A workshop in basic video production will be held on Mondays in April, at 7 p.m. at the LTV public access television studio on Industrial Road in Wainscott.

The program is a first step toward becoming involved with local television, via directing, camera operation, and producing. The first class, an orientation, will include a tour of the facility as well as an explanation of LTV’s production process and paperwork.

Mike Tremblay can be phoned at 537-2777 to sign up. Inquiries by email are welcomed as well, to [email protected].

The ongoing upgrade of the electricity transmission line at the Long Island Power Authority’s Amagansett substation continues to rankle residents of the hamlet.

The project, which LIPA says will make the transmission grid more dependable in extreme weather, has included expansion of the substation to accommodate a new transmission circuit between the East Hampton and Amagansett substations, as well as distribution poles able to withstand winds of up to 130 miles per hour. To accommodate the work, the site, near the hamlet’s Long Island Rail Road station, was stripped of much of its vegetation in 2013. A chain-link fence, and the installation within that enclosure, remains highly visible to passersby.

Early in 2014, a representative of PSEG Long Island, which manages the grid on LIPA’s behalf, said that the work was expected to be complete in the fourth quarter of that year. Jeffrey Weir, the utility’s director of communications, said earlier this month that snow, rain, and high winds this past January delayed construction. With milder weather, “It’s all hands on deck trying to meet our deadline, before summer,” Mr. Weir said. “We fully expect to do that.”

A revegetation plan will be implemented, he said. “We’re working with the town to make sure anything we do is in prime planting season. We don’t want to put something in and it’s not going to take. We’re looking at all options, working with the town to make sure what we do makes the most sense for them and for a successful planting.”

Joan Tulp, a member of the Amagansett Village Improvement Society and the hamlet’s citizens advisory committee, said those groups are hoping that the town and PSEG Long Island will work with them to shield the unsightly substation from view as well as improve the train station’s aesthetics. “PSEG promised they would screen the way it looks now — the ugly part — by the spring,” she said. “I’m wondering myself what is going on. It’s a disgrace. I don’t see how a few little trees are going to help.

Coastal Living magazine has included Main Beach in East Hampton Village in its first March Madness Beach Bracket, modeled after the college basketball playoff brackets, in a competition called the Best Beach in America 2016. Voting is open at coastalliving. com/beachbracket.

Each playoff round is an online vote, with a beach’s right to advance to the next round determined by votes garnered during that voting period. The winning beach will earn the title of Coastal Living’s Best Beach in America 2016 and will be featured in its June 2016 issue and on its website.

Round 1 concludes at 5 p.m. today. Round 2 begins at 7 p.m. and goes through Wednesday at 5 p.m. Round 5, the final round, ends at midnight on April 3, with the winner to be announced the following day

Mindful of the density and scarcity of parking in the neighborhood, the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals took a long look at a proposal to alter a pre-existing nonconforming residence and make several additions to a .3-acre parcel on Friday.

Keith and Anne Cynar own an undivided lot at 52, 54, and 56 McGuirk Street. They want to convert a two-apartment building at the rear of the property into a single-family residence while retaining two cottages that face the street.

The applicants want to increase the height of the rear structure by 2.2 feet, to rearrange windows and doors, and construct a cellar. The building is only 2.4 feet from the side-yard lot line, where the required setback is 17.07 feet. In addition the couple seeks multiple variances for a swimming pool and patios and to install window wells and an air-conditioning unit. One variance would allow coverage greater than the maximum permitted.

The village code requires two off-street parking spaces for every house, but the parcel now has one space for each of the cottages and none for the apartments at rear. Overnight parking on village streets is prohibited.

“You don’t have enough parking now,” John McGuirk, a board member, said to Patrick Gunn, an attorney representing the applicants, noting that the swimming pool was to be constructed on space now used for parking, and Frank Newbold, the board’s chairman, asked Mr. Gunn where parking for the main house would be.

The Cynars will occupy that residence, Mr. Gunn said, “and it’s just two people. They don’t have a large family.” He also told the board that the existing spaces could probably accommodate four cars. “I know you’re concerned about density. We’re actually going to reduce density by taking this from four habitable units down to three. The two apartments in the rear unit are going to become one unit.”

Following the rear structure’s renovation, the cottages are to be rented. When all the residences are fully occupied, Mr. Newbold said, “there are seven bedrooms . . . and we didn’t see a plan for the lower level” of the renovated house. He also questioned the planned use of the basement. The basement will be unfinished, Mr. Gunn said.   “But whether we have vacant basement or not,” Mr. McGuirk replied, “there’s still not enough parking.” After Mr. Gunn said the parking situation had existed without issue in the past, Mr. Newbold asked him to provide plans for parking and for the cellar.

Turning to the added height proposed for the renovated house, Mr. Newbold said that several neighbors had objected. One of them, David Powers of 42 McGuirk Street, was present. He said that three bedrooms in his house, which he said complies with the required side-yard setback, face the building to be converted. “There are some evergreen trees on my property that serve as a barrier,” he said, “but they only go part way up the windows that face out toward us. Raising it farther up, for a nonconforming structure, seems to be a bit of an ask,” he said.

The house must be taller, Mr. Gunn said, because the ceilings on the second floor are less than seven feet high. “State code requires it to be raised,” he said. But Ken Collum, a village code enforcement officer and fire marshal, disputed that. “He’s correct if you’re building it today — seven feet — but if the house was built prior to the 1984 building code, which I believe it was, there is no retroactivity to make them raise the ceiling,” he said.

Mr. Gunn asked Robert Smith, the project’s architect, to address the board. “One of the concerns I have about the existing roof is, structurally, it scares me,” Mr. Smith said. “Even if you weren’t going to raise it, it’s not in great shape. There are leaking problems, which obviously lead to rot.” Compliance with the present code “makes sense,” he said.

The hearing was left open, and the issues are to be reconsidered at the board’s April 8 meeting.

Two decisions were also announced on Friday. The actress Candice Bergen and her husband, Marshall Rose, were granted multiple variances to allow a generator, air-conditioning units, sheds, pool equipment, slate patios, and a garbage shed/bin to remain in place at 72 Lily Pond Lane. All exist and are within property-line setbacks, but variances were granted to allow them to remain on several conditions. They include removing cabinets and fixtures from an accessory structure that the board said was illegally converted to a residence. The space is to be used for storage only, and the couple is to file a covenant with the Suffolk County clerk detailing the restrictions. The pool equipment must also be enclosed.

At 40 West End Road, Emilia Saint-Amand, the widow of H. Frederick Krimendahl II, was granted a wetlands permit and variances to allow landscaping and fencing, bluestone patios, and dry wells closer than the 125-foot setback required from wetlands, on the condition that an erosion and sediment control plan is fully implemented. However, the board denied Ms. Saint-Amand’s request for a rose garden and deer fencing. Instead, a fescue lawn can be extended into the area proposed for the rose garden.

A decade after its founding, the Wellness Foundation of East Hampton has guided thousands of East Enders through its six-week “wellness challenge” and created a posse of student “wellness warriors” who have participated in its Healthy Food for Life program.

The foundation’s work also attracted the attention of Joe Cross, an Australian who chronicled his own weight-loss and health-enhancement journey in two documentaries: “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead” and “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead 2.” On Saturday night, his new film, “The Kids Menu,” will be screened at LTV Studios in Wainscott, and he will be on hand.

Mr. Cross, who is an active health advocate with a website, rebootwithjoe. com, and several “Reboot With Joe” juice diet books, takes a look in “The Kids Menu” at how experts, parents, teachers, and kids across the United States are tackling childhood obesity and its causes.

It all started at the East Hampton Middle School. Students, who were learning about nutrition, noted that the school lunches they were served didn’t line up with the healthy eating principles being taught. A boycott was organized and a story appeared in The Star. Reading about the students’ efforts, Doug Mercer, an East Hampton resident, donated a cooler to the school district so that it could serve healthier foods. The Wellness Foundation’s children’s program is now a model for others across the country.

Mr. Mercer felt “if the kids in his hometown could stand up for wellness, he could, too, and he founded the Wellness Foundation in 2005,” Jennifer Taylor, the executive director of the organization’s education and programs, said in an email this week.

“Because of that, 10 years later, we’ve educated and empowered over 8,000 students in this community,” Ms. Taylor said on Monday. The organization’s Healthy Food for Life program operates in prekindergarten through middle school classrooms from Southampton to Montauk, and a high school curriculum is being developed.

Last year, online training for educators was launched, and just this month, the foundation presented its first East End “school wellness” conference for educators and parents. Resources for children and parents can be found at Wkids.org.

Healthy Food for Life was featured in Mr. Cross’s second documentary, “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead 2.” For his new film, he tracked down Ruby Honerkamp and Cailyn Brierley, two of the middle schoolers who pushed for the school lunch change, and interviewed them about how the boycott and wellness program impacted their lives. They are expected to be on hand for the screening.

Mr. Cross, who received the Wellness Foundation’s “Illumination Award” in 2013, said in an email this week that he was “truly in awe of everything the Wellness Foundation has been able to achieve. I think the Wellness Foundation of East Hampton has done an incredible job of empowering kids.”

“The kids I’ve met who have gone through the program are some of the savviest about fruits and vegetables and the importance of fresh foods for health,” Mr. Cross said in the email. The Wellness Foundation and its WKids program “are leaders of the pack when it comes to educating kids about healthy eating and wellness,” he wrote. While “other areas are catching on, too, what’s happening in the Hamptons is serving as an example of what can be achieved in many areas.”

Having “a local wellness champion” like Mr. Mercer and “a team that is dedicated to the mission” makes the difference, Mr. Cross said.

Ms. Taylor credited the middle school students’ activism. “It really was the tipping point,” she said. “And the effect that that had across the world really exceeded Doug’s hopes to make a difference in his own community,” she said.

“ ‘The Kids Menu’ focuses on solutions, not the problem,” Ms. Taylor said. “It’s really an inspiring film,” appropriate for the whole family.

The screening, at 6 p.m., will be followed by a question-and-answer session with Mr. Cross. Tickets, which must be purchased in advance, are $5 for children and $12 for adults. They may be reserved online through kidsmenumovie.com.

At a very brief work session last Thursday, the East Hampton Village Board took a step toward meeting the coming onslaught of summer visitors. Along with announcing a notice to bidders for the next two-year contract for garden maintenance at the Home, Sweet Home Museum, the board approved the purchase of 840,000 tickets for motorists entering the Reutershan and Barns Schenck parking lots.

A two-hour limit is in effect between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. from May 1 through Dec. 31 in the two lots. From Jan. 1 through April 30, the two-hour limit applies on Fridays, Saturdays, and federal holidays. Tickets, which bear the date and time at which they are dispensed, are to be displayed on the driver’s side of the dashboard. Failure to display the ticket may result in a fine.

The board authorized the $11,495 expenditure to Cincinnati Time Recorder Inc. for the tickets.

Before the meeting concluded, Bruce Siska of the board advised that batteries in smoke and carbon monoxide detectors should be changed twice a year, and that the start and conclusion of daylight saving time are ideal reminders to do so. Daylight saving time begins on Sunday at 2 a.m. C.W.

Sag Harbor Village officials are moving forward with proposed zoning code changes, including adopting a gross floor area regulation, following a moratorium on major building. The village board will meet with its attorneys and consultants tomorrow at 3 p.m. to introduce the draft law, and a public hearing will be scheduled on April 12, when the board next meets.

At an informational session in January, officials explained the proposals, and made some changes after reviewing the public comments. The size of a house would now be tied to the size of its lot, Mayor Sandra Schroeder said yesterday, though for bigger properties, the allowable gross floor area would be somewhat increased.

A more definitive explanation of “demolition” is provided for houses outside the historic district, she said.

The village would do away with the imposition of an additional fee of $15 per square foot on applications for houses larger than 3,000 square feet. The money would have gone into a fund for affordable housing. The idea, had it met with board approval, would have been the first in the state, though similar concepts have been instituted elsewhere.

The board is also poised to set a hearing on revised amendments that deal with pool setbacks, which had caused a stir. Earlier this year, it was announced that changes had already been made; the proposal will be reviewed again tomorrow.

Mayor Schroeder stressed that the board will not take public comments tomorrow. There will be an opportunity for comments at the hearing on April 12, which will begin at 6 p.m.

The actress Candice Bergen and her husband, the real estate magnate Marshall Rose, have owned a house at 72 Lily Pond Lane, which was featured in Architectural Digest, for years. On Friday, the attorney Thomas J. Osborne was before the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals on their behalf seeking to legalize changes that had been made to an accessory building on their property. It was the second go-round of a hearing that started in January.

 Frank Newbold and Lys Marigold, the board’s chairman and vice chairwoman, reminded the attorney that the building, which had been labeled a garage with stables and storage space on a 1986 certificate of occupancy, had been transformed into a residence with a kitchen, living room, fireplace, and carpeting. With very limited exceptions, the village code prohibits a second residence on a single lot.

 “Over the years,” Mr. Newbold said, “it has morphed to something just this short of a very comfortable guest cottage.” Mr. Rose, who purchased the property in 1984, had received a variance in 1988 to permit the structure to house one domestic employee, Mr. Newbold had said at the Jan. 22 meeting.

Ms. Marigold pointed out that in December 1986, they had “applied for a variance to turn it into alleged health quarters,” or an exercise room. While she said a treadmill was there, “When you walk in today it certainly looks like a second residence,” she said.

The kitchen was installed after pool equipment had been moved outdoors, Mr. Osborne said in January. On Friday, he said a stove had since been removed. “I know you’ve just removed the stove,” Ms. Marigold said, “but you put in kitchen cabinets, a refrigerator, a kitchen sink, a microwave, a coffeemaker. I mean, that’s a kitchen.”

Mr. Osborne had submitted an estimate of  $11,732 to move the pool equipment back into the building. “I don’t think any of us would be for that,” Mr. Newbold said, “but our feeling is, definitely, we would like the kitchen to go, including . . . everything that would be temptation for a future owner” to use the structure as a residence.

At this point, Mr. Osborne said, the applicant was “perfectly willing to take out whatever the board wants to take out.” He agreed that the space would revert to storage.

The board seemed unconcerned about additional variance relief being sought, including a generator, air-conditioning units, sheds, a trellis, slate patios, and a garbage bin as well as the pool equipment, which all are within required setbacks. Many were in place when Mr. Rose purchased the property, Mr. Osborne said. Some require minimal variances, and adjacent property owners have not complained about them, he added. The hearing was closed with a decision to be announced at a future meeting.

The board did, however, announce many other decisions. Jordan Roth, the president of Jujamcyn Theatres who owns and is renovating a house at 18 Lee Avenue, was denied permission for a 423-square-foot cellar that would have extended beyond the exterior wall of the house’s ground floor. The cellar was to hold mechanical equipment, but the village had amended its code last year to prohibit cellars from extending beyond exterior walls.

The board granted David Geffen, the music and film impresario, wetlands permits and variances for what his attorney called a “very sensitive, soft-touch renovation,” all of which are within required wetlands or property line setbacks.

Mr. Geffen bought 26 and 30 West End Road from Courtney Ross for $50 million last year. At 26 West End Road, he plans to construct basement areas, a screened porch, second-story roof deck, patio, and swimming pool, and to upgrade an existing septic system. Several conditions were set, including creation of a wetlands buffer landscaping plan that prohibits pesticides or fertilizers, compliance with Federal Emergency Management Agency regulations, approval by the Suffolk Department of Health Services, and installation of drywells.

At the adjacent property, Mr. Geffen plans a stone patio, fireplace, pergola, and garage, as well as to reconstruct a house, all of which fall within wetlands or property line setbacks. Here, as at 26 West End Road, he is to adhere to the provisions of a wetlands buffer landscaping plan.

At another West End Road address, No. 93, Kathy and William Rayner were granted a freshwater wetlands permit and variances to legalize a stone patio and pergola that are closer to the rear-yard lot line and wetlands than required, to enlarge a dormer within the front-yard and wetlands setbacks, to install a fire well, and build a driveway gate and a roof over an existing porch, all within the wetlands setback.

The board granted John Campanella of 14 Conklin Terrace variances for a swimming pool and deck, for an existing air-conditioner to remain in place, and to allow 82 square feet of lot coverage above the maximum permitted. The pool and air-conditioner would fall within required setbacks, but the board found that the additions to the lot, which is slightly less than 5,000 square feet, would not cause an undesirable change to the character of the neighborhood.

The board granted Jon and Jennifer Tarbet of 210 Newtown Lane variances to allow existing walkways and slate and brick patios, all within required setbacks, to remain. Richard and Marguerite Milazzo were granted variances to allow stone walkways to remain within required front and side-yard setbacks and to make alterations to an accessory building and construct an outdoor shower and adjacent stepping stone within the side-yard setback at 17 Jericho Road. 

The board granted Patricia Stanis of 11 Pleasant Lane variances to allow two air-conditioning units and a frame shed to remain. All are within the required rear and side-yard setbacks.

At 102 Lily Pond Lane, Ralph Schlosstein and Jane Hartley were granted variances to permit excess lot coverage, to construct a covered porch and walkways within required setbacks, and to allow alterations to an accessory building that is in a nonconforming setback location.

Members of the East Hampton Group for Wildlife delivered a withering appraisal of East Hampton Village’s deer-management activities and of White Buffalo, the Connecticut organization it hired to conduct a deer-sterilization program, at the village board’s meeting on Friday. 

White Buffalo sterilized some 114 does in the winter of 2015, and returned to the village in November to continue its operation, adding another 95 deer, including 50 bucks, to the total. To date, the village has spent approximately $190,000 on the program, which is intended to span five years. 

Last spring, several of the sterilized does died, some while attempting to birth stillborn fawns, others as a consequence of capture or surgery. 

“I was saddened and totally disgusted by the mutilation of deer,” said Beverly Schanzer of Sag Harbor, a member of the wildlife group, “especially when the possibility of safe, noninvasive immunization” exists. She urged the board to support immunization, and also suggested lowering speed limits to help avoid collisions with the animals. Accidents caused by deer are often cited to advocate thinning the herd. 

While commending the board for “what you consider nonlethal and humane” methods, Betsy Petroski of the village said that “the sterilization program last winter seems to be anything but humane.” She complained of a lack of oversight of surgeries conducted in a shed used by the village’s Department of Public Works, in conditions she called unsanitary, and the subsequent release of the animals into last winter’s particularly harsh weather conditions. 

A better solution, Ms. Petroski suggested, was to “get behind a less invasive contraception program, possibly in coordination with the town.” 

Yuka Silvera of East Hampton complained that “you didn’t consider our views before hiring White Buffalo,” prompting the wildlife group to sue the village “to stop this cruel sterilization.” That lawsuit was ruled moot earlier this month, as the village has yet to rehire White Buffalo for the next phase of the program, which could commence in the fall. At present, the village has neither a contract with White Buffalo nor a valid license from the State Department of Environmental Conservation, Becky Molinaro, the village administrator, said in an email on Friday. 

Regardless, in soliciting donations for a fund-raiser the Group for Wildlife held last month, “so many people had no idea that White Buffalo have been hurting our deer, and they were all absolutely disgusted about the cruelty,” Ms. Silvera said. “Deer have a right to live and we want to enjoy living with them in harmony.” She asked the board to abandon the three years remaining in the sterilization plan. Instead, she suggested an immuno-contraception program such as was adopted in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., with assistance from Tufts University’s Center for Animals and Public Policy. 

Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said that “we accept with humility the comments.” Citing continued growth of the village and attendant vehicle traffic, deer-human conflict will only continue, he said. “At the right point in time we will invite you to possibly be part of a continuing discussion” of how to address that conflict. “Give us a little credit for trying to do something. We can’t just cut the cord and say it’s going to end. But we hear you.” 

In other news from the meeting, the board adopted three amendments to the code pertaining to vehicles and traffic. One amendment limits parking along the rear row of the parking lot at the Lamb-Baker House, at 88 Newtown Lane, to two hours, and the front row to official village business only. At the board’s Dec. 3 work session, Richard Lawler told his board colleagues that village employees with offices in the building were sometimes unable to find space in the lot for their own cars.

Another amendment prohibits parking on the west side of North Main Street between the intersection of Talmage Lane and a distance 25 feet to the south. The third limits parking to one hour between 7:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. from the aforementioned point to an additional 100 feet to the south. The latter amendments are intended to improve sightlines for motorists turning from Talmage Lane onto North Main Street.

Two new crowdfunding campaigns that are local to the East Hampton area have the potential to expand access to healthy foods for families and children.

The beneficiaries of these new campaigns, coordinated by GoodCircle, an East Hampton company that connects nonprofit organizations and businesses for fund-raising projects, are to be Food Pantry Farm and Project Most.

Men at Work Construction Corp. of Wainscott is teaming up with Food Pantry Farm, a nonprofit based in East Hampton, to set up a new community-supported agricultural operation for people here. The goal is to raise $21,000 from the community at large, which will be matched dollar-for-dollar by Men at Work, until the campaign ends on April 2.

It is “targeted at working families who want to eat healthier but can’t afford the higher prices of locally sourced organic vegetables,” GoodCircle said in a release.

Food Pantry Farm already supplies produce to local food pantries and operates a farm stand on Long Lane to support its mission, but the aim of this fund-raiser is to directly expand its outreach to up to 25 families with weekly deliveries of fresh produce.

Project Most is an after-school and summer program for children ages 8 to 13 in Springs and East Hampton, with a specific opportunity called the iGrow Summer Learning Program that needs $38,500 to operate this summer. In this program, close to 60 students will spend weekdays in the month of July working with local farmers, chefs, fishermen, and scientists to learn and get experience growing, harvesting, and cooking their own food. The project’s sponsor, Hampton Racquet, will match donations at a rate of nearly two-to-one during the duration of the campaign, which runs through April 5. The proceeds of the fund-raiser will support costs such as supplies, stipends for educators and supervisors, food, and transportation.

More information about these two projects can be found at goodcircle.org.