Letters to the Editor: A heartfelt thank you
Southold
A heartfelt thank you
It’s already been over a month but it almost seems like yesterday. Some memories of that day are way too personal and that’s why they are tucked away in a special heart-shaped locket next to my heart. But the important lesson is that we are all resilient and we are so because of those around us who support, care and just show up. And obviously that is what we all need to do each day is show up and be positive and welcome all the smiles and hugs offered us.
And I received many of those on that day a week later at St. Patrick’s Church in Southold to honor and celebrate Tom Doolan’s life. I was in a bit of a fog that day and I so wished I had stood at the back of the church and greeted each and every one of you who attended. Many of you sought me out and I am thankful for that but I just wanted to thank all who showed up to support Brian and me.
A special thanks to all the medical community at Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport, Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, Stony Brook University Hospital in Stony Brook, Peconic Landing in Greenport and all the special personnel at The Bluffs, Catholic Health Home Care and Southold Fire Department Ambulance Company for all their care, support and response over the years.
Finally undying thanks to all our home aides for their devoted care over all these past years. And most importantly, thanks to our son, Brian, for being my rock through all of this. A life shared is definitely a life worth living.
Betty Doolan
Southold
Why I’m running
In June, I wrote an editorial highlighting problems our town is facing with our marine ecosystem. Over the past 30 years residents have seen the decline firsthand: the disappearance of cordgrass in our creeks, the loss of bogs, ribbed mussel beds and marsh islands and, in some cases, the vanishing of upper beach wetlands. The same can be said for our bays, where much of the life is disappearing or dying off. While the bays are not exclusively under the Trustees’ purview, what flows from the creeks — where the Trustees do have oversight — directly impacts the health of our bays.
I believe there are many ways we can begin to mitigate these issues and work to restore our marine environment, with the help of both the community and the township.
If elected Trustee, I would work closely with state and county officials, institutions, environmental programs and foundations to secure grant funding for habitat restoration projects. These could include strengthening and rebuilding certain creek areas before reintroducing marine grasses, as well as implementing clean water, sewage and drainage projects, shellfish restoration initiatives and coastal erosion control efforts.
I would also push for the town to allocate more funding for shellfish restoration and ask that funds from the community preservation tax be used for clean water projects.
We also face multiple coastal erosion issues, many of which have been neglected for decades. Addressing these must become a priority, and it is something I will take on if elected Trustee.
Most importantly, I will be a strong voice for the more than 2,000 acres of underwater lands and the 100 feet of shoreline that fall under the Trustees’ stewardship. This includes monitoring and opposing practices that may cause harm, such as the use of pesticides or lawn care products near creeks, bays, and wetlands. There is a reason why our once productive waters are now largely devoid of shellfish and why so much wetland and saltwater vegetation is disappearing.
I believe I am a candidate with both the knowledge and the courage to begin solving these problems. I respectfully ask for your vote on Nov. 4.
Nathan Andruski
Mr. Andruski is running for Town Trustee on the Conservative and Republican lines.
Greenport
Mismanagement
It is Greenport once again. There is a political malady afflicting the village — mismanagement. At the threshold, we should understand that there are essentially three principal elements that give a community vibrancy: residents, merchants and visitors. There are about four elements that give a community appeal: cleanliness, safety, aesthetics and vibrancy — mildly circular in that sense. The village political leadership operates outside of some those considerations.
The village is experiencing broken sidewalks, vacant storefronts, higher property taxes and increasing utility costs with, it seems, an inability to reach compromises where they can be reached. While recognizing damaged sidewalks and a dearth of merchants needs no consensus, dealing with private short -and long-term rentals is susceptible to concessions on both sides. As a practical matter, I don’t think three-day tenants are more disorderly that two- or four-week tenants, but I do think reasonable regulations can serve the landlord and neighbors. (I have not found any objective empirical data supporting the proposition that short-term tenancy is more disorderly than others, and most of these online reports are anecdotal and rely on stereotypes.) We must contemplate the rights of both and fairly balance those legal entitlements. Equity — that is fairness — is especially important because there are more residents than landlords, or even other merchants.
It is the job of local government to fix the sidewalks, facilitate commerce, control taxes and utility costs, and propose a code that can be acceptable to a range of constituents. Problem-solving requires identifying the harmful situation and using critical thinking, creativity and imagination to make a correction. The never-ending conflict that is overwhelming our culture should stop first in small towns. That is the responsibility of our local leaders. Stated simply it requires vision, trust, collaboration and action.
Michael Butler
Southold
Thinking outside the box
The idea of “affordable housing” in Southold is often discussed, but rarely defined. What does “affordable” really mean? Is it a $350,000 home or a $2,500 monthly rental? On the North Fork, a household now needs roughly $250,000 a year to live a middle-class lifestyle, buy a home in today’s market and avoid juggling multiple jobs. Without a bold solution, Southold risks losing the very people who keep this community running.
Fortunately, a practical and fair path may exist. In the 1980s, many local lots were merged under single ownership. Today, hundreds remain tied up, leaving property owners to fight costly and frustrating legal battles to undo mergers. Instead of wasting time and money, these owners could donate their merged lots to Southold’s affordable housing program. In return, the town would grant a 30-year property tax exemption on the donor’s primary residence, as long as it stays in the family name.
These donated lots would then be allocated through a lottery system. A modular home — priced around $400,000, a realistic benchmark for the North Fork — could be placed on each lot. Buyers would select from several pre-approved modular designs, ensuring cost control and quality.
Consider John, who pays $8,500 annually in property taxes. By donating his merged lot, he could save $255,000 over 30 years, equivalent to the value of a lot he cannot sell. Additionally, the modular home and donated land, with a combined appraised value of approximately $800,000, would provide banks with sufficient collateral to approve a $400,000 mortgage for a modular construction loan for the lottery winner.
This program would distribute affordable housing across Southold, give young families and blue-collar workers a real chance to stay and blunt NIMBY objections by using existing land and offering homeowners a powerful incentive. Southold has the opportunity to act now — or risk watching its future slip away.
Jason Taggart
St. Louis, Mo.
MHS security
I came back to Mattituck High School this summer for my 25th class reunion. I went on the tour with Mr. Petretti. I want to say I was very impressed with the security. I compare it to the school I currently teach at and my background in that school district. I currently teach in the public schools in St. Louis, Mo. We are an inner-city school district. We have experienced a school shooting. On the morning of Oct. 24, 2022, a former student opened fire at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School. That school is only a couple of blocks from my school, and we feed into that school; I am at Shaw Visual and Performing Arts Elementary. The school shooter was my former student. We went on lockdown that day. The sights and sounds we heard I don’t wish on anyone. While it was not my building, we were deeply affected. Former students came running to our building. Parents came running to our building. Police and fire [were] flying past our building. That day is forever etched in my mind and it wasn’t even my school. MHS has more security than my school building. We don’t have a security guard. The only thing we have is doors to our building that are locked. Compared to other schools, MHS has great security.
Carolyn Brannon Kramkowski
Orient
Sounds of silence
Our freedom of speech is in danger. The suspension — and quick reinstatement — of Jimmy Kimmel’s show reminds us of the power of good old American boycott. We used it in the 1770s against Britain’s taxation without representation. Remember the tea boycott?
But a second threat, harder to boycott, is media consolidation. Three conglomerates — Gray Television, Nexstar and Sinclair — control 40% of local news stations and operate in over 80% of our markets. This dangerous consolidation has cut media ownership from 50 companies in the 1980s to only a few today.
Is the FCC promoting competition, innovation and protecting free speech, its core mission? Quite the opposite, instead pushing for more mergers and threatening to revoke licenses if it (the White House) dislikes what’s being broadcast.
Far from a free market, this is a big government shakedown by intimidation and mob-style tactics. Like in Russia, where everyone is afraid, and self-censures. Do we want that?
The First Amendment is ours. We protect it by speaking out, using our economic power. Transparency and accountability strengthen democracy. Call for congressional hearings to demand why the FCC chair is weaponizing the agency to muzzle the media and silence us all.
Mary Morgan
Cutchogue
Illogical
So again we have illegal aliens committing crimes throughout the country. When apprehended by state and local law enforcement and then being placed in local jail a waiting determination of charges or release. In the meantime ICE, a federal law enforcement agency, based on probable cause puts a detainer in place so they can pick up the individual under court order and jurisdiction. However, the state somehow uses its authority to ignore the federal agency request and releases the individual to the streets.
How does this make sense? It makes as much sense as those southern states who withdrew from the Union because they didn’t like the election of Lincoln!
Biden told us he could not secure the border without “comprehensive immigration reform,” well Trump secured the border with executive orders and enforcing immigration laws. We may need some definitions clearly defined within the present immigration laws, but there just isn’t any movement in that direction regardless of which party is in power.
Actions by state and local government to basically obstruct the enforcement of Constitutional law are wrong. The rhetoric of the left continues to incite opposition rather then compromise thereby placing law enforcement in potential life threatening situations.
All this is just plain illogical and borders on the definition of Insanity. When will the sanctuary States realize Immigration is the domain of the Federal government and following constitutionally passed law is required not optional?
We live in strange times. I have always lived by trying to do the right thing and when that voice tells me something does not feel right I don’t do it. Why is ignoring the law now considered right by so many. The consequences of doing so is often deadly.
Bob Bittner
Southold
Open letter to LaLota
You have family, so do I. We are lucky to have people we love and love us. You are an elected representative of our district. So, while my responsibilities are far less than yours, I do have the responsibility to speak up and let my voice heard. I have a simple legacy-daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, friend, human. Yours is more complex. I don’t pretend to know what motivates you to bend the knee to Trump. Is reelection THAT important to you? I do now that history will find you, and most of your fellow Republicans, lacking in, not only your civic duty, but as a human being, to vote against his “Big Beautiful Bill.” Talk about an oxymoron. I disagree with most of what the administration has enacted and hired, but the stripping of health care is the worse. You have gold standard in benefits and yet you care not one iota about the rest of the working poor in this country. Project 2025 will be the funeral for this country. Your support for Donald Trump will be the first line in your obituary. I’m glad that won’t be mine. It’s not too late to stand up to our own little Putin.
Rosellen Storm
Cutchogue
MASA: Make America sick again
Since the 1980s, infants born in this country have been given the hepatitis B vaccine within 12 hours of birth. Long-recognized statistical studies show that before the vaccine was developed, 90% of babies born to mothers carrying the infection would also become infected, mostly through labor and delivery. Of those, 25% would die and the remaining 90% would develop chronic lifetime health problems, including cirrhosis of the liver, liver failure and liver cancer. The numbers were roughly 20,000 babies infected, 5,000 of whom would die. The hepatitis B vaccine reduced the infections from 90% to 1%.
Now along comes the nation’s No. 1 medical quack, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who, with his merry band of discredited anti-vaxxers are about to declare that babies should not be vaccinated any longer at birth. Why? Well, mostly because they’re anti-vaxxers without any legitimate data to suggest they know the slightest thing about how, or even that, hepatitis B is contracted at birth.
If the Kennedy bunch is successful in stopping the delivery of hepatitis B vaccines at birth, there is every reason to believe the numbers will go back to 20,000 or more infected babies, and at least 5,000 or more infant deaths.
And who will be responsible for all these dead children? Well, how about the guys who interfere with the vaccination of babies born to mothers carrying the infection? But maybe even more significantly, how about United States Sen. Bill Cassidy, M..D, the guy who voted in favor of confirming Kennedy as secretary of health. It is reported that Cassidy, before he was a politician, was a medical doctor specializing in liver diseases. Now he’s just one more politician who chose to put his party before the lives of innocent babies who would otherwise not die.
Michael Levy
Southold
Be prepared
I am informing the community that the New York State Progressive Legislature has approved the 2026 Energy Conservation Code. This code mandates that all new homes be all-electric, prohibiting gas service. Additionally, any home alteration costing more than 50% of the property’s value must comply with the new code. Other provisions, such as enhanced insulation or renewable energy requirements, may increase the cost of building a new home. Builders and homeowners need to prepare.
Joseph Fischetti
Jamesport
‘Dismayed’
As a longtime member of the Greater Jamesport Civic Association, I am dismayed that we will not have a full slate at the candidates’ forum this election season.
Mr. Hubbard’s contention that Laura Jens-Smith’s positions as president of the civic association and chair of the Riverhead Democratic Committee makes her “anointed … as dictator of all the debates,” is not only rude, it shows unveiled contempt for the opposing party.
Ms. Jens-Smith was not the moderator of the forum. So what’s the problem?
Please advise Mr. Hubbard and his co-candidates for re-election that a forum that is going to happen a few miles up the road from Jamesport is not going to keep Democrats from having their voices heard.
We have never been so divided as we are now.
Leadership qualities would indicate the best way to proceed is to meet your opposing candidates and have a frank, unvarnished discussion of the issues, not name-calling from Town Hall.
That being said, I am sincere in the hope that Mr. Hubbard and company will reconsider their position.
Vincent Spampinato
Riverhead
Craft’D is missed
We went to Craft’D Tavern for its final high-energy night. It was full with a very diverse clientele.
Sean Kenna created a vital, authentic and successful small business loved and enjoyed by the Riverhead community. It was destroyed by a Town Board that preferred to reward its biggest donor, Joe Petrocelli, so he could make more money from a five-story luxury hotel for tourists plus condominiums. The looming commercial choice they made for the Town Square park can be seen at tinyurl.com/RiverheadTS.
Petrocelli will rush to employ his wrecking ball next month, demolishing Craft’D and the historic inlaid floor in the Swezey’s office on the second floor. However, construction won’t start until the new year. Supervisor Tim Hubbard told the last Town Board meeting that even if the majority changes in the Nov. 4 election, nothing can be done to save the Town Square park.
Hopefully Jerry Halpin, Kevin Shea and Mark Woolley can prove him, Bob Kern and Ken Rothwell wrong and bring back an expanded Craft’D in a building that balances and complements the Long Island Science Center on the opposite side of the park.
Mr. Hubbard has been less than transparent in this process, claiming in one board meeting that he was trying to find Sean a similar downtown space at the same price. When challenged with Sean’s statement that the alternative would cost three times as much, Hubbard denied at a subsequent board meeting that he had said anything about cost.
Still unresolved is whether the transfer of land that was obtained with town funds for use as a public park can be sold for the profit of a private developer without authorization by the state Legislature.
John McAuliff and Mary McDonnell
