The family of Paul G. Hansen, a Noyac resident who died in a car accident in late August, has filed a wrongful death case against the driver, a New York City real estate developer who is being prosecuted for drunken driving.

Catherine G. Hansen, Mr. Hansen’s wife and the administrator of his estate, filed the claim against Sean P. Ludwick in State Supreme Court on Oct. 23 on behalf of herself and their 14 and 11-year-old sons, according to court documents. Mr. Ludwick was served with the papers last week.

“The boys lost their father,” said Scott Middleton a Bridgehampton attorney and partner in Campolo, Middleton & McCormick, who is representing the Hansens. “He was not only their father, he was a mentor, he was a friend, he was just a great dad. It’s my job, my firm’s job, that they’re made financially secure as a result of Sean Ludwick’s actions.”

Southampton Town police arrested Mr. Ludwick, a principal in BlackHouse Development, a Manhattan real estate firm, shortly after the crash that left Mr. Hansen, 53, dead on Rolling Hills Court East on Aug. 30 at about 2 a.m. According to police, Mr. Ludwick was driving a 2013 Porsche convertible with Mr. Hansen as his passenger when he drove past Mr. Hansen’s driveway into a cul-de-sac at the end of the road, then doubled back, missing the house again. The Porsche hit a curb and crashed into a utility pole, prosecutors have said. Mr. Ludwick drove off in his wrecked car, despite two flat tires, and was found by police less than a quarter-mile away when his car broke down.

A dollar amount the family might seek in punitive damages was not disclosed, as a dollar figure is not required in personal injury matters under New York State law, according to Mr. Middleton. “It’s way too soon,” he said, adding that factors such as conscious pain and suffering, as well as earning capacity are to be considered.

The claim asserts Mr. Hansen’s death was caused by Mr. Ludwick’s “carelessness, recklessness, and negligence,” and that Mr. Hansen “suffered anguish, pre-impact terror, conscious pain, and suffering,” and catastrophic injuries that led to his death.

The criminal case against Mr. Ludwick, 42, is still pending. He was charged with misdemeanor driving while intoxicated and is free on $1 million bond. He is due back in Southampton Town Justice Court on Nov. 24. The Suffolk County District Attorney’s office did not respond to a request to comment on the case, but it is believed Mr. Ludwick will be indicted on more serious charges, such as vehicular manslaughter.

Though the law allows for a two-year statute of limitation on wrongful death matters, “We didn’t want to wait,” Mr. Middleton said, “in an effort to try to get things moving so that this family can put this nightmare behind them.”

Still, the civil case will likely take a back seat to the criminal proceedings. The D.A.’s office is “being as cooperative with me as they can be,” Mr. Middleton said, adding that it is understand able that prosecutors are “playing it close to the vest,” without an indictment yet. “It makes these difficult cases on the civil side because of the lag in getting the information that’s normally available.”

For instance, the suit claims gross negligence in that Mr. Ludwick reportedly removed Mr. Hansen from the Porsche after the crash and fled in his car without alerting emergency services. Mr. Middleton said he included the allegation based on news reports, though it was never confirmed publicly by police.

Mr. Hansen, his family’s main provider, was a real estate salesman with Douglas Elliman in Sag Harbor, and also a developer. His family is having a tough time, the lawyer said. “From all accounts, everybody I’ve spoken with, Paul was a terrific father. His whole world was really his two boys,” Mr. Middleton said.

Benjamin Brafman, Mr. Ludwick’s criminal defense attorney, said by email yesterday that he and his client “are not commenting on any of the specific facts relating to this terrible tragedy. Mr Ludwick and his counsel intend to address all issues in both the civil and criminal proceedings in court.”

A.J. McGuire, a lieutenant in the East Hampton Town Police Department, is poised to become the next chief of the Sag Harbor Village Police Department.

Lieutenant McGuire, who has been with the town police for 18 years, was one of four people to apply for the chief's position after Tom Fabiano announced his retirement in September. Three others were considered, Village Mayor Sandra Schroeder said. "We were overwhelmed by how good they were," she said on Friday. The lieutenant, she said, "is quite the go-getter," whom, she said, would be a good leader and someone the other officers would admire and respect. She is also glad to have found a replacement who will stay in the position long-term.

East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo said he wishes his lieutenant the best of luck, but admitted his department wasn't prepared for such a loss. "We are losing a very professional, well-trained and respected member of our senior supervisory staff," he said on Friday morning. "He will be difficult to replace at this time, as we had not planned for his departure prior to his 20-year commitment." 

Lieutenant McGuire is the third lieutenant to leave the town police department in less than a year; Lt. Chris Hatch retired in March after 22 years on the job, and Lt. Thomas Grenci, a 28-year member of the department, retired in October. 

"Sag Harbor is getting a good communicator, someone who understands the importance of community policing and professionalism," Chief Sarlo said. 

Reached on Friday, Lieutenant McGuire said he wanted to thank the village board for the opportunity, as well as the East Hampton Town Board and Chief Sarlo. "I will sincerely miss working for the East Hampton Town Police Department. I'm very excited for my new endeavor and look forward to serving the residents and visitors of the Village of Sag Harbor," he said.

Lieutenant McGuire will not start work in Sag Harbor right away; New Year's Eve will be his last day in East Hampton. The timing will allow for some transition time before Chief Fabiano's departure, Mayor Schroeder said. Chief Fabiano, who has led the department since 2001, will step down on Jan. 16, though his official retirement date won't come for another year due to unused vacation and sick time.

The lieutenant also will not immediately be appointed chief due to the Civil Service process. The village board is expected to meet on Tuesday at 11 a.m. and approve transferring him from the town to the village as a lieutenant. When Chief Fabiano leaves in January, the board will make him an acting or provisional chief. Then, when Chief Fabiano's terminal leave concludes one year later, and Lieutenant McGuire has passed the Civil Service exam, he will be made chief, Mayor Schroeder said. The next exam will be given in March. 

The Town of East Hampton, the mayor said, approved Lieutenant McGuire's lateral transfer. "My big thanks are going to the town. We owe them big time for this," she said.

A resident of Noyac, just outside the village, Lieutenant McGuire is a member of the Sag Harbor Fire Department and his children are in the school district. All of the applicants, save for a late fifth applicant from Massapequa who submitted a resume after the decision had been made, the mayor said, were from the area. 

Three more people were arrested on the Montauk beach on Friday morning while protesting the Army Corps’s construction of a sandbag revetment there. The arrests were the latest in a series of early morning incursions that began Friday by opponents of the project into the oceanfront work site.

Want to know more? Montauk Army Corps Project, a Timeline

Workers from H&L Contracting of Bay Shore, which won a bid for the $8.4 million Army Corps project, drove heavy equipment along the shore beside a handful of people who went around safety fencing onto the beach. Large pits have been dug, a dune excavated, and pilings to hold a pedestrian access walk have been driven into the sand.

When police ordered the protestors to leave, H&L's equipment operators at the controls of idling machines dropped their bucket claws onto a pathway, in front of people walking off the beach.

Heidi Rain Oleszczuk, Tom Oleszczuk, and Gayle Hessler remained on the sand and were charged with disorderly conduct, bringing the number of protestors arrested to 11.

Last week and again at a meeting on Tuesday, several hundred people told the East Hampton Town Board that the project, which will create a sandbag wall along 3,100 feet of the downtown ocean shore, should be stopped. They cited its potential to accelerate erosion and eliminate the sandy beach, where thousands of visitors lay blankets on summer beach days and locals walk and fish year round.

About 100 surfers, with twice as many supporters on shore, paddled out from the downtown Montauk beach on Sunday to form a symbolic line of defense against the seawall, and a community protest is planned for this weekend, on Sunday at 2 p.m. at South Edison beach, to write messages in the sand against the sandbag seawall.

In response to the outpouring against the project, which has been in the works and the subject of discussions for several years, East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell has contacted the Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Environmental Conservation, a partner in the project, to ask if the work can be suspended or modified.

News about the future of the Montauk downtown ocean beach is expected on Monday, after more than a week of ongoing protests against the construction by the Army Corps of Engineers of a 3,100-foot sandbag seawall, which is under way.

In response to a growing outcry by hundreds of town residents to stop the project, East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said Saturday that he had discussions this week with the Army Corps, the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the county, and state and federal elected officials “about what options are and aren’t available.”

Mr. Cantwell said that a press release will be issued at the start of the week, but declined to say if the release would outline a definitive course of action or if a halt to or redesign of the project is forthcoming.

The town signed off a year ago on the $8.4 million project at federal expense, designed as an interim solution to protect the downtown area from storm surge, until a larger, beach reconstruction project can be undertaken by the Army Corps. When that reconstruction, a “sand-only” approach that is widely endorsed by both residents and town officials, might take place, under the Army Corps’ so-called Fire Island to Montauk reformulation plan, has been debated, as the project has been moving slowly toward fruition for five decades.

An immediate sand-only project was not an option offered by the Army Corps. “The project itself is a product of decisions that are made on multiple levels,” Mr. Cantwell said in a phone interview on Saturday. “Between that, there are many options that I personally would prefer, and have preferred all along.”

The supervisor did not say whether the widespread public opposition had caused him to reconsider his support for the sandbag wall given a lack of other options for immediate beach work by the Army Corps. But, he said, “I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it.”

“There are a lot of people involved in this situation that would like to turn back the clock, but the facts are what they are today,” he said. “And we have to deal with the facts as they are today. We have to deal with the federal and state governments, that are partners in this,” Mr. Cantwell said.

The supervisor said that he had made a point to meet with leaders of the opposition movement “so at least both sides understand the position the other side is in.”

Along with Mr. Cantwell, a meeting on Friday was attended by Town Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, Paul Monte, head of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce, and two key opponents of the Army Corps work,  Thomas Bradley Muse and Kevin McAllister of Defend H2O, plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed last spring against the beach project. A decision on their request for a restraining order to stop the work is forthcoming.

In Facebook posts on Saturday, Mr. Muse and Mr. McAllister shared slightly different takes on the outcome of the meeting.  According to Mr. Muse, both town officials in attendance agreed to work toward a town board decision to ask the Army Corps to switch to a sand-only approach.

He urged people to email other town board members over the weekend to support that idea.

Mr. McAllister was not quite so hopeful.  He noted that, while everyone prefers a sand-only project, “the town is unwilling to end the project if the Corps objects or requires a procedural do-over, costing time and money.” Concern was raised, he said, that if East Hampton asks the Corps to stop the seawall project, it would not return to Montauk to add sand to the beach.

“The ‘pause button’ was never hit, nor will it be unless the heat is turned up,” Mr. McAllister wrote. “ [The] town wants to appear as if their hands are tied. Wrong, they can walk away,” he said.

A rally against the seawall is planned for 2 p.m. Sunday on the beach at South Edison Street in Montauk, where opponents plan to create messages in the sand that will be photographed from above.

One case of pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough, was recently reported at Springs School, according to a Nov. 12 letter from the Suffolk County Department of Health Services that is posted on the school district's website.

Reached by phone on Monday, Debra Gherardi, the school nurse, said that "the student has already returned to school after five days of medication and everything's great."

Ms. Gherardi said the district received word directly from the Suffolk County Department of Health Services that a student had contracted pertussis, which is "a highly contagious bacterial disease that is spread through the air by cough from an infected individual," according to the letter.

When asked about precautions taken at school to prevent the spread of pertussis, Ms. Gherardi said she and the rest of the faculty and staff regularly remind children to cover their mouths if they cough. "That's a standard here," she said.

According to the Suffolk County Department of Health Services, pertussis can affect people even if they have been vaccinated in the past, because immunity tends to wane over the years. "Up to date vaccination against pertussis, however, remains the best defense to prevent illness. Pertussis disease is particularly dangerous to infants who are not fully immunized," the letter reads.

Symptoms in someone who has been exposed to the airborne bacteria may take up to 21 days to develop, with early symptoms including mild upper respiratory problems and a low-grade fever that mimics a cold. A more detailed list of symptoms and other information about pertussis and its treatment may be found in the letter from the Suffolk County Department of Health Services, posted under the "Important information from the School Nurse" link on the school district's website, springsschool.org.

A sandbag seawall being built to armor the downtown Montauk ocean shore will be completed, town officials said Monday, despite a swell of vehement protest and opposition that arose after beach excavation and pile driving for wooden access walks got under way early this month.

According to a press release issued Monday afternoon, town officials have "listened carefully to the numerous, passionate concerns raised in response to the commencement of construction activity," but see "no basis upon which to halt this project." The board, it says, "fully supports completion of this interim protective measure until the completion of the Fire Island to Montauk Point Reformulation Study (FIMP)."

Despite rallies against it, petitions, an email campaign, and civil disobedience on the beach job site that have continued almost daily since Nov. 5, officials said in the release that the $8.4 million Army Corps of Engineers project will continue.

Opponents had asked Larry Cantwell, the town supervisor, and the town board, which signed off on the federal project last year, to retract support for the 3,100-foot, 15-foot-tall "dune" of sandbags, that will be covered with three feet of excavated sand. They called for a sand-only approach, avoiding the sandbag wall construction and instead refurbishing and extending the beach with sand.

The Army Corps has endorsed that approach as part of a longer-term project under its Fire Island to Montauk Point Reformulation Study, for which an updated draft plan is due in February, but federal, state, county, and town officials have all endorsed the sandbag wall for short-term protection of downtown motels and other buildings against flooding from potential storms.

"It can't be emphasized enough that the current project is an interim protective measure until FIMP can finally be completed and the long-term stabilization solutions can be implemented. We will do everything in our power to cooperate with our federal, state, and county partners and strongly advocate that the preferred sand-only stabilization project be authorized, funded, and implemented as soon as possible," Supervisor Cantwell said in the release.

While the project is being done at full federal expense, as part of an emergency beach stabilization program following Hurricane Sandy, the town and county will be responsible for maintaining and replacing the three-foot topping of sand if it is washed away.

Despite the statement from the town, opponents have planned another demonstration on the beach where contractors continue to work on Tuesday morning at 7 a.m., followed by attendance at a town board work session at Town Hall in East Hampton, which begins at 10 a.m.

"The calls to cancel this project are well meaning, but simply not in the interest of public safety," said Town Councilman Fred Overton in today's press release.

New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. also weighed in on the project, which has been under discussion for more than three years, saying "the town made the right decision" in allowing the "emergency project."

"As I repeatedly stated during all of the public hearings on this proposal, this emergency project was far from perfect," he said. " In fact, I stated it was only marginally better than a sharp stick in the eye."

"However," he wrote, "after Hurricane Sandy, for those who are entrusted with the public safety, doing nothing was not an option. Leaving downtown Montauk vulnerable for years would have been irresponsible. This interim measure was necessary to provide some protection to downtown Montauk."

County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, a Montauk property owner and former East Hampton Town supervisor, and Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc also endorsed the work by the Army Corps. Mr. Schneiderman called it "a means to an end."

"In a few years, a wide sandy beach will be constructed in front of the dune," he wrote in the press release. "Under this federally funded project, sand will be dredged from off shore and pumped onto the beach. The current project is necessary in the interim period to protect all of downtown Montauk if a major storm strikes. After the beach has been constructed, the current project will not be necessary and can be removed."

"The notion that this is an emergency action is patently false," Kevin McAllister, the founder of Defend H2O and a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed last spring against the Army Corps project, said in an email this afternoon.

The sandbag wall being built is disallowed on the ocean beach according to East Hampton's state-endorsed coastal regulations, but variation from those rules is allowed under "emergency" conditions. In its application for a restraining order to suspend construction of the project, which is to be decided by a judge in the coming days, Defend H2O has submitted an opinion by Steve Resler, who oversaw coastal policy for New York State, contesting the legal conclusion that the seawall is warranted under the emergency provision. It also raises questions about other aspects of the project's legal underpinnings.

The officials are attempting to "rationalize a violation of state and local law, which at its core was politically driven to appease private property interests," Mr. McAllister said. "Tim Bishop, Fred Thiele, Steve Bellone, Jay Schneiderman all had a hand in this project and sold out the community," he charged.

The original Amagansett schoolhouse was moved to the campus of the modern-day Amagansett School on Sept. 19, and ever since the ribbon-cutting ceremony that celebrated the old building's arrival, the school's administration has been working on turning it into a museum.

One of the centerpieces of that museum will be a geography textbook from 1863 once belonging to Joshua B. Edwards II when he was a student at the original Amagansett School. The district received that textbook, titled "Modern School Geography," as a donation from his son, Joshua B. Edwards III, who found the book in the attic of his father's house in October and immediately thought to donate it to the school. It was at that time that Jack Edwards, who had moved to Florida from Amagansett eight years ago, had the chance to see the old schoolhouse at its new location.

"I think it's going to be nice, really, something like that right on the school grounds," he said in a recent interview.

During the ribbon-cutting on Oct. 2, with students, teachers, members of the East Hampton Town Board, State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., and the district's school board on hand, the spirit of community was strong as speakers emphasized the past as a guide to the present and future.

The one-room building, built in 1802 by Samuel Schellinger and donated to the district by Huntington and Adelaide Sheldon, on whose property it sat for decades, was originally on "Amagansett Street," now Montauk Highway. It was moved to the west side of Atlantic Avenue, at what is now the southern part of the East End Cemetery, in 1864, and moved again in 1881, when it was auctioned to Marcus Hand. Mr. Hand sold it to Capt. Joshua B. Edwards, who moved it across the street to his back yard, which is now part of the Sheldon property. There, the building was filled with fishing nets, a dory, and flensing knives, which were used to cut whale blubber.

Capt. Edwards's son, Dr. David Edwards, arranged the sale to Mr. Sheldon's mother, Magda Sheldon, in 1936 or '37. The building's last public use was for Girl Scout meetings in the late 1940s, Mr. Sheldon told The Star last year.

"It has traveled around the town over the past two centuries," Eleanor Tritt, the district superintendent, said, "and has finally landed at the spot where it best belongs." She told the student body that "under the gifted guidance of your teachers, you will be able to develop understanding about where it all began. . . . You can transport yourselves back to a time when your ancestors learned reading, writing, and arithmetic in a one-room schoolhouse, unheated, un-air-conditioned, with other students of all ages and abilities. And sometimes, they had to leave school to help their parents earn a livelihood, either through harvesting the bounties of land and sea, or from producing oil from captured whales."

"As you peer through the paneled windows, you can wonder if those students had any idea of what education would be like for you today. As we compare our two schools, representing education in the same place but separated by centuries, we have a wonderful tool for exploration."

The superintendent invited the community to contribute an item to a "treasure chest" that will be locked for the next 40 years. "Children, will you be here with your children to unlock the treasure chest?" she asked.

Ms. Tritt introduced East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, a graduate of the Amagansett School, who spoke of the "emotional rush" he experiences each time he returns. "This is about the sense of place," he said, "and how people care so much about the community, care so much about the history, and are willing to hang on to a sense that this building was important, that it shouldn't be changed, that someday it might become a gift back to Amagansett and be a public place."

The schoolhouse, Mr. Thiele said, "is one more gem added to that collection of what makes Amagansett great."

Hugh King, the East Hampton town crier who also is a graduate of the Amagansett School, spoke of other historic structures that have been preserved, including the 1902 Life Saving Station, nearby on Atlantic Avenue. "It's important to study history," Mr. King said, "because if you don't know where you've been, you might not know where you're going. But as Yogi Berra said, 'If you don't know where you're going, you may go someplace else.' "

"Isn't it good," Mr. King asked, "that the Amagansett 1802 schoolhouse has not gone someplace else?"

As the students rang bells to signify that class was once again in session, the ribbon was cut. The ceremony concluded with the students' singing John Howard Payne's "Home, Sweet Home."

"We can best chart our path to tomorrow by having ready access to our past," Ms. Tritt said. "We are all so fortunate that our community preserves and cherishes its past as a heritage for today's students, and those yet to come."

While the village would not confirm dates, White Buffalo, a nonprofit organization based in Connecticut, has returned to East Hampton Village to continue a controversial multiyear program to reduce the deer population through sterilization.

Meanwhile, the East Hampton Group for Wildlife responded on Friday by filing for an injunction in State Supreme Court to halt the program, in which does are captured, sedated, taken to a temporary surgical site where ovariectomies are performed, and released. The group also plans a rally on Saturday at 1:30 p.m., in which it will march from the Hook Mill to Village Hall and back.

The village board, which paid $140,000 to White Buffalo for the first phase of a planned five-year program, budgeted $50,000 for a continuing phase in its 2015-16 budget, Becky Molinaro, the village administrator, said last week.

The first phase, in which approximately 114 deer were sterilized, was not without incident. In the spring, three of the animals suffered gruesome deaths that critics attributed to the surgery, which they contend was performed in unsanitary conditions. At least three more of the animals died as a consequence of capture or surgery.

Though neither village nor White Buffalo officials would disclose the location, the surgeries were reported to have been performed in a shed used by the village’s Department of Public Works. Tony DeNicola, president of White Buffalo, angrily disputed his critics’ characterization of the site, which he likened to a mobile surgical unit that he said was equipped with sterile equipment and staffed by professional veterinarians. 

Results of necropsies performed on two deer that had been sterilized were “inconclusive as to the direct cause of death of the does,” according a statement Ms. Molinaro issued in September.

“White Buffalo’s latest sterilization surgeries have been shrouded in great secrecy, handicapping legal action,” Bill Crain, president of the East Hampton Group for Wildlife, wrote to the group’s members this week. “But I believe our lawsuit can halt White Buffalo’s careless and gruesome work in the next four years.” Mr. Crain and his wife, Ellen, are also plaintiffs in the suit, along with Adrienne Kitaeff and Betsy Petroski, who are members of the Group for Wildlife.

To support both a homeowner’s right to rent and East Hampton Town’s proposed rental registry is not a mutually exclusive stance, the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee was told at its meeting on Monday, and something must be done to curtail illegal rentals that are detrimental to quality of life.

The town board will hold a public hearing on a revised rental registry law next Thursday, at the American Legion in Amagansett at 6:30 p.m., after tabling a proposal that was criticized for being overly intrusive.

“I’m really concerned that we’re developing a problem that’s not going to be an easy fix later on,” Frank Riina, a Springs resident who has been working with the town board to draft a rental registry law, told the committee. Along with added noise and congestion, he said, multiple families living in single-family houses, dormitory-type arrangements for summer-camp staff and other workers, and share houses occupied by dozens of young adults are creating dangerous conditions for their inhabitants as well as for emergency responders, and playing havoc with school taxes, septic systems, and groundwater. A registry, he said, would address those problems as well as safeguard real estate values and the “single-family character of our community.”

“More and more people seem to realize what we already know: East Hampton is a great place,” Mr. Riina said. But with that realization has come the belief that “there is big money to be made in rental housing on the East End,” and some real estate agents are exploiting the situation. “It’s a false illusion of what our community is about,” he said.

“Why doesn’t code enforcement do more?” he asked. “They don’t have a depository of information about which houses are rented.” A registry, he said, “is a tool for code enforcement . . . When the code enforcement has a body of information, investigations are a lot quicker.”

Mr. Riina distributed a draft registration form and an inspection checklist. The former seeks the name and contact information of the property owner and agent, if any; the address, tax map number, number of rooms, and square footage of each bedroom of the rental property; length of tenancy, and number of tenants if known. The latter form is a 22-item questionnaire on which details such as the existence of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, a swimming pool and gate, stairway handrails, and lower-level sleeping area are to be listed. Registration would cost property owners $125 per year to cover administrative costs.

“Some people find this an invasion of privacy,” Mr. Riina said, but, he said, the proposed registry is far less demanding than those of other communities. “Owners who rent illegally need to be stopped, and we have the power to do that. I think we can do a better job of stopping illegal rentals if we have the rental registry,” he concluded, to applause.

“This is definitely a massive improvement” over the previous proposal, said Kieran Brew, a committee member who is a real estate salesman. However, he said, “the only people who are getting rich on short-term rentals . . . own stock in Airbnb,” the website on which such rentals are advertised. “They’re a problem for us — for us as neighbors, and as real estate agents. The problem we’re having is trying to understand . . . how this is going to fix or help with that.”

Some landlords have worried aloud that they will be held liable for violations committed by tenants without their knowledge. Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, the town board’s liaison to the committee, said that code enforcement officers “still have to do their due diligence. The fact that this law will enable them to do their job more efficiently doesn’t preclude the fact that they still have to ferret out the facts.” The proposed law is flexible enough, he said, for code enforcement personnel to “try to determine, based on the facts, who is responsible for whatever the illegality is.”

“We’re going to do the best we can to present the facts of this,” Mr. Cantwell said. “After that, it’s up to the community to decide.”

For Colin Mahar, it’s his third rent increase in as many years.

In 2012, Mr. Mahar moved from Paris to East Hampton to run Harper’s Books, a rare-book shop on Newtown Lane.

He soon settled into one of the eight apartments above Mary’s Marvelous, drawn to the nearby building’s central location, its proximity to the grocery store and train station, and above all, its affordability. For the first year that Mr. Mahar lived there, he paid $1,150 a month.

But when new owners purchased the building in 2013, his rent increased to $1,500, and late last year it went up to $1,650. Recently, he and several tenants received word of yet another rent hike. Come January, his one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment will cost $1,850, with newer tenants paying upward of $2,000 a month.

“Each time the rent increases, people leave,” said Mr. Mahar, 48, during a recent afternoon lull at the bookstore. “I can’t afford to move, and I can’t afford to stay.”

Apartments in East Hampton Village are few and far between, with the second and third floors of 105 Newtown Lane making it one of East Hampton’s only “high-rises,” whose location combines both urban convenience and rural charm.

The dearth of affordability, however, is an ongoing concern, with renters, caught in the crosshairs of a seasonal market, unable to gain a stable toehold.

“There’s a huge disconnect between the homeowners and those who do not own a place,” said Tom Ruhle, East Hampton Town’s director of housing and community development. “Renters are the people working two jobs to pay their rent, only to find that it’s going up again.” Mr. Ruhle sees the lack of affordable housing as detrimental to businesses in need of a local workforce.

Alejandra Lucci, 37, who co-owns East Hampton Flowers on North Main Street, has lived in one of the second-floor units since 2012. Over the past four years, her monthly rent has increased by $650. As a business owner, the affordable housing shortfall poses a very real worry. “What happens when a business can no longer find employees because they can’t afford to live here?”

105 Newtown Lane reminds the native of Colombia of old black-and-white movies she used to watch, when neighbors freely went etween each other’s homes.  On weekday nights, Mr. Mahar loves to cook impromptu meals, his door left ajar. And on weekend mornings, Ms. Lucci may knock on a neighbor’s door to borrow an onion for eggs or syrup for pancakes.

Apartment living allows for plentiful social interaction, a particular draw during the quiet winter months, when free refills of coffee at Mary’s are but one flight of stairs away. On nights when Ms. Lucci leaves her shop with extra flowers, she leaves small bouquets on her neighbor’s doorsteps.

“Maybe I don’t see the value money-wise, but there’s a social value to being able to walk anywhere and be around people,” she said. She plans to stay put. 

Simon and Ines Cruceta used to occupy one of the second-floor apartments and would often leave fruit or dessert on Ms. Lucci’s doorstep. For nearly 16 years, the couple called the building home. Once it changed hands and their monthly rent increased to $1,650, they could no longer afford it.

“If it hadn’t been for the rent increase, we would have still been there,” said Mr. Cruceta, 51, an employee at True Value Hardware in East Hampton for the past 15 years. Ms. Cruceta, 57, who cleans houses, said, “You work only to pay the rent and pay the bills.”

The building, which sits at the corner of Newtown Lane and Railroad Avenue, dates to 1923. In the two storefronts now occupied by Mary’s Marvelous used to be Bucket’s Deli, and before that, Cavagnaro’s Bar. Elegant Touch, a nail salon, occupies the third storefront.

Besides the commercial space and second and third-floor apartments, the quarter-acre property also includes a garage and four-bedroom house in the rear. In December 2013, Newtown Railroad L.L.C., which is registered with the Department of State as a Bridgehampton-based corporation, purchased it for $5 million.

Jack and Gusty Folks, who are among its owners, refused to comment, referring to the group of buyers as “under-the-radar kind of people.”

 For the Crucetas, the hunt for a new place to live was not easy. The couple eventually moved into a more affordable complex on Springs-Fireplace Road, where they have a one-bedroom apartment costing $1,380 a month.

They miss living in town, they said, and more than that, the open-door policy among a group of year-rounders who look after each other, whether in need of a cup of milk or a beach umbrella.

One of 105 Newtown’s newer tenants, Dominique Pontecorvo, 40, moved in with her 6-year-old son in early spring. Her “cute, clean, but tiny” apartment fetches $2,000 per month. Ms. Pontecorvo, who owns a restaurant in Montauk, enjoys living in close proximity to her neighbors. Other than the lack of a washer and dryer, her only complaint concerns parking; namely, that there is none.

 She and several neighbors alternate between parking in the long-term lot or behind Suffolk County National Bank, agreeing to move their cars early each morning.

“Coming from a house, some places were asking $3,000 or more per month,” said Ms. Pontecorvo. “I like the idea of having people you live near who have your back and help you to feel safe.”

Shaye Weaver, 28, formerly occupied a third-floor unit facing Newtown Lane. A native of Atlanta, it was the first apartment she had lived in on her own. In 2011, when she moved in, it cost her $1,100 each month. John and Barbara Cavagnaro, the previous owners, would increase her yearly rent in small, predictable increments. But when new owners took over, Ms. Weaver was living paycheck to paycheck, she said, and the rent increase became too much.

Though a group of residents banded together, signing and sending a formal letter to protest the sudden increase, their pleas were unsuccessful. Ms. Weaver, who was working as a reporter for The East Hampton Press, moved for a time to an apartment in Springs. She now lives in Brooklyn and works for DNAInfo, an online news service.

Besides Christmastime on Newtown Lane, she misses the community she found there, the bouquets that Ms. Lucci would leave at her doorstep when she was racing to meet a deadline, the open-door policy of Mr. Mahar, and the dinner parties he would frequently host.

With Christmas lights he never bothered to take down and guitars perched in the corner, Mr. Mahar calls his apartment “the most bohemian spot in East Hampton Village.”

Every resident of the building, current or former, fondly recalled the sounds of the nearby Long Island Rail Road, and the distinct preferences of two conductors.

“There’s a very enthusiastic driver who roars on his horn at 4 o’clock in the morning,” said Mr. Mahar. “Another driver gives a cursory toot-toot. It feels like the Old West when you hear the train coming. It’s kind of romantic.”

No matter the nostalgia, Mr. Mahar is now on the hunt for a more affordable option. “Come January, I will be earning just enough to live here, but I will just be breaking even,” he said. “At 48, I can’t be living hand-to-mouth.”