Shelter Island Reporter Letters to the Editor: Sept. 24, 2026

SAFETY CONCERNS

To the Editor:

I use an internet-based home phone. I’ve had calls drop mid-conversation or not been able to make one at all, all due to intermittent internet outages.

I’ve contacted Optimum and let them know that the outages have been an ongoing issue for more than a year. They sent a very pleasant technician out with new equipment. After setting it up there’s been no change.

The internet connection drops multiple times a day as it had before. Shouldn’t I be able to use my home phone and assume it’s going to work when I need it? This is a safety concern, not just one of convenience. Is your neighborhood experiencing something similar?

BOB HALL, Shelter Island

CIVICS 101

To the Editor:

I had the good fortune last Thursday to have a half-hour face time with New York Assemblyman Tommy John Schiavoni (D) at the Shelter Island Museum. I was disappointed, (party affiliations aside), that the room was not full of Island voters wanting to drill down with Tommy about our Island issues and how he could help. Water, housing, taxes, etc., etc.

Three other people arrived and discussed solar power options for the Island as well as the doctor and Medical Center issues. I covered housing, water, schools and the kettle hole debacle next to Pierson High School. It was time well spent. And – fun!

Civic engagement and low turnout: I have the same disappointment when I Zoom into our weekly Town Board meetings and see only one or two people in the audience and a dozen or so on Zoom, unless there is a hot topic on the agenda.

If the myriad issues and complicated problems on both National and State levels seem overwhelming, they are. But the issues facing our small island have solutions and are fixable if our community would engage in our government process. A healthy government relies on active citizens, not just elected officials.

Choose an issue, or issues that you’re concerned about and read about them in the Comprehensive Plan. Attend Town Board and committee meetings, write letters to the Reporter, and with the midterms coming up, attend rallies for local candidates of both parties.

As we close out the celebrations of the 250th-year anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, remember: “We the People.”

KAREN KIAER, Shelter Island

DEFENSIVE

To the Editor:

The Reporter’s editorial of Sept. 17 raises a fair question: can a two-party system survive on Shelter Island? As chair of the Shelter Island Democratic Committee, I want to address it directly.

The decision not to field candidates for supervisor or highway superintendent was not made in disarray. We looked. We had conversations. No one came forward willing to run. Forcing a candidacy onto someone who doesn’t want it serves no one — not the party, not the voter, and not the office.

If I seem defensive, it’s because I am. The editorial manages to portray me as both incompetent and underhanded, and I am neither. While this committee has been characterized as inactive or adrift, we are doing the work — canvassing, organizing, and supporting candidates up and down the ballot. Assemblyman Tommy John Schiavoni, congressional candidate Chris Gallant, State Senate candidate Chris Murray, and Suffolk County Comptroller nominee Jon Estrich all have races that matter to Shelter Island residents, and we are in them.

The relationship between Democratic and Republican leadership was also framed in ways that surprised me. On a small island, two committee chairs having an honest conversation is not a backroom deal — it’s how a community functions. We disagree on policy. We agree that elections should mean something.

It is easy to criticize a two-party system from the sidelines. It is harder to help build one. If you want a functioning Democratic committee on Shelter Island, we welcome you at the table. Attend a meeting. Read our newsletter. Reach out.

A two-party system doesn’t survive by default. It survives because people show up.

CATHERINE BRIGHAM, Chairperson, Shelter Island Democratic Committee

DIGGING

To the Editor:

In response to your Sept. 17 editorial, I have to agree: you are digging up “ancient history.” If the Reporter wants to serve Shelter Island there are several current issues that deserve attention.

First, the Town now has title to the building at 2 School Street. How was the purchase paid for, and where did the money come from? How does the Town intend to use the property? After eight months, its purpose is still unclear. Why would the Town acquire property without a clearly stated plan for its use and financing?

Second, the Town passed Resolution 133-34.1 on May 19, 2025, requiring applicants to pay the fees, costs and expenses associated with engineering, legal and stenographic services, environmental and other consultants, recording fees and other expenses incurred in connection with their applications. Is the Town collecting these fees as required, or are taxpayers paying these costs?

Third, money has been included in the budget for the Master Plan for multiple years. Meanwhile, both the school and library have addressed their wastewater issues. When will the Town address the wastewater problems at its own municipal buildings?

Finally, the Comprehensive Plan has been sitting in limbo for three years. The latest draft was presented to the Board on March 10, and someone was hired to help move the process forward. Yet the public has heard little since then. What is causing the delay? Have the requested edits been made, or have they simply been lost in the process?

These are current issues that directly affect Shelter Island taxpayers and deserve careful investigation and public reporting. Rather than revisiting old controversies, the Reporter could better serve the community by asking these questions and providing the public with answers.

GORDON GOODING, Shelter Island

INCORRECT, SUBJECTIVE

To the Editor:

Your Sept. 17 editorial ends by suggesting that you are not “digging up ancient history to make a fresh grave for the Island Democrats,” yet, the entire editorial feels like a gratuitous attack.

As a member of the Shelter Island Democratic Committee, who joined after the 2024 reorganization, I see with clear eyes that the SIDC is a fresh organization reinventing itself. The new SIDC, working together, captured a Town Board majority and the clerk’s office. The failure to also capture the supervisor position and remaining Board seat in the last election is hardly symptomatic of dysfunction.

While your article and editorial gets some past facts right, you present them incorrectly, subjectively, and, with biased focus on an unfortunate, independent act by someone not connected to the SIDC.

Yes, there is no Democratic candidate for supervisor or highway superintendent this year.  But, realistically, designating such candidates by March of 2026, mere months after the last election for these positions, was an unrealistic challenge. It also reflects a recruitment issue facing both parties. Finding competent candidates willing to run for offices that are low pay, require significant work hours, and face recurring, unwarranted hostility. That’s a recruitment challenge we all need to address. But a recruitment gap in a small town, after capturing the majority of the Town Board, as well as the clerk’s office, is quite different than the false portrayal of internal chaos presented by your editorial.

This year, we should all be focused on the up-ballot races that will send a message.

Shelter Island politics works best when it’s about the candidates and the job — your editorial says as much, and I agree. Our committee intends to spend the next two years proving it and looks forward to fielding a full slate in 2027.

DAVID GENTILE, Shelter Island