East Hampton Village residents approved an increase in the village's contribution to a pension-like incentive program for volunteer ambulance members in a referendum held on Tuesday.

The vote was 58 to 2 in favor of increasing the benefit of the Length of Service Award Program, or LOSAP, from $20 per month for each year of volunteer service to $30 per month for each year of service, said Becky Molinaro Hansen, the village administrator. The benefit, which will start on Jan. 1, will match the incentive received by fire department volunteers.

The maximum monthly service award amount eligible volunteers will be able to accrue, once they reach retirement age, will now go from $800 to $1,200, based on the credits earned from 40 years of service.

On Monday morning, Zara Beard was walking her dog along the cliffs in Montauk when she stopped at an overlook to gaze out into the cold waters of the Atlantic in Turtle Cove, one of the South Fork’s prime surfing spots. A gray seal was swimming amid the occasional whitecaps, and it went under the water for about a minute before surfacing again about 25 feet from the shore. 

“All of a sudden, something came from underneath,” she said. That something was enormous — as big as a bus, she said, from her vantage point high on the cliffs. She only saw its dark back and its tail flipping.

“His entire body was bumped out of the water,” she said of the seal. Then it made what she called a horrible sound. Dark red blood pooled in that area of the water. 

“If I blinked for too long I would have missed it,” she said. “I just happened to be there . . . it was a very cool moment.” 

Ms. Beard, who lives nearby, said she had never seen a great white shark before, but when she looked it up online, she knew instantly that that was the creature she had seen attack the seal. Shark experts confirmed her suspicions. 

Greg Metzger, a marine biologist and educator who founded the South Fork Natural History Museum’s Shark Research and Education Program, which was launched in May, said that based on his discussion with Ms. Beard, he believes she saw an adult great white shark. However, without photographic evidence it is impossible to know with absolute certainty, he said. 

Still, what Ms. Beard described is “a very, very classic white shark-seal interaction,” he said. Great whites are migrating at this time of year. With the water temperatures in the high 40s, it is still warm enough for some sharks to be in the area. “This one was probably migrating back down south, feeling a little hungry, and took the opportunity,” he said.

If it was, in fact, a great white shark, it would be the first confirmed event of a seal being taken here. There has not even been evidence of seals being bitten. It is a more common occurrence farther north on Cape Cod and in California. While it is not common to see sharks come so close to shore, research Mr. Metzger has been a part of shows that the South Fork is a nursery of sorts for baby great whites.

Two children were bitten in separate shark attacks off Fire Island this summer, but there was no evidence it was anything other than sand or tiger sharks that were pursuing prey fish, Newsday reported at the time. While officials examined a tooth fragment that had been removed from one of the children’s legs, they could not determine the species of shark it came from. 

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Marine Resources Division confirmed it has learned of a reported predation event  involving a large gray seal approximately 25 feet off of Turtle Cove,” a spokeswoman said this week. The staff notified the State Parks Department about the incident and will assist parks staffers in any actions they take, she said. 

 Are people at risk? The simple answer, Mr. Metzger said, is yes. “There is always a risk,” he said. “We have a lot of sharks in our waters.” He would advise that winter surfers “surf with caution given this event. Be aware of your environment. You wouldn’t surf in an area where you see a lot of seals. We know a shark could be there,” Mr. Metzger said. He cautioned against the hysteria that so often is associated with sharks. 

The great white, with its torpedo shape and powerful tail, is the world’s most notorious shark and the largest predatory fish. Its casting in “Jaws” certainly has not helped its reputation. 

“Sharks are amazing animals who play an incredibly important role in our ecosystem, and it’s crucial to remember that the ocean is their home and we’re just visitors. They are not out there hunting for people and there is no reason to be afraid,” Ms. Beard said after speaking to the experts. “It is not about living in fear of nature but rather a reminder to be conscious about the importance of having respect for the ocean, its strength, and all the lives within.” 

Mr. Metzger, who is a marine sciences teacher at Southampton High School, discussed Ms. Beard’s sighting with his students. “This is a really great teaching moment,” he said. “This is an iconic animal doing its thing. National Geographic would spend millions of dollars trying to get this on film.” 

Seeing a great white shark so close to shore is a sign of a healthy environment, too, Mr. Metzger said. It shows a complete food chain. If the seals did not have access to enough food, they would not be here, and if the seals were not here, the sharks — the apex predator — would not be here. 

White sharks are critical in maintaining a healthy and balanced marine ecosystem. They remove sick and weak individuals from prey populations, and regulate species abundance, distribution, and diversity throughout the marine environment, research shows. 

  According to a National Parks Service document for Cape Cod that addresses frequently asked questions about sharks and public safety, white sharks were in decline in the Atlantic until being designated a protected species in federal waters in 1997 and in state waters in 2005. “The protected status of the shark, in combination with a growing seal population, which is rebounding after being hunted to near extinction, is contributing to an increase in sharks near shore,” the document reads.

Mr. Metzger’s group, with help from Ocearch, an organization that researches and tracks marine species, has tagged 23 great white sharks with permanent satellite trackers since 2015. However, he said, none of them could have been the shark Ms. Beard saw because the oldest tagged shark is about three years old and would weigh about 200 pounds. “They couldn’t take out a gray seal,” he said. 

It is possible, though, that the shark could be one that was tagged by Dr. Gregory Skomal of the White Shark Conservancy and Massachusetts Marine Fisheries, and Mr. Metzger will be looking at data as it becomes available (the tracker only sends data to the satellite when the shark’s dorsal fin surfaces).

Ed Michels, the East Hampton Town harbormaster, said he also spoke to Ms. Beard after she filed a report. “I’m not shocked a shark bit a seal. I’d be shocked if a dog bit the seal,” he said. “We know the sharks live there.” He said he had no plans to close the beach to surfing. However, on Dec. 15 of each year he locks the gate to Turtle Cove, which, by court order, must remain open from September through Dec. 15. 

“I guess if we get another one, we’ll have to take a look at it,” he said.

If there is one constant about Santa Claus this time of year, it’s that he tends to get around. Just last weekend he appeared in the East Hampton Chamber of Commerce parade, and he also punched in for three hours at Groundworks Landscaping in East Hampton with Mrs. Claus at his side. He’ll be back at noon both days this weekend with a band playing to his right and the lights of Whoville beckoning children to enter a display to his left.

Last Saturday, a different Mrs. Claus appeared at the East Hampton Ladies Village Improvement Society (Why solo? We don’t judge). Santa was also in the house at Fowler’s Garden Center in Southampton, where he will return from 1 to 4 both days this weekend. That’s fortunate, because last Sunday Santa was too busy to come to the phone to chat.

“He’s leaving in about 10 minutes,” a Fowler’s employee said. 

Could Santa perhaps talk when he’s through at 4? “Why, he has to get back to the North Pole and make all those toys,” she answered, as if the question were absurd.

The point is, if it’s a photo with Santa that you want this holiday season, there are still places to go and plenty of men (and women) who are willing to dress up to make the dream come true. Most of them say it’s a special calling, all right, but it’s not without its challenges. It might surprise you to know that many are pretty serious about the work, too, and refuse to divulge even the tamest anecdotes about kids who wet their pants, kids who got sick on their laps, or kids who asked for a Mercedes or stock portfolio instead of a teddy bear or world peace.

If a theme emerges from talking to a lot of Santas, it’s that your secret is safe with them.

“Oh yes, but I find most children are actually well behaved because they want something from Santa,” Stan Morlando pointed out with a laugh after his appearance at Groundworks Sunday with Mrs. Claus (his real-life wife, Bonnie).

“Sometimes the kids will ask me, ‘Is Santa Claus for real?’ ” Mrs. Morlando said, “and I tell them, ‘Why, I believe in him so much I married him!’ Which is true; I’m not lying to the child.”

Smiling now, she added, “Would you like a candy cane? You’ve been a very good girl.”

The Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton will host another Santa on Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. Santa will also be at Harbor Pets in Sag Harbor, where from 11 to 2 p.m. on Sunday you can have him pose with your pet by a fireplace. Dogs need no appointments, but cat owners visit at their own peril and should arrive early. “Otherwise, there’s hell to pay,” the storeowner, Alan Fruitstone, said. He has played Santa for seven years, and says he’s learned a lot in that time, starting with this: Pet owners tend to love the one they’re with.

“Two years ago somebody brought in a chicken,” Mr. Fruitstone said.

Another year, Darhiana Loja, a store employee, wasn’t content merely to  play Santa’s elf yet again. She took in her pet water frog and it went smashingly well. Little Fresca is absolutely beaming in the photo.

“She’s usually aggressive,” Ms. Loja said, “so I have a little sign on her tank that says, ‘Please don’t feed me. Please don’t put your fingers in the tank.’ But guess what? Surprise. People always do it anyway. She has no teeth. But she tries to bite them.”

Mr. Fruitstone said he enjoys playing Santa because, “It’s always a fun day.”

Mr. Morlando said he was first invited to fill the Santa role 23 years ago at the annual holiday party hosted by the electric company where he worked. The previous Santa retired. Mrs. Morlando helped him get dressed for his appearances the first 15 years — “It’s a procedure,” she says — and took over the Mrs. Claus role from another woman eight years ago. “She was very nice, but I stepped on her foot and got her to go away,” Mrs. Morlando said. 

Hearty laugh.

“I’m kidding!” she added.

To appear at Groundworks’ wonderfully elaborate snow village, the Morlandos flew in last weekend from their home in Vestal, a town in upstate New York. Besides being fun, it’s a favor to the owner, Kim Hren, because Ms. Hren went to college with one of their four children. “Anything for the Kimmer,” Mrs. Claus said. 

Mr. Morlando said he commissioned his terrific velvet Santa costume from a local tailor — “It took three fittings” — and his sensational beard is a mail-order find his wife sent for.

Asked a second time for any now-it-can-be-told kid stories, Mr. Morlando does offer one: One year he saw a precocious little boy approaching and whispered to his wife that he could feel some mischief coming on. Sure enough, once on his lap, the little boy tried to pull off Santa’s beard — not knowing Mr. Morlando had beaten him to the punch by putting his thumb underneath his bottom lip to hold it in place. Then he yelled “Ouch!” when the kid tugged.

The wide-eyed boy looked at him as if to say, “Maybe you are real after all.”

“We were talking just the other day about how many hundreds of children have come across his lap over the years, and how he’s unknowingly been a part of so many people’s Christmas cards or photos hanging on their trees somewhere,” Mrs. Claus said. “It’s a wonderful footprint to have in this life.”

When their Santa duties are done, the Morlandos head south for their winter home near Walt Disney World in sunny Orlando. Mrs. Morlando confided that she happens to be a “Disney freak” and if there’s one role besides Mrs. Claus “which is on my bucket list, which I don’t believe is ever going to happen in this life,” it’s this: “I would like to be the Fairy Godmother. At Disney. But. . . .”

Yes? 

“I think they want someone who looks like the Fairy Godmother. But is younger.”

Mrs. Morlando paused just a second, as if absorbing the blow anew. Then brightening again, she added, “But hey, I can bibbidi-bobbidi-boo with the best of them!”

Ho, ho, ho. We know.

East Hampton Village will hold a referendum on Tuesday increase the Length of Service Award Program (LOSAP) benefits for active volunteer ambulance members.

The program is a financial benefit provided to the volunteers once they reach retirement age. The village is seeking approval to raise the benefit from $20 per month for each year of volunteer service to $30 per month for each year of service starting Jan. 1, which would match the incentive received by fire department volunteers.

The maximum monthly service award amount eligible volunteers would be able to accrue would go from $800 to $1,200 "based on 40 years of service credit earned," according to the text of the proposition.

The service award program will cost the village just over $85,000 — "or $1,330 per covered participant" — in the 2018 calendar year. That cost is expected to go up to about $145,000 per year — $2,270 per person — if the referendum is approved.

Polling will take place at the village’s Emergency Services Building at 1 Cedar Street from noon to 9 p.m.

Only people registered to vote in East Hampton Village may cast ballots on the measure.

The Spur, a co-working space and entrepreneurial networking group currently located in a temporary space in Southampton Village as its new headquarters are being completed a little over a mile away, has plans to open a satellite location in East Hampton in January, and expects to hear on Dec. 18 about a state grant for as much as $1 million. 

The Spur’s management intends to use the grant to continue its goal of transforming and innovating how business is done on the East End.

“We already know we’ll receive at least a half million, but we’re waiting to hear from the state if it will stay at a half million or be the full $1 million we’re eligible to receive,” said Ashley Heather, who launched the Spur last January on the heels of another business he started months earlier called iHamptons. That one is a nonprofit organization that bills itself as “the hub of entrepreneurs in the Hamptons . . . bringing together all the resources needed to launch and build an innovative company” and holds an annual contest modeled after the “Shark Tank” TV show that awards funding to a winning entrepreneur.

Mr. Heather’s previous business accomplishments include developing the popular music app Shazam.

The state grant the Spur anticipates is the largest among seven that are scheduled to be awarded to East End businesses as part of the New York State Regional Economic Development Initiative. The state program is intended to spark job creation and community development projects. That emphasis dovetails with how Mr. Heather describes the mission that drives the Spur.

Mr. Heather said the Spur intends to use the funding it receives to add more staff, cover operational costs, and finish completion of its expanded new workspace and event hub at 630 Hampton Road, where Route 27 and County Road 39 intersect in Southampton. The group hopes to open that permanent home by Memorial Day. Once finished, it will boast expanded co-working and event spaces, a members’ lounge, indoor and outdoor restaurants, a business concierge, a public food market, and bike share, but the same credo: a place built by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs.

As for its East Hampton “spoke,” as Mr. Heather refers to it, the Spur is close to signing a lease for a location just outside the village that he hopes to open in January. There are also plans for satellites in Sag Harbor, Montauk, and Greenport.

“We hope to make an announcement about the East Hampton location in the next week or two,” Mr. Heather said.

The Spur’s successful pitch for the state funding focused on a number of themes. 

“What we want to do is turn the East End into more of a business hub — I think that’s the macro message,” Mr. Heather said, noting that most East End businesses are heavily focused on the lifestyle and service industry, agriculture, and seasonal jobs.

“Basically, the business of doing business is not really located here,” Mr. Heather said. “What places like Greenwich [Conn.] and some other areas have managed to do is create fundamental business hubs that make it attractive for businesses to come here, stay here, hire a year-round work force. There are relatively few things like that on the East End right now, and we think that’s the opportunity we’re looking to go after. It can also help to avoid brain drain, which is sort of a secondary issue this area deals with now.” 

“People in their early 20s or so tend to move to another city or location because there’s not a lot to keep them here,” Mr. Heather continued. “Bringing the sort of tech and innovation opportunities we’re focusing on could help keep some of those people here, and also attract some to move back who have already moved out. Media, technology, health and wellness, retail, food, drink, and hospitality — those are the core areas we’re focusing innovation around.”

People interested in joining the Spur submit an application, which can be found online at thespur.com. The vetting process, Mr. Heather said, helps the group achieve its goal of remaining a place where innovation and entrepreneurship are fostered and like-minded folks can network and help each other rather than “a membership based on members all selling services to each other.”

“We accept most people, but we don’t accept everybody,” Mr. Heather said. “There is an interview. Personality is obviously a piece of it. But really, it’s more what are you really working on? Are you really working on an innovation business?”

Two tiers of membership are currently offered: A standard membership for $200 a month includes access to the Spur’s workspace and the numerous events the Spur hosts. A “moonlight” membership costs $100 a month and includes access to the Spur starting at 5 p.m. each night.

Members who join between now and the end of the year will avoid the one-time, $2,500 initiation fee the Spur will begin charging Jan. 1, Mr. Heather said.

Rampant problems at the Montauk Post Office last summer had been attributed to staff turnover and the volume of mail and parcels, particularly because of the Postal Service’s deal to deliver for Amazon. At times, packages were literally stacked on the branch’s loading dock for days. 

Now, with Christmas just around the corner and Hanukkah underway, very little has improved, according to Montauk residents, who say the system is broken and have started deputizing themselves as mail carriers. They report skipped delivery days, mail being delivered to wrong addresses, and mail and parcels being left in spots where they can be damaged by the weather — if their deliveries show up at all.

Some businesses report being hamstrung by delays in getting time-sensitive payments or needed stock. Residents reliant on paychecks, Social Security checks, or medicine via mail are also suffering.

“You have no idea how bad it is. It has in no way improved,” said Wayne Schoenbrun, a Montauk resident for 35 years. “This can’t be blamed on Black Friday. It can’t be blamed on the holiday season — it’s not. This is something that has been evolving for the past two years, and it’s been getting consistently worse the last four months or so. We get mail three or four days a week now instead of six. They’ll leave packages out in the rain. Sometimes they don’t come till 7 or 8 at night. It’s really amazing to me that a federal agency can get away with this.”

Many residents say they have called or visited the post office to offer solutions, not just air complaints, to no avail. Among them are Karl and Sallyann Stork. They say they’ve experienced a long list of problems in recent months: missing mail, skipped or late-evening delivery days, packages tossed on the curb, and an occasion when their carrier tried to jam a large package into their mailbox and badly damaged it. Mrs. Stork said her husband had put a water-soaked package in a plastic bag and taken it to the post office to show employees. “It’s terrible,” she said.

Mr. Stork failed to receive regular checks expected from the State of New York several times, which forced him to reapply and accept delayed receipt of the money by three to four weeks each time, he said, while the state investigated, canceled the checks, and reissued new ones. “They owe me about $1,500 now,” he said with a sigh.

In addition to reporting these problems, Mr. Stork said he told post office employees that his mailbox was broken. When he returned days later, however, he was told there was no record of his report. “I flipped out and said, ‘Are you serious?’ ” Mr. Stork said. “And as I was still there, there was a woman in line with 15 or 20 packages and only one gentleman working the front counter. He was very personable, very nice. But this guy was all by himself and asked for help numerous times. Nobody came out to help him. Finally another man waiting in line in the lobby started shouting, ‘Hey, is anybody else working here? Can I get some help? Or at least maybe a drink while I wait?’ It was so bad, we finally started having fun with it by the end. I answered him, ‘Sure. What do you want? A Scotch and soda?’ ” 

Montauk is a small place in winter where longtime residents tell you only the last four digits of their phone numbers without the preceding “668.” Many of those who spoke for this story traced the decline in mail service to the 2017 departures of four longtime employees — two carriers and two clerks — plus the fact the postmaster had changed three times. They insist it’s not just the avalanche of Amazon parcels that causes problems.

Richard Brown, a rural route carrier in Montauk for 15 years before retiring, agrees. He said he runs into former customers at the I.G.A. supermarket or other spots around town who decry how bad mail service has become. He is sympathetic, he said, noting that he has experienced delivery problems himself. But he also laments the challenges his former post office colleagues are experiencing. Mr. Brown said he has tried to offer the management some suggestions, based on his experience, without success.

 According to Mr. Brown, new carriers are not adequately trained before they’re “thrown to the wolves” and told to handle routes that can number 500 or so deliveries each day. He said some workers are temporary summer help, “or they come from UpIsland and places as far away as Brooklyn. They don’t know the area here, how there are a lot of streets with similar names, or streets that don’t show up on GPS.” 

“The post office treats Montauk more like a summer community and it’s a year-round community,” he said. “There are still 3,000 of us here in the winter.”

Mr. Brown said all of his attempts have “fallen on deaf ears.” Much like Mr. and Mrs. Stork — who text a few neighbors each night saying, “The mail just arrived,” or, “Nothing tonight” —Mr. Brown is among those who have tried to devise solutions. He said he and his neighbors at the Camp Hero subdivision often avoid talking to post office employees at all now and take misplaced mail and parcels directly to one another. “We all know each other over here,” he said. 

A woman who lives at the Montauk Manor and relies on mail deliveries of medicine spoke for this story, but asked to remain anonymous. “This is a small town, and they [post office workers] can be spiteful if they want to be spiteful,” she said. When she called in a recent complaint, a postal worker told her, she said, that some Montauk carriers are now being timed on how long it takes them to finish their deliveries. The apparent hope is that will improve their performance.

“But all it really means is they throw the packages down now and run, because they’re in a hurry,” she said. “I’ve seen it. I worry because my medicine comes in glass vials. They also constantly leave my postal box unlocked and thrown open.”

Mr. Brown said he sometimes gets in his car and goes looking for packages he is waiting for because he knows his address is similar to one in Hither Hills. “Sure enough, the parcel would be at that house,” he said. He added that he now has the post office hold all his mail. “Instead of it winding up in 5 or 10 or any one of the 700 mailboxes on the route, I just go pick it up when I want to. At least I know it’s there.”

“When you take someone who hasn’t been trained or isn’t from here and throw them to the wolves, how do you expect them to be competent in their work?” Mr. Brown said. “You know, the U.S. Postal Service is the only agency that goes to every address in the United States every day — and when I worked there, I was proud of that. But people here in Montauk are not getting their mail. And it needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. It’s been happening a long time.”

A Nov. 7 prediction by Barley Dunne, the executive director of the East Hampton Town Shellfish Hatchery, as to this year’s bay scallop harvest in town waters has proven accurate. 

“It’s not looking that great again, unfortunately,” he said, four days before the Nov. 11 date on which the town trustees had voted to open town waters to the harvesting of the local delicacy. “Maybe a little bit lighter than last year.” 

In hindsight, the latter remark was an understatement, according to baymen and retailers. Apart from a mildly encouraging take in the first days, bay scallops are scarce this year, to the point that some of those who make their living on the water have decided that seeking them out is not worth the effort.

“It sucks,” was Stuart Heath’s assessment on Monday. “There’s a handful at Sammy’s Beach,” the Montauk bayman said, that he believed to be among those grown by the hatchery, which has seeded waters with scallops, oysters, and clams since its establishment in the wake of algal blooms that decimated shellfish populations in the 1980s. 

The scallops Mr. Heath has harvested have largely fallen short of the five bushels commercial permittees are allowed to take per day. Initially, the harvest was “a little better than last year,” he said. “There are a few spread out all over, but nobody’s getting their limit now. They might have been getting it in the first week.” 

Nat Miller of Springs said on Monday that he hasn’t looked for scallops because “there are none.” While there are “a few in Three Mile Harbor,” there are “not enough worth going for.” 

Early Tuesday afternoon, Alex Fausto, the manager of the Seafood Shop in Wainscott, reported just two bushels received by the retailer that day. “From the first day it wasn’t that great,” he said. “The third day, I think they did the limit in a few hours,” he said of harvesters. “Since then it’s been very slow.” Bay scallops were selling for $29.95 per pound at the Seafood Shop on Tuesday, a figure that has risen as the supply has diminished. 

“They say on the North Fork they’re doing well,” Mr. Fausto said. “But in this area?” He shook his head. “Worse than last year, definitely. Our guys say it’s not worth it to go, because it doesn’t pay.” 

Mr. Dunne pointed to habitat loss, saying on Nov. 7 that “the stuff we seeded seems to have done quite well, but due to lack of habitat any progeny they’ve produced has not been able to survive.” Eelgrass, which provides critical habitat for juvenile marine life, has been decimated in local waters, with abundant nitrogen loading a suspected culprit. “It really comes down to habitat, or lack thereof,” he said. “That’s really what scallops are relying on.” 

New York State had announced Nov. 5 as the opening of scallop season in state waters. The trustees typically open waters a week later to allow additional time for scallops to spawn. The season will end on March 31. 

The consensus last year was a modest rebound in the bay scallop population, New York’s official state shellfish, after two consecutive years of disappointment. In recent years, the population has been impacted by factors including blooms of cochlodinium, or rust tide. While not injurious to humans, rust tide can be harmful to shellfish and finfish. Predation by marine life including crabs and conch has also hurt, and is worsened by the sparse habitat to which Mr. Dunne referred. Warmer water temperatures may also be to blame. 

Mr. Miller reported “a bunch of bugs,” or juvenile scallops, in Three Mile Harbor. “Maybe next year there’s a chance,” he said. But this week, “Not much going on.”

Minerva Perez, the executive director of Organizacion Latino-Americana (OLA) of Eastern Long Island, is used to seeing possibilities where others see pessimism. But even Ms. Perez admits that when she posted an urgent message on Facebook on Nov. 19, the Monday before Thanksgiving, she privately thought the request was “a huge ask.” It read: 

“EMERGENCY CALL for help: Would you be willing to assist with temporary care for children in danger of being put into foster care because parent is being detained for non-violent offense such as driving without a license?”

“There are families in EH right now in danger of this happening. . . .”

Ms. Perez was surprised when 25 people — many of them Latino, many not — immediately responded with open-ended offers to take in the children. Most volunteered before they even knew the rest of the story: The parent in question was a 30-something Latina cancer patient and single mother with two children. She was stopped by police for driving without a license, a choice the woman made because she had no viable alternative to get to her medical treatments or handle the rest of her responsibilities, including work.

When she failed to appear for her recent arraignment because she was “terrified” that she might be flagged as an undocumented immigrant and deported once she entered the legal system, her worst fears were confirmed: A warrant was issued for her arrest, Ms. Perez said. She turned herself in and made bail and is now awaiting a local court decision to see if she will be sent to the county jail.

Ms. Perez emphasized she does not advocate driving without a license or breaking the law in any way. 

Laura Auerbach and Lynn Blumenfeld, two of the 25 people who responded to Ms. Perez’s plea for foster homes, independently stressed the same theme.

But all three women also said they question whether these kinds of nonviolent transgressions should trigger the penalties immigrant families are facing today. 

It is a scenario that has been playing out over and over here and across the country since the Trump administration made immigration enforcement a front-burner issue and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents started actively pursuing people.

To Ms. Perez, “To have 25 people who have families, who have responsibilities, get back to us right away just shows the depth of concern our community has for those that are vulnerable.”

Driving without a license is not an uncommon offense. But what many people do not know is that it is not possible to get a driver’s license in New York if you are not a legal United States resident. As such, the woman in this case faced the same dilemma many noncitizens here confront. They often cannot get work visas anymore, let alone green cards or a path to citizenship. Paying for a car service day in, day out is too expensive. Public transportation? Local legislators are trying to address the acknowledged gaps with proposals for increased bus and train service, and the so-called “last mile” program to get workers from the train stations to their local jobs. But such expanded services do not exist yet.

“And so, what do you do?” Ms. Perez asked. And what do you do as a community, she continued, when individuals are sometimes literally being plucked off the street or taken from their homes by immigration enforcement, thrown into jail, abruptly depriving their family of a breadwinner or parent, traumatizing or even orphaning their children, imperiling their job status, and plunging them into permanent deportation proceedings — all for nonviolent offenses? 

What do you do when even the fear of being picked up has left families battling severe stress and anxiety, especially when children are American citizens, but one or both parents are not?

Ms. Auerbach and Ms. Blumenfeld say these are sticky questions they ponder too.

Ms. Auerbach and her husband, Dominic LaPierre, have three children. He is an architect who works frequently with Latino crews and she is an art therapist who does pro bono work with the Latino community, especially women and children. 

Ms. Auerbach said when she heard Ms. Perez got 25 foster parent volunteers, what it signified to her is “our local community does not feel the same as our government [on the immigration issue]. And we recognize it’s going to take a grassroots effort to change what’s happening. . . . These people are our friends, our neighbors, an important part of the fabric of this community.”

Ms. Auerbach said she was also motivated to help because, “I know the anxiety and fears and P.T.S.D. that is happening from my work with the Latino community. I’m deeply, deeply saddened — and angry — at how our country is treating Latinos and Muslims, targeting those two groups in particular. Our country was built on immigration. We’re all descended from immigrants or refugees or slaves.”

Ms. Auerbach said all four of her grandparents were Russian Jews that emigrated to the United States to escape pogroms in 1912 and 1913.

“They were running from persecution, from death,” Ms. Auerbach said. “And when they came to America they were welcomed at Ellis Island. So I still have that immigrant mentality. I will always feel there is room at the table for one more.”

Ms. Perez said OLA is working on at least 10 cases of Latinos in severe peril of being deported for nonviolent offenses or old charges that they served their punishment for years ago. But numerous other families also have issues. To help, OLA has entered working relationships with the East Hampton and Southampton Town governments, asking them to publicly declare their policies on immigration enforcement and hammer out new legislation, if necessary. 

OLA sponsors community mental health workshops, and Ms. Perez landed funding for OLA to hire a staff human rights attorney, Andrew Strong, to help families with legal issues.

Ms. Blumenfeld, a Montauk businesswoman, said she objects to how people are being actively targeted.

“One question I have, just from reading the weekly crime reports, is are all these people really breaking the law, or are they being profiled?” Ms. Blumenfeld asked. “To me, it just seems like our country has lost its spiritual center. . . . The day after the [2016 presidential] election we got Ku Klux Klan invitations here in Montauk. The country is changing. I wanted to help because I think every individual has to act in a way that brings us together, and not divides us.”

“The East End would collapse without Latino workers,” Ms. Blumenfeld added.

Some people see shades of gray in the immigration debate. Others say it is a black-and-white issue: If you overstay and you get caught, you pay.

“There will always be people that say, ‘You’re not from here, you shouldn’t be here anyway,’ ” Ms. Perez acknowledged. “We understand that consequences need to be faced, and people need to understand they can’t just break the law. But we also have to understand the landscape before us. . . . Our judges do have discretion in many of these cases. . . . At OLA, we want to make sure this is a deep conversation that people are willing to have. Are we making our communities less safe or safer when we do this, or people take these risks?”

Ms. Auerbach said she sees the trauma surface in the art that her Latino therapy clients produce. Like Ms. Blumenfeld, Ms. Auerbach emphasized she felt sheepish even being interviewed for this story. Ms. Auerbach said she and her husband were acting on what they think this country should be.

“We were just offering to do what I think anyone who calls themselves an American citizen would do,” Ms. Auerbach said. “Particularly when it’s children in need.”

The last of five public hearings for the Town of East Hampton’s hamlet studies will happen at the town board’s meeting next Thursday and will focus on Montauk. The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the meeting room at Town Hall. 

The Montauk study has looked at the hamlet’s downtown, harbor, and Long Island Rail Road station areas. Downtown, sea level rise means that the oceanfront motels vital to the local economy are increasingly vulnerable to flooding and damage from storms, while higher ground is more lightly developed. Recommendations include coastal retreat and a gradual shift from the former to the latter area. 

The consultants, Peter Flinker of Dodson and Flinker, a Massachusetts consulting firm, and Lisa Liquori of Fine Arts and Sciences, a former town planning director, recommend addressing a critical shortage of affordable workforce housing through infill and second-story residential development downtown. Such development could also provide for businesses that relocate from lower-lying areas. The downtown area suffers from heavy traffic in the summer, and could be improved by connecting sidewalks and adding more crosswalks and street lighting. Wastewater management is essential, the consultants say, recommending a centralized wastewater treatment system. 

Wastewater and stormwater runoff must also be addressed at the harbor, the consultants say, to improve water quality and marine habitat, and the area must be made resilient to reduce risks from sea level rise and extreme weather. 

Resilience is also a buzzword in the area around the train station, near Fort Pond Bay. The study also recommends creation of a transit hub there, as well as the addition of mixed-use buildings. 

In previous public hearings, the hamlet studies have drawn mixed reviews. The hearing on the Wainscott study, held on Oct. 4, was mostly positive, its residents seeing opportunities to alleviate traffic congestion and the critical shortage of affordable housing, connect parking lots and pedestrian and bicycle pathways, reduce nitrogen and phosphorus inputs to Georgica Pond, and reduce the strip-mall look and feel of its commercial core in favor of walkable, connected outdoor public spaces. 

By contrast, the East Hampton study was criticized at its Oct. 18 hearing, largely by residents of Springs who predicted further stress on the already crowded corridors connecting East Hampton with their hamlet, chiefly Springs-Fireplace Road. 

Public comment at the Nov. 1 public hearing for the Amagansett hamlet study was varied. While residents agreed with many of the consultants’ recommendations, other suggestions were received coolly, with several speakers telling the board that they like Amagansett just the way it is. At the Nov. 15 public hearing on the Springs study, worries about future development of the aforementioned commercial area just beyond the border, specifically the Springs-Fireplace Road corridor between North Main Street and Abraham’s Path, dominated the discussion. 

The goal of the studies is to adopt recommendations for each hamlet that can be incorporated into the town’s comprehensive plan.

Sandwiched between David’s Lane and Huntting Lane is the Huntting Inn at 94 Main Street. A familiar sight in the village, it’s hard to imagine the Huntting as anything other than an inn, but the history of the building itself predates that use.

According to East Hampton Town records, a town meeting was held on Nov. 15, 1698, at which it was agreed that a two-acre plot of land would be given to the Rev. Nathaniel Huntting (1675-1753), who had come to East Hampton to replace the Rev. Thomas James (1621-1696) as the second minister of the Presbyterian church here.

This plot of land was taken out of a larger 10-acre piece of property that had belonged to Thomas Squire. Squire died intestate in 1686, meaning he died without a will or an heir to leave his property to. As such, Gov. Thomas Dongan appointed Capt. Josiah Hobart, high sheriff of Suffolk County, as administrator of Squire’s estate.

In 1699, a two-story saltbox house was built on the lot to accommodate the young Nathaniel Huntting and his growing family. He was also given use of other lands set apart by the town for use by the church, as well as firewood and a salary of £60 a year (about $13,846 in today’s money).

The house remained in the Huntting family for nine generations, and many modifications were made over time. An addition was built at the rear of the house in the 1700s, and further changes were made in 1875, when the Huntting became a boarding house, as well as in 1900 and 1912, when it became an inn and new wings were added. Although, according to Jeannette Edwards Rattray in her book “Up and Down Main Street,” it’s been an inn since before the Revolutionary era. 

In 1939, the last Huntting descendant sold the inn to Mr. and Mrs. Ralph C. Frood, who also managed the Maidstone Arms (now the Maidstone Hotel) and the Hedges Inn. The Palm Restaurant Group took over the inn in 1980 and continues to manage it to this day.

Gina Piastuck is the department head of the East Hampton Library’s Long Island Collection.