Villages

    The panther-like creature spotted eating composted scraps at the Spring Close Farm in East Hampton on Sunday was probably a dog or fox, according to the State Department of Environmental Conservation, whose officers examined paw prints attributed to the animal.

    The economic meltdown may be behind us, but schools, states, and local governments are still paying for it. In an Aug. 31 announcement, Thomas P. DiNapoli, the New York State Comptroller, said retirement contribution rates for state and local civil service employees, as well as police and firefighters, will rise in the 2014-15 fiscal year.

    At the end of a Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee meeting on Monday, at which the proliferation of taxi cabs, litter, noise, and parking woes were discussed, members learned that a tattoo parlor is to come to the hamlet. Lola Snow Esperian is wading through the permit process required by the Suffolk County Department of Health and plans to open the parlor in one of the small stores behind the Washout restaurant near the train station. It will be called Lola’s Hot and Flying Tattoos.

    “We arrived in the dead of night,” said Yuri Ando, pastor of the East Hampton Methodist Church, speaking of an Aug. 25 church mission to the Catskill Mountain town of Prattsville. “The motel owner gave us a special rate after I told him why we were there, which made it $10 a night for each of us.”

    Ms. Ando was accompanied by three church members, Kiana Magat, Beaubelle Bugante, and Patricia Bugante, their trip made possible by church collections and donations. They left after the Aug. 25 services in East Hampton.

    The Amagansett Historical Association will host a “mini barn-raising” on Saturday at 2 p.m. on its property at 129 Main Street, at the corner of Windmill Lane. Volunteers have been invited to help raise the beams and hammer in the trunnels (oak pegs), using simple hand tools, the way they used to.

    The event is intended to demonstrate, albeit on a small scale, how post-and-beam structures are assembled, said Peter Garnham, the association’s director.

    Trucks will be at the Montauk docks from 7 a.m. tomorrow and again on Sept. 20 to haul away unwanted and out-of-use commercial fishing gear free of charge. A red-painted container has also been placed at the Montauk waste transfer station for the fleet’s castoff nets, gear, traps, and line. Commercial fishermen who take gear to the transfer station will not be charged for entrance or a “tipping fee,” East Hampton Town Clerk Fred Overton said.

    The lifeguard stand was carted from Georgica Beach on Tuesday, nearly three weeks earlier than had been planned. “It was between the beaches at Two Mile Hollow, Main Beach, and Georgica . . . we had to close one,” said Ed McDonald, who manages the ocean beaches for East Hampton Village. “We are running into the same problem as restaurants and storeowners — our employees are going back to school.”

    For those out there sulking at the recent lack of fireworks, a silver lining is in sight. At 8:30 p.m. on Saturday the East Hampton Fire Department will send summer out with a bang.

    The department’s annual fireworks display at Main Beach will begin at dusk. Picnickers will have a good portion of the beach to themselves as vehicles will be prohibited from Egypt Beach to Georgica Beach. Those with town beach driving permits will be allowed to drive on at Two Mile Hollow and Wiborg’s Beach.

    A 10-foot wall collapsed last week during the restoration of a four-story section within the former Bulova watchcase factory.        

    “Nobody was hurt,” said David Kronman, the property manager, on Tuesday. A team of structural engineers retained by Sag Development Partners and Racanelli Construction are assessing the scene. “A third-party safety monitoring process and a site-safety plan is in place,” Mr. Kronman said. “It’s a complicated project. We’re taking safety very seriously.”

    Last Thursday’s announcement of a second confirmed case of the mosquito-borne West Nile virus in Suffolk this year arrived amid aerial pesticide spraying by the county and a furious reaction from those who fear the spraying endangers the environment and public health.

    The renovation plan for 31 West Water Street in Sag Harbor, to turn the existing Baron’s Cove Inn into a “destination resort,” was discussed before the village planning board and concerned neighbors on Tuesday evening. The neighbors had submitted a long list of concerns to the board.

    Gordon Bowling, an East Hampton resident, has called for Andrew Goldstein, chairman of the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals, to recuse himself in a proposal pending before the board. The application was submitted by John and Suzanne Cartier, Mr. Bowling’s neighbors, who are seeking to construct an “accessory building with living accommodations” on their two-acre Main Street property.

    The Amagansett Presbyterian Church’s Scoville Hall looks very much as it has since a fire destroyed the building on Oct. 15. As the one-year anniversary of the fire approaches, the charred husk of the building, dedicated as the church’s parish house in 1925, remains boarded up and partially surrounded by temporary fencing.

    A sign posted in front of the building appeals for donations to finance reconstruction, listing a PayPal address and post office box in Amagansett.

    Members of the Sag Harbor Gym on Bay Street can now look forward to having smoothies, juices, protein shakes, and salads before or after their workouts, following a decision by the village zoning board of appeals on Tuesday that a juice and smoothie bar is consistent with the spot’s primary use as a fitness center.

    Timothy Platt, the village’s building inspector, had asked the board to determine whether village code would allow a juice bar at the gym.

    At the end of Friday’s East Hampton Village Board meeting, Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. came down on cycling groups who fail to yield to motorists or pedestrians. Mayor Rickenbach also admonished groups of runners who occupy more than their share of roadways. “Be civil, be cognizant,” the mayor said, adding that “some bicyclists and joggers are ignoring New York traffic law, which is not the way to behave.”

Books to Music

    Lee Knight will get kids of all ages singing and dancing during a Dream Big concert for all ages at the East Hampton Library next Thursday from 2 to 3 p.m. Ms. Knight sets favorite stories to music and invites kids to be part of the show.

   Triggered by an ongoing stalemate with the Sag Harbor Police Benevolent Association after mediation failed to arrive at a new contract and facing a state cap on increases in taxes, questions have continued to hover around the Sag Harbor Village Board about whether it would be financially prudent to disband the Police Department or whether it should enter into an inter-municipal agreement with another policing agency, allowing the village to retain the department but reduce its size.

    Before the recent glut of fund-raisers hit Montauk, there were the Montauk Village Association’s annual benefits, which started in the 1960s and eventually included the popular Greenery Scenery Celebrity cocktail party.

    The group, which beautifies the downtown area with trees, shrubs, and flowering plants, and manages the memorial bench and tree program, originally held fashion shows at Gurney’s Inn and dinner-dances at the long-closed Deep Sea Club, sometimes netting hundreds of dollars, a good amount back then.

Amanda Clark of Shelter Island and her crew, Sarah Lihan, are among the 10 qualifiers for tomorrow’s 470 dinghy Olympic sailing race and may have a shot at a medal.

    The Clamshell Foundation has announced the victorious entries in its 21st annual Sandcastle Contest at Atlantic Avenue Beach in Amagansett on Saturday.                             

    The overall winner of the contest was “Violet the Garden Dragon” by Heather Lanza, Beth Beavan, Ron Galady, Jess and Adele Muller, and Mary Hendrickson.          

    Jay Schneiderman won first place among Sand Pros for “Hatchling,” and second place among pros went to “C.S.I.” by Robert Moore, John and Natalio Panico, G.T. Hollet, and John Jakimowitz.

    East Hampton Town is being “forced to get aggressive” in its efforts to get the Sloppy Tuna, a Montauk bar and restaurant, to comply with town safety and other laws, Patrick Gunn, the town’s public safety division administrator, said Tuesday.

    The next session of Animal Rescue Fund classes for dogs and their masters is coming up. ARF will offer a recreational dog agility class, aimed at building trust between dogs and their handlers while giving both some exercise.

    Classes start on Saturday and go through Sept. 1, 4 to 5 p.m. for beginners and 5 to 6 p.m. for the intermediate course. The cost is $150 for five classes; class size is limited.

ARF’s Thursday afternoon puppy kindergarten starts next Thursday and continues through Aug. 30, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. The cost is $100 for four sessions.

    At its meeting to end the fiscal year on Tuesday, the East Hampton Village Board came alive during the final scheduled task — a discussion related to naming a private road off Montauk Highway.

    Kenneth Sheinberg, a resident on the street in question, said that his first choice was the name Little Plains Lane, but because there is already a Little Plains Road in Southampton, the board requested that he offer a different moniker.

    He presented the name Avocet Lane.

    Diggers and shapers, unite! The Clamshell Foundation’s sand castle contest starts at 9 a.m. on Saturday at Atlantic Avenue Beach in Amagansett. There will be five categories of competition: Sand Fleas, for children up to 8, Sand Hoppers, for 9 to 15-year-olds, Sand Tribes, for families, Sand Shapers, for adults, and Sand Pros, for veterans of the sand castle arts.

    The directors of the Montauk Playhouse Community Center Foundation announced this week that they have decided to change Phase 2 of the plan and separate the aquatic center from the rest of the project, which will eventually include a performing arts center.

    “The Playhouse has been revised and rebooted to turn the dream of a year-round indoor pool for the whole community into a reality,” a release said.

    The Department of the Treasury’s assistant secretary for financial institutions asserted at a forum at Guild Hall on Sunday that the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which became law in July 2010, is making significant progress toward curtailing the excessive risk-taking that brought on the financial crisis of 2008.

    The flower garden at the Montauk Community Garden on the grounds of St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church was dedicated in the memory of Sally Martin at a ceremony on Saturday. A parishioner, Mrs. Martin, who died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 65 on Dec. 16, was an ardent supporter of the garden and an active volunteer, another volunteer, Bill Becker, said.

    Passers-by on Main Street have by now noticed that preparations for the Ladies Village Improvement Society’s annual lawn fair are well underway. Gates open at 10 a.m. on Saturday, with a suggested donation of $5 for admission.

    New at the fair this summer is a magic show, on-the-spot caricatures by Don Duga, a well-known cartoonist, and coloring books depicting East Hampton Village scenes, as drawn by Ernest Fox.

    Evelyn and Daniel Shields II of Amagansett have announced the engagement of their daughter, Allison Renee, to Michael Andrew Sauter, the son of Laura and Michael Sauter of Flanders.

    Ms. Shields graduated from Quinnipiac University in Connecticut in 2010 with a degree in accounting. She works as an accountant for Amagansett Square.                             

    On Tuesday evening outside at the Gin Beach Market in Montauk, a film titled “Salt of the Sea — How Politics, Economics, and Danger Push Fishermen to Their Limits, and Beyond” will be presented by Third Wave Films and hosted by the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association.

    Tom Garber, who wrote and produced “Salt of the Sea,” described it as the story of what happens when traditions of self-reliance and independence clash with federal bureaucracy and corruption.