Town asks state to reopen Dering Harbor for clamming in winter months

Town Supervisor Jim Dougherty has written the Department of Environmental Conservation asking it to reinstate a conditional shellfishing program launched in 2005 that allowed clamming and scalloping in the winter if the Shelter Island Heights Sewage Treatment Plant was operating properly.

The DEC stopped the program because of funding issues, Mr. Dougherty said at Tuesday’s Town Board work session, “but there was some recent change that gave them more money.”

Also at Tuesday’s work session, the Town Board heard Highway Superintendent Jay Card suggest that commercial garbage haulers operating on Shelter Island should be licensed and required to document the recyclables they remove from the town’s waste street. He also urged the board to consider imposing a fee on Recycling Center users who leave “contaminants” in the leaves and brush and other waste they take to the center. The board also heard a report on the town Youth Center from its director, Ian Kanarvogel.

For details, see the September 20 edition of the Reporter.