Shelter Island Reporter Letters to the Editor
A community issue
To the Editor:
The Recycling Center is a public space, and as such should not be dominated by any partisan message.
To have a truck centrally parked all day long flying a large partisan flag violates this principle. The same principle applies to Town Hall, Justice Court, the Post Offices and the Police Department.
The neutrality of public spaces is extremely important in a democracy. This issue needs to be addressed by the community.
MARTIN I. AINBINDER, Shelter Island
Failure to contact
To the Editor:
An article in the Reporter (“Siller: Yard sales on ‘back burner,’” Dec. 3), refers to my wife, Kathleen Minder and me, Stephen Gessner.
The report states that Ms. Williams claims that we no longer live on the Island, which is false. Like many Shelter Island residents, we spend the winter in Florida, but return to the Island in the summer.
As to our realtor’s report that a number of prospective buyers said that they liked the house and the location but could never live across the street from the display that was in Ms. Williams’ front yard, which at times included a naked mannequin and nude playing cards, we are just reporting facts.
Most discouraging is the Reporter failing to contact us for a comment on the story, which is standard journalistic practice.
Ms. Williams gets plenty of space to tell her story, but there is nothing from us.
STEPHEN GESSNER, Shelter Island
Neighborly respect
It is painful to see Shelter Islanders taking sides in a neighborhood dispute about a perpetual yard sale and an embarrassingly messy front yard. It is especially painful when these neighbors have been kind, supportive, charitable and understanding for many years.
It would be unkind to recount in public all the many things her neighbors have done for Ms. Williams over the years. We are not just “a few cranky residents,” we have been remarkably accommodating and patient.
However, when a naked mannequin luridly decorated and hanging from a tree limb near the road was there for months last winter, we realized we had to get some help from the town. And when pornographic cards were set out for sale in her front yard, about the time our grandchildren were coming to visit, we had to take some action.
We have loved living on Shelter Island for 22 years, with its special qualities and at times quirky people. But there are limits that zoning laws and expectations of simple public decency come into play even in the most unusual of hometowns.
We want simple decency and neighborly respect from all our neighbors.
KATHLEEN MINDER, Shelter Island
Quiet and wise counsel
To the Editor:
I want to acknowledge the efforts of Ed Shillingburg as an overwhelmingly positive influence on this island. Ed has just announced his retirement from the town committees upon which he has so aptly served.
For all of the time that I have known Ed, he has always stepped up and volunteered his considerable expertise. He has assisted in the solution to any issue that was set before him, from guiding fledgling organizations, such as The Island Gift Of Life to 501-c3 status, to being a positive force on the Community Preservation Fund Committee and, most recently, as a member of the newly formed Water Quality Improvement Projects Advisory Board.
In that position, his quiet and wise counsel served our board well in developing, from scratch, policies and protocols by which grants could be dispensed for all types of water quality improvement projects.
Ed was always available to call and bounce an idea or opinion off, and get wise and concise feedback, a commodity which is at a premium in these times.
I know that Ed’s expertise has had an influence on far more facets of Island life than I have enumerated and I know that our gratitude for his counsel is far more widespread than what I have recounted here.
Thanks Ed!
JAMES W. EKLUND, Shelter Island
