In its first meeting of the new fiscal year, the East Hampton Village Board considered and quickly adopted three laws aimed at tightening existing regulations and reducing vehicular traffic on Huntting Lane, and fielded a request for new signage regarding pets in cars.

    As previously reported in The Star, one proposed amendment would clarify the requirements for a resident beach-parking permit. Only those related by blood or marriage to village property owners are legally qualified for the permit. The proposed amendment requires an affidavit signed and notarized by the property owner attesting to the relationship and that the relative is currently residing at the property owner’s residence.

    Susan McGuirk, who said she and her siblings own a house in the village, told the board she was “interested in how this came to be a problem.”

    “We had some abuses this year in particular, where people alleged that they were nuclear members of a family,” Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. answered. “It turned out the house in question was rented and there was no one in the nuclear family living there, and they tried to usurp what was a very generous gesture on the behalf of the village.” He reiterated that a legitimate nuclear-family member of a village resident is entitled to a permit if they are living in the property owner’s house.

    “I still think it’s a little ambiguous,” Barbara Borsack of the board said of the amendment. “You could have different family members coming out every weekend. Are they all entitled to a beach sticker every time a new family member comes to visit for the weekend?”

    Linda Riley, the village attorney, said that “ ‘Residing,’ not visiting,” is the key word. “Visitors don’t get permits.”

    “I still think it’s a little ambiguous,” Ms. Borsack said. “I think they can come in and say, ‘This relative is living with me this week,’ and next week, another one.”

    Property owners will have to have an affidavit, the mayor said. “They’re going to have to swear to it. It’s very specific.”

    Ms. Riley said that proof of residency, in the form of documents such as a driver’s license, voter registration card, automobile registration, utility bill, or income tax return, was required. Ms. Borsack was satisfied with the explanation.

    With no comment from the board or public, the board also voted unanimously to codify its policy that mass assembly permits for events to be held on commercial premises are issued only when the event is to be held indoors. Similarly, a unanimous vote prohibits all parking, standing, or stopping on both sides of Huntting Lane from the intersection of Huntting Lane and Main Street easterly a distance of 676 feet.

    The mayor then asked if anyone else cared to address the board. Lynn Lehocky, who said she is a village resident, stood before the board and requested that signs alerting people to a law against, and penalty for, leaving pets unattended in cars be erected in the village. Ms. Lehocky, who told The Star that she served on the board of Pennsylvania’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, cited the recent report of a dog that died of heat exposure after being left in a car in Bridgehampton.

    Such signage has recently been erected in Southampton Town and Sag Harbor Village, as well as in some privately owned parking lots, she said. She showed a sample sign, said that it cost approximately $30, and offered to pay for signs for the village. “The signs, I think, act as a deterrent to people who are not aware that it is a law,” she said, “and it also empowers people who see what’s happening to report it.”

    Mayor Rickenbach said he was sympathetic, but that “in many respects the Village of East Hampton is very suspect with new signage. We try to keep it at a minimum.” He said that while he and the board are animal lovers, “if we did it for animals, I would submit that we should likewise remind people that they should not leave their children in the car. I applaud the fact that you’re here . . . but am a little resistant to putting signage up.” He wondered aloud if there was another way to educate the public.

    Ms. Lehocky said she was open to any ideas, but that “it seems to be epidemic. . . . Even with windows somewhat down, the temperatures skyrocket to a point very quickly where they can kill the animal.”

    Richard Lawler, a board member, suggested a notification within stores, given that that is where people parking their cars tend to go.

    The mayor suggested that Ms. Lehocky contact Becky Molinaro, the village administrator, who would put her in touch with the East Hampton Business Alliance and Chamber of Commerce “to work with them to have some type of notification in the stores. I think that’s a very valid option,” he said. “We support what you’re saying, I’m just very averse to the signage.”

    The mayor also issued a proclamation congratulating WLNG, which marked its 50th anniversary on Aug. 13. Citing the Sag Harbor radio station’s value in providing current event and cultural information to its audience, he presented the proclamation to Rusty Potz, the station’s executive vice president. “We thank you for a job well done, and we look forward to another 50,” he told Mr. Potz.

    Sag Harbor’s HarborFest, which began 50 years ago as the Old Whalers Festival, will celebrate its golden anniversary this year with a three-day glorification of all things nautical, as well as tastes of Sag Harbor food, music, and history.

    Competitive whaleboat races, the festival’s claim to fame, will go on all weekend, launched from Windmill Beach, with the winner crowned there on Sunday afternoon.

    Long Wharf will be packed with vendors and more contests, including one to find the tastiest chowder and another for the fastest clam shucker. A program with details of activities, which include historical tours in the village, will be available at the windmill.

    The festivities will kick off at a benefit fiesta tomorrow night from 6 to 9 at the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum, where D.J. Mister Lama will provide the music. The Montaco truck will be on hand with Latin fare, beverages will be provided by the Montauk Brewing Company and Channing Daughters, and dessert will be ice cream from Sylvester and Company.

    The winner of a raffle to benefit the Sag Harbor Chamber of Commerce, which organized the event, will receive a 14-karat gold whale pendant created by David Lee of Sag Harbor. Raffle tickets can be purchased at the windmill, the Wharf Shop, Sag Harbor Liquors, or the Sag Harbor Variety Store.

    An arts and crafts fair will also take place at Marine Park on Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

    With a deadline nearing in two weeks, the East Hampton Town Board must make a final decision about what it wants the Army Corps of Engineers to do about the Montauk Harbor inlet.

    The corps is set to dredge the inlet to provide safer navigation, but there are several options as to how to proceed. Federal funds would fully cover the least ambitious plan — to maintain the status quo by dredging to a 12-foot depth and 150-foot width in the channel, with a 50-foot wide “deposition basin” at the east side, to collect sand that would otherwise cause shoaling.

    Two other alternatives would require the town to kick in money, but would result in sand being added to areas west of the inlet to help rebuild beaches.

    An “enhanced navigation” option would see the inlet deepened to 17 or even 19 feet, with a larger deposition basin and an estimated 130,000 cubic yards of sand deposited on the West Lake Drive beach to the west of the inlet. Eighty percent of the cost would be covered with federal dollars, while the town would be responsible for the rest.

    Although Brian Frank, an environmental analyst for the town, did not provide an updated cost estimate during a presentation to the board on Tuesday, a projected $26 million total cost had been mentioned during a similar presentation last fall.

    The third option would require the town to obtain easements over private property along Soundview Drive, through purchase agreements or condemnation, and to establish a public beach.

     It could help to address severe erosion in that area through the addition of dredged sand; however, the Army Corps would also construct one to three groins along Soundview Drive or Captain Kidd’s Path in an effort to contain that sand. Initially, they would be constructed of nonpermanent geotextile tubes, which would be replaced after a decade with permanent steel, rock, or concrete structures.

    East Hampton would be responsible for up to 30 percent of the cost, with the Army Corps paying for 70 percent, although some additional money from Hurricane Sandy relief funding could be available for the project.

    The third option, said Mr. Frank on Tuesday, “has some environmental concerns associated with it,” because of “the impacts of groins.”

    “Shore-perpendicular structures like a groin seem to have the greatest shadow effect” as far as erosion on nearby beaches, he said.

    However, board members noted, the Soundview shore area is largely armored, and the area is identified in the town’s Local Waterfront Revitalization Program Plan as one where shore hardening may be allowed.

    “So,” said Mr. Frank, as far as protecting public sandy beaches, “the natural resource, and the public resource — that horse left the barn a long time ago. The legacy of coastal decisions lasts for decades.”

    Property owners in that area have sued the town over alleged negative effects from the existing groins — another consideration in the town’s decision-making.

    Councilwoman Theresa Quigley said that, in light of the lawsuit, the town should choose the most aggressive course of action. But Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc disagreed, saying that the town would be most liable for damages if it does install the groins. “If they fail or they cause unforeseen impacts, we are in a much more responsible position,” he said.

    “I don’t believe we have the luxury of stepping away from legitimate actions because of fear,” Ms. Quigley said.

    Board members asked Mr. Frank to provide more details for another discussion at Tuesday’s work session at the Montauk Firehouse at 10 a.m.

    Margaret M. Ciechanowski, M.D., of Glen Ridge, N.J., and George J. Ciechanowski, M.D., of Lake Hopatcong, N.J., have announced the engagement of their daughter Tesia Eva Ciechanowski to Timothy Joseph Henn, a son of Marie T. Gallagher and Joseph G. Henn of Darien, Conn., and East Hampton.

    Ms. Ciechanowski, 25, is a business analyst in the finance rotational program at Pfizer in New York City. She graduated from Georgetown University and received a master’s in business administration from New York University. Her mother is an endocrinologist, and her father is a pulmonologist, both in private practice in Jersey City, N.J.

    Mr. Henn, also 25, is an associate in the debt origination and restructuring group at Raymond James and Associates in New York City. He graduated cum laude from Georgetown. His mother is senior vice president and controller at PepsiCo in Purchase, N.Y. His father is a surgical consultant at TLC Laser Eye Centers.

    The couple will marry on Sept. 28 at Dahlgren Chapel of the Sacred Heart on the campus of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. The Rev. Richard Curry, a Jesuit priest, will perform the ceremony.

    While public libraries everywhere are adapting more or less effectively to the many challenges posed by the technological revolution, the East Hampton Library — known not so very long ago for its dusty stacks, once-a-year book sales, and “Shhh, quiet, please” admonitions — is fast becoming a pacesetter among its peers. Not only is it keeping up with digital change, it is running a step or two ahead.

    Most small libraries here, including East Hampton, Amagansett, Sag Harbor, and Montauk, have offered Internet and Wi-Fi service (a lifesaver for their communities in the days following Hurricane Sandy) for several years now, not to mention downloadable music, streaming movies, classes in Windows and eBay, and, more recently, e-readers to lend out, preloaded with both classics and best sellers. But the East Hampton Library has gone beyond, into a wider world.

    Asked why it had held no Memorial Day book sale this summer, as had been the tradition, Dennis Fabiszak, the library’s director, sat back in his chair and smiled.

    “We were making $4,000 to $5,000 a year on book sales,” he began, painting a picture of a labor-intensive process of planning and execution dependent to a large extent on an army of volunteers. “Then, about a year and a half ago, we became a ‘corporate seller’ on Amazon, with about 1,500 books.”

    That means that Amazon catalogs East Hampton’s books, many of them “very obscure,” on its giant site, where, said Mr. Fabiszak, people all over the world can find and order them.

    “Our books are being purchased by government officials, collectors, people who really want them,” he said. “Every morning we see that maybe 20 have been bought, and we send them out.” Not long ago, the library shipped a Roy Lichtenstein art book to a buyer in South Korea who identified himself as the minister of defense there.

    “We could have them on a cart for years and years, and no one would pay $1 for them,” Mr. Fabiszak said. “Now, people fight to pay $50. We are estimated to make $30,000 this year.”

    Because the library is doing so well with its virtual partner, said the director, it is able, for the first time, to give away “thousands of books” at its brick-and-mortar site on Main Street near Town Pond — “yet we are still making six or seven times as much. Much, much, more money on Amazon.”

    While a few patrons may not yet be aware that toward the back of the building piles of free books can be found, with new ones added every day, a lot of people have apparently caught on.

    “In the last six months we’ve given away over 10,000 books,” said Mr. Fabiszak, “It’s the best of both worlds.”

    Labor Day may have passed, but big plans are still in store for Shelter Island, and for good cause. The Rock’s annual fund-raising Beach Blast is set for Saturday afternoon, and on Sunday morning, it’s the charitable bicycle Spur Ride.

    The blast and barbecue is all-important this year to the Island Gift of Life, with last year’s event called off due to strong winds and a storm threat.

    The Realm will headline the show this year, and as always, the band, which plays surf punk, ska, reggae covers, and originals, will donate its performance to increase the number of dollars raised for the cause.

    Local bands will take the stage from 3 p.m. till midnight, and they will include the Hoodoo Loungers, Gene Casey and the Lone Sharks, Mamalee Rose and Friends, New Dawn, and Alfredo Merat’s Radio Europa. The Starlight Girls from Brooklyn will also play, and for the kids, there’s a 5 p.m. performance by Sag Harbor’s Goat in a Boat Puppet Theatre.

    A $20 donation will be collected at the beach to benefit East Enders in need due to life-threatening illnesses. Hamburgers, hot dogs, cookies, water, and soda will be available for purchase. In the event of rain, the Beach Blast will be held on Sunday from noon till 8 p.m.

    Sunday will bring the second annual bicycle ride organized in honor of Lt. Joseph J. Theinert of Shelter Island and Sag Harbor, a member of the 1-71 Cavalry, 1st Brigade Combat Team of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division who was killed in Afghanistan.

    As of Monday, over 180 riders were registered, choosing 12.5 or 25-mile scenic routes around the island. Proceeds will benefit the Joseph J. Theinert Memorial Fund, a nonprofit organization whose newest venture is the creation of a rehabilitative center for wounded warriors to be called Strongpoint Theinert.

    Registration costs $50 for cyclists or $25 for those under 16 and includes a souvenir T-shirt and admission to the post-race celebratory barbecue at SALT Waterfront Bar and Grill, where the Realm will again donate their musical talents for the occasion. Non-riders may join the party too, for a donation of $35 for adults or $15 for children.

    Online ride registration can be completed at shelterislandspurride13. eventbrite.com. There will also be on-site registration on Sunday morning beginning at 7 at the Island Boatyard on Menantic Road, with remarks at 8:30 a.m. and a 9 a.m. start.

    Bivalves got a brief respite this week after the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation early yesterday ordered East End bays and harbors closed to all shellfish harvesting following heavy downpours in Tuesday’s thunderstorms.

    The order covered enclosed water bodies from Moriches Bay in the Town of Brookhaven east to Lake Montauk and will remain in place until the D.E.C. announces that unsafe conditions have dissipated.

    According to National Weather Service data, 1.43 inches of rain was recorded in a three-hour period Tuesday at Montauk Point. At Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach 3.42 inches of rain fell between approximately 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. WLNG Radio in Sag Harbor said that as much as 5 inches fell at its studios.

    In East Hampton Town, the closed areas were Three Mile Harbor, Hog Creek, Accabonac and Napeague Harbors, Lake Montauk, the Sag Harbor Coves and waters within its breakwater, Northwest Creek, and Northwest Harbor to Barcelona Point and around the entrance to Northwest Creek to the foot of Mile Hill Road.

    In Southampton Town, the no-clam order covered all the area of Moriches Bay, Quantuck, Shinnecock Bay, Cold Spring Pond, North Sea Harbor, Noyac Creek, and the Noyac portions of Sag Harbor Coves and its tributaries.

    Updates and changes to the list can be found at dec.ny.gov as they are posted. Reopenings will also be announced in a recorded message at 444-0480.

    East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. announced Monday the village board’s adoption of a bicycle policy that aims to create a safer environment for cyclists and pedestrians. This followed the board’s vote to adopt the “General Principles for Introducing Bike Lanes in East Hampton Village” at its fiscal year-ending meeting of July 31.

    The mayor’s statement described the policy as a template in which “the village commits to do the utmost in working with the cycling community” to ensure safe roadways.

    Paul Fiondella and Howard Lebwith, who attended the July 31 meeting, had previously appealed to the board for changes to village roadways that, they said, are hazardous to cyclists and pedestrians. Their argument was tragically underscored by a traffic accident on June 15 in which Anna Lytton, a 14-year-old from Springs, was killed on Pantigo Road in the village.

    The policy, according to the statement, will include “the indoctrination and education of both disciplines to ensure the safety of everyone using our scenic roadways.” Village officials will make an effort to meld “a more cohesive utilization” of roads by cyclists and motorists.

    “This is a first step for the village,” the mayor, addressing Mr. Fiondella and Mr. Lebwith, said at the meeting.

    He also issued an appeal to cyclists. “Please obey the rules of the road,” he said. “That’s not happening over the recent week or so here in the Village of East Hampton. I think a lot of these cyclists are transient, but, by golly, if you see them, look out, because they’re not going to get out of the way. . . . There has to be a partnership here.”

    Mr. Fiondella told The Star on Tuesday that he was “very pleased” with the outcome. “It shows the leadership of the village, that it’s willing to tackle the problems that need to be solved in the community instead of sweeping them under the rug, or postponing them for five years, or forgetting about them. The village wants to solve this problem and solve it in the best way possible.”

    The East Hampton Town Bicycle Committee and the Springs Citizens Advisory Committee, Mr. Fiondella said, have also endorsed the principles. “It’s a great step forward,” he said. “Hopefully, the next step will be for the town to endorse them.”

    On July 14, Lenny Ackerman, whose wife faced life-threatening heart complications last year, held a celebration at his house in honor of the Stony Brook University Hospital staff who cared for her during her medical journey.

    When his wife, Judie, suffered a heart attack and stroke last year, she was rushed to a local hospital. But due to her serious and complicated condition, she was transported to the Stony Brook University Heart Institute, where she was assigned to top quality care, according to the family. Dr. David Brown, the cardiologist assigned to her, informed them that there was even a doctor on staff who specialized in her issues. As Mr. Ackerman described, “I was delightfully surprised to find this level of care so close to home.”

    The East Hampton attorney was so impressed and grateful that he held a celebration to honor the Stony Brook staff and to help inform other East End residents about the importance of having a tertiary care center near to home, as Stony Brook plays an important role as the sole center in Suffolk County.

    Mr. Ackerman and his wife hosted over 200 friends, colleagues, and community members to “introduce the leadership of Stony Brook Medicine to our community,” said Mr. Ackerman. In addition, all of the staff members who took care of Mrs. Ackerman were invited to be honored at the party.

    “Stony Brook was there for us, and everyone who needs them,” Mr. Ackerman said.

    The Long Island Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Network will open its first East End center  at the Old Whalers Church in Sag Harbor on Saturday.

    The G.L.B.T. center will offer year-round programs for students, adults, and families, and it has been predicted that over 1,000 East End residents will participate within the next year.

    The opening comes 10 months after the suicide of a 16-year-old East Hampton High School student, which helped build support for a local center. It will make it easier for East End youth to take part in the network’s programs, obviating the need to travel over 120 miles round trip to Bay Shore.    

    “David Hernandez Barros’s suicide was an urgent reminder that has mobilized hundreds of people to say we cannot wait any longer. We need a gay center of our own now,” said David Kilmnick, the founder of the Long Island G.L.B.T. Network.

    An opening reception, from 4 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, will feature talks by Edie Windsor of Southampton, who was the plaintiff in the recent Supreme Court case that found same-sex marriage to be constitutional, and by Carmita Barros, the mother of David Hernandez Barros.

    The center will be based at the church until such time as the organization is able to raise enough money for a stand-alone, state-of-the-art community center, Mr. Kilmnick said.