In East Hampton Town, campaign contributions and campaign spending so far this year may be most notable not for what there is to report on, but for what there is not.

    What’s missing are a Republican candidate for supervisor and, according to dueling complaints filed with the New York State Board of Elections late last month, an accurate accounting of campaign spending as of July 11 from one candidate and one political committee.

    Campaign finance disclosure reports for the period ending July 11 were due with the board of elections on July 15.

    Of the candidates for top posts, only Larry Cantwell, who has the town Democratic and Independence Party lines for supervisor, and Fred Overton, a Republican, Independence, and Conservative candidate for town board, filed detailed reports for the first half of the year. Mr. Overton’s running mate Councilman Dominick Stanzione filed a “no activity statement” for the period ending July 11, and both Kathee Burke-Gonzalez and Job Potter, the Democratic candidates for town board, reported no activity for the first half of 2013.

    Christopher Kelley, the chairman of the Democrats’ campaign committee, Campaign 2013, has charged that Mr. Stanzione filed a false report because he failed to disclose contributions for the first half of the year and spending on ads that ran in local newspapers and on the Patch Web site in March, April, and June. “I guess he just abstained from filing,” Mr. Kelley joked. The councilman has come under frequent fire from his fellow G.O.P. board members as well as his Democratic opponents for too often abstaining on controversial votes.

    Meanwhile, Carole Campolo, a Republican Committee member from Springs, has complained to the board of elections that Campaign 2013 failed to disclose spending on its own “numerous” print and radio ads.

    Campaign 2013, the East Hampton Town Republican Committee, Pro East Hampton, another G.O.P. committee, and even the East Hampton Conservators, a deep-pocketed pro-Democratic political action committee, all reported negligible spending as of July 11.

    Both Mr. Kelley and Mr. Stanzione, who was his own campaign treasurer, offered explanations. In Mr. Stanzione’s case, it was a mea culpa. “My bad,” he said in a release issued on Monday. He “acknowledged . . . that he made an honest mistake on his campaign report,” according to the release, and that the report “should have listed expenses associated with recent advertisements.” He has since hired a “professional treasurer” with the firm Campaigns Unlimited who is “making appropriate adjustments.”

    “I’m not a campaign finance professional, that’s why I now have a professional handling the committee’s filings and finances,” Mr. Stanzione said. “I really appreciate that campaign finance and technical reporting is all best left to campaign professionals. Done well, it is time-consuming; done incorrectly it can be an unnecessary distraction from serving the people of our community — and that’s what I honestly believe I do best — serve.”

    As of yesterday, a new report had not been filed. Mr. Stanzione is no longer the treasurer of his campaign committee.

    In the Democrats’ case, Mr. Kelley said, the committee had not reported spending on the ads because it had not yet paid for them or been billed as of July 11. The East Hampton Star’s advertising manager, Min Spear, confirmed Tuesday that Campaign 2013 had not paid its advertising bill with this newspaper as of July 11.

    As for the contributions and spending that were reported to the board of elections for the period ending July 11, Mr. Cantwell’s disclosure statement offered a glimpse at the range of his supporters.

    Despite having no foreseeable opponent, he had brought in a hefty $62,999 since declaring his candidacy in mid-April and had spent $21,262 as of July 11.

    The only other town candidate to raise more than $1,500, according to the disclosure reports, was Mr. Overton, the current town clerk, whose committee, Friends of Fred Overton, raised $11,490 as of July 11.

    Mr. Cantwell got $1,000 contributions from 27 individuals and 2 corporations, and $500 contributions from 23 individuals and 4 corporations. Among his $1,000 backers are some, like Andy Sabin of Amagansett, who have traditionally thrown most of their contributions behind G.O.P. candidates. Mr. Cantwell, the recently retired East Hampton Village administrator, also had a number of prominent East Hampton Village homeowners among his top-dollar contributors. They included Donald Zucker and Barbara Zucker, Joanna Rose, Katharine J. Rayner, and Ina Garten.

    Also contributing at the $1,000 level were Harvey J. Horowitz, Ralph Gibson, George Yates, Richard Michael Moran, Barbara H. Scheerer, and Patricia R. Handal, all of East Hampton; Janet C. Ross, Herbert S. Podell, Alexander M. Laughlin, and Judith W. Laughlin, all of East Hampton and New York, and Carl Vernick of Seaford and East Hampton. The big money also came from David N. Kelley of Sag Harbor, David Seeler of Amagansett, Michael Nuti, who lists a St. James address, Anthony A. Manheim of Brooklyn and Sagaponack, Annette P. Cumming and Ian M. Cumming of Jackson, Wyo., and East Hampton, Nicholas H. Racanelli of Brightwaters and Montauk, and Stanley Harris, Michael T. Bebon, and Thomas H. Lee, all listed with New York addresses.

    He received $1,000 donations from two corporations — the law firm of Ackerman, O’Brien, Pachman, and Brown and Steven E. North P.C.

    Mr. Cantwell’s $500 supporters included Rick White of Montauk, Harold McMahon of Amagansett, Augusta R. Folks of Shelter Island, and Kenneth M. Ferrin and Thaddeus J. Walkowicz of East Hampton. Those with East Hampton and New York addresses included Edward Bleier, Ron Delsener, Bruce Bozzi, Melville Straus, Alan Patricof, Joanna Grossman, David W. Laughlin, Suzanne Driscoll, Nancy Halis, and Andrew C. Right. Mr. Cantwell also got $500 contributions from Stuart Frankel of Boca Raton and East Hampton, Lawrence F. DiGiovanna of Brooklyn, George C. Bengston of Jupiter, Fla., and East Hampton, Frank Dalene of Wainscott, Maria E. Guercio of Farmingdale, and Harry Katz and Avron I. Brog, both of New York and Amagansett.

    On the corporate side, his $500 backers were Keith Grimes Inc. of Montauk, Ironman Realty L.L.C. of New York, and D. Saatchi L.L.C.

    His contributors, Mr. Cantwell said Monday, “represent a broad range of political views — Republicans, Democrats, businesspeople, environmentalists, people who just want a well-run town government.”

    Friends of Larry Cantwell spent $21,262 as of July 11. Among that spending was $4,500 on polling with L.B.L. Consulting of East Hampton in March. He also paid L.B.L. another $5,500 for consulting, spent $3,923 on campaign literature, and paid Mullen and McCaffrey, a Springs communications firm, $4,500 for professional services.

    He lent his campaign committee $5,000.

    Andy Sabin was the biggest contributor to Friends of Fred Overton, contributing $1,000 to his campaign for town board. Mr. Overton received $500 contributions from Todd Sarris, a former East Hampton Town police chief, and Patrick G. Schutte and Stanley J. Arkin, both of Amagansett, Joe Bloecker and Ed Ecker Jr., the current police chief, both of Montauk, and from Wilkinson for Supervisor (Supervisor Bill Wilkinson’s campaign committee), and George Waldbridge Surveyors of East Hampton. He spent $3,171 as of July 11, mainly on a fund-raiser, radio ads, and a political consultant.

    The Democrats’ Campaign 2013 raised $6,100 as of July 11, but reported as its only spending a $375 “in kind” contribution from David Gruber for radio ad production.

    Patrick Bistrian Jr. Inc. and Bistrian Materials, both of East Hampton, were the only contributors to give $1,000 to Campaign 2013 during that period. The committee got $500 contributions from Richard Madan of East Hampton and Elizabeth de Cuevas of Amagansett and New York, and received a $1,500 transfer from the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee.

    The Democratic Committee itself reported $14,472 in contributions for the first half of the year and $19,120 in spending. Clorinda Gorman of East Hampton, David Doty, and John Mullen each gave $1,000 to the committee. Mr. Cantwell gave $1,250. Janet C. Ross, Katherine J. Rayner, and David Gruber gave $500.

    The committee repaid Zachary Cohen for loans in January ($3,000), April ($1,000), and May ($1,000). The committee also spent $4,070 on literature.

    The East Hampton Town Republican Committee and East Hampton Independence Party did not file financial disclosure reports for the first half of the year.

    The East Hampton Conservators reported little activity of interest in the first half of the year. It received $5,000 from Alec Baldwin and $2,500 from Marders Nursery in January, and spent $3,027. As of July 11, the Conservators had $30,974 in their account.

    Over the course of two hours Monday night, some 20 people stepped up to a lectern during a Montauk “listen-in” hosted by the Democratic candidates for East Hampton Town supervisor and town board, ticking off a litany of complaints they hope the candidates will address if elected.

    About 100 Montauk residents attended the meeting at Gurney’s Inn, one of several the candidates are holding throughout the town. Their biggest concerns: the increase in nightclubs, erosion, an engineered beach, businesses operating without a proper certificate of occupancy, and a lack of code enforcement.

    Several replies from the supervisor candidate, Larry Cantwell, and his running mates, Job Potter and Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, received rounds of applause, but the heartiest came when Mr. Potter told the group that the first thing the Democrats will do if they are sworn into office in January will be to take Fort Pond House off the market. “It just doesn’t make sense to sell that waterfront property,” he said.

    Before the current administration put Fort Pond House on the market in hopes of using its sale to reduce the town’s debt, the house was used by Scouts, writing groups, and others as a community meeting place. The decision to sell it prompted a lawsuit, which is still ongoing.

    There is $40 million in the town’s preservation fund that Mr. Potter said is just sitting in the bank. He said it should be used for a good purpose, and also pointed to eight vacant parcels in the hamlet that would be perfect for preservation.

    Each candidate began the evening by giving a brief history of his or her time on the South Fork. Mr. Cantwell introduced his sister Joan Droebecker, a Montauk resident, who was sitting in the audience. “Everyone knows my sister better than me,” he said.

    Stacey Brosnan was first to the lectern. Her concern is that commercialism has outpaced the community, and she blamed the current town board for allowing the situation. “Code enforcement is no good. Our downtown area is overrun with bars. There is trash all over and cars parked everywhere,” she said, asking, “How do you plan to balance this? What is your vision as a group and how do you plan to reel this in?”

    Mr. Cantwell said that the candidates are aware of the significant concerns regarding the newer hot spots. He said those concerns are no longer about old timers versus newcomers. A balance must be established, he said. The businesses have to learn how to become good neighbors and operate responsibly with the community in mind.

    The first step, he said, is to clarify the town’s code and then enforce it. Many in the audience said that the problem is that the town code is not being enforced. One man who lives in the Culloden area said he has had to change his driving route to the downtown area to avoid the abundance of pedestrians and cars near the Surf Lodge on Edgemere Road. He suggested forming a volunteer code enforcement team that would report violations to code enforcement officials.

    Mr. Cantwell said he thinks a meeting with business owners might help turn things around. “The key word is enforcement,” added Mr. Potter.

    “We’ve all heard the phrase death by a thousand paper cuts. I’m worried that we’re confronting death by hundreds of nightspots,” said Jay Levine, who said that the clubs are presenting a dramatic environmental threat. He charged that previous administrations have failed to address problems related to storms and beach preservation and wondered why nothing has moved forward with the Lake Montauk study. “There doesn’t seem to be a strategy,” he said.

    Climate change, more frequent storms, and rising sea levels, said Mr. Cantwell, are the single most important natural threat facing East Hampton right now. “The potential could be devastating,” he said, adding that a path to recovery and hazard mitigation should be established now before a storm hits.

    Mr. Cantwell credited Supervisor Bill Wilkinson for straightening out the town’s finances and remarked on what a difficult task that was. John Chimples said Mr. Wilkinson cheated because he fixed the finances but ignored other areas of importance. “It’s embarrassing. Public restrooms are a disgrace and roads are crumbling. I would maintain that he didn’t balance the budget, because he cheated by not fixing the infrastructure. The homeowners are being shortchanged,” he said.

    Bill Akin, the former president of the Concerned Citizens of Montauk, reminded the group that 82 percent of the town’s tax money comes from homeowners. “We’re getting the short side of it lately,” he said. He has not noticed any new motels, he said, and wondered where all the people that are crowding the hamlet are staying. “Would you favor some form of rental permit process?” he asked the candidates.

    A balance between homeowners and business owners is what’s needed, many said.

    Ed Braun asked the three if they would elevate the dialogue to find an integrative solution between the public and private sector. “If you fail to do that there will be no more Montauk. People won’t come back. Look at Montauk 10 years from now, that’s the greatest thing you can do,” he said.

    Chris Poli chimed in that more people bring more costs. “We have a fixed revenue and this drains our resources. I urge you to think about that,” he said. Code enforcement is being disregarded, he said, adding that some businesses weigh paying a fine against making more money.

    Mr. Poli suggested that the town increase fines for those who violate the code. He suggested town officials let business owners know that the town doesn’t want to close them down but will do so if they don’t operate according to town code. He also suggested threatening the business owners with a new site plan review to get them to cooperate.

    “Balance with a hammer in case they don’t want to work within the fold,” he said.

    Paul Monte, the general manager of Gurney’s Inn and president of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce’s board, was one of the last to speak. He said it should not be us versus them but about Montauk. He said erosion should be the number one issue right now and said he is in favor of an engineered beach. “It’s the gift that keeps on giving,” he said.

    He also reminded the crowd that some businesses may seem to be operating outside of what they are allowed but that some of those are in the pre-existing, nonconforming realm. The popularity of the hamlet is raising homeowners’ real estate values, he said. “Montauk’s newfound popularity benefits all of us,” he said.

    “We could use a lot less partisan politics in Town Hall and a lot more trying to do what’s right for the community and Montauk. We have to find a common ground and move forward together,” Mr. Cantwell said, to a final round of applause.

    Like people, aircraft, S.U.V.s, and McMansions, some longtime residents say that noise, too, has saturated the Town of East Hampton to the point that local government must move to restore the tranquility they say has been lost. The object of their ire: leaf blowers.

    These gas-powered devices are part of most landscapers’ arsenals, propelling leaves and debris off lawns, roads, and sidewalks or into a pile for removal, in the way the quiet and emission-free rake and broom are employed to complete the same tasks, albeit more slowly.

    Ban the Blowers, East Hampton is a local campaign spearheaded by Bob Casper of Northwest Woods, Dr. James Matthews, also of Northwest Woods, and Bill Henderson of Springs. The group’s Web site, bantheblowers.org, offers several essays on the topic, a list of asserted health hazards associated with leaf blower use, and links to Web sites devoted to the environmental impacts of leaf blowers and municipalities and citizens’ groups that have acted to restrict or ban their use.

    “People deserve to be able to sit in their home and not listen to blowers all day,” said Mr. Casper. “I’ve gotten hundreds of calls from people who just don’t know what to do and can’t believe nothing has been done here. It’s like the helicopter issue: You’ve got three people riding in it, and it’s impacting thousands.”

    “People have become more sensitive to environmental issues in general and noise issues in particular,” said Dr. Matthews, a professor emeritus in the departments of psychology and neural science at New York University. “That’s at least in part because they’ve gotten worse. Generally speaking, people have become aware that noise is a pollution issue that we seek to avoid by coming out here in the first place. To have it follow us in the form of a little motor is not what we were looking for.”

    Mr. Henderson described East Hampton as “unlivable” in the autumn and spring. “From October through December, there’s no place in the Town of East Hampton, from the bay to the ocean, that you don’t hear the scream of leaf blowers. It ruins it, frankly. It’s even worse than the traffic, which has already ruined it. It’s part of the ongoing destruction of the East End, ecologically. I just think something’s got to be done.”

    A brochure created by Ban the Blowers’ principals also cites multiple health hazards posed by use of leaf blowers. “Our citizens are unwillingly exposed to hazardous carcinogens like hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides, whipped up in hurricane-force windstorms of pesticides, fertilizers, mold, lead, arsenic, mercury, fecal matter, and more, that once airborne can remain for hours and even days,” the brochure reads. “Allergies, asthma, and high blood pressure [are] exacerbated.”

    “We all know that there are numerous sources of allergens and contaminants in soil, particularly soil heavily treated with toxins,” Dr. Matthews said. “It’s a bad idea to blow that stuff in the air.”

    The group also asserts that one hour’s use of a gasoline-powered leaf blower is responsible for emissions equivalent to an automobile driven 350 miles, worsened by the fact that the emissions are concentrated in a compact area, as opposed to spread across the automobile’s path.

    The average leaf blower measures 70 to 75 decibels at 50 feet, according to the nonprofit advocacy group Noise Pollution Clearinghouse, citing a manufacturer’s lobbyist. The Town of East Hampton’s existing code restricts noise above 65 decibels during the day and above 50 decibels from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., but exceptions are made for “the intermittent or occasional use between 7:00 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. of homeowners’ light residential outdoor equipment or commercial service equipment.”

    Proposed changes to the noise ordinance were heard at a June 20 hearing before the town board. The proposal set no acceptable maximum standard for noise, so as noise levels increased, the threshold for noise deemed a disturbance would also rise. The proposal, Councilwoman Sylvia Overby said, “had so many problems. It was difficult to understand and implement, so we really do have to go back to the drawing board. At that point we should, as we did try to, implement an ordinance for leaf blowers.”

    Ms. Overby said she is currently receiving, on average, one e-mailed complaint about leaf blowers every week. “The level of noise in our society has gotten more and more,” she said. “I think it’s disturbing people’s quiet enjoyment of their property. I would welcome hearing from people, and seeing a petition.” The Ban the Blowers Web site includes a link to an online petition, at the Web site change.org, to ask the town to ban leaf blowers.

    Allen Adamcewicz, a landscaper based in Montauk, acknowledged the noise produced by leaf blowers but defended landscapers’ use of them within the parameters permitted by code. Leaf blowers, he said, “can put out a certain amount of CFMs,” or cubic feet per minute. “You don’t really need to rev them up. If they’re on a half throttle, they put out just as much air as a full throttle. Full throttle is just wasting gas and making noise.”

    But, Mr. Adamcewicz said, “I’m in commercial business — a broom doesn’t cut it. To substitute a broom for a blower is not going to happen.” And, he said, “We can’t rake a driveway of clippings.”

    Furthermore, he said, the nightclubs in Montauk produce far greater noise, for much longer duration, than the 10 to 15 minutes a landscaping crew might spend using leaf blowers. “If these people get a foothold on banning a leaf blower,” he asked, “what’s next? What are we going to do? Shut down everything? We’re just trying to be in business.”

    Gary Stephens, another landscaper based in Montauk, called a ban on leaf blowers “the stupidest idea.” Leaf blowers, he said, accomplish a task quickly and efficiently. Without such equipment, a landscaper working by hand “is going to rape you for everything you’ve got, because it’s going to take them forever to do it. If they don’t like the noise and people making a living,” Mr. Stephens said, “people should leave town and go somewhere where they don’t have leaves or people to bother.”

    “If the contractors say, ‘What are we going to do,’ well, get a damn rake out,” said Mr. Henderson. “Stop blowing ticks and crap around on my yard.”

    “Noise is a kind of assault, a crossing of borders, a violation of my ability to protect my own environment,” said Dr. Matthews. “We have to understand it as that. The main point is, this is an act of aggression of one person against another. It’s pollution of the cultural, psychological sort. We don’t put up with that when it comes to other kinds of psychological assaults. Why noise?”

A bar patron who flooded the Sloppy Tuna in Montauk early Friday after he allegedly intentionally broke an overhead fire-sprinkler pipe, is facing a felony criminal mischief charge after causing extensive damage that forced the Montauk hotspot to briefly close.

Jacob Randall, 21, a tall, powerfully built senior at the State University of New York Albany, had been warned twice by the bar's security personnel to stay off the overhead pipes, Rob Anderson, the Sloppy Tuna's assistant general manager, said Saturday. Not paying them any mind, Mr. Anderson said, “He scoped out the pipes.”

Again, Mr. Randall grabbed onto a pipe, hanging from it by one arm. “Two of his boys took a picture of him flipping the bird,” Mr. Anderson said. After the photo was taken, Mr. Randall walked to the thinnest portion of pipe he could find, reached up, and broke it with his bare hands, flooding the bar, and setting off a fire alarm, Mr. Anderson said.

“The fire department called,” Abby Monahan, the club’s general manager, said. Ms. Monahan told the dispatcher what happened.

What Mr. Randall did not know when he posed, hanging from the pipe and making an obscene gesture, was that his two friends with him were not the only ones taking his picture. Sloppy Tuna has an extensive surveillance-camera system.

Police arrived, responding to the fire alarm, and were shown the video of Mr. Randall and his friends, Mr. Anderson said.

Within an hour of the incident, police had taken Mr. Randall into custody, charging him with felony criminal mischief. The charge is a felony when a person intentionally damages property, causing a loss of $250 or more.

“We’re still trying to calculate the extent of the damage,” Ms. Monahan said. Not only will the water-warped floor need to be repaired, the bar, which always has a long line to get into, even well after midnight, lost substantial revenue by being forced to close, the managers said.

Mr. Randall, who lives in Tannersville, N.Y., was arraigned Friday morning in front of East Hampton Town Justice Lisa Rana, who set bail at $400. Mr. Randall’s girlfriend was in the courtroom, and posted the bail, setting him free. Mr. Randall will have to return for date on the East Hampton Court’s criminal calendar.

     Thomas Ravenel, a former South Carolina state treasurer who has reportedly been contemplating a return to political life after serving seven months on federal drug charges, was arrested early Monday morning by East Hampton Village police and charged with drunken driving.

     “He’s playing polo. He’s part of the Southampton Polo team,” Trevor M. Darrell, a local attorney who acted as Mr. Ravenel’s lawyer during his arraignment in East Hampton Town Justice Court this morning, said to Justice Catherine A. Cahill. Mr. Ravenel, who was pulled over at Montauk Highway and Stephen Hand’s Path at 2:30 this morning, was said to be swerving across lane lines and driving on the shoulder of the road, leading to the traffic stop. Once at the police station, he refused to consent to a breath test.

     “I’m a real estate developer,” he told the justice, when she asked him what he did for a living.

     “Does he have any priors,” the justice asked Mr. Darrell.

     “He has one prior in South Carolina. It was a federal matter,” Mr. Darrell answered. The justice and Mr. Darrell then went into conference at the bench, talking quietly for about five minutes, with neither mentioning the federal case after their conference ended.

     Mr. Ravenel, who told the justice he is 50, was elected as South Carolina’s state treasurer in 2006, but was forced to resign from office in 2007 and subsequently served time in federal prison on a cocaine possession charge. According to an Associated Press report from 2009, Mr. Ravenel was accused by the federal government of being part of a cocaine distribution ring. Mr. Ravenel, who owns the Ravenel Development Corporation, has a plantation in Lowcountry, S.C.

     His father, Arthur Ravenel Jr., was a longtime member of the House of Representatives from South Carolina.

     He has recently been rehabilitating his political career, according to multiple reports, doing a reality TV show for the Bravo network, with an eye on a return to politics, possibly even challenging Lindsay Graham in the Republican senate primary next year.

     The justice initially set bail at $750, cash, but Mr. Ravenel told her he could only access $600 with his debit card, adding that he also had $65 in his wallet.

     “Okay. $650,” Justice Cahill said.

     Mr. Ravenel is due is due back in East Hampton Town Court on Aug. 8.

   We get off to a poor start. The couple stands impatiently at the door. “I just need to check to see if there’s anyone on the wait list,” I say. The woman glares at me. I drop a pen. The hostess arrives to save me.

    “These people are waiting to be seated,” I say, and rush off to busy myself making coffees or waters or picking up a napkin that has fallen on the floor. Anything to get away from the heavily mouth-breathing  man and the woman with the accusatory stare.

    Oh, wonderful, the hostess sat them in my section.

    I rearrange my face and walk over. “How are you this eve-”

    “You know, you should really look around before you tell people there are no tables available. From where we stood at the door we could see plenty of empty tables, including this one,” says the woman. She compresses her lips together in a thin line as she finishes her speech and looks at me expectantly, waiting for me to — what? Apologize? Beg forgiveness? Grovel?

    Firstly, three empty tables does not equal “many.” Secondly, I hadn’t told them there were “no tables available.” What I had said was, “I don’t know if there is a table . . . I just need to check to see if there’s anyone on the wait list.”

    “Well, it’s not that there were no tables available,” I tell her, “but that I had to check the wait list to see if there was anyone who we needed to seat ahead of you. They could have been waiting outside and I wouldn’t have known.”

    “Ohhh,” the woman’s eyes grow large. “Well, thank you so much for telling us. I appreciate that so much. What’s your name?”

    I groan internally. I hate when people ask me my name. I have such a small amount of autonomy when I’m at work as it is that it feels like an invasion of privacy when someone asks me anything personal. Like, why can’t you wait for me to give of myself freely to you? Why must you take and take and take?

    “Rebecca,” I tell her.

    “Well, Rebecca, we want two sparkling waters with lemon to start. Are there any specials?” I rattle them off, then escape to make their club sodas.

    I put the glasses down in front of them.

    “Oh no, Rebecca. We want. A. Bottle. Of. Sparkling. Water. And. Two. Glasses. With. Lemon,” says the woman. She enunciates every word, hitting the sharp “T” sound in “waTer” and “boTTle.”

    I grit my teeth.

    Once the proper drink has been delivered (“Thank you, Rebecca.”), I take their order.

    “Medium-well steak,” the woman emphasizes. “We both want medium-well. Not pink. But not dry.”

    “Wonderful!” I say, which is the exact opposite of how I feel about our interaction thus far.

    They finish their salad appetizers in under 10 minutes. The woman waves me over. My heart sinks. I know what’s about to happen.

    “Where’s our steak?” the woman asks.

    The absent entrees are so distressing that the man is moved to speak for the first time, “Where’s dinner? We need to leave by 10:30.” This is news to me.

    “Medium-well steaks take at least 15 to 20 minutes,” I tell them. “I’m sure the kitchen has started cooking your food. I’ll go back and check and let you know. It won’t be much longer.”

    I glance at the clock on the way in to prostrate myself at the feet of the chef. It’s 10:10. I mentally slam my head against a wall.

    Their food is delivered, but not before much eyebrow-raising and waving of hands and mouthing of “Where is it?” by my irascible couple.

    I wait a few minutes. “How is everything?” I inquire.

    “Delicious, Rebecca,” says the woman.

    I keep an eye on their table since now I know they have to be out by a certain time. At 10:25 I go over to inquire if I can get them anything else — or maybe they would like the check since they have to . . .

    “We’d like dessert,” says the woman. “Apple pie for me. A chocolate milkshake for my husband.”

    I begin to calculate in my head: it will take me 30 seconds to place the order, another 30 seconds for the expeditor to read the ticket, and possibly one or two minutes before the kitchen begins preparing and plating the desserts.

    If everything goes smoothly, they will be placed on the table a little after 10:30, the time by which the couple told me they needed to leave, prompting me to go to the kitchen and have an unpleasant conversation with the chef about idiot people needing their idiot medium-well steaks cooked in 10 minutes and why don’t idiot people realize that food needs time to cook and also that medium-well ruins a good steak and why do all the idiot people come to this idiot restaurant?

    “Wonderful!” I say again.

    As she completes her ministry at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the South Fork in Bridgehampton on Sunday, the Rev. Alison Cornish can look back on the fulfillment of a congregation’s dream. As she departs to take a position with Partners for Sacred Places, a nonsectarian, nonprofit organization that helps congregations and communities sustain old and historic sacred structures, Ms. Cornish will remember the building of “a place where the community will feel at home, a place that people feel is safe and welcoming,” she said.

    For many years, the congregation, founded in 1985, met at various locations including the Water Mill Community House and what was then the Hampton Day School. In 1999 the congregation, seeking a permanent home and unable to find a congregation with which to share space, overcame a resistance to developing more land and acquired the property at 977 Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike. Ground was broken a few years later, and construction was completed in 2006.

    “It was a long process,” Ms. Cornish, whose initial vocation was historic preservation, said. The building also represented a manifestation of the group’s courage. “When the congregation made that decision to build, there were only 35 members. But there was definitely an ‘If we build it they will come’ kind of feeling. Also, this is called the Unitarian Universalist meeting house: The congregation wanted to build a place for the community, the progressive community, the community that might not find itself welcome in other places. At that time, for us to have gay and lesbian members as the presidents of the congregation was a little unusual for the East End — not so much anymore. For our first public event to be ‘The Vagina Monologues’ was a little unusual for a faith community — not so much anymore.”

    The congregation hosts groups including the nonprofit Rainbow Preschool, the Conservative Synagogue of the Hamptons, Adult Children of Alcoholics, Guild Hall’s Naked Stage theater, a ballroom dancing troupe, and various musicians who have used the space for concerts.

    “We have really thrown our doors open to the community,” Ms. Cornish said, reflecting on the nine years of her ministry. Her presence in the congregation, however, long predates her ministry, which came about by way of unexpected circumstances but has allowed her to fulfill duties she described as difficult but “incredibly satisfying and worthwhile.”

    She joined the congregation as a member in 1989. As the membership was considering construction of the building that has become its permanent home, Ms. Cornish left to attend seminary at Andover Newton Theological School in Newton Centre, Mass. “I spent four and one half years training for the ministry,” she said. “When I finished that, this congregation ordained me. Much to all of our surprise, because it was not in the plan, I became their minister. It was coincident with the fact that the minister who was here was called to Iraq and needed to serve his country in that way. Suddenly, there was an opening here.”

    This, too, was the culmination of a long process. The call to ministry, Ms. Cornish said, had long been heard, and suppressed, until a telephone conversation with a state official about a preservation project. “I could tell he just wasn’t really ‘there,’ and I knew him well enough to be able to say, ‘What’s going on?’ He started talking about the fact that his grandmother had died, that he was given almost no bereavement time, and he just couldn’t focus on his work. We spent the next half-hour talking about that.”

    “I got off the phone and realized, ‘There are a lot of people who care about buildings, but I’m not sure there are too many who will hang in there with somebody’s grief and sadness and just listen.’ That’s what I feel like I’m called to do.”

    That incident, combined with the sudden cancer diagnosis of a close friend, spurred her to answer that call from within. “To my mind, there is nothing in our society like the context of a congregation, where there are all ages and relationships,” Ms. Cornish said. “The dynamics within a congregation, and between a congregation and the outside world, can be places where people learn, and sometimes learn what they never had an opportunity in their own families to learn: things like forgiveness, and second chances, and unconditional love.”

    “Inclusiveness has always been her gift,” Larry Darcey, a congregant and longtime activist for peace and justice, said of Ms. Cornish. “We were ahead of our time and still are.”

    Mr. Darcey and Ms. Cornish met 24 years ago, he said, during a two-year 12-step program on the environment. “Many years later Alison, as pastor of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the South Fork, continued to broaden her vision when she offered a five-week course at the John Jermain Memorial Library comparing mainstream religions. Eventually, I believe we developed a spiritual friendship supporting one another.”

    With the Rev. Nancy Arnold set to assume the title of interim minister on Sept. 1 — the position is defined as temporary, the responsibility to assist the congregation’s transition from the former permanent minister to the next — Ms. Cornish is returning to her initial career. “It’s more than just building care,” she said. “It’s really, ‘How do congregations relate to the community in such a way that their building sites become, as we’ve tried to do here, community centers? How do they become agents of transformation by opening their doors and welcoming the community?’ It will be some of what I have been doing here, but with all faiths and across the country.”

    In this way, her work will continue on a larger scale. Despite leaving the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the South Fork, “I really do believe in the life of the congregation,” she said, “which is why I’m going off and doing this work even in a time in this country when ‘What is the congregation of the future’ is a very open question. We have congregations closing, combining, stuck in — if not the Middle Ages, sometimes the 19th or early 20th century — and more and more secularization. You might look at that and say, ‘What’s the point?’ I still think people need a place to make meaning and engage in the big questions. Here we’re called to offer it.”

    “Alison will be missed,” said Mr. Darcey. “Blessed be on your new journey.”

    Part-time is the new normal for most of the 100 or so employees at the Waldbaum’s supermarket on Newtown Lane in East Hampton.

    Back in April, after rumors had been swirling for weeks, workers went to pick up their schedules only to discover that their hours had been cut, with most of the full-time workers suddenly seeing reductions of 20 hours a week or more. Management apparently made the change without any formal announcement.

    In the months since, many workers have been scrambling to find second and third jobs in order to make ends meet.

    “It really hurts. You do the best job that you can and it’s not appreciated,” said a woman who has worked in the store’s bakery, where she decorates cakes, for the past seven years. She declined the use of her name for fear of losing her job. “They’re making the big bucks on the top, with million-dollar bonuses, and you’re just a number,” she said.

    The phenomenon is hardly unique to Waldbaum’s. All around the country, an increasing number of businesses are relying on part-time workers in place of full-timers, some taking advantage of the high unemployment rate, with workers willing to take any job they can get, and others citing the Affordable Care Act, the comprehensive health reform that President Barack Obama signed into law in 2010.    

    Come January, businesses with 50 or more employees working more than 30 hours a week will be required to provide affordable health insurance or face steep fines. Before the law takes effect, many businesses that rely on low-wage workers are reported to be switching to a part-time workforce as a means of cutting costs.

    Though a one-year reprieve has been announced whereby employers will not face penalties until 2015, the Obama administration said earlier this month that it hoped businesses would begin complying in January. But the cuts appear to be continuing, leaving vulnerable workers in their wake.

    “It’s happening everywhere,” said Richard Abondolo, president of Local 342, a Mineola-based union that represents nearly 10,000 workers, including employees of Waldbaum’s East Hampton. “Anyone with more than 50 employees has made cuts to part-time. We’re trying to push them in the other direction.”

    Mr. Abondolo said the union recently filed a group grievance against the Newtown Lane supermarket, and is proceeding with arbitration, with hearings scheduled for August and September.

    “The employer is afraid they are going to have to pay more than what they’re currently paying,” he said. “They’re getting viciously creative and leaving these people with nothing.”

    Waldbaum’s is owned by the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., the A&P. Shariff Duncan of A&P’s media relations office declined multiple requests for an interview.

    “Unfortunately, in light of our current company restructuring and focus on the business, we are unable to accommodate your request at this time,” wrote Mr. Duncan in an e-mail.

    John Quackenbush, Waldbaum’s district manager, also refused to comment.

    In years past, full-time Waldbaum’s workers have received full health-care coverage, while part-time workers are only covered for dental, optical, and prescription drugs.

    The Waldbaum’s bakery worker has not been to see a doctor since she lost her coverage, she said. A co-worker, who similarly declined to give her name for fear of being fired, has worked at the supermarket for 27 years, she said. While she had been working up to 48 hours a week, she is now down to less than 30, a difference in pay of about $1,000 a month. She feels indebted to the company, which, she said, allowed her the security to take a 15-year mortgage on a house in Springs, a mortgage that she is only two years away from paying off in full. But with the sudden reduction in pay, her monthly expenses are increasingly burdensome. She has visited four other local grocery stores to see about a second job, she said, but has found nothing as yet.

     “I was so happy and thought I was set until I retire, and I was making ends meet and I felt secure,” said her co-worker one recent evening. She now works more than 70 hours a week since taking a second job as a groundskeeper at Montauk Downs State Park. At 57, working six days a week — often from 5 a.m. to nearly 9 p.m. — she fears her days are numbered.

    Living with her husband in an apartment in Springs, she is trying to save as much as possible for what she fears will be a woefully uncertain future. “It’s not so much to make ends meet as to have a little reserve for what might be coming,” she said. “They keep changing their minds.”

    The loss of health insurance is her greatest worry. “Working so hard, without insurance, I’m worried that I’ll get sick,” she said. “If you’re getting reduced hours, how are you supposed to afford insurance? One emergency room visit, $10,000, will wipe you out in a minute. It’s a very uncertain and scary time.”

    The Helicopter Association International, which had challenged a Federal Aviation Administration rule requiring helicopter pilots to use a route off Long Island’s north shore when flying between New York City and the East End, lost a bid before the United States Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., last week.

    U.S. Circuit Judge Richard Roberts said that the F.A.A. acted within its authority when it mandated use of a route one mile from shore, over Long Island Sound, in response to complaints about helicopter noise from residents, municipalities, and citizens’ groups.

    The judge ruled that the F.A.A. had properly found that “residents along the north shore of Long Island emphatically agreed that helicopter overflights during the summer months are unbearable and negatively impact their quality of life,” and that the F.A.A. has the power to enact regulations to “control and abate aircraft noise.”

    The mandated route was the result of a lengthy effort by those in noise-affected communities and regional officials including New York State Senator Charles Schumer and Representative Tim Bishop.

    Before the mandate, helicopter pilots often took a preferred route overland, which was faster and posed fewer weather delays.

    In 2010, in response to the proposed mandated northern route the East End Helicopter Noise Stakeholders Group sent a letter to the F.A.A. recommending the agency mandate both a northern and southern helicopter route, in order to “equitably distribute the volume of helicopter traffic.”

    A follow-up letter sent to the F.A.A. last October and signed by 19 elected regional, town, and village officials said that “helicopter noise remains a major, unresolved ‘quality of life’ issue for our region” and that the situation “remains unsatisfactory.” It called for the agency to act immediately to designate an Atlantic helicopter route.

    A response from the F.A.A. to Congressman Tim Bishop in February said that “the FAA lacks sufficient data to suggest that imposing a mandatory south shore route is justifiable.” It said the agency will be assessing the effectiveness of the northern route during the two years it will be in effect, and would consider whether to extend the rule requiring helicopters to fly that route. “We also will consider whether and, if so, what additional measures may be appropriate to mitigate noise over Long Island,” the F.A.A. told the congressman’s office.

    In a statement issued early this week, Councilman Dominick Stanzione, the East Hampton Town Board’s liaison on airport matters, said that the recent appeals court decision against the Helicopter Association International “is very good news for the Town of East Hampton’s efforts to regulate helicopter noise at the East Hampton Airport.”

    The court decision, he said, “upheld and strengthened the powers of the F.A.A. . . . to regulate and mitigate helicopter noise.”

    While local advocates for airport noise abatement have long argued that East Hampton must cease accepting F.A.A. money for its airport in order to gain the ability to enact regulations to reduce noise, such as mandatory flight curfews, Mr. Stanzione supports continued acceptance of federal grants for the airport, while pursuing the F.A.A.’s permission for noise-control regulations.

    Those on either side have argued about the significance of accepting F.A.A. grants, which obligate the town to a set of agreements, or “grant assurances,” regarding airport operations, and how they might impact the town’s ability to successfully gain more local control of the airport.

    On the advice of an aviation attorney consultant, the town board voted to begin the process of data collection on airport noise for a possible future application to the F.A.A.

    Mr. Stanzione said that, in his view, the court decision verifies that “the best chance for successfully regulating helicopters at the East Hampton Airport . . . is to continue working with the F.A.A. cooperatively” to enact noise control measures such as “mandatory curfews and access limitations,” and to continue pressing the F.A.A. to establish a second mandatory east-west helicopter route along Long Island’s Atlantic shore.

    “I believe that by working with the F.A.A. now, when the town’s ongoing noise studies are properly completed and submitted to the F.A.A., East Hampton’s noise regulations, if reasonable, are more likely to be upheld by the F.A.A.,” he said in a press release. “Moreover, an Atlantic route is, I believe, more likely to be approved by the F.A.A. as an addition to the existing Long Island northern route. A two-route F.A.A. system has been recommended by the town for several years.”

    “It seems now crystal clear,” he wrote. “Rejecting F.A.A. funds and having the town ‘go it alone’ and battling the helicopter industry by ourselves is neither a prudent or necessary course of action.”

    The court decision, he said, “vindicates and validates” the town’s course of action, “that is, to follow the procedures set forth by the F.A.A. to factually substantiate the disruptive effect of excessive helicopter noise on East Hampton residents and on residents of the entire East End. This decision gives great impetus to the probability of success of this town board’s efforts to effectively manage helicopter noise and traffic.”

    Jeffrey Bragman, an attorney representing plaintiffs who are challenging the town’s adoption of an updated airport master plan and layout plan, disagreed. Councilman Stanzione, he said, “represents aviation interests.”

    “Moving routes is merely shuffling noise around in the sky. It does nothing to reduce noise. When you’re under F.A.A. control, their policy — and it’s been established in case law — is unlimited airport access 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” he said.

    “This means that traffic is going to escalate. So local control without F.A.A. funding is the only way to impose airport traffic restrictions,” such as curfews, ending weekend flights, or restricting certain aircraft, he said. “That’s the only way to actually reduce the amount of traffic,” and reduce noise, Mr. Bragman said.

    The Lion Gardiner, said to be the last of the heavyweight dining cars in the United States, is in danger of being scrapped. Few people may know of its precarious state, or even of its existence, but the run-down and deteriorating dining car is now officially endangered.

    The car was named after the English-born East Hampton settler who in the 17th century bought what came to be known as Gardiner’s Island from Wyandanch, the sachem of the Montauketts. It was built after World War I and served as part of the 20th Century Limited of the New York Central Railroad, which the Empire State Railway Museum in Phoenicia, N.Y., described as one of “America’s greatest trains.”

    The Lion Gardiner also was a car on the railroad’s other trains through the 1940s, a shining example of fine railroad dining during that era.

    The car played an important role in the railroad preservation movement. It served as the dining car for “High Iron” excursion trips in the 1960s, which introduced many people to the concept of reusing historic railroad equipment for recreation.

    Today, the historic car remains in Kingston, N.Y., where it has been deteriorating for the last three decades. Its floor has collapsed, but the stainless-steel kitchen is reportedly still in good shape. Its drastic decaying, however, will soon require the whole car to be scrapped, unless action is taken.

    In April, in its first-ever “most at risk” list to raise awareness of railroad resources facing imminent demise, the National Railway Historical Society listed the Lion Gardiner among the top eight endangered U.S. railroad landmarks of 2013. In response, the Empire State Railway Museum, the Catskill Revitalization Corporation, and the Ulster and Delaware Railroad Historical Society entered into a partnership to “stabilize, assess, and restore” the dining car.

    The restoration has only just begun and remains in the money-raising stage. “Funding is very slow,” said Dakin Morehouse, the president of the Empire State Railway Museum. “We still need an awful lot more.” He did say, however, that going on the National Railway Historical Society’s endangered list has been positive in that it has helped raise some awareness and donations since.

    The Empire State Railway Museum, which is at the forefront of the effort to raise money, has confirmed its first $5,000 grant, though it was a “lower amount than promised,” as Mr. Morehouse put it. He said he expects three more grants to be on their way before too long.

    Otherwise, the project relies on donations, which can be made through the Empire State Railway Museum. Once they receive more funding, the three collaborating organizations plan to move the Lion Gardiner to Arkville, N.Y., where the Ulster and Delaware Railroad is now based, to start assessments and restoration.

    If the restoration succeeds, there is also the question of what the car could be used for. “Operation is possible,” Mr. Morehouse said. “Personally, I would like to see it on the rails again, but it will all depend on the new owner.” He suspects that the car will end up being put on display if restored.

    The Empire State Railway Museum faces a local financial predicament that makes funding more difficult. After Hurricane Irene, Ulster County received $2.3 million from the federal government, but the county executive refused to release any of the money to the railroads, despite the damage done to them during the storm.

    In its grant application, the Empire State Railway Museum described the Lion Gardiner as significant and worth saving for two primary reasons. One was that it is the “sole surviving, unmodified representative of a distinctive period in railroad passenger car body construction.” The other being that the car served on the country’s “most consistently prestigious train,” and on one of the “few railroads to turn a profit on passenger service during the heyday of the passenger train.” As the museum said in summation, it is a “symbolic representative of an iconic era.”

    Despite the odds, most railroad enthusiasts remain hopeful. “I knew these kinds of trains from when I was a kid,” Mr. Morehouse, who is 75, said fondly. “It’s just unfair that so many of them have been forgotten.”

    Support for the Lion Gardiner car has been increasing, but the next few months will be crucial for its restoration. “There’s still a lot to be done,” Mr. Morehouse said, and a “long fight ahead of us.”