Sharon McCobb, a member of the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals, failed to win reappointment last Thursday when a resolution supporting her did not get a majority East Hampton Town Board vote.

    Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, who introduced the resolution, and Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc voted for her reappointment. Supervisor Bill Wilkinson and Councilwoman Theresa Quigley voted no, and Councilman Dominick Stanzione abstained. There was no discussion of the matter.

    Ms. McCobb, a fitness trainer and organizer of the I-Tri youth triathlon program, has continued to attend zoning board hearings since her term expired at the end of 2012.

    Later in the meeting, Mr. Wilkinson offered a resolution appointing Karen Benvenuto, a real estate broker and director with Brown Harris Stevens in East Hampton, to the zoning board. It was supported only by Ms. Quigley.

    Mr. Stanzione abstained during the vote for Ms. Benvenuto, which appeared to irritate Mr. Wilkinson, who paused a roll call to ask him why. Mr. Stanzione explained that he wanted more time to think about it.

    “You interviewed her,” Mr. Wilkinson said.

    “Yes, I did interview her, and I actually interviewed a couple of other people. I haven’t made my mind up. Another couple of weeks isn’t going to kill anyone,” he answered.

    “It’s going to kill any efficiency that this board is going to produce,” Mr. Wilkinson said.

    “I’ll take another week,” Mr. Stanzione said.

    “You’ll take a week of politicking; that’s what you’ll do,” Mr. Wilkinson said.

    According to a biography posted on the Brown Harris Stevens Web site, Ms. Benvenuto cut her teeth in East Hampton Town real estate in the 1980s with the conversion of the Beachcomber Motel in Montauk to a 92-unit co-op. Following that, she and her husband, a builder, developed and sold more than 100 houses in the area. She is on the board of directors of the Lion Head Beach Association and an adviser for Hamptons Free Ride, an advertiser-funded shuttle service.

    Separately, Ms. Overby presented a resolution to appoint Lee White as the zoning board’s vice chairman. A vote on the change failed 3-to-2. Don Cirillo, a former East Hampton Republican Committee treasurer, will remain the Z.B.A.’s vice chairman. Ms. Overby and Mr. Van Scoyoc are Democrats; Mr. Wilkinson, Ms. Quigley, and Mr. Stanzione are Republicans.

    Separately, Roy Dalene was reappointed to the license review board and will remain its chairman by a 3-2 vote, and the board appointed Richard Gherardi as a new member. Mr. Dalene had yes votes from Ms. Overby, Mr. Van Scoyoc, and Mr. Stanzione. A counter-resolution offered by Ms. Overby to reappoint Robert Ortman to the board was defeated 2-2, with Mr. Stanzione abstaining.

    The reappointment votes were bookended by a sharp exchange between Ms. Quigley and the board’s two Democrats over nominations to fill two open seats on the license review board.

    Ms. Quigley had introduced a resolution naming Carlos Perez and Daisy Bowe to take the seats. While Mr. Stanzione again abstained from taking a position, Ms. Overby and Mr. Van Scoyoc voted no.

    Mr. Stanzione’s delay apparently irked Mr. Wilkinson, who asked, “How long is it going to take you to decide? We’ve gone through this for months.”

    Ms. Overby interjected that she did not know Mr. Perez or Ms. Bowe, which drew Ms. Quigley into the exchange.

    “This is getting to be an embarrassment. I sent around these names . . . two weeks ago,” Ms. Quigley said. She said that Mr. Perez and Ms. Bowe were “minority members of this community.”

    “Right now I am embarrassed to be a member of this town board,” Ms. Quigley said.

    “You are appointing two white men and you are not appointing a Latino man and an African-American woman,” Ms. Quigley said.

    Mr. Van Scoyoc responded that he was not “looking at it that way.”

    “Well you should,” Mr. Wilkinson said.

    Later in the ongoing back-and-forth Ms. Quigley said, “It’s high time we stopped putting whites onto every single board. It’s high time.”

    Mr. Van Scoyoc described Ms. Quigley’s view as “kind of like a racist way of looking at it,” which led to emphatic objections from Mr. Wilkinson and Ms. Quigley.

    Ms. Overby pointed out that the license review board under Mr. Wilkinson had not had new members since 2010. “You took no action to appoint someone,” she said, adding that she objected to Ms. Quigley bringing race into the discussion. “I find that objectionable,” she said.

    “This is an affirmative action request on the part of this board to consider inclusion and diversity in decision making in this town,” Mr. Wilkinson responded.

     East Hampton Village has appointed a replacement for Larry Cantwell, the village administrator for the past 30 years, Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. announced at a village board meeting on Friday.

     Rebecca Molinaro, the clerk-treasurer of the Village of Westhampton Beach, will assume the role on May 1. Mr. Cantwell and Ms. Molinaro will work together until Mr. Cantwell's retirement in July.

     Ms. Molinaro has a master's degree in public policy and 10 years of government experience as executive assistant to Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele. She has served in her present role for the past three years. Ms. Molinaro said Friday that she and her daughter, Emma McGrory, will relocate from Remsenburg to East Hampton. Her starting salary, said the mayor, will be $95,000 per year.

     "Becky's education and work experience is directly within the area of expertise required for the position of village administrator and this makes her an outstanding choice to carry on the tradition of good work by Larry," the mayor said in a prepared statement.

     The incoming village administrator said after the meeting that she is "very excited and thrilled" about her upcoming post. In governing on a local level, she said, "the response is tangible and almost immediate." She said her hiring gives her "an amazing opportunity to become part of it."

     Mayor Rickenbach and Ms. Molinaro discussed the considerable similarities between the villages, which include a year-round population that swells in size with an influx of summer residents and visitors, issues of storms and coastal erosion and, especially in recent years, the need to be familiar with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

     The mayor described Ms. Molinaro as "a professional lady and a class act," and predicted "an extremely smooth and transparent transition."

   After a decade of attempts at remediating the often-polluted Havens Beach off Bay Street, the Sag Harbor Village Board has allocated $295,000 toward the project and entered into a grant agreement with Suffolk County to get it done.

   The cleanup plan involves the reconfiguring of a 24,000-square-foot drainage ditch and system, which storm waters run through before entering Shelter Island Sound.

   If the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation approves the plan, a grant from the Suffolk County Water Quality Protection and Restoration Program will provide $147,500, which requires a match by the village.

   The project will involve a costly Smart Sponge Plus filter to remove pollutants such as fecal coliform bacteria, found repeatedly in the water over years of testing.

The contamination of the beach water, and the ditch that children enjoy playing in, has regularly resulted in the beach’s closure after two inches of rainfall, and has been called a grave problem by Kevin McAllister, the Peconic Baykeeper.

    The Sagaponack Village Board adopted five local laws at a meeting on Monday, with lot coverage regulation and a coastal erosion plan among them.

    Local Law No. 4, designed to control excessive development of residential parcels, had been of particular interest to many in the village, as shown by large crowds at the public hearings preceding its adoption and many written comments.

    Additional setbacks for tennis courts were the primary concern among residents, builders, and real estate agents. Following a public outcry, the law was revised to exclude sunken tennis courts. The law also redefines the word “driveway” and the meaning of “lot area,” now exclusive of the “flagpole” portion of any flag lot.

    Following a directive from the State Department of Environmental Conservation, the village assumed the authority to implement and regulate a coastal erosion management program, including procedures for minimizing damage to structures from flooding and erosion, and protecting natural resources. Anthony B. Tohill, the village’s acting attorney, explained yesterday that a coastal erosion law is one of the few instances where a local law must be approved and certified by the D.E.C.

    Accordingly, the board repealed its existing coastal erosion law and replaced it with a new one, the Coastal Erosion Hazard Area Law, which is essentially the same as the Town of Southampton’s. Included in the law are changes to the regulation of building permits on waterfront lots or within 400 feet landward of the coastal erosion hazard line.

    In another environmental safeguard, site-plan approval will now be required in some circumstances for the deposit, excavation, importation, or exportation of fill, since changes to the natural grade or topographical elevation affect surface water runoff.

    Finally, the board repealed its ban on lawfully pre-existing, nonconforming signs.

    The board will convene next on Jan. 14 at 3 p.m., for a work session and to address planning issues.

East Hampton Town

Tax Day Descends

    Payments of the first half of 2012-13 East Hampton Town property taxes are due today and can be made in person at the town tax receiver’s office on Pantigo Place in East Hampton until 4 p.m.

Payments can also be made, using a credit card, online at officialpayments.com, or by phone, using a number provided on the town Web site, town.east-hampton.ny.us.

    Payments must be made whether or not a property owner has received a bill. New bills can be provided by the tax receiver to those who visit the office in person, or furnished to property owners by fax or e-mail.

    Bills were mailed out between Dec. 14 and Dec. 19 by a company hired by the town for that service, according to Len Bernard, the town budget officer. Each year, a number are returned by the post office as undeliverable, due to incorrect addresses on file, expired forwarding addresses, or the like.

    This year, several property owners who have previously received tax bills at their regular address have reported not receiving the current bill. Mr. Bernard said that every year the town works to correct and update its tax roll information and those situations will be analyzed, but that there does not appear to be a particular problem this year. “There has been no noticeable difference in receipts compared to last year at this time,” he said.

Taxicab Hearing

    The town board will hold a hearing next Thursday night on proposed changes to licensing regulations for taxi companies, designed to address problems caused largely by out-of-town companies operating here during the summer months.

    A new law passed last year required taxi operators to obtain licenses from the town clerk after providing proof of insurance and driver’s license information. Modifications would add a requirement that taxi companies have an office in the town, and subject license applicants, both proprietors and drivers, to fingerprinting and a criminal background check. Fines for unlicensed cabs would be increased, and a taxicab license review committee formed.

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

Board Appointments Delayed

    At its annual organizational meeting last Thursday, the town board put appointments of new members to several other boards on hold, largely because some town board members were unfamiliar with the nominees.

    A vote on appointing Elaine Miller to the zoning board of appeals for a five-year term was tabled over the objections of Supervisor Bill Wilkinson and Councilwoman Theresa Quigley. Richard Gerardi Jr.’s proposed appointment to the licensing review board was also postponed.

    The board suspended votes on reappointing Don Cirillo as the vice chairman of the Z.B.A., on appointing Jacques Franey to the ethics board, and on appointing a chair and vice chair of both the architectural review board and the licensing review board. Appointing a new member to the A.R.B. was also put on hold.

    However, with unanimous votes, Ian Calder-Piedmont was appointed to the town planning board for a seven-year term, and Nancy Keeshan was appointed vice chairwoman of the planning board, replacing Diana Weir.

Aerial Deer Survey a Go

    An answer to the vexing question of just how many deer reside in East Hampton Town will be forthcoming, enabling the town board to make future decisions about deer management techniques. With a vote on Tuesday, board members agreed to hire Visual Air Research to conduct an aerial population survey using infrared technology. The cost will be $13,000, or $16,500 if Gardiner’s Island is included. The survey is the first step in adoption of a town deer management plan. 

    Johnson Nordlinger, East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson’s assistant, abruptly resigned from her job, without notice, on Friday.

    Ms. Nordlinger, a Montauk resident, declined to comment this week, beyond confirming that she is no longer working at Town Hall. Her position drew an annual salary of $45,000 last year, and was to have increased by $8,000, to $53,040, this year. The cost of associated benefits last year was $33,949; in 2013 benefits for the position are expected to cost $37,556, according to the town budget.

 Mr. Wilkinson did not respond to a request for comment.

    Improving air quality in the pool area at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter could cost a minimum of $20,000, and perhaps considerably more, Juan Castro, the facility’s executive director, told the East Hampton Town Board on Tuesday.

    The town owns the building and has contracted with the Y.M.C.A. to run the center. The agreement calls for a $590,000 annual contribution from the town to the Y’s $2.2 million budget, and makes the town responsible for capital repairs to the building.

    Heavy use of the two pools at the center, especially in winter when outer doors remain closed, decreasing ventilation, has created a buildup of chloramine gas, which is created when ammonia from perspiration binds with the chlorine in the pool.

    County health officials, who have tested the water but not the air, have declared there is no public health hazard, but swimmers have reported experiencing symptoms such as rashes and respiratory issues.

    Mr. Castro told the town board on Tuesday that the Y strives to “fill our facility; maximize its use. That’s how we pay our bills,” he said. However, he acknowledged, the heavy use does create other issues, such as the air quality problem.

    Between 3:30 and 6 p.m. daily, 80 to 90 people are generally swimming in the two pools, with more people in the pool area on the sidelines, he said.

    Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson asked if the pool has a maximum-occupancy. “We’re pretty close to capacity,” Mr. Castro said. “We’re not at capacity.”

    “But it’s not just capacity; it’s activity,” he said. People in the pool excrete ammonia as they exercise, he said, and it is the chloramine gas formed when the ammonia interacts with chlorine in the pool that causes the air quality problem.

    In addition to the need to upgrade the pool systems, “It’s a people problem,” Mr. Castro said. If, for instance, he said, members of the high school swim team who work out before heading into the pool, fail to shower first, the problem is compounded. “So we have to have, now, a shower patrol,” Mr. Castro said.

    The $19,700 worth of upgrades would include replacing a pump motor and impeller, hair and sand trap filters, and upgrading pipes, as well as installing two computerized chlorination systems and carbon dioxide distributors — “everything brought up to today’s standards,” Mr. Castro said.

    Those steps are expected to improve the air quality in the pool area, though maybe not enough, he said. Changes to the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system may also be needed to “evacuate the bad air at times of high use.” Air quality tests will be conducted, and an engineer will evaluate the situation, he said.

    In addition to the work needed to improve the air quality, Mr. Castro said other capital improvements will be needed in the near future: resurfacing or painting the pool, and replacement of a Desert Air dehumidification system. A long-range capital improvement plan submitted by the Y to the town last year for consideration also includes the construction of four new classrooms.

    A $554,310 grant was announced last week that will be used to make it safer for students to walk and bike to the Springs School.

    From the federal Safe Routes to School program, the grant was the result of a team effort among Springs School representatives and East Hampton Town officials, including Capt. Michael Sarlo of the Police Department and Steve Lynch, the highway superintendent. Elizabeth Mendelman, a member of the Springs School Board and a parent of two girls who attend the school, coordinated the effort, and it was endorsed by the Springs Citizens Advisory Committee.

    The money will pay for a sidewalk along the west side of Springs-Fireplace Road, between Woodbine Drive and Gardiner Avenue, and for changes to a crosswalk at that corner, making it safer for children to cross the road to get to School Street. Speed monitoring signs will also be installed.

    East Hampton Town will pay for and complete the work on behalf of the school. According to Len Bernard, the town budget officer, the project will be in the town’s 2013 capital plan and the money, to be reimbursed by the federal government, will be raised by issuing bonds.

    In presentations to the town board, Ms. Mendelman said that 104 Springs School students live in the vicinity of the new sidewalk, within walking or biking distance of school.     As the student population has increased, so too has traffic in the morning and afternoon when parents drive to school to drop off and pick up their children.      

    The Safe Routes to School program is designed to address not only traffic and ensuing air quality degradation around schools, but to encourage healthy exercise for children who increasingly lead sedentary lives. According to the program’s Web site, “Safety issues are a big concern for parents, who consistently cite traffic danger as a reason why their children are unable to bicycle or walk to school.”

    Ms. Mendelman said that an educational component of the program, to be overseen by Eric Casale, the Springs School principal, and Nina Friscia of the district’s PTA, would work to build parent involvement and support.

     A second phase of the project includes the extension of the sidewalk farther south, between Woodbine Drive and Copeces Lane. This will require coordination with Suffolk County, which owns that section of Springs-Fireplace Road.

    “This is one of the larger grants not related to the environment, storm damage, or landfill closure for the town, that I can think of, in recent history,” Mr. Bernard said. Charlene Kagel, the town’s chief auditor, and Nicole Ficeto, a grants analyst for the town, worked with Ms. Mendelman on the successful application.

    The total grant is more than the $472,000 that had been requested. Engineering plans were developed with the assistance of Tom Talmage, the town engineer, JoAnne Pawhul, the assistant town planning director, and Kevin Ahearn, the deputy highway superintendent. Specific details are to be developed in conjunction with the State Department of Transportation.

    After abruptly quitting her job as assistant to East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson on Jan. 4, Johnson Nordlinger, a Montauk resident, has reportedly met with an attorney who specializes in helping employees who have allegedly been wronged.

    “We’ve met with her, and we’re investigating the situation,” Thomas Horn of Sag Harbor said Tuesday. “So far it’s a rare combination of alarming but not surprising,” he said of the circumstances surrounding Ms. Johnson’s resignation.

    Asked if Ms. Nordlinger was considering bringing a lawsuit under any employment regulations, he said that, whenever a client seeks a consultation, “it’s fair to say that. We’re still looking at a broad spectrum of issues,” he said.

    Three other employees who sought legal representation in recent years under Mr. Wilkinson’s administration had hired Mr. Horn as their attorney. Larry Penny, the former longtime Natural Resources director, engaged him after town officials brought a laundry list of disciplinary charges against him alleging misconduct, incompetence, and insubordination. Mr. Penny, who worked for the town for 26 years, claimed the administration was trying to force him out. After a 30-day suspension without pay, he never returned to work, and tendered his resignation early last year.

    Jorge Kusanovic, a Hispanic employee of the town Parks Department, filed an $18 million lawsuit against the town last fall, alleging racial discrimination. Besides Mr. Horn, he was represented by Lawrence Kelly, another attorney who has honed in on alleged misconduct by town officials in employee-related and other matters.

    Most recently, Mr. Horn negotiated a settlement with the town on behalf of Linda Norris, a Human Services Department employee who was also suspended without pay after the town charged her with misconduct and incompetence. She was transferred to a position in another department.

    Mr. Horn said Tuesday that “three or four other” ex-town employees have consulted with him, as have several people still employed by the town.

    “They are very, very worried,” he said. “And their worries range from . . . they are targeted, or that when the layoffs started there was such a recklessness.” Others who feel they are doing a good job are concerned that their work isn’t recognized, he said.

    The future of Hren’s Nursery, a landmark on the Montauk Highway between East Hampton and Amagansett, was on the agenda of the East Hampton Town Planning Board  last week. The business was closed last year. Now, however, the Hren family has proposed subdividing the property, with one lot for the nursery, four house lots, and an agricultural reserve. The landscaping part of the business would be discontinued.

    According to JoAnne Pahwul, an assistant planner with the East Hampton Town Planning Department, the 4.9-acre business site was created in 1993 along with five one-acre residential lots when a 10-acre parcel owned by the late Joseph Hren was subdivided. The land is zoned for residential use, but because the nursery predated town zoning, it continued as a legal use.

    At the time, the planning board stipulated that an acre would have to be set aside as open space if the 4.9-acre parcel was ever subdivided further. In keeping with that stipulation, the current plan calls for a 1.25-acre agricultural parcel, to be operated by the nursery. The house lots would be between about 34,000 and 40,000 square feet each.

    At the board’s meeting on Jan. 9, the plan raised some questions. Ms. Pahwul asked how the agricultural reserve would be used if the nursery went out of business. Secondly, it was noted that the town code dictates agricultural businesses are to be on two acres or more.

    It was Ms. Pahwul’s recommendation that, given the growth of “pocket” and specialty farms, the planning board should consider suggesting to the town board that the code be changed to decrease the size requirement for an agricultural business to one acre. Patrick Schutte, a planning board member, agreed, and the board decided to revisit the idea at last night’s meeting.

    “There’s all sorts of agriculture. If we call something an agricultural reserve, it should stay as an agricultural reserve,” said Ian Calder-Piedmonte, a planning board member who owns a small farming business himself.

    “The board is in general agreement. Right now, we have a building falling apart,” Reed Jones, the chairman, said. David Weaver, the applicant’s agent, responded, saying that the Hrens were already removing buildings from the site.

     While the members of the planning board frequently accept Planning Department recommendations, in another matter on Jan. 9, concerning adjacent lots on Gerard Drive in Springs, the board sharply differed with the recommendation.

    Siri Reckler owns two small lots at 253 and 257 Gerard Drive. One is 50 feet wide; the other is 100 feet wide. According to Laurie Wiltshire, who was representaing Ms. Reckler, she is doing estate planning and wants to leave one of the lots to each of her two daughters. She asked that the lot lines be redrawn to make them equal in size.

    The Planning Department, based in part on a 2009 hearing on the issue, recommended against doing so, reasoning that one of the lots would wind up even more nonconforming since the zoning code requires residential parcels in the area to be at least 200 feet wide.

    “We’re simply trying to move a line,” Ms. Wiltshire said. The board agreed, voting unanimously to approve the changes, subject to approval from the Suffolk County Planning Commission.