Auditors who have completed a review of East Hampton Town’s financial status and practices for 2015 strongly complimented town officials when presenting their report on Tuesday.

Budgeting and spending practices, including a debt-reduction policy, fiscal checks and balances, and transparency and detailed reporting of financial matters paint a positive picture that is quite different from previous years, when consistent overspending under a previous administration without raising taxes and misappropriation of funds resulted in a $27 million deficit and a need to borrow $21 million to balance the books. Those bonds are still being paid off. 

“Where the town was previously, and where the town is now, is just polar opposites,” said Dave Tellier of Nawrocki Smith, the firm that did the audit. “I think a lot of kudos goes to everyone in the town, to make this happen. The Town of East Hampton should be really proud of where you stand right now.”

“Everything that we see is operating efficiently now,” Mr. Tellier said; the audit listed no “material weaknesses or deficiencies.” 

East Hampton has a good ratio of financial assets to liabilities, Mr. Tellier said, with $334 million more in assets than in liabilities.

Balances in the town’s major funds have been building for the last six or seven years, Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said, with a total combined fund balance of more than $69 million at the close of 2015, an increase of $5.6 million from the previous year. That includes money in the community preservation fund, which comes from a 2-percent real estate transfer tax and is dedicated to land and historic preservation. 

The town spent $28.2 million in 2015 for the acquisition of open space using the community preservation fund. At the end of last year, the preservation fund held $47 million.

A $6.5 million balance in the general operating fund represents more than 25 percent of that fund’s annual expenditures, “well above the town policy of maintaining 20 percent fund balances,” the audit says. 

Total town indebtedness was just over $104 million at the end of 2015, down by $6.4 million since the end of 2013, the audit notes. 

Overall town indebtedness is projected to decline to less than $100 million by the end of this year, from a high of $146 million at the end of 2009.

The total cost of debt service last year for the town’s governmental funds was $15.2 million. The auditors said that the amount spent annually on debt should continue to decrease as the town implements its recently updated capital plan and follows a policy of retiring more debt each year than it creates, and not increasing its debt by more than $6 million a year.

For the fourth year, the town has adhered to enhanced standards in financial reporting, said Charlene Kagel, the town’s chief auditor. East Hampton was previously awarded a certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada.

Anna Throne-Holst, a former Southampton Town Supervisor, has apparently won her primary race against David Calone, a businessman, former prosecutor, and former chairman of the Suffolk County Planning Commission, and will face Lee Zeldin in the Nov. 8 election to represent New York's First Congressional District.

With some 1,800 absentee ballots counted as of Friday afternoon, Ms. Throne-Holst led Mr. Calone by 319 votes. The result is to be certified on Monday or Tuesday, according to an official of the Suffolk County Board of Elections.

Ms. Throne-Holst's campaign issued a statement shortly before 4 p.m. on Friday, approximately 30 minutes after officials of the board of elections finished counting the absentee ballots. "I am deeply grateful to all who placed their trust and support in me, and I am truly humbled by the privilege it has been to get to know, share the concerns, and my message with so many," she said. "I want to congratulate Dave Calone on a spirited race, and I share in the respect and support he garnered in the district, as demonstrated by the very close margin and the strength of his candidacy."

An official at the board of elections said that 1,811 absentee ballots were counted, but not all were legitimate; some were blank and others recorded with a frivolous name such as Mickey Mouse. Any challenges to an absentee ballot from one candidate's campaign were withdrawn, the official said.

Following the count of votes cast by machine in the June 28 primary election, just 29 votes separated the candidates. At that time, Ms. Throne-Holst had 5,446 votes to Mr. Calone's 5,417. Turnout in the primary election was approximately 9 percent of the district's 137,695 registered Democrats.

"I look forward to working together with Democrats across the district to take back this important seat," Ms. Throne-Holst said. "Lee Zeldin has shown in every way how out of step and wrong he is not only for Long Island, but for the country."

Later on Friday, Mr. Calone issued a statement: "We were outspent in this campaign by nearly $1 million and fell short by around 300 votes . . . that's a testament to the great Democratic volunteers supporting our campaign across the district."

He said he would support Ms. Throne-Holst as she looks ahead toward November. "We cannot continue being represented by Congressman Lee Zeldin, one of Donald Trump's loudest advocates in Washington," he said. "So I urge people across eastern Long Island to join me in supporting our Democratic nominee, Anna Throne-Holst, to replace him this November."

East Hampton Town

Airport Parking

With the institution in the coming days of paid parking at East Hampton Airport, Hertz and Enterprise, the car rental companies based at the airport, have agreed to lease the spaces they need.

The public will be charged $10 a day to park there once the installation of meters is complete. A free, short-term lot will be available for stops of up to half an hour.

The car rental companies have agreed to pay $2,000 a year for each parking space they occupy. Hertz will pay $60,000 annually for 30 cars, as well as 10 percent of its gross revenue. Enterprise will pay $40,000 annually for 20 parking spaces. Both agreements call for increases in 2018 and 2019.

C.P.F. Purchases

After hearings last Thursday, the East Hampton Town Board voted to move ahead with two land purchases using the community preservation fund.

A half-acre at 46 Oyster Shores Road near Three Mile Harbor in East Hampton, from Sasarmy, L.L.C., for $1.05 million, and a lot at 15 South Fenmore Avenue in Montauk, just shy of an acre, for $400,000, from the Edward R. Miller Revocable Trust, will be preserved for open space.

Also last week, following a public hearing, the board approved a law outlining energy efficiency standards for swimming pools

Monday night’s monthly meeting of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee took place not in the community room of the Amagansett Library, which has been the committee’s home for the last 10 years, but at the Donald Lamb building on Bluff Road, better known as the East Hampton Town Trustees’ office. Only 20 or so were in attendance, which was just as well; the room could not have held too many more.

Members of the committee were clearly unhappy about the change of venue, which followed a decision by the library’s board of managers not to keep the library open after regular hours any longer. The meetings at the library began at 7 p.m. and ended at 9.

The board offered Wednesday or Thursday nights, when the library is open until 8, instead of Mondays, when it closes at 5, but several second-home owners both on and off the committee said they stayed over once a month on Mondays specifically for the meetings, and the mid-week options were unacceptable. “We all want to keep our meeting on Mondays,” said Vicki Littman, chairwoman of the committee.

“The library would like to continue hosting A.C.A.C.,” its director, Cynthia Young, said on Tuesday, but on an evening when it is fully staffed. In the past, she said, she herself had volunteered on Monday nights to stay at the library during the meetings to lock up the building afterward, but “to have the building open with only one person staffing it, I feel is not safe. It’s three floors I have to check myself. Anybody could be anywhere.”

“I know we’re safe here in Amagansett, and I would never use that as an excuse,” Ms. Young said. “But it is a concern.” She called the board’s decision “only reasonable.”

Several committee members, and Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, the town board’s liaison to the advisory committee, said they would explore other meeting places for the future. Town Hall was mentioned; so was the Amagansett Firehouse and St. Peter’s Catholic Church. Some people remained angry, however. “We can’t have access to our own library?” Michael Dintenfass protested. “The library is a public resource.” 

There was some talk of challenging the library directors in next year’s election, until Tom Field put a stop to it. “Discussing running for someone else’s board is not our business,” he said. “I suggest we go back to A.C.A.C. business.”

Mr. Cantwell reported that the hamlet’s long-awaited public bathrooms are “75 percent complete, the sidewalks are connected, and you can walk around. It looks great.” Construction on the bathrooms, at the back of the town parking lot behind Main Street, has stopped for the summer and will resume after Labor Day, when, among other things, water will be brought in from Main Street. The work, including repaving, will be finished by the end of September, Mr. Cantwell said.

In response to a question about the town’s new rental registry — was it legal to list a property with Airbnb.com? Rona Klopman asked — the supervisor said yes, provided the listing had a registration number. He noted, however, that the owner is required to inform the town when renters change.

Michael Cinque wondered about getting a four-way stop sign at the corners of Bluff Road and Atlantic Avenue. The possibility is under consideration, Mr. Cantwell said. That reminded him of a related project that the committee had suggested: lowering the speed limit on certain well-traveled streets — Bluff, Atlantic, Indian Wells Highway, and Marine Boulevard among them — to 25 miles per hour. New York State, however, sets the minimum limit at 30 m.p.h. on residential streets, and Albany did not approve Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr.’s bill to reduce it for the streets in question. “We submitted it, but we didn’t get it,” Mr. Cantwell said.

Mr. Cinque and Britton Bistrian, who have been active in the restoration of the Amagansett Life Saving and Coast Guard Station, reminded committee members that the building’s “last push for fund-raising” will take place from 6:30 p.m. on July 23, with an all-stops-out clambake. Last year’s event was a great success; this year’s, at $150 a ticket, is expected to do still better. The price includes drinks, clams, mussels, lobster, corn, and on and on, and the proceeds will speed the opening of the restored 1902 life-saving station, it is hoped by the fall.

Finally, Mr. Cantwell announced that he has been working on a state grant to install two lighted crosswalks, one in the middle of Main Street at the entrance to the parking lot and the other on Montauk Highway, where residents of the St. Michael’s senior citizens housing complex cross to the I.G.A. Committee members were all for it — “provided,” said Ms. Bistrian, “it looks like the Bridgehampton one, not the East Hampton one.”

The year Dennis D’Andrea first joined the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee, Ronald Reagan was president, the tragic explosion of the space shuttle Challenger occurred, and Madonna’s “Papa Don’t Preach” was one of Billboard’s top 100 songs of the year.

It was 1986. Thirty years later, Mr. D’Andrea is still an active member of the Wainscott C.A.C., and for his dedication to the organization, his colleagues honored him at a party on Sunday afternoon at the house of Rick Del Mastro, another longtime C.A.C. member.

On behalf of the C.A.C., Mr. Del Mastro, who owns an outdoor advertising company, installed a billboard in New York City’s Times Square that displayed a photo of Mr. D’Andrea and his dog and congratulated and thanked him for his contributions over the last 30 years.

“Not in my wildest dreams would I have thought to find myself starring in Times Square,” Mr. D’Andrea said by email. “This must be a first for a Bonacker! What an amazing tribute. I can only imagine what the folks who see it are thinking. They’re wondering what I’m trying to sell. I’m sure 99 percent of them have never heard of Wainscott but think, ‘Cute dog.’ ”

On Sunday, Mr. Del Mastro presented Mr. D’Andrea with a miniature burgundy 1932 Forde Coupe, a model of a classic car he owns, and a plaque inscribed with the message, “Better to be the kingmaker, than the king,” for his many contributions to the smooth running of and leadership development within the C.A.C. over the years.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell thanked Mr. D’Andrea for his service and recognized his love for his community. Jose Arandia, co-chairman of the Wainscott C.A.C., lauded Mr. D’Andrea as not only dedicated to Wainscott, but also dedicated to humanitarian efforts in Cuba, where he and his wife, Barbara, have worked to improve the lives of many impoverished people. Barry Frankel, the other co-chairman of the C.A.C., said Mr. D’Andrea’s sense of ethics makes him stand out.

“From the first day I attended my first meeting, he was sort of the pivot point of that whole W.C.A.C. group,” Mr. Frankel said. “He is always there when you need him

Following a storm of protest over the installation last year of new overhead high-voltage electric lines in East Hampton by PSEG Long Island, the state has passed legislation that could pave the way for future utility lines to be installed underground instead.

The new state law, sponsored by Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, will allow East Hampton Town to create “underground utility improvement” tax districts to raise the money to pay for underground installation of new lines or the conversion of existing overhead utility facilities to underground systems.

A movement to bury the lines was sparked when PSEG Long Island began construction of a new transmission line over six miles from East Hampton Village to a substation in Amagansett.

Residents and town officials who appealed to PSEG Long Island to consider installing the line underground were told that option was not economically feasible; it was estimated that the approximately $7 million cost of the six-mile extension would rise to $20 million or more if the lines were buried.

But the high-voltage line, Assemblyman Thiele said at the time, negatively affected the town’s scenic vistas, preserved lands, and the town’s rural character and quality of life. Along with Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell and East Hampton Village Mayor Paul Rickenbach, he urged PSEG to consider a cost-sharing agreement, taking into account potential future savings on maintenance and repairs of lines that would be protected underground.

PSEG offered to place the lines underground only if the municipalities and ratepayers would shoulder the entire cost.

Under the new state law, the creation of underground utility tax districts would be subject to a permissive referendum, allowing affected voters to decide whether a district should be established.

Once an underground utility improvement district has been established, the town board could enter into a contract with a utility agency for underground work.

The legislation is before the governor for approval.

The Fourth of July weekend in East Hampton Town was “major, very busy,” Supervisor Larry Cantwell said at a board meeting on Tuesday, but “there were no calamities, no serious crimes. Overall I think we managed to get through the weekend reasonably well.”

Nevertheless, East Hampton Town police responded to more calls over the holiday weekend this year than last — 642, Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc reported. “Much of this is just the sheer number of people that we have in our community,” Mr. Cantwell said.  “It was clearly very crowded in many places.”

Crowds, public drunkenness, traffic infractions, and disturbances from summer rentals in neighborhoods were so bad during last year’s Fourth of July holiday that several hundred Montauk residents appeared before the board soon afterward to insist that officials do something. The town board has added enforcement staff, adopted new policies,  and enacted a number of laws designed to tone things down.

Noise complaints called in last weekend stemmed primarily from house parties, Mr. Cantwell said; only a small number were about noise from bars and clubs.

In an interview, East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael D. Sarlo said that Montauk was more sedate than it had been during the July 4 holiday in 2015. “Things, overall, are much better out there despite the huge number of people,” Chief Sarlo said.

“It was one of the busiest weekends in our history, yet only a handful of commercial noise complaints, and barely any altercations or problems at the bars. The behavior of the crowds out roaming from bar to bar is much better, less open alcohol, litter, and public urination,” he said.

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. announced last week that New York State has awarded $150,000 for improved hiking trails and expanded vehicle access in Napeague State Park, a 1,364-acre tract between Shipwreck and Marlin Drives and from the Atlantic Ocean across Montauk Highway to Lazy Point.

The park is one of 17 selected statewide to receive a total of $1.3 million in funding as part of the state’s commitment to improving parks and expanding access to outdoor recreation through the N.Y. Parks 2020 Plan. One of the goals of that plan is to open underutilized parkland to promote hiking and outdoor recreation. Another is to reconnect children to the outdoors.

The 2016-17 state budget allocates $90 million toward the N.Y. Parks 2020 Plan, which commits a total of $900 million in public and private funding between 2011 and 2020.

Eight days after Democratic Party voters went to the polls to nominate a candidate to represent New York’s First Congressional District in the House of Representatives, the contest between Anna Throne-Holst and Dave Calone was still undecided, with almost 2,000 absentee ballots yet to be counted. The eventual winner will face Lee Zeldin, a Republican in his first re-election campaign.

At its deadline on Tuesday, the Suffolk County Board of Elections had received a total of 1,994 absentee ballots. When machine votes were counted on the night of June 28, Ms. Throne-Holst, a former Southampton Town supervisor, held just a 29-vote lead over Mr. Calone, a businessman, former federal prosecutor, and former chairman of the Suffolk County Planning Commission. Ms. Throne-Holst had 5,446 votes to Mr. Calone’s 5,417.

New York State election law requires an audit of 3 percent of randomly selected voting machines to ensure the accuracy of the tally. The random selection was still in progress on Tuesday, according to a representative of the Board of Elections. The opening of absentee ballots is tentatively scheduled for this morning, the representative said.

The primary race was expensive, with some $3 million spent by the two campaigns. Despite that expenditure, turnout at the polls was around 9 percent of the district’s 137,695 registered Democrats.

“I’m proud to be in the lead after election night, and am most especially proud of the positive campaign we ran,” Ms. Throne-Holst said in a statement issued on June 29. The statement went on to complain about “dishonest negative ads” aired by Mr. Calone’s campaign, but said that her lead was due to voters’ trust in her record of “fighting for Suffolk County families and cleaning up the financial mess in Southampton, while turning the town around, and protecting our environment.”

In a statement issued on the same day, Mr. Calone called the present tally “a victory of the volunteer grassroots.” He referred to his opponent’s “Wall Street fund-raisers” and political action committee money used against him in the campaign’s closing weeks, “but here we are in a virtual tie.”

Both candidates’ statements addressed the eventual winner’s upcoming campaign against Mr. Zeldin. Mr. Calone called Mr. Zeldin “a proud defender of Donald Trump who voted to defund Planned Parenthood and voted against prohibiting people on the terrorist watch list from buying guns,” while Ms. Throne-Holst said that voters “will reject not only his extremist views and votes, but also his enthusiastic embrace of Donald Trump, who is dangerous for both Long Island and the country.”

New York’s First District includes eastern and most of central Suffolk County, including East Hampton, Southampton, Shelter Island, Southold, Riverhead, Brookhaven, and most of Smithtown.

Moody’s Investors Service, which evaluates municipalities, schools, businesses, and other entities on their ability to repay short-term debt, has upgraded the Town of Southampton’s credit rating to the highest level possible, AAA.

Moody’s re-evaluated the town’s credit rating at the request of Supervisor Jay Schneiderman, who has said he felt it should be on par with Standard & Poor’s, which upgraded the town’s rating to AAA in 2014 after a five-year recovery period. It has remained as such since.

The rating reflects a strong ability to repay outstanding liabilities and qualifies the town for the lowest interest rates on capital borrowing. The decision was based on the town’s “very large and stable tax base, which showed continue resilience;” “strong management,” diversified revenue, and the town’s recent financial performance, which showed growth in the available fund balance, the town said.

Moody’s also noted the revitalization efforts and preservation efforts underway, and the town’s commitment to maintaining infrastructure.