Town dump fee waived one more week
Brush and debris left by Hurricane Sandy will be accepted for another week without charge at the town Recycling Center but workers there are on the lookout for people abusing the grace period to get rid of leaves and other waste not associated with the storm.
After a talk with Public Works Commissioner Jay Card at its work session on Tuesday, the Town Board agreed to extend the no-fee policy for storm debris — which includes tree branches and construction debris from broken docks and bulkheads — for one week until the end of the day on Tuesday, December 4.
Recognizing that clean-up and dock and bulkhead reconstruction might not happen for many months at some properties, even with a special expedited permit process in effect, the board also agreed to consider creating a “pre-approval” policy under which the fee for storm debris would continue to be waived after the Tuesday deadline, as long as the town receives proof it is storm related. That might require photographs or a visual inspection by a town employee or official.
“Somewhere we have to draw the line,” Mr. Card said, “on what’s storm damage and what’s just an old dock” somebody wants to get rid of for free.
Mr. Card reported that the Recycling Center had received 208 tons of construction debris related to the storm as of Tuesday morning and 1,968 tons of “vegetative” debris — trees limbs, trunks, stumps and chipped and shredded wood. No leaves are accepted for free. Some loads have been sent to the scale house, where a fee is levied based on weight, because town employees believed they were not storm related, Mr. Card told the board.
The town has to pay for disposing of the debris at a location in Brookhaven Town, which Mr. Card said. The costs will be submitted to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for reimbursement under the federal disaster relief program in effect for Hurricane Sandy.
Causeway project
The board postponed awarding bids for a long-planned, federally funded erosion control project for the Second Causeway, much like one that was carried out several years ago on the First Causeway, because Mr. Card said he would try to reduce the cost by taking on the replanting and traffic control aspects of the job. He said he did not have enough staff to use his own men for traffic control but agreed that two part-timers could be hired to do the work cheaper than the bidder.
The project calls for reinforcing the Coecles Harbor beachfront along the Second Causeway with stone structures, covering them with sand, relandscaping and repaving the roads. Mr. Card said he expected it would be spring before the project is completed.
Also on Tuesday, the board:
• Heard Councilman Paul Shepherd praise Police Officer Anthony Rando for making a quick response to a 911 call and using a defibrillator multiple times to bring a friend of Mr. Shepherd’s “back to life.”
• Heard Mr. Shepherd was receiving complaints from residents about the availability of medical services at the office of Island Urgent Medical Care in the town medical building. “We’re just the landlord,” Supervisor Jim Dougherty noted. “We don’t supervise their practice.” He said he had continued to “voice dissatisfaction” himself.
• Heard Town Attorney Laury Dowd report that Town Engineer John Cronin had “resurrected” proposed specifications for country-style rural roads that the late Art Barnett, a former chairman of the Planning Board, had once pushed for.
• Heard Town Supervisor Jim Dougherty report he’d seen a deed listing in the Suffolk Times showing the Shelter Island Nursery had been sold by Suffolk County National Bank to “Osprey Acres of Florida” for $535,000. A call to the bank revealed that Osprey Real Property II is a subsidiary of the bank and the property remains on the market.
