Firefighters from four departments on the South Fork fought a fire for about three hours in a Bridgehampton house that suffered extensive damage on Friday afternoon.

In freezing temperatures, the Bridgehampton Fire Department was called to a fire at 2 Sea Farm Court at 1:24 p.m. The homeowner told dispatchers the chimney had collapsed and it was on fire. A large pile of wood was in the front yard. The man was still inside the one-story house when the first chiefs arrived, but he was able to walk out on his own. 

Firefighters had a difficult time immediately finding fire hydrants that were covered by snow. 

Chief Gary Horsburgh called for additional resources from the Sag Harbor Fire Department. A rapid intervention team from the East Hampton Fire Department responded, in case firefighters needed to be rescued. Because of the length of time it took to extinguish the fire, particularly in the basement, East Hampton's crew was used to fight the blaze, and the rapid intervention team from the Southampton Fire Department was also brought in.

It was unclear what caused the fire and where it began. Fire chiefs confirmed that the chimney was compromised in some way. Two Southampton Town fire marshals responded, and they are investigating the cause.  

Emergency medical technicians from the Bridgehampton Fire Department, the Southampton Village Volunteer Ambulance Corps, and the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association assessed firefighters' conditions. No one was injured. 

All firefighters were released just after 4 p.m.

Check back for more information as it becomes available.

Update, 6:45 p.m.: Montauk Fire Department Chief Joe Lenahan said a fire that broke out at Duryea's Lobster Deck on Saturday afternoon, causing damage to a wall, could have been a lot worse had no one been there when it started. 

Perry B. Duryea III, who sold the the iconic waterfront seafood wholesale and retail market complex last year but is still managing it, called 911 after spotting smoke in the kitchen while doing some maintenance work, Chief Lenahan said Saturday evening. Firefighters were called out at 1:45 p.m. 

The exterior wall of the kitchen was damaged by flames. The chief said the cause of the fire was "a rotten gas pipe." The East Hampton Town fire marshal's office is investigating. "If no one was there it would have been worse. He was able to shut down the gas and power to the entire complex," Chief Lenahan said.

About 50 firefighters and five of the department's trucks responded. They were back at headquarters an hour and 15 minutes later.

There are plans in the works for a high-end restaurant on the property, which includes a dining deck on Fort Pond Bay.

Original, 2:24 p.m.: A fire was reported at Duryea's Lobster Deck , the iconic waterfront seafood wholesale and retail market complex in Montauk on Saturday afternoon.

Perry B. Duryea III called 911 after spotting smoke in the kitchen, and the Montauk Fire Department was called out at 1:45 p.m. Firefighters reportedly found flames near the roof on the side of the building, which is at 65 Tuthill Road overlooking Fort Pond Bay. Mr. Duryea, who with his wife, Wendy, sold the property last year, had stayed on as the Lobster Deck's manager.

Firefighters were attacking the fire from the inside of the building, and the department's ambulance company was setting up to assess firefighters. Chief Joe Lenahan asked firefighters to spread Speedy Dry because of the icy conditions. No other departments were called.

The East Hampton Town fire marshal's office was called to investigate what caused the fire.

There are plans in the works for a high-end restaurant on the property, which includes a dining deck on Fort Pond Bay.

Mr. Duryea's grandfather bought into the business in the early 1930s. It and an adjacent property, as well as two underwater parcels, sold for $6.35 million to Sunrise Tuthill, an otherwise unidentified Delaware corporation, in March.

Check back for more details as they become available.

Amos Goodman, a financial consultant who lives in Springs, has announced his intention to run for Suffolk County's Second Legislative District on the Republican ticket, and appears to have strong support from the Suffolk County Republican leadership as well as the East Hampton G.O.P. With the announcement, Mr. Goodman becomes Long Island's first gay Republican candidate for county legislator.

Mr. Goodman will campaign to succeed Legislator Jay Schneiderman of Montauk, who, because of term limits, cannot run again. The Democratic Party has not yet announced a candidate for the race. The Second District includes all of East Hampton, Southampton, and Shelter Island, and a portion of Brookhaven.

"People are not quite aware of how much money is being taken from sales tax, from other kinds of taxes, and in my view not spent well," Mr. Goodman, who is 31, said on Monday. "The East End towns are already subsidizing a lot of Suffolk County in terms of paying a lot more in than we're getting back. My concern is, with some of the priorities and lack of leadership at the county level, that's only going to get worse and will make the climate for businesses out here worse. That will drive more people away. . . . People who have lived here their entire lives can't afford to stay here in retirement. That's a real shame. That's the death of a community. There' s a role the county can play in that, and I want to be a part of that."

In 2013, Mr. Goodman established a political action committee called Forward Long Island. He was previously a senior associate of the Cohen Group, a consulting firm founded by William Cohen, a former United States senator and representative who served as secretary of defense under President Bill Clinton. From 2007 to 2008, he was a fellow at the Project on National Security Reform, a nonpartisan organization formed to update the U.S. national security system to better address post-Cold War global security conditions.

He is a graduate of the University of Chicago and earned a master's degree in national security studies at Georgetown University. Locally, he is a member of the Springs Citizens Advisory Committee and the Maidstone Gun Club, among other organizations.

Mr. Goodman's announcement included statements of support from Tom Knobel and William Wright, the Republican Party chairmen of East Hampton and Southampton, respectively. He will also seek cross-party endorsements on the Conservative and Independence Party lines, and is prepared to spend upward of $200,000 in the campaign, according to his statement.

The East Hampton Town Republican Committee is scheduled to screen candidates on Wednesday at the American Legion Hall in Amagansett. "This is not yet the designated candidate," Mr. Knobel said of Mr. Goodman on Monday. "That won't be until late May. However, obviously we're high on him -- he's a very, very intelligent, very capable fellow. If somebody of his caliber comes along to screen in addition, that would just make it even better."

--

Correction: The article that first appeared online incorrectly reported that Mr. Goodman is Long Island's first gay Republican candidate. He is not.

Police are looking for a man they said fired shots in a house in Sag Harbor Hills after holding a gun to an occupant's head Tuesday evening.

Officers responded to a call of gunshots fired in the vicinity of Hillside Drive West at 7:40 p.m.

The incident brought the East Hampton Emergency Services Unit out to search for the man, whom Sag Harbor Village police identified as Ali Wisdom, a 37-year-old who lives in the neighborhood.

According to police, Mr. Wisdom had entered the house on Hillside Drive and demanded money from the person inside, whom he knew. He had "what appeared to be a semiautomatic weapon and put it to the head of the resident" and then fired two shots at a television set, police said.

After that, police said, Mr. Wisdom ran out a backdoor toward a neighboring property. He fired a last shot, through the front window of the residence, before he fled on foot. It was unclear if he made off with any cash.

The emergency services unit, made up of officers from across the East End, was called and gathered at the Sag Harbor Golf Course.

The Suffolk Police K-9 unit and a county police helicopter also responded to search for Mr. Wisdom, to no avail. His minivan was reportedly found in the area. The Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps was also called to stand by during the search, which lasted several hours.

Sag Harbor Police Chief Tom Fabiano did not return calls for comment yesterday. The victim's name was not released.

Anyone with information about Mr. Wisdom's whereabouts has been asked to call Sag Harbor Village police at 725-5167. All calls will be kept confidential.

A hearing before the Sag Harbor Village Board Tuesday night shed light on the circumstances surrounding an abandoned house on Union Street that is arguably the most blighted structure in village and may have started a process by which its health and safety concerns could be cleared.

The village board is demanding that the house, at 6 Union Street adjacent to the John Jermain Memorial Library, be cleaned up after going over a report by Tom Preiato, the village building inspector. The two-and-a-half-story, 4,000-square-foot, Federal-style house is about 210 years old and is known to villagers as the Morpurgo house for Annselm and Helga Morpurgo, sisters who fought over it for decades and allowed it to fall into disrepair. It was once thought that the library could expand onto the property.

“I have concerns with the structure and its condition,” Mr. Preiato, who was hired only recently, said at the hearing. He rattled off a long list of violations of the New York State Property Maintenance Code and village code, among them  an open septic tank, a front porch in “imminent peril of collapse,” gaping holes in exterior walls, compromised floor structures, and overgrown vegetation.

Mr. Preiato told the board he would like to have parts of the house either repaired or demolished and a fence around the entire property to keep curious trespassers out.

The hearing was held to put the owner on notice that work had to be started within 30 days and finished within 60 days, or the village would have the work done and bill the owner for it.

The owner of the house is a limited liability corporation called Captain Hulbert House, and village officials do not seem to know the name of the corporation’s principals.  The L.L.C. bought the house at auction in November 2007 for $1.46 million, after several failed auctions. Earlier that year, the village had deemed the building unfit for human occupancy.

The Morpurgo sisters had long argued over a sale price, but in 2006 Anselm offered to sell the house on eBay for $19 million. At the time, she claimed it was built by Capt. John Hulbert, “hero of Ticonderoga and crafter of the Hulbert flag eulogized by Francis Scott Keyes [sic] in his ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ ” The sisters had also once said the house was built around 1810 for a Captain Vail, a whaler.

Mr. Preiato said he had sent a certified letter to the owner, and to Samuel Glass and Joel Zweig, attorneys who were, at least for a time, involved in the house’s complicated legal situation, although it took several attempts to obtain the right address.

Enter David P. Fallon, a Sayville attorney representing Atlantic View Holdings, which has held a mortgage on the property since a Supreme Court Justice issued summary judgment to foreclose on the property in November. Mr. Fallon spoke at the hearing of the “tortured litigation history of this property.” He also mentioned that the house had been tied up in one of the phony mortgage schemes that sent George O. Guldi, a former Suffolk legislator, to jail, serving 4 to 12 years for his connection with $82 million in mortgage fraud.

The mortgage holder has tried to no avail to recoup “upwards of $1 million,” Mr. Fallon said, by entering into an agreement with the Captain Hulbert House L.L.C. “A notice of default was sent in December because they did not make that payment,” he told the board. He explained that Atlantic View would need Supreme Court Justice Emily Pines to sign a judgment of foreclosure before it could go onto the property to undertake repairs. 

“Can I ask, who can then?” Sandra Schroeder, a village board member, asked. Only the principals of the Captain Hulbert corporation can, Mr. Fallon said. He added that he has had contact with the owner and will try to see that at the very least a fence is put up and the septic filled.

“Our hands are a little bit tied,” he said. He said he was afraid that the village might go ahead and tear down the house, tacking the cost of doing so onto the outstanding tax bill, which would lead to more problems.

“I don’t know that the whole property would be demolished, but he raises some health and safety concerns that have be addressed,” Mayor Brian Gilbride said of the building inspector’s report. “I would prefer not to have to remedy this. I would prefer that you or some agent would remedy it, but somebody has to remedy,” he said.

Fred W. Thiele Jr., the village attorney, who is also a state assemblyman, advised the board to get an engineering report to substantiate the building inspector’s statement. 

“Hopefully, you’ll move quicker than us,” Mayor Gilbride said, addressing Mr. Fallon. Time will only tell. A possibility, Mr. Thiele and Mr. Fallon agreed, is that the owner might file for bankruptcy, which would freeze foreclosure proceedings and further prevent the mortgage holder from taking action.

Yesterday morning, however, Mr. Thiele said the process was moving in the right direction. “Just by holding the hearing last night, we know a lot more about this than we did the day before yesterday,” he said. “We want to see the property cleaned up. We don’t care who owns the property. . . . We’re willing to give it some bit of time. We’re not going to wait forever for that to happen,” he said.

Later at the village board meeting, Mr. Preiato said one of his priorities was to address other houses that aren’t being properly maintained by absentee owners. William Pickens, who attended the meeting, said there are a handful of houses in Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest, and Ninevah that raise health and safety concerns, though their taxes may be current. Mr. Preiato said he had put together “a blight list” and an appearance ticket had been issued for the owner of at least one house. “I can assure it’s not falling on deaf ears,” he said.

A proposed year-round, nighttime flight curfew and a weekend ban on helicopters at East Hampton Airport from May 1 through September is causing concern about a ripple effect on East Hampton’s easternmost hamlet, where, it is feared, the privately owned Montauk Airport could become an alternative helicopter destination.

In a letter to the East Hampton Town Board, Jeremy Samuelson, the executive director of Concerned Citizens of Montauk, wrote that the proposed restrictions — four laws that are on a fast track for adoption before the summer season — do not “consider or quantify possible impacts to the hamlet of Montauk, its economy, environment, or residents’ quality of life.” The town board has scheduled a March 5 public hearing on the proposed regulations. With a large crowd expected, it will begin at 4:30 p.m. at the LTV Studios in Wainscott.

After the C.C.O.M. letter was presented at a board meeting on Tuesday, Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, the board’s liaison for airport matters, said that consultants preparing an analysis of the potential impacts of the proposed regulations would include a look at possible effects on Montauk.

The Concerned Citizens asked in its letter that the town board “demonstrate whether alternatives to the proposed legislation could achieve similar results for East Hampton while minimizing or eliminating impacts for Montauk,” and that the board “identify specific measures that could minimize impacts to Montauk.”

In addition, the group asked that the town immediately begin working with Senator Charles Schumer, Representative Lee Zeldin, and the Federal Aviation Administration to enact a mandatory helicopter route over water for traffic landing at Montauk, similar to an F.A.A.-mandated helicopter approach to East Hampton requiring a route off Long Island’s north shore until helicopters turn south toward East Hampton.

The proposed restrictions are in four separate laws. One would establish a standard airport curfew from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., while a second would extend that curfew for planes that fall into a “noisy aircraft” category, as determined by an F.A.A. metric, to from 8 p.m. to 9 a.m.

A third rule would ban helicopters from the airport on weekends (noon Thursday through noon Monday) from May 1 through September, and the fourth would restrict “noisy aircraft” to no more than two uses, or one round-trip, per week during the summer season.

Led by Ms. Burke-Gonzalez, aviation and legal consultants for the town have worked throughout the year to analyze and define noise data and craft regulations that will pass muster with the F.A.A., meeting the agency’s legal standards for local airport restrictions.

The announcement of the proposed regulations last week prompted thanks from residents and officials across the East End, who have been pleading for East Hampton Town to act to reduce aircraft noise, but it also unleashed a wave of criticism and threats of litigation from the aviation industry, including a number of helicopter companies.

Related: Montauk Airport Is on the Market

In response to strenuous opposition to proposed changes to its lighting code, the East Hampton Village Board closed a hearing on the matter at its work session on Thursday without taking action.

Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said that the board would not vote on the proposal until it could study the comments it received and consider less-restrictive changes to the law.

The changes were intended to update a 2004 law to better address light trespass, regulate lighting deemed needless, maintain the village's rural character, and save energy through new technology and reduced use. They would have compelled lighting deemed nonessential to be turned off between dusk and dawn. Lighting in violation of light-trespass limits could have been ordered removed or altered. The changes would have prohibited foliage illumination and "wall washing" by spotlights on nonresidential properties. New regulations would have also been applied to automatic teller and vending machines.

Some business owners and their representatives were harshly critical of the proposed changes and made their feelings known at the board's Jan. 16 meeting. In response, the board left the public comment period open.

At Thursday's meeting, Mayor Rickenbach said that the board had received 11 letters in opposition to the proposed changes and 8 in support.

"Based on all information and data received, either in person before this body or in writing, we are going to close the hearing and take no action on the language as presently promulgated," he said. Rather, the board will study the comments received, and "probably be a little more inclusive with regard to input from others" before modifying the ordinance.

"We thank everyone that did offer a comment, either in favor of or opposed," the mayor said before the board voted to close the hearing. "It's a sensitive subject and we want to, at the end of the day, get it right."

A driver was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital after a sedan was hit by a pickup truck on the driver's side at a controversial intersection of Route 114 in East Hampton Village on Friday afternoon. 

The two-vehicle crash occurred at Buell and Toilsome Lanes at about 12:10 p.m. East Hampton Fire Department's heavy rescue squad helped extricate the driver. A passer-by said the car looked as if a white four-door Chevy pickup truck hit the sedan's driver's side "straight on." The East Hampton Village Ambulance Association transported the driver to meet a Suffolk County medevac helicopter that landed at East Hampton Airport around 12:30 p.m.

The intersection, often called "the five corners," was closed to traffic after the accident. It wasn't immediately clear what caused the accident.

The East Hampton Fire Department also responded with a pumper truck. A fire chief was heard requesting that the village's Department of Public Works sand the intersection. 

Next year, a roundabout is to be constructed at the intersection, which officials have called hazardous due to traffic volume, poor sight distances, and misalignment of the intersecting roads. Discussions about how to improve the intersection have been going on for at least two years. In October, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, and village officials announced a $700,000 State Community Capital Assistance Program grant for its construction. 

A United States Army Corps of Engineers erosion-control project planned for the Montauk oceanfront will be larger than previously thought and could require as many as 3,000 truckloads of sand, according to bid documents.

Additionally, with a planned start date for its first phase in March looming, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has not issued the necessary permits.

Potentially necessary East Hampton Town permits have yet to be secured, something a spokesman for the Army Corps said would be the responsibility of the contractor performing the work.

According to specifications prepared by the Army Corps, an artificial dune will be built from thousands of plastic-fabric sandbags and will be covered by mostly imported sand extending more than 100 feet from its landward side, reaching beyond the Atlantic’s mean high water line in some places. Earlier, the fill had been described as extending 50 feet. Much of the material to be used for this will come from a remote sand mine and will not be taken from the beach itself.

In a new addition, the project will also incorporate long, sand-filled “geo-tubes” at the seaward and landward edges of the sandbag structure.

“It is unfortunate that the level of detail in the specifications was not available to the public and town officials before it went to bid,” Jeremy Samuelson, the executive director of the Concerned Citizens of Montauk, said yesterday.

“There are aspects that we have serious questions about that no one was aware of,” Mr. Samuelson said. These include the addition of permanent, raised walkways that cannot be removed in the event of a storm, and the removal of native primary dune to accommodate the sandbags, he said. Questions also remained about the apparent lack of a plan for stormwater on the inland side of the new dune.

The project is slated to begin in mid-March, with seven-day-a-week activity on a first section ending by May 21. The initial work zone will be from about the road end at South Edison Street and run east to the Atlantic Terrace resort, a span of about 1,200 feet.

The balance of the project, which is expected to begin in the fall, will extend from South Edison Street to about 240 feet west of South Emery Street. Under the terms of the bid documents, the contractor could return to the Montauk beach as early as Oct. 1 No work will be allowed over the Columbus Day weekend.

In all, 3,200 feet of shoreline will be encased with sandbags and buried under the new berm.

At a projected maximum, some 102,000 cubic yards of sand will be required, a portion of which will come from the site itself, Chris Gardner, a spokesman for the Army Corps, said on Monday. Earlier project descriptions had estimated the total amount of sand necessary at about 45,000 cubic yards; that figure grew after a series of storms, including a bad one in December, ate away at the beach.

Money for the estimated $8.9 million undertaking comes from a 2013 Hurricane Sandy relief bill passed by Congress.

Along with the additional beach fill, the documents describe three raised pedestrian walkways that will be built over the new, 15-to-16-foot-above-sea-level dune. These will be at South Emery Street, South Embassy Street, and South Edgemere Street. East Hampton Town officials have asked the Army Corps and the state D.E.C., which is taking the lead on the project, if lower roll-out wooden walkways could be used instead.

Mr. Gardner said that the Army Corps and the D.E.C. would consider acceptable alternatives.

No walkways or stairs are depicted in the Army Corps plans to provide access to the beach directly from the motels and several condominiums there. Neither are there pedestrian access provisions in the documents for the area covered in the first phase of the project, including a town-owned pathway at Surfside Place. This would effectively prevent guests at several properties from easily reaching the beach, unless additional walkways were built up and over the artificial dune.

Four-wheel-drive vehicle accesses are planned for South Essex Street and South Edison Street. One at South Edgemere Street will be eliminated.

A thickness of about three feet of sand will be placed on top of the rectangular sandbags, which will be stacked step-like in a sloped configuration. The resulting surface is to be planted with beach grass and surrounded with snow fence. Public access to the work area and a 500-foot-wide buffer around it will not be allowed during construction.

The bid specifications for the project are for an initial 50,000 cubic yards of mined sand to be purchased from upland sources. There are several sand mines on eastern Long Island, including the Sand Land Corporation’s facility north of Bridgehampton and East Coast Mines in East Quogue.

At a capacity of 25 cubic yards of sand for a large dump truck, the project will require about 2,000 trips to deliver the minimum 50,000 cubic yards of material to Montauk. Larger trucks could be available, but it is not clear if they would be permitted on the area’s roads. The first phase of work would require about a third of the total be delivered.

The bid documents allow the contractor to purchase up to an additional 26,000 cubic yards of sand, which would require about another 1,000 loads to be hauled over the local roads. As much as 26,000 more yards of sand would be gathered and re-used on site.

“What will the impacts be to our local infrastructure? Where is the sand coming from? How big a staging area is needed and where? The people and the business community of Montauk deserve to know this type of information before we sign off on this carte blanche,” Mr. Samuelson said.

By comparison, a 2013 town project to rebuild the beach at Ditch Plain required 3,500 cubic yards of sand, about 140 truckloads.

With the contingency volume contained in the Army Corps’ project bid documents adding up to 76,000 cubic yards of mined sand, the downtown Montauk project would generate more than 20 times the truck traffic, roughly 3,000 round trips.

“It’s fair to say that the community had more information about the infinitely smaller dune restoration project at the former East Deck Motel than we have about the number of truck trips and staging associated with the Army Corps project,” Mr. Samuelson said.

East Hampton Town’s shoreline is divided into four categories for regulatory purposes. In the category, or zone, in which the Montauk effort is being planned, erosion control structures, including geotextile tubes and sandbags, are prohibited.

In a statement yesterday Mr. Gardner said, “The state of New York and the Town of East Hampton are close partners in the project and we are coordinating closely with them on all aspects of this shared project as we move forward together.”

“There potentially may be localized building permits that the contractor would coordinate,” he said.

According to earlier statements from Army Corps representatives, the sandbags would be removed as part of the Fire Island to Montauk Point Reformulation project if and when work on that begins. However, maintenance expenses and the sandbags’ removal before the larger Fire Island to Montauk work starts would be the responsibility jointly of the Town of East Hampton and Suffolk County.

A representative of the Department of Environmental Conservation office handling the project did not return a call seeking comment.

This is the fourth article in a series that examines the changing face of East Hampton by following a diverse group of kindergartners from a single class at John Marshall through the school year and beyond.

One day last fall, kindergarten students at the John M. Marshall Elementary School came dressed as what they want to be when they grow up.

For Ephraim Munoz, 5, the choice was an easy one. Donning a tool belt and hardhat, he wore a carpenter’s uniform.

Still, his father, Carlos Munoz, 48, who works as a carpenter and a handyman, has grander dreams for his son’s future. He wants Ephraim to go to college and be a professional — maybe even a doctor. In 1992, Mr. Munoz moved from Cuenca, Ecuador, to East Hampton.

“That is often the hope and dream of the immigrant, and one of the reasons they immigrate, so that their children may become something that they may not have had the ability to become,” explained his mother, Marci Vail, 45, who grew up in East Hampton, with ancestors dating back 13 generations. When she thinks of Ephraim’s future, she’s more focused on him finding something that makes him happy.

By December’s parent-teacher conferences, Ephraim showed steady academic gains, generally performing at or above grade-level. According to his teacher, Kristen Tulp, many of his peers regard Ephraim as a leader.

Ephraim is one of 18 children in Ms. Tulp’s kindergarten class at John Marshall.

According to John Marshall’s 2012-13 New York State Report Card, among the 621 students that school year, 31 percent qualified for either a free or reduced-price lunch. According to the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, a family of four living on an annual income of $30,615 or less currently qualifies for a free lunch, with $43,568 the cutoff for a family of four qualifying for a reduced-price lunch.

As with many local residents trying to make ends meet in a seasonal economy, the winter months are lean times in the Munoz household. Ephraim qualifies for free meals. While breakfast and lunch are served at school, Ephraim takes the bus to school each morning, often eating a bowl of Cheerios at home.

The family lives in the same ranch-style house in East Hampton that Ms. Vail grew up in. Israel, Ephraim’s half-brother, is in the eighth grade at East Hampton Middle School. Natalie, his 18-year-old half-sister, joined the family in December. A United States citizen, she last lived in Colombia. Betty Vail, 78, Ephraim’s grandmother, occupies one of the three bedrooms.

Growing up, Ms. Vail’s father worked as police officer for the East Hampton Village Police, becoming a sergeant before he retired. Her mother was a legal secretary and later a homemaker.

Ms. Vail graduated from East Hampton High School and received a bachelor’s degree in history from Carnegie Mellon University. She also has two master’s degrees — one in secondary education from Duquesne University and another in library science from Southern Connecticut State University, which she completed through a distance-learning program. She formerly worked at the East Hampton Library.

As a child coming of age in Ecuador, Mr. Munoz’s father was a farmer and his mother stayed home, looking after the couple’s eight children. Mr. Munoz graduated high school and enlisted in the military before completing a few years of medical school in hopes of becoming a dentist. Before leaving Ecuador, he last ran a small dump truck and taxicab business.

The couple met at the Christian Church of the Nazarene, a Spanish-speaking congregation, which had been meeting at the Methodist Church in East Hampton. They married in 2004.

As born-again Christians, religion plays a big role in their lives. For the past decade, the family has attended a weekly service at the Community Bible Church in Noyac. Ephraim, which means fruitful, was named after Joseph’s second son in the Old Testament. While Mr. Munoz recently started attending the Calvary Baptist Church in East Hampton, the entire family has yet to make the switch because of a beloved Sunday school program in Noyac.

Though both parents would love for Ephraim to become bilingual, English is the primary language spoken at home. “One of my hopes this year is that it’s supposed to be the year that children learn how to read,” said Ms. Vail. “He likes to pretend that he’s reading, but he’s just beginning to get a handle on it.”

An active, imaginative boy, wooden blocks are a favorite, as are Legos and a toy toolbox. Pizza, along with raspberries, broccoli, carrots, and watermelon are his preferred foods. In social circumstances, Ephraim can be shy at first, but quickly becomes the life of the party.

Most evenings, after Ephraim completes his homework, the family sits down to dinner together. When Ms. Vail was growing up, nearly every house in the neighborhood would pass out Halloween candy. Now, with an increasing number of second homeowners, many of the neighboring houses are unoccupied during the week.

Over the past four decades, she has witnessed a vast change in the backgrounds of year-round residents who call East Hampton home. For instance, the John Marshall that Ms. Vail attended was a markedly different one than the elementary school her son now attends. It wasn’t until middle school, for instance, that Ms. Vail first encountered a classmate who spoke Spanish. By contrast, more than half of the students in Ephraim’s class have Latin American surnames.

“Children are very adaptable. They can just see someone and be friends,” said Ms. Vail, as Ephraim played in the background, tool belt on and pencil behind his ear, during last week’s blizzard. “Ephraim now has a range of play dates with children of different backgrounds — girls included.”