The local laws adopted on Friday that concluded the East Hampton Village Board’s business for 2015 were overshadowed by a moment of silence observed for Karen Rickenbach, the daughter of Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr., who died on Dec. 12. 

“Every October, I do my little speech about breast cancer because it has affected me personally,” said Deputy Mayor Barbara Borsack, presiding in the mayor’s absence. “Sadly, it’s also recently affected the village family in another way . . . We’re very sorry about it, and our hearts go out to him and his family.” 

The board heard comment afterward on a proposed amendment to its freshwater wetlands code. Non-native phragmites have invaded and damaged the wetland areas that not only contribute to the village’s beauty but are a key component of its ecological system and wildlife, according to the law’s intent. Given the species’s resiliency, restoration projects that remove phragmites and restore the natural ecosystem can take years.

The amended law would ease restrictions on property owners, creating a permit to remove phragmites that is valid for up to four years, replacing the currently required annual permit and survey. This will encourage restoration projects while ensuring that phragmites removal is done properly, said Becky Molinaro, the village administrator. The amendment, she said on Monday, “tweaks it so it’s a little less cumbersome and, hopefully, encourages more people. Some have found the annual permitting process daunting.” With the amendment, the village will match the town’s code with respect to phragmites removal, she noted.

Sara Davison, project manager for the nonprofit Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation, thanked the board for its commitment to protecting native habitats. “Friends of Georgica Pond believe the amendments are warranted, appropriate, and will have a beneficial effect on our community’s efforts to restore wetlands in the village,” she said. “At Georgica Pond, Phragmites australis has resulted in a decrease in the diversity of the pond’s wetlands. In addition, dense phragmites growth blocks public access to the pond and impedes water circulation within the pond.” 

With no further comment, the amendment was adopted. 

The board also revised the definition of “structure” to exclude dry wells or catch basins installed for drainage purposes, an amendment aimed at containing stormwater runoff and preventing it from flooding streets, waterways, or neighboring properties.

Defining dry wells and catch basins as structures, thereby requiring them to meet the village’s setback requirements, was “counterproductive to our stormwater prevention” efforts, Ken Collum, the code enforcement officer and fire marshal, said Monday. As with the modification of the freshwater wetlands code, the revised definition encourages “something we really want people to be doing,” he said, “instead of making them come to the zoning board to get relief.” 

No nearby municipalities regard dry wells or catch basins as structures that must meet setback requirements. Dry wells or catch basins installed in wetlands would still require a review by the village’s environmental consultant, Mr. Collum said, and dry wells associated with swimming pool drainage will still have to meet setback requirements.

“Merry Christmas and happy holidays, a healthy and safe new year,” said Elbert Edwards of the board as the meeting concluded. “That’s from all the board, including the mayor.”

As the holidays approach, a fund-raising drive for Long Island Cares — The Harry Chapin Food Bank, its second such, has begun. This year’s drive honors the late Jack Morelli of Amagansett.

Mr. Morelli, who died last year, was, like Harry Chapin, a musician, as well as a cook who loved to make and share meals.

Tax-deductible donations in his honor, with his name noted on checks, may be sent by mail to Long Island Cares at 10 Davids Drive (Harry Chapin Way), Hauppauge 11788. Donations may also be dropped off at the One Stop Market in East Hampton, where Bill Hall, the owner and a friend of Mr. Morelli, is making a collection.

Mr. Morelli’s daughter, Janae Anderson of Gallatin, Tenn., said this week that the fund drive would continue through Dec. 10, helping the food bank to provide groceries to those in need throughout the holiday season.

The historic Dominy clock and woodworking shops that were moved decades ago to the Further Lane property now owned by the investor Barry Rosenstein will soon begin a journey back to North Main Street, where they were constructed in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Mr. Rosenstein, who purchased the 16 acres at 60, 62, and 64 Further Lane in East Hampton last year for a reported $147 million, donated the little structures, which were merged when they were moved to 62 Further Lane in 1946, to the East Hampton Historical Society.

Bob Hefner, East Hampton Village’s historic preservation consultant, said on Friday that additions made to the merged buildings, including a brick chimney, have been removed and the grounds around them graded. He told the village board that Guy Davis, a fourth-generation building mover, would oversee the move, which is expected to happen next week.

The shops will sit temporarily behind the historical society’s Mulford Farm barn, at which time Mr. Rosenstein’s donation will be complete, Mr. Hefner told the board. Later, they will be returned to North Main Street, where a plaque is already in place.

A recent report in The Star about the donation of the Dominy shops, Mr. Hefner told the board, spurred another historically important gift. Stephen Manheimer, who has a house in Southampton and collects South Fork-related historical objects, contacted the historical society to say that in 1999 he had acquired about 200 small tools, most of them for clock-making and repair and some bearing the Dominy inscription, from the now defunct Windmill Galleries in Southampton. Mr. Manheimer has donated the trove, which also includes Dominy family papers, to the historical society.

“Now,” Mr. Hefner told the board, “not only can we restore the shops inside and outside, but 200 tools that were used in the Dominy shops can go back in there.” Mr. Manheimer deserves “a lot of credit,” he said, “and we’re very grateful to him for having the sentiment that these tools belong back in the shop.”

Work on a roundabout at the intersection of Buell Lane, Route 114, and Toilsome Lane in East Hampton Village will be put out to bid within a month or two, according to Becky Molinaro, the village administrator.

The roundabout is to feature a raised, mountable and landscaped center island and is meant to improve traffic flow and safety at the intersection known as Five Corners. It will include improved drainage structures and enhanced pedestrian safety measures.

A $700,000 New York State Community Capital Assistance Program grant was announced over a year ago, and construction of the roundabout was expected to begin in 2015, according to statements made last fall by officials including State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, and members of the East Hampton Town and Village Boards. 

Ms. Molinaro said on Tuesday that no start date for the project has been set. Because part of the project will be on property controlled by the state’s Department of Transportation, the D.O.T. must grant a permit before work can commence, which Ms. Molinaro said is in progress.

The extensive plans proposed by David Geffen, the music and film executive who purchased 26 and 30 West End Road for $50 million from Courtney Ross last year, represent a “very sensitive, soft-touch renovation,” his representative told the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals on Friday. Nonetheless, as the properties front the ecologically distressed Georgica Pond, the board closely scrutinized the application and promised that its environmental consultant would do the same. 

In addition to the two lots on which a main house, guest house, and other structures are situated, Mr. Geffen purchased two adjacent vacant lots from Ms. Ross, the founder of the Ross School, who announced in 2013 that she planned to travel the world on a private yacht. 

Mr. Geffen proposes to make alterations and construct additions to the pre-existing nonconforming houses, which date to the 1920s. At 26 West End Road, he also plans to construct a swimming pool, patios, decks, and a screened porch. At the 30 West End Road parcel, he intends to replace an existing accessory building with a stone patio, fireplace, and pergola and construct a detached garage. He also proposes to upgrade an existing septic system. 

The plans require a number of variances as the structures are within required wetlands and side and rear-yard setbacks. Variances are also required to allow a pre-existing cellar to remain under the screened porch — village code prohibits cellars from extending beyond the exterior wall of a building — and to permit the proposed garage to be situated in the front yard. 

“What we’ve tried to do in a very defined way is mitigate in terms of what we’re asking to add,” Lenny Ackerman, an attorney representing Mr. Geffen, told the board. “We’re, in fact, removing an equivalent amount.” 

The residence at 26 West End Road would be reduced by 821 square feet. Rather than removing 107 cubic yards of concrete, which Mr. Ackerman said would be “devastating environmentally,” the new swimming pool would be constructed within the footprint of the existing pool and be 230 square feet smaller. It is to be upgraded, chlorine-free, enclosed by a gate, and situated at least two feet above groundwater, he said. The upgraded sanitary system would be farther from the pond and its leaching field more than 200 feet from wetlands. 

The residence at 30 West End Road would be reduced from three bedrooms to two and its sanitary system upgraded. “We’ve taken away more than we’re adding and replacing,” Mr. Ackerman said. “It’s really a very sensitive, soft-touch renovation. The applicant bought the house based on views of the water. We’re trying to maintain that.” 

Frank Newbold, the board’s chairman, asked Mr. Ackerman if his client would be amenable to creating a natural buffer area. “Currently, it is pre-existing nonconforming lawn almost all the way to the wetlands,” he said. 

Mr. Ackerman indicated that his client would agree. “I encouraged the client, and with the architect’s good work, we were able to mitigate in many respects without overburdening the site environmentally,” he said. 

Billy Hajek, a village planner, asked the board to proceed slowly. “Everything that’s proposed is in such close proximity to the pond,” he said. He recommended that the board ask the applicant to show evidence that the existing buildings are structurally capable of accommodating the proposed renovations, and for details of the structures’ separation from groundwater. He recommended a requirement that the dwelling be fixed with roof leaders and gutters, and for evidence that their dry wells have sufficient capacity. He also asked the board to refer the application to Rob Herrmann, an environmental consultant. 

The hearing was left open so that Mr. Herrmann could review the application. It is to resume on Dec. 11. 

The board also announced several determinations. Howard Schultz, chief executive officer of the Starbucks Coffee Company, and his wife, Sheri Kersch Schultz, were granted a variance to install a sculpture within the side-yard setback at 14 Gracie Lane, and to permit lot coverage of 28,104 square feet where the maximum permitted under the current code is 25,567 square feet. 

Billy and Kathy Rayner of 85 West End Road were granted a coastal erosion hazard area variance to allow the construction of a 525-square-foot basement that will require excavation of 21 temporary pits around its perimeter; construction of a 677-square-foot second-story addition and elevated walkway with a pergola connecting the residence to the garage/studio; the increase in height of an existing trellis from 8 to 16 feet; removal of a garden wall and construction of a new wall, and the continued existence of an enclosed frame porch, air-conditioning units, a bin, a pool equipment vault, a fish pond, slate walkways, rock walls, a grotto and pavilion, and a fountain. 

Rajesh Alva’s appeal of a code enforcement officer’s interpretation that a front porch is not part of the first story of a building under which a cellar may be constructed as a matter of right was denied. His request to construct approximately 585 square feet of cellar area beyond the exterior walls of the first story of the building at 40 Cooper Lane was also denied. His request to construct three window wells within the side-yard setback was granted. 

The Sikorski family was granted a variance to allow the enclosure of a veranda and the conversion of some adjacent attic space, which will increase the gross floor area of the residence at 43 Middle Lane to 539 square feet more than the maximum permitted under the zoning code. 

Edwin Lee and Nancy Andrews were granted variances to alter a pre-existing garage that is within the side and rear-yard setbacks and to allow coverage in excess of the maximum permitted so that they can construct a new house at 21 McGuirk Street. 

Alfred Ross of 33 Cove Hollow Farm Road and Janet Ross of 102 Apaquogue Road were granted freshwater wetlands permits to allow the removal of phragmites and other nonnative species by hand-cutting and digging to promote the re-establishment of native plant species. 

East Hampton Meals on Wheels said on Tuesday that it is “running at a significant deficit” and “may have to cut service to certain clients or reduce frequency of meals.”

Without additional support, said the nonprofit organization’s acting president, Frank Eipper, “in about two and a half years, we’ll have nothing left” in the way of operating costs. “We receive no federal or local government funding. All revenue is from private or corporate donations,” he said.

Meals on Wheels’s 45 volunteers deliver hot and cold meals five days a week to homebound clients who are mostly elderly, injured, or ill, and unable to shop or cook for themselves. Full-priced meals cost about $14 per day, a figure that far exceeds what the organization’s 60 or so clients pay for them. Many people cannot afford the full price, Mr. Eipper said, and more than half of them don’t pay anything at all.

“The numbers [of clients] have gradually gone up, and with that trend of meals going up, the number of people who are not paying has gone up, too,” he said.

Meals on Wheels has two part-time employees who coordinate the volunteers’ routes and perform other administrative tasks. Once upon a time, Mr. Eipper said, it could run on donations plus the interest on its capital, but “Now, we have to go at the principal, and we’re eating away at the principal? . . . If everybody paid, and our donations went up a little more, we would be able to cover the budget.”

The 32-year-old organization plans to examine its client list to make sure everyone on it truly needs its services.

Meals on Wheels is a national association with individual organizations in more than 5,000 communities across the U.S. that are not typically affiliated with each other. Mr. Eipper, who was formerly the local group’s treasurer but recently became its acting president, said a search for a new president is under way, and that more volunteers would be very welcome. Donors and prospective volunteers can find more information at ehmealsonwheels.org. 

As a public hearing on a revised East Hampton Village lighting code approaches, the village board, meeting last Thursday, increased the proposed Kelvin limit, which measures the hue of a light source, from 3,000 to 3,500. The proposed code will be considered at the board’s meeting on Friday, Nov. 20.

The changed limit was made in response to a request in August from Dennis Fabiszak, director of the East Hampton Library. Susan Harder, the New York State representative of the Dark Skies Association, and Mary Busch, representing the landmarks committee of the Ladies Village Improvement Society, attended the meeting and asked the board to retain the limit at 3,000 Kelvin.

Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. told Ms. Harder and Ms. Busch that the board would accept their remarks “as a precursor to the public hearing.”

Kelvin, Ms. Harder told the board, “is not a measurement of light output.” Rather, “it indicates the spectrum of light, including the amount of ‘blue’ light waves.” The higher the Kelvin, the greater percentage of blue light, she said. More blue light results in more glare, since blue scatters more in the eye, particularly in those of older people. She said it impedes visibility because it reduces the size of the pupil and creates greater “sky glow,” obscuring stars.

The Towns of East Hampton, Southampton, Riverhead, Southold, and Brookhaven have a 3,000 Kelvin limit, Ms. Harder said. “It’s better to install good lighting in the first place, rather than to change it afterward.”  

Ms. Busch seconded Ms. Harder, saying that the committee had discussed the matter in depth and concluded that a 3,000 Kelvin limit was advisable.

Also at the work session, Becky Molinaro, the village administrator, briefed the board on a draft proposal that would streamline the permit process for the removal of phragmites. Several property owners are engaged in what she called good-faith efforts to control the invasive species, and the planning and zoning committee had spent two to three months discussing ways to “make it less cumbersome for those who are looking to do the right thing.”

As drafted, the zoning board would be empowered to grant approval for four-year removal projects, rather than only annually. The new legislation would also allow, based on Building Department approval, a waiver of the present requirement for an annual updated survey.

“I think it’s the right direction to proceed,” Mayor Rickenbach said. He thanked Bruce Horwith, a conservation biologist who has been engaged in phragmites removal on properties around Georgica Pond and other shoreline properties in East Hampton and Southampton.

The board will notice the proposed legistation for a public hearing at its Friday, Nov. 20, meeting.

With the approach of the holidays, the annual fund-raising drive for Long Island Cares/The Harry Chapin Food Bank has begun. This year’s drive honors Jack Morelli of Amagansett, who died last year. Mr. Morelli, like Harry Chapin, was a musician, and a cook who loved to make and share meals.

Tax-deductible donations in his honor, with his name noted on checks, may be sent by mail to Long Island Cares at 10 Davids Drive (Harry Chapin Way), Hauppauge 11788, or dropped off at the One Stop Market in East Hampton, where Bill Hall, the owner and a friend of Mr. Morelli, is making a collection.

Mr. Morelli’s daughter, Janae Anderson of Gallatin, Tenn., said this week that the fund drive would continue through Dec. 10, helping the food bank to provide groceries to those in need throughout the holiday season.

All veterans have been invited to march in a Veterans Day parade on Wednesday sponsored by the Everit Albert Herter Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 550. The parade will get under way at 10 a.m. on East Hampton’s Main Street in front of London Jewelers. Marchers will make their way to the Hook Mill memorial green, where there will be a brief ceremony to honor all veterans who have died in war.

The anniversary of Armistice Day — the 11th day of the 11th month — will then be marked with a short service at the 11th hour of the day (11 a.m.) at American Legion Post 419 in Amagansett. The march will take place rain or shine. Those with questions can call the V.F.W. post for information.

East Hampton residents interested in producing their own cable television programming have been invited to an orientation workshop at LTV Studios on Industrial Road in Wainscott on Monday at 7 p.m. The session is a required first step toward using LTV equipment and taking part in directing and camera work, as well as other classes offered at the public access facility.

Registration has been asked via email to [email protected].