An effort to improve traffic safety on James Lane, which runs along the east side of South End Cemetery, may necessitate in the elimination of about six parking spaces, the East Hampton Village Board concluded at a work session last Thursday.

Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. explained that the Rev. Denis Brunelle, rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, had spoken with him last summer about inadequate sight lines for motorists entering or exiting the driveway to the church’s parking lot and Parish Hall, particularly during events there and at Guild Hall or Home, Sweet Home Museum, when pedestrian and vehicle traffic are high.

Drew Bennett, a village consultant, reported that he had analyzed the intersection of James Lane and an unnamed street, the narrow road that connects James Lane and Main Street, and found sight lines were limited as a result of parallel parking on both sides of James Lane and a portion of the South End Cemetery fence. He recommended parallel parking be eliminated on the east side of James Lane between the St. Luke’s driveway and Maidstone Lane.

The mayor and board members agreed, but also concurred that “all-way” stop signs should not be erected at the intersection. “We’ve got more signs than we can use in this village as it is,” Bruce Siska, a board member, said. “Removing cars on the east side of James Lane from the church driveway south to Maidstone will increase sight both ways, east and west.”

Although Richard Lawler, also a trustee, said he was “reluctant to give up any parking in the village,” he said “safety trumps the parking issue.” 

“This is one of those nuanced locations,” the mayor said. “We’re trying to make it better by way of this discussion this morning.” He asked Linda Riley, the village attorney, to draft an amendment to the village code.

“We had a line out the door this morning,” Becky Molinaro, the East Hampton Village administrator, said on Monday afternoon. “We have been selling them all day, and we have them in the mail.”

The Monday morning queue, an early sign that summer is never too far away, was for those seeking one of the 3,000 nonresident parking permits for village beaches. The permits, which cost $375 for the season, are available on a first-come-first-served basis for nonresidents. Permits are free for village residents. They must be displayed on vehicles that park at Georgica, Main, Wiborg, Egypt, and Two Mile Hollow Beaches between May 15 and Sept. 15.

Nonresident permits can be purchased between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday at Village Hall, by mail (attention Sue Dayton), or online at easthampton.permits.basgov.com. Starting Memorial Day and on weekends through June, and daily thereafter, remaining permits, if any, will be sold between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. at the Main Beach office. Last year, nonresident permits sold out in six or seven weeks, Ms. Molinaro said.

To obtain a permit, residents and nonresidents alike must provide a valid vehicle registration, a telephone number, and a self-addressed stamped envelope if applying by mail. Residents must also provide a street address, proof of residency, and the name of the owner of the property as listed on tax bills. Nonresidents, who can pay by check or money order, must provide a copy of the driver’s license of the person writing the check or buying the money order.

Parking by the day at Main and Two Mile Hollow Beaches costs $25 and can be paid for only at the entrance to the Main Beach parking lot. Daily parking tickets are available every day but are limited to 40 on weekends and holidays.

Valid parking permits must be displayed in order to park at town beaches, with nonresident permits available, as they are in the village, for $375.

Nonresident town beach permits will not be available for purchase for approximately two weeks, an official from the clerk’s office said on Monday, but once available there is no limit to the number issued.

Nonresident permits must be purchased annually. Beachgoers can also pay by the day at Atlantic Beach in Amagansett on weekdays only, excluding holidays. The cost is $20.

Town parking permits are available in person between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday at Town Hall, or by mail, addressed to the town clerk. Residents and nonresidents alike must provide a copy of a valid vehicle registration, a copy of their driver’s license, a telephone number, and a self-addressed, stamped envelope if applying by mail. Residents must also provide the street address and owner of the property as listed on a tax bill, as well as proof of residency. Year-round renters must be registered to vote here or have their local street address on their vehicle registration.

“Happygram,” a feature-length documentary that explores the issue of breast cancers that mammograms failed to detect, will be screened on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Shelter Island High School. Admission is free.

The film’s title refers to form letters women received after mammograms in which they were told that the screening had detected no cancer. Mammograms frequently fail to detect cancer in women with dense breast tissue, however. The film features Townsend Montant, a Shelter Island resident whose late wife, Teresa Montant, was diagnosed with breast cancer after a “normal” mammogram.

The film includes interviews with medical experts, politicians, and attorneys, as well as other women with experiences similar to Ms. Montant’s, and portrays the efforts of women to ensure that they receive complete and accurate medical information. It has been shown at several film festivals nationwide and has won awards including a first prize at the Rhode Island International Film Festival.

More information can be found at happygramthemovie.com.

Befitting the quiet of a South Fork winter, the East Hampton Village Board’s meeting on Friday was brief. The board set a date for three public hearings involving parking restrictions and moved to appropriate money for village employees’ compensated absences.

The board set Feb. 19 for hearings on proposed amendments to the village code. One proposal, affecting the parking lot behind the Lamb-Baker House at 88 Newtown Lane, would limit parking along the rear row to two hours, and in the front row to those on official village business only, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. At present there are no restrictions, and Richard Lawler of the board told his colleagues last month that village employees with offices in the building are sometimes unable to park there. “Some people in the area are parking there all day,” Mr. Lawler said.

Another hearing concerns a proposal to restrict parking to one hour on the west side of North Main Street, beginning 25 feet south of its intersection with Talmage Lane and continuing south for 100 feet. The third amendment would prohibit parking on the same side of North Main between the south corner of Talmage Lane and a distance 25 feet to the south. At a Dec. 3 work session, Bruce Siska, a board member, said that vehicles are often parked on that section of North Main Street for the entire day, and that the ones parked at the edge of Talmage Lane make it difficult for drivers on that street to see oncoming traffic when turning onto North Main.

Those restrictions would be in effect from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

As Becky Molinaro, the village administrator, had recommended, board members approved a transfer of $485,000 from the unrestricted fund balance to a reserve fund covering future retirement benefits. The reserve fund, Ms. Molinaro had explained earlier, is for money due employees who retire or resign with accrued sick leave, vacation time, and the like. Compensated absences at the end of the 2014-15 fiscal year amounted to $2.67 million, an increase of $52,663 from the prior year, she said.

Also on Friday, the board voted to accept a $77,682 bid from Carter-Melence Inc. of Sound Beach for a project to expand the women’s restroom facilities at the Main Beach Pavilion. Drew Bennett, a consultant to the village, told the board last year that Ed McDonald, the beach manager, had identified a need for expanded facilities.

The public has been invited to a meeting on Wednesday for further explanation of the proposed Sag Harbor Village zoning code revisions.

There are four local laws proposed, the most substantial change of which is the introduction of a cap on how big a house can be based on the size of the property. In calculating gross floor area, the village would consider the total square footage of the house, including basements. Another proposal is that the village could set an additional fee of $15 per square foot on applications for houses larger than 3,000 square feet. The money would go into an affordable housing fund.

The board of historic preservation and architectural review is also at the center of some revisions to formalize some of its actions, including making a decision within 60 days from when an application is deemed complete. The last amendment tackles swimming pools, with a proposed setback of 30 feet, which has drawn criticism in a village where the majority of lots are nonconforming.

Sag Harbor has been under a moratorium on major residential building projects for the last six months. The village passed a stopgap measure on development at last week’s regular village board meeting that is considered less restrictive. Applications will be processed so that applicants can begin to receive feedback from the necessary boards.

Meanwhile, village officials will present the proposed code revisions to the public on Wednesday in an informational session to be held at the Sag Harbor Firehouse. It begins at 6 p.m. No public hearing on the proposals has been set yet.

It’s time again for the Great Bonac Chili Cook-Off, when home cooks and professional chefs throw their best versions of chili in the ring, to be tasted and rated by members of the public.

The cook-off, sponsored by the Clamshell Foundation, will take place on Jan. 31 at the American Legion Hall in Amagansett, but registration in advance is required at clamshellfoundation.org.

Cooks can enter any kind of chili and, along with it, take along a ladle to spoon it out, condiments, and an ingredients sheet. Warming trays, Sterno, napkins, bowls, and spoons will be provided. Crock-Pots are not allowed. The cost to enter is $25 for individuals or fire departments, and $100 for professional chefs. Those who want to eat and rate the offerings between 1 and 4 p.m. on the day of the contest will be charged $15 ($10 for kids age 6 to 16). Kids under 6 can taste for free.

Top winners in the professional, individual, and fire department categories will receive Hall of Fame plaques. Second and third-place winners will earn trophies. A gift basket will be awarded to the cook who makes the “audience favorite.”

The event kicks off the Clamshell Foundation’s annual membership drive. Proceeds will be used to provide scholarships to local students and for food donations to churches and food pantries.

The Sag Harbor Fire Department, which serves Noyac and North Haven as well as the village, is facing “almost a crisis situation with the apparatus we have,” Chief Tom Gardella told the village board last week. He hopes the board will vote to replace three of the department’s vehicles, including a fire engine, at a cost of $1.1 million to $1.3 million.

Besides the engine, the chief said, the fleet needs a new rescue truck and a fire police truck, all vital equipment with the number of fire-related calls growing every year. Over all, he said, calls were up 30 percent in 2015 over the preceding year, a figure that does not include calls for emergency medical services, which are provided by a separate agency in the village. There were  466 calls to the fire department in 2015, the most it has ever had.

Asked by phone this week if the tired engine, which is more than 20 years old, had affected firefighting, Chief Gardella said it hadn’t — yet. “It’s at a point where, it wouldn’t be beyond the realm, it would be more likely that the truck could break down,” he said. “I had one incident where the brakes grabbed, where a member flew forward and bumped his head,” which sent the firefighter to the hospital with a minor injury. “We can’t just keep pushing the problem aside. It has to be dealt with. It’s not something we can say we will deal with next year or the year after.”

 At the meeting, on Jan. 12, the chief rattled off a list of what’s wrong with the two-decades-old engine, known as 7-1-3 and the first piece of equipment due at a fire: everything from leaky gauges to noncompliance with federal and state standards. Overhead lights, for instance, cause interference with radio communications, he said, so in order to transmit a message, the emergency lights need to be shut off. The truck’s hoses come from a truck before it, making them over 20 years old. A new truck would have a complement of new hoses.

A committee formed to put together specs for 7-1-3, which was due to be replaced last year, estimated that a new truck would cost $533,000. The rescue truck, known as 7-1-7, is 25 years old and has similar problems, and will cost about $365,000 to replace.

The chief also wants the department’s fire police company, which closes down roads during fires and accidents, to have a vehicle of its own. Volunteers have been using a passenger van for the last decade. Mr. Gardella often gives up his chief’s truck in emergencies — which leaves him without a command post — so that fire police personnel have a vehicle equipped with emergency lights.

The proposed fire police truck is large, with a utility body that can not only light up a scene but carry equipment to barricade it. It would cost $184,000 to $198,000.

Eileen Tuohy, the village treasurer, has been working on a proposal to replace all three trucks over the next 10 years through a bond, said the chief. “The idea is to space it out over 10 years so that it’s a minimal impact” to property owners throughout the Sag Harbor Fire District.

The proposal is to fund the three purchases without touching the village’s truck reserve fund, currently with a balance of about $290,000. The reasoning, the chief said, is, better to finance purchases now, before interest rates rise again, rather than later. The next truck, a pumper truck, will need to be replaced in 2021. By that time, there would be enough in the truck reserve fund to pay for it.

Village officials are expected to meet with the chief and the treasurer before the end of the month to consider specifics: yearly payments on the bond and the cost to taxpayers.

The department has also been working with the village’s grant writer on a federal grant for radio communication, in conjunction with other departments in Suffolk County’s Ninth Fire Division.

A man watched Gail Simons of Montauk take her husband’s custom-made surfboard off the roof of her car on Dec. 28 and lay it on a grassy area on the grounds of St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church, near the cottage where the couple live. He waited awhile, a half-hour, according to Ms. Simons, and decided he would take it before someone else did.

Little did he know the power of the Montauk surfing community, Facebook, and the East Hampton Town Police Department. Ms. Simons and her husband, Mike Martinsen, called the police and posted a note on Facebook. Friends of the couple reposted the Facebook message, and the police put out a notice about the distinctive board.

By Jan. 5 the couple had received a call from a man in Wilmington, N.C., who said he had the board. He assured them he wasn’t some thieving idiot from the city, but said he thought Ms. Simons and her boyfriend or husband had had a fight and that she had dumped the board in revenge.

It is a single-fin, 8-foot-3-inch surfboard with a wood finish. On its bottom is a large design of a dragon in a lighter wood finish. Designed and shaped by Markus Gneist, the founder of Journey Surf of Bali, it is more of a piece of art than a functioning surfboard.

Mr. Martinsen, a friendly guy who started the Montauk Shellfish Company and farms oysters in Lake Montauk, declined to give the man’s name. He has a friend who is a mate on a tugboat in Wilmington, and he has agreed to pick up the board from the fellow who took it and bring it back to the South Fork by tugboat, which could take a few months.

“I don’t care how long it takes. I’m just super happy that it was found,” Mr. Martinsen said last week.

Members of the Sag Harbor Village Board came under fire Tuesday night from residents angry over proposed new laws that they say will hurt their property values. Residents also questioned the validity of a moratorium on building that has been in effect while the legislation was being drawn up.

Four laws, the most significant of which ties house size to lot size, have been proposed and made available to the public, but not yet formally introduced or set for a public hearing. Instead, the village has scheduled an information session later this month to explain them.

Tuesday night’s session included a hearing, in essence to extend the moratorium while easing up on the restrictions over the next three months as the code revisions are vetted. Residents took the opportunity to voice their concerns that the proposals are already a done deal. 

“I think somehow this board has it all the way upside down. You work for us,” said Marius Fortelni, who owns property on Bluff Point Road and has been unable to move forward with a project for four years. He said the board was “destroying” $100 million to $200 million in property values with a stroke of a pen. 

“I know a government that is drunk on power and illegality. I’m fed up,” he said. “I’m going to sue the entire town — sue for millions.”

Kat Eban said she and her husband put her Rysam Street house on the market in early June with every expectation that they would be in a new home 2,000 miles away by Christmas. She said her house has been “held hostage facing an uncertain future” due to the moratorium, enacted in mid-July. While there is still interest, “no one is willing to commit to buying a historic structure.”

“What you are tampering with here isn’t just square footage ratios and property line setbacks,” she said. “People’s lives are hanging in the balance, and I hope that you, our elected officials, will show some true leadership and proceed with restraint and caution in a situation that is careening swiftly out of control.”

Aidan Cornish, a Howard Street resident who has no applications nor plans for any, said he was concerned that village business was not being conducted in public. He has written to the board to protest “the prominence the village attorney assumed, to the apparent exclusion of you, our elected representatives.” State Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr. is also the Sag Harbor Village attorney.

Mr. Cornish said it was “astonishing” that Save Sag Harbor’s publicly listed call to action seemed also to be addressed in the code revisions. “Now considering that there was no public input on any of these new laws, I find this degree of similarity almost beggars belief. The point here is not that I disagree with everything that’s in there. But nobody, or no group, deserves special treatment or access. We all expect and deserve to be treated fairly and with respect.”

Also at issue was the board’s convening for last-minute, often early-morning meetings. There were five special village board meetings in December, and another on Jan. 7.

Edwina Annicelli of Gardiner Street said that Mr. Thiele had come up with the code revisions and in doing so, without public input, had created an adversarial situation. She also raised the question of whether the moratorium had been properly created.

Mr. Thiele said a question had been raised as to whether the moratorium should have gone before the Suffolk County Planning Commission; it did not. “It’s still in effect. If it was illegal, it would not be in effect,” he told the audience.

Reached by phone yesterday, Mr. Thiele said some but not all zoning actions are referred to the county. “It is the position of the village that the moratorium was legally enacted,” he said, explaining that a moratorium is not considered a zoning action, but the suspension of one.

In view of the questions raised, Tuesday night’s extension was sent to the planning commission, which did not approve or disapprove it but said it was not for that board to decide.

The extension, referred to as a temporary stopgap on development, is the same as a moratorium, Mr. Thiele said. The difference from the original moratorium, which was to expire at the end of this month, is that it is less restrictive. Applications will be processed if they meet the current zoning code, so that applicants can get feedback from the various boards.

Mr. Thiele said yesterday that the proposed code revisions are far from a done deal. “We’ve gotten a number of suggestions that we think are good that are going to be incorporated into the public process.”

The informational meeting will be held at the Sag Harbor Firehouse, switched from Village Hall at the suggestion of an audience member that they use a bigger venue, on Jan. 27 at 6 p.m.

The Village of East Hampton got an upbeat report on its fiscal health last Thursday.

Michael Tomicich of the accounting firm Satty, Levine, and Ciacco told village trustees that he was able to deliver an unqualified, or clean, opinion, meaning that the village’s fiscal statements give a true and fair view in accordance with the reporting framework used in the preparation and presentation of statements.

In the fiscal year ending on July 31, revenues of $20.921 million exceeded budget projections by $1.285 million, with license and permit fees accounting for almost half the variance. At the same time, expenditures across a range of programs and services amounted to $612,000 less than anticipated.

The village’s balance sheet shows a total fund balance of $6,588,388, an increase of approximately $2.1 million from the prior year. The general fund budget issued $835,000 in principal payments on serial bonds to lower debt in coming years, Mr. Tomicich said. “The village,” he said, “is in very good shape.”

As a result of its fiscal health, the village was able to appropriate $337,000 to its capital reserves for any additional needed projects.

Becky Molinaro, the village administrator, recommended that the board consider appropriating $400,000 to $500,000 to a compensated reserve fund, which was established, but not funded, last year. Compensated absences at the end of the 2014-15 fiscal year amounted to $2.67 million, an increase of $52,663 from the prior year.

The compensated reserve fund, Ms. Molinaro told the board, is “a savings account to save money for employees who retire or resign, and any monies that they are entitled to at the time, per contract or condition of employment — any payouts, sick leave, vacation.” The board, she said, “can transfer money into that account at any time through a resolution. We could do it at the next board meeting.”

“Based on all of the above,” the mayor said, “it’s a good way to go.” The topic is to be considered at the board’s meeting tomorrow.

The board also heard from Drew Bennett, a consulting engineer, who delivered a presentation on proposed improvements to the police station. A review by the village’s insurance carrier had resulted in the recommendation that the areas where detainees are interviewed and held be upgraded, he said.

The present layout, Chief Gerard Larsen of the Police Department told the board, “lends itself to not be safe for our employees.”

“That was the reason that it was raised,” Ms. Molinaro said — “the potential liability for village employees and anyone who is detained by the Police Department.”

The approximately $90,000 project would add polycarbonate glass panels in the holding area “to improve the security of detainees as well as employees,” Mr. Bennett said, along with modifications to lighting, a resurfacing of the floors, new ceiling tiles, and additional furniture.

“We would like to minimize any potential liability,” Mayor Rickenbach said. “If there are no objections, we should conceptually opt to move ahead.”

The work session also included a discussion of limiting some parking spaces in the Reutershan and Barns Schenck municipal lots to 30 minutes. Most spaces have a designated two-hour limit. The mayor asked Richard Lawler, a trustee, to confer with Chief Larsen and Scott Fithian, the superintendent of public works, to determine the best location within each lot for 30-minute spaces, and present their findings to the board.