Citizens Climate Lobby, an organization working to address climate change by advocating a shift from polluting energy to clean, renewable sources, is coming to the South Fork.

The organization advocates the phased-in imposition of a fee on fossil fuels that would be collected by the United States Treasury Department, placed into a trust fund, and rebated in full to households. A fee that assesses the “true social costs” of fossil fuels, proponents say, would drive a transition to a domestic-energy economy and stimulate investment in alternative-energy technologies while providing an incentive for businesses to use energy more efficiently.

Don Matheson, a builder who designed and built the net-zero energy house in East Hampton where he and his wife live, is a member of C.C.L. as well as the East End Climate Action network, a loosely organized activist group based in Sag Harbor. Two weeks ago, he contacted members of the latter group and others to announce the formation of an Eastern Long Island chapter of C.C.L. Interested persons will meet with Ashley Hunt-Martorano, a national representative of the group, on March 21 at a location to be announced.

Citizens Climate Lobby, said Mr. Matheson, is “eager to get as many chapters as they can, so they’re encouraging me to get something going out here.” Also, he said, the long drive to Patchogue — in his electric car — to an existing chapter “makes it harder for me to participate.” The group aims to establish a chapter in every Congressional district in the country and pursues a nonconfrontational strategy.

“It’s to try to develop a relationship over time” with one’s member of Congress, he said, “and try to sell them on our idea that this is a bipartisan, market-based solution. It does not grow government.” Mr. Matheson called a meeting with Representative Lee Zeldin earlier this month “a good beginning.” Mr. Zeldin, he said, “complimented us on our style and presentation. We expect to have another meeting in the next month or so in his D.C. office.”

Ms. Hunt-Martorano, who had been a volunteer with the organization for the past three years, accepted a full-time position that will begin on Monday. In addition to organizing its June conference and lobbying effort, she will lead the “group start workshop” to organize the eastern Long Island chapter. The workshop trains new volunteers “how to be the most effective climate advocates,” said Ms. Hunt-Martorano, who was previously the program director of Renewable Energy Long Island, a not-for-profit organization based in East Hampton.

“When we start these workshops, we usually see passionate individuals who desperately want to make a bigger impact but don’t know how. Many times, these folks are cynical about our federal government, and rightly so. These past few years Congress has refused to work for the people. However, we at C.C.L. believe that is not a reason to disengage. In fact, we believe it is a reason that we should become more involved.”

Politicians respond to political will, she said, “so at the group start workshop, we begin inspiring and motivating new volunteers to create political will for climate action in their communities.”

The organization will succeed where other environmental advocates have not, Ms. Hunt-Martorano said, “because we start from a place of appreciation and gratitude for all our members of Congress. We know this is going to take time and trusting relationships to pass.” Many members of Congress, she said, have been surprised and appreciative of the volunteers’ approach.

“Despite my tendency toward pessimism,” Mr. Matheson wrote in his email to like-minded residents, his association with Citizens Climate Lobby “has actually given me hope. They embody a rare combination: a powerful moral sense of our obligation to do what it takes to turn the tide on climate change, along with a cold-blooded and realistic understanding, based on experience, of how to turn the knobs that control our government.”

Allison J. Rydberg, a 26-year-old Hampton Bays woman who pleaded guilty in November to vehicular manslaughter for the death in a one-car accident last April of 24-year-old Jason H. Pollak of Water Mill, was sentenced on Tuesday by Acting State Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho to 2 to 7 years in prison following an emotional proceeding in his Central Islip courtroom.

Three of Mr. Pollak’s relatives addressed the court before sentencing, including his father, Andrew Pollak, according to Ms. Rydberg’s attorney, Tad M. Scharfenberg. “When he spoke, it was hard for me to hold it together,” Mr. Scharfenberg said. “He was so eloquent. This is a man who has been crushed. They were more than father and son. They were the best of friends.”

Since losing his son, Mr. Scharfenberg said, Mr. Pollak has been diagnosed with throat and neck cancer. The younger Mr. Pollak had worked with his father in a family business, Railex, a refrigerated foods shipping company.

The fatal accident happened on Flying Point Road, near the intersection of County Road 39 and Montauk Highway, on April 19 at about 2:37 a.m. The two had been drinking at a bar, Mr. Scharfenberg said, when they got into Ms. Rydberg’s 1997 Toyota Avalon. They were headed toward the highway when the car left the road, and crashed into a tree and shrubbery. Mr. Pollak was taken to Southampton Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Ms. Rydberg was taken to Stony Brook University Hospital in critical condition.

Mr. Pollak was a popular surfer, who was remembered in a ceremony off W. Scott Cameron Beach in Bridgehampton several days after his death. The website for the Flying Point Surf School describes the event. “Carrying flowers, the group of roughly 40 locals paddled into the water, where they formed a circle as hundreds of spectators on the beach looked on silently.” The surfers held hands, motionless in the water.

After Mr. Pollak’s family addressed the court on Tuesday, Ms. Rydberg read from a prepared statement. “The few memories I have of that tragic night play over and over in my head, and I still struggle to understand how I behaved,” she said. “If given a choice, I would have gladly traded places with Jason, but I was not given that choice, and I cannot take back the horrible result of my actions.”

Even with good behavior, Ms. Rydberg will not be eligible for release until at least the minimum is served, according to Mr. Scharfenberg. “I hope, I pray, really and truly, that the Pollak family can find a way to heal,” he said.

A fund-raising effort is now under way to build a junior sports field and remake a court in front of the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center in East Hampton so that 3, 4, and 5-year-olds can participate in tennis, basketball, soccer, and other outdoor activities.

John Graham, the owner of Hampton Racquet in East Hampton, has joined forces with Good Circle, an online crowdsourcing platform based here, to raise the necessary money — with Hampton Racquet matching every donation, dollar for dollar.

Since launching the project in December, 14 backers have pledged their support. Taking matching funds into consideration, organizers still need to raise $5,720 to meet the goal of $17,140 by the March 14 deadline. Smart Sport Surfacing of Amagansett, which constructs and refinishes athletic courts, has committed to donating resurfacing work.

Those interested can pledge various amounts — from $10 to $1,000 — with incentives (from court time to tennis lessons to monthly memberships) provided by Hampton Racquet.

Three years ago, after attending a fund-raiser and noting the lack of an outdoor physical education program, Mr. Graham launched a sports program at Eleanor Whitmore. While children have access to a playground, physical education is primarily taught indoors.

Now, two to three days each week, he works with 3-year-olds to improve their fine-motor skills and hand-eye coordination and introduces 4 and 5-year-olds to a beginning tennis program (using donated rackets and balls). Since starting the program a particular emphasis has been on not only leveling the playing field, so to speak, but also encouraging young girls to take risks and feel more confident as athletes.

“I hate when kids who don’t have money get secondary crap,” said Mr. Graham, who sees the fund-raising campaign as working to “give the best to everybody — especially to those whomight not get a chance to get it.”

Currently, students have access to a “converted slab of asphalt” equipped with a net. The fund-raising initiative would work to “expand it, paint it, and help make it look right,” Mr. Graham said, noting that it would include a United States Tennis Association-sanctioned tennis court.

The aim, should the necessary money come through, is for the new field to be completed by the first week in May. Organizers hope that the wider community will come to use the tennis and basketball court, as well as the junior soccer field, on weekends and for special events and birthday parties.

Whether through small or large donations, Fred Doss, one of Good Circle’s co-founders, is hopeful that people here will see the value in pledging their support. Good Circle now has eight projects in the works, both local and national in scope.

“We’re hoping to break ground in April and get this done,” Mr. Doss said earlier this week. “Many of these kids would not have access to these sports otherwise. The more people who are involved and aware in the community, the better.”

Donations can be made at Good Circle online.

The weather in recent weeks has been unkind to motorists, with sliding, skidding, spinning cars and trucks causing mayhem on the roads. The worst of the accidents have been reported in these pages, but there were many, many more. In most of these less serious incidents medical attention was not required, although the vehicles did not always fare as well.

On Jan. 26, around the time of the first big storm, a slippery pavement was blamed for a one-car accident. John W. Glennon of Amagansett, while turning out of a driveway on Louse Point Road in Springs, lost control of his Chevy Suburban as it slid over ice and snow, and struck a tree. The vehicle apparently spun around as it skidded, as the rear end had the most damage.

That same day, Angel M. Oj Can of Riverhead, driving a 2002 Chevrolet on Three Mile Harbor Road in Springs, sideswiped an oncoming pickup truck driven by Manuel Rodriguez of Springs. East Hampton Town police cited both men for unlicensed driving.

On Jan. 28, at the intersection of Springs-Fireplace Road and Higbee Place in Springs, an East Hampton Town pickup equipped with a plow, driven by Terry E. Nesbitt of Amagansett, backed into an oncoming truck with a trailer, striking both. Brian M. Stanis of East Hampton was at the wheel of the private truck. Police said Mr. Nesbitt’s view of the road was badly obscured by “a large snow pile on the corner.”

On Jan. 29 in Montauk, Carlos Zuin of East Hampton tried to brake his 2007 Chevrolet van at a stop sign at South Euclid and Edgemere Streets, but slid instead into a 2014 Jeep driven by Kevin Smith of Montauk.

Talia H. Raebeck’s 2007 Subaru slid when she tried to brake at the intersection of Richardson Avenue and Three Mile Harbor-Hog Creek Road, Springs, on Jan. 30. The car collided with a 2004 Toyota driven by a Manorville woman, Suzanne Byrne. Ms. Raebeck is from Springs.

Sean Knight of East Hampton met Carol Duffy of Sag Harbor when his 2005 pickup truck slid into her 2010 Buick, which was stopped at a stop sign at the intersection of Old Orchard and Bob White’s Lanes in East Hampton, to close out January’s carnage. Mr. Knightwas trying to make a turn at the time.

On Feb. 17 another town snowplow, this one operated by James C. Nigro of Montauk, backed into a 2008 Nissan driven by Colleen P. Kelly of Hellertown, Pa. Mr. Nigro told police he could not see the car or hear the woman blowing her horn before the accident happened, at the intersection of South Etna Avenue and South Essex Street in Montauk.

Last Thursday, on Daniel’s Hole Road near Industrial Road in East Hampton, a snowplow blade on a 1993 Chevrolet pickup driven by Thomas A. Strong sideswiped a 2013 Honda driven by Davi A. Rubi of Riverhead. The pickup skidded on ice, Mr. Strong told town police. The car was towed away by Hammer Towing.

A large pile of snow on a corner of the intersection of Stephen Hand’s Path and Cedar Street in East Hampton obstructed the view of a Northwest Woods woman, Lori J. Marsden, on Friday. Her car collided with a 2015 Jeep driven by Gary W. Lederman of Hollywood, Fla.

Parked cars have suffered as well. Juan Cruceta of Montauk was backing his 2008 Lexus in snow and ice at the hamlet’s train station through what the police described as the only passable lane on Feb. 6, when he struck what he thought was a snow bank. In fact, Mr. Cruceta, who was waiting for his girlfriend at the station, had hit a 2000 Toyota pickup.

Jordan Daniel’s 2010 Jeep went for a slide as he was trying to navigate on a common driveway off Floyd Street, East Hampton, on Feb. 5. The Jeep hit a parked 2010 Chevrolet.

Cynthia Durazno had a similar experience in her 1999 Jeep on Feb. 2 on Timber Lane, East Hampton, when she slid into a parked utility vehicle.

George Pietraszko was backing his 2011 Chevrolet van out of a driveway on Feb. 4, not seeing Theodore Zorn’s 2013 Mercedes truck coming along the road. Mr. Zorn told police he tried to stop but could not get traction on the icy road, and the Mercedes struck the Chevrolet. Mr. Pietraszko was written up by police for unlicensed driving. Both men live in East Hampton.

A Montauk woman crashed into a snow bank on Montauk Highway near Beech Street in that hamlet on Feb. 2. E. Rodriguez-Romero told police she had lost control of her 2003 Nissan, which suffered front-end damage, in the snow and ice. Marshall and Sons towed the car.

A 2009 Toyota suffered a similar fate at almost the same spot on Sunday. Manuel Espana of Montauk was behind the wheel when he hit ice, losing control and striking a guard rail head-on. Marshall and Sons towed that vehicle as well.

Again on Feb. 2, an East Quogue man, Thomas Viola, lost control of a 2000 Volvo in the snow on Cedar Street, East Hampton, striking first a utility pole and then a tree. Though the report describes his injuries as minor, he was taken to Southampton Hospital as a precaution. The Volvo was towed by Rapid Recovery.

A patch of black ice claimed the 2004 Ford van being driven by Nohemi Villalta of East Hampton on Feb. 7 on Town Lane, Amagansett. The van slid into a snow bank, then into a tree. The driver and a passenger were unhurt, but the van had damage and was towed by Balcuns Auto.

The icy roads claimed three cars in one incident on Feb. 12. David Agudelo of Springs was stopped, waiting to turn from Springs-Fireplace Road onto Spinner Lane in East Hampton, when he was rear-ended by a 2007 Honda driven by Matthew Brown of East Hampton, who told police he could not stop on the icy road. The Honda, in turn, was rear-ended by a 1994 Ford driven by Jose Ramon of Montauk, which also slid on the ice. All three men were able to drive away after talking with police.

Icy conditions on Springs-Fireplace Road were also blamed for a one-car accident on Valentine’s Day, when a 2005 Honda driven by Genry J. Prietoheras of Springs slid off the road and struck a utility pole near Queens Lane in East Hampton.

Kenneth J. Farrell of Northwest Woods was trying to turn onto Stephen Hand’s Path off Hands Creek Road, East Hampton, when his 2009 Subaru spun out, striking a 2013 Mercedes Benz driven by a New Yorker, Mark S. Hootnick, who was stopped at a stop sign. That happened on Feb. 15.

Jefferson D. Eames of Amagansett, driving a 2015 Chevrolet, crashed head-on into a 2009 Chevy pickup truck during whiteout conditions on Town Lane Feb. 15. Andrew T. Daige of East Hampton was driving the pickup. Police noted that the road was very narrow, due to snow drifts. Neither man was hurt.

Finally, Sunday’s icy conditions were blamed for Simone Anderson Chandler’s losing control of a 2008 Honda on Montauk Highway near Lincoln Road in Montauk, where it struck a guard rail. Ms. Chandler lives in Bridgehampton.

Spring officially begins in 22 days.

The thermometer still reads sub-freezing at Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett, but a battle between the East Hampton Town Board and the town trustees, who own and manage most of the town’s shorelines and waterways on behalf of the public, is heating up. The issue is a ban on alcohol during lifeguard-protected hours at the beach, which in recent years has seen huge and sometimes rowdy gatherings of young adults.

In July, the town board prohibited drinking during the day there on weekends and holidays. The law took effect on Aug. 2 and expired on Sept. 15. The trustees were strongly opposed to it, but ultimately, and reluctantly, agreed to the temporary measure. However, the sign the town put up, prohibiting alcohol within a defined area, is still there, adding insult to injury, the trustees say. They want it removed, and would like to modify any restrictions enacted this year.

The trustees say that problems at the beach have been resolved by the increased enforcement of existing laws, as they had demanded, and by the new booth on Indian Wells Highway, whose attendants turned away buses and taxis. The statistics suggest they are correct: while the prohibition was in place, said East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo, just four summonses were issued relative to the restricted area — 1,000 feet in either direction from the road end — with four more for open containers in the parking lot, between June 1 and Sept. 15.

“Are we open to negotiations at this point?” Diane McNally, the clerk of the trustees, asked her colleagues at the body’s meeting Tuesday. “We’ve been asked to discuss continuing the same plan.” Brian Byrnes, a trustee, said that the entire five-member town board wanted to maintain the restriction through the 2015 season.

Or longer. “The supervisor would like to make it permanent,” Alex Walter, executive assistant to Supervisor Larry Cantwell, said this week. An assessment of the law’s success was difficult, he said, given it did not take effect until August. “I don’t know if it has to be revisited every year,” he said, “but it is the town board’s wish that it be permanent.”

The trustees remain upset, believing that their jurisdiction was usurped. Tim Bock summarized their position on Tuesday. “It wasn’t their jurisdiction,” he said, “and they did it anyway.”

The continued existence of the sign, which makes no mention of when it is and is not in effect, is “rude, a slap in the face, disrespectful,” Ms. McNally said. “That, after all the angst, all the meetings, and it wasn’t reflected on site or in the signage.”

“I don’t think I can trust them again,” said Sean McCaffrey, a trustee. “It was sneaky.”

Ms. McNally indicated that the group may dig its heels in this year, insisting that an alcohol ban extend just 500 feet, not 1,000, in either direction from the road end, and on a time frame matching the beach’s regulations on dogs and vehicles.

The trustees, who are often at odds with the town board and other town agencies over jurisdiction, feel that any ban is an overreaction to a problem that either did not exist or was vastly overstated. Regardless, said Mr. McCaffrey, any infringement on the peaceful enjoyment of the beach in 2014 “was defused quite a bit” by the attended booth and stepped-up enforcement. Mr. Byrnes agreed: “I think the riffraff is gone.”

Four laws designed to cut down the din from aircraft using the East Hampton Airport will be the subject of a hearing next Thursday and could take effect before the start of the busy season.

The proposed legislation would impose a year-round curfew, from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., on all flights to and from the airport. Takeoffs and landings by aircraft deemed “noisy” — primarily helicopters and jets that fall into a noise-rating category used by the Federal Aviation Administration and internationally — would be prohibited between 8 p.m. and 9 a.m. all year long.

Two additional laws would apply only in season, defined as May through September. One would ban helicopters from the airport on weekends (from noon Thursday to noon on Monday) and on holidays. The other would limit aircraft in the “noisy” category to two airport uses, one takeoff and one landing (i.e., a round trip) — per week.

Discussion of the ramifications of the laws took off before the proposal even left the runway. Concerns have been raised about the economic impact on the airport, aviation businesses, and the entire town, and about the potential for increased air traffic at the privately owned Montauk Airport.

Those afflicted by aircraft noise — residents of both the North and South Forks as well as their elected officials — have voiced support for the restrictions, but have taken issue with a revision to the original law, which was changed to exclude turboprop seaplanes from the definition of “noisy” aircraft. That would exclude them from the extended curfew and one-round-trip per-week-in-summer rules.

The change was recommended by the town’s aviation attorneys and consultants, who have worked with the town board to craft laws that would be acceptable to the F.A.A. and survive legal challenges.  

In a memo to Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, the board’s airport liaison, the consultants said that the use of several noise measurement metrics was called for in the original legislation in order to include “a fair number of propeller-driven aircraft,” such as seaplanes, in the “noisy” category. However, they wrote, because the various metrics measure different things and are not comparable, it could happen that an aircraft with one type of noise rating falls intothe noisy category while another plane that is actually noisier than the first, could be exempted, based on another type of noise rating.

“And this,” they wrote, “— a restriction that denies the use of an airport to some aircraft based on noise but permits other, noisier aircraft — is the precise scenario that courts have found to be unreasonable.”

The consultants recommended relying on one measurement standard only, of “effective perceived noise level decibels,” which, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said, “is consistent and does not create unreasonable or arbitrary distinctions.”

By that standard, however, many seaplanes would not be deemed “noisy.”

In a release last week, the Quiet Skies Coalition of East Hampton said the change was a “mistake.” The group predicted “an explosion of seaplane traffic” in response to the weekend and nighttime helicopter ban.

  “It is critically important that the aircraft noise control program succeed this season,” wrote Kathleen Cunningham, the group’s chairwoman. “The work of this town board has been exemplary. But the eyes of the entire East End are upon us as we move toward returning the peaceful enjoyment of home and property to residents and wildlife alike. Meaningful aircraft noise relief must be delivered to retain the confidence and trust of the noise-affected public.”  Charles Ehren, a Quiet Skies co-chair, called it “imperative” that the board amend the laws “to end the seaplane loophole.”

“If seaplanes are a problem, we will see it this summer,” Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said Tuesday. She said the town board would gauge the effect of legislation at that time, and seek public comment “to determine the success and/or failure of the use restrictions and whether they function the way they were intended or need to be adjusted.”

As currently proposed, the four laws together would restrict 75 percent of helicopter operations and 24 percent of all aircraft operations, said the councilwoman. The restrictions have the potential to reduce helicopter noise complaints by 87 percent, she said, and overall noise complaints by 67 percent annually.

In the summer, when the tightest restrictions would be in place, 88 percent of normal helicopter operations would be restricted, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said, with the potential to reduce complaints by 92 percent.

The question of where helicopters and other aircraft barred from landing in East Hampton would go is to be addressed by the town board at a work session on Tuesday. In a recent letter to the board, Concerned Citizens of Montauk expressed the worries of hamlet residents that they will inherit the noise problem the board is seeking to squelch, through increased use of the Montauk Airport. Because federal airport grants were accepted for projects there, F.A.A. “grant assurances,” agreements regarding airport use and operation, are in effect, meaning that the airport’s owner could not independently enact usage restrictions even should he so desire. Ownership of the airport is on record in the corporate name of Montauk Airstrip Inc., c/o a Montauk Post Office box that belongs to Perry (Chip) Duryea 3rd. Mr. Duryea did not return a call for comment.

East Hampton Town, which has also been tied to grant assurances, was recently released from several that expired at the beginning of this year, enabling the town to pursue the new restrictions.

Ms. Burke-Gonzalez does not believe that the new East Hampton Airport rules would result in a flood of traffic to Montauk. She cited that facility’s location and limited facilities, as well as weather.

Also at the board’s meeting on Tuesday, Arthur Malman, the chairman of the town’s budget and finance advisory committee, is scheduled to present that group’s analysis of the regulations’ financial impacts. In December, the committee told town board members that the airport can be financially self-sustaining even with reduced income from landing fees, and outlined other ways for it to make money.

The cost of litigation, however, “could be substantial,” the advisory committee warned. An aviation group calling itself Friends of the East Hampton Airport has already filed suit against the town, alleging lack of airport maintenance, and against the F.A.A., over the expiration of the grant assurances.

The airport fund has $1.7 million currently in reserve, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said.

Critics of the proposed regulations and of the town’s refusal to accept new F.A.A. grants to pay for airport upkeep (thus avoiding entering into new grant assurances), have accused town officials of deliberately starving the airport of funds in order to ensure its future closure. 

Loren Riegelhaupt, on behalf of Friends of the East Hampton Airport, stated earlier this month that “the board wants to blindly push ahead with their ill-advised plan to effectively close the airport, regardless of its impacts to the town’s economic well-being.”

In another release, the group said that the regulations, “if enacted, will not only put hardworking pilots out of work, they will also have a dramatic and harmful impact on all of the local small businesses that rely on a strong real estate market and summer visitors.”

Owners of airport-based businesses have said curtailing helicopter and other flights would spell their economic death.

This week, Laraine Creegan, the head of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce, circulated an East Hampton Business Alliance newsletter detailing the proposed airport regulations. She urged the hamlet’s business owners to attend next week’s hearing.

“There will be potential/negative economic issues because of this plan,” she wrote. “We may not see the impact immediately; it will probably happen in a year or two. We can see possibly in the future houses going on the market and prices going down overall.”

But in a detailed Feb. 7 memo to the town board, the airport planning committee’s subcommittee on noise wrote that there was “no material economic obstacle to airport access regulation.” In its 15-page report, the committee concluded that given East Hampton’s location and the details of its economy, the actual economic impact of the airport, its passengers, and its businesses, was limited.

“The airport is not the necessary cause of any trip to East Hampton or the East End,” the committee wrote. “While claims have been made that, without the airport, owners of expensive homes would not come to East Hampton, this is not merely implausible but risible. If the airport vanished into thin air, homes on the beach would not turn into a ghost town with their shutters flapping in the wind. If there were no airport, virtually everyone who comes to East Hampton by air would arrive by other means.”

“If there are indeed any residents who would not come to or live in East Hampton without direct air access (bearing in mind that there is air access at Gabreski Airport 26 miles distant or Southampton Heliport 15 miles distant), they would sell their homes and be replaced by others, with absolutely no net impact on the economy of East Hampton,” the memo continued.

Reports on the airport noise analysis process followed by the board and consultants can be found at the town website, town.east-hampton.ny.us, and at htoplanning.com. Comments may be sent to town officials at [email protected].

Next Thursday’s hearing will begin at 4:30 p.m., at the LTV studios in Wainscott.

On Wednesday night, the Springs School Board's budget review landed with a thud, as administrators balanced the need for cuts while a packed house of parents and teachers voiced concerns over potentially growing class sizes.

During the second budget session of the 2015-16 school year, administrators again combed through the $28.1 million budget, an increase of nearly $1.5 million, or 5.5 percent, from this year's $26.6 million spending plan.

All told, to stay under the state-mandated 1.62-percent cap on tax levy increases, the proposed spending plan needs to be cut by $2.16 million. The proposed budget assumes the transfer, for the second year in a row, of $1.07 million from the district's fund balance to reduce the tax levy. To avoid piercing the cap, the district faces a 1.58-percent — or $380,000 — limit.

"Many schools are facing some very difficult decisions," said Elizabeth Mendelman, the board president, adding that last year's budget process was far less contentious, with the addition of eight full-time employees. "Many residents expect the district to stay under the cap."

On Wednesday, based on revised estimates, John Finello, the district superintendent, proposed more than $780,000 worth of cuts. Among the big-ticket reductions: four teachers, including one English as a second language teacher ($416,764), a decrease in East Hampton High School's regular and special education tuition ($167,598), a capital fund transfer ($100,000), and a decrease in Board of Cooperative Educational Services placements ($81,751).

The elimination of two special education teaching assistants, a reduction in the superintendent's salary, and the reduction of a full-time social worker to part-time hours amount to another $100,000 in savings. What's more, Mr. Finello mentioned the addition of a contingency position ($55,798), or teacher, who would be used to help alleviate growing class sizes.

"On Feb. 9, we had a gap of $1,086,768. Now, we have a tax levy gap of $298,147," Mr. Finello said. "That's where we are and the progress we've made. We're moving in the right direction, while maintaining the integrity of the educational program." Again, such figures assume the transfer of $1.07 million from the district's fund balance.

Administrators also examined projected enrollment, sections, and class sizes.

Come September, cost and space will continue to pose significant challenges, with enrollment now projected at 703 students in kindergarten to eighth grade -- an increase of nearly 20 students from this fall.

Currently, the Springs School has 22 sections in kindergarten to grade five, with an average class size of 21 students. At the meeting, administrators proposed moving to 21 sections, with an average of 22 students per class, while also budgeting for an additional section should enrollment predictions shift.

Still, some grades show high numbers of projected enrollments -- 24 students per class for first and second grade, and 25 students per class for fifth grade.

Eric Casale, the principal, discussed the benefits of an eight or nine-period day for students in grades six to eight, including the unveiling of a 1-to-1 Chromebook program, which pairs individual laptops with fourth and fifth-grade students

Later in the evening, during public comments, nearly a dozen parents and teachers said they were concerned about the reduction in sections and subsequent increase in class sizes -- with many wondering whether the school's already overcrowded conditions were to blame.

"For too many of them, all they get is what they get in the classroom," said Margaret Garsetti, who directs the school's English as a second language program. "With larger class sizes, it's a struggle to meet their needs."

"I urge you to think about what's in the kids' best interest," said Ilaine Bickley, a second grade teacher, who pointed out that classes starting with 25 students in September often grow larger as the year goes on. "I will still work hard and my students will do well, but the students aren't going to be as successful as they can be."

"The goal is to keep most of our classes under 25 students," affirmed Ms. Mendelman.

"It's a balancing act of moving forward with the budget process," said John Grant, a board member, shortly before the meeting was adjourned.

The board will convene a third and likely final budget review on March 9 at 7 p.m., when tuition, employee benefits, the projected budget, and the tax levy, among other items, will be tackled.

—

An earlier version of this article mistakenly attributed Ilaine Bickley's statement about class sizes to Eileen Goldman.

As snow continued to fall across the South Fork, the Springs Fire Department responded to a report of a house fire early Sunday evening. 

A caller reported seeing flames at 191 King's Point Road in the Clearwater Beach area at about 5:35 p.m., but when East Hampton Town police arrived an officer saw that it was a wire from a pole to the house that was on fire. 

Springs Fire Chief David King ordered all units to proceed slowly because of the road conditions. The East Hampton Town Highway Department was requested with a plow and sander. The chief also asked for PSEG Long Island to respond to shut down power to the house. 

A winter storm warning remains in effect for eastern Long Island until Monday at 7 a.m., according to the National Weather Service. Snow accumulations of 4 to 7 inches are expected. 

Firefighters quickly put out a fire at the Montauk Yacht Club on Sunday night. 

The Montauk Fire Department was dispatched when flames became visible in the north building on the yacht club property at 32 Star Island Drive at about 9:20 p.m. Chief Joe Lenahan requested an engine from the Amagansett Fire Department and the rapid intervention team from the East Hampton Fire Department in case firefighters needed to be rescued. 

A 9th fire division coordinator was requested to respond to the yacht club. The Springs Fire Department was called to stand by at Montauk's headquarters at about 9:45 p.m., but the coordinator canceled the engine about five minutes later when Montauk firefighters reported that the flames were extinguished. 

Firefighters and emergency medical service personnel responded in hazardous road conditions after several inches of snow fell on the South Fork. The National Weather Service reported the temperature in Montauk to be about 31 degrees with windchill temperatures of between 20 and 25. 

Check back for more details as they become available.

Firefighters responding to an automatic fire alarm at the Montauk Yacht Club on Sunday night discovered flames, which the Montauk Fire Department quickly extinguished. The fire caused minimal damage to one hotel room. 

Fire Chief Joe Lenahan said Monday that Vinne Franzone, the first assistant chief, Dave Grimes, a department captain, and Domingo Schiappacasse, a lieutenant, were on duty when the department was called to the alarm at 32 Star Island Drive on a snowy evening. The alarm was going off in a hotel room in the north building along a dock across from the pool. "Chief Franzone called dispatch to confirm that we had a fire immediately," said Chief Lenahan, who arrived within three minutes. Within a half-hour, firefighters put out the flames.

"Good thing the alarm system did its job," he said. 

The hotel was unoccupied, as the yacht club is closed for the season, but the heat and alarms were still on, according to Tom Baker, an East Hampton Town fire marshal who is investigating. The cause may have been a problem with a built-in electric wall heater in the room. The fire damaged a bathroom and burned through an outside wall. Mr. Baker described the damage as minimal.

"It was a good stop by the Montauk Fire Department," Mr. Baker said. "They did a really good job under the circumstances getting things done," he said referring to the snow and ice. 

One firefighter injured his shoulder and was treated at the hospital on Monday morning, Chief Lenahan said.

Five pieces of apparatus from the Montauk Fire Department responded, along with an engine from the Amagansett Fire Department and the rapid intervention team from the East Hampton Fire Department. The Springs Fire Department was asked to stand by at Montauk's headquarters.