We had known for a while that we had honeybees in the attic. But the way things are in The Star’s century-old Main Street building, it was really no big deal. Until roofers exposed their sprawling hive last week, the bees never really bothered anybody as they came and went from a gap in the soffit high above the sidewalk. In fact, the only time they had any impact whatsoever on the ground floor was one hot summer’s day when a thin trickle of honey appeared on the inside of one of our front windows, hardly enough to spread on toast.

Honeybees are in trouble due to something known as colony collapse disorder, as well as a variety of other factors. Reports of losses of 30 percent or more a year by beekeepers are common. But bees are an essential part of the food web; as much as $20 billion worth of the food crop in North America is dependent on the relentless pollination these social and generally peaceable creatures perform. Given this, it is cruel and wholly counterproductive to call in an exterminator at the first sign of a swarm, as many do in fear and ignorance.

So our first call when the roofers alerted us was to Dell Cullum, a well-known East Hampton photographer and wildlife relocation expert. After taking a look, Dell phoned East Hampton Town Trustee Debbie Klughers, who also happens to be a beekeeper. Suited in protective mesh to keep bees out of her hair and off her face, but with bare hands, Debbie, with a little help from some Star staff members, methodically removed sections of hive from between the rafters, placing the milling bees into a wooden box for transit to their new home, while Dell recorded it all on video.

There was elation when they spotted the colony’s queen, which, to us, looked like an oversized bee. Debbie explained that the brood clustered around the queen to keep her warm and that if we were able to get her into the transportation box, the rest would go along placidly. It took a bit over an hour to complete the task. During this, bees buzzed everywhere in the room, crawling on our hands and arms, but only one person, Debbie, was stung, and just once, on a finger.

As spring’s warmth encourages honeybees out of their winter torpor, people will undoubtedly see their swarms. Many beekeepers will perform hive rescues, and if they do not, will know someone who will. Lethal methods of control should be the very last resort. The bees aren’t looking to harm anyone, and right now, they can use all the help they can get.

WATCH: What To Do When You Have Bees in the Attic? Call a Bee Rescuer

East Hampton Town may test a radical trash concept this summer, asking those who go to the popular Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett, or perhaps another location, to take away all the waste they generate, removing all of the receptacles usually there.

“Take only pictures, leave only footprints” is a mantra for the use of many public lands, including national wilderness areas. Whether it would work here is an open question, but it is an experiment worth taking on.

As things stand now, during the peak summer season the margins of the ocean beach parking lots often look like disaster areas at the end of the day. This is when everyone floods off the sand toward their vehicles, dropping anything and everything at the bins and leaving bags, broken chairs, beer boxes, and busted umbrellas alongside them when there is no more room. If you pause for a moment and reflect on the scene, you may wonder exactly why, when these beachgoers brought all this stuff there, they do not take it home, especially when the garbage cans are filled to overflowing.

Getting people to change their ways and to clean up after themselves and take responsibility for the waste they produce is likely to take time, but that is no reason not to try. If anything, it would be hard to imagine that the immediate outcome of such a move could be any worse than the seagulls’ smorgasbords that already ensue.

An old acquaintance wrote recently to ask on behalf of a friend if we knew of any year-round rentals in the Southampton Village vicinity. The friend, a medical professional who is frequently on call to see emergency patients at very short notice, had indicated it might be necessary to leave the area if a place to live proved impossible to find. If this isn’t an example of a housing crisis, we don’t know what is.

At a different end of the workplace spectrum, a look at the classified ads in this week’s Star suggests that employers are having a tough time finding staff, due to no small degree, it is safe to assume, to a lack of housing. The summer of 2015 is shaping up to be worrisome for businesses that can’t find enough help.

There’s more evidence, of course. The so-called trade parade of eastbound morning traffic through Southampton has become a fact of life drawing little notice. Still, when the two-lane Sunrise Highway is backed up and barely moving from well before the Hampton Bays-Riverhead exit, as it was at 7:15 last Thursday morning, there is something far out of whack.

Those businesses that do not provide housing for their employees find themselves in desperate competition for help, and workers themselves are consigned to either battling the traffic or living in illegal and sometimes unsafe group rentals.

One number jumped out at us from a story in last Thursday’s Star, too. According to a town official, less than a third of the houses in Wainscott are occupied year round. The other 70 percent or so were seasonal. Of the small portion who live in Wainscott year round, an even smaller number could be expected to be employed here, be it as waitstaff or newly minted professionals with lots of degrees.

It is a safe guess that vacation rental websites like Airbnb have eaten away at the availability of year-round or reasonably priced seasonal rentals. The ease of online bookings has turned anyone with an extra room or cottage into a host, with the promise of good money and less wear and tear on properties. It is hard to imagine how local officials can figure out how to put that particular genie back in the bottle, but something has to be done.

An obvious step, though one that town and village governments would be loath to take, is to sharply limit all new development until studies are concluded giving material recommendations on providing work force housing, as well as adequate infrastructure. To permit growth without taking its impact into account is foolhardy. Finding ways to assure places to live for the people who keep the South Fork humming — and even some of us alive — should be a top priority.

New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has taken on the state’s public school teachers, and they are firing back — hard. It’s about time.      

Schools and students have struggled under Mr. Cuomo’s signature 2-percent tax increase cap. Now, in his 2015 budget, the governor has proposed education policy changes linking half of a teacher’s evaluation to students’ standardized test scores. The greatest flaw in this disastrous reform is the fact that test results can depend on socioeconomic factors, notably wealth, and that linking teachers’ careers to scores could provide a strong disincentive for them to work with the state’s neediest students.

Mr. Cuomo has proposed increasing state education aid by as much as 5 percent for schools that sign on to the reforms. Rich districts could perhaps afford to sidestep them, but poorer districts, desperate for cash, might not have that luxury. He also has proposed sweetening the landscape for charter schools, which can draw away scarce funding, and he supports a backdoor path by which tax dollars could go to private and religious institutions.

As one education scholar said, the Cuomo plan would make teaching in the State of New York a very high-risk career choice. “You have made us the enemy,” 7 of the top 10 New York State teachers in the last decade wrote in a joint letter to the governor. The head of the New York State United Teachers union said, “He has declared war on the public schools.” This at a time when educators and students need all the support that can be mustered to cope with a rapidly changing world and altered job market.

One can see plenty of politics here. Teacher evaluations and school vouchers are popular with some Republicans interested in education reform. Mr. Cuomo’s 2-percent tax cap could be a message, intended for a future presidential campaign, that even though he is a Democrat he has reduced taxes in a traditionally liberal, high-tax state like New York and can do it anywhere. Unfortunately, the governor’s ambition has gotten in the way of sound policy.

What is called for now is a truce. Teachers have a tough enough job without having the governor as adversary-in-chief. Mr. Cuomo should rethink his education agenda to make it fair and especially provide for those school districts in greatest need of help.

More than a week after the snow from the blizzard that pounded East Hampton and the rest of Long Island began to be hauled away, one aspect of the official preparations and response should be examined.

As the storm approached, local, county, and state offices issued separate warnings. At the same time, the various police departments were passing along information of their own. Ordinary citizens could have been forgiven for becoming confused. Was there a driving curfew at 7 p.m., or was it at 9? What exactly did the state of emergency mean we were supposed to do — or not do? When was it safe to venture out? It was nearly impossible to say. Then things got really confusing around dark when Suffolk Executive Steve Bellone’s voice was heard via an automated telephone call reminding residents about an order from the governor shutting all roads down at 11 p.m.

Conceding that there is little that can be done about what Riverhead and Albany may do when the next storm approaches, it appears that our local authorities could do a better job of coordinating their efforts and getting out consistent advice. It might make sense for East Hampton and Southampton officials, including those in the respective villages, to designate a single public information officer whose job it would be to remove ambiguity from important announcements about driving bans, power outages, and, in the case of hurricanes, community shelters or evacuations.

As things worked out, Southampton lifted its 7 p.m. road closing well before the other jurisdictions did, even though many people who work there may live in East Hampton, where driving was still prohibited. Local conditions may have justified this, but it left some residents wondering what to do, when it was reasonable to venture out to get a few important things done, resupply with food, or make essential appointments.

Then, as the snow began to finally stop, plow crews took to the roads in what was a exceptionally challenging job to restore some sense of normal. Their efforts are well appreciated, but even they could have benefited from better communication with the public — notably including during the aftermath, when some hamlet main streets were closed as the giant snowbanks were scooped up to be hauled away.

In an age when information, even faulty information, can be disseminated in an instant it is important that officials get it right from the start. Making clear who is supposed to issue what statements in the event of bad weather and other emergencies would go a long way to reassuring the public that all is well.

What to do about large commercial vehicles left overnight on residential properties has plagued Town Hall going back to the Wilkinson administration. Now, after protracted discussions among town board members and various segments of the public, a more or less reasonable policy appears near. The process of working out some new limits on trucks has been conducted with respect for all sides and a minimum of personal distraction, and this speaks well of the tenor of the town board as now configured.

Let us say first, that our own view regarding truck parking differs from that of those who have said these commercial vehicles are unwelcome neighbors and hurt property values. For us, the real issue is whether a property is wrongly used as a place of business, not what is parked there. As East Hampton Town Councilman Fred Overton said recently, many of the people who own these trucks are the same people who answer ambulance calls or put out fires. For some, he said, holding down more than one job, often one that requires a sizable vehicle, may be the only way to make ends meet.

Then, too, East Hampton has a long tradition of working people keeping the tools of their trade at home. Think of commercial trap fishermen who store nets and long wooden stakes in their yards. To say that house lots are not the place for parking or stockpiling much other than a family’s personal vehicles runs counter to that tradition. Sterile suburbia, we’d like to think, is still someplace way west of the Shinnecock Canal.

In a community where so much of the economic base comes from people who work in the trades, be it carpentry, landscaping, house painting, pool care, or a host of other jobs, it is unfortunate that some residents sound as if they are willing to hurt others. Also unfortunate would be the chance that the new rules could give an additional advantage to the large contracting firms, which are more likely to already have their own appropriate sites for parking.

In its recent revision of the draft ordinance the town board narrows in on the problem. The law would ban vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of 12,000 pounds or greater, with an 18-month phase-out period for locally licensed professionals who own vehicles up to a 14,000-pound weight rating. Pickup trucks would be exempt. All others that exceed the maximum figure would have to be parked on a commercial property. This would effectively remove box trucks, larger panel vans, delivery vehicles, and most dump trucks from residential areas except when they are on a job.

Banning commercial vehicle parking should be just a first step. Additional effort must be taken to enforce meaningful controls on the business use of residential property — and, frankly, we see noisy, overflowing bars and de facto rooming houses as the more significant concern. At the same time, the town might want to provide reasonable-cost parking and staging areas for contractors — a concept that has been floated in the past. If East Hampton’s small-business owners are going to be asked to shoulder a financial burden to make their neighborhoods more attractive, the community should be willing to provide something in return.

Town officials have struck the right balance in deciding in whose interest the East Hampton Airport and the skies for miles around it will be managed.

After years, if not decades, of deference to commercial demands, the town board last week proposed tough rules that put residents first. Board members, especially Coucilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, who spearheaded a monumental effort, deserve gratitude. Thanks comes not only from the immediate community but from the many thousands of people who live in the North and South Forks’ other towns and villages and have had to put up with aircraft noise for far too long.

East Hampton’s proposed solutions center on strict limits on when loud aircraft can land and take off, and how often. The noisier ones, including almost all makes and models of United States-certified helicopters, would be banned from the airport between 8 p.m. and 9 a.m. year round. Helicopters, except those summoned for emergencies, would be prohibited from May 1 through September, while other aircraft classified as noisy would be banned from noon Thursday through noon Monday and limited to a single trip per week during the high season. A hearing on the rules is planned for March 5 at LTV Studios in Wainscott.

Perhaps the most notable aspect of all this is that the voices of protest and threat of legal action have come almost exclusively from those with a financial stake in maintaining unlimited access to the airport. The private, recreational pilots who had, perhaps reflexively, opposed anything having to do with meaningful noise controls have for the most part seen the light — and a common enemy in the for-profit helicopter companies. As for all the well-heeled passengers who fly in on all those leather-seated noisemakers, cold drinks in hand? No one has heard a peep from them so far.

Expect the legal fight over the new limits to be long, hard, and expensive. East Hampton Town officials should proceed with confidence, knowing that residents here and across the East End have their backs.

The world may be undergoing a sixth great wave of extinctions, as recently examined in a book by Elizabeth Kolbert, and this phenomenon may well extend to the seas, including those off our own shores. Symptoms include coral reef degradation, finfish population crashes, toxic algae blooms, and the slow loss of once-familiar and economically vital species. New York State has responded by drafting a 10-year Ocean Action Plan, but the document, while extensive, offers no source for the money needed to address its ambitious goals.

New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation is accepting written responses to the draft until March 9. Hearings at which the public can comment in person will be held on Tuesday at Operation Splash in Freeport and next Thursday at the Long Beach Public Library.

Though billed as a plan for the state’s ocean waters, the draft’s authors describe an integrated ecosystem that extends from upland watersheds to streams and brackish estuaries, into inshore bays and harbors, and then to the Atlantic itself. In this vast and varied environment, the authors set 61 goals for ensuring ecological integrity and sustainable development, avoiding commercial exploitation, and responding to climate change while involving the public in decision-making.

The missing funding is no minor matter. New York’s budget for the environment has been gutted at a time when pressures on it from all sides have multiplied. Among the projects contained in the draft for which money has yet to be set aside are removing impediments that block fish spawning runs, controlling pesticide runoff, and evaluating sewage outfalls. Determining the cause and what can be done about plummeting lobster catches is also on the list, as is a study to understand the impact of ocean acidification on shellfish.

Also on the to-do list, but not yet paid for, are a study of winter flounder declines, deep-water coral and sponge management, a study of seabirds, a baseline ocean monitoring system for the New York Bight, removal of marine debris, and better dredging oversight, as well as public education. One key area for which money is needed is an effort to update local planning practices to include coastal resiliency strategies to minimize the impacts of extreme weather events and sea-level rise.

Key tasks for which money has only partially been secured involve reducing the accidental bycatch of marine mammals, turtles, sea birds, and the endangered Atlantic sturgeon, for one. A horseshoe crab study needs more funding, as does work on underwater noise. The 18 areas the report’s authors consider already paid for tend in most cases to be more advisory than actually occurring. The heavy lifting on saving the marine environment has yet to be done.

The failure to find the needed money cannot be put onto the Ocean Action Plan’s authors. Rather, it is the responsibility of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and the State Legislature. As the threat of climate change increases and coastal development continues without adequate restraint, the will must be found in Albany to do more. A strong public outcry that the Ocean Action Plan must be made a priority for New York would help.

The East Hampton Town Board should look beyond an apparent impasse on the airport’s budget and finance advisory subcommittee, which has stymied a financial review of planned limits on the noisiest kinds of aircraft.

By all appearances, the problem is a manufactured one in which some members of the subcommittee, those aligned with aviation interests, deliberately derailed the calculations in an effort to depict the proposed changes as costly to taxpayers. In fact, according to other members, the group tried to accommodate the dissenters’ demands for a minority report, among other things. However, when it became clear to the aviation side that a separate analysis would have had to be based on massaged assumptions that would not stand up under scrutiny, they just walked away from the process altogether.

As if on cue Tuesday, a lawyer hired by some of the helicopter companies that stand to lose a lucrative East Hampton route issued a statement. In it, he mischaracterized the deadlock, which, he said, “confirms the true economic hazards of the plan.” But this claim was based on no numbers whatsoever and should be suspect anyway, considering the source.

What is known and was previously acknowledged by the subcommittee as a whole is that the town’s plan to sharply limit helicopter flights would not result in financial Armageddon. In fact, the subcommittee told the town board late last year that fees would cover the expenses of running the airport and that long-term bonds could still be issued to pay for improvements.

One wild card described in that initial report, and repeated this week, was that legal challenges to new restrictions were likely and could be substantial. However, it is safe to say that town residents would be willing to shoulder the costs of litigation if quieter skies were the ultimate goal, and that the money need not come entirely from airport receipts.

In advance of a hearing on the proposed restrictions to begin this afternoon at LTV Studios in Wainscott, the East Hampton Town Board should not be dissuaded from the path it has set toward meaningful reduction in the number and frequency of the noisiest aircraft. This latest objection is just noise of a different sort.

Close observers are seeing significant progress in New York State’s recent moves on alternative, nonpolluting energy. In late February the state’s Public Service Commission issued an outline for its Reforming the Energy Vision plan, with an aim of making New York’s electric grid cleaner, resilient in the face of natural disasters, and cheaper for consumers. This is extremely good news and dovetails nicely with a goal set by the Town of East Hampton to supply all of the community’s electric needs from renewable sources by 2020.

The Reforming the Energy Vision plan is part of the Cuomo administration’s effort to radically modernize the New York power grid and reduce greenhouse gasses. If brought to fruition, it will vastly improve electricity technology and reduce energy consumption.

Importantly, the plan reinforces rules that have been around since the 1990s that block the state’s utilities from owning their own generating plants. This will help ensure private, widely distributed systems, such as rooftop solar and wind, and encourage innovation through strong, free market competition. For Long Island ratepayers, this would leave PSEG to manage the electricity delivery system but allow residents and local governments to continue to explore green alternatives and continue to block utilities’ monopolistic tendencies. Think of PSEG and Con Ed and the like as the retailers, while a range of independent producers, from homeowners to local governments, will be the wholesalers.

There is a strong economic argument for dispersed private power production that centers on keeping more dollars in New York State, or even right here on Long Island. Coal, oil, and natural gas electric plants tend to be far from the areas of highest use, and the fossil fuels on which they depend come from even farther away. Though solar panels might be manufactured elsewhere, they represent a one-time expense. The installation and maintenance, particularly of home and small commercial systems, is nearly entirely a local affair and could be a job producer.

From an environmental perspective, the move toward nonpolluting power sources is imperative. Problems linked to generating plants include respiratory and other health concerns for their immediate neighbors, often people at the lower end of the income scale. Coal-fired plants are a major cause of the ocean acidification that is widely threatening marine species, including those in South Fork waters. And electricity generation accounts for about a third of emissions linked to anthropogenic climate change. Here on the narrow end of a rapidly eroding island, anything that can help reduce global warming and its attendant sea level rise should be strongly supported.

Summertime peak demand makes this is a very big deal in East Hampton Town. PSEG Long Island recently announced that it was seeking proposals for new South Fork power plants to help with surging use during the hot-weather months. The Reforming the Energy Vision plan, if quickly put into place, could force PSEG and the Long Island Power Authority, which oversees it, to look for nonpolluting options. This might include reversing a rejection last year of several large solar projects at town-owned sites and looking again at offshore wind.

The Reforming the Energy Vision plan indicates a long-sighted approach to electricity production and use in New York. We hope that its goals are speedily implemented.