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.

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.

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.

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.

Enthusiasm among many on the left on eastern Long Island about taking the congressional seat now held by Representative Lee Zeldin notwithstanding, Democrats in the First Congressional District remain underdogs. Both CNN and the Cook Political Report recently rated his seat likely to remain Republican, considering the candidates’ fund-raising, election history, and registration data. This means the Democratic opposition must take swift action if it hopes to oust an incumbent whose position appears secure.

Momentum may be shifting nationally toward a Democratic landslide in the midterm elections but that is not necessarily the case in the First Congressional District, which includes the Towns of East Hampton, Southampton, Shelter Island, Southold, Riverhead, Brookhaven, and most of Smithtown. 

According to the New York State Board of Elections, there are substantially more Republicans registered in the district, and, when Conservative Party voters are included, the pluses for Mr. Zeldin are even greater. In 2016, when facing Anna Throne-Holst, he was lifted by some 23,000 Conservative votes and cruised to victory. When he defeated Representative Tim Bishop in 2014 the story was much the same. 

Democrats may not care for Mr. Zeldin, but he has proven a formidable vote-getter with a strong publicity machine behind him and multiple talking-head appearances on Fox News. The fact that he has been a strong supporter of a deeply unpopular president may not be enough to upset Mr. Zeldin’s demonstrated ability to win elections. 

Provided President Trump is still in office in November, which is not a sure thing, excitement among Democrats and fatigue among some Republicans make this off-year election hard to predict. When Mr. Zeldin defeated Mr. Bishop in 2014, he did so with only about 77,000 votes. Two years later, when Mr. Trump won in the First Congressional District by nine points, Mr. Zeldin had the support of more than 158,000 voters, more than there are registered Democrats in the entire district. 

What this means for those hoping to give Mr. Zeldin a swift kick toward a well-earned private-sector career and help the country restore order and respect for the rule of law and this country’s partnerships abroad, is that the focus must be on increasing voter participation by a significant margin, not just on who the nominee will be. And in this, the party as a whole needs to show more initiative. 

Registering voters is the first step. This should include New Yorkers with houses on the North and South Forks who are eligible to vote here but historically have not. New York State makes it easy to change one’s registration in person and via the mail. First-time voters, especially the young and members of immigrant communities, must be reached as well.

Antipathy for President Trump alone will not be enough to get a First District Democrat to Washington. An aggressive ground game to build turnout will have to be won first — from Montauk all the way to Smithtown.

East Hampton Town needs a summer plan. Relatively recently, officials presented a set of hamlet-specific vision documents intended to guide redevelopment and new projects in the commercial centers with an eye toward a mix of business and residential needs and an emphasis on affordable living for workers. These studies were quite nice and contained some exciting ideas. What the hamlet plan authors did not do was look at the reality of East Hampton’s resort, day-trip, and short-term rental economy in a coherent way. As good as the study was, without acknowledging the transformations the town has undergone and offering some direction for the future, the work was only half done. Time is of the essence.

The reality is that East Hampton has changed from a mostly quiet place with summer rentals into a destination complete with a handful of reality-TV shows and a multitude of boldface names. Shoppers pour in to browse the village’s Main Street boutiques, most run by out-of-town companies that give nothing back to the community. Montauk draws thousands on sunny weekends for the beaches, fishing, and nightlife. Airbnb and other unregulated rental services bring in hundreds, if not an even greater number of visitors. As a result, roads, essential services, public spaces, and the general quality of life are affected negatively. And almost all of this is based on long-ago zoning decisions while officials went far too easy on violations, calling them in the obfuscating parlance of officialdom, pre-existing, nonconforming uses.

Now, having been either unwilling or unable to stem the flood, town officials are seeking to accommodate it, planning a costly sewage system for parts of Montauk, for starters, which will help lock in permanently the mistakes now in place. The authors of the hamlet studies more or less averted their gazes, proposing traffic circles and portable houses to deal with the influx but never trying to identify and deal with the root causes. It was not their fault, though, as direction comes from the top, in this case the well-meaning, if shortsighted, town board that commissioned the analyses. Remember, this was for the most part the same group that greenlighted the sandbagging of the Montauk beach, breaking the law in the process.

The lack of a long-term plan to deal with the summer hordes also comes down to residents, who for the most part have not spoken out as a whole about the changes to East Hampton wrought by its international renown. Until enough taxpayers raise their voices to say they want their town back, nothing is going to change. In fact, given the corporate money now backing many commercial projects, things could get a whole lot worse.

For lack of a better word, East Hampton needs a tourism master plan, which should be produced in conjunction with the Villages of East Hampton and Sag Harbor. This would address current conditions, including the maximum number of seasonal visitors possible under present rules, as well as the number that actually would be ideal. Considering development of the commercial centers in the absence of an overarching vision is a guarantee of failure.

A proposal to pave the eastern parking area at Ditch Plain in Montauk brought an outpouring of emotion to East Hampton’s Town Hall on Tuesday. Surfers and others who enjoy the ambience of the rutted, gravel-and-sand patch known as Dirt Lot were vigorous in opposition. But officials are in a bind: Conditions there at peak times are unacceptable. 

When the surf is good, notably during hurricane season, Dirt Lot and its entry road are lined with vehicles parked every which way because there are no markings or directional signs. Late arrivals queue up all the way to DeForest Road, making quick access for police or emergency medical personnel almost impossible. If this section of beach is to remain open to the public, this cannot be allowed to continue. Public safety must be the town’s top priority, followed by environmental considerations.

Many residents and nonresident parking permit holders would like to see Dirt Lot remain as it is, but that is just not possible given its heavy use in season. Closing it off to vehicles and allowing the site to revert to nature would not be an alternative because that would put too much pressure on the remaining Ditch parking lots. One approach would be for the town to widen the Dirt Lot entry and designate an emergency lane with semipermanent flexible bollards. 

But the big question is whether all three parking lots at Ditch should be limited to resident permit holders on summer weekends, as has been done elsewhere. No data collection, to our knowledge, has been made to support this one way or the other, but anecdotally, the impact of residents-only parking at Indian Wells in Amagansett has been positive. At Ditch, this is an idea whose time may have come.

Among other steps the town should take to bring order to the Ditch madness is banning group surfing lessons and parking of associated surf camp support vehicles. These entities have improperly used resident parking permits to run for-profit enterprises on public property. Limiting lessons to perhaps two students at a time would also help reduce the chance of injury in the water.

In looking at all three Ditch Plain lots as a whole, the town is beginning necessary work toward a safe and better-functioning arrangement. Changes must be made, but deciding on a high-season problem during the month of March is unlikely to produce satisfactory results. Our advice is for the town to test a solution without paving Dirt Lot now and carefully monitor conditions this summer to develop a long-lasting solution.

The Earth is getting warmer and fossil fuel-burning power plants have a lot to do with it. That is why those who study climate and government policies say alternative energy sources are essential in order to avoid massive upheavals. Given present technology, wind power, either from land-based or offshore windmills, is considered the best, fastest way to make a difference. 

Other nonpolluting options, such as nuclear and hydroelectric, are problematic. And in the Northeast, large-scale solar arrays are less commercially viable than elsewhere and have been met with bitter community backlash where proposed. There is no easy answer, but steps must be taken to slow the rapid rise of global temperature. This is why towns, such as East Hampton, and states, such as New York, have made commitments to renewable sources.

East Hampton Town officials, however, and in particular the town trustees, seem cowed by a small, but outspoken, number of residents who oppose Deepwater Wind’s proposed South Fork Wind Farm. The project calls for 15 generating turbines about 25 miles south of Point Judith, R.I., and 35 miles east of Montauk. A cable connecting the wind farm to the Long Island power grid is supposed to come ashore somewhere in East Hampton Town, passing either under the trustee beach at Wainscott or at one of two state-owned locations on Napeague. It would produce about 90 megawatts, said to be enough to supply electricity to about 50,000 houses, which is more than twice the total number of residential properties in the entire town.

In exchange for town easements, if the cable comes ashore in Wainscott, Deepwater Wind has promised deal-sweeteners, including paying to bury overhead utility lines on Beach Lane and Wainscott’s Main Street, $1.5 million for water-quality projects, and other substantial perks. Should the town continue to stonewall Deepwater, it could easily withdraw its offers and instead bring the cable across dry land in Napeague State Park or Promised Land, where no town permits are required. As a Deepwater report earlier this year said: Most local zoning laws are superseded by state utility regulations.

Regardless of whether the commercial fishing industry has misgivings about it, wind power appears here to stay. Turbines capable of generating 190 megawatts for Connecticut customers are in the planning stages for a site south of Martha’s Vineyard. Other states in the region are soliciting proposals for far larger projects, one for up to 1,100 megawatts. (The Millstone Nuclear Power Station, by comparison, produces about 2,000 megawatts, which powers about two million houses.)

It is difficult to support the position that wind power is not a necessary component of a cleaner-energy future. Officials, and in particular the town trustees, must recognize their limited say, and work with Deepwater Wind rather than against it.

Access and amenities at Boys and Girls Harbor could be improved soon. This is a good thing, but a word of caution is necessary first. East Hampton Town officials are studying the preservation fund-purchased former summer camp properties on Three Mile Harbor, about 83 acres in all, and talking about how the site could be made more inviting for the public. Among the ideas are a covered picnic pavilion and a paved bike trail. 

The last piece of Boys and Girls Harbor became town property in 2011 in a $7.3 million deal. Subsequently, the owners of some neighboring houses fought hard to get guarantees from the town that its future use would be limited. A petition from opponents of the town purchase at the time listed soccer, volleyball, basketball, and baseball, outdoor lighting, and problems with large crowds among their concerns. As such things go, a lawsuit ensued. Eventually, the town agreed to a restrictive management plan that allowed for educational activities, bicycling, informal sports, and trail walks. Other sports and after-dark events were taken off the table.

As to the improvements now proposed, a surfaced path for bicycles and wheelchairs is a no-brainer. A good portion of the sports field area at the former camp is level and would be, as some have pointed out, a great place to learn to ride a bike. We are less enthusiastic about the pavilion, however. 

At Maidstone Park, the only fair point of comparison, the town’s upkeep has been wanting. For example, some picnickers there toss charcoal and ashes nearby, and the sand surrounding the structure is often littered with broken glass. Plus, the grim, bunker-like restroom there is something not even a hardened prison official would be proud of. If the town puts in a picnic pavilion at Boys and Girls Harbor, bathrooms will not be far behind. 

And, while we are on the subject of bathrooms, when is Town Hall going to deal with one at Fresh Pond in Amagansett, which is a prime suspect in the ongoing fecal contamination of the creek there? That dank cinder-block structure, too, is nothing to boast about.

Unless the town can figure out a way to add staff to assure that its existing picnic areas are properly looked after, it has no business adding any more. Consider that town workers are already barely able to keep up with summertime beach trash. A new, out of the way property to maintain might prove too much of a burden without adding staff and vehicles. Town board members are deluding themselves if they think the extra garbage produced there would take care of itself.

At this point, no refuse-producing or bathroom-demanding uses should be approved at Boys and Girls Harbor. It is easy to build things; taking care of them is another story.

A massive water cistern planned for the Amagansett woods has the potential neighbors upset. This is understandable, as the 900,000-gallon reservoir would be built above ground on a Suffolk County Water Authority well site only a short distance from the road. The water authority said it would paint the 30-foot-tall tank a pleasing shade of green in the hope that it would blend in with its surroundings. But the woods are a leafless gray half the year and deer have eaten away what would have been a cloaking understory. 

We sympathize with the residents of this part of Amagansett who do not want huge, unsightly infrastructure in their backyards. But the project points to a much greater concern about growth; the demand for services, whether water, electricity, or waste removal, rises along with the population. Town leaders and those in the nearby villages of Sag Harbor and East Hampton have failed to take action to slow, if not halt, development. More people means more services are needed, and things like the hulking water tank proposed for the Devon Colony area become all the more inevitable.

Few residents take a broad enough view to call for population limits, but that does not excuse local officials from neglecting to think beyond the next election. The natural and spatial resources of the South Fork are finite. Sure, we might build out every square inch, but the costs of doing so, as we are seeing already, are significant. The Devon reservoir is just a symptom of a much larger problem.