A high level of acetone found in the water of a Springs house has prompted the Suffolk Health Department to test the water of five neighboring houses as well as the Springs School, Barnes Country Store, and Kromer's Auto and Marine.

Results of the samples are incomplete, said Paul Ponturo of the County Department of Health Services' Water Division. However, initial testing found a level of 3,300 parts per billion of acetone in the water at David and Jane Barton's Fireplace Road residence.

The state standard for drinking water is 50 parts per billion. Levels in the neighboring locations were all beneath that figure.

Springs School Okay

All the houses in the triangle formed by Sand Lot Road, School Street, and its intersection with Fireplace Road were tested, Mr. Ponturo said, adding that the county plans to take samples in a "couple of additional homes."

Complete test results are expected next month.

The Springs School has been on a regular testing schedule since a routine water test several years ago, following the construction of an addition, revealed the presence of heavy metals.

Since then, the water has been acceptable, according to the Health Department, and last year the school installed a Ph-reduction system that will prevent acidic water from eating away at pipes. Periodic testing of the Kromer's Auto property is also conducted.

Source A Mystery

Mr. Barton said he ordered tests by both a private lab and the County Health Department after noticing an odor coming from his water several months ago.

The water was potable when the couple bought the house four years ago, though they installed a filtration system because of relatively high levels of iron, manganese, and sulfur.

The high levels of acetone were a shock, said Mr. Barton, who could think of no way his well had become so highly contaminated. "I would have to be out there with a 50-gallon drum ladling it into my well," he said. "It stinks . . . there's a sheen to the water when you put it out."

A 'Limited Plume'?

The Bartons have been drinking bottled water and showering at friends' residences.

"The absence of detection in terms of immediate neighbors suggests it's a limited plume," Mr. Ponturo said last week.

The Health Department's pollution control office has been notified, he said, though neither that department nor the State Department of Environmental Conservation has begun investigating the source.

Groundwater in the area, Mr. Ponturo said, flows in a north-northeasterly direction, toward Accabonac Harbor.

Health Department and D.E.C. consultants were reluctant to speculate about whether further pollution would show up, saying a number of variables could affect the chemical's behavior.

Triangle Tested

Acetone, a member of the ketone chemical family, has a "high solubility in water," said Bob Stone, an environmental engineer with the D.E.C.'s hazardous waste remediation group.

It "moves with the groundwater, probably at the same speed," he said.

Mr. Barton expressed frustration with the situation, particularly with the County Health Department, which he called "bumbling."

"We feel the Health Department was motivated to move when they thought it could possibly be other homes besides just ours," he said.

The county initially recommended that the Bartons install a $2,300 carbon filtration system, but later rescinded the recommendation. "They said it was 'erroneous' and would cost more than $500 a month for carbon," Mr. Barton said.

"Acetone may be quite difficult to filter or remove," Mr. Ponturo said. The department has now recommended that the Bartons dig a new well on their less than one-quarter-acre property, "on a spot with the lowest levels of acetone."

Samples taken from test wells should be tested, they were told - a six-week process.

"No one is really telling us anything, and no one seems too concerned," said Mr. Barton.

A mute swan opera that disrupted the tranquillity of the normally placid waters of Town Pond in the heart of East Hampton Village took a dramatic turn this week when a curious phone call was made to police.

"I told them I was going into the graveyard with a net," Sigrid Owen of Montauk told police on Tuesday morning. She said she warned them lest passers-by or those with houses overlooking the pond and its ancient South End Burying Ground suspect madness - a woman chasing the ghost of her departed spouse, perhaps.

Ms. Owen was after a swan, a bird whose snowy white feathers were ruffled and dirty, and she and her net caught up with it near the monument to those who died in the 1858 wreck of the John Milton.

One, Two, Three

The swan escaped the net twice before being trapped by the self-appointed "swan lady," who also is a state-certified assistant wildlife rehabilitator.

The capture concluded the troublesome third act in a drama witnessed by neighbors and drivers who were known to express concern for one lonely swan in East Hampton's picturesque pond.

She had been alone for two years after her mate disappeared. Then, in December, like destiny, there were two. Things were the way they should be. Swans, like people, mate for life, or at least try to. Suddenly, last weekend, there were three and the harmony that had come with the second bird was shattered.

Banished To Cemetery

The interloper had a slatternly appearance. Was it the old mate come back from years at sea, a spurned lover returned, or perhaps a brazen power play for the affections of one already bespoken?

For days, the interloper was attacked by the pair of resident swans in turn. Finally, it was banished, spending Monday night in the cemetery.

Was the cold banishment among the tombstones love's triumph, or was this a case of misplaced sympathies, a swan song in the purest sense? Ms. Owen said she had been watching the story unfold and could explain.

The original and lonely swan was a female, she said, and female swans don't stay that way if they can help it. In December, she'd gone out, found herself a mate, and brought him back to her pond. They were united.

Three Is A Crowd

Ms. Owen said the pairing instinct of the couple was so strong that when the third bird arrived, which turned out to be a female threatening their bond, she was driven out.

"She looked dirty like she'd been in some kind of trouble on Route 27, hit by a car maybe. Her legs were fine, but she had trouble flying," Ms. Owen said.

Peace would only reign if the rejected swan was removed to safer waters. But there were other forces at work.

Alarm Set Off

It seems that as her savior grappled in the graveyard with the third wheel in the avian triangle, the town dog warden, alarmed by the flurry of nets and feathers, placed a call to a state conservation officer, Joseph Billotto, a knight of sorts.

Also summoned were four members of the Town Department of Natural Resources. After all the pathos, the question at hand was whether Ms. Owen had a permit to net and move the swan or whether she would have to return it to the pond, adding insult to injury.

Mr. Billotto's fears were allayed. As a wildlife rehabilitator, Ms. Owen was authorized to move the swan if she determined it was injured.

"She was happy when she got there," Ms. Owen said of her charge, describing how she was let loose from a box and entered Hook Pond happily ever after, or so it is hoped. In the winter of 1990-91 an immature and lone male swan on Town Pond made news when Ms. Owen removed him to Noyac Bay. At the time, she explained, he had walked onto Route 27 and needed to be with his peers "to learn the ropes of swan life." She also said Town Pond was too polluted to provide him an adequate diet.

A bridge that doesn't reach the other side ought to be called, by definition, a dock. That's how Gordon Vorpahl, an East Hampton Town Trustee, summed up a proposal before the panel last week.

The Trustees, having decided years ago against the construction of any new docks in the waters they manage for the public, agreed that the partial reconstruction of the historic Gardiner bridge across Hook Pond, proposed by the East Hampton Village Board and several pond-front property owners, will not, for the moment, fly.

Mr. Vorpahl and other Trustees posed the philosophical question of what to call a bridge when it's to nowhere, after hearing from Richard Shilowich, whose construction company would do the work.

Maidstone Objects

Mr. Shilowich, who also is a member of the Village Design Review Board, came to the meeting in support of an application submitted by Robert O'Block of Jefferys Lane, one of several homeowners who reportedly have agreed to help finance the reconstruction.

The Gardiner bridge once spanned the pond and linked two lots owned by Samuel Buell Gardiner. The land on the James Lane side is now owned by Melville Straus. The land on the opposite side is part of the Maidstone Club's golf course.

According to the plan, the bridge would leave the Straus property and reach almost to the other side - almost, because the Maidstone Club reportedly does not want a bridge there.

Used For Cattle

Robert Hefner, East Hampton Village's historic preservation consultant, told The Star on Monday that the Trustees should realize that it was their 1844 counterparts who permitted the bridge to be built in the first place.

Samuel B. Gardiner owned 80 acres of pastureland, now part of the Maidstone golf course. The 44-foot bridge he built on pilings was the centerpiece of a causeway used to drive cattle from one side of Hook Pond to the other.

The bridge is depicted in Thomas Moran's painting "The Old Bridge Over Hook Pond, East Hampton, Long Island, New York, 1907."

The bridge would be reconstructed using the same "rough-sawn and naturally durable wood," said Mr. Hefner, but would be smaller than the original cattle bridge, more like a footbridge. It was last reconstructed in 1956.

Mayor Cites History

A reconstructed bridge would "make some connection to East Hampton's agrarian past. The Maidstone golf course was a pasture," Mr. Hefner said this week.

East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. is another supporter of the project, "especially on the town's 350th birthday," he said this week. "Even if for aesthetics alone, it's valid," he added.

Although neither the Mayor nor Mr. Hefner was at last week's Trustee session, both said they would be there on Tuesday when the Trustees next meet. In the meantime, Trustees agreed to postpone a final decision to give the bridge proponents a chance to present their case more thoroughly.

At last week's meeting, Mr. Shilowich reasoned that, while the bridge itself was long gone, the pilings that once supported it were still intact, so the proposed work should be thought of as a replacement. He said the plan did not involve Trustees directly - although he thought they should be aware of it - because the bridge passed above Trustee-managed Hook Pond.

Trustees informed Mr. Shilowich that the bridge involved them a great deal, as the pilings were resting in Trustee-owned bottom. A bridge without support would not be a bridge, they argued.

But the board also wondered how anyone could use the bridge as a bridge if it didn't make it to the other side.

Dock By Default

John Courtney, the Trustees' attorney, said the structure under consideration had no legal standing as it failed to fit the definition of a bridge, and was, by default, a dock.

But Diane Mamay, presiding officer of the board, said there was more to it than that. "Is there a reason to restore it? Will it benefit the public?" Those, she told Mr. Shilowich last week, were the key questions that needed to be addressed.

Trustee Harold Bennett invoked some Bonac language to appraise the situation. "The way I see it, the Upstreeters want it and the Downstreeters don't," he said, laughing.

Paumanok On Napeague

Richard Lupoletti, president of the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society, came to the meeting to fight for the society's plan to blaze a hiking trail along the south shore of Napeague Harbor, part of the 110-mile Paumanok Path from Rocky Point to Montauk Point, which is due to be completed in October.

Trustees, who were reticent when the idea was presented in December, repeated their main concern: that hikers would eventually complain about the duck hunting that goes on in season along the south shore of the harbor.

"Ducks, dogs, shotguns, and hikers. Sooner or later there's going to be a conflict. I'd like to avoid the problem going in," said Mr. Vorpahl.

Span Soak Hides

Trustees had less trouble with the society's plan to span Soak Hides Dreen (Tanbark Creek) near Springy Banks in East Hampton with a bridge, in order to continue the trail in the Three Mile Harbor area.

Mr. Lupoletti vowed cooperation as to the trail on Napeague. "We're sensitive to the problem. . . . I think we could exist without a problem with hunters. We'll work at it."

He acknowledged that Paumanok trailblazers UpIsland were warring with other users, specifically trail-bikers, but said that was not the East Hampton society's style.

Trustees argued that while current society members might take the traditional gunning in stride, future ones might not. Mr. Lupoletti was asked if the society would be amenable to a time limit.

"Yes, we're not looking for an easement," he said.

L.I.R.R. Route?

Ms. Mamay suggested an alternative route be found, the Long Island Rail Road right-of-way perhaps. Mr. Lupoletti said he feared the Rail Road would feel legally exposed, would see a hiking trail as a liability.

But Trustee Mary Gardiner said she thought the L.I.R.R. would be willing to extend a waiver, that other groups had gotten them. Mr. Courtney agreed, and Mr. Lupoletti said he would investigate.

He said the only other, and least acceptable, possibility was for the trail to go out onto Montauk Highway.

Leonard Specter, who lives on Louse Point Road. came to the Trustee meeting to resubmit his application for a "knee wall," a small bulkhead.

He first applied in 1993, but let his application lapse when he and Dieter Hach, a neighbor, submitted a joint application to the Town Zoning Board of Appeals for the knee wall.

"We've lost about two feet of sand in front of the house and a little of the bluff," Mr. Specter said. "We are more endangered now. Two good northeasters would put the house in danger."

The Trustees accepted his new application and agreed to inspect the property and take the matter up at Tuesday's work session.

Montauk residents of all ages converged upon the village green Monday afternoon to protest a bid by the Montauk Gazebo Committee to restrict its use.

The protest did not discriminate. The 250 or so people crowded onto the town-owned property included children, fishermen, landscapers, restaurant and business owners, dancers, local politicians, and more than a few verbal canines.

Richard White Jr., a longtime resident of the hamlet, said he'd never seen anything like it. "This goes to show, you don't tell the people of Montauk they can't do something they've been doing and enjoying for years," he said.

Restrictions Proposed

Early in December, three members of the Montauk Gazebo Committee, Lucy Ketcham, William Addeo, and Harry Ellis, met with East Hampton Town Councilman Len Bernard and Scott Bennett of the Town Parks and Recreation Department to suggest use guidelines for the gazebo and the green.

Mr. Bernard afterward circulated a memo to the other four members of the Town Board outlining their recommendations.

Only one-day "passive" events - concerts, readings, and the like - would be allowed on the green, and only town vehicles could park there. Tents, tie-ropes, stakes, fence posts, awnings, signs, and posters would not be allowed on the green, and skateboarding, Rollerblading, and bicycling would be prohibited in the gazebo.

No Cars

Cars driving on the green to unload merchandise sold at fairs were destroying its irrigation system, Mr. Bernard's memo said. As for two and three-day events, they were depriving the public of its use.

(During Monday's gathering, however, Mr. Bernard said the gazebo committee had since changed its mind about the one-day restrictions.)

The committee also complained to the Councilman that the setting-up of large events - using posts, stakes, and the like - damaged the ground, and the tents created a "honky-tonk" appearance.

The memo adds that committee members would like to see curbing put around the green to discourage cars, and restricted curbside parking during special events such as the St. Patrick's Day parade.

The proposed rules did not sit well with the Montauk library trustees, who organized Monday's protest.

The library holds an annual one-day book fair on the green. Suzanne Koch Gosman, president of the library trustees, told Monday's crowd that the $15,000 to $20,000 the fair brings in supports the institution's programs throughout the year.

The library contingent drew up petitions against the proposed rules, which can be found in just about every business in the small hamlet. According to representatives of the library, they have quickly filled up.

Circulate Petition

"The green belongs to us!" the petition says, adding, "We love the Christmas-tree lighting, the book fair, the Fall Festival, the Montauk Artists show, the Garden Club sale, the Downtown Association concerts, the Turkey Day Run for Fun, the dance performances, the hay rides, the raffle sales, the St. Patrick's Day parade, waiting for the Jitney on the grass, children playing, and all Montauk life on the green."

Library trustees also wrote a strongly worded letter to the Town Board, urging members to listen to the entire Montauk community before deciding on the future of the green.

Among other irate organizations was the Chamber of Commerce, whose two-day Fall Festival is held on the green, and the Montauk Village Association, which parks a car there and then raffles it off. (A letter from the association appears in this issue.)

Move The Bus Stop?

George Watson, a Montauk restaurant owner, was the first speaker at Monday's protest. Gesturing at the snow lightly swirling around the crowd, he remarked, "The Gazebo Committee doesn't allow snowflakes on the green."

"And they don't want much else here either," he added.

If the Gazebo Committee wanted Montauk to be "more like East Hampton, maybe they should move to East Hampton," Mr. Watson suggested. His audience roared in agreement.

Before leaving the gazebo Mr. Watson mentioned an issue recently raised by the Montauk Citizens Advisory Committee and now being explored by a town engineer, Vincent Gaudiello Jr. - moving the bus stop from the center of town to the Kirk Park parking lot.

"They say buses in town and people on the green make us look honky-tonk. Well, maybe we like honky-tonk!" he yelled, drawing cheers and applause.

Councilman Reconsiders

Later in the day, it seemed that Councilman Bernard, for one, had had a change of heart. The large turnout, he said, made him understand that "a middle ground" had to be found.

He will invite both sides to a meeting next week, he said, to see what compromise can be arrived at.

Members of the Gazebo Committee were upset at the tenor of the protest. The demonstration was "disgusting and un called-for," said Mrs. Ketcham on Tuesday.

She never intended to keep children from playing on the green, she said, nor to offend local oragnizations.

"I'm sorry this has happened," she said.

Sprinkler System

She reiterated, however, that cars should be restricted. "The sprinkler system is what keeps the green green, and cars are ruining the sprinkler system," said Mrs. Ketcham.

"Where are all these people when it comes time to maintain the green?" she wondered. "They never carried the gallons of water necessary to water the green before we had the sprinkler system installed."

Mr. Addeo said he was disappointed that the organizers of the protest never called him to discuss the situation.

He agreed with Mrs. Ketcham that no one ever offers to help maintain the green.

"I consider the green to be the front lawn of Montauk. You don't drive on your front lawn," he said.

Town Board Hears

Town Councilman Peter Hammerle and Councilwoman Pat Mansir were also circulating through Monday's crowd. Asked her opinion of the goings-on, Ms. Mansir laughed.

"I'd like to say I'm neutral, but I'm not," she said. "The gazebo belongs to the green and the green belongs to the people." Looking down at the ground around her, she said she didn't notice any damage but agreed nothing should be tied to the gazebo structure, as the Gazebo Committee has argued.

The last speaker, Mr. Hammerle, told protesters their voice had been heard. He said the next step would normally be a public hearing held in Montauk, but added, "With this showing, I don't think it will ever come to that."

In the course of the half-hour protest, children from the Lighthouse Dance Project performed to a Joni Mitchell song:

"Don't it always seem to go/that you don't know what you've got till it's gone?"

An inconclusive audit of the beleaguered East Hampton Housing Authority has raised a question of whether the financing for the authority's Accabonac Highway affordable housing project has put the town in an illegal partnership with a profit-making entity.

Scott Allen, the authority's lawyer, told its members Tuesday that the question was significant enough that it should be answered by State Attorney General Dennis Vacco.

As a result, the authority's five members voted unanimously Tuesday afternoon to accept an audit of the authority's books that was left unfinished when accountants from Markowitz, Preische and Stevens, an East Hampton firm, were unable to nail down such basic issues as the ownership of the 28-acre site on which the housing is being built. Within minutes, they also voted to send the audit to the Mr. Vacco for a legal opinion.

State Constitution

Authority members said they were unable to sort out the complicated financial dealings set into motion by the authority's previous members, who, unlike the present panel, were appointed by Democratic Town administrations.

"It took me 70 years to get my good name and I'm not about to let it go down the drain because of someone who sat here before me," said David Lee of Sag Harbor, who was appointed last year by the Republican majority that controlled the Town Board from 1995 until last month.

Mr. Allen said the State Constitution prohibits municipalities from going into partnership with private enterprise. Nevertheless, Mr. Allen said it was unclear whether the current arrangement violated that law.

Co-Signer Issue

The Town Board agreed in 1992 to co-sign loans of up to $6 million so the authority could build the 50-unit housing project. The authority is an autonomous agency but it had too brief a history to have established proper credit. Two years later, the authority and the Bank of New York formed the Seymour Schutz Limited Partnership to put up the housing, with the bank agreeing to invest $3.15 million in the project in return for more than $5 million in tax credits, under a procedure sanctioned by the Internal Revenue Service.

No Legal Barrier

However, the former lawyer for the authority and the Town Democratic Party leader, Christopher Kelley, said the question being sent to the Attorney General was just "one more attempt to score political points."

Mr. Kelley and the former authority chairwoman, Margaret de Rouleaux, once a Democratic candidate for Town Board, were the primary architects of the complicated financing package.

"The town is not a party to the partnership agreement and is not participating directly with the bank. It's not an issue. We looked for any legal barrier to structuring the deal this way and there was none," said Mr. Kelley.

In a conference telephone call yesterday to The Star with Bill Ellsbree, the financial consultant who brokered the tax credits, and Randall Mayer, a legal expert on municipal bonds with the Manhattan firm of Whitman, Breed, Abbott & Morgan, the men contended the question stemmed from the fact that the authority's new members, lawyer, and auditors were unfamiliar with Federal tax-credit deals, municipal law, and with housing authorities in general.

"None of the benefits from this arrangement accrue because of the town's guarantee but because of the inclusion of the Federal tax credits," said Mr. Mayer.

For his part, Mr. Ellsbree agreed with Mr. Kelley that the authority's legal question was off base. "They should be focusing on the budget - I've been waiting for it since November - they shouldn't be focusing on whether one of the pre-eminent law firms on bond made a mistake," he said.

More Borrowing

So far, $4.1 million has been borrowed for the project, with the town as co-signer on the loans, meaning that the town would have to repay them were the authority to default.

The bank has put the first of three $1 million installments promised in escrow rather than turn it over, pending either a $1 million "gift" from the town to cover a budget shortfall or some other plan to obtain the rest of the money that will be needed.

Mr. Allen said the current authority board had "every intention" of borrowing an additional $1.9 million to finish construction "regardless of the bank and the town." That would mean a more than $1 million shortfall when its construction loans were transferred into a mortgage.

"So, it's not a question of finishing the project but a question of who is going to pay to finish the project. It will be completed and it will be occupied. Who the eventual long-term debt falls on will be resolved between the parties," said Mr. Allen.

He and Mr. Ellsbree said they were working on other ways beside a "gift" from the taxpayers to make the financing work. They involve more favorable interest rates, a projected $800,000 increase in the value of the tax credits since that deal was inked, and increasing the rents on some of the apartments to raise the authority's income.

Remove Authority?

Meanwhile, the auditors warned that conditions may have been met under which the Bank of New York could remove the authority from the project altogether. Those conditions involve the authority's either violating its fiduciary responsibility, breaching its contract, "willfully" violating the law, or going bankrupt.

The audits were done using 1996 records for the authority and for the Seymour Schutz Limited Partnership, named for a deceased authority member. Both said the authority had incomplete budget records for that year, lacked any visible plan for paying back its debts, was being sued by the general contractor, and that ownership of its main asset, the land, was unclear.

Mr. Kelley vehemently denied there being any confusion about the property deed - "Except maybe for Markowitz, Preische, & Stevens," he said - and even faxed The Star a copy.

Just Waiting

All sides seemed to agree the bank was holding on for now, waiting for conditions to improve and the chance to reap the benefits from its investment.

"Why would the bank want to take this over?" laughed Maureen Murphy, the authority chairwoman. She too was appointed by the Republicans who controlled the former Town Board, and has led the attempt, so far unsuccessfully, to move the project forward.

"A limited partner invests money and doesn't want to know from the day-to-day operations. The bank isn't interested in running an affordable housing complex," Mrs. Murphy said.

Even in the unlikely event the bank did remove the authority as the general partner, Mr. Mayer said that other legal restrictions supersede the terms of the partnership to protect the project's purpose as affordable housing. The apartment complex could never become high-priced condominiums, he said.

What Could Happen

Repeated calls to the bank officials involved in the deal and to the bank's public relations officer went unanswered for the second consecutive week.

Mr. Allen said the State Attorney General's staff normally takes 60 to 90 days to render a legal opinion and, if it finds some law has been violated, would recommend a way to cure the problem.

"Clearly, nobody asked this question until now," Mrs. Murphy said. "Believe me, we have thought of just resigning as a board but morally we just can't do it. We have to keep slugging."

Joe McCarthy's Shadow

East Hampton

January 13, 1998

Dear Helen,

A few days ago an article appeared in Newsday (as well as in Jewish Week) that appalled me enough to post a letter to our Congressman, Michael P. Forbes.

I want to share my distress with the readers of The Star, in the hope that some of them will rally round and also send him letters critical of his position and the damage it does to our constitutionally sacred guarantees of free speech.

According to Newsday, Congressman Forbes was alerted by a group of "conservative" Jews that the Smithsonian Institution (remember the shameful Enola Gay episode?) had allowed a "liberal" Jewish philanthropic group - the New Israel Fund - to plan a series of lectures there, in honor of Israel's 50th anniversary this year.

The speakers all carried impeccable credentials - one was New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, another a member of the Israel Knesset, still another a professor at the Hebrew University. The latter (Ehud Sprinzak) was characterized as "sympathetic to Hamas terrorists."

As I was composing my letter to the Hon. Mr. Forbes, questioning his sources and the grounds for his actions, a small retraction appeared in Newsday, saying that, while Professor Sprinzak was critical of the Israeli right, he was not sympathetic to Hamas.

The damage had, of course, been done. The Jewish group Americans for a Safe Israel had likely planted this clever lie, gotten Congressman Forbes to swallow it and, unilaterally, to demand that the lectures be canceled.

It is altogether puzzling to me why Congressman Forbes has jumped so gleefully into this particular hornet's nest. He does not - as far as I know - have a large constituency of right-wing Jews with hawkish dispositions. Not in Quogue, certainly (I recall when it was difficult for a Jew even to rent a summer home there) nor in any other town or village on the East End - with the possible exception of Westhampton Beach, where a small cell of Orthodox Jews spend their summers. (I doubt they vote there.)

It is, of course, quite possible that a wealthy Jewish donor (or two or three) with a summer palace somewhere in the Hamptons gives lavishly to Mr. Forbes's re-election campaign. It is easy, these days, for someone with an agenda to buy the ear of an elected official (especially in matters he's clueless about - I mean, what does Michael Forbes know of the ins and outs of Jewish/Israeli politics?) and get him to do something he may think will raise no hackles in his district - or escape notice altogether.

Michael Forbes, a conservative ideologue, incapable of understanding that moral questions were raised when we dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, certainly has no time to devote to the painful ambiguities of Israeli politics that endanger the agonizing way to peace.

Has it ever dawned on him that free discussions are the best (nay, the only) way to honor democracy - in this country and Israel as well?

The long shadow of Joe McCarthy still darkens the land.

Best regards,

SILVIA TENNENBAUM

Flawed Study

Shoreham

January 13, 1998

Dear Mrs. Rattray,

In a letter dated Dec. 31, 1997, Dr. Jay Gould rebutted some of my comments made in Guild Hall on Dec. 5, 1997.

I am perplexed by his characterization that my statements were an "astonishing admission" which then justify the basis for a study of strontium-90 in baby teeth.

I did point out that global surface soil and the food basket are contaminated from the legacy of atmospheric nuclear weapons tests that produced over 500 megatons of explosive yield. The environmental transport and depositing of the resulting fallout has been extensively studied and documented in the open literature. That was my source of information.

Any interested person can go to the local public library and obtain reports done by thousands of scholars and government health agencies all over the world. A particularly good book on the subject is "Environmental Radioactivity," third edition, by Merril Eisenbud. I use that textbook often.

In answer to his questions as to how many baby teeth would be needed to [prove that] emissions from Brookhaven National Laboratory have been too small to be harmful, my answer would be precisely zero.

The number is zero because I believe the end point Dr. Gould would like to obtain, evaluation of a link between health effects, strontium-90 and Brookhaven National Laboratory, is impossible to assess with this study. My "astonishing admission" is the fact that the study is scientifically flawed. It is flawed because:

1.While levels of strontium-90 above the drinking water standard have been found in specific locations on the B.N.L. site, these high concentrations have not moved beyond the boundary of the laboratory.

2.Hundreds of drinking water samples collected by Suffolk County authorities have documented that there is no strontium-90 from B.N.L. in local drinking water.

3.Strontium-90 is present in small amounts in soil and surface water all over the world. Thus, food, especially dairy products high in calcium, is already contaminated with small amounts of strontium-90. The greatest source of calcium in the diet comes from dairy products. Because Long Island no longer has commercially operating dairy farms, Long Islanders could be consuming milk from upstate New York, cheese from Wisconsin, and ice cream from Vermont.

4.Long Islanders are not being exposed to the strontium-90 on the B.N.L. site. We know of no pathway by which strontium-90 on the site can reach baby teeth. Moms would have to be eating contaminated soil or drinking contaminated water on the lab's property.

5.Because strontium-90 is chemically similar to calcium, it localizes in bone and teeth. If there is a health effect from high concentrations of strontium-90, it is leukemia, which is cancer of the bone marrow. Research has shown that leukemia is the most likely type of cancer to be triggered by radiation, because bone marrow is very sensitive to radiation. New York State health authorities have not documented excess cases of leukemia on Long Island.

As a professional involved in protection of the workers and public, I am very distressed that money and resources are being spent to conduct a test that will not lead to an improvement in public heath.

Anyone who is concerned about public health effects from strontium-90 should seek more information about the existing global environmental levels of fallout, as well as the radiobiology of strontium-90. If any of your readers choose to participate in the proposed baby teeth study, then I urge caution in drawing conclusions from any results.

Sincerely,

STEPHEN V. MUSOLINO, Ph.D.

Certified Health Physicist

Mulford Or Shaler?

Santa Monica, Calif.

January 17, 1998

To The Editor:

Jeanette Edwards Rattray's book "East Hampton History" says that the mother of a Mrs. David Hedges who committed suicide in 1806 was named Phebe Shaler Tillinghast. The Shalers were a big clan in Haddam, Conn., and there was a Phebe Shaler born there in 1739 or 1740 who could have married Joseph Tillinghast and come to East Hampton. I assumed that was the connection and in fact did considerable research in Haddam.

However, a recent Tillinghast genealogy points out that a Joseph Tillinghast married a Phebe Mulford in New York State in 1761. This genealogy concludes that Phebe Tillinghast was really a Mulford, not a Shaler.

While there were many Phebe Mulfords, there was specifically a Phebe Mulford who was born in East Hampton to John Mulford and Anna Stratton Chatfield in 1739 or 1740. Mrs. Rattray does not indicate who or if this Phebe Mulford married (p. 478).

I am doing research for a book, and the question I am wrestling with is: Was the mother of Mrs. Phebe Hedges who died in 1806 a Mulford or a Shaler?

Since the Mulfords are a very well-documented clan, I am surprised that this should be so uncertain. Does anyone have any suggestions as to whom I might contact to ask about this?

ALICE WEXLER

Ms. Wexler, who is researching a book on Huntington's chorea, may be reached at 225 Santa Monica Boulevard, No. 412, Santa Monica, Calif. 90410. She may also be reached by E-mail: [email protected]. - Ed.

Please address correspondence to [email protected]

Please include your full name, address and daytime telephone number for purposes of verification.

East Hampton's first settlers were also its first churchgoers, Puritans who, for their first four years here, met for worship without a church building or a minister. Some of the descendants of that congregation now belong to the church that evolved from it, the East Hampton Presbyterian Church, which, like the town itself, is celebrating its 350th anniversary this year.

The Rev. John Ames, minister of the Presbyterian Church, decided an appropriate way to mark the milestone this winter would be to give a series of sermons in the style of three of East Hampton's first religious leaders.

"It just seemed like an obvious thing to do," said Mr. Ames, who holds a doctorate in American church history.

He gave the first sermon, styled after the Rev. Thomas James, on Jan. 11. The next, in the style of the Rev. Nathaniel Huntting, will be presented on Feb. 8, and the last, inspired by the Rev. Samuel Buell, on March 8.

The early records of the Town Trustees mention the church quite a bit. After all, Mr. Ames pointed out, "the same people who tended to the pond and the sheep pound tended to the church." However, there is no record of any sermon given by the church's first minister, Mr. James, who came here in 1652. His successor had to model his first special sermon on two others, which he called "typical" for New England Puritans at the time.

One was called "A Modell of Christian Charity," (charity "in the old Christian sense of love," said Mr. Ames). It was delivered by John Winthrop, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, on the ship Arabella in Boston Harbor in 1630. It spoke of the structure of society, "which was not all that democratic as people think," said Mr. Ames.

The second, "An Errand Into the Wilderness," was given in Connecticut in 1670 by Samuel Danforth, and was largely a criticism of the community for failing to live up to its Puritan ideals. Mr. Danforth castigated his congregation for drunkenness, selfishness, mistreatment of Indians, and failure to help the poor to better themselves, although, said Mr. Ames, Thomas James himself was actually "very much in the pockets of the wealthy" and might not have worried himself overmuch about the poor.

The Jan. 11 sermon did not last nearly as long as it would have in the 17th century, Mr. Ames said. Three hundred and fifty years ago, it was "typical" to spend about six hours of each Sunday in worship.

Music - its presence or absence - is another big difference between services then and now. Puritans sang psalms and nothing else, Mr. Ames said, in strict meter and unaccompanied by instruments. On Jan. 11, three songs were sung from the Scottish Psalter.

What was not different, however, was the minister's garb. Presbyterian ministers, like their Puritan antecedents, wear academic gown, clerical collar, preaching tabs, and academic hood: the normal street dress of professors in the 17th century. All ministers then were university graduates.

In February, inspiration from the sermons of Mr. Huntting will recall the church's early 18th-century era, when sermons got shorter and the minister was less strict about the psalms. Mr. Huntting's records are the church's oldest, Mr. Ames said. Even if none of his actual sermons survive, his writings are clear as to the concerns of the day, Mr. Ames said.

A portrait of Mr. Huntting hangs in the narthex of the church.

March's sermon modeled on the Rev. Samuel Buell will recall East Hampton in the second half of the 18th century, by which time the church had made its transition from Puritan to Presbyterian. A large number of Mr. Buell's sermons have been preserved, Mr. Ames said.

Today's church sermons are "not all that different," said the minister, "in terms of content" - they simply have "more modern emphases."

What was true in the 17th century that is just as true today, Mr. Ames said, is "the providence of God in the life of this church, this community. You can't celebrate the 350th anniversary of this church without making that point."

The year 1870 saw the completion of rail service from Eastport to Sag Harbor. Prior to that time, a steamboat service from New York City to Sag Harbor, via Greenport, had been in operation. From Sag Harbor eastward, Jeremiah Baker of Amagansett had established a stage line in 1858 to transport passengers and mail.

In 1895, the Long Island Rail Road completed a two-year project to extend the railroad from Bridgehampton to Montauk. After the line was completed, rail spurs were laid in lumber yards, coal yards, beside buildings where mason contractors stored their supplies.

Building contractors no longer had to transport lumber and building materials from the Bridgehampton and Sag Harbor lumberyards.

Shortly after the beginning of this century, the L.I.R.R. established a daily train service from Amagansett to Greenport. It was called the Scott, and it operated for nearly 30 years, making its final run in 1931.

It left Amagansett each morning except Sunday at 10 o'clock and arrived back in Amagansett at 5 o'clock. It was noted for stopping on time at each station, and each September, during county fair time, it provided an excellent means of transportation for those living on the South Fork.

During the years before school bus transportation began in the Town of East Hampton, some Montauk students attending high school traveled by train, arriving in East Hampton at 8:30 a.m. For the convenience of the students, the train stopped at the Osborne Lane crossing to let them off.

Other students who had to travel long distances to high school came by bicycle in the spring and fall, and in winter by a horse-drawn vehicle capable of carrying a number of people, owned by one of the students' fathers.

Usually, during school hours, the horse and rig was left at the home of a family friend.

Although the automobile had made its appearance, people depended upon railroads, steamboats, barges, and horse-drawn vehicles to transport themselves and their goods from one place to another. Motorized vehicles had a long way to go before they created a major change in the mode of travel and transportation.

In later years, when cars became more numerous, students rode to school with workmen.

Clara Purinton, a neighbor of ours in Springs, rode with my father, and after the end of the school day, she walked with school friends to Amagansett. From there she proceeded alone along the Springs-Amagansett Road to her home in East Side.

Sometimes she would be fortunate and be given a lift by someone she knew. Once in a while, when on patrol in the Springs area, Harry Steele, the sole town policeman, gave her a ride on the back of his motorcycle.

In those days, to obtain a high school education, students who lived long distances from school had to endure many hardships, but a great number of them, over the years, thought it worth the austere means it entailed.

During the years when large summer homes were being constructed in what today is known as the Summer Colony, lumber, building materials, and the craftsmen's tool boxes were transported to job sites by horse and wagon.

Workmen either rode bicycles or walked to their job sites, which at times were fair distances from home.

In later years, when those old mechanics aged, some of them referred to that era as the Good Old Days, but to Charles (Peebo) Bennett, a master carpenter with a dry sense of humor, those days "were for the birds."

In 1947 Charlie said to me, "Norton, as far as I am concerned, these days are the good old days. Back in those so-called Good Old Days, I made $2 a day and lived out of a pork barrel, with a few beans thrown in."

"We had to ride bicycles or walk to work in cold, snow, rain, and blow," he said. "Today, we have cars, radios, chain stores, hospitals, and are making a decent wage."

"Soon we'll be watching baseball games in our living rooms. If anyone tells you about the Good Old Days, you tell them that old Charlie says they are nuts."

In the years before World War I, sloops loaded with boxes of fish and bags of shellfish left local waters bound for the fish markets of New London, where cargoes of clams, oysters, scallops, eels, and other fish were sold.

In the fall, after seasonal work was finished, some of the Springs residents who had accumulated savings from seasonal work went on the sloops to purchase food supplies that would last them through the winter.

In New London, Conn., they bought hundredweight bags of flour, sugar, beans, coffee, and hardtack. With home-raised fowl and pigs, supplemented by fish and shellfish, they were able to sustain themselves rather well.

It was a way of life now long past. Most of those ordinary and unassuming folks were content with what Providence had bestowed. They lived a simple life, and looked forward to attending a dance or going uptown to watch the silent picture shows at the Majestic on Saturday nights.

To attend the movie house or dances, they either walked, rode bicycles, or went by horse and rig.

Norton (Bucket) Daniels was born in Amagansett in 1919. A former Republican Suffolk County Legislator and East Hampton Town Assessor, he now lives in Boynton Beach, Fla.

There's something especially comforting about the Dockside, an unassuming restaurant squeezed into one side of Sag Harbor's American Legion Hall. From the start it was a sort of popular secret with the locals - no frills, low prices, hearty food, and a patio view of the docks. Shhh. Now, after a year and a half, the word is out, but it's still the kind of place where even one-time visitors are treated like part of the extended family.

That's one of the things the restaurant's chef, Cora Reyes, appreciates about it. "I like the camaraderie," she said, sitting in the warm restaurant while the wind outside moaned in the sailboat riggings.

She also likes the respect she gets at the Dockside. Being a woman chef in a field traditionally dominated by men can be tough. At first, she said, restaurateurs don't believe a woman can run the show. Not so at the Dockside. She's shared the kitchen with other chefs, but from day one she's called the shots.

"Nobody stands over me and from the beginning I had free rein."

Ms. Reyes began cooking professionally only after her four children were grown, but raising them was integral to her culinary training. "Having four kids you learn how to cook," she said.

A self-described "Army brat," she was born in Wales, and lived all over the United States and in Europe as a youngster. Standard military food doesn't have such a great reputation, but it was on the base that her education in the kitchen began.

Her father was an Army chef and catered large parties for the "higher echelons." At home, he often recruited her for chopping or slicing duty in the kitchen. She watched, she mimicked, and later, when she enlisted in the Army herself, as a medic, she found her fellow servicemen and women were a great source of culinary knowledge.

"Being in the military you meet people from all over the place and you pick up tips from them," she said.

She picked up many in Germany, where her family lived for six years. Now, after the military, she continues to learn from those around her. The restaurant's Latin American employees, for example, have taught her to make tamales from four different countries.

Under Ms. Reyes the Dockside menu is a mixture of her many influences, everything from quesadillas to Mediterranean tuna and fish chowder.

She doesn't believe in building culinary castles or painting a masterpiece on the edge of the dish, like some of the trendier South Fork restaurants. "I like very basic things, hearty meals, and lots of food on the plate."

Mediterranean Tuna

Ingredients:

1 lb. tuna, in bite-size cubes

Olive oil

3 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped

1 small onion, minced

2 ripe tomatoes, quartered

2 boiled potatoes, cubed

8 black olives, chopped

1/8 cup capers

1/4 cup white wine

Fresh tarragon, chopped

Fresh parsley, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Saute garlic, onion, and tomatoes in olive oil until soft. Add potatoes, olives, capers, and white wine and cook until warm.

Add tuna and tarragon. Saute until tuna is cooked lightly on the outside.

Serve over pasta, sprinkled with fresh parsley.

Serves two.

From Hemingway's hunting country "Up In Michigan," I recently got this note from an Internet buddy: "Most deaths during deer season up North occur when the hunting husband returns home unexpectedly early. I've never heard of any deaths around here, or even injuries."

As there are lots of hunters prowling the woods and fields of the East End, there ought to be some splendid, succulent venison for the table right now. Enjoy it in guiltless pleasure. There is no finer, cleaner meat, higher in protein and lower in cholesterol, than our deer, grazed on some of the finest landscaping and open woodland in the nation.

Most average hunters are not expert meat-cutters, though they must at least know how to field-dress an animal. If they have good sense, they will take it to a professional who knows how to hang it and cut it into steaks, chops, and roasts.

Where my daughter lives, in rural Columbia County, N.Y., a lot of families depend on the hunting season to put meat on the table in winter. As the cooking isn't all that sophisticated, a lot of good venison winds up as deerburgers or crockpot stews made with canned cream of mushroom soup.

This sorry state of affairs isn't unique to upstate New York, so my Michigan correspondent, Mike Edelman, informs me.

Well, maybe now that the country has more whitetail deer than when the Pilgrims landed - so many that Hunters for the Hungry are providing this excellent food to needy people and senior citizens' food pantry programs - better culinary uses for it will be investigated.

Venison, which is on the menu in most of Manhattan's chic restaurants at this time of year, suffers freezing extremely well if left in reasonably large cuts (not ground). It can be just as delicious in spring and summer if packaged properly and held at zero degrees Fahrenheit.

Some of the tougher meat from the forequarters does make great venison burgers, meatballs, and noteworthy stews patterned after winey Boeuf Bourguignon (a great old French dish still around though now offered under hipper nomenclature).

Whatever cut of venison you luck into, a cardinal rule is to remove all the deer fat, no matter how little - it tastes like tallow.

Lubricants

As the meat is so lean to begin with, obviously it needs lubricating. Depending on the type of recipe, a thin barding of pork fat, suet from a

good beef roast, olive oil, or butter are best for keeping the venison juicy and savory.

Mushrooms, especially wild ones, are a natural alliance; also shallots, onions, garlic, and juniper

berries, along with robust red wines. Choose French bordeaux or red burgundies, California or Australian cabernets, merlots, or, one of my favorites for venison, Petit Sirah (Shiraz, Down Under). Among the Italian choices, Barolo or Barbaresco, among many others.

Just don't go for any of the whites or sissy lightweight reds, such as Beaujolais. No matter that some famous chefs around Lyons insist it's great with everything.

Wild Wild Meatloaf

Wild mushrooms and venison are made for each other. The way to make the most of ground venison (extracted from the parts of the animal that hunters most willingly part with) is in this Ur Meatloaf. For a truly special winter meal, serve it with the creamiest, lightest, whipped potatoes, perhaps blended with some pureed celeriac and braised carrots or roast beets.

Serves 6-8.

1 oz. (about 1 cup) dried wild mushrooms (strongly flavored ones, such as chanterelles)

1 oz. dried black Japanese Matsutake mushrooms

11/2 lbs. ground venison

1 lb. ground pork shoulder (fatty)

1 lb. ground veal

1/3 cup bourbon

2 tsp. coarse milled black pepper

1 cup minced onions

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 Tbsp. butter

3/4 cup soft fresh breadcrumbs

1 ex-large egg, beaten

1/3 cup minced fresh parsley

1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves

1 Tbsp. coarse salt

4 or 5 thin strips Virginia slab bacon

Reserved fat from the meatloaf

1 lb. fresh white domestic mushrooms cut in half-inch chunks

1/2 cup good red wine

Mix And Blend

Rinse the dried mushrooms in a sieve, then soak for about half an hour in warm water, barely enough to cover, in a small, deep bowl. Use a closed baggie filled with water to keep them submerged.

After you mix the meat ingredients, drain and chop them, then mix them into the main ingredients. Reserve soaking liquid, strain, reduce to half a cup.

Mix the remaining ingredients down through the salt, using your hands or a wooden spoon to combine everything lightly. Do not use an electric mixer - it makes a tough meatloaf.

Blend in the chopped, dried mushrooms (I like to use chopsticks for this task) and shape the mixture into an oval loaf about four inches high, in a shallow gratin pan - not a loaf pan. Press the bacon strips lightly onto the top, lengthwise.

Do Not Overbake

Roast in the center of the oven (preheated to 350 degrees F.) for about one hour or until an instant-read thermometer registers 170 degrees. Do not overbake, or all the juices and flavor will be left behind in the pan juices.

Pour off the fat and let the meatloaf rest in a warm place. Use a couple of spoonsful of the fat to saut‚ the fresh mush-

rooms. Toss them over a hot flame until lightly browned, about three minutes. Arrange them around the meatloaf. Deglaze the saut‚ pan with the dried mushroom liquor and the red wine and pour over the mushrooms.

Serve the meatloaf cut into one-inch slices with a spoonful of mushrooms on top. Eject anyone who mentions the word "catsup."

Spiced Leg Of Venison

You'll need a hind leg, as the forelegs are tough and skinny. Leave the shin bone fairly long (cut to fit your braising pan). Trim away the fell (just as you would a leg of lamb, which it resembles).

As the meat is braised, it needs no lengthy marination, though you may do it if you wish. The number of servings depends on the size of the leg - this is for a young animal.

Serves 6 - 8.

5 lb. leg of venison, bone in, well trimmed

1/4 lb. fresh pork fat cut in 1/4-inch strips

Spices:

3 star anise pieces

1 Tbsp. black peppercorns

1 tsp. whole cloves

1 Tbsp. whole allspice

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

3 cloves garlic, sliced thinly

1 large onion, sliced thinly

2 carrots, sliced thinly

1-inch piece fresh gingerroot, peeled and minced

1/2 cup light soy sauce

1/2 cup medium-dry sherry (amontillado)

Large bunch of fresh coriander or parsley, washed, dried, and chopped fairly fine

1 cup beef bouillon

A Fusion Dish

Rinse and pat the leg dry. Using a barding needle or a sharp-pointed chopstick, push the pork fat into the flesh, distributing it throughout. Pulverize all the spices in a grinder; then rub into the meat. Wrap well and refrigerate overnight. Bring to room temp before cooking.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Heat the oil in a deep braising pan with a cover. Saut‚ the garlic, onion, and carrots lightly for about five minutes, covered. Add the gingerroot, soy sauce, and sherry. Turn the venison around in this mixture, cover, and braise on a lower rack of the oven for about an hour. Turn the meat over and braise, covered, another 30 minutes or until very tender. Add boiling water, about a cup, if the liquid seems to be evaporating.

When the venison is tender to a sharp kitchen fork, remove it to a hot, hot platter and keep it warm. Deglaze the pan with the beef bouillon, scraping up all the drippings. Puree all in a blender or food processor and reheat this sauce. Pour it over the meat and serve sprinkled with the coriander or parsley. As this is obviously a "fusion" dish with strong Chinese overtones, serve it with white rice, or jasmine rice mixed with wild rice cooked separately.

Smoked Rack Of Venison

The smoking is for flavor only, not preservation. If smoke flavor isn't your thing, you can skip this step, but it's simple enough in any covered outdoor grill or smoker. Hickory, ash, mesquite, or plain old dried corncobs make good smoking materials. You build a fire in the usual way, soak some wood chips in warm water about half an hour, and toss them on the coals when they're ready and immediately before putting the meat on the grill.

As this is, in my view, the choicest cut of the deer, it needs no marinating except for a bit of added flavor, and is already tender, even from a large animal.

Serving size: Depends on size of ribs and appetites

1 rack of venison (7 large ribs, about 6 lbs.)

Marinade:

2 cloves garlic, smashed

2 Tbsp. juniper berries, ground

2 tsp. coarse black pepper, freshly ground

1 crumbled bay leaf

1/2 bottle Zinfandel or other robust red wine

Salt

3 or 4 thin slices fresh pork fat from the loin roast or caul fat (order from your butcher)

Must Be Medium-Rare

Rinse the rack briefly in cold water, pat dry, and trim away all fat. Rub with the spices and place in a non-reactive container about the same size as the rack of venison. Pour the wine over it and let rest in the fridge, covered, for about 48 hours, turning once.

If you have a larding needle, run a line of pork fat through the length of the meat, starting first at one end, then the other. Dry it, salt it, cover with pork fat or caul fat, and place in a foil pan, bones pointed down. Smoke the meat for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 450 F. Set the venison on a rack in a heavy roasting pan and pour the marinade under it. Roast about 30 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer reads 125 degrees F. for medium rare - as it must be served.

Rest the rack of venison, loosely covered with foil, in a warm place for 20 minutes. As there's no gravy, grilled or sauteed squares of polenta sprinkled with Parmesan or good old cheese grits are a nice companion for this prince of cuts.