This week in North Fork history: State aid and county cuts
30 years ago
School district aid restored
It’s a similar story every year: The governor proposes massive cuts in state aid to schools in January before the state Legislature restores funding in late March.
In the March 31, 1983 issue of The Suffolk Times we published an info box showing how much aid to each district would be increasing or decreasing in the 1983-84 school year.
So how much has state aid gone up in the past 30 years? Take a look:
Greenport
1983-84 — $704,586
2013-14 — $1,303,828
Mattituck-Cutchogue
1983-84 — $952,577
2013-14 — $2,667,380
Oysterponds
1983-84 — $129,566
2013-14 — $344,362
Southold
1983-84 — $667,790
2013-14 — $1,689,213
50 years ago
Local boys walk to Riverhead
Several weeks after a story was published in The Suffolk Times detailing several youths who walked from Riverhead to Orient and back, a group of Southold Town residents set out on a similar journey, we reported on March 22, 1963.
Four young men — Antonio Jimenez, Eric Soqust, Mike Tuthill and Bill Reiter — set out from Greenport at 3 a.m., making it to Riverhead by 10:15 a.m. They began their return trip at 11;45 a.m., but fatigue soon set in, we wrote. Mike and Bill only made it as far as Mattituck and Antonio and Eric called things off after reaching Cutchogue.
“The four weary hikers reached home via the comfort of an automobile,” we wrote. Needless to say, they all slept soundly that night.”
75 years ago
Supervisors continue fight for bridges
The County Board of Supervisors showed its support of a plan to explore the feasibility of building loop bridges at Smith Point and Shelter Island in March 1938, according to a Suffolk Times story.
Riverhead Town Supervisor Dennis Homan had proposed a bill to rescind a $60,000 appropriation to create a “fact-finding committee” on the bridge issue, but eight of the board’s 10 members voted against his bill.
80 years ago
County cuts $50,000 in expenses
County workers making more than $1,000 a year agreed in March 1933 to a 15 percent reduction in salary. The agreement, along with several other expense adjustments, was expected to save Suffolk County $50,000 annually, according to an article in the March 31, 1933 issue of The Suffolk Times.
Among the other cuts: Heads of departments agreed to receive just 50 cents a day in food allowances, down from $1 the year before.
