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.

The Town of East Hampton is taking a stand against PSEG Long Island's ongoing project to upgrade its transmission lines in East Hampton and Amagansett, a project that has angered and galvanized many residents who oppose it.

Supervisor Larry Cantwell has sent a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo urging his "immediate intervention" to halt the utility's installation of new, taller poles and transmission lines.

Mr. Cantwell's letter, dated Feb. 18, states that the transmission lines should be buried underground and that 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."

Residents of McGuirk and nearby streets in East Hampton Village, many of whom said they had not been notified of a public hearing the village held with representatives of the utility in September, have been agitating for help in their efforts to stop and 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.

Many residents fear negative health consequences associated with the electromagnetic fields produced by the high-voltage electrical transmission lines. The new transmission lines carry a higher voltage than the utility's existing infrastructure.

Residents are also dismayed by the aesthetic impact the poles -- some as tall as 61 feet -- would have on their neighborhood, as well as a negative effect on their property values.

In his letter, Mr. Cantwell noted the historic houses and scenic farm vistas in proximity to the poles and transmission lines 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."

Mr. Cantwell's 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," he wrote.

He explained to the governor that the previous administration had issued a road-opening permit for the project, but that "the lack of public participation and consideration of this project would cause the Town of East Hampton to consider legal remedies," if not for the expiration of the four-month span in which the environmental assessment could have been challenged. At the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee meeting, Mr. Cantwell had expressed frustration that such a challenge was no longer "one of the hooks we could have used legally" to halt the project.

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 extreme weather, including winds of up to 130 miles per hour. They have asserted that routing the poles in proximity to existing lines along the Long Island Rail Road's corridor is unwise because falling poles could result in a regionwide power outage, and that burying the lines would be too expensive.

"This project should be built underground where the electric power serving our citizens will have the highest resiliency," Mr. Cantwell wrote.

    Motorists trying to go about their work and errands this winter who have had to contend with icy and snowy roads might feel like the precipitation is relentless, but it is the highway crews who are out salting and sanding roads before, during, and after storms, and plowing the way for residents to get through who have really borne the brunt of the winter weather.

    Nonetheless, East Hampton Town’s Highway Superintendent Steve Lynch, and the superintendent of public works for East Hampton Village, Scott Fithian, were both upbeat during recent chats, even while preparing for yet another onslaught.

    Both mentioned the grueling schedule of the highway crews, and their chiefs. Though both department heads take a round-the-clock duty schedule in stride, they try to rotate workers’ shifts so no one gets too tired out.

    “It’s long hours; it’s tedious,” Mr. Fithian said. “We do it till it’s cleaned up.”

    “I don’t go home till it’s over,” Mr. Lynch said. During the previous snowstorm, he said last week — several inches of snow ago — “I drove a truck, too.”

    One effective strategy, both men said, is to pre-treat the roads with salt before snow begins to fall.

    During some storms, Mr. Lynch said, he begins to have trucks salt the roads as they get covered with snow. But if snow is surely coming, he will “pre-salt.”

    “On the main roads, it prevents the hardpack,” he said, allowing the plows to more easily get down to a clean road.

    Mr. Fithian also spreads salt ahead of the snow if he can. “We’ve had great success with that,” he said, though, given the seemingly constant arrival of new storms, “sometimes we get caught short.”

    When it is under 18 degrees, Mr. Lynch said, salt does not work to melt ice and snow. “But what has helped, is the sun has come out,” he said. After giving the sun time to soften what’s on the roads, he sends the plows out to clear them.

    Normally, he said, plowing begins after three inches of snow has fallen. Sometimes they get to work sooner if blowing or drifting snow is making roads hazardous.

    “It’s just continuous,” said Mr. Lynch of the winter weather this year.

    In the village, plows might head out to clear some snow before three inches accumulates, Mr. Fithian said. “We just keep at it till we feel it’s comfortable, and the public is safe.” His responsibilities include the sidewalks in the village, which are cleared with machines and then salted and sanded as needed.

    “So far, so good,” said Mr. Fithian on Tuesday about his seasonal store of salt and sand. While the coffers in some Long Island towns are running low, prompting New York State Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to announce Tuesday that the state would provide 400 tons of salt to Nassau and Suffolk County towns until supplies can be replenished, the crews in East Hampton Town and Village have no shortage.

    “We saw it coming,” Mr. Lynch said of the demand, “and we started cutting it with some sand.” Sand provides traction, he said.

    But, he said, his department still has plenty of salt for the roads on hand.

    A few more truckloads of materials were expected that very day, Mr. Lynch said last week. “I’m not worried about running out.”

    During snowstorms the town Highway Department staff is supplemented by part-time plow and truck drivers, and by outside contractors who use their own equipment to help treat and clear off the roads.

    In the village, a crew of 16 full-time workers is employed and outside contractors are hired to remove accumulated snow from the roads in the central business district and its parking lots.

    To really dispense with snowfall, Mr. Lynch said last week, “We just need some warm temperatures and some fog. Fog eats up snow more than anything.”

    Snow was predicted for that evening, he noted, but he predicted a light one. “I’m going for the dusting,” said Mr. Lynch.

    Nonetheless, in advance, he said, he had staff attaching plows to heavy trucks and loading dump trucks with sand and salt. “They’re ready to go,” said the highway chief. “Be safe.”

    Mr. Fithian said he relies on TV News12 and on National Atmospheric and Oceanographic Administration weather prognostications. If a significant storm is expected, he will meet with police and other emergency personnel to coordinate a response.

    “We’re just preparing right now for the next round,” said Mr. Fithian, who could spare just a few minutes on Tuesday afternoon before tending to the next snow at hand.

    Transformation of the former Villa Principi restaurant building in Amagansett into a new 7-Eleven store is moving ahead after a building permit was issued last week for interior renovations there.

    The site, a former restaurant that has been empty for years, is just east of the Amagansett I.G.A., and is owned by the Principi family. The building permit was issued to Richard Principi, Tom Preiato, East Hampton Town’s chief building inspector, said Monday.

    The permit allows 2,412 square feet of interior alterations to create retail space for a “proposed convenience store.” Though 7-Eleven is not specified, the plans depict what appears to be a standard layout for a 7-Eleven store, and note that the light fixtures will be “furnished to contractor by 7-Eleven.”

    “We are in final negotiations with corporate 7-Eleven,” Mr. Principi confirmed yesterday. “We worked real hard to get to this point,” he said.

    The prospect of an Amagansett 7-Eleven first came to light three years ago this week and riled some residents of the hamlet, just as the opening of a 7-Eleven in Montauk — the first in East Hampton Town — had made waves the year before.

     The town’s architectural review board approved minor exterior changes to the building, and a building permit was issued for a façade change and minor interior building changes last year, though Principi family members would not confirm or deny rumors of the coming 7-Eleven at the time.

    Mr. Principi, a contractor who is doing the interior building work himself, said the store would be similar to the Montauk 7-Eleven. It will be run by a franchisee, who is unknown at this time.

    Community members in the past have expressed concern over corporate competition with local businesses, the aesthetics of a chain store, and the extended hours of operation of 7-Eleven stores, some of which are open 24 hours a day.

    The town does not have a prohibition against chain stores. Mr. Preiato said that before issuing the building permit last week, he had met with town attorneys to discuss whether the interior changes to the building could trigger a requirement for a site plan review.

    The property is in a central business zone, he said, where both a restaurant and a retail store are allowed. A site plan review would be required, he said, when changing from one of those permitted uses to another, if the occupancy of the site was to increase under the new use.

    “This does not increase; it decreases substantially,” he said.

    The restaurant had a maximum occupancy of 116, he said, while the occupancy of a retail store would be set at 30 people, requiring 10 or 11 parking spaces, Mr. Preiato said.

    “It really is a permitted use there,” the building inspector said of a new retail store — including a 7-Eleven. “We don’t have anti-franchise codes.”

       Following months of hard work, Ross School seniors can finally breathe a sigh of relief now that their senior projects have been handed in.

       The projects are an annual tradition at Ross, where students often start brainstorming potential topics shortly after arriving on campus. Cheyenne Eberstadt, 17, recalls thinking about her senior project as early as the fifth grade.

       “It’s been this big, scary thing for so long,” said Cheyenne, who decided to focus on obsessive-compulsive disorder after receiving a diagnosis. Her project includes six art pieces that illustrate how O.C.D. manifests in the brain. The bulk of the project took shape following an apprenticeship with Michael Pourfar, a neurologist at New York University.

       The projects, which begin toward the end of the junior year, make up the bulk of the senior year, with students scrambling to assemble the necessary pieces in time. As with a college thesis, a member of the Ross faculty works in tandem with each student.

       “I went into it thinking I would apply to art school and study design, and this whole project guided me in a whole different direction,” Cheyenne said during a conversation Monday afternoon alongside a handful of her classmates. Come September, she will enroll at Boston University, where she plans to study neuroscience.

       Dale Scott, who directs the Ross libraries, has been at the school for 14 years. For the past three years, she has overseen the senior projects.

       “For the students, the most important thing is to become independent learners,” said Ms. Scott, who sees students becoming more mature and self-confident as a result. “They believe in themselves in a way that they didn’t before. Last year they seemed like kids, but now they seem like young adults.”

       Joe Ando-Hirsh, 18, built a windmill that powers an ultraviolet-L.E.D. water purification system. Two summers ago, while living on a self-sustaining farm in the Galapagos Islands, Joe observed villagers having to travel into town for clean drinking water. He hopes the windmill might help solve such frustrations.

       Eli Schultz, 17, who grew up in East Hampton and has been enrolled at Ross since the fifth grade, worked on a senior project that combined science, language, literature, and math. For “I Am Here: The Eli Schultz Mapping Experience,” he collected graphics and fables to explain complex concepts — from climate change to terrorist networks to the Affordable Care Act.

       The project allowed him the freedom to explore his various interests. “It was about working towards something bigger, a building-up feeling,” said Eli, who plans to study chemistry in college.

       Another East Hamptoner, Lily Baron, 18, has attended Ross since the fourth grade. Her senior project initially began online, after she met a Ugandan through Interpals, a website linking pen pals worldwide, to help improve her Swahili.

       Soon, their friendship became a business partnership. After raising $2,000 through fund-raising efforts, in December she and her pen pal opened a tea shop in Kasese, Uganda. Its ultimate objective is to provide Internet access for locals. In the meantime, the tea shop provides a clean and hospitable gathering place, where food and beverages are sold to residents and tourists at reasonable prices.

       Though she has yet to visit Uganda, the project has ignited a passion. Once in college, Lily hopes to study international business and African studies.

       For Chris Engel, who directs special programs at Ross and also serves as a project mentor, the senior projects are about helping students find their voice.

       This past year, he served as Olivia Meihofer’s mentor. Though she took a bit of coaxing at first, Olivia, 17, ultimately wrote and produced her own EP, or extended play CD. A casual singer, she started taking formal voice lessons only a year ago. Olivia, who lives in Bridgehampton, now plans to major in music at the State University at Oneonta.

       “When I went into it, I didn’t know where it would end up,” said Olivia, who wrote and recorded eight original songs. “I don’t know if I will end up becoming a performer, but I do know that I want to do something in the field.”

       Opposition to PSEG Long Island’s ongoing upgrade to electrical transmission lines in East Hampton Town is intensifying.

       Over the last week, residents of McGuirk and neighboring streets in East Hampton Village have taken their grievances to meetings of the town board, the village board, and the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee. They have retained and directed a law firm, Tarbet and Lester, to seek an injunction and are imploring fellow residents to call elected officials to insist that work be halted until their concerns are vetted and addressed to their satisfaction. As of yesterday, said Jack Forst of Newtown Lane in East Hampton, approximately 625 residents have signed a petition opposing the project.

       Though town and village officials, some of whom are no longer in office, granted permits for the project in the fall, they are now trying to determine what, if any, standing they have to halt the project pending additional review, and whether local laws or the town’s comprehensive plan could have come into play.

       At a town board meeting on Tuesday, Supervisor Larry Cantwell said that the Long Island Power Authority, from which PSEG Long Island assumed management of the electrical grid on Jan. 1, completed an environmental assessment and issued a report, but then filed a negative declaration under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, meaning that it found that the project would have no significant environmental impact and required no additional study. Mr. Cantwell likened that to “the fox guarding the henhouse.”

       “Having said that, the question becomes, was that done legally and does it comply with SEQRA?” Mr. Cantwell said, referring to the State Environmental Quality Review Act.

       Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said that Stephen Lynch, the town’s highway superintendent, issued road-opening permits for the project. For similar instances in the future, he suggested that the board look into changing legislation or procedures to ensure that before such permits are issued, existing laws and guidelines, such as the Scenic Areas of Statewide Significance, state-approved legislation designed to protect areas that are deemed significant vistas, come into play. That, said Mr. Van Scoyoc, would be “an additional trigger” for further review, so that the permits are not issued administratively.

       In a project the utility’s officials say is essential to ensuring reliable service, PSEG is installing new 23-kilovolt transmission lines atop wooden poles, some of which are more than 55 feet tall. New poles have been erected along Town Lane in East Hampton and Amagansett as well as on narrower streets including McGuirk.

       Residents fear adverse health effects from the transmission lines’ electromagnetic fields and a chemical preservative that is injected into the poles. They also decry the impact on their property values represented by the new infrastructure, and the harm they said it is causing to their neighborhoods’ character. The utility’s officials have offered various explanations as to why routing the new lines along the Long Island Rail Road tracks, where existing transmission lines run, is impractical. They have also said that burying the lines would be too expensive.

       Last Thursday, Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. told residents at the village board meeting that, while he and the board were empathetic, they faced an uphill battle. PSEG Long Island, he said, is a private entity and “can do effectually whatever they want.”

       “They’re bulldozing their way through our village,” Mr. Forst’s wife, Helene Forst, told the board. “You are our representatives — the village attorney, the town attorney.”

       Linda Riley, the village attorney, was also skeptical of the prospects for success should the village take legal action against the utility. “We don’t have the power to regulate utility companies, private or public,” she said. “I’m not sure there is . . . a valid, achievable basis for proceeding with a lawsuit by the village.”

       Jonathan Tarbet, of Tarbet and Lester, addressed the board and discussed a prior case that the residents feel will support their position. In 2008, the Town of Southampton sued the Long Island Power Authority, charging that LIPA had not included it when preparing an environmental impact statement prior to its planned placement of transmission lines in Water Mill. Residents objected and insisted that the lines be buried.

       An agreement was reached between the town and the utility under which a section of the lines was buried. Residents are absorbing the cost of burying the lines, which added $11 million to the project, through their utility payments. In September, however, LIPA sued the town of Southampton, claiming it is more than $200,000 in arrears.

       “The important part to take from what happened in Southampton Town was they had something that worked,” Mr. Tarbet said. “If a settlement was reached with PSEG this time, you could see where they failed last time and fix the settlement contract. . . . I don’t think you should just shut the door and say, ‘We can’t do anything about this.’ ”

       Becky Molinaro, the village administrator, said that, unlike Southampton, the village is not the assessing and property tax-levying authority in the town, so the town would likely have to be involved should a similar resolution be reached here.

       At the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee meeting, Ms. Forst, who co-chairs a group called Save East Hampton: Safe, Responsible Energy, told the group that, “We need everyone to join together as one voice to make sure this upgrade, which we need, is done in a responsible way.”

       “What’s going on on McGuirk Street is tragic,” Mr. Cantwell said at that meeting, describing “a beautiful little residential street with small lots, a close-knit community, houses very near the street.” He agreed with residents that transmission lines in that location should have been buried.

       But he also acknowledged that residents face long odds. “Utilities have rights,” he said. “The truth of the matter is they couldn’t care less about McGuirk Street. . . . We’re going to have to do the best we can.”

       “We should have a resolution of concern and support asking our town board to do everything they possibly can to represent us in this situation,” said Jeanne Frankl of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee. Members voted unanimously to send a letter to the board opposing the existing plan and asking for one under which transmission lines would be buried.

       Residents are emphasizing the urgency with which town and village officials should act. “We talk about maintaining the character of our community, and that’s why we’re all here — because we’re all just in disbelief at what has happened to our community so quickly,” Mr. Forst told the town board last Thursday. “I plead with you, please help us as quickly as possible to nip this in the bud.”

       Dump trucks hauling about 600 cubic yards of sand a day may soon be rumbling through Montauk’s otherwise sleepy off-season streets bound for the former East Deck Motel in Ditch Plain, where new owners plan to build a sand dune up to 20 feet high.

       Constructed entirely of sand and held in place by local species of beach grass and other native flora, the project is “a model that could be used elsewhere in the town,” David Lys, a member of the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals, said Tuesday.

       Normally such a proposal, involving what zoning board members termed a “soft solution” when they first discussed it on Feb. 4, would not be subjected to a public hearing in order to get the needed special permit from the board. But both the town Planning Department and the board members, led by the chairman, Alex Walter, believed that, due to the scale of the project, the public should be given an opportunity to voice concerns.

       The motel, which faces one of the most popular surfing beaches on the East Coast, was bought last year by ED40 L.L.C., an ownership group represented at the Feb. 4 hearing by Richard A. Hammer, an attorney, and Billy Mack of the First Coastal Corporation, a firm that specializes in restoring and augmenting vulnerable beachfront. Mr. Mack brought to the podium a large, clear plastic bag filled with what he said was sand comparable in granular size and color to what would be piled on the beach.

       In a memo to the Z.B.A., Tyler Borsack, an environmental technician with the Planning Department, described the area as having “high erosion rates,” and said that some of the sand placed in front of the property would eventually migrate to the popular Ditch Plain beach just to west of the old motel.

       “Some of the sand will be coming from Mecox. We are we are seeking other sources,” Mr. Mack told the board on Feb. 4. The sand placement could be accomplished in 10 business days, he said. Mr. Hammer reminded the board that time was of the essence, in order to avoid any overlap with the extended summer season.

       Roger Boyle, a neighbor, said at the Feb. 4 hearing that while he is supportive of the plan, he is concerned about the condition of Ditch Plain and Deforest Roads, the route the trucks will have to take to get to the work site. “The south side of the road is already crumbly. This is not a highway road. This road is going to be trashed, or at least badly damaged. My concern is: Is there going to be remediation?”

       Another neighbor, Christopher Poli, also voiced support for the plan, but asked that the board ensure that the staging area, that is, the place where the sand is first dumped before being placed on the beach, be kept on the old East Deck property itself and not on the adjacent public parking lots to the east and west. Mr. Walter said that the board had also received emails to that effect.

       Mr. Hammer promised that the owners will work with the town’s Highway Department to make sure that the project goes smoothly. While some have speculated that Michael Repole, the founder of Vitaminwater, is among the owners, Mr. Hammer said Monday that he is not, and declined to identify anyone in the ownership group.

       During a work session on Tuesday, the board discussed the project and the comments at the hearing. “I like the design of the berm,” Mr. Lys said, adding later that there should never be any solid structure built on the new dune, and that a proposed walkway should be only a sand path. The board agreed on both points.

       “The devil will be in the details,” Don Cirillo said, as the board began to discuss exactly how they would require the operation to proceed.

       All the sand must be dumped and worked on the property itself, as opposed to using neighboring public land and parking lots, Mr. Walter said, and the total amount of sand should be limited to 6,000 cubic yards. And, he said, the sand placement should be completed by March 21.

       Bryan Gosman, a Montauk native, brought up the quality of the sand, recalling last year’s beach restoration project at Ditch Plain. The sand placed on the beach, he said, “was awful, dirt and dust.”

       Mr. Walter said that Kim Shaw, the town’s director of natural resources, has promised to have someone from her department on hand several days a week to monitor sand quality. He suggested giving the owners an extra week to bring sand in, in case weather causes a delay. They will be allowed to truck sand in only on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

       Because the board does not have a meeting next week, members will have to meet at the Z.B.A. office this week to sign off on the approval its attorney, Elizabeth Baldwin, is about to write.

       If all goes as planned, First Coastal can begin hauling in the sand on March 3, after the town Highway Department inspects Ditch Plain and Deforest Roads. When the sand-moving operation is complete, the Highway Department will re-inspect the roads for damage caused by the large trucks, which the East Deck’s owners will be required to repair.

       The owners will then have another month to complete the planting of the new dune.

        Real estate in the Village of Sag Harbor has ascended to a plane where certain properties are commanding South of the Highway prices.  

       Though substantial historic Sag Harbor houses come on the market only rarely, a handful have sold or gone into contract recently, including the magnificent Howell House on Main Street owned by Nancy Richardson, a Victorian confection on Union Street owned by Ivana Lowell and known as the “summer white house” (because President James Buchanan was said to summer there), and a stately 1840s Greek Revival house on Madison Street owned by Cindy Sherman. When the sale of Ms. Richardson’s house — the pride and joy of a whaling family scion and considered one of the grandest residences on the East End in the mid-19th century — goes through, “it will be a significant sale for a property of that type,” said Gary DePersia, a co-listing agent with Seth Madore, both of Corcoran. In fact, according to Richard Demato, the buyer, it will most likely set a record for the village. The asking price was $9.95 million.

      When Howell House went on the market, Mr. Demato, owner of an eponymous gallery on Sag Harbor’s Main Street, and his wife, Harriet Sawyer, an artist, saw it the next day, Nov. 16, which happened to be his birthday. “Within 45 minutes we put in an offer,” he said. The couple is downsizing from a six-acre property on North Haven with a 12,000-square-foot house, which is also in contract and also will set a record for North Haven when the sale goes through, said Mr. Demato. The 8,000-square-foot Howell House, set on an acre of property, shares many of the antique elements of the couple’s North Haven abode. “We’re excited about being able to walk to town,” Mr. Demato said.

       Part of the allure of Howell House, and others like it, according to Mr. DePersia, is that it is an “estate-style property, three stories with a roof deck and finished lower level” similar to what you would find on such thoroughfares as Halsey Neck Lane in Southampton. The rest of the allure is the village itself, a place where Mr. DePersia himself has lived for four years and describes as a refuge with a bustling streetscape and quaint lanes that that lead to waterfront.

       “Many of these houses have been loved and restored by people who adore them and want to enjoy them,” said Susan Sprott, an agent with Sotheby’s who has made the Sag Harbor market her focus for more than 20 years. “These houses have soul.”

       Ms. Sprott is currently listing the L’Hommedieu House, an imposing brick edifice on Main Street. Her clients are selling not because they have tired of Sag Harbor, but, because as former South of the Highway waterfront habitues, they now want the best of both worlds: a historic house on the water. They found that “out of the area” and are now selling their lovingly restored house, with its “grand entry, elegantly proportioned rooms, and sweeping staircase,” according to the listing, and a veranda designed by Samuel White, an architect, for $3.6 million.

       The owner loved the “authenticity” of the house. And it seems that prospects are feeling the same way. Ms. Sprott showed it over the weekend to a couple who spent more than an hour kicking the house’s proverbial tires. They were, she said, impressed by its “provenance, character, and sense of history.” They are, it turns out, potential emigres from South of the Highway who are fleeing an area that was once charmingly bucolic but is now inundated with “too many like properties.”

       Ms. Lowell’s house was sold by Beata Moore, an agent at Sotheby’s, who described it as “the real thing . . . a great house with great bones, but needs a lot of work.” Fortunately the buyer is someone “with endless means to bring it back to where it should be.” Ivana Lowell, who inherited the house from her mother, Lady Caroline Blackwood, a Guiness heir who married Robert Lowell, a celebrated poet, intends to stay in Sag Harbor. Meanwhile, Ms. Moore is about to take on a listing of a house at 150 Madison, which — at $3.345 million — she expects to sell this spring.

       And she may be right. “Sag Harbor has gone very rapidly to a market with no inventory of houses with enough size,” said Rylan Jacka, the agent who sold Ms. Sherman’s house. He bemoans the fact that “a year ago there was a lot to buy and now there’s nothing. It's hard to find a historic house that’s not really small, in a prime village location where you can walk to town.”

       Cee Scott Brown and his partner Jack Pearson, both of Corcoran, have made quite a dent in the village’s high-end inventory. In April they sold an 1810 “saltbox manse” on Glover Street for $4.875 million. It had been on the market only 10 days. In October they sold an 1820 Greek Revival on Suffolk Street for $3.65 million, and a small 1890s traditional on Bay Street for $1.495 million “after just days on market.”

       The appeal of Ms. Sherman’s house was its “masterful blend of original period details and luxurious 21st-century amenities,” according to the listing. While the exterior stayed true to its period, the interior was modernized. It has many of the features that buyers currently require including more bathrooms than bedrooms, 51/2 to 4, a chef’s kitchen, a 60-foot saltwater pool, and some Sag Harbor-style extras such as a covered dining pergola and a rose room. The house actually went into contract several months ago but didn’t close till this month due to a squabble with a neighbor over the property line. Not surprising in a village where space is at a premium.

       Ms. Sherman’s and Ms. Richardson’s houses point to a new trend in town, the demand for “new old houses,” according to Gioia DiPaolo. “Buyers like the charm of a historic home with the amenities and warranties a new home offers.”

       Ms. Richardson’s house underwent extensive renovations. With four levels of living space, including a third-floor loft with bath that leads to a widow’s walk with 360-degree views, it was outfitted with an elevator.

       “The entire village owes Nancy a debt of gratitude for her tasteful and skillful restoration of what is arguably the most important Sag Harbor house still in private hands,” said Jonathan Morse, Ms. Richardson’s next-door neighbor. “Each of the four great houses on Main Street were originally owned by members of Sag Harbor’s whaling elite, and it is a miracle that all four of them, built in the 19th century, have managed to survive the collapse of the whaling industry and the Great Depression, to exist today in such a very fine condition.”

       Mr. Morse, who has owned his house for almost 30 years, said that he has no plans to sell it anytime soon.

    Six years ago, during a routine visit to Tompkins Square Park in Manhattan’s East Village, Julie Resnick realized she had to make a change.

    With the park undergoing construction, her older daughter, Chloe, darted in one direction as the younger, Mae, headed in another. For a moment, Ms. Resnick lost sight of Chloe.

     “If I can’t take both of my kids to the playground by myself, that’s a problem,” she said to herself.

    After renting on the South Fork for several summers, the family decided to move here full-time in May 2009. Though considerably smaller than their two-bedroom apartment on the Lower East Side, a 1,000 square-foot house on Napeague Bay in Amagansett ultimately won their hearts. Both the proximity to the ocean and, even more, the caliber of the Amagansett School were big factors in the decision.

     “It has a great public nursery school program,” Ms. Resnick said. After touring a handful of private preschools in the city, where tuition bills can soar upward of $40,000 a year, a free high quality public school apparently came as a shock. “When I took a tour of the school, it seemed to me to be at the same level, if not better,” she said. “We really fell in love with it.”

    Chloe, now 7, is in second grade. Mae, now 5, is in kindergarten. And come September, Ms. Resnick’s now 2-year-old son, Vance, will enroll in the full-day prekindergarten program for 3-year-olds.

    Ms. Resnick, a former technology start-up employee, owner of a digital agency, and culinary school graduate, is currently putting the finishing touches on feedfeed, which she described as “a mobile-app-based social network for food inspiration.” Her husband, Daniel, is a radiologist.

    The Resnick family is hardly alone in its affinity for a school that now enrolls 110 students from pre-K to sixth grade. The small class sizes, the dedication and experience of its teaching staff, and the full-day early childhood programs are among advantages commonly cited by families with children at the school. 

    Four years ago, Juliet Scott and her family moved from San Diego to East Hampton. Two years ago, they moved to Amagansett.

    “The number one motivating factor was the school,” said Ms. Scott. Her daughter, Caitlin, now in kindergarten, started in pre-K shortly after their move.

     “A full-day program is unusual anywhere,” said Ms. Scott, a stay-at-home mother who works part-time from a home office. Her husband, who grew up in Amagansett, works for a music publishing company. Previously, the family had been paying $500 a month for five hours a week of private nursery school. “I have friends in Michigan, Indiana, and California, and no one’s ever heard of having a full day of preschool offered at their school for free,” she said.

    While Ms. Scott initially thought the full day might prove too much, Caitlin has thrived. “I thought she would be so tired, and she’s not.” In her daughter’s kindergarten class of 13, Ms. Scott said it was not uncommon for four teachers to circulate through the room, each working with students in small groups. Her son, Aidan, nearly 3, will enroll this coming fall.

    “Amagansett is very welcoming. I love the small-town feel,” said Ms. Scott.

    On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Caitlin attends an after-school program for the lower grades. “They stay an extra hour and run around, play sports, and do various activities, and then the bus takes them home.” The school bus deposits the child at the end of the family driveway at around 4:15 p.m.

    “In recent years, families have relocated for a variety of personal reasons,” said Eleanor Tritt, the Amagansett School superintendent. “I have a sense that some families relocate to the East End schools from the city because they prefer the more individualized attention, the sense of community, and the high quality of education, as well as to avoid the very high tuition costs of private schools in the city. All of the East End schools have great programs and probably experience families moving in as well.”

    A request to tour the pre-K program was not granted.

    Though some local schools, notably Sag Harbor’s, allow nonresidents to pay for their children to attend, Amagansett does not. More than two dozen families  are paying $16,622 this year to send their children to the Sag Harbor Elementary School.

    At Amagansett, the full-day agenda for 3- and 4-year-olds sets it apart from neighboring districts, most of which offer only half-day programs. Bridgehampton is the only other district offering a full-day pre-K program for both 3-year-olds (which it is running this year as a trial) and 4-year-olds; Montauk offers a full-day program for 4-year-olds only.

    Across Long Island, full-day pre-K programs are few and far between. Though New York State provides some funding for 4-year-olds, much less is available for younger children. Dana Friedman, president of the Early Years Institute, a Plainview-based nonprofit that works with early childhood programs across the island, counts Amagansett among a handful of districts in the entire state that offer such programs.

    Though both Bill de Blasio, New York City’s new mayor, and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo have endorsed universal pre-K, the finances have yet to be sorted out, with a number of districts funding early education with their own resources, or, more commonly, not funding it at all.

     “When we prepare the budget each year we review all programs to ensure that we are as efficient as possible while maintaining the quality of our programs,” said Ms. Tritt. “Since the tax levy cap legislation has been in force, we continue to carefully scrutinize and evaluate the efficacy of all non-mandated programs, which includes review of the pre-K 3 program, among several others.”

    No Amagansett School students qualified for a free or reduced-price lunch in the 2011-12 school year, according to state figures, unlike many of their peers in neighboring districts. Of the student body, 74 percent were white, 13 percent were multiracial, 10 percent were Latino, and 2 percent were Asian.

    Last summer, when schools across the state saw plummeting test scores, Amagansett far outperformed other local districts, with 71 percent of third graders passing the English language arts test and 57 percent of sixth graders passing both the English and math exams.

    Some cite an academic rigor that begins early on.

    Britton Bistrian, whose family has lived in Amagansett for six generations, counts the pre-K program among the district’s biggest assets. Her older daughter, Clemens, who attends the 4-year-old program, can already write her name and identify the letters of the alphabet. Her younger daughter, Merritt, will begin the 3-year-old program in September.

    The small classes, however, can be both good and bad, Ms. Bistrian and several other parents said. When there are only four to six children in a class, particularly in the youngest grades, there can be difficulty achieving an ideal  boy-to-girl ratio, she pointed out. (School-wide, the average class size was 15 for the 2011-2012 year.)

    When she hears from friends in Boston and New York who must subject their young children to aptitude tests when they apply for kindergarten placement in both public and private schools, Ms. Bistrian feels sympathy but also relief.

    Ms. Bistrian, who is trained as an architect, runs a consultancy firm specializing in land use. Her husband is a contractor. “Signing up babies while in utero for nursery school waiting lists is unfathomable to me,” she said. “I’m relieved we don’t have to deal with all of that.”