East Hampton Town’s stop-work order against PSEG Long Island, the utility whose transmission line upgrade has prompted a public outcry here, was upheld on Monday in State Supreme Court, Riverhead. Acting State Supreme Court Justice Ralph Gazzillo denied PSEG’s request for a temporary restraining order that would have allowed it to continue work at the substation.

Construction at an Old Stone Highway, Amagansett, power substation will therefore remain stalled, although the utility’s request for a preliminary injunction to prevent the town from further interference is yet to be decided.

Meanwhile, Long Island Businesses for Responsible Energy, a new group formed to fight PSEG’s installation of high-voltage wires and large poles along town and village residential streets, has hired lawyers and plans an April 26 meeting in order to gather plaintiffs to sue PSEG.

The stop-work order was posted at the Amagansett site on April 4 after Tom Preiato, the town building inspector, found clearing, fencing, and the construction of a building, all of it done without a town building permit or site   plan approval. PSEG argued that it was exempt from those requirements.

The installation of new utility poles along a six-mile route from a substation on Buell Lane in East Hampton Village to Amagansett has been completed, and wires carrying 23 and 33 kilovolts are being installed by crews along the line.

Members of Save East Hampton: Safe Responsible Energy, who mobilized soon after PSEG began work, and the new business group, which split off from the original grassroots group, have raised concerns over aesthetics, safety, the potential health effects of living under high-tension wires, and the effect of their proximity on property values. They have called for the six miles of line to be buried.

Although PSEG officials attended a March 5 meeting at East Hampton Town Hall for preliminary talks about burying the lines, they have subsequently refused to discuss the possibility unless East Hampton taxpayers foot the entire bill.

Local and state officials proposed a cost-sharing scenario, similar to one used in Southampton Town, where residents here would be assessed for the additional cost of burying the lines versus installing them above-ground, but PSEG rejected it.

Meanwhile, the utility has continued work on the overhead line project, which PSEG insists is critical to maintaining the power supply here through the summer.

In a press release this week, Long Island Businesses for Responsible Energy, a nonprofit corporation co-chaired by Helene Forst and Rebecca Singer, said that “we believe that PSEG has fabricated the idea that we are in need of additional energy to get us through the summer of 2014. It should be noted that we had no brown-outs during the summer of 2013 despite the fact that LIPA willingly dismantled three generators in May 2013 that supplied back-up powerto 4,000 households, undercutting PSEG’s dire-consequences argument for the summer of 2014. And that there are preferred alternatives for meeting the power needs of the East End.” Under a state-approved agreement the Long Island Power Authority handed oversight of the Long Island power supply to PSEG Long Island, a New Jersey company subsidiary, at the start of 2013.

 “PSEG wants the ratepayers to bury the lines once they’ve completed the overhead project. This will increase their profits once again,” the business group said in the release. “After they’ve irreparably damaged our environment, depreciated our property values, butchered and killed our trees, damaged our aesthetics, polluted our groundwater and soil, and exposed us to numerous health risks associated with continuous exposure to high-tension wires, their profits will go back to New Jersey, instead of being reinvested on Long Island.”

Ms. Singer said Monday that the group had engaged Irving Like of the Babylon law firm Reilly Like & Tenety, and Leon Friedman, a professor of civil liberties at Hofstra Law School.

As a special counsel to Suffolk County on environmental, nuclear power, offshore oil, and utility rate and energy matters, Mr. Like was involved in  the successful effort to keep the Long Island Lighting Company from operating nuclear power plants in Shoreham and Jamesport. He is a former member of the LIPA board.

Mr. Friedman, who specializes in civil, First Amendment, and intellectual property rights, was a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. He was the lawyer, depicted in the film “The Hurricane,” who got Rubin (Hurricane) Carter’s conviction for murder in New Jersey overturned.

Ms. Singer said a door-to-door effort will be made to contact all residents along the six-mile transmission path to invite them to join her, Ms. Forst, and her husband, Jack Forst, in a plaintiffs’ group.

The attorneys will argue, she said, that the plaintiffs’ properties have been negatively affected by the PSEG project, through property devaluation or health, safety, environmental, or aesthetic concerns. Property assessments will be compiled by a professional assessor, at no cost, to reflect their values before and after the installation of the poles and lines. 

“The damages . . . should far out-total the cost of PSEG burying the lines,” Ms. Singer said. In addition to helping to establish damages, she wrote in an email, “this will also set up the possibility for a reassessment of our properties for tax purposes, which has negative consequences for the town and village.”

Save East Hampton held a fund-raiser at Babette’s restaurant on Sunday.  Richard Janis, a co-chair of the group with Terri Rauch, said it is working to support Supervisor Larry Cantwell in his efforts to get state officials, including Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, to intervene. The group, Mr. Janis said Tuesday, has contacted the chairman of the LIPA board and invited him to come to East Hampton to assess things firsthand, as Audrey Zibelman, the chairwoman of the State Public Service Commission, recently did.

Mr. Janis said the group had asked County Legislator Jay Schneiderman to introduce legislation calling for all high-voltage transmission lines in Suffolk to be buried.

The two citizens’ groups will work together, he said. “We’re both looking for the same end result. Everyone’s looking for the same goal. The more voices out there, the better.”

He noted that communities in Port Washington and North Hempstead are also fighting with PSEG over the installation of high-voltage wires on tall poles.

Since the Springs School announced the first-ever Mystery Art Sale earlier this spring, nearly 450 submissions have poured in from all over, with several artists submitting more than one piece and more works still trickling in.

Starting on Wednesday and continuing through April 27, the sale will convene at Ashawagh Hall in Springs. Every piece of 5-by-7 artwork, no matter the artist, will be priced at $20. All pieces will be displayed anonymously.

While the artist’s identities won’t be known until the unveiling party on the 26th, it can be revealed that a number of big-name artists have agreed to participate. According to organizers, they include Ross Bleckner, Eric Fischl, John Alexander, Dan Aykroyd, William King, Connie Fox, Eugenio Cuttica, William Quigley, Jim Gingerich, Peter Dayton, Scott Hewett, Almond Zigmund, April Gornik, Elizabeth Strong Cuevas, and Jimmy Buffett, among others.

Springs School students have spent the past few weeks putting the finishing touches on their own canvases. The show will include upward of 600 pieces of student-created work, more than1,000 pieces altogether. Proceeds will benefit the school’s Visiting Artists Program, which brings professional artists into the classrooms. Additional money will go to buy supplies and equipment.

“I’m looking forward to seeing if there’s a visual difference between the professional and the children’s art,” said Claire Hopkins, a 12-year-old seventh grader, who contributed a pop art piece.

“I’ve worn my T-shirt for two days straight,” said Collette Mendelman, an eight-year-old second grader, referring to the orange shirts with white question marks advertising the show (being sold for $20).

“I finished mine in 45 minutes,” said Nick Lombardo, an 11-year-old fifth grader. “I like that no one really knows what piece they’re looking at. Every artist has a different technique and you can express your feelings on paper.”

Emilio Yanez, an 11-year-old fifth grader, who sat working with watercolor, wants to be a painter someday. “I’m looking forward to someone buying my work,” said Emilio, who hopes the proceeds might also be used for a bigger art room, ideally one with natural rather than fluorescent light.

Colleen McGowan, who has taught at Springs for 22 years and has been its elementary art teacher for the past eight, first conceived of the Visiting Artists Program five years ago. Each week, she sees the school’s 600 or so  students for one 50-minute period. Besides the lack of natural light, she said the limited space is a factor, particularly in classes where rosters number upward of 25 students.

Ms. McGowan has been thrilled, she said, by the “overwhelming response” to the sale from local artists and community members. For her students, she views it as a unique opportunity where they can view their submissions in a gallery hanging alongside the work of professional artists.

Kryn Olson, a Sag Harbor resident who works with acrylic and mixed media on canvas, was immediately drawn to the show’s simple premise. “I loved the anonymity and that the playing field seems so leveled,” she said. “I’m a huge advocate for education, and the whole concept of bringing adult artists into a school helps make children understand that art can be a profession.”

For organizers, this is crunch time, with no detail being spared.

“It’s almost become a full-time job,” said Sara Faulkner, an artist and mother of two Springs students who is one of the primary organizers. In past years, she has also served as a visiting artist at the school.

Ms. Faulkner, a native of the United Kingdom, first thought of the idea after attending an event at the Royal College of Art in London, where big-name artists created postcard-size pieces of artwork that were sold anonymously alongside student-made works, all for relative pocket change. Before the show opened, she said, eager buyers would camp out for days in advance to secure early entry. Though she thinks it’s unlikely that locals will resort to similar tactics, she anticipates a mad dash come 4 p.m. Wednesday, when the doors at Ashawagh Hall will open.

A closing party is planned for the afternoon and evening of April 26, the last day to make purchases. Buyers may claim their prizes the next day, a Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Purchases can be made Wednesday, Thursday, and on Friday, April 25, from 4 to 7 p.m., and on the 26th from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Buyers will be able to take away up to five pieces at one time, on a cash-only basis. They can then go to the end of the line, if desired, for the chance to acquire five more.

Some artists have donated slightly larger pieces, which will adorn a separate wall. Ms. Faulkner said bids on those works will be taken throughout the week, culminating in a live auction on Saturday afternoon.

Envisioning a certain degree of controlled chaos, she has urged that visitors be patient; unforeseen fixes may be necessary.

“It’s the first year and it’s difficult to know how many people will show up,” she said, “but I think we’re going to see some really big crowds.” The organizers themselves will not be allowed to make purchases.

“We’ve been sworn to secrecy and we can’t buy the art,” said Ms. Faulkner. Opening the wrapped submissions, she said, has been akin to “Christmas morning — so varied, so beautiful, so spectacular.”

While the weather may indicate otherwise, the summer season is nigh and weighing on the minds of the East Hampton Town Board. Chronic summertime problems are being discussed as officials shape changes to the town code on beach behavior, large assemblies, or mass gatherings, and noise.

A ban on drinking alcohol during daytime hours when lifeguards are on duty at two Amagansett beaches — Atlantic Avenue and Indian Wells — has been proposed, and the board expects to act after receiving comments from the East Hampton Town Trustees, who own the beaches on behalf of the public.

Revisions to the permit process for events at which more than 50 people are expected, whether at residences,  commercial spots, or public properties, have long been a concern, as have adjustments to the town’s noise ordinance. Meanwhile, applications for official go-aheads for big events continue to roll in.

One such event, the so-called Shark Attack Sounds party, which has been an annual bash and was organized by the promoter Ben Watts, is expected to receive a thumbs-down. A resolution denying a permit for the party, to have been on July 3 at the Montauk Yacht Club, will be voted on at tonight’s town board meeting.

While a new large gathering review committee and the entire town board have been taking a more critical look at the impact of summer activities, the board appears to be following a pragmatic bent with regard to changes in the town’s noise law. Draft legislation presented to the town board last week would set specific acceptable noise levels, and would establish a procedure by which those who cannot keep noise to those levels could receive a permit to exceed them.

Michael Sendlenksi, an assistant town attorney who has been working on the draft with Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, said at an April 8 town board meeting that a special permit procedure — “almost like a Zoning Board of Appeals for noise issues” — would be the largest change if the new noise law were adopted.

Those seeking a permit would have to demonstrate why they were unable to meet the law’s requirements, and show that they had done all they could to mitigate the situation. This would be evaluated by a consultant for the town, who would be paid by the applicant.

“I’m not sure we want to do that, or should be doing that,” Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said this week.

Mr. Sendlenski called the procedure a proactive way to address chronic noise, allowing places that have had noise violations, or might be likely to have them, to “come in and plan for their activities to be in compliance” rather than violating the law and then seeking to resolve the matter.

“When you’re dealing with this process, sometimes one size doesn’t fit all,” he said. To make a successful case for permission to exceed noise limits, he said, would “require significant studies . . . significant mitigation steps,” and the applicant would have to meet “a pretty high burden.”

“The board’s going to be in the middle of neighbors that are concerned about a particular use and a particular business,” Mr. Cantwell said.

The draft of the new law would loosen existing restrictions in commercial and industrial zones, increasing the allowed maximum decibel level between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. from 55 to 65 decibels, and starting the time at which a “noise pollution” restriction kicks in at 10 p.m. instead of 9 p.m. The noise limit would extend until 9 a.m. The law would also “clarify and make explicit” a prohibition on amplified music outdoors between 10 p.m. and 9 a.m. It is expected to be discussed again at another board meeting.

The draft legislation drops a proposal to factor in ambient sound in the revamp of the noise law. Instead the law would continue to rely on the specific maximum decibel levels allowed in various districts.

Mr. Sendlenski said the special permit process would be legally advisable in lieu of considering ambient noise. He said that in downtown areas ambient sound sometimes reaches the maximum level allowed. Under the draft of the new law, sound could be measured on an adjoining property, or at the street, rather than at the property line of the alleged offense.

Also at tonight’s meeting, the town board will vote on appointing several code enforcement staffers, including David Betts, to fill a new position of director of public safety. He will oversee and direct the Departments of Fire Safety, Code Enforcement, and Animal Control, and the Building Department. That role has been informally filled since the beginning of the year by Ed Michels, the head of the Marine Patrol Division.

The resolution appointing Mr. Betts states that the board “wishes to bolster its code enforcement effort as well as more aggressively address quality of life and public safety related matters.” Mr. Betts, it says, has over 32 years of experience in the field.

Two new ordinance enforcement officers, Aldi Binozi and Donald Kauthbe, are also expected to be appointed tonight.

Former Shark Attack

According to the Shark Attack Sounds resolution on tonight’s agenda, this year’s party would be attended by 4,900 people. The resolution notes that in 2012, when Shark Attack Sounds had a permit for 800 guests at Rick’s Crabby Cowboy Cafe in Montauk, some 2,500 attended, and the party had to be shut down by police after an ambulance could not get to an injured person.

Last year, the previous town board under Supervisor Bill Wilkinson held an “emergency” meeting just before the Fourth of July to accommodate the organizers after the permit was granted, and then rescinded when it was revealed that parking was to be on a preserved and protected property. The parking location was changed. While the extra cost of police traffic control was estimated at $4,000, Supervisor Wilkinson said that the cost to the public of the party had to be weighed against the overall economic benefit to the town. Last year, the party cost $5,000 in police overtime, the resolution says.

The two Democratic members of last year’s board, who are still in office, Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc and Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, voted against issuing last year’s permit, but were in the minority.

The arrangements for traffic and parking control last year, identical to those proposed this year, were “proven to be insufficient,” according to the resolution. In addition, the resolution notes that the event conflicts with other Montauk events “on the extremely busy July Fourth weekend, overtaxing the town’s Police Department and emergency services.” The impact “shall be even greater this year,” it says, given that it says 1,000 more people would attend.

A coyote was spotted in the Hamptons early Friday enjoying a morning romp.

Dell Cullum, a nature photographer who trapped and photographed coyotes during a decade spent out west, was driving near the Sagaponack-Wainscott border behind the Poxabogue Golf Course at around 6 a.m. when he saw an animal running through a field.

"Immediately I said, 'That's no fox.' "

He followed it, at first in his car, yelling at it in the hope that it would turn so he could get a good front-face shot.

"It didn't look at me once, and that's when I knew it was a coyote." Coyotes ignore humans, he explained.

He got out of the car and ran after it with his camera. The coyote, bigger than a fox and with the gait of a canine, ran across the road to dart into the woods. "It stopped just long enough," Mr. Cullum said, for him to get a photo of its face.

The animal looked very healthy, he said. No mange could be seen on its fur. "It seems a little thick around the midsection," said the photographer. "I think it's out in that field filling that belly with rodents."

"It's clearly a coyote."

This was not the first time a coyote has been spotted on the South Fork. In July 2013, the State Department of Environmental Conservation confirmed that a photograph a Water Mill farmer took was, in fact, of a coyote.

Mr. Cullum, who called the D.E.C. after the sighting, said officials believe there are thousands of coyotes throughout the state, including on Long Island. The D.E.C. has not yet seen his photos.

In January, a friend of Mr. Cullum's, Allison Lupo, reported seeing an animal that she described as a German shepherd attacking a deer on Schellinger Road in Amagansett. Mr. Cullum set up cameras for three nights to no avail. However, as soon as Ms. Lupo saw the picture taken Friday, she said that was the type of animal she saw attacking the deer.

"They're here. They're dogs. They're smart. They're easily domesticated," Mr.Cullum said. "They feed off of small game, pets, rodents . . . and garbage. They love garbage, and that's what gets them close to people, and they only become an issue then."

Mr. Cullum, who runs a wildlife rescue and removal business in East Hampton, said he has coyote traps here. He has asked the D.E.C. if he could relocate an animal he traps. In the meantime, "I'm not going to mess with it until somebody calls me."

For more photos of the reported coyote, click here to visit Mr. Cullum's blog.

• RELATED READING: Body-Surfing Raccoon Caught on Camera

The Sagaponack man police say set fire to a $34 million Dune Road house in Bridgehampton on Saturday is being held on $500,000 bail and has been ordered to undergo psychiatric examination.

David Osiecki, 54, was arraigned today in Southampton Justice Court, two days after being arrested on felony arson charges. Justice Andrea Schiavoni declined to issue an order of protection for the owner of the house, which is routine in such cases, until the results of the psychiatric  evaluation are known. “We don’t know if you would understand what is happening,” she told the defendant. “There is a question as to whether you understand,” the justice said.

Mr. Osiecki told the court he had been hospitalized twice recently for possible mental illness, the most recent being 33 days in Stony Brook University Hospital’s psychiatric ward.

Mr. Osiecki has also been charged with misdemeanor arson in connection with a brush fire in Bridgehampton that took place less than 20 hours before the Dune Road fire was  reported. According to police, the brush fire started in a mulch pile behind a tree nursery on Hayground Road at about 10:30 a.m. Friday morning.  The fire on Dune Road was called in at 5:49 a.m., Saturday.

The seven-bedroom, eight-bathroom post-modern house near Mecox Bay that Mr. Osiecki is charged with setting fire to was offered for sale by Corcoran Group Real Estate in 2012 for $34 million. Southampton Town records list its owner as Ziel Feldman, the founder and managing partner of HFZ Group, a New York City real estate and investment firm.

Mr. Osiecki had been arrested previously on charges of trespassing and misdemeanor possession of stolen property in Sag Harbor, as well as on other charges in Southampton.  He went before Justice Schiavoni on April 1 in Sag Harbor Village Court, where she also presides. At that time, he dismissed Sabato Caponi, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society, insisting he had retained private counsel, without naming who it was. “I have a letter from my attorney. I have it on my cellphone,” Mr. Osiecki said. He then demanded a trial, saying that he had powerful friends in the press who would attend. 

“I can’t talk to you if you aren’t represented by an attorney,” the justice replied. She then released Mr. Osiecki, saying, “I need to see you back here with counsel,” setting his next court date as April 15. He failed to appear

At what was expected to be his arraignment on Sunday morning, Mr.Osiecki told the justice that he was being represented by Edward Burke Jr., and wanted him at his side.  The justice put off the arraignment for 24 hours to allow him time to contact Mr. Burke and sent  him to county jail.  Handcuffed, dressed in a white plastic jail-issued jumpsuit, and led by two officers, Mr. Osiecki spoke to reporters standing outside,

“It’s Easter Sunday, and I’m taking a day of meditation,” he said in an authoritative, clear voice. Mentioning Mr. Feldman, the owner of the Dune Lane house, he said, “His son has been captured by the Israelis.”He then gave the first names of members of Mr. Feldman’s family, saying he was trying to rescue them and their artwork and get them to Norway.

Mr. Osiecki was at a fund raiser in Bridgehampton in 2009 for the Chaim Sheba  Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, Israel,  which Mr. Feldman and his wife, Helene Feldman, attended. He posed for at least two photographs with Ms. Feldman and others at the party. Those photographs can be seen at the website of the well-known society photographer Patrick McMullan.

Sag Harbor police had described Mr. Osiecki as homeless after an incident involving his family, from whom he is estranged. His daughter recently told police that she no longer needed an order of protection, because she was leaving the area.

Two cars collided in East Hampton on Tuesday morning sending two drivers to the hospital.

A Nissan Altima appeared to have struck the driver's side of a Land Rover at the intersection of Pantigo Road and Pantigo Place, near the Luigi's and Smokin' Wolf eateries. The accident was reported at 10:47 a.m.

The Nissan sedan, seen on the side of the road just east of Town Hall, sustained front-end damage. The Land Rover's driver's side air bag deployed, and it had side-impact damage.

Two ambulances from the East Hampton Village Ambulance Association responded to transport the drivers to the hospital.

An East Hampton Village police traffic control officer helped redirect eastbound traffic off of Pantigo Road onto Amy's Lane while the accident was cleared.

Both vehicles involved were towed away from the scene.

A coyote was spotted on a morning romp behind the Poxabogue Golf Course Friday, and state environmental officials believe it is the same one that was photographed in Water Mill last summer.

Dell Cullum, a nature photographer who trapped and photographed coyotes during a decade in Texas, Arizona, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, was driving near the Sagaponack-Wainscott border behind the golf course at around 6 a.m. when he saw an animal running through a field.

“Immediately I said, ‘That’s no fox.’ ”

He followed it, at first in his car, yelling at it in the hope that it would turn so he could get a good shot of its face.

“It didn’t look at me once, and that’s when I knew it was a coyote,” he said, explaining that coyotes ignore humans.

He got out of the car and ran after it with his camera. The coyote, bigger than a fox and with the gait of a canine, ran across the road to dart into the woods. “It stopped just long enough,” he said, for him to get a photo of its face. He posted the photos on his blog on ImaginationNature.com.

The animal looked very healthy, with no sign of mange, said Mr. Cullum, a certified animal trapper. “It seems a little thick around the midsection,” he said. “I think it’s out in that field filling that belly with rodents.”

“It’s clearly a coyote,” he said. Mr. Cullum runs Hampton Wildlife Removal and Rescue in East Hampton and is also one of The Star’s contributing photographers.

Over the past year, Mr. Cullum has gotten several calls from people from Montauk to Wainscott who spotted what they thought was a coyote. Since he posted his photographs and the story appeared on The Star’s website last week, the calls have tripled.

“They know what they saw but didn’t want to say anything for fear of people thinking they were crazy or seeing things,” he wrote in an email.

The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation has received a handful of confirmed coyote sightings since June of 2013, and it thinks they are all of the same individual, according to Aphrodite Montalvo, a spokeswoman for the D.E.C.

In July 2013, the D.E.C. confirmed that pictures taken by a Water Mill farmer were also of a coyote.

There is “no evidence of more than one coyote or an established population, thus the risk of a negative human-coyote interaction is highly unlikely,” Ms. Montalvo said. She said there have been no confirmed sightings of coyotes in other areas of Suffolk County or in Nassau County.

Eastern coyotes have been present in New York since the 1930s, according to the D.E.C.’s website, and been well established in upstate New York since the 1970s. They look like German shepherds, with long fur and bushy tails, but are half their weight, “measuring four to five feet from nose to tail,” the site says.

In January, Allison Lupo, a friend of Mr. Cullum’s, told him she had seen an animal that looked like a German shepherd attacking a deer on Schellinger Road in Amagansett. He set up cameras for three nights hoping to get a photograph of the animal to no avail. When Ms. Lupo saw the pictures he took Friday, she confirmed that it was the kind of animal she had seen attacking the deer.

Two weeks ago, Justin Spring saw what looked to be a coyote in a farm field off Halsey Lane in Bridgehampton and posted a comment about it on his Facebook page. He often sees animals in the field, including fox. “This was a biggish animal, a different color than a fox,” he said this week. “I’ve never seen anything like that.” He did not think to alert wildlife officials and did not take a picture. “I assumed that coyotes are on the rise all up and down the East Coast. I just didn’t realize they were in the Hamptons.”

“They’re dogs; they’re smart,” Mr. Cullum said. “They feed off of small game, pets, rodents . . . and garbage. They love garbage, and that’s what gets them close to people, and they only become an issue then.”

According to the D.E.C., coyotes eat what is readily available and “easy to find, scavenge, or catch and kill,” including rabbits, mice and voles, raccoons, white-tailed deer, birds, plants, insects, and garbage.

Unlike wolves, which form packs, coyotes mate for life and form family units that include the male and female and the young of the year, typically born four to six pups to a litter in March and April, according to the D.E.C. When the pups mature at nine months, they are “driven from their parents’ home ranges” and might travel as far as 100 miles to find a territory of their own, which might explain how the South Fork’s resident coyote arrived here.

They are not generally aggressive toward people, but are attracted by pets and can pose a serious threat to them, the D.E.C. warns.

Officials with the D.E.C. warn not to feed coyotes, to avoid feeding pets outside, and to eliminate the availability of birdseed because it, too, may attract coyotes. They warn pet owners not to let their animals run unsupervised outdoors, especially at sunset and at night.

In case of a run-in with coyotes, the D.E.C. advises acting aggressively. “Stand tall and hold arms out to look large,” its website says. “If a coyote lingers for too long, then make loud noises, wave your arms, throw sticks and stones.”

Coyotes, they said, are typically secretive in their behavior and prefer areas where they can hide, like brush and tall grass.

Mr. Cullum has coyote traps here. If he is called to trap a coyote and catches one, he would contact the D.E.C., but could not relocate it. Instead, it would be released to a wildlife rescue facility.

In the meantime, he said, “I’m not going to mess with it until somebody calls me.”

With Reporting by Carissa Katz

Dell Cullum, a wildlife photographer who said he had thought he had seen it all, got several images of a body-surfing raccoon last week in the ocean off Amagansett.

While it is impossible to know whether the raccoon meant to go for a swim in the frigid water or if it had been accidentally swept up while taking a walk along the shore, one thing is for certain: It got some much needed help. Mr. Cullum, who first captured the spectacle with his camera, ended up helping the raccoon from the surf off Atlantic Avenue just after sunrise on April 10.

"First, I thought it was a scoter or sheldrake but as it neared I saw it had no resemblance to waterfowl at all. A seal maybe, but way too small. It finally got close enough where I was able to tell it was a fur-bearing critter, most likely a muskrat," Mr. Cullum wrote on his blog. "I switched my camera lens from wide angle to telephoto, put it to my eye and was surprised to see it was a raccoon. I immediately began shooting frames of the masked marauder swimming parallel to the shoreline. Every now and then it would turn in and ride a wave closer to shore like it was quite familiar with the ocean and the waves. Sadly, that wasn't the case at all."

The raccoon was fighting to keep above water, Mr. Cullum said, and it was overcome by a large wave and disappeared in the surf. "I was heartbroken realizing what was going on. A few seconds later, his head popped up, and he began fighting the current trying to get back to shore."

Mr. Cullum took off his shoes and socks, rolled up his pant legs, and with a golf ball scoop he keeps in his truck, rushed into the water to help. Extending the device about 20 feet, he reached over the water. On his first try, he dropped the scoop. The raccoon, however, grabbed onto its net, and Mr. Cullum dragged the soaked creature to the water's edge.

A wave knocked the raccoon off his feet, but it quickly composed himself — and "coughed up a lung of saltwater" in the process, Mr. Cullum said. "A few shakes and twists to shed a soaking coat, a stumble or two to get the gait and off he went . . . not up into the dunes, but along the shoreline. This one is bound to keep me confused and in wonderment."

Larry Penny, who writes a nature column for The East Hampton Star and was director of the Natural Resources Department for the Town of East Hampton, said he had never heard such a story before. "A lot of different animals go into the water to de-lice themselves or de-flea themselves," Mr. Penny said, however. "The saltwater is a better elixir than fresh water."

Four fire departments responded to a blaze that destroyed an Amagansett house and threatened several others nearby in the early morning hours on Thursday.

Amagansett Fire Department Chief Dwayne Denton said he arrived at 119 Miankoma Lane, believed to be under construction, with six or seven minutes of the 1:43 a.m. call. The house was already a total loss, he said. No one was inside the house at the time.

"It was fully involved. I don't just mean the flames coming through the windows. It was a big ball of flames," Chief Denton said. "Within six to eight minutes, the house collapsed into the foundation," he said. All that was left is a brick chimney and a charred Mickey's waste container in the front yard.

"My biggest concern were the houses across the street and next door," he said. The wind was blowing from the east and the embers were blowing over onto the neighboring lawns and roofs, he said.

Firefighters had to wet down the surrounding houses, which are 50 to 75 feet apart, according to the chief, to keep them from catching fire. In fact, embers gathered on the roof of the house across the street, at 122 Miankoma Lane, and set it on ablaze, burning a small hole in the roof, the chief said. "Very fortunate my guys caught it," he said, adding that there was no one at home.

Water proved to be a challenge. The flow from a hydrant on Miankoma Lane was described as a dribble, the chief said. "The mains there are old. There was no water pressure. So we went down to Main Street and got good water supply there," he said. When East Hampton's aerial ladder and engine arrived, he had them lay a hose from Bluff Road, which also supplied good water pressure.

An engine from the Springs Fire Department stood by, and the Rapid Intervention Team from the Sag Harbor Fire Department also responded. In total, about 70 to 75 firefighters responded. Many remained there until 4:45 a.m., though the chiefs remained until about 6 a.m. No injuries were reported.

Chief Denton said he didn't know what caused the blaze, but that he suspects it was burning for four or five hours before it was reported to 911 dispatchers.

The East Hampton Town fire marshal's office is investigating the cause, and fire marshals were still at the scene of the fire at about 9:30 a.m.

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Editor's note: An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect address for the house.

Montauk Downs State Park is one of the crown jewels in the state park system, said Jerry Kremer, a former state assemblyman and ex-chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, which controls the state’s funding.

Mr. Kremer played a huge part, with former Speaker of the House Perry Duryea, a Montauk resident (and “a tough guy”) in finding the money to save what he called one of the top 10 parks in the state.

The property was slated for development with some 200 houses when Mr. Duryea asked Mr. Kremer to help him find the money to buy it. After some heavy digging, he said, he found it in the state’s designated parks and recreation fund. He called Mr. Duryea: “I think I found about $4 million in parks.”

“This is a natural for us. There is nothing else like it on Long Island,” Mr. Kremer said on Sunday, sitting in the Downs cafe with a copy of his new book, “Winning Albany: Untold Stories About the Famous and Not So Famous,” on a table before him.

First elected to the assembly in 1966 as a Democrat representing the south shore of Nassau County, Mr. Kremer was re-elected 13 times. He was chairman of  the Ways and Means Committee for 12 years and is proud of the part he played in helping draw the tourist trade to Montauk. “Before this, there was nothing out here,” he said. “I’d like to think this golf course was one of the many things that cemented the area for tourists. They needed a reason to come to Montauk.”

The fight to save the Downs from a developer who wanted to create a housing complex on what was then a small golf course was not easy. Mr. Kremer, now a lobbyist who drives up to Albany every other week from his home in Bridgehampton, remembers other politicians asking him why the funds should go to Long Island. He told them it would make money for the state.

Before he agreed to help Mr. Duryea, the two flew out to Montauk in a single-engine plane that landed on a small airstrip at the park. It was a rainy day, Mr. Kremer recalled, but he could see the park’s potential and knew it would be profitable. He remembers seeing the ocean and thinking the site was terrific. Now, he said, “It’s a beacon for people who come out to use it.”

The bill that was passed for the money to be spent on the golf course was just one of many that he helped push through during his time as a legislator. He also takes credit for what has became known as the Lemon Law, which did not endear him to the automobile industry.

Politics these days is a nasty business, said Mr. Kremer. When he was in office, Democrats and Republicans kept a cordial relationship, he writes in his book, meeting for drinks even after a contentious battle on the floor. His friendship with Mr. Duryea, a Republican powerhouse, not only rose above politics but continued for many years after both retired.

His visits to Albany, he said, keep him on the edge of the game. But back in his day, holding elected office was a different matter. “We looked at it as what can we do for the next 10 years. Now, it’s what can we do in the next 10 minutes.”

He wrote “Winning Albany” after finding a box containing some 500 old photographs taken during his political career. It took him two and half years, and when he was done his publisher asked for two more chapters. He pounded them out over two weekends here, he said.

Mr. Kremer often speaks to schoolchildren, including his own grandchildren, who, he said, beam when he visits their classrooms. Proceeds from his book, which is available on Amazon, will go to charity.

He visits Montauk about five times a year to golf, but if he mentions to a course starter that he had a hand in saving the place it gets him no special favors, he said, laughing.

“I have a warm place in my heart and am happy to have made this contribution to Montauk,” he said before getting in his car to begin the drive home.