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.

    The Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee considered Monday how to address the regular summertime occurrence of huge, alcohol-fueled crowds at Indian Wells Beach. East Hampton Town Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, the committee’s liaison to the town board, suggested the possibility of prohibiting parking on streets near Indian Wells Highway, as well as limiting taxi and bus access to the beach’s parking lot.

    “Do we have to close Indian Wells Highway at Bluff Road and say you can’t get by there without a town sticker?” asked Kieran Brew, the committee’s chairman. “I don’t like the ‘police’ aspect of it, but it is kind of crazy down there.”

    “The share-house issue in Amagansett is getting a little out of control,” Mr. Brew added. “It’s difficult to police, it’s difficult to enforce. This could be the bigger issue that we have to look at. This whole thing is a quality-of-life infringement. It’s great that lots of people love our little town, but is it going to be our little town if it becomes Belmar?” he asked, referring to the resort town on New Jersey’s shore.

    Could alcohol be outlawed during the daytime? it was asked. That would be a change in the law, Ms. Overby said, and such a change would apply townwide.

    “We should pass a law like the village has,” said the committee’s Sheila Okin. “On lifeguard beaches, between 9 and 5 you cannot drink. Why should we all have to suffer this way? And why should we have to use police and marine patrol in this silly manner? I think it’s ridiculous.”

    An alcohol ban, it was predicted, would not sit well with many business owners, particularly the hoteliers at the ocean beaches in Montauk. “You’re putting rules on everybody for this small group of outsiders who are blatantly being disruptive,” said Britton Bistrian, a member of the committee. “Enforcement could get rid of the problem. You can’t have a mass gathering of over 50 people without a permit.”

    But social media allows near-spontaneous yet informal mass gatherings numbering in the hundreds. At Indian Wells Beach, virtually all participants in such gatherings arrive bearing large quantities of beer. These crowds have discouraged many year-round residents from going to the beach, Ms. Overby said, particularly if they have children.

    “It has to be a pre-effective clampdown as opposed to post facto,” said the committee’s John Broderick. “When the 400 people are on the beach already, it’s too late. It really does come down to legislation combined with enforcement.”

    There has to be better enforcement, Ms. Overby agreed, “whatever the rules are. We don’t have as many marine patrol as we did in the past. You might want to have a traffic control officer stationed.”

    The committee segued into a brief discussion of tonight’s town board hearing on taxi legislation, a component of the crowds-and-alcohol issue at Indian Wells Beach. Ms. Overby suggested that committee members make their voices heard there.

    Proposed legislation would require fingerprinting and background checks of all drivers, the existence of a local office for all taxis operating in the town, and mandate liability insurance for all operators of taxis. The committee agreed that it supports stronger taxi regulation.

    “I don’t know if this will improve the situation at Indian Wells,” said Ms. Overby, “but it might.”

    The hearing starts at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.

    The East Hampton Town Board unanimously adopted the 2013 budget at a meeting last Thursday night, calling for $69 million in spending next year, an increase of just over 5 percent from 2012.

    The final budget, which includes several majority-approved additions to Supervisor Bill Wilkinson’s originally proposed budget, will raise tax rates for most East Hampton residents by 4.7 percent, at a rate of $27.91 per $100 of assessed value, and result in a 1.4-percent decrease for residents of the incorporated villages of East Hampton and Sag Harbor, for a rate of $10.96 per $100 of assessed value.

    Following a public hearing and board discussion of the supervisor’s tentative budget, the final spending plan includes a $25,000 increase of a grant to Project MOST, an after-school program in East Hampton in Springs, to a total of $35,000, and includes $40,000 to fund the first phase of a deer management plan, calling for a population survey of the herd.

    The budget also includes $26,000 to cover salary and benefits for the addition of a part-time code enforcement officer. Board members also agreed to add a part-time position for a land steward at a $30,000 salary, and to shift the entire salary for Andy Gaites, a land management department staffer, to the community preservation fund stewardship budget, paid for by the proceeds of a 2-percent real estate transfer tax. The result of that change reduced anticipated spending in the town’s general budget by $30,000.

    Under the terms of the town’s deficit financing plan, through which the New York State Legislature granted approval to issue up to $30 million in bonds to cover budget shortfalls under a former administration from prior years, the town is required to submit its proposed annual budgets to the state comptroller for review.

    In a letter dated Nov. 1, the comptroller’s office found that the “significant revenue and expenditure projections in the tentative budget are reasonable” in the 2013 budget.

    The letter also reviewed whether town officials had acted on previous recommendations made by the comptroller in 2012.

    Last year, the comptroller had suggested increasing a contingency appropriation, or money set aside for unforeseen events. The 2012 budget contained $530,000 for contingencies. This year, the amount was increased to $560,000, the comptroller’s letter said.

    The comptroller also said that the 2012 budget included estimated revenues of $250,000 from the sale of town property, but, the letter said, when the state officials reviewed the proposed budget last year, “town officials could not provide documentation to show that this revenue would be realized in 2012.”

    The expected revenue remained in the budget, the comptroller’s office said in the letter, “although we cautioned town officials regarding the attainability of this estimated revenue.” As of September, the year-to-date and projected revenue from property sales totaled $40,000, creating a $210,000 shortfall in the 2012 fiscal year.

    According to the comptroller’s office, East Hampton Town’s 2013 budget complies with a state law limiting increases in the annual tax levy to 2 percent each year. East Hampton’s leeway was larger than that this year, according to a state formula, because of tax levels in previous years.

East Hampton Town

Free Well Water Tests

    Residents with private wells who are concerned about contamination after Hurricane Sandy can have their water tested free of charge by the Suffolk County Water Authority. The tests will seek to ensure that wells have not been contaminated by bacteria, fuels, or chlorides via saltwater intrusion during the storm.

    The free testing program will run through Dec. 20, although the deadline will be extended indefinitely for residents who have not been able to return to their homes by then because of extensive storm damage. Those who wish to schedule a water test have been asked to call the water authority at 698-9500.

Tallying the Block Grant

    The proceeds of an annual federal Community Development Block Grant to East Hampton Town, which is earmarked for public service and projects that help low-income residents, will be distributed as follows, the East Hampton Town Board decided on Nov. 20: $18,070 to the Retreat, $40,000 to the Whalebone Apartments, $5,000 for work at the town’s skate park in Montauk, $5,000 to Catholic Charities, and a total of $25,500 to the East Hampton Housing Authority.

Working on Wastewater

    Information submitted by consultants who could help the town establish a comprehensive wastewater management plan is being vetted by town staff, including Kim Shaw, the natural resources director, and will be discussed by the town board at an upcoming meeting. A presentation on the various proposals, highlighting their elements, similarities, and differences, is expected to take place at a board work session on Tuesday, with an eye to making a choice as to whom to hire by mid-January.

    Councilmen Dominick Stanzione and Peter Van Scoyoc, along with Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, have supported developing an overall waste management strategy before making long-term decisions about the future of the town’s scavenger waste treatment plant.

Shoreline Brouhaha

    An oceanfront homeowner on Deforest Road in Montauk looking to shore up the coastline has offered to add sand in front of adjacent properties owned by the town to avoid causing further erosion there. A town board discussion of the request for permission to do so, however, devolved into a political squabble, leaving the homeowner unable to move forward on protecting the Deforest Road house.

    When Councilman Van Scoyoc brought the request to the board on Nov. 20, he was criticized by Councilwoman Theresa Quigley and Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, who said that the matter should have been broached by Councilman Stanzione, as the board’s Montauk liaison, or by Ms. Quigley, the liaison to the Planning Department.

    Mr. Van Scoyoc said he had been filled in by Tom Talmage, the town engineer, to whom he is liaison, and that Mr. Talmage and other town staff could not process the application without town board approval, since placing sand on town land is involved. Ms. Quigley pointed out that Mr. Talmage’s post falls under the Planning Department’s umbrella. The homeowner’s request was tabled, as only Mr. Van Scoyoc and Councilwoman Overby were willing to act on it.

For Town Code Review

    Councilwoman Theresa Quigley said last week that she has chosen several people to serve on a committee that would review the town code for the purpose of making regulations more easily enforceable, including strengthening fines. The members she would like to appoint, she said, include lawyers, “town people,” and “two outside” — Bob Kouffman and Stephen Grossman, who had suggested the idea, Rob Connolly and Patrick Gunn, town attorneys, Catherine Casey of the East Hampton Housing Authority, Alice Houseknecht, a Montauk motel owner, and Amado Ortiz, an architect. The group would work on the project for a maximum of two months, she said.

    Councilwoman Overby asked if other names could be considered and requested a written mission statement describing the committee’s charge and “the parameters of what [it] will do.” Councilman Van Scoyoc asked that the idea be tabled for further discussion, but with Councilman Stanzione and Supervisor Wilkinson’s approval, Ms. Quigley got the go-ahead.

C.P.F. Revenue Up Sharply

    Revenues for the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund totaled just over $6 million in October, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. has reported. The revenue, produced by a real estate transfer tax covering all five East End towns, is almost double that of a year ago, when October receipts totaled $3.19 million. The first 10 months of 2012 have produced $50.1 million for the land-purchase fund, a 4-percent increase over the same period last year, and the total for 2012 is expected to be in the $60 million range.

    In East Hampton and Shelter Island Towns, Mr. Thiele said in a press release, there has been a “substantial increase in activity.” Revenues of $15.9 million so far this year in East Hampton, compared to $10.9 million last year, are up 46 percent.

    Since its inception in 1999, the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund has generated $772.62 million. The tax program, which provides money to preserve farmland, historic sites, and open space, expires in 2030.   

    With weekends quieter than in the summer, when taxis swarm downtown hamlets seeking passengers buzzing about for a night of festivities, the East Hampton Town Board is taking time to review legislation that regulates taxicab companies here.

    A law put in place before last season required taxi operators to obtain licenses from the town clerk after providing proof of insurance and driver’s license information.

    Complaints continued through the summer about the number of taxicabs — many of which were coming here from out of town to compete for summer fares — the safety of passengers, and the behavior of some drivers.

    A proposed revision to the town code, worked on by Councilwoman Theresa Quigley with Rob Connolly, a town attorney, would tighten the rules, subjecting applicants for annual taxi licenses, both proprietors and drivers, to fingerprinting and a criminal background check, and requiring taxi companies to have a business office in East Hampton in order to pick up fares here.

    An initial draft proposal, discussed by the town board at a Nov. 20 work session, included a requirement that taxi companies have a fleet of at least three vehicles. That provision will likely be dropped from the final law, according to concerns raised by town board members about excluding small-business entrepreneurs.

    The proposal also would bar the use of vehicles more than 10 years old as cabs, or those with more than 250,000 miles on the odometer, beginning in 2014, and increase the fines for unlicensed cabs.

    Licenses would be required for the business, for each vehicle, and for individual drivers, and would have to be renewed each year.

    Ms. Quigley has also proposed setting up a taxicab license review committee, with three members to be appointed by the town board, which would review license applications. Having the existing five-member license review board, which deals with home contractor licenses and complaints, also review taxi licenses, was discussed at last week’s meeting, as was a way to eliminate loopholes, such as subleasing office space, that could allow out-of-town companies to do business here.

    Carole Brennan, the deputy town clerk, reported at the work session that, of 75 taxi companies with town licenses at present, 39 are based in East Hampton.

    “I think generally this is going to go a long way toward addressing some of the problems we saw this summer,” Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said of the draft revision. The board is expected to finalize the proposed changes before scheduling the new legislation for a public hearing.

    The Nov. 20 meeting of the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals, held two days before Thanksgiving, proved anything but a holiday for its members, who sat through a stormy four-hour session, almost all of it devoted to one of the most valuable parcels of land in the United States, at 278 Further Lane in East Hampton.

    The property, formerly owned by Adelaide de Menil and Ted Carpenter, was sold in 2007 along with its neighbor, 260 Further Lane — 40 acres in all — to the real estate mogul Ron Baron for $103 million. In the fall of 2008, he built two parallel walls, about four feet apart, between the ocean and the two parcels. The walls make a 90-degree turn that divides his eastern border from his neighbor, Taya Thurman. The hearing was held to determine whether the walls, which are in an area of dunes and wetlands, are eligible for a natural resources special permit.

    From the beginning, everything about the walls has been controversial.  To begin with, they were built without a building permit.

    According to Brian Matthews of McLachlan and Eagan, attorneys for Mr. Baron and 260A L.L.C., the owner of record, the walls were constructed after several conversations with the then-head building inspector, Don Sharkey. Mr. Matthews told the board the surveyor, David Weaver, had assured Mr. Baron that a permit was not needed, as the walls were to be only four feet high.

    According to Mr. Weaver, who addressed the board through an affidavit, Mr. Sharkey gave a verbal okay to the project in April 2008 and again that August, shortly before construction began.

    Later, Mr. Sharkey, who died in July 2009, denied having given those approvals, and Brian Frank, the town’s chief environmental analyst, said he doubted that he did. Mr. Frank told the board it would be unlikely for a head building inspector to give an approval of that magnitude in such a casual manner. “It doesn’t make any sense that Mr. Sharkey would have just said, ‘Go ahead.’ ”

    More important, said Mr. Frank, was that according to earlier aerial photographs of the site, it appeared that the walls had been built right over dunes, disturbing the rare double dune system. Larry Penny, the former director of the town’s Environmental Protection Department, had made that same point in a letter to Mr. Baron dated June 5, 2007.

    “The double dune preserve is unique,” said Mr. Frank. “There is no place else on Long Island where the entire structure is intact.”

    Mr. Matthews, however, cited surveys and studies made for the owner that indicated that little if any duneland had been impacted.

    Even the height of the walls was disputed. Mr. Matthews assured the board that they were only four feet tall, an assertion scoffed at by Michael G. Walsh, attorney for Ms. Thurman and the Thurman Land Trust.

    “Our findings were radically, radically  different than the findings you’ve been presented this evening,” Mr. Walsh told the Z.B.A. members. He said the actual height of the walls could only be determined by establishing a “natural grade” point, and contended that by that standard the walls were over 13 feet high.

    Mr. Frank agreed. Both men concurred that the walls were built using poured concrete with foundations and rebar and not as simple property demarcations. In fact, said Mr. Walsh, their true purpose was to raise the grade of the land to ensure that any house built there in the future would have a panoramic ocean view. He said the walls should rightly be called retaining walls.

    The lawyer and the environmental analyst both said fill had been dumped between the two walls and behind the back wall, which, Mr. Frank said, has allowed invasive species to move into the duneland. Mr. Matthews countered that the fill was from the immediate property.

    Mr. Frank asked the board, “Would I approve this if it wasn’t there already?”

    “We’re not here to make a determination whether these walls should be taken down,” replied the Z.B.A. chairman, Alex Walter.

    Mr. Frank agreed. “You’re here to determine whether the walls are eligible for a natural resources special permit,” a determination that is likely to be made during the board’s Dec. 11 work session.

    In the evening’s only other proceeding, the board heard Philip Giordano’s application to tear down and rebuild a house at 15 Deforest Road in Montauk.