Reporter Letters to the Editor

Misquoted
To the Editor:
Last week at the monthly Board of Education meeting, I extended a thank you to the Shelter Island Bucks General Manager Brian Cass, and Walter Richards of Liberty Landscape, for a job well done on some work they had completed at the school baseball field where the Bucks play.

It was a tremendous volunteer effort that included two days of labor, heavy machinery and a truckload of sod, all at no cost to the school.

I was misquoted in the Reporter as thanking Liberty Landscape for fixing the field after the Bucks had left, insinuating that the Bucks had left the field in poor condition, which is not the case. Not only does Mr. Cass and the Bucks team leave the property in good condition on a daily basis, but within a couple of days after the end of the season, you wouldn’t even know they were there.

That being said, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League and all of the current and past volunteers who have donated time and money for improvements to the fields, which include a scoreboard, dugouts, a sound system, landscape, tree removal and more.

Thank you.
Mike Dunning
Shelter Island High School facilities manager

Turkey time
To the Editor:
A couple of days ago, as I carefully pulled out of the Center Post Office parking lot, I noticed a crowd in front of the vacant storefront where Schmidt’s and Fedi’s used to be. When I saw in the rearview mirror that there were no cars on the road behind me, I slowed virtually to a stop. What was the hubbub about?

Then I figured out what the heck was going on. It was a rafter (the correct term, which I had to look up) of approximately 10 turkeys, on the sidewalk, milling about with, evidently, no particular place to go.

What were they doing? Were they going to rent the store? Were they worried that turkey sandwiches were still being made inside, in spite of the “For Rent” sign on the window?

Were they headed to the Post Office?

I then noticed that a couple of them were checking out their reflections in the store window, which seemed pretty conceited, even for birds.

I miss Fedi’s and, to a lesser extent, Schmidt’s. Maybe the turkeys do, too. Be that as it may, a week before Thanksgiving I give thanks for all the denizens of Shelter Island, human and feathered.
Scott A. Robbins
Shelter Island

Gift of Life
To the Editor:
The Board of the Island Gift Of Life Foundation has included in this Thanksgiving issue of the Reporter a brochure and mailer. This note is to encourage you to at least not immediately discard it with the other sales flyers and at best to consider a year-end gift to the Island Gift Of Life Foundation.

We strive throughout the year to assist your Island and East End neighbors with uninsured expenses incurred while battling a life-threatening illness. It is our hope that at this time, you will contemplate lending us a helping hand to aid in accomplishing our mission.

If unsure, please put the information on your kitchen table or other mail landing zone and read it when you have the chance. If the information elicits any questions, do not hesitate to contact us at: [email protected], or call me at 631-774-0110.

On behalf of the entire board of the foundation, I thank you and wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.
James Eklund
Shelter Island

Dial it back
To the Editor:
It’s a shame that after months of telling us how she wants people on the Island to work together, Julia Weisenberg found it necessary to attack Jim Colligan and spin a remarkably angry diatribe from an innocuous, bipartisan comment (Letters, “Labels,” Nov. 21).

Policy differences are one thing. Gratuitous, angry personal attacks will do nothing to move the Island forward.

“Just for kicks,” Ms. Weisenberg might try dialing the venom back a bit.
Linda Hacker
Shelter Island

A sorry solution
To the Editor:
Shelter Island has always had its share of wildlife that enhanced our living here. Seeing deer was one of my greatest pleasures. Clearly now there are fewer around … we see more yearlings alone.

It seems too barbaric to simply decide that the only solution to the tick problem is to kill off the deer. Also, I feel bow hunting for months is a sorry solution to killing. It places the animals under stress for months when winter weather and their diminished food supply are difficult enough.

Hank Amann is the only member of the Deer & Tick Committee with the patience and compassion to suggest an alternative to the slaughter. Why not give the 4-poster units a full chance, instead of using too few units and then complaining that they do not work?

Why can’t we try to persuade Albany that the DEC’s new rules aren’t right for this island. Shelter Island is unique and we need not contact every property owner about placement of the units.

Today we are losing our plant and animal life at an alarming rate. Extinction is forever and all of these elements, plants, animals and humans are related.
Janet Culbertson
Shelter Island