No merchant wants to turn away paying customers, but that's what they had to do with some 500 carloads of them in Montauk 50 years ago on July Fourth weekend, when every "nook and cranny" of overnight accommodation was spoken for.

On July Fourth weekend this year, one Montauk restaurateur was forced to close his door to prospective patrons on one of his busiest nights ever. As an East Hampton Town fire marshal pointed out to him on July 3, the place was simply too full.

According to David DiSunno, the chief fire marshal, his office has made 256 inspections of bars and restaurants since Memorial Day. In the summer season, Mr. DiSunno said, his staff makes late-night inspections of bars and restaurants from Wainscott to Montauk every weekend.

"We're focused on life safety," he explained. "After what happened in Rhode Island, tensions rose."

He was referring to a fire in a nightclub that killed 96 people in West Warwick in 2003. Afterward, he said, he received letters from Gov. George E. Pataki's office and from Bill McGintee, the town supervisor, asking him to "step up enforcement."

"We try to keep a lid on it," he said of overcrowding, but the problem "comes and goes." It was, he said, a "major problem in the late '70s and early '80s. Now it's back again."

So, on July Fourth weekend, Tom Baker, a town fire marshal, headed east to check on the nightspots in Montauk that sometimes draw crowds well over what they can lawfully - and sometimes physically - fit. Shortly after midnight, he closed down Oyster Pond, a restaurant and bar just south of Montauk Highway in Montauk, because it had exceeded its 99-person capacity.

Paul Graves, an owner of the restaurant, asked Mr. Baker if he could cut the number back and stay open.

"He said no, shut it down," Mr. Graves said on Tuesday. He figured his business was off about 20 percent that night as a result.

Although his doorman counts heads at the restaurant's entrance, Mr. Graves said, he may sometimes indeed exceed the legal occupancy. "It tops out at around 105," he said.

The fire marshal had also visited Oyster Pond in June, issuing a citation for overcrowding. A hearing on that citation, which was scheduled for Monday in East Hampton Town court, was postponed.

The minimum fine for fire code violations is $250, and the maximum is $1,000 for each day a business operates in violation. After the department writes up a citation, the inspector will usually offer advice on how to keep the crowd smaller or how to safely accommodate a larger one, Mr. DiSunno said.

"They have been helpful," Mr. Graves said. At the fire marshal's suggestion, he said, he might add an emergency exit and remove some interior doors, and he is negotiating with a company to put in a fire suppression system.

Until then he has the task of keeping some people out of the bar. "There have been some uncomfortable moments as an owner," he said, "having to tell people who come here regularly they can't come in."

The Point Bar and Grill, also in Montauk, was fined $1,000 on June 27, also for having more customers inside than the fire code allowed.

Just across the street is another bar, the Memory Motel. The owner, Arthur Schneider, said had not been cited since he installed a sprinkler system when renovating the place last year. The fire code requires a fire suppression system for businesses with occupancy capacities over 100. Mr. Schneider can legally admit over 130 people.

"It's a safer environment for customers," he said, adding that, although initial cost of the sprinklers may be high, an insurance reduction "pays for the expense of the system in two and a half years."

Mr. DiSunno said there were three or four cases of overcrowding pending in the civil court system. If many seem to occur in Montauk, he said, it may be simply because there are so many bars and restaurants there.

In the winter months, Mr. DiSunno said, his department will only go to an establishment if there is a complaint. "It's a seasonal community, so we have a seasonal system," he said, adding that there are usually not enough patrons in bars during those months to fill them up.

But "I get complaints all the time" from residents and directly from the supervisor's office, he said.

Fire code violations can range from having highly flammable interiors to having blocked exits or not having a fire-suppression system, not to mention too many people.

Clearly, some bars with substantially lower capacities are still packing customers in, sometimes without the benefit of fire-extinguishing systems.

"In July and August, there are going to be more people coming into your business," said Mr. Graves, the Oyster Pond owner. "Everybody deals with it in one way or another. I don't think I'm alone."

Mr. DiSunno said he did not recall there being any fires at over-crowded bars in East Hampton Town - "not yet."

"Most people just don't think fire or tragedy can happen to them, but it can," he said.

"The most important thing is to never jeopardize anyone's safety," Mr. Graves said.

A new museum may be a part of East Hampton's future: a museum specifically for children. A first small taste may be had at Guild Hall from now through Jan. 11, and a reception is planned for this weekend.

We walked there from the village through falling leaves in the brilliant fading light of autumn, clean and crisp and cold. Once through the doors of Guild Hall we found ourselves in another time, but the same place.

Half the gallery space is devoted to an exhibit of art by the Moran family and half to a detailed response for children. The designers of the exhibit have understood the importance of space and environment, and the domestic Victorian timbre of the Moran paintings is reflected in the children's section.

Inside A Painting

You arrive inside a house. Drawn in by a large reproduction of a local scene (Moran's), you are suddenly in a room that is clearly of residential scale. As you become involved in the activities you step outside the house through openings in a wall sheathed in exterior clapboard to a sunny day.

You pass by diminutive farm stands, bridges over fresh ponds, the ocean beach, and off in the distance reachable by a few steps are the rolling farm fields for you to till.

The low walls of the interior space encourage a natural social flow. The openings, half walls, benches, and columns create enclosures that differentiate events and establish spaces devoted to children's play that are inviting.

Tile Club "Members"

The big inviting picture at the start of this adventure is covered with little doors that open to reveal a lesson behind the image: rocks and trees and houses with cows. Looking around, you might be drawn to imitate members of the once active Tile Club here by decorating a tile using rubber stamps, which have a local motif, and a sepia ink pad.

Over here there are more doors to open revealing images past and present of local street scenes, transport, beach wear, and fishing styles. There are funny old costumes to try on and a place to stick your head onto an old-fashioned body while looking into a wavy reflection suggesting a vision of yourself in the hazy past.

Ivy-Covered Cottage

The bright light draws you through to the gorgeous day outside - don't waste the sunlight hours, it calls. As you look back to orient yourself you find the exterior clapboard walls acknowledging that, yes, you were in a little ivy-covered cottage on Egypt Lane, but the rich produce of this verdant land awaits. I'll take a pound of potatoes, please. What is that digital cash register doing there?

Some more doors open to tell you what can be made from corn, a brightly back-lit bowl of corn chips brings a laugh of surprise every time.

There is a lovely bridge to fish from with all sorts of fish to catch and then release through matching cutouts in the wall behind. The crabs and striped bass make a slippery journey in the wall and return to the sea below the anglers. The sea animal puppets at the beach and the felt figure farm scene complete the tour inside and outside in history in this place.

Somewhat Synthetic

The exhibit is sophisticated if a little too synthetic. It felt as though this might have been a carefully researched and designed exhibit for youngsters originated, imagined, from some place far away. It is correct, it is fun, it is informative, but it isn't here. It seemed generic ye olde Hampton, ersatz East End.

The exhibit has absorbed and regurgitated in homogeneous palatable form the East End experience. It is the Disney-ization of substance.

While I confess to having fun shopping with my son for the perfect rubber potatoes and nectarines, it made me wonder what the cost of the unusually life-like rubber vegetables might be compared to the real things, too familiar to our country kids.

Should Travel

Perhaps this presentation should travel to inner-cities to be seen by children who may never have seen a real apple in a farm stand basket. Unfortunately, there are better places around town to experience old time East Hampton, Mulford Farm just up the road, for instance.

These are our streets and our light, it isn't Florida or Southern California. We really do live here and not only buy but eat those potatoes, catch and eat those fish. Has it really changed that much?

The East End is a peculiar place for children in winter. When the natural world quiets down and becomes less inviting under gales and freezing rain, there is little for children to do outside of the home.

For A Rainy Day

The idea of a place for the younger set to gather with their elders has been floating around for years, complete with poetic maternal visions of a dynamic and interactive environment that could, like this, originate and cultivate exhibits.

Certainly every adult we met at Guild Hall was thrilled to be enjoying the company of their kids in this venerable local institution, to be welcomed to a generously detailed environment given over to and specially conceived for children that will last for a couple of months.

This is more than a place to learn, a place to play, an occupation for a rainy day, however. It is a place to find like-minded souls. Even the children cannot fail to make the connection of place and the little activity room - how are we different? they ask. Perhaps we are not.

Culture Moms

In general local institutions have not risen to the needs of the astonishing numbers of families settling here year-round. This exhibit marks a beginning.

The determined and effective mothers responsible for the Children's Museum of the East End have created something wonderful and have executed it with enormous professionalism. Is this group of women the logical extension of the successful soccer mom: the culture mom?

I am delighted and impressed if a little disappointed that this should have been so long in coming and perhaps over-thought.

What can we wish for in this budding institution? I dream of a place that questions and examines a sense of time, a sense of place, a sense of me, a sense of them, a sense of here and a new awareness of now.

To Be Applauded

On the order of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Mercer collection in Doylestown, and the Liberty Science Center this would be museum as attic, as graveyard, as department store - an archive and a treasury. It would be interactive: a place for the chance encounter of a real kid with a real thing which leads to unforeseen reverberations for both.

The museum would be a guide, almost parental, creating little tours that construct authentic introductions to reality that could, by example, lead to experiences of otherness. The museum acts as a map introducing a sense of locating oneself in both time and place.

I applaud Guild Hall for including this in its schedule. It was fun and didactic: a warm well-lighted space clearly proclaiming the belief that creative, active individuals will grow up in a society that emphasizes learning over teaching.

Inspirational Mix

I hope the children are shown both rooms, the pictures along with the children's space, and get it all mixed up in their minds with the actual family that lived just down the street. Did any child clamor to drive down Egypt Lane after leaving the museum to see the house where Thomas Moran lived in the same way young Japanese flock to Prince Edward Island to be married in the exact spot as the author of "Anne of Green Gables"?

I trust that a permanent place that continues to be thought-provoking and engaging will be created by this dynamic group for the younger crowd in our area.

The alchemical mix of art, place, artifact, and imagination are an experience that we have here in abundance. This is an inspiring encounter that I can only hope will grow to include us all.

The A&P Corporation may be down, but it's not out in its fight to build a large new supermarket on the former Stern's department store site in East Hampton.

The supermarket conglomerate submitted a new set of plans on Nov. 14, The Star has learned, calling for a roughly 24,000-square-foot building that it contends meets zoning regulations, despite the town's new superstore law.

Town officials disagree.

The new concept is for two separate but adjoining retail stores, under the same roof. Each is drawn to measure just under 10,000 square feet, the maximum size for a building in a neighborhood business zone. One store measures 9,999 square feet; the other, 9,984.

Are They Supermarkets?

The size of the stores frees them from being classified as supermarkets, A&P contends. Supermarkets and superstores are prohibited in districts zoned for neighborhood business.

A&P's lawyer, William Esseks of the Riverhead firm of Esseks, Hefter, and Angel, called the new application "an attempt by A&P to mitigate the damages that it is suffering as a result of the town's superstore law."

The passage of the law effectively quashed the company's plans for a single, 34,878-square-foot supermarket at the Stern's site.

Federal Lawsuit

The A&P Corporation filed suit in Federal District Court a year ago this month, charging the law was unconstitutional and seeking to repeal or modify it.

Mr. Esseks made it clear in a letter accompanying the new application that he believes the company is entitled to build the original store.

The lawyer argued Tuesday that the new plan conformed with the Stern's site's neighborhood business zoning as well as the superstore legislation.

Any Delicatessen

The two stores proposed cannot be classified as supermarkets, he said, because the code defines a supermarket as a superstore (10,000 square feet or over) that sells predominantly food items.

"We're building two retail stores under 10,000 square feet that sell the same types of goods that any delicatessen sells," said Mr. Esseks.

"The A&P can run a retail store of 9,999 square feet according to the code . . . the property is zoned to allow retail use and we're coming in with a retail use. A use is a use."

Town Disagrees

Richard Whalen, a deputy town attorney who helped draft the superstore law, did not agree. If there is a loophole in the superstore law, the A&P hasn't found it, he suggested.

"It clearly doesn't meet zoning," said Mr. Whalen. "There's no dispute about it at all. I don't know if [Mr. Esseks] didn't read the code or didn't understand it."

The Town Code's new definition of a superstore, he pointed out, notes that "a building whose gross floor area equals or exceeds 10,000 square feet shall be considered a superstore, even if it contains one or more retail stores."

Two Superstores?

Additionally, the definition considers any store located within a 10,000-square-foot building a superstore. Thus, each of the two A&P stores could be considered supermarkets, which are also prohibited in neighborhood business zones, he said.

Mr. Whalen also disputed A&P's calculation of the size of the stores.

Though the stores are designated as being below the limit, the sketch submitted to the Town Planning Department accompanying them depicts six "accessory" buildings attached to the main building, each nearly 600 square feet.

If the space is "under the same roof, in the same building," it is considered part of the floor space, said Mr. Whalen.

Liquori: 'Posturing'?

To separate the "accessory" portions, such as two entry vestibules, "is like saying your guest bedroom is an accessory building to your house," the town's lawyer said.

The town planning director, Lisa Liquori, said she too was miffed by the new site plan.

"They didn't even attempt to meet zoning. To me, this is the original application with a few lines drawn on it," said Ms. Liquori.

"I was wondering whether this thing was being done for posturing [in the lawsuit]," she added.

Parking In Front

Apart from the building, the rest of the site plan resembles the previous plan, with a main entrance at the intersection of Montauk Highway and Spring Close Road and a parking lot containing more than 180 spaces in the front of the building.

One of the recommendations in the recent Amagansett Corridor Study was that parking for new commercial sites be located to the side and rear.

Mr. Esseks stressed the A&P's preference for the original store in his letter to the Town Planning Department:

"If the litigation in the U.S. District Court is successful and/or the superstore law is repealed or modified, A&P will reassert its right to have the 34,878-square-foot retail store application processed and approved," he wrote.

AMAGANSETT

Strong Jr. to Fred and John Passarella, Montauk Highway, $175,000.

Schnittlich to Robert Espach, Katie Lane, $175,000.

Bowen to Ako-Preven Partnership, Hampton Lane, $180,000.

Jaeger to Lewis and Karen Meyers, Wyandanch Lane, $315,000.

Glidden Jr. to Ann Noonan Trust, Pepperidge Lane, $345,000.

Schoener Prop. to Stanley and Harriet Goldstein, Central Avenue, $350,000.

Sacks to Marie Hayden, Atlantic Avenue, $935,000.

BRIDGEHAMPTON

Leahy to Scuttlehole Properties L.L.C., Tony Tiska's Path, $175,000.

Volkman to Andrew and Beverly Milano, Arthur Avenue, $210,000.

Conlon to Frederick Schmeltzer, Hildreth Avenue, $485,000.

Corwin to Rofo Enterprises Inc., Matthews Lane, $850,000.

EAST HAMPTON

Tolli to Bryan H. Hart and Kathryn O'Shea, Butternut Drive, $159,000.

Zazarino to Cynthia Goyette, Crystal Drive, $175,000.

Dannemann to Nancy and Robert Tabor, Bull Path, $221,000.

New Sunshine Realty to Allan Hirsch and Shigeko Ando, Kalman Court, $290,000.

Marano to Suzanne Sobel, Horseshoe Drive North, $340,000.

Homes by Arbia Ltd. to Jerrold Schwabe and Barbara Sansone, Cordwood Lane, $415,000.

Homes by Arbia Ltd. to Robert Likoff, Dongan Way, $509,000.

Ryan to Donna Weiss, Hedges Banks Drive, $1,500,000.

Segal to Jericho Close 5 Inc., Jericho Close Lane, $400,000.

Segal to Jericho Close 5 Inc., Jericho Close Lane, $900,000.

MONTAUK

Pisciotto Fisheries Inc. to Marie Pisciotto, East Lake Drive, $200,000.

Paitchel to Craig and Sally Sakin, Adams Drive, $215,000.

Adler to Patrick and Amber Santinello, Dogwood Street, $305,000.

Rattiner to Bradley and Marie Fenton, Kettlehole Road, $582,000.

Stahl to Michael Meagher, Fisherman's Road, $1,800,000.

NORTH HAVEN

North Haven Acquisition Corp. to William and Irene McCoy, North Haven Way, $119,000.

Carvelli to Suzanne Koster, Shelter Island Avenue, $307,500.

NORTHWEST

McMurdo to Tamara Wright, Spread Oak Lane, $429,000.

Alewive Woods Association to Diane Golkin, Terry's Trail, $210,000.

Dalton to J. Michael McMurdo, Sally's Path, $295,000.

SAG HARBOR

Goldberg to Herbert Walcoe, Deerfield Road, $340,000.

Gullong to Oka and Edith Usi, Deerfield Road, $585,000.

Kluge Estate to Steven and Julie Hatfield, Jermain Avenue, $280,000.

Lyons to Donald and Susan Sultan, Madison Street, $476,000.

Drexler to Alma Brown, Terry Drive, $490,000.

SAGAPONACK

Lester to Ruth Fleming, Sagg Main, $305,000.

Bridgehampton Acquisition Corp. to Rosana Alvarez, Ranch Court, $320,000.

Blundin to James and Diane Burke and Phyllis Davis, Daniel's Lane, $945,000.

SPRINGS

Johnson to James Mahoney, Sherwood Lane, $155,000.

Mirza to James Abernathy, Water's Edge Road, $395,000.

Mirza to Kevin Abernathy, Water's Edge Road, $395,000.

Weinstein to Karen and Barbara Rubenstein, King's Point Road, $237,000.

WATER MILL

Ameron Land Corp. to C.J. Routh Jr., Little Noyac Path, $165,000.

Southpaw Inc. to Henry Kraszewski, Noyac Path, $400,000.

Little II to Charles and Natacha Casale, Lower Seven Ponds Road, $630,000.

Genovese to Larry and Daisy Schwimmer, Stephen Halsey's Path, $690,000.

Lowy to Alan and Valerie Woltz, West Mecox Road, $937,500.

The Southampton Town Board met with representatives of the State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Army Corps of Engineers on Monday to discuss how the town can develop a "breach contingency plan" to protect town beaches from storm erosion.

The board's action follows a series of weekend storms that have wiped out the dune at W. Scott Cameron Beach in Bridgehampton and which many people say has been exacerbated by a cofferdam constructed by William Rudin to protect a dune restoration project at his property.

Pavilion Plan

Over the next 30 days, the town "will identify where potential breach hazards exist and develop plans to close them," said Supervisor Vincent Cannuscio. Now, the town only has plans for areas just west of the Shinnecock Inlet and in Westhampton Beach, he added.

The town would be better served by having a "proactive plan instead of responding to problems that arise," Mr. Cannuscio said.

In the meantime, the Town Board last week announced that it would hold off on replacing the pavilion at the beach, which was destroyed by fire a year ago. The town had planned to build the structure on the site of the old one, near the dune, but will now consider moving it farther from harm's way.

Last year, the Parks Department provided portable lavatories at the beach. It will likely do so again next year.

Although town workers had to move hundreds of yards of sand to shore up the dune at Cameron Beach, the town has not blamed the erosion on a 300-foot-long cofferdam at the Rudin property.

Settle Lawsuit

The town approved a permit for the work to settle a $75 million lawsuit filed by Mr. Rudin and his neighbors who wanted to build a series of revetments along their oceanfront boundaries off Dune Road.

Mr. Cannuscio generally agreed with Mr. Rudin's assessment that an "erosional hot spot was probably causing the damage." He said Charles Hamilton of the D.E.C. reported that approximately 140 feet of beach had eroded at Cameron since May 1997.

Putting In Overtime

"The erosion was occurring without the intervention of the Rudin cofferdam," Mr. Cannuscio said, although he added the structure, which rises 15 feet above sea level and forms a solid barrier against the surf, "may have worsened the situation, but I don't know the answer to that."

Mr. Rudin's permit for the cofferdam expires on Dec. 6. Workers have been putting in overtime to complete the project by that deadline.

The Town Board held a formal meeting on Tuesday. Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, it has canceled its Friday work session this week. The board will hold its next work session on Friday, Dec. 5.

An injured female harbor seal was rescued by the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation on Nov. 12. An East Hampton Town police officer spotted the young seal on the beach east of Napeague Lane, Amagansett.

Dr. Robert Pisciotta of the North Fork Animal Hospital treated the 30-pound seal, which was probably born in May or June in the New England area, for abscessed wounds, a respiratory infection, and several fractured ribs. It was reported in guarded condition.

The Riverhead Foundation, which conducts New York State's marine mammal and stranding program, recovered about 120 seals last year. Last week's injured seal was the first of the 1997-98 count. Thirty-two seals were sighted hauled out on the rocks by Oyster Pond, Montauk, Friday morning.

On Saturday, Kim Durham, director of the stranding program, traveled to Montauk to retrieve a green turtle, about 2 or 3 years old, found dead on the beach at Fort Pond Bay. During its autopsy a small microchip with a serial number, known as a "pit tag," was discovered. The chip has been sent to the Southeast Fisheries Laboratory in Florida, which will have a record of where the turtle was tagged.

Montauk's Catholic community numbered 60 in 1930 when the walls of St. Therese of Lisieux Church were first raised on land donated by Carl Fisher, the developer with dreams of making Montauk the Miami Beach of the North.

The roof of the Tudor-style structure was held up by four wooden trusses, the very same trusses that, for most of the past year, have held up the church's fitful, decade-long resurrection. It may finally be at hand.

During the celebration of Mass on Saturday evening and again on Sunday morning, Father Peter, as St. Therese's priest, Msgr. Peter Libasci, is known, was finally able to tell his flock that seven new trusses, which are to be added to the original four to support a new, larger church, were in production after complicated delays. He received standing ovations.

The truss problem was only the latest setback in what has been an emotionally trying period for Montauk's Catholic faithful, who have been without a proper church since the original was deemed unsafe in 1995.

It has been a long road, unnecessarily long in the opinion of a number of parishioners who charged incompetence on the part of the Rockville Centre Archdiocese, of which St. Therese of Lisieux is a part. The parishioners said they wished to remain anonymous because it was time to forgive and forget.

The original church was built with money raised by immigrants from Nova Scotia including Eli Pitts, Leonard McDonald, Edgar Grimes, and Tom Joyce, whose families have remained active in the Montauk community ever since. The church was designed by McDenna and Irving, a firm that had been hired to build other churches for the Archdiocese of New York.

Sixty-five years later, in June of 1995, the church's 500 parishioners were told their church was unsafe. Its doors were locked the next month, and a chain link fence was placed around it. Weekly Masses, funerals, and weddings were moved across the street to the low-ceiling basement of the parish school, where they are still held today.

The move across Essex Street prompted a debate about whether the old church should be repaired, at an estimated cost of nearly $500,000, or razed and replaced by a new one, costing in the area of $3.5 million. The debate grew heated, so heated that a number of the flock took wing.

The fate of the beloved stucco church was still not decided by 1998 when, in the interest of peace, Bishop John R. McGann of the Rockville Centre Diocese imposed a moratorium on public discussion of it. The diocese favored a new church, but a poll taken in 1996 showed that the majority of parishioners supported repairing the old one.

The debate continued to rage behind the scenes, and it took its toll. The Rev. Raymond Nugent and Msgr. John C. Nosser, his successor, left the parish after failing to persuade parishioners to accept a new church. In 1998, church members were again polled, this time with five options, one of which was to build a church big enough to accommodate the growing congregation.

The Rev. Peter A. Libasci was brought in to calm the waters in June of 1999, and received a standing ovation from parishioners in May of the following year when he announced that the Priest Senate of Rockville Centre had granted approval to dismantle the old church and then rebuild it.

The new, 9,751-square-foot St. Therese would seat 516 instead of 197 worshipers, and it would incorporate four wooden trusses from the old church, as was the compromise wish of the parishioners. Construction was to have been completed by February of '04, its $3.5 million cost raised entirely from local sources.

The old church was demolished, and work on the new church began in the fall of 2002, but was delayed almost immediately by bad weather. Work began again in the spring of 2003, but was halted anew when consulting engineers hired by the diocese discovered cracks in the foundation.

Charles Grimes, a subcontractor on the project whose father helped build the original church, had predicted the cracks and refused to backfill the new foundation because the concrete had been poured, with the engineer's blessing, without the steel supports known as rebar. He quit the project, but said last week that he intended to stay on as a member of the church.

In January of 2004, Monsignor Libasci had the difficult task of informing his flock that the partially built foundation would have to be demolished and removed, and that the mistake would add an estimated $2 million to the $3.5 million price tag. The diocese, which acts as the overall administrator for the project, filed a lawsuit against the architects, Zwirko, Ortmann, and Issing of East Hampton, and against the engineers, Hawkins, Webb, and Jaeger of Port Jefferson.

They were replaced by the architectural firm of Denker Cackovic Architects of Nyack to work with the Clay Hines Engineering firm of Connecticut. The old trusses were placed in storage until new plans could be drawn up. Last week, Monsignor Libasci, who was promoted to monsignor by Pope John Paul II in January, explained what happened next.

Many Catholic churches are built in the shape of the cross. The altar is set where the transept, or crosspiece, intersects the nave, the longer part, which runs west to east in the case of St. Therese of Lisieux. The plan was for the four old trusses to support the roof of the transept, two to be located in each wing. Seven new trusses would support the roof of the nave.

"The old trusses were made 80 years ago. The measurements were imprecise, plus they have shrunk and twisted over the years. The new trusses were all computerized," with very exact measurements, Monsignor Labasci said.

There were discrepancies in the area the nave and the transept in the center of the church. Fitting them became a mathematical challenge.

"The engineer would send his figures to the architect. The architect would challenge them, and they'd go back to the engineer. It was like a dissertation. Each time it went back and forth it took another three weeks," the parish priest said.

By this time, the walls of the church were up, waiting for the trusses to support the roof, the window openings ready to receive stained glass windows from the old church as well as new ones. The project was "demobilized" last January, at first because of the harsh weather, but by spring, when it was to begin again, the Canadian firm hired to make the new trusses could wait no longer, and took on two new jobs.

Work that was restarted in March was stopped once again, the church's empty concrete walls reminiscent of the aftermath of a bombing raid, and the source of wild speculation. Monsignor Peter told his congregation on Sunday that it had become difficult for him to go anywhere in Montauk without being buttonholed about what appeared to be an unfinished ruin.

One parishioner who is a building contractor quit the church's building committee several times over the past 10 years in frustration, only to go back again. He put the responsibility for most of the decadelong travail on poor administration by the archdiocese. "They should have gotten a good kick in the ass," he said of the original engineering firm.

"But it didn't happen. It got far more complicated than it needed to be. It was a bitter experience, but I'm going to leave the bad feelings behind." The parishioner said the delays must have added significantly to the project's cost.

Monsignor Libasci said yesterday that a figure had not been officially established, and he was generally reluctant to talk about how the new church was being paid for. But one parishioner said the money was there to make up the difference, that over $5 million raised from the local congregation specifically to pay for the new church is earning interest in the bank.

Ray Elhilow, a spokesman for the J. Petrocelli company, the general contractor that has done the construction so far, said that with the trusses in the pipeline, the project should go forward without delay. "All the cement and masonry are ready, the windows are in storage. We're all set up. I feel sorry for the parish," he said of the 10-year wait.

Many parishioners, including John Keeshan, credit Monsignor Libasci with helping them keep the faith. "If it wasn't for Father Peter we wouldn't have a parish, no less the church," Mr. Keeshan said. "He rebuilt the parish."

"When the grand day finally comes, and we're sitting in the pews, it will be the icing on the cake. Father Peter is responsible for the cake."

The Parrish Art Museum plans to build an 80,000-square-foot facility on property now occupied by Whitmore's Nursery in Water Mill. The museum closed on the site on July 6, after several other plans had fallen through. A long town approval process has yet to begin.

The facility would occupy the equivalent of about two acres on a 14-acre site. By comparison, the main house on Ira Rennert's property in Sagaponack occupies 66,375 square feet.

Trudy Kramer, the museum's director, said on Monday that the museum board is considering a short list of architects for the project and will announce its decision within the next few months. The official announcement of the move was made at the museum's annual summer party on Saturday night.

A new building would allow the Parrish to put its collection of some 3,000 works on permanent display for the first time. The museum plans on 14,000 square feet of display area in the new building.

"The Chases, the Porters, the Lichtensteins, the Flavins, the Freilichers, the Bob Dashes will all be in a permanent installation," Ms. Kramer said. And the museum's collection is growing, she said, because "people are more eager to make gifts" that they know will be seen by the public.

Ms. Kramer acknowledged that she would seek the community's support for the project. "We've had conversations and will begin to have more" with community groups, business leaders, arts organizations, and schools. Museum trustees who live in Water Mill are acting as ambassadors for the museum's cause. Ms. Kramer will attend the Water Mill Citizens Advisory Committee's Aug. 8 meeting.

Tom Martinez, chairman of the Water Mill Citizens Advisory Committee, said that a rough drawing of the building the Parrish had proposed for the Villa Maria site - a plan that fell through - reminded him of the Clinton Library.

Mr. Martinez said that he would prefer to see a building that looked more like the Duck Walk Winery, next door to the museum's new site. "At the college it would have fit in. Put that kind of definitive design in a different location and it wouldn't look right."

Ms. Kramer, who said she was not aware that a drawing had circulated, added that the museum plans to be respectful of the site and that the building and landscaping will serve as a public park as well as an arts institution.

The museum's plan for the Villa Maria site included a large restaurant or catering hall, and Water Mill residents were wary of such a project. Ms. Kramer said she would not comment on the size of what she called a "cafe" in the new proposal until she had seen the architect's plans.

Gloria Rabinowitz, another advisory committee member, said that the majority of the committee favored the museum's location.

In regard to the size of the plans, "I think they have a challenge in front of them," Southampton Town Councilman Dennis Suskind said. "Any type of project has challenges . . . . They knew looking at the site that they had to go through a tedious approval process." The area is zoned residential but a museum is a permitted use with planning board approval of the site plan. Mr. Suskind said that the Parrish might ultimately have to compromise on the scale of their plans.

Yet the size of the expansion has been part of their plans from the beginning. "We've had the same footprint since the turn of the century," Ms. Kramer said. "We need more space." The museum says it needs space for a loading dock big enough for truck access, an auditorium, a cafe, collection storage, offices, and a multipurpose space for parties, workshops, and children's events.

Although the building may not be completed until 2009, Ms. Kramer said that the museum had already begun to raise money and hire additional staff for the curatorial, public programs, and development departments. The extended delay in their plans allowed extra time to raise money for the expansion, she added.

The museum had originally planned to expand its present building in Southampton Village, and bought the adjoining Rogers Memorial Library for that purpose. When the village rejected that plan, the museum decided to buy land at the Southampton College campus. Then Long Island University announced that it would discontinue undergraduate programs at the site.

Ms. Kramer began to consider alternative sites, including the Dominican sisters' Villa Maria in Water Mill. Mr. Suskind worked with the sisters and the museum to reach an agreement. Ms. Kramer wanted the building torn down before she would buy the property. and the nuns did not want a complicated transaction, according to Mr. Suskind. The deal fell through.

Both Ms. Kramer and Mr. Suskind said that the Whitmore's property will be easier to work with because it is undeveloped. The purchase price was $3.8 million, a significant savings from Villa Maria's asking price of $30 million.

According to Ms. Rabinowitz, Whitmore's sold the property to the museum at a favorable price. The owners had planned a residential develoment there before the Parrish indicated its interest, she said.

Without an architect, Ms. Kramer would not comment on the potential footprint of the site and whether it would be on one level or more. Mr. Suskind thought the museum might be restricted to two stories, but a basement could offer more space.

Ms. Kramer said she plans to use the old Rogers Memorial Library in some way, and would also like to have a program at the museum's current location. That, however, will be up to the village trustees, since the village owns the property.

In any case, an 80,000-square-foot facility will have an impact on the 14-acre plot. "That's pretty large," Mr. Suskind said, but added that "It's not an 80,000-square-foot shopping center." The museum is a highly regarded nonprofit organization, he said, adding that he had no problem with the use of the site as long as an effort is made to blend in and to preserve the vistas.

The East Hampton Library's plan to expand its children's wing has faced serious hurdles at the village's zoning board of appeals, but if a bill passed last month by the New York State Legislature is signed into law by Gov. George E. Pataki, the zoning board will no longer have any say on one of the most visible and controversial projects it has reviewed in the past year and a half.

The bill, sponsored by Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, would allow the library to expand without a special permit, as is now required under village zoning, provided that the expansion is no more than 8,000 square feet, complies with other zoning and land use regulations, needs no variances, and is approved by the village's design review board. Without the need for a special permit, the children's wing expansion would no longer require approval from the zoning board.

"It usurps the authority given to villages," East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said on Friday. "It goes right to the very core and grain of village government and what local zoning is all about."

Governor Pataki's office called the village last week for its opinion on the legislation. It was the first time the mayor or any other village official had heard about the bill. "It's an obvious act of deception," said Larry Cantwell, the village administrator. "It's the most outrageous thing I've seen in 30 years in government."

Mayor Rickenbach said he is frustrated not only by the general implications of the bill, but by the fact that it appears to be written specifically to help the East Hampton Library and is sponsored by a senator who is closely connected to the president of the library's board of managers, Tom Twomey.

It is "without question in the absolutely worst tradition of special interest, inside-dealing legislation," the mayor said in a memorandum of opposition sent to the governor's office on Friday.

Mr. LaValle is "of counsel" to the law firm Twomey, Latham, Shea, and Kelley, but he vehemently denied that he sponsored the legislation as a favor to his associate.

"I happen to be in a law firm. I can't sequester myself in a monastery," Mr. LaValle said Monday. "This bill was not started by Tom Twomey. It was started by the [New York State] library association." Over the past 20 years, Mr. LaValle said, he has sponsored almost every library bill in the Senate, including one that helped the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton to build its new facility on Windmill Lane.

The new law applies only to "free association" libraries that have added two or more school districts to their charter since 2000. They must also be in historic districts that are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Only one other library - the Port Jefferson Free Library - fits those criteria, and it has recently completed an expansion, according to Bruce Massis, the director of the Suffolk County Library System.

"Why are the New York State Legislature and the State of New York interested in a local zoning matter that affects one library in the State of New York?" Mr. Cantwell asked on Tuesday. "You couldn't have crafted a piece of legislation that was better designed to affect one specific application."

The East Hampton Library first appeared before the village zoning board in October 2003, after securing conceptual approval from the design review board for an expanded children's wing. A public hearing was held in April 2004. Some residents, including the mayor, have suggested since then that the village infrastructure may not be able to handle an expanded library.

"We love the library," the mayor said Friday. "It serves a very nice function, but as the community at large continues to grow in population . . . maybe the time is right for some ancillary or auxiliary location."

Last September, the zoning board, which was concerned about how the expansion would affect traffic at the busy Buell Lane-Route 27 intersection, asked the library to prepare a detailed environmental impact statement.

"We're one of the only libraries in the state to be asked to prepare an environmental impact statement," Mr. Twomey said Tuesday. That document should be finished by the end of the summer, he said.

If the governor signs the library legislation, however, the library will no longer be beholden to the zoning board's requests, although it will still need site plan, historic district, and environmental approvals.

"It's not right," Mayor Rickenbach said Friday. "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to read between the lines."

Andrew Goldstein, the chairman of the zoning board, would not comment on the record but said he agree completely with the mayor's memorandum.

"I'm hurt," Mr. Rickenbach said.

"I can't understand why and I'm a little upset with him that he got very personal with his memo in opposition," Senator LaValle said. "I've known the mayor forever and this was not meant to be personal."

Rather, he said, the legislation, which at first contained much broader language and would have affected all free association libraries in the state, was meant to address the disparities between public school district libraries and free association libraries.

Like public libraries, free association libraries are chartered by the Board of Regents and have certain missions as set forth by the board and the State Education Department. But public libraries do not need local permission to expand their facilities.

"The gap has widened between what we have done with the school district libraries versus free association libraries," Mr. LaValle said. "You can't ask the libraries to meet their demand and then tell them that they can't have a reasonable playing field."

"All we're asking for is a fair hearing," Mr. Twomey said. "The library is going way beyond what most libraries do to involve the public in the process. The citizens of East Hampton are entitled to a world class library and we're falling behind other libraries on the East End because we don't have enough space for books and computers."

The bill was part of a New York State Library Association legislative package drafted by Jerry Nichols, the director of Long Island University's Palmer Institute for Public Library Organizations and Management. Mr. Nichols is a former director of the Suffolk County Library System."This is about providing quality library services for all kids that the library serves," Mr. Nichols said.

Mr. Nichols said he did not have a hand in the evolution of the bill, which was first introduced in January and amended twice before passing in the Senate and Assembly on June 21. Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. sponsored the corresponding Assembly bill through the rules committee with cosponsorship from Assemblymen Steve Englebright and Herman D. Farrel Jr.

"We went through and amended it to make sure local zoning was protected and preserved," Mr. LaValle said. "We put things in here to ensure that we were not trampling on their zoning powers."

"It started out way broader. It would have exempted all libraries, period, in New York State," Mr. Thiele said Monday.

Mr. Thiele, Mr. LaValle, and Mr. Twomey all maintain that the bill would do little to curtail a village's zoning powers.

"Special permits were established to handle things in a community that were noxious to the community, things like gas stations," Mr. LaValle said. "I have never had anyone tell me that a public library was a noxious facility."

"The courts have said they're preferred uses," Mr. Thiele said. The bill says "that if a library is already in existence, that's already a permitted use and would not require a special permit."

"Special permit review is a broader permit review process with broader zoning questions as to is this use appropriate to the site and if it is permitted, what are the impacts?" Mr. Cantwell said.

Mr. LaValle pointed out that the village would continue to have control over site plan, building code, height and setback requirements, historic district issues, and traffic patterns. "I don't believe the village has really read what we have put forth," he said.

Mr. Thiele agreed. "I'm not sure it warrants the attention it's receiving. I don't think the bill does all that much."

"The village still has complete control over the application," Mr. Twomey said Tuesday. Yes, the zoning board would be removed from the process, but, said Mr. Twomey, "I'm not sure that's consequential. . . . We still have to secure four more approvals from the village. The library has a long row to hoe to secure the approvals and there will be many chances for the public to comment."

That may be so, but Mayor Rickenbach is not likely to be convinced. In his memo to the governor he said the bill "subverts the legal zoning review process, and is frankly, an outrageous effort on the part of the East Hampton Library and the bill sponsors to replace local decision making with that of the state." The New York State Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials and the Suffolk County Village Officials Association have joined him in opposition to the legislation.

The conference of mayors said in a letter to Mr. Pataki that the bill sets a "dangerous precedent . . . with regard to a municipality's right to create and enforce its own zoning." The village officials association took an even stronger stand, writing that the legislation "would trample on - and obliterate - village zoning and special use permitting in the Village of East Hampton." To pass such legislation when the library application is still being reviewed "sets a terrible precedent for future projects in any village in this county, or in our state," the association said.

"It would eviscerate the review," said Jeffrey Bragman, a lawyer representing over 100 people who are opposed to the library's expansion plans. "It suggests power brokers getting together to give a favored applicant a free ride. . . . I think it stinks."

"It's just dismal," Joan Osborne, a village resident who has monitored the library's plans for the Village Preservation Society, said on Tuesday.

"I'm really surprised that the New York State Library Association and the Suffolk County Library Association and both houses of the Legislature are so aware of what has transpired here in East Hampton," said Donald Hunting, a member of the library board of managers who also chairs the East Hampton Village Planning Board. He first heard about the pending legislation through the mayor. "As far as I know, none of the other board of 20 had any inkling whatsoever that this was in the works," he said.

The library's attorney, Edward Reale, briefed the board of managers on the progress of the environmental impact statement at a board meeting Friday, telling them it would be finished in three to four weeks. According to Ms. Osborne, he also mentioned "some legislation that might help the situation with the z.b.a.," but did not offer specifics.

Mr. Hunting supports the library's expansion plans. "The state has urged libraries to expand themselves. Unfortunately the library doesn't have the facilities it needs to take care of the children," he said. However, he also agrees the legislation seems tailored to the East Hampton Library's situation. "It might as well have our picture on it."

Senator LaValle and Assemblyman Thiele were to meet with Mayor Rickenbach this afternoon at Village Hall.

"I just hope that the village and the library can continue this process without demonizing each other," Mr. Hunting said.

The home exchange area at the East Hampton Town Recycling Center, sometimes called "Caldor East," after the bankrupt discount chain store which once had a branch in Bridgehampton, will reopen this weekend.

The area was closed on July 1 after a child was nearly hit by a car there. East Hampton Town Board members and Neal Sheehan, the head of sanitation, met Tuesday to come up with a plan to regain control of the site, which has become popular with growing numbers of scavengers who overstay the 30-minute limit.

"It's very important to a lot of people that this program get back on track," Councilman Pete Hammerle said Tuesday. "Right now it's totally out of control. They attack your vehicle if you come anywhere near it. They'll clean out your glove compartment if you let them."

"People are getting dropped off and sitting there all day and stockpiling things, and people are picking them up at the end of the day with all their loot. You're not supposed to sit there all day hoarding things. I can only assume that people have figured out how to make financial gains from this, and now the stakes are higher, and people are fighting over things," Mr. Hammerle said.

The home exchange area was added to the recycling center years ago by the town, which prides itself on initiating recycling and environmental programs. The area has developed a dedicated following, including an ad hoc committee that successfully fought to keep it open when town leaders considered eliminating it several years ago.

Mr. Hammerle suggested that citizens assigned to perform community service be posted at the area to enforce the rules, which include possession of a valid recycling center permit.

"That won't work," Mr. Sheehan said. "These people are way too aggressive for that. They arrive, they bring a blanket, they spend the day. We'll have to have some backup from either code enforcement or the police. It will be confrontational."

The board agreed to reduce hours at the home exchange, which had been open daily, to Friday through Monday only.

Supervisor Bill McGintee asked Mr. Sheehan to find landfill employees willing to work through the weekend as monitors, and promised to pay them overtime wages. He said he would also alert code enforcement and police officers to be available for backup.

"Our employees have lived this; they hate the place," Mr. Sheehan said. Landfill workers must remove the old furniture, clothing, mattresses, toys, or other items that are left in the area at the end of each day.

On a recent afternoon, Mr. Sheehan said, a driver who wanted to drop off an item entered the area when it was closed, pulling in behind a landfill payloader. The payloader operator did not see the car and ran into it, causing more than $3,000 worth of damages, for which the town paid.

Mr. McGintee expressed confidence that order would be restored after several weeks of "laying down the rules" and removing people who refuse to follow them. "It's like anything else," he said. "You have rules; if the user group can't follow the rules, then it gets shut down."

"If it doesn't work this time, we're going to end up losing it," Mr. Hammerle said.