Update, Oct. 30: Three of the four occupants of a Ford compact car were taken to Southampton Hospital Monday afternoon after a collision at about 2:37 p.m. at the intersection of Montauk Highway and Sagg Main Street that caused the Ford to roll over.

Driving a Chevrolet van for a pool supply company, Matthew Dunlop, 24, was headed north on Sagg Main Street when he ran a red light at the intersection, according Andrew Ficurilli, a Southampton Town Police Department sergeant. Sergio Garcia, 37, of Southampton, driving the Ford, was headed west on Montauk Highway.

Mr. Garcia was taken to Southampton Hospital, along with two of his passengers, a woman and a child, whose names were not released. A fourth passenger and Mr. Dunlop were not in need of medical assistance, and none of the injuries appeared life threatening, the sergeant said yesterday.

Mr. Dunlop was issued a summons for running the red light. Police were on the scene for about two hours.

Original, Oct. 27: The four occupants of a Ford compact car were taken to Southampton Hospital Monday afternoon after an accident that resulted in the vehicle rolling over at the intersection of Montauk Highway and Sagg Main Street. The driver of a second vehicle involved, a pool supply truck, declined medical attention.

Though the two men, one woman, and child inside the car were all taken to the hospital, Bridgehampton Fire Department Chief Gary Horsburgh said that none of the injuries appeared to be life threatening.

Correction: Three people were transported to Southampton Hospital, not four as originally reported.

The long-held plan to improve traffic safety at the intersection of Buell Lane, Route 114, and Toilsome Lane in East Hampton Village took a large step closer to fruition on Monday when State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle joined village and town officials to formally announce a $700,000 New York State Community Capital Assistance Program grant for construction of a roundabout there. The village will match the state legislators' contribution to the project, which will likely begin next year.

The roundabout will feature a raised, mountable and landscaped center island. Improved drainage structures, traffic calming, and enhanced pedestrian safety measures will also be part of the project.

The legislators were joined at the site by village officials including Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr., Deputy Mayor Barbara Borsack, Richard Lawler of the East Hampton Village Board, and Scott Fithian, the village's superintendent of public works, as well as East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, who previously served for many years as the village's administrator.

"Anytime you can get community consensus for a project in dealing with a controversial and complicated intersection . . . that's where the hard work really is," Mr. Thiele said in congratulating village officials. The state's Department of Transportation, he said, "is fond of saying, 'We'll give you the permit but we don't have any money to pay for it.' We wanted to try to eliminate that particular problem, and that's why the senator and I were able to get $700,000 toward the cost of this, which is not the entire cost."

Calling it a "much-needed improvement for all the right reasons, Mayor Rickenbach thanked the legislators for their involvement. "This is one of those rare occasions when all levels of government have worked together," he said. "We applaud so very much the monies that you two at the state level have been able to come up with."

The proposed subdivision of a parcel with four houses on it in the Georgica Association, on the west side of Georgica Pond, caused a contentious East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals hearing earlier this month with an attorney for opponents of the plan charging that the board and the Planning Department were making a deal with the applicant.

The property, at 17 Association Road, is in a five-acre residential district and contains 5.621 acres. It is owned by Florence and Ken Joseph, who propose splitting off the largest of the four houses, which is about 10,000 square feet, from the rest of the property. Were that to occur, the remaining three acres would become a separate lot, with an existing boat house and two small cottages on it

Clifford Klenck Jr., who lives in Florida and sold the property to the Josephs, retained control of the three buildings, which are used as summer residences. Mr. Klenck rents all but the smallest of the three, where he lives in the summer. The Josephs plan to tear them down at whatever point Mr. Klenck relinquishes control of them, whether by choice or death, and replace them with a single 8,900-square-foot house. All four houses are legal because they pre-existed the five-acre zoning.

At the first hearing on the proposal, on March 4, Brian Frank, chief environmentalist for the East Hampton Town Planning Department, expressed concern about the land’s having been almost entirely cleared, except for several large old trees, and the board seemed to share that concern. On Oct. 7, however, Christopher D. Kelley of Twomey, Latham, Shea, Kelley, Dubin & Quartararo, the applicants’ attorney, presented the board with reasons why approval would be beneficial.  

“Ancient cesspools that are basically sitting in groundwater,” which undoubtedly contribute to the pollution of Georgica Pond, would be replaced with two state-of-the-art septic systems, he said. He also said the applicants would remove about 200 linear feet of a timber bulkhead.

He brought James Grimes, a Montauk landscape designer, to the hearing to present a revegetation plan. Mr. Grimes said fertilizer runoff from the vast lawn now runs right into Georgica Pond and that the waterfront was full of phragmites, an invasive plant species, that would be removed. Also speaking on behalf of the Josephs were Drew Bennett, an engineer, and Larry Penny, an environmentalist.

Mr. Frank told the board that the Planning Department, after reviewing the revised proposal, was now taking a neutral position.

This drew the ire of Theodore Sklar, an attorney for several neighbors. Saying he did not think the board had the right to divide the property into smaller parcels than zoned for, he said the board and Mr. Kelley made him feel “ambushed” because new witnesses had made presentations.  John Whelan, the board’s chairman, seemed taken aback.“You have your consultants here. Is there anything shocking that you have heard that you would like them to respond to?” Mr. Sklar said Mr. Frank’s environmental assessment had ignored the comprehensive plan. “I believe the question wasn’t asked and wasn’t answered in the case of this application, because it could not be answered in support of the application,” he said.

He pointed out that when another of his clients, Lou Clemente of Springs, had been among residents applying for a rock revetment, Mr. Frank had said the proposal appeared to be in conflict with the comprehensive plan and suggested the board require full environmental review. Mr. Frank took Mr. Sklar’s charges on directly, saying the board had to consider the variances on their own merits.

 “Ted said this is about making a deal. That kind of is a dirty way of saying trading nonconformities.” That is what they ultimately will have to consider, he said. “The nonconformities they are asking for, do they outweigh the nonconformities they presently have?”

A neighbor, Julie Murphy, also spoke in opposition to the plan, saying the proposed 8,900-square-foot house would loom over her property, and that the cottages and boat house, all of which are unheated, are in use only a couple of months of the year.

“The proposed new structure would be a McMansion,” she said. “All this talk of septic systems and doing the right thing for the environment. Yeah, let’s replace our septic systems. I replaced mine at my own expense.”

At one point, Mr. Sklar had referred to the three houses targeted for demolition as “three lousy houses.” Mr. Kelley said toward the end of the well over three-hour session that one of those houses, the boat house, rents for $250,000 a season.

The board agreed to keep the record open until Nov. 18 for additional comments from both sides and for any additional comments from Mr. Frank.

After long deliberations, the East Hampton Town Trustees are on the point of allowing a lessee on trustee-owned property at Lazy Point to move her shoreline house to higher ground.

The beach in front of Susan Knobel’s house on Shore Road has suffered extensive erosion. Suffolk County’s recent dredging of Napeague Harbor’s west channel, a project the trustees opposed, included the removal of the tip of Hicks Island, and Ms. Knobel fears that the project has left her house more vulnerable than before, exposed now to wind and water flow. One or two more extreme weather events, she feels, may leave the house in the water.

 On Tuesday, she submitted an application to the trustees to move it to a lot that, while still north of Shore Road, is farther from the water and less susceptible to flooding.

The trustees oppose “hard” protective structures, such as revetments, believing them more destructive than helpful. They have previously insisted that Ms. Knobel try alternative solutions, which she says have been ineffective.

Such a move would not be without precedent. Diane McNally, the trustees’ clerk, or presiding officer, said Ms. Knobel would be the fourth Lazy Point tenant to move her house to another lot, should her application be approved.

At the trustees’ meeting Tuesday night, two residents of the town spoke on her behalf. “The trustees have a tremendous amount of land on Lazy Point,” said Pat Mansir, a former resident of the area. “I think no other form of government has this advantage.” In the past, she said, the trustees have been amenable to suggestions about houses jeopardized by erosion. Likening the newly dredged west channel to a “bowling alley,” she told the trustees that “there is a history of trying to maintain what you own, but never at a detriment of other people . . .  I hope there’s something you can come up with in terms of letting her move.”

Ms. Knobel’s family has been at Lazy Point for almost 40 years, said Elaine Jones. “She will take care of that property,” Ms. Jones said. “She really needs help, it is dire straits.”

“We have a lot of thinking to do,” Ms. McNally said. “I know that Susan is in a particularly tricky situation.” But, she said, the trustees will proceed with an abundance of caution. “In addition to relocating, we want to look at everyone else in the area so it’s a fair decision,” she said. Past discussions have focused on landward retreat, farther south of the bay, she said, but wetlands and vegetation may preclude some areas. “There are things for us to look at, but most definitely we’re looking at Sue’s.”

“Susan, I think you can leave here feeling pretty upbeat,” said Brian Byrnes, a trustee. “We’re going in the right direction.”

“We just want to cover all our bases,” said Tim Bock, his colleague. And Deborah Klughers, a trustee, called the proposed move “a good example of coastal retreat.”

John Courtney, the trustees’ attorney, agreed that Ms. Knobel’s house is in danger, and that the recent dredging has exacerbated that danger. Nat Miller, a trustee, said he was not opposed to relocation of the house, but objected to a move that would keep it on a northerly lot, facing the bay.

Ms. McNally said the trustees should visit the site and determine the best available location for the house’s move. Approving it, Ms. Mansir said, would show “a government body that can act and get it done. That’s been a unique plus of the trustees, over the years, that’s different than other boards. It feels good.”

More than two years after Douglas F. Schneiderman, a Virginia man vacationing with his family, died in a head-on collision on Route 114 in East Hampton, the case against the driver of the second vehicle has had its day in court and Mr. Schneiderman’s family may finally have found some closure.

No charges had been brought against Brian K. Midgett Jr., then a 20-year-old East Hampton man, after prosecutors found there wasn’t enough evidence to prove he was driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol on the afternoon of the accident, July 29, 2012. 

Two months ago, however, an administrative law judge with the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles found that Mr. Midgett had caused the accident by “engaging in reckless driving in that he unreasonably endangered himself and others by operating a motor vehicle in an impaired condition under the influence of marijuana and hydrocodone.” The Schneidermans had said all along that he had driven recklessly.

Such hearings are mandated when someone is involved in a fatal accident. The hearing took place in April, and in August the judge, Todd A. Schall, revoked Mr. Midgett’s license. His license was also suspended for four months for driving without a seat belt, driving on the wrong side of the road, and crossing a solid line. The revocation and suspensions are running concurrently.

The decision comes at a time when Mr. Schneiderman’s widow, Elisabeth Schneiderman, has tied up loose ends, settling with insurance companies and deciding to forgo any civil action against Mr. Midgett. Ms. Schneiderman and one of the couple’s teenage daughters suffered severe injuries in the accident, as did Mr. Midgett.

In her first interview since the accident, Ms. Schneiderman, who is known as Lisa, said she doesn’t want her husband’s death to be just another statistic, another tragic death on a treacherous stretch of road. “I think there’s quite a few lessons to be learned,” she said.

Mr. Schneiderman, 51, a New York City native, visited the East Hampton area for about 25 years after his mother’s second husband bought a house in Amagansett. He and his family came from McLean, Va., every summer for at least two weeks. In the summer of 2012, they were looking forward to staying here longer.

It had been an emotional year. Ms. Schneiderman had been diagnosed with breast cancer about nine months earlier. Married for 18 1/2 years, “That had created a reset button for us,” she said.

The family’s plan had been to drive to Amagansett on Sunday. “I came home from work Friday night — Ms. Schneiderman is the director of community relations at a nearby school — and the bags were all ready to go, and he was like, ‘Come on. I made sandwiches, let’s go through it and deal with it and get there.’ So we did.”

They arrived here on Saturday, a rainy day. Mr. Schneiderman’s mother, Sandy Schneiderman, was so pleased that they had come early, that she changed her plans and came to Amagansett that night too.

“The good side about all this was that my husband had a perfect 24 hours of his life. He had been with his family; he cooked dinner Saturday night, he was where he loved to be. He got up early Sunday morning; it was a beautiful day, the rain was gone. He did one of his long-distance bike rides — his first one — and he was looking forward to a long stretch,” she said.

Describing her husband as a foodie, the family decided to check out a new restaurant in Sag Harbor for lunch on Sunday. His mother took a separate car to go to the dump and to pick up a friend who was going to join them. The couple’s 15-year-old daughter went with her. Mr. Schneiderman was behind the wheel of their Volvo on Route 114, near Edwards Hole Road, when the car was struck.

“Out of nowhere, the next thing you know, we were, I was spinning around screaming,” Ms. Schneiderman said. Her 16-year-old daughter, Rachael, who was in the back seat, also started screaming. Passers-by pulled Ms. Schneiderman and her daughter out of the mangled car, with Rachael having to be reached through the trunk because the car’s doors wouldn’t open.

“They laid her down next to me, because I was screaming for her. And then I knew she was there with me,” she said. She had a view of the Volvo with its many airbags deployed. “I kept looking at my husband and saying, ‘Doug, wake up. Wake up, Doug. Doug, wake up,’ and there was no response.”

An emergency room doctor at Southampton Hospital broke the news to her. “I recall screaming, wailing,” she said. A night nurse, whom she knows only as Maggie, held her hand as she cried.

“I kick myself for letting him talk me into leaving a day earlier than we planned,” she said, fighting tears, “because we wouldn’t have been there. We should have been on the road that day. We should have been somewhere around John F. Kennedy Airport about that time, but I can’t dwell on those kind of things.”

Ms. Schneiderman and Rachael were in rough physical shape. A gash on Ms. Schneiderman’s head had to be closed. Her daughter was admitted to the intensive care unit with a severed spleen, several broken ribs, and a bruised sternum. Ms. Schneiderman’s brother-in-law chartered a private plane to fly them to Washington, D.C.

In keeping with Jewish law, the family buried Mr. Schneidereman as quickly as possible. Ms. Schneiderman was unable to be involved in funeral arrangements because of her injuries, but took comfort in knowing his family decided to bury him in casual beach clothes and loafers. “He would have hated to have been put in a suit,” she said. She was allowed to leave the hospital for the funeral but had to go right back in.

It was three-and-a-half weeks before a necessary operation on her foot could proceed because it was so swollen. She couldn’t put weight on it for four months, and she wasn’t able to return to work until the following January.

In August of 2013, Ms. Schneiderman was  notified that an administrative hearing would take place and that she could speak at it. She was advised not to attend, and hired a private investigator to take her place. It would be a year before the judge could issue a ruling.

On the first scheduled date, no one appeared on behalf of the East Hampton Town Police Department. The second scheduled date, the following winter, fell on the day of a blizzard. Finally, in April, the case was back on the court calendar.

In his decision, Judge Schall said there was “relatively limited information available” to go on because the criminal matter had been sealed after charges were dropped. The accident report indicated contributing factors “attributable” to Mr. Midgett were “failure to keep right” and illegal drugs.

Mr. Midgett testified briefly. Judge Schall wrote that Mr. Midgett “denied having consumed any drugs or alcoholic beverages at any time proximate and prior to the occurrence of the accident.” In addition, “He testified that he did not recall driving nor any of the events leading up to, or the occurrence of the collision, but only remembers waking up in the hospital sometime thereafter.”

Before Judge Schall, Mr. Midgett admitted there was an open bottle of prescription hydrocodone found by police in his truck. He denied having consumed any of it around the time of the accident.

Although the accident report said Mr. Midgett had received violations from the responding officer for driving while ability impaired by drugs, a misdemeanor, a violation regarding no passing zones, and operating a vehicle without a safety belt, also a violation, he presented documents that substantiated that all criminal charges had been dropped. 

Det. Richard J. Balnis testified that drivers of other vehicles told him that Mr. Midgett crossed over the double-yellow line. Blood testing following the accident revealed the presence of marijuana and possibly hydrocodone in his system, the detective said, but were insufficient to bring charges. An empty beer can was also found in Mr. Midgett’s truck, but the blood test found no alcohol in his system.

Nevertheless, Judge Schall ruled that Mr. Midgett drove “after illegally consuming substances impacting his ability” to drive. The judge said he failed “to exercise due care to avoid this accident,” and noted that Mr. Midgett had said he didn’t even remember the accident.

Mr. Midgett’s license was revoked on a count of misdemeanor reckless driving. The judge did not make it clear when Mr. Midgett could get it back. When he does apply for his license to be reinstated, the Department of Motor Vehicles will review the request.

“It should be noted that the standards of proof as to any criminal matters associated with this occurrence are separate and apart from the standard of proof of this inquiry,” the judge wrote.

“The bottom line is, he did, basically, the most a traffic judge could do,” Ms. Schneiderman said.

Susan Menu, Mr. Midgett’s attorney, reiterated that her client was never formally charged with a driving while intoxicated or related charge, or even a violation of vehicle and traffic law. “All anticipated charges against Mr. Midgett were dismissed and he was never arraigned before a criminal court on the matter.”

“If Detective Balnis, on behalf of the East Hampton Police Department, testified at the administrative hearing that Mr. Midgett was impaired, his testimony was at worst false, and at best in error,” according to Ms. Menu. “There is no evidence that Mr. Midgett was impaired and if there was, the district attorney would have rushed to indict him on vehicular homicide,” she said. Ms. Menu said she may take legal action “to clear up any mistakes.”

“This accident was so terrible and the results so tragic that for the family to be told Mr. Midgett was impaired by either alcohol or drugs seems to be a grave injustice not only to Mr. Midgett but to the family who lost a husband and father,” Ms. Menu said.

Mr. Midgett remained at Stony Brook University Medical Center for a number of weeks after being flown there after the accident. Ms. Menu said the district attorney’s office “determined that it was what it appeared to be, a tragic accident, nothing more.”

In the years since her husband’s death, Ms. Schneiderman has kept track of Mr. Midgett. She said that he was recently arrested on a misdemeanor assault charge. She said that he can still be a Nascar driver because licenses are not required on the tracks.

The Schneidermans have also looked at his Twitter account, hoping it would reveal something about the accident. He had Tweeted a photo of his smashed-up truck and said, “I should not be alive.” Ms. Scheiderman said she hoped police would pay more attention in the future to social media pages in accident investigations. She also cited examples where he allegedly refers to drugs or getting high in the months and years after the crash.

 Ms. Schneiderman said her husband had always worried about providing for his family, and carefully chose their insurance so that they were covered in case they were hit by someone with less than ample coverage. This summer the family received a $1 million check as well as $100,000 from Allstate, the insurance held by Mr. Midgett’s stepmother, who owned his truck, and $350,000 for Ms. Schneiderman’s injuries.

“That’s what we got for losing my husband and their father, who made $250,000 a year, just in income, let alone  his earning potential as our main breadwinner,” she said.

“My husband did everything in life you could do to prolong his life,” Ms. Schneiderman said. He was a health fanatic. He drove the safest, biggest car, even though they would have preferred a more gas-friendly one. She said they were known to stay in on New Year’s Eve and Super Bowl Sunday because drunken drivers could be on the roads. “We avoided risk as much as possible, and there’s some irony in that,” she said.

The entire family loved East Hampton, but they haven’t been back, and her daughters don’t want to. “I do plan to come back up and let the people who helped us see how far we’ve come.”

Update, Noon: A teenager who stayed home sick from school may have saved his family's East Hampton house when a fire broke out in the basement on Thursday morning. East Hampton Fire Chief Richard Osterberg Jr. said the fire, which is believed to have been electrical in nature, would have caused a lot more damage had no one been at the Morris Park house.

Chief Osterberg said the young man discovered the fire, called 911, and got out of the house. The East Hampton Fire Department was called to 26 Morris Park Lane at 10:18 a.m. Ken Wessberg, the second assistant chief, arrived first to find "heavy smoke conditions and the basement door was hot."

About 50 firefighters responded with all nine pieces of the fire department's apparatus. The rapid intervention team from the Amagansett Fire Department also responded in case firefighters needed to be rescued, and there were two ambulances from the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association. No injuries were reported. 

"We had the fire knocked down within minutes of the first trucks getting on scene," Chief Osterberg said. Despite flames in the basement, firefighters did, at first, have trouble finding the source of the fire. The East Hampton Town fire marshal's office is investigating the exact cause. 

Most damage to the house was contained to the basement, although there was smoke damage on the first floor. The structure itself was not damaged.

An engine and tanker from the Sag Harbor Fire Department stood by at East Hampton's headquarters, and the department responded to a chief's investigation during that time. 

Original, 10:51 a.m.: Firefighters put out a fire at a house in East Hampton on Thursday morning. 

The blaze was reported at 26 Morris Park Lane, off Three Mile Harbor Road, at 10:18 a.m. All of the occupants were out of the house, dispatchers said. Heavy smoke was reported on the first floor, and the fire was believed to have started in the basement. 

The chiefs called for the Amagansett Fire Department's Rapid Intervention Team, in case firefighters needed to be rescued. A tanker and engine from the Sag Harbor Fire Department were asked to stand by at East Hampton's headquarters. 

Firefighters reported the blaze was "knocked down" at about 10:45 a.m. 

Check back for more information as it becomes available.

Correction: The fire was at a house at 26 Morris Park Lane, not 23 Morris Park Lane as originally reported.

A long-awaited public restroom in Amagansett’s business district is moving closer to reality.

At the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee meeting on Monday, Rona Klopman told her colleagues that a subcommittee on which she serves has held three meetings with Tom Talmage, the town engineer, and Joseph Catropa, an architect with L.K. Mclean Associates. The group has refined plans for the restroom’s design and location, she said. In appearance, it will resemble the Amagansett Library and will likely be situated behind it, in the public parking lot on the north side of Main Street, occupying six existing parking spaces.

Construction of the restroom will not, however, decrease the number of parking spaces, said East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, the town board’s liaison to the committee. Rather, a net increase in spaces will result after the lot is restriped, he said.

Mr. Talmage and Mr. Catropa were to mark the structure’s location on Tuesday, but that has been postponed. Alex Walter, Mr. Cantwell’s executive assistant, said a timetable for the  construction and the restriping awaits a final determination on the restroom’s location and the new parking configuration. “We hope to have, by mid-December, construction documents complete and published and ready to bid,” he said. “We’re looking to have a pre-bid conference and bid due date by January, and hope to start construction by mid-February, weather permitting.”

It is hoped that the projects will be completed in the first half of April, Mr. Walter said, but no later than May 1.

Mr. Cantwell told the committee that plans would be presented at an upcoming meeting. “You can look at the layout, the design, and have at it,” he said.

The committee also resumed a discussion of whether it should request a hamlet study. “The question would be, what kind of planning issues are really critical in Amagansett,” Mr. Cantwell said, adding that zoning in the hamlet “is pretty well established over a long period, so it tends to be more focused.” Infrastructure, parking, traffic, and affordable housing might be among the issues, he suggested.

“We’ve agreed that a hamlet study is necessary,” said Kieran Brew, the committee’s chairman. “We have infrastructure issues here, for two months a year.”

The discussion circled back to the parking lot. “This lot gets used for multiple purposes and is not tightly regulated,” Mr. Cantwell said, noting that people park and go to the beach, or take the Hampton Jitney to New York, or leave their cars for extended periods, “yet its primary purpose was to support the downtown area, a place where residents and visitors could park and use the commercial district. That seems to be getting maxed out, certainly in the summer. How to deal with that is a good question.”

Mr. Brew said he would send committee members a link to the town comprehensive plan, adopted in 2005, which they should study in preparation for next month’s meeting.

“One of the pitfalls in talking a?bout broad-based planning uses,” Mr. Cant?well said, “is, people tend to throw? in everything but the kitchen sink. It starts to become untenable. If you have a meeting, focus on what you think are the most important planning issues, not every issue.”

Also at the meeting, committee members voted unanimously to ask the town board to take advantage of a recent state law authorizing the use of cameras to enforce the speed limit in school zones. The equipment, which would be paid for by Suffolk County, would be positioned on Main Street near the Amagansett School.

A Montauk couple playing the New York Lottery’s Break the Bank scratch-off game last week did just that when they purchased a $1 million winning ticket from a vending machine at Montauk Wine and Liquors.

The couple bought the ticket about mid-week, said Shaz Finnegan, who is honoring their request not to be identified.

Guillermo Vernaza, who works the register at the store, said the man came in late last week and told Mr. Vernaza that he had gone to work that day. “He didn’t know what else to do,” Mr. Vernaza said.

As soon as the winning ticket was turned in, Ms. Finnegan and Mr. Vernaza had to pull all the Break the Bank tickets left in both the vending machine and behind the counter. The winning ticket was the last jackpot card from the game left in circulation. Once the last ticket is turned in, all tickets from the particular game have to be pulled, Ms. Finnegan said, since there is no more possibility of a customer hitting a jackpot.

“They are super people,” Ms. Finnegan said. The state rewards the sellers of jackpot tickets of Power Ball or Mega Millions, but not stores that sell winning scratch-off tickets. Ms. Finnegan said it was a good week for those who purchased tickets at the store, which is next to the bakery on the Plaza, with 405 winning tickets being sold.

This is the second time in a year that East Hampton Town has had a $1 million scratch-off winner. In January, Cynthia Goode of East Hampton won $1 million from a Million Dollar Numbers scratch-off ticket purchased at the Whalebone General Store in Noyac, according to the New York State Lottery’s website. “I was kind of in shock,” she said in a lottery release, “but I finished the day and went home and told my children.”

A road map for tackling issues of water quality in East Hampton Town, and the inadequate wastewater treatment and disposal that underpins them, was sketched out last week by Pio Lombardo of Lombardo Associates, a consultant who has drafted a comprehensive wastewater management plan for the town.

Begin, he said, with the “obvious improvements” that can be made in areas that clearly need work, such as three parts of Montauk where he has proposed swapping the use of individual, malfunctioning septic systems for state-of-the-art neighborhood sewering systems.

Conduct studies of the Fort Pond, Hook Pond, and Georgica Pond watersheds, to evaluate nitrogen and phosphorous levels, and determine what should be done there, he said, and install demonstration projects of a barrier system that prevents those elements from entering the ponds.

And, at the same time, he suggested, the town should improve pertinent regulations and enforcement of those that already exist, such as a requirement for inspection of septic systems every few years.

At a town board meeting in Montauk on Oct. 14, Mr. Lombardo outlined his recommendations for that hamlet. Neighborhood wastewater treatment systems should be set up in three areas where inadequate individual cesspool or septic systems have been found and the conditions make it impossible or unlikely to correct that problem: downtown Montauk, the Ditch Plain area, and around the docks.

Downtown lots, he said, lack the area needed to install on-site systems to sufficiently deal with waste. In Ditch, an underground layer of clay and a high water table mean that some septic systems or cesspools are sitting in groundwater. Pollution from them is the cause of the high bacteria levels in the south end of Lake Montauk, where swimming closures have become common after rain.

“Those properties can’t solve their problems with individual solutions,” Mr. Lombardo said.

A waste system is considered to be malfunctioning if it requires a pump-out three or more times a year, Mr. Lombardo said.

An owner of the downtown restaurant 668 the Gig Shack, who was at Tuesday’s meeting, provided an example of the problem. Lewis Gross said he must have his septic pumped about once a week, at a cost of $10,000 to $14,000 annually.

In the neighborhood systems, Mr. Lombardo said, pipes would collect and carry liquid waste from septic tanks at individual houses or businesses to a centralized underground treatment area. The Montauk Fire Department property and another site for sale across the street could be suitable locations, he said. Treated effluent could be used for irrigation of ball fields or the Montauk Downs golf course.

The recommended underground system, Mr. Lombardo said, is air and watertight, eliminating odors. Besides eliminating nitrogen, it can also be conigured to address “emerging contaminants” in the wastewater, such as the traces of pharmaceutical drugs increasingly being detected in groundwater.

The consultant provided cost estimates for the systems in each of the three targeted areas, based on the assumption that the waste would be sent to a centralized treatment area and that each property’s wastewater system would be replaced. 

In downtown Montauk, the cost would be $15.6 million; in Ditch Plain, $10.6 million, and in the docks area, $18.1 million.

Those hooking up to the three proposed community systems, Mr. Lombardo said, would individually need to pay only for the cost of a pipe from the house to the system, expected to be “well under $1,000,” he said.

But the capital costs of the infrastructure would have to be borne somehow.

There are “a lot of options” for funding, Mr. Lombardo said. The New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation, which provides grants and low-cost loans to municipalities, has interest in funding centralized wastewater systems such as those proposed, he said. Other funding sources could include a grant from Suffolk County’s wastewater fund or the creation of local water-quality improvement tax districts, through which the town would levy a tax to affected residents to pay for the projects. Savings that result from the closure of the town’s scavenger waste treatment and transfer facility next month — expected to be about $460,000 next year — could also be used.

In addition, Mr. Lombardo mentioned the possible use in the future of money from the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund for water quality protection projects such as the wastewater systems.

The idea of using some of the preservation fund revenue, which comes from a 2-percent tax on most real estate transfers in the five East End towns, has come up in recent discussions of the wastewater plan. A change to the state law authorizing the fund would be required. That idea is covered in a separate story in today’s Star.

The cost issue is a serious one, said Mr. Lombardo, who compiled data on the income of town residents in order to assess the affordability of options in the wastewater management plan. A third of the town’s households have a mean annual income of less than $50,000, he said, and half of the town’s households have an income of less than $75,000.

“If you’re looking at a community system, you’re looking at some kind of special district,” Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said at the meeting. “It’s going to have to be paid for somehow. A district would be created, and taxes would be paid.”

Whether individual taxpayer participation would be optional or required would be a matter of town policy, Mr. Lombardo said. However, he said, in cases such as those at Ditch Plain, where “we know that certain of those properties are causing contamination, one could take the position that they don’t have the option.”

Town officials would have to carefully identify the properties that would fall within a certain potential wastewater tax district, examine the tax assessments there, and determine the tax impact to individuals, Mr. Cantwell said, while bearing in mind residents’ financial limitations.

“The check is going to be written, for the large part, by the property owner,” Mr. Cantwell said. “So the board is going to have to be very careful.”

Lombardo Associates evaluated conditions on every single one of the land parcels in the town. They determined that there are septic system problems that must be addressed on 3 percent of them. Another 18 percent could have “small or moderate” issues, said Mr. Lombardo. “We know, on a parcel-by-parcel basis, what are the needs, if any, associated with those properties.”

Spreadsheets showing the consultants’ evaluation of conditions at each parcel in Montauk have been prepared; others addressing land in the rest of the town are under way.

Work needed to address improperly functioning septic systems at private residences would generally cost $15,000 or less, Mr. Lombardo said — sometimes far less.

The town could, perhaps, require a septic system upgrade, if deemed necessary, before a property can be sold, or at the time a certificate of occupancy is updated, Mr. Cantwell suggested. “The property owners are going to have to be vested in this for this to work,” he said.

The presentation of the data regarding water quality and the state of the wastewater systems is just the first step, Mr. Lombardo said. Mr. Cantwell’s suggestion that citizens’ committees be appointed to study and respond to aspects of the draft wastewater plan is a good one, Mr. Lombardo said.

The plan and supporting documents are posted online at ehwaterrestore.com.

While the first cases of Ebola in the United States have sparked nationwide concern, the overwhelming message here on the South Fork is that health care providers are prepared to handle patients with Ebola-like symptoms, just as they handle other infectious diseases.

“We’re taking it seriously, as it should be,” said Dr. Maury Greenberg, a doctor at East Hampton Urgent Care, of the largest Ebola outbreak in history.

The first case diagnosed in the U.S. took the life of a Liberian man who was being treated at a Dallas hospital two weeks ago. Two nurses who treated him were diagnosed soon after. The condition of one was upgraded to “good” on Tuesday; the other is reported to be improving as well.

All others who had contact with the man, either outside or inside the hospital, have so far tested negative for the disease, which has primarily been contained to West Africa. Still, there have been several scares in the tri-state area. A Yale University student who had just returned from Liberia came down with symptoms earlier this month and was quarantined; she has now tested negative for Ebola. A Liberian national who arrived at Newark Airport in New Jersey via Brussels with a fever on Tuesday was reported “asymptomatic” late yesterday.

Following instructions from the Centers for Disease Control, health care facilities and emergency medical service providers are implementing procedures. The New York State Department of Health issued emergency health orders on Monday.

Southampton Hospital, Wainscott Walk-In, East Hampton Urgent Care, and other providers have signs on the doors alerting patients that if they have been traveling and have certain symptoms, to take a mask, cover their faces, and immediately alert the front desk.

Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids, and a cough could infect a person who is sprayed with saliva. Symptoms such as headache, fever, and aches, begin 8 to 10 days after exposure, and can appear as late as 21 days later, according to the C.D.C. A rash, diarrhea, and vomiting may also occur. Severe cases may cause hemorrhage.

Although health care providers are at the highest risk of getting sick, many here are said to be taking the threat of exposure in stride and using it as a reminder to always be vigilant. “It’s a generic awareness — it’s not just Ebola,” Dr. Greenberg said. “If somebody comes in with a fever, stiff neck, and muscle pains, they could have meningitis. Someone coming in with a weird rash could be chicken pox or measles. Measles is more contagious than Ebola. There’s a lot of health

concerns out here.”

“We’ve got everybody getting masks out there right now — there’s so much going on outside of Ebola,” said Kate Skinner, the practice manager at Wainscott Walk-In. “So much depends on the patient doing the right thing. I definitely see people are reading the sign.”

Diane O’Donnell, chief of the East Hampton Village Volunteer Ambulance Association, has taken steps to ensure her crew knows what precautions to take. Next week, she and two other association members will take a class in leadership awareness offered by Suffolk County, and bring back the information. “This is a good opportunity to make sure that everything we are doing is safe,” said Ms. O’Donnell. “It is a good reminder to people not to get complacent. You really don’t know what is out there.”

Ms. O’Donnell, a critical care technician who has volunteered for the past 10 years, cited incidents of exposure to other infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, bacterial meningitis, and respiratory viruses, that gave cause for  just as much concern. “People have always been adequately protected,” she said.

To ensure E.M.S. providers wear the proper personal protective equipment, including gowns, goggles, and face masks, when responding to a call, dispatchers throughout the county have been trained to ask callers specific questions related to Ebola. The East Hampton Village Emergency Communications Department, which dispatches five of the six fire and ambulance districts as well as two of the three police departments that serve the Town of East Hampton, implemented new procedures on Friday.

Village Police Chief Gerard Larsen, who oversees the department, said public safety dispatchers will now ask whether a caller has traveled in the last few weeks — the incubation period — or has been around anyone who has traveled, and will screen for symptoms, such as an elevated temperature. Police and E.M.S. providers will then be notified, if necessary, that they are responding to a “fever-travel” call.

The Southampton Village Communications Department, which dispatches the Bridgehampton Fire Department, will act similarly, using the phrase “I.D. response,” for infectious disease.

East Hampton Town and Village police have been directed to respond to, but not go into, a house or business where a patient with such symptoms is located. If they have to go in, they must don a biochemical suit covering every part of the body.

“We are prepared — that’s the most important message to get out there,” said Marsha Kenny, the director of public affairs and relations at Southampton Hospital. Anyone exhibiting symptoms, whether walking into the lobby or arriving by ambulance, will be put in an isolation area in the emergency department and treated as if they have the disease. A blood sample will be taken and sent for review; results come back within 24 hours. Confirmed Ebola patients will be transported to Stony Brook University Hospital, which is the designated regional hospital.

Dr. Darin G. Wiggins, the head of the hospital’s emergency department, Dr. Fredric I. Weinbaum, chief medical officer, and Deborah Maile R.N., director of infection prevention, have met on a regular basis. “We’ve been at this probably over two weeks now,” Ms. Kenny said, adding that all the necessary gear was ordered at the start of the scare, in anticipation that it would be in high demand.

Employees have been trained one-on-one in the use of personal protective equipment. Those receiving training include those in registration and “environmental services,” or housekeeping. “They are on the front lines too,” Ms. Kenny said. “These hazmat-trained security people are also repeating the training, just to make sure that employees who have to wear this clothing are very confident in their skills in getting dressed up and dressed down.” Practice drills are being scheduled, she said.