A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month suggested that the United States is virtually awash in ticks — and the illnesses they can spread. Here, they include Lyme disease, a debilitating condition marked by lethargy and aching joints, among other symptoms. Over all, the C.D.C. estimated, some 600,000 Americans were affected by tick-borne diseases from 2004 to 2016, at a rate about three times that of the 12-year period before 2004.

Consider that on the East End, as well as in several other places around the country, ticks, specifically those of the lone star variety, can cause a dangerous allergy to red meat and meat byproducts such as gelatin. This allergy can be easily identified by a blood test, but those affected can often make an armchair diagnosis by noticing the onset of hives, coughing, and itching about three to eight hours after consuming meat, which can sometimes be followed by severe anaphylaxis requiring hospitalization.

Physicians here are increasingly familiar with this allergy, known as alpha-gal, after the carbohydrate suspected of triggering the condition. It is important to note that not all meals with meat trigger symptoms. For some, a lean cut of beef may be okay, while a fattier hamburger may mean a potential late-night trip to the emergency room. In almost all examples, the delay between a meal and the reaction is the telltale; those who suspect they may have the allergy should visit a specialist for confirmation. Unfortunately, the Centers for Disease Control have not caught up with the spread of the alpha-gal allergy.

Money is an issue at the C.D.C., as far as tick-borne illnesses go. Just as its May report came out, Senator Charles E. Schumer called for millions in already-appropriated funding to be freed for research and prevention. According to Mr. Schumer, New York, and especially Long Island, have more tick-borne disease than anywhere else in the country.

If there is a single measure of how insane the absence of meaningful gun regulation in this country has become, it can be found in certain schools that are equipping students with bulletproof shields to carry in their backpacks. A report in The New York Times this week said a Catholic school in Chad’s Ford, Pa., recently handed out the heavy, composite sheets, each a little bigger than a laptop computer, to its eighth-grade class. The shields can stop a handgun shot and deflect pellets from a shotgun blast, but are no match for a round from an AR-15 rifle, the preferred weapon of recent school shooters. And anyway, in the case of attack, which part of their bodies are the students supposed to protect with the shields, their torsos or their heads?

Perhaps the shields are really intended to provide a sense of security for those who carry them, children who might otherwise be too frightened now to go to school. Or they may be an attempt to assure parents that administrators are doing something to protect their kids. Unfortunately, in a country that has far more firearms than it has common sense, such measures are meaningless.

Sag Harbor’s already stunning waterfront will be even more beautiful once a deal is completed to expand public access west of the bridge to North Haven. This is something many people feared would never happen after a corporate development firm acquired about an acre and a half of derelict property there with the intention of building a 13-unit luxury condominium complex. In a 2015 artist’s rendering, massive structures, designed in  faux-Colonial style, virtually walled off the rest of the village from any view of Sag Harbor Cove and its spectacular sunsets.

Amid community opposition and threats from elected officials to condemn the site, the development firm unloaded it. The buyer, Jay Bialsky, had other ideas. He was more than eager to strike a major preservation deal with the village and Southampton Town, while planning three new townhouses on an already-built part of the property. 

And so, what seemed almost impossible a year ago appears to be becoming a reality. Using money from its community preservation fund, Southampton Town will pay the new owner $10.5 million for the portion of the property that will become public. Sag Harbor Village will manage the site, creating John Steinbeck Memorial Park, with walking paths, an outdoor performance space, and perhaps a pier and small beach. 

Much credit must be given to the Sag Harbor Partnership, which kept the pressure on officials to create a park there. That the group managed to do so while taking on the complicated work of rebuilding the Sag Harbor Cinema, and fund-raising for it, deserves note.

Almost forgotten now, Sag Harbor was among the first New York municipalities, more than 30 years ago, to complete a state local waterfront revitalization plan. The core idea was to protect existing recreational and commercial maritime activities and access along the shore, by public acquisition where possible. This deal is a reminder for other local governments: Seemingly far-fetched dreams can become a reality, with the public and the environment the big winners.

A collective madness has gripped many in East Hampton over the proposed Deepwater Wind South Fork Wind Farm, and it has proved the near undoing of the town trustees. Things hit a low point during a May 17 hearing on the proposed landing site of an electric cable from the distant offshore turbines when an elected trustee tried to prevent someone with whom he disagreed from speaking. 

What is odd about the clamor that has mushroomed as the Deepwater company’s project has advanced is that the wind farm site itself is closer to Rhode Island than to Montauk Point. The cable landing site might be under a trustee beach, requiring an easement in the same way another utility might seek permission to run power lines along a private road. But it might not, running instead under state-owned parkland.

Opposition has predictably come from offshore commercial fishing interests, which oppose the industrialization of the seabed, apparently preferring to keep it for sometimes-damaging bottom trawls and indiscriminate long-line harvests. It is strange to hear some traditionally anti-science voices among the fishing fleet speak out for the environment, when the same voices have stridently opposed the creation of marine monuments or sanctuaries. And their claim of providing an important food source raises the question: For whom? At $18.95 a pound for flounder in the markets, for example, fish is more of a luxury than a staple for most Americans.

Pity the town trustees, whose meetings have become the de facto sounding board for many of those against the South Fork Wind Farm. Trustee Rick Drew has been the point person on all of this, reading heaps of documents, and as the chairman of the trustee harbors and docks subcommittee, perhaps getting too close to the trees to see the forest. 

A low point came during the May 17 hearing when Mr. Drew tried to stop Gordian Raacke, the director of Renewable Energy Long Island, an independent green-power group, from making a statement. Shouting into a microphone, Mr. Drew said he objected to Mr. Raacke’s statement, claiming he was paid by Deepwater, which he was not. It was a relief when Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc took charge, defending Mr. Raacke’s right to speak, and the fuming Mr. Drew quieted down. Mr. Raacke explained later that neither he nor Renewable Energy Long Island had received any money from or had any formal relationship with Deepwater Wind.

In an ideal world, commercial fishing and environmental protection would go hand in hand, and the Earth would not be rapidly warming because of human activity. However, and as we have said before, although every viable alternative electricity should be pursued, wind power now remains the best available source. 

Wind turbines are going to be a part of the United States’ near-term energy future. What cannot be overlooked is that climate change will damage the oceans far more than will scattered wind turbines. This is what Mr. Drew should have had in mind before he tried to stop a wind proponent from providing relevant details about the cost of the Deepwater project. 

The sooner the town trustees and fishing and environmental advocates begin talking to one another and realize that we are all in it together, the better. Mr. Van Scoyoc struck the right note when he said that while we might not agree, we must all listen to opposing views if we are to move forward, saving fish, fishermen, and the planet.

A letter to the editor from a reader and a message from our electric utility company this week reminded us that balloon season is once again upon us — and that does not bode well for wildlife, or for power lines, it turns out. 

That marine animals are at risk as helium balloons loose their lift and end up in the water is well known. According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, seabirds, marine turtles, and fish can mistake them for food. Few balloons, even those marketed as biodegradable, go away when they hit the water; many persist for months and years as they divide into smaller and smaller pieces. Photographs on the website Balloons Blow illustrate the grim toll, including several stricken Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, a threatened species that visits our waters in summer and fall.

Other wild creatures can also become entangled in tough balloon strings, with strangulation or starvation a possible result. In some beach sweeps here, balloon strings have been the single most found foreign objects, a testament to their persistence. Some municipalities, in places that host many weddings and sports events, have banned them altogether, eager to do something positive for the planet. Environmental groups encourage weights to keep children’s balloons on the ground when their little hands inevitably let go. But it’s not just kids.

One person we know told us about finding a massive Holy Communion balloon conglomeration along the shore at Rocky Point in Montauk the other day. Popping them with a broken clamshell, she gathered it all up and took it with her as she headed back up the trail.

PSEG-Long Island’s advice to customers was a bit more prosaic. Metallic Mylar balloons, which conduct electricity, can cause short circuits if they get into power lines, with outages, fires, and injuries among the possible results. If you are curious, there are plenty of videos online illustrating how this can happen, often with astonishing outcomes. The utility urged that balloons be securely tethered or weighted and that they be punctured before being disposed of, lest they float away.

A pet theory here is that the balloons found on South Fork beaches are a problem created, as with many others, by people from away. That might be so, given the prevailing west-to-east wind during the outdoor gathering season, but all of us would do well to be more careful when helium balloons are around — or forgo them entirely.

In case you missed it, the Army Corps is headed back to Montauk in a big way. Work is to begin in late fall on an estimated 18-month project to replace the stone armor at Montauk Point, which the corps says could not withstand a major hurricane in the condition it is in now. Doubts, which have greeted Army Corps plans for a bigger seawall at the Point in the past, are beginning to re-emerge.

According to the Army Corps, without a major redo, the boulder revetment at the Point will be undermined and the bluff above it will erode, threatening the 222-year-old lighthouse. The corps estimates that the work would be completed by the summer of 2020 and cost $24 million.

The last time the lighthouse’s fate was discussed, estimates were that moving it away from the edge would cost $27 million. This is awfully close to the expected cost of the stone seawall, but don’t expect the Army Corps to go down that road. The corps does one thing where the coast is concerned: build things and leave. It is not in the habit of moving historic structures around. A big factor, too, is that the money for Montauk Point is to come from a congressional appropriation made in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy; painstakingly dragging the lighthouse hundreds of yards back from the brink might not be covered.

Officials from Albany to Montauk are in a bind. While the fiscally prudent thing to do would be to allow the lighthouse to meet the fate the people who commissioned it in 1795 expected, its status as a state symbol and icon would preclude that.  

For surfers and surfcasters who know and love the Point, the big worry would be unintended effects that could harm their pursuits. The Army Corps says that any impacts would be benign. But, given the corps’ handiwork on the downtown Montauk beach, the project requires nothing less than the most gimlet-eyed scrutiny.

On this Memorial Day weekend, it is important to remember that East Hampton men and women have fought and died in this country’s wars since the American Revolution. Marches and other observances will take place on Monday, but reminders of their sacrifices can be seen year round in the many monuments and the Hook Mill Green war memorials.

New this season is a small but moving exhibition at the East Hampton Historical Farm Museum, “World War I in East Hampton,” commemorating the end of the Great War in November 1918. In it are soldiers’ and sailors’ uniforms, medals, mess kits, and patriotic posters. The museum is open Saturdays and Tuesdays and worth a visit to stir appreciation for those who served and for those who never came home.

To hear farmers and other purveyors describe it, a proposed Saturday morning market in East Hampton Village, possibly in Herrick Park, is a nonstarter. The problem is that East End growers, food producers, and craftspeople who take advantage of existing markets already have a full weekly schedule. Asking them to take part in another on Saturday would require additional staff as well as vehicles and equipment. 

East Hampton’s Friday market in the Nick and Toni’s restaurant parking lot opens for the season tomorrow at 9 a.m. and runs until 1 p.m. On Saturdays this summer there will be markets at Ashawagh Hall in Springs and on Bay Street in Sag Harbor. Montauk has its market on Thursdays, and Calvary Baptist Church in East Hampton, which had one on Thursday evenings last summer, is expected to revive it. We were sorry to learn that the market that had been at the Hayground School in Bridgehampton on Friday afternoons will not be held this year.

Herrick Park in the village does not seem to be the right place for a market anyway, even if farmers and vendors could make time for it. Though the park is large by local standards, it is well used by sports leagues, schools, and members of the community. Farmers markets and the foot and wheeled traffic they produce would be hard on the grass, requiring more groundskeeping and eventually perhaps additional footpaths. Parking in the village on summer Saturdays already can be a problem, and vendors’ trucks and customers’ vehicles would add to the headaches. 

The Nick and Toni’s lot can be difficult to reach, what with its being near two traffic choke points. A market there on Friday afternoons seems out of the question since the restaurant needs the space by early afternoon. An idea that has circulated for some time is relocating the market to the East Hampton Historical Farm Museum on North Main Street, though access would remain an issue and there is some question about whether a market would be appropriate since the property was purchased with money from the community preservation fund.

One alternative might be for the town to buy or convert some land elsewhere for the express purpose of a farmers market. Thought then could be given to locating it nearer to where people live, for example, within walking distance of the Accabonac Apartments or Windmill Village. At best, the Nick and Toni’s market should be viewed as an interim answer for getting fresh food into consumers’ hands. With a little more foresight and creative thinking, a better solution could well be found.

Questions about how Deepwater Wind’s 15-turbine project some 30 miles out in the Atlantic could affect East Hampton’s electric rates have emerged as criticism of the plan. At a joint East Hampton Town Board and town trustees hearing this evening at LTV Studios in Wainscott that issue is likely to be one of many. 

Deepwater has done itself no favors in keeping key terms of its contract with the Long Island Power Authority secret, notably how much LIPA will pay for the power generated offshore. This has allowed suspicions to grow that the cost to ratepayers will be exorbitant. However, even if Deepwater’s electricity is pricier, it would provide only a small fraction of the sources that travel over the Long Island grid. PSEG-Long Island supplies about 1.1 million customers; running at full tilt, Deepwater’s output is expected to be enough for about 50,000 households, and therefore have a negligible impact on electric rates.

Critics of the deal are right that the absence of price details makes it appear that Deepwater and LIPA are trying to avoid criticism and sneak something past the public. They are also right to question why LIPA and New York residents are being treated differently than the customers of other states, where Deepwater disclosed its contracted rates for electricity in the process of pitching its projects. Moreover, the mystery has made it difficult for those interested in sustainable energy to make the case for this project. 

It may be heresy to beleaguered taxpayers point out that there could be a positive environmental effect to higher prices for electricity. When gas prices rise, consumers in the United States have driven fewer miles and selected vehicles with greater fuel efficiency. Conversely, when the price at the pump drops, sales of gas-guzzlers increase. Higher electric bills could help move more people toward power-saving appliances, lighting, and habits. This is important. In fact, the power authority has made demand reduction a key part of its long-term strategy.

Several key points remain in favor of town officials’ cooperation with Deepwater and LIPA. These include the fact that the company could bring the cable ashore on state land, without town involvement. East Hampton’s goal is to have 100 percent renewable energy as soon as practical; Deepwater could help it meet that target. And, most important, the Earth is warming at a potentially catastrophic rate thanks to human activity. Fossil fuel-fired electric plants are a major source of the greenhouse gases responsible. Here in the Northeast, solar arrays can help but wind remains the most viable source of nonpolluting power.

If the issue is money, the cost of dealing with climate change, which will far outpace that of alternative electricity sources, is the most important calculation of all. While considering the potential impacts of the cable landing site is in the public interest, any further stalling by town officials is a mistake.

A little more than two weeks from today, it will once again be Memorial Day. The East End will get an early look at the coming summer, eager crowds, lines, headaches, but also a sense that we are all in it together, lifelong local and visitor alike.

Truth is, the high season does not really get going at the end of May anymore, if it ever did. June is quiet, at least until the kids get out of school, with weekends the exception.

One thing on our minds lately, is how new shorter-term rentals affect life and business in and around the South Fork. Anecdotally, some retailers say that Airbnb people passing through don’t spend money the same way monthly or seasonal renters might. In one example, a woman who used to sell a lot of throw pillows to people looking to add a splash of color to rental quarters no longer sees that kind of traffic. A lingerie shop owner’s take is that short-termers bring everything they need for two or three nights, while people in town from June through early September might come in to stock up on a whole drawer full of what she offers.

Chances are high that we will look back on this era as one of tremendous change. It used to be that to get a piece of East Hampton or Southampton one had to ante up five figures or more. Now, just about anyone who can scrape together $1,000 and a gas card can buy into the game for a couple of days.

Local governments have made half-hearted attempts to tamp down the short-term scene. Nonetheless, many property owners, hosts in Airbnb parlance, have just carried on with impunity. It is not that short-term visiting is all bad. It has certainly been a boost for restaurants and helped pay the bills for many people. But there is little doubt that the trend is transformational. The problem is that none of us even remotely understands yet how transformational it will be in the end.