This week in Shelter Island history
50 YEARS AGO IN HISTORY
Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren resigned.
Joe Frazier won the heavyweight boxing title at Madison Square Garden defeating Manuel Raimos on a TKO in the second round.
American journalist, chairwoman of the Miss America Board of Directors and a former Miss America, Gretchen Carlson was born in Minnesota; she was the first woman to speak out about mistreatment by FOX’s Roger Ailes and is credited with being a major force in the Me Too movement.
Herb Alpert’s “This Guy’s In Love With You” topped the charts in the United States.
And on Shelter Island . . .
40 YEARS AGO
State health officials offer advice on ticks
State Health Department officials visited the Island 40 years ago and reported that while they have had an increase in complaints about more tick sightings, they had no scientific evidence that there were more ticks around that year. What was increasing that year was the incidence of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, another tick-borne disease initially identified in the Rocky Mountain area, but which subsequently spread throughout the country.
That illness had a 5 to 10 percent mortality rate, but was usually treated successfully with antibiotics. Dog ticks were mostly responsible for spreading the disease and people were being advised not to let dogs run free.
That same year, a team of Yale rheumatologists were conducting intensive studies of a disease they were then calling “Lyme Arthritis;” they had seen a small number of patients affected on Long Island.
POSTSCRIPT: While a number of tick-borne diseases have been identified on Long Island and particularly on the East End, Lyme disease is the most frequent. Again, it can be treated with antibiotics and doctors here are prescribing antibiotics even before getting conclusive proof that a patient has contracted the disease.
The Shelter Island Deer & Tick Committee has a forum planned for Thursday, June 28, at the Shelter Island School auditorium at 6:30 p.m. to share the latest information on efforts to battle tick-borne diseases.
30 YEARS AGO
South Ferry rate hike voided
It was 30 years ago that Cliff Clark successfully made his case to the Suffolk County Legislature for a rate hike, only to have the approval of the increase turned down. The problem wasn’t Mr. Clark’s, but an error in the way the hearing on the proposed hike was advertised.
The ferry company had been hoping to have an across-the-board hike implemented by Memorial Day. That didn’t happen, but the company then expected it to be in place by July 4 .
POSTSCRIPT: Neither ferry service has announced a hike this year, but it’s anticipated one or both could be filing a request.
20 YEARS AGO
Town names provisional police chief
Twenty years ago, Police Sergeant Jim Read was tapped to become provisional chief of the Shelter Island Police Department. He had been named officer in charge the previous year.
The Town Board had considered 20 applicants before narrowing the choice to five and then to two and finally choosing Chief Read to continue in the leadership role. The final two candidates were both Islanders and veterans of the Police Department.
POSTSCRIPT: Chief Read is still at the helm on Shelter Island.
10 YEARS AGO
Town and LIPA officials to meet
Following a ferocious thunderstorm at this time 10 years ago, many Islanders were without power for two days. Town officials were not happy with the response time they got from the utility company.
Jim Dougherty was supervisor at the time and arranged for LIPA officials to meet with Police Chief Jim Read who coordinated emergency responses for the Island. He said he wanted assurance that a repairman would be on the Island to cope with outages throughout future storms.
POSTSCRIPT: Today, PSEG has drawn praise from town officials for regularly arranging to have a repair crew on the Island in advance of and throughout major storms. The result has been quick repairs even in situations this past winter when the Island was hit with several successive storms.
