Shelter Island Reporter Letters to the Editor: Dec. 16, 2022

I wonder why

To the Editor:

Listen … I tell my meditation students that listening to every sound is one way to meditate, and that as they mentally note a sound, they might also note their emotional, intellectual, and physical reactions to the sound. Like this …

When I hear gas-powered leaf blowers (nearly all day, nearly every day), my shoulders hunch, my body startles, and some days I put on my noise-canceling headphones. I think of the hydrocarbons I am being forced to breathe. I think of raking leaves into piles and jumping in to them. I remember burning piles of leaves as kid. I wonder why we don’t just leave the leaves alone to blow around in the wind.

I also wonder about these men who arrive each day in pickup trucks, who leap out and race around with backpacks roaring and their own headphones on to protect against damage from the 90 decibels of noise they carry. Where do they live? What do they earn? What language do they speak?

Overheard recently, in an argument over affordable housing: “You just don’t want your gardener living next door!”

And I think, affordable housing isn’t about creating homes for gardeners. It’s not about making rooms available for seasonal resort or restaurant workers either (our public records show that these companies have already bought buildings in which to house their workers). But it is reduced to that concept of creating living space for disposable people.

It really should also be about creating space for society, for culture, for diversity. For people who earn less than, say, $40,000 per year, and who want to live here so they can be artists, writers, small business owners, musicians, inventors, and so on. People who may be disabled, or elderly, or wounded, who need a safe place to be.

This little island. Why not? Listen.

CHARLES HUSCHLE, Shelter Island

Lives well-lived

To the Editor:

“The first call I received the morning the first story appeared was from environmentalist Murray Barbash …”.

This line, from Karl Grossman’s column last week, amuses me. Yes, my dad, Murray Barbash, was an environmentalist of sorts … there wasn’t really a commonly known name for people who cared about the environment in the early 1960s. He was also a residential builder.

One of his projects was the

community of Dunewood, which, at the time, still included quite a few unbuilt lots. During the fight for National Seashore status, no one knew how much of Fire Island would be designated as federally-protected open space.

My dad decided that he should impose a building moratorium on himself and his partner. He thought that the unbuilt portion of Dunewood might end up being part of the National Seashore. His partner in the project sued him for this self-imposed moratorium.

The case was settled and the Feds ultimately decided not to take any vacant building lots on the west end of Fire Island.

I was a child during the battle against Moses. When my sister Cathy and I did a lot of research on the history of the Fire Island/Moses fight (after our dad had died) we were amazed to learn how much support the road had from all the Long Island politicians of the day. It was a lock.

The successful fight to turn public opinion against the road is an inspirational example of civic engagement.

Years later, our dad and his brother-in-law, Irv Like, joined forces again to oppose the LILCO nuclear power plant … and they won that battle, too. These are lives well-lived.

Thank you, Karl Grossman.

SUSAN BARBASH, Bay Shore

Mooring fees

To the Editor:

It was recently reported by one of the newly-titled harbormasters to the WMAC that there currently is a total of 818 moorings in an “approved” status, with and 299 of those are “commercial” in Town waters. This is down considerably from the 922 permitted mooring number I remember from one year when I was on the Town Board.

Other than in the highly coveted Dering Harbor, the WMAC has always been able to find a suitable location for an applicant, so the downfall is from lack of applicants, not lack of availability.

With the increase passed by the Town Board Dec. 6 to raise fees for a private mooring from $35 per year to $150 per year, I predict that many permit holders will not renew their moorings at the new inflated rate.

Many of these permit holders are Islanders with small boats who can’t afford a slip at a marina and the wait list at Congdon Dock is decades long.

If 100 people don’t renew, the Town Board will face a deficit in mooring revenues that they have recently tapped to cover their increased spending, such as harbormaster salaries. This will cause them to again raise fees to the remaining permit holders to cover that shortfall, possibly causing more people not to renew, causing a downward spiral.

I maintain that only a minute fraction of bay constable/harbormaster calls are for boats registered to an Island-permitted mooring, most are for transient boaters. So why do the mooring permit holders have to pick up the tab?

On Dec. 8  I sent FOIL request to the Police Department to see how many calls were for permitted moorings and how many for transients in 2022. If they respond to my FOIL request, I will let readers know totals in a subsequent letter.

Peter REICH, Former councilman, Town of Shelter Island

Ferry fares

To the Editor:

 When I recently arrived at South Ferry for Thanksgiving, I was told the company will no longer accept one-way trip tickets after Dec. 31, 2022. When I went to the office, two one-way trip tickets were replaced by one round trip ticket. Meaning a significant cost increase for one-way trips. With that said, for residents, a round-trip ticket can now only be used on the same day with the trip beginning at the departure from Shelter Island, leaving no other one-way option.

Being a second homeowner, once home, I rarely leave the Island, until my departure to return back to New York City. There is essentially no more round-trip ticket option for this scenario. Meaning I am now forced to buy a service I cannot make use of (a round-trip ticket for a one way trip.) My coming in and out of the Island will now always be at a cost of $13.00.

I alone can’t make the South Ferry company change this new and unfair policy directed to second homeowners. But being aware of this penalty on all second homeowners and voicing your discontent, could eventually have this new fee schedule reversed. I encourage all second homeowners to contact as many people as they can through your neighborhood association, hoping that we are able to have South Ferry rethink this penalty on second home owners.

CLAUDINE MICHAUD, Shelter Island