Shelter Island Reporter Letters to the Editor: Aug. 2, 2026
THANK YOU
To the Editor:
The committee for renovating the Shelter Island Tot Lot would like to thank everyone who made our pancake breakfast on July 19 a resounding success. Through generous donations and community attendance, we were able to launch our fundraising campaign. Over thirty years ago, a group of committed moms and dads got together and initiated the building of the preschool playground. It has provided local and visiting families years of having a safe and fun gathering place to make friends, relax and listen to the laughter of children.
It is now time to upgrade the time-worn and deteriorating structures, as well as provide a greater selection of equipment for children with disabilities to enjoy. This will be an on-going campaign and we thank you for your participation and hope you will continue to support future events as we achieve our goal. We would like to extend our gratitude to the following for their support and contributions:
SI Center Fire Department Commissioners, SI Bucks Coach Andy Concepcion, General Manager Brian Cass,SI Lions Club, SI Leos Club, Lexi, Natalie and Maeve, Chef Tom, Sous Chef Paul, BJ, and Lee-Anne, Lisa Shaw, Susan Binder, Judith Lechmanski, Ken Lewis, Bethany Ortmann, Joe Finora
THANKS FROM THE PLAYERS FAMILY
To the Editor:
My wife, Lauren, and I want to express our wholehearted thanks to everyone on the Island for welcoming all the Bucks players — and particularly our sons, Sam and Lucas — with open arms.
Being away from home for two months was a challenge, but the immediate embrace and warmth of the locals made a significant difference. Everywhere the boys went, people would stop to wish them good luck in their next game and make them feel truly at home.
We would like to send a special thank-you to their host family, Jim and Linda Eklund, who provided a warm, safe, fun and memorable environment for the boys. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
We also want to thank League President Sandi Kruel, Bucks GM Brian Cass and especially Coach Andy Concepcion for providing the leadership and guidance the team needed, especially during that eight-game losing streak.
To the locals of Shelter Island, you are truly special.
Joe and Lauren Ametrano, Guilford, Conn.
MAKE DECISIONS SAME FOR ALL
To the Editor:
For years now, under one administration after another, many Islanders have griped that when they come before the Town’s Board, departments, or committees, it becomes obvious that the rules do not apply to everyone. To say the least, this has undermined any confidence Islanders might have had in their town’s government and angers those who have been subjected to this unfairness.
The recent application of a local teacher to be exempt from the restrictions imposed on residences located in the near shore overlay district is an example in point. If the Town Board removes her property from the near shore overlay district, and the Zoning Board approves, she intends to build an ADU in the basement of her home on this quarter-acre. (The property is already grandfathered and exempt from the current one-acre code requirement.) Upon approval, a two-family structure will take up this quarter acre.
It leaves one to wonder, if water quality and other related resources are important as the current administration claims, why grant this exemption when common sense dictates otherwise? One commentator, for example, has already pointed out that the application fails to anticipate sea level rise. The property is 800 feet from the water.
Speaker after speaker at Board hearings urged the Board not to approve this application. They have urged the Board to take a serious look at the overlay districts and approach the issue, not piecemeal, but island-wide, and make adjustments in the overlay district designations as necessary instead of taking this spot-zoning approach. The Town’s own environmental consultant expressed concerns about this.
Finally, given the same set of facts, if someone else’s name were on this application and her expediter Matt Sherman was not spearheading this effort, would the Town Board even begin to entertain this application. I wonder.
CATHY KENNY, Shelter Island
TIME TO PAY ATTENTION
To the Editor:
As many know, NIMBY stands for “Not in My Back Yard,” a term coined in the 1970s to describe people who oppose housing initiatives, especially affordable or workforce housing, near where they live.
On Shelter Island, a more fitting acronym might be NOMI: “Not on My Island.”
The NOMIs oppose community housing and accessory dwelling units (ADUs), often under the banner of environmental protection. Several spoke against my application for a zoning change at last week’s Town Board meeting as I am attempting to get approval to build a modest basement ADU through New York State’s Plus One program.
Public records tell an interesting story. According to AxisGIS, one NOMI lives in a waterfront home on 3.3 acres assessed at more than $10.6 million. Another owns a waterfront property on 2.9 acres worth over $8.5 million. A third lives on an acre of waterfront property valued at more than $4.3 million.
Some of these critics have not installed nitrogen-reducing septic systems that protect our groundwater. One watered their lawn throughout the drought despite the town’s restrictions. Several own homes elsewhere and do not support the school budget; they worry that housing and other initiatives might nudge up taxes in our town, which already enjoys one of Suffolk County’s lowest tax rates.
One NOMI urged the Town Board to reject my application because approving it might affect the board members’ “legacies.” Fortunately, others brought the conversation back to reality. Cliff Clark noted that this was an attempt to “use guilt and shame to manipulate the board’s thinking,” adding that “common sense should play into how the town board decides to rule on this application.” Indeed it should.
Mike Shatken said it best: “We can do both: protect the environment while providing housing to Islanders who need it.” Exactly.
If you’re concerned about Shelter Island becoming an exclusive enclave where only the wealthy can afford to live, where young families, workers, senior citizens and longtime Islanders are priced out, now is the time to pay attention. The NOMIs are counting on everyone else staying quiet.
Lynne Colligan, Shelter Island
CLARIFICATION
To the Editor:
I wanted to clear up some confusion around the income limits being considered for the 10 rental units the town is looking to build. The income limit of 95k mentioned in the story last week would represent the HIGHEST income a single person could earn a year at 80% of AMI (area median income). Not the minimum income (as some residents read it)!
What the CHB and I found startling was how high the number was. Folks in Suffolk County have high average income it turns out! Thanks to a community member who reached out for clarification.
Liz Hanley, Councilwoman, Town of Shelter Island
OPPOSING ZONING CHANGE
To the Editor:
Relegated to page 6, last week’s article “Zoning Change for ADU Unsettled” obscures the widespread opposition to a first-ever application to change our zoning code by removing a single property from the environmental protections of the Near Shore Overlay District (NSO). Its description of the hearing fails to mention an apparent attempt to avoid review by the Suffolk County Planning Commission (SCPC).
Roughly 20 letters were submitted opposing the application and/or supporting preservation of the NSO, including from the Heights Property Owners Corporation, Ram Island Association, and Shelter Island Association, together representing hundreds of Islanders.
Eight people spoke in opposition, four of whom had not written. One presented past hydrogeological surveys to document that the applicant’s property meets various criteria for inclusion in the NSO found in the Town Code, criteria flowing directly from the comprehensive plan. That presentation demonstrated that claims that the property did not belong in the NSO were based on incomplete, selective data.
Another opponent explained it didn’t matter if the boundaries of the NSO had not been perfectly drawn because the property met the relevant criteria. Also that, in a memo, the Town Engineer substituted his own test for the one in the Town Code, citing other towns’ regulations, rather than our own.
Rather than responding to the substance of their presentations, the applicant resorted to personal attacks on three opposing speakers.
The Deputy Supervisor revealed that she and a town employee had approached the SCPC, an independent and exceptionally well-qualified body, seemingly to avoid its review of the application. Remarkably, this was news not only to the public, but to some Town Board members.
The Board should not mess with the longstanding zoning code, which protects the Island’s most environmentally sensitive land, especially without seeking review from the SCPC or an independent study.
Stephen Jacobs, Shelter Island
