One year after the East Hampton Town Board established a citizens committee  to give it advice on how to meet energy efficiency and environmental sustainability goals, it took a major step toward implementing those goals at a meeting last Thursday, giving a proposal for a solar generating facility at East Hampton Airport the green light.

The installation, to be constructed by the Sustainable Power Group, which owns and operates such systems elsewhere, would be a component of the Long Island Power Authority’s initiative to generate 280 megawatts of new renewable energy on the island. Known as S-Power, the firm must now submit its proposal to LIPA for approval before a Monday deadline. If approved, S-Power would create what it said would be the largest solar facility in the Northeast at no cost to the town, pay the town to lease the land, and sell the electricity produced to LIPA.

Previously, the board had selected Northville Industries, Harbert Phoenix Long Island Energy, and Hecate Energy to install other energy generating facilities, which would operate during periods of peak demand. These plants, said Frank Dalene of the energy sustainability committee, are to use natural gas, propane, diesel, or biodiesel fuel and be located at the capped landfills in East Hampton and Montauk and on vacant land at the airport. They also require LIPA approval. One of the companies, Mr. Dalene said, has proposed energy storage in liquid flow batteries, which convert chemical energy into electricity and are considered a green technology. “You can store enough electricity, theoretically, to meet peak power,” Mr. Dalene said of the batteries.

All of the installations are subject to environmental review under the state’s Environmental Quality Review Act and other regulations. However, “whatever is finally decided may not be what is being proposed now,” Mr. Dalene said.

If the solar facility at the airport becomes operational, it would “put East Hampton on the map as the first town on Long Island that is well on its way to making 100-percent renewable electricity supply a reality in the near future,” said Gordian Raacke, a member of the sustainability committee. Mr. Raacke is the founder and executive director of Renewable Energy Long Island, a nonprofit organization.

The proposed solar installation would, according to Mr. Dalene, generate 38 megawatts of electricity. By comparison, the Long Island Solar Farm at Brookhaven National Laboratory, to date the island’s largest, operates at a peak capacity of 32 megawatts. “The Town of East Hampton could potentially have double the amount,” Mr. Raacke said. “When that’s constructed and operational, it’s a huge step forward.”

The move toward fulfilling the town’s energy needs from renewable sources, Mr. Raacke said, is true to a policy statement the committee drafted and the town adopted last year. The document “lays out the vision of East Hampton transitioning from fossil fuels to clean energy sources,” he said. “We’re not just saying we want to do this. Now, we’re offering leases of town properties to developers that are going to put up solar arrays on a large scale. It all depends on LIPA selecting those developers, but this is the first step to make that happen.”

Should LIPA approve the contractors selected by the town, the town board would start working on the engineering necessary, Town Councilwoman Sylvia Overby said. “It’s not going to happen super-quickly, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.

Kim Shaw, the town director of natural resources and a nonvoting member of the Energy Sustainability Committee, commended her colleagues. “They’ve done a great job in moving some of these initiatives forward,” she said.” Ms. Overby agreed. “The whole committee has worked really hard,” she said.

For Mr. Raacke, who has long supported the transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources, these initial steps are particularly gratifying. He has distributed a multimedia program based on former Vice President Al Gore’s campaign to educate people about the threat of climate change. “You can’t live in East Hampton and ignore the fact that sea level is rising and projected to rise significantly over the next few decades,” he said.

With the approach of the busy season, not only locals but seasonal visitors and outside organizations look to do some summer fund-raising here, and start planning parties, sales, and sporting events. In anticipation, the East Hampton Town Board has put in place a new system for review of mass-gathering permit requests. It plans to discuss revisions to the rules governing the increasing number of big and potentially disruptive events.

A committee is meeting once a week to review permit applications. It is also keeping tabs on a master schedule of upcoming functions. The committee will review only those for which all required paperwork has been submitted, said Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, a member, on Monday, and will require applicants to submit forms at least 30 days prior to a proposed event. Not only the permit application form must be filled out, but proof of required insurance, and a hold-harmless agreement for the town if the event is taking place on public property is needed.

“It’s just a really thorough review, and we’re doing them more in advance,” Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said. The committee has already reviewed “close to two dozen — all the ones that were completed.”

 The group, whose other members are Councilman Fred Overton, East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo, John Rooney, head of the Department of Parks and Recreation, and Town Clerk Carole Brennan, is subjecting the permit requests to closer scrutiny than they have received up to now. Under the last town administration, approval, with little or no public discussion, of permits for large-scale events such as the ultimately aborted Music to Know concert, encountered strong opposition over the prospect of traffic, noise, and crowds.

Maintaining a better handle on, and perhaps tamping down the burgeoning number of summer soirees was among the issues she and her running mate last fall, Supervisor Larry Cantwell, campaigned on, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said.

For instance, she said, the Hamptons Marathon and a triathlon in Montauk have been taking place on the same fall weekend. Their organizers have been told, she said, that this is the last year that will be allowed. “It’s just stretching our police force too far.”

Recently, the councilwoman said, applicants seeking an okay for three days of wedding-related celebrations on a small residential street were told that the scope of the festivities was too much for the neighborhood. They were asked to scale things back, and the permit committee worked with them to develop a plan for gatherings that could be approved.

Garbage left over from events at public sites has been an issue, even though a clean-up deposit is collected from party hosts. The new committee is looking carefully at whether to require hosts to haul away their own garbage or  allow them to leave it, bagged up, for town pickup.

For example, Ms. Burke-Gonzalez said, on Thursdays through Sundayswhen parties go late, they continue past even the 4:30 p.m.-to-midnight rounds of town parks garbage collectors. Then, she said, any trash bags left at the site could fall prey to animals or the elements. The committee has therefore asked applicants using, for instance, the Maidstone Park pavilion in Springs, to take their trash away with them.

Ms. Brennan’s office is keeping a master calendar of events, and Chief Sarlo keeps tabs on the demand for police services and their cost.

Mr. Cantwell said Tuesday that he will soon present to the town board a package of proposed changes to the town code designed to mainly address, summertime quality-of-life issues including mass gatherings and the crowding at restaurants that operate primarily as bars. The changes will include criteria to determine what fees will be asked of organizers to cover the costs “that the town incurs to handle an event,” such as police protection, traffic control, or garbage pickup.

The supervisor said the objective was to “draw a clear distinction” between an event that is for profit, or a commercial enterprise, and “those that benefit local not-for-profits.”

The changes will also spell out “how much advance notice you need for various types of permits.”

Mr. Cantwell said he organized the new permit-review committee because there had previously been “no coordinated review whatsoever.” Applications were being routed by email to various town departments, often not reaching members of the town board until late in the process.

“Now at least they’re all sitting down” together to review the applications, Mr. Cantwell said.

There is “not necessarily an anticipated public hearing process,” he said,  but if the reviewing committee has issues with an application, requiring submission well ahead of the date of a proposed event would enable the town board to discuss the event at a public meeting, and citizens to weigh in.

Nine events were approved by a unanimous town board last Thursday, starting with two this month — the Montauk St. Patrick’s Day parade on Sunday and a fund-raiser this coming Sunday at Inlet Seafood in Montauk for Robbie Badkin — and ending with the annual Montauk Lions Club arts and crafts fair on Labor Day weekend, when the high season draws to a close.

     Following months of intense debate and fierce scrutiny, the East Hampton School Board decided during a budget workshop Tuesday evening to go above the state-mandated 2-percent cap on tax levy increases.

     According to a press release issued Wednesday afternoon, the proposed budget represents a 2.43-percent increase in the tax levy. As such, it requires the approval of 60 percent of voters in order to pass.

     The New York State tax levy cap allows school districts to increase their budgets by either 2 percent or the consumer price index -- whichever amount is lower.

     All told, the district sliced over $1 million from the preliminary 2014-15 budget.

     "There was really no place left to go," Patricia Hope, the school board president, said early Thursday. This is the third consecutive year that East Hampton has made significant reductions to its annual budget.

     Among the cuts, the district eliminated seven paraprofessional positions and reduced an elementary guidance position to part-time. Also included in the cuts were items related to materials, supplies, equipment, field trips, and professional conferences.

      "Every department took a hit, every school took a hit, every grade level took a hit," said Ms. Hope, who added that the decision was made with a fair degree of reluctance. "The last place to cut into was programs and we unanimously refuse to do that."

     The next school board meeting is planned for Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m., during which time public comments are welcome.

      "We made a decision that serves the students but we're still in the discussion phase," said Ms. Hope. "We want to hear from people. We serve the people."

     The annual budget vote will take place on May 20, and a budget hearing outlining the 2014-15 spending plan will be held in advance of that.

Landscapers and builders came out in force on Friday to criticize an East Hampton Village proposal to curtail noise from construction and commercial landscaping equipment, calling it overly broad and unfairly punitive.

The proposed amendment to village code would limit the hours in which construction activity is permitted, shortening the present 7 a.m.-to-8 p.m. timeframe on weekdays to 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. between May 15 and Sept. 15. Construction on Saturday during that period would also be prohibited before 9 a.m., where present law allows an 8 a.m. start. Between April 1 and the second Friday in December, commercial use of gas or diesel-powered lawn care equipment would be allowed only from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. Use of such equipment by anyone other than the homeowner or tenant would be prohibited on Sundays and federal holidays.

Jack Forst, a builder, said the proposal was “a slap in the face to the working community.” Is the village a working community, he asked, “or do we roll over and die for everybody from New York City that comes out in the summertime?”

And Pat Trunzo, also a builder, warned that the amendment would “drastically affect our industry” and its workers, not least by cutting hours from the workweek when the weather is most conducive to such work. A typical 7 a.m.-to-3 p.m. workday, Mr. Trunzo said, also affords workers “time to coach Little League or pursue civic or volunteer work.” And, he said, the long hours in which construction work can be done “allows those who serve as volunteer firemen or [emergency medical technicians] on the local ambulance corps to make up for the working hours they lose responding to those emergency calls.”

Mr. Trunzo advised the board to distinguish between noisier construction activity and work performed by electricians, plumbers, or carpenters working indoors. “If you honestly believe a change is necessary, you need to tailor this law . . . to target just those few activities that are generating chronic complaints,” he said.

Bonnie Krupinski, speaking on behalf of her husband’s, Ben Krupinski’s, contracting business, said that both East Hampton Town and Village had charted a path to becoming a second-home community decades ago. “Based on that concept, the two major industries are the building and the landscaping businesses,” she said. “You’re throwing this out here with no figures, no data, no information. . . .” The village, she said, is becoming “an over-regulated community.”

The proposed law, said Margaret Turner of the East Hampton Business Alliance, would also eliminate overtime pay, “which many workers depend on.” The board should consider wider economic repercussions, she said. “The reduction in work hours means less money is made, so less goes back into the economy. That includes less sales tax. This law should not be passed as written.”

Builders and landscapers also seized upon a component of the proposed law that would exempt municipalities and “a membership club on a golf course,” or the Maidstone Club, from regulations on use of power landscaping equipment.

The proposed legislation addresses numerous complaints from residents about construction and landscaping noise early in the morning and into the evening. A few of them, outnumbered by opponents of the plan, spoke in its defense.

“I’m surrounded by the cacophony of sound from mowers and blowers Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, almost every week through December — and this year, curiously, February,” said Joan Osborne, who lives on Main Street. Ms. Osborne spoke of landscapers “rearranging the leaves” with leaf blowers, echoing complaints voiced at previous meetings. “I’m in favor of any restriction you can make on the mowing and blowing from early morning to late at night,” she told the board.

Leaf blowers are “annoying,” conceded Rich Sperber, who owns a landscaping company, but he suggested that the board and landscapers find “a happy medium,” with a prohibition of their use on Sundays as a possible compromise.

H. Pat Voges, of the Nassau Suffolk Landscape Gardeners Association, told the board that his industry “has taken great strides in lowering the decibels of our equipment. There are blowers now that don’t exceed 42 decibels where they used to exceed 80.” Restricting landscapers’ ability to “get your village looking great by Memorial Day,” he said, would encourage second homeowners to “start looking elsewhere.”

Combining the issues of noise generated by both construction and landscaping, while intended to simplify the matter for code enforcement purposes, was an error, concluded Barbara Borsack, the deputy mayor. “We certainly never meant to restrict indoor construction,” she said. “We’re going to have to separate the two.”

Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr., citing the “valid comments made by those of you in the industry,” said that the hearing would be kept open until the board’s April 3 work session.

The board also heard from a multitude of business owners on extending the parking limits in the village lots off Newtown Lane, Main Street, and North Main Street. A two-hour limit in the Reutershan, Schenck, and North Main Street lots is now enforced between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. from May 1 through Nov. 30, but the board has proposed lengthening that period to April 1 to Dec. 31, and Friday through Sunday and on federal holidays between Jan. 1 and March 31. In the village lot behind the Chase Bank on Main Street, parking between April 1 and Dec. 31 and Friday through Sunday and federal holidays from January through March would be limited to one hour, except for bank employees.

Most speakers were in favor of extending the period in which the two-hour limit is in effect, but many suggested modifying the proposal. Imposing a two-hour limit in April, and on Sundays between January and March, some said, was unnecessary.

But a lack of available parking is negatively impacting businesses, many said. “There is a pervasive feeling that, more and more for locals, going into the village is a hassle,” said Donna McDonald, an owner of Park Place Wines and Liquors, which faces the Reutershan lot. “Our traffic was down 10 percent last holiday season, and it’s been a drop-off since the two-hour [limit] was suspended,” she said.

Extending the two-hour limit to April and weekends during the winter months is “a must,” said Bernard Kiembock of Village Hardware on Newtown Lane. “Our traffic back there is tremendous,” he said, “and I would like you to, at least in our section, change that regulation.”

Ms. Borsack said that, if her colleagues agreed, April and Sundays between January and March should be exempted from the new restrictions. Richard Lawler, another board member, proposed a committee to further discuss the matter.

Mayor Rickenbach said that the board would seek input from the Chamber of Commerce, the East Hampton Business Alliance, and the Ladies Village Improvement Society. “We’re trying to generate the right environment for people to take advantage of our commercial business,” he said. “We’ll move ahead as appropriate.”

Even before a hearing could be scheduled, a proposal to ban alcohol within 2,500 feet of lifeguarded areas at Indian Wells and Atlantic Avenue Beaches in Amagansett while guards are on duty drew strong opposition from the East Hampton Town Trustees, who assert ownership of the beaches on behalf of the public.

A resolution to hold a hearing on the proposal was introduced by Councilwoman Sylvia Overby at a town board meeting last Thursday, but was quickly tabled.

Councilman Fred Overton would not second the motion, saying that he wanted the trustees’ input before a hearing could be held. Supervisor Larry Cantwell also suggested allowing the trustees to weigh in before a hearing was scheduled. But, Mr. Cantwell said, “I know the clock is ticking,” referring to the upcoming summer season, and cautioned that “we have not found some other, easier alternative to this in terms of dealing with this specific problem.”

Ms. Overby had issued the proposal in response to complaints from numerous residents about alcohol-fueled rowdy behavior and public urination as large crowds of young adults gather at Indian Wells, in particular.

She said that she would still like to hold a hearing before the season, “because I’m getting too many phone calls” from people eager to comment on the situation at Indian Wells Beach.

Tim Taylor, of Citizens for Access Rights, which advocates for the public’s access to beaches, asked the board to work with the trustees, “who were elected by the public,” on legislation pertaining to beaches. “We ask that you work with them to allow them to do what they were elected to do,” Mr. Taylor said. Mr. Cantwell said that the board would be happy to do that.

Diane McNally, the clerk of the trustees, asked that the “spirit of cooperation” that had existed between the town and the trustees be restored. The law as drafted, she said, would not meet the trustees’ approval. Mr. Cantwell said that the board would not consider adopting the law until the trustees had an opportunity to review it and offer their opinion.

Ms. McNally reported to her colleagues at the trustees’ meeting on Tuesday. Mr. Cantwell, she said, “finally caught on, that ‘why are we going to hold a public hearing on this proposal if we know the trustees don’t agree with it?’ ” But, she added, “Where we’re going to go with this, I’m not sure.”

Ms. McNally said that she had started to research how other municipalities have addressed similar situations. There are, she said, “a lot of ways we can go around this to address the problem, which is the intoxication, not the alcohol itself.”

Nat Miller, a trustee and bayman, said he is on village beaches, where alcohol is prohibited, in the mornings and always sees empty beer cans and plastic cups. “It’s a selective way to enforce whatever their agenda might be,” he said of the proposed amendment.

That agenda, said Sean McCaffrey, a trustee, was that “they don’t want loud music, they don’t want that group of young people coming down with a cooler, sitting there all day drinking and carrying on.”

“There have been instances where people have been offended by the behavior,” Ms. McNally conceded. The trustees debated additional signs specifying prohibited behavior. But Tim Bock said that he goes to Indian Wells Beach every weekend in the summer and has witnessed none of the problems described. “There’s nothing more than certain Amagansett residents who have always claimed that it was ‘their’ beach, and now they see this group of people down there,” he said. “Just because they’re there, they want to claim their area and don’t want to see them. It’s nothing more than that. There’s no loud music, there’s none of what they’re saying.”

Deborah Klughers, a trustee, said that the town should “enforce the laws that are on the books.” She said the town should go ahead with plans to modify crowd-control efforts that were implemented last year — an attended booth to prevent access to the parking lot by nonresident vehicles, taxis, and buses. “Or let them do their experiment in Montauk,” she said of the proposed ban on alcoholic beverages.

In a playful yet serious swipe at the town, Ira Barocas, who ran unsuccessfully for trustee last year, delivered a $100 check to the trustees for “the First Annual Atlantic Beach/Indian Wells Trustee Beer Bash.”

Addressing a litany of complaints made by some beachgoers, Mr. Barocas said that beer for the party “should be brought on the beach by truck, dogs welcome without leashes, clothing optional,” that the party include a fire in proximity to lifeguards, and that it be held during daylight hours, “preferably cocktail hour — which is always sometime.” The trustees accepted his donation.

With Reporting by Joanne Pilgrim

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."

     Roadwork on Montauk Highway from the intersection of County Road 39 in Southampton to the intersection of Stephen Hand’s Path in East Hampton is set begin on Monday, a New York State Department of Transportation spokeswoman said.

     The start date was to be today, but it was pushed back because of the threat of snow earlier this week. Lane shifts to accommodate the milling and resurfacing project will be instituted as of Monday along portions of the route, with work expected to progress from west to east, the D.O.T. said. Some lane closures may also be needed during the process. Contractors will work on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and at night from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. “The night work will be mostly in downtown areas or at major intersections where it is too cumbersome to shift lanes during daytime hours,” said Eileen Peters of the D.O.T. On-street parking will not be allowed while work is under way. 

     Drivers along that route may have already noticed some preliminary work. There were also traffic tie-ups earlier this week as the Suffolk County Water Authority rushed to complete a project of its own along Route 27 in Wainscott before the resurfacing project began, stopping traffic in both directions at times.

     The resurfacing project is expected to be complete by Memorial Day. Work on a section of highway from Buell Lane in East Hampton to South Etna Avenue in Montauk will begin after Labor Day. The D.O.T. will post travel advisories at informny.com.

Since David Hernandez Barros, a junior at East Hampton High School, hanged himself in the bathroom of his family’s apartment in East Hampton nearly a year and a half ago, mental health issues have assumed unprecedented urgency for school officials tasked with ensuring the safety and well-being of students.

Over the past 18 months, the high school has referred 20 students displaying signs of suicidal thoughts to Stony Brook University Hospital. More than an hour’s drive away, it houses the nearest psychiatric facility. 

Since 2009, three Latino students on the South Fork have committed suicide. The 20 students at East Hampton High School represent a wide cross-section of race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic backgrounds and possess no single identifying characteristic.

Taken together, the increasing referrals signify a heightened sense of awareness, with many school administrators and teachers perpetually on high alert, working in tandem to prevent another tragedy.

According to New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., a proposal is now under way to combine state aid, along with resources from school districts, Southampton Hospital, local governments, and nonprofits to improve access to mental health offerings for children and adolescents residing on the South Fork.

The first of the three-pronged approach proposes the hiring of a full-time child psychiatrist and two full-time social workers at an estimated cost of $320,000, according to a working draft of the proposal. Mr. Thiele is hopeful that state funds would cover half of the anticipated expenses — with local partners combining their resources to foot the other half of the bill.

“I’m optimistic and it’s a high priority,” said Mr. Thiele, in a conversation last week. “We should have an answer for this by April 1.”

He described Adam Fine, the principal of East Hampton High School, as “the guiding force that got this through.”

The two first met last summer to begin brainstorming ways of expanding access to services. Since the start of the year, various stakeholders have gathered for two meetings at Southampton Hospital.

At a Feb. 24 meeting, Mr. Thiele and Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, along with representatives from the offices of Representative Tim Bishop and State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, Robert Ross, Southampton Hospital’s vice president of community and government relations, and administrators from several local school districts and nonprofits, met to finalize the specifics of the proposal.

In addition to the remoteness of the South Fork and the difficulty of retaining qualified, year-round practitioners, the proposal cited rapidly changing student demographics in several local school districts — with a particular emphasis on the rising number of Latino families that have moved to the area over the past decade.

“This clash of cultures has exacerbated issues related to behavioral health for the entire population, especially children,” read the proposal. “Due to a number of factors including geography, fewer year-round residents, and a perception of great wealth, the East End has long needed additional behavioral health services and is now experiencing a crisis that threatens the stability of the small school systems and the communities in general.”

Besides establishing a crisis service during phase one of the proposal, a second phase would expand the crisis team by hiring additional social workers and community health workers. It also proposes establishing a mobile unit, which would travel to areas of urgent need. Finally, a third phase would deploy Stony Brook psychiatrists to Southampton Hospital as part of an expanded psychiatric residency program.

During annual budget talks in recent weeks, Mr. Fine asked the East Hampton School Board for a $30,000 increase in mental health services.

“This year, a number of calls from parents and information from students has made me worry,” Mr. Fine said in a recent conversation. “Whether it be cutting, information on students having breakdowns, or suicidal ideations, I have been concerned with several at-risk situations.”

For Mr. Fine, David’s suicide continues to figure largely, never far from the surface. “It’s always in my mind that it could happen again,” said Mr. Fine. “Not a day goes by that I don’t think about what happened and how we can do our part to prevent it from ever happening again.”

With three suicides in five years, Mr. Fine described it as a “crisis,” noting that the New York State Office of Mental Health designated the South Fork as a “suicide cluster.”

While cognizant that the need is great, Richard Burns, the superintendent, is not optimistic that the money will ultimately come through.

Faced with a state-imposed 2-percent tax cap, the East Hampton School District is looking to cut $1.2 million from its budget — not add to it.

Mr. Burns, along with a handful of other administrators, has become accustomed to receiving panicked calls during evenings and weekends.

“The depth of problems besetting kids is scary,” Mr. Burns said in a conversation last week. Partly, he blames the prevalence of social media, with fantasies of suicide now “an option in the tool belt.”

During after-school hours, when students have received texts from friends contemplating suicide, school administrators are often the first point of contact. “When they see something on Facebook, they call us, not the police,” said Mr. Fine.

“Because of a heightened sense of awareness, we’ve made so many referrals to C.P.E.P.,” Ralph Naglieri, East Hampton High School’s school psychologist, said, referring to Stony Brook’s Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program, designed for individuals experiencing a psychiatric crisis. “We’re not taking any chances.”

With 21 years in the district, Mr. Naglieri observes an increasing number of adolescents beset with psychiatric problems. “What concerns me most is kids having this in their arsenal and using this as a coping mechanism,” he said.

After receiving an urgent call, administrators are next tasked with ensuring the safe transport of the student to Stony Brook University Hospital. If the parents cannot securely transport their child, the police, or an ambulance, are next called to intervene. But after arriving at Stony Brook, administrators report that students almost always return to class the very next day.

According to Kristie Golden, the associate director of operations for the neurosciences divisions at Stony Brook University Hospital, despite the increase in school-based referrals, a pattern that commonly emerges following a student suicide, hospitalizations rarely result.

“A very high percentage of the time they don’t meet the criteria for inpatient admission,” said Dr. Golden. “Unless someone is acutely suicidal, with a plan and a means, or homicidal, outpatient services are generally the recommendation for follow-up care.” The New York State Office of Mental Health — not to mention most insurance plans — prefers the “least restrictive” option available.

But once home, the geographic isolation is yet another hurdle in the complicated maze of ensuring access to regular therapeutic treatment.

For instance, while the Family Service League in East Hampton provides a great array of services, administrators said the waiting list for psychiatric care can be as long as two months. Adolescents contemplating suicide require immediate and sustained counseling — and often multiple visits each week.

While each school district will cover initial psychiatric evaluations, as required by New York State law, it is not required to pay for ongoing psychiatric treatment. For many families, the hourly rates, particularly with practitioners that do not accept insurance, quickly become unsustainable. 

Since David’s suicide, Mr. Naglieri estimates that the staff has undergone six separate trainings. “I can’t imagine another school district on Long Island that’s had as much training,” he said. But while the school is staffed with a psychologist and social workers, he is the first to concede that they are educators first and foremost — and not mental health practitioners.

In future months, he is hopeful that Southampton Hospital might be the first point of entry, able to supply both beds and access to a full-time psychiatrist.

“We as a school and as a community have to continue doing whatever we can to get more services on the East End of Long Island. I understand the budgetary constraints and realize we won’t get everything we wish for,” said Mr. Naglieri. “But we’re moving in the right direction, and people are finally hearing us.”

     A thief who was foiled last week in an attempt to steal an expensive camera pleaded guilty today in East Hampton Justice Court and was sentenced to six months in the county jail.

     An assistant district attorney had labeled the man, Joseph R. Spezzano, 35, of Mastic, a "career criminal" at his arraignment, telling the court he had been convicted of four felonies, including one violent crime.

     "You know, sir, you spend more time in jail than out," East Hampton Justice Lisa R. Rana told him today after he admitted to a misdemeanor charge of possession of stolen property.

     A charge of petty larceny was dropped in exchange for the guilty plea. Maggie Bopp, the assistant D.A., had made the defendant what was essentially a take-it-or-leave-it offer: Plead guilty to the one charge and serve six months, or go to trial on the two counts. After conferring in a courthouse holding cell with his Legal Aid lawyer, Sheila Mullaly, he opted for the jail term.

     Justice Rana leaned down from the bench to speak to Mr. Spezzano before he was led away. "If I see you in this court again," she warned him, he could expect more jail time.

     She asked about the incident. "What were you doing?"

     "I don't know," he answered.

     David E. Rattray of Cranberry Hole Road, Amagansett, the editor of The East Hampton Star, had been awakened at about 2 a.m. on March 12 by his dog's barking. Thinking the dog wanted to go out, he opened his front door and saw, at the end of the driveway, a light on in his pickup truck and someone inside it.

     "I started shouting at the person to get out of my truck," Mr. Rattray later told police. The intruder ran toward the end of the driveway and jumped into a waiting car, a late-model Chevrolet Cruze.

     The car took off, headed west, but Mr. Rattray got a look at the license plate and was able to see its first three letters. He called East Hampton Town police immediately, giving them that information and adding that his Panasonic Lumix camera was missing from the console of the unlocked truck and that the Chevvy was headed west.

     East Hampton Village officers pulled the car over not long after, on Main Street near the Star office. Mr. Rattray was brought to the scene and identified Mr. Spezzano as the man who had been rummaging through his truck. He had particularly noted his "oversized jacket" and "dark-colored pants," he told police. 

     Back at headquarters, Mr. Spezzano told police he had left his grandmother's house in Mastic Beach "with my friends Jessica, Anthony, and Steven. Anthony was driving. We were headed to Montauk."

     Their late-night journey had a few detours, according to his statement: a stop at a 7-Eleven in East Quogue, then another, this time unplanned, on Montauk Highway in Southampton, where Southampton Town police gave Anthony, the driver, a speeding ticket.

     Then came a detour, which Mr. Spezzano did not explain, other than to say that "we turned on a dirt road and drove to the end. We drove on the back roads for a minute. I had to take a piss, so I asked Anthony to pull over." The driver shut off the engine and the headlights as Mr. Spezzano got out of the car, he said. "I walked into a driveway and seen a white pickup truck. I looked in and saw a camera sitting on the driver's seat. I opened the side door and grabbed the camera."

     He put it in his jacket pocket, he said. Police found it on the floor of the Cruze, however. "It must have fallen out," Mr. Spezzano told them.

     He went to great lengths in his statement to absolve his friends of involvement in the crime. "Nobody had any idea what I did," he stated.

     Commenting on the incident last week, Captain Chris Anderson of the town police said residents had to learn to lock their houses and their cars. The face of crime in East Hampton has changed, he said. "It used to be, if there was a crime, you could check your list of 10 or 12 guys who were out. Those days are over."

     Workers are coming from farther and farther west, said the captain, as are visitors looking to party, especially heading out to Montauk. And those among them with a criminal inclination are now returning for what appears easy pickings, he said. All of it is making the job of the police that much harder.

    Volunteer firefighters were awakened early this morning to deal with a brush fire in East Hampton.

    A passerby, possibly a newspaper delivery driver, called police at 3:16 a.m., saying he could see flames in a wooded area on Buckskill Road, off Stephen Hand's Path.

    "It was a pretty good size fire," said East Hampton Fire Department Chief Tom Bono. Two engines and a brush truck responded. The brush truck was used because the fire was far enough into the woods that firefighters could not reach it with a hose, the chief said.

    Dry, windy conditions fueled the blaze, but Mr. Bono was not sure what caused it. He called the East Hampton Town Fire Marshal's office to investigate the origin. Most of the flames burnt out on their own, and no houses were endangered.

    Firefighters used the driveway of a nearby house to get close to the fire, The wind was blowing away from that house, the chief noted. The volunteers were back at the firehouse in an hour and 15 minutes.    

    Chief Fire Marshal David (Buzzy) Browne said later this morning that the cause was still undetermined. Tom Baker, a fire marshal, was going back to investigate in the daylight, but finding a smoking gun, so to speak, was unlikely, said Mr. Browne.

    "Usually, you associate brush fires with the summer and the heat,” he said. “But anytime it's dry and conditions are right, it can happen." The brush fire, he's said, serves as a good reminder to use caution in dry conditions, especially when disposing of cigarettes and ashes from fireplaces.