As of its soft opening on July 10, East Hampton has a new purveyor of beer, soda, juices, mixers, and other goods. Sam’s Beverage Place, at 29 Race Lane, is the bright and inviting retailer that now occupies the former Pritam and Eames furniture store. 

The “Sam” in Sam’s Beverage Place is Sam Iden, who is 23 and formerly worked at Peconic Beverage East in East Hampton (now Hampton Beverage). On Tuesday, he was at work with Thomas Burke, his assistant, and Kurt Moller, the store’s assistant manager. 

Also on hand was Sam’s father, Mitchell Iden. A partner at Graubard Miller, a Manhattan law firm, Mr. Iden travels between New York and East Hampton. Heidi Iden, Sam’s mother, is a former violinist with the New York City Opera who also performed in Broadway shows and on a number of soundtrack recordings. She and Sam are full-time residents of East Hampton. 

The store, said Mr. Iden, “is our desire to make a place in the world for Sam,” who is autistic. “The concept is, this is a place Sam can go as many days per week as we think appropriate. People in the community know him, so they know he may need a few more minutes to deal with things.” 

“We just started,” he said. “We’re hoping to make a business impression as well.” Given Sam’s prior experience, “we thought this was a good model for a business for someone with his disability.” Sam has surrounded himself with veterans of the business: Along with Kurt Moller, Gary Moller, Kurt’s father, who also worked at Peconic Beverage East, has come aboard as manager. 

“A lot of love went into it,” Ms. Iden said of Sam’s Beverage Place. Sam, she said, “is very proud. Nothing makes him happier or more proud than to accomplish something, and a job well done. It makes us really happy to watch. And who could be lucky enough,” she asked, “to have 324-SAMS as their phone number?” 

“We like the convenience store concept,” Mr. Iden said. “We started with the basics of the Peconic Beverage business, and wanted to expand upon it to be more of the convenience store model, and also to be sensitive to seasonal needs.” 

A fan of craft beers, Mr. Iden made sure to include a selection. Along with sodas, mixers, and juices, “we even have milk and eggs,” he said. “We’re trying to fill out the store, but the store will be what people buy.” 

Sam’s Beverage Place will be open year round, he said. “It has to be, for him,” he said of his son. “We understand the seasonality of East Hampton, but people need to have beer, water, and soda year round, hopefully.”

Students may be on summer break, but local school boards are busy. Last week, they began their 2017-18 administrative year with annual reorganizational meetings, during which newly elected members were administered the Oath of Faithful Performance, board positions were designated, and new hires were officially recognized.

Amagansett held its meeting on July 5 amid a combative atmosphere that seems to have become the norm at that school. Eleanor Tritt, the district superintendent, was absent following the death of her husband, and Cheryl Bloecker, the district clerk, officiated. Board business included swearing in Kristen V. Peterson as the new board president and Patrick Bistrian III as vice president. Claudia Quintana, who ran for the board in May as a last-minute write-in candidate and received the second highest number of votes, was also sworn in for a three-year term.

The meeting began with Ms. Bloecker announcing that no questions would be answered since Ms. Tritt was not present, and that a two-minute limit would be imposed on public commentary from now on — a possible reaction to the often lengthy sparring matches that have occurred this year between Mary Eames of Amagansett and the superintendent. While a time cap is standard procedure at school board meetings, in East Hampton and Springs it is three minutes.

Ms. Eames, who seems to be sticking to her promise to “be present at every board meeting and keep asking tough questions,” appeared undeterred by the no-question rule or the new time limit. “Mrs. Tritt isn’t on the school board. Why won’t board members answer any questions?” she asked.

“We’re not going to waste time chatting about it; that’s how it’s going to go. Thank you very much,” was Ms. Bloecker’s terse reply.

Mr. Bistrian attempted to restore calm. “Are there any comments you would like to make?” he asked. “Just, no answers.”

Ms. Eames had a litany of questions ranging from why certain contracts had been amended last month rather than at the reorganizational meeting, to how many prekindergartners are expected in September. She also questioned why the school board has taken to having an attorney present at board meetings.

“How much and why are we spending money on a lawyer here when the school board could be answering our questions for free?” she asked, and added, “When will I get these answers?”

“When Ellie Tritt returns,” replied Ms. Bloecker. “She is the spokesperson for the board.”

“It’s a board meeting, not a superintendent meeting,” Ms. Eames shot back.

“As a board we’ve decided that’s the route we’re going to go,” said Mr. Bistrian.

Margaret Whelan, who as of September will have four children at the school, also addressed the board that evening, commenting that in her opinion its role is to act independently from the school administration, and to engage with the public, as well as to provide perspective and share the reasoning behind certain decisions. In an email to The Star, Ms. Whelan expressed dismay over the board’s decision not to answer questions at the meeting and instead refer them to the superintendent.

“The board seems to have deferred judgment to Eleanor Tritt, and as such they are not fulfilling their obligation to the town and taxpayers; no other school board operates this way,” she wrote, adding, “I was truly shocked and dismayed that the board clerk barked at a taxpayer to ‘stop wasting people’s time by asking questions,’ and that her rudeness and hostility were met by indifference from the entire board.”

In Springs, school board members convened last Thursday for their annual reorganization, which was the first official meeting for the district’s newly hired superintendent, Debra Winter. It was also a first for a newcomer to the board, Patrick Brabant, who was elected in May along with Tim Frazier, the board’s vice president. Together with Barbara Dayton, the president, they took the oath of office. For Ms. Dayton, it signaled the start of the third and final year of her term.

Another newcomer is Michael Hennery, recently hired as school business administrator to replace Carl Fraser, who had presided in an interim capacity since 2015.

Ms. Winter, the new superintendent, presented a noticeably different version of school chief from that of her predecessor, John J. Finello, who rarely engaged during board meetings. Mr. Finello was often the target of community ire regarding his $975 per-diem stipend, paid to keep him on the job while the school searched for a replacement.

Ms. Winter appears to have conducted extensive research throughout the school, speaking with several students and alumni and asking for advice. She visited East Hampton High School, she said, and met with several of the 61 Springs alumni who graduated this year. “They were very surprised that I had come to see them,” she said, smiling. “I asked them about their future plans and their advice for me. It was very interesting. They told me to respect the students and the teachers. Show them that you care.”

The new superintendent also brainstormed with 88 recent eighth-grade graduates who will be freshmen at the high school in September. “For the gifted programs — the children who are accelerated in math and science — they have to give up art. There’s simply no room in their schedule for art, and that’s a shame,” she reported. The rising freshmen also impressed upon her their desire to see a mentoring program at the Springs School, where older kids can offer support to younger ones.

Underscoring her announced intention to be a more visible force around the school, Ms. Winter told the audience that “Springs School is officially on Twitter. Anyone is welcome to tweet or follow me at @DwinterSprings.” Most recently, she tweeted: “Springs Septic update: Drilling to get soil sample, water found at 10’9”.”

Ms. Dayton then gave a rundown on the school’s septic issues. Preliminary surveys are underway around the grounds, she said, adding that board members had met earlier that day with Peter Scully, a veteran state environmental official once crowned “sewer czar” by Newsday, along with East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, Kim Shaw, director of the Natural Resources Department, East Hampton Town Trustees, and Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming.

“We got a good dialogue started on how to move forward on our specific needs, given our proximity to Accabonac Harbor,” said Ms. Dayton. “It is exciting to see the people who are willing to get behind our school and work with us.”

The board also agreed to look into hiring an experienced grant writer who could help the school figure out which grants might be available to help offset the substantial costs of a new septic system.

“I think we’re in a good spot,” Ms. Dayton concluded. “We are waiting for information to be accumulated. Once we see what the assessment tells us, we will work on a short-term plan and a long-term plan. It’s important for us not to have a cobbled-together system but a cutting-edge, nitrogen-reducing, state-of-the-art system.”

Starting now, the board will alternate its meetings with work sessions, with two board meetings per month at the school. There will be a work session on Tuesday at 7 p.m.; the next regular meeting will be on Aug. 7 at 7 p.m.

With no new members on the East Hampton School Board, it was business as usual on Tuesday evening and no major reshuffling. J.P. Foster was re-elected as board president and Christina DeSanti as vice president.

Richard Burns, the district superintendent, announced that 67 pre-kindergartners have signed up to join the free Eleanor Whitmore full-day program this September. Five open spots are still available to children who live in East Hampton and will turn 4 before Dec. 1.

Mr. Burns also confirmed that a new French teacher had been hired at the high school to replace Amy Cole, who held that position for the last 12 years. There had been rumors of French being removed as a foreign language option, but they are now proven false: Simone Martell will take over in September.

As reported by The Star in March, the board confirmed that Sandpebble Builders continues to seek further compensation despite receiving about $750,750 last year from the district. The dispute goes back to 2002, when Sandpebble, a Southampton firm, contracted to make major renovations to the district’s three schools. The district subsequently signed a contract with a different construction company, and a series of lawsuits and countersuits followed. To date, the district has paid the amount it was ordered to come up with, about $1.6 million with interest. In addition, it has spent about $3 million on attorneys’ fees.

On Tuesday, Jacqueline Lowey, a board member, said that “people should understand that Sandpebble wants more money not from the board of education, but from the taxpayers.”

The next board meeting will be on Aug. 1 at 6:30 p.m

A $4 million purchase of enhanced development rights on almost 30 acres of farmland in Wainscott would be the first East Hampton Town acquisition under which only food farming would be permitted.

The East Hampton Town Board will hold a hearing next Thursday on whether to use the community preservation fund to buy these rights to the Dankowski farm, 29.5 acres at 7 Osborn Lane and 97 Wainscott Hollow Road. Doing so would preclude future use for anything other than food production in perpetuity. 

Suffolk County had already bought the development rights to the Dankowski farm, allowing only agriculture there, but that included allowing barns, greenhouses, other structures, horse farms, and related operations.

According to the Wainscott proposal, nursery stock could not be grown on the farm, nor would any additional permanent structures be permitted. No more than one acre could be used for such temporary uses as hoop houses or flower production, and they would have to be adjacent to existing structures. Should the enhanced agreement be approved, the property would have to be passed on or sold to a qualified farmer.  

While the town’s agricultural advisory committee has endorsed the deal, it drew strong criticism at a town board meeting last Thursday from Ilissa Loewenstein Meyer, an East Hampton resident who said she is an equine business owner. Ms. Meyer, who was recently appointed co-chairwoman of the town Democratic Committee but spoke as an individual and businesswoman, charged that the town was “trying to systematically eliminate horse farms from the community.” The acreage devoted to horses in East Hampton, she said, is far less than is used for crops. Equine use is preferable, she said, because horse-farm owners “never spray toxic chemicals, remove soil, or plant anything that would ever harm the environment or our water quality — unlike crop farmers.”

Town board members said they were not contemplating across-the-board restrictions on horse farms or any other agricultural use, as defined under state law. The food-crop only restriction, they said, had been proposed by the Dankowski family and would be specific to their property.

Southampton Town has adopted an enhanced development rights program, prohibiting the use of protected farmland for sod fields, nurseries, and horse farms, but East Hampton Town’s agricultural advisory committee has recommended that, to maintain flexibility, the purchase of enhanced development rights be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Mr. Cantwell agreed. “I’m not saying every farmland purchase should be structured this way,” he said. “This is a specific farmer who is willing to sell off the remaining development rights to the town, leaving essentially only the right to farm it for food production. It’s 30 acres of prime agricultural soil in the middle of Wainscott.”

“The property owner and that family has been growing row crops there for generations,” Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said, “and he wants to ensure that the property’s going to be maintained in that way that the family’s traditionally used it.”

 Mr. Cantwell said that although the development rights acquisition program had been “a terrific success, by and large . . . tree farms and nurseries and a host of other uses were left on the table. And unfortunately to some extent we’ve seen a lot of prime agricultural soils go fallow, and be used for other purposes, like lawns and many other things . . . and were in some cases overdeveloped.”

“Honestly, I think when the farmland purchase program was voted on and approved . . . people assumed that they were going to be farms forever, and I think we learned that’s not what happened in many cases,” Mr. Cantwell said.

The town board will hold other hearings next Thursday on several outright purchases using the community preservation fund, including two Springs parcels adjacent to Accabonac Harbor.

Cile Downs would, if the proposal is approved, receive $1.2 million for her property at 958 Fireplace Road in Springs, while retaining the use of the house and associated structures there for life.

Jorie and Stephen Latham would be responsible for removing a house and other buildings from their .7-acre lot on Shipyard Lane in Springs before selling it to the town for $1.7 million.

Also proposed is the purchase of three acres of vacant land at 108 Stony Hill Road in Amagansett from Frederick and Judith Barnes for $1.5 million.

The hearings will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.

Soon after the Coast Guard began its search for a fisherman believed to have fallen overboard 30 miles south of Montauk last week, the difficult phone call was made to notify his next of kin in New Bedford, Mass. Kaylen Quintin was driving when she received a call from a number she first figured to be solicitors. Something made her pick up.

Her father, Thomas A. Quintin Jr., was seven days into a 10-day trip aboard the scallop dragger the Miss Shauna when he vanished on July 3. She had many questions for the Coast Guard personnel in that first phone call, but they had few answers. The search for the 55-year-old single father was conducted by air and sea, with help from 10 fishing vessels in the area.

After she got off the phone, Ms. Quintin called her family, including her 17-year-old brother, Noah. “We got together — huddled and prayed,” said Ms. Quintin, who is 24. It would be an excruciating three hours before the next update from the Coast Guard. Still nothing.

As the hours dragged on, what little hope she had dwindled. “I don’t know what it was. I think something in me knew” he was gone, she said. “I had a feeling. I hoped it was wrong.”

The Coast Guard offered hope. “Everything was in their favor,” she said. Only half an hour had gone by between when he was last seen and when he could not be found on the boat. Weather conditions were good. “There were only three-foot seas. The current wasn’t doing anything crazy,” his daughter recalled. They even mentioned that John Aldridge, a Montauk lobsterman who fell overboard in 2013, had been found alive after 12 hours at sea.

However, as dark fell on the Fourth of July, 28 hours after Mr. Quintin was reported missing, the Coast Guard called off the search.

“At the end of the day,” Ms. Quintin said, “it’s still the open ocean. Everything can be in your favor, and it can still be like finding a needle in a haystack.”

The Quintin family was all too familiar with this harsh reality. A third-generation fisherman from New Bedford, Mr. Quintin’s grandfathers were also lost at sea.

Wilfred Armand Quintin, his biological paternal grandfather, whose middle name he shared, was aboard the Paolina, a fishing vessel that failed to return to port in February of 1952. A small amount of wreckage was found, but there was never a trace of the seven-man crew.

His widow remarried, and her second husband, Ronald J. Foley, was on the dragger Eugene H. when it was rammed in heavy fog by a Liberian merchant ship, in May 1975. Four of the six crew members died. Mr. Foley’s body was never found.

Their names are listed on the cenotaphs at the historical Seamen’s Bethel in New Bedford. Mr. Quintin used to take his daughter there as a child to honor their sacrifices, and photographs show her proudly pointing to each of their names. “He would stress so often how dangerous this job was. He was doing this to provide for us. He knew it was dangerous. He knew it was rough on his body.”

He was getting older, and he wanted to retire and write a book about his family’s fishing history and about people lost at sea. He had started doing research. It was important to him that people know how difficult the job was. “I feel like a lot of times fishermen get a bad rep,” his daughter said. “It’s hard work and you have to be intelligent to do it, and if you’re not things go wrong.”

Safety was her father’s first priority, she said. He became a captain young, working on the same scalloping boat, the Patience, for about 30 years, until the owner’s family took over. Other captains, his daughter said, would do things he would not. “He valued his crew members. He wanted them to go home safely to their families just like he did.”

While captaining the Patience in August of 2011, he was credited with saving the lives of three recreational fishermen whose boat capsized 10 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. He heard the distress call from the men, whose 20-foot boat, the Cynthia Z, had sunk. He reached them in 20 minutes and pulled them from the water to safety. The rescue was caught on a helmet camera. 

According to an article written on the rescue on Samaritan Ministries, Mr. Quintin said one of them immediately thanked him for saving his life. “I said, ‘Don’t thank me, thank God,’ ” he told the publication.

Ms. Quintin described her father as a devoted Christian who had gone on three missions to India through Manna International. Each time he stayed two weeks, working in orphanages in the area, and she is sure he would have kept going as time went on. He loved children and looked forward to being a grandfather.

He relished being a father, Ms. Quintin said. She recalled his teaching her how to shoot a BB gun, but also setting up tea parties with her and letting her paint his nails. “When I look back, I see his handprint more than anybody’s.”

She has now been foisted into the role of caretaker and provider for her brother, who still has two more years of high school left. She is surrounded by a tight-knit family and the fishing community, the heartbeat of the city, but there is a sea of legal entanglements to unravel because her father is only presumed dead.

“I honestly think the most difficult thing is not knowing,” she said. He had never been on the Miss Shauna before and did not know the crew. It was also a much smaller boat, at 51 feet, than the boats he was used to — the Patience measured 101 feet. His back was hurting him and he thought working on a smaller boat might be a bit easier.

“That kills me on the inside. Had he just gone on the Patience maybe this wouldn’t have happened,” his daughter said.

His father died at 54 of a heart attack, and she said it is a possibility that a medical episode caused him to fall overboard. “If somebody saw something, just anything that would maybe give some closure. As much as that upsets me, that is the nature of the beast. She giveth and she taketh away, and in this instance she took away.”

“I was born in Brooklyn, but Montauk is where I was really born,” Capt. Frank Tuma Sr. said from his house near the Montauk Downs State Park golf course recently.

His parents were living in Montauk back in 1924, but his mother, Hilda, wanted him to be born in Brooklyn because relatives lived nearby. Three days later, he and his family left the hospital and returned to their small house in the old Montauk fishing village, which stood not far from the current Long Island Rail Road station. Ever since, Captain Tuma has been a fixture in the hamlet, where the family name still resonates loudly.

On Sunday evening, he will be honored as the Fishing Legend of the Year at the conclusion of the 17th annual Montauk Mercury Grand Slam Fishing Tournament presented by the Montauk Friends of Erin and the East Hampton Kiwanis Club.

Previous tournament honorees selected him to receive the award.

“I’ve known the Tuma family most of my life, and Frank and his family are true legends of Montauk,” said Henry Uihlein, owner of Uihlein’s Marina in Montauk, headquarters for this weekend’s tournament and festivities. “Frank is so well respected in the community and we are so grateful for all he has done for this        town. I’m lucky to know him. He is so deserving of this honor.”

Captain Tuma, who helped solidify the sportfishing and tourist industries in Montauk, has seen quite an arc in the hamlet’s history.

In 1924, Montauk was a sleepy and rather isolated village with only about 500 year-round residents, most of whom were involved in commercial fishing. The first paved roadway was completed earlier that spring formally linking the hamlet to the rest of Long Island. That same year, Robert Moses established state parks on both ends of Montauk — Hither Hills State Park on the west and Montauk Point State Park to the east.

It was his father, also Frank Tuma Sr., who started the first charter boat business in the hamlet with his brother, Charlie, when Capt. Tuma was just a teenager. Passionate about fishing and eager to learn about the business, he absorbed all he could from his father and uncle, first joining them in commercial fishing, and ultimately taking anglers out himself for a day on the pristine waters off Montauk.

After marrying his East Hampton High School sweetheart, Marion Walker, Captain Tuma delayed his fishing endeavors to attend Colgate University, where he majored in industrial psychology. But World War II raged on and he enlisted in the Navy, where he served as a navigation officer on various ships sailing in the Mediterranean.

After the war, he returned to Colgate, graduating in 1947. A career in the corporate world loomed, but after a brief stint at IBM in Manhattan, the lure of Montauk proved too strong to ignore. He returned to the business of sportfishing, owning and running several charter boats.

It was around this time, in the late 1940s, that his father started Tuma’s Dock on the western side of Lake Montauk. It consisted of a tackle and gift shop and Montauk’s first charter booking service for sportfishing boats, which Captain Tuma was heavily involved in.

“It was a real team effort by many in our family,” he said. “The fishing business was beginning to grow and it was great to be in the middle of it.”

In 1952, Captain Tuma was offered a job in real estate with the Montauk Beach Company, for which he oversaw some of the hamlet’s highest profile properties including the Montauk Yacht Club, the Montauk Manor, and the Montauk Surf Club.

By that time, Montauk’s population and its fishing and tourist interests were expanding rapidly. He managed the Montauk Beach Company’s construction of 200 Leisurama houses at Culloden Point, an effort to encourage people to buy houses on the eastern tip of Long Island.

Eventually, he established the Tuma Real Estate Agency, which his daughter, Lexa, would one day take over. He continued to focus most of his attention on the Montauk Beach Company until 2001.

“The real estate market has changed so much out here,” Captain Tuma said. “I remember some of the houses we sold went for $1,500 back then. It’s a different world today.”

Captain Tuma also served as a member of the Montauk Lions Club, the Montauk Chamber of Commerce, and the Montauk Fire and Ambulance Department, where his father was chief for 12 years.

“It’s fantastic that he is being recognized for this honor,” said his daughter, Lexa Tuma DiSpirito. “We are all very excited for him.”

Update, July 20: The early-morning quiet on Oakview Highway in East Hampton was shattered Saturday by several blasts from a shotgun. According to East Hampton Town police, the blasts damaged a house at 142 Oakview Highway. The owner of record is Sharon A. Bacon.

Police found spent shotgun shells in the street. There were no injuries.

The gunshots were heard at about 3:45 a.m. and a 911 call was placed.

Police interviewed the occupants of the house, including one individual who they believe may have been the focus of the shooter, but he has not been cooperative, according to police. An investigation is continuing, and police have asked that anyone with information call 631-537-7575. All calls will be kept confidential.

Originally, July 15: The early-morning quiet on Oakview Highway in East Hampton was shattered Saturday by several blasts from a shotgun.

According to East Hampton Town police, the blasts damaged a house at 142 Oakview Highway. Police found spent shotgun shells in the street.

The gunshots were heard at about 3:45 a.m. and a 911 call was placed. An investigation is continuing, and police have asked that anyone with information call 631-537-7575. All calls will be kept confidential.

Update, 4:34 p.m.:  East Hampton Town police released the name of the driver seriously injured in a car accident Sunday morning. Steven Lane, 25, of Hampton Bays is listed in critical condition at Stony Brook University Hospital.

After police took measurements at the scene for an accident reconstruction, they said he was driving south on Northwest Road in a 1989 Chevrolet pickup truck when he failed to navigate a turn in the road. The truck struck a tree on the west side of the road, not far from Alewife Brook Road. A passing bicyclist reported the accident just after 7 a.m. It was not clear when the accident occurred. 

The East Hampton Village Ambulance Association was going to medevac Mr. Lane to Stony Brook University Ambulance, but when the ambulance arrived at East Hampton Airport, the patient was deemed too critical to fly and was taken to Southampton Hospital by ambulance. Once stabilized, he was flown to Stony Brook University Hospital. 

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact the East Hampton Town Police Department at 631-537-7575. All calls will be kept confidential. 

Originally, 9:45 a.m.: A man was taken to the hospital in serious condition Sunday morning after his pickup truck went off the road in Northwest Woods, East Hampton Town Police Chief Michal Sarlo said.

Bicyclists spotted the pickup truck in the woods off Northwest Road near Alewife Brook Road and called 911 at about 7:05 a.m., East Hampton Fire Department Chief Ken Wessberg said. "It was right on that sharp corner," where motorists on Alewife Brook Road have to make a left to turn onto Northwest Road, not far from Cedar Point County Park. The pickup truck had gone into the woods and hit a tree and could not be seen by those passing in cars. "The million dollar question is how long had he been there?" the chief said.

The driver, the sole occupant, needed to be extricated from the truck, officials said. No other vehicles appeared to be involved in the crash. 

The Fire Department's heavy rescue squad used its equipment — the Jaws of Life, cutters and hydraulic rams — to extricate the man. The East Hampton Village Volunteer Ambulance Association had planned to airlift him to Stony Brook University Hospital, a level-one trauma center, but canceled the medevac and transported him instead to Southampton Hospital, which is a level-two trauma center. The man was reportedly airlifted to Stony Brook from Southampton Village later. 

Police are investigating how and when the accident occurred. Detectives were still on the scene two hours later performing an accident reconstruction.

The Sag Harbor Partnership’s Party for the Cinema, to help raise money for the group’s effort to buy the Sag Harbor Cinema property and establish a cinema arts center there, will be held under a tent on Long Wharf on Sunday from 5 to 8 p.m.

The party will feature food from village restaurants, beer and wine from East End producers, music by the HooDoo Loungers, portrait sketches, raptors on view, and face painting for kids. Tickets cost $50 for adults and $15 for children. They can be bought online at sagharborpartnership.org.

The partnership was established in an effort to rebuild the cinema after it was destroyed by fire in December. It reached a tentative deal with the property’s owner, Gerry Mallow, this spring and was to go into contract to buy the property last week. According to its website, the partnership has raised about $4.5 million of the $7 million it needs to raise by the end of this year. If it cannot meet that goal, it will cancel pledges and return donations.

In addition to the party, there will be an art auction from 2 to 7:30 p.m. Sunday to raise money for the effort. Work from Sag Harbor galleries such as Sara Nightingale, Grenning, Romany Kramoris, Monika Olko, and Tulla Booth will be included.

Those not able to attend the event but who would like to donate can do so online or by mail. Checks should be made payable to Sag Harbor Partnership, with “Cinema Fund” on the memo line. They can be sent to P.O. Box 182, Sag Harbor 11963.

The barn at the historic Duck Creek Farm on the corner of Three Mile Harbor and Squaw Roads in Springs has been restored after an 18-month process and will open to the public on Saturday with an exhibit of artwork by Sydney Albertini. In 2013, as part of the Parrish Art Museum’s Road Show, Ms. Albertini created a sculptural installation at the barn, prior to its restoration.

The barn, which is owned by East Hampton Town, was used by the painter John Little, one of the farm’s prior owners, as a studio. The property was once part of a 130-acre tract along Three Mile Harbor that was a homestead for the Edwards family dating to 1795. Three generations of Edwardses lived there before Mr. Little purchased a seven-acre piece of the land, which included the original Edwards farmhouse, in 1948. The abstract painter was a close friend of Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, who lived on Fireplace Road, not far from the site.

Mr. Little bought a 19th-century barn from the Gardiner family and had it moved to the property for his studio. Later, he installed a loft apartment to accommodate visiting friends such as the artists Robert Motherwell and Franz Kline.

Eventually, the Little family sold the property to the fashion designer Helmut Lang, and the town purchased it in 2006 using the community preservation fund.

Under a recent agreement, the site will be operated as a community arts center by a group of local residents, under the auspices of Peconic Historic Preservation, a nonprofit group headed by Robert Strada of Amagansett. The barn and its grounds will be available for exhibits and other community programming.

The studio at Duck Creek Farm is the first historic restoration program to be completed with oversight by a town property management committee established in 2014 by Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc. The group is also overseeing restoration plans for the former Boys and Girls Harbor camp on the west side of Three Mile Harbor and for the 11-acre property on Neck Path in Springs that contains the house and studios of James Brooks and Charlotte Park, two other artists that were Little’s contemporaries.

Ms. Albertini’s exhibit of paintings on paper and sculpture will be on view at Duck Creek Farm through July 30. An opening reception will be held on Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m. Parking for the Duck Creek site is available along Squaw Road.

Martin the seagull is missing.

It was about four years ago that Judy Smith, who has a house in Barnes Landing, noticed a seagull walking around on her deck and gave it something to eat. The seagull stuck around and visited Ms. Smith and her husband every weekend, loudly knocking its beak on their back window to say hello.

Then, about a month and a half ago, Martin disappeared.

From the start, Ms. Smith fed her seagull friend mostly Martin’s Potato Bread, for which she named the webbed-footed visitor. Martin continued to stop by regularly, visiting multiple times a day during the summer.

Ms. Smith developed affection for the bird, and he seemed to like her, too, sometimes eating directly out of her hand.

Martin usually took a long break from October to April, perhaps to migrate south for the winter. By September he looked very ragged, but in the spring he was beautiful, Ms. Smith said fondly, with his grey wings and snow-white underside.

While it may seem unlikely that a single seagull would continually visit one house, Ms. Smith feels quite certain that was the case. “Martin has a little red mark on his beak,” she explained, “and he has the same mannerisms.” Herring gulls tend to have a red spot on their bills, but Martin had other unique characteristics. He does not squawk, he is large, and he only comes alone, chasing other seagulls away if they get too close.

“About four to six weeks ago he didn’t tap on the back window or show up,” Ms. Smith said.

Martin is no Yogi Bob, the dog lost in Georgica in 2016 and almost miraculously reunited with its owner this year, but Ms. Smith is curious about the bold bird’s absence, wondering why he no longer visits and whether there might be a general decline in the seagull population on the South Fork this year. She visited the East Hampton Recycling Center, where there are usually hundreds of seagulls, and said there seemed to be fewer this year.

Martin “isn’t a dump-type bird,” she said.

Perhaps Martin will come knocking again soon, and Ms. Smith said she will have his potato bread ready.