A small dock stirs up a big neighborhood debate
James and Linda Eklund have known for years that while they owned a dock near the Ram’s Head Inn, it didn’t come with the land under it. “We knew it wasn’t on our property,” Mr. Eklund said during a recent interview. “But we didn’t really know where our property ended” as it narrows to a point along the Coecles Harbor shoreline.
The dock stands alone on the inside of the Second Causeway to Ram Island, its timber pilings serving as perches for seagulls. With the floating part of the dock stored for winter, it appears to be a small, innocuous structure.
Not so, say some Ram Island residents, who have urged the Town Board to demand the dock’s removal since November 2009. That’s when the Ram Island Association (RIA) sent its first letter notifying the town that the dock was actually on Town of Shelter Island property, Middle Har-Bay Road, an old, 50-foot-wide “paper” road that cuts across the causeway.
ASSOCIATION URGES REMOVAL
Ed Barr and some other members of the RIA have urged the town to correct the situation. RIA attorney Frank Isler informed the board in February that private use of public property violates state law, requiring some action by the board.
And Mr. Barr has raised several concerns: road safety when cars park near the dock, use of the dock by other than inn guests, executive session discussions of the issue, and the issuance of dock permits based on what Mr. Barr calls “fraudulent representations” — a map submitted as part of a repair permit application showed a hand-drawn dock at the distant end of the inn property. Official surveys show that the dock is actually located 35 feet west of the Eklund property.
That “permitting of bad behavior” and the fact that the issue was kept in executive session discussions for so long, makes this “much larger than the one issue” of private use of public land, Mr. Barr said this week.
Supervisor Jim Dougherty confirmed last month that the issue had been discussed in executive sessions for about a year, during which time ownership of the land under the dock was still at issue. It became public this February, a few months after the Town Board hired its own surveyor, who confirmed town ownership of the property under the dock.
Mr. Barr also raised concerns about Councilman Peter Reich’s influence over the issue. Mr. Reich is in business with Mr. Eklund and has recused himself from public Town Hall discussions of the dock.
DOCK NEVER TIED TO LAND
According to town records, when the Eklunds bought the dock in 1985, it had changed hands several times. Each time it was sold independently of the property under the dock. Frank Duckworth, John Kamisky and R. Albert Nelson over the years owned the dock and received permits from the town for it.
The original permit was issued to Mr. Nelson by Town Clerk Helen D. Smith in June 1965. In his application, Mr. Nelson asked to build a permanent platform and floating dock along the Ram Island causeway where he had moored his boat “for many years.”
“A permit to proceed with this idea will be appreciated and I will then get permission from the property owners to allow the work to be done,” he wrote. No written permission from the owner was included in the town’s file on the dock and land ownership records were simply not part of the dock file.
The only reference to land ownership is in an August 2001 dock repair permit application, filed on behalf of the Eklunds by Costello Marine of Greenport, asking to “repair existing dock (which extends from land owned by the Town of Shelter Island).”
While the Shelter Island town code lists detailed requirements for new dock applications, including “a certified survey of the owner’s property,” it has little to say about dock repair permits. Applications for repairs are processed by the town clerk and submitted for Town Board approval. Town Clerk Dorothy Ogar confirmed that repair applications commonly include hand-drawn maps or diagrams.
EKLUNDS OPEN TO SOLUTIONS
According to Linda Eklund, questions about the dock center on contradictory surveys and changes in the causeway over the years.
“Originally, there was no beach on the harbor side” of the causeway, she said, making it hard to determine where Middle Har-Bay Road was originally located relative to the dock. That road is in different places on different surveys, she said. “Over the course of time, Middle Har-Bay Road has moved all over the place.”
After researching the dock history at Town Hall and at the Shelter Island Historical Society, Ms. Eklund concluded that none of the dock owners, “nobody from Mr. Nelson all the way through has tried to cause trouble for the town.”
She also responded to Mr. Barr’s assertions: “There was no fraud anywhere.” As part of a permit application, a marine contractor drew in the dock location on an existing survey, “showing that it touches our property,” she said. With no official survey available to confirm or refute it, the rendering was not questioned, until the recent efforts of the Ram Island Association.
“What standing do they have to manipulate the town,” Ms. Eklund asked. She said she has spoken to several Ram Island neighbors who do not support the RIA effort to remove the dock.
“We’ve been paying taxes on the dock,” she said, adding that the dock “has not been an intrusion on anyone’s existence.”
But something will have to be done and the Eklunds are awaiting suggestions from the Town Board, which may include removing the dock, leasing the property or some kind of property exchange.
“I think the town will come up with a solution that is equitable to everybody,” Ms. Eklund concluded.
