Crews under contract to the State of New York will begin resurfacing Route 114 between East Hampton and Sag Harbor sometime in the fall. The work follows a larger effort on Montauk Highway, Route 27, which was completed in the spring. As smooth as the new pavement is, there is reason for concern for bicyclists, who seem to have been all but forgotten during the highway work.

For some reason, the Department of Transportation appears to favor expansive no-go zones and turning lanes at the expense of room along the shoulders for bikes. This is unfortunate as the seemingly narrow lanes often force those on two wheels into a tight squeeze between moving traffic and parked vehicles. It is almost as if the state were trying to discourage bicyclists from using the roads.

With Route 114 resurfacing looming, officials should remember that bicycling is a big deal here, with some members of the work force dependent on two wheels to get to their jobs. And, of course, there are all the weekend riders who are expected to follow the rules of the road and should get decent surfaces and safe line markings as part of the deal.

The same goes for other parts of the South Fork where, as roadwork is contemplated in the future, better and safer conditions for bikers and pedestrians should be a must.

One of the reasons many people go to East Hampton Village’s ocean beaches is precisely because they are not — underscore not — like those maintained by the Town of East Hampton, where a degree of slovenliness and barely maintained, cement-bunker-like facilities are unfortunately the norm. Now, village officials have been looking at allowing food vendors at Georgica and Two Mile Hollow. This is a terrible idea and should go no further.

For the most part, the village runs a really tight ship where the ocean beaches are concerned and recently pledged additional early morning trash pickups to make sure the sand and surrounding parking areas are spick-and-span at whatever time of day beachgoers arrive. The village was a leader in banning fires built right on the sand, requiring that they be contained in metal wash basins or the like, and the result has been a return to pristine conditions, where, until the ban, black flecks of charcoal had marred the white sand.

People pay for the privilege of spreading their towels and opening their beach chairs on the village’s white sands; $375 nonresident parking permits sell out in the blink of an eye when they become available each spring. Food vending, with all the paper waste and sticky drizzle it can produce, threatens the beaches’ desirability. Consider, too, that for parents of small children, food-free beaches can be a blessing: no whining about buying ice cream or other treats usually reserved for after dinner. For the hungry, there is always Main Beach, which has the charming, old-fashioned Chowder Bowl for all the fried food and sweets one might want.

One of the reasons cited at a recent village board meeting for allowing food vending at Two Mile Hollow in particular is that the parking lot there is often less than full. If getting more people to use this particular beach is the goal, there are other options, ones that would not increase litter and trash. One notion might be selling some nonresident permits valid only at Two Mile Hollow. Another might be granting taxpayers from the fire protection districts that contract with the village for emergency services a limited number of free parking passes on a lottery basis. Or the village could leave well enough alone — which is probably the best course, at least for now.

Reading last week’s story about the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee, we were struck by a brief mention of that hamlet’s train station and the vehicle congestion during high-season weekend arrival and departure times. Things are not much better at East Hampton’s Long Island Rail Road stop and a whole lot worse at the Bridgehampton site, where the chaos even on a recent August weekday morning was truly beyond belief. But traffic problems may be the least of the railroad’s worries as a federal agency has begun to look at onboard safety on Hamptons-bound trains.

Underscoring concerns about the Montauk branch nearing a breaking point, the Federal Railroad Administration this week met with the L.I.R.R.’s operations head to discuss overcrowding. A railroad spokesman said that the question of passengers sitting on luggage in the aisles on the Cannonball, a Friday express from New York City, was added to the agenda of a previously scheduled meeting. The feds are concerned that too many passengers and all their weekend baggage might hinder an evacuation between cars in the event of an emergency.

Notably, the spokesman said, the L.I.R.R. does not have a maximum per-car occupancy limit nor was it able to say how many people exactly pile onto each train. The L.I.R.R. has not tallied up the use of its various stations more than once or twice a decade. Think of it: Thousands of riders, but the railroad cannot say how many. It’s laughable, to be generous; dangerously incompetent otherwise.

There is, of course, the distinct possibility that someone in the bowels of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority does know exactly how many tickets were issued in a given period to, say, Montauk, but if so, he or she is not telling the press office. On the other hand, maybe not. What can be inferred is that the policy makers and the people who create the schedules are doing so in an information vacuum — and that goes as well for the people who design our hamlet and village train stations and are in charge of their surrounding traffic patterns, and more important, onboard safety.

Anyone who has been in one of these vehicle scrums or a packed Friday train car can attest to the problem. What is astounding is that no one in a position to do something about it is keeping track even in the most minimal fashion — accurate passenger counts. At this point, moving the Amagansett L.I.R.R. station to another site, as suggested, might be a good idea, but until there are real numbers about its use, advocating for it can only be speculation. However, it is more than obvious that the railroad must move swiftly to improve weekender service on the Montauk branch.

Long Island Sound is a federally designated no-discharge zone, but apparently no one told the right people at the Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers. The corps, which is rapidly readying a lunatic plan to destroy the Montauk downtown oceanfront in order to save it, and the E.P.A. are ready to continue dumping dredged material in the Sound, as close to eastern Long Island as off New London.

An unusual coalition has sprung up to demand alternatives to placing toxin-laden silt from Connecticut rivers into this highly important waterway. Those calling for a better solution include New York State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, Assemblyman Steve Englebright, Brookhaven officials, Suffolk Legislator Al Krupski, and Kevin McAllister, a well-known activist. They want the corps to find other places for the spoils and to segregate those that are toxic from the rest, which they say should be placed in upland sites, not in the water. They and others have pointed out that this is exactly what New York and Connecticut pledged to do in 2005 with a promised phase-out of at-sea dumping.

Several hearings have been held on the plan to continue using the Sound’s dump sites, and written comment will be taken by the Army Corps until the end of next week. However, we get the sense that, as with downtown Montauk, the corps in particular is taking the easy way out. Obviously, what is needed is for the region’s representatives in Washington to get involved, and fast. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer of New York and Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, as well as Representative Lee Zeldin, have all signed on to measures designed to protect and restore Long Island Sound. They each should take an immediate, personal role in bringing an end to the use of it as a garbage dump.

Congratulations are due the East Hampton Town Board for unanimously voting last week to ban parking on a significant portion of Edgemere Street, where patrons of the Surf Lodge bar and restaurant (and lately, full-on concert venue) have made the road treacherous. The no-parking zone will encompass about a half mile of Edgemere Street, from well north of the club to South Elwell Street; parking will remain available closer to the Long Island Rail Road station, at about where Flamingo Avenue begins. In effect, the board told the Surf Lodge to deal with its customers’ cars. The move is but a start, and the board must turn next to other problem spots, most, but not all, in Montauk.

A good number of drivers have described near-misses to the west, at Cyril’s Fish House on Montauk Highway, for example. Westbound traffic slows to a stop there as patrons, taxi drivers, and the restaurant’s staff stir their own breed of chaos. Some assistance from the New York State Department of Transportation is sorely needed there — and quickly — before a fatal accident proves fears correct.

Another problem site made the news this week when a lawsuit was filed against the town by Sloppy Tuna, another hot spot in Montauk, challenging what it says was an arbitrary change in its maximum occupancy. That will work its way through the legal process, but a side note concerning the often-crowded bar and restaurant deserves attention.

 Former East Hampton Town Police Chief Ed Ecker Jr. now seems to work for a consulting firm hired by Drew Doscher, Sloppy Tuns’s owner. No disrespect intended, but we suspect Mr. Ecker was hired as much for who he is as for his expertise. On July 22, Mr. Ecker sat down with two former subordinates, the current chief, Michael D. Sarlo, and Lt. Thomas Grenci, the Montauk precinct commander, to discuss Sloppy Tuna. Whether one likes the place or is unhappy about the throngs it attracts, there seems to be something not quite right about a well-connected former town official acting on behalf of a business taking the town to court. One might hope Sloppy Tuna would try to tone it down so that residents would find being there more to their liking. But that is probably too much to ask when there are large heaps of money to be made catering to the party crowd.

Owners of these bars and restaurants will all say they are complying with what authorities ask and are being unfairly targeted. It will be a tough fight to bring them into line, but the town board, through the Edgemere parking ban and other efforts, is demonstrating that it has the will to take it on — even if it means standing up to old friends like Mr. Ecker.

As the 2015 high season comes to a close, East Hampton Town officials should begin working on to-do lists in an effort to make next summer a better one. To succeed will be a monumental undertaking and it is not likely to be completed in the span of just several months, but elected leaders, law enforcement officials, and town staff must make every effort to control growth. Given the unprecedented population surge, dialing things back a little might not be such a bad thing. The question is where to start.

Simultaneously with worrying about the coming Nov. 6 election, town officials will be working on the next year’s budget. This is where the battle will be won or lost in trying to win back East Hampton for those of us who live here, those who spend substantial amounts of time here, and those for whom this place no longer feels like home.

Elected officials now live in fear of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s government-starving 2-percent tax cap. And, this being an election year, it would be a surprise if any of the political parties’ candidates advocated exceeding the cap in 2016. Keep in mind that the Cuomo cap means there is less ability to spend every year because the tax rate lags behind inflation. So if there is to be no increased revenue from taxes, the big problem is figuring out where the money will come from to do what needs to be done, be it for more staff or taking the fight to court.

An approach that could find broad support here is taking on the problem spots directly. That might mean increasing fines for quality-of-life penalties, and particularly commercial violations, as far as possible.

One idea that also should be considered is installing parking meters on the downtown Montauk streets used by beachgoers. We can think of no other ocean beach on Long Island that offers free all-day parking for visitors — and you can believe this is well-known among daytrippers. The cost for a vehicle to enter Jones Beach in Nassau County is $10; charging even half that for a day at Montauk would be useful. Look, we’re not saying the town should charge an up-to-$8 per person fee just to walk on the sand the way such places as Long Beach Island do in New Jersey, but given the problems in the hamlet in recent summers, not seeking income for improved services and police patrols would be a missed opportunity.

Those looking ahead on behalf of the public should not forget that many businesses here plan for summer’s onslaught and respond accordingly. That is something local government has heretofore found impossible. Being better prepared for next year should be among the highest off-season priorities.

Quick: If you live and pay taxes outside one of the incorporated villages in East Hampton Town, name one of your fire commissioners. Can’t do it? You’re not alone.

Another question: How many of you voted in the last fire district election? Not so many? We thought so.

Whichever side a resident might be on regarding two issues that have blown up recently in the Springs Fire District — a cellphone tower and concerns about its ambulance service — one little-known aspect of how it and other fire districts are constituted deserves more attention.

By state law, fire commissioners are elected for five-year terms. The trouble is that only one commissioner comes up for election each year. This means that should residents seek a change of direction, it would take a minimum of three years’ of going to the polls, assuming, as is the pattern, that most commissioners seek re-election. By that time, the issue that caused a groundswell could all but be forgotten. By sequencing votes one commissioner at a time, the law assures stability, but at a cost of meaningful public participation in this arm of government. It is, to be blunt, something that would seem more at home in a foreign politburo than in a country that prides itself on open, free, and fair elections.

The way fire commissioners are chosen is as anti-democratic a process as could be imagined and should be overhauled.

So what, you might ask, does a fire district do, and why should residents care? The answer is that these autonomous governments levy taxes to pay for emergency services and incur debt to finance equipment and build firehouses and the like. In the villages, as hinted above, there are no fire commissioners and the elected trustees play that role. Residents who live outside of a fire district or village get emergency services through a town-negotiated contract. For example, people with property in the Northwest Fire Protection District pay East Hampton Village for fire and ambulance services, though they do not get to vote in village elections.

Most elected bodies in New York State follow a pattern that makes “throwing the bums out,” if you will, possible. For example, three of the five seats on the East Hampton Town Board will be in play on Nov. 3, which means that if enough voters don’t like the job Larry Cantwell, Peter Van Scoyoc, and Sylvia Overby are doing, they could force a change of direction, should they so choose. It’s more or less the same for school and village boards. And imagine: If enough people cared, the entire panel of East Hampton Town Trustees could be pink-slipped in a single day’s election. Even more impressive perhaps is that Americans will select a new president next year and have a chance to remake Congress. Not so with fire commissioners.

Fire commissioners can cruise along effectively insulated from what passes for the normal political process in this country. One-at-a-time elections for fire commissioners were established by legislative design, although what the motivation was seems lost to history. The result is a sure way to perpetuate a board’s status quo and assure only the most minimal voter interest, with turnout only among friends and relatives, if that.

Don’t like the Springs cellphone tower or believe that the district should pay for a paramedic program to supplement its volunteers? Too bad. Your vote would not matter until after the 2017 election at the earliest. This should be changed. We hope that the Legislature, which sets municipal organization law in New York State, is aware of this anomaly and paying attention.

The courtesy left — when a driver suddenly stops to let a driver in an oncoming lane cross over to make a turn — is either a last vestige of public decency on the roads or a risk to others. We believe it is the latter. In effect, the practice adds up to one driver’s making a decision for another, a bad idea that is inherently dangerous.

We were again put in mind of this last week when we read in these pages about a bicyclist who was hurt on Sept. 13 when he collided with a car on Pantigo Road. According to police, an East Meadow resident who was headed east paused to allow a visitor from Martha’s Vineyard who was headed west to turn toward the CVS Pharmacy parking lot on Gay Lane. Thomas Kim of Brooklyn, who was pedaling east on a bicycle, slammed into the side of the sedan making the left, which blocked his path. He was flown by Suffolk police helicopter to Stony Brook University Hospital for treatment.

This accident was hardly the first caused by good intentions gone awry. There have been recent similar incidents that we know of in Montauk, Amagansett, and Bridgehampton — some that also required hospital visits for injuries. A friend remains in a brace now months after an accident caused when the driver in front of his truck jammed on the brakes to avoid a group of ducks.

The courtesy left is contagious and seems to have become more prevalent. Also risky is something seen frequently on East Hampton’s Main Street, when drivers with the right of way allow jaywalkers to cross, only to have them stroll into the path of another vehicle in the next lane.

Equal to being aware of hazards, drivers should strive to make the movements of their vehicles easily understood, steady, and predictable. As much as we should celebrate the impulse to be chivalrous,  caution and the commonly understood rules of the road should always take precedence.

Go ahead, make a left. Make two, if you want. It’s September! Tumbleweed Tuesday, some call it, the day after Labor Day when we East Hamptoners get our town back. It is a day for celebration, as they did in Montauk with a live band and cookout on the downtown green. But when you think about it, there is a rather depressing notion at its core — that for the preceding three months locals have too often felt like strangers in their own hometown.

This year more than most, East Hampton has suffered the sour fruit of its own popularity. Sure, certain businesses were booming, notably Montauk’s bars and restaurants and places that sold carry-out beer, but others, like a furnishings shop in Sag Harbor whose owner we spoke with the other day, have been looking forward to this month eagerly. Short-term renters and the day-trippers who mobbed that village and the various hamlets this year do not spend money on her duvet covers, hand-sewn pillowcases, and the like; residents and second-home owners who emerge about now actually do. It is a sea change, she said.

We hope local officials will think long and hard about how to make the weeks of the high season more like this one, when peace returns. With important town elections coming up in Southampton and East Hampton, moving the clock back to a more civilized time is something each candidate should be pressed about. Tumbleweed Tuesday should be a model for how we like the rest of the year, not a passing reward for putting up with a summer’s worth of nuisances.

Water quality has been in the news this summer, thanks in part to Suffolk Executive Steve Bellone’s seizing on it in his re-election bid. Locally, there have been closures of Georgica and Hook Ponds after potentially harmful bacteria were found. At the state level, there is a bid to allow up to a fifth of future income to be skimmed off the community preservation fund for water improvement projects.

 And, looking farther back, a consultant’s study of wastewater requirements in the Town of East Hampton produced a back-of-the-napkin proposal for a sewage treatment system for a part of Montauk that is not generally known to have a water problem. There is a lot going on, but just how much reflects actual need and how much is being played for politics or is really a cloaked giveaway to developers remains murky.

As with the Army Corps of Engineers’ looming remake of the downtown Montauk oceanfront, there is no assurance that officials can be trusted to make the right — or even the legal — decision. Massive water quality initiatives would stand an equal if not greater chance of getting it wrong. Sewage treatment plants, which some in power seem ready to throw millions at, have a poor record on Long Island, and state and county oversight has lagged. Consider that in Nassau County officials want to spend more than half a billion dollars to extend a nitrogen-spewing outfall pipe from a sewage plant two miles into the Atlantic rather than try to improve the plant’s efficiency.

What is clear is that environmental organizations and truly independent experts must be brought in before big money is committed. And, in the meantime, small steps might well produce important results in the near term, as long as they are properly conceived and rigorously vetted.

Take, for example, the elevated bacteria levels frequently found at Fresh Pond, Amagansett, in samples taken by the Concerned Citizens of Montauk. The highest enterococcus concentration is consistently from a tidal creek that feeds the pond, raising suspicion about the creek’s proximity to a town restroom. A modest project to correct this might provide immediate environmental benefit if a link was found. Strengthening Suffolk County’s limits on the use of fertilizers would be important as well, perhaps expanding the law to a year-round ban for those high in nitrogen.

Another start would be for the county to adopt tough new discharge limits and numerical measures in keeping with those of the federal Environmental Protection Agency. As critics have said, without standards there is no way to assure that water projects are meeting their goals. Initiatives begun in the absence of a way to gauge results could flush good money down the drain