This week in Shelter Island history
50 YEARS AGO IN HISTORY
Willie Mays became the highest paid player in professional baseball when he signed a contract with the San Francisco Giants in February 1966 for $130,000.David Robert Hayward-Jones was performing under his own name and sometimes under the name Davy Jones, but had to change it to avoid being confused with Davy Jones of the Monkees, so he became David Bowie.
NBC’s “Bonanza” was the most popular television show.
Singer and actress Sophie Tucker died of lung cancer at age 79.
The rate of inflation in the United States was 3.01 percent and the price of gasoline averaged 32 cents per gallon.
And on Shelter Island …
50 YEARS AGO
North Fork Bank to open Shelter Island branch
In February 1966, North Fork Bank announced plans to open a branch on the Island, locating it in the Heights, opposite the Post Office.
Plans called for renovation of the space in the A. Wesley Smith Building to provide a temporary home for the bank until it could find other quarters.
POSTSCRIPT: North Fork Bank ultimately landed at the southeast corner of West Neck and Menantic roads and the bank has since become part of Capital One.
30 YEARS AGO
Local officials hear plan from Cross Sound Ferry for service out of Montauk
Cross Sound Ferry operators, who run boats out of both Port Jefferson and Orient Point to New London, Connecticut, met with Shelter Island and North Ferry officials in February 1986, to outline traffic patterns and other information pertaining to the possibility of launching services between Montauk and New London.
A survey the ferry service conducted two years earlier revealed that of 1,500 respondents, 1,000 listed East Hampton as home. North Ferry had conducted its own survey revealing similar statistics.
A site at the western most tip of Napeague State Park already contained the deteriorated remnants of a fish factory that was already paved and bulkheaded.
POSTSCRIPT: In the ensuing years, East Hampton took steps to ban ferry service from the town and all Connecticut-bound ferries from Long Island out of Orient and Port Jefferson.
20 YEARS AGO
Dering Harbor wrestles with new tax assessments
When Shelter Island Town reassessed properties in 1996, a debate ensued in the Village of Dering Harbor about whether to accept the new assessments or establish its own system.
The village hired former town assessor Howard Jackson to guide its examination of the issue. Mr. Jackson uncovered some errors in the new assessments set by the town, which prompted the town’s assessors to review and correct several of the new assessments.
But after a month-long examination of the new system, Mayor Tim Hogue informed the town that the village would accept the new revaluations. Under the new assessments, village residents as a whole would pay an additional $86,580 for 1997.
POSTSCRIPT: The town tax assessors continue to handle Dering Harbor property tax rolls.
10 YEARS AGO
State works to improve drainage on Route 114
To eliminate puddling 10 years ago in the area of 114 from Jaspa Road to the American Legion Post, the New York State Department of Transportation spent two weeks clearing out sand-choked catch basins and drywell systems to improve drainage.
Workers were able to divert traffic so the roadway didn’t have to be closed down during that period.
POSTSCRIPT: In January, the DOT addressed drainage problems on 114 near South Ferry and on 114 just south of Bridge Street.
