When a resort subdivision designed by and for black Americans was laid out in the late 1940s in Sag Harbor, it was the first of its kind on eastern Long Island. Several similar developments followed on adjacent parcels of land. Now, owners of properties in the three neighborhoods seek historic district status, and were thrilled recently after receiving a statement of eligibility from state officials. 

Residents of the three sections call their area SANS, for Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest, and Ninevah Subdivisions. A recently completed survey, commissioned by the group making a case for the landmark bid, was presented to an overflow crowd at the John Jermain Library in Sag Harbor on Friday. 

“This is an opportunity to share the history of SANS, why it was important in American history,” said Renee V.H. Simons, the president of SANS Sag Harbor, a nonprofit seeking the historic district designation.

“It’s been a long project. It’s really hard to get through the stories without some tears,” she said. 

This is not the neighborhoods’ first attempt to form a historic district. In 1990, when the initial Sag Harbor Historic District was being created by village officials, Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest, and Ninevah did not meet the 50-year eligibility requirement.

Allison J.M. McGovern, the survey’s principal author, speaking at Friday’s presentation, explained that the work involved assembling photographs, oral histories, ephemera such as a beloved annual calendar, and property records. In working with the material, Ms. McGovern said that important historical themes began to emerge.

Black resorts like these developed in the 20th century as a deliberate response to segregation and were rooted in the early civil rights movement, she said. Places like the Sag Harbor neighborhoods got a boost as post-World War II demand for getaways increased among blacks in a growing middle class and upper middle class. Property owners were lawyers, doctors, business owners, artists, academics.

In scope, the project was massive. There were seven subdivision maps, encompassing 162 acres in all. Some 306 houses would have to be surveyed and described in precise language in order to complete the historic district application. About 27 professionals from the National Organization of Minority Architects came to do the painstaking work during the first weekend of October.

Ms. McGovern noted that some other traditionally black parts of Sag Harbor were not within the survey area. These included Chatfield’s Hill and Hillcrest Terrace, which were left out, she said, because they did not meet state and federal historic district guidelines. “That doesn’t mean that they do not play a role. History exceeds the limit of that boundary,” Ms. McGovern said. 

Sag Harbor’s earliest black community was centered around Eastville Avenue, beginning in the early 19th century, with the first documented people of African heritage living there around 1830. Many attended services at the Methodist Church before the A.M.E. Zion Church was built in 1839, which was at the heart of an integrated settlement that continued into the 20th century. Eastville was added to the Sag Harbor Historic District soon after its initial designation. 

In the late 1800s, Ms. McGovern continued, Carrie Smiley, a seamstress with ties to Eastville, married T. Thomas Fortune, an economist and editor of the leading black newspaper of the time, The New York Age. He editorialized in favor of black resorts that would be separate from places where whites vacationed. This was an important antecedent for what would become Sag Harbor’s black neighborhoods. 

Many of the older people interviewed in the survey said that the Ivy Cottage on Hampton Street, which served as an inn and offered a popular Sunday dinner, had been their first introduction to the area. Some Ivy Cottage guests eventually bought properties in the new subdivisions so they could come back year after year, first at Azurest, which was created by Maude Terry in 1947. Ms. Terry, a New York City schoolteacher, spent summers in Eastville with her grandchildren and fell in love with the woods and secluded beach — ideal, she thought, for a black summer colony. 

Sag Harbor Hills followed in 1950 and Ninevah in 1952. Roads were named for family members, local black whalers, and old families such as the Cuffees. 

At a time when banks were hesitant to lend money to blacks, mortgages could be secured from the developers. The Azurest Syndicate formed in 1953 to regulate the subdivision, maintain roads, and see to the neighborhood’s affairs, particularly a shared beach access for property owners alone. Dues were imposed for snow plowing. 

News spread by word of mouth though New York City’s black communities. Would-be buyers frequently found out about this growing haven on the East End of Long Island through Jack and Jill, an organization created by black parents during the Great Depression to provide social and cultural opportunities for their children. Ms. McGovern  said that the lack of overt marketing helped assure a sense of safety among the owners, many of whom knew each other year round through college connections and clubs. 

For many, coming to Sag Harbor was roughing it; Eunice Vaughn, who was at Friday’s presentation, recalled that her first house there did not have hot water and that everyone shared a single bathroom. “Back in Harlem, we had four bathrooms, and all the hot water you could want,” she said. 

There were many connections to the Harlem Renaissance. Famous figures such as Langston Hughes and Lena Horne came to visit, some to stay. Mostly, though, the property owners in SANS were entrepreneurs, businesspeople, educators, and administrators from the city. 

Ms. McGovern noted that the developments contributed greatly to the Sag Harbor Village and East Hampton Town tax rolls (the neighborhoods are all within the town), adding that the residents’ spending came at a time when Sag Harbor was losing its industrial base but well before it became a summer resort. 

Speaking during the presentation, John Brannen recalled walking into the business district with his friends to buy things at the 5 and 10. “Shopkeepers would say, ‘Thank you, sir.’ ” 

It was for its inhabitants a place of comfort, safety, and community, deliberately laid out that way, Ms. McGovern said. “We felt safe not only in SANS, but on the streets of Sag Harbor,” someone in the audience put in.

Once its roads were paved, though, outsiders began moving in. Another audience member, Gwyned Sampson, described the sense of threat from the outside world in stark terms. On drives east with her family from their home in Queens in the 1960s, it was understood that they would not stop the car until they reached Riverhead. “We were safe within SANS,” she said. “Safety was in relation to the threat and hostility outside.” 

Ed Dudley recalled first visiting the area in 1949, staying with cousins. A lot of Southerners, country people, liked to have a place they could go to swim and fish and not be bothered, he said. “Safety was very, very important.”

Ms. Simons said that residents were seeking home, seeking community. She herself could have lived anywhere after retiring from business management and marketing consulting, but she chose to be in Sag Harbor, she said. 

The survey and landmark effort were done without support from Sag Harbor Village government, who declined to contribute to the work. A 51-percent threshold of residents would be needed for the designation to become official.

Paumanok Trek

The East Hampton Trails Preservation Society will host a two-mile Cranberry Hole to Fresh Pond hike on Saturday at 11 a.m. Participants will carpool to Cranberry Hole Road, and then hike along the Paumanok Path through Amagansett to Fresh Pond Park. A complimentary lunch at the park will follow, weather permitting; otherwise, the group will dine at a nearby house. 

Hikers have been asked to meet at Fresh Pond Park at the end of Fresh Pond Road. Jim Zajac can be contacted at 212-769-4311 or [email protected] for more information or to reserve lunch. 

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The Library Lineup 

The Bonac Amateur Radio Club will hold its monthly meeting tonight from 6 to 8 at the Amagansett Library. The group meets on the fourth Thursday of every month and promotes amateur radio on the South Fork. 

Lou Ann Walker, editor in chief of The Southampton Review, will present “Revising: How Writers and Editors Approach Editing” on Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. Ms. Walker, who is also a professor in the M.F.A. program in creative writing and literature at Stony Brook Southampton, has written for The New York Times and its magazine, The Chicago Sun-Times, O, Allure, and Esquire. Her book “A Loss for Words: The Story of Deafness in a Family,” a memoir about growing up with deaf parents, won a Christopher Award. (Due to an editing error, Ms. Walker was identified as the former editor in chief of The Southampton Review in last week’s issue.) 

The East Hampton Sportsmen’s Alliance will hold its monthly meeting on Wednesday from 7 to 8 p.m. at the library. The nonprofit organization promotes hunting and fishing, and seeks to protect the public’s right to use town and state property. 

New books at the library include “Bluebird, Bluebird” by Attica Locke, “Red, White, Blue” by Lea Carpenter, “Desolation Mountain” by William Kent Krueger, “These Truths: A History of the United States” by Jill Lepore, “Fashion Climbing: A Memoir With Photographs” by Bill Cunningham, and “Trajectory: Stories” by Richard Russo.

Bridgehampton

The next Hamptons Take 2 documentary film screening is slated for Monday night at 7 at the Hampton Library with “Indian Point.” A look at the debate over nuclear power, it explores an aging plant 35 miles from New York City. 

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National Drug Take Back Day is Saturday, and the Southampton Town Police Department will open its substation at the Bridgehampton Commons to collect expired and unused medication for safe disposal. Community members can drop off medications from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Liquid medications, syringes, sharps, and thermometers will not be accepted. 

Southampton

631-324-7827

Stony Brook Southampton Hospital will host a blood drive tomorrow in its teaching center on the third floor. The American Red Cross in Greater New York reports that there is a critical need for donations. Advance sign-up is by calling 1-800-RED-CROS or visiting redcrossblood.org, using the code SBSH. Walk-ins will be welcomed.

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Pet Parade

Little Lucy’s Canine Couture Boutique on Job’s Lane will host its 18th annual Halloween Pet Parade on Saturday as a benefit for the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons. Registration begins at 1 p.m. sharp. The walk begins in Agawam Park and heads along Job’s Lane and Main Street, then back to the park for an awards party.

There will be celebrity judges, raffle prizes from local merchants, treats for people and pets, and live music. Registration is $10 per dog.

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Library Talks

The Rogers Memorial Library will host a talk titled “Frankenstein: The Man and the Myth” today at 5:30 p.m. to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s novel. Gary Lutz will explore the origins and evolution of Frankenstein’s monster in print, onstage, and in film. 

Also today, at 1:30 p.m., Julie Greene, the Southampton Town historian, will discuss how “Cemeteries Reveal Their Secrets.” A focus will be on the 10 town-owned cemeteries and how they function as historical records and important sources of information about past residents and their culture. 

Another talk, on “The Not-So-Golden Life of the Gilded Age Wife,” will be given next Thursday at 1 p.m. at the library. Velya Jancz-Urban, an author and expert on colonial women of New England, will examine the widely held superstitions about the “hysterical” female. 

Then at 5:30 that day, “Living and Dying: Reflection and Conversation,” with Paula M. Peterson, a social worker, will take place in the Cooper Hall boardroom. 

Registration for any of these talks is online at myrml.org or by calling 631-283-0774, extension 523.

Visitors can get in the Halloween spirit and learn a little history at the same time with a visit to the Rogers Mansion on Saturday. “Was that a creaky old floorboard, or the footsteps of Capt. Albert Rogers getting ready to leave on a whaling trip?” asks a Southampton History Museum press release. The Meeting House Lane mansion is open Wednesday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Nov. 3. 

Elsewhere

Dinner and a Play

A dinner at the Stone Creek Inn in East Quogue and a chance to see the Hampton Theatre Company’s production of “A Comedy of Tenors” in Quogue on Friday, Nov. 2, is being offered by the Rogers Memorial Library and the Westhampton Free Library. Dinner starts at 5 p.m., and the show is at 7. 

Tickets cost $60 and are available by calling the theater company at 631-653-8955 or emailing [email protected]. Reservations and payment are due by tomorrow.

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Memoir as Power

Erika Duncan of Sag Harbor, the executive director and artistic director of the Herstory Writers Workshop, has sent word that the group is one of the sponsors of a daylong and Islandwide Freedom Forum event on Saturday at Stony Brook University. Herstory writers will be among the readers at “Testify: Memoir as a Tool for Building a Movement” at the Charles B. Wang Center after a keynote talk on environmental justice by the poet and activist Kathy Engel of Sagaponack.

A town hall-style gathering will follow with a “story-shaping experience engaging the whole audience,” according to a release. The forum, which runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., is free, and lunch will be provided.

“The overarching goal is to encourage members of Long Island’s ‘hidden’ communities who are witness to or victims of the rise in hate crimes, racism, and endangerment of immigrants in our current political climate to produce stories with the power to change hearts, minds, and policies,” the release said.

A crowd of over 100, concerned about losing their tiny library in the heart of Springs, thronged the Springs Presbyterian Church’s Parish Hall Sunday afternoon in a show of support that left the library’s board of governors surprised but highly gratified. 

At the end of the meeting there was a crush to sign up for membership in the Springs Historical Society, which oversees the library. “We ran out of signup sheets,” said Ethel Henn, a longtime library volunteer who was taking names. “I had four, and people wrote on the back of them.” The society gained at least 25 new members, with about 15 more calling Heather Anderson, its outgoing president, later that day and “coming in through Facebook” on Monday, she said. “People were throwing money at me,” said Ms. Henn. As of Sunday night, about $740 was raised. 

The library, located in the centuries-old Parsons House opposite Ashawagh Hall, is dependent upon the historical society for its very existence, but the society’s New York State charter has expired. A new one is needed lest both institutions lose their tax-deductible status, but without a quorum of board members — there should be seven, but some have died or moved away, and until Sunday there were only Ms. Anderson and Hugh King — obtaining a new charter seemed an impossible task. New blood was needed on the board, and Sunday’s meeting was called to get a transfusion.

“We thought of throwing the meeting open, but the bylaws state the board will present a slate with names,” Ms. Anderson explained, “and of course we’d do that, otherwise it would be a dictatorship.” So, the names of seven people, all of whom had agreed to serve, were submitted for a vote by members of the historical society (“On your honor, anyone who’s not a member, or doesn’t want to be, please don’t vote,” Ms. Anderson said) — including that of Richard Barons, the former executive director of the East Hampton Historical Society, now its chief curator and fount of institutional knowledge. Library volunteers said he was asked to join and agreed immediately.

“You just never know how I will get infiltrated,” Mr. Barons, who with his wife, Rosanne, has lived in Springs for 20 years, remarked cheerfully on Monday.  He is looking forward to his first board meeting, he said. “We will be exploring what Springs needs and how we can supply it by keeping the library and the society’s artifact collection, its archive of history, open.” The East Hampton Historical Society’s new director, Maria Vann, will not be on the board of directors but has also volunteered her expertise, Ms. Anderson said.

The new president of the board, Don Sussis, was asked to stand and say a few words. “I think of myself as an egghead,” said Mr. Sussis, who said he’d retired from Hunter College as a full professor. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens, he said, has lived in Springs for 25 years, and has “lots of experience on boards and with start-ups and the internet.” He added, to applause, that he wants “to keep things the same and make them better.”

Donna Potter, a dedicated volunteer and year-round resident, will be the society’s vice president. She was away at a wedding that afternoon. Ms. Anderson told the crowd that “she’s been active in church and in Heart of Springs. Her husband’s mother was a volunteer here.”

Ms. Henn, the new treasurer, retired as the assistant principal of Washington Irving High School in Manhattan and has lived in Springs full time since 2001; her parents, she said, bought a house in the hamlet in 1965. Born in Flushing, she is a longtime Springs Library volunteer and member of the historical society.

A more recent library volunteer, Jackie Wilson, will be secretary of the board. “My handwriting is good,” she told the amused crowd in an unmistakable English accent. A high school principal back home, Ms. Wilson has been living with her husband at their daughter’s house on Sandra Road, helping students here with their college essays “while waiting for the town to approve our own building plans,” she said.

Abby Abrams, an artist and a member of the society, was elected a director. “My qualifications are, I’m willing to volunteer,” she said, smiling, before sitting back down.

Mr. King, the director of Home, Sweet Home in East Hampton Village, is renowned for his stovepipe-hatted tours of village landmarks as the East Hampton town crier; he has offered to lead similar tours in Springs. He taught science at the Springs School for 31 years, and a number of his old students were among those cheering when his name was announced. He will succeed himself on the board of directors.

Asked to tally up the votes, Mr. King counted 92 hands raised for the proposed slate. Martin Drew of Springs had offered to run as well. For which post, Ms. Anderson asked him. “I would like to go for the top, thank you,” Mr. Drew responded. Receiving, it appeared, no votes, he was undismayed. “C’mon, Ma!” he exclaimed, to laughter.

Among those who contacted her after the meeting, Ms. Anderson said, were two former candidates for East Hampton Town supervisor, Manny Vilar (running at present for a town board seat) and Zachary Cohen, both offering to help. Ms. Anderson has been president and de facto treasurer of the society since 1985, running it and the library almost single-handed in recent years. She and her husband, Pete, hope to move to Wisconsin, where both their daughters live, in a year or two, but she had said before Sunday’s meeting that “I just cannot leave until we re-establish the historical society.” 

She called its reconstituted board of directors “the silver lining that comes out of what we saw as a dark cloud.”

Based on its latest rounds of water testing last week, Concerned Citizens of Montauk again urged people to avoid contact with the water in Fort Pond, where a blue-green algae bloom persisted.

The organization is monitoring Fort Pond for harmful blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, blooms in partnership with the Gobler Lab at Stony Brook Southampton. Separately C.C.O.M. is partnering with the Surfrider Foundation’s Blue Water Task Force to test water bodies in Montauk, Amagansett, and East Hampton for the enterococcus bacteria. Elevated levels of these bacteria — often due to heavy rains, warm water temperatures, or extreme high tides — are also considered a risk to human health.

Especially high tides last week “resulted in high bacteria levels at some locations,” C.C.O.M.’s Kate Rossi-Snook noted in an email last Thursday.

In Fort Pond, the organization samples for cyanobacteria at two locations — one by a town boat ramp on the southern part of the pond and another off Industrial Road at the northern end. “The boat ramp site is elevated above the [New York State Department of Environmental Conservation] threshold, and the Industrial Road site is hovering just below,” wrote Ms. Rossi-Snook. Testing was to be conducted again yesterday and weekly until the bloom clears, she said.

The most recent round of enterococcus testing last week showed medium to high bacteria levels at 14 of the 25 sites tested.

Medium levels were found at three locations in Lake Montauk and high levels at one location. High entero levels were also detected east of the jetty at Ditch Plain Beach, at Pussy’s Pond in Springs, at David’s Lane and Dunemere Road sites on Hook Pond in East Hampton, and in Georgica Pond on the beach side and by the Route 27 kayak launch area.

Medium bacteria levels were detected in Montauk at Tuthill Pond, at Fresh Pond Creek in Amagansett, at the head of Three Mile Harbor in East Hampton, and at the Cove Hollow Road access to Georgica Pond.

Another round of sampling for enterococcus will take place next week.

Andre Goy and Jeffrey Brice Ornstein were married on Saturday at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton, with the Very Rev. Denis Brunelle officiating. A reception followed at the Maidstone Club.

Dr. Goy is the chairman and executive director of the Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, N.J., a professor of medicine at Georgetown University, and co-chairman on the Future of Health and Health Care Council for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. 

He is the son of the late Joseph Goy, who owned and operated a sawmill, and the late Clara Goy, who was a teacher and elementary school principal, both from Entremont, France. Dr. Goy is also an accomplished fine artist, having had multiple shows of his work in New York City and Houston. He was twice commissioned by Bergdorf Goodman to create original paintings for its holiday windows. 

A retired champion figure skater, Dr. Goy is also well known for his culinary skills as a gourmet chef. 

Mr. Ornstein is the founder and C.E.O. of JBrice Design International, an interior design firm headquartered in Boston that specializes in hotel and resort design around the world. He has executed projects on five continents, and counts among his clients the royal families of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, President Abdel Sisi of Egypt, and Tansu Ciller, a past prime minister of Turkey, as well as the Trump and Kushner families.

At 35 he was named one of Boston’s 12 most influential people, and as recognition of his contribution to the industry has been asked to serve as a judge for two international hotel design award competitions. He is on the board of advisers at the New York School of Interior Design, in addition to having been a visiting critic at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Boston Architectural Center. He is the son of the late Robert Ornstein, who was an estate planner, and Mona Ornstein, who was a travel agent, both in Scarsdale, N.Y.

The couple has considered East Hampton a home for over 20 years, dividing their time among here, New York City, and Entremont.

The second annual East Hampton Village fall festival, set to take place Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Herrick Park, hopes to match or surpass last year’s successful day with more food options, new activities, and ample opportunity for community engagement. “It’s not a sleepy little fair,” said Steven Ringel, executive director of the East Hampton Chamber of Commerce, who organized the event. “There’s a lot to do, and a lot of really great food.”

Fifty booths showcasing the work of local artisans, the wares of shopkeepers and other businesses, and information from nonprofit and political groups, will be stationed throughout the park. The Ladies Village Improvement Society will sell vintage clothes and jewelry, and the Hamptons International Film Festival will hold a garage sale of T-shirts, posters, and other items from festivals of yore. “I asked them to clean out their closets,” said Mr. Ringel. 

The food roster will include salads and wraps from Mary’s Marvelous, lobster rolls and shrimp cocktail from Stuart’s Seafood Market, soft pretzels from a firm called Knot of this World, and ice cream from a Mister Softee truck.  

On the festival’s main stage, a variety of musical acts, including the HooDoo Loungers, the East Hampton Bluegrass All Stars, the Potter-Tekulsky Band, and the East Hampton High School jazz band and fiddle club will perform.  

The village’s first responders will be on hand, with the Fire Department rolling out antique trucks. The ocean rescue squad will bring a Jet Ski, on which kids can have their photos taken. 

There will also be Halloween-themed activities, including a pumpkin-decorating station and a haunted pumpkin patch. 

David and Jeanie Stiles, East Hampton residents who have written how-to guides for building tree houses, have created a castle-like structure for kids to play on, and the Y.M.C.A. plans to install a bounce house, a climbing wall, and an obstacle course in the park. 

Throughout the day, visitors of all ages will be able to add their artistic touches to a communal art event� painting a mural on a large canvas. “The festival is really growing up,” said Mr. Ringel. “It’s a true family event.”

A proposal to use $4 million of the Town of Southampton’s community preservation fund to buy the development rights and a historic preservation easement on the Sag Harbor Cinema Arts Center will be the subject of a public hearing on Oct. 23 at 6 p.m. at Southampton Town Hall. The town has been negotiating with the Sag Harbor Partnership, which bought the movie theater site for $8 million after the building was largely destroyed by fire in December 2016. 

According to Mary Wilson, who manages the community preservation fund for the town, a restrictive use easement would mandate that the property remain an arts center in perpetuity. The easement also would require the building’s exterior, including its iconic neon “Sag Harbor” sign, to remain unchanged unless approved by the town.

In other proposed conditions, retail space in the building would be limited to 25 percent of its total square footage, ticket prices would be capped at 80 percent of the average price of local movie tickets, and the town would be given a right of first refusal if the property is put up for sale. The $4 million figure, said Ms. Wilson, was arrived at by an appraisal and in consideration of the partnership’s relinquishing the opportunity to sell the property for an alternate commercial use. A groundbreaking ceremony for the cinema center was held in June, after which crews began working on the building’s foundation. The partnership has estimated the overall cost of the project at $6 million. 

The sign, which was damaged during the fire, has been restored to its former Art Deco glory thanks to the efforts of Christopher Denon, the owner of Twin Forks Moving and Storage, who had been storing it since it was rescued from the rubble on the night of the fire. The hands-on repair was done by John Battle of Battle Iron and Bronze in Bridgehampton, who offered his services pro bono, and Clayton Orehek, a neon artist, who was paid by Mr. Denon. “It was emotional when we relit it,” Mr. Denon said. 

Susan Mead, the treasurer of the partnership, released a statement celebrating the proposal. The easements, she said, would “provide the ultimate protection for the cinema” and preserve “the restored facade and sign for generations to come. We look forward to the public hearing.”

Based on its latest rounds of water testing last week, Concerned Citizens of Montauk is again urging people to avoid contact with the water in Fort Pond, where a blue-green algae bloom persists.

The organization is monitoring Fort Pond for harmful blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, blooms in partnership with the Gobler Lab at Stony Brook Southampton. Separately C.C.O.M. is partnering with the Surfrider Foundation's Blue Water Task Force to test water bodies in Montauk, Amagansett, and East Hampton for the enterococcus bacteria. Elevated levels of this bacteria -- often due to heavy rains, warm water temperatures, or extreme high tides -- are also considered a risk to human health.

Especially high tides this week "resulted in high bacteria levels at some locations," C.C.O.M.'s Kate Rossi-Snook noted in an email on Thursday.

In Fort Pond, the organization samples for cyanobacteria at two locations -- one by a town boat ramp on the southern part of the pond and another off Industrial Road at the northern end. "The boat ramp site is elevated above the [New York State Department of Environmental Conservation] threshhold, and the Industrial Road site is hovering just below," wrote Ms. Rossi-Snook. Testing will be conducted again on Wednesday and weekly until the bloom clears, she said.

The most recent round of enterococcus testing this week showed medium to high bacteria levels at 14 of the 25 sites tested.

Medium levels were found at three locations in Lake Montauk and high levels at one location. High entero levels were also detected east of the jetty at Ditch Plain Beach, at Pussy's Pond in Springs, at David's Lane and Dunemere Road sites on Hook Pond in East Hampton, and in Georgica Pond on the beach side and by the Route 27 kayak launch area.

Medium bacteria levels were detected in Montauk at Tuthill Pond, at Fresh Pond Creek in Amagansett, at the head of Three Mile Harbor in East Hampton, and at the Cove Hollow Road access to Georgica Pond.

The next sampling for enterococcus will take place the week of Oct. 22.

 

Six thousand or so secondhand books, warehoused in three rooms upstairs, were in pretty good shape, but the floors of the Springs Library’s 167-year-old Ambrose Parsons House were buckling under their weight. The house belongs to East Hampton Town, and Tom Talmage, the town engineer, deemed the situation dangerous. One day in July, a Highway Department truck arrived to take the books away.

“A sad day,” Heather Anderson of the Springs Historical Society posted on Facebook. “The workers from the town are beginning to clear out the upstairs rooms of books. If it is needed for the benefit of the house, then I guess it has to be done. We saved a lot of the art books and children’s books for our summer sales.”

The library’s all-volunteer staff, the youngest of whom is 67, boxed up as many books as possible and maneuvered the boxes down the narrow staircase to the ground floor, where most of them still remain, stacked haphazardly all over the place. The town workers took the leftovers and tossed them out the window to the ground. People who were there said the men were not happy to be taking books to the dump. It was a harbinger, some think, of the trouble to come.

The Springs Library shows no movies, sponsors no panel discussions, holds no readings, supports no ham-radio, mystery-book, chess or any other club, and boasts not a single computer in the whole place — just a Saturday-morning children’s story hour. Fines for late returns are 10 cents a day and library cards do not exist. It’s only been a library since 1975, but it exudes the past from every corner of its venerable building.

Whether it will have a future is another story. As libraries go, this one is a small-town anomaly, what the New York State Education Department defines as an “association library,” not a public library supported by taxes but one that’s governed and underwritten by “a group of private individuals operating as an association” — in this case, the Springs Historical Association, which is in the throes of a major headache.

While the town provides the Parsons House with heat, light, and basic maintenance, it cannot continue to function as a library “without the historical society getting revitalized,” Mrs. Anderson said last week. Over the last few years, she explained, the society’s seven-member board of directors has dwindled to three, one of whom has been too ill to serve. The rest have died or moved away, leaving only herself and Hugh King. “We haven’t had a meeting in a long time,” Mr. King said.

For the library, Mrs. Anderson is “everything,” one volunteer, Francine Glickman, told a visitor last week — “treasurer of the historical society as well as de facto director of the library.”

No matter, however, how dedicated one member may be, a board of trustees that cannot command a quorum is in deep trouble. The state charter that grants the historical society tax-deductible status is about to expire, if it hasn’t already; there’s some doubt. Certainly the board has not held “at least four meetings a year” in recent years, as required under state education law. “We still submit our records to our accountant and still have our nonprofit status, but at some point the state could take it away,” Mrs. Anderson acknowledged.

If the historical society loses its charter, it could well go under, and take the library down with it. “People won’t donate money if it’s not tax-deductible,” Mrs. Anderson said. The library does not have its own separate tax exemption.

The society’s viability depends largely on dues and donations from its 100 or so members. Annual dues are $15, or $25 to also belong to the library. Between society and library, the annual budget is from $15,000 to $20,000, Mrs. Anderson said. Some time ago, she recalled, East Hampton Town had a budget line for the arts that included libraries. “We were on that line, but it’s been several years since they cut out the libraries,” she said. 

The libraries in Montauk, Amagansett, and East Hampton are supported by taxes. Since 2016, under a grant from the Hilaria and Alec Baldwin Foundation, each of them, and Springs as well, has received a yearly $5,000 gift certificate from BookHampton to buy books. That helps the smallest one a lot.

But with the existence of their sustaining body in peril, the Springs Library volunteers fear the worst. The only solution, it seems, is for the historical society to elect a whole new board of directors, one that will take prompt action to apply to the New York State Board of Regents for a new charter. The loss of the charter, and with it the society’s and library’s tax exemption, “would severely hamper the library’s existence since it recently lost a major source of income when the town closed its book sale rooms on the upper floors,” according to volunteers

There will be a meeting on Sunday at 1:30 p.m., in the Springs Community Church, to elect new directors of the historical society. “We plead with you to attend,” volunteers said. Nonmembers have been encouraged to go, pay their $15 or $25 to join, and then vote — or perhaps even throw their hats in the ring for election themselves.

At some point, Mrs. Anderson said, she and her husband, Pete, will move to Wisconsin, where both their daughters live, “but I just cannot leave until we re-establish the historical society.” Young blood on the board would be especially welcome, she said, sounding wistful. In the best of all possible worlds, “We’d like people with the technology gene. Slide shows just don’t do it anymore.”

In a scene reminiscent of a July 2015 meeting of the East Hampton Town Board, in which hundreds of Montauk residents aired their collective outrage at an out-of-control party atmosphere, supporters, and some opponents, packed the town hall meeting room last Thursday to comment on a proposed change to zoning code establishing parking requirements that could affect motels’ ability to add accessory uses such as restaurants, bars, or retail stores. 

The public hearing pitted residents, many of whom live near motels believed to be planning expanded offerings, against business owners and their advocates. All professed to acknowledge an atmosphere of excess in the summer months; there was less agreement on how to balance residents’ rights and businesses’ ability to remain competitive, and thus the lifeblood of Montauk’s resort economy. 

The zoning code now stipulates an additional on-site parking area equal to 50 percent of that required for an accessory use whenever such use is added, regardless of a site’s existing parking. “There are some instances where the planning board feels that the existing parking is not adequate for the existing use,” John Jilnicki, a senior assistant town attorney, told the board. “It certainly doesn’t meet the existing code.” 

Many of Montauk’s motels predate zoning laws and enjoy a grandfathered nonconforming status. With an expectation that a motel’s restaurant or bar would draw patrons who are not guests of the business, Mr. Jilnicki said that, “To add additional parking equal to only half of that needed for the accessory use still creates a situation where there’s not sufficient parking on site.” 

The amendment would set an establishment’s parking requirement for its principal use, as calculated by the current code and not its pre-existing nonconforming status, as a starting point. Adding an accessory use would compel the onsite addition of 50 percent of that use’s required parking as calculated by code, Mr. Jilnicki said. The requirement could be reduced, however, if the planning board determines a reduced need based on conditions it imposed or through mitigation offered by the property owner. Properties seeking to add an accessory use would be addressed on a case-by-case basis. “They have a lot of flexibility depending on each application,” he said of the planning board. 

Also included in the proposed legislation is a statute limiting the area of an accessory use to one-third of the aggregate floor area. 

Montauk residents at the meeting identified businesses including the Surf Lodge, Ruschmeyer’s, the Sloppy Tuna, the Montauk Beach House, the Atlantic Terrace, and Hero Beach Club (the latter two having recently changed hands and their new ownership apparently seeking to add a restaurant or bar) as problematic. Gert Murphy, who lives near the Atlantic Terrace, said that, “Some of us are beginning to feel we’re going to have to leave Montauk . . . because the quality of life has definitely been impinged by the club industry that has taken over some of our resort places.” 

Pat Lukascewski of Seaview Avenue told the board that “We support the business community, but it needs to respect us,” and asked that the board “keep Montauk from becoming the amusement park of the East End.” Parking is already “more than tight” at Atlantic Terrace, she said. “I can’t imagine the chaos following any expansion, should this proposal fail.”

Cheryl Richer of Surfside Avenue said that, “The party scene has greatly diminished my enjoyment of my Montauk home.” She can avoid the Sloppy Tuna, she said, “but what I can’t avoid are the packs of loud, drunken [Atlantic Terrace] guests that walk past my bedroom at all hours of the evening. . . . I have to wear earplugs to sleep, and it doesn’t always work, and there are always beer cans, open containers of food, and garbage around my lawn every day.” 

  Some speakers said the proposed amendment does not go far enough. “I hope you do close the hearing . . . and take some action before another summer happens and more businesses try to create that self-contained resort thing, which isn’t really any good for Montauk,” said Ellen Cook. “The other restaurants are not doing all that swimmingly, and there’s tons of retail shops that would like to see more business,” she said. A volunteer emergency medical technician, she said that vehicle and pedestrian traffic around the Surf Lodge, which features scant on-site parking, presents a hazard for those going to and from the firehouse. “We are already kind of overrun with that kind of business,” she said. “What you’re proposing is really moderate.” 

But Laraine Creegan, executive director of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce, complained that its 300-plus members were not even consulted in the drafting of the proposal. While “a safe and enjoyable atmosphere that respects the community” is important, she said, “today’s traveler is not satisfied with the barebones hotel experience of yesteryear.” For Montauk’s businesses to remain competitive, she said, “local hotel operators must have the ability to provide, among other things, basic food and beverage offerings and attractive retail space.” The proposed requirements are “much more draconian and basically impossible to overcome without a special dispensation waiver from the planning board.” 

Larry Siedlick, an owner of the Montauk Beach House, said that the proposed amendment unfairly targets his and other resorts. A majority of his customers arrive in Montauk via public transportation, he said. “To blame the parking on hotels that are trying to stay competitive, I don’t think is reasonable,” he said. The proposed amendment “essentially will make it impossible for any motel to add any modern amenity, be it a bar, shop, spa, services, anything.” Absent “some reasonable accommodation” allowing the addition of modern amenities, the board is “dooming these properties to an outdated, 1970s, failing business model which basically results in the gradual deterioration of these properties” and eventual blight. 

The town is not targeting businesses, said Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, the board’s liaison to the business committee. “This started because we had some problems brought to us by the Building Department in interpreting the code.” The amendment clarifies the code and addresses questions posed by code enforcement officers, the fire marshal, and the Planning Department, she said. 

The hearing was closed, but Ms. Overby asked, and the board agreed, that the written record be kept open until Nov. 1.