REPORTER FILE PHOTO | Supervisor Jim Dougherty told a radio audience Friday he favors some form of dark skies legislation.

Supervisor Jim Dougherty told the WLNG listening audience Friday afternoon that the Shelter Island Town Board will continue to seek a path between those who eschew more regulations and those who believe there’s a need to enact some form of ‘dark skies’ legislation.

“It’s a classic dilemma between two sincere groups,” Mr. Dougherty said. There are those who don’t want more regulations on the books and others who see the light intrusion as environmentally unacceptable.

Neighboring communities all have dark skies legislation, he said, noting, “It seems to be complaint driven” as opposed to police riding around and identifying those who fail to properly shield their lights, Mr. Dougherty said.

“Ninety six percent do the right thing,” the supervisor said about Shelter Island full- and part-time residents. But there are a few with automatic lights that shine brightly even when homeowners aren’t in residence.

As for concerns some may have about the possibility of burglaries because of low lighting, there isn’t a large problem on Shelter Island, Mr. Dougherty said. Homeowners tend to have security systems that  protect them from break-ins, he said.

The Town Board will continue its discussion of legislation at Tuesday’s work session and Mr. Dougherty predicted members would agree to schedule a public hearing on June 28 to hear from residents about the pros and cons.

JO ANN KIRKLAND PHOTO | Moments before the start of last year’s Shelter Island 10 K race.

The Shelter Island 10K is looking for volunteers to host elite athletes on race weekend, Friday, June 14th to Sunday, June 16.

Every year professional runners from around the world come to Shelter Island to race in the 10K and are hosted by Islanders willing to open their homes to these athletes.

If you are interested or would like more information, please contact Janelle Kraus Nadeau at 203-738-8110 or janellekraus@gmail.com.

AMBROSE CLANCY

He was the man I never knew, the man who gave me my name.

He was brought closer to me through a phone call I got one afternoon. An editor at the Washington Post, where I freelance occasionally, phoned to say a man who lived in the D.C. area had called and wanted to know if I would contact him. The name Timothy Donleavy didn’t ring a bell, but I called, and when a man answered I identified myself.

He asked if I was related to an Ambrose Clancy who had grown up in Ridgewood, a neighborhood straddling the Brooklyn-Queens border.

My uncle, I told Mr. Donleavy.

“I didn’t think there were too many Ambrose Clancys around,” he said. “When I saw the byline last week, I thought I should try to get in touch with you.”

My uncle, my father’s brother, had been the youngest of five, just like me. But to me, Ambrose was just a framed high school yearbook picture on my grandmother’s dresser of a smiling, handsome teenager. He was real for me only as quickly spoken, affectionate memories, related mostly by my mother.

My father, who had been the oldest in his family, rarely spoke of him. But his name, said by my mother as she recalled him, always produced a bright smile from my father, but little more. He did tell me how his youngest brother, “the baby” of his family, hated that designation as much as I did. Another connection was his nickname, Amby, which I inherited and also hated by the time I was 11 or so. By 16 no one called me that at my surly insistence, except my father, who got a pass. The sound of the nickname was different in his voice, something tender, more intimate.

My father said the name to me on his deathbed the night before he died — just that, with no other words attached.

For my mother, Ambrose was a wild, good-hearted boy, a brother-in-law 15 years younger than she, who was always around the house she said, an eager babysitter for her three little ones. (My sister Liz and I came along later, so Liz never met Ambrose, either.) It was obvious from my mother’s stories that Ambrose, who adored his older brother, had also been more than a little in love with his vivacious sister-in-law.

Mr. Donleavy said he had grown up with Ambrose in the old neighborhood, elementary school boys at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in the 1930s. Then both boys got scholarships to Regis High School, the private, Jesuit college prep in Manhattan, where some gifted Catholic boys from all over the city got a free ride. The long subway rides to Manhattan bound the two even closer, Mr. Donleavy told me.

“He was my best friend, the one who makes you laugh, who cheers you up, who shares difficulties with you.” Mr. Donleavy said.

The scholarship boys also went to Notre Dame together, in the fall of 1943, but their academic careers were cut short. “Along with a lot of other fellas our age, we felt we had to be in it,” he said.

“It” was World War II. “So Amby and I enlisted in the army together on the same day.”

They were sent to basic training at Camp Upton in Yaphank. Mr. Donleavy laughed at the memory. “The fellas thought he was crazy. He never moaned about basic to them. But he did with me.”

The two boys shipped out to England in early 1944, where they were finally separated, with Ambrose going into an infantry regiment, and Mr. Donleavy headed to a tank company.

Ambrose went into France on the second day of the invasion. Six weeks later, Mr. Donleavy got a letter from him. “It was upbeat, but near the end, he wrote, ‘I hope you never have to come to this place.’ By the time I got the letter he’d already been dead a few days.”

Timothy Donleavy served with honor, fighting all the way to the Rhine, until May, 68 years ago. After the war, he moved away from Ridgewood, and my family went to Illinois. Connections were lost.

My father, my mother told me years later, became a bit unhinged at his baby brother’s death. He pursued government officials maniacally to find out, in every detail, exactly how Ambrose had died. He was making plans, at great expense with money he didn’t have, to get his body back to New York for re-burial, but my mother finally convinced him to stop.

In the 1970s, my parents and Liz went to Paris one winter for a week and took a long day trip to the American cemetery to visit Ambrose’s grave for the first time. Liz, in her early 20s, said the experience produced one of the shocks of her young life.

My mother had spent the train trip recalling happy memories to cheer up my father, who was trying to be good company, but had finally retreated behind his copy of the International-Herald Tribune.

At the gravesite my father did shed a quiet tear or two, but it was my mother’s reaction that astonished my sister.

“She was livid,” Liz told me. “So angry. It was his grave, seeing his name, and all the crosses, the whole madness of wars.”

She raged on bitterly until they were on the train back to Paris, when my father’s comforting finally took effect.

The shock was that my mother was consistently even-tempered. She never spoke of war or politics, except to give a brief shake of her head at the mention of either. That was my father’s territory.

But that winter day in the graveyard, my mother crossed a line. She grieved by spitting her fury at what had been done to her young brother-in-law, dead at 19, and all of his comrades buried around him. And then she stopped, and remembered him ever after for his optimism, his joy in living, his love and bravery.

This Memorial Day we remember the dead, and also the families, as we should, of veterans everywhere. Nowadays we sympathize with veterans and the difficulties they face: Fighting in ill-defined wars and for too many, coming home to heartbreaking problems caused by their service. But we should also remember that finding a way to live in peace with others and yourself after combat isn’t just the lot of many modern day veterans. That search has been there forever.

My uncle, though, was spared those troubles. The man I never knew, who gave me my name, will always be 19.

SPRING OPEN HOUSE POSTPONED
NEW DATE: June 8th from 1:00pm – 4:00pm
at Sylvester Manor Educational Farm, 80 North Ferry Road, Shelter Island
 
In hopes of better weather in which to enjoy the Manor House and grounds, we are rescheduling our Spring Open House Celebration to Saturday, June 8th from 1 to 4 pm.  We hope to see you then.
 
The good news is … our farmstand will still be open this weekend! Join us at 21 Manwaring Road to purchase selling lettuce heads, salad and cooking greens, radishes and assorted seedlings.

BEVERLEA WALZ PHOTO | Supervisor candidates two years ago (from left) Jim Dougherty, Bob DeStefano Sr. and Glenn Waddington. Mr. Dougherty secured a narrow win for a third term over Mr. Waddington.

With Memorial Day just ahead and a town election more than five months away, it may seem premature to begin speculation about who’s running and who isn’t.

But candidates are already making moves. Witness a Town Board member this week saying wearily in the middle of a debate, “I love election years.”

What some disparage as “the silly season” officially gets under way June 4 when pols eyeing a spot on the ballot begin seeking signatures necessary to get their names listed for the November election.

Some things are clear. Supervisor Jim Dougherty, the Democratic standard bearer at the top of their ticket, is planning another campaign for a fourth two-year term in Town Hall. Democratic Party Chairwoman Heather Reylek said the supervisor is “excited” about a another run for office.

Mr. Dougherty echoed Ms. Reylek’s comments. “I’m happy to serve again if the people of Shelter Island will have me,” Mr. Dougherty said. What’s propelling him forward is a desire to keep an eye on finances and to work with the staff at Sylvester Manor as it continues to push forward with development plans, he said.

Republican Party Chairman Bob DeStefano Jr. couldn’t be reached about his slate. His father, Bob DeStefano Sr., the Reporter’s sport’s columnist, ran a distant third two years on the Republican ticket. “Absolutely not,” Mr. DeStefano said about making another run for the post. “If they gave it to me, I wouldn’t take it,” he said.

But Glenn Waddington, who ran on the Conservative and Independence party tickets, hasn’t made up his mind. He placed a close second to Mr. Dougherty in 2011, so close, in fact, that on election night, he thought he had won, only to have the win snatched from him with a count of absentee ballots.

“Don’t count me out, whether it’s this time or the next time,” Mr. Waddington said about another run for supervisor.

There are two Town Board seats, currently held by Ed Brown and Chris Lewis, to be contested in November. Voters will also be electing a town clerk, highway superintendent and a tax assessor.

Both Mr. Brown and Ms. Lewis will seek re-election. Mr. Brown, who won his seat with endorsements from the Conservative and Independence parties, will seek the Republican nod as well. Ms. Lewis is a Republican.

“It gets in your blood,” Mr. Brown said about elected office. “I want to continue to work to continue the quality of life for our community.

“It takes a great deal of time,” Ms. Lewis said about the demands of the job. But she’s ready to campaign for another four-year term.

Who might oppose the incumbents? That’s where certainty ends. Ms. Reylek will only say that it’s up to the outcome of the petitions — the forms candidates need to have signed by voters to get their names on the ballot. Based on a formula worked out by the Suffolk County Board of Elections, Democratic candidates need 40 qualified signatures and Republicans need 39.

Conservatives need only three signatures. Independents need six, and candidates for the Working Families Party need a single signature.

Town Clerk Dorothy Ogar says she’ll be on the ballot again, ready to serve another four-year term. This would be her 11th term as town clerk. Four years ago she ran with the endorsements of the Republican and Independence parties and had no opposition.
Patricia Castoldi is seeking another four-year term as a tax assessor, having won handily four years ago in her race against Democrat Joe Messer.

Highway Superintendent and Public Works Commissioner Jay Card Jr., who created something of a controversy among supporters when he hinted earlier this year that he might not seek a second term, is mum about the November election. But Ms. Reylek said he’ll be on the Democratic ticket again. Two years ago, Mr. Card handily defeated Republican Hap Bowditch for the seat after Mark Ketcham chose not to seek another term.

The petitioning period ends July 11 for party-affiliated candidates and August 20 for independent candidates.

REPORTER FILE PHOTO

To the Editor:
I read the article in the May 16 edition of the Reporter about the paper gobbler coming to town (“Staying Hungry”).

I am certain we all have many, many pages of written texts that have accumulated over the years, some perhaps we’d rather not acknowledge.

This was a very good project undertaken by the Shelter Island Green Expo 2013. However, the reference to Col. Oliver North shredding documents around the clock need not have been made. It politicized this editorial [article].
May I suggest that the shredder be sent to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, so it could be used to shred all the documents concerning the I.R.S., Benghazi and the Associated Press, which are now being brought to the attention of all citizens.

LEONARD GENOVESE
Shelter Island

Shelter Island blessings
To the Editor:
I enjoyed the Island Profile of my son Jason Shields in all its compelling honesty — it has been quite a journey — but there is one correction I would like to make. The article states that Alan saved me from the “gloom” of the Weber estate — to call it gloom is far from true. Caroline Weber, her family and the other staff became a second family to us.

I consider the opportunity to work there one of the greatest blessings of my life and will always be grateful for that time, that place and those wonderful people who kept us until the next chapter, the next blessing, Alan Shields, came along.
MARIA LOCONSOLO
Shelter Island

Let it be
To the Editor:
“The lights are on, but nobody’s home.” So said several concerned citizens at a recent Town Board work session. While pursuing their “dark skies” agenda, they know who have left the lights on and how long they have been away. Are they roaming the streets at night, making a list? Short of checking up on a senior citizen and homeland security purposes, should neighbors be tracking the whereabouts of other neighbors for any other reason?

One person suggested that if she can see the distasteful lights, no matter how far from wherever she is, they should be forbidden via the dark skies legislation. Another audience member wanted all the ugly LED lights banished, whether she can see them or not. Our right to live as we chose to, as individuals, will also be inhibited.

The discussion then turned to noses and your right to swing your arms. Obviously, how big your nose is and how long your arms are becomes the issue. I believe that we should be able to swing our arms as much as we want to, on our own property. Others should just point their noses in another direction if they do not want to see the light. Their eyes will follow.

Some real questions for the Town Board are how the law will be applied and enforced. Will we be able to light our property in late October when it gets dark at about 6 p.m.? I often finish up some outdoor task until about 8 p.m. Will a neighbor be able to file a police complaint if I am quietly working in my driveway with the lights on?

Can I determine what lights are needed for safety and security? Will I be allowed to illuminate my house numbers at the driveway entrance? Our first responders have asked that we all display our house numbers. Will they be able to quickly find a home, with no exterior lights on, in the pitch black, on a dark back road, in the middle of the night?

Will bright interior lighting that shines through large picture windows and illuminates the outdoors also be illegal? If the light on my property is not a problem for my neighbors, then why must I go through the trouble and expense of changing my lamps and fixtures?

As for the environmental concerns, the owls and other creatures of the night have plenty of dark sky at Mashomack and the many other open space areas on the Island.

The perfect dark skies law needs to be tempered with the realistic needs of the majority of the citizens here. Better yet, just leave well enough alone.
VINNIE NOVAK
Shelter Island

Something in the water
To the Editor:
“It’s the Island’s tradition to protect the environment and preserve its lifestyle as much as possible.” This is a statement from [Councilwoman Christine] Lewis, regarding the impending “dark skies” legislation. According to Ms. Lewis, we’re the only East End town to not have a dark skies law. We’re also the only town on the East End to allow the wood preservative in the pilings, known as CCA.

CCA is lumber that is pressurized with an aqueous solution containing copper, chromate and arsenic. The arsenic is chemically bound in the wood by the chromate, and the copper gives it that slight greenish tint. CCA pressure-treated wood contains arsenic, which can be released from the wood in several different ways. Burning, mechanical abrasion, direct contact and acid release are the means for the extraction of the arsenic. Think about this the next time you see your floating dock rubbing against the piling as it rises and falls with the tide.

Arsenic gives no warning; it doesn’t have a specific taste or odor to warn you of its presence. Like any heavy metal poisoning, it is cumulative. Acid rain can also release the chemical into the environment. Germany, Canada and quite a few U.S. states have banned it completely, and the EPA has banned it from residential use.

So, the question here is what motivates the Town Board to be so inclined to be more concerned with lights, rather than the health and safety of the water, which affects everyone on this Island. As someone who used to be head of a Water Advisory Board, I can assure you that when you compromise the quality of the water, you ruin the integrity of the environment.

It’s time for the Town Board to step up to the plate and make some formidable decisions about protecting the water supply, both fresh and salt. Those are real threats to the quality of life on the Island, not the lighting, which has virtually no negative effect on the environment of Shelter Island.
CAPT. G. CHRISTENSEN
Shelter Island

Summer 2013
To the Editor:
The summer of 2013 is drawing near
Bring out the chaise and chill the beer
I love the wakening feel of the Island vibe
Along with the sun the grandkids arrive
Some wonderful stewards give of their time
To remind us how the present and past align
On 114 history is preserved at Havens House and Barn
And at the Manor there is Shakespeare and a vibrant farm
On some days we may meet at the PO or the IGA
And if so we’ll take a minute to chat and say hey
“How’s your summer going? Mine’s busy but fun
Friends coming and going, will cleaning and cooking ever be done?”
CONNIE POWER
Shelter Island

REPORTER FILE PHOTO | Shelter Island School

The car wash scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday, May 25, at the Shelter Island School has been cancelled due to the projected weather forecast.

The class of 2014 was hosting the event. There  was no word yet on rescheduling.

CAROL GALLIGAN PHOTO | Bright tulips make a garden vividly alive in all weather.

There is so much to say about tulips, it’s hard to know where to begin. So logically then, we should begin at the beginning, as in where did tulips come from? In fact, they have a dramatic history. They were found originally growing wild in Central Asia and were cultivated in Turkey as early as 1,000 A.D. — hardly newcomers.

Carolus Clusius, a famous biologist from Vienna and the director of the oldest European botanical garden in Leiden, Holland — and we’re talking now in the 1590s — was researching  medicinal plants and while doing so he got some bulbs from a friend in Turkey. He planted them and this was the beginning of the love affair between the tulip and the Netherlands.

Interestingly, the word “tulip” translates in Turkish into “turban.” And Turks did wear tulips tucked into their turbans; so many times in history, errors become immortalized. But this mistake did not prevent the Dutch from falling in love with tulips. In fact at one point in time, during the 17th century, tulips were actually traded as currency, in the period known as “tulipmania.”

Hybridization started almost immediately. Once again, errors and miscalculation entered in and became history. It was initially supposed that only the solid, smooth and monotoned blooms would be popular. But when several diseases entered the picture, viruses from peaches and potatoes, the results were the new frilly petals and striking “flames” that have made tulips famous for their colorful and unusual appearance. And why they are called “the lipstick of the garden,” it’s the color of the lipstick that gives the face its final glow.

Tulips, if selected properly, can color the garden for at least six weeks, since they come in early, middle and late varieties. If you are making a specific plan, for example as I did, wanting them to bloom with my azaleas, then you must choose accordingly and not make my mistake this spring. My azaleas are just coming into bloom and the tulips nearest them are fading. If I had remembered and chosen the late varieties I would not be as annoyed with myself as I currently am.

However, I have written it all down in my garden book and I won’t make the same mistake again. In fact, I have already chosen the three varieties, late bloomers all, that I will plant nearby. I also noticed something that I hadn’t realized and that probably would be a better solution than the companion tulips. My scilla hispanica, a lovely blue, is almost full. It’s probably what I should have chosen in the
first place.

It should be noted, however, that tulips are deer food, in fact, deer caviar. They should only be planted here on the Island in protected places. I have them in planters on a balcony and behind a fence and so far the fence has worked. I treat tulips as annuals and see this as the most sensible way to go. The bulbs, as we have noted before in discussing daffodils, must “ripen.” In other words, turn brown. This is what’s known as a genuinely unsightly process. Unless you’re into brown. Even then, they will come back in a much smaller version. The tulips that are everywhere for sale in food markets, that measure an inch and a half, are what I think of as “tulip ghosts.” Treating them as annuals, that is pulling them up after bloom and throwing them away, and then using that spot for actual annuals has more than one advantage. Not only do you have space for the annuals, but when they are done, you know where to plant the bulbs. I think that’s really convenient.

Next week, I’ll try to cover the rest of the best — frills, the fringes, the flames, the Rembrandts and my favorites, the viridiana.

BOB DeSTEFANO

So far I have met three major sportswriters who call the Island home. And almost a fourth.

Now, when I say major, I mean newspapers with large circulations. There’s Robert Lipsyte of the New York Times, Robert Lipsyte of the Washington Post and Peter Vecsey of the New York Daily News and New York Post. The fourth? Several years ago my wife showed some houses to Mike Lupica of the Daily News but he finally decided to go to the Hamptons.

What I find noteworthy about all three is simply that these guys do not “kiss up” to any athlete. All three have had the guts to say what they want without the fear of losing their jobs. Since I already did a column on Lipsyte and Feinstein, this week it’s Peter Vecsey’s turn.

I’ve known Peter for quite a few years, but until this week, I never really sat down and had a conversation with him. I knew he wrote a basketball column for the Post because my friend Bruce Orr talked about him all the time.

As interesting as I found him, I had a hard time making him smile. I thought I said a few humorous things but this is a serious guy and laughing seemed out of the question. I almost dropped when he told me that his 25-year-old son Joseph made his living as a stand-up comedian. I figured he must have seen his dad laugh at least once and decided comedy was his calling. Joseph is appearing at Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor this June. Keep an eye open, I think he will be good.

Vecsey also has a daughter, Taylor, 30, an editor at East Hampton Patch, and a son Michael, 46, who is a college professor. Peter referred to his wife Joan, a schoolteacher, as the heart and brains of the family. He said it was Joan’s connection to the Island as a young girl that brought them here.

Looking back, whatever Peter did, he must have done it right. Today, he and his family are living in one of the loveliest homes on Shelter Island. When I asked him why he retired from the Post, he said that even though the paper offered him a new contract, he left without even looking at it. I dropped the subject since he didn’t seem comfortable talking about it. But I had the feeling he’s getting a little itchy to get involved again, maybe with a book or another sports column. (I just hope he doesn’t take mine.)

When I spoke to him about his success, he immediately countered with his work ethic throughout those years. He was a boy from Queens who started working for the Daily News in high school and stayed 14 years before moving to the Post where he wrote for another 36 years. During those years, he usually had one or two other positions at the same time, usually with NBC or TNT.
Peter went to Hofstra University and then graduated from the Army Airborne School and became a Green Beret. Sportswriting is a family trade; his older brother George is a legendary sportswriter for the Times.

But Peter has become a legend himself. He’s in New York City’s Basketball Hall of Fame and has been honored by his alma mater, Archbishop Malloy High School, and Ruckers. But the jewel in his crown of honors came in 2009 when he was inducted in to the National Basketball Hall of Fame.

I will boldly say that this man knows the game of basketball.

He seemed proudest that in 1976 he was one of the first columnists to specialize in a sport, with the NBA as his domain. He was also famous for giving nicknames to the players — some they liked and some they didn’t. “Larry (Bird) Legend” liked his but Spencer Haywood wasn’t thrilled with “Spencer Deadwood.”

One secret to his longevity and success was that nobody was too sacred to be called out in his columns and criticized if Vecsey believed their performance or conduct warranted it.

Before this week, this is what I knew about Peter Vecsey: 16  years ago, Anne and I were in a strip mall restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona. While there, we ran into two couples from Hay Beach: Mike and Aileen Osofsky and Peter and Joan Vecsey. Imagine being a couple thousand miles from home and running into two couples from a neighborhood of about 50 people.

The second thing I remember was sitting next to Peter at Tom Lord’s funeral service. He said he had been trying to get his 90-year-old mother and 92-year-old Tom together. As only Tom would do, he finally told him that his mother was a very nice lady but he was really looking for someone a little younger.

The third thing I remember was a match I set up with two guys 25 years ago who played basketball at the Downtown Athletic Club and boasted they could beat any two players on Shelter Island. I was offended that their image of Shelter Island ballplayers was so low. The Downtown AC boys played two matches and lost them both. First to Jay Card and Chris Tracy and then to Jay Card again with Peter Vecsey. I never saw guys play so hard for pride and to win a dinner. Way to go, Shelter Island!

Today, Vecsey admires Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson, even though when Jackson was a player, they didn’t always get along. Jackson is also a certified minister and one of Vecsey’s nicknames for Jackson was “point God.” Since Mark was putting on a little weight, Vecsey said he looked like he ate too many communion wafers.

Well Mark, I hope you get to read this. Put down the communion wafers and listen. If Peter Vecsey goes before you do, he would like you to speak at his funeral service.

FILE PHOTO | Clara Barksdale, who helped develop the Senior Citizens Affairs Council, was the 1993 Lions Club Citizen of the Year. Then Lions Club president Bruce Jernick hosted the dinner at the Heights Firehouse that honored Ms. Barksdale.

10 YEARS AGO
Williams to seek second term

Ten years ago, Art Williams was Shelter Island Town supervisor and announced his intention to seek a second two-year term. He said at the time that a two-year term is too short since new office holders spend the first year just getting familiar with “the lay of the land.” He planned to ask voters for two more years to “really accomplish some of the goals that we set out to accomplish in this administration.” It was a squeaker in November, but voters returned Mr. Williams to office by a vote of 783 to 727 for Democratic opponent Gerry Siller.
POSTSCRIPT: Supervisor Jim Dougherty has let it be known that he intends to run for a third term in November. Two years ago, he had to await a Suffolk County Board of Elections recount that determined he had won a third term, defeating Glenn Waddington and Bob DeStefano. Mr. Dougherty became the first person to win a third term as supervisor since Hoot Sherman did it in 1995.

20 YEARS AGO
Lions honor Barksdale

Twenty years ago this month, the Shelter Island Lions Club honored Clara Barksdale as its Citizen of the Year. Ms. Barksdale was selected for her role in the development of the Senior Citizens Affairs Council. The dinner honoring Ms. Barksdale was held at the Heights Firehouse.
POSTSCRIPT: This month, Michael Coles is the Lions’ honoree. He was selected for what Lions president Dr. Frank Adipietro said were his contributions that “bridge the gap between those in financial need and organizations in need of his relentless diplomacy.”

30 YEARS AGO
Town approves 14 stop signs in Heights

In the interest of making driving safer on the Island, the Town Board approved 14 new stop signs, increased no parking areas and reduced the speed limit in the Heights to 25 mph.  To questions from some residents about why some of those stop signs were needed, Hoot Sherman, who back in 1983, was Heights Property Owners Corporation manager, replied that the postings would keep the HPOC out of legal trouble. Prior to passing the amendment, police couldn’t enforce existing signs in the Heights that hadn’t been included in the original ordinance.
POSTSCRIPT: The speed limit remains at 25 mph in the Heights and there are still no red lights anywhere on the Island.

40 YEARS AGO
LILCO promises alternate electrical field

Forty years ago, the entire Island’s electrical feed was carried on a utility pole located on a curve on Route 25 in Southold. Auto accidents had resulted in two outages here — one lasting for about eight hours, and another for about an hour. Concerns grew because aside from the general inconvenience residents and business owners experienced, the outages knocked out emergency alarms that could result in serious consequences, then Town Supervisor Thomas Jernick said. Long Island Lighting Company, the pre-runner to today’s Long Island Power Authority, promised in May 1973 that recommendations would be made to provide Shelter Island with an alternate feed from Southold.
POSTSCRIPT: Today, the Island is dependent on two under water cables that carry current to the Island, but one is out of order since Superstorm Sandy and increased use of electricity during summer months threatened to result in blackouts or rolling brownouts if a new cable isn’t installed. LIPA is at work on the cable that town officials say will be completed by late June — if there are no unforeseen circumstances that further delay the project.