2023Year in Review : A day in the life of the Shelter Island Town Clerk’s office

This story appeared in October 2023.

The Town Clerk’s office is the center of town government. 

Here the marriage licenses, birth certificates, death certificates, hunting, fishing and shellfish licenses, dog and boat registration, and beach parking stickers are issued.

Former town Clerk Dorothy Ogar remembers when the clerk’s office was in the old Town Hall building, also known as the “Town House,” and which is now police headquarters “It was so cramped, we had file cabinets on top of file cabinets,” Ms. Ogar said.

From July 1932 until the move to the present location in 1999, the small, idiosyncratic building that houses the Police Department directly across from the Center Post Office was where the supervisor, the Town Clerk, the Town Board members and other town personnel were located. After a heavy rain, it was reported, the floor in the basement, where the Police Department was headquartered, would be waterlogged for days.

Although the town paid $395,000 for the new facility on Wilson Circle, it floated a bond for $425,000 with the balance of the funds earmarked to make the place suitable for town government.

The spacious new digs were appreciated most by Ms. Ogar and her staff, since “we’re here all the time,” she said.

Here is where all the Town Records are issued, sorted, processed and archived. If you live here, it’s a pretty good bet you’ll have to come here, and for most of those who came on Thursday, September 28, the experience was a pleasure.

8 a.m.

The office opens at 9 a.m., but Deputy Town Clerks Linda Cass and Rob Mazzaferro get in early to set up for the day. Ms. Cass opens the safe to get out the money and documents they will need to run the office. She and Mr. Mazzaferro set up the front desk with enough permits and applications to supply them for the coming day.

8:30 a.m.

Town Clerk Amber Wilson arrives after dropping off her kids at school. She starts by checking on items that have come in overnight, such as emails, and processes the meeting notes from various committees and the Board.

9 a.m.

The office of the Town Clerk opens to the public.

10:07 a.m.

A woman comes in to renew her dog’s license, and buy some large town bags. She wonders how many licensed dogs there are on Shelter Island, and Ms. Cass has the answer at her fingertips. “How many? 791! I was guessing 200.”

Garbage bags and the license cost $13.75, and the whole thing is done faster than you can say, “Who’s a good boy?”

11:30 a.m.

Paul Shepherd walks into the Clerk’s office with a hearty, “What’s going on, ladies?”  (Deputy Town Clerk Mazzaferro was out of the office at the time.) As Ms. Wilson and Ms. Cass help Mr. Shepherd find the documents he needs he asks, “Is this job as exciting as it looks?” A rhetorical question perhaps, but both said it’s actually pretty interesting. He pressed on, “Did you dig up any old skeletons in here?”

No skeletons reported.

“Thank-you, ladies.”

Another satisfied customer.

12:15 a.m.

Eli Adler and Michele Stanchina get a marriage license. They live in Miami, Fla., but decided to get married at the Ram’s Head Inn on Shelter Island because Eli spent every summer here as a child and his parents are now full-time Islanders. Mr. Adler says four wedding guests are friends he made during his free-range Island childhood; taking Jack Roble’s swimming lessons at Louis’ Beach; playing ball; boating and biking. The wedding is two days away, and Eli and Michele leave the Town Clerk’s office in possession of the necessary documents to make it legal. 

12:40 p.m.

Keith Bavaro comes in for a hunting license. But first he has to give Ms. Wilson and Ms. Cass an update on his and Ali Bavaro’s two-year old twins, who recently started attending the pre-school program at the Presbyterian Church. “They are talking like crazy,” he reported, along with the news that the twins brought home a cold and gave it to their mom, who was coping heroically. “I have so much respect for Ali.”

12:46 p.m.

Deputy Supervisor Amber Brach-Williams crosses the hall from her office to the Town Clerk’s office with a large stack of papers in a manila folder. “These are signed vouchers that I’m bringing to the Town Clerk,” she says helpfully. “Trying to pay the bills.”

4 p.m.

The Town Clerk’s Office closes to the public. It’s open year-round, Monday-Friday and Saturdays until noon in the summer.