Now that spring has sprung, the sound of birdsong is sometimes eclipsed by the noise of hammers, leaf blowers, and backhoes. Everyone in the trades seems to be rushing to get ready for summer.

Besides the summer countdown, two other reasons seem to have contributed to its getting so busy now: Homeowners just don’t think about maintenance work during winter, a time of hibernation, and this was a winter from hell that created a backlog of items on tradespeople’s to-do lists.

Some contractors, gutter cleaners, and others were too busy in the last two weeks to return calls. Others local tradespeople, however, took time from their schedules to let us know what all that racket is about. A housepainter in Montauk, who had work from Thanksgiving left over because winter temperatures were so low, wouldn’t let us use his name since he’s now working at full capacity.

Kevin Keyser of Silverleaf Landscaping is among the many landscapers revving up their crews. He said he had been “going gangbusters for a month already,” working seven-day weeks, nine-hour days with a full crew. He predicted that “when it’s this busy now it’s an indication that it’s going to be a good summer season with plenty of work.”   

According to Danielle Quackenbush of Quackenbush Cesspools, if there’s one thing homeowners should think about in spring it’s getting their cesspool pumped. “If your cesspool is going to back up, it’s going to do it when you’re having a party or a lot of people over,” she said.

It may be too early to jump in the pool, but Shira Barzilay, the owner of Proper pH Pools, said the company was incredibly busy. “A good percentage of those who open their pools in late March or early April don’t want to see their covers; it reminds them of winter.” If March comes in like a lamb, she gets a head start, but this year, March roared in.

“Last week was our first full week outside,” she said, with the crew doing vacuuming and repairs and starting to excavate for new pools, which requires a minimum of 50-degree temperatures. Those lucky enough to haveheated pools, and there are many, might have good swimming by the end of April, she said.

East Hampton Village’s Village Hardware had a lousy March, but things have picked up enormously, Bernard Kiembock, the owner, said. Trouble is, he said that on Saturday there was nowhere to park between 11 and 3, “If you can’t park, you can’t shop,” a predicament that “almost shut us down last year,” when he said his April sales were down 20 percent. The good news for next year is that village officials have promised to change the parking regulations. “If I have more months like this, where I struggle, I’ll go out of business.”

Business has also picked up for Dick King of Dick’s Plumbing and Heating. “Right now we’re turning on water in houses that have been closed up, installing hot-water heaters, and doing small renovations.” He blamed his slow winter on new homeowners’ “bringing in their own people from UpIsland and not sticking with their old plumber.” Another sorry truth for Mr. King, who has been in business since 1977 and now works with his son, Doug, is that “a lot of my customers are passing away.”

The last thing some of us want to think about at this time of year is air-conditioning, but John Grant of Grant Heating and Cooling said, “We’re encouraging people to sign up for pre-season maintenance,” which entails a complete check of the system. Things can happen over winter, such as “a refrigerant leak or insects getting into the outdoor condensing unit.” And filters need regular changing. Pre-season maintenance, he said, allows him to “find the problem before Fourth of July weekend when your house is full.”

Business usually picks up for C.E. King and Sons, which sells awnings and marine canvas, on April 1. But this year they are still “getting ready for the springtime rush,” said David King, a grandson of the man who launched the business in 1948. Though the sun has peeked out occasionally, there’s still not a huge demand for retractable awnings. Starting mid-April, however, “We’re one-armed paper-hangers till July 15 when it slows from fever pitch.”

Bruce Bates of Bates Electric gets a lot of calls at this time of year from people who reopen their houses to find that things have mysteriously gone kaput. There can be several explanations, but he said the culprit was often an over-wintering rodent chewing on wires. Egads.

If tradespeople are busy, so, too, are those who provide other services for summer residents. Cynthia Kolbenheyer of Open Minded Concierge is helping clients line up chefs, housekeepers, landscapers, wait staff (for all those parties), and personal assistants. “When people get out here, they want to relax and not spend one minute grocery shopping or running errands,” she said.

A round-table discussion on agriculture on the East End drew a circle of more than two dozen farmers, legislators, and others to East Hampton Town Hall on Monday, where growers described their biggest obstacles and floated ideas about what can be done by public entities to ease their way.

When open space and farmland preservation efforts began decades ago, there was little belief that farming itself could also be preserved here, Supervisor Larry Cantwell said in introductory remarks on Monday.

Now, he said, there is “a new generation that wants to be involved in farming . . . a real opportunity that has established itself as a result of saving the resource.”

The time has come, he said, to have a discussion “among farmers, planners, and others to see how we can make this better,” and make more land available for crop production.

The meeting was hosted by the Suffolk County Planning Commission, through its East Hampton representative, John Whelan.

The task, said David Calone, the commission’s chairman, is to determine what actions can be taken on local, county, state, and federal levels to address the issues impacting farmers, such as water quality, immigration, or housing for workers.

In East Hampton, efforts were under way this week to establish a committee to advise the town board on agricultural affairs, at the suggestion of Reed Jones, the planning board chairman, and Ian Calder-Piedmonte, a farmer and planning board member.

Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, who will organize the group, said Tuesday that it is “really exciting to be putting it together.”

Among the local farmers in attendance were some with a multi-generational legacy, such as Bill Babinski of Wainscott, Dean Foster of Sagaponack, and David Falkowski, a Bridgehampton mushroom grower, and others who have landed here more recently, drawn by the fine soils and market opportunities, such as Amanda Merrow of Amber Waves Farm in Amagansett. Scott Chaskey, the longtime expert farmer behind the area’s first community supported agriculture effort, Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett, was on hand, as was John v.H. Halsey, the president of Peconic Land Trust, which owns and leases farmland to Quail Hill and other farmers.

Alex Balsam is a partner with Mr. Piedmonte in Balsam Farms, which hasa farmstand on Town Lane in Amagansett.

Their farm, said Mr. Balsam, is in its 12th year and, from a start with $3,5000 in seed money, it has grown to employ 40 people to help with production on some 50 leased acres, with 15 tractors — tractors being a farmer’s measurement of success, he said.

In East Hampton, both Ms. Merrow and Mr. Balsam said, one of the largest impediments to growth is gaining approval to erect structures such as barns, greenhouses, or fences, under the procedure dictated by the zoning code. People “need to tolerate” farms, he said, and the town should adopt “local code that doesn’t hinder agriculture.”

Mr. Babinski, who went through a protracted process to gain approval for a barn on his farm, agreed. He suggested adding an agricultural category to the town code, in addition to the separate regulations for commercial and residential development.

The cost of land, whether to lease or purchase is a problem. Another major issue is worker housing. One speaker suggested that towns could allow farms to provide seasonal temporary housing on site, as was traditionally done. Legal precedent under the state agriculture and markets law has overridden local restrictions on such housing, said Joe Gergela of the Long Island Farm Bureau, but on the East End, only the town of Riverhead specifies it as a right.

“Farmers need a little more protection here,” said Mr. Falkowski, in terms of protecting their rights and warding off unwarranted complaints. “The wrong neighbor with deep enough pockets can be difficult for a farmer to deal with,” Mr. Calder-Piedmonte said.

Several North Fork growers were also on hand, as were representatives of farm credit bureaus and other agencies.

“Farmland is a huge part of our heritage,” said Representative Tim Bishop, who attended Monday’s meeting. “It’s also a huge part of our economy.” Mr. Bishop said he supports enacting two pieces of tax code legislation that would help farmers — one that would defer payment of estate tax on family-owned farms so long as they remain in agricultural production, and another that would ease the tax penalty imposed on families who sell the development rights to their land and opt to receive the proceeds over time.

Mr. Halsey said that East End municipalities have been successful at protecting open agricultural land, but have not necessarily managed to ensure that the acreage continues to be farmed.

He suggested that the East End towns use community preservation fund money to purchase additional rights from landowners who have already sold the development rights to their lands, in order to gain the ability to require its use for farming.

“I think the conversation has turned from saving the farmland to saving the farms,” said County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, who also took part.

In addition, Mr. Schneiderman said, “now we really need to talk about an environment that is conducive to keeping farming alive as an industry.” He underscored the impact of regional issues, such as transportation and other infrastructure issues, affordable housing, and the availability of workers and needed services, on farmers.

A staffer from Suffolk Executive Steve Bellone’s office said that, beginning this year, the county has tailored its development rights purchase program to limit the amount of time that protected farmland can remain fallow.

Mr. Whelan said he was looking forward to working with the town to address situations where preserved agricultural land is being misused — becoming a de facto lawn for neighbors, for example, rather than remaining in production.

“There’s a whole renaissance, really, I feel, in terms of young people who want to get involved in this,” Mr. Cantwell said at a town board meeting on Tuesday.

In his comments on Monday, Mr. Gergela agreed. With the local food movement spurring more young people to farm, it is a “very exciting time,” he said. However, he warned, in an atmosphere where it is difficult to make a farm business work, many farmers are reaching “a tipping point. If we’re going to have sustainable agriculture, and viable, then we need a better plan,” he said.

    Thomas Ravenel, a former South Carolina state treasurer and current star of a reality TV show, “Southern Charm,” pleaded guilty in East Hampton Town Justice Court Wednesday afternoon to one misdemeanor count of driving while intoxicated, stemming from an arrest by East Hampton Village police in the early morning hours of July 22, 2013.

     He was fined $1,400 by East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky and had his license revoked in New York State for the next six months. After the six months is over, he will be required to install an interlock device on any car he drives in the state for an additional year. The device, which a user blows into, will not let the car start if it records any alcohol on his breath.

     Mr. Ravenel paid the fine, minus the $650 he had posted for bail after his arrest, at the clerk’s window after leaving the courtroom with his attorney, Trevor Darrell. He had originally been scheduled to appear in court here in May.

     Mr. Ravenel is facing a  suspension of his license in his home state, as well. Beth S. Parks, a spokeswoman for the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles, said today that when the department is notified of an out-of-state drunken driving conviction, “we apply the conviction as if it occurred here.” For a first-time offense, the driver’s license would be suspended for six months, after which the driver would have to pay a $100 fee and take a class on drug and alcohol awareness.

     Before accepting a guilty plea in East Hampton, Mr. Ravenel was required to admit, during oral questioning by Dan Archer, an assistant district attorney, that he had been drinking and that he was intoxicated at the time he was arrested, according to court observers.

     He had insisted after his arrest, and at the three appearances he made in East Hampton Court since then, that he was not drunk when he was arrested.

     Once considered a rising political star in the Palmetto State’s Republican party, Mr. Ravenel was elected state treasurer in 2006, but resigned from the post less than a year later after being charged by federal prosecutors of being part of a cocaine distribution ring.

     He appeared to be rehabilitating his political career last year before his arrest, and was even rumored to have been contemplating a challenge to Lindsey Graham for his long-held seat in the United States Senate.

            In recent weeks, he has appeared on television as one of the leads in a Bravo reality show about a group of wealthy Charleston, S.C., residents living the high life. 

     An East Hampton woman has taken it upon herself to find a permanent home for a pit bull lab mix that is stuck in a Bronx kennel.

     After seeing a picture of Angie, a now 11/2-year-old dog, on a social media site last summer, Elizabeth Hren decided to help her before she had met her.

     "When I saw she wasn't eating and was losing weight,” Ms. Hren said, “my heart got the best of me."

     "Back in July, she was dumped at Manhattan Animal Care and Control, where they put down a dozen dogs each day just because of lack of space," Ms. Hren said. An animal lover, Ms. Hren happened upon a thread that named Angie on the shelter's euthanasia list. According to the Examiner.com, studies show that up to one million pit bulls are euthanized annually. Only 1 in 600 will be adopted.

     Angie, who is black and weighs 45 pounds, was on the list for the second time, having been pulled once when some interest was shown in her. This time an organization called Pibbles and More Animal Rescue was trying to find someone to foster her. Ms. Hren rearranged her life, and that of her 10-year-old Rottweiler, to give Angie a fighting chance.

     Her former husband took her dog and Angie moved with Ms. Hren at the end of August. "She was terrified and scared -- she used to be crouching down and had to be hand-fed. She was traumatized," Ms. Hren said.

     Under Ms. Hren's care, Angie blossomed. "She's a sweetheart of a dog. She loves people. She loves kids. She's just high energy and doesn't get along with other dogs." While Angie is dominant, she is not aggressive and has never inflicted harm on another dog, Ms. Hren said.

     In September, a local couple decided to adopt Angie. Because they already had a dog, Angie underwent some training in advance, but the adoption in December proved to be short-lived. Angie is "a little jumpy" and would not leave the adopter's dominant female dachshund alone, Ms. Hren said. She went up for adoption again about a month ago.

     Ms. Hren, who by that time had taken her own dog back, said she could not subject her dog to another change in routine. "She's almost 10. I just can't give her up again. I realized she really missed being home."

     Angie is now in a boarding facility in the Bronx, where a rescue group is paying her bills, but Ms. Hren continues to work on her behalf.

     "She's stressed and she's not eating. I'm just trying so hard to find her a foster or an adopter so she's in a home environment," Ms. Hren said. Angie would be best in a house without another dog. She needs a lot of exercise, or someone who is willing to take her on long walks, Ms. Hren said. She is house trained, spayed, and up to date on all her shots. Ms. Hren can be reached at 478-1233.

     "I believe every dog deserves a chance," she said. 

A large luxury development designed for people 55 and older on what had been farmland in Amagansett, which prompted organized vocal opposition, will not proceed. Instead, 19 acres of the more-than-23-acre parcel along the Montauk Highway at the eastern edge of the hamlet is to be preserved.

The East Hampton Town Board is expected to schedule an April 17 hearing on the $10.1 million purchase using money from the community preservation fund.

‘It’s very exciting,” Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said yesterday. “This is the kind of land preservation effort that the community preservation fund was designed for. If we can preserve that for agriculture, I think that would be a terrific use.”

The land, owned by Putnam Bridge, a Connecticut firm, had been targeted for the controversial development of 79 houses and apartments for senior citizens, with the development being called 555. The property to be acquired by the town excludes 4.5 acres with frontage on Montauk Highway, just west of V&V Auto, which, Mr. Cantwell said, is zoned for affordable housing. It is one of three lots Putnam Bridge bought and was not sought by the town.

The developer paid $10.3 million in 2012 for the entire site, with the two lots the town plans to buy having cost $9.2 million.

Numerous East Hampton as well as Amagansett residents had voiced objection to the project. The increased density and use of farmland would be counter to the town’s comprehensive plan, they said, and the project did not help fill the town’s need for affordable housing. More than a thousand signed a petition in opposition.

Exactly what will take place on the property is yet to be determined. Because the town is buying it outright, rather than only acquiring the development rights, as is often done with farmland so that it remains in production, “there will be some flexibility” as to the property’s use, Mr. Cantwell said. “I think we want to keep the town’s options open for the best possible use under the C.P.F. guidelines,” he said.

“It sounds like it could be a perfect compromise position, with almost 20 acres of preserved land,” Susan Bratton, a resident of Amagansett and New York City, said yesterday. She was among outspoken opponents, citing traffic and the project’s residential density as among her concerns.

For Putnam Bridge to proceed with its plans, which were not allowed under town law, the firm had asked the previous town administration to create a new senior housing zoning district, and to rezone the property to that district. Doing so would have legalized the increased density planned.

Those opposed to the 555 development were encouraged when the Suffolk County Planning Commission voted against both zoning proposals, which made a majority-plusone vote of the town board necessary to override its rejection. That was out of the question because the two Democrats on the board at the time were unequivocally opposed.

The previous town board held hearings on the zoning changes late last year, just before a Republican majority led by former Supervisor Bill Wilkinson left office, but did not act on the requests. Instead, the majority voted at the developer’s request to hold the hearings open until this year. The current board took up the request on Feb. 6, but it got nowhere.

Mr. Cantwell said yesterday that the town purchase of the property has “personal and historic meaning for me.” He had grown up “a stone’s throw” from the site, he said, and hunted pheasant there when the open space extended from the railroad tracks all the way to Old Montauk Highway. “But I think it’s a tremendous asset to the town.”

The land contains a stable, with an apartment, and is set up as a horse farm. Mr. Cantwell said he anticipates that the board might issue a request for proposals from those interested in leasing the land for an agricultural endeavor. In addition, he said, he would hope that the land could continue to be used for events such as the annual fund-raiser held there by Soldier Ride.

Mr. Cantwell said that the town purchase would not only preserve the open space and agricultural soil, but would maintain a vista that “the public will have an opportunity to enjoy every day. It has great meaning that way,” he said.

Against the backdrop of dire warnings issued this week by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a Rhode Island company has submitted plans to the Long Island Power Authority for an offshore wind farm that would provide a substantial portion of the Island’s energy needs.

The installation, which would generate approximately 200 megawatts of emission-free energy for Long Island and be situated approximately 30 miles east of Montauk, not visible from Long Island, closely follows the Town of East Hampton’s approval of a proposed solar generating facility at East Hampton Airport.

Deepwater Wind’s 256-square-mile offshore site, known as Deepwater ONE, was selected through a multiyear process led by the U.S. Interior Department with participation from state and federal resource agencies, environmental advocacy groups, commercial fishing representatives, and Native American tribes. The company won exclusive rights from the federal government last year to develop the site.

Deepwater Wind has proposed a direct-current transmission system to deliver the energy to multiple sites, as well as a link between Long Island and southern New England.

The installation would produce energy sufficient to power some 120,000 homes on Long Island, according to the company’s chief executive officer. The offshore wind farm, plans for which arrive amidst PSEG Long Island’s widely unpopular upgrade of its transmission infrastructure in the town, would “defer the need for additional transmission lines or new fossil-fueled peaking plants on the East End,” Jeffrey Grybowski, Deepwater Wind’s chief executive, wrote in an email. “Our onshore transmission lines will be buried beneath existing roads and we will not build any new poles on town streets.”

Under the terms of the company’s proposal, power would be delivered to a LIPA-owned substation on the South Fork. Deepwater Wind has offered the utility several alternative points of interconnection, Mr. Grybowski wrote. That point has yet to be determined.

“Offshore wind has the unique ability to produce energy when it’s most needed — during the summer afternoon and early evening hours and during the coldest winter days when Long Island’s gas system is most strained,” Mr. Grybowski wrote.

There is no domestic manufacturer of offshore wind turbines, Mr. Grybowski wrote, but his company plans to source components locally to the extent possible. “We hope to fabricate significantcsteel components for the project at a new facility here on Long Island,” he wrote. Alstom, a French company that provides energy generation and transmission infrastructure, supplied turbines for the Block Island Wind Farm and would do the same for the Deepwater ONE project if approved, Mr. Grybowski wrote.

While the country’s first land-based wind farm went online almost 40 years ago and more than 45,000 wind turbines were operational by 2012, according to the American Wind Energy Association, the United States lags far behind Europe, where more than 2,000 offshore wind turbines have been deployed over the last two decades. To date, there are no offshore wind farms in the United States, but Deepwater is at present constructing the Block Island Wind Farm, a five-turbine demonstration-scale installation. One year ago, the Interior Department approved plans by Cape Wind Associates to set up more than 100 turbines across Nantucket Sound. That project, Mr. Grybowski wrote, relies on older, less efficient technology.

Because the Deepwater ONE wind farm would be situated outside local jurisdiction, said Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, the liaison to the town’s energy sustainability committee, the town would have minimal say in the matter. Nonetheless, she said, “Everything that can get us off fossil fuels is certainly worth our consideration, but we have to balance that with environmental concerns as well.”

Land-based wind farms have been blamed for wildlife habitat fragmentation and the killing of birds that collide with turbine blades. Offshore wind farms, Mr. Grybowski wrote, “can be developed with minimal environmental impacts or controversy.” Deepwater has invested heavily in site assessment and engineering, he wrote, “and is committed to working with the East End community to ensure that the final project design considers the input of local stakeholders.”

“We are very supportive” of the proposal, said Gordian Raacke, executive direct of Renewable Energy Long Island and a member of the town’s energy sustainability committee. “It would inject a large chunk of renewable power into Long Island’s electric grid. It’s a very exciting technology,” he said.

Some of East Hampton Town’s efforts to preserve land have taken a new tack lately, homing in on environmentally sensitive or threatened areas and seeking to prevent development or even remove houses.

One new town initiative follows a state law passed as a result of Superstorm Sandy that authorized the five East End towns, for which the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund was established, to consider buying property at risk of coastal erosion or flooding in addition to authorized purchases to protect open space, farmland, historic sites, and provide land for parks and recreation.

The town recently sent letters to owners of vacant lots surrounding Lake Montauk, where an anti-pollution initiative is ongoing, and residents of two streets in flood-prone Lazy Point, Amagansett, and had received enthusiastic responses from those interested in selling to the town. Within a week of sending letters to 200 owners of lots within the Lake Montauk watershed, said Scott Wilson,  the town’s director of land acquisitions and management, 27 had indicated an interest in selling their land. A separate effort to approximately 120 residents of Mulford Lane and Bayview Avenue in Lazy Point also drew numerous positive responses.

While C.P.F. money would be used to make the Montauk purchases, the Lazy Point initiative may get a boost by a grant from a federal floodplain program through the Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. It would allow purchases at “pre-storm market values,” and houses would be removed.

“My phone has not stopped ringing since the letters went out,” Kim Shaw, the town’s director of natural resources, who is coordinating the effort in conjunction with the Nature Conservancy, said Tuesday. Seven property owners have already submitted applications, and 20 people have called or emailed for more information. Those Lazy Point residents interested were asked to return a form to the town by Monday, at no obligation, so that a grant application could be submitted by April 18. Ms. Shaw is to meet with a representative of the Mulford Lane homeowners association to discuss the program.

 “I think this is a pre-emptive way to deal with problems that we know we’re going to have to deal with in the future,” Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said this week. “It’s obvious, what’s happening there,” he said of the eroding shores at Lazy Point, citing the example of a house at the end of Mulford Lane that is actually in the water. “The acquisition of land, including some improved properties, for floodplain protection and water quality protection are a key component to solving these issues.”

According to a description in a town memo, the objective is to “protect and restore the natural floodplain and its functions; protect ground and surface water quality; protect open space, scenic vistas, wildlife habitat, dune lands and vegetation; provide public access to the shoreline, and add to the already protected lands in the area owned by New York State (Napeague State Park), the town, and the town trustees.”

While mailings have gone out to residents of only two streets at Lazy Point so far, any private property owner within the targeted area, encompassing all the property east of Napeague Meadow Road, could be eligible to participate. Projected spending for the first phase of the project is $5.25 million, most from the federal grant, if approved. A total of $250,000 would be contributed locally, with $150,000 from the town, probably from its community preservation fund, and a $100,000 contribution from the Nature Conservancy through its coastal resilience buyout program. 

The pool of federal money for the grants is over $100 million, Randy Parsons, a conservation finance and policy adviser for the Nature Conservancy, wrote in a memo to town staff. However, Ms. Shaw said this week, numerous communities will be competing. On Long Island, she said, the Mastic-Shirley area, hit hard by storm flooding, is being targeted.

If the town wins the grant and purchases are made through the program, the federal agency would own easements or development rights on the properties, while East Hampton Town would own the underlying land, Mr. Parsons said at a recent town board meeting. But if the federal dollars don’t come through, the town could use  the community preservation fund to begin buying properties in coastal floodplains, Mr. Parsons said in his memo.

In his letter to 200 Montauk landowners, Mr. Wilson wrote that “Lake Montauk is under significant stress leading to seasonal closures to shellfishing and swimming.” Because of that, he said in an interview, the undeveloped watershed lands were targeted for purchase with the community preservation fund.

“The evidence indicates the cumulative impact of non-point sources of water quality impairments such as sanitary effluent, fertilizers, the clearing and grading of land, and other changes to the volume or composition of runoff continue to represent a water quality concern for Lake Montauk, as well as other harbors within the town,” Mr. Wilson wrote. By selling their land to the town for preservation, Mr. Wilson wrote, the Montauk property owners “can help ensure that these lands continue to be excellent buffers for the lake, limiting the flow of chemical and natural contaminants.”

Future town efforts will turn to other critical watershed areas, he said, such as those surrounding Accabonac and Three Mile Harbors.

Early this week, as lawmakers raced to the finish line before Tuesday’s start of the state’s new fiscal year, a proposal to increase access to mental health services for South Fork students cleared a hurdle, with $150,000 earmarked in the approved budget.

Since the start of the year, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, joined by other elected officials, school administrators, and heads of nonprofit organizations, have participated in two round-table discussions about recent student suicides on the South Fork and the dearth of appropriate services.

Since 2009, three young Latinos have taken their own lives, and, in the last 18 months, East Hampton High School alone has referred 20 students who were feared to have suicidal thoughts to Stony Brook University Hospital, which houses the closest psychiatric facility.

Citing geographical isolation and changing demographics, among other factors, the $150,000 has been hailed as a crucial step in the right direction. According to a draft supplied by Mr. Thiele for the mental health project, the first of a three-pronged effort is to include hiring a full-time child psychiatrist and two full-time social workers at an estimated cost of $320,000.

“To be able to go to Albany and get the funding is great,” Mr. Thiele said on Tuesday, labeling the $150,000 “seed money.” Mr. Thiele hopes that the $150,000 will serve as a catalyst for additional resources, ideally a combination of funding from the state Office of Mental Health, Southampton Hospital, and local school districts, governments, and nonprofits. Mr. Thiele and Mr. LaValle had requested $160,000 from the state, coming up only slightly short. “The lack of the $10,000 won’t deter us from going forward,” Mr. Thiele said.

Besides establishing a crisis service during phase one, a second phase would expand mental health services by hiring additional social workers and community health workers. The second phase would also include a mobile unit capable of going wherever there is urgent need. A third phase would bring Stony Brook psychiatrists to Southampton Hospital as part of an expanded residency program.

During the East Hampton School District’s budget talks in recent weeks, Adam Fine, the high school principal, had asked the school board for a $30,000 increase for mental health services. Faced with a state-imposed 2-percent tax cap and more than $1 million in budget cuts, however, increases of this nature were far from guaranteed. Though numbers are still being finalized, Mr. Fine is hopeful at least $5,000 will come through. “Something will be allocated, but not the $30,000,” Patricia Hope, the school board president, said on Wednesday.

Mr. Fine, who spearheaded the effort to increase mental health services here, first meeting with Mr. Thiele last summer, said he was very pleased with the state’s promise of $150,000. “This is the beginning of a long process to secure adequate funding and services for our at-risk students. I look forward to continuing the mental health dialogue with our committed local elected officials,” he said.

Further planning among those in the group that came up with the request made to the state is underway. “Now that we have the state money, we will bring all of the members of the task force back together and plan next steps, including how to match funds and implement the proposal as we go forward,” Mr. Thiele said in a press release. Mr. LaValle joined his colleague in the release, calling the state allocation “a crucial step in working toward necessary solutions for this under-served area.”

The legislators also noted this week that $500,000 had been approved for Lyme disease and tick-borne illness prevention and treatment.

The saga of a caretaker’s apartment on the four-plus-acre property owned by the Starbucks chain’s chief executive officer occupied the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals at its meeting Friday. An attorney for the owners, Howard D. Schultz and Sheri Kersch-Schultz, argued for legalization of the structure, which has nearly doubled from its original size.

In the mid-1980s, the then owner of the property, at 14 Gracie Lane, tore down an existing house and cottage and built a new house, designed by Charles Gwathmey. At that time, a variance was granted to allow construction of a 650-square-foot garage and caretaker’s apartment. The certificate of occupancy issued in 1988 referred simply to a one-story framed garage with caretaker’s apartment.

When the Schultzes bought the place in 1995 they obtained an updated C of O, which included the same description of the garage/apartment. It currently measures 1,022 square feet, with four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a half-bath.

In 2012, the couple sought to add two bedrooms and two bathrooms to the  main house, and were granted a coastal erosion hazard permit and variance to allow the construction. At that time, however, the building inspector pointed out that the garage and caretaker’s apartment did not match the description in the C of O. The board granted the permit and variance for the addition to the main house provided that the garage and caretaker’s apartment be reduced to its original size, and the applicant agreed.

The Schultzes now seek either a modification of the 2012 determination or a variance to let the cottage remain as is, with the promise to reduce the number of bedrooms and bathrooms to two of each. They have sent several lawyers, including Fred W. Thiele Jr., also a state assemblyman, to make their case.

“This property was advertised by Sotheby’s as having a legal [certificate of occupancy] for this dwelling that was issued in 1988 and subsequently ratified by the building inspector’s office in 1995,” Leonard Ackerman, representing the applicants, told the board at an earlier hearing, on March 14. “There was adequate due diligence by attorneys that there were no violations on the property.”

Further, Mr. Ackerman and Mr. Thiele argued, the previous owner’s 1986 request for a variance was unnecessary because the property was in excess of four acres. (At the time, the village allowed a secondary structure on certain properties, subject to various conditions; that provision was rescinded last year.) “We’re asking you to forgive the building inspector’s office for issuing two valid [certificates of occupancy] that these people relied upon,” Mr. Ackerman  said.

Frank Newbold, the board’s chairman, said that a site visit prior to the March 14 meeting revealed that a garage bay had been illegally converted to an additional bedroom, and that a microwave oven and refrigerator were discovered in a storage closet. The board and building inspector had considered not issuing a building permit in 2012 until the caretaker’s apartment was reduced to the agreed-upon 650 square feet, he said. “You can see, based on the history, why this board is skeptical,” he told Mr. Ackerman.

Members of the board wondered how they could be sure that the cottage as it stands is the same as was there in 1995, before the Schultzes bought the property. On Friday, Matthew Pachman, an attorney, presented affidavits from the project manager for the construction company that built it, the Sotheby’s broker who listed the property in 1995, the selling broker who told the Schultzes about it, and Ms. Schultz herself, as well as a brochure from Sotheby’s in which the property was listed. He also said that two beds that had been found in the garage bay had been removed.

To ignore the two certificates of occupancy, “one of which the applicant relied upon in purchasing the property,” Mr. Pachman cautioned, “may lead the board away from doing what it has traditionally done so well, which is look at the facts and statutory criteria and come up with a rational, fact-based decision.”

But Lys Marigold, the board’s vice chairwoman, told Mr. Pachman that she had voted to grant the addition to the main house in 2012 on the understanding that the caretaker’s cottage would be reduced to 650 square feet. In applying for an addition to the main house, she said, “You asked to have eight bedrooms and nine and a half baths in the main house . . . If I had known there were three bedrooms and three and a half baths staying in the cottage, I don’t think I would have said yes” in 2012. “I relied on the decision that it was going to be taken back to a one-bedroom, one-bath [cottage]. That was important to me.”

Legalizing the caretaker’s cottage, Mr. Pachman said, would cause no detriment to the neighbors. The condition attached to the 2012 determination, he said, should not preclude the board from judging the present application on its merits. “It just seems inequitable to stop the analysis,” he said.

Brian Matthews, an attorney representing Donald Kostin, the owner of 73 Lily Pond Lane, attended both meetings to argue that the board should not even entertain the application. In rescinding the provision allowing accessory structures, he said, “the village made a proclamation  that they don’t want these second dwellings on properties anymore.”

The applicant, he said, was “asking the board to invite chaos.” Those with the means to afford high-priced counsel, he said, could “open up the floodgates as to why they should be able to get out from conditions of approvals or denials that this board has issued.”

The affidavits presented by the applicant, Mr. Matthews said, were irrelevant, merely establishing that at some point the caretaker’s cottage was illegally expanded. “You don’t vest an illegality,” he said.

The hearing was held open and will resume at the board’s April 11 meeting.

Starting Tuesday, the Amagansett Fire District will institute a paid emergency medical service program, the second in the Town of East Hampton. The East Hampton Village Ambulance Association will follow suit with a similar program beginning May 16, and the Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps is in the midst of putting together a budget to create one paid position.

The approximately 35-year-old volunteer E.M.S. system on the South Fork has been criticized in recent years despite volunteers’ attempts to keep up with increased training requirements and answer the soaring demand for services, particularly in the summer months when call volumes double, and even triple in some areas.

As with the Montauk Fire District, which went ahead last spring with a pilot project in response to a lack of volunteers trained in advanced life support, Amagansett and East Hampton will have paid paramedics or critical care technicians, also known as advanced emergency medical technicians, on duty daily.

At the launch of Amagansett’s program, paid personnel will work from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Come May 15, there will be coverage 24 hours a day.

East Hampton’s program will only cover 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. year round because of a night squad successfully run by volunteers.

“We feel that it’s beneficial to the community to have the best care we can provide,” Daniel Shields II, the chairman of the Amagansett board of fire commissioners, said. “We owe the taxpayers the best protection we can provide.”

His district has been without advanced life support services since December, when Tom Field, the last active volunteer A.L.S. provider, decided to reduce his involvement. Since then, the district has relied on the assistance of neighboring agencies for response to serious calls in which A.L.S. was necessary, such as major trauma or heart attacks, under longstanding mutual aid agreements.

Meanwhile, the Amagansett commissioners put aside $150,000 in funding and dealt with the logistics of setting up a paid system. The district hired two supervisors: Garret Lake, a critical care technician from Cutchogue who has been working in Montauk, and Jade Fallon, a Hampton Bays volunteer who works in Ridge and Wading River. The 11 providers hired underwent orientation on Tuesday.

Mr. Shields said the district was fortunate that a mutual aid program was in place to make up for the deficit in advanced life support. “It will be nice not to rely on mutual aid if we don’t need to,” he said.

In East Hampton, where there are four volunteers certified in A.L.S., the larger challenge has been call volume. The association relied on 45 members to answer 1,402 calls in 2013. “It’s very hard to keep up with daytime volume in summer,” said Barbara Borsack, the village’s deputy mayor and an emergency medical technician for nearly 25 years.

The village, which oversees the E.M.S. agency that also responds to ambulance calls outside the village, in areas like Northwest Woods and part of Wainscott, is now hiring 24 A.L.S. providers who will alternate 12-hour shifts. As in Amagansett and Montauk, providers work part time.

Critical care technicians get paid $22 per hour and paramedics $25 per hour, according to Becky Molinaro, the village administrator. “On the high end, the personnel will cost approximately $35,000 for the season, which will be split in two fiscal years,” she said. The village’s fiscal year ends July 31.

Village Police Chief Gerard Larsen took the lead because, he said, “I’ve been the biggest complainer. I figure if I’m going to complain, I ought to try and help.”

Chief Larsen became concerned with response times, which also led to calls that tied up village police officers, he said. “The volunteers are overwhelmed. This is something that’s got to happen,” he said of the program, adding that he worked closely with the chief of the ambulance corps, Diane O’Donnell. The Police Department is also providing a vehicle for the paid personnel to drive to calls.

He has gone a step further, too. Four part-time village police officers assigned to bicycle patrol will take the Emergency Vehicle Operators course so that they can drive the association’s ambulance to calls within the village police jurisdiction if a volunteer driver is not available. They will work shifts that ensure there is someone available from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. “This is the first of its kind,” Chief Larsen said.

“I think this is a big step toward giving our volunteers the help they need to provide the best possible service to our citizens,” Ms. Borsack said. “I’m very excited about this program.”

The move from volunteer-based systems in East Hampton and Amagansett to partially paid ones took six months to put together, but it was years in the making. Volunteer systems across New York State, particularly on Long Island, have struggled to answer an ever-increasing number of calls during the workday, when most volunteers are at their day jobs. Nearly all ambulance companies as far east as Southampton instituted some kind of paid system, at least during the day, several years ago.

“We were the last holdouts,” said Eddie Downes, the president of the Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps, who also co-chairs a subcommittee of the East End Ambulance Coalition that is looking at the issue. The Sag Harbor agency decided help was necessary, however, and asked the village to establish a full-time ambulance administrator position, someone who could do paperwork but was also certified as at least an E.M.T. to answer calls during the day. The salary proposed is $42,000, or $63,500 with benefits. The budget process wraps up in April.

The Springs and Bridgehampton Fire Departments have no immediate plans to institute a partially paid system.

Meanwhile, the East End Ambulance Coalition will continue a program that began last summer in which volunteers gave a day each week when they were on standby to respond to calls from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. within the six fire districts that make up the Town of East Hampton. Mr. Downes said proposals have also been submitted to the East Hampton and Southampton Town supervisors for a paid first responder program for 2015.

The Montauk Fire District formed its own paid program just before the summer of 2013. It was so successful — and was even credited with saving one man’s life — that the commissioners continued it during the off-season. Amagansett fire commissioners sought the advice of those who set up the Montauk program to develop one on the other side of the Napeague stretch.

“The problem is our working people who are volunteers just can’t be there all the time,” Mr. Field said. A county instructor, he has been the backbone of the Amagansett department’s E.M.S. service for many years. “It’s becoming tougher and tougher. Fewer people are volunteering and they can give less and less time than they used to. It left these enormous gaps.”

In fact, after more than 23 years providing advanced life support and answering more than 4,500 calls in his E.M.S. career, he gave up his certification at the end of November, when he decided not to train in new protocols the county required for all A.L.S. providers. He maintains a basic life support certification.

In a recent year, he said, he counted 342 evenings, Saturdays, and Sundays he had spent in E.M.S.-related meetings or classes. “And that had nothing to do with runs or E.M.S. paperwork,” he said, adding that he typically went on 250 calls annually. “I guess you could call that burnout.”

Even with paid providers alleviating some of the pressures, the volunteers are an essential component. “E.M.T.s and drivers are vital to run the calls and leave the first responder in the district to be there for the next call” when it is not necessary for the A.L.S. providers to transport the patient to the hospital, Ms. Borsack said.

Amagansett Fire Chief Duane Denton said the move has the support of his department. “It’s been accepted well by the members. I had a meeting with all of the ambulance company. We need the volunteer side to make this work.”

While the paid personnel are highly trained, Mr. Field insists they cannot treat the patient at a higher level without the help of E.M.T.s. “The E.M.T. is so vitally important. An A.E.M.T. who works alone is a lonely sucker. It’s an E.M.T. who allows him to do his or her work because they are doing the little mundane things that need to be done.”

Amagansett’s E.M.S. service has been made up of only volunteers since the ambulance company’s inception in 1974 — East Hampton’s since 1975. As necessary as Mr. Field considers the institution of a partially paid system to be (and eventually, he believes, a fully paid system), he said it is bittersweet. “I absolutely hate the idea that we can’t do anymore volunteer. . . . To me it’s a tremendous loss of something that had gone for so many years, and yet, as much as it hurts, it’s understandable. It had to happen. It’s going to happen everywhere, it’s just a matter of time."