A small garage proposed on a 0.3-acre property may require “one variance too far,” the chairman of the East Hampton Village Zoning Board of Appeals said on Friday, after three neighbors complained about what they said was excessive coverage on the lot. 

John and Mary Pizzo want to construct a detached garage at 37 Church Street, which would require variances, as it would fall within the required 10-foot side and rear-yard setbacks. The Pizzos would also need a variance allowing 150 feet of lot coverage over what is allowed. 

The Pizzos plan to relocate a driveway from in front of the house, which does not require variance relief, in conjunction with the proposed garage, which is to be tucked in the lot’s corner. A request to permit two curb cuts on the parcel, which has less than the minimum frontage required to permit a second curb cut, was withdrawn before the hearing. 

Madeline VenJohn, an attorney, told the board that four of five adjacent properties have accessory structures as close, or closer, to lot lines as her clients’ proposed garage. “It’s the way this neighborhood traditionally was built,” she said, “small garages in the back corner in order to preserve some yard space, instead of having a lot of useless space behind the garage.” 

Board members were in favor of the new driveway. But, said Frank Newbold, the board’s chairman, the board had received a “strong letter of objection from neighbors” at 24 Maidstone Avenue, who noted that the applicants had purchased the property, torn down the existing house, and replaced it with a residence “built to the maximum coverage” allowed by the current zoning code. The property is also for sale, he said. “The question raised by the neighbor is, is relief sought for potential economic gain on the sale of the real estate?” 

Ms. VenJohn said it was not. “As to whether it’s for sale or not, he uses the house and would like some outdoor storage,” she said. 

Lys Marigold, the board’s vice chairwoman, asked if the proposed structure is “really a garage” or for outdoor storage. 

“We’re calling it a garage,” Ms. VenJohn said, “because it’s a little bigger than your average outdoor shed. But you couldn’t fit a large car in it.” The structure as proposed has a garage door, and the driveway will lead to it, she said. 

“I get what the neighbor’s talking about,” said John McGuirk, of the board. “They came, they maxed this house out, they didn’t leave any room for their shed or the garage, but they got their swimming pool. . . . Maybe they should have come to us before they did this.” 

“This is a better configuration of the property,” Ms. Marigold said. “We just don’t like that you max out on coverage and then come for a variance.”

Mr. Newbold agreed, finding it “a little disturbing” that, “as with many redevelopment projects in the village, they are redeveloped to the max, and then after the fact they come in and ask for additional. The point the neighbor is raising is, they should have planned this in.” 

Perhaps, board members suggested, the applicants should ask for a storage shed instead of a garage, minimizing or eliminating required variance relief. But “We do want it to be capable of holding a car,” Ms. VenJohn said. “I’m not sure that the applicant would still be interested in moving around the driveway if he’s not able to do the garage.” 

A majority of the board appeared satisfied with the garage’s location in a corner of the property, which Mr. McGuirk agreed is traditional in the village. The variance request was minimal, Mr. Newbold said, and maintaining a single curb cut “solves the major part of the neighbor’s objection,” a detriment to the neighborhood’s character.

But two other neighbors were in attendance and addressed the board. Alexandra Skellet of 33 Church Street said that her neighbors’ property “is a new construction, it’s been on the market for over a year, and it’s currently rented out to seasonal tenants.” The applicants, she said, “had the opportunity at the design and building-permit stage to seek these variances.” 

It is “not in the best interests of the community” to allow “a new structure that’s already on a very crowded lot,” Ms. Skellet said. “We’re all on small lots . . . but hasn’t he already taken the most of what he can get out of that property?”

Another neighbor, John Faulhaber, said that he has lived at 40 Maidstone Avenue for 66 years and that it had been in his family’s possession for 75 years. “My position is that the property has more than met its buildable capacity,” he said. “Any further building or development would cause a crowding problem.” The Pizzos, he said, “have demolished the old residence, built a house which has doubled in the square footage of living area, and added a swimming pool.” Anything else, he said, “would be an imposition to the neighborhood.”

“We’ve now heard from three neighbors,” Mr. Newbold said, each worried about an undesirable change to the character of their neighborhood. The hearing would be left open, he said, and “perhaps the applicant will hear the comments made today and choose to respond. . . . The sense of all three neighbors is the property is maxed out, and that this is just one variance too far.” It is to resume at the board’s next meeting, on Sept. 14. 

In a No-Mow Zone

Several determinations were announced at the meeting. Mark Webb and Kevin McCarthy were granted a freshwater wetlands permit and variance to allow 650 feet of linear fencing along the landward edge of a no-mow zone at 123 Egypt Lane. The applicants initially asked that an existing fence remain within the wetlands and a scenic easement granted to the village, but amended their application to request its relocation, which is to follow the upland side of the easement except for a small section. The variance and permit were granted on the condition that a planting plan is implemented and that lighting fixtures and a pile of landscaping debris in the easement are removed. 

The board granted David Wine variances to allow alterations to a pre-existing nonconforming building and use at 92 Ocean Avenue. One of 10 co-operative residences at the 2.5-acre property, the alterations include changes in the fenestration and the addition of a dormer, which the co-op board has approved. The number of bedrooms will be reduced from two to one. Because its pre-existing nonconforming location falls within the required side-yard setback and because any alteration to a pre-existing use requires variance relief, the applicant had to apply to the Z.B.A. 

Mary Streep’s application for a wetlands permit and variance to allow conversion of a screened porch into habitable area 134 feet from the edge of wetlands, where a 150-foot setback is required, was granted, as was a variance allowing 6,348 square feet of finished living space, where the maximum permitted floor area at 29 Pondview Lane is 5,800 square feet. 

The board denied Frederick Ayer’s application for variances to construct a swimming pool 28 feet from the side lot line, 32 feet from the rear lot line, and 107.3 feet from wetlands at 81 Ocean Avenue, where the required side and rear-yard setbacks are 40 feet and the required wetlands setback is 150 feet. The applicant had also sought to construct pool equipment, a retaining wall, and drywells within the wetlands setback, which were also denied.

Construction of retaining walls under the railroad trestles on Accabonac Road and North Main Street in East Hampton Village, which began earlier this month, is expected to continue until spring 2019. The new walls, and the installation of connecting bridges, will allow the trestles, which often have been struck by trucks, to be raised from 11 to 14 feet above the roadway.  

Crews are now at work on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and some work on weekends may be required, said Sarah Armaghan, a spokewoman for the Long Island Rail Road. Traffic detours to clear roads for equipment may be necessary, she said, but no disruption of train service is anticipated.

The walls are being constructed with concrete blocks that vary in size and shape and which, at the request of the East Hampton Village Board, have been dyed an earth tone intended to be aesthetically consistent with the village’s character. 

Another major construction project, the renovation of the village train station, which began in March, will be completed by the end of this month, Becky Molinaro Hansen, the village administrator, said. 

As part of a state-funded $120 million program to upgrade 16 stations on Long Island, work was done to modernize the station while restoring its original 1895 appearance. Paint was stripped from the building, revealing a red-brick facade, triangular dormer windows were restored, and the exterior woodwork was painted dark green, the original shade.

The upgrades, according to Ms. Hansen, include the addition of LED lighting throughout the station, free Wi-Fi, U.S.B. charging stations, and electronic screens that will display train schedules. New bathrooms and benches have been installed and sidewalk alterations made to make access easier for people with disabilities.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority, which operates the L.I.R.R., is in charge of the projects.

Carolyn Munaco, a Hampton Bays artist and teacher, advocates for clean local beaches, often picking up litter, and she spreads awareness about pollution through her art, which sometimes is made of garbage collected during beach cleanups. She also promotes environmental events on social media, posting images of garbage and her artwork.

Ms. Munaco said she has been able to reach a wide audience and suggested that those who do not have a platform like hers “experiment with reusable items, pick up trash when you visit the beach, and then tell others; awareness is spread through conversation.” By reminding a friend to use a reusable water bottle or posting a picture of ocean pollution on social media, any individual can begin to make a difference within their community, she said.

The South Fork Natural History Museum is among local organizations working to combat ocean and beach pollution, with cleaner beaches a priority. SoFo often takes to social media to remind followers to attend educational events.  It displays images of marine animals and updates the public on its research.

One event that appears on SoFo’s Instagram is its monthly 8 a.m. beach cleanup. On average, participants collect between 300 and 500 pieces of trash during each cleanup, which is turned into a display of artwork to inspire others to help. “Most people want to do good, and when they see the display, they want to help pick up trash,” Eleni Nikolopoulos, a SoFo nature educator, said.

Litter on beaches on the East End is an obvious problem for communities that consider their beaches precious trademarks. According to Dell Cullum, an advocate for the environment, nature photographer, and member of the East Hampton Town Recycling and Litter Committee, beach cleaning can be rewarding. “I have never met someone who cleaned up litter and didn’t feel good afterwards; people often feel a strong sense of accomplishment,” Mr. Cullum said. 

Mr. Cullum captures images and makes videos of nature. He has published books of local photographs, and he produces a show, “Imagination Nature,” for social media platforms like YouTube. He has a simple solution to improve the cleanliness of local beaches: “It’s not rocket science, if you bring it in, you bring it out.”

Sylvia Overby, an East Hampton Town councilwoman who is liaison to the Recycling and Litter Committee, frequently picks up litter when she visits local beaches, most commonly balloons and straws. She notes that photos of marine animals, videos of polluted water, and infographics of litter have been shared thousands of times on social media. She also believes that one person who sets a good example has an impact. “Our beaches are precious and I hope that they are always clean, so I pick up what I can pick up. By picking up trash, I hope that others will mimic my behavior and help clean up, too,” she said.

Bridgeton Holdings, a corporation with an expansive portfolio of office, retail, hospitality, and residential properties across the country, bought the 96-room beachfront Atlantic Terrace hotel in Montauk last month. It recently opened Journey East Hampton on Pantigo Road, an upscale recreation of the Inn at East Hampton, a two-story complex that had bare bones amenities. 

The company’s immediate plan for Atlantic Terrace is to maintain the status quo, said Atit Jariwala, the Bridgeton Holdings C.E.O. “Our objective is to run it the way it’s been run. It’s been a great part of the community,” he said. He did not disclose how much Bridgeton paid for the property.  

The hotel, at 21 Oceanview Terrace on a parcel of more than 100,000 square feet, features guest rooms with kitchenettes, a restaurant, a boutique, and a pool. Mr. Jariwala said the company intends to upgrade its furnishings after the summer season, but was still mulling possible renovations. 

Following the improvements, customers might see a small rate increase, he said, but not so much that existing clientele would be priced out of future stays. “We would love the people who have come for decades to continue to come,” he said. “That’s how you develop a successful business.”

Mr. Jariwala said the company was focused on maintaining a family-friendly environment at the hotel. He would not comment, however, on whether it would seek to obtain a liquor license, saying, “We’re not party people. We’re going to be great neighbors.”

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Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article named Bridgeton Holdings as an owner of the Hero Beach Club in Montauk, a statement disputed by Oceanside Owners L.L.C., which says it is the sole owner of Hero Beach Club. Asked to comment, a representative of Bridgeton Holdings maintained that the limited liability company "owns equity in Hero Beach Club."

As part of the Long Island Shellfish Restoration Project that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced last September, a two-year effort to raise four million clams in Lake Montauk has launched with the installation of two floating upweller systems at Gurney’s Yacht Club in Montauk. 

Last Thursday, representatives of Concerned Citizens of Montauk, Cornell Cooperative Extension, and Gurney’s unveiled the systems, known as FLUPSYs, in which seed clams will grow until they are transported to spawning sanctuaries.

The joint effort in Montauk, part of a $10.4 million state initiative to plant about 190 million shellfish, including seed clams and spat-on-shell oysters, in up to 70 such systems installed in waterways across Long Island, is aimed at restoring areas of marginal water quality. Clams and oysters filter water naturally, with clams able to filter as many as 25 gallons of water per day and oysters double that amount. 

“Lake Montauk is an impaired water body, and there are probably at least 100 more impaired water bodies on Long Island,” Laura Tooman, the president of Concerned Citizens of Montauk, said at the unveiling last Thursday at the yacht club. 

Chris Pickerell, the Cornell extension’s marine program director, described a FLUPSY as a floating dock containing barrels with mesh in their bottom into which seed clams are introduced, allowing them to grow in open water while protected from predation. “It effectively pulls the surrounding water into the clams,” he said. “The water has the algae that feeds the clams.” The systems, he said, “are basically shellfish producing machines.” 

The two FLUPSYs were installed at Gurney’s on July 24. Clams will remain in the lake through the summer and early fall. Once they are approximately the size of a quarter, they will be moved to one of five sanctuary sites on Long Island. The process will be repeated next year. 

The initiative was conceived last year, Mr. Pickerell said, when the governor inquired of Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences as to how the state could help in water quality restoration. More shellfish in the water was the response, he said. 

Shellfish will be seeded mostly in uncertified waters, or those closed to harvesting, “putting millions of shellfish into a small area so they can spawn but should not be under threat for harvest,” Mr. Pickerell said. Cornell will produce the seed clams at its Southold facility, and C.C.O.M. will maintain the FLUPSYs. 

“We’re very happy that we got this opportunity,” said George Filopoulos, the principal owner of Gurney’s Yacht Club. “We’re in the business of renting slips and hosting guests, but if we don’t address issues like water quality we’re not going to be doing this very long.” He said that the yacht club would engage the resort’s boaters and guests as to how they can participate in water quality restoration, as well as children participating in its Gurney’s Kids Club programs. 

The installation of the two FLUPSYs is “the first steps of more we want to take,” Mr. Filopoulos said. “We were excited when the clams arrived, and we’ll probably be sad to see them go when they move them off to a sanctuary area.”

Murf’s Backstreet Tavern in Sag Harbor is on the market for $3.5 million, according to Lee Minetree, a broker at Saunders and Associates. Jay Hamel’s decision to sell comes during a summer in which the bar has incurred a series of civil penalties from the New York State Liquor Authority, including the most recent charge of being a “disorderly premise.”

Earlier this summer, Mr. Hamel pleaded “no contest” to charges from the liquor authority, which cited the bar as a source of noise and nuisance, a focal point for police attention, and disorderly premises at which the owner and manager are not supervising the crowd or how much the bartender is serving, said Jade Kraft, an information specialist for the agency. Mr. Hamel, who has owned Murf’s since 2007 and is the licensee, was required to pay $10,000 in fines and had restrictions placed on his liquor license. As a result, the bar was forced to close at 2 a.m., two hours earlier than usual.

On July 31, Murf’s gained police attention once again, following a report that a patron had been punched in the face while on the bar’s back patio. The police were unable to locate the perpetrator, but while investigating the assault, they found two men wrestling on the sidewalk. One was a bartender, and the other was an intoxicated customer who had been asked to leave for stealing other people’s drinks. Although no charges were filed, the police notified the liquor authority of the incidents.

Based on those police reports, the agency issued another disorderly premise charge. On Aug. 2, the liquor authority sent a “notice of pleading” to Mr. Hamel, which required him to respond either “not guilty” or “no contest” to the charge by yesterday. The letter states that the maximum penalty for a no contest plea may include a civil penalty and the revocation of the liquor license for up to two years.

Mr. Hamel did not respond to requests for comment, but Robert Deery, a bartender, said last Thursday that he expected business at Murf’s to continue as usual.

A proposed law that would regulate the way free magazines and other miscellaneous printed matter are distributed in East Hampton Village was introduced at last week’s village board meeting. The magazines, which pile up in front of stores in the commercial district, are welcomed by some shopkeepers and loathed by others. 

“They are left on our doorstep with no agreement on my part. I am never asked and I do not want any of them,” said Valerie Smith, the owner of the Monogram Shop on Newtown Lane. Although the law the village board introduced would require that the magazines be hand-delivered to “a person of authority” at each store, Ms. Smith isn’t a fan of that idea, either. “I don’t think managers should be interrupted to deal with magazines,” she said. “I suggest that the magazine distributors agree to pay for a kiosk somewhere in the village from which they could be passed out. There would have to be a kiosk manager who kept things tidy and dealt with expired copies in a timely fashion.” 

The idea of an attractive kiosk as a public convenience isn’t new; it has been brought up to village board members in the past, but the question of where it might be located remains a puzzle.

Lorna Dreher, the owner of Bonne Nuit, a lingerie store on Main Street, has a different view on the matter. “The magazines are great, they’re fun,” she said. “People like to pop in, grab the magazines, and take them to the beach.” When told that the village board was concerned about the mess that is created when a pile of magazines becomes upended, she said that in her experience, “that doesn’t happen.” 

At Set Point Tennis, Lisa and Ricardo Winter have developed a strategy for dealing with the publications that is in keeping with the proposed law, which states that if store owners agree to accept the magazines, they must secure them in a way that prevents them from creating litter or becoming hazardous to the public. “At the beginning of the season, we asked one of the magazine companies if they had stands, and they provided them to us, just to make it a neat presentation,” said Ms. Winter, who likes to put aside one copy of each magazine for herself. “I think it’s a store’s responsibility to clean up their storefront. You’d think that the magazine companies would have some sort of a program to present their product in the best light. They shouldn’t want it stomped all over or wet.” 

Publishers of free magazines, in general, each distribute copies to hundreds of stores and restaurants between Montauk and Hampton Bays, “some to points farther west on Long Island,” and it is highly unlikely that any could afford to hand out magazine racks on a broad basis to solve the mess problem, however.

Heather Stengel, the manager at Loro Piana, said that after her store had received one uninvited bundle of magazines, she asked the delivery person to refrain in the future. “My corporation won’t allow me to distribute media,” she said. She hasn’t had any deliveries since.

Katie Martell, the manager at the Everything But Water swimwear store, hasn’t been so lucky. “We told them to please stop, but then they deliver them overnight, so we leave for the day and in the morning they’re back,” she said. She agrees with the village’s assessment that the magazines are a safety risk. “We’ve been told not to have them out there because then the company would be liable if anything happens,” she said. Ms. Martell said that she and her colleagues are often forced to throw the magazines in the trash. “It’s annoying,” she said. “We don’t want them.”

With the month of August has come a new face to East Hampton and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. The Rev. Leandra Lambert, ordained as a deacon in March, began serving as curate, or assistant, to the Rev. Denis Brunelle on Aug. 1. 

Born and raised in Brooklyn’s East Flatbush neighborhood, Ms. Lambert will be ordained to the priesthood in September at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City, the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island.

Her placement at St. Luke’s, by Bishop Lawrence Provenzano, follows a position as executive assistant to the director of Anglican relations at Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan. Ms. Lambert was named the Union of Black Episcopalians’ 2017 Young Adult of the Year, and earlier this year received a citation from Brooklyn’s 43rd Assembly District for service to the community and state. She also served as a deacon at St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church in Brooklyn. She will serve at St. Luke’s for two years. 

“The hospitality has been wonderful,” Ms. Lambert said on Monday. “The welcome has been great — not just in the parish, but the welcome I’ve received from the community as well.” 

Ms. Lambert grew up in the church, she said, “so my faith has always been a part of my life.” She studied political science at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Mass., but a “very transformative experience” while studying in Greece shortly after that country’s government debt crisis, which resulted in widespread poverty, was at least as informative. “I had been going to demonstrations, meeting with the people, and hearing their stories,” she said, “and had experiences where I was tear-gassed, and just really wanted to know where was the church in the midst of all that suffering. They weren’t present.”

The Greek Orthodox Church and the country’s political leadership are intertwined; as civil servants, priests are on the state payroll. “So they really couldn’t be there,” Ms. Lambert said. “That was one experience I always carried with me.” 

Back in the United States, she spent a summer at the Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations in Washington, D.C. “It was a way for me to merge these two interests of mine: faith and politics,” she said. “I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do after I finished college, but a friend encouraged me to go to divinity school. I wasn’t sure that that was for me, but she was very persistent, so I did some research, applied to divinity school, and started at Harvard.” 

The intention, she said, was to “study life at the intersection of faith and politics, and during my first year there found that I was asking profound questions about life, the meaning of life, and the purpose of my own life, and in conversations with my professors and fellow students and family and friends — people who really knew me — sensed that God was calling me to ordained ministry.” 

“I’m very excited to be in East Hampton,” she said, “and really looking forward to my time here.”

In the first month since being sworn in as a member of the East Hampton Village Board, Rose Brown has promoted changes she proposed during her campaign, such as taking steps to clean up the business district and Herrick Park. 

As part of an educational process, “I’ve gone over the budget line by line with Becky,” Ms. Brown said, referring to Becky Molinaro Hansen, the village administrator. “And I’ve been trying to meet with as many department heads as I can because there’s so much to learn.” 

These days, Ms. Brown said, her beach reading consists of water quality reports, and her morning strolls have turned into reconnaissance missions. “I go through the village early, before the guys are out on the street cleaning up, and I’m stunned by the amount of stuff that people leave behind.” 

Ms. Brown has been appointed the board’s liaison to the village’s Department of Public Works, a role that will give her a chance, she said, to focus on many of her campaign pledges. One issue she raised repeatedly as a candidate was the haphazard distribution of free magazines and give-away paperwork at storefronts. A law was introduced that attempts to bring order to the dispersal of such materials at the July 31 Village Board meeting. “I’m very pleased, I think the legislation is going to be a good first step,” she said. 

She and Scott Fithian, the superintendent of the Department of Public Works, have taken trips around the village, discussing ways to make it more pristine. One of their outings, she said, was to Herrick Park, which, during her campaign, she had cited as in dire need of improvement. 

She has now recommended changes that could be made immediately, such as adding nets to the bare rims on the basketball courts, and is looking to embark on a more long-term effort that would include refurbishing the tennis courts, repairing fences, sprucing up the landscaping, and extending the park to incorporate 25 Muchmore Lane, a property East Hampton Town purchased on the village’s behalf last year. 

“I’m hoping to do a Herrick Park beautification project,” she said. To that end, she plans to enlist the Ladies Village Improvement Society, the Village Preservation Society, the Garden Club of East Hampton, and possibly the school district, which uses the park for its middle school sports. “I want to get a committee together, maybe include some local landscape architects to get their feedback, and really devise a plan to improve it,” she said. 

 Mr. Fithian and Ms. Brown have also discussed instituting weekly “deep cleaning” of the sidewalks of Newtown Lane and Main Street. “He and I thought it would be a good idea to blow the little garbage, like cigarette butts and leaves, into the street and bring the sweeper through to pick it up.”

Looking at the near future, Ms. Brown said the use of gas-powered leaf blowers and deer management would be on the board’s agenda. Other parts of her platform, such as improving water quality, increasing affordable housing, and instituting a law mandating low-nitrogen septic systems for all new construction and major renovations, are likely to take longer to tackle, she said. 

In the meantime, Ms. Brown has been focusing on ways to make the village more user-friendly. For example, in an attempt to address the village’s “unending demand and need” for parking, she is exploring ways to extend the time allowed for parking in the Reutershan lot from two hours to three. She also is looking into having Wi-Fi available at village beaches, and has asked Ms. Molinaro to add her official email address to the village’s website to make it easier for residents to provide suggestions and feedback. In addition, after having fielded several questions about excessive noise during the summer, a link to the pertinent code now appears on the village home page.   

Summing up her first month as a trustee, Ms. Brown said, “I’ve hit the ground running, that’s for sure.” 

The working relationship between Dr. Gail Schonfeld and Dr. Jennifer Favre that has transformed East End Pediatrics began 12 years ago, when Dr. Favre was just a college student — and can be credited in no small part to the pediatricians’ bookkeeper. Sometimes the small things are how the big things happen.

The bookkeeper in question happened to be the cousin of Dr. Favre, who had grown up in New Jersey dreaming of becoming a doctor. By the time she was a college sophomore, she had decided she would concentrate on helping children and set her sights on becoming a pediatrician. Her cousin recommended her to her boss, Dr. Schonfeld, and young Jennifer came out to work in the front office.

Dr. Schonfeld’s mentorship of Dr. Favre, which blossomed over many summers and through many initiatives to meet the needs of a patient population that in many cases could be described as underprivileged, came to fruition in June as Dr. Favre, now 32, graduated from medical school. In July, she joined the East End Pediatrics practice as a full-fledged pediatrician. 

Dr. Favre said she shares the proactive ideal of “community pediatrics” that Dr. Schonfeld has practiced here for more than 30 years.

“I knew I needed to recruit physicians,” said Dr. Schonfeld. “She was always very committed . . . ”

“. . . and so, she played the long game,” Dr. Favre said with a laugh.

Dr. Schonfeld laughed herself at that, and added that she and Dr. Favre have been working together for so long they “actually finish each other’s sentences.” 

Dr. Favre said she took some ribbing from her fellow medical school graduates when she told them she was taking a job in East Hampton. 

“People think of the Hamptons and they said, ‘Ooooh, fancy,’ ” Dr. Favre said. “When I went to medical school and residency and was deciding what I wanted out of my career, I knew there’s a different level of commitment to your patient in this practice that is not common out in the world. You know, we’re open seven days a week. We see patients on an emergency basis, when need be. We have walk-in hours in the morning. We have same-day sick appointments every day. If a patient needs to be seen and they have an emergency — they need stitches, the baby has a sickness, whatever the reason is — that patient is seen. That patient is not turfed off to the emergency room or sent to an urgent-care facility.” 

“Gail has always advised all of her patients that this is their medical home. You come into the practice, we will take care of you. If you have a question, you get one of four physicians on the phone within a matter of minutes, 24 hours a day. When we’re not here at night, somebody still calls them back. . . . That’s something you can’t find everywhere. And that’s the kind of medicine I want to practice.”

Dr. Schonfeld said that 58 percent of her patients are from families on Medicaid. Dr. Favre says she has never seen Dr. Schonfeld turn a patient away. 

Over the years, Dr. Schonfeld has enlisted her protégée to work on a succession of projects, over the summer or when  she had weeks off during her residency. Dr. Favre worked at the Pantigo Place practice during a gap year after getting a master’s degree in public health, then headed to medical school on the island of Grenada before finishing her residency in Brooklyn. She also got married in the middle of all that.

Dr. Schonfeld said that no matter where Dr. Favre’s travels took her, “She’s always come back. She needed the money during college and I needed her skills.”

Dr. Schonfeld was one of the early converts to an electronic medical-records system that uses “scribes” — employees who accompany patients during their entire doctor visit, from intake paperwork to the examination to the noting of follow-up appointments. Dr. Favre was her first scribe, and later trained five more scribes who entered medical schools themselves. 

Dr. Schonfeld is very proud of a series of need-based community programs she has initiated and executed with Dr. Favre’s help. She and Dr. Favre, smiling, referred to the series as “dental, mental, rental”: Seeing a “huge need” for dental care among her young patients, Dr. Schonfeld created a nonprofit 10 years ago to help them get coverage. That group still exists. Later, wanting to address their psychological and emotional needs, she worked to create a work group of licensed social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists to brainstorm and assess what could be done. That resulted in her hiring a staff of five mental health-care professionals who share the office space in East Hampton.

“They’re fully integrated into my practice and see only our patients on the basis of patients we refer to them,” Dr. Schonfeld said.

Affordable housing is the next issue Dr. Schonfeld and Dr. Favre are thinking about. “There’s always a project,” Dr. Favre said.

But, for now, in addition to celebrating Dr. Favre’s official arrival as a staff M.D., the two are celebrating something else Dr. Schonfeld just pulled off. Two years ago, she decided she wanted to do something to help her patients get to the medical building on Pantigo Place. Many of the parents do not own cars. She wrote letters to the town, to legislators, to everyone in power she thought might help. “I heard nothing,” she said. 

Or she heard nothing until she agitated to get an article published in Newsday talking about how a private donor had temporarily funded a summerlong bus service for patients who did not have transportation to their medical appointments.

“It was a very intentional public shaming,” Dr. Schonfeld said, only half joking.

“And it worked,” Dr. Favre said.

Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming saw the Newsday story, investigated, and learned that bus routes on the East End had not changed in 20 years.

On Aug. 1, the Metropolitan Transit Authority buses started dropping patients off at the doorstep of the building that houses East End Pediatrics and a cluster of other medical services.

“It’s my latest coup,” Dr. Schonfeld said.