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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTB-08/02/1995-FI252 SOUTHOLD TOWN BOARD FISHERS iSLAND August 2, 1995 1:30 P.M. A Regular Meeting of the Southold Town Board was held on Wednesday, August 2,~ 1995,at Fishers Island, New York. Supervisor Wickham opened the meeting at 1:30 P.M., with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. Present: Supervisor Thomas H. Wickham Councilwoman Alice J. Hussle Councilman Joseph L. Townsend, Councilwoman Ruth D. Otiva Justice Louisa P. Evans Town Clerk Judith T. Terry Town Attorney Laury L. Dowd Absent: Councilman Joseph J, Lizewski SUPERVISOR WICKHAM: It's my pleasure at the meeting here on Fishers island to take advantage of the generosity of the Fishers island Ferry District, who provided the transportation that makes it possible for lots of officials from the State, the County, the Town, and other jurisdictions to come visit Fishers Island for this particular meeting. I have a partial list of people here. I don't have a complete Hst, and I'm afraid J"wouldn't be very good at remembering everybody, so i'm just going to take the first crack at it, and some of you afterwards wish to introduce additional people- on your staff, feel free to do that, when you I~ave a chance. First of all, it's a distinct pleasure to have with us today, Alexander Treadwell, the New York State Secretary of State, and his staff. Sandy, I know you're here somewhere, He went Out to look at one of the issues, that we're going to be talking about today. I don't know that we have a Secretary of State here before, and it's a great pleasure for me, and I know that for many of you here on Fishers Island. He brought with him Will Powers, and George Stafford from his staff. It's always a pleasure to have Pat Acampora here, Assemblywoman up in Albany. pat, there si]e is. There are so many people that we'll have to give applause to, that 1 think our hands are all going to be chapped by the time we'r.e finished, so let's go on meeting, and we'll have applause at the end for everybody. John Kreutz, who represents the County Executive's Office. J also see Scott Harris, who represents the Legislature's Office. Scott, it's nice to see you. We have Jean SegalI from Senator LaValJe's Office, Bart Howe from the Department of Transportation, Regional Office Jn Hauppauge. We have Mary Fatlon, Director of Suffolk Office of Citizen Affairs. There's Mary with the red cap on, and Bob StanonJs, Suffolk County Department for the Aging. Several of the New York officers we have with us [he Regional Director of New York Department of Environmental Conservation , Ray Cowan and a number of his staff members. Ray has been very helpful to us, and I know to many of the people here, dealing with solid waste issues, and other environmental areas. Lou Charell~, New York DEC Bureau of Marine Habitat, Doug McKay, Department of Ag and Markets of the State, John Flannigan, New York State Department of Ag and Markets, too, Steven Costa, representing the Commissioner of Suffolk County Department of Health Services. Paul Pontura is Department of Health AUGUST 2, 1995 253 Services, Dr~inking Water Bureas. S. tephn Jones is here as Director of Suffolk Cour~ty Department of Planmng, and I might add in addition to Stephen, there ar~ a number of people here from the Suffolk County Planning Commission, and we'll have an opportunity to meet ah of them later on at the end of the Town .Board's meeting. Don Eversall if the Chair of the Suffolk County Planning Commission, and we'd llke to bring on the Planning Comission after our meeting to explain a little bit to the people of the island here, what.the Suffolk County Planning Commission does, and how it conducts it's bus.ness, and what it's purposes are, and so on. We have Carrie Lechtecter Assistant D.A. for Jim Catterson. She's here today representing Jim Catterson's Office. We Fred Daniels, Deputy Commissioner of Suffolk County Fire 'and Rescue and Peter Hackett, the newly installed Suffolk County EMS, Emergency Medical Services, Director. We also hay( a number of invited guest today, and it's a great pleasure for me to introd~lce, and ~it~s a great pleasure for me to introduce, ! don't seem to be able t~ fix my eyes on people today, it's a great pleasure, if I .c. an find them to introduce a fellow Supervisor from another island, very simdar to Fishers I~land, only a little bit bigger, and that's Hoot Sherman. Is he around, or s he out looking at the water, too? Hoot is the Supervisor of Shelter Islan , a to.wn,of about 2,000 year-round residents, which as I think most of you knoW Is just off the coast of Greenport ~n Peconic Bay. I'm pleased he i here, because I think there are some points in commonality between Fis} .~rs Island, and Shelter Island. He'll be here, and we'll have some comments later on. We have Gary Kelly representing Northeast Utilities. Some of yo, J know Gary better than I do. There . he is in the back. Northeast Utilities has been a significant player in helping us develop an emergency e' 'acuatlon plan for Fishers' Island. We have several other people. Before goinc~ on to that, I'd like to introduce my colleagues from Southold Town. Apar! from myself we have with us today five of the six members of our Town B)ard. Joe Lizewski was unable to be with us today, but on my right is Alice Hus.sie, a Councilperson from the rest of the town. On my left is Ruth Oliva. ! think many of you know Ruth. She's also the Deputy Supervisor. We have Lou~s~ Evans, also a Justice, who I'm sure is very well u, probably I~nown to you than to us. Joe Townsend, a former :enport, and an active participant on our Town Board, and next ir Town Attorney, Laury Dowd. So, we are the people on the I of the Town of Southold. In addition to the Town Council we ~er of people here from other Boards, and I see ranging in the he Planning Board, led by the Chair Dick Ward, who is sitting ~triped shirt. On his right is Ben Orlowski, former Chair. On his left is the newest member of the Board, Bill Cremers, and Ken EdWards, of course.~ In 'addition to the Planning Board we have the Zoning Board, the Chair Gerry Goehringer, also, Serve Doyan, whom I saw a few minutes ago, and. Lydia Tortora, who is the member of the Zoning Board, also .new Y installed. Lydia !s a former newspaper person, so I can't imagine credentials for somebody for somebody to dig into matters, and t~ former neWsPaper person. We have Judy Terry on a, and we have a number of other people here. i'11 my have, to ref.~r to my notes to be sure I don't skip people. Our Highway Su Ray Jacobs, who some of you met. He's done a lot of work on the :'s not able to be here today. Jamie Richter is the. Town Eh( and has already spent a good part :of the mornlng took that the town ts dealing with. We have our Sol Waste Bunchuck, and his foreman Ed Capobianco. ~ g.ue: ~e Metal Dump, which we'll have some comments Development manager is Jim McMahon, corner. I think you know Jim:. He's the guy tennis courts in shape a couple of years .ago. Venetia MC~ DireC~0r' 6f our Human Resource Center, and is respon.s ;EP 'Aides, and others that are active here, and on the :Long town. The Police Depart;merit, i don't see the Chi'ef, ..bu~ if here, Joe Conway. There are other people Wi:th , . . i , ~e head of our Pubhc D~sp~tch System, and that s b~ here, and he'll be able to tal:k to us a little bi't and the E911 Systems, that are in pl~ce. bet ~n's name is here, although i'm not sure I see h'i'm to the Trustees we have a Justice Court~ and ~stices either, except for LOuisa, who is a Justice, member. Assessors, we have two Assessors With Ass,esSor is' Scott Russell, and' s~tting next to him is He :t~vO best dressed people here in the audience, The known to yo Mayor of to Joe is Town Counc have a numt "back there there in a Board of Assessment Review, which reviews assessment, and considers grievances, and what not, John Sullivan may, or may not be among us today. I didn't see him. The Building Department, I see Tom Fischer. Tom is our head Building Inspector, and I think many of you have met him, when you've had building inspections, and applying for building permits. Lauren Grant is the Administrative Assistant in my office, who helped put together some of these plans. Lauren is in the back, and there are other people, that I have very unfortunately and inadvertently overlooked. If not, !'11 iust proceed with the program. We'll have a chance later on to talk to some of these people, and to have a sense of the services, that they're providing, the public officials, in the town. The normal plan in my experience, when the Town Board has it's annual meeting on Fishers Island, is we go through the introductions, and then there's discussion with our issues that may be of interest to Fishers Island people, and we don't really take up any significa.nt issue of business. Today we have one issue of business, that I think is s~gnificant, and it's timely. The Town of Southold, as many ..,of '.you know, has been involved with the Cross Sound Ferry Inc. to bring Cross Sound Ferry in for Site Plan Review of some of their properties in Orient, properties, that relate to their ferry handling. Our Town Attorney has handled the legal end of that issue for last couple of weeks, and the last time the Town Board met, we considered and thought seriously,' her handing off that responsibility to some outside legal counsel. I wish to bring to the Board today a resolution to engage that outside legal counsel. We're doing it on Fishers Island, not because Fishers Island is so used to ferries, and knows what ferry traffic is all about, but because it's timely, and it's quite important that we take this action sooner than later, since there are breaking points, virtually every few days, in this matter. So, consequently, I would llke to propose this for consideration of the Town Board at this time, the one, and as far as I know, the only resolution' on our agenda for today. 1.-Moved by Supervisor Wickham, seconded by Councilwoman Oliva, it was RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of Southold hereby engages the services of Francis J. Yakaboski~ as Special Counsel to the Town in litigation involving the Planning Board, at the following billing rates: for partners $175.00 per hour, for associates $125.00 per hour, and for legal assistance $80.00 per hour. 1.-Vote of the Town Board: Ayes: Justice Evans, Councilwoman Oliva, .Councilman Townsend, Coundilwoman Hussie, Supervisor Wickham. This resolution was duly ADOPTED. SUPERVISOR WICKHAM: At many of our Board meetings in' Southold our resolution sometimes turn to as many as thirty or forty resolutions. A lot of them are perfunctorily, but some of them are rather critical policy type resolutions, too. In. the last year and a half we have occasionally had what we call, Supervisor's briefing, which is an opportunity for the Supervisor to make a few comments, as to the direction that things are taking in the Town, issues to relate :to the Town Board as a whole. It's an opportunity for me to bring the Board up to date with issues, that the Board should have some knowledge of, but necessarily require a vote. I'd like to take this opportunity for a brief, I hope, Supervisor's briefing. As I mention this I've already seen one person in the audience, that I neglected to introduce a few moments ago. So, this Supervlsor's briefing is going to touch as several different topics. It's not going to bring an indepth discussion of any one of them. Maybe, the way to get started is to remind people, that recently the Board adopted a resolution that called for the establishment of an Ethic Board, and an Ethics Code for the Town of Southold. This is a stronger system of looking at protecting the ethical resposibilities of Board members, and other public officials in the town. We have one member of that three person Ethics Board with us today, and that's Mrs. Blanche Katz. So, she's here today. There are three, or four, things I'd llke to talk about very briefly this afternoon before it's sort of a sort of open question and answer series. After my comments if any of the other Board members wish to make some comments, they have the floor and the opportunity to do that. First of all, just a word or two about the clean-up of the Metal Dump. You recall the last time we met here a year ago, Jim Bunchuck was just walking in here with the blue hat in his hand, and we took a look at the Metal Dump, and after, I guess, eighteen months or so of strugg, l|ng with the finances, and the arrangements, and the contracts, put out a bid 'to clean up the Metal 'Dump entlrel~. That means to reclaim it, to take all the stuff out of the Metal Dump, to get it off the island, and clean up the whole place into just a bunker, just a blank open bunker. We prepared those bid specifications. We went to bid, and the Town Board has accepted the winning bidder to do that job. In fact, it could be underway right now, but the ferry schedule back and forth during the summer just did not seem like the appropriate time to put a lot of junk on the ferry to get it out Of here, so we've asked the contractor to wait until after Labor Day to start that job. It should take a couple of months, and that whole thing should be finished. It will cost the Town on the order of $275,000., and I think that whole system is in place. We've already awarded the bid to the corporation. One little piece of left over business associated with that. What's going to happen to that bunker after it's cleaned? There's a potential danger there. A huge open pit, there looks to me like quite drop in the concrete encasement there. Some of you may have some good ideas on that score. I would welcome those of you who want to, or have an interest in it, to put together your ideas, as how you would like to finish off this project? What kind of protection would you llke to see our there? Is there any historic purpose an empty bunker could be put to? Give us your recommendations. Whetheh the Town will have the money to do it all is a very different question, but at least we'd like to know what people here, how you'd like to handle it, what you would like to see done with that bunker after it's emptied. A couple of comments on the emergency 911, and the other plans, John Raynor is here, just several things, I'm sure you do know that Fishers Island no longer has this voice forwarding system for emergency calls, that formerly was. Fishers Island is now hooked up with the Enhanced 911 telephone service. Fishers Island calls are handled exactly the same way with the same switches, and the same gear, and the same efficiency, as E911 calls throughout the Town of Southold. I might add the Town of .Southold is ahead of most all the other towns on Long Island in the technology, and the precision, and speed of response on E911 calls. This system that has been put in here on Fishers Island costs the Town about, something on the order of $20,000., which is about the same cost as what the Town is paying for the Long: Island portion of the Town's E911 service. So, it's working. It's been budgeted. I intend to put it in the next year's budget, and I think it is an important asset for the people here. I think it's an important asset for the people here. I think it's worked well. I don't see any particular problems with it.. You may know that my title among other things is an Emergency Preparedness Manager or Coordinator. John Raynor sitting there is my Deputy .for the Long Island portion of the town. Alan Thibodeau from Fishers Island is the Deputy for Fishers Island. So, both Alan and John I~ave been working closely on various pla,ns dealing with disasters. There are two kinds of disasters to worr:¥ about. The first is .a disaster relating to a hurricane, or a major winter storm. We recently had planning exercise. Alan came over, and John, we had a planning exercise to deal with a hurricane or an emergency evacuation that might be required for that nature, electrical outages, major parts of the island: being flooded, how to deal with that. Alan and John are developing plans for evacuation from local iow lying areas, and how: to deal with that both here and on the Long island portion. There's a second one, and that is how to deal with problems of a nuclear disaster from Connecticut. We have with us tonight Gary Kelly from the Northeast Utilities, and John and Alan, and others, who have been working on those plans. That, als0, calls for a major evacuation, if there were a serious incident from Millstone. That could happen. It's very unlikely, and I'm net here to even talk about the possibility of it, except to say that at some stage Fishers to have a updated evacuation p. lari. Gary, John, Alan first time fine to come Comment~, or su! talk to dan, or it, but Alan Th ~w York, and the State of Connecticut.are all'for the There is cohesiveness of interest. People are using of the problem, getting themsel:ves together ht forward single plan. If you.have any input, or · as to how that plan should look, I s,uggest you .:vans here, who also is a Coordinator, helping with if the key person. He is your Deputy Emergency Preservation At a time, when the To;wn voted strongly for c~ ~.t: ol the National and State !e~vei, t~e, To~ also voted con a preservation effort to ,ba:sicafiy. co~mmittlng us, taxpayers, to addt~onal support to acquire Farm and Development r~ghts, i 2 5 6 ^uousT 2, ,99 think you know how Farmland Development Rights work. Very briefly, if land is valued at say, just take a number, say $15,000. an acre, and if for agricultural purposes it's worth say, half of that, $7,500., then the development value of that land is $7,500. The program enables the Town to acquire development potential but not the underlined fee title of that land. Why is that m our interest, and why dld the voters of the Town vote overwhelmingly for it, at the same time of the elections of last year. There are two, or three reasons for it, but I just wanted to just mention today, that the protection of open space, and preservation of a rural quality to the town, both the Long Island portion, and the Fishers Island portion, I think is very important to thls Town, and ! think it's important, not just because it's a way of life, it's a quality of life issue, and it looks nice, and because some of us ane farmers. It's important for tax reasons, tax reasons that ultimately will benefit all of us. Studies have shown repeatedly that land, that is not developed, land that is retained in an open space, costs less in services, than the dollars generated in taxes. Alternatively, land that is developed, land that goes into houses, and developing, and .whatnot, although there is a greater tax revenue from those properties, the cost of providing town services to those properties is disproportionately higher still. So, I know the people on Fishers Island have not seen the acquisitions here on the island for Farmland Preservation Program, or for very much open space..I guess no Open Space acquisitions yet. i understand, and we had some discussions about that this afternoon, we understand the value of finding some of those parcels here. But, I wanted to leave with you this afternoon the message that even if there aren't direct benefits to the island, in terms of the land being acquired here, there will still be 'tax benefits to you, as well as to us, on the rest of the town, because land that is preserved helps keep down the overall tax rates indefinitely, and not just for one year. It will help keep down the trend of taxes over a long period of time. This is important to me, and the rest of the Board, :because as some of you may know the Town Board of the Town of Southold last year adopted a resolution, that essentially committed us, as a Board, to ad~pting budgets, that will result in taxes, that will not increase by anything greater than the cost of living. In other words, we'll try to keep flat taxes, and if they do have to increase, okay, we could adopt a tax increase up to, but not exceeding the rate of inflation, which is on the order of, I guess, about 3% this year. So, that our little contribution to try to keep a lid on taxes, and I believe that the '-preservation of farmland, and open space purchases, in a long FUn are a critical key tool to keep that lid on taxes. Finally, there another issue to deal with taxes, and also quality of llfe. that I'd like to mention briefly, and that has to do with Suffolk County, and the proposal to establish a new county called Peconlc County. I'm not quite sure how Fishers Island flts into Peconlc County, but. I'd like .to bring you up to date with a discussion so far about Peconlc County. Peconlc County is an idea, that has been around for a long, long tlme. It involves basically the five east end towns from Riverhead on east, Ri~erhead, Southampton, Easthampton, on the North Fork, Southold and Shelter Island in the middle. It's been around for a long time, but the key 'question people have asked is, hey, what is the tax consequence going to be. It's one thing to say we're in favor of home rule, we're in favor our own county, that sort of reflects our life style, and what we want to see. But, if it's going to kill us in taxes we're going to have to take a pretty hard look at it. Last year with the help of the State, New York State contributed half the money of a $100,000. economic, or fiscal feasibility study to address exactly that question. Some key economists, and public administrative people, got in, were given the job of assessing precisely what impact would the establishment of a new county, Peconic County, have on taxes. Each of the towns paid their proportional share of the ~ther $50~000. That study was finished just recently. I was revised and updated just a week or so ago. I want to share with you very briefly the outcome of that study. First of ail, the study investigated how Peconlc County would be structured, what kind of staff it would have for each of the departmentS. There are various questions that., assumptions that went in the study, that made it possible to cross things out. It was proposed to continue the sales tax at exactly the same rate for comparison purposes for Suffolk County. At the end of the day, when all of that study was done, and basically complete, the study points to a major savings in property taxes spent for'County purposes. The savings, that was originally assumed to be on the order of 15%, and now looks like it's 30 to ~,0% savings over the County portion of our property taxes. Now, County portion is not the biggest portion. I think you all know that the school taxes is the biggest portion, the 'Town takes a major bite, and I think the County comes next. This Peconic County, if in fact it were to occur, there's lots of ifs, and it isn't clear to me 'the 'political route to creating it even if there were a clear majority interest in it. You all know that Staten Island is currently undergoing a lot of the same kinds of questions that Peconlc County is. If it does happen, it looks to the best assessment that has been made so far, the most rigorous, careful, financial feasibility study there will be a savings on the order of 30 to ~0% in the County portion of our property taxes. So, it is an issue that I don't think is going to go away. There will be hearings about it. I hope there will be a hearing held here on Fishers Island in the coming months to discuss further the possibility of Peconic County. There's lots more I can say, but I think I'd like to turn over the next item to the Thames River dredging project, a project that I think is quite close to many of you here, and I think the best way to introduce the subject' is to say, that this is something that many people from Fishers island will not let us forget. The Town Board of the Town of Southold about three months ago passed a resolution calling upon the Department of the Navy, the Department of Defense, to cease and desist all of it's planning to dump the spoil ,in the location that they designated, calling on them to find another location,, that is much further from Fishers Island, if they insist on carrying out this project. We've asked for officials in the State of New York to help us to make those representations with the Department of Defense, and to date there has been some discussion, and some back and forth on it, but it's really an issue that is not directly in the jurisdiction of the town. We're fortunate here today to have with us the Secretary of State Sandy Treadwell. He was out inspecting things, when I tried to introduce him some ten or fifteen minutes ago, and I think perhaps the best thing to do would be to turn the microphone over to him, and let him .explain the status of the discussions, the little trip he made this morning to look at alternative sites, and the state of play. ALEXANDER TREADWELL: This is a very pleasant change from Albany. It's nice to be here today. I'm here with Will Powers, the Deputy Secretary of State for the State of New York, with George Stafford Director of our Coastal Management Program. We're all happy to be here with you. it's a hot day. I'll be extremely brief. As you all know the U.S. Navy h~s proposed dredging contaminated sediment from the Thames River at the "submarine base in Croton, and disposing of the dredged spoil at a Long Island Sound disposal' site located within one and a half miles from this beautiful island. The Department of State has the authority under the Costal Zone Management Act to say, yes, or no, to Federal actlvlties'effecting New York coastal areas. The Department told the Navy that we would review the proposed dredging and disposal. The Navy however has responded that it's proposed dredged disposal, quote, will not effect coastal resources of the State of New York, end quote. We disagree with the U.S. Navy. This morning we took a boat right out to' the 'dump site, and nearby us suddenly appeared a submarine. I'm sure this was a coincidence. We're not paranoid, but we're pursuing every avenue available to us to make sure that the disposal will not affect the people, and natural resources of our State, and the Town of Southold in particular, Thank you all. SUPERVISOR WICKHAM: Ray, do you want to add anything to that? RAY COWAN: I don[t know whether I can add too much to what the Secretary. of State just said. We, too, my aides are also reviewing all the data 'tha~t's been g~.nera:[ed, proposed data that's been generated for the dr. edging, and at th s,.p0int in time we agree with the Secretary that there are pr'o~lbly other alte~-natives, that may be appropriate. We wi be coming forward :With some sort of' analysis in a couple of weeks. SUPERVISOR WICKHAM: Thank you. Ray, are looking at actual options or a Iternatives ? RAY COWAN: Actually I learned of one today, that I thought was very intriguing, that John brought to my attention. Maybe he wants to explain. What seems to be the most common sense thing to do. JOHN THATCHER: John Thatcher from the Fishers island Conservancy, and yes, there are answers to your question. There are several very intriguing alternatives available, and time is of the essence here. We're trying to study them, and evaluate them. One of them, probably the one with the most promise is for the Navy to use for the disposal are two piers that exist at the Naval Underwater Sound Base. Those are huge piers. They can very easily accommodate the Sea Wolf. Even one pier would be sufficient for two subs on each side, The third sub would always be on patrol I presume. There's forty feet of water already dredged on the north side of the pier, and I believe any dredging needed would be at an absolute minimum. Now, this is kind of intriguing, because this is Navy property right now as we speak. The facilities for docking very large ships are already there. They're already in place, and it has a very interesting strategic advantage in the fact that it's below the Gold Star Bridge. People have been increasingly worried that the Naval Base above the Gold Star Bridge would vulnerable to a terrorist bomb on the 195 highway, or the railroad bridge across the Thames River, so that we feel from a National security point of view, and from just a~ home porting point of view, this suggestion has real merit. Any cost involved would, I think, be offset by the creation of additional jobs in Southeast Connecticut area, and I believe, we're going to look at this I~ng, and hard, and propose it, I think, too. The Chiefs of both Connecticut, and New York, there are other methods available. Another one is when you dredge something out of a river bottom basically 80% of it is water, and the Navy Environmental Impact Statement originally suggested that this Would cost $88,000,000., which made it far too expensive, but your Conservancy has been in contact with eng'neers in Massachusetts, who work for companies that do this, and they're most recent bid in writing is $15,000,000. That's a long way from eighty-eight, and strangely enough the Statue of Connecticut hasn't appropriated $15,000,000 to do this thing, and I think all of you are familiar with the advantages of the New Haven dumping over New London, if it is put in the water. New London, as you know Peter, you sall there all [he time, very fast tides, depths, and heavy storm wave possibi.lities. The New Haven site is twice as large, deeper, and well over six miles off shore, and it's over thirteen miles from the nearest Long Island beach. I mentioned three examples, just to give you some example~ of what we're working on qui(~kly, because this has to move very, very fast. Time is certainly of the essence. As I was telling the Secretary of State just a few short minutes ago, we'd like to get something in the works, a proposal that both Governors could consider within a week or two. I hope that answered your question. '-SUPERVISOR WiCKHAM: Thank you, John. I might just add that this issue of the spoilage, and where it's placed', is of some importance to the Long Island portion of the Town, too. It has the potential to impact the shores of the North Fork as well. Are there any other comments on this Thames dredgi, ng. project? If not I'm open to any other issues of concern to the people of Fishers Island. Are there any other comments, that people would like to raise? SPEEDY METTLER: My name is Speedy Mettler. I'm the past President of the Fishers Island Civic Association. Presently I'm Director of the Fishers Island Conservancy for th~ specific purpose which I am about to address. Many of us on Fishers Island are very concerned about the fishing trawlers, that are dragging in our surrounding waters. They appear to be seining everything in waters, and certainly depleting the bait fish, and the sport fish, including the small striped bass, which are presently protected. I would like to have following question, I assume that these should be directed .to the DEC, Who issues these permits to the trawlers? How many are issued each year in each of these three states, that surround our water, that is New York, Connecticut, and Rhode island? What is the exact wording of the permit, because we would like to know exactly what can be taken, and what can not be taken. Is there any way that we can ehm~n~ate the regular trawlers from this area the same way they seem to be elimin.a~ed from Peconic Bay? Who is responsible for the enforcement of the regulations about Which fish can be taken, and are these regulations really being enforced? I ask this question, because since there are three states that ~re are being violated. It's' very easy to 'say, well, we can't do anything, because they're under Rhode Island., they're under Connecticut, they f~sh here, they fish there. They drag it on. I'd like to know frankly how many boats have been boarded in the last year, and how many trawlers, or dredgers have really been. checked out? I guess the main question is, what can we do on Fishers Island to try, and improve the situation~ either to eliminate all the trawlers, or make sure the regulations under which they operate are being enforcedr because i'm not sure that is taking place. SUPERVISOR WICKHAM: I think the first thing to try to answer those series of questions is to flnd out where the ]ur~sdlctlon lies. RAY COWAN: Actually one of my people just told me that might be an interesting use for the gun bunkers, that you have all in the hills up here. I try to anticipate what questions might come up today, and I brought quite a few staff with me. I don't have the appropriate staff to answer all those questions, but I do have Captain Richard Otterstadt here with me today, wh6 is our law enforcement captain, who I think can at least address the law enforcement issues, and then we'll be glad to get back to the gentleman with answers on the other one. CAPTAIN RICHARD OTTERSTADT: I have a series of questions here, that Speedy Merrier had asked just a minute ago. I'll try to give you folks some idea about .what the State does about this issue. However, before I do that, what I would like to do is just to help you folks get a better focus on marine resource, and fishery management in New York State with the various fish that we have here. New York State is a member Of the Atlantic States Fishes Council, together both on Federal, and State, and coastal basis. We collectively are managing all of the different species of marine fish that we have today, fluke, flounder, bluefish, striped bass (tape change) to effectively manage it for the maximum benefit of both recreational and commercial fisherman. In New York State has for the last couple of years now, developed, or is in the process of developing management plans for each different fish, each different species. Those management plans include management approaches such as, quotas, annual quotas, fOr comme.rcial takes, as well as recreational take. It includes minimum sizes. 'it inclU~les closed and open seasons, licenses, limitations, available llcences, and so on, so that if a particular species ]s down a number, the commercial quotas, and recreational quotas, that would be permitted to be taken in.any one year would be substantially Iow, and there could be in fact limited entry. If the fish is restored r obviously the regulations are going to be more liberal to allow the recreation and commercial to enjoy the abundance of that resource. Hopefully I gave you a little bit of a focus on how we approach this issue. Let me answer the questions here, and then we'll go from there. Who would respond to these trawlers? New York State issues commercial fishery permits to New York State residents, commercial fishery residents, and non-residents who states "offer reciprocal commercial fishing opportunities for our residents in their waters. How many of these licenses are issued each year? I don't know that answer. However, if Speedy and somebody else would like a specific number, I will obtain that information, and I will report' that specific number back to you. What is the exact wording of the permits? The permits are essentially, and ! don't know' the exact wording verbatim, however the permits allow a I'icensed individual to engage in that commercial activity, such activities following the various rules and restrictions that are placed upon the licensee. Those rules and regulations can vary for each individual species of fish. We have net description. The net mesh must be m~n]mum sizes for specific fish to allow the undersized fish, inferior fish to pass through that net= ,as it=s being dragged through the column of water. We have as I mentioned season size limits, and so on. The question is, there a way to eliminate these trawlers? My experience, a {aw enforcement factor, is that trawlers close to shore creates a social problem. It's a socket conflict problem. ! don~t know as it's a detrimental resource problem where it's all close to the beach is having any greater impact on any particular species of fish, than elsewhere. More often than not way up west trawlers restrictions on distances from shore have been enacted because of social conflicts, where recreational boaters, that were fishing off the beach had ~ncidents with commercial fisherman, or commercial fisherman their presence was undesirable for recreational bathers, or boats, or whatever. So, ts there any way we can eliminate those trawlers? I think people that might favor that need to weight that with what is a real concern, and a legitimate problem here, versus What may be perceived. Who is responsible for enforcing these regulations about which these fish can be seined? The New York State Environmental Conservation Police are the primary enforcement agency for the New York Environmental Conservation Law, and Fisheries Laws, and my officers patrol the East End of Long island here periodically to check these resident and non-resident commercial fishermen, fishermen and IobSter~en, for compliance with our various TawS. We can get out to the degree that I would like us to, to be very honest with you, and that is only because we have limited staff, and we have a multltude of responsibilities, that go on beyond marine resource and fisheries management. Are these regulations being enforced? To the best of our ability they are, and when we do sent a boat out there, a large patrol boat that we have, that we purchased back in '87 specifically to address the open waters of the east end of Long Island, and Fishers Island, a forty-two footer does come out, with a staff of officers to check these various commercial fishing boats for compliance. What can we do to protect these sport fisherman? Probably to demand more enforcement time from my -delsartment, to lobby, and demand more attention from the State Legislature to help the DEC protect the resource we need to do our job. To kind of give you a prospective on Long Island State Law Enforcement in the mid '70s, we had a staff of 29 officers for all of Long Island, Nassau, and Suffolk Counties. Two decades later, there are 2~ of us, so we have five less than we did twenty years ago, and our enforcement responsibilities are growing. So, we couid~ use a. little bit of help, but we do the best we can. We tend to adjust the squeaky wheel, so if Speedy and some of these folks, that would like to see us spend a little more time out here, to insure these non-resident commercial draggers are complying with our laws, so that only a fair number of fish are being taken, and your share of the recreational catch is there for you, we'll do the best we can. Now, t'll address the specific questions from the audience. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Cormorant? Do you think we'll have a hunting season for CAPTAIN RICHARD OTTERSTADT: Sir. I'm not a wildlife manager, and I know Cormorant is perceived as a nuisance by manY recreational boaters, however from my sport hunting prospective it is probably a not very tasty bird. so it may not do well with our sport hunters, who only hunt to eat the game as well. So, there may not be much of a desire for us sport hunters to shoot them. RAY COWAN.' As a point of information, I have Steve Lawrence here who is a wildlife biologist. STEVE LAWRENCE: I do know that the Federal people, Federal agents, do kill Cormorant. That's something up in the Northeastern United States, up in Maine, and so forth, so maybe addressing that question directly to the Federal government may help ,you. If you call our office, we can certainly provide you with the rest of mformatioh. The Animal Damage Control Office in New Jersey, they need to hear about the problem out here. tt is growing. It is a growing problem. They do have agents that go out and gun them. They get paid to do it. Somebody's got to do it. JOE ANDERSON: Joe Anderson. I'm with the Civic Association. If you look at our island here, you'll see it's a special shape. It's not a round shape. which is a defined shore area..It has' an enormous amount of coastal line for a small island, which to me means that it is disproportionate to be getting any of those fish. No dOubt on Lorig Island you have some protection, some buffer zones where you simply can't drag. is there a possibility of creating some sort buffer around the .island? CAPTAIN RICHARD OTTERSTADT: Again, just as an enforcement prospective what I mentioned to Speedy Merrier was if there's concern about rights to establish some kind of restricted area around parts, or all of the island, for commercial fishing vessels, they should discuss their concerns with our Division of Marine Resources at the Setauket office. Gordon Culven is the director of the Division of Resources, and then work with the local legislators, your State legislators. That's a valid issue for your needs. BILL RIDGWAY: Bill Ridgway. When you go out, and check the trawlers, do you find many violations? CAPTAIN RICHARD OTTERSTADT: No. The trawlers have too much to lose to be always breaking the law. They're going to try to beat the system certainly. Up west on Long Island we do find unlicensed trawlers coming in the creek ports, and some of the other ports. The fish they caught outside of New York, possibly, and they don't have a non-resident landing permit, and they need the bucks, and they try to sneak in real quick to unload, we catch them, we cite them, but it's not a common occurrence to catch an unlicensed trawler. As far as undersized fish, again, they face a lose of license, so unless there's a great profit to be made, I would think they would try to within most compliance with law, so they can continue their business. SUPERVISOR WICKHAM: I'd like to introduce George Prlos, who's with the County Executive's Office. I should have introduced him before. George would you like to make a comment. GEORGE PRIGS: Last week one the bills dealt with this, and as a result we've looked into some of the fisheries. There's about 1,500 commercial llcences are issued in '93, '9~ according to Sea Grant, and he signed a new bill, that would put a moratorium on the issuance of any further commercial licenses. Although New York's own commercial people saw the influx of out of stators in there, and felt that there was a lot of harvesting done, so the way the law reads now, the only people who will be able to get licences, those they currently have them, and any people in New York State who are retiring might give them to their family members. A father is retiring, and wants to pass it on to his son, he can do that, but for the next year and a half there will be a moratorium in effect, as result of the bill. JOHN THATCHER: Can I make one comment, again? John Thatcher, the Conservancy. There are some real problems here, which Speedy Merrier has addressed, and I notice that Cordon Coleman has finally realized that there is a shortage of blackfish, which we've known for ten years, or more. The problem is when you set a quota limit per day, per individual, there's one on bluefish currently, there's one on blackfish, . it's ten. Gee, it's been a couple of years since I've caught ten bluefish in a day. Try three or four per indivldua per day. That's plenty to restore a species, and I would say to you this, that certain bait fish, particularly bunkers, are very:, rare in these parts. They used to be very plentiful. There is a reason why they are very rare. Because certain draggers from New York State have the ability to harvest them, and .sell them to the Russians, which I understand is used for fertilizer, and those permits should be examined very carefully, because the one ! saw a few years ago had in it a little codicil, if you will, a little paragraph or clause, that a commercial fisherman could also keep the bi-catch. Well, when you're talking about bunker, ' and mayhaven, and herring, the bi-catch is -usually striped bass, and I always felt very uneasy about that. CAPTAIN RICHARD OTTERSTADT: Okay, let me address that. The law right now as currently written does not allow bi-catch. You can not take commercial striped bass right now. The regs have a very limited bi-catch, so a dr,agger if they're fishing the eastern waters of Long [,sland, and then catch a striped bass, it's supposed to go back in the water. There is ~no bi-catch, and even if there was, they would still have to abide by the commercial quotas. JOHN THATCHER: I saw the pePmlt myself, so I know it's there. That wor:d, that they were allowed to keep the bi-catch. CAPTAIN RICHARD OTTERSTADT: How tong ago was this? JOHN THATCHER: 1987. CAPTAIN RICHARD OTTERSTADT: The regs are changed every year. We're constantly typing them in order to do a more effective job of eliminating loopholes, and to further protect the fish, while still allowing the maximum harvest that we can allow. JOHN THATCHER: If I could conclude, sir. We'd love to see more of you out here. All it takes is one boarding, and the word spreads. Four, or five on Long Island, four or five in Connecticut, all it takes is one, and someday your problem is solved. SUPERVISOR WICKHAM: Would anyone else like to address the Board today? CHERRY RAFFERTY: I'm Cherry Rafferty. I'm with the Conservancy. This is just off the cuff. ! heard about we might possibly be part of the Peconlc Bay group. I happen to think very highly of their regulations, and the ones that might-be involved with it. I was just wondering, we are part of the Critical Environmental Area, and that's never been accepted by the Town of Southold, but the County of Southoid has. Now, would we go in with the Peconic Bay regulations, and if this is on the ground floor, or just beginning, lid like to see Fishers Island have more say in the regulations, that will eventually be adopted. For example, t'd like to see FIDCO, and Conservancy, and, also, the Civic Association very much involved. We do have land problems over here, and so far i'm happy to hear about fishing, but this is something that might happen to be helped by chdcking with Peconic Bay regulations. I'm not sure, but I'd llke to have more part in our decision on this. Thank you. SUPERVISOR WICKHAM: Thank you: Would anyone like to address the question of a Critical Environmental Area for all of Fishers Island? I don't see any of our Trustees. It's my understanding that all of Fishers Island is part of the Critical Environmental Area. JOHN THATCHER: . I might clear that up a little bit. That is absolutely correct. All of Fishers Island is part of the Critical Environmental Area. That is however a County matter. The Town Board of Southold sitting in front of me now has never addressed that issue, and I think it is a comfort zone issue. In other words, many of us here on Fishers Island would feel more comfortable, if the Town adopted the identical legislation that the County has so far past. SUPERVISOR WICKHAM: Thank you. We take a look at that. Maybe somebody could be that in the nature of a motion, or nature of recommendation that cOmes to the Board for us to take up. I don't recall. having seen it, as a specific recommendation. Anybody else llke to address the Town Board of the Town of Southold on matters of interest to Fishers Island? LESLIE GOSS: Good afternoon. I'm Leslie Goss, Fishers Island Civic Association, current President. Just to address Cherry's comments of a moment ago, the Civic Association while putting together it's 1994 growth plan did trip over the issue of better coordination between Town and County officials, and when it to came to recognizing Fishers Island, we'll be delighted to help you set up whatever procedures, or communications, that need to be established to get that up and running. A Town resolution ~recognizing Fishers Island as a CEA w. ould probably be a start. As you're preparing for your budget for next years, we have a couple of items here on the island, that there is committees of the Civic Association, and other organizations, that they have come up with. As you kndw, the Civic Association has a senior committee, and last year we contributed $~t,000 as a grant to the Town of Southotd to establish the position of Senior Coordinator, we had Frank Gil.lian fill that position here on the island for the Town, and we're hoping [hat as the Town does it's budget for next year, particularly in Human Resources Department, Vi McKeighan, that she works at providing to maintain that position, because it's very important to us here. It's been very successful. The other thing that will be before you, as the year on, is we've been working Ruth Oliva, and Laury Dowd, and we'll be working Valarie Scopaz on a Harbor Management Plan for Fishers Island, and getting that incorporated into a Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan, that you all are putting together, and the committee in doing business has incurred very small expenses, administration expenses, but one of the ideas, that come up in the plan, that was presented to you, is establishing a Harbor Management Fund for Fishers Island, so that all money that is generated here is spent here. I know that's a touchy issue for the Town, but we do have costs whether it's paying our Bay Constables, or administrative costs for the committee operation. We hope that is addressed in the budget, I guess from the Chief of Police is where that comes from, and the Bay Constable Don Dezenkowski. So, we'll put a proposal beforehand, that you will 'eventually see. Very briefly, the tennis courts, believe it or not, have a big crack in them already, so we're going to need to have those recovered, and I know that the island people's project was interested in establishing a fence around them as well, and I'll speak to Jim McMahan, and hopefully he'll talk to other people in the town that need to know about this. But we love those tennis courts, and it was just such heroic time when we got them covered last time, that we want to keep them covered. Also, the thing that we noticed, many of the residents here noticed, is the sidewalk repair issue going on, and that was long needed, and weld like to commend you in initiating that effort, and say that we have AUGUST 2, 1995 263 a long way to go, so we hope that we see more of that in the future. Southold Town is looking at the benefits and consequences of looking at with a bunch of other towns on the North Fork to form Peconic County. This issue presents itself on Fishers Island every now and then, and every couple of years we think about incorporating, or partial incorporation, and we try to do studies here, that will give us an indication of whether it's f~ne to do something like that. In particular as the town is facing sort of inflating police budgets, beginning to look at maybe your own electric company, or for instance your Land Preservation efforts, there is a big constant change for the town, and Fishers Island, 'n some cases, benefits tremendously, as you outlined, Tom, by keeping taxes lowered. But for the most part we do little, and the Land Preservation in particular. Fishers Island does have a couple over here, that you might want to Keep as open space, and we contributed probably since 1983, when it was put on the ballot, over a half a, million dollars to the town for your efforts,, and I hope that we identify our parcels here, that we might be able to come to the town for some level of property, not for a million dollars, but we ask for something, although it won't go into the budget this year. I think that's ali. Thank you very much. Thank you for coming. SUPERVISOR WICKHAM:' If there are no other comments I might just turn quickly to the Town .Board, if any one on the Board wishes to make a comment. Yes, sir? JOHN CLAVIN: My name is John Clavin. i'm a retired taxpayer on Fishers Island. I'd like to discuss just for one moment the subject which you've all heard for fifteen years at least, and that's the garbage problem on Fishers Island. For years we've pleaded with the Board to give us some relief with the fact that we're paying for our own garbage district. We have a tax district, which right now is 4.5 cents for a thousand compared to the fact that we pay $.1.27 for the total town taxes. We got one third more for our garbage district. For fifteen years we've heard that you're going to do something about it. Judy 3~erry sat through every one of those meetings with Bill Pell, with Frank Murphy, and Scott Harris. Everybody is going to do something, and finally two years ago, I guess, after our Garbage District got a lawyer, you finally decided that you would establish a district on Fishers Island, and another district in the town, and we would be relieved of those taxes. Now, ~ was distressed to read Louisa Evans' -' report in the Civic Association, that said that we do not have to pay for the fines of the DEC. Remember we c~idn't argue with the DEC. We closed our plant. We built our transfer station. We bought our equipment, shipping equipment and so forth, all out of our tax dollars. But, Louisa said there was a heated debate on the law as to whether we should pay part of those fines. I have just two questions for the Board. Who on the Board would think that after all these years that Fishers Island should be burdened with anything to do with .Landfill operation on the town, including all the operation of it, the paying Off the bond for all the equipment up there, the fines, the geo water study, whatever they call it. All of those things, including capping, of course, how could anyone on the Board think that we should pay that after all of these years, the fact that we're paying one third more in taxes,' Secondly, can you assure us that none of those expenses I referred to, which would have to do directly with the landfill in Cutchogue, will be burdened on Fishers Island, including the bonding, the legal fees, all. of those things? That someone will allocate that expense and say, that doesn't belong to Fishers Island, that belongs to our Garbage District. SUPERVISOR WICKHAM: Thank you, John. I just have two quick comments, and then maybe I'd like to canvass the Board, and be sure of the facts on this. The first comment is, this Town Board has had Iots of heated exchanges on almost anything. We have a Board with lots of independent points of view, and we often get into heated exchanges that don't really lead to policy, and so the fact that there is an exchange on something to me reflects different people, making different comments, but is not a reflection of policy. My second comment is on a day, that the whole Town Board is here on Fishers Island, you're not going to find a lot of us out here saying that we think all of these costs ought to be dumped on Fishers Island. Let me just canvass, Louisa, you could probably remind us as to the status, the facts as to ~he costs that are..? 2 6 4 AUGUST 2, 199,5 JUSTICE EVANS: There was some discussion on the Board about Fishers Island being responsible as far as the Whole Town Budget for the pena ties and fines from the Southold Landfill, the Cutchogue Landfill, because it was litigation, that was begun before the separate garbage district forms. Luckily, the Board came to the conclusion that Fishers Island would not be responsible for that. So, we are not paying, that it's paid by their separate garbage district. When the separate garbage district was originally formed for the Cutchogue Landfill they did not give that district the ability to bond, so they were unable to finance any of their expenses. The Town Attorney, along with the Town Accountant, and the Town Board work out a system where basically he thinks the equipment that's being used at the Cutchogue has .been bonded for, is being eased from the Whole Town, so in essence Fishers Island is not paying for it, because it's a Solid Waste District in Southold, that leases it from the Town, and that's just paying off the cost of the equipment. I know for years here, that there has been debate about hoTM we've been paying for tt~e Cutchogue Landfill, and paying our own garbage district taxes. Joe Townsend once pointed out to me, that, yes, we w'ere paying into their landfill, but we were also getting benefits from that, in tt~at they've had a sand mine operation there, and that money that they made from that will go back into the Whole Town Budget. So, we were getting the advantage of money coming in, as well as having to pay money, and to have pay for it. So, not that I'm agreeing that we should have been paying for their Landfill, but we were getting the benefit at one point, when they still had the sand-mining operations going on. COUNCILMAN TOWNSEND: Since I made my point, I'm one member, probably have more longevity on the Board, with the exception of Judy Terry, in terms of relation to the Town in office, as Mayor of Greenport, so I~m aware of some of the costs of operation. Our Landfill through the early '80's was pretty much of a wash. The cost per ton was almost negligible. We buried it. We sold the sand, that was dug out to make room for it, and it ended up going on our roads, and we didn't have to buy Highway Department sand. We paid off equipment with that, and so forth. SO, in terms of what Fishers Island was paying for I think it was probably very little. In addition before the special district the Town did contribute to the other landfill, that you had, that we're now paying for out of the Whol_e Town Budget, I might point out, you know, some $270,000. So it: would appear given the cost of the landfill now, that it would be a real burden if Fishers Island were to pay for that. It~is equitable that you have your own district, and we pay for it out of our district, but up until that time l don't think it costs the taxpayers of Fishers Island very much at all, and not having really looked at the numbers carefully it might have even saved Fishers Island taxpayers some money to benefit in what were the advantages of operating a landfill in those days. I don~t know if it makes you feel better, but it might. SUPERVISOR WICKHAM: I'd like to try to draw this part of the meeting tO a close, We have a special opportunity today to have a brief meeting of t~he Suffolk County Planning Commission. Before doing that I would just like to turn to the any of the Board members, that would like to make a comment? COUNCILMAN HUSSIE: I'm very pleased to be here again for the fourth year in your part of Eden that you I~ave. Every time I come here reminded of my terrific faux pas, that the Metal Dump was going to be done in two weeks. That now is wrong, it was two years, and l'm very pleased that it is done. To just add to all of this garbage, and tlhe Cutchogue Landfill situation, if you recall when we signed the contract with, or agreement I guess it was, with the Fishers Island Garbage District, which was the contact which was to end in December, 93,-it was that one of the parts was that Fishers Island would not be responsible for any litigation that might arrive, or any fines that were going to come from that. I just want to assure you, Mr. Clavin, and anybody else tha,t's interested, that the fines have been paid out $200,000 so far this year by funds from the Southold Solid Waste District. It's nice to be here. COUNCILWOMAN OLIVA: I'd just like to say, hello, to everybody out here. It's always been such a pleasure to come here, and work with many of .,/~ou over a number of years, and hope to be doing so in the future, and l~m Iq~st so glad that your Metal Dump is going to be finally taken care of. It's been a long time. Thanks so much, and it's so good to see you. AUGUST 2, ,995 2 6 5 JUSTICE EVANS: i just wanted to extend thanks to Charlie Stapina, and Tom Dorset, and the school in general, for helping us set up in here, and letting us use the building. I want to thank everyone for coming here, because I'm happy to be here, because this is where I'm from, and it's nice that everyone has come over here. So, I thank you all for being here, and thank everyone for their help. COUNCILMAN TOWNSEND; I'd like to echo their sentiments. It's always great to be here. I come over from time to time by boat, and try to keep from getting shot, you know, get off, go to the movies, and ~ really enjoy it. You have a wonderful, wonderful spot. SUPERVISOR WICKHAM: This afternoon we had an opportunity to visit with the Suffolk County Planning Commission RAY COWAN: I want to tell you about the settlement that we've arrived at with respect to that "oil spill we had here a little while back? CARRIE LECHTECTER: A couple of years ago the (unintelligible, dld not come to the microphone.) SUPERVISOR WICKHAM.' Thatms an opportunity we don't often get. I'm open to a motion to adjourn the meeting. Moved by Councilwoman Oliva, seconded by Councilwoman Hussie, it was RESOLVED that the Town Board meeting be and hereby is adjourned at 2:55 P.M. Vote of the Town Board: Ayes: Justice Evans, Councilwoman Oliva, Councilman Townsend, CoUncilwoman Hussle, Councilman Lizewski, Supervisor Wickham. This resolution was duly ADOPTED.