Category: Letters

This letter was directed to SoutholdVOICE President, John Kramer, and is published here with the permission of the author.

John,

Please consider this my letter of resignation from membership in
SoutholdVOICE. While I am adamant that my membership in the
organization has not influenced my vote on any permits related to
members of the organization in the past, or would in the future, I
understand the perception which might exist with my dual role as member
of SoutholdVOICE and as a Trustee.

I appreciate your understanding.

Sincerely,

Dave Bergen

Dave Bergen is a Southold Town Trustee

To the Editor,

I should like to address your editorial piece “Doesn’t look good.” SoutholdVOICE’s guidelines concerning government officials, stipulates that an elected official may join our organization, but may not serve on the board, as any officer. Mr. Bergen, who is a member because he has chosen to support our goals, holds no such position in SoutholdVOICE. He is, however, a valuable, contributing member whose counsel is welcome.

In as much as we are not a political action group, but an open and transparent organization of like-minded people, whose purpose is to educate the public as to the activities of regulators which affect property rights and to foster dialogue between the folks living within the jurisdiction of the Trustees and those doing the regulating, we welcome the contribution of Mr. Bergen, who spoke to our group meeting in July on the issue of dredging. He has been a frequent author on our website, as we have invited all the Trustees to participate on our website. Both they and we, see this as an effective way to communicate to their constituency, and to date, all but Peggy Dickerson have done so. This furthers the stated purpose of SoutholdVOICE: to involve our members in the conversations about their property. You will see by reading the articles on the website that it is an open forum where the members voice their own opinions and ideas.

John Kramer
Chairman of the Board,
SoutholdVOICE.com

The following article by SoutholdVOICE member Paul Torpey is a preprint from the Peconic Bay Home Owners Association Newsletter that will be published in coming weeks.
SoutholdVOICE – Loud & Clear

For too long Southold waterfront property owners and other friends of our local waters have constituted a passive and largely silent group of citizen taxpayers. This has resulted in the enactment of ever more sweeping and aggressive laws and regulations having very significant impact on property owners on or near wetlands and other water bodies. All of this with minimal input from the very group of stakeholders most directly affected.

Read More

At the Oct. 9th 2007, Town Hall board meeting, the town of Southold passed the following resolution:

“The Town of Southold will holding a public hearing at the Southold Town Hall, 53095 Main Road, Southold, New York, on the 20th of November, 2007 at 4:35 p.m. at which time all interested persons will be given an opportunity to be heard as to the changes in Local Law 275. “

As a tax paying resident of the Town of Southold, I have read the changes to Local Law 275. I feel these changes will adversely affect our waterfront usage rights.

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The October 4th issue of the Suffolk Times features a Letter to the Editor
from SoutholdVOICE’s John Edler, co-chairman of our Trustee Liaison Committee.

Your headline “LWRP vs trustees” (front page, Sept. 27) reminded me of a story. In a country that allowed cockfighting there was a man who never won, so he decided to work hard on a system to produce winning cocks. When he thought he had succeeded, he put the cocks in his van and went off to the cockfights. On opening the van doors, all he saw were feathers and bloody injured cocks. “Damn it,” he exclaimed, “I forgot to teach them that they were all on the same team.” So it is with our town waterfront. Somehow the realization that town agencies (LWRP, Trustees, DEC, etc.) and waterfront property owners should be on the same team is being forgotten. Read More

Steven Bellavia writes:

I live on Deep Hole Creek in Mattituck. I would like to volunteer
whatever time and services I could to help promote and protect our
water and adjacent properties. Deep Hole Creek, like others, needs
dredging. I was hard aground sitting directly between the red and
green buoy at the creek entrance Saturday. The farm and road runoff is
also damaging this creek. Pollution is also a problem – I pick up at
least 3 pieces of trash every single day on Marratooka road, adjacent
to the creek, in an attempt to keep it from blowing in. When I called
the town, they told me it was not their problem – to call the highway
dept. I called them and they told me to get the Boy Scouts to clean
it up. I do it myself, but can’t keep up. I have also been attending all the meetings regarding moorings in the bays and creeks, which is also an issue that needs addressing.

Steven Bellavia

David Bergen, Southold Town Trustee, writes:

The Army Corp responded last week in writing to the [congressional] letter. They included two items in their response. First, they provided a response to US Fish and Wildlife to their required Endangered Species Habitat report. We now are waiting for a response from USF&W to this letter. Second, they provided an updated flow chart on the AC permit process for the creeks in Southold, East Hampton, Southampton and Riverhead with pending permit applications. This information was very helpful.

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Letter from Bill and Chris Eisenreich, reprinted with kind permission:

We are property owners on Pipe’s Creek, in Greenport, and belong to Peconic Bay Estates Homeowners’ Association. After reviewing some of the topics on the website, our concerns are:

1. The complicated permit application for the Trustees. It was fairly straightforward for our initial building in 1998, but the current application is confounding. We are looking to put on an addition to our house, (garage and second bedroom/bathroom above; nothing elaborate – no pool, no deck, no dock). We don’t know what they want, especially in regards to the Local Waterfront questions that weren’t on the application 9 years ago – like how our addition will affect the historic value of the neighborhood? Read More

Letter from Dave Bergen in response to the post “Dredging is not looking good next year either”. Mr. Bergen is the Trustee who has taken the lead on dredging for the Town of Southold.

“I wish to provide our members with additional details related to this issue. I was first informed of this latest challege back the beginning of June and immediately contacted Congressman Bishop’s office, Senator Schumer and Clinton’s office. I then contacted a representative of the US Fish and Wildlife Service office for their perspective on the issue. I also contacted a representative of the Army Corp who would not comment on the issue. This involves the requirement of US F&W to sign off on the AC applications. In the past, this had been a simple check on a box. But policy changes which were made required the AC to complete a new report called an Endangered Species Habitat report. US F&W contacted the AC in April informing them of this requirement and requesting that the AC respond to their 6-7 page letter. As of about two weeks ago, the AC had yet to respond to their letter. Read More

Letter to the Editor:

“As a person well-versed in environmental law and water quality regulations, I would like to respond to comments made in the Discussion Group. Fecal coliform, whether human or animal-generated, can cause health problems. While it is possible to tell whether the bacteria are from humans or animals, the fact is that our health can be affected either way. In addition, both humans and animals can pass along cysts, such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium, which can affect swimmers, especially those who are immunocompromised.

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