A $150,000 bond resolution for preliminary renovation of the police barracks on Fishers Island was passed unanimously by the Southold Town Board during its regular meeting on Dec. 17.
The period of probable usefulness, or lifespan of the bond project, was identified by the Town Board as five years. Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski said no estimated start date has been set for the renovations.
The island is reachable only by a half-day’s travel, involving a ferry trip from Orient Point to New London, then another from there to Fishers Island — no small feat for police on an island of roughly 250 residents.
“It’s just the challenge of Fishers Island, that we need to have a place where they can sleep over and stay and be there,” Mr. Krupski said.
Fishers Island became part of the Southold Town Police Department’s patrol responsibility in November 2023 after New York State troopers vacated the barracks out of concern about living condition there. Located at 752 Whistler Ave., the barracks had been used by troopers for more than a decade.
By December 2022, the barracks had fallen into a state of decay, according to Maj. Stephen Udice, a commander of New York State Police Troop L, which covers Nassau and Suffolk counties. He told The Suffolk Times in a previous interview that the furnace had gone out and the fix for the issue was to plug “space heaters into an already identified inadequate electrical system.”
“This was just one of the many problems with the building,” he explained.
Mr. Krupski said there has been “no firm conclusion” about whether state troopers will be redeployed to the renovated barracks.
The Southold Town Police Benevolent Association has identified structural rehabilitation needs including, but not limited to, asbestos abatement and new HVAC systems.
Southold sent two officers in five-day deployments to police the island after the state troopers left Oct. 31, 2023 through Memorial Day this year. Since then, Southold Police Department Chief Steven Grattan said two officers have been sent to patrol the island in seven-day rotations. The officers live in a rented house that costs Southold Town $110,000 per year and work out of an office space in the island’s community center.
The detail has been a strain on the police department, Chief Grattan said.
“Our staffing has not increased and now we are sending two officers, weekly, to cover Fishers — which is leaving some vacancies here on the mainland,” he noted.
Plans to purchase a shuttered U.S. Coast Guard Station — a small house and a waterfront ferry dock — on the island were nixed by the Town Board in April. During the meeting at which the resolution was withdrawn, Mr. Krupski said the prospective $2.1 million investment “didn’t seem like a prudent idea.”
Instead, the Town Board opted to move forward with plans to renovate the existing trooper barracks on Fishers Island, requiring a bond.
A $2.6 million bond resolution was passed in July by the Town Board to purchase the Coast Guard property for use by the Fishers Island Ferry District.
The Town Board additionally approved housing police officers at 357 Whistler Ave. — a new temporary rental, and a move from their current location on the island — during their shifts until renovations are completed. The emergency action was unanimously approved, but Justice Louisa Evans of Fishers Island expressed hopes that the Board would vote on a different site to house officers at its next meeting on Jan. 7.
“I’m voting yes, but I’m hoping that there’s another alternative that they can use,” Ms. Evans said. “Then at our next board meeting we will be taking this resolution back and voting for a different place, so that the house that the town is taking over can be used for year-round housing and the town can use a different building — but I’m voting yes in case that doesn’t work out.”