As predicted last week, the gannet attack has begun providing what one fisherman called a "surfcaster's dream." On Saturday, a hard south wind and swell joined with a squadron of diving gannets to pin bunker and herring against the bluff just to the south of the Montauk Lighthouse.

The bluff, the scene of another major blitz two weeks ago, has seen some of the more dramatic surfcasting action this season. As before, big bass and bluefish waded into the schools of bait fish from one side, and a weekend crowd of happy surfcasters waded in from the other. A near-shore gannet display was an added attraction this time around.

The result was a two-hour-long dream as described by Joe Gaviola:

Awesome Bite

"There were bunker and herring. The herring were eight inches long. There were a lot of 20-pound bass. I had 30 fish. Dennis [Mr. Gaviola's brother] had 30, seven in the 20s. You couldn't wait to cast again. There were maybe two dozen gannets, and you were casting into them. It was a quartering wind, so you could cast. The bluefish were huge and spitting up big herring. There was such a surge from the south the bait was locked on the beach. It went on for two hours, nonstop. It was awesome."

At the end of the day, Atilla Ozturk found himself with the second and third-largest fish caught to date in the Montauk Locals surfcasting tournament. The 34-pound bass he caught on Saturday pushed the 33-and-a-half pounder he had brought in earlier back into third place. Richie Michaelson's 37-and-a-half-pound striper still leads.

A 50-pound bass caught two weeks ago by Ken Moschitta, a visitor, is still the largest bass caught thus far from the beach this season.

Passing The Word

There were signs before Saturday's blitz. The bait was there; it just took a storm to whip things up.

Last Thursday, the Oh Brother charter boat was close to shore off the Montauk Moorlands near Caswell's Cove. The scene that unfolded of plunging gannets and boiling fish at dead-low tide without a soul on the beach prompted Capt. Rob Aaronson to pick up his cellular phone and alert just one of his fellow Montaukers of the casting persuasion. The result was a small expedition that got into the rocky cove in time to catch bass in the 20-and-30-pound range.

Gannets and other birds were also seen off Accabonac Harbor and elsewhere in Gardiner's Bay and Block Island Sound this week following migrating fish that seemed to have been spurred along by the cold weather.

Bass Heaven

As good as this fall season has been, has anyone ever had a day of surfcasting like the one enjoyed by the late Clarence Thomas, an East Hampton clock repairman, who found a school of big bass near Georgica Pond one day in 1950?

Edgar Hoagland of East Hampton, a surfcaster for over 40 years, said the diminutive Mr. Thomas caught five fish all weighing between 30 and 35 pounds in a single day. Mr. Thomas had a picture of himself and his catch mounted on a card with the inscription: "Going fishing? I've been."

AMAGANSETT

Peacock to Edward Kipper and Shawn Peacock, Pepperidge Lane, $370,500.

Allen to Allan Haag Sr. and Allan Haag, Marine Boulevard, $1,550,000.

BRIDGEHAMPTON

Gilbert to Haldun Ozcan, Noyac Path, $392,500.

Longtruce Realty Corp. to Glenn Gruman, Montauk Highway, $185,500.

Schmoozies L.P. to Montauk Corp., Montauk Highway, $1,075,000.

Gertz to Jonathan and Bonnie Gray, Job's Lane, $747,000.

Osborn to Sagg Fields Dev. Corp., Montauk Highway, $850,000.

EAST HAMPTON

Gordon to Robert and Laura Villani, Mill Hill Lane, $395,000.

OCI Mtg. Corp. to Senior Peer Corp., Stokes Court, $172,000.

Blumenstein to Goodfriend Land & Dev. Corp., Goodfriend Drive, $250,000.

Deichert to David Brown, Toilsome Lane, $265,000.

Shore Retreats Inc. to Scott and Joan Branche, Amagansett Drive East, $150,500.

Griffenberg to W. Deering and Eleanor, Kenneth, and Michele Yardley, Pantigo Road, $665,000.

Newmann (referee) to OCI Mtg. Corp., Stokes Court, $173,500.

MONTAUK

Gliedman to Daniel and Joyce Schoenheimer and Linda Mc Curdy, Surfside Avenue, $165,000.

Meberg to Judith and Thomas Hamill, Gates Avenue, $225,000.

NORTHWEST

Richman to Jeffrey Weisman and Maria Stefanidu, Milina Drive, $700,000.

SAG HARBOR

Loewenberg to Victor Rugg, Jermain Avenue, $237,500.

SAGAPONACK

Linder to Salomon and Ellen Bitton, Erica's Lane, $315,000.

WAINSCOTT

Edinger to Leonard and Vivian Kanter, Wainscott-Northwest Road, $395,000.

A police raid on the headquarters of the Eastern Farm Workers Association, an organization founded by Eugenio Perente-Ramos, or Gerald Doeden as he was really called, was in The New York Times, center front page yesterday, with more space allotted to it than a mid-air plane crash in India that killed 351 people.

Also known as the Provisional Communist Party or the National Labor Federation, the group, or cult as it has been called by police, had survived since its leader's death in March of last year. Experts believe it has several hundred members.

On Tuesday, a complaint about a crying child led police to the movement's headquarters in Brooklyn's Crown Heights, where they discovered a large cache of weapons and five canisters of black powder.

No Illegal Acts

Thirty people were taken into custody, six of them charged with possessing illegal weatpons, and one, who was said to be beating a child with a belt, charged with assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

Otherwise, Brooklyn police said, they did not know of any illegal acts committed by the group; in fact, they had not known it existed.

The group is known for its power to ensnare gullible young inductees, who in the past have been given endless make-work clerical jobs they were told were vital in the battle for the poor and oppressed.

Based in Riverhead on the East End, the Eastern Farm Workers first appeared in The Star's pages in 1986, when prominent East End artists, writers, and public figures were persuaded to hold an art auction to raise money for what was billed as a grass-roots, self-help organization reaching out to poor black and Latino migrant workers.

Auction Cancelled

Interested in finding out more about the organization, a Star reporter, Uri Berliner, now a writer for The San Diego Union-Tribune, ran into a baffling wall of obfuscation and double talk.

He wrote an article expressing doubt that the organization did anything at all for farm workers, and it was met with an outraged barrage of letters, which also appeared in The Star. A further article followed, just two days before the auction, exposing the group's connection with Lyndon LaRouche and another of Mr. Perente-Ramos's projects, the Liberation Army Revolution Group. The auction was canceled.

After such exposure, which included later articles as well, the group might have been expected to avoid its East End haunts. But members of the organization continued over the years to solicit contributions in East Hampton and other South Fork communities, outside the A&P, for example, allegedly to help workers with tuberculosis.

Whether the confiscation of weapons by the police this week will mean the cult's demise remains to be seen.

The planned reorganization initiated by the Republican majority on the East Hampton Town Board of several town departments has caused what one Democratic town official considers "psychological turmoil" among employees, both male and female, and prompted a charge by Democratic Supervisor Cathy Lester and other officials that a recent, related incident was "sexual harassment."

The Town Board majority has called for the consolidation of the Town Shellfish Hatchery and sanitation inspector with the Natural Resources Department, and the two-person Computer Data Processing Department with the Assessors Office. They also suggested a freeze on hiring in other departments, among other measures.

Incident Described

The alleged harassment was said to have occurred after Lisa Liquori, town planning director, told the Town Board her department was in dire need of help since one staffer had left for a job in Southampton and another was on maternity leave.

Democratic Councilman Peter Hammerle and Republican Councilwoman Nancy McCaffrey described what occurred.

Mr. Hammerle said he had asked Mr. Knobel to support the hiring of a new planner, and that Mr. Knobel responded by coming out from behind his desk, getting down on his knees, and saying the planning director would have to do the same before he would vote to replace the outgoing employee.

Councilwoman McCaffrey said what occurred was meant only in jest.

Only Gossip

Reached by telephone on Tuesday night, Councilman Knobel labeled the story "office gossip." During a Town Board hearing on Nov. 1 he called it a "rumor."

"I don't remember what gesture I made. . . . It was never stated in that way," he said Tuesday. He did recall saying he and the other two Republicans on the board had " 'the majority now.' I said, 'If we want, we could make a department head beg.' "

"I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention but I heard them [Councilmen Hammerle and Knobel] fooling around and joking about hiring new people. . . . I think Tom was kidding when he said that. . . . To make anything more out of it, that's really obscene," Mrs. McCaffrey said.

Describing her meeting the next day with Mr. Knobel, Ms. Liquori said she made her own pitch to hire Cindy Fowkes, a recent Southampton College graduate, and three days later was given approval.

"I asked professionally. I did not get down on my knees. . . . I'm just trying to do my job," she said.

Called Disrespect

Supervisor Lester said she found the story "really disturbing," but added, "I don't think Tom has the slightest idea what it means to women."

Jeanne Nielsen, a longtime Democratic Committeewoman who is a Town Assessor, agreed. Going a step further, both accused Mr. Knobel and other Republicans of "a total disrespect for women in authority," as Ms. Lester put it.

"I mean, they threatened to remove me and my staff from our offices. They tried to take the salary for my female administrative assistant out of the budget. And now Councilman Knobel has made this request of our female planning director. If this isn't sexual harassment, then I don't know what is," said the Supervisor.

She said, and Ms. Nielsen agreed, that there had been additional incidents since the Republicans took control of the board in January that they found disturbing. Some employees, Ms. Lester said, are "wondering what they've done to be punished. It's just not the way to treat people."

The trees are gone, but the lawsuit will continue.

On Friday morning, after months of hearings, Martha Stewart received permission from the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals to remove or prune 14 shrubs and trees installed on a disputed property line by her Georgica Close neighbor, Harry Macklowe, and to dismantle associated wiring and lighting.

Fifteen minutes after the board passed the resolution, despite a last-minute restraining order, some of the trees were no more.

An Appellate Division judge, Fred T. Santucci, had issued the order that same morning. The judge's office faxed it to the Water Mill office of Michael Walsh, Mr. Macklowe's attorney, which faxed it on to the Macklowe residence.

Immediate Removal

Too late. When Mr. Walsh, who had been at the Z.B.A. meeting, delivered it at the site, "20 people were busy ripping out trees," he said.

East Hampton Village Police reported a call at 11:39 a.m. from Don Bousson, a caretaker for Mr. Macklowe, complaining that cutting had begun. Police said the official notice to desist had been given by the time they arrived.

Ms. Stewart claims as hers the wetland on the boundary of the two properties, near where the trees were planted. On Friday, the Z.B.A. agreed with her.

Mr. Macklowe challenged the claim in State Supreme Court last month, but his request for a preliminary injunction was denied.

Appeal Filed

On Friday, Mr. Macklowe's lawyers filed an appeal, which produced the temporary restraining order, although it was "rendered moot," noted Leonard Ackerman, Ms. Stewart's attorney, by the immediate removal of the trees.

"We will continue to defend this lawsuit," said Mr. Ackerman on Monday. "I did not realize until Friday afternoon that Mr. Walsh had been to the appellate court."

Mr. Walsh criticized Gene Cross, the village planning consultant, during the board meeting before heading off to the site. Mr. Cross had assured the Z.B.A. that he had visited the Stewart property to approve the "flagging" of the trees involved as "consistent with the resolution."

Advance Flagging

Mr. Cross said yesterday that Ms. Stewart's landscapers and environmental consultants had flagged the site on Nov. 6 and that the Z.B.A. had asked him to determine that the approved plantings were flagged.

"Anticipating activity after [Friday's] meeting, and knowing that I was responsible" for the removal of the right plantings, he said he visited the site at about 10 a.m. on Friday. The Z.B.A. passed its enabling resolution shortly after 11.

"Mr. Cross had prior knowledge" of the board's action, Mr. Walsh said. Otherwise, "how would he have known if the flagging was consistent with the resolution if the resolution hadn't been passed yet?" The lawyer apparently felt that had the flagging not been okayed in advance, the restraining order would have arrived in time to prevent the tree-cutting.

The Z.B.A. voted unanimously to grant Ms. Stewart permission to renovate her main house, retaining its original footprint, to renovate a studio, to install a 10-by-60-foot lap pool, four feet deep, and to install three patios of cobblestone and brick set in sand. A request for a cantilevered deck was denied.

Counterclaim

William Johnson, the Z.B.A. chairman, observed that Ms. Stewart "wishes to preserve and protect Georgica Pond and surrounding wetlands."

Ms. Stewart's applications were filed under the name of Travertine Corporation; Mr. Macklowe's, under KAM Hampton I Realty Corporation.

Mr. Walsh said he expected a decision on Friday's appeal by Thanksgiving. Ms. Stewart, meanwhile, has counterclaims pending against Mr. Macklowe, including a suit charging the real estate developer with trespassing.

On Friday, Nov. 22, the Z.B.A. will hold another hearing in the case. Mr. Macklowe has appealed the village building inspector's April 23 issuance of a certificate of occupancy to Ms. Stewart.

No To Home Office

In other action Friday, the Z.B.A. denied Edward Barlow's request to build a garage containing a home office onto his nearly century-old Lee Avenue house.

Mr. Barlow, who owns community newspapers in Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware and operates broadcasting companies as well, told the board he works by telephone and fax "here more than in New York." He has owned the house since 1980.

William Buckley, a neighbor, objected, noting that his house was "only 60 feet behind the 20-foot hedge which he has allowed to grow to conceal what they plan to build."

The required side-yard setback is 25 feet. Mr. Barlow had asked the board for a variance allowing him to build within 16.5 feet of his neighbor.

"Build Elsewhere"

"I'm sorry to talk this way, Ed," Mr. Buckley said, "but if there's going to be an ordinance let's maintain it."

Joan Denny, a board member, agreed with Mr. Buckley, saying there was "enough area" to build elsewhere.

In another case, the board agreed to allow Candace Phillips to keep 30 feet of an existing lawn behind her house near Briar Patch Road.

A permit granted in 1989 required a scenic easement extending about 80 feet from the edge of a wetland, with a "no-mow zone" of about 60 feet. Within that zone, said Mrs. Phillips, a lawn was "inadvertently" created.

Monitor Plantings

The board directed that part of the lawn within the scenic easement be revegetated with indigenous plant-ings, leaving a modest buffer zone between the wetland and the remaining lawn.

"I'd like to see no fertilizers applied to the 30 feet of lawn," cautioned Mrs. Denny.

The board asked Mr. Cross to monitor the plantings.

Besides Mr. Macklowe's appeal on Friday, Nov. 22, the Z.B.A. will reconsider Peter Wolf's application for a freshwater wetlands permit and variances to allow him to modify a "teahouse" on his property on a private road off Briar Patch Road. Among other things, Mr. Wolf, a land-planning consultant, seeks to add a roof and replace an existing ramp with a step and deck. The board denied a previous application, citing potential damage to the wetlands.

Icahn Case

The board also will hear from Nathan Halpern, who is appealing the coastal erosion permit that enabled Carl Icahn to build a concrete patio on a dune in front of his Nichols Lane residence. The village building inspector granted the permit for the patio, which lies within the erosion hazard area.

A third continuing case is that of Marion and Louis Edwards, who want to subdivide their land on Main Street and Fithian Lane, nearly two acres, into four parcels. They need a variance to allow a second residential structure on the lot - a barn that is being renovated - to stay there until the subdivision is completed.

The hearings will start at 11 a.m. at the Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street.

You may or may not have noticed the massive M60 battle tank resting peaceably at East Hampton's Veterans of Foreign Wars Building - all 48 tons of it.

No, members of Everit Albert Herter Post 550 aren't plotting military maneuvers. The tank is just a retired war machine that will soon become a monument outside the post. It rolled into town Friday morning, with the help of an Army National Guard trailer.

The V.F.W. Post has been trying to acquire some type of military monument for some time, via an exchange program that makes old equipment available to veterans' organizations. James Strong, a post member and World War II veteran, initiated the search, hoping at first to secure a vintage mortar or something of the sort.

He found, however, that much more substantial pieces were available, including helicopters and tanks.

"This was all through the work of Jim Strong," said Herbert (Smokey) Anderson, the post's commander. "It was like a two-year operation."

The post has approval from the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals and Design Review Board to install a concrete slab next to its driveway, where the tank will sit permanently. Neither board had any objections when the proposal was reviewed this summer, although the post was told to meet setbacks.

"It's a hit everywhere, not just at the post," said Mr. Anderson. "I've gotten messages from Boy Scouts. I've gotten messages from Cub Scouts . . . but that's what it's for."

The post already displays a wide collection of wartime relics inside, which has made it a popular field trip destination for schools and Scout troops. The tank will make an impressive addition to the collection, said Mr. Anderson.

He also hinted that Harrison Schneider, a post member who served in a tank unit during his tour, might be tapped as a tank tour guide.

Regulations require the tank's hatch be sealed permanently, so its interior will be off limits. The tank's engine and armaments have also been disabled. Still, the mere sight of the massive vehicle is striking enough.

Mr. Anderson said the post was still awaiting a note from the Army explaining the tank's service history. He did know that it is an American-made M60A3 tank, last based at Fort Drum in Watertown, N.Y.

M60s were produced, in various forms, from 1960 through the early '80s. J .L.

The United States Army Corps of Engineers is reconsidering a 1962 plan that called for the construction of 50 stone jetties, or groins, and massive sand replenishing along Long Island's ocean shore from Montauk Point to Fire Island.

The project also calls for the construction of "interior drainage structures" at Mecox, Sagaponack, and Georgica Ponds.

Officials of the Army Corps met last week in Ronkonkoma for what was reported to be a "scoping" session to discuss the plan, which undoubtedly would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, with other government officials and representatives of academic institutions. There was no public notification of the session.

Focus On Storm Damage

Stuart Piken, planning director for the Army Corps district office in Manhattan, said the press was not "normally" invited to such meetings as occurred last week. He said the intent of the session was to solicit views, and said a public hearing would be held in January.

A draft report drawn up last month stated that the overall purpose of the renewed effort was to reduce storm damage along the coast.

Summarizing the report, Mr. Piken said, "We are doing a study which covers . . . 83 miles, and looks at what type of shoreline protection is best suited for that area. It's a very comprehensive study looking at storm patterns, the structures that are now in place, the plans in place, and a long-term solution."

Erosion Control

The draft report recalls that the 1962 plan, which was Federally authorized, had "provided for storm protection and storm-induced erosion control," involving "widening the beaches along the developed areas to a minimum width of 100 feet and to an elevation of 14 feet above mean sea level, and raising dunes to an elevation of 20 feet above mean sea level."

The project authorized construction of up to 50 groins, depending on "actual need."

The 1962 plan was controversial, as was a plan put forward at the time by Robert Moses for a roadway along the Fire Island dunes. The Fire Island National Seashore eventually was established to stop the highway's construction.

Parts of the Army Corps plan, however, went forward. Two groins were completed at Georgica Pond in East Hampton in 1965. Eleven others were put in along Dune Road in Westhampton Beach and, in 1969, four more groins went in there.

Pond Drains

On the South Fork, the construction of interior drainage controls in the two ponds in Southampton Town and in Georgica Pond aroused a storm of controversy.

Beginning in 1964, just as the Army Corps was preparing to create the two jetties at Georgica, East Hampton Town Trustees accepted the Army plan to stabilize the level of the pond using a drainpipe. The pipe was meant to obviate the need for periodic dredged openings of the gut.

The stabilization never happened. The idea had been opposed in the past and would be opposed again in the future. Baymen objected vehemently, saying such a pipe would mean the end of a valuable fishery. The Georgica Association challenged it in court, and won.

Resistance To Jetties

A pipe installed at Hook Pond long ago is blamed for that pond's protracted state of stagnation. Mecox Bay, Sagg Pond, and Georgica all avoided the Army's stabilization plans and continue to provide commercial and recreational fisheries.

In part because the cost was being shared by Federal, state, and county taxpayers, resistance to the Army's grand jetty project grew. Then-Suffolk Executive John V.N. Klein and others, who believed the ocean shoreline should not be bolstered with manmade devices but allowed to shift with nature, blocked the continuation of the Army's plan.

The failure of the original, unfinished plan became most evident in December of 1993 when a violent northeast storm caused a breach at the west end of Dune Road in Westhampton Beach. Over 100 houses were undermined and destroyed. The following March, the Army Corps spent $12 million to close the breach.

Westhampton Dunes

Residents charged that the failure to finish a groin field to the east - only 16 of 21 proposed groins were installed - was responsible for severe beach scouring. Slow erosion resulted, and finally the breach.

Property owners had sued for $200 million in 1984, charging that the unfinished field endangered their properties.

Controversy over the destroyed community led to the formation of the Village of Westhampton Dunes, which became eligible for other Federal assistance once incorporated.

Residents dropped their suit after the Corps closed the breaches, settling for a $132 million beach restoration project. Up to 140 houses were permitted to be rebuilt within the state's coastal erosion hazard area as a result.

Critics of the project say it is a case of throwing good money after bad. Proponents say the restoration will help the ecology of Moriches Bay.

Alternatives

The "alternatives" being considered now run from "no action" to "removal or modification of existing structures." They include "beach restoration," or sand-dumping; "sand-bypassing inlet management," construction of "groins alone," and construction of "groins with beach restoration."

The Army Corps draft report discussed last week echoes some of the arguments made in recent years by Dune Road and Fire Island beach-house owners seeking to protect their residences.

If "no action" is taken, it says, "erosion will continue and the loss of beaches will be a greater threat. If available beach area is greatly diminished due to continued erosion and storm-induced breaches and washovers, both the state and county will sustain economic loss."

"Revenues will be lost due to a lack of recreational area created by the disappearance of beaches. Populations may also temporarily shift inland, due to loss of residences and beachfront property being damaged or destroyed."

"Renourishment"

Under the "beach renourishment" alternative, "the available beach area will increase, therefore increasing the area available for development. The number of residences in beachfront communities may increase, thereby increasing the population. However, this increase in population should not create a demand for additional community services, e.g., schools, fire, and police services."

"By utilizing hard stabilization structures" and "replenishing the beaches, or a combination of both, damage due to wave inundation . . . will be lessened, thereby reducing economic loss to homeowners. However, the addition of groins and seawalls will limit access to beach areas and may result in a decrease in the number of visitors to recreational areas."

Mr. Klein, the former Suffolk Executive, held that building groins along the shore was "robbing Peter to pay Paul." Sand that would normally move with ocean currents along the shore would instead accumulate in spots near the jetties, he said, and the coastline further along would be damaged.

The jetties built by the Army Corps at Georgica Beach have long been blamed for erosion to its west. Michael and Eleanore Kennedy's house in Wainscott, the first one west of those jetties, suffered severely over the years. The Kennedys proposed various remedies to East Hampton Town before building a 150-foot rock revetment in 1993.

The town fought the revetment in court for several years, until the spring of 1995, when the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court upheld a lower ruling allowing the revetment to remain.

Mecox Bulkheads

On Dune Road in Bridgehampton, nearly a dozen property owners have been battling with Southampton Town for permission to erect a series of steel bulkheads and one large rock revetment. The applications remain mired in legal proceedings.

The properties where the bulkheads are proposed are just updrift of Mecox Bay, and Southampton Town Trustees have voiced strong concern that they would have a negative impact on the bay.

The pertinent section of the Army Corps report states that if hard structures are used, "beachfront properties will be provided with more protection. However, the addition of these structures may facilitate the erosion of the shoreline in downdrift areas."

The draft report also examines what the Army Corps considers the impacts of the various alternatives on vegetation, mammals, birds, fish, wetlands, and people.

With Reporting By Russell Drumm and Michelle Napoli

Overdue Fees

Amagansett

November 11, 1996

Dear Mrs. Rattray,

The beginning of the story:

In Suffolk County Supreme Court, a lawsuit was filed on Jan. 5, 1993, by the Town of East Hampton against Volk's Montauk Disposal Service Ltd. The suit maintained that the defendant had failed to pay the town, prior to Dec. 31, 1992, $296,363.35 in overdue "tipping fees" at the town dump.

On Feb. 12, 1993, the town notified Volk's Montauk Disposal's president, Tim Volk, that unless he executed a repayment agreement with the town, the town would deny Volk access to the dump. The letter referred to the "competitive advantage" Volk enjoyed by free use of "that which others are required to pay for."

Little progress was made by the town in collecting the overdue fees from Volk during 1993 and 1994. Volk's Montauk Disposal filed for bankruptcy in 1994 and immediately began accruing additional overdue fees of $33,105.05, according to documents dated Aug. 17, 1994, filed by the town attorney. Volk signed an agreement on that date to make "advance payments" for tipping fees to operate his business.

In May of 1995, Volk went on the offensive when he issued a letter to his "valued customers," in which he offered his views of the town's "voluntary experiment in the composting of certain municipal solid waste." In the letter, Volk explained that the recycling/composting program would ultimately increase costs to his clientele.

Volk's concern for additional costs to East Hampton residents, however, would not translate into payment to the town, and thus those same residents, of the balance of his vast sums in overdue fees. Immediately following Volk's letter, Peter Garnham, the town's recycling information officer, wrote the Town Board that Volk was "discouraging his customers from participating in the town program by telling them that he will charge them more."

By the summer of this year, the situation had worsened, in the view of certain town officials. Mike Haran, town budget officer, informed Cathy Lester in a memorandum dated June 19, 1996, that a complete default by Volk on his Chapter 11 reorganization agreement would be "a disaster which would require . . . a significant tax increase in the year following this action."

Lester then notified the town attorney, Robert Savage, that Volk was now unwilling to meet both his reorganization obligation and his "positive account" advance payments. With interest accrued, Volk's 1994 Chapter 11 filing listed his debt to the town at $443,489.25.

On July 17, 1996, Volk was informed that he must either pay in advance or be denied access to town facilities, according to documents filed by the deputy town attorney. On July 26, 1996, Supervisor Lester, in a Town Board memorandum, stated unequivocally her intention to "turn Volk (and Stanley) away from our facility by noon Monday, July 29, until full payment and reserve is established."

Volk was notified by Lester on Friday, Aug. 9, that he must operate on a cash-on-delivery basis beginning Monday, Aug. 12. Come that Monday, however, Lester's decision was overridden by Councilmen Len Bernard and Tom Knobel, in spite of the fact that revocation of the Supervisor's executive orders requires a resolution of the full board.

Volk produced two uncertified checks that ultimately cleared the bank and remains on a C.O.D. basis with the town today. Bernard and Knobel's folly backfired, embarrassing them and Volk sufficiently so that, since August, Volk has made his "positive account" payments and met his Chapter 11 obligation. But with winter approaching, a time that has usually seen Volk struggle with such payments, town officials wonder if this brief period of compliance will continue.

Volk holds an unstated threat over the Town Board, and by association, East Hampton taxpayers, that failure to bargain with him could result in a Chapter 7 filing and the loss of the remaining hundreds of thousands he is still on the hook for, the "disaster" that Mike Haran alluded to.

But Federal bankruptcy court is not Volk's only weapon. His allies on the Town Board, Bernard and Knobel, who not only have been unwilling to bring him to a restitution of what was at one time a nearly $450,000 debt but were also willing to [. . .] usurp the Supervisor's power on his behalf, will have no doubt other opportunities to help out their friend. Tim Volk has been a fixture in the Town Republican apparatus since the early 1980s.

But more on that later.

ALEC BALDWIN

Debased Politics

East Quogue

November 6, 1996

To The Editor:

Your characterization of my Congressional write-in campaign as "misguided" and a "low blow" to the Democratic candidate Nora Bredes illustrates what I believe is your failure to examine critically Ms. Bredes's record and campaign positions.

Ms. Bredes's claims to fame rest in two areas: her directorship of the Shoreham Opponents Coalition (which I initiated), which ultimately helped defeat the Shoreham reactor in the late 1970s, and her county legislative record, which demonstrated strong commitments to women's and social issues. But, while these are necessary, they are not sufficient, and the vociferous support of Ms. Bredes by women's groups and individual women was in some ways disturbing.

Why? Because women's knee-jerk support of Ms. Bredes, although spurred by Mike Forbes's onerous record on social issues, had two major voids. The first is the utter lack of any concern on the part of Ms. Bredes's supporters for environmental issues either on the East End, nationally, or globally.

The second, as witnessed by the angry resentment of my campaign by some women, is the failure of such women to recognize the need for and validity of alternative politics - called democracy - and alternative choices.

This failure is inexplicable, and, in light of women's charges in the past that they would change things when fully enfranchised, inexcusable. The campaign for Ms. Bredes showed that when women seek political power, they are no more willing to address broader issues or a dramatically changed political agenda than men are.

For example, Ms. Bredes, purportedly in favor of single-payer health care, publicly remarked that this was not feasible and that she would concentrate on regulating health maintenance organizations and managed care more effectively.

Why did she not assert that she would, if elected, put single-payer health care back on the table whence President Clinton, the leader of her party, swept it? (Answer: Because she would, if elected, have dutifully followed the Democratic Party's exhortations rather than striking out on an independent path; why else would the Democrats have chosen her?)

Then there is the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization (formerly GATT). With regard to these, Ms. Bredes was asked if she would favor U.S. withdrawal if the environmental side agreements were not enacted (they never were and never will be). She said, "I'm not about to fight monumental battles." She had the option of saying she favored NAFTA/W.T.O., or saying she would fight for the side agreements, but said neither.

As for biotechnology, the field in which her husband works, she made remarks about how biotechnology companies were carefully harvesting third-world rain-forest products without impairing biodiversity. But she neglected to address the social and ethical implications of genetic resource exploration: the exploitation of third world cultures for their plants, animals, and, now, even their human genetic materials.

Biotechnology seeks to own, control, and monopolize such resources to maximize profits here, not improve the well-being of tribal cultures. Moreover, biotechnology is attempting to force genetically engineered foods and growth hormones onto our food and milk supply and to take patents on life forms.

Ms. Bredes's husband's profession, public relations for biotechnology corporations, would severely compromise her in the U.S. Congress, where future votes on NAFTA and W.T.O., which benefit biotechnology firms, will undoubtedly take place.

As you are fully aware, my campaign, though hindered by a lack of funds and access to media, was broad, explicit, and progressive, not single-issue as you implied. While my decision to run was spurred proximately by Ms. Bredes's defense (!) of the Brookhaven National Lab nuclear reactors and her receipt of campaign funds from top B.N.L. executives, my chief reasons were to make a statement that Ms. Bredes's campaign, backed as it was by B.N.L., the stagnant Democratic Party, and kingmaker Newsday, was simply a continuation of the same kind of corporate-dominated political campaigns that have made voters cynical and nauseous.

There is no evidence whatsoever that this was not the case in the Bredes campaign. The shame of her campaign was not my entry but the fact that neither Ms. Bredes nor her women supporters saw fit to address environmental concerns, the stranglehold of corporations, the diminution of civil liberties and a free press, the huge gap between rich and poor, the catastrophic impact of globalization on jobs, productivity, workers, and natural resources - and more.

U.S. voters are clearly tired of the same Republicrat duopoly and its refusal to address the economic and political crises of this country. Without denigrating the need for progress in social issues and human welfare laws, I truly believe that the emphasis by campaigning politicians and the mass media on strictly social issues such as abortion, gun control, and affirmative action ends up being diversionary.

Both Republicans and Democrats are delighted to belabor the Federal budget deficit, immigration, and the like, because it means that the other crucial issues of the environment, corporate domination, and the decline of civil liberties will be ignored.

In the end, it is the women's movement that is self-destructing. As long as it narrowly restricts not only campaigns but public debate to the things that solely or primarily impact women, it will never succeed in reforming or restructuring our debased political process. It will simply be digging itself deeper into the hole of self-interested pressure-group politics, which seems to be the laughable hallmark of U.S. politics today.

If the statements of Ms. Bredes's supporters are any indication, gender politics will be the death of us all, democracy included. Truly, Ms. Bredes's supporters need to do some serious study and critical analysis instead of following the same knee-jerk "liberalism" that has doomed us all to four more years of neo-conservative rule in the White House and Congress.

Yours very truly,

LORNA SALZMAN

Food Stores Galore

Boynton Beach, Fla.

October 31, 1996

Dear Editor:

As a young boy in the late '20s and early '30s, I remember food stores galore in East Hampton. It seemed that grocery stores and meat markets were everywhere. Korsak of Sag Harbor delivered and prepared cuts of meat in his meat wagon as he went from house to house.

Scholz bakery and, later, Arthur Zanger's bakery, made house-to-house deliveries of baked goods. Duggan's from the island's West End made house-to-house bakery deliveries as well.

Torrence Bell of East Hampton and Dimon Conklin of Amagansett made grocery deliveries going house to house. Private stores and markets made home deliveries because a large part of their business was conducted over the telephone.

In those days, there were about 23 food stores and meat markets in the East Hampton and Amagansett areas, and all were more or less successful.

Commencing on South Main Street, opposite the library and just north of Guild Hall, Fred McCann, for many years, owned and operated a market which specialized in prime meats, fish, and shellfish. Later, in the years leading up to our entry into World War II, Tom Rose operated the former McCann market.

Farther north in the Main Street shopping area, Tom Gilmartin ran a successful meat market. His was the old-fashioned butcher shop with sawdust on the floor, and each butcher wore a straw hat as he carefully prepared each cut of meat. The store abutted the south line of the old Edwards Theater, now the site of the former Barn Book Shop. In later years, the butcher shop became Kelly's Liquors.

A couple of stores farther north on the west side of Main Street, Henry Danneman had a private food store, which was called the National Food Market. Later, it was passed on to Herman Flach, Louis Parr, and Fred Miller, who renamed it Maidstone Market and enjoyed a successful business, especially during the war years.

Still on the west side of Main Street, on the south side of the Osborne Agency at 35 Main Street, Thomas Roulston had a chain store which was managed by Elwyn Harris Sr. of Springs. Roulston's headquarters were in Brooklyn, and he had many grocery stores scattered throughout the Long Island area.

Only two doors away on the north side of the Osborne Agency, the A&P had a store which was managed by Howard Ott.

At the corner of Newtown Lane and Main Street, on the site of the former East Hampton Post Office, H.C. Bohack opened a grocery store and a meat department. During the store's early years, Charles Clark was its manager.

Around the corner, Joe Dreesen had a market which is still successful and is now owned by Rudy DeSanti. Prior to Dreesen's ownership, Andrew Cavagnaro had a very successful fancy fruits and vegetables shop. In 1923 he had a three-story brick building constructed at the corner of Pleasant and Newtown Lanes, where he continued his fruits and vegetables business. An added attraction was the soda fountain located at the rear of the store.

Adjacent to Dreesen's, Thomas Roulston had another store, which was managed by Harry Moylan of Sag Harbor. After the Roulston stores folded, Mr. Moylan opened his own store on the site; it became the Newtown Grocery. Today it is part of Dreesen's Market.

On the north side of Newtown Lane near the railroad crossing, Hugh Filer had a small fish market. Today the East Hampton Cleaners occupies the site.

In 1928, along the north side of Newtown Lane between P.C. Schenck's Fuels and the Odd Fellows Hall, a series of shops and stores were constructed. Among them were a new Post Office and another A&P, to which was added a meat department. The store, which was located opposite Dreesen's Market, was managed by Pete Stewart, and Al Schockett headed the meat department.

On North Main Street, below the railroad trestle, there were four more grocery stores. The area is called the Hook, but most folks back then referred to it as "below the bridge."

The railroad tracks formed a boundary which divided the village both literally and socially. The village area south of the trestle became known as the up-street area and its residents were called "Up-Streeters."

North of the trestle, which some Up-Streeters placed low on the social ladder, was often called "Freetown." Freetown actually is the area around Floyd Street and Springs Road.

Whenever Alex Sonberg left the up-street business area to go to his home at the corner of Collins Avenue and Lily Hill Road, he'd say that he was going down to Spain.

At the corner of Collins Avenue and North Main Street, on the current IGA site, John Collins had a small grocery store, and Peter Fedi had a private food and meat market. Later, in 1935, Mr. Fedi built a new and larger store across the street. He had a successful business for many years. Today, the former grocery store is the site of the Della Femina restaurant.

Across from Fedi's new store and on the north side of today's C&V Wine Cellars, Thomas Roulston added a third Roulston store which was managed by Burt Coleman.

Also, a third A&P store was located where Il Monastero restaurant is today. It was managed by Bob Crozier, who often remarked that he sold more canned string beans when he advertised them as "three cans for 25 cents" than when he sold them individually for eight cents a can.

Still farther north on the east side of North Main Street, at the junction of Three Mile Harbor Road and Springs Road, John Mulligan ran a successful business for many years. He called it quits when the store burned in 1935. The building was later converted into two apartments.

On the west side of Springs Road and south of Jackson Street, Agnes Rampe ran a mom-and-pop store until she passed away in 1943.

Finally, on the east side of Springs Road just south of the Cross Highway intersection, George (Brickie) King had a small food store.

On the way to Amagansett opposite Hren's Nursery, Thomas Lawler had a butcher shop for many years.

A short distance west of the Amagansett Library, the A&P opened a food store under the management of Nathaniel Petty.

A short distance to the east next to the Amagansett Post Office, Ted Hoyt owned and managed the Royal Scarlet Store. At one time it was the site of the Conklin and Company store.

A short distance farther east, Arthur Cozzens had a butcher shop. Joe Embro added groceries to the shop after he assumed the business.

Opposite St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, Thomas Roulston opened a grocery store which was managed by Arthur Ryan. After Roulston closed the store, Mr. Ryan opened his own store on the site.

With the advent of the supermarket, the death knell tolled for the small chain stores. It was a great era, although at times there seemed to be more groceries available than there was money to purchase them, especially when the Great Depression arrived on the scene.

Sincerely,

NORTON (BUCKET) DANIELS

Sound It Out'

Amagansett

November 11, 1996

Dear Helen,

This letter is in response to Rick Murphy's article in last week's Star regarding a discussion on reading that took place at the last Springs School Board meeting.

I did not say that "whole language" is based on a total myth. I said that one of the points whole language advocates use to promote the program is a total myth: that New Zealand, the birthplace of whole language, has a 99-percent literacy rate and is a sort of Shangri-la of reading where a huge portion of the population reads voraciously.

The truth is that New Zealand has a large (apparently around 25 percent) and growing illiteracy rate and that, you guessed it, this problem coincides with the introduction of whole language methods. In fact, Marie Clag, one of the original gurus of whole language and the developer of "reading recovery" (a whole-language-based remedial program), admits that 30 to 50 percent of New Zealand's students need some degree of remediation by the end of the first grade.

Equally mythical and absurd is the implication by some whole language devotees that a phonics-first system consists merely of rote, routine drills and is therefore limited and boring. In reality, any good multi-sensory phonics program would, of course, include those parts of whole language that are completely admirable and worthwhile: encouraging children to write, reading quality literature, and using material that is appropriate to each child's level of skill and achievement.

In fact, the major difference in the reading materials used by the two methods would be that phonics would not use the big-picture-with-two-lines-of-print books so often seen in whole language programs. More important, a phonics-trained student will have a much higher chance of actually being able to read the material.

Since its introduction, whole language has not achieved what it has promised. In fact, the reverse is true. California, Texas, Wisconsin, and Ohio have mandated a return to a systematic, phonics-based program, and several other states have such legislation pending. They have also mandated the teaching of phonics at teachers' colleges, a practice that has not been common for many years.

Bill Honig, the California Superintendent of Schools who first implemented whole language in the United States, has now written a book called "Teaching Our Children to Read." In the book, he admits that the California Regents adopted whole language without doing any proper research or evaluation. He apologizes for this and urges a return to the teaching of systematic, structured phonics and language skills.

So what's wrong with whole language? First, it preaches that learning to read is just like learning to speak, that it's a "naturally occurring process," and that "immersing" the child in the printed word will eventually result in reading.

According to highly respected researchers in the field like Marilyn Jager Adams and Keith Stanovich (who is a whole language supporter in most respects), this is nonsense. "No serious linguist or researcher in the field believes this," according to Ms. Adams.

The second fatal flaw is that whole language teaches children that a "variety of strategies" should be used to decode words: context clues, picture clues, memorization, predicting, and guessing. In fact all the above lead to guessing - and sometimes pretty wild guessing - because grammar and spelling are not stressed. The children will "grow into it" as they become readers. Phonics, depending on the level of devotion of the whole language practitioner, is used incidentally, as a last resort, or hardly at all.

The sad truth is that there is absolutely no scientific or empirical evidence that the whole language approach to decoding methods is valid. As Mr. Stanovich warns his fellow whole language colleagues: "To stand, Canute-like against the tide of evidence [that phonetic awareness is the key to early success at reading], is to put at risk all the other hard-won victories of the whole language movement."

For those of you still reading, I will sum up. English is a phonetic language, i.e., it's encoded by sound. The primary method of decoding a sound-based language must be sound. In short, your mother and your grandmother and her mother were right, "Sound it out."

Sincerely,

REG CORNELIA

It's hard to think of a restaurant on the East End with the history of Bobby Van's in Bridgehampton. It seems a symbol of a time when the Hamptons was known for its small-town friendliness and for its artists and writers rather than its moguls and film stars and glitzy benefit parties.

To the literary crowd which drank late into the night in the screened porch of the original restaurant, across the road from the present site - Willie Morris, James Jones, Truman Capote, Charles Addams, Irwin Shaw, John Knowles, Wilfrid Sheed - Bobby Van's was a second home. In the middle of the restaurant was Bobby's Steinway baby grand, which he would play into the small hours. Sometimes. When he felt like it.

When Bobby Van lost the restaurant in 1986 (by then in its present site) it was spectacularly in debt. The new owners didn't change much, but time had changed the atmosphere: Willie Morris had left and many of the writers had died. Willie's table became known as the widows' table.

When the 1990s arrived and the restaurant was sold, gutted, and transformed from a penumbrous smoke-brown womb into a light, bright, upscale yuppery, there was much moaning and groaning along the lines of "There goes the neighborhood."

But the food was light and bright, too, and the decor was summery and cheerful, particularly the full-length doors which folded back in warm weather so that you could imagine you were in a Parisian sidewalk cafe, or gloat over the less fortunate who were nose-to-tail on their way back to the city.

Did I hear someone say, cut to the chase? Forget the purple prose and get down to the review?

Okay, I admit it. I've been procrastinating - because it's hard to write a review when you have very little good to say.

On a recent evening, the first surprise, not having eaten there in some time, was that the menu was dulled down and the prices were hiked up. Now, when you charge $24 for crab cakes and the cheapest entree is plain grilled chicken breast at $18, you put yourself into a category where judgment is stiffer.

And the judgment started with the bread, which was bad. The sort you squeeze and it stays squeezed. Good bread makes that important first impression, and it really can't cost that much more to provide something decent.

A Mystery

Fazed by the high prices, some of our party chose the prix fixe menu, which at $21.50 seemed a good buy. Others ordered a la carte.

One of us chose creamed spinach from the "side dishes" category as an appetizer, which turned out to be a good choice as it was simple, not overseasoned, and fresh.

But, since it was obviously ordered as an appetizer, why was it served with a giant serving spoon sitting in it? There was no spare plate to put the spoon; one was apparently expected to eat around it.

The Caesar salad was deemed inauthentic, although with good points - the cheese (not top quality) was freshly grated, the croutons were homemade and good, and the salad had obviously been made up at the last moment, though the chef had a heavy hand with the oil.

A green salad was requested with the dressing on the side, which was lucky because the dressing was most unpleasant. By no stretch of the imagination was it vinaigrette; it was pink, with bits in it.

Broccoli soup was salty, floury, lumpy, and tasteless.

Something Positive

Oh well, on to the entrees. Let's start with something positive - a very well-prepared salmon in a Venetian sauce with clams and mussels, which was light, with a complementary flavor. The salmon was juicy on the inside and nicely crisp on the outside.

The steak, perhaps because it was on the prix fixe menu, was not very good quality and came unseasoned, but it was well cooked: medium rare, as requested, and charred and crispy on the outside.

The lemon sauce on the chicken breast was pleasant, but the chicken itself was dry. Half of it was left on the plate.

It was served with a couple of tasteless lumps of overboiled broccoli and cauliflower. The chef must have used his salt quota in the soup, because there was none on the vegetables.

No Comfort

If the chicken was dry, you should have tried the sole - talk about "scattered driftwood, bleached and dry"! Half of it, too, was left on the plate.

It was served with mashed potatoes. It was the mashed potatoes that made us all reluctantly agree that we were not having a good meal.

Mashed potatoes are comfort food. They are rich and consoling and sing songs of home and childhood. Any fool should be able to make them.

These mashed potatoes, on the other hand, were not just disappointing, they were downright nasty.

Dessert

Dessert was not much better. Berries with Zabaglione turned out to be inedible, sour, hard strawberries with a drizzle of thin sauce. They were not eaten.

If ripe strawberries are unobtainable, could the dish not be taken off the menu? Does nobody in the kitchen think to taste them?

The apple pie was only so-so, but - at last something pleasing! - the sorbet and the almond cheesecake were just fine. In fact, the almond cheesecake was delicious. I really enjoyed it. Honest.

But it didn't make up for the rest.

First-Class Service

I have to say that the service was first-class: professional, attentive, really without fault. The waitress served the excellent Merlot as expertly as I have ever seen and happily catered to the quirks of one guest who wanted olive oil, dressing on the side, extra garlic.

But given the choice, one would rather have good food with bad service than the other way about.

Okay, let's qualify this. It's not fair to judge a restaurant on one visit. Maybe the chef was sick. But I have to say I searched around and found four other people who had eaten at Bobby Van's recently. They all gave it a negative report.

In the restaurant world few things stay the same. What's disappointing one year may be great the next. Let's hope that "I'll meet you for lunch at Bobby Van's" will soon regain its familiar, comforting ring.

A preview of "The Substance of Fire," Jon Robin Baitz's film based on his hit Off-Broadway play, will be held at the Sag Harbor Cinema on Saturday at 6:45 p.m., to benefit the Bay Street Theatre.

The evening will begin at 5 p.m. with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres at the Paradise Diner in Sag Harbor. Benefit tickets are $75, or $25 for the movie alone, and can be reserved by calling Sonya Horowitz at the Bay Street Theatre.

"The Substance of Fire" is directed by Daniel Sullivan and stars Ron Rifkin, Timothy Hutton, Sarah Jessica Parker, Lee Grant, Tony Goldwyn, Roger Rees, Adolph Green, and Debra Monk.

Originally conceived in 1989 as a play at the New York City-based theater company the Naked Angels, it began a full run at Playwrights Horizons two years later. It then moved to Lincoln Center and had a run in Los Angeles before being adapted into a screenplay.

Triumph Over Pain

"Substance of Fire" is a psychological drama that explores the emotional turbulence between a father and his three grown children, and a story of family triumph over the pain of a damaging past.

Mr. Baitz, who lives in Sag Harbor, wrote the leading role of Isaac Geldhart specifically for Mr. Rifkin, who won both Obie and Drama Desk Awards for his stage performance in the role.

The playwright's other works include "Three Hotels," "A Fair Country," "The End of the Day," and "The Film Society." His newest play, "Amphibians," had a reading last month at Bay Street.

"Wind In The Willows"

While Bay Street raises funds at the movie house, a children's musical version of "The Wind in the Willows" will be playing at the theater.

A presentation of Stages children's theater workshop, Kenneth Graham's classic tale of Mole, Badger, Ratty, and their battle against the wicked animals of the Wild Wood, not to mention Mr. Toad's mania for motorcars, will star 23 East End actors aged from 7 to 14. They are directed by Helene Leonard.

Performances will be tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m.