A short circuit in underground electrical wires caused a brush fire and then a fire in a below-grade generator at a Sagaponack house on Monday afternoon, creating a dangerous situation for firefighters.

John Rankin, a Southampton Town fire marshal, said people at the house had noticed a small brush fire burning just down from the driveway and had used a dry chemical fire extinguisher to put out the flames. They then saw smoke coming from an area along the garage and called 911.

The Bridgehampton Fire Department was notified at 2:42 p.m. of the flames at 757 Daniel’s Lane, a flag lot off Town Line Road. The fire was found to be in a large generator 10 feet deep, underneath a platform supporting a basketball hoop, about 15 feet from the house between a garage and a common driveway.

Bridgehampton firefighters “had quite a time with it, trying to gain access to a generator pit to shut the emergency fuel supply off, which they were not able to do for quite some time,” Mr. Rankin said yesterday.

It was important to shut off the fuel supply because had the generator’s diesel fuel tank caught fire it could have burned for a long time, he said. The tank, which was mounted under the generator, had a capacity of 200 to 240 gallons.

In fact, said Mr. Rankin, two firefighters attempting to turn off the fuel supply had flames flash over their heads, a situation known to firefighters as a flashover. “They tried to put two guys into the generator pit to locate the emergency shutoff. Apparently they were delayed in coming out — I don’t want to say they were trapped — but it flashed, and the guys with the hose line were ready and poured water on them.”

No injuries were reported, but several firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide in their blood.

“I’m very happy nobody got hurt. Anytime we have a fire and we all make it back to the firehouse, and no one’s hurt, I’m thankful,” said Bridgehampton Fire Chief Gary Horsburgh. He said he had never seen a generator installed like that, adding that its location had caused the dangerous situation.

Mr. Rankin said the position of the generator and the emergency switch made it hard to get to. “A lot of times when these generators are purchased, they come pretty much as a complete unit,” he said, adding that there is ventilation that was provided for the vault. Despite the difficulties, he said his investigation indicated the installation of the generator was up to residential code. 

“Fighting fire is inherently dangerous. What you think should be is actually not what the code says,” the fire marshal said.

Representatives of G.T. Power Systems were eventually able to access the emergency shutoff. PSEG Long Island also responded, “relatively quickly,” Mr. Rankin said, to shut off power in the vicinity.

In the meantime, Bridgehampton called for help from the Sag Harbor and East Hampton fire departments. They responded with tankers, as there were no fire hydrants to supply water down the long driveway. East Hampton also brought a crash truck, which carries a foam fire suppressant to fight large-capacity fuel fires such as airplane crashes. Mr. Rankin said the idea was to fill the generator pit with foam if necessary.

The East Hampton Village Volunteer Ambulance Association also responded with one ambulance to stand by.

Mr. Rankin ruled the cause of the fire to be a short circuit in an electrical splice box mounted in the ground, which then backfed into the generator. According to the Southampton Town Tax Receiver’s office, the property is held in the name of a corporation, Copacabana Realty L.L.C. of Whitestone, N.Y.

    Regular inquiries prompted the East Hampton Village Board to consider a new policy on the installation and placement of memorial benches in public places at its meeting on Friday. With the summer season looming, the board also adopted a law limiting the use of garages on residential property and approved the hiring of police, fire, and ambulance personnel at the brief meeting.

     The amendment to the village code refines the definition of a garage, in response to numerous recent applications to the zoning board of appeals in which proposed accessory structures were labeled garages but were excessively large and had different uses. A garage must now be “accessible by a driveway, designed and capable for use for the storage of motor vehicles owned and regularly used by or on behalf of the owner or tenant” of the property. No habitable space, toilet, shower, or bathtub will be permitted on any level, and no plumbing of any kind will be permitted on a second floor over a garage.

    The matter of memorial benches was broached by Becky Molinaro, the village administrator, who told the board that, along with requests for memorial benches, people seek their placement in particular locations. “We are finding that they are really starting to be overcrowded with benches,” she said of these locations, which Scott Fithian, the village superintendent of public works, said include areas in front of delicatessens and coffee shops.

    The village charges up to about $1,000 for the installation of a bench and memorial inscription at its base. Mr. Fithian distributed a map showing approximately 100 benches throughout the village. “It’s up to the board’s discretion if they want to add more or not,” he said. Ms. Molinaro suggested that the board identify areas where benches are less prevalent so that those locations can be made available. “It may not be as high profile an area as they might want, but we’re giving them a choice,” she said.

    There are big stretches where there are no benches, said Barbara Borsack, the deputy mayor. “Would it be helpful if two of us drove around with Scott and identified spots where we thought we could put them?” She and Bruce Siska, a member of the board, volunteered to do so. “When I see people sitting on the benches in the summertime, it makes me feel that the people enjoy our village,” Mr. Siska said. “They’re enjoying their vacation time, or the solitude of sitting in a quaint area of our village. It looks good for the village itself.”

    The village has no formal policy with regard to maintenance and replacement of memorial benches, and Mr. Fithian said vandalism and storms are the only burdens to the Public Works Department. They are collected and chained together before extreme weather events and are cleaned periodically, he said. “When a bench is vandalized beyond repair,” Mr. Fithian said, it has been replaced at village expense. Repair or replacement should perhaps become the purchaser’s liability, Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. suggested. “We certainly want to continue to support this idea,” he said of the memorial benches. 

    Of the new emergency personnel, the mayor voiced the board’s appreciation for their commitment and wished them “a long and safe journey.” Richard Lawler, a board member and the village’s police commissioner, then noted that it was National Police Week. “In particular, I want to recognize our village police — that includes dispatchers as well — for the terrific job that they do in keeping our community safe and making this a wonderful place to live.” He thanked Chief Gerard Larsen personally. “And please bring our ‘thank you’ back to the rest of your department.” 

    “We’re on the threshold of the beginning of the summer season,” the mayor said at the meeting’s conclusion. “As I say every year at this time, let’s put a smile on our face and welcome everyone into the local community, and show them what a class village is all about.”

    From the low end to the high, the rental season is off to a slow start, or so brokers say. Some blame it on the weather, others on the strong sales market. Houses usually rented by this time are still awaiting contracts.

    As for the weather, consider this: “I kept a snow shovel in my car all winter,” said Diane Shifman of Rosehip Partners. As for how the sales market affects rentals: “When sales are down people rent, when they’re up renters buy,” said Dawn Neway of Douglas Elliman. The sales market is so strong now that several of her past rental clients have taken the leap to become homeowners. That leaves fewer people in the rental pool and a surfeit of inventory.

    “People are deferring their decisions this year,” Gary DePersia of the Corcoran Group said. “They’re deciding a month before they move in. I just did a July-through-Labor Day rental today,” he said Sunday. Mr. DePersia, who concentrates on the high end, is surprised at the number of houses still available on the cusp of Memorial Day. He rattled off listings that in earlier years would have been rented by now:

    A house on North Haven on a private peninsula “graced by 650 feet of water frontage and over 200-degree panoramic water views,” according to its listing, is rented for August, but might be considered a veritable steal at $175,000 for June and July, given how much certain rentals are going for south of the highway. An 8,500-square-foot house on two acres on Cobb Road in Water Mill is still available for $595,000 for the season. A 7-bedroom, 12-bath house on First Neck Lane in Southampton at $600,000 for the season remains listed as well.

    And there apparently are many others on the high end. In the Fordune enclave, a 12,000-square-foot residence with two gambrel roofs belonging to Rick and Kathy Hilton (whose children are the famous ones in the family) is still listed at $425,000 for the season.

    Perhaps the piece de resistance is Linden Estate, a Southampton compound with a 30-room, 18,000-square-foot “Cotswold-style mansion” designed in 1902 by Grosvenor Atterbury, with a wine cellar-tasting room and connecting greenhouse. The estate boasts a grass tennis court, paddle court, boccie court, and indoor pool and spa. The asking is just under a million for the season — $950,000.

    In Water Mill, the Rose Hill Estate comes with all the upscale amenities considered de rigueur these days, but with a Culinary Institute-trained chef. It’s $800,000 for the season.

    Let’s face it, the market for such excessively expensive rentals is complicated. “In many cases, the very wealthy rent to avoid tying up multimillions in a house,” reads an article in the Elliman Spring-Summer magazine. “For some, $1 million for a rental is considerable; for others it’s a bargain.”

    All this is not to say there weren’t early birds who rented by January. The brokers say that a lot of lower-end properties, those taken by groups of young couples or surfers, are gone. “Montauk rented early,” Ms. Neway said. She admitted being surprised that there is a lot of inventory available in the Amagansett Dunes, where “there’s usually nothing left by now.” She mentioned one house on Surf Drive ($85,000) and another on Whalers Lane ($120,000), each with heated pools. Anything with a pool in the Dunes, she said, “is usually snatched up right away.”

    For the past three years Ms. Shifman has rented out a three-bedroom, three-bath house in Springs with a heated pool for $35,000 from July through Labor Day. Not so this year, at least so far. “Not only have I not rented it, but no one else has either.”

    Although she has had a ton of repeats, new clients tend to be “much more picky,” she said. “They’re waiting to get a steal, but the landlords are still holding out.” At least for now.

    Another factor at work is a trend toward shorter rental terms. “When I started out here 19 years ago Memorial Day to Labor Day was a staple of my business,” Mr. DePersia said. These days he’s handling more one and two-month rentals than ever before. “People have come to realize they don’t need to be here in June.” He cites colder spring weather, events like graduation that take renters elsewhere, and kids “who have other things they want to do.”

    Patty Wadzinski of Sotheby’s International Realty has also seen tenants preferring the “beautiful weeks in July or August” rather than a full season. Homeowners are sometimes attracted to short-term rentals for other reasons. “Anything less than 14 days is not tax declarable,” she said. “It’s considered ordinary income.” But that can only be cited once a year, she is quick to point out.

    With some renters shying away from spring, Ms. Wadzinski said, homeowners are considering “extended leases in front or back.” September with its glorious days, cool nights, and fewer crowds “holds a much stronger value than spring,” she said.

A downed wire sparked a brush fire and then set an outdoor generator ablaze on a Sagaponack property on Monday afternoon.

The Bridgehampton Fire Department was notified of the blaze at 757 Daniel’s Lane, off Townline Road, at 2:42 p.m., and responded with an engine.

Chief Gary Horsburgh was among the first on scene and reported that a live wire started the brush fire, followed by an electrical problem with a generator.  The house was not reported on fire.

The fire chief called for assistance from PSEG Long Island to shut off power in the area. A Southampton Town fire marshal was also called to confirm the cause of the incident.

At about 3:15 p.m., the fire department’s tanker truck was called to the scene. At about 3:45 p.m., tankers from the East Hampton and Sag Harbor fire departments were called to the scene.

An ambulance and fire police were also standing by. 

Police made two arrests in recent days of people they say were driving drunk with children as passengers, and in both cases there could be multiple felony charges.

A Scarsdale man was charged with three felony counts of aggravated drunken driving after being arrested last Thursday afternoon by East Hampton Town police. 

Philip Porpora, 39, was said to have struck a sign on the eastbound side of Montauk Highway on Napeague with a 2007 Ford that was pulling a camper. In the car at the time were his three children, 6, 7, and 9 years old, police said. After his arrest, he allegedly refused to take a breath test at police headquarters. In New York State, even a first offense driving-while-intoxicated charge is elevated to the level of an aggravated felony under Leandra's Law, which increases penalties for drunken driving when children under 16 are in the car. The law also requires that the accused consent to a blood alcohol test. Blood was drawn by court order at about 4 p.m., three and a half hours after he was arrested. The blood is sent to the Suffolk County crime lab for testing; results may not be available for several weeks.

Besides the felony charges, Mr. Porpora is facing three misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor charge of drunken driving, and three moving violations -- driving with an open container of alcohol in the car, refusing to take a breath test, and leaving the scene of an accident.

Mr. Porpora sat on the prisoner's bench before East Hampton Town Justice Lisa R. Rana entered the court for his arraignment on Saturday. The guarding officer asked him if he was all right. "We're out on vacation. It's been great so far," he answered in a monotone voice. "Can't wait to do it again next year."

After she took the bench, Justice Rana asked Mr. Porpora whether he wanted to call a lawyer. "I think I can handle the arraignment process myself," he answered. "For the record," the justice said, "the court did call Legal Aid and were told they would not be able to send an attorney."

"Are you working?" she asked. "Not after this," he answered.

The justice told Mr. Porpora that his license was now suspended twice over, once for refusing the blood level test at police headquarters and again for having a prior alcohol-related conviction within the past five years. She said he had previously been convicted of driving with ability impaired by alcohol.

"Ma'am, may I ask you a question? Is it possible to give me a hardship license for work?"

"Absolutely not," she answered. "The assistant district attorney has requested $25,000 bail be set. Are you able to make the bail?"

"I have to make a phone call. Can I ask for a reconsideration?"

"You can ask," the justice said.

She began to read through the paperwork on the case and Mr. Porpora's record. After about two minutes, the justice said, "Given the severe nature of the charges, you have no ties to the community, your previous record, bail is set in the amount of $51,000 cash."

"I won't be able to make that," he said.

The justice asked where his three children lived.

"With my soon-to-be ex-wife," he said. He was taken to the county jail in Riverside, where he has been held since.

A Montauk woman, Elizabeth A. Forsberg, 40, was arraigned in East Hampton Town Justice Court Sunday morning on a Leandra's charge after being arrested by State Police Saturday at 9:35 p.m. She was said to have had four children in the car, aged 10 years old or younger.

Ms. Forsberg, who is a member of East Hampton High School’s science faculty, was stopped near the music festival in downtown Montauk. She refused the breath test, was taken to state police headquarters in Riverside, and had blood drawn by court order about three hours later. Again, results may not be available for several weeks.

Ms. Forsberg was represented for her arraignment in front of Justice Rana Sunday morning by Rita Bonicelli, who told the justice that her client was a lifetime resident of the area and had never had a previous arrest.

"This is a serious charge," the justice said, adding "I think you are looking at additional charges once it goes to the D.A." Ms. Forsberg is currently facing one Leandra's Law charge, but could well be hit with three more, one for each child she allegedly had in the car, if she is indicted by a grand jury.

The justice set bail at $10,000, which was posted that afternoon.

Update, 3 p.m.: The Long Island Rail Road is not expected to resume service past the East Hampton station before Tuesday evening after a garbage truck struck a railroad overpass in East Hampton Village on Tuesday morning. 

Salvatore Arena, a spokesman for the L.I.R.R., said a crane was brought to help repair the tracks on the North Main Street overpass, and the work wouldn't be completed Tuesday afternoon. 

"Buses are replacing trains in both directions between Bridgehampton and Montauk," Mr. Arena said. He advised riders to check the schedule and to vist the L.I.R.R. website.

North Main Street is closed starting opposite Citarella to the bridge and the M.T.A.  and village police have blocked approaches while trucks are on the job. Traffic is backed up in the area. 

—

Original Story, 11:44 a.m.: A garbage truck slammed into the North Main Street railroad overpass on Tuesday morning, shutting down train service east of East Hampton Village and backing up traffic.

Village Police Chief Gerard Larsen said a National Waste Services truck hit the bridge at around 9:10 a.m. with such force that the train tracks moved. Long Island Rail Road inspector were called to assess the damage.

The clearance under the bridge is 10 feet. Blinking signs were installed near it in recent months to warn truck drivers of the low clearance.

The bridge is often hit, and while the L.I.R.R. is always called to assess the damage, the tracks do not always move, Chief Larsen said. "He hit it really hard," he said.

The driver, who had been heading south into the village, was not hurt. His name was not immediately released, but the chief said it was only his second day on the job.

He was given two tickets -- for failure to obey a traffic command and for having an uninspected vehicle.

As of 11:10 a.m., an L.I.R.R. inspector was still en route to assess the damage, according to Salvatore Arena, a spokesman for the railroad. Buses were ordered to transport people from Montauk to East Hampton in case the suspension lasts for a long period of time, Mr. Arena said. The bus scheduled to leave Montauk at 11:13 a.m. will instead leave East Hampton at 11:43 a.m.

Updated train schedules should be available on the L.I.R.R. website.

A car crash Tuesday afternoon in Montauk sent one driver to the hospital.

East Hampton Town police and the Montauk Fire Department responded to an accident at the entrance to the town's recycling facility off Montauk Highway at about 1:50 p.m.

It was unclear how many vehicles were involved, but it is believed only one person was transported to Southampton Hospital. 

Westbound traffic was rerouted down Lincoln Road, but the road was expected to be reopened shortly after the accident. 

No other details were immediately available. 

A portion of the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike was briefly shut down as officials cleared the road of hazards after two separate accidents in close proximity to each other on that stretch of road Tuesday morning.

The driver in the first accident was pinned inside the vehicle after it crashed into a utility pole near Huntington Crossway at about 5:50 a.m. The Bridgehampton Fire Department's heavy rescue squad extricated the driver, who was taken to Southampton Hospital, along with the two passengers.

Southampton Town Police Sgt. Howard Kalb said the driver had a broken leg. He could provide no further information on the driver's condition on Tuesday afternoon.

Though the pole did not come down, a low hanging wire caused police to shut one lane as they awaited for PSEG Long Island to respond.

"We were still directing traffic after the first accident when the second occurred," Sergeant Kalb said.

Three vehicles -- a landscaping truck, another truck, and a minivan -- were involved in the second accident, at the intersection of the turnpike and Scuttlehole Road, about a quarter mile from the first accident.

Two ambulances transported the victims of that accident.

Sergeant Kalb said no arrests have been made in either incident.

The road was briefly closed in both directions until the vehicles in the second crash were towed away. 

“Dark Elegy,” a sculpture created by Suse Lowenstein of Montauk to depict the grief of those, like her, who lost loved ones in the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, could find a permanent home at Montauk’s Kirk Park.

Ms. Lowenstein’s son Alexander was 21 when he was among the 270 people killed in that incident — 259 aboard the jet, and 11 on the ground.

She and her husband, Peter Lowenstein, have offered the piece to the town, and discussed their proposal at a town board meeting in Montauk on Tuesday. Officials will seek public opinion before deciding whether to accept.

The sculpture has been on display  in the Lowensteins’ garden at 11 East Lake Drive, which is open to the public daily, all year, from 10 a.m. to noon. Thousands come each year to see the piece, Ms. Lowenstein said.

The visitors, who learn about the work solely through word of mouth, have included a number of those affected by the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center attack. Ms. Lowenstein began the sculpture the year after the Lockerbie bombing and it was, coincidentally, dedicated on Sept. 11, 1991. It has been exhibited in a number of communities throughout the Northeast.

The sculpture comprises 74 larger-than-life unclothed figures of women positioned as they remembered themselves at the moment they learned of their loss. It depicts Ms. Lowenstein herself, as well as other mothers, wives, and grandmothers who contacted the sculptor and came to her to relive their reactions and postures in the throes of grief.

“I let everyone know what I was doing and I left it up to them to participate,” Ms. Lowenstein said Tuesday night. “I never meant it to be just women, but no men came.”

The couple has proposed installing the pieces in a 75-foot diameter circle in the park, about midway between Fort Pond and the park’s perimeter along Montauk Highway. The area would be covered with garden cloth and the same shredded rubber, made from recycled tires, that was used at a playground the Lowensteins provided at the Montauk Playhouse. No mowing would be needed, Ms. Lowenstein said, and the bronze figures themselves would be covered in a layer of protective wax.

The bronze casting of the pieces, through the lost wax method, would annihilate the original work, executed in a synthetic stone material over steel armatures.

The casting would take a year, Ms. Lowenstein said, if commissioned at two different foundries, with each doing half the figures, or two years if completed at one foundry.

It would be “a multimillion-dollar project,” she said. “It’s actually Mr. Qaddafi’s money we’re using for this,” she said, referring to the Lowensteins’ portion of the $2.7 billion in compensation paid by Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi’s Libyan government to relatives of Lockerbie victims — reportedly $8 million each. Libya acknowledged responsibility for the bombing in 2003 and agreed to the payment in exchange for a formal end to an 11-year United Nations embargo.

“We didn’t want to spend it for anything else but this,” Ms. Lowenstein said of the money. The couple would also bear the cost for moving and installing the work.

“We love the hamlet,” said Ms. Lowenstein. “Our son loved it here.”

“It’s also very practical,” she said of the Kirk Park site, because it is easily accessible, has nearby parking, and is adjacent to Second House and a planned Native American museum, which would make the area “a natural cultural corner.” The art installation is endorsed by the Montauk Historical Society.

“I hope ‘Dark Elegy’ in Kirk Park will actually become a destination,” said Ms. Lowenstein. Because it is “quite a serious memorial,” she said, should concerns arise about its immediate visibility from the highway, as visitors drive into the hamlet, landscaping could be installed, she said, so that park visitors would have to take deliberate steps to see the work.

In considering whether a public installation might be appropriate, Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said Tuesday that the powerful emotions evoked by the sculpted postures in their wrenching positions of grief were initially of concern to him. “It’s so emotional, so raw,” he said he recalled thinking after first seeing pictures of the piece. His concerns faded after he experienced “Dark Elegy” in person, he said.

Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said he had also viewed the work “and was almost brought to tears, honestly.” He said he believed “the sculpture, and everything it represents, belongs in a public place.”

A plan to bronze the sculptures and a search for an appropriate permanent home for them has been in the works for some time.

Representative Tim Bishop introduced a bill some years ago calling for “Dark Elegy” to become a memorial in Washington, D.C.

However, in 2008, the National Capital Memorial Advisory Commission rejected an installation, believing, said Ms. Lowenstein this week, that the work was “too raw.” Instead, she said, the agency told her that it was seeking a more generic tribute to terrorism victims. “There’s nothing generic, in my opinion, about what terrorism leaves behind,” Ms. Lowenstein said.

Mr. Lowenstein said in an interview on Tuesday that the couple feel “very strongly about the community. We love Montauk, and our kids grew up here. We enjoy giving back, and this is a good way of doing it.”

Montauk identifies itself publicly in numerous ways, Ms. Lowenstein told the board — as a beach or fishing destination, for instance. But, she said, “We don’t have a public expression of the vibrant arts community that is here.”

A number of Montauk residents at Tuesday’s meeting endorsed the installation of the sculpture at Kirk Park, calling it a fitting representation of community values and concerns.

“Dark Elegy,” said Larry Smith, “will forever and to all people give a human dimension to that term, ‘international terrorism.’ This is a monument to peace, to universality.” The installation proposal, he said, “is an awe-inspiring act of generosity and love.”

“Art is the visual expression of human emotion,” said Bill Akin. “Through art we share what is common to all people.”

The sculpture, said Ed Braun, “is not a political statement, and it’s not solely about terrorism,” but about “all kinds of loss and grieving.”

On Tuesday evening, following the presentation to the town board, Ms. Lowenstein was in her studio, but took time out to speak to a reporter. She is sculpting with found wood pieces these days. “I sort of feel my life’s work — my most important

 work — is done,” she said. “So now I feel I’m sort of playing; I’m having fun in the studio.”

East Hampton Town could owe more than $330,000 for a study of the Montauk Inlet by the Army Corps of Engineers — a hefty bill of which town officials were unaware but which recently came to light as part of a lawsuit against the town and the Army Corps. The amount due, under a contract signed in 2002 by former Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman, has not been included in town budgets.

The study was to underpin decisions about dredging the Montauk Harbor channel and an erosion-control project to the west of the harbor. A number of alternatives and estimated costs were presented by the Army Corps in 2012, and the town board voted last fall to endorse a plan calling for the Corps to dredge the channel, which has shoaled over the years, to a depth of 17 feet, with approximately 230,000 cubic yards of dredged material to be put on the beach to the west of the inlet.

 The project was estimated several years ago at $26 million, of which the town was to pay about $800,000. But it stalled when residents of Soundview Drive and Captain Kidd’s Path, whereproperties have experienced severe erosion, sued over the impact of the harbor’s jetties.

The $2.6 million contract for pre-project analysis of the project lays out a cost-sharing agreement among the town, the Army Corps, and the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation. Of that, half is to be paid with federal funds and the remaining amount shared between the state and the town on a 70- percent, 30-percent basis.

Based on the estimated study cost, the town’s share could be $336,750, although the agreement allows the town or the state to contribute up to $100,000 of their fee with “in-kind” services. East Hampton was to reimburse the state for initially coming up with the town’s share.

The status of those payments was unclear this week. Larry Cantwell, the East Hampton Town Supervisor, said the bill could represent a “significant unfunded obligation.” He had not reviewed the contract, he said, noting that Len Bernard, the town budget officer, had brought it to his attention.