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This week in Shelter Island history

REPORTER FILE PHOTO Ten years ago it was (from left) Hap Bowditch Jr., Al Kilb Jr. and Art Williams appearing at the League of Women Voters-Shelter Island Association Candidates forum.
REPORTER FILE PHOTO Ten years ago it was (from left) Hap Bowditch Jr., Al Kilb Jr. and Art Williams appearing at the League of Women Voters-Shelter Island Association Candidates forum.

50 YEARS AGO IN HISTORY

President Lyndon Johnson signed Executive Order 11246 establishing the Equal Employment Opportunities Act that prohibited discrimination in hiring.“Do I Hear A Waltz?” closed at the 46th Street Theater in New York City after 220 performances.

Baseball great Satchel Paige, playing for the Kansas City Athletics at age 59, pitched three innings against the Red Sox, giving up only one hit.

Top Emmy Awards went to the “Hallmark Hall of Fame,” “The Defenders” and “My Name Is Barbra” with the awards show hosted by Sammy Davis Jr. and Danny Thomas.

Americans were listening to Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction.”

And on Shelter Island …

50 YEARS AGO
We ask of the candidates

A Reporter editorial written at this time 50 years ago called on candidates to provide clear statements about their views on issues and visions for Shelter Island’s future. At the time, there were 14 candidates vying for eight posts.

“Yesterday’s and past records make campaign ammunition of a sort, but the more important questions are Shelter Island’s future,” the editorial said. “The community needs a master plan” that could be a guide to taking steps to reach that future view over, perhaps, a 25-year period.

POSTSCRIPT: Certainly none of the candidates for supervisor or Town Board is unknown to the community, but their long-term visions and steps they believe need to be taken to achieve them could well assist voters in making choices about how to vote on November 3.

30 YEARS AGO
Get ready for Gloria

It was late September 1985 when Hurricane Gloria was making her way toward the East End and Islanders were being advised to prepare with flashlights, batteries, canned foods and water and full gas tanks in their vehicles. Gloria did, indeed come ashore on September 27 delivering a battering to the Island.

POSTSCRIPT: This year, depending on whom you choose to believe, we’re due for few if any hurricanes, but many nor’easters. Other predictions call for a milder than usual winter season. Given the walloping the area took during the last two winters, it would be hard for Islanders to believe it could be worse.

20 YEARS AGO
Scalloping delayed in state and town waters

It was 1995 when brown tide had invaded state and local waters but by the end of September, it was receding in most areas, except for West Neck Bay where levels had doubled. The state Department of Environmental Conservation announced it would delay the beginning of the scallop season until October 30 in response to requests that had come from East End baymen through their locally elected officials.

POSTSCRIPT: While sites west of the Island were plagued with fish die-offs, particularly in the Riverhead area, problems didn’t reach Shelter Island and the scallop season is expected to begin here November 2.

10 YEARS AGO
League, SIA set candidate forum

Ten years ago, it was a three-way race for town supervisor when the League of Women Voters and the Shelter Island Association announced in September that Al Kilb Jr., Hap Bowditch Jr. and Art Williams would face off in a candidates forum at Shelter Island School.

In November, it was Mr. Kilb who prevailed at the polls in a Republican sweep of the election.

POSTSCRIPT: The League of Women Voters and Shelter Island Association have scheduled a forum for candidates running for supervisor and Town Board seats on October 25 from 1 to 4 p.m. at Shelter Island School.

Incumbent Supervisor Jim Dougherty, a Democrat, faces GOP challenger and former supervisor Art Williams. The GOP is fielding two Town Board candidates, incumbent Paul Shepherd and Emory Breiner, while Jim Colligan is endorsed by the Democrats. The three men are vying for two open seats.

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