Town Trustee Boards to Join Forces on Regional Issues

Six years ago, East End town boards came together over dredging. In 2009, they joined forces to fight .

Now, instead of making a group effort on specific issues, boards from Southampton, East Hampton, Southold and Shelter Island are hatching a plan to collaborate once monthly. The board members have not yet hammered out the fine details on the plan, but Southampton Trustee Eric Shultz said the group will have a formal meeting on the idea in November.

“It’s in its infancy stages right now, but we’ve agreed we have to do this,” said Shultz, who is .

Trustees could rotate attending monthly meetings with their fellow board members, said Southampton Trustee Bill Pell. Pell is also running for re-election this year.

Shelter Island’s Town Board members also serve as trustees, Shultz said. He said that Riverhead, which does not have a trustee board but was once part of Southold Town and still has underlying rights relating to the Dongan Patent, may also participate in the group. The Dongan Patent created the trustee boards and gave them control over waterways, according to an online copy of the 1686 document.

Erosion control could use the attention of all the trustee boards, said East Hampton Trustee Clerk Diane McNally, who is also up for reelection in November. She is looking into long-term beach replenishment processes for East Hampton, adding the town focuses on soft approaches to erosion control, like sand replacement, beach grass and beach fencing as opposed to hard structures including bulkheads.

Southold Town Trustee Dave Bergen said storm water runoff is important to his fellow board members, even though the Town Board usually tackles the issue. He’s also in favor of taking what currently is a regular e-mail correspondence among the boards to the next level.

The fight against the saltwater fishing license brought the boards together and sparked the idea for the new coalition, McNally said. The state legislature passed a law abolishing the fee but recreational fisherman still have to register, Shultz said.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation began issuing refunds to fisherman who purchased licenses in August, according to a press release on the governor’s website.

“Mayors have associations, supervisors have associations,” Shultz said. “It makes sense that the trustees unite and work together to keep the rights of access open.”