Mailbag: This week's letters to the editor
To the Editor:
I found the article in last week’s Reporter (‘Town gym un-Fit for workouts?’ November 14) very off base to say the least. I have been a member since it opened in 1998 and as far as I’m concerned, it’s one of the best things this Island has going for it.
To say the gym is not being used is entirely inaccurate. Membership has held steady over the past three years with roughly 500 members. Out of this number there are maybe 200 or so folks that come regularly. Go into the fitness center on any summer day, especially a weekend day, or night, and it will appear quite full. During the fall, winter and spring there are the local regulars but there are many lulls in the action and it just might look like no one is ‘watching the store’ as Kim Reilly put it. Like everything else on this Island the fitness center’s attendance is affected by the seasons.
Also mentioned in the article was that the towel dispensers were broken and were not fixed in a timely fashion. It then went on to quote someone saying this made the facility “unattractive” and having an “appearance of neglect.” It’s very petty to bring up a small infraction such as that. If half the machines were broken and there were holes in the walls, that might make the grade of unattractive and neglected.
And to say the people that work there aren’t sharp or look sharp is another misguided statement. They’re nothing but friendly, helpful and informative towards everyone that comes through the doors.
Some say the gym over at Dering Harbor, or “the rival gym” as I call it, is stealing the fitness center’s business, but I doubt it. Their membership fees are more than double ours. They offer specialty classes like Ashtanga Yoga, Zumba and Spin, but they don’t carry even close to the amount of elliptical machines the town fitness center does. They’re mostly summer memberships as I understand it anyway.
I don’t believe the town gym is dying a “slow death” as was stated in the article. If anything they’ll raise the membership fees slightly, and presently at $180 per year there’s nothing like it for that price anywhere on the East End. And yes, sometimes even bad publicity can turn out to be good in the long run.
LOUIS EVANGELISTA
Shelter Island
Pick and choose
To the Editor:
In his October 31 letter (“Rallying cry”), James Luke mentioned that he had read in the Reporter at some time in the past that “fully 75 percent of tax revenues are paid by second homeowners who are not eligible (permitted) to vote on local matters.”
I am happy to correct that misapprehension. If Mr. Luke has a primary residence elsewhere in New York State in addition to a second home on Shelter Island, he can choose to register at either — but not both —locations.
As Cathy Kenny wrote in a Prose and Comments piece in the Reporter in the fall of 2007, “New York’s permissive approach … allows voters to align their strongest, personal political interests with the appropriate voting district, and this is true whether a voter rents or owns property in his or her chosen district.”
If Mr. Luke lives in another state, he may not have this option, so he should check with his local board of elections.
LOIS B. MORRIS
President, League of Women Voters of Shelter Island
Deer perspective
To the Editor:
Telling the truth is not in vogue anymore.
I have been hearing that Shelter Island has a “public health crisis” due to incurable tick-borne illnesses, and that we have a “major health menace.” In the past, I have even heard the word “epidemic” and that something has be done about these crises.
These are catchy words. As long as these words are used in the lexicon of Town Hall meetings, by appointed and/or elected officials, the public will get the message that the town government is going to be a self-proclaimed CDC and will do something about it.
Before the public joins the town government on this escapade of crises gone bonkers, perhaps I can provide some perspective.
According to the American Cancer Society, the U.S. death rate for cancer in 2011 was 571,950, and about 600,000 people die annually in the U.S. of coronary disease. According to the CDC, the number of people who die of the common cold/flu is about 36,000 people a year. Would anyone consider swimming in the waters around Shelter Island high risk because of a shark attack? No. According to Oceana.org, the total number of shark attacks in U.S. waters from 2006 to 2010 was 179 (of which half died as the result of the shark bite) or an average of 4.2 attacks a year worldwide. Consider that there is a cure for Lyme disease, but there is no cure for the common cold. The facts are these: according to a report I received from the CDC in 2009, only two people have died of Lyme disease in the U.S. since they first started detecting it in 1987. Every person reading this letter is most likely going to succumb to heart disease or cancer, not Lyme disease. I know that telling the truth these days may not be in vogue anymore, so I guess what I write here may not be popular with some on Shelter Island. But for the folks who continue to use the words “major health menace,” “health crisis,” “incurable illness” and “epidemic,” knock it off, because the facts just don’t support that narrative anymore.
Lyme disease is a nuisance.
RICHARD KELLY
President, The Coalition For Sustainable Fish and Wildlife Habitat
Thanks for feeding The Goat
To the Editor:
As another season closes at Shelter Island Country Club (aka The Goat) and as a long-standing member, I would like to thank some people that made SICC an enjoyable place to play.
I would like to thank Betty Kontje, who was club president for many years — a volunteer position that took many hours a week to make sure all administration, finance, grounds, kitchen and clubhouse needs were in order. Betty had to field questions, comments and complaints from far and wide, and was always looking for ways to make things more desirable for the members as well as guests.
I would like to thank Charlie Beckwith, who was manager for many years. Charlie made sure The Goat was up and running every day at 6:30 a.m. and was clean, inside and out. He had to make sure inventories of all necessities were taken and arrived in a timely manner, be sure weekly work schedules were filled and deal with any and all problems that arose in the daily running of The Goat. He too had to listen to questions, comments and complaints, field ideas from the masses and set a course of action that made people want to come in and play golf and/or for a little afternoon camaraderie.
I would like to thank Gretel French for her hard work as head groundskeeper, keeping The Goat’s grounds in as good shape as possible. Gretel took pride in her work, and was always looking for ways to better the conditions of the course.
I would also like to thank Bob DeStefano for his love of the game of golf. He would open up Gardiner’s Bay Country Club to the members of The Goat, once a year, an added perk for SICC members. This invitation has now been revoked since Bob’s retirement.
Hopefully as the new management team takes over SICC, with new ideas, techniques, machinery and water supply, this will keep The Goat as an enjoyable place to join, play and visit.
Thanks to all!
CHUCK HOFFMANN
Make the Plunge
To the Editor
Don’t put your Halloween costumes away yet! You can wear them to the fourth annual Turkey Plunge at Crescent Beach on Saturday, November 30 at 11 a.m.
Although I don’t live on the Island, my grandparents do. In 2009, when I was 10, I signed up for my Shelter Island Library card and joined the Friends of the Shelter Island Library. In the box where it read “What can you do to help?” I checked “fundraising.”
Later, I suggested that a Turkey Plunge would be a fun way to raise money for some of the special projects that the Friends support. And now we are at year four!
Please join us and plunge on November 30. You can sign up and get all the information at the library. Registration is $25 and you’ll get a T-shirt and a button at the Plunge. You can help even more by asking your family and friends to pledge for you.
CHARLOTTE DEL COL
Wellesley, Massachusetts
Not ‘Kidd’ stuff
To the Editor
I enjoyed reading your front page article on ghosts (“Evidence of things unseen,” October 31). There are so many stories of ghosts and spirits at Sylvester Manor, the Creek Cottage and the Quaker Cemetery.
Robert Carse, the writer of many books, including the “Age of Piracy,” lived in the Creek Cottage for many years before my wife and I acquired the cottage. Mr. Carse told us the fuller story behind your brief account in the Reporter of the headless oarsmen rowing a longboat on Gardiner’s Creek.
Late in the 17th century, Captain Kidd was a welcome and frequent guest at Sylvester Manor. Following dinner one evening, Kidd finally decided that he could no longer trust a half dozen crewmen who had recently signed on board one of his pirate ships. He asked them to load a strongbox into one of the longboats and then they rowed the boat down to where the Creek Cottage stands today, with Kidd standing in the prow of the boat. While there, he lopped the heads off the six oarsmen with his sword and then returned to the Manor.
The vision of Captain Kidd standing at the prow of his longboat rowed by six headless oarsmen through a misty night continues to this day.
Adding to the veracity of the story, several skulls turned up near the cottage not long ago.
Captain Kidd was caught by the British Navy as he retrieved several strongboxes on Gardiners Island a couple of years later, was hauled to Britain, put on trial for piracy, and was hanged.
JAY WOODWORTH
New Providence, New Jersey
