The Southold Town Board on Tuesday adopted its 2027 preliminary budget, amended to remove a 2% raise for town board members and setting one employee's salary, referred to as Kate's, at $65,838. The board approved the amended budget on a voice vote.
The board also rejected all bids received in July for hauling and disposal of recyclable materials from the Southold transfer station, with one member recusing.
Members authorized the town attorney to settle an insurance claim with Imperium Insurance Company for $21,923.76 over a totaled 2020 Ford Explorer belonging to the Southold Police Department, following an incident on June 3.
The board set a public hearing for Nov. 17 on a proposed conservation easement purchase on 5.38 acres at 11200 North Bayview Road, owned by the Frederick Allen Callis Living Trust. The purchase, a 50-50 partnership with Suffolk County, is estimated at $1,090,881.
During public comment, a longtime meeting attendee, Robert Dunn, objected to a board discussion at a recent work session about how long residents may speak. "You're turning your back on the people out here," Dunn told the board.
Board members said no formal time limit was adopted and that the conversation was only about raising awareness of how long speakers take. "The board did not decide to actually establish any time limits. There was just this thought about, let's put out the awareness," one board member said.
Lori McBride, president of the Long Island Farm Bureau, told the board that a proposed poultry operation on a preserved 16-acre farm parcel on Ackerley Pond Lane was being unfairly opposed. "Having 6,000 chickens over 16 acres is hardly a factory farm," McBride said, adding that the town's purchase of development rights did not give it the power to dictate what the landowner farms.
Another resident who said she lives near the property pushed back, saying her Jasmine Lane community had been built with certain protections and that "6,000 chickens, that was a little much." She said the board should find a way to protect both farming and the neighboring community.
A speaker identified as John Reichert, who said he lives on Jasmine Lane, told the board residents near the farm felt ignored. "I thought that was the responsibility of people who ran for the office of town board member or planning board member," he said, adding that decisions were being made that disregarded residents' safety and welfare.
Another speaker criticized the planning board's handling of the site plan review for the property, saying the application had gone on for more than a year without formal input from the town board on the development-rights easement, and questioned plans for the farm to use public water.