F.I. Ferry District sues Southold, alleges PD squatters

The Fishers Island Ferry District filed a lawsuit against the Town of Southold, Southold Town Board and Southold Police Department on May 29, alleging the town wrongfully and forcibly entered a residential house owned by the Ferry District and has been trespassing there since Jan. 1. 

The complaint filed by the Ferry District alleges that Southold police officers “cut locks with crowbars and ejected all property and people from the” building around Jan. 1 “at the direction of the town and the Town Board.” It also claims 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.”

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.

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. 

“In the face of the Ferry District’s refusal to grant the town the lawful right to utilize the property for town purposes, the Town Board directed the police department to engage in self-help by breaking into and occupying the property,” the complaint alleges. 

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.

The documents state that the Ferry District was issued a rental permit by the town’s building department on June 14, 2023, to rent the building itself through June 14, 2025. The suit also claims the Ferry District spent hundreds of thousands of dollars renovating and improving the property for staff use necessary to continue its operations. 

The complaint further claims that the town advised the Ferry District it would seize the property for use as a police barracks in November 2024, a month before the Town Board’s vote. On Nov. 26, 2024, the Ferry District offered to help the town find a different location for a police barracks on Fishers Island. 

The complaint alleges that the town did not submit a request for Municipal Home Rule, receive necessary state legislative authority or hold a public hearing to revoke the Ferry District’s rental permit to take valid action seizing the property. 

The lawsuit also alleges that the town, Town Board and police department violated Real Property Actions and Proceeding Law Section 853 when they allegedly forcibly removed Ferry District personnel from the house. 

In all, the lawsuit alleges that the town has been continuously trespassing at the Whistler Avenue property since around Jan. 1, “despite the repeated requests of the Ferry District for it to cease its trespass and return control of the property to the Ferry District.”

“The actions engaged in by Defendants herein, have not been seen in this country, if at all, in at least 200 years,” the complaint states. “For a Municipal Police Force to actively eject people and property from a dwelling and illegally occupy said dwelling with no authority under New York State or Federal Law is not only draconian [but] a direct violation of the New York State and United States Constitutions.”

The property and other surplus land were purchased from the United States in the Surplus Land Acquisition by the town for $695,000 in September 1983 for Ferry District personnel housing, parking and other uses. The land purchase was financed, in part, by private donations from William Ward Foshay and the stock donation of J.L. Parsons, with provisions that the land be used for the Ferry District.

In January 1984, the town applied for a variance to create a non-conforming tax lot to divide lands purchased in the 1983 acquisition and reiterated that the 357 Whistler Ave. property was to be used for Ferry District personnel housing. 

The Ferry District is seeking injunctive relief and returned possession of the house, in addition to ancillary relief achieved through a town declaration that its seizure of the property and ejection of Ferry District staff is unconstitutional, with a money judgment for damages to be determined at trial. It also asks for an order awarding the Ferry District $2 million plus statutory interest for alleged violation of donative intent.

The Town of Southold, Southold Town Board, Southold Police Department and Fishers Island Ferry District are due in Suffolk County Supreme Court in Riverhead Wednesday, June 25, at 9:30 a.m. for a pre-motion conference to try to resolve the dispute. The court proceeding will be overseen by Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Joseph Farneti.