East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. announced last week that Moody’s Investors Service has assigned an Aa2 rating with a positive financial outlook to the village’s proposed $3.3 million serial bond offering, and affirmed the Aa2 rating on current outstanding obligations. The rating represents an assessment of high quality and very low credit risk.

    “I am pleased Moody’s has recognized the ‘conservative budget practices, modest debt burden, and stable financial operations’ of the Village of East Hampton,” Mr. Rickenbach said in a release. “In reporting on the village’s ‘stable financial operation and increasing general fund balance’ Moody’s noted the estimated general fund balance is expected to grow to $4.1 million or 21 percent of revenues at year end 2013.”

    The Moody’s report noted the village’s sizable, affluent tax base. The credit-rating and analysis firm’s report also predicted an improved near-term financial position for the village given a projected $500,000 operating surplus in the fiscal year, “driven by improved nonproperty tax collections, including an increase in building permits and mortgage taxes.”

   The Village Preservation Society of East Hampton will host an informational forum on deer control next Thursday at 5 p.m. at the Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street. Dr. Anthony DeNicola, president and co-founder of White Buffalo Inc., will be the forum’s guest speaker. White Buffalo, a nonprofit wildlife management and research organization, is dedicated to conserving native species and ecosystems through damage and population control, according to its Web site. Dr. DeNicola has experience in deer reproductive control projects nationwide, including a recent sterilization project in the Village of Cayuga Heights, N.Y.

    The forum will offer information on doe sterilization and how a population-control program can be instituted in a municipality with firearm constraints, such as East Hampton Village.  

    The Summer Institute of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons, a series of performances, lectures, and other programs, gets under way tomorrow when Adam Mintz, a Modern Orthodox rabbi and faculty member at City and Queens Colleges, speaks at 2:30 p.m. Rabbi Mintz will also lead Torah study on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.

    Sharon Mintz, the rabbi’s wife, is the curator of Jewish Art at the Jewish Seminary in Manhattan and a senior consultant on Judaica for Sotheby’s.

    She will speak about her work during Sunday’s “Bagels and . . . ,” beginning at 10:30 a.m.

    Beginner Hebrew reading, taught by Debra Stein, the center’s cantor, is among other programs in July. It begins Monday at 9:30 a.m. and will run through Friday.

    Later in the month, Ann Renee Testa will offer an interactive lecture titled “Learn How to Connect with Your Authentic Self,” during which she will help participants ask themselves questions to find out who they really are, according to a press release.

    On Aug. 17, during the Shabbat service, Neshama Carlebach will perform songs and melodies composed by her father, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. 

    A full list of Summer Institute programs is available at jcoh.org, where the 2013 brochure can be downloaded. All events are free for members; there is a $200 fee for the series for non-members.

    This weekend is a full one for the center. Rabbi Alon Levkovitz, who with his family has been welcomed back for the summer, will speak during Shabbat services on Saturday. And “Shabbat on the Beach” begins at 6 p.m. tomorrow at Main Beach in East Hampton. Continuing every Friday through Labor Day, the service lasts no more than a half hour during which prayers are sung and the center’s rabbi, Sheldon Zimmerman, tells a “magical” story.

       A new predator is in town.

    What looked to be a coyote was spotted last week, early on the morning of June 24, by a farmer in Water Mill. The farmer noticed the animal in one of his potato fields and took a photo on his cellphone. The picture was passed on to the State Department of Environmental Conservation in Stony Brook, where the animal was confirmed to be the first known coyote in Suffolk County.

    “Specialists will be going out to look for scat, tracks, and other clues to find out more and see where it might now be,” said Aphrodite Montalvo, a citizen participation specialist for the regional D.E.C.

    Now that there are coyotes here, researchers are trying to figure out where they came from. “We cannot say for certain how they got here yet,” said Ms. Montalvo. “There have been sightings in Queens, so they could have followed train tracks to come east. Someone could have even had them as a pet. But young male juveniles can travel 400 miles from where they were born.”

    Coyotes eat almost anything, including rabbits, snakes, and even small deer, so their arrival could affect the rising deer population. They can go after small pets, too — bad news for outdoor cats, dogs, and their owners.   

    Invasive species are a growing problem in East Hampton and the rest of Long Island. The remaining untouched land here — woods, marshes, beaches, and grassy fields — are being taken over by non-native plant varieties.

    Invasive species pose not just ecological threats, but economic and health threats as well. One of the worst invasive species affecting the Town of East Hampton is the mile-a-minute weed, also known by its scientific name, Persicaria perfoliata.

    What makes it special is its tremendous ability to grow. A healthy mile-a-minute plant can grow up to four feet in a week. Its vines and triangular leaves are covered with barbs that help it climb and eventually cover other plants and trees.

    And this is what makes mile-a-minute so dangerous to the ecology of the East End. The vine grows upward, wrapping itself around host plants and suffocating them. When the vine completely covers the plants below, those plants get no sunlight and die. The diversity and abundance of wild plants is reduced.

    Even birds are affected by the invasive species. “Although birds eat the berries of the mile-a-minute vine, the berries aren’t available until midsummer,” said Marilyn Jordan, the senior conservation scientist for the Nature Conservancy on Long Island. “Birds need nutritious food the most in the spring, when they are rearing young.” Their other food is being taken over by the mile-a-minute vine.

    What also makes this vine so successfully invasive is its ability to expand the areas it affects. “Birds eat the abundant M-a-M berries and spread the seeds widely wherever the birds fly and defecate,” Ms. Jordan said. “In addition, seeds have been accidentally transported in nursery plants, compost, wood chips, and soil. Thus it is impossible to keep M-a-M from spreading to new areas.”

    Seeds have been known to be transported by deer, squirrels, and even streams, as the seeds can float for seven to nine days.

    Basically, the mile-a-minute vine is a super plant.

    “Its origins go back to India and East Asia, but no one knows exactly how it came to America,” said Yun Wu, a scientist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team. “It most likely came with other seeds to a tree nursery sometime in the 1930s.”

    Eighty years later, mile-a-minute weeds are in 12 states, so far occupying only 20 percent of its potential U.S. range. It grows best, however, in climates similar to Long Island’s.

    No legitimate large-scale eradication solutions have been found. Some vine-eating bugs have been introduced, without success thus far.

    David Lucas of David Lucas Lawn Care, an East Hampton landscaping business, said, “I’d pull it if it was growing a mile a minute!” And it’s true, the plant isn’t literally living up to its name. But homeowners still need to be more careful when letting their yards go a little wild this summer.

    Frank Newbold, a member of the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals since 2004, was appointed its chairman with a one-year term when the village board held its annual organizational meeting on Monday. Mr. Newbold, who had been the board’s vice chairman, replaces Andrew Goldstein, who will no longer be on the panel. The open seat will be filled by Craig Humphrey, who was an alternate member, for a three-year term. Ray Harden was appointed to a five-year term as an alternate. Lysbeth Marigold, a member of the board, was appointed to a one-year term as vice chairwoman.

    Also appointed or reappointed on Monday were members of the planning, design review, and ethics boards.

    Philip O’Connell and Mark Butler were reappointed to five-year terms on the planning board, with Mr. O’Connell appointed to a one-year term as chairman and Donald Hunting remaining as vice chairman for a year. 

    Carolyn Preische, Robert Caruso, C. Sherrill Dayton, Bruce Siska, and Rose Brown were reappointed as members of the design review board for two years, with Ms. Preische appointed as vice chairwoman and Stuyvesant Wainwright III chairman, both for one year.

     Richard Roberts, Pam Bennett, and Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman were reappointed as members of the ethics board, each to a one-year term effective Aug. 1. Mr. Roberts will be the board’s chairman.

    Susan Steckowski was reappointed the village’s registrar, and Linda Beyer reappointed deputy registrar. Hugh King was reappointed as village historian.

    A meeting to close the fiscal year was scheduled for July 31 at 11 a.m. at the Emergency Services Building.

    It seems that every weekend since the weather turned warmer in May there have been bike races, motorcycle events, and triathlons clogging the roads in Montauk. Residents have complained that sometimes they can’t even get out of their driveways.

    Several of them visited the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee at the end of the season last year to see if a sub-committee could be formed to go through the gathering permit applications and weed out the ones that are not for charity, with an eye to eliminating gatherings for-profit, which, they said, make a lot of money from the town without giving anything back. Still, while there is some agreement at East Hampton Town Hall about the need to once again take a close look at policies regarding large gatherings, little has been done since then.

    East Hampton Town Councilman Dominick Stanzione said in an e-mail message this week that a full review of events by police, fire, and public safety officials is necessary. Without their okay, no for-profit event should succeed in obtaining approval, he said. Avoiding scheduling multiple events in a particular area, but especially in Montauk, would help limit public annoyance, he said.

    Larger events, he said, should receive special attention well in advance of an event, since summer season mass gathering events require a more detailed review and should require an application deadline 60 days in advance of the event, he said. Moreover, the town should also require private sponsors to provide a professional event plan for police and public safety review. Such a document would provide important information relating to the capacity of a venue and the sponsor’s experience, he said.

    A breakdown of events scheduled this summer for each hamlet could not be obtained from East Hampton Town Clerk Fred Overton, who did not return numerous calls and e-mail messages by press time.

    Councilwoman Sylvia Overby said that there has not yet been a fully vetted discussion at the town board level about limiting the events, which she agrees have become a concern. She would like to see a detailed account from the police, fire marshal, code enforcement, sanitation, and emergency personnel of just how much these events may cost in town resources.

    Agreeing that the events have become “burdensome,” Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said a maximum number of events may have to be settled upon. The for-profit events should also be required to contribute to local causes and reimburse the town for its services, he said.

    The East Hampton Town Code allows for fees to be charged in connection with commercial gatherings on public property and also allows for fees to cover traffic control and cleanup, among other things, but those can be waived at the town board’s discretion.

    Two weeks ago officials in the Town of Southold enacted a ban on for-profit events that can draw up to 1,000 cyclists a day. They said the riders congest the area, impacting its scenic farms and vineyard vistas, while spending little money in the community and taxing police resources.

    It was reported that Southold residents fear that the North Fork could become too much like the South Fork. Residents there also complained about not being able to pull out onto the main roads because of bicyclists and others clogging them during athletic events.

    If you have walked around downtown Montauk in recent days and seen men on ladders working on and around its 19th century-style street lamps, no, the men are not lamplighters removing the wires and fueling the lamps with whale oil for the sake of authenticity.

    The poles were actually made by a company in Pennsylvania that was in business back in the whale oil days and manufactured cannons during the Civil War. The design of the poles and fixtures, created especially for Montauk 18 years ago, is now known as “The Montauk Light,” and has been used by a number of other communities.

    The lamps, which replaced towering, institutional-looking  Cobra poles, were the idea of John Keeshan, whose real estate office was and is located on the Circle, and of Brad and Claudia Dickinson, who owned the nearby Carriage House shop at the time. They were instrumental in forming the Montauk Downtown Association, which raised about $100,000 for the project from the community. The town added another $400,000, and has now agreed to come up with $60,000 to upgrade the lamps.

    Reached last week, Mr. Keeshan seemed re-illuminated, himself, in telling how the upgrade gives the lamps “double illumination, from 75 to 150 watts, but soft, diffused light. They don’t shine up. It makes for a softer environment.”

    The realtor said the poles are being refurbished as well, with the help of Tony Littman of the town’s building and grounds department. They are being repainted, and the plaques that bear the names of contributors, restored.

    “I’m the lamplighter,” Mr. Keeshan said, beaming his signature smile and going on to mention a few fringe benefits offered by gussying up.

    “You drive into town and see American flags on the light poles at times. At Christmas, the lights on the trees are plugged into the poles’ underground wiring. It gives a sense of celebration.”

    With a difference of only one vote, Jeff Sander and Jim Laspesa were elected to serve two-year terms on the North Haven Village Board. The candidates received 173 and 172 votes.

    Mr. Sander was elected to his fourth term. Mr. Laspesa is the chairman and a longtime member of the village’s planning board. Mary Whelan, an attorney, was defeated, receiving 74 votes.

    The position of village mayor will remain open until sometime next month. Laura Nolan resigned from the post in May citing personal reasons after having served five consecutive terms. Jim Smyth, who has served on the village board for many years, is the acting mayor. He declined to seek an additional term.

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center is expecting an extremely active hurricane season this summer and fall.

    The center has indicated that between the months of June and November it is likely that 13 to 20 storms will hit the East Coast. Seven to 11 of those could become hurricanes, and 3 to 6 could become major hurricanes, classified as Category 3, 4, or 5, with winds of 111 miles per hour or higher. There is a 70-percent chance of above-normal hurricane activity.

    Compared to years past, these estimates are high.

    NOAA attributes the predicted increase to three factors. The first is a severe monsoon season expected for West Africa. Warmer water temperatures will support those storms as they head out on the Atlantic Ocean. Also, the Pacific Ocean is predicted to be cooler this summer, so no El Nino current is expected to form. The El Nino current in the Pacific generally suppresses hurricane activity in the Atlantic.

    The combination of these events will make for a very active hurricane season.

    The bulk of the storms are expected to hit in August, September, and October, when the waters of the Atlantic are warmest. The hurricane season has already begun, however. Tropical storm Andrea formed on June 5 and made landfall shortly after.

    Homeowners should start preparing now, Bruce Bates, the director of East Hampton Town’s emergency preparedness program, said. “It seems as though there are many people that don’t prepare at all. We want to make sure that people realize that there is a possibility that they could be affected by these storms,” he said.

    In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which caused over $65 billion in damage and killed more than 125 Americans, it has been advised that people take these warnings seriously.

    Asked what the town was doing differently to prepare for storms after Sandy, Mr. Bates said, “There haven’t been any significant changes. We are using the same concepts that we used last year, but we’ve enhanced communication with response agencies and the general public.”

    “Homeowners should have their own personal plan. They should decide if it is safe to stay at home, and if it’s not, they should have a place to go where they know it will be safe,” he said. “If making a plan in advance includes leaving their home, they should think about what they are going to need to be safe. That is absolutely essential.”

    NOAA’s National Hurricane Center will provide more exact forecasts for single storms and their impacts on land as they form.