The East Hampton Village Board meeting on Friday started off with a presentation to John Hummel, Bruce Rambold, and the Patrick Bistrians — senior and junior — local contractors who volunteered their time and efforts to put the Hook Mill back together again — shingles, arms, and sails, in time for the holidays.

    “You’ve gone above and beyond,” said Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr., who distributed plaques to the men featuring an antique picture of the mill. “We were keeping our fingers crossed to be ready by the holidays.” He gestured to the foursome. “By golly, they came in and with accurate professionalism, they did the job.”

    The board thanked the teams for their “magnanimous gesture.”

    The board voted to turn Cross Road, which joins Georgica Road and Apaquogue Road, into a one-way street. In a previous meeting, people who lived on the road expressed their concerns about the dangers, both with line of sight and the narrow path of the 16-foot-wide street.

    Andrew Goldstein, who admitted to using the road as his route home on Georgica, asked that it not be changed, and said the sightline problems could be alleviated by reconfiguring the stop line at the intersection of Georgia, Cross, and East Hollow Roads. Mr. Goldstein is chairman of the village’s zoning board of appeals.

    Scott Fithian, superintendent of public works, said that the designation of a one-way street was on the advice of Drew Bennett, the village’s consulting engineer, “but we most certainly can revisit this,” he said.

    Mayor Rickenbach pointed to “a host of issues” with the road, including drainage, visibility, and the side of the road being torn up by larger trucks that use it as a shortcut.

    “Let’s try it,” Barbara Borsack, the deputy mayor, said of making it one-way. “We can always undo it later, if need be.” The measure was decided.

    The board also discussed holding a public hearing on Jan. 20 to lower the size of real estate signs from seven square feet to half that, or less. All efforts to reach the community of real estate brokers would be made prior to the hearing, said the board

    It seems as if Patsy Topping has brought new meaning to “a warm and fuzzy Christmas.” Ms. Topping, who lives in South Carolina, arrived at her Bridgehampton farm early Friday morning with 20 puppies and young dogs saved from high-kill shelters in the South.

    Ms. Topping grew up on the South Fork but apparently developed a heightened sense of animal cruelty and the effects of animal overpopulation when she moved to Camden, S.C. Working with an animal shelter at which the euthanasia rate tops 80 percent, Ms. Topping has been rescuing its denizens as much as she can for the past few years, bringing adoptable dogs to the Animal Rescue Fund since 2008.

    Before the dogs arrive at the Wainscott facility, Ms. Topping fosters them for two weeks to double-check their health and sociability.

    “Most of the dogs are very friendly,” said Michele Forrester, the director of ARF’s operations. “We have one shy guy here now. But for the most part, they are happy, healthy animals.”

    A litter of 10-week-old black Labrador puppies was taken to ARF as part of the rescued group from South Carolina. They were then sent to be adopted out of the Kent Animal Shelter in Calverton. The remaining 13 dogs are at ARF, where they are typically held for two weeks before being made available for adoption. “They should be ready right after Christmas,” Ms. Forrester said.

    The most recent rescued dogs range from 3 months to 3 years old. “There are black Labs, yellow Labs — they’re very desirable dogs,” she said. “And all these precious little dogs would have been euthanized.”

    Ms. Forrester is aware that some have questioned whether ARF is fulfilling its mission statement — to provide “for the welfare of dogs and cats on the South Fork of Long Island through shelter and adoption services” — when some of the animals offered come from points west or south.

    “Someone’s always going to say, ‘What about the animals here?’ ” she said. “Well, the Northeast had this problem years ago, but we are so advanced with our spay and neuter programs up here that, luckily, unwanted animals are less of a problem than they used to be.” She said ARF still takes in animals whose owners can no longer care for them here.

    She also pointed out that young dogs find homes faster. “This is what the general public wants. They’re going to pet stores to buy puppies, and here we are rescuing them.”

    Ms. Forrester is confident that the dogs taken to ARF by Ms. Topping will be adopted quickly and in a home, scratching by the fireplace, in time for the new year.

    The ARF facility, on 22 acres in Wainscott, can house around 130 animals. Since the organization was formed in 1974, it has placed approximately 18,000 animals in homes.

    It may not look like the backlot at Warner Brothers, but you can’t beat the location, location, location. For the past few weeks, undergraduate film students from New York University have been building sets, rehearsing, and filming in Tom Ferreira’s backyard at 63 Navy Road on the banks of Fort Pond Bay in Montauk.

    Drivers might have noticed the crew filming on the Napeague stretch last week.

    The writer-director of “Deuce and a Quarter” is a junior at N.Y.U. named Ari Selinger. “It’s a road film really, and this will be scenes for a longer film,” he said while alternately directing construction of a set in the interior of what had been a garage and storage area in Mr. Ferreira’s backyard and rehearsing his actors.

    He explained that the title referred to the slang handle given the Buick Electra 225. The scene being filmed is set in Utah and features an ornery garage owner, two young men traveling in the Deuce and a Quarter, the radio of which is on the fritz, and an Italian tourist who gets his ear pinned to the wall by a dart thrown during a dustup.

    Mr. Selinger said he found Mr. Ferreira’s place by accident. “There were 10 location scouts. We were driving by Tom Ferreira’s and he was standing outside. We asked if he knew of any open areas,” Mr. Selinger said. Mr. Ferreira said the filmmaker could clear out the storage area and use the space without charge.

    In the past, the location’s owner has had trouble with the Town of East Hampton over his pre-existing car repair business in an otherwise residential area. A conclusion to the troubles awaits decisions by the town board and the State Supreme Court.

    “I helped another crew that was filming the movie ‘Sunburn’ in ’97,” Mr. Ferreira said. “These are great kids. I wanted to help them, and I’d like to see more movie business around here. It would be good for the local economy.”

        There were several deer in the wrong place at the wrong time recently in East Hampton Town; eight of them caused eight separate accidents in the past few weeks alone.

    On Sunday around 4 a.m., a deer struck the front of Steven Akkala’s 2009 Honda while he was on Montauk Highway near Shipwreck Drive in Amagansett.

    The day before, at 6:30 p.m., Francis Mott was unable to avoid hitting a deer that ran in front of his 2008 Honda on Route 27 near Wainscott Stone Road. Also that day, Thomas Tarkington of Manorville was driving south on Flamingo Road near Fleming Road in Montauk at 8 p.m. in a 2000 Plymouth when a deer ran into the front driver side of the vehicle.

    Peter Gamby of Manhattan also struck a deer with the front of a 2001 Volkswagen on Springs-Fireplace Road near Woodbine Drive on Friday around 8 p.m. In Montauk, on Route 27 near West Lake Drive, Philip Preddice of Lake Ronkonkoma was unable to avoid hitting a deer on Nov. 9 at 9:30 in the morning.

    M.N. Poggi-Blaskovzc of Sag Harbor was driving on Stephen Hand’s Path near Long Lane in East Hampton the same day at around 6 p.m., when a deer ran out of the woods and hit the side of his 2001 Toyota.

    Todd Helier of Sag Harbor was on Montauk Highway near Napeague Meadow Road in Amagansett on Nov. 8 at about 5 p.m. when a deer ran into the road in front of his 2007 Toyota.

    On Oct. 25 at around 7 p.m., Marcia Ann Mitas of Saginaw, Mich., tried to avoid hitting a deer in her 1995 Jeep while driving on Springs-Fireplace Road near Parsons Close in Springs, but to no avail.

    None of the drivers were injured.

    At a meeting Monday night of the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee, Richard Kahn, a retired attorney, thoroughly criticized revisions of East Hampton Town’s lighting law proposed by Councilwoman Theresa Quigley, even though Councilwoman Julia Prince, the town board’s liaison to the committee, said the committee could no longer be considered operational be          

   Nevertheless, harsh words were heard from some members about Ms. Quigley’s efforts to amend the lighting law. Some said Ms. Quigley, an attorney, favored the business community and wondered aloud if her efforts could be considered a conflict of interest if her law firm represented business owners.

    Mr. Kahn warned that existing commercial lighting would be grandfathered in perpetuity under the proposal, even lighting that was installed during the 14-month extension of the deadline on which compliance with the 2006 law was supposed to be mandatory. He said there would be no mechanism for determining what lighting was pre-existing and what was new.

    On residential properties, he noted that restrictions would apply only to exterior lighting installed after the effective date of the new law. This would, he said, permit homeowners to install whatever they wanted, since there would be no way to prove in court that new lights had been installed before the law went into effect. He also noted that restrictions would be eliminated on upwardly directed light from unshielded floodlights.

    Ms. Quigley, he said, “has indeed tweaked the law; what she’s done is repealed the law.”  He added that the new law would be less restrictive than those in Southampton, Riverhead, Brookhaven, and Islip.

    He offered a recommendation for the committee to vote on, but there were too few members in attendance to do so. The recommendation included another extension of the date when nonresidential exterior lighting would be required to be in compliance and a request that the town reconvene its energy and light committee to address concerns raised by the business community.

    In an e-mail received the next day, Ms. Quigley said she represents all interests in the town, not just a select few. “Any commentary about my client base is speculative and frankly inaccurate,” she wrote.

    She noted that the proposed revision had been taken from a model ordinance put out by the Illuminating Engineering Society and the International Dark Sky Association in June 2010. 

    “The overall change is to install zone lighting. Such a concept makes sense. Not all areas of property require the same lighting. Indeed, the properties closest to our natural resources must respect a much higher standard of ensuring limited lighting than the busy and highly trafficked downtowns.

    The changes not only make sense, but are necessary as our current law is deficient and creates hazardous situations, such as the walk across Main Street in downtown Montauk at night,” she wrote.

    Asked to comment, Susan Harder of the Dark Sky Society sent an e-mail that said, “Ms. Quigley’s proposal is worse than no law because it’s poorly conceived and drafted as well as rife with technical errors.”

    At her last meeting as the town board liaison, Ms. Prince, whose term is expiring, suggested advisory committee members attend town board work sessions to make their voices heard. Ms. Prince received a round of applause and was told she’d be missed.

    The Montauk Lighthouse is one step closer this week to obtaining landmark status, which would make it eligible for grants that could be used for restoration projects, programs, and exhibits, and help preserve its historical significance.

    The National Park Service advisory board’s landmarks committee recommended last Thursday that the Lighthouse be added to a list of national historic landmarks. It would be the eighth site in Suffolk County so designated and the third on the South Fork. The Jackson Pollock house and studio in Springs and the Moran house in East Hampton Village are already listed, The next step is final approval from Ken Salazar, secretary of the interior, which is expected to sail through.

    Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who recently visited the South Fork to speak with fishermen, made the announcement in a press release last week. She noted that the hamlet’s most famous tourist attraction was one of the first coastal lighthouses authorized by Congress.

    “The iconic Lighthouse’s importance is indisputable. I will urge Secretary Salazar to approve the status for this site, an iconic part of Long Island’s landscape,” she wrote.

    In May, a small group of Lighthouse officials drove to Washington to plead the case for landmark status. The trip was the light at the end of a six-year lobbying effort, which included the submission of a statement proving the Lighthouse is significant in the United States. The group provided documentation that, in addition to being authorized by George Washington and built in 1796, the beacon helped guide ships from Europe to New York City, which then became a leading coastal seaport.

    More than 5,000 spectators gathered near the Lighthouse on Nov. 26 to witness the holiday lights being turned on. Joe Gaviola, a board member of the Lighthouse committee, told the crowd that it costs over $1 million a year to operate the Lighthouse and its museum. He noted that the original document with George Washington’s signature is on display in the museum, and he urged the crowd to see it for themselves.

    Although the committee was buoyed by the imminent listing of the Lighthouse as a national landmark, is was disappointed this week when it learned its request to install a replica of the original Fresnel prism light in the Lighthouse had been denied by the Coast Guard.

    The committee had argued that the Fresnel light would be brighter and would be of more help to fishermen and other boaters. The Coast Guard said that because the Lighthouse continues to be a major seaport aid, it is prohibited from installing non-standard, non-certified optics.

    Spaghetti and meatballs will be on the plate at the first fund-raiser to help restore Scoville Hall in Amagansett, which was destroyed by fire on Oct. 15. Sponsored by the Order of the Eastern Star of the Masons, who held meetings at the hall, the dinner will be held at the Amagansett Fire House on Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m.

    According to Ron Fleming, an elder of the Amagansett Presbyterian Church and a member of its buildings and grounds committee, the church is “waiting for the insurance adjusters to come to an agreement as to what is going to be done. They’re arguing whether or not the whole thing should be torn down, including the foundation.”

    “A builder thought they could save the foundation, and if that’s the case, we can save the first floor,” Mr. Fleming said. “The beams on the first floor were not damaged. The oak floor above it was burnt up in front, and the rest is water damage.” The insurance company had originally told the committee the building was a total loss.

    Preliminary investigation has determined that the fire started in a light fixture in the entranceway to two bathrooms in the basement. It made its way through the floor, into the walls, and then up into the attic. “All of the equipment, everything in the hall, was a total loss,” said Mr. Fleming.

    Several East Hampton community groups have offered to hold fund-raisers for rebuilding.

    There is a positive aspect to the restoration. The hall will have to be upgraded and brought up to current code. The kitchen will have to be certified by the Suffolk County Health Department, so it can be used for catering. “We have three different groups that are anxious to get a professional kitchen in there,” Mr. Fleming said. There will be walk-in freezers, an elevator, and a sprinkler system. Scoville Hall pre-existed the zoning code, and these modern updates will provide a necessary safety component.

    “Supposedly we have a very good insurance policy. It will pay for upgrades, loss of income, and bringing things up to code,” said Mr. Fleming, including the wheelchair ramp, which was too steep.

    “All of this we have to do within the present footprint,” Mr. Fleming said. “The town won’t let us expand the building unless it undergoes a site plan. If that happens, it’ll take at least a year to get the permit.”

    Tickets for Saturday’s dinner are $15 for adults and $7.50 for children, and are available at the door, or in advance at [email protected]. All proceeds will go toward the restoration of the hall.

    At the East Hampton Village Board’s work session last Thursday, the board discussed changes to the size of signs in the village, and adopted a law amending parking restrictions in the off-season.

    Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. held up a real estate sign from Palm Beach, Fla., that was slightly smaller than a piece of letter-size paper. Current regulations in the village allow real estate signs to be seven square feet, but the village board has agreed that signs half that size should be sufficient. A public hearing on the change is expected to be held in January.

    “We’re not trying to affect sales,” the mayor said. “It’s about the quality of life and the persona of the village. People use the Internet now” to look up houses for rent or sale, he said.

    The board discussed the size of signs at its last board meeting in November. “We want to see if there is a consensus to reduce the signage, especially real estate signs,” Mr. Rickenbach said.

    Richard Lawler, a board member, said he hoped to have “a little more back-and-forth” with members of the real estate community.

    Mr. Rickenbach asked Linda Riley, the village attorney, to draft changes to the sign regulations, saying that the board should “make an extra effort to reach out” to brokers and let them know about the hearing.

    “And give them time to get into compliance,” said Barbara Borsack, the deputy mayor.

    Parking restrictions in the village’s lots off Main Street, Newtown Lane, and North Main Street — where a two-hour time limit had been in effect from April 1 through Dec. 31 — have been lifted until May 1.

    “The intention is to recognize the continued soft economy,” Mr. Rickenbach said. “It may help the retail community.” He added that the board “encourages the employee base to park in the long-term parking lot” off Lumber Lane.

    “Hopefully this will give some relief,” he said.

    The board also discussed the 10-year non-exclusive agreement with Cablevision to provide cable television to the village.

    “We see FIOS advertised, but conversations with Verizon make it clear that we’re not going to get that on the East End of Long Island for another 5 to 10 years,” said Mr. Rickenbach.

    “Cablevision is the only game in town,” he added. “It’s either rabbit ears or it’s Cablevision.”

Staff of the Retreat shelter in East Hampton and local police chiefs will hold a panel discussion Monday in Bridgehampton about domestic violence.

Billed as "what everyone needs to know" about violence in the home and between people who are in relationships, the session will be held in the Hampton Library on Bridgehampton Main Street. It begins at 7 p.m. Admission is free.

The program will have presentations by Helen Atkinson-Barnes, the Retreat's educator; Minerva Perez, the director of its shelter, and Thalia Olaya, who is a teen leader for the organization. Police chiefs from the East Hampton, Sag Harbor, and Southampton departments have said they intend to attend.

    Possible legislation limiting both the size of signs and the preponderance of bamboo was discussed at the East Hampton Village Board’s work session last Thursday.

    Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. introduced the idea of reducing the size of temporary commercial signs, like those used by real estate agents and contractors, from the current allowable seven square feet to one and a half square feet.

    The mayor pointed to recent sign legislation on Shelter Island, which limits temporary signs to a total area of one and a half square feet.

    “They expected there to be more resistance than they actually had,” he said of the Shelter Island legislature. “Most real estate agents were in favor of it.”

    “Can we impose a term?” asked Bruce Siska, a board member. “There are two lots on my street where the signs have been up for five years.”

    Barbara Strong Borsack, the deputy mayor, said that setting time limits on signs would be very difficult. “And real estate is not going the way it used to,” she added. “I would hate to affect business.”

    Mayor Rickenbach said he would be willing to compromise if the board was amenable to a public hearing.

    “I’m not in any way berating the real estate agents,” he said. “But with all the open houses on the weekends, and the signs all over the place, it sends a message that East Hampton Village is for sale. It isn’t, and it does a disservice to the good people who live here.”

    Also last Thursday, the board continued a discussion about the possibility of a ban on bamboo. Valued by some as an inexpensive and fast-growing ornamental, the invasive plant has taken over a few village lots, with little regard for property lines.

    Elbert Edwards, a board member, said he felt an overall ban on bamboo in the village to be “a little drastic.”

    “If a person has a problem with vegetation encroaching on their property, they have a right to bring a civil suit,” said Linda Riley, the village attorney. “You can certainly have a law that says it has to be maintained on your own property and not encroach, but then you have to be prepared to prove it,” she said. “If it becomes a local law, it can’t be left to a neighbor’s decision” about whether it is bothering them or not. “That makes the neighbor into the building inspector,” she said.

    “Do we need to have legislation on this?” Ms. Borsack asked. “If there’s only been two complaints, can they take it up civilly?”

    “We are sympathetic to the people who have reached out to Village Hall on this,” the mayor said. “How can we be proactive and preventative?” The board decided to put the matter on hold for now.

    The village board also discussed the requirements of a federally and state-mandated stormwater management plan meant to address regulations for what are officially called Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems.

    “It’s a national law, handed down to the state to implement, then handed down to individual small governments to handle,” said Larry Cantwell, the village administrator. The new mandates are costly, he said, but “you don’t really have a choice.”

    “It will be expensive, but ultimately we’re going to have to come up with a mitigation plan to implement this program that has fallen on our shoulders,” he said, adding that the village already has “a reasonably decent handle on this.”