Shinnecock hold rally calling on Southampton Town to preserve sacred land

Long Island Morning Edition

Members of the Shinnecock Nation and supporters held a rally outside Southampton Town Hall this past Monday calling on the town to spend more Community Preservation Fund money to preserve land seen as sacred to the tribe in Shinnecock Hills.

With the rhythm of ancestral songs by two Shinnecock drummers in the background, a group of about 30 people brandished signs decrying the seizing of Native American lands and overdevelopment and vilifying billionaires and corporate America, to the honking of horns from cars traveling past on Hampton Road. Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that tribal organizers said they are trying to call more public attention to their pleas for more land preservation in Shinnecock Hills in the hope of keeping pressure on the town as it earmarks funds from the millions of dollars it takes in each year through the CPF’s dedicated real estate sales tax.

“We owned the Hamptons, and to be surrounded by billionaires building their palatial mansions on stolen lands of the Shinnecock people and the Indigenous people of Long Island is a crime, and it has got to be reckoned with,” said Becky Hill-Genia, one of the leaders of the Shinnecock Graves Protection Warrior Society and the Niamuck Land Trust, two Shinnecock-led groups that have spearheaded the push to recover and protect former tribal lands that were ancient burial grounds.

“We are here to demand that the Community Preservation Fund of Southampton be used to purchase, preserve and protect what is left in our sacred Shinnecock Hills.”

In 2022, the Town of Southampton dedicated $5.3 million in CPF money to purchase the development rights to a 4.5-acre parcel at the top of Sugar Loaf Hill, the highest point in Shinnecock Hills where the tribe had buried its dead, facing the sea, for thousands of years. The land had been allowed to be developed with a large house in 1990, in spite of extensive evidence that human remains were likely on the property and cries of protest from the tribe.

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Last evening in Riverhead, a drunk driver collided with several vehicles on County Road 105 just north of the Cross River bridge, before his vehicle overturned, killing his passenger, Riverhead Town Police said in a press release early this morning. Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that Christian Aroldo Mendoza-Baquiax, 38, of Riverhead, was arrested on a charge of felony driving while intoxicated, police said. He was transported by ambulance to Stony Brook University Hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

His passenger, Nelson Gudiel Reyes Muxin, 33, of Riverhead, who was entrapped in the overturned vehicle was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the report said.

Mendoza-Baquiax was operating a 2010 Acura on County Road 105 Wednesday evening around 6:15 p.m. when he collided with several other vehicles on the four-lane highway south of Riverside Drive, before his vehicle overturned, police said.

In all, seven vehicles were involved in the crash, police said.

Eight people were injured, including one flown to Stony Brook University Hospital by a Suffolk County Police Medevac helicopter. No information about the injuries was provided by police.

A four-door Buick sedan sustained heavy front-end damage in a collision with the Acura. EMS personnel were seen administering aid to the operator of the vehicle, which was stopped in the southbound lanes of the highway, south of Riverside Drive, near the bridge.

The Acura sedan operated by Mendoza-Baquiax was overturned in the marked median less than 100 feet north of the mangled Buick sedan.

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The redevelopment plan for the former Capital One bank branch on Love Lane in Mattituck could include as many as 12 affordable apartments. Beth Young in EAST END BEACON reports that the owners of the property, Hard Corner Partners, LLC, are asking Southold Town to give the project seven sanitary flow credits to be used to allow the greater septic flow created by the apartments. They had initially requested 1.6 credits, which were granted in 2021.

The Southold Town Board has scheduled a public hearing on the matter for its Aug. 27 meeting at 7 p.m.

The 17,652-square-foot building, on the corner of Love Lane and Pike Street in Mattituck, has been vacant since the Capital One branch moved to a location slightly west on the Main Road in 2017.

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A new state audit says New York needs to do more to curb deaths of women from problems associated with childbirth or pregnancy, pointing to a recent increase in maternal mortality rates and racial disparities in those figures. Tiffany Cusaac-Smith reports in NEWSDAY that although New York has expanded access to doula care and started other maternal mental health initiatives, the state Department of Health is not doing enough to evaluate all of its maternal health programs, according to an audit from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office. The lack of evaluation means that the state is not able to fully gauge how its efforts are impacting the maternal health crisis, the audit said.

"Despite New York’s efforts to reduce maternal deaths and pregnancy related health conditions, progress has stalled," DiNapoli said in a statement. "The Department of Health needs to strengthen its oversight of policy initiatives and take steps to help ensure all mothers, regardless of race or ethnicity, have access to the highest level of care."

In 2020, Black women in New York had a pregnancy-related mortality rate of 54.7 deaths for every 100,000 live births — roughly five times the figure for white women, the state said.

The Health Department responded to the audit by saying, "The State Department of Health is committed to combating maternal mortality and continues to engage in a multifaceted effort to eliminate inequities and improve health outcomes."

The audit, which took place between 2018 and 2023, outlines how improved evaluation and rollout of maternal health recommendations are important factors in the state's effort to make childbirth safer.

Lack of follow-up evaluations of these programs could "affect the outcomes for birthing people across the state," said Dr. Dawnette Lewis, director of Northwell Health’s Center for Maternal Health.

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Riverhead’s Alive on 25 street festival has been postponed due to heavy rain and thundershowers forecast for tomorrow evening, according to the event’s organizer. The festival will be held on its rain date, Friday, Aug. 23. Alek Lewis reports on Riverheadlocal .com that the downtown street festival, sponsored and organized by the Riverhead Business Improvement District, begins at 5 p.m. and offers live music, street vendors, craft beverages, restaurants, food trucks, artists, street performers and activities for kids. A laser light show that was planned for tomorrow at 9 p.m. is rescheduled to Friday, Aug. 23 at 9pm. The Aug. 23 event will be Riverhead’s second and last Alive on 25 event of the summer of ’24.

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Two years after a ceremonial groundbreaking for the 50-unit Green at Gardiner’s Point, an affordable housing complex in East Hampton, a lottery drawing was held last Friday at East Hampton Town Hall to determine the order in which 543 hopeful applicants will be screened for eligibility.

As a number of applicants watched in the main meeting room, Katy Casey, director of the East Hampton Housing Authority, said that, for those deemed eligible, the Housing Authority is “hoping to get folks in within a matter of weeks,” and asked that “if you are contacted, please pull your documents together quickly so we can make a determination.” Christopher Walsh reports on 27east.com that the complex, at 286 and 290 Three Mile Harbor Road, is being jointly developed by the Housing Authority and Georgica Green Ventures. The two entities previously partnered to develop the 37-unit Gansett Meadow affordable housing complex in Amagansett.

The unfurnished apartments are deemed affordable to households earning at or below 60 percent of the area median income, with eight apartments serving households at 30 percent of the area median income.

Casey said, “The rents, except for eight apartments, are not subsidized per se: The people who move in will be required to pay their rent, not on a sliding scale. They do have to income qualify.”

The monthly rent for a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment will be $1,500; for a two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment, the rent will be $1,784; and for a three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment, $2,045.

The complex features 10 one-bedroom, 29 two-bedroom and 10 three-bedroom apartments across five two-story residential buildings. One apartment is set aside for the development’s resident manager.

That’s the 50-unit Green at Gardiner’s Point, an affordable housing complex at 286 and 290 Three Mile Harbor Road, in East Hampton, where the Town of East Hampton held a lottery drawing last week.