Update, 5:15 p.m.:  Police thought they were responding to a hostage situation after a caller threatened to harm family members and threatened violence to officers who answered the call early on Wednesday morning. It turned out to be a hoax.

Sag Harbor Village Police Chief Austin J. McGuire said police were dispatched to an apartment at 45 Main Street, which is the address of the American Hotel, regarding a reported violent domestic incident at 1:45 a.m. There are apartments above a store in the same building as the hotel.

"Due to the nature of this call, Sag Harbor Police Department activated the East Hampton Emergency Services Unit, which consists of highly trained officers from the East Hampton Town and Village Police Departments and Sag Harbor Police Department, along with the Southampton Town Police Department Emergency Services Unit," Chief McGuire said.

The New York State police responded with troopers, a K-9 unit, and members from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which included hostage negotiators, he said. A K-9 unit from the Suffolk County Sheriff’s office also responded along with hostage negotiators from the Suffolk County Police Department.

Sleeping guests at the American Hotel were awakened in the early morning hours and asked to leave their rooms for a time as a precaution as the hotel was evacuated. 

"After a thorough investigation and search of the area, this call was deemed unfounded," Chief McGuire said. The state police's Bureau of Criminal Investigation is continuing the investigation. Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact the N.Y.S.P. Troop L Headquarters at 631-756-3300.

Originally: Police are investigating what appears to be a false report of domestic violence in Sag Harbor Village early Wednesday. 

At around 1:45 a.m., village police were notified of an "active violent domestic in an apartment on Main Street," according to Chief Austin J. McGuire. "Due to the severity of what the caller was reporting, additional resources were brought in. After a thorough investigation, this incident is considered unfounded at this time." 

Chief McGuire to declined to release further details on Wednesday morning. 

Sleeping guests at the American Hotel, which is on Main Street, were awakened in the early morning hours and asked to leave their rooms for a time as a precaution as the hotel was evacuated. 

The Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps stood by at its ambulance barn for four hours, but its help was not required. 

Update, 10 p.m.: East Hampton Village officials removed a dead whale that had washed up on an ocean beach Wednesday morning.

Biologists examined the whale, which was found in the surf just east of Old Beach Lane. The Atlantic Marine Conservation Society responded to multiple calls received by the New York State stranding hotline.

"The 21-foot animal was severely decomposed and only the heart and lungs were available for the examination," the conservation society said in a statement Wednesday night. "The sex could not be determined, nor could the species at this time. Biologists believe it may be a fin or sei whale, and genetic samples were taken and sent to a pathologist for testing."

The organization said the village removed the remains from the beach for disposal.

The conservation society also responded to a report of a deceased dolphin in East Hampton near the Main Beach jetty. "The team plans to return tomorrow to respond to this animal."

This was the second response to a large whale on a beach this week. A minke whale was found dead on Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett on Monday. It was also decomposed. 

Originally, 1 p.m.: A whale washed up on the East Hampton ocean shoreline on Wednesday morning, the second this week. The heavily decomposed whale was found in the surf east of Old Beach Lane in East Hampton Village around the same time that a dead dolphin was found on the sand near the Main Beach jetty. 

Someone walking on the beach after the rain let up on Wednesday morning discovered the whale and reported it to East Hampton Village police. It was approximately 25 feet in length. Though photographs were sent to the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society, its biologists could not identify the species until they saw it in person because of the decomposition, according to Rachel Bosworth, a spokeswoman.

An 18.7-foot minke whale was found on Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett on Monday afternoon. It was decomposed and missing many of its internal organs, including reproductive organs, so the conservation society could not determine its sex during a necropsy on Tuesday.

The dolphin was found just days after dolphins were seen breaching in the ocean waters between Montauk and Amagansett. 

It may be Thursday or Friday before the organization can get a team to East Hampton for a necropsy on the whale and on the dolphin.  

This was the 11th large whale that the organization responded to in New York this year. In 2017, there were 14 large whale strandings in the state, and in previous years the numbers have ranged between four and eight, Ms. Bosworth said. 

Update, 4:50 p.m: In a statement released on Tuesday afternoon, Southampton Town police said Montauk Highway was closed in Bridgehampton earlier after police found a man in medical distress at about 1:35 a.m.

A Bridgehampton Fire Department ambulance responded and took the man to the hospital, according to police. His name was not released.

Officers noticed a potentially "hazardous situation in the victim's vehicle" and requested an engine from the Bridgehampton Fire Department and Southampton Town hazardous materials team to respond. 

The highway was closed until the scene was safe, police said.

The Fire Department hosed down the roadway and the vehicle was removed. Montauk Highway is now opened in both directions.

Originally: A portion of Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton was shut down due to a police investigation on Tuesday afternoon. 

A hazardous materials team was called in to investigate "a toxic gas," an officer at the scene said, in a vehicle in front of the Bridgehampton Community House. Police are concerned about a pool of liquid under a black police car, immediately behind a car carrier on the road. 

The road is shut down for eastbound traffic between Butter Lane and School Street and for westbound traffic between Ocean Road and Butter Lane. Crime scene tape has been put up around several vehicles around the community house, down to Bobby Van's restaurant. 

The Southampton Town fire marshal's office was also on the scene with a town police command van.

The Bridgehampton Fire Department was first called to the area around 2:10 p.m. 

A witness said she heard shouting and that the driver of a car carrier was sitting outside the truck and some bicyclists gave him water. He was reportedly conscious, but would not answer questions from police or emergency medical providers. Eventually, he stood up and got on the gurney, she said.

Southampton Town police would not answer further questions.

To clear the way for the proposed John Steinbeck Waterfront Park, the demolition of abandoned buildings on three parcels of land in Sag Harbor Village will begin next Monday at 10:30 a.m., announced Mayor Sandra Schroeder. 

In July, the Southampton Town Board voted unanimously to approve the purchase of 1, 3, and 5 Ferry Road, for $10.5 million from Jay Bialsky, a real estate developer. One stipulation to the purchase, according to a statement released by the town, was that "the land must be vacant, cleared, and ready to turn into a park." Mr. Bialsky, therefore, is responsible for Monday's demolition. 

The lots, which were purchased on the village's behalf, are located on the Sag Harbor side of the bridge that leads to North Haven.

Once the dilapidated buildings have been removed, the village can move forward with its plan to use the 1.25 acres to create a public park that will be linked by land and water to Windmill Park and Long Wharf, and will feature a beach area, a fishing and small boat pier, and a pedestrian walkway. 

During an appearance before the town board last month, Mayor Schroeder said the village hoped to begin work on the park early next year.

Members of the farming community were invited to a Sagaponack Village Board meeting on Monday to express their opinions on a proposed series of code changes to regulate deer fencing. While considering applications for eight-foot-high deer fences, Mayor Donald Louchheim said the board wanted farmers’ help in addressing an inherent conflict between two tenets of Sagaponack’s comprehensive plan, namely the preservation and support of working farms versus the protection of scenic vistas. “We have to update our code,” the mayor said after the meeting. 

The code permits deer fencing on agricultural properties but not residential ones. Farmers say such fences are vital given a significant increase in the deer population. “If you’re a vegetable farmer, you have to have a fence,” said Peter Dankowski, a farmer who attended the session. “With what it costs to get involved in farming, you can’t take losses.” 

The mayor said that fencing can lead to friction between farmers and their neighbors, who often think “this is going to negatively impact their views, devalue their properties, and make it look like the village is a series of internment camps.” 

The issue came to a head at a board meeting on July 9, at which two property owners, one who lives on Parsonage Lane, the other on Bridge Lane, sought permission to build fences. Parsonage Lane neighbors vociferously opposed the fence and questioned whether the property owners could legitimately claim to be farmers. The matter was adjourned without resolution.

Mayor Louchheim said that one of the board’s reasons for calling Monday’s meeting was to receive guidance on how to effectively distinguish between a farmer and a homeowner who decides to grow fruits and vegetables in a backyard. A sheet of discussion points handed out at the meeting included a question: “What criteria should be used to qualify as a bona fide commercial farm operation?”

Alternatives to standard wire deer fencing was also explored. “The consensus seems to be there isn’t one,” Mr. Louchheim said, and added that, after having driven around the village and elsewhere to look at farm fences, he decided that “they change the view, but they don’t block the view. You still get a sense of open space around them, and they may just be a necessary evil.” 

The conversation at the meeting eventually veered to the possibility of culling the deer population. Dean Foster, of a longtime farming family, said, “You’ve got too many deer living on top of each other and invariably what that promotes is disease. The only way to deal with this is to cull the herd and to do it properly and safely.” The mayor said that all the farmers present approved culling. 

The next step, the mayor said, is for the village to “cogitate on what was said, and I think we’re going to propose code changes.” In addition to clarifying who classifies as a farmer, he said he expects a “sunset clause” will be crafted to ensure that farms that become inactive remove their enclosures. He also wants the code to make it blatantly clear that deer fencing is not permitted on the residential areas of working farms.

A pickup truck hit a railing on Sagg Bridge in Sagaponack on July 2, demolishing a small section of the structure. The day after the accident, Mayor Donald Louchheim decided to shut down the bridge, thereby closing off its street, Bridge Lane, to through traffic.

The action was taken "out of an abundance of caution and on the advice of the village engineer," said Rhodi Winchell, Sagaponack's clerk-treasurer, adding that the village hopes to have the bridge repaired and reopened in approximately two weeks.

The damage comes a little more than a year after the completion of a $1.2 million project to structurally rehabilitate the bridge, which was built in 1923. The improvements included a new deck, repairs to the causeway and seawall, new curbing and sidewalks, and a repaired railing.  

Officials responsible for public beaches in East Hampton and Southampton said they were aware that two young swimmers at separate Fire Island beaches suffered apparent shark bites Wednesday afternoon and had alerted their lifeguard staffs to be extra vigilant about scanning the surf for sightings of sharks.

“But beyond that, it’s business as usual at our beaches,” Eric Bramoff, captain of the East Hampton Village lifeguards, said in an interview at Main Beach on Wednesday afternoon. “We stay in touch with the Town of Southampton and Town of East Hampton staffs and share information,” he said.

Kristen Doulos, who oversees the lifeguards for the Town of Southampton through its Parks and Recreation Department, wrote via email, “We did receive word from Suffolk County, and all of our guards have been informed to be on the lookout. We have not had any reports of activity, and currently no closures at our beaches. [Suffolk County] said that although they have not received any other similar events in any other areas, they were notifying us as a precautionary measure.”

Fire Island officials ordered swimmers out of the water at all of its South Shore beaches on Wednesday after a 12-year-old girl swimming at Sailor’s Cove was bitten shortly after 11 a.m. and taken to a hospital after being treated at the scene.

A little while later about four and a half miles away, a 13-year-old boy who was body-boarding at Atlantique Beach came limping out of the water bleeding from an injury on his leg. He was treated at the scene and taken to the hospital too. But unlike in the Sailor’s Cove incident, a shark was spotted at Atlantique Beach swimming about 25 yards offshore.

Officials said whatever bit the boy left a tooth in his leg that they hope to analyze to identify what type of shark it was.

Neither injury was considered life-threatening.

Patty Poulan, a 30-year visitor to Fire Island who was on Atlantique Beach at the time, said she didn’t see the attack happen but she did see the shark’s fin after lifeguards rushed over to help the boy. She then watched as the shark swam westward — soon chased by Coast Guard boats. Before long, Ms. Poulan said, news helicopters were also flying overhead.

“It was crazy,” said Ms. Poulan. “You have shark sightings here, even on the bay side. But there’s never been an attack here. After this, no more swimming in the ocean for me.”

Both Mr. Bramoff and Scott Curatolo-Wagemann, an investigator for the Global Shark Attack File who also works for Cornell Cooperative Extension's Marine Program, stressed that the chances of such attacks happening are extremely rare. “You have more of a chance of a coconut falling on your head and killing you,” Mr. Curatlolo-Wagemann said. “But now that an attack apparently has happened, I’m sure we’ll try to study what it was.”

Mr. Curatolo-Wagemann, who survived a shark attack as a college student in the Bahamas, was already scheduled to give lectures on Friday and Saturday of this week at the Montauk Library. He said his quick check on Wednesday afternoon of the Global Shark Attack’s records showed the last unprovoked shark attack in Suffolk County was in 1953, and only a handful have happened since the early 1800s, when recordkeeping began.

Update, Aug. 28: These dogs have been adopted.

The Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons recently received the dynamic duo of the dog world. Gina, who is blind, and Rico, her brother, who is deaf, were born to a family pet in Georgia. The family got in touch with an ARF rescue partner in South Carolina, who took in the dogs, along with their sister, Tina. They made their way to Wainscott a month ago.

While deaf dogs are not unusual, blind dogs usually do not have impaired sight from birth, as Gina does. This is the first time ARF has housed blind and deaf siblings.

Tina has been adopted, but Gina and Rico are waiting for a happy home. They are hound mixes who will grow to be 45 to 50 pounds. It would be ideal if they could be adopted together.

Gina can currently see shadows, but she will eventually lose all of her sight. Because both Gina and Rico have had sensory impairments for their entire lives, they know no different, and their impairments take nothing away from their being normal, happy puppies.

The two are friendly and energetic, running around, chasing each other, and sleeping in the sun. They would acclimate to a home particularly well if there is already a dog there to help guide them, but because of their special needs they will need individualized and patient training.

Training dogs with special needs is not that different from training any other dog. According to Dr. Barbara Pezzanite, ARF’s certified applied animal behaviorist, deaf dogs are often trained with American Sign Language, using visual cues instead of spoken ones. Owners of deaf dogs also use vibration collars to signal good behavior.

For blind dogs, spoken cues and clicker training are the way to go. Blind dogs also need to learn specific commands to safely get around a house or a neighborhood. Positive reinforcement is beneficial to training any dog, and luring with treats for obeyed commands is a good technique.

Gina and Rico have already started their training, and they would do especially well continuing with a family that has previous knowledge of special needs dogs, though that it not a requirement. For any owner, patience and an understanding of the obstacles to navigate are essential.

This is a lively pair, with speckled white fur and joyful puppy grins. Prospective adopters can email [email protected], call 631-537-0400, extension 203, or stop by the ARF Adoption Center any day of the week from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. No appointment is necessary. Gina and Rico are always ready to play with a visitor.

Work has begun to restore the mill cottage on the 1648 Lion Gardiner home lot, on James Lane in East Hampton, to its appearance in the 1880s. Once restored, the structure is to become the Gardiner Mill Cottage Gallery, a museum housing landscape paintings depicting East Hampton in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The renovation of the timber-frame saltbox follows the Town of East Hampton’s October 2014 purchase of the 3.7-acre Gardiner home lot, which includes the 1804 Gardiner windmill, using money from the community preservation fund. In December of that year, the town and Village of East Hampton, which had requested the purchase, signed an agreement giving the village sole responsibility for the lot.

The project at hand is to restore the mill cottage to its appearance when Jonathan Thompson Gardiner renovated it, by removing nonhistorical additions from the 1920s and later, including porches and dormers. An 1880 porch will be reconstructed, as will a kitchen wing. The cottage’s gross floor area will be reduced from 3,547 square feet to 1,471 square feet.

Gardiner rented the cottage for the summer season. In the early 20th century, the cottage was known as the home of the artist Percy Moran, a nephew of the painter and printmaker Thomas Moran.

Bob Hefner, the village’s director of historic services, said last week that he expects the work to be completed and the museum to open by next summer. Speaking before the village’s zoning board of appeals last fall, he called the museum “an appropriate use for this property that was preserved as a historic landscape as Lion Gardiner’s home lot.”

The plan required a special permit from the Z.B.A. because the cottage is a pre-existing and nonconforming structure in a residential district. Variance relief to make alterations and eliminate nonhistorical components of the building, and from required setbacks and parking spaces, was required. The village’s design review board also had to approve the plans.

Pavement in the front lawn is to be removed to restore a grass setting between the mill cottage and the windmill, Mr. Hefner told the Z.B.A. last fall, and the existing driveway from Maidstone Lane will remain and lead to four parking spaces directly behind the cottage. Paved areas are to be reduced by 2,000 square feet.

The East Hampton Historical Society is to be the museum’s curator, with the exhibition made possible by a grant from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation. The grant is for the acquisition of part of the collection of the Wallace Gallery in East Hampton.

Terry Wallace of that gallery wrote in an email on Monday that the foundation has purchased several paintings for the museum’s initial collection, and he has donated five more. The latter group includes paintings depicting Georgica Pond, a twilight view of the Gardiner mill and cottage in 1945, a painting he said was a possible study for John Ferguson Weir’s “Beach at East Hampton,” and “an extremely rare view of the Woodhouse water garden in full bloom.”

“I am excited that the Town and the Village of East Hampton are making this museum a reality,” Mr. Wallace said. “It will greatly enhance the preservation of our history to the community we all love.”

An American flag missing from the flagpole at the Founders Monument in Bridgehampton since early August soon will be gloriously waving once again.

Steve Halsey, the longtime flag warden in Bridgehampton, said the flag fell when a halyard broke one night. He noticed that it was missing and then received word that it had been found and taken to David Churchill at Churchill Wines and Spirits on Main Street for safekeeping. Mr. Halsey now has it.

The flag — 12 feet by 18 feet in size — is in good shape, he said. The ropes, about two years old, were rotted out. While there is another halyard already on the 95-foot flagpole, Mr. Halsey said, if one broke, the other may soon follow, and a flag of that size could be dangerous if it fell on a passing car.

He notified the Southampton Town Parks and Recreation Department, which maintains the war monument. “As with anything, governmental-wise, they have to go out to bid,” he said. Attaching new halyards to the flagpole is no easy task, requiring the skills of a steeplejack, he added.

Mr. Halsey, whose work as flag warden is unpaid, exchanged emails with the Parks Department earlier this week and was told the new halyards should be installed soon. “God willing, it will be there by the end of the week.”

The Founders Monument was unveiled in 1910 to commemorate the hamlet’s 250th anniversary and to honor its residents who died in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and the War of 1812. Inscriptions were later added for soldiers who served in subsequent conflicts.