The Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter will join hundreds of Y.M.C.A. facilities across the nation in providing free child care on Tuesday for people heading to the polls. The service will be available between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. 

While children are in the care of the RECenter, the staff will lead activities in the arts, physical education, science, literacy, “and everyone’s favorite —  video game tournaments,” Glenn Vickers, the executive director of the East Hampton RECenter, said. He added that preregistration for the service, which requires parents or caretakers to fill out a simple form, would be appreciated.

USA Today reported on Saturday that the Y.M.C.A. 

initiative is meant to promote access to the polls and is part of a national campaign called Zoe’s Kids Day Out, which is aimed at empowering kids to become leaders.

“Election Day is arguably one of the most important days in the U.S. this year — the ultimate opportunity for Americans to make their voices heard through the democratic process,” Kevin Washington, the president and chief executive officer of the national Y.M.C.A., said in a statement. “Unfortunately, many people who want to vote find it challenging because they have to take children with them. The Y’s hope is that the Zoe’s Kids Day Out initiative enables those parents and caregivers to exercise their right to vote, and ensures children can spend their time in a safe, nurturing environment.

Come Election Day, Southampton Town residents will also be voting for Southampton Town justice. The choice is between Andrea Schiavoni, one of four sitting town justices, and Ernest R. Wruck, an attorney who lives in Eastport. Each justice is elected to a four-year term and serves on a rotating monthly basis to hear criminal court cases, building and zoning violations, and the like.

Ms. Schiavoni, a North Haven resident, is seeking a second term on the bench. She is running on the Democratic Party line and will also appear on the Conservative and Working Families Parties lines. She maintains a private mediation practice, Harum and Harum, and teaches continuing legal education. 

Mr. Wruck, who is running on the Republican ticket, is a partner at Wruck & Wallace, a Patchogue firm. He has 30 years’ experience in estate administration, planning, and litigation and has served as an attorney for the Suffolk County public administrator, handling estates with unknown or missing heirs. He is a former Southampton G.O.P. committee chairman.

Sometimes what is below the ground can loom larger than what is above it. This may be the case with a site plan being considered by the East Hampton Town Planning Board for Arbor, a  Montauk restaurant.

Arbor, at 240 Fort Pond Road opposite the train station, was opened by Marc Rowan, an equities investor, who recently also acquired Duryea’s Lobster Deck, the Neptune Motel, and property on Fort Pond Bay where he plans to build several cottages.

The Arbor site plan, which calls for adding two outdoor patios to the grounds, received support from neighbors, but two speakers spoke against it, concerned about the sanitary system’s effect on groundwater.

  Kevin McAllister, the head of Defend H2O, warned that the septic system may predate 1973 and said it consisted of inadequate cesspools. He also said the system was too close to groundwater and that a letter from Norsic Sanitation stated that the large capacity cesspools at the site are of the type banned by the Environmental Protection Agency. 

Mr. Rowan was represented at the hearing by Tina Piette, who countered that she had received a letter from another firm, Hampton Septic Services, which apparently indicated the system was adequate. The letter read: “The south side tank is precast with a 2,000-gallon capacity. The system by the east side of the building is also precast and approximately 8,000 gallons in total capacity.”

In a memo to the board, JoAnne Pahwul, the assistant director of the East Hampton Town Planning Department, suggested the board consider reconciling the differing accounts, while Ms. Piette told the board that Mr. Rowan was eager to pursue a new sewage treatment system, if possible, in conjunction with neighboring property owners.

  Louis Cortese, representing the Ditch Plains Association, also spoke against the plan and suggested the board seek review by the Suffolk County Department of Health Services.

The planning board was expected to continue the discussion at its meeting last night.

East End voters will be asked on Tuesday to vote not only on national and state-level races, but also on Proposition 1, a referendum that would extend the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund program through 2050 and allow up to 20 percent of its proceeds to be used for water quality protection.  Proponents say that the money would enable municipalities to jump-start long-needed programs and address a water pollution problem that has been well documented and studied. Opponents say more time is needed to analyze the problems and develop scientifically sound solutions, and that towns could raise money for improvement in other ways, including borrowing. They also say that rules for spending the new preservation fund money should be in place before it is diverted.

The referendum will be found on the reverse side of the paper ballots that voters will receive.

Toxic algal blooms and other pollutants that have caused periodic closures of local waters, impacts to fish and shellfish, and problems with drinking water have focused recent attention on the need to address ground and surface water pollution. 

If Proposition 1 is approved, wastewater treatment, agricultural pollution control and abatement, aquatic habitat restoration, and other pollution prevention projects could be paid for by the preservation fund, which receives the proceeds of a 2-percent real estate transfer tax.

In preparation for the referendum, each of the East End towns has drafted a plan with proposed projects. Water testing, to establish a baseline showing the state of surface or groundwater before any improvement efforts, would likely top the to-do list in East Hampton, Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said this week. 

Projects to reduce runoff, which carries pollutants directly into water bodies, could also be high on the list of projects, Mr. Van Scoyoc said. Some projects, such as the restoration around Pussy’s Pond in Springs, are already under way, using money obtained by the town through grants from the state or elsewhere.

The councilman also mentioned habitat restoration to bolster shellfish stocks — perhaps an expansion of the town hatchery’s oyster garden program, or the installation of oyster reefs — and adding another pump-out station to keep boaters from dumping septic waste into harbors, as undertakings that could begin soon if the referendum is approved. 

A rebate program to encourage homeowners to install new-technology septic systems that remove nitrogen from wastewater, and the installation of neighborhood waste treatment systems in ecologically sensitive areas, both seen as key to addressing nitrogen pollution, would require more time to craft and implement. 

East Hampton’s 65-page plan outlines conditions and includes recommendations for projects in eight watersheds of concern, prioritized according to what might be accomplished over the next decade. Projects must comply with the town’s zoning and comprehensive plans, and result in a measurable improvement in water quality or aquatic habitat. 

Based on last year’s income to the preservation fund, had the 20 percent portion been available for use, East Hampton would have had over $6 million to address water pollution problems, town officials have estimated. 

Proposition 1 has been supported by a coalition of dozens of environmental and other civic groups, which formed the Clean Water and Community Preservation Committee to campaign for it, including the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Peconic Land Trust, the Group for the East End, the Nature Conservancy, and the Peconic Baykeeper.

During the first three quarters of this year, East Hampton Town collected $21.5 million from the regional C.P.F. for its own community preservation fund, an increase of nearly 5 percent over last year. Income to the fund as a whole, from all five East End towns combined, showed a decrease.

Each township receives proceeds from the tax on real estate transactions within its own boundaries. The future of each town’s C.P.F. — whether water quality improvement projects will be eligible, and whether the lifespan of the fund itself will be extended by 20 years to 2050 — will depend on the results of that town’s vote.

Developers and contractors on the South Fork always want to build big — or so it is said. This time, however, Aman Developers, a general contracting company, plans a small, 225-square-foot, office building in the business center of Bridgehampton. They presented the idea to the Bridgehampton Citizens Advisory Committee on Monday. 

Punit Chugh and Anjali Gupta recently moved their office from Southampton to a small white building at 2272 Montauk Highway, set back from the road and between Loaves and Fishes, a restaurant, inn, and retail shop, and the large commercial Newman building. They want more office space than the existing building affords and to showcase a custom-engineered, turn-key structure. They call it “Aman smart haus.” (Aman is a popular name meaning peace in Arabic languages.)

The structure is described as passive, with regard to a standard of energy efficiency that originated in Germany, because it depends on the sun for heating.

Working with Bill Chaleff, a Water Mill architect, the pair intend to put up a one-room building of only 15-by-15 square feet, while continuing to use the existing office. Meeting in the community room in the basement of the Bridgehampton National Bank, a space that is 30 by 45 feet, Mr. Chaleff said, “You could get six of them in this room.” 

Although it will be a post-and-beam, timber-frame building, it will have a modern look. In comparison to conventional structures, it will require 86 percent less energy for heating and 46 percent less energy for cooling, according to Passive House Institute USA. 

Its concrete, four-inch-thick floor will provide thermal storage that “enables the building to store extra heat taken in during daylight . . . through the south-facing large glass aperture and store the excess for slow release throughout the dark hours of the 24-hour day,” according to Mr. Chaleff. 

Custom-engineered walls made in Germany are to be flown in and no plumbing or septic facilities would be incorporated. Those who use the office would instead walk to the existing office to get to the facilities. And, Mr. Chaleff said, the building would be completed within three days. 

The developers and architect also said the building would actually not be considered permanent. “It could be taken out if we want to leave,” Mr. Chugh told the citizens group. 

It will sit among an existing grove of trees on the east side of the existing parking lot. The building would be above ground level, with a reflecting pool about two feet wide proposed under it. Benches will be placed around it.

“It’s meant to be a welcoming place,” Mr. Chugh said, adding that the community would be welcome. 

Noting the governmental application process, the developers asked the committee to send the Southampton Town Planning Board a letter of support. The committee voted to do so. 

“It’s so tiny and so cute, and it doesn’t fit at all. I like it!” Jenice Delano said, commenting that the building adds balance without being intrusive. 

Only one person in attendance, Jeff Mansfield, objected. He did not think the design fit into the hamlet’s Main Street. “I’m an old school traditionalist,” he said. “It’s just not my taste architecturally. He nevertheless wished the developers well and welcomed them to Bridgehampton.

A plan to reissue a call for proposals for use of the town-owned land at 551 and 561 Montauk Highway in Amagansett has been put on hold at the behest of community members who asked for more time to have public discussions about the property’s future. 

East Hampton Town purchase the property, which has 19 acres of farmland and a barn, in 2014 at a cost of $10.1 million, in order to save it from development as luxury housing. 

The town had received six proposals in 2014 from people interested in use of the site, now called Amagansett Farm, including from a horse breeder, a farming collaborative, a grower of hydroponic greens, and an aronia berry (also known as chokeberry) farmer. A committee vetted the proposals, but no decision was made after a complaint to the Suffolk County District Attorney about the purchase of the land and potential lease prompted an inquiry.

The D.A.’s office does not comment on potential or ongoing investigations, but some had questioned whether it was appropriate to use the community preservation fund to buy farmland with a barn on it — this barn in particular, which was built to contain an apartment. 

The town board had recently decided to call for new proposals, though this time they intended to solicit separate proposals — one for use of the agricultural land and one for both the land and the barn. Resolutions authorizing that process were pulled from the agenda of a board meeting last Thursday after members of the public said community groups would like to weigh in.

East Hampton Town

Amagansett: Parking and Park

The East Hampton Town Board is moving forward with plans to expand the parking lot behind Main Street in Amagansett and to designate an adjacent area for use as a passive park.

 A half-acre lot owned by Herbert and Thomas Field will be purchased with town capital funds for $1.1 million, and two acres of a 2.7-acre parcel owned by Herbert Field will be bought for $1.8 million. Mr. Field, who has a house on the property, will retain the remainder of that lot. The money for that purchase will come primarily from the community preservation fund, as 70 percent of the parcel, which is agricultural land, will be preserved. The 30-percent portion that will become part of the parking lot will be purchased with capital funds. 

At its meeting last Thursday, the board voted unanimously to issue a $390,000 bond for the parking lot construction, and a $220,000 bond that will be used for the park. Plans for the park have not yet been developed, but Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said this week that playground equipment and benches would likely be installed.

To Oversee Green River Cemetery

East Hampton Town will take over the Green River Cemetery in Springs, a local graveyard that is the resting place for generations of Bonackers as well as numerous art world luminaries who lived nearby, including Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock.

The Accabonac Road cemetery has been owned and maintained by the Green River Cemetery Association, which, according to a resolution approved by the town board last week, “believes that a town takeover is the only reasonable course of action to preserve and protect the best interest of the cemetery and the families buried in the cemetery.”

Funds for perpetual care, maintenance, and other expenses will be handed over as well. The town expects upkeep to cost approximately $24,000 a year.

King’s Point Road Acquisition

With a vote last Thursday, the town board agreed to use the community preservation fund to buy a half-acre at 6 King’s Point Road in Springs from Terry Dobris, for $925,000.

Structures on the property will be removed by the landowner prior to the transfer. 

Fencing Off the Airport

Also last Thursday, the board voted to issue a $1 million bond to have a fence installed around the perimeter of the East Hampton Airport, along with electronic gates.

The board also voted that night to hire Michael Baker International, an engineering consulting firm, to assist with the design of the fencing and gate, as well as obstruction lights, for $97,772.

The capital construction project will be paid for with revenue that comes into the airport.

Town Budget Hearing

A proposed $75 million East Hampton Town budget for 2017 will be the subject of a hearing before the East Hampton Town Board at Town Hall next Thursday at 6:30 p.m. 

The proposal increases spending by 1.8 percent over this year. It would result in a tax rate increase of just over 1 percent for property owners in East Hampton Town; those within the incorporated villages of East Hampton and Sag Harbor would see a 3.9-percent decrease in taxes.

At those rates, taxpayers would be charged $29.70 per $100 of assessed value in the town, and $11.25 per $100 of assessed property value within the villages.

The budget includes salaries for additional police officers, to bring the Police Department up to full staffing, as well as for the hiring of additional lifeguards and beach attendants.

Following the hearing, the board is expected to vote on the budget at a Nov. 17 meeting.

Anna Throne-Holst, a Democrat who is running to unseat Representative Lee Zeldin in New York’s First Congressional District, has been endorsed by the Sierra Club, an environmental organization. “We are confident Ms. Throne-Holst will continue work to protect New York and Long Island’s health — air and water — and build a clean energy economy that works for all Americans,” Michael Hayes, political chairman of the club’s Long Island group, said.

Ms. Throne-Holst has also earned the endorsement of the New York State Association of Letter Carriers. “Anna has exhibited a true understanding of postal and labor issues, and stands with our workers,” George Mangold, president of the association, said. “She agrees that a six-day delivery service is essential to the American people and is committed to fighting for fair wages and better working conditions for letter carriers, and for all hard-working families in Suffolk County.”

Other labor organizations endorsing the candidate include the United Autoworkers, the New York State Council of Machinists, the Heat and Frost Insulators Local 112, the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen Local 56, and the American Postal Workers Union.

Ms. Throne-Holst is continuing her effort to tie her opponent to Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s candidate for president, whom Mr. Zeldin has endorsed.

“As the Trump campaign continues to question the integrity of the American electoral process and refuses to support the outcome of the election, Lee Zeldin only makes excuses for his candidate, afraid to take a principled stand for our democracy,” Andrew Grunwald, Ms. Throne-Holst’s campaign manager, said this week, adding that Mr. Zeldin’s “continued embrace of Trump’s dangerous rhetoric and political retaliations further highlights that he is out of touch with the hard-working families of Suffolk County who know Trump’s actions are disqualifying.” 

Mr. Zeldin, meanwhile, has been endorsed by 24 elected officials from the west end of the district, including Smithtown and Islip, bringing the total number of endorsements from elected officials to 58.

His supporters include State Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, State Assemblymen Al Graf, Andrew Garbarino, and Michael Fitzpatrick, Suffolk County Comptroller John Kennedy, Suffolk County Sheriff Vincent Demarco, Suffolk County Legislators Leslie Kennedy, Tom Cilmi, and Robert Trotta, and the supervisors of Brookhaven, Smithtown, and Islip, all of whom are Republicans. 

“I am very grateful for the outpouring of support from our local elected officials, community leaders, and Long Island voters,” Mr. Zeldin said in a statement. “In Congress, I have been working to protect America’s security at home and abroad, help grow our economy, support our veterans and first responders, improve the quality of our education, repair our nation’s infrastructure, improve health care in America, and safeguard our environment. We have made great progress so far, securing victories for Islip, Smithtown, and all of our district, and I look forward to continuing to advance my New Era of American Strength agenda to improve our community, state, and nation.”

Is it a bluff or is it not? The East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals will attempt to answer that question over the next few weeks.

The topological feature in dispute is in the northern portion of a rectangular lot at 80 Firestone Road in Montauk and runs from Fort Pond Bay inland, about halfway up the property. The Montauket hotel and restaurant is south of it; the bay is to its west, with one of the most beautiful sunset views on the East End.

The town’s Natural Resources Department and Planning Department both classify this natural feature as a bluff, and Ann Glennon, principal building inspector, determined in August that the interpretation was correct. Marc Rowan, the owner of the property, disagrees, and appealed her determination.

Mr. Rowan is proposing to tear down the four cottages on the property and replace them with three larger buildings, each placed so as to optimize the sunset views. If the zoning board decides that the natural feature is a bluff, Mr. Rowan will need variances. Bluffs are considered a protected natural feature, with stringent rules as to how near a structure can come to them. Two of the proposed three resort buildings on the narrow property would violate the code if the board decides that the feature in dispute is indeed a bluff.

Andy Hammer led Mr. Rowan’s appeal on Tuesday. John Whelan, chairman of the zoning board, who is a project manager for Stelle Lomont Rouhani Architects, the firm designing Mr. Rowan’s project, recused himself from the matter and with Cate Rogers, the vice chairwoman, absent, asked David Lys to run the hearing. Of the three other members, Mr. Lys has been on the board the longest.

“Facts are often lost in passionate posturing,” Mr. Hammer told the board. He called on Mark Byrnes of Applied Coastal Research and Engineering, a Massachusetts company, to address the board.

Mr. Byrnes argued that the bluff was not created by water and therefore is not a bluff. “It is just a hillside feature, remnant from the last ice age,” he said. “Features come, and features go.”

Brian Frank, the town’s chief environmentalist, advised the board members that the feature being debated fell under the town’s definition of a bluff and asked them to read the specific section of the code calling for the protection of bluffs. He told the board that he and Mr. Byrnes had walked the property together, and had discussed the matter at length. Afterward, Mr. Frank said, he adjusted the expanse of the bluff to a more conservative, smaller length. But still, he said, it is a bluff. He pointed out that the definition of “bluff” in the code clearly states that a bluff “may extend across all or part of a parcel.”

“This is not an inland feature. This is not a slope,” he insisted.

Mr. Byrnes returned to the podium. Bluffs, he said, “always have beaches. They always have water around them.”

The code defines a bluff as “a bank or cliff with a precipitous or steeply sloped face lying landward of a beach or body of water, and having a bluff line at least two feet higher than its base or toe . . . For the purposes of this chapter, a ‘bluff’ shall not be considered to encompass barrier sand dunes.”

The board has 62 days to make a decision. Because there will be only four members voting, there is the possibility of a 2-2 deadlock, which would result in the appeal’s being “rejected without prejudice,” according to the town attorney’s office.

There may be changes afoot for the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals. During a prolonged discussion on Oct. 11, the board wrestled with implementing rules that have been in effect since 1989, but have not been followed.

Chief among them is a rule limiting applicants or their representatives to a maximum of 10 minutes to make their opening remarks. “These are the rules that are sent [to applicants]; they just have not been enforced,” Elizabeth Baldwin, the board’s attorney, told the members.

The discussion was sparked in part by two recent public hearings that ran until midnight. Board members agreed that such sessions were unfair to all concerned, including those whose hearings follow controversial applications.

David Lys, a board member, expressed concern that a strict limitation to 10 minutes might constrain a representative who needed more time. Other members mostly agreed. “The applicant can ask for more time,” Ms. Baldwin told the board. “Ten minutes will be the target,” John Whelan, the chairman, said.

Representatives sometimes dump volumes of documents on the Planning Department and the zoning board on the day of the hearing, which is another pet peeve for the board. Cate Rogers held up a five-inch-thick folder recently presented that way by an applicant. “I want to have as much information as possible, as soon as possible,” Mr. Lys said.

The board seemed to agree that 10 days in advance of the hearing would be a good deadline for documents to be submitted. That, Ms. Rogers said, would allow board members, as well as the Planning Department, upon whose memos the board relies, time to digest the matter at hand.

While 10 minutes would be a nominal limit for representatives’ initial presentation, the rebuttal would not have a time limit. However, Mr. Whelan said, the rebuttal would have to be narrowly focused on what had already been said at the hearing. “We need a better job of stopping the redundancy,” Mr. Lys said.

Also, experts brought along to testify, such as landscapers, contractors, or environmental experts, would be limited to three minutes apiece.

Ms. Rogers expressed concern that wealthy people can show up with an army of experts, an inequity as opposed to those less well off. “It is kind of skewed to those who can afford it,” she lamented.

One time concern problem is self-inflicted, Mr. Whelan acknowledged, taking a self-deprecating swipe, noting he occasionally can “ramble.”

Ms. Baldwin is working on a draft for a new set of rules, which will be taken up by the board in weeks to come.