Shelter Island Reporter Letters to the Editor: Feb. 7, 2026
SIX POINT PLAN
To the Editor:
For the past three years, Shelter Island has relied on drawing down its reserves to balance the Town budget. I believe this approach is unsustainable. Many residents have asked me what alternatives exist.
Any strategy about budgeting should begin with an acknowledgment of Shelter Island’s dual economy. Our staffing needs are far greater during the summer season than in the winter, and the budget should reflect that reality. Also, we can control a sizable amount of our budget.
Here are several constructive options the Town Board should consider:
1. For the next two to three years, when a Town employee retires, that position should be retired rather than automatically refilled. These positions can cost between $150,000 and $225,000 annually once benefits, longevity, and overtime are included. Departments would need to restructure operations accordingly. For example, Police Department or Recycling Center staffing could be adjusted to new baseline levels, with part-time seasonal employees hired during peak summer months.
2. Labor contracts will soon expire, and negotiations should begin now. These discussions and the negotiations should be conducted by a committee of the Town Board.
3. The Town should also assign a staff member to research solar panels, the goal being to reduce the Town’s electrical costs.
4. Using eminent domain, the Town must wrestle undeveloped commercial property in and near the Town Center away from commercial property owners, who refuse to develop their property.
5. On the revenue side, ask the Town attorney to research a commercial property vacancy tax. Under this approach, commercial buildings vacant for more than a year would incur an extra property tax.
6. Research the legality of a “Taylor Shift Tax,” charging higher property tax rates for non-resident homeowners than resident homeowners.
LYNNE WEIKART, Shelter Island
TAKE NOTICE
To the Editor:
Recent letters focused on the inappropriateness of the Town buying the 3/4 acre 2 School Street property absent a facilities master plan in a belt-tightening era and the lengths to which the Board excluded the public. I will focus on the purchase price and how purchases should be financed.
The supervisor’s winning bid was $791,000. The Town has not inspected the house and could not even articulate what the property will be used for.
If an inspection reveals the house is a tear-down, the Town should seek a significant reduction in price or withdraw its bid. The two 3/4 acre vacant lots that sold last year went for $375,000 and $450,000. Paying almost $800,000 and then the significant cost of tearing down the house would be an enormous waste of taxpayers’ money. If the house can be renovated, the tab will likely exceed the property’s $1,114,000 assessed value. Hardly a good investment.
The property is in a C residential zone, which would not permit the property to be used either as a senior center or a fitness center.
If the property will be used for affordable housing, adapting the property to two-family housing might boost the total tab to $1.5 million, which is an inefficient use of public funds. However, if this is what the Town wants to do, the total cost of purchasing/renovating/adapting the property must come from the Community Housing Fund, currently approaching $1.5 million. Voters narrowly agreed to impose an additional tax on property transfers to be used for affordable housing. They did not vote for the Town to burden their property taxes with cost of borrowing to pay for housing.
The Town Board, with its non-transparent conduct and nonchalant approach to spending other peoples’ (taxpayers’) money has shown arrogance to taxpayers/voters who should take notice.
JAN SUDOL, Shelter Island
JUST SAY NO
To the Editor:
There were a majority of “No” votes on spending issues in the last election, specifically the school and History Museum. Recently, several Island homeowners were quoted in Reporter edtions about hasty Town spending habits, particularly the purchase of the School Street property for $791,000.
The Housing Committee should be using their funds for potential housing projects based on a data-based survey of the Island’s housing needs. It’s time for the Town to stop spending homeowners’ tax dollars without proper disclosure and community consensus. And stop spending our rainy-day savings/reserve and unrestricted funds to balance the budget.
There is “no intended use” for the School Street purchase and no breakdown of the costs of the $2 million proposed financing for the said property except for “other potential additional development sites.”
I encourage the Board to go back and read the Jan. 8, 2026 edition of the Reporter and review the top Town priorities they outlined, and act on those items, starting with a Facility Master Plan. Stop putting the cart before the horse and spending our money on pet projects before you have completed well-designed and thought-out financial plans.
Inflation, higher taxes, insurance, and energy costs are all rising and negatively affecting families, senior citizens and working people. It’s time to embrace fiscal discipline.
KAREN KIAER, Shelter Island
