The East Hampton Town Board will hold a hearing next Thursday on a request to change the zoning of two parcels on the Napeague stretch from one-acre residential to neighborhood business.

    The land, owned by Michael Dioguardi, totals just over an acre. One parcel is vacant, the other is the site of Cyril’s Fish House.

    Attorneys for the property owner have said the zone change will enable Cyril’s to add parking spaces, allowing more patrons to park on the property rather than along Montauk Highway, a state road. The change would also allow Cyril’s to work toward legalizing a number of outstanding zoning violations.

    According to the public hearing notice, only five parcels of the roughly 250 individual lots in the area have commercial zoning designation. Four are zoned for and contain resorts; one other, where the Lobster Roll restaurant is located, was rezoned from three-acre residential to neighborhood business by the town as part of a land transfer agreement with the property owner.

    The other parcels in the area are zoned for parks and conservation, recreation, or residential use.

    The hearing will begin at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.

    Three vendors who won bids last year to sell food and drink at Montauk beaches or road-ends are relinquishing their sites, opening the way for others.

    Bids will be accepted beginning March 14 by East Hampton Town’s Purchasing Department on the right to vend at the westernmost parking lot at Ditch Plain, at Kirk Park, and at the end of West Lake Drive.

    Bidding will also be reopened on exclusive rights to sell at two locations on which no one bid last year: Gin Beach in Montauk and Maidstone Park in East Hampton.

    At a work session on Tuesday, town board members briefly discussed whether to provide electricity at the vending locations so that food trucks would not have to rely on generators. The noise from generators at Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett generated complaints from beachgoers last year, and one vendor has asked the town to have electrical hookups installed. Last year, board members had said that the cost of extending electric lines to the parking spots used by food trucks should be borne by the vendors themselves. However, incorporating that requirement midway through their contracts with the town was considered problematic.

    On Tuesday, Town Councilwoman Theresa Quigley said that, to address citizens’ complaints, the town should bear the cost of installing electric lines but charge vendors for electric usage.

 “The beaches are a place that people should be able to enjoy the peace and solitude that is supposed to be offered by this town,” she said.

    Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc agreed that the noise of generators impedes the peaceful enjoyment of the beach. However he thought the vendors should subsidize the cost of the electric installations, which would have to be provided for all the spots the town leases out. The board did not come to a conclusion on the matter.

    The Federal Aviation Administration’s designation of East Hampton Airport as a “regional” airport in a May 2012 report classifying airports across the nation has raised concerns on the part of East Hampton’s Quiet Skies Coalition and touched off a new volley between that group and the East Hampton Aviation Association.

    In a press release, Kathleen Cunningham, the Quiet Skies Coalition president, said that the classification “clearly demonstrates the F.A.A.’s aggressive expansionist view of the East Hampton Airport.”

    The new designation, she said, could impose requirements that would push the town to accept new federal funding for the airport, a move that the organization believes would prevent the town from enacting meaningful restrictions to limit airport noise by obligating the town to new grant assurances, or agreements with the F.A.A.

    Asked to comment on the designation at a town board meeting on Tuesday, Jim Brundige, the airport manager, said that the “regional” title “has no effect on this airport.” He reported that Peter Kirsch, the town’s aviation attorney, had agreed, telling him that at this time it has “absolutely no legal, regulatory, funding, or other significant” impact.

    The F.A.A.’s report, “General Aviation Airports: A National Asset,” and its assessment of 2,950 airports for classification as either “national,” “regional,” “local,” or “basic” airports was done to assist the agency in decisions on distributing federal Airport Improvement Plan funds, Mr. Brundige said.

    The F.A.A. describes a “regional” airport as being in a metropolitan or “micropolitian” area and having high levels of activity, including some international travel, and with an average of about 90 aircraft based at the field, including at least three jets.

    “These are hardly appropriate descriptions of our airport or our community,” Ms. Cunningham said of some of the descriptors. She said she was “shocked” that federal officials see “our local airport . . . as regional.”

    Although it is yet to be determined exactly how the new categories could affect F.A.A. requirements for individual airports, in terms of facilities, funding, or grant assurances, the Quiet Skies Coalition pointed out in its press release that the May 2012 report will underpin the issuance of F.A.A. “airport operating certificates” which require adherence to safety standards that address such things as pavement condition, lighting, signs, and rescue equipment.

    “The obvious implication of all of this is that safety standards for a regional airport will be stiffer and more expensive to comply with than for a local or basic airport,” according to the press release.

    Added expenses to comply with new standards, Ms. Cunningham asserted, “will feed Mr. Stanzione’s argument for the need to take F.A.A. funding and 20 more years of restrictive grant assurances,” she said, referring to the town councilman who serves as airport liaison.

    The position of the Quiet Skies Coalition, and others advocating noise-abatement actions, is that the limits on what regulations the town can impose on the airport, under the agreements with the F.A.A., will prevent the imposition of effective noise control measures.

    The new designation, Ms. Cunningham said in the press release, “belies the claims of airport interests that they do not seek expansion of the airport and the ever-increasing noise it will inflict on East End residents.”

    She said that “by conspiring to seek and create a need for F.A.A. funding, they plan to hamstring the town” with new agreements with the F.A.A. tied to the funding “that will guarantee endless expansion and block any effective noise mitigation.”

    The new designation, she charged, is consistent with the recent establishment of the airport control tower and efforts to make it permanent. She questioned “what part this new development played in Stanzione’s oft-mentioned ‘dialogue with the F.A.A.’ ”

    In his own press release, Gerard Boleis, the president of the East Hampton Aviation Association, said that “once again the airport opponents are trying to mislead and scare the public with distorted reports about the airport.”

    “It is utterly untrue to say the airport is expanding,” he said. “Just the opposite.” Under the adopted airport master plan, he pointed out, one runway will be eliminated, another is being made shorter and narrower, and “the third will remain in exactly the same configuration it has been since it was built in 1936.”

    Mr. Boleis also said that “for decades, pilots have been flying throughout the region since the airport was built. Upstate New York and New England are favorite regional destinations.”

    The waterfront building at 21 West Water Street in Sag Harbor, where construction has been at a standstill for almost four years, will become luxury condominiums with a rooftop pool by fall.

    After receiving site plan approval from the Sag Harbor Village Planning Board in 2006 and beginning construction not long after, the developer, East End Ventures, filed for bankruptcy. Now, the company is before the board again to modify its plans.

    “I don’t see that as much of a change,” said Jack Tagliasachi, a board member.

    Because of increasing the number of bedrooms per unit, the number of units will be scaled back from 19 to 15, John Reddington, the company’s architect told the board on Feb. 26. This, in turn, means that fewer parking spaces will be required.

    A walk-through from Garden Street was eliminated, and one will be added to allow access to Baron’s Cove next door, which is adding a restaurant on its second level. This brought up the issue of whether a walkway is a structure, which would need a variance from the village zoning board and would require a public hearing. The matter will be referred to Timothy Platt, the building inspector.

    The changes, which Greg Ferraris, a board member, called “pretty benign,” also include reworking the landscape and lighting plans and adding “outdoor rooms.” Mr. Reddington said these would be enclosed outdoor areas with a hedge extending from the porches. Mr. Ferraris said this was another matter to be reviewed by Mr. Platt for adherence to setbacks.

    Landscape changes from the original site plan include the planting of low-growing material closer to the building and native grasses and perennials along Water Street, Mr. Reddington said, and an additional row of evergreen screening on the west side of the building.

    A gravel outdoor seating area is also proposed. Denise Schoen, the Sag Harbor Village attorney, warned that this may count toward the property’s overall lot coverage and could also require a variance and a public hearing.

    Mr. Ferraris said that a review of lighting would be necessary too, to be sure it complies with dark skies regulations.

    With millions of dollars of liens against the property by subcontractors, East End Ventures is in the midst of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but found a way to finance the project and move forward.

    The application was tabled until to next month’s meeting.

    Calling the Sagaponack Village Board’s ongoing discussions of the Wolffer Trust’s two-year-old subdivision proposal “completely irrational,” an attorney for the trust pressed the board on Monday to schedule a public hearing on the project.

    Michael Walsh, the attorney, told board members that neighbors might want to weigh in on their latest request, for a new plan with houses built further west on the property, closer to Sagg Road. Wolffer wants to build four houses on a 12.3-acre piece of its 134-acre parcel.

    “This has never happened,” said Mayor Donald Louchheim of the request for a public hearing absent a board-approved site plan. However, the village attorney, Anthony B. Tohill, confirmed the applicants’ right to a hearing.

    Mr. Walsh expressed frustration with the board’s past requests, which began, he said, with concerns about views from Montauk Highway. “You asked for 1,900 square feet,” he said. “It was irrational, but we gave it.” Next it was the view from Narrow Lane, said Mr. Walsh, with a setback of 650 square feet, “which makes the residences virtually invisible after landscaping. Now, we’re told the west side is more desirable?”    

    The Wolffers have preserved about 120 acres, Mr. Walsh said on Tuesday, “and have asked for only four lots.” “Christian [Wolffer’s] ex-wife lives here,” he said, pointing to an aerial photo. “Their two daughters want houses on the property.”

    Marc and Joey Wolffer, sons of the late Mr. Wolffer, assumed ownership of the vineyard in January with long-term plans of expanding its offerings and continuing their father’s legacy.

    Mr. Walsh told the board the 32-foot-tall residence that would be 650 feet away from Narrow Lane would have zero impact, according to the environmental consulting company that prepared the survey. The trustees’ preferred plan, he said Tuesday, would block its view of a field.

    “I am not a planner . . . just a village resident,” said Mr. Louchheim, “but it seems a sad precedent in the middle of the largest parcel of land in the village . . . to plop four new building lots.” He said he would prefer open space in the back, adjoining existing stables and three sides of other properties in agricultural uses. “One of those owners may be interested in acquiring that lot for a horse farm,” he said.

    Lee Foster, a board member, said that if the houses were placed on the lower end, the west side, construction would have a less destructive impact. She acknowledged, though, that she was “extremely ambivalent.”

    “I am at odds with myself,” Ms. Foster said. “I would like to see another plan.”

     “I feel strongly that I would prefer to see them along Sagg Road,” said Lisa Duryea, a board member. Another member of the board, Joy Sieger, said that “our plan in Sagaponack is to keep the views.”

    William Barbour was the only board member in favor of keeping the lots to the east, to the rear of the property, which would make it easier for farm equipment to get to the land in front, he said.

    “This is a closely held, family estate farm,” Mr. Walsh said in response to what he considered a time-wasting discussion of farming. “Row crops are not likely to happen here,” he told The Star Tuesday. It was very important to the Wolffers that the houses not be constructed on the Sagg Road side, he added, saying that four houses there would “destroy the scenic vista on this country lane.”

    A public hearing on the plan will be set for next month upon receipt of a corrected map.

    Also on Monday’s agenda was an application for a site plan review for proposed plantings in a 50-foot drainage easement with 50 feet of property behind it on Erica’s Lane. Mayor Louchheim voiced concern: “If we allow them to do this on the easement, we are incurring liability with neighboring property owners,” he said.

    With safety concerns about police and fire access, and flooding an issue, the board was inclined to deny the application. However, since the owner was not present, it will be discussed at a future meeting.

    A majority of the East Hampton Town Board last Thursday ratified an agreement between the town and Sheila Carter, a supervisor of the Human Services Department’s senior citizens bus service who was brought up on disciplinary charges in October.

    Diane Patrizio, the human services director, had alleged misconduct and incompetence, insubordination, failure to perform duties, and an unacceptable performance of supervisory responsibilities, and sought to have Ms. Carter fired. She was placed on an unpaid 30-day suspension through Nov. 9.

    The Civil Service Employees Association, the town employees union, denied all of the charges on Ms. Carter’s behalf and requested a hearing. However, according to a stipulation of settlement, Ms. Carter waived the right to a hearing and pleaded guilty to one charge of failure to perform her duties.

    She will be placed on an unpaid leave from town employment for a year, retroactively, through Jan. 17, 2014, when she will resign from her post as the senior citizens bus service supervisor or be fired.

    Until that time, according to the agreement, Ms. Carter will be eligible for appointment to the next vacant position as a town clerk-typist that the town seeks to fill, “provided that she is qualified for the position.”

    But the town will not be required to offer her a post in the Human Services Department. If a clerk-typist is not to be hired before next January, or if she is offered a position in any department other than human services and refuses, the town’s obligation to Ms. Carter — and her employment — ends.

    The agreement guarantees to Ms. Carter full coverage, at no cost, for individual health insurance through April. The stipulation, which Ms. Carter has signed, also releases the town from any potential future claims.

    At a town board meeting last week, Councilwoman Theresa Quigley cast the sole vote against entering into the agreement.

    Residents of the East Hampton neighborhood comprising Miller Lanes West and East and Indian Hill Road have been left frustrated with the results of their continuing appeals to the town board to do something about the volume of traffic and speeding through their neighborhood.

    The board was poised at a meeting on March 7 to approve restrictions on heavy trucks over nine tons on those roads (except for local delivery), and to pass a law prohibiting left turns from Indian Hill Road at its intersection with North Main Street or Three Mile Harbor Road. But the resolution was tabled after a group of residents that had sat through other board business — including a hearing that pushed the meeting well past 10 p.m. — questioned the board’s approach.

    “Now we’re left with, once again, a kind of piecemeal approach that’s not going to solve the problem,” said Julia Mead, a Miller Lane West resident who has been organizing concerned neighbors. “I’m wondering why no iteration of this plan has included a reduction of the speed limit on our road.”

    Enacting a weight limit and banning large trucks from the neighborhood’s roads does address part of the problem, she acknowledged. But residents, she said, are disappointed with the lack of a comprehensive solution. Why, she asked, has the board not included residents of the area in its discussions of the problem?

    Others wondered why a ban on left turns from Indian Hill Road is needed. The idea was first floated by Supervisor Bill Wilkinson in an earlier discussion. He said that the concept had been reviewed and approved by Eddie Ecker, the town police chief.

    Ms. Mead suggested a professional review by traffic engineers is warranted.

    A comprehensive look at the entire area is needed, Councilwoman Theresa Quigley said, as changing traffic patterns on any specific streets would have a ripple effect on other streets, including the nearby main byway of Cedar Street and its intersection with North Main Street.

    The board had held a hearing last fall on residents’ suggestion to ban through traffic on their streets. That suggestion prompted protests that the ban would, in effect, privatize roads that are paid for and maintained by the Town Highway Department.

    That proposal also included erecting stop signs at Downey Lane where it intersects with Miller Lane East and Miller Lane West. Ms. Mead asked the board last week why that had not happened.

    An East Hampton Town committee developing recommendations on protecting Lake Montauk from pollution presented the town board with several interim suggestions at a board meeting on March 12.

    New signs notifying boaters that Lake Montauk is a federally designated “no-discharge” zone are needed, the committee said, to make it clear that waste may not be released from vessels into the lake. The group suggested a public awareness campaign, perhaps coupled with a boating safety education effort focusing on issues such as boat driving while intoxicated and compliance with maximum-passenger limits.

    In addition, the committee said, waste pump-out services provided at a fixed station and by a pump-out boat operated by the East Hampton Town Trustees should be expanded, especially on weekends.

    The committee also suggested other signs, and perhaps kiosks, designed to inform people about the sensitive and unique ecology of the lake.

    A public outreach program could include litter clean-up efforts around the shores of the lake and a brochure covering guidelines for lake preservation and information about the Lake Montauk watershed.

    “It is suspected, but not proven, that some septic waste is finding its way into the lake from as far away as Ditch Plains,” the committee wrote in a report submitted to the town board.

    To avoid this, the group said, the town should encourage the upgrade and relocation of septic systems away from wetlands and surface waters, as well as the use of state-of-the-art sanitary systems, including those that can service more than one property.

    More frequent water testing for toxins and bacteria should be done at different sites around the lake, the group said, to “fill in the gaps” in data from tests done by the county and state.

    At the beach at South Lake, which has been closed to swimming by the County Health Department, the committee recommended that a sign now saying “Swimming Prohibited. No Lifeguard on Duty,” be changed to a more explicit message stating “Warning: Elevated bacterial levels have been recorded in this area. As a precaution all water contact in this area should be avoided.” The sign, the same as one used at Havens Beach in Sag Harbor, where there are also water quality problems, depicts a silhouette of a swimmer covered with a red slash.

    Town Councilwoman Theresa Quigley objected, saying that the water tests do not always show bacterial levels that would preclude swimming. “I find the sign completely contradictory, to the point that we want people to enjoy it,” she said of the beach.

    The levels do vary, said Julie Evans-Brumm, a committee member. But, she said, “Until we can actually remediate the source, we can’t actually open South Lake to swimming.” The committee’s final Lake Montauk watershed plan will address such mitigation.

    “The intent of the sign is to let people know that there is a possible health risk there,” said Brian Frank, a town planner and committee member. “Enterococcus is a pathogen,” he said, and those that are most vulnerable, such as the elderly and children, should protect themselves from it.

    “You can give me all the details you want,” Ms. Quigley said, “but, big picture, we have a town where you can’t do anything. We’re allowing downtown Montauk beaches to be eroded, we’re closing the lake. Where do people go?”

    “We are turning into a town where we shut down everything,” Ms. Quigley complained. “You guys have been in business for four years and all you’ve come up with is a sign?” she said to the committee members. “To me all that says is don’t use the beach.”

    She asked the committee to suggest language for a sign that “better reflects the science.”

    In its report to the board, the group reviewed its activities. It has mapped the lake watershed boundaries, modeled stormwater volumes for various level storms, developed a preliminary report on eelgrass, analyzed bottom sediments, inventoried finfish in the lake, and taken and analyzed coliform bacteria from 15 sampling stations around the lake.

    Continued work, resulting in a final Lake Montauk watershed plan, includes developing target goals, continuing discussions of sources of water quality impairments, and mapping the “sewershed,” or drainage infrastructure, around the lake.

    Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, who was the East Hampton Town Republicans’ top choice to run for supervisor this year, announced Monday that he will instead seek a sixth and final term in the Legislature, leaving Republicans to seek out a new candidate to lead their ticket.

    “It was not an easy decision,” Mr. Schneiderman said Monday. “Ultimately I came to the conclusion that I could still do a lot for the community at the county level.”

    Kurt Kappel, chairman of the East Hampton Town Republican Committee, said Monday that he was disappointed, but that the party still had plenty of time to find a replacement supervisor candidate. “We’re not being lazy about it, but it’s not like we’re in panic mode.”

    In fact, the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee is still in the process of screening candidates for its ticket and often does not hold its nominating convention until May. Larry Cantwell, the East Hampton Village administrator and a town board member years ago, has made no secret of the fact that he’s considering a run for supervisor.

    “My friends in the G.O.P. have managed to insult their current supervisor and nominate a candidate who isn’t running,” Mr. Cantwell said yesterday. “I hope they nominate a strong candidate because the people deserve a lively debate of the serious issues we face as a community.” Mr. Cantwell will retire from his village post this summer.

    The Democrats also have a strong potential candidate in Zachary Cohen, who lost to Mr. Wilkinson by just 15 votes in 2011.

    “My goal has always been, and continues to be, to seek the nomination for supervisor,” Mr. Cohen said by e-mail yesterday. “In the last election, I was honored to receive this nomination from the local Democratic, Independence, and Working Families Parties.”

    Both of the G.O.P.’s chosen candidates for town board — Councilman Dominick Stanzione and Fred Overton, the town clerk — might be considered for supervisor, Mr. Kappel said.

    Mr. Overton said Monday that he is open to the idea. “I’ll see what input I can get from family and friends and what sort of team I could put together. . . . It’s not a decision I’m going to rush into.”

    Mr. Stanzione, who is finishing his first term in office, did not return calls by press time. Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, a Republican, has said he does not wish to run for re-election, but did not respond to a request for comment.

    “I think a lot of people, when they heard Jay was going to screen, felt he was going to be a good candidate so they didn’t come forward,” Mr. Kappel said.

    Mr. Overton, the town clerk for 14 years, was one of them. “I hadn’t given it any serious consideration. . . . Not only was there Jay, but Bill hadn’t said he wouldn’t run.”

    Mr. Schneiderman was the only candidate East Hampton Republicans interviewed for the supervisor slot.

    Asked if he felt he had burned a bridge with the East Hampton G.O.P., Mr. Schneiderman said, “I hope not. I feel like I have been honest with them. . . . A lot of this period, I was almost sure I was going to run for supervisor.”

    That job is more constant and more demanding than being a legislator, he said, but he also “asked myself, ‘Am I going backwards rather than forwards?’ ”

    A prepared statement on his decision to run for legislator sent out Monday morning included what can only be seen as an early endorsement from Democratic County Executive Steve Bellone: “I am grateful that Legislator Schneiderman has chosen to seek re-election. Jay is a strong voice and a relentless advocate for the East End. As we work to put our finances in order, deliver services more efficiently, and rebuild after Sandy, I need Jay Schneiderman’s voice in the Legislature.” Mr. Schneiderman was first elected to the Legislature as a Republican, but joined the Independence Party midway through his tenure and now caucuses with the Democrats.

    Not only does he have greater short-term job stability as legislator — he won overwhelmingly in 2011 and ran unopposed in 2009 — but if re-elected he might also be in a good position to work on some of the very issues he had hoped to tackle if he returned to Town Hall. Top among them, he said, is “rebuilding the beach in downtown Montauk.”

    His children factored into his decision, too. The 24/7 schedule of a town supervisor is less conducive to family life, he said, but he is not ruling out a run at some point in the future, “when my kids are a little older.”

    East Hampton Republicans have Steve Lynch, the highway superintendent, running for a second term, Carol Brennan, the deputy town clerk, on tap to replace Mr. Overton, Carl Irace, a former town attorney, for town justice, and Joe Bloecker, a trustee, for assessor. They have also nominated the four incumbent Republican trustees who plan to run again. That leaves them with five more trustee candidates to choose, along with a supervisor nominee and potentially another nominee for town board.

    Working capital small business loans are still available to small businesses, agricultural cooperatives, and private, nonprofit organizations who have unpaid bills and lost business due to Hurricane Sandy. The Small Business Association loans have a cap of $2 million for physical damage and economic injury, and are also available to homeowners associations and planned unit developments.

    The deadline to apply for a Small Business Association disaster loan is Feb. 27 for physical damage and July 31 for economic injury. Applications can be completed online at disasterloansba.gov/ela, at a New York State Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster recovery center, whose locations are listed at fema.gov, or a business recovery center, which can be found at sba.gov. The first payment for a disaster loan will be deferred for five months from the date of issuance. More information can be requested by e-mail to [email protected].

    A 14-day extension to FEMA’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance program has also been announced. The program enables eligible survivors from Hurricane Sandy who cannot return to their houses, to stay in participating hotels or motels with the cost of the room and taxes paid directly to the hotel by FEMA. The new checkout date is Feb. 24, when the federal agency promised to work in coordination with state, local, and voluntary agency partners to assist applicants’ transition to more suitable temporary or long-term housing. More information on New York’s disaster recovery can be found on their Twitter or Facebook pages.