HomeMy WebLinkAboutTB-07/28/2026 PH 1
1 TOWN OF SOUTHOLD
COUNTY OF SUFFOLK : STATE OF NEW YORK
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SOUTHOLD TOWN BOARD
4 REGULAR MEETING
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7 Southold, New York
8 July 28 , 2026
6 : 00 P . M .
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14 B E F 0 R E :
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16 ALBERT KRUPSKI JR, SUPERVISOR
17 KATE STEVENS , JUSTICE
18 JILL DOHERTY, COUNCILWOMAN
19 BRIAN MEALY, COUNCILMAN
20 ANNE SMITH, COUNCILWOMAN
21 ALEXA SUESS , COUNCILWOMAN
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JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 2
1 INDEX TO TESTIMONY
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3 Public Comments : 3-154
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JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 3
1 PUBLIC COMMENTS
2 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : So before
3 we start the meeting, is there anyone
4 who ' d like to discuss any agenda item?
5 NANCY SAWASTYNOWICZ : Number 620 ,
6 the fireworks on August 30th . Why are we
7 still having so many fireworks ? All my
8 friends ' horses go crazy . It ' s really
9 dangerous . This is August 30th . 4th of
10 July is done . I hope this Town will
11 consider not having so many fireworks in
12 the future . It ' s very upsetting to
13 wildlife and to horses and me . Thank you .
14 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
15 you .
16 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Could you
17 just identify yourself for the record?
18 Some of us know you as a community member,
19 but could you just identify yourself?
20 NANCY SAWASTYNOWICZ : Nancy
21 Sawastynowicz . S-A-W-A-S-T-Y-N-0-W-I-C-Z .
22 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Thank you
23 very much .
24 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
25 you . Thank you, Brian . Anyone else like
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 4
1 to address any agenda item?
2 BENJA SCHWARTZ : Good evening . It ' s
3 -- My name is Benja Schwartz . Sorry .
4 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Perfect .
5 BENJA SCHWARTZ : Benja Schwartz .
6 And I ' m here because I was upset by what I
7 heard at the Town Board a few months ago .
8 But I ' m also here to talk about the --
9 specifically I ' m talking about a FOIL
10 request, but the FOIL request was for
11 information that the Town is required to
12 maintain, to keep, to gather, to get, and
13 to have to protect the investment of the
14 public in the preserved lands . We have a
15 land preservation program . We ' ve been
16 working on it for years . And in order to
17 make it work, we have to work on it . One
18 of the things we have to do is honor the
19 previous Town Boards and the deeds of
20 development rights , which those Town
21 Boards negotiated and assigned the Land
22 Preservation Department to monitor and
23 maintain . Specifically with regards to
24 the chicken farm, we don ' t know who owns
25 it . We don ' t know who has an interest .
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 5
1 If you had a problem with something -- if
2 there ever was a problem with something
3 that happened on that property, you would
4 legally have to sue all of the parties in
5 interest . We are essentially -- the Town
6 of Southold is essentially a part owner of
7 that property, owning the development
8 rights . The owner is limited to the use
9 of farming . I believe that the use there
10 is not farming . It ' s an industrial
11 activity, which is prohibited by the deed
12 of development rights . But very simply,
13 there ' s a requirement in the deed that
14 says that the identity of the owners of
15 the company that own the property, the
16 LLC, have to be disclosed to the town . So
17 1 made a Freedom of Information Request
18 for that information, knowing full well
19 that the Town never received it, and never
20 asked for it . Well , I was told -- and I ' m
21 being told tonight, that the Town made a
22 diligent search . I ' d like to know a
23 little bit more about what was involved in
24 that diligent search, because this
25 proposed Resolution Number 660 , 2006- 660 ,
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 6
1 the 660th resolution that you ' ve been
2 considering this year, is irrelevant and
3 illegal . The law says that if you are
4 going to deny my appeal , you can deny a
5 FOIL request without giving any reason .
6 The Town is entitled to do that under the
7 Freedom of Information Law . But if
8 someone appeals a FOIL request, the law
9 says they have to appeal to the Town Board
10 or someone designated by the Town Board .
11 Since you ' ve never designated anybody, you
12 have to deal with it . This -- this thing
13 says , oh, we don ' t have it . We made a
14 diligent search, and we don ' t have it .
15 That does not do what the law requires ,
16 which is to fully explain in writing to
17 the person requesting the record the
18 reasons for such denial . I ' m the person
19 requesting the record, and I humbly
20 request that you do your jobs and not vote
21 to deny my appeal tonight . This appeal --
22 1 already consented to extend the time ,
23 which the Town Board has . The law
24 provides a very paltry 10 days , and the
25 only time that you could have considered
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 7
1 it would have been when you were out on
2 Fishers Island two weeks ago . So I
3 consented to extend the time for another
4 two weeks past the legal deadline, and I ' m
5 asking you not to vote on this tonight,
6 but to think about it for another two
7 weeks and consider maybe doing something
8 instead of just saying, "Oh, we can ' t find
9 it . " We can ' t find it? You don ' t -- you
10 can ' t find it because you don ' t have it .
11 But it ' s not a record that I am asking you
12 to create for me . I ' m asking you to you
13 do your job, which is to comply with your
14 own provisions that you put into the deed
15 of development rights that says that you
16 must have that information on file in
17 order to protect our investment in that
18 property . And it goes way beyond that .
19 The Planning Board is considering this
20 whole application in a fast-tracked,
21 accelerated manner that is ignoring the
22 interests of the farmers who own adjacent
23 property, as well as , the neighbors -- the
24 residential neighbors . The Planning Board
25 has made no effort to consider the very,
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 8
1 very likely seriously harmful adverse
2 impacts on the natural environment and
3 the -- the people who live in this town
4 and the economics from the plans , which
5 are currently proposed, which are being
6 fast-tracked towards approval . We ' re
7 talking about plans , which are most likely
8 going to -- well , they probably already
9 have harmed the northern long-eared bats .
10 Who cares about the northern long-eared
11 bats ? Do you care about the northern
12 long-eared bats ?
13 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Well ,
14 we ' re not gonna -- This is -- this is --
15 BENJA SCHWARTZ : No, I wanna know .
16 And if you don ' t wanna answer, you can .
17 But I -- I wanna ask you, do you know what
18 the northern long-eared bats do for humans
19 and for farmers? How much money --
20 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : No . Mr .
21 Schwartz --
22 BENJA SCHWARTZ : -- farmers are
23 costing right now? It ' s costing them --
24 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : I don ' t
25 have a problem listening to you after the
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 9
1 meeting on this . This is -- this is the
2 time to speak to items that are on the --
3 on the agenda --
4 BENJA SCHWARTZ : And the resolution
5 here --
6 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : -- which
7 you have --
8 BENJA SCHWARTZ : -- is to find out
9 who is behind this proposal that is very
10 likely to not only degrade the land, the
11 earth, the farmland, which we ' re supposed
12 to be -- which we invested in protecting,
13 but it ' s also going to pollute the air,
14 not just with stink, things we don ' t like
15 to smell , but with toxic pathogens --
16 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON : Mr .
17 Schwartz , if you ' d like to speak to the
18 nature of the FOIL appeal , which is --
19 BENJA SCHWARTZ : Well , this is what
20 the FOIL appeal is about .
21 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON :
22 Correct .
23 BENJA SCHWARTZ : We need that
24 information in order -- as the public, to
25 participate in the process of reviewing
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 10
1 the site plan that has been proposed for,
2 what the Planning Board will tell you is a
3 building .
4 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON : So,
5 sir --
6 BENJA SCHWARTZ : But it ' s called a
7 site plan --
8 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON :
9 Sir, if you --
10 BENJA SCHWARTZ : So it ' s a building
11 on a site, and the site involves more than
12 just the building . It involves everything
13 that happens on that site, and how those
14 things that happen on that site will
15 affect the --
16 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : But
17 we ' re not -- we ' re not reviewing the site
18 plan tonight . And I ' ll be happy to listen
19 to you about the site plan tonight later
20 after the meeting . You did comment on
21 Resolution 660 , and --
22 BENJA SCHWARTZ : Well , I have
23 already commented that the --
24 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : We ' ll
25 consider your comment --
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 11
1 BENJA SCHWARTZ : Resolution is
2 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . :
3 Certainly when we vote --
4 BENJA SCHWARTZ : This resolution
5 inadequate, irrelevant, and illegal , and
6 doesn ' t explain why you ' re not trying to
7 get that information, why you seem to --
8 you don ' t seem to care . I drafted a
9 resolution myself, two page resolution,
10 which addresses what you are supposed to
11 do by law, and I ' d be happy to share this
12 with you and discuss it, if you don ' t vote
13 on this tonight . If you do vote on this ,
14 you will be required by law to report what
15 you did to New York State . That ' s part of
16 the Freedom of Information Law, when you
17 deny a request .
18 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON : Mr .
19 Schwartz ?
20 BENJA SCHWARTZ : Yes ?
21 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON :
22 We ' ve already spoken what the State , once
23 we denied your request, and we ' re in
24 complete compliance with the New York
25 State FOIL Law .
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 12
1 BENJA SCHWARTZ : I don ' t know what
2 you told the State, but --
3 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON : We
4 told the -- when we deny a FOIL and
5 there ' s an appeal , we are required to go
6 to the Committee on Open Government and
7 get an opinion, and that ' s what we ' ve
8 done .
9 BENJA SCHWARTZ : I ' m sorry, I can ' t
10 hear you .
11 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : I
12 will -- Ben when we -- when we get to
13 Resolution 660 , I ' m going to ask you for
14 that explanation, if we could .
15 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON :
16 Okay .
17 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : All
18 right . Thank you .
19 BENJA SCHWARTZ : I have also done
20 some legal research, and --
21 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Can you
22 submit -- you can submit --
23 BENJA SCHWARTZ : Several case
24 precedents including binding law that
25 requires you to grant that request, my
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 13
1 request .
2 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : I wish
3 you had dropped that off when you were in
4 my office last week .
5 BENJA SCHWARTZ : Well , I --
6 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : You know
7 you feel --
8 BENJA SCHWARTZ : Found it --
9 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : You ' re
10 free to --
11 BENJA SCHWARTZ : I found it more
12 recently --
13 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : -- do
14 that any time .
15 BENJA SCHWARTZ : I found it more
16 recently . And that ' s why, but I have it
17 now . And there ' s no reason why you can ' t
18 put this off for two weeks , and we can
19 discuss this before you make a terrible
20 mistake . The -- some of those cases
21 involve the way East Hampton is trying to
22 deal with these companies that are coming
23 in, and corporations . And they ' re not
24 interested in farming the way that family
25 farms did for generations , preserving,
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 14
1 protecting the land . Sustainable methods
2 of farming . They ' re interested in how
3 much money they can make .
4 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
5 you .
6 BENJA SCHWARTZ : Money is fine . I
7 want them to make money, but not at the
8 expense of the public and the environment .
9 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
10 you .
11 COUNCILWOMAN ALEXA SUESS : Thank
12 you .
13 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Would
14 anyone else like to address the Board on
15 any agenda item? Sure .
16 LESLIE HERRLIN : Hi , I ' m Leslie .
17 Leslie Herrlin . I ' m a property owner of
18 Jasmine Lane, where my family lives . In
19 regards to the -- the appeal of the FOIL,
20 which Benja was talking about, I thought
21 it was taken very lightly by especially
22 the Town Attorney today in the work
23 session . We don ' t have it . And we asked
24 the applicant to get it . And, you know,
25 we ' re just gonna deny it . You know,
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 15
1 the -- these are our homes . These are our
2 lives . This Board has not ever addressed
3 any of the community about the concerns
4 that we brought forward . There is health
5 concerns . There ' s concerns with the
6 environment , our sole source aquifer, our
7 creeks , bays . And the response is usually
8 there ' s a right-to-farm . We ' re not
9 talking about that here . You can address
10 the procedural defects that surround this
11 application from the beginning, and not
12 one of you have said anything from this
13 podium in support of our community . Gee,
14 you know, that is a lot of chickens .
15 Yeah, that -- that -- that could be
16 adverse to your health effects . Yeah,
17 that -- that might affect the environment .
18 You all sit up here and you talk about our
19 environment and the water, clean air,
20 affordable housing . How can you go
21 forward with affordable housing when you
22 go -- your -- your plan will have
23 detrimental effects on the one that was
24 created 30 years ago, and you ' re not even
25 willing to address the community ' s
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 16
1 concerns ? And we have a huge concern
2 right now . We don ' t know who owns this
3 farm .
4 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Well ,
5 we ' re -- we ' re -- we ' re trying to, Leslie ,
6 confine our comments to agenda items right
7 now . And I don ' t mind listening to you
8 after the meeting . And you know, I met
9 with you and your husband, and we talked .
10 1 had your father . He came into my
11 office . We talked about this . I had
12 another community member came into my
13 office . She was invited in to talk . So I
14 have listened to your community members .
15 LESLIE HERRLIN : Okay . But you
16 haven ' t addressed us here personally .
17 Officially . You haven ' t addressed our
18 concerns officially . You wanna meet in
19 the office . Okay . What about the public
20 here? What -- what about what you ' re
21 gonna say publicly? You ' re the highest
22 level here in Southold Town . What do --
23 -- how do you feel about what the -- what
24 the neighborhood ' s going through? What --
25 what do you think about an affordable
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 17
1 housing community that was started 30
2 years ago, and now they wanna put up 6 , 000
3 hen free-range egg production? Industrial
4 egg production plant right next to us ?
5 You know --
6 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : I will
7 be --
8 LESLIE HERRLIN : Excuse me , Mr .
9 Supervisor . With all due respect, I ' m the
10 closest resident to this operation . Okay?
11 The closest resident . My family lives
12 there . We have compromised health issues
13 there and throughout the neighborhood .
14 It ' s diverse community . And all you can
15 tell me is that you ' ll speak to me out --
16 in your office . You don ' t address
17 anybody ' s concerns here . You know, we
18 have a real issue here about what you ' re
19 going to vote on tonight . We need to have
20 a complete application . If we don ' t, it
21 shouldn ' t be voted on . Should -- you
22 should not be bringing this -- the
23 Planning, you -- you, this Board should
24 not allow the Planning Board to proceed on
25 an application, on a proposal that is not
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 18
1 complete , that has jurisdictional defects .
2 These affect us . It affects the whole
3 Town of Southold . You know, I don ' t know
4 what you ' ve been hearing around town, but
5 I ' ve been hearing, "We don ' t want this .
6 Yeah, you know, keep -- keep doing what
7 you ' re doing . " You know --
8 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Let me
9 answer your questions after the meeting .
10 I ' ll be happy to .
11 LESLIE HERRLIN : Well , I want my
12 questions answered tonight . You know,
13 1 -- alls I ' m asking for is , will anybody
14 address -- you ' re allowed to address the
15 community ' s health, safety and welfare
16 concerns . Anybody? Anybody up for it
17 tonight? No . No . Nobody . So that ' s what
18 we ' re dealing with . I wrote something
19 here, and I ' ll read some of it . So my
20 name is Leslie Herrlin . I ' m a
21 homeowner -- homeowner on Jasmine Lane ,
22 where my family lives . Our home is
23 immediately adjacent to the proposed
24 operation, making us the closest residence
25 to the proposed building and the
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 19
1 operations that support it . It ' s not just
2 the siting of a barn . From the beginning,
3 this has been a procedural problem .
4 Residents have spent months trying to
5 understand an application, while defending
6 our homes and our rights . Throughout this
7 process , we have encouraged changing the
8 -- we have encountered changing
9 descriptions of the proposal , significant
10 revisions , unanswered questions ,
11 incomplete or missing documentation, and
12 conflicting information from Town
13 officials . The procedures established by
14 New York State and the Town of Southold
15 are not technicalities . They exist to
16 protect the applicants , neighboring
17 property owners , taxpayers , and the
18 integrity of the government -- of our
19 government itself . Southold site plan
20 review provisions require an informed
21 review based on complete and reliable
22 information . The Town ' s Code authorizes
23 the Board to require that information
24 reasonably, to -- to require -- to require
25 the information reasonably necessary to
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 20
1 make that informed decision . Those
2 safeguards exist for a reason . Today, the
3 Town acknowledged that it could not locate
4 a document required under a Community
5 Preservation Fund Conservation Easement .
6 At the same time, there is a Stop Work
7 Order on the property . These are not
8 ordinary circumstances . They are
9 reminders that the -- the procedures
10 matter because they protect both the
11 public and the integrity of government .
12 The issue has never been whether
13 agriculture belongs in Southold . The
14 issue is whether every application,
15 especially one of this scale and
16 complexity, is reviewed with complete
17 records , consistent procedures , and
18 faithful adherence to the Town ' s own laws
19 and obligations . When significant
20 procedural questions remain unresolved,
21 public confidence suffers . I respectfully
22 ask this Board not to allow this matter to
23 move forward until those procedural
24 questions have been fully addressed, and
25 the public can have confidence that the
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 21
1 Town has faithfully carried out its own
2 responsibilities . Residents should not be
3 left defending their rights and their
4 homes because the process failed to
5 inspire confidence . The Town Board has
6 both the authority and the responsibility
7 to restore that confidence through the
8 faithful administration of its own laws ,
9 its own procedures , and its stewardship
10 obligations . That is all we have been
11 asking from the very beginning . Thank
12 you .
13 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
14 you .
15 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Thank you .
16 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Would
17 anyone else like to -- would anyone else
18 like to address the Board on any agenda
19 item?
20 JOHN REICHERT : My name is John
21 Reichert . I ' ve been before this Board a
22 number of times over the same situation
23 that my daughter Leslie spoke about . And
24 1 understand that the Board has the
25 authority to govern the traffic . You --
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 22
1 the Planning Board has proposed using our
2 road, Jasmine Lane, as an entrance to the
3 barn, the farm . That -- that road is
4 filled with kids playing, and you ' re going
5 to have trucks going . Nobody ' s made a
6 traffic study . No one . We have a traffic
7 -- a road that people speed down now .
8 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Excuse
9 me , John . Are we -- are we -- Excuse me,
10 are we recording?
11 UNKNOWN SPEAKER : Yeah . Yeah, we
12 are .
13 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Okay . I
14 just --
15 UNKNOWN SPEAKER : We ' re good .
16 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Okay . I
17 just want to make sure you ' re on the
18 record . Thank you .
19 JOHN REICHERT : And since you have
20 the authority over the -- over traffic,
21 I ' d like to see us make a study of the
22 traffic coming down that road, that will
23 be coming down that road because the barn
24 is gonna be placed up against our
25 property . Mrs . Dench said no buffer at
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 23
1 the Planning Board . No buffer . We
2 were -- we were told we could have a
3 buffer of 50 feet . She said, "No buffer .
4 They don ' t need a buffer . " We do need a
5 buffer . The barn was sited all by itself,
6 no farm, just the barn . Now, where ' s he
7 gonna sort his eggs , count his eggs ,
8 package his eggs ? In the mud? The barn
9 is gonna be used for farming, not just for
10 storage of machinery . The Town Board is
11 just -- like the Planning Board, totally
12 ignoring the people of Jasmine Lane . Not
13 just Jasmine Lane , Ackerly Pond Lane, and
14 1 think it ' s Terry Lane that goes on the
15 other side . There ' s a lot of people
16 there , a lot of homes there, a lot of
17 children there , and no one ' s doing a
18 thing . Yeah, just like Pontius pilot,
19 wash your hands of everything .
20 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
21 you . Would anyone else like to address
22 the Board on any agenda item?
23 (No Response . )
24 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : I ' m
25 going to check the Zoom . I don ' t see
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 24
1 anyone on Zoom . All right , let ' s start
2 the meeting .
3 (Whereupon, the meeting continue on
4 to the Resolutions at this time . )
5
6 PUBLIC COMMENTS
7 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : All
8 right, would anyone like to address the
9 Board on any matter?
10 JOE PACELLO : Hi . Joe Pacello . I
11 want to thank the Board on their removing
12 the campaign posters two weeks after the
13 election . Can we do something about the
14 front end? Some of the -- when -- some of
15 them were up for two months before the
16 election . Only a suggestion .
17 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
18 you . It is a constitutional issue . The
19 ones that are placed on public property
20 have no business being there, period, at
21 any time .
22 JOE PACELLO : Okay . But if it ' s
23 everybody, I don ' t think it ' s a
24 constitutional question .
25 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : No .
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 25
1 It ' s -- they shouldn ' t be put on public
2 property .
3 JOE PACELLO : Oh, I understand .
4 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Okay .
5 Thank you .
6 JOE PACELLO : Just a suggestion .
7 Thank you .
8 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Thank you .
9 JOHN REICHERT : I have two things .
10 1 was at that dance last night and the
11 woman evidently was a little mental . She
12 was crazy, no doubt about it . She was
13 with a man of color at the time, and he
14 took her away, but the woman was not in
15 her right mind . So it -- it isn ' t a
16 reflection on the town .
17 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Right .
18 JOHN REICHERT : It ' s a reflection on
19 somebody which belongs in an institution .
20 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : But just an
21 opportunity for us to come together and
22 support, so --
23 JOHN REICHERT : We don ' t -- I don ' t
24 condone it . No . I ' m just saying, the
25 woman is out of her mind .
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 26
1 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : But that ' s
2 how I see it . We come together when that
3 happens .
4 JOHN REICHERT : I just have a
5 question to the Town Attorney . If this is
6 required -- what is your definition of
7 required? We ' re talking about this 660 .
8 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON : I ' m
9 not sure I understand what you mean, sir .
10 JOHN REICHERT : Okay . It says here ,
11 "The Town Board of the Town of Southold
12 received a FOIL request regarding a notice
13 of transfer required by the Deed of
14 Development rights . " What ' s your
15 definition of required?
16 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON : I ' m
17 not -- I ' m not here to answer rhetorical
18 questions , sir . I ' m here to provide --
19 provide legal advice to the Town Board .
20 If you ' d like to address --
21 JOHN REICHERT : I don ' t , no --
22 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON : --
23 your questions to the Town Board, sir --
24 JOHN REICHERT : I ' m not going to
25 meet you anywhere . I just want to --
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 27
1 what ' s the Board ' s --
2 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : We don ' t
3 --
4 JOHN REICHERT : If it says required,
5 why is it -- it ' s required .
6 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : I
7 don ' t -- we don ' t have that . If you could
8 please send it to us , we ' ll be happy to
9 take a look at it .
10 JOHN REICHERT : It ' s in -- it ' s in
11 your agenda .
12 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : No, but
13 I mean in full context of -- of what ' s
14 required in the deed of -- in the deed --
15 JOHN REICHERT : It ' s right --
16 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : We ' re
17 not going to --
18 JOHN REICHERT : I am just reading
19 what the Board has in front of them as an
20 agenda .
21 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : We want
22 to see it in the full context of --
23 JOHN REICHERT : Well , if it says --
24 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : -- of
25 what you ' re asking, so we can give you a
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 28
1 complete answer .
2 JOHN REICHERT : If it says required,
3 it ' s required . Required by the deed of --
4 And all this thing is telling me now in 30
5 days , if it doesn ' t get answered, it ' s
6 goodbye .
7 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Well ,
8 the Town Attorney stated that he ' s going
9 to get the answer -- get the information
10 that ' s been requested .
11 JOHN REICHERT : If it takes 31 days ,
12 it ' s gone .
13 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : No . No .
14 You can --
15 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : No . No .
16 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : It ' s
17 still going to be -- he ' s diligently
18 looking for it .
19 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON : So
20 1 think we ' re conflating two -- two
21 different things . Can I just clarify
22 something?
23 JOHN REICHERT : Yes .
24 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON : So
25 after a FOIL appeal , if the Town Board
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 29
1 were to take no action after 30 days , it ' s
2 called a "constructive denial . " So that ' s
3 different from the development right
4 easement that you ' re talking about . And
5 yes , technically, the Town should have
6 that record . You are correct . And we are
7 working to rectify that error . We learned
8 that historically the Town has not kept
9 those records . And again, we ' re working
10 to rectify that internally .
11 JOHN REICHERT : Well , in the past
12 you never kept those records .
13 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON :
14 Excuse me?
15 JOHN REICHERT : In the past, they
16 never were kept?
17 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON :
18 They were not . No . Not all easements
19 require them . And the records are --
20 historically were not kept, and now they
21 will be .
22 JOHN REICHERT : I mean, if it says
23 required, I would think they should be
24 kept .
25 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON :
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 30
1 That ' s correct .
2 JOHN REICHERT : Thank you .
3 CAROLINE SCHRANK : Hi . I ' m Caroline
4 Schrank . I ' m building an ADU on my
5 property . I ' m trying to build . I ' ve been
6 trying for two years . I ' m very
7 disappointed with the Town Council , I ' ve
8 spoken to you, Anne . You said you would
9 get back to me . You never did . I ' m a
10 recipient of a State grant for $140 , 000 .
11 And there was talk that there ' s $3 . 5
12 million that you have collected in taxes
13 that is supposed to go to ADUs , but you ' ve
14 switched to first-time home buyers . I
15 don ' t know why that happened . I have an
16 idea . I think that the young lady who ' s
17 in -- the senior advisor, who has never
18 once completed a grant in her life, and is
19 learning on the job, is unqualified . I
20 don ' t understand why you can ' t have two
21 grants going at the same time . And I
22 learned last Friday that I ' m going to be
23 paying full price for my taxes , although
24 I ' m limited in what I can charge for rent .
25 So I don ' t think you guys really want
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 31
1 community housing, because I have two
2 people who are on the list, who ' ve been
3 waiting now for two years for me to build
4 this ADU, and all I ' m doing is spending a
5 lot of money that the Town has at their
6 fingertips . I don ' t understand how you
7 have meetings and committees and no one
8 has addressed a tax abatement, when I ' m
9 limited to how much rent I can charge .
10 And I ' ve -- I ' ve gotten a variance for a
11 two bedroom, one bath, and now I can ' t
12 afford to build that . So there was talk
13 that this grant would have applications in
14 June . I have e-mails from Andrea, from
15 Gwen, and now Andrea said, we don ' t have a
16 date . It ' s very unprofessional . People
17 don ' t return e-mails . People don ' t get
18 back to me . I ' m a taxpayer . I ' m trying
19 to help low income . I ' m low income . So
20 I ' m trying to stay in this town so that my
21 taxes can be paid for by this rent . I ' ve
22 worked for two years on it, and I ' ve
23 gotten nowhere . It ' s really, really
24 frustrating . And I would think that if
25 this was about community housing, we would
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 32
1 be a team . We ' d be working together, and
2 1 don ' t hear back . I write to every Town
3 Council member, and Jill is the only one
4 who writes back to me . Alexa, I wrote a
5 response to you, and you said, "Check
6 back . Check back . " I mean, it ' s just --
7 Frankly, it ' s insulting, and it ' s a lot of
8 time on my hands , and I just want to know
9 what ' s going to happen with the taxes .
10 Why I should be paying $4 , 000 in tax a
11 year for a small ADU .
12 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : So I met
13 with you, with the Chief Building
14 Inspector . It was over a year ago, about
15 your project, right?
16 CAROLINE SCHRANK : I just got the
17 variance a couple of months ago -- a month
18 ago .
19 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : When the
20 Town passed the ADU Law about 20 years
21 ago, it was for ADUs . If you did it
22 within a existing home, there were limits
23 on the size of the apartment you could
24 you could build . If you were going to
25 build one outside of your building in a
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 33
1 in a accessory structure, then you ' d have
2 to go to the ZBA because --
3 CAROLINE SCHRANK : I did go to the
4 ZBA .
5 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Well ,
6 and that takes time .
7 CAROLINE SCHRANK : I understand
8 that . I ' m done . I have the variance .
9 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : And the
10 reason it that takes time, you had to do
11 that because that ' s a -- that ' s a -- like
12 a safety control for the neighbors .
13 CAROLINE SCHRANK : But you accepted
14 a grant that you had no clear path for .
15 I ' ve waited two years . Building costs
16 have gone up 25 to 300 . I ' m not even -- I
17 mean, there ' s -- you have $3 . 5 million,
18 and you have people who want to build
19 ADUs . And you have someone completely --
20 1 really want to know her qualifications
21 because she ' s never ever spearheaded a
22 grant before . She ' s learning on the job .
23 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : That ' s not
24 our grant . It ' s the County -- So
25 that ' s -- that ' s the County grant you ' re
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 34
1 referring to?
2 CAROLINE SCHRANK : No . There ' s a
3 Town grant that -- that you ' re doing for
4 first time home buyers .
5 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON :
6 Ma ' am --
7 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : I do get
8 copies on the e-mails that they send you .
9 CAROLINE SCHRANK : Nobody responds .
10 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : They do
11 respond because I get copies of the
12 e-mails that they --
13 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Well ,
14 through e-mail , and then we had a Zoom
15 meeting .
16 CAROLINE SCHRANK : You never
17 responded . You never -- You said, " I ' m
18 going to look into this --
19 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Right .
20 CAROLINE SCHRANK : And then I ' ll get
21 back to you .
22 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : And that ' s
23 when --
24 CAROLINE SCHRANK : You did not .
25 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : I knew you
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 35
1 were then in touch with the department and
2 1 believe the Attorney ' s Office .
3 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON :
4 Sure, yes . So we ' ve had several
5 conversations through phone and e-mail ,
6 and just to be fair, you did receive your
7 grant, but you hadn ' t yet, one, gotten a
8 variance that you needed from the ZBA .
9 And at the time that you received your
10 grant, you still needed a code change . We
11 needed to change the code .
12 CAROLINE SCHRANK : But you accepted
13 a grant from the State . When I dropped
14 down --
15 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON : I
16 certainly didn ' t accept anything .
17 CAROLINE SCHRANK : And I applied for
18 the grant, it said Southold . There was a
19 conversation between you and the LIHP that
20 said, we will accept this grant . You
21 accepted a grant that had no clear path
22 for building .
23 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON :
24 Ma ' am, just to be fair, you got a grant
25 that you needed to go to not only the
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 36
1 Zoning Board, but you needed to have a
2 code change to use .
3 CAROLINE SCHRANK : Right, because --
4 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON : And
5 the time ran out, and it ' s very
6 unfortunate . And we -- again, we ' ve had
7 this conversation --
8 CAROLINE SCHRANK : And I lost my
9 septic grant .
10 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON :
11 Again, I understand your situation, but I
12 don ' t think it ' s totally fair that you put
13 all the onus on the town here . When you
14 applied for a grant, when you needed to do
15 X, Y, and Z before you were able to use
16 that grant .
17 CAROLINE SCHRANK : I still have the
18 grant . I ' m upset about the taxes . And I
19 don ' t understand how you have community
20 committees and no one has addressed the
21 tax situation .
22 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : No .
23 Because when we originally passed the ADU
24 law, there was no consideration of
25 changing the tax structure .
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 37
1 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : And that
2 has to go through the State, right?
3 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : I
4 believe so .
5 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON :
6 Correct . And I think I looked into the
7 tax exemption that you mentioned, and I
8 believe that only applies -- and I could
9 be incorrect, but I believe it only
10 applies to units with 10 or more rooms .
11 So I don ' t believe it would apply to an
12 ADU anyway .
13 CAROLINE SCHRANK : So what is the
14 incentive for a resident to build an ADU
15 for community housing if there is no grant
16 from the town? I have a $ 90 , 000 grant
17 from the LIHP, and it ' s gonna cost about
18 $250 , 000 to build this . What is the
19 incentive for community housing?
20 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : I think
21 the original intent of the ADU program is
22 to provide a lot of opportunity for family
23 members to stay here . And so, you know,
24 you mentioned a number, and I don ' t know
25 what the construction costs are . But
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 38
1 that ' s different than buying a home here
2 where the average price is approaching a
3 million dollars .
4 CAROLINE SCHRANK : But I ' m not
5 giving it to a family member . I was
6 trying to help the community, and having
7 two people who are on the list . One who ' s
8 disabled, who ' ve been waiting two years
9 for this apartment . And right now, I
10 don ' t think it ' s going to happen because I
11 don ' t have the money now . It ' s gone up
12 too much in the two years . And I ' m gonna
13 maybe build a studio, but then do I have
14 to go back to the variance board and pay
15 them another $1 , 000 ?
16 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : I
17 couldn ' t answer that question about if
18 you ' re changing your plans . I don ' t know .
19 CAROLINE SCHRANK : So there ' s no way
20 to change the taxes ?
21 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : And we
22 did -- I mean, we did change the code in
23 the meantime . And you saw we had three
24 resolutions on here tonight . One
25 accepting a retirement, and two, putting
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 39
1 two people on the Community Advisory, the
2 Community Housing Advisory Board, because
3 the Town is actively working towards that .
4 But that ADU that -- it ' s a taxpayer
5 subsidized program, and that program
6 hasn ' t been fully developed yet .
7 CAROLINE SCHRANK : Because the
8 person developing it is -- has zero
9 experience . She has zero experience . Why
10 can you take with that $3 . 5 million, hire
11 someone who ' s actually written grants that
12 have gone through?
13 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : All of
14 -- all of our -- the east -- the four east
15 end towns that have this half percent
16 community housing fund are working in the
17 same arena of trying to figure out how to
18 spend that money legally and get housing
19 for our communities .
20 CAROLINE SCHRANK : But then why did
21 she say June, and now it ' s maybe next
22 year? I mean, it ' s just -- I waited
23 because Gwen and Andrea said, "check in
24 June, we ' re gonna have an answer . " And
25 now it ' s check back next year . I mean,
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 40
1 who is in charge? Who is -- I just -- I
2 don ' t understand the incentive . if I
3 can ' t charge market rate for one of my
4 properties , either my main house or my
5 back house, why I have to pay market rate
6 for taxes?
7 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Well ,
8 you are basically on your and I went
9 through this 20 years ago . You are
10 basically doubling your density on your
11 property when you put an ADU on . So in
12 order to do that -- and originally when we
13 passed this , there was no taxpayer
14 subsidized program . It was if you wanted
15 to build it, you had to go through those
16 rules , and you were allowed to build it .
17 And then you had to follow the rules on
18 who could live there . They had to either
19 qualify, either be on the Affordable
20 Housing List and meet those income
21 qualifications , or be a family member .
22 And you had to show a lease, and it could
23 be a lease for a dollar a year . It didn ' t
24 have to be any kind of market rate or
25 anything . But the point was you had to go
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 41
1 through the process because you ' re
2 doubling density on a residential lot, and
3 you ' re affecting the neighborhoods in a
4 residential lot . And that ' s -- that ' s why
5 there ' s a whole complicated process to do
6 this .
7 CAROLINE SCHRANK : But then why
8 can ' t I charge market rate? Why I
9 mean, why are you limiting what You ' re
10 limiting what I can charge for rent, but
11 you ' re not giving me a break on taxes .
12 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : I don ' t
13 know about the taxes . I know that ' s --
14 that ' s why -- that ' s the way the program
15 was designed so that it wouldn ' t just
16 double density . It was gonna have some
17 community benefit, which would be housing
18 for people who needed housing .
19 JUSTICE KATE STEVENS : Yeah . And
20 also an additional source of income for
21 the year-round resident .
22 CAROLINE SCHRANK : It ' s not an
23 additional source of income because it ' s
24 costing so much to build it and I can ' t
25 rent either of my properties for anything
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 42
1 more than your rates .
2 JUSTICE KATE STEVENS : But that
3 is -- that is the math of doing ADUs , is
4 they ' re -- they ' re small . They ' re
5 complicated, and it ' s -- that ' s why we are
6 developing a subsidy program, but we can ' t
7 do all of these code changes
8 simultaneously .
9 CAROLINE SCHRANK : So what -- So
10 we ' re -- we ' re addressing a series -- the
11 other answer I can ' t get answered is , if I
12 break ground and I build, will I be able
13 to apply for the grant if I ' ve taken out
14 loans to pay for this ADU? I can ' t get an
15 answer for that .
16 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : So we --
17 we discussed that . No . People can -- as
18 far as we know right now, the answer is
19 no, you wouldn ' t be able to . You know,
20 you have to by New York State Law, it ' s
21 the program that ' s in existence now . We
22 did hire an attorney, consultant, that is
23 experienced in housing programs . Is there
24 any way we could next, you know, make
25 these -- this ADU program a priority and
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 43
1 not say "next year, " but maybe sooner?
2 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : We are
3 looking at them simultaneously because we
4 have to write a new code, which we ' re in
5 the process of doing, and it will help
6 this process , but you -- it takes a while
7 to -- it ' s a whole brand new code .
8 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : Right .
9 CAROLINE SCHRANK : And why do you
10 have first time home buyers grant if
11 you ' re waiting to write a new code?
12 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Because we
13 didn ' t need it to get that done, and at
14 least it could get some of the funds out
15 to those people who are trying to buy
16 homes . Sometimes you have to do the thing
17 that you can get done the most quickly .
18 And your question about taxes is part of
19 the conversation, as well as , how we
20 manage giving . And the money that you ' re
21 talking about isn ' t a grant that the Town
22 received, but the Town -- people in our
23 town were eligible to apply through the
24 County and the State for those funds . So
25 it wasn ' t our -- it wasn ' t our money to
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 44
1 give out , and you did that .
2 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : Right .
3 But I think to clarify she ' s talking about
4 the grant, what the -- the town is going
5 to be administering grants --
6 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Right .
7 Because that ' s what she ' s referring to .
8 The $3 . 5 was the grant that she already
9 applied for .
10 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : No .
11 That was at the time -- at the time last
12 year when Gwen and Andrea wanted to do
13 ADUs .
14 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Oh, I see .
15 That was the --
16 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : They
17 gave a number of -- let ' s put this towards
18 the ADUs . That was the proposal , but we
19 didn ' t act on .
20 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Right . We
21 didn ' t act on that . They don ' t get to act
22 on that . That ' s the Town Board ' s job .
23 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : And one
24 of the code changes we had to make was
25 that the accessory structure had to -- the
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 45
1 original code was written, the accessory
2 structure had to be three years and older
3
4 CAROLINE SCHRANK : I understand
5 that .
6 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Because
7 there was a -- to dis-incentivize people
8 from just building a second home on their
9 property . And then there was an outcry .
10 They said, well , look, it ' s limiting the
11 amount of people who can actually put in
12 an ADU . Let people build one , and then
13 we ' ll consider it as an ADU . And it
14 took -- it took a -- I don ' t know, not
15 even a year probably, or close to a year,
16 to change that code to allow some people
17 to build one in a new structure on their
18 property . Because previously it had been
19 -- you had -- the building had to be at
20 least three years old .
21 CAROLINE SCHRANK : I just want to go
22 on record and say, I have two people who
23 need affordable housing . I have a grant,
24 and because I found out about the taxes ,
25 I ' m most likely not going to build this
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 46
1 now . So that should be on record and, you
2 know, it just -- it just isn ' t fair . You
3 have to meet people halfway . You can ' t
4 put limitations on what I can charge and
5 then charge me market rate for my taxes .
6 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Randy?
7 RANDY WADE : I ' m sorry, now I have
8 three topics .
9 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : That ' s all
10 right .
11 RANDY WADE : I ' ve been telling --
12 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : I hope
13 you started with four .
14 RANDY WADE : From the beginning when
15 1 had the East Hampton guy come over and
16 talk about their program, they got the
17 assessors together and agreed that if you
18 did a ADU, your tax could go up about
19 $ 800 , 1 think was the number . And my
20 memory ' s pretty bad, but I don ' t know . I
21 mean, I shouldn ' t get -- step into this .
22 If annual taxes are $4 , 000 , that ' s
23 exceptionally low for any house in
24 Southold Town . If it ' s the additional
25 taxes for an ADU, it ' s exceptionally high .
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 47
1 And I really think the Board needs to have
2 a conference with the assessors to just
3 figure that out, because that ' s how they
4 did it, or talk to East Hampton . And then
5 the other thing is --
6 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
7 you .
8 RANDY WADE : I went to the Planning
9 Board and they were talking about an
10 extension for the Enclaves , and they did
11 not allow the public to speak . And I
12 wanted to say that the historic house on
13 the property has minute -- mile-a-minute
14 vine growing up the front, and I was
15 concerned that they ' re really not taking
16 care of this historic house . And I think
17 you, as a Board, should make it a policy
18 that you recommend to the Planning Board,
19 that if there ' s an extension asked for,
20 certainly a controversial project like
21 this , there be -- the public be allowed to
22 speak at those meetings before they make a
23 decision . Then the third item . Thank you
24 for planning for ICE raids as an emergency
25 management issue . ICE has not just
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 48
1 targeted violent criminals , nor are
2 Hispanic neighbors more likely to be
3 violent . We ' re concerned for our
4 neighbors , friends , and essential --
5 essential workers who keep businesses
6 operating and serve as health workers for
7 seniors and other vulnerable people .
8 Since we ' ve witnessed lawless behavior by
9 federal agencies under the most corrupt
10 president in our nation ' s history, we
11 count on our local and state governments
12 to hold the moral high ground and ensure
13 the rule of law . The State, County, and
14 Town of Southold have the constitutional
15 authority of police powers . Those are not
16 subservient to ICE . They are different .
17 ICE was only created after 9/11 . 1 didn ' t
18 know if you knew that . It was kind of
19 recently news to me, and should not have
20 become a militarized force going after
21 gardeners in our communities . The Federal
22 government should be guarding our borders
23 and tackling international issues . When
24 ICE comes to town, we need our police to
25 be present . I just want to -- I meant to
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 49
1 go really fast and read this , but I was so
2 surprised in talking to people who are in
3 the business of helping immigrants , how
4 much they respect and trust our police
5 force . I just have to say that . So we
6 need witnesses to any illegal federal
7 activity for the day when justice returns
8 to our Federal Government . Official
9 witnesses should record with video,
10 especially since ICE officers involved in
11 the recent murders were not wearing body
12 cams . In the aftermath of ICE invading
13 our community, safety officers should
14 remain to follow a protocol . The Town
15 must already have a one for situations
16 where they arrest someone who leaves
17 behind children or vulnerable seniors ,
18 right? And I am so anxious . I understand
19 there were questions you asked of the
20 police . It ' d be so interesting to know
21 what the responses were , because the 1 , 000
22 page policy document is probably not
23 public, right?
24 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : It is .
25 RANDY WADE : It is public? Where
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 50
1 would I find it?
2 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : I don ' t
3 know if there ' s a -- I believe there ' s a
4 link on our website . I ' m not sure where
5 it is , but also you can go in-person and
6 look at the actual paper . You can --
7 RANDY WADE : Well , great . Where?
8 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : At the
9 police station .
10 RANDY WADE : Oh, okay . Thank you so
11 much .
12 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : If you
13 drive really fast on the way home, they ' ll
14 take you right there .
15 RANDY WADE : OLA recommends an
16 ongoing task force, and given that we do
17 not have a local social service agency
18 that can be useful for maintaining
19 connections to non-profits and
20 governmental resources to assist the
21 police in their follow-up work, the task
22 force will be invaluable . OLA should be
23 given as much information on any persons
24 taken by ICE as possible, as well as ,
25 contact information of relatives to assist
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 51
1 with legal services . Since ICE has set up
2 private jails and in great secrecy, moves
3 their victims from one part of the country
4 to another, our police may have the best
5 chance of getting this essential location
6 information . Having clear policies and
7 procedures does not require a law, but not
8 doing something because our congressman
9 does not believe in local control
10 threatens already approved funds . That
11 should not be the excuse to avoid having a
12 law . Thank you for creating an open and
13 transparent policy .
14 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
15 you . Please don ' t -- you know, we reached
16 out to our Federal representatives . We
17 have -- we have three . We have a
18 congressman and two senators from New York
19 State , and you should reach out to them
20 also . Sir .
21 DAVID SAROR : Evening . My name is
22 David Saror . I ' m here representing
23 Kenny ' s McCabe ' s Beach Civic Association,
24 and we ' d like to read a letter into the
25 minutes and bring a concern to the Board ' s
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 52
1 attention, which kind of alluded to a
2 little bit earlier . The Southold Town
3 Supervisor and Board, we are writing on
4 behalf of the officers of Kenny ' s McCabe ' s
5 Beach Civic Association regarding illegal
6 firework displays at Kenny ' s Beach and
7 other Southold Town beaches . We recognize
8 that these displays have been cherished by
9 many in the community for years , and we
10 appreciate the tradition and enjoyment
11 they have brought to residents and
12 families alike . At the same time, the
13 size and scope of these events have
14 increased over the years , and with modern
15 fireworks becoming more powerful , they
16 present a growing public safety concern .
17 This year ' s July 4th events east of
18 Kenny ' s Beach underscored that concern .
19 As noted in the Southold Police report ,
20 high winds carried burning materials into
21 the dunes , igniting brush fires . Because
22 bonfires and tiki torches were also
23 present on the beach at the time ,
24 causation cannot be exactly determined .
25 What is clear; however, is that the
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 53
1 combination of open flames , dry
2 conditions , and high winds created a
3 dangerous situation . We were fortunate
4 that the Southold Police and Fire
5 Department were able to respond, and that
6 the rain that followed helped prevent
7 greater damage . A walk down the beach
8 makes the risk very evident . The
9 blackened dunes sit only a short distance
10 from private homes . Above ground, there ' s
11 an above ground propane tank that was
12 uncomfortably close to the homes along the
13 beach . We believe this is a -- a
14 foreseeable and recurring public safety
15 hazard that warrants a coordinated town
16 response before next year ' s July 4th
17 holiday season . We respectfully ask that
18 the Town Board develop and implement a
19 plan that includes clear public notice via
20 signage, local media, and other methods ;
21 that illegal fireworks on or near the
22 beach create a serious safety hazard and
23 will be enforced; stronger fines and
24 visible patrols in known problem areas . A
25 dedicated holiday enforcement plan
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 54
1 involving the appropriate Town
2 departments , coordination among town
3 leadership, police, code enforcement, and
4 fire to address both prevention and
5 response . Permitted fireworks displays ,
6 where approved, require safety measures
7 such as State certified pyro-technicians ,
8 a site plan, crowd and fire control
9 measures , et cetera . We would encourage
10 that the Town work with community members
11 who have traditionally held beach
12 fireworks displays so that if they wish to
13 continue , they may do so in a full
14 compliance with applicable safety
15 requirements . We respectfully request
16 that this letter be entered into the
17 record tonight at the July 28th meeting
18 that we ' re having here . Forgive me , I ' m
19 just paraphrasing . Thank you for your
20 attention to this important matter . We
21 appreciate all the work that the Town
22 Board and Public Safety Departments do on
23 behalf of the community, and we look
24 forward to collaborating with you folks on
25 a practical solution that protects not
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 55
1 only our community and neighborhood, while
2 also respecting the traditions that many
3 residents value . Again, we just wanted to
4 bring this to your attention . We feel
5 it ' s important enough, not just in -- in
6 our neighborhood community association,
7 but other town and public and/or private
8 areas so that, God forbid, you know, a
9 greater tragedy or damage isn ' t, you know,
10 doesn ' t occur either to private residences
11 or our environment . And at Kenny ' s Beach
12 Civic Association, we kind of embrace
13 both . So we just wanted to bring that to
14 the Board ' s attention, and myself as Board
15 of Directors , and the rest of my fellow
16 officers would just welcome to create a
17 dialogue between us .
18 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
19 you . Thank you for that .
20 JERRY MORRISSEY : Good evening .
21 Thank you again for allowing me to speak
22 about our situation that we have over on
23 -- I ' m sorry . Jerry Morrissey, 1780
24 Peconic Bay Boulevard in Laurel . I ' m here
25 representing the community, myself, my
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 56
1 wife, my family . We ' re trying to rectify
2 a situation that ' s been going on for 12
3 years . Now, I know Mr . Krupski , we had a
4 conversation about it last week, but to
5 inform everyone else the pictures will
6 speak volumes . A gentleman purchased a
7 property at 1900 Peconic Bay Boulevard,
8 which is right next door to our lot . For
9 those who have been out here for many,
10 many years , it was owned by Jim Murray
11 Sr . , who lives on Peconic Bay Boulevard,
12 right across the street from this piece of
13 pie-shaped lot . 0 . 17 of an acre . So
14 we ' re talking a very, very small parcel of
15 a property . Mr . Murray was very friendly,
16 as everybody knows . He used to rent out
17 -- Not even rent out, but just allow his
18 friends to come into Brushes Creek and use
19 the marina, as they so put it . Dock up
20 there , 10 , 12-foot Boston Whalers , little
21 sunfish sailboats . Very community-like
22 marina, as you will . Well , on second week
23 of June of ' 14 , 2014 , prior to this , my
24 wife and I bought a house right next to
25 it, 1780 Peconic Bay Boulevard . Looking
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 57
1 forward to retirement . I retired from the
2 New York City Fire Department to come out
3 here and start a new life, retiring to
4 this beautiful community that we love .
5 The problem was Mr . Frank and Elizabeth
6 Kelly bought this property a week after we
7 purchased ours . We weren ' t really aware
8 that the piece of parcel was for sale .
9 Ever since the Kelly ' s purchased this
10 property, they decided to make it a
11 campground . As you ' ll see some pictures
12 going back, now this is 12 years , mind
13 you . We are at the end of our rope . I am
14 here with a dozen -- half a dozen
15 community members , and we are so
16 frustrated after 12 years . We ' ve been
17 promised summer after summer . "This is
18 his last summer . This is his last
19 summer . " Now it ' s the Summer of 2026 , and
20 it ' s almost over, as we all know,
21 unfortunately . Mr . Kelly has a court case
22 pending . We ' re going on August 12th to
23 answer to contempt charges for the third
24 time in the past four years . We ' ve been
25 to Supreme Court in the Federal level .
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 58
1 We ' ve been to State Supreme Court multiple
2 levels . The State judges have ruled
3 strongly against him from making his
4 private property into an RV recreational
5 personal Summer spot . He ' s fighting this
6 situation, which is against the all the
7 codes of Southold . The District
8 Attorney ' s Office , the Building
9 Department, the Trustees , the Zoning
10 Board, all these agencies have been
11 involved in this to no avail . This
12 gentleman does have some money, it looks
13 like, because he ' s spending countless
14 money on fighting this agency .
15 Unfortunately, about four years ago, they
16 were taking up so much time of the
17 District Attorney ' s Office that he had to
18 hire an outside counsel . This has been
19 going on now for probably three and a
20 half, four years . The amount of money
21 that the Town of Southold must be spending
22 on this outside counsel is unbelievable,
23 because we ' re not getting anywhere . The
24 Town of Southold agencies have been
25 playing defense for 12 years . This
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 59
1 gentleman comes , puts his RV on the lot .
2 He brings his box truck on the lot . He ' s
3 got containers , which you ' ll see in the
4 pictures . He ' s got landscaping trailers .
5 He has kitchens . He has a porta-potty for
6 a senior citizen . He ' s got metal stairs ,
7 and if you look at the one picture, the
8 box truck, he electrified . So I think we
9 should get the fire marshal involved . He
10 uses that box truck to live out of . He
11 has a microwave, a refrigerator, anything
12 anybody would want . There ' s a picture of
13 him enjoying a nice Summer beverage that
14 he just reached into his refrigerator in a
15 box truck to enjoy a nice bottle of wine .
16 My point of all this is he ' s zoned for --
17 his C of 0 is a Marine 1 status . He ' s
18 never used it as a Marine I status . He
19 has smoke and mirrors all over the place
20 saying that he has a business that he ' s
21 been trying to maintain . In State Supreme
22 Court, three months ago with a Judge
23 Hackling, he had to testify under oath by
24 questioning by the outside counsel , he has
25 not made one dime in 12 years renting one
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 60
1 kayak or one boat . Not a dime . It ' s in
2 court records . He has a box truck with
3 the name on it just as a facade to allow
4 the Trustees and the Southold agencies to
5 cut him some slack because he ' s trying to
6 make a living . Well , he ' s not making a
7 living . He ' s living on his . 17 of an acre
8 of land with his two RVs . Now, you see
9 the picture of the RV . The court case
10 that we had three months ago, the court
11 ordered him, State Supreme Court ordered
12 him to get everything off the lot,
13 especially the RV . The only thing he was
14 allowed to keep on was the table and
15 chairs and a barbecue and, of course,
16 those three boats that you see . Two days
17 later, he brought an RV onto the property .
18 You ' ll also see that he cuts the bushes
19 between my house and his property just to
20 annoy my wife and I just -- to the point
21 that he loves to fight . The amount of
22 money that ' s gonna be -- that has been
23 spent on this is tremendous . We ' re also
24 under the impression that he has $ 92 to
25 $ 110 , 000 in fines over the past 12 years
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 61
1 that he has not -- that has not been
2 collected . But meanwhile, he continues to
3 use this pie-shaped property as his luxury
4 waterfront property . It ' s in the middle
5 of a residential neighborhood . For those
6 who ' ve been out here for many years , it ' s
7 on Brushes Creek . There ' s a little bridge
8 that goes on Peconic Bay Boulevard and a
9 little pathway underneath that goes to
10 that north side nature preserve that the
11 Trustees , I think, purchased a few years
12 ago that, Chairman Krupski told me about .
13 It is totally abused, and we ' re just so
14 tired of dealing with the red tape and the
15 inefficiencies that have been going
16 towards this resolve problem . I mean,
17 there ' s no resolution to it . It just
18 keeps on going . So I ' m here with my
19 neighbors to ask this Board to please
20 possibly set up a meeting with the other
21 agencies . Try to set something up that
22 maybe -- maybe we can try to get this
23 resolved . Everything he does is against
24 the policies and the beautification of
25 Southold . I ' ve been listening all night
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 62
1 how important it is to keep the beauty and
2 maintain the integrity of this North --
3 North Fork . I mean, this is why everybody
4 wants this , to come out here . It ' s
5 absolutely beautiful . But meanwhile, this
6 gentleman has been doing everything he
7 wants to do, by those pictures , please
8 take them home and look at them, to
9 completely destroy that , and destroy the
10 tranquility of being out here . Now,
11 there ' s not -- there -- there isn ' t any
12 boats that could even dock there . Brushes
13 Creek over the years , whoever ' s grown up
14 here, has known that the -- that the
15 sediment has raised so high in brushes
16 Creek that you can ' t really move the boat
17 on low tide . And if you ' re actually where
18 he is , closer to Peconic Bay Boulevard, at
19 low tide , you ' re almost sitting in mud .
20 So the idea of -- of him pretending to
21 have a business , to pretend that he ' s a
22 good citizen, is completely absurd . And
23 we are at our wits of where to go next .
24 You know, my mother, God rest her soul ,
25 told me she never got -- she never stayed
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 63
1 alive to see the end of this . But for 10
2 years , she was saying, "Jerome, just look
3 the other way . Ignore him . Things will
4 go your way in the future . " You know? 12
5 years . 12 years . And, I hear other
6 people talking about 2 years , 6 months , 8
7 months . 12 years . I have nine
8 grandchildren . I had no grandchildren 12
9 years ago . I ' m in the same boat . You
10 know? And I am so looking forward to
11 moving out here full-time . But I feel so
12 uncomfortable for my wife, for my
13 grandkids , my four kids that are married,
14 to be out here with this unstable
15 gentleman .
16 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Well , we
17 spoke , you know -- I called you, you know,
18 from the office and we spoke . I ' m glad
19 you came in .
20 JERRY MORRISSEY : Yes .
21 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : I don ' t
22 know -- I mean, I ' ll have time tomorrow
23 afternoon to talk to Ben about a path
24 forward . I ' m not sure where he is legally
25 in the -- in the -- in the process --
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 64
1 JERRY MORRISSEY : Well , we ' re --
2 we ' re going back to Supreme Court on the
3 12th because he has to answer to contempt
4 charges . Now, what ' s -- what ' s mind
5 boggling is , I went to a Trustees meeting
6 two weeks ago, and the Trustees gave him
7 permission to put a shed and a floating
8 deck, which has been there for three years
9 already . Why? Now, meanwhile, the -- the
10 State Supreme Court is telling him to get
11 everything off . He doesn ' t even have room
12 to put that -- that shed there, 10 by 8 by
13 8 feet high . He doesn ' t even have room .
14 I don ' t even know how he ' s going to put
15 that there .
16 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : All
17 right . Let me -- let me have a meeting
18 with --
19 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : Is there
20 anything that you can say publicly on
21 this ?
22 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON :
23 Just -- just to preserve all the Town ' s
24 rights and interest, I just want to say
25 that we -- we are suing Mr . Kelly in State
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 65
1 Supreme Court, and he is suing us in
2 Federal Court .
3 JERRY MORRISSEY : I know that .
4 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON : So,
5 what the Board says has to be somewhat
6 bifurcated . So I apologize for that . But
7 that is unfortunately the way it has to be
8 right now .
9 JERRY MORRISSEY : Unfortunately -- I
10 understand that . But why can ' t the town
11 start playing offense? Ben Johnson just
12 told me the other day to -- about a year
13 and a half ago, two years ago, they were
14 gonna cut the lock, take everything off,
15 and then deal with it . Let him get the
16 court orders . Let him do the injunctions
17 and so forth, and so on . But we never did
18 it . Now, he -- he does have a Federal
19 Supreme Court hearing against the Town
20 because of an ADA, American Disability
21 Act . The man has Diabetes . Does anyone
22 else have Diabetes ? And arthritis . Now,
23 1 was on the fire department for 32 years .
24 1 have a really -- a fake knee, and I
25 can ' t even really stand long on my left
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 66
1 knee . But I don ' t have -- I ' m not asking
2 the Federal government to give me special
3 treatment . The one judge said in 2018 , 1
4 believe, when he brought that up in court ,
5 he said, "Get a -- get a cooler and put
6 ice in it . " And that ' s the truth .
7 That ' s , documented . So I ' m begging with
8 the Board, on behalf of the Brushes Creek
9 Community in South Oakwood, North Oakwood,
10 McDonald, that strip of Peconic Bay
11 Boulevard, which is beautiful because
12 people stop on the bridge and they watch
13 the sunset . It is absolutely stunning .
14 And then they turn around and they see
15 this junk yard behind them . That he has
16 three boats , 10-foot Boston Whaler,
17 21-foot pontoon boat that can ' t go in the
18 water because he can only put up to 11
19 boats , if he wants to . Marine 1 , 11
20 boats , 21 feet long, 20 feet long and he
21 has three boats . He ' s got a 30-footer
22 that ' s on that fence line, I showed you
23 the picture , that ' s been shrink-wrapped
24 since 2014 . It hasn ' t moved . It ' s been
25 there against the fence , right up against
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 67
1 Peconic Bay Boulevard for 12 years . The
2 pontoon boat can never go in the water .
3 It ' s too big . The Boston Whaler he put in
4 about five years ago, we called his
5 attorney because it was sinking . He
6 doesn ' t have a bilge pump on it, so it
7 rained and it was sinking, so we did the
8 right thing and said, "Your boat is
9 sinking . You might want to come out and
10 get it . " So I know I ' m, I ' m rambling .
11 But --
12 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : It ' s
13 like 12 years .
14 JERRY MORRISSEY : I ask the Board,
15 please --
16 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : It ' s
17 been a long time .
18 JERRY MORRISSEY : Give us -- give us
19 some confidence back in the system . I
20 know the justice system is slow and Scott
21 Kreppan who is the outside attorney is a
22 sweet gentleman . He ' s trying his best .
23 When I do talk to him, he says he ' s got
24 two dollies , two hand trucks filled with
25 boxes of legal documents of this gentleman
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 68
1 that keeps on fighting the system . He
2 manipulates and he knows how to play the
3 game . I ' m just hoping with the Board ' s
4 help and assistance, please meet with the
5 other agencies , meet with us . Keep us
6 posted because Mr . Krupski , I haven ' t
7 really met you, but after our
8 conversation, I feel very confident that
9 you understand our plea .
10 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : I do .
11 JERRY MORRISSEY : And you ' ve
12 probably seen it before because you were a
13 Trustee .
14 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : That
15 started after I was a Trustee , so I didn ' t
16 have to . I missed, you know, Jim Murray
17 owned it then .
18 JERRY MORRISSEY : Yes . So I ask you
19 all , please , give us some assistance and
20 try to get something done so we can all
21 get on with our lives . Our house values
22 are going down . People are walking by
23 shaking their heads , and they ' re wiping
24 their foreheads , and they ' re saying, What
25 is this ? The 6-foot white fence between
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 69
1 mine and his lot, then he ' s got that ugly
2 green fence in the front . What happened
3 to the integrity of Laurel and North Fork?
4 But, but thank you very much for
5 listening, I appreciate it . And please,
6 Mr . Krupski , you have my phone number .
7 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Yep .
8 JERRY MORRISSEY : Ben Johnson has it
9 as well . Please keep us informed, and
10 anything you can do for us , as a town,
11 community . I know we ' re at the west end
12 of Southold, but please don ' t forget us .
13 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : No, no,
14 we don ' t . Believe me, I ' m familiar with
15 it .
16 JERRY MORRISSEY : So thank you very
17 much for your time, I appreciate it .
18 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
19 you . It is a beautiful spot . Thank you
20 for coming .
21 JERRY MORRISSEY : These are actually
22 pictures from many years ago . That ' s how
23 long it ' s been going on .
24 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Wow .
25 JERRY MORRISSEY : And this is the
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 70
1 board that my wife and I made that we
2 brought to the Supreme Court .
3 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Wow .
4 JERRY MORRISSEY : And he says he ' s
5 got a boat ramp . It ' s a couple of pieces
6 of wood . You know, that maybe Jim Murray
7 used for kayaks .
8 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Welcome .
9 Go right ahead .
10 ROSARIO RODRIGUEZ : How are you?
11 How you doing? Welcome . Hi , everyone .
12 So I -- I have it written here in my notes
13 here, so one moment please .
14 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Just
15 your name and town?
16 ROSARIO RODRIGUEZ : So I ' m Rosario
17 Rodriguez , a recent resident from
18 Riverhead, and I ' m here to urge my support
19 for the OLA Local Law legislation . Many
20 people that aren ' t violent criminals are
21 not receiving due process that are being
22 picked up by Immigration, also known as
23 ICE . We already had this situation happen
24 during Trump ' s second term . We had our
25 own community members on the East End that
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 71
1 had no deportation order, no known record
2 of being violent professionally, nor in
3 the community . And in fact, their own
4 local police department provided that the
5 community member had no criminal record .
6 Yet they were still picked up by ICE .
7 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Rosario,
8 can you just -- can we just have quiet in
9 the audience while somebody ' s speaking at
10 the podium, please? Thank you .
11 ROSARIO RODRIGUEZ : Thank you . Let
12 me repeat that one more time . We had
13 community members on the East End that had
14 no deportation order, no known record of
15 being violent professionally, nor in the
16 community . And in fact , their local
17 police department provided that
18 community -- that the community member had
19 no criminal record . Yet they were still
20 picked up by ICE and people that I know on
21 the East End . So how can we ensure that
22 ICE will remove violent criminals and not
23 hardworking members of our communities in
24 the town or district? The question should
25 be , how can we ensure that while we remove
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 72
1 violent criminals , that innocent community
2 members are not being far -- falsely
3 targeted? As a, as local elected
4 officials you represent all community
5 members , whether they ' re citizens or
6 residents . With much love really, and
7 much respect from someone who immigrated
8 to this country in 2001 from Guatemala,
9 from someone who grew up in Greenport,
10 Kindergarten through 12th Grade, from
11 someone who grew up on the East End that
12 went to college at SUNY Oneonta and
13 graduated in 2019 , from someone who also
14 was a US resident to then a US citizen in
15 that same year . And lastly, someone who
16 resided in Greenport until my mid to late
17 20s . I haven ' t even hit my 30s yet . So
18 these conversations matter to not only me ,
19 but our community . I love Greenport . I
20 love where I grew up . I love the
21 community and the person it made me . I
22 love how much love I have, even though
23 some people may have hate and ignorance .
24 They gave me -- and ultimately what I
25 really love about America and what I
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 73
1 really love about the East End, and I ' m
2 sure all of -- all of you can have, you
3 know, a similar experience , but I love
4 that Greenport and the East End gave me
5 the opportunity to achieve the American
6 dream . Not many people can say that . Not
7 many people have had that opportunity,
8 going to college, you know, going from
9 working class to being okay, being able to
10 help your family . And that ' s it . So even
11 though I ' m a newly -- local -- newly
12 resident to Riverhead Town, Greenport and
13 the East End will always have my heart .
14 And you may not know me and I may not know
15 you, but you have my heart . And I just
16 want to say thank you for taking the time
17 to listen, and thank you for helping me
18 grow up . Much appreciated .
19 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
20 you . Thank you for coming and sharing
21 that .
22 JOHN REICHERT : I just want to say
23 something . I was sitting here listening
24 to the ladies over there . And I ' m not
25 anti-immigrant or anti-Spanish, but we do
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 74
1 have a problem in this area . I ' m in
2 business for myself . I ' m a plumber, and I
3 compete with Spanish who do not have a
4 license, do not have insurance, they ' re
5 not businessmen . And it ' s -- they work at
6 lower rates than I can afford to work at .
7 They ' re not all cutting grass . They ' re
8 not all trimming bushes . They ' re doing
9 carpentry work, they ' re doing plumbing
10 work, they ' re doing electrical work .
11 Unlicensed, uninsured . I feel for these
12 people . They came here illegally, though .
13 They didn ' t come illegal . They came
14 across the border when they shouldn ' t have
15 come across the border . They have all
16 broken the law . I don ' t like the idea
17 that if I bid on a job, I have to compete
18 with someone who ' s working for $50 bucks
19 an hour or $25 an hour . So that ' s my
20 problem, and the problem and a lot of
21 other tradesmen in this town, where you
22 have to compete with people who have no
23 license, no insurance . They have nothing .
24 Thank you .
25 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : So there
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 75
1 is a -- Suffolk County, of course, has
2 Department of Consumer Affairs and
3 licensed tradesmen .
4 JOHN REICHERT : I know that .
5 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : There is
6 also talk about the town getting into
7 that . I know some towns have started to
8 license tradesmen . Southold Town --
9 JOHN REICHERT : We -- I don ' t need
10 another expense .
11 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : No,
12 it ' s , you -- you got a good idea there .
13 Southold Town doesn ' t currently do it, but
14 we could .
15 JOHN REICHERT : But that ' s -- that ' s
16 not gonna change .
17 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : And it
18 would be required of dock builders --
19 JOHN REICHERT : It ' s not gonna
20 change that . They ' re still gonna work off
21 the books . They don ' t pay taxes . They
22 don ' t have a license . They don ' t have
23 insurance . If you don ' t -- you need to
24 have a license to work then . You need
25 to -- you ' re supposed to have a license .
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 76
1 That would be, that -- I had -- I was on a
2 job, and I got knocked off the job by the
3 owner because someone came along, was
4 working for about $50 bucks an hour . I
5 know is illegal .
6 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
7 you . Ma ' am?
8 MARY LOU PALMER : Hi , I ' m Mary Lou
9 Palmer, and I ' m kind of like part of the
10 Kelly issue . And I guess the only
11 question that we need to ask is why? Why
12 is it taking so long to end this
13 nightmare? This has been years of
14 violations and fines , questionable if any
15 payment has even been made . Worst of all ,
16 at the last court hearing, two judges were
17 playing pass the case, only because of a
18 minor glitch, which is now prolonging the
19 outcome . And it ' s really very frustrating
20 to sit there expecting an outcome and then
21 to be told, "Well , it ' s not my case . You
22 saw another judge . And I don ' t want to
23 handle it anymore , " so they ' re tossing it
24 back . So to me, it ' s they ' re playing
25 ball . And it was really very frustrating
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 77
1 because we thought finally, finally,
2 finally there ' s an end to it . If I didn ' t
3 believe in the justice system, I would
4 almost think that there was favoritism to
5 the party in the violation because of the
6 lengthy timeframe , or is it just a lack of
7 communication? I don ' t -- I don ' t know .
8 As we all are aware, this parcel is a
9 small triangular area zoned many years ago
10 as a marina, only because Mr . Murray Sr . ,
11 wanted to give his neighbors an
12 inexpensive place to moor their boats ,
13 park their cars , and have some family fun .
14 With their ownership, I believe the
15 Kelly ' s would basically want to have the
16 good life and ignore the actual marina
17 code because they felt that this would be
18 waterfront property that they could enjoy
19 it , while we ' re all paying high taxes , and
20 the tax on the marina, I believe , is $500
21 a year . And then, of course, after the
22 purchase , they bring in this RV, they
23 bring in Adirondack chairs and -- hey,
24 look at -- it ' s a good life . Meanwhile,
25 we ' re all on fixed income . Some of us
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 78
1 retiring and we want to enjoy the
2 amenities of Brushes Creek . This is an
3 unattended marina with no activity and no
4 rentals . There is a box truck, an RV, and
5 various items stored there with many
6 ongoing violations and fines attached, if
7 not removed and they still remain . Mr .
8 And Mrs . Kelly recently applied for a
9 wetlands proposal , in which several items
10 were approved . That was a surprise .
11 After all this litigation, how could they
12 be granted a floating dock and -- and a
13 little house? And I realize that there
14 are codes , policies , and procedures
15 instituted by the town that must be
16 followed . However, if there is an
17 original violation established and voted
18 on many years ago, shouldn ' t that have
19 been the legal priority, following through
20 and collecting any fees attached? Maybe
21 it ' s Kelly ' s history of code violations ,
22 arrogance, defiance against his neighbors ,
23 disrespect for town rules and the law,
24 where maybe if -- if everything was
25 bundled together with the officials on
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 79
1 this issue, maybe it would have been
2 resolved already . And again, 12 years is
3 just -- just too long . I ' m 85 . Hey, I
4 want to enjoy the rest of my life .
5 ROBERT DUNN : Robert Dunn, Peconic .
6 This guy owes $ 92 , 000 . Why isn ' t somebody
7 foreclosed on him? Scare the skit out of
8 him . The issue with -- with the farms and
9 -- I don ' t -- I don ' t have a petition on
10 the chicken thing . I just -- I ' m not
11 taking a position on it because no matter
12 how you do it, you ' re gonna piss somebody
13 off . But it seems I -- before I bought my
14 property here, I had a number of
15 properties in Columbia County, and you
16 cannot get into Columbia County without
17 passing a sign that says , "Columbia County
18 is a farming community . " For five signs ,
19 you could cover that . One at the ferries ,
20 one on Sound Avenue, one on Peconic Bay
21 Boulevard, one on Main Road, and maybe one
22 on Middle Road . Bingo . Right at the
23 entrance to the community, and then
24 there ' s just no dispute . Now, you can
25 decide whether that ' s farming or industry .
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 80
1 That ' s a whole separate issue , but I ' m
2 just saying that for five signs , and damn,
3 we ' ve certainly got enough signs around
4 this community . For five signs , there ' d
5 be no dispute about what goes on in the
6 core of Southold . A few people tonight
7 implied -- and I see a lot on the
8 internet, implies that Southold government
9 does not respond or care about its
10 citizens . I think that ' s just garbage . I
11 think the -- the fact that we ' re all here
12 talking for -- how more open can you get?
13 1 know if I called your office, I could be
14 in there talking to you, if not that day,
15 the next day . That ' s just the way it
16 works here . It ' s the way it works with
17 you . It ' s the way it worked with Scott .
18 It ' s the way it ' s been since I ' ve been .
19 So it ' s a really open community . I ' m
20 reminded, I grew up in the city, as you
21 all know, and they ' re not responsive . I
22 grew up on a street that was somewhat
23 busy . It was kinda like Main Road going
24 into -- from the north, going into
25 Greenport, semi-commercial . We had an
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 81
1 A&P . We had two delis , but you also had a
2 lot of big residential houses that are now
3 all storefronts . In any case , it was a
4 busy street . It was one of the few cross
5 streets that went -- went through the Long
6 Island Rail Road port line , Broadway . Joe
7 would know . And there was one corner that
8 didn ' t have a light, my corner, and we
9 complained about it and complained about
10 it, and complained about it . They never
11 did nothing . Well , a car ended up in a
12 living room at that corner . They still
13 didn ' t do nothing . And then a family
14 got -- family going Christmas shopping on
15 December 20 , 1954 got creamed . Both my
16 legs were broken, my arm, I had a
17 concussion . My sister got a fractured
18 skull and stitches . That was the easy
19 part . My father was killed . So road
20 safety is kind of a -- a thing that ' s
21 always conscious in my mind . And we got
22 some areas here that are going the wrong
23 way with road safety . If you drive to the
24 north end of Aldridge, you cannot see
25 what ' s coming to you from Hobbs . And we
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 82
1 all know that on -- Now, I worked at Hobbs
2 for three years , so I ' ve -- I ' ve seen it
3 100 times . The traffic backs up there ,
4 and then when they get -- to the end of
5 Hobbs , pedal to the metal and take off .
6 And you can ' t see them coming from
7 Aldridge because there ' s hedges . And I ' m
8 sure it ' s code compliant or it was code
9 compliant when the hedges were planted,
10 and they were little and narrow, but now
11 they ' re this and this . So things like
12 that are a problem . I also see the
13 same -- same thing with -- there ' s a
14 winery on 48 that has a stack of wine
15 barrels on a hill in the right-of-way, and
16 1 know it ' s in the right-of-way because if
17 you look up, you see the wire . I ' m not
18 gonna mention names . Let somebody else --
19 I ' ve been looking at this for two years .
20 It ' s two chops holding this triangle stack
21 of barrels on a slope in the right-of-way .
22 You and I both -- well , Al , you and I both
23 know that when wood gets wet, it swells ,
24 and then it contracts , and then it swells ,
25 and then it contracts . So if you ' ve got
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 83
1 something holding in weight on a slope ,
2 sooner or later it ' s gonna pop, and those
3 barrels are gonna roll out into the road .
4 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
5 you . I can ' t picture it, but I will --
6 will picture it . Thank you .
7 ROBERT DUNN : I mean, it ' s -- just a
8 few hundred feet from where four girls got
9 killed . So let -- let a bunch of wine
10 barrels roll down into the street on a
11 stormy night . Enough said with that .
12 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
13 you .
14 ROBERT DUNN : With the problems at
15 Town Beach, Goldsmith ' s got a lot busier .
16 Can we get some attendants back there? We
17 had them for three years . I did it
18 myself .
19 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : At Town
20 Beach?
21 ROBERT DUNN : No, at Goldsmith ' s .
22 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Oh,
23 Goldsmith ' s . I got a complaint, I think
24 it was , I guess yesterday morning about --
25 about Goldsmith ' s , about the traffic,
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 84
1 about the parking, about the garbage . And
2 so we do -- You can ' t control the garbage .
3 The guys do a very good job of picking up
4 -- the people that put their garbage
5 there .
6 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : We had
7 that conversation with DPW and Highway
8 already, and we set up a meeting with DPW
9 and Highway and the police chief because,
10 it is not just Goldsmith ' s that the
11 garbage is a problem .
12 ROBERT DUNN : I ' m sure . I ' m sure .
13 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : It is
14 every beach and every park, and it has
15 become epidemic . And I went through this
16 20 years ago, and we pulled half the
17 garbage cans out of the town because
18 people were taking advantage of them .
19 People didn ' t go down there with a cup of
20 coffee in the morning, they went down
21 there with their household garbage and
22 piled it up -- Half the cans disappeared .
23 We -- and we told people, We ' re gonna put
24 cameras up and this is serious . We cannot
25 be in the -- The town should not be in the
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 85
1 garbage business . So this is , you know,
2 I ' m glad you brought this up because we ' re
3 having a meeting . Is it tomorrow or is it
4 Thursday? People are allowed to take
5 their garbage home . They don ' t have to
6 drop it on the ground .
7 ROBERT DUNN : But, I mean, just
8 wisdom would tell you .
9 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : We ' ve
10 been down this road before . People --
11 ROBERT DUNN : That ' s not my
12 argument . I mean -- you do what you think
13 is right there , but I ' m just telling you
14 that right now -- until Town Beach gets
15 repaired and returned to action .
16 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Yeah,
17 but it ' s not just Goldsmith ' s people
18 leaving garbage . I don ' t know what it is .
19 It ' s bay --
20 ROBERT DUNN : I ' m not talking about
21 the garbage --
22 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : It ' s bay
23 beaches , everything .
24 ROBERT DUNN : I ' m talking about the
25 behavior . You put -- you put parking
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 86
1 attendants there --
2 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Yeah .
3 ROBERT DUNN : And people just know
4 there ' s somebody there watching . I mean,
5 there were many times when I was --
6 attendant there .
7 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Yeah .
8 ROBERT DUNN : And I -- I just did it
9 because it was -- it was because of COVID .
10 We had -- we were checking IDs . And so I
11 did it for two years , three years . And I
12 mean, people would argue with me and I
13 said, "Look, you can do it ' cause I asked
14 you nice . I ' ll probably phone, or I can
15 call a cop and you ' ll do it ' cause he
16 tells you gotta do it . So you make up
17 your mind on that . " We ' re --
18 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : I just
19 -- we ' re also -- because we had a
20 complaint, in Greenport . And I think
21 there was a real misunderstanding about
22 who can use which beach, and then I
23 realized there are a lot of new people out
24 here, and they don ' t know which is the
25 association beach --
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 87
1 ROBERT DUNN : Correct .
2 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Which is
3 the town beach, which is the park district
4 beach, where you have to live to go to all
5 those beaches , which are the road ends
6 that you can go to, and you need a -- a
7 permit for -- which are the County and the
8 State beaches that you need residency for .
9 So we ' re -- I asked the government liaison
10 to come up with the narrative and our CIS
11 coordinator to come up with a map
12 showing -- and we ' ll put it on the
13 website, and we ' ll give it out with the
14 beach stickers saying, this is -- these
15 are all the beach and waterfront access
16 points . You can go here, if you meet
17 these qualifications .
18 ROBERT DUNN : That ' s great idea --
19 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : And
20 depending on -- depending on where you
21 live because it ' s generating, to your
22 point, it ' s -- it shouldn ' t have to
23 generate a police call to get people to do
24 the right thing .
25 ROBERT DUNN : No , it shouldn ' t . And
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 88
1 that ' s -- that ' s become a problem .
2 Usually it didn ' t .
3 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : When
4 1 -- when I presented it that way, they ' d
5 realize, well , it ' s going to go down . But
6 it shouldn ' t have to -- it shouldn ' t have
7 to go there . So we ' re coming up with that
8 map as guidance for people , and it --
9 ROBERT DUNN : But, but the main
10 thing, it would just seem to me to be
11 until we get some action about at Town
12 Beach to put some attendants there .
13 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : I ' ll
14 bring that up at the meeting . It ' s
15 either, like I said, it ' s either tomorrow
16 or Thursday . So --
17 ROBERT DUNN : I ' m sorry?
18 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : I ' ll
19 bring that up at the meeting .
20 ROBERT DUNN : In the work session, I
21 was listening this morning, and it kept
22 blanking out . It would just go dead . And
23 it -- it did that consistently through the
24 whole thing . May have just been an odd
25 thing today or whatever . I ' m not
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 89
1 complaining about that, but I know you
2 were talking about affordable housing . Am
3 1 correct that there was a figure of $2
4 million there?
5 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : No .
6 Well -- yeah, there is a figure of $2
7 million, but it was a -- it ' s a cap .
8 We --
9 ROBERT DUNN : And you know -- tell
10 me nobody ' s gonna be able to buy a $2
11 million house with subsidies ?
12 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : No . No .
13 ROBERT DUNN : That ' s all I need to
14 hear .
15 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Because
16 this is for -- this is -- the subsidies
17 would be for first time home buyers .
18 ROBERT DUNN : But not for a $2
19 million house .
20 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : No, it
21 would be up to -- it would -- the houses
22 have to be -- I think the number is under
23 $780 , 000 .
24 ROBERT DUNN : You know, I mean, they
25 shouldn ' t be able to buy the best house in
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 90
1 the neighborhood with a subsidy . If they
2 want to buy --
3 COUNCILWOMAN ALEXA SUESS : This
4 program would also be capped by income .
5 So with that in mind, somebody who is
6 making $140 , 000 a year would not qualify
7 for a house that is $2 million .
8 ROBERT DUNN : I know more than one
9 person that makes $40 grand on the books ,
10 but has drawers full of cash at home
11 because they ' re in cash businesses .
12 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : But they
13 wouldn ' t qualify because you have to prove
14 your income in order to get a mortgage for
15 these things .
16 ROBERT DUNN : Well , they can prove
17 they make $40 grand .
18 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Yeah,
19 but that wouldn ' t -- that wouldn ' t be
20 enough to qualify .
21 ROBERT DUNN : You -- there ' s only a
22 -- Well , they can prove they make $ 60 .
23 I ' m just saying . People scam things and,
24 you know, all I ' m saying is we need to be
25 sure that somebody who ' s got a lot of cash
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 91
1 from -- from whatever isn ' t getting in --
2 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : We try
3 to ensure that these are actually
4 first-time home buyers . That ' s what --
5 Legitimate first-time home buyers that --
6 that live in town . That is what we ' re
7 looking for .
8 ROBERT DUNN : Okay .
9 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : And we
10 had the program, we were trying to tune
11 this up in -- remember 2008 , the bubble
12 burst? And there were a lot of houses for
13 sale, and I was on the Town Board and we
14 said, look, if we can -- and we had a
15 little bit of money, we had from -- from
16 our -- from a different program that we
17 could use towards housing . And we said,
18 if we could subsidize these houses , it
19 would only be affordable for that one
20 time, not in perpetuity, but it would --
21 would give the first-time home buyer so
22 much money, and they could use it to, as a
23 down payment . And this is the same
24 concept . They could use it as a down
25 payment, and they would have that leg up
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 92
1 so they could afford the home , but they
2 have to be making enough money to afford
3 the mortgage and taxes .
4 ROBERT DUNN : And then the last
5 thing, maybe you could get Michael to go
6 down and look at the jetty .
7 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Sure .
8 ROBERT DUNN : Not the jetty, it ' s
9 the armament that we -- we did along the
10 jetty .
11 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Oh,
12 okay .
13 ROBERT DUNN : Some of those locust
14 trees are getting so big on top of the
15 jetty -- that when the winds come, and
16 they will come , it ' s going to pull the
17 jetty apart, I think . I ' m not a -- I ' m
18 neither a landscaper, nor an architect .
19 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : No,
20 thank you . We ' ll take a look at that .
21 So, I mean, it ' d be as simple as just
22 cutting -- Not saying cut them all , but
23 just the ones that are right on the top .
24 That -- because the roots are now
25 entangled in the rocks , if the wind does
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 93
1 blow them down --
2 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : That ' s
3 what happened -- Yeah, that ' s what
4 happened during Sandy, and the perfect
5 storm on the dikes in -- in Courthouse .
6 ROBERT DUNN : Right .
7 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Trees
8 grew up, and then the storm pushed them
9 over and they took all the soil out and
10 opened them up .
11 ROBERT DUNN : Thank you .
12 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
13 you . Welcome, Don .
14 DON BRACKEN : Hey, how are you? Don
15 Bracken, Jasmine Lane . I ' m not here to
16 address you as somebody who can change
17 what ' s going on with the Planning, but I
18 do think it ' s necessary for the Planning
19 Board to change the way it , it does a
20 long-term hearing on stuff . We have a --
21 We were only able to spend an hour to
22 address the Board with our concerns , the
23 Planning Board, and that was it . But
24 they ' ve had multiple public meetings where
25 we ' re not allowed to speak, where we hear
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 94
1 the story change from the guy proposing
2 his project . And sure, you can modify
3 things as you need to, but one thing I did
4 learn, moving here years ago, the best
5 expression I know, it ' s easier -- easier
6 to receive permission, forgiveness than it
7 is to get permission . In regards to the
8 building, originally he applied saying it
9 would just be storage . That wouldn ' t be
10 that innocuous , and it would be fine . But
11 then he said he ' s going to wash eggs .
12 It ' s going -- and it ' s going to be a noise
13 next to us . The Planning -- the Planning
14 Board ' s only jurisdiction in that -- in
15 the whole farm matter is the placement of
16 the building, and that ' s like -- I ' m --
17 I ' m not sitting here to tell you we ' re
18 going to stop a farm . We ' re just asking
19 for relief for the neighborhood . He wants
20 to take the water from our street, which
21 is low pressure now . He was not clear .
22 Oh, originally, with -- without via
23 storage, he doesn ' t have to have Board of
24 Health . He does -- Now he ' s saying he ' s
25 putting bathrooms in, then he ' s taking
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 95
1 them back . Well , if he gets the building
2 up without -- without all the things that
3 he wants , it ' s a lot easier to amend that
4 later on with the permit . So not your
5 jurisdiction, but I hope the Planning
6 Board ' s thinking that way . The fact that
7 our street ends there -- end there,
8 there ' s reasons why that was done
9 originally . It was for more housing, not
10 for farm access , for especially the -- an
11 operation as big as he ' s proposing . And
12 what I have is handed the public meeting
13 silently . This is just my opinion . it
14 comes off like whatever you want , as
15 opposed to, look, if I ' m building a house
16 or I ' m proposing something, I have to go
17 by what the Planning, the plan -- the ZBA,
18 the -- the whatever proposes that I have
19 to do . It ' s not about how much it ' s going
20 to cost me . That ' s my problem . They talk
21 as if, well , if I put the road there, I ' ll
22 have to put a well in and I -- and I have
23 to get electric from the street . That ' s
24 not my concern . It shouldn ' t be the
25 Planning Board ' s concern . The Planning
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 96
1 Board should be considered the entire
2 thing . So it is out of frustration that
3 people come here and get on you guys .
4 It ' s not that we expect you to change the
5 world, but there ' s so many -- there ' s so
6 many cracks in the system right now .
7 Nobody wants to change the farm law based
8 on what this -- this -- this density of
9 farming is going to be, but it is
10 something unique . So you don ' t want to
11 create a precedent, but for God ' s sakes ,
12 at least accommodate the neighborhood in a
13 better way . And I have to say this too,
14 the bats , yeah . The guy was clear cutting
15 after the permission time to do that . He
16 stopped work, but it got done . Originally
17 he was saying he was going to give us 20
18 feet of -- of buffer on the edge of the
19 neighborhood . He just went right to the
20 property line . Same thing . It ' s easier
21 to get forgiveness than it is to get
22 permission . So I know it ' s not your
23 concern indirectly, but I ' m hoping that
24 the Planning Board is at least thinking --
25 and again, I ' ll say this , without some
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 97
1 kind of historian in the Planning Board,
2 these mistakes or these errors in judgment
3 are going to happen over and over again .
4 The fact that we sold -- they sold the
5 development rights in 2007 , yes , it ' s not
6 a direct plan, but in the ' 60s and ' 70s ,
7 it went on and on about let ' s keep the
8 open spaces open and the density in the --
9 in the hamlets . Yet we ' re buying
10 development rights in hamlets . That ' s
11 insane . You ' re not following through on
12 what you want . Meanwhile, you ' ve got
13 people buying farmland, not selling the
14 development rights , and that they ' re going
15 to develop that . You ' ve already seen that
16 with Salagies (phonetic) . It ' s -- it ' s
17 just reality, and you look at your prices .
18 You ' re -- we ' re talking about an
19 affordable house at $700 , 000 ? As a
20 builder, I got to tell you, one of the --
21 one of the reasons that ' s true is we put
22 so many new regulations in the building
23 code that makes no sense to affordable
24 housing . What they ' re doing with the
25 energy code right now for our area, we ' ve
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 98
1 blanketed the whole state with this R-50
2 in the ceilings , R-30 in the walls . We ' re
3 not living next to Canada . We have a
4 temperate climate with one week of bad
5 weather . Just that alone is gonna
6 increase your building by almost $ 8 , 000
7 just from the insulation and the air
8 exchange . That ' s just one example .
9 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : I agree .
10 New York State Building Code makes it very
11 expensive . I agree . The types of
12 windows , everything .
13 DON BRACKEN : And if you see a
14 sprinkler code come into residential
15 housing, forget it . I ' m just saying, we
16 built -- we built -- we built our
17 neighborhood at $127 , 000 a house with the
18 property 30 years ago, with a subsidy from
19 the state of $25 , 000 . We had to live
20 there 10 years , and you have a beautiful
21 neighborhood in town . Not a bunch of
22 shacks that are falling down, because
23 people cared about their neighborhood . I
24 understand the permanent affordable
25 housing thing . Our model worked, but we
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 99
1 also built the same footprint over and
2 over . I precut all those houses before
3 they went up . It was -- it was thought
4 out to make sense . Oh, the septic systems
5 now too . Now we ' re going to put $30 , 000
6 septic systems in affordable housing .
7 I ' m -- I ' m just -- I ' m sorry . I don ' t
8 want to rant, but when you guys talk about
9 affordable housing, the State has --
10 has -- has messed it up . You cannot build
11 affordable -- true affordable housing
12 here . I was reading the chart for what
13 you can charge for, you know, for
14 $300 , 000 , $400 , 000 , whatever . It ' s not
15 going to happen, not -- not unless you get
16 relief . We got relief on the road also .
17 That ' s one of the reasons why we ' re not
18 excited about the farmers and the road .
19 The road was narrowed as an accommodation
20 to keep the cost down for the development
21 to be able to do that . It was brilliant,
22 but we ' re not doing that now . So I
23 just -- I would -- I would -- It ' s
24 frustrating to watch things and know
25 history . And I don ' t think the -- the
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 100
1 Planning Board was -- the members of the
2 professional side were around when we did
3 this , and I don ' t know if the current
4 board was around . I know Jim Rich was
5 around . But without that, you ' re going to
6 keep on doing start and stop . You guys
7 are trying to talk about affordable
8 housing now . The next Board 30 , 40 years
9 from now are going to be dealing with
10 stuff like this . Let ' s -- let ' s try and
11 make that idea of -- of the open space
12 happen because that was proposed so many
13 years ago to preserve the quality of this
14 town -- and it didn ' t happen -- it didn ' t
15 happen in documentation . It was just a
16 thought . Should have been adopted, and
17 Planning Board would have been based on
18 that . We can ' t -- we can ' t buy
19 development rights here . And okay, bottom
20 line is the chicken guy, he ' s doing
21 everything by the rules because there
22 are -- there ' s nothing to intervene . The
23 Trustees can ' t be evolved for the
24 environmental side . It ' s too far away,
25 but it does feed into the creek . And
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 101
1 yeah, we ' re trying to just make sure that
2 people understand it ' s not -- it ' s not
3 simple . We ' re not fighting because we
4 built million-dollar houses . We built
5 $ 127 , 000 houses , and we want to preserve
6 our neighborhood . So that ' s all I have to
7 say . Thank you so much, guys .
8 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : We
9 understand that . Thank you, Don .
10 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : Ben, I
11 have a question . Has the Town Attorney ' s
12 Office relayed a lot of this stuff --
13 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON :
14 Yes , that would be appropriate .
15 SANDRA BENEDETTO : Good evening . Hi
16 thank you once again for the opportunity
17 to speak with you tonight . My name is
18 Sandra Benedetto . I ' m a resident of
19 Greenport Village and a taxpayer in the
20 Village in Southold Town for 27 years .
21 You know, I sit here and I listen to all
22 the really pressing issues put before you
23 and really appreciate what people bring
24 here, and also appreciate the scope of
25 what you need to deal with . So I just
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 102
1 want to put that out there because --
2 there ' s a lot of compelling issues that
3 have been put before you tonight . And I
4 bring another one . I understand there ' s a
5 Special Town Board Meeting tomorrow
6 morning with the Public Safety Task Force
7 at 8 : 00 a . m . After attending the work
8 session today, it ' s still unclear exactly
9 how that meeting ' s going to go . So since
10 1 know I have to leave by 10 : 00 , I ' m going
11 to make some comments tonight . I ' d like
12 to start by providing a bit of context and
13 just simply say that Sunday, July 26th,
14 two days ago, we marked one year since the
15 first ICE raid in Greenport Village . So
16 that Saturday, September 26 , 2025 , 1 was
17 out . It was a peaceful , beautiful morning
18 in the Village of Greenport, and it was
19 disrupted by ICE agents terrorizing our
20 community and taking two men . I call this
21 an attack on our community, and it was
22 particularly notable because many of us
23 were making our way to -- or already at,
24 the Third Street basketball courts in
25 Greenport to help set up for the Greenport
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 103
1 Annual Basketball Tournament, for which
2 you affectionately referred to earlier,
3 Brian . That ' s the first -- That ' s the
4 day that this happened, the first one . it
5 was especially notable because just a
6 couple hours later, scores of children
7 anywhere from 5 to 18 years-old were going
8 to be walking with their parents to the
9 courts to have a fun day and have games
10 and for the community to celebrate . This
11 is a day that is traditionally organized
12 by the mothers and aunts of the African
13 American community, now organized by
14 Candace Hall and Destiny Salter . It is a
15 day where Greenport celebrates its kids of
16 all races and backgrounds , and in fact ,
17 kids around Southold Town because kids
18 from everywhere come in to play basketball
19 together . It is a day of joy and unity .
20 Needless to say, many Latino children did
21 not make it that day . And in fact, on
22 Saturday, we didn ' t see many of them there
23 either . Fear is a powerful emotion and a
24 very strong deterrent . Especially for
25 children who are afraid of having their
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 104
1 parents taken away . That ' s real . I don ' t
2 know how else to express that . So, here
3 we are one year later . This simple fact
4 should be sobering for everyone here and
5 give us all pause for reflection tonight .
6 We ' ve had two additional raids in
7 Greenport last August and last February .
8 This Public Safety Task Force was
9 announced on February 17th after the third
10 raid on February 4th, more than six months
11 after our first raid . More than six
12 months after I came to speak to you, not
13 exactly this body ' cause things have
14 changed, but many of you the first time I
15 came to speak to you last August . I want
16 to remind this Board that before you
17 established the task force , many community
18 members came to speak to you about our
19 concerns and worries about ICE . At the
20 January 27th meeting, about 40 people
21 attended, 20 people spoke . You can
22 fact-check me by going back and looking at
23 the minutes or the recording . I don ' t
24 have the exact number, so I ' ll say about .
25 At that meeting, Seth Egan also presented
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 105
1 a petition to you with about 800
2 signatures urging the Town Board to take
3 action . This occurred before the
4 resolution, law proposed by OLA . These
5 were people who came out in January, and
6 if you remember, it was a pretty cold
7 winter, to speak to you . At the February
8 17th meeting, about 60 people came out to
9 speak to you, and about 40 of those people
10 spoke . In March, I e-mailed each of you
11 the petition of signatures , which at that
12 point had grown to about 1 , 400 signatures
13 of people who live here , of people who
14 have family members here, of people who
15 own property here , of people who have some
16 investment in keeping Southold, and in
17 particular Greenport safe . These were not
18 people appointed by you to sit on the task
19 force . They came to meetings in the dead
20 of Winter because they felt strongly about
21 this issue and compel you to act . I want
22 to say right now that I have a great deal
23 of respect and appreciation for the
24 members of the task force, whether I agree
25 with them or not, but please do not see
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 106
1 them as the only source for public
2 comment, which is why I want to remind you
3 of the people who came to speak to you in
4 the Winter . I say this because I ' ve heard
5 some people refer to, well , we want to
6 hear from the task force because we need
7 public input . Of course you need to hear
8 from the task force, and I understand
9 that ' s going to happen with some of you
10 tomorrow, who were not members of that
11 task force . But they ' re not the only
12 ones . You ' ve heard from other people .
13 Please remember that . And also remember
14 those signatures . I ' m going to be very
15 honest with you, I was not hopeful that
16 the Public Safety Task Force established
17 by you in February was going to result in
18 anything meaningful resembling public
19 safety for our threatened diminished
20 immigrant community . Members were never
21 identified . Their meeting dates were
22 never shared . There was no public comment
23 invited by them . I understand there were
24 no agendas , no official minutes publicly
25 available . Maybe there ' ll be a report
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 107
1 tomorrow . I understand there ' s some
2 reports . But for me -- from where I sit,
3 I have to say that in short, nothing was
4 public about the Public Safety Task Force .
5 And if you look at the roles , even though
6 I don ' t know all of the members who were
7 there , if you look at the roles , it seems
8 to me that it was structured to create and
9 result in gridlock . And now I understand
10 that they have not reached a consensus on
11 the most important issues before them . So
12 I just want to say in closing that I , for
13 one, feel that -- I feel like I want to
14 see a vote by the Town Board on -- well ,
15 now what has appeared to be the OLA Law,
16 but there were other things that people
17 were asking for . So I don ' t want to make
18 it exclusive OLA Law or not, what ' s
19 happening . But I feel like we need to see
20 this body taking public input from the
21 task force, from other folks , to actually
22 go on record to make some decisions here,
23 because we are now a year in . At any time
24 we -- we can have another raid . I don ' t
25 know if you follow any of the people who
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 108
1 were taken, but two of them have been
2 returned because they were taken
3 erroneously . There was problems with
4 that . They were not here to be deported .
5 Where they may have been in process , they
6 may have been following the legal process .
7 So we need to understand that as well .
8 And I am most concerned, not only for my
9 neighbors and my -- and my friends , and in
10 some instances , my family, but the
11 children . The children who are terrified .
12 The children that I don ' t know, no longer
13 see out of my neighborhood . Not
14 participating in the things that they
15 would participate in . So I think, you
16 know, we all need to be very -- we all
17 need to be very contemplative and reflect
18 on that . You know, I ' ve said before and
19 multiple times , if these people are
20 criminals , then your -- and my police
21 force should already have nabbed them,
22 right? If they have broken the law, if
23 they ' re rapists and child abusers and
24 murderers or burglars , why are they still
25 out on the street, right? So that ' s a
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 109
1 problem with our police force if that ' s
2 what ' s happening . But it ' s not what ' s
3 happening . It ' s an easy excuse or a
4 emotional trigger point . So once again, I
5 just would urge you to actually take a
6 vote . I ' m eager to hear what I can
7 tomorrow at the meeting, but I may have
8 to -- you may see me slip out . So that ' s
9 why I ' m here to speak to you tonight . So
10 thank you once again .
11 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
12 you, Sandy .
13 SANDRA KOLLEN : Hello .
14 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Welcome .
15 SANDRA KOLLEN : My name is Sandy
16 Kollen . I wasn ' t prepared to talk
17 tonight, but I feel like I ' m here, and
18 I ' ve heard some things that I would like
19 to address . She mentioned the word fear .
20 And I ' ve been upset about the chicken
21 project right next to me, but it ' s also
22 fear . This is my home . I ' ve worked
23 really hard to get the home . I ' m working
24 really hard to save my home, to stay in my
25 home, to retire in my home . And what I ' m
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 110
1 seeing next door to me is a complete
2 disaster . Complete disaster . Now it ' s
3 at -- at a standstill . It ' s almost fear
4 that I don ' t know what ' s going to happen .
5 Is the building going to be moved? Is
6 the -- is the amount of chickens going to
7 be reduced? To allow 6 , 000 chickens on 15
8 acres , including infrastructure, is
9 insanity to me . He ' s cleared right up to
10 my -- to my property line . So right now,
11 if I went like this over the bushes ,
12 there ' ll be 1 , 000 chickens at my ankles .
13 That ' s all I have to do, because he
14 already told me that that ' s going to be
15 a -- one of the pastures . So each pasture
16 is going to house six -- 1 , 000 chickens
17 per pasture , I guess . I ' m learning a lot
18 about chickens , and I ' m also fearful , that
19 he is not going to take care of them . I
20 don ' t see -- He keeps saying he ' s going to
21 be a one-man show for now because he can ' t
22 afford it . Can ' t afford it? Well , who ' s
23 going to take care of 6 , 000 chickens? I
24 thank God right now that there ' s no
25 chickens over there in this heat . I worry
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 111
1 about the winter . Who ' s going to be
2 trudging around in the snow taking care of
3 these chickens ? That we have so many --
4 so much wildlife that are going to attack
5 the chickens . I don ' t want to hear
6 anything going on over there . Then he
7 told me that now the Planning Board is
8 saying he has to have public bathrooms .
9 The public was not invited on this
10 property . They were not supposed to be on
11 this property . Why does he have to have
12 public bathrooms now? Why do we have to
13 ruin the Earth even more with a whole
14 septic system? Because I think that
15 was is what ' s happening, is that
16 this the intended use for this property
17 is being set up for something else in the
18 future . That is absolutely what ' s
19 happening . Because why do we need a
20 driveway, a load-bearing driveway for a
21 fire truck, for a metal building that
22 could catch on fire? So he says , well , I
23 don ' t -- I don ' t -- Now, I want to move my
24 building closer to Jasmine Lane . And
25 they ' re saying, Okay . Well , now we ' re
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 112
1 moving it more to habitable homes? Like,
2 this whole project is not making sense at
3 all . I don ' t understand why nobody,
4 including this Board right here, can ' t say
5 to him, you know what? You can ' t have
6 6 , 000 chickens . You can have 3 , 000
7 chickens . You know what? You can ' t put
8 the building right there, but you can have
9 a building . So you don ' t have to say that
10 he doesn ' t have to have a building . Move
11 the building . You don ' t have to have a
12 driveway . He already said he doesn ' t even
13 want to have a driveway there , but you
14 guys are making him put a driveway in
15 there . Like I am not understanding what ' s
16 going on over here, and now we ' re at a
17 standstill . Now it ' s fear again . Now
18 what ' s happening? You know, now there ' s
19 nothing happening, so now that ' s a fear of
20 what ' s going to happen . You know, I just
21 don ' t understand why no restrictions can
22 be put on anybody . And the poor people
23 that are sitting here on Peconic Bay
24 Boulevard, why can ' t somebody walk up to
25 this man and say, you can ' t do these
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 113
1 things? And not a fine , like be arrested
2 or something . We work really hard for our
3 homes , and we work really hard to stay
4 here . And I , for one, work seven days a
5 week to stay here , and I ' m really fearful
6 of what ' s going to happen . This poor
7 woman can ' t do an ADU . I was approved as
8 well . Guess what? I couldn ' t do a ADU
9 either . I was approved for $112 , 000 . My
10 estimates were coming in at $180 to
11 $200 , 000 . 1 had to say, you know what?
12 Here ' s your $ 112 , 000 back . I can ' t do it .
13 Like, I ' m just very frustrated at what ' s
14 happening out here . I feel like you
15 should be a little bit more strong in your
16 rules and not let people do certain
17 things . You know, get -- get mad . Get
18 strong and tell people they can ' t do
19 certain things . I feel like it ' s a
20 free-for-all around here . I ' m in the
21 service business fortunately, but
22 unfortunately, and I see what ' s coming out
23 here, and it ' s -- Nobody ' s following the
24 rules . They ' d rather ask for forgiveness
25 -- whatever that saying is , forgiveness ,
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 114
1 than to ask for approval , and that ' s what
2 they ' re doing . They don ' t care what our
3 rules are . I ' m not understanding . And,
4 once again, regarding the chicken farm,
5 I ' m asking for some serious help here . I
6 don ' t understand why this is going on this
7 long and why he ' s allowed to do whatever
8 he wants . And the Planning Board says ,
9 well , you come back to us and tell us how
10 much it ' s going to cost . What? What are
11 we talking about? You ' re waiting for him
12 to -- you ' re worried about his expenses ?
13 How about my expenses? Because guess
14 what? He ' s a farm . He doesn ' t have to
15 pay the same amount of taxes that I do,
16 but I ' m the one that ' s working like a dog
17 to stay there and have to put up with this
18 nonsense . You need to limit the amount of
19 chickens . I know it ' s not going to go
20 away . I ' m not trying to be unreasonable
21 at all . It ' s not going to go away, but
22 you can put some restrictions , and you can
23 put some restrictions on the Planning
24 Board because right now that Planning
25 Board is running amok . This is why I
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 115
1 think we ' re in trouble here with all these
2 buildings going on, and the chicken farm
3 is number one right now . So many people
4 are upset about it except for you guys .
5 Why? Because you don ' t live there .
6 You ' re not putting any restrictions on it .
7 Please, take a look at what ' s going on
8 next to me, next to Mr . Reichert, and see
9 what ' s going on and put some restrictions
10 on it, so that we can live the way we ' ve
11 been living . I ' ve been videotaping . I ' ve
12 been videotaping my -- my water that
13 barely comes out in the morning, and now
14 he ' s going to tap into our water . So I ' ve
15 been videotaping everything . So one of
16 these days I ' m going to have to show you
17 what ' s been happening over there because
18 right now, I don ' t know what you ' re going
19 to do about it . But I ' m asking you for
20 some help . I really am . Our neighbors
21 are asking you for some help . Put some
22 restrictions on people that are moving out
23 here . They ' re not allowed to do all of
24 these things , but they are . I appreciate
25 it .
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 116
1 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : No, no ,
2 thank you and for coming . And you heard a
3 lot tonight about -- about a lot of
4 different areas where there ' s a lot of
5 problems , so --
6 SANDRA KOLLEN : There ' s a lot of
7 problems --
8 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : You talk
9 about the beach -- the use of the beach
10 and the garbage --
11 SANDRA KOLLEN : -- and put some
12 restrictions on people . Get mad, just
13 like we are . Get mad at people . They ' re
14 ruining our town . They ' re not listening
15 to any rules at all . They ' re doing
16 whatever they want .
17 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
18 you . I don ' t see any hands up on Zoom .
19 Welcome .
20 BENJA SCHWARTZ : Welcome . Glad to
21 be here, and I want to thank Jill . She
22 asked the right question . Was the town --
23 has the Town Attorney been informing the
24 Planning Board of the issues ? But it ' s
25 not the duty of the Town Attorney . It ' s
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 117
1 the duty of the Town Board . So the
2 right-to-farm . Yes , there ' s a
3 right-to-farm, and we all love farming or
4 we wouldn ' t be here in Town of Southold .
5 And I have been a farmer, and I love --
6 The right-to-farm is not unlimited . You
7 can farm the land you own, you can farm
8 land you rent, but you can ' t farm land
9 someone else owns . The current landowner
10 paid $ 600 , 000 in 2027 for the property .
11 The Town paid $1 , 200 , 000 , twice as much,
12 in 2007 . So in today ' s dollars , that ' s
13 more than twice as much for the
14 conservation easement . The property is
15 called 2340 Ackerly Pond Lane . We know
16 the name of the company, 2340 Ackerly Pond
17 Limited Liability Company, but we don ' t
18 know who owns the company . The Town owns
19 the conservation easement, which provides
20 that the owner of the land must provide
21 the full name and mailing address of
22 any -- of the owner and the individual
23 principals thereof, or who owns the
24 company . We have a legal right to know
25 that . And without that, we don ' t know if
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 118
1 he ' s really a farmer or not . We don ' t
2 know who he is . Could be a con-man . It ' s
3 not -- I didn ' t make that FOIL request for
4 myself . I made that FOIL request on
5 behalf of the Town . But I shouldn ' t be
6 the one doing that . You should be the
7 ones -- not asking the Town Attorney what
8 he wants to do, but telling him what to
9 do . And that is how you are responsible
10 and have control over the Planning Board .
11 Not directly . You can ' t tell the Planning
12 Board what to do . You can ' t tell the
13 Planning Board to approve or deny the
14 application, or how they should run the
15 show . However, as the Code Enforcement
16 did issue the Stop Work Order, you could
17 indirectly stop the Planning Board from
18 processing the current application .
19 Without knowing who is making the
20 application, they never should have
21 started processing it and we can ' t say,
22 well , this owner can do this on this
23 property, but if someone else buys the
24 property, they can ' t do the same thing .
25 No, we have to treat everybody equally .
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 119
1 But when someone is applying for a permit
2 to build a -- build a building, to cut
3 down most of the vegetation on the
4 property, we need to know when that person
5 -- When we ask that person to do something
6 and they tell us something, we need to
7 know if we can believe them . We need to
8 know who they are or who they ' re
9 representing, or what authority they have
10 to represent . We don ' t know that . The
11 Town Board can direct the Town Attorney to
12 draft an opinion, a legal opinion, saying
13 that this easement, which requires us to
14 know who owns the company, is being
15 violated . And the Town Attorney can then
16 advise the Planning Board that we don ' t
17 know who -- we cannot, you should not be .
18 He can ' t tell them you have to stop . He ' s
19 not in charge of the Planning Board . He ' s
20 not the -- But he can give them a legal
21 opinion saying that legally they have no
22 right to continue to process . They had no
23 right to begin processing the application
24 as it stands now . And if they do file a
25 new application, we ' ll start again . I
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 120
1 don ' t want to take up too much of your
2 time, but it -- I just can ' t believe the
3 things -- but I do, they ' re true , about
4 this poor little northern long-eared bat .
5 1 mean, they live all over the country .
6 But in New York State, they have strict
7 rules , which regulate how you can use
8 property where bats are sighted or found .
9 We know there are bats on 2340 Ackerly
10 Pond Lane . We also know that there are
11 less bats now . Well , there used to be a
12 very robust population . Then this little
13 pest called the white-nosed -- what is it?
14 1 don ' t know . Is killing the bats .
15 There ' s only 2 or 30 of the numbers of
16 bats left . So who cares? Well , for one,
17 the farmers should care because it ' s
18 costing farmers billions of dollars that
19 there are only 30 of the bats left . So
20 what are we doing? The white-nosed
21 syndrome is the fungus , I think -- that ' s
22 killing the bats . The only bats that are
23 still doing well -- where the bats are
24 surviving is on Long Island . The DEC has
25 two different sets of regulations for
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 121
1 property off Long Island and on --
2 especially in Suffolk County, where we
3 live . That ' s where the remaining bats
4 are -- are hanging on and trying to fight
5 this disease that we don ' t know how to
6 cure them . So if we want to -- They ' re an
7 endangered species . They have the
8 protection, but the Planning Board said,
9 go ahead, start cutting, and do that
10 without looking into it, without learning
11 about the bats . So I would ask that you
12 talk to the Town Attorney more . I thank
13 you for your offer -- your question, Jill .
14 1 think it was the right question, but I
15 think you have to go a step further and
16 ask Town Attorney maybe to keep you in the
17 loop with what he ' s sharing with the
18 Planning Board . And ideally, that would
19 be done through correspondence that would
20 be incorporated into the Laserfiche file
21 for the application, that the public could
22 also be -- follow along . There are a lot
23 of problems with the way the Planning
24 Board is operating . They think they
25 closed the public hearing . They didn ' t .
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 122
1 They said they were going to keep it open
2 for two weeks . They thought that -- that
3 after those two weeks it ' s closed . They
4 told everybody, "Oh, it ' s closed, " but
5 they never closed it . They never made a
6 motion . They never said the words that
7 the hearing will be closed . So the
8 hearing is still open . Well , we ' ve been
9 submitting letters to the Planning Board .
10 We ' ve been sending them information .
11 They ' re going into some kind of a circular
12 -- Apparently they ' re getting -- they ' re
13 telling us that they ' re getting read and
14 then they ' re being put somewhere , but
15 they ' re not being put in the file for the
16 application . I don ' t know where they ' re
17 going, but that is something, which is up
18 to the Planning Board, but it ' s also
19 something that you should be concerned
20 with . So thank you for giving us a chance
21 to speak to you tonight . Unfortunately,
22 the Planning Board doesn ' t like to hear
23 from people . They don ' t offer people
24 opportunities to speak at their meetings
25 unless it ' s at a, "public hearing" . And a
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 123
1 public hearing, by the way, in this
2 application, was held before anybody knew
3 anything about what the plans were for the
4 proposed chicken farm or egg farm . All
5 right . Thank you .
6 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
7 you . I ' ve got someone on Zoom who ' s going
8 to speak . Welcome, Tom .
9 TOM STEVENSON : Hello . Good
10 evening, Town Board and audience . I
11 appreciate your letting us speak . I do
12 agree that that ' s a gold star for Southold
13 Town because, not imposing any time limits
14 is something that isn ' t the case
15 everywhere . So thanks for that . Benja
16 had me looking up long-eared bats . You
17 know, it ' s hard to figure out which bats
18 are flying over your head at night, but we
19 do love farmers . I ' m a farmer out here in
20 Orient . Tom Stevenson, 24850 Main Road,
21 Orient . And we ' re not certified organic,
22 but we follow pretty much all the precepts
23 of organic . And we try to embrace, you
24 know, the natural environment and be good
25 neighbors . But I will point out and I ' m
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 124
1 not speaking about the chicken farm, but
2 the right-to-farm law is in the Comp Plan,
3 2020 Comp Plan, six-years-old . Objective
4 1 . 2 , Letter D, add signage to the entrance
5 of the Town stating that the town is a
6 right-to-farm community . And to increase
7 enforcement of this Town Code requirement .
8 So the suggestion from Robert, I ' m sorry,
9 1 don ' t remember your last name, but
10 you ' re a constant or consistent speaker,
11 that ' s duly noted . It ' s in the Comp Plan .
12 So I ' d love to see it there . At least one
13 here at the ferry landing . So let ' s see .
14 A couple other items . The ARPA funds that
15 went to Fishers Island Fire Department,
16 I ' m not -- I didn ' t want to ask the
17 question at the beginning of the meeting .
18 Seemed like there were a lot of questions
19 there . But I just hope the other fire
20 departments also get comparable funding .
21 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Yeah,
22 that was part of the -- that was part of
23 the ARPA money that the previous
24 supervisor and Town Board got and
25 distributed to all the fire departments .
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 125
1 TOM STEVENSON : Oh, good .
2 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : Fishers
3 Island is the last one to get something .
4 TOM STEVENSON : Oh, good . Yeah,
5 just want to make sure we ' re all -- we ' re
6 all on the same page there . Good, thank
7 you . The comments on affordable housing,
8 1 do agree that the difficulties in
9 building in New York and Suffolk County
10 and Southold Town, the increased costs , I
11 think the Town Board -- I don ' t -- I ' m not
12 really sure how you would do this , but
13 focusing on sort of the supply side of
14 trying to get the costs down for building
15 and to streamline , you know, applications
16 so you don ' t just feel like you ' re
17 standing out in the desert when you go in
18 to do something in a town hall . Sort of
19 like we do as farmers , since there ' s no
20 one in the Town that specifically pushes
21 an agriculture agenda, which I think
22 there -- there should be -- but it -- it
23 makes it a little bit harder for us to get
24 our message across . Anyway, don ' t want to
25 take all your time . It ' s been a long day
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 126
1 for everybody . Real humid out there . We
2 picked a lot of berries today . We got a
3 lot of good food in people ' s mouths and
4 that ' s what it ' s all about out here in
5 Orient . So, I want to thank you . Oh,
6 lastly, sorry . Plum Island, okay? This
7 is a big one for me . It ' s stuck in my --
8 and I felt like -- I ' m the president of
9 the Oyster Pond School Board, and we sent
10 the Town Board a letter last September,
11 about our concerns about the Plum
12 Island -- Preserve Plum Island Coalition
13 plan . And we did not hear back, but
14 that ' s okay because we didn ' t hear back
15 from, most of our elected officials . Both
16 of our senators in New York State . We did
17 hear back from the county executive , our
18 member of Congress . Not from the
19 president . Maybe that ' s good . So we just
20 think that -- as -- Plum Island is in the
21 Oyster Pond School District, and we used
22 to educate children that lived there .
23 That we should have a seat at the table .
24 We ' re not in the Plum Island -- Preserve
25 Plum Island Coalition . We were never
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 127
1 asked to be . We have been avoided, as has
2 the Orient Fire Department . But the local
3 taxing districts , and we ' re the lowest
4 level of government, you know, volunteers .
5 We feel like we should have a seat at the
6 table . So we have met with -- via Zoom a
7 few times over the last year, but the
8 recent visit to Plum Island, we, you know,
9 everyone drove right past us . So I have
10 been in touch with our county legislator,
11 and we really do want to get the town to
12 hear at least our concerns . I mean, it ' s
13 easy to ignore us . But we do have that
14 letter . If you want another copy of it,
15 we ' re more than happy to send them . We
16 can send them to the whole Board, if you
17 would like . In fact, I ' ll just ahead and
18 do that .
19 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Tom, you
20 don ' t remember that we -- you don ' t
21 remember that we talked about this ?
22 TOM STEVENSON : Yeah, we talked
23 about it, but we have new Town Board
24 members .
25 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Okay .
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 128
1 TOM STEVENSON : I , you know -- I
2 just feel like this is a, a once in many
3 generation opportunity . So if -- you
4 know, I ' ve got Board members on my board
5 that say, "This ain ' t ever going to
6 happen . It ' s never going to happen . " So,
7 maybe that ' s the case . I don ' t know .
8 But, I just feel like we should look at
9 what ' s for -- what ' s best for the Town
10 before we get, you know, all these other
11 plans that are , you know, inevitably going
12 to increase traffic for -- for us out
13 here . It ' s already an $8 million tax
14 exemption on the books . They pay no taxes
15 for the use . So you know, there ' s a lot
16 of -- lot of concern, at least on my part .
17 It might not be met with everyone else ,
18 but --
19 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : No, you
20 should -- you should advocate for it .
21 Thank you for doing so .
22 TOM STEVENSON : I ' m -- I ' m trying
23 to . So yeah, I ' m going to let you all go,
24 but, thanks so much, and I will sign out .
25 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : . Thanks ,
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 129
1 Tom .
2 SONIA SPAR : Sonia Spar, Southold
3 Town . Thank you so much for putting these
4 long hours . It shows your commitment for
5 the community, and we really much
6 appreciate that . Thanks . So it took a
7 while until I was able to come here . I
8 cannot be present . I cannot be present
9 tomorrow, but I wanted to say a few words .
10 1 want to start by saying out loud the
11 name of Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero .
12 Johan Sebastian was a 26-year-old
13 Colombian man who was killed in Biddeford,
14 Maine . An ICE officer in plain clothes
15 opened fire , striking his car five or six
16 times and hitting Johan Sebastian Duran
17 Guerrero in the head before an ICE
18 unmarked vehicle rammed his car . He was
19 pronounced dead at the scene . He was not
20 a threat . He was not a criminal . He was
21 not the person Federal agents were looking
22 for . He had a valid work permit . He had
23 a wife . He had a life . He was killed in
24 front of his child . His death is a
25 painful reminder that behind every policy
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 130
1 discussion, every enforcement action, and
2 every public safety decision, there are
3 human beings . There are families . There
4 are neighbors , there are friends . There
5 are coworkers , there are people whose
6 lives cannot be restored once a mistake is
7 made . One life lost in this way is one
8 too many . One person taken by mistake is
9 one too many . One innocent person taken
10 in front of children should shake us to
11 the core . Innocent people have been
12 harmed because of assumptions were made
13 based on their appearance, their language ,
14 their ethnicity, and their perceived
15 identity . When those characteristics
16 become the basis of suspicion, let ' s call
17 it for what it is , racial profiling .
18 Racial profiling is not a theoretical
19 concern . It is a public safety issue with
20 real consequences . When people are
21 stopped, questioned, or treated as
22 suspicious because of their race ,
23 ethnicity, language, appearance , or
24 perceived identity rather than because of
25 evidence of wrongdoing, trust is damaged .
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 131
1 And when trust is damaged, communities
2 become less safe . Law enforcement loses
3 one of its most important tools , the
4 relationship with the community it serves .
5 This is why racial profiling has been
6 rejected for decades , not only by civil
7 rights advocates , but by law enforcement
8 agencies themselves . Professional
9 policing organizations and law enforcement
10 agencies have long recognized that
11 effective policy might be based -- must be
12 based on evidence and credible
13 information, not stereotypes or
14 assumptions . That is why officers receive
15 training on constitutional policy, bias
16 awareness , procedural justice , and
17 building trust with the communities they
18 protect . For a few decades , bipartisan
19 leaders came together to recognize that
20 racial profiling is not just ineffective
21 policing, it is plainly wrong . When
22 individuals are targeted because of who
23 they are , the harm extends beyond the
24 individual . It creates fear throughout an
25 entire community . So today, we must ask
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 132
1 ourselves , what happens when practices
2 that we have spent decades working to
3 prevent begin happening in our
4 communities ? New York State prohibits
5 racial profiling . Local policies prohibit
6 racial profiling . Constitutional
7 protections prohibit racial profiling .
8 Law enforcement agencies train officers
9 specifically to avoid racial profiling
10 because we know the damage it causes . Yet
11 we ' re now seeing situations where
12 unidentified federal agents operating
13 without local accountability or community
14 connection engage in racial profiling
15 enforcement actions that create fear among
16 residents , and can be a danger for us all .
17 We cannot simply wash our hands and say
18 that because these actions are being
19 carried out by another agency, they are
20 outside our responsibility . Public safety
21 is a shared responsibility . The question
22 that Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero ' s
23 death asks of us , and the experiences of
24 member of our community -- of members of
25 our community ask of us is simple . What
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 133
1 do we do when we see something that makes
2 our neighbors less safe? We cannot say we
3 do business as usual . Yes , it is
4 uncomfortable, but we have to reaffirm the
5 principles that have guided -- guided our
6 laws , our Constitution, and our commitment
7 to public safety . The answer must be that
8 we protect community trust, we protect
9 dignity, we protect the relationship
10 between communities and local law
11 enforcement . We develop a plan and bring
12 transparency and accountability for our
13 community . I also want to bring attention
14 to an important point that came during our
15 public safety task force discussions , the
16 role of the Anti-Bias Task Force .
17 Recently, our community received a
18 significant investment in the Southold
19 Police Department , a one million
20 investment to provide our officers with
21 additional resources demonstrate a
22 commitment to ensuring that local law
23 enforcement has the tools necessary to
24 keep our community safe . That investment
25 matters , and our officers deserve our
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 134
1 support . And we know that enforcement and
2 prevention must go hand-in-hand . A safe
3 community requires professional , trusted
4 local law enforcement, but it also
5 requires outreach, education, relationship
6 building, and opportunities for residents
7 to come together before problems escalate .
8 Those efforts create trust, they create
9 connection, they create sense of belonging
10 that allow people to look out for one
11 another . That is the role for the
12 Anti-Bias Task Force . Its budget
13 shouldn ' t be questioned . Its budget
14 represents less than 10 of the investment
15 recently made in our police department,
16 yet its impact reaches every corner of our
17 community . The work of the Anti-Bias Task
18 Force is not simply about organizing
19 events . It ' s about prevention . It is
20 about education . It is about ensuring
21 that neighbors know one another, and that
22 differences do not become divisions .
23 Sometimes we underestimate the power of
24 simply bringing people together . Those
25 who have attended the unity picnic
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 135
1 understand this . Our clergy member under
2 -- members understand this . Community
3 leaders understand this . Sitting
4 together, sharing food, and breaking bread
5 are not symbolic gestures . They are the
6 foundation of community . When people know
7 each other, they ' re more likely to care
8 for one another . When people have
9 relationships , they are more likely to
10 stand together during difficult moments .
11 When communities are connected, they are
12 stronger and safer . This is why reducing
13 the budget and minimizing or dismissing
14 the work of the Anti-Bias Task Force
15 should be concerning for all of us .
16 Prevention work is often the first thing
17 people question when its success is
18 measured by what does not happen . But
19 the -- by the absence of conflict, fear or
20 division, that is precisely the result
21 we ' re trying to achieve . Our town has
22 made a commitment to work towards becoming
23 a bias-free community . That commitment
24 requires more than words . it requires
25 continued investment, continued
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 136
1 leadership, and continued support for the
2 initiatives that bring us closer together .
3 The responsibility of elected leadership
4 is to invest in the relationship, too, in
5 education, in partnerships that prevent
6 harm from occurring in the first place . A
7 safer community is not built only with
8 enforcement . It is built with trust, with
9 connection, and with the understanding
10 that every resident has a place here .
11 Thank you .
12 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Thank you,
13 Sonia .
14 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : I don ' t
15 see anyone on Zoom . Would anyone else
16 here like to speak to the Board?
17 LESLIE HERRLIN : Yes , I would .
18 Again, hi , I ' m Leslie . I just want to say
19 thank you, Jill . I appreciate, you
20 speaking to the procedure that you -- that
21 the Board can address , you know, when you
22 addressed Ben, and the bats . I live
23 adjacent to 2340 Ackerly Pond, and on the
24 summer nights , I would sit out on my back
25 deck, and I would watch all these bats . I
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 137
1 would go in the house, there were so many .
2 It was a little freaky . I would go --
3 forget, and I would take my dog up the
4 block for a walk, and I would immediately
5 come back because I was being swooped down
6 upon by bats . I didn ' t really know much
7 about them . But now I can tell you
8 there ' s hardly any bats there . There ' s
9 like maybe four in two weeks we ' ve seen .
10 That ' s a significant amount . These are
11 endangered species , and I have first-hand
12 knowledge and experience of what was there
13 before and what ' s there now . And it --
14 and it speaks to that the -- that the
15 property has -- was protected in the
16 easement for -- for its value , you know,
17 of the environmental protections that are
18 in there for our aquifer, for the bats ,
19 for the open space . Not just for
20 agriculture . The right-to-farm was not
21 put in place to override humans . It was
22 for balance because there was so much
23 development, right? And people were
24 having lawsuits against farmers . So
25 there -- there -- there has to be a
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 138
1 balance . You know, specifically,
2 Supervisor Krupski , you have said that
3 this is a right-to-farm . They have a
4 right-to-farm . But they ' re not your only
5 constituents . You were elected to
6 represent all the people of Southold . And
7 the code and the -- the laws that we have
8 here in Southold give the Board, Town
9 Board, Planning Board authority to protect
10 the people who already live there . I ' ve
11 said this before, and I ' ll say it again .
12 If the Town was looking for affordable
13 housing, as it is now, and if the chicken
14 farm, 6 , 000 chickens , was already
15 established at 2340 Ackerly Pond Lane,
16 they would never be picking that area
17 where my home is as a good spot for safe,
18 livable housing . It wouldn ' t pass the
19 reviews . It wouldn ' t pass New York State
20 reviews , HUD reviews . They would have to
21 do a SEQRA, right?
22 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : I
23 don ' t -- I don ' t -- I don ' t know . I don ' t
24 know if -- that ' s a scenario that I don ' t
25 know about .
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 139
1 LESLIE HERRLIN : It ' s just common
2 sense . You know, who would want to live
3 there? Who would want to live there? I
4 don ' t . You know, come, buy a home next to
5 a chicken farm . And it ' s not a -- it ' s --
6 we ' re -- we ' re not opposing a chicken
7 farm . There ' s a lot of chicken farms in
8 Southold . It ' s the industrial impact that
9 it would have on us . You ' re talking
10 about, like Sandy said, steps from our
11 homes . Intensity, compatibility . This
12 isn ' t against farming . There ' s many in
13 our community who are farmers , who have
14 been in farming, worked on farms , more
15 than the applicants themselves . So we ' re
16 not being unreasonable, and it ' s -- and
17 it ' s insulting for -- for someone to keep
18 saying -- the gentleman who spoke, You
19 know, there ' s a right-to-farm law in
20 Southold . We all know that . I ' ve owned
21 that property for 34 years . I always knew
22 there would be something there . People
23 would say, "Wow, you have a nice spot .
24 You have a nice spot on the end here .
25 Nothing ' s there . " I said, "No . There --
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 140
1 there could be . There could be a farm
2 there one day . " But I was at the closing
3 when they sold the development rights in
4 2007 because my fence was over the line .
5 And at that time, I had -- I had to be
6 there to sign a paper because of my fence .
7 1 had no idea the property was being sold .
8 1 was told that that property was going to
9 be for more affordable housing or condos .
10 So I walk into -- I guess it was the Land
11 Preservation Office over at the Annex . I
12 walk into the room . Supervisor at the
13 time says , "What are you doing here? " I
14 said, " I have no idea . " Then I found out ,
15 and I said, "Gee, " you know, that -- that,
16 that ' s , you know, I ' m -- I ' m concerned .
17 You know, I -- we have horses in the area .
18 1 said, " I always thought it was better to
19 have a house next to, you know, your
20 home . " He said, "No, " you know, things
21 have changed . You know, the new -- you
22 know, it ' s -- we want open space . It ' s ,
23 you know, farming is , you know, what, what
24 we want out here in Southold . I was like ,
25 okay . And he, and I said, well , what
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 141
1 about if there was ever, you know, a horse
2 farm and they were going to put the manure
3 right next to my house? He said, "Don ' t
4 worry, there ' s a process . " Hmm . There ' s
5 a process . You ' d be notified . You ' d be
6 part of the process , and they wouldn ' t put
7 that by your house . They ' d put it on the
8 other side of the property . Did I say,
9 well , no, I don ' t . I don ' t want that . I
10 don ' t agree with that . No . I said, you
11 know what? I can understand that . That,
12 that works for me . I ' m not being
13 unreasonable . I believe the applicant
14 is -- and I believe constantly being told
15 there ' s a right-to-farm issue here as if
16 we ' re not aware of it and, you know, we
17 don ' t know where chickens come from, the
18 grocery store . No . It ' s about balance .
19 It ' s about working together . And I don ' t
20 feel that this application and the way
21 it ' s been presented has put our community
22 at all in the equation . I wrote a -- a
23 letter to the paper . Do they wish we
24 didn ' t exist? Because I know our
25 community was not wanted back in 1994 .
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 142
1 There were a lot of people who opposed it .
2 1 went to go vote and someone said, "oh,
3 you live there? We used to have peach
4 farms there , then you people came in . " I
5 said, "Well , we have a better crop now .
6 We ' re raising children . " You know, we
7 heard that we lived in the projects . It ' s
8 an affordable housing project . I ' ll take
9 it . I don ' t care . But we ' re not opposed
10 to farming . We are opposed to not having
11 any considerations , any meaningful
12 considerations for our community . So just
13 let that be on the record, that myself and
14 the Jasmine Lane community love farming .
15 We love farm families . We support farm
16 families , and we ' re families too, and we
17 all want to succeed . And we ' ve proven
18 that we ' re a successful community, as Don
19 pointed out . And we want to continue to
20 be successful , but we need your help .
21 When a -- when a -- when a situation comes
22 up about a document that ' s not in the
23 record, in the application, in the --
24 that ' s required by the easement, look into
25 it . You know, that ' s the job, procedural
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 143
1 policy . That ' s what you can answer to .
2 That ' s what you can speak to . Thank you,
3 Jill . I want to say, I really appreciate
4 it . Maybe it was a small thing, but boy,
5 wouldn ' t it -- it makes a big impact . So
6 thank you very much . Thank you .
7 UNKNOWN SPEAKER : I ' ll make it
8 quick . I just think that 6 , 000 chickens
9 is not farming . That ' s a factory farm .
10 And maybe the town should address the
11 development rights of lands and add no
12 factory farming on these farms lands that
13 were designated to be open space or just
14 farm normal . Because, I mean, I don ' t
15 want to get into the story about my family
16 farm getting screwed by Ackerman, but
17 that ' s another story for another day . But
18 1 think the Land Preservation Committee
19 has a real problem, and there ' s nepotism
20 going on in there , and I think this town
21 should look into that . When I tried to go
22 to a hearing, I tried to get on their
23 agenda about my family farm, and I was
24 told by Lily McCullough, no, I couldn ' t
25 come to the meeting . So we had to call
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 144
1 the town attorney, and I got to go, but I
2 wasn ' t allowed to speak . And I think the
3 Land Preservation Committee is not doing
4 their job and -- and I have a problem with
5 that . And so I just think that should be
6 looked into, and we should definitely
7 consider factory farming not a thing for
8 the North Fork . Thank you .
9 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
10 you . I think if, you know, there ' s --
11 there ' s -- there is a lot of debate about
12 what agriculture is and how much everyone
13 likes it . But I think a little education
14 goes a long way, and the Suffolk County
15 Soil and Water Conservation District is a
16 great resource that people could look
17 into . Long Island -- And I ' ve -- and I ' ve
18 spoken to you when you came in to meet me .
19 Long Island Farm Bureau is a great
20 resource . Cornell Cooperative Extension .
21 These are great resources to explain to
22 people what people are so far removed,
23 generations removed from production . We
24 eat three times a day, and we can ' t take
25 that for granted . And you really -- you
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 145
1 really have to think about our food
2 security in this country, and you have to
3 take it seriously . And so there are
4 resources that -- that you can -- you can
5 look into that explain what farming ' s like
6 and -- and what it -- what it needs to be
7 to feed people . There ' s a lot of people
8 in the world .
9 LESLIE HERRLIN : Okay . So I
10 appreciate that, and we all understand
11 that, and we all , you know, we all want to
12 have everybody be fed . We don ' t want
13 anybody to go hungry . But right now we ' re
14 talking about the Town of Southold, and
15 you ' re the supervisor for the Town of
16 Southold . So that ' s what we want you to
17 address here, not the global community . I
18 appreciate that you understand that . I
19 understand that . I do .
20 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Well , we
21 have a -- we have a long tradition of
22 agriculture here, almost four hundred
23 years .
24 LESLIE HERRLIN : Wonderful . Praise
25 the Lord . I love it . It ' s great . Don ' t
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 146
1 we all love it? And we have a long
2 tradition of people living here as well
3 and -- and living with agriculture . And
4 that ' s -- that ' s why these , you know, the
5 right-to-farm law was put in place to
6 protect agriculture . But it ' s not -- it
7 does not say, and mow over the people .
8 No . Health, safety, welfare, property
9 values . It ' s on the law . It ' s there .
10 And like I said, keep the focus on
11 Southold . That ' s all I ' m asking . Thank
12 you .
13 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Thank
14 you .
15 RODNEY HERRLIN : My name is Rodney
16 Herrlin, and I ' m Leslie ' s husband . And I
17 want to speak to the fact that you guys
18 can ' t produce a piece of paper with a name
19 on it for this LLC . I ' m an owner of
20 multiple LLCs , and in the Town of East
21 Hampton, where I have a couple of them, if
22 1 want to get a beach permit, I have to
23 prove that I ' m a member of the LLC to get
24 a beach permit . Yet you guys can ' t
25 produce a piece of paper that somebody
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 147
1 bought and is -- you guys are -- are
2 approving this -- this farm that is going
3 to, you know, take over this whole
4 neighborhood, destroy this neighborhood,
5 for the simple fact . I ' ve stood in front
6 of Riverhead Planning Board, Riverhead
7 Town Board on a project I built in
8 Calverton . I ' ve stood in front of East
9 Hampton Planning Board and East Hampton
10 Town Board, and I have never seen a fiasco
11 like I ' ve seen since I ' ve watched you
12 people up there, as well as , the Planning
13 Department here . The Planning Department,
14 somebody said they run amok . That ' s an
15 understatement . They -- they seem to rule
16 what ' s going on here , and it ' s really,
17 really sad . Because that guy came in --
18 Grant Callahan came in and said, " I want
19 to -- one of the first things he said, " I
20 want to be a good neighbor . " And then the
21 Planning Board said, "Oh, well , what do
22 you need, Grant? What ' s this ? What can
23 we do? " He said, "Well , I got to put my
24 building over here because it ' s going to
25 cost me more money . " Oh, okay . In East
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 148
1 Hampton or in Riverhead town, they would
2 say, you want to be a good neighbor? Put
3 your building on the other side of the
4 property and drill a well . Not -- not
5 take away from the street water or take
6 away from the, you know, the living of
7 people on Jasmine Lane . It ' s just really,
8 really sad . That -- and you guys , not one
9 of you have stood up and said that you
10 would want your house next to this thing .
11 It ' s pathetic . It really is -- and it ' s
12 a -- it ' s a heartbreak because this is a
13 beautiful town you have here . To see
14 people not even speak their mind is , is
15 heartbreaking . It really is , because this
16 is a beautiful town . I got out of East
17 Hampton to come to over here because it ' s
18 so beautiful , and I ' ve had it with their
19 way of living because it ' s just chaos .
20 And it ' s so quiet . It ' s nice , and you ' re
21 going to let this thing come in and
22 destroy this neighborhood .
23 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Maybe
24 we ' re not doing such a bad job if you have
25 to get out of East Hampton --
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 149
1 RODNEY HERRLIN : Well , you ' re right
2 --
3 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : -- to
4 come here .
5 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . :
6 Absolutely . But since I ' ve been here,
7 I ' ve seen a lot of things that I don ' t --
8 I don ' t approve of, but that ' s not my
9 place to change . I ' m just voicing my
10 opinion . I ' m -- I ' m not holding it
11 against you . But you, everybody ' s sitting
12 on their hands . Not one of you have
13 spoken against this , and I guess maybe
14 it ' s politics or maybe the people are
15 donors to your -- to parties or whatever
16 they are . I don ' t know . But there ' s a
17 reason nobody ' s saying anything, and I
18 don ' t know what it is .
19 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Could --
20 could we just clarify what that reason is ?
21 Because we -- we definitely have been
22 hearing everything you ' ve said, and we
23 know that the Planning Board has certain
24 jurisdiction and, and that we serve as a
25 Board of Appeals for that process . And I
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 150
1 do echo Jill ' s question about ,
2 particularly with health and safety
3 concerns , like how -- how do what we hear,
4 whether it ' s about this or anything else,
5 you know, how does it get channeled to
6 other boards or departments without
7 jeopardizing, you know the integrity of
8 putting -- putting us , you know --
9 application, I think .
10 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON :
11 Right . So -- so there ' s a longstanding
12 policy that the Town Board does not
13 comment on an application before another
14 board . Okay . And I think putting the
15 circumstances aside, maybe you can
16 understand why that would be appropriate,
17 right? Because if the supervisor, for
18 example, were to voice displeasure or
19 support for a certain project , it could
20 have influence over a member of the
21 Planning Board when this Board has ceded
22 its planning power to that Planning Board .
23 RODNEY HERRLIN : But I mean, we ' re
24 in this town . Everybody needs to work
25 together, live together .
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 151
1 TOWN ATTORNEY BENJAMIN JOHNSON : I
2 do understand that .
3 RODNEY HERRLIN : You know, we have
4 to coexist . So if you don ' t mind me
5 saying it like that . I mean, to have
6 somebody come in and put a barn on 16
7 acres of property, literally 20 feet from
8 the property line of our property that we
9 have, literally going to put a barn there .
10 When you got 16 acres , a railroad track on
11 the other side , how hard would it be for
12 the Planning Board or any -- anybody to
13 even recommend it? Maybe you can ' t
14 officially make that statement, but I ' m
15 sure somebody could talk and say, you
16 know, you want to be a good neighbor?
17 Move the barn to the other side of the
18 property . Put a well in . We ' ve talked to
19 a bunch of farmers , and nobody waters
20 their crops or nobody feeds their animals
21 with street water to begin with . I mean,
22 that ' s a flat-out no . No . I mean, if you
23 excuse my terminology . But, you know,
24 everybody uses wells . I mean, you see
25 these pumps all over, every field has a
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 152
1 giant pump at the end of the -- at the
2 field because they ' re pumping well water
3 out onto the fields . They ' re not using
4 street water . So to even let this guy tap
5 into Jasmine Lane street water is absurd .
6 1 mean, it really is . It ' s trickling out
7 of the faucet now . I can ' t imagine what
8 it ' s going to be when he says he ' s using
9 1 , 000 , 1 , 500 gallons a day, whatever it is
10 he ' s using . I mean, these are just things
11 that are frustrating, and I ' m not -- I ' m
12 taking it out on you guys , I guess , but
13 it ' s -- I hear these people since January .
14 We had two weeks before the public hearing
15 in January to to come to this thing,
16 and we had no no proof of what it was
17 about . No material as what -- what was
18 going on . And then we found out all this
19 other stuff after the fact , and the , oh,
20 public hearing ' s closed . So we were left
21 to hang -- hang out and dry . So I don ' t
22 know . I just think it ' s sad . I really
23 do . Because like I said, I ' ve stood in
24 front of Riverhead Planning . I built a
25 gas station in Calverton, and it was the
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 153
1 largest gas station on Long Island when I
2 built it in 2008 , and it ' s still there
3 today . And I went through 10 years of the
4 Planning Department . Took me 10 years .
5 We started in 1998 . 1 built it in 2008 . And
6 it took me 10 years to get through that
7 process . This guy walks in and three
8 months , got a 6 , 000 hen chicken farm .
9 Never heard of such a thing . Thank you .
10 Have a good night .
11 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Would
12 anyone else like to address the Board on
13 any topic?
14 (No Response . )
15 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Seeing
16 none in the audience and none on Zoom,
17 I ' ll entertain a motion to adjourn .
18 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : I ' ll
19 make a motion to adjourn .
20 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Second .
21 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : All in
22 favor?
23 COUNCILWOMAN JILL DOHERTY : Aye .
24 COUNCILMAN BRIAN MEALY : Aye .
25 COUNCILWOMAN ANNE SMITH : Aye .
JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 154
1 COUNCILWOMAN ALEXA SUESS : Aye .
2 JUSTICE KATE STEVENS : Aye .
3 SUPERVISOR AL KRUPSKI JR . : Aye .
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5 (Whereupon, the meeting was
6 adjourned at this time . )
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JULY 28, 2026 REGULAR MEETING 155
1 C E R T I F I C A T 1 0 N
2
3 1 , Jessica DiLallo, a Notary Public
4 for and within the State of New York, do
5 hereby certify :
6 THAT, the within transcript is a
7 true record of said Board Meeting .
8 1 further certify that I am not
9 related either by blood or marriage to any
10 of the parties to this action; and that I
11 am in no way interested in the outcome of
12 this matter .
13 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto
14 set my hand this day, August 10 , 2026 .
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17 (Je ssic?DiLallo)
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