Several months after they asked East Hampton Town for $30,000 to collect data aimed at protecting fishing grounds and compensating commercial fishermen when they are unable to work, that request has still not been granted, the director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association and the liaison chosen by East Hampton Town’s fisheries advisory committee to communicate with Deepwater Wind complained to the town board on Tuesday.

While the liaison, Julie Evans, and Bonnie Brady of the fishing association addressed the board, Deepwater Wind, the Rhode Island company planning to construct the 15-turbine South Fork Wind Farm approximately 30 miles off Montauk, is in the midst of a projected four-month survey at the site and along the transmission cable’s route to shore. 

Commercial fishermen are mostly opposed to the wind farm, fearing damage or destruction of fishing grounds and potential alteration of migration patterns caused by the electromagnetic frequency emitted by its transmission cable. 

A “mariners briefing” dated Tuesday and posted on Deepwater Wind’s website states that “all mariners transiting or fishing in the survey area are requested to give a wide berth to survey vessels as they will be limited in their ability to maneuver and towing gear out to 300 meters behind the vessel.”

Ms. Brady told the board that the purpose of a fisheries representative is to develop a mitigation-monitoring plan with a Deepwater Wind representative. “Unfortunately,” she said, “when it comes to Deepwater, their communication as far as the survey is ‘Get out of the way,’ and outreach is ‘Get out of the way now.’ ” Commercial fishermen who work in the survey area are now restricted, she said. “For how long? Who pays that? If you’ve got a day’s pay and have made that same day’s pay over the course of the last 10 or 20 years, and suddenly you can’t fish because the survey boat is there,” a mitigation plan is not only needed but should have been in place prior to commencement of the survey. 

Ms. Evans was named the fisheries advisory committee’s liaison to Deepwater Wind in March. In July, the company began its survey, which includes drilling core samples 180 feet below the surface at the fertile fishing grounds of Cox’s Ledge. “Unfortunately for the fishermen I speak to, they’re very confused,” she said. “This budget would make it possible for us to let them know what’s going on with certainty.” 

Councilman David Lys, the board’s liaison to the fisheries advisory committee, asked if the advisory committee could accomplish the study, or if the town should issue a request for proposals in order to “get the best document possible to protect our town’s interests” as Deepwater Wind’s proposal for the wind farm is scrutinized by state and federal permitting agencies. The town will participate as interveners in the Article VII review process under the state public service law. “I am an advocate of getting this plan started . . . but I just need to know the objectives and end result,” he said.

A lengthy discussion followed on the sort of details that might be collected, for example, who is fishing in a particular area and when, what and how much they are catching, how are the data to be compiled, and who would benefit from the study. 

“For the people fishing in that area,” Ms. Brady said, “they know they’re going to be compromised.” Vessel trip reports are proprietary, she said, but “anyone that wants to be compensated if they’re going to lose fishing time” has a powerful incentive to volunteer data. 

A part-time employee, Ms. Brady said, could collect such data and determine appropriate compensation based on time lost to Deepwater Wind’s survey and subsequent activity. Such a study, Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said, could also inform Deepwater Wind as to when not to disturb an area based on factors such as seasonal migration. “We’ll figure out who the fishermen are, what they fish for, what they catch, where, and when,” he said. “That makes complete sense to me.”

Board members agreed that a request for proposals should be issued to identify a candidate versed in statistical data collection and scientific research, and asked Ms. Brady and Ms. Evans to help with its development.

While local races in the Sept. 13 Democratic primary are drawing most of the attention here, several other important contests will be on the ballot, including for governor and state attorney general.

Applications for absentee ballots must be postmarked by next Thursday, or applied for in person by Sept. 12, which is also the last day to postmark an absentee ballot. Someone other than the voter may deliver the ballot in person by Sept. 13.

The deadline for voter registration for the primary has passed.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who is seeking his third term in office, will face the actor Cynthia Nixon in the primary. Mr. Cuomo, who grew up in Queens, the son of New York’s former Gov. Mario Cuomo, was an assistant district attorney before being named Housing and Urban Development secretary under President Clinton. He was New York State Attorney General before becoming governor. 

His policies are generally progressive. He supports a $15 minimum wage, free college tuition for lower and middle-class students, and strict gun control laws. On local environmental issues he supports funding clam-spawning sanctuaries on Long Island, has increased funding for the Long Island Rail Road, and has championed the building of 11 mixed-income multi-family rental buildings in Speonk.

Ms. Nixon, who grew up in Manhattan and at one time had a house in Montauk, does not have previous experience in politics. She campaigned in favor of same-sex marriage in the state and has supported the issue throughout the country. She has centered her primary campaign on her progressive values. She too has expressed support for additional L.I.R.R. funding, and calls for transitioning to 100 percent clean energy by 2050.

Lieutenant Governor

While Gov. Cuomo faces a challenge from the left by Ms. Nixon, his lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul, also faces primary opposition. Her challenger is New York City Councilman Jumaane Williams, who, like Ms. Nixon, is running as a progressive alternative.

Ms. Hochul, who was Mr. Cuomo’s running-mate in 2014, is touting the administration’s record. She has blasted Mr. Williams for his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage, and criticized his personal finances. She has the endorsement of the State Democratic Party, Planned Parenthood, and a number of labor unions.

Mr. Williams, who represents the 45th Council District in Brooklyn, supported Senator Bernie Sanders in 2016 when he ran against Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary. Like Ms. Nixon, Mr. Williams says the Cuomo administration is not progressive enough on economic issues. He agrees that he personally opposes abortion, but says he does support abortion access. Ms. Nixon has endorsed his candidacy, as has theˇWorking Families Party,ˇOur Revolution, and the New York Progressive Action Network.

Attorney General

Zephyr Teachout, one of four candidates in the Democratic primary for state attorney general, is running a campaign focusing on corruption and resistance to President Trump’s policies. A professor at Fordham Law School and a political activist, her 2014 book “Corruption in America” sold many thousands of copies. She ran for office that same year, for governor, losing to Mr. Cuomo in the Democratic primary.

If elected, Ms. Teachout has promised to sue fossil fuel companies and distribute the damages to victims of climate change, including shoreline East End communities. As attorney general, she said, she would pursue corruption on all levels of government — state, city, town, and village. “The corruption in New York government isn’t just in Albany,” she said. “It’s happening across the board.”

Leecia Eve, a former aide to Hillary Clinton and Mr. Cuomo, is also running for attorney general on the Democratic line. As an aide to Senator Clinton, she focused on homeland security issues, and later worked in state government, advising Mr. Cuomo on economic issues. She now oversees Verizon’s government relations in the tri-state area. To date, corruption has been a main issue of her campaign.

Letitia James, the New York City public advocate and Mr. Cuomo’s favored candidate, is another attorney general hopeful. Born in Brooklyn, she served on the New York City Council before assuming her present job. Her rivals have hounded her regarding her ties to Mr. Cuomo, and for commenting that she would not want to be known as “the sheriff on Wall Street,” which she later clarified. Ms. James, like her rivals, also touts her progressive platform.

Lastly, incumbent Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney is running two campaigns at once: one for his House seat representing residents of the Hudson Valley, and, more relevant to Suffolk County voters, one for the Democratic nomination for attorney general. Before first winning his House seat in 2012, he served as an aide to President Bill Clinton, then later as an advisor to Governors Eliot Spitzer and David A. Patterson. 

He has pledged to fight against the policies of President Trump, crimes on Wall Street, corruption, and climate change.

Suffolk Courts

The Democratic primary race for County Surrogate Court judge includes one candidate, Tara A. Scully, who already has the Republican nomination. Ms. Scully, the daughter of Peter Scully, a top aide to County Executive Steve Bellone, has served as president of the Suffolk Women’s Bar Association. She practices law in the field of wills and estates, the purview of the Surrogate Court. Claiming that the Surrogate Court judgeship has served before as a sinecure, she has pledged to root out corruption as a priority.

Theresa Whelan, also running on the Democratic ballot, served a term as judge in the county family court, and last year was re-elected for another 10 years. She has the support of Richard Schaffer, the Suffolk Democratic chairman. She too is a past president of Suffolk’s Women’s Bar Association.

The arrival of Labor Day heralds the launch of campaign season, and with a contested nomination for a seat on the East Hampton Town Board, Democrats are wasting no time. Councilman David Lys, appointed to the town board in January to fill the seat vacated by Peter Van Scoyoc upon his election as supervisor, and David Gruber, a former candidate for supervisor who recently formed the East Hampton Reform Democrats, will debate on Tuesday, nine days ahead of the Sept. 13 primary election that will decide the Democratic Party’s nominee. 

The East Hampton Group for Good Government is hosting the debate at 7 p.m. at the Emergency Services Building in East Hampton. Arthur Malman, its chairman, will moderate the 90-minute discussion. It will begin with each candidate delivering a two-minute opening statement. “The two candidates will talk to one another about several questions that the G.G.G. will share with them and the audience in advance,” Mr. Malman said in an email on Monday. “They are encouraged to politely interrupt each other to clarify or disagree.” Ten to 15 minutes will typically be allocated for each of the questions. The debate will conclude with two-minute closing statements. LTV will record the event for rebroadcast on channel 20 and on its website. 

Water quality, sea level rise, affordable housing, the East Hampton Airport, energy self-sufficiency, a living wage, and recreational facilities are among the topics to be addressed, according to a brochure issued by the G.G.G. yesterday. 

The winner of the Sept. 13 Democratic primary will face Manny Vilar, the Republican Party’s candidate, in the general election on Nov. 6. But Mr. Lys, who changed his party affiliation from Republican to Democratic last year, has moved to ensure a place on the ballot regardless of the primary election’s outcome: Last week, he submitted petitions to the Suffolk County Board of Elections offering himself as the candidate of a newly created independent political party, the East Hampton Unity Party. Provided his petitions are validated, he would face Mr. Gruber and Mr. Vilar in a three-way race should he lose the primary election. 

The East Hampton Independence Party nominated Mr. Gruber, who co-founded the East Hampton Conservators and was a founder of the Hayground School, as its candidate. That line on the ballot will be blank, however, following a ruling in State Supreme Court on Friday that invalidated nominating petitions gathered for him. That decision is covered elsewhere in this issue. 

The Reform Democrats, which Mr. Gruber describes as a caucus within the Democratic Party, sponsored a Springs Community Food Festival featuring food trucks and live music at Ashawagh Hall last Thursday. Rallies for Mr. Lys’s campaign are scheduled for Wednesday at the Montauket in Montauk and Friday, Sept. 7, at the Neighborhood House in East Hampton. 

Former supervisor Larry Cantwell issued an endorsement for Mr. Lys’s candidacy on Aug. 17, citing his roots in the community, his five years on the town’s zoning board of appeals, and his leadership roles in the Amagansett Life-Saving and Coast Guard Station Society and Citizens for Access Rights. “David Lys shares my values, Democratic values, and most importantly the values of the people who live and work in our community,” Mr. Cantwell said. 

Mr. Lys’s appointment to the town board, and an internecine dispute over selection of a new leader of the Democratic Committee to replace its retiring chairwoman, Jeanne Frankl, have caused acrimony and a schism within the party. Mr. Gruber formed the Reform Democrats in June, after the Democratic Committee passed over his candidacy for councilman in favor of Mr. Lys. Its members are also seeking election to the Democratic Committee, a vote that also takes place on primary day.

“My basic message is that this town board majority needs help in getting its job done,” Mr. Gruber said on Monday. “On the important issues that face the town, they are not getting the job done.”

The Town of East Hampton’s Natural Resources Department is overseeing a study of Hog Creek in Springs aimed at assessing nitrogen loading and identifying hot spots of nitrogen-rich groundwater intrusion so that mitigation measures can be implemented, the East Hampton Town Trustees were told on Monday. 

Kim Shaw, the department’s director, and Mellissa Winslow, an environmental analyst, told the trustees that Roux Associates of Islandia was awarded a contract to conduct a groundwater seepage monitoring study, at present underway and funded by the community preservation fund, a percentage of which can be allocated to water quality improvement. 

The first step, Ms. Winslow told the trustees, is an input evaluation to determine a baseline of the nitrogen load in the water body and the nitrogen concentration in the groundwater discharge entering its surface waters. To that end, Roux Associates is installing monitoring wells, both upland in road rights of way and at Hog Creek’s perimeter, and taking surface water samples. “There’s upland, shoreline, and surface water samples being taken,” she said. “The results will be used to determine . . . hot spots we should be focusing on for remediation.” 

As with a similar study at Pussy’s Pond in Springs, Ms. Shaw said, “This gives you a better picture of, ‘Are the septic systems at residential homes failing, are they contributing to groundwater contamination?’ ” The Natural Resources Department, she said, is overseeing a rebate program under which property owners are encouraged to install new, nitrogen-reducing septic systems, and participation is high among homeowners around Hog creek. “We’re finding out they had bad connections, they had no connections to [leaching] pools, their pipes had rotted away. It’s going to be interesting to see what kind of information comes out of this, but this neighborhood has been very active in participating in the rebate program. We are hoping this encourages other people.” 

Roux Associates is targeting Hog Creek now, Ms. Winslow said, “when we would expect the highest nitrogen concentrations coming from septic systems because all the seasonal homeowners are going to be around. . . . Based on those results, they may propose doing two or three more rounds” in order to have a fuller understanding of nitrogen loading. 

Should hot spots of groundwater intrusion be identified, permeable reactive barriers could be designed and installed as a passive remediation effort, she said, but “the long-term goal is to upgrade the septic systems and get rid of the source of the nitrogen.” The project is a potential pilot program for other water bodies, such as Lake Montauk or Three Mile Harbor, she said. 

Also at the meeting, John Aldred told his colleagues that the just-concluded mosquito larval sampling pilot program at Accabonac Harbor, conducted jointly by the trustees, the Nature Conservancy, and the Suffolk County Department of Public Works’ vector control division resulted in reduced and more targeted application of methoprene, a larvicide. 

Methoprene’s use is controversial on the South Fork. Environmentalists, scientists, and many elected officials argue that it is harmful to nontarget species, including lobsters, crabs, and fish, and some neighboring states and municipalities have restricted its use. 

Partly because of dry conditions, Mr. Aldred said, very few larvae were found in sampled areas until the middle of last month. Based on the samples, the vector control division did not apply methoprene via helicopter, as it has routinely done for several years. When spraying did occur, “it was initially determined that they could do it with Bti,” a biological agent that is believed to be harmless to nontarget species. 

The presence of larvae, which Mr. Aldred said were found in the same places in each weekly sample, “started to pick up on the 16th” of July. “Once into August, we were starting to see a lot more larvae, but basically in the same places.” In addition to determining whether or not methoprene application could be avoided, vector control was “able to target the areas that produce the larvae, as opposed to having to do blanket spraying,” he said. “That was the case throughout the season.” 

Larvae were generally found where marsh meets upland, Mr. Aldred said, “where there might be holes or little depressions that would collect water. If the tide is able to flush an area, it will generally not produce larvae.” Further study could result in efforts to grade or drain those hot spots to become less hospitable to mosquito breeding. “That may be something we will be able to work on through the winter and into next season with vector control and the Nature Conservancy,” he said. 

The trustees also voted on Monday to retain the services of Daniel Spitzer of Hodgson Russ L.L.P. to represent them in negotiations with Deepwater Wind, which proposes to land a transmission cable from the offshore wind farm it hopes to construct approximately 30 miles from Montauk at the ocean beach at the end of Beach Lane in Wainscott. Mr. Spitzer will be tasked with guiding the trustees in negotiating a land-use agreement with Deepwater Wind as well as their participation as interveners in a review process under the state public service law, known as Article VII, covering applications to construct and operate a major electric transmission facility.

“We are going to win in November!” Perry Gershon told a lively gathering of East Hampton Democrats on Aug. 15 at the East Hampton Presbyterian Church. “Our time has come!” The Democratic Party is energized and united, he told the assembled, and “We are all in to see Lee Zeldin out.” 

Mr. Gershon, who bested four others to win the Democratic Party’s nomination to represent New York’s First Congressional District, is nothing if not confident. Polls indicate a close race against Mr. Zeldin, who has represented the district since 2015 after defeating its longtime incumbent, Tim Bishop, and Mr. Zeldin knows it, Mr. Gershon said. 

“Generally, when an incumbent who’s running against an unknown challenger is comfortable with the race, the last thing he wants to do is bring national attention to that unknown challenger,” he said on Aug. 15. “Well, Lee Zeldin had Donald Trump Jr. tweeting about me and Rush Limbaugh talking about me. Somebody’s worried, and it’s not me.”

The Cook Political Report lists the race in its “likely Republican” column and the website Real Clear Politics says it “leans Republican,” but on Aug. 15, and in an interview with Star staff on Friday, Mr. Gershon, who built a house in East Hampton in 1999 and became a year-round resident last year, further explained his confidence. Turnout in the primary was up 76 percent over 2016, when Mr. Zeldin was re-elected by a 59-to-41-percent margin in a race against Anna Throne-Holst, the former Southampton Town supervisor. “That means the Democrats are energized, but even better, two days after the primary all five of us . . . sat down together and had a unity rally,” he told The Star. “Everybody was there behind one candidate, which we didn’t have two years ago. That’s how you win.”

The candidate is also confident that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party’s campaign arm for the House of Representatives, will soon add him to its “red to blue” list of top-tier candidates to which it provides funding and organizational support. “They’re aware of our race, they know it’s winnable,” he said. Moreover, “We are raising money really, really well,” some $800,000 since the June 26 primary, he said. “And that’s not with any of my money,” Mr. Gershon, who put $1.3 million into the primary campaign, added. 

That said, “I’m also encountering a lot of donors who contribute to races around the country who are reluctant to get involved in this race because the external validators are not pointing to it.” Polling data indicates a close race, but those outside the district “are still adjusting their landscape” since Mr. Gershon upended an expectation that Kate Browning, a former Suffolk County legislator, would win the Democratic nomination. The First District’s primary was also overshadowed by the state’s 14th district, where Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez scored an upset victory over the longtime incumbent Joe Crowley. 

The First District, Mr. Gershon said, is polarized. “There is a large number of people who dislike Lee Zeldin and want no part of him. There are a good number of people who love Donald Trump and Lee Zeldin, and there’s nothing I could do to change their minds.” In between, he said, is “a middle group of the electorate, maybe 15 percent, that’s persuadable. . . . It’s our view that, if I’m presented as a credible alternative — meaning a relatively moderate individual, not a radical on the other side — they will vote for me.”

“They don’t know me, they’ve never heard of me. They need to get comfortable with me, but their inclination will be to vote against Zeldin because they don’t like the direction of the country and they don’t like his stand on the issues.”

Mr. Zeldin, he charged, is “on the wrong side of just about every issue that matters to people here in New York One. All of the enthusiasm, and we think the likelihood to vote, goes on our side.” 

Turnout, he told the gathering at the church, is crucial. Mr. Zeldin, he noted, won more votes in his unsuccessful 2008 effort to oust Mr. Bishop than in his successful 2014 campaign. “The difference is that Democrats didn’t turn out” in 2014, he said. “We’re going to turn out . . . as long as we don’t take it for granted.”

The race will be won or lost in Brookhaven, its population dwarfing East Hampton’s. Ms. Throne-Holst “failed in part because she was particularly weak in Brookhaven,” Mr. Gershon said. She and her primary opponent, David Calone, “never really reconciled afterward, and Anna never reached out to Brookhaven people, including the town Democratic committee, to get their support. There was no energy at all in Brookhaven for the Democrats.”

While registered Republicans are in the majority there, “they do carry Democrats. Tim Bishop tells me all the time . . . that I can’t take my eye off the ball, I have to win in Brookhaven.” Ms. Browning, along with the former candidates Vivian Viloria-Fisher and Elaine DiMasi, are all supporting him, Mr. Gershon said. “Kate will make a difference in Mastic-Shirley.” 

President Trump gets most of the public and media attention, but “I’m running against Lee Zeldin,” the candidate told The Star. “Trump is out there in the background. I can run against Zeldin, Zeldin ties himself to Trump, so indirectly I’ll be running against Trump. . . . I’m running on issues that matter to people who live here.” 

These, he told the Aug. 15 gathering, include health care. “We want to see the gains that we made in the Obama administration remain in place. That means when someone has a pre-existing condition, they cannot be denied insurance. . . . Candidate Trump was right on this, not President Trump: We need to reduce prescription drug costs to make them more affordable to people. Trump said he was going to let Medicare negotiate with the drug companies, but President Trump is in big with Big Pharma, and Congressman Zeldin is in with President Trump.”

He referred to an Aug. 13 rally in Patchogue with Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was killed in the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. “I am going to stand up to the gun lobby,” he said. Mr. Zeldin is the recipient of more contributions from the National Rifle Association than anyone else in New York State’s Congressional delegation, he said, and co-sponsored the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, which would require all states to recognize concealed carry permits by other states and allow permit holders to carry a concealed weapon in school zones in any state. “There is no constituency for that in New York One,” he said. 

While the national economy is strong, “we don’t have job growth here in New York One or on Long Island,” Mr. Gershon said. “There’s a reason for it: Our infrastructure is crumbling. We have not invested in ourselves. We have to do that to make us more competitive.” To The Star, he said that “the future of Suffolk County may be manufacturing the turbines for offshore wind . . . If you’re going to have multiple offshore wind power plants in this area, you need to build the turbines locally, because it’s too expensive to import them from Europe.” 

The nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court means that a woman’s right to choose is “under attack,” Mr. Gershon said. “That’s why Democrats need to take back the House, and we need to be aware and cognizant of where Lee Zeldin stands.” Mr. Zeldin voted for the American Health Care Act of 2017, a partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act that would have imposed a nationwide ban on private insurance coverage of abortion, among other restrictions. 

Mr. Gershon assailed Mr. Zeldin’s record on the environment, noting the League of Conservation Voters’ 9-percent score awarded the congressman for 2017. “He’s quiet when Donald Trump takes on all the advancements we’ve made, not just under Obama but on presidents going back to Richard Nixon,” he said. “He cheered Trump when he pulled out of the Paris Accord,” in which nearly every country pledged to cut its carbon-dioxide emissions. 

“This race is fully in play,” Mr. Gershon told The Star. “The only thing Zeldin has over me, going into this, is name recognition. I intend to fix that, and make sure voters get to know me. I did it well in the primary for Democrats, and I’m going to do it well for non-Democrats now.”

With the Nov. 6 election for a seat on the East Hampton Town Board barely 10 weeks away, party officials are lobbing charges and countercharges of fraudulent nominating petitions. Meanwhile, David Lys, the councilman defending his seat, is moving to form an independent party to ensure his appearance on the ballot in the event he loses a primary election next month. And, in yet another wrinkle, the attorney leading a legal challenge to one party’s petitions was indicted on Tuesday on an unrelated matter. 

Elaine Jones, chairwoman of the East Hampton Independence Party, said on Monday that she had visited multiple people listed on the Republican Party’s nominating petitions for Manny Vilar, its candidate for councilman, and that “the first 20 people said that they did not sign his petition.” She listed a dozen names and corresponding addresses, each of whom, she said, denied that the signature appearing on the petition was his or her own. Further, she said that one signatory on the Republicans’ petition is deceased, a charge the Republicans have leveled at the Independence Party’s nominating petitions for David Gruber, who heads the East Hampton Reform Democrats and is challenging Mr. Lys in the Sept. 13 Democratic Party primary.  

Ms. Jones’s move followed a Republican Party challenge, filed with the Suffolk County Board of Elections, to the Independence Party’s nominating petitions for Mr. Gruber. That challenge came in the wake of Republicans’ effort to force a primary challenge by Mr. Vilar for the Independence Party’s nomination. 

Should the Republicans prevail in a suit filed on July 25 seeking to invalidate the petitions and thus the Independence Party’s nomination of Mr. Gruber, the Independence Party line on the Nov. 6 ballot will be blank. 

At a hearing last Thursday at Suffolk County Supreme Court in Central Islip, “several witnesses testified that they did not in fact sign” Independence Party petitions, Amos Goodman, chairman of the East Hampton Town Republican Committee, said yesterday. The proceeding is to resume tomorrow. 

Ms. Jones, however, is pressing the Republicans with her claim that it is in fact their petitions that are fraudulent, although the deadline to challenge petitions was July 16, according to an official with the Board of Elections. “He is a notary,” she said of Mr. Goodman. “He is supposed to ask for identification. . . . This is as bad as it gets.” 

Mr. Goodman pushed back in an email on Monday and again by telephone yesterday. Ms. Jones’s move, he said in the email, is “her latest attempt to muddy the water by asserting that there was something bogus with my petitions.” Mr. Gruber, he said, “tried to do that in the run-up to the hearing, and his lawyer tried at the hearing, but it didn’t stick because it’s very flimsy. And irrelevant. And false.” The claim that the Republicans’ petition includes a deceased person “is just pure projection, and I’ve seen this ‘evidence’ and the name is not legible. It’s just a blatant attempt at whataboutism, and a sort of sly shift from ‘we did nothing wrong’ to ‘everyone does it.’ It’s laughable.” 

Yesterday, he repeated the assertion that Ms. Jones is attempting to create a false equivalency. “I’ve never done anything wrong, my petitions aren’t on trial,” he said, although he allowed that “it’s possible we were sloppy,” and may have filled in addresses next to the wrong signatures on nominating petitions. Any discrepancies, he insisted, “were certainly not willful. . . . There’s only one set of petitions on trial. I categorically deny anything untoward in this regard. I think it’s unfortunate that this is what they want to do, and it’s also fundamentally irrelevant. There was a time to raise objections, and nobody raised them. As far as the law,” he said of his party’s nominating petitions, “they’re all valid.” 

On July 31, Mr. Gruber said that he was grateful for the Independence Party’s endorsement but, as he is not a member, he had no control over the process. “I discovered, to my chagrin, that legally and formally, I am the respondent in the petition filed to invalidate those petitions,” he said that day. 

In an effort to ensure that he appears on the Nov. 6 ballot, should he lose the Democratic primary election, Mr. Lys submitted petitions to the Board of Elections on Monday offering himself as the candidate of a newly created East Hampton Unity Party. 

In yet other news related to the tussle for Mr. Lys’s seat on the town board, The New York Law Journal reported yesterday that Guy Parisi, the attorney representing the Republicans in their legal challenge to the Independence Party’s petitions, was indicted on Tuesday for allegedly trying to embezzle from a decedent’s estate, of which he was the court-appointed administrator. 

“I’m sure folks will use this unrelated thing to muddy the water,” Mr. Goodman said yesterday. With the expectation that the challenge to the Independence Party petitions will conclude tomorrow, “and we’re already lashed to him, and he’s innocent until proven guilty, it’s too disruptive to switch horses.”

Over the objections of East Hampton Town’s disabilities advisory board, a site plan for a new commercial building in Montauk that designates a separate, back-door entrance for disabled people was endorsed by the town planning board in a straw poll earlier this month. The approval came despite a statement from the chairman of the disabilities board, Glenn Hall, that the proposed back-door ramp would violate the federal Americans With Disabilities Act. 

The issue was back on the planning board’s agenda at its meeting last night. According to Job Potter, the board’s chairman, the straw poll vote was likely to be revisited due to a finding by David Browne, the town’s chief fire marshal, that the ramp would not comply with New York State’s building code.  

Whether or not the site plan goes forward, Mr. Hall said that his board, which has been scheduling meetings with town board members and other officials, will begin taking steps to “fix the system,” so that the concerns of handicapped people are given more consideration in the government’s decision-making processes.

An early site plan for the two-story building at 87 South Euclid Avenue included a handicapped-accessible switch-back ramp leading from the parking area, which is at the front of the building, to the main door. That plan was approved by the planning board on Jan. 25, 2017. 

Upon excavation of the property, Kathleen Semergieff, one of the building’s owners, said it had become apparent that that placement of the ramp was not feasible due to the incline of the parking area. “The lot was way, way, way, too steep,” she told the planning board on July 25, explaining that a change was necessary because if the plan were left as initially approved “no one in a wheelchair would be able to get out without rolling backward into the street.” 

Having the ramp lead to the back of the building, Ms. Semergieff said, would make the incline less precipitous. 

Before granting the modification, the planning board asked the disabilities advisory board for its opinion. Mr. Hall wrote back on Aug. 6 that making disabled people enter the business through the rear door would amount to “back of the bus” and “separate but equal” treatment, which, he said, was clearly in violation of the law. Nevertheless, in a 5- to-2 voice vote, the board approved the modification.

Mr. Hall was so outraged by the results of the July 25 straw poll that he began an effort to stop construction from moving forward. 

“This is a civil rights issue,” he said. A back-door ramp, he said, violates the Americans With Disabilities Act, which states that a handicapped-accessible route coincide with or be located in the same area as the “general circulation path.” Furthermore, pointing out that the proposed building has three doors, he said the back-door ramp would be breaching a provision that 60 percent of a facility’s public entrances be handicapped-accessible.

Mr. Hall said he had hastily organized a meeting of the disabilities advisory board on Friday to discuss the matter. In attendance were several town officials, including Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, a board member and the group’s liaison; Tom Ruhle, the disabilities coordinator, Tom Talmage, an engineer, Marguerite Wolffsohn, planning director, and Michael Sendlenski, the town attorney. Mr. Hall said that Mr. Sendlenski had agreed at the meeting that the ramp in question would be illegal.

That assessment was contrary to the advice provided to planning board members by their own lawyer, John Jilnicki, who indicated that the issue fell into what Mr. Potter described as a “gray area” of legality. 

Explaining his reasoning, Mr. Jilnicki said this week that he viewed the back-entrance access for people with disabilities as comparable to the front entrance because both would open up into the same large commercial space, albeit at opposite ends. Convenience-wise, he added, a straight ramp to the back entrance would ultimately allow for a shorter traveling distance than a switch-back ramp to the front.

The fire marshal’s office regularly provides guidance on planning board matters, and Mr. Browne, who had earlier alerted the board to accessibility issues with the site plan, informed the members that the ramp to the back door would likewise violate a mandate of the state’s building code that “at least 60 percent” of all public entrances be accessible. 

At Mr. Hall’s urging, Richard Whalen, an attorney for the East End Disabilities Group, an advocacy organization, had also pointed to the state code’s 60 percent rule in an Aug. 16 letter to the board.

“We have to change the way the planning board gets their instructions,” said Mr. Hall, who believes that if the members had been better versed in the A.D.A.’s requirements, the site plan modification would have never been approved. 

“The good news is, this is raising people’s consciousness,” he said. To make town officials even more aware, he said, he will recommend to the town board that planning board members be required to attend classes on the A.D.A.

East Hampton Town Councilman David Lys, who was appointed to the town board in January and must stand for election in November, submitted petitions to the Suffolk County Board of Elections on Monday offering himself as the candidate of a newly created independent political party, the East Hampton Unity Party. 

Mr. Lys, who changed his party registration from Republican to Democratic last year, faces a Democratic Party primary challenge from David Gruber, who recently formed his own party called the East Hampton Reform Democrats. Appearing on the newly formed Unity Party line, Mr. Lys said, is a means to “give myself ballot access in November” should he lose in the Sept. 13 Democratic primary. Though he said he is “fully committed and determined to win” that contest, he is also “ fully committed to maintaining my town council seat by all means possible.”

With his name on a Unity Party line, he would still face Mr. Gruber, along with Manny Vilar, the Republican Party’s nominee for the seat, in the event he loses in the primary election — provided the Suffolk County Board of Elections validates his petitions, that is.  

Nick LaLota, commissioner of the Board of Elections, said yesterday that Mr. Lys had filed about 420 signatures, 100 more than required to put himself and the Unity Party on the ballot. 

Amos Goodman, chairman of the East Hampton Town Republican Committee, which has mounted a court challenge to the Independence Party’s petitions for Mr. Gruber, said yesterday that he has not challenged Mr. Lys’s petitions but “it is something I am looking at. If I get a copy of it, which I think is going to be today, there has to be 350 green signatures,” meaning signatories cannot have signed any other nominating petition. Given how many petitions have already been circulated for the various political parties, “I personally think it will be tough.” 

“From my perspective, I think a potential three-way race means Gruber wins, because I think Lys and Manny in that instance would split the moderate vote to David [Gruber]’s benefit,” Mr. Goodman said. “That’s why we’re fighting so hard to challenge Gruber’s Independence Party petitions. We don’t want a three-way race. We’re not looking to suppress votes or cause problems. I don’t want to be the ‘petition hall monitor.’ We just want to take a look. We’ve had, in past years, our own petitions scrutinized. It’s appropriate, in the proper way, not in the court of public opinion, or in trying to smear. I’ve never done that.”

The move also allows Mr. Lys, who cannot vote for himself in November because of his recent change in party affiliation, “to interact with a large voter bloc. They’re all extremely excited by what I was doing” on the town board. “I was very, very bolstered by the support I received from hundreds of people.”

“The way I looked at it,” Mr. Lys said, I wanted to make sure that I have done everything possible” to prevail in the Nov. 6 election.

An interfaith forum on morality will proceed as planned Monday night, but one of its invited guests, Representative Lee Zeldin, will not be there. 

The forum, at 7 p.m. in Fellowship Hall at the Hamptons Methodist Church in Southampton, was to feature Mr. Zeldin and Perry Gershon, his opponent in the Nov. 6 election to represent New York’s First Congressional District. Participating clergy, all representing houses of worship on the South Fork, extended invitations to the congressman and his challenger last month. 

The forum, according to the July 19 invitation from Rabbi Jan Urbach of the Conservative Synagogue of the Hamptons in Bridgehampton, who initiated the event, is “to enable you to share with voters your views on significant moral issues of the day and the moral dimensions of government policy.” Five dates in August were offered. 

“Recognizing the incivility that characterizes much public discourse today — of concern to all of us as clergy and we trust to you as well — we will use our authority as clergy to ensure respectful and open discourse, and an opportunity for each of you to be heard,” the invitation said. 

Five days later, another email was sent to Mr. Zeldin, whose campaign had not responded. “Our congregants and parishioners have expressed great enthusiasm at the opportunity to hear from both you and Mr. Gershon about your values and moral convictions, as well as the way each of you approaches the moral/ethical dimensions of the policies you support and oppose,” it read. “They are anxious for genuine conversation, hungry to hear elected officials and candidates focus on morality, and looking to us as religious leaders to assist in elevating public discourse. We know that you have often lamented the lack of civility at in-person forums, so we trust that you will welcome this opportunity to participate in a high-level discussion moderated by a diverse group of interfaith clergy, representing a wide variety of faith traditions.” 

On July 25, Chris Boyle, of Mr. Zeldin’s campaign, responded, saying that he was working to coordinate debates and forums. He asked that Rabbi Urbach fill out a request form, for which a link was provided, “and we will get back to you as soon as we can.” 

Five days later, Rabbi Urbach sent another email to Mr. Boyle stating that she had still not received a reply. “We have done everything possible to take Mr. Zeldin’s schedule into account, but if we don’t get proposed dates from you, we will need to schedule it regardless,” she wrote. Finally, the clergy set a date for the forum. 

Mr. Gershon had responded immediately and offered several possible dates, according to a release issued by the clergy. Mr. Zeldin, the release said, “passed up the opportunity to suggest dates and once a date was set indicated he would not attend.” The sponsoring clergy expressed disappointment at the congressman’s unwillingness to engage, and continued to welcome and hope that he would reconsider.

Katie Vincentz, Mr. Zeldin’s communications director, contacted Rabbi Urbach. “The congressman looks forward to impartial fact-based debates prior to the election,” she wrote. “Due to your frequent political attacks against the congressman, via public statements, on social media, at protests, in front of his office, in meetings directly with the congressman, and elsewhere, it is extremely unlikely that you would be impartial.”

Rabbi Urbach has been critical of Mr. Zeldin. In a social media post from July 2017, for example, she wrote, in part, that the congressman appeared at the South Fork Natural History Museum’s annual gala in Bridgehampton “to glad-hand. But he hasn’t shown up to oppose climate change deniers, protect the [Environmental Protection Agency], and actually preserve our environment.” 

The forum, Rabbi Urbach said in an email on Tuesday, “is sponsored by a large and diverse coalition of mainstream congregations, with questions formulated and posed by their clergy; it’s not about the personal views of any one person. The format is specifically designed to provide a balanced, nonpartisan opportunity for the candidates to share their moral commitments with voters. Our goal is to bring issues of morality, character, and ethics into the public conversation, and everyone involved genuinely wants to hear both candidates’ approaches.” 

To enable the candidates to offer their most thoughtful responses, and in the hope that Mr. Zeldin would be reassured and change his mind, the candidates will be given the questions in advance, the rabbi said.

Correction: The forum will take place on Monday, Aug. 27, not Friday, Aug. 24, as originally reported. 

$3 Million for Dredging

Representative Lee Zeldin recently announced that he secured $3 million in federal funding to dredge 2.7 miles of the Long Island Intracoastal Waterway. Over 57,000 cubic yards will be dredged to re-establish its 6-foot depth. The dredging follows emergency dredging of Moriches Inlet, which began on Aug. 15 at a cost of $12.25 million. 

Mr. Zeldin also announced that he has been endorsed for re-election by 17 labor unions,  including police, construction workers, firefighters, carpenters, transport workers, plumbers, and steamfitters. Pat Dolan, president of Steamfitters Local 638, said, “We need a congressman . . . representing us at home, a congressman who will continue the fight for union members.”

Call for Closing Sand Land

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. has called for closing the Sand Land facility in Noyac, which  has leached iron, manganese, thallium, sodium, nitrate, ammonia, and radioactivity into the groundwater, according to a recent study. The Town of Southampton had already determined that the polluter’s activities are illegal. Referring to the State Department of Environmental Conservation, Mr. Thiele said, “The D.E.C. must get its head out of the sand. No more permits. Shut it down.”

Mr. Thiele also announced that he had received a 100 percent score for votes in the 2018 legislative season from EPL/Environmental Advocates, a statewide organization. The legislation included bills on climate change, renewable energy, and clean air and water, among others. “Our key industries on eastern Long Island cannot thrive without a healthy environment,” he said.