Dering Harbor election results
Dering Harbor elections were held on Tuesday, June 18.
Current trustees Ari Benacerraf and Clora Kelly were re-elected, receiving 34 votes each. Three write-in votes were recorded, two in the name of John T. Colby III and one listing John T. Colby, Jr.
Village voters came out to support a proposed change for future elections, moving them to the Friday of Memorial Day weekend to enable as many voters as possible to participate.
The vote on the referendum was 34 votes Yes, and 3 votes No.
In other Dering Harbor news:
At the June 8 meeting of The Dering Harbor Board of Trustees, Dan Calabro and his wife JoAnn informed the board of their intention to sue the village over the new water tank installation, which they said was affecting a piece of property they own in the village.
In a long discussion, that included Mayor Betsy Morgan, Village Counsel Wayne D. Bruyn and Trustee Patrick Parcells — who has served as the liaison to the Suffolk County Water Authority (SCWA — the Calabros stated that the tank had been moved from its original planned site onto their property, a 164- by 45-foot parcel. The board stated that the tank was not on their property. Mr. Parcells said that the original water mains dating to 1917 do pass under the parcel. He conceded that three valves might be on their land and said he could quickly have them moved. The Calabros complained that someone had accessed their land and cleared it to support the water installation.
“We did some clearing on your land,” Mr. Parcells agreed. “We won’t charge you for that.”
Board members said it was likely they were not aware that this piece of land abutting village property belonged to the Calabros. If they had, Trustee Karen Kelsey said, it would have been better to notify the Calabros before it was cleared.
Mr. Calabro acknowledged he would have to gather information to support his complaint, including a survey of his property. Mayor Morgan asked him to “please do so with the understanding that all of this has been considered with a great deal of gravity and seriousness, and I’m insulted, actually.”
Mr. Calabro responded, “I’m actually insulted, so don’t turn this into that.”
“Well, we’re even,” the mayor said.
Mr. Calabro said he was raising his complaint because someone named Jason Himes from SCWA had alerted him to the problem involving his land. The ensuing discussion clarified that Mr. Himes worked for the county health department, not SCWA, and had contacted Mr. Calabro, with whom he had a long-standing relationship. When the board asked him to explain exactly what problem Mr. Himes was talking about, Mr. Calabro said he had an upcoming meeting with Mr. Himes to determine that: “About what, I’ll let you know.”
The board passed a number of measures at their June 8 meeting that had been the subject of debate for several months. The regulation to expand summertime restrictions on noise-generating activities to include not only construction but also specific property maintenance and landscaping work finally passed after being held over through nine meetings. The long-running debate extended through the winter and spring months.
A proposed regulation limiting anchoring in the waters off Dering Harbor was not voted on. The Trustees want to spend time coordinating with their counterparts on the Town Board before making any changes to the regulations.
