Former Okeanos volunteers and members of the bankrupt ocean research foundation's board of directors have formed a new group, to be known as the Coastal Research and Education Society of Long Island.

Its headquarters, including a research laboratory and tanks for turtles and seals, are expected to be at Southampton College.

The new enterprise has no connection with either the debt-laden shell of the Okeanos Foundation or the recently formed Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation.

The latter group is struggling to continue Okeanos's original mission, the rescue of stranded marine mammals and turtles.

Sadove's Role

"Our actions are not anti-something," said Sam Sadove, Okeanos's former research director. Mr. Sadove, who was fired from his job earlier this year, will serve as an unpaid director of the new board.

He said the Coastal Research Society was actually established several months ago, but that its existence was not announced lest competition with the Riverhead groups be seen as a motive.

"We are not building an aquarium. We are only a research and educational group," Mr. Sadove said.

Presently, Mr. Sadove works as a consultant to Southampton College's marine education program, specializing in turtle research.

A founder of Okeanos, he was dismissed by its directors in April after charging that they had abandoned research and embraced developers, in their rush to create a world-class aquarium in Riverhead.

The aquarium dream has collapsed in stages, beginning two years ago when Okeanos failed to raise $50 million through the sale of community development bonds. The foundation, with its aquarium project, is said to be over $3 million in debt.

Meanwhile, a new aquarium in Bay Shore is well on the road to completion.

In an effort to keep the dream alive and protect the stranding program, the Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation was spun off in October. Only three of Okeanos's 12-member staff were kept on after the reorganization.

According to Ken Zahler, director of the offshoot foundation, long-term funding for the stranding program will be contingent on the success of a more modest aquarium. The group is now seeking a $30 million loan through the Riverhead Community Development Agency.

On-Campus Facility?

Michael Smart, a former member of the Okeanos board, heads the new Coastal Research and Education Society. He would not identify others on the board except for Mr. Sadove, but said a number were former Okeanos board members or volunteers.

He said the hope was to find a facility on the Southampton College campus "capable of handling research and education programs, and the turtle program which is already there." He declined to speculate how the building might be funded.

Asked if it might accommodate stranded marine mammals too, Mr. Smart said, "Yes, if the need arises to handle them, we will be there to catch them. . . . We're trying to get back to the goals Okeanos had before the aquarium."

AMAGANSETT

Ehrhardt to Gregory Harmon, Further Lane, $895,000.

BRIDGEHAMPTON

Thayer estate to Carole Cohn, Matthews Lane, $650,000.

Ser to Shawn Tully, Scuttlehole Road, $248,000.

BLB Holding Corp. to Mark and Elaine Kessel, Jacob's Way, $900,000.

Kelly to John and Lori Kimmelmann, Chester Avenue, $167,500.

EAST HAMPTON

Rebaudo to Guy Lawrence, Horseshoe Drive North, $615,000.

Butti to Robert Weisbach, Cove Hollow Road, $365,000.

Hager to Michael Nader, Cedar Street, $410,000.

Greenberg to John Strangi, Gingerbread Lane, $260,000.

Browne to Nicholas Callaway, Georgica Road, $2,430,000.

MONTAUK

Wolf to Christian Cahill, Fairway Place, $155,000.

NORTH HAVEN

North Haven Acquisition Corp. to William Wagner and Sharon Dauk, On the Bluff, $605,000.

NORTHWEST

Alewive Woods Assoc. to Park Ave. Capital L.P., North Bay Lane, $745,000.

McVicar to Laurie and Eden Foster, North Cape Lane, $265,000.

Barnett Const. Corp. to Alan Baron and Sheri Colonel, Northwest Road, $840,000.

NOYAC

Swanson to Gindel Dev. Corp., Rawson Road, $150,000.

SAG HARBOR

Dunning to Elizabeth and John McManmon 3d, Ridge Drive, $165,000.

Anderson to Richard Long, Redwood Road, $285,000.

SAGAPONACK

Goracy to Lawrence Berk, Erica's Lane, $550,000.

Daniel to Ana Daniel, Hedges Lane, $300,000.

SPRINGS

Sanicola to Geralyne Lew an dow ski, Malone Street, $168,000.

Christesen to Jeremiah and Maura McCarthy, Isle of Wight Road, $152,500.

Tierney to Richard Donahue and L.R. Skwarek, Manor Lane, $205,000.

WATER MILL

Vittadini to Roger Hertog, Rose Hill Road, $300,000.

Vittadini to Susan Hertog, Rose Hill Road, $325,000.

Vittadini to Susan Hertog, Rose Hill Road, $600,000.

Vittadini to Roger and Susan Hertog, Rose Hill Road, $5,670,000.

In the wake of a court decision on Staten Island secession, supporters of Peconic County are switching tactics in getting a bill approved by the State Legislature.

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. said this week that he was drafting a bill that takes a different approach to Peconic County than the one that was stymied in the Assembly earlier this year. The failed measure was a special act to create Peconic County from the five East End towns. It required adoption by the State Legislature and a binding referendum by the towns involved.

The new bill would extend the process for creating new towns and villages to counties. It would apply statewide, not just to the East End. In other words, the State Legislature would vote to create the mechanism for establishing Peconic County, but the actual decision on creating the county would be left to East Enders.

Like Montauk Inc.

Mr. Thiele noted that the process for creating Peconic County would be like the one used in the unsuccessful recent effort to incorporate Montauk as a village. It involves a petition procedure and then a public referendum.

The Assemblyman said that the new bill would be "tightly drafted to avoid the possibility of a proliferation of new counties." For instance, it may require a certain minimum population and area as well as a feasibility study. Also, it may have a sunset clause, meaning that it would be on the books for a limited time only.

The board of directors of Peconic County Now, the organization spearheading the secession effort, plans to meet tomorrow to discuss the drafting of the new legislation. Mr. Thiele said he expected it to be completed within two weeks.

Silver's Fear

The decision to take this new approach was solidified by a court ruling last week on Staten Island's effort to secede from New York City. It is Staten Island's move for independence that has hindered the East End's efforts. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver fears that allowing the East End to secede would set a precedent for Staten Island independence - which he fervently opposes.

The Speaker had ruled that a home rule message from the New York City Council was required before the State Legislature could consider legislation on Staten Island secession. Previously, both the State Senate and the Governor had ruled that such a message was not required.

A Staten Island Assemblyman had challenged the Speaker's action in court, and last week the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals, upheld lower court decisions backing the Speaker. However, the court rulings at each level were based on jurisdictional issues, not the merits of the case.

Creative Lawyering

The courts never addressed wheth er a home rule message is required for secession. They simply held that it was beyond their jurisdiction to review the Speaker's decision.

Faced with the choice of trying to persuade the Suffolk Legislature to support East End secession - an uphill battle, at best - or trying to persuade the State Legislature to adopt a new mechanism for creating counties, Mr. Thiele opted for the latter.

But he acknowledged that creative lawyering can only go so far. Peconic County backers still need to enlist the support of the Assembly Speaker and the rest of the Assembly.

"This still comes down to politics more than the law," he said.

An alternative view of the nuclear reactors at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and radioactive contamination from the lab in the surrounding communities, meant to serve as a counterweight to a forum last week at Southampton College, will be held Sunday morning at Guild Hall.

Dr. Helen Caldicott, a founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Dr. Jay M. Gould, director of the Radiation and Public Health Project, and other opponents of nuclear power and, in particular, the two reactors at Brookhaven, will speak about "recent findings of extraordinary high radioactivity readings in the Peconic River that can only have come from the Brookhaven National Laboratory," according to a press release.

The forum will be held in the John Drew Theater at Guild Hall, starting at 11 a.m. Admission is free.

Rebuffed By College

Bill Smith, head of Fish Unlimited, Alice Slater of the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment, and Dr. William Weida, a former Pentagon specialist on the conversion of nuclear facilities, will also participate. The author Blanche Wiesen Cook will moderate.

On Nov. 9 at Southampton College, scientists and other officials from the lab defended its industrial and medical research programs and told a sharply divided audience that current releases from the two reactors are within acceptable levels and not harmful. They discussed only briefly cleanup of the contamination, which led to the lab being listed as a Federal Superfund site, and said there was no proof, as opponents have asserted, that the contamination causes breast cancer and other illnesses.

Opponents had demanded to be part of the discussion, held before the World Affairs Council at the college, but were rebuffed by college administrators, who instead offered a separate forum at some later date. Mr. Smith told The Star the group instead decided to focus on Sunday's forum.

Radiation Study

That forum will focus on the Suffolk County Radiation Study, which will measure radioactive strontium levels in water, soil, and fish, as well as baby teeth, at various distances from the lab. Dr. Ernest Sternglass of the University of Pittsburgh Medical School is already collecting baby teeth.

Panel members are also expected to detail the results of recent tests of fish, deer, raccoon, turtles, birds, shellfish, and other wildlife that showed high levels of cesium 137 and strontium 90, said to result from releases from the lab. Similar studies in Germany reportedly showed a tenfold increase in radioactivity after the Chernobyl accident in the former Soviet Union.

The study is being paid for with a grant from the Methodist Church and private donations raised on the East End.

Further details on Sunday's forum are available from Robert Long at Guild Hall. A story on both forums will appear in next week's Star.

Arthur Ludlow is in for a busy week . . . a busy and grisly week. It's Thanksgiving time, and, on his Sagaponack farm, that means time to prepare the turkeys for their place of honor at our tables.

Driving into the Ludlow homestead one is treated to a sight that is distressingly rare in these parts, two limpid-eyed glossy brown Jersey cows grazing on still-verdant pasture. The two cows, Nora, who at age 12 is entering her golden years, and her yearling daughter, Lily, as well as their sturdy equine companion, Bailey, are the treasured charges of Mr. Ludlow's wife, Stacy.

And their delightfully affable and good-natured demeanors clearly reflect the good care and affection that Mrs. Ludlow has lavished upon them.

When the majority of America's population lived on farms, Jerseys were a common sight. Their smaller size and the lower volume of milk they produce make them the ideal cow for the family farm.

Overzealous Gander

Now that tanklike Holsteins producing vast quantities of milk have become the cow of choice for large dairy operations, the smaller types of dairy cows are, sadly, dwindling in number, and several breeds are now teetering on the brink of extinction.

When disembarking from one's vehicle in the Ludlows' yard it is a wise idea to keep a wary eye out for the geese. "They know no fear," says Mr. Ludlow with a sorrowful tone in his voice, "but they know us [his family], so they leave us alone . . . usually."

Turkeys have been selectively bred to have a large breast, and this endeavor has been so successful that toms can no longer get close enough to successfully copulate with the hens.

The zealousness of the gander in protecting his territory knows no bounds. He bears the scars of his attempts to do battle with moving automobiles, which he apparently regards as malevolent trespassers. Bailey the horse is also a frequent object of his goosely wrath.

Symphony Of Noise

Mr. Ludlow related how the gander frequently grabs the horse's hind leg in his beak, which inevitably results in a kicked goose. Undeterred, the gander repeats his aggression the next time the horse is led into the barn. "Well, I guess that means that geese aren't much smarter than turkeys," observed Mr. Ludlow.

The birds of the season are kept some distance from the house. The reason for that becomes apparent as soon as one comes within earshot of them. Turkeys are noisy. And their repertory of vocalizations is not limited to gobbling, but contains peeps, squawks, chortles, and a variety of other not especially melodious but definitely mind-numbingly loud sounds.

On close observation, they are a most peculiar-looking bird with their scalloped wattles fluttering under their chins and the long, wormlike strip of flesh called the snood dangling along the top of their beaks.

Flashy Males

"They're fascinating to look at. You can really see the reptilian ancestry of birds in turkeys," said Mr. Ludlow. In the usual way of birds, the males are the flashier of the sexes, their wattles especially frilly, their snoods preposterously dangly, and their cheeks tinted a sky blue hue.

But if male turkeys, toms, look different from the hen turkeys in life, when they meet their Maker and arrive on our tables, the only difference between the sexes is in size. According to Mr. Ludlow, there is no difference in taste between toms and hens.

Mr. Ludlow, a potato farmer, raises the Nicholas breed of turkey and has been doing so for 30 years. He got his start while still in high school when a family friend with an excess of birds gave him a couple of dozen to raise.

All Spoken For

Acquiring a Ludlow bird for Thanksgiving has become a tradition among those who are particular about their turkeys. And if you haven't already reserved one, well, sorry . . . it's too late now! The several hundred birds in the Ludlow yard are all spoken for.

In July, when the birds arrived from the hatchery, they were so small that Mr. Ludlow could hold three in the palm of his hand. Shipped through the mail, the combined weight of the turkeys and the carton they came in was less than 10 pounds.

Slightly over four months later, the birds weigh between 18 and 24 pounds apiece. The combined weight of the birds in Mr. Ludlow's yard is now somewhat over 4,000 pounds. That is a lot of turkey.

A Turkey's Day

And what do turkeys do all day? "You're looking at it," said Mr. Ludlow. What I was looking at was eating, drinking, dust bathing, making a great deal of noise, and, on the part of the toms, strutting and squabbling.

Disagreements erupt between males with frequency. The two protagonists alternate in making a repetitive urgh sound culminating in a loud squawk. They shove each other, flap wings, and, if they are especially irate, grab their adversary's wattle in their beak and hang on.

These passionate disagreements don't appear to come to any conclusive ending but peter out with the two former rivals standing around looking vaguely puzzled as if they'd forgotten what the fight was about in the first place.

The Tragic Truth

The other toms within the immediate vicinity of the squabbles take a keen interest in the goings-on, but the hens respond to the masculine turmoil with blas‚ indifference.

They would cast an even colder eye on their male companions if they knew the whole truth. Turkeys have been selectively bred to have a large breast, and this endeavor has been so successful that toms, hampered by their ample fronts, can no longer get close enough to successfully copulate with the hens. Virtually all commercially raised turkeys are produced by artificial insemination.

Bigger breasts are not the only change that selective breeding has made in the birds. Turkeys are being bred to mature at a faster rate than ever before. Mr. Ludlow recalls, "I used to have to start raising the birds by Memorial Day to have them ready by Thanksgiving. Now I can start a month later."

Meeting My Dinner

Turkeys will actually keep growing to be close to double the weight that most of us know them at. But to cook a 50-pound bird, well, that takes quite a chef and quite an oven!

It was a great pleasure to meet my holiday dinner in advance and I look forward to renewing our acquaintance in a week's time. And I got the opportunity to ask a question that had been troubling me for some time.

Was it true that turkeys are so stupid that when it rains they gaze up at the sky with beaks agape in astonishment and thus drown in the rainwater? No, said Mr. Ludlow patiently, this is not true.

At the John Jermain Library, Children's Book Week is in full swing. Tomorrow, at 4 p.m., Kenny Mann, a Sag Harbor author well known for her nonfiction books for young children, will read some of her books as well as some of her personal favorites.

On Saturday, the special week will conclude with a 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. marathon reading of Dr. Seuss. Dale Scott, head of the children's section, has invited everybody to listen to or read Dr. Seuss, whose book "Oh, the Places You'll Go" is the national theme of this year's Children's Book Week.

These readings are in addition to the regular weekly story hours: Leah Oppenheimer has one for toddlers at 1:30 p.m. on Mondays, and Ms. Scott has one for older children on Saturdays at 3:30 p.m.

Since Ms. Scott's arrival at the library in September, the children's section has been undergoing an expansion. The entire main floor, formerly dedicated to adult fiction and periodicals plus the children's section, will cater to children and young adults exclusively. Also, a new children's section with books in Spanish, including translations of classic children's books, has been added.

A memorial service will be held at noon on Thursday, Dec. 5, at St. George's Episcopal Church in Manhattan for Alger Hiss, who died at Lenox Hill Hospital on Friday at the age of 92.

Mr. Hiss was a resident of Manhattan and a longtime homeowner in East Hampton. He and Isabel Johnson began spending summers here in about 1960, renting at first and buying a house in 1963.

Although the couple lived quietly, the recognition that this was THE Mr. Hiss, the diplomat accused of being a spy and the defendant in two notorious trials that heightened the public's fear of Communist infiltration into government, astonished neighbors and tradespeople, at least on first encounter. More often than not, the East Hamptoners the couple met became friends.

For many years the Hisses lived in a house with a view of Accabonac Harbor on Old Stone Highway in Springs. They later moved to a modest house on Cooper Lane in East Hampton, across from Cedar Lawn Cemetery.

Mr. Hiss once observed that cemeteries were good habitats for birds, a subject of which he had broad knowledge. He also had a remarkable ability to enjoy situations that others might find depressing. Even when he was in prison, he told The East Hampton Star in 1993, he had been buoyed by the sight of a red-breasted grosbeak in the prison yard.

His son, Tony Hiss of Manhattan, a former writer for The New Yorker who now is a visiting scholar at the Taub Urban Research Center at New York University, said his father was drawn to East Hampton by friends, such as the late writer A.J. Liebling, and because it was reminiscent of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where he had spent "heavenly summers as a kid."

It was there that his interest in bird life was nurtured, Tony Hiss said, reporting that his father had been an early friend of the late ornithologist and illustrator Roger Tory Peterson.

Mr. Hiss's circle of friends widened after the couple moved to Cooper Lane. Acquaintances, learning that he was losing his sight, visited to read aloud to him. Among the regulars were Samuel Friedman of Amagansett and B.H. Friedman, the late Sheila Natasha Friedman, and Suzanne Goell of East Hampton.

Although Mr. Hiss had been largely bedridden during the last two years of his life, Mrs. Goell said his "intellect was undiminished." When the news of the world grew repetitive, she said, she could always get him to tell her something interesting about birds. Others were said to have read aloud such weighty tomes as "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."

A measure of the man can be found in the consistency with which those who knew him spoke of his intelligence, courtliness, and warmth. Some used the word "noble" to describe him, marveling at his restraint in dealing with the accusations that swirled around him throughout his life. He never ceased to maintain his innocence.

Friends also tell analogous stories about Mr. Hiss's fascination with and remarkable ability to remember the young. Tim Horan recalled this week that Mr. Hiss had met a young woman at the Horans' Bridgehampton house who had just finished her first year of law school. She told him she had a summer job with Kaye Scholer Fierman Hays & Handler, a major Manhattan firm.

A year later, Mr. Horan said, Mr. Hiss was greeted by the same girl, who called out "Hi, Alger" from across a room. Virtually sightless, he identified the voice and replied, Mr. Horan said, "Donna, you must tell me how you enjoyed the work at Kaye Scholer, and your second year at Columbia."

Alger Hiss was born on Nov. 11, 1904, in Baltimore, the son of Mary and Charles Alger Hiss. He attended Baltimore public schools, Johns Hopkins University, and the Harvard University School of Law, where he became a protege of Felix Frankfurter, who taught at Harvard Law before becoming a Supreme Court Justice. When Mr. Hiss graduated, Professor Frankfurter arranged for him to clerk for the then elderly Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. His law school years and association with Justice Holmes informed the rest of his life.

Mr. Hiss began his career in Washington in the Agricultural Adjustment Administration in 1933. He later became director of the Office of Special Political Affairs in the State Department. He also served as counsel for a Federal investigation into the munitions industry.

Toward the end of World War II, as an adviser to President Roosevelt, he took part in the Yalta Conference, which redivided Europe, and got to know such giants as Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. He was among those who drafted the United Na tions charter and, in 1946, was chief adviser to the U.S. delegation at the first General Assembly. He left government that year to become president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The charges against him surfaced in 1948. Convicted of perjury in 1950, he served 44 months in Lewisburg (Pa.) Penitentiary, where he worked in a storeroom and became an unofficial arbitrator of disputes among Italian-American racketeers. One of his "colleagues" from that time read to him during his last years.

After his release from prison, Mr. Hiss worked for a time selling women's barrettes. In 1960, he found a job as a salesman of office supplies and printing. He was readmitted to the bar in Massachusetts in 1975, the year he retired, but a petition to be readmitted to the New York bar failed.

Asked this week how it was possible for her husband to have retained his faith in the legal system, Mrs. Hiss said, "It was because he was so thoroughly a lawyer."

Mr. Hiss once said Justice Holmes was responsible for teaching him "a deeper sense of democracy." That, and "being a printing salesman and my time in Lewisburg gave me greater respect for my fellow man," he told Alexandra Shelley, who wrote about him for The Star in 1993.

In his books, "In the Court of Public Opinion," published in 1957, and "Reflections of a Life," published in 1988, Mr. Hiss described his belief during the trials and a libel action he brought against his accuser, Whittaker Chambers, that he could not be found guilty. He died without the official exoneration he expected.

Mr. Hiss witnessed the rise and fall, and rise again, of the man who built his political career on the Hiss case, Richard M. Nixon. He also lived to see the Medal of Freedom given posthumously by President Reagan to Mr. Chambers.

At his death the media leaned toward the view that Alger Hiss had liv ed a lie. Among his most persuasive detractors are the columnists Wil liam F. Buckley Jr. and George F. Will and Allan Weinstein, a historian who wrote "Perjury: The Hiss-Cham bers Case" after five years of in vestigation.

The New York Times followed a comprehensive obituary with an Op-Ed piece two days later by Sam Tanenhaus, the author of a forthcoming Chambers biography. "All evidence shows that the private Hiss was a Soviet agent," he wrote, "probably through World War II, who secretly undermined the policies he was sworn to uphold."

Among those who believed Mr. Hiss, particularly that J. Edgar Hoover and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had targeted him in an attempt to discredit the New Deal and had trumped up the evidence, are Victor Navasky, editor of The Nation, Leon Botstein, the president of Bard College, John Lowenthal, an attorney who made a documentary film about the case, and, reportedly, George Kennan, the former U.S. Ambassador. In addition to the documentary, a mini-series on the case, "Concealed Enemies," was shown on television's "American Playhouse" in 1984.

The controversial Hiss case, one of the most written-about in this century, is not apt to disappear from view very soon. Last year, a novel, "The Last Pumpkin Paper," by Bob Oeste, was published by Random House. Mr. Hiss's supporters say it describes the case with clarity. Another recent book is a Scholastic Press publication for students, "You Be the Judge." It includes chapters on both Mr. Chambers and Mr. Hiss.

Victor Rabinowitz, a noted civil rights attorney who is also a longtime East Hampton homeowner, represented Mr. Hiss in the late '70s and early '80s in an attempt to get a new trial. Material obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showed, Mr. Hiss contended that the trials had been unfair, in particular that the crucial typewriter in the case, an old Woodstock submitted in evidence by the prosecution, was a fake.

"We were unable to present the evidence at court," Mr. Rabinowitz said this week. "We were not given an opportunity to prove the typewriter was manufactured" by the F.B.I. The typewriter was pivotal in convincing jurors of Mr. Hiss's guilt.

Mr. Hiss's supporters also say the "pumpkin papers," microfilm found in a hollowed-out pumpkin on Mr. Chambers's Maryland farm, were not of a "classified" nature but involved agricultural trade with Germany and a report about fire extinguishers on a destroyer-escort.

The attempt to reopen the case was carried to the Supreme Court, which refused to consider it in 1983. It was Mr. Hiss's last legal effort in his own behalf.

Mr. Hiss was hospitalized at Lenox Hill in Manhattan on Oct. 13, and his death on Nov. 15 was attributed to cardiopulmonary complications as a result of emphysema. He is survived by his wife, who plans now to sell the East Hampton house, by Tony Hiss, the son of his first marriage to Priscilla Hiss, and by a grandson, Jacob. Also surviving is a stepson, Dr. Timothy Hobson of San Francisco.

Mr. Hiss's books will go to Harvard Law School, and the family has suggested contributions in his memory to the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee in Manhattan.

Commenting on Mr. Hiss's life, Ronnie Chalif, a Water Mill resident and longtime friend, called it "an American tragedy. . . . When you think that a man of peace, which he really was, instead became the symbol of such divisiveness."

The A&P presented the Town of East Hampton with some food for thought Friday: a nine-count Federal lawsuit claiming, among other charges, that the municipality's new superstore law violates the corporation's civil rights. The supermarket seeks to invalidate the law and asks for at least $50,000 in damages.

Filed in the U.S. District Court in Hauppauge, the lawsuit maintains that the legislation, which bans superstores and regulates supermarkets, is unconstitutional because it protects the "private economic interests" of the town's existing retail stores "from commercial competition . . . as opposed to [protecting] the interests of the public." Judge Leonard Wexler will hear the case.

"We expected this," said East Hampton Town Supervisor Cathy Lester, calling the charges "sheer nonsense." Ms. Lester said she was "disappointed" that the A&P took the matter to the Federal level and predicted that the town would ask for a summary judgment to dismiss the case.

Hired Counsel

In a special executive session Tuesday, the East Hampton Town Board appointed Richard Cahn of the Melville law firm of Cahn Wishod & Lamb to act as special counsel for the litigation.

Mr. Cahn, who was out of town this week, told The Star he had not as yet reviewed the papers. He said that he would look to see if the "facts fit a Federal claim."

"It's always a pleasure to do battle with Bill Esseks," he added, referring to the A&P's attorney, a partner in the Riverhead firm of Esseks, Hefter & Angel.

The Town Board passed its superstore legislation on Oct. 18. The law defines superstores as any retail operation exceeding 20,000 square feet and prohibits retail operations of more than 15,000 square feet and supermarkets of more than 25,000 square feet. It also limits supermarkets to central business zones and sets strict design standards for them.

Won't Process Application

The A&P in its suit claims the law is "beyond the scope of legislative powers delegated to the town . . . by the state."

The supermarket chain has proposed a 34,878-square-foot store on the former Stern's site, a four-acre property on Pantigo Road, East Hampton, zoned for neighborhood business. Last month, it moved its application a step forward by submitting a "scoping outline" to the East Hampton Planning Board, suggesting points to be covered in an environmental impact study.

In light of the superstore legislation, however, the Planning Board last week decided to tell the store its current application does not meet zoning standards and cannot be processed.

"Exclusionary Zoning"

In its suit, the A&P claims that the superstore law discriminates against and excludes people who "lack the economic means and/or physical means of transportation" either to buy food at other stores in town or to travel to stores outside the town big enough to offer "a wider variety of merchandise, at lower prices."

"The town has made errors in their procedure," said Mr. Esseks, "to attain a goal that cannot be reached under existing law." The legislation, he added, "fosters exclusionary zoning" by failing to consider the need for supermarkets larger than 25,000 square feet - and also violates the New York State General Business Law known as the Donnelly Act.

That law stipulates that every contract, agreement, or arrangement is "against public policy if it restrains "competition or the free exercise of any activity in the conduct of any business." The superstore law, the suit claims, "was adopted for an illegal and improper purpose of unlawfully interfering with the free exercise . . . of A&P's activities in the conduct of its business and trade."

Public Hearing

The town held a lengthy public hearing on the law on Sept. 16 that drew roughly 300 people. Of a parade of more than 30 speakers, only two spoke in favor of the market.

Nonetheless, this week Mr. Esseks characterized the superstore law as "an attempt by an aggressive, vocal group to modify commercial zoning as that group says it should exist in the town, i.e., to protect the existing village businesses and prohibit supermarkets as they exist in every community throughout the United States."

The suit claims that the town singles out retail stores in its superstore law for square-footage restrictions, thereby violating the A&P's "rights to due process" under the Constitution.

Favoring Locals?

The suit claims further that East Hampton is interfering with interstate commerce by "favoring local business and economic interests over out-of-state interests and discriminating against out-of-state interests."

The A&P is incorporated in Maryland and maintains its corporate headquarters in Montvale, N.J.

The planning and zoning issues are "clear-cut," Ms. Lester said Monday, "but this will take some time to get through the courts."

Junk Politics

Amagansett

November 18, 1996

Dear Mrs. Rattray:

The middle of the story -

Peter Garnham is out of a job as of Jan. 1, 1997. The Republican-controlled Town Board voted to eliminate his position as public information officer for the town recycling center at a board meeting on Friday, Nov. 15.

Mr. Garnham, whose position calls for a salary of $39,400 in addition to benefits totalling around $5,000, has been utilized as a political football in Town Board affairs for the better part of nine months. His story may be interesting in that it reveals how much of the junk politics being played of late on the Town Board is literally about garbage.

The town recycling facility was the pet project of Supervisor Tony Bullock's administration and began actual operation in 1993. The goal was to reduce the amount of nonrecyclable waste that East Hampton must haul away each year, an amount that averages around 17,000 tons per year at a cost of $54 per ton. East Hampton's garbage goes to locations as nearby as Huntington and Hempstead and as far away as Pennsylvania and Virginia for incineration or burial.

Within the town itself, 65 percent of residents are "self-haulers," that is they convey their garbage to the dump themselves. Of these self-haulers, less than half separate their garbage. Garbage could be separated at the dump itself with a system known as a materials recovery facility, or M.R.F. (rhymes with surf). Hemp stead has what is known as a "dirty M.R.F.," which removes the most basic recyclables such as glass, metal, cardboard, and plastics, but East Hampton's facility has no such system, so the garbage that arrives at the facility unseparated leaves the facility unseparated at a cost of roughly $1 million a year.

Restaurants often separate their garbage into the category of "compostables," or organic material, which is naturally made into compost. Restaurants such as Gurney's Inn, the Shagwong, and the Quiet Clam self-haul their compostables to the dump. Gurney's went so far as to buy its own compactor truck. A&P reportedly spent $35,000 for a divided compactor to haul separated compostables in its self-hauling operation.

The compost created by the operation is unique among the garbage delivered to the facility. Professional and home gardeners, landscapers, and nurseries have all created a demand that greatly outpaces supply. Reportedly, there is a waiting list for the 98-percent-pure compost material. A screening system that the facility is applying for would remove the remaining 2 percent of impurities such as nontoxic bits of glass and plastic.

Commercial haulers in East Hamp ton are obligated to convey the separated garbage of their customers as separated, recyclable garbage, according to Chapter 117 of the Town Code. But such laws are extremely unpopular with some waste-haulers, many of whom ignore the law completely. Enforcement of it has all but died since the town launched a blizzard of citations against recalcitrant carters back in 1993 in an effort to urge compliance.

The recycling facility receives a number of calls from homeowners who go to the trouble of separating their garbage only to have their own collectors throw it all together in the back of a compactor.

With the exception of a few, most restaurants cannot afford the time and expense of self-hauling. Yet a large number of area restaurants are eager to provide the recycling facility with compostable material. They face only the intransigence of waste haulers (one name in particular is mentioned repeatedly) who will not convey separated material.

When talking to Mr. Garnham about his efforts at the facility he speaks of the town "surrendering its independence" by reducing its re cycl ing-composting efforts. Mr. Garnham's faith in the system led him to don kitchen whites and work in restaurant kitchens alongside their staffs to educate them about the practicality and benefits of composting. Mr. Garnham believes most restaurants in town want the program.

He stated in a telephone conversation that noncompliance by commercial haulers rendered the facility "like a 747 with only 10 passengers on board." The $3.5 million facility is operating at only 30 percent of capacity. When receiving up to 40 tons per day of separated materials, as was designed, the town could save $700,000 annually.

Mr. Garnham said that East Hampton's system is designed for separation and that the success of the program hinges on the unique combination of recycling and composting. Facilities such as ours, he said, are envied here in the U.S. and abroad and the commercial haulers in neighboring townships that do collect separated materials wonder "what's with" those in East Hampton who won't.

The town, however, is considerably further away from finding an answer to that question now that Mr. Garnham, who is considered by many Republicans and Democrats alike to be a competent, passionate, decent fellow, has been voted out. Mr. Garn ham's "defunding" also raises questions about what the current Town Board majority values most in the way that it allocates taxpayer money, chooses to conduct its business, and wields power on behalf of its friends. I'll try to separate the garbage in that pile in my next letter.

ALEC BALDWIN

Remarkable Trees

Amagansett

November 1996

Dear Helen:

Russell Drumm's excellent article on a timber that may or may not have been from H.M.S. Culloden (Nov. 7) brought to memory history related to both its topic and time.

In the early 1770s, the British built a frigate and anchored the unrigged hull in the Thames. Months later, when the rigging crew went aboard, they found her rotten beyond repair.

Particularly alarming was the discovery that the "tree nails" ("trunnels," I think, in American usage), the fastenings that held together all the key frame members and the planking, had rotted as readily as the timber they fastened. This was ominous news, as these dowels were delivered in kegs of brine and should have outlasted the timbers they fastened.

Botanists were the rocket scientists of that age and many of the best were English. One of their number had heard tales about a tree native to Long Island whose timber would last 100 years. At the Admiralty's expense, he spent months on eastern Long Island and learned a very great deal about both the black locust and its cousin, the honey or sweet locust.

Alas, politics triumphed over science, the colonies were at war with England, and the locals suggested returning whence he came was a better option than tar and feathers.

He knew he was onto something, his time's equivalent of the double helix of D.N.A. He wrote a book on these remarkable trees which was eventually translated into all the major languages of the Continent.

Not only did he dwell on the rot-resistant characteristic of the black locust, but he touted the sweet locust as the premier tree of formal gardens. His legacy was that every formal garden in Europe, from the Treaty of Vienna (about 1914) until World War I, had honey locusts.

Most people on the East End then and now know both varieties are shallow rooted and produce pods in the fall that are a mess. They also know that the black locust has large vascular bundles that readily pick up quartz and other minerals that, when the wood's dry, will ruin a chain saw's edge in about six seconds.

At 70, a memory is a sometime thing and I can't recall the source of this tale. Kindly convey our regards to Chris and thank him for the photos of the John Collins.

Regards,

R. RANDOLPH RICHARDSON

Kiss It Goodbye

East Hampton

November 18, 1996

To The Editor:

In 1943 when my parents rented the house on Gallatin Lane in Maidstone Park I was 3 years old. Gallatin Lane was a narrow dirt road like so many roads in Maidstone years ago. We used kerosene lamps and an outhouse. A hand pump in the kitchen supplied our water; ice was delivered for the "ice box."

When we bought the same house years later only Gallatin Lane had stood still in time. East Hampton has lost so much of its original character over the years that our lane was a nostalgic tie with the past, a faint resonance from memory's innocent earlier days.

When house construction began on Gallatin Lane last spring, the town activated an ordinance requiring road improvement. All the residents of Gallatin Lane attended a Town Board meeting and said, "No thanks. Leave it alone."

The board told us we had been heard and assured us that it was sensitive to the will of the people. We were smiled upon, admired for our solidarity. Jokes relaxed us; sweetness and light filled the meeting.

Last Thursday, without any announcement or discussion, the lane was widened and graded.

Half of Gallatin Lane is still the way it was. The ordinance reached only as far as the new construction. Come and see it. It is a ludicrous picture of rural life become suburban overnight, of the people's will ignored, and government's creeping minutiae triumphant.

If you have anything of the old East Hampton that you treasure - a rural road, farmland, a life on the water, common courtesy - you may as well kiss it goodbye.

BARRY McCALLION

Worth The Wait

New York

November 14, 1996

Dear Editor,

It may take me a little time to get around to reading things, but your July 4 issue was sure worth the wait! I am so glad I saved that issue and refer in particular to your fiction by Barbara Goldowsky titled "Fourth of July."

I thoroughly enjoyed Ms. Goldowsky's story - what a delightful treasure to find in the midst of a local newspaper. It was, yes, a story of resignation, but also of life affirmation. The emotions, sentiment, and feelings of an elderly woman ready to give herself over along with the fireworks was a tremendously poignant concept.

I re-read the ending several times trying to determine if, indeed, Mrs. Meadows decided to go through with her plan, or, perhaps, that a postponement was in order. I suspect the latter because of her wonderful and unselfish and well-described love for her grandson, Steven.

As it happens, my grandmother died on July 4 in 1978. On her tombstone, my grandfather inscribed, "A Lady of Valor." I always felt that I was never able to express the significance of her dying on that day, the Day of Independence, with the sky lit up, in the way that Ms. Goldowsky so adeptly describes.

I wish to congratulate the powers that be at The East Hampton Star for providing a forum for such fine fiction.

Sincerely,

PAT GALLANT

Please address correspondence to [email protected]

Despite the fact that licensing standards for carters were adopted by East Hampton Town five months ago, not one license has been issued to date and, even worse, a good number of the carters who are doing business here have not yet even submitted applications.

Figuring out who they are is the problem.

What had been until three or four years ago a modest trade involving a handful of small firms run by local residents is morphing into a complex, highly competitive industry, faster than the would-be regulators, the customers, and even the carters themselves can keep up with.

During the evolution, some of the local firms fell on tough times. The owner of the two largest and longest-established, Timothy Volk, has been in bankruptcy twice in the last three years. His companies, Volk's Montauk Disposal and Stanley Residential, have been in business here for a half-century.

Age Of Specialists

Mr. Volk and the other locals have struggled to retrofit their trucks and their management styles to better serve the growing demand for recycling and to comply with town recycling laws, but they are still losing customers to the newcomers.

"You have to change with the times, don't you?" said Mickey Valcich, who started Mickey's Carting 10 years ago. Within a short time, he had to buy compartmentalized trucks for his residential route and more Dumpsters for his commercial customers.

The East End market is increasingly dominated by specialists.

At one end are the one-man recyclers who pick up separated newspaper, cardboard, tin cans, and the like, mostly from residences, and dump it at the town recycling and composting plants. At the other are the out-of-town fleets that charge less than the locals and haul mostly commercial trash to privately owned recycling plants, transfer stations, and incinerators UpIsland, or to out-of-state landfills.

Staying Small

Joe Cucci and David Collins, the owners of Dump On Us and Three R's Carting, run one-man recycling companies specializing in source-separated trash, mostly residential but with a few small businesses. Each has as many customers as he can handle and takes on new ones only when they fit into the route easily and agree to recycle religiously.

"I insist on it," said Mr. Collins.

Both men said they attracted customers by offering lower prices, which was possible because of the town's discounted fee for dumping recyclables, $15 a ton as compared to $65 for nonrecyclables.

Staying small, they said, affords them the luxury of being selective.

"I'm not greedy. I'm not going to take a customer in Montauk and go all the way out there just to say I have a new customer," said Mr. Collins.

Low Prices: A Problem

At the same time, this year's severely depressed prices for recyclables have presented a problem for officials. The Republican-controlled Town Boards in East Hampton and Southampton are trying to make up for the loss of revenue by moving away from intensive recycling to dispose of trash with as little fuss and cost as possible.

That shift could further polarize the industry and give the specialists an even greater advantage over the firms like Mr. Volk's and Mr. Valcich's, which are trying to satisfy both ends of the market simultaneously.

"I still see a future out there for the mom-and-pop hauler, but mom and pop will have to be more aggressive in soliciting customers and will have to buy more efficient equipment, which most of them can't afford to do," said Anthony Noto, a spokesman for S.S.C., the Holtsville carter that was the first out-of-town outfit to win a piece of the East End's commercial action and is so far the most successful.

Licenses

"The world is changing," said Mr. Noto, a former Babylon Town Supervisor. "The towns are getting more sophisticated, the carters are getting more sophisticated, and the customers are getting more sophisticated."

Since East Hampton adopted its licensing law in June, 17 firms have filed applications. But at least a dozen others have not, though they are known to do business here or advertise that they do.

The law says any carter doing business in East Hampton must have a license, the grade of the license depending on the type of service and truck size. To qualify for one, a carter must show financial stability, a good reputation, and a solid customer base.

Residential Market

Get With the Program is probably the newest one-man operation in town. Its owner, Joe Fisher of Springs, drives a truck for a lumber company during the day. Joseph Daniels, who owns Great Eastern Carting with James DiSpirito, is another new player; he pumps gas at night to make ends meet.

Both companies, which have applied for licenses, are focusing on residential customers.

"It's an open market," said Mr. Fisher. "There's guys get upset when they see my truck - 'Oh, just what we need, more competition' - but I think that's great. Now they know my name. That's free enterprise. That's the American dream, right?"

The "little guys," as he called them, "are friendly. We help each other out. There's people who aren't like that. It can get pretty cutthroat out there sometimes."

No Names

David Paolelli, as head of the Town Sanitation Department, has the job of reviewing the license applications. He said the identification problem was the reason the town adopted the license law in the first place: "We wanted an assurance that whoever is here is reputable and safe."

Some of the carters who have not applied, he said, "are the guys doing it with a pickup truck, as a second job." Others, said Mr. Paolelli, are "no names" who drive unmarked trucks and "bootleggers" who, because they haul garbage out of town, are unfamiliar to town officials and may not know about the new licensing requirement.

Mr. Paolelli said he was frustrated by the town's inability so far to put a name to all the concerns.

"We're still in a holding pattern," agreed Councilman Len Bernard. He said officials have learned, for example, that out-of-town construction companies with work in East Hampton will bring in their own carter to the job site, "so we have no idea who they are or where they're from."

Subcontractors

Councilman Peter Hammerle, who shares supervision of the recycling program with Mr. Bernard, said officials and some local carters have been making note of the names painted on Dumpsters and trucks seen around town. The locals pushed for the law, asserting it would shed light on disreputable firms.

But sending license applications to the names and addresses noted on the rolling stock has only caused further confusion.

In some cases, a firm whose name is on a Dumpster has subcontracted the job of emptying its contents to a second firm, and neither has been willing to apply for a license, said Mr. Hammerle.

"Sorting this all out, no pun intended, will take a while," he said.

UpIsland Players

Son Mar Carting, a Middle Island firm that has been drumming up commercial business here for about four years, is one concern that has not yet applied. Ken Filippo, a vice president, confirmed that upIsland haulers can make the long trip between East Hampton and an UpIsland transfer station pay off by combining forces.

"The locals felt they had the market all to themselves, and they were being unreasonable with their prices," he said. "We knew we could do it cheaper, and we do our homework better than the locals for outlets," such as privately owned transfer stations for construction debris.

Two years ago, recalled Mr. Noto of S.S.C., locals demanded help from Southampton and East Hampton Towns in competing against upIslanders. One said the seasonal economy here forced him to try to make a year's income in six months.

"Well, we don't have to do that," said Mr. Noto. "We're charging the same in East Hampton as we are in western Suffolk. We had to buy more trucks to make it work, but we just solicited more customers."

Demolition Market

Son Mar, like other big upIsland firms, concentrates almost exclusively on the construction and demolition market. It has 25 trucks that run all over Long Island. S.S.C. has 33, some of which pick up from the 22,000 homes in its contract with Smithtown, but it has no residential accounts in East Hampton, Southampton, or Riverhead, said Mr. Noto.

"The East Hampton license prohibits it," he said, noting a carter must show it has 200 residential accounts or an average of $2,000 a month in residential receivables to qualify for that type of license.

Still, there are other specialized carters who see opportunities to branch out.

Far-Off Transfer

Christine and Tom Kaeding of Water Mill own Mr. and Mrs. Clean, which has two trucks that handle only construction and demolition cleanups, for about 30 contractors. Mr. Kaeding, who started the company while he was in the military, said he was tired of driving to a private transfer station in Islip, which has a lower tipping fee than one in Riverhead, and would like to build his own transfer station in East Hampton.

However, town officials have been complaining for two years about the mountain of construction and demolition debris in the back of Mr. Volk's yard on Springs-Fireplace Road, the subject of a separate story in this issue, and have shown little enthusiasm for Mr. Kaeding's plan as a result, he said.

While Mr. Collins, one of the first one-truck recyclers in town, has no intention of branching out, Mr. Cucci sees a bigger market for himself.

Resist Change

He started out three years ago taking only recyclables and only from houses. Customers complained, though, of having to hire a second carter to take away their nonrecyclables, and Mr. Cucci started taking that trash to the town dump too. He is now looking at the commercial market, and a new packer truck as well.

"The old-timers, they were afraid to change," he said.

Mr. Collins sees it differently. "It can be very difficult to change overnight," he said.

Like many others, Mr. Collins protested a recent proposal that East Hampton save money by shutting down its recycling plant on Wednesday. The idea has apparently died.

"I have customers to service on Wednesday. Going into my sixth year, that would have been very difficult to pull off," he said.

Long-Term Contracts

There have been rumors that the large carters are interested in buying up the small local firms. Mr. Noto, however, said that wouldn't make good financial sense, at least for S.S.C.

"You could buy a customer from another company for $500, but why not just offer that customer the $500 instead?" he said.

The practice of offering long-term contracts to customers, for up to five years, with a period of free service tacked on up front is "common up west," he said, although it has engendered considerable hostility from Mr. Volk and other locals.

"Yeah, I've lost customers, but you just do the best you can. You try to take care of the customers you have. Anyway, it's still business as usual: I'm still in the business of picking up garbage," said Mr. Valcich.