PSEG-Long Island will start work next month on electrical systems throughout East Hampton, an effort to strengthen the reliability and resilience of the electrical grid under a program developed after Superstorm Sandy severely impacted parts of Long Island.

According to a PSEG spokesman, the work will include replacing wires with more weather-resistant types, installing or replacing switching equipment so that fewer residents would be affected by a service outage in portions of the system, and replacing poles that are considered to be weak.

About 10 to 20 percent of the poles will be replaced, the spokesman said. The new poles will be three to five feet taller and several inches wider than the old ones. Although the utility company had suggested using metal replacement poles for other parts of Long Island, East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said recently he had been assured that wooden poles would be used. The PSEG spokesman confirmed that to be the plan.

Upgrading various sections of East Hampton’s electrical distribution system will take several months. The entire townwide project is expected to be finished in mid-2019.

Almost one out of every six people over the age of 65 has fallen at least once in the past three months, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and both the John Jermain Library in Sag Harbor and the East Hampton Library are planning free fall-prevention classes for older adults to reduce that statistic.

“Falls are among the leading reasons why older people end up hospitalized,” according to Grace Kelly-McGovern of the Suffolk County Department of Health, noting that the libraries’ C.D.C.-Sponsored seven-week program, called Stepping On, “has proven to reduce falls by 31 percent.”

The program is aimed at older people who live independently and who can walk without assistance. The Sag Harbor classes will begin next Thursday and will run until Sep. 21, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.; the library can give the exact dates. The East Hampton classes will take place on Aug. 17 and 21 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., continuing to Sept. 28.

The Stepping On program covers exercise, home hazards, safe footwear, vision, medication, safety strategies, bone health, and dealing with panic. The classes are led by trained professionals. Guest experts, including a physical therapist and a pharmacist, offer tips on preventing falls.

The program is highly interactive; those attending are expected to participate and practice techniques both in class and at home. Peer learning is encouraged, and participants will be able to share stories and tips with one another.

Registration for the Stepping On courses can be made online at johnjermain.org or easthamptonlibrary.org.       

A couple who bought a house on Cove Hollow Road last year is ensnared in zoning code provisions that have left them and their attorney frustrated and incredulous.

At the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals meeting on Friday, Charles and Karen Phillips watched as Leonard Ackerman, an attorney representing them, sparred with the board and with Linda Riley, the village’s attorney, over how to extract his clients from what the village’s building inspector likened to a Ping-Pong match.

Mr. Phillips is the chief executive officer of Infor, a company that specializes in enterprise software applications. He and his wife bought the house while still living in California. At the time, its certificate of occupancy stated that absent a variance, an unfinished attic on the second floor above a three-car garage must remain unfinished, and not become habitable space. Unaware of this, Mr. Phillips said, he hired a contractor to create an office and conference room in the space. The contractor expressed no objection to the work, which was completed before the family moved in.

“The space was there because it was a spec house you approved, the same exact footprint,” Mr. Phillips told the board. “I was in California. It was already approved, the space was there, we just finished it off. The footprint hasn’t expanded one inch at all.”

Upon discovery that the now-finished space resulted in a floor-area figure well over the maximum permitted, the couple applied for a variance to legalize the conversion of the attic. Their application was first heard at the board’s June 23 meeting, where members were disinclined to grant a variance they called substantial, and dismissive of the applicants’ argument. “You have to come back and substantially reduce it,” Lys Marigold, the board’s vice chairwoman, said at that meeting. “I can’t accept it.”

When the hearing was continued on Friday, the applicants had submitted an offer to remove a short corridor, bedroom, and full bathroom from the first floor, converting it to a screened-in porch, which would no longer be included in the floor area calculation. A half-bathroom adjacent to the office would also be removed, and the Phillipses offered a covenant stating that the office and conference room area would never become bedroom space, either now or under future owners.

These alterations would substantially reduce density, a goal of the village’s comprehensive plan, and the board appeared satisfied with the mitigation.

However, as a consequence of the proposed elimination of the first-floor living space, the basement would extend beyond the house’s footprint, which the village prohibited in a 2015 amendment to the zoning code. The couple would therefore be compelled to seek another variance.

Mr. Ackerman and Ms. Riley engaged in a lengthy debate over how to proceed. Mr. Ackerman proposed that his clients apply for a building permit for the first-floor conversion, which would likely be denied due to the condition it would create with respect to the basement, and then file for variance relief. But Ms. Riley told the board that “I’m going to be reluctant to recommend that you adopt as a condition something that you don’t know whether or not it can be approved. We’ve never adopted a condition that says, ‘You’ll apply for this, and if it gets denied you’ll do that.’ ”

To Mr. Ackerman, she suggested that he amend the application. Mr. Ackerman complained that this would effectively restart the process.

Ken Collum, the building inspector, addressed the board. “I’m not sure it’s fair . . . to keep bouncing them like a Ping-Pong ball back and forth,” he said. “We’re mitigating one variance and going to create another variance.” He pledged to process the building permit application within a week so that the variance application could proceed.

Ultimately, it was agreed that the applicants would file for a building permit that same day. “Hopefully, it will be rejected next week,” Mr. Ackerman said. “What do we do next?”

Ms. Riley asked that he submit a calculation of the basement area that would fall outside the house’s footprint and the proposed covenant for the office space. The process would be expedited, she said. The hearing was left open, to be revisited at the board’s meeting on Aug. 25.

Four determinations were announced. Howard Schultz, the executive chairman of Starbucks, and his wife, Sheri Kersch Schultz, were granted variances allowing construction of a beach storage shed and outdoor shower, both seaward of the coastal erosion hazard area and within the side-yard setback at 14 Gracie Lane. The structures also require a variance allowing lot coverage greater than is permitted under code.

The board granted Jim and Gretchen Johnson, owners of Nid de Papillon at 31 Old Beach Lane, a variance to construct a 27-foot-tall detached garage, where code limits a garage’s height to 20 feet. At a hearing last month, an attorney and architect told the board there were no accessory buildings on the property and the Johnsons were “long due” a structure that would provide a garage, storage space, and a pool house. The garage is to mimic the century-old house’s design.

Michael Derrig, who owns Landscape Details, was granted variances to construct water features, decking, walls, fencing, and stone walkways at 103 Montauk Highway, a former restaurant and nightclub in a residential district which he now owns and uses as a showroom and office for his business. Variances were required for lot coverage in excess of the maximum permitted; for one wall, which is to be seven feet tall where the maximum allowable height is six feet, and for a deck, water feature, and walkways that will fall within required setbacks.

The board granted Rosemary Brooke Wall variances to construct a 918-square-foot detached garage in a front yard, and within required setbacks; to construct a 198-square-foot addition within the rear-yard setback, and to legalize an air-conditioning condenser that is also within the required rear-yard setback.

Three exhibitions inspired by Sag Harbor’s maritime history will be on view at the Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum from Saturday through Sept. 10. A reception Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m. will feature Scott Schwartz, Bay Street Theater’s artistic director, reading the preface Jacques Cousteau wrote for a collector’s edition of “Moby-Dick” that was published in 1975 by Steve Abramson, a Water Mill resident.

The folio-size edition of Herman Melville’s novel will be on view at the museum along with 13 framed illustrations created for the volume by the artist LeRoy Neiman. The last remaining 10 copies of the edition will be available for purchase through the museum during the exhibition.

Also on view, the artist Donald Sultan and the museum’s collections manager and curator, Richard Doctorow, have teamed up to present “Super Models,” an exhibition of 15 ship and boat models from the collection and artworks by contemporary East End artists that were inspired by them. The show includes models of whaling vessels, steamboats, merchant ships, warships, and others, ranging from eight inches to more than five feet in length. Many were built in the 19th century by sailors during their spare time at sea.

The artists represented in “Super Models” include Michael A. Butler, Vito DeVito and Dan Welden, Terry Elkins, Jim Gingerich, and Paton Miller, all of whom examine what the vessels might have meant to the local population when the village was home to the largest whaling fleet in New York State. Proceeds from the sale of any artworks will benefit the museum.

The third exhibition, “Through the Spyglass: Turn of the Century Whaling,” features a suite of 10 etchings by Mr. DeVito that portray the varied lives led by whalers while at sea. The etchings were printed by Mr. Welden and are available for purchase individually or as a complete set.

As of Tuesday, Southampton Hospital is part of Stony Brook University Medicine’s health system. The completed merger means Southampton Hospital will be providing care under Stony Brook’s New York State operating license.

“Today we celebrate a unique opportunity in which academic medicine and community medicine can come together to benefit our entire region,” said Dr. Samuel L. Stanley Jr., the president of Stony Brook Medicine. “As a result of the state’s comprehensive review process, we can now move confidently forward, taking what started as an alliance between two successful institutions to the next level, as we welcome Stony Brook Southampton Hospital officially into the Stony Brook University family.”

Stony Brook has a history of collaborations, bringing internship and residency programs to the South Fork, for example. While the merger was being finalized, the two hospitals forged ahead to bring a new cardiac catheterization laboratory to Southampton, to be part of the Audrey and Martin Gruss Heart and Stroke Center there. Clinical operations are set to begin on Sept. 5, according to the hospital.

In late 2018, the new Phillips Family Cancer Center, a facility that will make cancer care more readily available on the South Fork, will open. The construction project recently broke ground on County Road 39A in Southampton.

“The future of medicine on Long Island will evolve and advance as we bring Stony Brook Medicine to Southampton, with access to specialty care, research, and technology that otherwise would not have been available,” including the latest clinical trials, cutting-edge medicine, and faster access to lifesaving services, said Dr. Ken Kaushansky, senior vice president for health sciences and dean of Stony Brook’s School of Medicine.

“By joining Stony Brook Medicine, the new Stony Brook Southampton Hospital has strengthened its ability to fulfill its 100-plus year mission of providing access to the highest-quality health care for the communities it serves,” Robert Chaloner, chief administrative officer for Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, said. “We look forward to our elevated role as part of the Stony Brook family to bring the very best in academic medicine and patient care to the East End.” 

Representatives of the Maidstone Club, the private club situated on more than 200 oceanfront acres in East Hampton Village, will ask the village’s zoning board of appeals for a special permit to construct a 300-square-foot chicken coop when the board meets tomorrow.

According to the application, the chicken coop is intended for children’s educational purposes, said Frank Newbold, the board’s chairman. The project would also require approval of the design review board.

Arthur Graham, who was recently elected to the East Hampton Village Board and is a member of the Maidstone, emailed The Star on Tuesday to say he believes the coop’s primary purpose would be “egg production and educational purposes, for the kids in junior activities.” It would be in the same area as an existing beehive and vegetable garden, he wrote, near a pond constructed in recent years as part of an extensive upgrade to the club’s irrigation system.

“As I understand it, there would not be a rooster in the area because they would not want the eggs to be fertilized, and who wants to hear a cock-a-doodle-doo all day long,” Mr. Graham wrote. He cautioned, however, that he was not party to the plans and was not speaking on behalf of the club.

The zoning board will meet at the Emergency Services Building, at 1 Cedar Street, tomorrow at 11 a.m.

Citizens for Access Rights, which advocates for continued public access to East Hampton Town beaches, has released a video describing its mission. The video can be seen on youtube.com.

The group, known as CfAR, was formed in response to two lawsuits in which private homeowners claimed ownership of a stretch of ocean beach at Napeague. The town board and the town trustees fought and recently won these lawsuits, which, in addition to asserting private ownership of the beach, claimed that the public’s use of that beach presented both a nuisance and hazard to public safety.

The State Supreme Court ruled in favor of the town and trustees, but the plaintiffs have appealed the decision.

Dogs and cats at a family fair? Why not. The Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons will have an adopt-a-thon when it takes its mobile van to St. Luke’s Episcopal Church’s annual summer fair on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Regular adoption fees will apply.

On Sunday the animal advocacy organization will have an event at its Wainscott headquarters called “Give Us Our Independence” and a low-cost vaccine clinic and microchipping from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The vaccines are for rabies, distemper, bordetella, and FVRCP. The procedures will cost $10 for altered pets and $25 for unaltered pets.

Weekly hourlong classes for dogs with Matthew Posnick, an instructor, will begin tomorrow and run to Wednesday. The schedule includes basic dog obedience on Fridays at 3 p.m., therapy dog prep on Fridays at 1 p.m., off-leash obedience on Fridays at 2 p.m., and canine “good citizen” prep on Mondays at 2 p.m. Shy dog socialization meets on Wednesdays with Dr. Barbara Pezzanite.

ARF also offers basic, intermediate, and advanced dog obedience classes on Saturdays and Sundays at 9, 10:15, and 11:30 a.m. Agility classes are on Saturdays, with beginners at 1:30 p.m. and advanced training at 2:30. Puppy kindergarten is on Sunday afternoon at 12:45.

In addition to group classes, ARF now also offers one-on-one obedience classes, in which dogs and owners can work with Mr. Posnick on specific needs. The cost is $60 for one 45-minute session and $250 for five. Most of ARF’s classes meet five times and cost between $150 and $200, with shy dog socialization taking place four times for $100.

A $25 discount is offered to the owners of dogs adopted from ARF within the last year (or month, for puppy kindergarten).  The ARF website provides further information.

The East Hampton Village Board unanimously adopted a $21.6 million 2017-18 budget at its meeting on Friday. No public comment on it was heard at the meeting, which included the continuation of the June 1 budget hearing. The fiscal year begins on Aug. 1.

Also on Friday, the board learned that the United States Geological Survey has proposed a two-year water quality monitoring program at six locations in Hook Pond, at a total cost of $85,650, designed to help identify needed remediation. The new budget includes an appropriation.

The 2017-18 budget increases spending by $568,986 over the previous year. The tax rate will rise by 1.63 percent, to $29.25 per $100 of assessed value, slightly higher than an initial estimate.

The public hearing had been left open until Friday due to the late receipt of a preliminary estimate of the village’s contribution to the cost of replacing the Town of East Hampton’s emergency communication system. The total village contribution is estimated at around $1.5 million, Rebecca Hansen, the village administrator, said. The capital fund for 2017-18 includes $400,000 of that amount.

The system, used by police, fire departments and ambulance companies, bus drivers, parks and recreation and Highway Department staff, is considered outdated and inadequate. The upgrade will provide new dispatch and backup consoles and radios for emergency, public works, code enforcement, and beach personnel. 

Other significant costs in the new budget are health insurance premiums, new vehicles, and capital projects, including work at Village Hall and the house on the Gardiner home lot, which is to become an art museum.

Tax revenue is projected to rise by almost $300,000, to $12.89 million, while non-tax revenue is projected to increase by $270,500, to $8.14 million. Increases in Building Department and Justice Court fees and the mortgage recording tax account for much of the latter figure.

The federal agency had monitored Hook Pond from 2001 to 2008 as part of a larger program in the town and in Southampton, Ms. Hansen said. It will now gather data on chlorophyll, water temperature, dissolved oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus in the six locations, which it has identified as “hot spots,” or areas of accumulated sediment.

The U.S.G.S. will also install a telemetry device in the pond that will sample and record the water level and temperature every 15 minutes, she said, similar to a buoy in Georgica Pond. Agency representatives will meet with village officials on a quarterly basis to report on findings and will deliver a final report at the contract’s expiration.

Pio Lombardo, a consultant commissioned by the village in 2015, had pointed to gaps in information about the pond for a number of years, Ms. Hansen said.

Agency representatives will meet with village officials on a quarterly basis to describe their findings and will deliver a final report at the contract’s expiration.

In addition to budgeting for the cost, Ms. Hansen said pond-front property owners had agreed to shoulder a portion, if needed. The agency will start almost immediately, she said, upon approval of the contract.

Board members agreed that the proposal is both sound and timely. “It’s unanimous that we move ahead and codify the agreement as applicable,” Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said.

The board also agreed to advertise for bids on a roundabout to be constructed at the intersection of Buell and Toilsome Lanes. Bids will be opened on Aug. 15 at 2 p.m. at Village Hall.

In addition, the board approved the Fire Department’s request for a fireworks display on Aug. 26, with a rain date of Aug. 27. The display has been on Labor Day weekend in recent years.

The second annual South Fork 100-Percent Renewable Energy Forum will be held on Wednesday from 12:30 to 6:15 p.m. at LTV Studios in Wainscott.

Renewable Energy Long Island, an East Hampton advocacy group, is organizing the event, as it did last year. The Towns of East Hampton and Southampton, both of which are aiming to meet communitywide electricity needs with renewable sources, are co-sponsors.

The forum brings elected officials, energy experts, and community stakeholders together to learn, commiserate, and plan an energy transformation of the South Fork.

Though it is the second annual event, the title of this year’s forum is new: The South Fork Clean Energy Forum was held on June 15, 2016. Since then, Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman pledged, in April, to ensure that all of that town’s energy generation would come from renewable sources by 2025.

“Now that the entire South Fork has committed to 100-percent renewable energy, the title has changed,” said Gordian Raacke, Renewable Energy Long Island’s executive director. “That really makes the South Fork of Long Island the leading edge in New York’s energy transition. No other region in the state has committed to that goal.”

There has been more progress since the 2016 Clean Energy Forum, Mr. Raacke added, listing a number of developments, including the Long Island Power Authority’s inking of a contract with Deepwater Wind, a Rhode Island company, to purchase electricity from the offshore wind farm it seeks to construct approximately 30 miles off Montauk. LIPA has also committed to building two battery storage units in East Hampton and initiating a demand-reduction program for the South Fork.

The Town of East Hampton has adopted “a very stringent energy-efficiency building code,” he said. “We not only have a bold vision and ambitious goal to meet communitywide energy needs from renewable sources, but have made significant progress.”

The forum will begin with welcoming remarks from Linda James, an East Hampton Village resident and member of the town’s energy sustainability advisory committee, at 1 p.m. Mr. Raacke will then present “The South Fork as Leading Edge of New York’s Energy Transformation.”

The afternoon will continue with panel discussions on technical and policy solutions to meeting energy demand. Elected officials including Mr. Schneiderman, East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell and Deputy Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc, and Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. will participate. Panel discussions will also feature Thomas Falcone, LIPA’s chief executive; representatives of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and Deepwater Wind.

NYSERDA will present awards to both towns, Mr. Raacke said, and Tesla, a manufacturer of electric cars, will display its solar roof tiles and Powerwall battery storage unit.

Ms. James and Mr. Raacke will deliver concluding remarks at 6 p.m. The full agenda and the event’s speakers can be found at renewableenergylongisland.org.

The forum is free and open to the public, but space is limited. Those interested in attending have been asked to R.S.V.P. at Renewable Energy Long Island’s website.