The East Hampton Star and the East Hampton Group for Good Government will co-host a debate with candidates for supervisor and town board on Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Emergency Services Building in East Hampton.

Tom Knobel, the Republican Party’s candidate for supervisor, along with Margaret Turner and Lisa Mulhern-Larsen, the party’s candidates for town board, will join Supervisor Larry Cantwell, Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, and Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, incumbent Democrats facing re-election.

Each candidate will provide a one-minute presentation of their qualifications and main ideas for the town and the board. A series of prepared questions for the candidates will follow, with each given up to one minute to answer. The candidate asked to answer first will rotate so that all candidates will have an opportunity to be the first and the last to answer questions. Members of the audience will be asked to submit written questions.

Election Day is Nov. 3.

Work is set to begin in three weeks on an $8.9 million artificial dune that will largely cover the width of the Montauk downtown beach between the dune and the ocean from South Emery Street at the western edge to the Atlantic Terrace motel near Surfside Place on the east. 

The dune will, based on the normal, though fluctuating, width of the beach, extend from its landward edge across the entire stretch of sand right up to — or even into — the ocean, according to construction specifications.

With a core of geotextile bags filled with sand, the 105-foot wide dune will spread along 3,100 feet of shoreline. Pedestrian walkways on pilings above the 161/2-foot-high dune are planned.

The project was designed, and will be paid for, by the Army Corps of Engineers, and was developed in cooperation with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and East Hampton Town officials.

 Twenty-six thousand cubic yards of sand will be excavated from the Montauk beach and piled three feet deep on top of the filled sandbags and the dune face. The bags themselves will require about 50,000 cubic yards of sand to fill.

 The plan calls for the town and Suffolk County to shoulder the costs of the dune’s annual maintenance, including replacing the sand atop the bags whenever it is depleted or washed away. The average annual maintenance cost has been estimated at $150,000, though questioned by some who believe it could well be significantly more.

Although preliminary work is to get under way on Oct. 1, the construction, which will entail closing the area, will not begin until after the Columbus Day weekend. The work is expected to be completed, barring weather delays, by the end of January 2016.

Defend H20, an environmental advocacy organization, and four individuals who have filed a lawsuit to stop the project, have now applied in federal court for permission to seek an injunction halting it.

Carl Irace, an East Hampton lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said yesterday that he would press for a judge’s ruling.

 The lawsuit asserts that the reinforced dune conflicts with the policy against hard structures on the ocean beach in the town’s Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan and challenges the permits for the work.

“It appears that there will be no room to sit on the beach, no room for a lifeguard stand, no room for Marine Patrol to pass,” Mr. Irace said yesterday.

The artificial dune has been cast as an interim emergency measure to be in place only until the Army Corps begins more extensive beach reconstruction under its Fire Island to Montauk Point reformulation plan. This project has been in the works since 1960, and several upcoming administrative target dates for the project were recently extended.

  The dune’s placement will vary along its length according to the existing dune line, with a landward buffer in some places as wide as 50 feet between it and road ends or shorefront properties, which are largely developed with hotels or condos.

Though the town has been informed of each step of the process and has participated in discussions about details, there is limited local involvement in many elements over which the federal agency holds sway, such as the type of sand that will be used in the sandbags.

Because the bags have a finite useful life and can be damaged, environmentalists have raised concerns about the aesthetic and environmental impacts of sand from upland quarries, with which they will be filled.

Town officials have been asking for samples of the sand for months, Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said at a board meeting on Tuesday. “We’re still at issue with respect to the sand, the quality of the sand that’s going to go into the bags,” he said. The grain size of the sand is supposed to be similar to the natural beach sand in Montauk, Town Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said.

“We have taken the position that both the sand that goes in the bags and the sand that goes on top of the bags should be indigenous sand,” Mr. Cantwell said. “We’ll continue to press for that.”

The Army Corps has not specified the color of the sand. Kim Shaw, the town’s natural resources director, said Tuesday that the D.E.C. has the ultimate authority for what sand will be used. The upland sand the corps reportedly intends to use has an orange color.

The corps has approved the installation of four 81/2-foot-wide walkways over the dune for the public, but town officials are to decide, after site inspection in the coming weeks, if all four are needed or desired. The approved locations are at the road ends at South Emery, South Embassy, and South Edgemere Streets and at Lowenstein Court.

Oceanfront property owners who have signed easements allowing the dune to be constructed on  a portion of their properties have been guaranteed their own four-foot-wide sand paths over the dune. There will be 10 of them.

The dune will be surrounded by wood fencing along its length on both the landward and ocean sides, and more fencing will edge the private walkways. In addition, a cut in the dune for vehicular access to the beach will be created at South Edison Street, which also will be fenced. The roadway’s surface material has not yet been determined, but could be concrete, Ms. Shaw said.

The cut is also designed as a solution to flooding in downtown Montauk during heavy rains, when runoff typically flows out to the beach. The dune will prevent that, the engineers say, except in the access area at South Edison. However, because the dune is also designed to protect the downtown from flooding, the Army Corps will provide a stockpile of sand that could be used to plug the access should a surge be expected.

The town will be responsible for that work, and for replenishing the 250-cubic-yard stockpile if it is used.

Another drainage issue, at Lowenstein Court at the eastern end of the project, will be resolved, at town expense, with the installation of a 12-inch pipe through the dune, allowing runoff into the ocean.

However, questions have been raised by H2O members about whether that solution to flooding may be precluded by the federal Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems program, or MS4, under which the Environmental Protection Agency has required municipalities to prevent the discharge of untreated stormwater runoff into water bodies.

As of this week, county legislators had not approved the inter-municipal cost-sharing agreement. County Legislator Al Krupski, who opposes the Army Corps project and late last year called for a county Department of Public Works examination of it, said Tuesday that “the project should be reconsidered” because “hardening the shoreline on the Atlantic Ocean” is counterproductive and would ultimately be unsuccessful.

Legislator Krupski said he was unsure why the county had not inked the cost-sharing agreement, but that, while it remains unapproved, he has been seeking “everyone I can talk to [to] inform them that this is a bad idea. I think this is a tremendous financial obligation for the county.”

In addition, Mr. Krupski said he predicts “lawsuits galore” stemming from the dune construction and its impact. “You harden the shoreline, you lose your beach, you lose your public access,” he said.

Mr. Irace noted yesterday that while the county had agreed to shoulder future maintenance costs for a beach restoration project on Fire Island, it was unwilling to take those on entirely for the Montauk dune. “The funding of the operation and maintenance is a big issue for East Hampton taxpayers,” he said.

According to Alex Walter, Supervisor Cantwell’s assistant, who updated the town board on the status of the project Tuesday, an Army Corps coordinator will live in Montauk during the construction, and there will be weekly meetings among the involved agencies.

The contractor selected by the Army Corps, H & L Contracting of Bay Shore, will use the Kirk Park parking lot as a site for equipment and stockpiling some of the 50,000 cubic yards of sand that will be trucked in at an estimated five truckloads a day for the duration of the project. Sand will also be kept at the South Emerson Street road end. If the parking lot or road pavement is damaged by the large trucks, the contractor is to have it repaired.

Under its agreement with the Army Corps, the company may work seven days a week from 7 a.m. till 8:30 p.m. In a meeting last week, however, the contractor indicated a five-day-a-week schedule, beginning at 7 a.m. daily.

Pilings for the pedestrian accesses will go in first. Then, Mr. Walter said, sand will be excavated in 1,000-foot swaths, and 500-foot sections of the dune built, going from east to west.

Lengthy negotiations between the East Hampton Town Trustees and residents of Lazy Point in Amagansett, who lease the lots on which their houses sit from the trustees, should soon produce a new set of rules and regulations intended to give residents greater security in their leases and, by extension, their houses, most of them modest in size, many standing only feet from the shore.

While leases on the humble lots at Lazy Point have been historically low, the trustees’ efforts in recent years to enact sharp increases have met furious opposition from the lessees, who argue that they do not enjoy the security of homeownership, hold only one-year leases on their lots, and endure harsh weather conditions and an uncertain future at an eroding shoreline. A fourfold increase proposed early this year, from $1,500 to $6,000 per year, was abandoned in favor of a 10-percent rise along with a 4-percent transfer fee when a house is sold.

At the trustees’ meeting on Tuesday, residents thanked them for their diligence and good faith in negotiations held over the last several months. Meetings between subcommittees of residents and trustees produced “a professional three-point proposal” for amendments to the rules and regulations for Lazy Point leases, Rick Drew, a resident and spokesman for the lessees, said. The residents also submitted “a fact document on the cost of ownership” at Lazy Point relative to nearby areas, Mr. Drew said.

Beginning in January, according to a draft document, the lease fee for each lot will increase based on the Consumer Price Index for the Northeast region, as determined by the United States Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. In another modification to the rules and regulations, all leases in effect on Dec. 31 will automatically renew, provided tenancy has been continued and the tenant is in compliance with all provisions of the rules and lease.

The draft rules and regulations also include language assuring lessees of the right to rebuild houses damaged by severe weather, which a prior trustee proposal had made uncertain.

“We request the board to move forward in a timely manner so the proposal can be voted on at the next trustee meeting,” on Sept. 22, Mr. Drew said.

Diane McNally, the trustees’ clerk, told the lessees in attendance that, while she was comfortable with the proposed amendments, the trustees would seek an independent analysis of the lessees’ document pertaining to the cost of ownership.

Once approved by a majority of trustees, the lessees will review the draft document. Because the trustees own the land in question on behalf of all the residents of East Hampton, a 30-day period to solicit comment from the public would follow before the trustees take a formal vote to adopt the new rules and regulations. The amendments would take effect with the next lease, which will begin in April 2016.

Ms. McNally asked the lessees to recognize “the fact that you all are living on the public’s property.” The publicly owned land has been developed over several decades, she said, as fishing shacks were expanded and upgraded to residences. “It is the public’s property we’re trying to manage on the public’s behalf.” Going forward, she said, the trustees must ensure that both residents’ and the public’s assets are protected. For the latter group, that includes access to the beach and protection of the environmentally sensitive area, she said.

The Georgica Closure

In other news from the meeting, the five trustees present voted to extend the closure of Georgica Pond in East Hampton to the harvesting of crabs for another two weeks due to the dense cyanobacteria bloom that appeared last month. The bloom has covered the entire pond, said Ann Hall, a pondfront property owner who asked the trustees to post more signs warning against exposure and to consider opening the pond to the Atlantic Ocean sooner than the traditional mid-October opening, a move that would flush the pond with ocean water and kill the algae.

The trustees did not commit to an early opening of the pond. Its closure to crabbing is now in effect through Sept. 22.

Rebuilding or replacing a trailer in the Montauk Shores Condominium usually stirs controversy when applications come before the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals. The complex, on the ocean at Ditch Plain, is a collection of trailers that have been converted to residences. But one question the Z.B.A. and the condominium’s board have not asked until now is whether the new trailer would be compliant with Federal Emergency Management Agency rules. The answer, according to Ann Glennon, head of the East Hampton Town Building Department, is a resounding “no.”

“I’m not going to issue any permits,” Ms. Glennon said Tuesday. She spread out a survey showing the elevations needed for new structures in the trailer park. Almost all of the properties south of Cross Drive, meaning most of the trailer park, are in a FEMA flood zone, where new structures are to be from 14 to 22 feet above grade.

Britton Bistrian of Land Use Solutions is the first consultant who has been asked by the zoning board if the new structure her client planned would be compliant. Initially the answer was no. Her client, Mike Lukacs, who owns unit 22 of the condominium, asked for a permit to build on the dune and for variances for a deck and a shed as well as for setbacks from the bluff crest.

The original hearing for the application was held June 16, but the record was left open to allow Ms. Bistrian to explore the FEMA question. She discovered that the proposed new structure would have to be 16 feet above grade to comply with the law and asked the firm J. Constantine Architecture to revise the plans.

The property is about three feet above grade and the firm drew plans for a series of beams to raise the trailer to the required height, essentially creating a two-story building, although the lower level would be used only for storage. The shed was removed from the plan.

The Z.B.A. closed the hearing Sept. 1, having received Ms. Bistrian’s response, and is likely to consider the revised application during its work session on Tuesday.

A Montauk restaurant called before the East Hampton Town Board for a review of its music entertainment permit after being cited five times over the summer for violations of the town noise code has “made a decision to close” for good due to the negative impact of the enforcement actions, and publicity, Sharon Buckler, a representative of the restaurant, told the board on Tuesday.

The restaurant, which she said employs 26 people, a third of which are local, had been slated to stay open after the summer season.

Ms. Buckler acknowledged that the board has been taking a hard line to address ongoing code violations in Montauk that brought residents to complain en masse about untenable conditions in the hamlet. But, she said, “Ciao by the Beach is not the problem.”

She said that the restaurant had hosted more than 30 musical performances during the season without incident, and took issue with the circumstances surrounding several of the summonses that were issued. In one case, she said, while music equipment was still set up past a 9 p.m. music cut-off hour set by the town, the band was no longer performing but was sitting down to a meal. Nonetheless, the restaurant was ticketed, she said.

Ms. Buckler also refuted statements about excessive noise from Ciao made by several Montauk residents at a Sept. 1 hearing held by the town board on the restaurant’s music permit. According to the law, after an establishment receives three summonses in one year, the board may have a hearing and decide to revoke or revise the terms of a business’s permit.

The statements “were lies,” she said. John Allen, a Rough Riders Landing resident who complained to the board last week, happened to be on hand, and took issue with being called a liar. “I don’t lie,” he said. “I heard loud music, and it was after 9 o’clock.”

East Hampton Town Board members stepped back Tuesday from an effort to reaffirm a town ban on bedrooms in basements, which has been on the books but not recently enforced, with one official calling it a “knee-jerk reaction” to a recent uproar over the construction of two eight-bedroom houses on half-acre lots in Springs.

The houses were apparently slated for use as dormitories for Ross School boarding students.

The New York State building code allows basement bedrooms, but East Hampton had chosen decades ago to enact a more restrictive standard. When questions arose several years ago about the legality of that ban, building inspectors began issuing permits for house plans that included bedrooms in basements.

Board members had heard recently, and again at their work session this week, from numerous citizens both for and against the basement bedroom ban.

According to advocates, the prohibition is needed to prevent illegal overcrowding, unsafe living conditions, and increased density in residential areas zoned for single-family houses. But those who urged the board to adhere to the state code instead of the local ban said the use of basement space is efficient, helps avoid the need for houses with larger floor plans, and is key for families that cannot afford larger houses or expansions, and to augment limited affordable housing options.

The discussion “raises a lot more questions than it does answers,” Town Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said on Tuesday. “There are a number of different approaches that can be taken.” He suggested a review of details of the building and zoning codes and possible revisions, such as tying the number of bedrooms allowed to the property size, or changing the way that habitable space is defined. “I don’t think we solve the problem of illegal building simply by having a prohibition or further restriction on basement bedrooms,” he said.

Councilwoman Sylvia Overby agreed. “I understand the energy efficiency component in going down, versus up,” she said. “That’s very appealing as we move forward and try to be more sustainable in the Town of East Hampton.”

“As a 50-year firefighter,” Councilman Fred Overton said, “one of my biggest concerns was responding to an emergency and finding someone trapped.” But, he said, “I don’t think this is going to stop illegal bedrooms in the basement.”

He said he would feel more comfortable if basement bedrooms are installed following the town and state codes so that safety standards would be upheld.

In light of comments made by several speakers, he said he was additionally concerned about preventing expanding families from using needed space in their residences, and the loss of a housing option for young people or others in need of scarce affordable housing.

“Who does it hurt if you can’t? The working folks,” said Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez. She had been interested “to learn that it’s 30 percent cheaper to go down,” she said, referring to the cost differential builders had described between constructing an addition or using basement space.

“To outlaw bedrooms in the basement does not solve the density issue,” said Don Matheson on Tuesday. What it would do, said Mr. Matheson, who built and lives in a net-zero energy-efficient house, which relies partly on the use of underground space for insulation that obviates the need for heating and cooling, would make it more difficult to build in the way he has. “I sympathize with the objective,” he said, “but I don’t believe that the law accomplishes anything beyond outlawing an energy-efficient and cost-efficient way of building a house.”

“There are incredible problems with bedrooms in basements in this town,” acknowledged Larry Kane, another builder. But, he said, “don’t hurt the people who are doing it legally, just because we have no control over those who are doing it illegally.”

As the present discussion grew from a call to prevent overly large houses with multiple bedrooms such as the two on Manor Lane that had generated complaints, Michael Forst, also a builder, suggested that better enforcement of existing codes should be the focus. “Because someone was trying to break the laws that we have, I don’t think everyone should get punished for that,” he said.

The ability to house unrelated students in a group at a single-family house is based on a decision several years ago by the building inspector that such a group can be construed as a family.

“It’s going to hurt the people who can afford it the least,” John Woudsma said of a bedroom basement ban. Mr. Woudsma, the building inspector for the Village of Sagaponack, asked the board for an opportunity to work with town officials and staff to “come up with a more sensible way” to address the problems at hand without an outright basement bedroom ban. “I really believe this law hurts the local people who can’t afford other expansions,” he said.

David Buda, a Springs resident who has advocated for the ban and spoken often to the board about the problem of housing violations, referred to earlier comments at the meeting about restaurant and bar owners in Montauk who flout the town code. Those looking to maximize the use of private houses, he said, are “the same people, the same ‘greed-is-good’ mentality.”

“We’re broadening the discussion, I think appropriately,” said Supervisor Larry Cantwell. “Overcrowding is the problem.” The gross floor area allowed by the town at present on lots of various sizes is “out of balance,” he said. “When we are confronted with eight bedrooms, or more, on a relatively small lot, it raises our antenna,” he said.

“I think it is something that we need to get our hands on, on a townwide basis. It is more, certainly, than whether a basement can be utilized for a bedroom. There may be a way to get a handle on the larger problem without an outright ban.”

Ms. Overby and Mr. Van Scoyoc agreed to oversee an effort by the staff of pertinent town departments to look into the various issues.

Local Democrats and businesses welcomed Hillary Clinton on Sunday for a jam-packed day of fund-raising.

The morning began with a pancake breakfast at the Huntting Lane, East Hampton home of Alan and Susan Patricof. Mrs. Clinton, looking relaxed and happy in a casual blue-and-white-checked dress, posed with guests for professional photographs and spoke to the crowd about early child development and education, middle-class prosperity, improving the economy, and energy and sustainability. The designer Rebecca Minkoff worked the grill to make French toast.

Several town officials were invited, including Supervisor Larry Cantwell, Deputy Supervisor Peter van Scoyoc, and Councilwoman Sylvia Overby. Mr. Van Scoyoc said he found Mrs. Clinton’s remarks to the point, especially, he said, since Donald Trump is in the midst of a debate about whether or not his hair is real.

Mrs. Clinton’s remarks resonated with Mr. Cantwell as well, “certainly her comments about continuing to accelerate the growth of renewable resources,” he said. The supervisor has met the former Secretary of State, now a Democratic candidate for president, several times here, and played golf at the South Fork Country Club in Amagansett with her husband when he was in the White House.

Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Cantwell sat down together at one point to talk privately about changes affecting the East End, including water quality, quality of life, and population growth, agreeing on the need to resist pressure and to protect natural resources.

“Hillary Clinton is much more engaging and personable than we sometimes see her on television,” said Mr. Cantwell.

After the breakfast, the candidate zipped over to the Southampton house of the designer Tory Burch, where photos showed her again speaking into a microphone. Instagram users supplied their own captions, including “FLOTUS turned POTUS” [Secret Service acronyms for the first lady and the president) and “Breakfast for the future president! Go Hillary go!!!”

That evening, Mrs. Clinton attended a party at the house of Hilary Leff and Elliot Groffman in Northwest Woods, East Hampton. The restaurant Almond in Bridgehampton catered the event. Eric Lemonides, an owner of the restaurant, had picked up some tomatoes from Amber Waves Farm earlier in the day and put them on Instagram as well. Mrs. Clinton posed with supporters and local business owners here as well, including Liza Tremblay of Joe and Liza’s ice cream, which topped off the menu.

Stephen Munshin volunteered to bartend, and his wife, Lindsay Morris, helped sign guests in. Both work at the publication Edible East End. Mr. Munshin said Mr. Clinton “was more out and about,” making rounds and glad-handing, while the candidate met with supporters.

As the event wound down, Mr. Lemonides snapped a shot of Bill sitting in the back of a car “doing #crosswordpuzzles” while he waited for Hillary to finish her night.

Over the past two weeks, while staying at an estate in Amagansett’s Barnes Landing neighborhood, Mr. Clinton has popped up all over town. On Monday night he dined at the Palm while three security vehicles reportedly blocked the Jitney stop.

The status of a music permit issued to Ciao by the Beach, a Montauk restaurant that was cited five times this summer with violations of the East Hampton Town noise ordinance, is to be ruled on soon, following a hearing before the town board on Tuesday. 

The law requires an annual permit for a bar and restaurant where any type of music is played, indoors or out, and gives the town board the authority, if three or more summonses are issued in one year, to revoke, suspend, or modify the terms of a permit after a hearing.

According to Michael Sendlenski, an assistant town attorney, in late June at close to 11 p.m., police measured the noise decibel level at the club at over 70, when the town sets 50 decibels as the limit after 7 p.m. Two noise readings on July 3, and another on July 5, also exceeded the threshold, at approximately 65 decibels each time, Mr. Sendlenski told the board. Then, on July 10 and July 17, Ciao was cited for having amplified music outdoors after 9 p.m., which also is prohibited.

Tina Piette, an Amagansett lawyer representing the restaurant, said her clients were unaware of the required 9 p.m. outdoor music cutoff. She assured the board that from here on, that provision of the law would be observed. Nonetheless, she said, “To say turn off the music at 9 — you would have every restaurant owner in here. I can’t think of any restaurant in Montauk that does not have music at 9.”

Ms. Piette also took issue with the 50-decibel noise limit in the code. “I am now speaking at 65 decibels,” she said. “And this may even be 80,” she added, raising her voice.

Several speakers urged the board to take a stand against serial violators of the town code. “I don’t want to close down any business,” Barbara Jo Howard, a Montauk resident who lives near Ciao, said.  But, when any establishment is issued three or more citations for violating the code, it “demonstrates a consistent unwillingness to be a good business citizen,” she said. She urged the board to revoke Ciao’s music permit.

Town regulations are in place “to maintain a civil society, and to act as a deterrent to what we agree is a civil code,” Bill Akin, who also lives in  Montauk, said. Repercussions for those who act outside of adopted boundaries are key to maintaining order, he said. “Ciao sets a very bad example for everyone else, because there is no punishment. When that happens you lose the effectiveness of the deterrent.”

“I think enough is enough. Take the license away,” Bob Mulligan urged the board.

Tom Bogdan, who lives a mile from Ciao in Montauk, said that he had gone there last weekend to see what was going on for himself. There was “earsplitting music” after 9 p.m., he said. It showed “contempt of the law,” he said, when the restaurant knew last weekend “that they broke the law five times, and they are going to be judged here today.” The audience applauded.

John Allen, who lives at Rough Riders Landing near Ciao and the Montauk train station, said he can hear music from the restaurant over the sound of the trains, and also hears the sounds of music and crowds at other Montauk hotspots: the Surf Lodge, Navy Beach, and sometimes Ruschmeyer’s as well.

“When people just don’t care, they just keep on doing what they want to do. . . . The answer is we have to stop it before it gets worse,” Mr. Allen said.

Ms. Piette raised a legal question regarding the permit hearing process. “A summons is not worth the piece of paper it is written on,” she said. In her opinion, the town board lacked the authority to hold the music permit hearing. A hearing should not take place until a court has adjudicated charges that have been filed but not yet been proven, she said.

Ciao is “trying to be good neighbors,” Ms. Piette said. The first three citations, for loud music, were issued to a promoter the restaurant had hired, but who was let go on July 7 after the third summons, she said.

Although Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc advocated closing the hearing on Tuesday after the comments were heard, the board agreed, at Supervisor Larry Cantwell’s suggestion, to leave the hearing open a week for written comment. Once the hearing closes, the board will have 15 days to make its decision.

One option, under the code, is to require the installation of soundproofing as a prerequisite to a music permit. Noise disturbance from live music at the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett was eliminated, said Rona Klopman, an Amagansett resident, after the club voluntarily installed soundproofing. That was a business acting as a good neighbor, she said.

East Hampton Town’s Civil Service Employees Association voted down a four-year contract with the town on Aug. 6 in a landslide, 139-to-6, “no thanks” tally, just as town board members were ready to ratify it at a meeting the same day.

Miles Maier, the president of the C.S.E.A. chapter, called the vote “quite unprecedented” both for the turnout and for its outcome. Of the local organization’s 181 members, 145 cast votes, he said, on the proposed agreement, which was drafted by town and C.S.E.A. negotiating teams over almost a year.

The main point of contention, said Mr. Maier, who is a maintenance worker, concerned salaries and wage increases — in particular the removal of a step system by which employees would see individual salaries increase by a set amount each year. Under the most recent contract, which expired on Dec. 31, 2014, the guaranteed step increases continued for eight years.

The step system was eliminated in the new draft, Mr. Maier said, because the C.S.E.A. hoped “to get as much extra wage increase as possible.”

Town employees, who for years had seen annual average wage increases in the 3-percent range, were denied raises for several years under the previous town administration led by Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, while an effort to correct financial mismanagement in the previous administration of Supervisor Bill McGintee was under way.

The proposed contract called for a 2-percent wage increase the first year, followed by increases of 2.5 percent for the next two years, and a final, 2.25-percent increase. The new union contract is to cover the period from Jan. 1, 2015, retroactively through Dec. 31, 2018. It had been discussed over several months last fall before a tentative, verbal agreement was reached. A new contract was drafted with language “slowly but surely” honed as compromises were made over the months since December, Mr. Maier said.

The union negotiating committee will meet with a C.S.E.A. labor relations specialist on Tuesday for advice on how to proceed, but Mr. Maier said he hopes to sit down again soon with town officials to renegotiate.

The initial negotiating process, Mr. Maier  said, was “very civil, very pleasant,” and marked by “mutual respect,”  unlike negotiations, he said, in previous years.

“We’re always open to resolving issues,” Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said early this week. Besides the percentage increase for salaries and step system, he said, matters under discussion included employee contributions to health insurance premiums and a salary incentive program.

The supervisor said that since he has been in office, a new contract with the East Hampton Town Police Benevolent Association had been successfully negotiated, with the town winning agreement for the first time that new employees will contribute to health insurance. In addition, another new contract had been finalized with the public safety dispatchers’ union.

Next Thursday is Primary Day, and Independence Party voters here will see a contest for the two town board seats up for re-election in November. Three candidates are vying for the party’s endorsement for the two seats.

Councilwoman Sylvia Overby and Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, incumbent Democrats who are seeking re-election, received the Independence Party’s backing this spring following the party’s two-day screening.

The third candidate, Lisa Mulhern-Larsen, was chosen to run on the Republican Party ticket after two others withdrew their names citing previous commitments. Ms. Mulhern-Larsen, a registered Independence Party member, forced the Independence Party primary, having produced a petition with the required 54 signatures. She said this week that she had gotten over 90 signatures.

In a letter in the Aug. 20 issue of The Star, Ms. Mulhern-Larsen wrote that “I am running in a primary in September to get the endorsement of my party. The local Independence Party had made its endorsement prior to my nomination in June. If you are an Independence Party member, please come out and vote for me on Thursday, Sept. 10.”

Elaine Jones, chairwoman of the East Hampton Independence Party, said that while Ms. Mulhern-Larsen had the right to challenge its chosen candidates, its endorsements stand. “She’s on the ballot, and there will be a primary,” Ms. Jones said Tuesday. “But just because she’s a member of the Independence Party doesn’t mean we select her. We have sent letters out supporting Sylvia Overby and Peter Van Scoyoc. They both have experience, and they both came to be screened.”

Frank MacKay, chairman of the state Independence Party, signed a certificate of authorization, per state law, allowing Ms. Overby and Mr. Van Scoyoc to run on the Independence Party line, Ms. Jones said. “We do not know her qualifications,” she said of Ms. Mulhern-Larsen, a political newcomer who runs a security and property management business in East Hampton. “We cannot take candidates on faith who are untested and have no record of public service.”