The East Hampton High School dance club was founded in 2002, though this is the first year that its competition team members are to receive varsity letters.

Fittingly, that 16-member team, most of whom are seniors, took first place Sunday in the Long Island Kickline Association’s dance division at Uniondale High School, performing a lively two-and-a-half-minute routine to Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust.”

The judges, according to Andrea Hernandez, who coaches the team with Katelyn Pryal, “loved the energy of the piece — they felt that the dance was a real crowd-pleaser . . . they commended the team’s energy, persistence, and sportsmanship, and were very impressed by their professionalism as it had to do with the choreography.”

“The seventh graders I started out with at the middle school are this year’s seniors,” Hernandez said during a conversation Friday at the high school, where she teaches Spanish. “We’ve got 30 in the club, beginners to advanced, which is nice because it enables the more advanced kids to serve as role models for the younger ones. . . . There are no divas.”

She and Pryal oversee practices “two or three times a week, and this past summer we had about five clinics as well. It’s the third year that we’ve taken part in the Uniondale competition. Last year, we were third in our division.”

Hernandez said, in answer to a question, that she had grown up in Manorville and had been a cheerleader at Eastport High School, which at the time didn’t have a dance club. She danced, she said, at a studio — as is the case with about half of East Hampton’s competition team’s members.

She and Pryal formed a good team, Hernandez said, inasmuch as “I have more experience with jazz and she’s got extensive kickline experience. Our goal is to expand our horizons — dance is just one of the competitive divisions, there’s kickline, hip-hop, and pom too.”

The club’s performance under the lights at homecoming took the edge off a 20-0 loss to Center Moriches, and it is to perform at the East Hampton-Bayport boys basketball game here this Saturday.

Hernandez describes dance as “a physical art,” a definition with which her charges, some of whom were interviewed following Saturday’s practice at the middle school, agree.

“Some think they’re not agile enough in the beginning,” she said, “they have doubts, but soon they find they can do what they thought they couldn’t do, which is exciting. There’s emotional development too. Jazz, for instance, may look dry at first, too technical, as if it has no heart, but they warm to it in time.” 

The competitions were rigorous, Hernandez and Pryal, who joined in the conversation near its end, said, beginning with checks, much like those that referees conduct in other sports, for jewelry, et cetera.

“You get three minutes to get on and off, to show what you have, or points are deducted,” said Hernandez.

“You have to be totally in sync, every motion,” said Pryal. “How complex your routine is is factored into the scoring.”

“It’s a high risk, high reward kind of thing — we’re challenging them,” said Hernandez. “While it might be safer, for instance, to do one turn, two is worth more.”

The competition team comprises Jacqueline Bates, Lejdi Contreras, Julie Ehm, Amanda Fioriello, Karah Jones, Ally Karlin, Melissa Lopez, Sherie Samuels, Valentina Sanchez, Maggie Ryan, Daisy Vargas, Lauren Zaino, Angelica Zambrano, Claire Belhumeur, Jillian Hear, and Yean Franco, the sole male in the group.

Ryan and Hear study ballet, and Belhumeur was until recently a competitive figure skater.

Fioriello, Ehm, Samuels, and Franco, all of them captains, talked about the club and team after Saturday morning’s practice at the middle school.

“I would have played field hockey,” Fioriello said when they were asked what they would have done had there been no dance club at the high school, “but I love dance. I’ve been doing it since seventh grade.”

Ehm said it was “amazing” that it’s now considered a varsity sport. “We’ve got new uniforms, new leotards. . . .”

“No more hand-me-downs,” said Franco, who, as is the case with his fellow captains, is involved in the high school’s theater program. 

“It’s nice that we’re getting more recognition,” said Ehm, who is a studio dancer as well.

“I don’t know what I would have done if there hadn’t been a dance club, probably nothing,” said Samuels.

Their coaches, the four said, worked just as hard as they. “They keep us going,” said Franco.

Samuels, when asked how they’d done at Uniondale in the past few years, said, “We were third, second, and third.”

Asked about the team aspect of their discipline, Fioriello said, “We’ve really been bonding.”

“We sweat and bleed together,” said Ehm, who added, when asked if she and the others would keep on dancing, “I can’t imagine a world without it.”

Beer trucks are unloading again on East Hampton’s Pantigo Place in front of the former Peconic Beverage East, soon to be called Hampton Beverage East. 

The shop, owned by Matthew Worrell and his son, Brendan Worrell, opened on Dec. 5 and is building up its stock of beer, soda, and snacks based on customers’ tastes. “We’re trying to feel out what the customer wants,” Matthew Worrell said Tuesday. The reopened shop has additional retail space and the owners plan to double the area dedicated to craft beers, his son said. 

Matthew Worrell, who also owns Hampton Beverage in Hampton Bays, is an owner of the building in East Hampton, which has been without a beer and beverage store since Peconic Beverage closed just before Independence Day weekend. Other tenants are Goldberg’s Famous Bagels and Flagels and Churchill Wines and Spirits. 

“I’m glad they’re reopened,” David Churchill said Tuesday. When he decided to buy the store, the beverage shop next door “was the main reason,” Mr. Churchill said. Afternoon and evening customers would buy beer, soda, and ice at Peconic Beverage and their wine and liquor at his shop. “It was a perfect storm for both of us.” While Goldberg’s was a morning and midday draw, Churchill Wines definitely felt the absence of Peconic Beverage over the past five months. It has been a frustrating time, Mr. Churchill said, but “it’s good news from here on out.” 

Several years ago, Matthew Worrell was an owner of Peconic Beverage East along with William Hurley and Charles Hausman. He later owned Bridgehampton Beverage, which most recently operated in Water Mill. Mr. Hurley, who had been a co-owner of the building, as well, is serving a sentence for two felony counts of vehicular assault and driving while intoxicated following a 2013 crash on Route 114. Matthew Worrell said he was in contract to buy Peconic Beverage prior to its closing, but that the sale had fallen apart because there was not enough time to transfer the liquor license before the deal was finalized. 

Since the idea for a Wall of Fame for standout Bridgehampton School athletes was pitched in early October, it has evolved into a larger Hall of Fame that will also include former students who have achieved great things in academics, the military, and other areas of school and community involvement.

But Mike Miller, the school’s athletic director, who came up with the idea, said the district needs help funding the project. Today, Bridgehampton launch­ed a fund-raising campaign via Kickstarter.com to raise the money needed for the project, which is expected to cost $15,000. A letter explaining the campaign has been mailed to district residents, and Mr. Miller said the district is hoping the community will support of the Hall of Fame project by donating through Kickstarter.

“The biggest thing we’re trying to convey is we want a special place in Bridgehampton that everyone can look at, that the kids and the community can look at and see the values that we’re about,” Mr. Miller said. “A lot of great people come out of this district and we want to make sure that is exemplified and recognized.”

The decision to expand the Hall of Fame beyond just athletics was made by a committee that included Mr. Miller and Ronnie White, the school board president. Also sitting on that committee are Southampton Town Councilwoman Christine Scalera, Carl Johnson, the boys basketball coach, Joe Zucker, the assistant basketball coach, Chris Campbell, a parent of three Bridgehampton students, John Reilly, a Bridgehampton social studies teacher, and Steve Meyers, a Bridgehampton gym teacher.

Although there has been some speculation as to who might be inducted into the Hall of Fame first, Mr. Miller said that is far from certain because the first step is getting the funding in place to make sure the project can even be completed. The money the district hopes to raise will cover materials and labor to transform the school’s front hallway into a tribute to those who have made Bridgehampton proud.

Donors who contribute to the Kickstarter project will receive rewards in return, such as a Bridgehampton School bumper sticker, front-row tickets to a Killer Bees basketball game, a school sweatshirt, and more. A Kickstarter campaign is an all-or-nothing process, meaning Bridgehampton will have 45 days to meet its goal and if it does not do so, it will not receive any of the donations pledged by the campaign’s backers.

“It’s going to be exciting, but I’m also going to be really nervous. . . . That’s why we have to get the message out,” Mr. Miller said.

Those wishing to learn more about the campaign can go to kickstarter.com and search “Bridgehampton School," or click here.

On Friday, about nine months after a fire destroyed the historic West End Road house owned by Peter Morton, the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals considered a plan to recreate it.

As closely as possible, Mr. Morton, a co-founder of the Hard Rock Cafe restaurant chain, plans to mimic the original structure, which was built in 1926 for Ellery S. James and designed by Roger Bullard, who also designed the 1922 Maidstone Club clubhouse. Including decking and patios, the 8,395-square-foot house would require variances pertaining to coastal erosion hazard areas and preservation of dunes, as well as zoning variances to allow it to fall within the required side-yard setback and to be 38.4 feet tall, 4.4 feet over code. Mr. Morton also proposes to replace a 20-by-40-foot swimming pool with one that is 20 by 60 feet.

Given Federal Emergency Management Agency regulations concerning flood zones, the house would not be able to have a full basement, said Jon Tarbet, an attorney representing the homeowner. It would have a crawl space instead, he said.

“It’s sort of unusual for this house to be south of the coastal erosion hazard line,” he told the board, given that the grade is 24 feet, well above both federal and state requirements. “It’s hard to say why the line is on the north side of our house,” he continued. “But if you look at aerial photographs, this property has actually accreted over the years.”

There would be no other changes to the 2.3-acre property, Mr. Tarbet said, pointing out that the proposed floor area and lot coverage would be well below the allowable limits.

Nonetheless, as with all applications concerning shorefront properties, the board focused on the construction procedures. “The concern is, although the house has been there for almost 100 years, you are digging into the dune,” said Frank Newbold, the board’s chairman. Even acknowledging the “extraordinary circumstances because the house burned down, tragically,” he said, “we would want to see a construction protocol to see no further damage to the dune.”

The swimming pool would grow from 937 to 1,324 square feet, Mr. Newbold noted, and the original pool is still there. “At some point, somebody will have to scoop that out, enlarge that, and go into areas of the dune that have never been excavated before.” The Village Building Department and Rob Herrmann, an environmental consultant, will have to review the plan, he said. The applicant will also have to provide details as to where project-limiting fencing will be erected and materials stockpiled and stored.

The hearing was left open and is to be revisited at the board’s Jan. 8 meeting.

The board also announced two determinations. While denying Morton Olshan’s application for variances to allow him to keep an eight-foot-high fence along the north, east, and west boundaries of 61 Further Lane, it granted limited relief to the fencing on the north and east sides, allowing it to remain in place provided that if more than a single length is replaced or relocated, new fencing must comply with code. Village code limits fences to six feet.

However, the fencing to the west, which borders the Maidstone Club golf course, must come down, the board ruled. It also turned down the Olshans’ request to keep backyard playground equipment where it has been, too close to the boundary line.

Gregory and Rosemary Brown of 61 Meadow Way were granted variances to allow the continued existence of a window well within the required side-yard setback. 

Most local school districts have been finding substitute teachers in short supply, administrators said this week, with geography and overlapping needs among the districts seen as principal factors.

Indeed, Julie Lutz, the chief operating officer of the Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services, said not only were many East End schools experiencing a shortage but that BOCES and the rest of Long Island were as well. She said the shortage of substitutes came to light earlier this year during meetings with superintendents.

In the Montauk School District, Jack Perna, the superintendent, said finding substitutes had been so tricky that there have been a few times this year when the district was unable to find someone to fill in for a classroom teacher.

There are 10 teachers on the Montauk School Board’s approved list, but Mr. Perna said he had covered classes in some instances when he was not able to bring one in. And several of those teachers are also approved as substitutes for other districts.

“It is difficult mainly because of geography. Other schools are usually easier to get to for many of our subs,” Mr. Perna said in an email.

East Hampton has 50 teachers on its approved list of substitutes, but the superintendent, Rich Burns, said the district could only rely on about half to be available when needed. “It’s on the lean side for sure. I’d definitely like it more robust,” he said.

Mr. Burns said that in addition to times when staff members were sick, substitutes are needed when the district conducts professional development programs. With three school buildings, it’s feasible that the district could see the need for 25 substitutes on a single day, he said. But if someone cannot be found, administrators have to tap existing teachers during times when they would otherwise not be in classrooms. When that occurs, however, it costs the district  $73.50 per hour. By comparison, substitutes in East Hampton are paid $125 to $150 for a full day, depending on their certifications.

“We try outreach. We really spread the word. More teachers is the solution, but I’m not sure that’s realistic,” Mr. Burns said.

The Sagaponack School District recently posted a request for certified substitutes on its website. Alan Van Cott, the superintendent, said the district is seeking to increase its roster of two certified substitutes to four.

Wainscott’s superintendent, Stuart Rachlin, recently shared his district’s substitute list with Sagaponack, which Mr. Van Cott said was very helpful. Having to share substitutes illustrates an overlap.

Amagansett School’s superintendent, Eleanor Tritt, and the Springs School principal, Eric Casale, both said by email that their districts are continually seeking more substitute teachers. Ms. Tritt said last-minute needs are particularly hard to fill.

Mr. Casale said Springs had been fortunate so far to be able to find coverage for teachers who are absent, but that a lack of substitutes has occasionally caused the district to reschedule “non-instructional events,” such as meetings and professional development.

Bridgehampton’s superintendent, Lois Favre, said by email her school district had been in need of more substitutes until very recently. “If you want to assure coverage it is important” to continually recruit them, Ms. Favre said. “Teacher subs sometimes secure positions, so updating the list in an ongoing way is important.”

Sag Harbor is not short on substitute teachers, however. Katy Graves, the superintendent, said her district has continually recruited subs and that many are retired teachers. She suggested that a reason other than geography and overlapping might be to blame.

“We’re holding our own in our district, but I think some of this may be driven by the Affordable Care Act,” Ms. Graves said.

 “Folks may have been able to know they would be with a district five days a week as a ‘super-sub,’ but school districts are having to keep them at less than 30 hours a week, so people are going and finding other jobs. That has had an impact.” Districts do not have to provide health insurance for teachers who work fewer than 30 hours.

Wainscott is not seeking more substitute teachers either, but that’s mainly because its two full-time teachers are rarely absent, according to Mr. Rachlin.

“Based on the number of people who applied for the one job here this summer, there are people all over Long Island willing to sub,” he said. He was referring to Wainscott’s having received more than 1,200 résumés when seeking a new teacher. He agreed, however, that “geographically, it’s difficult to get people here if they’re not already in the area.”

The partners who in 2013 purchased Gurney’s Inn, since renamed Gurney’s Resort and Seawater Spa, have now bought the 12 townhouses, 3 oceanfront cottages, and 50 unsold motel rooms at the Panoramic View Resort, which lies just to the west.

BLDG Management, headed by Lloyd Goldman, and Metrovest, whose president is George Filopoulos, plan to make a number of improvements over the winter and hope to put the units on the market by the spring. “We expect the project to be a one-of-a-kind lifestyle opportunity in that incomparable location,” Mr. Filopoulos said this week.

The Panoramic View found itself in hot water in August 2013 when its principals, Brian Callahan, an investment fund manager, and Adam Manson, a real estate developer, were criminally charged in a Ponzi scheme that Loretta Lynch, United States attorney for the Eastern District at the time and now Attorney General of the United States, called “one of the largest investment frauds in Long Island history.” The brothers-in-law had purchased the resort in 2006, planning to convert it into co-ops, but the recession came along and the units did not sell as hoped. Mr. Callahan, with Mr. Manson’s knowledge, began pulling money from his offshore hedge funds to pay off his bank loans. By the time the fraud was discovered, his investors were said to have lost as much as $96 million.

The federal government seized the Panoramic after charging the two men and put it up for bids. Its value was estimated to be between $52 million and $88 million. BLDG and Metrovest, under the corporate name Panormaic Partners, paid $63.9 million for it at the closing on Dec. 7, about $40.3 million of which will go to repay the victims of the Ponzi scheme. 

Both Mr. Callahan, now 45, and Mr. Manson, 43, pleaded guilty in federal court to a slew of charges. Their sentencing was put off until the Panoramic could be sold, and is now expected to happen before long.

Mr. Filopoulos, who has a house in Montauk and is frequently seen at Gurney’s, expects that the improvements to be made at the Panoramic will be well received. The purchase of its 9.1-acre neighbor will give Gurney’s guests another 900 feet of beach to enjoy, he noted.

The two businesses will remain separated for the time being. The Panoramic does not offer food services, whereas Gurney’s has several areas for formal and informal dining. “We have no plans to fold into Gurney’s, although there are natural synergies between the two properties,” said Mr. Filopoulos.

Sean P. Ludwick, who is accused of being drunk when he crashed his Porsche in Noyac on Aug. 30, killing his passenger, Paul Hansen, was indicted by a grand jury on Wednesday on 13 criminal charges, including vehicular homicide, manslaughter, and drunken driving in a fatal accident.

Mr. Ludwick will be arraigned on Jan. 6 in Central Islip.

Five of the charges he faces are felonies, and the three most serious of these could each draw a 25-year sentence in state prison. Police say Mr. Ludwick, 43, left his passenger's body on the side of the road just yards from Mr. Hansen's house on Rolling Hills Court East.

The top charge is aggravated vehicular homicide in a fatal accident where the driver had a blood alcohol level of over .18 percent. This charge may well have been the one that caused a delay in presenting the case to a grand jury: Mr. Ludwick's blood was drawn several hours after the crash, meaning District Attorney Thomas Spota's office would have to mathematically back the number they received to what the actual alcohol level in Mr. Ludwick's blood was at the time of the crash to the satisfaction of the grand jury.

There are also two charges of aggravated vehicular homicide, according to court records, because within the past 10 years Mr. Ludwick had pleaded guilty to driving with ability impaired by alcohol. Though the prior charge was a reduction from misdemeanor drunken driving, which he was originally accused of, its presence in his history triggered the elevated charge.

He is also charged with manslaughter for allegedly recklessly causing Mr. Hansen's death, and vehicular homicide for being drunk at the aggravated level when the accident happened.

Among the other eight charges are several misdemeanors, including drunken driving and reckless driving.

Mr. Ludwick, a New York real estate developer, is currently free after posting $1 million bond two days after his arrest. The family of Mr. Hansen, who was 53 and had two young sons, filed a civil suit against Mr. Ludwick in October. 

The Town of East Hampton is a step closer to a condemnation bid on two disputed slivers of ocean beach on Napeague, having received a necessary property survey.

Condemnation of the stretches of oceanfront known as Truck Beach, as well as a smaller area to the east, would represent a town attempt to end lawsuits brought by several homeowners associations and individuals seeking to block access by four-wheel-drive vehicles.

While driving on the beach is a longstanding practice in East Hampton Town, with roots in colonial-era fishing and whaling, the number of people with four-wheel-drive vehicles has exploded in recent decades. (East Hampton residents can obtain a free permit to drive on most beaches; nonresidents pay a fee.)

The lawsuits are a response to the popularity of Truck Beach, where on summer weekends, Sundays in particular, in excess of 100 vehicles line up side-by-side while their occupants swim and socialize.

Following up on an agreement with the town board to share costs leading up to condemnation, the East Hampton Town Trustees delivered a check last Thursday for half the bill for the property survey.

Diane McNally, the trustees’ clerk, appeared at last Thursday evening’s town board meeting bearing a check for $17,362.50, the trustees’ share of the $34,735 fee.

“This is not a lot of money in consideration of what has been spent and will be spent in the future, but in actuality that beach is priceless to this community, so we are going forward,” Ms. McNally said.

Thursday’s meeting was crowded with residents who urged the town board to continue to push back against the suit. Several beachfront property owners attended as well. One, Caroline McCaffrey, a 20-year resident of the area, said that fast-moving trucks both on the beach and the narrow roads used to access it were a safety concern for her and for neighborhood children.

“The debate about condemnation has only added fuel to the fire. I am afraid that someone will have to die before this is resolved,” she said.

“I’m really frustrated that there are not more people standing up for this right that we have that I have been enjoying for more than 40 years,” Brian Pardini, a commercial fisherman, said. His family and others depend on income that, in part, comes from using the Napeague beach for commercial fishing.

Some of the beachfront property owners have said that condemnation is likely to be expensive. One speaker, Cindi Crain, of Safe Access for Everyone, a new group, said that there were free alternatives to the town’s taking over the disputed strip of sand that should be explored.

“Truck Beach is owned by 140 individual property owners, each of whom will claim damages under eminent domain,” Ms. Crain said. The cost to town taxpayers, she said, could be $14 million or as much as $70 million.

Brian Buckhout, speaking in turn, a member of Citizens for Access Rights, disagreed with predictions that the condemnation price tag would be high. “My personal opinion is that the land is worthless, as it is underwater at least six months of the year. It’s not buildable; it’s a bucket of sand,” he said.

Mid-Atlantic fishermen and their advocates told four members of Congress on Monday that inaccurate stock assessments needlessly limit their catch and endanger their livelihood as the House of Representatives’ Committee on Natural Resources held an oversight hearing in Riverhead.

Bonnie Brady of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association and Captain Joe McBride of the Montauk Boatmen and Captains Association were among those providing testimony to Representative Lee Zeldin of New York’s First Congressional District and three members of the natural resources committee. Witnesses also included representatives of fishing and seafood trade associations and a scientist from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which manages fish species in federal waters.

At issue in the field hearing, called Restoring Atlantic Fisheries and Protecting the Regional Seafood Economy, were the science and data collection used in management of fish stocks.

Along party lines, the committee members either defended or disparaged NOAA and the National Marine Fisheries Services’ stewardship and stock assessments, from which quotas are determined. They disagreed on assessments of striped bass and fluke, for which the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council have recommended 2016 harvest reductions of 25 and 29 percent respectively.

Ms. Brady asked the committee to direct the Northeast Fisheries Science Center to schedule a full benchmark assessment of the fluke stock in the first half of 2016, telling Mr. Zeldin and his colleagues that the recommended harvest reduction was based on outdated models and an inaccurate picture of the species’ health. She also asked that the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act be amended to add a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation representative and another New York stakeholder to the New England Fishery Management Council.

She also asked the committee to ensure that the Senate introduce and pass a version of the Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act, which the House passed in June. The Obama administration opposes the bill; a statement issued in May said that it would undermine the use of science-based actions to end and prevent overfishing. The Magnuson-Stevens Act, the statement said, already provides the flexibility needed to manage fisheries.

Mr. McBride told the committee that recreational fishermen should be allowed to catch striped bass in the Block Island Sound transit zone, an area of federal waters between swaths of state waters that he said posed a longstanding problem for anglers. Conservation of striped bass, stocks of which collapsed in the 1980s, has been effective, and the fishery is now “very viable,” he said. He also asked for continued support of a bill introduced by Mr. Zeldin that would clarify the landward boundaries of the exclusive economic zone area between Montauk, Block Island, and Point Judith, R. I.

Another witness, James Donofrio of the Recreational Fishing Alliance, complained about prohibitions on healthy stocks and “outright misinformation” from what he called the “environmental industry.” “Our industries are dying,” he said, “and it doesn’t have to be that way.” Ms. Brady agreed, as did Greg DiDomenico of the Garden State Seafood Association, who worried about use of the federal Antiquities Act to create marine reserves without input from fishermen or other stakeholders. Mr. DiDomenico also asked committee members to start an oversight process on both the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act.

Some committee members and witnesses disparaged the testimony of the NOAA representative, Paul Rago, insisting that the agency is not using best available science and its quotas are both exceedingly conservative and include additional “buffers” to compensate for incomplete science in its stock assessments. The committee’s chairman, Rob Bishop, a Republican from Utah, and Tom MacArthur, a Republican from New Jersey, repeatedly pressed Dr. Rago on the latter accusation. “You only look at factual findings, or make some assumptions to allow for incomplete science?” Mr. MacArthur asked.

“We are objective,” was the reply. “There are no explicit cushions that are built into the science for incomplete observations. We do look at scenarios related to alternative hypotheses about the environment.”

“That could include climate change?” Mr. MacArthur asked. Yes, was the reply.

The lone Democrat, Jared Huffman of California, defended NOAA and applauded its incorporation of climate science in fisheries assessments. “And I strongly disagree with those who have trivialized and criticized this plan, suggesting that it’s some kind of a radical climate-change strategy that is somehow at odds with best available science,” he said. “It is the best available science. Warming waters, ocean acidification, and species range shifts clearly show that you can’t have the best available fishery science without incorporating climate science.”

Mr. Huffman argued that “short-term sacrifices” by commercial and recreational fishermen have allowed stocks including bluefish, fluke, and black sea bass to rebuild, “with huge economic benefits.” The worst course of action, he said, would be “to abandon this science-based strategy before it’s had the chance to completely succeed.”

But Mr. MacArthur echoed the complaints of those who called stock assessments excessively conservative. “When you compound conservatism one layer on top of another on top of another . . . you can end up being so risk-averse that you do nothing,” he said. “I believe that’s what’s happening today in commercial and recreational fishing. We’re being overly conservative in the name of good science.”

An offhand quip from Mr. Bishop, who had previously stated that some of the witnesses’ testimony “will be wrong,” summarized his point of view. “I’ve found in my short life,” he said, “that science is not necessarily objective.” 

A complaint alleging that those engaged by East Hampton Village to sterilize deer were not licensed to practice veterinary medicine in New York State has been referred to the state attorney general’s office, it was learned this week.

Dell Cullum, a wildlife removal specialist and nature photographer who brought the complaint to the Office of Professional Discipline of the state Education Department, has received a letter dated Nov. 30 from a supervisor in that office saying “the investigation of your allegations is complete” and has been forwarded to the Criminal Prosecutions Bureau of the attorney general’s office. “The assigned prosecutor will contact you as necessary and you will be informed of the outcome of the case.” 

The program, now in its second year, is intended to reduce the deer population through a five-year effort. Village officials and the president of White Buffalo, the nonprofit firm hired to conduct the sterilizations, insist that it complies with state regulations. The firm, which is based in Connecticut, had reported that it sterilized 114 deer last winter. It returned to the village in the fall to resume the program for a short time.

In his complaint, made in July, Mr. Cullum, an outspoken opponent of the program, described unpleasant deaths months after ovariectomies were performed on some of the does in a village-owned shed that he and others say was unsanitary.

Only persons holding state licenses can practice veterinary medicine in the state, and sterilization falls within the scope of veterinary medicine, according to Jeanne Beattie of the Education Department. There are two possible exemptions for out-of-state licensed veterinarians, however, one of which, said Anthony DeNicola, White Buffalo’s president, means its practices comply with the law.

According to the law, a veterinarian licensed in another state “who is meeting a veterinarian licensed in this state for purposes of consultation” may practice here, provided such practice is limited to consultation and “training and sharing of expertise.”

“Trying to work with experts in the field who have large-animal expertise to refine this method under field circumstances — that’s the whole premise behind this. That’s why we’re doing research,” Dr. DeNicola said yesterday. Sterilization of white-tail deer, he said, he said, is rare. “We’re the first to try to scale this, to bring the best minds on how to do this safely and effectively.”

Mr. DeNicola acknowledged having received an inquiry from the Office of Professional Discipline, but said those who have performed the sterilizations did so under the supervision of a state-licensed veterinarian, Dr. Steven Timm, who is based in Wisconsin.

“We’re not trying to do things illegally,” Dr. DeNicola said. “We’re following very rigid protocols. We have people that come in that are licensed, and folks coming in to get trained so folks in the future can be involved in these programs.” On two occasions, he said, state officials observed White Buffalo’s work in East Hampton. He also disagreed with Mr. Cullum’s and other opponents’ characterization of the shed in which the surgeries were performed, calling it clean and safe.

The village paid White Buffalo $140,000 for last winter’s effort and appropriated $50,000 in its 2015-16 budget for its continuation. Becky Molinaro, the village administrator, said yesterday that “it is our understanding that, per conversations that White Buffalo staff has had” with state officials, “that White Buffalo has been in compliance at all times.”

Mr. Cullum remains skeptical. “I would hope that if they suspect or have found criminal activity,” he said, referring to the Office of Professional Discipline, “they’re going to want to get on this immediately. I’m anxious to see how it trickles down. So many people aided and abetted, and even more stood by and watched it happen. That’s kind of sad, and kind of bad.”