How much is enough? Board on fines for building regs violation

At the Town Board’s Tuesday work session, the members returned to the question of penalizing property owners who break Building Department regulations, especially those who willfully build in restricted areas, such as protected wetlands.

The issue came to a head several weeks ago when it was discovered that Gary Baddeley had ordered construction on his South Ferry Road property without filing plans with the Building Department, and had built past a buffer into environmentally sensitive wetlands.

The board demanded mitigation work at the site, a fine of $5,000 for the wetlands violation and community service of 20 hours, all of which Mr. Baddeley accepted.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the issue of fines was brought up again by Councilman Ed Brown, who has maintained that $5,000 for breaking rules to protect the environment is too low.

After discussing a range of fines, members were in agreement that $50,000 might be a reasonable ceiling, but Councilman Peter Reich suggested looking into other town’s penalties for similar violations. Town Attorney Laury Dowd said she would research it and the mater will be discussed further.

As for what the community service would entail, Mr. Baddeley’s representatives offered free skin cancer screenings for town employees —Mr. Baddeley’s wife, Sumayah Jamal, is a dermatologist — and volunteering at Mashomack.

Mr. Reich and Supervisor Jim Dougherty said that Mashomack, although providing great benefits to the town, was a private organization, and wouldn’t be acceptable for community service.

Members agreed that skin cancer screening was a good idea, but resident Barbara Lieblein said from the audience that community service should benefit everyone rather than just town employees. She suggested a notice should be given to all residents who feel they might be at risk and would like to undergo screening for cancer.

In other business: Mr. Reich brought to the table a request that the town code on scalloping season be brought into line with state Department of Environmental Conservation guidelines. At present, the town has the third Monday in October as opening day of the season while the state has the first Monday in November. This can be done by resolution and the board agreed to vote on it at the next regular meeting.

Also, the board will move to change a restriction on how many scallops can be harvested. A person with a license for scallops can only take five bushels a day and a boat, no matter how many licensed fishermen aboard, can only take 10 bushels. The board would like to see that changed so, for example, if three fishermen are aboard, they are all entitled to five bushels apiece.

The board agreed to raise fees at the Recycling Center, mainly for the sale of mulch, and to raise the fee paid to the butcher who works for the town on deer carcasses. At present that fee is $45 per deer and will be raised to $75.

Resident Kolina Reiter said discussions about the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists on New York Avenue should not include making it a one-way street. That was tried in the past and made traffic worse and provided little extra safety, Ms. Reiter said.

Mr. Brown said no decisions have been made, and Highway Superintendent Jay Card Jr. said there have been discussions of creating a pathway in the town’s right of way along the road.

Resident Vincent Novak asked the board what preparation it’s made in monitoring the Millstone, Connecticut nuclear power plant and if there is any town plan in place in case of an emergency.
Noting that Millstone is only 18 miles away from the Island, Mr. Novak asked, “Is this town government doing anything about this, or you feel there is nothing you can do abut it, or you refuse to do anything about it?”

“We certainly don’t refuse,” Mr. Dougherty said, adding that Police Chief Jim Read, who is the emergency management coordinator for the town, has answered Mr. Novak’s questions in the past and should be brought in again on the discussion.

Mr. Novak said the board should push to get Suffolk County included in “a coalition for nuclear counties” for those areas that are within 50 miles of a nuclear plant for “radiological preparedness.”

Both Ms. Lewis and Mr. Shepherd noted that it was an idea worth considering.

Ms. Lieblein asked that the board do something about garbage cans left for days on the streets of Hay Beach by uncaring property owners.

The issue was brought to the board’s attention in August, when Branca Neuman of Hay Beach Road told the board the garbage cans from the Island’s private sanitation service are left out on the road all week and some of them that aren’t picked up “can get really ripe.”

The board agreed look into the matter.