Letters to the Editor: What are Soloviev’s priorities?
Greenport
What are Soloviev’s priorities?
Last month, Stefan Soloviev’s unusual interview with a national magazine was covered by this newspaper. The billionaire, whose companies reportedly own more than 1,000 acres of North Fork farmland and open space, now calls himself a “land trader,” adding he’s not here “to save the North Fork’s agricultural heritage.”
Those who have followed his local land purchases since at least 2013 were not surprised. Still, questions remain: As he’s purchased property from Riverhead to Southold and Shelter Island, Soloviev has repeatedly changed his tune.
In June, he said the East End is “not my focus” while hinting that, based on North Fork real estate values, he’s likely to continue buying land.
In 2020, Soloviev told a Suffolk Times reporter, “I want to do what’s best for the community,” Not long after, he bought the Chequit Inn and Shelter Island Pharmacy, which promptly stopped operating as a pharmacy.
In 2019 after purchasing Santa’s Christmas Tree Farm at auction, he said he was “done buying land.” Later that same year he claimed: “I’m farming. That’s what I do.” Then, in September 2019, Soloviev reportedly installed his 17-year-old son as the head of his “agricultural operation,” saying the company planned to farm hemp.
In late 2019, in The Suffolk Times, he said, “I’m really tired of talking about the North Fork … It’s not my priority.” A few months later, he walked that back, explaining he was really “stressed.”
These are just a few of the flip-flops. So, what should we count on from one of the larger East End landholders? While nowhere near his holdings in the western U.S., his companies hold enough land locally to have a disproportionate impact on our environment.
Soloviev may not give a whit about farming, but the wind and the salt water — and shrinking freshwater aquifer — hold the power to reshape, and devastate, our narrow 30-mile-long peninsula.
Finally, there’s the values question. He was recently quoted: “How pathetic would it be if in my backyard there’s an opportunity and I don’t take advantage of it?”
I’m all about taking advantage of opportunities. But how pathetic would it be if in OUR backyard we couldn’t shape and contain his proposed developments in a way that advantages our fragile environment?
Suzanne Donovan
Southold
North Fork or North Korea?
Our dear leader’s goons are amongst us!
Something is seriously wrong when a farmer gets a visit from the Secret Service for exercising his First Amendment rights. I don’t care who you vote for, it’s beyond comprehension and un-American!
I will expect a loud knock on the door. Yours is next!
Paul Savage
Southold
Fireworks and bonfires
It’s a growing tradition for folks to put on their own firework displays, despite laws to the contrary. Have you noticed they’re getting grander and more thrilling each year?
Judging from the shows around Kenney’s Beach, law enforcement couldn’t possibly control the out-of-control celebrations. Luckily, on July 4, the fire department and Mother Nature could — this time. A big swath of beach grass and dune caught fire just east of Kenney’s that night. Our firemen were here quickly but the fire had spread down the beach. If not for the downpour that extinguished it, it could have destroyed much more.
Just before the storm broke, wind came predictably blowing in at 50 mph. Unfamiliar with our weather patterns, non-locals continued to send their explosives out toward the Sound. Those fireworks and their bonfires blew backwards toward our houses! Do they understand the first word in FIREworks? They certainly aren’t aware that with our summer storms, high wind off the Sound is the telltale.
Speaking of the common occurrence of bonfires on our beaches, they are prohibited by law. But even a Suffolk County camp sanctions them — children playing with fire. Last summer they lit one in 20 mph west winds blowing back toward their own camp.
Kenney’s Beach is one of the North Fork’s nicest Sound beaches. On Jan. 1, 2001, our community civic group planted plugs of American beach grass on our bare, flat-as-a-pancake beach. Come on down and see the six-foot dunes built up by our grass. Then look east a few houses to the blackened backyard of our neighbor. Chilling to think where that fire might have spread if the heavens hadn’t dropped buckets of water to save us.
Lynne Normandia
Laurel
Check with the state
Greenport officials, seemingly racing toward implementation of a residential parking system to blunt local criticism of new downtown parking fees, appear to have missed a step: They haven’t asked the lawyers if they can do this.
While state law gives village boards general authority to regulate traffic and parking on local roadways with certain limitations, the law appears not to give localities the right to treat residents and non-residents differently. A handful of cities and villages have implemented so-called “residential parking systems” that include public highways, but only after the state has adopted specific statutes allowing them to do so. These statutes typically describe the terms and conditions of such systems and the specific geographic areas covered, often down to the street.
It’s a different story for village-owned parking fields. Village boards can do pretty much what they want to there, but as for public streets, I’d recommend getting Albany’s cooperation before promising residents preferential treatment when it comes to on-street parking downtown.
David Levy
Greenport
Go on the record
Village residents have been vocal recently about paid parking and the Third Street basketball court. Those conversations show how much people care about our village. But while these topics generate plenty of online discussion, the issues that will shape Greenport’s future require something far more important than Facebook comments. [They require] your physical or written input placed on the official Village meeting record.
If your concern is not expressed at a public meeting or submitted to the Village Clerk, it does not enter the record. And if it is not in the record, it cannot influence a single vote, resolution or funding decision.
This is not red tape. It is transparency.
Public comment at meetings and letters submitted to the clerk ensure that every resident, not just the loudest voices online, has equal access to the process. They create a time-stamped, permanent record. They prevent misinformation. And they guarantee that your concerns are preserved exactly as you intended.
Facebook posts do none of these things. They are not fact‑checked, not documented and not accessible to all residents. They cannot be used in deliberations, and they cannot be relied upon when the Village is audited or required to demonstrate compliance with state or federal requirements.
If residents want their voices to shape the decisions that matter most — the infrastructure that protects our waterfront, the facilities our families use, and the systems that keep our village functioning — their input must be delivered through the channels that guarantee accountability: public comment at meetings or written submissions.
Your voice matters. But it must be in the record to count.
Mary Bess Phillips
Greenport Village trustee
Southold
No borders
The air quality this past week was horrid. Wildfires in Canada are paying no attention to borders.
Today’s lesson for [those] supporting relaxing EPA laws because they are not in New York: Look at the hazy sky and burning eyes as a cautionary tale. This big blue marble we inhabit has no borders to keep bad things away from us.
Rosellen Storm
