(Credit: Adam Bundy)
“It gets to a point where you feel overwhelmed,” said Shelter Island Highway Department Superintendent Brian Sherman at about 2:30 p.m.
He was speaking about his crews battling the nor’easter from late morning to mid-afternoon in near white-out conditions, with powerful winds blowing a heavy snowfall in all directions.
“It’s a little better now, but two hours ago you couldn’t see,” Mr. Sherman said.
The high winds, a steady 25 to 33 mph, according to the National Weather Service (NWS), and gusting as high as 48 mph, brought down some trees and large tree limbs.
“You’re plowing and then you’re chasing trees” to remove from the roads, the superintendent said.
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 platform for this particular effort.
The survey shouldn’t be confused with complaint forms filed by those who have issues with the handling of a particular case. Those issues should be filed either with the Shelter Island Police Department or with Supervisor Gerry Siller so they can be investigated and appropriately handled.
(Credit: Tara Smith)
“COVID, COVID, COVID,” President Trump intoned at his rallies as he ran for a second term, telling his followers that the “fake news” media was covering the devastation produced by a once-in-a-century public health emergency in order to hurt his re-election chances. After the election, he predicted, you’ll never hear another word about COVID, COVID, COVID.
If only that were true.
No one this side of sanity believed him. But Mr. Trump’s tolling of the word reminds us that the pandemic is very much with us and getting worse, as Dr. Anthony Fauci forecast, and as the federal government is now warning us to be prepared for some terrible times ahead.
Shelter Island Town Hall (Credit: Tara Smith)
Shelter Island is prepared to schedule appointments and provide all logistical necessities needed to provide COVID-19 vaccines to residents, but what it lacks is the vaccine. That was the message Tuesday from town officials.
Police Chief Jim Read said school officials are prepared to schedule classes virtually so that the building could accommodate vaccinations. He said the town would handle scheduling of appointments and arrange for whatever number of professionals would be needed to administer the inoculations.
It can also provide a freezer or refrigeration unit for vaccines and any other requirements the federal, state or county officials might impose. Camp Quinipet has also offered space to administer vaccines, Supervisor Gerry Siller said.
Shelter Island Police Department (Credit: Tara Smith)
During the pandemic year of 2020, the number of overdoses from opiates and alcohol reported to the Shelter Island Police Department was seven, up by five from the year before.
And there was a steeper rise in domestic abuse/violence calls to the police.
The seven calls by people needing immediate medical assistance connected to drugs and alcohol last year was the same as in 2017 and 2015, according to police records. The lowest number of reported overdoses in the past seven years was in 2016, when there were only two calls for assistance.
Narcan, used by Shelter Island first responders as an anti-overdose medication administered as a nasal inhaler, is something of a miracle drug, bringing people back from the brink of an opioid-induced oblivion in a matter of seconds.