Shepherd, Colligan and Breiner questioned at forum

The debate between three candidates for two spots on the Town Board started slowly, and not just because one participant was late.

Republican Emory Breiner was in the school building, but not in the auditorium when the “Meet the Candidates Forum,” sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Shelter Island and the Shelter Island Association, was scheduled to begin Sunday afternoon.

Someone was sent to find Mr. Breiner as the candidates and audience waited. He said later he had lost track of the time.

The discussion was moderated by League Treasurer Kathleen Minder immediately after the debate between the candidates for supervisor, Art Williams and Jim Dougherty.

Democratic challenger Jim Colligan and Town Councilman Paul Shepherd, a Republican running for a second, four-year term, began by giving their resumes.

Mr. Colligan, president of the Silver Beach Association and a member of the town’s Deer & Tick Committee, spoke of a long career in the military and academic administration as qualifying experiences to serve on the Town Board.

Mr. Shepherd noted that his “unorthodox thinking is an asset to the people I work with to see things differently” and this “flexibility of mind” allows him to approach issues from “multiple directions” and gives “everyone a fair shot at democracy.”

Mr. Breiner, a member of the Planning Board running on the Republican line, said he had been in government for 10 years and had worked with all members of the town’s administration. “If I can’t do it, no one can do it,” Mr. Breiner said.

“What else can I say?”

On a question of a “perennial lack of resolutions” on major issues such as building code violations, the overpopulation of deer and tick-borne illnesses and a lack of potable water, Mr. Shepherd defended the Building Department’s staff, noting that with limited manpower they did a good job. As for deer and ticks, the town is working hard and spending money to get a handle on the problems, he said. Later, he noted that the 4-poster program — feeding stands that brush deer with a tickicide — was a success.

Mr. Breiner answered the question of the lack of governmental resolutions to problems by saying, “Government is slow and slow on purpose.”

Mr. Colligan challenged that. There were ways to speed up processes, he said, especially with better coordination between the town’s 13 committees and the Town Board. Committees must be given “vision and timelines,” Mr. Colligan said.

On tick-borne illnesses, the Democrat said the 4-poster program is working well, but more must be done to cull the deer herd. He noted that the Deer & Tick Committee is involved with a nonprofit wildlife service to train one or two Islanders who would be paid as sharpshooters to reduce the deer population.

Water was the number one issue facing the Island, Mr. Colligan said, both in dwindling resources, saltwater intrusion of wells and antiquated septic systems.

The suggestion that the town be connected to Suffolk County water should be “put on the table,” Mr. Colligan said, and he was “not close-minded about it.”

Mr. Shepherd said he wasn’t against the idea of pubic water, but would like to see it done using a local model such as the West Neck Water District. “We can’t let people hang out to dry,” he said with a smile to laughter from the audience.

Mr. Breiner said the proposal of county water was not new, but had always been resisted because allowing Suffolk County to distribute water would lead to “down zoning,” reducing lot sizes and creating more building and a lager population. But he agreed something must be done.

Asked about the danger of the Island becoming “another Hampton,” Mr. Breiner began by saying that the Island is in the South Fork’s congressional, state and county legislative districts and that increasingly there were “loud people” appearing in our midst.

Mr. Colligan mentioned that one way to keep the Island’s special character was to look into affordable housing.

Mr. Shepherd, picking up the theme of “loud people,” said, “40 years ago we raised hell and were proud of it.” Now the atmosphere on the Island is almost “church-like.”

The introduction of airbnbs — essentially unregulated and unlicensed B&Bs — is a problem that is “difficult to regulate but needs a lot of discussion,” Mr. Colligan said, while Mr. Shepherd said short term rentals is “more fear than fact” for the Island.

Reliable electric power to the Island was discussed, with Mr. Shepherd standing by his belief that a substation here is the best solution, although the locations suggested by PSEG in the past were inappropriate.

With a power cable between Greenport and the Heights now being discussed, the problem “is not critical now,” Mr. Breiner said.

Mr. Colligan agreed with Mr. Shepherd about a substation, and that it was misguided to suggest building a facility in a residential neighborhood.

As for so-called “commercialization” of the Island’s beaches, Mr. Shepherd said this was not a serious problem, but all candidates agreed that Sunset Beach should be partly responsible for cleaning up after its guests and not leaving the town to do the job alone.