Editorials

   If the woods seem a little quieter than they were 10 or 20 years ago, consider this: There may be fewer birds here because the white-tailed deer have all but eliminated the understory on which many species relied for food and cover. Some researchers say there are more white-tailed deer afoot in North America now than at European contact. This is an environmental crisis.

   The New York State attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, says the illegal trafficking of prescription drugs is epidemic on Long Island. This week, he announced legislation that would create a database intended to slow the rate at which narcotics end up on the street.

   An unfortunate inequality is built into New York State’s new 2-percent tax-levy cap, which is becoming clear as school districts struggle to keep within that limit while local governments appear to be facing somewhat less immediate stress.

   According to informed sources, people are starting to go out to lunch more often. This is good news for the local economy, at least as one out-of-town restaurateur of our acquaintance sees it, particularly if lunch-goers happen to be good tippers. This is probably also true in other areas of the service sector, where in most cases a gratuity in hand goes directly back into circulation. If there is a more expedient way to get dollars to where they are needed most, short of outright charity, we don’t know what it is.

   In a Minnesota courthouse on Dec. 15, a man with a handgun opened fire, wounding a county attorney and a bystander. Just over a week ago in Middletown, N.Y., a man walked into another courthouse and began blasting with a shotgun, stopping only when security officers shot back, killing him.

   Confusion increased at East Hampton Town Hall this week with the three-person Republican majority on the town board apparently ready to sell four of the seven condominium units the town owns on Pantigo Place to a lowball bidder. The deal would unload the condos, which house key town departments, at a price well below the fire-sale offer the majority had favored earlier.

   Way out West, in Sonoma, Calif., a debate we have been keeping an eye on is continuing about making it difficult for “formula” retailers to move into the area. The Sonoma City Council has been kicking around a draft ordinance that would subject stores that are part of chains with more than 10 outlets to additional permit review. City leaders had rejected a proposal for a temporary moratorium on such operations late last year.

   Now that East Hampton Town Highway Department Superintendent Stephen Lynch has settled in at his new post, it has become apparent that no further action will be taken on allegations that one of the department’s employees acted improperly in using a town truck to remove political signs put up by Mr. Lynch’s opponent before the November election. Letting the matter go gives the impression that East Hampton Town government has descended into a politically lawless operation in which what one does matters far less than who you know — or support.

   A strongly worded decision issued last week by an East Hampton Town justice explains for the first time why charges against the Surf Lodge in Montauk have moldered for so long and continue to be unresolved.

   The handwriting appears to be on the wall for the Bay Street Theatre. Though it has had a very good run in its original location in Sag Harbor, the Village of Southampton is making an offer to lure it to take over the Parrish Art Museum building on Job’s Lane, and the offer sounds too good to refuse.

   Advocates of a free and open Internet rose up last week in protest of bills in Washington that would greatly increase the government’s ability to police what is called online piracy. Citizens called and e-mailed their representatives, and Web sites went dark for a day to make a point. The political power of the Internet made news, and the bills were sent back to committee.

     Arguing for Congressional action, entertainment industry lobbyists say that illegal file-sharing costs them billions in unmade sales and harms the United States economy in lost jobs.

   The East Hampton School District will soon receive a windfall from the Long Island Power Authority as a reward for the “green” aspects of its recent expansion projects. What it does with the money remains undecided, but one idea — to use it to help pay for solar or other renewable sources of energy — is a good one.

   In a remarkable turn of events that could have implications on the South Fork, Williams-Sonoma may be blocked from returning to the California city that gave the cookware company its name if a new ordinance against “formula” retail stores is adopted.

    The $3 billion company, with 268 stores in the United States, first opened as a single shop in Sonoma in 1956, then moved to San Francisco. Now it has plans to open a store on the original site, but the city council is close to passing a moratorium on chain businesses while it works on permanent limits.

East Hampton Village tends to get it right when it comes to aesthetics. The village once was dubbed America’s most beautiful village, and successive generations of elected officials have taken that honor to heart. In that spirit, and notwithstanding any claims to the contrary, the village board has proposed additional decorum on signs on private property — specifically those put up by real estate companies. If the law is enacted as proposed, real estate signs would be just a little larger than a page of this newspaper folded in half.

Another month, another delay for the Surf Lodge. The Montauk nightspot, filled in season by crowds of revelers drawn east by its hipper-than-thou allure, is supposed to answer in East Hampton Town Justice Court to some 640 citations of code violations dating from the summer. But its day of reckoning has been put off until the end of January, and probably beyond that, if the trend continues.

   A battle for the future of the ocean shoreline is shaping up at Georgica Beach in East Hampton, and, as state and local officials nudge the matter slowly toward a court showdown, the beachgoing public’s right to use the beaches is threatened. The dispute points to a difficult time ahead in which the self-interest of waterfront property owners will be increasingly at odds with the desires — and rights — of the public.

   It is good news indeed that the Village of Sag Harbor appears to be moving forward with a project to reduce the amount of polluted run-off that crosses Havens Beach and flows into the bay. A short creek there, more of a drainage ditch, has for years carried water from surrounding upland properties and several roadside sumps. The public bathing beach there has been closed pre-emptively by the Suffolk Department of Health after heavy rainfalls, and shellfishing nearby is banned year round.

   A coffee shop in Sag Harbor may be closing at the end of the month after its landlord handed the lease to someone else. It is an old story: A property owner decides to go in a new direction, or raise the rent, or renovate. Happens all the time.

   As the Springs School Board continues its struggle to find ways to pay for educating students while not asking taxpayers for more and more, a cost-savings idea is gaining ground. The notion of eliminating the district superintendent’s position and handing those duties to the school principal was discussed at a forum on Dec. 22. Meanwhile, in the East Hampton School District, the board is grappling with the prospect of overcrowding in the elementary and middle schools even as the last details of its recent $79 million expansion are finalized.

Welcome Opposition

It is early yet, with only one East Hampton Town Board meeting so far this year, but already it appears that the three-people-in-a-room way local government has been run may be coming to an abrupt end.

    East Hampton Town may be getting into the fuel-regulation business in a small way, but not without  concern about possible spills and unfair competition.

The East Hampton Town Board’s new interest in how Cablevision franchise fees are apportioned is a good idea, with the possibility that the hefty sum might be spread more equitably.

Like Ernest Hemingway’s character who married the “first girl who was nice to him,” the Town of East Hampton is on the verge of a rushed deal to sell the office condominiums that house various departments with no plan on the horizon for where they would ultimately go.

    The pending one-month suspension of Larry Penny, the East Hampton Town director of natural resources, on what may be exaggerated charges, does not bode well for the environment here. Though Mr. Penny has the right to a hearing to contest the claims, the outcome appears preordained, and the town board’s move against Mr. Penny seems a precursor to his firing.

    Many people were pleased to see the excellent turnout Sunday afternoon at a gathering at the Town Marine Museum to talk about the Amagansett Life-Saving Station on Atlantic Avenue. This is a hopeful signal that the town-owned building may soon be restored, and the Life-Saving Service and its successor, the United States Coast Guard, at last be awarded the local recognition they deserve.

    Once again, a landowner is trying to expand a commercial use of a residential property, and once again, it appears that some East Hampton Town officials are eager to help him do it.

    In this most recent example, the applicant wants to move a business structure closer to Montauk Highway at the intersection of Sayre’s Path in Wainscott, rebuild it, and add a stand-alone house at its rear. Michael Davis, who is well-known for developing houses, mostly in Sagaponack and Wainscott, has undertaken the project, calling it Wainscott Wombles.