COURTESY PHOTO |Part of a formal garden that has received a conservation easement on Ward’s Point.
Richard Hogan and Carron Sherry have contributed a conservation easement on property at Ward’s Point that covers a formal Italian garden and a 100-foot buffer area along the property’s shoreline bluff on Shelter Island Sound. The easement covers approximately 4.8 acres of the property. (more…)
CHARITY ROBEY PHOTO
Sara Gordon on the back porch of the Manor House, with a view of Gardiner’s Creek that has remained unchanged for hundreds of years.
When Sara Gordon, strategic director at Sylvester Manor, takes her usual walk around the property, her route takes her past the site of an ancient Native American settlement on the peninsula that pokes into Gardiner’s Creek. (more…)
KATHARINE SCHROEDER PHOTO | An artifact from a time when Shelter Island was a key player in the shell fish industry of the East Coast.
What do oysters have to do with history?
Everything — if you’re talking about the East End of Long Island. (more…)
REPORTER FILE PHOTO | Supervisor Jim Dougherty wrote to say articles in the Reporter had scared away people interested in town real estate transactions.
Curious publicity
To the Editor:
As the letter in last week’s Reporter from a former supervisor states, “Shelter Island has been the leader in preserving open space.” I was chairman of the 2 percent Open Space Committee from its inception in 1999 until I became supervisor in 2008 and can tell you discretion has always been critically important for success with open space preservation. Sellers and buyers don’t want their stories in the papers on a weekly basis regarding discussions. Recently a conservation buyer button-holed me to explore a possible conservation purchase of the 1.23-acre parcel on Manwaring Road described in the first paragraph of the front page story in last week’s Reporter — these approaches happen all the time. (The other 1.23-acre parcel on Manwaring Road donated to the town by Peconic Land Trust became the site of two businesses some years ago, and I will do anything to prevent this from happening with this parcel.) But it’s academic — with the curious publicity, he’s gone. (more…)
REPORTER FILE PHOTO
Hands off home rule
To the Editor:
The governor’s tax cap proposals — rejected by both the Assembly and Senate leadership — are a Trojan Horse disguising a direct assault on home rule. Nicols Patent and several hundred years of effective local governance notwithstanding, the New York Times states the governor “has cited the number of local governments as a reason property taxes are so high” and that “the large number of overlapping local governments was a problem that needed immediate attention” and “I’m not going to let them run from it.” (more…)
