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Town Board resolution supports grant application for Fishers Island

The Southold Town Board approved a resolution Tuesday supporting a Suffolk County Community Development Block Grant grant application on behalf of Fishers Island’s nonprofit Walsh Park Benevolent Corporation.

According to Councilwoman and Fishers Island resident Louisa Evans, the group is seeking $73,871 in grant funding for landscaping around its proposed affordable housing development project.

Last year, the nonprofit privately earmarked $3 million to convert the second floor of the Hound Lane “Freight Building” into six affordable apartments. The Fishers Island Ferry District will continue to use the first floor of the building.

Walsh Park program manager Matthew Edwards said in August that the group, which already maintains 27 affordable living units on Fishers Island, would only consider applications from year-round island residents.

Proponents of affordable housing on Fishers Island have said that people who work on the island, including EMTs, fire department volunteers and utility company employees, have struggled to find reasonably priced housing in the community, where the median property value in 2016 was $1.5 million.

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