The time has finally arrived. After more than four years of work and many more of yearning and planning, the renovated and expanded John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor will open its doors in a little more than a week.

The reopening of the 1910 Classical Revival building, and the opening of its new 7,000-square-foot addition, will be celebrated on July 23 beginning at 10:30 a.m. when Catherine Creedon, the executive director, locks the door on the space the library temporarily used on West Water Street, which closed on Monday when the staff moved the books and equipment, and starts what is being called a “book brigade.”

The book brigade will start as Ms. Creedon hands a copy of Dorothy

Zaykowski’s book “Sag Harbor: The Story of an American Beauty” to a waiting staff member. The book will then be passed to community members representing schools and businesses, one by one, in a line up Main Street all the way to its home in the library. Ms. Creedon will wait for the book there and expects it will take about a half-hour for it to make it back into her hands. She will then unlock the doors.

“We recognize how many hands helped us with this project,” Ms. Creedon told the Sag Harbor Village Board after receiving approval for the book brigade at Tuesday night’s meeting.

 Six staff members who are Pierson graduates, ranging in age from 22 to 76, will  have the honor of cutting a ribbon, along with fellow Pierson alumni Sag Harbor Village Mayor Sandra Schroeder and Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. The community band will play and local vendors will provide refreshments, including popcorn from an old-fashioned popcorn trolley.

After the celebration, which is expected to last about an hour, library-card holders can get down to business —- provided the library receives its certificate of occupancy from the Sag Harbor Building Department in time.

“I cannot express my joy to be going back home,” Ms. Creedon said.

When the East Hampton Village Board released the base salary schedule for its appointed officers and non-contract employees for the 2016-17 fiscal year on Tuesday, two board members had new titles and new salaries.

Barbara Borsack, who had been deputy mayor throughout her 16-year tenure on the board, is no longer in that role. Bruce Siska, who was appointed to the board in 2011 to fill the term of David Brown, who had resigned after an 18-year tenure, is the new deputy mayor.

In 2012, Mr. Siska was elected to complete the two remaining years of Mr. Brown’s term; in 2014 he was re-elected to a four-year term. His salary will increase to $15,500, while Ms. Borsack, as a member of the board, will receive $13,000.

Mr. Siska said yesterday that Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. asked him a few months ago to consider taking on the deputy mayor’s role. “I am one that, if I’m offered something and it’s not going to happen again, I’d better take it,” he said. “I’ve always had that feeling. I said, ‘Yes, I would be more than happy to.’ ”

Mayor Rickenbach described the change as “a cabinet shuffle” on Tuesday, prior to the board’s organizational meeting.

Ms. Borsack saw it differently, however. The mayor, she said Tuesday afternoon, had informed her of the move in a private meeting last week. “It wasn’t my choice,” she said. “It’s the mayor’s choice.” She was disappointed, she said. “I enjoy serving the village that way. It’s something I enjoyed doing and was happy to do.”

The mayor declined to elaborate on his earlier remark. “I would just tell you what I said. We’ll leave it at that,” he said later that day. Mr. Rickenbach, who was re-elected to a four-year term last month and recently celebrated his 80th birthday, did indicate, however, that this would be his final term in office.

Mr. Siska is up for re-election in 2018. “I intend to run again,” he said. “I enjoy what I do.”

Asked if she has aspirations to serve as mayor, Ms. Borsack said only that “I take things one year at a time.”

A “survivor tree,” named for a Callery pear tree that endured the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack that destroyed the World Trade Center in Manhattan, will be dedicated on Sunday at 10 a.m. at the North End Common, at 51 Pantigo Road in East Hampton Village.

Bartlett Tree Experts, a multinational tree and shrub care company with a location in Southampton, harvested fruit from the original survivor tree in 2011. The company, in partnership with the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, is donating the tree to the village.

The original survivor tree was discovered, severely damaged but standing, at the World Trade Center site. It was removed from the rubble and turned over to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation for rehabilitation. In 2010, the tree was returned to the site, now the memorial and museum, and serves as a living reminder of resilience, survival, and rebirth. In 2013, students of John Bowne High School in Flushing, Queens, took custody of the tree’s seedlings and continue to care for them.

The National September 11 Memorial and Museum donates survivor tree seedlings to communities that have overcome tragedy each year. Survivor tree seedlings can be requested for memorial sites across the United States that were created, developed, or enhanced in memory of Sept. 11, 2001.

The East Hampton Village Board concluded most of its business for the fiscal year ending July 31 at an organizational meeting on Tuesday. Save for a July 29 public hearing regarding a proposed modification of a scenic easement granted to the village 40 years ago, the board is not scheduled to meet again until August.

The board unanimously adopted a community preservation fund water quality restoration initiative that would allow a portion of the fund, which has provided more than $1 billion for land preservation on the North and South Forks since its establishment in 1999, to be used for water quality improvement projects. The New York State Legislature approved a bill last year allowing the five East End towns to seek approval from voters for the fund’s revised use. Should voters approve the revision, up to 20 percent of the fund could be used to pay for projects such as wastewater treatment systems, pollution prevention and abatement, and aquatic habitat restoration.

The legislature requested each municipality to assemble a plan, which Billy Hajek, the village planner, discussed with the board prior to its vote. The plan will be sent to the East Hampton Town Board for incorporation into its water-quality remediation plan, said Becky Molinaro, the village administrator. “Hopefully, this will be part of the discussion in November when the C.P.F. amendment goes to referendum for each of the five towns,” she said.

Mr. Hajek addressed the initiative’s five categories. The Cove Hollow Road stormwater pipe transports stormwater runoff that discharges directly into Georgica Cove, a part of Georgica Pond that has poor water circulation and has suffered blooms of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae). The pipe collects stormwater along its route, which begins near the Long Island Rail Road trestle at a drainage sump on Route 114. The initiative recommends an engineering study to determine contributing areas, quantity and quality of stormwater entering the pipe, installation of additional drywells within the watershed to reduce the quantity of stormwater entering the pipe, expanding the existing program to install filtering systems within stormwater drains to prevent sediment and debris from entering the pipe, and development of an end-of-pipe treatment system to remove sediment and debris and possibly treat stormwater before it enters the cove.

Additional drywells should also be installed in the Hook Pond watershed to reduce stormwater entering Town Pond and the duck pond at the Nature Trail, both of which feed Hook Pond. Filtering systems within stormwater drains are also recommended there to prevent sediment and debris from entering Town Pond.

Ms. Molinaro told the board that sediment in Town Pond would be sampled on Tuesday, weather permitting. The samples will be analyzed, she said, and the results shared with the State Department of Environmental Conservation. A discussion of remediation will follow. The village’s initiative incorporates recommendations by Lombardo Associates, a consultant hired by the village, and by Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University, who has been monitoring town waterways since 2013. These include identification and upgrading of antiquated or substandard septic systems within the Georgica and Hook Pond watersheds; development of a rebate program to assist residents in upgrading such systems with advanced treatment technologies; evaluation and upgrade of septic systems at village-owned properties; and an analysis of the feasibility of a commercial-areas sewage district and assessment of connecting some or all of those districts to community treatment systems.

Both Lombardo Associates and Dr. Gobler have recommended dredging areas of Georgica, Hook, and Town Ponds; that suggestion is also incorporated in the village’s initiative. Eliminating sediment and mud is expected to remove 50 percent of the phosphorous and 20 percent of the nitrogen in Georgica Pond, which is believed to feed the algal blooms. Dredging all of Hook Pond, as recommended in the Lombardo study, may not be financially feasible, Mr. Hajek said.

The initiative recommends a data collection program for Hook Pond, including a submerged aquatic vegetation survey that would map vegetation coverage and monitor light penetration. Dissolved oxygen levels and oxygen demand by marine life should be monitored.

The board, Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said, is committed to working with its partners on the town board. “Hopefully, as time unfolds we will see some tangible results,” he said.

The Big Tent: Party for the Park! — a communitywide celebration and fund-raiser for Sag Harbor’s proposed John Steinbeck Memorial Park — will take place Sunday from 5 to 8 p.m. under a tent on Long Wharf. A project of the Sag Harbor Partnership, formerly Serve Sag Harbor, a nonprofit group dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of the quality of life there, the event has elicited the participation of more than 100 individuals and businesses.

A key component of the effort is the Art for the Park auction, hosted by Romany Kramoris and the Monika Olko, RJD, and Tulla Booth galleries. It will include work by almost 60 artists shown from 2 to 8 p.m. on Sunday and previewed before then on paddle8.com. Participants include John Alexander, Mary Ellen Bartley, Ross Bleckner, Eric Fischl, April Gornik, Brian Hunt, Laurie Lambrecht, Joe Pintauro, Dan Rizzie, and Lucy Winton.

Another highlight will be a photography contest for Pierson students hosted by Dodds and Eder and judged by Ralph Gibson and Mr. Fischl. “The quality of the work submitted by the Pierson kids blows my mind,” Mr. Fischl said. A “taste of Sag Harbor” will offer food and beverages from more than 30 restaurants, wineries, grocers, and other purveyors.

The HooDoo Loungers will bring their New Orleans party vibe to the event. The Sag Harbor Fire Department will bring its big grills for a barbecue, and a representative of the Wildlife Rescue Center of the Hamptons will be on hand with a red-tailed hawk and an owl.

“This has been a true group effort, a year in the making, on the part of the board of the partnership,” said Ms. Gornik, an artist and board member who spearheaded the art auction. “Susan Mead, our president, has been largely in charge of the tent organization, and Nick Gazzolo and I walked into every single store in Sag Harbor asking if they wanted to be supporters.”

In March, village officials unveiled plans for a waterfront park to be located next to the bridge to North Haven. Edmund D. Hollander and Maryann Connolly, who are landscape architects, developed conceptual drawings for the project, which would include two sand beaches, a fishing and small-boat pier, and a pedestrian walkway under the bridge that would connect with Windmill Park.

However, a private developer owns several of the parcels that make up the bulk of the site and so far has been unwilling to sell the property to the village, which is pursuing condemnation proceedings to take ownership. Proceeds from Sunday’s party will be to support the village-approved plan.

“We hope the whole community will come out to celebrate this wonderful initiative,” Ms. Gornik said. “It is a legacy project for generations to come, will help protect the health and beauty of our harbor, and will show our support for, and thanks to, the mayor and board of trustees for their hard work.”

Advance tickets, which can be purchased at sagharborpartnership.org, are $50 for adults and $10 for children under 16. Admission at the door will be $60 and $15.

An underground propane tank and a series of variance requests for an oceanfront lot on Further Lane owned by Michael Fisch, the founder and chief executive of American Securities, kept the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals busy on Friday.

The 3.4-acre parcel at 174 Further Lane, where Mr. Fisch has demolished a house and is building a new one, once held a house owned by the broadcaster Roone Arledge and, before that, by the torch singer Libby Holman. Mr. Fisch also owns the lots to the east and west, at 176 Further Lane and 29 Spaeth Lane and, according to real estate sources, paid more than $86 million for all three. 

He is now seeking variances to maintain the tank, which was installed last year closer to the rear-yard lot line than the village code allows, as well as variances to construct stairs, landscape features, and walls inside side-yard setbacks. In addition, he wants to expand walls, place stones, do grading and landscaping, and establish a lawn within the required 25-foot setback from the 20-foot contour line of the ocean dune.

Jonathan Tarbet, an attorney representing the applicant, said the tank had to be sited in the noncompliant location due to geothermal wells on the property, and because of a drip line from a cherry tree the applicant hopes to preserve. “It’s important to preserving the tree to not locate it close to the drip line,” the outermost circumference of its canopy, he said.

Frank Newbold, the board chairman, said that in an original application the tank was shown as 40.4 feet from the nearest neighbor, who had “submitted a strong letter of objection.” The code requires a 50-foot setback. “In the current application, you’ve actually moved the tank two feet closer to his property line.” That, Mr. Tarbet said, was because the tank must be 10 feet from any structure, in this case, Mr. Fisch’s garage.

Propane tanks are regulated by the state, Mr. Tarbet said, arguing that the village cannot be more restrictive. But Ken Collum, the village code enforcement officer, said such tanks are regulated as structures. He said an application for a building permit did not show a propane tank but that a later application added a generator and showed tanks in a noncompliant location.

“The applicant was informed they did not meet setbacks and he needed to move them,” Mr. Collum said. “They moved them and installed them without a permit” beyond the 10-foot setback from a structure but encroaching farther into the rear-yard setback. Given the property’s size, “I’m sure that you could find a conforming location,” Mr. Collum said.

Mr. Tarbet submitted a memorandum in support of his contention that no variance was needed for the propane tank, which Linda Riley, the village’s attorney, said she would examine. The discussion was tabled pending her report.

The board takes a particularly close look at applications affecting environmentally sensitive areas such as dunes. With respect to the structures within the 20-foot contour line setback, Mr. Newbold said the board would ask Rob Herrmann, the village’s environmental consultant, to review the plans. “We’re not objecting,” he said. “We’re just asking for more information so we fully understand it.”  The hearing was left open and will be on the board’s July 22 agenda.

The board also granted Ronald Perelman, the investor and philanthropist, wetlands permits to allow the removal of phragmites by hand-cutting and digging at his estate, the Creeks. Each permit expires after one year unless a subsequent application is submitted. Calvin Klein, the fashion designer, also received a wetlands permit for removal of phragmites at 75 West End Road. He was also granted a variance to allow a deck to remain within a side-yard setback.

In one other matter on Friday, the board overturned a building inspector’s decision that a certificate of occupancy could not be issued for a structure owned by Alfred Ross at 38 Cove Hollow Road. The inspector had said the structure, a garage, had been illegally converted to contain a bedroom. Mr. Ross, however, submitted 16 affidavits supporting his contention that the building was on what had been Cove Hollow Farm before World War II and had always had a bedroom and bathroom. The board found that the bedroom and bath were a legal nonconforming use.

Approximately 100 people attended the South Fork Clean Energy Forum on June 15 at LTV Studios in Wainscott, at which officials from government, PSEG Long Island, and renewable energy companies discussed the transition from fossil-fuel sources that scientists say is urgently needed to mitigate the worst effects of climate change.

The Long Island Power Authority, for which PSEG Long Island manages the electricity grid, is to announce selections from its request for proposals to meet the South Fork’s growing energy demand next month. Proposals submitted include a 90-megawatt offshore wind farm and a microgrid comprising solar panel arrays, batteries, and backup generators.

Renewable Energy Long Island, a not-for-profit organization that promotes clean, sustainable energy generation and use, hosted the forum, which was co-sponsored by the Towns of East Hampton and Southampton, the latter’s sustainability committee, the Concerned Citizens of Montauk, the East End Resilience Network, the East Hampton Environmental Coalition, and OLA of Eastern Long Island.

“We’re really moving from decisions being made, for the last 100-plus years, in utility board rooms and high levels of government to a place where they are now made by consumers around the kitchen table or at the town board level,” said Gordian Raacke, the executive director of Renewable Energy Long Island. “That is so important to grasp. What we’re witnessing and trying to do is just that: take control of our energy future.”

The forum, he said, was “the first time the public was able to get an in-depth look at the various proposals and the various building blocks we have to build a new energy system for the South Fork.” In his presentation, Mr. Raacke displayed a slide illustrating a transformation from a centralized to a decentralized infrastructure, from imported to local fuel sources, from utility-owned to community-owned, and from vulnerable to resilient.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell likened the town’s comprehensive energy vision, which established the goal of meeting 100 percent of communitywide electricity consumption with renewable sources by 2020, to its first open-space plan, enacted 40 years ago to preserve environmentally sensitive land. That plan, he said, led to the community preservation fund that today provides some $25 million annually to purchase land and preclude development.

Through assistance from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, Mr. Cantwell said, the town has also analyzed community microgrids, installed electric vehicle charging stations, completed energy audits of municipal buildings, and proposed electric vehicles to replace some of the town’s fleet.

But “there is much more work to do,” he said, citing record-setting temperatures in 2015 and a rising sea level that threatens coastal communities such as East Hampton. “We are at a crossroads in the decision making for the energy future on the South Fork,” he said. “We know we face a serious, imminent, and growing deficit of electricity supply on the South Fork. We know PSEG and LIPA are considering proposals to address it. . . . I believe PSEG will see the value in meeting the needs of the South Fork with renewable energy and conservation.”

Meeting the South Fork’s energy demand with renewable energy sources will require a multi-pronged approach, Mr. Raacke said, one he too hopes PSEG will take. “We shouldn’t think, ‘We pick one and we’re done.’ It’s all about the right components. A smart community microgrid is the foundation, the platform for building the new energy system. An offshore wind farm, rooftop and other larger-scale solar arrays, and energy efficiency are all very important plug-ins to that holistic solution. We need to make existing buildings much more efficient, and reduce peak demand. We need smarter grid management, and local grid control. That’s what we’re trying to build here.”

The town will continue to push its renewable-energy goals through Energy Awareness Days, described elsewhere on this page.

Energy conservation and cost-savings for homeowners who act to reduce their energy consumption will be the focus of two inaugural Energy Awareness Days presented by East Hampton Town and PSEG Long Island on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The events will “highlight the town’s energy goals, ways that residents and businesses can save money, and the role that the collective town plays in addressing critical energy issues on the South Fork,” Supervisor Larry Cantwell and David Daly, PSEG Long Island’s chief operating officer, said in a joint press release.

Hands-on training and field-testing of energy-efficient construction standards will be demonstrated in the Green Jobs Training Center’s mobile lab. A project of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the lab is designed to operate like a traditional residence in order to teach visitors about how energy-efficient improvements would function in their homes.

At the same time, East Hampton will also be a stop on the Proof Is Possible nationwide tour of the Tiny Lab, a high-performance tiny house on wheels piloted by Grace and Corbett Lunsford, a husband-and-wife team working to promote energy-efficient houses and illustrate their performance.

Visits to both mobile units will be offered from noon to 6 p.m. on Tuesday at East Hampton Town Hall and on Wednesday at the Montauk Playhouse.

PSEG Long Island and the town will provide information for residential and commercial energy consumers, and PSEG will offer rebates on items such as energy-efficient appliances and swimming pool pumps. Information will also be provided on free home energy performance audits.

Those seeking information have been invited to call John Sousa-Botos at the town’s Natural Resources Department at 631-324-0496 or email him at jbotos@ehamptonny.

#TinyLab #proofispossible

A photo posted by Building Performance Workshop (@homeperformance) on Feb 15, 2016 at 5:50am PST

#TinyLab #tinyhouse on the 20-city #proofispossible tour @broannutone @purebond @mitsubishielectric @foursevenfivedotcom @rablighting @trutechtools @apccork photo by @kjimagery

A photo posted by Building Performance Workshop (@homeperformance) on Apr 26, 2016 at 8:06am PDT

Sag Harbor Village voters gave a resounding yes Tuesday to an increase in the pension-like incentive program for members of the Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps. The corps’s length of service awards program was given a boost in a 149-to-11 vote that also saw the re-election of two village board incumbents.

Known as LOSAP, the program provides volunteers, once they hit retirement age, with a financial incentive based on the number of years they have served. Under the new program, at the age of 65 volunteers will receive an amount equal to $20 per month for each year of service credit earned. Estimates showed the new plan would cost $105,000 for 2017, the year the program begins. Volunteers who pushed for the program said it would act as a retention and recruitment tool.

Robby Stein and James L. Larocca, who ran unopposed, will serve the next two years on the village board, thanks to the 129 voters who cast ballots for them. Mr. Larocca was elected for the first time, having been appointed to fill a vacancy last year. This is Mr. Stein’s third time getting elected to a full term. He also first joined the board by way of an appointment.

With no public comment save for a plea that future deer-management efforts be more humane than recent practices, the East Hampton Village Board adopted a 2016-17 budget at its meeting on Friday. The fiscal year begins on Aug. 1.

The $21.06 million budget represents a slight spending increase of $382,000 over the previous year. The increase, Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. told the board last month, was largely due to health insurance premiums, replacement of the village’s aging infrastructure, and capital projects including work at Village Hall and the Gardiner House. Lower contributions to the state retirement system kept the increase to a minimum, as did lower fuel and utility costs, and equipment purchases made during the current fiscal year.

Property tax revenue is projected to increase by almost $150,000, with license and permit fees up by an additional $80,000. The adopted budget includes a tax rate reduction of .58 percent, to $28.78 per $100 of assessed value. 

“On behalf of the board, we’d like to thank the office of the village administrator, and the various department heads who worked very closely, that brought this vehicle to a public hearing this morning,” Mayor Rickenbach said as the budget was unanimously adopted. 

Bill Crain of the East Hampton Group for Wildlife offered the only public comment on the budget, which, as in the previous year, includes $50,000 for deer management. For the last two years, the village has hired White Buffalo, a Connecticut nonprofit organization, to sterilize deer, in a program that has drawn criticism from both animal rights activists and hunters.

Last year, several does birthed stillborn fawns before dying in what some witnesses called gruesome circumstances. White Buffalo’s procedures were criticized for being performed in a non-sterile environment, as was the deer’s prompt release into sometimes harsh weather conditions. The village’s deer-management efforts, however, have also drawn backing, including financial support, from residents and groups, including the Village Preservation Society.

Mayor Rickenbach told Mr. Crain he would be included in the discussion once a determination, “or some clearer path that the village board will take,” is reached. “But let’s not forget, Bill,” he continued, that deer represent “a public health problem, a public nuisance problem, and a quality-of-life problem.” Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses, deer-vehicle collisions, and destruction of landscaping and forest understory have been cited as cause to reduce the herd.

Mr. Crain said that, while the wildlife group would never question the board’s concern for public health, “we feel that White Buffalo, who you hired before, just botched the job so badly.” Had they been operating on humans, he said, “they would be sent up for a malpractice suit.”

Despite reports to the contrary, he continued, “Researchers have not found a correlation between deer population size and Lyme disease, probably because the ticks can jump on other hosts. If you reduce the number of deer, they still can get on raccoons, dogs, cats, birds — all kinds of other hosts.”

The white-footed mouse, he said, is a primary host. “If you can get traps, do various things to remove the ticks from the white-footed mouse, that is much more effective.” He also asked for a count of the herd, and suggested immunocontraception as “the most humane, least invasive method” of controlling it.

The board, Mayor Rickenbach said, “recognizes your deep passion on the subject. As the future unfolds, we will have that continuing dialogue.”