Letters

Letters to the Editor: Week of April 19, 2012

No April Fool

To the Editor:

I looked at the datelines and letter and meeting dates for your story about ending swimming at Fresh Pond, Shell Beach and Menhaden Lane but didn’t find April 1st anywhere.

So I conclude that the story is not an April Fools’ Day prank but the work of a Year-Round Fool, whose other title is “Director of Environmental Quality, Bureau of Marine Resources, Suffolk County Department of Health Services.”

Here in Connecticut, we used to have a county level of government in place, but in 1960 our state legislature ended it and sent the rascals packing. The funny part of that is no one noticed that they were gone (and we still don’t).

We could probably learn to live without the Suffolk County government very nicely and not even notice that they were gone, except for being left alone to swim in peace at the very best beaches in the world.

EDWARD REITH, Shelter Island

 

Civics lesson

To the Editor:

I hope the boys and girls of Shelter Island will be reading the Reporter these next several weeks because they will get a valuable civics lesson demonstrating the ineptitude of our local government.

The senior sanitarian  for the Suffolk County Department of Health has decreed that the beaches at Hay Beach and Shell Beach represent a clear and present danger to the health and safety of the tax-paying public and has ordered them closed. You might think she would be smart enough to realize that it will not happen. We should all remember the taco truck incident from last year when our public officials decided that the itinerant food truck that was visiting construction sites on the Island was a threat to public health and safety.

After several weeks of editorials, letters to the editor and several raucous Town Board meetings, our government enacted an ill-conceived, poorly written, totally unenforceable set of rules to correct the situation. The net result is that the truck still comes every day and nobody seems to be troubled by it.

Similarly, we remember the dump episode when our esteemed public officials decided that there were too many unqualified rag-pickers sifting through the trash at the dump. Again after weeks of debate, a totally unenforceable set of rules was concocted. Now everything is just as it was before, the scavengers are back, happy as clams, except all the professional scroungers have a cute green vest on the seat of their pickup truck. Our public servants are quite adept at identifying problems that don’t exist and promulgating unworkable solutions.

So, boys and girls, you can ignore all the histrionics these next several weeks because you can be sure that on any nice day in July and August, both Shell and Hay Beach will be crowded with taxpaying citizens enjoying the bay as they have for generations.

Nobody will be arrested or prosecuted. The only difference will be the presence of a big ugly sign with a long laundry list of prohibited activities and what was once a pleasant trip to the beach is now officially classified as a criminal act. The senior sanitarian may just as well sit on the beach in a folding chair with a bullhorn and order the tide not to come in.

Your government at work: it doesn’t get any better. That’s one man’s opinion.

DAVID OLSEN, Shelter Island

 

Vilified

To the Editor:

After his “State of the Town” speech, Supervisor Dougherty once again vilified me with his defaming comments. He desperately needs a scapegoat. He and the board allowed their collective vengeance to cloud their judgment and they know it. They knew that observing kids unknowingly playing in the shallow waters that others just defecated in was upsetting to my wife and myself.

We live next to the Fresh Pond landing and saw this happen time and again. I begged the board several times to just remove the picnic table at the landing. There would be less need for people to relieve themselves in the pond if you do not encourage eating there. But retribution is much more important than protecting public health.

Why such loathing? I rejected the supervisor’s dictated terms and threat of intimidation way back in 2008, when the landing was converted to a beach without notice. His statement that “elected officials here” would retaliate and that “it won’t be nice” was legally recorded by me. (As he always says, “Trust but verify.”) I then filed a complaint with the New York State Attorney General’s Public Integrity Unit in 2009 when I felt he was carrying out this threat.

But that was only after I wrote him several times and explained why he should actually protect citizens from such abuses. My mistake was to not follow through, allowing him to be let off with a warning. It could be that I truly believe that I have the constitutional right to write letters such as this without fear of retaliation from the government.

He and the board had every opportunity to rectify this problem at Fresh Pond locally and chose not to. Contacting the Suffolk County Department of Health Services was a last resort. Any other community would thank a citizen for taking action to protect the health and welfare of their children. But not here.

Mr. Dougherty allowed loads of sand to be dumped into Fresh Pond, harming the environment. This was in violation of a DEC directive, for over a year. He risked our tax money for a large potential fine. He again risks potential fines when he allows the town to continue to violate county health and safety regulations.

But the worst was when he and the board knowingly allowed the public, the tots and kids, to be put in impending danger at the Fresh Pond town landing. Most people agree that swimming in raw sewage is a dangerous risk to your current and long-term health. There is a real problem in Town Hall when retaliation and revenge overrules common sense and the law. Where is the integrity? Where are the adults? Where is the supervision, Mr. Supervisor?

I hope that someday we can elect a supervisor that can maintain the Shelter Island way of life while respecting the rights of every citizen and resident, no matter what religion they are assumed to be. Until then, we will be “governed” by Boss Dougherty. He longs for the ruthless days of Tammany Hall, one of the low points of our democracy. We need leadership that will take responsibility and actually honor the oath of office and the flag that they pledge their allegiance to.

VINCENT NOVAK, Shelter Island

 

Absurd ruling

To the Editor:

Three cheers for Dick Tarlow. He got his wish granted by the Town Board. Now he can build his 10,000 square-foot dream house. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Island, in a much more modest neighborhood, an absurd ruling prevailed.

A few years ago, my husband and I had a garage built. We wanted to install a toilet and a sink in the upstairs area that would be his office. But Mary Wilson and Billy Banks said “no,” as did the town. Why? Because we already had an accessory building, a small cottage that did, indeed, have a shower, toilet and sink but was unusable from October through April, because it wasn’t heated and the pipes were drained.

Our house, which probably could fit into Mr. Tarlow’s living room, has one bedroom, an upstairs bathroom with a toilet, sink and tub and a downstairs bathroom with a shower, sink and tub. But the town was inflexible. They told us unless we attached either the garage or the cottage to the small main house, we could not put a toilet and sink in the room over the garage. (We already had an accessory building, remember? Even though we couldn’t use it for half of the year.)

I cannot imagine the architectural insult of attaching either of these structures to our 1850s house. So we gave up. Now, I’m wondering how many bathrooms Mr. Tarlow will have in his new home. Five? 10? 50? It seems the sky’s the limit if you put everything under one roof.

MELANIE CORONETZ, Shelter Island

 

No indictment meant 

To the Editor:

Recently things got a bit bumpy for me and my associates on the board. We disagree rather strongly on a particular issue and that is always difficult.

I would like to be sure people understand that my remarks about a failure to lead refer to this issue, and this issue alone, and was never intended to be construed as an indictment of their years of service to the Town of Shelter Island. That is neither what I meant nor how I feel.

There is also good news. We don’t have to lead to get there any more. New Jersey’s Governor Chris Christie has done it, with bipartisan support, already. They’ve gotten virtually all public employees, including police and teachers, to contribute uniformly to their health care via legislation on the state level.

So, not only can it be done, it has been done. The bad news is that Governor Cuomo is not Chris Christie, and has, in my opinion, settled for a tepid response to a very large issue, leaving us without critical legislation strong enough to make the right thing a reality.

Trying to have a meaningful impact on this problem, even locally, by targeting only new hires is not going to get us to where we need to be in time. A fair-minded, even-handed, across-the-board approach is not only better from an ethical standpoint but will work better for the taxpayer. Imagine that.

That being said, I am not sure that health care costs are really going to continue to expand the way they have … because it will quite simply be the ruination of our nation. Hopefully our state and federal leaders will clear the way for reforms that will make life easier for us on the local level.

Anyway, to my co-workers again, my apologies if my remarks were taken differently than they were offered. On this issue we are worlds apart, it’s true, but only on this.

PAUL SHEPHERD

Councilman, Shelter Island