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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08/23/2003 . . . ~ I. II. III. IV. V. FISHERS ISLAND CONSERVANCY, INC. BOX 553 FISHERS ISLAND, NEW YORK 06390 Fishers Island Conservancy Annual Meeting August 23, 2003 The meeting was held at the Fishers Island School and was called to order at 4:05 P. M. Present were Barry Bryan, Alicia Cleary, Chippy duPont, Barbie Riegel, Tom Sargent, Nick Spofford, John Thatcher - President, Jackie Williamson - Recording Secretary and Robert Wall by written proxy. Total attendance was 25 members, which constitutes a quorum of members. The reading of the minutes of the previous annual meeting was waived. Treasurer's Report - Nick Spofford The Conservancy has $207,000 in its accounts now, which is expected to generate $14,000 in income. Most of this was the net Navy settlement of our recent suit. It constitutes a contingency war chest. The November annual appeal usually raises $30,000 for our ongoing expenses. Nomiuatiu!! Committee Report - Jackie Williamson The Committee recommends the re-election to a full 3-year term, expiring in 2006 of Alicia Cleary, Elly Kelly, Margie Purnell, Barbie Riegel, Nick Spofford and John Thatcher. In addition, we nominate John McGillian to the Board for a full 3-year term. The nominations were moved and accepted. The Committee regrets to report the resignations of Elsie Parsons and Liz Furse. We thank them for their service. Barry Bryan has also tendered his resignation, but has agreed to continue actively working on our lobster situation. He has spent massive amounts of energy and countless hours on behalf of our lobster industry. The Conservancy, the lobstermen and the whole island owe him a huge vote of thanks. The meeting warmly applauded. Starting with the October Board Meeting, we offer the following slate of Officers: Chairman John Thatcher President Elly Kelly Exec. Vice President Barbie Riegel Treasurer Nick Spofford Secretary Jackie Williamson Until October, the present officers will remain in their positions. The slate of Officers was moved and accepted. . . . VI. VII. President Thatcher's Openinl!: Remarks John announced that this would be his last meeting as President. He will become Chairman and since there is no provision for a chairman in our present by laws, there has to be a change in the by laws. John praised Elly Kelly for her past cooperation and very hard work. He is confident that the Conservancy will thrive under her stewardship. Mosquito Control - John said that this season was a particularly difficult one for mosquito control, due to the huge amount of rain. We had four girls this year rather than three. Two are already gone. Another lives in Ledyard and will continue working into September. Housing was a problem as always, but Diane Dexter offered a cottage at a reasonable rent. The girls are responsible for over 100 wetlands 7 days a week. In response to questions, John said that the ultrasonic exterminator invented by a high school student shows promise, but has some glitches. We are following it. Large fields cannot be treated. The larvicide we use for mosquito and black fly control only works on standing water. Report on "Nature Davs" - Barbie Riegel Barbie said that the full week of programs; nature walks, lectures, movies and play would not have been possible without the enthusiastic help of a huge number of volunteers from all over the island. A partial list was read. She paid particular tribute to John McGillian. The meeting applauded all the volunteers. Barbie showed some of the items we had for sale, T-shirts, visors, toy ducks, etc. All expenses added together came to $19,841.38. Starting with a special grant of$II,OOO, additional income from sales, contributions, etc. came to $19,660, with a few hundred still to come from sales at the Beach Plum (a virtual wash). Barbie hoped that Nature Days would be repeated next year in August. In conclusion, she thanked the Board of the Conservancy for giving her and her committee free rein. The meeting applauded this report. Mention was made of the special petition to Gov. Pataki asking for the creation of the FISMA (which is still available for signatures). VIII. Bv-Law Chanl!:e - John Thatcher Our by-laws require the physical presence of a larger number of directors to constitute a quorum than is frequently feasible, particularly in winter. New York State law would allow us to have a legal quorum with five plus one. John explained that the 8 plus days notice required was impossible to comply for this meeting because the power blackout delayed the printer. He asked for a waiver of that requirement. So moved and passed. John then read the full text of the proposed change in the by-laws as follows: By-Law change - Quorum Section 4,c,iii (Quorum) shall be amended to read as follows: "At all regular and Special Directors meetings, the presence ofless than a majority of the entire Board of Directors, in person or by telephone, may constitute a quorum and be sufficient for the transaction of business provided that, in the case of a Board consisting of 15 Directors or less, the 2 . . . quorum shall be at least one-third of the entire number of Directors, and, in the case of a Board of more than 15 Directors, the quorum shall be at least 5 Directors, plus I additional Director every additional 10 Directors (or fraction thereof) in excess of 15. Any act of a majority of Directors at a meeting at which a quorum, as defined herein, is present shall constitute an act of the Board of Directors, except as may be otherwise specifically provided for by Statute, by the Certificate of Incorporation, or by these By-Laws." The Board of the Conservancy, through its legal advisors, recommend that the above By-Law change be adopted at an Annual Meeting of the Conservancy by a quorum of the members present. The draft was moved and passed by the legal quorum of members present. IX. Hav Harbor Dredl!inl! - Tom Sargent Chuck Hamilton of the D. E. C. has said he is not adverse to hydraulic dredging of the Hay Harbor channel using a Geo Tube. This is a 50 - 100 foot tube which would suck up the material to be dredged, evaporate the water from it and deposit the sand onto Stony Beach. The last time the channel was dredged the material was super clean. Using this method is a huge money saving. Southold, New York State and the D. E. C. have approved it. Army Corps is expected to follow suit. Next, we need actual permits, a survey proposal and the survey itself - for a total cost of$10,300. After that the actual project would cost $17,000 to $50,000 depending on what the survey showed. It is projected that the Hay Harbor Club and the Hay Harbor property owners would share the costs. Tom said that he expected a much clearer picture by the October meeting and would report then. X. Lobster Update - Barry Bryan There have been 2 major battles in court, 4 lawsuits filed and 2 appeals. In one case, the F. I. Lobstermen were protected from Connecticut lobstermen but not from Montauk. The other case, opening up F. I. waters to Connecticut is still on appeal without a decision since 2002. Barry is not optimistic. For a while it looked as though a F. I. S. M. A. would be put in place since Gov. Pataki proposed it and the D. E. C. came in with a compromise. Our lobstermen gave up a lot but the Montauk fleet would have been severely limited in their fishing our waters. Surprisingly, Gov. Pataki put in a pocket veto after all that. We surmise that Montauk exercised a lot of political clout to effect this action. There is very little hope that our petitions will make Pataki reverse his field again. Various suggestions were made as to applying pressure to the governor. Tom Kean offered his expertise and suggestions. We're not giving up but it looks as though our lobstermen are going to go under. The catch is already way down and there is a lot of shell disease. In spite of many studies no one has come up with a cause or cure for shell disease. XL Feral Cats - Jackie Williamson Cynthia Riley has been our volunteer in charge of our West End Trap, Neuter and Release program. In the late spring, she became seriously ill. She is now under strict orders not to even think of her volunteer work until September 1. She said she and Dr. Sminkey "did a bunch of cats", but simply cannot be more specific. She can't do anything until after September I and 3 . . . probably not much after that. If she says that her feral cat volunteer days are over, we will have to find another volunteer or maybe pay someone. No one wants to put any strain on Cynthia who contributes so much to the island. There are groups of cats around the Mansion Houses, behind the food store and by the gates, in addition to the Transfer Station and BID ordinance building. Jackie will follow up. XII. New Business - Peter Crisp offered the report submitted by Jim Carney's firm on Plum Island. Plum Island is now under the Homeland Security Dept. There is a possibility of changing their mandate from animal to animal disease study to animal to human study. This might adversely affect Fishers Island. John said he would continue to monitor the situation with his contacts and thanked Peter for the report. Ken Edwards wanted to know if anything could be done about the cormorants. A discussion followed with suggestions like shaking the eggs, coating the eggs with vegetable oil, removing all but one egg, etc. Since the cormorant is protected under the migratory bird act, permits are needed for any action. Permits can be obtained, it appears. Ken was named chairman of a cormorant reduction committee. XIII. Next meeting will be Columbus Day at 2:00 PM presided over by our new President, Elly Kelly. XIV. The meeting was adjourned at 5:23 PM. Respectfully Submitted, Jacqueline Williamson Secretary Pro Tern. 4