For Real, This Time Around

   After many starts and stops over the years, a construction crew finally broke ground Sept. 4 on the $3.7 million rehabilitation of the East Hampton Town Airport. The first phase of the project, excavation of a new entrance road and parking lot, has proceeded in characteristic fits through this month's seemingly nonstop rainfall.

   Construction began a month after the ceremonial groundbreaking and three months after it was expected to. A backhoe crew from Pat Bistrian Jr. Inc. scraped up more than 4,000 cubic yards of earth in the first week of excavation, clearing a temporary road to the north of the old one and digging out a new one to the south of it.

   Pat Ryan, the airport manager, said the crew has been working a day here and a half day there, when the rain wasn't too bad.

Terminal Building

   After installing drainage equipment and utility lines, they will pave the new road and parking lot. Altogether, the first phase will cost about $740,000.

   Sometime in November the foundation will be poured for one of the town's most hotly debated and long-anticipated public works projects, a $1.2 million terminal building just southeast of the dilapidated shack that has been serving in that capacity, not very well, for decades.

   "We're hoping to get it closed up so they can work inside during the coldest weather," said Mr. Ryan.

Seasonal Slowdown

   He does not expect construction to interfere with operations, at least until spring. Then, when the terminal is finished, work will start on the first half of a new $640,000 apron, the paved area in front of the terminal where passengers arrive and depart.

   "We're just like the rest of town. Business drops off after Labor Day and it'll be just weekends from now on."

   "I expect we won't have any trouble until the spring, and that would be just that the planes would have to park farther away from the terminal while they're working on it," said Mr. Ryan.

Runway, One Day

   Within the next two weeks the Town Board is expected to solicit construction bids for the building. The last time that happened, after three deadline extensions, the lowest bid came in at twice the expected cost. Since then, though, the design has been scaled back and an additional $500,000 in Federal money has been thrown into the pot.

   The Federal Aviation Administration is carrying most of the cost, with the State Department of Transportation and the town paying a combined 10 percent.

   Future improvements will include the second half of the apron, estimated altogether at $1.4 million, and repaving the primary runway, which pilots have long complained is cracked and weedy.

   Bruce Clark, an engineer with the upstate firm that is overseeing construction, C & S Engineers, said the runway posed no immediate danger but deserved to be kept on the town's list of things to do in the next few years.

D.A. Investigates Land Transfer

   The head of the Suffolk District Attorney's White Collar Crimes Bureau confirmed Friday that her office had begun an investigation into the relationship of two Southampton lawyers, Richard Pellicane and Clarence (Rusty) Banks, to a land transfer that relied on the forged signature of a dead woman. The lawyers are associates and maintain offices in the same building, at Bowden Square.

   Nina Pozgar, the bureau chief, said she had been researching the matter since receiving a referral in June from State Supreme Court Justice Melvyn Tanenbaum, who, in presiding over two civil lawsuits, ruled the signature a forgery and turned the files over to the D.A.

   Anthony Conforti, a Hauppauge lawyer who is representing Mr. Pellicane and Mr. Banks, said neither he nor his clients had been contacted by the D.A.

Much Doubt

   "We are not aware of any criminal investigation," he said, adding, "I doubt very much that there would be any criminal charges in any case."

   At issue is what passed in 1985 for Cornelia E. Corwith's signature on a document dated 1983, transferring some nine acres on Crooked Pond in Bridgehampton to Mr. Banks. Mr. Banks subsequently sold 20 contiguous acres there, including the nine, to Valentine Schaffner, a writer and columnist for The Star, for $200,000. Ms. Corwith died in 1967.

   Bridgehampton National Bank, which holds Ms. Corwith's assets in trust for her heirs, sued Mr. Schaff ner, as well as his title insurance company, Ticor Title; the Nature Conservancy, which was given a gift by Mr. Schaffner of 11 acres, and Mr. Banks and Mr. Pellicane.

Bank's Win

   In April, Justice Tanenbaum ruled in the bank's favor. His decision was appealed. Mr. Pellicane also brought a $17.5 million defamation suit against the bank and Ticor Title, which is pending.

   Mr. Conforti told The Star his clients may have been duped by a woman pretending to be Ms. Corwith or that Mr. Banks may have notarized the signature of "someone else named Cornelia Corwith."

   In any case, he claimed Justice Tanenbaum overstepped his authority and the scope of the civil cases by addressing the signature at all; he said his clients' research had shown that Foster Corwith, a Southampton resident who is not Cornelia Corwith's heir but descends from a different branch of the family, should be the legal owner of the land. Mr. Conforti is representing Mr. Corwith as well.

Northwest Acreage

Lawyers had speculated last spring that the statute of limitations may have run out on any possible criminal charges. However, Ms. Pozgar said this week, "The clock doesn't start running until the crime is discovered. The grand larceny law gives us more time."

   In an unrelated case, State Supreme Court Justice Alfred Lama ruled earlier this year against Mr. Banks, and for Charles A. Halsey of Scotia, N.Y., in a dispute over roughly four acres off Crooked Highway in Northwest Woods, East Hampton. The time for Mr. Banks to have appealed that decision has passed.

   According to court papers, Mr. Banks had ascertained a chain of title that he claimed led to Albert J. Halsey of Southampton. The parcel had been listed previously as having unknown ownership.

Split Proceeds?

   Court records include a 1992 letter from Mr. Banks to Albert Halsey, offering to get him a deed in exchange for a 60-40 split of the eventual sale price. After Mr. Halsey's death, the split was reduced to 50-50 for his son and heir, Charles A. Halsey. Mr. Banks sued Charles Halsey for half the value of the parcel, but lost.

   Mr. Pellicane, who represented Mr. Banks in that suit, brought a claim against The Star two years ago alleging libel in an article about that property. At the time, East Hampton Town officials were hoping to get the deed for the town, and to upzone the parcel.

   Neither the town's effort nor Mr. Pellicane's suit against The Star were successful.

   The record also shows a $220,000 sale to James McGinness, a broker with the Meridian Group in Sag Harbor, had been negotiated but fell through after the elder Mr. Halsey died. The younger Mr. Halsey refused to sell, saying, again in court papers, that he believed the land was worth nearly twice what Mr. Banks would have sold it to Meridian for.

   On Tuesday, Charles Halsey said the land was on the market now for $400,000.