This week in Shelter Island history
50 YEARS AGO IN HISTORY
The experimental Fermi 1 reactor at the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station near Detroit had a partial meltdown when its cooling system failed.
LSD became legal in California.
The United States Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) signed a Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers that gave rise to what is now celebrated as World Teachers Day.
The Soviet Union declared that all Chinese students within its country had to leave before the end of October.
President Lyndon Baines Johnson, speaking in New York City to the National Conference of Editorial Writers, declared that the major task that confronted the world was to make Europe whole again and said if the Soviet Union would reduce its military forces in Central Europe, the United States would do the same and encourage its NATO allies to follow suit.
And on Shelter Island …
50 YEARS AGO
Library announces winter hours
It may seem hard to believe today, but 50 years ago, the Shelter Island Library announced winter hours of operation when the building would be accessible Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and Saturdays between 1:30 and 4 p.m. and evening hours between 7 and 9 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays.
POSTSCRIPT: Despite the convenience today of Internet access, today’s library hours are much more expansive. The library operates from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Friday and from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. What’s more, the library of today is not just a place to borrow books. It’s an active center of activity, offering a wide scope of programs for children and adults.
30 YEARS AGO
Island voters focus on environmental issues
There were no local candidate elections on Shelter Island in the fall of 1986, but there was an Environmental Quality Bond Act that would be on the ballot in November.
An early October editorial encouraged voters to approve the $1.2 billion act that would provide money to clean up toxic waste sites and $250 million for environmentally sensitive areas. It would enable municipalities to tap into $100 million in no-interest loans to safely close and rehabilitate landfills that were polluting groundwater.
POSTSCRIPT: This November, there is a race for a Town Board seat between incumbent Mary Dudley and Amber Williams. But also on the ballot are important environmental propositions. One would extend the Community Preservation Fund to 2050 while the second would allow the town to divert up to 20 percent of its CPF funding to programs to improve water quality, considered to be as critical as preserving open spaces.
20 YEARS AGO
HPOC discusses ferry issues
In October 1996, Heights Property Owners Corporation members at their fall meeting discussed problems associated with North Ferry. Among them were issues of vehicles in long lines running motors and blocking driveways along the roads leading to the ferry.
But there was also a complaint about ticket collections with a suggestion that it wasn’t always done properly. That led to promises that changes would come, including using a computerized system.
POSTSCRIPT: It may have taken 20 years, but Bridg Hunt this year implemented a new computerized system that is getting rave reviews from both crews and motorists.
10 YEARS AGO
Poor results for 4-posters
It was the beginning of October in 2006 that the Reporter carried a story about Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and Barnstable County in Massachusetts abandoning its experiment with 4-poster units meant to reduce the tick population in those areas.
It was also two years before Shelter Island would enter into an agreement with Cornell Cooperative Extension and Cornell University to become a test site for a three-year pilot program to determine the efficacy of the units here.
On Cape Cod and the islands, the effectiveness of using the units was determined to be “inconclusive if not downright disappointing,” according to the Reporter story at the time.
Five sweeps each summer in areas where black-legged ticks were near 4-posters in the years of 2000 through 2006 showed there were four times more ticks during 2006 than there had been during any of the first three years of the effort. The study also revealed there was little difference in average tick counts between untreated areas and those near the 4-poster units.
POSTSCRIPT: There is an ongoing debate among members of the Deer & Tick Committee about the long-term effect and possible unintended consequences of using the tickicide permethrin on 4-poster units.
But all agree there’s a need for a study to determine those factors, but no money locally to do so and no apparent indication that the county or state or Cornell units will be taking up the cause.
