Here in East Hampton Town, because so many delis and other takeout joints around here have seating of one sort or another for patrons, one might be forgiven for believing it was legal. It is not, though officials are considering how to make it so. 

It is interesting to reflect on how things once were: The number of seats at eateries was tied to parking availability, as well as a space’s interior fire-safety capacity. At the moment, that hardly seems to matter. It could be that the town’s enforcement staff is too busy these days to get to this kind of thing, but it also could be that perceptions have changed, with a growing, if unfortunate, sense that where customers leave their vehicles is no longer the businesses’ problem. Now, the town board is poised to allow up to 16 seats per establishment, with no hint that owners would have to pay into the once-important, if ineffective, parking fund.  

To us, this giveaway looks like evidence of officials’ off-season amnesia of the sort we have seen again and again. It is unlikely that the members of the East Hampton Town Board would be quite so generous in the heat of packed July. Yet here we are, as Memorial Day weekend approaches, getting ready to formally allow places that prepare food for off-premises eating to become de facto restaurants. Forgive us, but this seems an experiment that will only add to congestion, not ease it.

At the same time, the town is toying with the idea of allowing restaurants in Montauk to place their tables and chairs on public property in a test. This is a sounder idea, provided the town is able to make sure that by doing so the restaurants do not add to their capacity — again, taking away parking from other businesses. They are doing it anyway; bringing some order to the chaos is a must.

At a minimum, eateries providing seating should be compelled to install restrooms commensurate with the expected number of diners, as well as state-of-the-art wastewater systems once county regulators approve them. To encourage additional on-site activity without adequate environmental precautions would be unacceptable, especially for a town that is so otherwise enthusiastic about water quality. The town should not give something away so easily without demanding meaningful concessions in return, a payment, in effect, for loosening longstanding, hard-won zoning restraints. 

Balanced and fair regulation of high-traffic businesses is no easy thing, and the hodgepodge that exists now of legal and not-so-legal seating arrangements certainly could use tidying up. Adding seats or grandfathering those improperly there already before there is a commitment to enforcing existing rules and protecting the environment, however, would to be a serious mistake. Deli dining should come at a price.

With the Republican and Democratic candidates for election in November in East Hampton Town announced, one thing stands out: Despite a considerable and growing presence here, there is not one Latino among them.

Manny Vilar, the Republican Committee’s pick for town supervisor, is of Portuguese descent. Peter Van Scoyoc, the Democrat’s nominee, has family connections to an early Dutch colonist. And so on down the line. 

It is the same thing for the school boards, which are for the most part made up of people of European heritage. What passes for variety on the town trustees is if a candidate is left-handed.

Greater diversity among the backgrounds of elected officials takes time. The usual path for a town councilman or woman’s seat can include years on planning or zoning boards. Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, seeking re-election this fall, was on the Springs School Board; Jeffrey Bragman, taking a shot at the town board, had been a town and village attorney. 

Mr. Vilar is a state parks police sergeant. Running as a Republican for the town board, Jerry Larsen recently retired as East Hampton Village Police chief, and Paul Giardina worked at the Environmental Protection Agency. Each has had considerable public service. 

According to the United States Census, East Hampton Town was 26 percent Hispanic or Latino in 2010. That figure has probably increased quite a bit since the last count. With so many Latinos living, working, and raising families here, it is clear that greater representation in local government would be ideal.

It is only a matter of time before Latino candidates emerge. Already, a number of people of Mexican, Central, or South American background are becoming involved in political matters. Organización Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island recently hired a civic engagement coordinator whose job will include energizing voters. This is important, but it cannot be the end of the story.

East Hampton Town has for some time had a Latino advisory committee, which meets only on an occasional basis. That is hardly enough. Direct Latino involvement in government must be a priority for Town Hall, and for the area’s school and village boards. Every effort should be made to engage the entire community.

The rescue off Montauk Point of two people from a small boat taking on water Saturday should serve as a reminder of the dangers of cold water. 

A press release from the Montauk Coast Guard Station said the two people had set out from shore in a folding boat of the sort more appropriate for a lake or other enclosed waterway. Tides at the Point run hard, and their small trolling motor was quickly overpowered. A passing charter boat captain who heard a distress alert spotted the boaters and stayed with them until the Coast Guard arrived. Had he not been nearby, the outcome might have been tragic.

Though the air temperature here can be comfortable, the bays and ocean lag far behind. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s buoy data, available online, the water temperature now remains about 48 degrees, low enough to produce hypothermia in a person immersed for under five minutes. For a sense of just how low that is, run 50-degree tap water over your hand for a while. Then try to imagine your entire body in it. Surfers this week were still in full neoprene suits, most with hoods, thick gloves, and booties. Other water sports enthusiasts should take note.

It may be easy to scoff at this story, but examples of people who take the water less seriously than they should are plentiful. For example, as the popularity of stand-up paddleboarding has boomed, too few of those heading out pay attention to the regulation that they carry an approved floatation device. 

The rescued Montauk boaters were lucky; they had with them a portable VHF radio with which they made an initial call for help. Though their choice to test Block Island Sound was a bad one, at least they were prepared to summon assistance. Consider theirs a cautionary tale.

They said it could not be done: A public restroom in Amagansett. Now, on Monday, if officials are to be believed, the ceremonial first flush will take place. It will have been a long time coming.

Providing a place to go in the hamlet’s central business district has been a struggle going back to the 1980s, if not longer. Over the decades, ideas were floated for a site in Amagansett Square, which is privately owned. More recently, the town parking lot north of the highway appeared the obvious choice, though issues with neighbors and groundwater flow complicated matters. Throughout, businesses and, especially, the Amagansett Library have had to accommodate visitors in need. Headline writers’ puns over the years (“Finally, a Place to Go in ’Gansett!”) have been both unbearable and premature.

Despite Monday’s expected opening, work at the Amagansett restroom is likely to continue. As concerns about groundwater contamination grow, public facilities like this should be among the first to be fitted with new, low-nitrogen septic systems. Let’s hope that doing so does not take another 30 years.

School district budget planning has recently been without customary fireworks. In part, this is because a state cap on how much taxes can be increased has taken the heat out of the process, with a supermajority of voter approval necessary to pierce the cap. This is not to suggest that school spending is unimportant; rather, as the work educators do gets ever more complex, how money is allotted remains key.

Hearings at which the budgets are officially presented to the public will be held on Monday in Sag Harbor, Tuesday in Wainscott and East Hampton, and Wednesday in Bridgehampton and Montauk. Springs residents will get their turn to learn about the 2017-18 budget on May 8, and in Amagansett and Sagaponack on May 9. In all districts, budget voting takes place on May 16. 

The hearings are excellent opportunities to find out about the respective districts’ plans for the year ahead. Parents and other interested residents should make every effort to attend.

East Hampton Town Trustee Pat Mansir’s surprise resignation last week presents a good opportunity to make some general observations about the town’s oldest continuous government body and how it must now change to keep up with the times.

The trustees date back to the early Colonial era and, at that time, were East Hampton’s only local government. Authority was conferred by charters handed down with British crown authority. The most important, the Dongan Patent of 1686, established the Trustees of Freeholders and Commonalty of the Town of East Hampton, whose successors are the trustees we now know.

Ms. Mansir’s departure brought the trustees’ ranks to eight members, down from its customary nine. This is a step in the right direction, we believe, because of the unwieldy nature of an elected board of that size. The nine-justice Supreme Court stands in contrast; its members serve for life but don their robes only after presidential nomination and an exhaustive Senate confirmation process. The East Hampton Town trustees are elected in one fell swoop, which asks the average voter to do the impossible: Make an informed choice among as many as 18 candidates. As a result, there have been plenty of duds and no-shows among the trustees over the years, as voters have had to resort to following the party line or picking a candidate whose last name sounds as if it is from a local fishing family. It would be far better to stagger their terms, so that only a portion of the seats would be in play in any one election.

The trustees should also take this moment to assume a more professional operating procedure, sticking to agendas and empowering its chosen clerk to rein in disruptive members in the interest of decorum and everyone’s time. More staff might help, too, as would a clearer definition of what a trustee’s job entails. Ms. Mansir’s resignation indicates that the trustees could use a tuneup, but they are definitely worth keeping around. 

A mailing from the Garden Club of East Hampton with pretty painted images of plants native to this area arrived this week and piqued our interest. There, arrayed on a folding card announcing the club’s upcoming annual sale, were milkweed and arrowwood, viburnum, columbine, eastern shadbush, cardinal flower, New England aster, and bearberry — which hungry deer avoid and are in their own ways important parts of the ecosystem, enjoyed by bird and bug alike. 

’Tis the season. A day later, flipping through the most recent Audubon magazine, we read a statistic that a native oak tree can support at least 557 species of butterflies and moths — and myriad birds for which the butterflies and moths may be lunch. By comparison, a non-native ginkgo tree sustains just five butterflies and moths.

A nifty tool on Audubon’s website provided more information. The red-blossomed cardinal flower on the Garden Club’s mailing is like candy to hummingbirds, and it pleases wrens, grosbeaks, chickadees, and thrushes, among others. Sparrows like yarrows, and jays will gorge among the goldenrod. Enter your ZIP code and you can download a shopping list of sorts to take to local nurseries to turn your garden into an insect and bird-welcome zone. The Garden Club’s May 27 sale is, of course, another fine source.

In Riverhead, an organization will welcome volunteers this weekend and through next month to help germinate seeds and tend to young plants. This is in advance of the Long Island Native Plant Initiative’s sale days in early June at Suffolk Community College. Into the flats will go joe-pye weed, boneset, and germander; out to new sites will go the plants to attract insects and birds. 

If you are planning a garden this year or hope to do a good deed, consider going native. Hardy blooms and the creatures that thrive among them will thank you.

Many in the commercial fishing industry are frustrated with the pace of planning a planned wind farm in the Atlantic east of Montauk. The project, they say, will hurt their ability to make a living and they are feeling left behind by public officials and by public sentiment, which appears largely supportive. Aware of these concerns, Deepwater Wind, the company planning the turbines, wants to hire a handful of local representatives to help smooth the waters.

Balancing the needs of fishermen with the increasing call for renewable energy is a tough order. Seafood harvesters here have long expressed displeasure at what they see as excessive and unnecessary regulation. Now, with the industrialization of portions of their fishing grounds, they fear a slippery slope in which productive areas are put out of reach. Their concerns are important and have to be weighed carefully.

There are no easy or cost-free solutions to the soaring electricity demands of our modern society. Traditional fossil-fuel power plants are among the largest sources of damaging emissions. Wind is part of a less-polluting future that will also have to include the reduction of demand as well as land-based generation by solar and other “green” methods. 

Given the dire predictions on the effects of global warming, ocean sites for wind farms will have to be part of the answer. As the calls for tapping the consistent offshore winds grow, we must keep in mind the people who make their living from fishing. At this point, Deepwater’s search for the $50-an-hour representatives seems more for show than an indication of substantive concession to the industry’s legitimate concerns. 

Assuming that offshore wind will inevitably be utilized on a large scale, much more effort should be made to place turbines away from important fishing areas — including the site in Deepwater’s plans on the traditionally productive Cox’s Ledge. In addition, members of the commercial fishing industry who are displaced or suffer economic losses must be compensated, either through subsidies or tax breaks. 

The fishing fleet will enjoy the benefits of a greener planet, along with the rest of us, but it should not have to endure a disproportionate part of the cost.

As the United States enters a dark age for environmental protection by Washington, the job has come down both literally and figuratively to our own backyards. 

A Republican Congress eager to remove what it views as unfair impediments to business has gained an eager champion in President Trump. The suppression of climate change programs and funding cuts are causing great alarm. A former anti-Environmental Protection Agency state attorney general has been put in charge of that agency. A lifelong oilman is the new secretary of state. Mr. Trump has vowed to return the coal industry to its lightly regulated glory days. 

Other moves have included a proposed $1.5 billion cut in the National Park Service allotment and hints that the administration will dump Obama-era vehicle emissions standards as well as longstanding water rules. The damage could take decades to undo.

States have taken steps of their own. New York is set to become only the second in the nation to get nonpolluting electricity from offshore wind turbines when the Deepwater project 30 miles east of Montauk goes online in 2022. Important, too, is $2.5 billion in the new state budget for clean water, including $110 million for land purchases.

On Long Island, the East End towns and Suffolk County have recently accelerated water-quality programs. East Hampton is finalizing the rules for septic system upgrade rebates. County Executive Steve Bellone has announced that grants and loans for homeowners will soon be available for new high-tech, low-contaminant systems.

The goal of all these efforts is to protect drinking water in this crowded county, as well as to reduce the nutrient pollution that is overpowering marine and freshwater ecosystems, killing fish, shellfish, and the micro-organisms on which they depend. In some cases, algal blooms can lead to elevated toxins and bacteria that are dangerous to humans. There are even atmospheric effects, particularly linked to nitrogen, that can raise ammonia and ozone, which can impair breathing, limit visibility, and hamper plant growth.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation began a campaign this week to encourage the use of phosphorus-free lawn fertilizers and native plants and grasses. It also is promoting letting lawn clippings remain in the yard and maintaining grass at a height of at least three inches to allow deep root growth, which is more able to withstand weeds and drought. These are steps in the right direction. 

Advocates of a soft approach to the home landscape say slow-release fertilizer, or, better, organic compost, is preferable to aggressive treatments aimed at getting the lawn emerald green by Memorial Day. The Perfect Earth Project, based here, has tips on more environment-friendly methods of lawn care — and favors a three-and-a-half-inch height for grass, among other things. The Peconic Land Trust offers free organic lawn-care advice on Wednesdays at Bridge Gardens in Bridgehampton; it also will answer questions at [email protected].

Earth Day is Saturday. Given the weather, many of us are likely to be tending our lawns and gardens and making choices about what products to use. This year, perhaps more than ever, organic, earth-friendly solutions are essential.

John Keeshan, who was in the news last week for folding his eponymous real estate agency into the Compass group, made the papers some years back with his push to get rid of the welter of utility lines that mar the view as one approaches Montauk’s commercial center from the west. The effort to bury the wires stalled, as do many such things, because of money, or, more accurately, the lack thereof. Elsewhere, well-heeled residents have banded together to create special tax districts to pay for taking down the poles; in Montauk that prospect was never good.

State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., who has long heard complaints about the ugly overhead lines, and more recently the extension of utility poles, has offered a variety of solutions, which for the most part went nowhere. Now he has taken a different tack, presenting a bill that would create a statewide fund using money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. His argument is that underground utilities are far less vulnerable to outages in storms. Long Island, with its susceptibility to hurricanes, and upstate, where ice storms frequently take down electrical service, would both benefit. And more and more violent weather events caused by global warming give greater urgency to fortifying New York’s utilities.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, electricity on much of Long Island was cut off for up to two weeks, with damaging economic effects. Underground power lines would help avert that the next time. As a bonus, the entry to Montauk would sure look a heck of a lot better.