Letters to the Editor: Keep newspapers alive
Riverhead
Keep newspapers alive
There are many reasons why newspapers are going out of business. Perhaps one reason is if you write about people who have power and money, they won’t advertise or support your newspaper.
I ask all of us to keep on reading and supporting your newspaper group, as your numbers are declining. The end of democracy often starts when too many newspapers go out of business.
Warren McKnight
Baiting Hollow
Don’t let cottages creep in
The Town Board must reconsider the proposed 125-foot buffer for new golf course rental cottages. As a Baiting Hollow homeowner, I strongly urge the board to mandate a minimum 300-foot setback from any property line to preserve the peace and character of our surrounding neighborhoods.
A 125-foot buffer is inadequate for short-term hotel-style lodging. Frequent guest turnover brings a vacation environment into quiet, permanent residential communities creating inevitable late-night noise and disturbances on a frequent basis.
This is a matter of smart planning, not stopping development. According to the town planning department’s public statements, these cottages account for less than one-tenth of 1% of the golf course property. This means the developers have more than enough flexibility to safeguard neighboring families. Given the limited footprint of the project and the vast acreage available, a 300-foot buffer is reasonable and achievable.
I ask the Town Board to utilize this available space to protect our community’s peace and mandate a minimum 300-foot buffer from any property line. Ask yourselves: Would you feel comfortable with these short-term rentals placed directly adjacent to your own homes?
Gary Scirica
Virginia
Family offers thanks
We are writing to express our gratitude for all the dedication and hard work that went into the Garfield Langhorn Committal Services held on July 3, 2026, at Calverton National Cemetery.
We would like to acknowledge retired Army officer Timothy Dahlen, Tuthill-Mangano Funeral Home, family members, community members, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Congressman Nick LaLota, Assemblywoman Jodi Giglio, Suffolk County Legislator Greg Doroski, Riverhead Town Supervisor Jerry Halpin, the Rev. Cynthia Liggon, Suffolk County Sheriff’s officers, fire departments, emergency personnel and the Westhampton VFW.
Words cannot express how special this day was for our family and entire community. We can only say, a job well done.
From the sisters of Pfc. Garfield M. Langhorn.
Yvonne Reid
Anna Mack
April Armstead
Calverton
LaLota is AWOL
Why is Nick LaLota spending yet another Congressional recess avoiding meeting his constituents in an in-person Town Hall? The answer lies in all of the terrible policies he supports:
- A misguided war of choice in Iran.
- Gas prices surging because of that war.
- A cruel ICE immigration policy that is sweeping up our neighbors instead of the “worst of the worst.’
- A $40 trillion national debt, $11.5 trillion of which was added under Donald Trump’s watch.
- A “big, beautiful bill” that added $3 trillion to that debt to give tax breaks to billionaires — and now one trillionaire.
- Some of his constituents losing health care and paying increased medical costs because of his vote for that ugly bill.
- His support of a president and his family increasing their wealth by billions of dollars by accepting money for their private businesses from foreign governments.
The list can go on, but it’s clear that LaLota should come out of hiding and answer our questions. You can’t have a representative democracy if your representative refuses to find out what his constituents are thinking.
Jerry Silverstein
Riverhead
Celebrate suffrage
Aug. 26 is the 106th anniversary of the Constitution’s 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote. The struggle to obtain that fundamental freedom took 72 years. It is hard enough to imagine a country where it was against the law for women to vote; even harder to imagine the arguments used to justify it and the people who voiced them.
We seldom think of what it took: countless articles and speeches; marches and civil disobedience; suffering of vicious verbal attacks, mob violence and official brutality. The first vigils outside the gates of the White House, with banners known as “Silent Sentinels,” led to harsh imprisonment and force feeding, the same barbarity inflicted by the British on hunger strikers in Northern Ireland and by the U.S. on prisoners in Guantanamo.
A few films and TV documentaries have captured the human drama. The League of Women Voters recently showed a video of the premiere of Andrea Ramsey’s “Suffrage Cantata” at the Westhampton Library and provided a very useful full transcript. A different powerful performance can be seen on youtube at youtu.be/cG9Q6-UnYb4.
The play “Failure is Impossible” was first performed Aug. 26, 1995, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the 19th amendment and can be read at archives.gov/education/lessons/woman-suffrage/script.html It would add to Riverhead’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of independence if a local theater group staged it.
Opposition to the current mass deportation of immigrants is the current expression of the spirit for justice of the suffragists. Their unfinished business can be seen in Riverhead today in the disproportionately small number of women on appointed town boards and committees.
John McAuliff
Southold
Racism and reporting
When we read Nick Mongiovi’s article, “Greenport village clerk says family was targeted with racial slur at park concert,” (July 30) and saw Candace Hall’s photograph from her 2023 Suffolk Times Public Servant of the Year award, we were deeply concerned and upset. No one should experience such hatred anywhere, but we also believe that your coverage caused even more harm — to the victims and to our community.
To start, the reporter chose to name Ms. Hall and reveal her place of work, while protecting the anonymity of the aggressor, a 62-year-old white woman who called Ms. Hall and her mother and aunt “jigaboos” — not once, but three times — and then proceeded to lunge at them, making threatening gestures.
Mr. Mongiovi wrote, “The Suffolk Times is not publishing the woman’s name because she was not arrested or charged”—yet people are often named for incidents that are not criminal offenses in the weekly police blotter.
Ms. Hall went to find a police officer – and was told by another responding officer to “calm down.” The police did not arrest or remove the perpetrator; instead, they told her to stay away. She did not, prompting Ms. Hall and her family to leave.
None of this was accurately reported, which compels us to ask: What was the purpose of this article?
The Suffolk Times then ran the story on its social media platforms, seemingly as click bait, as Ms. Hall was exposed to even more racism in the form of vile, horrible comments posted in response. Ultimately, the comments were shut down.
Ms. Hall filed a police report that evening – and we’d like our response to go on the record, too.
Coming to the Table focuses on the process of racial healing, which asks: “How do we address such hatred in our community in a way that supports and protects the victim, versus adding to her pain?” We ask everyone to join us in doing the same.
Megan Bowles, Rev. Margaret Cowden, Sylvia Daley, Nicki Gohorel, Carolyn Peabody, Valerie Shelby, Liz Welch, Rev. Natalie Wimberly
Coming to the Table, North Fork Chapter leadership committee
Greenport
Parking panacea?
I have a simple and elegant solution to the controversial parking meter issue in Greenport: Anyone who has a Southold Town beach parking permit on their car does not have to pay for parking. Out-of-town tourists will pay at those meter boxes.
Still, I’m concerned that any charge for parking is going to impact the revenue of local businesses. Greenport has long been a fun and affordable place for up-Island tourists to come shop and eat. People I speak with come back year after year.
If businesses have noticed a reduction of foot traffic and customers it’s because Greenport is losing its appeal as a destination for tourists. With so many of our stores vacant, Front and Main look depressing and shopping is no longer interesting. When a visitor has to pay for parking, I have concerns that will be the last straw and they will not be a repeat visitor.
Geri Armine-Klein
Cutchogue
Appreciation
On Aug. 15 at the Hampton Bays Rumba Cove Party, my husband, Pete, jumped off the boat of our dear friends, Mike and Mary Ellen Cirrito, to cool off. He’s a member of the mature age group but a good swimmer, having competed in multiple triathlons over the years and regularly doing mile swims in Peconic Bay.
Pete got caught in a current that swept him away from the boat ,and no matter how hard he tried to make up the distance, he just couldn’t make it back on his own. A young couple in a kayak saw his dilemma and took a boogie board with rope to him. They tied up and worked hard, but the strain on the paddling, as well as the current, was too much.
Next, four young adults in an inflatable boat with a motor tried to help but two had to jump out so that Pete could be brought on board. By then he was spent and two of them were in the water holding on and not going anywhere.
To the rescue were the Suffolk County Police, who brought my beloved on board their sturdy rescue boat and made their way to the Calm Seas with much jubilation on our part! They were so courteous and understanding of the situation. “Just doing our jobs, ma’am” — thank you! What a memory marker and inspiring story of youth and first responders!
Diane O’Neill
Laurel
‘Please ignore’?
A fitting campaign motto for Congressman Nick LaLota.
Ignore the inhumane actions of thugs hiding behind masks, without body cameras or identification, while LaLota elevates them as “federal immigration law enforcement.”
Ignore that in 2024 Trump’s party obeyed his demand to squash the strong immigration bill proposed by Republican Sen. James Lankford. He didn’t want a solution. He wanted a campaign issue that enhanced his tough-guy image.
LaLota knows “what makes our communities safer and our quality of life stronger.” So, ignore that he’s done nothing to change our status as the developed country with the most mass shootings. Ignore that he voted for that Big Bill affecting Medicaid and SNAP, the program aiding families in need of food.
Ignore LaLota agreeing with Trump’s campaign promise to release the Epstein files. But now he’s protecting Trump.
Ignore LaLota and Trump’s imaginary voter fraud issue; a proven non-issue.
Ignore his Trumpian ways of governing with his threats to withhold funds for towns’ public projects.
Ignore Trump’s vulgarity — getting stronger as he gets weaker. I wonder if the LaLota family had the FOX morning show on when Trump said the U.S. will bomb “the f—ing s–t out of Iran.”
Republican Sen John McCain and LaLota both graduated from the prestigious Naval Academy. McCain, a war hero, chose loyalty to country. LaLota chooses loyalty to an unstable, power-hungry man.
Congressman Nick LaLota: an A+ student of this unqualified president.
Mary Ellen Tomaszewski
Cutchogue
Ban the blowers
Further to last week’s letter from Sharon Kelly on gas leaf blowers, I would add that they should be eliminated. She didn’t mention that these machines are slowly “killing” the workers. They wear them around their necks all day long!
The Respiratory Health Association states that, “Even short-term exposure to particle pollution and ozone-forming chemicals generated by the machines has been proven to cause or contribute to health concerns like asthma, heart attacks, cardiovascular disease, COPD and early death.”
Richard Brewster
Greenport
Pipeline is not the answer
The debate over the Suffolk County Water Authority’s proposed North Fork pipeline extension highlights a fundamental issue: We cannot simply engineer or pipe our way out of a localized water crisis while ignoring the root cause of demand.
Local officials correctly noted at the recent public hearing that expanding pump and main capacity to alleviate peak summer drops — such as Greenport’s Moore’s Lane tank plunging to critical levels — addresses only the symptoms of unchecked usage. The primary driver of this seasonal strain isn’t household drinking water; it is excessive, automated turf irrigation. Seeing automated sprinklers running full blast during heavy rainstorms underscores a glaring failure in our regional approach to water management.
It is time to pass comprehensive local legislation targeting our largest water draws. While Shelter Island has led the way by prohibiting new groundwater connections for landscape irrigation and Southold has instituted smart-sensor mandates, we must go further. We need unified municipal laws prohibiting daytime watering during peak evaporation hours, strict limitations on turf grass acreage in new residential developments and mandatory retrofits for legacy irrigation systems.
Furthermore, SCWA must institute aggressive, market-based tiered pricing that heavily penalizes high-volume irrigators before asking taxpayers and ratepayers to fund major multi-mile infrastructure projects. Building bigger pipes to supply non-essential lawns is unsustainable for our fragile sole-source aquifer. True long-term water security requires long-term conservation laws, not short-term pump capacity goals.
Mary Bess Phillips
Village of Greenport trustee
