The East Hampton Town Democratic Committee elected Ilissa Meyer to serve as co-chairwoman with Jeanne Frankl, its longtime leader, last week. Ms. Frankl will retire following the Nov. 7 election.

The committee also elected Afton DiSunno as treasurer at its Feb. 22 meeting.

Ms. Meyer, who has been on the committee for the past five years, lives in East Hampton and co-owns a business with her husband, James Meyer, an equine veterinarian. She has been a member of such groups as the town’s anti-bias task force, where she was secretary-treasurer, and its emergency preparedness committee; the East Hampton/Sag Harbor Citizens Advisory Committee, the Ladies Village Improvement Society, and the East Hampton Sportsmen’s Alliance.

“I’m really exited about this,” Ms. Meyer said yesterday. “I’m excited to be working with Jeanne. East Hampton is the most important thing to me. I love our town.”

East Hampton Democrats, she said, have traditionally been strong advocates for the environment, and she would like that to continue. “We’re on a very good path right now,” she said. “That can only help us, I think, in the long term.”

In a statement, Ms. Frankl said that Ms. Meyer “will add youthful skills and ideas to the leadership as our committee seeks to grow, diversify, and elect forward-looking, compassionate Demo­crats in East Hampton and Congressional District 1. It is a pleasure to work with her.”

Southampton Town

Shelving the C of O Update

Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman withdrew a proposal that would make it a town requirement for any house being sold to have an updated certificate of occupancy. While it is often recommended, and required by some lenders, to obtain proof of an updated C of O during a home purchase, it is not currently a town requirement. The Town of East Hampton does not have such a requirement either.

At a meeting on Feb. 28, the supervisor withdrew the resolution after numerous concerns were raised, he said. Another hearing on the proposal was to have been held on March 28, but has been canceled. The supervisor’s office said he has no plans to reintroduce it at this time.

Rethinking Film Permits

The Southampton Town Board is continuing to look at amending its code with regard to permits for filming on private property, but Councilwoman Christine Scalera withdrew the proposal at the board’s Feb. 28 meeting. She said the town fire marshal and town police had raised concerns that she wanted to incorporate into the proposal, which she said she would reintroduce at a later date.

New York State

Free Tests for Lead in Water

The New York State Department of Health has launched a $1.5 million pilot program enabling residents to test for lead in their drinking water free of charge. Residents whose drinking water comes from either a private well or a public source have access to this testing. Lead is a toxic metal that is particularly harmful to the developing brains and nervous systems of children under 6, health officials said.

Residential tap-water testing requires two 250-milliliter samples per house: a first-draw sample and a flush sample. Residents will collect the samples and return them to one of the participating laboratories. The samples must be sent in within 30 days of receiving a kit.

The laboratory will analyze the samples and mail the results to residents within a month of receiving them. Residents can sign up on the department’s website. The sample kits will be sent by mail and include postage to return them to the laboratory.

Frans H. and Dalal Preidel, who own a small cottage on a dune at the beach terminus of South Edison Street in Montauk, got a Valentine’s Day gift Tuesday night from the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals, which informally agreed to allow them to remove an outdoor shower and deck and replace it with a shed. They need a permit to do the work on the dune, as well as variances concerning the height of the shed and the lot coverage.

The tiny property, a little more than a tenth of an acre in size, is bordered to the south by the Atlantic Ocean and to the north by the Sloppy Tuna nightclub. David Lys told his fellow board members that the lot was almost unique, one of only two such small residential lots in an area zoned for resort use. The Preidels’ proposal actually decreases the lot coverage, he said. The other three members present (Roy Dalene could not attend) agreed that it was worthy of approval.

However, a formal vote was not taken. The board and its attorney, Elizabeth Baldwin, have instituted a new procedure for board decisions, and this application was the first to have been made since then. In the past, the board would take two votes, the first on the night they discussed an application, the second at a later meeting, on the written determination prepared by Ms. Baldwin. It was the second vote that actually counted.

The board has done away with the initial vote. Instead, members will present their views on an application to the attorney, who will write the decision based on their comments. Ms. Baldwin can question the board when they are debating an application, to make sure she is clear on their intent, before presenting them at a later meeting with the written determination on which they will vote.

While the Preidels’ application will likely receive formal approval, the two other applications discussed on Tuesday may not. The board was clearly unhappy with a proposal from John Anton concerning property at 66 Cross Highway in Amagansett. Mr. Anton seeks to legalize an existing 510-square-foot slate patio, a 695-square-foot deck, and a 60-square-foot outdoor shower and wall, all built too close to nearby wetlands. Board members were particularly concerned about allowing such expansion given the lot’s existing septic system, which, Mr. Lys said, “does not comply with Suffolk County or town standards.”

Another application that appears headed for a no vote came from David Peskin of 84 Hampton Lane in Amagansett’s Beach Hampton dunes. Mr. Peskin wants to construct a 450-square-foot pool with a 615-square-foot deck closer to dune land and beach vegetation than allowed by the zoning code. “This pool will contribute to groundwater degradation,” Theresa Berger said. John Whelan, the board’s chairman, said the pool could be modified and moved to a better location.

With the discussion over, Mr. Lys began to make a motion to take a vote, before realizing his error. “It’s going to take me a few weeks,” he said, laughing.

The Sag Harbor Community Housing Trust is moving forward with a plan to rebuild eight cottages on Route 114 just outside Sag Harbor Village for use as affordable housing, representatives told the East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday.

The 2.5-acre property contains nine separate units that were built just after World War II as unheated, seasonal cottages but were converted to year-round dwellings in the 1960s and have provided affordable year-round housing for decades, Ed Reale, a member of the housing trust board, said at a town board work session in Montauk.

While a certificate of occupancy authorizes nine cottages, one cottage lacks a kitchen. All nine will be torn down, and eight new ones (six one-bedroom units and two three-bedroom units) will be built in their place. The buildings are dilapidated and cannot be renovated, Mr. Reale said.

Tenants will be relocated and given the opportunity to move back to the site if they meet affordable-housing guidelines that will be put in place.

The community housing trust purchased the property in 2014 for $1.2 million, using money contributed by Cape Advisors, the developers of the condos in the former Bulova watchcase factory in Sag Harbor. In lieu of providing on-site affordable housing, the developers were required by the Suffolk County Planning Commission to pay a fee toward future affordable housing.

Plans have been developed in conjunction with East Hampton Town’s Housing and Community Development office, and with the Windmill Housing Development Corporation, the private, nonprofit affordable-housing group that administers the Windmill Village I and II senior-housing complexes in East Hampton and the St. Michael’s senior housing in Amagansett, as well as operating the cottage complex on Route 114.

Two other affordable-housing consultants, James Mitchell and Nina Stewart, a former head of East Hampton’s housing site, are also involved.

The money deposited by Cape Advisors into the housing trust, a total of $2.5 million, will serve as seed money for the project; state and county housing grants are being sought. It is anticipated, Mr. Reale said, that prospective tenants with annual incomes of $65,000 to $85,000 would be eligible, based on federal affordable-housing guidelines.

The property is in the Wainscott School District. Children who have been living there have been attending the Wainscott School, said Mr. Reale, so the redevelopment is not expected to have an impact on the district. At the request of East Hampton Town Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, he said, he would give a presentation about the project at an upcoming Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee meeting.

The reconstruction plans comply with East Hampton Town zoning, and, although the housing trust is seeking comment from the town’s Planning Department, do not require site-plan review, according to Mr. Reale. An advanced-technology wastewater system that will reduce nitrogen emissions to as low as 10 milligrams per liter will be installed.

Groundbreaking will depend on when funding can be obtained, but a construction timeline of 18 months, with a start date perhaps in October, is anticipated.

A proposal to expand what has been dubbed a community oyster garden, which was launched in Three Mile Harbor last year, to Hog Creek is a step closer to reality, the director of the East Hampton Town Shellfish Hatchery told the East Hampton Town Trustees at their meeting Monday.

Barley Dunne, who heads the hatchery, which seeds waterways with juvenile scallops, clams, and oysters each year, first proposed a second oyster-growing site, or garden, last month. On Monday, he said property at 124 Water Hole Road in Springs, which the town bought with money from the community preservation fund, could provide access to a proposed 30-by-70-foot area in Hog Creek where 15 to 20 participants could each grow 1,000 oysters annually.

“There’s a really nice area,” Mr. Dunne said, “enough space for people to gather and work on their garden.” As at Three Mile Harbor, only town residents would be eligible, he said.

Modeled on what is known as SPAT, a Cornell Cooperative Extension initiative in waters off Southold, the program allows individuals to harvest half of the 1,000 oysters seeded. The cost, approximately $250 per participant, includes gear and instruction in addition to the oysters. Last year, 15 individuals or families took part in the pilot program in Three Mile Harbor, which was reportedly successful, and Mr. Dunne proposed doubling its size this year.

Diane McNally, a trustee and the body’s former longtime clerk, supported expanding the program, but had a question. “How are your participants going to be chosen? Last time, the only criticism I heard from Three Mile Harbor was that not enough people knew about it before we were reporting that it was starting . . . and more people wanted to get involved.”

Mr. Dunne said he already had “a list of 20-some-odd people” interested in a Hog Creek oyster garden. He noted that word had gone out previously through the media, trustee meeting reports, and word of mouth. “After each article and meeting I get a few phone calls. Hopefully the word is getting out. . . . I’m basically going on a first-come-first-served basis. We haven’t gotten to lottery status yet.”

Mr. Dunne said the program encourages residents to be stewards of the environment. A single adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day, while the gear provides habitat for crabs, nursery fish, and other marine life, he said. Mr. Dunne, and some of the trustees, said they would like to see a community oyster garden in each of the town’s harbors.

Ms. McNally recommended a two-week wait before the trustees approve the Hog Creek expansion to allow for public awareness. The trustees’ next meeting is scheduled for Feb. 27.

The trustees also heard from Kim Barbour of Cornell Cooperative Extension at the meeting, who proposed a “Back to the Bays” stewardship area for East Hampton, possibly at Napeague Harbor, where a 2014 eelgrass restoration effort was disappointing. The Back to the Bays program encourages community involvement in restoring waterways, often using both public and private money.

Another eelgrass program in a town waterway could possibly be funded by a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation $25,000 grant earmarked for five sites in Suffolk County, Ms. Barbour said.

“There really still is a good amount of eelgrass” in Napeague Harbor, she said, but “it’s very sporadic and patchy.” She suggested that a strong influx of groundwater into the harbor might be responsible, explaining that the existing eelgrass “doesn’t follow a normal pattern. It’s not completely dense in one area. We’re thinking that might be mimicking where that groundwater is coming up.”

She said comprehensive research to map particular areas of groundwater influx could help determine if herbicides or pesticides, for example, are entering a harbor through groundwater. Such research “could have major implications” for waterways that no longer support eelgrass. “If we were to go forward, we’d be really interested in putting test plantings out at certain locations this spring.” Care would be taken not to impact areas used by baymen or others, she said.

“This is something we’ve wanted to look at for years,” Ms. Barbour said. “We’ve just never had the funding to do it.”

The trustees asked for a formal proposal, to which Ms. Barbour agreed. “I think everyone’s very supportive,” Bill Taylor, the trustees’ deputy clerk, said.

The trustees also briefly discussed on Monday an East Hampton Town Board proposal to change the regulations governing driving on the beaches. That is reported separately.

East Hampton Town

Car Wash Back on Agenda

The site plan for a proposed car wash on Montauk Highway in Wainscott, which met vigorous neighborhood opposition when it was initially discussed by the East Hampton Town planning board on Sept. 15, is back on the board’s agenda for Wednesday. The owner of the proposed car wash, James Golden, sent the town a brief revised narrative on the business, along with a new survey. The fire marshal’s office has already expressed concern with the new proposal, noting that “the access driveways do not meet the 20 foot minimum” required by the town code. At least 67 residents of Wainscott either spoke out or submitted a letter to the board opposing the proposal last September, according to a letter submitted earlier this month by Simon Kinsella. Wednesday’s session, which includes other matters, begins at 6:30 p.m.

Turkey Trot Donation

Last fall’s Turkey Trot in Montauk sponsored by the East Hampton Town Recreation Department raised more than $4,100, which was donated to the Montauk Food Pantry, Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc announced this week. The race was the 40th annual Turkey Trot, which covers three and six-mile courses. Started by John Keeshan of Montauk in 1976 with just eight participants, it grew to include nearly 600 runners this year.

Rabies Alert

In a public service announcement this week, the town’s Animal Control Department has alerted residents, especially pet owners, to a confirmed case of rabies this month in the Town of Brookhaven. There was also a confirmed case of the disease, in a raccoon, in Nassau County last year. 

While officials are not worried about an outbreak, according to the announcement, all pet owners have been urged to make sure that their animals’ rabies vaccines are up to date. Rabies is a viral disease that can be transmitted from infected mammals to humans through a bite. 

Southampton Town

Farmland Purchase

During a meeting on Feb. 14, the Southampton Town Board approved the acquisition of 7.5 acres at 40 Narrow Lane East in Sagaponack for $3.45 million from the community preservation fund. The purchase includes enhanced development rights, which ensure that 80 percent of the acreage remains in food production and that if sold it will remain affordable for a qualified farmer. Jim Pike leases the property and has been farming it for 30 years, he told the board. 

Lee Foster, a member of the Sagaponack Village Board who comes from a farming family, said the owners of the land, which is north of Sagg Main Street, have not farmed it themselves for two generations. They had proposed a five-lot housing subdivision with 50-percent open space there, but withdrew a pre-application before the Village of Sagaponack in October. The property is adjacent to 100 acres of preserved farmland to the south and 10 acres to the north. 

Freshwater Wetlands 

The Southampton Town Board repealed a local law related to the State Freshwater Wetlands Act, as part of a housekeeping measure on Feb. 14, noting that the town had not assumed authority to implement the act in 22 years. 

Kathleen Murray, the deputy town attorney, said the town board adopted the law on Aug. 20, 1994, to assume regulatory oversight of mapped wetlands areas from the State Department of Environmental Conservation, as the first in a three-step process to seek permission and demonstrate to the D.E.C. that the town was capable of handling regulations. It was unclear why the town had not done so, Ms. Murray said.  

The repeal does not prevent the town from overseeing local wetlands, however. Wetlands in state jurisdiction are those that are 12 acres or more or that the D.E.C. has deemed to be of unusual local importance. 

Draft Filming Rules

Like in the Town of East Hampton, Southampton Town officials are also considering establishing a permitting process for commercial and educational filming on public and private property. At a public hearing, the board discussed a proposed law requiring advance notice of filming, even at private homes or businesses, and the maximum number of people allowed at a shoot. 

In proposing rules, town officials had accepted the Suffolk County Film Commission’s suggestions. Instead of requiring applications to come in 30 days in advance, as first proposed, the draft was shortened to 20 days. The original proposal limited production crews to five, but the number has been increased to 12. The process would not apply to news organizations. 

Violations of the law could be punishable by a fine of $7,000. Violations had initially been designated as unclassified misdemeanors, punishable by up to one year in prison.

The public hearing was closed, and the board is awaiting a final draft from its attorney. 

Weekend Work Hours

The Southampton Town Board will hold a public hearing at Town Hall on March 14 at 1 p.m. on a proposal to limit construction on Saturdays and Sundays. Currently, construction can take place any day between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Supervisor Jay Schneiderman is proposing that construction start one hour later and end one hour earlier on weekends. However, homeowners would still be able to do work themselves at any time.

Work Session Cut

The Southampton Town Board work session scheduled for today has been canceled. The next regularly scheduled work session will be held next Thursday at 10 a.m. in the Town Hall meeting room. The next town board meeting, however, is on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Southampton Town Hall.

Moody’s Investors Service, which evaluates municipalities, schools, businesses, and other entities on their ability to repay short-term debt, has affirmed the town’s AAA rating, the highest level possible. Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schnei­derman said Moody’s latest analysis was based on the town’s large and stable tax base, strong management, and diversified revenue, which maintains stable operation and continued fund balance growth.

Mr. Schneiderman and Leonard Marchese, the town comptroller, made the town’s annual presentation to the rating agency on Jan. 20. Moody’s report also said that the town’s debt reduction strategy has led to a 26 percent reduction since 2009 and an 86 percent reduction over the last 10 years, the supervisor said.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Tuesday a proposal to accelerate the use of renewable heating and cooling technologies to stimulate the clean energy economy.

The new policy, released by the state’s Energy Research and Development Authority, includes a proposed two-year, $15 million program to provide rebates for the installation of ground-source heat pumps, also known as geothermal systems. It would further the goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions statewide, by 2030, to 40 percent below 1990 levels.

In residences and commercial enterprises, fossil fuel-based thermal energy — primarily natural gas, propane, and oil — is currently the main energy source. It is responsible for about 32 percent of the state’s energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, according to the energy authority.

The proposed rebate program would provide about $6,000 for a typical residential consumer who installs a ground-source heat pump, a technology that has the potential to provide homeowners with an energy-efficient and reliable heating and cooling system. It is not yet cost-competitive with conventional technologies, however; the rebate program is intended help stimulate market growth.

The policy also identifies options to lower costs, reduce barriers, and grow the market over the next few years, including community-based outreach, education, and bulk procurements; integrating renewable heating and cooling in new housing developments and campuses; developing a unified and streamlined permitting process; reducing project development risks by providing support for feasibility and engineering studies; introducing renewable heating and cooling technology into existing trade and distribution channels, and mitigating the high upfront costs of new business models by spreading them over time.

The Peconic Land Trust will likely get approval from the East Hampton Town Planning Board for a 2,800-square-foot equipment barn at Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett. However, it may not get the access to the barn it had hoped for.

John Jilnicki, the board’s attorney, informed members that covenants and restrictions written into the subdivision that created the 11-acre farm property between Old Stone Highway, Deep Lane, and Side Hill Road preclude access from Side Hill Road or Deep Lane. Instead, tractors and other farm equipment may have to get to the barn via Old Stone Highway.

The barn is to be used for equipment that serves the whole of Quail Hill, a community supported farm with fields on the east and west side of Deep Lane and off Town Lane to the north. But at the board’s Jan. 25 meeting, the extent to which the barn could be used for equipment from another farm property was also called into question.

Ian Calder-Piedmonte, a member of the board and a farmer, himself, told the board that the practice of using equipment over several different properties is common on East Hampton farms. The discussion will continue at a future meeting.

In other matters, the board also had a prolonged discussion with Gordian Raacke of Renewable Energy Long Island, a member of the town’s energy sustainability committee, about the use of lithium ion battery facilities to store power during off-peak hours, then release that power back into the grid at peak hours. The board has two such facilities before it in site plan review, one on Cove Hollow Road in East Hampton, the other in Montauk south of the train tracks and Navy Road. The proposed facilities would be run by NextEra Energy Resources, a company partnering with National Grid and PSEG.

Mr. Raacke explained that PSEG’s updated power usage for East Hampton shows a critical gap between what is available and what is demanded during peak summer hours. Since the battery facilities cannot be put in place this year, PSEG plans to bring in two generators on flatbed trucks, one for the Montauk substation, the other to be located near the substation on Buell Lane Extension, to make up for the shortfall this summer.

While the proposal is not truly “green,” since it is not actually producing power but only storing it, Mr. Raacke said that the battery facilities would be far preferable to the generators in the future. He told the board that the generators being used this year will be run on compressed natural gas, which is cleaner than oil, but less preferable than the battery concept.

A South Fork railroad service that could accommodate those commuting into East Hampton Town for work, a service that has long been discussed and was instituted for a short-term trial in 2006, is feasible, Long Island Rail Road officials agreed at a meeting last week with the East End’s state, county, and local government officials. Agreement on new services and train schedules, and a plan for their implementation, could be finalized as soon as next month, with a target start date of 2018.

Increasing public transit options has long been a goal to reduce traffic in East Hampton and across the East End. After meeting with L.I.R.R. officials last summer to address the need for improved train service, in November officials from the five East End towns submitted specific proposals for that service to the railroad.

A South Fork Commuter Connection rail service put in place during 2006 and 2007 while work was being done on County Road 39 in Southampton provided two eastbound trains from Speonk to Montauk in the morning, an afternoon westbound train, and bus service from Montauk to Speonk in the late afternoon. Towns provided shuttle buses to transport commuters from train stations to hamlet centers.

The new service would mirror that trial, according to a press release from Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., who attended the meeting last week, but with some modifications. The service would be provided year round, though summertime schedules would have to accommodate the L.I.R.R.’s existing train schedule during those months, and the late-afternoon bus service would be replaced with a train.

“The long-term goal for the South Fork,” according to Mr. Thiele’s release, is to provide service every half-hour eastbound during the morning commute and westbound during the afternoon commute.” However, a second track between Sayville and Montauk, or additional sidings, would be needed in order to provide the more frequent service.

During this year’s state budget process state legislators will seek funding for the creation of a long-term capital plan to include these items.

In order to make commuting by train a viable option, the individual towns would have to establish a transit service that workers could use to get from the train stations to their jobs.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell broached that idea earlier this year, and preliminary planning is underway. Traffic on the East End “is a serious safety, environmental, convenience, and economic issue threatening both Southampton and East Hampton,” Mr. Cantwell said in his state of the town address at the start of this year.