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This week in Shelter Island history

Old, open book with a damaged cover.

50 YEARS AGO IN HISTORY

President Lyndon Baines Johnson got a warm welcome as he crossed the Mexican border at Ciudad Acuna for a good neighbor tour of a two-nation dam project.

Governor Ronald Reagan told 7,000 protesting students at the University of California at Berkeley to “accept and obey the prescribed rules or pack up and get out.

A mural depicting the signing of the United States Constitution and three other historical paintings were slashed at the Capitol by a scissors-wielding man.

Floyd McKissick, national director of the Congress of Racial Equality told the Senate Operations Committee that Black Power was a call for more political and economic power, not a threat to whites.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” was among the top selling paperback books of the time.

And on Shelter Island …

 

40 YEARS AGO
Shelter Island & Greenport Ferry Co oppose New London ferry

A proposal 40 years ago to run a ferry from downtown Greenport to New London had people up in arms.

Plans called for boats to dock in waters behind Mitchell’s Restaurant and the post office. Concerned about traffic, that wasn’t something Greenport residents wanted to see, . Nor were owners of Mitchell’s happy about the plans.

Eventually, the idea was downed.

POSTSCRIPT: Today, the stress is between Greenport and Shelter Island over North Ferry traffic. Greenporters believe their roadways are being affected by the traffic and have proposed a number of ways to change traffic patterns and even suggested a $1 per vehicle charge to augment the costs of road maintenance.

30 YEARS AGO
Firemen stonewall bid to merge districts

While Heights firefighters endorsed a plan to merge their unit with the Center, the opposite was true at the Center Firehouse where a motion to consider a merger was delayed for at least 60 days.

Chief Wayne Moritz called a merger “a dead issue,” saying there were too many issues that separated the two departments.

Had a resolution come to a vote in the Center, the chief predicted that at least 40 or his 48 members would have rejected a merger.

POSTSCRIPT: It would be another 10 years before the two departments came together as one.

20 YEARS AGO
Island resident named to head Peconic Health Corp

F. Wood Fischer was tapped to chair the Board of Trustees of the Peconic Health Corporation that was a consolidation of services among the three East End hospitals — Southampton, Eastern Long Island and Peconic Bay Medical Center. The intent of the group was to end competition among the three and streamline services by centering various specialties in each hospital.

At the time, it was envisioned as a means of saving money and engendering cooperation among the three.

POSTSCRIPT: The realities of the health care market has now led to all three hospitals forming partnerships with larger hospitals to remain economically viable.

Both Eastern Long Island and Southampton hospitals have formed alliances with Stony Brook while Peconic Bay Medical Center joined the North Shore-Long Island Jewish group, now called Northwell Health.

10 YEARS AGO
Housing initiatives revived in proposal

In an effort to kick-start an affordable housing initiative, Supervisor Alfred Kilb Jr. asked the Town Board’s Affordable Housing Commission to add a provision in the zoning code granting incentives to property owners and developers to provide affordable housing.

It was then that the concept of a “floating zone”was introduced to waive planning and zoning restrictions.

POSTSCRIPT: The most recent attempt to build affordable units has been rejected because the project was seen as too dense for the property where it was proposed at the corner of North Ferry and Hedges roads.

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