Chief Read News Today

Library schedules COVID vaccine event Not vaccinated yet to help stave off COVID-19? The next on-Island opportunity is Wednesday, May 12 at the Shelter Island Library between noon and 3 p.m., when the Johnson & Johnson “one-shot and you’re done” will be administered. To sign up, call school nurse Mary Kanarvogel at 631-749-0302 ext. 129, or email her at [email protected]. The announcement came from Police Chief Jim Read at Tuesday’s Town Board work session. For those who...

Town chooses to opt out on marijuana law (Credit: Courtesy photo) The Town Board wants to opt out of that part of the new state law that would allow marijuana dispensaries or cafes where it could be purchased and/or used. But it still must allow marijuana to be smoked. However, it can ban smoking any substance in certain places. As of Tuesday’s Town Board work session, the plan called for banning smoking at either of the town beaches — Crescent or Wades...

Woman tapped to join Shelter Island Police Department Traffic Control Officer Taylor Rando, on the job on Grand Avenue during the summer of 2019. (Graham Moore photo) Taylor Rando has been appointed as a probationary police officer with the Shelter Island Police Department effective Tuesday. Ms. Rando, who has been a traffic control officer, is undergoing training at the Suffolk County Police Academy. She was already among top scorers on the test necessary ...

Marijuana product at a dispensary in California, where recreational marijuana is already legal. (Credit: Dank Depot/Flickr) When Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation to legalize recreational marijuana last month, towns and villages across the state faced a year-end deadline to decide whether to allow dispensaries within their borders or to opt out. On the East End, the issue became even more complex because the Shinnecock Indian Nation is opting in and planning to create ...

Police Department hears from committee and residents (Credit: Reporter file photo) Determined to  meet the April 1 deadline to submit its Police Reform and Reinvention Plan to New York State — like all communities in the state — the Committee is moving forward with recommendations expected to form the basis for changes. Meeting last Thursday morning, the group outlined the changes they said are based on a survey completed in February, a listening sessi...

Esther Simovich was up late Thursday night into early Friday morning. “I was binge watching ‘The Rookie,’” the 65-year-old Islander said as she waited in the hallway outside the school gym at about 9:15 a.m. to be the first Islander vaccinated in Shelter Island’s COVID-19 inoculation site. A long row of folding chairs stretched down the hallway as others waited their turn. Staying up late before her appointment wasn’t nerves, she said, but she would admit to eagerly looking forward ...

Shelter Island Town Hall (Credit: Tara Smith) Supervisor Gerry Siller got a call Tuesday from Dr. Josh Potter of the Medical Center that a limited number of doses of COVID-19 vaccine were to be made available at Greenport’s Peconic Landing this week. Dr. Potter also called Senior Services Director Laurie Fanelli to let her know that a list being compiled of those Island seniors unable to travel to get inoculated might be able to get appointments. But if an appointment ...

Shelter Island Police Department (Credit: Tara Smith) The Police Reform Committee members spent Thursday morning reviewing questions to include in an online survey likely to be made public by the end of February. The committee was set up in response to a state mandate for all departments within New York to determine ways to improve policing. Committee member Don D’Amato, who has been researching platforms to offer a survey to the public, said Survey Monkey is the best p...

Police Reform Committee starts its work Police Chief Jim Read (Credit: Reporter file photo) Five newly minted members of the Police Reform Committee will be exploring ways in which Shelter Island Police can improve what most acknowledge is already an effective department functioning well with the community. Police Chief Jim Read admitted he was initially not pleased when Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered all communities to set up such committees to determine ways t...

Chief Read reports on COVID crisis Some hopeful news on the COVID-19 spike came at Tuesday’s Town Board work session. Police Chief Jim Read reported that after a long period of climbing case numbers throughout the town, county and state, Suffolk County announced a slight turn down in reported cases on Sunday and Monday. Nonetheless, Chief Read said the county is reporting 34 cases on the Island since the pandemic started last March. But he estimates the local cases have totaled...