"To let the cat out or keep it indoors? Oh, that is the eternal question!" laughs Dr. Claude Grosjean of Southampton's Olde Towne Animal Hospital. To those accustomed to the more traditional role of the cat as mouser around the house, yard, and barn it might seem a ridiculous question, but many experts in feline care advocate keeping cats exclusively in the house, where they will be safe and sound.

The outside world is fraught with danger for kitty. Disease, attacks from other cats and from dogs and wildlife, parasite infestation, and cars are just a few of the hazards that await the free-roaming cat. However, the indoor cat may be very safe, but is it happy?

"It all comes down to the individual cat," said Dr. Nora Klepps of the Mattituck-Laurel Veterinary Clinic. All of Dr. Klepps's six cats live indoors and she adamantly states that they are indeed very happy.

They Adjust

The general consensus among experts is that cats who have always been indoor pets usually adjust to their restricted environment. Conflict between feline and human interests can occur when a well-meaning owner attempts to limit the activities of the previously free-roaming cat.

Not always, however. The only cat in my household who does not go outside (even though she has free access should she want to) is a one-time feral cat called Ghost. This tiny, once-wild creature has been firmly ensconced in my kitchen for several years and demands all the accessories of an indoor cat: toys, soft cushions, and (groan!) a litter box.

Dr. Mark Davis of the South Fork Animal Hospital in Wainscott states that keeping cats in or letting them out often depends on the personal philosophy of the owner. "Some owners just can't tolerate any risk when it comes to their pet," he said.

Safety Question

Dr. Davis does let his three cats out. "Number one, because they really want to go out. I want them to enjoy themselves. They have a good time outside; they play outside. But it depends on where you live. Busy streets, dangerous dogs, and lots of feral cats around are some of the perils in the environment that threaten cats."

Though cats are considerably more conservative in their attitude toward cars than dogs are (at least they aren't usually inclined to chase them), local veterinarians report that they all too frequently treat cats that have been hit by cars. Alas, these animals are usually too badly injured to survive.

Heavily trafficked roads are an obvious danger. Dr. Grosjean said another important safety factor to consider even if the cat owner lives on a relatively quiet road is how close their house is to the street. The farther the house is set back from the road, the greater the margin of safety.

Exposed To Disease

Feral cats are a definite hazard to house cats. Aside from injuries that result from fights, the pet cat is likely to be exposed to several diseases. All cats, and especially those that are allowed out of doors, should be vaccinated for distemper, feline leukemia virus, feline infectious peritonitis, and rabies.

Cat owners should be aware that feral cats are frequently carriers of the feline immunodeficiency virus, for which there is no vaccine or cure. F.I.V. is usually transmitted by fighting. Letting a pet cat wander among ferals puts it at considerable risk of infection.

Dogs can be a very real threat, too. Southampton Town has a leash law that prohibits owners from allowing dogs to roam, so, theoretically at least, outdoor cats are safer in Southampton.

Hunting Instinct

East Hampton does not restrict the roaming of canines and cat owners and their pets should keep a very wary eye out for strange dogs, particularly packs of them. Dogs that tolerate cats perfectly well in their own households are quite capable of killing cats they encounter elsewhere. The hunting instinct remains very strong within our pets.

The hunting instinct of cats is another reason people choose to keep them inside. The toll cats can take on birds, songbirds in particular, is a justifiable concern for cat owners. Though very expert hunters indeed, cats are not especially proficient at hunting birds, being far better equipped to dispatch rodents.

However, recent studies of cat predation disclose that it is far more likely to be the well-fed house cat that catches the bird, as opposed to the much maligned feral cat.

For The Sport

Feral cats are far too desperate for food to waste precious energy on prey that is so elusive and difficult to catch. Housecats, on the other hand, are hunting for the sport of it and appreciate a challenge.

Owners who opt to keep kitty in face another set of problems, primarily those dealing with behavioral problems. Though all adult cats sleep for at least 18 hours a day, what the animal does with its remaining time can be crucial to its physical and mental health.

Cats that live exclusively indoors are far more likely to be obese. Obesity is a serious and common condition among house cats and various medical problems are associated with it. Owners who are depriving a cat of its normal range of physical activities by keeping it indoors need to replace those activities with regular daily playtimes.

"Furniture"

Mental stimulation is important too. Humans tend to judge an area by how much floor space it has, but cats, as climbers, utilize vertical space as well. The addition of carpeted climbing posts with stepped platforms to the cat's home can increase the cat's activity level and sense of well-being.

Cat "furniture" is available at local pet stores or, for more elaborate custom designs, through the Angelical Cat Company based in Sunrise, Fla.

Indoor cats will scratch furniture, no two ways about it. Placing scratching posts next to the object of attention may conflict with an owner's decorating scheme but doing so, coupled with consistent, patient training, is the only way to reliably deflect the cat's natural, albeit destructive from the human's point of view, clawing inclinations onto an acceptable object.

Dr. Grosjean suggests hiding small portions of a cat's food throughout the house as a way to provide stimulation. This forces kitty to "hunt" for its dinner and can circumvent destructive behavior.

Dr. Grosjean suggests hiding small portions of a cat's food throughout the house as a way to provide stimulation. This forces kitty to "hunt" for its dinner and can circumvent destructive behavior.

Cats do have a need for fiber and an attraction to greenery. Houseplants will take a beating. And some of them can hit back. Dieffenbachia, philodendron, caladium, amaryllis, daffodil, and tulips are just a few of the plants that can cause serious illnesses or even death. Keep them out of reach.

Amputation of the claws, commonly known as declawing, should only be considered as a very last resort, when all else fails, including trying to find another home for the cat. Local veterinarians are reluctant to perform this drastic surgery, for good reason.

Half And Half

Clearly, keeping a cat indoors requires more work for the owner. There are some compromises available. There is a company manufacturing fencing built specifically to keep cats in an outdoor area. Whether it works as effectively as advertised is unknown to this writer, but it's certainly an appealing option. Cat owners interested in this can contact Cat Fence-In, located in Sparks, Nev., for information.

Another option is to do as Dr. Davis does. He lets his cats enjoy their freedom during the day but they are shut-ins at night. Dr. Davis reports that his kitties seem content with this arrangement. They've let off enough steam while outdoors so they aren't inclined to scratch the furniture and chew the plants, but they're home safe during the, in many respects, more hazardous nighttime hours.

Compromise

"Nighttime is big trouble for cats. It is the time of highest activity for feral cats when most of the fighting occurs. And cats are also more likely to encounter nocturnal wildlife like raccoons." he said.

What do cats want? Well, after years of observation, it would seem that their concept of the perfect solution to the in-or-out question is to be both in and out simultaneously. A cat's-eye view of perfection appears to be sitting in an open doorway in a state of deep contemplation while letting the cold weather blow through the house. Sorry kitty, but we all have to compromise.

Robert Davis, the East Hampton Town Republican Committee chairman, has resigned, and former Councilman Thomas E. Knobel appears to be the likeliest candidate for the job.

The Town G.O.P., which made a poor showing at the polls in November, needs a major restructuring, said Mr. Davis, whose resignation took effect yesterday. The new leader will inherit an organization in such disarray that it was left after Election Day with an estimated $6,000 deficit.

Mr. Knobel left Town Hall yesterday, his term as a Councilman ended and his bid to be Supervisor unsuccessful.

Mr. Davis, who was elected chairman in the spring, said the overhaul could not come too soon. Major state and Federal elections are on the horizon, he noted.

Internal Discord

Though the next town election is not until 1999, local Republicans will be expected to campaign for Rep. Michael P. Forbes, Senator Alfonse D'Amato, Gov. George E. Pataki, State Senator Kenneth LaValle, and State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., all of whom face challenges in November.

"The committee has to take a strong, hard look at itself, and, if it's going to point any fingers, it has to be sure those fingers are pointing in the right direction," said Mr. Davis.

The implication was clear: Local Republicans are blaming each other for the loss of their Town Board majority, rather than the Democrats who took it away.

Restructuring

Mr. Davis, who decided to resign during a reflective post-election vacation after just a few months in office, said he felt no bitterness about his departure.

Calling it "the first step toward reorganization," he said he had to be talked into accepting the unpaid post in the first place and in any event was more concerned about the party's future.

"A political organization should restructure any time you have a campaign like we just had, after you have so many things go wrong," he said.

Some of the problems were avoidable, said Mr. Davis, and some were not.

In the first category, the committee got so late a start on fund-raising and campaign strategy that it never released a party platform and left individual candidates to speak for themselves.

In the second, the company hired to print G.O.P. bumper stickers and palm cards went out of business at the height of the campaign.

"How many excuses do you want? I could go on and on," said Mr. Davis, only half-jokingly.

Nevertheless, he acknowledged that he and others were "in total shock" at the Democrats' wide margin of victory in the crucial races and are still not sure what went wrong.

Support For Knobel

A former Town Trustee who is now a Springs Fire District Commissioner, Mr. Davis said he would remain a voting committee member. Christopher Nuzzi, the vice chairman, will take over until a new chairman is elected, probably in February.

The matter is on the agenda for the next meeting, on Wednesday, and Mr. Davis said he expected a subcommittee would be named to recommend a replacement.

However, ranking Republicans, including the departing chairman, all said Mr. Knobel was the best candidate and that he had strong support.

"Who else has their finger on what's happening locally and on thecounty level? If there's someone else out there, I haven't heard about them," said Mr. Davis.

For his part, Mr. Knobel declined this week to say how he would reorganize the committee or even to say if he thought he had the chairmanship in the bag.

"It would be an interesting honor," he said.

He did say he believed the immediate role of the Republicans, once again in the minority, should be to insure the continuation of "a viable two-party system."

Twomey Latham Shea

"We have always felt we were fighting the looming law firm, the firm with connections up west, to Judith Hope," said the former Councilman, who left Town Hall yesterday after an unsuccessful run at the Supervisorship.

Mr. Knobel was referring to Twomey Latham Shea & Kelley. The firm's senior partner, Thomas Twomey, is married to Ms. Hope, chairwoman of the State Democratic Party. Christopher Kelley, also a senior partner in the firm, is the town party leader.

Mr. Knobel has never been a G.O.P. committee member - as an elected official, he was prohibited by a two-year-old town law - and, he said, "would not presume to pass judgment on anything the committee did or did not do."

Duryea Resignation

He voiced his own political philosophy in his nomination-acceptance speech last summer and said it had not changed: to "incorporate the widest number of folks," especially "all the new folks flowing in here at a relatively constant rate."

Mr. Davis was part of a failed 1995 coup against his predecessor, Perry B. (Chip) Duryea 3d, that left Mr. Duryea in power but conciliatory toward his opponents.

Mr. Duryea resigned this year in the face of a potential conflict. His family's Fort Pond Bay application was pending before the Planning Board, whose chairwoman was Pat Mansir, Mr. Duryea's favored candidate for the Town Board, who is now Councilwoman Mansir.

Mr. Duryea chose Mr. Davis as his successor.

Sought-After? Not

"I thought we were organized after that problem was cleared up," said Mr. Davis, saying he would have preferred to run the campaigns of two close friends, Mr. Knobel and Assessor Fred Overton, who was re-elected.

"The job of the chairman is to mold the committee into a cohesive group, but," he concluded, "you can't make everyone happy. It's not exactly a job that people go after."

Mr. Knobel said Monday he has not decided what he will do for a living. The jobs available in county government, though controlled by fellow Republicans, are few, he said, and not appealing.

Knobel's Options

"There is a very modest swirl of options," said Mr. Knobel, adding he might have something to announce on that subject in the next week or two.

He was a bayman before and after he ventured into politics.

As for the problems a new party leader must address, Mr. Knobel said he saw them as "opportunities that beckon."

"If everything was perfection," he said, "there would be no great need to change."

The Federal Environmental Protection Agency is considering a $50,000 grant application from a coalition of East End organizations that want to hire experts to help them understand the technical aspects of the radioactive and chemical pollution from Brookhaven National Lab, the possible health and environmental effects, and the science behind cleaning it all up.

Standing for Truth About Radiation, the antinuclear group founded by Dr. Helen Caldicott and based in East Hampton, and Fish Unlimited, a Shelter Island conservation group, have applied for the grant on behalf of a committee of environmental organizations that also includes Group for the South Fork.

Carrie Clark, a spokeswoman for STAR, said the committee would decide how the money was spent but thought it would pay an expert to teach its members about the science of pollution and speak for them as well.

Zig Schmitt, a former East Hampton town attorney, died of brain cancer at home on Monday. He had been diagnosed with the disease in August. Mr. Schmitt was 52 and lived on Buell Lane in East Hampton.

Mr. Schmitt was born in Miami on Dec. 21, 1945, the son of the former Lila Greenspan and W. Gordon Schmitt. He grew up in Miami Beach, attended the Hill School in Pottstown, Pa., and graduated from Harvard College in 1968. He received a master's degree from the Harvard School of Education the following year.

That same year he married Jill Keefe, with whom he lived in Cambridge and New York City until 1971, when they moved to Fresh Pond Road in Amagansett. Their only child, Molly, was born in 1973. The marriage ended in divorce in 1982.

Soon after arriving here, Mr. Schmitt joined the Amagansett Fire Department and served as one of its first emergency medical technicians.

He and his family left the area temporarily in 1975 while he attended the University of Miami Law School. Returning to the South Fork, Mr. Schmitt became a partner, with Thomas Twomey and Stephen Latham, in the Riverhead law firm then called Twomey Latham & Schmitt.

He was practicing there when he was tapped as town attorney in 1980 by the first Democratic majority elected to the Town Board in half a century. At a time when developers and the town were locked in bitter battle, Mr. Schmitt worked to pass environmental legislation, including upzonings on Napeague.

After the Democrats were turned out of office in 1981 Mr. Schmitt joined the law offices of Leonard Ackerman in East Hampton. He practiced there for about five years and afterward remained of counsel to the firm.

He was, said Mr. Ackerman, not only a law partner but a good friend and confidant whose insights and integrity were highly valued. "When I had to make a hard decision on something, he would be the one I'd call."

Mr. Schmitt interrupted his law practice to investigate questions surrounding the death of his brother Michael in Miami. Afterward he spent several years successfully litigating a trust dispute on behalf of his family before the Illinois Supreme Court.

"These experiences refined his character and changed his life," said another brother, David.

Those close to Mr. Schmitt agree he emerged from these events with a clear sense of purpose. He spent the rest of his life dealing with family legal and financial matters, as well as providing the sage advice and counsel upon which his friends and acquaintances came to rely.

Friends and family described Mr. Schmitt as an engaging and complex person with a quick wit. He thrived on challenging work and good conversation, bringing to both an uncommon tenacity and keen moral sense.

"Zig was brilliant in the fullest sense. He had an absolutely scintillating intellect, a blend of incisive analysis and the wildest flights of inventiveness," said a longtime friend, Winifred Rosen of Springs.

"I've never known a more voracious or eclectic reader," she added.

He read his favorite book, "Don Quixote," over and over again. He also devoured the writings of Aristotle, Montaigne, Sun-tzu, Beckett, Emerson, and William Burroughs, among others, not to mention a daily stack of newspapers and periodicals, Ms. Rosen said.

He shared his love of books with friends, who became accustomed to receiving books such as "The Complete Essays of Montaigne" and "The Seven Military Classics of China" as Christmas presents.

Friends described Mr. Schmitt as an eccentric who lived life on his own terms. He loved his work and spent many hours in the basement of his house, which he called his "bunker," surrounded by bankers' boxes that he used as filing cabinets, his Macintosh computer, Viticcio Chianti, and music.

He was idiosyncratic in his enthusiasms. Once he found something he liked, he stuck with it. He invariably wore gray or khaki trousers and a light-blue Brooks Brothers button-down shirt. Each day he ate lunch, and sometimes breakfast, at the same restaurant. He drove Volvo station wagons and listened each night to BBC news on a short-wave radio.

He is survived by his daughter, Molly, of New York City, his brother, who lives in Miami, a niece, Maggie Schmitt of Cambridge, Mass., and his companion of the past year, Jackie Worth of Sag Harbor.

A funeral service is scheduled tomorrow, Friday, at 12:30 p.m. at the Jewish Center of the Hamptons, of which he was a member. Burial will follow in the Jewish Center's cemetery off Accabonac Highway in Springs. S.M

New Swan

Springs

December 26, 1997

Dear Helen:

One of the most welcome holiday gifts for all who appreciate great beauty in outdoor life is the presence these days of two beautiful white swans instead of one beautiful lonesome swan who swam solo far too long.

May they have many peaceful and contented years together paddling around in those special classy waters.

Talk about joy to the world. Feast your eyes!

I just hope and pray the new member is not on a visiting fellowship!

Sincerely,

BARBARA HOTCHKISS POSENER

Mismeasured Fish

Tuckerton, N.J.

December 23, 1997

Dear Editor,

The East Hampton Star recently carried mention of Carl Safina's having been ticketed for a 27-inch striped bass (the legal length is 28 inches). It happens that I am the person who caught the fish in Dr. Safina's boat and accidentally mismeasured it and put it in the cooler. It was an honest mistake.

The conservation officer intended to cite me, but Dr. Safina received the ticket because I had left my identification ashore. I have fished with Dr. Safina for about five years, and he maintains the utmost conservation standards, often taking fewer fish than he is legally entitled to.

In fact, the day before, he insisted that we release an 80-pound mako shark we had caught, pronouncing it "too small." I regret this unfortunate mixup over the striped bass, and the incident should in no way reflect on Dr. Safina, who was steering the boat under crowded conditions when I caught the fish and mistakenly announced it to be of legal size and put it in the fish box.

Sincerely,

DAVID NEMERSON

Paper Ballots

Amagansett

December 23, 1997

Dear Helen:

Irving and Bertha Gladstone's letter in The Star of Dec. 18 raised a question about the legality of voting by paper ballots in the recent Amagansett School vote on the proposal to acquire the Mitchell property.

Article 41 of the Education Law sets forth the procedures to be followed in school district elections. Section 2032 specifically authorizes the use of paper ballots. While voting machines may be used, they are not mandatory.

Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone's belief "that unless the voting is recorded by a machine count and supervised in the approved manner, the outcome of the votes case (sic) must be declared null and void" is simply incorrect.

Thank you for your attention.

Very truly yours,

JOHN P. COURTNEY

Attorney

Amagansett School District

Dreaded Shadow

Dublin, Ireland

December 29, 1997

Dear Mrs. Rattray:

A decision regarding the restarting of Brookhaven's high flux beam reactor has been tabled until after the 1998 election, which is good news for area politicians like Michael Forbes, Alfonse D'Amato, George Pataki, and Dennis Vacco, all of whom are up for re-election in the fall of the New Year.

News reports have Forbes and Vacco on the record recognizing the possibility that the reactor might conceivably never restart. However, much of the recent dialogue as reported in the news media talks about conditions under which a restart of the troubled reactor might occur.

Some news reports have a prominent panel of scientific researchers, the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee, calling for the reactor to be restarted as soon as possible at double the current capacity. Other items have the State Attorney General's office considering criminal indictments against Brookhaven National Laboratory's recently booted management contractor of 50 years, Associated Universities.

Whatever Long Islanders are led to believe by local media and elected officials, it is important as we round the corner into 1998 to refocus on the central facts of this issue.

Brookhaven National Laboratory is operating a nuclear reactor on its 5,300-acre facility in Suffolk County on top of the area's sole-source aquifer. Associated Universities was fired by the Department of Energy for failing to report in a timely manner the discovery of a tritium leak into the groundwater from a spent fuel-rod pool. The leak went undetected for 12 years.

The release of tritium into the environment is in addition to other toxic materials (solvents, chemicals) that have made Brookhaven an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site, one of the great wonders of the toxic-waste world.

Meanwhile, cancer rates on Long Island, particularly in Suffolk County, are among the highest in the United States. Of particular interest is an apparent cluster of a rare form of cancer, rabdo-myo sarcoma, within a 15-mile radius of B.N.L. The instances of this form of cancer near B.N.L. are reported to be 300 times the United States average. Three hundred times.

Medical experts at the University of Pittsburgh who specialize in the study of rabdo-myo sarcoma believe that exposure to low levels of radiation is the likely cause of the disease.

The story of B.N.L., its history of contamination of the laboratory area and perhaps beyond, the strong desire of Stony Brook University (B.N.L.'s new management contractor) to put the crisis behind it and the question of what exactly is the scope of radioactive contamination and what is the link between that contamination and the area's numbing levels of cancer are all issues that must not be tabled until after the 1998 election.

Whether Vacco's office prosecutes officials of Associated Universities or not is irrelevant. Indictments are no substitute for an independent and reliable report on what is really going on at Brookhaven.

Considering that Long Islanders are already paying the enormous $5.5-billion tab handed to them by the Long Island Lighting Company for the Shoreham fiasco, it is all the more disturbing that threats to public health and safety from nuclear power continue to be a difficult issue for the area.

When confronted with the choice of incomprehensibly expensive energy by way of nuclear power (and no foreseeable reduction in rates) and taking a $5.5-billion spit in the face from LILCO, Long Islanders made it clear how they felt about nuclear contamination. They bit the bullet and opted to pay (and pay and pay) while LILCO shareholders escaped meaningful responsibility for the gross mismanagement of the utility.

Five-and-a-half-billion dollars later, Long Island still lives in the shadow of this dreaded contamination. This time, however, it is not a group of stockholders, but a team of scientists who seek protection from accountability by claiming that their important work cannot live without the reactor.

Unfortunately for B.N.L., the question right now is: What is more important, the jobs of 3,200 people at B.N.L. or the health and safety and peace of mind of millions of Long Islanders, as well as their environment?

There is only one sensible conclusion that public officials can impose on B.N.L., and Stony Brook as well, whether these officials are up for re-election in '98 or not. The answer is to close all nuclear reactors on Long Island (both at B.N.L.) immediately. Nuclear reactors do not belong in residential areas, particularly high density areas, and B.N.L. is the awful proof as to why not.

Respectfully,

ALEC BALDWIN

P.S. Letters from area residents regarding this issue should be addressed to Secretary Pena at the U.S. Department of Energy.

Please address correspondence to [email protected]

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

Everyone who lives in the Town of East Hampton, everyone who has ever lived there, and everyone who just happens to be passing through the town on Sunday has been invited to Guild Hall to help celebrate the official kickoff of the 350th anniversary of the town's founding.

The Main Street cultural center will be open to all comers from noon to 4 p.m. that day. The free event will begin at about 1 with welcoming remarks from dignitaries: Henry Korn, president of Guild Hall, Bruce Collins, chairman of the 350th Anniversary Committee, Paul F. Rickenbach Jr., Mayor of East Hampton Village, Cathy Lester, East Hampton Town Supervisor, and Hugh R. King, the official town crier and a member of the anniversary committee.

Part of Sunday's formal program will take place outdoors. The Long Island Companies of the Third New York Regiment, with fife and drum and a real musket salute, will lead the celebrants to the flagpole at the village green following the opening remarks. There, the brand-new blue-and-cream 350th anni versary flag, bearing the official seal designed by Frank Borth of Montauk, will be raised.

Afterward, there will be an opportunity for a last look at "The Moran Family Legacy" in Guild Hall's galleries. The retrospective of work by members of a prominent East Hampton art family, which has been on display since October, will close at the end of the day.

The new Children's Museum of the East End, which is housed at Guild Hall until it finds a permanent home, will be open as well.

Sunday's is the first of a great many anniversary-related events to be held in the coming year. Complete information about all of them, as they approach, will be found on this page throughout 1998.

The Star is seeking photographs of vanished places; buildings or other structures that once were part of East Hampton life, but no longer exist. So, too, is Averill Dayton Geus, who is compiling a commemorative book, as part of her work with the 350th Anniversary Committee. The Dominy house is seen above.

Suffolk County has filed suit in State Supreme Court challenging Gov. George E. Pataki's plan to have the Long Island Power Authority partially take over the Long Island Lighting Company.

Legislator George O. Guldi, whose district includes East Hampton and Southampton Towns, described the lawsuit as a "beginning foray" by the county "in our opposition to the Pataki deal."

Mr. Guldi, a Westhampton Beach Democrat and a staunch opponent of the Pataki plan, said the lawsuit was part of "the many levels of opposition" that the Suffolk Legislature will mount.

Law Pre-Empts Utilities

Meanwhile, LIPA, in a letter sent to local officials throughout Long Island, has warned that establishment of municipal utility entities is no longer possible because of the state law that created the power authority in 1986.

This law "pre-empts any Long Island municipality from condemning any portion of the electric system in its town," said Richard Kessel, the the LIPA chairman. There are currently three municipal utilities on Long Island: in Freeport, Rockville Centre, and Greenport.

Mr. Kessel noted in his letter that some villages in Nassau and Suffolk have been considering municipal utilities, too, believing that electric rates could be significantly lowered through them.

"Preposterous" Promises

"Promises of 40 to 50 percent rate reductions are preposterous," said Mr. Kessel. "The only viable, workable plan that will significantly lower electric rates on Long Island is Governor Pataki's plan, which will reduce electric rates an average of 17 percent Islandwide."

The Suffolk lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in Mineola on Dec. 18, asks that the LIPA vote of Aug. 21 ratifying the $7.3 billion Pataki deal be invalidated because, it charges, LIPA at the same time shifted some of its power to set rates to the State Public Authorities Control Board.

That board is composed of the Governor, the Assembly Speaker, and Senate majority leader. The Suffolk lawsuit claims the board has no legal powers to set rates.

Earlier Lawsuit

"In simple terms," said Mr. Guldi, "what we are charging is that instead of being faithful to the reason that LIPA was created in the first place - to set energy policy on Long Island - it has become an instrument to implement a political agenda of selected state officials. It has become a political arm of the Governor, and that is unlawful."

However, Mr. Kessel maintained that the shift in rate powers was legal and all that Suffolk County was doing was "wasting taxpayer money. . . . There is no merit to this lawsuit, and I am very confident it will be thrown out of court once it's argued."

The filing of the Suffolk lawsuit followed the filing of a lawsuit also challenging the LIPA-LILCO plan by the Brigehampton-based Citizens Advisory Panel, a Federal court-appointed LILCO watchdog group, and the New York Public Interest Research Group.

Seek To Block Plan

In November, these groups brought litigation in State Supreme Court in Albany to block the plan, charging its approval by the Public Authorities Control Board was "improper, arbitrary, and capricious" because the board signed off on it without complying with the State Environmental Quality Review Act. The board approved the LILCO-LIPA plan in July.

The Citizens Advisory Panel, established in 1989 as part of a settlement of a lawsuit against LILCO brought under the Federal Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations law and the New York Public Interest Research Group, created by consumer activist Ralph Nader, filed for an Article 78 injunction.

Suffolk County's lawsuit came as the Suffolk Legislature allocated $800,000 for a wide-ranging challenge to the LILCO-LIPA deal including litigation by the county and intervention before state and Federal agencies still required to consider the pact.

Opponents Claim "Bailout"

Mr. Pataki, in announcing the plan last March, said it would reduce electric rates on Long Island by 17 percent primarily because LIPA need not pay taxes and the bonds it floats are tax-exempt.

LIPA would acquire the transmission and distribution system of LILCO and assume its $4 billion debt on its now defunct Shoreham nuclear plant project.

Opponents, including most members of the Suffolk Legislature, hold the deal is a "bailout" for LILCO and, among other things, question the claimed rate-savings, criticize the public absorption of the LILCO Shoreham debt, and the plan's arrangement for LILCO to continue to own its generating facilities and be the near-exclusive provider of electricity for Long Island.

Hydro Unavailable

Mr. Kessel, a Nassau Democrat, also said in his Dec. 15 letter that those who claim that the municipal utilities in Freeport, Rockville Centre, and Greenport are good models are not in tune with the times.

"All three Long Island municipal electric utilities trace their origins to the turn of the century," said Mr. Kessel, and they use "very inexpensive . . . hydro power from the New York Power Authority to meet nearly all of their power needs."

"Any new municipal electric utility would be unable to purchase such inexpensive NYPA hydro power until after at least the year 2013, since such hydro power is fully committed under contracts until then . . . due to the dependence of current municipal systems on the existing supply."

When muskets salute the raising of East Hampton Town's 350th anniversary flag during Sunday's kickoff ceremony and celebration, a year of planning will come to fruition, and Bruce Collins, chairman of the anniversary committee, will breathe a sigh of relief.

Mr. Collins was tapped by Town Supervisor Cathy Lester a year ago to pull together the key players who will supervise the year's events marking the founding of the town. He has met twice a month since then with the members of his central and executive committees to brainstorm and plan.

"If I can get past Jan. 4, I'll be very happy," said Mr. Collins last week. "I think it's going to be an interesting year."

A former East Hampton Town Supervisor, Town Board member, Town Superintendent of Highways, and East Hampton Village Superintendent of Public Works, Mr. Collins was coaxed out of a planned retirement to head the anniversary commemoration. Plans to "spend more time with the family" were put on hold.

"Very reluctantly, I finally agreed to do it," he said. "I'm very glad I have."

In the course of the year the committee agreed on a core of celebratory events and alerted just about every school and civic, religious, or environmental group in town to the anniversary. Subcommittees were created to oversee finances, fund-raising, a monthly lecture series, the big October parade, and the souvenir map, calendar, and quilt.

Though he does not say so until pressed, the chairman of the celebration was "born and raised here, and my people, and the people before them."

"Through the Bennetts and the Kings and the Paynes," his lineage "goes back to the earliest times here."

While that makes Mr. Collins familiar with town history, he is not, he said, a historian.

"What I know is just by hook and crook."

Mr. Collins's work, and that of everyone else involved, is really just beginning as 1998 commences.

Various organizations are still making plans for tie-in projects that will be added to the lineup throughout the year. It will be a full one, already chock-full of events.

Despite an emphatic denial from Adelaide de Menil's assistant, a report in Tuesday's New York Post that Ms. de Menil's East Hampton estate will sell for a jaw-dropping $90 million has the South Fork real estate world in a frenzy this week.

"It is simply not true," Margit Mason, Ms. de Menil's assistant in New York, said Tuesday. She said she had fielded calls from around the country, and the world, on the story, but that the Further Lane estate had not been sold.

The Post stuck by its story yesterday, naming the buyer as "Swedish investment whiz Robert Weil," who has rented from Ms. de Menil and her husband, Edmund Carpenter, for several summers.

The rumored sale, which could not be independently confirmed, would, if it is true, set a new record for East Hampton and for the country.

"It certainly sends a loud signal to people who say the real estate bubble has burst when almost weekly new records are being set out here," Frank Newbold, an East Hampton broker, said Tuesday. "The amazing thing is how fast the records fall."

"I don't see any bubble. I don't see the possibility of a bubble," said Dolly Lenz of Prudential Douglas Elliman. Ms. Lenz is the broker who closed the $45 million deal on Burnt Point in Wainscott, the previous South Fork record, last winter. She is also representing the owner of the 15-acre property next door to Burnt Point on Georgica Pond, which is on the market for $35 million.

"The first thing he did this morning is call me," Ms. Lenz said of her client. "Because of this sale, he's going to raise his price." The reasoning, she said, is that the Georgica Pond property has "better land, is more developable, and it's really waterfront because there are no Double Dunes." Ms. Lenz has shown the de Menil property when it was for rent in the past and seemed certain on Tuesday that the rumor of a pending sale was true.

The 40-acre estate is at the edge of the protected Atlantic Double Dunes abutting a pristine stretch of ocean beach. "It's primeval. I think it's the way it looked 100 years ago, which is so rare," Mr. Newbold said. The estate is "extraordinary," he said.

The property boasts half a dozen restored 18th and 19th-century houses and barns moved there over the years by Ms. de Menil, an oil heiress and photographer, and Mr. Carpenter.

The two bought the land in 1973 and begin to acquire old buildings in need of a new home the following year. The first was the 1747 Hand house, which once stood next door to the Amagansett Farmers Market. After that, Mr. Carpenter told The New York Times in 1974, "the word was out. We were offered every old house that came on the market."

They added to their collection an 1820 house from Cutchogue; the Purple House, built in 1773 and moved from East Hampton's Main Street; an 1820 Bridgehampton barn; the 1730 Peach Farm, from Northwest Woods, and an 18th-century barn from East Hampton's North Main Street.

The property also has a two-acre manmade pond and many acres of workable farmland.

The Post said the sale was handled privately, without any broker. Such a sale is unusual, Ms. Lenz said. "Most purchasers aren't confident enough to buy without a broker," she said. Whether or not the report is true, it is likely to make more sellers, like Ms. Lenz's client, reassess the value of their high-end properties.

"If it's prime property, if it's waterfront, if it's in the estate section, it's hard to even attach a value to it," she said. However, "this really raises the bar again."

The real estate market "parallels the fine art market," Mr. Newbold said. "If it's unique, if it's the best of the breed, it commands a top price."