Au Revoir to 2014-15 Panel

At their final meeting of 2015 on Tuesday, the East Hampton Town Trustees exchanged good wishes and praise for outgoing members who were defeated or did not seek re-election in November before discussing a proposed program to grow oysters in Three Mile Harbor and revisiting the controversy about alcoholic beverages at Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett. The nine-person board will include five new members when it reconvenes next month.

The Shellfish Enhancement Education Directive, or SEED, program to grow oysters was proposed to the board in August by Barley Dunne, director of the town’s shellfish hatchery, and Scarlett Magda, a veterinarian who practices at the South Fork Animal Hospital in Wainscott. They envision that 10 to 15 participants would tour the hatchery, in Montauk, on or around April 23 to see the first stages of shellfish life. In July, they would receive seed oysters — 1,000 per participant — and begin the grow-out period in a shallow, approximately 1,500 or 2,000-square-foot area of Three Mile Harbor.

The trustees manage most of the town’s waterways, bottomlands, and beaches on behalf of the public. In suggesting that they approve the “oyster garden,” Stephanie Forsberg, the trustees’ assistant clerk, who opted not to seek re-election, said, “What they need from us as of now is approval to have these floating rafts that in my opinion don’t impede public access because it’s not an area of boating, not a high traffic-flow area.” Nor is it a swimming or mooring area, she added.

Details as to fees and eligibility, it was decided, would be left to the new board, but a consensus quickly formed that the program be open only to town residents.

“At some point it’s going to need a public notice to close the area to other user groups,” said Diane McNally, the trustees’ clerk, who will remain on the board next year. John Courtney, the trustees’ attorney, would be asked to map the precise location.

The controversial ban on alcoholic beverages at Indian Wells Beach during lifeguard-protected hours on summer weekends was briefly revisited. In the last two summers, the trustees reluctantly agreed to the restriction, enacted by the town board after numerous complaints from residents.

 The ban expired at season’s end, butMs. McNally told her colleagues that the town board has tentatively scheduled a public hearing for Jan. 15 on a permanent ban. She suggested that the trustees accept the ban, but only through September, as in the previous years.

Bill Taylor, who was re-elected to a second term last month, asked if that decision should be made by the incoming board. No, was Ms. McNally’s reply. Mr. Taylor was alone among the eight trustees present to vote against her motion.