A portion of the sand placed on the downtown Montauk beach to cover sandbags exposed by a series of storms washed away over the weekend as yet another northeaster swept through the region.

East Hampton Town had authorized $1.05 million on April 5 to pay for the work being done by Bistrian Materials of East Hampton. Shortly after the contract was awarded, large dump trucks and earth-moving equipment arrived in Montauk to begin spreading sand that had been trucked in from an upland source.

Some residents and visitors expressed outrage on social media and in conversation about the new sand itself, which was an orange shade dissimilar to the familiar white sand beach that had been there before. That sand is to be covered with a layer of beach sand that is lighter in color.

The initial work lining the approximately 3,100-foot-long section of beach with massive sandbags had been paid for by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. That project, which was completed in 2016, cost $8.4 million. According to a deal struck at the time, East Hampton Town and Suffolk County were supposed to share the cost of keeping the bags covered and the beach usable by the public. The town is in negotiations with county officials about getting reimbursed for a share of the cost of repairs in the future.

Toward the end of last week, as a forecast for yet another coastal storm became clear, East Hampton Town Highway Superintendent Stephen Lynch, who was supervising the project, suspended the work. In the days that followed, higher-than-normal tides and a strong easterly sweep of surf scoured the contours of the sand that had already been placed between the sandbags and the ocean.

The effect was not as dire as it appeared, East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said during a meeting on Tuesday in Town Hall. “Despite claims to the contrary on Facebook that sand did not all wash away and some of the pictures that were posted showed places where the sand had not been placed yet,” he said.

Mr. Van Scoyoc said yesterday that there had not been a determination of how much sand had been lost. He also said that he had had conversations with some of the Montauk downtown oceanfront property owners about creating a tax district to allow them to pay for sand replenishment in the future themselves. “I don’t feel that this should be an ongoing cost to taxpayers,” he said.

“I think that it is unfortunate that there are some people actually cheering for the degrading of our beach to continue. We understand that this is a stop-gap measure and that a major sand-only replenishment is the only interim step, but, ultimately, development needs to move out of the way of the ocean,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said.

A recently unveiled town planning study called for the gradual retreat from the shoreline of at-risk structures. There are about 11 separate properties along this portion of the Montauk beach, most of them motels and condominiums, with a handful of private residences. In the study, these would be removed from harm’s way and rebuilt inland in two phases. A large restored dune would be built in their place to protect the rest of the commercial area.

Sources for the money for such an ambitious project were not identified in the town study. The Army Corps has been working on and off for decades on a master plan for beaches from Fire Island to Montauk Point that is thought to be nearing completion. 

The Montauk sandbags were described as a temporary measure, to hold the motels and other properties in place while the Army Corps plan was being finalized. 

However, a 2016 outline of the $1.1 billion Fire Island to Montauk Point work did not include substantial restoration of the downtown Montauk beach, a disappointment to East Hampton officials.

Work to cover the sandbags, at the Army Corps’ expense, also was done in 2017. The cost was more than $700,000.

“What we’re witnessing now is how unsustainable, and costly, the A.C.O.E. project is,” said Laura Tooman, executive director of Concerned Citizens of Montauk. Moving forward, she said, C.C.O.M. will work to see that “we take collective steps to ensure we assess and implement a more sustainable plan for our downtown beaches.” While the hope is that the Army Corps will “deliver the sand they promised” through the Fire Island to Montauk Point study, “we may not be able to sit and wait that long,” Ms. Tooman said. 

C.C.O.M. is working with the town and community to explore an erosion control district “to give us a wider beach profile and protect the short to medium-term viability of our beaches. The longer-term solution is still one which we must continue to build consensus on within the community.”

“We need to allow the natural processes of sand movement at the beach without the interruption of development,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said. “That’s what creates our beautiful beaches here and we need to take those long-term steps to maintain that. That’s not going to happen overnight. This is a difficult position to be in, and I think that the alternatives are to do nothing or do the best we can, and we’re actively pursuing doing the best we can.” 

Barring any more storms, the sand work should be completed by May 15, the town said.

The creation of 37 apartments in six buildings on what is now a 4.6-acre field on Montauk Highway in Amagansett has been scheduled for a public hearing at 7 p.m. on May 2 before the East Hampton Town Planning Board. The plans can be inspected at the planning board office at 300 Pantigo Place.

The development, which has been referred to as affordable housing, is more accurately described as work force housing, according to Catherine Casey, executive director of the East Hampton Housing Authority, which is working with David M. Gallo of Georgica Green Ventures on construction and will manage the property. One-quarter of the apartments are to be subsidized as low-income housing.

The plan calls for 12 one-bedroom, 12 two-bedroom, and 12 three-bedroom apartments, as well as a single four-bedroom unit. All except the latter will be in the six two-story buildings, while the four-bedroom apartment will be on the second floor of a common building, which is planned as a community center. There also will be a sewage treatment plant on the site, along with a 493-square-foot building to house equipment. There will be an open meadow at the center of the development, with the buildings clustered around it.

Originally, the plan called for 11 residential buildings, as well as a commercial building. The planning board had objected to the density and the current plan evolved through several site plan reviews. Also changed from the initial proposal is the setback from Montauk Highway, which was doubled from 50 to 100 feet. There are 77 parking spaces planned with a circular roadway around the development accessed from the highway on the western corner. 

When the planning board scheduled the May 2 public hearing, there was some discussion about the lighting. Ms. Casey assured the board that it would be “dark-sky” compliant. 

The property is just west of a Shell gasoline station and runs back to the Long Island Rail Road right of way. An eastern red cedar tree on the west border will be retained, as will two clusters of trees to the east. A fence facing the highway is to be removed, while another, on the northern border facing the railroad tracks, is to remain, as is a fence on the western border. A four-foot-high stockade fence is to be built on the eastern border.

Last Thursday’s deadline to file petitions to be on the ballot in the June 26 Democratic primary election for New York’s First Congressional District has claimed one victim. 

Brendon Henry, a bartender and musician who also works for a plumbing supply company, said yesterday that he had no choice but to suspend his campaign when he was unable to submit the minimum 1,250 signatures of registered Dem­ocrats living in the district. “We were very close on signatures,” he said. “We were just a little undermanned. We gave it a good run. When it came down to it, it wasn’t working out.” 

His volunteer staff of 12 had collected more than 1,000 signatures, he said. “They did great, but with the storms and bad weather, it held us off a little.” Getting a petition with the required number of signatures postmarked before the deadline was impossible, he said. “We didn’t have enough time to get it all together.”

Mr. Henry, who lives in Center Moriches, also cited his wife’s pregnancy in deciding to suspend his campaign. “Going forward, we’ll see what happens,” he said. “I’m not trying to become a politician, but if I see another place where I could help, I would definitely be willing to think about it.” 

Perry Gershon, Kate Browning, Elaine DiMasi, David Pechefsky, and Vivian Viloria-Fisher remain in the hunt for the Democrats’ nomination. Mr. Henry pledged to support the primary’s victor. The winner will challenge Representative Lee Zeldin, who is seeking a third term.

Instituted last year by Organizacion Latino-Americana and the Children’s Museum of the East End, the Circles of Strength (Circulos de Fuerza) workshop will return to the museum on Tuesday from 6 to 9 p.m. 

The workshop maintains the same goal as it did last year, to help families who are struggling with the psychological effects of immigration-related stress and uncertainty.

It seems especially timely, as last week Luis Marin-Castro, an East Hampton resident of 20 years, although supposedly without legal status, was picked up by immigration officers and moved to New Mexico and later to El Paso, Tex.

The workshop will be facilitated by mental health and social work professionals in an effort to offer tools, exercises, and approaches to help families decrease stress, increase communication, and build stronger support systems. Attendees will be placed in groups with children kept together and separated from the adults. The professionals conducting the workshop will be ready for crisis intervention, if necessary. A dinner will also be offered.

Registration is required before Tuesday. The workshop is free and appropriate for ages 4 and over. CMEE is at 376 Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike in Bridgehampton. Registration and additional details are available by sending a text message to 631-848-7043 or by calling 631-899-3441.

The Hampton Hopper, the free shuttle bus that served more than 20,000 riders in Montauk last summer, will return this summer to move visitors and residents around the hamlet. But business owners and workers in one part of town are feeling left out and, with the tourist season approaching, are seeking a remedy. 

At its meeting last Thursday, the East Hampton Town Board authorized a $150,000 expenditure to engage Hampton Hopper to provide the free service in Montauk, where the company’s green, converted school buses stop at least twice per hour at 10 locations on a loop stretching between the campground at Hither Hills State Park and Gosman’s Dock. Buses can be flagged at additional designated locations. The town is allocating $50,000 for the service, with a state grant providing the rest. 

At the board’s work session at the Montauk Firehouse on Tuesday, Laurie Cancielleri of Rick’s Crabby Cowboy Cafe, near the end of East Lake Drive, and Laraine Creegan, executive director of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce, complained that the Hopper’s route does not include East Lake Drive, home to several hotels, restaurants, guest houses, and a marina, as well as Gin Beach, a popular family beach at the road’s end, across the harbor from Gosman’s. 

“We are local businesses, taxpayers,” Ms. Cancielleri said. “We understand it’s a job to include us, but there must be a solution because we are part of the town.” East Lake Drive’s relative remoteness, she said, makes it difficult to access without a vehicle, and it is hazardous for cyclists because it has neither a shoulder nor bicycle lane. “We don’t need tons and tons of trips,” she said of a bus service, “but we do need some.” 

The board explored adding East Lake Drive to the route, Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc told Ms. Cancielleri, but servicing the road would add more than $30,000 to the cost, while maintaining the same routes as last year is already costing $50,000 more than in 2017. “We would like to keep the service free,” he said, wondering aloud if more money would be available in 2019, or if other funding sources exist. “I would love to see that service expand, but we have to be conscious of budgetary constraints.” 

“But we’re the only area not served,” Ms. Cancielleri said of those on the east side of Lake Montauk. “It’s a $20 taxi to get to us. People would like to use the east side of the harbor. In my view, we’re not $30,000 too much. . . . We are town businesspeople, and we’re not being served. We need it the most.” 

Ms. Creegan suggested that advertising on some of the buses could finance an additional bus allowing East Lake Drive to be serviced, and that members of the chamber might be eager to advertise. “It is upsetting that you’re closing half the lake” to public transportation access, she said. 

The board hopes to expand the service throughout the town, Mr. Van Scoyoc said, as its existence eliminates other vehicles from the roadways and parking spaces, but Montauk at present is the only hamlet enjoying the free service. “Montauk has something no other hamlet has now,” he said. The Hopper does not serve all of Montauk, “but we’re not serving all of the town yet, either.” 

Ms. Creegan again suggested advertising on the buses. “Call me,” she said. “You have my number.”

Northeasters in the latter half of the winter caused “some significant damage to the bluff trail” at Shadmoor State Park in Montauk, an official with East Hampton Town’s Land Management Department told the town board on Tuesday. 

Andrew Drake, an environmental analyst with the department, showed the board drone video depicting erosion of the bluffs in three places along the popular trail, which the department maintains. The park comprises two parcels, one owned by Suffolk County and one jointly by the town and New York State, Mr. Drake said, calling attention to substantial erosion depicted in the video. In one instance, some 15 feet had been lost from the bluff, he said.

String fencing has been erected to alert those walking the trail atop the bluff, but a more substantial barrier is advisable, he said. The trail would have to be rerouted landward in some areas, and the state and county have granted permission to do so. 

At a third spot, in Rheinstein Park west of Ditch Plain, erosion had carved into the trail itself, which is in a wetland area, Mr. Drake said. A boardwalk may be advisable there, he added. That may require a wetlands permit from the State Department of Environmental Conservation, and he asked the board’s permission to apply for it. 

People climbing down the bluff to the beach contribute to erosion, Mr. Drake said in answer to a question from Councilwoman Sylvia Overby. She asked what could be done to discourage it, the existing split-rail fencing and signs reading “Caution, bluff erosion” clearly being insufficient. Mr. Drake suggested signs with stronger language. 

The board signaled its support for rerouting the trail and the creation of signs bearing a stronger message to dissuade people from climbing on the bluffs.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is calling for information and nominations from companies interested in commercial wind energy leases within a proposed area in the New York Bight, an area of shallow waters between Long Island and the New Jersey coast. 

A statement issued on Friday said that in addition to nominations, the agency seeks public opinion on the potential for wind energy development in the area, including site conditions, resources, and multiple uses in close proximity to, or within, the areas that would be relevant for the review of any nominations as well as the bureau’s subsequent decision on whether to offer all or part of the areas for wind leasing. 

Walter Cruickshank, the bureau’s acting director, said in the statement that “We understand that development on the outer continental shelf requires us to consider how these developments can affect people who make their living on the ocean. B.O.E.M. will continue to work closely with our stakeholders, including state government agencies and ocean users, to look at the potential impacts of offshore wind from a regional and cumulative perspective. For example, commercial and recreational fishing are important cultural and economic activities that must be considered.”

In a responding statement, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said, “New York has made an unparalleled commitment to expanding offshore wind and leading in the clean energy economy, and I commend the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for supporting our efforts to develop a cleaner, more prosperous future.” 

“In New York, we are proud to have a nation-leading mandate to generate 50 percent of the state’s electricity needs from renewable energy sources,” the governor said, referring to the state’s Clean Energy Standard. “To advance our clean energy goals, we are undertaking one of the largest offshore wind development plans in the country, which will power 1.2 million New York homes and create 5,000 good-paying jobs.” 

He also expressed continuing concern about the federal government’s proposal to allow offshore oil and gas drilling on the East Coast. “New York has formally requested to be excluded from this offshore drilling plan, and we believe offshore wind is a better direction for our economy, for our environment, and for our energy future,” he said. 

The call was to be published in the Federal Register yesterday; a 45-day public comment period is to follow. 

A plan for a 900,000-gallon water reservoir off Cross Highway in the Devon area of Amagansett has drawn the ire of several residents. The Suffolk County Water Authority was to have held a meeting at the Amagansett Library last night to discuss the plan. 

According to project documents, the 30-foot-tall tank, 90 feet in diameter, would be installed on an existing water authority pump site and “painted a shade of green designed to blend in with the surrounding environment.” The reservoir is intended to boost water pressure to water authority customers from East Hampton to Napeague. It would be about 40 feet from the Cross Highway roadside in the southeast corner of the site.

In a written description, the water authority said that it did not have to apply for permission from East Hampton Town. Steve Latham, a Riverhead attorney representing several of the project’s neighboring property owners, rejected that assertion. He said that only utilities specifically exempted by law are able to avoid town review.

Mr. Latham also faulted the water authority for keeping the project quiet until plans for it had been completed. Town officials were only notified in late March, he said. In addition, of the 14 nearby property owners, some had not seen a notice that the water authority said it had sent by mail.

After receiving strong opposition from the East Hampton Town Planning Board, a proposed subdivision of 41.3 acres of farmland along Montauk Highway in Sagaponack came under further scrutiny from the Sagaponack Village Board on Monday. 

The land is owned by Kenneth Schwenk and his family, who are seeking to develop nine house lots that will be clustered next to nearly 27 acres of an agricultural reserve. Given the property’s proximity to East Hampton Town, state law mandated that Sagaponack give the town the opportunity to weigh in on the development, and the reaction was decidedly negative. 

Job Potter, the chairman of the planning board, called the proposal an “ugly subdivision of farmland” and the board recommended that East Hampton urge Sagaponack Village to find ways — including using community preservation fund money — to protect the property. 

Sagaponack Village Mayor Donald Louchheim broached the idea with Mr. Schwenk at the board meeting on Monday. “Basically the town is wondering if the applicant would consider an 80-percent preservation of open space or the development rights sold to the town of Southampton,” said Mr. Louchheim. 

“No,” replied Mr. Schwenk, who said that the Schwenk family had sold plenty of development rights over the years. 

One such sale, which occurred in 2001, covered 42.2 acres of land on Long Lane in East Hampton across from the high school. That parcel, which had been the focus of farmland preservation advocates for decades, was purchased from the Schwenk family by East Hampton Town and Suffolk County at a time when a complex of sports fields and athletic facilities were being considered for the site. 

On Tuesday, Alice Cooley, the lawyer representing Mr. Schwenk, clarified that he is not completely dismissing the notion of selling the development rights to the Sagaponack land, but that he is focusing now on getting the site plan properly mapped out. 

During his appearance before the board, Mr. Schwenk addressed the need to add agricultural accessory buildings to the site map for the subdivision, which is called Meadowmere. As it stands, the map allocates a 53,000-square-foot lot for each of the nine proposed houses in addition to the existing 55,000-square-foot lot that currently contains Mr. Schwenk’s house and other structures.  

Mr. Schwenk resisted the board’s suggestion to incorporate the new agricultural buildings into his residential lot and said he would be seeking 60,000 square feet of space for the structures. “I think 60,000 would be adequate to accommodate and sustain a viable farm, not a toy farm,” he said. Mr. Schwenk and the majority of board members agreed that the only potential spot on the land to situate those structures would be adjacent to the east side of the existing house. William Barbour, a board member, reasoned that the presence of the house would keep the buildings out of view from those traveling east on Montauk Highway, and a deep slope in the land would keep the structures largely out of sight from those traveling west as well. 

The board has asked Mr. Schwenk to add a 60,000-square-foot building envelope to the site map. The fire department has also requested the inclusion of a fire well located near the cluster of nine houses. Once the board has determined that the site map is fully representative of the proposal, it will set a date for a public hearing. 

Mr. Louchheim pointed out that it is likely that officials from East Hampton town would appear at that hearing to reiterate their disapproval of the plan. 

Acknowledging that it will take some doing to make his subdivision plans a reality, Mr. Schwenk said, “This is not going to happen in the next week. This may never get done in my lifetime. This is for the future.”

The youth-led movement to demand changes to gun policy in the wake of the latest mass shooting at a school indicates a swelling desire among the young to make their collective voice heard. This, said Brendon Henry, the youngest of six candidates seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Representative Lee Zeldin in New York’s First Congressional District, bodes well for his campaign. 

The 37-year-old bartender and musician, who also works for a plumbing supply company in Center Moriches, where he lives, said that his life experiences — working two jobs to pay a mortgage, serving thousands of ordinary residents and, in the process, learning of their everyday problems — have uniquely positioned him to represent the district. 

“It gives you a good focus,” he said, “and a finger on the pulse of what’s happening.” 

The 115th Congress does not represent the people, Mr. Henry charged this week. Instead, “it’s rich guys representing rich people. Not a lot of working people representing working people.” People are anxious for change, he said, evidenced in places like Wisconsin’s First District, where Randy Bryce, an ironworker and veteran, is challenging Representative Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House. “People are ready for it, because the congressional seat is not anybody’s seat, it’s all of ours.” 

Mr. Zeldin, he said, “had you believe he was going to be the working-class guy, that he was going to stand up for us.” Instead, he said, Mr. Zeldin voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. “He’s a supporter of gutting our health care from underneath us. God forbid you get a medical emergency — you’re bankrupt. We’ve got to make sure we can protect working people.”

At a January forum at the Stony Brook Southampton campus, Mr. Henry, who is from Westhampton, said that he supports Medicare for all. “We can’t be the only country in the civilized world that doesn’t have it,” he said of universal health care. “The Affordable Care Act isn’t affordable for a lot of people, but it got a lot of people into the system. . . . We need to take the power from the insurance companies.”

Mr. Henry also likened Mr. Zeldin to President Trump. “He made the decision that that divisive mentality works,” he said, criticizing the presence of Stephen Bannon, who worked for the Trump campaign and administration, at Mr. Zeldin’s December fund-raiser in Manhattan. “We’re not like that here,” Mr. Henry said of the residents he hopes to represent. “We’re not that extreme.”

In the 2018 campaign, “he’s going to have to deal with people who are from the street, the town, the community,” Mr. Henry said. “And he doesn’t like facing people from the community, obviously.” 

Mr. Henry predicted that the legions of youth protesting the nation’s gun laws, coupled with the surge in activism since Mr. Trump’s election, will create a formidable bloc of young people committed to change. 

“These kids are finally waking up,” he said, “and realizing the greatest trick they were ever told was that their vote doesn’t matter. Now they are seeing their vote does matter. . . . People who have never cared about this are now getting involved. If you want change, you have to facilitate it. Be the change you want to see. We have a generation of kids that are coming into their own and are going to do it. These are people who got the short end of the stick — the high loans, the failing infrastructure. They’re inheriting these problems and are starting to tackle them.” 

Reforming the Second Amendment and “getting lobbyists out of government” are priorities, he said. 

Immigration, in the district and across the country, is among the most pressing issues, Mr. Henry said, something his experience in the service industry taught him. “They’re not going away,” he said of undocumented immigrants. “We’re not going to build a wall.” He advocates “practical, realistic immigration, where people can register, become legal, pay taxes, get a driver’s license, have safe rentals, not be taken advantage of.” Immigrants, he said, “just want an opportunity to take a chance for the American dream.”

Congress must attack the opioid crisis, for which pharmaceutical corporations share blame, he said. “I’m a musician and have played for the last 20 years. We’ve been crushed by this. Our scene has been totaled. I had to miss a candidates forum because we were having a memorial for one of my friends. . . . I want to see accountability put on Big Pharma for lying to the American people that OxyContin has no addictive traits.” 

At the January forum, Mr. Henry described himself as “the son of two hippies” and thus antiwar. “We wasted money and lives for so long, on war and the war machine, the military industrial complex,” he said this week. “It’s the majority of where our tax money goes, and our quality of life has diminished. . . . We have to start looking at it as, we could be a war machine, or this great country that built itself back up, that fixes infrastructure, its health care, and is still a humanitarian force around the world.” In January, he said, “We need to take care of the veterans we have and not create more.” 

The candidate said that his campaign has revealed an electorate enthusiastic to participate and foster change, evidenced both in the volunteers canvassing for him and the high school students calling out politicians beholden to special interest groups like the National Rifle Association. “The country is in the right place,” he said. “A lot of them felt slighted in the last election, and are seeing that their voices matter, that what they can do is important and powerful.” 

The western part of the First District does include a large conservative base, he conceded, but a large millennial demographic as well. “The hope is to get as many out for the primary, and to get them all out in the general,” he said. “Make sure they realize the importance they have. That will be the deciding factor. Everywhere we go, the rooms are filled. People are energized like I’ve never seen.”

And, Mr. Henry added, of the six candidates for the Democratic nomination he is the sole lifelong resident of the district. “I’m the local guy,” he said. “I stayed here because I love it here. I have such an understanding of this community, and I could do a great job, given the opportunity.” 

This is part of a series examining the Democratic candidates for the First Congressional District.