out of this."

On The Internet

The stations will continue to broadcast the same locally-produced blend of adult contemporary music that has made them profitable, Ms. Kamitses said.

WEHM has a format designed especially for the Hamptons, "specifically for the 35 to 55 upscale second home owner and rock lover," Ms. Kametsis said, and WBEA has been targeted to "the 25 to 49-year-old," but "particularly chosen for the beach area we're living in - a very 'up' presentation of the concept of the beach."

"Any changes would be made by Zoe," said Mr. Maguire.

Ms. Kamitses said both stations would be broadcasting - streaming, in technical parlance - over the Internet within the next few weeks through their existing Web sites, and that this would provide a further incentive to maintain their local identities.

"The Internet is looking for unique products, not for cookie-cutter formats," she said.

AMAGANSETT

Fein to Howard and Bernice Stein, Cliff Road, $220,000.

Mulford 3d to Mary LeBey, Meeting House Lane, $450,000.

BRIDGEHAMPTON

Liotta to Margherita Liotta, Herons Court, $195,000.

EAST HAMPTON

J&P Son Inc. to Arnold and Barbara Ackerman, Barclay Court, $593,500.

Dickinson to Calvin Stewart, Tub Oarsman Road, $152,000.

Hogan to Stephen and Mary Cherry, Springy Banks Road, $425,000.

Gateway Investments to Further Lane Trust, Further Lane, $3,171,000.

MONTAUK

Emerson Dev. Corp. to Sidney and Leslie Wexler, Sunscape Condo, $155,000.

Thal to Marcus Farrell Jr., Old Montauk Highway, $1,700,000.

Hopkins to Louis and Kathy Fava, Flanders Road, $285,000.

Shea to Howard and Myra Bailin, North Farragut Road, $263,000.

NORTH HAVEN

Blake Anthony Inc. to Great Escapes Ltd., Barclay Drive, $215,000.

NOYAC

Torchen to John and Elizabeth Schulman, Crown Lane, $158,000.

SAG HARBOR

Schulman to David Sherwood and Michelle Beebee, Stony Hill Road, $160,000.

Mistler to Michael and Lauren Mishkin, Noyac Road, $565,000.

SAGAPONACK

St. John to Robert Balaban, Highland Terrace, $640,000.

SPRINGS

Schust estate to John Schust Sr., Norfolk Drive, $175,000.

WAINSCOTT

Stockman to Andrea Blumenthal, Debra's Way, $329,000.

WATER MILL

Damiecki to Charles and Natacha Casale, Uncle Leo's Lane, $155,000.

Sarason to David and Florence Friedman, Westminster Road, $580,000.

Sperling to Irwin and Janice Rubin, Water Mill Towd Road, $297,500.

For the first time since its establishment more than 40 years ago, an entrance fee will be charged starting this spring for admission to the Elizabeth Morton National Wildlife Refuge in Noyac.

The fee will be $4 a car or $2 a person. For regular visitors, a $12 annual pass will be available that will permit an unlimited number of visits in one year in lieu of daily fees.

Word of the fee came through a press statement issued last week by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Washington. The statement spoke of "new or modified recreational fees" to be collected at 41 national wildlife refuges and one national fish hatchery under a test program announced by Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt.

Varied Ecosystem

The release stressed that "more spotting scopes, accessible fishing facilities, nature trails, and other visitor services will be available" through the new fees.

The 187 acres that comprise the Elizabeth Morton National Wildlife Refuge were donated by Ms. Morton to the Federal Government in 1954. The refuge contains a widely varied ecosystem that attracts many migratory birds and is among the favorite spots on the East End for observing and interacting with nature. Chickadees at Morton will land on a visitor's hand and eat seeds from outstretched hands.

"Essential"

Pat Martinkovic, project leader for the Long Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex, which oversees Morton, said in an interview Monday: "I can appreciate the public's feelings or possible upset at having to pay an entrance fee to Morton National Wildlife Refuge. But, unfortunately, Federal budgets are such that if we are to provide the public with quality recreational facilities, implementation of an entrance fee program is essential."

Ms. Martinkovic, a 19-year veteran of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, added, "This particular entrance fee program is ideal because it allows the specific site that collects the money to keep at least 80 percent of the fees. And we would direct those fees to improve the facilities at Morton National Wildlife Refuge for the public."

She said that at Morton the fees to be collected are expected to be used to "improve the parking lot so there would be a separate entrance and exit." Since its creation, there has been only one roadway into the refuge.

The fees would also be used to pay for a person to be stationed at Morton during the warm-weather months who would assist visitors and "respond to any questions," said Ms. Martinkovic. Development of an "interpretive program for the public" is also being sought.

Honor System

Another desired project, she said, is a "wheelchair-accessible nature trail," which, she noted, would do double-duty by being "good for little kids and older adults." There would also be additional "interpretive signs" and work done to upgrade the "kiosk facility."

Ms. Martinkovic said the daily fees would be collected "on an honor system." The annual pass would be arranged through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Ms. Martinkovic said she would welcome having anyone with questions call her at her office at the Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge or write her at the Long Island NWR Complex, P.O. Box 21, Shirley 11967.

It's all over but for the dinner, awards presentation, and traditional roasts scheduled for Sunday at the Harvest restaurant in Montauk. The Montauk Local surfcasting competition for striped bass ended on Sunday undramatically, with only the occasional small bass caught at the end. Richie Michaelson won for the second year in a row.

The winning fish was small compared to those in past years, and even compared to the 40 and 50-pounders reeled ashore this year by non-contestants.

Mr. Michaelson's winner was a 37.5-pound bass caught back on Oct. 20. Second and third places were captured by Atilla Ozturk with bass weighing 34 and 33.5 pounds. This year, in addition to a cash prize, Mr. Michaelson will take home a custom-made trophy he will relinquish when dethroned, if that ever happens.

Bye, Bye, Bass

He has reportedly offered his fellow competitor Dennis Gaviola special thanks for tipping him off about the good fishing the day he caught the winning bass. The catch put Mr. Gaviola, then in third place, out of the running.

Tickets to the awards party cost $30, which covers an open bar, buffet, and entertainment. The event starts at 4 p.m.

It appears the last cold snap spurred the bass on their migration. Charter fishermen reported a slow pick early this week after a summer of unparalleled bass fishing. The Lazy Bones party boat called it quits yesterday after her anglers succeeded in landing only one bass the day before.

The action has not slowed overall, however, with bottom species reportedly taking up the slack.

Good Eating

Capt. Michael Potts of the Bluefin IV took a party of bottom fishermen off the coast of Block Island on Saturday - passing the bass rips along the way - to get to the bottom dwellers. The result was 22 cod in the two to six-pound range, and a number of sea bass. The latter is considered one of the best eating fish in the ocean.

Bob Valenti of Multi-Aquaculture, a fish-buying company on Napeague, explained that a strong market existed for sea bass year round, with higher quality fish being sold live during the spring, summer, fall, and early winter.

Lots Of Waste

They are caught near shore in traps or by commercial pinhookers during these periods. When the ocean temperature drops in midwinter, sea bass migrate to deeper water. They're on their migration now. Offshore draggers catch them in winter, increasing the supply and reducing the price to dealers.

However, the price of sea bass tends to remain high for the consumer looking for fillet because the species' ratio of meat to waste (bone and skin) is not profitable. The bass are most often gutted, scaled, and then steamed or poached, and are much favored in the Asian and Asian American markets.

Sea bass are a favorite of Frank Chen, the chef at Montauk's Wok 'N' Roll restaurant, who will cook up a fisherman's catch of the day. He has reportedly been winning raves for his striped-bass-head soup.