This week in Shelter Island history
A 2004 rendering of the Highway Department barn that was the subject of much controversy before it was finally located along Bowditch Road.
50 YEARS AGO IN HISTORY
Lyndon Baines Johnson won his own four-year term having come to the presidency in the wake of the assassination of John F. Kennedy the previous year.The British House of Commons abolished the death penalty for murder in Great Britain.
The Apollo space suit was renamed the Apollo Extravehicular Mobility Unit to better describe its purpose.
The James Bond thriller “Goldfinger” was pulling in audiences at movie houses.
Jerome Salzer wrote a memo titled “Typeset and Runoff” with Runoff becoming the first computer text format to gain significant use, its commands derived from those that were used in manual typesetting.
And on Shelter Island …
50 YEARS AGO
Bill to ban buses
Of course, it was a political season when then Assemblyman Perry Duryea Jr. promised he would introduce legislation to stop the Shelter Island School District from having to transport students to off-Island schools and, perhaps, to end on-Island busing of students.
POSTSCRIPT: The State Education Department requires districts to provide transportation within the district and to students who attend other schools within a 15-mile radius a long as parents make the request in a timely way.
30 YEARS AGO
Endorsement
It was 30 years ago that the Reporter endorsed State Senator Kenneth LaValle for re-election, noting that his opponent that year, James Blydenburgh, had been basically silent about his candidacy. Through most of Mr. LaValle’s races over a 38-year career in the Senate, he has run against people who made little effort to challenge him.
POSTSCRIPT: Again this year, Mr. LaValle faced only token opposition from Michael Conroy, ensuring his re-election on Tuesday.
20 YEARS AGO
1199 lowers ante in contract talks
Eastern Long Island Hospital was engaged in contract talks with its nursing staff that had initially requested a two-year contract with back-to-back 7 percent increases. But the union rolled back its request, asking for a three-year agreement with raises of 5 percent the first year 4 percent for each of the remaining two years.
POSTSCRIPT: A major reason the hospital is currently talking about an alliance with either Stony Brook or North Shore-LIJ is to join a larger organization that would have more clout with both contract negotiations and purchasing.
10 YEARS AGO
Highway barn will go to Bowditch site
It was a prolonged and arduous battle fought 10 years ago about where to locate a new highway barn. The debate was about two sites — one on Route 114 where the old highway barn was located and the other at the site on Bowditch Road.
Highway Department members and area residents raised their voices in favor of one or the other, but it was ultimately decided by referendum, with the vote of 820 to 658, to build a new barn along Bowditch Road, across from several affordable houses that had been constructed in the mid 1990s. That was the tally of a bond issue calling for raising $1.35 million and spending $75,000 the town had on hand to construct the new facility.
POSTSCRIPT: For all the hullaballoo back in 2004, peace reigns, while the most recent fight over the old barn site was a proposal from PSEG to place a substation there. That proposal now appears to be dead and the utility company is examining alternative sites while still considering running cables between Shelter Island and Greenport.
