Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy recently submitted legislation seeking to preserve more than 34 acres of environmentally sensitive land within the Town of Shelter Island.

The Klenawicus family farm and airfield is located on Burns and Cartwright roads near Coecles Harbor. The property is also just west of another joint county and town acquisition, St. Gabriel's property (and chicken barbecue field) that was acquired in 2004.

The Klenawicus acquisition legislation, which is eligible for a vote by the county legislature at its March 3 general meeting, splits the $7.203 million price tag of the property with the town of Shelter Island at $3.601 million each. The county and town will each own 17.15 acres of this property respectively.

“It is important during these tight economic times that we maintain the foresight to look beyond our current situation,” Mr. Levy stated in a press release. He added, “Preserving open space — and specifically environmentally sensitive open space — is one such issue. Since the funding for this preservation project comes from the new Suffolk County Drinking Water Protection Program, we can protect this, and other open space, with the comfort of knowing that the funding has already been set aside and will not affect the cash-strapped residents of Suffolk County.”

The Town of Shelter Island voted to spend two percent funds to purchase the airstrip portion of the property in 2008. Once fully acquired, the town will use the property for general recreation.

“I want to thank our partners, Suffolk County and the Klenawicus family, for going ahead with aiding us in this tremendous open space acquisition,” said Shelter Island Town Supervisor James Dougherty. “This is truly a magnificent piece of land, that is rich in history for Shelter Island. It was for years used as a grassland airfield, being one of the only ways on or off the island. This acquisition is great not just for the residents of Shelter Island, but all of Suffolk County.”

County planners issue new guidebook   

Suffolk County's Planning Commission has issued a new Guidebook for Municipalities, its first comprehensive update in a decade, and a project that has been three years in the making.

The guidebook provides municipalities and developers with a clarified checklist of the standards the Commission applies to projects or variances that come to the county planners for review. Copies of the new guidebook have been sent to Town and Village Boards, Planning Boards and Zoning Boards of Appeals in each of the 10 towns and 32 villages and hamlets throughout Suffolk.  

The new guidebook includes a blueprint for Inter-Municipal Agreements (IMA) between municipalities and the County Planning Department and defines projects and variances of relatively minor significance with no regional impact, which do not have to be sent to the County for review. IMAs, already adopted by several towns and villages, greatly cut down paperwork and time for both the municipality and the County, exempting literally thousands of projects from staff review in Hauppauge.

Former Town Supervisor Alfred Kilb Jr. expressed interest in adding Shelter Island to the growing list of towns that have adopted IMA standards; County Director of Planning Thomas Isles hopes to meet with Supervisor Jim Dougherty in the near future to discuss an IMA agreement.

A second highlight of the new guidebook is the concept of Universal Design, which utilizes features such as wider doorways, lower light switches and reinforced bathroom walls to make a newly-built home accessible for handicapped or disabled persons. Municipalities are incorporating these simple features in new construction requirements. A presentation on the advantages of Universal Design will be made to the Town Board early next month.

Other features of the new County Guidebook include clarifying standards of adequate housing options for all residents, minimizing energy consumption and increasing public safety.  Copies of the guidebook, which are free, can be obtained by calling the County Planning Department office at 853-5190.

Linda  G. Holmes, Shelter Island's representative on the Planning Commission

Shelter Island Library gets 4-star rating

The Shelter Island Public Library was one of five East End libraries to receive the distinguished honor of a 2009 STAR rating by Library Journal (LJ), according to a joint library press release.

The Shelter Island Public Library Society, as the local library is formally named, earned a four-star rating, as did the Westhampton Free Library. The Cutchogue-New Suffolk Free, Hampton (Bridgehampton) and Amagansett Free libraries received five stars.

The Library Journal Index of Public Library Service is a new public library national rating system instituted by Library Journal and used to identify star libraries in the United States. The Index rates 7,115 public libraries with a focus on measuring what libraries deliver to their users. The LJ Index looks at statistics that libraries provide to state governments: How many times a year did the average person take out a book, audiobook, DVD or other item from the library? How many times did they come to the library, attend a program, use a public computer?

Of the thousands of libraries reviewed, approximately 250 received a three-star or higher rating. New York State had the most STAR libraries with 34.

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