Part of a fading era in Montauk came tumbling down on Friday, as a wrecking crew began demolishing the iconic East Deck Motel at Ditch Plain Beach.

By quitting time, half of the L-shaped structure that had stood along DeForest Road was gone, leaving only the portion on the road that leads to the beach access still standing.

By the end of this week, that will be gone, too. Also gone is the swimming pool on the property, as well as any accessory structures that once stood there. The property, where in 2014 new owners had proposed a two-story private beach club with a restaurant and below-grade parking, has been instead rezoned for residential development and divided into four house lots.

It was purchased in 2013 for about $15 million by a limited liability company headed by J. Darius Bikoff, one of the founding partners of Vitamin Water. The beach club proposal sparked a firestorm of opposition including a Labor Day weekend paddle out in 2014 that drew 100 surfers and boogie boarders to the water off Ditch Plain and still more to the beach. The plan was soon scuttled and the site was put back on the market for $25 million. East Hampton Town officials attempted to negotiate a public purchase of the property, but the price tag was ultimately too high.

Along with the rezoning approved in February by the East Hampton Town Board, the owners agreed to public access to the beach adjacent to the site in perpetuity.

There may be much wrangling in the future in front of the town’s zoning board of appeals, as well as the town’s planning board, over what the owners who buy the properties from the L.L.C., are allowed to build on the lots, which are highly constricted due to dimensions and proximity to wetlands and dunes.

The property is flanked on either end by dilapidated jetties that the L.L.C. also owns. The western jetty, shooting out into the Atlantic, is familiar to tourists and residents alike, who crowd the popular Ditch Plain Beach. The eastern jetty was covered long ago by sand. Town law prevents either jetty from being reconstructed or refurbished.

Sag Harbor Village officials held off on deciding whether to tear down the derelict Morpurgo house after receiving word at a hearing on Tuesday that the foreclosed property is to be sold at auction in just under a month.

Joel Zweig, an attorney for Atlanta View Holdings, the mortgage holder for 6 Union Street, appeared before the village board with a court order in hand directing that the property be auctioned on June 24, on the steps of Southampton Town Hall.

The village building inspector has cited the 210-year-old house for health and safety concerns. The front porch is in danger of collapse, there are large holes in the walls and floors, and there is an open septic tank on the property. Mr. Zweig warned board members that demolishing the house before the auction “risks recourse.” He said there had been “significant interest” in the property, including four phone calls from brokers and two from potential buyers, since the auction was advertised in The Southampton Press last week. The minimum bid, or the amount of the outstanding mortgage, is about $1.1 million.

Even with the property in foreclosure and the auction just weeks away, Mr. Zweig said the lender cannot legally take any action to fix up the dilapidated house. In the meantime, the mortgage holder has agreed to further secure the property by erecting a fence around the two sides of the property that remain open, one on Jefferson Street and the other along the property line the house shares with the John Jermain Memorial Library.

Community members and organizations have called for a pardon for the old house. On Tuesday, before Mr. Zweig addressed the board, Jason Crowley, outgoing preservation director at the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, called it a “contributing resource,” to the local, state, and National Register Historic District. It is the society’s position that every effort should be made to repair it, he said, urging that the village “only consider demolition as an absolute last resort.”

The society photographed the roof of the main house and reported that while the chimneys were damaged, there were no holes. A small one-story addition in the back had a hole in its roof, and the porch had “deteriorated to the point of a possible threat to public safety, but these are elements that could be removed without loss to the entire historic structure,” Mr. Crowley said.

“Sag Harbor has some of Long Island’s most exemplary 18th and 19th century architecture, and it is unfortunate that such a distinctive resource has been left to deteriorate for so many years,” he concluded.

Jayne Young, speaking on behalf of Save Sag Harbor, said the building, one of 870 structures in the village’s historic district and the only one built in the Italianate style, needed to be safeguarded. Without a detailed engineer’s report, she said, it was impossible to assess the full extent of damage. “We’re sure you all remember when the Bulova building was also deemed to be unsalvageable, not so long ago,” she said. The Hampton Street watchcase factory building now houses high-end condominium apartments.

While board members will not make a final decision on demolition until their regular June 12 meeting, it was unclear whether they would wait until after the auction. Ed Deyermond, a member, noted that even should there be a winning bid, closing need not take place for another 30 days.

“I have no problem tearing this house down this afternoon. I want to be clear,” Mr. Deyermond said.

Erika Gomez refuses to let epilepsy define her life. Right now, the cheerful 20-year-old said she simply considers it a road block, albeit a big one, that has lately included doctor and hospital visits, medication, and even surgery.

But she is driving toward a solution, and to help fuel her journey, family and friends have set up a campaign on the crowd-sourcing website GoFundMe. com to help her pay for treatment and, they hope, for a therapy dog.

“There’s no telling where her financial need is going to end,” said Betsy Hughes, whose daughter Kailey Hughes is a close friend of Ms. Gomez. “We would like to build this as much as we can, to give her the cushion so that she stops worrying about that, and she can focus on getting better.”

Ms. Gomez, a 2014 East Hampton High School graduate, was diagnosed with epilepsy in April 2014. She has struggled with the illness over the last two years and had to withdraw recently from SUNY Plattsburgh when it got worse.

On May 12, as she was walking from her job at Sneakerology across the street to Citarella in East Hampton, Ms. Gomez had her most recent seizure. She fell to the ground unconscious, sustaining numerous severe facial cuts. Two of her front teeth were knocked out.

When Ms. Gomez regained consciousness in the hospital, according to Betsy Hughes, she asked the doctors to not repair her teeth because it would be too expensive. Ms. Hughes, who had accompanied her to the hospital, insisted the surgery take place.

Ms. Hughes and Gary Dworetz, the co-owner of Sneakerology, who collaborated on the GoFundMe campaign, said that Ms. Gomez and her family now live “in a constant state of intense worry and high alert.”

“She’s always been this incredibly friendly, bubbly, energetic, and happy girl,” Ms. Hughes said. “She’s not happy with the effect this has had on her, but it really hasn’t squashed her spirit. That makes us want to help her all the more. She’s pretty special.”

The campaign has raised more than $17,000 so far, with donations coming both anonymously and from friends, relatives, and other names familiar to the family. Through her sister, Kathleen Gomez-Chaves, Ms. Gomez said that while she has had to put her dreams of college graduation and independence on hold for now, “this is just something temporary while we figure out how to control [the] seizures.”

In a recent Facebook post, she thanked those who have donated. “I’m so grateful to come from a community where we all treat one another like family,” she said.

The Sag Harbor Masonic Lodge will open its doors to the public on June 4 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., offering a rare look into the society’s inner sanctum, where the Masons have held rituals, meetings, and ceremonies for well over a century.

The Wamponamon Masonic Lodge No. 437, chartered in 1858, maintains a trove of vintage Masonic art and ceremonial objects, as well as historic photographs and original documents and books. Also on display will be an antique tiara stemming from the Order of the Eastern Star, a Masonic-style fraternal group open to both men and women.

A recently completed mural by John Capello, an artist and member of the Masons, will be seen by the public for the first time.

The current Master of the Lodge, Patrick McErlean, with members of the group, has invited the community to the free open house and tour of the lodge headquarters, on the upper floor of the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum on Main Street. A chairlift will provide access to those who cannot manage the winding staircase. Children age 5 and up will be welcomed with a parent or caregiver. Visitors will be offered refreshments and souvenir postcards.

Perry Santanachote and Alastair Coy Wallace have announced their engagement and are planning a July 10 wedding in Boulder, Colo.

Mr. Wallace’s parents are Jamie Coy Wallace of Mill Hill Lane in East Hampton and Edward B. Wallace Jr. of Kansas City, Mo. Ms. Santanachote is the daughter of Oranuch and Paul Santanachote of Denver.

They met while she was earning her master’s degree at the City University of New York, where Mr. Wallace is the assistant director of technology for the Graduate School of Journalism. He earned a B.F.A. in film and video production from New York University in 1999. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Metropolitan State University of Denver. She is a recipe developer for the Barteca Restaurant Group. They live in New York City.

A Suffolk Supreme Court judge has ruled that the Village of Sag Harbor cannot hold a property owner to new zoning and wetland laws created after two recent moratoriums in the village, at least for the next three weeks.

Justice W. Gerard Asher granted a temporary restraining order barring the village from applying five different code amendments to Marius Fortelni’s Bluff Point Road property, pending a hearing on June 8. Mr. Fortelni is claiming also that the new laws, passed on April 21, are illegal.

Mr. Fortelni, who bought the waterfront property in 2002, wants to replace his 1,200-square-foot house at 14 Bluff Point Road, outside the historic district, with a larger one. His proposal to build a house just shy of 5,000 square feet on a property that measures just a little less than half an acre would not be allowed under the new gross floor area laws, which tie the size of a house to the size of its lot.

     Alex Kriegsman, a Sag Harbor attorney representing the homeowner, said his client first filed an application to build in 2005, though he acknowledged that the village was “not solely responsible for 10 years of delays.”

“Supposedly, the idea is to preserve historic properties, but it never made any sense. The moratorium never made any sense, and was totally inconsistent with that goal,” the lawyer said.

Mr. Fortelni contends that the village laws were passed after an illegal moratorium on large residential building projects. The village should have sent the moratorium proposal to the Suffolk County Planning Commission before enacting it, he claims. Months into the moratorium, the issue was raised publicly, and Fred W. Thiele Jr., the village attorney at the time, said he did not believe the village had the obligation to send it to the county but forwarded it to the commission for review nonetheless.

“The law is very clear that a moratorium in such instances is null and void,” Mr. Kriegsman said.  

Mr. Fortelni could begin building his house in the next few weeks under the temporary restraining order, but the upcoming hearing may result, his attorney said, in a preliminary or even permanent injunction, which would allow the project to move forward without further ado. “He could just invalidate the whole law,” Mr. Kriegsman said.

Sag Harbor was without an attorney for about a month, and hired David Gilmartin Jr. last week. “With good counsel in place,” Mr. Kriegsman said, “they are likely to do what’s in the best interest of the village. We’d like to settle the case. My client’s looking to build a house, he’s not looking to change the world.”

Mayor Sandra Schroeder declined to comment.

A dead whale has run aground in Gardiner's Bay, leaving East Hampton Town officials trying to figure out what to do about it. 

A bayman reported what appeared to be the carcass of a small humpback whale in the water on Sunday morning, according to Ed Michels, the chief harbormaster. Coast Guard Station Montauk searched for it but did not locate the 20-foot whale until Sunday evening, Mr. Michels said. As of Monday afternoon, the carcass had become stuck on the bay bottom and was belly up in shallow water about 500 feet from the shore between the Devon Yacht Club in Amagansett and Promised Land, he said. 

Mr. Michels said he did not know any specifics about the type of whale or how long it had been dead. Right now, his main concern is what to do about it, he said, adding that he has given Supervisor Larry Cantwell two options: Leave it alone and let Mother Nature run its course, or try to tow it to shore and dispose of it, a process that comes with a hefty price tag. "If we go touch it, it's going to cost thousands." 

Mr. Michels has been in touch with the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, and the organization has indicated to him that it would like to perform a necropsy, if it can get hold of the whale. However, the foundation would only take pieces of the carcass; the rest of the whale would have to be disposed of. Those costs, along with the cost of bringing in the equipment to move the whale, would add up fast, he said. 

Mr. Michels is not sure the carcass is in good enough shape to be hauled to the shore. "Can it handle a tail rope? That's the only way to tow it," he said. 

The supervisor was briefed on the situation Monday afternoon and has asked that the Riverhead Foundation go out on a Marine Patrol boat on Tuesday to evaluate the carcass's condition and if moving it is a viable option. "There are any number of considerations here," Mr. Cantwell said, among them where it could be brought to shore. Once some of those answers are available, then he will make a decision.  

Even if the supervisor signs off on spending the money, the operation to move it would not begin before Tuesday at the earliest, and that's if the weather cooperates, he said. The situation could also change by then; the carcass could float away or float to shore, and at that time the town's hand would be forced.

"I think we have an obligation not to have a health hazard on the beach," Mr. Michels said. 

The East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals pondered a multifaceted application from the Everit Albert Herter Veterans of Foreign Wars Post on Montauk Highway on Friday. 

The post needs a special permit if it is to keep its meeting hall, located to the rear of the property. Brian Carabine, its quartermaster, explained the situation to the board: The post purchased the property around 1979 and moved into it in 1981. “The house in the back had a Section 8 family in it,” he said.

The structure’s certificate of occupancy lists it as a single-family dwelling, which it clearly no longer is.

It is important that the property’s characterization on a certificate of occupancy match its utilization, explained Linda Riley, the village’s attorney, as that will determine parking, septic, and other requirements. If the board is going to grant relief for a change of use, “I just want to know how that use is to be characterized,” she said. 

The post is not a residence, Mr. Carabine replied, describing rooms used for meetings, display of artifacts, and storage, as well as a commercial kitchen. Coffee is served to members in the mornings, and breakfast on Sundays. “It’s not a moneymaking thing,” he said of the breakfasts. “It’s just for socialization on Sundays.” 

“The post was originally operating a restaurant up front,” Mr. Carabine said. Today, the restaurant, now called the Highway Restaurant and Bar, is leased. “That’s how we keep in business, our source of income,” he said.

Turning to the restaurant, the post is seeking variances to relocate three outdoor dining tables from a slate patio on  its west side to a larger wood deck on the opposite side; to permit an air-conditioning unit, roof overhang, and walk-in cooler to remain within front-yard setbacks, and to allow a shed to remain within the rear-yard setback. Those alterations are also subject to approval by the Design Review Board. 

The board was cool to an additional request, to permit the restaurant’s detached sign to be 14 feet high, 6 feet higher than allowed by code. The existing sign is 10 feet high and located partly on the Montauk Highway right-of-way. “It is a residential neighborhood, there are residences across the street,” Frank Newbold, the board’s chairman, said. “The signage in all East Hampton Village, they are trying to be more understated than stated.” 

Richard Hammer, an attorney representing the applicant, had characterized the location as a “gateway to the village,” and Mr. Newbold agreed. “Every single car passes this location,” he said. “I’m not sure this is where we want to bend the rules to allow a sign that’s almost double what is permitted.” 

The proposed relocation of the outdoor tables was also problematic. “This is pre-existing approved dining,” Mr. Hammer argued. “We just think it would be a much better location to have those three tables on the other side of the property.”

But the code has been amended since the outdoor dining was approved, to specifically prohibit it in residential districts, Ms. Riley said, reading a pertinent passage: No variance shall be granted to permit the expansion or extension of such outdoor use in a residential district, “and any variance granted to permit the reconstruction or alteration of any such lawfully existing outdoor use shall not exceed 100 percent of the lawfully pre-existing area.”

“They’re going to be moving it from a much smaller, restricted area to a larger area,” she told the board, implying a contravention of code. “It’s your decision.” 

“I view the actual size of this as three tables,” Mr. Hammer countered, not the deck to which they would be relocated.

Ken Collum, the village’s building inspector and fire marshal, told the board that “this tenant has been well informed of the restrictions on outdoor dining,” but “we have had issues with that patio — all of a sudden, tables appearing, chairs appearing.” He called the restaurant “a known problem area” over the last 20 years.

The board indicated no objection to variance relief for the air-conditioning unit, walk-in cooler, or shed, but the proposal for outdoor dining, Mr. Newbold said, was “a little more complicated than shifting three tables from here to there.” He asked Mr. Hammer to provide more input as to activity at the V.F.W. post and the need to shift the outdoor tables. The sign, he said, “is tall enough the way it is now” and should be situated entirely on the property.

The hearing was left open and is to be revisited at the board’s May 13 meeting. 

The board announced six determinations at the meeting. The film director Steven Spielberg was granted variances to allow a brick patio, three air-conditioning condenser units, and a generator well pit to remain within the required setbacks at 4 West End Road. Mr. Spielberg can also keep 842 square feet of lot coverage exceeding the maximum.

The board granted J. Tomlinson Hill of 27 East Dune Lane, vice chairman of the Blackstone Group, variances that will allow a slate walkway and outdoor stairs that are on and encroaching over the side property line to remain. At the adjacent property, which Mr. Hill also owns, the board granted additional variances allowing a garbage bin to remain within the property-line setback and permitting construction of planters, water features, and a stone patio, also within the required setbacks. 

Jeffrey Colle, a designer and builder, was granted a wetlands permit to allow the removal of phragmites by hand digging, to promote re-establishment of native plant species at 11 Chauncey Close. 

The board granted Graham Clempson of 56 David’s Lane variances allowing him to reconvert an accessory structure back to a garage, with a half-bath accessible only from the exterior, and to install a platform at the doorway to the half-bath. The building and proposed platform are within required setbacks. Mr. Clempson agreed not to construct a proposed cupola on the restored building.  

Alexander and Katherine Brodsky were allowed to make alterations to a second dwelling within required setbacks at 20 Apaquogue Road; to construct a dormer in the roof of the principal dwelling exceeding the 33-foot height limitation, and to have 633 square feet of total floor area above the legal maximum. The relief was granted on condition that use of the second dwelling be limited to domestic employees or family members of the principal dwelling’s residents.

The carcass of a dead humpback whale that ran aground in Gardiner's Bay off Napeague has been towed to Little Albert's Landing Beach and will be removed sometime on Wednesday. 

At the request of East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation hopped a ride with Marine Patrol officers to determine if the carcass would withstand being towed. The decision was made Tuesday afternoon to move it to the beach, where it will be dissected for a necropsy. The rest of it will be disposed of. 

Mr. Cantwell said Tuesday afternoon that there was reason to believe the whale's body might become adrift due to the strong east winds and rising tide. "At that point it could have washed up anywhere," he said. "I would rather be able to control the situation to the extent that we can and know it can be taken care of." It would be more trouble to deal with it if it were to wash ashore on rocks or in an area with no beach access.  

The whale, about 20 to 25 feet long, was towed using a line that was secured to one of its fins from a Marine Patrol boat, Ed Michels, the chief harbormaster said. Once it arrived at Little Albert's Beach, a rope and a line was attached to the carcass so it could be secured from the shore. Kim Durham, a biologist with the Riverhead Foundation, was aboard during the effort. 

The Riverhead Foundation will return on Wednesday to perform the necropsy, according to Rachel Bosworth, a spokeswoman for the foundation. "At that time, they will be able to take measurements, samples, and determine the gender and age of the whale as well," she said. Samples will be sent to a pathologist. Results can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, she said. 

Patrick Bistrian Jr. Inc., which has a contract for various machinery with the town, will remove the whale on Wednesday with an excavator, according to Stephen Lynch, the highway superintendent. He estimated the cost would be "a few thousand dollars — nothing astronomical." 

Mr. Lynch, who went down to the beach on Tuesday afternoon, said the carcass didn't smell too much, yet, which he attributed to the cold waters. 

The foundation received information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that two other humpback whales, one in Newport, R.I., and the other in Marshfield, Mass., were found dead in recent days. The Mystic Aquarium was investigating the death of the Rhode Island whale, and the New England Aquarium was looking at the whale in Marshfield, Ms. Bosworth said. "At this time it is unclear whether any of these occurrences are related in any way, and all organizations will be reporting their findings to NOAA," she said.

When the Ocean Institute opened last spring at the Montauk Lighthouse the focus was mainly on the history of surfing. The one-room building was constructed in 1897 to house a fog siren, and later housed a World War II fire control tower, but in recent years it has been used only for storage.  Its restoration had to be in keeping with the original design, as the Montauk Lighthouse is a National Historic Landmark.

First, the building got a coat of paint and new windows. Then, it was decorated with surfboards and a display of mannequins wearing bathing suits similar to surfwear of the ’60s. There was a grand opening on a knoll outside; guests listened to music after touring the institute. And in December, even Santa Claus chose to pay a visit. 

After that, however, the institute could not come up with the money needed to move forward. After the death in January of Russell Drumm, a founder, The Star’s fishing columnist, and a devoted surfer, the plan was scrapped and the other founders, Jimmy Buffett, Bettina Stelle, and Gregory Donohue, resolved to take a new direction.

The name will remain the same but the institute will combine science and art to bring attention to the abundance of plastics in the world’s seven oceans. If not cleaned up, plastic is expected to outnumber fish by 2050, according to Mr. Donohue, who noted that several weeks ago a whale and her calf were found dead with bellies full of plastic materials.

Several environmentalists and corporations have traveled the world to see what can be done. Take 3, for example, is an Australian foundation that urges beachgoers to take three pieces of garbage with them when they leave the beach. Kevin Ahearn Jr. of Bureo Skateboards, an East Hampton resident, found that in South America fishermen toss worn-out nets overboard. A factory was found to reduce the nets to pellets, which are now used for skateboard decks. 

Mr. Donohue, who is sculpturing a whale out of garbage he picked up in six weeks from the beaches of Montauk and has partially filled a fishing net that is ceiling-high, said there was “an island of plastics the size of Rhode Island” in the Atlantic and no one seemed to be doing anything about it. Governments are funding trips to the moon, he said, when their own planet is in trouble. “Earth is our mother, and we can’t keep treating her like this,” he said.

Artists on board so far to contribute art for the institute include Scott Bluedorn and Bill Strong. After this weekend’s Earth Day celebration, Mickey Valcich will bring a filled Dumpster to the Lighthouse site so that artists and students can pick through it for items to make their projects.

 “We want to make people aware of what’s going on. If kids get the responsibility of it now, they may take better care of their planet,” Mr. Donohue said.