Police boat, crowbars used by officers in alleged ferry district house seizure

Southold Police Department officers arrived on Fishers Island around Jan. 1 with crowbars in hand and ejected “all property and people” from a Fishers Island Ferry District residential house at the direction of Southold Town and Town Board, according to a lawsuit filed by the Ferry District on May 29. 

The $2 million lawsuit alleges the town, Town Board and Southold Police Department violated due process, donative intent and Real Property Actions and Proceeding Law Section 853 when they “forcibly” removed Ferry District staff from the house. It also alleges that the police department has occupied the house without permission or legal right “under threat of arrest or imprisonment of any party to interfere with their illegal occupation.”

“From the moment the police took possession, the district has been reaching out to the town to resolve an issue and the town refuses to engage in any type of dialogue,” Keith Corbett, the attorney representing the Ferry District said in a June 19 phone interview with The Suffolk Times. 

He added that the Ferry District sent the town a letter notifying them it would take them to court, which Mr. Corbett said was ignored after the town attorney acknowledged its receipt. 

“We had no choice but to go to court, because we can’t allow this usurpation of their rights to continue,” Mr. Corbett said. 

Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski declined to comment on the lawsuit, but said the town is “committed to renovating” the police barracks at 752 Whistler Ave. Southold Police Department Chief Steven Grattan said he was asked not to comment on the pending litigation.

The property, located at 357 Whistler Ave., Fishers Island, was unanimously approved by a Town Board emergency action to be used as temporary housing for Southold Police Department officers stationed on Fishers Island during a regular meeting on Dec. 17, 2024. 

The island, governed by Southold Town, takes a half-day’s travel to reach. From Long Island, travelers must board a ferry from Orient Point to New London, Conn., before boarding a second ferry to Fishers Island.

Fishers Island became part of the Southold Police Department’s patrol responsibility in November 2023 after New York State troopers vacated the original barracks out of concern for the living conditions there. Located at 752 Whistler Ave., the barracks, just a few houses down the road from 357 Whistler Ave., had been used by state troopers for more than a decade. 

The Ferry District is a public ferry district, created by the New York State Legislature in 1947 through the Fishers Island Ferry District Enabling Act. It operates and manages the ferries, the ferry dock, the island’s airport and several buildings near the ferry dock. 

According to the court filing, the Ferry District’s electors must approve any transfer of a property owned by the district. The Ferry District Board unanimously rejected the town’s proposed use of the property at its Dec. 30, 2024, meeting and also agreed to work with the town to find an acceptable alternative location for the barracks at land owned by the Ferry District. 

Mr. Corbett said a “suitable facility” owned by the Ferry District located across the street from the 752 Whistler Ave. barracks was provided as an alternative to 357 Whistler Ave. as a living space for officers stationed on the island.

“The town refused to acknowledge and accept it and then engaged in self-help and took a different building,” Mr. Corbett said. 

The Ferry District was issued a rental permit by the town’s building department on June 14, 2023 to rent the building through June 14, 2025, according to the lawsuit documents. The permit allowed up to eight people to stay at the house.

The Ferry District helps offset costs needed to operate the island’s airport and ferries burdened by Southold residents through leasing spaces it owns, Mr. Corbett explained. The 357 Whistler Ave. property received hundreds of thousands of dollars in renovations paid for by the Ferry District and approved by the town in efforts to create a “vital revenue source for the district,” he said. 

“And instead, the town takes it and denies them that opportunity,” Mr. Corbett said of the alleged seizure of the property since Jan. 1. “[The Ferry District] have a budget being planned, their [next fiscal budget], that would have contemplated this revenue stream, that right now they can’t rely upon. And that could significantly impact the finances of the district.”

M. Corbett described the Ferry District’s relationship with past town administrations as “amicable” and said the Ferry District was “shocked and appalled by the egregious conduct” at the 357 Whistler Ave. property.

All parties are due in Suffolk County Supreme Court in Riverhead Wednesday, June 25, at 9:30 a.m. for a pre-motion conference. The court proceeding will be overseen by Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Joseph Farneti.