SOUTHOLD

Housing deserves a department 

We are members of the Community Housing Fund Advisory Board and respectfully request that Supervisor Krupski and the Southold Town Board include funding in the 2025 town budget for the creation of a Southold Town Housing Department and the hiring of at least one full-time employee dedicated to community housing. After a lengthy and arduous process, we produced the Community Housing Plan, unanimously accepted by the Town Board.

The process of arriving at this comprehensive plan involved consultation with housing experts and community members and the review of information and data from a number of different sources. The report itself, and the ensuing recommendations, is an encompassing plan to help Southold Town move forward to address serious housing issues and concerns in our community.

One of the foundational recommendations set forth in the plan is the establishment of a Housing Department, with a dedicated town housing program manager. The Community Housing Fund Advisory Board unanimously agreed to this recommendation. The hiring of this employee is essential to manage, coordinate and facilitate the creation of community housing and administer the Community Housing Fund as set forth in the comprehensive Community Housing Plan dated Sept. 12, 2023.

We were alarmed to learn that the proposed 2025 Southold Town budget does not include funding for this position. Our town requires an employee dedicated to the implementation of the comprehensive Community Housing Plan. Southold Town is clearly at a crossroads when it comes to housing; there simply is not enough affordable housing to house our young people, our first responders and our workforce.

Community housing must be one of the Town Board’s priorities — and the hiring of a dedicated housing program manager is essential to the important objective of creating adequate and affordable community housing. Hence, we implore you to include funding for this position in the 2025 town budget.

Lori Cohen, Cathy Demeroto, Erin Kaelin, Mark Levine, Tanya Palmore 

SHELTER ISLAND

‘Do better, Ms. Hanley’ 

In her letter published in the Oct. 17 Suffolk Times, Elizabeth Hanley, Shelter Island Community Housing Board chair, alleged that I played no significant role in the creation and success of both the Community Housing Plan and referendum. First, it is important to point out that she conveniently omitted that she is also the Shelter Island Democratic Party treasurer. Unfortunately, she let her extreme partisanship cloud her memory and judgment for the political advantage of her party’s candidate for Assembly. What I find most “galling” and infuriating is that Ms. Hanley is using her “loose relationship” with the truth to put into question my integrity.

The copious number of emails and text messages between Ms. Hanley and myself, and others, along with videos of Town Board meetings and work sessions, clearly demonstrates my integral involvement. The Shelter Island Reporter even featured an article entitled “Town Attorney to Board: Fight for affordable housing vote,” after which opponents of the affordable housing described my involvement with the housing initiative as excessive. Further, if there is still any doubt, I invite you to speak to any member of the Town Board who oversaw the passing of the Community Housing Fund legislation, Community Housing Plan and housing referendum. It should be noted that the board consisted of three Democrats, who support my campaign and emphasize my willingness to work with anyone of any political stripe to secure a better future for all. It is quite disheartening that someone who you celebrated with at the Board of Elections when they announced the victory of the housing referendum, would choose revisionist history to score a political point. Do better, be better, Ms. Hanley, and join me in setting an example of how we all should want to bring truth and civility back to the political arena.

Stephen Kiely

Mr. Kiely is a candidate for New York State Assembly.

MATTITUCK

Kudos to civic and school 

Congratulations to the Cutchogue Civic Association, which was honored by the Peconic Community School at its Sept. 28 SHARE Celebrating Cutchogue gala — the first annual event in the school’s new “forever home.” Civic president Carolyn McCall, accepted on behalf of the civic members, saying “how grateful” they were to be honored. “Together we can build on our shared vision of a community where all can learn and exchange ideas, young students and adults alike,” she said.

Downtown Cutchogue was alive with so many people celebrating with the school and the civic.

The Cutchogue Civic Association launched its first official meeting in November 2022 by hosting Peconic Community School founders and sisters Liz Casey Searl and Kathryn Casey Quigley to address their purchase of and upcoming move to the former Sacred Heart property. The meeting room was standing room only, as people were so excited that they were coming to Cutchogue!

Congratulations and best wishes to both the Cutchogue Civic Association and the Peconic Community School.

Mary Eisenstein

RIVERHEAD

USPS empowering customers 

This fall, the U.S. Postal Service held a meeting with the Long Island Postal Customer Council, a gathering that brought together local commercial mailers, business partners and industry professionals as part of 2024 National PCC Week.

The spotlight of the meeting was the USPS’s 10-year transformation plan, Delivering for America.

This ambitious initiative aims to modernize the postal network, enhance service across all mail and shipping categories and restore long-term financial sustainability. Attendees had the opportunity to understand how this plan has been positively impacting businesses across Long Island.

As part of the Delivering for America plan, the Postal Service has introduced several new products and services aimed at helping businesses thrive. From USPS Ground Advantage, a ground shipping solution that provides an affordable and reliable way to send packages inside the U.S., to USPS Connect Local, which gives small to medium businesses access to low-cost, same-day/next-day package delivery to local customers in their neighborhood.

We’re giving businesses of all sizes the benefits of USPS’s optimized network.

USPS offers transparent pricing with no hidden surcharges and Informed Delivery, a free service that gives customers a preview of mail and packages scheduled to arrive soon and the ability to set package tracking notifications and schedule email reminders for important mail pieces.

At the meeting, satisfied industry partners and business professional shared their experiences, highlighting how the Postal Service has enabled them to connect affordably with their customers, especially during a period when business costs are continually escalating.

As USPS continues to adapt and innovate, it remains a trusted partner for businesses on Long Island and across the nation.

Amy Gibbs

USPS strategic communications specialist, Atlantic area

SOUTHOLD

Krupski walks a fine line well 

I read Supervisor Krupski’s Oct.

17 Guest Spot (“It’s time to make some hard choices”). He writes with understanding, clarity and complete honesty, like a father explaining to his child why he could have something he wanted. Sandy Beach residents need to know and understand that their request is not reasonable or practical for our town. I think our supervisor walks a fine line and does it beautifully. Southold Town is fortunate indeed to have a smart, passionate and thoughtful person such as Supervisor Albert Krupski.

Elaine Goldman

MATTITUCK

A word on waste 

Southold Town residents are all aware that garbage has cost (Area officials … management plan, Suffolk Times 10/17). This is commendable in that it makes residents aware of this problem. Most are probably not aware of the importance of waste-to-energy facilities in handling this problem (“Area officials urge Gov. Hochul to enact waste management plan,” Oct. 17). As an adjunct professor of biology at NCC, I taught Bio102, which included ecology, and I took my classes on field trips to the Covanta facility in Hempstead. It was impressive, and they made an interesting presentation. (All the supervisors should ask for a tour.) The guide was usually a PR person, not a tech expert, but they were very knowledgeable. Some questions that should be asked: 

• How does garbage compare with oil and natural gas as an energy source? It is obviously more polluting than solar or wind, but how bad is it?
• What goes up the chimney? I know that they have some type of scrubbers for particulates, but how many toxins are produced by the plastics and other things thrown into the relatively poorly screened waste stream?
• As I remember (this was before COVID), they scan for obvious things like radioactive substances, but can other toxins be produced by burning? Is this regulated by the EPA or other federal or state agencies?
• Finally, what about the ashes that remain? I think that they spread some of it in the Pine Barrens. I also remember discussion about experimental uses such as inclusion in paving. But how toxic is the ash and where does it go?

Waste disposal in our consumer society has come a long way since I was a kid. They just used to dump it all in the ocean. Then it would either go out to sea or back to the beach, depending on the currents at the time. When Mom said the water was dirty, she meant food waste and worse. Thanks to the Times for highlighting this important, continuing problem.

Frederick Stanley

NOTE TO READERS

As noted in two previous issues, we will not publish any further election-related or politically oriented submissions until after the Nov. 5 election. The letter provided by Mr. Kiely appears because it is a direct response from the subject of a letter printed on Oct. 17 [“Kiely’s ‘galling’ claim”].