One week after members of the East Hampton Group for Wildlife asked the East Hampton Town Board to institute a ban on hunting on one weekend day, a representative of the East Hampton Sportsmen’s Alliance delivered that group’s contrasting point of view.

Members of the Group for Wildlife told the board that, beyond their belief that hunting is inhumane, some residents feel that hiking and other recreation in the woods are hazardous during hunting season, while others are upset by the noise of firearms. Banning hunting on one weekend day, one said, would provide “one day of peace, quiet, and safety.” 

Terry O’Riordan, a director, treasurer, and secretary of the Sportsmen’s Alliance, told the board on Tuesday that the State Department of Environmental Conservation and the federal Fish and Wildlife Service control hunting regulations, “and believe me when I say they are very specific, detailed, and strictly enforced. Counties, towns, and villages cannot usurp these higher authorities” with respect to hunting regulations and wildlife management, he said. 

Referring to the Group for Wildlife’s message to “share our town land” in an ad in last week’s issue of The Star, Mr. O’Riordan said that hunters “have been sharing East Hampton Town lands with non-hunters for centuries.” The alliance numbers roughly 100 members, all of whom are residents or own property in the town, he said, and East Hampton’s hunters are a diverse group that includes conservationists and scientists. “They are the very fabric of our town and have been so for many generations.” 

Hunters, Mr. O’Riordan said, “have never asked to have exclusive rights to town-owned land for hunting,” while “the proposed ban contradicts the very word ‘share.’ ”

For most people, weekends are the only time for leisure, Mr. O’Riordan said, and deer hunting with firearms was permitted for just 26 days in January. “That is only 7 percent of the entire year!” he said, and just seven of those 26 days were weekend days. Losing half of those weekend days to a ban, and perhaps more to extreme winter weather conditions, would be unfairly restrictive, he said, while “non-hunters still maintain all 365 days to occupy and use town woods and lands.” 

No member of the Sportsmen’s Alliance could recall an incident in which a hunter shot a nonhunter, Mr. O’Riordan said. “Considering how much the population of our town has grown in the past 15 to 20 years, that’s a pretty good safety record.” 

The Sportsmen’s Alliance “adamantly believes that any such hunting ban on town lands would contradict centuries-long local traditions,” he said. “As Woody Guthrie sang, ‘This land is your land, this land is my land.’ ”

Though passengers have been few in the first days of the South Fork Commuter Connection, the coordinated rail and bus system operating during peak commuting hours to provide a public transportation option and alleviate traffic congestion, East Hampton and Southampton Town officials expect more passengers as the weather warms and attendant traffic snarls proliferate. 

The connection comprises expanded Long Island Rail Road service and the “last mile connection” shuttle service to take passengers to their workplaces on weekday mornings. Late-afternoon bus and train service returns riders to their stations of origin. The program was launched on Monday. 

Fifteen passengers were on Monday’s first train, which left Speonk at 6:16 a.m., and a dozen were aboard the second morning train, which originated in Hampton Bays at 8:26, according to a release issued by the Town of Southampton. Supervisor Jay Schneiderman and Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming rode the latter train on Monday to officially launch the program. 

Several passengers disembarked upon the trains’ 7:03 and 8:54 a.m. arrivals in East Hampton on Monday, according to a train conductor. One person took the Hampton Hopper to get to work. 

“We don’t see today’s ridership as representational, and expect it to grow as the word gets out and traffic gets more challenging,” Joanne Pilgrim, executive assistant to East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc, said on Monday. 

On Tuesday, Mr. Van Scoyoc said that he believed ridership was low on Monday because of inclement weather and a two-hour delay in school openings. There were more passengers on Tuesday, he said, and “we expect that will continue to increase.” 

A driver of the Hampton Hopper, a bus company the town contracted to shuttle riders to and from their workplaces in East Hampton, confidently made the same prediction on Tuesday morning. 

Southampton Town selected the Hampton Hopper for shuttle service in Southampton Village and the Hampton Jitney to service Bridgehampton and Sag Harbor. 

“I want to thank State Assemblyman Fred Thiele and State Senator Ken LaValle for their strong leadership to make this happen,” Mr. Schneiderman said in a statement. “This commuter service took years of hard work at the state and local levels to bring on track.” Ridership is expected to build as traffic grows on Sunrise Highway and County Road 39 in the spring, according to the statement. 

The service will operate Monday through Friday year round except for major holidays and on Fridays during the summer. It offers local L.I.R.R. trips stopping in Speonk, Westhampton Beach, Hampton Bays, Southampton, Bridgehampton, East Hampton, Amagansett, and Montauk. Select trains connect with the shuttle bus services to workplaces and employment centers. 

The current schedule will be in effect through May 17. Summer timetables will be available early in May.

Due to a clerical error, the East Hampton Town Trustees canceled a special meeting scheduled for last evening to discuss revising the terms of leases to tenants on trustee land at Lazy Point in Amagansett. 

The trustees have added Lazy Point leases to the agenda of their next regular meeting, on Monday at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.

The Montauk Post Office has taken a step intended to help solve its long-running mail and parcel delivery problems, with more changes planned in the near future.

Construction of a ramp on the west side of the building at 73 South Euclid Avenue was completed this month to facilitate loading and unloading of parcels onto post office vehicles. The change is meant to help post office staffers transport the parcels to offsite locations for sorting, and hopefully speed up delivery times to patrons. 

In the past, parcels have sometimes languished on the loading dock at the building — especially during the summer high season — because there wasn't enough room to store the packages inside as they awaited processing or delivery. Patrons often get alerts that their mail has arrived, only to find when they visit the post office that the clerks can't locate the parcels or say when they will be available.

The post office has also ordered new parcel lockers that will be installed in the lobby to allow patrons to bypass the counter and pickup their packages directly from the lockers.

While the lockers and ramp could address some of the complaints, residents have also reported days when mail isn't delivered at all to their homes or it arrives very late in the evening. Some residents also reported packages being left by their roadside mailboxes, where they are susceptible to damage, or discovering their mail is routinely delivered to the wrong location. Staffing changes have left the branch with carriers who are not familiar with the area. 

Representative Lee Zeldin, who made a formal inquiry into the branch's long-running problems after some fed up Montauk residents contacted his office in December asking him to press for improvements, released a statement saying the ramp construction is a positive step.

“The U.S.P.S. provides a critical service to Long Islanders, especially those in less accessible communities, such as Montauk, and it is critical that local residents receive the postal services they need,” Mr. Zeldin said.

Mr. Zeldin also said he is now supporting three pieces of legislation intended to improve the quality of the post office's service nationwide. One of the bills would ensure the continuation of deliveries six days a week, and another would mandate door delivery for all residents and businesses.

The auditorium at the Suffolk County Legislature buzzed with life on Monday evening as elected officials and members of the community gathered to discuss a topic that, just a few years ago, would have been a source of public outcry: the legalization of marijuana.

The hearing, which was presided over by Legislator Duwayne Gregory, was held in response to the announcement earlier this year by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of a plan to legalize and tax the possession and sale of marijuana for recreational use in New York State. The proposed plan, which was made public in January, included a clause that would allow local governments to veto or “opt out,” thereby maintaining marijuana prohibition in their district. Monday’s meeting was an opportunity for the public to speak to lawmakers, express concerns about legalization, and discuss the question of Suffolk’s opting out — an option that will be considered, should legislators in Albany pass the proposal.

Over 200 people attended the hearing, crowding shoulder to shoulder in the small chamber and spilling out into two adjacent overflow rooms. In total, 48 spoke, among them health care professionals, farmers, educators, and business owners from around the county. Representatives from Empire State Norml and Start Smart New York, pro-legalization activist groups, were also present.

The format was straightforward. Each speaker had three minutes to address the legislators, who listened quietly from behind a long, horseshoe-shape  desk at the front of the room, occasionally nodding or jotting down notes. The statements ranged from impassioned personal accounts to well-researched arguments. The atmosphere was civil and supportive; several speakers, mostly on the pro-legalization side, earning a smattering of applause from members of the gallery.

Those in favor of legalization argued that, if properly regulated, marijuana could benefit the county by bringing in a new job-creating industry while providing a much-needed boost in tax revenue. Many of these arguments made reference to the fact that marijuana use is already widespread and completely unregulated. “Prohibition doesn’t work,” said David Falkowski of Sag Harbor. “We have seen that proved time and again. Weed is already here. We might as well tax it and make it safe.”  Mr. Falkowski, owner of the Open Minded Organics farm in Bridgehampton, is a registered processor of industrial hemp.

Troy Smit from Empire State Norml, a pro-legalization advocacy group, argued that legalizing marijuana would cut down on crime related to the black market sale of the drug, making it safer for users to purchase. “The only people who stand to benefit from Suffolk County opting out are the drug dealers and criminals,” Mr. Smit said.

While public opinion has shifted in recent years toward a more sympathetic view of marijuana — a recent study by the Pew Research Center found that 62 percent of Americans are pro-legalization — some at the hearing were still not convinced that the drug is harmless. Those in favor of opting out cited a wide range of health concerns from the effects of secondhand smoke to the potential for marijuana to act as a “gateway drug” to more addictive substances like cocaine and heroin.

Several references were made to the opioid crisis. Steve Chassman, executive director for the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, brought up Suffolk County’s rising overdose rate, which — at approximately 17 per 100,000 — is among the highest in New York State. While marijuana on its own has no record of causing overdose, some believe that it plays a role in the development and progression of opioid addiction. 

Claudia Ragni, a Suffolk County resident and addiction treatment professional who spoke in favor of opting out, pointed out that the high THC content of some modern marijuana can have the mind-altering effects of powerful narcotics. Ms. Ragni, who runs a treatment facility in Hauppauge, says she used to see patients with T.H.C. levels in the range of 175 to 200, “but now people come in with 3,000 to 7,000 ng/ml. I mean, this is not the stuff people were smoking in the ’60s and ’70s,” Ms. Ragni said. “This ain’t Mother Nature’s weed.”

Some expressed suspicion that financial pressure from growing state debt is motivating Albany’s recent push to legalize, prompting concerns that the state may be rushing into legalization before adequate regulatory frameworks are in place. 

Governor Cuomo’s report estimates that statewide taxes on sale and distribution of marijuana would generate revenue to the tune of $300 million annually, though how the state intends to use the money is still being determined. Among other things, Governor Cuomo has publicly discussed using tax revenue to create a new state office — the Office of Cannabis Management — which would be responsible for reviewing and sealing past marijuana convictions. This initiative would be of particular benefit to minority communities that were disproportionately affected by the criminalization of marijuana in the first place. 

But, this is just one of many ideas that are currently on the table. As recently as Tuesday, Governor Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio released a new report that included recreational marijuana tax as a resource for an initiative to redevelop the New York City subway system.

Speakers at Monday’s hearing took the opportunity to offer their own suggestions for how the surplus tax money should be spent, which ranged widely from support for substance abuse programs to subsidies for preschool. One man went so far as to prepare graphs for the legislators in which he outlined specific dollar amounts to be allocated to different social services.

On a practical level, there is some doubt about whether opting out would meaningfully curb use of the drug, given that it is already widely available on the black market and would be legal to purchase in neighboring counties. “What would stop people from just driving 20 minutes and buying it in Nassau? I mean, frankly, that’s what I’ll be doing,” said Bob Hildebrand of Coram.

Over the next few months, the County Legislature is expected to respond to these issues and come to a decision. While it remains to be seen whether the proposal will pass at the state level, Governor Cuomo and members of his office appear confident, suggesting it is a matter of when, not if legalization comes to New York. 

By the time the hearing wrapped up around 9 p.m., speakers on both sides seemed glad to have had their voices heard. As members of the crowd filed out the glass doors of the building and toward their cars, many expressed gratitude to the Legislature for the opportunity to discuss the issue in an open forum. “It might not affect what is ultimately going to happen,” reflected Phillip Castro of Riverhead, “but I’m glad we had the chance to talk it out.”

With the enthusiastic endorsement of their lessees, many of whom crowded the meeting room at Town Hall on Monday, the East Hampton Town Trustees took a step closer to codifying a significant change in the terms for the lots at Lazy Point, Amagansett, where residents own their houses but lease the underlying land. 

As they had suggested last spring and again two weeks ago, the trustees are preparing to extend leases in the bucolic neighborhood on Gardiner’s Bay, which one resident described on Monday as “a throwback to simpler times,” from the present one-year term to 35 years.

On the South Fork, home to some of the most expensive real estate in the country, rent at Lazy Point remains as modest as the small lots on which the mostly unassuming houses sit. When the trustees raised the annual rent by 50 percent in 2013, the new figure was just $1,500. 

Subsequent increases spurred lengthy negotiations and tenants’ calls to modify lease terms in a way that would allow them to obtain mortgages. The trustees, who derive around half their annual revenue from the leases and the 4-percent transfer fee on house sales they initiated in 2015, have warmed to their tenants’ point of view over the last year. 

The latest draft of a new 35-year lease has been circulated among the trustees, they said on Monday, and they called a special meeting for Wednesday evening to discuss it. 

Lazy Point leases historically lasted one year and were renewed on a year-to-year basis. This, residents have told the trustees, rendered them and prospective homebuyers unable to obtain a mortgage or other long-term loans with which to make improvements and repairs. 

On Monday, Joan Priore, secretary of the Lazy Point Neighborhood Association, read a statement on her neighbors’ behalf in which she asserted that a 35-year lease represents a win not just for the neighborhood but also for the trustees and all of the town’s residents. “Lazy Point homeowners, especially those of us who are senior citizens, need to feel a sense of certainty that our homes will be here for us and our families in the future,” she said. “A year-to-year lease does not provide that assurance. A 35-year lease will.”

The selling price of well-maintained, updated, and improved houses would benefit the trustees, who will reap higher transfer fees, Ms. Priore said. Other residents of the town should favor 35-year leases at Lazy Point, too, “because it will make mortgage financing a possibility and open up a path for more of them to contemplate buying a house at Lazy Point.” 

The South Fork’s stratospheric real estate prices coupled with the year-to-year lease terms restrict the pool of homebuyers to those with cash to put down, Ms. Priore said, echoing remarks by Jim Grimes, a deputy clerk of the trustees, earlier this month. “These are important things to consider in your review of this proposal.” 

The neighborhood’s residents are always there for one another, “and we are always there for Lazy Point,” Ms. Priore said, describing an annual spring cleanup and efforts to install snow fencing to prevent erosion. “Lazy Point has a certain charm and character. It’s an out-of-the-way, ‘unHamptons’ enclave, a throwback to simpler times.” 

Preservation of the neighborhood’s unique character is a goal the trustees and tenants share, she said. “When you are ready to vote, we ask you to vote yes for 35-year leases, confident in knowing it will benefit everyone and won’t change anything about what makes Lazy Point Lazy Point.” 

The version before the trustees is “close to a final draft” of the new lease, said Christopher Carillo, the trustees’ attorney. He and the trustees will work toward a finished product at next week’s special meeting, he said, which the trustees will then present for public comment.

A sluggish East End real estate market in January produced less than $5.5 million in revenues for the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund, a nearly 45-percent decline from the same period last year, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. announced on Monday. It was the lowest monthly total in almost six years. 

The preservation fund, which provides money for land preservation and water quality improvement, receives the proceeds of a 2-percent real estate transfer tax imposed by the five East End towns: East Hampton, Southampton, Shelter Island, Southold, and Riverhead. East Hampton posted the largest decline in C.P.F. tax revenues last month, raising less than $1.5 million, compared to more than $3 million in January 2018. Riverhead was the only town in which the tax revenue increased — by $60,000 — over the previous year. Southampton’s C.P.F. revenues were down nearly 47 percent, Shelter Island’s almost 29 percent, and Southold’s nearly 26 percent. 

Mr. Thiele cited the plunging stock market as one of the main reasons for the real estate downturn. In a prepared statement about the decrease in C.P.F. money, he pointed out that the stock market in 2018 “experienced its worst year since 2008, the beginning of the Great Recession, and its worst December since the Great Depression in 1931.” So far this year, however, the market has rebounded, he said. 

He also cautioned against using the numbers from January to predict how the real estate market will fare during the rest of the year. “At least a quarter of a year of data is required to determine whether the revenue drop . . . is an aberration or a significant change,” Mr. Thiele said.

The East Hampton Town Board has scheduled a public hearing next Thursday at which comment for or against an amendment to the town code that would require residents to obtain new permit stickers for parking and driving on beaches will be heard. The hearing will be held during the board’s meeting that starts at 6:30 p.m. in the meeting room at Town Hall. 

Current stickers issued for parking and driving on beaches do not expire. Members of the board, mindful that more than 30,000 such permits have been issued — a number that exceeds the population of the town — have voiced the concern that many vehicles bearing current permits were subsequently sold to nonresidents, who would not be authorized to use them. 

The town trustees, who manage common lands, including beaches, on behalf of the public, support the board’s plan to implement a new permit scheme. 

Should the board vote to enact the amendment, new, color-coded beach vehicle permits would expire on Dec. 31 in years ending in 5 or 0. They would still be free to residents, while nonresidents, whose permits would expire at the end of every year, would be assessed $375. 

Permits would become available sometime this year, become mandatory in 2020, and expire in 2025, Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said in December. Permits for 2025 to 2030 would become available in 2024, he said. 

Another change would require that those operating a vehicle on the beach be equipped with a fire extinguisher, along with the tow rope or chain, jack, and spare tire required at present. 

Councilman David Lys voted against scheduling the public hearing. His concern, he told his colleagues at a previous meeting, is that an amendment to the code at this time could have an unintended effect on a dispute over driving at a section of ocean beach on Napeague. Property owners adjacent to what is sometimes called Truck Beach filed a lawsuit seeking to enact restrictions on driving there. They were unsuccessful but have appealed the decision.

Members of the East Hampton Group for Wildlife, asserting that residents are unsafe in the woods during hunting season, are asking the East Hampton Town Board to institute a ban on hunting on one weekend day. 

Hunting rules and regulations are set by the state and enforced by state conservation officers, as well as by federal Fish and Wildlife agents where migratory birds are concerned, according to the town’s hunting guide for the 2018-19 season. While local municipalities cannot pass laws regulating hunting seasons, they can decide whether to permit hunting within their jurisdiction. Private landowners may also permit hunting on their properties. 

Deer hunting with firearms was permitted from Jan. 6 through Jan. 31 this year. Bow hunting for deer was permitted from Oct. 31 through Jan. 31. Hunting for some types of smaller game and some birds extends into February and March. 

A longtime state ban on weekend hunting was lifted four years ago. While the Group for Wildlife considers hunting inhumane, some residents are upset by the noise of firearms as well as what they say is a hazardous condition for hiking and other recreational activities, for themselves as well as their pets. 

At the town board’s meeting last Thursday, Carol Saxe of Springs, who is the group’s representative to the town’s wildlife management advisory committee, asked the board to partially reinstate the weekend ban, suggesting that hunting be prohibited on Sunday. 

“About 6 percent of the population in the United States hunts,” she told the board, and only around 1 percent consumes their prey. “The vast majority of East Hampton Town residents do not hunt,” she said. Members of the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society had opposed the lifting of the weekend ban, she said, while others complain about gun noise, which she said starts around 5:30 a.m. “If you live anywhere near water . . . sleeping is out of the question,” she said.

Expanding hunting to reduce the deer population is unproductive, she said, referring to studies on “compensatory rebound effect,” the response by which a sudden increase in food resources, due to a sudden decrease in the population, induces a high reproductive rate. 

A partial reinstatement of a ban would give hunters one weekend day to hunt while preserving a day for the public’s safe access to town lands on weekends, Ms. Saxe said. “We’re asking for one day of peace, quiet, and safety,” she told the board. 

Ronnie Manning spoke of how gunfire disturbs the peace and frightens her dog when she is walking it. “It seems a majority of town land is reserved for the hunters,” she said, while harsh winter weather often precludes walking, and walking dogs, on beaches. “If you’re by yourself in the woods and have good control, there’s no reason not to let your dog run free,” she said, “except we have to be in fear that we could be in the crossfire. . . . Why can’t we share the land more?” 

A ban on hunting one day per week represents a “fair and reasonable” compromise, Ms. Saxe said. 

The Group for Wildlife’s proposal was discussed at recent meetings of the wildlife management advisory committee, Ms. Saxe wrote to the town board on Monday, and she asked that it be put on the board’s work session agenda for public discussion. But the feeling among her group is that hunters and their advocates dominate the wildlife management advisory committee. 

“The committee is composed primarily of hunters and individuals who support hunting,” she wrote. “As a representative of the East Hampton Group for Wildlife, I have a voice on the committee but no meaningful vote since I’m outnumbered by the imbalance of the group. I vote alone as the only committed voice for nonviolent and humane management of our wildlife.” 

Only three members attended the most recent meeting of the wildlife management advisory committee, Councilman David Lys, the board’s liaison to the committee, said at the board’s Feb. 19 meeting, and two opposed reinstating a ban. 

The sound of gunfire “travels for miles across the harbors and affects residential neighborhoods far and wide,” Ms. Saxe wrote to the board. “Gun noise is not merely disturbing, it can cause fear in young children and pets.” The board, she wrote, “must decide whether it represents only hunters or the entire community, and whether it will maintain safe, fair, and shared utilization of town-owned land.” 

At the town board’s meeting last Thursday, only Councilman Jeff Bragman stated a position on the Group for Wildlife’s proposal, voicing support for a ban on hunting on one weekend day.

On the heels of the East Hampton Town Board’s Feb. 7 vote to ban the intentional release of balloons, the town trustee who was among those drawing attention to their detrimental impact on marine life is now advocating an outright ban on the sale or distribution of Mylar balloons. 

“It’s not too soon,” Susan McGraw Keber, who last year designed a “balloon fish” illustration crafted from found balloons to convey the message that they pose a hazard to marine life, told her colleagues on Monday. Mylar balloons are banned on Block Island, and other jurisdictions have enacted similar prohibitions, she said. “I’d like to see us ban Mylar balloons. They’re really deleterious to the environment. . . . This is singling out a specific material that is very harmful. And they seem to be everywhere now.”

Her colleagues agreed. “They show up on our beaches all the time,” said Francis Bock, the trustees’ clerk. 

Mylar is the brand name for a type of stretched polyester film. It is found in products such as food packaging, and is used as a protective covering, an electrical and thermal insulator, and reflective material. 

Unlike latex balloons, Mylar balloons can be manufactured to form shapes when inflated, such as hearts, stars, letters, and numbers. They feature a shiny surface and often bear birthday, holiday, or other special occasion messages. 

At the town board’s Feb. 7 meeting, speakers including Kimberly Durham of the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society spoke of the mortal danger that balloons and the ribbons or strings typically tied to them pose to animals such as sea turtles, seals, dolphins, and whales. “Ingestion, whether directly or indirectly through their food, is a major threat to New York’s marine mammals and sea turtles,” she told the board. The ribbon or string can constrict and cut deeply into flesh, restricting breathing. 

The trustees agreed to draft a letter supporting a ban, which will be forwarded to the town board.