Letters to the Editor: ‘Get it together’
Southold
Get it together
I do not claim to know the rules and regulations for building a house, shop, mall, etc.; however, placing a 6,000-chicken farm in a residential area should set off a warning alarm in every thinking person’s head in our town. Where are the agencies? Where are the people who supposedly understand the problem?
Get it together, guys and gals, before it’s too late for our beautiful Southold Town.
Elaine Goldman
Cutchogue
‘Suckers and losers’
In May 2025, the Trump administration terminated the Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase Program. This has caused more than 10,000 veterans to lose their homes dues to foreclosure sales. More than 90,000 additional veterans are in the foreclosure pipeline.
To President Donald J. Trump, we definitely are “suckers and losers” — and he treats us that way. Meanwhile, Trump plans to build a triumphant arch honoring himself at Arlington National Cemetery.
Any comment, Representative LaLota?
John Gibbons
Greenport
A good alternative
Has anyone else recently received e-mails from Nick LaLota? He seems obsessively pleased with his support for the One Big Beautiful Bill. He says it gives us lower taxes by increasing SALT deductions and reducing taxes on Social Security and tips. He ignores the greater benefits given to corporations and the very rich, which dwarf the other provisions and contribute to our yawning federal deficit.
Nick is not so quick in informing us that he did not buck the president and vote to prevent Haitians from losing their protected status. He apparently believes that they should be deported back to Haiti, a place so dangerous that the state department warns Americans to stay away. ICE continues to snatch law-abiding immigrants off our streets and whisk them away, indifferent to their contributions to our communities. I guess if you have SALT, you don’t mind ICE.
I recently met Chris Gallant, campaigning to represent the 1st Congressional District. Only 36, Chris already has a 20- year career in public service, in the military, as an air traffic controller and as a volunteer firefighter. He is young, smart and empathetic. The contrast with Nick LaLota could not be clearer. I am supporting Chris Gallant, a real “representative” of NY-1.
John Schopfer
Riverhead
The EPCAL opportunity
Riverhead’s legal victory over the Ghermezians on the EPCAL contract is very welcome. Now that the town has regained control, the challenge for Supervisor Halpin is how to bring the greatest long-term benefit to the whole community. As a participant in EPCAL Watch, I offer these thoughts.
The supervisor should create a transparent and democratic process that supports wide participation in determining the future use of a unique community resource with multi-generational impact. He should invite the advice of economic and social planners in universities, professional associations and the private sector who might want to publicly contribute perspectives on how to best use EPCAL, and establish an open process for citizens of Riverhead to make their own suggestions and describe their dreams. We can learn from each other right away through online exchanges, which can lay the ground for a two-day in person forum with plenary brainstorming discussions and breakout groups to perfect shared interests.
It would be a mistake to assume that the best use is simply to recreate the manufacturing jobs of Grumman Aviation. We must not wait for the next ski tower or drone scheme to arrive; no more Petrocelli-style projects launched behind the scenes and presented as a fait accompli. Personally, I hope that any aviation use is forever off the table.
The one thousand non-developable acres need to be permanently sequestered and protected for environmental reasons. Ideas I’ve heard so far for the 600 developable acres include: returning them to descendants of the farmers from whom the Navy took them; a regional cultural/performance center; a sports hub; a permanent race track; a wind farm; mixed-use agriculture integrated with solar farms; a Shinnecock casino; expansion of manufacturing enterprises already in the Industrial core; a plant to build modular housing; data centers; parkland with hiking paths and campgrounds; use of the rail spur for a distribution center. No doubt many more, as good or better, are out there. The best may come from mutual stimulation and discussion.
The advisory group that worked with Mr. Hubbard and department heads should publish the parameters and procedures they developed for EPCAL proposals. Letters to the editor like this one about the best way to move forward can start the ball rolling.
John McAuliff
Riverhead Watch
Aquebogue
Out-of-control taxes
After years of breaching the tax cap and close to double-digit tax hikes the past few years, Riverhead’s bumbling Town Board spent their last meeting apologizing for multi-million dollar mistakes by the Town Assessor.
The Friar’s Head fiasco may be only the tip of the iceberg. Despite massive commercial development, citizens have seen no relief. After nearly half a century, a reassessment is constitutionally mandated. The board needs to get to the bottom of the assessor’s continuing screw-ups and control its own excessive spending and tax giveaways.
Ron Hariri
Baiting Hollow
Enough is enough
Riverhead residents’ property taxes have increased exponentially the last two years because of a mistake (or incompetence?) in the assessment of Friar’s Head, an exclusive 350-acre golf course on Sound Avenue, with a clubhouse, three guest cottages (not in town code) and a helipad catering to members only at a fee of $250,000.
The property was assessed nearly two decades ago including undeveloped land because it could potentially be subdivided, thereby increasing its value. Friar’s Head paid $7 million in property tax, then filed a lawsuit and won.
The court found that the town erred in including the potential value of 85 undeveloped acres in the overall valuation. Imagine you were taxed for a pool because you have a large backyard and could put in a pool but haven’t? In 2019 the state Supreme Court ordered the Suffolk County comptroller to refund the overpayment, lower the assessment and reimburse the golf course. The town appealed and, in 2024, the lower court’s ruling was upheld.
In 2025, the total charge added to our property tax bills was nearly $2.8 million (a 44% jump in my bill) and in 2026, a charge of $7.2 million (a 160.2% hike in my bill). That’s already nearly $10 million. Next year we’ll pay for their mismanagement again. The club is also challenging their tax bills from 2018-22. Get ready.
Where did the original $7 million payment go? Into the general fund? Once a lawsuit was filed, it should have been put into escrow. Now it’s on us to repay. How convenient for the town.
The 2008 assessment was done by staff presumably no longer working in the assessor’s office, but the current staff was there when the decisions were handed down. Surely, they informed the Town Board.
Why haven’t we heard about this? During the recent budget process, the Town Board and previous supervisor kept us in the dark, all the while increasing a cap-busting budget year after year.
Why hasn’t anyone addressed or explained this horrific mistake? What we have heard is crickets.
How many other such lawsuits are out there that we don’t know about? Any monies that require repayment should come from the fund balance reserves already on hand.
The well is dry. Enough is enough.
Claudette Bianco
