JULIE LANE PHOTO | Captain Ed Clark was the first to pilot the MV Mashomack for North Ferry 10 years ago after the large boat had been added to the fleet. Captain Clark said it “handled great.”

10 YEARS AGO

Big new boat ‘a great addition’
North Ferry added a new double capacity boat to its fleet 10 years ago, as the MV Mashomack began runs between Shelter Island and Greenport. While smaller boats in North Ferry’s fleet carry an average of about 12 vehicles, depending on size, the Mashomack is able to accommodate 20 or more, again depending on the size. The additional boat meant shorter in-season lines as so many more vehicles could be accommodated.
POSTSCRIPT: The Mashomack continues to run, easing lines on both sides of the harbor.

20 YEARS AGO

Affordable housing hearing draws pros and cons
About 30 residents offered praise or condemnation for the town’s plan to build affordable housing. About a half dozen were potential occupants of the proposed housing and had nothing but praise for the plan. But some residents nearby the Bowditch Road site wanted to see the houses constructed elsewhere. But an alternative site would force escalated prices. That would take the houses out of the realm of affordability,  then supervisor Hoot Sherman said.
POSTSCRIPT: Last year, the Reporter visited the houses to discover that the original buyers remain in the houses, but a lot of the cottages that were constructed in the mid 1990s had additions as family finances enabled various families to expand their space.

30 YEARS AGO

School Board approves $55,000 for Bement
The year was 1983 and then School Superintendent Frederick Bement was given a three-year contract extension that raised his $48,500 salary to $55,000 for another three years. When Dr. Bement started at Shelter Island in 1980, he was hired at an annual salary of $41,500. He served the district until 1986 when he retired and moved to Vermont.
POSTSCRIPT: Superintendent Michael Hynes has a contract that extends through June 2016 at a $175,000 annual salary.

40 YEARS AGO

Center firemen reported anxious to merge with Heights — maybe
In March 1973, there was a meeting of the minds about the possibility of merging the Center and Heights Fire Departments under a single fire district with one Board of Commissioners. Depending on who did the telling, there either was a vote or no vote to move the merge forward. But there was certainly some wrangling and a report emerged saying that a number of Center firefighters had switched to the Heights Fire Department because of dissatisfaction with how one unnamed Center commissioner was making decisions independently without open meetings for discussion.
POSTSCRIPT: The Island today has a single fire district with a single Board of Commissioners running the fire district.