Giving Tuesday came and went here this week with myriad pitches floating in electronically and a few coming to the old-fashioned mailbox. Guild Hall went a step further, trying a live event streamed on Facebook from noon to midnight. During the day, Guild Hall staff went before the camera to talk about what they do. East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. stopped by. Music and readings came later on. With the help of a video feed made possible by the LTV technical staff, viewers were able to join in on and off during the day, and a dozen or two were hovering when we watched.

Guild Hall’s was the most technically sophisticated fund-raising approach of the season; a final accounting of how the live stream did financially will take some time and be instructive. However, taking a look behind the scenes and getting a feel for the people who make it all happen was productive.

The sheer number of local organizations to which year-end donations could be made is staggering. They range from the very small, like Elsa’s Ark, which primarily aids stray and feral cats, to the very large, like Stony Brook Southampton Hospital and the big arts institutions, like Guild Hall, the Parrish Art Museum, and the LongHouse Reserve. In between are many worthy institutions, such as the Montauk Playhouse, the public libraries, Meals on Wheels, East End Hospice, and the several historical societies.

Guild Hall shined a light on its own role in the community by taking its message online for half a day and half a night. It also helped remind viewers of the many choices they have when the charitable urge strikes.

East Hampton Town’s decision to remove a horse barn on land it bought in Amagansett in 2014 has raised a bit of skepticism. Though some might consider tearing down a barn wasteful, it is the right decision.

The parcel, 19 acres on the north side of Montauk Highway bordered by the Long Island Rail Road tracks, is just east of the hamlet’s downtown. Until its purchase with money from the community preservation fund, the property was under review for a 79-unit luxury development. After the town took title, various ideas were floated for its use, but none could be settled upon, with the poor quality of its soil a deterrent for farming. As time went on, the barn, not all that well constructed to begin with, began to decay.

When voters authorized the community preservation fund in 1998, the understanding was that the money, from real estate transfers, was to be used for open space acquisition for environmental, agricultural, and recreational reasons and to reduce the eventual buildout of East Hampton, countering losses of natural habitat as well as limiting the ultimate number of residences and commercial structures. A secondary purpose was historical preservation. A year ago, East Hampton voters also approved the use of up to 20 percent of annual C.P.F. income for water quality improvements.

As an aside, consensus on the official name of the property is yet to come. The Connecticut developer called the project 555, a nod to its address and that the rental of the apartments would have been limited to those 55 and older. Its previous owner called it Ocean View Farm, though nothing much had grown there in quite some time. The bid specification for the barn’s removal refers to it as the Putnam site, referring to the corporate name of the would-be Connecticut developer. 

Razing the barn makes financial sense for the town. The cost of maintaining the building in its present condition is not obviously legal under the community preservation law. Leasing it to a private party as a horse stable or for storing farm equipment would also appear to be prohibited, but were that legal it might bring its own set of problems for officials. To the extent that some of the wood and windows could be reclaimed, town officials should try to do so. However, removing the barn and planting the area with a cover crop, at least for the time being, is the right approach.

We strongly support the property’s use as an active public space. A walking path on the periphery has been envisioned, leaving room for the annual Soldier Ride convergence there and other worthy events. Another appealing use would be for a portion to be set aside for community garden plots. If the town goes ahead with the massive and arguably necessary new medical facility on Pantigo Place, the ball field there could be relocated to the Amagansett site. There are plenty of good options. Getting rid of a horse barn, which under the best of outcomes would benefit few residents, is just the beginning.

Voters expressed themselves loud and clear on Election Day, as Democratic candidates enjoyed huge wins, including governorship in Virginia and New Jersey and in many other contests. In East Hampton, it was the same, with Peter Van Scoyoc and nearly the entire Democratic slate winning strongly. In Southampton, forgetting for a moment the politically mercurial Jay Schneiderman’s re-election as supervisor, voters rejected a Republican incumbent, instead awarding seats on the town board to two Democrats.

As he did in races elsewhere in the country, President Trump cast a shadow across the polling places. The East Hampton Republican Committee chairman posed for a photo with a cardboard cutout of the president during an inauguration celebration in January, which helped set a negative tone. This was going to be a hard fight anyway for a variety of reasons having nothing to do with a deeply unpopular president. For one, registered Democrats now outnumber Republicans in East Hampton Town in 18 of the 19 election districts. But in off-year elections like this, turnout plays the biggest role, and Democratic voters, and those energized by their dismay about the country’s direction, had an edge for that reason as well.

Digging into the numbers in East Hampton, Mr. Van Scoyoc’s win on Tuesday rivaled that of the outgoing Supervisor Larry Cantwell’s re-election two years ago, when hundreds of thousands of dollars in airport-related money that went to Republicans outraged many voters.

It also did not help that the Republicans’ standard-bearers here had counted on their experience outside of elected office. Asked to select town board members, East Hampton voters have generally favored candidates who came up through the ranks of public service on the many appointed town boards or committees.

The past three election cycles in East Hampton have been difficult ones for the Republican Committee and its chairman, Reg Cornelia, who said he would step down at the end of the year. Monolithic government, even at this level, carries great risks, however, and it is important that the G.O.P. rebound by recruiting popular centrist residents to carry its message forward.

By now, we have all had our flu shots, right? Well, not exactly. According to federal government statistics, less than half the adults who should get the influenza vaccine each year actually do so. For children, the rate is better, but far from ideal.

Flu shots help protect us from the highly contagious, debilitating illness that can have severe complications in some portions of the population. Children, pregnant women, and those 65 and older are at particular risk, as are those with chronic lung conditions. At best, flu can knock you down for a couple of days, at worst, it can kill.

The shots are inexpensive and available widely, including at large pharmacies, walk-in clinics, and doctors’ offices. If you haven’t yet — and especially if you are in one of the at-risk groups — please consider getting a shot right away. Remember: The flu is contagious so you will be helping others as well as yourself.

Although voters approved a referendum last year that allowed up to 20 percent of the East Hampton Town Community Preservation Fund’s annual income to be used for water quality projects, there have been few indications of how that might work in real life. Now, as the managers of the Whalebone Village affordable housing development in East Hampton have asked the town for up to $376,000 to upgrade its septic system, the lack of guidelines is apparent.

East Hampton Town already is set to begin using preservation fund money as rebates for property owners who upgrade their private septic systems; the application process has begun. Grants of up to $16,000 per property, or 100 percent of the cost of replacement, are available, depending on how close an inadequate system is to one of the bays or harbors.

Specifics about how preservation fund money could be used were vague when voters approved diverting some of it to water quality. The risk was that officials might spend it unwisely, hampering the fund’s original purpose, which was to preserve open land and historical places. 

The East Hampton Town Board should proceed very carefully. As was pointed out by Paul Giardina in his unsuccessful councilman run, other sources of funding for such undertakings may be available, if they are untested here. Moreover, very little scientific information has been presented to prove that the project proposed for Whalebone Village is actually worthwhile. Whalebone was built not all that long ago and met the environmental standards of the time. Now, its managers are telling the town that the waste systems installed to meet those standards are inadequate. Were the standards wrong or is something else at play? Either way, it needs to be cleared up. It also is important to remember that lack of guidance about how preservation funds could be used led to the biggest financial scandal in Town Hall history and the resignation of Supervisor Bill McGintee in 2009.

Whalebone Village must do more than show up at Town Hall with its hands out. At a minimum, the board needs to require impartial environmental and financial analyses before considering whether to direct so much public money its way. 

President Trump again made it plain this week, in moving to drastically cut the size of two protected areas of public land in the West, that he favors exploitation over historical and environmental protection, and over the survival of Native American cultural sites and artifacts. In Utah, he announced Monday that the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments would be reduced to a fraction of their former selves. This is a sad day for those who care about open spaces and America’s wild lands.

Court battles are sure to follow the White House’s decision to reduce the monuments by a total of about two million acres — the greatest such diminution in United States history. One of the opponents’ arguments will be that only Congress has the legal right to shrink national monuments.

Mr. Trump framed the move as a return of authority to local elected officials and away from Washington. But it really is further pandering to anti-government zealots while handing a victory to Republican lawmakers, oil and coal companies, and others.

If Mr. Trump thinks about it at all, his is decidedly an anti-human health and anti-environment administration. Just this week 15 state attorneys general sued the federal Environmental Protection Agency for its failure to meet clean air law requirements on smog. The suit was in response to the E.P.A.’s refusal to follow through on state-by-state plans to reduce air pollution. 

Under Scott Pruitt, the Trump E.P.A. has made a mockery of its name. Mr. Pruitt has spent much of his early tenure gutting regulations, ignoring science, cutting staff, and naming industry insiders to key positions, while, according to news reports, spending his days meeting privately with corporate executives seeking to relax environmental rules.

And who could forget the administration’s abandoning the Paris climate agreement, which now leaves the United States and Syria the only nonsigners?

As 2018 approaches, activists are gearing up to take on Mr. Trump and the Republican Congress at the ballot box. Concern about how we treat the planet and respect its natural resources should be at the top of the issues of interest to voters. 

For South Fork voters there is really only one choice for Suffolk legislator: Bridget Fleming. Her opponent, Heather Collins, has hardly campaigned and her candidacy appears to be little more than a placeholder for the Republican and Conservative Parties, whose ballot lines she occupies. Ms. Collins is an assistant clerk in the Suffolk County Board of Elections, an office ripe with political patronage. She lost twice to New York Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. after he switched to the Independence Party. She also has declined invitations to appear at local debates, which all but confirms her as a wasted choice.

On the other hand, Ms. Fleming, the incumbent, seems to have been everywhere this election season. She took part in a prescription drug collection day here recently and was genuinely enthusiastic about the results. She marched in a suffragist recreation event in East Hampton this summer. She has helped lead the way on the county’s new water-protection measures and alternative mosquito control, and is pushing the restoration of the Cedar Point Lighthouse. She has more than earned a second term.

For district attorney, Suffolk voters have a choice between Timothy Sini and Ray Perini. Both graduated from Brooklyn Law School, though almost 30 years apart. Mr. Sini, 37, the Suffolk police commissioner, was an assistant United States attorney in the Southern District of New York. Notably, he has been endorsed by his boss there, former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara, who said he “served with distinction and honor, prosecuting hundreds of cases that put dangerous criminals behind bars.” Mr. Sini’s campaign is managed by David N. Kelley, another former assistant U.S. attorney, who has a house in Springs. Mr. Sini appears to be the better choice to renew public trust in the district attorney’s office following the pending departure of Thomas Spota amid scandalous clouds.

There is an interesting contest for Suffolk sheriff, too. Lawrence M. Zacarese, an assistant chief of the Stony Brook University police, and Errol Toulon Jr., a former New York City deputy corrections commissioner, seek to follow Sheriff Vincent DeMarco in the job, which includes running the county’s two jails, as well as programs to help former inmates return to life on the outside. The sheriff’s office also works on gang resistance, bullying awareness, and with local police departments on distracted driving. 

There is reason for enthusiasm about Mr. Toulon’s candidacy. He knows what he is doing: He spent 22 years with the New York City Department of Corrections before becoming its deputy commissioner of operations. He would be the first African-American to be elected to a major Suffolk office, which would have little bearing on the job he would do except that it sends a strong message of inclusion that is needed in this diverse county. The Star endorses Mr. Toulon.

“The Affair,” a cable television series mostly set in and around Montauk, has been back in town lately, shooting scenes for its fifth season. For the most part, the filming has drawn little notice. 

The exception, so far, occurred last week, when the town police shut down a roughly mile-long section of Cranberry Hole Road in Amagansett at the behest of the production company for an entire day. Tempers flared, including, we heard, that of one police officer, who was fed up with irritated residents and others, among them a UPS driver delivering frozen soup, who needed to reach houses down that way. 

Credit is due to East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo for responding as soon as he got word. Similarly, Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell was frustrated that the TV crew had pushed things as far as it did. 

Celebrity buzz aside, film and television productions don’t really do much for the East Hampton economy. And the bigger they are, the more they have to bring in supplies from elsewhere. We were amused this week when a trucker hauling food for those taping “The Affair” came into our Main Street office, lost, confused, and asking for directions to the American Legion in Amagansett, only he thought it was a Knights of Columbus hall.

Given that filming brings only an incidental financial gain to the area, officials are correct to keep disruptions — especially road closures — to a minimum.

Incredible devastation has been the story of the 2017 hurricane season. With two Category 5 storms making landfall in the Caribbean, the period has been improbable, at least in terms of the historical record. Yet researchers have been saying for some time that years like this were possible, if not likely, as the oceans rapidly warm thanks to climate change.

The world’s oceans have gotten steadily warmer since the Industrial Revolution. And while the difference from one decade to another might not be enough to notice if you dip your toe into the sea, modest shifts over such a vast scale can have profound impacts on weather. The argument is that as seas and atmosphere get warmer, more water vapor is drawn into hurricanes, potentially making them larger, more powerful, and more destructive.

Hurricane Harvey was called a 1-in-1,000-years event, but because it was fueled by a Gulf of Mexico already affected by climate change, the rains that flooded Houston and its surroundings may well have been made worse by global warming.

Looking forward, powerful storms will become more frequent. At the same time, as sea level rises, hurricanes and other extreme coastal weather events will roll in on a much higher plane. One climate scientist we spoke to described it as akin to a slowly rising basketball court, “Given enough time, even guys like me will be able to dunk.”

Despite what has been said about future weather, public policy has been slow to respond. Starting at the top, President Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord, now leaving the United States and Syria as the only nations not part of that agreement. At the village and town level, local governments are unable to say no to unwise development in vulnerable low-lying areas and are doubling down on infrastructure improvements in places where retreat from the shore is the only sensible path. In the middle, there are the states that can find the money to build bridges but not to aggressively deal with long-term risks on the coasts.

This week, as Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico, leaving what is now called a humanitarian crisis, passed off Long Island, another storm, Lee, reformed in the Atlantic. It was only a matter of days after Category-5 Hurricane Irma’s raging path across the Caribbean and South Florida.

Whether or not these storms can be directly tied to climate change, scientists say the trend is clear: More powerful hurricanes will be the inevitable result of a warmer ocean. Appreciation of the danger ahead must guide land-use policy on the East End.

While we were thinking about leaf blowers, we learned that East Hampton Town’s elected officials may be about to reinstitute free leaf pickup service in some form or other. This is an exciting prospect for residents, many of whom sorely missed the old program after it was eliminated in 2011.

Taxes were the explanation when the town board did away with leaf pickup, though there was also a bit of politics at play as well. Up until then, Highway Department workers had made regular rounds in the fall, vacuuming up piles of leaves left at the roadside. Positions for and against the program were generally divided along party lines, with Democrats urging that pickup continue and Republicans, pushing personal responsibility and fiscal restraint, saying it should be ended.

Now, because much of the equipment has languished and been left to rust, the price for returning to the approach of years past is thought to be too great. Instead, officials, including Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc and Highway Superintendent Steve Lynch, favor a bag system like the one in Southampton Town.

Southampton’s program works this way: Residents can buy biodegradable paper bags at a number of hardware and grocery stores. They fill them with leaves and leave them by the side of the road during announced collection periods. Each street is checked for bags once in the fall and once in the spring, no more. Outside of these collection opportunities, Southampton residents can take bags of leaves year round  to town transfer stations without charge. Hardship exceptions are available, allowing older or disabled residents to leave loose leaves at the side of the road for town collection.

Southampton’s approach is considered a success and seems like something that could work here. East Hampton is a smaller town, and since existing Highway Department trucks could be used to haul the bags, start-up costs would be minimal. The idea should receive serious consideration.