10 YEARS AGO
Islander begins campaign to make 2004 Olympics
Amanda Clark, then 20, already known for her sailing prowess, announced her goal to make the 2004 Olympic team in Athens in the Women’s 470 class. Her partner at the time was Sarah Mergenthaler (later, Sarah Chin), a sailor she had met at the Shelter Island Yacht Club. While the pair didn’t realize their dream in 2004 — they were named alternates to the team —they did make it in 2008 and placed 12th in the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing, China.
POSTSCRIPT: Ms. Clark and her new sailing partner, Sarah Lihan, will compete in this summer’s London 2012 Olympics. They’ll be sailing in Weymouth, England with hope of securing a medal. They won silver there in an Olympic class regatta just this month so they are considered serious contenders.

20 YEARS AGO
Brown tide returns in Peconic Bay system
After lying dormant for most of a mild winter, brown tide began menacing East End bays, devastating the scallop population in June 1992. Water samples taken in West Neck Bay revealed the worst brown tide infestation detected anywhere in the Peconic Bay system. When brown tide cells rise above 100,00 to 150,000 millimeters, waters take on a visible brown tinge. The levels in West Neck Bay were recorded at 1,046,000 milliliters.
POSTSCRIPT: As recent as June 2011, Peconic Baykeeper Kevin McAllister warned that he was seeing signs of red and brown tides and blamed residential waste seeping from septic systems into groundwater and into the bays.

30 YEARS AGO
Mayor is elected by Dering Harbor
Dr. Stanley Gianelli Jr. was elected mayor of the  village of Dering Harbor in June 1982.  Dr. Gianelli succeeded G.M. Brownlee, who chose not to seek re-election after serving for 12 years.
POSTSCRIPT: Tim Hogue, who has been Dering Harbor mayor for 20 years, is running unopposed for an 11th two-year term.

50 YEARS AGO
Dennison seeks bridge to boost county economy
Then Suffolk County executive H. Lee Dennison was a proponent of a bridge linking the north and south shores of Long Island that he said would be a boon to a lagging economy. But he noted he wasn’t seeking to similarly link up Shelter Island, saying that as long as the community wanted to keep its “native splendor,” he would look for alternative sites to connect the proposed bridge.
POSTSCRIPT: Fifty years later, there is still no bridge nor any apparent appetite for one. Travelers who don’t want to use North and South ferries must go west to Riverhead to travel by road from one fork to another.