The coming summer rental season in Montauk is already as wild as a summer night at the Surf Lodge. “In 12 years I have never seen anything like this,” said Theresa Eurell of Town and Country Real Estate. While rental calls normally start in the beginning of the year, this time they started in October.

       Marge Harvey of Pospisil Real Estate estimates that more than half the inventory is already gone. Yet most renters, who tend to be in their 20s and early 30s, are bypassing real estate agents altogether and going directly to homeowners.

       For one thing, they can. International short-term rental websites such as VRBO.com (Vacation Rentals by Owner) connect homeowners and prospective renters without a go-between.

       For another thing, many of those looking for rental properties in Montauk are groupers — groups of hormone-fueled youths known for sharing bedrooms and, of course, beds. And playing loud music.

       “Last summer people were knocking on random doors and asking if they wanted to rent their houses,” said Samantha Ruddock, a fire dancer and native of Montauk.

       It’s against the town code to rent a house to four or more unrelated people. Thus, most real estate pros want nothing to do with them.

       “We’ve had quite a few inquiries about larger groups,” said Michele Gosman of the Martha Greene agency. How does she screen customers to determine if they are groupers? “We ask basic questions like, ‘How many in your party? Bedrooms? Pets? Tell me about yourself.’ ”

       Alas, she admits that most likely groupers lie about the number in their party. Her only real weapon is “a feeling” as to whether they’re part of a group or not. It starts with the phone conversation. Sometimes they offer telltale hints. If she asks, “When do you want to see it?” and they tell her they’ve already seen it, that lets her know that probably another agent showed it to them before catching on to their true intention.

       “If you’re really not sure, you have to give it a shot — meet with them. Then you can tell by how many show up.” Also, she said, there’s always background conversation from which to pick up clues. “There’s no other way of knowing except to give them a lie detector test.”

       The demographics of Montauk are undergoing major change. “It used to be a lot of families looking for the summer,” Ms. Eurell said. “Now they’re just looking for a month.” It seems that the middle-class families that traditionally spent their summers going to the beach and fishing have been priced out.

       “You’re looking now at a minimum for a modest home of $5,000 or $6,000 a week,” she said. And on the high end, rentals have climbed up to $225,000 for the season. “We have seen most homeowners raising prices across the board 10 or 20 percent.”

       No matter, the renters keep coming in droves. Ms. Eurell has customers seeking four bedrooms with a pool and a budget of $65,000. “We can’t find anything in Montauk. They’ve got to spend $80,000.”

       Those who can afford that are the young set, those with “very good jobs, who come from Manhattan to Brooklyn — we get a lot from Brooklyn — and want the whole season.” These renters typically have a budget ranging from $60,000 to $80,000 and desire four or more bedrooms and a pool.

       “As a company we’re not doing group rentals, which is what these are turning out to be,” said Ms. Eurell. As such, the company has forfeited a lot of business. “It’s not worth it to me to have this over my head. I pride myself on having good relationships with sellers and landlords — that’s how we all feel. We don’t want to be responsible for their homes being filled with 10 or 12 people.”

       As with other agencies, Town and Country goes through a screening process. “All we can do is ask for references from past rentals,” Ms. Eurell said. The challenge is that, as licensed agents, they can’t be seen to discriminate. If she is at all suspicious, she will recite the law to potential renters. At that point, it’s up to the homeowner to decide.

       Gone are the days when an agent placed a tenant directly in a house. It has gotten to the point where “owners want to be at the house and meet potential tenants,” Ms. Eurell said.

       Owners are also raising their security deposits. Group rentals have added more wear and tear to the fixtures. Where it once was 10 percent, the norm is now 20 percent. “We have two clients asking for 50 percent,” said Ms. Eurell. Even more significant, some owners are requiring to be shown the tenant’s homeowner’s insurance and demanding to be put on the policy.

       In what seems to go against the past real estate agency position, Ms. Eurell echoes the current attitude among Montauk agents. “There’s a lot of reasons to go directly to a homeowner,” she said. “Homeowners can show up and check out the place. We can’t do that. We’re not a property management company. We put two parties together. After that our job is supposed to be done.”

       Meanwhile, if next summer is anything like last summer, there will be endless letters to the editor in this paper complaining of group noise and unseemly behavior.

       Michael Sendlenski, who was appointed as assistant town attorney for East Hampton by the new town board, said, “We’ve been discussing [the group issue] since we started in January . . . [and] will be enforcing the town code to make sure quality of life is preserved.” His office will be “coordinating efforts with all the public safety” departments in town, he said, though he wouldn’t comment on procedures. He doesn’t want to “give violators a way around the law.”

       The Town of East Hampton has come out against PSEG Long Island’s push to upgrade its transmission lines in East Hampton and Amagansett, a project that has galvanized many residents in opposition.

       On Tuesday, Supervisor Larry Cantwell sent a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo urging his “immediate intervention” to halt the ongoing installation of new, taller poles and transmission lines. The lines should be buried underground, the letter said, and federal money allocated for Hurricane Sandy relief should be directed to that end.

       “I am appealing for your help to correct a travesty in my community,” Mr. Cantwell wrote to the governor. “This project is taking place in small residential neighborhoods where some homes are but 20 feet from transmission lines and poles.”

       “These are very difficult circumstances,” he said in an interview. “I wanted to bring this to the governor’s attention, because we’re going to need all the help we can get.”

       At the town board’s work session on Tuesday, Mr. Cantwell said he had spoken with Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr.’s office to seek help in scheduling a meeting with the governor as soon as possible, to “get some of the answers I think we should have gotten before the project began,” regarding both the route and the cost of burying the lines versus installing them above ground. Previously, PSEG officials had dismissed subterranean installation as cost-prohibitive and problematic.

       Mr. Cantwell noted that the former town board had resolved last June to seek funding from the state Office of Emergency Management, hazard mitigation grant program, to have electrical transmission lines buried. Under the terms of such a grant, which the supervisor said could be applied anywhere within the town, the state and federal governments would reimburse the town for 75 percent of such a project’s cost.

       Mr. Thiele said this week that he and State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle are trying to get through to the governor, and that they have written to the state Public Service Commission seeking that agency’s involvement. “I certainly support the intervention of the executive branch in this. I think we will need their involvement to get PSEG’s attention,” he said.

       He said that, while he was not familiar with its wording, the resolution Mr. Cantwell referred to could be key to the town’s strategy. “It appeared that per haps on this one, the horse was out of the barn, except for the fact that there are federal funds available for storm mitigation and a whole focus on that now,” he said. “I do think that gives us a fighting chance.”

       The project as presently structured is costing $7 million, Mr. Thiele said, whereas burying the new lines would cost “somewhere north of $20 million.” Federal funding, he said, could defray an added cost to ratepayers, should PSEG Long Island agree to bury the lines.

       Residents of McGuirk and nearby streets in East Hampton Village, many of whom said they had not been notified of a public hearing held by the village board in September with representatives of the utility, have been agitating for help from town and village officials to reroute the project. They have attended village and town board meetings and a Feb. 10 meeting of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee, and are circulating a petition demanding a halt to the project until their concerns are addressed.

       Jack Forst, a resident of nearby Newtown Lane, said yesterday that he had “never seen a utility company working at such a feverish pace,” implying that PSEG Long Island is eager to finish before any complication arises. Crews were seen yesterday toiling away on Toilsome Lane.

       The residents assert that electromagnetic fields emanating from electrical transmission lines pose serious hazards to human health. Greg Olson, a distribution team leader with PSE&G New Jersey, a division of PSEG, disputed that, stating earlier this month at a Village Hall meeting that no definitive findings had been reached. Residents are also dismayed by the aesthetic impact the poles, some as tall as 61 feet, would have on their neighborhood, and also fear negative effects on property values.

       Mr. Cantwell’s letter described the historic houses and scenic farm vistas nearby the poles and transmission lines, which also run along Town Lane in East Hampton and Amagansett, and stated that “the project is contrary to the Town of East Hampton Comprehensive Plan and contradicts the New York State approved and locally designated Scenic Areas of Statewide Significance.”

       The letter also recounts the Long Island Power Authority’s preparation of an environmental assessment for the project and filing of a negative declaration pursuant to the State Environmental Quality Review Act in October. “There was no public review of these documents and no public participation in the process,” the supervisor wrote. At Tuesday’s work session, he called LIPA’s environmental assessment and subsequent negative declaration a “major flaw in the process.”

       Mr. Cantwell acknowledged to the governor that the prior administration had issued a road-opening permit for the project last year. “The lack of public participation and consideration of this project would cause the Town of East Hampton to consider legal remedies,” he wrote, if not for the expiration of the four-month timeframe in which LIPA’s no-harm-to-the-environment assessment could have been challenged. At the Amagansett Citizens meeting, Mr. Cantwell had expressed frustration that such a challenge was no longer “one of the hooks we could have used legally” to intervene.

       Officials of PSEG Long Island, which assumed management of Long Island’s electrical grid from LIPA on Jan. 1, have stated that the upgrade is necessary for its transmission infrastructure to withstand winds of up to 130 miles per hour. Routing the poles in proximity to existing lines along the Long Island Rail Road corridor, as some have suggested, is unwise, they say, because poles falling on one another could result in a regionwide power outage.

       Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said Tuesday that, “to the extent applicable, the village underscores the language that Larry Cantwell offered to the governor. We likewise want to formalize correspondence with the governor.” Becky Molinaro, the village administrator, said the village and town are arranging a meeting with PSEG Long Island officials “to review the costs associated with burying lines.” No date has been set yet, but Mayor Rickenbach said a “small contingent of residents” would be invited to attend.

       A PSEG Long Island spokesman did not provide a comment by press time.

With reporting by Joanne Pilgrim

       A building permit for renovations to the former Villa Prince restaurant in Amagansett, where a new 7-Eleven is planned, was rescinded by East Hampton Town’s chief building inspector, Tom Preiato, on Friday after a meeting with town attorneys and planners at which officials decided it had been issued in error.

       Though a retail store, including a 7-Eleven, is permitted on the Montauk Highway property, zoned for central business, Elizabeth Vail, the town attorney, said last week that site plan approval from the town planning board would be required before the project could proceed.

       Mr. Preiato had given Richard Principi, a contractor and member of the family that owns the property, a building permit on Jan. 30. He confirmed earlier this month that a lease to a 7-Eleven franchisee was planned. Rumors began to circulate about a 7-Eleven there three years ago, arousing vocal opposition similar to that engendered by the first 7-Eleven in town, in Montauk, at around the same time.

       Mr. Preiato said that before issuing the permit he had consulted with town attorneys and determined that a switch from one permitted use to another was permissible without a site plan provided the new use would not have higher maximum occupancy. There is no prohibition in East Hampton against chain stores.

       “The building permit was issued in error because full consideration of the property’s planning history was originally omitted,” Ms. Vail wrote in an email explaining the decision to rescind the permit. The property “has a complicated history with multiple prior planning reviews and approvals issued over the last 40  years,” she said, including a planned 1983 subdivision, which was not pursued.

       Ms. Vail also said an area that was said to be a separate parcel, where there is storage, and where clearing and grading took place at some time in the past, is actually part of the lot where the former restaurant is sited. A section of the town code, she said, requires site-plan approval for  clearing and grading.

       Ms. Vail noted that prior site plan approval for the property, in 1977, which authorized a restaurant, four retail stores, and a tennis court, was found in 1997 to be void because no improvements had been completed. Nonetheless, the attorney said “further review is required to determine if certain conditions of that original site plan approval were met, particularly regarding the parking requirements on site.”

       Site plan review for parking is a likely requirement at this point, she said, noting that a prior property owner had been apprised of some of these issues in a letter from the Planning Department on Feb. 7, 1994.

       She noted that the town is entitled under law to overturn a building permit issued in error, and that when an erroneous permit is rescinded a property owner has no vested rights. “The mistaken . . . issuance of a permit does not limit . . . a municipality from correcting errors, even when there may be harsh results,” Ms. Vail wrote.

       To get an idea of how much Oneda Dixon of East Hampton, who turned 100 on Saturday, has witnessed in her lifetime, consider what was happening in 1914. That was the year the Panama Canal was opened and the year World War I began. The air-conditioner was patented in 1914, and the first commercial airline was established. Ford’s Model T was the most popular car in America, but “when she was growing up there were horses and buggies,” her daughter Jacquolen Glover said Tuesday.

       This has been a week of parties for Mrs. Dixon, and given the momentous occasion, there are probably a few more celebrations to come.

       On Friday, she was celebrated in grand style during a Valentine’s Day lunch at the East Hampton Town Senior Citizens Center, where she is a regular. Then on Saturday, a crowd of about 50 friends and family members gathered for another party at the Springs Presbyterian Church, though some who were expected to attend had to cancel their plans because of the snow.

       At Friday’s party, with a daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter on hand, as was the entire East Hampton Town Board and the mayor of East Hampton Village, Mrs. Dixon was called to the front of the room, given a seat of honor and a tiara, and presented with a huge birthday cake. As an overflow crowd sang “Happy Birthday,” Mrs. Dixon joined in, then blew out her candles.

       “I thank everybody for being here and I thank you for helping me to enjoy my day,” she said. “Everybody here has been so wonderful for me. They all treat me like a baby. . . . I love all of you to the bones. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to eat my cheese sandwich.”

       But it would be a while before she got back to her lunch. Supervisor Larry Cantwell and Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. each presented birthday proclamations,  a friend gave a short speech, and another read a poem he had written.

       Mr. Cantwell had been a neighbor of Mrs. Dixon’s and had fond recollections of her and her late husband, Ollie, from years ago. “It’s really a pleasure for me to be here, and at 63, I guess I’ve got 37 years to go,” he said.

       “This is one of those humbling experiences you get to enjoy when you’re an elected official,” Mayor Rickenbach said. “You epitomize what our community is all about.” He declared Feb. 15 Oneda Dixon Day in East Hampton Village.

       “I call her Mother Dixon,” said Connie Jones, a friend. “When you stop and think about the wealth of information that this woman has, it’s incredible.” In her 100 years, Ms. Jones said, Mrs. Dixon has seen things progress “from horses to trains to cars and planes.”

       “She believed in a better way and a better day,” Ms. Jones said, and then to Mrs. Dixon she added, “You have been a beacon of light in this community, not only for me and my brothers and sisters but for many others.”

       Ms. Glover, one of Mrs. Dixon’s six children but the only one who survives, said her mother had been “an example for our family and my sisters and brothers that have passed on before you, and your granddaughter.”

       Mrs. Dixon was born Oneda Turner in Mooresville, N.C., one of eight children. She moved to Washington, D.C., after high school and met her future husband there, according to the proclamation from the town. The two worked on alternate schedules “so their children always had a parent caring for them.” Four of the children grew up in the Washington area. The youngest of the six  finished school in East Hampton, where the family moved in 1963.

       “When we were growing up, we were a church family,” Ms. Glover said. “We were brought up in church.” Mrs. Dixon’s faith has been an important part of her life and she continues to be a member of the Calvary Baptist Church. “She likes to dance and read. She enjoys singing, and she likes to pray,” her daughter said.

       In East Hampton, her husband, who died before her, worked as a chauffeur. She was a housekeeper, finally retiring in 1999, at 85.

       “The families she worked for, they still keep in touch with her. They call, send Christmas cards,” her daughter said.

       Mrs. Dixon has 11 grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren, and 5 great-great-grandchildren.

       “She has seen a lot of things come to pass,” her daughter said on Tuesday. “In her lifetime, she never would have thought we would have a black president, and she has seen that.” Her mother has been lucky in her life, Ms. Glover added,  that “people have shown how much they care for her and how much they appreciate her.”

       On Friday, she said, “she was honored for who she is, for the things that she has done.”

       A review of procedures in the East Hampton Town tax receiver’s office after a chaotic property tax bill season revealed that not only had nearly a quarter of the town’s tax bills never been printed and mailed, but that many tax payments sent to the office sat for two weeks in bins of unopened mail, neither logged nor deposited.

       In one case, a $3.8 million check from a mortgage clearinghouse for taxes on numerous properties remained in a FedEx envelope for three weeks, Charlene Kagel, the town’s chief auditor, told the town board this week.

       It was only after landowners began calling as the deadline for payment without penalty approached that the town realized that more than 5,000 of its approximately 23,000 2013-14 tax bills had not even been printed late last year.

       The original Jan. 10 deadline for payment of the first half of 2013-14 taxes was ultimately extended until Jan. 30. The second half is due by the end of May.

       This is the second year in a row that scores of residents have complained of not receiving their tax bills, even as the deadline approached. Their calls and emails deluged staffers, causing delays not only in providing bills but also in depositing payments that had been made.

       The remittances languished well beyond the three business days the town is given under state law to deposit residents’ checks.

       The situation was only exacerbated by the need to respond to the numerous complaints, until Ms. Kagel and other town staffers were sent in to take matters in hand. Neide Valeira, another town accountant, was appointed interim tax receiver on Jan. 14, and the next week, Monica Rottach, who had been the tax receiver, was granted a leave from her job under the Family Medical Leave Act.

       A glitch in the software used to sort and print the property tax bills resulted in several hundred of each batch failing to print, Ms. Kagel said at a board work session on Tuesday.

       Then, a lack of oversight and controls resulted in the errors going unnoticed, Ms. Kagel said. “There are multiple ways that you can check,” she said, including reviewing a computer report, tallying the letterhead and envelopes used, and checking the pieces of mail sent out under the town’s bulk mailing permit.

       Another problem that arose during tax season, Ms. Kagel said — this one prompting 600 or 700 calls from property owners looking for their tax bills — was a nine-month delay in entering data about new owners after a property sale took place.

       An account overdraft prompted an internal audit of the tax receiver’s office in October. Three problems unrelated to the tax bill issues were identified in the October review, conducted by the town’s in-house auditors along with Nawrocki Smith, an outside auditing firm, Ms. Kagel said yesterday.

       Two recommendations were made surrounding the procedures being used to reconcile accounts on the town’s computerized system, including one requiring that daily accounting take place.

       Another issue was the acceptance by the tax receiver of signed blank checks from taxpayers expecting to be out of town when tax bills were prepared. They were kept in a safe at the tax receiver’s office, which was opened at various times of the day, and were to be filled out with the proper amounts as payments became due.

       That practice was to have been stopped, Ms. Kagel said. The audit results were presented last fall to the former town board in an executive session called, she said, because personnel issues were involved. The board asked that the auditors perform a routine follow-up and re-check the practices followed by the department in six months.

       But when tax season arrived, Len Bernard, the town budget officer and head of the Division of Finance, said yesterday, “everything sort of snowballed and dominoed.” The audit team, headed by Ms. Kagel and other town accountants, was sent back to the tax receiver’s office on Jan. 6, along with other staff.

       “We’re going to get this straight,” Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said Tuesday, “to ensure this does not happen again.”

       He recommended increased training for town staff across the board on the Govern software program, which is used for multiple purposes. Ms. Kagel suggested that the board look into creating a way for property owners to access and pay their tax bills online.

       Mr. Cantwell took pains to thank Ms. Valeira for her work. “You stepped right in,” he said to her. “You worked six or seven days a week doing that, and I just want to applaud you for your effort.”

       The “personnel aspects” of Ms. Kagel’s report to the town board were to be presented in an executive session following the open portion of Tuesday’s meeting.

     An East Hampton couple were arrested in Hampton Bays yesterday by Southampton Town police on charges of endangering the welfare of two young children, who police said were left inside a car while couple went shopping at Macy’s. The car’s engine was off, and the temperature at the time was 39 degrees, the police said.

     Adrian Coria, 32, and Bertha Sanchez-Marquez, 31, of Oakview Highway were found by police inside the store at about 5:30 p.m., about 45 minutes after the police arrived and an hour after they received the initial call from a witness in the parking lot outside the department store who was concerned about the children. The couple were placed under arrest and taken to the nearby Southampton Town police headquarters, each charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.

            They were released from police headquarters last night, and will be arraigned in Southampton Town Court at a future date.

    The East End Drug Task Force arrested nine men this week who were allegedly involved in selling and buying an especially potent heroin that can be traced to at least half a dozen overdoses on the South Fork, the Suffolk County district attorney's office said Wednesday.

     According to District Attorney Thomas J. Spota's office, the heroin, marked with a red-lettered "Hollywood" stamp, made it into the hands of users as far east as Sag Harbor and Bridgehampton, although the street dealers are from the Riverhead area.

     They are facing major felony charges in Suffolk County Criminal Court.

     Robert Clifford, a spokesman for the D.A., said local law enforcement development information that proves the heroin was also used in Southampton Town, Southampton Village, Quogue, Greenport, Miller Place, Rocky Point, and Ronkonkoma. Evidence was found at the scene of at least half a dozen overdoses — including user who overdosed twice — and information was also gleaned from surveillance of the drug buys, Mr. Clifford said.

     Heroin with the Hollywood stamp was first discovered on the North and South Forks at the scene of overdoses in 2011. None of the overdoses were fatal.

     The task force undercover detectives, made up of officers from across the East End, also made purchases and witnessed drug deals in parking lots along Route 58 in Riverhead, in front of stores like the Home Depot, the Tanger Outlet Mall, and Walmart, at gas stations, and even in front of the State Department of Motor Vehicles. Deals also reportedly went down in the McDonald's parking lot on Route 24 in Riverside.

     Detectives used confidential informants and wiretaps to help make the arrests and indict the defendants.

     The D.A. described the Hollywood-stamped heroin as a premium brand of heroin that local addicts would pay "a premium price" for — up to 50 to 100-percent more than other street heroin — because of its potency. While the average cost of heroin in Suffolk County is about $10 per bag, Hollywood heroin cost $15 to $20, he said.

     Mr. Spota said the three New York City defendants — Jose Calvente, 65, Jose Morales, 72, and Carlos Ramos, 52 — have lengthy criminal histories. In total, they have 28 felony and misdemeanor convictions between them, mostly drug-related, he said. Charged with second-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, among other things, they are being held on bail of between $200,000 and $250,000 cash or $500,000 bond.

            The local men are facing top charges of third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance. They are Leroy Langhorne, 41, Leon Langhorne, 38, and Robert Baker, 46, all of Riverhead, and Farrow Sims, 42, of Calverton. Two others, Jerome Trent, 58, of Riverhead, and Joseph Thomas, 41, of Mastic, have been charged with third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, among other counts. 

       East Hampton Town officials are meeting this week to review the status of an Amagansett property where a new 7-Eleven store is planned.

       Although a building permit was issued on Jan. 30 for interior renovations to a former restaurant to create the store, Tom Preiato, the town’s chief building inspector, said Monday that a discussion would take place today about the zoning legalities involved and whether there was anything to preclude the planned 7-Eleven.

       Owned by members of the Principi family, the site, to the east of the Amagansett IGA, once held the Villa Prince restaurant, and then several other short-lived ventures. It has been shuttered for some time. Rumors of a 7-Eleven first surfaced three years ago when the exterior of the building was changed.

       Richard Principi, one of the property owners and a contractor who is doing the renovation work, confirmed last week that the family was in “final negotiations” regarding the new convenience store, which would be run by a franchisee.

       Before issuing the building permit, Mr. Preiato had consulted with town attorneys to ask whether the change in use of the building would necessitate the submission of a site plan application for planning board approval. He was told it would not.

       The town does not prohibit chain stores, and both a restaurant and a retail store are allowed in the central business zone where the property is located. A site plan review would have been required were the new use to increase the maximum occupancy of the site, but it will not.

       The opening of a 7-Eleven in Montauk and the rumors in 2011 that an Amagansett store was planned both engendered community discussion of potential increased traffic, impacts to local businesses, and other negative effects of the new chain stores, as well as vocal opposition.

       After an Amagansett resident expressed her opposition to the 7-Eleven at last Thursday’s town board meeting, Supervisor Larry Cantwell explained that the 7-Eleven parent corporation “chose a property that is zoned for a specific use. And they’re going to make use of that use, and they’re entitled to.”

       When Rona Klopman, another Amagansett resident, later asked the board to consider an anti-franchise law, and to take up a suggestion made by former Councilwoman Julia Prince in 2011 that the board consider revising what circumstances, under town code, trigger the need for a site plan review, the town attorney, Elizabeth Vail, passed Mr. Cantwell a note saying that town attorneys, the Planning Department, and the building inspector are “still reviewing the legalities of issuing the building permit” for the 7-Eleven.

     Though doctors gave Robbie Badkin a 10-percent chance of making it out of a coma after he developed a severe blood infection in January, he was able to celebrate his 51st birthday surrounded by his family at the Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Southampton on Saturday.

     On Jan. 2, Mr. Badkin’s sister, Linda Badkin, had rushed him to Southampton Hospital because he was having trouble breathing. He was placed on a ventilator and put in an induced coma for two weeks. He lost 70 pounds, and his muscles atrophied.

     "We kind of all prepared to say goodbye," said David Elze, his nephew. "But, he's a tough guy and pulled through," he said. "We are very grateful."

     Mr. Badkin, a master welder who works in Montauk and lifelong Amagansett resident whose family has lived on Lazy Point since 1936, still has a long road ahead of him. While he gains his strength, his family is rallying the community to help him keep his house and pay his mounting medical bills.

     Mr. Elze started a GoFundMe campaign online last week, and in just three days, he raised $12,670. "The community just blew me away. We surpassed the goal within two days," Mr. Elze said on Monday.

     He set the goal at $10,000, a figure he said he thought would easily be met. Mr. Badkin's bills and expenses, however, exceed that amount by at least 10 times, Mr. Elze estimated. There were 125 people that made donations, ranging from $25 to $1,000.

     In addition to his mortgage, utilities, and taxes, Mr. Badkin also has several debts that have piled up over the years, some connected to other health problems he has experienced.

     About 10 years ago, he had to have a hip replacement after he developed a bone marrow infection in connection with a steel rod he has had in his hip since shattering it as a 13-year-old. Mr. Elze said his uncle continued to work as much as he could and never went on disability or received government assistance. A diabetic, he sometimes has numbness in his extremities, and would often get open sores because he could not feel burns during welding.

     Mr. Badkin is well known to the Montauk commercial fisherman who count on his welding expertise, said his nephew, who described his uncle as kind-hearted man who has always gone above and beyond to help family and friends.

     As his health deteriorated, Mr. Badkin had fallen behind on maintenance of his Mulford Lane house. His family has been cleaning it and hoping to make much-needed repairs before he returns in approximately six weeks. Most alarming was mold that developed after flooding from Hurricane Sandy, an issue that has long plagued residents of Mulford Lane. The house will also likely have to be made wheelchair accessible.

     Doctors never found the source of Mr. Badkin's blood infection, which led to acute respiratory distress syndrome, but his family wondered if the mold in his house might have contributed to his recent health condition.

     On the GoFundMe site, Mr. Elze said his uncle is in good spirits but is still very weak. "It really helps just to know that so many people care."

     Although the $10,000 goal has been met, donations are still being collected at gofundme.com/robbie-the-welder.

     A fund-raiser is also being planned. 

Firefighters responded to a basement fire at a Northwest Woods, East Hampton, house that reportedly left a man with facial burns on Tuesday morning.

East Hampton Fire Department volunteers rushed to the fire at 5 Chatfield Lane after the call went out at 11:27 a.m. A fire chief requested backup from the Sag Harbor Fire Department's Rapid Intervention Team in case interior firefighters needed to be rescued. The team was on route at about 11:45 a.m. A tanker was also requested from Sag Harbor.

The East Hampton Ambulance Association also responded.

Chatfield Lane is off Rose Hill Road, which is off Two Holes of Water Road.

Firefighters are setting up a dump tank for access to water. The East Hampton Town fire marshal was called to the scene.

Updates will be posted to easthamptonstar.com when available.