This week in Shelter Island history
50 YEARS AGO IN HISTORY
The Ford Motor Company celebrated production of its one millionth Mustang, a white convertible.The British Broadcasting Company announced it would begin broadcasting its programs in color in 1967.
Actor William Frawley, best known for his role as Fred Mertz on the “I Love Lucy” show died.
A violent F5 tornado, dubbed the Candlestick Park Tornado, devastated parts of Mississippi and Alabama.
And on Shelter Island …
50 YEARS AGO
Resisting eminent domain
It was 50 years ago that the Suffolk County Legislature was looking at plans for airports;among the proposals was placing one in the Mashomack Forest.
The plan never got off the ground, but at the time, a Reporter editorial stressed the need for a local referendum to keep the county or state from imposing eminent domain on properties here that could, many feared, lead not only to an airport, but control over many special Island areas and even the possibility of bridges to connect the Island to North and South forks.
POSTSCRIPT: Clearly, the worst fears weren’t recognized and it appears that anyone proposing an end to ferry service might well be run off the Island.
30 YEARS AGO
Board criticized for Planning Board appointment
The Town Board was taking a lot of heat back in the winter of 1986 for its appointment of William Johnston III to the Planning Board.
The concern for some was what they thought was a potential conflict of interest. Mr. Johnston’s father ran a land excavation business at which the appointee occasionally worked driving a bulldozer.
Mr. Johnston argued that he had no financial share in his father’s business.
Alfred Kilb Jr., who was a councilman at the time, said the Town Board opted to “put aside appearances and vote for an honest man.”
POSTSCRIPT: Mr. Johnston serves today as a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals.
20 YEARS AGO
Three-week season yields 246 deer
During the shotgun hunting season in 1996, the Department of Environmental Conservation said 246 deer were taken as compared with 217 the previous year.
While the numbers increased, it raised the likelihood that a count of deer on the Island was higher than it had been in the past.
POSTSCRIPT: The latest count of deer taken between October 1, 2015 and January 31, 2016 is 341 as compared with 333 for the same period a year ago.
10 YEARS AGO
Town learns pesticide is sprayed on 300 yards
Two years before Shelter Island agreed to participate in the Cornell University-Cornell Cooperative Extension study on 4-poster units, the Conservation Advisory Council learned that a private applicator was spraying the tickicide permethrin on 300 properties here.
The Town Board fought the use of permethrin, resisting the Deer & Tick Committee’s proposal in 2006 to experiment with 4-poster units. Supervisor Alfred Kilb Jr. argued that there was insufficient proof that the units were effective or permethrin safe.
While there were warnings back then that permethrin could affect deer meat and make it unsafe for hunters, the committee argued that spraying permethrin on private properties was more damaging than using it on 4-poster units.
POSTSCRIPT: Ten years later, the Deer & Tick Committee is now calling for a study on the long-term effects of permethrin and a follow-up assessment of the effectiveness of 4-poster units.
The permethrin used on 4-posters is oil based and less apt to spread, but there are still many Islanders having their properties sprayed with water-based permethrin that some fear is getting into the water system.
