News

Help for Group to Save Goldsmith Inlet

Members of the Group to Save Goldsmith Inlet hope to receive capital funding from Suffolk County to study the best engineering solutions for improving the tidal flow in the stagnant inlet.
Group members Hugh Switzer and Lillian Ball are planning to make an appeal for the funding to the Suffolk County Legislature next Tuesday, and Southold Town Board members agreed this week to join them in making the request.
Ms. Ball said the group has already paid for two engineers to examine problems with tidal flow in the inlet, which begins to fill with sand within days of even the most carefully planned dredging.
Town engineer Jamie Richter told the Town Board Tuesday that one of those engineers said a sand bar in the inlet needed to be removed, but the DEC, which would need to grant permits for the work, balked at the project.
“We need to get the science to say, ‘This bar of sand needs to be removed from here,’ ” said Mr. Richter.
Town Board members also reopened a discussion Tuesday on whether to adopt an environmental impact statement prepared for a plan to shorten the single jetty at the west entrance of the inlet. Though board members said two weeks ago that they did not want to proceed with the project or adopt the EIS, the town had already paid for the study and would likely need to do a new one if they decide in the future to go ahead with the project. No decision was made on whether to adopt the study.
No fall brush pickup
Southold Town jettisoned its longtime fall curbside pickup for brush last year as a cost-saving measure and, with the highway department now severely undermanned due to early retirements, brush will not be picked up by town workers this fall either. Residents can take their brush to the town’s compost facility in Cutchogue, free of charge, between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31. The town will pick up brush again during the spring cleanup. Leaf pickup will begin Nov. 29 in Orient.
ID for Alzheimer’s
Southold Town is participating in the Suffolk County Police Department’s Silver Alert Program, a new initiative to provide free ID bracelets to residents suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, so that they can be returned to their families.
Supervisor Scott Russell joked Tuesday that the bracelets could be used on some town employees.
“That’s D-a-m-o-n. Some people think it’s D-a-m-i-o-n,” he said, spelling out the name of code enforcement officer Damon Rallis.
Residents can register for the bracelets at Southold Town Police Headquarters on Route 25 in Peconic.
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