Spring 2024 Newsletter

Happy Spring everyone! As I write this, it already feels like summer.  Speaking of summer—the Orient Association’s Annual Meeting—usually scheduled for the Memorial Day weekend, is going to take place on June 8th at 2:00pm.

On May 4th the Orient Association hosted a meeting on Emergency Management, organized by the Orient Emergency Management Committee. A video of the meeting is available on the Orient Association website. There was another meeting on May 18th to train volunteers who would be available to help at the emergency shelter, the Oysterponds School. Contact Jane Asch [email protected]  if you are interested in volunteering.

Change to Bylaws

The Orient Association Board would like to propose some tweaks to the OA by-laws. The first is in Article III, Purpose.  While the Orient Association is primarily an educational organization, the purpose of educating the community is to ensure that community members know about issues that they might want to get involved in. The proposal is to revise the sentence in red below.

The purpose of this Association is to uphold and sustain the interests of residents, businesses and organizations of Orient, through regular communications and meetings which inform, educate, discuss and consider issues which affect them, advocating for, and giving a voice to, a well-informed Orient community. by educating the public on subjects useful to individuals and beneficial to the community. The Association shall provide a forum through regular meetings to discuss, consider, and become informed about issues which concern residents, businesses, and organizations of Orient. The Association shall operate as an exempt, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational organization pursuant to U.S. and New York State law.

The second proposed change is to Article VI, Officers. The proposed change would extend officers’ tenure to four years total instead of three. This change would provide more continuity and fewer candidate searches.

Section 2. The officers shall serve for a period of one year. After serving three four consecutive terms, no officer may be re-elected to that office until after the expiration of one intervening year but may be elected to another office.

These by-law revisions will be voted on at the Annual Meeting on June 8th at 2pm.

Earth Day  

We gathered on Youngs Road Beach on Sunday, April 21st for an Earth Day Beach Clean-up. The North Fork Polar Bears joined us there, helping to clean the beach before taking their polar plunge. We were also joined by several enthusiastic families who gathered almost 100 lbs. of trash. The prizes for most unusual trash treasure went to Kennedy Smith and her cousin Sabine who spotted a boat shoe, a sock and an orange rubber tube. The girls were very excited about the two fig trees that they won! The toy telephone receiver was a serious contender (so retro!). Thank you once again to Ed Caufield who carted the trash to the dump, to Tom Stevenson for donating the fig trees, and to Emily Caufield for organizing the event and baking the very welcome scrumptious cookies.

Rental Rules

Code Enforcement of illegal rentals continues to be a problem despite changes made last year. Currently the code requires:

• A valid rental permit

• Rental permits posted at the entrance to the rental parcel

• Rental permit numbers included on all listings

• A Minimum rental period of 14 days.

While Orient does not have as many Airbnbs as some of the other hamlets, very few of the rentals currently listed in Orient seem to be complying with all requirements.  If you are renting your house out, please do so in compliance with Town Code!

Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency

In January, the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) awarded $2.75 million in tax breaks to the Enclaves, a 40-room ultra-luxury hotel planned for Southold.  This decision was made despite the opposition of residents at a public meeting in December. The Southold Town Board also wrote a letter in opposition. IDAs are intended to increase jobs and promote economic growth. They are only supposed to give these tax breaks to projects that would not otherwise be built. The New York State Legislature is considering reform to prohibit IDAs from waiving taxes that would go to local schools. The leadership of the Southold-Peconic Civic Association were particularly concerned about granting tax breaks to an ultra-luxury hotel that will be providing few living wage jobs.  In conjunction with the North Fork Civics, the Orient Association Board agreed to sign this letter about oversight of the Suffolk County IDA.

Moratorium

At the Town Board Meeting on April 23rd, the Town Board passed a resolution to hold a public hearing on June 18th on “A Local Law to Impose an Interim or Temporary Suspension on the Review, Approval and/or Issuance of all Permits for or Relating to New Development of Resorts, Hotels or Motels.” The Moratorium would be a twelve month pause on review of new resorts, hotels, and motels, while allowing existing hotels to continue applications for additions or alterations.

The Town Board did not feel that a broader moratorium was necessary during the zoning update process which is expected to be completed in March 2025.  Heather Lanza, the director of the planning department, felt that other types of commercial construction already go through an extensive vetting process which would not be completed before the zoning update is complete. She felt that a developer would not want to risk spending time and money on a proposal that might be affected by the new zoning code. She did not feel that a broader moratorium would be justifiable because they do not see a lot of development pressure other than new resorts, hotels, and motels.

Community Partner Mailings

Organizations in the Orient area often ask the Orient Association to employ our mail list to send information about their events of interest to the Orient community. With the exception of items prohibited by our 501(c)(3) non-profit status, we continue to be open to doing so.

Often the recipients of these emails have the mistaken impression that these are Orient Association events.  In the future, the OA will try harder to avoid this confusion.  If you or your organization asks the Orient Association to share information of interest to the community, please note the following:

In the future we plan to include a short blurb in each email containing:

• This email was sent by Orient Association on behalf of: YOUR ORGANIZATION

• Please direct questions and comments to: RESPONSIBLE PERSON’S NAME, EMAIL ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBER, WEBPAGE

• Please include the above contact information whenever you ask us to use our mail list on your behalf.

• OA does its best not to flood our email list with too many emails, as excessive emails can be perceived as spam and cause people to unsubscribe. Please use your best judgement before asking us to repeatedly send the same email as your event approaches. When you have substantial new information to distribute, we’ll do our best to help out. Help us to maintain the integrity of our mail list.

• In keeping with IRS non-profit rules and our own bylaws, OA cannot use its mail list to: serve private interests, engage in political or legislative lobbying, or candidate campaigning.

• For those of you who maintain your own mail lists, we may occasionally ask that you reciprocate by relaying one of our communications to your mail list in instances where there is a significant overlap in interests. We’ll respect your decisions to do so, or not.

Our thanks to everyone for their ongoing support of a vibrant Orient community and for helping us help you to keep Orient a special place.

Water Testing

For homeowners within the Suffolk County Department of Health Services (SCDHS) survey area, it is not too late to get your water tested for free by SCDHS.  If you are in the survey area and had your water tested over a year ago, you can have it re-tested again for free!  For homeowners outside the survey area, we urge you to get your water tested annually.  SCDHS is now offering PFAS testing if requested as part of their private well testing service. Call (631) 852-5810 to schedule.

Edwards Farm

Please welcome the new farmer at Edwards Farm in Orient.

A new farmer, Bishudat Jaikaran (Jai), has leased the five-acre Edwards Farm near Orient Point, preserved by the Peconic Land Trust with community and Southold town support. With a focus on peppers and long beans, Jai and his wife, Sandra, will also be growing spinach, bok choy, okra, squash, pumpkins, and watermelons, to be sold in markets in Queens. Jai also hopes to provide produce to local food pantries as the season progresses.

Originally from Guyana, Jai has lived in the Richmond Hill community in Queens for 20 years, raising two children and owning restaurants. Jai farmed from the earliest age back in Guyana and, before joining the Trust’s farming program, he farmed both in western Suffolk County and southern New Jersey.  “Jai has a real passion for growing and we are so pleased to welcome him to the Edwards Farm this season,” said Dan Heston, Director of Agricultural Programs at the Peconic Land Trust.

“You have to love what you do, know what you will do with it, and grow what the people will want to buy. I’m so happy to have met Dan and to find this beautiful place to grow food and look forward to the opportunity,” said Jai.  Come and say hi to Jai when you see him out working in the fields. For more on the Trust’s Farms for the Future Initiative, visit www.PeconicLandTrust.org

Thank you for your continuing support of the Orient Association.  We are looking forward to summer 2024 as we continue to uphold and sustain the interests of the Orient Community. Please use our website to learn more, renew your membership, and to share your thoughts and concerns.

Barbara Friedman

President, the Orient Association