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. 

—

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. 

—

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.

—

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.

—

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.

—

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 plan to merge two vacant lots at 20 and 24 West End Road and build a single-family residence in excess of 10,000 square feet, plus a detached garage and accessory structures, was the subject of a lengthy discussion at the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals on Friday. 

The owner, Morad Ghadamian, is seeking variances for an additional 1,431 square feet of ground-floor space and 2,752 more square feet of lot coverage than the zoning code allows. He also applied for a freshwater wetlands permit to install native plantings on the property, which fronts on Georgica Pond. 

The attorney Leonard Ackerman, representing Mr. Ghadamian, argued that constructing one overly large house on the merged properties was preferable to having separate residences on the individual parcels. There would be half as many sanitary systems, he said, and less overall lot coverage. In comparison, he said, the requested variances were minimal. 

Frank Newbold, the chairman of the Z.B.A., disagreed. The variances sought amount to 16 percent more ground floor area for the house and 15 percent more lot coverage than is permissible, he pointed out. “That is not insubstantial,” he said. “Usually in the village, when it’s a clean slate like this, an empty lot, we are inclined to adhere to the zoning code.”

The building plans call for the installation of a 125-foot buffer between the property and Georgica Pond, as well as a nitrogen-reducing sanitary system, which is not yet required for new construction in the village. Such improvements were commendable, said Mr. Newbold, but “the board would like to see a smaller structure.” 

The hearing was adjourned until Nov. 9. 

David Gallo, the owner of 94 Apaquogue Road, is seeking a freshwater wetlands permit to excavate phragmites, an invasive plant, from a section of Georgica Pond adjacent to his property. The proposal includes installing a 25-foot buffer area upland of the pond, to prevent runoff from the residence.  

Kelly Risotto, a senior ecologist at Land Use Ecological Services, a company that oversees wetland restorations, spoke on Mr. Gallo’s behalf. The phragmites excavation plan is awaiting approval from the East Hampton Town Trustees, she told the board, and the plan for the buffer area has changed somewhat based on the board’s input at its last meeting. 

Previously, Billy Hajek, the village planner and a member of East Hampton Town’s water quality technical advisory committee, had advised that native shrubs be installed, to mark the line where the buffer begins and the lawn ends. Jim Grimes, a town trustee, had recommended that the buffer be at least 50 feet wide. Ms. Risotto said the buffer would remain 25 feet wide, but that a staggered row of inkberry shrubs would be used to delineate it, and a 50-foot-wide no-mow zone would be installed landward.

The species of shrub was a sticking point for Mr. Hajek, who said that inkberry was too attractive to deer. Upon closing the hearing, Mr. Newbold said approval of the application would depend on a revised planting plan that meets Mr. Hajek’s approval.

In another continuing hearing, the Hedges Inn asked that the Z.B.A. overturn the village board’s denial of its requests for special-event permits. Christopher Kelley, the inn’s lawyer, said the village had based the decision on an erroneous interpretation of the zoning code. The Hedges is in a residential district, where, Mr. Kelley pointed out, the code allows tents to be used for special events for 21 days per year, and does not distinguish between commercial and residential uses of the property.

“You don’t get different uses because of the type of owner you are,” said Mr. Kelley. He maintained that the inn should be provided the same rights as neighboring homeowners, the East Hampton Historical Society’s Mulford Farm, and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, which are all allowed to hold outdoor parties. “I’m not aware of any other property that’s been denied a special events permit in the village based on zoning,” he said. 

Anthony Pasca, the lawyer for Peter and Patricia Handal, neighbors of the inn who have fought its attempt to hold events such as weddings on its grounds, cited a 2014 amendment to the zoning code in countering Mr. Kelley’s argument. “No variance shall be granted to permit the introduction of any outdoor use, including outdoor dining, to a pre-existing nonconforming commercial use in a residential district,” he read. “They’re claiming this as a right allowance and your code says otherwise.”

Mr. Newbold kept the hearing open to allow Linda Riley, the board’s attorney, who was not present at the meeting, to weigh in on the matter.  

Also on Friday, the board announced three decisions.

Joshua Solomon, whose property is at 87 David’s Lane, was granted area variances to install a hot tub 28.1 feet from the rear lot line, where 30 feet is required, and to permit 7,972 square feet of lot coverage where the legally pre-existing coverage is 7,864 square feet. 

Gregory and Lisa Wilson of 30 The Circle were granted a 45-square foot area variance to install a concrete pad under a generator and gas meter, an improvement required by National Grid. 

Susan Karches of 64 Egypt Lane was granted a freshwater wetlands permit and a variance to install a driveway and landscaping within 81 feet from the edge of wetlands, as well as a cattle guard within 107 feet, where the code does not allow improvements.

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.

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.”

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.”

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.”

A public hearing on the Wainscott hamlet study drew praise and encouragement from residents at last Thursday’s meeting of the East Hampton Town Board, with some speakers emphasizing that the former sand pit property, north of Route 27 behind the business district and running all the way to the railroad tracks, represents an opportunity to alleviate the town’s critical shortage of affordable housing. 

Wainscott lacks “pedestrian connectivity,” where people can easily walk from one place to another, and outdoor public spaces as well, the study has suggested, and the haphazard development of its commercial district has brought a strip-mall look and feel, with many curb cuts and uncoordinated parking lots. Along with mixed-use development and work-force housing at the former sand pit property, suggested changes include a roundabout to replace the traffic light at the intersection of Main Street and Wainscott Northwest Road; a consolidation of existing parking lots and vacant parcels into a cohesive parking area in the commercial district; parking lots designed with rain gardens and vegetated swales to filter stormwater; parallel on-street parking, continuous sidewalks, and new street trees in the business district, and, possibly, the installation of a decentralized community wastewater system or innovative alternative systems. 

Water quality, and specifically wastewater treatment, is paramount among many Wainscott residents’ concerns. Sara Davison, executive director of the Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation, said that land acquisition and water quality are critical to the hamlet’s natural features and commercial development. She urged acquisition of the 70-acre sand pit, which she said the hamlet study did not address with sufficient reach or specificity. 

“Friends of Georgica Pond encourages the board to think boldly about this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape the future of Wainscott,” Ms. Davison said. Most of that land should be designated for municipal, recreational, and open space purposes, she said, given Wainscott “is already grappling with the legacy of past industrial activity,” along with “the worst traffic in the entire town.” 

Kathryn Szoka of Sag Harbor, who is co-chairwoman of Progressive East End Reformers, agreed, calling acquisition of the sand pit property “an opportunity to house the probably 2,000 units of affordable housing that we need in the town right now.” 

Ms. Davison also urged the purchase of the restaurant building on Montauk Highway at the north end of Georgica Pond, which this year housed Il Mulino. “This land is currently the only pre-existing, nonconforming, commercially used lot on the pond,” she said. “We thank the board for including this purchase in the plan recommendation already, but want to underscore what a relevant purchase this would be to the overall plan.” The land could be restored, removing a source of nitrogen contamination to Georgica Pond, she said. 

Philip Young, an owner of the Wainscott Village commercial center, noted that Montauk Highway would have to be widened to accommodate parallel parking in order to address the lack of on-street parking common to other hamlets’ commercial districts. Municipal parking lots would also have to be created at a central location in the business district. But, he said, “the current owners of the Wainscott business properties are very concerned . . . about losing property rights such as sharing of their parking areas with other stores, losing current curb cuts, and also losing significant business due to a customer’s inability to park close to their stores.” 

But Jose Arandia described “a misunderstanding of what this long-term proposal does.” Concern among business owners about losing parking spaces or reclassification of land is misplaced, he said. The hamlet study “is simply a long-term vision plan, and it could very well be a phase-by-phase-by-phase approach.” But the first phase, he said, should include acquisition of the sand pit.

“This isn’t going to happen tomorrow,” said Rick Del Mastro. Citing a future of driverless vehicles, he said that traffic, for example, may look very different than it does today. “What we’re establishing today is not set in stone,” he said. “It’s open to change, because there will be change.” 

Indeed, the plan is flexible, Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said. “It’s more of a vision for the future.” Once adopted into the comprehensive plan, “future development and redevelopment will be considered through that lens.” 

The hamlet studies began in 2015, with public input beginning the following year. The consultants, Peter Flinker of Dodson and Flinker, a Massachusetts consulting firm, and Lisa Liquori of Fine Arts and Sciences, a former town planning director, have presented updates since then, based on public comment from individuals, the hamlets’ citizens advisory committees, and chambers of commerce. The goal is to adopt recommendations for each hamlet to be incorporated into the town’s comprehensive plan. 

The hearing on Wainscott was the first of several upcoming hearings; the second happens next Thursday with the East Hampton study. Amagansett will be considered on Nov. 1, followed by Springs on Nov. 15. Lastly, Montauk’s hamlet study will be the subject of a public hearing on Dec. 6. 

All the hearings will be held at Town Hall, during town board meetings that start at 6:30 p.m. While an individual hamlet will be the focus of each hearing, comment on any hamlet will be accepted at all of them.