E. Virgil Conway, a Montauk native who grew up in one of the original Carl Fisher houses in Upper Shepherd’s Neck and went on to a career of public service, including a key term as chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, died at Southampton Hospital on Oct. 21 at the age of 86.

Born at the same hospital on Aug. 2, 1929, to Edmund Virgil Conway, the chief accounting officer of Carl Fisher’s Montauk Beach Development Corporation, and the former Dorothy Brandes, he lived an outdoor Montauk life as a youth, fishing, duck-hunting, and swimming. He was one of the hamlet’s first Eagle Scouts. His father was a founding member of the Montauk Community Church, and Mr. Conway attended and donated to the church throughout his life.

A diligent and extremely bright student, he was the valedictorian of his East Hampton High School class and won a scholarship to Colgate University, where he again graduated at the top of his class. Back in Montauk for the summers, he worked as a lifeguard at the old Surf Club.

He went on to earn scholarships to Yale Law School and Pace University, and later established several of his own, including an annual four-year grant awarded to a top graduate of both the Montauk School and East Hampton High School. He was a trustee of both Colgate and Pace.

During the Korean War, after graduating from college and before entering law school, Mr. Conway enlisted in the Air Force. He rose to become a captain, a rank he continued to hold in the Air Force Reserves.

In the course of a distinguished career in both the public and private sectors, he was the chairman and chief executive officer of the Seaman’s Bank for Savings for 20 years, starting in 1968. He was a board member of a number of major corporations, among them Union Pacific, Consolidated Edison, and the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company. A onetime chairman of the New York City Housing Partnership, he was on the board of the New York State Thruway Authority at the time of his death.

When Nelson Rockefeller became governor of New York he appointed Mr. Conway a deputy superintendent of the State Banking Department. Decades later, after serving as Westchester County’s representative on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, he was named by Gov. George Pataki to head the agency. Under his watch, from 1995 until 2001, historic initiatives were undertaken, including the move from bus and subway tokens to MetroCards.

Sometime in the next decade, Long Island Rail Road commuters will be able to choose between trains to Penn Station or Grand Central Station, thanks to Mr. Conway’s leadership. Next year, when riders board the new Second Avenue subway line, they will have Mr. Conway to thank.

He also oversaw the end of the two-fare zone, which he believed was highly unfair to the working poor.

Although he had lived since 1969 in Bronxville, N.Y., where he was an elder of the Reformed Church of Bronxville, Mr. Conway remained committed to Montauk and spent almost all his summers in there. Montauk residents and visitors alike have benefited from his generous donations to the lighthouse, the Community Church, the Montauk Medical Center, and other local institutions and charities.

In 1952, he married the former Audrey Oehler. They lived in Brooklyn Heights with their daughters, Allison Worthington of Manhattan and Quogue, and Sarah Conway of Montauk, who lives in the same house where her father grew up.

After they were divorced, Mr. Conway married the former Elaine Wingate, on June 28, 1969. She had two sons from a former marriage who, said the family, became his sons as well. William Gay lives in Bronxville and John Gay lives in Orlando, Fla.

Mr. Conway’s daughter Sarah said her father was a great history buff and “a small-town boy who had a very successful career. He was larger than life, and was loved by so, so many.”

A funeral service was to be held today at the Reformed Church of Bronxville, with burial in the Bronxville Cemetery. The family has suggested memorial donations to the Montauk Community Church, P.O. Box 698, Montauk 11954, or Colgate University, 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, N.Y. 13346.

The East Hampton School District is considering building a bus depot on the high school’s grounds, with Isabel Madison, the assistant superintendent for business, and Rich Burns, the superintendent, having presented preliminary numbers at a school board meeting on Oct. 20 and saying it would ultimately save money.

The district now leases a bus depot and maintenance garage at privately owned commercial property on Route 114. Under the contract, which goes through October of 2017, the annual cost is $103,000. The administrators said the district could build its own facility for about $4.75 million, borrowing the money and repaying it over 20 years by transfering money from its capital fund. The money that would have been spent on leasing a bus depot could be saved or applied elsewhere in the budget.

“We have considered very seriously not to have the taxpayers have any increase in the tax rate,” Ms. Madison said. “The bottom line would not change . . . and by the time you get to year 20, you practically will have acquired this building for zero money,” she said, apparently referring to the money saved on leasing over the years.

Having a bus depot and maintenance facility on school property would yield at least two more benefits, Mr. Burns said. One is the possibility of related educational programs on campus, such as auto repair, marine mechanics, and welding. He said having courses of this kind in East Hampton would cut down on the cost of tuition and transportation to the Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services in Riverhead. This year there are as many as 12 students in the BOCES program.

“Would I love to have these programs here for our kids?” Mr. Burns said. “We can get our kids career ready in really viable programs. They can have more periods a day because three or four periods were consumed by the program.”

Another potential benefit, he said, is the possibility of revenue from the Springs and Amagansett School Districts, which send their buses to the Southampton School District for repairs and maintenance, but might find an East Hampton facility more convenient. Mr. Burns noted that driving time and bus mileage would be saved by having a bus depot at the high school.

Issuing approximately $4.75 million in bonds to build a bus depot would require voter approval. Jackie Lowey, a school board member, pointed out that five years ago, when the district proposed borrowing $4.5 million to buy an old Verizon property on King Street, voters shot it down by a large margin. However, “the flaws of the last proposal, acknowledged by all, should not prohibit us,” Mr. Burns said.

In answer to a question from Ms. Lowey, Ms. Madison and Mr. Burns said there were no suitable properties anywhere else in the school district and that the district could not consider places outside district lines.

J.P. Foster, the school board president, said the financial advantages were a “no-brainer,” but he warned that siting the depot would be a challenge. “There are very few places to put it,” he said. “This property is not going to get any bigger. If we need a field today or two fields tomorrow, once it’s gone it’s gone. I think you at least have to bring it to everyone’s attention and say we need to take a look at this.”

Mr. Burns identified four possible locations, though some would mean one fewer playing field. One site would abut Long Lane at the far corner in front of the high school building, while another would take up the staff parking area and necessitate its relocation. Another possible site is on the other side of the turf field, and a fourth is on the northern side of the property behind the two baseball fields.

“Thinking about owning a property as opposed to renting just makes sense,” Mr. Burns said. “We are asking for help from the community. We have a healthy piece of land. There are possibilities . . . . This is an effort that the whole community has to be involved in.”

The next steps include more detailed examination of possible locations, further communication with the community and, in particular, with the high school’s neighbors, and possibly establishing a task force to study the proposal.

East Hampton has been operating its own transportation department since 2006 after its previous contractor, Schaefer and Sons, went out of business just a few of weeks before the start of the academic year.

The district announced yesterday that it will hold a special school board meeting, to include a public forum, on Nov. 10, related to the transportation proposal. It will take place at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium.

A four-acre East Hampton Town-owned waterfront park in Montauk named for the late Carol Morrison, an environmentalist who lived in that hamlet, is ready for public use after a lengthy effort to save it from being sold as surplus property and to restore a house there that had been used for environmental education, arts classes, and more.

East Hampton Town Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc, who led the restoration effort, credited town staff, committee members, and residents who donated work and materials with the successful yearlong renovation and restoration of both the house and grounds. Mr. Van Scoyoc and Councilwoman Sylvia Overby were key to blocking the sale of the acreage by former Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, but the house had been abandoned and allowed to fall into disrepair. 

Known as Fort Pond House and later designated Carol Morrison Park, the site will be available to residents for events inside the house or on the grounds, and for access to Fort Pond. It is one of only two town-owned accesses to the freshwater pond, the second-largest body of freshwater on Long Island.

The property, at 128 Second House Road in Montauk’s Shepherd’s Neck area, will be open from dawn to dusk. Use of the house will be by appointment only, through the town Parks and Recreation Department, at a rental fee to be determined.

The town’s property management committee is developing a detailed management plan for the park.

A main room in the house can hold about 44 people, and a covered porch, which was rebuilt, provides additional space. The house has a working kitchen, and a handicapped-accessible bathroom, Councilman Van Scoyoc said this week. Interior partitions were removed, opening up the living room area, which includes an original stone fireplace — though its use will not be allowed, for safety reasons.

Carpets and linoleum in the house were removed, and Douglas fir and heart pine flooring refinished. Outdoors, overgrown stands of invasive species were removed.

Besides providing space for indoor educational and cultural activities, Mr. Van Scoyoc said the house will likely be made available on a “very limited” basis — perhaps twice a year, in the off-seasons only — for private parties such as weddings, with the town board’s consent and a town mass-gathering permit.

User fees, which will be set at different rates for nonprofit and profit-making groups, are expected to cover annual building maintenance costs, Mr. Van Scoyoc said, and a capital plan will be established for ongoing care of the site.

The property was bought by the town for $890,000 in 2003 from Lee Deadrick. Various community groups, including the Third House Nature Center and Montauk Boy Scouts, and the Montauk School used the house until it was closed abruptly under orders from former Supervisor Wilkinson, who had targeted it for sale along with other town assets such as the Montauk commercial fishing docks to help address a financial deficit.

The 2010 plan to sell the property, which was listed for $2 million but drew no offers, prompted widespread opposition by Montauk residents, and engendered state and federal lawsuits. One challenged the town’s right to sell the site, as public parkland may not be disposed of without state legislative approval; the other was a federal Constitutional rights case, now settled, against Mr. Wilkinson and former Town Councilwoman Theresa Quigley, who were accused of retaliating against opponents of the sale.

Councilman Van Scoyoc, who presided over a “soft opening” of the park on Sunday, said in a press release that “recognizing the value of this property to our community, I am proud to have contributed to its restoration. The dedication and effort from our property management committee, several town departments, and donations from Men at Work, Concerned Citizens of Montauk, Warren’s Nursery, and Fort Pond Native Plants, have demonstrated the benefit of an effective public-private partnership.”

A formal ribbon-cutting, the councilman said this week, will take place in the spring. “It’s just a really beautiful spot,” he said. “People are excited about being there again using it.”

The family of Lilia "Esperanza" Aucapina, the Sagaponack woman who went missing on Oct. 10,  are asking for the public's help to find her. 

"We just want her back home, that's what we want," said Ms. Aucapina's niece, Maria Duchi of East Hampton, at a press conference at Southampton Town police headquarters in Hampton Bays on Wednesday afternoon. 

It's been nearly 12 days since Ms. Aucapina, a 40-year-old mother of two, was reported missing. Lt. Susan Ralph said police have received information that a woman fitting Ms. Aucapina's description was seen walking west on Montauk Highway, as far west as Water Mill, on the day she went missing. 

Her last known whereabouts were in the parking lot of a medical complex on Montauk Highway in Wainscott on the morning of Oct. 10, when a male friend brought her there to pick up her car. Her estranged husband, Carlos R. Aucapina, soon showed up and confronted the man. She had an order of protection against him, and he was arrested in the days after she went missing, charged with violating that Family Court order.

Carlos Parra, a brother of Ms. Aucapina, was also present at the press conference, but declined to speak. He was among the last people to see her, as he was present during the confrontation on the morning she went missing. 

Her family reported her missing 12 hours later. 

Lieutenant Ralph declined to say whether police had any evidence to indicate a crime had taken place, or whether her husband was considered a suspect. She also would not comment on whether he had been cooperative in the investigation.

Police have searched in and around Sagaponack and Bridgehampton for her daily, with the use of all-terrain vehicles, K-9 units, and helicopters. Her family has been distributing posters around the South Fork and praying for her safe return. 

Her niece said the family's strong Christian faith is sustaining them. "We believe, you know, that's she safe, she's alive. . . . We just have faith," Ms. Duchi said, though she added, "we have our days where there is doubt." 

Ms. Aucapina, who has lived on the South Fork for 20 years since leaving Ecuador, was devoted to her children, ages 14 and 21, both honor roll students, her family said. "She's a good mom. Every event the kids had, anything, any little thing, anything at all, she would be there," Ms. Duchi said. "We're just very sad they have to have gone through this whole situation."

Her children are staying with Ms. Duchi's family, and she said they are trying to keep life as normal as possible for them.

"We're a very close family. Our bond is not just any type of family — we're very close to one another. We love one another. We look after one another," Ms. Duchi said. 

Through a translator, one of Ms. Aucapina's older brothers said he appreciated the community's help so far. "We just want them to do the same and a little more." He said the family is in shock over his sister's disappearance, "because she is a good woman, and we never expected she would not come home, and we have no explanation for it." 

Those with information may contact police at 631-702-2230 or email [email protected].

Eighteen candidates are vying to become East Hampton Town Trustees, whose nine members manage common lands on behalf of the public by virtue of the Dongan Patent of 1686. Those elected will serve a two-year term.

Standing for re-election are the Republican incumbents Diane McNally, the trustees’ clerk, or presiding officer; Tim Bock, who has served five terms; and Sean McCaffrey and Nat Miller, both of whom have served two terms. The Democratic incumbents seeking re-election are Deborah Klughers, who has served two terms, and Brian Byrnes and Bill Taylor, both of whom were elected in 2013.

Two members of the current board, Stephen Lester and Stephanie Forsberg, the assistant clerk, are not seeking re-election.

Eleven non-incumbents are also looking for seats. Voters can find short biographies of them below by clicking their names. Two of them — Joe Bloecker, a Republican candidate, and Francis Bock for the Democrats -- have served on the board in the past.

Pat Mansir, who is also running on the Democratic line, has been a member of the East Hampton Town Board. Zachary Cohen, another Democratic candidate, has run for town supervisor and town board in the past, and Rona Klopman, also a Democrat, has run before for trustee. Six of the candidates are running for elected office for the first time -- Tyler Armstrong and Rick Drew for the Democrats and Joshua Davidson, Mike Havens, Jim Grimes, and Steven Lynch Jr. for the Republicans.

For brief biographies of the sitting trustees seeking re-election, click here. 

As Ditch Plain neighbors and their attorney made the case on Tuesday for the revocation of a certificate of occupancy for a motel at 11 Ditch Plains Road in Montauk, the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals heard from the former chief building inspector who had issued a building permit for the property and the property’s owner, Sean MacPherson.

Mr. MacPherson, who has a number of high-end hotels in New York and also owns the Crow’s Nest in Montauk, bought the eight-unit motel on Ditch Plains Road in 2014 for $1.15 million and has been at work since last year renovating it for employee housing.

He said Tuesday that has put about another $1.5 million into it, “all just so I can secure my operation here. I’m trying to supply housing for my business. That’s all I’m trying to do.”

The lot in question is zoned for residential use. For a motel — even one that houses employees through the season — to legally operate there, the business must have been operating as such since before the lot became part of a residential zone. The Ditch Plains Association and several neighbors, represented by Christopher Kelley, charged that the motel use had been abandoned for many years before Daniel Casey, a town building inspector, issued the certificate of occupancy for a motel there in April. A building permit for the property was issued by the town’s former chief building inspector, Tom Preiato.

Mr. Kelley presented affidavits from neighbors as well as electrical usage records from the Long Island Power Authority and a 2005 report from the East Hampton Town fire marshal’s office as evidence that the property had not been operated as a motel for many years. Several neighbors claimed that they had seen no hotel activity at the property.

“The only sign of life were the deer that would graze through it,” said Brian Markowski of Brisbane Road, one of those appealing the issuance of the certificate of occupancy.

“The property has not been used for many years, and everybody knows it,” said Laura Michaels, head of Ditch Plains Association, which, she said, has 500 members.

According to Mr. Kelley, LIPA records indicate that power was turned off to the motel units as early as 2004.

After visiting the property sometime in early 2005, the fire marshal wrote that the “building was unoccupied and the electricity was turned off,” concluding that “without proper electric power, this building may not be occupied in any fashion,” according to Mr. Kelley. On a visit in 2009, Mr. Preiato said that he and a code enforcement officer had found an extension cord running from the house to the motel building. They did not enter the building at the time, Mr. Preiato said.

Mr. Kelley said that when Mr. Preiato issued the building permit to Mr. MacPherson, “he was not looking at it as to whether there was a question of abandonment or whether it was a coninuation of a pre-existing nonconforming use; he looked at the plans to see if they complied with the New York State Building Code and he issued the building permits on that basis.”

Don Cirillo, a board member, asked Mr. Preiato to explain the process he followed when issuing the building permit. At the time, Mr. Preiato said, “I felt it was a viable operating business, with no proof of such, but that was under the premise that I did give the building permit.”

“You thought it was an operating motel?” asked John Whelan, the board’s chairman.

“Yes,” Mr. Preiato said.

“But in 2009 you saw an electrical cord going out from the motel to the house and you hadn’t gone in?” the chairman asked.

“Correct,” Mr. Preiato said.

“What did you base your decision on issuing it, that you were presented with evidence that it was an ongoing enterprise? Or did you check the files?” Mr. Cirillo asked.

“Maybe to the opposite, that I wasn’t aware of anything as proof that it had been abandoned,” Mr. Preiato said.

“So there was no evidence in the file to indicate that it was abandoned? Did you have access to this report from the fire marshal?” Mr. Cirillo asked.

“I imagine I had access to it,” Mr. Preiato said. “I don’t know that I read it.”

“You saw reference in the file that it was previously operated as a motel, but you didn’t verify that it was an ongoing enterprise,” Mr. Cirillo clarified.

Mr. MacPherson, his attorneys, Richard Hammer and Anthony Pasca, and his land-use consultant, Britton Bistrian, insisted that a motel had continuously existed at the site, even if it was not, as Ms. Bistrian said, “a motel that you or I or anyone would have been living at.”

Mr. Hammer presented the board with several documents to consider. Cate Rogers, a board member, asked if there was a receipt or other proof that the motel was indeed running as a business. “There should be some tangible evidence,” Mr. Whelan said.

“The state of the people who were living there, these are people who were down on their luck,” Ms. Bistrian said. “They’re not paying their taxes or paying their rent at the end of the month.”

“Clearly it was occupied and used,” Mr. Hammer said. Regardless of that, Mr. Pasca said, the neighbor’s opposition may prove to be in vain because of a “timeliness issue.” He said they had 60 days from the start of construction to appeal the issuance of the certificate of occupancy, “not just to complain to the building inspector, to complain to you guys,” he said. He wondered how they could be aware that “there was no use,” but not notice that construction had been going on at the property until September. If the board agrees that their appeal is not timely, Mr. Pasca said, “than you actually have no jurisdiction to rule on their appeal.”

“They don’t get to wait until after construction is over,” he told the board. “They sat back and watched Sean invest a million dollars in this property. This is an untimely appeal.”

Since construction began,” Mr. MacPherson told the board, “never once did a single person come over to talk to me, to complain . . . and this job could not have been more conspicuous.”

He does not plan to use the property as a motel, but “Because I was under siege, I applied for a motel permit the moment I got my certificate of occupancy,” Mr. MacPherson told the board. “I have one intent: to use it for affordable housing for my staff. We have a real problem in Montauk, which is there is nowhere for the workers to live. Gurney’s has bought motels for this use, Montauk Yacht Club has bought motels for this use. All these businesses have bought motels because they need to put up their housing.”

Mr. Cirillo summarized what the Z.B.A. is facing, when he asked Mr. Pasca whether the board needed to make two decisions, beginning with the timeliness of the appeal. Only if the appeal is found to be timely could the board even consider the abandonment question, Mr. Pasca said.

“We need to get legal counsel from the town’s attorneys,” Mr. Whelan said. At the conclusion of the over-four-hour session, the board agreed to keep the record open, to allow time to examine various documents as well as to seek advice from the town’s lawyers.

Quick work by firefighters saved three buildings this past week.

On Friday night, painting materials being stored outside sparked a blaze at Gosman’s Dock restaurant in Montauk, which had closed for the season days before. An exterior wall near the entrance was badly damaged, but things could have been much worse, said Montauk Fire Chief Joseph Lenahan.

Firefighters got to the West Lake Drive complex quickly, with the chief arriving within three minutes. He was at the firehouse, along with a group of other volunteers who had just finished fire school, when a 911 call came in, at about 8:40 p.m. from a passerby who had noticed a small fire. It grew quickly, however; dispatchers told the chief that one side of the building was “fully involved.” The Amagansett and East Hampton Fire Departments were called to help. Overall, 100 firefighters responded.

The building’s overhang was ablaze. Chief Lenahan said the fire “did extend into the building a bit, but we were able to contain it.” The windows blew out from the heat, and the whole building filled with smoke. An office above the old dining room was not damaged.

Robert Gosman Jr., the general manager and a former fire chief, had been home at the time and arrived just before the chief to find the outside of the building engulfed in flames. He “tried to keep a calm head,” he said by phone on Tuesday, while wearing two different hats. He updated the chief on the conditions, and then helped coordinate the effort to hook up to the fire-suppression system inside the building. The sprinkler system inside helped to dissipate the heavy smoke and gases and allow firefighters to do their job.

The fire was extinguished within 40 minutes. “The guys did a great job on the exterior,” Mr. Gosman said, as did the sprinklers inside.

“A lot of things worked in our favor,” he said, citing the time of night, when people were still outside to see the flames and firefighters were nearby. Also, there was little wind that night to fuel the fire.

Mr. Gosman returned the next morning to survey the damage by daylight. “I took a big sigh of relief, it could have been a lot worse,” he said. “I’m glad no one got hurt. We can always rebuild.” While the smoke damage was extensive, he was confident that the popular restaurant would reopen next season; the only question is whether it will be ready by the first weekend in May, its usual opening. Gosman’s had closed for the season on Columbus Day.

According to Tom Baker, an East Hampton Town fire marshal, the fire began under the overhang, where contractors who had been stripping and refinishing furniture had left their materials. Mr. Baker has ruled the fire accidental, caused by the spontaneous combustion of furniture-finishing products; he declined to name the brand. “It could have been very catastrophic,” he said.

Combustible materials were also blamed for a fire in a Dumpster at a construction site at 103 Montauk Highway in East Hampton Village, the new home of Landscape Details, on Sunday evening. The flames erupted from at least five cans of adhesive that roofers had disposed of, said Mr. Baker, who investigated the blaze because the village fire marshal was out of town. He said the adhesive was “highly volatile.”

The East Hampton Fire Department quickly extinguished the flames before they could spread to the building, which is across from Winston’s Bar & Grill. It was most recently the Players Club restaurant.

The heat from the flames cracked the glass on a couple of the windows, Mr. Baker said. “I just urge anybody doing any kind of work like that to follow instructions on labels to a tee in terms of disposal and storage,” he said.

East Hampton firefighters also made quick work of a fire at a house in Northwest Woods on Monday afternoon, though the house’s interior suffered extensive damage. A passer-by saw flames coming from 795 Hand’s Creek Road and called 911 at about 12:30 p.m. When Gerry Turza, the second assistant chief, arrived there was “heavy fire” showing from the street. Bushes and a deck were ablaze as well.

It was unclear whether the fire began inside or out, and Chief Turza declined to comment, as the town fire marshal’s office is conducting an investigation. Mr. Baker said Tuesday that he had not yet pinpointed the spot where the fire began.

Firefighters “made a very efficient, very aggressive attack,” first from the outside and then from the interior, Chief Turza said. Flames had just reached to the eaves, and firefighters stopped them just before they got to the roof. The two-story, wood-frame residence was not occupied at the time.

About a quarter of the house sustained heavy damage, Chief Turza said. An outside deck partially collapsed, and there was extensive smoke damage. The house’s owners are Mannik and Garabed Ayvazian of Little Neck.

Because of a shortage of public water in the area, the chief summoned tanker trucks from other departments, from Montauk to Southampton. The nearest hydrant was 1,600 feet away from the house, he said. However, the fire was extinguished so quickly that the tankers were not needed.

Correction: Gerry Turza is the second assistant chief in the East Hampton Fire Department, not the first assistant as a previous version of the story mentioned. 

The Springs Fire District has put $100,000 in next year’s budget for a paid provider to respond to emergency medical calls and will seek the advice of consultants to create a program that fits the community’s needs.

Springs, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary, is the last district on the South Fork to integrate paid responders into the volunteer emergency medical system. The Fire Department, which provides ambulance services, has been struggling to answer alarms, mostly during the day when volunteers are working outside the mainly bedroom community.

“They’re not showing up during the day‚ and we know there’s a problem with it,” Patrick Glennon, the chairman of the board of fire commissioners, said at a hearing on the district’s 2016 budget of just over $1 million on Tuesday. The increase is $7,463 over 2015.

Officials in districts with ambulance agencies that border Springs had raised concerns about the number of calls Springs needed help answering during the last year, a reported 26 percent. The district’s  commissioners had been resistant to hiring paid personnel, given generally low call volume and concern about raising taxes in an area that already struggles with the highest school taxes in the Town of East Hampton.

Although the commissioners have put $100,000 in the budget for a paid program, decisions remain about what shape it will take. They may opt to hire only emergency medical technicians, who provide basic life support, instead of advanced emergency medical technicians, such as paramedics, whom other districts on the South Fork have hired. The difference in pay is $5 to $7 per hour, Mr. Glennon said. The district has not, however, budgeted for a paid-responder’s vehicle, which means technicians may have to wait for a volunteer to drive the district’s ambulance.

The Montauk Fire District, which started its program in 2013, budgeted $227,000 for the upcoming year. The Amagansett Fire District budgeted about $243,000 for a 24/7 program in 2015.

Mr. Glennon said the program is not likely to  be offered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, which it is in Amagansett, Montauk, and East Hampton Village.  “We’re going to look at it and see what we can come up with that’s most beneficial to the department,” he said.

The chairman, who has been an advanced life support provider for 15 years, said he was not convinced that a higher level of certification, and the ability to do more, is always best for patients. Only basic life support is necessary on a majority of calls, he said.

“The paramedic level is in my opinion a dangerous level . . . they believe they are almost a doctor and that is scary,” he said, adding that he had seen instances when providers stayed on scene longer than necessary, trying to prove their skills, “not because it was right for the patient, but because they can.”

The commissioners, who are considering hiring a firm to set up and run the program, plan to meet as early as next week with consultants that specialize in setting up such programs. The commissioners said they weren’t sure yet how much that would cost, although a representative from E5 Support Services, an L.L.C. based in Queensbury, N.Y., has agreed to visit Springs to make a presentation for the cost of only a hotel room for the night. There apparently is also the possibility of hiring a provider who is in the department, although an outside contractor would be hired to pay the provider in that case.

In the budget the district initially submitted to the East Hampton town clerk on Sept. 28, funding for the program was not included. However, at its meeting on Oct. 12, the commissioners amended the budget, voting to take $100,000 earmarked for its building and equipment reserve funds for the program and to lower the overall budget by $500 to stay under the state’s mandated cap on tax increases.

“It’s a dangerous thing,” Mr. Glennon said of the result, which meant adding only $15,000 in each reserve fund. As of September, there is $329,419 in the equipment reserve fund and $151,229 in the building reserve fund, Mr. Glennon said. He noted that the district’s two ambulances are 11 and 13 years old and will cost $180,000 to $250,000 each to replace. “We have aging equipment for the ambulances. We have to buy new LIFEPAKs,” he said of the monitors also used to defibrillate patients in cardiac arrest. “They’re $37,000 apiece.”

The fire district’s budget has remained relatively flat in recent years. Chris Harmon, a commissioner, said adding $100,000 to the budget would have meant a $20 increase in taxes per house, on average. “There’s people down here living on clams — not as many as there was — but there’s still people living on clams and fish,” he said.

The bottom line, the commissioners said, is that they remain concerned that the program could end up costing taxpayers a lot of money in the long run. “We’re not going to jump and raise the taxes,” Mr. Glennon said. If they find the amount allotted isn’t enough, the board will ask for a vote next June, he said. “If the people of Springs want their taxes raised, we’re going to have them come here,” Mr. Glennon said. “We don’t want to just go ahead and do it.”

Even with decisions yet to be made, the district intends to have a program in place by the first half of 2016. “There’s something going to be done before the season,” said Mike Benton, a commissioner who also volunteers as an E.M.T.

The South Fork’s two candidates for the Suffolk County Legislature continued to clash this week over key issues that affect the region. Amos Goodman, a Republican, and Bridget Fleming, a Democrat who sits on the Southampton Town Board, traded assertions this week in an interview with The Star that often saw Ms. Fleming defending herself from Mr. Goodman’s remarks on her political record and career.

Ms. Fleming, who ran unsuccessfully for the State Senate in 2012, has cited as among her accomplishments a part in Southampton’s successful erasure of what was once an $8.1 million deficit. The town ended 2011 with an operating surplus over $1 million.

Mr. Goodman, who is a financial consultant with a background in defense and security, called his opponent a “career politician.” He said there was a “political class” in charge, which had “dropped the ball” on issues like budgeting and business development. Instead, he said, “citizen legislators” are needed.

“I think it’s essential for a new generation of people to come forward,” said Mr. Goodman. “The same problems have festered. I think it’s time for action.”

“My background has spanned both worlds and I think I can do a better job, frankly.”

Ms. Fleming responded that she has been criticized as “both an outlier and an entrenched member of the political class.”

“The idea, I guess these are implied, that I made backroom deals or am beholden to political bosses and unable to be independent is absolutely untrue, and my record reflects that,” she said. “I’m hearing a little bit of talking out of two sides of the mouth.”

Mr. Goodman questioned whether the Army Corps of Engineers’ Fire Island to Montauk Point reformulation plan, now decades in the works, would ever “come down the pike.” He said he believes that the Corps’s dune project on the downtown Montauk beach is “not a good idea.” Ms. Fleming’s position on the project was less clear in her interview on Monday, but she said that she recognized that in downtown Montauk “retreat,” or moving buildings away from the shoreline, was not a viable alternative.

Asked how to handle what many perceive is an imbalance of representation at the county level — western Suffolk is represented by 16 legislators, while the North and South Forks have just one apiece — the two candidates differed in their approaches.

Mr. Goodman said he would look at “the entire health of Suffolk County.”

“There is a key divergence of views. Is this a question of 16 to 2? There’s the traditional paradigm that the East End is special and we have unique needs,” he said. “But I think if you put it in a 16-2 paradigm, you’re already relegated to irrelevance . . . The better western Suffolk does, the better the East End does. We’re paying the price. We’re propping it up. I don’t think that’s right.”

Ms. Fleming said the specific needs of the East End cannot generally be lumped together with the whole county’s.

“I recognize there is a difference in what the various legislators bring to the table and that there is a numerical imbalance. The differences are real — traffic, overcrowding, affordable housing, natural resources issues. All those things are different.” She later added, “I think it is really important that the needs and concerns on the East End are something different from what people represent in Babylon or Islip on the needs of their constituencies.”

Asked what the county might do to help the South Fork deal with the massive influx of summer visitors and all the attendant problems that come with a seasonal population explosion, the candidates agreed that the county could play a role in improving local infrastructure.

Mr. Goodman took the opportunity to criticize East Hampton Town’s dealings this summer with Uber, the on-demand car share service. “East Hampton banning Uber was a big mistake,” Mr. Goodman said. The county might also be able to cut through local NIMBYism to take action on school consolidation or affordable housing, he said.

 “This is a source of real difference in the fact that Mr. Goodman . . . has actually suggested overriding the local town supervisor and town board with what the county might think is a better solution to the problem,” Ms. Fleming said. “That is truly problematic. There is a reason why we have local governments . . . I am absolutely opposed to the county overriding positions by local governments.”

Mr. Goodman said his remarks had been mischaracterized. “This is not even a first, second, or even tenth option. This is a last resort on certain things.”

The candidates did agree that a multi-year approach to budget planning was needed. In some of her campaign mailings, Ms. Fleming has promised to “hold the line on taxes” if elected.

“With regard to good financial management practices, I think we need to more conservatively project sales tax revenues,” she said. “I was the first to say we need a multi-year financial plan . . . There are steps we should try to replicate or try to look at opportunities to get those expenditures down. We did erase the deficit in Southampton. I think we can do it [in Suffolk] but it’s going to take some hard, careful planning.

Mr. Goodman has criticized “one-shot revenue deals,” like the sale of a county’s nursing-home facility. In his campaign literature, he has pledged to “fight Albany-style, top-down programs and work to cut waste, reign in spending, and balance the budget.”

“There are areas in which we can consolidate the indebtedness, take advantage of low interest rates . . . We can refinance. We’re doing some of that already but we need to do more,” he said. “I’ve looked at public budgets, private budgets. I understand where the gimmicks and one-shots are.”

What is expected to be the final debate between Ms. Fleming and Mr. Goodman will take place tonight at 6 at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton, under the sponsorship of the League of Women Voters.

“It’s tick city in here,” said Patricia Hope, during a recent visit to her house in the Northwest Woods area of East Hampton. Over the past year, Ms. Hope has spent hours each day collecting, identifying, and preserving ticks.

Ms. Hope, 73, is a former biology teacher who pays meticulous attention to detail, which makes describing her study of arthropods tricky — with “obsession” too pejorative and “hobby” ultimately too lightweight. She prefers “keen interest,” which still comes short of describing her collection of a halfdozen binders, each with laminated page after laminated page of local nuisances.

Four summers ago, after walking around Northwest Creek, Ms. Hope returned home with itchy, swollen bites circling her ankles and wrists. The bites, and subsequent rash, differed from previous tick bites. Peter Van Scoyoc, a friend and fellow naturalist, thought the bites resembled those of chiggers, a type of mite.

Debate has raged here for quite some time about whether the East End is indeed home to chiggers, in addition to dog, deer, and lone star ticks. Partly complicating matters, each arthropod varies in size and shape, depending on its gender and life stages — larva, nymph, and adult.

“My aim was to clarify my own position in the debate by observing, collecting, identifying, and preserving these organisms within a specific parameter,” Ms. Hope explained.

 “I don’t have to seek them out. They come to me,” she said, while holding court in her living room, which doubles as a makeshift laboratory. “All I needed was a light-colored dog, a microscope, and a strong stomach.”

In April last year, Ms. Hope decided to start keeping a formal tally, limiting her area of study to those six and eight-legged critters she collects, including those found either on her person or on her dog.

Three times a day she takes walks with Carly, a 5-year-old yellow Lab, near the preserve that surrounds her East Hampton property. The dog, on a 50-foot-long tether, is a magnet for ticks, which abound in the wooded habitat. Once home, Ms. Hope combs the dog’s coat for visible ticks and affixes them with Scotch tape to a dated index card.

The almost-invisible larvae become visible after feasting on a blood meal. The engorged larvae resemble tiny black sesame seeds, quickly dropping off into Carly’s bed, having completed the first stage of their life cycle. Ms. Hope collects them while changing the bedding each day.

 During last week’s visit, Ms. Hope affixed three lone star engorged larvae and crushed one with a pencil eraser to show Carly’s blood oozing out.

“Every tick you collect is one that won’t go to the dance next year,” said Ms. Hope, who sees a slight reduction in the local tick population as an added benefit of her research.

Last year, Ms. Hope collected around 2,500 ticks. This year’s tally includes 2,475 lone star ticks, 10 deer ticks — and zero chiggers. 

“I can’t conclude a negative. I can’t tell you there are no chiggers in East Hampton,” Ms. Hope said, peering out from her white microscope. “But over three years, I’ve viewed over 7,000 ticks, and I have not seen one chigger.”

Based on her findings, Ms. Hope has concluded that East Hampton’s tick season runs from April to November, with the adult lone star peaking around Memorial Day weekend, when Ms. Hope amassed 109 ticks during one 24-hour period. Another peak occurred in late August, when the lone star larvae hatch, resulting in those annoying, itchy, red bites, which resemble those of chiggers. Ms. Hope collected over 1,500.

So far, compared to last year, she has collected more lone star ticks and fewer deer ticks. Next year, she hopes to add weather to her list of daily metrics, logging high and low temperatures and precipitation.

When not cataloging ticks, Ms. Hope, who has not come down with any of the known tick-borne diseases, stays busy watching baseball and spending time with her 4-month-old grandson. In 2007, she retired from East Hampton High School, where she had worked for 33 years as a biology teacher and chaired its science department for eight years. In July of 2014 she surprised her colleagues by resigning from the East Hampton School Board after serving as its president.

In recent months, she also began co-chairing a 10-member education committee that is examining how local school districts might operate more efficiently, with an eye toward shared resources and cost-savings.

This winter, Ms. Hope plans to organize three years’ worth of tick data, superimposing weather systems on the information she has gathered and synthesizing her research. She is curious, for instance, about whether this spring’s prolonged snowpack led to an unusually robust lone star tick population and the extent to which the rise of various tick populations is tied to the changing seasons.

“At this point, I’m able to say that the hypothesis I was testing, which was that we have chiggers in East Hampton, is not supported by the evidence,” concluded Ms. Hope, whose passion for “good, thorough, simple” science remains undiminished. “If I have a purpose, it’s to use accepted methods to satisfy curiosity, educate myself and others, and contribute to my community.”