LIPA cable delayed, Board discusses irrigation law

The new  LIPA cable to run from Crescent Beach to Southold might not be done until the last week in June.

At the Shelter Island Town Board work session Tuesday Supervisor Jim Dougherty said there had been “snags and delays.” Town Attorney Laury Dowd had received a draft agreement from the power company providing insurance for LIPA to stage materials on town property during the work on the cable project.

Originally it was estimated work would be done by May 15, or sometime before the Memorial Day weekend.

The board also discussed an irrigation law that will go into effect in September.

Passed in 2003, the law banned all new underground irrigation systems and grandfathered those already in use for 10 years. The board is beginning discussions on the consequence of requiring remaining systems to be dismantled. Supervisor Jim Dougherty said it should be simple and inexpensive to disconnect systems still in place. It was a good, farsighted law, he said, that protected the quality and quantity of the aquifer, but technology has changed over 10 years and it was wise for the board to look into it.

Councilman Paul Shepherd was concerned about regulating sprinklers. There is no historical record that “draconian regulation” is necessary, Mr. Shepherd said.

He added it would make an excellent emergency law in cases of drought. A member of the public said it was shortsighted to wait for an emergency.

Mr. Dougherty disagreed the law was draconian, but termed it “a very thoughtful law.”

There was discussion on what constitutes an underground as opposed to an aboveground system. At one point Mr. Shepherd said it was “very difficult for me not to scream.”

He later reiterated there was no evidence a ban would be necessary. It was, he said, another example of “a Shelter Island ‘kitchen sink’ law. We do it with signs, we do it with lights.”

The issue will be discussed at a meeting of the Water Advisory Committee Monday, April 22 at Town Hall.