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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTB-08/03/1988-FI247 SOUTHOLD TOWN BOARD FISHERS ISLANO AUGUST 3, 1988 The Southold Town Board, along with elected and appointed officials of the Town of Southold, County of Suffolk, and ~State of New York, departed from Ciau(~io's Oock, Greeoport-, at 9:00 A.M., Wednesday, August 3, 1988, aboard the M/V Mt~nnatawket, for their annual trip to Fishers Island. The boat arrived at 11:00 A.M. at Fishers Island. 12:00 Noon lunch was served at dock side. REGULAR MEETING 1:00 P..M. A Regular Meeting of the Southold Town Board was held on Wednesday, August 3, 1988, at the Fishers Island School, Fishers Island, New York. Supervisor Murphy opened the meeting at 1:00 P.M. with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. Pre~en t: Supervisor Francis J. Murphy Justice Raymond W. Edwards Councilwoman Jean W. Cochran Councilwoman Ruth D. Oliva Town Clerk Judith T. Terry Assistant Town Attorney Robert Ho Bern tsson Absent: Councilm'an George L. Penny IV Councilwoman Ellen M. Larsen SUPERVISOR MURPHY: I would llke to welcome you all here and thank you, the~ residents of Fishers Island, for having us, and I would like to officially ca~l this regular Southold Town Board meeting to order. The first order of business is a resolution approving the minutes of the July 26th, 1988 Town Board meeting. Moved by Councilwoman Cochran, seconded by Councilwoman Oliva, it was RESOLVED that the minutes of the Regular Southold Town Board Meetin.q he~d on July 26, 1988 be and hereby are approved. Vote of the Town Board: Ayes: Councilwoman Oliva, Councilwoman Cochran, ~lustice Edwards, Supervisor Murphy, This resolution was declared duly ADOPTED. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: We have four quick-resolutions that we'll go into first and take care of'and then we!Il introduce our guests and open the meeting up to you people. The first is a resolution to authorize individuals in the Town to attend an Office Products Seminar. 1.-Moved by Councilwoman Cochran, seconded by Justice Edwards, it was RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of Southold hereby authorizes the follow- ing individuals to attend an Office Products Seminar on the new A/S400 at IBM's Guided Learnign Center, Jericho, New York, and use a Town Vehicle for transportation: August 4, 1988 - 9:00 A.M. - 12:00 P.M. - Christine Stulsky and Joan Schneider -August 8, 1988 - 1:00 P.M. 4:00 P.M. - Jill Thorp and Claire Glew. 1.-Vote of the Town Board: Ayes: Councilwoman Oliva, Councilwoman Cochran, Justice Edwards, Supervisor Murphy. This resolution was declared duly ADOPTED. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: Number 2 is a budget modification, General Fund - Whole Town. JUSTICE EDWARDS: Before ! read this I want to recognize the"Mosquito Girls" sitting in the back there. Put your hands up, please. These are the girls that are doing a terrific job out here .... . SUPERVISOR MURPHY: We need this resolution to make sure you get paid. JUSTICE EDWARDS: And I also want to say that the truck that they've been using has decided to give up and we're bringing over a police cruiser for them for the rest of the summer. 2.-Moved by Justice Edwards, seconded by Councilwoman Cochran, it was RESOLYEO that the Town Board of the Town of Southold hereby authorizes the follbw- ing 1988. Budget modification to the General Fund - Whole Town: To: A4010.1 Public Health, Personal Services $ 2,000;00 From: A1990.4 Contingent, ContractUal Expenses $ 2,000.00 Additional allocation for the Fishers Island Safet BTI Mosquito Control Pro, gram to increase General Fund. budget from $5,000.00 to $7,000.00 pursuant to Town Board resolution of May 17, 1988. 2.-Vote of the Town Board: Ayes: Councilwoman Oliva, Councilwoman Cochran, Justice Edwards, Supervisor Murphy. This resolution was declared duly'ADOPTED. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: Number 3 is to accept a proposal for the Fishers Island Wastewater Disposal System closeout. ~ 3.-Moved by Jsutice Edwards, seconded by Councilwoman Oliva, Jt was RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of Southold hereby authorizes and directs Supervisor Francis J. Murphy to execute the acceptance of A.R. Lombardi Associates, Inc. proposal to complete the Construction Grant Cioseout package for the Fishers Island Wastewate~ Disposal System, all in accordance with ;[he proposal da~ed July 27, 1988.: 3.-Vote of the Town Board: Ayes: Councilwoman Oliva, Councilwoman Cochran, Justice Edwards, Supervisor Murphy. This resolution was declared duly ADOPTED. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: And Number 4 is to terminate a contract. 4.~Moved by Councilwoman Oliva, seconded by Justice Edwards, WHEREAS, the Town of Southold and Szepatowski Associates, Inc. entered into a subcontract dated the 1st day of July, 1986, and executed by the Supervisor of the Town' Of Southoid on the 13t1~ day of February, 1987, wherei~ Szepat(~wskii Associates, Inc. were to perform services.pertain'lng to the ToWn of Southold~s Local Waterfront Revitalization Program; and WHEREA-S-, the Town of-Southold'.finds just cause to terminate said subcontract pursuant to paragraph 10.(a) of said subcontract; now; therefore, be it RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of Southold hereby directs the Super- visor of the Town of Southold to notify,in writing by registered mail, Szepatowski Associates, Inc. that said subcontract is terminated, and that such termination shaI1--~ be effective five days following receipt of said notice by Szepatowski Associates, f ii; Inc., all abcording to paragraph 10~(a) of said subcontract, b,~ 4.-Vote of the Town Board: Ayes: Councilwoman Oliva, Councilwoman Cochran, Justice Edwards, Supervisor Murphy. This resolution was declared duly ADOPTED. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: Okay, now we can move on to the more pleasant ,p, art of the.meeting, the whole reason we came over here. I would like to thank you for having us.. (Supervisor Murphy introducted the Town Board, Town Clerk~ and Assistant Town Attorney.) Ellen Larsen and George Penny could not be here today. They're very sorry they weren't able to make it. At this time I would Ilke to ask if'any of the CounCilmen would like to have anything to say. Ruth? COUNCILWOMAN OLIVA: Yes, Ellen Larsen especially asked me to send her regrets that she could not be with you today, but she wanted me to add to my comments that we really have enjoyed reading the Fishers Island Gazette. It has really kept AUGUST 3, 1988 249 us up to date on what's, bappeq~,q,~ IAe~e~;~[~r,s-,,tsiand, and we can't compliment the Fishers Island Civ~C Associafi:on a,nd tl~e Fishers Island Conservancy for the fine work that they have been doing in the past couple of years. It has been most appreciated in the Town of Southold because we know what your-needs and desires are. And we thank you very much. Thank you. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: Jean? COUNCILWOMAN COCHRAN: Sure. I'd like to say, Hi. It's nice to be beck with you again. For the few years that I've come over here to Fishers Island i have not had the Opportunity to see the Ferguson Museum and I was determined' this year that when I got here this year I was going to go see the ~museum. Well, JtJdge Edwards was very nice in giving us a lift over, but he forgot ~that we had to.comeback .so some of us made the walk in this hot temperature. But I was very impressed. I'm involved in D.U.~so I ~as very happy to see the beautiful, beautiful water fowl and birds that you have On display. In addition, serving as treasurer of.t~.he Museum in Southold for the past five years we're a little envious of the dicj that you had just recently in the last several years~! believe, and it's not on display yet. ! understand you're looking perhaps to put an addition on the buildin~ and I think it's great that we do these things. I'm interested in it because I th~nk it's very important to preserve our cultural heritage. So good luck if you pu~t your addition on and I look forward to the next time I'm over in seeing the next-display of points, arrowheads,, axes and so forth. Thank you for letting us join you today. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: Raymond, would you like to say anything. JUSTICE EDWARDS: Yes, thank you, Frank. I'm glad you people could make it over here in the fog and now you know some of the problems I have getti~ over to see you, and regarding the museum, Charlle Ferguson, who~s in the hack there, I think he told me a couple of weeks ago that he did get his money that was:~allocated to the museum this year and they were very gra,t, eful. I think it's the first time that they had applied for it and it was very nice that the Board did approve that, and I think that's just the beginning of more probably to come. Good 'to see the rest 'of the people here and I hope the day goes well. Thank you, Frank, SUPERVISOR MURPHY: Thank you, Ray. Okay, at this time I would llke to introduce some of the special guests, and I would like to thank all of the visitors who came over on the boat with us for taking the time out of their day to come over to, Fishers Island. I thir~k through these meetings we've been able to accomplish quite a bit over the years in getting cooperation from the various County and State departments. I notice Motor. Vehicle were out giving tests today. Suffolk County Health Department was around checking on the wells that we're cooperating on. I think the relationship has been very good with Fishers Island, Southold Town, NeW York State and Suffolk County and this is the way government should act. Fishers Island is a special place. It is an island twenty miles away from the mainland of Southold, and we're not forgetting and ] t~hi~'k this is what is so important. So I do like to thank these people who did take time out' of their day,"'busy~ day schedule, to come over here. A lot of people wanted to come, they weren't able to. You do have a .list of everybody here so if you want to contract a special person you'll be able to do it after the meetin~j. 1' would like to thank George Hockbrueckner, our Congressman, for sending over his representative, Pat Howley. George is coming over here himself to talk with myself:l~.beli~ve on the-20th, to talk to the Garbage District on a problem that's all over Suffolk County, all over the State. New York State Senator Ken LaVatle and Assemblyman Joe Sawicki were not aisle to come. They just finished a marathon session the other night, about. 2:30 in the morning. I'm sure they probably didn't even get back to their rooms until~ 6:00 o'clock in the morning, but I do thank Mary Fallon for coming, representing Ken, and Joe Sawicki's great Aide Pat Acampora, for coming here. .Th'e Suffolk County Executive was very sorry he couldn't come, but he did send over a very special person, one person to represent him, and that's a person who the people on Fishers Island know very well. She used to work for the Town, but she went on to bigger and better thidgs;~ our own Chris Hogan. Our Sheiff Eugene Dooley is here, Suffolk Coun'ty 'Deputy Police Commissioner Bill McBride, a good friend of Southoid Town, is here also. Shelter Island Town is represented by the Supervisor Jeff Simes, and one of the Councilmen Lou Price, a good friend of Southold. The Village of Greenport is represented today, very happily, we're glad to have Mayor Hubbard here, and. one of his board member.s Gail Horton, and Bill Gillolly. Thank you for coming out. You do have the list. I again thank every- body for coming, the press, everyone here. I think it's very good. So I don't want to take up any more time. I think we've made very good progress on Fishers Island, but let's hear what your concerns are. If we could answer today we will. If we have to do some research we'll get back to you, to anybody. So why don't we open it up to questions. If you have anything of the Town Board or any of the group. Brad. 250 BRAD BURNHAM: Yes, Frank, I'm Brad Burnham and I have been president of the Civic Association, and we now have a new president a§ of the 23rd of July, Speedy Mettler. I am still on the Board and I report now to Speedy. However, ;over the last two years we have put together the Fishers Island Growth Plan. Speedy has worked diligently on [he committee,~as I have, and 31 other people, we had this revised just in the last month and presented it at the 23rd meeting on the 23-i~d of July. I have given copies of this growth plan to all of the members of the Board and our good attorney here and Judy, however, I want to make sure anybody else who would like a copy--we've got plenty here--after the meeting you can get a copy. I will say that. what it basically does, is gives us three mandates, three major mandates. ,One, is we've got to do what we can to strengthen the winter population o,f Fishers Island. Two, ~e've got,to do what we can to slow down the growth of the summer~ population. And three, .wetve got to protect our natural environment. So i know that we have a lot of T.r_ustees,and Chuck Hamilton and various other people out in hitherland today trying to make inspections and to help us with that latter part, protect the natural environment. Ray Edwards, of Course, will be gui.d.e~t.through a large degree in his decisions in his work with you by the growth plan. And so I want to make sure everyone knew that it existed. I do have a few little other things.. You mentioned the garbage meeting for the citizens of Fishers Island. Every- body seems to be in,terested in garbage. As a matter of fact one of our directors, Porter Garth,~said one time, "Garbage will. always be you". And so we do have this meeting on the 20th and our Congressman George Hockbrueckner has, been good enough to say he would come over and apparently he was on the waste committee when he was in the Assembly, and Frank is good enough to come as well,' and it will be a good meeting; good opportunity to air any thoughts you might have relevan't to garbage. It will be at 4:00 o'clock in the afternoon on the 20th and it Will'be jointly sponsored by the Conservancy, the Civi'c'Associa[ion, and of course the Garbage District and Refuse Commissioners. I also wanted to thank the Board for hiring Larry Penny. Larry Penny is an expert and he's been here several times. It's working very smoothly, he and his assistant John Aldred, with the Township Trustees, and i think they've been helpful and he is probably the most knowledgeable person on freshwater wetlands that we possibly could have hired. So wetre glad that he aboard. I would also like to mention that we are very plesed to have started, as a result of discussions in an open meeting--what we call a PAC, Police Advisory Committee. We've had several meetings with Chief Winters and the Police Advisory Committee is headed up by Pat Baker. Pat Baker, would you raise your hand so in case anybody doesn't know who you are. There she is,,'right there. Pat Baker~ has got a committee of seventeen. The basic concept is that the troopers and the troopers and the constables will have some organization, some group to go to, and the citizens will have some group 'to go to--a catalytic agent, and I think that is working well.thanks to Pat. I also would like to ask two questions, and then I will sit down. We need to have, in the worst possible way, this 2% transfer tax on Fishers Island, and we need to get the 2% money back to Fishers Island to use to purchase land and take it out of the market, lid like to ask-=have, you tell us' if you could anything about that. And secondly, I would like--and progress of that that, and anything we can do to help,it;. I'd like to ask you, Frank, to tell us anything that you could about how ~we,;can have-~notCa'n!~offi;cialT:STOP Program, but some type of a program to collect various types of pesticides and toxii2 materials which everybody has in their garage and :.everybody's scared to death about these days.. Thank you. SUPERVISOR MURPHY:. Thank you~ Brad. First I would like to thank you very much on behalf of the Town Board for your work with the Civic AssociatiOn. It's been fantastic, Your new president is following a tough act there and I think you've done an excellent job and the people on Fishers Island I think are very lucky to have somebody like you here. Your first question, a little update on the Land Trans- fe~ Tax. Tha't~s why Ken LaV:alle and Joe didn't get to beid until 6:00 o'clock yesterday morning. They did go back into session. Nothing happened on our Land Transfer Tax yet. It seems to be stalled in a political fight with the Governor and Suffolk County and anything for Suff61k County right now on account of Shoreham is not going to go through. Hopefully that issue will be resolved shortly. I do understa~ the Assembly-is 'going to be called back in about two weeks we're t01d. It will act l; '~ on it then, hopefully positively, and the Senate, I believe, will have to come back ~ ~i for a joint meeting to finalize whatever joint bills they're ~oing to need to pass this~¢' year just to keep the State going. The had hired the East End Supervisor'S Associa- tion, all the Towns kicked in--we paid $3,000 towards the cost of a lobbyist, a registere~ lobbyist, and we understand from him that i~t does look very good. We probably would have had the bill passed in the Assembly Tuesday if it wasn't for this fi§bt with the Governor and some legislators in Suffolk County. Our STOP Program. Happy to say Southold Town is the first Town in New York State to be allowed to col-lect, household hazardous waste. It seems the regulations are so you could go down to the corner grocery store or the hardware store and buy ail of these chemicals, packed any way they want, taken home any way they want, but when you take them to the landfill to throw them out, if we start to collecting them we're very highly regulated. We do have a program--we did lobby the DEC and the State did change the regulations to allow this. We're the first Town in New York State to have a program like this. There's a building there, it's open seven days ~a week, 360 days a year. and yi~U're wel~!~e'"t~'~''' bve'~- wi~atever you have on Fishers Island to our building there. You,are part of Southold Town. E,,~eryone on Fishers Island is welcome to use that facility. It has to be brought there. What we do then is classify it in the different types. There's six different barrels:basically, or types of chemicals. We pack them and dispose of them properly. So you're welcome to--however you want' to bring them over to our place--you're welcome to do it, BRAO BURNHAM: This is probably not the best place, Frank, but while we've got John here, why don't we just discuss it for a second. Is there any reason, John, that the Conservancy wouldn t like to take that program on? JOHN. THATCHER: John, we had already done so we thought, and there is a problem. The problem is getting it over to the mainland of Long Island. This is the key right here, because this is hazardous, waste and it does require a special contractor who has to have all kinds of permits, who has to have all kind of permission, and this is not easy to arrange, The Conservancy has the committee formed currently to deal with this on this end, and this committee will put out publicitY, we'l! help in am~'! way ,.,we can, but we are not technically capable. Obviously, not being that kind of engineers, of getting it to S~uthold. So this is where we are now. We would be delighted to have this kind of a program, and I think perhaps later on we want to .work with all of the Town Board to make sure that we can get our toxic waste over to SoUthold properly and at minimum expense. -it's going to cost money, I realize that. Uh¢ortunately there's:no other way out. COUNCILWOMAN OLIVA: H~aYe ~ou spoken to Jim McMahon about it? JOHN THATCHER: Yes, I have, Ruth, very definitely so, and he~s more than willing to do what he can, but there apparentl,y'is a financial situation idvolved that could perhaps could be remedied in next year's budget, I don't know. This. is something I Would leave up to you, but I know that iust about everyone on the Island, from Judge Edwards on down would be delighted to get rid of the toxic waste which frankly has been accumulating here--old paint cans, etcetera, for a number of years. . SUPERVISOR MURPHY: All over. JOHN THATCHER: and we would like or technical. Yes, all over. But Southold does have that building, Frank', to work with you very, very much to remove any obstacles, financial COUNCILWOMAN OLIVA: Have YOu spoken to anybody at the DEC, like Bob Becker? JOHN THATCHER: Yes. COUNCILWOMAN OLIVA:: A:od;what did he say? JOHN THATCHER: He said, you're going to need special permits. COUNCILWOMAN COCHRAN: Because you're hauling hazardous waste. JOHN THATCHER: Exactly. COUNCILWOMAN COCHRAN: So you have to have the proper permit~"and so on and so forth, but I would think that' part of it could be solved. I think the hardest part is going to be financial, because it's going to be extremely--I know what it cost us to have our. STOP one-day program in Southold, and to haul it, because of your 'location and so forth, over State lines and so forth, itls going to take a while to organize and make happen, but it will. be worthwhile when it does. JOHN THATCHER: Yes, We have two co-chairmen, Charlie Stepanik and Pat Faulkner. We have three or four assistants all ready to do. Everything is set. COUNCILWOMAN OIIVA: I think i~ the long run, even though the expense might be there, I think it's' more important to get rid of it and dispose of it safely then having somebody just throw it in the dump and contaminating your, I'm sure your very fragile aquifer system that you have here on Fishers Island. JOHN THATCHER: Right, so we want to do ~his right and we want to do this with you. So we will work, hopefully, hand in hand to make sure that's done. COUNCILWOMAN COCHRAN: And we'll work with you also. JOHN THATCHER: Many thanks. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: Jim, do you have a comment? AUGUST 3, 1988 COMMUNIT~ DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATOR McMAHON: Just, Frank, in my conversations with the DEC, and I'll check again to verify, but there's a ipossibility that the DEC will allow our Bay Constable to--in our big Privateer--to transport the ~stuff from Fishers island in sealed drums. COUNCILWOMAN COCHRAN: That's a great solution if we can make it happen, Jim. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATOR McMAHON: I think that's a possibility. JOHN THATCHER: Oh, that would be wonderful. COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ADMINIST. RATOR McMAHON: It wasn't possible, ! don', believe to bring it through Connecticut. and 'on a public ferry, but it's possible, maybe, to bring it .over through our Bay Constable. COUNCILWOMAN OI_IVA: You!ll follow through with that, Jim? COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATOR McMAHON: Yes. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: See that, John, nothing is easy, but you people ,have to realize an individual can bring their own garbage and their own household waste to Southold!s landfill if you want to. JOHN THATCHER: No, we understand, Frank. But for our purposes it's impractical. We need someone to take it over for us, and Jim's suggestion opens a window, a very..big one too. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: Yes, Brad. BRAD BURNHAM: Well, it sounds then, John, you're all set up here~ so all we have to know is 'whether this could be done and r Ray, you can get to John. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: Jim will follow through. Okay, any other questions? BRAD BURNHAM; Frankr excuse me for a second, but on the 2% transfe~ tax I don't iike to put you ~on: a.~spot--I mean I readily do, but' on that~i Want to be~re that number one 'l.!.thlnk we should know who our people should write to if w~u~l~ write to anybody? That's number one. And number two, I want to make sure-- I know Ray will be pushing for i~, but that the monies involved in transfers on Fishers Island come back to Fishers Island. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: That would be taken care of in the Local Lawn, that is part of the enabling legislation if we ever get it. We would have a Local Law and it would spell that out in it, and that is ~subjected to an mandatory referendum by the people in the Town, Fishers Island, all of us. The players in the game, the very important players is our good friend Ken LaValte who has worked very, very hard. Our Assemblymen in these five east end towns, Joe Sawicki, John Behan and Bill Bianchi. ~'11 three are working extremely hard fo~ this. Any letters--if ° you know anyone personally call them up, support them, send th~m a letter, send them a telegram, how important it is. There's a tremendous lobbying effort against this bill by the real estate interests. Anyone else? John. JOHN THATCHER; ' Frank, speaking now as--I did before too--but as Prefsident of the Fishers Island. Cons~rvancy, I Would ilike to thank this entire Town, Board for its cooperation, its help and its invaluable suggestions this year on a variety of issues. As you well know ~ve have a garbage study out which will be covered in that meeting on the .20th. We also want to thank you very much for taking 'care of our great mosquito workers in the back_because their truck has broken down and this is what good local government is all about, and I just wanted to express our thanks. We have another program going on, the water study, you've' been informed on 'that. That will be ongoing as well. And your willingness to'help us on the STOP day makes this day very much a go clay. I just wanted to thank you all on behalf o~ the Conservancy very much. It's appreciated. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: Thank you, John. We try. I think you've got slome very, very good people, very concerned people on. Fishers Island which reaily h~lps. I~ makes our job a lot better and various departments in the Town and in th~ County and the State to work when you have cooperation. Anyone else? Yes, ma'am. PEGGY CLAVIN: I hesitate to bring it up because I know you'll have an in-'depth meeting on August 20th, but I'm just curious as to why the Town decided to go with composting rather than incinerators for garbage, since we have been talking about having an incinerator built here, and i wonder if anyone could spea~ to that? SUPERVISOR MURPHY: Peggy, ! Could speak and if any of the To~n Board members would like to. One of the main reasonsi I think is a much better recycling effort AUGUST 3, 1988 253 to take organic matter ~i~d~i~ t~'~'~?.'~'~:~l~ i~j~?-i~ back .into the soil. You're doing a hundred percent rec~/cling. Itts a system where we can take out contaminants so that we won't have contaminated compost. It's going to be very easy to do that. It's a very safe system. It's less labor intensified, and environmentally it probably is one of the safest ways to go, far better then the exhaust from an incinerator. When you m~ss burn anything you're asking for trouble. That' is basically the reason. I think we have an ideal population size and assessment in the Town to where we could do a decent program. Myself and many Town~ Board members have traveled all over Ehe country looking at different systems, looking at incinerators, looking at compos~ting~ ~looking at other, methods, and we spent a lot of time and m~ny hours of traveling, man~ hours of talking ~(~ 'people, listening to proposals on various things, and this is what we came up with. We are in the stage now, we have an RFP issued, which ~s a. Requ~st for a Proposal. We have a 'first'hearing date of August 11th, and at that time we will'answer speclfli:~ques~ionS from Vendors. We had about 24 ~firms ask for the RFP. We will then fii~altze the RFP for each vendor to answer his specifi~ questions. We don't know how many are going . to come to this meeting. I know we'll probably haYe six or eight minim~im, probably more than that. The~ will have one month after that to give l~hei~ final~p~oposal on J~ow they intend to do it, approximate cost. With the bidding la~s we dor~'t have to take the lowest bidder for this type of work. We can n~g.otiate a conEract. We will then sit down with probably two or three of the people that we think' is the most promising technology to tie into our existing landfill and we'll go from the~e~. Hopeft~lly we'll have a contract signed by the end of the year and c~n~,trucl~i0n ~start e~rly next year and we should hit the 1990 date with a little bi,'of luck 'right on targ~.~ PEGGY CLAVIN: Thank you. Is Fishers Island too ,small to Consider goi~ into the same kind of thing? SUPERVISOR MURPHY: To compost? PEGGY CLAVIN.' Yes. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: No, you could do it. Sure. Or you could transport it over to Southold. One of the main disadvantages in a small community tJ~at I feel in an incinerator, is an incinerator has to warm up to a certain temperature to burn properly, and then it should burn constantly. If you're constantly turning it off it cools down and you have a tremendous amount of damage done to the grates, to the whole system. That's one of the disadvantages of an incinerator arid on a small scale. There are many others, but that's probably one of them. Yo~ could, yes, put a compost system in here, or you could come over to Southold. Anyone else have a question? Ray? JUSTICE EOWAROS: I'm wondering, Frank, if it would be possible to get Harold Berger over here on th~ 20th, because h'~ had a meeting with Riverhead, and I don't know how many people read the Traveler-Watchman article in there, and he is for incineration and against composting, and I would certainly like to get him over here so we can get the whole picture on the 20th. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: I don't think that's so. I think some of the comments were taken out of context. JUSTICE EDWARDS: Well, let's get him over het~.'e.;and find out. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: I'll ask him 'if he can come that day, or we will schedule another date. JUSTICE EDWARDS: I would certainly like to get him over here. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: We'll try. He actually is not the man, it would be one Paul Roth:or one of those people. JUSTICE EDWARDS: But he has a lot of clout there, Frank. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: But he's just the leader so to speak. You would want him plus one of the people who are into solid'waste. Yes, Mary. MARY F.ALLON, representing Senator LaValle: Yes, Frank, thank you. I just would like to say on behalf of Senator LaValle I know he would 'deeply appreciate a letter on the land tax. Also I think letters could be address at this point to Senator War~en Ao:derson and to Senate Majority Leader Mel Miller, because really it's going to be up to them to see that the legislation at this point gets out. Thank you, Frank;. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: Thank you, Mary, it's a good point. Yes. PETER BURR: I'd like to follow up on Mrs. Clavin's question and ask John Thatcher to comment, but I'm a little bit confused. I guess I get the feeling from Mr. Murphy 254 AUGUST 3, 1988 that the incineration approach is a negative, and maybe on 'behalf of the Board, and maybe you, John, on the various alternatives, and I guess I get the feeling that you were learning toward incineration, at least;~at one point. Could you sort of give us a little update on that? JOHN THATCHER: Yes, basically we were, because frankly we didn't think--the Lockwood, Kessler and Bartlett report They did not, in that report, give any other real alternatives than incineration, and it was only two years later that we suddenly realized there were other alternatives. One of them is composting. One of them is sending the garbage over to Connecticut if we can get someone to take it. The other is sendiog it t~0 Southold. We are part of the Town of Southold as Frank just mentioned. So these are all questions that dea not only wirth engine~ ing, they deal with economics as well. NOW the study that the Conservancy has ~':i~1 Just sponsored--a~d these a~e .nclnerator eng.neers I might add who wrote the repo~- have ~oncluded ~at economically it~ would be cheaper to send our garbage to Southold than it would to. set up an incinerator here. The reason this is so is because the federal regulati(~ns that are coming down, and the state regulations, and I have a draft of them at ~home that.~s that thick, are so complex and a~small incinerator such as we would need here would be immensely costly. ' You're talking for one incinerator~on this Island about a million and a half dollars, installed, operating, with an ash pit that's fully lined, with pollution controls on the stack. It's going to coSt~a bundle~ and the real question that is.~going to have to be de~;id~d by the people of Fishers Island is should we afford something 'llke this, or should we negotiate with Southold on situations that might'turn out not just to be a tittie cheaper but substantially so, where we ~odld get rid of all our~ garbage Iock,.~stock and barrel to. either S0utho[d's composting or SoUthold's landfill; PETER BURR: John, if we decided--Fishers Island decided to support the incinerator approach, would we need the blessing of the Town Board? JOHN THATCHER: Probably not. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: Districl~ over here th. at handles your garbage. It's entirely their decision. When I'm talking !'m t~alking about' my own person--it's not forcing a town policy down anyone's throat-on Fishers Island. if Fishers Island Garbage District wants to do whatever they want to do that's their right. No, you have a--we~re not interfering--you have a Garbage JOHN THATCHER: They are empowered to do it, and to a very real extent the people of Fishers Island through them. They have the power to put an incinerator here. The 'financing, okay, would have to be Southold. PETER BURR:~ ,The Town Board would have some involvement you say? JOHN THATCHER: Yes. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: Your special district can spend borrow money~. They're empowered to. borrow money. We would have to back it up. The faith and credit of the Town. JOHN THATCHER: So in the long run I'm sure the Town Board would have some involvement in it. So you're dealing with both engineering and economics here and that's what we're going to have to wrestle with ont he 20th of August and I hope those of you who are here and are interested please do come. PETER BURR: John, would it come to a vote and not be just three commissioners of the garbage district? JOHN THATCHER: I would hope that the people of Fishers Island would have a direct say in it. This has been the Conservancy's position all along. It's not simply mine:~personally, that the people of the Island should make a decision on it. The ~ C~)n~ervancy's role here, we have always considered as being trying to ge~: as muchl.!i!~t information on the various alternatives as we possibly can, and then let the garbage~ commissioners decide and let the people decide. That's basically what we~-e JUSTICE EDWARDS: Frank, one comment. Now you're talking economics. You're talking a million dollars for an incinerator here, and I think the Town Board will back me in saying that we're talking ten mill~on dollars for a compost facility over in Southold--more. So if you -take our eight percent that we're paying into Southold, we' I be paying c ose to a million dollars over the next ten years for theirs, plus if-we continUe our garbage district, which this year was close to seventy ~thousand d~llars, Fishers Island is well over a million dollars supporting SouthOld's composting. Andl;I think --this is the first time I've brought these figures up. They will be brought up on the 20th, but I think we should do all the garbage matters on the 20th. AUGUST 3, 1988 255 JOHN THATCHER: Yes~, ! thin,t~ s.~, be~au~se our~ figures are quite different, Ray. Our figures are over 1~5 mi 1~o~ f~r an ~ncmeratOr here, which is quite a bit more, even then the figures yoiJ: men~ioned. JUS~"ICE EDWARDS: We'll bump heads on the 20th. PETER BURR: Yes, but you know, Ray, i think though it's important, with all due respect, that the Board understands that we have some very' important issues that we're all invoIved in over here on Fishers Island. This is clearly one that is of a very high level and of certain high intensity as well among many of us, both summer and year-around, and that it is important that the Board, in this kind of forum, hear some of the positions and some of our concerns. The 20th ~is fine, but I think it has to be stated~'again today. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: it's the most important decision that any Town, hamlet like Fishers Island, is facing is the garbage crisis .... COUNCILWOMAN OLIVA: I think we're all quite aware of not only your problem, but our problem. COUNCILWOMAN COCHRAN: Your question was why do we support the concept of composting, and I would say the majority of the Board did from the beginning, because as John said the economics and the environmental issues involved. Of course, no matter what system you put in place the DEC requests and demands practically a back-up system, so you have to look at what you're putting in as your first system. If it doesn't work then you have to go to the second system which they insist On. But when we looked at it economically~-and everyone knows composting works, scientifically~things compost, my only concern has been the technology to make it happen. As Frank says we have traveled--in the last three years, you know the saying "you walk on water", well I've walked on garbage, and we've been to Sandy Hook, we'v.ei'been to many of these composting places and I'm very impressed, it does work. We produce an amount that we could handle with our composting. think if we were a larger township we'd have difficulty going in this direction, but as the saying goes, .We .d6n:'~-"produce enough garbage" so we can sty i~i the compost- lng area. There will be problems with smell that we have to deal with, but all of these we will do through the proposals that we receive and we hope we'll make the wisest decision. JOHN THATCHER: And from Fishers Island's point of view if we send our garbage to Southold we won't have an environmental problem. COUNCILWOMAN OLIV'A: I'd just like to make another point too, because I also have traveled on this compostin~g and I think it just makes sense for smalI communities such as ourse(yes that really do not have the industrial wastes to put into the land- fill, into the system, it just makes more sense to do it, and I was also at a conference put on by the Association of the Bar held in New York City, and it's very interesting that the pastics industry itself is becoming aware of their pollution of the whole la~dfiJili':si~ua.tion because the things just do not decompose. What they will do on all these- plastic ' bottles that you get with shampoos or any other kind, have an embossed figure on the bottom so that you'll be able to tell what resins are in these plastics, because some of these plastics can:~be recycled as long as you know which resins are in them, that they can be recycled and done again. And that's the whole thing. We have to learn, I think, as a country that we cannot stop just throwing things away. It's just absolutely iml~ossible. And I was interested to see on T.V. (change tape)_Mayor Koch w~s:~'going to stop throwing his sludge out into the ocean by 1,998. I don't know how we're going ~o swim til 1998, but here's a whoIe way with chipping and things that-you could still make a compost out of that, and I think we have to really address these problems. I know if anybody has seen the articles in Time and. Newsweek this past week, you don't want to even eat a piece of fish from the ocean and what have you. It's deplorable what we're doing and we just have to stop being a throw away society. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: By the way, this whole STOP Program is one of the first stages in doing a good job in composting. It's taking the potential chemicals that are hazardous out of the system, before it goes in. We also recycle car batteries and household batteries on the mainland in Southold. It's been excellen~ program. We take out about a little over a 55 gallon drum of these small little batteries, the hearing aides, the flashlights, that type of stuff. Tremendous amount of pollution, and the largest single source of contamination in a landfill or the ~sh from an incinerator comes from household batteries. Very heavy in mercury, and zinc, anc~ this is why we're getting into this program is to all lead up to so that when we go into a system it will be as clean and as safe as possible. Garbage always seems to make a fascinating discussion whenever we go to any of these meetings, and always seems to take up the most time. But maybe we should go on to other subjects because we will be discussing it over here on the 20th. Any other comments on questions ? 256 AUGUST 3, 1988 STEVE MALI.NOWSKI: We have a growing problem here with group rentals~, and in effect what's happening is various houses that are in areas that are zoned residential are being used for group rentals which ] would think is changing the use to multiple residence. My question is, is that technically illegal under the zoning? if it is, could you give us some ideas on how we can enforce that? SUPERVISOR MURPHY: Yes, it is, and maybe we should like---Victor, would you mind giving a few comments? You're always good, you never are'at a loss for words. Victor Lessard, our Principal Building Inspector. EXECUTI~iE ADMI NISTRATOR'..LESSARD (spoke to :Mt.; MalinowSki:. in ~ the back of the room ~and his statement was inaudible). SUPERVISOR MURPHY: Steve, this is a big problem in all the towns. Southampton~ Town has gone through a terrible, terrible time. Maybe also I'd like to ask our Town Attorney Rob Berntsson to please make a few comments .... ASSISTANT .TOWN ATTORNEY BERNTSSON: We just amended our definition of "family" under our Zoning Code to address this problem specifically. A lot of research went-into it legally, before we amended the definition. It's a very, very difficult area to regulate~ becau~ as Victor was saying--1 Couldn't hear every~ing.'-he said, and if'l do repeat something I'm sorry-~but it is the constitutional rights involved, the rights of family, the right to p~ivacy, many issues~-com~[~,i;nto play. We have the definition there and we hope that that, number one, will discourage people from · I.t'is very difficult, though, to go into the household and prove your case. We have a burden of beyond reasonable doubt tO prdve our case, just. as we would in a criminal case. A zoning case is a criminal case. We're trying everything we can. I know i've spoken to several Town Attorneys from the other towns at meetings we've been to on how do they do it, and it's an unanswerable question. What you have to rely on is your neighbors giving affidavits, being willing to testify in court, and when you put them on the spot llke that it becomes difficult for them. But it is a problem. Under our current definition we do allow five unrelated persons to live in the same home, and that may seem like a lot to several people, but that's pretty much the ~inJ. mum you can go to and the courts will allow. Other cases where there have been two or three have been struck down as unconstitutional. You cannot people to live in certain situations. '.~So_-.'we're aware of tl~e problem on the mainland as well. I'm sure you have it here on Fishers Island. I wish there was a better answer I could give you,. but we are looking at it and anything we can do w~will .look into it. STEVE MALI NOWS'KI:: Could a Building Department Inspector ? ASSISTANT..TOW~I' ATTORNEY BERNTSSON: it would be the Building Department. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: Okay, anyone else? Yes, ma'am? PAT .KIBBE: My name is Pat Kibbe. I have the joy of being a resident, or at least a summer resident the past twenty years in one of the fort houses h~re. Part of that joy is taking walks to some of the beaches, and unfortunately the walks ' and the bicycle rides are not as beautiful as they used to be, especially oN'er towards Sou~h Beach. The other day when I was over there I had an_ idea that wouldn't cost you~very much, and I'm sure would be appreciated by everybody. There is a wonderful building that the Highway Department, I believe, is using for .our wonderful Highway men Who help us here, for thei~ equipment and I believe it is--it is occupied by the Highway Department. It's an old building that used to be_part of the fort and because I do have--own one of the buildings I know it must be beautifully made and it~'ssti]l strong and worth at least a coat of paint. It wouldn't really cost much. i'm sure you could paint it up just like we did those houses. I'm sure the structure is still like a fort, and I~m sure that it is probably illegal that our Highwa.~ Department does not even have toilet facilities in this building. But this could b~ hOOked up and it could be so attractive. As it is now you go by this building that looks horrid. They have had to pile the sand in the box right in front of it. All' those wonderfulI.:~t gorgeous bushes and sand that we used to have, it is an' utter mess, but it could t~ be so easy to fix~ You could put' some cement around the building. You could paint the building white or anything, that wood is still wonderful. You could have one of our. wonderful architects who live on the Island just put some windows and shutters. You could put fence around it so,you wouldn't have to look at those piles, and it really wouldn't cost a thing. COUNCILWOMAN COCHRAN: I Want you on my committee. PAT KIBBE: I would love to try to---l~m sure there are builders and contractors -here that could fix that building up for the Town. COUNCILWOMAN COCHRAN: As chairman of the Highway Committee your remarks are duly noted, and t shall take them back to the Superintendent of Highways. 257 AUGUST 3, 1988 PAT KIBBE: And I would be~h~l~,~y.~to~m.~e~aoy .suggestions, because we certainly don't want an alum.hum tl~ing.,like"~he C~oa'st'~'~u~ard put at the ferry dock, but we do want to keep the fort feeling and I iust think it would be absolutely wonderful, and I'm sure all of us would appreciate our walk to South Beach more. Thank~ you. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: I might just add, in talking about the Highway, the Highway Superintendent, as some of you people might know, had a very bad'heart attack several months ago. He :has just started back to work again, He's in excellent health, hopefully. He has stopped smoking. He used to smoke three or four packs of cigarettes a day, minimum, and he has stopped and he looks good ~and he is working port-time again, otherwise~he definitely would have been here.today. But ~e will pass this on and look-into it, it's a very good suggestion. Anyone elSe? PEGGY CI~AV[N: May.~l ask what the status of the Master plan that we'heard so much about a few ago is? SUPERVISOR MURPHY: Four. years ago I predicted that it was going to be passed in about a' month or so, and we~ve gone through quite a few predictions. We are, I think, getting down to the final version, and I think maybe in the next three or four months hopefully we might have some action. PEGGY CLAVIN: Does SUPERVISOR MURPHY: PEGGY CLAVIN: How SUPERVISOR MURPHY: it have to come back for a resolution? Referendum? Another public hearing~ not a referendum. will it be passed? By the. Town Board. BRAD BURNHAM: Frank, we're an island surrounded by water and what is Southold actually doing about their waterfront which everybody is fighting the problems of pollution and so on. Are there any major initiatives recently? SUPERVISOR MURPH.Y: As far as run-off going into the bays, the creeks, the cound, that type? BRAD BURNHAM: AI.i.~ il~ea.r about is Brown Tides and various things that are occurring over there and we're afraid it's coming this way. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: Southold has done quite a bit. We put in our budget about $25,000 a year just for structures, drainage structures, to divert water from going into the creeks. We just finished one project where a reed bed, p~,agm~iti'es planted in gravel to purify the road run,off water. We put a series of leaching pools, went into a collection basin, and the overflow coming into this area. The Trustees are working with us. We're doing testing on it to see how it's coming out. Everything looks great on it 'so far. it was probably one of the first done in the state. The Village of Greenport had tried this and did some experimental work many years ago on cleaning up this type of water and it worked very well. As I say, we're in the planning stage for a very large project in Southold now. This one--the one we'r~ talking about, is in Cutchogue going into Mud Creek, and after a rain it really is a mud creek, and this has worked very well. We've stopped the mud from going into the creek, which in turn carries a lot of the fertilizer, the agricultural chemicals, the road run-off and that, and.with .a little more testing I think we're going 'th:~ come out looking very well on it. Suffolk County:is helping with doing a ser~es of rock gabions in Arshamomaque Creek to help clean up the water. W~ doa't know how effective it will be, but it is a good measure to help reduce some of the coliform going into the creek. In their capita], budget the County Executive has money for a large sump to stop that water.."from going in that particular creek. We've done quite a bit in Southold. We have to do more. This whole--in the long run recycling your garbage--the organic faction back into the ground in the form or organic matter is probably the best way we could stop the leaching of nitrogen, of various agricultural chemicals, and the waste of so much water by adding organi~ water to the soil. This is~.~certainly in the far future, but it is a method of trying to accomplish just what you're talking about, and i think we're making good progress. We could always do more. Ruth, maybe you want to address that Waterfront Revitalization Study? COUNCILWOMAN OLIVA: Yes, we have a v~ry good committee on the Local Waterfront Revitalization Program. They're just'going around the perimeter of all of Southold Town identifying the spots SL~ch as 'water~-dependent uses, and where marinas perhaps should be placed or could be expanded, places ~that should be acquired for access of Town residents, because we have very few places on the Sound for Town access. So they're doing a really very good job. The State is very pleased about their progress, and also Jean and I just attended the State of the Bays Conference last Friday, which was basically all about the Brown Tide, and really the scientists still do not know what it really is, how it reproduces itself, they just know that it choaks off your scallops. In fact there was one gentleman there who runs a marina that feels that just most everything west of Shelter Island is practically dead, and it's probably because it could be a cyclical thing, but also you have overloaded a system which is the Peconic Bays, which we hope to be included into an estuarine, National Estuarine Program. You've overloaded it with sewage plant outfalls from I think there's one in Sag Harbor, there's two in Riverhead, and you've had the creeks and the road run-off, and a system can only absorb so much, and after talking to our Baymen and what have you, or you see the pictures from the Suffolk County Board of Health, Department of Ecology, the Brown Tide ended just about where Gardiners i;sland came, into Fishers Island. S;o you. can see, and my baymen friends' tell me that they feel it takes the PeconiCs about a year to flush~ itself out. So you can see that the problem just ended right at Gardiners Island and the rest of that was brown. I understand that the counts last week was up slightly, but not,that noticeable. So we're just going to have to wait and see what August brings, because it is just decimated.; Our scallop prodUction--and that is prol~ably one of the most e~onomical~ viable sources of revenue for our baymen, and they've, h'ad'to go to other things. Now they went to con'l(~, andCconks ,are even dying out~ So we just have to combine and somehow get people together of the different agencies, the Town,.,the County, the State, and see what we can do for regula:tions as far as new regs for oUtfall pipes, new regs for land use management, for marinas. We just have to stop polluting basically. It was a very good conference and I think people learned a lot. SUPERVISOR 'MURPHY: Any other questions? Yes, sir? CHARLES FERGUSON: My name is Charles Ferguson from the Henry L. Ferguson Museum. What i have to say is strictly I got a telephone call this morning from Weston,, Massachusetts, and the young' lady said, "Did you feel the big bang?" and I said, "What big bang?" She said, "What, you don't know about it? It.was an earthquake rated two on the Richter Scale on the east end of Fishers Island. I said, "Well, that might end our garbage problem." SUPERVISOR MURPHY: It would be nice if it could go away that easy. Ar~yone else?' Yes, Brad. BRAD BURNHAM: Frank, it has been customary for the Civic Association to.at the end of these meetings to welcome people to a table over there where it's normally cookies and lemonade. I forgot to tell Speedy about this and an hour ago I told Ar_toWalsh-~har[ct.'as'a-.r~'eW:[mem'ber:..of fth~ Ci.~ic~.;AS:Sociation he rushed down to the store and he got some lemonade._and no cooMes. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: We appreciate it. You 'could come down to the boat to and have a~:so~la on us. Anyone else? (No response.) Okay, I would like to introduce two other special people. One is a Bruce Blower over here, head of Suffolk County Handicapped Services. Bruce has made the trip over here. He has been an inspiration to many, many people in Suffolk County, and.he has done a fantastic job to make people aware of the needs for us. to address helping a handicapped person and showing what a person can do Who has a handicap. Bruce, w~re very proud of you and thank y. ou ;for coming over here today. And one othe~:'commissioner who hopefully is going to come with some very good news--I'm sure everybody on Fishers Island will be very happy to hear abo_ut.'.this--and it's the new Commissioner of Real Estate, Joan Scherb who hopefully some day soon will have some very good news on Robirrs Island. Joan. COMMISSIONER OF REAL ESTATE,SCHERB [S, uffolk County): ! just-'~vanted to say that i was given a tour. One of my jobs is to look for affordable housing in Suffolk County, and I ;.was given a tour of the East End of Fishers Island and I can tell .you there is no need for affordable housng on the East End of Fishers Island. it's very, very. beautiful and anything wet can do to help you preserve ~vhat you have here, because all of Suffolk County in my opinion is terribly worth any effort we make for. preservation. Give my office, a call and I'll perfectly happy to help. Thank you. Ye~.~ much. SUPERVISOR MURPHY: .Okay, if there are no other comments~-any ToWn Board members any comments? (No response.) if not, again I would like-to thank those whoccame over. I Would like to thank those on Fishers Island :for having us here today, taking the time out of your schedule to come meet with us. All of these people will be available for any questions. I know the Health Department is out checking some wells, the Trustees, the DEC is out. So if there is anything, please contact them, we're here. And again, thank, you and I'd like a motio~:-to',adiourn. Moved by Councilwoman Cochran, seconded, by Councilwoman Oliva, it was RESOLVEO that this Town Board meeting be and hereby is adjourned at 2:10 P.M.- Vote of the Town Board: Ayes: Councilwoman Oliva, Councilwoman C0chran, Justice Edwards, Supervisor Murphy. This resolution was declared duty ADOPTED. /-/ ~ Judith T. Ter.r.y .~ -- Southold Town Clerk