Bishop Lawrence C. Provenzano of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island is planning to create a year-round ministry serving the South Fork’s Latino community at St. Thomas Chapel, the historic church at the corner of Montauk Highway and Indian Wells Highway in Amagansett.

The diocese owns the church, which is presently used only in the summer, and a three-bedroom rectory on the property. Plans, according to a brochure issued by the diocese, call for the hiring of a missioner who will live in the rectory and use the church as a base of operations from which to build a community of parishioners living between Montauk and Southampton. The church will also be winterized and expanded by constructing a foundation that will make room for two bathrooms and a kitchen (the chapel presently has no plumbing) as well as a community room.

Attendance at the church is low. At Monday’s meeting of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee, the Rev. Denis Brunelle, vicar of St. Thomas and rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton, said that the average number of worshipers over the last decade was 19. Meanwhile, Bishop Provenzano had asked the clergy on the North and South Forks whom they are ministering to. “The 10 Episcopal parishes said, ‘We’re not addressing the Hispanic community, yet their numbers are rising more and more,’ ” Father Bru­nelle told the committee.

“I don’t anticipate we’re going to see any large congregation here,” he said, given his belief that most Latinos in the area are Roman Catholic. “We’re not going to be looking at 700 people at St. Thomas on any given weekend. We would be happy if there were 50.” Given the work schedules of many Latino residents, he said, services would not necessarily be held on Sunday mornings, or even on weekends.

Tina Piette, of the committee, offered encouragement. “I fully support it. I think it should be used,” she said of the church.

Hers was a minority opinion, however. The plan drew sharp questions and concerns from other members, and the discussion rekindled familiar complaints about traffic, overcrowding, and a shortage of parking accommodations, with some members suggesting alternative sites outside of the hamlet.

“We don’t have parking to absorb any additional traffic,” Kieran Brew, the committee’s chairman, said. “Every year it gets more crowded. More people using more facilities. . . . How much moreintensity can that space absorb, and how much more can we as a hamlet absorb?” In five years, he predicted, “it’s only going to be more crowded.”

Most committee members who spoke were similarly skeptical of the plan to raise the church and dig a foundation. The exterior would not change, Mr. Brunelle said. The project would not commence before 2016 at the earliest.

But the church’s location is already a particularly hazardous one, said Mr. Brew, who noted that there is no traffic light, crosswalk, or sidewalk there. Across Indian Wells Highway, vehicles enter and exit the Mobil service station from three points, he continued, and vehicles speeding to and from Indian Wells Beach in the summer add to the danger. Committee members also voiced the fear that the chapel’s lawn would be eliminated to accommodate parking.

“You’re bringing to the table things that should be discussed,” Ms. Piette told Mr. Brunelle. “You are bringing to the forefront the parking issue, future planning issues for this community. So thank you for coming and answering questions. I’m sure we’re going to see you again,” she said, once a site plan review has been conducted and all stakeholders have weighed in.

“If it gets to that point before I retire,” Mr. Brunelle answered. “I’ve got eight years left.”

The committee remained skeptical when the discussion turned to a prospective plan to remove the garbage receptacles at Indian Wells Beach and institute a carry-in, carry-out policy on a trial basis. As she had at the East Hampton Town Trustees’ meeting on March 25, Rona Klopman told her colleagues that the town’s litter and recycling committee, on which she also serves, had presented the plan to the town board, which considered it on Tuesday.

“I don’t think it’s going to work,” said Michael Diesenhaus, the committee’s vice chairman. “It’s a very short time before the season, and changing people’s behavior takes a lot of time, a lot of work.”

If the policy is ineffective, Mr. Brew said, “we’re looking at a disaster.”

Betty Mazur, on the other hand, was supportive. “Anybody that camps in parks is familiar with the concept of carry-in, carry-out,” she said. “I don’t see why we’re so negative.”

In a show of hands, just three members endorsed implementing the plan for the coming summer season. When John Broderick suggested that the committee be asked to support an experimental implementation of the policy — May and June only — the vote was 6 in favor, 11 against.

In a dramatic day of testimony in the rape trial of Jason Lee, accuser and accused faced each other for the first time in almost 20 months, as the trial before acting Supreme Court Justice Barbara Kahn moved into its fourth day.

In the packed courtroom on Tuesday, the woman, known only as D.D., gave a graphic and tearful description of the alleged attack in the early morning of Aug. 20, 2013, at an East Hampton house Mr. Lee had rented for the month with his wife, who was in Manhattan at the time.

Mr. Lee’s attorneys have claimed that the sex was consensual and on cross-examination after D.D.’s direct testimony, pointed to inconsistencies between what she said on the witness stand and statements she gave to East Hampton Town Police and a grand jury shortly after the alleged 2013 attack.

On Tuesday, D.D. said she had gone into a downstairs bathroom at 1 Clover Leaf Lane to change back into her peach-colored dress, which she taken off earlier to go swimming in her underwear in the backyard pool.

She became aware, she said in court, that Mr. Lee, who was naked, was outside the bathroom door. She said he pushed his way in. She tried to stop him by pressing against the door, but he overwhelmed her, she said, knocking her backwards and injuring her.

Asked by Ms. Kelly what happened next, D.D. paused for a long time, and then said, "He was on top of me." She said she called for her friend, Fiona, but that Mr. Lee then put the back of his hand over her mouth and said, twice, " 'Shut the fuck up.' "

He then pulled up her dress, pulled down her panties, and began intercourse, she said.

She struggled to free herself, she said. "With every ounce of strength inside of me," she said, and managed to knee Mr. Lee in the groin.

The whole attack took two or three minutes, she said.

Mr. Lee then left the bathroom, D.D. said. She took the dress back off, she said, "Because it was disgusting."

The dress, according to the prosecution, then disappeared until an investigator working for Mr. Lee's defense team delivered it and a pair of underwear to the district attorney's office in a sealed box on March 12, 2014.

During cross-examination, Andrew Lankler, one of Mr. Lee’s attorneys, began by showing D.D. several photographs, inluding "selfies," taken that night of herself, her friends, and Mr. Lee. She, her brother, and some friends had just met Mr. Lee and a friend of his at Georgica, a Wainscott restaurant and nightspot. In two pictures, Mr. Lee had his arm around her. In response, she said that she and her friends found Mr. Lee and Mr. Duncan's attention to them "funny," because they were so much older than the women.

The group drank and partied until closing time, when D.D., Fiona, and a few others went to Mr. Lee's rented house.

Mr. Lankler had D.D. read the statement she gave to police about where she got the clothing she was wearing after she left the pool, and read to her from the  grand jury testimony. He did the same for her account of putting the peach dress back on, pointing out the differences between her current testimony and what she had said previously.

He also pressed her on what happened when Mr. Lee had stripped all his clothing off, before the alleged attack. He asked if Mr. Lee had gotten into the pool with D.D. and Fiona. Fiona testified he had; D.D. said he had not.

Mr. Lankler questioned D.D.'s claim that she had shouted for her friend Fiona's help, asking her how loud she had shouted, until the prosecution objected.

D.D. began crying, and Mr. Lankler asked if she needed time. "No, I'm fine," she replied.

Ms. Kelly asked D.D. in a redirect question if she had ever told her parents what had happened. "No," she answered. "Nobody at home knows what happened."

As the trial of Jason Lee on the charge of rape in the first degree continued in Riverside on Wednesday, the prosecution turned its attention to Mr. Lee’s cellphone records on the morning of Aug. 20, 2013, when the alleged rape took place.

Over the two hours that prosecutors said Mr. Lee was hiding in the back of his Range Rover in his driveway in East Hampton as police searched for him, dozens of calls ranging in length from 30 seconds to 5 minutes were made to and from his cellphone, according to testimony from Detective Charles Scharff of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office.

The detective testified as an expert in investigating phone records. According to the detective, Mr. Lee’s phone was used to call his friend Rene Duncan, who was at the house with him and had been out on the town with him the night before. It was also used to call the house phone and various taxi companies in East Hampton and Montauk. Last week, a dispatcher for Lindy’s Taxi testified that she had received a call from the number now known to be Mr. Lee’s requesting a taxi from the house to the Surf Lodge in Montauk around the time the police investigation began.

As the morning grew later, the phone was used in many calls to and from Goldman Sachs, the financial giant where Mr. Lee was a managing director at the time, the detective testified.

Mr. Lee’s text records are expected to be introduced in court on Thursday as the trial moves into its sixth day.

Supporters of the Breakwater Yacht Club packed the meeting room at Sag Harbor Village Hall and spilled out onto the stairs Tuesday night to press the board on why the community sailing center’s lease was not being renewed. Though the discussion got heated, the yacht club eventually got its way and will remain in its home for at least the next 10 years.

The not-for-profit community sailing center was 45 days away from the expiration of its 20-year lease with the village. Mayor Brian Gilbride put the club on Tuesday night’s agenda, seeking authorization to reject the its option to renew its lease for another 10 years. The club had sent a letter to the board in December electing to continue the lease for underwater and upland property at a Bay Street site formerly owned by the Mobil corporation.

The following month, Mayor Gil­bride intimated during a public meeting that the club had broken its lease in some way and that it needed to be discussed. Since then, he said village officials had not heard from the club.

“The road goes both ways,” Bruce Tait, a club board member, yelled out at the mayor. “The landlord should be the one reaching out. Our lease has been written. If you don’t agree with it, reach out and tell us. But you haven’t done that, mayor.”

Luke Babcock, a member of the board of directors and a village resident, said the club has been paying $3,000 a month, but would pay $6,000 a month under the terms of the lease during the extension. The club has 10 more years left on a Bridgehampton National Bank mortgage, which it has to pay whether it remains on Bay Street or not.

Robert Beres, a sailor and village resident, said he wanted to know what the specific issues were. “Is it purely greed? It’s not a matter of another $6,000; that’s not going to make or break the village,” he said.

While Fred W. Thiele Jr., the village’s attorney, tried to explain some of the back story, the crowd shouted: “What is it?”

Mr. Thiele said he had advised the board before its meeting to discuss the situation in executive session after he heard from Anthony Tohill, an attorney the yacht club hired believing it would be facing eviction. The mayor said he did not believe it had come to that yet.

“I have never heard eviction or anything else,” Mayor Gilbride told the crowd. “But I will tell you firsthand that the lease needs some work.”

Mayor Gilbride said the club was supposed to have hooked up to the village’s sewer system by now, but instead has a septic system. The club flashed documents from the Suffolk County Department of Health indicating that the sewer line does not extend far enough for the club to reach.

Robby Stein, a village trustee, said alcohol was being served at parties held at the yacht club, which also may be prohibited in the lease.

After several testimonials from members of the club, including a trio of girls, and with the crowd getting feisty, Ken O’Donnell, a village trus­tee, made a motion to approve the club’s option to renew its lease. “I’m not a sailor. I don’t know port from starboard, but I know right from wrong,” he said. Mr. Stein seconded the motion, which was followed by a rousing round of applause.

More discussion followed including about the need to review the insurance. There was even an apology offered from Olaf Neubert, the club commodore, who told Mayor Gilbride he was sorry if he should have reached out instead of waiting for the village to do so. However, he said, “If I see an agenda item, ‘authorization to reject Breakwater Yacht Club’s lease’ . . . I’m asking what spirit is going on here?”

“That was to get the attention to get people down here,” Mayor Gilbride replied.

“A phone call would work really well,” Mr. Tait chimed in.

With the crowd chanting, “vote, vote, vote,” the board finally did, unanimously renewing the club’s lease.

Also on Tuesday, the board approved revisions to the village’s wetlands permit regulations. Rich Warren of InterScience, a village consultant who worked on drafting the code with Denise Schoen and the harbor committee, said the new code will better protect the village. The harbor committee will have sole discretion over applications, in contrast to the old two-tier system in which the zoning board of appeals reviewed an application first and grant variances before the harbor committee had a chance to review the wetland permit requests.

Applicants now have the burden to demonstrate practicable alternatives when asking for variances from wetlands setbacks. Among other changes, the bluff-dune setbacks have been reduced to 50 feet since most lots in the village cannot meet the 100-foot setback.

“These regulations are not going to make it easier, but it’s going to give the harbor committee the teeth that it needs to do the best for this community,” Mr. Warren told the board.

A moratorium on reviews of wetland variance applications will be lifted as soon as the secretary of state receives and signs off on the changes.

Also Tuesday, after several months of review the board enacted legislation that bans single-use, retail plastic bags. The new law was passed, purposefully, just in time for Earth Day on April 22, to coincide with the approval of the same legislation in neighboring municipalities. However, the law in Sag Harbor will not be enforced until June 1 to give business owners the time to use up their inventory of plastic bags.

The lure of waterfront living, the stratospheric value of most South Fork real estate, and fear that a catastrophic weather event could destroy it all were starkly illustrated at Tuesday’s meeting of the East Hampton Town Trustees.

The residents of Lazy Point in Amagansett, who lease the land on which their houses sit from the trustees, had agreed to modest increases in the cost of their leases for the next 12 months, after furious opposition to the terms the trustees first proposed.

 But the sound and fury continued on Tuesday as residents protested proposed amendments to their leases that had been suggested by Diane McNally, the clerk of the trustees, or presiding officer, on April 7. The amendments, they argued, could result in the termination of their leases as well as the loss of their houses.

  Under the amendments, leases would terminate if fire, wind, or water caused damage that would cost 50 percent of the value of a house to repair. They also would require the homeowners to remove whatever was left of their houses at their own expense. Furthermore, the amendments would give the trustees the right to terminate a lease if a lot were “deemed unsuitable for continued placement” of a house due to “events including but not limited to flooding, erosion, increase of ground water level, or loss of natural vegetative buffers.” Again, tenants would bear responsibility for the removal of their houses.

  Gordon Ryan, an attorney who lives at Lazy Point, spoke for his neighbors when he asked Ms. McNally on Tuesday to “think these proposals through before you shoot them out there.” If a house was severely damaged by a weather event, he said, “Now you’ve had a disaster, you have to pay to demolish it, now you’re homeless. You don’t think people are going to be upset?”

The intent, Ms. McNally said, was not to force tenants from the land, but to address ongoing issues such as, for example, the plea by one Lazy Point homeowner, Susan Knobel, for permission to move her house from severely eroded shorefront to higher ground, or, in another matter facing the trustees, that four contiguous property owners at Louse Point in Springs are seeking permission, over the group’s strong objection, to build a rock revetment along the shore.

 “I just threw this out there as the concept to say, long-term, what are we going to do if there’s a disaster?” Ms. McNally said. “I do understand that as it was disseminated among some of the tenants, there was a great deal of concern. I apologize.” The proposal, she said, was “simply for discussion purposes.”

But for residents, the proposal was more cause for sleepless nights. “We don’t understand how you can view it as anything less than death by attrition for us as a community,” David Elze said. “We’re all facing sea-level rise. We’re all facing climate change. We’re looking for solutions, not abandonment of this neighborhood.”

Mr. Elze proposed allowing residents to move their houses to vacant land. That isn’t realistic, Ms. McNally said, saying there are few open lots in the area and that much of the landward areas were freshwater wetlands.

 “The land now is so constrained by environmental concerns that I don’t think you can do it,” she said.  However, she added that the town’s Planning Department would survey vacant lots to determine which, if any, were suitable for a house and septic system.

Tenants should understand, Ms. McNally said, that “we have been inundated with questions, concerns, proposals” about the ocean and bay shorelines. “It’s not a good situation, but it’s one that has to be answered.” Together, she said, the residents and trustees need to create guidelines. 

“We’re talking about local folks, in very small homes, in a neighborhood which touches everybody’s heart,” Ms. McNally said. “But whatever is decided for that locale is going to apply to the multimillionaire who is on the ocean and wants to buy his way through every permit process. We really have a lot on our shoulders here, and it is going to be very hard to work our way through the whole thing. But little by little, we’ll get there.”

The drawings, paintings, photographs, and other works of art will measure just five by seven inches, but at the upcoming Springs Mystery Art Sale, the measure of their value may be much, much larger.

The fund-raiser will benefit the Springs School’s Visiting Artists Program, which teachers and parents say has been incredibly meaningful for the students since its inception eight years ago. The program connects professional artists with students for workshops and trips that supplement the students’ regular classroom activities.

“The impact has been profound, really, because they’re getting exposure to so many different varieties and styles of art and different personalities and resources,” said Colleen McGowan, a Springs art teacher who coordinates the program.

After raising $36,000 from the sale of 1,200 pieces in the first Mystery Art Sale last year, PTA volunteers are planning a repeat with the hope that it will again raise thousands. Every piece in last year’s show was sold, and on opening day a long line of people waited at the door before it had even opened.

The event is modeled after a similar one at the Royal College of Art in London, which often attracts artistic contributions from world-class artists and designers along with student work, all of which is displayed anonymously. This year, organizers of the Springs sale say the contributing artists and celebrities include Liza Minelli, Peter Dayton, David Salle, April Gornik, Toni Ross, Ross Bleckner, Dan Rizzie, Linda Capello, Eric Freeman, and Janet Jennings, among many, many more, also displayed anonymously. In addition to work by students, organizers have collected more than 300 pieces of work by a variety of professional and amateur artists. They will sell for $2o apeice.

This year’s event will be held from April 29 through May 3 at Ashawagh Hall, with display and purchasing hours from 4 to 7 p.m. on April 29, April 30, and May 1, and starting at 10 a.m. on May 2. A reception will be held at 2 p.m. on May 2, with select works up for auction at 3 p.m. Before the night is over, the big reveal will take place and buyers will be able to learn whose work they purchased. Artwork can then be picked up on May 3 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

The deadline to contribute work has been extended to April 20. Those who wish to submit workcan request guidelines by emailing ­[email protected]. Packets for con­tributors, including sturdy watercolor paper, can also be picked up at the Golden Eagle art store on Newtown Lane in East Hampton.

Irena Grant, one of the event’s PTA organizers, said the Visiting Artists Program “flourished tremendously” following last year’s art sale.

“The students have unique opportunities to learn and experiment with various creative techniques and new ways of expressing themselves through art,” Ms. Grant said in an email. “It made us all aware just how much there is to be offered and shared.”

In the past, artists would volunteer for the Visiting Artists Program, but now, with the proceeds from the fund-raiser, the artists can be compensated for their time.

For Kym Fulmer, a professional artist who lives and works locally, participating in the program at the Springs School is a way to share her enthusiasm for art with children.

“I try and tailor the projects so they’re able to think about things and produce artwork that’s meaningful to them, using their homes, their families, and their hobbies,” Ms. Fulmer said.

It’s not just about art — there are life lessons to be learned along the way, too. On her recent visit to a Springs first-grade class, Ms. Fulmer told the students that it is okay to make mistakes because they can be a learning experience.

“I’m not always happy with what I make, but sometimes, you have to just keep moving on and making something new,” she told the children.

Andy Piver, a graphic designer and illustrator who works with the Project Most after-school anime club at the Springs School, is a visiting artist who is working with students to produce a comic book that will be available for sale.

“I think it’s a great program,” he said. “With the history of the arts culture in Springs . . . we’re so blessed we live in such a great area.”

Ms. McGowan said the program is “truly gratifying.”

“The artists feel supported, and the students see the artists as superheroes,” she said. “It’s been nice to build a community.”

A vote is expected tonight on three measures restricting access to the East Hampton Airport, the first local regulations designed to reduce regional disturbance from flights and to target “noisy” aircraft, particularly helicopters.

The laws, if approved, would establish a year-round curfew, closing down the airport entirely between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. daily. From May through September, aircraft designated as noisy would be subject to additional regulations, including a curfew from 8 p.m. to 9 a.m. and a limit of two “operations” (takeoff or landing) per week.

The most far-reaching proposal, an outright ban on helicopters at the town airport on weekends during the summer season, has been dropped.

In preparation for the vote, the town board on Tuesday reviewed an environmental assessment of the laws prepared by Marguerite Wolffsohn, the town planning director. A goal of the town comprehensive plan, Ms. Wolffsohn said, is to “ ‘take forceful measures to protect and restore the environment. . . .’ and to “reduce the impacts of human-produced noise.”

In addition, she said, the town’s airport master plan, adopted in 2010, states that “control of noise and adverse environmental impacts at the airport is consistent with current town goals for improved quality of life and land and water conservation” and that environmental protection is “essential for improving the town’s seasonal and year-round economy.”

The master plan talks about achieving the goals through “reasonable, non-arbitrary and nondiscriminatory [airport] management practices,” including limiting the maximum size of aircraft to be accommodated, regulating excessive peak demand during the summer season, and adjusting use patterns, “such as for helicopter access to minimize community disturbances.”

The Planning Department documents reiterate the findings of the aircraft noise studies conducted on behalf of the town, noting that noise from helicopters has accounted for a majority of noise-related complaints, and that sound from helicopters has characteristics that make it particularly disturbing.

“The laws are expected to reduce the disturbance to residents, visitors, and wildlife caused by noisy aircraft and to help restore our acoustical environment in accordance with the goals of our Comprehensive Plan,” Ms. Wolffsohn wrote in her report.

While the town has decided not to pursue an outright ban on helicopter landings and takeoffs on summer weekends, the three remaining restrictions could affect neighboring communities and their airports — an impact that was examined by a consultant, Peter Stumpp, as part of a traffic-diversion study, with results presented this week.

Concern that a helicopter ban in East Hampton would simply create new problems at neighboring airstrips — Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach, the Southampton helipad, and the Montauk Airport — led to the omission of that provision, and to the study. Ms. Wolffsohn said in her report that decisions by pilots and passengers about what other airports to use if precluded from coming to East Hampton by a curfew or by the weekly limit on noisy aircraft, would be based on numerous variables such as final destination, fuel requirements and availability, weather, and airport amenities and hours. Besides going elsewhere, she said, passengers and pilots could change the time of their flights to comply with restrictions, use quieter aircraft, switch from helicopters to fixed-wing aircraft, come to East Hampton by other means of transportation, or simply make fewer trips here.

The year-round 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew on all aircraft is expected, according to the airport use data reviewed by Mr. Stumpp, to cause 457 flights to be rescheduled and 125 others, including 43 involving helicopters, to be diverted to other airports.

As the Southampton Heliport has the same curfew, the planes could go only to Montauk or Gabreski. However, the report notes, there is a voluntary curfew in effect at Gabreski during the same overnight hours, and the Montauk airport is not staffed at night, leaving pilots unable to get information on conditions, etc.

The extended curfew for noisy aircraft would affect 1,824 operations, including 1,013 helicopter flights, Mr. Stumpp concluded.

Morning and evening flights within an hour of the new curfew cutoffs would be expected to reschedule, he said, and the operators of other flights are expected to choose equally among the options: rescheduling, diverting, or using quieter aircraft.

Helicopter landings at East Hampton Airport have gone from a total of 2,893 in 2006 to 4,198 last year. At the Montauk Airport, records that begin in 2010 show 168 landings by helicopters that year and 385 last year. In Southampton, where the tally started in 2008, there were 658 landings there that year; that number increased to 890 last year. Gabreski Airport had 890 landings in 2006, going to a high of 1,276 in 2007 and a low of 450 last year.

From May through September, helicopter operations accounted for 76.4 percent of the “noisy aircraft” operations at East Hampton Airport.

Instituting the twice-a-week maximum on operations at East Hampton by noisy aircraft along with the curfews would affect 5,822 flights, Mr. Stumpp calculated. The majority — between 2,538 and 3,216 — would respond by going elsewhere, he estimated. Between 1,504 and 2,182 flights would be made using quieter aircraft instead, he said in his report, and 1,102 would be rescheduled.

During the summer season, the limit on noisy aircraft would mean an average of 6.4 to 8.5 helicopter arrivals would be diverted from East Hampton to another airport each day. But on a peak day, according to past records, that could mean that between 18 and approximately 24 helicopters could be diverted from East Hampton Airport.

The calculus shows that less than one potential arrival at East Hampton by a noisy fixed-wing aircraft would be diverted each day.

Mr. Stumpp concludes that the diversion of flights from East Hampton to other airports would not result in a substantive increase in road traffic, nor significant noise impacts to people living under those airports’ flight paths. The approaches to the Montauk Airport and Southampton Heliport are over water, he says, and Gabreski Airport encompasses 1,451 acres.

In addition to a vote tonight on the new restrictions, the board is expected to schedule a hearing on May 7 on the penalties proposed for those who don’t follow them: a fine of up to $1,000 for the first violation by an individual aircraft, rising to $4,000 for a second violation, $10,000 for a third, and, for a fourth violation, banishment from the airport for a period of up to two years. 

The addition to the town code will also codify the board’s intention to evaluate the effectiveness of the airport use restrictions after Sept. 30, and present conclusions to the public. The studies will include an analysis of the diversion of traffic to other airports, the effect of the regulations on noise complaints, the effect on aircraft operators, and the financial impact of the new regulations.

The watering can was too heavy for any one student to lift on his or her own, but guided by the steady hands of their garden teacher, Springs School kindergartners learned how to water newly planted violas last Thursday.

Later this spring and through the summer and fall, seeds planted in Springs will grow into flowers, vegetables, and herbs that will be used in several ways. After-school clubs will learn how to cook with the fresh produce, and teachers will plan a school-wide salad lunch using the garden’s bounty. A plant sale scheduled for May 30 will help raise money to support the self-sustaining garden program, dubbed Springs Seedlings. Another idea is to set up a farm stand for the older students to learn the business side of gardening, and some of the leftover produce will go home with the students.

Hailey London, the school’s garden educator and greenhouse manager, said the Springs garden “is a seamless part of the school experience.”

“It’s an outdoor classroom that serves to help reinforce the science education going on in the school, and to enhance the kids’ nutrition knowledge and food understanding,” Ms. London said. “It really is a meaningful part of many of the grades’ learning. It helps them connect to where their food is coming from.”

In a region already known for its farming industry, schools are increasingly looking toward on-campus gardens for hands-on education and fresh produce to nourish both their students and the surrounding community. Partnerships with community members, businesses, local farms, and nonprofit organizations are part of the equation, helping to maximize the benefits of school gardens — often called edible school gardens.

In fact, the Springs program is just one such example. According to the Bridgehampton nonprofit Edible School Gardens, schools in Amagansett, Sag Harbor, East Hampton, Bridgehampton, Montauk are among those with thriving edible gardens.

In Bridgehampton, a group of parent volunteers meets every Monday at noon to maintain the school’s greenhouse and garden. Their work will supplement what the students are able to do during classes and when after-school clubs meet to plant, water, and harvest. The bulk of the food goes directly to the school’s kitchen, where the staff advises teachers and volunteers on the types of produce the kitchen can use. Bridgehampton’s greenhouse is currently growing mixed greens and sugar snap peas.

Kat McClelland, a parent volunteer and Bridgehampton School Board member, said helping in the garden is really fulfilling.

“We’re really making a difference in what the kids eat,” Ms. McClelland said. “Also, the East End of Long Island has such deep history in farming. It’s important for the kids to understand that.”

In many cases, students, parents, and community volunteers need not have extensive gardening experience in order to contribute to the life of the gardens and greenhouses. Ms. McClelland said Judiann Carmack-Fayyaz, a Bridgehampton teacher, is guiding them as they go along.

In Montauk, Donna Di Paolo, a teacher, said students have lately been busy turning the ground over and getting ready to plant. Last year, a tomato grown in the Montauk school garden won third place in an Island-wide tomato contest hosted by the Old Bethpage Village Restoration. The school’s greenhouse, which Ms. Di Paolo said has been around for 30 years, was recently renovated and dedicated to the late Carol Morrison, a founding member of Concerned Citizens of Montauk.

According to Edible School Gardens, the Hayground School was among the pioneers of school gardens, with a program started 12 years ago. The late Jeff Salaway “had a dream of the entire school sharing a meal from the school garden.” Later, a culinary building named for him — Jeff’s Kitchen — was built at the Hayground campus.

At East Hampton’s John M. Marshall Elementary School, Karen Defronzo, a teacher who coordinates the garden club, has the children planting lettuce, kale, peas, and marigolds in recycled plastic containers turned into “mini greenhouses.” She plans to make kale and fruit smoothies for the kids using what they grow, and hopes to start a farm stand in the lobby for parents to browse when they come to pick up their children. Ms. Defronzo also said East Hampton High School also has a robust garden program.

“It’s important, I feel, to start them young to take an interest in gardening, and then that should carry through to their older years,” she said. “The kids seem to really enjoy it. . . . I’m really looking forward to working with them and seeing their reactions when they see what they planted in these little mini greenhouses.”

Edible School Gardens will host its primary fund-raiser on Sunday between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. at Dodds and Eder in Sag Harbor. Ms. Carmack-Fayyaz, the chairwoman of the organization, said the group hopes to raise money for programs that connect professional farmers and chefs with the schools as well as for “mini grants” for individual teachers and schools.

Ms. Di Paolo said she has observed students “expressing joy about being outside and working with the soil.”

“I always notice that they’re really motivated,” she said. “They’re using extra physical energy when they’re working — more than when they’re tackling a workbook.”

“There are so many lessons to be learned in the garden from the importance of nurturing something from start to end, to stewardship and personal responsibility. A school garden provides a space where academic concepts can be applied in real time in a real-world situation,” Ms. Carmack-Fayyaz wrote in an email. “There is nothing more satisfying and rewarding than seeing the fruits of one’s labor. In a garden, you get that experience; you come to understand within a growing season that effort and investment pays off richly, that challenges are many and that many hands make light work.”

A weekend ban on helicopters at the East Hampton Airport will not be among the restrictions designed to reduce aircraft noise over East Hampton and the East End.

The measure, which would have barred helicopter takeoffs and landings from Thursday noon through Monday noon from May through September, was the most far-reaching of four laws developed after extensive study of the noise problem and related legal issues. It was dropped because of concern that barring helicopters from the Wainscott airport would only reroute them to the privately owned Montauk Airport, or to landing strips in Southampton and Westhampton, diverting noise complaints, along with the aircraft, elsewhere.

Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, the East Hampton Town Board’s airport liaison and sponsor of the proposed laws, said this week that after hearing from residents and officials of neighboring towns, she became “concerned about a real risk of unintended consequences.”

“We don’t want to move the problem from the westernmost part of the town to the easternmost,” she said, or “just shift the pain.”

The three remaining proposals will be put to a town board vote next week. Those regulations, expected to be adopted and in place before the start of the summer season, would establish an airport curfew from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., with an extended curfew from 8 p.m. to 9 a.m. for “noisy” aircraft, which would be limited to one trip to the airport (landing and takeoff) per week during the season.

At a town board meeting on Tuesday, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez stated that the three laws on the table were “not the end of a process, but the beginning of a long-term commitment to achieving and maintaining the right balance between airport operations and our community’s quality of life.”

According to the town’s noise consultant, she said, the three regulations will affect 75 percent of helicopter flights that occur on weekends and holidays, along with 73 percent of the complaints about them. Overall, she said, it would affect 23 percent of all aircraft operations annually while addressing 60 percent of the noise complaints.

“That is, in my mind, meaningful relief,” she said. “It is relief that our residents will receive without shifting the burden to other communities.”

Ms. Burke-Gonzalez cited the concerns of Riverhead and Southampton public officials who spoke at a March 12 hearing on the package of four laws. Southampton Village Mayor Mark Epley had protested that diversion of even 10 percent of the helicopters seeking to land at East Hampton to the village-owned Southampton Heliport, which is unmanned and lacks emergency services, would double the operations at that facility and create a “serious safety issue.”

Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst, along with Councilwomen Christine Scalera and Bridget Fleming and Riverhead Town Councilwoman Jodi Giglio, said diversion of helicopter flights to Gabreski Airport in Westhampton would have a negative impact on its surrounding communities.

Ms. Burke-Gonzalez predicted on Monday that the one-trip-per-week limit imposed on noisy aircraft would result in quieter weekdays in East Hampton. Companies that offer air service to and from the town would probably make their only weekly trip on or near the weekend, she suggested, when more visitors are seeking transport.

She also suggested that companies might start using quieter helicopters to fly here. There are several models with noise ratings below the town’s proposed noise threshold.

But Charles Ehren, the co-chairman of the Quiet Skies Coalition, which is based in East Hampton, fears, he said Tuesday, that air transportation companies will get around the once-a-week restriction by using a wider variety of aircraft for East Hampton runs. He applauded the town board’s efforts to address airport noise “with one exception,” dropping the ban.

The three laws Ms. Burke-Gonzalez will offer at the board’s meeting next Thursday will be “part of a much larger package of actions,” she said, which are outlined in an eight-point airport plan.

Besides the adoption of the three local laws, the plan includes working closely with East Hampton’s Congressman Lee Zeldin, who is pressing the Federal Aviation Administration to require that helicopters maintain a minimum altitude on flights from New York City to the East End. The town will also call on the F.A.A. to establish a regional task force charged with finding long-term solutions to the problem of aircraft noise, by addressing flight tracks, altitudes, and flight procedures. In the short term, the town will work with the Eastern Region Helicopter Council and other industry groups to develop voluntary noise-mitigation procedures.

The town will also upgrade its flight-tracking and noise-monitoring systems, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said, “to make sure we have the best data available on operations at the airport.” After this summer, professionals will analyze the effect of the new laws. The results will be presented at a public meeting, the councilwoman promised, where any changes in the restrictions will be discussed.

The plan also calls for the appointment of an airport management advisory committee, which will replace several advisory committees set up by Ms. Burke-Gonzalez toward the start of deliberations over the airport laws. The new committee will include representatives “from the range of interests who have been involved in the airport debate,” she said.

Ms. Burke-Gonzalez also addressed comments that, she said, “have appeared in local papers by the aviation interests’ paid publicists.” Contrary to their assertions, she said, a reduction in air traffic will not make it necessary to use taxpayers’ money to subsidize the airport. “The assets at the airport and revenue generated by the airport will continue to adequately fund airport operations, capital improvements, and potential litigation,” she said.

The town board is to consider an increase in landing fees before the coming summer, she said, as well as an increase in rents on airport property, as existing leases expire. Financial audits for 2014 are expected to confirm a $1.8 million surplus in the airport fund, she said, assuring the board that the airport will be maintained “as safe and efficient.”

Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said that dropping the weekend helicopter ban was based solely on concerns about the impact of diverting that traffic. Opponents’ predictions of dire economic consequences should flights be restricted were not persuasive, she said, in light of financial analyses.

In response to the councilwoman’s statement, the Friends of the East Hampton Airport, an organization made up of several New Jersey-based businesses, issued a statement of its own, reiterating its concerns.

“Unfortunately, these ‘changes’ don’t change anything at all,” said Loren Riegelhaupt, a spokesman for the group. “The proposal would close off the airport to the vast majority of traffic, resulting in a dramatic loss in revenue for the airport and economic activity for our community, and will do nothing to mitigate the obvious impact on neighboring communities across the East End. We remain committed to finding real solutions to addressing aircraft noise and welcome the town’s statement that they want to continue to partner with the aviation community.”

Adopting the three laws “is the most reasonable first step,” Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said in her statement, adding, during a phone interview, that “with any balanced approach, you’re not going to make anybody happy.”

As the rape trial of Jason Lee moved into its second day on Thursday, acting New York State Supreme Court Justice Barbara R. Kahn heard testimony from a taxi dispatcher, an East Hampton Town detective, and a retired Suffolk County forensic specialist.

Yadira Holandes-Vlazquez, a dispatcher for Lindy’s Taxi, told the court that Lindy’s received a call not long after she started her shift at 6 a.m. on Aug. 20, 2013. The caller asked for a cab from 1 Clover Leaf Lane in East Hampton to the Surf Lodge in Montauk, saying it was an emergency, the dispatcher said.

Mr. Lee was renting the Clover Leaf Lane house for the month. He and a friend had returned there for a late-night party with his accuser, a 20-year-old Irish woman, along with her brother and four others after meeting them at a nearby restaurant. 

In court on Thursday, the dispatcher repeated the phone number given by the caller; it was the same one Mr. Lee gave as his own at his arraignment in East Hampton Town Justice Court on Aug. 21, 2013. The prosecution has not yet revealed that to the judge.

Minutes after the first call for a taxi came in, the man called back asking, “ ‘Where the f*** is my taxi?’ ” the dispatcher told the court.

Asked on cross examination if the caller had an accent, the dispatcher said that he sounded like a "typical city person" who "wants everything now."

East Hampton Town Police Officer Sarah Mortensen was originally responding to a report of a stolen vehicle, called in by Mr. Lee’s friend Rene Duncan. Testifying on Wednesday, she said that after she learned that the alleged victim -- identified only as D.D. -- was in distress, she brought her to her squad car, where the 20-year-old said that she had been raped by Mr. Lee. The officer said she noticed that Mr. Lee, who had been standing in the street before, had disappeared.

Shortly afterwards, the Lindy’s taxi arrived and the driver told Officer Mortensen that he was there to pick up his fare, she had testified. Officer Mortensen sent the taxi away. Mr. Lee was found two hours later curled up in the back seat of his Range Rover, which was parked just a few feet away.

Also testifying for the prosecution on Thursday were two detectives, Ryan Hogan of the East Hampton Town Police Department, and William H. Rathjen, a forensic specialist recently retired from the Suffolk County Police Department.

The trial will resume on Monday morning. The alleged victim is expected to testify next week.

Mr. Lee, a former managing director at Goldman Sachs, faces a minimum of five years in state prison if he is convicted on the rape charge. In addition, he faces two misdemeanor charges: assault in the third degree and sexual misconduct.