From our files: This week in Shelter Island history

10 YEARS AGO
Islanders take softball crown
Members of Piccozzi’s Propane/Police Athletic League girls softball team beat the Sag Harbor Awning team 12-2 to win the Little League girls softball league championship. The team was avenging the previous year’s loss to the Sag Harbor team in the championship. And the event was a celebration of scorekeeper Kathy Bowditch’s birthday. Her daughter, Emma, pitched the entire game, walking just one batter and allowing seven hits while striking out three.
POSTSCRIPT: This year, residents’ eyes are focused on their first-time collegiate baseball team, the Shelter Island Bucks, who will be playing throughout the rest of June and July and, if they advance to the championships, the first week in August.

20 YEARS AGO
Burning memories of June 26, 1942

This week marks the 70th anniversary of the burning of the New Prospect Hotel in Shelter Island Heights. The fire was recalled in the Shelter Island Reporter 20 years ago, 50 years after the huge blaze destroyed the hotel that had been in business since 1872. All guests were safely evacuated.

POSTSCRIPT: Tom Young was an Island youth at the time of the fire and recalled this week going to the scene with his father and having to take refuge behind hedges at a distance because of the heat. “The whole sky was lit up,” Mr. Young said. He recalls his father, Tom Sr., who was superintendent of the Shelter Island Light and Power Company, spotting the fire from their home about five miles away, declaring, “God damn — they’ll never save it!”

35 YEARS AGO

Telemetry extended to East End

Suffolk County Legislator Joyce Burland announced that the five East End towns would be included in a new emergency medical services program to provide a telemetry system enabling EMS responders to be in direct contact with hospital medical personnel from the time they arrive on the scene until the patient arrives at the hospital. The telemetry component enabled them to transmit EKG data for heart attack victims and other information. The extension of the service to the East End resulted in recognition that while the population is smaller than that in western Suffolk towns, time and distance needed to be factored in to decisions about where telemetry was necessary.

POSTSCRIPT: The Island’s EMS services, long operated by the Red Cross, this year were transferred to the town in January. Emergency medical technicians continue to serve Islanders and visitors employing improved communications and medical services.

50 YEARS AGO
Peter Katavolos, Ram’s Head Inn owner dies

Peter Katavolos, who had operated the Ram’s Head Inn for 14 years, died at the Courtview Inn in Mineola, another property he owned on Long Island. The Greek-born Mr. Katavolos came to the United States in the 1930s and managed the Roosevelt Field Inn for a number of years before buying the Ram’s Head in 1948.
POSTSCRIPT: Today, the Ram’s Head Inn is owned by long-time Islanders James and Linda Eklund who also own the Chequit Inn. They anticipate selling the Chequit to New York- and New Jersey-based Cape Advisors with a closing possibly occurring in early fall. They will retain ownership of the Ram’s Head Inn.